Page 52 of Take the Bait

“Hey, Dani. I couldn’t sleep for thinking about you. I hope I didn’t wake you up.

Cam’ voice was soothing balm across her raw nerves, and she sank back against her pillows with a sigh of relief.

“Hi, Cam. I couldn’t sleep, either.”

“I spent the whole weekend thinking of things I wanted to know about you that I forgot to ask at dinner and thinking of things I wanted to tell you about myself and my life.”

“Like what?”

He rapid-fired questions at her until she teased him about being overeager to question the witness and not giving the jury time to keep up.

They talked until the batteries on their phones went dead and the eastern sky outside her window was starting to lighten into dawn.

The more they talked, the more infatuated she became. They had a great deal in common, the notable difference being his grandparents’ wealth. She was impressed to find out he’d insisted on paying for his own law school and had only recently paid off his student loan.

She ought to have been exhausted at work that day, but she was so exhilarated by their conversation and connection that she floated through Monday on a cloud.

He called again that night, too. But after a bet over which one of them snored the loudest, they agreed to fall asleep with their call connected and their phone speakers on. There was something incredibly comforting about listening to his quiet breathing in her ear. It lulled her into the deepest and best sleep she’d had in ages.

Their phone calls became a nightly thing. Somewhere between ten o’clock and midnight her phone rang, and they talked until they both fell asleep.

It felt strange knowing he was in the same city, only a few miles away, but totally inaccessible to her. She worried now and then that she was so attracted to him because he was forbidden fruit. But then they talked again, and her doubts and fears melted away for one more night.

With every phone call, the pressure built inside her to repeat that epic Friday night in his bed and in his arms. She’d known sexual frustration in her life before, but nothing like this. And no matter what she tried to distract or exhaust herself, none of it worked. Every night she had increasingly erotic dreams featuring Cam. She’d had no idea until now that she had such a vivid imagination.

A judge was assigned to Alex’s case, and as Dani expected, he did his level best to get Alex to accept a plea deal. Judge Rasmussen leaned first on Alex, then on her, then on WMP. All to no avail. Alex refused to change his mind.

Reluctantly, the judge set a date two weeks hence for Alex to appear in court to enter his not guilty plea.

As the days dragged past, each more slowly than the last, she became so exhausted she could barely follow the thread of her nightly conversations with Cam.

Tonight, he was sharing the details of a complex case the D.A.’s office had just won and how they’d done it, and she was really interested in the story. But as she yawned yet again, she finally admitted to him, “I’m sorry I’m so sleepy. It’s not you, I promise. I’ve just been sleeping terribly.”

“Why’s that?”

“I keep dreaming about…well, you know. Us.”

“Really?” He sounded intrigued. “Like what?”

She winced. “I shouldn’t have brought it up.”

“But you did. So spill. What do you dream about?”

She sighed. “Sex. And more sex. All kinds of sex. With you.”

“Ahh.” A long silence fell on the line. Then, “Yeah. Me, too.”

“You dream of sex with yourself?”

He laughed. “No. With you, Einstein.”

She smiled into the phone. “Really?”

“Why do you sound so surprised?”

She made a ‘you moron’ face at herself in the mirror facing her bed. “I figured you must dream about lots of women. Your subconscious has a wide selection of previous lovers to choose from, after all.”

“I already told you, I’m done with the whole sleeping around thing. It was a lonely, soul-sucking way to live. I’d rather stay home every night and talk on the phone with you than pick up random women to have meaningless sex with.”

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