Lovers in law (17 page)

In the middle of a case
conference the following morning my mobile buzzed. The text came
from Allie. I read it surreptiously under the desk, my heart
pounding with hope, praying she’d had second thoughts and wanted to
meet me.

Instead I read just three
words. THANK YOU. GOODBYE. XX

I took in a great gulp of cold,
November air, relishing how it burnished my lungs and carried the
taste of London back into my bloodstream.

After six months in Italy,
I’d only been back for three weeks and there hadn’t yet been time
to fully reacquaint myself with my home town. Every lunchtime
therefore found me wandering around the narrow streets of the old
City, working out what had changed. And every weekend, I went
shopping, to museums, galleries and the theatre, or met friends for
dinner in Covent Garden.

No matter how much I’d
enjoyed living and working in Rome, half a year away had proved I
was a London girl at heart and I was so glad to be back.

I carried my coffee and
sandwich
up to my office, shivering now I
was back in the warm, and settled down to the afternoon’s caseload.
I loved being the newest member of the London office’s mergers and
acquisitions team and had hit it off immediately with my managing
partner. His experience and my mania for details made us the
perfect combination, and I’d fitted seamlessly into his department,
where I already felt trusted and valued.

Professionally speaking, I’d
never been
happier. As for the rest, well
that’s a very long story.

Five lawyers, myself
included, were wading through
documentation for Thirstan Holdings, a giant construction
firm buying out a smaller building company. I’d spent the last
three weeks immersed in land titles, company accounts and lists of
assets, relishing the chance to read in English again after
speaking Italian for so long, and pleased to be knuckling down to
some real legal work at last.

That afternoon,
a surveyor’s report on a small but valuable
piece of land near the new Olympic park in East London raised a
blip of concern on my legal radar, so I did some deeper research
and took it to my boss.

“It’s in a prime
location but it’s been lying vacant for forty
years,” I explained “and the survey’s incredibly
ambiguous.”

“You’re
right
. Something doesn’t ring true.” He
flicked through the file I’d put together. “You’d better send this
round to Aiden Thirstan’s office and see what he
thinks.”

I organised a courier
immediately and
tied up a few more loose
ends before locking my office door and changing out of my work
suit. My department was hosting a pre-Christmas drinks reception
that evening for its most important clients and had hired the
spectacular setting of the crypt in St Paul’s Cathedral just around
the corner from our offices.

As it was a party, I’d chosen
a dark green, silk dress I’d bought in Rome. Very Italian, very
chic and making me feel flirty and feminine for the first time in
months.
When I checked my lipstick, I saw
a glimmer of the old Allie Lawless again – the confident, sexy
woman who’d walked into Radford Byrne’s chambers and taken him by
storm. She’d not been around for a very long time and I’d missed
her. It was good to have her back.

My inner flirt must have been
showing on the outside too because, an hour into the party, two
colleagues had asked me for my private number and a tipsy client
had invited me to dinner, off company time. I politely refused them
all. My involvement with Radford and the disastrous encounter with
Daniel Greene had taught me never to play that close to home again.
And I always – always – learned from experience.

Therefore, when a handsome
man approached me half way through the evening, the
refusal was already on my lips before he’d even
launched his first chat-up line.

“All
egra?” he said, predictably giving me the once over.
“Allegra Lawless?” He held out his hand. “I’m Aiden Thirstan.
Thirstan Holdings. It’s really good to meet you.”

I hadn’t expected the head of
a multi-million pound corporation to be
quite so young, or so very good looking either. Tall and
broad, with a sexy smile and huge, hazel eyes flecked with amber.
Mid-thirties – my favourite age – and with a glint in those tiger’s
eyes that could have meant a million things.

Shame he was so far off limits.

“Please, call me Allie,” I said,
shaking his hand. “Only my Italian grandmother and the senior
partner use Allegra.”

He grinned and his handsome
levels went somewhere off the scale.
“Great work spotting the problem with the old factory
site,” he said, sounding impressed. “I think our vendors might be
trying to pull a fast one. We shouldn’t talk shop at a party but
could you do some more research for me? See what else you can turn
up.”

“With pleasure,” I said,
relieved to find he wasn’t just another good looking guy fancying
his chances.

“Perhaps we should get advice
from counsel too,” he went on. “Just to be on the safe
side.”

My heart sank. I’d already worked
out we’d need a second opinion from a barrister. And anyone who
knew anything about construction law would only ever call one
person.

“Who do you prefer to use?” I
asked, praying Aiden had a different name in mind.

“A good friend of mine who
specialises in this area. And…” He took out his phone and dialled a
number. “…as luck would have it, Radford’s here tonight. Let’s see
what he thinks.”

My whole body arrested at the
inevitability of the next few seconds
and
my senses went into freefall. As Aiden’s call connected, he turned
to look across the room. I followed his eye line, sick with
anticipation, my heart pumping so hard my insides burned white hot
and the pit of my stomach liquefied.

This
meeting had to happen one day, I told myself. Radford and I
couldn’t avoid one another indefinitely and the past always refused
to be buried.

But
I had no idea how Radford would react.

The last time I’d seen
him
, he’d been tender, loving and
concerned but I guessed women didn’t often walk away from Radford
Byrne. After a brutal separation and six months apart there was no
telling what effect his bruised ego might have had on his feelings
toward me. I held my breath.

Radford’s eyes connected with
mine
in the same instant – as much a
shock to him as to me – his stride faltering momentarily, as if the
ground had cracked beneath his feet.

He went from fantasy to reality in
a split second and my poor heart splintered.

I’d imagined this
reunion a thousand times; fantasising about
where we’d meet, rehearsing what I’d say, picturing what I’d do,
what I’d wear and how I’d remain completely in control.

But the moment I laid eyes
on
Radford, every certainty went out of
the window. Despite my resolutions to keep my distance, I knew that
half a lifetime wouldn’t be long enough to wipe the imprint of this
unique man from my soul and that, whatever there’d once been
between us, traces of it still lingered.

For me, at least.

“Hello, Allie,” Radford said,
ignoring Aiden’s introductions. His frozen features told me I was
the last person he wanted to see. “How are you?”

“Great,” I lied, even
though
I could have thought of a hundred
more appropriate adjectives. Confused. Terrified. Relieved to be in
the same room as you again. Hurt that you’re less than pleased to
find me here. “It’s good to see you again.”

He didn’t return the
sentiment.
“How was Rome?” he asked as if
he couldn’t have cared less.

“Hot. Chic.
Fascinating. Hard work.” I tried to sound
light-hearted but didn’t quite pull it off.

I
nstead, I drank in the sight of the deep blue eyes I wanted
to float in; the lips that had kissed every inch of me; the
heavy-set body that had pinned me to the bed and made me come so
often I’d lost count.

After six months in
the company of devastatingly-attractive Italian
men I thought I’d become immune to tall, dark and handsome. But
Radford wasn’t a man I’d ever build up any resistance
to.

The client was
delighted
we already knew one another.
“So you’ve worked together before,” Aiden guessed.

Radford had obviously
never
mentioned me – but then, why would
he?

“We both acted for Zeus
Developments,” Radford explained, every muscle in his perfect body
tensing.

“
I didn’t know that was one
of yours.” Aiden did a double take. “It’s not like you to lose that
disastrously.”

“I didn’t lose,” Radford
snapped. “I never took it to trial.”

The memory
obvio
usly still rankled because a muscle
twitched under Radford’s right eye. I could still make out the scar
across his eyebrow from where Daniel Greene had punched him and the
past crowded in on me. I pushed it away and closed the
lid.

“I gave one of the directors
some particularly hard-hitting advice and he didn’t like
it
,” Radford continued. “Allie and I were
both sacked.”

I shot Radford a look of pure
gratitude – the last thing I wanted was the client knowing
my
entire sad history the first time I
met him. Radford nodded his head slightly in acknowledgement but
his mask never cracked.

“Well the good news
is
, I’m considering buying what’s left of
the company,” Aiden said, oblivious to the look of horror on my
face. “So you’ll get your revenge one way or another,
Allie.”

I tried
laughing it off, but the prospect of meeting Daniel Greene
again sapped the words from me and I floundered. Sensing my
hesitation, Radford leapt to my rescue.

“You said you had a problem,”
he
prompted, drawing Aiden’s attention
away from me. Radford’s face unexpectedly relaxed into a broad
smile that melted the splinters of my heart and stirred more than a
few memories. “But it’s after seven. I’m doubling my
fees.”

“Nice try.”
Aiden laughed and clapped his friend on the
back. “I need your advice because Allie’s spotted something
interesting on land I’m buying in East London. There might be a
contamination issue.”

“What exactly?”

This time Radford looked
directly at me and I wished I could read what was going on behind
his big, blue eyes but the shutters had been slammed down and the
grin had evaporated.

“The
adjoining site has houses on it,” I explained, struggling
to keep my voice level. “Several residents were made seriously ill
by chemicals buried there in the 1950s. The builder settled out of
court and paid substantial damages.”

“Will the
residents talk to us?”

I shook my head.
“Already tried. They signed confidentiality
agreements when they collected their cheques.”

Radford
took a moment to process the information, giving me the
chance to study him while he was deep in thought. He wore a white
shirt and pale blue tie, offset by a suit in the darkest of greys.
He’d obviously come straight from chambers because the suspicion of
a beard darkened his chin, highlighting the thoughtful creases
forming around his very kissable mouth. His open jacket just begged
me to slip my hands inside and that sharp jaw line cried out to
have a trail of kisses burned along it.

God, I’d missed him.
Missed the look, sound, feel and taste of him.
And had he leaned in and kissed me right then, I’d have melted into
him in an instant.

“Your problem will be if the
chemicals have leaked into the water table under your site,”
Radford said, thinking out loud. “All kinds of legal action might
be lying in wait.”

“I agree.” Aiden gave me a
megawatt grin that had no doubt wreaked havoc amongst the female
population of London. Unfortunately, he’d chosen the one woman who
was decidedly immune. “I’m impressed Allie picked it up,” he told
Radford. “My surveyors didn’t.”

“Allie has an amazing eye for
detail.” Radford’s smiled hesitantly. “The Zeus case was watertight
by the time she’d finished. Had we gone to trial, we’d have wiped
the floor with the opposition.”

“Radford’s exaggerating.” I
tried sounding modest but his compliment had thrilled
me.

“Nonsense. Allie’s probably
the best instructing solicitor I’ve ever worked with,” Radford went
on, going over the top to sell me to Aiden. “You’re very lucky
she’s on your team.”

Up until that moment, I
wouldn’t have put effusive down on Radford’s list of
virtues so let myself believe he spoke from the
heart. This time my smile was less tentative and accompanied by
whispered thanks.

Aiden stopped a passing
waiter and picked up
some champagne. “We
should drink to that,” he said, handing me a glass. “Radford’s a
very difficult man to impress. He’s always been very choosy about
who he gets into bed with.”