Maureen Child - Reasons for Revenge - Scorned by the Boss

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.

He was standing beside the closet and turned a wicked thousand-watt smile on her. If Caitlyn hadn’t heard that little phone conversation between him and his brother, chances were her knees would have been melting again.

As it was, everything in her was cold and still.

Well, except for the seething rage.

“There you are,” he said, drawing her into the room and taking her purse and packages from her. “I was about to send a search party to the village.”

“Oh, you were worried?”

He stepped closer, ran his fingers up and down her arm and then brought her hand up to his lips. Planting a kiss on her fingers, he looked deeply into her eyes and asked, “What do you think?”

Wouldn’t she love to tell him exactly what she was thinking? Wouldn’t she love to turn him out on his ear? Make him sleep in a pool chair or something, as Janine had suggested earlier in the week. She’d love to see surprise on his face when she called him on his plan. She’d love to see him try to talk his way out of what she’d heard.

But as satisfying as all that sounded, she had a better idea. He had a plan to seduce her? Well, two could play at that game. She was going to turn all of this around on him. Caitlyn was going to seduce him . She was going to go along with his scheme, let him think he was winning and then, just when he was flushed and pleased with himself … she’d dump his fine ass and quit.

Again .

And there was no time like the present to start. Swallowing the fury still choking her, Caitlyn pulled her hand free of his and forced a shy, sweet smile.

“Didn’t mean to worry you,” she said, and turned, scowling, to pick up her packages. When she faced him again, that smile was in place and her voice was even, soft. “I thought, if you wanted to, we could have an early dinner. Maybe take a swim?”

His eyes narrowed and she wondered if maybe she’d played her hand too quickly. But then his expression smoothed out and he was giving her that knock-’em-dead smile of his. “Exactly what I was thinking just a minute ago.”

“Isn’t that a coincidence?” she said, and only mentally added, You are so busted, Jefferson. And you’re going to be so sorry you messed with me .

At the door to the bathroom, she paused and looked at him. “I’m going to take a shower, get ready. Won’t take me long.”

“Great. I’ll just make a few phone calls while I wait.”

She nodded and closed the bathroom door. Leaning back against it, she wondered if he’d call Jason back. Tell him that the plan was working. Tell him that good ole Caitlyn was, as he had put it, falling right into line.

Caitlyn dropped the bags onto the white-tiled floor and leaned on the wide sweep of blue counter to stare at her own reflection. Her skin was tanned a bit from all the days in the sun. There were subtle highlights in her hair and sparks of fury in her eyes.

Keeping her voice low, she talked to her own image as if that reflection needed reassuring. “I’ve been resisting his advances for all the right reasons—but he’s been making those advances for all the wrong reasons. Well, it’s time he learned a lesson.”

Dinner was great. Even better than he’d hoped. He’d arranged for the private table again and between the moonlight, the candlelight and the ocean breeze, he couldn’t have ordered up a more romantic evening.

Now, as they walked along the sand, he saw Caitlyn was clearly enjoying herself. In fact, she seemed more open somehow to him. More affectionate. All to the good, he told himself, despite the twinge of conscience struggling to rear its ugly head.

His brother, Jason, had been wrong when he’d said, Using Caitlyn like this is going to backfire . Jason didn’t understand. He wasn’t using Caitlyn. He wasn’t doing this only for himself, after all. It was for her best, too. She loved her job. She was good at it. And she’d quit without thinking it through. She’d be glad to be back where she belonged.

“The beach is practically deserted,” she said, and her voice was so soft the warm wind nearly carried it away.

He shrugged but reached for her hand. Folding his fingers around hers, he said, “There’s some dance competition tonight in the main club.”

“Well, I’m glad. A moonlit beach is better when it’s empty.” She turned her face up to his and smiled, and just for a second Jefferson’s breath caught in his lungs. The shine of starlight was in her eyes and a pale wash of moonlight bathed her skin in an ivory glow.

She wore a summery dress with her bathing suit beneath it, and he suddenly wanted to see her in that bikini of hers again. In the daylight, at the pool, her body was warm and tanned and curvy. He wanted to know what all that soft skin looked like in the softer light of the moon. He wanted to touch her. To feel her reach for him, arch into him.

He wanted to kiss her again.

Fine. He could admit, at least to himself, that he’d been doing a lot of thinking about that kiss they’d shared. At the unexpected heat of it. Of the warm rush of something wild and tender that had pulsed inside him as she’d breathed into his mouth.

At last, when the brightly lit resort was far off in the distance, a smear of light in the dark, they stopped. Jefferson pulled two wide, plush towels from the bag he’d been carrying and spread them on the sand while Caitlyn watched. She kicked off her shoes and then turned her back to him.