Blackjack and Moonlight: A Contemporary Romance (20 page)

“I missed you,” she admitted. “In bed. You’ve ruined me for other men, Your Honor,” she cooed, but her eyes weren’t sparkling like they normally did when she was making sexy come-ons.

Other men? He hadn’t thought about her seeing—
sleeping with
—other men. But of course that would have happened eventually. Anxiety rose in his throat at the idea. He couldn’t even think rationally about it. He wanted to grab her and bind her to his side. She was his. She belonged to him and that was that.

He rolled onto his back and scrubbed his face with his hands. Sexual jealousy. Yet another first for him. The idea that she might know another man’s touch was caustic and bitter. Oh, he had it bad, that was for sure.

“Jack?” Elise leaned over his body, her breasts pressing against his ribcage. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I guess. I just—I don’t like the idea of you with someone else.”

“Oh.” She pulled back a little.

“I’ve attended the weddings of women I’d dated in the past. Didn’t bother me at all. Only now do I understand the evil eye I got from the groom in the receiving line.”

“I promise I won’t introduce you to any of my exes.”

He closed his eyes. “No, your exes I can just about tolerate. I didn’t know you then. Now it’s different.” Nothing to be gained by dwelling on that. Time to change the subject. He sat up and looked at the clock. It was nearly seven. “Do you want some dinner?”

Elise got up and disappeared into the bathroom, calling back to him, “No, I should probably get back to the office. I had a hearing in Judge Mellon’s court, and when it ended early, I ducked down to see how your trial was going on. I couldn’t quite bring myself to leave.”

“Why’d you wear those panties, then?” he asked over the sound of running water. He really hoped his clerks weren’t listening at the door.

Elise emerged, drying her hands with a towel. “Okay, so I had hopes. But they didn’t crystallize into a big seduction fantasy until I saw you in that robe. The robe is hot.”

He laughed as he got dressed. “So if we’d met when I was still the US Attorney, you’d have dismissed me as just another egotistical lawyer in a suit?”

She considered this as she pulled on her bra. Jack loved to watch women adjust their underwear until everything felt right. The reverse striptease was fascinating.

“I don’t know. You’re very compelling in all states of dress.” She shrugged. “But the robe is hot. Only on you, mind—I categorically deny having a judicial fetish.”

“That’s good to know.” Lord—was
that
a true statement. Bad enough to contemplate the chance she’d end up with someone else, but another judge? That would kill him.

When they were both dressed, he faced her. What could he say? It had been a sexual fantasy come to life. He only wished he’d pictured it in advance, then he could know what it felt like to have one’s fevered imagination come true. Still, it was just sex. All his dreams—images of them declaring their love for each other in highly romantic settings—remained just that. Dreams.

Finally, Elise said, “Back to our original deal?” She looked uncertain of his reaction, peering up at his face.

Jack’s jaw clenched on his disappointment. This was wrong. She couldn’t seriously think they could go back to that stupid arrangement. Why would she suggest that? She wasn’t being honest with herself or him. He wanted to force her to admit she had feelings for him. Then her face went blank and she dropped her eyes.

She thought he was going to say no.

“Yes,” he said, tugging on her chin so he could kiss her. “If that lunatic deal is all you can do, then I want it, of course I want it. I want you. Never doubt that.” He kissed her, hard, bending her back, holding her silky head in his hands. He wanted to devour her.

When he let go, Elise looked so triumphant he wasn’t sure if that glimpse of uncertainty had been an act. “Remember, no using the L-word,” she taunted him. With a final peck on his lips, she grabbed her condom-filled briefcase and left.

Elise was jelly-limbed with postcoital relaxation as she rode down the elevator. Her thoughts felt singed, still hot to the touch.
That’s what I get when I play with fire.
All the metaphorical signs had been there: heat, flames, not enough oxygen, and the creaking of joists and beams about to fall on her head.

Was she nuts? She’d left to buy condoms. Easy enough to keep walking back to the office. But no, she had to run back into the burning building. Every warning sign along the way screamed “Danger! Stay Out!” She’d ignored them all.

Stupid, stupid woman.

She should have let Jack believe they’d broken up. How had she tricked herself into thinking she could handle him? The answer was blazingly obvious—she hadn’t been able to stay away. She was a danger-junkie. Sex with Blackjack McIntyre was a drug she didn’t want to give up. All those years of saying no to pretty much everything stronger than beer—and saying no to beer a lot of the time—and here she was, addicted to a mad, bad, dangerous-to-know judge. She’d never been so hopelessly boneheaded. She must be more like Peggy than she thought.

Elise walked away from the courthouse on autopilot, putting one foot in front of the other. It was a struggle not to go back and say she’d changed her mind about dinner, particularly if it meant they ended up sleeping in his bed. Hell, she was ready to say yes to whatever it was he thought he was offering. Just to have more sex with him. And more after that.

Which was crazy enough to convince her she was losing her mind.

Oh, God, when she’d seen him at the bench, squashing the pretensions of those lawyers, he’d been irresistible. At least, more than she knew how to resist. She was no prude, but she’d never felt that sort of desire before. Good thing she’d needed to get the condoms because there’d been a moment when she seriously considered doing something far too public for a mature lawyer, let alone one up for partnership.

Shit. What day was it? June first. Six weeks before the partners’ retreat. Six weeks to indulge in this madness, then her judge had to go. For good this time. She wasn’t going to give the firm any reason to think she was distracted or less than committed to the firm.

She glanced at the sky. It had started to drizzle. She ignored it.

What if someone saw her coming out of Jack’s chambers? What if his clerks gossiped? Just the thought of the Fergusson partners discussing her having sex with a federal district court judge on the floor of his chambers made the blood pool in her damp shoes. No, no one saw her, and his clerks adored him. They wouldn’t gossip.

And she wasn’t out of control. Dating on the weekends was going to be enough again. She’d had a hard time going without him. That’s all. Her craving was temporary. The fun would fade and he’d leave. They always did. Usually relationships waned after a few months at the longest. Maybe this one was more exciting than the others, but eventually they all got boring and ended on a note of mutual disinterest.

Hard to imagine Jack getting boring. He was like the Mona Lisa smile—iconic and fascinating. Did it ever seem obvious?

A taxi pulled up alongside her on Market Street. She caught the cabbie’s eye and shook her head. Her hair flapped wetly against her cheek and stuck. She ignored it.

How had the news anchor ever let him go? Wait. Maybe the news anchor hadn’t been the one to end it. Probably a string of women in Philly were all still pining for Blackjack’s secret recipe of brains, looks, and the superpower to make a woman crazy stupid for him. He said he’d been to their weddings, but whoever the grooms were, those women had to have settled for second best.

And yet Jack swore he wanted only her. What was that about?

Maybe if she could figure out the whole “I’m in love with counsel for the defendant” nonsense, Jack would lose his mystique. She still had no clue what possessed him to say that in open court. He wasn’t in love with her, she knew that. He didn’t act like a moony teenager, for one thing. Sure, he was very generous, but the attentiveness and gifts were simply good manners. And another thing. He didn’t seem very needy. She was the one with no willpower. She just
had
to stop by his courtroom, supposedly to see how his first trial was going, just for a minute…

Elise stepped off the curb to cross to City Hall Plaza and felt her navy pump squelch a bit. It was raining harder now. She ignored it.

She touched her lips, puffy from that last punishing kiss. Jack wasn’t indifferent to her, though. He’d made love to her like he’d gone months without sex. Maybe she was a drug for him too.

She did seem to fascinate him, the way he fascinated her. That look he’d given her when she reappeared at the back of the courtroom, that look of his daring her to stick around. So they had chemistry together, so what? They didn’t know each other very well yet, that’s all.

So back to Plan A—get to know each other.
Familiarity breeds contempt, right?
Or, if not contempt—because there was no way she could ever feel contempt for that man—then the sense of “been there, done that.” Simple fix—they needed to spend more time together. When they really knew each other, it would get boring and they’d part.

That made sense.

The tension in her chest and shoulders eased, and she could finally take a deep breath. With every block, heading west away from the courthouse, she felt better. The fire was behind her, the panic that everything would collapse on her head had receded. She had a great life, a job she loved, a house that comforted her, family and friends.

From now on, Jack McIntyre was a recreational drug. Those were safe, right? Of course they were.

On the corner of 15th and Arch, she finally realized she was sopping wet. She hailed the first vacant cab she saw and had it take her home.

After toweling off and changing into dry clothes, she got out the Louie Voy file to finish the discovery requests she was working on. Before digging in, she dialed Jack’s cell phone.

“I thought you were churning out work.” He sounded pleased she’d called.

“About to begin. I realized we didn’t make plans for this weekend.” She tried to calm her breathing. She was panting a bit, as if she’d been running.

“What would you like to do?” he asked slowly.

“I think, to be strictly fair, it’s your turn next.”

“Elise, I don’t care about whose date it is.”

His voice had that metallic note that meant he was annoyed. She felt a pulse of fear—if he didn’t want to trade dates, she wasn’t sure what she’d do. She had to play it cool. “Oh. Okay. Then let’s do it this way—how free is your weekend?”

“I’ll have files to review, of course, but it’s nothing like it was in the US Attorney’s office. I can definitely clear my calendar. What did you have in mind?”

She thought fast. “I found it hard to sleep in your bed, and you found it hard to sleep in my bed, right? How about we go away for the weekend? That way, it’s a strange bed for both of us. When we both can’t sleep, we can keep each other company—you know, play Scrabble or something.” She smiled. This seemed a smart move.

“Okay. Where would you like to go?”

“Anywhere. Uh, let me amend that. Anywhere with a nice inn or B&B, good food, a wine list—that’s for you, of course—and maybe someplace to walk.” The silence lengthened. Had she made a mistake? Said the wrong thing?

“What about Eagles Mere?” He made it sound like he wasn’t sure she’d approve.

“Where’s that?”

“Sullivan County. It’s in the Endless Mountains.”

“You mean, like the Poconos?”

His voice relaxed. “Further west. And north.”

“Okay. Do you want me to book a room?”

Another pause. “Let me take care of that,” he said.

She scratched her head. She was always the travel agent when she and a date went away for a weekend. Then she remembered—this was Jack McIntyre, who cooked and bought gifts and did all those girly things better than she did. “That sounds great. Tell me when you want me to be ready, okay?”

“Will do.”

They wished each other a pleasant evening, all very civilized, just as if they hadn’t been nude in his chambers an hour earlier.

Elise touched her lips again. Still deliciously sore.

“Where’s Kim?” Christine asked as she walked into Elise’s office.

Elise didn’t look away from the computer screen. She really needed to get the numbering right on this motion to compel. When that was done, she looked up. “What? Oh, yeah, she’s having scheduling problems. Donny had to go for an MRI and his mom couldn’t look after DeeDee.”

“Does Kim have any leave left?” Christine settled into a chair.

Elise frowned. “I don’t know. Probably not. She’s had a tough time, with Donny’s accident. The closing was last week, so at least she won’t need to file for Chapter Thirteen.”

“Good job with that one. I wasn’t sure the bank was going to go for the refi, given Donny’s problems.”

“I convinced them it would be more trouble to say no than to say yes.”

Christine pursed her lips but changed the subject. “Hey, what happened yesterday? I was expecting you to call about ordering food last night, but you never came back. You got beat up in court?”