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  His insincerity was loud and clear. He didn’t give a shit if he disturbed me. “What can I help you with, Mr. Tripton? I have to say, it’s eight o’clock in the evening. How did you get this number, by the way?”

  “You gave it to me. Thought I’d try it when I couldn’t reach you at the office.”

  I would never have given a client my personal number. Especially not this client. “I don’t recall giving it to you,” I said as politely as I could.

  “Got it somehow, didn’t I? Got your address, too.”

  Tripton’s laugh gave me chills. I didn’t like the idea of this man knowing where I lived. He was a criminal, and a less-than-savory person in general. I could only hope he didn’t plan to make use of the information.

  “Anyway, Mr. Tripton, was there something you needed?”

  “Not in particular,” he said. “Just making sure I’m at the top of your mind. A case like mine needs a lot of attention, as I’m sure you know. A lawyer of your caliber knows all of these things.”

  “I do know, and I’ve been working on your case every day. Since I have you on the phone, I should say again that I really think you should take a plea bargain. I spoke to the prosecutor, and she’s willing to give you a great deal. You’d only spend—”

  “Not a chance,” he practically sang out. “I’m with the best law firm for miles around, aren’t I? You’ll get me off the hook without any penalties at all. I just know it, Ms. Stevenson. If you put your mind to it, you’ll find some loophole that absolves me completely. All you legal eagles are good at that. Take me, on the other hand — all I know how to do is invest money and book hotel rooms for me and Hannah!”

  I shuddered. “I’d say I’ll do my best, but I’m already doing that. There isn’t much more I can do, and if you don’t take that deal, the prosecutor won’t offer another one. Time is running out.”

  “Then you’d best get on it,” he said, the warmth suddenly evaporating from his voice. “If you can’t handle the case, we’re going to have a problem. And the way I see it, problems like that need to be dealt with.”

  I was on the verge of telling him we already had a problem when he hung up. I slowly lowered the phone, my heart pounding as if I’d run a marathon.

  When BJ arrived back from her tutoring gig, I was still there, melted into the couch. She gave me a quick kiss before caressing my cheek. “Ooh, you feel moisturized.”

  “Night cream,” I laughed. “How are you doing?”

  “Not bad.” She lay across my lap. “This client’s one of my favorites. She always has some interesting ideas about her English assignments. Feels like I’m learning more than her at every session. It’s like being back in high school, except this time I only have to debate with the class clown.”

  “I can just picture you loving that.”

  “How was your day?” she asked.

  “All right. The Tripton case is still driving me up the wall. That man expects magic, I swear.” I put my fingers in BJ’s curly hair and massaged her scalp. “He won’t listen to reason. There’s no arguing with a person like that.”

  “Tell him to go fuck himself.”

  Laughing slowed the movement of my fingers, and BJ tapped on my hand to remind me to continue. “I’m pretty sure he does that regularly anyway. That’s another thing — he’s taken to bragging about how much he cheats on her wife. Apparently his secretary Hannah has the best ass in Newbank.”

  “Ugh.” BJ seemed half-focused on the conversation, half-blissed out by the massage. “At least he’s not hitting on you. Tell him to take his affairs and fuck himself with them, then take the plea bargain you’ve been recommending since day one.”

  “I’m sure that’d work.”

  A puppy sound reminded me Teensy was still in her crate. She stayed in there for up to an hour at a time now. BJ pushed herself off me to let her out, and the pup greeted her with a few licks.

  From the way BJ acted with the dog — and me — I would’ve thought she planned to stay forever. And that wouldn’t have been a problem for me. Even if it didn’t exactly fit my plans, this “friends who fuck” thing was comfortable. And fun.

  BJ’s position half-bent over the crate made it easy to notice how great her ass looked. My body responded to the sight. By the time she turned back from Teensy to me, I was ready to go.

  “You’re looking at me funny,” she said.

  I bit my lip, staring harder. She was physically perfect, everything I could’ve asked for. It wasn’t only her looks, either. She drew people to her like a magnet. Everyone at the bar the night we met adored her. Her tutoring clients told their friends about her. She was a well-rounded woman, a world traveler. It still blew my mind that she was mine… at least for a little while.

  Eventually she’d leave. I knew that, even if I didn’t want to believe it. Newbank could never hold her attention. And neither could I.

  “Come here,” I said, opening my legs and reaching out to her.

  A grin came over her face as she acquiesced. She perched on my knee, nipping lightly at my neck. “What do you want?”

  I want to know how long you plan to stay. I’d ask about the future sometime. After this. Just not now.

  “I want your mouth on me,” I murmured.

  Her grin widened. “Is that so? Who exactly are you asking?”

  I’d almost forgotten. “Sorry, miss. I want your mouth on me, miss.” Calling her that sent even more blood rushing downward, to the point where I was throbbing for her.

  “I think that can be arranged… as long as you’re going to do the same to me right after.” She cupped herself.

  Now I bit my lip again, this time because I was practically drooling. “Are you sure you don’t want me to go first, miss? It only seems fair for me to please you first.”

  “We did that last time.” Her hands found the bottom of my skirt, quickly working it upward. “It’s your turn.”

  I leaned back on the couch, panting as she pulled my panties down. Funny, we’d rarely fooled around in my bedroom. When we needed each other, which was constantly, it was too urgent to go anywhere else. That was how we’d ended up doing it in the kitchen, the living room, the shower… and in the car that one time.

  Her hand brushed along my folds, barely touching me. Her fingertips were nothing but a light graze over my skin. I sighed out loud, aching for more but unwilling to ask. The more I showed my need, the slower she’d fulfill it. Best to wait and let her do this in her own time.

  “You know what I’m going to do to you, don’t you?”

  A quiver came over me as I repeated the answer she loved to hear. “Whatever you want.”

  That pleased her enough to swirl her fingers around my entrance. “You know who this belongs to?”

  “You, miss.”

  She gave me a leisurely nod, and then she took her time sinking to the couch beside me. She bent low, and her mouth was an inch away from my clit when she looked up again. I could feel the heat of her breath on me as she spoke. “And that pretty little ass you’re sitting on?”

  Tension mounted within me. I needed to say the right thing so I could get her tongue on me, but it was a struggle to think straight at the moment. “All yours, miss.”

  “Good.”

  I must have done well, because she closed the distance and my body was enveloped in bliss. I gasped out, my hands searching wildly for something to grab onto. One found the cushion, the other her back. I dug my nails in, knowing she didn’t mind the pain. If anything, it always made her go harder.

  She kept working me, her warm mouth suctioned onto me, her head bobbing and waving. Her eyes were locked on mine, watching my every reaction. Seeing how closely she examined me made me even more self-conscious, and I looked away until the force of her stare made me glance at her again.

  My hips thrust upward uncontrollably. The look in her eyes let me know this wasn’t acceptable, and although she didn’t stop, she followed the glare with a sharp tap on my knee. She didn’t l
ike it when I took charge. Even when she was pleasing me, she made the rules for me to follow. And fuck, I never would’ve guessed how much I’d like it that way.

  With some effort, I stilled my hips. BJ gave me an approving glance, but I spoke again anyway. “Am I being good for you?”

  “Mmm.”

  I laced my fingers through her hair. She’d be disappointed if I had to stop, but I needed this climax bad. “I’m going to come, if that’s all right with you, miss.”

  As I’d anticipated, that got me a dirty look. Instead of continuing, she pulled her head up. Replacing her tongue with her hand, she gave my clit a few torturous strokes. “Are you sure about that?”

  “Not anymore.” I trembled, the pressure in my body high but unable to release. Lights were appearing behind my eyelids, and I throbbed for the final push to send me into ecstasy. “Please go down on me again.”

  “Who?”

  “You.”

  Fuck, that was the wrong answer. Her hand got even slower, and my clit pulsed harder than ever. If she didn’t give me the real thing soon I’d come right here, like this — a half-climax that would be sure to leave me unsatisfied.

  I searched through my fogged-up mind, searching for the words that would make her give me what I needed. “Please, miss, you, miss, wouldn’t you please…”

  The flat of her tongue came down on me, and my words turned into a groan. I grabbed the back of her head with both hands, keeping her there until I’d lost myself completely inside her.

  When it was over, I collapsed against the couch cushions. My body was exhausted — I couldn’t even open my eyes. I was barely aware of BJ pressing a light kiss to my forehead.

  “I’ll give you a rain check on returning the favor since you’re so out of it. I’m going to make you work next time, though.”

  I would’ve asked, “Don’t you always?” if I’d been capable of speech.

  TEN — BJ

  “This is never going to work,” Leanne said.

  “Not with that attitude. Nothing is impossible, okay? We can do it if we put our minds to it.”

  She shot me a dirty look. “We can do it. We just might end up destroying my bathroom in the process.”

  As if on cue, Teensy peeked over the edge of the sink. We’d filled it up with a few inches of lukewarm water, enough to get her wet without any risk of her little nose going under. But that would be irrelevant if we couldn’t get her in the tub in the first place.

  At the first sight of the water, she skittered away and jumped down to the floor. Her little paws landed on the tile, and she raced toward the door. We were one step ahead of her — it had been shut for the past five minutes, and locked for good measure.

  “Come back here, Teensy.” I picked her up gently, but she squirmed away and hid under the sink. “You need to get clean, puppy. It’s been a month since Leanne adopted you, which means a month since your last bath. Not to mention that you got a little muddy on your very first walk outside.”

  “She’s going to understand all that?”

  “The Internet said to talk to her in a calm, reassuring voice.” I got my hands under her belly, but she was still wriggling like crazy. “If you have a better topic to tell her about, let’s hear it.”

  “This one’ll do.” Leanne crossed her arms.

  With me on my knees and her up there, I had the sudden urge to start going down on her here and now. Maybe after the dog is bathed…

  “Got her!”

  I carried Teensy up to the sink and dropped her into the water. Immersed up to her little tail, she shook herself. When that didn’t get her dry, she flailed around in confusion.

  “Having fun?” Leanne’s voice dripped with sarcasm. “Let’s get this done so we can go to bed.”

  “Funny, I was just thinking how much I wanted to get you in bed.”

  Her eyes flashed with desire. She was so easy to turn on, it was almost ridiculous. Once I got past the whole buttoned-up lawyer thing, she was a freak and a half.

  “So we have a goal to work toward,” I said, giving her the eye. “Once we get this done, I make a visit to my favorite vacation home.”

  She gasped, and I couldn’t even tell if her outrage was exaggerated or not. “My vagina is not a vacation home!”

  “Either way, pass me the dog shampoo.”

  She did, and I spent a minute lathering Teensy up. She still protested in her own little way, but there wasn’t much she could do short of leaping out of the sink. Leanne did have a point about the bathroom getting destroyed, though. By the time the pup was fully soaped up, the mirror and walls were speckled with bubbly water.

  “You want to get some of that on the dog, not just on the room,” Leanne said dryly.

  “Ha, ha. I don’t see you doing this.”

  With a raise of the eyebrow, she nudged me aside. After draining the sink, she pulled the faucet loose and hosed Teensy down. Teensy raced around the sink, trying to get away from the water. In less than a minute, she was basically rinsed off.

  “Rinse her more. If there’s any shampoo left, it can irritate her skin.”

  Leanne did as I told her, but she looked at me while she was doing it. “See how fast I did that, and how little mess I made? That’s how it’s done.”

  “Unfair advantage. You got the easy step.”

  “Not likely.” She mumbled something under her breath about how I should’ve been a lawyer.

  She had a real thing about that lately. Ever since it first popped into her mind, she’d brought it up a couple of times. It was almost enough to make me wonder why I’d never seriously considered it as an option. I was fine, though. I loved my life — my traveling and my hook-ups. I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

  Except I’m pretty damn happy living this domestic life in Newbank and only having sex with one person…

  Stepping behind Leanne, I bent her over the sink and squeezed her ass with both hands. “Whatever the case, Teensy’s going to air-dry now. I think it’s time for me to take that vacation…”

  *

  In the morning, I woke up at the same time as Leanne, as usual. She got up at some ungodly hour, but I could never get back to sleep after she started moving around in bed. It worked, somehow. I’d started getting to bed a little earlier to compensate. No way was I going to sleep anywhere other than with her.

  My first tutoring client wasn’t until noon today. Since I had the free time, I heated up some frozen waffles and set out some fruit while Leanne was in the shower. I did kind of feel like a housewife at times like this, but it wasn’t an unpleasant feeling.

  When Leanne came into the kitchen, the expression on her face would have cracked me up — if I hadn’t been so turned on by the skirt suit she was wearing. I had to keep myself from grabbing her every time I saw her in one. She always resisted me, making some bullshit excuses about the dry-cleaning bill.

  “This looks amazing,” she breathed.

  “Sit. Eat.” I stood behind her and massaged her shoulders as she took a few things. “Dealing with the devil client again today?”

  “Among others.” She sighed as she broke off a piece of her waffle. “If Tripton had his way, it’d only be him. I swear he thinks I can work on his case twenty-four hours a day.”

  “Poor Lee.” I squeezed a knot out of her neck.

  She stopped eating to look up at me. “Lee?”

  “What, you prefer Annie?” I pressed a kiss to her neck now, nipping it as a bonus. “I could be persuaded to call you Annie. Tomorrow, tomorrow…”

  “Times like this, I remember why I hated you in the first place.”

  “Times like this, I want to rip you out of that suit.”

  Apparently that took her mind off hating me, because she let out a low groan. “Don’t do this to me now. I’ve got to get to work.”

  “Fine, but you’ll be thinking about it while you eat.” I stared her in the eye, making her as uncomfortable as I could. “Me, sliding your jacket off halfway. Undoing that
shirt one button at a time, letting you feel the air on your neck. My fingertips gliding along your skin before going to work on the next button…”

  Leanne’s fork and knife were motionless in her hands, and when she spoke her voice was hoarse. “Cut that out.”

  “Why should I? I’m only daydreaming. Imagine me climbing on top of you right now and pulling up that tailored skirt of yours. Then helping you stand up, because I know your legs would be weak at this point, and leaning you over the table.” I put my hand on the table to emphasize my point.

  “I’m not imagining any of that.”

  “No? Not my hand sliding over your clit, maybe my tongue? And then my fingers pressing at your entrance…” She was speechless, which meant I had already won. “That’s all I wanted from you, for you to let your mind wander for once.”

  She harrumphed, slowly gaining the strength to take another bite of her waffle. “I let my mind wander all the time, thank you very much.”

  “Do you?” I was struck by an image of her at work, fantasizing about me. “What do you think about?”

  There was a rather large bite left on her plate. She shoved it in her mouth. “I have to go,” she said through the waffle.

  Hurriedly, she picked herself up and ran out the door. I watched her head for the elevator, wiggling my fingers in a wave. “Bye-bye!” I called.

  I went into our room — her room — to relax a bit and prepare for the tutoring session. That kept me busy for a while. After an hour or so, I came back out to pick at some more of the food I’d set out. Then it hit me — Leanne’s handbag was still sitting by the front door.

  Fuck. Could she get by without it? Surely she would’ve texted if she’d noticed it missing. Then again, she was probably too busy to bother. I picked it up, weighing it in my hands as I considered the options. I could do nothing and let her spend the day without it. Or… I could take it to her.

  A quick search of the Newbank bus schedules let me know that bringing it to her was possible. It’d mean cutting it close with my tutoring client, but she’d understand if I was late. Leanne had done so much for me. I could do one little thing for her.