Page 24 of As You Crave It

Sure, Jared invited Celia onto his yacht, and the guy was a piece of shit, but he wouldn’t force himself on her, right? “You’re his employee. He wouldn’t just walk into your room, would he?”

“You don’t believe me? I think we’ve already established that he wants to sleep with me.”

“I don’t think you’re lying. What would he have to gain from doing something like that? I just don’t understand.”

“Because you aren’t a creep.”

“Want me to kick his ass for you?”

She shook her head, and from the distrusting look on her face, he wondered if he’d blown it already. “Don’t worry about it. I have it under control.”

“I didn’t mean to imply you weren’t telling the truth,” he told her.

“I know. But the old-boys club runs deep. Men stick together—that’s a sad fact of life.”

“Celia, that’s not it.” He thought back to his conversation with Jared, where he said why he’d invited Celia, but had thought that he was just being a blowhard, trying to impress him and everyone else at the table. Maybe Jared wasn’t on the up-and-up, but that didn’t mean he’d intentionally walked in on Celia, right? Why would someone jeopardize his life and business to proposition an employee? Quin wondered if he was being naïve. “I’ll talk to him.”

“No. Don’t. I’ll take care of this on my own.”

“I don’t like it,” he said. He softened in his initial reaction to her implication. “I don’t like you being here.”

“I kind of have to be.”

“Why? Because he’s your boss? Are you afraid for your job? Fuck, it’s just money. I’ll give you a job the distillery.”

“It’s not just that. It’s bigger than my job.” She stopped talking abruptly. “Please, you have to promise that you won’t do or say anything to Jared.”

“There’s something going on here. What is it?”

“I can’t explain it now but trust me. I’ll be fine.”

He had no idea what she was talking about or what she had in the works, but if it meant that she didn’t want him throwing the guy overboard, he wouldn’t. Unless she was in line for a promotion. A darker thought occurred to him—that she really was sleeping with him. Was that why she was being so secretive? But he pushed that from his mind. There was no way Celia would let Jared Foster touch her. Right?

No. He corrected himself almost immediately. He was almost embarrassed for even thinking it. There was no way Celia was sleeping with her boss. She may have something else up her sleeve, but sex for a promotion wasn’t it.

“Rexford?” It was Jared’s voice, coming from the hallway.

“I left my stateroom door open,” Quin explained. “It’s obvious I’m not in there. I’ve got to get out of here.” He took one last look at Celia. He knew they had a lot more to discuss, but first he had to actually put the business to bed. The last thing he wanted to do was waste any time with Jared Foster, especially when he could be spending time with Celia. But the sooner he did that, the sooner he would be done with Jared, and at least he knew that if he was keeping the man busy, he wouldn’t be free to bother her. “We’ll talk about this later, okay?”

“Yeah, definitely.”

“Rexford!”Jared yelled again, not caring that people were probably sleeping in the neighboring rooms.

Quin listened at the door for just a second. The hallway had grown quiet, but he knew he’d misjudged the silence when he opened the door and came face-to-face with Jared.

The other man looked past him at Celia in her room. He said, “Rexford, I was looking for you.”

“Were you? I thought you were enjoying your cigars out on the deck?”

“We did. You should have been there,” he told him.

“I had some work to take care of.”

Jared nodded. His face was impassive, but he cast another look into Celia’s room. “Work? Is that right?”

Quin shut the door and stood in front of it, straightening his posture and folding his arms across his chest, making it known to the other man that he was standing between him and Celia. “Did you want to discuss a business deal?” he asked. “That’s why I’m here, after all.”

“Yeah, I was thinking about it. But it’s a little late for that now.”

---