Page 28 of Turning Up the Heat

She pointed at him. “That’s exactly why,” she told him. “And it’s in our family. Rexford Rum goes back generations, but there aren’t many female characters in the family lore.”

“Tell me about your family,” Tom said.

“It goes back to Joseph Rexford, the Scottish scoundrel who ended up in the Bahamas and made a career of mixing and bootlegging rum from there. He was one of the first notorious distillers and bootleggers—a profession he passed on to his sons, who passed it on to their children and so on. In fact, our family was also responsible for sneaking large amounts of rum into the US during Prohibition in the ’20s.”

Tom still seemed interested, so Gemma continued on. “Rexford Rum operated on a small scale through the generations. But after Prohibition, our great-grandfather legitimized the business. By the time my mom and dad took it over, there wasn’t much left, but they made it a success. Reid, Quin and I took over when our dad retired after our mother died.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Thanks.” She missed her mother every day, but she didn’t normally let herself dwell on the feelings for long. “But anyway, I was a quiet kid. I didn’t have a lot of friends, so I started hanging out in this building with my grandfather and dad. They taught me literally everything I know. Since then, I’ve traveled all over the world. Training with the masters. And here I am,” she finished. “So how about you?”

“The Cain story isn’t quite as long or storied, but we go back a few generations as well. When I was little, I wanted to be just like my old man. He always seemed so powerful, unrelenting. I thought that was the life I wanted. So, everything I did, I did to get his attention or praise. It’s stupid.”

“No, it isn’t. There’s nothing wrong with wanting the approval of your hero.”

“For all the good it did me,” he scoffed. “No matter what I did, it wasn’t enough. And the older I got, the more invested in the company I became, but I started to see that my father wasn’t the good, upstanding citizen I thought he was. That culminated with the emergence of Carolina in our lives.” He frowned. “I know she isn’t totally to blame for it. My father left my mother for her.”

“Where’s your mother now?”

“St. Barts, or Saint-Tropez, or Monte Carlo,” he said with a shrug. “Wherever it’s trendy for a professional socialite to go in the winter.”

“I’m sorry,” Gemma said.

“We were never a tight family, and I’m not even that mad at Dad for marrying Carolina, but it was the recipes that came from you that were the final straw. That’s what proved her character to me, and made me question my father’s. They were ready to put your recipes into production and manufacture clones of your hard work. I actually paid off the guys on the floor not to. I made them hand over the recipes, and no one else saw them.”

“I appreciate that.”

“I’ll be right back.” He stood and went to his coat. When he returned, he was holding a flash drive. “Here,” he said, handing it over. “I was going to do this later, but those plans got waylaid and I didn’t want to wait any longer.”

“What is this?”

“Your recipes. I opened it and saw they were there, but I’ve never opened the files. I was guaranteed that there are no more copies.”

“Thank you.” She clasped her fingers around the drive. “This means a lot.”

“I’m sorry about what happened.”

Gemma nodded and crossed her arms. “We were both hurt by her and your father.”

He went to her and put his hands on her hips. She wasn’t sure how he did it, but she felt immediately disarmed. “If only your brothers were as easy to win over,” he said with a low chuckle.

She shrugged and wrapped her arms around his neck, drawing him in for a kiss. “I like you,” she said when they pulled apart. “You don’t need their approval, but I promise they’ll come around.” Gemma paused, she had an idea, but she wasn’t sure if it was a good one, or a terrible one. “You know, Reid and Lila have an engagement party coming up in a couple of weeks. Want to be my date?”

“Do you think that would be smart? I’m not exactly Reid’s favorite person.”

“Actually, it was Lila’s idea. At least if Reid’s busy with his other guests, he won’t have any time to think about how much he hates you.” She smoothed her hands down from his shoulders to his chest. His shirt was a barrier that kept her from feeling his skin under her fingers. She wanted it gone and thought about ripping it from his body.

That’s how it was with Tom. The second she got near him, she just couldn’t keep her hands off him. Her body was in full control—her brain just gave out the second he was near.

Tom laughed. “I’ll think about it,” he told her. He wrapped a finger around one of the belt loops of her jeans and tugged her closer. “But for now, let’s clean up and get out of here?”

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