She tucked a chunk of her dark hair behind her ear, forcing me to notice her black polish and thin fingers, several decorated with gold rings—an edgy style that I really liked.
“Today was one of the best days I’ve had in law school.” She paused to take the martini from the bartender and turned partially toward me. “We’d done mock trials in the past, but they were nothing like this one. This one made me realize I had been doing it all wrong. Addressing the wrong audience, focusing on the wrong elements.” She moved the glass to her lips, where they slowly parted to take a drink. Her tongue swiped away the wetness the moment she was done. “Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I’m going to be a stronger lawyer because of you.”
Fuck, this girl was sexy.
I looked at the bartender and said, “Scotch. Neat. Give me a double.” When my gaze returned to Hannah, my dick started to harden.
I just wanted to keep her talking, so I could see her lips moving. I wanted to envision them spread wide, wrapped around my cock.
Sucking the cum out of my tip.
“How are you going to do things differently now?”
She pushed her back against the edge of the bar, holding the drink near her chest. “Well, for starters, I’m going to give the jury a lot more attention, and I’m going to gauge my questioning based on their facial reactions, and trickle those questions in lightly.” She chewed the corner of her lip. It was brief, and if I hadn’t been staring, I would have missed it. “I’ll slowly build their interest, laying the foundation, before I leave them desperate for more.”
I took the glass from the bartender’s hand and positioned it in front of Hannah’s, clinking them together. “Excellent. I’ll cheers to that.”
“It’s funny; I’m used to performing in front of an audience but—” She stopped abruptly, her cheeks instantly reddening. “I just mean, law school has prepped me for situations like today,” she clarified. “But to present in front of you, the top litigator in the state”—she swallowed, shaking her head—“was far more intense than I’d anticipated.”
If she was going to stroke anything, I wished it were my cock, not my ego.
“That’s what you need to be prepared for every time you walk into the courtroom, Hannah.” I pulled at my tie, loosening the knot. “That someone cutthroat and merciless is going to be on the opposition, someone who’s going to sink their claws into you. If you’re prepared for that, then no one, not even myself, will bring you down.”
“I don’t know if I’ll ever be experienced enough to face you … in the courtroom.”
My stare must have been too much because she glanced away, giving me a view of her profile.
One that was as beautiful as her full face.
Freckles peppered the skin near her hairline, and her long, thick lashes fluttered. Lips that pursed without pouting.
This girl was a fucking vision.
She wrapped an arm over her stomach, the movement causing the top of her shirt to fold between her tits, giving me a line of cleavage to enjoy.
“I want you to know that I read the transcripts of the Garland case.” She was referencing one of my high-profile cases, where I’d won my client so much in damages that he purchased a fucking castle in Ireland. “No one else would have won that trial. No one but you.” Her tongue folded over her upper lip. “The transcripts were certainly impressive, but now that I’ve met you and experienced your personality, it all makes sense.”
“Experienced?”
“Yes.”
I let her response settle.
The one word ticked between us.
My lack of a reaction caused her to get slightly nervous, and she lifted her glass to take a sip but kept it between her lips long after she swallowed.
“How exactly have you experienced me, Hannah? Because this”—I glanced around the bar, seeing the students now sitting at a table nearby, waiting for their turn with me, and as I returned to her, my eyes took in her towering heels before gradually working their way up her body—“is hardly what I would define as experiencing me.”
It took her several seconds to reply.
“There’s something …” Her voice trailed off. “Something unique about the way you look at a person, the way you speak to them. I can see how that would translate in the courtroom, the advantage it gives you over your opponent.”
Interesting.
“You’ve read up on me …”
She laughed.
She didn’t find that funny.
She just didn’t know how to react when my stare was so fiercely connected to hers.
“Of course I have. I’ve followed your career since I started law school—even before that, if I’m being honest. You’ve built quite a name for yourself, Mr. Shaw.”
“Declan.”
“Declan,” she repeated.
A voice that wasn’t light.
That wasn’t raspy.
More like … breathless.
“What else did you learn from your research?”
She glanced up at me through her dark lashes. “You have this ability to mesmerize people on the stand. You’re like a magician. I’m positive you can’t escape the water tank you’re submerged in, where you’re wrapped in a straitjacket and tied to a chair, running out of air and drowning.” She glanced down at her drink but didn’t raise it. “Yet you do escape.” Her eyelids narrowed as she looked at me again. “That’s more than talent. That’s something you’re born with.”
If I were a magician, I would already have her panties off, my dick deep inside her pussy.
I was going to do everything in my power to make that happen at some point tonight.But right now, I was just a confident, charismatic man who knew how to make a woman wet without even touching her.“The skill that makes me a successful litigator, I believe, is my ability to see the truth in people’s eyes. I don’t need my witnesses to respond most of the time. I can see their thoughts, I can sense their fabrications, and I know when they’re being honest or misleading. The same way I can see what you’re thinking right now.”She sucked in a long, deep breath, tilting her body fully toward me. “And what’s that … Declan?”Her chest opened as her shoulders pushed back.Her legs spread as she widened her stance.Check-fucking-mate.I ducked my head, getting close to her ear. Her perfume took ahold of me, and as I exhaled, my air hitting her neck, goose bumps spread across her skin. “I think we both know the answer to that.”TWOHANNAHDeclan Shaw, I thought to myself as I watched him walk
“Let’s say you have a client you know is guilty, but you’re skilled enough to get them off.” I cleared my throat, cursing myself for phrasing every conversation I had with him in such a sexual nature. “Are you able to close your eyes at night? You know, sleep eight hours and wake up the next morning like nothing happened?”He crossed his hands over the table. “Are accountants able to sleep at night, knowing their clients are embezzling money that’s not reported to the IRS? Or how about a cardiothoracic surgeon who performs open heart surgery on a patient who will return home post-surgery and eat a stick of butter with dinner, washing it all down with a pint of ice cream?”His fingers formed a triangular peak, drawing my attention to them. Their length, thinness. How masculine they looked with a slight dusting of hair on the backs of his hands.Hands that I could picture running across every inch of my body.Oh man.“We can’t control what our clients do or what they admit to or withhol
That was all it took to set my skin on fire. Just that small, subtle embrace, and every nerve ending was lit, throbbing, crying out in shock waves.“Thank you,” I whispered.He signed the credit card receipt and tucked his card away. “Tell me something else, Hannah …”As he paused, I tried to remind myself that this was the time to ask him questions, to pick his brain, to find out the secrets of our trade—an opportunity that probably wouldn’t present itself again.But I couldn’t.I was completely locked up.Speechless.Drowning in a pool of Declan.“When you walk into a courtroom, what’s going to be your secret weapon?” He watched as I licked my lips, and it felt as erotic as stripping off my clothes. “I’ve told you mine. I want to know yours.”“My secret weapon,” I repeated.“You know, not only can I read people, but I also use my reputation to my advantage. I don’t give any motherfucker a chance. I find what it’ll take to make them bleed out, and that’s where I cut them.”I knew tha
And, two, he really could see right through me, his expression telling me so.“I see a woman who’s trying to argue against her body. You don’t want me to have this effect on you, but I do. You’re shivering. I can feel it.” His hand moved around to my arm, his finger running up and down the back of my bicep. “Your pulse is hammering away; your heart’s pounding. You have to really focus on everything I’m saying because you find yourself getting lost in my words.”When he leaned into my ear this time, I was sure I felt his lips against my lobe.“You’re dying to know what my mouth tastes like. If my cock fits my body type—large, thick … manly.” I tried to fill my lungs as he added, “It does.”“Declan—”He shifted, so our eyes met. “What would tomorrow feel like, Hannah, after I spent the whole night with you? How satiated … how sore would you be?”I wasn’t thinking.Because he’d sucked every thought out of me.“Isn’t that what’s on your mind?”I couldn’t answer.I couldn’t even force the
“Do you take the courtroom home with you?” She glanced around the group, her voice lowering as she added, “I think we’re all in similar stages of our lives here, but I wonder what it’s like for you. When you return to your house and Mrs. Shaw is waiting in the kitchen, a plate of cookies on the counter, can you eat the cookies and chat about where you’re going to vacation the following weekend? Or do you spend the entire dinner recapping every moment of the day’s trial before doing it again over coffee the next morning?”Oh, Hannah …I see right through you.I had a reputation.Bachelor. Serial dater. Playboy.Whatever the fuck they called me.I liked to think of it as not being tied down.I was surprised Hannah didn’t know that about me.Or maybe she did, and she was just confirming.“When my driver takes me home every day, whether that be from the office or the courtroom, I leave work behind. Of course, there are evenings and weekends where I spend time doing paperwork or I take cal
“Yes.”Then, there was no reason to wait.I took a step closer, halting directly in front of her, our bodies only breaths apart. I placed my palm against the wall above her head, her body caged beneath me. “Do you want me to make you scream so loud that everyone in the bar can hear you?” I leaned my face into her ear. “Is that what you want from me?”She was quivering.Panting.When her teeth skimmed her lip this time, it was a slow, painful scrape. “I don’t want an audience”—she took several breaths—“but yes. Yes to all of it.”I gripped her face, aiming it up to mine.I didn’t kiss women.Lips were something I could easily get attached to.They were the most personal part of a woman’s body.They expressed emotions. They spoke the truth. They even tried to mask and hide the real feelings inside.I didn’t fuck with them.But as I gazed down at Hannah’s mouth, it was so goddamn beautiful. Those full, pouty lips, silently begging for mine.She was giving herself to me.And I’d accept ev
I pulled away, my mouth hovering above hers. “You’re never going to forget this.”“Why’s that?”“Because you’ve never been fucked by someone like me.”I pulled out my wallet, removing the condom I always kept inside, and stored it in my jacket pocket to make it more easily accessible.“You come prepared,” she voiced.When it came to sex, yes.I had plenty of friends who worked in family law.Not using a condom was a gamble I wasn’t willing to take.“Aren’t you thankful for that?” I hissed against her lips.“In this moment, yes.”I kissed her neck, her skin tasting like the cake I smelled.I felt her swallow.And then she sucked in a deep breath.“How badly do you want me, Hannah?”I needed her begging.I wanted her neediness echoing through me.She tried to wiggle a hand loose, like she was going to steer one of mine toward her pussy. “If you felt me, you would know.”I didn’t budge.“I intend to, but I want to hear you tell me first.”“Declan …” She rose onto her toes, nipping my bot
Why I wanted to taste her exhales.But I locked us together, inhaling each of her breaths, rotating our tongues.Hannah. Fuck.She thought I was doing something to her … but she was the one doing something to me.Her fingers dropped from my dick, and her arms circled my neck, pulling me closer. The moment our lips parted, her head leaned against the wall, my mouth falling to her throat, feeling the purr that thrummed inside.“I need to feel you come.”She wasn’t far.Every sign in her body told me that.I left her throat and leaned down farther to take her nipple into my mouth, biting the end, sucking it as though she were feeding me. With my palm pressed against her clit, I worked my finger in and out, tapping that spot deep inside her, adding a second finger when she began to tighten more.“Declan …” Her nails stabbed the back of my neck, her body becoming slack. It only took a few more seconds before her moans turned higher, her wetness thickening as it coated my fingers.“Fuck yes