Avoiding Temptation (2 page)

“You can watch my ass as I walk out the door,” she said, popping open the bathroom door.

Ramsey’s playful expression faltered and then fell off his face. When Lexi realized what she had said, she anxiously pushed her messy hair behind her ear. She hadn’t meant it the way it sounded, but with their history, it hadn’t been exactly the best phrasing.

Gulping hard, Lexi ducked her embarrassed face into the bathroom. She knew it was stupid to get so flustered about her statement, but some habits were hard to break. They’d had too many ups and downs to take her comment lightly—even if she had meant it that way.

Two years just hadn’t been long enough for them to completely forget about their breakup—at least, not with everything else that had happened since then.

Especially not with what had happened last month…

She knew their relationship was strong, but sometimes, it didn’t feel as strong as it should. Sometimes, it felt like too many other things got in the way of their relationship.

Sighing at her thoughts, she flipped on the shower and stepped inside, letting the water pour over her head. The water beat down on her as she tried to block out the heartbroken look on Ramsey’s face. Taking a deep breath, she held it in as she slowly counted to ten and then blew it out. The boiling hot water helped clear her head and dissolve the concerns that she still harbored. She couldn’t beat herself up about everything in her past and his past—their past.

A knock on the glass door broke her out of her thoughts. Cracking the door open, she stuck her head out to see Ramsey standing before her, still wearing nothing but his green boxers. She smiled at him, thinking he was going to join her.

“Jack keeps calling,” he said, holding up her phone to show her the two missed calls on the screen.

“Why is he calling this early?” she asked, her brows furrowing.

“Who knows?” he said with an easy shrug. “I thought you’d want to call him back when you’re done.”

“Yeah, I will. Let me just finish.” Just as she said that, her phone lit up again with Jack’s name on the screen. “Damn it.”

“Do you want me to answer?”

Lexi immediately started shaking her head. “Nah, I’ve got it,” she said, reaching back and turning off the water. “Can’t even finish my shower.”

Ramsey smiled at her and handed her a towel. She dried off as fast as she could.

“Just answer it,” she told him, knowing she would miss the call if she waited any longer.

“Hey,” Ramsey said, answering the phone. “Yeah, she’s right here. Just give me a second to go and get her.”

Ramsey held out the phone to Lexi as she hastily knotted her towel.

“Thanks,” she murmured softly, shaking out her wet hair and taking the phone out of his hands.

“No problem,” he said, stripping out of his boxers and stepping into the shower she had just vacated.

Asshole
, she mouthed to him at the display before her.

He just shook his head at her and shooed her on. She knew this was payback for leaving him on the bed, but she didn’t like it.

“Hi, Jack,” she said cheerfully before sticking out her tongue at Ramsey as she left the bathroom.

“Lex,” he breathed into the phone.

Her heart stopped. She and Jack spoke on a regular basis but not like
this.
It had been a while—a long while—since she had heard the desperation, need, and desire in his voice.
Had Ramsey heard it? Would he have known?
She glanced back at the closed shower door and then felt bad for doing it. It had been two years since she and Ramsey had left Jack’s wedding together. Ramsey knew better.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to act like she hadn’t heard it either. “Hey, what’s up?”

“Do you have some free time today?” he asked.

“I really don’t. I’m going to be late to work as it is,” she told him happily, trying not to feed into his mood.

“What about after work or during your lunch break?”

“What’s going on?” she couldn’t help but ask. Curiosity was getting the better of her, and she wanted to know what was wrong.

“I just need to talk to you,” he murmured hastily into the phone.

“Maybe after work,” she told him. She wouldn’t normally spend the time, but something in his voice kept her from denying him.

“Thank you,” he said, breathing a sigh of relief.

“Yeah, of course. Jack,” she began, unsure of how best to proceed, “are you okay?”

He paused before answering. It felt like forever as the silence dragged on between them. She knew the answer even before he said anything. There was no one she could read better.

“I don’t know.”

“Can I help?” she asked, concerned and confused.

“I’ll meet you after work. Do you want me to pick you up?”

“No, I’m driving today,” she told him. She didn’t mind driving through the city, but she despised parking, so Ramsey usually dropped her off just to avoid the hassle.

“Okay,” he said wistfully as if he had been looking forward to picking her up from work.

“Jack, really, what’s going on? I’m going to be thinking about this and stressing all day at work. I’ll be distracted, and you know I have that big case,” she reminded him.

“I know, but we have to talk in person. I…I can’t talk about this on the phone,” he said, his voice cracking.

Lexi’s mind was swimming with possibilities. She wished she had actually woken up on time. Then, she wouldn’t have to wait until after work to find out. “All right. I’ll see you after.”

“See ya,” he said before hanging up the phone.

Ramsey walked out of the bathroom a minute later, towel-drying his blond hair, nude. Her eyes traveled over his gorgeous body from his messy blond hair, to his bright green eyes, to his strong jawline, across his hunky shoulders, down the six-pack abs he had worked so hard for, to the defined V, leading to where she really wanted to look.

“You checkin’ me out?” he drawled as if he hadn’t come out of the bathroom like that on purpose.

“Yep. Wondering how late I can be without getting yelled at,” she said.

Ramsey chuckled, wrapping the towel around his waist to cover up some of the distraction. “I don’t want you to get yelled at.”

“It might be worth it,” she murmured, watching him walk into his closet.

“So, what did he want?” Ramsey called from the other room.

“Bah,” she grumbled, not really giving him an answer.

“That good, huh?”

“He’s so…Jack sometimes,” she said, putting on cream lace underwear with a matching bra.

“Can he be anything else?” Ramsey asked.

Lexi wandered into the bathroom and diffused her hair over the sink as she contemplated the question.
Could Jack be anything other than himself?
It was something she had taken a lot of time to think about over the past two years. It was something she didn’t really want to think about with his desperation still ringing in her ears.

After applying her makeup for the day, Lexi tangled her hair into a tight bun on the top of her head. She thought it looked more professional in court than her wild curls.

She walked back into the bedroom and changed into a pencil skirt and a mint-green silky blouse, giggling at the appropriateness of wearing this around her Ramsey.

“We’re still on for dinner, right?” Ramsey asked, peeking around the corner of the closet to stare at her as she threw on a blazer over the blouse.

“Fuck,” she said, whirling around. “I thought that was tomorrow night.”

Ramsey shook his head. “Tonight. Can you still make it?”

Lexi bit her bottom lip. “I just promised to meet Jack, and I have that case right now—”

“It’s okay. We can reschedule,” he said, his expression falling. He disappeared back into the closet.

“I don’t want to though,” she said, adjusting the jacket. “We’ll make it work.”

“Sure,” he said, coming back into the room with a crisp white button-up, undone to reveal his toned abs.

She just stared at him. “You’re going to make me even later,” she whispered, eyeing his body.

He smiled and walked over to her. She trailed her hands down the defined muscles and to the waistline of his pants.

“You’re going to get out of your obligations?” he asked, pushing his hands up into her still damp bun and bringing his lips down onto hers.

“Of course I am,” she murmured as she pulled away. “I’m a good girlfriend.”

“Yes, you are.” He brushed his nose against hers. “Now, get out of here before you’re actually late,” he said, smacking her ass.

The day at court was as grueling as ever. She had gotten a job in corporate law, and she had spent more time in court working with assholes than she ever thought possible. This week though was really hitting her quota for the amount of time she could spend dealing with such stupidity. Her nerves were constantly on edge, and she had been returning home just to spend more time working on the one case she didn’t want to think about. She had hoped she would get out of court early, but the likelihood of that happening was practically impossible. She had never met anyone who could bicker so fiercely. Half the time, she felt more like a babysitter than a lawyer.

She would have handed the case over to a colleague long ago if it hadn’t been such a good commission, and she wanted to prove she could get through it. The last thing she wanted to be seen as in the firm was the girl who couldn’t hack it. She hadn’t been there long enough for them to take her seriously.

By lunch, she wanted to pull her hair out. Nothing was going as she had planned, and her client was being completely uncooperative. She kept trying to give the company the legal advice they were paying her for, but then they would go in the opposite direction of her judgment.

Pulling her phone out of her purse, she walked down the hallway as far away from everyone in the courtroom as possible. She knew she should be spending her break devouring her lunch and reviewing her materials, but she just wanted to forget everything else.

The line clicked over, and Jack’s voice filled her phone. “Hey, Lexi. I thought you didn’t have time for lunch.”

He sounded like himself again, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

“I don’t,” she told him, opening up a side door to a meeting room before locking herself away from the outside world.

“You sound tired,” he mused.

“Thanks,” she grumbled. “I appreciate it.”

“Just an observation.”

“Well, keep it to yourself.”

“Are you okay, Lexi?”

“Yeah,” she said, leaning her head against the doorframe. “Just stressed.”

“I know you are. I
f you ever need to talk and take your mind off the case, you know I’m free,” he told her.

“I know, Jack,” she murmured softly.

“If you want me to be here for you, I am.”

She held her breath and closed her eyes, counting to ten before releasing the breath. This wasn’t why she had called him. She knew he would be there for her if she needed him to be.

“I just called because I can’t meet after work. I forgot that I already have plans,” she vaguely told him.

“You can’t meet?” he asked, the need filling his voice once more. “Lex, I really need to talk to you.”

“I know, I know. And I want to talk, but I can’t tonight. Can you wait until tomorrow?” she asked, struggling to turn him down. She had completely forgotten about her plans with Ramsey, and she didn’t get enough time with him as it was. She couldn’t cancel everything just because Jack needed her.

“Yeah,” he whispered. “Yeah, it can wait.”

She could almost see the defeated look on his face—those blue eyes begging and pleading, the forward tilt of his head. “I’ll…I’ll talk to you tomorrow then.”

“Yeah, all right,” he muttered into the phone.

“Are you going to be all right until then?” she couldn’t help asking, knowing he was going to shrug it off regardless.

“I’ll survive. Will you make it through court?”

It was Lexi’s turn to shrug. “Can I murder my clients?”

“Can you be your own defense attorney?”

“Yes?”

“Then, do it. You’re the best.”

Lexi chuckled, loving the easy banter between them. Today was one of those days when she wished she could get out of work to go have lunch with Jack. When he was around to lighten her mood, it was easier to forget the headache that had become all but a constant fixture from this job.