Copping Attitude Read Free

introduced them three weeks ago, Jenna had been overwhelmed by the temptation to get close to Noah.  Even tonight, when he’d asked to join her at her table, she’d had to force herself to say no rather than lean into him and wrap her arms around him the way she’d wanted to.  For some reason, despite his suave good looks and exotic voice, even as he made her body warm with a desire she’d never thought she’d feel again, Noah seemed solid and safe.  But he also seemed scary as hell.  The combination was strangely alluring.  She’d fantasized about asking him over several times, but now that it had finally happened, she still couldn’t believe he was here.  In Kate’s apartment.  And that she was actually considering doing what Kate was suggesting.
    “Okay.  If that’s what you really want.”  Kate watched her carefully.  “Is it?  Because I thought what you really wanted was to bring Judge Stavish down, and to do that, you’re going to have to get pretty close to Stavish.”
    What Kate meant, and what Jenna already knew, was that she was probably going to have to sleep with Stavish.  That was her choice, because she didn’t know how else to get the information she needed except to rely on the face and body that men seemed to be so fascinated with.  She was no whore—hell, she didn’t see the point of sex during the best of circumstances, and she hated it under the worst of them—but to get justice?  To make sure what happened to her didn’t happen to another woman?  She’d do whatever she had to.  “I know that.  But…him?” 
    Instinctively, she sensed how sex with Noah might actually interfere with her plans.  How he might make her forget Stavish and make her simply want to be a woman again, lost in the arms of a man who’d be gentle but still wouldn’t let her shy away from the pleasure he could bring her.  Given that, he should be the last person to ask this favor of.
    “Better him than that slimeball Gordon.  I still can’t believe there’s such a thing as therapeutic sex surrogates.”
    Jenna sighed.  “I told you, the legality is on the shaky side, but most juries make a distinction between sex for money and sexual gratification, and sex for money and therapy.  It’s apparently a legit business.  At least Gordon would have made things halfway clinical.  At least he—he—”
    “At least he doesn’t threaten you.  Not the way Noah does”
    Instinctively, she raised her chin.  “Detective James doesn’t scare me.”
    Kate just looked at her, and Jenna rubbed her hands up and down her arms, her bravado quickly deflating.  “Okay, so he does scare me, a little.”
    “The fear Noah inspires in you is the good kind, Jenna.  He turns you on.  That’s what scares you.”
    “But I—I don’t want to be turned on,” she said swiftly.  “I just want to be able to let one specific man touch me without freaking out.  Even if that man is going to end up being Judge Stavish.”
    “To do that, you’re going to have to actually let yourself be touched.  To disguise your fear of sex.  Given the way you reacted to Gordon grabbing you earlier, you’re a long way from that, Jenna.  Maybe Noah can help.  He’s a good guy.  He won’t hurt you.  And I’ve seen how you look at him.  You want him.”
    Jenna hesitated, looking towards the doorway.  At the other end of the house, Noah was nursing a drink in the living room.  Despite his patience and watchfulness, he’d obviously been confused by Kate’s invitation to join them.  Who wouldn’t be, especially given how Jenna had previously brushed him off.  “But what will he think of me?  I should have just hit on him.  I still can.  I don’t have to explain why I—”
    “And let him go in blind?”  Kate shook her head.  “I don’t think that’s a good idea.  He has to know your hang-ups.  That’s why you looked into a sex surrogate in the first place, remember?  It would be