Barely Breathing

Chapter Five

I scanned the emails in my inbox and sighed. Monday was hitting hard already. I'd answered some emails from home over the weekend and I still had eleven that I needed access to my files to answer.

After a fortifying sip of my latte, I got started. It took a conscious effort to stop my mind from wandering to the Friday night kiss. I'd been smiling over it all weekend–even when I was cleaning and working out.

"Look at you," Kara said, walking into my office and sitting down in a chair in front of the desk. "Smiling on a Monday morning? It has to be because the date went well."

"It did." I met her eyes across my desk and smiled wider.

"You told me almost nothing in your texts. So start at the beginning and tell me everything."

"I would, but I have lots of emails to get out before I go to court."

Kara arched a brow, amused. "You want me to leave?"

"Can we go to lunch later and I'll tell you then?"

She stood and shrugged. "Alright."

As soon as she closed the door to my office, I went back to the emails. One of my clients had sent me a lengthy message about his ex-wife being ten minutes late to drop off their children Saturday morning. I shook my head as I responded, wondering how he was going to feel about getting billed for this.

Part of me wished Kane had texted over the weekend, but he didn't strike me as a cutesy message sender. I grinned as I imagined a text from him. It would say something like how the fuck are you?

He wasn't one of those guys who busted ass in the gym to look like a badass; he actually was one. I'd known that the moment I saw him take Eric on in the alley. Kane's fearlessness was one of the things I liked best about him.

I forced my attention away from thoughts of his dark, intense gaze and back to my emails. By nine-thirty, they were all caught up and I was on my way to court in a cab. I only had one quick hearing, but I had to wait almost an hour for it.

The courthouse was full of suited attorneys looking fresh and ready to take the week on. I felt it, too. Hunger was essential to success for new attorneys in New York. Even the established ones at my firm earned their money with long hours.

Usually I was all about work on Monday mornings. But today my thoughts kept drifting to my intimate dinner with Kane. We could've eaten at a crowded McDonald's and it would've felt intimate if he'd looked at me like he did Friday night. He listened when I talked, silently taking me in with that dark chocolate gaze.

By the time we sat down at a downtown deli for lunch, I was dying to talk to Kara about the date.

"Were you lying when you said you didn't sleep with him?" she asked. "You know I won't think less of you if you did."

I lowered my brows at her and finished a bite of my club sandwich. "I wouldn't lie about it. He kissed me at my door and left."

"Huh."

"What? Why do you look so surprised? It's not like I'm a whore or something, Kara."

She gave me an apologetic look. "Oh, no. I didn't mean...I'm not surprised because of that."

"Then what?"

She shrugged. "He just seems like that kind of guy."

"What do you mean by that?"

"He seems like a guy who's looking to get laid after he takes a woman out for dinner."

I glared at her, offended on Kane's behalf. "And you base that on what, exactly? You only met him for a few seconds."