Ex Delicto (2 page)

Xavier

That night I walked in the door of my apartment and immediately dropped my briefcase to the ground.

I was so tired I barely had the energy to heat up the microwavable meal I had just bought. It seemed I’d gotten a little lazy in the month I’d had off between finishing up at school and starting my job. Normally a day like this wouldn’t have fazed me one bit. But tonight my mind was fried and all I wanted to do was numb out in front of the television with macaroni and cheese.

It didn’t help that my boss was one of the most frustrating people known to man.

No. Don’t think about him.
I let out an angry groan and walked in the apartment.

I forced myself to stay on my feet long enough to put the packaged meal in the microwave and turn on the timer before I flopped down on my armchair. I briefly wished that I knew how to cook but doubted that even after I got used to my job that I would ever have the time to even learn, much less make anything. I never had in college; I certainly wouldn’t now that I had such a demanding job.

And not just from the work. Dealing with Aiden had been exhausting. The guy had movie star good looks. He was one of the most handsome men I’d ever seen in my life. Sandy blonde hair, chiseled features, and a body that looked like he spent all day at a gym instead of a law firm.

But what a hardass! I don’t think I saw the guy smile once. He just gave me this cool stare all day, which I had to admit looked pretty good on him.

I wondered what I had gotten myself into with this job. But I wasn’t going to give up that easily. I had been picturing working at a firm like Dunhill, Dougan & Smith for years. I wasn’t going to quit after the first day because it was hard. Granted, a different top firm probably wouldn’t have a guy who was as handsome as Aiden, but they’d probably have a guy who was as much of a hardass as him. If I couldn’t cut it here, I couldn’t cut it anywhere. Not anywhere I cared to work at anyway.

It helped that Aiden didn’t have a clue of how crazy he was making me. But I knew better than to show my feelings, romantic and otherwise. I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction. Especially since he was probably straight anyway.

“Just forget about him,” I said to himself.

The timer beeped, and I got the meal out of the microwave and sat back down in my chair. I turned on the television and flipped through the channels briefly before deciding on a baseball game. At first I was distracted by the game and my dinner, but when I took off my suit jacket I caught a whiff of Aiden’s soapy scent. I clicked my tongue.

I must have it bad if I can’t go five minutes without thinking of him, I thought.

I’d known Aiden for less than a day. He was just a man. A really good-looking man, but still.

I didn’t have a lot of experience with relationships, be they friendly or romantic. And my only real romantic relationship was with Tony. I frowned involuntarily remembering him. If that was what a relationship was all about, I didn’t want any part of it.

And even if it wasn’t what a relationship was about, I still wasn’t willing to risk my dream job, or my heart, on a relationship that was probably impossible anyway. I’d do what I had to do in order to keep my feelings under control. I always did.

Aiden

My bedroom door opened, waking me up from my short sleep. Morning light was already flooding through my window. My momentary confusion turned to shock when Xavier walked in.

I stared through bleary eyes. “Xavier? What the fuck—”

Xavier didn’t say a word, just walked over to my bed. He climbed on and straddled me, his hands on either side of my head propping him up on the mattress.

“What the hell?” I said.

Xavier smiled as he brought his face closer and closer to mine. He lightly kissed me, his lips brushing against mine. Teasing at my skin until I thought I’d jump out of it.

I couldn’t take it anymore. “Shit,” I said, and grabbed the back of his head, forcing the kiss deeper. Xavier relaxed against me, running a hand through my hair. I plunged into his mouth, massaging his tongue with mine.

He broke the kiss. His beautiful skin was flushed. We were both breathing hard.

He trailed kisses down the front of my neck over my Adam’s apple, down my chest, then under the waistband of my pajama pants, where those plump lips of his could do some good.

Xavier had barely gotten started when I heard the buzzing of my alarm, and my eyes flew open to a pitch black room.

I rolled over and hit the snooze button with more force than usual, then fell back on the bed and looked up at the ceiling.

A dream. It was a fucking dream.

“God damn it,” I said out loud.

I should have known. The sun was shining in my dream and I’m always up before the sun rises. Then again I also should have known because there’s no way Xavier would come in my room and almost blow me, but that was another story. He probably would have been more likely to punch me than blow me after how strict I had been with him yesterday.

I threw the covers off and got out of bed, then went in the bathroom and turned on the water. I dropped my pajama pants and got in, not caring that the water was still icy. I could use a cold shower right now.

I got to work earlier than normal. Sometimes it took me a bit to get going in the morning, but this time I had been wide awake.

In the end, I couldn’t help it, and jerked off in the shower, pretending it was Xavier’s lips on my cock instead of my hand. I thought the cold of the shower would help, but this guy turned me on in ways I’d never expected.

To my complete shock, when I walked in the office, Xavier was already sitting there looking over papers, eating what looked like a cherry danish and coffee from the cafeteria. And he managed to make it look damn sexy.

God damn it, stay cool.

“Don’t tell me that’s your breakfast,” I said.

Xavier shot up in his seat and it looked like he almost choked on his coffee. I could tell I’d sneaked up on him and freaked him out a little, and I was both amused and bummed that I provoked that kind of a reaction in him.

Xavier quickly reverted to his unreadable gaze that had frustrated me so much the day before. “This is what I eat every morning,” he said.

I pulled up a chair and sat beside him, and I thought I saw him flinch a little.

Okay, this wouldn’t do. We had to work together a lot, and fine, maybe he wasn’t as much of a slacker as I thought he would be. It was only the second day though, maybe he’d prove me right at some point. But still, it wouldn’t do any good for him to be afraid of me.

“You’re in pretty early,” I said. “You even beat some of the partners. I’m impressed.”

Xavier blinked. I could tell he wasn’t expecting the compliment. “Yeah, I was going to hit the coffee place, but the line was long, so I just came in.”

I peered over at the papers he was holding. “What are you looking at? Are those the Richardson financials?” I asked.

“Y—yes,” Xavier stuttered. And did he just blush? No way. I had to be imagining it.

And yet, he looked very flustered right now.

I leaned in closer, to test his reaction. Sure enough, he fidgeted in his seat, and I heard a sharp intake of breath.

Interesting. Very interesting.

“What do you think?” I asked, unable to help smirking a little.

Xavier looked up at me, though I could tell it took a monumental effort on his part.

“Umm, I—”

“Thank God you both are here already,” I heard as someone walked in the room.

I looked over at Greg as he sauntered in here, carrying a box so full of papers that it obstructed his vision, oblivious to what had just been going on.

What had I just been doing? I thought I didn’t like this kid. But for some reason I was monumentally pissed at Greg for interrupting us.

I forced myself to be pleasant. “What’s up, Greg?”

“We’ve got a new case and I need you on it,” he said.

“What about the Richardson case?” I asked.

“Alice can handle it,” he said. “I need a partner on this one.” He dropped the box on an empty desk. “Patterson case. And I’ve got more where this came from.”

“Not Michael Patterson?” Xavier asked.

Greg chuckled. “Yeah. How’d you know?”

“I read about it in the paper this morning,” Xavier said. “Corporate fraud case, right?”

This guy was impressing me more by the minute. Damn him.

“Shit,” Greg said, turning around. He bit a nail. “I had no idea it was already in the paper. I’ve been up all night compiling everything.” When he turned around, I finally noticed the dark circles under his eyes. He looked beat. “Anyway, you’re Xavier, right?” he said.

“Yes. Xavier Lewis. Nice to meet you.” He stood up and shook hands with Greg.

“Greg Coppit. Nice to meet you.” He looked back and forth at Xavier and Aiden. “Why don’t you assist Aiden and I on this one. I know you’re new but we’re going to need all the help we can get.”

“Sure. Of course,” Xavier said.

“Okay, great. Why don’t you two help me carry the rest of the boxes into a conference room?”

I couldn’t help letting a smile break through at Xavier’s obvious discomfort. Judging from the fact that all three of us were needed to carry boxes, this was definitely a big case. And I swore to myself by the end of it that I would learn how Xavier felt about me.

Even though I wasn’t sure how I felt myself.

Xavier

There were five boxes total, and after we brought them all into the conference room, I was immediately issued a company laptop. Greg gave me a flash drive to load even more documents onto my computer.

It was clear I wasn’t training anymore. This was the real thing.

Thankfully so far I was just organizing the paperwork while Greg and Aiden went through them. I was a little overwhelmed by the fact that at my second day of work I was working on a case big enough to make the papers. But organizing was relatively easy work and it helped me to get my bearings on the case.

By mid-afternoon the long conference room table was covered in piles of paper, and I still felt like I’d barely scratched the surface. It was daunting, to say the least.

I’d put yet another piece of paper on another pile when I heard a little snort at the end of the table. I looked at Greg and realized he had fallen asleep with his head in his hand and he had just come awake with a start.

Greg shook his head. “I’m sorry guys, I’m no good right now. I can’t stay awake anymore. I’ve been up for more than twenty-four hours.”

Aiden nodded. “Go, we’ve got this. Get some sleep.”

“Thanks,” Greg said, and without a second’s hesitation, grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair and left.

“How’s he going to get home?” I asked.

Aiden waved it off. “Don’t worry, he’ll take a cab.”

I hesitated. “Can I ask a stupid question?”

“Sure.”

“Is it going to be just the three of us working on this?” I asked.

“For the most part, yeah. We’re pretty swamped.”

“But isn’t this a fairly big case?”

Aiden leaned back in his chair. “This is tough work. We pay well, but there’s a lot of turnover. This kind of thing, with Greg having to work all night, happens all the time. Clients calling at all hours, cases coming in at the end of the day, someone else calling you to assist on it, that kind of thing. Most people don’t last a year.” He smiled. It was the second time I’d actually seen him smile, and it was devastating. That slight curve of his lips. I just wanted to reach out and touch it. “Why? You don’t think you can handle it?”

I shrugged. “If that’s how it is, that’s how it is. I just wanted to know.”

Aiden chuckled.

“What?” I asked. I could feel a blush coming over my face. I picked up a sheet of paper and pretended to look over it and hoped to God he didn’t notice.

“What do you feel like for dinner?”

“Dinner?” I asked. Why would he possibly want to know. Unless…

“Yeah, to order in. We’re going to be here a while.”

“Oh,” I said. Was I just expecting something there? Was I thinking he was about to ask me out to dinner? And was I just excited about the prospect? No. No way. I couldn’t start liking this guy. He was my boss. He probably wasn’t even gay, and even if he was, what if it didn’t work out? I wouldn’t be able to work with him anymore, which might mean I wouldn’t be able to work here anymore. I wasn’t going to let that happen.

Then it dawned on me. He wasn’t asking me to dinner, but we were going to be eating dinner here together. Which meant I’d still be spending the evening with Aiden. Alone.

Aiden chuckled. “I told you it was going to be tough.”

“Right,” I said, pretending that that was where my nervousness was coming from. You have no idea, I thought.