The Hot Brother (Romance Love Story) (Hargrave Brothers - Book #5) by Alexa Davis (106)

Kola Kitanabu

Ellie

 

We’re sitting on the beach, Nick and I. I’m lazily watching the deep ocean waters swell in the distance.

It’s been one year since Jacque took the helm at Stingray and the company’s prospering. I am still waiting for my own robot Pomeranian, though.

Everywhere around me, things are so well-kept. When Nick gave that money to the people of Kola Kitanabu, they put it to good use. No one’s building a mansion in this rainforest.

People still recognize Nick everywhere, but thankfully, fewer recognize me. In the States, some people walk up to Nick to shake his hand while others walk up to tell him what a jerk they think he is.

I guess that’s the way it’s going to be, though.

Right now, Nick and I are celebrating our engagement. I have to say, with all his money and taste, I was hoping for more than the standard down-on-one-knee with a ring proposal, but he’s got a while to make it up to me.

I reach over and snatch my champagne glass and take a sip.

It’d be great to say we never had to deal with Stingray anymore, but even as Jacque has brought the company all the way around and even started breaking internal profit records, he still calls Nick at least once a day to ask advice on how to deal with this person or that. At least they got him to talk in front of people without sounding like an angsty teenager.

It took a while.

Max is standing at the edge of the shore, biting at the waves as they come over him. Sammie’s pooping in the sand. This is the life.

Naomi steps to the side of my beach lounger and says, “Trevor has the car ready whenever the two of you would like to go.”

For the last six months, Naomi’s been my personal bodyguard. I know they say it’s not a job for family, but at the same time, she’s the most conniving person I know, and if anyone’s going to try anything, she will have already thought of it first.

“Are you just going to sit there drinking or are you going to acknowledge that I’m speaking to you?” she asks.

I look over at Nick. He says, “Thank you, Naomi. That should be all for now.”

My sister walks off with a grunt and I finally ask the question. “Why don’t you like Naomi?” I ask. “You’ve been civil with her for a long time now, but you didn’t like her from the first time I introduced you to her.”

“That was the first time you introduced me to her,” he says, “but it wasn’t the first time I met her. At Mulholland Junior High, the jocks were the worst to me physically, but she was the worst to me psychologically. It wasn’t even a race, either. She was just flat-out brutal.”

“Yeah, but what did she do?” I ask. “She must have done something to make you hold that grudge so long.”

“I’d rather not talk about it,” he says.

I clear my throat and hold up my left hand, making a big show of his diamond ring on my finger.

He sighs. “I was in drama class one day, and she was in there talking to one of her friends. She wasn’t even in the class, but she was always in there anyway. It always bugged me that the teachers just went along with it.”

“That’s it?” I ask.

His face goes a deep shade of red, but he says, “Yeah.” In a rushed voice, he says, “That’s what it was. They just let her get away with everything.”

“I don’t buy it,” I tell him. “What’d she do?”

“We had a substitute teacher one day,” he says. “Her name was Miss Trilby, and despite the fact she was teaching teenagers, she wasn’t too cautious about the way she dressed. So I’m sitting there and I have to ask her this question, but I don’t want to because I had a raging boner from staring at her chest from the back of the classroom and I didn’t want her to know. But I was a teenager, and she was wearing a very low-cut top, and it was making it impossible for me to pay attention to what she was actually teaching.”

“You’ve really come a long way, haven’t you?” I tease.

He rolls his eyes. “Long story short, Naomi noticed and she didn’t just blab, she pointed. I was there with my legs crossed and a coat on my lap, but everyone was laughing and Miss Trilby was up there with a red face, shaking her head.”

“Oh my god,” I say, setting my champagne glass back on the small table between and behind us. “You’re the kid Naomi was calling the lumberjack.” I start laughing. Even though I know Nick does not appreciate it, I can’t help myself.

“Yeah,” he says. “Was it the worst thing to ever happen to me? Probably not, but it sure as hell felt like it at the time.”

“So,” I say, “are you about ready to call it a night? It is getting pretty late if we’re going to catch that plane back home to New York.”

After much deliberation, I decided we should keep the beach house.

“Yeah,” he says looking at me, a smile crossing those tempting full lips.

He holds up his glass, and I don’t know what’s going to happen. All the forethought in the world wouldn’t have prepared me for any of this.

Picking up my champagne flute, I clink glasses with Nick.

I’m not sure what the future will hold. I’m just glad we’ll be meeting it together.

Somewhere behind us, Naomi is shouting, “Will you come on already? It’s getting dark and I’m wearing sunglasses!”

I have to chuckle as I say the words, “So I’m marrying the lumberjack, huh?”

Nick groans.

“It’s okay, honey,” I tell him. “I’ve got your back.”

I whistle and Max comes running. He stops just in front of me, his tail wagging.

I lean forward, saying, “Max, do you see Naomi?”

Max looks past me toward the car.

I ask Max, “Do you want to give her kisses even though we all know she hates that?”

Max licks my arm and wags his tail even harder than before.

“Good boy,” I say. “Now get her!”

 

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LAW OF SEDUCTION: THE COMPLETE SERIES

By Alexa Davis

 

This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

 

Copyright © 2016 Alexa Davis

 

 

PART ONE

 

CHAPTER ONE

 

ALICIA

 

Never in my twenty-seven years on this earth have I met anyone so infuriating. I was standing in the alcove of the ballroom at the annual Thanksgiving ball the partners of my firm put on and wondering what the hell was wrong with me. I’d let Adam drag me here when I should have known better. I had no idea why we had to hide our relationship. We didn’t start seeing each other until his wife had already moved out. I don’t understand why she still has so much control over his life. He and I had begun to fight about it almost constantly.

“What is wrong with you?” Adam asked me, mirroring my very thought, “You were rubbing yourself all over Nico on the dance floor. You made a spectacle out of yourself. Is this what you meant last night when you said you refused to play the other woman?”

His green eyes were cold and unforgiving. It’s hard sometimes to believe they are the very same eyes that I had melted into the first time I looked into them. I found it funny how Adam had the ability to morph in the blink of an eye from a sweet, handsome, charming man that I could barely resist into this arrogant, condescending person standing in front of me now. What I really couldn’t understand was why I was unable to just walk away. Instead, I reduced myself to playing stupid games like dancing with Nico and even letting him kiss me when I knew for sure Adam was looking. Of course, there was no “rubbing.” I was raised by a Lord and a Lady in the U.K. and taught how to be a lady from the age of two on up. “Rubbing,” as Adam had implied, was not even in my public repertoire.

“I’m not doing anything wrong,” I told Adam, trying to feel as strong and determined as I hoped I sounded. “I’m a single young woman. I have every right to dance with a single young man.”

Adam’s dark green eyes smoldered, “Single? That’s funny. I had assumed that since you’ve spent the better part of the last six months in my bed, we were in somewhat of a relationship.”

I sighed. This conversation was already giving me a headache. Forcing myself to keep my chin up and look him in the eye, I said, “Maybe you should tell Marjorie that,” I knew full well that if he wasn’t already angry, he would be now. I didn’t care. I was sick of being the peacemaker.

“I have told you over and over that sharing our…intimate life with Marjorie will only cause her to fight that much harder to destroy me. She’ll want to take you down in the process of ruining me. I told you last night, I am doing my best to finalize this divorce so that she can be out of our lives once and for all. You know that I want nothing to do with her. The sight of her makes me sick. I don’t know what you want from me, Alicia.”

I could feel the tears forming in my eyes. I blinked them back. I refused to cry in front of him. My cheeks burned hot as I said, “If you don’t know what I want, then maybe we’ve been wasting our time all of these months.” I stared at him for a moment, and when he said nothing I went on.

I was angry now. I shouldn’t have to explain myself, but then again, I shouldn’t have put myself in this situation in the first place. “What I want, Adam, is you. I want your time and your attention. I want the Adam that you were when we first met, not the Adam who is constantly exhausted and angry from fighting all day with his soon to be ex-wife. I want a man whose arm I can be on in public. One that I can be dancing with at our own ball, instead of pretending like we’re only business associates in order to keep up appearances until your divorce is final. Imagine how it feels for me to have to watch you dancing with other women all night.”

Adam’s eyes softened and he said, “Maybe the same as it felt to watch you with Nico.” I felt a stab of guilt, but I wasn’t quite ready to give in. He reached for my hand. I let him take it and he said, “Alicia, I want all of those things, too. I am trying so hard to get Marjorie to agree to this latest settlement offer that we’ve drawn up. It’s that damn lawyer of hers. He keeps telling her to fight for more, that bastard, David Rogers. He won’t be happy until he’s goaded her into breaking me completely. He seems to have more than a professional stake in this. Maybe she's sleeping with him.”

I felt my anger ebbing away already. I’m a sap where Adam is concerned. “I know you’re trying. It’s just so damned hard feeling like we’re sneaking around all the time when we’re not even doing anything wrong. You’ve been separated for almost a year. You should be free to see whoever you want. My parents are visiting from England next month. I wanted so much for you to meet them as my boyfriend, instead of the head partner of the firm I work for.”

He pulled me in close to his chest. I felt him nuzzle his face into my hair and breathe it in. “I’ll work harder on it, I promise. Just stop going around kissing my associates, okay? I’d hate to have to beat him up after I fire him.”

Adam’s voice hadn’t changed from its somber tone, and when I stepped back to look up at him, I was a little worried that he was serious. I honestly hadn’t meant to goad him into fighting with Nico, or firing him. I’d feel so awful if I were to blame for Nico losing his job. When I saw Adam’s face, though, I knew I needn’t have worried. He had a handsome smile forming at the edges of his mouth. I knew then that he’d only been joking. I punched him in the arm lightly and with a smile of my own I said,

“You infuriate me sometimes, do you know that?”

 “Yes, I know,” he said, still smiling. He caught me off-guard then as his sexy lips came crashing down on mine. My head was chaotically telling me to walk away and make him wait until he’d finished with his divorce, but as usual, my body told me differently. I rose up on my tiptoes and leaned my body into his. Against my better judgement I returned his kiss with the fervor welling up inside of me. Just about the time I was ready to consent to getting naked in the alcove and making love right there on the floor he pulled back and said,

“We better get back before someone notices us missing,”

“Maddening, maddening, maddening,” I whispered, mostly to myself as he straightened his tie and I smoothed down my rumpled gown.

“What was that?” Adam asked, pretending not to hear me.

“I said yes of course.” My voice had a sarcastic edge to it that I’m certain he didn’t miss.

“Fantastic,” Adam said, as if settling a business deal in his favor, “We’ll talk more about this later, but thank you for being so understanding.”

I rolled my eyes and as I left the room first, I turned back to him and said, “You can bet we’ll discuss this later.”

 

********

 

 

I ended up going home alone that evening. Before the night was over, Adam received a call from the CEO of the large petroleum company our firm had begun representing recently. There was a large oil spill in the gulf, and Hanson and Partners were the attorneys for the defendants, a large and very rich company that was being sued for hundreds of millions by the EPA and others who had smelled money and jumped in on the bandwagon. Adam normally sent an associate or a junior partner when something came up late in the evening, but this new liaison with the Petroleum Company was sure to prove to be a lucrative one. Adam felt that while we were still in the courting stages at least, he should give them VIP service.

I had been disappointed at first, but once home and in my comfy yoga pants and cotton t-shirt, I decided that a night alone to think might be just what I needed to figure this all out. I made myself a cup of hot cocoa and called Kyla, my best friend. I knew she would be up because she’d been at the party I just left.

“Hi.” She always sounded like she had a smile in her voice. It was one of the many things I loved about her. “Missed me already?”

“Of course, I did,” I told her. I took a breath then and said, “I need some advice.”

“About Nico?” Kyla asked, playfully. She knew good and well that wasn’t the advice I was looking for.

With a groan, I said, “No! Did everyone see me make a fool of myself with Nico tonight?”

Kyla laughed. “Calm down, silly. I was only giving you a hard time. I saw Adam watching you and Nico dance, and I swear he had storm clouds in his eyes. Then you two disappeared for a while, and you both looked happier and a little flush when you came back. I suppose though that since I am the only one at the firm that knows the truth, I was paying much closer attention than anyone else.”

“Thank you, Kyla,” I trusted her with my and Adam’s secret because I knew she was too loyal to ever say anything to anyone. “I hope Nico didn’t get the wrong idea, though.”

“I think Nico indulged a bit much in the champagne fountain tonight. Odds are he won’t remember all that much in the morning.”

“Good. The last thing I need is another man at work angry with me.”

“Is Adam angry with you?”

“No, not anymore, anyways,” I told her. “I just don’t know what to do, though. I’m so tired of all this drama with Marjorie affecting his moods. I’m tired of pretending to everyone at work that I’m just another colleague of his. But every time I think of calling it quits, I look at him and I melt all over again. What’s wrong with me, Kyla?”

“Absolutely nothing at all,” my friend said, “You’re in love, that’s all. It can be the most wonderful, amazing, titillating, frustrating, maddening feeling you’ve ever had. It’s just confusing sometimes. I know it’s hard for you having to hide it.”

 “Well, thank you for saying nothing is wrong with me, but you’ve told me what I already know. Don’t you have any special advice that will relieve this ache in my soul? It wants to reach out to him, but I feel like I have to keep it in a cage.”

 “My advice to you is that if your soul is already involved, aching or not, you’re in too deep to get out now. Follow your heart, honey. You have a great head on your shoulders, but sometimes you get too analytical with that attorney brain of yours. Try not to overthink it, just do what your heart tells you to do. Hearts always know best in the end.”

“Thank you, Kyla. My heart loves you, too. Get some rest.”

“I will, you, too. I will see you bright and early Monday morning in court.”

“I can’t wait,” I said sarcastically with my lip curled. The case we had to be in court for on Monday had consumed every one of our waking hours for months now. I wasn’t looking forward to facing the sleazy D.A., but I was looking forward to the surprise we had for him. “The NYPD and our tacky little D.A. are going to be dumbfounded when we present the motion to suppress the confession.”

“Yep, I can’t wait to see Dawson’s face,” Kyla said.

“Me, too!” I heartily agreed. Dawson was Robert Dawson. He was the D.A. for the Manhattan borough of New York, and he was also a short, balding, and pudgy little man with beady eyes and hairy arms that thought his position of prosecutor gave him some kind of clout with the ladies. He has hit on both Kyla and me more than once. He’s a pig, and I couldn’t wait to see the look on his face when I offered up the evidence that his police detectives had coerced a confession out of my client after he had asked for a lawyer.

Our client in this case is the son of a very wealthy contractor who was already a client of the firm. The kid’s name is Nelson, and he is not very likeable at all, which makes my work even harder. It’s not really his fault. He was the product of uber rich parents who had little time to help him develop his social skills and instead gave him every material thing he could ever want. I knew, though, that the kid hadn’t done what they were accusing him of. It was all part of a political game and I had no use for people who would play games with a young man’s life, whether he’s likeable or not.

After hanging up with Kyla, I headed for bed. Just before snuggling down underneath the soft down comforter that my mother had helped me pick out just before my move to New York, my phone rang. It was Adam.

“Hi, baby. Did I wake you?” he asked.

“No, I was just lying down. I’m glad you called.”

“I wanted to say goodnight. I hope you’re not mad at me still.”

I didn’t want to get into it again right then, so I said, “No, I understand. How did the meeting go?”

Adam sighed. “This isn’t going to be pretty. A reporter from the Times has zoned in on the story and is acting as if she has taken up the Cross. She’s hounding the CEO of Brigham Mobile, no matter how many walls the company puts up to protect him. This reporter, Rose Dugan is her name; I hear she's like a dog with a bone when she gets ahold of a story. She's digging into his personal life and personal finances. She has also started beating a drum about his connection to the presidential campaign.”

“Can you get a judge to issue a gag order?” I asked.

“I wish,” he said, “Unfortunately, this was an international incident, and apparently the ‘people’ have a right to know. I’ve scheduled a meeting with Ms. Dugan in the morning. Hopefully, I can convince her to ease up…”

“Be careful. Hanson doesn’t need a reporter snapping at our heels with everything else that’s going on.”

“I will. I just wanted to say goodnight and I am thinking about you.”

   “Goodnight, Adam, sweet dreams.”

“I will be dreaming about you,” he told me.

 

CHAPTER TWO

 

ADAM

 

 

   I was running late. The meeting with the oil company had gone on and on last night and then after I’d gotten home and talked to Alicia on the phone, I couldn’t go to sleep. I wanted her in my arms. I understood why my situation would upset her. If things were reversed, I doubt I’d put up with it. I just have to find a way to make her understand that I’m doing this for us. If I let Marjorie take everything that I’ve worked for my entire life, there would be nothing left for us. I’m not willing to let that happen. Alicia and I both just had to be patient. This divorce couldn’t drag on forever.

    I rushed into the café where the reporter Rose and I had arranged to meet. I only left five minutes late but the traffic on the turnpike had been horrific and now I was running a half an hour behind. I had seen a picture of Rose under her byline in the paper so I knew her as soon as I spotted her sitting at a table alone sipping her coffee. I watched her for a moment, as she had yet to notice me. She held her coffee with one hand and sent and received text messages on her phone with the other. She looked so young to have such an important position. I smiled as I remembered having the same thought the first time Alicia had walked into my office for her job interview. I assumed it must have something to do with growing older. Everyone else seemed to be getting younger. Sometimes I couldn’t believe I was already forty. It was kind of a depressing thought.

The young lady finally looked up from her texting and I took that opportunity to gauge her expression as I approached her table. I made eye contact with her and watched her look over my three-thousand-dollar suit. I’m not pretentious. I just truly believe that how a person dresses is an extension of who they are both personally and professionally. I thought I detected a change in the confident expression the young woman had pasted on her face. It was very brief, but I recognized anxiety when I saw it. Holding out my hand as I approached the table, I said, “Ms. Dugan?”

She stood up, all five feet two of her, and offered her hand, as well. I was surprised to find that although her hand was so small and appeared fragile, she possessed a powerful grip. “Yes. Mr. Hanson, I presume?” she said, releasing my hand and sitting back down. “Please, take a seat.”

I sat down and said, “Please forgive me for being late. The traffic was terrible for a Sunday.”

“Yes, I know,” she said, “I drove all the way in from Queens. I think it must be the approaching holidays bringing more people out and about in the city.”

“Well, Ms. Dugan, I am grateful to you for spending your Sunday morning driving into Manhattan to meet with me.”

“Please, call me Rose,” she said, “And maybe we can save the small-talk and get right to the point of why we’re here today.”

I raised an eyebrow at her brusqueness, but if that’s what she wanted, that’s what she would get. “Okay, Rose, right to the point we’ll get. I like that. Perhaps you can explain to me why you are determined to smear my client’s good name all over the front page of your paper?”

“Well…Adam…do you mind if I call you Adam?” I nodded slightly, knowing full well that calling me by my first name was an attempt on her part to keep us on equal footing.

“First of all, your client’s ‘good name’ as you put it, was lost the day he spilled hundreds of gallons of oil into the Gulf and killed countless fish, birds, and wildlife. Not to mention, contaminated drinking supplies to thousands of human beings.” I stayed silent, and Rose continued, “Second, I am simply doing my job, reporting the news, as are you doing yours, defending slimy oil barons who support crooked politicians.”

I smiled. It was a happy smile, but an ironic one. It wasn’t often that I met someone that stood up to me so easily. I knew I could be intimidating and over-bearing. It typically bodes well for me in my business. I could see that with this young lady, I would possibly need to use a softer approach.

“I agree that we are both doing our jobs. What I would like is for us to find a way to do our jobs without resorting to smear campaigns in the press.”

“And if I should choose not to smear your clients so called ‘good name,’ what would be in that for me?”

I could tell that although she was doing a great job of keeping her facial features neutral, her eyes were daring me to offer her some sort of bribe. I thought about what Alicia had said about being careful. I got the feeling she was dead on in this case. Rose Dugan was hoping that I would turn out to be a dirty, slimy S.O.B. Smiling what I thought was my most charming smile I said,

“Going to bed at night, happy in the knowledge that you’ve done the right thing?”

She laughed. “I sleep very well at night, thank you for your concern.” Her phone vibrated, and looking at it, she said, “If that’s all, I really need to be going.”

I was confused. I just got here. Was she only just trying to set me up for a bribe? “I thought you wanted an interview from someone close to Brigham Oil? You’ve hardly gotten anything but my name.” Rose stood up with her phone in her hand and her purse on her arm and as she started walking away said,

“No, Mr. Hanson, I do believe I also got your number. Have a nice day.” And with that, she was gone.

I sat motionless for a moment. I was infuriated by this practical child’s holier than thou attitude. What could someone so young and inexperienced know about anything? My number? What the hell does she think she means by that? I shook my head and mumbled out loud to myself as I left the restaurant, “She's way in over her head. I hope she knows what she’s in for.”

 

********

 

When I got to Alicia’s apartment that night, she was just putting the

finishing touches on the table for dinner. I realized as soon as I saw her how much I’d missed her. God, she's beautiful. I pulled her into my arms and gave her a long, deep kiss. “Wow!” she said, breathlessly when I allowed her to come up for air. “What was that for?”

“Because I missed you, and I needed that.” She had her pretty dark auburn hair braided along the side of her face and wasn’t wearing any make-up. The freckles across her nose were visible and it made her look a lot younger than her twenty-seven years. I kissed the tip of her nose and said, “I barely slept without you next to me last night.” I moved into the living room and she followed me. I loosened my silk tie and plunked my lanky frame down on her couch.

She sat down next to me and put her hand on my thigh. As tired as I was, I felt an erection rising from her simple touch. “Rough day?” she asked.

I ignored the erection for now. I really was afraid that I was too tired. I sighed instead and rubbed my temples. “Rose Dugan is not our only problem where the press is concerned. This entire case is being tried in the press. I talked to Alex today. The president’s campaign manager wants a meeting with me. We want our name taken out of everything concerning this lawsuit. Brigham’s people, however, are holding onto the fact that we are politically connected and want to use that our advantage. I’m exhausted.”

I leaned my head back into the couch and closed my eyes. When Alicia asked if I’d like a glass of wine I nodded, but left my eyes closed. I felt her get up and go into the kitchen. I opened them when I heard her come back in, and as I took the glass with one hand, I patted the couch next to me with the other hand and told her, “Sit.”

She sat, and I put my arm around her and pulled her in close. She smelled so good. It was just more encouragement for my cock to stretch out the front of my pants. “Some days I wish it was like this always,” I told her. “Just you and I, a glass of good wine, and a comfy couch. That’s all a man really needs.”

Alicia smiled and laid her head on my shoulder and agreed, “Me, too.” We sat that way for a while before she finally mentioned that dinner was probably getting cold.

I reluctantly got off the couch and followed her to the dining room. “It smells delicious,” I told her as my senses came alive at the smells coming from the kitchen.

“I made lobster bisque soup, boiled snow crab, and asparagus with hollandaise sauce.”

“Sounds great.” We sat down and ate mostly in silence, making a little small talk here and there, but both of us trying to avoid the subject of work. Dinner was as good as it smelled. I was surprised sometimes at how domestic she was since she was raised in a house with wealthy parents and a full-time staff. She told me it was part of her “training” to be a lady. I helped her wash the dishes and tidy the kitchen. As we made our way back to the living room, I let out a big yawn.

“Would you like to turn in early tonight?” she asked. I was tired, but I needed her worse than sleep. I grabbed her from behind pulled her up against me so her round butt was against my rising erection.

I bent down and put my mouth to her ear and said, “I want to go to bed, but I’m not sleepy.”

She laughed and wriggled her way around so that she was facing me and then she rose up on her toes and kissed my lips. “Then let’s stop screwing around in here.” We walked backwards down the hall with our lips and tongues connected. My hands were busy removing her clothes while we walked and by the time we made it to her bedroom, I had her out of her shirt and bra. Her body is incredible.

I pulled out of the kiss and began unbuttoning her skirt while my hands reveled in the feel of her soft skin. I teased her nipples gently until they stood at full attention and watched as her skirt fell to the floor. I didn’t wait for her to finish taking off her panties before I lifted her up and lay her back on the bed. I grabbed the panties and pulled them down myself and then stood there for a minute just drinking her in.

“God, you’re beautiful,” I breathed out while I began taking off my own clothes. I couldn’t stand her lying there like that and not touching her, so I used one hand to play with her nipples while I finished undressing with the other.

Once I was naked, I lay down on the bed and pulled her up on top of me. I pulled her down for another hot kiss and ran my hands down her back until I got to her ass. I clutched her cheeks in my hands, squeezing and massaging them while she slid her lips down and attached them to my neck. She kissed softly at first, but the harder I touched her, the harder she sucked and nibbled at my neck. My core felt like it was on fire and my cock was rock hard now. She kissed down to my chest as I continued my massage on her shoulders. By the time she had slid all the way down to my stomach, I couldn’t stand it anymore. If she took me in her mouth tonight, I was going to explode. I pulled her back up. She smiled down at me and while I slid her now soaking wet pussy back and forth across my hard cock, I reached up and took out the band holding her braid in place. I ran my fingers through her hair until it was loose around her smooth white shoulders and then I pulled her down for another kiss. I felt her hand slide down between us while we kissed and take hold of my cock. I groaned into her mouth as she gave it a couple of strokes. It was covered with her warm, sticky juices. She pulled her hips up slightly and lined me up with her opening before pulling out of the kiss to sit up straight. She lowered herself down on my cock slowly until I was buried inside of her and we were skin to skin. She whimpered when she hit bottom. God, I love making her moan. My wife had been one cold, uptight bitch. Alicia is just the opposite. She's a little wildcat in bed and I fucking love it.

I reached up and played with her perfect tits while she moved up and down on top of me. I thrust up my hips to meet hers and each time I hit bottom, she cried out. I pulled her down so that I could take one of her nipples in my mouth and sucked her whole breast in. I licked and sucked on it and the harder I sucked and scraped my teeth along the edge of her nipples, the faster she moved and the more noise she made.

She wasn’t a screamer, but she was a moaner. She let me know with her sounds and her movements what she wanted and I aimed to please. She’s the hottest woman I’ve ever been with, and on top of that, she’s got a heart and a brain, too. Sometimes I’m not sure how I got so lucky.

After getting my fill of her breasts, I grabbed her back and held her in place while I flipped us over. Nudging her legs so they were wide open, I began to plunge into her with more force. She had her hands on my shoulders and was digging her fingernails into me. The lines between pain and pleasure were blurred as nothing else mattered but the feel of her tight, wet pussy wrapped firmly around my throbbing cock. I reached down and slid my arms underneath her legs and picked them up and rested her feet on my shoulders so I could pound her deeper and harder. I felt her body tense, and she cried out my name in ecstasy as she came. That sent me over the edge and I let go of my own massive orgasm filling her up and then collapsing down next to her in a sweaty heap.

I was tired now, in a good way. I knew I would sleep much better tonight with her in my arms. I also knew that I had to get Marjorie out of my life soon or I’d lose Alicia, and I couldn’t let that happen.

 

 

CHAPTER THREE

 

ALICIA

 

Monday morning came too soon as far as I was concerned. I woke up to Adam dressing in the dark. “Are you leaving? What time is it?” I asked him groggily.

“It’s early, babe. You still have a while to sleep. I have to go home to shower and change before I go into the office. I have an early meeting with Miles Brigham IV this morning. I need to be at the top of my game.”

I sat up and motioned him towards me with my finger. When he leaned down, I whispered,

“You’re always at the top of your game, love. You proved it last night.”

He grinned and kissed me on my lips. “You don’t make it easy for a man to leave, that’s for sure,” he said, “But unfortunately, I have to go. Good luck in court today, by the way. I’ll call you later to see how it’s going.”

I sighed. “Okay, good luck to you, too, and remember – Brigham can’t do this without you. You’re the best attorney in this city and he knows it. Don’t let him try to intimidate you.”

“No one intimidates Adam Hanson,” he said with another grin.

“Good,” I told him as I snuggled back down for a couple more hours sleep. “No one should.” He kissed me once more on my forehead before he left. I lay there before falling asleep, thinking I was the luckiest girl in the world that Adam loved me. I had all but forgotten the argument we had the night of the ball.

 

********

 

Kyla and I both arrived at the courthouse within minutes of each other. Nico showed up as we were climbing the stairs. He was balancing a cardboard tray with four cups of steaming coffee in one hand and a briefcase full of legal briefs in the other.

“Here, let me help you,” Kyla said, taking one of the cups out of the tray and taking a long sip from it. Nico gave her a look and said,

“Gee, thanks. My load is so much lighter now.”

“No problem,” Kyla said playfully.

“Here,” I said, taking the tray from his hand.

“Thank you, Ms. Winston,” Nico said with a mock bow.

Kyla and I exchanged a look as Nico went on ahead up the stairs. Maybe Nico hadn’t indulged in too much champagne to recall our kiss the other night. I had to shake that off for now, though. I had a client depending on me and right now that was my priority. We made our way through the busy courthouse to a conference room we had reserved for the day. Nelson was already there. He was dressed in a nice suit as we told him to wear and had removed the jewelry he normally wore in the piercings in both his face and ears. His hair was dyed back to its normal shade of brown from the platinum blonde it had been bleached at the time of his arrest. I looked him over and said,

“Wow, Nelson, you look wonderful. I almost didn’t recognize you.”

Nelson mumbled a simple, “Thanks.” His dress and grooming exuded confidence and poise, but one look at the boy’s face told just how anxious he was about the trial that was about to begin. I sat one of the cardboard coffee cups down in front of him.

“Maybe a double shot of caffeine will help your mood this morning.”

Nelson mumbled another thanks and picked up the cup. He didn’t drink; he just rolled it between his palms.

Nico sat across from the boy and said, “You understand what is happening today, right?” He waited a beat, and when Nelson didn’t respond, he continued, “Alicia and Kyla have drawn up a motion to suppress the confession. All you have to do today is tell the truth. Tell the judge that you did ask for a lawyer before they even began questioning you.”

Nelson looked up at him. I didn’t like the defeat he already had in his eyes. “Technically, what I said was, ‘Isn’t my lawyer supposed to be here?’ I guess I should have insisted on it.”

“No, they should have stopped right there and let you call us. They didn’t do that. Instead, they ignored what you said and continued on with the interrogation. That’s not acceptable.”

Nelson sighed. “I didn’t do this, you know? I didn’t take money from those people. I don’t understand why they would say I did.”

Nico looked at me. I took my cue and sitting on the other side of Nelson, I said, “Campos Investments lost millions of dollars when your father refused to sign off on the shoddy construction that Limitless Construction Company was doing on hotels. They did their best to run your father out of business over it, but his standing in the community was too strong. Their only recourse was revenge. If they can get a court to convict you of accepting bribes in order for your father to sign off on unsafe construction sites, they can ruin your dad’s good name, and their hope is that the result would be running your dad out of business.”

“I get that,” Nelson said in a whiney voice, “but why me? Why not set up Dad?”

“Your father’s reputation for honesty is what has made his company so successful. They knew that no one would believe he had done this, so they turned to the next best fall guy: his son.” I tried to keep the confident look on my face and in my eyes when Nelson asked his next question,

“I was the perfect fall guy because my reputation is the opposite of my dad’s, right?”

“We’re going to do all we can to keep your past from being allowed into this, okay?” Nelson nodded, none too convincingly, and I asked him, “Are you ready?” he nodded again as Nico and I stood up. Nelson rubbed his face over his hands and looked up at us again. Looking very much like a child, he said,

“Please don’t let them put me in jail. I couldn’t stand being locked up.”

Although our legal team was made up of three of the best and brightest young attorneys Hanson had to offer, none of us wanted to make promises that we might be unable to keep. Instead, Kyla put her hand

 gently on his arm and said,

“Come on; let’s go get this confession thrown out.”

 

********

 

Kyla, Nico and I celebrated our first victory over lunch. Judge Nolan had agreed that saying “Shouldn’t my lawyer be here?” was a statement the police should have explored more with Nelson. The top of Dawson’s bald little head had been bright red with anger by the time we were through with him. I held that vision in my head as I danced back into the office that afternoon – and ran smack dab into Marjorie. Shit.

“Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry,” I said. “I wasn’t watching where I was going.” Marjorie stepped back and looked me up and down as if seeing me for the first time, even though we had met before. She adjusted the lapels of her designer jacket that Adam’s money had bought and said in an irritated voice,

“Obviously,” and then with a weary sigh added, “But I suppose I could expect nothing less from employees of the buffoon that runs this place. Excuse me…”

I stood dumbfounded by the woman’s rudeness and watched her leave. I shook my head, unable to comprehend what Adam must have ever seen in her in the first place. Maybe she was softer once, when she was younger. Some people just find it impossible to age with grace, my mother used to say. I had a feeling that Marjorie was one of those women. I had been close enough to her today to notice the taut lines of her jaw and the complete absence of any lines around her eyes or on her forehead. Adam’s money had paid a fortune for that harsh, expressionless face. I shuddered. No matter what she may have once been, the simple fact now was that the woman was insufferable.

I tried to shake off the encounter and return to my earlier pleasant state of mind as I went in search of Adam to tell him about our victory. As I rounded the corner from the long hall that led to the executive offices, I saw Mary, Adam’s personal assistant, closing the heavy oak doors that led to the executive conference room behind her.

“Hi, Mary,” I said. “Is Mr. Hanson in a conference?”

Mary smiled at me, and I couldn’t help thinking that the smile caused Mary’s face to crinkle in all the right places, making her look radiant. I liked her and appreciated that she was almost always in a pleasant mood, which was definitely a breath of fresh air after my little run-in with Marjorie.

“Hi, Alicia, yes he’s in there with Mr. Brigham, Mr. Fritz, and a few other men from Brigham Oil Company. It’s getting pretty intense. I was going to get some refreshments in hopes of lightening up the room.”

I smiled back at her. “If anyone can do it, it’s you, Mary. I can see why Mr. Hanson has kept you at his side for so long, you keep him sane. Would you mind asking him to call or come by my office when he’s finished? I have a case I’d like to discuss.” It wasn’t really a lie. I did want to talk to him about the case. I also wanted to kiss him. My face colored at the thought, as if Mary could read my mind. I would be so happy when Adam and I could stop pretending. Stretching the facts during the course of a case to save a client didn’t bother me much, but telling an outright lie to someone I considered a friend went against everything I had been raised to believe, and it seemed like I’d had to do that a lot lately.

Once I got back to my own desk, my receptionist handed me a pile of messages. “Thank you, Carla.”

“You’re welcome; how did court go?” she asked as she followed me into my office.

“Great!” I told her with a smile. “We got the confession thrown out. Without that, the rest is all hearsay and should be easy to discredit.”

“Good!” Carla said with real enthusiasm. “Mr. Dawson called a few minutes before you walked in. He gives me the creeps a little, but anyways, he said he urgently needed you to call him as soon as you walked in.”

“You know what?” I told her with my lip curled, “He gives me the creeps, too. I’ll call him…in a while. Thanks, Carla,”

“You’re welcome Ms. Winston. Let me know if you need anything.” Carla closed the door as she left, and I sat down at the desk to begin sorting through my messages. Most were from clients who were anxious to discuss one aspect of our case or other. As I sifted through the rectangular squares of pink paper, a familiar name caught my eye. The message said, While You Were Out—Jack Grant called.

I did a double take at the name. It was one that I hadn’t seen or heard in a message for quite some time. Jack and I had been very close friends since kindergarten. As we grew into adulthood, we had ultimately gone from being friends to being lovers. It was great for a while and I had felt blessed that my boyfriend was also my best friend. The excitement of it fizzled out quickly, though, and eventually, we both had to admit that we were better as friends than we were as a couple. We had managed to stay friends, and once I moved to the States, I had really meant to keep in touch and maintain our friendship, but life interrupted my plans.

I had heard most recently about him from my mother, who told me that Jack was in a relationship with a woman from the Country Club her and my father had been members of for decades. She said it seemed serious. I remember her telling me that with a frown. She’d been most disappointed when he and I had stopped seeing each other. He came from old money. His parents were very active in the community and my mother and his worked together on many of our charity projects. The Lady Winston had high hopes that I would one day be Mrs. Jack Grant.

I snapped out of my memories and back into the present looking back at the slip in my hand, the number was a local one – not in Europe but right here in New York. I reached to pick up the phone just as it began to ring. I picked it up without waiting for it to roll over to Carla.

“Alicia Winston.”

“Alicia, darling, it’s Robert,” came the sleazy little voice from the other side. Feigning ignorance for the sake of insulting him and no other, I almost felt a little ashamed of myself as I said,

“Robert?” with an obvious question mark at the end,

“Dawson, Robert Dawson!” he said, obviously offended. “Surely you haven’t forgotten me already.”

“Oh, Mr. Dawson, I’m so sorry. Of course I haven’t forgotten you. Your first name just threw me off. How can I help you?”

“I want to throw out an offer for that juvenile delinquent in a man’s body your firm is representing. What say we meet for a drink and talk about it?”

I almost laughed aloud, but I caught myself. For the sake of Nelson and the other clients I represented, I couldn’t afford to insult him outright.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Dawson, but I have a full plate this afternoon. Perhaps you can tell me what you are offering and I can pass it on to my client.”

Dawson cleared his throat and the tone of his voice changed to borderline hostile as he said, “I suppose you big time corporate lawyers fancy yourselves better than the average lawyer, too good to slum it with the prosecutor who could maybe make your life easier if you gave him the chance.”

I was silent. I was sorely tempted to give this nasty little man a piece of my mind. How dare he try to suggest that I would even consider trading favors with the likes of him? When I didn’t reply after a few moments, he said, “But anyways, tell that little rich boy you represent that I am offering five years if he pleads guilty to misdemeanor accepting a bribe.”

“Five years? Are you serious?” I asked, almost certain I had heard him wrong or he had made a mistake.

“He can get ten if the jury convicts at trial,” Dawson said.

“He can get nothing if we get an acquittal,” I said with confidence in my voice. “I think we’ll take our chances.”

“Okay, but don’t forget to offer it to your client. He might want to save himself and his family some embarrassment and skip the trial.”

“Oh, I won’t forget, but don’t lose any sleep waiting for me to call you back on it. My client didn’t do anything wrong. He doesn’t want to plead guilty to anything, and he won’t accept any jail time. You have a nice day, Mr. Dawson,” I said, emphasizing the “Mr.” to make sure he knew we were more foe than friend. After my conversation with Dawson, I was no longer in the mood to call Jack for a reunion chat. Instead, I buzzed Adam’s office.

“Yes?”

“Hi, are you busy?”

“No, just unwinding after that awful meeting.”

“I take it all didn’t go well?”

“I don’t know. Brigham seems to think we are miracle workers, instead of lawyers. He wants us to run off the press and calm the politicians. Alex is working his magic on the politician angle for us, but I’m not sure what to do about the press at this point.”

Alex was Alex Fritz. He was Adam’s best friend from college and currently one of the front runners for the Democratic seat that had recently opened up in the House of Representatives. Alex was strongly connected in the political community and even had ties to the White House. He was helping Adam to connect with the people involved in the scandal over Brigham being one of the President’s lead campaign funders. He was also charged with the task of severing the ties between the currently offending oil company and the presidential campaign.

“Anyways, how did your morning in court turn out?” he asked me.

“It was great! The judge agreed that the confession was bogus since Nelson had mentioned his attorney and threw it out. Then, just a few moments ago, the world’s sleaziest prosecutor called and offered us a deal.”

“Great! Was the deal something you think Nelson will consider?”

“Absolutely not, he’s offering five years if Nelson pleads to conspiracy to accept a bribe. Nelson will never go for it. But, it does mean that Dawson is nervous. He knows that without the confession, his case is on shaky ground or he wouldn’t have offered anything.”

“True,” Adam said thoughtfully. “He could get ten years or more if we do convict, you know.”

“Yes, I do know that. I won’t play games with his life, but I won’t see him locked up for five years for doing nothing more than being a spoiled little rich boy.”

“I respect that,” Adam told her. “By the way, are you free for dinner?”

“With you? Always,” I said with a grin. “Your place or mine?”

“How about Romaletti’s?” Adam said, surprising me.

“Romaletti’s, really? Is this a business dinner?” I asked suspiciously.

“No, it’s an ‘I’m tired of pretending, too’ dinner. The hell with Marjorie and the hell with her lawyer, I want to take my gorgeous girlfriend out for dinner. That is, if she’d like to go with me.”

“I would love that, thank you!” I told him with real enthusiasm,

“No, thank you,” he said. “I realized today after another exhausting and volatile conversation with Marjorie that you’re right. She's probably not going away any time soon. I’m going to try like hell to stop letting her get in the way of my life, of our life.”

I was ecstatic to hear it. We made plans to meet in Adam’s office later since we both still had piles of work to do. I called Nico and a paralegal named Sarah into my office and we spent the rest of the day working on Nelson’s case. Kyla came in later after I finished prepping for a real estate case I was working on. The message from Jack was put on the back burner of my things to do list as I shuffled through motions and briefs and looked forward to my first public dinner with Adam that was not work related.

 

 

CHAPTER FOUR

 

ADAM

 

   The rest of my day after I finally manned up and told Alicia I wanted to take her out to dinner flew by. It dawned on me all at once that I was sick to death of sneaking around like I was cheating on someone. My marriage with Marjorie had been over for years before we finally separated. We had been separated for six months before Alicia and I ever started seeing each other. We weren’t doing anything wrong, and I was tired of feeling like we were. Besides, the thoughts I’d had this morning about Alicia getting tired of it all and leaving me had haunted me all day. It would crush me to lose her.

I was buried in paperwork when I finally pushed it back across the antique oak desk and decided to call it a night. So far, there were thirteen plaintiffs in the case against Brigham Oil, and the numbers grew daily. They were being sued by the EPA for unsafe practices, by several local fishermen that were claiming lost revenue over not being able to fish in the waters after the spill, by a representative of people from a village in the area that were not able to drink the water, and the list went on. I had actually begun to worry that it may have been a mistake to take it on. But, tonight was about me and Alicia. I wasn’t going to allow Marjorie or Brigham to ruin it for me.

My penthouse is on Fifth Avenue, quite a ways from the office. I keep suits at the office, though, so I grabbed one out of the closet and used the executive lounge to get ready for my night out with Alicia. She’d left me a message that she was leaving about an hour before. I felt a little silly at my age, but I was really excited about taking her out. It felt like a first date. At forty years old, I was damned lucky a young, beautiful woman like Alicia wanted me. I knew that I had to do this more often, she deserved it and if I didn’t start, she’d find someone that would. I wanted her to finally be able to stop feeling like the “other” woman, although that was never really what she was.

When she opened the door to her apartment, my mouth went dry. I almost forgot how much I wanted to take her out and took her to bed instead. She had her auburn hair down and curled around her face. It brushed against her soft bare shoulders and the thin straps of the dark burgundy dress she was wearing. It was cut conservatively, but it accentuated every one of her hot curves. It stopped just above her knee and also showcased her long, shapely legs that ended in a pair of matching stilettos on her small, sexy feet. I pictured them up on my shoulders in those shoes while I fucked her and my cock did a dance in my pants.

“Wow, you look amazing.”

She actually blushed. “Thank you, so do you.” When she turned to get her bag, I saw the back of the dress was wide open to her waist. I had no idea how I was going to keep my hands off of her in public half the night. We’d have to eat fast. She grabbed her bag and coat, and I put my hand against her bare back and led her into the elevator. It took every ounce of impulse control I could muster not to take her down and fuck her right there and again in the Lincoln Town car. I was actually almost relieved to see how busy Romaletti’s was. It would make me behave, at least.

Marco, the grandson of the original owner, came out to greet us. He was a client of our firm and ever since I had saved the restaurant from a bogus lawsuit a few years earlier that could have put them out of business, Marco treated me like a visiting dignitary when I came in. “Mr. Hanson, so very nice to see you,” he said in a thick Italian accent, “and who is this ravishing young lady?”

“Marco, this is my girlfriend, Ms. Alicia Winston,”

Marco took Alicia’s small hand in his large arthritic one and brought it up to his lips, kissing the back of it gently. With a bow, he said, “Welcome to my restaurant, Bella. Please, choose anything you would like from the menu and I will make sure it is cooked to absolute perfection for you and Mr. Hanson, and tonight is my treat. Come,”

We followed him to a table across the room. In the center was a “Reserved” tag. It sat next to a large, picture window that looked out onto a small man made pond. Marco kept the pond stocked with gloriously-colored Koi fish and ducks and a gaggle of swan glided across its mirrored surface.

“Oh, it’s beautiful,” Alicia said as Marco held out her chair for her to be seated. She looked out on the pond and watched in fascination as the moonbeams danced off the surface and the colors of the Koi underneath glimmered like a rainbow.

“It’s my pride and joy,” Marco said before leaving us to get our waiter. He bowed at the waist once more before going and said, “If not for Mr. Hanson, it would have been lost to me. Please, enjoy yourselves tonight.” We thanked him again as he left and our waiter approached with a wine list right away.

I looked at it and then told Alicia, “I don’t know about you, but I’m in the mood for a real celebration tonight.”

She readily agreed, and I ordered a bottle of the restaurant’s best champagne. The waiter returned promptly with a bottle and two flutes. He filled Alicia’s and then mine and then handed us both a menu before setting the bottle back in the brass ice bucket and leaving us to make our choices. I picked up my champagne glass, and holding it up in Alicia’s direction, I said, “To us.” She picked hers up and clinked it to mine and said,

“To us.”

We sipped our champagne and after ordering our meals, we talked about Alicia’s parents’ upcoming visit to the States. It was so nice to be out in public with her and talking about things that had nothing to do with work at all. When our food came, we indulged in rich, homemade bread and the fabulous pasta and steaks that Marco had made just for us. Afterwards, even though we were both so bloated we could hardly move, we shared a piece of cheesecake.

Once we were both uncomfortably stuffed, we decided we needed to walk some of it off. Marco let us out the side door and we took a stroll around the pond in the moonlight. Alicia was as excited as a child as she pointed out the multi-colored Koi and the beautiful white swans. I smiled as I watched her pretty hazel eyes dance. I wanted to make her happy like that forever. She made me feel young again, and she was everything that I had always wanted in a woman.

I knew now that Marjorie had been a terrible mistake, and often wondered what had taken me so long to realize it. Marjorie is, was, and always will be a social climber whose name and position on the social registry was more important to her than anything else. Standing here next to Alicia, watching her revel in the beauty and wonder of something as simple as a bunch of fish and some ducks, made me love her more than I had ever thought possible. Surprising even myself, I asked her,

“How do you feel about ice skating?”

“Really?” Alicia almost squealed. “I love to ice skate. I haven’t been for years!”

“Let’s go then,” I told her with a smile.

We went back inside to get our coats and thank Marco. I tried to pay our bill, but Marco said he would be insulted at the very thought of accepting my money. After helping Alicia on with her coat, I dropped a hundred-dollar bill on the table for the waiter and we stepped outside into the frigid cold November night. The driver had the seats of the car warmed and the heater on before we got in, so the ride to Rockefeller Center was warm and cozy. Alicia rode snuggled in the crook of my arm until the huge lighted tree came into view. She sat up and like a child at Christmastime, pressed her face to the window to look at it.

“I love the tree!” she exclaimed with pure delight. “When I was a girl, I used to watch the lighting of the tree on television with my mother. I just knew I’d live here someday when I grew up. Mother cringed every time I would mention it.”

“I’ll bet they miss you.”

Alicia turned to look at me. “They do, and I miss them so badly sometimes. But this place, New York, it’s in my blood now. I don’t think I could ever live anywhere else. I can’t wait to see my parents when they come to visit, though, and introduce them to you!”

“I hope they’re more pleased with your choice in men than they were with your choice of cities to live in.”

Alicia laughed and said playfully, “Me, too.”

The driver stopped near the ropes that framed the entrance to the frozen pond sitting in the shadow of the gigantic Christmas tree. Alicia and I made our way to the kiosk where we could rent our skates. On the way, I bought us a cup of hot chocolate from a vendor. “Are you warm enough?” I asked her.

“I’m freezing,” she said with a smile, “but I don’t care.”

I laughed and said, “Come on, let’s go stand by the bonfire while we drink this, maybe you’ll defrost a bit.” We stood near the roaring outdoor fire, sipping our chocolate and listening to the sounds of the live band that played near the Christmas tree and the people having fun all around us. I pulled Alicia up on her tip-toes and kissed her softly on the lips. “You ready?” I asked her.

“In a minute,” she said. She went back up on her toes and kissed me again. This one was longer, and deeper. “Okay,” she said, pulling back and leaving me breathless after a minute, “I’m warm now.”

I was just plain hot. She made my blood boil with desire every time she touched me. I tried to will my rising erection down as I took her by the hand and led her to a bench where we sat so we could put on our skates. There was a little stand nearby and I ran over to it quickly and bought her a pair of furry gloves and a scarf.

 “Thank you,” she told me. “But what about you? You don’t have any gloves.”

“You’ll just have to keep me warm,” I told her. We finished putting on our skates, and I led her out on the ice. I hadn’t been skating in a long while, but it came back quickly. Alicia was doing well, too. We held hands and skated around the oval rink, watching the young children all bundled in their colorful parkas, falling down and getting right back up with a smile on their faces.

“This reminds me of a pond near the royal property back home. My father had permission from the crown to fish there. He took me skating there a few times when I was little.”

“Did you ever meet any of the royal family?”

“No. My mother is distant cousins with the queen, but too far removed for us to be considered ‘royals.’ Mum and Daddy still cling to the titles, though. It’s kind of embarrassing for me.”

“I wouldn’t be embarrassed by it. We have a right to be proud of our heritage, don’t you think?”

“I do, I just don’t like all the snobbery that comes along with it.”

It was amazing to me. A woman like Marjorie who came from practically nothing with an entitled and superior attitude and a woman like Alicia who had every reason to be a snob and wasn’t in the least.

We skated until we both had to finally admit our legs had probably had enough for one day. It was getting late, and we had both worked a long day. It was the best time I’d had in a long time, though, and as much as I wanted to get her home and make love to her, I was still reluctant to see it end.

When we were back in the cozy warmth of the car, she said, “I can’t even begin to thank you for tonight. I had such a good time.”

“I should be thanking you,” I told her.

“For what?”

“For being so patient with me this long and sticking around, and for giving the things I grew up looking at every day a fresh new look for me through your pretty eyes. Thank you, Alicia, I mean it. Tonight was great and we are going to have a lot more great times to come. I want to experience everything I’ve never done and even things I have with you. You see the wonder in everything like a child, but yet here you are, a sexy, beautiful, intelligent woman. You’re an enigma.”

She laughed and said, “I’ve been called a few things in my time…” and then added, more seriously, “I want to see everything with you; I want us to see everything together.”

I pulled her to me and we kissed passionately, finally coming up for air as the car pulled up in front of my building. The doorman opened the car door and helped Alicia out and held the door open for me as he greeted us both. He called the elevator down for us and said goodnight as he pushed the button for the top floor. Alicia and I kissed again in the elevator, and we were still kissing when the doors slid open. I walked us out backwards to the penthouse door and held her against it while I slid the key into the lock. I tried to turn it, but it wouldn’t turn. What the hell? I tried it again, it was like I had the wrong key, but I knew this was the right one.

“Is something wrong?” Alicia asked.

“I’m not sure. My key isn’t…” The door flew open, and Marjorie stood there in a silk robe and a diamond necklace that I’d bought her for our fifth anniversary.

“Can I help you?” she asked, smugly.   

“Marjorie, what the hell is going on?” I felt the anger surging through my veins. I hated this woman with a passion. I despised myself for marrying her in the first place. The tight-faced bitch looked at Alicia, running her eyes down her disdainfully…how dare she? Marjorie looked back at me and in a nasty tone she said,

“I’m sorry, sweetie, but you’ll have to take your call girl to a hotel until you find a permanent place to live.”

“Damn it, Marjorie, get the hell out of my house, now.”

“Oh no, dear, you’re mistaken. It’s my home. I never actually moved my things out, remember? My lawyer tells me that gives me every right to be here now. So, the way I see it is, you can go to a hotel, stay with your whore, or you can live here with me until this is all decided in a court of law.” With that last insult, she swung the door closed in our faces. Alicia was pale as a ghost, and I was so angry it’s amazing the veins in my temples didn’t pop. Alicia put her hand on my arm and said,

“Come on, baby. We can stay at my place tonight and figure this out in the morning.”

I wasn’t thinking rationally, I was just so pissed off. I jerked my arm out of her grasp and said, “No!” too harshly. She looked shocked, and I instantly felt bad. Marjorie had just called her a whore, and I was the one acting wounded. “I’m sorry, baby. It just makes me crazy. I can’t just walk away and leave her to claim my home.”

Alicia looked even more shocked. “You intend to stay here…with her?”

I took her face in my hands and said, “I need you to trust me, please.” She didn’t answer me and I knew I would play hell getting her to speak to me tomorrow. I couldn’t let Marjorie do this to me, though. I had earned this money. I had worked for it, not her. I took a deep breath and said, “The car will still be outside. Have him take you home. I’ll see you at the office tomorrow.” She turned around slowly like a zombie and headed for the elevator. I reached to push the button for her and she batted my arm away. She wouldn’t look at me and I knew I was probably crying. I felt like shit, but what was I supposed to do?

 

 

CHAPTER FIVE

 

ALICIA

 

Somehow, I made it upstairs to my apartment in a zombie-like fog after I left Adam. I stripped off my dress, hose, and shoes on the way to my bedroom. I didn’t even wash my face. I just crawled underneath the covers and slipped into a sleep filled with nightmares of attending Adam and Marjorie’s reunion party. I was dressed all in black, with what looked like an old woman’s hand-knit shawl draped carelessly over my shoulders. The Adam in my dream only took his eyes off of his impeccably-dressed wife once. That was to glance in my direction with disdain and something that resembled pity.

I woke to the alarm screaming loudly with the pillow over my face and the dream still playing in my head. I knew it wasn’t real, but I couldn’t help but remind myself the reason I’d dreamt it in the first place was because Adam had spent the night before with Marjorie.

I finally reached over and stopped the incessantly screaming alarm and forced my weary limbs out of the bed. I had to be in Judge Nolan’s courtroom promptly at nine a.m., and from the feel of the left-over make-up crusted to my eyelid, it was going to take me a little more time than usual to get ready. I put on my morning coffee to brew and headed for the shower. As I passed my purse in the floor where I left it the night before, I realized it was ringing. I thought about just walking on by when I realized it was Adam’s ringtone. Deciding I may as well get it over with before I saw him at work, I fished it out and answered it with a curt,

“Hello?”

“Good morning, baby,” he said, like nothing had ever happened. When I didn’t say anything back right away, he asked, “How are you?”

I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry as I asked, “How would you imagine I am, Adam?”

I heard him sigh, and knowing him so well, I pictured him rubbing his hand over his face and then dragging his fingers through his hair as he often did when he was anxious or upset.

“I can’t tell you how sorry I am that Marjorie ruined our evening. I had a horrendous night, if it makes you feel any better.” He gave a small laugh and then added, much more seriously, “Nothing would have made me happier than to have woke up next to you this morning.” Again, I didn’t say anything. “Baby, we will talk later, I promise. I just need you to keep in mind that she is trying to take everything from me that I have worked for my entire adult life. I cannot…no, I will not just sit back and allow that to happen. I’m sorry you are always caught in the middle of all of this. Truly, I am. I love you.”

“I will try to keep it in mind. Now, however, I have to get dressed. I’m due in court in an hour, and I can’t be late.”

“Okay,” he said. I could tell he was disappointed. He had probably hoped that his words alone would be enough to send my anger running, as usual. He was very good at talking. It was actually what he did best. He earned his living by phrasing things in just the right way. I wasn’t buying it that easily this time.

“We’ll talk later.” Without saying anything further, I hung up.

I was good, as most lawyers are, at compartmentalizing things. I put my anger towards Adam in a box in the corner of my mind. The lid wasn’t shut tightly, and I knew the thoughts would seep out throughout the day, but I didn’t have time to let it consume me today. I had a client and two colleagues that were depending on me to give one hundred percent of myself today, and that is what I intended to do.

 

********

 

An hour later, I was rushing up the steps to the courthouse and nearly collided head-on with a man who was on his way down. He put out his arm to stop me from falling backwards, and when I looked up to thank him, I realized that I was looking into the emerald green eyes of my former lover, Jack Grant. “Oh my God, Jack?”

“Alicia! What an amazing coincidence bumping into you…literally. I actually left a message for you yesterday at your office.”

I smoothed down the edges of my skirt with my free hand and looking back up at Jack I said, “I know. I’m so sorry I hadn’t had a moment to get back with you yet.” I glanced at my watch and realized I didn’t have a moment now. “I have to apologize once more, I’m afraid. I’m due in court, now, as a matter of fact. Is there a chance you might be free for lunch? We can catch up then.”

Jack smiled. I had almost forgotten how good looking he was. “Of course,” he said. “The sandwich shop across the street okay?”

“Perfect,” I told him. “I’ll see you around noon.”

“I’ll be looking forward to it,” he said with another dazzling smile. I swallowed the lump that had involuntarily formed in my throat and headed in to the courthouse. I rushed in to find that Kyla had already started. Nico and Nelson were seated at the defendant’s table, and Dawson and his assistant DA sat at the table opposite. Jury selection was in process, and I tried to slip into the chair next to Nico quietly so as not to alert Judge Nolan to my tardiness. He was a tough judge who was known for his lack of tolerance for things that slowed business down in any way in his court.

Nico handed me a list of potential jurors as I sat. He and his paralegal assistant had already done the hard work of putting them in groups by age, profession, and even race. When picking a jury, it was essential that everything that could possibly work for or against our client be taken into consideration. I smiled at him and mouthed, “Thank you.” I made eye contact with Nelson and smiled and mouthed, “I’m sorry I’m late.”

He nodded, and I turned my attention back to Kyla who was questioning juror number one. She was doing an excellent job, and I allowed myself to take that time to try and pull myself together. I had to keep slamming the lid shut on the box in my brain that was supposed to be keeping the thoughts of Adam from consuming me all day. I consciously slowed my breathing and glanced at Nelson again. I reminded myself once again that his life, if not literally, was at least figuratively in our hands.

Kyla finished with the juror and took her seat on the other side of me as Dawson approached the bench. I also mouthed a “Thank you” in Kyla’s direction, and then added an “I’m sorry.” She gestured with her palm to show me it was not a huge deal and things were under control.

The rest of the morning was spent picking or contesting jurors. By lunchtime, both sides had agreed on only six jurors. The judge excused us, instructing everyone to be back at one-thirty. I couldn’t be positive, but thought that Judge Nolan may have looked in my direction as he added, “sharp” to the instructions. It was probably just my guilty conscience.

After I formally apologized to Nelson for being late and assured him it wouldn’t happen again, I told Nico and Kyla I was meeting an old friend for lunch. At Kyla’s quizzical look, I told her that we would talk later. I hurried across the street and found Jack waiting for me at a table near the door. He stood up when he saw me. I greeted him properly this time with a hug and a peck on the cheek.

He held me back with his arms and said, “You still look amazing,”

   “And, you’re still a sweet-talker, but thank you. You look pretty amazing yourself.” Jack pulled out my chair and after I was seated, he took a seat himself.

“So,” I asked after the waitress had taken our order. “What in the world are you doing in New York?”

“Well, my father’s business dealings have made it across the pond, so I was assigned to follow them here. We’re currently in the midst of trying to get all of the legal aspects, such as patents and licenses. I guess Dad decided to take full advantage of having a lawyer in the family.”

I smiled. I recalled that Jack and his father’s relationship had always been tenuous at best. The Grants owned one of the largest and most lucrative textile companies in Europe. All of the Grant men before Jack had gone straight from college to the boardroom. Jack had decided instead to go to law school, which had greatly disappointed his father. It looked like maybe family guilt had won out, after all. Here sat Jack, thousands of miles from home, working for his family at last.

“Well, I for one, am glad they sent you here,” I told him. “It is wonderful to see you.”

“Yes,” he said with a grin. “There are definite advantages to working in New York, I am beginning to see.”

I saw something in his eyes that made me think maybe Jack was hoping for more than just a simple reunion between friends. I caught myself just as I was about to tell him about Adam. What were me and Adam, after all? If I wasn’t sure myself, I doubted that I could explain it to someone else.

Instead, we launched into small talk about old friends and acquaintances. Jack told me that he ran into my parents often at social functions and that they always talked so proudly of all I had accomplished for myself. That was really nice to hear. I knew they loved me and were proud of me, but I also knew they both hoped I’d be married with a family by now.

“Your mother does add, every chance she gets, how disappointed she is that you and I didn’t work out.”

I rolled my eyes. “You know Mother. She truly believes that I should be married and have two point four children by now. Although at my age she only had one, and the nanny was doing most of the raising.”

Jack gave a little laugh. “Yes, but if it weren’t for our nannies, we may have never met.”

I had to laugh, as well. I thought back to the day Jack and I had officially met. We were both in kindergarten, and I had begged my nanny to take me to the park after my lessons one spring day. A little dark-haired boy with the greenest eyes that I had ever seen was on the swing next to me. My nanny sat on the bench next to another lady about the same age, and they talked as if they knew each other. The boy looked at me and smiled. Instead of smiling back I said,

“You have dirt on your nose,”

The little boy had looked sad or offended, and he got off the swing as soon as he could stop it. He ran over to the ladies on the bench, and the woman that had been speaking with my nanny picked up his backpack and they walked away together. I also got off the swing and went over to my nanny.

“Do you know that boy?” I asked her.

“Yes, his name is Jack. His family is very well known around here. What did you say to him, Alicia?” my nanny asked. “He seemed upset.”

“I just told him he had dirt on his nose,” I said. “I didn’t know he’d be so sensitive.”

“Oh, Alicia, it’s not dirt. He was in a car accident when he was very small. They’ve been doing surgery after surgery on his face for years. His nose is one of the last places left where you can see the burns still. I’m afraid you hurt his feelings.”

I can still remember how sick I had felt in the pit of my stomach. I had never been one to be hateful to people for any reason. I had actually always wanted to defend people that others treated poorly. It was something I was born with and a big part of why I had become an attorney. I had spent the next few days bugging my nanny Marie to take me to the boy so I could apologize. Marie had finally set up a meeting with Jack’s nanny back in the park. As soon as I saw him, I had gone straight up to him and said,

“I want to apologize for my bad manners. I didn’t realize you had an injury on your nose. I would have never said anything if I had.”

He took me by surprise with his broad smile. “It’s okay. I went home and looked in the mirror that day. It actually made me happy that it only looks like dirt now. It’s much better.” Jack and I had been friends from that day on. We were lovers years later and now here we sat, both of us grown and successful.

“I guess you’re right,” I said to Jack. “If not for our nannies…” I let it lie there. We both knew that our times together were moments we would both hold in our hearts forever.

We launched into more talk about old times and people we both knew and before I knew it, the lunch hour was over and I had to get back to court. I gave Jack my cell number, and he said he would call later in the week. I embraced him again before I left. I had honestly missed my friend. I was glad to have him back. As I walked away, I glanced back at him. The look that he had as he watched me go made me think again, though, that I really should clarify my intentions the next time we met.

The rest of the day in court was more of the same. Jury selection, as important as it was, could be a tedious chore. Nico, Kyla, and I were all happy when by three p.m., both sides had agreed on two more jurors and one alternate. The trial could begin now, and the judge scheduled opening arguments for the following Monday morning.

Nico and Kyla had ridden in together that morning from the office, so I told them I would meet them back there.

As I drove into the lot where the associates and partners park, I saw Marjorie, again. She was getting out of the backseat of a black Mercedes. The door was being held open for her by the driver, and she was leaning in talking to a man inside. I recognized him as Hal Rogers. Hal owned a large law firm, Rogers, Stein, and Rogers, and they often went up against Adam and his lawyers in civil court. He was Marjorie’s lawyer, and if Adam was right, her lover, as well.

I tried to walk by quickly without making myself obvious, but just as I approached the car, Marjorie looked up and noticed me.

“Hal, here she is! This is the girl that was draped on Adam’s arm when he came home last night. Girl…oh, girl!” Marjorie yelled out rudely at me like she was calling to one of her servants. I ignored her and kept walking. I could hear her calling me until I got inside. Confrontation with Marjorie was not going to do neither me nor Adam any good at this point.

I opened the lobby doors and slipped quickly inside. I made my way back to my office with quick nods and smiles at the skeleton staff that was left in the building this late in the afternoon and slipped into my office. Once the door was closed behind me, I leaned against it and took several deep breaths to calm myself. I startled as I both felt and heard a knock on the door behind me. Thinking it was probably Carla, I turned and opened it. To my dismay it wasn’t Carla, but Marjorie.

She pushed past me, not waiting to be invited in and said, “I tried to get your attention in the lot, did you not hear me?”

This woman was a real piece of work. “Oh, I heard you, yes. I’m sure everyone out there did. I do not, however, answer to ‘Girl.’”

Marjorie smiled, or at least her face moved as much as her multiple plastic surgeries would allow it to. “I do apologize,” she said insincerely. “I guess that was rude, wasn’t it? I just can’t for the life of me remember what my husband said your name was.” I felt the knot in my stomach tighten at the word “husband,” even though I was sure that upsetting me was Marjorie’s intention.

“My name is Alicia. Alicia Winston. What exactly can I do for you, Mrs. Hanson?” I almost spat out the “Mrs.” and it was obvious that Marjorie knew it.

“I just thought we should formally meet,” she said as she helped herself to a seat on the couch in my office. “After all, if you are going to continue sleeping with my husband, while he and I continue to try and settle our divorce, I’m sure we’ll be running into each other often.”

I felt my face grow hot. Marjorie’s only intention here was to get to me, and unfortunately she was accomplishing her goal.

“I fail to see who I, or Adam for that matter, sleep with as you put it, is any of your concern. Now if that’s all, I do have work to do.”

Marjorie stood and glanced around the office. “You do know, of course, that part of my settlement will include this law firm.” When I refused to engage her, she went on, “My first order of business when that happens will be to take out the trash.” Picking up her coat and leaving me fuming, she exited through the open door. I slammed it shut behind her…right on Adam.

“How long have you been out there?” I asked.

“Just long enough to see Marjorie breezing out,” he told me as he came in and closed the door. “What was that about?”

I sighed, “Does it really matter, Adam?” I asked, wearily. “She has planted herself in your life and grown roots. She does not intend to be removed until she has exactly what she wants. Either you are willing to give it to her, or you continue to live with her antics. I for one, do not have the time, energy, or desire for any of it any longer.”

“What are you saying?” he asked, seemingly genuinely confused.

“I am saying that until Marjorie is no longer part of your life, until she no longer has the right to call herself ‘Mrs. Hanson,’ I am finished with you and I. Talk to me when you’re done with her and we’ll see where we can go from there.”

Adam’s face was a mixture of anger and disbelief. “You act like I want to live with this crazy woman. She is making my life a living hell. I’ve been in meetings with oil barons and politicians all day to boot. I’m being portrayed in the media as a pariah for taking on this case, and now the one good thing in my life is about to walk away. Nice.”

I had been holding my temper back all day, but I finally couldn’t take it any longer. “Me, me, me! That is all I ever hear from you, Adam! What about me? What about what I went through last night knowing you were spending the night with your ‘wife?’ What about what I went through just now enduring that woman’s nastiness? At least you bear some responsibility for what is happening in your life. Mine is falling apart as collateral damage. You act like I just gave up on us. I have stuck this out for nearly a year, feeling like the other woman when in truth, I was doing nothing wrong. And now, nearly a year later, I am truly the other woman because here you are living with your wife all over again!”

Adam sighed and rubbed his temples. “I can’t just let her have it all. I can’t.”

“Then you keep fighting, Adam. You do what you have to do, and I’ll do what I have to. Right now, what I really need to do is get to work on my case at hand. There is a young man depending on me and I will not throw his life away because I am too wrapped up in my personal issues to do the best job possible for him.”

Adam nodded and left, just like that. I wasn’t sure what I expected. He was headstrong and arrogant. I had known that from the start. I didn’t really blame him for not wanting to give Marjorie what was rightfully his, what he had earned. I just honestly didn’t have the strength to be a part of it any longer. I had a horrible thought then, one that I pulled right back down into that dark, dusty box in the corner of my brain that I rarely allowed open. 

“I wish the bitch would just disappear off the face of the earth.”

 

 

CHAPTER SIX

 

ADAM

 

   I had the worst day that I remembered having in a very long time. I stayed late at the office not because I had so much work to do, but because I hated the idea of being alone with Marjorie. When I finally forced myself out of the building, I was assaulted right outside on the sidewalk by the bright flash of a camera and a microphone in my face.

“Mr. Hanson, do you have any statements regarding the death of the President’s campaign manager and his link to Miles Brigham IV?”

My breath caught in my throat – Vick Landon dead? I had no idea what the reporter was talking about. Vick couldn’t be dead. He’s young and healthy…unless there was an accident. Why would he be asking me, anyways? Vick was more Alex’s friend from the start. Or maybe it was more about our common associates. It suddenly dawned on me that he was asking me because of my association with Brigham Oil and their association with Vick and this political campaign. Shit.

Realizing that I was surrounded by reporters and they were all yelling questions at once, I held up a palm to silence them. I saw Alicia leave the building out of the corner of my eye. She stopped at the edge of the crowd. I wanted to go to her and make her understand this bullshit with Marjorie, but that would have to wait until later. I addressed the reporters as soon as they were quiet.

“I’m afraid, first of all, that you are talking to the wrong person here. Yes, I am the attorney of record for the Oil Company, and yes, we are connected to the President’s campaign financially. However, I didn’t know Vick very well and I’m not sure how I can help you here. I didn’t even know he had died, and so I have no idea how it happened.”

“He was murdered,” one of them called out.

“He was bludgeoned to death,” another one said.

Before I opened my mouth again Mac, my partner and my personal attorney, stepped out of the building. He leaned in close to my ear and said, “You know better than to talk to these vultures. Miles is here, let’s go.”

Before I even knew what was happening, I was ushered into Miles Brigham’s smoke gray limousine, the door was slammed shut, and we were pulling away from the curb. The last thing I saw outside the building was Alicia still standing there and looking confused. I didn’t blame her. I was confused myself.

 

********

 

I asked my assistant Mary to send Alicia into my office as soon as Alicia got in the next morning. I was working on a brief when I heard a tap on the door and it was pushed open. “Mary said you wanted to see me,” Alicia said. I could tell by the red in her eyes that she hadn’t had much rest. The look on her face also told me I was probably the last person she wanted to see this morning. I knew I was dangling precariously close to losing her; I just wasn’t sure I knew how to fix it.

 “Yes, thanks for coming,” I said, trying to go into boss mode and forget for a few minutes how much I loved her and how badly I wanted her. “Please, sit.” I stood and motioned at a chair, and instead of sitting back down behind my desk I sat in the other wing-backed chair opposite her.

“I suppose you heard what happened last night?”

“Yes, I couldn’t miss it. It’s all over the news, and there are reporters all over outside. It’s still hard to believe.”

“There are also federal agents here, unfortunately,” I told her.

“FBI?” she asked.

“Yes. They are with Mac right now. They believe that Brigham had something to do with Vick’s murder. Mac is trying to get out of them exactly what we have, but I don’t think he’ll have much luck. Our only goal in being here is to make sure his attorneys are aware he is a person of interest, so our case doesn’t fall apart somewhere along the line for not following the letter of the law.”

“Adam, do you think Brigham had anything to do with it?”

I hesitated as I decided how to phrase my answer. I wasn’t trying to keep things from Alicia. I didn’t want to alarm her needlessly, either. Finally, I said, “He denies it, and we are his attorneys, so it really doesn’t matter anyways, does it?”

“What do you need from me?” Alicia asked, knowing that I was leading somewhere by telling her this. I felt an ache in my chest. I wanted to tell her what I needed from her, on all levels. Instead, I made myself focus on the task at hand and said,

“I need you to hand all of your open cases over to Kyla and Nico, and I need you to take on the criminal portion of this case. Mac and I will continue to represent the oil company, but I need you to represent Brigham, whether or not he ends up being arrested. There are going to be a lot of interviews with police and FBI, not to mention the press conferences. I need you on that; you can have as many of the junior associates and paralegals as you need to help.” Alicia looked dumbfounded. She knew how good I thought she was at her job, but she was also still new. I just hoped I wasn’t putting too much on her.

“Why me?”

“You have the most criminal experience of us all, Alicia. Our forte here was corporate and domestic before you, Nico, and Kyla came on board. You are all good, but I believe you are the best we have. Brigham is our number one client. We can’t afford to hand him over to someone that doesn’t know what they’re doing. Also,” I hesitated again before going on to say, “the authorities are bound to turn up some things in our investigation of Brigham that we would prefer the public and even some of our firm not know about. I believe I can trust you to do what needs to be done to keep certain things out of the press.”

She nodded. I could tell that she wasn’t absolutely convinced that she was experienced enough to handle a case of this magnitude, but my mind was made up that she was the one I wanted. She finally said, “Okay, where do I start?”

“You’re having breakfast with Miles Brigham IV in about two hours at his home. He can tell you what he knows, and you, as his attorney can tell him what, if anything he can tell the authorities.”

“Okay,” Alicia said as we both stood up. “I’ll get familiar with his file in the meantime.”

 “No, there’s no time for that now. Brigham’s estate is upstate. You will be going straight to the airport from here. His private jet will pick you up in about forty-five minutes, and you will be driven from the landing strip to his estate.”

“My head is spinning a little bit here, Adam.”

“I know it’s a lot to take in all at once, and I’m sorry. We have to be proactive here and get ahead of the press and the FBI, if possible.”

She nodded. Her auburn hair shone underneath the fluorescent lights of my office, and I wanted to just bury my face in it and forget about everything. I knew there was no time for that – and there was also the chance that she might not want me to touch her right now.

“Alicia.” She turned to look at me and the desire to touch her practically overwhelmed me. She locked those gorgeous hazel eyes into mine and waited. At last I said, “Marjorie and I go to court on Monday. Hopefully, that part of my life will be over soon. Please, don’t give up on me just yet.”

She only nodded again. I was hoping for more than that, but the truth was, I knew it was more than I deserved after all I had put her through. She was much more patient than most women would have been and much more patient than myself. She closed the door behind her as she left, and I could only hope that she wouldn’t close the door on us just yet.

 

 

CHAPTER SEVEN

 

ALICIA

 

I once again tucked away my thoughts about Adam and me and set out to meet the man that was the subject of every news brief in America right then. Brigham’s plane was extravagant, to say the least. I was the only passenger, yet the jet was fully staffed. I was offered food, coffee, juice, tea, and even a champagne mimosa. I chose the coffee, and then asked for a few moments of privacy so I could familiarize myself with Miles Brigham IV.

His file was thick. Adam’s people had done their job well. Adam had investigators on staff whose only job was to gather as much background as possible on prospective clients. Adam believed that the more you knew about a person, the better you could represent them.

Brigham’s file went all the way back to his birth. He was born to mega-wealthy parents, who had also been born to wealthy parents, and so on and so forth. The Petroleum Company had been in the family for over a hundred years. Miles IV had inherited it earlier than most of his predecessors. On the eve of his twenty-fifth birthday, his parents were both killed in a single engine plane accident. They had been flying out to New York from Texas for his birthday party. Miles IV was young, but his entire life had been spent in preparation for the day he would take over the company. He was what the financial community referred to as a “whiz kid,” taking the profits up and over where any other oil company had ever gone. There was speculation amongst Federal Authorities and financial wizards that all of Miles IV’s business dealings were not exactly legal, but if there were any hard evidence of that, it was yet to be found.

Miles IV had been married four times. His most recent ex-wife had only been 22 years old when he married her. She was 23 when she divorced him. What brains the man had for business was lost when it came to love. At 54 years old, he had given hundreds of millions of dollars of his and his family’s fortune to ex-wives. His attorneys had always urged him to get a prenuptial agreement prior to marrying them, as did his children, both of whom were now grown and rightfully concerned that if their father continued his liaisons with these types of women, there would be no inheritance left for them.

Miles began to get into politics about five years ago. From what I had read thus far, it seemed to me that his choice was based on a cross between boredom with his everyday activities and needing more places to put his money in order to keep the IRS from taking huge chunks.

Vick Landon had approached him almost four years prior after meeting at a democratic rally and spoke to him about the benefits of investing in the American president. The President was just a hopeful at the time, but Vick had said that with the right financial backers, he could go all the way and do great things for this country. Alicia wasn’t certain if the country was Miles IV’s main concern or not, but it would seem he decided there was something great enough there for someone that he invested hundreds of millions of dollars into the president’s campaign. Thanks to that support, the presidential hopeful was able to put on a campaign that outdid all of his competition and convince the constituents that he was the right man to restore financial order to America once again.

Vick shot to the top of political circles quickly after that. If not for him, the President may have never received enough funding to get where he was. Miles Brigham IV was always welcome at the White House, and to the chagrin of some of the President’s close advisers, he was perhaps more involved in policy making than he should have been.

Adam’s good friend Alex Fritz was a close friend of Vick’s. They ran in the same circles, and it was through Alex that Adam had made the contact with Brigham, and our business relationship was born.

As I read through the file, I made note that Mr. Brigham had also been implicated in many crimes over the years, none of which amounted to an arrest, much less a conviction. Being accused of things was one thing – proving it was something else entirely. Miles Brigham IV had the money and the connections to pay the best lawyers, and in some cases, evidence and even people just disappeared.

Brigham’s most controversial problem had taken place almost ten years prior, when his third wife, thirty-two-year-old Kelly Brigham, a former topless dancer and self-proclaimed cosmetic surgery addict “fell” off of a cliff while hiking in the hills with her husband. Police and press were suspicious, due to the facts that for one, Kelly Brigham was not an outdoorsy type of girl, secondly, many people had overheard her and Miles IV arguing loudly earlier in the day, and finally, a busboy in the restaurant at the lodge where the couple had been staying had reportedly overheard Miles IV telling Kelly that she should “watch herself” because people “disappeared off the sides of cliffs in this place all the time.”

The problem with their case was: Kelly’s family, who consisted only of her crack-addict mother and her drug dealer brother stood in Miles IV’s corner and told all who would listen what an amazing husband he had been to Kelly and how he had “turned her life around.” The police suspected a payoff there, You think?, but again, could prove nothing.

The people that had said they heard the argument in the lobby of the lodge that day either recanted their stories, saying they “must have been mistaken” or left no forwarding addresses in which the police and district attorney could track them down. The busboy from the restaurant was one of the people who had “left town.” No one at the lodge knew where he may have gone, and the police had been unable to track him down.

I sat the thick file down, yawned, and stretched out my legs. I poured myself a glass of water from the fresh pitcher the attendant had left me a bit ago and mulled over what I had just read. The biggest question on my mind was the one question I would never ask Mr. Brigham. “Is he a murderer?”

I pictured Miles Brigham IV. I had met him once and had seen him coming and going many times at the office. He was a tall, distinguished-looking man. His gray hair was stylishly cut to just above the collar of his shirts. He rarely wore a suit. Instead, he wore famous brand shirts and designer jeans. I had not ever really noticed his shoes, but he struck me as a cowboy boot kind of man. I had a hard time picturing this man tossing his wife off of a cliff or bludgeoning a man to death. I knew, though, that looks are very often deceiving and recalled what Adam had said earlier about it not mattering if he was guilty or not. I knew that. My job was to give Miles IV the best defense possible. Innocence or guilt was for a jury to decide, not me.

My plane landed on that thought, and I filed away my concerns about whether or not Mr. Brigham had killed his wife, tucking them away for later. When I stepped off the plane, I saw that the great man himself was waiting to meet me. He stood at the bottom of the steps of the ramp, his long, black limousine parked alongside him. He smiled a wide, welcoming smile as I descended.

"Ms. Winston, I presume?" he asked as he offered a hand to help me down the last few steps. I smiled back and took his outstretched hand with my free one.

"Yes, Mr. Brigham, thank you."

"We have met before, haven't we?" He motioned to his driver to retrieve the bag I carried. “I recall seeing you several times afterwards. I regret that we never had time to get to know one another."

"Well, I am looking forward to working with you," I told him as the driver held the door to the car open for us. "And, thank you for the amazing ride here. That had to be the smoothest flight I've ever been on."

Brigham laughed and said, "I reckon I'm a bit spoiled. I can't even remember the last time I flew commercial."

We both slid into the roomy backseat of the car. Brigham offered to pour me a drink as the driver began the journey. I wasn't much of a drinker and wanted a clear head for our work this evening so I declined and accepted a sparkling water, instead.

"So, Mr. Brigham, if you don't mind, tell me what has happened thus far."

Miles sighed loudly. "This is all so unnecessary. I have done many things, young lady, but I assure you, murder is not one of them."

I gave him a reassuring smile and nodded, but I couldn't help remembering what I had read about his third wife. I shook that off and said,

"Our goal here, Mr. Brigham, is to avoid your arrest completely. I need you to tell me anything and everything you know about Vick and whatever you may know about who or why someone would want to murder him. I also need to know why the police would think you would be involved in this."

"Well, for starters, I hated that little rat bastard. When I feel a certain way about someone, I tell them straight out. I told him more than once. I'm afraid I told him in front of more than one person. I think I even used the words once that the little SOB should be wiped right off the face of the earth."

I winced. We would have to work on the way he phrased things if this ever went to court.

"I didn't mean that, literally. I just say things when I get angry, and I don't think about how they sound or even who may be listening. It's given me cause for the services of many a good lawyer over the years."

He said the last with a small chuckle as he drained the contents of his glass. I was not shocked to see him chugging bourbon so early in the day. His penchant for loose, busty women was no match for his penchant for alcohol, and the press had played them both up in more ways than either of them could count. I continued on with my interview,

"Do you mind telling me why you loathed Vick so much?"

As he poured another snifter of scotch, he said, “I met Vick when he was nothing but a snot-faced kid with a lot of big dreams. He was smart, I'll give him that, and I was impressed with the boy's tenacity. He had gotten a job working on the President's campaign right out of college. He worked every angle there was to get donors for the campaign, including me. Did you know that I am the reason he got the job as the campaign manager? He finagled a promise from the President's right hand man that if he could get me on board, the job was his."

Miles laughed again, but there was little humor in it. "He started out trying to work me the way he did everyone else. He gathered as much background on me and my company as he could, and tried to work the 'I'll get him to back every law and proposition that you want passed’ angle. I told him straight out that I had enough money and enough friends in high places that I tended to get what I wanted, either way.

“Then, the steel-balled little bastard...excuse my language, I'm not used to speaking with ladies that often. Anyways, he did something that surprised me. He just came straight out and told me about the promise he had received to be the President's campaign manager. I was impressed with that, I have to say. Hell, I was gonna give my money to somebody, right? Gotta keep those tax write-offs piling up. So, I agreed, Vick got the job, and the rest as we say, is history."

I waited a moment for him to go on, and when he didn't, I said, "I'm sorry, Mr. Brigham, but that doesn't really explain why you hated him."

Brigham cracked the window slightly and then turned to me and said, "We are just about to my place. I have a few meetings this afternoon I just can't get out of, but I've set up the library for you with all the documents you need to go over pertaining to my business dealings with Vick. I would appreciate it, if you don't mind so much, if we continue that conversation over dinner later?"

"Of course," I agreed. I was disappointed. I had thought I would be able to spend the day gaining what I needed from Miles in order to stave off the police and FBI. I doubted that I would be able to get that from reviewing financial documents. He was the client though, and I was on the clock. That made him the boss for now, and I'd have to do it his way.

When I stepped out of the car, I felt like I had stepped right into a fantasy. The mansion stood before us, framed by lush green lawns stretching out for what seemed like miles. Trees and flowers were everywhere, and the largest, most breathtaking fountain flowed and bubbled with clear, cool water. The front of the home was supported with huge, white pillars and an oak balcony framed the upper floor. My family was well-off and I grew up in a really nice estate, but our entire home would have fit in his enormous front yard.

"It's lovely," I told him as he helped me out of the car.

Brigham looked up at the house and said simply, "It's home."

The entryway was just as grand. The floors were white and soft gray marble. An elegant chandelier hung from a vaulted ceiling and cascaded prisms of light across the spiral staircase that laid to the right of it. A smartly-dressed lady with her hair held back tightly in a bun greeted us at the door. Brigham introduced her as "Hannah" he told me that she was in charge of the household and that I should let her know if I needed anything.

He took Hannah off to the side for a moment and gave her instructions that I couldn't quite hear. He then told me again that he "just couldn't get out of" these meetings he had to go to, and to please help myself to any of the documents he had lain out for me in the library.

With that, he said goodbye and left me alone in the mansion, with Hannah of course. She showed me to the library, and after showing me where everything was that I might need, she left to make me a pot of tea.

I sighed, took off my jacket, and got to work sorting through all of the documents. At some point, Hannah returned with the tea and some cookies. My cell phone rang a few times, but I chose to ignore it. I surprised myself by becoming engrossed in the task before me. I had been concerned about spending the day trying to stay awake over the boring documents I would have to read. Instead, I had been handed a yellow legal pad by Hannah when I first sat down. She had told me to read it carefully, and then go through the documents as the instructions stated. I was intrigued.

Vick Landon, thirty-six years old. 1865 W. 15th Ave. New York (555) 565-7874.

Priscilla Moore, twenty-four years old, Vick's lover.

Cindy McGuire, twenty-six years old, Vick's girlfriend.

David Tyler, twenty-two years old, Vick's lover?

The last statement had a question mark behind it. I raised an eyebrow, David? Was that a man or a woman with a man's name?

I read on. The list contained dates, times and places where he had been with each of these people. It looked like the girlfriend was the only one he was ever seen in public with. She came from a prominent, wealthy family in Manhattan. They spent a lot of time together at fundraising events and social gatherings for the elite.

The lover, Priscilla, was a stripper in a club that Vick and his friends frequented. She had eventually moved into a deluxe suite at the Plaza, and Vick visited her at least twice a week, sometimes more often. In between his visits, Priscilla visited spas and elegant boutiques where she spent excessive amounts of cash.

And then there was David, definitely a man. Vick visited him once a week. They met at David's apartment in SoHo, and according to the document laid out before me, Vick was leading a very active sex life of which David was a part of.

I leaned back in the chair and rubbed my eyes. Suddenly, a deep red rose on a long stem appeared before my eyes. I looked behind me, and there was Adam, dressed to kill and looking like a million bucks. I pulled my chair back from the table.

"Adam! What are you doing here?" He smiled that smile that could defrost my heart and all of the blood in my body, had I ever been in a deep freeze for too long.

"Being the attorney of record for Miles Brigham IV has many benefits."

I felt light-headed and confused as I stood up and continued to gaze at him. My heart and every other fiber in my body was screaming at me to run into his arms. My head was trying, as usual, to overpower all of my other senses and make me listen to reason.

"Again," I said, enunciating it for effect, "what are you doing here?"

"I came to see you. I need you, baby. I can't work; I can't sleep. Marjorie is killing me – literally, I think. I need you. You are truly the only good thing in my life right now. Please, don't send me away."

"We can't just have a tryst in the country and act like things are all wine and roses, Adam."

"I know that, I do. But, I told you I have the court date on Monday, right? I think this will finally be the last one, I can feel it. Please…Alicia…I need you..." He held his arms open, and I didn't waste any more time allowing my brain to argue. I followed my heart and drifted like steel to his magnet. I threw my arms around his neck, and after a long, seductive kiss I said,

"Just for today, since we're both here…"

Adam smiled again, and any doubt I may have had that I wanted to do this was instantly erased. He picked me up in his arms as he continued to kiss me and pulled the door to the library open with his shoe. He carried me down the long hall, knowing just where he was going. When we reached the last door on the right, he opened it and we were suddenly in a spacious, plushly decorated bedroom.

As he sat me down on the pillow-soft king-sized bed, I had to ask, "Did you plan this with Miles? Is that why he dumped me here and went off to his meetings?"

Adam nodded. He lit a scented candle on the bedside as he stripped out of his tie and jacket. Picking up a remote that also lay there, he pushed a button and soft, contemporary music began to float throughout the room from invisible speakers.

"Hannah was in on it, too. I had to have some time alone with you. Miles really did have meetings to attend today. He'll be back for dinner and we will work, I promise. Right now though, I have to ravage you."

He leaned in for another kiss and began unbuttoning my blouse. As he sat next to me, he worked the buttons with one hand and slipped the other inside. He ran his fingers along the lace of my bra, gently touching the skin on the tops of my breasts and sending little electric shocks racing through me and goosebumps racing down my spine. When my shirt was fully unbuttoned, he slipped it off my shoulders, kissing each one as he did. The bra was suddenly unfastened, and my breasts spilled out and he let out a little moan before using his lips and tongue to set my nipples on fire. I ran my hands through his hair and pulled down gently on his head, urging him on.

As he sucked on my breasts, he pushed me back gently until I was lying flat on the bed. He continued to lick and suck and nibble, while he began to unfasten and slide my skirt down over my thighs. His fingers were skimming the edges of my panties, teasing in just the right places. I lifted my hips and allowed him to slip them off of me, as well. My pussy was soaked and aching for him. Each time I thought about leaving him, I had to wonder if I’d ever be okay with any other man’s touch. I doubted it. I’d miss everything about him if this didn’t work out. I might have to remain celibate for the rest of my life and that would suck.