by Gina Kincade
I checked my watch. I'd already billed four hundred dollars off Mr. Banner today. It was time for him to go.
"Mr. Banner. I think I have everything I need for right now. I'm going to draft a response to her petition to have the prenup voided. We will have a preliminary hearing with a judge and then set up depositions. In the meantime, try to keep to your usual schedule. Pay the bills, don't make any extravagant purchase, and stay away from her." I raised my voice. "And her daughter, too."
Mr. Banner nodded his head but stared at the ground. I knew he would ignore my instructions. I sometimes get a feeling about people. Mr. Banner would be trouble.
I stood.
He stood and shuffled out of my office.
"Anna will be in touch when we get the meeting with the judge scheduled." I caught my assistant's gaze and gave her a nod.
"Mr. Banner." She came from behind her desk and took his arm. "Let me walk you out."
He perked up and smiled.
Anna's attention had that effect on men. I wanted to warn him. After three years in the divorce business, she was jaded about marriage and love in general.
Not me. I was looking for the one.
It was the logical next step. I owned my own home, had a successful career, and now I was ready to meet someone. I blamed my parents. They had been married for twenty-seven years.
I lived my life by a certain set of rules. Did everything the right way with one minor mistake. I deserved to get what I wanted.
Maybe the universe wasn't finished punishing me for the mistake.
She came in the form of a flashy, larger than life albeit sexy brunette named Isabelle. Before you get excited, her name was the only thing exotic about her. She was from Georgia but not even Atlanta. Some small town I'd never heard of. She moved to DC to be an interior designer. That should have been my first clue. She moved in after a week, and to my knowledge, my place was the only thing she'd ever redecorated. She moved on to the next wealthy DC hotshot a year later and left me with a llama skin throw rug and the color scheme of orange, brown, and blue.
I thought I could cultivate her. She was raw; she needed some pruning until she became ripe and the perfect wife for a DC lawyer.
Yeah, I was wrong.
She turned out not to be my type in every way.
My type was complicated.
I wanted a woman who was smart and strong, but one who needed me, if only to give her blazing hot orgasms on a daily basis. I wanted a woman who was with me because she couldn't get what she needed from anyone else.
My mother used to tell me I was unique. My ideal mate had to be unique too.
I retreated into my office, stood by the window, and checked out the view. There were three hundred thousand females in DC. One of them had to have the same constitution as me.
My computer beeped.
I sat behind my desk.
Ian: Well, you coming?
Ethan: On my way.
Chapter Two
Kendall
Caroline nudged me and giggled.
I finished typing the last of my notes and looked up to find Professor Cameron bent over. His perfect round ass stretched his jeans.
I rolled my eyes at her and continued typing.
"Oh, my future lawyers. You survived your first month of law school. Go out. Blow off some steam." He paused and pushed his wavy brown hair out of his eyes. "Then read the next three cases on your list for Monday."
The entire class groaned.
I scoffed.
We started law school a month ago. What did we have to groan about?
"I bet you he's already slept with three students by now," Caroline whispered.
"Go ahead. Be number four," I said.
"I have enough to deal with." Caroline exhaled and leaned back in her chair.
We shuffled out of contracts with the rest of the 1L's, the term we use instead of calling ourselves what we were, first-year law students.
Professor Cameron was gorgeous. At thirty-nine, he was the youngest professor on campus. He wasn't volunteering to teach any ethics classes anytime soon. Not the way he pawed at the female students when they came to talk him. He always had a line waiting. I wasn't going to wait in line for a man to notice me. Besides, I didn't come to law school to hook up.
I came to law school to study.
We stepped out on the quad. My classmates breathed a collective sigh of relief. I got it, sort of. Law school was every bit as stressful as portrayed in the movies. The Scott Turow book they required us to read was written about his first year at Harvard law school back in the seventies. It hadn't changed much since then.
His classmates were a bunch of horny smart over achievers, too.
"Kendall." Caroline pulled me back to reality. "Some of us are going over to Hawk & Dove. You want to join us?"
"Who is some of us?"
"Ian and Brady," she said and giggled. I imagined her questioning a witness and giggling. It was so unprofessional.
I shook my head.
We walked down the steps of the main building toward the dorm.
"Oh, come on." She tugged on my sleeve. "There will be a lot of other people, too."
I'd hung out with Caroline, Ian, and Brady during orientation. After spurring first Ethan's advances and then Brady's, they both gave up on me and pursued Caroline at the same time. By the end of the week, she had slept with both of them. Maybe at the same time. It wasn't confirmed, and I wasn't about to ask.
"Come on." She tugged on my shirt sleeve. "It's a tradition or something."
"Okay." I pulled my blond hair out of the tight ponytail. "One drink."
We walked the few blocks through Capitol Hill to the bar. One of the reasons I picked the school on Capitol Hill was because, in the middle of all the power and prestige, you could walk through history. The classic architecture, the rituals, the pomp and circumstance, like the law itself, it stood the test of time and dictated an ideal not tarnished by reality.
I grew up not too far from here in Alexandria, Virginia, across the Potomac. Its proximity to DC preserved some of the awe of the historical city in my mind.
"Oh, there's Ian," she said and smoothed her wavy auburn hair down.
Caroline grew up in Massachusetts. DC was like the stage for the drama and intrigue of her life, and she played her role like a cast member in a law school version of Scandal. She flirted with professors and slept with two classmates who happened to be best friends.
She dressed like Olivia Pope, too. All designer clothes, casual but expensive. Her current ensemble was a blue shift dress with a swinging black vest and eighties-style loafers. They were coming back. She declared herself the queen of style.
I didn't have the heart to tell her that the length of the dress made her short legs appear shorter.
Besides, she wasn't wearing the short dress for me.
Ian stood on the corner of New Jersey and D Street typing on his phone.
"Did I mention how big his dick is?" Caroline's eyes grew wide and she giggled.
"Yes, you mentioned it." I nodded and continued toward the object of her lust.
Her face flushed, and it made my own body react. One look at Ian and I understood why. The look he gave her would make a nun horny. He scanned her body, paying particular attention to her legs.
In his dark jeans and vintage concert t-shirt, Ian stood with his hands in his pockets. A black leather messenger bag slung across his body.
When we approached, he leaned in and kissed Caroline on the cheek.
She tilted her head.
His lips linger on her skin.
She blushed. Her face and chest all turned a bright shade of red.
He pulled away.
She pouted. The loss of contact hurt her feelings.
"Hey. Kendall." Ian leaned over, and his lips grazed my cheek. "I'm glad you're joining us."
I felt what Caroline felt. Ian's attention touched my core. I begged my body not to respond.
Carol
ine held on to her pout, and her eyes blinked with another emotion. Jealousy.
Why she was jealous, I had no clue. She was the one currently sleeping with the man. Although I could have him if I wanted him. If it had been any other time or any other place, I might have slept with him. After being under my family’s supervision my whole life, I went away for undergraduate school in New Orleans. I went wild. I indulged in everything I was told a proper young lady shouldn't. I wanted to be a different person. I even started going by my middle name instead of my first name.
I became Kendall Allen.
Now, I had reinvented myself again.
Where before I had no direction and no clear plan in mind, now it was different.
I knew who I wanted to be, but sometimes my body craved old habits. With bad habits came bad reputations, and I didn't have the anonymity of New Orleans anymore. I couldn't have people talking about me. Not with what was at stake.
Ian grabbed Caroline's hand, and we continued to the bar.
It hurt my feelings when he took his attention away. I shook my head and followed.
I was just horny. That was all it was. I didn't need a distraction like Ian. I had a clear focus to finish law school at the top of my class and get a job at a prestigious law firm in New York.
And to live my life on my own terms.
Seemed simple enough.
Chapter Three
Ethan
I walked to the famous bar. I came to DC eight years ago to attend law school and never left. Capital Hill was the center of the legal world. Laws where made and interpreted within the densely populated two-mile radius. DC was a town of institutions, and Hawk & Dove was no different. Lawyers and law students had been mingling in the old-world bar on Capitol Hill for hundreds of years.
I pushed through the door, and the noise hit me in the face. I nudged my way through the crowd to the alcove at the end of the bar where my brother and his crew held court. During 1L orientation, you staked your claim and rode it out through to graduation. I spotted him whispering in the ear of a pretty redhead with big eyes and nice lips. She grinned and leaned into him.
Ian spotted me and smiled.
I motioned at the bar, and he nodded.
I pushed to the front of the bar and waved at the bartender.
A few seconds later, he made it down to my side.
"Ethan." James reached across the bar to shake my hand. "How the hell are you?"
James had been here since I was an 1L. Maybe longer.
"James. I'm good. Can I get a beer?"
He nodded and grabbed a frosted mug from the cooler in front of him. He poured my beer from the tap.
"Ian seems to be adjusting." He nodded toward my brother.
"Yeah. I told him he had an unfair advantage." I looked over at my brother.
He untangled himself from the crowd.
"Or a lot to live up to." James handed me my beer.
Before I could ask him what he meant, he ran to the other end of the bar.
"Big brother." Ian hugged me from behind.
I turned around and pulled him in for a proper hug.
"Little brother. How are you doing?" I leaned back and looked at him.
"I'm good." He held his hands up. "You know. Living the dream."
"Just remember, law school isn't as easy as I made it out to be." I chuckled.
"Yes, I know." Ian grabbed my beer off the bar. "Come on. Let me introduce you."
I followed.
"Guys," Ian spoke, and the whole group stopped and gave him their full attention. "This is my big brother, Ethan Resnick."
I grinned and waved.
Greetings rang out from the crowd. The faces were all new except for Brady, Ian's best friend. He had his arm around the shoulders of the same redhead.
I shook a few hands. The crowd shifted to give Ian and me a place to sit. The group occupied two booths with about twenty people total. Seven guys to thirteen girls.
Our law school was Ivy League, so you figure there would be a lot of nerd types, and there were, but this group was full of the beautiful people, Ian's type of people. We both got our looks from our father, but Ian was the better looking of the Resnick brothers, the more confident. I was a late bloomer. I’d found myself in law school. I hoped he had room to do the same.
Where I had a plan and followed it to a T, Ian was the opposite. He let life come at him and responded to it accordingly. It worked for him.
I sat back and listened to the stories of their first month of law school. They were in the sprint stage. It slowed down by November. They were losing their wind already.
"He kept calling on me," one guy with blond highlights in his black hair and a baby face said. "And Mr. James. Tell me, Mr. James. What do you think, Mr. James? Dude, I was ready to change my name. This was the first week. Then the second week, he started the class with Mr. James. Seriously, I was about to bolt. "
"He just asked how you were enjoying law school," another student chimed in.
"I about shit my pants," Mr. James said and laughed. "Was Professor Lawton there when you were in school?" he asked me.
"Torts?" I nodded. "Yep. I think Abraham Lincoln was one of his students."
The group laughed, except for one girl.
I took a sip of my beer and watched her. She sat on the other end of the booth with her body turned away. She focused on something on her phone, frowned, and looked up.
She smiled at something the girl next to her said and pushed her blond hair off her shoulders. She had a beautiful smile. She seemed older than the kids around her.
Her expressive eyes focused on me. I leaned back but didn't avert my gaze.
She licked her lips and turned back to her phone.
I nudge my brother. "Who's the blond at the other end of the booth?"
Ian chuckled.
"Don't bother," he said.
I turned toward him.
"What's her name?"
"Kendall Allen," he said. "She's turned down better men than you. Don't waste your time."
"What's her problem?" I asked.
"Look at her."
"I am looking at her. She's fucking hot." I nodded.
"No, look at her. Look at her eyes." Ian nodded toward her. "She's sad."
Ian read people well. I studied her and saw it too. She had something on her mind.
She looked at me again, and this time she didn't look away. She squared her shoulders and held her chin high.
She issued a challenge with a head tilt.
I tipped my drink at her, smiled, and took a sip.
Challenge accepted.
She smirked.
"Ethan." A brunette with smooth shoulder-length hair and big brown eyes grabbed my arm. "Please tell me it's all worth it."
"Law school?" I nodded. "Absolutely."
I shared a few horror stories of my own, and they asked questions, mostly about the tricks of law school. The stuff they don't teach you in the orientation packet. I was happy to help. Law school taught me persistence and discipline. It gave me the kick in the ass I needed to be a productive member of society. I had forgotten that a little with my ex, but I had learned important lessons, too. Lessons I was ready to put into practice...after I figured out what Kendall Allen offered.
"I'm going to take off." I turned to Ian. "Congrats on your first month, little brother."
"You're leaving so soon?" the brunette said. I never got her name.
"Unlike you lawyers in training, I actually am a lawyer," I said.
The blond girl smirked. The rest offered their goodbyes.
I walked over to the bar and waited for James.
Kendall had turned in her seat.
I smiled.
She looked down at her shoes.
She had something to say, but something held her back.
"What's up, Ethan?" James pulled me back to reality.
"Charge a round of shots for the group and then close out my tab," I said.
"
Sure thing." James ran my credit card and handed it back to me. He lined up twenty shot glasses on the bar and poured.
I snagged one and looked back at Kendall. She stood. Her lips parted. Her hands fidgeted at her side with an expectant look on her beautiful face.
I held the glass up, winked, and down it. I knocked on the bar twice and headed toward the door.
If my read on the situation were correct, Kendall Allen would soon follow.
Chapter Four
Ethan
I heard her footsteps over the city noise. Girls at law school spent the first week dressed up in pants suits and heels. A month in, the dress code morphed to sweats and jeans. Kendall had landed somewhere between. Her clothes looked expensive but casual, and the sound of her heels on the city street was my new favorite sounds.
I sped up and turned the corner onto my street. I stepped into the sunken entry of a clothing store and waited. She turned the corner and paused. Then she continued and walked right past me.
I stepped out of the shadows.
"You following me?"
She gasped and spun around on her heels.
"You scared the shit out of me." She stomped her foot.
Her accent was Southern, but not the Deep South. Virginia maybe.
"Walking the city streets, you should be more aware." I stepped closer to her. "Strangers lurk in the shadows."
"You are the strangest man I've met so far," Kendall said.
"Good. I like to be the best at stuff." I stepped back.
She followed.
I had her.
"I'm not following you." She caught up with me. "I'm heading home."
"Oh, yeah. Where do you live?" I scanned her body. She was fucking gorgeous. Long legs, small waist, she had the type of tits that looked good even in a turtleneck. She wasn't wearing a turtleneck tonight. Her jersey shirt hugged her and showed the right amount of cleavage over a pair of skinny black jeans. My gaze dropped to her four-inch heels. I was right.
My eyes tracked back up to her face. She hadn't answered me.
She crossed her arms over her chest and glared.