My Guilty Pleasure

by Denton, Jamie

  And she’d do well to remember that.

  “I would’ve called you,” he said with that sexy grin still in place, “but until this morning, I didn’t even know your last name.”

  She fought hard not to smile at his admission, then berated herself for getting all soft and mushy inside just because he said he’d wanted to call her. Sheesh! What were they? In junior high? Yet she couldn’t help wondering, if he’d known she was a Winfield, would he still have called her? Would he be intimidated by her family’s wealth? Why did she care?

  She desperately needed a distraction before she did something stupid—like get all wound up fantasizing about the really hot phone sex they could’ve had. “What did you do with Shelby Martin?”

  Sebastian frowned. “Who?”

  “Shelby Martin. The lawyer whose office you stole.”

  He chuckled. “I didn’t steal anyone’s office. Shelby’s been relocated.”

  It was her turn to frown. “Relocated where?”

  “She’ll be dividing her time between litigation and bad faith.”

  That was a surprise to Joey. She had no idea Shelby was interested in bad-faith actions. Personally she didn’t care much for that area of law. In her opinion, it was the bad-faith division’s job to help insurance companies screw over their policy holders by denying claims.

  “Why isn’t your office up here in the Penthouse? You do realize it’s generally unheard of for a partner in this firm to actually work in the trenches.”

  “I’m more of a hands-on kind of guy,” he said.

  Was it her imagination or did his gaze actually darken? She couldn’t be sure, but her pulse revved just the same.

  She cleared her throat. “Shall we get started?” she suggested again.

  He nodded and glanced at the list her secretary had provided him. “Tell me about Renaldo v. Cantoni Motor Sports.”

  “A products liability action,” she said, grateful for the distraction. “Herman Renaldo purchased a Jet Ski from our client, Cantoni Motor Sports. He alleges negligence in that our client knew or should have known that the Jet Ski was defective due to a manufacturer’s recall. We’ve filed a cross-complaint against the manufacturer, who in my opinion, is liable.”

  Sebastian jotted notes on a legal pad. “Has a trial date been set?”

  “No,” Joey told him. “We’re still in the early discovery stages. However, there is a mandatory settlement conference scheduled for late next month. I’m considering filing a motion for summary judgment since I don’t believe our client has any liability in this action.”

  “Have you retained expert witnesses yet?”

  “No,” she said with a brief shake of her head. “I didn’t feel there was a need. While the Jet Ski was defective, the nationwide recall wasn’t issued until the day after the plaintiff’s purchase. Therefore, our client had no knowledge of the recall at the time of the sale so there’s no negligence on Cantoni’s part.”

  “Okay, good,” he said. “Go forward with the MSJ. Be sure to let Laura know when the hearing is scheduled so she can put it on my calendar.”

  Joey frowned. “Are you going to take the appearance?” She’d been handling her own motions for the last two years and didn’t see any reason why she shouldn’t continue doing so. Granted, the stakes were higher in a motion for summary judgment, but she wasn’t a total rookie and had previously handled a couple of them on her own. The judge had even ruled in her favor on one of them.

  “Probably not,” he said and jotted something down on the legal pad in front of him. “But I will attend the hearing with you.”

  Her frown deepened. If he was one of those micromanagers, then they were bound to clash. In her first eighteen months with the firm, like any other newly minted lawyer, she’d worked closely with the more senior litigation associates, assisting them with their caseloads. But for the past two years, she’d been assigned her own cases and had grown accustomed to working independently. And dammit, she liked it that way. “Mind telling me why?”

  The smile suddenly curving his lips was full of charm, making her instantly suspicious. “You questioning my management style?”

  She leaned back in the chair, crossed her arms and gave him a level stare. “Maybe.”

  “Don’t take it personal.” He stood and walked to the long row of low cabinets along the wall behind her. “I’ll be observing a lot of appearances over the next couple of months, not just yours. I like to get a feel for how the associates handle themselves.” He opened a cabinet, then closed it. “Someone told me there was a fridge in here.”

  “To your left,” Joey said. “What you mean is that you want to see if we’re in over our heads.”

  He opened the cabinet door that hid a small refrigerator and retrieved two bottles of water. “Some lawyers think faster on their feet than others,” he said, and handed one to her. “I find it helpful to know everyone’s strengths and weaknesses when it comes to assigning cases.”

  Joey thanked him for the water. “Is that why you’re taking over the Gilson trial? You don’t think I’m strong enough to handle it?”

  He sat and frowned. “Gilson?”

  She twisted the top off the water and took a sip. “Gilson v. Pierce.” Her case. Her most important case, for that matter. One she seriously resented relinquishing.

  He scanned the list in front of him. “Trial is scheduled for next week?”

  “Yes. Pretrial motions will be heard a week from Friday. Jury selection the following Monday. I should have my pretrial motions finalized by Thursday.”

  “Sounds as if you’re on top of things.”

  She was, and had the billable hours to prove it. “At the core, Gilson is a wrongful death action,” she explained, “although the plaintiff is also alleging loss of consortium as a result of her husband’s death. Patricia Gilson’s husband died while he was having sex with his mistress, Natasha Pierce. I was told on Friday that I was going to second chair you at trial.”

  “I wouldn’t worry about it,” Sebastian said, twisting the cap of his own bottled water. “It’ll never see the inside of a courtroom.”

  He couldn’t be serious. Could he? “How can you say that?” she argued. “You don’t know anything about the case.”

  “I know it’s a bullshit action that shouldn’t have lasted this long.”

  “I don’t think you realize how important Gilsonv. Pierce is. No matter which way the jury decides, precedents are going to be set.”

  “Come on, Joey,” he said, his tone mildly impatient. “Do you really want to be the lawyer associated with something like that?”

  She set the bottle on the conference table a bit more forcefully than she’d intended. “Josephine,” she corrected him with narrowed eyes. “And like what? No matter which way this one goes, there will be an appeal. Mass Home and Life has already made it clear if the jury awards so much as a dime, I’m to file an appeal. If we should prevail, and I’m confident we will because it is a bullshit action, plaintiff’s counsel has already promised to appeal the decision. This is a case that can make the books, Sebastian. It’s important.”

  “Important for whom? Every scorned wife whose husband couldn’t keep his dick in his pants, or every unscrupulous woman out there poaching on someone else’s territory?”

  His puritanical attitude surprised her clear down to her Bruno Magli pumps. Not that she really knew him, but considering what they’d done, she hadn’t expected him to be such a prude.

  “Does it matter when we have an opportunity to set a precedent?” she asked.

  “Yes, I think it does.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest. “You’re making a moral judgment.”

  “And you’re not?” he challenged.

  “No. I’m looking at the legal ramifications of the case. Isn’t that what a good lawyer is supposed to do?

  “A good lawyer looks out for the best interests of his client. Pierce’s insurance carrier is our client. We might represent the mistres
s, but our client is…”

  “Mass Home and Life,” she supplied. “But I still think you’re being dictated to by your morality. You can’t do that, Sebastian. Yes, our job is to serve our client, but we also serve the law.”

  “And we’ll best serve the law by never letting this case go to trial,” he said, his gaze steady. “We lose and we’ll be setting a precedent all right, for anyone who’s ever been cheated on to file a lawsuit. You tell me, how is that in our client’s best interest?”

  She understood what he was saying, even if she didn’t agree with him. However, even she had to admit he did have a point. Sort of. A loss in court could possibly cause a negative domino effect. On the loss-of-consortium issue alone, scorned spouses everywhere could end up suing the other woman or man. Insurance carriers would be inundated with new lawsuits. Policy holders would eventually feel the brunt as well, come policy renewal time, with yet another price hike. But what if she won? Would the victory still be as sweet now that Sebastian had muddied the morality waters?

  “Mass Home and Life isn’t willing to settle,” she informed him. “Perhaps you should review the file before issuing any edicts.”

  He let out a rough sigh and scrubbed his hand down his face. “I’m not trying to be unreasonable.”

  She reached for her bottle of water again. “Sure you are. You’re the new guy. You need to make an impression. Let us all know who’s the boss.”

  “That’s not fair, Joey. I’m just doing my job.”

  “Do me a favor,” she said. “Familiarize yourself with the case first before making a final decision. I’d really like to take this one to trial.”

  “To serve our client? Or yourself?”

  “Oooh,” she said with a manufactured chuckle. She took a drink of water, then added, “Now who’s not being fair?”

  It wasn’t that Gilson v. Pierce was a career-maker as Sebastian was implying, but no matter which way the jury decided, the case could definitely end up being a historical decision. Once it went to appeal and the appellate court ruled, depending upon the outcome, she could even end up arguing before the Supreme Court. Well, probably not her, more than likely one of the senior partners, or even Sebastian, would do the actual arguing. But she’d be the one to prepare the writ, and that appealed to her, as it would any attorney.

  He shot her an agitated look, then stood and strode to the bank of windows. Outside, heavy snow had begun to fall from the dark, gunmetal grey sky, swirling in the brisk winds blowing through the city. With his back to her and his hands tucked into the front pockets of his trousers, she admired his ass.

  Suddenly, he turned back to face her. He didn’t smile. In fact, he didn’t look particularly pleased with her at the moment. Not that she cared. Much.

  “Get me the files and I’ll take a look,” he told her. “No promises, Joey.”

  She let out the breath she hadn’t even realized she’d been holding. “Fair enough.”

  He returned to the table, and she resumed briefing him on her caseload. As a three-year associate, she didn’t have a huge number of cases, but by the time they were finished, she understood why the partners had brought Sebastian into the firm. The man had a brilliant legal mind. Unfortunately for her, she’d always been a believer in smart being sexy.

  Still, by the time she walked back to her office about an hour later, other than his continuing to call her Joey despite her protestations otherwise, and his initial comment about calling her, he’d kept their meeting professional. Heaven help her, she should be thrilled, but damn if she didn’t feel the tiniest dent to her feminine pride just the same.

  * * *

  “Mr. Samuel’s secretary just came down to let us know he’s closing the office early because of the storm. If you don’t mind, I’d like to go, too, before it gets too bad.”

  Sebastian looked up from the file he’d been reviewing to glance out the window. It wasn’t quite four o’clock, but sure enough, the storm that had been predicted had arrived in full glory. “No problem,” he told Laura. “Did we get the files on Gilson v. Pierce?”

  “I received them about an hour ago,” Laura said as she set two thin pressboard files on his desk. “There are three full boxes on the floor by my desk.”

  “Thanks, I’ll get them. What’s this?” he asked, indicating the new files.

  “Waterston v. Markel and Johannson v. Play Write Toys. New cases we just got in that you need to assign to the associates. Johannson is a products liability action and Waterston is a straight liability against a homeowner. A swimming pool leaked onto the plaintiffs’ property and caused damage. Both have answers due next week.”

  He leaned back in his chair and stretched his legs out under his desk. He’d been reading case files for the better part of the afternoon and was starting to feel it in his back. Nothing an hour at the gym wouldn’t cure.

  Laura gathered up the stack of documents he had sitting in his outbox. “If this storm is as big as has been predicted,” she said, “chances are the office will be closed tomorrow, too.”

  “If this thing doesn’t end soon,” he said with another quick glance out the window, “the entire city will be shut down before midnight.” Which meant he needed to pack his briefcase before leaving so he could work from home just in case. “Guess that means I’ll see you when I see you, then.”

  “Guess so,” she said and smiled. “Do you need anything before I take off?”

  He shook his head. “No, I’m good.”

  She turned to leave, then stopped. “Oh, I almost forgot. Jo wanted me to tell you that she has a meeting scheduled with Natasha Pierce Friday afternoon for trial prep. She thought you might want to sit in.”

  Jo. He didn’t like it. Joey wasn’t a Jo or a Josephine. She was, well, Joey.

  “Go ahead and put it on my calendar.” He had a call in to the insurance company’s case manager. With any luck at all, they’d be telling Pierce there would be no trial. “Good night, Laura.”

  “G’night, Mr. Stanhope.”

  “Laura?”

  She paused at the door. “Yes?”

  “It’s Sebastian.” The partners preferred formality, but his shirt wasn’t all that stuffed. Partnership or no, it was the reason he preferred to have his office down in the trenches with the associates rather than upstairs with the other partners. Between that and his open-door policy, he’d already caused a few eyebrows to raise with the other junior partners. He wondered how many of them were already looking for office space in their own divisions.

  Once Laura left, he stood and walked to the window. From his vantage point eleven floors up, he could see the streets below were already a mess. The sand trucks had been through, turning the accumulating snow into an ugly brown mush, slick and dangerous, before the plows could remove it. In the distance, he spied the red and blue blinking lights of emergency first responders. Heavy traffic with commuters attempting to get out of the city wasn’t helping the situation that was only bound to get worse.

  He’d been smart to buy the SUV, and the four-wheel drive would come in handy on a night like this one. Not that he had all that far to drive.

  He turned back to his desk and picked up the two new files Laura had dropped off before leaving. His first instinct was to assign the products liability case to Joey, but he held back. Because he feared the appearance of favoritism, he wondered? Perhaps he was simply being über-sensitive, but he hated that he was doubting himself where his decisions regarding her were concerned. And he’d only been on the job a matter of hours.

  He had twenty-two associate attorneys under his command, all handling a variety of litigation matters. Her caseload was considered light by firm standards, less than twenty-five active files, but she was only a three-year associate. And in addition to her own small caseload, she still supported two other more senior associates who had more cases than they could handle alone. Granted, she was a young attorney, but in his opinion, from what he’d seen thus far, she was capable of the additional workl
oad.

  The firm he came from in Miami handed out cases based on who was next in the lineup. He preferred to make his assignments based on an attorney’s strengths. Plus, he had two additional associates with even less seniority than Joey, with only a handful of their own cases to consider as well. And then there were the

  lawyers with more seniority, all of whom were eager for new cases.

  He opened the Waterston file. Determining the complexity of the case at such an early stage wasn’t all that difficult, especially considering the plaintiffs’ counsel had named several defendants in addition to the homeowner. Whoever handled Waterston would need to have strong organizational skills because the case threatened to become a paper nightmare with a lot of expert witnesses.

  He pulled out the spreadsheet Laura had prepared for him in order to get a better feel for the balance of the workload in his division. Shelby Martin was out of the question, since he’d already promised her he’d reassign half of her current litigation caseload to make room for all the new bad-faith actions she’d be covering.

  Dillard Bowman could easily handle it. He was a twelve-year senior associate and a bit of a kiss-ass with a minor chip on his shoulder for being passed over for promotion. During the luncheon meeting he’d had with the senior partners today, they’d made no secret that Bowman had wanted Sebastian’s job, but according to Lionel Kane, they hadn’t felt Bowman was management material.

  Shane Henley or Penny Thurman would do a good job, for that matter, as both had ten years behind them. Thurman had more experience with geological issues, but from what he’d assessed about her personality thus far, she wasn’t anywhere near as anal as Bowman.

  So that left Henley or Bowman.