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