by Marie Force
“This is for real.”
I love that she basically admits the others were bogus. Like I didn’t already know that. “Fine. What’ve you got?”
She tells me about a guy she dated in New York and her missing original copy of Abbey Road.
“How could you let someone you barely know borrow something so priceless?”
“Don’t chastise me, Counselor. Tell me how I can get it back.”
“Text me his name and address. I’ll write a letter that’ll scare the legal fuck out of him and get it back to you within seven days.”
“Really?” she asks, her eyes dancing with happiness. “You’d do that for me?”
“Yes, Leah,” I say, sighing as I so often do when she’s around. “I’d do that for you.”
“Thank you so much.” She kisses my cheek, and a strange feeling of rightness comes over me that I immediately push aside. I don’t want to feel rightness with her. I just want to fuck her and be done with the madness that comes with her. “I should, um, get to work.” I don’t really have to work today, but as I never let a day go by without at least checking in, I have to do that much.
She stands, runs her fingers through her hair to straighten it after I messed it up, bends to retrieve the pillow she put on the floor and tosses it onto the sofa.
I’ll never look at that pillow the same way again.
She wraps her unfinished breakfast sandwich, puts it back in the bag and picks up her coffee. “I’ll check on you later.”
“Leah.”
At the door, she turns back, raising a brow. “Yes?”
“Thank you, for, um, you know… Helping me out.”
She flashes a shit-eating grin. “It was a pleasure, Emmett. An absolute pleasure.”
Oh, she’s a brat. I’m dying to fuck that sass right out of her, but that’s going to have to wait until the equipment is fully healed. She disappears out the door, which closes behind her.
I’m still staring at the door thinking about that epic blow job when my cell phone rings a few minutes later. I take the call from Kristian.
“Hey,” he says, “sorry that took so long. Logan forgot his homework and realized it when we were halfway to school.” I can tell he’s on the Bluetooth by the echo I hear on the line.
Kristian’s new life as a family man amuses me, but whenever Aileen and her kids are around, I can’t deny that he seems happier than I’ve ever seen him. “What do you do about that?”
“Turn around and race home and barely get them to school on time.”
“Sounds like a fun way to start the day.”
“Gets the blood pumping.”
The expression takes me right back to how I got my own blood pumping this morning and the reason why I need to talk to him.
“So what’s up?” he asks.
“Are you by yourself?” Sometimes he and Aileen drive to work together, and I don’t want her to hear what I have to say to him.
“Yep. Aileen has a doctor’s appointment this morning.”
“Is everything okay?” I ask, immediately alarmed. She’s been doing great after a bout with breast cancer before she moved to LA earlier in the summer. I hold my breath, hoping there’s not a problem.
“It’s a routine check.”
“Does that freak you out?”
“Every fucking time,” he says with a sigh. “But she tells me there’s nothing to worry about, and I try to take my lead from her. We’ve got four more years of this before she hits the five-year mark and they consider her in remission.”
“I can’t imagine how stressful that has to be for both of you.”
“I try not to think about it. Most days, that works until she has to go to the doctor and the stress overwhelms me.”
“I’m sorry you’re dealing with that.”
“It’s a small price to pay for everything else we have together.”
“That’s a good way to look at it.”
“It’s the only way I can bear to think about the fact that she had cancer not that long ago and it could still come back and take her from me.”
Listening to him, I feel stupid about thinking the situation with Leah presents any kind of “problem.” When stacked up against what he’s dealing with, it barely registers. “Anyway, enough of that. What did you want to talk about?”
“It’s so trivial, I feel stupid even mentioning it.” But after what happened this morning and the one night I promised her, I have to disclose this to him or risk my job, which I would never do.
“I’m intrigued,” he says.
“So it seems that I might be… Something is happening…”
“Whoa,” he says, laughing. “Whatever this is has the supremely composed Emmett Burke stammering. This ought to be good. Spill it.”
It makes me so fucking mad that the thought of her has me stammering. “Leah.”
“Oh damn. What about her?”
“We… She’s decided she wants, well…” God, this is so dumb. I feel like I’m back in high school trying not to get caught nailing the girl next door while my grandmother slept upstairs. I spent more nights at her home than at my own as a kid, and the old girl slept like a dead woman, thank goodness.
Kristian busts up laughing. “She’s set her sights on you, has she?”
“You could say that.” I clear my throat and force myself to put it out there so we can never talk about this again. “Based on the fraternization policy, I’m required to clear anything like this with you, so that’s what I’m doing. Clearing it with you.”
“Your own words are coming back to bite you in the ass, are they?”
It’s not lost on me that I was the one who insisted Quantum needed a fraternization policy. So yes, my own fucking efficiency is to blame for this hideously awkward conversation with my boss and friend. “Are you enjoying this?” I ask him, sounding testier than I mean to.
“Maybe a little,” he says, laughing. “I’ll have to run this past the other partners to make sure it’s okay.”
“Seriously?” My voice is higher than a prepubescent middle schooler.
“Nah, I’m just busting your balls. Oh, wait, Connor already did that.”
“You’re an asshole.”
“I know.” He’s dying laughing, but I’d rather he laugh at me than panic over Aileen’s health. When he recovers the ability to speak, he says, “You know I trust your judgment on all things, Emmett, including fraternizing with Leah, but I just wonder… Ah, hell, it’s none of my business.”
“What do you wonder?”
“If you’re willing to go all the way with her.”
In our world, “all the way” doesn’t mean intercourse. It means BDSM, full-on domination. “No plans for that. It’s going to be one and done. No big deal.”
“One and done? How exactly does that work?”
“She wants to fool around. I don’t want it to be anything more than that, so I told her we can do it once.”
He loses it laughing again. “You really think that’s going to happen?”
“Yes, I really do.”
“Let me tell you something I know for certain—if you’re actually bothering to talk to me about this, it’s already more than one and done.”
“That’s not true! I’m obligated, by company policy, to inform you of this.”
“Fuck the employee manual, Emmett. You know what I’m saying is true. If you weren’t interested in her, you never would’ve mentioned this to me.”
“I’m not interested in her. She drives me batshit crazy.”
“That’s the way love is. One minute you want to fuck her, the next minute you’re buying a house with a white-picket fence.”
“Love? Who in the fuck said anything about love? I’m talking about one night of sex, Kristian, and you’ve succeeded in making me sorry I ever mentioned it.”
“Ask Hayden, Flynn and Jasper what happened after one night of sex with Addie, Nat and Ellie. Hell, after one night with Aileen, I wanted to sign over everyth
ing I owned to her and marry her right away so there’d be no way I could ever fuck it up badly enough to lose her.”
His warnings make me feel panicky that something major has already changed in my life, without my permission, and there’s no going back to the way things were before. Fucking hell. “That’s not going to happen to me and Leah. We aren’t about that.”
“Keep telling yourself that,” he says, laughing again.
“Glad I was able to entertain you this morning.”
“You really did.”
“You’re the worst boss I’ve ever had.”
“I’m the only boss you’ve ever had.” Flynn and Hayden don’t count. We’ve been too close for too long for them to effectively “boss” me, although they try from time to time.
“And you suck.”
That sets him off again.
“Don’t go blabbing this to the others. I mean it, Kris. I don’t want it all over the office. I have a job to do for you, and I can’t do it if everyone is talking about me banging one of the admins.”
“My lips are sealed.”
“They’d better be, or I’ll sue your ass.”
“Oh please. You will not sue me.”
“If you tell anyone about this, I will sue you.”
“I’m not going to say anything about it, but how do you plan to make sure the other party in your new relationship keeps it quiet?”
That sends a bolt of fear straight to my gut. I’ll text her as soon as I end this conversation from hell with Kristian to remind her to keep her mouth shut.
My doorbell rings, and I wonder if she’s come back. And why does my dick give a happy little jolt at the thought of her coming back? Probably because he liked the way the back of her throat felt wrapped around him. Don’t think about that! Right, as if that’s not going to be all I think about for the foreseeable future.
“I gotta go. Someone’s at the door.”
“Is it her?”
“Bye, Kris, and keep your mouth shut.”
“I’d tell you to do the same, but that would kind of defeat the purpose.”
I end the call to the sound of his laughter and open the door to the doorman, who is holding a huge gift basket.
“Delivery for you, Mr. Burke.”
I take it from him. “Thanks, Jay.”
“Are you okay?” he asks, eyeing me with curiosity. I’ve known him a long time, played pickup basketball with him a few times.
“Yeah, why?”
“Not like you to be still at home at this hour on a workday, and now you got people sending you gifts.”
“I got a little injured last night, but I’m on the mend.”
“Oh damn. Glad you’re okay. Ring down if you need anything.”
“Will do.” I take good care of him and the other building staff at Christmas, so I don’t feel the need to tip him now. “Thanks for bringing it up.”
“No problem.”
I close the door and take the basket of cheese, crackers, wine and chocolate to the counter, where I retrieve the card. Mr. Emmett, we are sorry we hurt you by roughhousing in the pool. We hope you feel better soon. Love, Connor and Mason (and Annie, Hugh and Garrett).
Well, that was sweet of them. I dash off a text to Annie. Thanks for the basket. You didn’t have to do that. Feeling better today.
Thank goodness, she replies. I feel so bad for you, and Hugh feels even worse. She adds laughing and eggplant emojis.
Haha, that’s about the color of it.
OUCH. OMG. I wanted to kill them last night. I’m always telling them someone is going to get hurt when they play rough.
No worries and no permanent damage done, thankfully! They’re great kids. I love to play with them.
They’re great kids when they’re asleep! Hang in there! Whoops. Probably not the best thing I could say. More laughter emojis.
I crack up and reply with laughter emojis. I have a feeling the jokes about my injury are just beginning. I send the text to Leah reminding her to keep our “arrangement” private. She responds with one word: Duh. She makes me laugh when she’s not even here.
I take a call from a local number I don’t recognize. It’s the nurse from the urologist who treated me last night, checking to see how I’m doing.
“I’m okay.”
“How’s the pain?”
“Better than it was.”
“That’s good news. He’d like to see you tomorrow in the office for a follow-up. Can you do two thirty?”
I try to recall my calendar and can’t think of anything tomorrow afternoon. “That should work.”
She gives me the address and says they’ll see me then.
Great, more poking and prodding of my dick, and not the good kind.
I reply to the Quantum group chat, which is full of requests for updates on how I’m doing. I let them know things are better today, and I’ll be back in the office tomorrow, even if the prospect of jamming my junk into real pants probably won’t be much better then.
Hayden sends a row of eggplant emojis.
Annie already played that joke.
The eggplant never gets old, Hayden says. Just ask Addie.
Shut up, Hayden, Addie says.
Laughter emojis from everyone.
Glad you’re feeling better xoxo, Natalie says. She’s a doll. Not only do I like her, I respect the hell out of her for surviving a past that would’ve ruined a lesser person. She’s adapted to the insanity of life as Flynn’s wife with grace and aplomb that has earned the admiration of all his friends.
I power up my laptop, log into the office server and get busy tending to business. As always, there’s plenty that requires my attention, from contracts in need of review to licensing agreements to real estate transactions. I eat this shit up, wallowing in the details on behalf of my clients, who also happen to be my closest friends. Working for them is a labor of love, and there’s literally nothing I wouldn’t do for them.
I open an email from the deputy attorney general in the state of Nebraska who’s overseeing the prosecution of Natalie’s father. He’s accused of killing the lawyer who arranged for Natalie’s new identity after she was raped at fifteen by the state’s governor—who was her father’s closest friend. It’s a sordid tale, no matter how you look at it, and every time I hear more about it, I marvel at the way Natalie has persevered through unimaginable adversity.
Her father killed the lawyer, not because he nearly ruined Natalie’s new life by disclosing her real name, but because the lawyer besmirched her father’s precious friend Oren. The whole thing disgusts me. I can’t imagine how it makes Natalie feel to know she has to relive the nightmare all over again at the upcoming trial.
The prosecutor is confirming the date for Natalie to go to Nebraska to testify at her father’s trial. I forward the email to Natalie and tell her to let me know if she has any questions.
I’m not representing her in the matter so much as supporting her. She doesn’t require legal representation to testify, and she’s certainly had enough experience testifying after having put that monster Stone away when she was only a teenager. But I’ll do whatever I can to make this easier on her. We all wish she didn’t have to do it at all, but the prosecutor told me he was prepared to subpoena her if she didn’t go willingly.
Like she hasn’t already been victimized enough by her father and his late “friend.” When I heard that her parents sided with Stone over their own kid after he attacked and raped her… I still can’t believe that actually happened. I hate that she has to relive it, not to mention she’ll have to see her father again for the first time in eight years.
Flynn is stressed about it. I know he is, even if he doesn’t say much. And now that Natalie is pregnant, I’m sure that’s only adding to his concern. We’re all looking forward to getting it over with. We leave for Nebraska two days after Hayden and Addie’s wedding and will be there for less than twenty-four hours. In and out. That’s the plan, anyway.
For lunch, I eat so
me of the cheese, crackers and smoked sausage—interesting choice in light of the reason for the gift—that came in the basket from Annie and power through a productive afternoon. Around five, I get up and move around, trying to decide if I’m up for a workout. Upper body maybe, as my lower parts still feel achy and sore. After I change into gym shorts, I head down to the basement gym and put myself through a rigorous arm and chest workout that leaves me sweating, spent and in bad need of a shower.
When the elevator arrives on my floor, I step off to find Leah sitting outside my door, grocery bags on either side of her. She’s face-first in her phone and doesn’t immediately notice me. I take a good long look at her, and memories of what she did earlier assail me. I try to think of anything but that so I won’t be sporting wood when I approach her. It’s been an up-and-down kind of day, because every time I think about that world-class blow job, I get hard.
I clear my throat, and she looks up, smiling at the sight of me in a sweaty tank top with a towel around my neck.
What does it say about my disengagement campaign that I’m really happy to see her?
Chapter 7
Oh my God, he’s all sweaty after a workout, and I still want to lick him.
“Leah?”
I realize he’s said something to me while I was busy staring at him and thinking about licking. “Huh?”
“What’re you doing here?”
Oh. That. Right. “I thought I would make dinner for you.”
Thankfully, he doesn’t mention that I used his garage code to gain access to the building. I guess I should say unauthorized access since he didn’t give me explicit permission to use it. I wait for him to tell me no thanks, that he’s all set, that he doesn’t want me here, but he doesn’t say anything. He merely unlocks the door and reaches for one of the bags.
I get up and follow him inside, where his laptop and a bunch of papers are on the counter next to a huge basket. “What’s that?”
“A gift from Annie, Hugh and the boys for me and my boys.”
“That’s nice of them.”
“It was. She feels awful about her kids unmanning me, although she did have some fun at my expense with the eggplant emoji.”
I try not to laugh, but a snort escapes my lips anyway.
