Inescapable Read Free

office. He didn’t really care who he chatted with, he just enjoyed the anonymity of chatting about sex on line.
    Then L had captured his attention in a different way. Her words had conveyed each breathless self-discovery as she unfolded herself and her fantasies to him. Perhaps he was more of a voyeur than he’d realised, he thought, wryly mused. Mostly he felt that it was special. The way she’d expressed herself, it didn’t seem like she did that all the time. But maybe she did, and he was flattering himself.
    Meeting might be a disaster, but what was life without a few risks?
    He’d tried to put at her ease by inviting her to his office for their initial meet. A public place showed he had nothing to hide. He wanted her to be chilled with the set up, or she might not even turn up. The need to find out what she was really like had a hold of him these past few days, and he’d felt the urge to edge it forward. She’d bitten. Not immediately, but he’d have put money on the fact she would, eventually.
    He smiled to himself and glanced over the paperwork on his desk. The smile quickly faded. The other main thing occupying his mind confronted him, the Carlisle account. He lifted his notes from the front of the file, then sighed and put them down again. He stood up, walking over to the window that looked out over London’s business district.
    The January sky was ominous, laden with cloud. The city streetlights illuminated it oddly. He’d been here in his own offices a year, and he was doing well. But now he was in a corner. He’d made a stupid, uninformed agreement when he’d taken on this client. Carlisle was wealthy, and he’d offered him incentives to ‘tidy up‘ his accounts. Adrian had done something similar for an associate, Carlisle had said. Well, yes, he’d worked figures favourably to avoid the taxman for another client, but this was altogether different, and it was way out of his league.
    He’d foolishly agreed to the terms, without asking around about Carlisle’s business interests. Now he knew why the incentive had looked so juicy. It wasn’t just that Carlisle wanted a rush job. Something was badly wrong there, and he wished he’d never touched it.
    He’d been over-ambitious, taken on a dodgy client without thinking it through, and now his conscience wouldn’t let him go ahead. Damn Catholic upbringing, it always seemed to force him to do the right thing. He didn’t like feeling trapped and he knew that he was going to have to do something about it. There was only one option, to turn the file over to the
     
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    police. Even if it meant hellfire rained down on his head, which—judging from what he’d discovered in the paperwork—was quite possible.
    He’d been brooding over it when Lily logged in that evening and she’d been a very welcome distraction. But now she was gone and Adrian had to face up to it. He had to go to the police, whether he liked it or not.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
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Chapter Two
    The elevator jolted to a halt. When the doors slid open, Lily’s stomach flipped. Her legs felt weak. Five days she’d had to get used to the idea of meeting Adrian, and yet her emotions were all over the place. Her more animal instincts had kept her anticipation at a constant high, fuelled by the idea of live action instead of anonymous stimulation. At the same time, she couldn’t quite believe she would soon be face to face with the man she’d been having a virtual sexual relationship with. The two opposing reactions had her in a state of turmoil.
    The day had finally dawned and she’d made it this far. She’d even braved the slush-covered January streets in a fancy outfit and heels to meet Mr. Adrian Walsh at his office.
    She moved, bumping into the only other occupant of the elevator, a man who was trying to leave at the same time as she was. He was tall, and his fair hair