“You already are, my friend. The world will learn your identities on your date, correct?” She waited out my nod before adding, “I’m not asking you to seduce him, or fuck him.” Too late. “I’m merely saying to play up the fact that Mr. Navarro is truly a romantic at heart, which isn’t far from the truth. Only a man interested in a woman would make such a grand gesture.”
Or a man interested in messing with a woman. Either way, the reasons I regretted sleeping with that pretentious prick continued to pile up with each day that went by.
That I knew for sure. I also knew I wasn’t going to play it the way Janis wanted me to.
The woman was stunning even in a bland T-shirt, jeans that were probably as old as she was, and her hair up in a haphazard ponytail. An attraction to her was always there, but now after having fucked her, that attraction had gone haywire.
Ironically, it was Janis Steiner’s soon-to-be ex who recommended the restaurant we were all at. I wasn’t sure whether the coincidence was a blessing. Who knew when or if I would’ve found out about that connection? Really, my encounter with Amy had nothing to do with the Steiners, but full disclosure to my client was necessary.
The moment I returned to my table my buddy misinterpreted my distraction. “Who’s the babe?”
Before answering, I drained the rest of my wine. “My sister-in-law’s best friend.”
“Is she single?”
“No,” I lied, but the last person I wanted sniffing after Amy was Andrew Perry. And his amused smirk meant he didn’t believe me one iota.
We’d been friends since law school, and his promiscuousness made me look like a priest. Our personalities couldn’t be more different. Andrew was more in line with my brother Brad’s in-your-face approach to life, where I preferred to coast a bit less dramatically.
What we did have in common was the level of success in our field. He’d recently left the firm he’d been with to join mine, bringing a remarkable corporate bankruptcy law résumé. Having Andrew as an associate should’ve created tension in our friendship, but nothing bothered the man, which I appreciated… most of the time. In fact, I planned to make him a partner soon.
In true Andrew fashion, he pointed a long finger at me. “You’re fucking her.” It wasn’t a question, and I chose to avoid that claim while raising a hand to catch our waitress’s attention. When she came over and I handed her my corporate card without asking for the bill, he badgered me some more. “If that’s a no, then I’m sure you wouldn’t mind if I went for it.”
“The fuck you will.”
A chuckle rumbled out of him. “Ah… I’ll take that as a yes. Not sure what the long face is about. If I were fucking her, I’d be downright giddy… skipping included.” He proceeded to leer at Amy, and never had I wanted to punch my friend in the face before. “Hell, I’d even serenade her in public.”
“You seriously need to shut the fuck up.”
“Why the attitude?” It wasn’t the commonality of my response that caught his attention; it was the atypical pissed-off tone behind it.
I chose to make it more about her dining partner while suppressing how badly I wanted to drag Amy into a dark hallway and repeat our first time together. “The woman she’s with is the soon-to-be ex-wife of my client.” I wasn’t allowed to discuss details of Richard’s case, but I could admit that much.
“Oh…” He seemed to consider that. “So what? If he’s cool with it, there’s no law against you doing her.”
I shook my head. “How are you so professional when you need to be?”
“I flip a switch. It’s a talent,” he stated with a shrug. “More importantly, share some deets, man. She’s wild, right?” His gaze again landed back on Amy. “She looks it.”
“Fuck off.” Thankfully, the waitress came back quick enough so I could get the hell out of there. “Let’s go,” I barked before even completing my signature on the receipt.
To that, he tipped his hand in a mocking salute. “Sure thing, boss.”
I hadn’t dared look over at their table, and my ire hadn’t lessened the entire time we walked out of the restaurant and back to our office. Thankfully, Andrew dropped discussing Amy’s finer points and switched over to yapping about a chick he had met that past weekend. I nodded and responded when needed while counting the steps before I could plop into my cushy desk chair and think things through.
Legally, Andrew was right in that there was no issue with the situation at hand. Morally, it would be up to Richard whether he felt otherwise. The Steiner case needed to be handled with perfection. Richard pretty much funded the agency that Janis ran, and my client wanted majority control, making him her boss. It had nothing to do with wanting in on the publishing market. Richard knew squat about that business. It was merely to hurt her.
Obviously, his wife had lost her shit over that.
There was no room for error and a lot at stake. Richard could easily balk over the fact his wife’s client happened to have been a woman I recently fucked. A woman I desperately wanted to fuck again and again.
I’d hate to lose him, but I’d hate to have to stop what could be a very hot time with Amy even more, and that realization knocked me a bit off-kilter. Never had I thought with the wrong head when it came to my career.
“Shit.” I dragged a hand through my hair. Not wanting to delay the inevitable, and not wanting for him to hear a skewed version from his ex, I called Richard’s direct office line.
“Richard Steiner.”
“It’s Nate.”
“Hey, what’s up?” There was really no reason for my call. We were in a holding pattern, waiting for Janis to sign the divorce papers. “Did she sign?” he predictably asked.
“Not yet.” I expected Janis wouldn’t without a nasty, drawn-out fight. When I shared that with Richard, he didn’t seem concerned.
“Did something else happen then?” he asked.
Reluctantly, I began with my lunch encounter and morphed into how I knew Amy to begin with, leaving out details of the auction and sex. “I’d hate to lose you as a client, but the woman in question is connected to my family, and cutting ties isn’t a possibility for me.” He didn’t need to know it also wasn’t an option that my cock would be on board with. When Richard remained silent, I was forced to ask, “Is this an issue for you?”
“Can it become one?”
“Not legally.”
Nothing Amy knew or was fed would affect the case. The Steiners have been separated for six months now. Divorce proceedings had been filed at that time, and depositions were already recorded. No children and no contest meant it should’ve been a simple and clean split, with all assets divided fifty-fifty. However, Janis had refused to sign and filed an appeal.
I had predicted as much. That agency was her baby; she’d made it what it was. But her cocky arrogance only fueled Richard even further. He hadn’t balked, claiming she’d change her mind eventually.
“Look,” I said, scrubbing a hand over my face, dreading what I needed to say next. “It comes down to you and whether you’re comfortable with the connection. Your call, Richard.”