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 void 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.
‘Have you been reading up on this?’ he asked, when she had finished her impressive monologue and Tessa relaxed enough to smile at him.
‘Of course I haven’t “been reading up on it”. I’ve always preferred a good work of fiction to a computer magazine. No, I just happen to have a brain in my head and an ability to voice an opinion.’
‘Which is why you’re turning out to be such a good little secretary,’ Curtis replied smugly. ‘I’m going to have to admit to my mother that she may just have got it right when it came to hiring you. I never thought I’d hear myself say this, but a guy can get tired of beautiful girls sticking the wrong files in the cabinets and typing at a snail’s pace.’
‘I didn’t think the misfiling and slow typing was a problem,’ Tessa came back quickly, bristling under the composed surface. ‘I thought Lizzie and Marge just picked up the slack.’
‘There’s way too much gossip in this office,’ he said, grinning. ‘I’ll have to have a word.’ He was an unrepentant sinner, though. Tessa, however, was in no mood to indulge him. From what she had seen, he was far too indulged already. He had been indulged at birth, by being blessed with staggering good looks, and from that it had probably only been a matter of time before self-assurance and charm had stepped into the equation. Add a brilliant mind and the world, she reckoned, had probably been his oyster from when he was a toddler.