Love Proof (Laws of Attraction)

Fourteen

They drove back to Sarah’s hotel to retrieve the rest of her luggage. She wouldn’t be staying in a room with Ellen again, no matter what. Even if she and Joe ended up sharing his bed platonically.

Although at the moment that seemed very unlikely.

Joe came with her up to her room, and as soon as they were behind the closed door, the two of them rushed at each other, mouths and hands exploring, jackets falling, pants unzipped, skirt hiked up, underwear yanked away.

“Oh, my God,” Sarah laughed on a rush of breath. Then she helped him unbutton her blouse because he was taking too long.

“Are you sure about this?” Joe asked. “Because if you’re not, you’d better back away right now.”

But instead Sarah pushed her pelvis into his and wrapped a leg around his hip.

“Wait a minute, wait a minute—” Joe’s hand shook as he tried to rip open the package.

Sarah felt remarkably calm. She laughed again as she popped the condom free and helped smooth it over Joe’s erection.

Then he was inside her, and Sarah felt a sensation she’d never felt in her life, at least not when a man was touching her: purity. Mixed with elation. She kissed him hard while the two of them rode each other, her back against the wall, Joe supporting both of her legs now so she was free to thrust against him as he thrust into her.

“Would you please stop laughing,” Joe said at one point, burying his head against her shoulder.

“I can’t help it.” Her smile was too big, and there was no other way to release what she was feeling than to mix laughter in with her moans.

But she was wrong about that: there was another way. She just hadn’t known it before.

As the orgasm ripped through her, Sarah gasped and pulsed against Joe. Then, as surprising as the laughter, came a wash of tears streaming down her face, wetting her mouth as she kissed Joe with even more hunger than before.

“Sarah,” he said, his body tightening, his mouth pinning hers as he erupted right after. Then he held her where she was, the two of them still connected, until finally he gently lowered her to the floor.

Sarah looked up into Joe’s face. He swiped his thumb below one of her eyes.

“Oh, my God,” she said, chuckling soft and low, as amazed as she’d ever been in her life.

She looked down at her clothes, the wrinkled skirt, the beige cotton bra. He hadn’t even taken it off—there wasn’t time.

Joe stood looking equally disheveled, dress shirt hanging over his thighs, his pants and underwear pooled at his feet.

“Let me take care of this,” he said, stepping out of his pants and moving into the bathroom to flush the condom. Then he was back, hands smoothing over Sarah’s shoulders, mouth kissing hers.

“Now this doesn’t seem right,” Joe said, finally taking the time to release the clasp on her bra. He cupped both breasts in his hands, then leaned forward to run his tongue over each one in turn.

Sarah pulled at his hair. “No, you can’t,” she said, trying to catch her breath. “Let’s wait. Let’s go to your hotel.”

“There’s a bed right here,” Joe said.

“But I don’t want to have to get up again—not until tonight.” Ellen would be coming back at some point, she knew, and Sarah had no desire to put on a show—or to have to stop.

Joe eased back into his underwear, kissed a breast, pulled up his pants, licked the other breast, tucked in his shirt, dipped his finger in Sarah’s slickness.

“Ugh, come on,” she said, backing away. “What time is it?”

He checked his watch. “A little after three.”

“We have to be there at six,” Sarah reminded him. “Come on—we can be in your bed in fifteen minutes.”

“Too long,” he murmured, pulling her to him again.

Sarah agreed, but one of them had to keep their heads. She pulled her blouse closed again and buttoned it, but threw her bra and the wad of underwear into her bag. There was no point in making it harder to get undressed as soon as she could. She added the few other items of clothing from her side of the room, made sure she got everything out of the bathroom, then zipped the bag closed and handed it to Joe.

He watched her the whole time, eyes dark with lust.

“Can you drive like that?” she asked.

“Like what?”

She pointed to his obvious erection.

“I should have asked you to bring everything over with you this morning,” he said. “We’d already be in my room.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“You think I knew?” Joe asked.

“Didn’t you?” Everything seemed so perfectly timed, so perfectly planned, from holding her hands inside his hoodie the night before, to offering her a bed to sleep in that morning, to pulling a hat onto her head so that his mouth was so close to hers she had no choice but to kiss it.

“Sarah, I haven’t known for months,” he said. “Believe me, this is a fantasy come true.”

Sarah stared at him, amazed.

“Come on,” she said, grabbing him roughly by the arm. “We’re wasting time.”

And she was done with that, Sarah thought. From now on she wanted every minute with him they could spare.

***

It took a little effort to make her suit presentable again for the judges. They would be mingling with all the students that night at a cocktail party before the actual awards banquet. Sarah wondered how on earth she was going to keep a straight face.

She had never thought of herself as a sexual creature, but it was obvious to her now that all she needed was for someone to show her the way. And Joe Burke was the perfect candidate for the job. The way he peeled away her clothes slowly the next time, tasting as he went, making her gasp more than laugh, making her moan in agony, punch his arms with irritation when he wouldn’t give her what she wanted, but just kept drawing it out, making her suffer and wait, building her higher and higher until she finally exploded with the kind of complete, pure pleasure she’d read about in books but never, ever understood.

The two of them lay sprawled naked and wet across his sheets. Joe grunted as he sat up to pull the covers up over them. “Can’t have you cold,” he told Sarah, kissing her softly on the lips.

Sarah squinted toward the bedside clock. “I should shower.”

“Mm, sounds good.”

“Alone,” she said, thinking of the shower cap she was going to have to pull over her hair. She always looked horrible in that thing—did anyone look good?—but she didn’t have time to blow dry her hair and straighten it before the dinner. At most she’d have time to quickly wash, reapply her makeup, then erase all the evidence of sex from her one nice outfit.

She walked naked to the bathroom, very aware that Joe was watching her. “I like your tits,” he said.

“Thank you.”

“I like your ass.”

“Thank you.”

“I like every inch of your skin.”

“You’re not making this easy,” Sarah said, poking her head out of the bathroom again.

“I’m not trying to. I want you to come back here.”

“Later,” Sarah said. “Don’t you want to know if either of us are going to the finals tomorrow?”

“No.”

“What if it’s me?” Sarah asked, leaning naked against the bathroom door frame.

“I’ll come watch you.”

“What if it’s you?” she asked.

“I’ll be too busy in bed with you.”

Sarah laughed. “I’m sure Ellen would love that.”

“We didn’t win, Sarah. She was horrible.”

Sarah grew serious. “Was she really?”

“With a capital H for help me.”

“That’s too bad,” Sarah said. “I’m sorry.”

“Who cares?”

“You really don’t?” she wanted to know.

“Sarah, I’ve already gotten everything out of this trip that I could possibly dream of.”

Sarah didn’t try to hide her smile.

“But not you, right?” Joe asked.

“What do you mean?”

“You’d like to win.”

“Well, sure,” she said.

“That’s what I like about you, Red.”

She waited, hoping he’d fill in the rest of the sentence himself. When he didn’t, she asked him shyly, “What do you like?”

He reached for her.

“Huh-uh. Tell me from here.”

“No deal,” Joe said. He continued to hold out his hand, waiting for her.

Why should she resist? Sarah asked herself. Why should she ever resist anything Joe wanted to give her?

He gathered her in his arms and pulled her tight against his chest. “I like that you’re smart and you’re never embarrassed about that. But at the same time, you’re not like other people at our school, constantly going around telling everyone how great you are. You let us all figure that out for ourselves. And I did figure it out—first year.”

“First year?” Sarah said. “But I didn’t notice you until second.”

Joe pretended to stab himself in the heart.

Sarah laughed. “It’s just . . . I wasn’t looking. At anyone. But then that day in Federal Tax Law . . . ”

Now it was Joe’s turn to laugh. “So that impressed you?”

“Do you know what I’m talking about?” Sarah asked.

“Of course I do. Didn’t you see me look at you? I was showing off for the redhead across the room.”

“No, you weren’t. You didn’t even know me,” Sarah said. But inside she really hoped it was true.

Although a part of that smart brain he claimed to admire also reminded her that she had seen him with plenty of other women since that day, so if he was pining for her, he found a way to deal with it.

But why should she think about that, she asked herself, when she was naked in his arms and he was already tasting her again, flicking his tongue over her body in that way that had already driven her mad?

She dove away from him in one quick move and rushed into the bathroom. Then she locked the door behind her, tucked her hair into the hotel shower cap, and washed away the evidence of their afternoon.

Wishing they didn’t have to go anywhere, and could just stay in his bed until their flight home on Sunday.





Fifteen

Was it Sarah’s imagination, or did Ellen look a little disheveled herself?

Sarah glanced from Ellen to Mickey, then dismissed the idea.

No way he’d do anything with her. No matter how drunk he might have gotten.

And from what she could see right now, that was plenty drunk.

“Mickey, maybe you should just have water for a while.” The two of them stood off to the side of the room, both dressed in their suits again, or maybe still, in Mickey’s case, and all around them were the various superior court, appellate, and supreme court judges who had listened to the preliminary round of arguments all day long.

Sarah saw one of hers and Mickey’s judges over by the bar. He was a short, balding man with thick-rimmed glasses and an easy smile. Sarah never minded his questions, because he nodded as she spun out her answers, encouraging her, it seemed, rather than staring at her stony-faced the way the other two judges did.

“So I heard a rumor,” Sarah said to Mickey.

“Yeah, what?”

“That you’re married and your wife is pregnant.”

He looked at her, eyes not nearly as focused as they’d been earlier in the day. “Yeah, I guess that’s right.”

“You guess that’s right?” Sarah said, laughing. “How far along is she?”

“Seven months.”

“Congratulations.”

“Cut the crap,” Mickey said. “Did you sleep with him?”

Sarah took a sip of her drink. And decided not to lie. “Yes.”

“Why?”

That question was harder to answer. And she wasn’t sure it was any of Mickey’s business.

“Did you sleep with Ellen?” she asked.

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive,” Mickey said.

“Did she try?” Sarah asked, looking over to where Ellen stood gesticulating and monologuing to one of the judges, obviously hoping to impress him.

“You heard what she said,” Mickey answered. “All those horny students. Happens every year.”

“But not you,” Sarah said.

He swallowed what was left of his drink. “Maybe with you, Sarah, but not with anybody else.”

“Somehow I doubt that’s true.”

Mickey shrugged. “I’m a good Catholic boy. Do I wish I was single? You bet. People should be more like animals. Come together to mate, then leave and go out on their own until next year.”

“How long have you been married?”

“Summer between college and law school. So I’m a third-year there, too.”

Mickey swirled the ice cubes in his cup, then tipped it back again to suck up the last drops.

“We should probably mingle,” Sarah said. “Go talk to our judges or something.”

“Why? You know I crashed and burned today.”

“No, you didn’t,” Sarah said. “You were a little nervous at first—”

“A little nervous?” Mickey chuckled in a way that sounded both sarcastic and miserable. “I had no business signing up for this, Sarah—you know that. You probably saw it at our very first practice. You could have told me, you know. Saved us both a lot of embarrassment.”

“You’re blowing this way out of proportion,” Sarah said. “Let’s wait and hear the scores, all right? I guarantee you didn’t do that badly.”

“I’m going to get another drink,” Mickey said. “Want anything?”

“No. Thanks.” She looked across the room. Joe and Ellen stood talking to another one of the judges.

No, Ellen stood talking, Sarah corrected herself. Because Joe wasn’t even paying attention. He waited until Sarah locked eyes with him, then subtly raised his glass.

Sarah smiled and turned away. She couldn’t spend the whole night with her heart racing over every little look or gesture or touch the two of them might find secret ways to exchange. They agreed to stick with their partners for the evening, and go through the banquet the way they would have if they never met.

It was a stupid agreement, Sarah thought, glancing back at Joe and finding him once again watching her with the same hungry expression she’d seen on his face all afternoon long.

Sarah checked her watch. Then she held up two fingers, meaning they only had to stay two more hours.

Joe pointed to the exit.

Sarah shook her head.

He pointed again, and she laughed. And then went in search of Mickey before the poor guy drank so much he passed out before the ceremony.

Although in Sarah’s heart she knew he was right: they really didn’t need to hear the announcement to know their team wasn’t advancing. Oral argument would never be Mickey Hughes’s strength. And even though Sarah thought her own performance had gone well, her scores would be averaged with Mickey’s to determine the team’s ranking, so that was the end of that.

Although she had to agree with Joe: winning the competition wasn’t nearly the best thing that could have come out of it. She’d already gotten more out of that trip that she ever could have dreamed of.

***

“Congratulations, Number Seven,” Joe told her as soon as they were alone again in his car.

“Nice job, Eight.”

The two of them grinned at each other. Even though neither of their teams advanced, the judges gave out individual scores, too, and both Sarah and Joe made it into the top ten.

“That’s not bad, huh?” Sarah asked.

“A lot better than I expected,” Joe said.

“What should we do to celebrate?”

“I think you know my answer to that.”

Just hearing the way he said it made Sarah’s insides flare with heat. She wondered whether the seats of the rental car folded down.

“Tomorrow’s Saturday,” Sarah said.

“Uh-huh.” Joe had her hand in his, and was swirling his thumb against her palm. She found it very difficult to think.

“Final arguments in the morning, then the luncheon, then another dinner tomorrow night.”

Joe didn’t say anything, just began stroking higher up her arm.

Sarah gasped on a laugh as he scooped his hand inside her jacket and began stroking the breast he found there.

“Joe?” she managed to get out.

“Hm?”

“Let’s skip all of that. Stay inside.”

“Sounds good.” He pressed his mouth to hers and unbuttoned the top of her blouse. Then he slipped his hand inside the fabric until he found bare skin.

Sarah moaned.

Joe pulled his hand free and started the car.

Sarah leaned her head back, too aroused to keep her eyes open. She wanted the ride to be over, wanted not to have to walk across the hotel parking lot, in through the lobby, take the elevator upstairs. She wanted to be instantly transported now, straight into his bed, straight into his arms and not leave there for hours and hours.

“Sarah?” Joe said after a while.

“Hm?”

“Congratulations. You really deserved that.”

She looked over at him and laid her hand on his arm. He rested one of his hands on top.

“You did, too, Joe,” she said. “I’m really happy for both of us.”

It was one of the nicest nights they had together, in a whole series of amazing nights. Nights followed by days in which Sarah fell harder and harder for him by the minute. And she thought he fell for her, too. Didn’t he tell her so?

But it was all over seven weeks later. And Sarah still didn’t understand why.