Redemption: A British Stepbrother Romance (29 page)

A
pril was undoubtedly
a woman of many talents. Despite her timid demeanor, she’d been a live wire in bed that night nine months ago, and judging by this memo, the girl had some legal writing skills as well. There wasn’t much sexier in life than a girl who was a good fuck, and could bill $400 an hour. Not for the same thing, of course.

April had earned a place in the meeting today, so I had my secretary send her an invitation. The whole point of the meeting was to discuss the findings of the memo, so who better to be there than the person who wrote the damn thing? Unfortunately, that meant introducing her to Jacob. He was an ass. A very rich and successful ass, but an ass nonetheless. He loved himself and thought he was God’s gift to women.

We probably should have been best friends, but something about him rubbed me the wrong way. I never left these meetings in a good mood, and this one wasn’t likely to be any different.

My secretary let me know Jacob was waiting in the large meeting room, so I swung by April’s office to collect her. She’d been sitting there, waiting with her trusty pen and pad of paper, looking nervous as all hell. This must be her first client meeting. It would likely be a baptism of fire.

“You ready?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said eagerly, standing up and following me down the hall.

“No need to be nervous,” I said.

“Do you need me to do anything in particular?”

“Just introduce yourself, and present the findings of your memo and your legal conclusion. I need you to lead the meeting because I haven’t read it.”

I kept walking but noticed that April was no longer following. I turned around and saw her standing still, staring ahead, looking frightened. Frightened and beautiful.

“You haven’t read the memo?” she asked nervously. “What if it’s all wrong? I can’t lead the meeting, I don’t know--”

“Relax,” I said, interrupting her as she spoke faster and faster, the panic audible in her voice. “I’m kidding. I’ve read the memo, and I’ll lead the meeting. Just sit there and look pretty.”

She breathed a sigh of relief, and resumed walking. “You’re a complete bastard, you know that?”

“You wouldn’t be the first woman to call me that,” I admitted. “Come on, let’s get this over with.”

I opened the door and let April walk in front, although she didn’t introduce herself to the client until after I had shaken his hand. Jacob appeared to be in one of his pleasant moods today. With any luck we would get through this meeting without him being a complete shit.

Just before the meeting started, the partner technically in charge of Jacob’s business came in and insisted on staying. Alan hadn’t done any actual legal work for the client in years, but he still got all the credit when things went right, while passing the blame onto me if the outcome was ever less than ideal. Typical partner, really.

There was a slightly awkward moment where Alan and April had to pretend they already knew each other, despite the fact that they clearly hadn’t met before. April thought on her feet and greeted Alan the way a summer associate would treat a senior partner--friendly, but with respect.

“Here’s my card,” Jacob said, handing his business card to April.

“Thanks. I don’t have any cards yet. I’m just a summer associate.”

I cringed. So much for pretending April was an actual lawyer and not just a law student. It was my fault, I should have mentioned it before the meeting.

“Oh,” Jacob replied, his mood immediately turning sour. “Well, I hope I’m not paying for this training experience.”

“No, of course not,” Alan said immediately. As always, he caved to the client’s demands, no matter how unreasonable.

“Actually Alan,” I said calmly, “we
are
billing for April’s time here today. I asked her to be in the meeting because she wrote the memo we’re here to discuss.”

“You’ve dragged me all the way in here to discuss a memo written by a student?” Jacob asked.

“What Foster means,” Alan said, “is that April provided some research assistance, but that he actually wrote the memo.”

April fidgeted nervously in her seat, and her hand swept some loose strands of hair behind her ears. I didn’t want her to hear this, but the worst thing I could do right now was ask her to leave.

“That’s
not
what I meant,” I insisted. “April wrote the memo, and it’s a damn good one. I’ve reviewed it and I made a few tweaks to the language, but she knows it better than I do. That’s why she’s here.”

“I’m not being billed for her time,” Jacob repeated. “Train people on your own dime.”

“In that case, you don’t get the memo and I suggest we call an end to this meeting.”

April cleared her throat, and spoke quietly. “Perhaps I should leave. I don’t want to cause any trouble.”

“Yes, dear,” Alan said. “Please leave us men to it.”

April’s face went from nervous to angry and I knew why. Alan was a sexist pig. That’s why he wasn’t allowed to interview new associates anymore. April opened her mouth to speak, but decided against it and stood up ready to leave.

“Sit down please, April,” I said gently. “I would like you to stay.”

“Foster, I want a word with you,” Alan said sternly. “Outside. Now.”

“No,” I replied.

Alan looked at me incredulous. It wasn’t the first time I’d fallen out with him, but it was the first time it had happened in front of a client. Mom would give me an earful for this later.

Jacob sat back with a smile on his face. He was loving all this.

Alan took a deep breath and composed himself enough to speak. “Jacob is my client, Foster, so I will decide--”

“Jacob,” I said interrupting Alan. “Who would you rather have serving as your legal counsel? Would you like to deal with Alan, whose main area of expertise is the Securities Act of 1933, largely because he was alive when they wrote it, or would you rather deal with me? The person who’s been providing you with sound legal advice for the last five years.”

“I would delegate the work,” Alan said meekly. “It’s not like I’d try to do it myself.”

“I’m the best lawyer in the firm, Jacob. You want to take the risk with whoever Alan can find to work with him?”

Jacob looked at Alan who already looked defeated. I didn’t usually take pleasure from showing up an old man, but the guy should have retired years ago. My paralegal had been in my office a week ago telling me all about the things he said to her. It was fucking disgusting and hugely inappropriate for a law firm.

“Alright,” Jacob conceded. “But I’m still not happy about being billed for a trainee.”

“She charges a lot less than I do,” I said.

“If I may,” April said timidly, before clearing her throat again. “I could go through the memo with you, and then you could decide whether it’s worth paying for.”

“Interesting,” Jacob said, eying up April with what I hoped was just curiosity. “Okay, that’s fine with me.”

“I can agree to that,” I said. April knew the contents of that memo better than I knew the contours of her chest.

“Me too,” Alan said, although by that point we had all forgotten he was there.

April looked at her copy of the memo, but I suspected she was just taking a few moments to compose herself before speaking. How could this be the same woman who had shouted at me to fuck her? She’d not been lost for words when we were in bed together, but outside of the bedroom she was often timid and shy.

Most women were the other way around. All mouth until I got them in the sack, and then they suddenly didn’t know what to do. Or worse, they thought they knew what they were doing but didn’t have a clue. I still had no idea how some girls got the idea that they should clamp on to my dick with their teeth instead of lips. I shivered, as I had an unfortunate flashback to the last girl I’d had to educate on proper blow job technique.

April didn’t have what I would call ‘blowjob lips’ but I didn’t doubt her abilities. She’d kissed me firmly, with a decent amount of tongue. Not too much, but she didn’t hold it back either. She’d know how to suck dick, and if she didn’t, I would be a patient teacher.

I looked down at my own copy of the memo to fight the eagerness growing in my pants. The last thing I needed was to get hard in front of the client. Knowing Jacob, he’d think it was because of him.

“You asked what needed to be included in the disclosure to shareholders,” April began. Her voice shook slightly as she spoke, but that didn’t matter as long as the words made sense. “However, the better question is whether you need to make the disclosure at all.”

“That’s not the question,” Jacob said. “I
know
that I need to make the disclosure.”

“I disagree,” April replied. “There’s an exception in the Delaware Corporate Code for this situation when one hundred percent of the directors vote in favor of the resolution.”

“But not all the directors are voting in favor,” Jacob said. “If you’d have read my emails, you’d know that one of the directors is abstaining. He’s against the whole thing.”

“I read the emails,” April continued. “He’s not going to be at the meeting and he’s not voting by proxy. You don’t need every director to vote in favor; you need every director present at the meeting to vote in favor.”

Jacob stared at April for a few seconds and then broke out into a big grin. God, I wanted to smack him one sometimes.

“I think I’m going to like working with you,” Jacob said. “Keep going.”

April went through the rest of the memo, and answered Jacob’s questions the few times he interrupted. I might as well not have been there until the end when we discussed strategy and the next steps.

“Impressive, April,” Jacob said as the meeting ended. “If you don’t want to work here after you pass the bar exam give me a call. I’m sure I can find something for you to do in my office.”

Ugh. He might as well have licked his lips, his desire for her was so obvious. Was I that creepy? April didn’t seem to mind. She thanked him for the offer and shook his hand.

“I don’t need to tell you how brilliant you were in there,” I said to April as we sat down in my office for a post-meeting debrief. “You knocked it out of the park.”

“Yeah, I know,” April replied, letting a confident smile spread across her face. She’d earned it. “I think Jacob took a liking to me as well.”

“Uh, yeah, I think he did.”

“He’s a good looking bloke.”

“If you say so,” I grumbled.

“It’s a shame I can’t date clients.”

“Well you’re not a lawyer yet and he’s not technically… actually you’re probably right. You shouldn’t date him.”

“Jealous?” April teased.

“You’ve sure come out of your shell,” I joked, to avoid answering her question. “Am I going to regret letting you into that meeting?”

“You like it when I’m more confident,” April replied. “Is there anything we should discuss?”

“No, I suppose not.”

April smiled and stood up to leave. She’d be walking on air for the rest of the day. Not every client meeting would go that well, so I wanted her to savor this moment.

She stopped at the door and turned back to me. “Thank you,” she said softly. “For what you said.”

I nodded. “You’re welcome. Oh, April?”

“Yeah?”

“You can’t sleep with clients, but there’s nothing in the ethics guidelines about sleeping with other lawyers. Don’t forget that.”

She smiled and walked out the door. What just happened? I’d gotten jealous. Worst of all, she’d spotted it. That wasn’t how this was supposed to play out. Women got jealous after I’d fucked them, not the other way around.

This was uncharted territory. As a lawyer, I didn’t like the unknown. I watched April as she chatted to Paul while making a cup of coffee. She had a glow about her. A freshness that no one else in this office ever had. Even Paul was smiling, and he never looked happy at work. That’s what she did to people. That’s what she did to me.

I was in trouble.

I
didn’t get
anything done for the rest of the morning. Endorphins had flooded my body during the meeting, and I found it impossible to concentrate on work. Maybe I would enjoy being a corporate lawyer after all.

The memo had been fun to write, but I’d expected Foster to make loads of changes. He’d barely touched it. There were a few minor edits where he’d toned down my overly confident language, and he’d picked up a rather embarrassing typo of the word ‘public’ with an unfortunate letter missing, but that was it.

Foster had boosted my confidence to no end. He knew how to do that. Nine months ago, he had transformed a nervous law student into a sexually confident woman for the night, and now he had helped me be a real lawyer.

I preferred it when he was a complete jackass; at least then I knew where I stood. I knew enough about office politics to know that he had risked a lot by speaking to Alan like that. Alan might be a dinosaur, better suited to another century, but he was a senior partner. Alan would no doubt mention the incident to Kathleen and then he would be in the shit.

I considered emailing Kathleen and explaining what had happened, but Foster would hit the roof if I stuck up for him like that. Besides, we were all trying to keep things professional, and if Kathleen weren’t soon to be family there was no way I would have emailed her, so I shouldn’t do so now.

Foster’s attitude towards the PorTupe case still bugged the crap out me, though. After finishing off the last memo, I’d had some free time, so I’d dug through PorTupe’s client files. I didn’t have to look far before I found more evidence that the three directors running the company were complete shits.

A lot of the sexism was subtle, but it was there, even in the correspondence between the client and attorneys at the firm. Emails to male attorneys were professional and serious, whereas any email from a female attorney was quickly responded to with a request for confirmation from another attorney who just so happened to be male. That could just be because the male attorney in question was more senior, but given what I knew about this client already I was inclined to believe the worst.

Arrington & Hedges hadn’t helped PorTupe with the Department of Labor matter, but we had handled many employment disputes. Allegations of harassment against the directors were rife, but it looked like all the cases ended up settling. Foster hadn’t handled those issues, but he still turned a blind eye to them when I tried to convince him that the client wasn’t one we wanted on our books.

Foster insisted that no client was perfect and we couldn’t pick and choose. He was right, but that just made me more frustrated with the whole thing.

I shouldn’t have been surprised by Foster’s attitude. Large corporate law firms didn’t exactly have glowing reputations as protectors of individual liberties and basic human rights. These expensive offices in D.C. weren’t paid for with the fees from poor clients.

Unlike Foster, Mom hadn’t been driven entirely by money. She’d done plenty of
pro bono
work, so even if she did collect her paychecks from large corporations, she at least canceled that out by making a positive contribution to the community. Couldn’t I do the same?

I went back through all the introductory emails that had landed in my inbox on the first day, most of which were still unread, and went through them until I found what I was looking for. The firm had a
pro bono
program, and all employees were allowed to participate. The hours worked on
pro bono
cases even counted towards billable hours requirements, so I wouldn’t have to do it all in my spare time. Perfect.

I requested a meeting with the partner in charge of the program, and looked at the type of projects the firm worked on. I didn’t lack for choice, but I also didn’t appear to be suitable for any of them. I couldn’t help with tenant disputes, because my knowledge of real property law was appalling. I only got a B+ in that class and I would be perfectly happy never touching that subject again.

Defending people on death row certainly sounded exciting, but I knew nothing about criminal procedure other than what I’d seen on television. Unless one of the cops hadn’t read the defendant his
Miranda
rights I was basically out of ideas.

Then I found it. The perfect program for me to help with. The notes clearly stated that no prior knowledge was required, and it was certainly something I was passionate about given my family history.

I could make a positive contribution to people’s lives while I was at the firm. That might not cancel out the harm I was doing by ignoring a fraud happening right in front of my eyes, but it would help me sleep better at night.

“
Y
ou want
to help with elder law?” Simon asked. He was the partner in charge of the
pro bono
program, and he’d been delighted to see I was interested in being a part of it. By the sounds of it, far too many of the attorneys here were like Foster and ignored their
pro bono
responsibilities in favor of billing more hours and earning fees.

“Yes please,” I said. “I’ve had two grandparents who ended up in nursing homes near the end of their lives. I know how vulnerable people can be at that stage of their lives, and I’d like to help.”

“It’s not one of the sexier areas of law,” Simon said. “But it’s important. You’re right about these people being vulnerable. You wouldn’t believe some of the things I’ve seen. Kids trying to steal from their parents when they get older is surprisingly common unfortunately.”

“I believe you.”

I’d seen it happen. When I used to visit my grandmother, I saw kids practically forcing their elderly parents to write checks for large amounts when they clearly didn’t understand what was going on. It was disgusting.

“Unfortunately, elder law also requires a lot of court appearances. Nothing difficult from a civil procedure perspective, but it does require an attorney.”

“A law student isn’t enough?”

“No, I’m afraid not. I would still love for you to do this, but you would need to find an attorney to work with. One who wouldn’t mind doing
pro bono
work instead of pushing through the latest M&A deal for our illustrious clientèle. Good luck with that.”

Simon gave me a puzzled look as my mouth stretched into a smile that covered most of my face.

“Don’t worry,” I said. “I know an attorney who would love to help.”