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“Help me with the trial. I know it’s not the most exciting weekend, but spend it here, and help me catch a killer.” He steps into me and slides a hand to my face. “I need you here. I want you here.”
“You don’t need me.”
“I do. It’s illogical, I know. We just met, but I do need you here.” He backs me up until I’m pressed to the door. “I can’t help what I have going on in my life right now. Be a part of it. You are a part of it. It’s how we met. It’s your job, too. Let’s do our jobs together.”
“Reese, I—”
“You’re good at closing statements. I need to deliver a killer closing to the jury and, apparently, to you. Say yes. To helping with the trial and to finding out what this is between us. I need to know. Don’t you?”
Somehow, this man, who I’ve called an asshole and wanted one and done, has turned everything around. He made me want and need him, and then said everything I wanted and needed to hear and didn’t know I wanted and needed to hear it. “Yes and yes,” I dare, because there simply isn’t another option I can live with. “But I have to go home and shower and change. Preferably before the Walker clan gets here.”
“That’s any minute now.”
“Oh God. I have to go.” I turn toward the door and Reese opens it so I can exit, but then catches my arm and turns me back to him. “Don’t run. I know you were burned. But I’m not him and I don’t chase women, Cat, but I’ll chase you.” He strokes my cheek, and I can’t breathe as he repeats, “I’ll chase you.” He releases me.
I turn away and start walking as his words ring in my head: I’m not him. The idea that my ex-asshole is controlling me right now stops me in my tracks. He is. He can’t have that control. I turn back around and find Reese still standing in the doorway. I march right back to him, press my hand to that gorgeous chest of his, and kiss him. “I’m coming back. I want to. And I am good at closing statements, and you have to give a killer one. This isn’t your opening. You can’t be your client and win over the jury.”
“What does that mean?”
“Arrogant, rich, and good looking, and you are those things.” I rotate and start walking, with his soft, sexy laughter trailing after me. And I’m smiling. God. This man makes me smile. I reach the elevators, step inside the car, and sink back against the wall. This man is making me crazy, but I feel the most alive I have in forever. It’s terrifyingly wonderful. And he’s right. I have to know where it leads.
Chapter sixteen
Cat
By the time I exit the elevator in Reese’s apartment building, my smile hasn’t disappeared. That is until I see the two big, intense men walking toward me that my departure was not fast enough for me to escape: Royce and Blake Walker of Walker Security. Both are the proverbial tall, dark, and deadly mix of attitude and good looks in jeans and Walker T-shirts. Both with long, dark hair tied at their napes. And both are in a direct collision course with little ole me. My only saving grace is Kara, Blake’s wife, who is walking next to them, who I have met numerous times and find really likeable, tough, and yet sweet.
With no other option, I charge toward them and stop in front of them as they do me. “Hi there, Cat,” Kara says, while both men have knowing smirks on their faces.
“I distinctly remember seeing you on camera in that dress yesterday,” Royce says.
I scowl, stunned that he would point out my obvious overnight stay with Reese, considering he’s usually the quiet, brooding Walker brother. “Why are you even noticing my dress?” I demand.
Blake laughs and Kara elbows him. “Sorry, Cat,” she says. “Not even his wife can teach him manners.”
“I noticed the dress,” Royce says, scowling at her and then at me, “because my wife complained that she couldn’t fit into it because she’s too fat, when, of course, she’s not fat. She’s just pregnant. But I can’t get her to see that.”
In other words, he couldn’t care less about my overnight. He’s thinking out loud about his wife and not sure how to be there for her. “Just love her, Royce,” I say as if he’s really asked the question. “And from what I’ve seen, you’re doing just fine.” I pat his arm. “More than fine. I’ll let you all get to Reese. I know he’s eager for whatever you found for him.” I don’t wait for the knowing smirks that might follow. I start walking and exit to the street, the cool morning air going right up my dress to my naked crotch, which, of course, reminds me of Reese ripping my panties off me. Why was I even looking for them? I can’t actually wear them again.
I smile and sidestep a group of passersby, with my mind back on Royce and how he dotes on Lauren, how all the Walker men are that way with their women. They are arrogant and sexy, but they love just as big as they make the art of walking into a room. I know that kind of love exists out there, maybe thanks to them. It’s just not how my father was with my mother. He had his women. She let him. I can’t be her. And maybe seeing those Walker men right now was more well-timed than it was poorly timed.
I’m reminded that real men love their fat, pregnant women. I laugh and dig out my phone and dial Lauren. She answers on the first ring. “Hey, you big, fat, pregnant woman,” I say.
“That is not funny,” she chides, and I can hear her scowl. “I might even unfriend you.”
“You’re not fat,” I say, barely dodging two men who almost run me over and never even notice I’m there. “You are however, quite possibly losing your mind, though, if you think you’re fat. I just ran into Royce and he told me you were saying you are.”
“Royce has a big mouth. And I am fat. None of my clothes fit me.”
“You’re pregnant. And tiny.”
“I carry it all in my hips, not my belly. Some women are all in their cute baby belly, but no. Not me. All ass and hips. I want a cute baby belly. And how did you run into Royce? He was going to— Reese. Cat. Were you—”
“Yes. He apparently took your challenge and mine, and won.”
She laughs. “As I knew he would. He has a lot of the Walker men traits about him. He sees. He wants. He goes after that target.”
“Hold on,” I say, running across a street before the light turns. “Okay. Sorry. I’m hurrying home. I need a shower. He’s a good guy right, Lauren?”
