Insufferable Proximity (26 page)

“So you’re finally admitting I’m an amazing lawyer.” he grinned to the side.

“The fact that you’re a decent lawyer was never up for debate, my point was that, you’re just not as good as me.” she grinned as he frowned.

“Your limousine is ready.” Alice said after opening the large front door. Julian continued to frown at her for a moment before grabbing her arm tightly and headed towards the car.

“And for future reference,” she said once they were in the limo, “I like the wicked witch, I’m not the ‘scared out of my mind, running blindly through the forest with a motley group of non-humans’ type of girl.”

“I’ll remember that.” he kissed her hand, it’s very fitting.”  He grinned and she lightly smacked his arm.

“Where are we going?”

“A dinner party, a friend of mine is getting married in two weeks, so he and his fiancée decided to have a social engagement every other day until their wedding date.”

“So what type of party is this?”

“We won’t be having sex if that’s your question.”

“Will other people be having sex?”

“It’s not a requirement for this particular party, but it’s hard to say. Alex and Petal are serious swingers, there is usually something going on at their get togethers.”

“Petal?” she asked looking up at him, her expression guarded “that’s her name?”

“Yes.” he answered.

“Is it a nickname or something? Or is it her real name?”

“I don’t know. Why?”

“No reason, it’s just a usual name.” she quickly answered.

“Another one of those brothel names?’ he joked.

“What?” she asked nervously before she remembered her conversation with him about her name being a brothel name. “No, its just different." she smiled before turning to look out of the limo window.

It was a usual name, to unusual to be coincidental. She knew a girl named Petal, she had worked for her mother on and off for years, a scandalous girl if Heaven had ever met one. Petal was fully aware of her sexuality and used it to her advantage. Heaven hadn’t seen her in a couple of years, she figured she had left town or something. She prayed it wasn’t the same girl, if it were under different circumstances, Heaven might actually find herself a tad bit happy to see Petal after so long, but she was not ready for that part of her life to be revealed to her co-worker. She was already forced to deal with such big changes in her life, in her opinion, losing her virginity and living under a contract for thirty days was more than enough change then she could currently handle.

“So where’s the mask?” she asked, suddenly wishing for one of the masks that he usually supplied.

“You don’t need a mask tonight.”

“But there is going to be sex.”

“Not with you.”

“You’re tricky with your words, Julie.”

“We will not be the ones participating in anything going on tonight.”

“I want a mask.” she said.

“No.”

“Julian-” she started.

“Not another word.” he silenced her.

***

The dinner was already in progress when they arrived, Julian held her hand as he entered the room a step ahead of her, almost shielding her from the crowd surrounding the monstrous oval dining table. The entire room was decorated in the Oz theme, a thin yellow brick road ran down the center of the dining table and a large good witch of the north doll stood in the middle of it.

“Finally!” Lincoln grinned as he stood to greet his friend, then quickly walking over to him “I thought you‘d never come-” the words froze on his lips as he saw Heaven “good god man, who is this?” his eyes widened in awe as he took her hand and bent to kiss the soft skin, but to the shock of all in the room, Julian stopped him.

“Not this one.” he said low and Lincoln’s eyes widened in disbelief. This was a first, Julian always shared, he had never cared before, but Lincoln would definitely respect his friend, despite how much he wanted to fuck the beautiful creature holding that friends hand.

The group at the table also sat in disbelief, never having witnessed Julian act like that before. They were also smart enough to not even bring it up and act normally, regardless that a few of them also shared Lincoln’s opinion of her beauty and would really appreciate some time with her. No woman, no matter how dazzling was worth being the victim of Julian’s wrath.

Julian took his seat at the table and sat Heaven right next to him, pulling her chair closer. He grabbed the bottle of champagne and a rose tinted glass then poured her a drink.

“Heaven this is Lincoln,” he pointed to his friend who was still smiling at her, “and Camilla, Helena, Leister and the guests of honor, Alex Sloan and Petal Rossi.”

Petal Rossi was a beautiful girl with icy blonde hair and sparkling crystal blue eyes that seemed to hide secrets when she blessed the world with her infectious smile.

Just exactly how Heaven remembered her.

Heaven froze when she saw her, dread forming in the pit of her belly, and she really wished she had that mask right now. She prayed Petal would not remember her, she hoped that the hair, the makeup and the revealing dress made her unrecognizable. The Heaven that Petal had known was the polar opposite in appearance of the Heaven that sat before her now. There was no indication of recognition in Petal’s smile, she always smiled like that, so there was no way for Heaven to know for sure if she had been recognized. Heaven would be careful with speaking to much this evening, since her deep voice was very distinguished and she knew there was a strong chance Petal would recognize it.

“You’re a lucky dog.” Lincoln grinned as he continued to stare at Heaven.

“You are a tasty little thing darling.” Camille said with a smirk as she flipped her hair back.

“Down girl.” Lincoln grinned putting his hand on top of Camille’s, “King looks like he’s ready to attack.”

“A rare sight indeed.” Alex said with a grin, making a little piece of straw fall from his face. Petal smiled and picked it up from the table and stuck it in his shirt. Alex paid her no mind, instead focusing on his friend, whom he had never seen act possessively, he was obviously smitten with the sexy little nymph. Julian King jealous? He thought he would never see the day. “That only makes us more pleased to meet you.”

Julian, Lincoln and Alex had met in college and had been good friends ever since. It was in their college years that Julian’s closest friend, a man he had grown up with, Aries Steel, had come to visit and showed the three of them how to hold successful as well as lucrative parties. So then three college buddies began throwing elaborate parties and had managed to make a lot of cash as well as obtain unlimited sex.

After college, Julian went to work for his father, while Lincoln and Alex had decided to discard their expensive college education and continued to throw parties. Alex had eventually quit, the reward was just not worth the labor that came with it. Lincoln on the other hand had decided to open a large club to host the parties at, and within a year owned one of the hottest clubs in the city. He had made a small fortune as well as the continued advantage of unlimited sex partners, but not satisfied with just the club, he developed a line of DVD’s called “C.C.C- crazy club girls”

Alex never had a head for business, he had tried to go to work for his father, but considering his rare talent for messing things up beyond repair, his father preferred to pay him to stay out of his way. He was a lover not a thinker and Alex was more than fine with that. He preferred a romantic dinner with a beautiful woman to the office, he liked lying around nude while being hand fed and serviced way more than manual labor.

“Very pleased to meet you, I’m Helena, Julian’s second cousin by marriage.” Helena smiled as she extended her hand and Heaven shook it. Helena looked like a pinup model after a few years in the business. Her skin was as pale as milk and her red lips were accented by her beautiful ginger colored hair. She was dressed as the over-sexed version of the good witch. “This is Leister, my husband.”

“Very nice to meet you indeed Miss Heaven.” he nodded. Leister looked like the average, friendly neighborhood school teacher, educated and pristine in his cowardly lion costume. “And I absolutely love your dress, very wicked witch of the west.”

“Thank you, Julian bought it for me.” she said and almost everyone at the table looked at her in shock, some tried to hide it but most were too overwhelmed to. No one called him by his first name, everyone they knew since the day they met him, called him King. They looked to Julian to see if he was angered, but he didn’t seem to care in the least.

“Why King, you have amazing taste.” Helena purred.

“I hired a stylist for her.” he informed them and Heaven looked at him quizzically for a moment.

“Smart man.” Helena smiled, flashing her perfectly straight and beaming white teeth.

“You did?” Heaven turned to him, speaking low as Helena turned to speak to Petal, who in turn was spreading her legs apart as her soon to be husband Alex, slid his hand higher up her thigh.

“Of course.” he looked into her eyes, but his gaze quickly traveling down to her ample cleavage, that looked like it was ready to pop out of the deep v neckline of the tiny black dress that barely contained them. “Did you think I picked them out?”

“The only thing he knows about women’s clothing is removing it from their bodies.” Lincoln said with a grin. Normally a comment like that did not phase Julian, he was used to them, he did have an unusually high libido and had unintentionally gone through countless women like party favors. But now, he was irritated by Lincoln’s words when he saw the look of disgust on Heaven’s face and he knew exactly what she was thinking.

“Like you should talk, you’re no better, you could use a stylist yourself.” Camilla smiled sweetly at her bedmate for the last 5 weeks. She didn’t love him, but she didn’t hate him either, she was caught somewhere in-between the sexual limbo and his extreme kinks. She worshiped his body and adored the sex, no one had ever fucked her the way he did. Sure he was almost 10 years her junior, but what he lacked in age, he more than made up for with his carnal knowledge. For only 32, he knew things that some 60 year old professional gigolos were unaware of.

“How about you sugar?” Helena asked with her thick southern drawl, obviously trying to make conversation. “Are you into fashion?”

“I love clothing, I am a borderline shop-aholic,” she admitted, “I just don‘t dress up very often.” she shrugged, thinking about all of the beautiful outfits she had purchased over the years and refused to let herself wear.

“Well I am obsessed!” Helena smiled from side to side.

“I second that!” Camilla raised her glass of wine then took a healthy swallow from the rose tinted log stemmed glass.

Julian saw the look in Heaven’s eye when she spoke about the clothing she had purchased and took her hand. He had no idea she enjoyed fashion, she never seemed the type, but it did reconfirm his original opinion that she did enjoy sexy things, but was she was just too afraid to be sexy.

“I always thought you were the anti-fashion type.” he said and she shook her head.

“I love fashion as much as any woman, I just don’t get a chance to wear it, I’m always in the courtroom.” she said and hiccupped from the champagne.

“You’re a lawyer too Heaven?” Helena asked and Heaven cringed hearing her name used so loosely, like she hadn’t spent the majority of her life forcing people to call her by her middle name, Sevigne.

“Yes, are you too?” she looked to see Petal and Alex making out intensely at the end of the table and felt a little more relaxed that Petal was not paying attention to her in the least.

“Yes, divorce lawyer.” Helena smirked.

“And a damn good one too!” Camille smiled, Helena had helped her keep her fortune when she divorced her money hungry first husband.

“I always get my client more than half.” Helena smiled with a wink, then seeing Heavens eyes widen in shock when Alex opened Petals shirt in front of everyone at the table, she chuckled. “And don’t mind them, they’ll be fucking on the table before the end of the night.”

“It happens every time.” Leister agreed with his wife, nodding his head, continuing to eat like nothing was going on. Camille on the other hand was engrossed and could not tear her eyes from them.

“Um, excuse me Helena, but we don‘t fuck anymore, remember?” Petal said tearing her mouth away from Alex‘s, “We’re getting married this weekend, we only make love now.”

“Oh that’s right, I almost forgot, the marriage clause. But do tell me Petal darling, how does a room full of people watching you have sex equal making love?” Helena asked sarcastically.

“Because we
are
in love, silly.” she murmured as if Helena should have already realized that, before she went back to kissing her fiancée.

“Hell I’ve loved old Leister here for a long time,” Helena shook her head, “and we still don’t make love.”

“Love is a state of mind.” Petal said breathlessly.

“Whatever that means.” Helena shook her head. She still could not believe Alex was marrying this girl, but alas, what Alex wanted, Alex got.

Heaven was careful not to watch Petal, sure she had seen Petal having sex at various spots in the brothel before, but this was different. Before Heaven was not directly associated with it, she might have witnessed some of her more scandalous behavior, but it was either on the way in or out of her mother’s house and she never paid any attention. Heaven knew she should be used to this type of thing, she had been walking over naked bodies since she could walk.