Insufferable Proximity

by Z. Stefani

  They both jumped in the shower at the same time, but Julian was too busy focusing on her body to wash his own, so she helped him. He lathered his hands up with the soap and began to slowly wash her shoulders, working his way down before pulling her back to him. When his hand slid up her belly to her breasts she knew exactly where this was headed.

  “We don’t have time for this, we are already late.”

  “There’s always time for this.” he said continuing with his massage.

  “Seriously Julian, we have to go.”

  “If I don’t get some right now, you’re going to have to give it up at some point during the day.” he warned her and she shrugged.

  “I‘ll take my chances with that.” she said confident that she could sway him from sex at the office. She jumped out of the shower and quickly dried off as Julian grabbed different parts of her anatomy in the process.

  ***

  Julian walked into the cafeteria, seeing Heaven filling her red thermos with coffee. He waked over to her and stood behind her, his muscular body concealing the whole left half of her body. He was oblivious to everyone else around him except for her and without thinking, he slid his hand down her hip. He was confident that no one could see where his hand was, since his body was shielding the hip he was now caressing.

  “Mr. King.” she hissed through clenched teeth as she scanned the room to see if anyone was watching them. She saw Gloria, Reese and Adele in the far corner of the room, but they seemed like they were too engrossed in their conversation to pay attention to anything else.

  “What?” he asked as he slid his hand back up her thigh.

  “Cut it out.” she whispered, turning away from him as she noticed that the secretaries were now turning their attention to them.

  “Why?” he asked as his hand slid up to her waist and she felt her heart race with anxiety.

  “Is he-” Adele’s eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, “is he touching her?” she whispered and the other two secretaries carefully turned to see that Julian’s hand was indeed sliding up Heaven’s waist.

  “I told you.” Gloria said with a shrug.

  “I already believed you, it’s Juliette who doesn’t think there’s anything going on between the two of them.”

  “No, Juliette knows the truth.” Gloria scoffed, not sure what Juliette was up too with the whole denial charade, she knew damn well the two of them were having some type of an affair.

  “I don’t think so Gloria.” Adele shook her head.

  “She knows, she’s still in the denial stage.”

  “It’s because she’s so obsessed with him, she’s like borderline stalker.” Reese said with a seriousness that peaked Adele’s interest.

  “What?” Adele smiled eager to hear more “Stalker, you say?”

  “Juliette is a genuine stalker, you don’t understand how obsessed she really is with that man.” Reese informed her.

  “Do tell, darling.” Gloria smiled as she leaned back in her chair, getting comfortable.

  “I found a picture of him hidden in her locker.” Reese frowned.

  “You’re kidding me.” Bothe Gloria and Adele said at the same time

  “Nope, but that’s not the best part,” she smiled sneakily, “she even glued a picture of herself to the one of him, in true-horror-movie stalker fashion.”

  “Wow, she is more obsessed with him then I thought.” Gloria murmured more to herself.

  “I can’t believe she actually has a picture of him.” Adele grimaced.

  “Yes she does and I’ve even seen the crazy bitch kiss it.” Reese nodded her head.

  “No way!” Adele smiled in excitement.

  “I swear.” the three of them smiled as they huddled in to continue gossiping about her.

  “Stop.” Heaven snapped at Julian

  “No one can see where my hand is.” he said as he slid it up to the side of her breasts then lightly squeezed it, “besides so what if they can, everyone here already knows what we’re doing.”

  “Don’t say that.” she said and twisted the top back on her coffee mug, then quickly left the cafeteria, with Julian hot on her heels. She almost walked into Gavin who was standing close on the opposite side of the door. Heaven hoped he wasn’t close enough to hear what Julian had said.

  “Excuse me.” Gavin said with a slight grin before walking into the cafeteria.

  Heaven tried to walk past Julian’s office, but he grabbed her arm and pulled her in, his secretary not bothering to even look up from her crossword puzzle as the couple sped past.

  “What is your problem Julian? You just tried to feel me up in the cafeteria!”

  “That’s your own fault.” he said.

  “How do you figure?”

  “If you understood how amazing your ass looks in this skirt, you would understand.”

  “You bought this suit for me,” she shrugged, “would you rather I go change into one of my large pantsuits?”

  “I don’ think it would matter what you were wearing. It’s driving me crazy being under the same roof and not being able to touch you. But I have to look at you!” he said almost crazed, she could feel his lust and his need.

  “After everything that’s happened, now is not the time to be doing this shit in the office! You need to get a hold of yourself, you need to stop Julian!”

  “I can’t, I’ve already tried, we need to leave.”

  “What? You’re crazy, you can’t leave we have work to do!” she shook her head.

  “Then strip down right now.”

  “No.”

  “Then get on your knees.”

  “No, I’m not taking the chance of getting our picture taken again, we are waiting until we get home.” she said and turned to leave, but he grabbed her arm.

  “You have to show me something to hold me over.” he said and she rolled her eyes before unbuttoning her shirt. Her breasts were the best option, she knew if she lifted her skirt, she wouldn’t make it out of this office without him ripping it from her. When her shirt was unbuttoned down to her naval, she pulled it open.

  “More?” she asked.

  “More.” he answered and she unsnapped the front closure of her bra, baring her breasts to him.

  “Better?”

  “Much better.” he said bending his head to kiss her lips as his hand instantly went to her full breast. “I can’t wait to get you home, baby.” he whispered against her lips before deepening their kiss.

  “Just a few more hours.” she breathed as the kiss began to work its magic. She knew she had to get out of his office and soon, before she did something she would regret.

  “I can’t wait to fully strip you down.” he said bending his head to her breast and lightly kissing the tip before pulling it into his mouth. She wrapped her arms around his head pulling him to her, as she felt the familiar sparks. He grabbed her arms and pulled them behind her back as he continued to feast on her tightening breasts. She was ready to yank off her own skirt and bend over his desk when he stopped, pulled his head back then rose to his full height before pulling the bra cups over her large breast and snapping it together. “You better get out of here right now.”

  “Good idea.” she nodded as he began to button up her shirt.

  “Hurry up,” he said in honesty, “I can’t control it much longer.”

  ***

  Ayden called an important meeting and within fifteen minutes all of the lawyers at the firm were in the conference room.

  “I just received an urgent message, Lucinda Sherman has just found her husband and his eighteen year old girlfriend dead. At this point, she has not been accused or charged with anything, but she wants someone from our firm to represent her by tomorrow.

  “Lucinda Sherman the ketchup heiress?” Lila asked.

  “Yes.” he answered, knowing that would peak their interest.

  “I know only three of you are available to represent her, but this is a delicate case and may need other resources. So write me up a propo
sal and we will have an attorney for her by first thing tomorrow morning.”

  They had no more then left his office when Heaven turned to Julian.

  “I want this case.”

  “All of us do, it’s a high profile case.” He answered.

  “But you should let me have it, I can get her off.”

  “So can I.” he tried to explain without a trace of malice in his voice. He was wise enough to know that this situation could possible destroy everything they had worked for.

  “I will fight you for this case, Mr. King.”

  “So it’s back to that again?” he asked, seeing the shark in her come back out to fight.

  “It’s always been like that.”

  “I was hoping it wouldn’t have to be.”

  “Are you going to give up the Sherman case?” she raised her brows.

  “No.”

  “Then it has to be like this.” she turned to walk away and Julian followed behind her, but she slammed her office door in his face, forcing the rage he had been holding back to explode. He barged into her office and slammed the door behind him. He stood but a foot from her, trying to take a deep breath and subdue his escalating anger.

  “I would think twice about going to war with me over this case, Princess.”

  “The only thing I will be thinking about is winning the Sherman case.”

  “You’re still under contract.”

  “Only until Friday.”

  “I can make it hard for you, I can make these upcoming days seem like months.”

  “I want this case and I will not back down,“ she said stepping close to him, ready to go toe to toe if need be, “so game on.”

  Instead of using anger, he bent and lightly kissed her lips before she drew back like she had been burnt.

  “Touché.” he finished before leaving her office.

  Heaven had never seen him act so calmly before, normally the two of them would be at each other’s throats and throwing threats. Well she was furious and she would not back down until she got what she wanted.

  ***

  By the end of the day, the Sherman case meant a lot less to Heaven, considering all the drama that it would cause between her and Julian. If she was completely honest with herself, she wasn’t thrilled with the idea of their relationship going back to the way that it was. She was unsure why she even cared, but she did and wasn’t comfortable with risking it all for some case. Even though she loved a good altercation, she didn’t want to fight with him on that level.

  When it was time to leave, she met up with him but he refused to even speak to her so she followed behind him silently. Neither of them spoke one word on the way back to his house, Heaven was looking out of the window and Julian was focused on the road.

  When they finally arrived, he went straight to his office and Heaven went upstairs to the room. She sat on the bed, realizing she didn’t like this argument in the least, but had no idea how to fix it without saying she was sorry. At this point she was willing to let the case go but she was unwilling to apologize and would find another method to relay her feelings.

  She walked into her closet and found her tiniest bikini, grabbed a couple towels and walked down to his office. Heaven walked into his office nonchalantly and saw him sitting behind his desk. He looked up at her, but still refused to speak, only watching her with caution as she approached him.

  “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 walkin
g 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.