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She raises an eyebrow at me as she tucks it around her breasts.
“What?” I ask.
Julia smirks. “Honestly, I thought ‘come take a shower with me’ was code for ‘let me bend you over in the shower’.”
I laugh. “It didn’t seem like the time, but from now on, yes, that’s our code.”
“Thank you for taking care of me,” she says, pulling me down and planting a kiss on my cheek. “I needed that.”
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m going to bend you over later,” I say as she walks to her closet.
“Looking forward to it!” she calls over her shoulder.
I grin to myself. I think I’ve smiled more in the last few weeks than in the four years before that. And it’s all because of Jules.
* * *
By the time we pull up in front of the hospital lawyer’s office for the deposition, she’s practically vibrating with nerves. Her foot bounces the entire way there, and she’s fidgeting with her purse straps. The second I put the car in park, though, it’s like watching her put on armor.
She straightens her shoulders, giving them a little shake. All the nervous movements disappear and the tightness around her eyes evaporates, replaced with a raised eyebrow and a haughty expression. I fucking love it.
Janelle meets us in the courtyard off the parking lot. She shakes Julia’s hand, then mine.
“All set?” she asks Julia. “Do you want to go over what we talked about?”
“No, I’m good. Short answers, no volunteered info, you tell me to shut up, I shut up.”
“You’d be a dream client if you weren’t so argumentative most of the time.”
My eyes sweep the area as they speak. There’s almost no discernible security, and the windows surrounding the courtyard are making me antsy.
“Can we take this inside?” I interrupt their banter.
Janelle eyes me but nods.
I place a hand on Julia’s lower back as we head inside and she smiles up at me. “It’s nice to know I’m not the only one on edge,” she whispers as we get into the elevator.
I give Julia a wink as Janelle pushes the button for the fifth floor. The elevator doors open with a cheerful ding and we head to the receptionist’s desk. A thin man with thick glasses asks us sit in a waiting area, promising that Mr. Berkner and his associates will be right with us.
Julia and Janelle take seats in cushy armchairs, but I stand off to the side with a good view of the office doors, the elevator bank, and the back hallway.
The hospital lawyers keep us waiting half an hour past the scheduled deposition time, and I can almost see the flames in Julia’s eyes as she flips through a scruffy magazine before throwing it back on the coffee table. Her lawyer doesn’t look any happier, but seems to be containing that rage and focusing it into an email she’s sending from her phone.
When they finally call us back, Jules and her lawyer stand up with matching dark determination in their eyes and I can’t help but think the hospital representation made a huge mistake in making them wait.
Janelle strides into the conference room, Julia on her heels. I follow close behind, stepping off to the side as they take their seats. Three men in their fifties and sixties stand on the opposite side of the table. They’re talking to each other and barely acknowledge us.
All three are quintessential versions of middle-aged business men. Expensive suits and receding hairlines, thin lips and narrowed eyes. One of them has a Santa-style beard that might have made him look friendlier in another context, but here it gives him an almost evil vibe.
“Good morning, gentlemen,” Janelle says, looking at her watch. “Oh, forgive me, afternoon. I’m sure you are aware, this is my client, Julia Donovan and,” she gestures toward me, “her private security.”
“Security?”
“Yes. You read my email, correct?” She pauses, but Santa and his paunchy gang stare at her blankly. “No? Lovely. Dr. Grimaldi made an unscheduled appearance at my client’s home last weekend. As such, she has retained the services of Mr. Marquez.”
If there was ever a sentence designed to test my poker face, that was it. She retained my services all right. It takes every ounce of my self-control to keep from grinning like an idiot, but I manage. The slight twitch in my left eye is my only physical reaction. Julia chooses that moment to bring her coffee cup to her lips, using it to conceal her grin. The lawyers can’t see it, but I can.
“Perhaps your secretariesneed to have you check your email more frequently,” Janelle says smoothly.
