“I’m not. Investing in education is very wise,” I informed her with a grin. Then, a tad more seriously, I murmured, “Do you want to do that now?”
“Be a lawyer?” She pursed her lips. “Not so much, I guess.”
“How come?”
“I don’t know. I really wanted to do it back then, and I was angry that it wasn’t an option so that made me want it even more but now? I don’t know. I like working with you.”
The warmth that filled me at that admission floored me. “I’m glad,” I told her huskily. “I love working with you too. You’re good, you know? I think Derek wishes you’d fallen for him because you make his life a lot easier where I’m concerned.”
“I’m not talking about sex and making you come to bed on time,” she retorted with a huff.
I laughed. “Neither am I. I’m more settled, that’s for sure. Easier to corral where before he said I was like a wild horse trying to be saddled.” She giggled at that imagery. “But, I meant, you make our lives easier. Why don’t you stay on for the foreseeable?”
“As your temp?” Her brows lifted a second, then her eyes flashed. “I’d like that.” She reached forward, placed her hand on my thigh. “I can be your naughty secretary.”
I chuckled. “You were that anyway.” I could see that she liked the idea of being my temp, so I shrugged. “We can revisit this conversation after what’s-her-name gets back.”
“You mean my predecessor?” She grinned. “You don’t know her name? She worked there for years, Max. That’s terrible.”
“Didn’t need to know her name. Derek dealt with her, not me.”
“How come? We deal with each other a lot.” Then, she narrowed her eyes. “Are you giving me more work so that you can talk to me more?”
“Busted,” I told her, not an ounce of shame in my voice.
She snorted. “You mean, I should have easier roles?”
“Yep,” I told her brightly. “What’s-her-name used to file things a lot. Not read the contracts.”
She huffed. “I deserve a raise.”
“You’ll get one, sweetheart,” I told her smugly.
Though her eyes flashed, she dipped her hand between my legs and cupped me. “I’ll bet.”
Before she could get any ideas, I grabbed her fingers and curved mine about hers. Not that I wanted those supple digits anywhere else than where they were, but she’d just been sick. She might be pregnant, and if she wasn’t pregnant, then she’d had bad shrimp.
I loved the woman, lusted after her until my balls had turned blue, but I really didn’t want to come down with food poisoning too.
“I think we should call the doctor.”
She pouted. “I brushed my teeth.”
“Did you also disinfect it?” I cocked a brow at her. “Darling, I really don’t want to catch anything.”
“And they say romance is dead.”
She said it so blandly I had to laugh. “I never said it was alive.”
“Oh, you really kept that one quiet, didn’t you?” she teased. “What with the flowers and the chocolates and the…”
I pressed a hand to her mouth. “Stop giving away my secrets.”
Her eyes twinkled. “You’re not going to kiss me, are you?”
“Not until you’ve seen a doctor.”
She stuck her tongue out and danced it along my palm. “Okay then.”