Rhodium

by Elise Noble

  Oliver started off with the introductions. “This is Roy Heaton from the Commonwealth Attorney’s office and his assistant.”

  I leaned over to shake hands, trying to keep the tremor out of my grip. When I got to Oliver, he gave me a little squeeze, as if to tell me things would be okay.

  I tried to believe that, really I did. But as Roy asked question after question, laying my insides bare for the next two hours, little bits of my soul leached away, fluttering into the draught from the air conditioning. I caught myself chewing my hair too many times to count and forced my hands into my lap to keep from tearing it out.

  By the time Roy flipped the cover of his legal pad closed, I was tempted to exit the building via the window rather than the door. Each time I went through this, it got worse.

  When it was finally over, Roy gave me a perfunctory smile and motioned towards the hallway. “Thank you for coming, Miss Amor. We’ll call if we need anything else, although I’ve read through Oliver’s notes and they’re comprehensive.”

  What was I supposed to say? You’re welcome? Because he wasn’t. I opted for neutral instead.

  “I’m glad to help if it means Carter goes to prison rather than a summer camp.”

  “We’ll certainly do our best to make that happen.”

  I’d gotten halfway through the door when Oliver spoke up.

  “Miss Amor? Would you mind staying for a minute or two? I have something I need you to sign in my office.”

  He hadn’t mentioned that before, but since it was Oliver asking, I wasn’t about to say no. Not if it meant I got to spend a little extra time with him outside our scheduled slots and coffee purchases.

  “That’s no problem.”

  Roy and the nameless assistant gathered up their belongings and filed out, with Oliver and me bringing up the rear.

  “You mind if we take the stairs?” I asked. “The doctor says I need to get as much exercise as possible on my injured ankle.”

  “Of course, Miss Amor.” Oliver motioned towards the door on the right of the elevators, now thankfully free of tape and contractors, and paused to speak with Roy. “I need to research a few things on that case we discussed, and then I’ll speak to you this afternoon.”

  Roy already had his phone in his hand, checking his messages. “I’ll wait for your call.”

  The assistant flashed Oliver a quick smile but wouldn’t look me in the eye. Hardly surprising given what we’d just been talking about. I could barely face myself.

  Oliver held the wooden door open for me to go through, and I found myself in a tiled stairwell. Metal railings guarded the central opening, and I couldn’t resist peering over them, all the way down to the fancy mosaic floor in the basement. Somebody with money to burn had decorated this place.

  “What do you want me to sign?” I asked, my voice bouncing off the walls.

  He pressed up against me from behind.

  “When I said ‘sign,’ I meant ‘suck.’”

  With one sentence, he set my heart racing.

  “In your office?”

  He spun me away from the railing and cupped my butt with his hands.

  “I’ve spent the past two hours, thirteen minutes, and seventeen seconds watching your lips and thinking of them around my cock.”

  Then what were we waiting for? I grabbed his hand and pulled him up the first flight of stairs, but we only made it to the next landing before he backed me against the wall and touched his lips to mine, then nipped at my bottom lip and plunged his tongue into my mouth.

  I twisted my head to the side as my heart threatened to pound through my ribcage.

  “Stop! What if someone sees us?”

  “Nobody ever uses the stairs. They’re all too lazy.”

  He rubbed against me, hard already, and I reached for his zipper. Just a feel. Something to keep me going. Two and a half more flights of stairs suddenly seemed like a really long way.

  “Princess, if you do that, we’re not going to make it to my office.”

  But I didn’t stop. I couldn’t. My left hand slipped inside his boxer briefs and released eight inches of magic with a drop of pre-cum already oozing from the end. I swirled it around the tip with my thumb as Oliver groaned.

  “Steffie, I mean it.”

  I brought my thumb to my lips and licked, and something seemed to snap within Oliver. Before I could swallow, he yanked my skirt up and pushed my panties aside.

  “What are you doing?” I gasped.

  “You asked for it.”

  “Freaking hell, are you crazy?”

  He gritted his teeth, his mouth a thin line. “Around you, yes.”

  With one smooth motion, he slammed into me, and I closed my eyes. He’d lost his damn mind. We were in a stairwell, for crying out loud! Anyone could walk in. But a buzz of excitement ran through me at the thought of somebody doing just that, and I wrapped my arms around Oliver and pulled him closer, burying my face in his shoulder to quiet my whimpers.

  “I won’t last long, princess,” he whispered, thrusting harder with every stroke.

  “You don’t need to.”

  My orgasm was building rapidly, and if Oliver hadn’t been holding me up, I’d have been on my knees.

  Then a door opened above us.

  “Stop! Stop!” I hissed, but he didn’t.

  Instead, his smile grew wider as he pumped into me one last time, and a starburst erupted in my belly as we both came.

  Footsteps sounded, heading in our direction, joined by voices. Two people at least.

  Oliver tucked himself away while I tugged my skirt down. What state was my hair in? I did a rapid finger-comb and prayed I looked presentable. Or, in fact, anything but just-fucked. Beside me, Oliver assumed a bland expression and took a step towards the next flight of stairs. How could he look so damn normal after what we’d just done?

  “As I was saying, Miss Amor, the Virginia legal system allows the prosecution to call whatever witnesses they choose without having to give the defence prior notice. It gives us an advantage.”

  What was he talking about? He might as well have been speaking Swahili for all my brain understood of it. Still, I took a shaky step towards him so I didn’t get left behind just as two men came into sight on the next landing.

  “And that’s why we plan to spring your appearance onto the defence as a surprise at the end of the trial. Our secret weapon, if you like. Mortimer Granville has no idea you’re coming.” Oliver paused to greet one of the men. “Morning, Todd. How’s the wife?”

  The nearest man grimaced. “Still spending all my money. I’m considering reporting my credit card stolen.”

  “Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you what would happen the moment she got that ring on her finger.”

  All three men laughed, and the two interlopers carried on down the stairs as I sagged back against the handrail.

  “You all right, princess?”

  “No, I’m not. I can’t believe you did that. Sometimes I really hate you.”

  He silenced me with another kiss. “I don’t believe that.”

  I tried to look mad, but I was ninety-nine percent sure I failed. Although I couldn’t stop shaking, it was mostly from exhilaration. What a rush! It may have been fast, but in my limited experience of orgasms, I’d never had one rip through me and destroy all my senses like that. Something I didn’t dare admit to Oliver in case he wanted to try it again.

  “Your cum is running down my leg.”

  He reached under my skirt, ran his thumb up my thigh, then offered it to me. “Suck.”

  I did so, tasting myself as well as him. How could I have enjoyed something so wrong?

  “We can’t do this again,” I told him.

  “We’ll see.”

  “I’m serious.”

  He stilled, thinking for a few moments before he answered. “I think I might be too.”

  Was that a good thing or a bad thing?

  “Are we still going to your office? I mean, do you have anything
left?”

  “I’m spent. But come anyway. We can have coffee before I deal with my emails.”

  “You’re sure you’ve got time?”

  “I’ll make time.” He took my hand and led me up the stairs. “Once this trial starts, there’ll be precious little of that to spare.”

  CHAPTER 30

  ONCE AGAIN, OLIVER turned out to be right. When the trial started, it took over his life. Our two nights a week turned into a few snatched hours, and on one occasion, he fell asleep on the sofa before dinner even arrived. I didn’t have the heart to wake him. Instead, I took off his shoes and tie then tucked a blanket around his exhausted body. He needed the rest.

  I refused to watch the TV coverage of Carter, but it didn’t matter. Imogen did it for me and recounted events in glorious detail.

  “The whole thing’s a circus,” she said as we walked to Java one morning. “The Ghost’s fans are outside court every day with banners and masks, but he hasn’t turned up so far. And Oliver Rhodes has his own followers too. He was on the news signing autographs and posing for selfies.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, and some girl interrupted his press conference yesterday and asked him to marry her.”

  Considering he still wouldn’t share a bed with me overnight, I knew what his answer to that would have been, but I asked anyway. “What did he do?”

  “Turned her down with an apology and said he was betrothed to his work right now. Betrothed. He actually said that.” She gave a little sigh. “I’m so jealous. The guy I met last weekend could barely string a sentence together.”

  “Aw, no good then?”

  “I’m not writing him off completely. He has other talents. But he sure ain’t your rock-star lawyer. Does he look as good out of his suit as in it?”

  I felt it appropriate to say, “No comment.”

  Imogen knew all about my arrangement with Oliver by now—it would have been impossible to keep it from her. But while she was happy to describe every detail of her dubious encounters, I preferred to keep mine private.

  That didn’t stop me from replaying them over and over in my head every night, though. Then I’d get hot and bothered, and the only way to get to sleep was to relieve the ache myself, imagining the whole time that it was Oliver’s fingers touching me down there. The man had me obsessed.

  But I didn’t want it any other way.

  “I hear you had a proposal?” I said to Oliver over dinner the next evening. He’d muttered something about a bad day, and I tried to lighten the mood.

  He managed a smile. “Yes, I did. The cameras missed the one who got inside and flashed her breasts at me.”

  I couldn’t help giggling. “Are you serious?”

  “It’s crazy. I got some attention when I used to do trials, but nothing like this. Ethan’s brought all the kooks out of the woodwork. He’s got this woman who keeps sending him socks with his face knitted into them.”

  “That’s, er…sweet?”

  “That’s what Dan said, but he’s still freaked.”

  “So have you had any weird gifts?”

  He got up and returned with his briefcase, then rummaged through it.

  “This arrived at the firm yesterday. My secretary had a fit.”

  I took the scrap of material he held out and burst into laughter.

  “It’s a thong? An elephant-shaped thong?”

  “Who even came up with that idea?”

  “I don’t know, but you have to wear it.”

  “No, I don’t.” He pulled the offending item out of my hands and threw it across the room. “I’m going to burn it.”

  “Spoilsport.”

  “And proud of it.”

  “The Ghost’s giving evidence today,” Imogen told me, two weeks into the trial. “He turned up to court in a mask, and they had to call extra police in.”

  I felt sorry for Ethan and what he was going through. When I thought he’d killed Chrissie, I’d wished every kind of evil upon him, but I changed my mind when I got to know him. I wasn’t the only person this trial was taking its toll on.

  When Ethan finished, twelve-year-old Caleb testified by video link, and then Dan took her turn. Because of Oliver’s long-standing friendship with her, which was apparently allowed as it predated the trial, his co-counsel took over the questioning, and I knew it hurt Oliver to watch her on the stand. As the main witness, Dan’s testimony took over a week and left Oliver visibly drained.

  But Dan was one of those people you couldn’t keep down, and she and Ethan snuck into Oliver’s apartment and joined us for dinner one evening.

  “Thank fuck that’s over.” She flung her coat over an armchair and flopped onto one of the sofas. “I need wine.”

  Oliver came back moments later with a bottle of red and four glasses. “Speak for yourself. Two of us are still going.”

  “Sorry. But Mortimer Granville’s an asshole. He’s so fucking arrogant I want to punch his teeth out.”

  “He’s a defence lawyer. He’s only doing his job. People have accused me of the same thing.”

  “Yeah, but Granville’s a jackal. He stalks you then goes in for the kill. And afterwards, he circles like a vulture and picks off what’s left.”

  “Dan, stop talking.”

  “Actually, he’s more like a rattlesnake. Sneaky.”

  “Dan…” Oliver glanced in my direction. “Shut the fuck up.”

  “And he kept staring at my tits. Stef, when it’s your turn, wear something baggy. The man’s a pervert.”

  Oliver sighed. “Yes. Wear something baggy. You’d look good in a burka.”

  “I’ll wear something demure, okay? Can we change the subject now?”

  Dan’s words left me feeling queasy. I had two days until my day in court, if everything went according to plan, and I was dreading it. In all honesty, a burka didn’t sound like a bad idea, because that way I’d avoid the hordes of photographers hanging around outside.

  “Thank you for doing this,” Ethan said quietly.

  “It’s for Chrissie as well, and all those other girls.”

  Dan clapped her hands. “Enough! Enough talking about shit we can’t do anything about tonight. Let’s eat Rhodium’s finest and focus on the happier things in life. Like vacations. I fucking need one after this.”

  By the time we got to dessert, Dan and Ethan had decided to take Caleb on his first skiing trip, and I’d found out Oliver grew up in Colorado and hated snow. What else didn’t I know about him?

  Almost everything, but I was too tired to find out tonight. I needed my bed. Funny how I’d come to think of that room at Oliver’s as mine, wasn’t it? Especially when all I had in there was a few toiletries on the vanity in the bathroom and a handful of spare underwear stuffed in a lonely drawer.

  “You don’t have to get home to Caleb tonight?” I asked Dan as we stumbled from the dining room.

  “He’s having a sleepover with Vine and Trick. Bradley’s allegedly supervising, but as long as the emergency services don’t get called, I can live with it.”

  Dan was such a laid-back mom, but it was clear how much she loved that boy. I only hoped I could emulate her one day. But not with Oliver. I was sure of that much, and it hurt. Even more so when he walked off to the master suite, leaving me to go to the guest corridor with Dan. That left me feeling rejected, like I was good enough to eat dinner with but not good enough to keep.

  She caught me staring after him, and in her typical way, she knew exactly what I was thinking.

  “Don’t be upset by it. He’s doing this in the only way he knows how. He never spends the night with anyone.”

  “Even Kelly?”

  “Kelly slept in the room at the other end of the corridor. He wanted her as far away as possible.” She gave me a sad smile. “Your room belonged to Darcy.”

  And on that bombshell, she joined Ethan in their room, leaving me alone and more befuddled than ever.

  CHAPTER 31

  I TOOK DAN’S advice to he
art, and for my day in court, I dressed appropriately—a loose, knee-length skirt, a boring cream blouse with a big bow at the neck, and a shapeless navy-blue blazer. My flat shoes were the unsexiest I could find and would have been more at home on an octogenarian.

  “How do I look?” I asked Imogen, giving her a twirl.

  “Like an advert for celibacy. I definitely wouldn’t do you.”

  “Good. That’s what I was hoping for.”

  “But you’ll be on TV. Don’t you want to look good?”

  “Nope. I want to look dull, boring, and unmemorable.”

  “In that case, you’re perfect.”

  Even Oliver did a double take when he saw me. We met at Rhodes, Holden and Maxwell beforehand, and he looked delicious in yet another made-to-measure suit.

  “Nice shoes, grandma.”

  “Very funny. You were the one who told me to dress like this.”

  “Actually, it was Dan. I just agreed with her.” He leaned closer. “But I’ll be the one to peel you out of that ugly outfit later, princess.”

  Roy strode over, briefcase in hand, and stopped things from getting any more heated.

  “What’s the plan?” he asked.

  “Miss Amor would rather avoid the media, so I’ll distract them while you take her inside.”

  Roy smirked at Oliver. “Planning to add to your collection of panties?”

  “Huh?” I stared at him.

  “The ladies have been throwing underwear at Oliver here. Not sure pink’s his colour, though.”

  A vision of Oliver in something lacy popped into my mind, and pink certainly became my colour. I turned away to hide my blush while Oliver darted into his office for his briefcase. Then we could put it off no longer. It was time to go.

  Oliver rode to the court building on North Ninth Street each day in a town car, and today, Roy and I caught a ride with him. I heard the shouts from outside before he opened the door, and the second he got out, the cameras started flashing.

  Roy rolled his eyes. “Don’t know how that guy does it. He’s got this weird natural charisma that makes women flock to him, but he never shows the slightest interest.”