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wanted to find her, all he had to do was call.

Chapter Three
    “Mom, where’s my lunch?” Melissa’s voice echoed down the hallway.
    “It’s on the counter, darling.” Katy flipped through the file on her desk and sighed. Her five minutes of peace were over. She had been lucky to get even that on a Monday morning.
    “Mom, where’s my soccer uniform?”
    “It’s on your bed, Justin. I washed it on the weekend.”
    “Mom, Justin pulled my hair.”
    “Did not.”
    “Did too.”
    Katy closed her file. She shouldn’t have tried to prep at home for the examination for discovery this morning, but nervous anticipation about her first high-profile, solo case had awakened her early. Ted, her managing partner, had given her the file last night and a promise of partnership if she rose to the challenge.
    She pulled out her briefing note and took one last look at the key points she had jotted down last night. The case was simple enough. Martha Saunders, a laboratory technician, had started an action for wrongful dismissal against her former employer, pharmaceutical giant, Hi-Tech. Martha’s previous lawyer had unexpectedly dropped the case and Ted had picked it up at the last minute. Usually a case involving a high-profile party would be handled by one of the partners, but Ted had given it to her. A test.
    Like Friday night.
    What had she been thinking? What if someone had recognized her? She shouldn’t have taken the risk of being seen in a fetish club as she now headed toward the culmination of years of work. Lawyers loved to gossip and anyone who saw her would have been delighted to spread a rumor, even if they knew it wasn’t the truth.
    Still, Mark had haunted her dreams. The warmth of his hand on her body, the burn of desire in his eyes and the sensual brush of his lips over her skin in the wine cellar.
    Oh, God. The wine cellar.
    She twirled her desk chair in a slow circle, remembering the soft rumble of his velvet-smooth voice. Her fantasy come to life. The man she imagined when she lost herself in romance novels or sensual films. Someone who would love the unlovable control freak that was Katy Sinclair.
    “Good morning, Kate.”
    A control freak with one fatal weakness. The inability to get her philandering ex-husband out of her life.
    Katy grimaced as Steven’s voice shattered the organized chaos of the morning. He always insisted on calling her Kate even though she hated the name. Friends and family called her Katy. Clients called her Katherine. She had thought the divorce would be enough to get rid of “Kate”. Wrong again.
    “Steven, I’ve told you before to knock or ring the bell,” she shouted from her study.
    His shadow darkened the doorway. “It’s still half my house, even though the judge gave you possession. I shouldn’t have to knock if I want to see my own kids.”
    He leaned against the doorframe and folded his arms. He had aged in the year since the divorce. His salt-and-pepper hair now sported streaks of gray, and his once-lean muscles had softened. Still handsome, but the steel blue eyes and chiseled jaw, captivating to the young, impressionable, eighteen-year-old girl she had once been, no longer held any appeal. Now, after meeting Mark, he looked…average.
    She slammed the file into her briefcase. “He gave me the house because the kids live with me. If you recall, the judge thought the constant stream of young interns in your bed created an unsuitable lifestyle for raising children.”
    Steven held up his hands in a gesture of mock surrender. “We’ve been through this already. I offered to go for counseling, but you’re the one who decided to rip the family apart.”
    “I ripped the family apart?” Katy clenched her teeth and drew in a ragged breath. “I endured your affairs so our kids could have the stable family I never had and you left me anyway…for an intern.” She closed her briefcase with a bang. “Now you blame me because I’m the one who filed for the divorce.