“How were her scores, anyway?” I asked curiously. “Just for a starting point.”
“Better than I’d expect for someone who took three years off from school,” Monica replied. “I don’t know the questions, she just handed me the answer key and her test sheet, but she did pretty well.”
“All right, thanks, Monica. Go ahead and take off, I’ll lock up and everything.”
“Thanks, Kade. Is Alix going to be coming by more often?” she asked, shouldering her purse.
I nodded. “As long as she wants to pursue this college dream, yes. I figure with the three of us around, she’ll have all the support she needs. And if she needs some tutoring or something, there’s one of those test prep academies just down the street.”
Monica grinned and patted me on the shoulder. “Good job, Kade. You’re finally becoming what I always saw inside you.”
“Oh?”
She nodded. “You’ve always been a good attorney, but this . . . you’re becoming a good man, too. Good night.”
I watched Monica go and shook my head in amazement. Even after working together for over two years, she still surprised me. “Dad was right,” I said to nobody in particular before going over to the conference room door. I knocked lightly and opened it to see Alix bent over a piece of paper, her tongue sticking out the corner of her mouth as she worked. “Hey Alix, it’s after six.”
She looked up, surprised. “What?”
I laughed quietly and came inside. “I said, it’s after six. Time to put the books aside for the evening and get you some food, or if you want, we can go by my gym and introduce you to the hot tub.”
Alix stood up, stretching her arms over her head, which did two remarkable things. First, at least to me, was the beautiful swells of her breasts being pushed against the now tight front of her blouse, which, despite two nights of passion, still was able to stir my libido like a horny teenager. Secondly, though, was the series of pops as her elbows, shoulders and back all crackled. “Oh wow,” she said, groaning as she twisted her neck from side to side, which was rewarded with two more deep crackles. “I lost all track of time.”
“What are you working on?” I asked, looking at the open book. “Math. Jumping in the deep end right away, aren’t you?”
“It was my weakest area,” Alix said, looking down at the workbook. “Even when I went back and looked at what I was screwing up in the science stuff, I’d have scored better if my math was stronger. So might as well get right to it.”
“In any case, my little scholar, you’re just getting started. I think eight hours of study in one day is enough.”
Alix chuckled, closed her book and put it in her backpack. When she went to put it on her shoulders, I shook my head and took it from her, unzipping it before taking the study materials and putting them on a bookshelf in the conference room. “I know you well enough, Alix. You’ll take these home and then after we relax you’ll pull one out and start studying again or something. You’re very single-minded in determination when you want to be.”
“When I see something I want,” she replied, looking at me with clear intent in her eyes. Still, she followed the rule, and despite a palpable desire in her eyes to reach out toward me, she didn’t. It would have been so easy too, with the office all to ourselves, but I wasn’t ready for that yet. Let the rule become more unconscious to us first, and then see if we can put time and a geographical limit on our activity.
“Still, for the rest of the night you need to focus on your body as much as you have your mind. So which would you like, the gym or food?”
“The gym,” Alix immediately replied. “But first we need to go home and get some clothes, right? Oh damn, I don’t have a swim suit.”
“They sell them there. Hell, you probably did the photo shoot for the company that makes the suits at some point.”
Alix shrugged, dismissing it. “I may have, it’s not important now. That’s behind me.”
“You sure?” I asked as we walked across the parking lot. “Why?”
“I’ve found something more important to me,” Alix said simply, “being a model seems a bit . . . mundane.”
We got into the car and closed the doors, her eyes flaring at the sound of the latch closing. “God, that was difficult.”
“Alix, look at me,” I said, my hands resting on the steering wheel. When she didn’t, I turned to look her directly in the eyes. “Look at me, Princess.”
She responded immediately, her eyes locking on me, blue and sparkling. “Yes, Kade.”