Falling for the Lawyer

Chapter One


‘Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.’ That was Murphy’s Law. And Alex Farrer knew with absolute certainty that her life had once again become the starring jewel in its crown of truth.

‘Take charge of your life or it will take charge of you.’ That was another saying to send a shudder through Alex. She only had to glimpse it running cheerily along the top of a desktop calendar page and it would set her running—in the opposite direction!

‘Destiny is made in the decisions we make.’ She was damn sure she was the pin-up girl for that one too—living proof that if you don’t make a single decision for yourself destiny vanishes in a heartbeat.

Yet it wasn’t for a lack of trying. Just that morning Alex had vowed to become the captain of her own ship of destiny. So what if her new boss’s first job on his ‘to-do list’ was to sack her. She refused to take defeat lying down! She would seize the day, impress the socks off him and prove he couldn’t possibly do without her! Finally, once and for all, she would take control of her own future! There was just one tiny little problem: life, as usual, had gotten in the way.

Alex stood on the kerb of the busy Sydney street, convinced destiny had just sniggered in her ear as a cocktail of mud and dirty water had risen like magic from underneath a passing truck’s tyre and deposited itself all over her.

The pedestrian signal flashed green. Office workers huddling under umbrellas and lost in their own thoughts about the coming workday streamed out over the crossing. But not Alex. Alex didn’t move. What was the point? Backwards or forwards the destiny trolls were lying in wait for her—either way she could kiss her job goodbye.

“Are you in some bother there, darlin’?”

Alex jumped. A man had emerged like an apparition out of the mist and rain at her side.

“I was waiting to get some money out of the cash teller,” he went on, nearly shouting to be heard over the deafening torrents of rain tumbling around them. “I noticed you hadn’t moved in awhile. Hey, you’re right manky!” he declared suddenly as Alex turned to him and presented herself in all her muddy glory.

He began to laugh then—uproarious laughter drawing stares and smiles from passers-by as they took in Alex’s appearance.

“Is it really necessary you draw everyone’s attention to me?” Alex questioned tetchily while a remote part of her brain tried to work out what on earth the word ‘manky’ meant.

“I’m sorry.” He suppressed his laughter but was unable to repress the Cheshire Cat grin. “But do you know that you are literally covered in muck? There’s not a square inch of you that’s clean! It really hasn’t been your day, has it?”

“No, and it’s about to get a whole lot worse,” Alex thought out loud as she stared out through the rain, frozen within a miasma of panic and resignation.

“Well m’dear, you can’t stand here all morning. What are you going to do?”

His accent suggested a childhood somewhere in the west of Scotland. It was lilting and musical, seeming to lean languorously into every vowel. And despite Alex’s predicament it had a powerfully soothing effect upon her mood.

“I have absolutely no idea what I’m going to do,” Alex confessed, her thoughts beginning to cascade back into her own problems again like the rain tumbling around them both. “If I go home to change and arrive late for work I’ll lose my job, but if I arrive on time looking like this, I’ll lose it anyway. Not exactly great options are they.”

She could hear the bitter resignation in her own voice yet it wasn’t really losing her job that was the problem. The problem was the train of events losing her job would trigger. If she thought her life was not in her own hands now she dreaded to think what it would be like once she was unemployed. In fact she’d been worrying herself sick about the prospect for weeks and yet fate had taken things into its own hands anyway, as it always did.

“Lose your job!” the stranger scoffed, still shouting to be heard over the dull roar of the storm which seemed to be hurtling towards them. “Don’t be ridiculous. No one loses a job over a bit of mud.”

“You do if your new boss is looking for any excuse to get rid of you.”

The stranger studied Alex intently before taking her elbow firmly in his hand and guiding her away from the kerb and into the foyer of a nearby office block. There they found some respite from the tempest building around them.

“So this guy wants to get rid of you,” he began again, resuming his posture of leaning enquiringly towards her as he spoke, his umbrella tossed to one side. “What have you done exactly, although you look like you could be trouble,” he added with the flash of a quick smile.

“I’m not trouble!” Alex protested, choosing to ignore the teasing curl to his lips. “And as a matter of fact I haven’t done anything yet, but he’s arriving today and he’s not called the ‘Grim Reaper’ for nothing.”

“If you’re not trouble then why are you at risk?”

“Because I’m an Assistant PA and my law firm has decided we’re an unnecessary expense, like the biscuits in the tea room.” Alex was staggered at the bitterness driving her indiscretion but at that moment felt completely powerless to rein it in.

The stranger’s expression was thoughtful. “I see, and they call this new guy ‘The Grim Reaper’,” he repeated, his mouth forming an unreadable straight line.

“We’re all dreading his arrival. No one in litigation thinks their job is safe with him around. Not that it’s your problem of course,” Alex added quickly, disconcerted by his increasingly pensive look as black clouds exploded into thunder claps above. “So thank you for your concern but I’d better go and find somewhere to get cleaned up.”

“Don’t be daft,” he drawled, snapping out of his reverie at once. “You won’t be able to clean yourself up under a tap in some ladies bathroom. Half that stuff on you is engine oil. Nothing less than soap, hot water and a change of clothes is going to sort you out but don’t despair, I’ve got an idea. There’s a frock shop up the road. I know the manager. She won’t be open yet but she gets in early. We can get you a change of clothes in there and she’ll have somewhere you can clean up.”

“That’s really not necessary,” Alex objected; it was bad enough being in the hands of fate, let alone in the hands of a perfect stranger.

“I’m afraid it is necessary.”

Again, Alex was distracted by his eyes as they rested intently upon her and waited for her answer. Nevertheless she tore her gaze away from his to look down at her filthy beige skirt, drenched cotton shirt and sodden black shoes. Biting her bottom lip she looked up at him.

“Is it really that bad?”

“Does The Creature from the Black Lagoon ring any bells?” He raised his eyebrows at her then in wry amusement.

Alex began to tug at the wet tendrils of her hair as she cast her eyes around her. She prayed some other solution might emerge out of the rain but of course none did. Once again her life was being tossed around by the forces of the cosmos as they played astrological tennis with her future—with grim resignation she admitted to herself that the man next to her was her only hope.

“You’re sure this boutique manager won’t mind?”

“Positive.”

“And you’re sure you have time to do this?”

“Aye,” the stranger laughed at her. “And I’m sure there’s not going to be an invasion of little green men in the next five minutes too.”

“Okay then,” she agreed finally, again deciding to ignore his sarcasm. “If you’re sure it isn’t too much trouble.”

“I’m sure,” he replied as the walk signal changed to green at the nearby crossing. “Come on.”

Before Alex could object the stranger had grabbed her hand and was dragging her through unremitting sheets of driving rain, across the street and up the wide pedestrian mall on the other side. Alex ran as best she could behind him, her umbrella wobbling uselessly above her head as she struggled to keep up with his cracking pace. Finally he dragged her up the stone steps of a nineteenth century building fronted by a string of shops. It was towards one of these that he guided her when she stopped dead and shook her head.

“You’ve got to be kidding! I can’t go in there!”

The stranger turned to her. “Why not?”

“You said a frock shop! That’s not a frock shop. That’s an exclusive boutique for customers with very exclusive black credit cards. Look, I really appreciate your offer of help but an outfit from there will set me back months.”

“Don’t worry, you won’t have to pay for this. The owner’s a pal of my … of mine,” he corrected himself quickly. “We can work something out with her.”

Alex hesitated before replying, battling to get her head around why this man was going to a whole lot of trouble over a drowned rat he’d picked up on the edge of the street. “It’s not that simple. You’ve been very kind but I’m afraid it’s the end of the line on this rescue mission. There is no way a boutique like this will work something out for someone like me.”

The stranger shook his head in exasperation. “God help your boss if you’re this stubborn at work!” he declared before pressing on. “Now listen to me. This is how it’s going to be. You’re going to walk into that boutique and accept the help being offered because I am going to finish this rescue mission and I sure as hell haven’t got all morning to spend on it.”

He set his jaw then with a gritty determination Alex guessed would continue to rise with every protest she could throw at him. For some reason he’d decided to be her knight in shining armour and nothing was going to get in his way.

“All right then,” she agreed finally. “I’ll go in and see if there’s anything I can afford but I know we’re wasting our time. A single coat hanger from there will send me broke.”

“Just don’t make any decisions until you’ve cleaned yourself up and tried something on. Is it a deal?”

Alex nodded as she began to shiver violently in her wet clothes.

Together they approached the glass door of the boutique and left their sodden umbrellas to one side. A stylish young woman was moving about the shop and getting ready for the business day ahead. The stranger knocked on the door and caught her attention. She looked towards them in surprise but on seeing him at the door she smiled broadly and approached to unlock it.

“JP! Darling!” she cried, standing back to let the two of them in but barely acknowledging Alex’s existence.

“Andrea, it’s good to see you.” He smiled, accepting her kiss on both cheeks.

“It’s been too long! How’s Caroline?”

“She’s fine … last time I saw her anyway.”

“Oh … I see!” Andrea nodded, her eyes roving over him with flirtatious interest.

Alex turned in surprise to the man she now knew as ‘JP’, intensely curious about the powerful sex appeal he had for this very stylish woman. But giving him the quick once over again Alex decided that despite the devastating effect he was having on Andrea, he was a very long way from drop dead gorgeous.

There was no doubt he was what a lot of girls her age described as ‘built’, but he wasn’t especially tall. And he had a very ordinary, outdoorsy kind of face. In fact his knock-about looks suggested he’d spent far too many of his young years exposed to either the freezing cold of Scottish football fields or the blazing heat of Spanish beaches.

“So Caroline is still in the UK?” Andrea persisted, unfazed by JP’s short responses.

“Yep, no plans to come here at this stage.” JP gave Andrea an obscure smile. “Anyway, I didn’t come in to discuss Caroline; I need to ask a favour.”

“Of course, anything.”

“This is … ?”

“Alex,” Alex interjected, remembering JP didn’t know her name.

Andrea swung around to Alex for the first time and gave her a look as though she’d only just noticed she was standing there. Alex wasn’t offended. She was used to being invisible to women like Andrea. But she was clearly becoming less invisible as Andrea’s jaw dropped and her eyes widened as she took in Alex’s hair, face and clothes.

“Oh dear! Do you know you are almost completely encased in mud? What on earth happened?”

“Alex had a run in with passing traffic and lost,” JP offered by way of the briefest explanations. “She now has to front the new boss from hell and needs something presentable to wear so that she can get to work on time.”

“I’ll need to clean up first,” Alex threw in, looking away from Andrea’s stunned expression in appeal to JP.

“Would that be okay?” he asked Andrea.

“Of course. I’ve a shower and towels out the back.”

Andrea moved towards a rack of clothing and removed some garments. “Here, this is a lovely outfit for the office. I’m assuming you do work in an office?” she added doubtfully, staring at Alex’s dreary outfit before she draped a peppermint-coloured suit over her arm and began to lead her towards a door at the back of the shop.

Alex turned to follow Andrea but as she did a price tag on the outfit flipped over into full view. Four figures appeared after the dollar sign and behind Andrea’s back Alex turned and shot a look of sheer alarm at JP, pointing to the price tag. He looked at it, nodded and then raised his eyebrows and pointed his finger at her as if to say, ‘we had a deal, remember?’ then that same finger rested against his lips to silence her protests.

“There’s some shampoo in the shower recess,” Andrea continued, unaware of the wordless exchange going on behind her before tossing at Alex with breathtaking directness, “Oh, and you’ll find some heels out there as well. I’m afraid those shoes you’re wearing just won’t do at all—mud or no mud!”


JP McKenzie rose from the comfort of Andrea’s lounge chair with jerky movements. He knew that if he didn’t get up and walk about he’d soon slip into a deep, intoxicating sleep.

God he hated that flight from London. It absolutely killed him every time. He’d flown in three days ago and the jet lag was still eating away at his brain. And the problem was he needed his wits about him that morning, particularly as Alex Farrer had let it slip that every member of his new litigation section was dreading his arrival that day.

“Where on earth did you find that little poppet?” Andrea crooned from her large table, busy entering information into a laptop as they waited for Alex to return.

JP couldn’t help but smile to himself. Andrea had only just met Alex yet she’d immediately relegated her to the level of ‘poppet’.

How did women like Andrea know with such certainty who was in their social stratosphere and who wasn’t? Caroline had been like that too; swift and brutal had been his ex-girlfriend’s assessments of the women she associated with. You were either on her ‘A-list’ or you weren’t, and once you were off the list there were no second round offers.

“I found her on the edge of George Street just after the mud thing.” JP was wandering around the boutique, casting his eyes over the limited range of outfits on display. But he wasn’t thinking about clothing right then, he was thanking his lucky stars fate had intervened on his side that morning.

But for the old man in front of him at the cash machine, struggling to master the challenges of modern banking, he would never have stood still long enough to notice Alex Farrer standing motionless at the pedestrian crossing.

She would have been so easy to miss too. Grey was the colour she’d conjured up in his mind: from a distance she’d been almost invisible against the backdrop of mist and city paving. If she hadn’t turned at the very moment he was looking her way he would never have felt the lightning bolt of familiarity.

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 outfit?”

“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.