Chapter 4
Chapter Four
ZOE
“You can’t be serious,” I said.
“Zoe, I’m serious,” Ted Duncan said. “Let me talk to my client and…”
“Ted, it’s total bullshit and you know it. There are about thirty witnesses who said your client punched my client first,” I countered, annoyed as hell to even be fielding this call.
Ted Duncan was the most obnoxious kind of attorney to be found.
His face was plastered on billboards all over Seattle.
He was litigation happy, promising his gullible clients dollar signs he rarely delivered.
Now, he’d just informed me that his client, the drunk fool who’d been trying to fight with his friend and ended up punching Ethan instead, was considering suing Ethan over his bloody nose.
Somehow between last night and this afternoon, the nose was now allegedly broken. I did not have time for this bullshit.
“Zoe, I will review the police reports, but my client’s version of events is different, and he’s concerned Mr. Walsh is receiving favorable treatment from the police, in addition to the alleged witnesses.
Let’s also not forget, this happened at a bar.
It’s fair to say every witness might have been under the influence,” Ted said, his calm, measured and professional sounding tone at odds with everything he was doing.
I bit back my urge to swear and hang up on him. “Ted, I’ll hear from you after you’ve had a chance to review the police reports from the event. If you weren’t aware of this yet, the entire event was also captured on the security cameras at the bar.”
“Oh? You don’t say. Well, it’s good to know we have concrete information,” Ted replied. For the first time, I sensed a tiny bit of hesitation in him.
I smiled wryly to myself before politely saying goodbye and hanging up the phone. The second I did, it rang again. I glared at it and then realized it was Jana, my receptionist extraordinaire who also happened to be one of my best friends. I tapped the speaker button.
“Please tell me it’s not Ted Duncan calling back.” I might’ve enjoyed a moment of amusement when I sensed the dent in his smarmy armor, but I wasn’t up for another chat with him just yet.
“It’s not Ted Duncan calling back,” Jana parroted cheerily.
I reached up and untied the knot in my hair, sighing at the feel of my hair falling loose. I was tired. I’d managed maybe two hours of sleep after rolling out of bed to meet Ethan at the police station. I could’ve seriously used a cup of coffee and then a long, hot bath.
“If it’s not him, who is it?” I asked.
I heard footsteps, which let me know Jana was striding away from the reception desk. That meant she was stepping into the small room behind her desk, which she referred to as her top-secret gossip spot. It was the place she could go if she needed to convey something privately.
“Mr. Sexy is here to see you,” she whispered into her headset.
My low belly clenched. “Mr. Sexy?”
“Don’t play coy with me. Ethan Walsh is here. He’s so hot, I could eat him up on the spot.”
She paused. I knew she was grinning, and I knew she was waiting to see if I’d take her bait.
I wasn’t about to give her the satisfaction.
I had no idea how, but she’d picked up I had maybe a thing for Ethan.
Jana was crazy perceptive. Ethan had accompanied Alex to a meeting here at my office once.
She’d quickly picked up on the fact I was a bit scatterbrained.
I’d also made the mistake of telling her about that random kiss.
She’d hardly shut up about it until I told her she was wasting her time.
I knew I was in for it now that he would be around.
I was still toying with what to do about the fact we had kissed and he was now my client.
Funny thing was, we lawyers had the loosest rules for ourselves.
While plenty of us happily sued doctors who screwed their patients, we had this loosey-goosey rule on it.
It was so loose that if your ‘relationship’ commenced before the client became your client, you were golden.
Unless it wasn’t consensual, but that was something else altogether.
I found it wryly amusing that the fact Ethan had already kissed me might be the small detail that let me dance on the safer side of the ethics.
That didn’t change the fact it felt completely wrong and naughty.
My intellect was slightly horrified at the fact my body only got more hot and bothered about it as a result.
“Well, he’s yours to eat up,” I countered, trying and utterly failing at tamping the tiny curl of jealousy.
Jana wouldn’t even think of making a play for a guy she thought I liked, but I desperately wanted to not want Ethan the way I did.
My mind flashed to the blaze of fire his fingertip left behind on my skin last night. Or this morning, I supposed.
Just thinking about that tiny, brief touch, and I got hot all over.
“Oh hon, I can appreciate a sexy man, but I don’t want to personally eat him up. I want you to,” Jana said.
I could see the sly grin on her face. Of late, she’d been on me to ditch my virginity.
She’d declared I was her project. I had mixed feelings about that.
I was kind of annoyed I was still a virgin.
It wasn’t because I was a prude, or saving myself.
No, it was as stupid as just being too focused on other things, namely my career.
It didn’t help I’d been a redheaded beanpole in high school and most of college.
I’d been what people called a late bloomer.
I didn’t get curves until later. By that point, I was a tad bit self-conscious what with being teased for my height all the way up into my twenties.
“Hey Zoe, you there?” Jana asked.
“I’m here. Can you tell Ethan I’m busy?”
Jana sighed dramatically into my ear. “No, I’m not lying about your schedule. I’m telling him you’ll be available in five minutes. Oh, and if you were hoping to throw me off the scent of how much you want to screw his brains out, trying to avoid him only proves my point.”
“Jana, fuck off. Okay?”
Jana chuckled softly. “Don’t you wish.”
I could hear her footsteps and was about to hang up the line when I heard her speak again. She could’ve muted her speaker, but I knew she wanted me to hear her. Dammit. I wanted to hear Ethan.
“Mr. Walsh, do you mind waiting five minutes?”
“Be happy to,” was Ethan’s reply.
I could hear his teasing tone even in those three small words, and just the sound of it sent flutters twirling in my belly.
I was screwed. I had the hots for my client. Make that double screwed.
Restless, I stood up abruptly and dashed across my office to the decorative mirror between the windows.
Oh hell. I’d temporarily forgotten I’d taken my hair down.
It was a tousled mess now, and I didn’t have time to fix it.
I ran my fingers through it, trying to make it look tidy somehow.
I almost always wore it up in a knot because my hair was wild.
It was thick and wavy when it was loose.
Nothing seemed to tame it, so I kept it out of the way.
Throw in the fact it was a deep auburn and my hair drew way too much attention when it was loose.
No one took me seriously then. All they did was stare at my hair.
After getting teased so much about it when I was little, it was hard not to be self-conscious even though I intellectually knew it was silly.
There was a knock at my door, and I jumped away from the mirror. I couldn’t believe I was obsessing about my appearance all because a client showed up unexpectedly. Well, not any client—the obscenely hot client whose kiss had left me hot, wet, and bothered and occupied nights of fantasies since.
Why not? Ethan’s hot as hell. If you want to ditch your virginity, might as well make it worth your while.
My naughty voice was in full swing today.
It was safe to say I hadn’t heard much from this voice.
Very few men caught my attention. If they did, they rarely noticed me, or not that I knew.
Ethan had gone and set me loose inside with his random kiss months ago and then flirting so blatantly with me last night.
Another knock at my door. Right, I was dithering about how I looked while Ethan was waiting to meet with me.
I started to walk to the door when it opened and Jana slipped inside, closing it quickly behind her.
“What are you doing?” she asked, her voice just above a whisper.
My cheeks heated, and not for the first time, I silently cursed my fair skin.
“Nothing,” I replied, striving to keep my voice calm and bored sounding.
Jana’s perceptive gaze coasted over me. “Right. Nothing. Well, you look gorgeous. Good move to take your hair down,” she said with a sly grin.
My cheeks got even hotter. “I did not take my hair down for Ethan. I’m tired, and I took it down before. Trust me, I was just thinking about putting it back up, but…”
Jana shook her head. “Do not do that. I’d give an arm or a leg for your hair.”
I rolled my eyes. “Whatever. Send Ethan in, would you? Let me get this over with,” I replied, cringing a little at my snappish tone.
Jana eyed me for a moment and shook her head. “Just relax, okay? It’s okay to think a guy’s hot. You know I’m only teasing about him, right?”
“I know,” I muttered. I took a gulp of air and straightened my shoulders. “And it’s not okay to think one of my clients is hot, so this won’t be going anywhere.”
This was my first tacit admission that Jana was right. Her eyes took on a gleam.
“I think that makes it even more fun. What’s more perfect than losing your virginity to a totally hot soccer star who happens to be your client?”
“It’s not worth my career,” I said flatly.
Jana put a hand on her hip. “Oh, get over yourself. You already kissed him when he wasn’t your client, so you have some wiggle room.” With a sly grin, she asked, “Ready for Mr. Sexy?”
I glared at her and walked back to my desk. I sat down quickly, needing the barrier to keep me sane when Ethan came in. I heard Jana speaking and then Ethan stepped through the door, and it was whisked shut behind him.
The second I looked up at him, my belly somersaulted, my pulse shot off like a rocket, and heat spread through my veins like wildfire.
Sweet hell. He was too much. His golden hair was mussed, and his green eyes dark as he swept his gaze over me.
He oozed raw masculinity and had the body to go with it.
He wore nothing remarkable—just a navy t-shirt and jeans—yet somehow his clothes showcased his obscenely fit body.
My mouth watered just looking at him—the corded muscles of his arms, his broad shoulders, and the way his jeans hung low on his hips, giving me a flash of bronzed skin and abs, just enough to make my panties wet.
Oh. My. God. I needed to get a grip.