Page 67 of Already At Risk
A flash of auburn hair out of the corner of my eye told me exactly who’d appeared in my office, slipping in through the crack in the door.
“I gotta get back to work,” I said to my mom with regret. “Can I give you a call later?”
Later, between whenever I finished my work and whenever I got a call from the most magnetic woman I’d ever met—the one woman I shouldn’t touch but was absolutely planning on it. Tonight.
“Yes, yes,” my mom rushed to say. “No need to call back. I don’t want to take you away from anything else! Just wanted to check on that date. Love you, Cameron.”
“I’ll put it on my calendar. Talk soon, Mom. Love you.”
Putting my phone on my desk—face down so I wasn’ttempted to see if Natalie had texted me every five minutes—I turned my attention to Julian. He looked a bit sheepish as he dropped into the chair across from my desk that clients usually sat in. “Didn’t mean to interrupt, sorry.”
I shook my head. “It’s fine. She just had a quick question. How can I help you?”
He lifted a brow. “What is this, customer service? I’m here to see ifIcan helpyou.”
My lips tugged into a frown as I watched Julian drape an arm over the back corner of the chair and sling one of his long legs across the other.
“With what?”
Julian was a great attorney. I’d known he would be from the moment we connected in law school, thanks to my sister. She described him as the campus big brother at their university in California, said he reminded her of me, especially since we were both law school–bound. Actually, I was already in law school when she first mentioned him, and when she realized he was headed to the same Boston college I was already at, Collins immediately ordered me to take him under my wing.
There hadn’t been much need for that. Julian got through law school just fine on his own, but I’d been the one who got my foot in the door at Gardner Law first, after my advisor put in a good word for me with Daphne. And then once I’d established myself a bit, I’d done the same for Julian.
Julian was a big brother. Literally, considering he had five sisters. He was always looking out for people, being overprotective when he didn’t have to be, putting his foot where it didn’t belong sometimes. He tended to fix problems that weren’t his, and sometimes it was annoying, but it was also because he cared.
With me, though?
I was possibly the only person whose problems Julian didn’t fix. Our relationship had always been the other way around. Even though I was barely older than him, I’d been a couple of stepsahead of Julian in a life where we had similar trajectories, and he usually came to me for advice.
So it was weird to see him sitting there, asking me if I needed help.
Help withwhat?
Julian shrugged. “Just checking on you. You bolted the other night at the Bellflower. What was that about?”
I leaned on my arm rest, giving what I hoped was a casual shrug. “Just seemed like a family thing going on. I didn’t want to intrude.”
“Come on.” Julian frowned. “You didn’t have to leave. You know you’re always welcome.”
“I wasn’t sure if Natalie would be comfortable having her lawyer there,” I said, thinking of the thing that might be the most logical. “Didn’t want to make anything weird.”
“The onlyweirdthing was you bolting out of there.”
I sighed and leveled him with a look that he delivered right back.
I assumed that Juniper would have told Julian what happened before I left, but maybe she didn’t.
I picked my words carefully. “Natalie was talking with the other girls about her…personal life. Specifically involving men.” One of Julian’s eyebrows cocked. “I didn’t think it was an appropriate conversation for me to be involved in, considering I’m her legal representation.”
Also considering that the only man who I could stand the thought of her getting personal with…was me.
I knew it was a problem, being that she had instigated a five-night limit on our arrangement. I was well aware that she wanted lessons so she could use what she learned about herself in the future, possibly with other men she decided to date when she was ready. And I was also well aware thatIwanted to be that man, too.
I didn’t really want to teach her what she could have in bed with men.
I wanted to teach her what she could have in bed withme.
If it weren’t for what she’d gone through with that asshole, I’d be making that very clear. But as it was, I understood her reasoning for wanting to be careful about jumping into anything too fast. I knew why she had boundaries, and I’d respect the hell out of them.
