Insufferable Proximity (3 page)

“Congratulations on the Lexington case,” she kept her poker face in place, dazzling his socks off, “if you’ll excuse me.”

“Wait a minute.” he grabbed her hand and she glared at him, her chocolate eyes sparking with anger. Julian felt his pulse race and his erection surprised him as the strange girl piqued his interest.

“What is it Mr. King?” she said, her patience wearing thin, she was ready to get the hell away from this audacious man.

“Can I call you Sevigne?”

“No.” she shook her head and he could not stop the grin from spreading across his face.

“How old are you.”

“I have to go.” she frowned at his impertinence as she tried to pull her hand from him, but he refused to let go. Now she felt her temper flair and wanted to either stomp on his foot or curse him out. She managed to refrain from an attack, refusing to let him get the best of her in such an awkward situation.

“I want you to stay here.”

“That’s not your decision.”

“This is our party and you have no choice but to celebrate it with me.” he held her hand tightly, pulling her closer to him and she could smell the liquor on his breath. Julian was intoxicated and was the first to admit that he was going a little too far, but he could not help himself, the unusual woman was driving him crazy, ugly suit and all.

“I congratulated you on the case, that’s all that I owe you.” she frowned, disappointed with his blatant sexuality and wishing she had of paid attention to those rumors. “Now if you’ll excuse me.” she tried to yank her arm away but he still refused to let go.

“Let me guess, you’re the- ‘I wear ugly suits to distract from my beauty and gain respect at work’ type.” he grinned sarcastically.

“Then you must be the ‘lucky to be born to wealth and able to ride your father’s coat tail’ type.” she kept her face blank, refusing to smile despite the ridiculous look of shock on his face.

“So the temperamental kitty has claws.” he grinned.

“And the dumb dog tries to hump everything.” she retorted.

“Sorry about that.” they both heard Ayden’s voice but had not noticed him walk up to them, “I trust you two got a chance to introduce yourselves.” he smiled.

“I have to go Mr. King.” Heaven spoke to Ayden.

“But the festivities have just begun.”

“I really have to go, but thank you for the party.”

“You’re welcome.” Ayden replied, hoping his son had not said something to upset her. He knew his son better than anyone else, but he especially knew how Julian was with women.

“Thank you.” she shook his hand before leaving for the evening.

***

The next morning Heaven came to work early in her usual fashion, but today, unlike any other day, she was not prepared to see her co-worker. She had her fair share of issues with people at the firm, there were the group of gossiping secretaries that Heaven had to put in their place the first day she met them. Then there was Lila Strain a fellow female attorney who was everything Heaven strived not to be, but none of them had affected her like Julian King.

She had walked into the large cafeteria and had begun to make herself a cup of coffee when she saw Julian strut into the room. As her luck would have it, he walked straight over to her, but she pretended as if she did not even see him.

“Good morning Ms. Deville.” he said looking at her as if she was a child.

“Good morning Mr. King.” he saw her poker face in place and ready for battle, her defiance forced his manhood to pump up a little more.

“I see you put in for the Moss case.” he said with a look of humor on his face.

“I did.” she finally looked at him, “Did you put in for it too?”

“Of course.”

“You’ll never get it,” she raised her chin with conceit. “That case is mine.”

“That case is too complicated for a kid that’s fresh out of college, with no experience.” he said condescendingly.

“Then it really must be
way
too complicated for someone who spends all their time screwing off. Besides I think your dad is too busy with his own case to walk you through this one.” she grabbed her cup of coffee and turned to face him. “You might as well give up now, you don’t stand a chance against me, Mr. King.” she finished before walking away.

***

Julian walked down the hallway as nonchalantly as possible, although he was raging inside. He stormed into his father’s office then shut the door behind him before walking to stand across from Ayden.

“You gave Ms. Deville the Moss case?” He belted the question.

“I certainly did.”

“You know I wanted that case!”

“You only wanted that case because of the lovely Mrs. Moss.” Ian, his older brother, interjected in disgust.

“Shut up Ian!” Julian growled at his brother and even though Ian spoke the truth, the facts were not relevant to Julian’s anger. “That girl is wet behind the ears, she doesn’t know the first thing about practicing law!”

“That’s where you’re wrong, Ms. Deville was our father’s protégé during your absence and the woman is quite remarkable.” Ian explained.

“If I came in here expressing how much I liked her, you would be saying she was young and incompetent.” Julian scowled at his brother.

“What you say is irrelevant, she is good.” Ian was also ready to argue.

“Enough!” Ayden roared and both of his sons turned to him, they knew when their father was serious. “Ms. Deville is perfectly suited for this, it’s her case now, end of story! I told you I need you on the Mackenzie case right now.” he finished before Julian turned around and left the office. Julian had no more than exited the room when he almost collided with Ms. Deville, the last person he wanted to see right now.

“Are you eavesdropping?” he asked accusingly.

“You were yelling loud enough for me to hear you down the hall.”

“You were eavesdropping.” he accused her, but Heaven chose to ignore him that time.

“I can’t believe you actually ran and cried to your dad because I won the case,” she grinned condescendingly, shaking her head in disgust, “you’re such a spoiled loser.”

“And you are too young and inexperienced for this case.”

“But I still beat you.” she smiled, “I won that case fair and square, even you know my opening statement was flawless.”

“I want to know what you really did to get such high profile case.” his words were full of innuendos.

“Well I definitely didn’t going crying to my daddy and beg him to give me the case.” she frowned.

“Prude.” angered by her words, he said the first thing that came to his mind.

“Whore.”  She spat before turning around and walking away.

***

Over the next three years, their hatred would blossom into something more uncivilized. Heaven would reign supreme as the firm’s young, star attorney, winning case after case and proving herself a force to be reckoned with.

***

There was a subliminal stir at King Law firm, all of the lawyers were taking part in a covetously driven, undercover operation to become partner. As luck would have it, the dearly beloved Mr. Arthur Jacobi, a long-standing partner of the firm and one of the boss’s closest friends, was retiring after a long, successful career. He had bought a home up north where he and his new wife, Lena, his former secretary of 20 years, would live out the rest of their days.

Even though it appeared there was not a dry eye in the building at his farewell party, it was all a rouse. Most of them were happy to see him go, his retirement meant that there was a free spot at the top and every one of them wanted it. The war for who would prevail had started before the man had even officially left and only intensified after his departure.

Out of all the attorneys, only Ayden King was truly sad to see him go, everyone else was anxious for Arthur to be gone. Ayden was not impressed with the warfare tactics his employees were using, he saw everything that they tried to hide, he saw their joy as well as their greed and he was disgusted by it. He had reviewed every one of them and after close inspection had narrowed it down to his top three Julian, Heaven Deville and Sampson Gold. Although Julian was in the lead, he had not put forth any effort to succeed and was winning off talent alone.

Ayden was a bit plagued with Julian, and his lack of focus on the position. He could tell he was trying, but his attempt was just not cutting it. His son was a genius and had a gift when it came to the law, but Ayden feared he was too focused on feeding his sexual cravings to be able to reach his full potential.

***

Julian King had taken up a semi- permanent residency in the penthouse suite at the hotel he now owned. He had bought the building on a fluke and quickly realized how profitable it could become. Julian’s friend had been going through some financial difficulties that he could not get himself out of and in order to get back on his feet, he sold his hotel to the highest bidder.

The ink had no more than dried on the check when Julian got to work on his new project. He kept the staff on payroll while he did his renovations and hired a team of designers to redecorate the building from its rickety exterior to its outdated interior furnishings.

It had proven to be invaluable to him for many reasons, primarily, it was much closer to the firm then his main house. It also provided a prompt valet service that always had his vehicle waiting for him when he was ready for work. He also took advantage of its close proximity, especially on days like today when he was already late for work but happened to bump into an irresistible friend.

“Damn!” Julian cursed as he looked down at his watch, seeing that he was thirty minutes late for work. That meant an extra ten minutes fighting traffic on his way to the office and at least another five minutes before he finished up with McKenzie, the irresistible friend he ran into. “Arch your ass.” Julian told McKenzie as he gripped her hips and slammed his raging erection into her from behind.

He had made the effort to get up early and be on his way to work well ahead of schedule. He even had enough time to stop at the coffee shop across the street from the hotel. That was where he made his mistake, he had not realized one of his occasional sex partners was a new employee at the shop. He had not seen McKenzie in well over a year and was pleasantly surprised to see her looking better than ever. She had gained a little weight and it had helped fill out her soft curves. He always had a weakness for curves, sure, he loved all women, but a nice set of curves could take him to his knees.

It just so happened that at the same moment he had arrived, McKenzie was on a 15-minute break. As she pulled out a pen to write down her number, she did the one thing that would distract him from his mission to get to work on time- she propositioned him.

How could he refuse? She was amazing when it came to sex, all those gymnastics and theatre classes had really worked to her advantage. Not only was she flexible, but she also loved to recite lines from her favorite pornographic films.

Less than thirty minutes later, he was fucking her in the bathroom stall at the hotel, unwilling to take the time to go to his room. The thrill of her curves had quickly worn off, leaving him bored and ready to finish the deed. He thrust into her one last time before pulling out, at which point he promptly removed the condom, fixed his suit and then headed for the door.

“You promise to call me this time, King?” she asked, but Julian only grinned before leaving the bathroom.

Julian raced down the streets like a professional racecar driver, managing to avoid every red light on his way. He could already see the look of disappointment on his father’s face when his own son, once again, strolled in late for work.

Normally Julian would not care if he were late, he would come into the office at his own leisure, but right now he was trying to become a partner at the firm. As of now, he was only winning on sheer talent alone, since he was too deep in his own personal debauchery to give it his all.

There was another side to Julian, on one hand he was a gifted genius who came from a long line of powerful attorneys, generation after generation of gifted lawyers had passed their coveted gene directly to him. He had the perfect genetic makeup to be the best in his field, unfortunately, his scandalous ways were distracting from his raw talent. As much as he loved his career, he loved one thing more- sex.

He was the first to admit he had a problem, he had an addiction to the opposite sex that was unshakable. To him all women were beautiful and he had a deep appreciation for their differences. He loved all the different sizes, shapes and skin tones that the women of the world offered him. Every woman was different, so every additional woman he bedded brought a new level of awareness to the sex game for him.

Nevertheless, as much as he loved women as a whole, he had never loved one individually. Some deemed him a womanizer and considering he had been with countless women but never in a relationship, he could not disagree. Even though there was a long trail of hearts he had broken along the way, it had not been done intentionally. It had never been his intention to lead anyone on, he only took what he was offered and he expected the same in return. It was not that he was against monogamy but the idea had never been appealing to him.