Chapter Three

As she opened the door and stepped inside the room she couldn't miss that everyone's heads turned in her direction. Her natural reaction was to look down on her clothes, but not surprisingly her outfit seemed fine. Even though she'd dressed in a hurry, she'd remembered to look in the mirror before they'd left the hotel room. She glanced back on her husband, who also seemed to look presentable, so she decided to ignore the curious eyes and approached their table.

After she'd took down the folders from her hand she finally dared to take a look at the woman wearing the robe and she was looking rather angrily at them.

"We apologize Your Honor," she heard Will's voice from her side, while she was eyeing the judge, whose expression didn't change a bit. In fact she motioned in their direction to approach her.

"Good morning to you both," she said remarkably.

"Good morning, Your Honor," she replied after a short pause and Will quickly followed her lead and did the same.

"I don't care what kind of an emergency you had last night, I said eight o'clock. This court cannot sit here and wait for you, just because you seemed to have forgotten to set an alarm."

Diane was tempted to check her watch, just to see what time it exactly was, but she didn't dare to do that. Although she was sure it couldn't have been more than five past eight, but since she wasn't sure, she couldn't state that. Besides it wouldn't have been wise to contradict the judge, her voice seemed too assertive for that.

"We are sorry, Your Honor," Will again took up the task of apologizing, but Roberta was still looking in her direction and Diane wasn't sure why.

"It won't happen again, Your Honor," she said and the judge's face started to calm down, when a cell phone started to ring.

Diane almost used an inappropriate word when she realized it was her phone and she wasn't sure if she should just pretend it wasn't hers or do something.

"Is it your phone?" the judge's face started to get angry again, looking at both of them now and Diane was about to admit that it was hers, when Roberta suddenly turned away from them, "Do you find it funny, Miss Gamble?"

"No, Your Honor," Helen replied immediately and tried to keep a straight face.

"Whoever's phone it was, if I hear it ringing again I will confiscate it at once, are we clear?" she asked, but clearly didn't expect a reply, "Now, can we finally please start the day?"

"Yes, Your Honor," the three of them said together and Diane actually saw a little smile in the corner of the woman's lips before she turned around. Judge Kittleson might have been a strict judge, but she clearly had a sense of humor.

o-o-o

"How many times?" was his first question as she entered their bedroom that night.

"Five," she replied and she walked up to her side of the bed, just to fall on her back like a piece of wood.

"Five? That's a new record," he said, putting aside the papers he'd been reading.

"You tell me," she sounded exhausted and the feeling was present in every inch of her body.

"How long do you think it will last this time?"

"I wish I could tell. I think we might have reached a hundred times with The Ugly Duckling."

"I really should take over tomorrow night," he offered, even though they both new it was merely just a gesture.

"You really should," she agreed, more than willing to give up the task for a night.

"But I know you love reading to them," he was right, it was actually her favorite time with the kids, right before they fell asleep, when they were more like angels, smiling at her while she read their bedtime story and they kept on smiling longer than they stayed awake.

"Yes I do, but five times on one night?" she emphasized the number.

"I'm sorry, but on the other hand there's something we used to do five times a night and you never complained," he said, moving closer to her and she just couldn't help chuckling.

"But you do know that you're not getting that something tonight, right?"

"And why is that?" he asked as he started kissing her arm upwards from her wrist.

"Because I can't even move a finger right now and I still have a closing to work on for tomorrow," she tried to be the more reasonable one as always, but he didn't seem to care.

"You can always improvise," he stated as he continued placing kisses on her right arm, nearing her shoulder.

"And give Judge Kittleson a reason to roll her eyes at me again, no thank you. I like that woman, but she can be so scary at times."

"No one can roll her eyes better than you do," he said, raising his head for a short moment to look into her eyes.

"Stop complimenting me," she smiled, "And please let me just rest up for ten minutes before I can start working again."

"You don't have to do anything, just lay here and let me take care of you."

As his lips moved on to her neck, she was already feeling the warmth spreading through her body. He kept on caressing her skin down the neckline of her blouse, before he started opening the buttons. She should have stopped him after the first or the second the latest, because after the third button she didn't have the power to stop him anymore.

He knew too well how to make her forget about tiredness, kids and courtrooms in a split second and soon her suddenly movable hands reached for his head to pull his lips close to hers.