Romance: Abducted for love ( Bad Boy BBW BWWM Romance) (13 page)

“Apparently, you haven’t looked closely enough,” Daniel shrugged, and Maria heaved a frustrated sigh.

              “Well, where should I look?” Maria pressed, eager to find the threads of connection between the points she was arguing before the judge.

Daniel smirked at her as he took up the file folder, and Maria watched intently as he slowly flipped through the files and transcripts, his eyes skimming the words. He lingered on a particular document, and he rubbed at his chin as he read the words on the page. He offered the page to Maria, and she eagerly looked to see what it was. It was the testimony of one of the defense lawyer’s first witnesses. She frowned and looked back up at Daniel, confused.

“I already looked through this,” Maria shook her head.

“Give it another look,” he suggested with a shrug. “Compare it with her original statements in the case files and her emergency calls. It all looks like it lines up. At first. Just give it all another look.”

“Is there something specific I should look
for
?” Maria searched his face as if it held the answer.

“What fun would it be if I
told
you everything?” Daniel leaned back in his chair and arced his fingers in front of him. Maria rolled her eyes at him and he laughed.

Maria stood and gathered up the loose papers. She reached across the desk to take up one of the papers he had withdrawn. Daniel gently covered her hand with his, and Maria gasped softly at the contact. She looked up at Daniel, and her stomach clenched as her eyes locked on his, and she watched as they darkened as his expression grew serious.

“You will find it, Maria,” he said, his words hushed. “And when you do, you will have a case. Come back tomorrow with what you find.”

Maria felt Daniel start to tighten his grip on her hand, and she abruptly jerked it back. Her heart pounded in her chest, and she gathered up the file from the desk, holding it tightly to her chest.

“Thank you,” she stammered out, flustered. “I’ll look over the files in my office.”

“Of course,” Daniel smiled slowly, then stood and moved to get the door for her.

Maria kept her eyes on the carpet as she moved past him to leave his office.

“Have a good day, Maria,” Daniel bid her as she proceeded down the hallway, his voice heavy with concealed amusement.

“You too,” Maria replied weakly, never faltering in her course. She could feel his eyes on her every second as she walked down the hallway until she turned the corner to get to her office.

As soon as she reached the relative safety of her own much smaller office, she collapsed into her chair and heaved a sigh of relief. Her heart rate was still elevated, and she could not deny that there were still residual butterflies in her stomach from the encounter. His scent lingered in her nose, and she sighed lightly as she remembered the way his hand felt over her own…

Maria shook her head to get her thoughts back together. She had no time to be thinking this way about Daniel. With no further thought to the attractive partner, she gathered up her case files and prepared to spend any amount of time necessary to finally sew the last loose ends together and win her first court case.

Maria went immediately to the original court case and looked at the testimony of the defense’s witness and compared it with her emergency calls. The woman, a maid in the home of the victim, had called 911 upon seeing the dead body in the home. The testimony and her statements merely followed the progression of her arrival at the home, her call to the police, and her interactions with the police when they arrived at the scene.

Maria frowned. She must have read over the files a dozen times at least when she was forming her arguments. Everything was exactly as she remembered. She couldn’t fathom why on earth Daniel had told her to reexamine these. Maria huffed a sigh and tossed the file back onto her desk.

She leaned back in her chair and let her eyes skim over the documents in disgust. It was then that her eyes landed on a piece of information that she had not even taken into consideration. She seized the piece of paper and her eyebrows met in concentration as she drank in the tiny scrap of information that might change the entire case. The time of the 911 call was made at 10:37 AM, over three hours later than the maid usually showed up for work.

Maria immediately shuffled through the papers strewn across her desk until she found the maid’s statements and testimony. Maria scanned the document meticulously for any mention of the delay, but there was none. A wave of excitement passed through Maria’s body. This wasn’t by any means the end, but it was certainly a new start. Maria wasted no time. She basically scratched the case she had built before, and began anew with this new piece of information.

This, however, was no small task. It had taken weeks to build her case already, and now she had to build an entirely new one with her court date looming just around the corner. Maria buried herself in her work, stringing all the details she had accumulated over weeks of research in new and different ways. Her case had found a new center, and she geared her questions around the three missing hours of time that had been disregarded until now.

Time seemed to fly by as Maria constructed her new and improved case, and she found herself in the office long after her colleagues had packed up and gone home for the day. At this point in the day, Maria was usually back home in her small apartment, curled up on her couch with a book and a cup of tea. She knew, though, that with the case weighing so heavily on her mind, she would never have been able to relax.

Before she knew it, the sun had set, and her eyes were heavy as she pored over the documents. She leaned back in her chair for a moment and rubbed at her eyes. She was exhausted, yes, but relieved and exhilarated at the same time. She just needed a moment to recover and refocus her eyes, which had grown bleary after so closely analyzing the words on the paper. She decided she would close her eyes for a few minutes and take a break, and then hit it hard for another hour or so before heading home for the night.

No sooner had she closed her eyes, though, than she heard a knock at her office door. Maria jolted in her chair, alarmed at the sound, since she assumed she was the only one in the office so late. She immediately looked up to the small window in the door, and jumped again at who she saw. Daniel Boone stood outside her door, smirking in at her through the window.

Maria waved at him to enter as she hastily gathered up the mess of paperwork scattered across her desk.

“I had no idea you kept such late hours,” Daniel mused, moving to lean against her desk as she organized her files.

“I usually don’t,” Maria said simply, never taking her eyes off the papers in front of her.

“Did you run into some difficulty?” Daniel pried, and Maria could hear the teasing edge in his voice.

“On the contrary,” Maria crossed her arms, irritated. “I am actually making progress.”

“You found it, didn’t you?” Daniel smiled down at her, his eyes sparkling.

Maria pressed her lips together, and Daniel’s smile only widened.

“You did,” he guessed correctly, and Maria gave him a single nod of confirmation.

Daniel glanced down at the newly organized files, and then back up at Maria.

“May I take a look?” he asked, raising his eyebrow interestedly.

Maria hesitated for a moment, reluctant for him to criticize her newly formed case. At length, though, she sighed, and nodded, sliding her new files across the desk to him. He took up the documents, and began to pace around the room as he perused them. Maria kept her eyes locked on him. She couldn’t help but notice the ease in his movements, and the predatory aura that seemed to emanate from him. Just being in the same room with him put her senses on edge. Every now and again, he would look up and catch her eyes, and would flash his bright smile. Maria hated the way it made her stomach clench.

At length, he circled around to once again stand in front of her desk, and handed the files back over to her. He leaned against her desk once again, and smirked down at her. Maria was itching for him to say what he was thinking, but her pride kept her from asking. It seemed, though, that he was determined to make her ask, as he merely continued to look down at her, that irritating smirk ever on his face.

“Well?” Maria bit out, exasperated, and Daniel’s smile widened as she finally rose to his baiting.

“Well,” he started, his tone always teasing. “I see you found it. Very well done. It certainly took you long enough.”

Maria ground her teeth in aggravation, but she managed to hold back the scathing response she felt like hurling at him. Daniel merely chuckled.

“I can see that you’re early in the process,” he started again, his tone more serious. “You’re definitely headed in a better direction now. However, I think you’re too focused on the offensive.”

“Well, I’m a prosecutor,” Maria snapped, irritated at his accusation.

“
You
are a
recruit
,” he corrected, his tone more sharp, and his eyes flashing steely. “
I
am a prosecutor. And you would do well to remember that.”

Maria’s face burned with a mix of anger and embarrassment at his chastisement, and she couldn’t deny the way her stomach had fluttered at his tone and the sudden change in his eyes. She nodded respectfully, and his eyes softened back to their usual, mischievous glint.

“You are in a pretty good place for your first court date,” he said, continuing where he left off. “But going in hot and heavy isn’t always the best approach. You don’t have a lot of conclusive evidence, even with what you found today. Try to go a little easy.”

As he spoke, Daniel moved away from her desk and began to pace slowly around the office. Maria’s eyes were once again riveted to his form, and her mind conjured the image of a big cat circling its prey. The image sent shivers down her spine

“Remember, you’re a woman,” he said, his voice lower and softer. “You can use that to your advantage. Lull them into a false sense of security.”

As he spoke, Daniel circled back toward her, moving along the walls of the room.

“Then, when you have gathered more information, and you have an even stronger case,” he spoke even more softly, and moved even closer, coming to stand behind her chair. “That is when you take the offensive, and take them down.”

As he finished speaking, Maria felt his hands rest gently on her shoulders. She jumped in her chair, partially from surprise and partially out of a jolt of excitement that ran through her entire body.

“Stop,” Maria bit out instantly, trying to stand.

“Maria, relax,” Daniel chuckled, and held her steady in the chair. “You’re working yourself too hard. Let me help.”

Daniel began to gently, but firmly work his thumbs into the tense muscles of Maria’s shoulders. The sensation was incredible, and Maria could barely contain a soft moan of pleasure as his hands began to work against her muscles. A part of her mind screamed that he was crossing a line, but another part of her mind was exhausted and grateful for the soothing contact.

Maria slowly leaned back in her chair and allowed her eyes to drift closed. She released a soft sigh as she felt Daniel’s fingertips begin to work at her pectorals, just below her clavicles and his thumbs circles the juncture of her neck and shoulder.

A small voice in Maria’s head cried out at her to stop him, and that this was wrong. That voice was silenced, though, as Maria’s body succumbed to the magic that Daniel was working with his hands. She was feeling more relaxed than she had felt since landing the job at the firm, and she was intent to take advantage of every second she could.

Maria was only vaguely aware of Daniel’s hands slipping lower and lower. She felt the subtle change in sensation as her relaxation shifted to arousal, and she squirmed in her chair as he sensuously massaged the tissue of her breasts. She gasped as he flicked at her nipples, and her eyes shot open.

“We can’t do this,” Maria all but whimpered, and weakly tried to move out of his grasp.

“Says who?” Daniel raised an eyebrow, and Maria gasped as he tweaked at her achingly hard nipples.

“The policy…” Maria moaned out as Daniel cupped her breasts in his hands. “The firm…”

“I am the firm,” Daniel fairly growled, and Maria whimpered as he tightened his hold over her firm globes. “And to hell with the policy. I want you Maria.”

Daniel suddenly spun her chair around so Maria was facing him, and her head spun as he braced his hands on each of her chair’s armrests, effectively trapping her. Maria’s heart pounded in her chest as his steely blue eyes bore into hers, and she felt a warmth begin to pool between her thighs. As much as her body craved this, though, the sensible part of her mind still resisted his pull.

“Is that what you say to all the new recruits?” she managed to get out.

“It’s usually what they say to me,” Daniel said, his tone ragged. “I have to admit, this is a change of pace.”

Daniel moved closer, so that his face was mere inches away from hers. Maria could feel his warm breath against her lips, and she felt a magnetic pull to him.

“I know you want this too, Maria,” he whispered roughly into her ear as he nuzzled her face. “Submit to me.”