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.
“Well?” Harry prompted from his seat on an oversize leather armchair.
What was he going to do about it? There was only one answer. He was going to get her back. Jefferson Lyon didn’t lose. The word wasn’t even in his vocabulary. Nobody walked out on him. Not until he was damn good and ready. And he wasn’t nearly ready to lose Caitlyn. The woman was too integral to his work. She knew everything. Had her pulse on the entire company.
And who would he talk to in the morning?
She was just too important to let go.
“I’ll get her back,” Jefferson said, his mind already sifting through scenarios, searching for just the right way to tempt her back to work. A raise? Possibly. More vacation time? He frowned. Too much of a hot button with her at the moment. A promotion to executive level? Not bad. But it was going to take more than improving her working conditions to convince Caitlyn to come back. It was going to take… A slow, sure smile curved his mouth as he realized what he was going to do about Caitlyn.
“That’s what I like to hear.” Harry folded his hands at his middle. “What’s the plan?”
Jefferson turned his smile on his father, but he had no intention of filling the man in on this. He wouldn’t approve. Wouldn’t understand that the only sure way to get Caitlyn back was to seduce her into thinking it was her own idea.
If there was one thing Jefferson Lyon knew, it was women. He’d romance her, seduce her, ply her with jewelry, then act like a jerk and let her break up with him. She’d feel so bad she’d be bound to come back to work.
“Don’t worry about it, Dad,” he said, smiling now at the rain-washed window. “I’ve got it covered.”
Now that she was—gulp—unemployed, Caitlyn had absolutely no reason to stick around home. Instead, she called the resort and was lucky enough to snatch up a room freed by a sudden cancellation. Another sign from the universe that she was doing the right thing. And she appreciated it.
It had felt completely liberating to stand up to Jefferson and quit her job, but now that it was done, she was having a few doubts. She’d saved plenty of her salary, so she was fine for several months moneywise, but she’d never been unemployed. Not since she’d left college. A weird sensation passed through her to know that she didn’t have to be somewhere
