Insufferable Proximity (48 page)

“Let’s go swimming.” she said leaning against his desk.

“No.” he answered curtly and she sat on top of his desk, making sure that she sat directly on top of the paper he was just working on. He looked up at her and then leaned back in his chair.

“We’ll probably always be rivals Julian. I can’t help it, I love a good fight and fighting with you has always brought me a certain satisfaction, no one fights with me as good as you do.” she shrugged her shoulders, “Besides it would probably be smart for my current situation to just give you the Sherman case.”

“How is that?”

“Because Mrs. Sherman is a beautiful statuesque blonde with a shit load of money, she’s just your type. That means you’ll be so enamored of her you’ll forget all about me and the contract.” she smiled, failing her attempt at humor, she felt her jealousy was too obvious for sarcasm.

“You’re my type Heaven.” he said as a matter of fact.

“Yeah, the type you hate.” she said with sadness as she slipped down to his lap.

“I don’t hate you.” He shook his head. She stared into his eyes and he caressed the side of her face for a moment before sliding his hand down to her chest.

“I met Mrs. Sherman last year when we defended her husband for tax evasion. She’s very submissive and I think she would be perfect for you.” Heaven watched his reaction.

“I could care less about Mrs. Sherman’s submissiveness. She can’t get you out of the remainder of the contract so you might as well stop trying to sell her off to me, I am not taking the case.”

“Neither am I.” she said raising her chin.

“Then Sampson Gold will get it.”

“Just take it Julian, I seriously don’t want it.”

“Neither do I.”

“Fine, then we’ll let Sampson Gold have that case, there are plenty of others.” she shrugged.

“I agree, now we need to discuss this new rule about you not entering this office with a top on.” he grinned as his hand slipped into her bikini top. “I should hide all of your clothes.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“I would, there’s nothing I would love more then to have you naked for the remainder of the time.” he slid his fingers over her hardened nipple then pulled the cups to the sides, baring her breasts, he bent his head to kiss just the tip then slowly sucked it into his mouth. She arched her back a little as he latched on tightly.

***

First thing the next morning, Ayden held a meeting gathering all three of the attorneys able to work on the case.

“Have you come to a decision?” he asked.

“I’ll pass.” Julian answered his father.

“Me too.” Heaven added and Ayden’s eyes grew wide with surprise.

“I’d love to take it.” Sampson said with a huge grin. Everyone in the room knew that Sampson would win, he was a genius in his own right.

Ayden watched Julian and Heaven congratulate Sampson without a bit of malice, then watched as all three of them politely left the room. Ayden sat stunned, still unable to believe what he had just seen. It would be one of the most prolific cases to date an Ayden had expected the two pit-bull attorneys to be in the middle of the floor trying to remove each other’s  heads, but they didn’t seem to care in the least. Ayden could not stop the smile from spreading across his face, it was perfect, the kind of meeting he had always wanted between the two of them.

He was half tempted to celebrate their camaraderie with a cigar when his e-mail buzzed. He opened it and the sides of his mouth shot down in disbelief as he looked at the series of pictures that began to pop up. He then looked up mindlessly to see his secretary rush through the door.

“Mr. King!” she cried, obviously stressed, her eyes wide with fraught as she walked over to his desk.

“Damn it!” Ayden roared slamming his fist on his desk.

“It was sent to every e-mail on the floor, sir.” she put her hand to her mouth and shook her head in dismay.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” he winced as he rested his forehead on his hand.

“No, but I wish I was.”

“Call a meeting in the conference room, I want every single employee from the security guards to the lawyers in that room in fifteen minutes.” he said and she nodded her head before rushing out of the room. Ayden picked up the phone and called Fritz, he wanted every computer checked to see if the pictures had been sent from here. He also demanded that every picture of his son and Heaven be permanently removed from every employees e-mail, he knew Fritz would make that happen.

Heaven and Julian were walking calmly back towards her office, seeing her secretary had stepped away from the desk, he decide to go into her office for a moment.

“I thought for sure you’d change your mind at the last moment.” he grinned.

“Now you of all people should know I always hold up my end of the deal.” she was tempted to kiss him but instead took a step back. Her office door flew open and they both looked to see her secretary, her face as pale as a ghost, her eyes wide and her mouth curled down in a sad frown.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but I think that you’re going to want to take a look at your e-mail.”

“What e-mail?” Julian asked as Heaven watched her secretary run over to her computer.

“Come here,” she said pulling up her own e-mail, “this was sent to every employee at the firm.” she finished then stepped back from the computer, letting Heaven and Julian take a look at the screen.

They stood there, both dumbfounded as a page full of at least a half dozen photos of them popped up. The first picture was them back in the beginning of her contract, she was wearing one of her ill-fitting suits and he had kissed her that day. The next picture was the one that had been photocopied and found in the cafeteria, but it was the pictures that followed that made her instantly sick to her stomach. It completely blew away their whole “look alike” excuse for the photocopy and showed everyone exactly what was going on between the two of them. As if to add insult to injury, it was marked at the bottom “not a look alike” Heaven wanted to scream out loud and throw her laptop out the window, Julian on the other hand was unable to control his anger and stormed out to the floor.

“Who did this?” he yelled, ready to confront every employee on the floor, “we are going to have every computer in this office scanned and I will find out who did this!” he roared. Ayden walked out to put a calming hand on his son’s arm.

“Take Sevigne home.” Ayden said and the mention of her name snapped Julian out of his rage. After staring at every individual employee for a moment he stormed back to her office. “All employees are to meet in the conference room immediately.” Ayden announced before heading there. He had no more then walked into the room when his eldest son stopped him.

“I found this on the steps leading out to the parking lot when I was on my way in just now.” Ian handed him the thick envelop filled with the same pictures that had been sent through the e-mail.

“You’re late.” Ayden spoke as he looked at his watch.

“Sorry, I stopped to get coffee.” Ian said but Ayden saw no coffee cup in his hand.

“Have a seat Ian, I need to make an announcement.” he said as all the employees sat around the conference table, all of them looking up towards their boss.

“Yes sir.” he answered then sat down to the side of his father’s chair, although Ayden did not sit.

“I am going to say this once and only once, the pictures are a fake. Ms. Deville’s head has been superimposed on another woman’s body, using high-tech photo editing software. There is documented proof and anyone who would like to ask questions can come straight to me.” Ayden bluffed them, knowing none of them would dare come to him, doing so would expose that they doubted his word. “My personal head of security is currently going through everyone’s computer and no one is allowed to return to their desks yet. So if there are any objections, feel free to speak your mind now.” he said, but no one objected. “Any questions?” he asked and everyone shook their heads no, Ayden nodded “Good then it’s settled, anyone who speaks of this from this moment forward will be immediately and severely reprimanded. You have been officially warned.” he finished then left the room and walked back to his office.

***

“He’s lying.” Gloria said when she and three of the other secretaries were far enough away from the conference room to not be overheard.

“I just cannot believe those two are actually having sex! I mean really, what does he see in that condescending witch?” Reese asked out of frustration.

“Well I believe the boss, I don‘t think they were having sex, I believe the whole crazy ex-girlfriend story, those picture look fake.” Adele rolled her eyes.

“You are in denial.” Gloria said as she rolled her eyes as well.

“No, you’re just impressionable enough to believe everything you hear.” Adele shot back.

“Oh I’m impressionable? That’s coming from the girl who sent Julian King gourmet coffee and her number because he smiled at her one morning.” Gloria said condescendingly.

“He did smile at me, for over 30 seconds.” she retorted.

“Damn Miss Desperation, you’re counting the seconds now?” Gloria scoffed.

“Don’t hate.” Adele said pulling out her compact and checking her lipstick.

“There’s nothing to hate on.” Gloria said flipping her long chestnut hair, a subliminal cut to Adele, who suffered from very thin and lifeless hair, as Gloria so loved to point out.

“Tell her Juliette, tell her there’s nothing going on between the two of them.” Adele urged Juliette to take her side.

“Don’t throw me in the middle of it.” Juliette said with a frown.

“You’re being awfully quiet about such a juicy scandal.” Gloria said suspiciously, normally Juliette had a lot to say when it came to Julian, so why was she suddenly so silent? “I mean we are speaking of your prince charming, you have always been his most devoted admirer and his number one fan, why so quiet?”

“I have to agree, I find it hard to believe you have nothing to say.” Adele quickly turned on Juliette

“Me too.” Reese joined the bandwagon.

“I just have more important things to do then stand around and gossip.” Juliette retorted.

“Like what?” all three of them chuckled.

“Like work.” she answered her own irritation rising at that point, it was obvious she wanted to get far away from her co-workers.

“Wow, that’s a first, I didn’t think you worked anymore, as much as you stand around and gossip.” Gloria said snidely before Juliette gave her a death glare then turned around and walked away. “She’s up to something.”

“I agree with you, something’s just not right with Juliette.” Adele nodded.

***

Fritz had brought his eldest son, Riley Jr. with him to figure out where the anonymous e-mails had been sent from. Riley was a computer specialist, a software developer and a professional hacker who was able to break through anyone’s security to find out whatever he needed to know. It had taken no more than an hour for Riley to check each computer and determine that the pictures had not been sent from any of them. It had taken him even less time to make sure no traces of the pictures existed.

When he was through he went to Ayden’s computer and sat there, engulfed in the screen, his fingers typing at the speed of light for thirty full minutes before he finally turned to look at his father.

“It’s untraceable.” he said then stood up, “It’s a dummy account licensed to the name Kat N. Mouse, which is an obvious fake. The account was created at 7:00 am and was set up to send the emails automatically at 9:45.  The account was then deactivated, less than five minutes after they were sent.”

“Someone went to a lot of trouble to cover their tracks.” Fritz said with a look of irritation.

“And that someone knows what they’re doing. Is there someone at the firm with superior computer skills?”

“As far as I know, the only employee with that type of skill is the female involved, Ms. Deville.”

***

Julian led Heaven out through the back way and straight to his car. She was silent and looked as if she would cry, but she was obviously trying to be strong. It was breaking Julian’s stone-covered heart to see her like this, he had never felt a compassion this strong for any living creature before in his life.

When they pulled up to Julian’s house, Heaven saw a few of the staff members carrying suitcases and a couple of large baskets. He jumped out and opened the trunk as they stuffed the bags in, Alice, had opened the door and hugged Heaven, she had no idea what was going on but she knew by the stunned look on her face it was something bad. To her complete shock, Heaven actually returned the hug for a split second before pulling back

“Whatever it is, you can work through it, you’re strong and so is Mr. King.” Alice said before shutting the car door.

“Thank you.” Heaven whispered with sadness in her eyes.

“I’ll see you as soon as you get back.” she finished then moved out of the way so the cook could set a couple large picnic baskets in the back seat. Julian finally jumped back in the car and restarted the engine then turned to her.

“You ready?”

“We are we going?” she finally asked.