Reasons for Revenge: Scorned by the Boss

She heard the disbelief in her friend’s tone and couldn’t really blame her. After all, Debbie and Janine had been her listening posts to all of her complaints about Jefferson for the last three years. But they didn’t understand, really. As much as she’d always grumbled about him, Caitlyn had enjoyed working for him more than she’d disliked it.

“Okay, fine, he wasn’t always an easy man to get along with, but here he’s different.”

“I bet.”

“In a good way,” Caitlyn said, feeling for some strange reason that she should be defending him even though he’d been making her nuts. “He’s funny, too, Debbie. God, at dinner the other night we laughed for hours. I’d never really seen that side of Jefferson before and—”

“Janine was right about this. I hate when that happens,” Debbie muttered.

“Very funny.”

“Honey,” Debbie said on a sigh, “you’re setting yourself up for a fall. I can hear it in your voice. You’re going island girl on me here.”

“No, I’m not.” She took a sip of coffee, then broke off another piece of her scone. Nodding at the waitress who strolled past, she popped the pastry into her mouth, chewed and said, “I’m not stupid, Deb. It’s not like I’m planning a pretty wedding or practicing signing Mrs. Jefferson Lyon on my notebook.”

“I’ve got to go outside for this. Hold on a sec,” she said, and a long moment of silence passed before she came back. “Sorry. But I just don’t feel comfortable yelling at one of my best friends when everyone in the office can overhear.”

Caitlyn should have been grateful. The travel agency Debbie owned and operated was a busy one. “I don’t need to be yelled at, thanks.”

“No, what you need is a swift kick in the memory. But since I’m not close enough, this’ll have to do,” Debbie said.

Caitlyn’s eyes rolled as she broke off another piece of scone.

“Cait, honey, Jefferson Lyon is bad news. He’s too rich. Too powerful. Too used to getting his own way.”

Caitlyn winced a bit. Debbie’s erstwhile fiancé had also been rich, powerful—and, oh, yeah, a bigamist.

Before she could say anything, though, Debbie was talking again.

“Jefferson is not what he’s pretending to be. Only a few days ago you said yourself that he was up to something.”

Scowling now, she pushed the plate of scones away, scrawled her name and room number on the check and stood up. Walking briskly out of the restaurant, she headed for the bank of elevators on the far side of the lobby.

“I really hate it when my friends use logic,” she muttered and jabbed the up button. While she waited, she said, “But maybe he’s changed—and, man, that sounds so movie-of-the-week. He hasn’t changed, has he?”

“Nope,” Debbie agreed. “Remember when you said that Jefferson is only concerned with one bottom line? His own?”

“Do you take notes when I talk or something?” Caitlyn demanded, only half joking. “It’s really hard to argue when someone keeps using your own words against you.”

“Good.”

She stepped into the elevator and punched the button for her floor. Ignoring the older man entering right behind her, she said, “Fine, fine. You’re right. But, Debbie, when he kissed me, he—” She stopped, glared at the man listening with avid interest and lowered her voice. “I swear, I felt something from him. Something real. Something …”

“Hard and horny?” Debbie provided.

Caitlyn’s head smacked against the wall of the elevator. She didn’t want to believe her friend. Didn’t want to think that Jefferson could kiss her like that and feel nothing but a physical response. But then again, this was the man People magazine had called one of the most eligible bachelors in the country last year.

And not only had Jefferson had the damn article framed, he’d made a vow to be on that list every year for the next twenty years. This was not a man who wanted to end his days of solitude. He wasn’t looking for a permanent relationship. And if he were, he wouldn’t be looking at Caitlyn.

His kind of man wasn’t interested in women like her. He went for the models, the actresses, the blue-blooded East Coast beauties.

If he was making a play for an admin from Long Beach, there had to be a reason.

The elevator pinged and the doors opened slowly. She stepped out, said goodbye to Debbie and walked down the hall to her room. If she was a little disappointed by the realization that there was nothing real between her and Jefferson, she’d get over it. It’s not as if she had really believed everything he’d said to her. Not that she’d actually toyed with the idea of something real between them.

Okay, fine, she thought with a disgusted sigh. So she’d done a little bit of toying.

She swiped her key card, pushed the suite door open and paused when she heard Jefferson’s voice saying her name.

“Caitlyn is falling right into line,” he said, clearly on the phone. “I’m telling you, Jason, it’s going to work.”

Falling right into line? Caitlyn scowled and focused on what else he was saying to Jason. The younger of the Lyon brothers, Jason had turned his back on the company his grandfather had founded and gone into medicine. Now he was an emergency-room doctor outside Seattle.

“You don’t understand, that’s all,” Jefferson was saying. “I know what I’m doing.”

And just what exactly was he doing?

Caitlyn glanced down the long hallway to make sure no one could see her hovering outside her own room, eavesdropping. Assured the coast was clear, she frowned again, leaned in and listened to every word.

“I’m telling you she’s ready for it. I know what you said, and if I had the time, maybe I wouldn’t be doing it this way. But, damn it, Jas, I need her at work. She knows the specifics on every deal we’ve got coming up in the next six months. I don’t have time to train someone else.”

He paused and Caitlyn’s hand tightened on the doorknob. She gritted her teeth to keep from hissing.

“The seduction of Caitlyn is moving along great. I should have her back to work within a week or two.”

She narrowed her eyes on the door as if she could stare right through it and bore a hole through Jefferson’s thick head. That’s what he’d been up to all along, she thought. Seducing her, romancing her, all to get her back to work for him.

“I know what I’m doing,” he said, his voice dropping low enough it was hard for Caitlyn to hear over the pounding of her own heartbeat. “I get her into bed, get her home to Long Beach, then I act like a bastard and get her to break up with me. Then she’ll feel so bad about dumping me, she won’t have the heart to quit working for me, too.”

Her jaw dropped and her eyes narrowed. Unbelievable. Did he really think she was that stupid? That malleable?

“It is not a stupid plan,” he argued.

Thank you, Jason, she thought furiously.

“I don’t have stupid plans. And, little brother, you know as well as I do that when my mind’s made up on something, I never lose.”

Until this time, Caitlyn vowed. This time he would lose. This time the world wasn’t going to spin just the way Jefferson Lyon expected it to. She’d twist his idiotic plan around until she had strangled him with it.

Of all the nerve.

Of all the arrogant, self-serving … She just didn’t have enough insulting adjectives to fit him!

“Right. I’d better go. Going to talk her into an early dinner, then a moonlight swim. Trust me, Jas, she’ll go for it.”

Caitlyn’s hand fisted around the strap of her purse so tightly she wouldn’t have been surprised to see the leather fused to her skin. But she took a deep breath, eased the door closed and winced as the lock snicked into place.

Then, making plenty of noise, she slid her key card through again and pushed the door open.