the news to him.
Iris walked into the conference room, intending to greet Nash Dupree and promptly refer him to another attorney, but a deep, baritone voice halted her the moment she stepped across the threshold. She quickly glanced around the room, thinking that Barry White himself had to be there, but he wasn’t. Instead, standing on the other side of the room, talking on a cell phone, was a man whose voice made her toes curl. The deep, melodious tone was strong and intoxicating. She had always been a sucker for a man with a mysterious, sexy voice.
So this is Nash Dupree. Though his body was slightly angled toward the window, she couldn’t help but notice how his broad shoulders tapered down to a narrow waist and how his long legs seemed to go on forever. Tall for a woman, Iris didn’t often come in contact with men she had to look up to, literally. With one hand holding his cell phone and the other stuffed casually into his pants pocket, he appeared confident and relaxed, despite his family’s recent legal issues.
“Alright, I guess it has to be this evening. Just let me know where,” Nash said to the caller. He turned away from the window, but was looking down and hadn’t noticed her.
Iris took in his honey-brown complexion, black wavy hair cropped close to his head, and his perfect body. The magazine photos and the few times that she’d seen him on TV hadn’t done him justice. He looked every bit the powerful man that the media portrayed him to be. As for the playboy reputation he had garnered in the tabloids, she could see why women threw themselves at him. He oozed virility and wealth.
Ogling him from across the room felt unprofessional, but she couldn’t help herself. Spending most of her days in her office or in a courtroom hadn’t allowed her much opportunity to socialize, especially with someone who looked like Nash Dupree.
“Oh, wait, can you also let...” Nash started, but stopped when he looked up and spotted Iris. For a moment, all he did was hold the phone and stare at her. His gaze slowly traveled over her from the top of her head down to her three-inch navy blue pumps and then back up to her eyes. A small smile lifted the left corner of his tempting mouth and Iris’s pulse quickened at the effect that his smile had on her. “Uh, Nigel, let me call you back.”
Nash disconnected the call and placed his cell phone in an inside pocket of his suit jacket without breaking eye contact. The optimism Iris had in her ability to assign Nash Dupree to another attorney was slowly slipping away. Her breath caught as he moved smoothly across the plush room with the swagger of a self-assured, influential man who was used to getting what he wanted.
Good Lord, this brother is fine.
“Hello, sorry about that,” he said in that rich voice and extended his hand. “I’m Nash Dupree.”
Iris self-consciously ran her sweaty palm down her skirt and cleared her throat before shaking his hand. “Iris Sinclair. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“The pleasure is all mine.”
Okay, just stay cool, Iris told herself. She smiled and eased her hand out of his grip before stepping over to the conference table and setting her notepad down. Despite her professional success, she had never been very comfortable around good-looking men, especially men who openly checked her out, the way Nash was doing now. Men like him rarely looked at her the way he was doing.
“Please have a seat.” She gestured for him to sit in the high-back leather chair to her left. “I understand your niece has gotten herself into a little trouble.”
“Yes, you could say that.” Nash unbuttoned his suit jacket and waited until she was seated at the head of the table before taking his seat. He reached into his wallet and pulled out a photo, sliding it across the table to Iris. “That’s my niece, Tania Dupree. She’s an amazing young woman who is highly intelligent with musical skills that could rival Alicia Keys, and she has the stubbornness of a mule. She’s the love of my life, and the bane of my existence.”
Iris smiled. In the picture, Tania wore her hair in micro-braids that easily flowed past her shoulders. Hazel eyes, similar to Nash’s, shined with a youthful glint, and Iris would bet her paycheck that the sweet smile gracing Tania’s lips got her whatever she wanted from her uncle.
Iris handed the photo back to Nash. “She’s beautiful.” Like her uncle, she wanted to say, but kept the thought to herself.
“Thank you,” Nash said quietly, staring at the photo.
“I can tell she means a lot to you.” Iris crossed her leg and turned her body toward him. “Why don’t you tell me what happened?” The least she could do was hear him out before assigning someone else to the case.
“Mr. Dupree?”
Nash’s head snapped up and he looked at her as if he had forgotten she was in the room. He stood and rubbed his hand over his head and down the back of his neck.
“I’m sorry. I, um, it’s been a helluva day.” He chuckled and Iris nodded her understanding, realizing for the first time since leaving court that the headache she’d been battling for the past couple of days had finally departed. “Anyway, I received a call a couple of hours ago that Tania had been arrested for drug possession. She and some of her classmates had a half day of school and were heading home when they were pulled over by a cop.”
“Why were they pulled over?”
“From what I understand, the kid driving the vehicle didn’t come to a complete stop at a stop sign.” Nash shoved his hand into his pants pocket, taking Iris’s attention from his sexy hazel eyes down to the front of his pants. She quickly diverted her attention. What the heck is wrong with me?
“The cop probably would’ve just issued a warning,” Nash continued, “but when one of the kids started smarting off, the officer made all them get out of the car.”
Nash roamed around the plush space. “I told Tania to stop hanging out with those kids. Associating with them had already gotten her into trouble at school. A few months ago, she was apprehended by the cops when one of the little thugs she was hanging out with stole a couple of candy bars from a convenience store.”
Nash stopped and slowly turned to Iris, releasing a loud sigh. “When Tania exited the car, she swung her backpack onto her shoulder and a bag of marijuana fell to the ground. Supposedly it came from her bag. Needless to say, all the kids claim they knew nothing about it and they all were taken into custody.”
“What did Tania say when you asked about the drugs?”
Nash walked back over to the table, but didn’t reclaim his seat. “She said it wasn’t hers and had no idea how it made its way into her bag.”
Iris asked a few more questions, taking notes as he talked more about how he had transferred her to the best private school in Johns Creek, a suburb outside Atlanta. Tania had had her share of harmless trouble since arriving at the school, like putting a dead bird in one of her teachers’ desks and getting caught egging another student’s car.
“I can’t believe she’s been arrested for drug possession with the intent to sell. She’s too smart for that and has never shown any sign of drug use. I know that weed wasn’t hers.”
“So you believe her?”
“Without a doubt, but don’t get me wrong, I understand that the cops had to take her in. Having drugs in her possession doesn’t look good. The worst part is, the officers would have let her leave with me, but
