Legally Yours

by Manda Collins

  She started to laugh, and could hear the strident tone in her voice, but could do nothing to stop herself.

  “Don’t say that!” Matt grabbed her by the arms. “Don’t talk about us that way. You make it sound tawdry. Like I was sleeping with you to get information. And you know that’s not true.”

  “Isn’t it? I thought that’s what you and old Mitchell were just talking about. I can just imagine what you guys said before I got here. Did he give you an ‘atta boy? Did you tell him how you offered to let me practice on you? God, I must be the only woman on earth to fall for that one. You must have called him up that first night and told him you’d hit the jackpot.”

  When she wrenched back to remove herself from his grip, Matt threw up his hands and let her go.

  “I can’t believe you’re saying all this. Are you really that pissed off at me because of this afternoon?”

  “This has nothing to do with this afternoon.”

  “Doesn’t it?” he countered, pacing back and forth in the narrow hallway like a caged tiger. “I knew you were going to be tough to convince that we could turn this thing between us into something real. But I thought if I was patient, and if I didn’t press you too hard, you might be persuaded to try a long distance relationship.”

  “Oh right. Like I’m going to fall for that,” she snorted. “You don’t respect me. If you respected me, you wouldn’t have made me feel like shit this afternoon for not finishing law school.”

  “I wasn’t trying to make you feel bad for not finishing school. I was trying to make you see that you could do it now. That you’re just too afraid to take the leap and do it.”

  “I am not afraid. I am being practical. Law school costs money. And some of us don’t have family money to pay our way everywhere.”

  “Ah, now we’re getting somewhere. This isn’t about you being pissed that I kept my real purpose for being here a secret. You’re pissed because of some oversized chip on your shoulder about being a paralegal who grew up poor. Well, I’m sorry. Do you want me to go back in time and give up my family? Cause I can’t do that! And I can’t do anything to take back the fact that your parents died leaving you with so much responsibility. My god, Julie! Do you think I don’t appreciate how hard it must have been for you to give up your whole life to take care of your sister? Do you think I don’t admire the hell out of you for what you did? You’re the strongest fucking person I’ve ever met.”

  “But I’m not!” she almost yelled. “I’m not strong at all. I did what I did because I had no choice. And this isn’t about me. It’s about you and your choice. You didn’t have to sleep with me to get information. You didn’t have to use your looks and your prowess to convince me to tell you about the firm. I would have told you without all of that. But no, Matt Ellis has to be the stud. Hell, you probably thought you were killing two birds with one stone. Get the information about who was leaking secrets to Albright and at the same time do your good deed for the year by pity-fucking poor little Julie Streeter.”

  “For the last time, that’s not what it was like. At all.”

  “No, then how was it, stud? Why don’t you tell me.” Her voice broke. The first burst of her rage replaced now by a deadness that she felt spreading through her body. Like a virus that numbed her to everything but her profound disappointment in the man standing before her.

  Finally given the opportunity to have his say, Matt ran his hands through his hair, as if struggling to come up with the perfect line. Typical manipulative asshole, Julie thought.

  “Look, I know what this looks like. I know what my conversation with Mitchell sounded like. But it’s not what it seems. I came down here, yes, to see who was leaking information about our cases to the Albright firm. I admit that. And yes, I suspected at first that it was one of the paralegals. Maybe even you. But, Julie, I hadn’t talked to you above five minutes before I realized that it wasn’t in you to sabotage a client like that.”

  “How so?”

  “Do you remember that first time Clay introduced us? What an asshole he was and how he was so careful to let me know that you weren’t a lawyer? Well, you would have been well within your rights to tell him to get his own damn coffee. But you aren’t like that. You aren’t vindictive. And you aren’t underhanded. If you’re pissed at someone, you either tell them or you let it go. And that time you let it go. You brought us our coffee like he hadn’t said anything. And you were pissed. I could tell. But you handled the whole thing with grace. With calm.

  “I can read people. You’ll say that’s so I can manipulate them. But really it’s just because I learned how to do it when I was a kid. When I didn’t know what kind of mood my mom would be in when I got home from school. You pick up tiny details. If she’d cleaned up the kitchen then it would be an okay day. If she hadn’t then it was likely she’d spend the afternoon with the bottle. You learn pretty fast. You would no more betray this law firm than you would betray your sister. It’s just not in you.”

  She thought about what he’d just said. “Then why did you sleep with me, if not to ply me with questions in the heat of passion?”

  “Are you really that naive? Are you really so unaware of your attractiveness that you would think the only way a man would go to bed with you is if he wants to wheedle corporate secrets from you?”

  “God, you make it sound like a spy novel.”

  “No, you make it sound like a spy novel. Jesus Christ, woman, when you walk into the room my dick wakes up like a divvying rod in search of water. I’ve spent so much time with my jacket over my lap in the past two weeks that half the office probably thinks I wet myself every time I go to the john.”

  “That’s just biology,” Julie scoffed. “It has nothing to do with the brain. Or the heart.”

  “Then why does it only happen to me when I’m around you?” he demanded, stepping closer. “Why are you the only woman who’s ever been able to get under my skin like this?”

  ***

  Matt couldn’t believe this was happening. He’d fucked up. Big time. Not only had his failure to let Julie know about the leak earlier made her doubt his sincerity, but he’d managed to ruin the one good thing to come out of this whole stupid business—their relationship.

  “I did not seduce you to get information from you,” he continued, reaching out to touch her cheek. “I seduced you because I’ve wanted you from the first moment we met all those years ago in law school. I seduced you because you’re smart and funny and sexy as hell. I seduced you because I had no choice in the matter. It’s not biology that makes me hard every time I see you, Julie.”

  “I don’t have to listen to this,” she snapped, turning away from him and stalking to the elevator.

  He raced after her, but was stopped when Clay stepped out of his office.

  “What’s going on out here?” the other man demanded. “I heard shouting. Was that Julie?”

  Matt wasn’t Clay’s biggest fan on the best of days. Now? He wanted to punch him in the face.

  “Mind your own damn business, Clay,” he snapped, trying to get around him.

  “Anything that happens in this office is my business, Ellis.” The shorter man pulled himself up to his full height. “Especially anything that has to do with Julie Streeter.”

  “What, so in addition to ordering her around in the office, you’re going to oversee her personal life too?” Matt stifled a laugh. “I think you’ve mistaken your job here, Parchman. You’re her boss, not her slave master.”

  “What the hell do you know about it?” Parchman’s face was turning red. He obviously was not quite as adept at taking flak as he was at dishing it out. “You think you can come down here from corporate and tell us how to treat our staff? Sorry, pal. We’re local counsel on the case, not a subsidiary division of RFG. “

  “No,” Matt agreed. “But I do get to tell you when you’re fucking up a case. And boy howdy are you doing a stellar job of it on all the Albright cases.”

  “What the hell are you talki
ng about?”

  “I’m talking about the fact that someone from this firm has been feeding Albright privileged information from RFG’s internal documents. Documents that could very well see to it that RFG ends up paying out millions to every Albright client in the Southeast. And that could be used in other cases to nail RFG to the wall. “

  The look on Parchman’s face told Matt clearly that whoever the leaker was, it wasn’t him. Damn it. He would have enjoyed bringing Parchman up on ethics violations.

  “So that’s why you’ve been here?” Clay shook his head, dumfounded. “We thought you were here to monitor our billable hours. Jesus.”

  “Nope.” Matt said. “We’ve known about the leaks for a few months. I thought maybe if I came down here and was able to watch you guys in action I’d be able to get a feel for your team. And see who was the most likely suspect.”

  “I could have told you that,” Clay said with a frown. “Chip Gordon’s secretary, Judy, is dating one of the partners at Albright. She’s probably your leak.”

  Damn it! Matt bit back a groan of disgust. He’s gone about this whole business totally wrong. His self-loathing was interrupted by the other man, however.

  “So that’s why you’ve been sniffing around Streeter?” Clay snorted with disbelief. “Man, you’re stronger than I am. I wouldn’t touch that bi…”

  Matt snapped.

  His fist met Clay’s nose with a satisfying crunch of breaking cartilage.

  “If I ever hear any disrespect from you about her again, I will annihilate you,” he growled, standing over Clay, who had been taken by surprise, and fallen backwards squarely on his substantial ass. “In fact. Why don’t you stop talking about her all together. It will be better for your health.”

  “Jesus Christ,” Parchman said, trying to stem the tide of blood flowing from his nose with an ineffectual hand. “You’re a lunatic. I’m going to call security and have you thrown out of the building.”

  “No you aren’t, Clay,” said David from behind him. “You’re an asshole. And you treat all of the staff like shit. You’ve had that one coming for a long time.”

  He turned to Matt. “Thanks for sticking up for Streeter. She needs someone to watch her back.”

  Goddamn it. Julie. Matt had planned to go after her when she stormed off, but he’d been diverted by Clay. Maybe if he ran he could catch up to her.

  “She’s already gone, man,” David said, hauling Clay to his feet. “But it’s Friday so she’s probably headed home. I’ll take care of Parchman.”

  With a nod of thanks, Matt grabbed his coat and his keys, and raced down nine flights of stairs to the parking garage. He had to catch her and make her believe him. He persuaded people for a living, but he had no idea if he had what it took to make Julie see reason. In her place, he’d be pissed off too. She was so tough, so strong. It was one of the things he li—

  He stopped in the middle of the stairs.

  The things he ‘loved’ about her? What the hell? When had he fallen in love with her? Damn it, he wasn’t supposed to fall in love. It was supposed to be a two week fling. He was probably just upset because she thought he was an asshole like Clay. Nobody would want to be compared to that guy.

  But a quick gutcheck told him he was kidding himself. He was so freaking in love with her he was swimming in it. If he were a different sort of guy he’d be dancing in the streets and telling total strangers about her.

  Christ. He dropped down onto the top step and held his head in his hands.

  He was in love. With a woman who thought he was pond scum now. Nice move, Ellis. Alienate the one woman in the world you give a shit about. Great job.

  But, he reasoned, she wouldn’t have been so mad if she felt nothing for him. Would she?

  Thinking back to the look on her face, the hurt in her eyes, he felt a stirring of hope. Her anger was less about him betraying the firm, than about his betrayal of her. And a woman with no feelings wouldn’t give a damn about being lied to. She’d expect it. Or blow it off.

  Nope, he was pretty sure that she loved him too. He shook his head. When had his life become so damned complicated?

  He knew the exact moment.

  When he’d picked up that list from the printer.

  Thank god for the list. Without it he would never have made his move.

  Standing up, he started down the stairs again. If he were going to change her mind about him, he’d need some time to get things settled with RFG and the leak. And some help, because he had a feeling after this afternoon’s fiasco her apartment door would be shut to him for the duration.

  Punching a number into his phone, he started talking as he took the stairs two at a time.

  “Hello, Cissy? I need you to find a phone number for me…”

  Chapter Nine

  One Month Later

  “Do I have to go?” Julie stood staring at the clothes hanging neatly in her closet. She was no more interested in fashion than she’d ever been, but she was woman enough to want to look presentable for her first date since the whole Matt debacle.

  “Of course you have to go,” Lily said from her perch on the bed. She was home for Christmas break, and Julie was thankful for the distraction.

  In the weeks following her blow out with Matt, lots of things had changed at the office. Chip Gordon’s secretary, Judy, who had been the one leaking details to the Albright firm, had been let go, and Julie had been reassigned to work with David. She wasn’t quite sure whether they’d done that as a reward, since David was the easiest attorney in the firm to work for, or if it was a demotion, since Clay, with his oversized ego, took finesse and patience and therefore a more mature and skilled person to serve as his assistant. Either way, she was grateful not to have to deal with Clay on a daily basis anymore. Though she would have been happier if he’d turned out to be the source of the leaks.

  After giving his full report to Mr. Mitchell, Matt had flown out for D.C. the very night of their argument. She supposed she should be grateful, since that meant there would be no awkward moments between them at the office. That didn’t mean there was no awkwardness, however. Since word had spread through the firm of their argument faster than Poison Ivy on a boy scout’s arms, she was met with sympathy from the women and speculative glances from the men. Nothing overt, but clearly the knowledge that she’d been sleeping with visiting corporate counsel had changed the way her colleagues perceived her. Which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. At least they no longer called her the Ice Queen behind her back.

  To her relief, she’d learned that what had sealed Judy’s fate hadn’t been anything she’d told Matt—according to Cissy, who had listened in on Mr. Mitchell’s conversation with Matt, it had been a tip from Clay of all people. Which Clay made a point of telling everyone all the time, painting himself as the hero of the story. So, it seemed that Matt had been telling the truth when he said that he hadn’t been using her to get information about the leaker from her.

  And just yesterday, David had mentioned in passing that Matt had left his position at RFG. So, there was no longer any chance that she’d run into him in a professional capacity. She wondered briefly if he’d taken another job as a corporate lawyer or if he’d finally decided to go into private practice like he’d confided to her he wanted on their first night together. Of course, it didn’t matter one way or the other since there was no chance they’d run into one another again. D.C. was too far from Birmingham for that.

  She wasn’t sure if she felt relief or sadness.

  Her thirtieth birthday had come and gone. And there were things on her list that she hadn’t been able to get to. But since she couldn’t think about the list without thinking of Matt, she’d tried to ignore them both.

  “Come on, Julie,” Lily walked over and scanned her sister’s closet. “It’s one date. You don’t even have to see the guy again if you aren’t interested.”

  When Lily had asked if she’d be willing to go out with her high school friend’s older brother, her f
irst response had been a resounding no. Not only was she still getting over her break-up with Matt, but she’d just signed up to take the LSAT again in preparation for attending law school next fall. So even on the off chance she wanted to see this guy again, she’d have no time for dating. Casual or otherwise.

  “I don’t have anything cute to wear,” Julie said, knowing she sounded like a whiner but not caring.

  But Lily would have none of it. “Hang on a sec, I think I have something that might fit you.”

  And, as it turned out, she did. Two hours later, dressed in her little sister’s form fitting deep red dress and fuck me slingbacks, she was perched on a high barstool sipping a Cosmopolitan. She felt like an actress at a Sex and the City casting call. But at least she felt sexy, which hadn’t happened since Matt left town.

  Glancing at her watch, she wondered what the rule was for late dates. In school they’d talked about the fifteen minute rule, where you were allowed to wait fifteen minutes before you were allowed to walk out on a late professor. Her date was already nearing the ten minute mark, so she’d give him a few more minute but that was all. Still, he’d just moved to Birmingham, so maybe he’d gotten lost.

  She was checking her phone to see if maybe he’d texted her, when she felt someone staring at her.

  Raising her eyes, she felt the breath stop in her chest, as if a switch had been flipped.

  Matt.

  “What are you doing here?” she demanded, before he could say anything.

  God he looked good. His hair was a bit longer, as if he hadn’t bothered to get it cut in a while. She was surprised to see it was curly when it wasn’t cut quite so short. He was wearing a white button down shirt, and khakis. No tie. No jacket. It was more casual than she’d ever seen him. Well, that wasn’t quite true. She felt her tummy flip at the memory of just how gorgeous he was without any clothes on at all.

  “I live here now,” he said with a crooked grin. The little lines around his eyes that appeared when he smiled seemed a bit deeper now. As if he’d been smiling a lot of late.