The Law of Attraction

“Fuck!” Ed came with a groan, making a total mess of his sheet in the process as he failed to catch much of it. “Bollocks,” he muttered as his cock jerked again, and he squeezed out the last drops.

After he’d mopped up the wet patch with a couple of tissues, Ed collapsed and fell into a blissfully dreamless sleep.

CHAPTER THREE

Alec walked through the glass doors of Baker Wells into the lobby at seven thirty on Monday morning. They slid open as he passed through, out of the chill morning air and into the climate-controlled environment of the offices.

It was one of the largest and most prestigious law firms in London, but all was quiet at this time of day. Alec was usually one of the first into work. He enjoyed the peace and quiet and the time to organise his thoughts before the office filled with his colleagues. He was a creature of habit and tended to arrive at the same time every day, coffee that he had picked up from the Starbucks on the corner in one hand and his briefcase in the other.

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.