her feel the wild desire they shared.
Sighing, she knew she had to get back to her own work. The translation she was working on though was boring and tedious. It was a technical manual and she had to struggle each day to get through the material.
She stood up, preparing to head back to the room she’d converted into her own office when the top envelope on his desk caught her eye. It was a thick package but that wasn’t what made her look twice. The return address was from her father’s company. Why was her father sending Max something? Was it actually supposed to be for her and his secretary had just co-mingled their mail? She’d always thought the woman was ultra efficient but everyone was human.
Looking inside, she felt as if she were intruding on something but was concerned about her father. Why would he be sending something to Max?
The phone rang and she jumped. She immediately felt as if she were intruding and stepped back.
Walking quickly out of the office, she waited for Beatrice to tell her who had called.
“Ms. Diatre?” Beatrice called out. “Mr. Diatre’s secretary is on the phone for you. She has an urgent request.”
She picked up the extension in Max’s office. “Nancy?” she called out a greeting. “How can I help you?” Max’s secretary was a wonderful woman in her late fifties who wore ultra conservative suits and flat shoes, with her graying hair piled up on her head. She reminded Clarissa more of a librarian than an executive assistant.
“Oh, thank goodness you’re there. I’m so sorry to bother you but would it be too much to ask if you can hand an envelope to the delivery person who should be arriving? I sent him over about fifteen minutes ago. He’s going to race the package back to me. I would do it myself but I have to cover a meeting for Max.”
“Don’t worry about it at all. What does the package look like?” Clarissa asked, walking back into Max’s office and standing at the corner of his desk. “I’m standing next to his chair. Where did you put it earlier?”
It’s under the stack of mail in the corner. It’s a white envelope with a contract from Stantech Corporation.”
Clarissa tucked the phone between her ear and her shoulder and searched through the large stack of papers. “Goodness there’s a lot here. Max is definitely a popular guy, isn’t he?”
Nancy chuckled over the phone. “Absolutely. I don’t know how he sifts through all the information.”
“I don’t either,” Clarissa said. “Got it,” she replied, pulling out the large envelope from the middle of the stack. “Oops,” she gasped. “Some of the files fell onto the floor. The delivery person is on the way?” she asked.
“Yes. Should be there any moment.”
The intercom rang at that moment. “I think he’s here now. I’ll bring this to him. I hope I haven’t messed up your stack by dumping it over. I’ll try and make sure it’s in the same order.”
“Don’t worry about that. I’ll stop by tomorrow to bring him more and will re-sort it. Thank you so much for saving me this time. I’m just not used to Max working from home so often so I don’t have my processes in place yet. But believe me, I enjoy it. I’m actually getting home to see my grandchildren once in a while,” she laughed and rung off.
Clarissa walked to the front door and handed the carrier the envelope. When he was on his way back to the office, she went back to Max’s study to clean up the papers.
Bending down, she saw the envelope from her father’s office and the contents had spilled out. She was curious but just stacked up the papers. Until one of the words caught her eye. When she read a few more, her legs gave out on her and she simply sat down on the floor, reading through the papers and not even caring that they weren’t hers.
As she read, the words started to blur and she realized that she was crying. The aching in her heart was a new experience as well. The documents were inheritance papers. Her father’s will. He was leaving everything to Max on the condition that he remain married to Clarissa. As she read through the legalese, she gathered that any children formed from their marriage would be beneficiaries, all accounts to be held in trust by Max. Clarissa would receive a large cash amount but she didn’t care