The second reason was Nicole, herself. Yes, he wanted her badly—both in bed and out of it. She was more than he’d ever dreamed of. He already knew she had a very smart mind—the dossier Raoul had prepared on the Wilson family had been thorough. If Nate could have found a way to headhunt Nicole Wilson for Jackson Importers after his father’s death, he probably wouldn’t have even needed to come home from Europe to take over the business. Her misplaced loyalty to her father was well documented, however, and he hadn’t even bothered trying to steal her away.
That loyalty was the problem he was dealing with now. He supposed it had been too much to hope that her frustration with her family would lead her to welcome the chance to enact a little revenge along with him.
But her dedication to her father wouldn’t be an obstacle forever, he rationalized. Sooner or later, she’d have to realize that Nate treated her better, and appreciated her more, than her father ever could. When she accepted that—and when she realized that the passion between them was impossible to ignore or deny—she’d turn her loyalty to him. She didn’t know it yet, but he would be the best thing that had ever happened in her life. He just had to be patient until she came to terms with that—and watch her closely.
Yes, watch her very closely, because if the glares she kept giving him were any indication, any hand he reached out to touch her would come back to him bleeding. She was furious with him for forcing her into this position—and a smart, capable woman with a grudge was a dangerous creature, indeed.
So he’d have to be on his guard. Nothing new there—he was always on his guard. And he knew, far better than his father ever had, to be very careful before giving a Wilson his trust.
“Miss Wilson is finished now, Mr. Hunter,” the store manager said, coming through with an armful of clothing and a smile that told of the sizeable commission she’d no doubt be earning today.
“So soon?”
“She has very specific tastes and was quick to decide on what she needed.”
Nate gave the delivery address of his inner-city apartment for the clothing and handed over his platinum card, then looked back toward the changing rooms. Nicole was walking toward him in a new outfit, one that made his breath still in his lungs and all the blood in his body race to a very specific part of his anatomy. The ruby-red dress, while probably perfectly acceptable office wear on anyone else, skimmed every curve of her graceful figure. The scooped neckline offering a tantalizing hint of the swell of her full breasts. The three-quarter-length sleeves exposing her slender forearms. Forearms that led to delicate wrists and elegant hands. Hands that had gripped him and teased him and delivered all kinds of pleasure.
“All done now?” he asked as she drew alongside him.
“I just need some underwear and sleepwear.”
“Sure. Do you want to eat first or keep shopping?”
“Still got that appetite?” she said, with a hint of an acerbic humor.
He looked her up and down very deliberately before meeting the unspoken challenge in her dark-eyed stare. “Always.”
His reward came in the sudden flush of color that suffused her cheeks.
“We’d better get some food, then,” she said sharply, breaking eye contact and giving her attention to the store manager—thanking the other woman for her assistance.
They stopped at a café in Vulcan Lane where he consumed Eggs Benedict while she played with a mixed berry muffin on her plate. While lingering over his coffee, Nate picked up the complimentary newspaper the café provided. He flicked through the pages, emitting a long slow whistle when he reached the society page.
“Looks like I might not have to make that call to your father’s office, after all,” he said, folding back the page and showing it to Nicole.
Five
They danced together, right there in black and white. Caught in time forever. Their intense absorption in one another as clear as day on their faces. Opposite him, Nicole paled and drew in a sharp breath.
“Did you orchestrate this?” she demanded.
Nate laughed. “I’m flattered you think I have that much power but, no, I didn’t.”
She looked at him as if she didn’t believe a word that came from his mouth.
“Obviously you want to hurt my dad, but why go to all this trouble with me over something that happened so long ago? Our fathers fell out. Their friendship broke up. It happens.”
Nate looked at her over the rim of his coffee cup. Did she really think it was that simple?
“Your father accused mine of something he didn’t do. He wouldn’t listen to reason nor would he ever accept he was wrong. He broke my father’s heart, broke the man inside him, destroyed his honor. And thanks to your father’s actions, my father had to work himself to the bone just to make ends meet as he got Jackson Importers off the ground, ruining his health and making him die before his time. My father deserved better than that and so did my mother.”
“And will hurting mine bring them back? Will it make it all better again?”
“No, but it will give me the utmost satisfaction when Charles Wilson is finally forced to admit he was wrong.”
Nicole shook her head. “You’re the one who is wrong, Nate. Let this go. Let me go.”
Let her go? Before her father had learned his lesson? Before Nicole had accepted how good they could be together? Oh, no.
“Not going to happen.” He picked up his cup and drained the last of his coffee. “If you’re finished playing with your food, we should get the last of your shopping done before heading into the office.”
They walked together up Queen Street toward Auckland’s oldest department store. It amused Nate that Nicole maintained a clear foot of distance between them at all times. Not easy to do in the throng of business people, shoppers and tourists who congested the footpaths. When they reached the department store, Nicole lingered awhile at the cosmetics counters on the ground floor leaving Nate to hand his card over again as she purchased skin care, fragrance and cosmetics.
“You don’t need to do this,” she objected, her own credit card in her hand already.
“Humor me,” he said, taking her card and examining it. “This in your name or under your father?”
“It’s all mine, paid for by my very own wages. Is that okay?” She snatched it back from him and pushed it back into her wallet before gathering up her bags from the shop girl and heading toward women’s wear upstairs.
“I’ll get you another one.”
“This one is perfectly fine.”
No it wasn’t, he thought. Anything that led back to Charles Wilson in any way was, in his book, tainted—and her previous earnings definitely led back to Charles Wilson. Nate had every intention of paying her a generous salary, and until that began, he intended to take care of things. Take care of her. Nothing but the best for her—he’d promised her that, and he’d meant it.
Upstairs in the lingerie department he was again relegated to a chair while Nicole browsed rack after frothy rack of underwear. When she’d finally made her selection and gone through to the changing rooms he got up from his chair and paced the floor. As he did so, his eye latched onto a stunning ensemble on a floor mannequin. The ivory lace-and-chiffon nightgown and matching peignoir was both innocence and pure sin in one simple package.
Attracting the eye of the sales clerk he gestured to the ensemble.
“Include one of these in Miss Wilson’s size with her purchases, thank you. And, please, keep it as a surprise.”
He flashed the woman a wink and a smile and the blushing clerk hastened to fulfill his request before Nicole returned from the changing rooms. Already he could imagine peeling the diaphanous garment from Nicole’s lithe body, but not before he’d tormented both her, and himself, with touching her through its silken texture first.
It was well past lunchtime before they made it into Nate’s offices in a high-rise overlooking Auckland’s Waitemata Harbor. He settled his hand on the small of her back as they exited the elevator and directed her toward a set of glass doors emblazoned in gold leaf with “Jackson Importers” and its stylized logo of a bunch of grapes.
He reached forward and opened the door, holding it for Nicole as she walked through and into the reception area. His receptionist looked up and smiled. He introduced Nicole immediately.
“April, this is Miss Wilson, she’ll be working with us from now on. I’d like you to call all the staff into the boardroom to meet her in about fifteen minutes.”
“Surely that won’t be necessary,” Nicole protested. “I can just—”
“I want everyone to know who you are and why you’re here,” he said in a voice that brooked no argument. “Tomorrow I’ll introduce you to the staff at our warehouse and distribution center.”
She pressed her lips together, clearly biting back whatever it was that she wanted to say. He guided her down the corridor and pushed open the door that led into the boardroom. Seeing her there, in his offices, in that stunning dress, his self-control cracked. The instant the door closed behind him, he couldn’t stop himself from sweeping her into his arms, drawing her against his body and lowering his head to capture her mouth. The second their lips touched he felt electrified, the charge of energy he got from her sizzling a slow burn all the way to the pit of his stomach.
“I needed that,” he groaned against her lips when he’d sated his need, however temporarily.
“Well, I didn’t. I’d appreciate it if you kept your hands, and all your other body parts, to yourself,” Nicole answered, moving out of his reach and smoothing her dress in a gesture that spoke more of nervousness than any real desire to stay out of reach.
Well, he couldn’t say he hadn’t expected that. But still… “You can’t deny you enjoyed it,” Nate said, observing the brightness of her eyes, the rapid rise and fall of her chest.
“How I might respond to you physically is one thing. Whether I actually want to, is another. Don’t touch me again.”
“Ever?” he asked, narrowing his eyes.
“Ever,” she adamantly replied.
“So you’re telling me that if I did this,” he touched a fingertip to the slight swell of her breasts visible above the neckline of her dress, “that you don’t want more?”
Nicole fought to control the wave of need that trembled through her body. She couldn’t show him any weakness, not for a minute. Men like Nate Jackson capitalized on weakness and she could not afford for him to get any more leverage on her than he already had.
“There’s a name for what you’re doing,” she managed to finally say. “I believe it’s called harassment.”
To her surprise, Nate laughed. Genuine pleasure at her words making his eyes lighten and shine.
“You’re priceless,” he said through his good humor. “Harassment. Would you have said it was harassment at about 3:00 a.m. this morning, when I—”
Nicole was saved from the torture of hearing him repeat what they’d been doing in the small hours of this morning, and saved, thank God, from giving him an answer when the door behind them opened.
“Ah, Raoul, please meet our newest addition to the team, Nicole Wilson. Nicole, this is Raoul Benoit. Don’t be fooled by his name, he’s just as much a Kiwi as you or I.”
Raoul inclined his head in acknowledgement of Nate’s introduction and gave Nicole a shy smile.
“Miss Wilson, it’s a pleasure to meet you, and even more of a pleasure to have you on our team.”
“I…” What on earth could she say? She couldn’t exactly tell Raoul she was here under duress. That she’d virtually been kidnapped and forced to come here. “Thank you.”
Raoul looked at Nate and she didn’t miss the question in Raoul’s eyes as he did so. The expression of supreme satisfaction on Nate’s face told her everything she needed to know. Raoul Benoit knew exactly who she was and exactly what Nate was up to. It made her feel alienated, as if she was completely alone in this horrible situation.
Nate’s voice broke into her thoughts. “I’ve asked April to get the staff in here to meet Nicole. I think it’s a good idea to let everyone know she’s going to be with us from now on.”
His words made her feel like nothing more than a trophy, but before she could utter a word of protest, the door opened again. A steady stream of people came into the boardroom, sitting where they could and standing, lining the wall, when all the seats were taken. She was surprised Jackson Importers carried such a large staff in their Auckland offices, and Nate had spoken of a warehouse and distribution staff, as well. It rammed home the reality of what he’d coerced her into doing—working with the thriving and very competitive enemy. The next quarter hour passed in a blur.
By the time Nate showed Nicole to his office, her head was spinning and she was beginning to regret not having eaten that berry muffin at breakfast.
“And this is where you’ll be working,” he said as he closed the office door behind them.
Nicole looked around the sumptuously appointed office, at the amazing view of the harbor beyond and then back at him.
“This is your office. I can’t work here.”
He shrugged. “I’m prepared to share my space with you. All my space, Nicole. Together we’re going to head up the most successful wine importation business in the country. Why would I want you anywhere else but at my side?”
That all sounded very impressive—but what did it really mean? “Is that a fancy way of saying that you want to keep an eye on me?”
He smirked. “I’ll always enjoy having my eyes—or anything else—on you.” Nicole huffed in frustration, and Nate continued, “If you’re asking if I’ll be watching your work, then the answer is yes. I know that right now, you don’t want to be here and you’re angry with me for forcing your hand. I think that’ll change. I think that once you understand the opportunities for you here, you’ll see that this is where you belong. When that day comes, you can have any office you want. Until then, you’ll understand if I prefer to keep you where I can see you. After all, I’ll certainly enjoy the view.”
“What about privacy for phone calls and things like that?”
“Worried I might overhear your conversations?”
“Do you plan to follow me to the bathroom, as well?” she demanded, her temper finally fraying. Since his very unwelcome revelation this morning, he’d been controlling everything about her except for how she drew breath—and even that was under deliberation. Every time he brushed past her she got a tightness in her chest that was all his fault.
“Do you need me to?”
“I don’t need you for anything,” she said mutinously.
“Like your father doesn’t need you?”
He knew exactly how to cut to precisely where it hurt. Nicole turned from him and tossed her handbag onto his desk.
“Well, if this is where I’m supposed to be, I’d better get to work, then, hadn’t I?”
He smiled and gestured to the laptop and cell phone on the desk that he’d arranged to have delivered while waiting outside her dressing rooms. “They’re all yours, have at it.”
“Mine. Already?”
“I told you I’d take care of you, Nicole. I meant every word I said.”
She swallowed against the lump that suddenly filled her throat. He said it like he meant it. As if she was something—no, someone—important to him. She didn’t want to believe it. Couldn’t believe it. They’d had a weekend of great sex. Okay, it was off the scale great sex. But tha
t was all. There couldn’t be anything more between them, especially not now he’d made his intentions toward her father explicitly clear.
“Where do you want me to start?” she asked, crossing behind the desk and opening the laptop, determined to keep this on a professional level even if it was likely to destroy her.
“How about you spend some time on coming to grips with our new internet-only business? It’s taken off far quicker than we anticipated and reaches beyond our existing New Zealand market and allows us to trade overseas, as well. It cuts overheads considerably as, in many cases, we’ve been able to coordinate shipping direct between the vineyard and the buyer, thus cutting freight and storage costs to a minimum.”
Nicole felt the thrill of excitement at learning a new business model ripple through her. For years, she’d been urging her father to consider an online ordering system rather than solely relying on hands-on distribution. True, hand selling often gave wine-store customers a chance to try something new that they might not have considered before, but to hope that would continue to buoy the market forever was professional suicide. The world changed at an incredibly fast pace. The wine distribution industry no less so.
Another thought occurred to her. Nate’s approach to supervision had thrown a spanner in her initial plans to use her access to sabotage some of Jackson Importers’ business, but there was still a chance to come out ahead here. Deep down she knew this situation couldn’t last. Eventually she’d find a way to return to Wilson Wines, and Nate was giving her the perfect opportunity to learn as much as she could of their successful business practices and think about how Wilson Wines could implement them, or use them to create something even better.
A Forbidden Affair Page 6
