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  She laughed me off. Actually laughed at my words. Not that cute little giggle women usually got when I laid it on thick, but laughed at me. “Goodbye.” She walked away, but not before giving me one last look that cut right through me.

  I’d been eyed before. By women and men. Always with a glimmer of seduction or the blatant go-ahead to bring them to my bedroom. But never like this. Never with such disregard for everything I was and everything I stood for. This woman didn’t know me. She was just like the others. Judging a book before she looked between the covers—and being a student, she should know better.

  But I was used to people belittling my work and my character. I’d dealt with it my whole life. I knew what it was like to have people call my mother a dirty slut. How it felt to have my father compared to a pimp. But even after all the teasing and taunting that only adolescents could hammer at me, never had I ever felt the need to defend myself so thoroughly.

  I returned my attention to Ben, Jade, and Stella. I’d almost forgotten why I was here.

  “Sorry about that,” Jade said. “Everly can be a bit uptight sometimes. She’s just stressed out with studying.”

  “So, where were we,” Stella asked, leaning against me. From across the table, Ben stared with a curious, but shocked face. “I think we were going to give you a little sneak peek of our skills.” She purred and pawed at me like a cat in heat.

  I wasn’t interested in watching a show. I was…confused. Confused at the fact that I was more interested in the bookworm three tables away than the two beautiful women in front of me.

  Was it because I was taken aback by her quick wit and innocent smile? Or was it something more? Was it because she saw right through me? She knew I was Max Levin, the porn guy. But she…didn’t care.

  I had walked into this café with the intent of meeting and signing two escorts to short-term contracts. Instead, I wanted nothing more than to figure out why that Plain Jane had just woken up my cock. More importantly, why her indifference toward me actually hit a nerve. Women usually batted their eyelashes and looked at me with a dreamy gaze. Not this girl, she wasn’t wooed by my charms or status. And it was fucking intriguing.

  “Would you excuse me a minute?”

  Ben shot me a quizzical look. “Where are you going?”

  “Ladies, would you mind discussing with Mr. Lockwood your boundaries? The type of scenes you’d be willing to film and those you won’t.” I stood and pulled out a draft contract from my pocket. “He’ll also discuss the average payouts.” I looked at him and clapped him on the shoulder. “Page twelve.”

  The bookworm had just presented me with a challenge.

  I wasn’t done with her. Not by a long shot.

  Chapter 2

  Everly

  I think I might have read the same sentence at least five times.

  Something about tort law and insurance? But I wasn’t interested. I was more interested in the conversation going on three tables away. That my two roommates—my best friend, Grace Nolan, and her co-worker/mentor, Sadie Spencer; or rather, Jade and Stella—were actually considering moving from the escort business to porn. I wasn’t surprised. They both had a thirst for life, and Grace had student loans coming out of her ass. I envied their ability to work without a plan, as I needed one. Needed to know at all times where I was going and what I was doing.

  Despite my fascination with their career choices, I was even more interested in the six-foot-three inches of rock-solid male who was gentlemanly enough to get out of his seat and help me with my books.

  Max Levin.

  He was…attractive. The kind of attractive that made you do a double take. The kind that made your heart race and your mouth feel like you’d just walked a hundred miles through the desert. And those eyes, like rich, dark chocolate. Those stopped me in my tracks. The man was sex. Not sexy. Not hot. But pure, blissful, orgasmic sex. The act itself. Because just one glance in his direction made you want to pull out a smoke and puff with pure satisfaction.

  Not that I’d given it much thought.

  I’d only just met the guy, and I so wasn’t that girl. Especially since he seemed to enjoy the sight of my body more than me as a person. Just one look at him and panties dropped with a thud to the floor. But not mine. No, sirree. Mine were still firmly in place.

  But the way he looked at me, I’d never been looked at like that before. Not by a friend or lover or even a creeper wanting to get in my pants. I don’t know what kind of magic he practices with those eyes, but I’d feared that if I didn’t get the hell up, I would fall hopelessly under his spell.

  I was sitting in my usual booth. In my favorite café. With the same regulars I saw around me three to four nights a week. We all did the same thing, our noses stuck in books or staring blankly at laptop screens. The muted colors of the floor and booths and walls weren’t distracting and were the perfect atmosphere for studying. But the real reason I came here was the coffee.

  I brought the white china mug to my mouth. The cappuccino was perfection. Mostly because my favorite barista was working tonight. She had the special coffee-making skills that never failed to brew the perfect warm indulgence.

  As for warm indulgences, I had no doubt that Max’s body would be warm, and strong, and—

  No! The minute he opened his mouth, I knew. Arrogant. Too good-looking for his own good. And he knew it, too. Probably had every wannabe looking for their big break spread their legs just for the chance to become a star.

  Despite Max being full of himself, it didn’t stop me from fantasizing instead of studying. It didn’t stop me from sneaking a peek at their table every three seconds, bobbing my head to and fro trying to see around the six people who sat in between. Wondering how he conducted his casting calls. If they were filmed. If they required nudity. If they resulted in…

  I wasn’t a prude. I’d seen those videos. Of innocent women being coaxed into taking off their clothes and then fucked hard and insensitively in every imaginable hole.

  I shook my head. It didn’t matter. In what world would an uptight law student with a fear of coloring outside the lines end up with the porn guy?

  I looked down at my laptop and woke up my screen. The cursor blinked at me, demanding words I just couldn’t write. I had worked so hard and for so long to get into law school. Now that I was, and only weeks away from my degree, I was letting life pass me by.

  There was only one person in the world who acknowledged that. My gram. Just after Christmas she passed away, leaving me the deed to her house and a bucket list—a list I had to complete before I finished law school. I snorted. The clock was ticking, and I hadn’t checked off one damn item. In fact, the only thing I’d managed to do with the list was copy it to a piece of turquoise paper and keep it in my agenda.

  I pulled it out and stared at the fascinating, yet random, set of items.

  1. Go out with someone you’d never give the time of day

  2. Give yourself permission to lose control

  3. Fail at something

  4. Try something athletic

  5. Read a book for fun

  6. Be the center of attention

  7. See something amazing

  8. Say you’re sorry

  9. Break someone’s heart

  10. Laugh so hard you cry

  11. Change someone’s life

  I had no idea what Gram was thinking. She knew how busy I was. She knew that all I did was study, with no time for anything else. I’d even had to give up my extracurricular activities just to keep up.

  I looked up at my roommates. Grace and Sadie weren’t afraid to go after what they wanted. They weren’t afraid to try new things or put themselves on the line, and I envied the hell out of them. Given the same challenge, their lists would be complete by now. I, on the other hand, had papers to write, exams to take, and a life in the legal system to attain.

  I carried the list with me, believing that it kept my gram close. The poor woman had tried to get me to open up, loosen up, and
fly beyond the walls I had constructed to keep me focused. I think she knew the evening I cited case law to support my argument for staying up past my bedtime she had lost the battle. The guilt that she had died a failure, and the only one who didn’t expect anything from me, nagged at me every day. I had loved her, still loved her, more than anything in this world, and I wanted to complete the list for her; I just had no idea where to begin.

  I slipped the list under my book just as a shadow fell over my table. I snapped up my head and gasped. The six-foot-three hustler had just approached.

  “What…what are you doing here?”

  Crap cakes! He was even more beautiful at a second glance. His hair was messy, like he’d just had a night of blistering hot sex. His black suit was tailored perfectly. Every time the fabric pulled away from the middle of his chest it exposed a white dress shirt, the first button open at his neck, no tie. With every arm movement the dress shirt pulled tight across his pecs. The flat front of his dress pants were pin straight and I couldn’t help but imagine how the fabric would stretch and accommodate an erection.

  I slammed my textbook shut around the pencil I had stuck in the spine. Those thoughts weren’t going to get me through whatever conversation was going to take place.

  “May I?” He gestured to the opposite side of the booth.

  I nodded.

  He was invading my space. Taking up a lot of it, too. His body barely fit between the table and the bench. I was nice enough to pull the table toward me, giving him some breathing room.

  “So…law school.” He leaned back and draped one arm across the top of the booth, his chest puffing out, and I wanted to paw at his hard torso.

  “Yes, law school.” I slipped my hands under my thighs, desperate to minimize the opportunity to reach out and touch him, eventually making a fool of myself. “Can I…help you with something?”

  His big hand gripped the top of the booth while one finger tapped slowly, his attention directed at me. “I just wanted to apologize for the whole thinking-you’re-an-escort thing.”

  An apology was not what I was expecting. He seemed like the type of guy who didn’t apologize for anything. He wasn’t ashamed or embarrassed when I called him out on ogling my body. Under different circumstances, I might admire the way in which he made no excuses for his behavior, how he owned his character. Something I was unable to do.

  “Not a problem.” I shrugged. “Being friends with Stella and Jade, it can happen.”

  It never happened.

  I looked at him with a small smile, and he laughed. The sexy way his mouth curved up and the flash of his perfect, white teeth had me hurtling dangerously close to panty-dropping territory. I squeezed my thighs together. My panties weren’t going anywhere.

  Making himself a little more comfortable, he turned his body to face me and by the jiggle under the table, I knew he had crossed his ankle over his knee. “So how did a girl like you end up living with two escorts?”

  A “girl like me”? Why did I desperately want to know what he thought of me?

  “Gra—Jade has been my best friend since we were nine. She moved in six months ago.” What I didn’t say was that it was while my grandmother was dying and didn’t tell anyone. “And Stella is her co-worker, so…we’re all living happily ever after.” I also didn’t say it was because I didn’t want to live in a big house alone.

  “So you’re cool with their choice of…occupation?”

  I understood why Grace had turned to being an escort. It wasn’t something we’d fantasized about when we were in high school, but she knew she wouldn’t make the same amount of money anywhere else. And she liked sex, plain and simple. She liked calling the shots. She liked the way it felt to make men fall to their knees. At least that’s what she’d told me. Unfortunately, those weren’t the skills they taught in law school.

  “I might spend the rest of my life working within a system that is black and white, but I know for a fact that life is full of gray. And it’s the gray that makes everything worthwhile.”

  Or so I’m told. I had never, not once, dabbled in the gray side of life.

  He eyed me from across the table and I had to suppress the squirm. Even in scrutiny those eyes were overwhelming.

  “Stella and Jade are…beautiful. Smart. Sophisticated.” I sighed. “Well dressed. They are more than their occupation.”

  Despite Grace also working her way toward a degree, I was nothing like them. They shopped at Holt Renfrew. I wore grocery store jeans and Costco comfortable tops.

  He eyed me with those gorgeous brown eyes and it was all I could do to keep myself from crawling into his lap and mapping every fleck of gold that stared back at me.

  “You know, it’s not the clothes that make the person.”

  He was right. I had much more to offer than a mediocre wardrobe and unassuming looks. I was in the top five percent of my class and had competed and won an articling position at Sutherland, Sutherland, and Marks, one of the most prestigious firms in Toronto.

  This was now the second time he’d surprised me with a thoughtful, sympathetic comment. While I was an advocate for women being able to freely choose their career path, this man made his living off ogling women. Literally.

  “Just please don’t tell me you buy your panties three in a bag.”

  I laughed, because I did. “Maybe those are the best kind.”

  He leaned forward and clasped his hands on the table. “On you they would be, sweetheart.”

  I sighed, shaking my head. “Let’s not play this game.”

  I knew my place in the hotness hierarchy, but that didn’t mean I would hang my head and bite the sleeves of my sweater whenever a hot guy came into my vicinity. I was comfortable and confident in my body, my brain, and my plans for the future.

  My future. Or so I kept telling myself that. My parents and I had mapped it years ago, before I was even in high school.

  “What game?” he asked. He looked genuinely offended.

  “The game where you use all your best lines and I leave here thinking you’re the sexiest, nicest guy I’ve ever met and that my life just wouldn’t be complete if I don’t sleep with you. Essentially, charming me right out of my pants.”

  There was something in his eyes. I’d noticed it earlier when he’d deliberately ogled me. It was the same haze I saw darken Grace’s eyes every time she turned it on. The look that told me she was present, but not real. Max looked at me the same way. “There’s got to be more under that well-fitted suit.”

  If I hadn’t been already looking at him, I wouldn’t have noticed the two-second moment when his mouth dropped open. I had penetrated that charming veneer, but he recovered, changing the conversation to something he was more used to. “So you think I’m sexy and nice.”

  He was incorrigible. “Now you’re putting words in my mouth.”

  “They were your words.”

  I huffed. “If we were in a courtroom, I would object. Badgering the witness.”

  He leaned forward with a small laugh. “I have no chance at winning an argument with you, do I?”

  I squirmed in my seat. Those eyes were examining me like he had some kind of special superhero power. But instead of the ability to leap tall buildings in a single bound, he saw through clothing, zeroing in on private parts and making my heart beat triple time against my chest.

  “You can try…” I left the rest of my sentence unspoken.

  I leaned back, trying my best to be casual yet feminine. I’d seen Grace and Sadie in action a few times now. Surely some of that had to have rubbed off on me. “How does one become vice president of an adult entertainment company?”

  “It’s the family business.”

  I straightened in my seat. “Really?”

  He nodded.

  My family business was the law; my father specialized in family law and my mother specialized in corporate law. I couldn’t imagine being at his family dinner table.

  How was your day, dear?

  Jus
t wonderful, honey. I saw someone get double penetrated today.

  I grinned. “Making the world a better place one sex scene at a time.”

  “Something like that.” He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. Even with only minutes of interaction, I could tell the difference. “What about you? How are you going to change the world?”

  My heart hammered in my chest. I needed to stop making eye contact, for the sake of my health. “Oh, I don’t know.” I swallowed hard. “Putting criminals in jail. Stopping large corporations from polluting the environment.”

  That was my go-to response whenever anyone asked me why I wanted to be a lawyer. Something that showed I was following in my parents’ footsteps. It was pretty Miss Universe Pageant, if I do say so myself.

  “Those are big ambitions. But what about having fun? You’ve only got one life to live.” He eyed me from across the table. His brown eyes fixed on my blue ones. I didn’t dare look away for fear of losing the unspoken battle. “You should live it.”

  A feeling of déjà vu washed over me. “What did you say?”

  It was the same thing my grandma used to say to me. All. The. Damn. Time. Like a song on replay, her words echoed in my head. I had managed to push them aside my entire life, knowing that what my parents wanted for me would make my life happy. But since her passing, that voice was louder, harsher, and more jarring than ever.

  “Some of us find it easier to live than others.” I made sure to use air quotes to get my point across. “You probably get everything you want, don’t you?” I picked up the pen that sat on the table next to my laptop and tapped it against the fake wood. “Expensive cars. Expensive drinks. Women.”

  Offense burned in his gaze. I saw it there for a split second before a smirk curved at the side of his lips and he leaned back, settling his torso against the booth. “You think I’m just an asshole in a suit.”

  In the first two minutes of our introduction, maybe. Now I wasn’t so sure, but I didn’t need to tell him that. I smiled and shrugged. “At least it’s an expensive suit.”