Caught Up: With An Alpha Billionaire (A BWWM Romance) (A Love Like No Other Book 1) by Heather Banks Page B

senior and junior partners.  If Bender hadn’t been so brilliant in the courtroom, nobody in their right mind would want to work for him.
    I just nodded my head, not trusting my smart mouth to say anything worthwhile.
    “As a result, I won’t be able to devote as much time as I’d like to for a client like MarkTec,” he said.
    “Are they currently involved in a case?” I asked, taking in Stephen’s well-tailored suit and his $2400 Gucci shoes. What Stephen lacked in looks he made up for in expensive clothes and accessories.
    Stephen settled into one of the leather chairs across from my desk. He made himself comfortable, toying with the name plate on my desk that read “Tiffany E. Mullins, Esq.”
    He set the plate back down with a clank and sighed. “Yes, it’s an unfortunate thing. Everyone knows that Richardson is as honest as the day is long, but a small company is trying to sue him for breach of intellectual property.  Hopefully they can be strong-armed into dropping the suit, but they seem pretty hell-bent on going after Richardson. I guess they see deep pockets and a good chance for a payoff.”
    I frowned. I’d only been with the firm for about five years, and hadn’t dealt much with intellectual property. I wasn’t sure where Stephen was going with his “opportunity” he’d first presented me with.
    “Who are you going to put on the case if you can’t do it?” I asked. “Do you want me to help out on the team?”
    Stephen snorted and sat up straighter in my chair. “Tiffany, you are going to be the team.”
    I tried not to sputter. If there was anything I’d learned in law school at the U. of Chicago, it was that a good lawyer always looked confident. In this instance, it was a hard rule to follow.
    “But, Stephen,” I said, trying to sound reasonable. “I have only worked two intellectual property cases, and I’ve never worked with Alexander Richardson,” I pointed out.
    “I know,” he replied, a note of regret in his voice. “It’s just that I have a lot of our team working on my – I mean, the firm’s – malpractice suit, and quite a few more are working on the sausage case.”
    “Right, the sausage case,” I repeated. It sounded ridiculous, but “the sausage case” was an environmental class-action lawsuit against Polen Farms, a pork distributor based out of central Illinois. It was ugly, and I tried not to read too much of the details because they made me nauseous.
    “You’re it, kid,” he said, pointing to me.
    “Gee, your confidence in me is overwhelming,” I intoned.
    “I’ll have Mary get you access to all the information on our case network drive, and I’ll send over all the hard copy files this morning.”
    I was starting to panic. “Really, Stephen, I appreciate you giving me such a big case, but shouldn’t you have at least a couple of people on this?”
    He stood up and waved his hand. “I’ll give you George,” he said, as if that was all I needed. George was one of the paralegals, and a good one, too – but I was going to need more than just George.
    “Thank you, but—“ I tried to protest.
    “You’ll do great, Tiffany. You have to,” he said, shooting me a look as he walked towards the door. “If you have questions, just holler.”
    He started to walk out the door, and I was in an almost blind panic. “Stephen. Stephen!”
    He popped his head back in, and I let out a breath. Maybe he’d come to his senses.
    “Oh, your first meeting is at 1:30 with Richardson. Here, in the conference room.”
    And then he disappeared.
    My mouth dropped open and I stared after him, speechless.
    This was not going to end well.
    ***
    My plan to get to the gym at lunch was obviously put on hold, as I didn’t move from my desk for the few hours I had before my meeting with Alexander Richardson. The only non-work activities I allowed myself were to get a candy bar from the vending machine and to text Stan back. I spent the rest of the morning and early