My Lustful CEO

Chapter 15

Kris POV

"How did you find that?" Kane looks decently impressed with me, but I can tell through his eyes that the tape is just another reminder of his past heartbreak.

"It's probably best you don't know." Though this isn't a stunt I would normally pull, I am willing to go through anything and everything to make sure Asher and Mason don't go back to Nora. Even with my few interactions with her, I can tell her maternal instincts are not there. I don't know if things will be much better with Kane, but I can tell how much he is trying.

"Are you okay?" Kane's voice drags me out of my grave thoughts. "You're grumbling." Damn.

"I'm fine." I assure him. "Normally, I wouldn't pull this, but I just.." I wander off my own thoughts as I feel that they are too horrible to say to him.

"You just want to make sure Nora doesn't get custody." He breathes out calmly, which is quite the turnaround from literally five minutes ago. "I can't tell if you're really good at your job or if you really care about the kids." I know he's not trying to offend me with his tone laced with a sense of desperation for the truth.

"Can't I be both?" Questioning him back, it seems that he finds this answer appropriate. The drive back is quiet and comfortable. I make it back inside my office with Kane coming inside with me to see the aftermath.

"How is it?" I ask Mateo as he is practically giddy from looking at the news. Nora's face is plastered all over it. Pretty soon, the media is going to dig her grave for us. Now that they know that Nora has some dirt on her, they are just going to find more. The evidence will practically fall on our laps.

"Better than we could have imagined." Mateo hands me his phone to show me a Twitter feed. Apparently, Nora didn't exactly have the best track record, lots of run-ins with the law and owes a huge amount of money to the mafia. That's not good. She practically disappeared for the last six years. What the hell happened? Well, I guess the media will find out for us.

"I don't know whether to be impressed or terrified." Kane flicks an eyebrow up at me with a nice smile. That's different.

"Then, be both." I smile back at him and gesture him towards me office.

Taking a seat, I read through my emails that I have missed and see him staring hard at me. Though I try to ignore it, his stares get so intense that I can feel the hair on my arm raise in delight. Coughing up a bit, I make sure his focus is clear.

"I am expecting Nora and Andrew to call me soon with another settlement offer. If we can come to terms before the trial, we can make this work. You may have to spend some money for back child support."

"That's not a problem." I nod before jotting down some notes. Just then, my phone rings and I show Kane the caller ID, Andrew. Putting Andrew on speaker, I put the phone down to hear Andrew fuming on the other end.

"Playing dirty is unlike you Kris." He snares at me.

"I'm just leveling the playing field and I am just getting started." Nora's screaming and nagging can be heard from the background.

"Your client is a major player in LA and you are going to raise infidelity as an issue to their relationship?" I scoff at him immediately.

"My client has kept it in his pants since he has found out he has kids, though I can't say the same for yours." Though I am definitely reaching here, Andrew pauses for a second too long. He thinks I know something, but I didn't. I, however, do now.

"What do you want?"

"Full custody. Once a month visitations from Nora. $250,000 for back child support to Nora. It's more than fair, Andrew." This time he scoffs at me.

"He has a trillion dollar business. $250,000 is crap."

"If he was a normal citizen and paid $100,000 a year for his engineering degree, $250,000 is well beyond what any mother of the child would receive." I argue back with him, but Andrew isn't budging. He knows that if he takes this deal, his firm and Nora will be upset. They would have to take it all the way to make a name for themselves.

"Then, we will see you in court, but don't get upset when it's our turn to play dirty." Nora's voice gets closer to the phone and I can tell there is definitely swearing on the other end before Andrew hangs up on me.

"Fuck." Kane smacks his hands on my table and stands up to walk back and forth, clearly stressed about this situation. "We could have offered more." He starts to push to me, but I put my hand up to stop him from lecturing me. We do not have the time to be arguing with each other.

"As much as I want the kids out of her grasp as soon as possible, if we treat it like you're covering something up or if you are spending millions of dollars to settle the case, then people will find you guilty."

"So, what?" He raises his voice at me, something he has never done before.

"Kane." I get him to look at me as I get up from my seat and sit on the edge of the front of my desk, closer to where he was walking. "Like it or not, you are a public figure. When Asher and Mason grow up, they will have your last name. Your guilt is translated to theirs."

"And what about what you just did to Nora?" I close my eyes for a minute before answering. What I did was horrible, I will admit, but their relationship was already staggering. Asher and Mason look terrified to be around Nora. A s*x tape about a nobody is easily forgotten by the next one, but a guilty and horrible rich man is never forgotten. As bad as it sounds, this is just how the media plays it.

"There will always be another s*x tape from some celebrity, but people don't forget the bad rich guy." Finally, he stops pacing back and forth and looks at me.

"And do you think I am the bad guy?" Curiously, I meet his eyes. I must have hit a nerve because that pain and anger from his eyes don't just grow out of nowhere.

"If I thought you were a bad guy, I wouldn't have taken your case." As simple as it seems, Kane doesn't seem like a terrible guy. Is he a man-w***e, sure, but a terrible guy? Not so much.

"And what about now?" He looks right at me, trying to see if I am going to lie to him. I'm not going to lie to him. I respect my rules and I won't lie to my client.

"It doesn't matter what I think. It matters to the public." Trying to get us back on track, I can tell from his unchanged facial expression that he is not going to let this go.

"It matters to me." Kane takes a couple steps towards me until he is directly in front of me, only maybe a feet away.

"You'll be a great father." I relent. With that, he takes another step towards me until I practically sit on the table from the imbalance of being next to him. Caught off guard, I grab ahold of his huge arms.

"You're not lying." He looks into my eyes to see that I am not lying to him about how great of a father he could be.

"Why do you want your kids?" If we are going to be this close, I might as well ask him the hard stuff now.

"Because I want to love them." His eyes are hurt and I grip on his arm harder to push off against him. I should have seen it sooner. If I did, I would have approached this a lot differently. Those are eyes that I have seen before, in abused kids. s**t.

Kane POV

There's just something about her that's so fascinating. The way she holds herself is confident, yet not arrogant. She can be aggressive, yet compassionate. How does she do that? It's been two weeks and everytime we slightly touch one another, I have to have a long conversation with myself to not rip her f*****g clothes off. She has been different though, at least towards me.

Fuck. My crotch is starting to twitch just thinking about her. Why did she have to tell me that she thinks I'll be a good father? It's my fault. I asked her a question I knew would corner her. Getting out of the cold shower, I have yet again taken after another frustrated s****l release.

"911. Coming over now." Kris texts me and I can feel my body practically burning up again. Damn it. She sent that message fifteen minutes ago, she is probably almost here. Getting dressed in a pair of boxers and large sweatpants, I hear the doorbell ring. f**k. She is here earlier than I anticipated.

"Kris, I told you you can use the house code." I tell her as I let her in. Her eyes take a short glance at my chest, but she ignores it. She has a huge t-shirt over her her with a pair of shorts that I can barely see. Her hair is tied up in a messy bun and she has on a pair of white sneakers. Did she run out of her place or something?

"I'm not going to use your house code." Blatantly, she lets me know that she isn't going to just walk into my place unannounced, which I respect. People would kill to have my house code.

"What is so important you couldn't wait until tomorrow morning?" We have a hearing the next morning about more visitation rights tomorrow seeing that I have went through all their parent classes. The press has lightened up a little, but they are still hawks surveying the area.

"This." Kris places her iPad in my hands. Pressing play, I see that it's Nora and Andrew having s*x.

"Is this surprising?" I give her back her device and watch as she paces around the room a bit as she is processing and analyzing our next moves. Having work together for the past two weeks, I can practically tell what she is doing from her simple body language.

"No. We always thought there was something off, but we didn't have proof. After the beach, I had my PI check in on it." Kris holds her tongue and I can tell that she wants to say something.

"How does this help my case?" Her hands fist up and pound lightly on the back of the sofa.

"We are not allowed to sleep with our clients while they are still our client. If we showed this to the judge tomorrow morning, Andrew could be disbarred. Nora would lose her lawyer and they would have to replace her lawyer with another representative from the firm. If this happens, we will most likely get more visitation rights. The firm will want to be out of the spotlight as soon as possible and try to settle this as quickly as possible." Her eyes are wide as she stares at the couch as she says those words. This plan of action is making her uncomfortable.

"And you don't want to do that." I answer her own question in her head. Kris purses those sweet lips of her, clearly worried about what to do.

"It is an ethics violation." Pushing herself off of the sofa, she stands squarely with me.

"And you didn't have to tell me." I squint at her as I take another step towards her. She holds her breath. "Then, why are you telling me?"

"Because you are my client." She slowly releases her breath. "This option is nuclear, but I need you to decide what you want to do."

"You already decided that you don't want to take this option." I explain to her as I pick out a hair from her face and move it back. She closes her eyes and I see a shiver come from her body. Whenever we are in public, I never see this side of her, the one that is nervous.

"But you have a right to know. The choice is yours." I shake my head at her as she flutters those delicate long eyelashes at me.

"No, it's not. The choice is ours." Taking my hand that picked out her hair, I trail it down her left arm. This time I can feel her actually tremble under my touch. The room is so hot that it's like hell is burning over.

"I don't like Andrew, but I would feel wrong to disbar him."

"I hate Andrew and I don't care what happens to him." She is surprised by this and takes a step back from me, far enough that I can't reach her. f**k.