His Challenging Lover (2 page)

Xander took the file with resignation. He wanted to toss the file into his office and storm down to Autumn’s office so he could fix whatever had hurt her. Instead, he focused on his next client, reading through the file and skimming through the details. “She has coffee already?” Xander asked, distracted by the file and thinking about Autumn, worried that someone in the office might have hurt her feelings.

No, that was impossible. Besides him and his brothers, there wasn’t anyone with as much authority in the office as Autumn. She ruled the schedules and the case loads with military precision. If anyone dared to irritate her, she quickly and efficiently put them in their place.

He loved hearing that too. When one of the other lawyers tried to get uppity, she’d simply give them a piece of her mind. Anyone who came up against the mighty Autumn Hallman went away with their tail between their legs.

Except him. He loved going head to head with her.

Unfortunately, he knew that Autumn wasn’t interested in him. She had her own life, her own hobbies and plans for the future.

But he couldn’t stop his eyes from looking at Autumn’s closed door before he sighed and made his way into his own office. Ms. Davenport awaited. She was on her third marriage and each one made her wealthier than the last. With his help, of course.

Autumn came into the office early the next day, needing to get some work done in the quiet time before the rest of the staff came into work. She couldn’t believe the week she was having. First, her best friend gets arrested for murder and next, yet another assistant quits on Xander. That was the third one in six months! What does that man do that annoys them so much?

Okay, so the last one wasn’t up to scratch. She was embarrassed to say it, but she’d known from the beginning that that one wasn’t going to work out.

But in her defense, she had to work closely with Xander each time they hired a personal assistant for him. During that last round, she’d just short circuited the interview process because it was getting harder and harder to be around him. Keeping her distance was the most important way she kept her sanity while working so closely with him. Unfortunately, doing interviews for his assistant meant sitting next to him, feeling the man’s heat emanating from his body even from the distance she maintained from him. She couldn’t handle that for more than a few days so she’d convinced him that the last woman was good enough.

Now she had to pay the price for cutting the interview process short. She had to go through the whole process over again: sit next to him, listen to his teasing comments, and argue with him about one candidate or another.

It was an exhausting process.

She couldn’t understand why even her office had to be so close to his. It was like the man invented ways to torture her.

But of course, he couldn’t know how she felt about him. To the rest of the office, she and Xander were combatants with brief periods of peaceful coexistence. Lately though, those peaceful periods were few and far between. They had been snapping at each other more often lately and, although at times it was exhilarating, she had to admit that it sometimes became exhausting.

Especially when one of his lady loves came to pick him up for their date.

She truly hated the man during those periods. It wasn’t even that the man had a type! He dated redheads, blonds, brunettes. He escorted celebrities, famous actresses, social butterflies and power-hungry career women.

With a sigh, she wiped her eyes and shook her head. “Enough!” she told herself firmly. “The day marches on!” And so would she.

She turned around and looked at her computer. She had numerous issues to deal with and not much time to finish them. She was worried about her friend Mia who was battling murder charges, but every time she asked Ash about her, he just told her that he had everything under control. She had to trust him on that. And if anyone could get Mia out of that mess, it would be Ash. He was brilliant.

Mia would be in the office again today, answering more questions from Ash and his team. Maybe the two of them could catch a movie tonight, escape from the pressure of Mia’s murder charges and Autumn’s irritating boss.

She sighed and slid her chair under her desk, losing herself in the latest plans to make the law firm more efficient. Once again, she lost track of time as one issue after another cropped up during the morning. She loved her job, loved the way people relied on her to smooth out the troubles. Fixing things was her forte and she thrived on finding good solutions to every problem and keeping The Thorpe Group organized.

When she finally realized how hungry she was, it was past the normal lunch period. She grabbed her wallet and headed outside, raising her face up to the warm sunshine. There wouldn’t be too many more days like this, she thought. The days were already shorter and there was a definite bite to the night time air. Winter was coming quickly.

Despite the later hour, the lunch crowd at the building deli was heavy and Autumn sighed as she waited at the end of the line. This deli was always crowded but it also had the best sandwiches at a reasonable price for several miles. They made some sort of sauce that added a zing and a zip, making the whole experience much more enjoyable. No one knew what that sauce was, but several people had tried. Occasionally there were recipes in the office kitchen where someone thought they might have figured out the recipe. No one had discovered the formula exactly though so the mystery remained.

Normally, she would have called in her order and had it waiting at the checkout line, a great service the deli provided. But it had been too busy today in the office. And because she’d had trouble falling asleep last night, worrying about Mia and Xander and wondering what he might be doing, she’d woken up too late to grab something for breakfast. So here she was, waiting impatiently for her chance to order a sandwich.

She glanced across the street, considering just grabbing a yogurt at the small convenience store. It would certainly be faster, but at that moment, the line moved forward and she stuck with her desire for a filling, spicy sandwich.

“Hey!” a voice called out from somewhere to the left of her. She glanced in that direction, but she was too hungry to give it much thought.

Suddenly, the crowd parted and she saw what was happening. And couldn’t believe her eyes!

“Get the hell out of the way, lady!” a brutish, bullish man was saying to an elderly woman wearing sensible shoes and a warm cardigan even on the warmish October day. Her grey hair looked frazzled and her eyes nervous as she watched the man with the fuzzy mustache warily.

Another man, this one thinner and taller, shook his head. “She was in line first,” the stranger said in a placating tone, but even he didn’t want to confront the portly blowhard.

“Oh yea?” the man taunted, his eyes narrowing and his hands balling into fists. “Well, prove it!” he snapped and started forward. His intent was clear and everyone around scattered, pushing backwards to avoid getting caught in the fight.

The horrible man swung out, his hand missing the thin gentleman but side striking the elderly lady who went down with the initial bump. Her cry of fright was heard by one and all but no one stepped forward to intervene.

A small part of Autumn’s mind was still functioning properly and told her to stay out of it. But the other part of her brain, the part that wasn’t functioning rationally and was outraged that someone would hit an elderly person, was in control and she was livid that this man had hurt someone who was just standing, waiting for lunch. Instead of pushing back into the crowd, she stepped forward, her instincts made her grab onto the fat man’s arm. Unfortunately, she realized too late that the arm wasn’t just lard, but packed with muscles. But by the time she realized that, he was already turning around to confront his newest threat.

Autumn dropped the man’s arm and stood with her feet braced apart, her hands at the ready, trying to anticipate what the burly man might do next. “Call the police,” she ordered to the crowd. Not to anyone in particular, and she knew that the police wouldn’t be able to get here in time to save her but she threw that out as a threat anyway, hoping the man would stop and think. It might even give her a tiny reprieve, enough to slow him down.

No such luck. The call for the police only enraged the man further. That rational part of her mind, the part that wasn’t blanking out with the anger over what this man had done, noticed all the other men and women standing back, their mouths open and their eyes wide with amazement of all that was unfolding. It flashed through her mind that, if everyone put their efforts together, they could stop this man simply by grabbing his arms and pinning him to the ground.

But obviously no one was thinking clearly. Not even her. And the man rushed her, his fist swinging out and clipping her under her jaw while his other hand swung out and aimed for her ribs. She gasped at the pain, twisted slightly and used the man’s momentum to throw him off balance. He came back at her in only seconds, not giving her enough time to regroup. As she stared at the bloodlust in his eyes, she knew that the previous tackle was only a precursor to this one but she spun around and braced herself, prepared to do whatever it took to stop this man.

All she saw was him coming towards her one moment and the next, he was gone, slammed up against the wall of the deli with his arm twisted behind his back and his right cheek smashed so he wasn’t able to look anywhere but up at the ceiling.

“So, you like taking swings at women half your size, eh?” Xander was saying, twisting the man’s arm slightly and causing him to flinch again. “How about if you take on someone a bit bigger and see how you fare?” he asked.

There was applause all around but Autumn only saw Xander’s enormous, magnificent body as he glared down at the portly man. She knew she should hide her appreciation for his tall, muscular form, but it was simply too impressive.

There was another commotion over by the doors as the police belatedly arrived, hands on their pistols as they quickly surveyed the situation. When they saw who was holding the man, both police officers’ jaw dropped.

“Are you okay, Mr. Thorpe?” one of them asked, rushing over with his handcuffs in his hand, efficiently taking over the man being restrained.

“I’m fine. But this man assaulted the lady on the floor and Autumn Hallman, my office manager.”

The police officer was more than a little overwhelmed by the idea of talking to Xander Thorpe. He was sort of a legend in the boxing ring as well as the legal community. But the officer squared his shoulders, eager to look good in front of the man most officers revered. “We’ll book him for assault and battery as well as disorderly conduct,” the other officer said. He went over to the elderly woman, helping her stand up and checking her to see if she needed an ambulance. Meanwhile, Xander spun around to glare at Autumn and she cringed at the furious look in his indigo blue eyes. Why was he angry with her?

Okay, so that was a silly question. Xander was always angry with her for one reason or another. And normally, she would spit the fire right back at him, giving as good as she got. But she’d never seen him this furious. Normally, he reserved his anger to sarcastic, pithy comments in a meeting or biting remarks when she didn’t find him a staff addition or replacement quickly enough.

This was a whole new level of fury.

With the police officers trying to organize the witnesses, get statements and haul the brute away, Xander walked slowly towards her. Actually, it wasn’t so much walking as it was stalking. There were only about five steps separating both of them, but it seemed like a lifetime for him to reach her. When he was less than an inch away from her, she looked up into his blue eyes, her neck craning back because she couldn’t move backwards and he wasn’t relenting.

He didn’t say a word. He simply grabbed her arm in a vicelike grip and hauled her out of the deli.

“We’re going to need Ms. Hallman to give us a statement,” one of the officers was saying as Xander dragged her to the doorway.

Autumn scrambled to keep up but it was hard because the Xander was so much taller than she was. Well, and she was wearing three inch heels. She knew they made her legs look awesome, but they didn’t make running too easy.

“I’ll bring her to you later,” Xander replied to the officer as politely as his anger would allow.

Autumn was about to demand an explanation but he didn’t stop long enough for her to even get a breath. This man had tormented her for years with his anger and she was sick of it! It was going to end today! She was just about to pull her arm free and confront the man when he pulled her to the side of the building.

Xander didn’t even try to get control of his anger. He’d never been so terrified in his life as when he saw Autumn confront that ridiculous excuse for a human being. And when the man had actually hit her, marred her perfect, beautiful skin, he’d seen red. There had been no conscious thought after that. It was pure instinct. With a rage surging through his blood, he’d grabbed the man before he could harm Autumn again, moments before he was about to make contact in his second charge, and slammed the man against the wall. With a vicious twist, Xander had pulled the man’s arm behind his back, wanting desperately to snap the arm off of him. He’d glanced back, catching sight of Autumn again. Seeing her, knowing that she was once again safe, was the only thing that gave him back some measure of control.

When the police arrived, he was more than happy to release the dung heap to them but he still couldn’t rid himself of the fury and fear. With a growl and a determination to ensure that Autumn, his Autumn, his beautiful, delicate, sweet and overly brave Autumn, was okay, he grabbed her arm. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do. All he knew was that he had to ensure that she was okay. That she was still whole.

When he saw the side of the building, out of the way of other people passing by, he hauled her there. He’d thought he was only going to confront her, demand an explanation as to why she’d taken such ridiculous risks with her life and her body. But instead, he found himself kissing her. But this wasn’t just a kiss. This was a life affirming, knee bracing, stomach clenching demonstration of all that he felt for this woman.

Autumn was so surprised when his mouth covered hers that she was stunned motionless for all of about one eighth of a second. And then her mind realized that Xander was kissing her. No, not just kissing her. His body was pressing against hers, his hips were grinding into hers, his hands were sliding up against her body…underneath her silk blouse no less…and she couldn’t stop the immediate and overwhelming lust that surged through her. She wasn’t just going to take this kiss. She gave back, demanding more, her hands sliding up his arms, feeling those bulging muscles underneath the deceptively tame dress shirt until she felt the heat of his skin on his neck. Pausing, she reveled in that heat, her fingers absorbing the texture before they moved higher, her fingers discovering that his hair was so soft, so silky. It was probably the only part of this man that was soft and she couldn’t believe how good he felt, how incredible he tasted. She wanted this man like nothing she’d ever experienced in her life. She wanted him more than she’d ever thought possible.