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She relaxed, sank into my arms, looser and freer, and the kiss deepened again. I backed her up against the car, shielding her with my body from any prying eyes. I stroked her face with my fingertips, gave her sweet, soft kisses and then dipped my tongue back in her mouth, loving the sound of her sigh. She caught my hand in hers and held it as the kiss went on and on.
A horn blared and startled us apart. She looked away shyly, blushing, her lips swollen from our kisses. As she tried to slip away, I held on to her hand, pulled her back to me. I hugged her, dropped a kiss on her hair, let her hide her face in my shoulder for a minute and recover herself. Then she pulled back, mumbled a goodbye and fled for her car door. I stood on the pavement wondering what in hell had happened.
13
RORY
I dragged into the brownstone, coming off a twenty-four-hour shift at the firehouse. It had been uneventful for the most part, but those were the longest, most tiring shifts because they slogged by. I went to the kitchen for something to eat. Jeremy sat at the counter.
“Why are you looking at that apple? It do something to you?” I asked.
He looked up and shook his head.
“What’s up?”
“Nothing,” he muttered.
“Bullshit. You haven't given a one-word answer to anything since you were about ten. You’ve always got something to say, and some five-dollar word to use to describe it.”
“My law degree cost more than five bucks, brother, and sometimes I don’t have anything to say.”
“Untrue. You even talk in your sleep,” I teased.
“I had lunch with Julie.”
“You did?” I asked. “She okay?”
“Not really. Her ex came into the ER looking for her last night. He apparently needed stitches.”
“I’d like to pound the shit out of that asshole.”
“Same here, brother,” Jeremy agreed.
“Plus, if that dickhead had any sense, he wouldn’t want her to be his nurse. Dumbass might get an enema and anything else she could think of. Not that he doesn’t deserve a lot worse.”
“You have no idea. Or maybe you do. I didn’t know the extent of the abuse until today,” he shook his head. “I’m not going to repeat it because it’s not my story to tell, but it was worse than I imagined.”
“It must be bad for you to say so. You usually don’t even flinch over stuff like that.”
“Too long in the courtroom, makes you jaded,” he said. “I met her for lunch, she gave me details, and then after lunch, when we said goodbye, I kissed her.”
“I’ll be damned,” I said. I leaned against the counter, letting it sink in that I wasn’t even mad.
“I know. It was unprofessional. I was meeting her not just as a family friend but as a prospective client because I’m going to see this bastard locked up as soon as humanly possible. I should never have crossed that line. It’s unethical—not to mention that she kissed you too.”
“Calm yourself, Jeremy,” I said. “Is that all you’re upset about?”
“The total breach of my professional ethics and the fact that I betrayed my brother? Yeah, that’s all.” He said it ruefully.
“Man, I don’t have dibs on her. She’s a grown woman. She can kiss whoever she wants,” I said.
As Jeremy looked at me incredulously, Darren came in. “Who can kiss whoever she wants?” he asked, getting a bottle of water.
“Julie. Jeremy here is beating himself up because I guess she called him at the office. Her ex, who needs his ass beat into next Thursday by the way, came into the ER to hassle her.”
“That son of a bitch. If one of us needs to hang out there and look out for her on her shift, I can take tonight’s.”
“She’s independent as all hell,” Jeremy said. “I’m pretty sure she’d try to get you in a headlock if you said you were going to protect her.”
“That might be fun,” I said wryly.
“Point is,” I continued. “This fucker is tracking her down at her job already. He’s not very attached to his freedom apparently.”
“Her boss sent her to take a break and she didn’t have to treat him, but it scared her. Which is understandable, considering the fact that this shit-stain did unspeakable things to her for years. It’s also possible that he’s willing to injure himself just to get closer to her as a patient in the ER,” Jeremy said.
“That’s fuckin’ nuts,” Darren replied.
“Yeah,” I agreed.“She was brave, talking about it like that. I was about to have a stroke just keeping myself from flipping the table over and doing some stupid Hulk shit!” Jeremy said.
“Whoa, Jer,” Darren said, “you’re supposed to be cold as ice, remember? Do your lawyer thing, throw him back in jail.”
“I know. But the more she talked, the more I wanted to punish him. And I don’t mean ten years without parole. I mean I wanted to get my hands on him. If you knew what all he did to her, you’d want to put him in the ground,” Jeremy said, practically growling.
