On impulse, I picked up my phone and sent a text to said author.
Morning. I have your thong.
It wasn’t unusual for Amy to pop into my mind here and there. Even dreaming of her had become the norm, which would then firmly have her in my thoughts first thing in the morning. Something I’d often resolve while in the shower. For obvious reasons, it was when those hot visuals hit at work that made things a bit complicated. Like now, envisioning her in that sexy red thong lying across my bed. It all served as foreplay once I did see her… in just about twenty-four hours.
The thought had my slacks tightening. Sex was often raw and primal between us. A deep hunger that needed to be fed.
My door opening forced an automatic knee-jerk adjustment beneath my desk just before Simone’s head popped in with an ominous “Morning.” That meant my peaceful morning had just come to an end. It wasn’t Simone’s fault, but her efficiency meant she rode my ass all day long to be sure I kept to my schedule. “Do you need coffee?”
Not having had any yet, I nodded while lengthening my spine into a good stretch. “Yes, please.”
“Then we need to go over your schedule changes for today, as well as the two-foot stack of billable hours you’re behind on invoicing.”
“Ahh, there she is… the grim reaper.” She gave me a closed-mouth smile, rolled her eyes, and dismissed me with a firm click of the door. Such a killjoy this woman was, and an exaggerator. The stack she referred to was probably only about four inches high.
But forgotten was the doom and gloom my assistant delivered when my phone buzzed with a responding text, which caused a stupid grin to spread.
Where is it?
The freezer, I typed back.
The dots began bouncing once more on her end… I’m afraid to ask why.
You’ll see this weekend.
I probably wouldn’t speak to her again the rest of the day, unless I thought of another filthy thing to say.
Simone reappeared with a coffee in one hand and her thick organizer in the other. I had barely placed my lips on the edge of the mug when she began: “Richard Steiner moved your meeting up to eleven, so I had to move Mrs. Perez to three, and Mr. Warner to six.”
Ugh. Forget midnight. I’d be there until two. “Okay. Thank you.”
My door swung open again, but it was Andrew who strolled in without asking.
“Mr. Perry, you can’t just barge in here,” Simone predictably barked.
“It’s fine, Simone,” I said, throwing Andrew a dirty look. “Can you give us a few minutes?” It was easier to get her to leave than him.
The exaggerated sigh that came was typical before she took herself and her binder out the door. My own sigh followed when Andrew slammed the door shut with a dramatic wave of his hand. “She needs to get laid,” he deadpanned, and then plopped down in one of the black leather chairs facing me.
“Can you stop giving her a hard time? Technically, she works for me, and I am your boss.” A line Andrew often crossed because of our history.
He tapped his watch. “Technically, my workday hasn’t begun yet. Regardless, being a friend overrides you being a boss when I’m concerned for your well-being.”
“My well-being is just fine.”
“Still, I needed to make sure whoever it is that has you MIA lately let you out of her clutches.” He dipped his head to stare through the glass surface of my desk. “Looks like it’s still there.”
“What is?”
“Your junk. It hasn’t fallen off yet.”
“Shut up… and stop staring at my dick.” Ironically, his accusation wasn’t so far-fetched. I was indeed having a lot of sex… and since coming together with Amy, I’d refused a few of his invites to troll bars, meaning he was now on to me.
“Well, I need to talk to you. Do you have time for lunch today?”
“Nope. I’m swamped.” My meeting with Richard would no doubt take hours. He insisted we talk in person. Hey, at my hourly rates, it was his bank account that would suffer. Until Janis signed, we were in a holding pattern, and Richard was getting antsy.
“Dinner then?”
I narrowed my eyes, suspicious over his persistence. “What’s going on?” Confirming my gut, he looked down to pick an imaginary piece of lint off his slacks. “Andrew.”
“I need to recuse myself from the Meyer case.”
His comment caused nausea to churn my empty stomach. “Why?”
“I slept with Mrs. Meyer.” His admission came out no differently than if he’d announced it was chilly outside.
“Motherfucker.” Meyer was one of our biggest litigation clients, suing his partner for racketeering. “Didn’t I tell you that your cock was going to fuck you up one day?” Andrew remained contrite, knowing damn well that he deserved me unleashing on his whorish ass. “For fuck’s sake, Andrew. When?”
“It was months ago.”
“Does Ira know?”
“He’d be a dumbass if he didn’t suspect, since she eye-fucked me during our entire meeting last night. But no, as of now, I don’t think he knows. He came in to sign some papers and brought her along. I had no idea that was his wife. I swear.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this last night?”
“I dunno,” he said like a child.
“Well, I need to know everything… now.”
Andrew reluctantly explained that he had met the cougar at a club, repeating he had no clue she was his biggest client’s wife. Apparently, a fake name, along with her fake boobs, had made it easy for him to sleep with her. With the way Andrew went through women in this city, it was just a matter of time before one of his conquests crossed into his professional life.
“Clear your schedule this afternoon and be sure Bonner does as well.” My day had just become an all-nighter.
Andrew flinched over his replacement. “Does it have to be Bonner?”
“Yes, it does. Once I’m done with Richard, you, he, and I will be meeting to discuss his transition. We’ll tell Meyer it’s a scheduling conflict. It’s early enough in the process where it doesn’t pose a problem.” Hopefully the man wouldn’t object.
“Fine,” he mumbled before standing. “Sorry, Nate. I am.”
“I know.” And I did. Andrew was an excellent lawyer. “Shit happens. Just keep it in your pants for a while. Your cock gets you in trouble, and now that trouble is landing on my doorstep.”
The way he carried his ass out of my office, with his tail between his legs, almost made me laugh. That idiot.
Andrew’s news set forth an annoying chain reaction of crap that continued to ruin my day… and it wasn’t even noon yet. My eleven o’clock meeting with Richard Steiner began with him barreling through the conference room door and throwing a thick envelope before me on the table. Fifteen minutes had gone by, and the man hadn’t stopped rambling.
“Those will make her sign the fucking papers,” Richard griped proudly, folding his arms in assumed victory. “I’m sick of her shit. And him? I want him ruined too.”
I stared at the photos spread across the polished mahogany, completely dumbfounded. Pic after pic of Janis making out and carrying on with a high-profile married politician who also happened to have been Richard’s best friend. I knew she was cheating, but even I underestimated that she was doing that so spectacularly.