Avoiding Temptation (Avoiding #3)(3)

“You checkin’ me out?” he drawled as if he hadn’t come out of the bathroom like that on purpose.

“Yep. Wondering how late I can be without getting yelled at,” she said.

Ramsey chuckled, wrapping the towel around his waist to cover up some of the distraction. “I don’t want you to get yelled at.”

“It might be worth it,” she murmured, watching him walk into his closet.

“So, what did he want?” Ramsey called from the other room.

“Bah,” she grumbled, not really giving him an answer.

“That good, huh?”

“He’s so…Jack sometimes,” she said, putting on cream lace underwear with a matching bra.

“Can he be anything else?” Ramsey asked.

Lexi wandered into the bathroom and diffused her hair over the sink as she contemplated the question. Could Jack be anything other than himself? It was something she had taken a lot of time to think about over the past two years. It was something she didn’t really want to think about with his desperation still ringing in her ears.

After applying her makeup for the day, Lexi tangled her hair into a tight bun on the top of her head. She thought it looked more professional in court than her wild curls.

She walked back into the bedroom and changed into a pencil skirt and a mint-green silky blouse, giggling at the appropriateness of wearing this around her Ramsey.

“We’re still on for dinner, right?” Ramsey asked, peeking around the corner of the closet to stare at her as she threw on a blazer over the blouse.

“Fuck,” she said, whirling around. “I thought that was tomorrow night.”

Ramsey shook his head. “Tonight. Can you still make it?”

Lexi bit her bottom lip. “I just promised to meet Jack, and I have that case right now—”

“It’s okay. We can reschedule,” he said, his expression falling. He disappeared back into the closet.

“I don’t want to though,” she said, adjusting the jacket. “We’ll make it work.”

“Sure,” he said, coming back into the room with a crisp white button-up, undone to reveal his toned abs.

She just stared at him. “You’re going to make me even later,” she whispered, eyeing his body.

He smiled and walked over to her. She trailed her hands down the defined muscles and to the waistline of his pants.

“You’re going to get out of your obligations?” he asked, pushing his hands up into her still damp bun and bringing his lips down onto hers.

“Of course I am,” she murmured as she pulled away. “I’m a good girlfriend.”

“Yes, you are.” He brushed his nose against hers. “Now, get out of here before you’re actually late,” he said, smacking her ass.

The day at court was as grueling as ever. She had gotten a job in corporate law, and she had spent more time in court working with ass**les than she ever thought possible. This week though was really hitting her quota for the amount of time she could spend dealing with such stupidity. Her nerves were constantly on edge, and she had been returning home just to spend more time working on the one case she didn’t want to think about. She had hoped she would get out of court early, but the likelihood of that happening was practically impossible. She had never met anyone who could bicker so fiercely. Half the time, she felt more like a babysitter than a lawyer.

She would have handed the case over to a colleague long ago if it hadn’t been such a good commission, and she wanted to prove she could get through it. The last thing she wanted to be seen as in the firm was the girl who couldn’t hack it. She hadn’t been there long enough for them to take her seriously.

By lunch, she wanted to pull her hair out. Nothing was going as she had planned, and her client was being completely uncooperative. She kept trying to give the company the legal advice they were paying her for, but then they would go in the opposite direction of her judgment.

Pulling her phone out of her purse, she walked down the hallway as far away from everyone in the courtroom as possible. She knew she should be spending her break devouring her lunch and reviewing her materials, but she just wanted to forget everything else.

The line clicked over, and Jack’s voice filled her phone. “Hey, Lexi. I thought you didn’t have time for lunch.”

He sounded like himself again, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

“I don’t,” she told him, opening up a side door to a meeting room before locking herself away from the outside world.

“You sound tired,” he mused.

“Thanks,” she grumbled. “I appreciate it.”

“Just an observation.”

“Well, keep it to yourself.”

“Are you okay, Lexi?”

“Yeah,” she said, leaning her head against the doorframe. “Just stressed.”

“I know you are. If you ever need to talk and take your mind off the case, you know I’m free,” he told her.

“I know, Jack,” she murmured softly.

“If you want me to be here for you, I am.”

She held her breath and closed her eyes, counting to ten before releasing the breath. This wasn’t why she had called him. She knew he would be there for her if she needed him to be.

“I just called because I can’t meet after work. I forgot that I already have plans,” she vaguely told him.