Her Impossible Boss by Cathy Williams Page A

proprietorial…’
    ‘Nor did I,’ Matt muttered under his breath. Vicky had made
plans
! A stint in the Far East together, hisdaughter conveniently dispatched to a boarding school somewhere…She had even checked out possible acquisitions he could make once they were living in Hong Kong! He had been furious and appalled, and then had turned his wrath against himself—because, as he had told Tess, he had taken his eye off the ball and had reaped his just rewards. But his relationship with his daughter was the biggest casualty of his slip-up, and damn if he knew how he was going to rescue the situation.
    ‘Samantha’s not…’
    ‘Not
what?’
he gritted into the developing silence. ‘No need to tread on eggshells, Tess. I’ve already blown it. I think it’s fair to say I can withstand whatever you have to say.’
    ‘You haven’t blown it! It’s just that Samantha…Well, I don’t think she ever really understood why she saw so little of you over the years.’
    ‘She’s told you this?’
    ‘In bits and pieces. I mean, please don’t think that we sat down one day and had a heart-to-heart, because we didn’t. I don’t think children of that age ever do. I don’t think they know
how to.
But I’ve gleaned it over time.’
    ‘You’ve
gleaned
it? And how did you respond?’
    ‘What could I say? You’ve never spoken to me about your marriage…and, anyway, it wouldn’t be my place to have that conversation with your daughter. That’s something you would have to do. I thought, I guess, that you would. In time.’
    ‘God. What an unholy mess.’
    He looked wiped out, and she reached out and tentativelyput her hand on his shoulder. When he responded by taking hold of it, she assumed it would be to politely dismiss her gesture of sympathy, but instead he kept hold of it, playing idly with her fingers with frowning concentration.
    ‘Catrina and I were the perfect couple on paper.’ Matt glanced at her, but Tess wasn’t sure that he was seeing her. ‘Our families knew each other. We moved in the same circles and came from the same background. I suppose you could say that there was an understanding—and the understanding was hastened along when Catrina fell pregnant. I wasn’t gutted. Yes, I was young, but I was content to marry, and marry we did. With all the pomp and ceremony that vast wealth can buy. The cracks opened up almost immediately. Catrina was a socialite. I was an ingrained workaholic. She saw no reason why I should put time and effort into making money. As far as she was concerned my job should have been to lead the life of a playboy. Go skiing in winter for a couple of months. Take long summer holidays at her parents’ house in the Bahamas. Take up golf. Lead a life that would complement hers.’
    Tess tried and failed to picture Matt taking up golf and having long holidays. He was still playing with her hand, and it was doing all sorts of strange things to her body. Whilst she was desperate to concentrate one hundred percent on what he was saying, part of her was wrapped up with the tingling in her breasts, the dampness spreading between her thighs, the warm feeling in her belly that made her want to sigh and close her eyes.
    ‘The more she nagged, the faster I withdrew into thesafety of work. We were a divorce waiting to happen, but I’m not sure it would have if I hadn’t found out that my best man at the wedding had stepped in to carry out the duties she felt I was failing to do.’
    Tess couldn’t imagine what that would have done to a man as proud as Matt.
    ‘My divorce was what dictated the relationship I developed with my daughter, and so here we are.’ He gave her a crooked smile. ‘Any thoughts?’

CHAPTER FIVE
    ‘I DON’T understand. Surely the court would have awarded you joint custody, Matt?’
    ‘A vengeful wife has a lot of tools at her disposal when it comes to making free and easy with court judgements,’ Matt told her drily. ‘Weekends were cancelled on a whim.