A Legal Affair Read Online Free

of her duties.”
    “¡Ay dios! You wouldn’t dare!”
    “I’m a desperate woman. Having my mother around for years to come is more important to me than preserving her reputation at church.”
    “But she’s not having an affair with the organist,” Janie pointed out, then frowned. “Is she?”
    “Of course not.” Daniela winked. “She thinks Deacon Hubbard is far more handsome.”
    Janie laughed and shook her head, dislodging a stubborn chunk of glossy hair from the scrunchie she wore. “Speaking of handsome men,” she said, reaching up to repair the ponytail, “how’d it go with Professor Thorne?”
    Just hearing the man’s name made Daniela’s mouth go dry. “Well, we sort of got off to a rocky start when I showed up ten minutes late for class.” Grimacing, she told her sister-in-law about her ignominious arrival and Caleb Thorne’s dry rebuke that had sent a rumble of laughter around the classroom. “If I could have melted through the floor, I would have.”
    Janie grinned sympathetically. “On the bright side, at least you got his attention.”
    “Yeah, but somehow that’s not the strategy I had in mind.”
    “What is your strategy?”
    Daniela frowned, biting her bottom lip. “To be perfectly honest with you, I don’t know. I mean, I know Kenny and Noah spent weeks prepping me and giving me pointers on how to do undercover work, but none of that really prepared me for the real thing—the moment of truth, when I walked into that classroom and saw ‘the mark.’” She shook her head, lips curving ruefully. “I sure wish I’d known what Caleb Thorne looked like beforehand. Kenny and Noah have photos, but I refused to see them. I didn’t want to have preconceived notions about the man based solely on his appearance.”
    “I should have warned you. As soon as Kenny told me about the assignment—which, by the way, I had to pry out of him because he was being so darned secretive—I went online and looked up Caleb Thorne’s picture on the university’s Web site.” Janie made a low, feline sound. “The man is positively scrumptious.”
    Daniela groaned. “Words can’t begin to describe. And let’s not even talk about his voice.”
    “No, let’s,” Janie urged.
    Daniela grinned. “Deep, dark, smooth as honey. Like liquid sex.”
    Janie shrieked with laughter, then clapped a hand to her mouth, belatedly remembering that her mother-in-law was fast asleep in a bedroom down the hall.
    “I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Daniela confessed when her own mirth had finally subsided. “Just between you and me, I already feel like I’m in over my head. You know I don’t do the whole femme fatale thing.”
    “Bull. I’ve seen you bat those long eyelashes and toss that pretty hair when you want something badly enough—like that antique rug resting beneath your feet.” She chuckled at Daniela’s sheepish expression. “Seriously, El, I don’t think you’ll have to become a seductress in order to accomplish your mission. Think about it. Smart, good-looking men like Caleb Thorne get hit on all the time. He’s probably been slipped more thongs and been the victim of more tawdry pickup lines than he can stomach. Stand out from the crowd. Be yourself. Something tells me Caleb Thorne won’t be able to resist getting to know the real you.”
    “As much as that’s possible, considering I came into his life under false pretenses.” Daniela pulled in a deep breath, suppressing a pang of guilt over the duplicitous role she’d been asked, and had agreed, to play.
    Janie gave her a sympathetic look, understanding her predicament. She glanced at the diamond-encrusted wristwatch that had been a tenth-anniversary gift from Kenneth, then rose from the sofa, stretching her limbs with the fluid grace of a gymnast—which she’d been in another lifetime. “I have to go pick up the kids from school. They won’t appreciate Mommy being late on the first day—or any day, for that