KRISTI GOLD - The Law of Attraction

The look he gave her said he didn’t exactly believe her. “Back then I didn’t approach you for that reason and because I was involved with someone, too.”

“Who?” Did she have to sound so absurdly jealous?

“It doesn’t matter. That’s been over a long time. When I heard you’d been added to the public-defender rolls, I started looking for you.”

Unbelievable. “You started looking for me?”

“Yeah. Do you remember that day you negotiated the plea on the Jones case back in August?”

“That was my first case as a public defender.”

“Do you remember me coming in to sign off on the deal because the D.A. was out of the office?”

Boy, did she, right down to every detail, including the red diamond pattern on his navy tie. “Yes.”

“I didn’t have to be there. Hildebrand talked to me about it beforehand and I’d given my okay. I came in because I wanted to see you.”

Alisha felt the creep of a blush climbing up her throat. “Really?”

He smiled. “Really. And after that I kept searching you out just so I could talk to you. Didn’t you ever wonder why we kept running into each other?”

“I assumed you just found provoking me so much fun, you couldn’t stay away.”

“I didn’t want to stay away from you. The provocation was just a cover for the fact that I wanted to know you better. A lot better.”

She was having a difficult time buying any of this. She was having a harder time remaining upright while he was so close. “I bet you say that to all the girls downtown.”

“No. And if you’re going to say you haven’t noticed the chemistry between us, Alisha, then you’re lying to yourself and to me.”

Confession time, she thought. “All right, maybe I did notice.”

“You’ve also noticed my ass.”

Wonderful. She’d been caught. “Unless you have eyes in the back of your head, I don’t see how you could know that.”

“When I was standing at the bar a minute ago, getting your wine, I was watching you in the mirror and saw you giving it a look. But that’s okay because I’ve looked at yours more than once.”

Alisha’s head started to whirl, but it wasn’t the limited amount of alcohol that had her thoughts so jumbled. It was him. “Why did you wait until now to tell me all of this?”

He reached up and brushed another rebellious strand of hair away from her cheek. “You kept giving mixed signals every time I was around you. Stop, go, maybe. I was never sure how you were going to respond to any kind of overture from me. But after I saw you tonight, sitting in that bar alone, looking so damn good, it was all I could do not to grab you up and carry you out.”

Aha! His true motive. She was the only one alone and, therefore, available. “I thought this was all about friendship.”

“I’m willing to settle for friendship, if that’s all you want. But it’s going to be tough when I’ve had some fairly serious fantasies about you for months now.”

They couldn’t be half as wicked as hers involving him. “What kind of fantasies?”

He ran a slow fingertip up and down her forearm. “Like the other day, when we passed each other in the stairwell. You had on that brown suit—”

“Yes, and if I recall correctly, you told me brown wasn’t flattering on me.”

“I told you that because what I really wanted to do was take it off you, especially when you leaned your arm on the rail, your jacket parted and I saw just a glimpse of right here.” He drew a line down from her collarbone to the side of her breast, causing a shiver to run the length of Alisha’s body. “That little bit of bare flesh had me wondering exactly what you had on underneath that jacket. Five more seconds and I might have tried to find out.”

Alisha shivered. “I see.”

He toyed with the silver-and-green chandelier earring hanging from her lobe. “I’m not sure you do. But let me tell you about my favorite fantasy, then maybe you will see.”

Alisha wasn’t sure her heart could take much more. It was already beating like a bongo against her chest. But she had to know. “Since you seem to be on a roll, continue.”

He grinned. “You know that sofa in Riley’s chambers?”

“The ugly plaid one?”

“Yeah. The last time I was there, I’d just seen you in the hall. You asked me about the holiday schedule—”

“And after you’d harangued me about not owning a calendar, you told me what you knew, end of conversation.”

“That wasn’t the end of it for me,” he said. “Just being around you, even for those few minutes, had me distracted. I was requesting a continuance from Riley and I fumbled around like an idiot because I kept imagining us stretched out on that sofa. Naked.”

Wow. “Please tell me Riley wasn’t watching in this fantasy.”

“No, it was just you and me, after hours.”

She swallowed hard. “What were we doing?”

“You sure you want details? It’s pretty wild.”

For a long moment Daniel simply stared at her with those incredible, intense eyes. She still didn’t quite believe this was happening. Still had a difficult time believing he wanted her in that way.

She was mildly aware of the colorful flashes of splintered lights outside the window and very aware of how much he affected her. “I believe the fireworks have started.”

“Yeah, they have.” Daniel pulled her against him with one arm and framed her jaw in his free hand, rubbing his thumb over her cheek in a hypnotic cadence. She reacted with low-down heat and a rush of dampness, as if he were touching her intimately. “Happy new year, Alisha.” Before she could return the greeting, he laid his lips on hers.

On one hand, she’d hoped he was a lousy kisser, forcing her common sense to come back around. On the other hand, she knew he wouldn’t be, and he wasn’t. He drove her into merry madness with his soft lips, tantalized her with his tongue until she lost all sense of reasoning or thoughts of why she shouldn’t be doing this.

But doing it she was. And worse, she wanted to do more. She wanted to do him.

Daniel prided himself on knowing women well, including all the things that made them hot, made them want and at times even made them beg. But Alisha Hart had thrown him totally off balance. He sure as hell wasn’t complaining, because he’d imagined this for months—having her pressed against him, kissing her senseless until he questioned if he had any sense left either. Still, he needed to take it slow. Needed to make sure he was reading her right before he did something that might make her bolt.

But when she broke the kiss and whispered, “Show me the details,” slow suddenly lost all its luster. Slow couldn’t describe what happened next. He pulled her up from the sofa and went after the zipper on her dress while she tore at the buttons on his shirt and pushed it off his shoulders. “We shouldn’t be doing this,” she muttered as she tackled his fly.

“Probably not,” he replied as he slid the dress down in a rush.

And that was the end of all meaningless protests. He considered suggesting the bedroom as he relieved her of her bra and panties in quick order, but it was too far away and he was too far gone. After he shirked off his slacks and briefs, they ended up on the couch, facing each other in a tangle of limbs, hands roving over each other as he kept his mouth firmly fixed with hers. He found her breast with his mouth and slipped his palm between her thighs, finding her, as he’d predicted, hot and wet. She released a soft moan as he touched her, moving in sync with his hand as he drove her to the edge. Luckily she hadn’t touched him in the same way yet, otherwise he might go over with her.

“I want you,” she whispered. “Now.”