Falling for the Lawyer - By Anna Clifton Page 0,13
“You think I’m going to fire you? Now?” he spluttered.
“Why wouldn’t you after this morning?”
“What exactly are you referring to? Have you passed a confidential document to an opponent? Have you stolen money from the firm?”
“No, of course not.” Alex was flummoxed. It was not the reaction from him she’d been expecting.
“Then what?”
She searched JP’s face for some indication of what he was thinking but his expression was unreadable. “This morning when I … when I told you everyone here was calling you ‘The Grim Reaper’ and that no one wanted you to start.”
His eyes crinkled at the edges. “Is that a sackable offence these days? I haven’t done an update on employment law for a while. Perhaps it’s time I did.”
“But all your talk about loyalty, dedication and team players. I thought … I was sure you were referring to me …”
JP threw back his head and laughed.
Again she was making him laugh. What was it about her he found so amusing? Sophie laughed at her too in the same way and most of the time Alex had no idea what she’d done or said that was so funny.
“Weren’t you referring to me?” Alex was beginning to doubt lots of conclusions she’d reached about him that day.
He shook his head in disbelief before he spoke. “Alex, you don’t strike me as the egotistical type to say the least. Nevertheless, you’ve got to understand you are not the centre of my universe in managing this litigation section. The fact is that I haven’t made any final decisions about staff cut-backs yet.”
“Oh, I thought …” But Alex couldn’t utter another word.
“Is that why you’ve stayed back until now, because you thought I was going to fire you?”
She nodded and he gave her a smile that was so breathtakingly gentle she thought she would melt under its warmth.
“You must have had a God-awful time worrying about it all day, not to mention that disaster in the rain this morning.”
Yet despite his gentleness Alex was beginning to panic. He was having that effect upon her once again—just like when he’d held her hand that morning, when she’d felt as though the whole world was compressing itself into one tiny space that only the two of them occupied—a space where there was no room for Simon, three years of family expectation or anything else. And once again she felt absolutely and thoroughly disgusted with herself.
“Come on, have a glass of wine. I think you might need it.” Before she could object he’d returned to the fridge, pulled out a bottle and poured her a small glass. She accepted it from him before she could think of any way of politely refusing.
“I was positive you would sack me after this morning,” Alex admitted, lowering herself unsteadily into one of the chairs near his desk. “Do you mind if I ask you something?”
He nodded, looking at her again in that deeply unsettling way of his, as if he’d never met anyone quite like her before—as though he was astounded to suddenly find her in his life.
“Why did you help me this morning but not tell me who you were? Did you know I was your PA?”
JP’s eyebrows rose and fell guiltily. “Of course I knew. I’d seen your photo on the website but I wanted to keep my options open. If I was going to fire you I didn’t want you thinking it was because you had some mud on your clothes.”
Alex threw him a sceptical look. “Is that a sincere answer?”
“What do you think?”
“I can’t tell with you.”
“The truth is I felt sorry for you. I could see you were dead worried about today and I thought you’d be less likely to accept my help if you knew who I was. But I couldn’t resist having some fun by surprising you at your workplace half an hour later. That was the unfair part of the idea. When I worked out just how unfair it was I wasn’t prepared to rattle you in front of Andrea by revealing all in the boutique.”
“It was all totally unfair,” Alex objected yet she couldn’t help smiling when she noticed the mischievous twinkle in his eyes.
He was an enigma, that was for sure. She suspected the most challenging part of her job would be learning to read his mind—if she had a job for much longer!
“The thing is,” JP started again, more seriously, “I’m glad you told me how the staff was feeling. If you hadn’t then the paranoia about