Page 160 of Alive At Night

“I’m sorry…” The elevator doors opened, and Julian stuck his foot out to keep them from closing while staring at me, brows furrowed. “Are you trying to figure out how to not stay over at my place tonight and still get your muffins in the morning?”

“Do you want me to stay over?” I struggled to meet his brilliant blue gaze. “I just figured that after this weekend, you’d want some space.”

“Space from you?” Julian scoffed, looking irritated at the idea. He gestured for me to leave the elevator. “Never.”

This new version of Julian still threw me for a loop sometimes. It was so hard to get used to hearing him say things like that.

“Didn’t get enough sex this weekend?” I joked, dropping my voice as we walked across the lobby. I could feel Tyler eyeing us as we moved past his desk.

Julian stopped at my words, turning to face me. “Don’t do that. I know it’s partly my fault that you have this narrative in your head, but I thought we were breaking it. I didn’t get enough ofyouthis weekend. Don’t get it confused.”

I gulped, feeling warmed by his words, even though what I had said was mostly meant in jest. Or a mechanism to protect myself, despite rationally not having any doubts that Julian wanted this relationship. Wanted me.

“Hey, St. James. Briggs.”

Cameron’s voice made me jump. And that jump made all my insides tumble and tighten…sweetly. Unbearably sweet. I stifled a groan as I looked anywhere but at Cameron’s face. I just had this feeling that if I looked at him, he would know. He would know everything.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Julian’s lips twitch.

“Hey, man,” Julian said, barely skipping a beat.

“Morning, Cameron,” I said, finally looking over at our coworker and friend. My voice sounded overly bright to my ears.

Cameron’s brows furrowed as he looked between us, and then he shook his head, stepping through the glass doorway leading to our workspaces.

“You two are going to be so fucking ridiculous to work with, aren’t you?”

“Haven’t we always been?” I tried to joke.

Cameron shook his head, smiling as he decided not to answer that question. “Just remind me to never enter your office without knocking.”

“Hey, Cameron,” Julian teased. “Don’t enter our office without knocking. Especially not today.”

My eyes grew round at the promise in Julian’s words.

CHAPTERTHIRTY-SEVEN

julian

JUNIPER AND I DIDN’T often attend meetings together. This was a special occasion. Averyspecial occasion.

It was a virtual client meeting primarily run by Daphne. I did a lot of grunt work for her cases, which honestly didn’t bother me in the slightest. It was the price to be paid until I moved up in seniority. And today, my role as notetaker granted me ample opportunity to admire my girlfriend, who was sitting behind me at her desk, providing translations for our client as needed.

Despite the irritation I used to feel that we were pursuing the same career, I’ve always thought that working in law was a good fit for Juniper, mostly because of her smart mouth and determination. But now that I’d uncovered the hidden parts of Juniper, I saw the makings of anoutstandingattorney. She wanted to fight for people. She wanted to use her bilingualism to open more doors and reduce barriers. She wanted to be an adoption law advocate.

She was a better person than me on so many levels; I’d picked law as a career more for what it could do for my family and me than for what I could do for others. Not to say I wouldn’t fight like hell for my clients or put my all into my cases, but Juniper had a passion that exceeded what I recognized in myself.

It was just another thing to love about her.

Juniper was passionate about the world, and I was passionate about her. Everything about her. Especially how she kept wiggling in her chair as another language flew from her lips.

Good fucking thing my camera was off because the number of times I’d looked away from my notes to study Juni’s mannerisms, every little shift of her body, was sky-high. She’d dared to look back and glare at me at least once, but I wasn’t exactly sure why. I hadn’tdoneanything.

Well, I hadn’t done anythingelse.

She was just mad that thoughts of having me deep inside her were creating a distraction.

I watched her gorgeous face flush brighter on my computer screen, almost like she could hear what was happening in my head.

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