handed out praise.
For as long as she could remember she had done her best to please him—with scant success. Now, his spoken approval left her open-mouthed and gasping.
Some half an hour later, she had just filed away the documents she’d been working on, and was about to go home, when the internal phone had rung.
‘I’m sorry to bother you, Miss Belmont …’ The firm’s usually unflappable secretary sounded a little flustered. ‘But I have a Mr Devereux here. I wonder if you could possibly see him?’
Devereux … The name rang a bell, though Caris couldn’t immediately think why. ‘Does he have an appointment?’
‘He was supposed to see Mr David, but I’m afraid there’s been a mix-up. We have the wrong date down, and both Mr Austin and Mr David have already left. I was on the point of leaving myself.’
Knowing Kate Bradshaw would need to pick up her daughter from the child minder, Caris said quickly, ‘That’s quite all right, Kate. If you would like to show Mr Devereux through before you go, I’ll do what I can to help him.’
She heard a slight but unmistakable sigh of relief before the receiver was replaced, and guessed that their disgruntled client had been giving the poor woman a hard time.
A moment later there was a tap at the door and he was ushered in.
For some reason Caris had pictured him as being short and portly with grey, thinning hair and jowls, wearing a stuffy suit and tie.
The man who strode in, however, was attractive and self-assured, and carried with him an aura of power and authority.
He was somewhere in the region of twenty-seven or twenty-eight, she judged, blond and broad-shouldered, well over six-feet tall, dressed in smart casuals and looking anything but stuffy.
Beneath the thick, sun-streaked hair his handsome face was lean and tanned, with strong, clear-cut features and long, heavy-lidded eyes beneath curved brows several shades darker than his hair. His mouth, at first glance austere, held a hint of passion that sent shivers running up and down her spine.
Rising to her feet, she held out her hand. ‘I’m Caris Belmont, Mr Devereux.’
She was vexed to find that, instead of being composed and businesslike, her voice sounded very slightly breathless.
Taking her hand, he said formally, ‘Miss Belmont.’
As those long fingers wrapped around hers she felt an electric tingle run up her arm, and thought a trifle dazedly that she had read about that kind of thing happening in romantic novels but had never quite believed it.
Pulling herself together, she said, ‘I gather there’s been some kind of mix-up over the date of your appointment?’
His green eyes cool, he said a shade brusquely, ‘So I understand. Though I must point out that the mistake wasn’t mine.’
‘No. I do apologize.’
If she had hoped for some softening in his attitude, she was disappointed. Clearly he wasn’t the kind of man who took kindly to being brought on a wild goose chase.
She resumed her seat and, indicating the black leather armchair in front of her desk, asked politely, ‘Won’t you sit down?’
When he made no move to follow her suggestion, she added, ‘I may be able to help you.’
He studied her with great deliberation for a moment or two before raising a well-marked brow and asking, ‘In what way?’
Annoyed by the cool mockery, she said stiffly, ‘I am a qualified lawyer.’
His manner holding a faint but unmistakable touch of incredulity, he drawled, ‘Really?’
Her soft mouth tightened. How could she ever have thought him attractive? she wondered furiously. The man was so arrogant!
‘Yes, really,’ she said frigidly.
‘How old are you, Miss Belmont? Let’s see, you must be all of twenty-two—twenty-three at the most?’
Caris bit her lip. He had expected to see one of the senior partners and clearly he thought he was being fobbed off with an inexperienced junior.
Which in a way he was, honesty made her admit.
‘I can’t see that my age matters.’
‘Then suppose I phrase that question differently. Have you had any actual experience?’
‘Certainly … Lots,’ she added recklessly.
‘Lots? My! You must be older than you look. So exactly how long have you been with the practice?’
‘Almost a year.’ She tried not to sound defensive.
‘That long!’
She gritted her teeth.
‘And what exactly is your position here?’
She was pleased to be able to say, ‘I’ve just been offered a partnership.’
The gleam in his eye told her that he knew quite well she had deliberately left out the word ‘junior’.
‘Tell me, Miss Belmont, what is the relationship between yourself and the senior partners? As the surname is the same, I take it there is one?’
Seething inwardly, because she already knew what he was getting at, she curbed her temper as best she could and said briefly, ‘Austin Belmont is my father. David Belmont is my uncle.’
‘So it’s what you might call a nice, cosy little set-up.’
Her anger boiled over and she threw caution to the winds. ‘Mr Devereux,’ she said, her voice icy, ‘I accept that you have a genuine reason for complaint, but I find your attitude insufferable.’
‘And I find yours, shall we say, somewhat naive for a qualified lawyer.’
‘In that case perhaps you would prefer to wait and talk to one of the senior partners?’
‘I understood from your secretary that there is no one else available before Monday.’
‘I’m afraid there isn’t,’ she confirmed shortly.
He studied her heart-shaped face. She was quite lovely, he thought, with flawless skin, a short, straight nose, generous mouth, dark silky hair taken up into a neat coil, and almond eyes beneath winged brows the deep, purple-blue of pansies.
Eyes that at the moment were sparkling with anger.
It had been his intention to leave—his company’s new lawyer would be taking up her post in ten days’ time, and at a pinch his business could wait—but all at once he changed his mind.
This woman interested and intrigued him. As well as beauty, she had brains, character and spirit.
She
