Reasons for Revenge: Scorned by the Boss

“No, she’s not. You make her nervous.”

“She makes me crazy,” he countered irritably.

“That’s because you’re so impati— Georgia!” Smiling, Caitlyn nodded at Jefferson. “Good. You found them. No, don’t worry. Just take them down to Legal yourself. There’s still plenty of time. You’re welcome,” she said. “And it was good talking to you, too.”

Closing the phone, she tossed it back to Jefferson with a shake of her head. “Crisis averted.”

He tucked his phone into the breast pocket of his shirt. “Only because you took care of it.”

“You could have done it, too,” she said, turning away and continuing on her walk up the narrow street. Pausing now and then to look in a shop window, she slanted him a glance. “You just don’t know how to talk to people.”

“Excuse me?”

She faced him, tilting her head back to look him directly in the eye. “You give orders, Jefferson. You don’t talk.”

“I’m the boss.”

“And trust me when I say everyone knows it.”

“Everyone but you.”

“You’re not my boss, anymore,” she pointed out, and ignored the tiny, tiny, tiny twinge of regret that pinged inside her. Then she started walking again, determined to enjoy the sun on her face and the cool ocean wind that rushed through the tidy village.

“I should be,” he muttered, and shortened his long stride to keep pace beside her. “You shouldn’t have quit, Caitlyn. That phone call only defines the fact that you have your finger on the pulse of my company.”

She had to admit it was good to hear him say so. Everyone wanted to know that their efforts were appreciated. That their work was noticed. Too bad she’d had to quit to get him to realize it.

“You belong with me, Caitlyn.”

“What?” She stopped dead outside a jewelry store and looked up at him.

He scowled at her. “You heard me. You belong with me. With Lyon Shipping.”

“Aah …” Idiot, she told herself, turning her gaze from him to the shop window. Of course he’d been talking about her job. He hadn’t meant that he’d wanted her for himself. That’s what all of this was about, she knew it. Whether he was willing to admit it or not, he was here, on this island, tempting her, because he missed his trusty assistant.

Here she’d been torn over the lusty, needy feelings ripping through her like lightning strikes, and he was simply trying to woo her back to work. Well, she was done. He could do his damnedest, but she wasn’t going back to her old life. This was the new and improved Caitlyn. She wasn’t going to bury her own wants and needs anymore for the sake of everyone else.

Jefferson watched her expression change from surly to needy in a blink. And he smiled to himself, suddenly feeling on surer ground. Talking to Georgia had had him ready to tear out his own hair. Then watching Caitlyn disarm the situation with almost no effort at all had only served to feed his own conviction that he needed to get her back and he wasn’t making any headway.

Now, though, he had another idea. “What are you staring at?”

“Those,” she said, and tapped a fingernail against the glass. Gold earrings dazzling with drops of emerald and topaz shone in the sun, and Jefferson knew exactly what to do. What he should have done from the moment he’d arrived on this blasted island.

He wanted to seduce her, not annoy her. He should have been pulling the big guns out from the beginning. But it wasn’t too late to start.

“Come on.” He grabbed her upper arm despite her token protests, opened the door and pulled her into the shop.

A few minutes later they were out on the street again, leaving a delighted shopkeeper toting up his profits. The earrings hung from Caitlyn’s ears and winked at him when she turned her head.

“You shouldn’t have bought them,” she said, reaching up to touch them, stroking the cold, beautiful stones as if they were alive and needed petting. “And I shouldn’t have taken them,” she added.

“Why not?”

She blew out a breath and turned her face into the wind. Her hair lifted away and the earrings caught the sunlight, dazzling against her skin. “Because. They’re too expensive.”

“If you’re insisting on quitting, consider them severance pay.”

“I already got my—”

Irritation flamed. “Caitlyn, for God’s sake, it’s a pair of earrings. They look good on you. Enjoy them.”

She smiled and shook her head just to feel the earrings dance against her neck. “Okay, then. Thank you.”

A tight knot inside him eased as she accepted the earrings, and he didn’t look too closely at the reason behind his pleasure. After all, what mattered was that he continue seducing her into trusting him so that he could get her back to work. Where she belonged.

The earrings looked better on Caitlyn than they had in the display case. And as much as he knew jewelry, he knew women better. The earrings had been just the right touch. All women responded to gifts. And spontaneous gifts most of all. She was softening toward him, even if she didn’t want to.

And judging that the time was right for another move, he made it before she could close up on him again.

“You can thank me by having dinner with me tonight.”

Her surprisingly luscious mouth curved in a reluctant smile. “You mean, on purpose? Not just because you happen to show up and chase off whoever else might be at my table?”

“Do your admirers a favor,” he said, bristling slightly at the memory of just how many of the men at this resort kept homing in on Caitlyn. Despite the fact that he’d introduced himself as her husband. “Give them a night off.”

“Why should I?”

He shrugged as if it didn’t matter to him in the slightest. “The question is, why not? You’re not afraid to be alone with me, are you?”

She should have been afraid. She could feel her insides softening toward Jefferson, and Caitlyn knew she was on dangerous ground. The moment she stepped out onto the moonlit patio to find that he had arranged for them to have a “private” dinner, she realized that the ground was even more dangerous than she had suspected.

It was a beautiful setting. The full moon shone down from an inky black sky speckled with stars. The ocean’s dark surface reflected the light in hazy patterns and a soft breeze made the flames on the twin taper candles dance and sway.

Jefferson was standing beside the table, wearing the suit and tie he’d arrived in. His hair was neatly swept back from his forehead and he looked the very image of a rich, powerful playboy. When he smiled at her Caitlyn felt her knees go to water and she deliberately locked them into place to keep from falling onto her face.

The heels of her sandals clicked against the flagstone patio as she walked to join him. She shivered slightly when the breeze slid across her shoulders, bare in the strapless deep-green-colored dress she’d purchased in the village. Her new earrings hung at her ears and brushed against her neck with every step.

He’d bought her jewelry. Just as he had all the other women in his life. The ones he’d been trying to seduce and the ones he’d been trying to get rid of. She’d seen firsthand how Jefferson used charm and gifts to sway women into his way of thinking. And she was determined to keep from becoming just one of the masses at his feet.

Steeling herself with that thought, she stopped beside him and accepted the glass of chilled white wine he handed her. “This is beautiful.”

“Yes,” he said, his gaze moving over her in a slow, deliberate sweep. “You are.”

A hum of something electrified stirred within her and Caitlyn had to fight to remember why she wasn’t going to be seduced by a man who had way too many exes already. “It’s not going to work, you know?”

“What’s that?” He leaned back against the scrolled iron railing and smiled at her.

“Seducing me,” she said, and took a sip of wine to ease her dry throat. Then she took another sip to try to still the frantic race of her heart.