Chapter 9
I FINISHED LISTENING TO THE text-to-voice app read back the last of the string of emails and popped the earbud out.
I’d already gone over the notes for the meeting a dozen or so times.
I should be ready, but after the debacle with the GS case, I couldn’t afford to fuck this up.
I’d messaged the other partners about my recusal and forwarded the files to one of the junior associates, but I’d taken the chicken-shit way out, disguised as business, and hadn’t actually spoken to anyone.
I had no idea the extent of the fallout, but it couldn’t be good.
I’d been tightening the ropes around the shipping firm for months.
Tonight was the night to close the deal and move my firm into the number-one spot as counsel for one of the largest transportation companies in the country.
Hell, it was only a matter of time before they were number one in the world.
If—when—I got them to sign with us, I’d be a superhero.
Assuming I didn’t let the distraction get the better of me.
Alex had me twisted up in knots. I’d spent way too much time trying to push her out of my head, with only marginal success.
I tucked the notes into my folio. The words had started to turn and run into each other anyway.
I glanced down at my phone one last time to see if she’d responded to my last text.
I hadn’t heard from her since her elevator text and that was too damn long ago.
I could multitask with the best of them, but only if I could compartmentalize the different pieces.
The sexy Dr. Smithson managed to work her way into everything, and I was having a hard time picking out the individual threads, which wasn’t going to work for me. I needed this dinner to go well.
The town car pulled to a stop in front of the restaurant and I tried to ignore the jolt I got from seeing the place where I caught Alex the first time we met.
Maybe dinner at Matt’s hadn’t been such a great idea.
I’d chosen it weeks ago because the staff knew me and would go out of their way to ensure the dinner went off without a hitch.
As long as I managed to stay out of my own fucking way.
I thanked the driver and hurried through the front door. The pretty hostess smiled at me and led me to a table on the second floor overlooking the balcony, where Jared was already waiting, looking a thousand times more comfortable than I felt.
“You need to chill the fuck out, man,” said Jared, after I’d placed my drink order and dropped my folio on the floor. “Clients can smell desperation a mile away. What’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing. I’m fine.” Or I would be by the time the Gulf Enterprises team arrived. I might have to work harder than Jared at some things, but confidence wasn’t usually one of them.
“First you’re dropping cases and now you’re twitchy before meetings. Get it together.”
That answered the question about whether he’d heard about the recusal and added to the long list of things I didn’t want to talk about. I couldn’t bullshit Jared. He might not figure out the truth but he’d smell the lie.
“Stop being an ass. The client’s here.” Grateful for the diversion, I stood as the hostess led the small group to our table. The fact that I thought of the reason for the meeting as a diversion illustrated how screwed-up my priorities had become.
I managed to make it through the small talk over appetizers and worked my way into the meat of the deal during the entrees.
By the time the server set the blood orange-infused custards in front of us, I’d hit my stride.
Jared had relaxed back into his chair, clearly confident in my ability to close.
“We’ll take good care of you,” I said, standing and clasping the owner’s hand after the coffee cups were empty and the papers had been signed.
“I’m sure you will.” The older man gripped my elbow and squeezed my hand, clearly intending to convey a dominance over me he didn’t have.
He could knock himself out if it made him feel more secure.
I knew how good I was. I didn’t need to white-knuckle the old man to prove it.
The deal would make the firm a lot of money, but there was nothing one-sided about it.
With the potential pitfalls involved in navigating international markets and regulations, Gulf Enterprises was lucky to get us.
At any price. I was feeling pretty damn satisfied.
And then my phone buzzed with an incoming text.
I always turned my phone off during meetings but I’d been so caught up waiting for Alex to text, I’d forgotten.
“Do you need to get that?” asked the older man, arching a brow.
I glanced at our joined hands and realized my grip had involuntarily tightened at the sound of the incoming message.
“No, of course not,” I said, relaxing my hand and reaching up to clap him reassuringly on the back a second before my pocket started to talk.
Fuck. I’d left the text-to-voice app open. Losing what was left of my cool, I reached inside my pocket to silence the phone but not before it broadcast its message to everyone within earshot.
“I came again. In the tub this time.”
The computer-generated voice did nothing to hide the meaning of the message. If anything, it made the whole thing that much worse.
“Client?” asked the company’s PR person, not bothering to hide his grin.
The owner didn’t look amused, and I could see Jared in my peripheral vision looking like he’d be happy to take a bat to my Porsche. I couldn’t blame him. I shut off the phone but the damage was done.
“No, sir. That was personal. I apologize.”
The older man nodded but it was clear from his expression exactly what he thought about his attorneys having personal lives. At least we still were his attorneys. Despite my colossal lapse in judgment, I could still spin this as a win.
He made a noncommittal noise, and I said a silent prayer of gratitude that Alex’s text came in after the papers had been signed. Of course, if I hadn’t had my head up my ass and remembered to turn off the app, it wouldn’t have mattered either way.
Jared circled around the table, submitting to his own round of Vulcan death grip handshakes before walking the team to the top of the stairs. I took the opportunity to slip the phone from my pocket and open Alex’s message, without the sound this time. The picture was worse.
“Who do you have waiting for you in the tub?” asked Jared from too close behind me. “And here I thought your problem was blue balls-induced stress.”
I stuffed the phone in my pocket, not caring that I looked guilty as hell. There was no way on God’s green earth I was sharing Alex’s photo with Jared.
“No one.” He wouldn’t buy it, but I had to try.
“Fuck you.”
“Nice talk. We did it.” I tapped the signed contract still sitting on the table, hoping to distract him.
“Yeah, yeah, we get to learn international shipping regulations. Woo-hoo. Who’s in the tub?
” He collapsed back in his seat and pinned me with his courtroom glare, the one he used with hostile witnesses.
“Wait a minute. It’s Dr. Smithson, isn’t it?
The Dom trainer. She’s the reason you ditched the case.
” His eyes went so wide his eyebrows hit his hairline.
“Dom whisperer is more like it if she’s got you this fucked up. ”
I pressed my lips together. Unless I looked him in the eye and lied my ass off, he was going to find out about Alex.
“Holy shit!” he said, loud enough to make other diners glance in our direction.
“I don’t think they heard you on the other side of the Quarter.”
“Holy shit.” He pitched his voice artificially low but his eyebrows were still trying to bury themselves in his hairline. “You are so screwed. Who else knows? The other partners?”
“No and they won’t. Not unless you tell them.”
I glared at him and he held his hand up in front of his face like the most unlikely Boy Scout on the face of the planet.
“I’m not telling. So what’s the deal? You recuse yourself this morning and have her accounting for her orgasms by dinner? What the fuck, man?”
I didn’t like how crazy it sounded when he laid it out like that. I directed things; I didn’t react. Except with Alex. All bets were off where she was concerned.
“Remember the woman from the bar a couple of weeks ago?”
The speed with which he recalled the casual meeting was a testament to how long it had been since my friends saw me with a woman.
“The one with the redhead. I remember.”
I waited for a moment while he puzzled through things.
“No way. She’s Dr. Smithson? The one you were trying to ruin this morning?”
I nodded, letting the realization settle over him at the same time it all came rushing back to me.
“The Lexi responsible for the clusterfuck at the club? No shit.” He blew out his breath and shook his head.
“That about sums it up.”
“So what happened? You had a colossal hard-on for her this morning,” he said, grinning at his choice of words. “I remember talk of ‘burying the reckless woman who had no clue what she was playing at.’ How did you get from there to here?”
“I got her to agree to take me through a session.” I left out the paying her part. I was already on legal ground so shaky I could go under at any moment. I didn’t need to add to the quicksand.
“I’m not sure whether to bow to your awesomeness or run before the lightning strikes. You’re either a genius or totally fucked.”
Or both, I thought.
“It didn’t work out exactly the way I’d planned.” Understatement of the century.
“I don’t know, man. She’s calling to tell you she got herself off in the tub. It seems to me that has promise.”
He gave me a shit-eating grin and I felt my lips curving in spite of the warning alarms going off in my head.
“Maybe.”
“Are you going to bring her to the club? It’s been a long damn time since you played in public. What better way to teach her what she doesn’t know?”
Jared had a point. I couldn’t explain why the idea didn’t sit well with me, but something about taking Alex to play at the club felt off. I was going to continue letting my gut run the show. For now at least.
“It’s too soon.” It was a bullshit answer but it was the best I could give him.
“For her or for you?” he asked, clearly skeptical.
“Both maybe.”
“You’ve got to know, but don’t wait too long. Julie’s been gone a long time.”
Hearing him say my ex’s name caught me off guard and I realized she didn’t even play into my decision not to take Alex to Bacchus. Interesting.
The server appeared with two rocks glasses of Scotch and the chef’s apologies. Apparently Matt was too busy in the kitchen to join us. It had been a long shot. The restaurant was packed.
“No worries,” said Jared, winking at the pretty young woman. “At least he sends exceptional presents.”
She smiled at him and shook her head, clearly over him before he even got started. Smart woman. I took a swallow of the smoky amber liquid, wondering how long I was going to have to wait before I could ditch my nosey friend and figure out how I wanted to respond to Alex’s text.
“Was there something else on your mind?” I tossed it out there all casual like but I could tell by the arch of his eyebrow he wasn’t buying it.
“Why yes actually, there was. Unless you have somewhere else you need to be? Like maybe in a tub somewhere?”
“Shut up. What is it?”
“I’m just messing with you. It can wait until the morning. Sounds like you’ve got your hands full. Or are about to,” he said, grinning. “I’m glad. You’ve been alone too long. And unlike me, one-night hookups never really seemed to do it for you.”
I opened my mouth to tell him it wasn’t like that—that I was still alone. Whatever Alex and I were doing, it wasn’t a long-term relationship. But when I started to speak, I realized I didn’t want to say the words out loud. How fucked up was that?
“Thanks.” I should stay and talk until Jared was ready to go, but it felt like my phone with Alex’s photo was burning a hole in my jacket pocket.
“Go on,” he said, waving me away. “I’m going to head downstairs to the bar for a bit. See if I can find someone new to the city in need of some company.”
I didn’t wait. I shook his hand and headed for the exit. My phone was in my hand before I hit the bottom of the stairs.