Love Proof (Laws of Attraction) (14 page)

The two of them lay sprawled naked and wet across his sheets.  Joe
grunted as he sat up to pull the covers up over them.  “Can’t have you cold,”
he told Sarah, kissing her softly on the lips.

Sarah squinted toward the bedside clock.  “I should shower.”

“Mm, sounds good.”

“Alone,” she said, thinking of the shower cap she was going to have to
pull over her hair.  She always looked horrible in that thing—did anyone look
good?—but she didn’t have time to blow dry her hair and straighten it before
the dinner.  At most she’d have time to quickly wash, reapply her makeup, then
erase all the evidence of sex from her one nice outfit.

She walked naked to the bathroom, very aware that Joe was watching
her.  “I like your tits,” he said.

“Thank you.”

“I like your ass.”

“Thank you.”

“I like every inch of your skin.”

“You’re not making this easy,” Sarah said, poking her head out of the
bathroom again.

“I’m not trying to.  I want you to come back here.”

“Later,” Sarah said.  “Don’t you want to know if either of us are going
to the finals tomorrow?”

“No.”

“What if it’s me?” Sarah asked, leaning naked against the bathroom door
frame.

“I’ll come watch you.”

“What if it’s you?” she asked.

“I’ll be too busy in bed with you.”

Sarah laughed.  “I’m sure Ellen would love that.”

“We didn’t win, Sarah.  She was horrible.”

Sarah grew serious.  “Was she really?”

“With a capital H for help me.”

“That’s too bad,” Sarah said.  “I’m sorry.”

“Who cares?”

“You really don’t?” she wanted to know.

“Sarah, I’ve already gotten everything out of this trip that I could
possibly dream of.”

Sarah didn’t try to hide her smile.

“But not you, right?” Joe asked.

“What do you mean?”

“You’d like to win.”

“Well, sure,” she said.

“That’s what I like about you, Red.”

She waited, hoping he’d fill in the rest of the sentence himself.  When
he didn’t, she asked him shyly, “What do you like?”

He reached for her.

“Huh-uh.  Tell me from here.”

“No deal,” Joe said.  He continued to hold out his hand, waiting for
her.

Why should she resist? Sarah asked herself.  Why should she ever resist
anything Joe wanted to give her?

He gathered her in his arms and pulled her tight against his chest.  “I
like that you’re smart and you’re never embarrassed about that.  But at the
same time, you’re not like other people at our school, constantly going around
telling everyone how great you are.  You let us all figure that out for ourselves. 
And I did figure it out—first year.”

“First year?” Sarah said.  “But I didn’t notice you until second.”

Joe pretended to stab himself in the heart.

Sarah laughed.  “It’s just . . . I wasn’t looking.  At anyone.  But
then that day in Federal Tax Law . . . ”

Now it was Joe’s turn to laugh.  “So that impressed you?”

“Do you know what I’m talking about?” Sarah asked.

“Of course I do.  Didn’t you see me look at you?  I was showing off for
the redhead across the room.”

“No, you weren’t.  You didn’t even know me,” Sarah said.  But inside
she really hoped it was true.

Although a part of that smart brain he claimed to admire also reminded
her that she had seen him with plenty of other women since that day, so if he
was pining for her, he found a way to deal with it.

But why should she think about that, she asked herself, when she was
naked in his arms and he was already tasting her again, flicking his tongue over
her body in that way that had already driven her mad?

She dove away from him in one quick move and rushed into the bathroom. 
Then she locked the door behind her, tucked her hair into the hotel shower cap,
and washed away the evidence of their afternoon.

Wishing they didn’t have to go anywhere, and could just stay in his bed
until their flight home on Sunday.

Fifteen

Was it Sarah’s imagination, or did Ellen look a little disheveled
herself?

Sarah glanced from Ellen to Mickey, then dismissed the idea.

No way he’d do anything with her.  No matter how drunk he might have
gotten.

And from what she could see right now, that was plenty drunk.

“Mickey, maybe you should just have water for a while.”  The two of
them stood off to the side of the room, both dressed in their suits again, or maybe
still, in Mickey’s case, and all around them were the various superior court,
appellate, and supreme court judges who had listened to the preliminary round
of arguments all day long.

Sarah saw one of hers and Mickey’s judges over by the bar.  He was a
short, balding man with thick-rimmed glasses and an easy smile.  Sarah never
minded his questions, because he nodded as she spun out her answers,
encouraging her, it seemed, rather than staring at her stony-faced the way the
other two judges did.

“So I heard a rumor,” Sarah said to Mickey.

“Yeah, what?”

“That you’re married and your wife is pregnant.”

He looked at her, eyes not nearly as focused as they’d been earlier in
the day.  “Yeah, I guess that’s right.”

“You guess that’s right?” Sarah said, laughing.  “How far along is
she?”

“Seven months.”

“Congratulations.”

“Cut the crap,” Mickey said.  “Did you sleep with him?”

Sarah took a sip of her drink.  And decided not to lie.  “Yes.”

“Why?”

That question was harder to answer.  And she wasn’t sure it was any of
Mickey’s business.

“Did you sleep with Ellen?” she asked.

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive,” Mickey said.

“Did she try?” Sarah asked, looking over to where Ellen stood
gesticulating and monologuing to one of the judges, obviously hoping to impress
him.

“You heard what she said,” Mickey answered.  “All those horny
students.  Happens every year.”

“But not you,” Sarah said.

He swallowed what was left of his drink.  “Maybe with you, Sarah, but
not with anybody else.”

“Somehow I doubt that’s true.”

Mickey shrugged.  “I’m a good Catholic boy.  Do I wish I was single? 
You bet.  People should be more like animals.  Come together to mate, then
leave and go out on their own until next year.”

“How long have you been married?”

“Summer between college and law school.  So I’m a third-year there,
too.”

Mickey swirled the ice cubes in his cup, then tipped it back again to
suck up the last drops.

“We should probably mingle,” Sarah said.  “Go talk to our judges or
something.”

“Why?  You know I crashed and burned today.”

“No, you didn’t,” Sarah said.  “You were a little nervous at first—”

“A little nervous?”  Mickey chuckled in a way that sounded both
sarcastic and miserable.  “I had no business signing up for this, Sarah—you
know that.  You probably saw it at our very first practice.  You could have told
me, you know.  Saved us both a lot of embarrassment.”

“You’re blowing this way out of proportion,” Sarah said.  “Let’s wait
and hear the scores, all right?  I guarantee you didn’t do that badly.”

“I’m going to get another drink,” Mickey said.  “Want anything?”

“No.  Thanks.”  She looked across the room.  Joe and Ellen stood
talking to another one of the judges.

No, Ellen stood talking, Sarah corrected herself.  Because Joe wasn’t
even paying attention.  He waited until Sarah locked eyes with him, then subtly
raised his glass.

Sarah smiled and turned away.  She couldn’t spend the whole night with
her heart racing over every little look or gesture or touch the two of them
might find secret ways to exchange.  They agreed to stick with their partners
for the evening, and go through the banquet the way they would have if they never
met.

It was a stupid agreement, Sarah thought, glancing back at Joe and
finding him once again watching her with the same hungry expression she’d seen
on his face all afternoon long.

Sarah checked her watch.  Then she held up two fingers, meaning they
only had to stay two more hours.

Joe pointed to the exit.

Sarah shook her head.

He pointed again, and she laughed.  And then went in search of Mickey
before the poor guy drank so much he passed out before the ceremony.

Although in Sarah’s heart she knew he was right:  they really didn’t
need to hear the announcement to know their team wasn’t advancing.  Oral
argument would never be Mickey Hughes’s strength.  And even though Sarah
thought her own performance had gone well, her scores would be averaged with
Mickey’s to determine the team’s ranking, so that was the end of that.

Although she had to agree with Joe:  winning the competition wasn’t
nearly the best thing that could have come out of it.  She’d already gotten
more out of that trip that she ever could have dreamed of.

***

“Congratulations, Number Seven,” Joe told her as soon as they were
alone again in his car.

“Nice job, Eight.”

The two of them grinned at each other.  Even though neither of their
teams advanced, the judges gave out individual scores, too, and both Sarah and
Joe made it into the top ten.

“That’s not bad, huh?” Sarah asked.

“A lot better than I expected,” Joe said.

“What should we do to celebrate?”

“I think you know my answer to that.”

Just hearing the way he said it made Sarah’s insides flare with heat. 
She wondered whether the seats of the rental car folded down.

“Tomorrow’s Saturday,” Sarah said.

“Uh-huh.”  Joe had her hand in his, and was swirling his thumb against
her palm.  She found it very difficult to think.

“Final arguments in the morning, then the luncheon, then another dinner
tomorrow night.”

Joe didn’t say anything, just began stroking higher up her arm.

Sarah gasped on a laugh as he scooped his hand inside her jacket and
began stroking the breast he found there.

“Joe?” she managed to get out.

“Hm?”

“Let’s skip all of that.  Stay inside.”

“Sounds good.”  He pressed his mouth to hers and unbuttoned the top of
her blouse.  Then he slipped his hand inside the fabric until he found bare
skin.

Sarah moaned.

Joe pulled his hand free and started the car.

Sarah leaned her head back, too aroused to keep her eyes open.  She
wanted the ride to be over, wanted not to have to walk across the hotel parking
lot, in through the lobby, take the elevator upstairs.  She wanted to be
instantly transported now, straight into his bed, straight into his arms and
not leave there for hours and hours.

“Sarah?” Joe said after a while.

“Hm?”

“Congratulations.  You really deserved that.”

She looked over at him and laid her hand on his arm.  He rested one of
his hands on top.

“You did, too, Joe,” she said.  “I’m really happy for both of us.”

It was one of the nicest nights they had together, in a whole series of
amazing nights.  Nights followed by days in which Sarah fell harder and harder
for him by the minute.  And she thought he fell for her, too.  Didn’t he tell
her so?

But it was all over seven weeks later.  And Sarah still didn’t understand
why.

Sixteen

Sarah woke on the Wednesday morning before Thanksgiving feeling better
than she had in days.  Her body didn’t ache the way it had, and she felt
well-rested instead of lethargic from all her hours in bed.

She went into the bathroom and splashed cold water on her face and
brushed her teeth.  The dark circles under her eyes were gone.  She still
looked paler than normal, but she hoped a little food and tea would help.

While she waited for room service, she booted up her laptop.  She
hadn’t checked e-mail since Monday morning.  There were the usual garbage
messages she deleted without reading, but a few of them grabbed her attention.

The secretary she shared with three other lawyers in the firm had
e-mailed her several sets of scanned documents, all with the subject line
“Mason Manufacturing.”  Sarah opened one of them and found purchase orders and
other internal documents and memoranda.  She would have plenty to read over the
Thanksgiving weekend.