‘Very good.’ Curtis was watching his daughter with amused indulgence, perched on the desk, arms folded.
He was wearing faded jeans and a long-sleeved cream jumper, the sleeves of which he had pushed up to the elbows. Tessa took it all in as she industriously switched on the computer and sat down.
His mouth was curved into a smile of loving expectation as he looked at his excited daughter. Improbable as it seemed, given his relentlessly single image, he was a doting father. He didn’t often make it to any school things, Anna had told her, but, she had quickly excused, that was because he was always so busy at work. When he did visit her at school, he invariably arrived with armfuls of gifts, and of course he was always the centre of attention. Her friends swooned over him. She had related this with great pride in her voice, never implying that she had ever longed for anything else. Reading between the lines, just having Curtis as her dad gave her some kind of indefinable street cred amongst her classmates.
One by one, Anna pulled her purchases out of their bags. She was so pleased with herself that she barely noticed the shift in his expression.
Tessa noticed, though. The smile remained in place, but his eyes were narrowed as he took in the little burgundy outfit, then the soft dark green skirt that Anna had said might come in handy for a school thing she had been invited to, then the series of vest-tops, perfectly respectable but certainly nothing like what she had possessed before.
Tessa was tempted to offer some reassuring explanation for the choice of clothes. They looked a lot smaller off than on.
‘Well! What do you think?’ The clothes had all been neatly laid out now. They presented a startling and colourful divergence from what Anna was currently wearing, namely a sober grey trouser suit and some flat black shoes.
Curtis was still trying hard to maintain his relaxed smile and Anna must have sensed it because her face shadowed and she asked in a smaller voice, ‘Don’t you like them?’
‘How can he help but like them?’ Tessa stood up firmly, drawing attention to herself and giving Curtis the most professionally warning smile she could muster. She walked across to where they were laid out and gave Anna’s arm a little squeeze. ‘You ought to have seen your daughter in these.’ She folded her arms and, with her back to Anna, managed to consolidate the warning in her eyes. ‘She looked fabulous. She’s been so excited buying that the time just ran away with us.’
‘They’re lovely, darling,’ he ventured, skirting round Tessa. ‘But perhaps you’d better gather them up. No, better than that, after a hard afternoon shopping, why don’t you get a cab back to my place? I’ll be an hour here, tops, and we’ll go out somewhere special for something to eat.’
‘I’ll wear one of my new outfits, shall I? Which do you think, Dad? Where will we be eating? Somewhere smart? I can wear the cream skirt and top with my coat. Just so long as we won’t have to do too much walking.’ She looked lovingly at the new shoes. The shoes had been the very last purchase and had benefited from being bought at the very peak of Anna’s excited embarkment into the world of glamour shopping. They were fur-lined, pointed-tipped fawn boots that fitted lovingly to mid-calf and had instantly transformed her into fashion-model height.
‘That’s a very nice outfit, darling, but perhaps a little too skimpy for this time of year? And those shoes, well, they might get scuffed. You wouldn’t want to ruin such lovely things on your first foray, would you?’
‘I suppose not.’ The voice was uncertain now. She slowly began to gather up the various bits, folding them neatly before returning them to their expensive bags.
‘Perhaps we’ll go somewhere casual after all.’ He yawned expansively. ‘Long-haul travel is hideously tiring.’ He pushed himself away from the desk and gave Tessa a veiled look, oddly lacking in its usual warmth. ‘And there’s a stack of things to get through before I call it a day. Tomorrow we’ll do dressy, shall we?’ He beckoned Anna across to him and swamped her in a big bear hug. When she emerged, her face was once again beaming, all uncertainty gone like a scattering of rain on a summer day. ‘Why don’t you help Anna down with her parcels—’ he turned to Tessa ‘—make sure she gets a taxi and then meet me in my office?’
Anna was full of it. Her father had returned early! She had spent the past two nights in the company of her exbabysitter, now a married woman with a toddler of her own, and had expected to be spending another night in her company. Her eyes were shining at the prospect of an evening out with her dad. Tessa wondered whether she should gently steer her away from wearing any of the clothes that had certainly met with his disapproval, however much he had tried to mask it, and decided against it.
But she was curious. In every way, he was utterly and disconcertingly laid-back. He did things his way, sweeping everyone else up into his own unique personality, yet there he was, frowning like a Victorian stereotype the minute his own daughter displayed the slightest inclination to be a normal adolescent.
And curiosity was not something she wanted to feel. Certainly not when it applied to her charismatic boss. Hopefully by the time she got back to the office he would have moved on to some other thought. He was like that, possessed of a restless, brilliant energy that sometimes leapfrogged with dizzying speed. Every so often, even when he was dictating something to her, she would see that look in his eyes and realise that his mind was working ahead of itself, had jumped ahead to something new.
No such luck.
That clever, questing mind had focused on his daughter’s brand new wardrobe and was staying there. The look on his face said it all as she walked into his office and shut the door behind her.
‘So you and my daughter have been getting along.’
She could have faced up to him a little more confidently if he had chosen to sit at his desk like any normal human being. However, Curtis being Curtis, he was stretched out on the sofa, eyes closed, hands lightly linked behind his head. Tessa had to swivel the chair round to face him and then found herself reluctantly compelled to look at him, at that ridiculously good-looking face and those even more ridiculously long eyelashes.
‘She’s a lovely young woman. You must be very proud of her.’
‘She’s fourteen.’ He opened his eyes and slanted her a glance. ‘Not yet a young woman.’
‘And what would you call it?’
‘I would call it a kid.’
Tessa didn’t answer.
‘I asked you to provide Anna with some simple office duties to occupy her days. I didn’t ask you to take her on an elaborate shopping spree.’
‘You’re right. You didn’t. I’m sorry. She’s been doing so well and I thought it might be nice for us to go out to lunch somewhere and before I knew it, we were shopping.’
‘Before you knew it…’
He was looking at her now, his eyes narrowed slits. Ranting and raving, Tessa could manage. This soft, menacing voice, however, was a lot scarier.
‘You’re a secretary. Not a mother substitute for my daughter.’
Tessa drew in a long, deep breath and sat up straighter. ‘I had no idea that part of my secretarial duties included babysitting the boss’s daughter,’ she said quietly, ‘but that’s fine. She’s hard-working and enjoyable to have around. But having strayed from my original job description, I think it’s a little unfair to start drawing boundaries. I don’t know why you’re so upset because Anna bought one or two things to wear. Teenagers like shopping, in case you hadn’t noticed.’
‘Of course I know that!’
‘Then what’s the problem? If it’s the amount of time I took off, then I’m more than happy to make up for it by working late tonight and tomorrow night.’
‘It’s nothing to do with the amount of time you had off,’ he said irritably, swinging himself up from the sofa and glowering at her on his way to his desk. He stood there, as if debating whether to sit down or not. ‘And you’re being deliberately obtuse. Since when have you ever seen me crack a whip because someone’s running a bit late? More work takes p
lace in these offices than in any other place I know, and that’s without me having to pull the heavy-handed card.’
Tessa had now swung her chair around to face him. He still hadn’t sat down. Maybe, she thought, he felt that if he sat down at his desk he would be more inclined to get down to the business of work. He propped himself up on the desk, palms flat on the gleaming surface, and continued to frown darkly.
‘Then what is it?’
‘I don’t like the clothes you encouraged my daughter to buy.’
Tessa didn’t know whether to shout at him or burst out laughing. Where had this puritanical streak come from? Here was the man who had thrown away the book of rules, who encouraged every aspect of creativity in the people who worked for him, who had a sofa in his office, for goodness’ sake, just in case he wanted to sleep, just in case he decided to spend a night in the office. He must, she supposed, somewhere, keep a store of conventional suits, but she had yet to glimpse one.
Why on earth would he object to his daughter buying a few trendy clothes? There was nothing offensive in a single one of the outfits Anna had chosen. In fact, Tessa had dryly compared her choices to the ones Lucy had been making at the same age and marvelled at how she had managed to deal with her lovable headache of a sister all those years ago.
So where, she wondered, was the problem?
‘I would never have expected it of you,’ he said accusingly, and her head shot up at that.
‘Meaning…?’
‘Meaning that I thought I could trust you not to lead Anna astray!’ He pushed himself away from the desk and began prowling around the room while Tessa sat completely still in her chair, counting to ten and refusing to swivel her chair in every direction just to keep up with his restless progress.
‘Aren’t you overreacting just a bit?’
The silence that greeted this was deafening. Tessa felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end and she realised, too late, that not having him within her line of vision was a major disadvantage.
She was oblivious to his stealthy approach until she felt the chair swivel round and found herself facing him, inches away from him, in fact, as he leant over her, caging her into her chair, leaning into her. She pressed herself into the back of the chair but, with nowhere to go, he remained close enough for her to feel his breath fanning her face.
Cool-headed composure shot through the window at a rate of knots, and in its place came a surge of panicky agitation. She wanted to push him back, but just the thought of her hand making contact with his hard chest made her quail.
‘Maybe overreacting’s a bit strong…’ she retreated weakly. ‘You’re her father…’
‘Damn right I am!’ Curtis growled. ‘I’m her father and there’s no way I’m going to see my baby dressed like a tart!’
Tessa’s eyes opened wide at this blatant display of double standards.
‘A tart?’ she spluttered. ‘Did you actually look at the stuff Anna bought?’
‘Sure I looked at it!’
‘Those happened to be very expensive designer clothes!’ Which was hardly an overstatement. At the time, Tessa had baulked at the price tags merrily dangling from the clothes, but she had swallowed back the temptation to hurry her charge along in the direction of more affordable places. This was a world she had never seen before. A world in which a fourteen-year-old girl had all the money she wanted at her disposal and was innocently ignorant of any need to go cheaper.
‘I don’t care if they were hand-finished by the Great Man up There himself!’ he bellowed. ‘I don’t want my daughter wearing any of it! She was perfectly happy in clothes that covered her up!’
‘How do you know that?’ A delicate matter. Anna had confided in her that her father had always seen her as his little girl. He brought her back lavish gifts of coats and jackets that were beautifully tailored and cost the earth, but were not exactly the height of fashion, and she had never thought to rebel because she adored him.
‘Because she’s never complained!’ He strode away from her and settled himself behind his desk.
Tessa released a long sigh of relief. Her legs were going stiff from sitting in the chair, rigid with tension, but a well-honed sense of survival told her that any mention of actually getting down to the business of work would be a big mistake. Curtis was still chewing on his thoughts and her options were basically reduced to staying put and trying to dodge the verbal missiles or else feigning a sudden, extreme illness.
‘Well?’ he prompted. ‘What have you got to say to that? Hmm?’
‘You’re right.’
He looked at her suspiciously. ‘Are you trying to calm me down?’
‘No!’ Tessa lied, protesting.
‘Because if you are, I can tell you from now that that’s one sure-fire way to get me enraged.’
At least he was no longer breathing fire and brimstone, though. Having the full force of his anger directed at her had been scary. Had that been yet another one of those elements of his interesting personality that his mother had casually mentioned? An ability to make other people aware of just how high their adrenaline levels could go? Working for a firm of accountants was beginning to seem like a stroll in the park!
‘Look,’ she ventured tentatively, ‘Don’t you think you’re a little guilty of double standards?’
‘I have no idea what you’re talking about,’ Curtis informed her with sweeping arrogance.
‘You go out with beautiful women who wear provocative clothes. You employ beautiful women whom you expect to wear provocative clothes! Well, with the exception of me, obviously. You like attractive, glamorous women. I just don’t see anything wrong with your daughter making the most of her youth. She’s way too sensible to want to dress like a tart but she’s not a kid, whatever you want to think! She can’t go straight from frilly petticoats into slacks and jumpers a middle-aged woman would wear!’
‘Said your piece?’
‘I most certainly have not!’ Lord, but how this man had the talent to get under her skin! ‘How can you be so…so authoritarian when it comes to your daughter and so relaxed with everyone else?’
‘Because she’s my daughter. Believe me, I’ve seen firsthand how boys grow up looking at girls dressed in next to nothing…’
‘Oh. Right.’
Black brows met in an irritable frown at her capitulation. But she didn’t quite know what to say. They could keep going round in circles for hours because the plain truth was that Curtis wanted to protect his daughter and his version of protection was to insulate her behind a severely grown up image that would guarantee that no boys would be pounding at her door. While Anna was not unhappy with it, Tessa wondered whether she might be in time, whether her rebellion would take place later on and be all the more disastrous for that.
‘Let me show you something.’ He opened the bottom drawer of his desk, rummaged around, keeping his eyes firmly glued to her face, and eventually pulled out a photograph, which he slapped down on the desk in front of her. ‘Have a look. Go on. It won’t bite.’
Tessa tentatively went to look at the picture. A woman gazed back at her, her face propped thoughtfully in one hand, her mouth forming a little smile. She looked in her early twenties and was spectacularly beautiful. Silver-blonde hair framed a face that was perfectly chiselled, the sort of face that made men stare and then stare again and made women sigh with discontent at what they had been dealt. Laughter lurked just behind the pensive expression, as if she was holding back a boundless love of life.
‘Chloe.’ Curtis reached out for the photograph, glanced once more at it and stuck it back into the drawer.
All Tessa could think was that there was something poignant about him keeping that picture there, close at hand. Was that why he was so drawn to beauty? Because he had never really moved on from his wife?
‘I was a kid when I met her and she was overwhelming, dazzling.’ He grinned fondly at the memory and Tessa saw, for one second, a huge void open up in front of her, the voi
d of being sensible and never dazzling anyone, then she was back to normal, listening, watching his expressive, gorgeous face as he spoke. ‘We leapt into love as though tomorrow might never come, but of course it wasn’t love. More like lust. We had a supremely lusty relationship. By the time she became pregnant, we were already drifting apart. Her looks, you see, that flamboyant way of hers…she couldn’t resist the heads that were continually turned in her direction, she couldn’t resist that pull she had over other people, something that made her want to just keep going. Anna grounded her for a while, but in the end it wasn’t enough. I watch Anna pulling those clothes out of those bags and I see how easy it would be for her to start thinking that maybe education isn’t that important, maybe having fun and all the attention that comes with being beautiful is a hell of a lot more appealing.’
‘You’re seeing things in black and white,’ Tessa said uncomfortably. ‘She’d hate to think she had disappointed you with her new wardrobe.’ She stared down at her slender fingers, at the neatly trimmed fingernails shiny with clear polish. ‘I won’t take her shopping again and I wouldn’t have if I had thought for a minute that you would have such violent objections to her splashing out on some pretty routine teenage gear. Not even really teenage, as a matter of fact. Just different from what she’s accustomed to wearing.’
Why did he get the feeling that he was being verbally outmanoeuvred? Curtis looked at the smooth, bland face and frowned. He opened his mouth to say something, thought better of it and grunted instead.
‘We’ll have to agree to differ.’
‘We will,’ Tessa agreed, lowering her eyes, ‘and, of course, there’ll be no more corrupting shopping sprees.’
There was perfect acquiescence in that response except, he thought, for his perfect secretary to be acquiescent, she should also have been chastened, and chastened she certainly was not. In fact, in her own quiet way, he got the sneaking suspicion that she was reprimanding him. He moved swiftly away from the whole contentious subject and for the next hour they worked solidly and swiftly. As she was standing to leave he leaned back in his chair and asked her what she thought of his plans to consolidate a base in the Far East.
The Billionaire Boss's Bride Page 5