Mine to Protect

by Sarah J. Brooks

  “Are you serious?” Bronx laughed.

  “Oh, yes. Dead serious, darling. But it sure was fun. You can leave your number for me if you’d like.”

  Rose smiled and shut the bathroom door behind her, making sure to lock it. One time she hadn’t locked it and her young toy for the night surprised her in the shower for another round of fun. She didn’t turn him down, of course, but she felt way too out of control.

  It would take him about fifteen minutes to realize she wasn’t coming out of the shower and then another ten or so to leave the apartment. Rose had the timing down to a science, and she enjoyed her long hot shower while she waited for him to exit her apartment. She put an avocado peel on her face, shaved her legs, and did her favorite vanilla body scrub all over her body. Thirty minutes later, she exited the bathroom and made a quick tour of her apartment to make sure Bronx had disappeared.

  She locked the front door and walked into the kitchen to read the note he had left with his number. It was always interesting to see what men wrote when their ego had been totally destroyed. She had expected a few of the guys to leave without writing a note, or to leave a nasty message, but she was always surprised. The men always left their number and always tried gallantly not to show how much she had crushed their ego.

  “Meet you next weekend at the zip lines – Bronx,” the note read.

  It was a first for her. Not only had he told her to meet him somewhere; he hadn’t included a phone number at all. She smiled at the note as she ripped it up and threw it in the trash. She wouldn’t be meeting him at the zip lines. Rose wouldn’t be seeing Bronx ever again.

  Chapter 4

  After a day of rest on Sunday, Rose woke up Monday morning ready to take on her new life. She had applied to law school two years after her husband’s death, purely as something to keep herself busy with while she tried to figure out what she wanted to do.

  School had been a great distraction. The studying kept her mind busy, and the younger crowd of people didn’t know her at all, so it wasn’t hard to hang out with them. Rose excelled at school and graduated at the top of her class. But when she started looking for jobs, she found that people weren’t too keen on hiring a first-year law student that was almost thirty years old. It probably didn’t help that Rose had a stern look about her and didn’t appear to be the type that would listen to direction very well.

  Rose wasn’t even sure she wanted to be a lawyer. She was interested in the law, and school had come very easily to her, but she didn’t have a passion for it like other kids in her class did. She continued through the classes, though, because she had nothing better to do with her time, and if she hadn’t been in school, she would have been at home wallowing in her sorrows, and that seemed like a worse option than going to school.

  The freedom of college was much different for her as she entered law school. When she had been an undergrad, Derek had been there with her. She never had to eat lunch alone. She never had to socialize with people alone, they did almost everything together. So as she entered law school as a widow, it was painfully hard for her to interact with people.

  Somewhere along the line, she realized she could pretend to have confidence and flirt with the guys, and it filled a void for her. The meaningless sex made her feel powerful, and she found herself bringing delicious boy toys home a couple times a month. They typically weren’t from her field of study and were just sweet looking guys she met on campus, so she was able to disappear from their lives after seeing them. Rose didn’t want a relationship; she wanted the pain of her life to go away.

  The longer she kept up with her acting, the better she got at pretending to be just fine. Sooner or later, the people in her life started to believe that she was actually getting over the loss of her husband, although Rose couldn’t imagine she would ever actually be able to get over losing him.

  She didn’t want to accept Noah’s job offer at first, but after weeks of interviewing, she had to take it. It wasn’t that she didn’t appreciate his offer, but Rose wanted to have a fresh start. She had been looking forward to working in a firm where no one knew her. But the problem with that was no one wanted her. Taking a job with Noah certainly wasn’t the end of the world. He was a nice person, and she knew the firm well from their conversations together. Rose knew she would be treated with respect and given every opportunity to learn and grow, and in the end, she decided that was worth more than having a fresh start.

  Noah hired Rose without an interview and without running it past Elaine at all. So when Rose showed up that Monday morning, she was supposed to go straight to Noah’s office so he could introduce her to Elaine. The idea that he hadn’t even talked over her hiring with Elaine made Rose nervous and gave her an unsettled feeling. What if Elaine decided she didn’t want Rose to work there? What if Elaine hated Rose and made her life a living hell? Rose couldn’t help letting her anxiety take over as she thought about sitting down and being introduced to Elaine.

  Elaine Wolfe was known all over Washington D.C. as one of the most ruthless lawyers there was. She had a winning record that beat out even more seasoned lawyers who were in their seventies. Rose was scared of her; everyone was scared of her. But Elaine Wolfe had a lot she could teach Rose, and Rose was going to pay attention to everything she could learn. Elaine knew the law and knew how Washington D.C. law worked; she was a good ally to have, and Rose was going to do her best to get on Elaine’s good side.

  Rose put on a black Channel pantsuit with a crisp white blouse under it. She was intent on looking as professional as any of the men in the firm, and she wanted Elaine to take her seriously. Rose knew enough about powerful women to know that she needed to get on Elaine’s good side right away and hoped that her stylish and sophisticated outfit would help to win Elaine over.

  As directed, Rose walked in the front doors, told the secretary who she was and that she needed to go to Noah’s office. The blonde haired, big breasted woman was dressed in a light pink suit with her tits barely holding inside her blouse; certainly not appropriate workplace attire. The woman looked like she was straight out of a movie scene, but Rose did her best not to stare at the woman’s obvious enhancements.

  The busty blonde called Noah, who was down at the main desk within a minute to take Rose to his office. His navy pinstripe suit fit him impeccably, and Rose couldn’t help wondering how Noah wasn’t off the market yet. With a quick glance around the office, she saw that there were plenty of beautiful women there, but then again he probably wasn’t allowed to hit on them since he was the boss.

  “Okay, so I talked to Elaine about you. She’s excited to have you. We will go in and meet with her briefly, and then I’ll introduce you to the other first years. There are three guys so Elaine is excited to have a woman. She would have rather picked you herself, but I told her your story, and she’s eager to meet you.”

  “Aw, man, you told her everything?”

  “Yeah, why? Was it a secret?”

  “No, not from her I guess. But don’t go around telling everyone that you know me or that you knew my husband. I’m trying to have a fresh start here. I just want to be one of the newbies.”

  “Does that mean I can give you all the hard cases that I think I’ll lose?” Noah joked.

  “Yes. I welcome the hard cases.”

  “There’s a good inappropriate joke here, but I’ll keep it to myself.” Noah grinned.

  They stood in front of Elaine’s office for a minute while she finished up a phone call and then waved them in. Elaine was dressed in a stunning plum-colored skirt suit and a dazzling low cut blouse. Rose admired the outfit and thought it was beautiful, but she didn’t think it would have been appropriate for the head of a law firm to wear. Nothing like what Rose thought would have been considered appropriate for a woman to wear in any office; especially when the woman was the boss.

  “Elaine, this is Rosaline Tate, the new hire I was telling you about.”

  “Do you go by Rose?” Elaine asked as she extended her h
and.

  Elaine looked impeccably put together. Every hair on her head was in its perfect place. Her nails were manicured with a vibrant matching color to her suit, and she smelled like expensive perfume. Rose felt outclassed by Elaine almost instantly.

  “Yes, I do. It’s so nice to meet you.”

  Rose flashed her professional smile and made sure to look Elaine right in the eyes. She had to make a good first impression on her. Getting along with her female peers was one of the things Rose had been most nervous about as she took on the new work. She knew she’d get along with the men, that had never been a problem for her, but she and women didn’t always see eye to eye.

  “Well, Noah has told me a lot about you. I’m very sorry to hear about your husband, but it’s good to see that you’ve picked yourself up and are trying to make something of yourself.”

  “Yes, I’m excited to be with you guys and eager to learn from you. You’re a legend in my law school, and I just can’t believe I’m sitting here getting ready to work for you.”

  “You went to Georgetown?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, then at least we know you were well educated,” Elaine said as she shot a glance at Noah. “Noah, would you mind if I talked with Rose in private for a moment?”

  “Sure, just send her across the hall to my office when you’re done, and I’ll take her downstairs to get oriented with the other first years.”

  Rose held her breath at the idea of being left alone in a room with Elaine. She couldn’t tell if she was breathing or not as Noah left the office and Elaine turned back to look at her.

  “Sounds good,” Elaine said with a permanent grin on her face.

  Elaine waited for Noah to leave and the grin quickly left her face. She looked at Rose with an intent stare as she started to talk firmly to her. Rose let out her breath and then quickly held it again. This was her worst nightmare—Elaine didn’t like her, she just knew it.

  “I can’t have any woman in my office looking like a badly dressed man. Please work a little harder on your wardrobe. I pride myself on my appearance, and I expect all my female employees to do the same.”

  “Yes, certainly,” Rose said as she looked down at her dull black suit.

  “Noah has assured me that he’s not sleeping with you, is that correct?”

  Rose’s eyes got big as she looked up from her suit to meet Elaine’s gaze. She hadn’t expected to be asked such a personal question, and it threw her off for a moment as she tried to figure out the most diplomatic way to answer her.

  “Um, yes. We are just friends. He knew my husband.”

  “Okay, then let’s be clear that there is to be nothing going on between the two of you. I don’t care if you suddenly decide he’s the man of your dreams—you are a first-year law lawyer, and he’s a partner. I won’t stand for it. You need to stay away from him.”

  Rose swallowed hard as the intense gaze of Elaine drilled into her. She wasn’t planning on having a sordid love affair with Noah, but if she had been, that look from Elaine would have squashed those thoughts right away. Elaine scared Rose, more than any woman she had ever met. It was clear that Elaine ran that firm, and Rose did her best to keep a smile on her face and not look totally thrown by the way she was being talked to.

  “Yes, very clear. I appreciate the opportunity and won’t let you down.”

  “You can go see Noah now,” Elaine said as she stood up and shook Rose’s hand.

  Rose shook hands and made sure to keep her smile on her face as she left Elaine’s office and walked straight over to Noah’s office. The smile quickly faded from her face as she slipped into Noah’s office and shut the door behind her. She also started to breathe normally again.

  “That woman hates me,” Rose said as she opened her eyes and dramatically rolled them.

  “She’s tough. She’ll push you hard, but she doesn’t hate you.”

  “Man, this is going to be much harder than I thought.”

  “You thought it was going to be hard working with me?” Noah asked as he flashed a boyish smile.

  “Don’t you start with me. Elaine made it extremely clear that I was to stay away from you, and I absolutely couldn’t seduce you.”

  “She said that?”

  “Pretty much.” Rose laughed. “Now take me to those hot young first-year lawyers so I can have my way with them.”

  Noah just laughed as he led Rose down the hall and to the elevator. He made a point to stand at least two feet away from her and didn’t look at her at all while they waited for the elevator to come. Rose could tell he was being deliberate in his actions, and she couldn’t help smiling. It was going to be much harder on Noah, having her work with him, than it was going to be on Rose.

  “So let me tell you a little about these guys. One is from Washington State, he’s the tall one. The red headed guy is from Florida, and the blond loser-looking guy is actually Elaine’s nephew so be nice to him. He’s not going to last long; I can’t even believe he made it through law school. But I think because I didn’t fight her hiring him is why she didn’t fight me hiring you.”

  “Great, sounds like a real fun group of guys.”

  Noah paused for a moment before opening the door to the small conference room where the other first years were stuck reading through required training manuals that Noah had left for them the previous week. As he opened the door, Rose’s eyes instantly locked onto the blond-haired guy sitting at the far end of the conference room.

  Oh shit!

  “Well, this day just got much better,” Bronx said from the other side of the room.

  Noah instantly shot Bronx a look that told him to be appropriate, but as he looked at Rose’s face, it was clear that Bronx and Rose knew each other. Noah just shook his head at Rose. He knew she had a thing for the younger guys, but Bronx didn’t really seem like her type.

  “What?” she asked as she shrugged her shoulders innocently.

  “Bronx Wolfe,” Noah said as he started to point at the men and introduce them, “but it appears you two know each other already. Stewart Moore over there is from Washington, and Shamus Andrews is from Florida.”

  “It’s nice to meet you all,” Rose said nicely as she walked toward the guys and shook their hands.

  When she reached Bronx, he held onto her hand an extra long time. He was relishing the fact that he had won their little battle of the wits. Rose wasn’t going to be able to ditch him now.

  “It’s very nice to meet you Rose,” Bronx said with a thick layer of charm.

  “Oh, God,” Noah whispered under his breath. “This is going to get interesting.”

  Chapter 5

  “I need you to research this new client. He’s from Los Angeles; I heard he did a pretty sketchy dating thing with like seven women at his house. I don’t want to take him on as a client if he’s doing things we can’t protect him from. His name is Drake LeBlanc. Technically, we have agreed to represent him, but I need more information before we start taking on too many of his cases. ”

  “Noah, I still have like eight policy and procedure manuals to read, but if you want me to work on the research, I’d be happy to. Only for you, though,” Rose said with a wink.

  It had been a week since she started at Wolfe and Conley; Rose was itching to do something besides reading the damn manuals. She just didn’t want Noah to know she wanted to do something else. Working with Noah was like working with your best friend’s brother. She knew there wouldn’t be a love affair between the two of them, but Rose couldn’t help herself from flirting with him every now and then.

  Noah knew her better than almost anyone else in her life, besides her family, of course. So it was comfortable to be around Noah, although working at Wolfe and Conley wasn’t exactly a dream come true for Rose. It seemed like a lot of work and not too much excitement from what she had experienced over the first days.

  It wasn’t fun for Rose to interact with everyone in the office. She dreaded day to day chatter and just wanted t
o be left alone so she could do her work. Life as a student had been a little easier because people left her alone to study. At the office, everyone wanted to get to know Rose or talk to her, and she didn’t have time for that nonsense. In Rose’s mind, she was there to work and show Noah and Elaine that she deserved to be moved up the ladder as quickly as possible.

  In law school, one of her favorite parts of everything was when she got to do mock hearings. There was nothing as exciting as getting in front of a courtroom and winning a case. Rose knew that she wasn’t going to be one of those lawyers that tried to mediate everything—she was going to be a trial lawyer; it was the only reason she continued on with law school.

  Overall, law school had been meant to appease everyone else around her who thought she was being sad for too long after her husband’s death. They didn’t really care if she was feeling better or not. They only cared that she didn’t appear sad all the time.

  Rose had become very good at pretending that she was alright. It had become so familiar to her that it was like second nature. As her first week of work wound down, Rose mentally prepared herself for the weekend with her friends and the show she would have to put on for them. They were going to a club and dancing the upcoming weekend, no zip lining, thank God. As much fun as the zip lining had been, Rose didn’t think she could take it again. She was exhausted from her week at work and really just wanted to spend the weekend at home. She had negotiated with the girls to just go out for drinks and dancing later on Saturday so she could sleep in.

  “I’d like you to get both the research done and the reading. I know, I know, I’m asking a lot of you. It’s like you’re getting paid to work here or something strange like that.”

  Noah looked at her with a boyish grin that although she was used to it, she still felt herself melt a little when he did it. Noah reminded her so much of Derek. He was all the good things she remembered about Derek. His humor, silliness, willingness to have fun, and laid back attitude. Rose really did enjoy getting to see Noah and was looking forward to working with him.