be the one sitting in that courtroom with you, although I have no idea why, because it sucks.”
“Thank you. I aim to please.”
She ignored the sarcasm. “Rod definitely doesn’t like the fact that my desk is in here with you.”
Ben exhaled loud enough to be heard on the next floor down. “You’ve been here less than a half day and already you’re making trouble.”
“Imagine what will happen if I have to put a bullet in the kid.”
“He’s twenty-four. You can’t be that much older.”
“Thirty, and there is a world of difference between a kid like that who has had everything handed to him and me.” Rod had every opportunity open to him. She tripped through the past two years and was only now getting back up off her ass again.
“Feeling judgmental today, are we?”
“I’ve done some background research on you and everyone who works for you.”
“Interesting.” Ben smacked his lips together as if he had gone into deep contemplation. “When did you find time for that?”
“Last night.”
“Very enterprising of you.” He shifted his weight, edged a little closer.
She could smell the citrusy scent of the soap on his skin. “I have my talents.”
“I’ll bet you do.”
The room shrank. Callie knew that the laws of physics made that impossible, but the air grew thin and his hand now rested just inches from her knee. “Uh…?”
His eyebrow kicked up. “Yes?”
“Are you flirting with me, Your Honor?”
“Of course not.” The hitch to his voice said differently.
That would be a disaster. Fun but dangerous. She knew how this scenario played out. She went through these cycles of attraction. Someone would appeal to her, they’d connect, the sex would consume her, and then she’d lose.
One of them had to exercise some common sense. From the way her palms started sweating and the rush of excitement that just shot through her stomach, it better be her before she lost all control. “In addition to the fact I don’t like you all that much and have been tempted to shoot you several times since meeting you—”
“Thanks again, this time for refraining from homicide.”
“—it would be a conflict for you to be involved with anyone who works for you.”
“Well argued. You could be a lawyer with that reasoning. Except that you’ve forgotten one very important fact.”
That was quite possible, since she couldn’t remember anything at the moment. “Which is?”
“You work for my brother, not me.”
Chapter Three
“Tell me Callie’s story.” Ben took the cap off the bottle and slid the beer across his kitchen counter to his brother. With dinner over, Mark fired up the laptop. That meant Ben had a short window to grab his brother’s attention before he drifted off into law enforcement worker mode.
“What do you want to know?” Mark shuffled his papers, scanning them for something, but didn’t bother to look up.
“Why isn’t she with the FBI now?”
“You’ll have to ask her.”
“I’m asking you.”
Mark glanced up then. He leaned his elbows on the counter and passed the bottle back and forth between his palms. “She chose to move on.”
“That’s not a real answer. Hell, I could get that information without much digging.” Ben wanted something more. Something personal that would give him a little insight into Callie.
“Need-to-know only.”
“Don’t give me that. Was it an assignment gone bad? She swore at the director? She shot a witness who pissed her off, which I could absolutely see her doing, by the way. Or was it something worse?”
“You might want to be careful. She’s considered excellent with that weapon.”
“So noted.”
“And she’s very private. She took on this job as a favor to me. I wanted someone smart and tough to watch over you. Someone from the outside who you couldn’t boss around or intimidate.”
“You make me sound difficult,” Ben joked.
“You’re a complete pain in the ass about all of this.”
“Apparently you’re not alone in thinking that. She’s already threatened to put a bullet in me.”
“No surprise there.”
Ben looked down at the bottle in his hand. He picked at the edge of the label, trying to get lost in the mundane activity rather than let his mind wander to memories of how tight Callie’s ass looked in those pants today. “But her accuracy on the gun range doesn’t really answer my question.”
Mark didn’t say anything. He just let the quiet fill the room, as if silence somehow answered his brother’s question. Finally he spoke up. “Let me ask you something.”
Ben swallowed a groan. “Can I stop you?”
“Why the intense interest in her personal life?”
“She’s in my office.”
“You know everything about Elaine or that Rod kid?” Mark punctuated the remark with a knowing smile. “Don’t remember you insisting on a background check when those two came to work for you.”
Ben thought about throwing his brother’s laptop out the window. “This is different. I couldn’t move two inches today without tripping over Callie.”
And then there was the part where he wanted her until his mind blanked on everything else around him. The woman had a smart mouth and sweet curvy body. He’d never had a preference for blondes versus brunettes. Now he did.
She pretended to despise him, said all sorts of shit he’d never let anyone else say to him at the office. More than once he caught her staring up at him from her seat in the courtroom. Sometimes he saw a soft awareness in her eyes. Other times she threw him a want-to-squash-you glare.
The reality was her feigned disinterest drove him to his knees. There was something pretty damn hot about a woman who acted as if she could live without him, who didn’t care about the rumors of his bedroom skills or how fast he could get tickets to whatever event she wanted to see in the area. Independent and feisty. Yeah, Callie appealed to him on a fundamental level. Rubbed him raw and had him thinking up new uses for his desk.
And despite
