The Law of Attraction (5 page)

He nodded good morning to the security guard and tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for the lift to take him up to the sixth floor. When the lift doors opened, Alec stepped out and padded quietly over plush carpets and along silent corridors until he reached the open-plan office space that he shared with his team. He took a seat at his desk, opened up his briefcase, peeled the protective lid carefully off his coffee—large, black, no sugar—and settled down to read through the files for the hotel deal they were currently working on.

Several months of legwork were finally coming to a head, but they still had a lot of details to iron out. The next few weeks would be crucial, hopefully leading to a deal that both parties would be happy with. A large national hotel chain, based in London, was in the process of buying up a smaller, but very successful, chain in Scotland.

Alec was the senior associate assigned to manage the deal. Although technically his boss, Katherine Parker, was in overall control and would oversee everything, Alec’s role was running this deal. He was the one coordinating the team, leading the negotiations, and he would be drafting the main purchase agreement. There was still a lot of work to be done, and now the negotiations were picking up pace, two extra people were joining the team today. Alec hoped they’d pull their weight; they’d need to. One of them was a man from within the firm called Jon Kingsland, whom Alec knew but hadn’t worked closely with before. He was a paralegal who had worked in Mergers and Acquisitions here at Baker Wells for a couple of years. The other was new, a recently qualified temp. Alec couldn’t recall his name—he wasn’t sure anyone had told him what it was yet. He hoped he wasn’t too wet behind the ears and would manage to make himself useful. They didn’t have time to babysit.

“Good morning, Alec. Putting the rest of us to shame as usual, I see.” James Morgan, Associate, greeted Alec with a grin as he took his seat at his desk across the way.

Alec had worked with James for almost a year now, and they had a good working relationship. He appreciated James’s humour and camaraderie as much as he did his attention to detail and his ability to smooth things out with even the most difficult clients.

“Did you have a good weekend?” James asked. “I hope you didn’t spend the whole time working. I always worry when you email me at midnight on a Saturday.”

Alec’s lips quirked. “It was okay, thanks. And no, I didn’t spend the whole time working. I do have a life, you know.” A vision of Ed with his lips wrapped around Alec’s cock popped unbidden into his head. He snapped the mental doors closed on it promptly. “My mother was in town, so I met her for lunch on Saturday.”

After asking Ed to leave, Alec had breakfasted alone in his flat. He’d felt guilty lying to Ed to make him leave, but he wasn’t enough of a bastard to throw Ed out without at least making some excuse. From the look on Ed’s face, Alec didn’t think he’d fooled him. But really, it served him right for falling asleep in a stranger’s bed. Alec could have been an axe murderer or something. He found Ed’s level of trust in him astonishing.

Damn it
. Now he was thinking about Ed again, having spent most of the weekend trying to forget him. This was why he never let anyone stay the night after picking them up. Having someone sleep in his bed had unsettled Alec; his tightly guarded privacy had been invaded, and he felt uncomfortable.

“How about you?” Alec turned the question back to James. “Good weekend?”

“Not bad, thanks. It was Emily’s birthday on Saturday, so we got a babysitter for Charlotte and I took Em out to dinner. Then I had a duty visit to the parents for Sunday lunch. Seems to have been the weekend for it.”

Alec chuckled and turned his attention back to the papers spread out on his desk. He sipped at his coffee as he thought about his mother. “Duty” just about summed it up. Alec had always been the dutiful son.

He’d never had an easy relationship with either of his parents, but his mother was the lesser of two evils. His parents lived in the Berkshire countryside, near Newbury, and his mother visited London often for shopping and socialising. Alec was always expected to make time in his schedule to meet her when she was in town.

The rustle of paper indicated that James was settling down to work too, and they got on with things in silence as the office gradually filled up around them. The rest of the team greeted them as they arrived one by one and started getting themselves organised for the day. Once the new additions joined them a little later, there would be a meeting to make sure everyone was up to speed with the details of the takeover.

Alec lost himself in paperwork for a while, rereading some reports and making a few notes in the margins until Jen, the PA he shared with Katherine, interrupted him.

“Alec, the new temp is down in reception.” Jen stood by his desk. “I’m just on my way down to meet him.”

“Thanks, Jen. Bring him straight up. Then give him a quick tour before we meet at nine thirty to discuss the deal.”

“Will do.” Jen turned with a swish of her dark hair and hurried off.

Alec carried on reading. He was so focused on his task that he didn’t notice the sound of footsteps approaching a little later.

“Alec.”

Jen’s voice made him raise his head. He looked at her first, before he let his gaze move to the man beside her. The polite smile froze on his face and adrenaline flooded his system with a jolt that nearly took his breath away.

“This is Ed Piper, your new trainee. Ed, this is Alec Rowland, Senior Associate. He’s leading the team you’ll be working with.”

Ed barely reacted. There was the tiniest flare of anxiety in his eyes, but Alec only saw it because he was looking for it.

Alec stood to greet him, good breeding and thirty-two years of ingrained etiquette making his limbs move on autopilot. “Hello, Ed.” He held out his hand.

“Hello, Mr Rowland,” Ed said smoothly, taking Alec’s proffered hand in his own.

“Alec, please. We use first names here. It’s good to meet you,” he replied without a flicker of irony. But his palm was clammy in Ed’s warm grip and his gaze dropped from the clear blue of Ed’s eyes to his pink lips, which were parted in an uncertain smile. Alec swallowed hard and dragged his gaze back up to meet Ed’s. “Welcome to the team.” He dropped Ed’s hand as though it were on fire and cleared his throat, turning back to his desk.

Oblivious, Jen guided Ed away to introduce him to the rest of their colleagues, leaving Alec stunned. He collapsed gratefully into his chair, legs shaking as his heart pounded.

The meeting was excruciating.

Alec was distracted and furious with himself for being so unsettled by Ed’s presence. He was normally never less than 100 percent professional, utterly focused on his work. But having Ed sitting there was driving him crazy.

Ed didn’t display any outward signs of discomfort. He listened attentively, taking a few notes as Alec outlined the progress that had been made so far on the deal, and explained what still needed to be done. Alec was painfully aware of Ed watching him as he spoke and tried to avoid his gaze as much as he could, without making it obvious he was doing so.

He wondered what the fuck Ed was thinking. Surely he must be rattled too? Nobody liked their private life being dragged into the workplace. He was going to need to speak to Ed alone. Alec had so much to lose; he had to make sure Ed could be discreet.

“Thank you, Alec,” Katherine said. “Does anyone have any questions before we move on to the financial reports?” She looked around the table. “No? Okay. Over to you, then, Maria. Can you fill us in on the state of Mackenzie’s finances?”

Alec relaxed a little and let his attention wander as Maria Ortega took over. Until Jon had joined them this morning, she had been the only paralegal on the team. Five foot nothing but with a huge personality that made her seem larger, Maria was great at her job. Alec had read through her findings over the weekend, so he knew what she’d be saying and could get away with letting his mind wander. He half-listened to her lilting Spanish accent as she outlined the key points to bring the rest of the team up to speed. But his mind was busy mulling over the situation with Ed and wondering what Ed might be thinking about it all.

Alec chanced a glance at Ed, who was sitting adjacent to him, his back to the window. Alec stiffened as he noticed a fading purple bruise on the skin of Ed’s neck. Alec’s heart rate soared as a vivid sense memory—the salt of Ed’s skin under his tongue, the scent of his sweat, and the heat of their bodies moving together—assaulted him. Alec’s cock tingled and thickened in his underwear, and he forced himself to look away. A quick glance around the table reassured him that everyone’s attention was on Maria and his personal crisis was going unnoticed.

Unable to help himself, Alec let his gaze slide back to Ed’s neck. The mark was barely noticeable, and if he hadn’t been the one responsible for it, he probably wouldn’t have even realised what it was. Only part of it showed above Ed’s collar, and Alec found himself longing to see it all, to see what other marks he’d left on that smooth skin.

Ed turned his head then, and his gaze locked on Alec’s for a couple of uncomfortable seconds before Alec looked away.

Sweat prickled on Alec’s back, and his heart pounded as though he’d been sprinting. He needed to get a fucking grip, and he needed to talk to Ed alone as soon as possible. Alec couldn’t deal with this kind of distraction at work; he had a job to do.

Unfortunately for Alec, open-plan offices didn’t provide much opportunity for private conversations, and he couldn’t whisk Ed off to one of the small breakout rooms they used for meetings without it looking suspicious.

Alec did his best to ignore Ed throughout the morning. He buried himself in his work and gave James the job of babysitting Ed and finding him some dogsbody jobs to do—hopefully ones that would keep him occupied and away from Alec as much as possible.

There were piles of paperwork Ed was required to sort and relevant sections that needed copying and distributing to the team. Ed settled down to the tasks without any fuss and seemed to be getting through them all efficiently. The desk Ed had been allocated had its back to Alec’s, and Alec did his best not to be distracted by the nape of Ed’s neck and the way his dark blond hair grew down into a point at the back.

The sound of a throat clearing drew Alec’s attention away from his laptop screen.

“Sorry to disturb you, Alec.” Ed’s voice was formal. “But can you remind me where the photocopier is, please? Jen showed me earlier, but my sense of direction is terrible.”

Alec cast his gaze around. James was at his desk across the way, talking on the phone, and Jon and Maria were nowhere to be seen. Alec wasn’t going to risk having the conversation he needed to have here, where they could potentially be overheard. “Yeah, sure,” he replied curtly. “It’s down the corridor, third door on the left.”

“Thanks.” Ed forced a little half smile. He hesitated for a moment before speaking in a quiet rush. “I’m not going to say anything, you know.” His gaze was open and honest, and Alec could see something there that looked infuriatingly like compassion.

“Not now,” Alec hissed. He knew his voice sounded like ice, but he needed Ed to shut the hell up. “We’ll talk later.”

Ed nodded, cheeks flushing bright pink, and he gave a tiny jerk of his head in assent. “Okay.”

Alec watched him as he walked away. Ed had taken off his suit jacket, and his arse looked just as delicious as Alec remembered.

He closed his eyes. He was so fucked.

At lunchtime, Jen phoned in a sandwich order to the deli that was popular with the people in their office. She went round the team, checking what they wanted. Alec ordered his usual chicken and avocado even though he wasn’t feeling particularly hungry. His nerves and preoccupation at the sudden and unexpected appearance of Ed in his workplace had killed his appetite.

“Do you want anything, Ed?” Jen asked when she got to his desk.

“No thanks. I brought my own lunch today. I wasn’t sure what to expect.”

“I usually bring mine too.” Alec glanced up to see Jen smiling reassuringly at Ed. “The deli’s lovely, but it’s not exactly cheap.”

“I can imagine,” Ed replied.

When Jen came back with their order, they ate at their desks as usual. Getting crumbs on laptops was an occupational hazard, but Alec never saw the point in taking a proper break at lunchtime. He worked long enough hours as it was without wasting half an hour in the middle of the day. The rest of the team seemed to feel the same, because nobody ever complained.

When he finished eating, Alec was hit by the urge for some post-lunch caffeine. Coffee and tea making and fetching was traditionally the job of the newest minion on the team. Normally Alec wouldn’t have thought twice about asking a temp to fetch him coffee but he felt oddly uncomfortable about bossing Ed around. He was going to need to get past that, and there was no time like the present.

“Hey, Ed.” Alec’s voice came out sounding a little forced, full of over-the-top bravado. He toned it down, trying to sound casual as Ed turned his head to look at him expectantly. “Any chance of a round of coffees? It might not be in your job description, but traditionally the buck stops with the newbie.”

“Oh, of course. There’s a machine in the kitchen, isn’t there? Or do you need me to go out for them?”

“From the machine is fine.”

“Okay.” Ed stood and grabbed a pen and a Post-it note. “You’d better place your orders, then.”

Alec followed Ed with his gaze as Ed took orders from each of the team in turn. Katherine’s office door was closed and she was deep in conversation on her phone. Ed hesitated, obviously wondering whether to knock or not.

“Don’t disturb her.” Alec warned him. “She’ll have tea, white, no sugar. Make sure you use skimmed milk.”

“Thanks, will do.”

Ed’s sudden smile made him look ridiculously young. Alec remembered how Ed had looked in the club the first time he’d seen him, that grin lighting up his face and drawing Alec in like a magnet. He suppressed the instinctive urge to smile back, just nodding slightly before turning back to his desk.