Afternoon Delight - By Mia Zachary Page 0,33

notebook computer on his desk, Chris moved the mouse around to click on the e-mail icon. His Lunch Meetings account forwarded copies of messages to his private address. When the program opened, his eyes skimmed down the sender line until he spotted the reply he’d hoped for. With a grin, he opened the message from RLD49.

RE: HI YOURSELF

I think that’s the best idea for now. I’m very big on judging things for myself, so not meeting right away is fine with me.

My day was pretty good, too. I think I may have made a difference in someone’s life. Always a good feeling.

RLD49

Chris frowned slightly at her reply. He hadn’t said anything about not meeting. But if she was new to Internet dating he guessed he couldn’t blame her for being cautious. He’d follow her lead and just play it cool, though that’s the last thing he felt when he thought about her.

RE: THE DIFFERENCE

It’s a great feeling, isn’t it? My clients have told me that what I do has changed their lives, too.

So, I have a really exciting night planned. Cold beer, hot chicken wings and a sci-fi movie marathon on cable.

How about you?

DCL3

RE: PARTY CENTRAL

My night is going to be much more exciting than yours. I’m going to the gym, then, because I’ll probably need it, I plan on taking a hot bath with a good book.

RLD49

Chris stared, unseeing, at the e-mail. He was picturing Rei in that bathtub, without the book or anything else to obstruct his view. She would close her eyes and rub soapy lather over her bare breasts, then down the length of her body and between her thighs. The hot water and her arousal would bring a pink hue to her golden skin….

His fingers flew over the keyboard, composing an intimate reply, and then froze. He couldn’t say any of that. Rei didn’t know that he knew about Jade. Chris tapped the backspace button and deleted the text, not sure what to say but knowing there was no way he could voice his lust and frustration.

RE: ENJOY

I hope you have a good night and I’ll talk to you later.

DCL3

He closed the e-mail program. He didn’t know whether Rei would write again, and if she did, would she be more open with him electronically than she had been in person. He also didn’t know if “Jade” would call again, nor whether she’d let him get to know more about her than which physical touches made her moan his name.

Feeling like he didn’t know anything anymore, Chris got up to grab a beer and watch that movie marathon.

Tuesday, April 15th

Accomplishments: Try kickboxing; Eat junk food all day; Volunteer to be a literacy tutor at the library

REI’S STOMACH rumbled as she approached the restaurant on the first floor of the courthouse building. It had turned out to be another short cause day with a heavy caseload. So the chance to have lunch with her friend and fellow Commissioner, Sarah Whitney, was a welcome break.

Running into Associate Justice Gordon Davis was not.

Her father was leaving Indigo at the same time she and Sarah arrived. He was as good-looking in his sixties as he’d ever been, a combination of wise statesman and gracefully aging actor. His silver-shot hair swept back dramatically from his forehead to emphasize his piercing brown eyes.

Eyes that at the moment regarded her with the expression of faint disapproval she’d never understood.

“Hi, Dad.”

“Hello, Rei.”

He glanced around, as though some of his peers might be watching, then grasped her shoulders to hold her six inches away while she kissed the air near the cheek he turned.

Perhaps sensing the tension, Sarah touched her arm. “I’ll go in and get us a table.”

Rei nodded absently, then spoke to the young man standing beside her father. “Hi, Hunter. How’s it going?”

“Good, really good.” Her eighteen-year-old half brother gave her the same awkward kind of shoulder squeeze her father had. “How about you?”

There was no sense in being honest since her “family” rarely saw each other except on holidays. “I’m fine, thanks.”

“Hunter, tell Rei your news.” Gordon didn’t wait for his compliance, instead making the announcement himself. “He’s been accepted to Stanford. And, of course, he’ll go on to Stanford Law when he finishes his undergraduate work.”

The look he cut to her was an abbreviation of the indictment she’d endured when she had chosen Boalt Hall instead of Gordon’s alma mater. UC Berkeley’s school of law was also ranked among the nation’s top ten, but that hadn’t mattered. Now, at last,