Breach (15 page)

Steam filling the room
drew my attention away from him—the pot was at a rapid boil. Nathan stepped back, and I shuddered as he slipped out of me. He helped me down from the counter before locating a towel to clean us up. My feet touched the cold tile floor, and I turned to shut off the boiling water, but my legs failed me and I stumbled back into him.

He chuckled, his arms wrapping around me as he kissed my neck
. “Hmm, maybe we should have something delivered instead of putting you near a pot of boiling water right now.”

“You may be on
to something.” My legs gave out, and I sank to the floor, laughing the whole time.

Two hours later
, we were full of fried rice and cashew chicken, lying in my bed. My head rested on his chest, and his fingers were lightly running through my hair.

“Hey, Nat
han?” My eyes and body were heavy, sleep closing in.

“Hmm?”

“I’m yours, just so you know,” I mumbled, my mind drifting off into the dark of sleep before he could respond.

CHAPTER
11

N
athan never brought up my declaration in the following weeks. At least not in words. Sometimes I caught his expression flicker, like he was thinking about what I told him—about being his. It faded as soon as it showed up, and I figured that the thought of it made him edgy.

Every day his agitation grew
. It was subtle, hiding in his perfected act, so most people didn’t notice, but I knew him better than they did. His fingers combed and tugged at his hair and neck more often, his leg bounced in an increasing tempo, and his fuse became shorter.

All-in-all, he was
a ticking time bomb.

His nightmares sho
ok the bed almost every night. His grip was bone crushing as he clung to me, trying to keep it all in. I soothed him as best I could, but I knew it would take more than me to fix him. He needed to let it all out, not keep it in. Purge himself of the emotions he kept tightly locked away. Pot calling the kettle, coming from me, but his pain was earth shattering compared to my own.

Over time
, I learned he was taking a myriad of drugs daily. Anti-anxiety, anti-depressant, pain medications; I didn’t know everything he was ingesting, but I had a feeling some of them he was taking more than he did before and it was because of me. The effect I had on him, and the demons I caused to surface, were too much. He could try to deny it, but there was no point in hiding from me. Not
me
.

I was amazed at how well I was beginning to read Nathan when we were in the office.
His discomfort for the Boob-Squad was clear, but no one else could tell.

I sat in my chair, pretending to work, when in reality I was gauging his reaction, trying to figure out why he didn’t tell
the Boob-Squad to leave him alone once and for all.

His muscles tensed with every passing minute, and he was
not
good.

Tiffany
, member number three, was clamoring for his attentions. Leaning toward him, the top two buttons of her blouse were undone, exposing the top of her breasts as she reached to point at some arbitrary word on a summons her client had received.

I
n my peripheral, I watched him try to avoid looking down her shirt, not wanting to give her any opening, eluding to his disinterest. However, he was a man with breasts being flashed at him, it wasn’t like he could resist their call for long. Even from my angle I could see right down her shirt and her ample assets were straining against the hot pink lace of her bra. Of course he was staring at her tits. It was like a fucking neon sign drawing people in. Who could resist that? Even I was having a difficult time looking away.

One small glance
spurred her on, and she walked around to his side of the desk so she didn’t have to read it upside down. To most it looked like he was making room for her, moving over and back a bit. To me, I saw him fleeing, trying to keep space between them.

I was pretty
sure if I hadn’t been there, she would have taken it as an invitation to mount him.

D
espite his disinterest in the women in the office, especially the Boob-Squad, I knew he was attracted to many of his female colleagues.

I caught him sneaking a peek when he thought no one was looking. It didn’t b
other me. We weren’t in a relationship, at least in the technical sense, and I knew he was only looking; he had no interest in acting on the attraction.

I learned
a lot about him by observation; I was a people watcher. His cocky attitude wasn’t exactly a lie or an act. It was all based on the man he used to be; a smooth, charismatic, arrogant, intelligent, and fuck hot God. He was playing himself in a role that was no longer his life.

I
broke down and asked him one night at dinner about Ian’s comment of him being a playboy.

“Playboy?
No. You’ve saved me enough at the office to know that. However, I’m not a monk either,” was his response.

I nodded.
“What lonely, angry, sad, and gorgeous man with a strong libido wouldn’t partake in casual sex now and again?”

He
pursed his lips at me, his face unamused. “You see more than what’s good for you.”

“Like you?”

“Exactly.”

I still didn’t get it, why he didn’t regard me the same as all the other women. Fuck and run, look but don’t touch. I sighed and leaned back in my chair. What was
it about me that attracted him?

“You’re daydreaming again,
Palmer,” he said, bringing my mind back to the present. I looked around and noticed Tiffany was no longer hovering over his cock.

I gave him my best bitch brow
to keep up the show. “Thinking, Thorne,”

“More fun if you were day dreaming
.”

“And why is that?”

He smirked at me and returned to his work, ignoring me.

A moment later my phone buzzed. Why couldn’t he just
tell me
?

Because if you were day dreaming
, I would have a valid excuse to punish you for ignoring your work.

Oh, that’s why.
I swallowed past the lump that had formed in my throat before responding.

Ok
ay, no more texting from you during work.

Lame, but t
hat was all I could come up with. My brain had exploded at the implications of his words, wildfire ripping its way through my body. How did he always do that to me?

Telling me what I can and cannot do, Palmer? Now THAT’S something to punish you for.

My jaw dropped as I stared at the tiny screen. He was going to be the death of me in the most glorious of ways.

I was startled out of my thought
s by an unexpected rapping on the door, making me jump.

“Hey guys,” Ma
rk, from the office next door, called from the entry. “Jack just called a meeting in Lincoln.”

We both nodded and rose from our desks
, heading to the south side of the floor where the company’s largest conference room resided. Almost fifty people filtered into the space. Nathan and I ended up being shoulder-to-shoulder, leaning against the wall, as there were only twenty seats in the room.

My eyes scanned the faces of the room
, and I did a double take at the man sitting next to Jack Holloway.

“Fuck.
” I hissed through gritted teeth. What was Andrew doing here?

Nathan jumped, taken back by my low outburst. “What?”

“This’ll go over like a pregnant pole-vaulter.” I directed his gaze to Andrew.

“What the hell is he doing here?”
Venom laced his tone as he shot daggers at him.

“All right, everyone. Settle down,” Jack’s voice boomed out over the murmur of the crowd. “This won’t take too long; soon you will be back to the mounting piles on your desk.”

The crowd chuckled, while Nathan and I turned and raised an eyebrow at one another. We always had mounting piles; it would be a blessing to have the stack some of the other attorney’s had awaiting them. Oh, wait, we did. The difference being we had a bit of
everyone’s
work. It came with the territory, and I was happy to have it, instead of going to a court room any day like many in our office.

“As you
’re all aware, we’ve been down a team member since Stephen’s departure late last year. Well, it’s been over six months, and I think we’ve finally have found the right man for the job,” Jack announced. “Some of you may remember the man to my right, he was once an intern here, and I would like your help in welcoming Andrew Carter to our ranks.”

The cro
wd erupted in applause and the Boob-Squad already seemed to have Andrew in their sights.

“Andrew’s firs
t day will be tomorrow, and he’ll need everyone’s help getting reacquainted with Holloway and Holloway.”

Andrew caught my gaze
, and I stood, frozen. A huge grin spread on his face: he looked like such a cute, innocent kid when he did that.

“Hey,
Lila!” Andrew called out, interrupting Jack.

My face
heated up in embarrassment as everyone turned to see who he was looking at.

“Hi,
Drew.” I waved my hand, trying to move the room back to the topic at hand.

Nathan tense
d beside me, but my eyes remained on Andrew, and I watched his flicker beside me to Nathan. His gaze hardened, but he kept the smile plastered on his face.

“Well, now that everyone knows An
drew and Delilah are acquainted…” Jack chuckled. “Let’s get back to work.”

With a clap of his hands
, the mass dispersed to their separate sections of the office.

Just as I was making my way through the doorway, a hand grabbed my wrist and pulled me back. The sudden halt caused Nathan to crash into me. Andrew’s strong arms wrapped aro
und me and lifted me into the air, then back down for a hug. My eyes widened before I began laughing.

Nathan
shot us an icy glare before continuing down the hall, and for some reason I found the sight hysterical. It made me laugh more, but everyone thought it was due to Andrew’s antics. The exchange had been so quick; I figured no one had picked up on the cold undercurrent.

“Something about
that guy rubs me the wrong way,” Andrew said out of nowhere.

“He’s harmless
,” I assured him. “By the way…what the hell are you doing here, and why didn’t you tell me?”

A sheepish grin spread on his face. “I wanted it to be a surprise.”

“Well, it worked.”

“I hope you don’t mind.”

I gave him a knowing look. “Andrew, I know you loved working at Holloway and Holloway as much as Caroline and I did when we all interned together. You just chose the dark side.”

“Well, I came back to become a
real Jedi.”

“Welcome back, Anakin,” I
said with a smile. “Well, I have a mountain and a half waiting for me.”

I turned to head out the
door when his voice stopped me.

“What was the na
me of that bar by your place? Skips? Tips?”

“
Nipps,” I responded.

“Later, Lila
.”

I waved back and headed in the direction of my office. Once there
, the tension was rolling off Nathan, permeating our space. He didn’t say anything for over an hour, and I could no longer stand the tension. I sent him a text hoping it would cure his foul mood.

S
o, what was that about punishment? I’d like to hear more about that.

He smi
rked at the message, and his shoulders dropped and relaxed.

The remainder of the day went off without a hitch as did the next day. Andrew was nowhere to be seen on Friday, his first official day, and I was thankful.