She soothed her nerves, or at least attempted to by hand ironing her outfit. She liked looking the part of a professional too. She dressed for success, her long dark brown waves that fell just below her shoulders always swept up in some sort of neat up do that screamed she put time and effort into looking her part.
As far as clothes, she kept it simple, not having much time to shop, yet stylish for an office or courtroom. With her dark dress suits, she worked all the angles, a smart business jacket topping a just above the knee skirt to show both refinement and a bit of her full and curvy legs which were accented by basic heels.
Her only bit of self-indulgent luxury in her daily wardrobe was giving the suit a pop of color with the silk camisoles she wore under the jacket. She had them in an array of colors from a fuchsia or pale pink, to sometimes a deeper purple or even a lighter green. She figured it made her attire dignified and sassy, just as she was, a nice mix of the two in her humble opinion.
Working with yet another case of known criminals wouldn’t phase her, not if she could help it. Rewording the law like an author of fiction to make it work for her and her client, she could do that. She had been quite successful, a little too much so at times for her comfort, but she remained determined to deal with that to get herself to where she wanted to be — partner.
In a way, well in secret, in her own mind, the woman in her, too long dormant, as in out of the dating zone due to late nights proving herself in the predominately man’s world of this particular office, looked forward to meeting the legendary Faust brothers. They were not just known for illegal money laundering, which was what the IRS was currently after them for this time, but they were also talked about endlessly as the most eligible bachelors with money enough and then some to spend on a willing woman. Not to mention they stop even the most dignified woman in her tracks with good looks they were known for.
She couldn’t be willing, not the time nor the place, but she could look. From public images she had seen, no one was going to stop her from looking them all over, grabbing some mental images to review later in private. In person, maybe they’d have some sort of glaring flaw the camera air-brushed over, but from what she’d read, that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Comparing their legendary blond hair and brown eyed looks, some more rugged while others leaned more toward clean cut, they all looked the part of handsome executive with enough money to throw around, maybe on a bed, to make love in as they held those hard chiseled bodies against the woman of their choice.
Stop it, she chastised herself. This is business. Review the file now, and think on them later, once you’ve gotten a damn good look on the sly.
With that, she flipped back through the file. The fact that these practically unstoppable men, if history told a true tale, were also part of a powerful shifter pack, these facts as presented caused her heart to flutter and her stomach to take a little flip. She tried not to admit this, not even to herself yet, but the facts there were undisputable. Alone in her office, long ignored parts tingled, causing her to squirm around in her chair in an unladylike fashion.
Shifters, even now that everyone knew they existed, still didn’t do much with humans outside of business. Regardless of all of that, she had to focus, her job as a human for these men was to represent them, basically a go between dividing them and the Criminal Investigators for the IRS so that a case was never built to try.
Humans were good enough to do business with, always had been even when the existence of shifters was a long kept secret. But, now that they were out, some things had not changed. They worked with, even were friends with humans, but as far as romantic entanglements, humans were off limits to shifters other than one night stands, just for fun. And, she couldn’t do that, not with a client, not with anyone really.
She’d known girls who did saunter up to stand in line to be a shifter one-night stand. Especially in college when learning that shifters had existed was only years old, and the girls had flocked to them to see if the stories were true. Even she herself had wondered if sex was indeed magical somehow just like their existence. Her best friend since college, Stacey Blacke, had been one of those girls, one time, on some whim that had her living life for a night, or so she’d explained it.
Stacey, in all her usual blunt honesty, had said the man, a jaguar shifter, had been some exotic mix of rough and loving, with a bit of kink mixed in. The magic had been in the fact that the guy had been able to go all night. The mere thought of this made Kat’s stomach clench, as her panties actually dampened. It had just been way too long that she had been cooped up in this office trying to make a name for herself. Even Stacey had complained, repeatedly, about how little they saw of each other these days.
Kat grabbed for her phone and poked her finger, maybe a little harder than needed, against the screen until her calendar came up. She set a reminder, added an alarm for tonight that was titled, Call Stacey @ Faust. That way, she would actually do it, as she was obsessive-compulsive enough to follow through with every reminder her calendar sent her, though she tended to think of it as dedicated, a woman who did her jobs, handled her obligations. In fact, she prided herself on this fact. Nothing wrong with being hardworking.
That out of the way, she made herself focus, merely rereading the highlights of the case that would soon walk through her door. It was only a preliminary meeting, for them to meet her and vice versa. The Faust’s had already connected with the agency she worked for, hired them for the job, and now had been assigned to her.
Since no formal charges had been filed, she’d only been given what she could know of the Internal Revenue Service investigation and the Faust empire. This meeting would fill her in on their truths, ones she wouldn’t record.
She’d been through these cases enough to know that they would admit to some sins here in this office where client confidentiality would prevent her from disclosing information they didn’t want the world to know. Still, they wouldn’t tell her all. Regardless, with some cases, actually the majority of them thrown her way these days, her conscious in association with them kept her from sleep already, so she was grateful for what they omitted.
She’d already risen to the title of the ’Queen of Criminal Cases’ here at Baker, Patterson & Taylor, being known for getting the guilty off. Even though, through a series of events she could easily connect the dots through, her title had somehow been assigned to her making it her lot in life. Trying to be grateful, she’d come to accept it in that it gave her the bigger dream, the one to try cases, noteworthy ones, to make a name for herself as a lawyer.
Maybe in college she had romanticized the business of being an attorney a little, seeing her name in the headlines for getting justice for some noteworthy case, a business man done wrong that she had saved, given she had been steered by her own interests and whims into corporate law.
She had already seen her name in the papers at this point, only it had been in reference to getting off a big business for racketeering charges, so the guilty looked squeaky clean again, at least until their next screw up. This had gotten her several cases, including the Faust’s who should be walking through the door any minute.
As if on cue, the intercom on her phone buzzed, her personal assistant, another lawyer wanna-be, a former intern, like she had been not that long ago, announced the arrival of the brothers. Katrina told Janet to send them in, even as she stood, smoothing down her skirt, tugging on her jacket, ensuring that the suit fit her as it had been tailored too, accentuating the right curves and all.
Being a fuller figured woman, she had to use what she had to her advantage, and business suit or not, the hint of cleavage and show of legs in hose and heels, it got her just the right amount of misguided attention to let her feel more in control of the conversations due to manly distractions. Right now, she needed everything she could use to feel comfortable with these men.
Her door soon swung open, and her shockingly fake blond assistant with a slim build yet too angular face to be
a bombshell, ushered in four men that made her big office seem suddenly small, to the point of making her claustrophobic which she had never been.
With a deep breath over a suddenly irregular heartbeat that made her lungs shake, she managed to introduce herself in a low voice to hide how it trembled. “Hello, I’m Katrina Walton. Please come in. Have a seat.”
With a hand that not only immediately extended out to meet her own, but also took a tad too firm a grip of her fingers, the god-like man in the lead replied back, “Nice to meet you Katrina. I’m Alexander Faust. But, please call me Alex. Behind me are my brothers, Benjamin, Kristopher, and Jackson. But again, Ben, Kris and Jack are fine. Thank you for seeing us on such short notice. We appreciate your firm extending us such a courtesy. We are in urgent need of acquiring further assistance in legal matters.”
“I’ve been caught up to speed, and am ready to get down to business, so I can assist you as best I can,” she replied back as she shook each of the brother’s hands.
While each of them were beyond any guy she’d ever gotten this close to, Alex was the one that demanded her attention. Something about him struck her, first on some basic attraction level, but it was more than that. It was something undefinable, something she’d never experienced before that ramped up her heart rate, and stole a measure of her breath just being inches from him.
As they sat, filling up, overwhelming really, the seats meant she guessed for mere mortals, she gave them all a once over. These men were lion shifters. She’d been made aware of their pack association by the partners when assigned the case. Not like the world had yet inserted a box for species affiliations on business forms.
There was no box to even mark human or shifter or other, as who knew what else had yet to be revealed in this supernatural world so new to everyone’s knowledge. So, along those lines, there was no follow up question that let one know if they turned into a wolf or a lion or a whatever they wanted like the dreaded skin-walkers that most humans still liked to pretend didn’t exist, and hoped to never encounter one.
These men changed into lions, and from what she could see sitting in front of her, she imagined the golden blond hair on their heads all over strong animal bodies with their brown eyes full of flecks of gold sparkling as well in a fierce, full face of such a beast. Alex’s hair hung long, all one length but cut to his neck, and then neatly gelled back off his face. His facial hair, while neatly trimmed was fuller than his brothers, filling out the angular cut of his cheeks and jawline.
He seemed a bit irritated with something, and got right down to business, casting odd glances at her as if he didn’t approve of her handling the case. Something was off about him. He gave her curt, short looks that darkened his eyes before he looked back at his brothers when talking. Against the backdrop of her modern, crisp office, these four in suits were the male version of the Double Mint twins times two. Modeling looked more up their alley. She believed they’d look good in anything or nothing.
“These charges against us are insulting. We are a legitimate business no matter what popular gossip has to say or what the IRS is trying to maintain. They have nothing that will stick. We are being abused for being highly successful business men that are shifters. We don’t ask questions of our clients about how their money is obtained.
We simply make our living providing financial services to other shifters like us that want to make their way in the business world like all the other humans who do the same. It is unfair that given what we are that they are looking into our business with some magnifying glass,” Alex went on as she attempted to focus more on his words than the way his eyes darkened as he angered, and the way his hands were clenched into fists around the arms of the chair he sat in.
She couldn’t help but think about wanting those hands on her while those fierce eyes looked her over, preferably naked. Get it together, Kat, she admonished herself. She’d never had such a strong reaction to a man before, especially upon first meeting. She’d have to blame in on his animal-like magnetism, his fierce charisma, and refocus her thinking back to the work at hand.
She was a tad off kilter though to see that he was taking the angle of lying to her outright, denying any wrong doing, when she would go as far as to stake her life on the fact that these men were truly into the money laundering that they were being investigated for. She didn’t care for the prejudice note they were implying against humans, but it wouldn’t be the first time, nor the last sadly, that such accusations had flown about since the shifters had come out to the public.
“Good to know,” she finally got out. “For what it is worth, there is a legal binding agreement in this office that what you say legally stays here. Only what you allow will be stated outside of this room. The more I know, the more I can help.”
“Are you accusing my brother of lying to you, Ms. Walton?” the one named Kristopher spat as he sat up straight, the large leather business chair squeaking out a protest.
Kris, as she’d been told to call him, was the cleanest cut of the four of them. He had a more dirty blond hair, not as warm a color as Alex had. His hair was cut short, styled with a far right part before being swept back to the sides. His clean-shaven face was more all-American, a perfect setting for his lighter brown eyes, the lightest of all of them, though there was little difference, one only noticed if you had them all side by side like this.
“Not at all,” Kat countered. “That is a basic statement we make to all of our clients up front. I work for you, Mr. Faust. For all of you. I will accept what you tell me, and argue what you want me to, to the best of my abilities. Just let it be known that I don’t create the laws, I can only manipulate them to the best of my abilities. And, make no mistake, I will do my best for you. But, as we tell all of our clients, the more we know, the better we can help.”
“Your reputation precedes you, Katrina,” Alex said, giving her name a certain punctuation with a deepening of his voice. She believed he was reminding his brother to call her that. “We are here because we believe you can best represent us if indeed the IRS gets enough evidence to press any charges.”
“We don’t believe they will though,” the one named Ben spoke up. “There isn’t any to be obtained for one.”
Benjamin Faust had sounded the peace maker. Since none of his brothers had batted an eye at his words, she figured she was right. His voice was the gentlest of the ones she’d heard so far. He had a calming effect, though he seemed more of an outlaw just by appearance. He had to be a smooth talker, she figured. That signature blond hair on his head was cut shorter than Alex’s, also gelled back as if they all had the same barber, yet, his slimmer face with darker brown eyes had less facial hair that was cut into a fashionable ducktail.
Even in a light tan suit, he looked the least like a business man of all of them. Clothes couldn’t disguise everything. Something about him seemed wild, though she guessed him to have a silver tongue, one who could convince anyone of anything. To his left side, Jackson sat, his blond hair maybe an inch long all over and tussled to look that dignified messy, still he looked more refined than Ben. Jackson also sported some facial scruff, making him look more the handsome boy next door. She believed him to be the baby of the family.
They were something, all of them together like this in one room. She didn’t have a clue what their parent’s looked like, but the family pictures had to be something. Still, when she scanned over them, Alex caught her eye the most. Not that any of them were here to ask her out, but damn, did she want him to. In fact, she might be talked into a one night stand if not for the business relationship. It’s just been too long, she offered herself a way off the hook, and this man is like a male centerfold. What woman wouldn’t daydream about him?
“You know all you need to, Katrina,” Alex said gruffly. “You are to speak to the Criminal Investigator, let them know you are working for us, and are to be the go between if there are questions to be asked, files to be looked at, whatever. We expect you to take this problem off of our
hands so that we can do our jobs for all of the packs that depend on us.”
“I will do that, Alex. I will be in touch as necessary, but basically I believe that faxed statements to your office with updates are all you are asking for from me as they continue to just investigate.”
“That is what we would prefer as long as you can keep it up. Other than that, make it all go away. You will have direct access to our office, through our secretaries, who will get you anything you need as far as paperwork to prove our innocence.”
“Yes. I have been so instructed, and will do everything in my power to maintain your innocence.”
“We have nothing more to say then,” Alex said, standing abruptly as if he had to get out of the room.
She didn’t understand his obvious aversion to her, but as he shook her hand once with a rough pump, before she moved on to shake the rest of their hands, he was already out of the room as if someone had yelled fire. When the rest of them followed him, they left her standing there, her mouth open, watching four men in perfectly tailored, snug business suits walk away down the hall. She had to grab the door jamb to steady herself.
Chapter Two
The executive pen that had been in his hand cracked, snapping him out of his momentary lapse into rage from the gentle seethe of anger that had run through his veins since he had left Katrina Walton’s office. Usually he was aware of his own superhuman strength, a crossover from his lion when in human form.
Curves & Alphas: A Paranormal Box Set: (BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance) Page 32