Legally Addicted - By Lena Dowling Page 0,21

she saw Brad with someone else the better.

‘I’m at the stage where I might have to hire a professional investigator.’

‘Not a bad idea to call in the professionals in a case like this, actually. I’ve had to do that sometimes. I can give you some names if you like.’

‘Thanks.’

Brad unrolled the magazine he was holding and handed it to her.

‘Snapped by the Paps?’

She quirked an eyebrow.

‘I know, I know, but I don’t read this rag for personal entertainment. With my client list, it pays to stay ahead of the game. Most of it is overblown of course, but over the years I’ve found that where there is smoke, there may not be fire but usually there is something at least smouldering.’

Smouldering.

His eyes gleamed a little brighter as he said the word. Was that meant as a double entendre? It wasn’t the first time he had passed by her desk to talk shop only to end up making some innocent and yet simultaneously suggestive remark.

‘And what is smouldering at the moment, do you think?’ she said, staring him straight in the eye, squarely meeting his cheek with a good dose of her own.

‘Apart from the usual?’

There it was again.

His eyes flashed at her.

It was bad enough having him around, without his flirting, but there wasn’t much she could do about it. If she brought it up, he would probably only deny it, making out she was the one who still had a bit of a thing for him.

Which, to a certain extent, she did.

Damn it.

‘Check out page forty-two.’

Grateful to have a reason to look away, she flicked through the pages until she found the image Brad was referring to.

She read the caption below the photo, ‘“Buckland snapped out with mystery woman”.’

‘This could be it, Georgia. If I were a betting man I’d say we’ll see Cherie soon. Until now, Buckland’s philandering has never made the media, but Cherie isn’t going to like this.’

‘I’ll make sure I’m up to speed with the file.’

‘Good. So I guess I’ll see you tomorrow up the coast then.’

‘Up the coast?’

‘At the strategy meeting.’

The idea of the overnight strategy meeting had filled Georgia with dread ever since Brad had mentioned it. She had tried to forget about it, throwing herself into her work, and with the Walsh file soaking up every free minute out of court, she had been reasonably successful. Watching Brad with someone else would be bad enough, but having to do it in some lavish mansion, which Brad insisted on calling his ‘shack’ in some perverse rich person’s ironic humour, set her stomach revolving in a ball of nerves.

‘Sure. See you then,’ she said coolly, ensuring nothing of her inner turmoil showed on her face.

The next day, Georgia briefly considered faking some forty-eight hour flu bug to avoid driving up to Brad’s so-called shack. But if she did that, she risked major decisions being made by the three other partners without her. She hadn’t come this far just to be sidelined and treated liked the junior partner, or worse, some kind of feminine mascot.

Georgia reduced her speed, turned down the radio, and pulled her sunglasses on to the top of her head as she drove along the dress circle of houses that flanked Caston Bay. Caston was a coastal town a couple of hours from the CBD where the rich came to play. She expected to be completely out of her element at Brad’s holiday house, just as she had felt in his penthouse, and she wasn’t looking forward to making small talk with Dayton and Llewellyn’s wives either.

Although she had never met them before, she had seen them coming and going from their respective husbands’ offices enough times to have them pegged as ageing trophy wives plucked from the wealthy Eastern Suburbs. Then there was Brad’s ‘plus one’ who would likely be some society bimbo whose only difference from the likes of Caro Marsden and Ruby Walsh would be the years on the clock, and the number of facelifts.

Suck it up, Georgia.

This was what was expected of a partner in a successful law firm, and if she wanted the contacts and client base that went with it, she would just have to grin and bear it.

And there was still the issue of the addiction centre proposal. Now that she knew Brad was on the board, she might not be up to what Caro had alleged, but she needed to make sure she maintained a positive relationship with him.

So play nicely, Georgia.

The trouble was