Five Exotic Fantasies: Love in Reverse, Book 3 by Serenity Woods Page A

home.
    She stood, brushed down her skirt, adjusted her glasses and blinked away the tears of self-pity. “I’ve got to get back to work.”
    Amy sighed, used to her friend’s abrupt changes of persona. “Yes, Miss Stark.”
    Yes, she was Miss Stark in these offices, Coco thought as she walked away. She had her Veronica hat on now, and she wasn’t going to let Coco out while she was at work.
     
     
    “Multiple Sclerosis?” Felix raised an eyebrow as Rob described Coco’s mother’s condition. “That sucks.”
    “Yeah.” Rob had brought his muffin with him and now proceeded to tuck into it. “I met her once in town. I get the feeling Miss Stark doesn’t shop here much—maybe she usually goes out of town so she doesn’t bump into anyone she knows. She’s a very private person. Anyway, she was pushing her mother in a wheelchair. She introduced us out of politeness, but she wasn’t happy about it.”
    “What did she look like?”
    “The mother?”
    “No, Miss Stark. Out of work clothes, I mean.”
    Rob smiled. “Softer. She doesn’t wear glasses. And her hair was down.”
    Like in the photo. Felix wanted to meet that Coco. Very much.
    But anyway, for now he had to get his head into gear because he had to read through the file before the hearing and it was already nearly nine. “Okay. So come on, give me your opinion. What do you think of Peter Dell?”
    Rob sat back in his chair and linked his fingers. His face had taken on the lawyer’s carefully guarded blankness that Felix knew he himself adopted in the courtroom. “Have you ever met him?” Rob asked.
    Felix shook his head. “No real reason for that—he’s only come up to Auckland once and I happened to be in the Bay of Islands branch at the time—I still work from there occasionally because my family live there. But no, we’ve just never bumped into one another, which I guess is kind of strange considering I’ve been here five years. I wondered whether that’s why Christopher asked me to carry out the hearing. Because he wanted someone independent, who hadn’t forged any opinions about the guy, you know?”
    Rob shrugged. “Maybe. Although…did you get the feeling that McAllister considers there’s even a case to be addressed here?”
    Felix smiled wryly. “I did pick up on the fact that he called the case a ‘trivial matter’ when I first arrived. Plus he said he hoped he could leave once it was ‘done and dusted’. I think he’s expecting me to find Dell innocent.” He tipped his head at his colleague. “Do you think Dell’s innocent?”
    Rob finished off his muffin and screwed up the paper bag into a ball. He threw it at the bin and missed, grumbled and got up to put it in. “It’s not our job as lawyers to decide whether the defendant is innocent or guilty, only to put the case to the jury.”
    “Yeah, well, I happen to be the jury on this occasion.”
    Rob sat back down. “And I’m not. I work with the guy—I’ll give you the facts, but I don’t want to pass judgement on him—at least not until after you’ve spoken to him and investigated, if you think it’s necessary. Then I’ll discuss what I think.”
    Felix said nothing. Had Dell appointed Rob, and he felt some kind of loyalty toward him? Or had Dell spoken to Rob and told him not to help Felix? He didn’t think Rob looked like the kind of guy who’d cover up the truth, but you never knew. But then again, maybe Rob really was just trying to be fair and let Felix make up his own mind.
    “Okay,” Felix conceded, “so tell me this, then. As far as you know, did Dell have an affair with Sasha, the secretary who’s accused him of sexual harassment?”
    “Not as far as I know. But that doesn’t mean anything. It’s a big building.”
    “What about with other members of staff? Other secretaries?”
    That made the corners of Rob’s mouth curve up. He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “I don’t know for sure. I’ve never seen anything with my own