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“Why didn’t you just stick around… tell me then?” she asks in curiosity.
“Because I had to let my hatred of Cal go first. And Mac, I mean it with every breath in my body. I did hate him. But the minute I decided to forgive him, I became a different person. A better person. ”
Her hand comes out and she slides her fingers along my cheek. Her touch is so soft, so caring, that I can’t help but close my eyes so I can give full attention to the peacefulness coursing through me.
“I’m so proud of you, Matt. You’re really kind of amazing. ”
Opening my eyes, I grin at her. “And you love me?”
“What makes you think that?” she teases, leaning in to kiss me.
I take a moment to savor her lips on mine, because this feels like the first time we have ever kissed. There’s a different quality to it, now that I’ve let all of my bitterness go. It’s like everything was muted before, but now I’m seeing everything in vivid display… I’m feeling everything with greater depth.
I pull away and smile at her. “Because you already told me you did. ”
Wrapping her arms around my neck, she leans into me. “Yeah, I guess I did. ”
“Say it again,” I demand urgently, because it’s the last thing I need for this to officially become the best day of my life.
She doesn’t make me wait, and it’s even better than I could have imagined. “I love you… so much. ”
We kiss again, sweetly, but then her tongue slides into my mouth and desire starts to course through me.
“Let’s take the rest of the day off,” I say as I move my lips over to her ear. “I need to be inside of you. ”
She groans and digs her fingers into my shoulders, but shakes her head no. “I can’t. I have to get this stuff finished. You know, today’s my last day and all. ”
I laugh at her silliness and kiss her again. “Didn’t you understand me? I’m not accepting your resignation. There’s no way I’m letting you out of my sight. And I sure as hell don’t want you working around Cal unattended. I don’t trust the bastard. ”
“Hey!” she chastises me as she punches me lightly in the shoulder. “I thought you forgave him?”
“I did, Mac,” I tell her somberly. “But I don’t like him. We’re not friends. ”
She sighs, but not in frustration or anger, but understanding. “No, I don’t suppose you are. You did more than enough by offering forgiveness. But I can’t turn my back on him. I made a deal with him to open up a law firm. ”
“Yeah, well… I sort of might have changed his mind after I talked to him today. ”
“What did you do?” she asks suspiciously.
I hold my hands up in surrender. “Nothing bad, I swear it. I just sort of offered him a job here, as long as you agreed to stay. ”
“What? You asked Cal… your arch nemesis… to come work for you? I thought you said you didn’t trust the bastard. ”
“I don’t,” I tell her with a smirk. “What better way to keep tabs on him than having him come to work for me?”
Mac doesn’t fall for it and just looks at me skeptically.
“Fine,” I capitulate with huffiness. “I want you to stay. You’re a brilliant attorney, and you’re going places. I want you on my team. I also want you within reach of me at all times because I love you to f**king death. So, the easiest thing seemed to be for me to get Cal on board. I knew you had committed to him, but if he came here, you’d stay. ”
“You’re rotten,” she reprimands me. “And completely selfish. ”
I make no apologies. “When it comes to you, you’re damn right I am. But talk to Cal… you both have a decision to make. ”
She wraps her arms back around my neck and kisses me. “I’ll talk to Cal, and we’ll see. But for now… let’s get out of here. ”
I take her hand and don’t let it go as we navigate the hallways up to the lobby. She squeezes me tightly and when I look down at her, she gives me a smile so full of happiness and love, I know that at this moment, I’m the luckiest son of a bitch on the planet.
“Mac?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m never letting you go, you know that, right?”
“I’m counting on it,” she says softly. “And you’ll never regret it. I promise. ”
Yup. Luckiest son of a bitch on the planet.
Epilogue
Eight Months Later
Today is the day, and I am so f**king nervous. More nervous than when I got laid for the first time. Or when I took the bar exam. More nervous than my first trial. I’m practically quaking in my shoes because the stakes are higher than I could have ever imagined.
Mac’s office door is open, and I can hear her voice filtering out. She and Cal never did take my offer to come to work for my firm. She said something to the extent of, “I want to do this on my own. I need to know I can do this on my own without your help. ”
Fucking prideful girl, but damn… I respected the hell out of that.
I did, however, convince her and Cal to rent office space from me, promising to contract enough work to them to keep their business just barely hovering out of the red. It gave me what I want… Mac within an arm’s reach of me, and I got to keep my eye on Cal.
Not that I needed to watch him. First, I truly believe that he was beyond remorseful for the way he hurt me and he would never do that again. I just believe it deep down. Still doesn’t mean we will ever be friends again, but for Mac’s sake, I make sure I’m pleasant around him. Most importantly, though, is that I implicitly trust Mac. Her character and integrity are golden, lined with platinum, and sprinkled with diamonds. She would never hurt me. I trust her with my life, but more telling is that I trust her with Gabe’s life.
I step up to her office door and see her sitting casually in her chair, leaning back and tapping a pen against her temple. I’ve come to recognize that little habit as her “focused mode”. She does it when she’s concentrating on something, putting all of her energy into accomplishing her goal. I suppose if she had a pen in her hand while she was blowing me, she’d probably be tapping it against her temple too, because damn… her focus is amazing when she has me balls deep in her mouth.
Mac’s back is to me so I lean against the door casing, hands casually resting in my pockets, and listen to my litigation goddess.
“Listen… I’m not impressed by that offer. It’s twenty-five and not a penny less. If you don’t pay it, I’ll drag your ass through the shit storm that is our legal system for so long, that you’ll be ready to retire before this case is over. And I could care less if I win it. Just drowning you in legal expenses makes me all tingly inside. ”
She’s silent for a moment as she listens to whoever is on the other line, but I assume she gets the answer she wants because the tapping pen goes still.
Straightening up in her chair, she tosses the pen on her desk. “Thank you,” she says to the person on the phone, with a triumphant smile in her voice. “And have a nice day. ”
When her phone hits the cradle, I pull my hands out of my pockets and start clapping congratulations. She turns around and gives me a grin.
“That was fantastic, baby,” I tell her with pride f**king oozing out of my pores.
She shrugs her shoulders in nonchalance. “Well… I learned from the best. ”
“Twenty-five?” I ask her for clarification.
“Yup, twenty-five hundred dollars. I know it’s not your twenty-five million, but baby steps,” she tells me with a sheepish grin.
“I’m proud of you nonetheless,” I tell her truthfully. And I am proud. Doesn’t matter what she settled the case for, it’s that she did it with confidence and conviction. She’s not easy to rattle, and she’s going to be a f**king powerhouse in the legal field one day. “We should celebrate tonight. ”
Chuckling, she tells me, “I’m not sure a twenty-five hundred dollar settlement is worth celebrati
ng. But… if you want to give me an extra orgasm tonight, I wouldn’t be opposed. ”
“I can arrange that,” I tell her, the thought of which is sidetracking my true purpose here. “But how about we fly down to Florida for a weekend getaway?”
“That’s a great idea. And let’s ask Marissa if we can take Gabe. ”
God, I love this woman. I’m offering to take her on a romantic getaway, where we could have the privacy to f**k until we pass out, but she’d rather bring Gabe along with us. Not a selfish bone in her body, and when she does something like this, it makes me want to give her the world.
“I’ll give her a call and hopefully I’ll catch her in a good mood,” I tell her softly.
My relationship with Marissa has mellowed over the last several months. A few days after I talked with Cal, and won my girl back, I called Marissa up and invited her out for coffee. The conversation was awkward at first as we sat at a small, outdoor table and sipped our drinks.
“So, what did you want to talk about?” she asked me with impatience, glancing at her watch.
I stared at her a moment, trying to remember the woman I had fallen in love with… wondering where it all went wrong. I couldn’t see anything that gave me clarity, so I told her softly. “I’m sorry. ”
Marissa jerked in her chair, almost knocking her cup over. “Come again?”
“I’m sorry for what I put you through. Kicking you out of our house when I found out about you and Cal… not letting you see Gabe at first… humiliating you. No matter what you did to me, it was wrong to do that to the mother of my child. ”
Marissa just stared at me, mouth hanging slightly open, and blinking hard in confusion. They were the gentlest words she had heard from me in years.
“I don’t understand,” she murmured in bewilderment.
For the first time in years, I smiled genuinely at her. “Then let me clarify. I’m sorry for what I did to you, and I’m asking you to forgive me for it. ”
“What the hell is going on?” Marissa demanded in confusion, and it made me laugh, because she’s not used to the new and improved Matt Connover.
“Let’s move past this, Marissa. Let’s let go of the hurt and bitterness. Let’s try to get along for Gabe’s sake, and let’s forgive each other. ”
I saw the moment on her face when she finally understood what I was saying. The muscles in her face relaxed, her eyes lightened, and her lips curved slightly upward.
“You’re serious, aren’t you?” she murmured, but the question was rhetorical. She knew I was and was simply amazed by it.
From that day forward, our relationship changed. It wasn’t perfect, but we didn’t try our best to piss each other off. The best thing I can say for the both of us is that we now treat each other with outward respect, not only in front of Gabe, but in all situations. I guess it’s good practice for us.
We still have our spats, and if Marissa is in a snit for some reason or another, she’ll show her bitchy side, but for the most part, we’re okay. She even talks nicely to Mac… that is, once she came to understand that Mac wasn’t going anywhere and was going to be an integral part of Gabe’s and my life.
I step all the way into Mac’s office and rest an ass cheek on the edge of her desk. Fuck if Mac’s eyes don’t travel up my leg that’s sitting inches away from her arm, right up to the bulge behind my zipper. She stares at me a bit longingly and said bulge starts propagating in size.
When she finally tears her gaze away and looks at me, I give a low laugh and lean forward to kiss her. “You know you can’t look at me like that and not make me hard. It’s a hazard of having you in the same building as me during the day. ”