Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 98264 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 491(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98264 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 491(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
“Don’t you dare charge that card!” I yelled as Camden dragged me outside.
“Would you stop?” he hissed as soon as the door shut behind us.
I yanked my arm from his grip, my shoulders still tender from my time in cuffs—and not in the fun way where Camden had spent the night and gotten a little kinky. “You aren’t paying for it.”
His expression was hard as he leaned down, getting in my face. “Yes, I am. And you’re going to hush and let me. Jesus Christ, woman, you aren’t helping your cause here. I know you’re pissed and you have every right to be, but these charges against you are serious. Honestly, a misdemeanor for some pot is the least of your worries. Do you understand aggravated assault on an officer can hold up to twenty years in prison?”
It was safe to say I did not understand that; therefore, my back shot straight and I clamped my mouth shut.
“Yeah, I see you’re getting it now.” He moved in close, one of his hands going to my hip. “I talked to the prosecution this morning. Given your track record working with the kids in the community, they are willing to at least discuss the severity of the charges. But you have to cool it with the Wonder-Woman-on-steroids act. You bit an officer yesterday, Nora.”
“I kicked Jonathan too,” I confessed because, well…it was Camden. He was my attorney and I thought he should have all the facts before he tried to defend me from twenty years in prison.
He blinked, but I swear I saw a twitch at the corner of his mouth. “Right. Well, no more of that.”
I rested my palm on his hard chest. His hand flexed at my hip the minute I made contact, but if he could touch me, I assumed I could do the same. “I’ll do better, I promise.”
“Less Chuck Norris and more of you being a heart-of-gold first-grade teacher who spends her spare time packing bag lunches for underprivileged kids.”
“Yeah, I kn—wait. How do you know about that?”
His hand fell away from my hip so fast you’d have thought I’d caught fire. “I, um, did some digging on you last night.”
I narrowed my eyes. It was a feasible explanation. Dropping my name into Google was probably the first lesson he’d been taught in Getting To Know Your Client 101.
But it was the “um” that piqued my suspicions.
Gorgeous, powerful, somewhat cranky attorney-at-law Camden Cole was not an “um” man. And it didn’t matter if I hadn’t yet spent a full twenty-four hours with him. This version of Camden carried himself with such a confidence it teetered on arrogance—sexy, mouthwatering, tingle-inducing arrogance, but arrogance no less. Sure, the nerdy boy I’d once known who’d prattled on for hours about absolutely nothing could hem and haw with the best of ’em.
But not this guy.
Between his reaction in his car the night before when I’d grabbed his hand, that strange edge to his tone when he’d made the jab back at my house, and now an “um,” something was going on. What? I had no idea, but he wasn’t the only one who would be doing some detective work from here on out.
“I’ll behave, but I can’t let you pay to get my car out of here. Teachers aren’t exactly rolling in dough like fancy New York City attorneys, but I have a rainy-day-slash-Louboutin fund.”
A smile stretched across his obscenely handsome face. “A rainy-day-slash-Louboutin fund?”
“Yeah, it’s money I set aside every month in case of emergency…or the first-ever Louboutin clearance event. Whichever comes first.” I let out a groan and looked back at stupid Nathan Pollard through the glass door. “This month, it just happens to be pouring.”
Reaching out, he hooked his pinky with mine and shot me a grin. “Maybe, but we’ve stood in the rain together before.”
And with that, a warmth rushed through my veins and he gave me back the boy who’d stolen my heart all those years earlier.
He dropped my hand in the very next beat, but together, we walked back inside.
I signed the paperwork while he typed out a text at warp speed on his phone.
And then, side by side, we walked out to an assigned parking spot number to find my car, with four flat tires and both of the side-view mirrors broken and hanging from cables.
I wanted to cry.
I wanted to go full-fledge Nora Stewart rabid-dog wild woman on the entire crooked Clovert police department.
I wanted to turn around, walk away, and never look back.
But when Camden dipped low, put his lips to my ear, and whispered, “Keep it together, Chuck,” all I could do was laugh.
I lay on my bed in the hotel, my chest heaving, naked as the day I was born, my cock pissed off and deflating against my thigh. That fucking bastard and my eyes had spent all Goddamn day trying to kill me.