I checked my watch, then gripped the back of the chair as I stood and faced the round banqueting table where our chambers was seated. As I glanced around, I saw faces I recognized. Some I’d worked with. Others were familiar because they always came to these kinds of events.
I’d been one of the first to arrive at the table. The sooner we were all seated, the sooner the night could begin, and the sooner it would be over.
“Alex,” a man called from my right. I turned to see Graham Ridley coming toward me, his arm outstretched.
We shook hands. “Graham. Good to see you.”
“Thank you for your help with the United Streets case.”
Graham was a managing partner at a law firm I worked with a lot. One of his partners had instructed me on some work last year.
“Thank you for the case.”
“We won’t be able to afford you soon. No doubt you’ll be taking silk within a couple of years.”
I was planning to go for silk as soon as I could, but it wouldn’t be for a few years yet. Becoming a Q.C., or taking silk, as it was called, was the biggest promotion a barrister could get and didn’t happen for at least a decade after being called to the bar and was more likely to be twenty years with the work I did. But my father had made it at eighteen years, and I didn’t want to be even a year later. “We are some way off that,” I replied. “What about you? How’s business?”
After chatting for a few minutes, Graham moved toward his seat and another partner from a law firm came over, another in his wake. Arriving at the table early had clearly been a bad tactic. I should have waited until the last minute.
The chambers’ table filled up with Lance, Craig, Jimmy, and others. There were only a couple of spaces left. “Who else is coming?” I asked, leaning across the table toward Craig.
“James will be here shortly,” Lance said, then nodded toward the staircase. “And Violet King has just arrived.”
Fuck. I glanced around the table. There was an open seat next to Jimmy and one seat next to me. So I’d either be facing her or next to her. If I’d know she was coming I would have made an excuse not to be here. We’d not seen each other for a few days and although the urge for her hadn’t left me entirely, it was subsiding. Her presence here would surely reignite my desire for her, which was exactly what I was trying to avoid.
“I heard she’s whipping you into shape,” Lance said.
“Is that right?” I replied.
“Jolly good thing too,” Lance said. “You know what I think about the state of your office.”
Lance had made it clear on many occasions that he thought my office needed to be sorted out. Lance had been my father’s junior and when I first joined chambers he told me that if he could be half the mentor to me that my father had been to him, it was all he could hope for. He was the only one I listened to other than Craig and he was more of a mentor than I could ever have wished for. He had a sixth sense for when I was close to breaking point and always managed to talk me off the ledge without me even noticing. He had a big brain and a light touch and I respected him a great deal.
Lance and Craig began to discuss something, and I couldn’t resist taking the opportunity to turn to see Violet. I spotted her instantly, halfway down the curved staircase, scanning the room for our table.
My heart began to thunder in my chest. Not seeing her for a few days had made things worse now she was here. She was breathtaking. Clearly, I’d always found something about her compelling, but I didn’t think I’d ever realized how fucking beautiful she was. Her skin was luminous and her dark hair tumbled around her shoulders. As she took a few more steps down, the slit in her dress revealed one of her long, lithe legs. Shit. My pulse pounded in my ears and drowned out the chatter and music, leaving only her. I wanted to barrel over to the stairs and drag her away from this godforsaken evening. Take her back to my hotel and just stare at her for a while, then peel that beautiful dress off and worship her.
My breaths shortened the closer she got to the table and although I knew it was reckless, I wanted to ensure it was me she sat next to and not Jimmy.
I caught a glance of James coming through the crowd toward our table and deliberately shifted to conceal the empty chair next to mine, so he’d take the chair next to Jimmy. I wasn’t sure if it was enough to put him off.
“Gordon,” I said, shaking the hand of another barrister at a competing chambers. “Good to see you.” I held his hand a little longer than was necessary, creating an additional barrier between James and the seat next to mine.
Gordon looked at me, eyes narrowed, forehead creased as if he might have slipped into an alternate universe. “Good to see you too, Alex. Good luck tonight.”
In my peripheral vision, I saw James skirt around the human barrier I’d created with Gordon and take his position next to Jimmy. “Thanks.” I grinned at Gordon. He’d probably never seen me smile. It didn’t happen often, but I was pretty satisfied with the way I’d manipulated the seating.
And just in time, as Violet was just a few steps away.
Jimmy spotted her, and he offered her his seat, presumably so she’d be next to Craig and then he’d take the chair next to me. That wasn’t going to fucking happen.
“This seat is free,” I said, raising my voice to ensure the table heard me.
Violet declined Jimmy’s offer—she couldn’t do anything else without being impolite. She might not take any shit from me but she wasn’t rude—no ruder than I deserved anyway. She made her way around the table, acknowledging each member of chambers she passed.
It seemed like she took forever to reach me.
She gave me a tentative smile as I held out her chair and she took a seat. I caught a whiff of jasmine and closed my eyes in a long blink. Maybe I should have let her sit next to Jimmy.
The table full, we all sat. My right leg was an inch from hers, her heat warming me, her breathing soothing me.
Fuck. I wasn’t sure how I was going to get through the evening. Yet I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I knew it was wrong to want her. Hell, I hardly knew her, but the way she was utterly unintimidated by me, the way she spoke to me, it was as if she’d unpeeled all my layers and saw the real me. I wasn’t my father’s son as far as she was concerned. Nor was I the future of the bar, a failed husband, or a brilliant lawyer. I was some guy who made her job difficult but made her come. She stripped away everything that wasn’t relevant, and it only made me want her more. If it had just been her beauty I was drawn to, it would be easier to resist her.