Free A Perfect Night by Unknown Page B

did seem rather subdued, but then she always has been the quieter of the two of them. Well, at least she's got Louise's visit home for Ben's party to look forward to.'
    'What did you think of her, Seb?' Guy asked and then laughed, 'Or shouldn't we ask? There were certainly some sparks flying between the two or you.'
    'I found her rather too idealistic and over-emotional,'
    Seb responded curtly. 'Not my type at all.'
    In their front seats Guy and Chrissie heard Seb's response. It had been unexpectedly curt and did not exactly bode well for Katie and Seb's future as close neighbours.

    C H A P T E R F I V E
    FOR the umpteenth time since she had arrived at work, Katie smoothed down the skirt of her impressively formal black suit. She couldn't remember ever having dressed for work with such anxiety and awareness. This suit was one she had bought in London at Louise's urging and was much more her sort of thing than Katie's own.
    The jacket was immaculately tailored, the skirt short and straight. It was an outfit that breathed professional-ism and power. In it, with her hair smoothed back she looked, Katie had decided, impressively formidable and there was no way that anyone, but most especially Seb Cooke with whom she had an appointment in fifteen minutes' time, was going to get die wrong impression about her attitude towards him. He was a client and, of course, that was all and she intended to treat him as such.
    'Goodness. You look smart,' Olivia commented as she walked into the room and did a small double take as she studied Katie's suit. 'Very elegant.'
    'It's Armani,' Katie felt impelled to tell her, admitting wryly, 'Louise chose it...'
    'Mmm... It's the kind of suit that men visualise a woman wearing with absolutely nothing on underneath,'
    Olivia murmured teasingly. 'Or so Caspar would have had me believe when I bought one.'
    Normally Katie would have taken her comment with a good humoured pinch of salt but the way Seb had behaved towards her, her own reaction to him, their aggression and the passion which had burst into life between them, had put her so much on edge that instead she demanded flatly,
    'I hope you aren't serious.'
    'Men are never more serious than when they're talking about sex,' Olivia responded dryly. 'I promise you that when Caspar saw me wearing what I had innocently imagined was a perfectly respectable and business-like suit to go to court in, he told me that the only "briefs"
    that would be on everyone's mind in the courtroom would be mine and that in those male minds they would most definitely be black and silky. Absurd, I know.' She gave a rueful grimace. 'I had a hard time getting my own head round it, but apparently there's a deep in-built male psychological reason for it, something to do with their need to compete with and diminish a woman's worldly power, a throw-back to their childhood when they had to learn to detach themselves from their mothers and learn how to become men... They're quite sad sometimes really, aren't they, poor things,' Olivia continued cheerfully, pausing as their receptionist came in to tell Katie, 'Seb Cooke is here to see you.'
    'Mmm... Seb Cooke.' Olivia rolled her eyes naughtily and told Katie robustly,
    'Now, in your shoes, were I single and fancy free, I rather suspect that if I had a Seb Cooke seated across my desk from me, I'd be the one doing the mental un-dressing and the sexy intimate visualisation...'
    'Olivia!' Katie protested. 'I'm not... He doesn't...'
    But Olivia was already on her way to her own office, leaving Katie to ask the receptionist to show Seb into her own small cupboard-like room.
    She hadn't seen him since the incident at her parents'

    home and as he walked in and she indicated to him that he was to sit down, Katie was sharply aware of how relaxed and in control he appeared in contrast to her own nervous discomfort.
    'This shouldn't take very long,' she told him as crisply and professionally as she could as she, too, sat down.
    "The contracts