Julie James

I don__ mind hot and spicy. Actually find that appealing in a girl. And chicken wings.

Brooke stared in surprise. __ou brought me lunch?___ was in the neighborhood.__he checked out the label on the bag. __MK is twenty minutes from here.___ was in that neighborhood, and now I__ here,_ he said in exasperation. __eriously, woman, you are impossible to feed._ He strode over and set the bag on her desk. __ne cheeseburger with spicy chipotle ketchup and a side of sweet potato fries__hosen specifically for a certain spicy and sweet girl I know__nd a green dill pickle for your eyes. So there._ He crossed his arms over his chest.Brooke studied him. __ou seem very ornery right now.___s a matter of fact, I am.___hy?___ don__ know,_ he huffed. __ust . . . eat your Brooke Burger. Stop asking so many questions. Sometimes a guy just wants to buy a girl lunch. Any objections to that? Good. Enjoy your Sunday, Ms. Parker.__e strode out of her office, gone as quickly as he__ appeared.Brooke stared at the doorway and blinked.

Cade thought about this. __et me get this straight__ou secretly pretend to like poetry to impress the smart girl in your English class, while she__ secretly pretending to like football to impress you._ He paused. __hat__ gotta be the cutest fucking thing I__e ever heard.___ guess her subconscious finds my subconscious pretty irresistible,_ Zach said, all teenage confidence right then.__ou were lucky to pull that line off once, Garrity. I wouldn__ push it.

Is that an invitation?___ suppose it is.___ood._ Cade__ voice dropped lower, adding one last thing before hanging up. __nd tell your friend in the striped shirt that he__ in my seat.

Her eyes widened as he guided her backward until she was trapped against the bed. He turned her around so that she faced it.__ou remember when we met, how you told me off in your office? Ever since then, I__e wanted something._ He smoothed his hands up her legs and pushed up her skirt. With one sharp tug, he ripped her lacy thong and tossed it to the floor. __ou at my mercy.__e heard the excited catch of her breath and bent his head to murmur in her ear. __ood thing you still have those heels on.

John turned to her, with streaks of dried blood along his face. __hank goodness we got the easy job.

Her eyes widened. __oh_ was it hate sex? I__e always wanted to have hate sex.

For the record, you are knocking it out of the park with this speech.

Your room or mine?

Hopefully not another employee stealing credit cards, Brooke mused. Or any sort of headache-inducing __ops moment,_ like the time one of the restaurant managers called to ask if he could fire a line cook after discovering that the man was a convicted murderer.__eez. How__ you learn that?_ Brooke had asked.__e made a joke to one of the waiters about honing his cooking skills in prison. The waiter asked what he__ been serving time for, and he said, __urder.____ bet that put an end to the conversation real fast. And yes, you can fire him,_ Brooke had said. __bviously, he lied on his employment application._ All of Sterling__ employees, regardless of job position, were required to answer whether they__ ever been convicted of a crime involving __iolence, deceit, or theft._ Pretty safe to say that murder qualified.Ten minutes later, the manager had called her back.__m . . . what if he didn__ exactly lie? I just double-checked his application, and as it turns out, he did check the box for having been convicted of a crime.__rooke had paused at that. __nd then the next question, where we ask what crime he__ been convicted for, what did he write?___h . . . __econd-degree murder.____ see. Just a crazy suggestion here, Cory, but you might want to start reading these applications a little more closely before making employment offers.___lease don__ fire me.

So I__ reading some poem by Louise . . . something, I forget her last name, but it__ about Hades and the underworld, and I don__ even notice that Paige has come up to my table until she says, __oesn__ everyone want love?_ And I__ thinking, wow, that__ a pretty deep question, but then again Paige is really smart, and this is my chance to finally show her that I__ not just a dumb jock. So I say, __ heard this theory once that love means your subconscious is attracted to someone else__ subconscious.____ery deep,_ Cade said.__xactly. And I__ feeling proud of myself for that one, until she points to the book and says, __h, that wasn__ a question. I was just quoting a line from the poem.

_He rocked against her, his body shuddering against hers again and again, until he collapsed on top of her and buried his face in her hair.Brooke felt his heart beating against her chest as they lay there, boneless. For two people who preferred to speak in quips and sarcasm, that had been unexpectedly_intense.She wasn__ quite sure how to feel about that.Then Cade spoke.__ think this is the first time I__e ever used this table,_ he said, against her neck.Brooke began to laugh. My God, he was still inside her and she was already giggling. __ take it you don__ do a lot of formal entertaining.__e pulled back, his dark hair falling across his forehead. __ere you not entertained, Ms. Parker?

His eyes were dark. __rooke.__he knew what he was asking. __es.__mmediately, Cade took her hand and led her _ quite briskly _ along the sidewalk.__hank God I__ not wearing the red high heels today,_ she said.__n two minutes you__l be wearing nothing,_ he said in a low voice.Well, then.

Do you recall telling Dr. Phillips during your appointment on February second of last year that you needed to be tested for sexually transmitted diseases because__et me make sure I get this correct here . . ._ Taylor read out loud from her file, __ecause, quote, __our weasel-dick husband slept with a skanky whore stripper and the cheating bastard didn__ use a rubber_?_ Ms. Campbell shot up in her chair. __he actually wrote that down?_ The jury tittered with amused laughter and sat up interestedly. Finally__hings were starting to look a little more like Law & Order around here. __ take it that__ a yes?_ Taylor asked.

You do realize that getting down on one knee generally refers to a proposal, right?_ Sidneycontinued. __ marriage proposal?__is eyes, a warm green-gold, daringly held hers as he softly sang the next line of the song. ___ousmiled . . . and then the spell was cast.___kay, he pretty much just melted her heart right there.

Kids, Roberts,_ she said, just to be clear. __ have fertile eggs in me, and I__ talking about havingbabies.__he waited for the eye twitch. Or hell, even a tiny twinge.Instead, with a smile, he pulled her in for a kiss.

He shook off the thoughts__hat wasn__ anything he needed to worry about tonight. Any secondnow, he was going to hear the chime of a new text message, the chime that signaled the demise of rich,slick Maybe-next-time-we-can-meet-for-more-than-two-minutes-which-also-happens-to-be-how-long-I-last-during-sex Tyler Roland, Attorney-at-Law.Vaughn picked up his phone to check that it had a signal.Yep, any second now.

I'm a big believer in first impressions," he finally said. "Tell me what your first thought was when Jason walked into the courtroom."Taylor took a sip of her drink and grinned. This one was easy. "I vowed to hate him forever."Jeremy's brown eyes twinkled at this. "That's exactly what I said nineteen years ago, five minutes after he first walked into our dorm room.