Falling for the Lawyer - By Anna Clifton Page 0,6

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