by Amii Lorin
Glum silence had settled on the room at Anne's outburst and the expressions on all three of the faces in front of her were the same. They were stunned, shocked, and Anne knew they had expected some sort of miracle from her. Her inability to perform this miracle was a hard fact they did not want to face. But that she was as upset, if not more than they were, was evident, and after a long pause Todd said earnestly, "I'm sorry, Anne, I didn't think." He paused, wet his lips nervously before going on. "I guess none of us thought this through. Too much has happened too fast. First the shock of Dad's death, then the sudden appearance of Jud, followed by the will and Jud's incredible dictums. I see now we have little choice, at least for the time being, but to follow Jud's lead. At least Troy and I can escape back to school; you have to face him every day."
"I just don't understand why Judson did this," Margaret sobbed, "after forbidding us to even mention Jud's name."
Anne considered then discarded the idea of telling her mother Jud's thoughts on why his father had acted as he had. What good would it do? She asked herself tiredly. It would just agitate them more and everyone was agitated enough already.
As they left the dining room, Troy slid his arm around Anne's waist. "This is one hell of a mess Dad's left us in," he murmured. Then he repeated Jud's statement of that afternoon. "And you're right in the middle, Anne."
Excusing herself, Anne went to her room and sat there staring moodily into space. It was a hell of a mess and she didn't want to be in the middle of it, didn't want to be exposed to Jud's obvious dislike and biting sarcasm.
Was there really anything she could do for Troy and Todd? Maybe if she could have remained in the office, but here? Anne shook her head. She doubted she'd see much of Jud at home. He didn't strike her as the type to spend his evenings in quiet companionship with his family. Especially this family.
Then a new idea struck her. Maybe Andrew could advise her. True he knew little of the business, as Mr. Slonne and his partners had handled all of the company's legal work. But as a member of the firm, even a fairly junior member he'd handled some of the minor work. And Andrew was an intelligent young man. Although reluctant to involve him in her family's infighting, Anne clutched at Andrew's name as at a lifeline. At the moment, she felt utterly helpless and Andrew was a ray of hope. It didn't occur to her that Andrew, being her fiancé, should have been the first person to turn to.
Anne had a restless night, dozing and waking repeatedly, and when she did finally fall into an exhausted sleep close to dawn, it was tormented by a nightmare.
They were swimming in a place Anne didn't recognize, and Troy and Todd were out much too far. About to call to them to come back, Anne saw them begin to flounder then cry out for help. She struck out boldly to go to them, when she was brought up short by strong, hard fingers grasping her ankle. Two hands of steel, moving hand over hand up her leg, towed her back. "Let me go," she screamed wildly. "They'll die out there."
"You know the rules of the game." The voice was cold, menacing. Jud's voice. "It's sink or swim, live or die, winner take all."
Frantically she fought the coils of steel on her body, sputtering and choking on the churning water that splashed into her mouth. Her struggle was meaningless, for the hard hands grasped her shoulders, hauled her around to face him. In sheer terror she cried out at his look. Tall enough to stand where she could not, he seemed to tower over her, and the expression on his face was threatening, almost diabolical. Fear and panic increased her struggles and she fought desperately to free herself.
"If you insist on fighting me," he intoned icily, "there is only one thing I can do." With that he shoved her back, away from him, and although she knew the impetus of the motion would completely submerge her, she felt a wild surge of hope as she felt his fingers loosen their painful hold. The hope was quickly dashed as she felt his arms slide around her back. He was going to follow her under—no, he was forcing her under, his large frame on top of her forcing her down, down. As the water covered her chin, she drew a great breath of air, then felt shock grip her mind, for Jud's mouth covered hers, forcing her lips apart, at the same instant the water covered her head, cutting off the life-sustaining air.
What was he doing? Was he trying to drown them both? But no, Jud was an expert swimmer; he had always amazed everyone with the length of time he could remain under water. Terror crawled through her veins like a slithering reptile. He was going to kill her! A scream grew in her chest and lodged in her throat, unable to escape, and her mind throbbed with the words "I don't want to die! I don't want to die!" Panic increased her struggles and the sinewy arms tightened, crushing her against his hard, slippery body as his legs encircled hers in a pincer embrace. Then the pressure against her mouth subtly changed, became caressing, sensuous and suddenly the fear coursing through her body changed too, became a searing tongue of desire, licking and consuming all other emotion. Their frenetic spiral under water became an erotic ballet, with his possession, and her death, the finale. And she didn't care. More, she welcomed it, somehow knowing his possession would be worth it. Roughly the panties to her bikini were torn from her, and, joy singing through her, she arched her body to his.
At that moment Anne surfaced from the nightmare, her body bathed in a cold sweat. Her hands were clutching the bedcovers and she was shaking and sobbing low in her throat. Breathing deeply, Anne finally brought her shattered emotions under control, except for the occasional shudder. The dream had been so real, was still so vivid and clear in her mind.
Afraid to go back to sleep again, she lay back against the pillow and stared at the window, watching the pale gray first light turn to shell pink day.
Anne's cheeks flushed the same shell pink as flashes of the dream skipped in and out of her mind. There were some parts of it she thought she understood. Troy and Todd's drowning, her effort to save them, Jud's keeping her from doing so. If she could find no way of helping them, Troy and Todd would go under—financially. And Jud had made it quite clear he intended to keep her from helping them.
But the rest of the dream? Anne felt a tremor slide down her spine. Did she believe, subconsciously, that Jud would go as far as physically harming her to get what he wanted? Her mind firmly skirted around the sexual connotations, putting that part down to her memories of ten years before. Nevertheless she felt a warmth invade her body, a longing ache tug at her throat. Was it possible to want someone so badly you would even welcome oblivion to taste that sweetness just once?
Anne shook her head firmly. Nonsense, forget it, it was only a dream, all of it. Yet, at the back of her mind she felt a small, but very real, twinge of fear.
As dawn blossomed into full morning, anxiety grew inside Anne. If she'd been able to keep to her usual routine, she assured herself, she could have controlled it, but with time on her hands, her mind ran rampant with speculation.
She was pacing her room when her mother called her to the phone. Glad for any excuse to escape her own confused thoughts, Anne raced down the steps and across the foyer to the telephone table. Breathless from her run, she almost gasped, "Hello?"
"Where the hell are you?" Jud's voice was a hard rap against her ears.
"Obviously I'm here at home," Anne snapped, all her fears of the last hours lacing her tone with ice. "What do you want?"
"What do I want?" he repeated angrily. "I want you that's what the hell I want. You have exactly thirty minutes to get that pretty little tush of yours down here. If you're not here by then I'll come after you, so snap to it."
Chapter 4
Anne winced at the loud noise that assaulted her ear as Jud slammed down his receiver. Confusion and shock kept her immobile a few moments then the words "snap to it" echoed through her mind and, spinning on her heel, she ran up the stairs. His tone had left little doubt that he'd do exactly as he threatened.
Thirty-two minutes later she walked into the office she still thought of as hers and came face to face with a tall, willowy, gorgeous redhead.
"May I help you
?"
The cool, well-modulated voice perfectly matched the appearance of the redhead and Anne felt a disquieting, sinking sensation. So this was the secretary Jud had to have in his office. She was certainly beautiful and more than likely very talented, and with the first two attributes, rich hardly seemed important.
Breathing deeply, Anne managed to answer quietly. "Yes, I'm Anne Moore. Mr. Cammeron is expec—
At that moment one of the two doors behind the redhead opened and Jud snapped impatiently, "It's about time. Come in here, Anne." He held the door to what had been his father's office open, his amber gaze steady on her face as Anne walked past him into the large room.
It seemed like weeks rather than days since Anne had been in this office and she glanced around warily somehow expecting changes. Of course there were none, except for the fact that the top of Judson Senior's large oak desk, usually so neat and orderly, was a welter of folders and loose papers. The room was exactly the same.
Anne's eyes noted the desktop as they quickly scanned the brown and white tweed carpet, the tan burlap-weave draperies, the crammed bookshelf along one wall, and the three leather-covered chairs in front of the desk. At the same time her mind registered the warmer shading of Jud's tone as he spoke to his secretary.
"I'll be busy for the rest of the day, Lorna. I'll accept no calls except from the list of names I gave you earlier. Take your lunch at the usual time. And would you bring back a couple of sandwiches for Miss Moore and me?"
"Yes, sir."
The secretary's reply was punctuated by the soft click of the door being closed. Anne turned, a small lump catching at her throat as she viewed Jud. He leaned almost indolently against the door, his gold hair and bronze skin set off by the deep brown of his suit and the crisp white of his shirt.
"All right, Anne." His voice was soft and silky. Too silky. "What's the play?"
"I don't know what you mean." Anne had trouble covering the tremor in her voice.
His mouth took on the by now familiar sardonic twist. His eyes mocked her. "Were you going to show as much disrespect of me as possible by coming in very late or weren't you going to come in at all?"
Anne stared at him in disbelief a moment then rushed her words angrily. "You said you didn't need me in this office!"
"No, I did not," he stated flatly before jerking his thumb over his shoulder at the door. "I said I didn't need you in that office."
Since entering the room, Anne had been aware of scraping, shuffling noises from the adjoining, smaller office, the office Jud had occupied over ten years ago. His next words explained the muffled sounds.
"I'm having my old office cleaned up for you. I take it it has been used for storage for some time now?"
Anne nodded dumbly.
"Yes, well," he grimaced, "until it can be made ready for you, you'll have to work in here with me."
"Doing what exactly?"
"For heaven's sake, Anne, what do you think?" Jud sighed and pushed himself away from the door and moved across the room toward her. "I'm no more a fool than the old man was. For the next few weeks your help in here will be invaluable to me. That's why I brought Lorna back with me. To free you of the outer office work."
Her voice strained, Anne asked, "And after the next few weeks?"
Jud paused, his eyes raking her tight, closed face. "I'll probably dump even more work on you. I have two separate companies to run, Anne. And I have no intention of giving up the reins to either one of them. If the going gets tough you can cry on John Franks's shoulder. As I'm sure you already know, John is my other assistant."
His assistant! A small shiver of pleasure shot through Anne. Not only was he not banishing her from the office, he wanted her for his assistant. Anne felt tears of relief sting her eyes and blinked quickly; then her eyes flew wide as he stepped in front of her and grasped her shoulders tightly.
"I expect you to give me the same loyalty and everything else you gave the old man." His voice had taken on a thick roughness. A small shiver slid down Anne's spine. "Beginning with this," his head dipped swiftly, then his mouth was crushing hers in a brutal, painful kiss.
Anne went rigid with shock, unable, for a moment, to think or move. Then her mouth was released and he moved back, away from her.
"What do you think you're doing?" Wildly confused and angry, Anne nearly choked on the words.
"I just told you," Jud answered in a bored tone, turning his back to her as he walked around the desk. "I expect all the fringe benefits the old man had." He turned back to her sharply, his voice nasty. "Were you naive enough to think that your—how should I say it—devotion to my father had gone unnoticed? Or that the word hadn't spread?"
As his words hammered at her, Anne's mind filled with horror. What was he saying? Surely no one in their right mind would think that she and her stepfather were . . . Unable to bear the thought, Anne cried, "What do you mean? Exactly what are you accusing me of?"
"Come off it, Anne, it's been whispered about for some time now." Jud's face and voice were cold, his mouth an unremitting, hard line. "It's nothing very new or novel. An older man seeking the virility of his youth with a young woman. Or, in this case, you endeavoring to show your gratitude in whatever way he wished. Or did you convince yourself you were in love with him?"
Struck speechless, anger gripping her throat, Anne stared at him for several long minutes. Then the anger exploded from her mouth. "Are you out of your dirty little mind? He was my mother's husband."
"Are you telling me there was nothing of a personal nature between you and him?" Jud's tone was skeptical, his eyes sharp.
"I am telling you exactly that." Anne drew a deep breath in an effort to control the tremor of anger in her voice. "Not only do you insult me, you smear your father's memory. Have you grown so cynical, so jaded over the years that you'd believe something like that about a man like your father? I don't know what happened between you to cause the break in your relationship, and it's none of my business. But I'll tell you this. At no time was your father other than kind and considerate toward me. He treated me like a daughter, and yes, I was loyal and I was grateful. He was a good man, the closest thing to a father I ever knew. Now, if you are quite through trying to humiliate me with your filthy suggestions, I'll leave. I have a lot of packing to do."
Anne's fingers loosened from the back of the chair she was gripping and she turned and took two steps toward the door, only to stop at Jud's ordered, "Stay where you are."
She was almost relieved to obey his command, for her legs were shaking so badly she wasn't sure she could take another step. Although his hands were gentle, she flinched when he touched her arms, turned her to face him.
"I'm sorry, Anne." His amber eyes were shadowed, cloudy with some emotion Anne couldn't define. His voice was soft and contrite. "I had no right to say what I did. I should have challenged the innuendo when I first heard it. I was bitter and, in that bitterness, believed it. Time and distance and circumstances can have a big effect on a man's thinking. I was out of line and I apologize. Don't leave, either this office or the house. Your mother, Troy, and Todd need you at the house. And whether you believe it or not, I need you here."
Anne lowered her eyes, fighting the tears that had been building for the last ten minutes. Her instinct for self-preservation urged her to run, but she wanted so badly to stay. Breathing slowly, she regained control and lifting her head proudly she said, "All right, Jud, I'll stay At least temporarily. I owe that to Todd and Troy. But I warn you, if ever I hear you mention anything about your father and—"
"You won't," Jud cut in firmly. "Not from me or anyone else. You have my word on that."
The atmosphere was heavy with tension as Jud turned from her to pick up a chair and place it next to his own behind the desk. Anne stood motionless watching him until, lifting his head, one eyebrow raised, he said softly, "There really is a lot of work here, Anne. And I really could use your help."
Anne sighed as she slipped out of her coat and
hung it up before moving around the desk to sit down beside him. He could still be persuasive if he wanted to, she thought ruefully, that was one area in which he hadn't changed.
"What I want to do first is go over the personnel files of everyone in any kind of a managerial position down to the last foreman and forelady and quality control person."
Pulling a folder from the pile he opened it on the desk between them and began firing questions at her.
The tension in the room soon dissipated as Anne, at times, found herself reaching for answers to Jud's sharply incisive queries. She became fully absorbed in the work and didn't notice the passage of time until a soft tap on the door and Jud's growled, "Come in" brought her head up.
"Your lunch, Mr. Cammeron."
Anne watched as Jud's secretary walked gracefully across the room. Before she was halfway to the desk, Jud was out of his chair and relieving her of the tray she was carrying.
"Thank you, Lorna. I'll settle up with you later."
"Yes, sir." The door closed quietly on the softly spoken words.
As he slid the tray onto the edge of the cluttered desk, Jud said crisply. "Come on, Anne, take a break and have something to eat."
Suddenly hungry, Anne's eyes went to the tray of food. On it were two Styrofoam cups of soup, a paper plate piled with sandwiches, a pot of coffee, a small sugar bowl and creamer, two mugs, and two paper napkins. She reached for a cup of soup at the same time Jud did, and when his fingers brushed hers she jerked her hand away as if burned.
Cold amber eyes mocking her nervousness, lips twisting in a sardonic smile, Jud picked up both cups of soup, and handing one to her carefully drawled, "I don't bite, Anne. At least, not very often."
Pink-cheeked, Anne lowered her eyes only to lift them again as she heard him sigh in exasperation and turn away to walk to the window behind the desk. Sipping the creamed tomato soup, Anne studied him through the fringe of her lashes. The bright afternoon sunlight slanting through the window struck sparks of glinting gold off his hair and brought a glistening sheen to his bronze skin. Anne shivered as the words tawny gold crept into her mind. Even as a teenager Jud had been handsome. Now, with maturity and experience etched onto his face, he was devastating.