Read Online Lawyers In Love: In His Own Defense by Ann Jacobs - Free Book Online

one night they wouldn’t be two lawyers on opposing sides. They’d be a man and a woman exploring a mutual attraction—nothing more, nothing less. Friends? She hoped so. Lovers?
    Eyes closed, Kristine imagined his gentle touch, the heat of his gaze. As if he had left here moments, not weeks, ago, she felt his presence. Suddenly her doubts fell away, and she could hardly wait for Saturday.
    Turning on the light in her closet, she stood back and surveyed its contents. Nothing, not one dress special enough for a date with a dream lover. She’d go shopping tomorrow, find the sort of sexy, seductive dress she imagined Tony would like. Briefly she wondered if that dress would cost her more or less than Andi’s new hot water heater.
    Smiling at her friend’s all-too-accurate reading of what she wanted from Tony, Kristine dropped Andi’s foil-wrapped condom into her purse. Then she skimmed her hands lightly down her body, teasing her nipples into hard nubs and imagining…Tony would rip open that package, sheath himself, and fill the hot, wet, empty spot Kristine hadn’t thought much about before he’d come on the scene.

* * * * *
    When they walked into the yacht club ballroom a few days later, Kristine had on a killer dress by Donna Karan, but it was Tony who commanded everyone’s attention—men as well as women, young and old, high-rollers and pretenders. She sneaked a glance at the man beside her as he tightened his grip on her bare elbow. A rush of warmth enveloped her, chasing away the chill in a ballroom packed with Tampa’s movers and shakers.
    She ought not to feel this way, but no one had ever made her hot and wet with just a smile. No other man had ever made her want to abandon her goals, ignore everything and everyone but him.
    Tony Landry, new kid on the block, was on the fast track to the top of the most visible and newsworthy specialty in the law. Light reflected off his dark hair and illuminated his smiling face. That dimple in his cheek, incongruously imperfect, drew Kristine’s attention to his twinkling eyes and sensual lips.
    “You okay?” he asked, glancing at the tables that ringed the dance floor where they stood, his hand resting possessively at the small of her back.
    “My ankle’s fine.” She wanted to feel his lips on hers, but it wasn’t to be. At least not here or now. Tony drew his colleagues the way honey attracted Winnie the Pooh.
    She smiled and murmured the right meaningless words to people who came to pay Tony homage. Sipping cheap champagne and nibbling cucumber canapés, she paused to greet yet another supplicant. She basked in Tony’s reflected glory and hoped her black silk dress attracted the right kind of attention. God help her if her lipstick had smeared, the way the cameras were popping in Tony’s and her direction. Kristine tried hard not to let reality intrude and ruin the dream.
    A barrage of strobe lights nearly blinded her. The TV reporters apparently had arrived, and Tony seemed to be their primary target. Reminded again of the high-profile criminal defendants he represented, she tensed.
    “Come on, honey. Let’s get some air.” Tony sounded more resigned than irritated by the attention he drew.
    Conscience or no, she was ready for a break. For an hour or more she’d frozen her face in a vacuous smile, nodded and murmured when the moment demanded more. Now she inhaled the fresh salt air outside the yacht club and pretended this was more than a business date, more than a casual encounter.
    A full moon lit their way as they walked out onto the pier where visitors tied up their boats. Its light cast a golden glow on the rugged planes of Tony’s face.
    “I brought Miss Trial down here this afternoon. Feel like taking a ride?” he asked as he hopped on board a sparkling white cabin cruiser and held out his hand.

* * * * *
    The rocking motion of gentle waves against the boat’s fiberglass hull helped Kristine relax in the cockpit on a cushioned captain’s