Holiday Naughty: My Alpha Bad Boy Client Read online

  Holiday Naughty: My Alpha Bad Boy Client

  Rebecca Lee

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  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.

  The author and publishers of this book have created a work of fiction. Names, places, or things are intended to be fictitious and any relationship to actual persons, places, or things are purely coincidental.

  Copyright 2015 - Rebecca Lee

  Chapter 1--Beth

  “You know I'd love to see you and uncle Mike and all the cousins too,” I said, lying like crazy.

  “You work too hard and there is more to life,” mom said. “You know, you are a beautiful successful young woman. But there is no man in your life. I was....”

  “I know mom: “married at age twenty”,” I said now mostly tuning her out because I'd heard it all before. “But what does my having or not having a boyfriend have to do with anything?”

  “Having someone in your life balances you. Work is only work. Money is only money. It's not why we are here,” she said. “But I guess I used to think like you when I was younger too.”

  “Hey, I thought you loved dad?!” I shot back at her playfully.”But now you are saying it was for the money?”

  “Naawwww” she responded with that Florida panhandle drawl. “It was because of you. I'll give him credit. He at least took care of his responsibility at that stage.”

  “Anyway, mama I have to go,” I said, noticing the scurry of little legs through the glass under the half drawn blinds on the windows to my office. “If I don't get going, I'll have work next Christmas too. Billable hours. That's the legal business.”

  “Bye Bethy,” she said cheerfully.

  I hung up the phone and readied myself for what was to come. Dealing with the children was the easy part. I should have been an elementary school teacher. Except the pay was lousy and I didn't want to be just another woman trolling around looking for a successful man to take care of me.

  Becoming a lawyer said something to the world and the pay said even more.

  I sat up in my chair, grabbed my hand held recorder, and began dictating correspondence. I didn't get the first sentence completed when the chaos of tiny feet came scampering into my office.

  Little Andy and even littler Amy came flying into my office.

  “Aunt Bethy!”

  “There's my kids!”

  They both hugged me warmly around my legs. My eyes quickly averted to the door and the imminent arrival of Shawna, their mother.

  “Hey Beth. What's up?” she said entering the room behind her excited kids. “Not work anymore most likely?”

  Shawna was the perfect mom. Of that I had no doubt. She actually was a former elementary teacher herself. Hit the jackpot when she married a powerful partner like Andrew Kincaid.

  We got along great and that fact gave me a lot of comfort. We both had the “southern girl” thing going on. She was from Alabama just across the state line from the panhandle. She still had the accent while mine was all but “lawyered” out of me.

  “Any big plans for the holidays?” She asked, rounding her children up and nudging them back out the door. “Going back home?”

  “Ask your husband.”

  Oh. That sounded weird. Or maybe it just sounded weird to me.

  “He works all of you too much. Especially young talented associates like you,” she responded without hesitation.

  “Talented? He said that?”

  “Not just talented. The most talented,” Shawna said like she was my proud mom.

  I didn't say anything, but did a lips pursed together smile. I felt pride but at the same time the whole moment was just not right to hear that.

  “You've worked hard to get where you are at Beth,” she said. “I have inside knowledge here. Andrew will take care of you. He's the number one man and he has the old guy's ear.”

  “Thank you Shawna. Thank you for putting my mind at ease. I'll have fun at Christmas. Don't worry about that. But if Andrew needs me, how could I saw no?”

  When I finished I felt the air suck into my chest abruptly. Like I was told by a doctor to hold my breath.

  “Merry Christmas Beth,” she said turning to chase down Andy and Amy who were jumping around the secretarial area, laughing and screaming.

  I nodded my head and gave her a smile and a wave.

  I knew my Christmas was not likely to be fun in the traditional sense. But I was going to make damn sure it was productive in advancing my position at the firm.

  *

  Even though it was a week before Christmas, it was steamy, warm, and humid in West Palm Beach.

  The old guy and his dress codes. Even on a Friday, for the women it was a dress below the knees with nylons or dress pants. And forget any shoes with open toes. That's what Oliver Brundidge wanted for his firm and that's what he got. Three Hundred Sixty Five Days a year.

  But dressing like that was so damn uncomfortable when the weather was humid. Being south Florida, it seemed like it was like that every day.

  My skin itched and pricked on my ass, legs, even my feet. I'd given up. After twenty four months of practice and thousands of dollars invested in trying different business clothing, I accepted that being comfortable at work was impossible.

  To make that Friday worse, the conversation was also dragging. It was Friday and it was nearly six. The place had cleared out like a herd of cattle at five thirty sharp. Just like every day.

  Most of the staff displayed more effort in their exit then they had in doing their jobs during those few weeks leading up to Christmas.

  “So I hit opposing counsel with interrogatories just inside the pre-trial deadline. That will teach them to try to rush to trial before we've had a chance to talk to everyone in the family business.”

  David was always looking to make things hard on the other side in the estate cases we worked. He was damn good at it too. Normally I would have been all in wanting, to trade my own war stories.

  But I had my limits.

  David was my best friend at the firm by quite a bit. He was a brilliant young lawyer. But he always tried a little too hard to get my attention. Especially for a guy I knew had a girlfriend and for a guy I never had any interest in.

  Sure, I dated guys who I wasn't feeling it for. All the time.

  But David couldn't advance my career one bit. So I had nothing to gain by letting us become more than friends. It all started to get tiresome. The way he'd always come to my office, plop down in the chair across from me and occupy my time.

  “So what's up after work?”

  I paused and tried to think up an answer that would have kept me from having to reveal anything. But also I wanted him to leave without hinting he'd like to hang out socially.

  He was an attractive guy as guys went. But there were plenty of them out there. He just didn't ever do anything to make me feel attracted to him. I know he thought I should have been into him because we had the legal profession in common.

  But I just wasn't interested.

  “I have got a ton of work to hit my hours requirement for the year. I had so many cases where I had to slash my bill,” I said.

  It was total crap. I was the top billing associate in the office by a mile.

  “Oh,” he said, clearly disappointed.

  “You and Emily doing anything for the holiday?”

  He squirmed in
his chair.

  I was sure if I mentioned his plain jane girlfriend, he would leave.

  “I want someone I can talk about my career with. Someone who understands the pressure we are under,” he said. “Emily wasn't the one.”

  It was a pathetic attempt at a lie. When he said it, he couldn't even look me in the eye. But I really could have cared less if he was telling the truth or not.

  As lonely I was for large chunks of time, I wasn't ever going to get on my back for a guy who wouldn't come out and tell me what he wanted.

  In the end, the “friend” thing seemed like his game to get in my pants.

  My patience with him was at an end.

  Thankfully, I got a sudden reprieve from the conversation going any further

  Andrew was striding around the corner toward my office with a file in his hand. Since I was the only one left besides David and I was Andrew's lead associate, I knew he'd get rid of David for me.

  He was the most prestigious and accomplished working partner at the firm and the heir apparent to the old man Mr. Brundidge. He was also the husband to sweet southern belle Shawna and their two perfect kids. He was barely forty and already a millionaire.

  He'd gotten there by insane work ethic coupled with incomparable brilliance. I soaked in his presence every chance I got. And I was confident no one in the firm got more chances than me.

  “Ms. Frey, can I get a moment? I have to get your explanation on a couple aspects of the Windgate Estate.”

  David always kissed his ass like nobody's business. When he heard Andrew's voice, he scurried out the door without another word to me. He threw out a general “I have to knock out some more discovery,” when he got up from the chair wanting to make sure Andrew was aware how hard he was working.

  With David gone, Andrew looked down at me, his reading glasses perched on his nose. I didn't know what to expect. I never did with him.

  Chapter 2-- Tyler

  I picked at my mac and cheese and fought back the worst feeling in the world: boredom

  “You have any more Mellow Yellow?”

  “Mister West, I don't mean to pry but this isn't like you. Eating junk food to this level. Are you ok sir?”

  “Martin, don't worry yourself. I appreciate your concern. I do,” I responded before gulping at least a half can of the sugary yellow soda. “All this prosperity has made me soft. It's boring the hell out of me.”

  “I understand sir. You have never been one to sit idle,” he responded. “But don't you think because you came from money, you would be at peace with it? Additionally, I know that you do so much for people who need help who weren't as blessed as you.”

  “Well that stays between us. I know you know that. I don't want people to know all about that stuff. I hate attention for things we all should be doing anyway. At least rich people like me. We shouldn't need publicity to do right.”

  He spooned me one more large bowl of the boxed Kraft comfort food and laid out another piece of bread and butter.

  I caught a smile from him as I kept wolfing down my food.

  “Sir I know your mother would be very proud of you.”

  “Funny,” I said, pausing to swallow more food that was keeping me from speaking clearly. “I never once got that sense. It was always about what was wrong with what I was doing. It was always about what I wasn't. Except of course when they wanted to parade me in front of people.”

  “At Holidays?”

  “Yeah, especially those. Christmas was the worst,” I said, falling back nearly out of breath in my wooden high chair at the kitchen bar area. “Bunch of people showing off, trying to outdo everyone else with how “Christmas” they could be.

  “Sir, did you ever think you could stand to think less and just, as they say, “go with the flow?”

  I tried holding back a full laugh, but I failed. Martin, an old guy from Wales, using young people slang. But that was him. Adaptable as hell. He had to be to work for my screwed up family.

  “Martin. Did anyone ever tell you take your job too seriously,” I said searching the giant steel fridge for another Mellow Yello.

  I thought twice about whether it was good for me, but grabbed one anyway.

  “No, but many say you work too hard sir. I worry. You are so alone.”

  There was a lot Martin didn't know. When he brought up the helping poor people, I got nervous. I guarded that part of my life super close. I had to because Martin had a way of knowing everything. Some things were just personal.

  Sure I was “alone” or whatever that meant. But I wasn't unhappy. The thing that made me more unhappy than anything was being bored. The endless string of women I had been with might have been hot, but they all bored me. I felt like I was always a phony, chasing phony women around.

  There was the daughter of the New York real estate mogul. Then the actress. Then the NFL cheerleader. Even the Playboy Playmate of the Year. Followed closely after that with the princess of the small Europeon kingdom.

  They all were just too agreeable. They never challenged me or made me think. There was no work in being with them. It was flash money and fame, get date, then get laid. A three-step process.

  The whole rich guy lifestyle frustrated me. I couldn't wait to get the hell out of that big house and back to my place in the city. I only came because I knew Martin missed my parents. The big place was empty and cold. Like it always felt when I was growing up. But for Martin, I'd do anything. He basically raised me.

  I remember one morning after I spent the night doing a Sports Illustrated bikini cover model.

  I thought we might have had a chance. Then she said something out of the blue at breakfast.

  “You know you are very impersonal.”

  I don't know why that stuck with me nearly a year later? I was caught because I knew she was right. But I wasn't going to be something I wasn't. That's what I believed with every fiber of my being.

  Well only a few more days. Then I was going to send Martin and his daughter on a trip to the Caribbean for a couple weeks. Guy hadn't had a vacation for years. He waited on my miserable parents hand and foot. For decades.

  I know it was a hell I could never have endured.

  He knew I'd grown to hate Christmas. The parties. The empty gift giving. The holiday spending on people who needed nothing..

  By just ignoring it, I never felt like I was missing out.

  It was the house I grew up in but it wasn't mine. I wanted to put all this behind me. I wanted to get away from Philadelphia. Be anonymous. I was nothing special. And everywhere people found out who I was, they'd make too big a deal out of me.

  Fighting back boredom and feeling bloated from the meal, I went upstairs to my gym. I flipped the space heater on. These rooms were so drafty. Place was like an ancient castle. Heat escaped everywhere.

  I needed to eat better. But it was all fattening comfort foods that week. Nothing Christmas related.

  I took a deep breath that could have been mistaken for a gasp. I'd packed on some fat. I turn away from the mirror and threw on a tee shirt.

  The snow blew around outside the window in the darkness. I felt a longing to be anywhere but where I was.