Lovers in law Page 2

  “I’m Allie Lawless,” she said.

  It figured. She looked like a no-boundaries kind of woman.

  “I won’t make the obvious joke about it being the perfect name for a lawyer,” I said.

  “What? Allie?”

  Funny as well as sexy.

  “Short for Alison, I assume.”

  “Allegra,” she corrected me. “Italian for cheerful. Although being unnecessarily shouted at this early in the morning doesn’t make me very cheerful at all.”

  “Touché.”

  Fearless as well as Lawless. I was liking her more by the second.

  John and the office full of clerks had watched this exchange open mouthed, unused to seeing me taken to task outside a court room – or in it for that matter. Rather than prolong the floorshow I ordered coffee and told Allie to follow me. In retrospect, I should have walked behind her so I could see that perfect arse of hers wiggling down the corridor but everyone’s allowed one mistake.

  I opened the door to my room and let her go through first, catching a waft of her sensual, heady perfume. I imagined the ghost of that fragrance trapped on warm sheets first thing in a morning as I turned over and buried my face in her hair.

  She stopped and looked around, her eyes falling immediately on the Zeus Development case files, stacked on a long table under the window. I’d already catalogued them into different piles of witness statements, expert reports and technical data, and knew them inside out. My case preparations were nothing, if not thorough.

  “You’re incredibly organised,” Allie said and I told myself I heard admiration in her voice.

  “It saves time and wins cases.”

  “Mike makes fun of my obsession with tidy paperwork,” she admitted and gave the first genuine smile of the morning.

  It was breathtaking. A wide, sexy grin that lit up her eyes and made her whole body sparkle.

  Certain parts of me sparkled too.

  “You need to show me how you work,” she continued. “I don’t want to file something in the wrong place.”

  “So Mike told you I tore him off a strip for misplacing a report,” I guessed.

  “He mentioned it.”

  The tweak of a smile at the corner of her full lips told me her assignment to this case had come with a health warning. We’d already got off on the wrong foot so I needed to watch my step.

  I showed her where to set up her laptop and she dropped her bag onto a chair. As she slipped off her jacket, the red silk of her blouse stretched tight across her breasts for a moment. Not that I was staring, but I made out the shape of bows on her bra straps and decided they’d be red too.

  Against black lace.

  I couldn’t decide whether I preferred to imagine her in matching panties or in no panties at all, but I’d give myself time to think about that one later.

  My clerk arrived and set a coffee tray in the centre of my desk. Allie helped herself and, when she sat down, she crossed her long legs gracefully. Her tight skirt rode up her thighs which were shadowed by sheer black stockings and just begging to be touched.

  By now I was struggling to focus and knew I needed to start thinking with the part of my brain furthest away from my overactive libido. Usually it was easy to separate business and pleasure but this woman broke down all of my defences. I had to start thinking and acting like a lawyer before things got out of hand.

  “I might be useful to start with a few ground rules,” I therefore said, battling against the very real distraction those long, slender legs represented. “I’ll expect complete dedication to the case.”

  “Obviously.” Allie frowned that I’d ever doubted it.

  “And that your work will be of the highest standard.”

  “You won’t have any complaints.”

  I didn’t have any so far. Far from it.

  “And at the risk of stating the obvious, it’ll involve long hours and possibly working at weekends,” I went on.

  She didn’t turn a hair. “Whatever it takes.”

  I looked at her for a long moment, taking time to absorb every detail of the way her lips glistened with coffee and the tendril of hair that had fallen forward and disappeared invitingly into her cleavage.

  But I’d been taught that it’s rude to stare and dragged my eyes away.

  “In my experience, it’s not the lawyer who objects to putting in the long hours,” I said. “It’s their other halves.”

  Her green eyes narrowed as she looked at me over the rim of her coffee cup. “Don’t worry, I’m not in the habit of letting my personal life interfere with my work,” she said, dodging my unasked question. “I’ll approach this case with the same level of professionalism as you. It’ll be a priority. I assume that’s the assurance you’re looking for.”

  “That doesn’t answer my question.”

  “I wasn’t aware you’d asked one.”

  She was getting riled now and her breath came harder. A vein pulsed in her throat, drawing my attention and I imagined what it would be like to kiss that soft, honey-gold skin. I knew she’d taste sweet and hot.

  “Are you in a relationship?” I asked, being as direct as she wanted.

  “What’s it to do with this case?”

  “I appear to have touched a nerve.”

  “Not at all. I simply don’t see why my personal life is relevant to Zeus Developments.”

  “Because I don’t want some love-sick Romeo calling every five minutes complaining you’re not home.”

  I realised immediately I’d pushed it too far. She jumped to her feet, eyes blazing

  “How dare you?” she demanded. “You wouldn’t have spoken so personally to Mike and you have absolutely no right to enquire into my private life.”

  She jammed her hands onto her waist, forcing her figure into a delicious hourglass. Her arse just begged to have my hands all over it and I don’t know how I resisted.

  “I have every right to ask,” I said. “If we’re working together, I can’t have you distracted.” Even though she was the biggest distraction I’d come across in a very long time.

  “Then I could say the same.” She did a double take, her fury showing no signs of cooling. “This is the biggest case of my career. I could make partner off the back of it. How do I know your romantic entanglements aren’t going to get in the way.”

  “What?”

  “For all I know your wife/ girlfriend/ significant other – delete as appropriate – might not like you working with me.” She stared me down. “I don’t want to be thrown off this case because another woman can’t cope with her jealousy.”

  “Jealousy?” I frowned. “Why would she be jealous?”

  “Because, as you’ve just said, we’ll be spending long hours together. Working late into the night. Possibly weekends. Cases like this can get intense.”

  “Are you saying you won’t be able to control yourself?” It was a cheap shot but I couldn’t resist.

  Her chest heaved with fury. “Don’t flatter yourself. I have one golden rule – I don’t play close to home. You’d be off limits even if I did find you attractive.”

  So much for my tender male ego, trampled underfoot by those high, patent shoes. In the spirit of conciliation, I decided to be frank.

  “There is no wife/ girlfriend/ significant other,” I said. “No one to get jealous of me working late into the night with a beautiful woman.”

  I assumed she’d accept the compliment gracefully but it fanned the flames of her anger. She launched another attack.

  “If this case weren’t so important to me, I’d walk out of here right now and report you to the Bar Standards Board,” she raged. “It’s highly unprofessional of you to make such personal remarks. It’s intimidating, sexist and not a little childish. I’m here to work, not flirt and massage your ego.”

  Thank God I was sitting down when she let loose this tirade and my groin was hidden by the desk. This woman was a sexual time bomb primed to explode. My cock stood to attention and saluted at
the thought of taming that temper. It would be like bedding a tigress – all sharp claws, pent-up energy and a fight for domination.

  Unprofessional or not, the desire to fuck her intensified, even if it was a lost cause.

  “In which case I owe you an apology,” I said, surprising myself. I didn’t make a habit of saying sorry, but then I was so rarely in the wrong. “I’ve overstepped professional boundaries. It won’t happen again.”

  I couldn’t tell from Allie’s face whether or not she believed me. She certainly didn’t look in the mood to accept my apology and glared when she sat down. Her hand shook, rattling her cup against its saucer and the vein pulsed harder in her throat, betraying the inner turmoil raging behind those long-lashed, green eyes.

  But even though she clearly felt threatened – whether personally or professionally – she never once broke eye contact and stared me down.

  “Why don’t we get onto safer ground and talk about the case?” she suggested, changing the subject deftly while she restored her self-control. “Am I simply checking the paperwork or do you want my legal input?”

  “Both.” I fought to focus on something other than the way her heavy breathing pushed her breasts alluringly against her red, silk blouse. “I’m doing a final review of evidence and I’ll need you to plug gaps in the witness statements and technical data.”

  “Do you want to talk me through what you’ve got so far?”

  She got to her feet to walk over to the table and I had no option but to stand up too. My erection bulged tellingly and I prayed she wouldn’t look down. If she noticed, she didn’t pass comment but I felt uncharacteristically self-conscious, all the same.

  What was it about this woman? Words like uncertain, hesitant and out of control never featured in my vocabulary. And yet I felt all of these at once – with lust, longing and impurity thrown in for good measure.

  Allie leaned forward across the wide table, reaching for files and familiarising herself with their layout. Her skirt stretched tight across that magnificent arse of hers, daring me to imagine what it would be like to fuck her right there from behind. There was a suggestion of a panty line; small, delicate and, in my imagination, transparent black lace.

  I groaned audibly and thanked my lucky stars that she focused her entire attention on the files, not on me. I’m never at a loss around women, but this one had me bound, gagged and ready to submit.

  Or was that another fantasy I’d be wanking over later?

  For God’s sake, get a grip, a voice inside my head shouted. You’re acting like the worst kind of lovesick fool because a beautiful woman has walked into chambers and dared to answer back.

  Only it wasn’t love, I felt for Allie Lawless. It was something far more base. And a lot less pure.

  She pulled out a chair and sat down, our argument forgotten as soon as she opened the first file and switched to lawyer mode.

  And that’s where the second surprise of the day came.

  As soon as she opened her mouth I knew this woman wasn’t only beautiful, she was smart too. And not the normal, keen and hungry law graduate intelligent either. I’m talking off-the-scale brilliant, perceptive and razor sharp.

  Within five minutes she was tearing my case preparations apart, getting me to justify every aspect of my cross examination strategy and forcing me to re-evaluate the evidence I’d so far collected.

  No one puts me on the back foot in a courtroom – which is how I justify my exorbitant fees. But this woman had me tied up in legal knots before the morning was half way through. The harder I argued my case, the stronger she came back at me; tearing my arguments to shreds and forcing me to back up everything with evidence from the files. She picked up on the most obscure points I’d overlooked and came up with suggestions for plugging the holes, quoting case law until my head span.

  I couldn’t hide my admiration.

  “I hadn’t expected you’d be so…” I groped for the word.

  “Helpful?” she suggested, with the faintest, self-satisfied smile.

  “Scholarly,” I corrected her, watching her reaction closely in case my compliment provoked another argument. “Where did you study?”

  “Same place as you.”

  “Balliol, Oxford?”

  She nodded. “And I won the Melton Prize.”

  Now I really was impressed. The criteria for the Melton Prize were so tough it was only awarded once in a blue moon. It had gone unclaimed for five years when I’d received it. If I hadn’t already worked out that Allie Lawless had a serious legal brain behind that beautiful face, this fact alone would have given it away.

  “Not just a pretty face then,” I said, risking another outburst.

  But she gave me another of her breathtaking smiles in reply and my stomach flipped. This woman was seriously gorgeous and the closer I got, the more gorgeous she became. And the more unattainable.

  But I’d always loved a challenge. Particularly in such an attractive package.

  Allie swept her tongue across her top lip, forcing me to imagine it trailing down across my chest and licking the length of my cock before those hot, red lips encircled me and sucked hard. I shifted in my chair as the inevitable happened and my cock hardened again.

  Working with her would have me either dying from sexual frustration, or going insane with lust by the end of the case. I wondered how long it would take Mike to recover from his broken leg and whether I could ask for an adjournment until then.

  “I’m sorry we got off on the wrong foot,” Allie said, taking me by surprise. She didn’t look like the kind of woman who regretted much. “I was nervous and stressed this morning. I overreacted.”

  “And I was rude. Which makes us even.” It occurred to me that she hadn’t actually said whether she was involved in a relationship and I couldn’t resist another line of questioning. “But now we’re back on the subject of late nights and jealous spouses, the clients have invited us out to dinner a week on Friday. Will that be a problem?”

  “Not at all.”

  “I’m afraid your partner isn’t invited. Just us, the directors and major shareholders.”

  “Okay.”

  Still no clues. Maddening woman. “Don’t you normally have plans on a Friday night?”

  “Nothing I can’t cancel.” The suspicion of a devilish smile told me she was enjoying stringing me along. “Where are we going?”

  “The Savoy. Eight o’clock. Black tie.” I was already hoping for something short, tight-fitting and low cut on her.

  Allie’s stomach rumbled loudly at the mention of food. She laughed and spread her hand across her taut belly, drawing my eyes down into her lap and the thoughts of the sweet heaven that lay under her skirt.

  Well a guy can dream, can’t he?

  “It’s all the talk of dinner making me hungry,” she said. “We got so carried away, we’ve worked through lunch.”

  A glance at my watch told me it was already three-thirty and I apologised.

  “Don’t. It’s been fascinating.” She meant it too. My ego went up a notch.

  She uncrossed her legs and the toe of one shoe scraped up my shin, accompanied by the rustle of her stockinged thighs brushing against each other. My cock strained against my trousers, begging for release and my balls tightened. I couldn’t remember the last time I wanted to fuck a woman so much.

  As Allie leaned forward to re-read her notes her blouse gaped far enough apart for me to see the bra I’d been imagining since first thing that morning. I’d pictured red bows on black lace but this was black bows on shocking pink.

  Far less predictable. Just like her.

  She looked up suddenly and caught me staring. I think I actually blushed. Me, the unshockable, unflappable, Radford Byrne; the terror of the courtroom, blushing like a schoolboy at being caught looking down a woman’s blouse.

  Allie gave me a knowing look but her anger didn’t revive. Instead, she stared hard at my chest, tracing the imagined outlines with her eyes, and giving that self-sati
sfied smile again. Had I not known better, I’d have said she was checking me out. Her glance down at my groin, added weight to my theory, as did the unconscious gesture of licking her lips.

  Suddenly, I wished we’d met anywhere other than in chambers. I’m a huge fan of hot, casual encounters that end in down and dirty sex and Allie Lawless was a woman I’d love to have met in a bar.

  My colleagues don’t know it, but I’m a flirt.

  Can’t help myself.

  While my silver tongue has talked my clients out of huge messes, it’s also talked me into a lot of women’s beds. I love the whole process – from eye contact to rolling between the sheets. If we make it as far as the bed.

  And we rarely do.

  Imagine swapping dirty talk and bodily fluids with a woman this intelligent. It’d take filthy flirting to a whole new level.

  “Would you mind if I stepped out for a sandwich,” Allie asked, derailing my train of thought. “Only I missed breakfast this morning.”

  “Why don’t we finish for the day?” I suggested. My cock was telling me I needed to head home urgently for a cold shower. Or a wank. I couldn’t decide which. “We’ve covered far more ground than I’d hoped and I need to read the brief for my case tomorrow.”

  She stood up, her belly button only inches away from my face. God only knows how I stopped myself cupping her perfectly-formed arse and pulling her towards me. I inhaled her body heat and the ghost of her perfume. Pre-cum soaked my underwear and I shifted uncomfortably.

  “I’ll get on to these missing witness statements first thing in the morning.” she promised, putting her jacket back on and packing away her laptop. “Shall I come back to chambers next week sometime?”

  “Make it Wednesday,” I said, wondering how I was going to last five whole days without seeing her. “I’m in court for most of next week so I’ll have to catch you during recesses.”

  We swapped mobile numbers in case there was a change of plan. I reminded myself that phone sex was probably out of the question.

  For the moment.

  In a desperate attempt to cool my ardour, my mind jumped to the most boring report the Zeus Developments case had thrown up – expert testimony on stress fractures in concrete – and I deliberately tried to recall every excruciating detail. By the time Allie had zipped up her briefcase, I’d succeeded in returning my erection to manageable proportions and stood up.