Off Limits(110)

I surfed around to a bunch of different sites for a while, but in each I kept drawing a blank. Finally, an hour into the morning, I sighed and took out my phone, dialing Rita’s number. She picked up after two rings, sounding chipper as ever. “Mornin’ Alix. How have you been?”

“I’m great. I’m up here in Portland, and loving every second of it.”

“Really?” Rita said with a big smile. “Just how loving?”

“Let’s just say that my backside is a little sore.”

“How many?” Rita asked, laughing.

“Twenty-one,” I said. “Eleven right, ten left.”

Rita sounded impressed. “I stand corrected. You’re stronger than I first thought.”

“Well, if it wasn’t for you, I don’t know if I’d be in the place I am now. Kade and I both know that. Which is kind of why I called.”

“You don’t need to do anything, it was my service to Kade,” Rita said. “Sometimes the greatest way to serve is to let him go.”

I nodded, listening intently. “Rita, I’m going to ask you something very strange, but please answer me honestly.”

“Sure, go ahead.”

“Well, if you could have any gift in the world, what would you want and why?”

Rita thought for a moment, then spoke up. “I could use a new top of the line tower for my work,” she said after a moment.

Not what I expected, but that was fine, I could add in something personal from me too. “Email me what you want. Kade’s in a giving mood.”

“I’ll make sure to not ding his generosity too much. On that note, do you think there might be space for me to come up to visit any time soon? Hanging out with him last week was fun. And I do mean just hang out.”

“I’ll ask him. In the meantime, thanks. I have to get to work myself,” I told her. “I’m going to try the whole college thing, see how it works out.”

“You can do it,” Rita said. “I’ll send you some advice on that along with my computer specs. Thanks, Alix.”

“Thank you, Rita. See you later.”





Chapter 18





Kade





I was surprised when I finished work, and I hadn’t seen Alix since lunch that day. Vince had left early to go to a bar exam study session, and I found Monica still at her desk, putting things into her purse for the end of the day. “Hey, Kade.”

“Have you seen Alix?” I asked. “I haven’t seen her since lunch.”

“She’s still at it in the conference room,” Monica told me, pointing. “She brought out an answer form and asked me to double check that she had scored it right just after two. I double checked her numbers for her, and since then she’s been quiet in there. The one time I checked on her, I brought her a cup of tea, but she barely acknowledged me other than to say thank you.”

“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.”