part of the work would come in the office, at her desk and at the hands of a supervisor with a God complex.
“Is this about Emma?” Callie forced the other woman’s name out over a lump of envy.
“No.”
Ah, hell. Even though her mind played an endless loop of getting Ben naked while she crawled all over him, Callie knew she didn’t actually have any rights to the man. Her debilitating case of lust didn’t have anything to do with his very real relationship with Emma. Time to step back and be professional.
“Look, I’m sorry I came in during your…well, your thing.” She didn’t know what to call that spectacle, so she didn’t try to define it. Talking about it would only put the image of Emma and Ben together back in her head, and Callie had spent all day trying to stamp it out.
“Thing?”
Callie heard a tinge of amusement in his voice. “I don’t know what the correct name is.”
His shook his head. “I said no. That’s not it.”
“I can talk to Emma if that will help.” Callie had no idea how to start that conversation or what to say, but she made the offer anyway. This being the bigger person stuff just sucked.
“I got it, but not necessary.”
He liked using that phrase even when it didn’t make any sense or have an understandable context. “Got what?” she asked.
Ben exhaled as the rigid anger left his body. “Stop talking about Emma.”
Seemed Ben turned a bit touchy when the topic of his girlfriend popped up. Probably a guilt thing. That’s what happened when a guy tried to dip his pen in too many wells.
“I’m trying to ignore your jackassery here and apologize.”
Instead of revving up again, Ben smiled. “My what?”
“I was going to call you a douche and the bag it came in, but I thought you’d have me arrested.”
“And here I thought you didn’t know where to draw the line.” He leaned back against his desk with his feet out in front of him at an angle. The move put his thigh right next to hers. “So tell me why you keep apologizing about Emma.”
Callie only remembered one time, but arguing about that struck her as lame. Now that Ben’s temper had returned to human levels, she didn’t want to send him racing back to crazy town again. “You two were in a clinch when I came in.”
“You call that a clinch?”
Whatever it was it made Callie’s head explode. “Sure.”
“Tell me something.”
No way was she agreeing to that without more information. Hand this man an opening and he’d steer a submarine through it.
He kept talking anyway. Looked pretty relaxed in his slouch as his smile inched up on his lips. “Do you have a boyfriend?”
If he wanted to shock her…well, he did. “How is that relevant?”
“Call me curious.”
“Are you allowed to ask me about that?”
“You think there’s a law against it?”
“There should be.”
“So, you’re not going to answer?”
Not until she knew where this was going. “What does the state of my love life have to do with anything?”
“You know all about me. Only seems fair I get some background on you.”
“I need to know about your life in order to do my job.” At least that was the excuse she used when she ventured outside the file Mark gave her. She’d lost her clearance when she walked away from her job at the FBI, but she still had friends of the computer-hacker variety. In just a few hours she had all the paperwork that existed on Ben.
She had to admit her little search mission turned out to be a huge disappointment. His background was so clean it squeaked. If he hadn’t passed through screening committees and all sorts of interviews to get his current judicial position she would have thought someone manufactured his past. No arrests. No trouble. Great grades. Always within the law. For some reason she expected to find a smart guy with a bad-boy past. That sounded good in the fantasy she created in her head but looked as if it wasn’t true.
“So, you’re not poking around in my life just because you’re nosy?” he asked.
No way could he know about her travels through his personal history. She’d been careful and cleaned up behind her. “I don’t poke.”
“Tell me what you want to know.”
She smelled a con. “Anything?”
“You get one question.”
She thought about his decision to leave the military and about the scarce information on his parents. She skipped all that and went with the issue at the front of her mind. “What’s going on between you and Emma?”
“I’ve already answered that. We’re friends.”
Callie snorted just to let him know what she thought of his fake deals. “I don’t climb all over my friends when the door shuts.”
“Really? When do you climb on them then?”
“Huh?”
He closed in. One minute he shot her a lazy smile. The next he stood up straight and hovered over her with his cheek right next to hers. “What do you do with your friends?”
Heat thrummed off him, surrounding her and filling her with a tingly sensation from shoulders to toes. “I don’t—”
“Do you touch them?” Ben trailed the back of his hand down her cheek. Dragged his thumb across her lips.
“I…”
“Smell them?” He leaned down and nuzzled her ear. “Do they smell as good as you?”
His mouth traveled down her neck, nipping and kissing. Hot breath tickled her skin as his fingers caressed her waist. The double whammy of touching slammed her breath to a halt in her chest. Her body strained to get closer to him as her palms skimmed up his back.
Holy crap. “This isn’t a good idea,” she said.
“Probably not, but I’ve been wanting to do it all day.”
“I thought you were mad at me.”
“Be quiet for a second,” he said.
Then his mouth covered hers. His lips pressed deep and strong and his tongue brushed against hers. There was nothing teasing about this kiss. It shot through her hot and wet, electrifying every cell inside her. She fell into the sensation of being overpowered and claimed. Her stomach
