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embarrassed. Well, sort of, but just because I’m not accustomed to my sex life coming up for discussion at the office. It’s more—”
    “You were afraid it would get around,” he finished for her. “That I’d brag to the guys at the cop shop and you’d lose credibility. That ultimately, it would adversely affect your ability to defend your clients.” He turned away to look straight ahead out the windscreen. “I understand. Hell, I can’t even work up any righteous indignation anymore. Because to be honest, if I were ten years younger and stupider, I probably would have shot my mouth off first chance I got. But I haven’t and I won’t. But none of that alters the fact that I shouldn’t have gone off on you like that.”
    “Don’t apologize.” She looked down at her hands, clasped in her lap. “You were right. I wouldn’t have called you if I hadn’t thought I was dying. That’s the bald truth of it. You have every right to be angry.”
    “Maybe,” he agreed. “But that’s only half the reason I was angry.”
    She shot a look at him, but he was still facing forward. “And the other reason?”
    He turned to face her, his blue eyes fiercely intent. “I was mad because I let my mind go down that road. I let myself imagine how I’d feel if you really did have a brain tumor, if you really were dying. How it would feel to lose you so quickly after you made me love you.”
    Adrenaline ripped through her nervous system, terminating in an almost painful jolt in her fingertips, like a bolt of electricity. “What?”
    He carried on, as though he hadn’t heard her.
    “Christ, I felt like I’d stepped out onto a fucking ledge at twenty stories, and everything was whirling underneath me. I lashed out. I’m sorry.”
    “You can’t.”
    “Can’t what?”
    “Love me!” God, what possessed him to say that ? “Craig, we don’t even know one another.”
    “I’d say we know each other better than some couples ever do.”
    She blushed. “That was sex.”
    His eyes glinted. “It sure as hell was. But sex like that … Nita, that doesn’t just happen between strangers. And I’ve had enough sex with beautiful strangers over the past fifteen years to know the difference. It takes a certain level of trust. It takes an intuitive knowledge of the other.”
    “That’s crazy! We hadn’t even had a date prior to jumping in bed.”
    “What have we doing the past three years but getting to know each other? We’ve been measuring each other over these cases. Searching for each other’s weaknesses, admiring strengths.”
    “But I do that with everyone I put on the stand.”
    “Yeah, but you don’t look at anyone else the way you look at me. You don’t think about anyone else the way you think about me. And thank God, you didn’t call anyone else when you thought you were dying and needed to grab at life. You called me, dammit. Me.”
    Nita did the only thing she could do. She burst into tears.

Chapter 7

    Craig’s heart contracted as he watched the tears slide soundlessly down her cheeks.
    “Christ, I’m sorry, Nita. I didn’t mean to make you cry.”
    “I’m just tired,” she said.
    Shit. Of course she was tired. “Let me take you home.”
    “I really should go back in there.” She dabbed at her eyes with a tissue she pulled out of her jacket pocket.
    “No one will expect you back today. Besides, I can’t have you go in there looking like you went three rounds with a bully. Knopfler would kick my ass.”
    She snorted. “Yeah, like that could happen.”
    “Let me take you home,” he pressed. “I won’t even stay if you don’t want me to. You need to catch up on your sleep.”
    She pulled down the sun visor on her side of the car and checked out her reflection. “Ugh.” She flipped the visor back into place. “Okay, take me home.”
    Before she could change her mind, he started the car and eased out of the parking lot. They didn’t speak for the ten-minute trip downtown. Craig eased