of living here were faded and sketchy, the old photos of Masters’ Rise that had been passed on by friends after the fire were imprinted in his mind. This house truly was a complete replica of his mother’s old home. No wonder she was so bitter about being made to leave.
He made a silent promise—Cynthia would return to triumph over all this again.
They’d been back one day short of a week. Anna sat at her desk, finding it nearly impossible to concentrate on the work ahead of her. Judd had traveled into the office with Charles this morning, and the two of them had been closeted together for a couple of hours now. Every time Nicole had ventured out from her office, she’d sent a baleful glare toward her father’s closed door and the atmosphere had become so tense it was almost palpable.
The arrival of the junior receptionist from downstairs, bearing the morning’s mail and courier deliveries, was a welcome distraction. Anna swiftly sorted the mail and then turned to the courier packages. One in particular, slimmer than the rest, stood out. She lifted it and checked the return address. Her stomach instantly knotted. Marked Private and Confidential and addressed to Charles, it had come from the lab he’d engaged to conduct the DNA testing.
She dropped it on the stack of mail she’d already opened for him, as if it burned her fingers. While he’d authorized her, long ago, to attend to all his correspondence, both personal and relating to the business, she had no doubt he’d want to open this particular item himself.
The door to Charles’s office opened and she jumped, feeling as if she’d been caught doing something wrong. Judd’s ever-intense gaze swept her body and, obviously noticing her reaction, one dark brow lifted slightly in query. She ignored him, something that she’d wished she’d become more capable of in the past few days. Back in Australia, she’d tried to resist her attraction to him because she’d worried about the backlash when he learned the truth. She’d never realized that there was part of the story that even she didn’t know—that Charles intended for Judd to take over the company. Once the DNA test results verified what they all already knew, Judd would become her boss.
That should make him absolutely off-limits. Her brain was sure of it. Her body, though, was much harder to convince.
Just thinking about him was enough to make her body heat with arousal. Being in the same room as him, even under the same roof, was absolute torture. For the past week, work had been her refuge away from him, but it looked like that wouldn’t be the case any longer.
“Anna, I want you to take Judd on a tour of our biggest Auckland stockists, introduce him to the store and chain managers. No need for appointments, hmm? Let’s catch them on the hop and see how we’re faring against the competition.”
“Wouldn’t you rather do that yourself?”
Anna couldn’t think of anything worse than having to spend the balance of the day solely in Judd’s company. While she hadn’t been able to fault his behavior toward her since their return to New Zealand, there was an undercurrent that remained ever present between them. An undercurrent that kept her nerves wound so tight she was beginning to wonder if she shouldn’t request a leave of absence and head away for a couple of weeks, just to be able to breathe again without constantly thinking of Judd Wilson.
“You know I can’t drive myself and we can hardly expect Judd to find his way around on his own just yet.”
“It’s okay,” Judd interceded smoothly. “I’m sure that with a GPS I’ll be fine.”
“No,” Charles insisted, his color rising slightly. “I’ve asked Anna to take you and she will. Everyone knows her already and it will make the introductions much smoother. Isn’t that right, Anna?”
Anna pushed her chair away from her desk and stood, gathering her handbag from the locked drawer at the bottom of her desk as she did so.
“Sure, Charles. Whatever you want.”
“Right, then, that’s settled.” Charles looked at the pile of newly opened mail on her desk. “Is that lot for me?”
“Yes, I was about to bring it through to you.”
She saw his eyes light on the courier package and the ruddy color that had begun to suffuse his cheeks faded rapidly.
“Charles? Are you okay?”
“Stop fussing, woman,” he blustered. “Of course I’m fine. You two had better get going. And take Judd somewhere nice for lunch, too. I don’t expect to see the two of you back here this afternoon. You have a lot of ground to cover.”
Resigning herself to Judd’s company for the rest of the day, she passed the mail to Charles and took her car keys from her handbag. She watched Charles head back into his office and slam the door closed behind him. So, they weren’t to discover the contents of the courier pack until he was ready to share it with them.
“You really don’t have to take me around today if you don’t want to,” Judd said from close by.
“No, it’s okay. Charles wants you to have personal introductions, I understand that.” I may not like it, but I do understand it, she amended silently.
“Do you always do exactly as he says?”
“Why wouldn’t I?” she answered, wondering where Judd was leading with his question.
“No reason, I just thought you might stand up to him a bit more.”
“He’d never ask me to do something I truly objected to, if that’s what you’re aiming at,” Anna said defensively.
“That’s good, then. You don’t object to being with me today. Shall we go?”
He smoothly reached out and placed a hand at the small of her back, guiding her toward the door. She felt its imprint as if she was naked and hastened to create some distance between them. As his hand fell away, her body instantly mourned his touch and she castigated herself soundly for her ridiculous reaction.
Judd didn’t speak again until they drove out from the underground staff car park in her shiny dark red Lexus IS 250 F-Sport.
“Nice car,” he commented.
“It’s a company car, it has four wheels and gets me where I need to go.”
“Kind of pricey for a company car for a P.A. You must be very good at your job.”
There was an insinuation that hung in the air between them that she really didn’t like. But she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of biting back.
“Charles likes to show his appreciation to all his valued staff,” she replied, choosing her words carefully.
“Some more than others, I imagine.”
Again that prick at her relationship with Charles. She knew many people didn’t understand it and she’d learned to shield herself from speculation and unkind comments. It was a skill she’d had to develop early when the children at the private school Charles had paid for had discovered she was his housekeeper/companion’s daughter.
Growing up with the stigma of her mother’s relationship with Charles hanging over her, and the sly innuendo that had accompanied it, had made her a great deal tougher than she
