Page 44 of As You Crave It

He seemed taken aback by that. “I didn’t know you were seeing anyone.”

“It happened recently.”

“Is that so? Well, I assume you’re going to bring him to the marina mixer then,” he said in a way that sounded like a taunt.

“I’m sorry, the what?”

“You need to check your email, especially since you’ve been gone for three days. You need to catch up. It’s the Seacoast Marina Mixer this Saturday. People come in, check out the merch and they buy. It’s our biggest event of the year. And attendance is mandatory. And bring this boyfriend of yours. I’d love to meet the guy.”

“Will do,” she said. When she was alone again, Celia panicked. What had she done? She didn’t have a boyfriend. The closest she had to anything like a boyfriend was Quin. And she remembered the dejected look on his face when he’d dropped her off. She’d put distance between them. But he was her only shot.

Quin was seated at his desk in his office at the distillery. Seacoast Prestige had sent an official contract, which sat to his right, and he thumbed through the pages again.

There was a knock on the door, and he looked up. It was Reid. “Just tell me, are we signing that contract or are we just going to look at it.” He sat down heavily next to him.

“I don’t know,” Quin admitted. “I know it’s what’s right for the business. A collaboration between our two companies would be mutually beneficial. If it was just about business, I would sign in a second. I don’t think he’d renege on a contract. But as a person, I don’t trust that guy. There’s no one else I would rather see lose everything.”

“Are you sure you’re right about him?” Reid asked. “If he was as bad as we’ve heard, would he still be in control of a billion-dollar company? He might be an incompetent, but thankfully, there’s a whole company of people working there. Plus, Celia seems to enjoy it.”

“She doesn’t,” Quin said with finality. Right? She’d been in a hurry to get to work that morning. Would she have lied to him about how she felt about Jared and the company?

“Okay, well I’m only going on what she said last night. But whatever.”

“I just don’t know if I want to get in bed with this guy.”

“But if we don’t, John Cain will.”

That got Quin’s attention. Cain Rum out of New York was their biggest rival, and not only were they business competitors, but there was also a lot of bad blood between them. The CEO’s current wife had been married to Reid—and had stolen many of their recipes and handed them over to their rivals. “I know.”

“If we don’t get back to him, then he’ll go with Cain, right?”

“It’s incredibly likely.”

A deal with Seacoast Prestige would put them above and beyond anything Cain was doing. Quin knew that Reid didn’t want to let them have the advantage. It now meant a lot more to Reid to win the job. Great. Quin would have gladly ripped up the contract, just because of his opinion of Jared Foster, but now the stakes were higher for his brother. Reid’s—the entire family’s—pride was at stake. But this was Quin’s deal. This was his shot to prove to his brother that he could handle more business responsibility. But all he’d managed to do so far was mess everything up.

“Dinner was fun,” Reid said, changing the subject.

“Yeah, it was.”

“Celia was your date, huh?”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

Reid smiled. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on there?”

Quin shrugged. “We’re just friends. I think.” He figured that was the closest thing he could say. They’d gone to sleep as lovers, but the way they parted that morning was barely even friendly.

“Did she spend the night?” he asked.

He sighed and sat back in his chair. “Yeah.”

“Sounds pretty friendly to me.”

“Okay, we tried to be friends. But it quickly became a friends-with-benefits kind of thing. Now we’re dancing on this weird line of ‘are we friends? Are we more?’ And anytime we try to have the conversation, we end up in bed.” Reid laughed, and it annoyed Quin. “I’m glad my torment is funny to you.”

“Look at you, you’re all torn up over a woman. I never thought I’d see the day.”

“I don’t know. I don’t know if I can see her anymore.” He breathed out. “Maybe we should keep our distance.”

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