The Rules Of Attraction

by Khardine Gray

  “Wait, you left that part out. He took you home?” She giggled.

  I didn’t see what relevance that was. “Yes, does it matter?”

  “Okay honey, let’s just put it this way. Let me give you the four one, one on Alex Sullivan. Yes he’s the hottest man alive, and a playboy but even I know that the word on the street is that he practically never takes women back to his house. Five star hotels we’d have to spend our yearly salary on for sure, but no not his home. It’s just a thing he has about himself.”

  I didn’t know how to interpret that.

  The fact that Eilesh knew his bedroom rules, or whatever they could be classed as wasn’t exactly a good thing, and didn’t make me feel comfortable one bit.

  On the other hand I remembered how easy it was for him to ask me to go home with him.

  If he didn’t take women back to his home then how could he have asked me so effortlessly.

  On the other, other, hand did the fact that asking, and taking me mean there was something special about me?

  I was going to definitely doubt that. After all I’d been through it would have been foolish for me to even contemplate that.

  “I feel really awkward about this.” It was bad enough that I felt like I had to watch myself with the whole Ashfords situation. There wasn’t a firm around that didn’t know what happened. I was just hoping that being in a new state would help.

  Eilesh sighed. “Summer, I’m your friend and I’m going to be real with you. Things move fast in the legal world. You know this. It’s tough to get back in after you’ve been out of the game. You have been out of the game for over a year.”

  God, had it been that long?

  Had it really been that long since I did what I loved so much. Standing in a courtroom, armed with knowledge and flair stating my client’s case.

  I missed that. I missed helping people who really needed me. I’d helped so many with all sorts of problems.

  “I’d feel more comfortable trying to get something else,” I winced.

  “You know I’ll do whatever makes you feel comfortable. So I’ll help you find something else. It’s my job as your friend though to tell you the stuff you might not like. Ashfords left a huge black mark on the legal world and I’ve told you that there are a lot of firms who have specifically said they don’t want anyone from there.”

  It made my heart ache every time I heard something like that. It really did.

  “I know.” I could barely talk, barely breathe.

  Weeks ago when this job came about I didn’t like the idea of it because it wasn’t what I wanted, but I saw the opportunity it would give me. The idea was to work for Sullivan’s for six months to a year. Then apply for an associate position at another firm.

  Having them on my résumé meant that a top firm, of great prestige, had trusted me and let me back in.

  “What if you can’t find an associate job for months? Or even another PA job. This was sort of a done deal and what brought you to Chicago. And then there’s your finances…”

  Her voice trailed off because she knew I hated talking about money.

  The thing was, both of us knew that at the moment I didn’t have the luxury of picking and refusing jobs. Everything Eilesh said was right and truth be told if I turned this job down I would be digging a deeper hole for myself.

  When the world found out that Ashfords was in league with Philiopolis Inc. the investment company that was guilty of stealing millions from their clients, and securities fraud I didn’t know that I would go down with them as well.

  I’d worked for Ashfords for two years and saw myself staying for a while. Just until I’d had enough experience and backing to start my own firm.

  I’d dreamed big of having my own firm one day, right there in LA too.

  Things were going so well until that disaster.

  It was in the height of that that I found out that my father was dying.

  Then a spell of bad things all happened at once and my world changed.

  “My finances are bad, but please, I don’t think I could work for a man I slept with. Eilesh I didn’t think I’d ever see him again.” Sure I would admit that I would have stayed with him today when he asked me to this morning, but I knew that at some point I’d have to leave and leave the fun I had with him too.

  “Okay, honey. I’ll look and see what we have. Can I please ask you to keep an open mind though? I’m going to have to find Alex a replacement. I’d hate to have to give someone else the position when I know you’re desperate.”

  I pulled in a deep, deep breath.

  I was desperate.

  All I needed to do was look around at the horrible apartment I was staying in to confirm my desperation.

  “ I need a day.” I breathed, rubbing my forehead. “Maybe two. Could you give me that before you send someone else?” At least that showed I was considering it on some level.

  Just as a backup. My plan was to glue my ass to my laptop and apply for as many jobs as I could find.

  “Have it, and Summer I’m here if you need me. I’ll be back in two weeks but if you need me please call. We can have a nice girlie night when I’m home and a Brad Pitt fest.”

  That made me smile. We loved Brad Pitt.

  It would be nice to go to her place and have a long bath, then curl up on her sofa and indulge myself in a bunch of movies I loved.

  I longed for those days.

  I’d only seen Eilesh for dinner when I got here two weeks ago. Then she left that weekend for San Francisco.

  “I’d like that.” I smiled.

  “Good. Summer, can you please promise me that you’ll really use the next two days wisely? Sullivan’s would be a good move for you. I’m telling you this as your friend and as a recruiter.”

  “I promise.” I could do that. I could think.

  “Cool, luv yah.”

  “Right back at you.”

  We hung up and once again the silence of this dank, little apartment engulfed me.

  I straightened out my legs on the bed and looked around the box room. The room I had when I was ten was bigger than this. And this here was my whole apartment.

  A unit with a stove top for cooking was by the window. A microwave sat next to it on a slim, shaky counter. The sink was next and had a mere basin with a cupboard under it.

  A breath away was a curtain that separated the shower and toilet from the rest of the place. There was hardly any point to the curtain because it was poorly hung and the broken window next to the shower that overlooked the street displayed everything I had inside. I had to hang a towel up at it when I used the shower that ran ice cold water.

  The place was horrible, really horrible. And there was that skitter again.

  God, if the place had mice I didn’t know what I’d do.

  I could be this no nonsense woman in court but put me in a room with a mouse and I would lose my mind.

  The skitter sounded again and my stomach tightened, but then there was a knock at the door.

  The buildings super had come up a few times during my days here to check on me.

  She was a sweet elderly lady. She said she would do her best to get someone to look at the window for me.

  I got off the bed, guessing it could only be her since no one else came to visit.

  It would be good to have the window fixed because it also brought in the cold at night, and I’d ask her if she could get someone to check if there were mice.

  I opened the door and forced myself to look at least pleasant, but froze as the door swung open.

  Before me was not Susana, the sweet elderly lady.

  It was Alex.

  Standing before me was Alex Sullivan, looking better than ever.

  He slid down the Oakleys he was wearing and that wicked smile filled with sin lifted the corners of his sensual mouth.

  “Hello angel,” he said.

  That deep voice of his working its way inside me, making my skin tingle.

  Chapter 6


  Alex

  I didn’t think I’d ever had a woman flee from me before. This one had left me twice in one day.

  By presenting myself on her territory I’d avoided the possibility of her running off again.

  At least I hoped so.

  As I looked at the angel in this tacky, grubby, God awful apartment I didn’t think I would blame her from running out of the place.

  I expected somewhere in the city, or a little house in Spring Lands.

  Not this, and not this part of town.

  “Alex.” She said my name like she couldn’t believe I was here.

  I supposed I would be shocked too if I were her, and if I was being honest with myself I had to admit that this whole looking for her was completely out of my character.

  “Hey, angel, you going to let me in? Or, no?”

  She stepped aside making way for me to walk into the tiny apartment.

  Room.

  This was no apartment, not at all. It was a room that reminded me of a prison cell but without the bars or metal wall.

  “Baby, what are you doing in this place?” I couldn’t help it. I knew that came across as rude, and I was trying not to be rude or judgmental, but damn. “Is this really where you live?”

  I looked back to her and found that she still had that perplexed expression on her face.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked. Her voice sounded shaky.

  “Looking for my PA, looking for my angel. Who would have thought they were one and the same being?” I chuckled but she didn’t seem to find it funny.

  It was then that I hoped I hadn’t imposed by coming here. I got her address from Kayla’s files. The angel had filled out her new starter form before coming into the office this morning. I made good use of the info, even though I knew I shouldn’t have.

  “I didn’t know who you were,” she replied.

  “I didn’t know who you were either. Looks like the universe keeps throwing us together. Trust me you shouldn’t have left me this morning. We would have had a really, really good day together. We didn’t finish exploring your limits.”

  I couldn’t help it. That was just me being me. Plus I liked to see her blush. That rose color that filled her cheeks actually encouraged me to continue with the teasing and flirting but I held back.

  This was how I’d summed her up.

  Relationship girl. Not a party girl who went out on a nightly basis looking for fun. Those were easy women that usually threw themselves at me.

  This woman was not that. She was a challenge and like all challenges I’d ever been faced with I was reeled in like fish attracted to bait.

  I liked challenges. It was that taste of adventure that lurked within me that made me want to conquer unchartered territory .

  When I saw her in the club I thought she stood out amongst the sea of partygoers. She was the one who stood out to me.

  The good girl.

  I knew the difference.

  She was the good girl who needed to let her hair down. She needed to step into the wild and have a taste of fun.

  Just like she’d said, she was escaping life.

  “I reached my limit,” she replied but she didn’t sound too sure.

  “No you didn’t. There was more.” That was the part where I was supposed to back down and leave her with her answer. No way.

  People didn’t know how to take me. That was part of what made me such a good lawyer. I had that element of surprise, always an ace up my sleeve.

  “How do you know?” she straightened up.

  “Attraction.”

  “Is that your answer for everything?” She tried to hold back a smile.

  “Nope. Just where true attraction exists. Rule two, never give up when you find an equal.”

  Me with my rules of attraction. It was something I’d come up with back in college. Everyone had their claim to something, that was mine.

  It was something I lived by, although I’d never met anyone who I’d connected with on a level to test out all the rules on.

  She seemed to be fascinated with it last night, and she looked fascinated now.

  “An equal?”

  “You can’t ignore the chemistry here, angel.” I motioned my hand from her to me. “So I’d be happy to let you know how our day could have gone.” I tilted my head to the side and regarded her with keen eyes.

  “No.” she shook her head.

  “Why, angel? You don’t like exploring alternatives? Or, are you scared you may love the ideas I plant in your head. It’s only two o clock. We could have the rest of the day to play.” Screw it, I couldn’t be anything other than myself and I wanted her.

  “Is sex all you think about?”

  I didn’t know what sort of question that was. What man didn’t think of sex all the time? She narrowed her gaze at me, looking at me like I’d said something wrong. But, her body betrayed her. She was thinking about sex too. I noticed that against the little pink camisole top she wore, her nipples had suddenly become hard. It was very obvious.

  “Yes.”

  “I’m not having sex with you.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because you’re Alex Sullivan.” She frowned.

  “What does me being me have to do with anything? You don’t seem to want to be my PA and now you’re telling me that sex is off limits. I really wish like hell I didn’t answer that damn phone.”

  “Alex, I don’t normally go to clubs and pick up random guys. I’m in a really weird place in my life right now and I have no room for confusion. Last night was…”

  I thought she was going to say it was a mistake. I really did.

  “Last night was… great.” She continued to my relief.

  “Okay, let’s do this. Take the job.” She clearly needed it, look at the place. No one who had money would live here.

  “I don’t know if I can work for you.” She pressed her lips together, lips that I remembered being soft and smooth. I wished I could kiss her now to refresh that memory.

  “You can, plus… it’s a live in position.” Of course it wasn’t. I just made that up for two reasons. The first was she needed to get the hell out of here and I doubted she would have accepted an offer to stay with me. The next reason was pure selfishness. There was the problem of me wanting her. We had unfinished business.

  Since I knew she wanted me too, I just had to work out the kinks.

  I wanted this woman back in my bed. I wanted last night all over again. I wanted the day we would have had if I hadn’t answered the phone.

  “A live in position!” Damn she was shaking her head.

  “Yup. I need a PA who is flexible, and this new case we’ve just taken on is going to be tough.” That part I didn’t doubt because the more I’d thought about dear old Devon today in the spare moments when I wasn’t thinking about Summer I knew I’d need all the help I could get.

  “So I’d have to live with you?” Her eyes widened.

  “Summer, look at this place. I’m going to be real with you. You can’t stay here.” I looked around the place and saw a suitcase resting in the corner between the broken window and the curtain that I guess must have separated the bathroom from the rest of the room. It looked like she hadn’t been here long which was good because I hated to think of her having to stay in a place like this.

  I went over to the curtain and pulled it back. Yup it was exactly as I thought, but looked worse. She had a shower and a toilet, accompanied with a large hole in the wall that should have been a window.

  “What are you doing?” She rushed over to me.

  “Angel where the fuck is your window? You shower with people watching you?”

  “Course not, I have a towel that I put up.” She looked annoyed. “I stick it on the wall.

  That was insane. “Take the job. I’ll leave you to think about it. You know where I live.”

  I didn’t want to leave her here but I thought it may be too much to push and insist.

  I took one last look at th
e angel before I left, hoping it wouldn’t be the last time that I saw her.

  Chapter 7

  Alex

  “How was your day?” Dad asked through a forced smile.

  Poor guy, I knew I was trying his last nerve.

  “Wonderful.” I smiled back. My smile was forced too.

  Summer hadn’t come in today, so I was guessing that meant she wouldn’t be taking the job. And, since I thought going to her hell hole of an apartment bordered on being a little too much on the obsessive side I decided to leave it alone.

  Leave her alone for a while.

  Maybe I just needed to get her out of my system.

  It was Thursday. On Thursdays we all met up at the family home for dinner. It was mom’s idea.

  She insisted on us meeting up and eating together like we used to when we all lived together.

  We may have all had busy lives but we still managed to do it every week, except for when one of us was away on vacation.

  “Wonderful, oh great. That’s good to hear.” My father placed the gravy in the center of the table.

  Preston cut me a glance out of the corner of his eye, taking a break from whatever he was doing on his phone.

  My father was pissed at me because he’d heard that Summer ran out of the office yesterday within two minutes of being alone with me. He also knew she didn’t come back, which he assumed was my fault.

  He didn’t get the chance to shout at me because we’d taken an oath that on these special nights we wouldn’t argue. My mother made us promise.

  “Did you have a good day Preston? You do know phones aren’t allowed at the table right?” I said to my brother who looked at me fully now, bright blue eyes staring into me.

  “Yes, Alex. Phone gone.” He placed the phone on the table face down. “And you know what my day is about to get better.”

  “God, why is that?” I’d bet he had a date. His hair was all shaped and cut in that sharp style he liked.

  “Date with Andrea.”

  I laughed when my father grimaced and turned away to get the tray with the roast chicken.

  “Which Andrea is that now?” I knew exactly which Andrea Preston was talking about but I just wanted to hear him say.