A Legal Affair

by Smith, Maureen

  “I guess we both know what it’s like to lose a parent,” Daniela said quietly. “But at least you had your mother for fourteen years. Does that make it better, or worse?”

  “I don’t know.” He hesitated, then confided, “My mother and I weren’t that close. I didn’t know her very well.”

  Daniela fell silent for several moments, thinking. Then, “Can I ask you another personal question?”

  He tensed, automatically bracing himself. “Go ahead,” he said warily.

  “Why did you stop practicing law, Caleb? I heard you were amazing.”

  Caleb frowned. “Don’t believe everything you hear,” he said grimly. Absently he realized she’d been calling him by his first name, but he didn’t bother correcting her. What was the point? His behavior on Friday night, and his very presence in her home that evening, was proof that their relationship—or whatever it was—had progressed beyond the use of formal addresses.

  “Don’t be so modest,” Daniela teased. “It’s okay to say you kicked butt and took names as one of San Antonio’s most formidable attorneys.”

  “You have a flair for the dramatic, Miss Moreau.”

  “It’s Daniela,” she corrected. “And you’re avoiding my question.”

  “No, I’m not.” He rubbed a hand over his face and pushed out a long, deep breath. He could feel the dull edges of fatigue settling into his muscles. He’d overdone it at the ranch this weekend, trying to purge her from his system.

  As if such a thing were possible.

  “I stopped litigating because I got burned-out,” he said finally. “Contrary to what you may have heard, there was no deep, philosophical reason behind my decision. I didn’t wake up one morning and have an epiphany. The truth is, I didn’t particularly like the people I was defending, and over time, I didn’t like myself too much, either. So I got out.”

  “You make it sound so simple,” Daniela said softly, watching him with eyes that saw too much. “I know it wasn’t that simple.”

  Caleb shrugged, unnerved by her perceptiveness, but unwilling to show it. “No simpler than it was for you to walk away from your accounting career. But once you did it, you knew it was the right thing to do. Seems to me you should understand better than anyone my reasons for leaving the courtroom.”

  “I think I do,” she murmured.

  And somehow, Caleb knew she did. “Come to think of it, you never answered my question that day in the coffee shop. I asked you why you wanted to be a lawyer, and you never told me.”

  “I didn’t?”

  “No,” he said succinctly, “you didn’t.” Why did he get the sense that Daniela was being deliberately evasive?

  She shrugged, the edge of her teeth digging into the plump flesh of her bottom lip. “I don’t know. Maybe I feel silly admitting to my law professor that I’m not really sure what I want to do with my law degree. I mean, I’m twenty-seven years old, too old not to know what I want to do with the rest of my life.”

  Caleb smiled, touched by this rare glimpse into her vulnerable side. “At the risk of sounding like a patronizing grown-up, there’s nothing wrong with not knowing what you want to do with the rest of your life. At some point or another, everyone experiences that uncertainty about the future, no matter how old—or young—they are. You have nothing to be embarrassed about.”

  She beamed a smile at him, that beautiful, endearing smile that made his chest swell and caused him to feel twenty feet tall.

  Gruffly he said, “But I would suggest that you come up with a game plan soon, because law school doesn’t get any easier as you go along. And if you’re in it for the long haul, you might as well have a clear idea what you expect to get out of it.”

  She grinned, giving him a mock salute. “Yes, sir.”

  He chuckled, reaching over to ruffle her hair playfully, as much to tease as to touch her. “Wise guy.”

  As he drew away, Daniela caught his hand in hers. Without releasing his gaze, she rested her cheek in the curve of his palm. His breath stalled in his lungs. As if in a trance, he watched her lips part and form the soft request: “Stay and watch a movie with me.”

  And though a warning bell went off in his brain, he felt himself nodding slowly. “All right.”

  Halfway through the romantic comedy, Daniela fell asleep, curled tightly into a fetal position in a corner of the sofa. As Caleb watched her, he had to force himself not to touch her, not to trace his fingers over the delicate arch of her brow or the lush fullness of her lips. Her cheeks were flushed, and there were faint dark smudges beneath her eyes from lack of sleep. As he gazed upon her, he felt a wave of tenderness wash over him. This Daniela, with the sweetly angelic face, posed no threat to him.

  Or so he told himself.

  Frowning darkly, Caleb rose from the sofa, reached down and swept her easily into his arms. She didn’t awaken as he carried her down the hall and into the first bedroom, which he assumed, from the rumpled bedcovers, must be hers.

  He laid her down gently in the queen-size bed, considered, then discarded the idea of removing her robe. He didn’t think he could handle seeing whatever she wore—or didn’t wear—beneath. Besides, he reasoned, it was probably best for her to stay covered up, in case she got the chills overnight. He drew the heavy comforter over her body and tucked it under her chin.

  As an afterthought, he touched the back of his hand to her forehead. Her skin felt hot, almost feverish. He frowned, wondering if he should wake her and bring her some medicine or a cold, damp cloth.

  As he stood over her, debating his next move, she tossed fitfully in her sleep, turning onto her side to face him. Caleb froze, holding his breath. But she didn’t awaken.

  Deciding he’d better get out of Dodge while he still could, Caleb turned and started for the door.

  A soft, restless moan from the bed stopped him.

  He turned his head, glancing over his shoulder at Daniela. In the soft wedge of light from the living room, he saw that her eyes were still closed. So he was unprepared, therefore, to hear the softly uttered plea, “Don’t go.”

  He stood in the doorway, his pulse drumming in his ears. Every ounce of common sense warned him to pretend he hadn’t heard her and to keep going until he’d put Daniela’s cozy little bungalow in his rearview mirror. No good could come of him staying there a minute—hell, a second—longer.

  His mind heeded the logic of the warning.

  His body was an entirely different matter.

  Before he could stop himself, he was striding back across the room, removing his wallet from the back pocket of his jeans and depositing it on the nightstand before lowering himself gently onto the bed. He’d stay for a few more minutes, he told himself firmly, just to make sure she was all right. Never mind that he could just as effectively monitor her condition from the antique chair by the window, or from the safe distance of the living room. And never mind that, given how tired he already was, he could very well fall asleep in Daniela’s bed, and awaken to God only knew what kind of temptation.

  Careful not to disturb Daniela, who remained fast asleep, he clasped his hands behind his head and stared up at the darkened ceiling with a look of fixed determination.

  Just fifteen minutes, he vowed, and then he would go….

  Chapter 12

  Daniela awoke some time later and blinked in the quiet stillness of her bedroom. For a moment she felt groggy and disoriented, and then, all at once, she became aware of the solid warmth of a body beside her.

  A male body.

  Her heart thudded. She sat up quickly, staring down in shocked disbelief at the man sleeping next to her. How had Caleb Thorne wound up in her bed? The last thing she remembered was inviting him to watch a movie with her, and being secretly thrilled when he agreed. She didn’t remember falling asleep, and she definitely didn’t remember luring Caleb into her bedroom.

  A buttery shaft of light from the living room illuminated him, his breathing deep and even. The hard angles of his face were softened in s
leep, his thick black lashes fanning out in perfect formation from his closed eyelids. One arm was clasped behind his head, the other draped across his flat, hard stomach. One long leg hung off the edge of her bed, as if he hadn’t been able to decide whether to stay or go.

  She glanced toward the bedside clock. It was 2:15 a.m.

  He’d stayed this long, she reasoned. No sense in sending him home now.

  Slowly, so as not to awaken him, she eased from under the covers and crawled toward the end of the bed. She unlaced one of Caleb’s big leather boots and carefully removed it from his foot. Then, reaching over the side of the bed, she lifted his other foot and began to work the laces free.

  When she’d finished her task, she glanced up—and found her guest awake and watching her intently.

  Her nerve endings tingled with awareness as she stared into his heavy-lidded midnight eyes. “I was just, um, making you more comfortable,” she murmured. “It’s late. I figured you might as well spend the night.”

  “You figured, huh?” His deep, sleep-roughened voice did dangerous things to her pulse.

  She nodded, her tongue snaking out nervously to wet her lips. “Only if you want to stay, of course.”

  Slowly, keeping her trapped in the heat of his gaze, Caleb eased himself into a sitting position. “Come here,” he said, a low, husky command that sent a shiver through her.

  She crawled over to him, and without a word he drew his arms around her waist and lifted her smoothly onto his lap. As she watched in breathless fascination, he brought his dark head toward hers. It was exhilarating, the way he asked her permission with only his eyes, and by bringing his lips just inches away from hers. She had never known such a sense of heightened anticipation as when they looked into each other’s eyes, their mouths separated by a mere heartbeat.

  “I might be contagious,” Daniela whispered, her pulse racing as he sank his hands into the thick, curly tangle of her hair.

  “I’ll take my chances,” he muttered softly, and crushed his lips to hers. She wrapped her arms around his neck and opened hungrily to him. The tip of his tongue played inside her mouth in sensuous sweeps of warmth that explored the edges of her teeth and the silken dampness beyond. He kissed her, deeply and provocatively, until a shaking moan rose in her throat.

  Her heart hammered in her chest as his mouth slid along the arch of her throat, trailing a simmering pathway of pulsing nerves. His lips moved to her ear, and his marauding tongue traced and stroked the delicate shell, making her breath quicken sharply. He reached between their bodies, untying her robe and slowly dragging it off her shoulders, the brush of his warm, callused fingers against her bare flesh causing her to shiver convulsively. She couldn’t breathe deeply enough, or fast enough, her lungs striving to accommodate a desperate need for more oxygen as he tugged the skimpy tank top over her head and impatiently cast it aside. He stared at the rapid rise and fall of her chest, the dusky tips of her high, swollen breasts, and uttered a ragged oath as his head lowered. When he drew a nipple into the hot silk of his mouth, her blood turned to liquid fire. She arched upward as he flicked his tongue against the taut peak and circled the edge of her nipple before suckling it, wringing a hoarse cry from her.

  They undressed each other quickly, as if any parting of their bodies was too long to be separated. When they came together, flesh to flesh, it was in an explosion of heat and fierce desire. They held and kissed each other as if their very survival depended on it.

  Flattening both palms against the solid wall of his chest, Daniela shoved Caleb back upon the bed and straddled him. Slowly, seductively, she kissed her way down the length of his body, over the sinewy cords of his shoulder and the sculpted planes of his muscular chest, reveling in the warmth of smooth male flesh that felt like granite wrapped in velvet. His body was a revelation, a marvel to behold. When she reached his long, thick erection, she lifted her lashes slowly to meet the burning ferocity in his obsidian eyes. Holding his gaze, she took him in her mouth, and he sucked in a sharp, tortured breath. Heady with her newfound power, Daniela laved and suckled him, using her tongue in ways she’d never imagined doing with another man. Caleb groaned deep in his throat, a sound of raw male pleasure that caused a delicious pressure to coil in her belly.

  “No more,” he growled thickly. He sat up, reached for his wallet on the nightstand and removed a foil-wrapped condom, tearing open the packet with his teeth.

  “Let me,” Daniela murmured, taking the condom from his hand. He watched with a heavy-lidded gaze as she sheathed him, smoothing the latex over his rigid arousal slowly and provocatively.

  She’d barely finished before he cradled the back of her head and drew her mouth down to his. Daniela closed her eyes as he parted her lips and slid his hot, silky tongue between them, plunging deep and retreating in a slow, tantalizing rhythm that made liquid heat pool between her legs. Gradually he deepened the sensual caress until swift, penetrating strokes filled her, causing the pressure inside her to build into a throbbing ache of need. A need only he had the power to satisfy.

  “Now, Caleb,” she demanded in a throaty whisper, her hips already undulating against him in wanton anticipation. “I want you inside me. Now.”

  Caleb drew back, his dark, smoldering gaze capturing hers in the dimly lit room. “This will change everything,” he said huskily.

  I’m counting on it, Daniela thought, then ceased to think at all as he guided her over him and impaled her in one long, erotically painful stroke. She cried out his name sharply and arched against him, already on the brink of release. She threw back her head and moaned in mindless ecstasy as Caleb lifted her by the waist and slid her back down on the rigid, engorged length of his arousal. Slowly, inch by exquisite inch, until she shuddered deeply.

  One hand grasped the curve of her buttocks, while with the other he reached up and cupped the aching swell of her breast, tweaking and tugging at the sensitized nipple until she thought she would burst into flames. Bracing her palms on the chiseled surface of his abdomen, she began to move on him, slowly at first, then more rapidly, fueled by his low, guttural moans and a driving hunger that threatened to consume her. Faster and faster she rode him until they were both breathless, until the heat between them condensed to a slick sheen of perspiration on their joined bodies.

  In a sudden blur of movement Caleb reversed positions, rolling her over and onto her back, then covering her with the delicious weight of his body. She wrapped her legs tightly around him, shaking violently with need. She couldn’t remember ever needing someone as badly as she needed Caleb. And her desire went beyond sex, went beyond her body’s cry for release. It went deeper, to a forbidden place she dared not venture—a place of no return.

  Caleb lowered his head and seized her lips in a hot, openmouthed kiss, his face above hers dark and taut with passion. She dug her fingernails into the muscled hardness of his back as he grasped her buttocks and thrust into her, deep and hard, taking her almost savagely. She lifted her hips to match him, stroke for desperate stroke, until their bodies slapped together in a heavy, pounding rhythm that finally drove her over the edge.

  She cried out wildly as she came, her orgasm erupting through her in a blinding wave that made her cling to his broad shoulders as if for dear life. The force of her release, combined with the helpless whimpers she made as her body convulsed around him, seemed to shatter what was left of Caleb’s control. Bracing his weight on both arms, he dropped his head and buried himself to the hilt.

  “Daniela,” he rasped, his back stiffening beneath her hands. His eyes closed, and he groaned harshly as he reached his own climax, his penis throbbing palpably inside her. “Daniela…”

  Her heart soared upon finally hearing her name on his lips. She wrapped her arms around his chest and clung to him tightly as they slowly drifted back to earth, their ragged breathing gradually returning to normal.

  When Caleb lifted his head to gaze into her eyes, she braced herself to see guilt, remorse, even anger. What she saw, i
nstead, was tenderness, and the unmistakable glint of masculine satisfaction.

  Her lips curved upward in a wicked smile. “This must be what Marvin Gaye had in mind when he wrote the lyrics to ‘Sexual Healing.’ If this doesn’t heal me, I don’t know what will.”

  Caleb gave a low, hoarse laugh, then slowly withdrew from her and rolled them over so that she was on top. She smiled against his chest, endeared by the gentle concern he displayed in not wanting to crush her.

  He stroked a hand over her tousled hair, then down her back, and she felt herself relax under his lazy touch. With a contented yawn, she snuggled against him, savoring the warmth and protection of his arms around her. Heaven didn’t get any better than this.

  “I should have done some reading tonight,” she mumbled drowsily. “I didn’t study all weekend. I don’t want to fall behind in—”

  Caleb placed a gentle finger to her lips. “Sleep, baby,” he murmured huskily.

  And she did, sliding into a deep, satiated slumber.

  When she awakened later that morning to find herself alone in the bed, she felt a sharp ache of disappointment.

  It wasn’t that she’d expected Caleb to linger around to rouse her with a romantic serenade, or to greet her with a bouquet of long-stemmed red roses. But after the incredible—no, earth-shattering—night of passion they’d shared, she wouldn’t have minded waking up in his arms, lifting her head to see tender warmth reflected in his dark eyes as he gazed down at her.

  Easy, girl, she mused grimly. That kind of thinking will only get you into trouble.

  Daniela stretched languorously in the rumpled bed, feeling deliciously sore in places she’d never known existed. The sheets were still warm, faintly scented with the musk of their lovemaking. And just like that, she felt a stir of longing, starting in her belly and spreading outward in a slow, tormenting burn.