Just Tell Me (The Justice Series) (31 page)

Daniel spoke. “Meet George, my son” his fathers toast hung midair as they took in the words and the little baby gurgled happily, breaking the spell.  “And Nicole has agreed to be my wife” he added and put his arm round her tightly. 

His father composed himself and stood up, he grabbed Nicole and looked at her, his eyes were glassy and his voice rattled “Well my dear, welcome to the family” he grabbed her and hugged her warmly and she felt relief wash over her.  His mother appeared at her side and looked at Daniel.

“Y
ou could have given your father a heart attack, that’s quite a shock” her voice broke and she grabbed Nicole and hugged her, she looked at the ring and smiled fondly “My mothers engagement ring” she wiped the tears from her eyes “Congratulations both of you, I never thought we would live to see the day”  she looked at George who was grinning at them “Oh he’s gorgeous, so come on sit down and let me hear the story of how you two really met as you have obviously known each other longer than just a few weeks”. 

She looked at Daniel
fondly “Now then, this isn’t the stranger you met on a train by any chance is it?” 

The sun
set over Harry’s bar as Anna listened to Nicole’s story and she smiled warmly, it was all working out for her best friend and she was so pleased for her.  They finished their Prosecco and she grabbed her friend’s hand.  “You deserve only the best” she squeezed it “I’m so happy for you”

“Wait until you meet Daniel” Nicole’s eyes glinted “I have never seen a man so hot in my life, and the sex….” Anna’s eyes widened.

“Libby was right, you are a slut” they two women laughed and Edward appeared to join the two friends.  He kissed Anna lovingly on the lips and her face sparkled, Nicole smiled warmly at the love between them.

They walked
slowly through Villa Borghese Park.  They told her the details of when they had been there before and she smiled, she had heard it a hundred times but enjoyed being part of her friend’s life. 

Anna had reserved a table under the
outside veranda of the restaurant La Mediterraeane and Nicole spotted Daniel.  He was sat down drinking a glass of Prosecco, the open bottle in an ice bucket. His dark hair and tanned skin contrasted against his white shirt and she stood to watch him for a moment. 

She nudged Anna “T
here he is” 

Anna’s eyes widened “
God he looks like a film star, I can see why you jumped into bed with him now” the two girls giggled and even Edward was taken aback by Daniel’s presence as he glanced up and saw them. He stood up as they approached the table and pulled Nicole close to him, their eyes met and she felt the bolt of electricity shoot through her stomach as he kissed her.  Aware they had company, Daniel pulled away and greeted her two friends.

“
Hello, I’m Daniel” he shook Edwards hand and put his hand out to Anna but she gave him a hug instead.

“I have heard so much about you Daniel I feel like I know you already
” she smiled at him, God he was really hot. She raised her eyes at Nicole and burst out laughing. 

Daniel had already studied the menu and he shared his enthusiasm with the table,
as he poured them each a glass of Prosecco. Nicole knew Anna wasn’t into food like they were and Anna shook her head. “Daniel, show me the wine list for Gods sake, you two can order the food for me and Edward” she grabbed the wine list from Daniel and ordered some wine.  Edward shrugged his shoulders; he was used to Anna taking control and was happy with anything.

Nicole was concerned
“You lot will be able to drink me under the table, Anna we can’t drink too much we have loads to organise tomorrow” she tried to be reasonable but she knew it wouldn’t be any good with Anna and Daniel round the table.

Anna laughed and
looked at Daniel “Seriously?  What about you?  Am I the only one with any stamina round this table?”  Daniel glanced over at Nicole and raised his eyebrows and she pulled a face at him.

Edward spoke
“Nicole I can’t drink like Anna can either, don’t worry about it.  You know the first time she brought me here she tried to get me drunk so she could seduce me”

Anna
looked round in mock horror “Well, you had better have another drink then, you never know what might happen” she reached over and kissed her fiancé and Nicole smiled, she could see how in love they were. She squeezed Daniel’s hand under the table and he caught her eye.

The wine bott
les emptied as the hours ticked by, Daniel and Anna matched each others drinking and Nicole and Edward talked about the wedding. Nicole caught Daniel’s eye and watched as he poured himself and Anna more wine, she turned to Edward and he was telling her about the Tuscany villa they had rented, and she was excited about the next few days.  It was the first time they had been out with anyone else as a couple, so far they had lived in their own little bubble of life and seeing him out with her friends she couldn’t believe how gorgeous he actually was. 
Would he have fallen for Anna if she had met him first?
For the first time since he had proposed to her she wondered if he had any regrets.

Daniel watched Nicole as she talked to Edward.  He loved her so much, he felt
complete and never wanted to lose her again. He hoped he was making a good impression on Nicole’s friend.

He
enjoyed talking to Anna, she told him about her work as a financial investigator and he was genuinely interested in what she had to tell him.  She was motivated and successful and it was refreshing to meet a woman who didn’t want to jump into bed with him, he started to relax into the night as the wine released him. 

They finished their meal
and walked through the park, the autumn air was still warm and Daniel held Nicole’s hand as they strolled through Villa Borghese and he pulled her back, taking her in his arms and kissing her gently on the lips.

“
I love you Nicole Shaw” he whispered and looked into her beautiful face, full of love and expectation as he spoke to her under the Rome moonlight. “It’s all perfect, George, us, everything.  I feel like you have brought me to life, I never want to lose you.  You are the most gorgeous woman I’ve met” he kissed her deeply and she wrapped her arms round him.

“
Come on” she ran her hand down his shirt and shivered in anticipation “Let’s get back to the hotel I need to seduce you in this penthouse suite you have booked us into Mr MacIntyre” she laughed at his serious expression, feeling as though she was the luckiest woman in the world as he grabbed her hand and they ran back to the hotel, to make love in the penthouse.

Chapter 24

Anna looked beautiful in her wedding dress, it was cream and clung to her figure, her long
dark curly hair ran in long ringlets down her back.  The Tuscan villa was the perfect backdrop for a perfect Italian wedding and the sun set was dramatic as it bathed the sun scorched earth golden. 

Nicole and Daniel enthused about the food, the villa had provided an Italian banquette and they tried George with the porcini mushrooms, cured swordfish and wild boar.  Day turned to night and the music played loudly.  George gurgled happily on his father’s knee
as he gently bounced him.

Nicole danced with Anna and Libby; their eyes sparkled with happiness and
Prosecco.  Daniel watched her as she danced, and she waved over at him, the perfect sight of her son with his father. He looked up as Edward joined him.

“Mind if I join you?” he asked, smiling at George.

“Not at all” Daniel smiled at Edward “Congratulations, it’s been a perfect day

“
Thanks, yeah it’s gone so quickly, God I feel so lucky” they looked over at Anna, Nicole, Libby and Alex dancing and Daniel smiled at his beautiful fiancée “We are flying to Jordan tomorrow, Anna wanted us to travel thought the desert”

He shrugged his shoulders and cringed.  Daniel laughed.  “Could be worse?” the two men exchanged a glance of solidarity and a friendship was formed.

“Did Nicole tell you how we met?”  Edward asked as he took a sip of the Prosecco.

Daniel chuckled and George reached for his bottle, ready to settle in his fathers arms.  “B
its of it”.  Edward poured Daniel a fresh glass of Prosecco and told him the moment he met Anna.   

Acknowledgements.

Thank you to my long suffering family for putting up with my obsessive nature while writing the Justice series.  Its been a labour of love.

My poor farmer husband who listened to me ranting about various situations, while drinking Prosecco and smoking Marlboro Lights.

My mother for editing for hours on end and losing the will to live
one comma at a time.

Thanks to Nicole and Daniel.  You do exist in my head and I hope you have a happy ever after. 

Finally thanks to everyone who bought and read this book and enjoyed it as much I did writing it, and here is a snippet of the second book.

“Just Dance with Me”.  Anna’s story. A tale of erectile dysfunction and corporate finance. 

Just Dance With Me

Chapter 1

Edward stared at Helen in shock as she walked towards him, her breasts were hardly constrained in the bra she was wearing and he wished she would take it off.  It wasn’t even white, he couldn’t help but wonder if she washed it on non fast colours in her washing machine.  It wasn’t the time to be thinking about washing but his heart was thumping so quickly and she climbed into bed next to him as he turned his bedside light off, leaning over to kiss her gently.  His hands ran over the grey bra as he tried to work out how to remove it. 

Did he want to remove it?
  He wasn’t sure he did but she pushed his hand away and unclipped it.  He threw it across the room, in an act of passion he liked to think, the truth was he just wanted to get away from it.  He ran his hands down her breasts and she smiled at him as they kissed.  Edward knew his palms were sweaty; they stuck to her skin like Velcro.  As his hand moved further down he knew didn’t want to continue, he wanted to run away but he couldn’t, he had to continue, get back on the horse and he fumbled blindly in the half light. 

He glanced at Helen's face; she looked disinterested, she felt disinterested.
  Edward knew his fumbling was not helping the situation and he recognised the look in her eyes when she reached her hand down.  Confusion crossed her eyes and Edward moved away from her. 

“I’m sorry” he stuttered “oh god its not you, Helen it’s me” he jumped out of the bed and found his clothes, neatly folded as he had got undressed.
  “I should go” and he ran out into the night, taking deep gulps of the cold winter air.   

That was it I’m finished with
women
.  He was a failure and he pushed his hands deep into his pockets as he walked towards the high street to search for a taxi.

2 years later.

May

Anna stood impatiently in the queue for her scone.  The mobile canteen van made its way round the office site on its daily rounds and had parked up in the internal courtyard, an oasis of green amidst the grey buildings.  The woman was too slow; she paused as she put each one in a bag. 

Come on hurry up.
Anna had a meeting in fifteen minutes but she had skipped breakfast and her stomach was rumbling. The wine she had finished last night was pounding through her head as the paracetamol wore off and she needed something to stop the inevitable hangover that would grab her if she didn’t eat.  Fish floated lazily in the ornamental fishpond but no one noticed. The red Acer shone brilliant red amongst a jungle of green foliage, but the queue of office workers were lost in their own thoughts. 

A ten minute break from the shackles of the office spent staring at
the ground waiting for a scone and as Anna looked around, she wondered not for the first time what the fuck she was doing here.  The man stood in front of her in the queue had a crease in his navy jacket, it hung crookedly over his shoulders and she stared at the faded fabric. 

Dreadful taste in clothes
but he looked younger than the usual people who worked on the site.  The queue shuffled forward and she checked no one was looking as she reached down into her bra to find the five pound note hidden in there earlier.  She smiled, her friend Nicole would cringe if she saw her. 
It’s a slutty thing to do Anna
.  Probably right.  She had left her bag at her desk but had hastily grabbed the note earlier and slipped it down her top. 

Just as she pulled it out, the man in the navy jacket tur
ned round and caught her eye, he glanced at her hand pulling the note out and she went red in embarrassment.
Oh god, actually he was cute
.  He turned away and ran his hands through his soft hair and it flopped back over his eyes a moment later. 
Apart from the hair.
 
Not the usual type of man who works here
. 

Anna had worked at Sterling Facilities for nine months now and she hadn’t noticed a sing
le good looking man, not that she was actively looking, but even if she was it was a barren wasteland of middle aged spread and balding heads.  Not counting David Jones the Managing Director who was in his late 40s.  His intense eyes had unnerved Anna when she met him and she could tell he was mentally undressing her and even she felt uncomfortable with his blatant appreciation, testosterone fuelled men were usually Anna’s type, but she could tell David could be trouble if she had to deal with him and avoided him when she could.

She knew she looked good, she spent hours training and running and she had an athletic figure, toned in the right places
.  As the queue shuffled forward she looked at the choice being served, but before she had chance to decide the man in the navy jacket turned around with an extra scone and handed it to her.

“I didn’t want to think where you would keep your change” he chuckled and smiled as he spoke, his hazel eyes caught Anna’s and she felt her tummy flip as she looked at him. 
No no and definitely no, stop it.
  Despite her embarrassment she laughed and accepted his gift.  He quickly turned and went through the door to the offices and the scone woman glared at her as she walked away in the opposite direction.

The mound of paperwork building up on her desk left little space for the scone, she moved another unopened envelope onto the pile as she put the scone in front of her.  Five minutes to eat this before meeting
her manager John.  Her assistant Mary looked over and glared at the scone as Anna broke a piece off.

“That smells gorgeous” she sighed as she reached for her rice cake “how can you eat like that and still stay so slim?” 

“Sheer hard work, it doesn’t feel like its worth it at 6am, dripping with sweat in the gym, have we had those CV’s from the agent yet?”

Anna was the HR manager for
Sterling, a large faceless company that made automotive parts, a sprawling mess of a site with a large factory full of foreign workers, the air was thick with oil and the smell of metal.  The offices were at the opposite end of the factory and she was pleased her open plan office was light and airy in contrast to the shop floor. 

The scone was finished in three bites and she brushed the crumbs from her top, popped another paracetamol as she made her way to his office. 
Must stop midweek wine drinking
.  Anna was sure she used to be able to drink more than this and wake up without a hangover, another unfortunately side effect of being nearly thirty.  Lingering hangovers and stupid career choices.

She knocked on
Johns door and heard him call her in, he was the HR Director of Sterling and had worked at the company for most of his working life.  Anna had already been promoted in the brief time she had worked for them, and she knew that she would have a good chance of stepping into his shoes when he retired.  It was her ambition to make it to the board before she reached 30 and she had another two years to really prove herself in a role she found infinitely dull.  She had to show her father, prove him wrong and this kept her motivation more than any pay rise, but proving a point was becoming more tiresome than she had thought.

“Ah Anna, sit down, how are you?”  John smiled at her warmly as she sat down with her black leather folder.  “It will just be a brief one today, I need to go and meet Edward Wright” he paused as he added “the new
Finance Director”

“Oh ok, I didn’t realise we had already filled the position?” she was surprised; she had been involved in the initial selection process and was expecting to be involved in the interview.

“It was David Jones, he found someone, wanted them in the position, and he bypassed procedure”.  John sighed and they exchanged glances, it was against policy and they knew they could end up in trouble for their managing directors hastily made decisions. “Anyway I have to go and meet the board now, do you want to come with me and put a name to a face?”  She nodded and packed her papers away. 

They made their way upstairs to the director’s suite and John knocked gently on the boardroom, Anna hadn’t been in before and she took a quick look around.  The large black table was a contrast to the cream walls.  Large canvas prints of various metal components hung on the walls, and a large photo of
South America featured on the back wall which Anna considered irrelevant and a little odd. 

“John, thank you for attending” David stood up to shake Johns hand as he explained he had brought Anna.  David stared at her, his dark hair was brushed back and his white shirt was pristine. 

She looked away as his intense eyes ran over her body and was momentarily caught under his gaze, in different circumstances she would have raised to the challenge.  He was her type.  But not now.  Not here, and certainly not with him.  The glass ceiling wasn’t going to stop her and she wanted to be taken seriously as the next HR director, not someone to flirt with.

“Please, sit down” he gestured to the table and they sat down, Anna scanned the table at the other directors and she spotted a familiar face.  It was the floppy haired scone man from earlier, he caught her eye and she smiled weakly as introductions were made. 

“I would like you meet our new Finance Director, Edward Wright” David looked over at Edward “maybe you would like to tell the board a bit about yourself Edward?” 

Anna watched as his hand fiddled with his tie, he looked nervous and he caught her eye again as he stood up and she smiled encouragingly at him.  She pushed away the small flutter of excitement as their eyes met and he instantly looked away. 
Stop it for gods sake.
 

He spoke quietly as he briefly explained his previous experience; it was his first board position and he already looked out of depth in this
board room, his fingers stroked the end of his tie as he spoke, unsure what to do with his hands.  The other directors were a good fifteen years old than him, he looked so young in comparison and he ran his hands through his hair as he sat down. 

Anna was unusually distracted by Edward, she studied him as they discussed their recruitment strategy for the next 12 months.  He chewed his pen while he listened to David,
he was really cute
.  He definitely was not her usual type; she went for confident older men as a rule, men who knew how to dress well and could at least look her in the eye.  She remembered her friend’s Nicole and Libby when they had said she was like a magnet for a certain type when they went out clubbing.  Usually city bankers and they enjoyed the entertainment as cocky men were shot down by Ann’s unexpected quick wit, instantly captivated by her presence. 

Her sister joked she was like a preying mantis; they started off confident and then when she broke it off a few weeks lat
er she left them heartbroken, Anna knew they was right, she just liked the thrill of the chase she hadn’t met anyone that kept her interest for any longer than a few weeks.  Once the initial thrill wore off and the shine of the first few dates faded she just got bored.  She felt quite sorry for him, he really wasn’t her type and she knew should leave it well alone.

“So we want to recruit some European finance graduates as part of our plan to expand to mainland Europe” David addressed the table “there is a graduate fair in Rome I need Edward there and someone from HR to start some prelim interviews” he looked at John as he spoke about HR. 

“That’s fine, Anna you can speak Italian do you want to go with Edward?”  John looked at her and her eyes widened. 
Oh shit.
  She cringed at the memory.
I told him I could speak Italian at my interview.
It was hardly more than ordering in a restaurant but she nodded in agreement. 

Edward barely met her gaze as she looked over at him once more; he stared down at the blank paper in front of him, fiddling with his pen.  Anna was distracted by the announcement and kept her face neutral but she couldn’t
quite believe it, Rome was her favourite city and she was getting the chance to go with work.  Escape from this hellhole for a few days. 

She was grateful when they moved onto financial projections and was asked to leave as they started to discuss confidential details.  Her eyebrows raised in exasperation
as she walked out, if only they knew her financial experience.
I probably know more than Edward
.

She left the boardroom and looked out of the window at the May skies, dark with rain as the green leaves moved frantically on the trees in the chilly breeze. 
I’m going to Rome. 
She loved the city and she logged onto Facebook to tell Nicole and share her news; she had visited for years and felt a connection with the city, the people and the mixture of culture. 

She remembered the last time she had
visited the city.  The suite on Via Veneto with her parents, the rooftop terrace was the perfect place to watch the sun set over the Eternal City, a moment captured in her mind forever, the only place where she wanted time to stand still.  The only place she felt truly at peace with herself, she didn’t even feel the need to drink when she was in Italy.  Her desk was scattered with papers and she couldn’t concentrate and she stared at her computer screen willing something else interesting to happen.  John returned not long after her.

“Anna
are you Ok to go to Rome” he asked “sorry I should have checked first?” She smiled and nodded at her boss, she knew he wouldn’t have wanted to go anyway.