Legally Yours (4 page)

Whatever this thing was between them, he was
going to make sure that she had no cause to regret any part of it.
And at the end of his two weeks in Birmingham, she might even be
able to open up a little and let herself act her age, instead of
pretending that she had left her best years behind her.

Jesus, stop being such a girl, Ellis
.
If he didn't watch it, he'd be offering to braid her hair and start
talking about his feelings.

Shaking his head at his maudlin turn, Matt
headed over to the table, where Julie was sipping a half glass of
white wine.

“This is great,” she said. “I had no idea
this little courtyard was tucked away in the middle of
downtown.”

Taking the seat next to her, Matt began to
unpack the basket, which she noted, was all marked with the logo
from her favorite deli. So much for his cooking, she smiled to
herself. She took some comfort in the knowledge that even the great
Matt Ellis couldn't do everything.

“Yeah,” he responded, pouring himself a glass
of wine. “Gram grew up in New Orleans and when Grandfather married
her and took her away to the frozen tundra of Birmingham she made
him promise her a courtyard. And this is it.”

“That's sweet.” Julie took a bite of kiwi
fruit, savoring the sweet taste of it. “I didn't know you had ties
to Birmingham when we were in school together.”

“Well, you were so shy, I don't think we ever
really got a chance to talk about anything other than class
stuff.”

Since Julie remembered every conversation
they'd ever had—even the most trivial—she said nothing.

But if Matt noticed, he didn't say anything
about it. “I used to come to stay here for the summer every year.
My parents were always too busy with the social scene or their own
issues to have much time for me. And when they split up I moved
here permanently.”

“I had no idea.” Julie marveled that Matt had
been here in Birmingham at the same time she was and she'd known
nothing about it. Which was silly of course. She hadn't even known
him, so how could his being here have affected her one way or the
other? Still, somehow she felt sad that he'd been here grieving the
break-up of his parents' marriage and she'd been across town living
her life without ever guessing he was there.

They continued to chat about their lives
before law school, and even a bit about what they’d been doing
since. The food was delicious, and Julie had to admit that the
company was just as good.

“Now,” Matt said, his grin turning wolfish,
“it's time for dessert.”

Since she had seen the now empty picnic
basket, Julie had a fair idea of just what dessert would
entail.

He took her by the hand and took the wine
bottle and their glasses and led her to a chaise lounge, padded
with a brightly floral patterned cushion.

When she went to sit down, however, he shook
his head. Placing the wine bottle and glasses on a nearby table, he
sat down first, and pulled her down into his lap.

“There,” he whispered against her ear.
“That's much better.”

She wriggled a bit and soon felt the lift of
his erection pressing against her bottom.

“Much, much better,” he said against her
neck.

“Smart thinking wearing a skirt today,” he
said, running his hands up her legs to reach around and unzip the
garment, caressing her bottom as he pulled it off.

Julie sent up a silent prayer of thanks that
she'd worn the sexy bra and panty set from Victoria's Secret today
instead of the sensible cotton mismatched pair she'd briefly
considered. At the time she'd bought the enticing underwear she'd
been sheepish about the expense, but seeing the expression on
Matt's face when he saw the black silk boy short panties bordered
with blonde lace, she decided they'd been worth every last
penny.

“Does the bra match?” he asked, his blue eyes
darkening with lust.

At her nod, he swallowed, sending a little
thrill of satisfaction through her.

His kiss took her by surprise in its
intensity. And as they played dueling tongues, she felt his hands
fumble a bit as he unbuttoned her crisply starched blouse.

She should have felt vulnerable out here on
the terrace, in just her bra and panties, but when Matt set her on
her feet before him, she was almost overwhelmed by how empowered
she felt. The desire in his gaze was both aphrodisiac and
ego-booster.

He stood up, his erection spoiling the fall
of his trousers, but Julie was sure that any fashion designer of
sense wouldn’t give a damn.

“Lie down on the chaise,” he ordered. And
rather than balking at his demand, she obeyed without question.
She, who was usually so utterly in control of everything around
her, reveled in letting someone else take charge for a change. And
to her surprise, she trusted this man implicitly. In a way she
hadn't been able to do since before her parents died. In this
moment, in this instance, she gave herself up to him and found
pleasure in knowing that she need not fear giving her power to
someone else.

***

Matt watched with ill-disguised desire as
Julie, in her hard-on inducing lingerie, draped herself across the
sunshine-warmed chaise.

It was a cool fall afternoon, and he saw her
nipples, hard and shadowed through the thin fabric of the bra. Had
he ever seen anything more arousing than Julie laid out like his
own personal sexual feast? He didn't think so.

But letting her relinquish control was only
part of the experience he’d planned for her today. She'd wished on
her list for an outdoor encounter, and what was the big draw of sex
in the great outdoors, but the danger of being caught.

On the other side of the privacy fence, he
heard the slam of the neighbor's French door.

Right on time.

“Just trim around the hedges today, Justin,”
Mrs. Pennington said from her courtyard next door.

He watched with satisfaction as Julie
realized just what he had planned for her.

“Matt,” she said, her eyes going wide as he
moved toward her, “I'm not sure if...”

“What's wrong, Jules?” he asked, reaching out
to move a lock of hair behind her ear. “Scared?”

But what he saw in her eyes wasn't fear, but
excitement. Her fear wasn't for the situation, but fear of herself.
Fear of what she wanted. He saw her square her shoulders, pressing
out those gorgeous breasts, and gave a silent cheer. Atta girl,
Jules.

“No,” she said, not breaking his gaze. “No,
I'm not.”

“Good.”

Next door, the yard man began to whistle. His
off key tune carrying to them on the wind.

He knelt down beside the chaise, and pulled
her around into a sitting position, her legs open and tucked up on
either side of his hips.

“Let's get this party started,” he said with
a grin.

***

Julie felt her heart beating like a three
alarm fire bell, her body already tightening in anticipation of
what Matt had planned for her.

When she'd put outdoor sex on her list, she
hadn't really thought the concept through. After all, there weren't
all that many places in the Birmingham area where an outdoor tryst
was legal. Not that that stopped the couples who hooked up in
Rushton Park across from her apartment. But then, she had no wish
to have her picture plastered across the local newspaper as someone
who'd been busted for public indecency.

It hadn't occurred to her that Matt's
invitation to lunch would end up with them naked outdoors. Hell,
she hadn't really gotten beyond her surprise about what they'd done
against the cubicle wall last night.

But now, sitting out here in the afternoon
sunshine with only a few scraps of cloth between her and his hard,
hot body, she wondered what had kept her locked indoors for so
long.

Feeling the sun on her skin was arousing in a
way she'd never dreamed it could be. Though her underwear was
something akin to a bikini, she hadn't worn an actual two piece
bathing suit since her childhood. But there was nothing childish
about how she felt about the man before her.

“Take off that pretty underwear of yours,
Julie,” Matt said, a thread of command in his voice that should
have pissed her off, but instead excited her.

With a nod, she complied, reaching behind her
to unfasten the bra, while Matt, impatient, tugged her tiny bikini
panties down and off.

“Much better,” he said, his gaze not on her
face, but on her exposed sex.

Having his gaze on her was at once arousing
and embarrassing. In her uber-feminist college days, she'd examined
herself with a hand mirror, but wasn't all that impressed. She
wasn't ashamed of her body, but she wasn't quite sure why men found
female genitalia so arousing. As far as she was concerned it wasn't
all that interesting—except of course insofar as it was able to
give her fabulous orgasms. But that was less about looks than
biology.

“Gorgeous,” he said, pulling her by the legs
to the outer edge of the chaise, and finally looking up into her
eyes. “Know what I'm gonna do now, sweet Julie?”

Unable to speak in the face of such open
desire, she shook her head.

“I'm going to put my mouth on you,” he said,
against her ear. “And I'm going to make you come harder than you
ever have before.”

And to her surprise, his words, combined with
the sunshine, the sound of the yard man next door, and her
nakedness all combined to clench her inner muscles in a taste of
things to come.

She was lost in sensation as Matt dragged his
mouth down from her ear, to her neck, to skim over her breast and
downward. His hands on her knees, he opened her wider to his gaze
and as she closed her eyes to the sight of his light hair between
her legs she felt the first glance of his tongue against her
clitoris.

Biting her lip, she whimpered against the
moan she didn't dare let out.

“Delicious.” His breath tickled against her
as he flicked his tongue against her, lapped from the bottom of her
labia to the tip of her hooded nub.

Unable to stay upright, Julie leaned backward
against the chaise pillow, her pelvis struggling to move as Matt's
strong grip kept her still against his ravening mouth. Again and
again he stroked his tongue against her tender flesh, changing up
his technique just enough to keep her guessing. Not knowing just
where the next incredible sensation would come from.

When he added his fingers into the mix,
thrusting first one, then two, then three digits inside her in
alternate rhythm to his tongue's quick jabs against her clitoris,
she nearly wept with pleasure. Biting her knuckles against the need
to gasp out her pleasure, the sound of the man next door wielding
the garden clippers against the overgrown hedges was almost too
much to bear.

When her inner muscles began to clasp Matt's
fingers, she was finally able to breathe past his hold and move
against him, the final burst of freedom letting her orgasm break
through. Again and again her body clasped him inside her, as she
thrust upward until finally with one last burst of pleasure, she
went over the cliff edge and gasped out her release.

When Julie got back to the office that afternoon, it was to
find Clay sitting in her desk chair, flipping through the file for
the Daltry case.

“Finally,” he said when she walked in. “I
need the section of the Robins deposition where he says Daltry’s
injury shouldn’t have kept him out of work for so long.”

“I’ll get it,” Julie said, making a concerted
effort not to snap. “Let me sit down and find it and I’ll bring it
to you.”

“Where did you go?” He looked genuinely
curious, but his question still pissed her off. “You never leave
the office for lunch,” he continued, unaware of the hole he was
digging himself.

Julie was trying to figure out how to tell
him it was none of his fucking business—in a deferential way,
naturally, when another of the lawyers, David Walton, did it for
her.

“Jesus, Clay,” the other man said, pausing
outside her office door to roll his eyes at his colleague. “She’s
your paralegal, not your slave.”

“Hey man,” Clay defended himself. “I was just
curious. It’s not like she’s ever deviated from her routine before.
I have a right to know if something is going on that will affect
her work schedule.”

Right, Julie thought. She was not only
predictable but she was only of interest to Clay insofar as she
affected his own work schedule. She wasn’t surprised, but it still
hurt.

Before he could dig himself in any deeper,
David grabbed Clay by the arm and towed him out of her office.
Sorry
he mouthed as he followed the other attorney down the
hall.

Great
, Julie thought, digging through
the file.
I’m not only predictable, but my boss thinks he has a
right to know that I spent my lunch hour having hot monkey sex with
the corporate counsel for the firm’s largest client. Way to pick
‘em, Streeter.

Firmly closing the door on the memory of
Matt’s mouth on her, she turned on her internet radio for
distraction and got to work finding Clay’s testimony.

Since the rest of the week was taken up with
long hours and lots of tedious but important work, Julie and Matt’s
lunchtime interlude was not repeated. And by the time Friday
afternoon rolled around, all she wanted was a glass of wine and a
hot bath.

She’d just changed into a pair of yoga pants
and a baby tee, when a knock sounded on her stairwell door. Since
all her friends knew to come to the back door, where more parking
was available, the only people who came to the hall door, which led
to the front entrance of the building, were either selling
something or delivering something.

Puzzled, she padded over to the peep hole and
looked out.