Tragedy and Desire: An Adult Romance

by Locker, Nicole R.

  Tragedy and Desire

  Nicole R. Locker

  Copyright © 2016 Nicole R. Locker

  Kindle Edition

  Copyright © 2016 by Nicole R. Locker

  All rights are reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any way or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author, except for brief quotes used in book reviews.

  NicoleRLocker@gmail.com

  First published in Kindle Edition November 2016.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  First Edition

  ASIN:

  Acknowledgements

  I’d like to acknowledge Swati Hegde, my amazing and trusty editor. All of my beta-readers, your input is invaluable and so appreciated. I would also like to acknowledge the phenomenal and talented writers/authors, Annie Arcane and Tara Woods Turner, for their winning ideas on a certain baseball game date scene. Finally, I would like to acknowledge Veronica Riga for designing an amazing book cover to bring it all together. You can find more of her work at www.indielaborates.com.

  Summary

  A tragic family history, a brutal breakup, and a licentious new coworker can’t keep Perla Fae down. She’s had to pick up the pieces of her shattered life enough times; it’s become second nature to guard her heart at all costs. Jax Maddox has other plans, but it’s not her heart he’s after. He doesn’t do feelings or complications, at least not in his sex life. Perla will give Jax the chase of his life until hers is at stake when she must face her worst fears and the monster from her horrific past.

  In this adult, mystery romance, it’s more than just the Dallas summer getting hot and steamy.

  Table of Contents

  PROLOGUE

  ONE

  TWO

  THREE

  FOUR

  FIVE

  SIX

  SEVEN

  EIGHT

  NINE

  TEN

  ELEVEN

  TWELVE

  THIRTEEN

  FOURTEEN

  FIFTEEN

  SIXTEEN

  SEVENTEEN

  EIGHTEEN

  NINETEEN

  TWENTY

  A Note From the Author

  PROLOGUE

  Three Months Ago

  I was getting turned on just thinking about the night ahead of me. Grayson wasn’t expecting me, much less the bottle of Asti or the box of chocolate-dipped strawberries I held as I climbed the stairs to his third-floor apartment. He especially wasn’t expecting the hot little negligee I wore beneath my knee-length bandage dress, though the stiletto heels were an everyday accessory he never failed to appreciate.

  I had been planning my surprise attack all day, knowing my night class had been cancelled for that evening, and the anticipation had my panties wet before I even arrived to his front door.

  Pulling his key from my shoulder bag, I unlocked the door and slinked in quietly. The living room was dark, so I sashayed past the foyer and into the hallway toward his bedroom.

  Maybe he was in the shower. Mmm, I could just picture the droplets of water trailing down his bare, chiseled, masterfully conditioned physique. It didn’t hurt my feelings one bit that I wouldn’t have the pleasure of ridding his delicious body of clothing. It was easier access, as far as I was concerned.

  As I approached his closed bedroom door, I could hear sounds of a woman moaning in pleasure.

  Watching porn without me? Why, Grayson, you naughty, naughty boy, I thought, as a mischievous smile spread involuntarily across my face. He would be primed and ready for me when I pounced. Even better.

  I balanced the box of strawberries on the arm that held the champagne as I reached my free hand for the knob.

  “Ah, yes,” I heard Grayson moan in pleasure.

  The thought of him lying on his bed with his hand on his cock, eyes closed, head thrown back in ecstasy while pleasuring himself set my core on fire.

  My timing was exquisite. I was fully prepared to step right in and take over, and the thought alone made my innermost muscles tighten with anticipation.

  I pushed the door open and peeked my head in, knowing how pleased my man would be to see me.

  What I wasn’t prepared for was what truly awaited me on the other side of that door.

  The contents I previously held fell haphazardly to the floor, strawberries scattering across the rug and champagne bottle shattering into wet shards as I backed out the way I had come. I shook my head in disbelief, as though the physical act of shaking it would somehow put me back into reality. This could not be happening.

  “Oh, fuck. Perla!” I could hear him spit out in panic.

  I didn’t care. I had to get out of there.

  I rushed back to the front door, my hands trembling, as I reached to turn the knob, thankful for my escape as I wanted nothing but distance between me and the life-shattering scene I had just witnessed with my own two eyes. That’s when two hands grabbed me from behind.

  “Take your hands off me!” I screamed in maddening desperation as I turned to face him, violently yanking my arms away and out of his reach.

  His hands went up to indicate his cooperation. “Perla, wait. It’s not what you think,” he tried to reason.

  Futile.

  Not what I think? I just saw you fucking another woman!

  I said nothing as I stood facing him, waiting for his explanation. My chest heaved with my labored breathing, and I seethed, knowing if I said even one word I would explode with rage.

  Well?

  Grayson stood facing me without a shred of clothing, panic of being caught still clinging to his features, not knowing what to say next.

  That’s what I thought.

  I turned, daring him to stop me this time, and made my escape out the door, closing it behind me. I stopped two steps down the stairs, pulling his key out of my bag. I clumsily twisted it off the ring and chunked it so hard at the door, I was sure it would have made Nolan Ryan jealous.

  It wasn’t until I had made it to the bus stop two blocks down the street that the power of my anger subsided, leaving me with nothing but despair.

  No one dared ask what was wrong, but the pitiful glances from the other passengers didn’t escape my notice through my intermittent sobs as the bus pulled slowly away, leaving my life, as I knew, it behind me.

  Again.

  ONE

  New Beginnings

  New apartment: check. New job: check. New friends: hopeful. New love interest: sigh… one can only dream.

  Stuffing my erotic, romance novel in my shoulder-bag, I stepped off the DART bus and stared up at the amazing architecture of Maddox Tower. After the second-most-agonizing three months of my life, I could hardly believe that this beautiful place would be my new home away from home. Yet, here I was, starting my new job as a legal assistant in an established law firm housed on the seventeenth floor of the elegantly structured, fifty-two-floor building in Downtown Dallas.

  Escaping the stifling, humid, July heat, the kind that made the clothing stick to my skin and the sweat to lightly moisten the hair at my nape, I walked into the entrance beneath an ornamental awning that welcomed the building’s employees and patrons. I noticed as I strolled across the atrium floor toward the elevators that the inside of the building was no less impressive, with its refined but understated décor.

  I stoo
d with several others who awaited an elevator to take us to our higher destinations. I took the opportunity, staring at my own reflection, to smooth my chocolate, shoulder-length bob and straighten my cream-colored, silk blouse – courtesy of TJ Maxx – before the doors opened to allow us entrance.

  My nerves finally kicked in as the elevator doors eased their way open on the seventeenth floor, and I creeped out slowly, cautiously, like a fawn treading dangerously into an open field during hunting season.

  I approached the front desk, behind which sat a thin, young girl with a short, blonde, pixie cut. In her ears was a set of earbuds. At first, she didn’t look up at me, so I stood patiently for several moments before clearing my throat to get her attention.

  “Can I help you?” she asked, annoyed by the interruption. The girl was obviously not in a great mood that day.

  “Hello, I’m Perla Fae. I’m the new legal assistant for Mr. Vandergild.” I announced myself with an exaggerated smile. Jonathan Vandergild was a senior partner of Fitzgerald, Vandergild, and Morrison, Attorneys at Law.

  At first, the young woman eyed me with a thoughtful, although antagonistic, expression. “I guess someone should have told you. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but they decided to go in a different direction with that position. Sorry for your time.” I got the impression she wasn’t sorry and didn’t mind being the bearer of the bad news.

  A panic began to well up in my chest. This could not be happening. It had taken me three months to land this job, three months that could have easily rated among my top-five list of the longest, most terrible periods of time in my life. I had too much at stake to lose this job now, before I even had a chance to prove myself.

  “But I… C-could you just check again? Please?” I stammered like a desperate fool.

  The girl rolled her eyes in annoyance and then glared at me in disgust. She looked back down at her computer screen. “First desk on the left,” she mumbled dismissively.

  Confused by the brusque display, but mostly just so relieved I still had a job, I turned and made my way to the desk the girl had indicated to be mine. It was stationed just outside an office with a plaque on the door that read Jonathan Vandergild. I guessed this was it.

  Feeling a little discouraged, I sat quietly for a while until I saw another girl come in and sit at a desk diagonally across the hall from mine. This girl was humming quietly to herself, which I took as a good sign, but I remained cautious. I half-expected another surly response, so I treaded lightly. The last thing I wanted was to get on everyone’s bad side the first day.

  “Hi, I’m Perla. It’s my first day… Mr. Vandergild’s new legal assistant.” I gave a sheepish smile.

  “Hi Perla, I’m Amelie,” she greeted warmly as she stood and walked over to shake my hand. “I’m Taylor Morrison’s assistant. Welcome to the firm.”

  Amelie looked like she was a couple of years older than me, I guessed about twenty-six, but carried herself more maturely. She was pretty with long, jet-black hair that fell straight down to the middle of her back. Her light, amber eyes stood out against the olive tone of her skin, and I wondered what her family heritage might be, although she didn’t seem to have any kind of unusual accent.

  Above all, she was friendly and helped me get set up, teaching me where to access common forms, the file database, and case management software. Afterwards, she gave me a tour of the office.

  The firm took up the entire seventeenth floor, with the offices being on one side, an in-house law library and the staff lounge area on the other. The hallway just outside the partners’ offices, a wide, open area, contained the work stations for each of the legal assistants. There were several meeting and conference rooms, as well. The elevator opened up to the lobby in the center of the floor where the receptionist’s desk sat to greet any clients as they entered.

  Once I got back to my desk, I went in to meet with Mr. Vandergild, a middle-aged gentleman with salt-and-pepper hair, and took notes on some current cases he was working on. By the time our meeting ended, I had a long list of tasks to get started on.

  As I walked out of his office, Mr. Vandergild followed me. Once he got to the doorway, he poked his head out and yelled to someone outside the door in a stern voice.

  “Lisette, I need you to work with Perla today. Show her where to access the files on the Berryman case, and help her get a request for discovery typed up to send over to opposing counsel this afternoon.” Mr. Vandergild didn’t wait for Lisette to reply before moving back inside his office and closing the door behind him.

  I looked in the direction he had barked his order in to see who Lisette might be. As my luck would have it, Lisette was the receptionist I had encountered upon my arrival that morning. I stifled a groan, expecting this would not be a pleasant learning experience.

  As our eyes met, Lisette gave me a poisonous glare before rolling her eyes once again. She made no attempt to hide a sigh of irritation. She stood and walked grudgingly to my desk.

  “Didn’t Amelie already show you where to find the forms?” she asked with impatience, her arms folded across her chest.

  “Uh, y-yes,” I stammered, looking over to Amelie’s empty chair.

  “Good. Then you shouldn’t need my help.” At that, Lisette turned abruptly and stalked back to her desk across the lobby. She sat and went to work filing her fingernails.

  Well, that was fun.

  I wondered if Lisette was always so pleasant, or if I had just caught her on a bad day. I couldn’t imagine what she could possibly have had against me at this point, but it was hard not to take it personally.

  No matter, I decided. Failing at this job was not an option for me, circumstances being what they were, and I was determined to prove I could do it, with or without Lisette’s help.

  It took me a few minutes to remember where to locate the common forms, and then I located a template for a discovery request. I had already been familiar with what they looked like, both from the couple of years I spent court-reporting in the Dallas County court system, and from the night classes I took for my paralegal certification.

  Once I found the right form, I accessed the Berryman file in the database to locate the court and cause numbers and names of parties to the case, and set to work getting the order typed up.

  I hit print just as Mr. Vandergild came out of his office. “Perla, do you have that discovery request ready for me?” he asked. He trailed off down the hall toward another partner’s office before I had a chance to answer, so I hurried to get the form off of the printer.

  Lisette came strolling over to me as I took the papers off the tray. She grabbed the form out of my hands to look it over, a cup of coffee in one hand, the smell of which made me cringe. I could tell she was hoping to find an error and was seething when she got to the end of the document, having found none. She handed it back to me and then turned around to walk away.

  Abruptly, she stopped and turned back toward me. “Oh, by the way,” she began, as the hand holding her coffee lifted and swung in my direction.

  Oh, no.

  The hot liquid splashed out of the cup, covering the Berryman discovery request and most of my cream-colored blouse. I gasped in surprise, but there was not enough time to dodge the hot liquid. Covered in coffee, I stooped forward to allow gravity to pull my blouse away from my burning skin, trying not to drop the papers I held all over the floor, but they were ruined at that point anyway.

  “Oops,” Lisette said sarcastically as she held her empty hand in front of her mouth for emphasis. “You might want to clean that up.” Then she turned and sauntered away back to her desk.

  Are you freaking kidding me?

  I rushed over to my desk to print another copy of the form. Once I got there, all of the screens I had opened that I had been working out of were gone. I knew I hadn’t saved the file yet, and Mr. Vandergild was on his way out of the office he had previously walked into. He was heading toward me to pick up the form that was now dripping and stained brown.
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br />   As Mr. Vandergild approached my desk, he silently eyed my now coffee-stained blouse. “Uh, Perla? Can I get that discovery request? I’m on my way to the court house now so I can have it filed while I’m there.”

  “I’m so sorry, sir. I had it ready for you, but I had a mishap, and somehow it didn’t save to my computer to reprint another copy. It will just take me a couple of minutes to get this typed up again.” I began clicking the forms and accessing the database information, wasting no time. I was absolutely mortified.

  Mr. Vandergild gave me a raised eyebrow of consternation. “I’ll go grab another cup of coffee. Try to have it ready once I return.”

  At that, he turned toward the lounge and left me to work in peace. It took me less time to get the form done the second time around, and I made sure to save the form in the case record this time before leaving my chair to retrieve the new copies.

  It was printed and ready when Mr. Vandergild returned. He looked it over, and I felt a wave of relief as he nodded his head in approval. “Very good,” he commended.

  I released a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding.

  Once Mr. Vandergild left, I went to the restroom to try to salvage my blouse. My attempts were unsuccessful, so I was resigned to walk around in a stained shirt for the rest of my first day on the job.

  I was also growing more and more furious at Lisette’s blatant attempts at setting me up to fail. What in the world was her problem? I just couldn’t figure out why she seemed to already have it out for me.

  When I got back to my desk, I noticed Amelie had returned and was sitting at hers. I gave her a timid wave, and when she noticed, she walked over.

  “What in the world happened to your shirt?” she asked.

  I contemplated whether I should tell the truth, in case she and Lisette were close. I decided the truth couldn’t hurt, and even if they were friends, maybe she could give me some insight on how to handle the girl going forward. “Honestly, Lisette happened. I’m not sure if she’s having a rough morning, or what, but I get the feeling she doesn’t like me,” I admitted.