Hollywood's Baddest

by Susan Westwood

  Abby was at full attention. “Really? What else is there?” she asked with hushed fascination.

  Alexis knit her brow and bit at her lower lip. “He’s got some good qualities. I thought he was this kind of… jackass, I guess.” At this, Abby gasped as if the words that her sister had just spoken were sacrilege, but Alexis continued, “but you know what… he’s doing some good things. He’s definitely driven to go after what he wants,” she said with a note of chagrin at the thought of him getting so close to her and flirting with her so much.

  “But… he does some good things. One of them is that he volunteers to teach acting and stage arts to kids in underdeveloped neighborhoods at a community center, and it’s a big secret. No one knows about it, and he wants it kept that way so that the kids he teaches and coaches can keep him there and learn from him, rather than being bombarded by other kids and swarms of media.”

  Abby’s mouth fell open. “You’re kidding!” she squealed and clasped her hands together excitedly. “That’s just what I love about him! He has so many layers, and you never know about them all! I love that he does that! Do you know, I’m not at all surprised. That’s just exactly the kind of thing that he would do, and it’s so wonderful!

  Those kids are going to grow up so rewarded with that, and so lucky. I bet he even helps some of them get into the business! What a guy! What a great guy.” She grinned blissfully and Alexis rolled her eyes, knowing that Lucas wasn’t all great.

  “Ab, let’s not forget that he didn’t earn that nickname of being ‘Hollywood’s Bad Boy’ for nothing. He’s not a saint, Abby. Not by a long shot. He just does some nice things.” Alexis stated pointedly, and her sister shrugged and waved her hand dismissively.

  “I don’t care if he’s a bad boy or not. He’s a good bad boy.” Abby said with certainty.

  “There’s no such thing.” Alexis told her firmly.

  She changed the subject then and they talked about Abby’s work and different things that were going on in their lives. When dinner was over, Abby made Alexis promise to keep her in the loop and then they bade each other good night and Alexis went home.

  She tried to keep her mind on anything but Lucas, but she just couldn’t do it. Even watching television didn’t help, because as she flipped through the movie channels, his face came up a couple of times and she had to turn the television off and try to distract her mind with a long hot shower.

  By the time she fell asleep, she was exhausted, and her mind did her no favors that night. Deep in her dreams, the feelings she had been fighting seemed to come to life, and she found him looking for her, speaking to her in that soft quiet voice he had used when he said in her ear that she was a distraction for him.

  Her body heated and she burned with desire and could not resist him any longer. He took her into his arms, kissing her passionately, pulling her clothes from her, touching her body everywhere and making love to her over and over again in her dreams.

  She dreamed of them making love in so many places, all over his home; in his bedroom, on his desk in the office, in the pool on a hot day, both of them wet and ravenously hungry for one another, and in her dreams there were no inhibitions, no rules, nothing to stop them from having each other and loving every single minute of it. She felt no shame in her dream, only desire and blissful happiness and release, and in her dreams, she wanted him just as much as he wanted her. Together their desire exploded in a bonfire of passion, consuming them both and exceeding their every fantasy.

  When she woke up, she could still feel the physical need for him, and it both horrified and embarrassed her. She tried to push it from her mind, telling herself that she had no business thinking about a client that way, and that she could not ever think of him that way again. She also didn’t want to let any thoughts into her mind that might lead to encouraging him any further than he had already gone with her.

  She dressed for work and focused all of her thoughts and energies on working on his case when she got to her desk that morning. Bea brought her coffee and told her that Anderson Nolan had called to see if she was in that morning, so Alexis wasn’t too surprised when he walked through her office door a short while later, and sat across from her at her desk.

  She closed the file she had been working on; Lucas’ file, and she met the old man’s gaze. It was a penetrating gaze, and one that seemed always to take in, but never to reveal what might be going on behind it. She guessed that that might be part of what made him a great and formidable attorney.

  Anderson tipped his head, looking at her thoughtfully. “How are you doing, Alexis?” he asked intently. She knew that he meant much more than what he had asked her in such a simple way.

  She smiled and looked back at him brightly. “I’m great! I am keeping busy with several cases, and working hard.” she knew it sounded trite, but she wanted to sound upbeat for him. She wasn’t feeling upbeat, so sounding that way was the next best thing that she could do.

  His expression was purely stoic. “How is the Lucas Ryan case going?” he asked patiently.

  Alexis knew that she was going to have to be totally honest with him. There was no other way to handle it. “Well… to tell you the truth, I interviewed him twice in person and I even went over to his house once to see if I could find anything that might help his case; some kind of evidence or anything at all that might be useful, but there wasn’t anything there, and there was nothing he said during either interview that might help us. He is claiming that he’s innocent, and there just hasn’t been anything that’s come up to solidly back that up.”

  “You’d better find something.” He stated pointedly.

  She swallowed and nodded. “Of course, I’m still looking. I’m not going to stop until I have created a solid defense for him. This case of his is my top priority right now.” She answered him, knowing that it was exactly what he wanted to hear her say, and also knowing that it was far and away the truth.

  “Well, Alexis, you’re going to have to find something and find it fast. The arraignment has been set for three days from today. I was just notified and thought that I would come down and tell you in person.” He leaned closer to her, his eyes steady on hers. “This has to be an airtight case. Nothing can go wrong with it. You absolutely have to prove him innocent. You understand that, don’t you, Alexis? You fully understand just how important this case is?”

  She nodded. “I do indeed.” She said calmly, though her heart was about to beat right out of her chest and she thought the blood screaming through her veins just then might give her a heart attack.

  “Good.” He answered, standing up and looking down at her. “There has not ever been a higher profile case in the history of this firm, and that is saying something. This one is setting a precedence, and we must meet that challenge with absolute success.”

  “I understand.” She said in the same assured tone.

  He nodded and let himself out of her office, closing the door behind him. The moment the latch clicked, she dropped her head down into her hands and prayed that something; anything, would come up that would give her a break in the case and make it possible for her to prove that Lucas Ryan was innocent of the drug charges filed against him.

  It seemed to her at that moment like a Herculean task; and one that was completely insurmountable. She had committed herself to it, and she was giving everything in herself to see it through and make sure that they realized a successful outcome for the case, but in her heart there was a deeply seeded fear that she was standing on the tip of the iceberg of her failure, and the very worst possibility was that she would bring the whole firm down with her in flames if she failed.

  She wiped a stress tear from her eyelashes and steadied her breath, and then reached for the telephone, moving forward, even if it was a single step at a time.

  She dialed Lucas’s number and hoped that he would answer, but he didn’t, and she got his voicemail.

  “Lucas, this is Alexis Harper. I just wanted to let you know that the arraig
nment is set for three days from now. I’m going to email the details to you. You have to be there for it; you absolutely cannot miss it, so please send me a confirmation that you’ll show up. Thank you.” She hung up, hoping that she hadn’t sounded as if she had no faith in him at all. She felt like she didn’t have any faith in him, but she didn’t want him to know that.

  Thinking about the call that she had gotten from Warren the day she had gone to Lucas’ house, she picked up the phone and her next call was to Warren. He answered right away. “Hello?”

  “Warren? This is Alexis Harper from the Nolan law firm. I wanted to let you know that the arraignment has been set for three days from now. Lucas absolutely has to be there for it.” She hoped that Warren would take it as seriously as it should be taken. “I tried to call Lucas to tell him, but I got his voicemail, so I just left him a message. He has to know about this, and he has to show up. Would you mind getting the message to him please?”

  “Yes, of course. Lucas is busy working today, which is why he didn’t answer his phone, but I will get the message to him, and I will make sure that he is there for the arraignment.” His voice was steady and polite.

  “Thank you so much, Warren, I appreciate that.” She felt a slight ripple of relief to know that someone close to Lucas was taking care of things for him.

  “That’s my job.” He answered, and they bid each other goodbye.

  She hung up the phone hoping with everything in her that Lucas would be there and that nothing would go wrong. They had to talk about how he was going to plead and what his chances at that point were of fighting a successful battle in the courtroom. She felt sorry about thinking it, or even more than that, knowing it, but if they were to walk into the courtroom for his trial in three days, instead of for his arraignment, he’d be thrown in prison and there would be no way for her to stop that from happening.

  She worked hard that day and all of the next day on his case, doing everything she could as far as researching other similar cases and digging up history on Lucas to try to find something; anything, that might help him.

  The next morning she was sitting at her desk still hard at work when her phone rang and she didn’t look to see who it was, she just reached over and picked it up to answer it.

  “This is Alexis.” She said politely.

  “Alexis…” came a familiar drawl, “this is Lucas. I got your voicemail and wanted to call you back.”

  She could hear that sexy smile in his voice and her cheeks flushed just at the sound of it. “Oh, thank you. I appreciate your calling me back. So, you got the message about the arraignment? It’s the day after tomorrow.”

  “Yes, I did get that, thank you. Warren mentioned it as well. I’ll be there for it.” He confirmed, and she breathed a huge sigh of relief.

  “Thank you, Lucas, I’m glad to hear that you’ll be there. We need to talk about it. We need to go over what the courtroom procedure will be, what your plea will be, and what will happen depending on how you plead. When do you have time to talk between now and then?” she asked, hoping they could get it out of the way quickly.

  He chuckled softly. “Well, I was thinking it would be nice if you could come by here. You’re doing so much for me and being such a big help, that I thought I would make dinner for you and spoil you a little bit. What do you think, can you come by tonight? We can talk about the case and get that all squared away.”

  She closed her eyes. Dinner with clients was something she never did. It was something she considered unprofessional unless it was a business meeting that couldn’t be done at any other time. She thought about it carefully and realized that this was probably one of those times and that her immediate apprehension to having dinner with him at his house probably had more to do with the way that he flirted with her and the way that she responded to it deep inside that made her want to say no.

  She realized that if she acted professionally with him the whole time she was with him, that nothing would go wrong and that she would be able to clearly communicate with him the importance of the arraignment and how it would all go.

  Sighing in resignation, she rolled her eyes and nodded. “Yes, I guess I could come by for dinner. Thank you, Lucas, that’s very thoughtful of you.”

  “Great! I’ll look for you around five, if that works. You can help me with it a little, and we’ll talk business, and then we can eat in peace.” It sounded to her as if he had the whole evening planned out already. She closed her eyes and stopped her mind before her thoughts went any further than that.

  “Okay. See you at five. Thank you,” she said politely, and she bid him goodbye and ended the call.

  It would be fine, she promised herself, it was nothing more than a business dinner with her client. Telling herself that fact did nothing to temper the butterflies that were beginning to zoom around in the low depths of her belly as she thought of eating dinner with him at his home.

  She scolded herself silently and turned her attention back to the work she was doing, making herself let go of all the thoughts in her mind except those which has nothing to do with Lucas Ryan.

  She didn’t let herself think about it until she went home from work that afternoon to get ready for dinner, and found herself standing in front of her closet, trying to decide what to wear. Deciding what to wear was almost never a problem for her, as most of her day to day wardrobe consisted of suits with dress pants or a skirt. She had considered wearing a suit, but it just didn’t seem right for a dinner; not even a business dinner. It was too much. She knew it would be a casual evening, and she didn’t want to over dress for it.

  Several minutes later, she settled on a butter cream colored sundress that fitted her form well without showing too much skin. She thought as she stood before her full length mirror, turning left and right, that it flattered her figure without revealing more than she wanted him to see. She paired it with sandals and a simple sea shell necklace and after a few long moments of arguing with herself over whether or not to wear her hair up, she finally gave up and decided to let it hang down.

  It fell straight and thick to her waist, and she thought as she looked at her reflection, that she was staring at the rare image of herself in a relaxed state; or as relaxed as she had been in a long time. She smiled at her reflection, liking what she saw, and telling herself that it was going to be a nice evening and that she should enjoy herself.

  She parked in front of his house and tried to steady her nerves as they danced about beneath her mocha skin. She went to the door and rang the bell, holding the bottle of exquisite wine in her hand with a death grip.

  He answered the door with a smile, looking as casual as he had the last time he had welcomed her to his home, except that he was wearing a button down short sleeved shirt that was only buttoned partway, and which clung perilously close to his rock solid muscles.

  She stared at him for a moment and then looked away as soon as she realized what she was doing, but he had seen her, and it made him grin at her. Her cheeks warmed as they often did around him, and she handed the bottle of wine to him.

  “Here, I brought this for dinner. I hope it goes well with whatever we’re having. I guess I should have asked first, and then I could have gotten something that would work for the meal.” She felt a little flustered and was doing her best not to show it.

  He gave his head a shake and winked at her. “This is perfect. Thank you, that was thoughtful of you.” He looked at her fully then, his eyes following her body from her head to her feet and then back up again. He took his time taking her in, and she felt her heart race under his gaze.

  “You look beautiful, and I love that you wore your hair down. It’s gorgeous. You should wear it down more often.” He smiled at her and reached his hand up near her face, taking a thick strand of her hair in his fingertips and sliding them gently down the length of it. Her breath caught and she did her level best not to show it. He watched her face the entire time, as if he was reading a book that she hoped was closed. He let go
of her hair and winked at her. “Well, are you ready to come help me in the kitchen?” he asked with a wink.

  She nodded silently and hoped that she could slow her heart down and do something to catch her breath before he noticed all the effects he was having on her. She followed him into the kitchen, and as she walked through the doorway, she was delighted to find that she liked it even more when it was being used. There was a soft glow to it that felt welcoming and warm, with the lights on, candles lit, music playing softly in the background, and a variety of things cooking on the stove. It felt like a home, and it made her smile.

  “What can I do to help you?” she asked, forcing herself to search for some kind of normalcy between them.

  He set the bottle of wine on the counter and took her by the hand around the island, stopping before a cutting board that was laden with lettuce and around which had an array of vegetables. “You get to make the salad, if you don’t mind, please.” he answered with a smile.

  She took a breath and let it out slowly, and some of the tension in her went with it. “Salad! I can do that.” She picked up the knife and began to slice and dice away when he looked at her as he opened the wine.

  “You know, I don’t let many women have a big knife around me on the very first date.” He winked at her and her breath caught in her throat. She looked at him with wide eyes.

  “Date?” she asked in a slight panic.

  He poured the wine for them into wine glasses and walked over to her slowly, his eyes on hers the entire time. “Well… I’d like to think of this as a date. You can think of it as a date too, if you want to. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

  She took the wine from him and shook her head. “I don’t date clients.” She replied quietly.

  “Well then you’re fired. There. Matter settled, yes?” he grinned at her and her mouth fell open as she stared at him.

  He laughed at her and gave his head a shake. “I’m just kidding. You can think of this as business if you want to.” He held his wine glass up to hers. “Cheers.”