Alexander
Alexander
A lex knew that he was wearing down her resistance to his whole dating thing, even if she protested that it, “Wasn’t a date,” every time he insinuated that it was. He wasn’t sure how he was going to convince her to give him a chance, but he was sure that he’d find a way. He really liked Nova. The more time he spent with her, both in and out of the office, the more he realized just how much he liked her. Plus, the sex was mind-blowingly good. Maybe taking her in his office on her very first day was a mistake, but he didn’t give a fuck. He couldn’t seem to keep his hands to himself when he was around her. It was as if he was drawn to her somehow.
They pulled up to the first address that she’d given him, and he looked over the apartment building as if it offended him in some way. Alex needed to remember that he was there to support Nova and help her find a safe place to rent for her and Jack. The judge would be looking for her to be able to provide a clean, safe environment for her and her son. Nova finding a place like that was the only way he’d be able to fight her ex for custody of Jack and win—and Alex had a feeling that this wasn’t the place.
“You said you chose this place because it’s close to your ex’s house, right?” he asked. He couldn’t imagine Simon Meyers living in a rundown hole of a neighborhood like this one.
“Well, it’s closer to our house—I mean, his house. He got it in the divorce. I used to live in the Hills Estates,” she said. Alex whistled and she nodded. “Yeah—it’s pretty fancy. That used to be my life, but it’s not anymore. I might be wasting your time, Alex. What judge in his right mind would take my son from a home in the Hills Estate and move him into a crummy apartment like this one?” she asked. “At least it's a step up from my current apartment.” She was right—it was an improvement from her current place, but he knew better than to agree with her. He’d never had to live in a place like this. He actually owned a few homes—his favorite being his grandfather’s old estate house. That’s where he called home currently and he knew that this place could put the homes in the Hills Estate to shame. But then, he never had to worry about money or anything like that. He was lucky, and he knew it.
“Maybe you should just take me home,” she whispered.
“Nope,” he said. “Listen, the judge will want to see that Jack is in a clean, safe place. He won’t care which one of you has the bigger house. It’s about reuniting a mother and her child, and most judges live for that shit.”
She nodded, “All right,” she agreed. “I’ll take a look at it.”
“Good,” Alex breathed. “Let’s go.” He got out of his SUV and reached back in for her hand, to help her out.
“Are you always like this?” she asked.
“Like what?” he asked.
“So upbeat? I mean, it’s great and all, but don’t you get tired of being so positive all of the time?” she asked.
He shrugged, “I guess it’s just my nature. My brother, Rod, used to give me shit about being so damn happy all of the time. He used to call me Mary Poppins, and God, I hated that. He said that I was perfect in every way, just to piss me off.”
“Your brother sounds like he’s more my speed,” she said.
Alex spun around and stood in front of her. “You are not going anywhere near my brother, Nova,” he almost shouted. “He’s not your speed or anything close to it.”
“Geeze, Alex,” she grumbled, “it was just a joke.”
“Well, it wasn’t funny. My brother just plays with women and then drops them. You’re too good for him. Hell, you’re too good for me too, but I’ve decided that I don’t give a fuck.”
“I think that you’re giving me too much credit here, Alex,” she said. “I’m not as good as you think I am. I’m sorry that I teased you.”
He nodded and pulled her into his body, wrapping his arms around her. He was acting like a complete asshole, but he couldn’t seem to help it. When Nova said that about his brother, he saw red. The idea of her with Rod, or any other man for that matter, made him crazy.
“I’m sorry that I acted like an ass,” he whispered into her ear. “God, honey,” he breathed, “what are you doing to me?”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“You drive me half crazy with need. Every time I see you, I want to touch you. Hell, I want to fuck you. And when we’re not together, I find myself counting down the damn minutes until I get to see you again. That’s crazy, right? I mean, we only met yesterday.” He sounded like a lunatic and half-expected Nova to run for the hills when he told her how he was feeling about her—but she didn’t. She just cuddled into his body and nodded against his chest.
“I thought that I was the one who was losing my mind,” she whispered. “I feel the same way about you, Alex, no matter how hard I try to fight it. I shouldn’t feel like this—you’re my boss, but what we did this morning, in your office, felt right.” Hearing her say that made him feel a bit less crazy. It was good to know that he wasn’t in this thing—whatever it was, alone.
“What do we do now?” she asked.
“Now, we look at these apartments to see if any of them fit the bill. Then, you’re going to let me take you out on a date—to dinner.” He left off the part where he hoped to take her back to his house to spend the night in his bed. Alex wasn’t sure that she was ready to hear that part, even if she just admitted to wanting him.
They toured five apartments all across town, and none of them were right for what Nova needed. She was the first to admit that no judge would consider any of them nice enough to move Jack out of his father’s house.
By the time they got to dinner, Nova looked like she was about ready to drop, and he hated seeing her defeated like that. “We’ll find you a place, honey,” he said, reaching across the table to take her hand into his own.
“I’m not sure that I can find the kind of place that I’ll need to convince a judge to give me back my son. I’m going up against a man with unlimited funds,” she said.
“Did you get anything in the divorce?” he asked.
“Not really,” she admitted. “I get a small amount of money monthly from him. It’s not enough to pay my car payment.” He had seen her car—it couldn’t have cost that much monthly, and Alex wondered what the hell happened in her divorce case. “Who was your lawyer?” he asked.
“Um, his name was something like Hank Mullens. He was cheap and said that he’d be able to help me, so I hired him. I was desperate at that point. Simon had cut me off from all of our assets, bank accounts, and credit cards. I was out of options.”
“I see,” he said. “I’ve never even heard of Hank Mullens,” Alex said. That was saying a lot too. He had heard of just about every damn lawyer in town.
“He has a little office not far from here,” she said. “I’m sure that I can dig up his business card.”
“If you can find it, I’d love to talk to Hank about your case,” Alex said.
“Okay,” Nova agreed. “In the meantime, I guess I’m back to apartment hunting tomorrow. Thanks for helping me tonight. I know that I gave you some pushback, but I really appreciate your help, Alex.”
“My pleasure,” he said, pulling her hand up to his lips to gently kiss the back of it.
“Well, look who’s cozied up to my ex,” a man said, standing over their table. Alex looked up to find Simon staring him down. The guy had obviously had one too many and he worried that things would quickly escalate if Alex let them. He needed to keep his calm because the restaurant was full of witnesses that might help Nova’s custody case.
“What are you doing here, Simon?” Nova spat.
“I was told by McTavish’s office that I’d be able to find him here.” Simon tossed a big manilla envelope onto their table, nearly knocking Nova’s glass of wine onto her lap.
“I got these from your office today,” Simon shouted at Alex. He turned to stare down Nova again and Alex hated the way that she actually cowered in front of him, giving the asshole just what he wanted.
“Did you really think you had a chance to take Jack from me? You’ve already lost him once, it doesn’t matter who you get to handle your case, you will never win when you come up against me.”
Alex stood from his seat and put himself between Simon and Nova. “If you’d like to talk to my client, you will need to call my office and speak to me. I’ll happily relay any messages that you have for her.” Simon took a step back, swaying with the effort of trying to stand up straight. He was a big guy, but Alex was bigger, and he wasn’t drunk—both would play in his favor if Simon made a play at him.
“You don’t get to tell me that I can’t talk to my own wife, asshole,” Simon spat.
“Ex-wife,” Alex reminded.
Simon looked between the two of them and burst out into fits of laughter, his breath smelling like stale whiskey. “Oh—I see what’s going on here. You two are sleeping together, aren’t you?” he asked.
“What we do together isn’t your concern,” Alex countered. “Nova is no longer your concern.”
“She’s my concern as long as I say that she is,” Simon shouted, pointing his finger into Alex’s chest.
“You’ll want to remove your finger before I take it off for you,” Alex said, trying to keep his cool.
Simon let his hand drop to his side and looked around Alex, giving Nova a mean smile. “You know what, sweetheart?” he asked. “You won’t always have your protector here watching over you. At some point, you’ll have to go back to that rat hole you call home, and I’ll be there waiting for you. We’re going to go over a few things—you and I.”
“You won’t touch her again, asshole,” Alex said when he heard Nova gasp behind him. He hated that Simon was able to intimidate her like that. He had a feeling that Simon got off from intimidating women. If he had to guess, Simon had smacked Nova around to get her to comply with what he wanted from her. Guys like him were so predictable, it was pathetic.
“Oh, and how do you plan to stop me?” Simon challenged.
“Nova will have my full protection. You won’t be able to get to her—ever,” Alex promised.
“She’ll have to meet me to pick up our son on Saturday,” Simon taunted. “What will you do about that, McTavish?”
“I’ll be accompanying Nova to your home to pick up Jack. When she returns him to you, I will also be with her. I’ll be filing a complaint with the court to let them know that you have threatened Nova and she’ll be getting a restraining order against you. How does that work for you, Simon?” Alex taunted.
“Whatever,” Simon said. He looked around the restaurant at the people who had stopped eating their dinners to watch the little show that he was putting on and Alex knew exactly what he was thinking. Nova now had witnesses to help collaborate on her case and there was nothing that Simon could do about it.
“They don’t matter,” Simon whispered. “None of this matters because I have an ace up my sleeve—something that you’ll never be able to beat, McTavish.” Alex wondered what Simon was talking about until he remembered the rumors that circulated about Simon’s firm paying off judges. Nothing ever came of the investigation, but the firm wasn’t cleared of wrongdoing either. The accusations just seemed to disappear, and Alex always wondered why that was.
“You can pay off every damn judge in the county,” Alex said. From the way Simon’s eyes flared, he could tell that he had guessed correctly. “It won’t matter though. I’ll appeal this case all the way up and sooner or later, your reach, and money won’t mean a thing. Play dirty all you’d like, asshole. I know how to play even dirtier.”
Simon barked out his laugh and turned to leave. “See you soon, Nova,” he said over his shoulder, not bothering to even look back at her.
Alex sat back down at the table and took her trembling hands into his own. “What are those papers?” she asked, nodding to the envelope that Simon left behind.
“I petitioned the court to reopen your custody case. I guess Simon was served and he didn’t like what those papers had to say,” he said.
“You’ve already petitioned the court? But I don’t even have an apartment yet,” she said. “I’ve only known you for a day now, and you’re already working my case?”
He shrugged, “What can I say?” he asked. “I’m a fast mover.” He was too—especially when it came to Nova. Everything about her made him want to hurry things along, to get to the good parts. He knew that for her, getting her son back would be the best part and he couldn’t wait to make that happen for her.
“Thank you,” she said. “I’ve never had anyone do something like that for me. My last lawyer took forever to get anything done.”
“No problem,” he breathed. “And you really need to stop comparing me to your last lawyer, honey. I’m betting that we have very little in common.”
“Sorry,” she said. “I still have to find a place to live, and now, Simon is threatening to come after me. God only knows what he’ll do to me this time.”
“This time?” Alex questioned. “What did Simon do to you before, Nova?” he asked.
She looked down to where he was still holding her hands and back up to him. “He used to hit me,” she admitted. “I thought that he just needed to get some help—you know? I thought that making partner had stressed him out and that he was just blowing off some steam. Hell, I even thought that it was my fault for so long, but then, he did it in front of Jack, and I knew that I could never let it happen again. That’s when I started putting all of the puzzle pieces together and figured out that he was having affairs.”
“As in more than one?” he asked.
“Yep—too many to count,” she said. “I confronted him, and he told me that I should have kept my nose out of his business and that’s when he told me that our marriage was over.”
“I’m so sorry, honey,” Alex said.
“You didn’t do anything to be sorry for, Alex,” she insisted.
“Didn’t your lawyer tell the judge that Simon had repeatedly cheated on you during your marriage?” he asked.
“He did, but it didn’t matter. Alex convinced the judge that I was an unfit mother because of my crappy apartment and lack of funds, and well, that was the end of it all,” she said.
“What about the abuse—was that disclosed?” he questioned.
“No,” she whispered. “That was my fault though. I never called the police and filed a report when Simon did that to me. He convinced me that if I did, they’d take everything that we had, including our home, and then where would Jack grow up? I was a fool for falling for it. I should have called and put in a complaint against him and now, I might have my son. Instead, I let him talk me out of it. Hell, he even had me believing that I deserved it.”
“You didn’t,” Alex said.
“I know that now,” she said. “But love makes people do crazy things, you know?” she asked. He didn’t have a clue what she was talking about since he had never been in love with anyone in his life.
“What am I going to do now?” she asked. “If I go home, he’s going to show up there, and then what will he do?”
He wasn’t going to let her figure it out on her own. “You’ll come home with me,” he insisted.
“What?” she asked. “Don’t be ridiculous,” she said. “I can’t come home with you. I work for you, Alex. What will people around the office say if they find out that I’m staying at your house?” she questioned.
“They won’t say anything because my employees have learned to mind their own business and stay out of mine. No one will find out, Nova,” he promised. “This way, we can work on your case, and I can keep you safe from your ex. You saw how he backed down when I told him that I’d be with you when you pick up and drop off Jack, right?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said. “But I can’t just move into your place,” she insisted.
“How about you move into my place until you can find a new apartment? We’ll keep looking and you can take your time and find something that works for both you and Jack. I have excellent security and you will be safe over at my apartment,” he said. He worried that she wasn’t going to be reasonable and take him up on his offer, but there was no way that he’d take her back to her place. Especially not after the scene that her ex had just caused, and the threats that he made against her.
“Fine, but only until I find a place, Alex,” she agreed. “I’ll admit, I’m scared of what Simon will try to do to me since he’s so pissed off at me. I just hope he doesn’t take out his anger on Jack,” she said.
“Has he ever done that before, Nova?” he asked.
“No,” she breathed. “Not as far as I know.” He wouldn’t put it past the guy to take his anger out on his own kid. He seemed pretty torn up about being served papers suing him for custody. For now, all Alex could do was find a way to keep Nova safe, and then, he’d help her get her son back.