Redemption: A British Stepbrother Romance (31 page)

“
D
oes
this coffee smell normal to you?” I asked Paul as we gathered in the kitchen area before starting work for the day.

“Yes, I think so,” he replied, after smelling the cup of coffee I had just poured myself from the machine. “Why?”

“Nothing, I’m just a little paranoid at the moment.” It’d been over a week now since Foster had threatened to get revenge against me for dragging him into
pro bono
work, but so far he hadn’t done anything. Nothing I knew about.

“Paranoid about the coffee? Is someone trying to kill you, April? Because if so, I’ll… keep my distance.”

“Oh, thanks,” I replied, playfully slapping him on the arm, and nearly making him spill his own cup of coffee in the process.

“It’s nothing personal, but I have kids to look after. Anyway, how are things at work? You’re a few weeks into it now. Learning anything?”

“Yes, a lot. Foster has been really helpful, actually.”

“I must admit, I’m surprised you’re spending so much time with him. Most junior associates are scared of him, and he hates working with subordinates. I guess he has a soft spot for you.”

Nothing
soft
about it, knowing Foster. “We get on well enough I suppose.”

By the time I’d turned on my computer, I already had a mountain of emails to wade through. Foster insisted on keeping me copied in on all correspondence relating to the cases I worked on. It made me feel like part of the team, but it also meant I had to keep up-to-date on everything and was expected to know what was going on.

There was also an email from Foster summoning me to his office. I grabbed my cardigan, but noticed that I was still hot from my shower. Usually I had cooled down by now. The answer to that conundrum came through in another email explaining that there had been a problem with the AC overnight and that the system had to be restarted. We’d all be sweating for most of the morning.

“Morning Foster,” I said, strolling into his office. He had a new assignment for me, so that meant I wouldn’t spend an hour in here listening to him telling me all the mistakes I made in my last memo. Thank heaven for small mercies.

I sat down and stared at the view across the desk. Instead of being insufferably cold, Foster’s office was stuffy and warm, so he’d rolled up his sleeves and opened a few buttons on his shirt.

The tattoos on his forearms captivated me as I tried to remember the pattern they formed on the rest of his body. I could see little flicks of flame at the top of his chest, as if it were escaping from his shirt, but I quickly got distracted by the outline of his taut pecs, teasing me with their subtle appearance.

I picked up a file from his desk and used it to fan myself. All that did was waft hot air into my face.

“Why don’t you get undressed?” Foster asked.

I raised my eyebrows. “Subtle, Foster. Real subtle.”

“Alright, well you’re going to at least have to open a few buttons.”

He had a point. I looked him in the eyes, challenging him to look down at my chest, as I opened two buttons on my blouse. “Screw it,” I added, before opening a third button. My bra would be on show now, but it had to be better than fainting.

Foster didn’t look down at my chest, not while I was staring at him at least, but he was clearly loving every minute of this.

“What’s this new assignment you have for me?” I asked.

“There’s no new assignment. I just wanted you to come in here while the AC was broken. God, I love that view.”

Foster leaned back in his chair and stared at my chest, making no effort to hide his admiration for what he saw. I couldn’t deny feeling somewhat flattered. There were at least five women in the office who, in my opinion, had far better tits than me. Mine were pert, but of average size at best.

“Like what you see?” I asked.

“For now. I want to see a lot more though.”

“Okay, well I can strip off right here if you like. Maybe I could get under your desk and give you a blow job. How about that?”

“Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, you know?”

“Perving at my chest is hardly a sign of intelligence either. You’re like an animal.”

“Yeah,” he admitted, smiling at me as he raised those dark green eyes up from my chest to look directly at me. “I’ve been called an animal before. Many times.”

“And you take that as a compliment?”

“When it’s moaned by a satisfied looking woman I do, yes. How would you describe me after that night?”

Insatiable. Strong. Orgasmic. Earth-shattering.

“A thief. You stole my panties, remember?”

“You really are obsessed with those panties. Well, tell you what, if you come back to my apartment tonight, you can take them home with you.”

“No chance,” I replied.

“Don’t trust yourself alone with me?”

“We’re alone now and I’m just fine.”

“No you’re not,” he said, as he stood up and walked over to me. He perched on the edge of the desk right in front of me, with his legs either side of mine. “You’re hot and flustered. You want me to take you.”

“I’m hot because the AC’s broken, you moron.” I hadn’t been that hot in my office; now I felt like I was on fire.

Foster leaned forward and placed a hand on each knee. I flinched back in my chair, but there was nowhere to move. I didn’t push him away. I always froze up when he touched me, and I had an awful feeling that wasn’t just because of nerves.

“I’m willing to bet that if I were to part your legs now, I’d see a wet patch on your panties. You’ve been looking at me with hunger in your eyes since the second you walked through that door.”

“I skipped breakfast,” I replied.

His hands applied pressure to my knees, but I resisted his attempt to part them. He was almost certainly right about what he’d find between my legs, but I wasn’t about to give him that kind of pleasure.

“I’m getting tired of these games, April. I’ve done the decent thing and admitted that I would be happy to fuck you again. All you have to do is say yes, and you get another night of pleasure.”

“I have plenty of toys that can help with that,” I snapped. “And they don’t steal my panties.”

Foster’s hand slid up the inside of my thigh as his mouth moved slowly towards me. “I’ve had a lot of time to think about what I’m going to do to you next time,” he whispered in my ear.

My heart raced in my chest as the scent of his aftershave wafted up my nose.

“We can’t do this,” I said meekly.

“I’m going to make you do more of the work. I want you on your knees, April. I want you to open up that pretty little mouth of yours and slide it down my thick shaft.”

“We work together. I’ll lose my job.”

“I’m going to wrap my hands around your head and fuck your mouth with my rock hard cock right up until the moment I’m about to come. Then I’m going to pull out and spray my load all over those perfect little titties. You’re going to be a sticky mess.”

“We’re going to be related. This can’t happen.”

I’d lost the argument the moment I uttered those words. The excuses weren’t enough, and saying we couldn’t do it was as good as admitting I wanted to.

“It’s going to happen, April. Soon.”

The tips of his fingers were just an inch from my panties. I let myself slip forward slightly in my chair until my sex grazed against him.

Foster looked me in the eyes, his face close enough that I could feel his breath, and then smiled.

I closed my eyes waiting for a kiss that never came. Suddenly Foster stood up straight, teared his hands from my thighs, and moved back to his chair on the other side of the desk.

“See you tonight, April.”

“No,” I snapped back. “You won’t. I… I have a date tonight.”

“A date?”

He looked more confused than jealous. “Yes, a date. With a guy named Bryan.” Bryan was coming to the networking event at the law school, and we would be hanging out together. That was kind of like a date, right?

“Well, I’m still confident I’ll see you tonight.”

Cocky asshole.

I stormed out of his office, completely forgetting to do up the buttons on my blouse until I’d made it back to my office.

He’d won me over. I hated myself for it. I hated the way it had happened, but it had. I was so completely screwed. Or I soon would be.

“
T
hanks for coming
, Bryan. I owe you a coffee.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he replied. “I was considering coming along anyway. You never know, one day I might decide to leave my comfortable government job for a soul-crushing private gig and then these connections might come in use.”

We were supposed to be networking before the panel discussion, but nearly everyone who’d showed up early was a fellow law student. Actual lawyers tended to be far too busy to show up to a networking event early and hang out with people who couldn’t help them get new work.

The table at the front of the room had space for five attorneys. One of them was bound to be a partner from Cooper & Cooper, hopefully not Zach’s dad, and the others would probably be a mixture of attorneys from different practice areas and with different levels of experience.

They were all here to talk about their careers, and explain how they got started in their jobs. All that information was completely useless. The partners in their sixties had just strolled into jobs straight from law school when the market was completely different. The truth of the matter now was that most students didn’t much care what work they did as long as they had a job.

Still, we all had to play the game. I would sit there and look riveted by the discussion and maybe even ask the odd pertinent question or two. When the talk was done, I would go and shake hands and collect business cards. Maybe one of those attorneys would offer me a job one day. Unlikely, but stranger things have happened. Like sleeping with someone and then finding out they were your boss. And stepbrother.

“I take it you aren’t confident of getting a job offer from Arrington & Hedges at the end of the summer, then?” Bryan asked. “I thought you’d be focusing all your energies on impressing the partners there instead of trying to find a new job.”

“Let’s just say I have reason to believe Arrington & Hedges is not a long-term solution for me. Besides, after what happened at Cooper & Cooper, I’m not taking any chances.”

“Fair enough.”

I still hadn’t told Bryan about my one-night stand with Foster. All Bryan knew was that Foster was making my life hell in the office, which was technically true.

“Looks like they’re about to get started,” Bryan said, motioning towards the table with his plastic glass of cheap wine.

The previously empty table now had four attorneys standing around, together with one familiar face.

“Zach,” I said out loud.

“Who?” Bryan asked. “Do you know the Cooper & Cooper guys?”

“I know one of them,” I replied.
I know him far better than I’d like to.

The four lawyers took their seats leaving one empty space at the end. Zach made himself right at home with other lawyers, even though they were all partners and he was just a second-year associate. He’d be absolutely loving this right now. As if his ego needed the extra boost.

One of the career counselors asked everyone to take their seats, which happened surprisingly promptly. A respectful hush descended over the room. Why couldn’t movie theaters be like this?

“We’re one man down,” the counselor said, “but I think we’ll get started anyway. I’ll ask the speakers to give a very brief introduction of themselves and then we can get into more detail later.”

The lawyers took it in turns to give their names and the area of law they practiced in. I shivered the second Zach started talking, and not in a nerve-tingling, ‘what the hell is happening to my body’ kind of way. More like I felt spiders crawling over my skin.

Zach described himself as an M&A attorney at the firm, and emphasized his last name, no doubt hoping people would think he was a partner instead of a junior associate who’d been given the job because of his dad.

I don’t think anyone in the audience was fooled. Zach couldn’t have been any older than twenty-six and he barely looked that. He had a baby face that perhaps some people would describe as cute. I just wanted to punch it.

Even though Zach should have had less to say than everyone else, he insisted on speaking for the longest, and didn’t stop until the fifth and final attorney showed up.

“Sorry I’m late everyone. Where were we.”

Foster. What the hell was he doing here?

“Isn’t that--” Bryan began.

“Yes,” I interrupted. “That’s Foster Arrington. Meet the man who’s made my life at work a living hell.”
And sent me home hot and horny on a daily basis. Meet the man who’s responsible for me getting through enough batteries to power the entire law school for a week.

“Hello everyone,” Foster said confidently, not letting Zach resume speaking. “I’m Foster Arrington.”

The atmosphere in the room changed in an instant. All the women were now either sitting in stunned silence, barely breathing, or gossiping to the person next to them like schoolgirls who’d just seen their favorite pop star.

As usual, Foster had the attention of the entire room. Me included.

F
oster talked more
than anyone else and most of the questions from the audience were directed at him. He named dropped a few of his major clients, including PorTupe and Jacob’s company, and that captured the attention of the group.

“He’s impressive,” Bryan remarked after the panel. “Foster, I mean. The others were boring as hell, and don’t even get me started on that smug little bastard from Cooper & Cooper.”

“Zach. Yeah, he’s a piece of shit.”

“Good thing you got out of there when you did. I don’t think that’s a good firm to work for.”

I agreed, but apparently Bryan and I were in the minority, because the other law students had all flocked around the lawyers the second the presentation had finished. Foster had a large group around him--mostly women of course--and the attorneys from Cooper & Cooper had a captive audience hanging on their every word.

This evening had been a complete waste of time, and to cap it all off, Foster now knew I had lied about going on a date tonight.

Shit.

“Bryan?”

“Yeah?”

“Let’s get out of here. I assume you don’t want to network with any of these people?”

If we left together now, it might look like we were heading out for the evening on a date. Not a particularly romantic one, given that it had started with a networking event in law school, but a date nonetheless.

“Well actually, I wouldn’t mind meeting Foster.”

“I’ll introduce you some other time. Come on, let’s--”

“Hello April,” Zach said, appearing out of nowhere in front of me. “I hope you were paying attention to what I said up there. You might actually learn something about being a lawyer.”

“I don’t intend to learn anything from you,” I snapped back. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, my date and I are just leaving.”

Bryan frowned when he realized he was my date, but he was quick enough on the uptake to go along with it.

“How does Foster feel about that?” Zach asked. “Or have you moved on from him? It’s so difficult to keep up with your men. One minute you’re all over me, and the next you’re ditching me for some thug in a suit.”

“I was never ‘all over you,’ Zach. I never showed the slightest bit of interest. I respected you as a professional and that was it.”

“Shame you’re never going to become an attorney,” Zach remarked. “All that hard work for nothing.”

“I’m sure I’ll be just fine. Come on, Bryan. Let’s leave.”

“You’re screwed, April,” Zach shouted loudly after us.

A few nearby students turned to look in our direction. I could have just carried on walking, but I didn’t want him to keep shouting out comments about me as I left. Zach always had to get the last word in, but not this time.

“What are you babbling about?” I asked. “Just because I can’t work at Cooper & Cooper, doesn’t mean I’m never going to be a lawyer. I already have a new job at Arrington & Hedges.”

“Yes, I know, and you’ve been working closely with Foster Arrington.”

“So what?”

“You’ve fucked up, April. You’ve fucked up big time. I’m going to enjoy taking you down.”

“Stop being so fucking cryptic and--”

“Is everything okay here?” Foster asked, appearing by my side just as he had done that night nine months ago.

“Everything’s fine,” I insisted. “We’re just leaving.”

“I was just telling your girlfriend that her career is never going to get off the ground,” Zach said smugly. “She’s fucked.”

Given what happened the last time Zach had met Foster, he had a surprising amount of confidence, almost as if he had been drinking. He was certainly talking louder than I would have liked and now at least a third of the room was looking in our direction, having noticed that two of the lawyers were glaring at each other.

“I suggest you leave,” Foster said quietly, but firmly, to Zach. “No one wants you here anyway.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Zach replied.

“Do you remember what happened last time you didn’t leave April alone? I’m happy to provide a reminder.”

“You wouldn’t dare,” Zach yelled.

With every second that went passed, more and more people turned to look at us. These were my colleagues. The people I had to spend another year of law school with. I didn’t want to spend the third year of law school as the girl two lawyers had a fight over at a public event.

Foster took a step forward towards Zach, narrowing the distance between them to just a foot.

“Please,” I said, as I tried pointlessly to pull Foster back by the arm. I might as well have tried to pull down a brick wall.

“Go home, little man,” Foster snarled.

At least he was keeping his voice down, but it didn’t do a lot of good when everyone was crowding around us. Most people weren’t even being subtle about it now. They were flat-out staring at us. At me.

“Tell your gorilla to step down, April,” Zach said confidently, although I noticed that he took a step back to increase the distance between them.

Foster didn’t move. He just stood there staring at Zach. I knew how powerful Foster’s stare could be. Looking into those eyes had practically hypnotized me. If Foster could use those eyes to illicit fear as much as he could illicit desire, then Zach would be terrified right now.

Zach didn’t seem perturbed by the audience. In fact, he was thriving off it, even though one of the partners from his law firm was in the same room. Clearly Zach felt he was invincible because of his father. He was probably right.

Zach looked around at the bemused law students surrounding him, and found a burst of confidence. Or stupidity. He lunged forward and thrust his hands into Foster’s chest.

Foster barely flinched, but Zach stumbled back a few steps. Foster smiled and slowly walked right up to Zach and returned the favor. He planted his hands on Zach’s chest and gave what looked like a completely effortless shove.

Zach went flying back. He managed to stay on his feet initially, but he couldn’t regain his balance and ended up tumbling back into one of the tables containing what was left of the cheap buffet food. The table went crashing to the floor, and so did Zach, taking all the food with him.

There was no glass to break, but all the metal plates crashed to the floor, making a deafening noise in the process. A hundred people were now looking at me, whispering to each other and laughing.

The career counselor came over and tried to calm everyone down, but that just made the scene even more dramatic.

Foster tried to grab my arm, but I shook him off and fled the room. It was too late. Enough people had seen me at the center of the fight. By the time I started my third year of law school in August, everyone would know what had happened here tonight. I’d be a laughing stock.

“April, wait,” Foster’s yell followed me out of the room, echoing off the walls as I ran down the stairs and out into the yard at the front of the school.

As usual, there was nothing fresh about the air in D.C., even at night, but at least no one out here was laughing at me.

Maybe Zach was right. My law career would be over before I even knew it. I’d failed. All I’d wanted to do was follow in Mom’s footsteps, so that she would be proud of me.

If she could see me now, she’d be embarrassed. Ashamed of what I’d become and how I’d made a mess of every opportunity that had come my way.

Sorry Mom. I tried, I really did
.

Tried and failed.