My Enemy Next Door

by Nicole London

  PS—You’re more than welcome.

  Jace Kennedy

  Walton & Associates

  I set my phone down, watching as Courtney read my words from across the room. Scowling at me, she started typing back.

  Travel weekends like this were supposed to be the most stress-free part of any lawyer’s job. However, being forced to travel alongside a woman who forced every fucking man to stare in her direction—the same woman who was still refusing to talk to me since we kissed in the hallway, made me beyond ready to end this trip.

  “Can I get you something, sir?” A bartender blushed as I took my seat. “You look like you could use something strong before your flight.”

  “A Jameson, neat.”

  “Right away.”

  I looked over my shoulder, seeing Courtney still typing away on her phone. There were four businessmen across from her—all of them watching her intently as she bit her bottom lip and murmured with each word she typed.

  Sighing, I picked up my glass and walked over, taking the seat next to her.

  “The utility company knows we have a solid case,” I said. “They know the evidence we’ve been collecting—along with the tampered depositions, will be far more damaging than any of the other cases they’ve had to handle. They’ve upped their offer to five million per family member.’

  She immediately stopped typing and looked up at me.

  “They called me five minutes ago with that offer, but I think that’s only the starting level. What do you think about that, Miss Ryan?”

  She looked as if she was finally going to speak to me for the first time this morning, but she returned to looking at her phone and sent me a text message.

  COURTNEY: I DON’T THINK that’s a fair settlement offer...

  I groaned and texted her back.

  ME: I’m aware. I’ll be rejecting their offer. I just wanted to hear your thoughts.

  COURTNEY: You’ve heard them.

  ME: Are you planning to act like this in front of the clients as well?

  COURTNEY: No, I’ll speak to you in front of the clients. But that’s it.

  I rolled my eyes and put my phone into my pocket. Then I took her phone out of her hands.

  “Okay, look,” I said, ignoring the glare she was giving me. “You want to act like you don’t still have feelings for me? Fucking fine. You want to continue playing the hating game? That’s fucking fine, too. But I’m not going to play games when it comes to our work together, and I’m going to need you to talk to me this weekend, whether you like it or not.”

  She opened her mouth to interrupt, but I placed a finger against her lips.

  “It’s bad enough that you live next door to me and I can’t have you—that you insist on acting like you don’t remember shit about what we had and that I’m not the best friend or lover you’ve ever had—”

  “You’re not the best lover I’ve ever had.”

  “Your drawer full of broken vibrators says otherwise.”

  Her cheeks turned bright red, and she looked as if she was struggling to come up with her next line.

  “If you want to live the rest of your life in denial, that’s more than fine with me,” I said, lowering my voice. “But you’re not going to fuck up this case just to be spiteful. And if you think I won’t give Mr. Walton a truthful review of your performance at the end of this case just because we knew each other before, you’re sadly mistaken. Especially since, in your world, what we had before doesn’t mean a goddamn thing.”

  She let out a breath and slowly shook her head. “I would never try to fuck up a case just to be spiteful, Jace. Never. I was giving you my honest opinion on the settlement offer.”

  “Can you also give me your actual words, from your mouth, for the rest of the weekend and the rest of this case, instead of making me read text messages and emails?”

  “Yeah.” She swallowed. “But only if you agree to a few things as well.”

  “Name them.”

  “No more running up the hot water.”

  “Then no more getting my Jaguar towed.”

  She smiled. “No more loud music after midnight.”

  “Then no more random complaints to the building manager.”

  “Okay, and no more guests...” She lowered her voice. “Unless you really are dating or sleeping with them.”

  “Fine. And no more moaning loud as fuck in the shower when you’re touching yourself.” I paused. “Actually, you can keep continuing to do that. That’s never been a problem for me.”

  She blushed. “Deal.”

  “Deal.”

  FIVE HOURS LATER, LONG after we’d landed in Green Lake, we were sitting in one of our clients’ homes. The Masons. Courtney was in the living room with the wife and the son, and I was in the kitchen with the husband and the three-year-old daughter.

  Now and then our eyes would meet, and she’d look as if she was about to get up and join me, but she never came closer. Instead, she continued tempting me by blushing and reminding me exactly why I first fell for her years ago.

  “I can’t thank you enough for turning down that five-million-dollar offer, Mr. Kennedy.” He leaned forward in his rocking chair. “That’s horseshit.”

  “Horseshit!” His daughter repeated, giggling. “Horseshit!”

  I waited for him to tell her not to curse after him, but he didn’t. He gave her a high five instead.

  “Yep. Fucking right.” He picked up a can of beer and chugged it. “I bet they make five million in a day.”

  “An hour,” I said. “But it was a bad deal. I think we can make this right for you and your family.” I walked him through our strategy for the umpteenth time, but he cut me off halfway through and recited the remainder of it from memory.

  A man who’d once wanted to be a lawyer himself, he knew a thing or two about the law, and he’d called our office every week without fail to make sure we were making his case a high priority.

  Every now and then, when we spoke, I would pause to make sure I couldn’t hear someone else breathing heavily on the line. That there wasn’t a whispered threat coming in the event of a loss. Then I’d realize that this was a case that actually meant something, that I really wasn’t at my old firm fighting for the scum of the country anymore.

  Mr. Owen suddenly sighed and whispered something in his daughter’s ear, making her rush out of the kitchen and into the living room. Then he looked at me. “All bravado aside, I would happily settle for five million each, Mr. Kennedy.”

  “What?”

  “My daughter has two more surgeries lined up at the end of this month, and that’s just for her heart problems.” He looked as if he was about to cry. “Should she recover, she has three more scheduled months from now for her spine. She’s three years old.” He shook his head. “If you think for one second that they’re going to drag this out and not cover everything that all of us have been through since we moved here just promise me you’ll settle. We’ll take five million.”

  I shut my folder. I knew damn well that five million each wouldn’t cover all their health issues long term, but I nodded anyway. “I’ll do that.”

  “My wife read about your career in Seattle,” he said, wiping away tears and smiling. “She said they called you the prosecution’s number one enemy.”

  “Mr. Kennedy is definitely good at being an enemy,” Courtney said, walking into the room. “And he’s going to win this case for you, Mr. Mason. He’s never lost one a day in his career.”

  “Okay.” He looked hopeful all over again. “But you’ll be there every step of the way, too, right? Don’t take this the wrong way but, he always seems to be in a better mood when you’re in the room during our Skype calls.”

  “Yes.” She smiled. “I’ll be there every step of the way, too.” She made sure he signed all the paperwork we needed, and—like the class act she was, kissed him on the cheek and assured him that everything was going to be okay.

  As we were getting into the rental car, she looked
over at me. “You know, you can be somewhat decent when you want to be. I remember that about you from when we were in high school the most.”

  I wasn’t sure what the hell she wanted me to say to that, so I just cranked the engine and sped out of the Masons’ driveway. Several minutes later, she clasped my hand behind the gear shift and cleared her throat.

  “Blue Harbor is about twenty miles away,” she said, her voice soft. “You mind stopping by for a few minutes?”

  “Not at all.”

  ELEVEN

  Courtney: Present Day

  EVEN IN THE DARK, THE drive to Blue Harbor was as stunningly beautiful as I remembered it. The lush oak trees that lined the main streets still stood tall and proud. The white wooden bridges that guarded every access point to the lake still looked freshly painted. And Blue Harbor High—the massive white brick building that stood at the end of Main Street still looked just as imposing as it did during my freshman year.

  My parents—ever the keepers of nostalgia, had long moved away and retired in Florida, but they made it a point to send me specialty Blue Harbor postcards every six months “to keep our hometown alive.” After being here for only a few minutes though, I realized that all of their glossy pictures had failed to do this place justice.

  “What are you thinking about?” Jace put the car in park, keeping my hand entwined in his.

  “How much I took living here for granted.”

  He muttered something I didn’t quite catch, and then he cleared his throat. “Do you still keep up with anyone from here?”

  “Not really. A few of my debate teammates and I meet up every couple of years for a drink, but that’s about it. You?”

  “The only person I would’ve wanted to keep up with was you. So, thanks to what you did, no.”

  I started to fire back, but I stopped. I didn’t want to argue with him right now. I was tired of going back and forth between wondering if we could ever pick up where we left off or wanting to bite his head off.

  Before I could change the subject, he did.

  “I had to force myself not to look you up and find you after we fell apart,” he said. “But I still thought about all the things we used to do, all the time.” He leaned forward and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “You want to go inside?”

  “You mean, break into the school?”

  “It wouldn’t be the first time.”

  I held back a laugh. “Sure.”

  Within minutes, Jace was helping me out of the car and hoisted me over the same fence that me, Genevieve, and all her “friends” climbed over the night my social life ended. Jace came over right after me, and as if we were still as we once were, he slipped his arm around my waist and pulled me against his side.

  No alarm sounded when we pushed the back-door open, and from what we could tell, the security cameras were all focused on the one thing that mattered most: The state championship trophy case that stood in the center of the lobby.

  Walking around it, we roamed the empty hallways—amazed that with the exception of a few flat screen monitors, they still seemed stuck in time.

  When we approached room 221, Jace insisted on going inside. The room was now fitted with more modern desks—metal instead of wood, but the words written on the whiteboard at the front of the room made us both burst into laughter.

  In familiar, terrible handwriting, the detention supervisor had written:

  3:30 – 6:30

  Detention Hours

  Group D

  The Daily Rule:

  Bring Me Donuts or Write Three Essays. Your Choice.

  “What was that guy’s name?” I asked, still laughing.

  “I have no idea.” He pulled me close and kissed my lips, catching me completely off guard.

  Without hesitation, I returned his kiss—not holding back, not stopping. I felt his cock hardening against my dress, and he slid a hand up my body and gently squeezed my breast.

  He slowly pulled away from me and sighed. “I think we should stop at one more place before we leave.”

  I nodded, unable to catch my breath.

  He pulled me against his side again, and we walked to the other side of the school. And still, all these years later, Blue Harbor High hadn’t learned how to lock the pool at night. The doors opened with a light push, and the Olympic-sized pool looked grander now than it did before.

  As we walked around it, I noticed that the only thing new was the line of championship banners that was hanging high above the lap lanes.

  “I still can’t believe you covered for me before you even knew me,” I said, looking up at him.

  “I still can’t believe you ever covered for Genevieve.” He smiled. “I wasn’t completely altruistic, though. I had an ulterior motive.”

  “Sex, right?”

  “With the squarest girl in school?” He rolled his eyes. “No.”

  “I wasn’t that square.”

  “You were.” He was still smiling. “And every guy here fucking knew it. They also knew you were the most attractive girl in the damn town, but since you weren’t putting out, no one wanted to go after you.”

  “So was your ulterior motive a bet? See who can fuck the square first?”

  “No.” He laughed, looking eighteen all over again. “I had a crush on you. That was my ulterior motive—to finally act on it. That’s it.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me that before?”

  “Because you wouldn’t have believed me,” he said.

  “I would’ve.”

  He gave me a blank stare, and I laughed.

  “Okay, I wouldn’t have believed you.”

  “I know.” He led me to the other side of the pool, stopping near the locker room. He finally let my hand go and stood in front of me.

  “I need you to be one hundred percent honest with me right now,” he said, locking his blue gaze on mine. “Can you do that for me?”

  “Yes...”

  “Have you missed fucking me?”

  “What?”

  “You heard me,” he said. “Have you missed fucking me?”

  “I’ve missed you.”

  “That’s a given. That’s not what I asked you, though.” He pushed me against the wall, pinning me still with his hips. Then he lowered his voice. “I don’t think a day went by after our first time that we didn’t have sex at least once a day.”

  It was twice a day...

  “Surely. You’ve had sex with plenty of other people since we ended things, Jace. So, I’m not sure why—”

  He bit my bottom lip, preventing me from getting another word out. “Answer my question.”

  I hesitated, and he bit my lip again.

  “Now.”

  “Yes.”

  “Yes, what?”

  “Yes, I missed fucking you. Happy?”

  “Ecstatic.” He pushed my dress up my waist. “Can you finally admit that it was you who messed us up or will I have to fuck that out of you first?”

  I didn’t get a chance to start that argument again. His lips were on mine, and my hands were unzipping his pants. He pulled his wallet out of his pocket and pressed it into my hand, silently commanding me to take out the condom.

  Briefly taking his lips off mine, he pressed kisses against my neck and slid his hands up my thighs—yanking off my lace panties.

  I rubbed my hands on his rock-hard cock, blushing as I got a reminder of just how huge he was.

  When I finished with the condom, he returned his mouth to mine and whispered, “I missed fucking you, too.”

  “How romantic. I forgot that’s one of your strong suits.”

  He let out a low laugh and lifted my leg around his waist, pressing his cock against my soaked pussy. “Romantic has never worked with you.”

  I sucked in a breath as he slid into me inch by inch, as he kept my waist tightly gripped with the firm control of his fingertips.

  “Jace...” I cried out his name once he was completely inside of me—making me feel complete in a way I h
adn’t felt in years.

  Without another word, he began grinding his body against mine—teasingly pulling his cock out of me and thrusting it back into me with a wild and reckless rhythm. He didn’t give me a chance to adjust to his pace, and anytime I tried to move my hips or slow him down, he squeezed my ass. Hard.

  Our eyes remain locked in a heated gaze of confusion and our lips constantly collided with a series of wet and angry kisses. Harsh and whispered words.

  “I didn’t leave you, Jace,” I said, scratching his neck as he buried himself inside of me again. “I didn’t leave you.”

  “Yes.” He hissed. “You did.”

  He slid a hand between my thighs and began circling my clit with his thumb—rendering me completely speechless as he continued to fuck me.

  The sound of our skin slapping against each other and the soft waves from the pool echoed in the room.

  Since he still refused to let me get a chance at taming his reckless tempo, I eventually gave him full control.

  My pussy throbbed against his cock as he fucked me even harder, and he softened his kisses against my mouth.

  “Jace, I...” I breathed. “Jace...”

  He whispered my name against my lips, and my knees went weak. My entire body began to shake against him and my head fell back against the wall. Holding me steady, Jace kissed the corners of my mouth, and I cried out his name.

  He found his release shortly after me, and we remained entwined for what felt like forever, but as the pleasure began to wear off, I felt as if the sex had only made things more complicated. As if we were still unresolved.

  Slowly sliding out of me, he readjusted my dress and ran his fingers through my hair.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  I didn’t answer.

  “Courtney?”

  “I’m fine.” I bent down and picked up his wallet.