Legally Hot by Leigh, Lora (smart ebook reader TXT) 📗

look of utter embarrassment on the detective’s face, Keri started giggling and within a moment she couldn’t stop.

While the server brought napkins to help clean up the water, Keri laughed so hard that her eyes watered and her stomach hurt.

As she laughed, she saw Adam’s embarrassed smile turn into a grin. “It’s a special woman who can laugh at some guy dumping two glasses of ice water on her their first night out.”

“The first night out?” Keri said as she caught her breath and sopped up as much of the water as she could with napkins the server handed her. “So when’s the second night?”

“I get a second chance?” Adam said.

“Sure, maybe, if you stop with the water fights.” Keri dried herself about as much as she was going to be able to and handed the soaked napkins to the server. “But first tell me what distracted you to begin with.”

Adam cleared his throat. “The top two buttons of your sweater are undone.”

“Oh.” Keri glanced down and heat rushed to her cheeks. Her sweater gaped wide enough to get a good look at her black lace bra. “Uh, thanks,” she said as she fastened the pearl buttons.

“Well, I didn’t mean that you had to button it back up. I’ve dumped all the water we have on the table.” Adam gave her a teasing look. “It’s not like I can cause more damage,”

Keri gave her best serious act. “Yes, but I still have a glass of wine, and we’ll probably end the evening with a cappuccino. When you dump that on me it will cause a bit more of a problem than ice water. Better to keep them buttoned for you, Adam, you apparently get easily distracted.”

“Easily distracted?” Adam said. “What healthy red-blooded American boy wouldn’t be?”

The server came with fresh glasses of water, along with their appetizer.

“I feel like I know you well enough now after knocking heads and you sharing your water with me to say yes to another night out,” she said in between bites of fresh mozzarella and peppers on bread garnished with basil.

“Good,” Adam said. “Let’s hope you feel the same way by the end of dinner.”

Their conversation was easy and fun. Adam made her smile and laugh and she had no problem forgetting the fact she was still damp.

“How long were you a ballerina?” he asked over shrimp scampi and white wine, after they discussed the Knicks’ last game against the Celtics.

“My mother put me in dance as soon as I learned how to walk.” Keri smiled. “I had an aptitude for ballet at an early age,” she said. “I loved it and worked hard at it, dreaming that one day it would be my career. And it was. In another way it still is.”

“I read in your file that you were about to go on an extended world tour before your career ended,” he said.

Keri liked how he didn’t baby her by “dancing” around the subject. “We were scheduled to dance for the Queen of England to start our tour.” Keri tilted her head as she thought wistfully about the excitement she had felt during those days. “But Edward put an end to that dream.”

“You don’t seem bitter about it,” he said.

Keri shrugged. “I was at first, but not long. There’s no use in wallowing in self-pity. Now I have another career I love, one that would not have happened for a long time. Who knows how insane my life would have been if I’d continued dancing for another three to five years.”

“How did you get involved with someone like Edward Carter?” Adam looked genuinely interested.

With his bad boy grin, blond hair, and blue eyes so bright it almost hurt to look at them, Edward had been drop-dead sexy and sought after in the social circles. Most females, from young women to cougar age, had found the charismatic man charming, well-spoken, and completely hot.

If they’d only known the real Edward Carter. If she had only known.

“I saw him at a party,” she said. “He had everyone fooled and ran with the same groups that I did.” Keri looked at her wine glass, swirled it, and studied the gold liquid. “He was fun to be around and he seemed so levelheaded, intelligent, confident. He had his business front that fooled so many people, including me.”

She paused before she went on. “He actually treated me well then. I fell for the man I thought he was.” Keri sighed. “Then I starting seeing and hearing certain things around him. I asked him about what I’d overheard on occasion and he finally got comfortable enough with me to tell me details, thinking I would go along with it.

“Things went bad when I didn’t accept it.” She tapped her finger on the glass, making small tinking sounds. “I began to see his violent temper. He was a different man—almost like he was possessed. It shocked me that someone could fool me like he had.

“When I realized the truth,” she said, “it was like someone I cared about died.” She lowered her eyes before looking at Adam again. “It’s hard to think about right now.”

Adam saw the topic was starting to change the good mood of the evening. “You mentioned that you teach,” he said.

Thankfully his question pulled her mind away from thoughts of Edward. “All ages, and I love it.” She tilted her head to the side. “What about you, Detective? What made you go into law enforcement?”

Adam gave her his adorable boyish grin. “Batman.”

Keri laughed. “Batman?”

“I really wanted to be Batman when I was growing up,” he said. “I didn’t grow up as rich as Bruce Wayne and my parents said a Batmobile was too expensive. I figured the next best thing was to be a cop.”

“So now you’re a superhero police officer,” she said.