Insufferable Proximity 2 (24 page)

“Yes.”

“Would you like a little company? I’d love to buy you lunch for helping me keep my job. I’m taking Heaven out to lunch soon, too.”

“Sure, I would love some company, but I insist you let me treat.”

“But I wanted to show my appreciation.”

“You already have. Come on.” The empty elevator opened, and he motioned her inside.

“It was such a pleasure to be able to work with you. If I’m honest, I really miss it. I like Mr. Baker and everything, he’s a great boss, but you were more than a great boss. I learned so much from you. Please let me buy you lunch.”

“If you insist,” Ian grinned; he couldn’t resist her plea. He wasn’t accustomed to women buying him lunch.

“Thank you,” she quickly kissed his cheek. “I’m starving; I can’t wait to get there.”

“Shall we take my car?” He cleared his throat and adjusted his tie awkwardly—he was still stuck on that kiss.

“It’s such a beautiful day outside, we should walk,” she bent close to whisper, even though they were alone in the elevator, “that is unless you don’t want to be seen with me.”

“Walking sounds good, you’re right—it is a beautiful day.”

***

Heaven sat at her desk and sighed. When she first got back to work, she had wanted Julian to give her a little space, so she could get some work done. Now that he had been avoiding her all day, she was reconsidering her wish.

“Be careful what you ask for,” she murmured to her empty office.

She could see that Julian was upset, but she didn’t understand why. She didn’t understand why a phone call would be so important, or why coffee would send him into a meltdown.

By late afternoon, she was a mess. She tried to get some work done, but her mind just kept wandering back to Julian.

“I have a right to know what is going on,” she blurted as she rose from her chair—she was on a mission.

She needed answers, and she wanted them now. She stormed out of her office and went next door to Julian’s. She wasn’t paying attention to his secretary, and she didn’t bother knocking. She barged into his office and slammed the door behind her. Luckily, he wasn’t with a potential client or a co-worker.

“Why are you so mad?” She put her hands on her hips as she looked down her nose at him.

“We’ll discuss it when we get home.”

She stomped her foot. “I’m not waiting until we get home.”

“You don’t have a choice.”

“I want to know now!”

“And I wanted to know that you called Mr. Baker. I also would have liked to have known about his gift. Unfortunately, he told me before you did. I had to wait, and so do you,” he said in an angry tone.

“Is that why you’re mad? Because he told you before I did?”

“We will discuss it later.”

Heaven could tell by the look on his face that he wouldn’t budge. She had two options—she could argue until she was blue in the face and
still
end up with no answers, or she could give him a taste of his own ridiculous medicine.

“Fine, have it your way. If you want to be mad at me for no reason, then I’ll be mad at you, too.” She turned up her nose haughtily, then turned around with the regality of a queen and left his office. A far cry from the tyrant who
entered
his office.

Damn, it feels rewarding to be childish,
Heaven thought as she headed towards her own office.

***

It was a silent ride home as neither of them spoke a word to the other. Heaven pretended not to care, and Julian silently seethed with rage.

After he parked the car, they walked into the house. The second he slammed the front door shut, he grabbed Heaven from behind, and ran up the steps three at a time as he raced to their room; slamming the bedroom door so hard, Heaven feared it would break. He walked over, tossed her on the bed, and immediately crawled on top of her. He was on his hands and knees above her. He grabbed her wrists in one hand, held them above her head, and grabbed the bottom of her face as he bent closer to her—his face a mere inch from hers.

“I want to know every single word in that phone conversation that you hid from me.”

“I didn’t hide it from you,” she snapped at him.

“Then why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t think it was important.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about his gifts? You didn’t think that was important either?”

“No, I didn’t. I didn’t even drink the coffee, I poured it down the sink.”

Still holding her wrists, he reached down, grabbed her hip and rolled her onto her side. He yanked her skirt up to her waist as she tried to knee him. He trapped her thighs between his muscular knees and held her still, drew back his hand and brought it down hard on her ass, “It
is
important.”

“Ouch!” she squealed, and tried to pull away. He had her locked in position, and there was no way she could escape.

“Tell me how important it is.” When she didn’t answer directly, he smacked her ass again.

“Ouch!” she yelped and tried desperately to get loose.

“You’d better answer me; you know I can do this all night,” he smirked sadistically as he smacked her ass for the third time.

“It’s very important,” she snapped as she tried to pull away.

“I don’t trust him with you.”

“You don’t trust anyone.”

“Why should I? There’s not much to trust; especially after Gavin. That was an eye-opener.” He let go of her wrists and gently turned her to lay flat on her belly. “I trust
you
…that’s enough.”

“Do you really trust me?” she asked as she looked into his eyes.

“I do, but I don’t trust Baker. I see the way that he looks at you, and I know exactly what he’s thinking.”

“How do you know?”

“I just do. He wants you, but he knows that you don’t want him. You’ve become a challenge to him.”

“I think you’re being paranoid,” she shook her head and tried to get up.

“Stay still,” he commanded before he spread her legs. He lay between her thighs, his head level with her butt, and gently ran the tips of his fingers over her sore skin. He carefully kissed the heated skin, trailing soft kisses across her behind. He began to kiss up her back, moving to lie beside her as he went.

He was on his side, propped on his elbow as he faced her, and lovingly caressed her behind as he bent to kiss her lips.

“Promise me, no more private conversations with Mr. Baker.”

“I promise,” she vowed.

The Case

Ayden called Julian’s cell phone at three a.m. During the middle of the night, a well-known shipping heir was murdered. His wife, a socialite with megastar power, was accused of his murder. Her father had immediately called Ayden to represent her. Unfortunately, Ayden was in the middle of a case and wouldn’t be able to help directly. He called his sons with the news first. Ian was also representing another client and had no time for another case.

***

Julian and Heaven left the house early that morning to head to the coffee shop before work. She wanted to sit down, enjoy her coffee and a little conversation with Julian before work started. She was feeling sort of strange, but couldn’t put her finger on what was wrong. She assumed that she was overly excited about the new case.

“Tina Tucker and her boyfriend are being accused of murdering her husband. They turned on each other the moment they were arrested,” Julian said after they sat down with their drinks.

“It will be all-out war; this will be a hard case to beat,” Heaven said with a twinkle in her eye.

“I know how badly you want this case.”

“I do,” she replied.

“No cheap shots, no stealing, and no cheating. We fight for this case fair and square.” Julian laid out the rules.

Heaven smiled as she took a sip of her iced coffee. “Fair and square.”

“And no fighting. We’re not going to fight or argue over this case.”

Heaven looked at him for a moment before she finally nodded, “I agree. I don’t think we should fight over any case—ever again.” Although she said the words, she was excited for the battle. She just didn’t want to battle Julian, and she hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

“One year ago today, if someone told me that I would never fight with Heaven Deville over another case, I would have laughed in their face.”

“And to think we got here because I broke into your office. Which, by the way, I promise never to do again. I won’t put a virus through your computer either.” She grinned as she said this.

“I wish you would.” He grabbed her thigh and pulled her closer to him. The white deco chair squeaked as it dragged on the floor.

“I beg your pardon?”

“If you broke into my office, there would be certain repercussions. I would love to have you under contract again. This time, I’d double the time and triple the rules.”

“I don’t need to break into your office for that,” she said suggestively.

“No?”

“No.”

“I can’t wait to take you home.”

“I can’t wait for you to take me home,” she whispered as she took another sip of her drink.

He watched her lips wrap around the straw, and he thought about the times that she’d dropped to her knees and sucked him off. She had held her lips around his cock the same way she did the straw.

“Don’t get too worked up, we have a long day ahead of us.” She smiled, knowing that look on his face. She wiped a piece of lint from his jacket and fixed his tie. Her smile vanished when his eyes darted towards the ladies’ bathroom.

“Don’t even think about it.” Her hand dropped from his tie to his thigh.

The act alone sent his brain into a lustful frenzy as she innocently set his cock on auto erect. He wanted to take her into the bathroom and have his way with her, but he refused. He couldn’t put his princess in a public bathroom again; she deserved better.

“If it weren’t for this case, I would take you home right now. I’m not going to make it until the end of work.”

“We’ll leave early,” she shrugged with a smile.

***

Everyone in the firm was tense and not sure what would happen. It was the type of case that had provoked wars between Julian and Heaven in the past. Despite their proclaimed love, most of the employees found it hard to believe they would refrain from fighting. Everyone was walking on eggshells waiting for the war to start.

“Now Ms. Devil will show her true colors again.” Juliette smiled.

“What do you mean?” Gloria asked.

“Heaven Deville lives for the thrill of the case; she is addicted to accomplishment. She would kill her own mother for a juicy case like this. She will fight for this one tooth and nail, just like she always does. However, this time, she’ll show Julian exactly how disloyal she really is.”

“I don’t think so, Juliette, not this time,” Gloria objected and Juliette huffed.

“Mark my word, you’ll see,” Juliette said smugly before walking away.

“I can’t believe she is still hung up on King,” Reese said with a look of disgust.

“Like you should talk, you just ended your fixation yesterday,” Gloria snickered.

“No, I stopped liking him long ago, when it became obvious that he was crazy for Sevigne Deville. Now, I don’t know if it will last between the two of them, but I will be respectful until it ends,” Reese replied.

***

The available attorneys sat around the table most of the morning, arguing for the case. Sampson Gold wanted it so badly, that he was willing to end the case he had early. After the meeting was over, and Ayden made his decision, the lawyers cleared out of the room. Julian was silent as he led Heaven from his father’s office to his.

“What was that about?” he asked once they were inside.

“What was what about?” she raised her brows nonchalantly.

“You didn’t even try.” He was caught between disappointment, anger and confusion.

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t play coy. Why didn’t you fight?”

“I did.”

“No, you didn’t.”

“So?”

“So? Did you want Clive to win that case?”

“No. I thought you’d win, but you quit fighting for it.”

“I didn’t quit fighting.”

“Yes, you did. I know how hard you go after a case, you weren’t fighting.”

“I thought you wanted it and I was prepared to hand it to you. That’s the only reason I didn’t give my all. I was shocked that you gave up so easily. I would have fought harder if I’d known you didn’t want it going in.”

“I didn’t give up!” she snapped at him.

“Then what was that?”

“That was me changing my mind; I’m allowed to change my mind.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Once your dad started discussing it, I realized just how big the case would be and how long the trial would last.”

“So?”

“So, it’s too big; I don’t want it. I just got back to work.”