Heat of Passion （n.） – Olivia
HEAT OF PASSION (N.):
IN A CRIMINAL CASE, WHEN THE ACCUSED WAS IN AN UNCONTROLLABLE RAGE AT THE TIME OF COMMISSION OF THE ALLEGED CRIME.
OLIVIA
The following morning
“Please don’t be here early, please don’t be here early…”
I pulled my car into an empty judicial lot at three forty-five.
As much as I wanted to come in late today, I didn’t want to push my luck. Plus I figured I’d use the extra time to make up for the small things I didn’t finish yesterday.
Swiping my key at the door, I grabbed a few files from the records office before stepping into chambers.
Thankfully, it was pitch black inside.
I was all alone.
I let out a sigh of relief and reached for the lights.
“Good morning, Olivia.” Judge Ashton’s voice stopped me dead in my tracks.
The lights flicked on, and my stomach fell to the floor.
He was standing in the doorway of his office, dressed in a white T-shirt that hugged his muscles and dark gray sweatpants that hung low off his hips.
So much for the office dress code…
“Did you have a good early night?” He leaned against the doorframe. “Better yet, did you enjoy the additional time off I didn’t approve?”
“Yes, I did,” I said, even though I knew his questions were rhetorical. “I hope you had a good night, too.”
“I didn’t.”
“Well…Sorry to hear that.” I shrugged and walked to my desk, feeling his heated gaze on me the entire way. I started pulling the things I needed from my drawers, avoiding his stare.
“Can you join me in here please?” His words were a command, not a question. “We need to talk—again.”
“I’ll wait on Mara to get here.” I looked up at him. “I’d be more comfortable with her around.”
“I can fire you without cause, Miss Spencer,” he said. “It’d be silly for me to have to do that over a simple instruction.”
The look in his eyes made it clear he was on edge, that serving him a line of sarcasm might lead him to snap.
“Bring your notebook,” he said. “You have one hell of a list of things to handle today.”
Obliging, I slowly walked toward him and into his office, and he eased off the doorframe and shut the door behind him.
I waited for him to move behind his desk, but he remained standing with me.
Close enough to touch, he let his eyes wander from my hair to my heels before looking right into my eyes.
“Take out your pen,” he said. “I’m not going to repeat myself.”
I remained still.
“Fair enough, then,” he said, “One, you’ll pre-order my dinner from Logan’s and you’ll leave here around eight this evening to get it.”
I didn’t write that down.
“Two, you will stand in for Mara all next week, as she deserves a vacation and the other clerks will still be out.”
“You gave them another week off?” I felt my chest tighten. “I barely survived last week without them.”
“But you did survive, right?”
He didn’t give me the chance to answer.
“Three, I thought about what you said regarding a rental car and I definitely can afford that so…” He hesitated. “You can rent one and use that to pick me up until my personal cars are working again.”
“Four, you will—”
“No.” I threw the notebook to the floor before he could finish his sentence. “I can’t take any more of this from you.”
“That notebook is rather small for the rest of my list.” He glanced down at it. “You should pick it up and go get a bigger one.”
“I’m not getting anything.” I kicked it instead, feeling a familiar surge of hatred rush through me. “I’m done putting up with you.”
“Good to see your true vigilante colors coming through again.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” My chest heaved up and down. “Better yet, can you just tell me why you keep treating me like I’m beneath you?”
“You are beneath me.”
“Like I’m beneath everyone else.” My blood was boiling. “You’re purposely trying to drive me insane, and I swear, if you do one more petty ass thing, I might have to check myself into an asylum.”
“Be careful, Miss Spencer.” He pressed his hand against the door. “The insanity defense hardly ever works on anyone, especially me.”
“You are a terrible boss and an even worse human being.”
“With your writing degree, I’m sure you can come up with better insults than that.”
“I would like for you to reassign me to another judge’s chambers.”
“That’s never happening.”
“So, you’d rather me stay here under you and remain miserable?”
“Yes.”
Silence.
“Can you get the other notebook now?” he asked. “I’m not exaggerating about the length of my list.”
“Then you should probably ask some other people to help you with it.” My blood was boiling. “I’m done with the whiplash under you, and I honestly haven’t done anything to deserve how awful you’ve been to me, so—”
“Cut this emotional bullshit.” He interrupted with a hiss. “You stalked me at my fucking condo and took a crowbar to not one, but two of my cars.”
My jaw dropped to the floor and all the air left my chest.
He KNEW?!
“You honestly thought you’d gotten away with that shit?” He glared at me. “Did you think I would never figure it out?”
“I…” I couldn’t breathe. “I…”
“Go ahead and finish your little speech,” he said. “Tell me how I have no idea how to treat you, but quickly follow it up with how the fuck you treated me…”
I was utterly speechless.
“Yes, I treat you worse than everyone else here,” he admitted. “Yes, I will continue to be very petty and ‘mean’ to you, but if we’re keeping a running balance, you still owe me about two hundred thousand dollars in damages.”
I felt like a deer in headlights, but there was nowhere for me to run.
“Don’t you have something to say for yourself?” he asked.
“I, uh—I…I swear I…” I stuttered, attempting an apology, but the words stalled on my lips.
“Don’t worry, I’ll wait.” He clenched his jaw. “Unlike you, I have all day.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I snapped…And I tried to get you to change your ruling, remember?”
“Yes.” His voice was terse. “I remember that shit, too. Apology unaccepted.”
“So, this entire time—” My mind was still putting together the pieces. “You’ve been working me to the bone because you secretly want revenge?”
“It’s not a secret,” he said, towering over me. “And that’s only forty percent of why.”
“What’s the other sixty percent?”
“I believe that’s quite obvious.”
“Where?”
He closed the remaining gap between us.
I didn't move.
I couldn't.
He tilted my chin up with his fingertips, looking right into my eyes.
His lips landed on mine and he pulled me flush against his chest.
“Is it obvious now?” He growled against my mouth, pinning me against the door with his hips.
His tongue tamed mine within seconds, making it clear that he was in control. Not me.
As I was staring into his eyes—watching the hunger dance in his irises—he slowly slid a hand under my dress.
“Ahhh…” I moaned as his palm moved between my thighs, as he pushed my panties to the side.
“Is your pussy wet for me?” He bit my lip, but he didn’t wait for an answer. He pressed his thumb against my soaking wet clit, then he rubbed it with a slow, torturous rhythm.
The doorknob pressed into the groove of my back, but I was too lost in his unrelenting kisses to care.
No man had ever controlled me like this, and I didn’t want it to end.
“Olivia…” he said my name in a way that made my heart race. Then he uttered some lines I couldn’t quite hear over my own moaning.
Without warning, he suddenly withdrew his hand.
“No…” I looked at him, wanting him to put it back.
“Take this off.” He tugged at the hem of my dress. “Now.”
I stalled, too aroused to move.
“Okay, then…” There was a bite of anger in his voice. He grabbed it and pulled it over my head, exposing that the only thing I was wearing underneath was a pair of red lace panties.
He pressed his palms against my breasts and kissed my neck. Then he trailed his kisses down to my right nipple, sucking it between his lips.
I grabbed a fistful of his hair as he blew against me, as he shifted his head and sucked on my left one.
Without saying a word, returned his mouth to my neck while he slipped two fingers deep inside me, making me moan against his chest.
“This is how I want you to ride my dick…” he whispered against my neck. “Tell me how bad you want it…”
“Yes…” I moaned. “I want it…”
“In your mouth, too?”
“Yes…In my mouth, too.” I repeated as his fingers fucked me harder.
“Stay the hell away from me this week,” he growled against my lips, still pleasuring my pussy. “I don’t need to be alone with you.”
“I…” I was nearing the edge. “I…”
My pussy throbbed against his hand and I screamed into his chest, stunned that I’d come that hard.
He held me taut as I recovered, and I felt him pressing kisses against my hair.
When I finally stopped trembling, he pulled his fingers from me, and I felt empty.
“Here.” He grabbed my dress off the floor. “Hold your hands up.”
I obeyed and he gently positioned it back over my body. Then he slid his hand between my legs again and snatched off my panties.
Tucking them into his pocket, he stared at me for several seconds.
“You have a week to give me your final research on my old case.” He pressed his forehead against mine. “Don’t come to my courtroom and distract me, or else.”
“Or else, what?”
His lips found mine again, much rougher this time, and his hands gripped my waist.
I stared into his eyes as he kissed me even harder than the first time.
“Anyone in here this morning?” Someone called out on the other side of the door. “Hellooo?”
Liam pulled apart from me, but this time there wasn’t anger in his eyes.
There was longing.
“I meant what I said about staying away from me.” He opened the door. “Go away.”
“What about the list?”
“I’ll come up with another one for you later,” he said. “Walk away, Miss Spencer. I’m not letting you have the last word.”
“I wasn’t trying to take it.”
“Get out.”