A word surfaced from deep in her subconscious, a memory from her semester of German.Backpfeifengesicht.A face that needs to be punched.
This guy owned one.
“What do we have here? You must be new to town?” If her startled reaction bothered him, he hid it behind a cocked brow and toothy grin. Worse than the fact he towered close enough that she could smell peanuts on his breath was the dog at the end of his leather leash.
A Doberman pinscher.
“Oh my God!” She tripped over Wolfgang. His alarmed bark faded as the world spun strange, taking on a slowed-down, unreal tenor as panic gripped her neck, throttling off air.
“Where you from?” He waggled his brows as if she found him terribly charming. “Tennessee?”
A short, confusing silence followed. “Huh? No. Maine? Or New York. I don’t know.” She was too flustered to make sense.
His smile wilted around the edges. Her answer hadn’t apparently been the one he’d wanted. “I meant because you’re the only ten I see. Get it? Ten I see? Tennessee.”
Where was this joker from, Turkey? That cheesy line deserved to be killed with fire. She wrapped Wolfang’s leash around her wrist. Her little frenemy wasn’t turning into a Doberman’s doggie bite on her watch. “Your animal. He friendly?”
“Depends. You?” His voice dripped with slime. “I think Dante would like you very much. His taste is as impeccable as mine. Aloysius Hogg.”
Despite the sweat pouring off her brow, her veins flooded with ice water as she gaped at the proffered hand. Sometimes you were lucky in life and sometimes you were hit on by the sleeze bag who atom-bombed your future.
“JudgeAloysius Hogg?” If her surroundings had taken on a surreal bent in the last thirty seconds, now they were morphing into a Salvador Dalí painting. She’d imagined the judge as a paunchy Southern villain, short and jowly with a pale complexion and thick lids. At least that’s what her brain had cooked up as she plotted an eventual crossing of paths. One where she wasn’t wearing high-waisted shorts and black midriff tank top, good for beating the summer heat, but bad when the target of her stored-up withering comments leered at her peeping belly button.
“Pepper Knight, your honor.” She accepted his hand, squeezing his knuckles.
His brows mashed. “Why does that name sound familiar?”
“Because you’d offered me a clerkship. You know, before rescinding it to appease a political crony in a clear case of biased nepotism.” Yes, good. Total ass kick. Except her eyes burned with unshed tears. Bad, very bad. “I moved from Manhattan to Georgia for your job.” Her voice cracked. Worse and worse.
The judge went from defense to offense in the blink of an eye. His quick shock smoothed over as he moved in closer, the entitled body language communicating one thing:I’m a man and I deserve to be here whether you like it or not.
And she didn’t like it, not one bit. Her heart accelerated from third to fifth gear. Her neck muscles tightened. She didn’t like him or that pasted-on smile that didn’t reach his eyes or that dog ripped out of one of her childhood nightmares.
“Please move. Next time I won’t ask nicely.” Tough words paired with a pathetic, high-pitched, wobbly tone.
He swiveled his head, no doubt seeing if they attracted unwanted attraction. “Don’t go getting your pretty panties in a wad,” he hissed through his frozen, wide smile.
Her brain short-circuited. “Your honor, I shouldn’t have to remind you that title seven of the Civil Rights Act of nineteen sixty-four states—”
“Oh, come, come.” Venom dripped from his words. “I’m all for the whole hiring women thing. After all, who doesn’t like a good pair of honkers?” His gaze dropped to her chest, ruling out any misinterpretation. “But you’re not my clerk. That position belongs to Tommy Haynes. You? Well, you’re nobody at all.”
Hot electrical currents zinged through her spine, like tangoing with a moray eel. “Sir—the law—”
“Does not prohibit innocuous differences in the ways men and women routinely interact with members of the opposite sex,” he said, pompously. “In other words, teasing is permitted. You might be so good as to note that I didn’t make a crude remark about your honkers, just a general observation.”
“But you’re a judge! You can’t go around saying…” Her lips were dry. God, her tongue balked at forming the stupid word. Hadn’t she learned her lesson by now, that life was hideous, life was hilarious, and she was unhappily squashed in the middle.
“What are you going to do? My family is connected. You’re a no one. A no one that no one cares about.” Despite the tough talk, there was a restless, jittery tension running through him, a current that was almost visible.
He knew he’d done wrong and was covering it up with bully tactics.
“Now if you’ll excuse me, I just remembered that I have better, more important things to do than stand here, chin wagging” he said. He stared through her as if she didn’t matter, as if he couldn’t wait to get out of there. She’d seen that empty look before, on her mama’s face when she left them without a backward glance.
This time she’d be seen.
She’d be noticed.
“Stop right there. Not another step.” Pepper stepped forward. Pushed into his personal space. Fists clenched. ActivateBackpfeifengesicht. Fight the patriarchy. “You owe me an apology.”
