“Hey, Rob. How’s it going?” Braden asked with a smile.

“Great, Braden. You in a hurry?”

“Yes! Actually, kind of an urgent matter. You don’t mind do you, Gerald?” he called out to the older prosecutor.

“Go right ahead. I can wait,” he said looking a little confused. I smiled and waved.

“Ms. Ginsberg?” Braden called me, trying to sound nonchalant.

“Hello Mike,” I greeted the PD as I rushed toward the room.

“Gabrielle. You didn’t bring any files with you?”

“Didn’t need any,” I said with a bright smile. “I’ve got it all up here.” I tapped my forehead and dashed into the interview room. Braden closed the door behind us and locked it. He quickly checked his watch, as he took his jacket off and threw it on the desk.

“We have ten minutes. I think that manually is our best bet.” He actually picked me up and sat me down on the desk in the room, pushing my skirt up and my legs apart as I got his trousers open. His mouth was on mine in a second and we were practically devouring each other, we were kissing so wildly. He pushed my panties aside and slid two fingers up inside me, circling my cl*twith his thumb as I writhed against his hand. I reached in and freed him, gripping and stroking his impressive erection. I still hadn’t gotten a visual of the Harvard endowment yet but I knew it was big.

I broke our kiss to gulp some air and then attacked his neck, biting and licking and kissing him while building the rhythm of my strokes. I added my other hand to gently cup his balls.

“Yes or no?” I panted.

“Yes,” he groaned. “Squeeze a little but be careful.” I did what he asked and his breathing became ragged. His fingers slid in and out of me while he kept the pressure on my cl*tcontinuously, and I panted and tried not to moan. I had to bury my mouth against his neck to keep myself quiet. In case you were unaware, trying to come in a public place in ten minutes is not exactly an easy feat for a woman. I knew that I would have to work to pull this one off.

I tried to relax my body and just let my orgasm build. Luckily, he had very skilled fingers. If anyone could get me there, he could. I felt myself getting closer and I just allowed the sensations to wash over me, emptying my mind of everything and just focusing on the intensely pleasurable feeling between my legs. Braden was breathing very heavily and I knew that he could probably come right then but that he was waiting for me. I just needed to… let… go.

I gasped and my inner muscles clenched and pulsed as a tremor passed through my body. As soon as he sensed me coming he groaned and came in my hand. Thank God there was a box of tissues on that desk too. We stood there panting for a moment and then he kissed me lightly on the lips.

“I needed that,” he said, as his breathing returned to normal.

“Me too.” We managed to clean up enough to make it to the restroom in the lobby with a minute to spare, and we were just walking in the courtroom door when the judge took the bench. Both of us were noticeably calmer and more relaxed. Judge Channing wasn’t ready to rule on the motion yet so we just picked up where we had left off and finished our cases. Afterward, we all packed up our stuff and got ready to go.

“So, did you two have a productive case conference?” Adam asked with a smile.

“They must have, judging by how happy they looked when they got back,” Jess commented. A deputy came into the courtroom and called out.

“We need a PD to talk to a guy in lock up! A Mr.” he checked the file, “DeWayne Johnson.”

“Oh I know that case,” Adam said. “That’s the gentleman from the North Philly “social club” charged with triple homicide.”

“I’ll take it,” I said.

“Hold on!” Braden stopped me. “You can’t go have a chat with a gang banger in lock up.”

“Why not?”

“He’s violent.”

“That’s probably why he’s charged with triple homicide, Braden. Although I will point out that he’s innocent until proven guilty even if he is a gangsta.”

“There must be a male PD around.”

“I’ve interviewed violent males before and this guy’s just a shooter anyway. I feel reasonably confident that they took the gun away from him when they arrested him.”

“Yeah, but they’ll lock you in with him. By the time they opened the door he could hurt you.”

“Well they’re not going to let him out to come see me. Where do you think I meet my clients? Starbucks?”

“I don’t know why, I guess I just never thought about you going to do that kind of stuff. I thought your office would only send guys or at least not twenty-six-year-old women. It’s a serious case and they should have a senior defender in there anyway.”

“I’ll just see what he needs and then if I can’t or shouldn’t handle it I’ll get help, but I do this all the time. Half of the lawyers in my office are female and better to send a twenty-six-year-old than a sixty-year-old. Besides, my job is no more dangerous than yours is. You go out to actual crime scenes and you’re the dude trying to put the bad guys away.”

“I guess so.” He didn’t look happy about it though. “I’m going to call you tonight.”

“To assure yourself that I made it out alive?”

“I want to talk to you about something and also continue our conversation from the other day.”

* * *

That night at nine o'clock I was sitting in bed drinking herbal tea and watching Antiques Roadshow just like most twenty-six-year-olds, (okay, not really), when Braden called.

“Mr. Pierce.”

“Ms. Ginsberg. I have a different kind of privacy issue to discuss with you. I know that tomorrow is supposed to be your choice but my parents want us to spend the weekend. Is that too weird for you? I know we just started dating and we’re planning to get freaky tomorrow, so if it’s too weird, just tell me.”

“Are your parents going to be in the room when we get freaky?”

“They likely won’t even be in the house. They usually go out Friday nights after dinner. My younger brother and sister do too and I’m sure they’ll invite us along but I would rather stay in and have hot, sweaty monkey sex with you.”

“You’re sure that they want me to come too? Maybe they just want to spend time with you before the fundraiser thing.”

“I think that they especially want you to come. Have I mentioned that they think twenty-seven is a good age to start thinking about settling down? Like I said, if this is too much pressure after two dates, then I completely understand. They’re just extremely excited that I’m having a relationship of more than a couple of hours in duration. It’s been a while.”

“I’m okay with it, I guess, if you are. I’m sometimes a bit awkward around people I don’t know well yet, but I clean up pretty well and I could probably make myself presentable.”

“My brother Drew is much more socially awkward than you are.”

“Thanks.” I laughed. “He and I will probably get along well.”

“I’m sure he’ll want to get along well with you. He’s a twenty-three-year-old player.”

“You must be his hero.”

“I will be after he meets you. I’ll tell my mom it’s okay then, and that you can just stay with me. I’m sorry that this isn’t exactly the sexiest location for us to finally get to sleep together.”

“Braden, we made each other come in an interview room at the courthouse today.”

“That’s a good point.” He laughed. “That was also pretty impressive teamwork if I must say so myself. Are you in bed?”

“Yeah, I’m watching Antiques Roadshow.”

“Me too. So now we can say that we've watched TV in bed together.”

“When Mark and Adam ask?” There was silence on the other end. “Hello? Are you still there?”

“Yeah, I was just thinking about you being in bed with me. Today was just a stop gap. I need tomorrow night to get here quickly. Under other circumstances it might actually make me a little uncomfortable to get to know you biblically for the first time in my parents’ house, but I’m desperate. I'm starting to get really distracted and not always at convenient times. So should we finish the pre-sex talk so that we don’t have to worry about it later?”

“Sure,” I answered.

“Do you have a favorite position?”

“Whichever one I’m in at the moment. How about you?”

“All of them. How many sexual partners have you had?”

“Six, which includes the first one, even though that was a onetime encounter.”

“Your first time was a one night stand?”

“He wasn’t just some guy I met at a frat party. He was a friend. I thought he was more than that but he was too happy being a player.”

“How old were you?”

“Eighteen. I was a freshman at Yale and he was a sophomore. It’s weird, you remind me a little bit of him. You’re not going to sleep with me and then decide that we should just be friends, are you?”

“No. I always make it very clear upfront if I’m only interested in a one-night encounter and I don’t tend to wind up being friends with the women I have them with.”

“How old were you?”

“Sixteen, but my girlfriend was eighteen.”

“You gave it up for a cougar,” I teased.

“Why do I remind you of him?” he said, going back to the other topic. He seemed very interested in this.

“I don’t know. He was tall and exceptionally good-looking like you. He sounded very well educated and upper class. He was very popular and he hooked up a lot. He was planning to go to law school. You’re different in a lot of ways though too. You’re much funnier and you and I have many more interests in common. He was very much a nineteen-year-old. You just hang out with guys who act like they’re nineteen.”

“He should have made things clear before he slept with you.”

“I should have, too. In his defense, I don’t think he knew that I was a virgin and I don’t think he planned it. It just kind of happened. Besides, was it really surprising that a popular nineteen-year-old didn’t want to get too tied down? I should have brought it up beforehand like I did with you.”

“Yeah, by the time you got to me you were a crack negotiator. Good thing that Jessica was right and I wanted to agree with everything you asked for.”

“Well, I wanted to agree to hook up with you. So you’ll be lucky number seven.”

“I promise that you’ll get lucky. I’m going to let you go now so that you can rest up. I’m going to have some adrenaline and some testosterone flowing tomorrow.”

“Sleep well.”

“We’ll both sleep better tomorrow night.”

Friday

Commonwealth v. Franklin

“Your Honor, my client has no criminal record. The marijuana in this case was for personal use and represented a lapse in judgment, nothing more. We would like to work out a settlement with the District Attorney's Office in an effort to avoid prosecution.”

“Mr. Pierce?” Judge Channing asked.

“Normally that wouldn't be a problem Your Honor, but there was just so much marijuana involved in this case – nearly a pound.” Braden doubled checked his notes and glanced at my client.

“But, there were no packaging materials, no cutting materials, no large sums of money, no weapons, nothing to indicate that my client was dealing, so regardless of the amount, the evidence points to personal use.”

Judge Channing turned to my client with a withering look. “Ms. Franklin, how old are you?”

“Eighty-two in July, Judge, and still as lively as ever.” She smiled.

“Obviously,” he said scathingly. “And all of this marijuana was for you alone?”

“Well, it was my whole stash, honey,” she answered earnestly. I winced a little.

“Ms. Ginsberg has explained that you can't do this anymore?”

“Yes.” She sighed heavily. “It's not worth the trouble. I'm going back to whiskey.”

“That's good. I mean, well. That's… acceptable. Okay, I'm going to advise the District Attorney's office to work out an agreement for community service.”

“Understood, Your Honor,” Braden replied.

Ms. Franklin wobbled off as I returned to counsel table. Braden walked over to hand me the order.

“Seems like a fun gal,” he said.

“I'll trade you sexual favors for the old lady's freedom,” I joked quietly.

“You're on.”

“Mr. Pierce! Call the next case,” Judge Channing bellowed.

“Commonwealth v. Wagner!” Braden called. My client, dressed in a hat with ear-flaps and a tee-shirt with a picture of a smiling donkey and a caption that read, “I Lost my Ass in Las Vegas” walked forward. It boggled my mind that this morning when he had gone through his closet that had jumped out at him as the most appropriate thing to wear to court.

“What's this about?” Judge Channing asked, giving my client an irritated look.

“Your Honor,” Braden began, the Commonwealth will establish that on April 14th of this year Mr. Scott Wagner stopped Mr. Franklin Jordan with what turned out to be a toy gun, and demanded that he drive him around from ATM machine to ATM machine as he withdrew money from his own account. He’s charged with carjacking.”