Aris: A Sexy Romance Novel (Thief of Hearts Series Book 1) by Elody Knight Page A

twisted up her face.
    “Saoirse, meet your new paralegal, Aris.”  Denise leaned over the counter at him, “You can follow directions right?”
    Aris nodded his head uncertain of what they were talking about.
    “Oh don’t be ridiculous!  He’s not a paralegal.”
    “It doesn’t matter.  You can teach him.  You taught me.  All he has to do is follow instructions.  Hell, I didn’t know anything about contracts when I walked into your office either.”
    “Then how did you get the job with her?”  Aris couldn’t help himself.
    “Oh, don’t go there!” Saoirse got pissy as a shiver ran up her body that clearly disgusted her.
    Aris wasn’t sure what he’d done wrong this time.  He should have just kept his mouth shut.  Things were probably going the best they’d been since she got here.  Well, there was last night in the hammock, but he wrote that off as being jet lag.
    “Oh stop.”  Denise waved her away.  “It doesn’t bother me, it shouldn’t you.  I had been working in torts.  You know, negligence cases, that sort of thing.”
    “Ambulance chasing.” Saoirse muttered under her breath.
    “Um, yeah, well, anyway, I was assigned to Larry.”
    “Eww.”  Saoirse let her whole body shake in disgust.  “I can’t listen to this.” 
    “Where was I?  Oh, I was assigned to Larry.  Larry got grabby.  I busted him for it.  They couldn’t fire me because I had him dead to rights so they threw me to Saoirse’s office figuring she’d make me quit.  She’s good at that.  She and I bumped heads for a month or so, then it just clicked and we’ve been best friends ever since.”  Denise shrugged.
    Aris must have looked hopeless standing there, “I don’t have month.”  he whispered, tracing designs in the papaya juice on the cutting board.
    “You don’t need a month.  Just keep banging heads with her.  She’ll figure it out.  Let’s go sit by the fire.  Are you sure you don’t have any marshmallows?  You guys got everything else.”
    Aris just shook his head.  The two of them crashed by the fire in the sand.  The warmth felt good interspersed with the cool night breeze.  Aris put more wood on the fire warning Denise that he was not far from sleep.  True to Aris’s word, he crossed his arms over his chest falling asleep within minutes of having gotten comfortable on the sand.  Saoirse wandered out of the house to find out what they were doing.  He was right they had satellite, but the remote was a bear to figure out, and everything was in every language but English.  She settled on the sand beside Denise.
    The two sat together watching the fire, bantering back and forth about how well Saoirse was not handling anything in the last couple of days.
    “Look at that face.  How could you be so heartless?  Especially when it doesn’t do anything other than run around worrying about you.” 
    “He doesn’t even know me.  I spent, what, an hour, maybe two, with him seven years ago.  I was scared shitless having guns pointed at me.  I reacted the way I always do.  He thinks just because he kissed me before he left that it proves true love?  What is that?”
    “Yes, but you kissed him back, didn’t you.”
    “That was seven years ago.  I didn’t know anything then!”
    “Well, it’s not like you were a virgin!”  Denise took a drink from her glass handing it over to Saoirse.
    “No, but he had control of the situation.  It wasn’t like I knew what was going on.”
    “Yeah, yeah.  I know.  But is he a good kisser?”  Denise leaned forward with wicked thoughts dancing in her head.
    “Nise!”  Saoirse hissed.
    “Well?”
    She looked down at him sleeping on the sand with his head resting on the log they were sitting on.  She brushed the back of her hand along his cheek closest to her.  That urge began rising again the way it had this morning at the market.  That odd feeling inside her wanted to share, or give, or something. 
    Seer handed the glass