Nine

      Judd felt Anna’s withdrawal from him grow incrementally larger as they got closer to home. It started at breakfast on the last morning of their trip, where she’d suggested eating in the restaurant rather than in their room as they had the past few days, and it had continued through their final appointments and for the duration of their plane trip to Auckland. Now, it was dark as Evans drove them up to the house and even though she was sitting right next to him, it felt like she was a million miles away.

      After Evans had taken their bags inside the front foyer and gone to put the car back in the multicar garage, Judd turned to Anna.

      “Will you stay with me tonight?”

      “Judd …” She shook her head, not making eye contact.

      “Why not?”

      Suspicion roiled inside of him. Was it because they’d be under his father’s roof? Or maybe it was because she’d be sleeping in Charles’s bed tonight. Anger flared hard on the heels of his suspicions. She’d been his, all his, the past three nights. Those nights hadn’t been anywhere near enough to sate the hunger he had for her and he damn sure wasn’t sharing her—especially not with his father.

      “It just wouldn’t be right,” she said, picking up her weekend bag and starting up the stairs.

      “We could be discreet,” he heard himself say. “Although you would have to try harder not to scream when I—”

      “Don’t. Just, please don’t,” she said, her voice shaking and warm color spreading across her cheeks.

      “I only want to give you pleasure, Anna. Nothing more.”

      Her hazel eyes locked with his, and for a few seconds he thought he had her, but then she shook her head again and turned away up the staircase.

      He watched her retreat from the bottom of the stairs, his whole body humming with frustration. Leaving his bag at the base of the stairs, he turned and went through to the salon, reaching for the brandy decanter and splashing a measure in one of the crystal tumblers he’d swept up off an engraved silver tray on the sideboard. He knocked back a generous mouthful of the spirit and relished the burn as it traversed its way down his throat.

      She might have refused him tonight, he decided, but he hoped it would be the last time she did so. Anna Garrick had become an addiction he had no desire to shake. He finished the last of the brandy and headed for his room and his frustratingly empty bed.

      The next morning Judd watched Anna under hooded lids as she summarized their trip to the South Island to Charles—leaving out what he felt to be the most important details, of course. For all her poise and aloof elegance, she was neither poised nor aloof in bed. No, in bed she was voracious and generous, two qualities he held in high esteem in a lover. After that first night they hadn’t bothered with booking two rooms again, spending their days visiting various wineries and their nights exploring every inch of one another’s bodies.

      And what a body. Full in just the right places, and firm in others. A man could lose himself in her. And he had, over and over again. It had been difficult to keep his hands off her when they took their business meetings, especially when he’d seen the way other men looked at her—drawn to her beauty, her charm, her sharp mind tempered with such inherent sweetness. She was phenomenal in every respect, and it had been all he could do to keep from crowing that she was his.

      Or rather, she had been his, until they’d returned to Charles.

      Sleep had been a long time coming last night in his large empty bed. She’d well and truly gotten under his skin, he admitted. He wanted her now, even as she showed Charles a swiftly cobbled together PowerPoint presentation showing where they believed the company would make gains on the current market with their new trend of stocking domestically produced wines.

      Judd shifted in his chair to ease the sudden tightness in his groin, his movement drawing Anna’s attention. Her eyes flew to his face, a question in them—he merely smiled in response and narrowed his eyes just a little. She blushed, a totally delightful quality, and a dead giveaway as to her physical state. He let his eyes drop deliberately to where her nipples left the tiniest peaks through her bra and against the fabric of her blouse. He didn’t mistake her sharp intake of breath, nor her very deliberate body language when she turned away from him and wrapped up the presentation.

      “So, you see, Charles, all in all, Nicole was on the right track.”

      “Well, she’s not now,” he grumbled. “So you’re both convinced that this is the right way to go?”

      Judd rose from his chair. “New Zealand has long held a strong position on the world stage for its superior-quality wines. Our clientele deserves to be offered the exclusivity of these labels. We’d be foolish not to. And, I would suspect, if we don’t act soon, someone else will.”

      “Jackson Importers, you mean?” Charles asked sharply. “We can’t have them upstage us. How soon before we can get these varieties into distribution?”

      As Anna smoothly took over the logistics of the proposal, Judd sat back to watch her in action. Yes, she was the whole package, all right. Intelligent, beautiful and sexy as hell. And she was his; she just needed a little reminding of it.

      Later, after Charles had left the office for the day, Judd called her back into his office.

      “Close the door behind you,” he instructed as she came in.

      “Is there a problem?” she asked as she sealed off the outer office, leaving them cocooned together.

      “Oh, yeah, there’s a problem, all right.”

      “What is it? Is it an issue with the new wines?”

      “No, come over here.”

      She did as he asked, a worried crease in her brow. The instant she was within reach, he drew her to him, one hand sliding up her back to cradle the back of her head. He lowered his lips to hers and took them in a kiss he’d been waiting for since yesterday. It had been only hours and yet he’d missed this physicality between them with an ache that had plagued him all last night and all day long.

      She pulled away from him. “Stop. What if someone comes in?”

      “I’ve already instructed that all our calls be held. No one will interrupt us, but if you’re really worried …”

      A few steps across the carpeted floor and the door was securely locked. Anna turned, her back to his desk, and faced him.

      “What do you think you’re doing?”

      He smiled in response. “What I’ve been wanting to do since we got home.”

      He backed her up to his desk, boosting her up onto its surface, and, hitching her, oh, so sensible office skirt up to the top of her thighs, he stood between her legs.

      “If you won’t stay with me in my room, we’ll just have to make do,” he whispered as he bent his head to her neck and lavished the sensitive skin there with alternating nips of his teeth and licks of his tongue.

      He felt the quiver of longing that rippled through her.

      “But we’re in the office, people will know,” she protested, but he knew her heart wasn’t in it.

      Even now her hands were at his waistband, unfastening his belt and sliding his