Yes, I require her spread across my desk naked.
Shaking off the sinful idea, even though I love it, I wave toward the chairs on her side of the desk. "Sit, Elena, please. I'd like to talk to you."
She eyes the chairs, the most endearing crinkle forming between her brows, but then sits down---on the edge of the chair, like she plans on fleeing any second.
"This is awkward, I know," I tell her. "But pretending we haven't met before, haven't known each other intimately before, isn't the answer."
"What we did wasn't intimate. It was a quickie with a stranger."
"I like you, Elena. Is that a crime?"
She gets that sweet little crinkle again, making me want to kiss it away. "No offense, Mr. Dixon, but you don't know me. I don't know you either."
"Oh, I know a few relevant facts about you." I retrieve a folder from a drawer and lay it open on the desk. "I know you're twenty-seven, single, and you share an apartment with your brother. You grew up in a small town in Wisconsin and graduated from Northwestern, summa cum laude. You were accepted to Columbia Law School but backed out. Since you had already moved to New York by that point, you stayed and worked as a secretary in a law office until you received your paralegal certification."
She stares at me for several seconds, not blinking, her hands clamped over her knees. "How do you know all that?"
"Raisa is very thorough. Before she hires anyone, she has a complete background check done on them." I tap the open folder. "This is yours. Raisa gave it to me."
"That's... kind of creepy."
"It's business. Raisa is, admittedly, rather paranoid." I close the file. "But I want to know more about you, all the things that don't show up in a background check."
"Do I get to run a background check on you?"
"No need." I lean back in my chair. "Ask me anything you like."
"How about all the same facts you have on me?"
"Of course." I keep my gaze on hers while I speak, entranced by the deep caramel color of her eyes. "I'm thirty-four, divorced, not seeing anyone at the moment." I smile and wink. "Unless you agree to have dinner with me."
She shakes her head, though a smile she's trying to prevent dimples her cheeks. "Continue with the facts, please."
"All right. I grew up in the English countryside, in a quaint little village. I attended Oxford but got my law degree from Yale. I live alone. Since this job is only temporary, I'm staying in the hotel across the street, the one where you and I met." I shrug one shoulder. "I didn't graduate with honors, like you, but I did well enough academically. I've been working for a medium-size firm in Chicago, but I've taken a sabbatical to lend a hand here."
"Until Raisa hires a permanent replacement for Lucas Miller." When I nod, she asks, "What exactly happened with him?"
I'm about to say I can't talk about that when I realize there's no good reason to be cagey. The animosity between Raisa and Lucas isn't a secret, though Elena might not have heard about it yet. She only started working here on Thursday, which I know because Raisa told me.
"Ten days ago, Lucas Miller resigned," I say. Miller had turned up at Raisa's apartment Saturday a week ago to deliver his resignation in person, resulting in an argument so loud that her neighbors called the police, but I shouldn't tell Elena that part. "Lucas never got on with Raisa, and her recent behavior pushed him over the edge. He quit without notice. That left Raisa in a desperate situation, since several of Lucas's clients have court dates coming up soon."
"That's why you're here."
"Yes. I'm the emergency reinforcements. I've done a fair bit of corporate law, so I was qualified to take over as lead counsel."
"I thought attorneys couldn't quit a case unless the client's doing something wrong."
"That's true," I say, and decide I ought to tell her the whole story after all. She'll be my right hand on these cases, and she'll probably find out anyway via the office grapevine. "Lucas Miller didn't just resign. He was arrested ten days ago, on a Saturday night, after he went to Raisa's apartment and started screaming at her. He also tried to hit her, but she slammed the door in his face before he could. Lucas had a severe mental breakdown and was taken to the hospital."
"Holy cow. I had no idea. I heard somebody say he 'went off the deep end,' but I figured it was an exaggeration."
I shake my head. "Unfortunately, it's not. Raisa contacted a judge she knows well to get permission for me to take over Miller's cases."
"Now I feel kind of bad for thinking Raisa drives me crazy. I meant it as a metaphor, not the actual truth." Elena slides back in her chair and crosses her legs. "Raisa is a lot older than you, isn't she?"
"Yes, she's forty-eight. I imagine you read theNew Yorkerpiece on her last year."
Elena nods. "The article described her as a powerhouse player on the New York legal scene. I already knew about her, though, about how she built her own firm from the ground up and became the queen of divorce court. That's why I wanted to become a lawyer, and it's why I wanted to work here. She's amazing." Elena twists her mouth into the most disarming expression of frustration. "The journalist who wrote that piece neglected to mention Raisa is a raging bitch."