Landon unlocked the front door of her apartment and prayed any mess inside was confined to the bedroom. Memories of her last morning here were filled with visions of a feisty redhead and frantically packing for Dallas, and piles of clothes were stacked everywhere. But the kitchen and dining room should be fine since they were the least used rooms in the house.
They’d made a quick stop at Torchy’s to pick up some of the best tacos in Austin. Carly had balked a bit when Landon insisted on ordering, but had acquiesced, which was good because Landon was hell-bent on satisfying at least one of her cravings today.
Which brought up the question of why she was craving Carly at all. They could not be more different, and Carly routinely drove her crazy with her rigid ways, but she sensed that underneath the laced-up outer shell was a wild woman struggling to get out. And you think you’re the one to coax her to the surface? Maybe.
She needed a minute to clear her head, so she handed the bags to Carly. “If you’ll take these into the dining room, I’ll grab some plates and drinks. Topo Chico okay?”
“I have no idea what that is, but since I’m already trusting you for sustenance, I see no reason not to trust you to quench my thirst.”
Damn, that feeling again. Why did Carly’s simplest statements turn her on? Landon walked to the kitchen and counted to ten, but the feelings kept coming. She’d made a habit of dating women who weren’t necessarily high in the IQ department. Doing so kept her from having to talk in depth about her work, her family’s business, current events, or anything beyond getting undressed and which positions gave them the most pleasure. But now, all of a sudden, she was turned on by sheer intelligence. Who knew smart could be so damn sexy?
She opened the fridge and searched the contents, hoping to cool off in the process.
“If you don’t find something in there soon, I can’t promise there will be anything left to eat.”
Landon turned, and Carly was standing directly behind her wearing a sexy smile. Well, it was just a smile, but everything about Carly seemed sexy from the way she stood with one hand on her hip, to the way she cocked her head when she was making a joke. Landon quickly grabbled two bottles of Topo Chico sparkling water and used the bottle opener on the counter to open them. She thrust one at Carly. “Try this.”
Carly raised her eyebrows and tipped the bottle to her lips. Full, red, sexy lips. Holy hotness. Landon could barely watch, but she couldn’t look away as Carly took a long pull and held the fizzy liquid in her mouth for a moment before swallowing.
“Oh my God, that’s amazing.” Carly held the bottle up and examined the label. “Mineral water.” She read a bit more. “There’s really nothing else in this?”
Landon tore her gaze away from the sexy lips. “Uh, no. I sometimes squeeze a lime in, but as you can see,” she pointed to a wrinkled green object in the fridge, “I think this piece of fruit has seen better days.”
“It doesn’t need it.” Carly tilted her bottle. “Aren’t you going to drink yours?”
“Uh, yeah, sure.” Landon reached back and grabbed her bottle, grateful to have something to do with her hands. “Hungry?”
“Starving.”
Did she hear an undercurrent reflecting her own desire or was she imagining it? Hell, they hadn’t eaten all day, of course Carly was hungry. Landon grabbed the Torchy’s bag and led the way to her kitchen counter. “Not super fancy, but this is the dining counter. Not to be confused with the kitchen counter, which is what it doubles as when I’m cooking.”
“Do you cook a lot?”
“Hardly ever. Ian is the only one with the chef gene, although I’m not sure where he got it. My mother’s cooking skills consist of signing off on the household menu and occasionally strolling through the kitchen to make sure everyone is earning their keep.” Landon could hear the bitter edge in her voice and wished she hadn’t shared that last part. Seeking to add a little levity, she added, “My food skills are limited to picking good restaurants.”
“So far, you’re batting a thousand.” Carly took another bite of her taco and wiped the edge of her mouth with a napkin. “I’m not big on cooking either, which usually means I throw together a salad or a bowl of cereal for dinner. If I keep hanging out with you, I’ll need to be fitted for a new wardrobe.”
“Oh please, you’re beautiful and you’d be just as gorgeous with an extra ten or twenty pounds.” The words tumbled out, and Landon didn’t even try to reel them back in. She’d spoken the truth and what was the harm in that? She froze for a moment, meeting Carly’s curious stare with a smile before grabbing a taco and shoving it in her mouth, more to keep from saying anything else embarrassing than because she was hungry.
They spent the next few moments in companionable silence, eating their food. Landon snuck a couple of sidelong glances at Carly, musing at how far they’d come from their rocky start.
“Do you think he did it?” Carly asked.
“What?”
“Trevor? Do you think he killed those women?”
“I don’t know. I try not to think about it. Kinda gets in the way of the job. How about you?”
Carly nodded. “I try too, but I can’t help but wonder. Seems a little crazy for someone so high profile to risk losing everything, but it’s not like it hasn’t happened before. Hello, O.J.?”
“Why did you ask?”
“Just a conversation I had with Jane. I get the impression she thinks he’s guilty.”
“And you care what she thinks because?”
“Well, for one, she has the power to decide my future. Our future.”
“Is that so?” Carly’s words stoked rebellion. “That’s a pretty broad statement. She has the power to decide which one of us becomes a partner. At this firm. This year. Beyond that our futures are pretty much our own to decide.”
“I don’t know about you, but becoming a partner at this firm is what I’ve been working toward. It is my future, and I care a lot. What does your future hold?”
“I want this partnership as much as you do,” Landon said, not quite believing her own words. She leaned close. “But my future’s bigger than a job. I want everything.”
Carly’s breath hitched. “Everything, huh?”
“You bet.” She’d said the words without thinking, but now that she had, she knew they were true. She did want more, but she wasn’t sure what the more was. A wife? Family? She’d always assumed those things would happen, but she hadn’t spent a lot of time thinking or planning for a future that involved other people. Until now. Sitting here in her apartment with Carly, sharing a meal, she could envision something more, and the mental image of what it would be like to kiss those lips supplanted all other thoughts. She reached for Carly’s empty plate, and noted a faraway look in her eyes. “What are you thinking right now?”
Carly pushed the plate toward Landon. “Why?”
“Don’t parse the question, just answer it.”
“We have a lot of work to do.”
“You were thinking about work?” Landon didn’t believe her, but she wasn’t surprised at the lie. Since the moment they’d met, Carly had focused on the job, corralling Landon’s usual tendencies to get distracted. But Carly was fast becoming the distraction.
“No.”
Landon’s head shot up. “No?”
“I wasn’t thinking about work,” Carly said in a low voice. “But I should’ve been.”
The roller-coaster admission left Landon uncertain. She wanted to say that should’ve beens were the enemy of pleasure, and life was too short not to indulge now and then. But words, even those, were an impediment to what she really wanted, and they would only break the spell. Before she could think herself out of it, she pulled Carly toward her and kissed her softly.
* * *
At the touch of Landon’s lips to hers, Carly placed a hand on Landon’s chest. But instead of obeying the command of her brain, telling her to push Landon away, Carly wound her fingers in Landon’s shirt and yanked her closer. She took her time, luxuriating in the firm press of flesh, and when Landon’s tongue slipped through her lips, she matched her stroke for stroke, sending waves of arousal through her body.
When they finally broke for air, Landon’s breath was jagged. “Best. Kiss. Ever.”
Carly nodded but stopped short of asking if she meant it. The kiss was definitely her number one, but she imagined Landon had way more experience kissing tons of other girls, so her assessment was kind of incredible. Instead of asking for affirmation, she asked for what she really wanted. “Can we do it again?”
Landon barely waited for her to finish the words before she captured her bottom lip and ran her tongue lightly along the surface, teasing with delicious delay. Carly moaned and sagged against her touch.
“You like?” Landon murmured.
“You are very observant.”
“It’s one of my main skills.”
“But not your best one,” Carly said, pulling Landon close. “What are we doing here?” she whispered, more to herself than Landon.
“I don’t know about you, but I’ve been wanting to do this for a while now. And by this, I mean…”
Landon finished her sentence with another searing kiss, and Carly melted into the slow, lingering strokes of Landon’s tongue tangling with hers. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been kissed like this. Hell, when Landon touched her, she couldn’t remember her own name. She ran her arms up Landon’s side and stepped closer, letting Landon’s hands pull her in and then wander over her body, stroking her neck, her breasts, and then dipping low to the waistline of her skirt. She was dangerously close to shucking off her clothes right here, next to the kitchen counter, when the sound of a phone buzzing broke through her haze.
“Ignore it,” Landon whispered, her voice breathy and full of promise.
“But what if—”
Landon’s lips cut off the rest of her feeble protest, and Carly nipped back at her, hungry for the connection.
A loud ringtone burst through their haze. “Tell me you have a spontaneous speaker system,” Carly said against Landon’s lips.
“I wish.” Landon leaned back, her eyes full of regret.
“Is that ‘The Imperial March’ from Star Wars?”
“Uh, yeah. It’s my ringtone for Jane.”
“Better not let her hear it.” Carly ran a finger down Landon’s chest. “Now it’s my turn to tell you to ignore it.”
The ominous notes of the tune started up again.
“Tell me,” Landon said.
“Ignore it.”
“I will.”
The tune stopped for a moment, but then started up again. Carly shot a look at the coffee table where the phone rattled against the wood with each ring. She wanted to ignore it, she really did, but she was certain now that the buzzing she’d heard earlier was Jane as well, and Jane was probably wondering why she wasn’t able to reach either one of her two top attorneys who were allegedly in the car together, headed back to Dallas. She looked back at Landon, who greeted her with a gentle smile.
“I’m sorry,” Carly said as she slipped out of Landon’s arms and walked the short distance to her own phone. She scrolled through her missed calls, surprised to see Trevor’s number along with Jane’s. She’d never even heard the first call. She’d been too mesmerized by Landon’s touch. She still was, but she had a job to do, and nowhere in the job description was long, slow kisses one of her assigned tasks.
Carly checked her text messages, but all she had were a string of “call mes” and “where are yous” from Trevor. It didn’t bode well that neither one of them had been compelled to send any sort of detail about why in the hell they were so eager to reach them. She held up her phone. “I’ve got lots of calls, but no intel here. How about you?”
“Same. You want to call or should I?”
“Trevor called me. I’ll call him back while you call Jane.” Carly was already punching his number when notifications from CNN, Bloomberg, Huffpost, and more started cascading down her screen. “Hold up. Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”
Landon crossed the room, phone in hand. They stood shoulder to shoulder and read the latest news. The Dallas County grand jury had indicted Trevor, and within moments after the announcement, the NFL commissioner had held a press conference calling on the Dallas Cowboys to terminate his contract.
“Someone must’ve tipped him off about the true bill,” Landon said. “No way the commissioner could’ve put together a press conference that fast.”
Carly merely nodded, but all she could think about was how many news alerts they’d missed during their little make-out session, and how mixed up her feelings were about whether, given the chance, she’d go back and do things differently.
“Are you okay?”
Carly looked up into Landon’s dreamy eyes. It would be so incredibly easy to fall back into the haze that had swept them up in its spell just moments ago. She took a deep breath. She couldn’t, wouldn’t, change what had happened, but she could and would guard against letting it happen again. “I’m good, but we’ve got some work to do. Ready to hit the road?”
* * *
Landon checked the right lane and pulled over just in time to make the exit to the office. They’d spent most of the three-hour car ride on the phone, together and separately, and even though Carly was sitting only inches away, it felt like they were on different planets.
Carly seemed completely unaffected by what had happened at her apartment, while Landon had been hard-pressed to think of anything else. She’d thought kissing Carly would satisfy an itch, but now she ached all over. Several times during the ride, she’d considering pulling over and reaching for Carly again, but she could feel the wall Carly had erected between them the moment the job reached back into their world with its firm demands and tangled allegiances. She wished she could shut it down as easily as Carly had. She’d have to work on that.
In the meantime, they had to deal with a nervous client, an irate agent, an anxious football team management, and a commissioner with something to prove. Two of the four were waiting at the office, and Jane had made it clear they were to come straight there for a strategy session. The office was less than a mile away, and if she didn’t take advantage now, there would be no time to talk to Carly about what happened between them. She’d faced angry prosecutors, grumpy judges, and unsympathetic juries, and never backed down, so why was she so reticent when it came to talking about a kiss with a woman she’d nearly undressed?
Because you don’t usually talk to them.
It was a hard truth but a fair assessment. Since she’d been tossed aside after chasing a girl to Austin, she’d allowed plenty of women in her bed, but not in her heart, which meant her dating conversations usually started with things like “What do you want for dinner” and ended with “What do you like between the sheets?” She hadn’t cared about the lack of depth, or at least she hadn’t thought she cared. Until now. Working with and against Carly had stoked something besides the challenge of their rivalry. She’d gotten a glimpse of what it could be like to spend time with someone and actually get to know them before collapsing into each other’s arms.
Time was running out. Landon pulled into the lot and barely got the key out of the ignition before Carly had the door open. It was now or never. “Wait a minute. Please.”
“They’re waiting for us.”
“I know, but they’ve been waiting a while, another minute won’t hurt.”
Carly took her hand off the door and turned to face her. “I know what you’re going to say.”
“You do, do you?”
“The kissing, back at your place, it was nice.”
“Nice?”
“Fine.” Carly’s smile didn’t reach her eyes. “It was hot, steamy, amazing, but it can’t happen again.”
This was it, her opening. Her chance to argue the other side and win, but when Landon opened her mouth, all she could think to say was, “Why not?”
Carly looked down and fiddled with the door handle. “It just doesn’t make sense. We’re working together, but whatever the outcome of this trial, one of us is going to win and one is going to lose. Let’s not complicate things by having the contest get personal.”
Landon listened to the sterile delivery, barely able to believe that a few hours earlier Carly had melted into her arms. Had she completely misread the situation or was Carly a complete ice princess, able to turn her feelings off and on whenever she wanted? Clearly, she and Carly didn’t want the same thing. When it came to now or never, she supposed she had her answer. Never.