Falling For The Lawyer Read online

  Once he’d captured a glimpse of her he’d been able to place her immediately. Quite a few times over the last couple of days he’d glanced at her photograph on the firm’s website. And although he’d only had her profile before him as he’d waited for the cash machine he’d known instantly that the drowned rat standing at the lights was his new Assistant PA.

  “You found her on the edge of the road and are now buying her a four figure outfit!” Andrea tinkled lightly. “I didn’t know that inside that brash exterior was a knight in shining armour!”

  “I have an ulterior motive,” he explained in a low voice as he approached the table and rested his hands on it to lean closer to Andrea.

  Andrea’s eyes shone with conspiratorial pleasure. “And what would that be?”

  “What that young lady doesn’t know is she’s my new PA and I’m her new boss and I’ve decided to have some fun in what is building up to be a day from hell.”

  “I see, but buying your PA a new outfit is an expensive way to have fun. Clearly you’ve got too much time on your hands, JP McKenzie,” Andrea finished with a coquettish tilt to her head.

  Andrea couldn’t have been more wrong. JP had never been busier in his life. For months he’d been drowning in the logistics of merging his London law firm with the one partnered by his two best mates, Adam and Justin. Just to complicate things he’d also had to negotiate a torrid break-up of his two year relationship with Caroline, and that had drained him on every level possible.

  “I can promise you I haven’t had any time on my hands in ages.” JP straightened again and shrugged his shoulders. “That means I haven’t had time to spend any money let alone have any fun. It will be worth every dollar that outfit costs me when I see Alex’s face in my office in about thirty minutes.”

  “I wish I could be a fly on the wall.”

  “I’ll tell you about it some time.”

  “Well why don’t we grab a meal … some time,” Andrea shot back in immediate rejoinder, raising her eyebrows in a way that suggested she’d be happy to be dessert.

  JP swallowed in instinctive response. One of his ex-girlfriend’s best pals was hitting on him and he hadn’t even seen it coming—clearly he’d been out of the dating game too long.

  His eyes flickered over Andrea. He took in the snappy short hairdo and the figure that was impossibly slender and curvy all at once. There was no doubt about it, she was a seriously sexy woman and he was seriously contemplating the not unattractive prospect of taking up her offer.

  But as a critical bonus Andrea had those qualities in a woman that always attracted him like a moth to a flame: hard as nails, independent and ambitious to the core—just like Caroline. And just like Caroline, Andrea would never ask for anything from him beyond the shallowest commitment—no protecting, no encouraging, no emotional props would be needed—in short, the polar opposite of his mother.

  JP opened his mouth to accept Andrea’s offer but then quickly closed it again. Despite her perfection something he couldn’t put his finger on was holding him back and until he knew what it was he didn’t want to risk becoming tied up with another woman if his heart wasn’t in it.

  “Thanks for the offer but I’m not going to have time to tie my shoe laces over the next few weeks let alone go out for dinner.”

  Andrea shrugged easily and smiled. Thankfully she was unfazed by the knock-back. “So? Who’s talking weeks? I’m not going anywhere over the next few months and my calendar is very flexible.”

  JP gave Andrea a bland smile in response to her suggestive one and was relieved to see out of the corner of his eye that Alex had reappeared in the shop. Nevertheless it took him a few moments to gather his thoughts and focus on Alex rather than the woman who’d just been offering herself up as a no-strings-attached date. Yet once the focus mechanism kicked in the rush of clarity took his breath away. For the second time in a minute he swallowed.

  “Does it look that bad?” Alex blurted in horror as she read his shocked expression and began to fidget with the lapel of her new jacket.

  JP gave out a snort of laughter. He rested back against the edge of the desk and folded his arms to continue his study of her. Andrea approached Alex with a satisfied smile and guided her latest model to an enormous mirror lining the wall to her left before leaving her there to answer a phone call.

  Alex gasped visibly as she took in her reflection and JP guessed the sheer amazement of seeing herself in that extraordinarily beautiful suit was genuine. After all, the outfit she’d had on that morning was nothing short of a disaster on every level—even without the mud.

  Alex’s mouth remained open a little as she took in her tall figure; her legs looked like they went on forever in those silk pants. And JP couldn’t help noticing the way the jacket tapered in at her tiny waist before blossoming open at the top of the silky black camisole she was wearing underneath. The whole outfit couldn’t have fitted her better if it had been tailor made.

  “Well, Alex, what do you think?” JP approached her from behind and studied the reflection of her heart shaped face and the silky dark hair with the fringe cut a little shorter than usual above her exotic eyes. “It will get you through today, yeah?” he added with a grin.

  “It’s the most sensational outfit I’ve ever worn,” she breathed, clearly still shocked at her transformation. “But I’ll feel totally like a fish out of water in this. Everyone will look at me.” She was fidgeting again—this time with the jacket buttons.

  “Of course they’ll look at you—you look dead gorgeous. At least you will if you stop fidgeting.”

  “But I don’t like people looking at me like that.”

  “You mean you don’t like men looking at you like that.”

  “It’s not about the men. If I wear this then I’ll feel like I’m … I don’t know … trying to show off.”

  Only then did JP understand what the girl in front of him was saying. She was ill at ease with the idea that the world might stand up and take notice of her because she simply didn’t want to be noticed.

  Incredible!

  For so long he’d surrounded himself with women like Caroline and Andrea who revelled in the world’s spotlight, he’d completely forgotten there were women who hated it with an equal passion.

  “Alex,” he began eventually, trying not to sound patronising to this girl who fate had decided to throw in his path that morning. “You are what you are. Don’t hide it under drab and shapeless clothing. You should dress up every single day and walk tall.”

  Alex gazed up at him, her dark chocolate eyes wide and thoughtful. She was processing his suggestion carefully before she shook her head in decided rejection of his proposition. “If I am what I am then why should I try and pretend I’m something I’m not?”

  Suddenly the frivolity vanished from JP’s mood. This girl was the real deal, the genuine article—no pretense or falsity whatsoever. And there he was pretending to be something he wasn’t by keeping his identity from her. What had seemed like a bit of fun, as he’d described it to Andrea, was no longer feeling quite so funny. For with every passing moment Alex Farrer was becoming less like a ghostly grey apparition on the side of the road and more like a warm and charming girl. Worse still, she was obviously feeling fragile about the day ahead of her and her future was in his hands.

  She’d been quite right when she’d said her boss would have to sack her in the next few weeks. The new policy at Griffen Murphy Lawyers was clear: no more than one PA to a lawyer. And as the latest equity partner to join the firm he would have to lead by example—Justin and Adam would make sure of it.

  “You know we could stay here and have this conversation all day but I don’t think it’s going to get us anywhere.” JP was now anxious to shut down the deception he’d begun as soon as possible.

  “I don’t mean to sound ungrateful about what you’ve done for me this morning,” Alex explained as she swung around to face him. “You’ve been very kind.”

  “Do you like the outf
it?”

  “Of course I like it. How could I not? It’s stunning.”

  “It’s yours then. Keep the shoes too. Andrea said she could discount things; write them off as seconds, floor stock, whatever.”

  “I’ll pay you back then,” Alex announced as she swallowed and nodded her head in determined confirmation. “It may take me a little while but you’ll get every cent. If you give me your address I can send you a cheque and …”

  “My shout, Alex. I don’t want you to pay me back.” He knew her salary to the dollar and just how much it would hurt her bank account to do that.

  She looked at him quizzically before whispering huskily, “You have no idea how grateful I am, JP, because you’ve no idea how important it is I don’t lose this job …”

  But Alex stopped then and snapped her mouth shut—too late. For after all his years as a trial lawyer JP was adept at hearing what people were not telling him, and right then all his instincts were telling him Alex Farrer was not terrified of just losing her job, she was terrified of losing her job at Griffen Murphy Lawyers in particular.

  “What’s so important about keeping your job at this law firm of yours?” He watched her expression carefully for any hint of what was going through her mind but the shutters began to close over her face.

  “It’s nothing, just family stuff,” she said quickly, looking troubled and distant.

  “We don’t have time to go into it anyway,” JP replied, silently resolving to get to the bottom of that comment some time soon. “It’s eight-forty. Shouldn’t you be at work?”

  Alex looked at her wristwatch. “Oh hell! Yes! I have to go!”

  “Then go,” he replied with a short laugh of relief that he was finally bringing his charade to an end.

  “Just like that?”

  “Aye,” he replied, surprised to hear himself lapse back into his Scottish vernacular. He didn’t normally use that word outside of Scotland except when he was highly distracted—but Alex Farrer was nothing if not highly distracting in that suit.

  “So after this amazing act of generosity I just thank you and walk out the door? It doesn’t feel right. There must be something else I can do to show my gratitude.”

  JP’s raw male instincts immediately launched themselves into man-land where all sorts of appealing notions of how he might like Alex to show him her gratitude threw themselves up at him, but he mentally shoved them to one side. He reminded himself about the difficult weeks coming Alex’s way at his firm, but she’d apparently been able to read his mind because she was blushing furiously.

  “Would you like to shake hands? Would that bring a nice, formal closure to this farewell of ours?” he finished with a teasing grin.

  Alex nodded, clearly relieved at the formality which would end what in her mind would be their last minutes together, and it began as a handshake. The only problem was that a split second after that it was no longer a handshake. He was quite simply cradling her hand and pressing her long, cool fingers in his as she transfixed him with those eyes of hers that seemed to be busy scooping out his soul as though it was the bottom of an ice-cream dish.

  JP couldn’t have let her hand go if he’d wanted to and he didn’t want to. Before he could stop himself he was watching her slightly parted lips and fighting off a powerful urge to find out what that mouth tasted like behind those lips. But with a quick summoning of willpower he got on top of the urge, released her hand and swung around to pick up her bag and pass it to her.

  “Good luck today.” He now really wanted her to go as soon as possible, disturbed at the direction his thoughts had been taking him.

  Alex nodded and took a few steps backwards. He watched as she turned and waved goodbye to Andrea who was still deep in conversation on the phone but who managed a wave of acknowledgement. With a final glance backwards Alex Farrer flashed him a fleeting but serenely happy smile as she walked out of the boutique, leaving JP with a strong sense of foreboding that it might have been better for both of them if their paths had never crossed that morning.

  Chapter Two

  “Oh … my … God!” Sophie declared, deliberately pausing for emphasis between each word as she took in Alex’s new outfit.

  Sophie Reynolds, Acting Head of HR at Griffen Murphy Lawyers was resting her elbows on a workstation partition. She was deep in conversation with one of the senior PAs but her eye had been caught by her best friend wandering into the office as she’d never looked before.

  Alex put her finger to her lips to hush Sophie before the entire office was alerted to the fact she was wearing a new outfit. Sophie nodded and winked at her conspiratorially, peeled herself off the partition and marched at breakneck speed around the office furniture to meet her friend at her desk. She grabbed Alex’s hands and lifted her arms up to take in the full view of her new suit.

  “Is that what I think it is?” Sophie demanded to know.

  “Clothing?”

  “Very funny, Alex. I know obscenely expensive designer clothing when I see it. Which bank did you rob to buy this?”

  Alex laughed. “Nothing so drastic. It’s just a second … floor stock … something like that,” she repeated JP’s words of earlier that morning, awash with another wave of relief as she reminded herself he would never have an opportunity to make her feel that way again, for a woman should never feel that way about any man when she was engaged to marry another.

  “Can I borrow it sometime, Al? No, on second thoughts don’t lend it to me. It would be just my luck to spill tomato sauce all down the front.”

  “Soph, you can borrow it anytime you like. In fact you can have it. In the circumstances it might be better if you do. I’m not sure wearing an outfit bought for me by …” But then Alex bit down hard on her bottom lip. Sophie was her best friend but what possible good could come of her trying to explain the strange events of her morning. Unfortunately she’d stopped herself too late because Sophie’s all-seeing green eyes were already searching her face like a roaming spotlight.

  “Okay Alex, what’s going on?” Sophie asked in her best interrogatory tone of voice as she perched on the edge of Alex’s desk. “You’re flustered and flushed and fidgeting with your hair in that way you do when you’re really on edge. Something’s happened to upset you this morning hasn’t it?”

  Alex bit her bottom lip as she lowered herself onto her chair, her handbag still hanging uselessly from her shoulder. She was wondering whether she could give Sophie a boring potted version of what had happened on her way to work that morning which would not bring on too many questions. But Alex wasn’t sure how to condense her morning into that format. And Sophie’s eyes were huge and expectant and Alex didn’t have the heart to mislead her.

  “So let me get this straight,” Sophie began quizzically as Alex wrapped up the account of her morning. Her friend had been listening quietly with a knowing look but listening was at an end. “You get covered in mud. Some perfect stranger whisks you off to the most expensive designer boutique in the city, organises you into a new outfit and then says ‘have a nice life’.”

  “Exactly!”

  “No, no. You don’t fool me. You’re not telling me something.”

  “I promise I’ve told you everything.”

  “So he goes by the mysterious name of JP and you don’t know where he works.”

  “No idea.”

  “And he doesn’t know your second name or anything about you.”

  “He knows where I work but …”

  “Ah huh!” Sophie declared victoriously and pointed a long, fire engine red fingernail at her friend. “He’ll phone you.”

  “No Sophie, it wasn’t like that. He has no intention of phoning me. And please don’t suggest it anyway, it makes me feel more uncomfortable about all this than I already do.”

  “Alex Farrer,” Sophie grabbed Alex’s hand, resting it in her own and patting the top of it patronisingly, a wicked glint dancing in her eyes. Alex was desperately trying to think of something she could say to s
top Sophie from blowing her meeting with JP out of all proportion, but her friend was already half way out of the barrier and was never one to be reined in once she’d made up her mind to sprint towards the finishing line.

  “It’s time we had another one of our little talks. You know, about life and the way it really is—not the way you think it is. Okay. Here I go,” Sophie began in a singsong voice as though she was recounting a fairy story for a small child. “A red-blooded, I’m guessing quite attractive male, meets attractive young woman on side of road in distress. He rescues her from job loss by buying her four-figure outfit to wear to work. Then says ‘have a nice life’ and lets her walk away because he has done all of it out of the goodness of his heart.”

  Sophie finished her account breathlessly, raising her eyebrows at Alex expectantly as though waiting for an answer before shaking her head slowly. Alex couldn’t help but laugh at her friend’s exaggerated school prefect expression.

  “Okay. Now I’ll give you life as it really is. Attractive man meets wet and bedraggled but nevertheless alluring young woman on side of street in distress. Talks to her for a few minutes and then discovers he actually finds her extremely attractive and wants to get her into bed as soon as possible. Has more money than he knows what to do with so buys her an expensive outfit to woo her because he’s already found out where she works and will be calling her later that day to ask her out on a ‘pre-getting her into bed’ date.”

  “Sophie, stop! It wasn’t like that at all. Anyway, you’re forgetting one show-stopping detail in this fairy story.”

  “Oh really? What’s that?”

  “Wet and bedraggled girl is engaged.”

  “Yes I know that but Sir Lancelot doesn’t,” Sophie retorted. “What’s more, he has no idea he’s just gone to all that trouble and expense over you for nothing. Poor guy!” Sophie declared, her eyes shining bright with incredulity. “I can’t believe this has happened to you of all people. You’re the last person who would go looking for it.”