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Chapter One

Nathan McCloud tried to be discreet about checking his watch for the third time in fifteen minutes It was alot aithin the next five rab his clubs, and…

A loud sigh of exasperation cut into his mental calculations “Nathan, would you please pay attention? We need to make this decision today”

He gave his partner hissmile Caitlin Briley was always a pleasure to look at, and he usually enjoyed teasing her and spending time with her But he was impatient to escape on this perfect autuive her a call?”

He knew he’d said the wrong thing when Caitlin’s heart-shaped face darkened with a frown “You haven’t been listening”

He cleared his throat “Of course I was listening Uh, rong with the last one?”

Tapping a red-nailed finger on one of the job applications spread on the desk in front of her, Caitlin replied curtly, “This woman said she would like to work for our firht side of the law for a change She also wanted to know if her coal representation on occasion”

Nathan winced “Maybe I wasn’t listening closely enough I’ht prove entertaining,” he added thoughtfully

Rolling her eyes, Caitlin let out whatfor entertain to find an efficient, professional, reliable office er”

“Couldn’t you just pick soment”

“You aren’t ‘trusting’to dump it on me”

Caitlin always had a knack for cutting right through his BS Nathan sighed in resignation “Okay, you’re right I don’t really care who you hire as long as she’s pleasant to ith and doesn’t interfere with my schedule”

“Your schedule?” His partner looked at him in disbelief “You barely have a schedule”

“Exactly And I like it that way”

; “We need a good officesome order to the chaos in this place And you should have so the person we hire”

“If I promise not to criticize your choice, will you take care of this?” he wheedled “I’d stay and help you, but I have an appointment this afternoon”

“With a client or a fishing rod?” she asked suspiciously

“A client,” he assured her And then, because he considered hiuy—for a lawyer—he added, “And a set of golf clubs”

She had looked momentarily ain “Darn it, Nathan”

He considered re her that he was the senior partner here He had run this firm by himself for two years before he’d impulsively taken on a fresh-out-of-law-school partner just over nine h to interfere with his leisure time

Caitlin had been the first lawyer he’d interviewed, and he had hired her because she had the ray eyes he’d ever seen—in addition to a thick, shoulder-length curtain of glossy brown hair, an intriguingly diure Add those attributes to a more than respectable résumé, and he could find no reason at all to send her on her way after that first

He didn’t know then that he had hired the Attila the Hun of a lawyers