Some Came Desperate: A Love Saga by Katherine Cachitorie Page A

even then Simone knew it didn’t mean anything good.
    “Today is her birthday, you know,” Jules said, sensing something more than your standard lawyer-client relationship between her sister and the very attractive Mr. Perry.  He appeared much older than Simone, which concerned her, but then again, she thought, maybe that was what somebody like Simone needed. 
    “Whose birthday?” Nick asked.  “Simone’s?”
    “Yep.  She’s twenty-three-years old this very day.”
    Nick nodded.  She was older than she looked, which was good news, although she was still very young.  “Congratulations, Simone,” he said to her with another one of his special smiles.  Simone, who’d never felt so footloose and fancy free like this before in her life, could only beam.  It was her birthday and she was celebrating with the sister she loved and Nick Perry, the man she once thought had nothing but one thing on his mind where she was concerned, but now she saw him so much differently. 
    Jeremy, however, was also there, and she just knew he couldn’t wait to get his customary knock down Simone jab in.
    “Yeah, Nick,” he said as if he could read her mind, “our Simone here is only twenty-three years old.  And not a very experienced twenty-three-year-old at that, if you catch my meaning.  How old are you?”
    Simone looked at Jeremy and rolled her eyes.  She was this close to going off on his behind right in front of Nick, something she was praying she wouldn’t be forced to do.  Jules saw it too, that was why she quickly stood up.  “Honey, let’s dance,” she said to him.  He looked at her as if she had lost her mind.
    “I thought you said you were tired.”
    “I was.  But I’m fine now.”
    Jeremy shook his head.  He knew what she was trying to do; he knew how much she hated it when he and Simone got into it.  But he also knew guys like Nick Perry better than she would ever understand.  He knew that a high-rent hotshot like that was going to eat somebody like that country behind Simone alive.  Chew her up and spit her out.  But forget it, he thought, as he stood up.  He was trying to do that little witch a favor.  
    When he and Jules headed back for the dance floor, Simone leaned back and smiled.  “I’m sorry,” she said.  “But as you can see me and Jeremy doesn’t exactly get along.”
    “Is he Jules husband?” Nick asked as he stared at Jules out on the dance floor.  Simone felt a tinge of jealousy, knowing that every man wanted Jules, but she tried not to let it show. 
    “No,” she said.  “But they’ve been together for a long time.”
    “Yeah,” Nick said as he puffed hard on his cigarette.  He knew all about those long term relationships, particularly since he was in one himself and had no business even entertaining the thought of getting into another one.  He stood up.
    “What’s the matter?” Simone immediately asked, looking up at him.
    “Nothing’s the matter. I just realized how late it is and I need to get going.  I have all the information I need regarding your sister and I have your number.  I’ll get on it and let you know what happens.”
    “But,” Simone said, suddenly terrified that the one person in this world who could make her feel alive was about to leave her.  “I mean, are you sure you have to leave right now?”
    Nick looked at Simone, and that intensity in her glassy green eyes, an intensity that made it appear as if she would literally die if he left at this very moment, pricked at his heart.  And he knew he couldn’t just leave her this way.
    “Did you come with your sister?” he asked, and Simone could only manage to nod.  She was on the verge of tears, over a man she barely even knew, and it was scaring the life out of her.  What was it about him that could throw her like this, she wondered.  Just because he agreed to take Shay’s case?  Just because he held her in his arms?  Was that all it took to win her over?  The first good