Chapter 34
We worked in silence for a few hours. I was sitting against the head of the bed, my laptop balanced on my outstretched legs. Eddie was lying on her stomach, facing the foot of the bed, while she stared at files and took notes on the tablet I had given her. I typed with only one hand while the other stayed on the back of her leg. There was just no way for me to be this close to her and not touch her.
I would have thought having her this close, wearing only my robe, would be a distraction, but it had been a very productive morning. Having her so close made me feel calm and centered in a way that I hadn’t felt in a long time.
“I don’t get it.” She turned to look at me over her shoulder.
“Get what?” I closed my laptop to give her my full attention.
She got up, swiveling to face me. The knot holding the robe together loosened, giving me a tantalizing view of her cleavage.
“These guys have been pulling this racketeering shit since the eighties,” she said, settling on her knees next to me and staring at the tablet.
“Probably before that,” I said as I watched the robe separate a bit more, exposing more of her full breasts. I should have been sated. I’d had more sex in the last twenty-four hours than I did for the entirety of the last year, but something about her made me ravenous.
“Then why are you only now bringing up charges? Is it because they were working with the Manwarrings? Were you covering for your friends?”
“Luc Manwarring and I are friends,” I admitted. I could have lied but I just simply didn’t want to. “The O’Murphy clan has never really been big enough to be on my radar. Until very recently, I thought they were thugs working for the Manwarrings, doing shady shit, but not really worth the taxpayers’ money to prosecute.”
“Explain.”
“Well, as the Manwarrings’ attack dogs, they would have had the best lawyers. A court case would have dragged on for months, if not years. It’s also not unreasonable to assume the Manwarrings would try to bribe the judge, assuming they didn’t already have a few in their pocket. Since the shit they did was all corporate espionage and it could have only been against other corporations dealing dirty, they didn’t seem like a public concern.”
“Why spend millions pursuing a case against criminals when they are only harming other criminals.” She nodded, understanding my thought process. “Especially when they would probably walk anyway, and then it would make you a target.”
“Exactly. But now Luc is in the process of taking over for his father, and he has cut ties with the O’Murphy clan. It has brought a lot more to light. It looks like the Senior Manwarring was covering a lot more than just some intimidation.”
“Like?” Eddie moved around so she was sitting cross-legged on the bed, leaning back on her arms and getting comfortable, and I wondered if she knew how tempting she was, exposing just a few more inches of skin while she discussed the merits and reasoning behind this case. My mouth was watering, and my cock started hardening for her again.
“Arson, for one, a few counts of attempted murder, suspected involvement in a few missing persons cases, kidnapping, blackmail, bribing a government official, and extortion.”
“So now that your friend’s family isn’t protecting them, they can be brought to justice?”
“No, now that I know the extent of their crimes, they will be brought to justice.” I couldn’t help myself. I reached out and ran my finger from her neck down along the line of the robe, then brushed it aside to fully expose one perfect breast, her nipple instantly pebbling under the graze of my thumb.
“So now you are going to be the one to take the bad men off the streets and make New York a little safer.” She was teasing me, but I liked it.
“I don’t know, what’s in it for me?” I teased her right back.
“How about the gratitude of the city?”
“What if I was only interested in the gratitude of a single citizen.”
“The mayor?” she asked, placing a finger on her chin like she was thinking.
“No,” I said, tweaking her nipple, making it hard enough to cut glass.
“The governor?”
“Try again, little one,” I all but growled.
She leaned over me, letting the side of the robe open completely, as she grabbed my laptop and moved it to the side table. Then she threw her leg over my lap and straddled me, grinding her hips down over my achingly hard cock.
“What does this citizen have to do to show her appreciation?”
“This.” I reached up, sliding my hands in her loose waves, and pulled her lips to mine. Her kiss was hot, passionate fire, but I wanted something else, something that was more.
I kissed her slowly, waiting for her to follow my lead. I kissed her slow and deep, and when she relaxed against my lips, I rolled her over and made love to her. It was slow, passionate, and intimate. I didn’t want to control her, I didn’t want to dominate her, I wanted to coax pleasure from her body, and I wanted her to love me as I was starting to love her. It was too soon to tell her how I felt, so I wanted to show her.
* * *
“You know what this means,don’t you,” I asked, laying on the bed with Eddie in my arms, both of us naked, covered in sweat, and completely enamored in the afterglow of what I could only describe as making love.
“No, what does this mean?” she asked, placing a sweet kiss on my chest before laying her head back down in the same spot.
“It means you’re mine now, all mine.”
She let out a seductive little giggle. “And what does that mean?”
“It means you’re mine to protect.” I kissed her shoulder. “To provide for.” I placed another kiss on her shoulder. “To adore.”
“Mr. Astrid,” she said, looking up into my eyes. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were informing me that we are a couple. In a romantic relationship, not a professional one, with certain… benefits.”
“Ms. Carmichael, that is exactly what I’m telling you.” I leaned down and kissed her forehead.
“Harrison, you know that won’t work. You need a woman like Catherine, preferably not as bitchy, but someone who can be on your arm at fancy cocktail parties, balls and galas, and other pretentious gatherings. You need a woman that can make idle chitchat with the other women of your station. That’s not me. I don’t know how to do that. I don’t want to learn how to do it either.”
“If that was what I wanted, then I would have stayed with Catherine,” I said, looking her in the eye. “That’s not what I want, and she was certainly not who I want.”
“Then what do you want?” she asked.
“I want a brilliant, sexy woman who is as much of a fighter as I am. I want a woman who knows what it means to work, what it means to want something so bad you can taste it. I need a woman with ambitions built on more than just societal expectations.”
“You want a charity case?”
“Ms. Carmichael, you couldn’t be a charity case if you tried. In fact, I did try, and you refused. I had to pick you up out of that god-awful crack den of a room and drag you to somewhere that was more fitting for a woman of your stature.”
“My stature?” She laughed, throwing her head back, her feet kicking a little. “Counselor, my stature indicates that I was exactly where I should have been. I was in an apartment that I could afford.”
“There are New York City rats that were living better than you were,” I deadpanned. “And stature has nothing to do with money, sweet girl. Your stature has to do with your importance. It has more to do with a reputation that is gained by ability and/or achievement. You aren’t born into stature. You earn every single inch of it. The fact that your living arrangement didn’t reflect that was appalling.”
“I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but the housing market for a lot of New Yorkers is appalling,” she said, sitting up to look at me.
I stayed lying down, stretched out in case she wanted to lay down in my arms again.
“Fine, we can address the housing situation after the O’Murphy case if that is what you want to do. But for right now, I’m going to address the housing situation of one particular New Yorker. Move in with me?”
I hadn’t planned on asking something like that so soon. I had intended on persuading her to move into the apartment I had put her in before, letting her think she was still using empty corporate housing, but I didn’t want her even that far away. The idea of having her live with me just seemed right.
“Harrison, what would people say? You’d be ruining my reputation. People would assume that I had slept my way to the top.”
I tried not to roll my eyes.
“Eddie, you are a gorgeous woman who has chosen to take a male-dominated field by the balls. It doesn’t matter if you were a cloistered nun before law school or a prostitute. People will always say that you slept your way to the top, not because it’s true but because that’s the only way they could justify a woman being better than they are. And if they’re going to say it anyway, why not let me help you? Let me pay for law school. Let me?—”
“No,” she interrupted. “You’re not paying for my law school.” She sat up straighter. “I want to do this on my own. I need to.”
“You are incredibly stubborn,” I said.
“Yeah, that’s what’s going to make me a great lawyer,” she said, giving me a little half smile. “But I need to know that I worked my way up, and I paid my own way.”
“Counter proposal, counselor?” I asked.
“Go ahead.” She nodded.
“Pay for law school yourself. I think it’s dumb not to accept the help, but pay for it yourself. But live with me. It’s no different from all the other law students who live with their parents or a partner. They don’t pay rent, and neither will you. But you can still work in the office. I insist that you still work at my desk, and in the office, we will keep it professional. No one needs to know you are living here if you don’t want them to. But I also insist on writing a letter of recommendation as your employer.”
“I still don’t think it’s a good idea,” she said, looking down at the bed. She stayed sitting up, chewing her bottom lip a little, and playing with her fingers.
“Well, I think it’s a fantastic idea,” I said. “But either way, you’re staying here this weekend. Give me a chance to show you what life could be like here with me.”