Reasons for Revenge: Scorned by the Boss

“Actually,” she said as her emotional blinders came off and she was nearly blinded by the light, “I think I’m just coming out of one.”

“Good. Then, maybe we can get some work done.”

“It’s the alpha-male thing,” she mused, tipping her head to one side and staring at him as if he were a smear on a glass slide under a microscope. How was it she’d never come to this realization before? How had she allowed herself to just drift in Jefferson’s wake? “It has been all along. Peter. You. Even my brothers.”

“What’re you talking about now?”

“Revelations,” she said quietly, almost amused now, as everything became clear.

“You do realize you’re not making sense, right?”

“Oh, this makes perfect sense, you’re just not getting it. Big surprise. And let me tell you,” she said nodding for emphasis, “it took me long enough, but I’ve learned my lesson. I’m through with you alpha types. Give me a nice, easy-to-get-along-with beta guy. No more strong, silent, take-charge types for me. I want someone nice. Sweet. Sensitive.”

His lips twisted. “Sounds more like a golden retriever.”

“You would think that, of course.”

“Look,” Jefferson said, dipping his hands into his pants pockets, “somehow, we’ve gotten way off the subject. And believe it or not, I’m not really interested in your personal life. You can date whoever you want to as soon as we get back from Portugal.”

“Wow. Thanks.”

“Now that we have that settled,” he said, dismissing her as completely as if he were swatting away an annoying gnat, “there are a few more things I need you to do before I leave for the airport. Call the pilot, tell him to be ready in an hour. Then, when you’ve done that, contact the Florida office. Tell them I’ll be there Friday. And cancel my appointments for the next two days. I don’t know how long I’ll be in Seattle and—”

She watched him as he turned for his office, plowing right ahead with the world according to Jefferson. He’d moved on and assumed she had, too. Absolutely nothing she’d said had penetrated his thick head. Her back teeth ground together, and before she could bite back the word and swallow it, she said simply, “No.”

He stopped dead, turned to look at her and lifted one eyebrow. “No?”

Caitlyn took another deep breath because if she didn’t she might start hyperventilating. Everything in her was demanding she sit down and wait calmly for this firestorm of emotion to fade away. So to make sure she didn’t listen to that annoying, logical instinct, she moved fast. Shaking her head, she opened the bottom drawer of her desk and grabbed her purse. Slinging it over her shoulder, she snatched up her suit jacket and tossed it across her arm. “That’s right. I said no.”

“Caitlyn, I’ve taken all I’m going to take for one morning.”

“And I’ve given all I’m going to give,” she snapped. Temper spiked inside her, pushing aside all those annoying rational thoughts—and maybe that was for the best. Because, if she calmed down, took a moment to actually think about what she was doing, she’d never do it. “I’m done.”

He laughed.

He actually laughed.

Then he asked, “What are you talking about?”

“I quit.”

He couldn’t have looked more surprised if she had announced that she was about to give birth to a Martian. “You can’t quit.”

“I just did.” She blinked, laid one hand on her racing heart and felt her insides slowly calm, as though someone had poured oil on a choppy sea. Strange. She waited for a jolt of panic, but it didn’t come. As much as she had always loved her job, at this moment, she knew she was doing the right thing in quitting. “Wow. I actually did it. I quit.”

“This is ridiculous.” He took a step toward her, and she backed up just for good measure. She wasn’t sure where she’d found the courage to tender her resignation, but she wasn’t going to risk him talking her out of it.

Where was all of this newfound sense of spirit and independence coming from? She had no idea. Maybe it had started with Peter ending their engagement. Or maybe it had been when her fiancé had suggested that she was really in love with her boss. And maybe it was that one startling revelation that had just come to her moments ago. Whatever the reason, though, Caitlyn knew in her bones that this was the right thing to do.

She needed a fresh start. With her life. With her career. And she’d never get it if she stayed close to Jefferson Lyon. The man was too powerful. Too magnetic. Too damn sexy.

Peter was wrong about her loving Jefferson. She firmly believed that. But she wasn’t foolish enough to deny the attraction she felt for the man. And how could she ever straighten out her own life when she was so near the man who could make her knees go to jelly?

“No, this makes perfect sense,” she told him, rounding the edge of her desk.

“All of this over a vacation?”

“No, Jefferson,” she said, feeling the swell of righteous indignation fill her. “It’s about working for a man who never sees me as anything more than a convenience.”

He frowned at her, his blue eyes going dark and narrow, and just for a minute, Caitlyn’s courage waned. Then the phone on her desk rang and she instinctively reached for it. “Lyon Shipping.”

“Caitlyn, love, it’s Max again. I’d forgotten something I wanted to tell your boss.”

Gritting her teeth, she said, “He’s not my boss anymore, Max, but here he is.”

“What? What?” Max’s voice came through loud and clear as she handed the receiver to Jefferson.

“Caitlyn,” Jefferson said, hanging up the phone without talking to his old friendly enemy. “I won’t allow you to simply quit.”

“You can’t stop me, Jefferson,” she said, and then left before she could stop herself from walking away from him.

A few hours later, Jefferson stormed around the perimeter of the huge room in his father’s Seattle house. Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows in the old man’s study, the sky was gray and spitting rain on the city as if it held a personal grudge. Trees bent in the wind coming off the Sound, and the patter of rain slashing against the windows sounded harsh in the stillness.

“If you’ll sit down, we can sign these papers and finish this,” his father said, following Jefferson’s progress around the room. “I’ve got a golf game in an hour.”

“Golf?” Jefferson said, stopping to wave a hand at the weather. “In this?”

Harry Lyon shrugged in his oatmeal-colored sweater. “I’m meeting friends at the club. Your mother’s gone to New York for the week and—” He stopped talking, watched his son for a long moment, then said, “Why don’t you tell me what’s bothering you?”

“Caitlyn quit this morning.”

“Your secretary?”

“Assistant.”

Harry waved a hand at the distinction. “Why would she quit? She’s very good at her job.”

“I know,” Jefferson said, shoving both hands into his pockets and turning to the window to glare at the rain.

He’d been thinking about nothing else for the last few hours. On the short flight to Seattle he’d gone over and over their argument and he still didn’t understand why she’d suddenly quit. It just wasn’t like her.

But then, he’d seen a whole new side to Caitlyn that morning. She’d never lost her temper with him. She’d always been the soul of professionalism. Seeing indignation and fury sparking in her eyes had caught him by surprise—something that wasn’t easy to do.

“What’re you going to do about it?” his father asked.

Jefferson turned his head to look at the older man. Since retiring, his father had never looked happier. Despite—or maybe because of—the heart attack he’d experienced a few months ago, Harry Lyon was determined to enjoy his life.

Which, it turns out, is why the old man had wanted Jefferson to fly up for the day. Harry was turning over the reins to the family company. Stepping out completely. Ordinarily Jefferson would have been pleased as hell about it. He’d worked hard for this moment for years. Now, though, his mind was too full of Caitlyn’s abrupt treachery to really take it all in.