To All a Good Night

by Donna Kauffman, Jill Shalvis

  “You had a lot left,” he finally said.

  “Yeah. I did.” Crap. Maggie turned to Alice. “You know how illegal this is, right?”

  “Yes, because waving a gun in your face isn’t illegal at all.” Alice jammed the vial into her pocket and pulled out a fistful of cuff ties from her other. “Look, I’m sorry, all right?” She cuffed Scott to his filing cabinet and Tim to the desk. Then she came up to Maggie and Jacob, and after a hesitation, hooked them together. “For you,” she whispered to Maggie. “Because he looks to be a keeper, someone you’d never need this lotion for.”

  Jacob didn’t say a word but there was a muscle ticking in his jaw.

  “Don’t do this, Alice,” Maggie begged her. “It’s not too late to—” She broke off when Jacob jerked his arm—and therefore hers as well—hitting the button on Tim’s desk that activated the magnetic couch.

  The couch shot straight up from the floor, coming to a hover about two feet above the carpet, causing a handful of objects to instantaneously fly through the air as if hurled by a sling-shot—like Scott’s phone, which nearly hit Tim, and…the gun, which was yanked right out of Alice’s hands.

  It slapped hard to the couch and stuck there.

  “Dammit!” Alice yelled as Tim used his leg to trip her to the floor. Still attached to the filing cabinet, he slid down and sat on her.

  “Hey!” she yelled, struggling. “I’ll sue you for sexual harassment!”

  “I’m gay,” Tim informed her dryly. “I’m more likely to sexually harass Maggie’s hottie than you, trust me.”

  Maggie stared at her “hottie”—the one who loved her—her free hand clutching her heart, because it had only just now started beating again. “Did you did mean it?”

  Jacob’s eyes softened, and some of the tenseness left his body as he lifted his free hand and cupped her face. “Yes, I meant it.”

  “Oh, God. I love you, too.” Her throat was so tight she could hardly speak. “For so many reasons. You say what you think and you do what you say, and you’ve got more logic and common sense in your pinkie than my last five dates combined.”

  “Hey,” Scott said, insulted.

  Maggie ignored him. “I think you’re the smartest, funniest, sharpest, smartest man I’ve ever met.”

  “I could have said what I thought and what I feel,” Scott muttered to Tim. “I could be solid and loyal.”

  Jacob pulled Maggie close. On Scott’s desk, her heart monitor was still going nuts. With her free hand, she pulled the vial Tim had given her out of her pocket and smashed it to the floor. “That was the last of it,” she told her soon to be ex-bosses. “I realize you can make more, but if you do, know this—I’ll turn Data Tech over to the FDA, the DFA, the CIA, and the DEA, and whoever else will listen to me.”

  “You’re bluffing,” Tim said. “Your work is your life. And without us, you won’t get funding.”

  “I’ll wait for the right funding, I’ll find it eventually.”

  “It could take years.”

  “Maybe.” She looked at Jacob. “But I’ll wait. My life is no longer just my work.”

  His eyes were full of affection and heat, lots of heat. “I like the way you think,” he said, as pounding footsteps came down the hallway just outside the door.

  Knowing it had to be the police, Maggie linked her fingers with Jacob’s. “This is going to get messy, and might take some time to sort out. After which, I’m going to be unemployed.” She winced. “Merry Christmas to me.”

  “I love messy. And I love you. As for the unemployed at Christmas, don’t worry, I have an in with Santa. Have you been naughty or nice?”

  “Nice.”

  “Well, we’ll have to work on that,” he murmured, just as the police burst through the door.

  It took several hours to sort everything out, but eventually, Alice ended up in jail, Tim and Scott lawyered up, and Maggie and Jacob were free to go. Maggie walked out of the room where she’d been questioned and found Jacob waiting for her.

  He looked into her face and slowly held up a little bough of mistletoe over his head.

  She couldn’t help but smile when she looked at him. “What’s that?”

  “A hint of what I want from you.”

  “And after the kiss?”

  “More.”

  “More?”

  “I want it all, Maggie. And I’m hoping you do, too.”

  “Yes.” And she walked right into his waiting arms.

  CAN YOU HAND ME THE TAPE?

  1

  "I need to talk to you.

  “Asking anyone for help made Natalie Pritchard uncomfortable. Asking this guy for anything made her downright twitchy.

  Spencer Donovan stopped in the middle of shrugging out of his overcoat. “What are you doing here?”

  She would have been offended by his tone except she’d asked herself the same question about forty times on her walk from the courthouse to Spence’s office. Her current sorry situation kept her distracted and off balance, which explained why she stood in the middle of the room with melting snow dripping down her chin and not a clue about how to begin her story.

  “I followed you,” she said, just jumping in instead of over-thinking the situation.

  “From the garage downstairs?”

  “From the courthouse.” Over several blocks, through security in the lobby, up fourteen floors, past his assistant, Sue, and into the private office suite. She now knew Spence was not an easy man to stalk.

  “That’s almost two miles,” he said.

  He acted as if the feat were impossible. And, since it had felt more like ten miles, all of them straight uphill with ice blocks for feet, she could understand his confusion.

  “A bit more than two actually.”

  “That explains the shoes.”

  She glanced down at the hiking boots. They made her feet look like she wore a size fifteen or whatever size giants wore. “They don’t match the outfit but they kept me from falling down on the way over here.”

  “It’s snowing.”

  His comment was not exactly news. “Mixed with freezing rain. Yeah.”

  She’d lost feeling in her face ten minutes earlier. The freezing temperatures in Washington, D.C. wiped out all of her nerve endings and left behind only a wet, shivering mess. At that moment strands of her hair stuck to her face. She counted the lack of a mirror in the room as a small mercy.

  “Did Charlie send you in to talk to me?” Spence’s dark brown eyes glanced past her and out into the empty hallway of the flashy office behind her.

  Charlie Adams. The very big, very nasty, and very annoying reason she now stood in a puddle in front of Spence’s desk.

  “Why would you think that?”

  “Charlie’s tried everything else to piss me off during the last two weeks. It was only a matter of time until he used you.” Spence sat in his oversize black leather chair.

  His words sunk into her brain. “No one uses me…and why would my coming here tick you off?”

  “Yeah, I wonder.”

  She ignored the slam. “Are you and Charlie fighting?”

  “That’s an interesting way to put it.”

  Lawyers and their control issues. “Fine. How do you think I should say it?”

  Spence leaned back as he let out a long exhale. “We’re dissolving our law partnership. Charlie wants the office space and most of our clients. I want him to have neither of those.”

  “Sounds like a fight to me.”

  Spence motioned for her to take a seat after she closed the door. “It’s fair to say we passed from a simple fight to a probable court case weeks ago.”

  “Ohhh.”

  More like ugh. She needed Spence to reason with Charlie. Hard for that to happen if the knuckleheads were busy trying to destroy each other.

  “Are you going to sit?” he asked.

  “I think I’d better.”

  “It sounds as if Charlie forgot to share all the dirty little details of our part
nership implosion with you.”

  Sharing was not something Charlie did. Not with her. Not ever. “Meaning?”

  “You two are going out,” Spence said as he brushed the last remnants of melted snow from his dark brown hair.

  Were. They were well into the past tense stage, and she could not be happier.

  “As such, I assume you talk.” Spence stopped fidgeting long enough to show an interest in the conversation. “Right?”

  Absolutely wrong on both theories. No dating. No talking. “That’s why I’m here.”

  “Need love life advice?” Spence chuckled but his smile faded when she failed to join in the fun. “Look, Charlie served me with a list of demands this morning. As you can imagine, having his girlfriend show up the same afternoon makes me skeptical.”

  “I thought law school did that to you.”

  “So we’re back to that.”

  “What?”

  “Name-calling.”

  Yeah, telling him he was lower than a bloodsucking parasite one day and then asking for his help the next probably did not qualify as her best strategy. “I was angry with the way you handled your client in court.”

  “You hid that well,” he said with enough sarcasm to freeze the remaining warmth right out of her.

  “Can we get back to the topic at hand?” she asked, even though she dreaded the conversation.

  “Which is?”

  “You.”

  “Okay, I’ll play along.” He took a shiny black pen out of the chest pocket of his blazer and tapped it against his desk blotter. “What about me?”

  “I need your assistance.”

  A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “I bet it kills you to say that.”

  “Pretty much.”

  “Since you admitted it, I’ll be civil.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Is this help about anything in particular or just in general?”

  “A problem.”

  “Some specifics would help right about now.” He grabbed his yellow legal pad.

  “That’s the hard part.”

  “Nat, I understand things happen,” he said as he switched to serious lawyer mode. “It’s easier to just say whatever it is so we can figure out how to resolve the issue or get rid of it.”

  He made it sound so simple. No wonder businessmen paid big bucks for Spence’s representation and petty thieves begged for him to be assigned to their case as free counsel.

  “You know that whatever we discuss in here stays in here. I guarantee confidentiality. Nothing will seep over into our professional relationship,” he said.

  “I figured as much.”

  “Let’s try it this way. Are you in trouble?” He flipped his pen between his fingers.

  “Sort of.”

  “The legal kind?”

  “The personal kind.”

  The color seeped from his face. Nothing made a man squirm faster than a woman with a problem. Unless it was a “female” problem, then they just panicked. Nat was tempted to suggest she had one of those just to see how many colors Spence’s cheeks would turn before he passed out.

  “Am I the one you should be talking to about this? I’m an attorney, not a counselor or specialist.” He did not loosen his shirt collar but from his hard swallow she guessed he wanted to.

  “You’re the only one who can help.”

  “What about talking to Charlie about this?”

  “I’m here because of him.”

  “Yeah, I’m definitely not the right person for this.” Spence grabbed his Rolodex. “Let me find you someone who—”

  She slid her hand onto the desk, just inches from his. “It has to be you.”

  “Nat, this is a bad idea.”

  “Please.”

  Spence stopped hunting for a number and started whipping his pen between his fingers with enough speed to create electricity. “Charlie’s your boyfriend.”

  “Not anymore.”

  Spence flicked the pen so hard it flew across the room and bounced against the law school diploma mounted on the wall.

  “I can get it,” she said.

  “Leave it.” Spence closed his eyes for a second. When he opened them again, the color had changed from chocolate brown to near black. “When exactly did this big breakup happen?”

  Not soon enough to save her from trouble. “It doesn’t matter.”

  “I bet it does to Charlie.”

  “We ended our relationship for good two weeks ago.”

  Right after that she relegated Charlie to the huge mistake pile of men in her past. Something she should have done months before.

  “We?” Spence asked.

  “Me.”

  Spence nodded. “That explains why Charlie’s even less agreeable than usual.”

  She could not afford to let Spence seek out reasons not to help. “Don’t blame me for whatever mess you’re in with Charlie.”

  “I didn’t.”

  “You were going to.”

  “That’s not…” Spence flashed a small grin. “Okay, maybe I was, but your timing is suspect.”

  “I’m still not taking the blame.”

  “You dumped Charlie about the same time he started making impossible demands in our firm’s dissolution, wanting more money and generally being a pain in the ass.”

  As far as she was concerned, Charlie acted like an ass most of the time. “Which one of you wanted the breakup?”

  Spence frowned. “Of the partnership?”

  “What else would I be talking about?”

  “You made it sound like dating.”

  “Seems as if ending a business arrangement with Charlie is just as painful.”

  The harsh lines around Spence’s mouth softened. “Look, I know Charlie can be tough. Mean, even. Are you okay?”

  More like very not okay. “I will be.”

  Spence blew out a long, ragged breath. “Tell me what you need and what I can do to help.”

  “Charlie has something of mine.”

  Spence tapped his fingers against the legal pad. “That’s easy enough to resolve. Is it jewelry?”

  “No.”

  “Dishes?”

  She wished. “Nuh-uh.”

  “Electronics? A car?”

  “No and no.”

  “Give me a hint.”

  Here came the hard part. The embarrassing, she-should-know-better part. “It’s personal.”

  “Like clothing?”

  The exact opposite, actually. “A tape.”

  Spence stopped tapping. “Video or audio?”

  “Video.”

  “Why do I think you’re talking about something other than a movie?” Spence’s mouth moved but every other part of him remained frozen.

  “As far from it as possible.”

  “Just how far?”

  “It’s a video.”

  “I got that part.”

  “Of me.”

  His skin grew even paler. “And?”

  “I’m naked.”

  2

  S pence forced his gaze to remain locked on Nat’s face. No way he could let his eyes wander after that comment. One sweep down her body and she would kill him. No doubt about it.

  But, man, it was tempting.

  “You mean you…that you…” He was not sure how to finish the sentence, so he let it hang out there all by itself.

  “Me. Naked.”

  “On video.”

  “That’s what I said. Yes.” She picked that moment to stand up and take off her coat. The disrobing revealed a slim red turtleneck and black short skirt on a curvy body Spence had never noticed until that moment.

  How the hell was a guy not supposed to sneak a peek now?

  From her scowl, he knew she had picked up on his weak attempts at not looking. She returned the favor with one of those disapproving frowns he saw from her so often.

  Good thing that big desk sat between them and hid most of his view of her lower half now that she sat back down. Made gawking a bi
t tougher. Which likely extended his life by a few more minutes.

  “Did you want to say something?” she asked.

  “Uh, no.”

  “To ask me something?”

  About a thousand things, most of them centered on the naked part of her story, but he was smart enough to refrain from venturing there. “I figured there was more to your video story. That you weren’t done talking yet.”

  “I don’t think you need all of the details.”

  “One or two might help.”

  “You get the main idea from what I’ve said.”

  Oh, he had all sorts of ideas. The woman who fought him to the death at work and played the quiet girlfriend to his soon-to-be former business partner in private always confounded him. Now she took on a new dimension. A naked one.

  Spence rarely thought of probation officers as sexy or seductive. Probably had something to do with most of them being male, but his mind never went there with Nat either. Or, it never did before right then. Now that was the only place his mind would go.

  They met in the courtroom all the time when one of his clients got probation as part of a sentence or when the Parole and Probation Office had to provide a report before sentencing and she came as the representative. But all of that was professional. This tape thing brought a whole new meaning to that old adage of picturing your audience naked.

  Spence wondered how, for the next moment or two, he was going to do anything else with Nat in the room. He cleared his throat and tried to wipe his mind clear of all disrespectful thoughts.

  “Okay, this is not a big deal. We’re adults.”

  “I thought so until two minutes ago. I’m not so sure now,” she mumbled.

  “No, really. You made a sex video. So what?” Her naked on tape amounted to a big “what” in his book, but he shrugged and pretended otherwise.

  “What did you just say?”

  Damn, she wanted him to repeat it. “You made a sex—”

  This time she jumped out of the chair. “I meant, what are you talking about?”

  “The tape.”

  “It’s not a sex tape.”

  Thank God. “It’s not?”

  “Of course not.” Energy pulsed off her but she managed to sit back down anyway.