Chapter Fourteen
And he didn’t.
Monday morning at nine, Emma and I were in James’ waiting room without an appointment, much to the displeasure of his frosty receptionist — a statuesque blonde that had even the feminist in me questioning the basis on which she had been hired.
“If you could just let him know we are here,” Emma insisted, her smile enough to make the saintliest succumb. “I assure you, he will wish to see us.”
Without taking her eyes off us, the Ice Queen raised the receiver and spoke discretely to the person at the other end. “I have a Miss Jones and Miss Sawyer wanting to see you, I’ve explained how busy—”
To her obvious chagrin, she didn’t get to finish, the elevated voice at the other end reaching as far as us before cutting off completely.
She looked away as she returned the receiver, her mask of cool professionalism slipping admirably into place. “As you suspected, Miss Jones, Mr. Crane will—”
The door to James’ office flew open, halting her mid-flow, and a rather frazzled looking James appeared, his eyes flitting nervously about the waiting room.
In fairness to him, we weren’t alone, there were four other people waiting to be seen, all of whom now took in the scene before them with apparent interest.
“James, darling!” Emma said sweetly, fluttering toward him, completely unfazed.
He looked to her like a rabbit caught in the headlights and I suddenly felt the urge to laugh, a bubble of nervous hysteria working its way up. It was fascinating to see him so unstuck.
The Ice Queen moved to stand. “I’m sorry, Mr. Crane, but...”
James raised a hand at his receptionist, his face breaking into a smile that only those in the know would deem forced. “Easy, Julia,” he said, his other arm reaching out to welcome Emma into a brief embrace, “I always make time for Edward’s family.”
Julia looked from him to Emma to me, a fleeting look of skepticism marring her perfect features, but then she nodded and relaxed back into her chair, her eyes returning to her computer screen. “Very well, Mr. Crane, I will reshuffle your schedule.”
“Good, good,” he said, his hand slipping into the small of Emma’s back as he encouraged her into his office, his face now turning back to me.
I swallowed, my gaze hitting the stark, gray floor, unable to meet his eyes. This was it. No turning back.
Placing one foot before the other, I forced myself forward.
I felt like every pair of eyes in the room followed me, could see right through me to the seedy deeds I had committed only days ago and those that were yet to come.
I knew it wasn’t possible, that no one could know, but it didn’t stop my cheeks flushing shamelessly.
“James,” I greeted, my voice unnaturally high, my eyes still floor bound as I passed him by.
“Abigail,” he returned, his gravel-like tone reverberating through my ear with his nearness, my shoulder making cursory contact with the solid wall of his chest. The memory of him stripped bare launched to the forefront of my mind and I had to work hard to forget it, to focus on the present and keep my wits about me for the showdown that was about to occur.
Looking to Emma, I found my anchor, her composure and reassuring smile all I needed to continue on.
She stood before a large, black desk, her crisp, white blouse and cream designer suit set off beautifully by the light streaming in from the glass walls that ran along two sides of the office.
Her hair restrained in a sophisticated bun, her makeup, heavy to conceal her healing injuries, still managed to look natural, only a hint of pink gloss on her perfect mouth.
She was the epitome of professionalism, almost celestial. Such a contrast to our previous rendezvous with James, and no less appealing.
I heard the door click shut behind me as I came to stand alongside Emma and James cleared his throat.
“So, ladies, to what do I owe this pleasure?” he asked as he made his way around the desk, his hand gesturing for us to sit on the white leather chairs vacant for guests.
He looked to us both and adjusted his tie as he sat, the telltale beading of his brow giving away his true feelings on our arrival.
Emma was in no hurry to put him out of his misery.
She smoothed her skirt beneath her and lowered herself gracefully into the chair, crossing one leg over the other and interlinking her hands above her knee.
I followed suit, knowing full well I couldn’t carry off anywhere near as graceful an image, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t try.
“Well, James, I see no point in us beating around the bush” she said eventually, her confident purr soothing my core. “Abigail has made a startling discovery which we are hoping you can shed further light on.”
His eyes flicked to me and I held his gaze, feeding off the increasing apprehension coming off him in waves, a dizzying sense of power befalling me.
“You see she has recently learned that her late mother left her quite a significant inheritance” — his eyes darted back to Emma, his permanent tan blanching with her words — “and that it should have been passed to her last year, when she turned twenty-one.”
His eyes flitted between us, his finger working at his collar. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Come now James, you know all there is to know regarding anything remotely legal involving Edward and the affairs of his family.”
Emma looked to me briefly and I gave her a smile, showing her I was more than ready to see this through.
“Look here, Emma ... Abigail ... I don’t know what you think you’ve dis—”
“I am no fool, James, so I’d appreciate you not treating me like one.” Wow! That was me! I’d said that, my voice perfect and even. “I have seen the papers with my own eyes, it’s as clear as the guilt written on your face, there is an inheritance that I am entitled to and I want it.”
“Guilt?” He gave an uneasy chuckle. “The only thing I feel guilty for is giving into my base instincts where you ladies are concerned. As far as the inheritance goes, I don’t like what you are both insinuating.”
“We’re not insinuating anything, James, just telling you the facts,” Emma said calmly. “Abi is entitled to that inheritance and until now it has been kept from her by—”
“By the sanctity of the law,” James finished for her, relaxing into his chair, an unnerving sense of calm now befalling him as he studied us both.
I hadn’t known what to expect from him when he learned the purpose of our visit, but this really wasn’t it.
“The sanctity of the law?” Emma repeated back at him incredulously.
“That’s right, Edward has kept control of that trust for a very good reason.”
Now it was Emma’s turn to laugh, her composure still remarkably intact. “There’s no honest reason that can justify keeping it from her and you know it.”
I waited with bated breath for his objection, my confidence depleting with every exchange. Could there be a genuine, law-abiding reason for it to have been kept from me? I felt sick.
“Even if that were the case,” he said after what felt like an eternity, his voice calm and controlled now as he faced us head on, “what exactly do you hope to achieve by coming here?”
“We want you to give us a copy of all the necessary documentation so that Abigail can stake her claim.”
He laughed good and properly at that. “Are you crazy?”
He looked from Emma to me, waiting for one of us to say something, anything...
“Seriously, I’m not going to do that,” he said shaking his head. “What do you take me for?”
“I take you for a man who corrupted his best friend’s stepdaughter,” Emma said abruptly, her cool and business-like demeanor cracking ever so slightly.
“And it’s one thing for him to pimp me out as and when he feels like it, but from what you know of our dear Edward, do you think he will be so happy where Abigail is concerned? ”
She looked at him, her eyes positively ablaze with the suggestion.
“You have no proof,” he said trying to sound calm, but the telltale tension in his body told us he was far from it. I told myself to feed on that as I rummaged through my bag for the one thing that was going to get us everything we needed.
“But that’s just it,” Emma said, reaching a hand out to me. “We’ve made a copy especially for you...”
With hands that shook, I extracted the disk and passed it to her. She took it, her face one of smiling encouragement and then tossed it onto the desk before him
James stared at it as if someone had just pushed it out of their ass. “I’m far too important to Edward to have such a pitiful thing come between us ... I mean, Christ! He caught the pair of you up to no good and you’re still under his roof, Emma.”
I shouldn’t have been surprised that Dad had told him about us, but I was, and I didn’t like it. Had Dad also told him of how he’d punished us both?
“And what the hell do you think he will do when he learns of your involvement in this?” Edward continued, his anger fueling him now as he tried to crack Emma.
She shrugged. “My relationship with Edward is over anyway, but I won’t lose out for long, I’ll meet someone else, but you, on the other hand, will lose everything: your best friend, your lucrative business relationship...”
“I don’t need Edward to keep me afloat!”
“No, I can imagine that you don’t.” She scanned the office, the shelves of awards, the accreditations, and the door to the waiting room where his clients awaited their appointments.
“But what do you think will happen when this recording goes viral, I mean think about all those people thinking they have an upstanding lawyer representing their best interests ... what do you think they will do? What do you think the bar will do?”
“Enough!” James shot up from his desk. “You bitch, you’re one hell of a nasty piece of work!”
“Takes one, to know one,” Emma said calmly, rising to her feet. I followed suit, eager to hightail it out of there as soon as possible.
“Was it worth it?” he snapped, pinning me with the ferocity of his gaze. “Defiling yourself in order to blackmail me?”
I fixed my sights on him, determined not to let him see how terrified I truly was. “I don’t see what we shared as defiling me as such,” I said, my tone casually reflective. “It was more a means to an end ... and I think we all enjoyed it, don’t you?”
My words shook the bluster out of him as his color heightened at the memories they evoked, his hand shifting distractedly to adjust his crotch.
“Look, James, we’re not doing anything wrong,” Emma said, her tone softening as she tried to calm the situation. “Abi just wants what she is entitled to. Surely you can understand that?”
James looked to Emma and then to the disk on the desk.
“Please, James,” I said, taking Emma’s lead and trying to coax him down the right path now that he understood the gravity of the situation he was in. “It’s not you we want to hurt. In fact, we don’t even want to hurt Dad. I just want what is rightfully mine. No more.”
He raised his eyes to me, and combed his fingers through his hair, a gust of air passing noisily through his gritted teeth. “Fine.”
“Fine?” I pushed tentatively.
“I will get you what you want.”
He held my gaze for moment, his thoughts his own, but then he bent forward and buzzed his receptionist. “Julia, can you come in here a second?”
No sooner than he’d released the button, she swept into the room and I watched with growing relief as he issued her with a list of files to copy.
This was really happening, we were getting the info we needed, the biggest hurdle had been overcome.
As Julia left to carry out his request, he walked around his desk to join us.
“I’d appreciate it if you stayed in here to wait for the copies,” he said, his eyes flitting to the waiting room and making his reasoning clear. “She won’t be long.”
“What is it, James?” Emma said sweetly, stepping toward him. “You wanting a repeat affair? In your office of all places?”
He quickly backed away, a look of panic on his face. “Hell no, I’m going to get some air,” he said, his hand on the door handle already, his other adjusting his persistently defiant crotch. “You two should be gone before I get back.”
And then he fled, the door closing loudly behind him.
I turned to Emma, a smile playing about my lips as the buzz of relief coupled with amusement gave me a heady high. “That was cruel.”
“But effective,” she said giving me a dazzling smile in return, “he truly is ruled by his dick.”
“He isn’t the only one.” The words sprang from my lips as I took in the vision of womanly perfection before me, the spark igniting in my belly as my body swiftly began to demand its next “Emma” dose, and I smiled sheepishly as I added, “If one actually had a dick that is.”
“True, I confess, where you are concerned I fare no better.”
I looked to her in surprise. “I was talking about me...”
She stepped toward me slowly, her eyes dropping to my mouth, the desire now burning in her gaze holding me prisoner. “And I meant me.”
I stopped breathing as I waited on her touch, my skin so sensitized that even the slip of her hand into my hair coaxed a moan from my lips.
“So beautiful...” she said softly, as she brought me toward her, her lips brushing mine with a tenderness that completely belied the fire quickly burning out of control within me.
“We shouldn’t, not here,” I whispered, even as my mouth parted, her tongue coaxing my own into the sweet cavern of her mouth.
She made a small sound of protest and smiled against my mouth, her forehead coming to rest against mine. “I know, but like I told you, you are impossible to resist.”
I gave her a playful push, partly to create some much needed distance before I forgot where we were and forced her to carry on, and partly out of my inability to believe that she could truly mean it, that she found me irresistible.
Nothing, not even thoughts of confronting Dad shortly, could wipe the silly grin off my face as we waited on Julia for those much-needed papers. Life was truly looking up.