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“No,” she said. “If I wanted to practice corporate law, I needed to understand how corporations worked. She told me to get a job with a large company and learn every aspect of their business practices and then convince her I understood what rules they break and which they must abide by. So I did.”
“When did you have time for school and working for a huge company?”
“My third year, I took a job with a major online distribution firm working nights. I learned everything I could about corporate holdings, management, and tax law. After I finished law school and passed the bar, Inez offered me a first-year position in the rookie bullpen.”
“Damn, you’re tougher than every SEAL I know.”
She sipped her beer and shook off his compliment. “Some people have no choice but to be tenacious.”
“That’s not true. You could have just gotten a job. You didn’t have to choose to go to school for seven years while working full-time and memorizing every aspect of law. Don’t downplay your badassery.”
Picking up her hand, he pulled her to sit next to him, and she didn’t fight him. Instead, she burrowed into his side. They spent the next hour just talking. Once she started to fidget with the buttons on his shirt and started asking questions about the road trip they were taking, he could tell she was emotionally exhausted from sharing her background with him. Instead, he made love to her, pouring his admiration for her into every stroke of her delicate but fierce body. When they were both spent, she made him the best pasta dish he’d ever had before dragging him back into bed. With their naked bodies intertwined, she traced the lines of the eagle wing tattoo on his shoulder.
“Where are you going tomorrow?” she asked.
“We, you’re coming with me,” he pressed.
“I haven’t decided,” she said.
“There’s a beach, so you’ll need your bathing suit. I booked us a nice hotel. It even has one of those heart-shaped beds that vibrate when you feed it quarters.” Her laugh echoed in the sparse room.
“Sounds so romantic, how could I resist?”
“It will be,” he promised, flipping her on her back. He held her hands down on either side of her head, then he began licking his way down her body. “Please say you’ll come with me, or I’ll be too distracted to get back to your delicious body and I won’t accomplish anything.”
“Hmmm, so this is more about you?” She hummed. “What is this case about that it requires a road trip to a beach?”
“I can’t tell you, client confidentiality. Very hush hush.” He blew on her damp skin before placing more kisses along his path down her body and then traveling back up again.
“Intriguing.”
Kissing her navel, he moved along her hip bones letting his scruff tickle her and enjoying her mewling reactions to him.
“Please, baby, come with me,” he asked softly, letting his breath flow over the epicenter between her legs as he slipped his palms under her bottom and squeezed her firm curves. He was going to enjoy convincing her as he sank his tongue down, licking the line where her leg met her pelvic bone. His mouth spread in a big smile when she yelled “yes” only a minute later.
The next morning, he let Hailey sleep while he showered, and he caught sight of one picture on the dresser in her room. It was tattered and in a small old brass frame. The young woman looked like Hailey but her hair was a light brown and her eyes were sad.
“If you’re snooping, you won’t find anything,” Hailey said from bed.
“Was this your mother?”
“Yes. She was seventeen and hell-bent on growing up. I was born a year later.” She sat up, and her blond hair fell around her shoulders.
“Do you keep in touch with your grandmother? I just assumed you didn’t have any family.”
“No, she died a few years ago.”
“I’m sorry.” He looked again at the young woman in the picture. What had happened to cause her to want to grow up so fast?
“They say it’s a vicious cycle, having kids too young. My gran had my mom at eighteen, then my mom had me at eighteen.”
“But you broke that cycle.”
“I was terrified to have sex until I finished college.”
“You were a virgin until after college?” he asked, sitting on the edge of the bed and facing her.
A sly smile curled up her mouth.
