Simply Beautiful
Simply Beautiful
Serenity King
HHwww.beautifultroublepublishing.comHH
Simply Beautiful
Serenity King
Copyright © 2009 by Serenity King
All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or shared in any form, including but not limited to: printing, photocopying, faxing, or electronic transmission, without prior written permission from the authors.
This book is a work of fiction. References may be made to locations and historical events; however, names, characters, places and incidents are the products of the authors’ imaginations and/or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons (living or dead), businesses, events or locales is either used fictitiously or coincidental.
Published by
Beautiful Trouble Publishing, LLC
PO Box 61
Colfax, NC 27235
HHUUwww.beautifultroublepublishing.comUU
Cover Art: Les Byerley, HHUUhttp://www.les3photo8.com/UU
Editor: Sonya Mott Young, HHUUhttp://legacyediting.com/UU
Proofreader: N. Whyte,
HHUUhttp://proofreadernovellette.blogspot.com/UU
Formatter: Savannah J. Frierson, HHUUhttp://sjfbooks.com/editing/UU
E-book Conversion: Jim & Zetta, HHUUhttp://www.jimandzetta.com/UU
ISBN: 978-1-936271-78-8 (eBook); 978-1-936271-79-5 (print)
The steps of a Good man are ordered by the Lord.
(Psalms 37:23)
To my sister Jackie who encouraged me to follow my dream and to Jayha Leigh AKA Fearless Leader for helping me make it happen.
Note about eBooks
eBooks are NOT transferable. Re-selling, sharing or giving eBooks is a copyright infringement.
Caveat
This work of erotica contains adult language and sexually explicit scenes, which are smoking hot. This book is intended only for adults, as it is defined by the laws of the country in which the purchase is made. Keep this book out of the hands of under-aged readers.
Chapter One
Alisha sighed as she steered her car into an empty parking spot at Starbucks. By this time she had already expected to be at her law office. She really had intended to be on time today, but as usual she had gotten caught up in a phone call from her sister, who was griping about being tired of modeling. Alisha didn’t have time to stop this morning, but of course she needed her morning fix—a tall Caramel Macchiato. She stopped at this particular Starbucks every morning before going into the office.
She smiled as she entered the establishment and noticed her friend Tavia behind the counter. Tavia was the manager, and often helped make drinks during the morning rush. Looking around as she made her way to the line, Alisha gave a silent prayer of thanks that the coffee shop wasn’t that busy this morning. There were only four people ahead of her. Hopefully she would be in and out in about five minutes. Today was just not the day to be late. She’d heard from Lorna that Tristan Cameron would be making an appearance today. Why? She had no idea. The man was intimidating. He walked around with a sour look on his face all the time.
But as long as “Mr. Bad-attitude-I-don’t-give-a-damn-who-you-are” Tristan Cameron stayed out of her way, she would stay out of his. She had a full calendar and an appeal to get out. Never mind that the guy only showed his face in the New York office about twice a year; once during the holiday season, when all the Cameron clan were present, and again, whenever Brandon Cameron took off for wherever it was he disappeared to every year. Brandon disappeared and Tristan appeared. Go figure. She liked Brandon. He wasn’t as intense as Tristan, yet he had a quiet authority about him. She was brought out of her musing when Tavia said, “How’s it going, Alisha?”
“Hi, Tavia, not too great today,” she found herself saying.
“Running late?” Tavia asked.
“Unfortunately,” Alisha replied, looking at Tavia with a frown on her face. “It doesn’t help my cause that the ‘big man’ will be putting in an appearance at the office today.”
“Which one?” Tavia asked.
“Tristan,” Alisha replied.
Tavia’s face brightened and she smiled. “Oh, yummy!”
Sometimes Tristan and Brandon came into Tavia’s Starbucks when Brandon was in Long Island for a court case. The two would often stay to have coffee with other attorneys or sometimes just to hang out together. Ever since Tavia had first spotted the two, she would make comments about them to Alisha. Shaking her head and laughing at Tavia’s pretend swoon, she added, “Tavia, only you would think of Mr. Too-much-testosterone as yummy.”
“Girl…you know that man is hotness personified.”
Tavia was right—the man was a hottie, which only added to her annoyance with him. He could walk into a room and make a girl’s heart go all pitter-patter, even with that permanent frown on his face. Most of the other attorneys in the office steered clear of him. The man never seemed calm…walking around growling all the time…well, at least what she considered growling. Alisha never had to work directly with him, so whenever she spotted the other attorneys coming out of his office looking as though they had peed in their pants, she would just shake her head, go into her office, and close the door.
“The usual?” she heard Tavia saying.
“Yes, please.”
Handing Alisha her coffee, Tavia said, “See you Monday, girlfriend.”
“Yeah,” Alisha said. “Hopefully I won’t be late today too.”
Tavia smiled and replied, “Go get ’em, tiger!” followed by some growling noises that had Alisha shaking her head and cracking up, laughing.
Alisha got into her car and headed to the office. She usually took the train into work, but since she was running late, she was driving in. This could be good or bad, depending on traffic. She wasn’t worried about parking, since everyone at Cameron, Cameron & LaSalle, P.C., owned the parking garage that the employees parked in. They had bought the garage because they didn’t want clients who didn’t want to take the train in to have to drive around trying to find parking.
Alisha steered her car onto the expressway, merging into traffic.
* * *
Tristan hated this shit. He was going to kill Brandon. What the hell was so important that Brandon needed him to put in an appearance? Hell, that’s why his law firm was based in Atlanta. He hated New York. Why the hell they had to open a New York office in the first place was beyond him. Tristan didn’t have the patience or the time to deal with the New York attitudes.
Brandon better have a good reason for getting him to come to New York earlier than his usual time. Tristan had had a reputation for getting things done when he worked undercover as a drug enforcement agent, but no one but his brothers, Brandon and Sinjin, knew about his dealing with the FBI. It was the FBI’s idea to use his law degree as a cover for helping them with several sting operations.
Tristan had joined the Atlanta Police Department after receiving a degree in criminal justice. Few people there knew that he had a law degree from Duke University. He was forced to use his law degree, though, after an undercover drug operation that he and his partner were on was compromised, resulting in a career-ending series of bullets in his partner’s chest and leg. After a collapsed lung and a shattered leg, Sal left the Atlanta PD.
After his partner’s cover had been blown, and not knowing if the leak was Atlanta PD or the FBI, Tristan was called in. Not long after the incident, he left the Atlanta PD, but not the FBI. He’d been determined to find out where the leak had come from that had resulted in Sal losing his career and almost his life.
Brandon had been working in the Atlanta-based law firm at the time and when Tristan left the police department, Brandon left the Atlanta-based firm in Tristan’s hands and moved
to New York to start another firm with his best friend, David LaSalle. Tristan had to admit his little brother hadn’t done a bad job—not a bad job at all. The New York firm employed several associates working in different areas of law.
Pulling into his designated parking spot in the parking garage, Tristan parked his car, got out, and walked around the corner to their office building. When he opened the glass door, Tristan nodded to Lorna, the receptionist, as he passed, heading straight for his brother’s office. Striding forward, he noticed the scattering of employees as he approached, but didn’t give them a second glance as he proceeded towards Brandon’s office. He knew most of them thought him to be mean as hell and couldn’t care less how they perceived him, as long as they stayed out of his way.
Not bothering to knock, Tristan opened the door to Brandon’ office and walked in. Brandon was sitting behind his desk and David was in one of the chairs in front of the desk. Brandon and David both turned to look at him.
“You mind telling me what the hell was so important that I had to come to New York?” Tristan asked.
David put his head down, trying to hide his smile. He looked at Brandon from the corner of his eye to see what he was doing. Brandon was sitting there with a shit-eating grin on his face, like his brother didn’t look like he wanted to rip his throat out.
“Well, hello to you too, big bro,” Brandon said, smiling and coming from behind his desk to stand in front of Tristan—but not too close. When Tristan was in one of his moods, he was a force to be reckoned with. But then again, Tristan was always a force to be reckoned with, so why stop now? Tristan didn’t suffer fools—and in his opinion, most people were fools. Brandon looked up at his brother standing at six feet and three inches tall and shook his head. Even at 37, Tristan still had his fair share of admirers...in fact he had more than his fair share. Apparently women loved the dangerous-looking type of man… but Brandon hadn’t seen Tristan with a woman either of the times they had hooked up last summer. He, Tristan, and Sinjin made it a point to get together for at least a week of guy stuff in the summer, usually before Tristan came to New York to oversee things while he took care of other business—.
“Well, are you going to stand there like an idiot smiling at me, or are you going to tell me what was so all-fire important that I had to come here?”
Brandon didn’t answer but grabbed Tristan hugged him and patted him on the back.
“Glad you’re here, bro.”
“You knew when you called I would come.”
“Tris, man, with you I couldn’t be—”
“When have I ever not come when one of my brothers needed me?” Tristan asked before Brandon could finish his sentence.
“Oh, you would come if you thought one of us was in trouble…but to come to New York… especially knowing how much you hate New York…I had my doubts,” Brandon said.
“Which brings me back to my original question: what the hell is so important I had to hightail it to New York on a moment’s notice?”
“Tris, man, you know I wouldn’t call you if I didn’t need you,” Brandon said.
With a long sigh, Tristan looked into his brother’s blue-grey eyes and noticed that his brother looked stressed. “You in trouble?”
“No. Just need to take care of something that came up unexpectedly.”
Tristan nodded his head at his brother and turned to acknowledge David with his hand outstretched for a handshake. “How’s it going, David?”
“Good, can’t complain,” David said. “Can’t wait for Nadia to have the baby.”
At the mention of the impending birth of Nadia and David’s first child, Tristan smiled at David. “Oh yeah—not long now— when is the baby due?”
“Any day now,” David answered.
Both Tristan and David took a seat in front of Brandon’s desk and Brandon went to sit behind his desk. Looking at them both, Brandon studied his best friend and his brother, shaking his head. Brandon remembered when David had somewhat of the same attitude that Tristan had now before he met his wife of two years, Nadia. Now the two were expecting their first child. He was happy for his friend…happy for him but wouldn’t want to be him. He was happy being single and had no intentions of marrying for a long time to come…if at all.
“Are you going to sit there with that goofy look on your face all day, or are you going to tell me why I am here?” Brandon heard his brother saying.
Brandon shook his head, frowning at his brother. “You know, brother, maybe while you’re in New York you can get laid—you are one ornery dude. Like I said, there are some things I need to take care of, and I need you here while I’m gone.”
Tristan studied Brandon through narrowed eyes, noticing his sudden interest in the papers on his desk. “Is there something going on at the firm that I need to know about?” Tristan asked.
Brandon didn’t reply but instead cut his eyes over to David.
Looking from one to the other, Tristan’s frown deepened “Is there something going on at the firm that you two need to clue me in on?”
“No, not really,” Brandon said.
“What the fuck does ‘no not really’ mean?” Tristan asked.
“Man, Tristan, this is a law firm, not the Bureau,” Brandon said. “You know you are a lawyer—why, I don’t know. You haven’t actually set foot in a courtroom in I don’t know how long.” Looking frustrated, Brandon leaned his head back and pinched the bridge of his nose, and after taking a deep breath, replied, “Okay, here’s the deal— there has been a sort of situation that David and I were in the process of handling, but with Nadia due to give birth any day and on bed rest for the remainder of her pregnancy, today will be David’s last day for the next few weeks and—”
Brandon stopped short when he noticed the look of horror on his brother’s face, holding up his hands to stem off any outburst that his brother was getting ready to have. “No, Tristan, we do not expect you to stay in New York for a month. God forbid,” Brandon added, mumbling under his breath.
Tristan began to relax, not realizing that his body had become ramrod straight at the prospect of having to stay in New York for any extended period of time.
“What’s the situation, Brandon?” Tristan asked. “What kind of situation can we have at a law firm?”
“One that can get very ugly,” Brandon replied.
“Dammit Brandon! Just spill it, why don’t you? I don’t have the time or the patience to play guessing games.”
“The law firm is not the only thing that I am worried about,” Brandon continued. The situation here involves one of the senior associates that we had been thinking of making a partner. As a matter of fact, there have been several discussions in regards to his partnership. David has informed him on several occasions that we would discuss it with him once he reached his five-year mark at the firm, which will be next month. I don’t want the fact that we promised him a partnership to factor into any litigation that may arise out of this mess. He has been accused of sexual harassment by two women: his secretary and an intern who worked for the firm. Unfortunately for us, when the secretary reported the incident to Human Resources, it was blown off as a disgruntled employee because she was being let go. I wasn’t aware of the situation until the next incident happened with a young lady interning here. The young—”
“Who’s the asshole?” Tristan shouted.
Brandon went on, ignoring his brother’s outburst. “The intern apparently isn’t going away as quietly as the HR manager thought. She has threatened the firm with a lawsuit and says she’ll go to the media if the situation isn’t resolved. With that threat, one of the young ladies in HR thought it best to advise me of the situation, since her idiot boss didn’t. With our clientele, I don’t have to tell you how much damage this could cause the firm. I’ve spoken with the intern and have convinced her that we are taking her allegations very seriously. I convinced her to hold off with any legal action for awhile. She has agreed to do so, with a promise from me that the situation w
ill be remedied.”
“Who is it? Fire his ass and be done with it!” Tristan shouted.
“Will you keep your voice down, Tris? We don’t want the whole office to know what’s going on. Although, at this point there is no doubt they do, since I’ve noticed a great deal of whispering going on over the past few days. As for firing him, it might not be that easy. If it was up to me, his ass would have been gone yesterday. But for the sake of all involved, we need to go about this situation quietly and aggressively, which brings me to the other reason you are being called in. I would never leave this mess for you to clean up, but Sinjin called, and it seems our little brother needs me.”
That news caused Tristan’s body to tighten. “What’s up?”
Brandon shrugged and replied. “Don’t know yet. He called and said he needed me.”
“Needs you for what? What the hell is going on? I’ve been trying to reach him for weeks—ever since he told me he was going on some assignment and wouldn’t tell me where it would be. And why would Sinjin call you and not me?” Tristan bellowed, jumping up from his chair.
“Tris, calm down!” Brandon yelled right back.
“I’ll calm down when you stop pussyfooting around and tell me what the fuck is going on! First, who’s the asshole that’s putting the firm in jeopardy of being sued? Not to mention causing your credibility as a firm and an attorney to be questioned. Then you say our brother needs you, the ‘lawyer’ and yet you can’t tell me why he needs you!” Tristan yelled even louder this time.
At this point, David jumped up to face both of them. “Hey! Calm down you two, before you have the entire office in an uproar. Now I suggest y’all sit down, stand up, or whatever, but just lower your voices,” he said, looking from one to the other.