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Well pleased with herself for her showing against the Roman god, who’d been visibly flustered by the time she walked out of their meeting, Dani made her way downstairs from her cubby hole of an office. Tonight was the official welcome party being thrown by the partners for this year’s crop of new associates.

And it was, of course, mandatory fun. All the newbies were under strict orders to show up tonight.

She took a martini off the tray offered to her by a waiter even though she despised gin and had never tried a martini before. The stemmed, triangular glass looked cool, at any rate. She took an experimental sip.

Grimacing at the sweet-salty bite of vermouth and olives, she wandered into the sea of black, gray, and navy wool, mentally reviewing the names of wives and girlfriends from the list her amazing paralegal had provided her.

“Hey, Dani! Welcome to the firm.”

Speak of the devil. She turned toward the familiar voice of her fave legal researcher and gave her a warm hug. “Thanks, Zoey.”

Zoey Spitzer had made Dani’s transition from law school to the real world of practicing law immeasurably easier, giving her hints and pithy advice that had kept her from making more than one boneheaded mistake. That and Zoey was one of the few worker bees at this place who had an actual personality.

“So. How’d it go today?” Zoey demanded.

“The meeting with the ADA? Pretty good, considering. He was severely pissed off that Alex turned down the plea deal, but we expected that. I figure the next thing he’ll try will be an end-around with a judge to force my client into a deal.”

“You gonna let him?”

She shrugged. “I serve the client’s will. I’m his counselor, not his boss. And Alex seems determined to take this thing to trial.”

“Is this kid counting on his youth and good looks to sway a jury? Or better yet, your youth and good looks?”

Dani laughed. “I doubt it.”

“Is he banking on the Boy Wonder medical degree, then? Does he think it’s some kind of get out of jail free card?”

“I don’t think so.” Dani waxed serious. “He was born in Russia. Wouldn’t tell me how old he was when he came to this country, but I gather he was young. He did all his high school here, apparently. Of course, he hit ninth grade about age ten. I’m hoping he only has a fundamental misunderstanding of how our legal system works. I thought I’d stop by the jail tomorrow and talk him through it all.”

Zoey made a face. “If I were you, I’d stay away from county lock-up—“She broke off, staring at something or someone across the room. “Well, hello, future Mr. Spitzer.”

Dani followed the line of her friend’s gaze and all but spewed martini all over the back of Mrs. Pinter, wife of the P in WMP, who happened to be walking past.

“What the hell?” Dani groused under her breath. “Who let him in here?”

“Have you ever seen a prettier piece of meat in a suit?” Zoey purred.

“That’s the severely pissed off ADA I met with today.”

“ That’s the one and only Cameron Townsend?” Zoey exclaimed. “I heard he was hot, but I had no idea he was that hot!”

Dani had no intention of being sucked into a sexual fantasy fest centering on that particular arrogant, dangerously charming district attorney. “What’s he doing here?” she muttered. “This is a private party for employees only.”

“Word has it he’s the next jumper at the D.A.’s office,” Zoey said low.

Dani lurched in alarm. The guy was suicidal? Why wasn’t someone doing some sort of intervention for him if he was so stressed out? Crap, and she’d been all combative and in-your-face with the poor guy.

She asked sotto voce , “Is there a big problem with ADA’s killing themselves?”

Zoey laughed gaily. “I didn’t mean that kind of jumper, goofball. I meant he’s rumored to be the next ADA to jump from the prosecutor’s office across the aisle into a big, lucrative defense firm.”

“Like WMP,” Dani said heavily.

“Exactly. ADA’s do it all the time. They start their careers as prosecutors, learn all the inside tricks, then switch sides and make big bucks defending guilty bastards and getting them off on technicalities. You know, like we do around here.”

Dani nearly inhaled her olive and slapped hand over her mouth to keep from guffawing aloud. She finally managed to gasp, “Sacrilege.”

“I’m just an hourly wage slave. What are Misters W, M, and P going to do to me? I’m way below their exalted notice.”

Dani was beginning to think sliding under the radar of the big bosses might not be such a bad thing around here. Frustrated at having to balance the overfull martini glass carefully or risk spilling it on her suit, she debated whether or not she could get away with plugging her nose to slug it down and get rid of the damned thing.

She said to Zoey, “So, you think Cameron Townsend’s invited to this private party because WMP is putting on a full court press to recruit him?”

“Correct, grasshopper,” Zoey intoned solemnly. Then she giggled and tossed back her martini in a single gulp. “Which means I don’t have long to meet, bed, and marry him. We have a strict no fraternization policy at WMP, you know?—”

She broke off as if something important had just occurred to her. “That is, if you haven’t called dibs on him already. After all, you met him first.”

“Oh, hell to the no.” Dani rolled her eyes. “You’re welcome to him.”

And on that note, she took a deep breath, told herself it was medicine, and slammed back the martini.

Blech .

She succumbed to a full body shudder. God, that tasted like Drano.

She grimaced as Zoey snagged two more martini’s off a tray a waiter was carrying past and shoved one into her hand. “Aww, man. Did you have to? I just got rid of the last one.”

“You’ll look weird if you don’t have one in hand when you kiss the rings of the grand partners on high.”

“Where are their Highnesses, anyway?” Dani muttered.

“No idea.”

She gazed across the crowd of suits in search of the senior partners, saying, “I suppose I should go make nice before that martini hits my brain-to-mouth connection. Any advice, fellow lowly wage slave?”

“Grovel at their feet and flash some cleavage when their wives aren’t looking.”

Dani’s head whipped around to stare at the paralegal. “You’re telling me to use sex to advance my career?”

“Hell, yes. This is the real world, Dani. I’ve been meaning to tell you to invest in some naughty lingerie. Neon colored stuff that’ll show through your white blouses and leave thong lines through your skirts.”

Dani’s jaw dropped. “You’re kidding. Please tell me you’re kidding.”

“Sorry. I’m serious as a heart attack, babe. Why do you think you got hired? Affirmative action and scenery for the clients.”

Stunned, she stared at Zoey, who excused herself and said something about introducing herself to the hot district attorney.

“He’s only an assistant D.A.,” Dani retorted.

“For now,” Zoey sang over her shoulder.

Shaking her head, Dani silently wished her friend good luck and Godspeed.

Surely, Zoey didn’t mean that stuff about cleavage and sexy lingerie. Except, the paralegal had always shot straight with her so far and had no reason to be anything other than totally honest with her.

Well, hell. She’d thought actual brains and talent had landed her this job, not tits and ass.

Silly me .

It felt as if someone had just buried a fist in her belly, leaving her hollow and deflated. Dammit . She’d worked so freaking hard to climb out of the bottom of the legal barrel, to be taken seriously, to prove she belonged in the upper echelons of the field of law?—

“Fancy seeing you here.”

She closed her eyes briefly in mortification. Painted on a bright smile. Turned around. “Counselor. So glad you could join us this evening.”

Cameron Townsend smiled ironically and retorted, “No, you’re not.”

“No. I’m not,” she agreed. “What brings you to Whitney, Marcos & Pinter?”

“Surveilling the enemy.”

“Liar.”

He jolted. “I beg your pardon?”

“Do people frequently let you get away with flippant crap like that?” she asked pleasantly.

He blinked once. Twice. “Yes. They do.”

“Because they’re blinded by your sun-bleached hair and brilliant smile?”

He flashed said brilliant smile at her and took a step closer to murmur, “Noticed my dazzling hotness, did you?”

She rolled her eyes and barely managed not to stick her finger down her throat. “Seriously. Why are you here?”

“Worried I’m here to tattle on you for being an idiot and turning down the best plea deal you’re likely to see out of my office for a long damned time? By the way, the D.A. is right tweaked that you turned me down.”

“If you want to discuss my client’s case, you can do so with me when we enter our innocent plea with the judge.”

If anything, he got taller as his spine went ramrod stiff. “Mark my words. This is not going to go well for you, Dani.”

“You may call me Ms. Wellford. And I’ll take my chances.” Fuming, she spun on her annoyingly sensible heel and stomped away from him. Jerk .

She went in search of alcohol that did not involve gin, vermouth, or olives, and eventually found a table in the corner with glasses of white wine…no doubt meant for the lovely trophy wives of WMP. Screw martinis and trying to be one of the boys. She snatched up a glass of wine and drained it.

Huh. She really was hearing a buzzing noise inside her skull. No wonder they called it getting buzzed. Egads. One month in the job and she was turning into an alcoholic. She backed away from the wine table and ducked behind some potted palms to slip back into the main crowd of the party.

And that was when she overheard the voices. A familiar, infuriating male one. And a raspier, older voice, also male.

“…were you guys thinking, assigning such a rank amateur to the Koronov case?”

“…thought you’d enjoy the view, Cam.”

“…is a looker. I’ll grant you that.”

…Wellford’s one of the throwaway new hires for the piddly cases we’re not allowed to say no to. She won’t last a year…no reason not to enjoy her assets if you’re so inclined…”

Aghast, Dani faded back into the palm fronds.

The raspy voice continued, “You’re the one we want. Screw her lights out if you feel like it. That’s why we hire females like her.”