Trust Me (2 page)

Seeing that it was Elise she picked up. “Hi, I’m just
going to put you on speaker,” she said as she tapped the appropriate icon on
her phone before placing it on her desk.   Walking over to the door
she closed and locked it.

“Hey where have you been?  I sent you a text and
called you at the office?”  Elise's familiar voice demanded.  Elise
was her best
friend,
they had met in college and were
as close as sisters.

“Sounds like you’re stalking me,” Alaina said jokingly
before adding, “I stopped off at the drugstore to pick up some aspirin.  I
had an awful headache.”

“Well that sucks.  Do you feel any better?”

“Yeah I’m good.  I just have to put on some
nylons on before my 9:30 gets here,” she said as she opened her desk drawer and
pulled out a package of stockings.

Elise laughed, “Girlfriend you’re in San Diego and
it’s like 75 degrees, do you really need to wear nylons?”

Alaina sighed, “Probably not, but my meeting is with
some tight ass FBI lawyer and I think it’s more professional.  Must be my
east coast education emerging.
Umm… not sure why we’re
debating this….again.
So what’s up?”  She asked as she wiggled into
the dreaded nylons.  She looked down at herself.  Did they really
make her look more professional?

“Well I was wondering if you want to go for drinks
after
work?
" It looks like it’s going to be a
gorgeous day and pitchers of margaritas are half price at Chico's tonight.”

“Sounds like a plan.  How come every time you
call you know which restaurant is serving half-off margaritas?  Do you
have some secret guide telling you which San Diego restaurants have margarita
specials?”  Alaina jibed good-naturedly.  She and Elise shared an
easy banter that was the result of years of close friendship.

“Hey Alaina, I could be offended, but that might spoil
our fun, and just so you know it’s halfoffmargarita.com for the 411.
  Now that that's settled, what’s new with you?”

“Well actually, I ran into this hottie this morning at
the drugstore.”

“So did he ask you out or what?” Elise
asked,
curiosity evident in her voice.

“More like, or what.  I literally slammed into
him like an idiot, but he did ask me for coffee. 

“You’re going right?”

“Well, no.  He was a strange guy in a
drugstore.  I couldn’t go out with him and I was going to be late for my
meeting.”  She glanced down at her iPhone noticing that her 9:30
appointment was late.

“Have I taught you nothing?”  Elise let out a
frustrated groan, “Why didn’t you at least throw a business card at him?”

“I was so tempted, but what if he was some stalking
freak?”

“Did he look like a stalking freak?”  Elise
demanded her voice slightly shrill.

“I don’t know.  What do stalking freaks look
like?” Alaina asked feeling slightly defensive, “I can’t go out with a perfect
stranger even if he looks like he’s dripping sex.”

She was getting excited just thinking about him
again.  Obviously she wasn’t getting enough if running into a stranger
made her wet.

“You should have given Mr. Drugstore a chance instead
of blowing him off,” Elise insisted.  “Why are you even telling me about
him now since it can’t go anywhere?”

“Hey don’t be a bitch, it’s the closest to sex I’ve
come to in a long time.”

Elise snickered at the insult.  “Doesn't that say
it all?  I’m so pissed at you.  You should’ve given him your
number.  Coffee in a public place would’ve been fine.”

“God, I’m sorry I even told you about him.”

“So why did you?” Elise asked

“Look, I only told you about Mr. Drugstore because,
well… because it was really a strange meeting.  You're going to think this
is crazy, but I got the feeling the guy knew me.  There was just so much
chemistry between
us,
I’ve never reacted that way.”

“Sorry to give you such a bad time, but I can’t
remember the last time you were actually attracted to someone and you just let
him walk away.”

“Yeah, I think I blew it.”

“Oh yeah you blew it. 
Only one
thing to do.
 
Back to Internet dating.”

“Oh how do I respond to that?” Alaina’s tone was
dripping with sarcasm, “How about no or no?   BTW Internet dating
sucks.  It’s full of creeps.”

“Excuses, excuses…there are lots of awesome guys on
the Internet, you just have to sift through the losers.  Not to mention
I've introduced you to tons of single guys and you haven't gone out with any of
them.  Come on girlfriend you've got to at least try.”  Elise
insisted.

“Okay, okay,   I promise I’ll go out with
the next moron, I mean guy you set me up with.  Not to cut you short but
I've got to go, I've got an appointment with a lawyer from the FBI.”

“Hey you mentioned the FBI thing earlier.  What's
going on?  This sounds much more exciting than those divorce cases you
usually handle.”  Elise's interest was evident by her eager tone.

“It's confidential.  Now I've really got to go.
See you tonight.  I’ll meet you at Chico’s around six.  Take a cab
since we’re drinking!”

“Sounds great to me, see you tonight.  Bye.”

“Bye,” Alaina responded with a smile as she tucked her
phone into her purse.  Elise and Alaina started every morning with a phone
call to each other.  They had been good friends since they studied
together at San Diego State.  They’d remained close thanks
to  many
long distance phone calls while going to
graduate schools at opposite ends of the country.  Now that they were both
in the same city they had become even closer and a day didn't go by that they
didn't talk.  The phone on her desk rang so she picked up the receiver and
said, “Alaina Simmons speaking.”

Marlene's voice came over the extension, “Your 9:30
appointment is here.”

“Thanks Marlene.  I'll be right down to meet
him.” She placed the receiver in its cradle and went down the corridor towards
the lobby.   Glancing at her watch she noticed that he was 15 minutes
late.  She laughed inwardly and thought; shouldn't you be able to count on
the FBI to be punctual?  Oh well, it was a good thing he was running
behind since she herself had been late.  She was prepared for this meeting
and was ready for whatever arguments he was going to put forward.  She had
even worn her navy “power” suit to further boost her confidence and as she
approached the lobby she paused to smooth it out to ensure she appeared
completely pressed and professional.

What did the FBI want with Alaina Simmons? 
Nothing really.
What they wanted from her didn't belong to
her.  Her father, Tom Simmons, had died the year before leaving in her
custody his papers from the activist group he had founded known as the
Organization
Against
Surveillance or commonly the
OAS.  Tom Simmons had donated his papers to an historical society on the
east coast of the United States just before his death, but he had done so on
the condition that the society respect access restrictions as outlined: 
individuals could only read the papers with written permission from the donor,
Alaina's father.  This type of donor restriction was not uncommon and the
historical society had on many occasions accepted archival collections with
such restrictions. After his death, Tom Simmons' Will clearly left guardianship
of his papers to Alaina.  Alaina had been given explicit instructions on
who was to could see them, and the FBI was definitely not on the list. 
The federal agency was investigating the organization for evidence of terrorist
activities.  Which was ridiculous, Alaina thought; her father and the group
he belonged to were against violations of privacy.  They were concerned
with the civil rights of the individual, and to her knowledge would never have
participated in violent activities.  It appeared that the Bureau somehow
thought differently and had issued a subpoena to gain access to the papers for
the purpose of finding evidence that might somehow incriminate the
organization.   Although Alaina believed there was probably nothing
to be found in the papers, she felt it was her duty to respect her father's
wishes and not allow anyone to access the materials unless they were on the
designated list.  Certainly, the OAS had taken political action to try and
limit the FBI's surveillance practices, but they hadn’t been involved in
anything criminal.  As far as Alaina was concerned, an organization as
powerful as this federal agency needed limitations imposed on it to keep it
from going out of control.  She was sure that the FBI's actions were a
clear attempt to discourage organizations from limiting the power of a federal
agency.

As she entered the lobby, Alaina felt prepared,
confident and ready to do battle against almost anyone.  Except she hadn't
planned on doing battle with Mr. Drugstore, and that was exactly who was rising
from the black leather couch to greet her saying, “Ms. Simmons, I'm Donovan
Prentice, it appears we've met before.”

She felt the bottom drop out of her stomach. Alaina
was sure that her shock must be apparent; normally she prided herself on her self-control
but today's events seemed to be working against her.  After all she had
never experienced such a coincidence like this one before.   She had
met this man as a stranger and had flirted with him, completely unaware that
she had an appointment with him later that day. She felt that their entire
professional relationship had been compromised.  As disconcerted as she
felt, she was going to have to pretend that nothing had happened, and actually
if she thought about it nothing really had happened.  Their flirtation had
been a little unusual but it hadn't gone beyond that.  It was just that
she never let business associates or clients see anything but the professional
side of her personality, she had ensured this by making it a habit not to discuss
her personal life with any of them. By meeting this man outside of the office,
outside of her professional setting, she almost felt as if he had caught her
undressed.  Her only option now was to ignore the incident as if it had
never happened and maintain her normal professional composure.  Okay so
maybe ignoring it was just going to make her look like a coward.  She
needed to face this situation head on.

Making up her mind to take control and not let Donovan
get the upper hand since he didn't seem the least surprised to see her, she
responded to his greeting with, “Yes, what a coincidence.  It's nice to
meet you, formally that is.” 

She looked over at Marlene, who was indiscreetly
staring at Donovan Prentice as if she had never seen a man before, not that Alaina
could blame her.  The man was impressive to say the least.
“Marlene could you hold my calls?”

Marlene barely glanced her way as she continued to
stare at the object of her attention but finally managed to respond, “Yes of
course Ms. Simmons.”

 Alaina glanced at her wryly.  “Thanks,
Marlene.”  She returned her attention to Mr. Prentice who was waiting
patiently. “If you’ll just follow me we can discuss the issue of the subpoena
in my office.”  She was determined to regain her equilibrium, but as she
walked down the corridor with Donovan closely following behind her, she
wondered if that was even a remote possibility. “Right this way Mr. Prentice.”

“Please call me Donovan. Is it all right if I call you
Alaina?” 

He's taking control again, Alaina simmered inwardly,
but she responded without hesitation, “Please do.”

“I’m so glad I’ve a name to put to that beautiful
face.”

She felt a thrill at his words as they entered the
office. Alaina could not help but be aware of his overwhelming presence. She
was feeling that same level of inexplicable excitement she had felt in the
drugstore.  Ignoring her jumbled emotions she tried to concentrate on the
matter at hand.  It was becoming pretty obvious that she needed to get
laid if this guy made it so hard for her to concentrate.  She might as
well meet the problem head on.

She took a deep breath before saying, “Donovan. I’m
just going to face the elephant in the room. When we met this morning I
obviously had no idea who you were and if I had I wouldn’t have spoken to you
the way that I did.  Okay?”

Donovan was a little surprised but managed to hold
back a laugh. “And what way was that?”  His voice held that same sensual
tone that it had in the drugstore.

Okay, so wow, his voice really turned her on. 
She felt slightly embarrassed, but what the hell he had flirted too. “Well, I
was a bit flirtatious.”

He raised a brow and grinned.
“A
bit?”

“Cut me some slack, you were just as bad.  Admit
it.”  Could that knowing grin of his get any bigger?  She wasn’t sure
why, but he was charming the hell out of her.

“As an officer of the court, I’m taking the fifth,” he
said jokingly before adding, “I think this is a conversation we should pursue
further once we’ve completed our business.”  He paused a brief moment and
looked at her intently.   “And I would like to pursue it.” 
 

The low timber of his voice caused her skin to tingle,
and she felt her face flush in reaction.  The idea certainly had merits
she thought as she studied the hard plains of his face.  God he was hot
and he was making her hotter.  She exhaled trying to calm herself before
saying, “Do you think we can do that?  Wouldn’t it be a conflict?”