“I know.” She smirks at me, and the look goes straight to my dick, which I keep in line through sheer force of will.
My arm tightens around her waist, and I turn us gently to the music. “Have you been to this gala before?”
“I have. Every year since it started, actually. Jeremy and my brother Ben have been best friends since college.”
“I’ve been every year too. First one was the year I joined the league. I wish I had seen you here. We could have met before tonight.”What the fuck is wrong with you?I inwardly cringe again at the cheesy as shit line, hoping she’ll just let it sail by.
No such luck. She smirks at me again.
“You’re just full of lines tonight. Guess I should expect it. Football player and all.”
“Hey now, I’m not just a football player. I’m a quarterback.”
She snorts out a laugh, and fuck if I don’t find it sexy as hell.
“Oh, a quarterback, he says, as if I should be impressed by that.”
“Well, aren’t you?”
She laughs again. “Um, no. Look around. Jeremy is my twin brother’s best friend. I’ve been surrounded by professional athletes most of my adult life. I am a lot of things, but impressed is not one of them.”
Fuck if I’m not completely turned on by her nonchalance bordering on complete disinterest. Something is definitely wrong with me. “Tell me about all those other things. What else are you?”
“A lawyer, for one. A busy one.” An anxious look crossesher face at that, and I feel a tremor in the hand wrapped around my neck. Like the phone tapping earlier tonight, it seems so out of character for the sharp-tongued, has her shit together, ballbuster in my arms that it makes me want to unravel her completely.
The hand I have around her waist drops lower to sit right at the curve of her ass, and I pull her tighter against me. She lets me. The move brings our faces closer together, and her gaze drops to my lips. Something intense passes between us. Forgetting where we are, I move closer to her. My entire world shrinks to the distance between us, my focus wholly centered on laying my lips on hers. Our mouths are centimeters apart when the music changes suddenly, turning loud and upbeat.
Julie jerks away from me and takes a step back. She glances around the dance floor and back at me, and I panic for a second that she is about to walk away, and I’ll never see her again.
“Can I get your number?” I blurt it out louder than I mean to. My chill has apparently escaped me completely. “I’d like to see you again.”
She looks at me for a second, considering.
Just when I think she’s about to cave, she smiles wickedly and says, “I don’t think so. But thanks for the dance. See you around, Hot Shot.”
Then she turns and walks back to her table. I stand there alone on the crowded dance floor, staring after her, wondering what the fuck just happened and when I can make it happen again.
Chapter One
Julie
Ijerk awake at the sound of a door slamming, my heart pounding out of my chest. Weak winter light filters through the room as I rub my bleary eyes, trying to get my bearings. As quickly as my aching neck allows, I survey my surroundings. Bookshelf. Expensive couch I never sit on. Peppermint Hershey Kiss wrappers—my favorite candy that I hoard in December like the world is ending—scattered all over my desk. Mug still half full of the coffee I made last night in an unsuccessful attempt to stay awake. Kessler file stacked on the floor. Kessler draft last will and testament now a crumpled mess from serving as a pillow for my impromptu nap. And is that…yep. A puddle of drool right on the disposition of tangible personal property clause.
Classy, Julie. How super law partner who definitely has her shit together of you.
The giggling from downstairs snaps me to attention. I would know that giggle anywhere. My life-long best friend Hallie was never a giggler until she and my twin brother Bengot together, but now the two of them walk around with perma-grins on their faces. And Hallie giggles. Ben was, evidently, in love with her for eleven years before he worked up the nerve to tell her this past summer. They got engaged a few days ago and I don’t know how I missed his pining for all those years. I never miss anything—especially not when it comes to the people closest to me, and no one is closer to me than Ben. But his love for her caught me completely off guard, and there is nothing I hate more than being caught off guard.
The footsteps on the stairs snap me to action. I swipe all the candy wrappers into the trash before flying to my feet, one hand swiping down my face and the other plunging into my top desk drawer for my emergency makeup bag. I whip a brush through my hair and reach for my lip gloss.
The footsteps pause before they reach the top of the staircase outside my office, and I don’t have to see it to know that Ben has Hallie pressed against the wall, probably kissing her senseless. Those two can barely go ten minutes without having their mouths attached together. I love them both madly but good lord, that is a lot of kissing.
Although this morning, I’m grateful for it because it gives me a couple extra minutes to pull myself together. I tug on the sweater hanging on the back of my chair, swipe on some lip gloss, and pinch my cheeks to add some color. By the time my office door opens, I’ve shoved the Kessler will into a drawer and erased all other signs that I just napped on my desk like a college student cramming for finals.
When Hallie strolls in with Ben following close behind, I paste what I hope is a serene smile on my face and start randomly typing on my keyboard, hoping I look busy and put together and not at all the twisted-up hot mess I am on the inside.
The story of my fucking life.
“Seriously, Jules, it’s eight-thirty on a Saturday morning,” Hallie says, handing me a take-out coffee cup—bless her—and dropping down on my office couch. She is bright-eyed and glowing, everything about her giving off the kind of contentment that comes from a rock-solid relationship and the soul deep love coming off her in waves. An involuntary rush of jealousy settles in my stomach, and I immediately hate myself for it.
