LITMIR.BIZ

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into his chambers. “Is it an emergency?”

      “No.”

      “Then as soon as I’m finished with this afternoon’s docket.”

      Good Lord, she had a whole second half of the day to live through. Callie vowed to strangle Mark later for this assignment. First, she had to put the kibosh on the private meeting with Rod.

      She closed the door before the clerk could follow them inside Ben’s private office. Then she turned to Ben. “You can’t meet with him.”

      Ben glanced up, squinting at her. “What?”

      She grabbed his file and dropped it on the coffee table in front of his couch. “No one-on-one meetings.”

      “I was reading that.”

      “I’m talking.”

      Ben sat down and slipped his arm along the back of the sofa. “Rod is my clerk.”

      “I know the players in this game. So?”

      “The worst thing he’s ever done is lie about his golf score at the country club.”

      Ben unclipped the hook at the top of his robe. For a second, she lost her train of thought. Not that she could see anything under the big black garment. No, it was the way his long fingers moved. With precision and a smoothness that had her mind wandering to his activities outside the office. She loved strong hands. Loved it even more when a man knew what to do with them.

      “Callie?”

      Right. “Rich people can blow things up, too, you know.”

      “You think Rod is the stalker?” The joking tone of Ben’s voice told her what he thought of the theory.

      “I have no idea, but I don’t plan to give Rod a chance to be alone with you.” She sat down next to Ben. Close enough to let him see how serious she was but far enough so that they didn’t touch. “He could have a knife, a gun—”

      “You watch too much television.”

      “And you don’t understand just how dangerous this situation is.”

      “Really? Let’s see.” He sat up straighter and started ticking off a list on his fingers. “I have my brother up my ass, Emma’s calling every two seconds, journalists want quotes for the newspaper, the administrative judge is insisting I take a vacation, and you’re falling asleep in my courtroom.”

      Ouch. “You saw that, huh?”

      “It was tough to miss.” Ben’s mouth broke into a sexy little smile. “I heard you snore.”

      “That’s not true.” At least she hoped it wasn’t.

      “And why do you think I stayed awake? One of us had to know what was going on in there.”

      She cleared her throat. “Either way, no meeting with Rod.”

      “I’m willing to placate Mark, but I need to be able to run my office.”

      “Let me shortcut the meeting for you. Rod is going to complain about my presence here. He feels threatened and pushed out. He wants to be the one sitting in that courtroom with you, although I have no idea why, because it sucks.”

      “Thank you. I aim to please.”

      She ignored the sarcasm. “Rod definitely doesn’t like the fact that my desk is in here with you.”

      Ben exhaled loud enough to be heard on the next floor down. “You’ve been here less than a half day and already you’re making trouble.”

      “Imagine what will happen if I have to put a bullet in the kid.”

      “He’s twenty-four. You can’t be that much older.”

      “Thirty, and there is a world of difference between a kid like that who has had everything handed to him and me.” Rod had every opportunity open to him. She tripped through the past two years and was only now getting back up off her ass again.

      “Feeling judgmental today, are we?”

      “I’ve done some background research on you and everyone who works for you.”

      “Interesting.” Ben smacked his lips together as if he had gone into deep contemplation. “When did you find time for that?”

      “Last night.”

      “Very enterprising of you.” He shifted his weight, edged a little closer.

      She could smell the citrusy scent of the soap on his skin. “I have my talents.”

      “I’ll bet you do.”

      The room shrank. Callie knew that the laws of physics made that impossible, but the air grew thin and his hand now rested just inches from her knee. “Uh…?”

      His eyebrow kicked up. “Yes?”

      “Are you flirting with me, Your Honor?”

      “Of course not.” The hitch to his voice said differently.

      That would be a disaster. Fun but dangerous. She knew how this scenario played out. She went through these cycles of attraction. Someone would appeal to her, they’d connect, the sex would consume her, and then she’d lose.

      One of them had to exercise some common sense. From the way her palms started sweating and the rush of excitement that just shot through her stomach, it better be her before she lost all control. “In addition to the fact I don’t like you all that much and have been tempted to shoot you several times since meeting you—”

      “Thanks again, this time for refraining from homicide.”

      “—it would be a conflict for you to be involved with anyone who works for you.”

      “Well argued. You could be a lawyer with that reasoning. Except that you’ve forgotten one very important fact.”

      That was quite possible, since she couldn’t remember anything at the moment. “Which is?”

      “You work for my brother, not me.”

      Chapter Three

      “Tell me Callie’s story.” Ben took the cap off the bottle and slid the beer across his kitchen counter to his brother. With dinner over, Mark fired up the laptop. That meant Ben had a short window to grab his brother’s attention before he drifted off into law enforcement worker mode.

      “What do you want to know?” Mark shuffled his papers, scanning them for something, but didn’t bother to look up.

      “Why isn’t she with the FBI now?”

      “You’ll have to ask her.”

      “I’m asking you.”

      Mark glanced up then. He leaned his elbows on the counter and passed the bottle back and forth between his palms. “She chose to move on.”

      “That’s not a real answer. Hell, I could get that information without much digging.” Ben wanted something more. Something personal that would give him a little insight into Callie.

      “Need-to-know only.”

      “Don’t give me that. Was it an assignment gone bad? She swore at the director? She shot a witness who pissed her off, which I could absolutely see her doing, by the way. Or was it something worse?”

      “You might want to be careful. She’s considered excellent with that weapon.”

      “So noted.”

      “And she’s very private. She took on this job as a favor to me. I wanted someone smart and tough to watch over you. Someone from the outside who you couldn’t boss around or intimidate.”

      “You make me sound difficult,” Ben joked.

      “You’re

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