Page 30 of A Legal Affair
She leaned her head back against the rim of the tub and closed her eyes. There was a throbbing ache between her thighs, lingering echoes of the dream. It had been so real, so vivid. So deliciously erotic.
Biting her lip, she trailed her fingers through the scented bubbles and then across her collarbone. Goose bumps erupted on her skin as she let her hand drift lower to her breast, circling her nipple in lazy strokes. She imagined Caleb watching her as she slowly parted her legs and touched herself. She was so keyed up and horny that the first brush of her fingertips sent a violent shiver through her body.
She thumbed her burning clit and probed her warm opening, teasing sensitive nerves as she imagined Caleb’s hand guiding hers, urging her to apply more pressure, telling her not to hold back. She felt her heart rate quicken, her breaths becoming shallower.
The bathwater churned as her fingers swirled faster and faster, dipping between her folds and working her clit while her other hand kneaded her aching breasts. She could see Caleb’s sexy dark eyes searing into hers, could feel his long digits pressing inside, stroking, curling, thrusting, retreating.
A tingling started in the base of her spine, spreading up and outward. She sank deeper in the tub, tilting her head back as tension tightened her muscles and fisted in her stomach. Seconds later she came with a shuddery moan, her thighs clamped around her hand and her eyes squeezed shut.
When the spasms faded away and her toes stopped curling, she slowly withdrew her fingers from her body and let out a sated little sigh. The orgasm had taken the edge off her craving, but there was only one man who could give her what she needed.
Ready or not, Caleb Thorne, here I come.
Late Thursday morning, she was on her way out of the classroom after Legal Research and Writing when she was stopped by Shara Adler’s voice. “Miss Moreau, may I speak to you for a minute?”
April, walking beside Daniela, arched a questioning brow.
“I’ll catch up with you later,” Daniela told her, then turned and made her way to the front of the classroom where Shara stood stuffing files into an expensive-looking leather messenger bag. She was understated elegance in a teal blouse worn over tan linen slacks, and her long dark mane gleamed under the room’s warm, recessed lights.
“Is something wrong?” Daniela asked, facing her across the table.
“Depends on whose perspective you’re talking about,” the woman answered without looking up from her task. “What I may consider wrong, you might find perfectly acceptable.”
Daniela frowned. “I’m afraid I don’t understand,” she said, though she had a sinking feeling she understood perfectly.
Amber eyes lifted and drilled into hers with arctic intensity. “I understand you and Professor Thorne had coffee together yesterday.”
“That’s right. He was kind enough to answer some questions I had about an assignment.” She didn’t add that the assignment was for Shara’s class. Why add fuel to the fire?
“Oh, I’m sure kindness had little to do with it,” Shara said in a voice dripping with cynicism. “And I would imagine you both had more on your minds than coffee and homework.”
Daniela bristled. “Is there something you want to say to me, Professor Adler?”
“Yes,” Shara snapped. “I’ve been around a long time, Miss Moreau. Long enough to know how things work around here. Every semester, I watch pretty young things throw themselves at Caleb—some are subtle, some not so subtle. For the most part, Caleb pays these girls no mind, enduring their advances like minor annoyances. But there’s always that one who sneaks beneath the radar, the one he simply can’t resist.” Her smile was cold and narrow. “I guess you’ve drawn the winning lottery ticket this semester, Miss Moreau. Congratulations.”
Daniela kept her features carefully schooled, though inside she was shaking with anger and an emotion that came too close to disillusionment. Raw, gut-twisting disillusionment. Which was ridiculous. Why should she care that Caleb engaged in meaningless flings with his students? Given that the success of her missiondependedon his susceptibility to temptation, she should be relieved.
But she wasn’t. Far from it.
Looking Shara Adler squarely in the eye, she said coolly, “It must be very difficult to watch the man you love drift from one affair to another right in front of your face.”
Shara visibly flinched and then nodded, conceding the match point to Daniela. “How perceptive of you, Miss Moreau. Idolove Caleb. Indiscretions aside, he’s a wonderful man in every way that matters. He’s also great with my twelve-year-old son, who positively worships him. I’m idealistic enough to believe that someday, when he’s finished sowing his wild oats in an attempt to exorcise his demons, Caleb will be ready for a serious commitment. And when that day comes, Miss Moreau,” she said with absolute certainty, “you’d better believeI’mthe one he’ll come running to, not one of his thirsty, simpering students.”
Daniela could feel the blood rushing through her veins, pounding in her ears. Mustering a smile etched in steel, she said, “In that case, I guess I’d better enjoy him while I can. And I trust you won’t hold it against me when it’s grading time?”
Shara’s expression hardened with contempt.
Without waiting for her response, Daniela turned on her heel and strode out of the classroom.
She fumed all the way to the library, where she retreated to a table in a remote corner of the reading room and hoped she wouldn’t run into any of her classmates. She wasn’t in the mood for small talk, or to play the role of overstressed law student.
Her emotions were in turmoil, and she needed time alone to sort through them and regain her equilibrium.
It shouldn’t have stunned her to learn of Caleb’s exploits with his students. As Shara Adler had told her, and as she herself had witnessed firsthand, Caleb didn’t lack for opportunities to indulge his sexual needs. He was a gorgeous, virile man who was constantly ogled, admired and—apparently—propositioned by women. Experience had taught Daniela that few men could resist that kind of temptation. Certainly not the losers she’ddated in college, or the one on whom she’d wasted two good years of her life, only to discover he had a fiancée waiting for him in Dallas.
After that disaster, Daniela had thrown herself into work like never before, climbing her way through the ranks at the large accounting firm where she’d worked since graduating college. She hadn’t exactly lived like a nun, though. On the few occasions when she surfaced from calculating balance sheets and escrow accounts, she’d sought male companionship, someone with whom to explore a new restaurant, attend the symphony or enjoy courtside seats at a Spurs game. Although she’d always told herself otherwise, in the back of her mind lingered the secret hope that she was one candlelight dinner away from meeting Mr. Right. That hope grew dimmer and dimmer with each passing year, after each outing with attractive, intelligent men who failed to interest her on any meaningful level. Her sexual encounters ran the gamut from disappointing to satisfactory; nothing had ever come close to being the stuff of fantasies. Frankly, her double sonic vibrator delivered better orgasms than most guys she’d slept with, and her own fingers were pretty damn effective, too.
After one too many dates that went nowhere, she’d finally declared a moratorium on dating, which required too much effort for the nonexistent return-on-investment. Now, at the age of twenty-seven, she’d all but resigned herself to the idea that she would never find her soul mate—if such a person even existed.
