been up for hours he hadnât achieved a thing because he was too busy plotting how he could get close to her again as soon as he got back to Auckland. How did he do it without breaking his own rules?
âWhat would your old man say?â Lorenzo laughed again. âScrewing around in the office, Alex, bad you.â
Alex iced over and pressed pause on the playback. He hadnât told Lorenzo what heâd found out. It was provedâthe chance of the DNA results being wrong were so tiny no lawyer in the land would dare argue it. Samuel Carlisle wasnât Alexâs father. Instead it was his best friend whoâd supplied the necessary chromosomes. The friend whoâd been on the periphery of Alexâs childhoodâthe honorary uncle, the godfather figureâhell, heâd even been the one to offer advice when Alex had doubted whether heâd wanted to go into the family business.
âYouâre a Carlisleâitâs in your blood.â
Patrick had lied so easily.
Alex had found out only a few years after that that Samuel couldnât be his biological father. When illness had struck, Alex had offered his body, his blood. But it didnât match Samuelâsâ at all . His mother had begged him not to tell, but sheâd refused to say who his real father was. Sheâd taken that secret to the grave with her.
Alex couldnât then ask Samuelâcouldnât destroy his last years. But Alex had been burnt through from the inside out by the betrayal. Anger, resentment had festered, his trust severed. And in the quiet dark hours the unanswered question had tormented him.
But now he knew. Patrick had been her lover. Patrick had fathered her child. The pair of them had lied for years to the man she was married to. Theyâd lied to him, their son.
And Alex would never forgive either of them for it.
He needed time before he could speak of itâeven to his best friend. But before he got to that, there was now this situation to be sorted.
He forced out a half-laugh as he looked at the image on screen. Caught out the one time he went base at work. Just the icing on the way the last week had gone.
âIâm flying back shortly. Meet me at my place this afternoon.â He hung up before Lorenzo could say more. Stared at the way her hands threaded through his hair and her legs clamped round his waist.
The anger simmering beneath his skin spiked through. He wished he could storm into Security, find the culprits and fire them on the spot. Every single one of them. But going on thehunt would only inflame the situation. Heâd have to make do with a memo reminding them of the âUse of Internetâ policy. He couldnât get rid of themâat least, not yet.
Damn.
The other person he couldnât sack was herâstraight to litigation that would be. But it was going to be pretty messy with everyone in the office watching this little number. How was he going to protect her?
He didnât even know her name.
CHAPTER TWO
D ANI wondered what it was sheâd done wrong. Sheâd been temping here for over a week and until today theyâd all been polite and friendly. All except Mr Alex Carlisle, that was. But she wasnât thinking about him. Definitely not fixated on what had to have been the craziest few minutes of her life. Sheâd forget it. He obviously had, because she hadnât seen him sinceâheâd disappeared from the floor, hadnât been down loitering by the managersâ desks at all since The Lift. She refused to acknowledge the sting she felt over that. And she hadnât been able to swap to a placement with another company; there were no other placementsânone that lasted as long and paid the same kind of money. So, embarrassed or not, she was here to stay.
But the looks she was getting from everyone else today. The number of people that had filed past her deskâ¦and theyâd all been rubbernecking.
âWhat would your old man say?â Lorenzo laughed again. âScrewing around in the office, Alex, bad you.â
Alex iced over and pressed pause on the playback. He hadnât told Lorenzo what heâd found out. It was provedâthe chance of the DNA results being wrong were so tiny no lawyer in the land would dare argue it. Samuel Carlisle wasnât Alexâs father. Instead it was his best friend whoâd supplied the necessary chromosomes. The friend whoâd been on the periphery of Alexâs childhoodâthe honorary uncle, the godfather figureâhell, heâd even been the one to offer advice when Alex had doubted whether heâd wanted to go into the family business.
âYouâre a Carlisleâitâs in your blood.â
Patrick had lied so easily.
Alex had found out only a few years after that that Samuel couldnât be his biological father. When illness had struck, Alex had offered his body, his blood. But it didnât match Samuelâsâ at all . His mother had begged him not to tell, but sheâd refused to say who his real father was. Sheâd taken that secret to the grave with her.
Alex couldnât then ask Samuelâcouldnât destroy his last years. But Alex had been burnt through from the inside out by the betrayal. Anger, resentment had festered, his trust severed. And in the quiet dark hours the unanswered question had tormented him.
But now he knew. Patrick had been her lover. Patrick had fathered her child. The pair of them had lied for years to the man she was married to. Theyâd lied to him, their son.
And Alex would never forgive either of them for it.
He needed time before he could speak of itâeven to his best friend. But before he got to that, there was now this situation to be sorted.
He forced out a half-laugh as he looked at the image on screen. Caught out the one time he went base at work. Just the icing on the way the last week had gone.
âIâm flying back shortly. Meet me at my place this afternoon.â He hung up before Lorenzo could say more. Stared at the way her hands threaded through his hair and her legs clamped round his waist.
The anger simmering beneath his skin spiked through. He wished he could storm into Security, find the culprits and fire them on the spot. Every single one of them. But going on thehunt would only inflame the situation. Heâd have to make do with a memo reminding them of the âUse of Internetâ policy. He couldnât get rid of themâat least, not yet.
Damn.
The other person he couldnât sack was herâstraight to litigation that would be. But it was going to be pretty messy with everyone in the office watching this little number. How was he going to protect her?
He didnât even know her name.
CHAPTER TWO
D ANI wondered what it was sheâd done wrong. Sheâd been temping here for over a week and until today theyâd all been polite and friendly. All except Mr Alex Carlisle, that was. But she wasnât thinking about him. Definitely not fixated on what had to have been the craziest few minutes of her life. Sheâd forget it. He obviously had, because she hadnât seen him sinceâheâd disappeared from the floor, hadnât been down loitering by the managersâ desks at all since The Lift. She refused to acknowledge the sting she felt over that. And she hadnât been able to swap to a placement with another company; there were no other placementsânone that lasted as long and paid the same kind of money. So, embarrassed or not, she was here to stay.
But the looks she was getting from everyone else today. The number of people that had filed past her deskâ¦and theyâd all been rubbernecking.