Insufferable Proximity 2 (18 page)

Although the song playing was upbeat, and the people around them were dancing quite fast—Julian and Heaven were dancing very slowly. They were holding each other tightly as if they were afraid to be separated. The sight warmed Sybille’s heart, and she felt the tears begin to pool in her eyes.

“You’d better not cry,” Coco said as she walked up to her sister and handed her a glass of champagne.

“Do you see what I see?” Sybille asked.

“Yes I do, and you should be celebrating, Sister, not crying.”

“They are tears of joy, Coco. I was really afraid she would never fall in love. It was my fault, raising her in the brothel really did damage her perspective of men and sex. I’m such a horrible mother; I should have become an accountant,” she wailed as she held her handkerchief to her eyes. She had bought the red handkerchief especially for the festival.

“Sybille, you did the best you could. Especially considering how we were raised. She’s fine now, that’s what’s important. Look at her. Have you ever seen her so happy?”

“Never.” She sighed deeply as she watched her daughter dance with Julian.

Heaven and Julian were so close, and both wearing black, so it was almost hard to tell where one ended, and the other began. They were staring into each other’s eyes, oblivious to all around them.

Heaven couldn’t stop looking into Julian’s eyes. His pale gray orbs were sparkling, and she was becoming hypnotized.

He smiled, saying, “You look beautiful tonight,” and she scoffed.

“I look plain; I probably should have dressed up a little more. I’m wearing a little black dress, and everyone else is decked out. Alice is wearing a neon-green ball gown with red accents, and even Jade is wearing a sequined dress. Petal’s wearing a…” she stopped when she remembered the skimpy, glittery two-piece she was wearing, “…well, at least Petal’s wearing clothes.”

“You’re still the most beautiful woman here. You could wear two toilet paper rolls wrapped in aluminum foil and still be the sexiest.”

“No, I think the sexy award goes to you, Mr. King. I love you in that suit.” She rose up on her tiptoes and quickly kissed his lips. “Let’s go to my room.”

With the party still in full swing, Heaven grabbed Julian’s hand with a knowing smile. Even without the smile, he would go with her. He would follow her to the ends of the earth without question. She took him into the house and made a beeline straight to her wing. She led him into the dimly-lit red room and locked the door behind them.

She walked over to her dresser and turned on her CD player, making sure to turn it up loud enough to drown out the off-key band in the backyard.

The beautiful music sparked through the speakers like a melted electrical line. The words rang true for both of them, and the fragmented melody set the tone of their current mood.

“I’ve heard a lot of cover versions of that song, but I’ve never heard it botched so badly. When the lead singer of the band asked me if she sounded anything like the original lead singer—I told her that she did,” she said as she slowly walked over to him.

“Did you?”  He smiled slyly and slid his hands around her waist. The singer sounded nothing like the original singer.

“I did, but then I said, ‘…if that singer were being slowly strangled while held upside down by a meat hook in the back.”

“That’s about accurate,” he nodded in agreement as they began to slowly dance to the perfect song.

“I know, but I actually felt bad,” she said with sadness, and Julian was once again stunned. Heaven was never one to feel bad for anyone or anything, especially when it came to her humor. “I even apologized.”

“You’re kidding?” He was genuinely shocked.

“Well, I didn’t apologize
per se
, but I told her that I was joking. I felt rotten; you should have seen the look on the poor girl’s face. For a second, I thought she was going to cry. I think my mother almost fainted when I attempted to apologize instead of going in for the kill.”

He grinned as he looked into her eyes. “I’m surprised that she didn’t.”

“I think you ruined me, Julie. My edge is gone,” she said, grinning awkwardly.

“I know that I did.” He pulled her closer and held her tightly to him as they continued to dance. She pulled back to look at him again.

“Everything is falling into place perfectly. Gavin is in prison, and we can go back to our normal lives now. We can go out to dinner, take walks in the park and stroll the beach. We can do whatever we want now.” Her joy was so strong it was becoming infectious to him. Regardless of the lingering paranoia, he too was ready to start his life with her.

Smirking, he said, “We’ve yet to have a normal life together.”

“I know. We’ve been through some horrible things, and we’ve done some terrible things.” She began to unbutton his shirt as they continued their lazy dance.

“Mostly to each other.” He ran his hands up and down her hips.

“We can start fresh,” she vowed as she ran her hands across his wide shoulders, moving the fabric to the sides.

“I like that.” He covered her mouth with his and kissed her deeply.

Back To Work

Heaven woke up at the crack of dawn, excited to get back to work. She hummed as she floated through the rooms. She wore her new black pencil skirt and matching blazer with the slightly puffed shoulders. She wore a white, collarless button-up shirt and black suede heels with a half-inch platform. She even decided to take advantage of the makeup tips Alice had given her. She dabbed a hint of blush to her cheeks, applied mascara and a berry-toned lip gloss. She pulled her hair back in a big bun and slid on her black-framed glasses.

“Hurry up, Julian, we don’t want to be late for our first day back to work.” She frowned when she saw he wasn’t even dressed. She shook her head when he put his pants on. “You’re not going to shower?”

“I took a shower last night.”

“We had lots of dirty, kinky sex last night,” she reminded him.

“I know; that’s why I’m waiting until we get home. I love the way you smell on me.”

“Julian—“

“I’m kidding, I took one after we had sex. You’d already fallen asleep.”

“Why didn’t you wake me up?”

“If I woke you up, we would have had sex in the shower, and then again after we got out. That would have defeated the purpose.”

“Touché,” she nodded in agreement.

Julian walked into the bathroom, shaved and brushed his teeth. He grinned when he walked back in the room and saw Heaven tapping her foot.

She narrowed her eyes. “If I’m late, I will never forgive you.”

“Never?” he gasped sarcastically. He threw on his shirt and walked over to her. “Maybe if you show me your breasts, I can work a little faster.”

“Stop it,” she shooed his hands away when he started to unbutton her shirt, “I’m going to wait for you in the car.”

“No, you’re not,” he grabbed her arm and slapped her behind before motioning to the bed, “go sit down, I’ll be done in a minute.”

She walked over to the bed while giving him a dirty look.

“If you keep looking at me like that, I’ll beat your ass before we leave.” He grinned, but headed towards her when she rolled her eyes. “Roll your eyes at me again.”

Heaven looked him directly in his eyes and rolled hers again. Julian grinned as he grabbed her, sat down on the bed and pulled her over his lap.

“Stop, we’re going to be late,” she whined as she kicked her legs.

“If you don’t stay still, I might accidentally rip your skirt. Then we’ll definitely be late.” He rubbed his hand across her behind before he lightly swatted it.

“Ouch!” Heaven cried out dramatically.

“I barely touched you.” He swatted her much harder, and she really cried out. “Now that one deserved a scream.”

“Are you done yet, you sadistic—”

“Not yet.” Unable to resist, he smacked her butt again. “Now I’m done.”

He bent his head to kiss her butt, and slid the tips of his fingers up the backs of her legs.

“Enough Julian,” Heaven pouted as she went up to her knees on the bed. “You’re going to get us both too worked up, and I will be so mad at you later if I’m late for work.”

“Next time, don’t rush me. You know I can’t resist you when you’re pissed.” He lightly smacked her butt one last time before kissing her lips. “Have a seat; I’ll be done in a minute.”

“I should be the one smacking you for making us late.” Heaven rolled her eyes as she got comfortable.

“In your dreams, Princess.”

She narrowed her eyes and stared at him through her thick lashes. “I would love to beat your ass.”

“I bet you would,” he said, grinning widely.

***

“I want to drive to work,” Heaven demanded.

“No.” Julian refused to let her have her way.

“
I’m
driving my own car.”

“You take one step towards that car, and I’ll call the office to tell them we won’t be coming in today.”

“I am not missing another day of work, Julian King.”

“You won’t have a choice if you’re tied up in the basement,” he threatened, but the thought of a trip to the basement was oddly appealing to her. “I want you with me—I don’t want to take any chances.”

“Gavin is in prison, not jail—prison. He can’t hurt us anymore,” she tried to reason with him.

“Until you can prove that Gavin worked alone, you’re not leaving my side. Until I’m sure that there is no way Gavin Grant could escape from prison—you’re following my rules.”

“You won’t believe that until he’s dead.”

“Exactly.”

“You are such a rule-dealing tyrant. You’d use any situation to enforce more rules.”

“Get in,” he tapped her butt, but she didn’t move.

“If Gavin had an accomplice, don’t you think that accomplice would have been there to help him when he tried to kill us? We would have heard something by now. You have everyone you know still investigating what happened. You would know.”

“Get in the car,” he demanded.

“No.”

“Say ‘no’ one more time to me…,” when she opened her mouth to object, he put his hand over her mouth and continued with his threat, “…I will bend you over that seat, yank up your skirt and then fuck you from behind for the next three hours.”

Heaven stood there for a moment debating her options. It could be an all-out war that ended in sex, or she could go willingly.

“Fine,” Heaven snapped as she got in the passenger’s seat.

She knew by the look in his eye that he was serious and wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. Besides, the more he talked, the more she wanted to take the day off. She was torn between arguing, sex and work. The thought of the basement was a little too delightful to ignore. If she continued arguing with him,
she
would be the one dragging
him
down to the basement. Despite her developing fantasy, she needed to get back to work and back into the swing of things.

***

The King Law Firm was once again abuzz with the news of Gavin Grant now that Julian and Heaven had returned. Everyone had his or her own theory, analysis and opinion about the situation. Gavin’s little act of violence had shaken up the employees’ sense of security. Things were different now. Cliques were disbanded, trust was obliterated, and safety had become a luxury.

“I’m glad Julian is back safe and sound. I still can’t believe Gavin tried to kill them,” Reese said.

“I knew there was something wrong with that man, there was something in his eyes,” said Adele, Lila Strain’s secretary.

“It’s always the quiet ones,” Reese, her fellow secretary added.

“If you knew that something was wrong with him, then why were you constantly flirting with him?” Gloria asked Adele.

“I did
not
flirt with Gavin,” Adele snapped.

“Yes, you did…you flirt with everyone,” Reese added.

“I do not.” Adele’s eyes widened as if they were accusing her of blatant lies.

“Yes, you do,” Gloria protested.

“Anyway, like I was saying, I knew there was something evil lurking inside of him. No one is that nice,” Adele continued.

“Well, I for one never expected that from Gavin. I didn’t think that ass-kissing punk had enough courage to pull something so extreme,” Gloria admitted.

“It’s always the quiet ones you have to watch out for,” Reese nodded her head with conviction.

***

They were running late as Julian insisted they stop and get coffee. He didn’t want her to keep leaving her office for fresh coffee. Julian had his arm around Heaven’s shoulders as they headed to the elevator. Despite the crowd, his hand slid down to rest on her hip.

She didn’t care; she grinned as if to say
‘Let them look.’

Julian squeezed her hip as they stepped out of the elevator. They walked to her office, ignoring the stares of the people around them.

“Your office was moved right next to mine,” he said as he led her to her new office.