Attractive Nuisance (Legally in Love Book 1) Read Online Free

with the truth, that he threw her out of her groove.
    Zane Holyoake’s left eye squinted a little, and the left side of his mouth went taut. See? He was making fun of her. “I’d like to tell you what I saw. Over lunch.”
    “No, thank you.” I already ate. No, it was 11:00. He’d never believe her. I don’t eat lunch. No, then she’d sound like she spent every lunch hour at Crossfit or something. I have plans. Sheldon would swoop in and expose her lie. I have another case. Yeah, that would work. “I have another appearance I have to get to right now.”
    “Where, in magistrate court? Because I’m heading over there right now.”
    Her mind flew. “No, in justice court.” There were three levels of courts: superior, where she’d been today; justice, which was lower than superior court; and magistrate, which was the town court. “I’ve got to file some paperwork there. Now, if you’ll excuse me.”
    “Did I say magistrate court? I misspoke. I meant justice court. You going to see Judge Gilson or Judge Maryvale? I need to go meet both of them.”
    Oooh, curse him and his incredible brown eyes. He was covering his bases faster than she could outmaneuver him. But why was she wanting to? She had to ask herself that. Well, because. Because…because she didn’t want to go out with someone from work. And if she went to lunch with this guy today, she would probably want to go tomorrow, and then the next day, and out for dinner and a show on Friday night, and—it was a downward spiral. And it wouldn’t end in a proposal of marriage. Relationships never did end that way for Camilla Sweeten. Time had proven it with the loudest clack of a gavel it could.
    So she shouldn’t do lunch.
    “Look, I appreciate the invitation.” But you’re not going to ask me to marry you, so I shouldn’t even eat a burrito with you today. How could she say that? It sounded insanely desperate and insanely illogical and, well, just plain insane.
    But there was more to it, thank goodness, because if she said yes, who was to say he wouldn’t pump her for information about the office? Sure, it would sound like small talk. But she’d done that herself to witnesses hundreds of times. It starts out as idle chit-chat, but what’s really going on is mining for ammo to use against the person—even if that was a mixed metaphor. Zane Holyoake was the enemy. He wanted the job she wanted. Ahem, needed. And Camilla had spent long hours for five years toiling away to learn the ins and outs of the place. She had no intention of tipping her hand to him, the interloper, at just the moment of her potential victory. No way.
    She fell back on the old reliable answer. “You’re so kind to ask. I wish I could, but I can’t possibly. Have a nice day.”
    Clutching her pile of manila envelopes to her chest, she turned on the spike of her heel and clicked away down the marble hallway of the Yavapai County Courthouse and left Zane Holyoake in her wake of crazy exhaust fumes.
    Sorry, Zane. You look marvelous, but we will not be going to lunch today. Or tomorrow. Or ever—until I am Yavapai County, Arizona’s official Deputy County Attorney. And then I’ll pay for your meal as my staff assistant.
    So there. Determination gave a bounce to her step.
    Ha. Who was she kidding? Falcon had seen her performance in there. No way would he give her a second chance after that debacle.

 
    CHAPTER THREE
    Order to Appear
     
     
    “What have you done to deserve this again?” Sheldon tossed an orange slip of paper onto Camilla’s desk as he passed. “Falcon keeps asking to see you in his office.”
    Camilla picked up the paper and read, in Falcon’s own scrawl: Sweeten. My office. Pronto. He didn’t have a personal secretary, and he didn’t believe in technology—not even old tech, like an intercom system. Orange slips of paper were his way. Camilla crumpled it and tossed it in the trash can with a sinking heart. Her shameful performance in Judge Harper’s