Captivate her: Laws of Seduction Book 1, page 5
“Well, I know I am right. It is inevitable with a group this large. Just wait and see.”
I swallow a bite of my turkey and avocado sandwich. “Want to put your money where your mouth is?”
“Oh ho, little Lainey Hart, high stakes roller. Who would have thought? You’re on. What are the stakes?” Alex tips his bag of chips in my direction, and I nab one.
“A night out… and whoever loses pays for drinks… all night.”
“Oh, come on… you can do better than that.” Alex gives me a wicked grin. “How about…” Alex looks out at the midday foot traffic as he deliberates. “The loser also has to sing a song with the Naked Cowboy in Times Square?”
I consider for a moment. The Naked Cowboy is a street performer at Times Square and is famous for serenading tourists with his guitar dressed only briefs and a cowboy hat. As long as I don’t have to be naked too, I could handle those stakes. Grinning widely, I accept the bet. “You are on, and I can’t wait to see you up there putting your moves on.”
“You are going down hard, Hart,” Alex teases before clarifying. “If everyone is a team player, drinks are on me, and I will sing in Times Square, but if one person goes all Tonya Harding, the drinks are on you, and you sing at Times Square.”
I laugh. “Nice comparison, lawyer and psycho ice skater. I can see that. I just wouldn’t want to be Nancy Kerrigan.”
CHAPTER 8
As soon as we exit the elevators and walk back into the firm, our buoyant mood from lunch plummets. Everyone seems to take the start at the firm seriously. Their somber attitudes subdue our high spirits. The next item on the agenda before meeting the lawyers with whom we will be working is an office tour. The firm is located on the top three floors of a Midtown office building, and we start the tour at the top. Valerie is instructing us on the various departments on the floor when the sound of a familiar voice hits me. I recognize the voice immediately and my blood turns to ice. I don’t have time to consider what to do when I see James step out the door of a conference room. He is conversing with an attractive blond. I know I must be standing there like a deer in the headlights, but I am in such shock that I cannot move.
Valerie gives them a friendly smile and motions them over. This pretty much dashes my hope that James is visiting from another firm. She introduces them as firm lawyers.
I don’t know where to look and am relieved when she doesn’t start introducing us all individually, but just gives us a blanket introduction as the new associates. My relief quickly turns to horror when Valerie singles me out. “Oh, Elaine, you will be working with Elizabeth.” She smiles and motions me over. “Elizabeth, this is Elaine Hart, who you will be working with for the foreseeable future.”
I do my best to smile and offer Elizabeth my hand. It takes extreme effort not to glance over at James even though I am dying to know what he thinks of meeting me like this. They are about to continue on when I finally gather up my courage and look over at him. He is ignoring me as well, and I let out the breath I hadn’t realized I had been holding. Maybe we can pretend to be strangers. This does not have to be awkward at all, I tell myself. At the last second our eyes meet, and my breath seizes up inside of me. I had forgotten what it felt like to be on the receiving end of that piercing blue gaze.. He does not acknowledge me with even a flicker of an eyelid. Elizabeth touches his arm, drawing his attention back to her. I can’t hear what they are saying as they turn and walk down the hallway.
My oxygen-deprived lungs begin to object, and I start coughing. I feel everyone turn to stare at me, and Valerie points me to the water cooler. The cool water feels good on my throat. I use the time at the cooler to regain my composure before rejoining the group. My ears pick up snatches of a whispered conversation between the women junior associates. “Bluest eyes…never seen anyone so hot…work under him any time.” I know without a doubt that they are talking about James.
The rest of the tour passes in a blur as my mind races with the implications of working at the same firm as James. As far as I could see, it would be best to just pretend we had never met. It was a one-night stand that happened three months ago. It was not as if we were in a relationship or planning on pursuing one.
My first week of work, I walk around on pins and needles. I am in a constant state of awareness, and find myself looking for James around every corner. I tell myself that I don’t want to see him, but a tiny part of me knows that this is a lie. The junior associates sit at desks in an open office on whichever floor their department is on. I am on the top floor, the same floor as James. The open office space is broken up into rows where the administrative staff and junior associates sit. Tall dividers separate the rows, providing some visual privacy. Copy and file rooms, as well as a modern kitchen, are in the center. There is some foot traffic that goes by my desk, and I find myself looking up every time someone walks by. My desk is in a cluster of six cubicles. Two paralegals sit closest to me. I discover that Patti is the loud, friendly one who loves to talk about her boyfriend, and Nora is the quiet one. Nora reminds me of a sexy librarian. This is because she wears red plastic framed glasses and her chestnut-brown hair up. She also has a habit of sticking pencils through her up-do so several pencils are usually sticking out.. Unfortunately, Nora will be leaving the firm to go to law school in the fall.
Although she looks young, Patti talks like she has worked for the firm for years and years. She has a slightly Asian look since her mother is Filipino, and she is tiny. I would guess her height to be just over five feet. I have to make an effort to keep at my work because it is easy to be sucked into long conversations about Patti’s large family, who all live in Queens. The stories are all entertaining but distracting.
I am able to relax my vigilance in operation “Lookout for James” when Elizabeth mentions that he is in Los Angeles doing some depositions. This whole time I had been walking around on tenterhooks, and he had been in an office on the other side of the country. I decide that I am not going to let the situation stress me and concentrate on my job. They had not been kidding about the workload. After informing me that she had been easy on me the first week so that I could get acclimated, Elizabeth begins the second week with a huge file of contracts for me to review.
The contracts are dull and fairly routine, and it is nothing that I can’t handle. I am glad that I don’t have to run to Elizabeth with a lot of questions. I am hoping that I can prove myself capable so that she will start shifting more challenging work to me. With this in mind I decide to stay late on Monday. Maybe if I get through the majority of the contracts, I could sit in on some meetings later in the week.
On Tuesday, I notice a change in atmosphere at the office. Instead of working sluggishly at their desks with their heads down, the paralegals look up at me expectantly as I walk by. I am putting my things away in my desk drawer when I hear a few hushed exclamations. Looking up, I see James striding down the corridor. To my amazement, the paralegals and juniors flash him flirtatious smiles and offer him perky greetings. Other than to minutely nod his head in everyone’s general direction, James doesn’t acknowledge the attention. He breezes past me without a word, and I am uncertain whether he notices me sitting at my desk or not. With the others, I watch his beautiful back until he turns the corner and goes into his office. There are a couple of beats of pregnant silence, then a collective sigh as if everyone had been holding their breath. The whispering is louder this time, and I hear comments about topics ranging from James’s wardrobe choices to the physique underneath. Stunned, I realize that his passing through the office is like a great wave of energy brushing us all with its force. Even the male employees have looked up from their work, although their reactions tend toward eye rolling as opposed to the eye batting of their female counterparts.
Over the course of the next few days I see the same pattern repeat itself every time James walks through the office. There even appears to be a sort of warning system, since the women always seem to know when he is coming a few minutes before he arrives. I mention my suspicions to Patti, and she laughs. “You noticed that, did you? The receptionist is friends with some of the admins, and as soon as he steps off the elevator, she gives them a heads up call. Word spreads quickly after that.”
I can’t disguise my shocked amazement. “You’re kidding me. Don’t they have anything better to do?”
Patti sniggers, “Sure they do, but it isn’t nearly as much fun as drooling over James McAllister. They even have a pool going as to who he will ask out first. Personally, I think they are barking up the wrong tree. I have been here almost as long as he has, and as far as I know, he has never shown the slightest bit of interest in any of the women here.”
“Maybe he has a girlfriend.” I suggest.
Patti shrugs, “I am sure we would have heard about it if he had. Some of these girls know everything about him. I swear, from the things they have found out about him, I sometimes think it borders on stalking.”
Curious, I ask, “What kind of things have they found out?”
Patti eyes me speculatively. “Hey, you are not going to turn into one of the MFC, are you?” When she sees my look of confusion, she elaborates. “The McAllister Fan Club.”
“Oh,” I say, a blush rising to my cheeks. “Well, I don’t know about that, but he is hot.”
“I know. Isn’t he?” Patti giggles. “He’s like the firm’s very own GQ model. It’s not only that, though. He has this air of untouchability that makes him an irresistible challenge. Plus, it is like a game to be the first to catch the attention of the elusive James McAllister. A game where the stakes keep getting higher. You wouldn’t believe the lengths some of the MFC go to for his attention.”
I feel a kind of morbid curiosity and can’t stop myself from asking. “Like what?”
“Like last summer – no wait, I think it was two summers ago. One of the new junior associates decided to try and seduce him by waiting for him in his office.” Patti leans over to whisper, “Without her clothes on. I heard she was stripped down bare as the day she was born.” Straightening back up, she continues. “Needless to say she lost her job.”
Unable to think of an appropriate response to this revelation, I utter an inane “Oh, wow.”
“Right?” Patti looks enormously pleased with herself for shocking me with her story. There is a rumor that he hooked up with another HM lawyer last year, but I don’t believe it.” My heart sinks inexplicably at this information, although I tell myself I shouldn’t care. A paralegal across the aisle gives us a dirty look, which I interpret to mean that we are disturbing him. Catching Patti’s eye, I nod infinitesimally in his direction. She gives me an understanding nod and mouths “Later” before returning to her work. I try to concentrate on the contract in front of me, but Patti’s revelations replay like a song that I cannot turn off. Another thought buzzes around my head like a persistent bee. My one and only one-night stand is apparently a very hot commodity at HM. The fact that I slept with James is something I am keeping to myself.
CHAPTER 9
Thursday morning arrives, and it is sweltering hot. I choose a white linen dress that has a wide, dark blue vertical panel down the front. It has matching jacket that I plan to put on once I get to the office. I also wear my hair up to combat the heat. Although it isn’t even 9 am, I am covered by a sheen of sweat when I reach the office. I am met by a blast of cool air as I walk through the revolving door of my building. Several elevators arrive at the lobby, and I step on to one of them along with a swarm of other employees. I note that my floor is already lit up and look around to see who from the firm is on the elevator. It is then that I see James standing beside me. I can’t believe that I hadn’t noticed him immediately, especially after the days and days I spent on high alert looking for him.
More people crowd onto the elevator, and we are pushed closer together. I can feel his breath wafting across my bare neck, and my skin prickles. I close my eyes as a wave of longing and pent up sexual desire rush through me. I pray for the elevator ride to end and at the same time hope it will go on forever. It seems like we are stopping at every floor to let people out. Instead of drawing away from me as the elevator clears out, James remains close, with our bodies nearly touching. I imagine him putting his lips on my neck where I can feel his breath, and my desire shoots up another notch.
Finally, everyone has exited the elevator and we are alone. I watch the floor indicator as the elevator travels up. I don’t know if it is my fanciful imagination or reality, but I can feel the lightest brush of lips behind my ear right at the point where my hairline starts. The elevator stops on our floor. James steps forward to hold his arm in front of the elevator door, indicating that I should precede him. I look up into his face as I pass by him. He is smiling politely, but I also see desire smoldering in his eyes. I know that I was not the only one affected by our close proximity. Walking alongside me, he places his hand on my lower back, and my stomach clenches. He bends his dark head down closer to me, and his gruff voice sends tingles down my spine. “I was surprised to see that you are one of our new associates.”
My voice is surprisingly steady, considering the state of my nerves. “I was surprised to see you, too.”
“This should be interesting.” I glance up at him, wondering what he means, but before I can question him, we arrive at my desk. I see Patti and Nora looking at us with wide eyes and decide that discretion is the better part of valor. As I slide onto my desk chair, the three of us watch as James continues on to his office. As soon as he rounds the corner, Patti, who is the more talkative of the two, lets out an excited squeal. I glance around to see if anyone else has taken notice and see several pairs of eyes staring daggers at me. “Oh. My. God. I can’t believe he talked to you. What did he say?”
They both look at me with big, expectant eyes. I clear my throat uncomfortably, “It was nothing. He was just welcoming me to the firm.” I swallow hard, willing myself not to blush.
Nora, who is usually unassuming and quiet, blurts out, “He is so hot, and you are so lucky. He has never even spoken to me. All the women have a major crush on him, I mean, who wouldn’t, right? He looks like a Greek God with that beautiful dark hair and those eyes. Don’t get me started. All I will say is that it is totally unfair that a man got those gorgeous baby blues.”
Patti looks worried. “He may be handsome, but he has a terrible reputation with women. You should be careful, Lainey.”
“Really, guys,” I defend myself, “It was no big deal. We rode up on the elevator together, and he was just being polite. Besides, didn’t you tell me that he doesn’t give women from the firm the time of day?”
They regard me with twin looks of skepticism. I turn away as nonchalantly as possible and start booting up my computer with Patti’s last comment still ringing in my ears. “There is always a first, and from what I hear, he is a real player. More than one woman has been known to have been burned by James McAllister.”
I bring up the newest contract and stare blankly at it. I am in so much trouble. I contemplate the number of contracts I have to review and realize that I have to put James McAllister out of my head and focus.
By the end of the day, the quantity of contracts left to be reviewed has shrunk considerably, but I am sure that new ones will be waiting for me tomorrow. I am fairly positive that I will be dreaming in legalese tonight. As I ride the elevator down to the lobby, I cannot help but think of James again.
I exit the revolving door to the building when I hear someone call my name. I look over to see a driver ushering me towards a town car. Curiously, I walk over to peer into the rear door that the driver opens for me. Sitting in the car is James.
CHAPTER 10
“Can I give you a ride?” he asks in a rich baritone voice that sends delicate shivers down my spine.
I hesitate briefly before sliding into the back seat next to him. Looking up at him, I wait for him to speak. James lifts his hand to my mouth and rubs his thumb over my bottom lip. “I’ve been thinking of this mouth all day,” he says, before leaning his head down and gently biting my lip.
My gasp of surprise turns into a moan as I feel his soft, warm tongue on the lip he has just bitten. I cannot help parting my lips, and his tongue immediately devours me. I kiss him back with a ferocity that shocks me, and I am instantly wet. I haven’t felt this way since the last time he touched me, and it has been too long. Before I give myself over to him completely, I force myself to remember that this is the man that ditched me after our one-night stand and disappeared for months. I am not even sure what I am doing in his car right now. I draw back. “Wait – what are you doing?”
“I thought that was obvious,” James says with a chuckle.
“You cannot be serious.”
“Oh, but I am. I know you were as turned on as I was in that elevator this morning.” James smiles roguishly at me, and his dimple peeks out.
I shift uncomfortably in my seat. “That doesn’t mean I am just going to hop back into bed with you.”
“Why not? I promise you would enjoy it.”
I can only imagine the confounded look on my face as I regard him. “How about the fact that you bailed on me the last time, and I didn’t hear from you for months.”
James sighs, “I would like to apologize for that. Whether you believe me or not, I was thinking of you. You would be much better off without me.”
“Why?”
James turns his head away and stares out the front window for a moment before turning back to me with an almost sheepish look on his face. “Look, Lainey. I know I am not good enough for you. The fact of the matter is,” he runs his fingers through his hair several times. “I am pretty fucked up, not to mention that I am too old for you.”
Too old? Is he serious, or is that some sort of excuse. I shake my head back and forth at his revelation. “That’s ridiculous. You’re not too old for me. What are you, like six, maybe seven years older than me? And quite frankly, I’m fucked up too.” I emphasize every word of my last sentence so that he will understand how serious I am. “Everyone has baggage, James.”
