Snow and Seduction (A Holiday Romance)

by Evelyn Moreau

  Fucking hell.

  He looked down at the notepad engraved with his initials. Fuck it. It was his firm, and he’d do what he damn well pleased.

  He stood up, and cleared his throat, “I’m going to wait for Ms. Notyce at the elevators. Would be rude not to show her back to the conference room myself.”

  Rex nodded, not looking up from his phone. The pompous, overgrown shit.

  He slowed down his steps as he maneuvered himself to the elevator, not that anyone was watching him. He was just being polite, a perfect gentleman, by waiting for her. Truth was, he was equal parts giddy as he was anxious.

  Just as his watch struck 3 o’clock, the elevator dinged.

  Head in the air, balancing gracefully on precariously high-heels, the woman haunting his dreams met his eyes immediately as the elevator opened.

  A mass of long, ebony curls covered her face, decorating the front of her ivory winter coat. It was much longer than before. He liked it. Not that his approval mattered for shit.

  There was no mistaking the barracuda this morning. The well-crafted persona was in full effect. He focused on her heart-shaped face. Whether it was to find flaws in her beauty, or to memorize every one of her features? He wasn’t exactly sure.

  Eyes the color of a deep cognac stared into his as his words failed him. Her full lips, painted a deep shade of red, were the perfect bait for devouring the flesh of men. Lips that he had feasted on once upon a time.

  Luke idiotically thought five years would make a difference. That maybe her appeal would wane. Instead, Father Time had only blessed her more defined curves that had him itching to touch.

  Yup. He was definitely in trouble.

  “Mr. Simon, how good to see you again,” Kennedy said, closing the gap between them as she stepped out into the firm’s main lobby.

  The saccharine-sweet introduction sounded fake even to her own ears. Since when did she ever call him Mister anyways?

  Luke took a step toward her, and she squared her shoulders, tipping her head up to meet his gaze. With her diminutive height, even in four-inch boots, she barely reached shoulder-level. Craning her neck upwards, she locked her chocolate orbs with his electric blue ones and held out her hand.

  “Surely, with our history, we’re beyond last names. Call me Luke.”

  His voice was deep, but playful. The timber of it reminded her of warm chocolate cake.

  Dark. Gooey. Decadent. Seductive.

  His grip was firm as his hand swallowed hers. For a second, her gaze caught on the strong white knuckles wrapped around her petite, brown hand.

  She dragged her attention back upwards. Luke’s blue eyes flashed with intensity that exceeded a simple reunion of school mates. Just as she was about to analyze the emotion hidden in the depths of his eyes, it all blinked away.

  “Well then, Luke it is.”

  His brow furrowed. “I didn’t know you had decided to dabble in the dark side of the law.”

  “I figured it couldn’t hurt to flex my muscles in the realm of legal ‘uncoupling’. You know, sharpen my chops.” The lie slipped out of her like oil.

  “If I remember, your chops were just as lethal as your wit.”

  Kennedy was so caught up in the easy banter, she didn’t even realize her hand was still clutching his until he tried to withdraw it. A blush threatened to color her cheeks. She stepped back, needing to put some distance between herself and her handsome nemesis.

  Those eyes had an uncanny way of seeing too much. Knowing too much. Blue eyes the color of crystalline waters, practically glowed as they danced to meet hers.

  “It’s been a long time, Notyce.”

  “Not quite long enough if you ask me,” she sassed.

  Her insult didn’t phase him. He ran a hand through his blonde hair, and a hasty feline smile tugged at his lips. “Ouch. I see that cactus you call a heart is still as prickly as ever.”

  Her brow arched at his quip. She smiled slowly and walked closer. Peering around him, she took in the luxurious interior. The space was warm with pops of burgundy and cream to perk up the modern industrial space. “You’ve done well for yourself,”

  Not one to drop a subject, he goaded her. “No shame in turning tail. I wouldn’t blame you.”

  She slid the strap of her lather satchel from her shoulder. “Just because you think you’re the best, doesn’t make it true.” Holding his gaze, she leaned in to whisper, “Anything you can do, I can do better. Be a doll and help me with my coat, won’t you?”

  She turned away from Luke under the guise of needing assistance removing her coat, providing him ample view of her backside. He tugged on her right sleeve, freeing her arm, then the other one, allowing her to slip out of her cozy winter coat. Before she could face him, he took a step closer, lining himself up directly behind her.

  “You think you have a chance against me when you have no professional experience in divorce law?” he asked, his voice close to her ear.

  Her voice hitched ever so slightly. “I know I do.”

  Luke took a step back and held out her coat. “That’s mighty ambitious of you, Ms. Notyce.”

  She turned to face him. “I thought we were on a first-name basis.”

  His lips twitched. “My apologies. That’s mighty ambitious of you, Kennedy.”

  She glanced at him sideways, not missing how his eyes slide from her face to her lips to her breasts. It wasn’t a coincidence that she was wearing her cherry red shift dress today.

  “Well, you don’t hit a homerun without a mighty big stick.”

  “Don’t think I’ll take it easy on you just because we have history,” he said.

  “I wouldn’t dream of it,” she automatically replied, adding a sprinkle of sarcasm.

  “Let me show you to the conference room. Right this way,” he said.

  Her gasp was audible as his hand lightly pressed against the small of her back. He winked before steering her across the empty lobby toward to the conference room. The light pressure of his hand burned through the fabric of her dress, as if he was touching her skin directly, caressing it. Currents of energy traced up her spine as ribbons of energy shot out from his fingertips.

  Once they reached a conference room with pristine glass walls, he dropped his hand and grabbed the door for her.

  “Thank you,” she murmured, stepping through the entryway to see an older gentleman rising from his seat at the large conference table.

  “Mr. Jones this Kennedy Notyce, counsel hired by your wife for today’s session.”

  “How do you do, Ms.Notyce? Or is it missus?” the older man said, clasping her hand between wrinkled, sweaty palms.

  Luke admonished his client’s behavior immediately. “Rex, behave. This is not a date, and you’re still married.”

  “Not for too much longer,” the old man mumbled under his breath. The old man was still grinning like the cat that ate the canary.

  Luke sat down in one of the leather chair surrounding a large cherrywood conference table, unbuttoning the buttons of his grey suit as he did. He sat with his legs crossed and arms folded. If they hadn’t had a history, his impeccable suit and demeanor would’ve been intimidating.

  Just then, Luke hit her with a full-on smile as if he knew where her mind had drifted off to. Their past was, exactly that. In another lifetime, she would’ve been charmed effortlessly by his smile. In this lifetime, however, she couldn’t wait to wipe the smugness of his face.

  Luke tried to bite back his irritation. He was annoyed by his own client’s indecisiveness but to make matters worse, the old devil kept coming up with asinine demands.

  Only an hour into the mediation session and she was under his skin.

  He clenched his jaw. He wasn’t doing this. He wasn’t going to let a past fling compromise his professional ability. Who the hell was she to encroach on his turf anyway?

  She was out of her league. He wasn’t the doormat she’d walked all over in law school

  “I would like to remain in my
possession,” snapped Rex.

  Rex’s declaration dragged Luke out of his reverie. He was going off-script. This was not what they discussed in their meeting yesterday.

  “Over my dead body,” Madeleine retorted.

  Rex cracked his knuckles and leaned forward with his lip curled up. “Careful, my pet. That could be arranged.”

  “Would someone explain what, or who, Shrimp Daddy Longlegs is? My client seems to have left me in the dark,” he said, shooting a warning glare at Rex.

  Rex’s attempt at being apologetic was absurd. “Surely, I mentioned him. He’s our flamingo, or my flamingo rather. I bought it. It’s mine. Case closed.”

  Kennedy piped up in confusion. “A flamingo? As in a statue or a decoration of some sort?”

  Madeleine scoffed. “A flamingo statue? How tacky. No, it’s a taxidermy Chilean flamingo that we bought five years ago. Stuffed precisely to perfection.”

  “You mean, that I bought,” Rex sneered.

  “You know how much Shrimp Daddy Longlegs means to me. He’s the jewel of my flamingo collection. You don’t even like birds!”

  Am I in the Twilight Zone? Is this really happening? Luke wondered.

  Rex was out his chair, his face turning lobster red. “Doesn’t matter, pet. Just as my Amex giveth, my Amex can taketh away. I believe that was in the New Testament, the King Trump version.”

  “What a nightmare of man you turned out to be!” Madeleine yelled.

  “You married me, so what does that say of your taste in men?”

  With a hushed tone, he heard his adversary speak to her client. “Madeleine, I can only imagine that this is difficult, but you hired me for a reason. You’re in good hands. Just let me do the rest of the talking. Please.”

  The woman was just as fierce as he remembered. Maybe ferocious was a better word for her. Seeing her interact with her client brought back memories of their mock trials and cases at Yale. Her beauty had always captivated him, but her intelligence and passion were the qualities that he loved about her most.

  Loved?

  Holy hell.

  He must not have had enough coffee. He meant liked. They were the qualities that he liked most about her. The barracuda ate male flesh for breakfast. As one of her victims, Luke knew that for all the passion Kennedy had in her professional life, she hadn’t spared any for her personal life.

  “My client wants the landscaping rocks around the upstate New York house,” Kennedy said.

  “Excuse me – what?” Surely, he misheard. Mrs. Jones wanted… rocks? Both of these nitwits were batshit crazy, he silently conceded.

  She faced him head on. “Each and every rock surrounding the house, she wants them.”

  It wasn’t often that he was caught off guard, but this took the cake. “And would you mind explaining why?”

  She shrugged. “They were a wedding gift from her father. They have sentimental value.”

  That got good ol’ Rex fired right back up again. “Madeleine, you currently live in the brownstone! Where would you put all of the damn rocks, assuming I could even find someone to dig them up?”

  “Please, Mr. Jones, calm down. This is just an initial discussion,” turning to Kennedy, Luke smiled, “we’ll take that request into consideration.”

  “Thank you. Now that we’ve gotten those particulars out of the way, let’s talk spousal support.”

  He tapped his pen on his notepad and rolled his neck. “My client is prepared to pay support to the tune of three hundred thousand dollars a month, for five years, per the prenup.”

  “Oh dear God! How would I ever be able to live on that? I’ll be a pauper!”

  Kennedy tried to reassure her client, “Madeleine, please. Just relax. We’ll make sure you’re not a pauper.” Then she turned back to Luke. “Considering Mr. Jones’ infidelity, I’m surprised at your offer. Insulted, actually. Especially since it contradicts the legally-enforceable infidelity clause in the prenuptial agreement.”

  Without meaning to, Luke let his gaze stray to Kennedy’s plump lips. She was sex on a stick personified. Speaking of sticks, he sent a silent prayer that his erection would pipe down. Damn dick had always easily excitable around aggressive women.

  “I don’t care what the goddamn agreement says, I’m not paying her a dime more than the amount that Mr. Simon said! Ungrateful wench.”

  This circus had gone on long enough. Time to pull the plug. Luke put two fingers to his lips and let out a shrill whistle to gain control of the room. “Mr. and Mrs. Jones, that’s enough! Please let me remind you that you have two options. You can let a judge essentially dictate what’s fair, and let your attorney fees rack up, or we can find a solution that works for the both of you.”

  Kennedy took a different approach, speaking in softer voice. “Mr. Jones, let me ask you a question. What exactly are your non-negotiables in this divorce?”

  The older man sputtered, his wrinkled knuckles wrapped around a bottle of water. “What kind of question is that?”

  Luke cleared his throat, “I think Ms. Notyce means that it may be best to truly figure out what your priorities are. It is critical for you both to know what you want, and what you need during your uncoupling.”

  Rex shook his hands at the ceiling. “For god’s sake, just say divorce. We’re getting a divorce. There I said it.”

  Chiming in before Luke could speak, his opposing counsel said, “I recommend using the holiday season to figure out what’s a priority. Each party confers with their counsel with specific, reasonable wants and needs, then we reconvene in January.”

  Madeleine slumped in her chair. “I was hoping to have mailed out our divorce announcements by Christmas. I had the cutest stationary picked out too,” she said, pouting like a small child.

  Leave it to socialites to make divorce fashionable.

  “Let’s reschedule for early January. If there’s nothing else, I have a round of golf to get to,” Rex said dismissively.

  Madeleine followed suit, announcing her exit, “Thank you Kennedy, I hope to hear from you soon.”

  Luke released a deep sigh and sat back in his chair. He was used to such heated arguments over idiotic furniture, but it didn’t mean it was less exhausting.

  They were finally alone. He wasn’t sure if he was relieved or annoyed.

  Kennedy stood up and bent at the waist to retrieve her purse from beside her chair. He hadn’t gotten a clear look at her figure after she removed her coat earlier and sat down.

  Red had always been her favorite color. Her ‘power color’ that she wore when she was going into battle. He had to admit that seeing her curves wrapped in the red knee length dress made his balls tighten.

  Could anybody blame him?

  Her shape was quintessentially pin-up worthy. The moment he’d taken off her coat, to reveal her outfit, his idiotic body wanted her. For the entire meeting, he’d found himself preoccupied with her beauty.

  Even now, he eyes burned every detail of her curvy body into his mind. Her breasts had grown at least a cup size since college. Her waist was smaller but not her hips. Neither did were the luscious globes attached to her thick thighs wrapped in black suede knee-high boots.

  He was convinced she was a walking wet dream sent to torture him.

  And that face?

  Perfect, pouty lips that housed a delectably calculating smile devoid of emotion. Purely perfunctory. To a casual observer, Kennedy was all charms and innocence, but he knew better. She was a ballbuster with a sharp legal brain. She had the kind of smile that probably made the balls of lesser men shrivel up in their nutsack.

  But he wasn’t a lesser man. Once upon a time, he’d had her smiling for a different reason entirely.

  “So, this is what a day in the life of Luke Simon is like? Seems rather dreadful.”

  “To be honest, both parties are usually a bit more,” he paused as if searching for a word, “civilized.”

  “Those two are nightmares individually, but together? Hell, I don’t know h
ow they tolerated each other for this long. How do you keep calm? I was about to lose it when they brought up the stuffed flamingos.”

  He chuckled. “Simple: it’s my job. I took some courses in hostage negotiation and it’s worked wonders.”

  “Kennedy rocked back on her heels. Her eyes slid down the length of his body for the second time today, making his balls tighten by the second. “I guess you’re not just a pretty face after all,” she murmured.

  “Think I’m pretty, do you?”

  Her eyes instantly hardened. So much for flirtatious banter, he thought to himself.

  Her sharp teeth lined up in a ferocious smile. “You and your client made a show of proving what big balls you have. Now put them back in your pocket before I eat them.”

  His brain short-circuited at the thought of her eating his balls. Sliding them between thick, cherry lips and bathing them with the wet heat of her tongue almost had him clutching the wall for strength.

  He cleared his throat several times before words came to him. “Allow me to walk you out.”

  They arrived at the elevator and he pushed the down button. He had to admit he enjoyed their banter. It wasn’t quite friendly, and it wasn’t completely flirtatious.

  “I look forward to working with you, Kenn.”

  She only stared at him. In an instant, the ‘barracuda in Balenciaga’ disappeared. Her high-heeled boots clicked aggressively down the sidewalk in a classic New York manner.

  Old, rusty feelings that he thought were long buried, started making their way to the surface. Luke had a sinking suspicion that his professional reputation wasn’t the only thing at stake.

  Frowning, he ran a hand over his jaw, unbuttoning his suit jacket to sit down at his desk. It didn’t matter how hot his former study buddy had been this morning. They’d burned that bridge when she’d rejected his heart, making it clear she only wanted him for his body.

  Chapter 6

  Chinese take-out always tasted better the second day, never the first. That was a business idea right there: second-day Chinese food to-go. Kennedy would be a loyal customer. As luck would have it, no such place existed.