He reached for her mouse and brought her flying-asteroid-ridden screen back to life. Uncharacteristically, she’d left her email account open. Judd went to minimize the window but his sister’s name caught his eye. What on earth?
He double clicked on the email and read its contents before flicking to the sent-items folder and seeing what Anna had said in return. Without stopping to get the page he needed from the report, he went and grabbed his car keys before heading out the office. They’d suspected Nicole of following up on her earlier contacts in the Nelson wineries debacle, but what if it had been something else entirely? What if it had been Anna who’d fed his sister the information she’d needed to usurp Wilson Wines all along?
A part of him didn’t want to believe it could be true. She was doggedly loyal to Charles—but she’d been vociferous in her support of Nicole, too. Wasn’t that what she’d been trying to do the night he’d seen her leaving Charles’s rooms? Attempting to defend his sister? A sister she was closer to than he probably ever would be, he acknowledged with an unexpected pang of regret. He had to see for himself what they were up to.
The drive to Mission Bay didn’t take long and Judd luckily had no trouble finding a parking spot in the first car park area at the city end of the beach. As he strolled toward the old stone building that housed the restaurant mentioned in Nicole’s email, he saw Anna’s car also parked nearby. He could just wait here in the sunshine, he thought, and ask her when she returned to her car, but a piece of him wanted to watch the two women together.
He stepped inside the restaurant, his eyes taking a moment to adjust to the darker interior from the autumn sunshine outside. He spied Nicole and Anna immediately in the corner near the back of the restaurant and allowed the maître d’ to guide him to a table not in their immediate line of sight but from where he could still observe the two women.
“I ordered for us already,” Nicole said, as Anna settled in the chair opposite.
“Thank you, I think.”
“Oh, Anna, don’t look at me like that, please.”
“Like what?”
“Like you don’t know whether I’m going to hit you or hug you.”
“Well, you weren’t exactly happy with me the last time we talked to each other,” Anna said with a weak smile.
Nicole smiled back, reaching across the table to squeeze her hand. Anna began to relax. There was the friend she’d known and loved since she was five years old. Somehow they’d sort everything out, it would all be okay. The waiter arrived with chicken Caesar salads for them both, and after he’d gone, Anna gave her friend a good hard look.
“How are you, really?” Anna asked.
Nicole was a little thinner than before, and her face was taut with tension.
“I’m doing okay. Things are…complicated right now.”
“You’re telling me. Why on earth did you go to work for Nate Hunter? Your father is beside himself.”
“Pissed him off, huh?” Nicole said, with her characteristic cheek, before a look of regret shadowed her expressive eyes.
“That’s one way of putting it.”
“How is he? Someone told me they’d seen him the other day but that he wasn’t looking so good. It made me worry about him and it’s not like I can just pick up the phone and call him to ask how he is.”
“He’s doing okay. This whole upset has slowed him down a bit, but—and I’m sure you probably don’t want to hear this—Judd is picking up the reins pretty capably.”
“Figures. The golden child. Even though I was always there, and he wasn’t, I could never measure up to him, you know.” Nicole’s mouth twisted into a bitter line.
“Your father loves you, Nicole.”
“I know, but it’s not the same. I could never fill the hole that Judd left, and now he’s back.”
Anna’s heart twisted. She was sure that that wasn’t the case. Charles loved both of his children—he’d just gotten in such a habit of being strict with Nicole that he didn’t know how to show it. Still, she knew how much it had to hurt to see Charles lavish the affection on Judd that Nicole had always craved for herself.
“So you won’t be coming back to us anytime soon?”
Nicole gave her a haunted look and shook her head. “I…I can’t.”
“What do you mean, you can’t? Of course you can. Your home is with us, your career was with us. Come back, please?”
“No, it’s not that simple. Not anymore.”
“Why? What is it?”
Nicole shook her head again. “I can’t talk about it just now. Maybe later, who knows? I just wanted to see you again and to say sorry for the horrible things I said before. I was upset and I needed someone to blame. Unfortunately, you were it.”
“So are we all good now?”
“Yeah, we are. I’ve missed you so much.”
“I’ve missed you, too.”
They finished the rest of their lunch while discussing anything and everything other than work, or men. For some reason Nicole was cagey about the questions Anna started to ask her about Nate Hunter, and Anna certainly wasn’t prepared to talk about her feelings for Nicole’s brother to her face. It was easier to skirt over those issues and just skim the basics. By the time she had to head back to work, Anna felt so much better for having been able to spend some time with Nicole.
“I’m glad you emailed me,” Anna said, standing and giving her friend a hug as their lunch together drew to an end.
“I’m glad you’re still talking to me. I don’t deserve you, you know.”
“Of course you do, and more,” Anna replied. “I’ll settle the bill, okay? Next time will be your turn.”
“Are you sure?”
“That there’ll be a next time? Of course there will.”
“Not that, silly.” Nicole laughed.
Anna felt a sense of relief that she’d finally brought a smile to her friend’s face, a smile that, however briefly, dispelled the tension that had been there. She watched Nicole head out the restaurant before she went to the cashier to settle their account. To her surprise, it had already been paid.
“There must be some mistake,” she said.
“No, there’s no mistake,” said an all too familiar voice from behind her. “I figured it was worth the price of lunch to find out what you were up to.”
Judd caught her elbow in a firm hold and guided her out the door toward the car park.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, hating the panic in her voice.
“More to the point, what are you doing here?”
“Nicole asked to see me for lunch, that’s all.”
“All? Seems kind of interesting that the week we lose a considerable amount of business to Jackson Importers you should meet her for lunch. Are you sure you weren’t discussing anything else, like the Californian wineries on our list, for example?”
“Of course not! I wouldn’t dream of doing anything of the sort.” Indignation fueled her to add, “I don’t know where you managed to form this incredibly low opinion of me, and I really don’t care, but don’t keep bringing your insinuations to my face. They are, without exception, wrong.”
“So why were you together?”
“We’re friends. We’ve been friends for most of our lives. Did we need a reason?”
“I understood that your friendship was pretty much severed over me.”
“Don’t rate your effect on people so highly. As I said, we’ve known each other a very long time. It would take far more than someone like you to destroy that. Look, if you feel that strongly that you can’t believe me, why don’t you just fire me? In fact, forget that. I quit. I can’t work for someone who doesn’t even begin to know the meaning of the word trust.”
Anna pulled her arm fr
ee of his hand and headed for her car. She was shaking with anger to think that he could even begin to imagine that she’d do anything to deliberately sabotage Wilson Wines. It would be like slitting her throat, both professionally and personally.
She heard his footfall behind her and she dug in her handbag for her car keys, desperate to get away from him. She wouldn’t let him know how much his words today had hurt, just like she hadn’t shown him how his belief that she and Charles had been lovers had also cut her.
“Anna, wait!” he called.
But she didn’t want to wait. She wanted distance and she wanted it now, before he saw the sheen of tears that now glazed her eyes. Damn it, where were those keys? Long, warm fingers closed over her hand as she finally extracted her keys from the depths of her bag and her finger depressed the remote to unlock her car.
“Anna, stop. I’m sorry. I jumped to conclusions.”
“You’re pretty good at that, aren’t you?” she said bitterly, blinking back the moisture that stung her eyes.
“What can I say, I have a suspicious mind.” He smiled back at her, and despite herself she was charmed by his self-deprecating tone. And that was more than half the problem, she acknowledged. He could get under her defenses with no more than a smile.
“I need to get back to the office. Please let me go.”
She stared pointedly at his hand, which still captured hers within its warmth.
“Not yet. I want to apologize to you properly. I’ve been an idiot and I’ve treated you very unfairly. In my defense I can only say that it started back in Adelaide.”
“But surely you can understand why I didn’t tell you the truth about why I was there right from the start? For all I knew, you would have just shipped me off the property—which is what you pretty much did anyway after you read the letter.”
“I can understand now. And like I said, I am sorry for allowing myself to let that color my judgment about you.”
“Fine, I accept your apology. Now let me go.”
“Ah, Anna, in such a hurry to leave me?”
He stepped a little closer and Anna felt that all-too familiar thrum of awareness course through her veins. He was like a drug to her, and she was rapidly losing, becoming addicted. She’d let herself become dependent on his kisses, his touch, everything.
“Don’t, please.”
She dropped her handbag and put up her hand, but he didn’t stop moving, not even when her hand became trapped between the wall of his chest and her breasts. He was so close she could see the silver striations that feathered his irises and lent his eyes their particular vivid blue hue. Her heart quickened as she watched his pupils dilate.
“Don’t what?” he asked, his voice soft, enticing.
“Don’t kiss me.”
“Afraid of me, Anna?”
“No,” she admitted. “I’m afraid of me.”
“I’ll keep you safe,” he said.
His kiss was short and incredibly sweet. The seal of a promise that offered so very much—perhaps even a chance of a future together that was no longer threatened by the shadows of his family’s past. She was trembling when he released her, her entire body screaming for more than just that brief embrace.
Judd bent to collect her bag and handed it to her, then opened her car door, holding it for her as she slid into the driver’s seat.
“Will you be okay to get back to the office?”
“Sure,” she said, willing her body back under her control.
“I’ll see you there.”
“Judd? How did you know where to find me?”
He gave a small frown before answering. “There was a page missing from the report you gave me. I went to your computer to reprint it and you’d left your email open.”
So for all his apparent mistrust of her, he hadn’t been actively snooping. And, he’d listened to her—really listened. The thought gave her another little thrill of hope. Anna nodded and pulled her door closed before starting the engine and backing out of the car space. Judd stood to one side, watching her leave. She gave him a small wave and drove out of the car park.
Judd went straight into Anna’s office when he arrived back at Wilson Wines.
“About your resignation,” he started, closing her office door behind him.
Anna looked up, surprise on her face. “My resignation?”
“Yeah, back at the restaurant. You quit, remember?”
“Ah, yes, so I did.”
“Just for the record, I don’t accept it.”
“For the record,” she repeated, a tiny smile on her face, before slowly nodding. “Okay. So we’re all good now—I can get back to work?”
“No.”
“No? What’s wrong?”
“I miss you,” he answered simply.
“Miss me? But we see each other every day,” she protested.
“Is that enough for you? Really? Tell me, Anna, how are you sleeping at night, knowing I’m just down the hall from you—wanting you as much as you probably want me?”
He watched the muscles in her throat work as she swallowed.
“What? Lost for words?” He moved across the office and sat in the chair opposite her desk. “Seems to me that we have a pretty good thing between us. Wouldn’t you agree?”
“Physically, yes,” she finally concurred, although he could see how reluctant she was to admit even that.
“Don’t you think we should let that play out? Keep exploring it to its fullest potential?”
To his surprise, sadness seemed to cloud her eyes. Her voice, when she spoke, was flat. “No, I don’t. Tell me, Judd, how do you define potential?”
Her words surprised him. “Define it? Are you kidding me? You mean you have this level of physical synchronicity with every man you sleep with?”
“And there we have it,” Anna said, throwing her hands in the air. “Just how many men do you think I’ve slept with?”
“Does it matter?”
“No, it doesn’t matter, but you continually imply I have loose morals. First you accuse me of sleeping with your father, then you jump to the ridiculous conclusion that I was sharing company information with Nicole.” She shook her head emphatically. “There’s no way I can even begin to contemplate any kind of relationship with you when you don’t trust me at all—over anything!”
“You’re right,” he admitted, deciding to take another tack on this argument.
He had assumed the worst about her all the way. In the beginning that had partly been her own fault, but he was man enough to admit it had been far easier to remain guarded around her than it was to examine just how much he wanted her, or why. He’d hoped that, as with all his conquests, he’d enjoy the ride while it lasted. After all, he didn’t plan to stay in New Zealand forever.
The moment he thought that, though, everything in his mind rebelled. For some reason this had stopped being a temporary fling. He’d gone at this whole exercise looking upon everything as being temporary—expendable even. But somewhere along the line things had changed, and that change started with Anna.
Her voice pulled his attention back. “Of course I’m right. So you’ll agree that we should forget about there being any kind of relationship between us, except for at work.”
“I can’t do that, Anna.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“I can’t do that. What I can do, if you’ll let me, is learn to trust you. To get to know you better and to show you that I’m worth you giving me that chance. Will you at least try with me?”
He watched as her emotions played across her face.
“You want me to try to let you trust me? You hurt me, Judd—both on a professional level and on a personal one. After we made love down in Nelson and here, i
n your office—” Her voice hitched and she paused and swallowed before continuing. “Did you honestly think I was so promiscuous as to go from one man’s bed to another, and back again?”
“Since we’re being honest, I have to admit that it made me furious to think that you could do that.”
“But I’m not like that!” Her voice rose in obvious frustration.
“I know that, Anna. I’m learning all the time.”
“Fine. Okay, I will try with you. But on one condition.”
“What’s that?” he asked, knowing the answer before she even verbalized it and hating that, in this at least, he could read her so well.
“I’m not sleeping with you. Not straightaway. We can get to know each other the way normal couples do.”
“We’ve missed a few steps, that’s true.”
“And I want your word of honor that you won’t try to persuade me otherwise. I’m helpless against you. There, I admit it. Show me that I can trust you. Don’t use that knowledge against me.”
Every particle in his body rebelled against the idea, but he found himself nodding in agreement.
“Agreed,” he managed, even though his jaw felt tight and his throat barely allowed the single word past it. “A date tonight, then. That’d be a good start. I’ll meet you downstairs in the lobby at the house at seven.”
What the lady wanted, the lady was definitely going to get. And while it would be a living torment every second until she capitulated to him, he knew that very soon, she’d be his again. And once she was, no matter what his plans for Charles Wilson, he knew she’d stay by his side.
Eleven
Anna waited in the lobby at the house and paced the black-and-white-tiled entrance nervously. This was going to be their third date in the three days since last Thursday, when they’d agreed to take things slowly and learn to get to know one another. So far it had been an exercise in pure torture. Judd had been nothing but a complete gentleman. It was driving her crazy.
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