Body of Law (Body of Law #1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

tense. By the end of my third day at Gardner, Burkes & Gates, I’d given up on any possibility that he would come to remember me, let alone recommend me for a permanent position.  
    “Good to know.”
    “Indeed,” he mused. “And if you hurry, I’ll even tell you who drinks what.”
    I smiled into the phone. “Sounds like a deal.”
    ***
    I hurried to get dressed, unsure if bra straps from my tank top were acceptable around him, even if it was a weekend. But because I hadn’t done laundry in two weeks, my clothing options were limited: for bottoms, the only clean items I had were a pair of skinny jeans and a shorter pair of shorts I only kept as a last resort. I sighed and glanced outside my apartment window. At midday, the heat of early June was practically radiating from the pavement, inspiring kids to run up and down the sidewalks with water guns and spray bottles, laughing as they chased each other. It was definitely a day for shorter shorts.
    I was racing down the third flight of stairs when the fluttering started, a combination of déjà vu and nervousness circling through me like a carousel on high-speed. Unsure and excited, I moved even faster, practically jumping out of my skin to get a cab instead of just trying to catch a bus. Why was I so on edge? So energetic when there was probably nothing but more drudgework ahead of me? As far as I knew, Grand Avenue was in the heart of the shopping district. Sebastian probably wanted me to watch him try on socks, but I was still excited. Did I have some subconscious desire to be tortured? An untouched fetish to be controlled? Who knew? The truth was, I hadn’t explored my sexuality very much, or at least as much as I’d wanted to. A drunken one-night stand and my semi-serious boyfriend in high school didn’t even come close to counting toward exploring…
    Of course, it could have just been the taste of nostalgia flavoring my decision, but I was still attracted to Sebastian. He had been the first face I ever saw in my dreams, and for months on end, it had been his hand I’d imagined when I laid in bed at night, using my own.
    I knew thinking about him like this again wasn’t wise. As soon as I got home from the office, I had nothing to do but let all my thoughts of him bubble to the surface until they brimmed over. I was forced to satisfy myself if I wanted to even hope to think about anything else. Seeing him as I stepped out of the cab wasn’t going to help me later on. Dressed more casually, he looked different than he did in the office, even different than he did from when he was in college. I stopped dead on the sidewalk and took a moment to drink him in. Wearing an ice-blue button-down rolled just below his elbows, he’d left the first two buttons undone, as if begging me to rip the rest of it open. I crossed and uncrossed my arms. If I wasn’t careful, my body language would give me away.
    At the outdoor café where he sat, steam rose from a small coffee cup. He was holding a newspaper but his eyes were hidden by Montblanc aviators, making it impossible to tell if he was actually reading it. The mystery of not being able to see his eyes, of not knowing where he was looking, made him that much sexier. And when I realized it, my feet started moving toward him before I could stop myself.
    Sebastian waved me over the moment I was close enough to smell coffee beans. I read the headline on his newspaper before speaking. The last thing I wanted to seem was eager to suck up.
    “Okay.” I sighed. “What am I doing here?”
    “Well a hello and a happy Saturday to you too, Lily.”
    I grounded my teeth together. “Violet.”
    “We’re here because you don’t know how to dress yourself and I’m stuck looking at you for the remainder of the summer. So I’m seeking to remedy the problem.”
    Sebastian looked me up and down in the fashion I was becoming accustomed to. And though I should have found it degrading, I found it more humorous than anything else.