“Don’t worry. I won’t flog you,” he said moving his hand back up and stroking my hair as we caught our breath. “I think I really would like to tie you to the bed though. Just playfully.”

“With something soft?”

“No. With cable ties. I said just playfully!” He laughed.

“Well, it depends on how rough you play. I think that I would let you as long as you promised to let me go if I wanted and to not go hang out with the guys and leave me there.”

“Of course I would let you go if you wanted! I’m not talking serious BDSM stuff. Just fooling around. And for the record, Adam and Mark are great guys but I’m pretty sure I would choose you na**d and tied to a bed over hanging out with them. I would choose being with you even if you weren’t na**d and tied to a bed.”

“Now that’s really romantic! Let’s put that one in our vows. Would you Braden, choose Gabrielle, even if she were not na**d and tied to a bed?” I teased, leaning up to kiss him softly on the lips. He hugged me close and gently rubbed my back. He made me feel so loved and cared for. No other guy had ever made me feel like that.

“So, when do you want to get married?” he asked softly.

“You haven’t even officially proposed yet,” I replied, running a finger over his biceps.

“I will soon and I’ll make it special. I promise.”

“It would be special no matter what.”

“Do you mind if I borrow one of your rings? I need to know your size and what you like. I want it to be perfect for you.”

“Of course you can. And you can look at all my jewelry if you want. Most of it came from my parents but they know my taste.”

“I think I’m starting to get to know it pretty well myself already,” he replied.

“How long have we known each other altogether?”

“Seven and a half months. It feels like longer though.”

“What did you think the first time you met me?” I asked curiously.

“I thought ‘I’d like to hit that’.” I jabbed him in the ribs. “Hey! I’m a guy.” He laughed. “But right after that I thought ‘wow, she’s really intelligent too and she’s a damned good lawyer.’ What did you think when you first met me?”

“I thought ‘wow, he’s so confident and in control. I’m going to have to be on my game if I want to hold my own with him’.”

“Really?”

“That and ‘I totally want to have hot sweaty monkey sex with him’.”

“I love that!” He laughed. “In fact, I think you had me at the hot sweaty monkey sex comment on our first date.”

“I think you had me way before that. I had such a huge crush on you and all kinds of naughty fantasies about you. I named my vibrator Mr. Pierce Junior.”

“Well, I’m flattered!” He laughed. “I had a big crush on you for a long time too, and trust me, you were the regular star of my dreams and sexual fantasies,” he admitted. “I think I engaged in more self-love in the months just before we started dating than I had since I was thirteen.”

“I didn’t know you had a crush on me.”

“Couldn’t you tell?”

“Jess thought so. It seemed too good to be true, though, and besides I had heard that you were a player.”

“I was,” he said, sounding amused, “before I met you, but I had definitely slowed down a lot by the time we started dating. I really didn’t have much interest in that anymore.”

“If I hadn’t flirted with you, would you have ever asked me out?”

“I wanted to. I had finally figured out that you were interested in me too, when you told me I could comfort you after that shoplifting trial you did.” He laughed. “I was trying to figure out how to go about it, though. Your flirting that night was very helpful! Negotiating with you was a lot of fun too, not to mention a really huge turn-on.”

“I love you Braden. I was going to tell you that when you got back from Pittsburgh but you told me first.”

“I was going to wait until we were together again too but at that moment I missed you so much, and I just felt like I had to let you know. Now let’s go to sleep and dream about each other some more.” He kissed the top of my head and cuddled me closer.

CHAPTER FIVE

Monday

The Defender Association of Philadelphia

When I got into the office the next morning, Cameron was there working, but Jess was out. I glided in, tossed my bag onto the floor and plopped down into my desk chair, which promptly tilted backwards, nearly causing me to splatter my extra grande cup of doubly caffeinated coffee all over me. I put it down before I injured myself.

“Where’s our office mate?” I asked, settling in at my desk. As usual there was a pile of files waiting that could probably kill me if it fell on me. No matter how many times I worked my way through the pile it would always be rebuilt when I came in each morning. Like magic.

“She and Mark got called out to do preliminary hearings in the districts,” he replied, writing something in a file. I fired up my computer and did a little quick research to satisfy my curiosity about Club 51. It was a fairly new place and it sounded kind of interesting. I personally thought that finding that napkin was a little too convenient and that it would definitely be worth checking it out on Friday at ten-thirty. Besides, if we went as a group, that would give Jess a reason to get all dressed up and gorgeous-looking and it would give Cam a chance to see her looking that way. I was such a brilliant strategist. Napoleon could have taken lessons from me.

Unable to put it off any longer, I dug into my pile of case files for the next day. Luckily, with one exception, most of the cases seemed pretty straightforward. Unfortunately, the exception was a real winner. I sighed. Cameron and I worked quietly until eleven-thirty and then I took a break and stretched a little, turning toward him and starting a conversation.

“So how long are you going to be here with us, Cam?”

“Why? Trying to get rid of me?” he asked with a laugh.

“Are you kidding? I like having you here. It’s nice to have help and I’ve always enjoyed your company. Besides, you and Jess are just getting to know each other well. Didn’t you tell me just the other night that you found her really attractive and you might want to explore that more?” Okay, I was nudging. Cam stopped what he was doing and turned to face me.

“I did tell you that and I have been thinking about it,” he confirmed.

“So, why don’t you ask her out on a date or something?” I had moved on to pushing.

“Because I like her a lot. I would want it to be a success, so I’m waiting for the timing to be right. I still need to work through some things before starting a new relationship.”

“What …”

Then it dawned on me, Jess might have been right; the “some things” he had to work through might be his feelings about having me pop up out of the blue dating his cousin. Oh God, was I standing in the way of their happiness and ruining it for both of them? Some small part of my brain registered what was about to happen just in the nick of time. I flew out of my seat and bolted toward the door. “I’m having an allergy thing,” I said, my voice catching.

I made it to the ladies room and hurtled myself into a stall just as the first heavy hot tears started to fall. Oh fuck! This wasn’t happening. I could just tell that this was PMS! Even on the pill I always became an emotional basket case a week before my period. God, I hated freaking hormones! I assured myself that even if he needed some time to wrap his head around it, that didn’t mean he was broken-hearted or anything. He would work through it and they would get together and be happy. I needed to get a grip. Get the estrogen under control, Gabrielle! It’s all good. I took a few gulps of air and dried my eyes with toilet paper. I stepped out of the stall and looked in the mirror … at my red eyes and tear-streaked makeup. Shit. Okay, I needed to wash my face. I turned the water on full blast and started frantically pumping icky, thin pink soap into my hand. I heard someone coming through the door and I looked up into the mirror to see Kim, a friend and fellow PD, whose office was at the other end of the hall from ours. Kim was a gorgeous Halle Berry look-alike with short dark hair, beautiful mocha-colored skin, and amazing style and taste and here I stood looking like someone had just dragged me out of the river.

“Hey, Gab. You okay?”

“Allergy attack.”

“Oh, sorry, girl. Want some Claritin?”

“No, thanks. I took something already.” She went into a stall and at that moment my arm started to feel cold and wet. I looked down and saw that while I had been looking up at her, pink soap was running all over one sleeve of my suit jacket, and the other sleeve was sitting in the sink basin, which was rapidly filling with water. I yanked my arms away, managing to splatter pink goo all over my white blouse in the process. I grabbed some brown paper towel and wet it, attempting to scrub it off. Unfortunately, all that did was smear brown all over the pink. Needed more water! I started splashing water across the stain and immediately realized my mistake. Oh fuck! I looked like a contestant in a wet T-shirt contest and I had to interview clients in an hour! In jail! It would probably dry but what if it didn’t?!

Okay, think, Gabrielle! The air blow hand dryer! I went over and tried to turn the air blower upward but it wouldn’t move. Shit! I hit the button, bent my knees and squatted below the pipe. And that’s how Ellen Anderson, the Philadelphia Public Defender, one of the most highly respected attorneys on the East Coast, and my boss, found me as she walked in the door. Then I heard the stall door open and saw Kim’s startled expression in the mirror.

“Ms. Ginsberg? Are you all right?” Ellen sounded like she wasn’t quite sure if she should help me or get the hell out of there.

“Uh, I’m good! Thanks. I had an accident with the soap. And the paper towel. And the water.”

“Hygiene can be a complex thing,” she said, looking at me strangely and heading for a stall.

“Do you need another blouse, Gab?” Kim asked, looking like she was trying not to laugh. “I have an extra in case of emergency. I can bring it to you.”

I glanced up nervously at the stall where my boss was peeing and suddenly all I wanted to do was to get the hell out of there myself. “I’ll come with you to your office. Thanks.” I started following Kim and I was about to pass my office when I saw that Cameron had gone. Not wanting to go down the rest of the hall looking like that, I ducked in. “Can you bring it here?”

“Sure, I’ll be right back.”

I peeled off my sopping jacket and waited. Kim came back in a couple of minutes with another white blouse.

“Thank you so much!”

“No problem. I’ll close the door on the way out,” she said and left.

As soon as she was gone, I ripped off my wet blouse and quickly realized that my bra was wet too. I turned my back to the door and started fanning my chest in an effort to dry it a little. Movement caught my eye and I looked up and out the window to the building across from me, where a group of rather startled-looking businessmen stood gaping at me. I spun around in a panic just as the door opened and Cameron came back in looking down at a file. He looked up at me and then he looked down at my wet see-through bra. Oh, and by the way? I was cold. He dropped the file he was holding and his jaw nearly hit the floor with it.

“Oh,” he said, sounding stunned. “I had forgotten how nice those were.” He started slowly backing up toward the open door.

“Cameron!” I charged at him to push him out faster. “Close the f**king door, for Christ’s sake!” I hissed loudly. Just as Braden walked in. I stood there. In my bra. With my arms around Cameron. After telling him to close the door. Frozen in shock.

Braden looked at me with confusion. Then Braden looked at Cameron with fury. Cameron looked at Braden with horror.

“Not what it looks like!” Cameron sputtered backing up away from me frantically. Then Adam walked in and stopped short. His eyes immediately dropped and he openly admired my boobs for a long moment and said, “Hi, Gabrielle. Nice tits. I’m going to find Mark to help me save Cameron’s life.” Then he ducked out quickly.

“What. The fuck! Are you doing? With my girlfriend now Cameron?!” Braden’s voice was deadly.

Mark and Jess came through the door next.

“Holy shit!” Mark exclaimed, looking at me in shock. Then, seeing the look that Braden was giving Cameron, he flew into action. “Braden! It’s Gabrielle! I’m sure there’s some wacky explanation for this!” Jessica literally threw herself in front of Cameron as Adam came back in and quickly assessed the situation.

“Whoa! Braden! Down boy! You’ve found her dressed in garbage and BDSM gear. This is just par for the course, man!” He and Mark put themselves physically between Braden and Cameron then too. Finally, I snapped out of it and I grabbed Kim’s blouse and threw it on, buttoning up as well as I could with shaking hands.

“Braden! My blouse got wet and another PD lent me an extra one. I was changing when Cameron walked in. He was only in here for a few seconds and he was trying to leave but he was shocked and he was moving too slowly and so I was pushing him faster. I wanted him to close the door on the way out!”

I watched Braden take deep breaths and force himself to calm down. Cameron visibly relaxed then and let out a deep breath of his own. I hurried over to Braden and put my arms around him, hugging him tightly and rubbing his back. His muscles felt like piano wires and I could feel his heart beating fast.