The Rules Of Attraction

by Khardine Gray

  We climaxed together, bodies shuddering and shivering into the waves of ecstasy in mutual surrender.

  His breath was a hot caress. I couldn’t catch mine.

  I was too weak.

  He enveloped me with both arms and I held him too.

  Slowly he slid out of me, but he didn’t let me go. It was like he wanted to show me that he wanted me like this too.

  “Let’s go home baby.” He whispered into my ear.

  “Home?” I exhaled, now holding his gaze.

  He smiled. “Home.”

  “But work –”

  “Screw it. We’re going home, I am taking you straight to my bed and we’ll be there until further notice.”

  He took me straight to his bed and practically consumed me.

  The day rolled passed us and the night too. I only registered that it was morning because the bright sunlight pierced through the windows and was too much for me.

  Since Alex was out cold I took the chance to shower. It was seven, time to get up for work.

  As much as I would have loved to stay in bed and press repeat on yesterday, I had to force myself up. It was hard to think about work when we were so wrapped up in each other, but I had a ton of work to catch up on.

  I went in the shower allowing the blast of water to pour down onto my head. It was a little colder than I normally went for but it did the job of waking me up.

  What was even better than the water was the warmth I felt minutes later from big strong hands that circled my waist.

  I hadn’t heard Alex come in.

  I turned into his embrace and gazed up at his gorgeous, gorgeous eyes.

  Water ran down his handsome face which he rubbed away and ran a hand through his hair.

  My eyes travelled over his perfect, naked body, lingering at the masterpiece he was.

  “Forgive me. I couldn’t resist.” He cajoled. “Or, be without you. I’ll leave you alone if you want me to.”

  “Don’t. I’ll miss you.”

  He smiled at my answer.

  Smoothing my hands up the hard walls of his chest and up to his chin, I guided him down for a kiss.

  Still couldn’t get enough of his kisses.

  When our lips met it was with that hunger from yesterday. I could have kissed him forever, but he stepped back and looked down at me.

  “No, you always do that.” I complained.

  “Summer there’ll be plenty of time to kiss me. I need an answer. I’m still waiting for you to accept my offer.”

  I gasped and covered my mouth to stop myself from laughing as I realized I hadn’t exactly confirmed anything with him. We didn’t do much talking yesterday.

  “I’m so sorry. Alex, I accept your offer.” I nodded feeling excitement ripple through me at the prospect of this. I felt like I was about to go on some adventure, by playing his game.

  That big smile I loved settled on his face.

  He turned the water down so that it was a light sprinkle.

  I looked up at him and took a few seconds to marvel at how I felt and savored the sweetness of happiness that danced in my veins.

  It was refreshing to feel like this.

  “Fast or slow angel?” His voice brought me out of my thoughts.

  I rested back against the granite walls and gazed at him. A sexy smile crept up the corners of his mouth.

  “Fast or slow? What does that mean now?” I giggled.

  “Do you remember how we were the night we met?”

  “As if I could forget?”

  He smiled tweaking my nose playfully. “Fourth rule of attraction. You have to decide your pace. So we have to pick which version of us you want us to be.”

  “You made it all up, didn’t you? The rules of attraction.”

  “Yes.” He looked pleased with himself. “But it’s really a thing. You’ve felt it all working so far haven’t you?”

  I couldn’t deny that I had. “I have. Is there more rules?”

  “Yes, but you can’t move past one rule to get to another. So pick. Fast or slow baby?”

  I rolled my eyes at him.

  “What’s fast?” I cooed.

  A carnal, seriously sinful smile flashed over his face.

  “Fast is sex.” He careered the curve of my waist and lowered to whisper into my ear. “Sex. Non. Stop. Whenever, and wherever we want , all the time.” He kissed his way down my throat and paused. “It’s fucking. It’s me indulging on your sweet pretty, pussy and giving you maximum pleasure all the time.”

  Desire pooled deep inside me. His dirty words gripped me so much I could barely speak. “All the time?”

  “All the time.” He confirmed.

  My mouth watered at the thought of a repeat of the wild fun we had yesterday.

  “Fast sounds good. I like fast.” I liked watching the dark gunmetal color fill his eyes.

  “I like fast too.”

  “ Is slow no sex, or sex slower?” I asked.

  “Slow is this.” He pulled me closer to him and held me. “Slow is us how we are now, showering together naked but not having sex. It’s me admiring you, dying to know more about you, and guessing what your favorite things are. It’s me taking you out to dinner and you allowing me to spoil you every chance I get. And we still have sex whenever we want. We just don’t burn out as quick as fast.”

  His voice faded into a hushed stillness, and the smile in his eyes burned with a sensuous flame.

  The sentiment in his words moved me. I stared wordlessly up at him, not sure what to say. There were a few other times over the last few weeks when he’d said things like that, leaving me mesmerized.

  “Slow sounds dangerously close to a relationship. Are you giving me a choice on whether or not we have a relationship?” I decided to tease.

  I thought he would scowl at the mention, but he didn’t. Instead he gave me that magnetic look where his eyes clung to mine, analyzing and assessing me.

  “It’s simply attraction.” A sinful smile danced on his lips. “Existing outside everything.”

  “Can’t we have fast and slow?” I wanted both.

  He narrowed his eyes as if he were considering it. “Hmmmm.”

  “Maybe we could decide which days we could do fast, and which will be slow. I want both with you.” I added in a lower stilled tone.

  “Both?” He continued to consider it.

  “Fast is physical, and I want physical. But I want to know you. I want to know what your favorite things are too, enjoy dinner with you. I want my chance to spoil you too. And we have to dance.” I remembered the fun we had dancing at the club.

  His eyes were gentle and contemplative, alive with hope and excitement.

  It was how I felt too.

  This was new for me. It felt good.

  “Let’s do it,” his whole face spread into a smile.

  I beamed up at him, and slipped my arms around his neck. “Fast and slow?”

  He nodded. “Fast and slow. I hope you can keep up.”

  “Worry about yourself.” I teased.

  “Fuck, Summer don’t make me fast track fast.”

  We both laughed.

  “Ready to hear the next two rules?” he asked

  “Just two, how many rules does attraction have?”

  “Seven.”

  “Can’t you just tell me all of them?”

  “You have to wait for the last.” One thing was certain about this guy, he never ceased to amaze me or keep me fascinated with him.

  “Okay I’ll play.”

  “Rule five nothing else matters when we’re together. Nothing from the real world.”

  “Nothing?”

  “Nope. We can talk about things on or minds on a very minimal level, but not so much that it takes away from this bubble we’re creating now.”

  I nodded. “I like it.’”

  “Good, you’ll like rule six too. Get lost in each other until you burn out. So we escape life together. We’re exclusive to each other until the day when we can�
�t feel this connection anymore.”

  “What if it doesn’t burn out? What if we always feel like this?” Those rules assumed an end point, but what if it never came? Surely we couldn’t just keep going, and waiting for the connection to frazzle out.

  He held my gaze and really looked at me. “Then we’ll have to decide what we do next based on rule seven.”

  I looked at him askance. “You have to tell me what rule seven is.” I giggled feeling the suspense killing me.

  “We both have to wait. It’ll be worth it if we get there.”

  “Have you ever gotten there before?” I knew that was maybe a personal question, but on account of him knowing he was the second man I’d ever been with I figured it was a good trade.

  “No. Never gotten past anything more than maybe where rule two would apply.”

  I bit the inside of my lip to keep from smiling, and taking some triumph in that.

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. So, does it sound good to you?”

  “It does.”

  “Come here, my lips miss you.” He crooked his finger and I moved in close again to receive his lips.

  I drifted into the swirl of emotion that took me, getting lost in him and relishing how right this felt.

  Chapter 21

  Alex

  The day for the meeting finally arrived.

  I had to force myself back to the real world, and back to this case that had burdened my mind.

  We were in the largest meeting room.

  Mrs. Denman sat opposite us with Jude Kennedy, her lawyer.

  I’d met Jude in court before and knew the guy was a badass lawyer. He wiped the floor with me a few years back, but hadn’t managed to do it since.

  I’d watched him with Mrs. Denman.

  I could feel her nerves. She had the typical victim look. Haggard and drained.

  Devon on the other hand sat beside me, smug like some kingpin who owned everything.

  Summer sat at the desk in the corner with her computer ready to take the minutes. Jude’s PA sat opposite her doing the same.

  Summer glanced across at me and gave me a little smile. It helped and reminded me what I had to look forward to later.

  It was a slow day for us. We decided that because we didn’t know how this meeting was going to flair out.

  “Are we all ready to get started?” I asked opening the floor. We’d been sitting her for about five minutes getting what we needed ready.

  “We’re ready.” Jude replied.

  “Good.” Here goes. I pulled in a breath. “We’ve looked at your clients demands and have decided to offer a refund of the money that was paid for the investment as a gesture of goodwill.”

  Jude immediately looked pissed off. “Are you kidding? You’re client’s company had a duty of care to make sure they looked into what mine was investing in. She lost more than what she paid out, and she’s unable to work because of it.”

  “Mrs. Denman signed a disclaimer, she knew what she was getting into. It’s unreasonable to expect my client to do anything more. He shouldn’t even have to offer a refund.” That was my best argument.

  “A disclaimer is nothing. There was a duty of care here to at least make sure what she was putting her money into was suitable for her. Even if no further advice was given. My client relied on the information she was given and bought stocks in a company that hadn’t been assessed properly in terms of their longevity. The shares plummeted after a few weeks. That’s crazy.” Jude fumed, looking at me as if I should have seen the incredulity of that. “It’s a little suspicious don’t you think?”

  My skin felt numb. Jude couldn’t have been more right. But I wasn’t here to agree with him.

  “I don’t know what you’re trying to imply, but investments are risky. When you invest you take a risk. We all know and accept that.” I straightened up and squared my shoulders. “What happened to Mrs. Denman is very unfortunate, and I sympathize, but I don’t agree that my client exercised any form of ill will or misconduct. If anything he went above and beyond himself to exercise customer care.”

  I felt like such an asshole for saying that. Saying what I didn’t believe. And… all the while Devon sat next to me with his stupid smug face like he had this in the bag.

  “You know this is wrong, Alex.” Jude held my gaze.

  “I’m not here to decide what is wrong or right. I’m here to set out what happened within the realms of the law. A disclaimer was signed showing me a conversation must have taken place to highlight that my client would not be held responsible for any losses on a risky new investment. She was provided with a copy of all the terms and conditions, and information on the investment. That is fact. I’m arguing fact. You are arguing ethics.”

  Jude pressed his lips together. “This has mishandling written all over it. There were no steps taken to ensure the investment was suitable, and nothing was ever mentioned about the extra riskiness of this particular investment.”

  “Mrs. Denman was contacted and informed of a great investment opportunity that was expected to have a great return. At the time the market showed that it did. If I said the same about fluff because some celeb had made it popular, you’d probably invest too. It would be no one’s fault if the fluff took a nose dive days later and became worthless because another celeb made something else popular. It’s just how the market works.”

  “Right, well I guess this has to be settled in court then.” Jude nodded, eyeing me with dismay.

  I knew this would happen.

  It was only when Devon heard that that he shuffled next to me.

  “I’ll give another fifteen grand.” Devon cut in just as I was about to talk. “Fifteen thousand and nothing more. It’s fair.”

  “Fair?” Jude took him on. “You know it’s not. She has medical bills and loss of potential earnings. We’ll let the judge decide what’s fair.”

  “Twenty,” Devon replied.

  “Stop it.” I interrupted his next words.

  Jude laughed. “Ridiculous. We’re done here. Seventy grand was the minimum, we’re taking this all the way with a minimum settlement of a hundred grand.”

  “We’ll see you in court.” I retorted.

  Mrs. Denman looked worse as they left and I saw her wipe a tear away from her eyes.

  Summer gave me a worried look when she left the room too making my stomach twist into knots. She knew how I felt about the case. I hadn’t shared any of the things I’d discovered that night when I was researching, but she knew enough.

  Devon twisted in his chair to face me when the door closed.

  “You were supposed to keep the case out of court, Alex.” He spoke in a slow purposeful tone that infuriated me.

  “What the fuck was that? Don’t undercut me ever again.” I balked. If the fool had told me before that he was willing to pay up to twenty thousand grand more I would have worked it into my argument.

  It was fine though, because he’d just showed desperation which just added to my suspicions.

  “You were supposed to keep the case out of court.” He blurted now, face red, and eyes blazing.

  “Why are you so determined to keep it out of court?” I shot back. “What aren’t you telling me?” I decided to test and see his response.

  “Nothing.” He slammed his fists down. “Just make sure this doesn’t get blown out of proportion. I’m a private man. I don’t want my company dragged through the court and the media.”

  “Is that all your worried about?” I was really testing him.

  His face contorted into a heavy scowl. “Look Alex, I don’t know what you’re implying or what you think I may be worried about. I simply don’t like going to court. But here we are, at the place I didn’t want to be. I know Jude, he’ll dig as far as he can to make me look bad. Don’t let that happen.”

  I didn’t answer because I knew Jude too. The guy was a shark, but a little like myself. He didn’t do anything without a reason and he did what was necessary to do the right thing
for his clients. Even if that meant pissing off a few people on the way.

  Devon stood up, annoyed by my silence and marched out of the room slamming the door as he walked out.

  I knew I’d end up feeling worse than I did before, and I couldn’t do anything about it.

  Was I supposed to pretend that my suspicion wasn’t through the roof?

  The door opened and Summer came back inside.

  “Hi.” She walked over to me.

  “Come here, angel.” I took her hands and pulled her into my lap.

  “Alex, if someone walks in here and sees me in your lap their going to have questions.” She smiled.

  “I don’t care, baby.” I didn’t. There was so much crap going on. Summer was my compensation.

  “Alex, are you okay?” Her eyes were filled with concern.

  I shook my head. “No, I’m not.”

  “I didn’t think so. You gave a good argument, but you didn’t believe any of what you said.”

  I had to look at her, really look at her. “How’d you know?”

  “I just do.” She slipped her arm around me and ran her fingers across the back of my neck. “You said you thought Devon was guilty. But you never said why.”

  “You know when you get a bad feeling about something and you know that you’re right but you can’t prove it? That’s how I feel.” I answered. It was the best thing to say.

  She was an attorney too, if I told her what I’d found out about the other investments she would definitely think something was weird with the situation. And worse she’d probably question me.

  I didn’t want that. Work was work, and this case wasn’t me. It didn’t represent how I normally conducted myself.

  “You shouldn’t work on this case if you feel that way.”

  “I know, but I have to. If I don’t that will be it for me here.”

  Now she looked worried. “Alex, don’t say that. I’m sure your dad will arrange something else.”

  “No. He was being serious. This is it. if I don’t see this case through I can kiss the senior partnership goodbye.”

  “Alex, I’m certain your dad would find some other way for you.”