Legally Yours Read online

  It was no use pretending that she wasn’t attracted to him. Her old crush had returned full force. And as she felt the first press of his mouth against hers, a rush of pure pleasure surged through her. This kind of euphoria needed some serious government regulation.

  Matt didn’t just taste her mouth. He devoured it. He grazed her tender lips with his teeth, stroking into her with his tongue. But it wasn’t only her mouth that burned. Everywhere their bodies touched she felt the sizzle of heat between them.

  When he came up for air they were both breathing hard, with barely a whisper separating them.

  “You seeing anybody?” his voice was deep. Husky.

  “No.” She stopped. Oh my god. What if he was dating someone? Trying to keep her voice casual—or as casual as one could be trapped between a hard-on and a cubicle wall. “You?”

  He grinned. He probably knew exactly what she was thinking. Bastard.

  “Nope,” he leaned forward and gave her a playful nip on the nose. “But I’ve got this hot prospect. She’s got a killer body and a brilliant legal mind. Too bad we work together or I’d be all over her.”

  Her stomach dropped.

  “Of course, we’re not technically working for the same firm, so I think an argument could be made that a consensual relationship wouldn’t break any laws. At least not any corporate ones.”

  He leaned into her, licking her ear lobe. “I can’t promise anything about Alabama laws, though. There are definitely some things the state frowns on that I wouldn’t mind doing with you, sugar. To you, even.”

  Immediately her mind leapt to an image of her kneeling over him, taking his swollen cock in her mouth, while he tongued her dripping pussy. It was carnal and hot and she couldn’t hold back her moan.

  “Mmm, what are you thinking about there, Jules?” His blue eyes locked with hers. As if he was trying to read her mind.

  But it was too soon to let him into her fantasy world. Well, what she hadn’t already recorded on her Before Thirty list.

  “Nothing,” she said, breathless. Wanting.

  “Liar.” He moved in closer, swept his hand up her side from her hip to her breast. “But that’s okay. Less talking now. More kissing.”

  He took her mouth in another searing kiss. At the same time, unfastening her pants and working them down so that he could reach beneath her panties, where she was damp and aching for him.

  Instinctively she moved her hips against his hand, silently begging him to penetrate her with his fingers. But he continued to tease. Sliding against her, rubbing her with the dewy evidence of her desire for him.

  “You’re so hot and wet for me, aren’t you?” he asked, his own breath ragged against her neck. “I think I need to see you.”

  Julie closed her eyes as she felt him kneel down before her, pulling her pants and panties down as he went.

  “Pretty and pink and wet,” he said. His hands slid up from her knees to her thighs, and Julie thought she could feel his warm breath against the triangle of curls there. “Open your legs wider, I need to see all of you.”

  She complied, even as she felt the first kiss of his lips against her hip. His tongue skated across her skin, working from the outside of her leg inward toward that place he’d so wanted to see.

  “Look at me, Julie.” It was a command, one she had no trouble obeying.

  Their eyes met, and she saw desire there, need. Some far corner of her brain had trouble believing that all this was real, but Matt’s breath on her was real. As was the sight of him lifting his moisture coated fingers to his mouth.

  “You taste good,” he said, his eyes never leaving hers. “But I want to go straight to the source.”

  He leaned in and stroked her from her dripping opening upward to the bundle of nerves at her core. Then back down and up again, stroking, lapping, nipping in a rhythm that had her bucking against him in anticipation of his next move. Widening her stance so that he could penetrate her more fully with his agile tongue.

  Julie was on fire. Against her back she felt the rough fabric covering of the cubicle wall, while Matt blazed a path upward from her pussy to her breasts. When he took her nipple in his mouth, felt its heat through the fabric of her bra, he thrust a finger inside her. But it still wasn’t enough.

  “Matt. Please.”

  When he added a second finger, then a third, she was too far gone to regulate her cries of pleasure. But still, her orgasm hovered on the other side of some precipice she couldn’t quite reach.

  When he pulled his hand away all together, she nearly wept with frustration.

  “Come back,” she demanded.

  “Easy, sugar, I’m not going anywhere,” Matt crooned, unbuckling his own belt and unzipping his pants to reveal an erection straining to escape the confines of his boxer briefs. In seconds he’d dropped trou, donned a condom, and poised himself at her entrance.

  Gathering her moisture on his hand, he quickly coated himself, his movements fast and sure. Reaching down, he grasped her right knee, worked it up over his hip and plunged into her, drawing moans of relief from them both.

  ***

  Jesus she was tight. Matt closed his eyes against the tide of sensation that threatened to overwhelm him. The need to hammer himself into her was almost too much to take. But it had been years since he’d just let himself go like that, and because he knew on some level that Julie needed this more than he did, he held back. Letting her body adjust to the fullness of him before he started to move.

  He’d been with a number of women since his break up with Susan, whom he had dated off and on since college. And he liked the early part of a relationship the best. Learning the landscape of a woman’s body. The places that with a single touch had the power to set her off like a firecracker on the fourth of July. Balls deep in Julie’s tightness, he reveled in the feel of her generous hip beneath his hand, her thigh in his grasp, her luscious breasts pressed up against his chest. She was everything he’d imagined and more.

  “I…is something wrong” she asked in a small voice, as he struggled to remain still. That bit of vulnerability almost did him in, but Matt held it together enough to kiss her.

  “Not a thing,” he whispered against her mouth. “Just getting my bearings.”

  She didn’t speak, just nodded.

  “Hold onto me,” he said, gently biting her lower lip before he began to rhythmically stroke in and out of her.

  Everything about this moment was mind-blowing. The little moans she made as he thrust into her. The feel of her in his hands, in his mouth. Her softness pressed up against his hardness. The smell of her arousal where they were joined. The scent of her light perfume at her neck, where he leaned into her, wanting to take her tender flesh between his teeth and mark her. Claim her.

  Her leg secured around his hip, he brought his mouth lower, to tongue the dark tip of her breast. At first nibbling, then sucking her into his mouth. Playing with her peaked nipple with his tongue. He felt her pussy tighten around him in response, and was rewarded for his effort with a gasp of startled arousal from her. The wall of the cubicle squeaked at the impact of their combined weight against it, but Matt was too far gone to care. Buried deep inside her, he wouldn’t have cared if the building fell down around them. Every ounce of him was focused on the woman in his arms.

  Finally, he felt her movements becoming more urgent, her breathing faster. Reaching between them, he touched her just where she needed him most, and felt her convulse in his arms. Shaking, crying out her pleasure, she gave in to her bliss, while he pounded into her, again and again, both of them lost to the pleasure that threatened to swallow them. Once, twice, three times he stroked into her before he finally felt the tell-tale tingle at the base of his spine, and erupted inside her.

  Collapsing against her, he felt the accelerated beat of her heart against his chest, as they both gasped in the aftermath of their shared orgasm

  Chapter Three

  “That,” he said when he’d recovered his breath, “was am
azing.”

  Julie pulled up her pants then slid down the cubicle wall. She’d never even imagined doing something like that in the office. Much less in the freaking printer cubicle!

  Shit, she’d just had sex at work. With the visiting corporate counsel! What the hell had she been thinking?

  “Easy there, tiger,” Matt said, hitching up his own pants then sitting down next to her, looking sexier than ever in his half buttoned shirt. “Nothing to be upset about.”

  Julie grabbed her turtleneck and pulled it back on, feeling the need for some sort of armor against his golden good looks.

  “That’s easy for you to say,” she snapped, pulling her hair out of the tight collar. “You get to go back to D.C. in two weeks. I have to keep working here. Oh god, if they ever find out about this can you imagine what they’re going to say? Shit.”

  “They’re not going to say anything because it’s none of their damn business.”

  “You don’t understand what it’s like,” she said around the bobby pins in her mouth. “It’s one thing for Clay to screw around with the secretary from Phillips and Mann, but it doesn’t work that way for the staff here. You don’t poach in your own territory.”

  She thrust a pin into the loose chignon, taking a perverse pleasure in its scrape against her scalp, as if she deserved to be punished.

  “You’re allowed to have sex, Julie,” Matt said, trying not to be insulted at being put into the same class as Clay Parchman. “And what just happened between us has nothing to do with Clay and his little secretary. We are single. Single people are allowed to have sex. With each other. We aren’t breaking any rules and I would think the fact that I’m leaving in two weeks should be a plus and not a minus.”

  This gave Julie pause.

  “What do you mean by that?”

  His blue eyes flashed with annoyance. “Come on, Julie. I’ve asked around about you.”

  At her startled look, he shrugged.

  “I was curious. And what I learned is that you haven’t dated anyone steadily for three years. But that when you do, it’s only for a few weeks and then you cut them loose.”

  Before she could protest he silenced her with a staying hand.

  “Which leads me to believe that either a.) You’re a bad lay, which I have just found out to my satisfaction is not the case, or b.) you’re a terrific lay but you’re wary of commitment.”

  She folded her arms against her chest, the defensive stance telling him that he’d gotten it right.

  “So,” he went on, “if commitment is your problem, then I’m your man.”

  At his pause, she nodded. “I’m listening.”

  “Since I’ll be leaving in two weeks,” he said, “why not let me be your list buddy?”

  “List buddy?”

  Stepping closer, he reached down and took her hands, caressing her palms with his thumbs.

  “From your list there, it looks like you’re going to need a helper for some of those tasks.” When she lifted her head and met his gaze, he had to stifle a groan. If she kept looking at him like that they’d finish the whole damn list tonight. And that wasn’t part of his plan.

  “Maybe I’ve got another helper in mind,” she said huskily.

  The surge of possessiveness that coursed through him took Matt by surprise. Mine, his body said.

  Not wanting to spook her, however, he merely shook his head. “No you don’t. If you had someone else in mind you would never have let me put my mouth on you. In you.”

  His coarse words brought a blush to her cheeks but she didn’t disagree.

  “Since you’ve got this list of things you want to do before your birthday in two weeks, and since I’ll be leaving town in two weeks, it seems a shame to waste what is clearly a serious chemical attraction between us.”

  Matt paused, holding his breath until he heard her agree to his plan.

  “Come on,” he cajoled. “You won’t get a better specimen to practice your blow job skills on this side of the Mississippi.”

  She laughed. He’d never been so relieved to hear a sound in his life.

  “All right,” she groused. “I can’t stay up all night listening to you whine.”

  When he pulled her close for a smacking kiss he was pleased to feel her kiss him back. Definitely some serious chemical attraction.

  “But I need to go,” she said when he released her. “I’ve got to be back here at 7:30 in the morning to schedule the Peterson deposition.”

  The reminder of the case brought him immediately back down to earth.

  “Come with me to get my stuff and I’ll walk you to your car,” Matt said.

  “I come and go from here all hours of the night,” she protested.

  “Just humor me, Jules,” he said, pulling her by the hand toward the conference room where he’d left his briefcase.

  Ten minutes later, she was waving at him as she backed out of her reserved space in the garage and heading toward her apartment in Southside.

  As she watched him turn and head back into the garage to get his own car, she shook her head in disbelief.

  She’d just had sex with Matt fucking Ellis.

  Who was going to help her with her Before Thirty list.

  This morning she would have died before she let Matt Ellis see her Before Thirty List.

  Now he’d seen her naked.

  Funny what a difference a few hours could make.

  ***

  Julie had been hard at work for three hours before she had a chance to take a break. When she stepped into the tiny office kitchen, she almost turned right back around and left when she saw Matt and David Walton were already there. But to her relief, and mingled disappointment, Matt’s nod gave no indication that he’d had that same mouth that now sipped coffee between her legs the night before.

  Pouring herself a cup of coffee and taking it back to her office, Julie wasn’t sure whether to be pleased at his discretion or annoyed at his indifference. Which was silly, she told herself. They had agreed that he would keep quiet about the two of them, hadn’t they? The last thing she needed was for Clay or Daniel to get wind of an affair between them. Her office reputation would be shot. It was one thing for the lawyers themselves to screw around with one another or the staff. They had the status to weather the storm. For someone like Julie, whose ability to get along with the rest of the office hinged on her earning their respect, it was different.

  She was sipping her coffee as she checked her email, when Alicia Holby, Fred Lutz’s secretary, knocked on her open door.

  “Hey Julie,” she said, her perfect bob bouncing as she carried in a file box and set it carefully on Julie’s paper strewn desk. “Matt asked me to bring you these. He said they’re the discovery documents for the Ryan case.”

  That was odd. The Ryan case hadn’t even gone into the discovery phase yet. But a sixth sense made her keep that fact to herself.

  “Are you doing something different with your hair?” Alicia asked, pausing in the doorway.

  “No,” Julie replied, her hand automatically reaching up to smooth her tightly wound chignon. “Same old me.”

  “Well, you’re looking great,” Alicia said with a smile. “Whatever it is, I need to get me some of that.”

  Since “that” was Matt, Julie highly doubted that Alicia’s husband Earl would approve.

  Out of an abundance of caution, she waited until Alicia was long gone before she took the box and lifted the lid. It was filled with file folders. A quick look revealed they were just duplicates of documents from another case. Anyone who looked in it would assume someone had just mislabeled the box.

  Except, of course, for the sealed envelope placed on top with her name and “Highly Confidential” scrawled in red ink across the front.

  That idiot! she fumed even as her heart began to beat faster. What if someone had found this?

  But, the odds of that were slim since no one would be looking for the Ryan case, and it was marked with her name. The people in the offic
e were nosy, but opening a sealed personal envelope was a definite no-no.

  Grateful that her end of the hallway was calm this morning since the Bookkeeper was out today, she slid a finger under the envelope flap and drew out a typewritten note.

  Meet me at Apt. #27, the Bankhead Building, at noon. Bring sunscreen.

  Chapter Four

  When Julie knocked on the door of number twenty seven in the Bankhead Building, she was surprised to have the door opened by a stylishly dressed older lady.

  “You must be, Julie,” she said. “I’m Vivian Ellis, Matthew’s grandmother.”

  Bemused, Julie followed her into the elegant apartment. Whatever Julie had been expecting, it certainly hadn’t been a lunch date with his grandmother.

  As if reading her mind, Mrs. Ellis laughed. “Don’t you worry, I’m off to the country club for an afternoon of bridge. Matthew is putting the finishing touches on your lunch. Why don’t you have a seat out on the patio and he’ll be out in just a minute.”

  Only then did Julie notice that Mrs. Ellis did indeed have her handbag over her shoulder.

  “You two have fun,” she smiled, her dimples reminiscent of her grandson’s. “Don’t get into any trouble!”

  Left standing in the foyer, Julie shook her head. But, deciding to go with the flow, she unburdened herself of her purse, placing it on the bench of the stout cherry wood hall tree, and followed the corridor to the French doors leading out into a New Orleans style courtyard.

  It was certainly not what she had expected to see in downtown Birmingham, but it was lovely all the same. The split brick patio was enclosed on three sides with tall ivy covered stone walls. And every four feet or so, tall posts held pots of abundantly flowering petunias. In the four corners of the walled outdoor room, stood green leaved ficus trees, giving the area a splash of green amidst the brick and mortar of the big city. For all that it was outside, the area had an intimacy that made Julie want to come out here with a book and a glass of iced tea and settle down for an afternoon of relaxation.

  “So, what do you think?”