The Home Court Advantage (12 page)

As I walked back to my office, I told myself that this would be exciting. Not that I was a big fan of clubs but it really had been a while since I had gone out with a bunch of friends. Speaking of friends, Jess would get to put on a sexy dress and some high heels with Cam there to check her out. That should give him a nice little nudge. And there was always the possibility that someone had left the napkin on purpose, and they would try to contact us there. Maybe we could figure out who had sent me those notes, and whether or not someone was really following me.

Best of all, though, I was going on a date with Braden! Thinking about how good he looked on the last date almost made my mouth water. All that sexy in one package. It almost wasn’t fair. It didn’t matter that he had ridden me like Secretariat in the jury room the day before, I was going to put on my sexy clothes and get my boyfriend’s engine revved. He had seen me in an elegant gown but he had never seen me in a little black dress and six inch heels.

Lily Adler and I had been friends since we attended Penn Law together. She had gone to law school mostly to please her family. It was her dream to be an author, and presently she worked as a law librarian rather than as an attorney because it gave her more time and freedom to write. She and Jess had hit it off immediately when I introduced them. The three of us were close, although lately Lily had been distracted by her career as an author and I had been distracted by Braden.

She came over to our place at eight and she looked great in a red dress that flattered her curvy figure and her dark brown hair and eyes. The three of us chatted and managed to polish off a bottle of wine while Jess and I got dressed. I really was starting to get excited! We danced around Jess’s room to 80s music which we all liked, and in between choruses of
Don’t You Want Me Baby
, I filled Lily in on the details of everything that had happened to me in the past month. Bruno, not being one to discriminate when it came to petting, made his rounds between the three of us, busting all of his most adorable Chihuahua moves.

“So Braden’s cousin was
that
guy from college?” Lily asked. She had heard the most basic details one drunken night back in law school. “But you’re friends again now. So, I guess you forgave him?” She took another sip of wine. We had just opened bottle number two.

“He says that he really did have feelings for me, but he was going through a hard time and he was feeling really down on himself,” I said, standing with my back to Jess’s mirror and nearly dislocating a few vertebra attempting to examine how my ass looked in the dress. “I took him by surprise when I told him that it had been my first time and it made him feel even worse. Like he had taken advantage of me or something.”

“So I guess he didn’t realize that he was entering uncharted territory at the moment of truth, huh?” she asked, raising her eyebrows and scratching Bruno’s belly. He had rolled over on his back and turned his head to plead with her silently with those big brown eyes. He was a little doggie flirt.

“I guess not. It wasn’t a big deal for me though,” I said fluffing up the waves in my hair. “When it wasn’t going in very easily, he just had to push a little harder and that worked! He was in! It hardly hurt at all even though Yale was almost as well endowed as Harvard and Harvard is
really
well endowed, let me tell you! I swear that thing’s got to be almost ten inches.”

“Oh my God, honey!” Jess laughed, rolling her eyes at me.

“I guess that it’s safe to assume that Braden went to Harvard?” Lily asked Jess with a surprised sounding laugh. I had a feeling that I might have been a bit overly candid again.

“Uh oh. Was that too much information? I’m sorry. I guess I shouldn’t be talking about the size of my boyfriend’s endowment, or Cameron’s endowment for that matter either, since he’s probably Jess’s future boyfriend.”

“It’s okay, honey. I asked you about that myself,” Jess reminded me. “I was more amused by how you put things.” She was just finishing up her makeup and she looked amazing. Her long auburn hair was gleaming and her skin looked like ivory. She was also wearing a killer dress in a deep green that was perfect for her. Cam would pass out when he saw her. Bruno was duly impressed. He decided that it was her turn to love him and so hopped down and went over to sit at her feet adoringly. He was more than a flirt. He was a little doggie player. She bent down and picked him up to pet him and he looked at her with pure bliss.

“Why is he probably Jess’s future boyfriend?” Lily asked, sounding very curious as she paged through a copy of Vogue.

“Because they make a great couple,” I explained. “You should see them together. They’re always laughing. And he said he thought she was very attractive and that he was thinking about exploring it more.” Jess blushed but she looked very happy.

“And do you want to be explored?” Lily asked Jess with a suggestive smile.

“Well, he’s really cute and smart, and sexy,” she said, blushing even more. “And I do have fun with him. So yeah, I would like to be explored, but there’s no rush. I want him to work through anything he has to work through with Braden being Gab’s boyfriend and me being her friend first. Then I’ll know that he’s ready to be involved, because I’m not interested in a one-nighter with a meal plan either.” She threw me a smile.

“I want to be as well-grounded as Jess when I grow up,” I said and poured myself another glass of wine.

“Slow down there, you lush,” Jess chided. “You’re not drinkin’ for the gold.”

“I hardly ever drink!” I pointed out and for some reason at the moment that argument seemed to make sense to me. Probably because I was drinking. I took another sip of wine.

“Uh oh, I see some drunk dancing on the horizon!” Lily teased.

“For an uncoordinated person I’m a
very good
drunk dancer. In fact, I think I dance better drunk,” I answered thoughtfully, wondering why that was.

“I hope so, if you’re planning to try to dance in those Loubies, honey. Maybe we had better bring a first-aid kit along with us,” Jess said, looking worried.

“Very funny. So, tell us about your latest novel!” I said to Lily, changing the subject.

“I assume you mean my latest thriller,” she teased. Lily wrote legal thrillers but she also wrote erotic romance under a pen name. Jess and I had definitely become addicted to her naughty books and we weren’t the only ones. She was developing quite a little following.

“You know what
we
want, honey!” Jess piped up. “Spill it! What kind of smut are you writing now and how soon can we buy it?” Lily sketched out the details for us and we made a show of fanning ourselves and giggling with wine-fueled, dirty-minded delight. Speaking of dirty-minded delight, Braden called just before nine. I grabbed my phone and headed into my own room to talk to him.

“Hey there, sexy guy,” I answered. Just hearing his voice made me all fluttery and I couldn’t help the big goofy grin that I saw gazing back at me from my vanity mirror.

“Uh oh, I think someone’s been drinkin’.” He laughed.

“You could tell from one sentence?” I asked, sort of surprised.

“Well, call me conceited, but I’m assuming that you meant to call me a ‘sexy’ guy not ‘sudsy’ guy, although I did just take a shower and I have had a few beers myself, I must confess.”

“Uh oh, you’ve been hanging around with me too long. You’re starting to tell corny jokes. So how was hanging out with the prosecutor types?”

“It was fun. I was catching up with everybody and letting them know where I’ve been. They were joking around saying they were going to put my picture on a milk carton and file a missing person’s report on me. Don’t worry though. I said lots of nice things about you.”

“Did you tell them that I’m a brilliant and incredibly gifted attorney and that you worship the ground that I walk on?” I plopped down on my bed and let his deep rich voice wash over me.

“Even better. I told them that you fondled me while I watched the baseball game and then knocked me over in bed and showed me who was boss.”

“Braden.” I laughed, hoping he was kidding. I heard him laugh too. Phew!

“Actually, I told them that I’ve never been happier and that I’m very content to spend my nights with you.”

“Oh. That’s sweet. Did Adam vomit?”

“Actually, I think he’s jealous.”

“Adam’s in love with you?” I teased.

“No! I think he’s jealous of the fact that I found somebody who I can go home with at night and who makes me so happy.”

“You must be drunk,” I teased. “He wouldn’t want to limit himself to having sex with only one woman.”

“He would if it were great sex. I
know
he’s jealous of our sex life. Just to let you know, not all casual hook-ups are great. Novelty just goes so far.”

“You tell him stuff about our sex life?”

“Not details. Just general stuff.”

“What kind of general stuff?”

“I don’t know. Like for example, if he said, ‘Hey, Braden you’re looking really cheerful, you must have gotten laid last night, I might point out that I get laid most nights, but I wouldn’t mention that I spanked you and you liked it.” He laughed.

“Well, that’s okay, I guess.”

“And I’ve told him that you blow my mind in bed but I haven’t mentioned that you’ve also blown it in the jury room. Although I suspect that Mark will so I’ll probably be hearing about that soon.”

“I’ve told Jess some general stuff about you, too.”

“Like what?”

“Like you have the stamina of an Energizer Bunny.”

“An
Energizer Bunny
? Oh shit! You did not.”

“You’re going to complain that other women know that you keep on going?”

“Okay, fine, just don’t share anything more intimate than that.”

“Define more intimate.”

“Oh, fuck!”

“Would that include the information that the Harvard endowment is very large?”

“The Har … Oh Jesus! Gabrielle!”

“I didn’t think guys would really mind women knowing that. I mean isn’t that, like, a source of pride?”

“Yeah, when you’re twelve! Honey, the size of my dick is nobody’s business but yours. How about from now on we both try to be a little more discreet, okay? If you do let anything else slip, though, don’t tell me about it. There’s some shit that I just don’t want to know.”

“Okay, it’s a deal. So what’s the plan, Harvard?”

“Well, this is supposed to be a date, but Adam, Mark, Cameron and Drew are on their way here now and we were just talking about cabbing it because we’ve all been drinking. Drew’s crashing with Cameron, so he’s at his place.”

“Why is he crashing with Cameron instead of with you?”

“Cameron has an extra bedroom so he wouldn’t have to sleep on the couch. Besides, I want to get really freaky and mildly kinky with you tonight and I have a feeling you may have a hard time being quiet.”

“Oh! I see.” That tickly feeling? Yeah, it was way beyond tickly now.

“Anyway, I got us on the list. How about if you three share a cab and we’ll meet you there in the VIP lounge lobby at about ten?”

“Sounds like a good plan. See you later sudsy guy.”

“Bye. Too much information, girl.” He laughed and hung up.

I went over to the mirror to check myself out one last time. I looked sexy without looking sleazy. Exactly what I had been going for. My long brown hair looked a little tousled and Jess and Lily had done a fabulous job helping me do my makeup. They had used smoky colors to compliment my hazel eyes and a deep rich color on my lips. I had decided to go without stockings and I rubbed lotion onto my legs and slipped on my black heels.

“Who else is going again?” Lily asked suspiciously as soon as I came back into Jess’s room. She must have overheard me mentioning Adam to Braden. The walls in that place were so thin. I went over to sit down on the bed and take my turn at adoring Bruno.

“Braden’s younger brother Drew, Cameron, Mark from our office, and Adam.”

“Oh Christ!” Lily said, making a face. “Why didn’t you warn me?” She came over and sat down beside me with a thud, looking like I had just told her she would have to take the bar exam again.

“He’ll also be there this weekend too,” I admitted and she took on a pained expression and stared at the ceiling. “But I warned him to behave! What is the problem between you two anyway?” I put Bruno on her lap. Nobody could stay upset when faced with that much cuteness.

“He thinks I’m an uptight bitch,” she answered with a distinctly unhappy look on her face. Could it really be
that
bad? Bruno nuzzled her hand and she petted him … and smiled. See, I told you.

“Uptight?” Jess asked, turning around to look at us. “You write raunchy books.”

“He doesn’t know about those. He sees me as a mousy librarian who writes thrillers to make her boring life seem more exciting.” Lily looked very annoyed by that. I wondered why his opinion mattered so much to her.

“Well, you look like one of your sexy book heroines tonight,” I said with a smile.

Actually, in the past year, Lily had really blossomed. She had always been attractive, but now she just exuded a new sense of confidence that made her seem very sexy. I wondered if it had anything to do with her parents moving away, and I was also curious to see if Adam would notice the difference in her.