Fuckable is a better description of her. Completely fuckable.
At lunchtime, I peek out of my office like the coward I've become.
Elena is still at her desk, poring over some sort of work. She lifts her head at the exact moment I look at her and smiles, waving her fingers at me.
I nod and retreat into my office.
She appears at my doorway a few seconds later. "I was going to order some lunch, Chinese delivery. Do you want some?"
Lunch with Elena. That sounds wonderful, but likely to get me disbarred.
"We're all having a working lunch," she says. "You can join the plebs in the conference room, if you want."
"Plebs? This isn't ancient Rome, and I'm not the emperor."
"No, that would be Raisa." Elena's cheeks dimple, which always makes me want to kiss her. "But I am your slave, remember?"
She speaks those words in a soft, sensual tone, clearly flirting with me.
I want to spend time in her presence, even if it's a group lunch. "All right. Count me in."
"Good." She smiles, the expression lighting up her face. "You'll like the gang. They're not uptight or anything."
Elena leaves me, and I wait a few minutes before heading to the conference room. I need those minutes to convince myself this isn't a rubbish idea. I should meet more of the staff and get to know them a bit, show them I'm not the empress's consort who does her bidding. I've always tried to be an approachable boss. Here's my chance to prove that to my new coworkers.
Yes, that's right. I'm being a good boss. This has nothing whatsoever to do with Elena and her perfect tits.
When I walk into the conference room, all heads swivel toward me.
And the conversation stops dead.
Elena gets up and lays a hand on my arm. "You all know Chance Dixon. He's taking over Lucas Miller's cases. I invited Chance to our little working lunch, so let's make him feel welcome."
I feel oddly uncomfortable, what with a dozen people staring at me, so I pat my stomach and say, "Where's the food? I'm ready to pass out from hunger."
"It'll be here any minute," Elena says.
My attempt to seem like an average person, not an evil lawyer, seems to have crashed and burned. Everyone is still staring at me.
I try a different tack. "Who wants to play pin the tail on the lawyer's arse?"
"Me," says a young man at the other end of the table, raising his hand.
Several more hands shoot up, and I'm beginning to wonder what I've let myself in for.
"Instead of shoving pins in Chance," Elena says, "why don't we tell him what we've all been working on? Jared, you can start. You've got the McNulty case, right?"
"Yeah," says the young man who'd been first to volunteer to shove a pin in my arse.
Elena urges me to sit beside her, and somehow, I manage to keep myself from sneaking a hand onto her thigh. The food arrives a few minutes later. For the next forty-five minutes, I eat the best Chinese food I've ever had while discussing the firm's cases with the paralegals who do most of the real work. Elena is the brightest by far, but the others have impressive legal acumen too. Elena jumps in to help her coworkers hash out research problems, or to mediate disagreements between them.
I can't help watching her. Admiring her. Wishing I could fuck her right here on the conference room table in front of all these people. It's not simple lust, though, not anymore. I'm coming to appreciate the clever mind behind the beautiful face and body.
After lunch, we all go back to our assigned desks.
Work keeps me occupied for the rest of the day, and I don't see Elena until it's nearly lunchtime the next day. She's been at the law library again, doing all the research I commanded her to do for me. Now, I wish I'd commanded her to take dictation in my office instead. Not seeing her, not hearing her voice out there in the cubicle farm, it makes me feel...anxious. Which is ridiculous. But here I am, chewing on the end of my very expensive gold pen while I wonder what Elena is doing right now.
Finally, I give up and go to her. She has a Starbucks cup on her desk, with her name scrawled on it.