His Challenging Lover (9 page)

Xander couldn’t believe how incredible she felt in his arms. She was all softness and light, heat and energy. He hadn’t imagined how it felt to hold her, to feel that incredible power surge through him, making him feel even more powerful simply because she was letting him hold her.

Suddenly, there was a noise outside of the conference room and Autumn broke away. She quickly put several feet between their bodies, just in time actually since a second later, several people opened up the conference room door and were piling in for their scheduled meeting, coming to an abrupt stop when they saw who was already in the room.

Autumn glanced at Xander, then at the group of lawyers who were standing there, mouths open as they tried to figure out what was going on and if they should just back out. Thankfully, Xander’s eyes looked furious which was too normal of an occurrence, especially when she was around. The fights between the two of them were becoming legendary around the office.

She quickly gathered up her papers and walked out of the conference room, pretending like nothing unusual had just occurred, that the tension the newcomers felt was simply the normal anger that blew up whenever she and Xander were in a room for more than thirty seconds.

It probably didn’t help that her face was red or that she couldn’t regain control of her breathing. Her fingers were shaking and her knees not very steady, but they couldn’t see that. And if they did, hopefully they would simply attribute those symptoms to a fight as well.

She made her way through the hallways, ignoring anyone who tried to call to her for a question or to let her know whatever it was that they felt she needed to know. She didn’t stop until she was in her office alone with the door slammed shut, blocking out the rest of the world and all the craziness that had occurred since she’d been in Xander’s arms. She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths, trying very hard to regain her semblance of normalcy.

Had she really just kissed Xander? In a conference room?! Where anyone could, and did, interrupt them! She shook her head and practically fell into her chair, her whole body shaking from the impact of him. Well, actually, she was shaking from her reaction to him and not the man himself.

Okay, so it was most likely a combination of both the man and the way he touched her and the way she reacted to him.

Stop! She closed her eyes and leaned back in her chair.

“Are you okay?” a female voice asked.

Autumn’s eyes popped open and she looked back up at her assistant. “Yes. I’m fine,” she said and sat forward, placing her hands over her keyboard. She tried to look as if she were working but knew she was failing miserably. It was probably the guilty look in her eyes that gave her away so she looked down at her keyboard. “Why do you ask?”

Mary looked at her curiously. “You rushed in here like the hounds of hell were chasing after you. I guess you’ve been acting a bit strangely this week so I shouldn’t think anything of it, but it just feels like something more is going on.” She hesitated for a moment, looking curiously at her boss from the doorway. “And your cheeks are all pink, like you might have a fever or something.” Mary walked over to Autumn’s desk and handed her a sheaf of papers. “Are you not feeling well? Maybe you’re coming down with something. This crazy fall weather, cold in the morning, hot in the afternoon, can do that to a person’s system. Our bodies don’t know whether to produce heat or find air conditioning. Do you need to go home? I can cover for you. It’s Friday so most people are already heading out.”

Autumn thought longingly of her home and the solace it would provide. Her comfortable townhouse was exactly what she needed right now. She could skip out of here and hide her head under a pillow, pretend like she never had to come out again.

But what would Xander say if he found out she’d left early. He’d probably show up at her door, just to make sure she was okay. He’d been fairly protective of her lately.

Well one day did not make a protector, she corrected herself. She smiled back to the memory of the three other Thorpe brothers confronting Xander when she’d worn her flat shoes. That made her feel good, all of them ganging up on him to make sure she was okay. She almost chuckled at the confused expression in his eyes, and all because she’d worn a pair of flats. Boy, she’d really thrown everyone off that day!

She shook her head, banishing the memory and all those warm fuzzy feelings Xander tended to generate inside of her whenever he did the he-man-my-woman routine for her benefit. He was probably like that with all the women. He definitely did it to all of his female clients, making sure they were financially protected when their husbands finalized a divorce. She actually liked that about him. Unless he was doing it to the women he dated. She wouldn’t like that at all.

Mary was still waiting for a response and she focused on the work she had to get done today. “I’m fine,” she smiled wearily. “Just tired. It’s been a hectic week.”

Mary smiled back and handed her the other reports Autumn had asked for earlier. “The client system is up and running now. All the cases are fully loaded from prior years and can be cross-referenced for any issue or keyword. Several people have already stopped by my desk to compliment you on fighting for that system,” Mary commented as she walked out of Autumn’s office.

Autumn smiled, feeling a huge sense of victory wash over her with those words. She’d fought hard for that system, arguing with Xander mostly. He’d said they hadn’t needed something like that because there were already research databases that were online and the firm subscribed to them. What was the point, he’d asked over and over again. She’d given him several arguments, fighting with him about productivity, the statistics she’d gathered about the various resources, the capability of the support staff to gather data and market more effectively for new clients. The Thorpe Group didn’t need more clients, he’d argued. They were turning clients away all the time because they couldn’t hire and train new lawyers fast enough.

She’d fought him tooth and nail on every last penny spent on the system so it was a huge relief that it had been easy to implement and that staff members were actually using it. A point for her, she thought.

But somehow, the idea of scoring one more point in their ongoing office battle just didn’t make her feel as victorious as it used to. Another problem with sleeping with the enemy, she berated herself one more time. Even winning a point didn’t excite her as much.

She sighed and looked around at her office. She’d spent so much time here lately; the space was starting to feel a bit closed in. More like a prison than a sanctuary. Maybe she should head out after all. She wasn’t doing much here anyway. Why log the hours when she wasn’t being productive? She suspected that, if she left the office for a little while, she might get more done at home. It was worth a try anyway. At least it would get her away from Xander. She simply couldn’t run into him again after that kiss! She had no idea how to explain her reaction, or even why she’d let it happen.

She stuffed her bag with work she might do over the weekend, then shut down her laptop and stuffed that into her bag as well.

“Mary, I’ve changed my mind. I’m going to head out. If anyone asks, just tell them I’m fine but working from home this afternoon.”

“Sure thing,” Mary replied, barely pausing in her typing.

Autumn walked out of the office, but instead of taking a right to head towards the elevator, she turned left instead and walked to the stairs. She didn’t care that they were so many floors up and her heels were not meant to take that kind of abuse. She just didn’t want to risk running into Xander one more time today. She’d embarrassed herself enough for one week.

When she got home, she changed into a pair of soft, well-worn jeans, thick, fuzzy socks, poured herself a glass of wine and carried all of her work onto the back patio. Today was warm enough, but by the time night arrived, it would most likely be too cold to sit out here. So she took advantage of the sunshine while she could.

She curled up on her extra-large chair and pulled her laptop out. But that was as far as she made it in her quest to finish up the project she’d been working on earlier today. Instead of focusing on the report about employee productivity Ryker had asked for, she stared into space, not even remembering the wine she’d poured that was warming by her elbow.

“I thought you said you were working at home,” a deep voice said from her doorway.

Autumn’s head whipped around and her mouth fell open when she spotted Xander standing in her doorway. “What are you doing here?” she asked, standing up quickly but she forgot about all the papers that she’d spread out around her and the computer she’d had balanced on her knees. The papers slipped down from the cushions but she couldn’t stop them since she was trying so hard not to let the expensive laptop hit the stone patio.

Before she knew what was happening, Xander was there on his knee as well, grabbing papers and computer. She looked up, right into his eyes and realized that he was closer than she’d thought.

There was a long, tense moment when her eyes went from his and then down to his mouth. And then she remembered what had happened earlier today when she’d done that and she took a deep breath and pulled back. “What are you doing here?” she asked again.

He smiled that charming grin that always made her stomach flutter. “I knew you’d need help catching all of these papers,” he explained, “so I rushed over as quickly as I could.” She used to love that smile, she thought. Initially, she’d thought he reserved that smile just for her. He’d tease her in the lobby or when they accidentally run into each other in the hallways. But then she’d seen him use it on one of the women that showed up in the office to collect him. And that smile, directed towards another woman, had shown her that he spread that smile around to everyone and anyone.

She stepped back and sat down on the chair again, wishing he would stop doing this to her. “And the real reason?” she snapped at him, stuffing her papers into her bag again. She wasn’t getting any work done today, why even pretend?

“Because Mary said you went home early and I wanted to check on you, make sure you were okay.”

“I’m fine,” she said and lifted her glass of wine to take a sip. Unfortunately, the white wine had been sitting by her elbow so long that it had gotten warm. Her face squinched up with disgust and she almost spit the wine back in.

“Too warm?” he asked, laughing at her funny expression as he took a seat across from her.

“Yes. It’s disgusting,” she replied, chuckling a little herself at how she must have looked.

“I’ll get you some more,” he said and stood up himself. “No, don’t stress,” he teased again. “I’ll find your kitchen in here somewhere.”

She couldn’t stop the laughter that escaped her this time because he was teasing her about how small her townhouse was. She didn’t care though. It was the perfect size for her. The monthly payments allowed her to put more away towards investments than she spent each month so that was an extra bonus.

He came back with not one glass filled with chilled white wine, but two. And the dratted man sat right back down across from her. “So now you can explain to me why you left work so early when you’ve never left work early before.” His eyes narrowed suddenly as if something occurred to him. “In fact, when was the last time you took a vacation?” he asked gently.

She smiled and shook her head. “That’s not fair since you rarely take vacation either. You can’t condemn me when you’re doing the same violation.”

“Touché!” he came right back at her. “So start explaining.”

He leaned back in the comfortable chair and watched her. She didn’t answer his question, but they did have a lively debate about another issue, one he couldn’t even remember and which segued from one topic to another. He didn’t care either. He simply enjoyed being here with her.

They used to talk like this, he remembered. Until that bastard had come to pick her up for a date. He’d been so furious after seeing her with another man, he’d gone straight to the gym that night and knocked out one of his sparring partners. He hadn’t been allowed back into the gym for a week after that incident.

Now she was here, the afternoon sun fading into darkness and he watched the light play off of her beautiful features. He liked her like this, relaxed, in her own domain and feeling more confident. He’d had a hard time lately. His mind vacillated between memories of her being hit by the brute and then the way she’d looked as she’d climaxed in his arms. He hadn’t been sleeping well either because every time he fell asleep, he’d feel her again, only to wake up and find that she wasn’t there.

It had been tough when he’d only fantasized about her being in his bed. Now that he had the reality as a memory, it was ten times worse. He wanted her back, in his bed and in his arms. And he wanted to figure out how to keep this camaraderie going. He wasn’t sure if he could have both, but he was determined to figure out how. Their kiss this afternoon proved that she wasn’t as immune to him as she was trying to pretend.

Xander couldn’t believe how comfortable her backyard was with the small lights intertwined into the tree branches that came on automatically as they talked about everything and anything. He loved watching the animation on her beautiful features and thought he could spend the rest of his life just sitting here in her backyard watching her and listening to her talk about all of her hopes and dreams, arguing with him about politics, or just telling him he needed to get a grip on whatever he was arguing about with her.

He liked that about her. People didn’t normally argue with him. His clients came to him furious with their spouse and told him to make the marriage that they’d worked so hard for just disappear. He told them what to do, how to protect themselves from their spouse’s lawyer and they did it. They followed his instructions to the letter, never even questioning his expertise.

Autumn would argue with him about the sky being blue simply because that was who she was. And it turned him on like nothing else could. As the night slowly descended and the twinkle lights showed off her laughing, brown eyes, he had to shift in his seat to adjust his hardening body as he watched her.