“Managing partner things? I’m not the managing partner.”
“But I thought… you’re Foster Arrington right? The firm’s name is Arrington & Hedges.”
“Christ, how old do you think I am?”
No doubt having the name Arrington helped me get taken seriously in the early days, but I was a few years off being a partner and managing partner was a least a decade away.
“I just assumed… never mind.”
“My mom is the managing partner,” I explained. “And her dad was the founder of the firm.”
“Oh.”
I smiled, and took in the look of embarrassment on her face. She truly was stunning to look at. I’d seen her angry, embarrassed, horny, and upset. She was always beautiful.
“I take it things didn’t work out at Cooper & Cooper?” I asked.
“No,” she snapped, looking angry again now. “Of course not. Something to do with an associate getting punched and pushed down the stairs.”
“Ah yes,” I said, thinking back to the look on Zach’s face when I’d decked him. Happy days. “That was fun. I never pushed him down the stairs though. I punched him and he fell.”
“The distinction appears to have been lost on his dad, the managing partner of the firm.”
“Oops. Be honest though, you don’t regret me punching him do you.”
April pouted, but she broke into a smile. A wonderful smile. “No, I suppose not.”
“Good.” An alarm notification popped up on my screen. I wanted to carry on this conversation all day, but duty called. “I have to go. Important meeting.”
“Sure,” April said, standing up. “There’s not much point in this carrying on anyway. Obviously I can’t work here with you.”
“Don’t trust yourself around me?” I joked.
“Think that if you want.”
I let her storm out of the office, leaving another mental image of her ass in my mind. That girl could certainly pull off formal office wear.
She was right though, this wouldn’t work. I couldn’t let her spend the summer here. We might have a lot of fun working late and getting freaky in the office, but I didn’t trust her not to fall for me. She might be mad at me now, but that would soon change and then I’d have to break her heart. I never enjoyed doing that, but it was a necessary evil for someone who looked as good as I did.
I emailed Mom and told her that April wouldn’t be suitable. I knew I was potentially messing up her career as a lawyer before it had even begun, but I couldn’t risk having a distraction like her around all summer.
The next few months were important. I had a couple of huge projects that demanded all my attention, and if April was sat just across the hall I would be constantly distracted.
I didn’t trust her not to fall for me, but it wasn’t just that. I didn’t trust myself either.
And that thought truly terrified me.
“They’ll be here any minute, Foster,” Mom yelled from downstairs. “Put some clothes on. I don’t want you to meet Pierce in just your underpants.”
I swore under my breath, and got changed into a pair of jeans and a shirt. This was not how I liked spending my Saturdays. Usually by this point I would just be recovering from last night’s drinking and sexual escapades, and getting ready to prepare for another night.
Not this weekend. At Mom’s insistence, I’d come home to upstate New York on Friday night, in preparation for the visit of Mom’s new boyfriend for lunch on Saturday.
Mom had been through a few boyfriends since Dad died, but this was the first one she’d introduced me to. It must be serious. She’d already given me the whole spiel about him not replacing Dad, and that even though she loved this new man, she still loved Dad, blah, blah, blah.
I didn’t care about any of that. What I cared about was Mom getting screwed over, and that’s almost certainly what was happening here.
Mom hadn’t told me a lot about Pierce, but what she had told me I didn’t like. He had a job, but not a good one and by the sounds of it he barely earned enough to support himself and his daughter who was at college.
No doubt after a few months, Mom would start sending him money and paying for vacations. Before you knew it, he would have moved in and be living it up while she worked her ass off running a prestigious law firm. She had a hard enough time of it trying to manage the D.C. and New York offices. She didn’t need a lazy bum scrounging off her as well.
I strolled downstairs and gave Mom some help setting the table for lunch. Mom had never been a traditional housewife. While Dad had been alive, the most she’d ever cooked was pasta with a sauce straight from a jar. And she’d burned that.
“The food smells good,” I remarked, as the scent of a spicy sauce wafted in from the kitchen. “You have someone deliver?”
“No,” she snapped. “I cooked it if you must know.”
“Oh.”
“You don’t need to sound so concerned. I’ve been practicing.”
“Why?”
“Because Pierce enjoys cooking. We do it together.”
I carried on putting out the cutlery as a cheesy image of Mom and this Pierce guy cooking together came into my mind. They probably flicked sauce at each other and all that soppy stuff.
“You’ve only set three places,” Mom remarked when I’d finished putting everything out. Or thought I’d finished anyway.
“There’s only three of us eating. Or do you have two boyfriends coming over.”
“No, I only date one person at a time,” she replied. “Unlike some people I know.” She gave me a playful slap on the back of the head. She hated that I was a player and often scolded me for what she considered “unprofessional behavior.” It’s not like I was doing it with clients. Not recently anyway.
“To be fair, Mom, I don’t date multiple women, we just—”
“I’m happy not knowing, son. Anyway, set another place at the table, please.”
“Who for?”
“Pierce is bringing his daughter along as well.”
“Oh great,” I moaned. “I thought she was away at college.”
“Me too, but she’s come back for the weekend to support her father and to meet us. And she’s not at college—she’s at law school, so you two will have something in common.”
I gripped the fork in my hand hard enough to bend the silver. Law students. I’d had more than enough of them while I was at law school.
“You know the one thing I hate more than lawyers?” I said. “Law students.”
“I’m sure she’s lovely. Just play nice and try to get through lunch.”
Mom kissed me on the cheek and smiled, but when the doorbell rang she instantly started fretting and checking herself out in the mirror.
“I’ll get the door, shall I?” I joked. It felt so weird watching my mom panic like she was on a first date.
I opened the door and came eye-to-eye with the man who had got my mother so worked up. He wore similar clothes to me, except his entire outfit looked like it cost less than my belt.
“Hi, you must be Foster,” the man said holding out his hand. “I’m Pierce. Pierce Rhodes.”
“Hi, Pierce,” I said shaking his hand. The man had a decent handshake at least.
Wait, what did he say his last name was? Pierce Rhodes. Rhodes. Surely not. That wasn’t possible.
“Well don’t just stand there,” Mom said, appearing behind me. “Let him in. Where’s April?”
“She’s just coming,” Pierce said, turning to look at the girl walking up the path to our house.
April. April Rhodes. Oh shit. Oh fucking shit.
“You,” I said, as she looked up, seeing me standing in the doorway for the first time.
“What are you… I don’t…”
“Surprise,” Mom exclaimed. “I said the two of you had something in common. But no talking about work today. Come on, let’s eat, I’m starving.”
“Come in, April,” I said cheerfully, forcing a smile even though I still hadn
’t processed all this. “I must admit I have quite the appetite as well now. I’m desperate to get my lips around something sweet and tasty.”
-*-
I quickly ruled out a paranoid theory that April had known about this all along. Pierce and Mom had been dating for a year, but they hadn’t ‘come out’ until six months ago. Neither of us could have known when we’d slept together.
Judging by the look of surprise on April’s face, she’d found out at the same time I had. She didn’t look at all pleased by the news either, but she did her best to appear polite and keep up the conversation like a good little girl.
Pierce had obviously made Mom offer April the interview at the firm, which was why she’d turned up at my office at such short notice. Clearly this man had power over Mom. I didn’t like that one bit.
“How’s the food?” Mom asked.
“Delicious, Kathleen,” Pierce said.
“Lovely, thank you, Mrs. Arrington,” April said politely.
“Yes, it’s great Mom. I haven’t eaten anything so delicious in… oh about eight months.”
April narrowed her eye and glared at me, but everyone else kept eating. I smiled and, when our parents weren’t looking, I stuck my tongue out at her and slowly moved it up and down just as I had when my head had been between her legs. She looked down at her plate, but I caught a slight shiver run through her body.
April wanted me. That was natural enough. What did that prove? She wasn’t blind. The weird bit was, I wanted her as well.
“How did the interview go?” Mom asked, although I couldn’t tell who she was directly the question to.
“I sent you my comments in an email,” I replied.
“Ah yes, I remember.”
“Thank you for giving me the opportunity to interview,” April said. “But I understand why I didn’t get the job.”
“Never mind,” I said. “You’ll find something. I’m sure a girl with your talents will find a position somewhere. Not everyone can be as good a lawyer as me.”
“Foster, don’t be so rude,” Mom scolded.
“That’s okay,” April said. “Some people are just better suited to recording their time in six minute increments, aren’t they Foster?”
“Hey, if six minutes is all I need to accomplish my goals then so be it. The client never complains.”
“I bet you don’t get many clients coming back for repeat work though,” April said.
“April,” Pierce exclaimed. “Now you’re being rude.”
“Sorry,” April said sheepishly.
I grinned. She had a temper on her this one. All polite and ‘daddy’s little girl’ one minute and then cheeky and rude the next. I liked it.
“We would love to have you at the firm,” Mom said. “In fact, you should find an acceptance letter at your apartment when you get home.”
“I will?”
“She will?”
April and I spoke in shocked unison.
“Yes,” Mom said. “Everyone she interviewed with gave a rave review?”
“Everyone?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “Are you sure?”
“Positive,” Mom said, not looking me in the eye.
“Thank you, Mrs. Arrington.”
“You really must call me Kathleen, dear. We’re going to be family soon, after all.”
“What?” I asked, my fork screeching to a halt in front of my mouth.
Mom cringed and shared a look with Pierce who just laughed and rolled his eyes. “So much for the big official announcement,” Pierce said.
“Sorry,” Mom said. “It just slipped out.”
Pierce placed his hand on Mom’s, and looked up and April and me. “We were going to save the news for after lunch, but apparently lawyers aren’t as good at keeping secrets as I had assumed.”
He looked over at Mom and smiled. She looked embarrassed, like a kid who’d been caught kissing her boyfriend by her parents. It would be cute if I didn’t know exactly where this conversation was going.
“Pierce and I are getting married,” Mom said excitedly. “Any chance you’re both happy for us?”
April reacted before I did. “Of course. Congratulations.” Mom and April shared an awkward hug.
“You got your feet under the table pretty quick, didn’t you,” I said to Pierce. “Here was me thinking you’d wait a few more months before you started mooching off Mom.”
“Foster!” Mom exclaimed.
“It’s okay,” Pierce said, remaining calm. “Foster, I’m not here to—”
“Save it,” I snapped. “Mom, you’re an adult, you can do what you want. Just don’t expect my fucking support while you give away everything you’ve worked so hard for. Enjoy your dessert.”
I stormed out without looking back at April. It was too soon for Mom to get married. She’d only known Pierce for a year. She’d dated Dad for five years before they got engaged. What was the rush?
And to top it all off, I would no doubt have to babysit April all summer at work. I wanted to fuck her, not hand her assignments. If I was going to punish her, I wanted it to be with a firm hand to her ass, not a load of redlines on a memo. I wanted to spend the night inside her, not pouring over client files together.
Well, I couldn’t stop Mom getting married, but I could damn sure stop April having a good time this summer. I had too much money riding on these next few months. My clients were far more important than some piece of ass—however tasty—that I’d already fucked once anyway.
Oh, and she would soon be my stepsister.
April would be begging for the summer to end by the time I’d finished with her.
It was only my second day and I was already begging for the summer to end.
The first day was one long introduction to the firm in the morning, followed by an afternoon of “Legal Ethics” which could have been boiled down to five minutes instead of three hours. Essentially, it was just ‘don’t betray client confidences.’ Hardly rocket science, but at least I didn’t have to see Foster.
Foster. My soon-to-be stepbrother, and existing pain in my ass. That mistake eight months ago had been much worse than I’d first realized. Meeting him again had a few advantages though. I’d been idolizing him. In my mind, he’d been not just a great shag, but a knight in shining armor. He’d come to my rescue and saved me from Zach. After that night, I’d put him on a pedestal, but he wasn’t worth it. I knew that now.
Foster had acted like a complete prick when he’d interviewed me, but I could handle that. I was far more concerned with the way he had spoken to my dad. Dad hadn’t deserved that. To be fair, I gave Dad an earful in the car on the way home, but that was different. I was his daughter.
I’d written off all hope of getting the job until Dad introduced me to his girlfriend—Kathleen Arrington. I didn’t know what Foster had said about me to the other partners, but you didn’t need to be a genius to guess the gist of it. He didn’t want me working here, but unfortunately for him, the other partners hadn’t felt the same way.
I didn’t want to work with Foster any more than he wanted to work with me, but I did want to work here, for this firm. Arrington & Hedges had one of the biggest offices in D.C., and they were famous nationwide. They even had some international satellite offices to work with on global deals. Me being here was huge. I wasn’t about to let Foster screw me over.
Speak of the devil.
“Come to my office,” Foster said, standing in my doorway holding a cup of coffee.
He looked tired. Probably a late night of partying ending with… I didn’t even want to think about how his nights ended. I knew what he liked to do after a few drinks.
“I have to do this conflict of interest list first,” I replied, trying to sound polite. Other attorneys were still walking in and I didn’t want them to think I was rude. With any luck, I could get assignments from them and not have to work for Foster at all. “I need to list all the clients I worked on last summer to make sure I don’t create a conflict of interes
t.”
“I know what a conflict of interest list is,” he replied grumpily. “Come to my office when you’re done.”
I’d only worked on a handful of projects at Cooper & Cooper so my list of previous clients was a rather modest seven, and most of them I had only worked on briefly. I could only drag the work out for so long before I had to pick up a pen and a pad of paper and head to Foster’s office.
The clock on the wall said 10:15. No one left the office before seven. This was going to be a long summer.
As usual, Foster had his door shut, so I knocked loudly and waited for him to let me in. I heard a grunt from the other side, so I opened the door and peaked in.
“Is now a good time?”
He waved a hand towards the chair, but didn’t look up at me. Evidently his monitor held something far more interesting than me.
“Why didn’t you come and see me yesterday?”
Asshole. “Morning Foster. I’m fine thank you. How are you?”
“I emailed you and told you to come by. I believe I said it was urgent. When a lawyer asks you to come by urgently you do it.”
“They only gave me login details this morning and I haven’t had time to check my email.”
“Oh.”
Ha. Serves you right for being an asshole.
“Apology accepted. Whose bed did you get out the wrong side of this morning?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?”
“Not really, no,” I replied. I liked to think the day after we’d slept together, he’d at least gone to work with a smile on his face. He’d certainly had one while we’d been in bed together. I remembered him grinning at me as he came up from between my legs, and kissed me with lips that tasted like my sex.
Oh God, April. This is not the place for these thoughts. I crossed my legs, and tried to focus on what an asshole he was being so as not to leave a damp patch on his chair.
How could I be attracted to this jerk? He hadn’t made any effort to apologize for the way he’d spoken to Dad at the weekend. He clearly didn’t like the idea of his mom getting remarried, but he didn’t need to take it out on me and Dad.
Foster finished working and turned his full attention to me. I almost shriveled up under his gaze, as I backed up into the chair, and wished I could turn invisible. Was that hatred in his eyes? Contempt? Or maybe he was just undressing me with his eyes?
Revenge: A Bad Boy Romance Page 26