Читать книгу Reasons for Revenge: Scorned by the Boss - Maureen Child - Страница 14

A couple of days later Caitlyn felt as though she were balanced on a delicately thin wire stretched taut, high over a cage filed with hungry lions.

“Or,” she told herself, “make that one very hungry Lyon.”

Who would have guessed that Jefferson could pack so much power into a kiss? That she could feel all she’d felt in those few moments on that moonlit patio? Want all she’d wanted. And in the past two days he’d been even more attentive. Going with her for swims, into the village to shop, having dinner with her, glaring at any men who might think about approaching.

The man was a force of nature. Irresistible, overwhelming and just so damned appealing.

Oh, she was in serious trouble.

She leaned back in her chair and let her gaze wander over the elegant yet sleekly casual resort restaurant. The floor here was blue tile, as well, and the walls were a soft sea-green. One side of the room was glass with French doors leading onto a patio with the ocean just beyond. There weren’t many customers at the moment, as it was too late for lunch and too early for dinner. Caitlyn had come in and ordered tea and scones. She’d simply needed a quiet place to sit and think. Somewhere away from her former boss and current pain in the behind.

And it had been quiet. Until her cell phone rang a moment ago.

“Oh,” Debbie said firmly, “he’s hungry, all right. Just make sure he doesn’t start snacking on you.”

Caitlyn frowned. Her friend had a point. Although, the thought of being nibbled by Jefferson did have its appeal.

“Oh, man,” she said on a groan, “this is bad.”

“That’s why I called. Janine told me you’re having some problems with Jefferson,” Debbie said, and Caitlyn calmed down just listening to her more even-tempered friend’s quiet voice coming over the phone.

“Problems. Oh, that’s fair to say,” she said, picking at the corner of one blueberry scone. “He’s throwing me off balance because he’s being so nice.”

“Uh-huh.”

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.

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.

“Help me with the zipper?”

He smoothed his fingertips across her back, dipped them beneath the soft cotton fabric of her dress and slowly pulled the back zipper down. She looked up at him over her shoulder and gave him a brilliant smile that punched into his stomach like a fist.

“Thanks.” Then, shaking her hair back from her face, she said, “I’m going for a swim. You coming?”

He watched her turn and run into the water, her long legs kicking through the waves that crested on the shore, sending spray flying through the air. His gaze locked on the curve of her behind, the narrowness of her waist, the elegant sweep of her arms as she lifted them to the night sky.

In a flash that took only seconds, his body went hard and hot and needy. Want pooled in his belly and reached up to grab at the base of his throat. Jefferson stripped out of his clothes and followed after her, unable to take his gaze from her. Unable to think about anything but reaching her, touching her, holding her.

He ran to the water’s edge and kept moving until he could dive into the oncoming surf. The warm tropical water surrounded him as he breached the surface and swung his hair out of his eyes. Spotting her just a few yards away, he swam to her and she smiled as he got closer. Moonlight was on her. In her. Shining from her eyes, dazzling her skin.

And his slow seduction went completely out of his head. He only knew he had to have her. Now.

“You’re beautiful,” he said—and was as surprised as she looked to find that he really meant it. Why had he never noticed before now?

How had he looked at her every morning for three years and not noticed the curve of her jaw, the depth of her eyes, the kissability of her mouth? He didn’t know. Didn’t care. All that mattered was the moment at hand.

He cupped her face in his palms, lowered his mouth to hers and tasted. Feasted. She rose up on her toes and the motion of the warm water surrounding them pushed her against him. He held her tightly, arms around her waist in a grip that defied anyone to try to pull her from his grasp.

Electrical-like charges sparkled in his veins and he felt the rush of need clawing to be freed. Again and again, he took her, his mouth plundering hers, taking as well as giving. He heard her sigh, felt the groan rippling up her throat and luxuriated in the sound.

She fed his need, and when her arms came around his neck and pulled his head down harder, more firmly to her own, Jefferson’s blood pumped hard and fast. He shifted, holding on to her with one arm, keeping her steady as the ocean lazily rocked them in a warm, soothing embrace. And he slid his free hand down her body, along her curves and down to the strip of fabric riding low on her hip.

Sliding beneath the edge of her white bikini, his fingers moved unerringly to the one spot he most craved to touch. To stroke. He found her heat and dipped inside. One finger, then another, sliding in and out of her tight center until she pulled her mouth free of his, tipped her head back and gasped for air like a woman drowning in sensation.

“Jefferson!” His name tore from her throat in a deep, rumbling groan.

“Let me,” he whispered, dipping his head to the hollow of her neck. Kissing, nibbling, running the edges of his teeth across her skin. He tasted her pulse, found it battering furiously in her veins and knew she felt what he did. Knew she wanted as badly as he did. And knew he couldn’t wait much longer to have her.

His fingers moved in and out of her hot sheath, setting a rhythm she strived to match. Her hips rocked with him, into him. She opened her thighs and hooked her legs around his middle, giving him deeper access. His thumb brushed at one sensitive spot, and he felt her shiver, heard her whispered intake of breath.

“So hot.” He breathed the words against her skin, moving his mouth up the length of her neck. Kissing her jaw, her cheek, her mouth again, loving the taste of her. “So right.”

She held on tightly now, her hands sliding over his water-slick back, her nails scraping his skin. She leaned back, arching into him, riding his hand with an abandon he wouldn’t have expected from the woman he had always considered the ultimate in tidy efficiency. He gave her what she needed, what they both needed. His fingers stroked and caressed and delved deep within until he felt the first ripple of her climax begin to overtake her. And then he took her mouth with his again, his tongue claiming hers as she whimpered with the staggering force of the orgasm he gave her.

When she was spent, he swept her into his arms and carried her from the ocean. She speared her fingers into his hair and kissed him, secure in the circle of his arms. She leaned into him, pressing her breasts to his chest, kissing him, giving him everything she had.

Quickly he laid her down on the towels spread on the still-warm sand and just as quickly pulled her bikini off and tossed it aside. Moonlight was all she wore now and it graced her curves, her skin, like an ivory cloak. She lifted her arms to him and said, “Now, Jefferson, I want it all now.”

He stripped off his own bathing trunks, stretched out beside her and allowed himself the sheer pleasure of touching her all over. He dipped his head to her breasts and one after the other he took her dark, hardened nipples into his mouth. She groaned again as he suckled her and he felt the magic of her pouring into him.

Her every sigh inflamed him. Her every breath urged him on. She moved beneath him, and his body tightened until he felt as though he were going to explode, shatter. He shifted over her, needing completion, needing to feel himself held within her.

She parted her legs for him and met his first thrust with a lift of her hips that took him deep inside her heat. He felt her acceptance, felt her welcome and lost himself in the fire building between them.

Again and again they came together in the pale shadows. With whispered words and half-muttered sighs, they became the rhythm that pulsed between them. With the stars overhead and the faint sound of music drifting to them from far away, Jefferson stared down into her wide brown eyes and felt himself drowning in their depths.