Then she froze. Her world crashed around her. Duncan James was standing in her doorway.
Shocked, she just stood staring at him with the phone placed at her ear.
“Tess, Tess, are you still there?” Erik said.
She stared at the phone, ending the call without speaking. The last thing she needed was for Duncan to get hold of her father. Erik wouldn’t be forthcoming no matter how many times she asked him what he’d spent the money on.
Tess would have to deal with her father later. She wasn’t going to allow him to get away with what he’d done. There was no way she’d be around next time to sacrifice herself in order to pick up the pieces.
“Problems?” Duncan asked. He leaned against her doorframe. He was so tall and wide he covered the entire door. She stared at the phone then ran a hand through her hair. She wore the coverall she’d put on earlier for baking and cooking. Compared to Duncan, Tess felt small. With him standing in her doorway she was trapped in her apartment.
She placed the phone on the table then turned back to him. Inviting him in would be a mistake. The bulky jacket he wore did little to hide the thick muscles underneath. She crossed her arms trying to protect herself from the nerves that were getting the better of her.
“Nothing I can’t handle,” she said. “Why are you here?”
He lifted up a lady’s handbag. “You left this in my office. I thought I’d do the right thing and see that my fiancée got her purse back. I was also curious to see where you lived. It looks to me that Erik didn’t spend a cent of that money on you.”
She reached to take the bag from him. Duncan moved her purse out of reach. Tess stood her ground, her hands going to her hips. She wouldn’t press her whole body over him to try to get her purse back.
“How old are you? Just give me my purse back.” Tess made another grab for it only to be stopped.
“I’m forty years old. How about you?” he asked.
“Seriously? You’ve asked me to marry you, and only now you’re asking my age?” She folded her arms furious with herself for letting him bait her.
“Yes, I never said I was conventional. How old are you?” He held her bag out of reach.
She moaned in frustration then stared at him.
“I’m twenty-three,” she said.
“Are you going to invite me in, Tess? That’s a usual polite response when a person shows up at your door.”
“You’re not the normal kind of person who shows up at someone’s door,” she said.
“I’m your fiancé.”
She stared into his mocking eyes, taking in the slight lift of his lips showing his amusement.
“Why should I let you in?” she asked. Tess glared at him. She was tired of men trying to control her. Tess folded her arms under her breasts. She hated feeling like this. She’d only known him a few short hours. But her body had other ideas. She felt her nipples getting hard. Her mind was shutting down to common sense. Her body responded to him even though she didn’t like him very much.
Attraction has nothing to do with liking him as a man.
“Tess, we’re to be married. We should get to know each other, and to do that we need to be allowed access into each other’s lives.”
His argument sounded good to her, but she was still reluctant to allow him in her home.
“You know you didn’t give me a choice. I either marry you, or my father goes to prison.”
“And you don’t think he deserves it?”
“I don’t know what to think,” she said to him. All argument left her. She stared at him a few more seconds. He watched her with his dark, intense eyes. Tess didn’t want him in her small apartment. She knew he’d dominate her space. Her apartment was her own, the small piece of heaven she’d carved out for herself.
Seeing no other choice Tess gestured for him to enter her small living space. Tess no longer had the willpower to keep him out. Duncan had stopped by for a reason. Trying to stop him would use all of her reserve energy, which she needed to keep preserved in order to deal with him.
“I thought your secretary was sorting everything out,” she said to his back as she closed the door behind him.
“I changed my mind. Is Tess short for anything?” He moved into her living room. The quaint room had two small, fluffy chairs. She couldn’t afford a sofa. A sofa wouldn’t fit in her small place anyway. Before he walked round her small room she’d never had a problem with her lack of furniture. Now she felt embarrassed.
“No, just Tess.” She moved a stray strand of her wild hair out of her face removing the clip in the process. It had been useless to try to contain her hair.
“Strange.” He continued to walk around the room looking at her books and then at the pictures dotting the surface by her fake fireplace. She had central heating but liked the look of the small fireplace in her sitting room. One day she hoped to have a proper home with a full open fire and a family of her own.
“What? My name is perfectly normal.”
“Not your name. I expected some stuffy, pretentious apartment, but it’s quite nice. A bit small for my tastes, but convenient in size.”
Tess didn’t know whether to take that as a compliment or as an insult.
“Thank you, I think.” She was really confused. “Duncan, why are you here? And how did you know where I lived?” Tess wanted to say so much more. She kept it locked inside.
He turned, putting his hands in his jacket pockets which reminded her she hadn’t offered to take his coat. He looked out of place in her small apartment.
“If you came by to see if I was responsible for my dad taking that money then you’re wrong. This is it.” She raised her arms to emphasise her point. “I can’t afford a car or the money to buy this place. I pay rent. Whatever he spent the money on, I don’t know.”
“I didn’t come here to find the money. I’ve sorted everything out with regards to your father.” He stared at her, his gaze unwavering. How did he manage to affect her with simply staring at her?
“Then why did you come here?” she asked.
“I came to bring your purse. I tried looking for more information on you in Erik’s file. He has nothing on you.
“That wouldn’t surprise me. My dad doesn’t like me all that much.” She snorted at the thought of her father even giving a damn.
“And yet, you’re prepared to do everything to keep him out of prison.”
Tears filled her eyes. Over the years she’d learnt to deal with the disappointment from her father. No person can be perfect. Erik had proven more than once that she couldn’t trust him. Just once she wished there would be another human being out there who’d look beyond her visual flaws and see the woman underneath. Tess knew it was lame, but all she wanted was to be loved. For one person to turn ‘round and care about her. She bit her lip trying to stop the emotion from clawing at her.
“He’s still my father.” She whispered the words even as they burnt inside her throat. How many more excuses was she going to make for a man who’d made it blatantly clear he didn’t care about her?
“I looked in your bag to see where you lived. I wanted your address so I could return it to you.”
“You had no right to look—” She stopped, knowing he had every right. He was helping her in every way imaginable. Looking in her bag was his right. She’d be married to him in two weeks. Soon he’d have more rights than looking in her bag and knowing where she lived.
Chapter Four
Duncan watched his future bride, taking in every detail, every movement, and found everything about her fascinating. Her whole gorgeous body was tense. He knew she was burning inside from suppressing her anger. Never in his life had he looked in a woman’s purse. The temptation provided to him when he spotted the small purse was too hard to resist. The only way he could deal with his invasion of her privacy was to convince himself that he needed to know more about his beautiful future wife. He knew very little about Tess Williams. Her age was a slight concern. He’d dated plenty of young models, just not as young as she.
The attraction he felt towards her had little to do with her age and more to do with her as a person. There was repressed fire inside her. Duncan couldn’t wait to unleash it.
He felt guilty for going inside her purse. There was nothing personal or degrading inside her purse. In fact, her purse was very practical. She had an outdated cell phone, a can of pepper spray, along with her passport and money. There was nothing personal to let him know who Tess Williams the woman was. Nothing personal at all. Nothing to give him the tiniest clue as to who this woman was.
The woman who had entered his office and his thoughts.
Since she left his office a couple of hours ago he’d not been able to get her out of his mind. From her looks to the beautiful way she blushed as he thought about everything about her, Duncan tried to savour every little detail for him to think about over and over again. He put his little obsession down to Tess simply being a desirable woman whom he’d not taken to his bed yet.