Page 36
Mac leads me into the living room and pushes me down on the couch. She doesn’t hesitate… crawls right on my lap, spreading her legs to straddle me. My hands immediately come up to grab onto her waist. I move them to her back and inch my fingers under the edge of her t-shirt.
She puts her hands on my shoulders and takes a deep breath, letting it out in a quick rush. She closes her eyes to orient herself, and I use the opportunity to slide one hand back over her hip, right over the top of her thigh.
“Okay,” she says firmly, “here’s the thing about Cal—”
I sink a finger inside of her pu**y, which is still dripping wet from when I just came inside of her minutes ago. She whimpers and closes her eyes, letting her head fall back. I pull my finger out and push it back in, my eyes now pinned between her legs.
Suddenly, Mac reels back and pushes off my lap, dislodging my hand from between her legs. “You promised you’d listen to me. ”
I just smirk at her and shrug my shoulders. “Sorry. You can’t sit your bare ass on my lap and not expect that to happen. ”
I want to bust out laughing when she glares at me, but I keep it in check. Leaning back on the couch, I stretch my legs out, resting them just under the coffee table. Mac gives a pained sigh as she sits down on the edge of the table facing me, placing one of her legs on either side of mine. Of course, this spreads her legs just enough that my eyes get helplessly drawn back down to where I was just fingering her.
She gives a growl of protest, and my eyes travel back upward. Her gaze is hot with annoyance at me.
“Sorry, babe… you can’t expect me to pay attention when you’re flashing that at me. You’ve got five seconds to get some underwear on, or I’m going to throw you on the floor and f**k the shit out of you. ”
Mac’s body trembles in response, and I almost leap forward to do just that… throw her down and f**k her hard again. But she ends up popping up from the table and running back to my bedroom.
Leaning my head back, I close my eyes and sigh. This woman is driving me nuts. I thought I was horny for her before, but now… my level of insatiability is hovering near the stratosphere. What if I end up just sinking into nothing but a pool of desire and lust for her that prevents me from ever having another rational thought or moment again?
When Mac comes back, she steps over my legs again and takes a seat on the opposite end of the couch from me, tucking her legs up under her and pulling my t-shirt over her knees.
Smart girl to sit on the other end, because truly… the underwear won’t stop my urges.
Turning to face her, I rest an arm on the back of the couch. “Okay… spill it. ”
She takes another deep breath and begins. “Okay… I have the floor. Just listen. Cal feels horrible about what happened. ”
Can’t help it. I interrupt with a sneer. “Good. He should. ”
“Hey! You said you’d listen, so shut it. Like I said… his guilt is crushing him. He’s hurting right now. ”
“Am I supposed to feel sorry for him?” I ask incredulously and extremely pissed that she’d even care about his feelings.
I wait for Mac to give me some monumental argument about why I should give him a chance, but she just shakes her head and says quietly, “He must have been a really great friend. ”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because… I know you wouldn’t be hurting this bad if he had not been so dear to you. ”
Yeah… that’s not going to work on me. “Save it, Freud. You think I don’t know this already?”
“Matt, do you even know what happened between Cal and your ex-wife?”
“I know all I need to,” I grit out. “She was married to me… he f**ked her. What more is there?”
“You’re not interested in the details?” Again, her voice is soft… complaisant.
What the f**k?
Now I’m getting super irritated. “Why would I be? I don’t get where you’re going with all of this. ”
“I’m just curious if there is room in your heart to forgive him. I’m not saying you have to ever be friends again, but forgiveness goes a long way toward having a peaceful heart. ”
Her words bounce right off me. I don’t answer her right away, because I want her to think that I might actually give her asinine idea some consideration. But then I break the sad, sad news to her. “I’m sorry, Mac. I just don’t have it in me. I’ve worked really hard to put it behind me and move on. Please don’t ask me to do more than that. ”
She gives me a melancholy smile and nods her head in understanding. I start to feel the tension leave my shoulders.
“What do you want me to do?” she asks.
It sort of bothers me that she has to ask. I still don’t understand why we are even having this conversation, and it doesn’t set well with me that she would even ask me to listen to this shit.
Leaning toward her, I harden my gaze. “I want you to promise me you’ll end your friendship with Cal and have no further contact with him. ”
She doesn’t even hesitate at my request. She pushes to her knees and crawls across the couch to me, right back onto my lap. My arms go around her waist, and I pull her in so her cheek lays on my chest.
“Okay… I’ll do that for you,” she whispers, and the sour acid that had been swirling in my stomach calms.
I press my lips into her hair, giving her a light kiss. “Thank you. ”
Seemingly back on track, I stand up from the couch, taking Mac with me. Her legs wrap around my waist and she lays her head on my shoulder as I carry her back into the kitchen.
I set her down on one of my barstools and start to cook breakfast again. She chatters away at me, telling me a funny story about Lorraine, but I’m only half listening. I’m kind of bugged about this Cal conversation. I know she said she would cut ties with him, but something just doesn’t feel right about this.
I’m not sure if it’s unease that perhaps Cal will sink his claws into Mac… take something away from me again? Or maybe I’m a little pissed at Mac that she could even want to be friends with someone that hurt me so deeply?
Then there’s the part of me that is now curious, no thanks to Mac’s quick words moments ago. She asked me if I really knew what happened between Cal and Marissa.
And, of course, I didn’t.
But here is what I did know.
My wife had been f**king around on me, and I had proof. I intended to divorce her and use said proof to cut her free from my life. Cal then f**ked my wife. I know this because he told me as much, but that’s all he told me.
That’s all I let him tell me before I beat the snot out of him.
Now, Mac is implying there’s more to the story, and that is rubbing my nerves raw. Is it possible that there is something I don’t know that would cause me to change my mind about Cal?
I snort to myself because that’s just preposterous. That’s nothing more than Mac having a soft heart and Cal probably making himself out to be like a wounded bird or something that needs cared for.
No matter. I’m pushing all of this aside, and I refuse to think about it again. Mac said she wouldn’t be friends with Cal, and I accept that.
I don’t necessarily trust in it, but then again, no matter how f**king good things are with Mac, I just don’t ever see trust becoming part of the equation. I know I’ve opened up in amazing ways the last few days, but I don’t see me ever offering up that part of me again.
Chapter 27
The next time I have the stupid idea to take Mac and Macy out together, someone please just shoot me.
I was just trying to be a good boyfriend… take my girl out and relax with a few drinks because she had her first solo hearing today and won it. I’d never tell Mac this, but it really wasn’t much of a fight, and the other side didn’t even show up, so it was sort of a slam-dunk. But she was really, really stoked to have handled it all on her own, and I felt the need to ce
lebrate with her.
I think my mistake was in asking her if she wanted to invite Macy. I’ve met Macy before and I know that this woman is capable of just about anything. Yet, I still made the suggestion all the same.
Not ten seconds after we grabbed a table at The Bar, Macy was ordering some vile concoction called a Slippery Nipple, along with vodka tonics for her and Mac. They pounded through three of each in the first hour while I sipped on one glass of scotch. Also within that first hour, Macy hit on a married man… while his wife was sitting right next to him, and tried to convince Mac to start up an impromptu wet t-shirt contest, which I promptly shut down.
Now I’m trying to keep my focus on babysitting the two of them so that they don’t get arrested. Or worse yet, get me arrested.
It’s been a hell of a week. As I watch Mac and Macy playing a game of darts with the same local dudes I had played with week before last, I take another sip of my drink and try to let some of the tension go.
The real pisser this week was that I got a bad jury verdict in a horrific wrongful death case, all because I had the biggest jackass of a judge who f**ked up my jury instructions. When the jury came back with a verdict of no negligence, I watched as my clients’ faces crumbled. Looking over at the jury, not one of them would meet my eye, and it’s a shame too. I wanted to flip them the bird.
It took every bit of professionalism I could muster not to ream the judge, but I didn’t feel like having to deal with Bill or Mac needing to bail my ass out of jail. Instead, I gave oral notice I’d be filing an appeal and stormed out of the courthouse.
I’m not sure who told Mac that I was back from court—probably Bea, our receptionist—but not five seconds after I had slammed the door to my office, Mac was slipping inside. Not two seconds after that, Bill came in.
“What happened?” Mac asked me, wringing her hands together as I paced back and forth.
Spinning on her, I snapped. “What do you think happened? I f**king lost the case. ”
“It’s not a big deal,” Bill said quickly. “We didn’t even have that much money invested in it. ”
I almost punched Bill for those words. Turning on him in fury, I said, “It’s not about the f**king money, you jackass. My clients’ lives are screwed up. The judge totally f**ked us on the jury instructions. ”
Mac then stepped toward me, putting a calming hand on my arm. “Is there any appealable error?”
I took in a deep breath and let it blow out, trying to release some of my tension so I didn’t take my anger out on her.
Picking her hand up and bringing it to my lips for a light kiss, I smiled at her. “Yes. There are several errors for appeal. I’ll have you help me get the Notice filed. ” As an afterthought, I glanced at my partner. “I’m sorry I yelled, Bill. ”
Chuckling, Bill turned away and headed for the door. “No worries. And I think Mac is better equipped to deal with your snarly ass than I am. ”
I dropped Mac’s hand and took off my jacket, absently tossing it on a chair. Walking toward my desk, I deftly undid my cuff links, pocketed them and rolled my sleeves up, mentally putting together what I’d need to get started on the appeal for this case.
Motherfucking jackass prick judge.
I heard Mac close the door, and then I clearly heard the snick of it locking. Turning my head, I saw Mac leaning back against it with a devilish smile.
“What are you doing?” I asked curiously, because I was thinking it had something to do with kissing since she locked the door. That was definitely something I was down with… a little make-out session before I got back to work.
Mac pushed away from the door and walked toward me. Her hands came up and started working at the buttons on her shirt. My mouth dropped open, and I was helpless to look away as she removed the yellow silk blouse and let it drop to the floor. My eyes roved over the perfect swell of her br**sts pushing up from a white lace, demi-cup bra.