math and draw your own conclusions. But I need you to promise me two things.” Michael leaned forward across his desk and put his hand on Piper’s. There was electricity when he touched her. It was enough to get her attention, but in paled in comparison to the feeling that shot through her when Bobby sat close enough to her for their arms to touch.
She looked directly into his green eyes and nodded her head as he continued.
“Promise me that I’m your only contact for this. You don’t go running around asking any lawyer who will listen what he thinks of a sitting judge. You can trust me, but you got lucky. Next time you might be asking the wrong person.” He released her hand and sat back in his chair.
“I promise, I won’t go asking these kinds of questions anywhere else. You said to promise you two things. What was the other?” Piper had hoped it was something lighthearted and back to being about dinner plans.
“Promise me that if you get in over your head, with anything, you’ll call me. I’d like to hope that after leaving this conversation you’ll go home and run a search on your computer for judicial ethics, piece together some fluff paper, and put all this behind you. But I’m not getting that impression. So in light of that, if you get yourself in a tough spot, promise you’ll give me a call.” Michael had no idea what was so magnetic about Piper. She was beautiful and came across as incredibly confident, but at the same time she seemed very broken. Maybe it was those big brown doe eyes with lashes that seemed to go on forever. Something about her made him think she was a walking contradiction. She managed to be both a headstrong woman and damsel in distress. It was hard to put his finger on but something about her always left Michael wanting more.
He was physically attracted to her, but if he was honest with himself, at the end of the day it was more that he wanted to know her, and to know she was all right. She had never volunteered much information about herself and it wasn’t in Michael’s personality to go digging for it. At work that was all he seemed to do, search for the truth. In his personal life he preferred to leave his connections with people fun and light. That’s why things worked so well with Piper. She didn’t spend all her time gushing over her last terrible boyfriend or her daddy issues. There were times, however, when he considered using his prosecuting skills to find out more about her, but he always reconsidered. Some territories are better left unexplored.
“I will, and thank you, Michael.” She tucked her pen and notebook back into her bag and stood up.
“Don’t thank me for that information. I’m sure I’ve done you more harm than good.” Michael stood as well, although he was sorry to see her going.
“I’m not thanking you for that. I’m thanking you for being exactly the guy I hoped you were. I’m not sure why I knew I could come to you, but I did, and you proved me right. There are a lot of disappointing people in the world, and today you weren’t one of them.” She smiled at him gratefully.
“Should we hug? I feel like we should hug.” Michael walked around his desk with his arms stretched out, ready to embrace her.
“Why on earth would we hug?” Piper asked, stepping back from him and laughing.
“I was hoping if I could press you up against me, get you close enough to smell my cologne and touch my rock hard muscles, then you’d be so overcome with my charm that you would reconsider my dinner offer.” He stepped in closer to her.
“Then we should definitely hug, because there is no chance of that happening,” she replied, with a deadpan look on her face as she let him wrap his arms around her.
He put his lips to her ear and whispered through her hair, “Is it working?”
“Not even a little bit,” she said, and he let her go as they laughed. She threw her bag over her shoulder, and he opened his office door for her.
“Be smart, Piper,” Michael called out, as he watched her walk back through the waiting area. She turned and smiled, mouthing the words “thank you” as she passed through the glass doors and back toward the elevator.