Aris: A Sexy Romance Novel (Thief of Hearts Series Book 1) by Elody Knight Page B

oven top.  “Coffee?” Aris began pouring the fine grind into the copper vessel with a couple of teaspoons of sugar.
    “You know that stuff’s good for a quick hit, but you can’t make a three cup mug with it and nurse it through the morning.”
    “So, I need to stop by the shops to pickup a coffee maker?”  Aris was watching the dark brown mixture boil up for the second time.
    “No, not at all.  I’m only going to be here for a little while.  It might be interesting to see how much more effective caffeine is when I get back if I haven’t been on it for awhile.”
    Aris tried not to let the pain show on his face.  Mata was getting demitasse cups down for him.  She looked at him giving him a momentary frown that he knew meant not to be too worried about Saoirse saying she wasn’t staying.
    “Let me know when you’re ready to leave for the office.” 
    “Mmm.  Now’s good.” she pushed the remainder of her breakfast in his hands heading for the door.  “I just need my laptop and bag.”
    The ferry ride over to the other island took less than 20 minutes.  Most all of the organization’s business buildings were on this island.  Martin’s office wasn’t extravagant but it was nicer than hers.  His had the same one wall view hers did, but his was of the ocean, and his windows opened.
    “So.  What’s a paralegal supposed to be doing right about now?”  Aris glanced around the office like he had no idea what the place was.
    “Start by finding his open matter files.  I don’t see any boxes on his desk but they have to be here somewhere.”
    “Open matters.  You mean what he was working on before he left?”
    “Yeah.  The stuff you wanted Denise, who is busy playing hooky, and me to look at.”
    Aris nodded his head walking out of the office.  She sat down setting up her laptop.  He came back through the doors a minute or two later with an armful of legal size folders.
    “That was fast.”
    “Jerith gathered everything up when he left figuring whoever came in would want all the unresolved stuff in one place.”
    “Oh.”  she opened the top file.  “Ilch.”  Saoirse screwed up her face at the state of the file.  “Where did you get this guy from?”
    “Martin was part of a very successful practice before he agreed to come to work for us.”
    “Successful is a relative term.  His ability to keep files was crap.  Okay, here’s where we’re going to start with this mess.  Staple about a dozen sheets of note pad paper inside the left side of each one of these folders.  I’ll get Denise to type out my notes later.”
    It was a rough morning.  Saoirse had thrown no less than half a dozen folders either on the floor or across the office.
    “Where did you find this ink scratching monkey?  No wonder he ran off.  I’d flee too if I wrote this pig latin crap excuse for contracts!  I’ve seen more competent tracts out of vending machines!” she dropped back down in the chair behind rubbing her head.  “Jerith’s your financial guy.  Didn’t he notice anything wrong with a ten percent ROI?  Angel investors easily get double that or more for short term loans.  Who’s watching this stuff?”
    “Ten percent is fine.  That’s part of our usual terms.”
    “What?  How do you expect to make any money that way?  No wonder you guys had to become master criminals.”
    “We might be considered venture capital, but we’re in each business for the long term.  We don’t need to pillage businesses.  All we need is a little bit from all of them, so everyone is prosperous.  As you said, we still have our ‘day jobs’.  It’s not like we have to have the cash right now.”
    “Ten percent?  Yeah, that’s damned skinny.  You also don’t have any of the proper clauses in here to renegotiate terms, or protect your interests, if the business goes belly up.  There’s nothing in here that protects your interests if the company goes public.”  she rubbed the bridge of