Tempted (A Player Brother Romance Book) (A Standalone Novel) (Player Brothers Book 1) (3 page)

The window along the wall spanned from the floor to
the ceiling and revealed a spectacular view of the Hollywood hills, rolling on
into the distance. The majestic green landscape never ceased to take my breath
away.

He motioned for me to sit in one of the large wing
backs in front of his desk. I hadn’t been sure what to expect, but Mr.
Mahoney's office exuded lots of old world charm. A floor to ceiling book case
lined the other side of the room. If I had my way I could have spent hours
perusing the spines, running my fingers over the old leather bound law books.
For now I was resigned to wait for the Senior Partner's lead.

"I hope you’re comfortable,” he said. "Your
partner and competitor will be here shortly."

I felt a leap in my stomach but kept my face calm.

I was right to arrive early as it gave me an instant
advantage over the competition.

Score one Blair, competition zero.

Whoever you’re, you're already behind, I thought to
myself. I didn’t often feel cocky, but today I felt justified.

And today I needed the confidence boost.

Willa's smooth voice came over the speaker of Mr.
Mahoney's phone.

"The other partner has arrived, Mr. Mahoney,” she
said.

"Thank you Willa," he said. "If you
will excuse me for a moment."

He stepped out of the office, no doubt to greet the
other partner in the waiting room just as he had greeted me. I resisted the
urge to look over the shelves.

In due time.

They returned a few seconds later, and I got to give
my competitor a once over.

I recognized him instantly.

Aiden?

Oh my god.

I wanted to remain in denial.

It couldn’t be.

I stood to shake his hand.

Right away I was charmed by his good looks. He had
full blond hair that somehow managed to look both disheveled and professional
at the same time. His arms and shoulder filled out his light brown suit jacket,
which he wore over a white suit shirt. His intense blue eyes looked me over,
and I found myself briefly speechless.

I extended my hand, thinking myself mistaken.

I hoped I was anyway.

Mr. Mahoney's voice sounded like it came from a long
hallway as I heard him say my name in introduction. Once I heard the name I
knew I could no longer deny what I already knew to be true.

"Blair Michaels, this is Aiden Player. The two of
you will be working together in the coming months."

I took his hand in disbelief. I had thought he looked
vaguely familiar at first, but it wasn’t until I heard his name that I realized
that this man was none other than my childhood friend from so long ago. The
same one I hadn’t seen in years, whom I had wondered about now and then over
the years, now stood before me as the embodiment of my competition, standing
between me and the thing that I wanted more than anything in my life.

I could barely believe my eyes, but I couldn’t deny
that I recognized him.

"It's nice to meet you, Blair,” he said as he
took my hand.

Chapter
Two

I didn’t have much time to register as Mr. Mahoney
introduced us, but I felt as if our eye contact contained an entire
conversation in the few seconds that passed between us.

Is that really you?

Yes, it's me. Hi.

Well, shit.

Yep.

The socially acceptable time span for a hand shake had
passed us by, but I realized that we both still had a firm grip on the other. I
let go first and took a small step back wondering what the silence indicated. I
could see in his eyes that he recognized me and also by the slight grin on his
face betrayed that he didn’t want to say right away.

"It's nice to meet you, Blair,” he had said. I
had heard the words, but they hadn’t quite registered.

So this is how we were going to play it.

I see, I said to myself. Alright, I'll go along and
pretend that we don't know each other.

At least
for know
.

My plan today had been calm professionalism. Perhaps
it would be to my advantage that the partners didn’t know of our history
together. Aiden's presence here, while jarring, didn’t do anything to change my
perspective. I was still out to win this, and win it I would.

"Nice to meet you too," I finally replied in
a cool timber.

Wow.

He had really grown up since I had last seen him. I couldn’t
help but notice the broad flow of his shoulders.

We took a seat at the conference table to hear what
our first assignment would be, but I couldn’t help but glance over at him,
marveling at how much he had changed.

The last time I had seen him had been at the last
vacation of the summer after our senior year of high school. Our families had
vacationed together at Lake Okoboji. They both had a timeshare cabin and
planned their trips to coincide. I recalled nights on the beach, campfires and
fireflies in the settling dusk. Sometimes when the sun went down we went back
to the cabin and played Monopoly and ate chocolate cookies until the sun came
up the next morning.

Nearly every spare moment of my childhood had been
spent with him. We had gone to prom together, I think since no one had the
audacity to ask either one of us, and honestly there had been no one else that
held my interest, so we had gone as friends, fueling the frenzy of gossip that
surrounded the ambiguous nature of our relationship.

My mother asked time and time again when I would give
in and just go out with him. Aiden doesn't want to go out with me, I had
explained.

We are just friends.

Good friends, yes, but nothing more than that.

I had felt certain that I had convinced her of it. If
you say so, she would chide. That had been the story since elementary school,
and I had no intentions of changing that story now, no matter how good looking
he had become.

Aiden was one of twelve brothers, and he came over to
my house many times just to escape, just as often as I had gone to his for a
bit of familiar normalcy. His mother welcomed me every time, saying that once
you get past four it doesn't make a difference how many kids there are.

Of all the boys in the Player clan Aiden had been the
only one not to develop a talent or desire for football. He had to endure much
physical horseplay from his brothers, when he would have preferred to climb a
tree or read a book. He eventually joined track and did quite well, receiving
several trophies and helping the team get to State, which pleased his parents.

The man sitting next to me now had the same sparkle in
his eyes, but he had certainly grown into his body.

All of the awkward
gangliness
had vanished.

This guy was cool and confident, just oozing with ability
and charm. As Mr. Mahoney spoke Aiden glanced over in my direction, giving me
another quick grin. I couldn’t help but feel a chill of excitement at his
flirtation.

What is the matter with you, Blair!
I scolded myself.

I needed to be focused on what the senior partner was
saying, as he opened each folder carefully and explained the contents of each
as he did so.

"I want to tell you both about your first
case," Mr. Mahoney said as he placed a few folders on the table. "It
is going to be a murder case. I want you both to understand that I chose this
case for the two of you with a very real purpose in mind. Murder cases are the
hardest to stomach. You will both have to face many things that you may not be
used to. Grisly evidence, questionable witnesses, and in the end it is your
collection and presentation of evidence that will either set a man free or send
a man to jail for the rest of his life. Keep that in mind as you work. The
stakes are real."

I felt my stomach drop out from under me as an understanding
of the urgency of what we were doing began to take hold in my mind.

Nonetheless I felt anxious to get started.

This would probably be the most important case of my
life and I was ready to jump in. I had never imagined that I would be acting
defense on a murder trial. Mr. Mahoney was throwing us in the deep end, and
only one of us would end up victorious.

Hearing him describe the details of the case helped me
to focus and I pushed all thoughts of Aiden to the back of my mind. That is
where they would have to stay for the next three months, the duration of our
competition.

I had no intentions of easing up in my competitive
nature.

As far as I was concerned the man next to me could
have been a complete stranger. I planned on bringing my A-game and winning the
competition regardless.

"The two of you will be working closely with
myself and one of the other partners, Agnes Klein during the course of the case
work and through the trial,” Mr. Mahoney continued. "You will be building
the defense based on the evidence collected by the case detectives. I want you
to understand again, there will be a lot of things you will see in the evidence
files that you most likely have never been exposed to. If you can handle a case
like this, than I have no doubt that you will both be successful with any path
that you follow in the world of law." Aiden and I exchanged a glance. I
felt as if we were lions staring each other down over the carcass of a fallen
gazelle. "Are there any questions so far?"

"What about the client?" I asked.

"What do you mean?" Mr. Mahoney asked.

"Will we have a chance to meet the client before
the trial?"

"Of course, Ms. Michaels,” he explained.
"Usually only the lead members of the team meet with the client, but I’m
sure a meeting could be arranged if you think it would help you with the
case."

"Would that create a conflict of interests?"
Aiden interjected. "Would meeting the client be against our interests? I
mean, the evidence should speak for itself, right? We should be working with an
objective mind."

"You both bring us very good points,” Mr. Mahoney
said with an impressed tone. "I'll take them both into consideration and
let you know if we decide to arrange a meeting for all of us or just the lead
members."

"What is his name?" I asked. "The
client, I mean."

Mr. Mahoney looked at me with consideration. His hand
moved to the folder containing the information on the biography of the client.
Despite my inclination to glance down at the name printed on the tab of the
folder I kept my eyes on Mr. Mahoney's face.

"Darius Shaw," he said at last. "He's
being accused of the murder of his wife Rita Shaw. All of the information is
here which you will see in more detail once we begin. Mr. and Mrs. Shaw were
estranged and our client was found standing over the body of the slain victim
when the police arrived."

"Does he claim his own innocence?" I asked.

"Regardless," Aiden interjected. "We
have to present the best case in his defense. His innocence is arbitrary."

"Is it?" I said flashing him a challenging
glance.

"I understand your reasoning to ask that,” Mr.
Mahoney said. "And the answer is, yes. He does."

"Thank you, sir. It is helpful to know his name,”
I said, grinning out of the corner of my mouth.

A few hours after the meeting had ended and Mr.
Mahoney walked us out to the lobby, thanking us for our time.

"I want to remind you that you’re the top two
selected out of a large pool of applicants,” he said. "I expect nothing
less than greatness from you both, and I’m excited to see what the two of you’re
capable of."

"Thank you very much for the opportunity, sir,” I
said extending my hand.

"It's a pleasure to meet you both,” he said as he
shook my hand and then Aiden's in turn.

He returned to the hallway stopping to ask something
of the receptionist, while Aiden and I stepped into the arriving elevator.

I hadn’t known how I would respond once Aiden and I
were alone.

I had kind of hoped to get a head start while leaving
as to avoid any awkward reunion, but here we were trapped in the small steel
box carrying us both back to the first floor. He leaned against the railing of
the elevator looking me over. I recognized the look on his face as reminiscent
of the boy I had once known.

"Blair Michaels," he said with a huge grin
lighting up his face and finally acknowledging what neither of us had said in
the conference room. "I can hardly believe it. How the hell are you?"

"Aiden," I said with a calm smile, cautious
to reveal too much emotion. "How have you been?"

God, he was cute.

"Good... great," he answered. "I wasn’t
expecting to see you. Wow."

At that point the elevator door opened and I darted
out as soon as I could fit through the door.