Jesus, this man was the definition of Asshole in every essence.

I’d sat here in the meeting room with Devon and his PA for over an hour while he dictated to me what he wanted me to do.

I didn’t know who the hell he thought I was but he must have taken my usual light hearted manner to mean I could be easily controlled.

Or, that I would turn a blind eye to the obvious lascivious manner in which he looked at Summer.

She sat at the little desk that was set up with a laptop and stationary so she could take minutes for the meeting and do her thing without any distraction. It was off to the corner of the room but aligned so both myself and Devon could see her.

Her cheeks looked flushed and even though she typed away, she looked uncomfortable.

She’d lived with me for a total of ten days now.

I’d miraculously managed not to kiss her, or do anything of a sexual nature.

It was torture, but I managed.

To say she was beautiful was an understatement. She had the kind of beauty that would make you want to stare, but in the way that would tell her you were admiring her.

The way Devon, a man of sixty five years old, looked at her made me feel like I would get up from this chair and pulverize him.

Celeste, his fucking hell spawn, was the same age as Summer. I didn’t know how men like him could be like that, and I really hoped that I didn’t come across as creepy or leery whenever I looked at a woman.

“I’m certain that you should have this in the bag. The prosecution doesn’t have a case. I have shown every step of the way that I was offering good customer care. It’s the woman’s meddlesome nephew that’s trying to take advantage of a situation, and my company.” Devon said with furrowed brows.

I continued to look at him and wondered if he was seriously going to be like this for the whole time.

The way I saw it, the outcome could go either way, but we actually had a strong case.

Mrs. Denman, a war widow of fifty years old was the woman suing. She’d been contacted by a broker in Devon’s company who wanted to tell her of a great investment opportunity. There was a new metal called silveranium being mined in the Ivory Coast in Africa. It became quite popular in use in the medical world. It was all trial and tests at the moment but there was a lot of talk about it for its anti-cancer properties.

Mrs. Denman bought twenty thousand dollars’ worth of shares in Silveranium Tech one of the companies that had jumped on board to benefit from the profit. When she bought the shares business looked like it was booming. But then a few weeks later the shares plummeted and practically became worthless.

I’d done a bit of research and saw that there was talk of one of the medical trials going wrong, but it was inconclusive as to whether that was from the silveranium dosage. It looked like that was what caused the share price to fall so dramatically. But then I noted that Silveranium Tech was a new company that didn’t really have a share history of any length of time that anyone could make much assessments from.

I didn’t dig deeper than that because it all appeared to be one of those instances where a risky investment hadn’t worked out. There wasn’t much anyone could do when that happened because of the risk involved.

Mrs. Denman was however suing because she felt she’d been given information that misrepresented what she was putting her money into, and because she felt the broker should have analyzed the market more before advising her to purchase the shares.

She suffered a heart attack when she heard the news and was claiming emotional distress for that reason. She’d spent her entire life savings on it because it was a sure deal.

I looked over the files and the allegations raised by the prosecution, tried very hard to find fault with Devon’s company, but so far found nothing.

Devon’s company had actually taken extra steps to warn the woman of the risks. She even signed a disclaimer that excused them of liability because they were only acting in an information only capacity. They weren’t providing the advice they normally gave for other investments.

Things like gold, and shares in established long standing companies were what they gave ground advice on and even allocated a wealth management advisor to their clients if they took on a huge investment of that nature.

To settle the suit Devon was willing to offer the woman her money back, but she was suing for seventy thousand dollars. That included medical treatment her insurance didn’t cover, plus her loss of earnings due to being off work and not being able to work for the few months until she got signed off from her doctors.

I had to admit that this was the first time I’d be wrong.

Although, I still had a feeling in my gut that told me something wasn’t right, it all seemed legit. Didn’t make me like the guy anymore but I guess that I could put my indifference towards him aside.

Whatever I felt, I couldn’t let it get to me because that would be shooting myself in the foot. This case was my own trial, and I had a lot weighing on it. From my understanding I just had to do my best, and what I would normally do. Whether the outcome was favorable or not to Devon.

“I can assure you I’ll address everything.” I said templing my fingers and bringing them up to my chin. The settlement meeting was set for eight weeks’ time. Long enough for both sides to prepare. “I’ll look into the case thoroughly.”

“Make sure you do,” Devon nodded. “You know what these people can be like.”

“She’s lost a lot, it’s understandable that she’s pissed. But looks like you took the steps you needed to excuse liability.”

Summer tapped away at the keyboard and Devon turned his attention to her looking straight at her breasts.

His eyes lingered there. Feeling his gaze on her she lifted her head and looked at him.

She looked away and frowned.

That was it. I’d had enough. If I was going to work with him then we’d need to set out some ground rules.

I stood up and walked over to her, then bent low to whisper into her ear.

“Angel, go to the office and wait for me.” I told her trying to keep my voice low.

“Don’t you need me to take notes?” She replied, whispering back.

“Summer, if this man looks at you like he has been one more time I will kill him and end up on trial for murder.” I told her straight.

She turned so she could look me in the eye, surprised by my words. But, at the same time looking grateful.

I held her gaze, finding myself falling into the depth of that wondrous color that filled her beautiful eyes.

I wasn’t above staying like this forever, frozen in time staring at each other. Breaking the contact I stepped back and nodded, giving her approval to go.

“Are you sure?” I liked that she was so professional, willing to stay and do her job even though this creep was being such an ass.

“Yes, plus I’m about to give this jerk some hard words. I don’t want you to hear me talk that way.” I knew I was going to lose my cool and didn’t want her around for it.

She gave me a little smile and then got up to leave.

The minute she went through the door and closed it behind her I walked over to Devon, sat on the edge of the desk and stared him down.

“Why’d you send her away? She was a nice sight for sore eyes. New girl? I like her more than the last. She has a nice rack.” He winked at me like we were old buddies.

All the time he talked I just stared at him, and stared, and stared until he seemed to get the message that I wasn’t impressed.

“Look Devon, first things first don’t ever look at my PA again, ever. You’re old and I would hate to beat you to a pulp.”

Devon looked taken aback. “That’s hardly called for. I was simply making a statement. She’s a beautiful woman, and I know what you’re like so don’t play saint with me.”

He straightened up, taking on a cocky, authoritative attitude.

“Devon, you and I haven’t had the privilege to really talk like this. Man to man. I’m a serious guy when I want to be. I take my job very seriously, and those I work with even more serious. Don’t fuck with me. Don’t do it. And don’t cross me either, or test me.” I made sure there was solid eye contact so he could see the depth of my seriousness.

“Noted.” He cocked his head to the side.

“Good. Next thing. Is this everything? Do I have everything from your side?”

That was me trying to make sure I’d covered all bases and settled the concerns I had.

“Everything you need to know is in the file.” He gave me an assessing look. “Also, I would appreciate if we can wrap this up outside of court. I don’t want any bad publicity.”

From all that I read I couldn’t see the settlement meeting working. It would actually be better to take the case to court where a judge could make a sound decision.

“If you want this out of court, you’ll have to give something more than what you’re offering.” I advised.

“I’m willing to give her, her money back. She should be lucky I’m going to do that. It’s not fair for her to blame us because things didn’t go as she hoped.” He argued with stubbornness.

I knew how these things went. Sure giving her the money back was good but I doubted that it would cover all her newfound expenses. “It’s up to you, but I suggest you offer more if it’s that important to keep the case out of court.

“More like how much? I’m not giving her seventy grand.”

“Then we go to court. It’s the best place to be, and you won’t have to give anything back if we win, which is likely.”

“I don’t want the case to get that far, Alex.” He eyed me sharply and that spiked my nerves again, making me suspicious.

Okay… I was going to go back to my former stance and assume there was something else at work here.

Some level of guilt.

But in terms of what?

Everything did look legit to me, but something told me it was more than just bad publicity he was worried about. If he did everything right he would be fine.

Unless if he didn’t and what I was seeing was what he wanted me to see.

“Let’s just see how the settlement meeting goes.”

He looked antsy when I said that. “The goal needs to be to settle out of court. You do your job and make it happen. Talk them into accepting a refund and not a cent more. I know this case is of great value to you. I wouldn’t want to see you work so hard only to have Johnson get the senior partnership and not you.”

I didn’t think that my father would have told him about that, and knowing they’d discussed me in that way made me feel unnerved.

What was more unnerving was the air of threat in Devon’s tone. I didn’t like it.

“Thank you for your concern. I can assure you, I will do my job.”

The asshole had the audacity to smile at me.

“Good boy.” He stood up.

I watched him go and stayed where I was for a few minutes thinking about what just happened.

The paperwork looked legit, what didn’t feel legit was Devon himself.

I could do my best to settle out of court, but there was only so much I could do. I couldn’t control what happened and he hadn’t exactly given me much to work with.

I sighed with frustration not wanting to think about this anymore.

I stood up and went to find Summer.

She was in my office standing by the window. She gazed ahead at the surrounding skyscrapers, admiring it all.

I looked her over, doing my own admiring of the way the clothes looked on her perfect body. They were simple, but the woman herself enhanced it.

Her silk top was powder pink with a lace high collar that graced her elegant neck. She had it tucked into a black flair skirt that stopped at the top of her thighs. She carried off the elegance by pulling that gorgeous mass of blonde hair into a pony tail.

Hearing me come in she turned to me and smiled.

“Are you okay?” I moved over to her, concerned that she might be upset by Devon.

“Yeah. I’m fine.” Summer nodded seeming as okay as I could tell. She didn’t have the flush in her cheeks she previously had in the meeting room. Her smile actually brightened. “You should have let me stay.”

“He was being an asshole.” I furrowed my brows and frowned.

“I’m used to assholes.” She shrugged lifting her delicate shoulders.

“Not on my watch, and I hope you don’t mean me. I can be sometimes.”

She laughed at that. I relished the sound as it filled the space between us and soothed my troubled mind. I used to hear my father talk about my mother’s laugh all the time but I didn’t get it. A laugh was just a laugh to me until I heard Summer laugh the other day.

I kind of understood what he meant then. It wasn’t only the sound of the laugh, it was how it left you feeling after.

“Of course I don’t mean you.” She shook her head at me and the ends of her ponytail bobbled and the little curl at the end flicked over her shoulder. “What did you say to him?”

I looked out to the scene she’d previously been staring at of the surrounding city. “Nothing good, angel.” I turned back to her. “Did you read through the full file?” I was interested to know what she thought.

There was a twinkle in her eyes as she nodded. “I did. Interesting case.”

“What did you think about it?”

“Me? You seriously want my take on this?”

“I do.” She seemed to have formed an opinion.

“It all looks like they did things properly, but what gets me is the amount of money Mrs. Denman invested. It was a risky transaction, plus it was the first time she worked with them. I’d be more inclined to side with the prosecution argument that she needed more guidance.”

“What about the disclaimer?” Well hell. Since she was on a roll I thought why not let’s bounce opinions off each other.

“The documents they gave her had a lot of information, and looked like everything she needed to know so the disclaimer could hold, but I think we’d have trouble with the other things that happened and how their meetings were conducted.”

“Tell me more.” I looked at her giving more attention to her words.

“I think that even though she signed a disclaimer to excuse their liability, when dealing with that amount of money a company like them would have been required to do a little more than what they did.”

I simply looked at her, mesmerized by her intelligence and her beauty.

“You make smart look sexy, how do you do that?”

My comment threw her and she pressed her lips together.

“I’m not doing anything.”

“That’s the best kind of sexy, imagine what would happen to me if you made an effort.” I liked watching her struggle to not like me.

As far as coincidences had ever gone in my life this was the best one. I was having a hard time though being around her.

I still wanted her back in my bed.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” She blushed.

“You’re the smart one, you just picked up on something I didn’t consider in the case. How about you tell me why?” I challenged.

“No.” She tried to get past me but I stopped her and took her hand, holding it.

“Let’s get out of here, call it a day.”

“Alex it’s eleven o’clock. I have to go type up the minutes and organize the appointments for the rest of clients.”

“Do they need to see me today?”

“No. But I promised to call and make the arrangements for next week.”

“Great, you can do that tomorrow. Let’s go out.” I kept my gazed fixed on hers.

“Out, where?”

Bringing her hand up to my lips I kissed her knuckles and kept her hand at my cheek.

“Out.” I felt her pulse quicken.

“And do what?”

“What do you want to do with me, angel?” I teased.

“I have work to do.” She smiled coyly.

“I mean it we’re done for the day.”

I released her hand and backed off my jacket. I took off my tie too, undid the top buttons on my shirt and ruffled my hair so I looked more casual.

“But…”

“Baby, there’s no but’s come on let’s get out of here. Enough’s enough.”

“Where are we going?”

“You need to see Chicago and I need to gather my thoughts.” I had an idea.

I wanted to get her out of the place but in all seriousness, I didn’t sit in my office contemplating for hours like my father or Preston when something was bugging me. I got outside and did things.

There was something off about everything, and I felt that the person I needed to speak to was my father.

But not yet. Time for some fun.

Summer had been in my house for more than a week and I’d only kissed her once. I’d been good.

Time to take things up a notch.