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I roll my eyes.
“Come on!” he says uproariously. “Can it really be that bad? That working for me is not worth its weight on your resume?” He shakes his head. “I don’t think so. If you’re smart at all, you’ll take the job, put my gold star on your resume, and then move on with your life.”
“That easy, huh? I just fit you in. Like a bikini wax.”
“Yes,” he says loudly. “Absolutely. Your calendar should just be a revolving list of me and bikini waxes.”
“And law school and narrating and—”
He waves me off before I can finish. “Yeah, yeah, all that too.”
I chew on my lip and study his frisky brown eyes as they study me. They’re light and playful and, at the same time, unrelenting. If I don’t accept his offer now, he’ll just track me down and make it again. He’s like persistence’s annoying brother.
“Fine.”
“You’ll do it?” There’s doubt in his eyes.
“I’ll do it,” I agree. “I don’t know why, and quite frankly, I don’t know why on earth you want me, but I’ll do it.”
“Good. You can start tomorrow. I’ll see you at eight.”
He acts like it’s all just that fucking simple.
I laugh. “It already is tomorrow, and I just told you I’m recording at five.”
“What time do you get done recording?”
“Ten.”
“I’ll see you at ten thirty, then.”
“I have class at one,” I grumble. “This isn’t going to work at all.”
“Yes, it is,” he says with a sigh. “Geez, you don’t think I’ve already thought of this stuff?”
I laugh. “No, no, I didn’t.”
“Well, I did. Working for me counts as an internship. Practical credit. You’re about to move into the independent study portion of your year anyway.”
My mind calculates his words, and even as scared as I am to take this kind of a leap, I can’t disagree with him.
If I do get internship credit from Caplin Hawkins Law, there is only one class that I would have to attend, other than my mock trials.
“And what am I supposed to do until then?”
“I’ll talk to your professors,” he responds without hesitation. “Hullum, Shank, Koontz, and Marisol. Trust me, Ruby, I know all of your third-year professors. Very well, actually.”
“Um, no. I don’t want you doing that. What if I miss material? What if I don’t—”
“Relaaaaax,” he groans, rubbing a hand down his face. “Jesus. I’ll teach you all of it. Trust me, you’re going to learn a whole lot more working for me than you are in one of those classrooms.”
I glance up in suspicion, and he puts his hands up in surrender. “Just show up after work in the morning, and I’ll take care of the rest, okay?”
I heave a deep sigh and consider it. I’ll never get an opportunity like this again. Ever. I mean, he’s one of the best lawyers in the country, for God’s sake, and he’s begging me to work for him. I’d be such a fool not to do this.
“You really think my professors will be okay with this?”
“I’m certain of it.”
God, how does he make it pretty much impossible to say no?
It’s like a fucking superpower.
“Okay,” I finally agree. “But if I don’t learn enough to pass the bar, I’m going to find the nearest witch and put a penis hex on you.” I drop my voice to low and serious. “Never to sleep with a woman again.”
“Wow,” he says through a soft chuckle. “You’re evil.” I smirk, and his smile deepens. “Man, I kind of love it.”
I shake my head. “Don’t get any ideas. We’re working together—that’s it.”
“Of course,” he says, a perfect picture of innocence. “I wouldn’t dream of anything else, Ruby.”
That’s good. Just what I want.
The only problem is…I don’t know if he can honestly say the same.
But are you sure that’s the only problem? Because this man sure has a way of disarming you…
I shake off the absurd thoughts and write them off as confusion from lack of sleep.
I’d have to take a rock to the head before I’d even come close to falling for Caplin Hawkins’s cocky, charming swagger and smooth-talking ways.
Cap
When I get to work at five a.m., I turn on the lights in the hall of my office and take a stroll to the kitchen to grab some coffee to use in my coffeepot. Being the only lawyer in the office, I’ve never bothered to set up a formal break room. Instead, I keep the good stuff—like coffeepot—on a cart right in the corner of my own office.
Unfortunately, without Liz here doing her job, no one has taken the initiative to set my coffee timer to brew upon my arrival. In fact, no one has done anything to ensure I have coffee at all.
It’s horrifying.
I make a mental note to make sure Liz’s new hire runs out to get me some more, as well as doing some of the more mundane errands. At ten thirty, I’ll have Ruby here to help with the other tasks.
