There she was, on his desk, upon the papers he’d been working on before their meeting with Charles, her hair spread in disarray over his notations, her blouse fallen open together with her bra and her beautiful luminous skin exposed to his hungry gaze. Her nipples, the palest of pinks, were tight nubs of arousal.
He bent down to take one taut peak softly between his teeth, rolling the tip of his tongue against the hard bead of flesh. Beneath him, Anna moaned and squirmed, her pelvis rocking hard against his hand, still striving to make contact with that part of him that now drove him almost to madness. And this was madness. Taking her here, like this, on his desk. It was the ultimate foolishness, and the ultimate fantasy all rolled into one.
It was too much for him. She’d get her wish—he couldn’t wait any longer. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a condom then pushed his trousers and briefs down. Sheathing himself took only a moment, but even as he did so she watched him with eyes glazed with such passion he almost lost it right there and then. He eased off her panties and let them drop to the floor and then spread her legs wide. He would never lose this image of her from his mind, he thought as he positioned himself at her slick entrance.
She groaned as he pushed inside her, a guttural sound that made his balls tighten and the head of his penis swell even tighter. He reached for her hands, linking his fingers through hers and bending her arms up so her hands were beside her head. She lifted her legs up to wrap around his hips and he thrust inside her again, watching her eyes cloud with the sensations that spiraled through her. She had caught her lower lip between her teeth and he felt her ripple against him as he increased his pace. Her body began to shake and a soft cry escaped her. He lowered his face to hers, taking her mouth and absorbing the sounds she made as she crested the peak of their passion, the spasms of her body wringing a climax from him that took all his strength not to shout with the sheer power of it.
He collapsed over her, his breathing hard and fast, the slick of perspiration making his business shirt cling to his back. Suddenly the incongruity of their situation struck him, and a chuckle bubbled up from deep inside.
“We must look a sight from the doorway, hmm?” he said, nuzzling her neck before nipping her skin ever so lightly.
“I can’t believe we did that,” she said, loosing her fingers from his and pushing firmly on his chest. “I won’t be able to face anyone in the main office after that.”
“You won’t need to. Let’s go home for the rest of the day.”
“We can’t, there’s too much to do.”
Judd allowed her to push him away and stepped away from her, allowing her to slide off the desk and begin to straighten her clothing. She bent to pick up her panties and wriggled back into them, then she grabbed a wad of tissues from the dispenser on his desk and put out her hand.
“Here, let me get rid of that,” she said as he removed the condom.
“I wondered why Nicole kept tissues on her desk,” he said.
Anna shook her head. “I doubt that’s why she had them there.”
He smiled in response. “You never know.” He adjusted himself and pulled his briefs and trousers back up, tucking in his shirt and straightening his tie. “There, now no one will ever know but us.”
“But they may well wonder,” Anna said dubiously. “I always swore I’d never…”
“Never what?”
“Never leave myself open to gossip.”
He frowned. “What makes you think anyone will gossip about us?”
Was she worried about it getting back to Charles? So let it, if that was the case. He’d even go so far as to start the rumor himself if it meant he had her wholeheartedly.
“Just the nature of people. It was tough at first, starting here while Mum was still alive. Everyone knew she’d worked for Charles before she left to get married and everyone had something to say about us living with him after my dad died.”
“How did that come about, exactly?” Judd asked, hitching one hip against the desk they’d just made love upon. God, even the briefest memory of what they’d just done and it was enough to put his blood on a slow burn again.
“A whole string of things, really. Poor financial decisions on my parents’ part, a bit of bad luck, as well. Dad was killed on the job. He was driving to a sales call when a tanker blew a tire and hit a bridge abutment. Dad couldn’t stop in time and hit the wreckage. They said he died instantly. It was all so sudden. Mum went from being a happy, stay-at-home wife and mother to a single parent with no income, a stack of funeral bills and no prospects of the life-insurance payout until all the paperwork surrounding the accident was taken care of. Charles approached Mum to offer help and when he realized what a terrible position we were left in, he offered her work and a home for both of us. I was only five, and too young, and too sheltered, to remember most of it. All I knew was that I got to live in a big house and that I had a built-in playmate.”
Judd began to put two and two together. “So you grew up with Nicole?”
“Pretty much like sisters, really. Charles even sent me to the same school as her. He did far more for my mother and me than was due. I owe him a lot.”
“So, he and your mother. Were they…close?”
“Were they lovers do you mean?” she asked bluntly. “Only very occasionally, from what I understand. Once, after a particularly nasty bout of bullying at school, I confronted Mum about their relationship. She tried her hardest to be honest with me and said that theirs was more a relationship based on companionship. Perhaps she was a bit too honest, but she wanted me to understand. Apparently, one of the long-term side effects of Charles’s diabetes was a constant struggle with impotence. It had affected him for years, probably since before you and your mother went to Australia. But you know, even despite their closeness, Mum was always still very much an employee. When I was younger I used to hate that she allowed herself to be taken advantage of that way—now I see it was a choice she made to keep us both secure.”
“So you and he—”
“Charles and I what?”
“Were never lovers?”
A look of horror passed across Anna’s face. “No! Never. How could you even think that? He’s always been a father figure to me, nothing more, nothing less.”
“So that night I saw you coming from his rooms, half undressed—”
“I’d been waiting to talk to him about Nicole. I fell asleep—on his sofa, in his sitting room. And then when I woke up and realized how late it was, I was in a hurry to get back to my room and hop in the shower so I could get ready for dinner. I can’t believe you’d have thought that of me.” She crossed her way to the office door and pointedly unlocked it. “I’m going to the ladies’ room to get rid of this, and then for the rest of the afternoon I’ll be in my office if you need me.”
Judd felt momentarily giddy from the swell of relief that coursed through him. She wasn’t Charles’s lover. Her devotion to the old man was merely like that of a daughter. Hard on the heels of that thought, he realized just how much he’d hurt her with his assumption, and discovered that he was genuinely sorry to have upset her so deeply. He needed to make amends.
“Anna?”
She hesitated. “Yes?”
“Look, I’m sorry. I jumped to the wrong conclusions. Let me make it up to you. Stay with me tonight and I’ll show you just how much.”
She shook her head emphatically. “No, whatever you might think of me, I won’t disrespect Charles that way.”
Without saying another word she swung open the door and stalked off. Judd watched her until she was out of his line of sight before crossing around to the other side of his desk and realigning his paperwork. She hadn’t exactly embraced his apology, but at least she hadn’t closed the door on them both completely, either. It was time to rethink his strategies w
ith respect to his father and to Anna. One thing he remained certain of—he wanted Anna Garrick for himself—no matter the consequences.
Anna spent the rest of the day at work in a state of total turmoil. Was she destined to be her mother’s daughter after all? Was this what it had been like for Donna with Charles? That all he had to do, when he wanted to, was beckon his finger and Donna had been his for the taking, just as Anna just had been with Judd? She’d told herself that their interludes during their trip had been a fluke, that once they got back to Auckland, it would be back to business as usual, but when he’d touched her in the office, she hadn’t been able to resist.
Her body still thrummed with the aftereffects of her orgasm, making it difficult to concentrate. That, along with the disbelief and shock that she’d allowed herself to be coerced into making love with Judd in his office, and on his desk no less. She’d have a few bruises tomorrow, no doubt. Her own participation in the event had hardly been that of a submissive.
She’d never been incapable of refusing a man before. She’d been selective with her sexual partners—civilized. This thing with Judd was most definitely not civilized. It was earthy sensuality at its most basic level and it had been, oh, so very good. Even now she wanted him again—but at least this time rationality prevailed. Saying no to him had been driven by her respect for Charles. She smiled at herself. Ironic, it was her respect for the very man who’d made her lose a measure of respect for her mother that now governed her choices and decisions. A psychologist could no doubt have a field day with that.
But there it was. It was how she felt. Charles hadn’t had to be a mentor for her in her youth, nor had he been obliged to continue to provide a home for her after Donna had died. Yet he’d been a rock for her. Now she owed it to him to be that rock for him, which—for her, at least—meant not sleeping with his son under his own roof.
It stung that Judd could have thought that she and Charles were having an affair. She shuddered. Nothing could have been further from her mind, or Charles’s, she had no doubt. But what would have made him think that?
What, or who?
A niggle of doubt emerged from the back of her mind. Something just wasn’t right and she couldn’t figure out what or why. But there were so many other things on her mind just now that it was easy to dismiss it.
The next few days kept her very busy in the office. Following up with the wineries they’d visited and processing exclusivity contracts with them, making sure every i was dotted and every t crossed, was the kind of work she welcomed. Right up until four out of the six wineries they’d sent contracts to sent them back with a note saying they’d received another offer of distribution that they had decided to accept.
Four phone calls later and Anna was feeling sick to her stomach. Jackson Importers had apparently aggressively wooed away the business that she and Judd had thought was in the bag. She wasn’t looking forward to sharing the news with Judd or Charles.
As expected, Charles was apoplectic.
“How dare she? I can’t believe a daughter of mine would stoop so low as to steal business from her father.”
“I hate to point this out,” Judd said, “but it was her idea all along. By the looks of things, these people’s loyalty sat with Nicole rather than with Wilson Wines. It’s my fault for not anticipating this might happen.”
“Your fault? Rubbish. She’s doing this to spite me.”
“Maybe,” Judd agreed, “but maybe she just followed through with her new boss on an idea she felt had merit. Did you ever give her credit for coming up with this?”
Anna sat back in her chair, stunned into silence. What was this? Judd championing Nicole? Up until now they’d barely discussed Nicole at all. Anna had assumed that Judd felt the same animosity toward her that Charles did, and had been careful not to bring her up. But to hear him supporting her ideas and giving her props for following them through, that was something Anna had never anticipated from him.
“Of course not, it was her job. She did it competently.”
“A little more than competently, I would say,” Judd observed, a note of censure in his voice that Anna found herself in total agreement with.
Charles had often been strict with his daughter. He had sheltered her, yes—in that respect he’d taken his responsibilities as a father most seriously. But Anna had seen how being the older, single parent of a beautiful, headstrong daughter had left him feeling that he had to be firm, set high expectations and offer limited praise in order to keep her from running wild.
It probably hadn’t helped that he had been so busy with business concerns. Anna knew that Nicole had devoted herself so completely to Wilson Wines in the hopes of winning her father’s approval, but it had seemed to add even more tension to their relationship. Charles never grew comfortable straddling the line between boss and father, and had been rather too hard on Nicole in his attempts to avoid showing favoritism. Plus, his old-fashioned attitudes about women in the workplace had been a constant source of irritation between them.
The end result was that Charles had stifled Nicole’s adventurous spirit to a point where Anna’s friend had often complained to her that she felt her opinions meant nothing to him. Charles did love Nicole, but Anna had always felt as if he struggled with how to show it—and frequently made things worse by saying the wrong thing. In fact, as she’d grown older, it had occurred to her that he may even have actively fostered their friendship so that he could use her as something of a go-between with him and Nicole—someone who could understand both of them and carry messages back and forth without causing offense.
“Well, you’ll just have to do it better, my boy. I know you can do it. Let’s show Jackson Importers that we’re made of sterner stuff. Forget about mounting this New Zealand–based initiative.”
“And the wineries who have decided to contract with us, what about them?”
“We’ll use them as a test on the market. Could be a flash in the pan—who knows. If it’s worth developing further, we’ll look into it when the figures start coming in. In the meantime, what about expanding our range of Californian wines?”
After their meeting, Anna went back to her office to create a list of potential contacts for Judd to follow up on based on Charles’s directives. She was just checking her email when a message came in that she wasn’t expecting to see. Nicole. The subject header was blank, giving her no insight into what the other woman wanted. Feeling as if a thousand eyes watched her, Anna opened the message, her eyes scanning the contents quickly. Her friend wanted to see her, was begging her, in fact. She said she’d meet Anna at a waterfront restaurant in Mission Bay at one o’clock. That was in about ten minutes’ time. She could make it from their Parnell offices if she left right now.
Anna chewed her lip. She’d missed Nicole terribly, but the choice her friend had made to join Jackson Importers put them on opposite sides, yet how could she refuse her longtime best friend’s request?
The accusations Nicole had flung at her before leaving that awful night had hurt—mostly because she knew she’d deserved them. Loyalty to Charles aside, it had always been her and Nicole. She should have found some way to have given her friend prior warning of the bombshell that was about to be dropped on her life. No doubt Charles would be dead set against her seeing Nicole, but bolstered by Judd’s clear support of his sister earlier, Anna reached her decision and fired a response back—I’ll be there.
Ten
Judd sat in his office and realized that the feeling he’d been carrying around with him for the past several days was happiness. Assuming control of Wilson Wines had turned out to be just the kind of challenge he needed. The pressure being put on them by Jackson Importers gave him an appetite to succeed where his father had failed. Strangely, though, handing Wilson Wines to Nate Hunter on a platter didn’t hold quite the appeal he had thought it would anymo
re. He shook his head slightly. Where was that inner fire that had burned deep down inside all these years? Where was the urge to inflict upon his father a measure of the pain the older man had inflicted upon him? He must be going soft.
Of course, there was still the matter of the house. His mother had emailed him, asking when she could visit and put her redecorating schemes into action. He’d put her off for now, but he knew she wouldn’t be held back for long. How Charles would handle being under the same roof as his ex-wife was another matter. Judd had noticed his father tiring in the past week. The half days he was spending in the office were taking a toll but, in typical Charles-like manner, the older man had waved aside Judd’s concerns and had flat-out laughed at Judd’s suggestion that his father cut back to perhaps only three, or maybe four, half days a week until he was feeling stronger. His father was nothing but stubborn—a trait, he acknowledged, he also shared.
He glanced over the report Anna had left on his desk earlier this morning, barely even seeing the words. Stubbornness didn’t just run in the Wilson family. Anna Garrick had her fair share of it, as well. While it had given him no small amount of pleasure to know she wasn’t his father’s mistress, she still refused to sleep with him under his father’s roof. She was nothing if not principled, but it was enough to drive a man to rent a hotel room.
Judd flicked back through the report again. Something didn’t make sense. Ah, there it was, it was missing a page. It wasn’t like Anna to make a mistake like this. Maybe frustration was eating her up inside, too. And maybe he could persuade her that a hotel room at lunchtime was a good idea.
With a smile on his face, he went through to Anna’s office. He cursed softly under his breath—it looked like he’d just missed her. Through her office window he caught a glimpse of a flash of red as her car headed out the office car park and down toward The Strand. He’d have to find the page of the report in her computer himself.
The Wayward Son Page 11
