Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
Carter silently fumed, somehow managing to curse her even as he appreciated the way her hips swayed purposefully toward the door. Gideon moved to stand beside him in the hallway.
“Kind of a spitfire, isn’t she?”
Carter growled low in his throat, then spun on his heel and stormed into his office. “Stubborn-ass woman. Should’ve gotten the practice.” He threw himself into his chair and glared at the ceiling. “That moron doesn’t deserve a penny, and she’s giving him everything!”
Gideon lifted a brow. “Maybe she needs the money.”
Carter snorted. “She doesn’t need the money. Her finances are in way better shape than his.”
He had a feeling it was exactly as she’d told him: she just wanted out. But she deserved so much more. She needed more than a husband who cheated on her and knocked up some tramp. She’d get a nice chunk of money out of the deal, sure, but it wasn’t nearly enough.
“Why does it bother you so much?”
Carter dipped his head just enough to glare at him.
Audrey was why. Because she was the smartest, most amazing woman who had ever stepped foot in his office, and he wanted to help her.
He wanted to do a lot more, but she was also his client.
It wasn’t as if it never happened, but it was the biggest cliché in the book.
“It just… does.”
He stared at his best friend, debating whether to open up or not. Gideon and Carter had met in first grade when Carter’s dad had picked up their family and moved them south. Back then, Carter had been scrawny and nerdy, an undersized young boy with glasses who’d been teased relentlessly.
Gideon had intervened one day on the playground when Jeff Sutton, the class bully, had knocked Carter down and stolen his lunch money. One punch to the jaw had sent Jeff to the ground—and forged a lifelong friendship.
A growth spurt in high school put Carter two inches taller than Gideon, but they remained friends all through school. After graduation, they’d enlisted in the military—Gideon in the Army and Carter in the Marines. After their tours were up, they’d returned home and chosen to go to law school.
They’d each had several offers from different firms, but when Walker and Raines had two open slots to fill, they jumped at the chance to work together there as well. The internships turned into full-time positions, and they’d been side by side for the last three years.
Carter steepled his fingers and rested them against his lips, mind racing.
Why was she being so difficult? He could’ve gotten her a good deal, a lot better than what she was settling for.
That idiot should be handing everything over to her, not the other way around.
He commended her for wanting to move on with her life and leave the asshat behind, but… why wouldn’t she let him help her?
Gideon lifted an eyebrow. “You’ve done this hundreds of times. What’s the big deal with this chick?”
Carter growled. “She deserves better.”
Gideon shrugged nonchalantly. “So do a lot of the women that come in here.”
True, but Audrey Stanton was different. Carter had never—not since the moment she walked through those doors—been able to call her by her married name. Wishful thinking on his part, maybe, but he’d known within seconds of meeting her that he wanted her.
More than that, ridiculous as it was, he adamantly refused to accept that she in any way belonged to another man. There’d been a spark between them the first time they spoke, and when she smiled at him… his reaction to her was like grabbing an electric fence.
Despite trying to talk himself out of it, he couldn’t get her off his mind.
He wanted her to see him in a different light—as a flesh-and-blood male instead of just her lawyer.
Right now, he meant literally nothing to her other than the fact that he had the power to grant her freedom from the idiot she’d called her husband for the past several years.
“That jerk treated her like crap.” He could hear the derision in his voice, and he quickly cleared his throat. “I’m just trying to get her what she deserves.”
“Sounds like you’re trying to get something else.”
Carter met Gideon’s pointed stare with one of his own. “Not sure what you’re implying.”
Gideon snorted a laugh. “Don’t gimme that. I’ve known you too long. You got something going on with this broad?”
“Not yet, but…” His gaze darted toward the door where a curvy blonde lounged against the doorjamb, clearly eavesdropping, and he stifled a groan.
Kaylee Raines—as in his boss, Edward’s, daughter—wore a pleased expression, as if his words were meant for her. Twenty-one if she was a day, she was pretty enough, but she was about as dumb as a brick wall.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t a learning curve. She’d been there for nearly a year, yet she continued to make the same stupid mistakes every day. Knowing she was a partner’s daughter, everyone there had tried to be polite, but their patience was wearing thin—and so was Carter’s.
Kaylee had spent the past few months doing her best to throw herself in his path at every opportunity. She’d started by making small talk, pulling him aside from time to time to ask questions. At first, he hadn’t minded helping her—until he realized it was a ruse.
He’d almost given in one night when she’d invited him back to her place, but thank God he’d had the presence of mind to decline. She’d become increasingly persistent in her pursuit, and he almost snorted out loud as his eyes swept over her.
The clothes themselves would have been acceptable for any office job, but the way she wore them was far from it.
The red button-down shirt matched her vibrant lipstick and pulled tightly across her breasts, unbuttoned so far that he could see the lacy material of her bra in the open V of the neckline.
Her demeanor screamed for attention. Too bad she wouldn’t be getting it from him.
Despite her best attempts to win his favor, he had no intention of going there—ever.
Especially not now. Not when he was so close to getting what he really wanted, which was a fiery red-headed doctor with a temper to match.
He lifted his chin at the blonde still draped against his doorway. “Yes, Kaylee?”
She sashayed into the office, hips fluid with the movement, and practically laid herself over his desk as she passed him a sheaf of papers. “Here’s your deposition for the Lyle-Mills case, Mr. Cross.”
He watched Gideon’s eyes drop to her bottom as she leaned over right in front of him, and he barely refrained from rolling his eyes.
“Thank you.” He accepted the file and dropped it into the tray at the corner of his desk. When she made no move to leave the room, he met her gaze with a frosty glare of his own. “That will be all. Please close the door on your way out.”
Kaylee’s lips tightened into a firm line of displeasure, but she flounced out of the office, slamming the door in her wake. He flinched at the sound and met Gideon’s amused eyes.
“Looks like she was less than impressed with your handling of the situation.”
Carter shook his head. “I’ll never be desperate enough to stoop that low.”
“Aw, come on. She’s not that bad.”
“Yeah, I noticed you were enjoying the show.” He leveled a stare at his best friend, wondering how the man could be so na?ve sometimes. “The chick’s a succubus. Go near that and you’ll pay for it.”
Gideon chuckled. “I’ll keep that in mind. So what is it about this broad?”
“Did you not see that?” He pointed toward the door. “She’d been trying to nail me down since she started here, like she singled me out.”
“Not Kaylee.” He tapped a finger on Audrey’s file. “Ms. Stanton.”
Carter hesitated. Besides the fact that she was drop-dead gorgeous, he wanted her—had to have her. He couldn’t explain it, but from the very moment he’d laid eyes on her, he’d known she was different. She was a game changer.
He lifted one shoulder. “There’s nothing going on.”
“Yet.” Gideon met Carter’s hard glare with one of his own. “Spill it. You’ve been pushing to get this resolved for weeks. You want her that bad?”
Carter blew out an exasperated breath. Why couldn’t Gideon just leave it alone?
Ever since that time on the playground nearly twenty-five years ago, Gideon had considered himself Carter’s protector.
And if that meant dragging the information out of him, he had no doubt he’d find a way to accomplish it.
“Honestly? I don’t know what it is about her, but I want her. I need to get this wrapped up so I can finally go talk to her. That’s why I needed to get that idiot on board. He cheated on her, for Christ’s sake. The least he could do was give her the practice she’s worked all her life for.”
“Can’t make her take something she doesn’t want,” Gideon chided.
No, he couldn’t, but that didn’t make him want to throttle the idiot any less. “Regardless, she deserves better.”
“And that’s you?” Gideon lifted a brow, and Carter flipped him the bird.
“I just want a chance with her. That’s all.”
He nodded. “Maybe that’ll get the message across to Kaylee loud and clear.”
Carter seriously doubted it. All he could do was avoid her and hope she eventually turned her attention elsewhere. “How quickly do you think we can get Howard to sign off on the decree?”
Gideon lifted a shoulder. “He owes me. I’ll request he get it approved ASAP. I’ll just add that tally to your list of favors, too.”
Carter reached over and fist-bumped him. “You’re the best.”