Page 17 of Dial L for Lawyer
"Go," she says, practically shoving me toward the door. "Before you hyperventilate and ruin your makeup."
"Audrey—"
"No. No backing out, no panic attacks, no running to the bathroom to hide." She opens the door herself and pushes me through it. "You've got this, babe. Hi, Caleb!”
And then I'm standing in my hallway, facing Caleb Kingsley in his perfectly tailored suit, and all I can think is that I'm either about to have the best night of my life or vomit on both our shoes.
Possibly both.
CHAPTER 6
Caleb
The door closes behind Serena with Audrey's cheerful "Hi Caleb!" still echoing in the hallway. Serena stumbles slightly from the momentum of being shoved, catching herself against the opposite wall with one hand.
"Well," I say, trying not to laugh, "that's a first. Usually my dates don't need to be physically ejected from their apartments."
She straightens, smoothing down her dress with as much dignity as she can muster. "Audrey has strong opinions about punctuality."
"And apparently your?—"
The rest of the words die as she straightens in front of me and I take her in. Everything below my belt goes tight.
Serena in that black dress is a weapon she doesn't know she's wielding. It hugs every curve I've mapped in my mind for six months, the neckline just low enough to make my mouth water. Her dark hair falls in waves I want to wrap around my fist while I bend her over the nearest surface. There's something fragile about the way she's standing there, still flustered fromAudrey's manhandling, second-guessing every choice that led to this moment.
Fuck. I'm already hard.
"Hi," she says, nervousness threading through her voice in a way that makes me want to push her against the wall and show her exactly what she does to me.
"You look stunning." The words escape before I can stop them.You look like I'm going to spend this entire dinner fighting not to slide my hand up your thigh.
A blush creeps up her neck, and I track its path, imagining following it with my tongue. "Thank you. As always, you look like a shark in a suit."
"I'm one negative headline away from eating someone whole." The joke comes out sharper than intended, but that's always been our dynamic—taunt and retreat,plus or minus me fucking you against that door.
She grins and practically deflates with relief. "If you'd shown up in business casual, I might've panicked."
"I don't think I own business casual," I reply, offering her my arm. "Shall we?"
"You know," she starts as she slips her hand through, the contact sending heat straight to my cock. "I only agreed to dinner because you made it sound like a business meeting."
I lean in, dropping my voice to the register that made her shiver at the gala. "And yet, you wore that dress."
"The dress was forced on me. Audrey staged an intervention." She slips her hand free and opens the passenger door herself, all nervous energy.
In the car, her perfume fills the space—vanilla and something floral that makes me grip the steering wheel harder. She spends too long adjusting her skirt, giving me glimpses of thigh that have me shifting in my seat. The rearview mirror shows herchecking her lipstick, and all I can think about is smearing it, ruining it, tasting it.
"So where are you taking me, Counselor?"
My bed."Somewhere quiet so we can talk. Business."
"If you take me to a steakhouse with wood paneling, I'm ordering the twenty-ounce ribeye and eating it with my hands."
I nearly lose it at that, imagining her licking steak juice off her fingers.Jesus Christ, get it together."I dare you. I'm not even joking. I'll even pay your dry-cleaning bill if you don't bother using a napkin and make a total spectacle of yourself."
She laughs for real, and I realize I missed this ridiculous push-and-pull more than I thought. Missed the way her whole body moves when she laughs, the way her head tips back exposing her throat.
"Where are we actually going?" She turns to look at me, the city lights reflecting in her doe-like eyes.
