Fifteen
Asia
I exhaled, knowing he was telling the truth.
We started to move again, but I reached for Jack’s arm as we passed the hallway that led to the guest room. “One sec.”
“I thought we decided on the garage,” Jack said.
He wasn’t exactly annoyed, but I already knew how little Jack appreciated deviations from his plans.
“We did and we will, but can you give me ten minutes?” I asked.
He frowned. “I kept a bag here. Just in case. I want to shower and change,” I said .
Jack tilted his head and stared at me, considering. “Ten minutes, Counselor.”
“I feel like I should salute or something, but I guess I’ll just say thanks,” I said with a laugh as I walked away.
Maybe it wasn’t the safest thing, but I needed these few minutes to get clean and compose myself. It wouldn’t change anything at all, but it would make me feel better, and that wasn’t nothing.
“Bingo!” I said as I grabbed the small black bag from the guest room closet.
I allowed myself a smile when I found the tennis shoes, yoga pants, T-shirt, and underwear that I had kept there. Exactly nine minutes and forty-two seconds after I went into the guest room, I came out clean, changed, and almost human.
Jack stood where I left him.
“Were you really timing me?” I asked.
He nodded. “Yup.”
I laughed, but Jack didn’t join in. “What kind of relationship did you have with Judge Hanlon?” he asked.
His implication was clear .
Before, I might have been angry. I’d gotten used to the gossip, but it still pissed me off.
Apparently, I’d fucked my way to the top of my law school class.
Then to my first job at a prestigious firm.
Then to a clerkship with Judge Hanlon, especially since I’d taken an unconventional path to the job.
Now, it was amusing.
“What are you suggesting, Jackson?” I asked, determined to sound stern even though I barely kept my smile at bay.
“I’m not suggesting anything. I’m asking a question,” he said.
I sighed dramatically. “Judge Hanlon was my boss, my mentor, and a relentless taskmaster. I never knew what I might be confronted with on any given day. Dry cleaning my suits every day because I cleaned the crawlspace or did some other insane task would have bankrupted me. So I always kept a change of clothes and shoes here so I was ready,” I said.
Jack followed me to the guest room.
I wiped the smile off my face and looked at Jack.
“So no, Jackson, I was not sleeping with my septuagenarian boss who was still madly in love with his deceased wife. Is your curiosity satisfied?”
I looked him in the eye, finally letting a teasing smile lift my lips.
The smile dropped when I met Jackson’s eyes.
Jackson’s smoldering eyes that threatened to set me on fire.
Suddenly, I felt a bit lightheaded, and hitched in a breath when Jack’s gaze caressed me from head to toe.
His gaze felt like a physical touch, and my body’s response was instantaneous.
Everything fell away, and all I saw was Jack.
All I wanted were his hands to touch me as his gaze did.
Wanted his lips to follow those same paths.
I swallowed heavily when my eyes locked with Jack’s.
“Done with you? No, not by a long shot.”