A Girl Can Dream
Karen woke with a thundering heart, breath short and thready. The faintly pulsing desire between her legs the only remnant of the dark images that had been flashing before her eyes. She could still feel the tingling scrape of his stubble against her inner thigh, the stomach clenching waves of pleasure that her dream-self had been writhing under. She dropped her hand down to see if there were any indication that it had been real. It was a dream, an absurdly tangible and amazing dream.
She closed her eyes, willing her body to fall back into morpheus's embrace. She was close enough, she could easily slip back across the border into dreamland and finish what had only just begun with… Her eyes flew open. Shit.
The dark eyes and glowering expression of her dream-lover were all too familiar. He's a client. Karen repeated the statement like a mantra, over and over. He's a client. Someone who allegedly used his fists to beat someone else into a bloody pulp. He'd only been to Nelson and Murdock a few times, so emphatically taciturn that Matt was only able to get a few words pried loose.
There was something about him though, the way he stepped aside politely when she walked through the office, the way he nodded in recognition when their eyes met. Surely Matt wouldn't have taken him on as a client if he were actually dangerous.
She pushed the dark man out of her mind, getting up to get ready for the day.
As soon as she walked into the office, she knew he was there, sitting with his arms crossed in front of Matt's desk, giving the lawyer a death stare. His gravelly voice carried through the paper thin walls. "That's bullshit, Murdock."
She wasn't helping with his case, so it shouldn't matter what he's done, but Karen couldn't help but position herself strategically close to Matt's door, cocking her head to the side as she pretended to read a file. She wasn't the most surreptitious eavesdropper, leaning a little too close to the open doorway.
She heard Matt sigh, something that happened fairly often these days. "Look Frank, this is what you have to do if you don't want to end up behind bars. We might even get him to drop the charges if you will just tell me why you felt the need to bash his head into a telephone pole."
Frank shifted in his seat, laughing bitterly. "Blondie, can you believe this shit?"
Karen blinked, looking up dazed from the blank sheet of paper she was perusing. "What? Believe what?"
Frank gestured to the papers on Matt's desk. "This bullshit. This asshole was running a dogfighting ring out of their basement, tossing the dead animals like trash into the east river, and he's pressing charges against me." He shook his head. "Bullshit."
Looking up was a mistake, now she could see the curve of his lip, the lopsided smile something straight out of her dream this morning. And he had a dark shadow of stubble too... She swallowed, the heat of an all over blush beginning to creep across her body, finally making it's way to the creamy column of her throat.
Matt shifted in his seat, turning his attention to her, brow furrowed in concentration. "Karen, is something wrong?"
She let out the breath she'd been holding, fighting hard to control the erratic pitter patter of her heart. "I'm fine." She turned toward frank. "And uh, yeah that's sounds like a whole lotta bullshit, but unless you want to spend a couple months rotting in jail for assault, you'll probably want to do what Matt says."
Frank looked at her, narrowing his eyes slightly as he assessed her. "Find, Murdock, whatever the fuck you say."
As soon as Frank looked away, Karen darted back out of the doorway, fingers trembling as she put away the fake file. Yanking her jacket off the coat hook, she slipped out into the hallway. She had to get away from the man, lighting up like the neon sign at Josie's whenever he glanced at her. She closed her eyes, willing away the inappropriate images. Now they were interspersed with the way his eyes looked when he was amused, and the way one side of his mouth ticked up first when he went to smile. Get yourself together, Page. It was just a dream.
"So, you want to grab coffee or something?"
She jumped, eyes flying open. He was standing one step above her, looking like some villain in a superhero movie. It would be so easy to feel intimidated by this man, but there was something about the amused smile he was trying to hide that brushed all of that away. She bit her bottom lip, quelling the desire drawing her towards this man. She should say no. It wouldn't be appropriate. He is a client!
Dashing away the thought, she smiled. It's not like they had to fall into bed after drinking coffee, although the prospect was definitely tempting. "Sure, coffee sounds nice."
"There's a great place just around the corner."
They fell in step easily, Frank's hand instinctively moving to the small of her back. She could feel the heat of his touch through her thin jacket. She smiled. Coffee could easily turn into dinner, and dinner into other things. A girl could dream.