Insufferable Proximity (55 page)

Heaven threw herself into her work, needing to break the image of Julian from her head. She worked straight through until lunch when she decided to go and get a cup of coffee as quickly as possible.

She had made it all the way to the cafeteria without running into anyone and breathed a sigh of relief when she walked into the empty room. Although she was to quickly find out that her relief was short lived, and felt her body stiffened back up when Julian walked into the cafeteria. To make matters worse, they were all alone with another twenty minutes before everyone else took their break for lunch.

He walked over to stand next to her as she continued to make her coffee, he stared at her not saying a word. Heaven, refusing to acknowledge him, continued making her coffee. When she was done, she turned to leave but Julian took her cup from her and sat it on the counter. Refusing to respond to his antics, Heaven reached for her cup but he grabbed her arm as she tried.

“What are you doing?” he asked her.

“Getting coffee.” she answered curtly, still avoiding eye contact.

“I understand you’re upset about the partnership, but let’s keep this civil.”

“I am being civil.”

“Look at me.” he demanded and she finally turned to him.

“What do you want Mr. King?”

“So it’s back to Mr. King now?” his disgust was not lost on Heaven.

“I refer to all my co-workers in the same manner.”

“I’m not just your co-worker and if you keep walking around here acting like you don’t know me, I will be forced to remind you that you do.” he said in a tone that gave Heaven chills. She knew exactly what he was capable of.

“Is that a threat Mr. King?” she said in a bored tone which ignited his anger.

“Absolutely.” he said in a voice a little to calm for Heaven to feel comfortable.

“You can’t talk to me like that anymore, the contract is over.” her voice was low and although she was becoming agitated, she refused to let her poker face crack.

“You’re going to find out real soon that I don’t give a fuck about that contract,” he yanked her closer to him, “and I will talk to you any way I want, try and stop me.” he growled.

Heaven yanked her arm away from him and took a step back when she heard people walking down the hall towards the cafeteria. Their eyes still locked before she turned and promptly left the room, leaving Julian to stand there fuming in the middle of the busy lunch crowd.

Heaven had no more than reached the cafeteria entrance when she almost ran into Gavin.

Julian watched as Gavin stopped to talk to Heaven and he felt his blood begin to boil.

“Hi.” Gavin said in his usual awkward fashion, “are you here for the secretaries’ congratulations party?” he asked with a sympathetic smile.

“No, actually I’m just here for the coffee.” she answered, trying to ignore the secretary’s speech about Julian’s overall perfection.

“Ms. Deville, I just wanted to tell you that if any lawyer here deserved to become partner, it’s you.”

“Well thank you.” she nodded.

“I mean it Ms. Deville, you have always taken the time to help me when I was in a rut with a case.”

“I really appreciate that Mr. Grant, it means a lot to me.” she put her hand on his arm in a gesture of appreciation, then just as quickly pulled her arm back. Gavin smiled from ear to ear as the hot pink stain of excitement blushed across his flushed face.

“All of your help has meant a lot to me as well.” he nodded unable to remove the silly smile uplifting the corners of his mouth.

“I am glad I could be of help.” she smiled sincerely, “Now if you will excuse me I need to finish up some work.”

“Sure, actually I’m headed to my office as well, if you don’t mind I’ll just tag along with you.”

“That’s fine.” she grinned, almost relieved to have Gavin close to momentarily distract her from her thoughts.

Julian watched the two of them conversing, feeling his blood boil as his rage thickened and he swore he could feel the hot-popping bubbles of rage under his flesh. When he watched them leave the cafeteria together his frown quickly turned into a heathenish scowl and he felt his inner barbarian fighting to go stake his claim. Julian fought for control over the overwhelming urge to go tackle Gavin to the ground then drag Heaven back to his office, caveman style.

Julian realized he needed to get back to his office and cool down before he did something he would most definitely regret. His anger was developing a life force of its own and he didn’t dare test the fury that could so easily control him. He locked himself in his office for a little while, trying to let his anger subside, but his attempt was unsuccessful and before he knew it, he was headed back to Heaven’s office.

He walked past her secretary and stormed into her office, unannounced. Heaven watched him warily as he stormed across her office to stand next to her chair, looking down at her.

“What is it with you and Grant? I tell you to stay away from him but I always catch the two of you sneaking around.”

“I did stay away from him during our contract, but that’s expired now.” she said and he wanted to snatch her up from her seat and kiss her as hard as he could, leaving a mark for Gavin to see next time he was near her.

“So you did think about him during the contract?” he asked as he felt his rage explode throughout his body at the thought of her even thinking of Gavin.

“I am not obligated to answer that question.” she said, her poker face in full effect.

“Even with the expired contract, do you honestly think I would allow you have anything to do with Gavin Grant?” he asked.

“That’s not your choice, you don’t make those decisions for me anymore.” she said slowly crossing her legs watching the lust cloud his eyes as he watched the simple movement. “Your thirty day reign is over Mr. King, now if you’ll excuse me I have work to do.” she dismissed him and it took every bit of his will power to remain calm.

“Then by all means Princess, try it, talk to Gavin and see what I do.” he frowned then stormed out of her office.

***

Julius was highly agitated and left work early, sparing himself the trip to the jail, Gavin a trip to the hospital and Heaven Deville a trip to his basement. He wanted to do bad things to her, she was driving him wild and his body was demanding that peace that only she could bring. He knew he could no longer control his temper or his lust, which were running neck in neck for control, leaving his good sense in the dust.

He had plans to go home get drunk then pass out, and had no intentions of bumping into an attractive friend at the liquor store. He sat there in his living room as the beautiful girl began to strip before him, wondering what the hell he was doing. He felt nothing, he didn’t want this girl, he wanted Heaven and he refused any form of substitution. He looked down at his watch.

“You have to go, I have a meeting.” he said.

“A meeting? But I just got here!”

“I’ll call you.” he stood up showing her to the door.

“Seriously, King?”

“Seriously.”

“Fine,” she scoffed, “whatever.” she buttoned up her shirt and stormed out of his house. Julian went back to his liquor cabinet, grabbed a bottle of expensive cognac and walked out to the back porch to get drink away his troubles.

***

Heaven had suffered through another sleepless night, tossing and turning, trying to force herself to go to sleep and not think about Julian. At one point she found herself counting sheep before her thoughts turned back to him. She had finally fallen asleep just hours before her alarm clock was to go off and found herself pressing the snooze button one time to many. She was now running late for an early morning meeting with the boss and found herself racing to work.

“I’m late.” Heaven said as she sprinted past her secretary, Harriet Stiles.

“For what?” Harriet asked, looking at her schedule to see if there was something she had forgotten about.

“The meeting with Mr. King.”

“That’s not until tomorrow morning.” she said and Heaven stopped dead in her tracks.

“You’re kidding me?”

“No.” she shook her head and both women started to chuckle.

“Well, then I guess I do have enough time to go get coffee.”

“You have more than enough time.”

“See you soon.” Heaven said before she headed back down the hall, relived that she was not late. She quickly headed out of the building and down the street to her favorite coffee Shoppe on the block “Liquid Anxiety”. She walked through the large glass doors and took a deep breath, happy that she had made the mistake and was able to take a moment to enjoy the day. She usually ordered black coffee with a lot of artificial sweetener, but today she decided to forget her mission to keep her hips slimmed down and ordered an iced caramel cappuccino.

She was standing at the counter minding her own business while watching the woman make her coffee when she felt the person behind her get close enough to share her skirt with her. She turned around ready to give them a tongue-lashing about personal space in a coffee shop when her words froze on her lips and she found herself face to face with Julian. She felt her body immediately strive to betray her as he stood close. When he reached over her to hand the woman a twenty dollar bill, she fought the urge to grab him and kiss the side of his face.

“Add a large espresso to that order.” he instructed the woman who was smiling at Julian seductively.

“Anything else, King?” the coffee shop employee wearing a mini-coffee-cup-decorated headband asked, but he shook his head. “For here or to go?”

“For here, both of them.”

“I’m taking it back to the office with me.” Heaven objected.

“No you’re not.”

“I’m not staying here.” she turned to walk away from him, but he grabbed her arm.

“Yes you are, so either you take the next ten minutes and have coffee with me or we will spend the next thirty minutes making a scene in the coffee shop debating the reasons why you won’t.”

“I am not staying here.” she tried to bluff him, her chin high.

“Then by all means, test me, go ahead, try and leave.” he warned her and she knew he would go through with his threat. He wanted her here and he would keep her from leaving by any means necessary. She liked this coffee shop, sure they may have had a ridiculous theme going on inside, but they made high-quality coffee and they were conveniently located a block from her job. She also knew that after thirty minutes of arguing, she would never be allowed to come back, so she decided to just sit down and have coffee with him.

“Fine.” she hissed through clenched teeth, feeling her anger rise at the smug smile spreading across his face. “You’re such a bully.” she whispered as he put his hand on the small of her back, leading her to a more secluded table.

“I’m not a bully.”

“You most definitely are.”

“No, I just make you do the things you want to do, but don’t because you’re too stubborn.”

“I am not stubborn!” she said aghast, astounded by what she considered an unfair judgment of her character.

“You most definitely are.” he threw the words back at her.

“Fine, I would rather be stubborn then blindly led by my preposterous assumptions.”

“What am I assuming?”

“That I want to actually sit here and have coffee with you.”

“But you do.” he said pulling the chair out for her.

“I do not.” she scoffed before sitting down in the opposite chair, leaving him to sit in the chair he pulled out.

“Lie all you want, but I know you do.”

“And you still think that despite the overwhelming evidence of my hatred for you?”

“You don’t hate me anymore, you wish you still did, but you know you don’t.”

“You’re wrong, I do hate you.” she snapped then instantly hushed as the waitress brought their coffee. “So what do you want Mr. King? Why did you demand I have coffee with you when you know all we’re going to do is argue?”

“Arguing with you has more depth than an average conversation with someone I could care less about.”

“People will get the wrong idea.”

“Who cares, we’re friends, we are allowed to have coffee together.” he barked, not the least bit concerned with who knew about them.

“But we’re not friends.” she answered with an unspoken sadness.

“Why not?”

“It just isn’t in the cards for us.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know why Julie, it’s just not and it never was.”

“We’re going to be friends.”

“Why should we be? We have nothing in common.”

“Yes we do, we’re both top notch attorneys, we both love chocolate chip cookies,” he said and she felt that familiar spark in her nether region at the mention of chocolate chip cookies, remembering what he had done to her with the delightful snack. “And I took your virginity.”

“Those are hardly reasons to be friends, besides you don’t even like me as a person. The only time you have ever liked me was when I was under your control and doing everything you demanded without question. You know as well as I do that I can’t live my life by those rules.”