Ex Delicto (3 page)

Aiden

I checked my watch. Almost midnight. And Xavier was still plugging away, and hadn’t complained once. I had to give him credit. He might actually be one of the few new hires that worked out.

Which was both good and bad for me. Good because I was sick of breaking in new hires just for them to up and quit after a month or two. Good because this new case was a real bitch and I needed someone just like Xavier on the team helping me out.

Bad because…well, just look at him.

His jet black hair had mussed out of place over the course of the evening, which gave it the perfect disheveled look. Which just made me want to run my hands through it. His pouty mouth was set in an expression of concentration, his lips just slightly puckered. How I wanted to bite that lower lip. How I wanted to bite just about every part of his body.

I’d worked alone with him yesterday, but this felt different. Maybe because it was at night. Maybe because it seemed like the longer I was around him, the more I wanted him. I was no virgin, I’d slept with plenty of men, but I’d never wanted somebody so bad in my life.

I watched as Xavier unconsciously closed his eyes and his head fell forward. He caught himself a second later and his head jerked back up. He blinked his eyes a few times, fighting the exhaustion.

“Why don’t you take a load off?” I said.

“What?” Xavier said.

“Take a quick nap on the couch there.”

Xavier shook his head. “I’m fine.”

I chuckled. Most newcomers would have jumped at that suggestion. I now had to admit to myself that I had been all wrong about him. I hated being wrong. Especially about someone so gorgeous. It would have been so much easier to be right.

“Seriously, Xavier,” I said. “Sleep for half an hour, an hour, and you’ll feel a lot better. I promise.”

Xavier actually smiled at that. My heart fluttered in my chest. When was the last time I had felt something like that? It had been a decade. More. I had to admit, it freaked me out a little.

“Since when did you get so nice?” he said, still smiling.

“I have my moments,” I responded. “Now hurry up and take a nap before I change my mind.”

“What about you?” Xavier asked. “Don’t you sleep?”

“Not really,” I admitted. I had learned by now to get by on about two hours of sleep a night. “But I’ve been doing this a lot longer than you.”

“Huh,” Xavier said. “Well, I’m looking forward to learning how to live without sleep.”

“Ha ha,” I said. “Are you going to lie down or am I going to have to drag you to the couch by force?” Not that I was opposed to the second option.

I could have sworn I saw Xavier blush. “I’m going, I’m going,” he said.

Too bad. I really would have liked to grab him by the shoulders, throw him down on the couch, and go from there.

He went to the couch, curled up on it, and a few minutes later I could tell by his rhythmic breathing that he was already fast asleep.

While he was asleep I read through more files. As much as I hated to admit it, this fraud case looked pretty straightforward. The fraudulent transactions were all done at odd hours and they had been done under his name. I had double checked the employee numbers and they matched. For a big investment banker who ostensibly was very smart and had been very successful in his life, he had made no effort to cover his tracks. It didn’t really make sense, but he probably had a huge ego and thought he’d never get caught. The higher up you are in a company, the more untouchable you tend to feel. Maybe that was what was happening here. According to Greg we’d all be meeting him tomorrow, so I’d find out then.

An hour later I’d made no real progress. I glanced over at the couch and saw that Xavier was still sound asleep. It was almost a shame to wake him up but if I let him sleep I got the feeling he wouldn’t wake up until morning.

I walked over to the couch and gave Xavier’s shoulder a slight shove.

“Xavier, wake up,” I said.

He didn’t even budge.

I kneeled beside the couch and shoved him harder. “Yo, Xavier.”

“Mmm,” he murmured and slightly shifted position.

Well, he was alive. That was something.

I couldn’t help staring at him. He was sleeping on his side, his arms bent in front of him, with his hands under his head. His hair was now a total mess, falling over his face.

He was completely defenseless in front of me. Did he have any idea how dangerous that was?

I ran a hand through his hair, pushing it back out of his face. I had been dying to touch his hair, and now I was. His lips were slightly parted, just begging to be kissed.

No, I shouldn’t do this, I thought. He was sleeping, he was my subordinate, it wasn’t right. I grabbed his shoulder and shook him harder, willing him to wake up before I did something to him.

“Xavier, wake up!” I yelled.

Xavier’s eyes flew open. “What?”

“Finally,” I said, smirking. “You sleep like the dead, do you know that?”

“Aiden? What are you doing here?” he said.

“You’re not awake yet. Remember, you’re at work? You took a nap on the couch?”

“Oh! Right!” he said, and shot up from the couch. Hitting his forehead against mine in the process.

“Ow!” he said, touching his skin where he’d been hit.

I did the same. “Ow. Next time I need to wake you up I’ll just blow an air horn in your ear.”

“I’m so sorry, Aiden!” he said, still touching the area on his forehead, which was getting redder. “Ow…”

“Here, let me look at that,” I said. I ran my thumb over his skin. I could already feel a bump under his skin, but it was small. “It’s not that bad.”

Xavier’s face began to flush and his gaze went to the floor. “No, yeah, I know, sorry.”

He was flustered. Considering how closed off and unflappable he seemed to be, I was surprised he was such an innocent. I was completely intrigued, and before I knew it, I was running my fingers from his forehead to the side of his face. I ran a finger along his jawline, down under his chin.

He gasped slightly, his lips parted, and his flush grew deeper. “Aiden, wha—”

He said my name and I was undone. I tilted his chin up, meeting his mouth with mine. Our lips brushed against each other. I swept my tongue into his mouth, massaging his with mine, exploring his mouth. Just like I had in my dream.

I broke the kiss and stared into his eyes. His face was bright red and his breathing was heavy, but he didn’t look away.

This was no dream.

“Aiden,” he said, panting. “We shouldn’t do this.”

“Oh, I think we should,” I said.

I grabbed his wrists and pinned him down on the couch. I leaned down and kissed him so hard he was sinking into the cushions. He moaned into my mouth and I was instantly hard. When I broke the kiss he practically gasped for breath.

I kissed down his neck, to his collar bone, under his shirt. I began unbuttoning his shirt as I kissed a trail down his chest.

Suddenly Xavier put his hands on my shoulders and pushed me up. “No!”

I froze in place. “No?” I asked.

Xavier sat up and began buttoning up his shirt. “Sorry, Aiden. I just…you’re my boss. And if something happened, you know, I don’t want to lose this job. It’s too important to me. I’m sorry.”

I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding. “Okay. I understand.”

“I need a minute,” he said. “I’ll be right back.”

“Sure,” I said. I stood up from the couch and watched him leave the room.

I could see the desire in Xavier’s eyes. I felt him getting hard under me. I knew he wanted me.

And I wanted him. I wanted him more than I’d wanted anyone in a long time. He was so gorgeous, so sexy, and yet so clearly inexperienced. How had that happened? I had to find out. And I had to kiss those amazing lips again.

If all he was afraid of was that I’d put his job in danger, I just had to prove to him that I was serious about him.

Xavier

The next morning I came to work as late as I possibly could, which by my standards meant fifteen minutes early. I went to the café with the long line and got a large coffee and a scone.

I couldn’t believe I’d kissed my boss. Or rather, I couldn’t believe he’d kissed me. Which meant he was gay, or at least bi.

He had been so tough and demanding that first day, I’d thought he hated me. I wasn’t so sure I didn’t hate him back. And as sexy as he was, I had no idea he was capable of kissing like that.

The worst part was that it had been so incredibly hot. Aiden looked like someone out of an action movie. Totally built, gorgeous rugged face, thick blonde hair. And when he straddled me on the couch I’d never been so hard in my whole life.

When he began to undress me in the middle of the office though, I panicked. I didn’t even know why. I still didn’t, even now.

Part of it really was that I didn’t want to risk my job. All my life, all I’d thought about was working hard and getting a good job. And what if I’d given in and actually fucked my boss? I had never been good in bed, and he’d probably be so disappointed he’d fire me on the spot.

That was it, wasn’t it? I was bad in bed and I knew it. That’s what Tony had always told me anyway, and since I’d never slept with anyone but him, I had no evidence to contradict it. I knew he had always had a talent for making me feel bad about myself, about a lot of different things, but that didn’t mean he was wrong about this.

After all, I knew how to work hard, I knew how to do well in school, and I knew about the law. But sex, I just didn’t have that much experience with. Certainly not enough to satisfy an older man like Aiden.

But what would happen if he ever kissed me again? I was so turned on by him, I wasn’t entirely sure I could stop myself from giving in if it ever did happen again.

Coffee and scone in hand, I took the elevator up to the high floor our offices were on. I got off the elevator and was about to head into the office when I heard a voice call out behind me.

“Xavier!”

My heart raced for a fraction of a second before I turned around and saw it was Greg. I tried to make my sigh of relief as inconspicuous as possible.

“Good, you’re here,” he said.

“Is everything all right?” I asked.

Greg nodded, looking around me as he talked to me. “Yeah, yeah, but there’s a client meeting with Michael Patterson in fifteen. Conference room A.”

“And you want me to be there,” I surmised.

Greg looked at me and blinked. “Yeah.” Then he laughed. “Sorry, right, you’re new. Just so you know, from now on, if you work on the case, you come to the meetings.”

This was not something that had been covered on my one and only training day. It didn’t surprise me that they didn’t allocate a lot of time for training here. From what I could tell, the training method was very “throw them in the deep end and see how they swim.” Aiden had told me last night that there was a lot of turnover here. It wasn’t hard to see why.

Thinking of last night made me think of kissing Aiden. The way he gently held his hand to my face, the way he gave me the gentlest of kisses, gentler than I ever thought him capable of being, to the much more insistent way he kissed before we were about to…before we almost…

I squeezed my eyes shut.
Stop. Don’t think about it. Don’t think about what almost happened.
It was almost too much to believe.

Aiden had everything going for him. He was young, had a great job with no doubt a monster salary to match, and was ridiculously handsome. Why would he want anything to do with me? Unless he thought I was easy or something. That was the only possible reason.

And if that’s what he had actually thought, no doubt he didn’t think it anymore.

It was a shame. I’d be lying to myself if I said I didn’t want things to go further with Aiden. But I knew deep down it wouldn’t lead to anything good.

Shit. This was so much easier when I thought he was straight.

“How new are you? This isn’t your first one, is it?” Greg asked.

I looked up in surprise. He wasn’t talking about Aiden and I, was he? Then it clicked.

“My first meeting? Yeah, actually,” I said.

Greg frowned slightly. “Well, this might be a bit intense for your first client meeting. But from what I’ve seen, you’ll be able to handle it.” He paused. “I think.”

That wasn’t encouraging. And that didn’t even take into account what had happened with Aiden, which Greg clearly didn’t know about.

Greg opened the door to the conference room for me, since my hands were full with my coffee and briefcase, and thanked him as I walked in. Luckily I had at least beat the client in.

But I hadn’t beat Aiden. My heart beat a little faster.

Greg stood at the entrance, still holding the door open. “I’ll be back in a sec, guys.”

“Sure,” I croaked out. I cleared my throat. Aiden pulled out a rolling chair beside him for me to sit in. I reluctantly sat in it.

He leaned in. “How are you?” he asked in that low, sexy voice of his. He was so close I could smell the light scent of his cologne.

“Fine,” I said flatly, pulling papers and my scone from the café out of my briefcase.

He leaned in even closer. “Sleep well?”

“I—”

The door flung open and I started in my seat. “Sorry about that, guys,” Greg said, holding a stack of papers with two men trailing behind him. He nodded at them. “This is Michael Patterson and his criminal attorney Herb Roberts.”

Everyone stood up and shook hands, then sat around the table.

I couldn’t help noticing right away that Michael didn’t look a thing like he did in the papers. He had always looked expressionless, even in paparazzi shots, but here in our office he looked sweaty and nervous. He fidgeted with his hands and glanced all about the room, as if he couldn’t find a suitable place to fix his eyes on.

The first thing Michael said after greeting everyone was, “I’m being framed.”

This was news to me. I glanced at Herb, who closed his eyes and smiled as if he heard this all the time. He probably did. I looked at Aiden and Greg, both of whom seemed similarly unconcerned.

I was in shock. It was clear this man was afraid. Maybe it was just the jail time he was facing. Or maybe he was telling the truth and he really was being framed. But no one else seemed willing to entertain the possibility that it was the second option.

I certainly wanted to ask him some questions about it, but considering this was only my third day on the job and my first client, I didn’t feel comfortable going against the more experienced people in the room. So I held my tongue.

“Well, we’ll certainly do our best to clear you, Mr. Patterson,” Greg said.

Michael didn’t respond, but his jaw set. Greg didn’t believe him and Michael knew it.

“I take it that hasn’t happened yet,” Herb said.

“No, but we’ve only been on this for a day. We haven’t been able to go through everything,” Aiden said.

“Don’t forget, the arraignment’s on Monday,” Herb said.

“How the hell is he here right now then if they haven’t set bail?” Aiden asked.

“We worked it out with the police. He’s turning himself in after this meeting,” Herb said. “Anyway, I’d like to have something to tell the judge other than that he’s a pillar of the community.”

Aiden leaned back in his chair and chuckled. “Then you should have given us more time. Besides, that’s your department, counsellor. By the time the trial rolls around we’ll know the financial data like the back of our hand, you can be sure of that.”

“For all the good it’ll do me on Monday,” Herb said. He stood up, briefcase in hand. “Eleven a.m., okay? If you find anything.”

Everyone else followed suit and stood up.

“Of course,” Greg said. Everyone shook hands again, and Michael and Herb left. After the door shut and the sound of their footsteps had faded down the hallway, Greg sat down and let out a huge sigh. “I swear, the way these people expect miracles.”

Aiden smirked. “There’s no way that guy Roberts thought we had anything. He’s just appeasing his client, throwing his weight around like that.”

“I guess,” Greg said. “Anyway, looks like we have another long night ahead of us. I hope neither of you had any weekend plans.”

As we gathered our stuff, I threw out as casually as possible, “What do you think about him saying he’s been framed?”

Greg chuckled. “They all say that.”

“They do?” I asked.

“Yeah, they all have some excuse or another. What it really is, is that they don’t want to take responsibility. Or they don’t want to admit to anyone that they’re a criminal. Most won’t even admit it to themselves. Don’t repeat that outside this room, by the way.”

“Hmm,” I said.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Aiden staring at me with a serious look on his face, but he didn’t say a word.

Greg had his mind made up, and I was sure he was right. I was the newbie here, and I was sure if someone had the mindset to commit a crime, it didn’t take much of a leap to lie and try to weasel your way out of it.

But I wasn’t satisfied. Michael Patterson was scared out of his wits. I couldn’t discount that.