A Face from the Past

By Rachel Cray

When Carolann joins a law firm as a secretary, she doesn't realise there's a guy there with whom she used to work in a previous firm... and who is an old flame. But he has a new girlfriend now - a jealous woman who warns her off when she discovers her past. Carolann's not interested in rekindling the relationship until she moves to his department... and she changes her mind. To complicate things, a young lawyer makes a move to win her affections; when it all goes wrong, there are fireworks - in the office and in the bedroom.... someone is going to get hurt.
This work contains adult themes (including non-violent BDSM) which render this book unsuitable for people under 18 years of age. It is an erotic romance novella, over 24,000 words long.

SPECIMEN EXTRACT:
He turned round. His erection was pushing forward.
I looked up at him and smiled. I may have licked my lips.
“Seduce me,” he whispered. “Please.”
I knelt before him and pulled down his zip. It didn’t take me long to fish inside to draw out his dick; the pink head seemed so inviting, and the little pee-hole at the end glistened in hope of some relief for what might follow.
Putting it in my mouth, I rolled it around in my tongue; it continued to grow and very soon it became uncomfortably hard. I pulled away, and began to massage the shaft. He was sighing softly; I looked up and saw his face screwed up, his eyes squeezed tight. I was enjoying his ecstasy, and I delighted in giving him this pleasure, for I had never masturbated a virgin man before.
I heard a loud grunt and felt his cock pulsate with excitement. He was about to release his seed at me. I looked down at my clothes. Shit! I thought. I was wearing a sweater; I should have worn an open-necked blouse, or something to have revealed my cleavage. I wanted him to come over my breasts. But it was too late.
Steering his cock to one side, so he wouldn’t come over my sweater, I gave him another couple of strokes.
“No!” he called. “Let me, please!” He pushed my hand away and held his dick in his hand as he ejaculated over the carpet in front of him.
I didn’t get up; I watched intently as his semen continued to drip down. I was tempted to catch it in my hand, but he had insisted he needed full control himself.
There was a silence while he composed himself. He tucked his cock back inside, and looked down at me. “I’m sorry,” he said. “It wasn’t meant to be like this. I wanted it to be... special. I’ve ruined it.”
“No, you haven’t,” I replied, trying to reassure him. I reached my feet. “These things happen all the time.”
He looked at me. “I think you’d better leave, Carolann. I’ve disgraced myself. Please don’t tell anyone about this.”
“Of course I won’t. But why...?”
“Go now, please. We won’t talk of this again.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rachel Cray
• Release date: Oct 7, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301371839

Rachel Cray

Rachel writes erotic romances to two sub-genres: the first she calls "law firm erotic", where her characters are the horny partners and employees of a U.S. law firm, and whose spare-time activities may best be described simply as sex-related. The second sub-genre she calls "village erotic", where the cast are the horny inhabitants of Maybourne, a fictional old market town in the heart of England with a number of olde worlde villages, Tudor buildings, a ruined abbey and other picturesque features in both rural and urban settings.She has worked in several European countries, first as a secretary and then as an executive assistant, before returning to her roots in Surrey, England, and close to London; for many years she was the director of administration at the London office of a large U.S. law firm before leaving to run her own recruitment company. Now in semi-retirement, she devotes most of her spare time to writing erotic romance novellas, drawing on her life's experiences in a variety of fields. She is married with children and grandchildren.

Book preview

A Face from the Past

by Rachel Cray

Copyright 2013 Rachel Cray

Rachel Cray’s home page

Discover other titles by Rachel Cray:

Law Firm Love series:

Interview for Love

Working Overtime

The New Client

Snatched

Dirty Pictures

When One Love is Not Enough

No Way Out

Maybourne series:

A Close Match

Village Accounts

Kate’s Return

Lucy and Friends series:

Jack and Me... and His Lodger

One Man too Many

Needing Her, Needing Him

and

A Stranger in My Bed

The Girl in the Glade

This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination and should not be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons (living or dead), actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission by the author, except for brief quotations for review purposes.

This book is for sale to ADULT AUDIENCES ONLY. It contains substantial sexually explicit scenes and graphic language which may be considered offensive by some readers. Please store your files where they cannot be accessed by minors.

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A Face from the Past

by

Rachel Cray

CHAPTER 1

Welcome on board, Carolann. You have an impressive track record and we’re looking forward to having you work here with us. The London senior partner shook my hand warmly and gestured to me to sit down opposite him. I guess Hilda, our office manager, has given you a good background to what’s going on here. We’ve attracted some fresh clients recently who are giving us a great deal of work.

Yes, I smiled. Hilda explained that I’d be so busy that I won’t have much room for a social life – at least, not for the first few months. But I’m used to that scenario. It was just the same when I was at my last firm, Grover Braceman."

Of course. I forgot you were there. Our senior associate was there a while back, and you’ve probably met him: Ryan Stokes. Does the name ring any bells with you?

I felt the blood drain from my face. The senior partner must have noticed the sudden change, for his smile changed to a worried frown as he waited for my reply. So Ryan was here. I cursed myself for not doing my research thoroughly enough.

Are you all right, Carolann? You’ve gone pale.

I’m fine, thanks. And yes, I remember Ryan. He was a raw junior associate when I first met him.

Well, he’s very successful now – he’s scheduled to make partner soon. You won’t see him for a couple of weeks, as he’s temporarily in our Chicago office, finishing off a major deal. But when he gets back here, I’ll get him to stop by your desk and you can talk about old times.

We spoke in general terms about my personal interests for a few minutes, and the meeting was soon over.

As I walked out of his office, I felt physically sick and had to visit the restroom. Luckily nobody seemed to notice; this wasn’t the kind of impression I wanted to give my co-workers on my first day in a new job. I locked myself in a cubicle and stood over the bowl, breathing slowly, but my stomach began to relax. I sat down on the toilet seat to compose myself.

Yes, Ryan was about to return into my life, and I would have to face him again. But at least I had two weeks in which to prepare myself for that confrontation. How would I cope? I put my mind in reverse and drove three years into a flashback, right back to the very first time I met him; everything in my world had been so different then....

* * *

I’d been a legal secretary, working at Grover Braceman for about a year; we were told of a second-year associate from the New York office who was going to be assigned to London. He was a tax specialist, moved across to us to replace another lawyer who’d been stolen from our firm by a competitor. I found out later that firms are in the habit of stealing good people from each other quite frequently, especially when a firm wants to move an employee elsewhere and that person wants to remain in London for whatever reason.

David Bridger, the office manager, had called me in the day before the new man was due to arrive. His name’s Ryan Stokes and, as far as I know, he’s never been to London before. I’m moving you from your current desk to look after him. In addition to looking after all his deals and other projects, you’ll have to mastermind his settling in: helping him to find a place to rent – not that he’ll be spending much time there – and generally giving him the feel of living and working in the U.K.

Why me, David? I’m perfectly happy where I am.

There are other changes in the pipeline, and I’m not going to go into those now. But I know you’ve done this kind of thing before, with Betty Grosch when she came over, and you did a great job for her. So I have every confidence that you’ll have this new guy up and running in a few days.

That’s all law firms care about: getting their lawyers to work billable hours, getting their productivity soaring as soon as they hit the ground in a new job.

I couldn’t complain, though: I was earning more than I could expect to get anywhere else with my limited qualifications and experience. Sometimes I felt trapped in this environment, being spoken to by bad-tempered lawyers like I was dirt: I wasn’t trained to be anything other than a legal secretary. And then, a little later, I’d remember how lucky I was to have my bank account bulging at the end of each month.

The day after I’d been assigned as this new lawyer’s secretary, I got to meet him face-to face around mid-morning, after he’d spent time with some of the partners, and then the office manager. He was good-looking; I noticed that before anything else; dark haired, in his mid-twenties, he looked like so many other youngish, ambitious lawyers that had come through our mill. But, unlike so many new guys, had a great smile, and, most important to me, his sense of humour was on my wavelength. We took an immediate liking to each other.

* * *

I snapped out of my reverie and wrenched myself back to the present; I had come here to work, not to sit on a toilet seat and reminisce about old times in other places. I was new here today, and I had to look good alongside everyone; they’d all be watching me when I was back on the open-plan floor where all the secretaries and other support staff worked.

I washed my hands at the sink and returned to my desk. Marcia was there, waiting for me; she was the secretary appointed to show me the office systems, introduce me to the team I’d be working with, as well as some of the other key people whom I would need to know. We were about the same age; while I had mid-brown hair, Marcia was a redhead. And I wondered whether she had a fiery temper to match... when occasions arose. Or was that just an old wives’ tale about redheads?

With a great deal of effort, I focussed all my attention on the numerous aspects of the job I’d have to learn – I found I was writing pages of notes on my pad.

You’re off to a great start here, Marcia smiled at lunchtime. You’re writing everything down, which can only be a good thing. There are plenty of people who’ve arrived here before you who never bothered to make any notes and they quickly found they were struggling.

I warmed to her. She was the same age as me but, unlike me, she had been at just the one firm all her working life. This is the third firm I’ve worked for, I told her. But don’t think I’m disloyal, changing jobs so often. I just want to spread myself around, getting as much experience as possible.

It was planned that I’d be shadowing Marcia for the whole of my first week. And then I’d be expected to stand on my own feet forever afterwards.

I hope I’m not keeping you from your own workload, I mentioned late in the afternoon, when we were starting to pack up to leave.

No. My boss is away for another couple of weeks, and there’s another secretary who’s looking after the rest of the team. Ryan is in Chicago right now. I can’t wait for him to come back. Her eyes suddenly looked dreamy. So he had captured her heart, I thought; it would seem there might be the germ of a relationship there. I was tempted to probe discreetly, but I’d only just