Needless to say, I love her.
Decided I would provide a not-posted-anywhere-else excerpt that gives you a taste of the personalities of Ben and Callie, the hero and heroine of LEAVE ME BREATHLESS:
“The people in this courthouse need to grow up.” Callie made that observation the second after she slammed Ben’s office door and started stalking toward him.
Not that her anger did any good. Nope. He just sat at his desk with his head down and his pen out.
“Have a good time in the bathroom?”
She stopped on the other side of his desk. Even tapped the tip of her fingers against the wood to get his attention. “This wouldn’t have happened if you had let me use the private one in your office.”
He kept right on signing the papers in the stack in front of him. “I believe I was using it at the time you banged on the door and insisted I get out.”
“You always have an excuse.”
“I get exactly two seconds of privacy a day. I’m not giving that up, too.”
She balanced her fists on his desk and leaned in close enough to smell a hint of the peppery shampoo he used. “Well, does it bother you that you’re starring in the courthouse rumors?”
“Not particularly.”
“Why?”
“It’s not a new problem.”
“Yeah, being named one of the metro area’s most eligible bachelors must be a real hardship.”
His pen hesitated. “Let’s not talk about that.”
The man was ignoring her concerns. That pissed her off almost as much as the chatter about her love life. He wasn’t even taking a minute out of his busy important morning of signing orders to glance at her.
“Apparently this time everyone thinks we’re sleeping together.” She grabbed the pen out of his hand and threw it behind her.
He finally lifted his head. “I was using that.”
“And do they shut up about it? Nope. They hide in the bathroom, standing around the sinks and chattering like gossipy old women with nothing better to do.” She used her hands to demonstrate the yammering. “Idiots.”
Ben rifled through his desk drawer and pulled out a second pen. No surprise that it looked just like the first one. He clicked the top. “Did they see you?”
“They did when I slammed the stall door open. Nobody said a damn thing then.” Callie smiled at the memory. “Well, the younger one yelped like a puppy. Then they both pretended I was deaf and ran out of there. I thought about chasing them but refrained.”
He kept scribbling. “Good to hear you didn’t overreact.”
Ben refused to understand her point. She decided to rap her knuckles against his precious desk to get his attention. “The two I caught were in there trying to guess when we hooked up.”
“Old women used that term?”
“They wanted to know why you would bother with someone like me. Which means what, by the way?” When he didn’t respond, she tried again. “Well?”
“I’m not taking that bait. There is no way for me to answer that without you getting…”
“What?”
“Bitchy.”
“See, that’s more of the jackassery thing you do.” She pointed at his big brainy head. “Pure jackassery.”
He slowly lowered his alternate pen and leaned back in his chair. “Callie, let’s be reasonable.”
He looked nice and relaxed but she guessed the move was meant to put as much space as possible between them. She had to give him credit for that. The man was not stupid. Not entirely.
“Why?” she asked.
His pretty eyes narrowed at her in that way he had of saying “what the hell” without actually using the words. “That’s not a logical response to my statement.”
Frustration boiled up inside her.
“Did you just growl at me?” he asked.
“It was either that or bite you.”
“May I ask why?”
“May I ask why?” She sang more than said the words. “You jumped right back into hoity toity land.”
“If we’re really going to argue about this you might want to look at the facts.”
“Which are?”
“First, some of the women in question really are old women.” When Callie tried to bud in, he held up a finger. “Second, we are sleeping together.”
“That’s not the point.”
“I actually think it is.”
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