to get romantically involved with. Which was precisely what made him appealing to her after Brady dumped her. She’d been emotionally bruised and battered. When she ran into him that morning at the coffee shop, when he turned on that classic Griffin Cain charm, she did the unthinkable. She decided to sow her own wild oats.
She hadn’t really believed she had any wild oats in her. They certainly had never floated to the surface of her psyche before. But Griffin had somehow gotten the damn things to sprout.
The one night she’d planned on allowing herself with Griffin had turned into a weekend. And then into a month. And then into four.
The brief sexual encounter was no longer brief. She’d managed to keep it purely sexual, but it was no longer uncomplicated. A mere call from him had her leaving her house in the middle of the night for a rendezvous. She’d stayed over at his place. Showered in his shower. Missed a morning of work. And now she had a key to his frickin’ condo.
It was time to stop fooling herself. She wasn’t just having sex with Griffin. She was acting like an addict. And it was time to go cold turkey.
Two
Griffin took a sip of his coffee, looking from the file in front of him to Dalton sitting across the table. He’d coaxed Dalton out of his condo and down the block to his favorite little Argentinean café. Once their coffee had arrived, Dalton had pushed a file folder across the table to him. And then he’d dropped a bomb.
“What do you mean, you’re done?” Griffin asked.
“Done.” Dalton leaned back against the booth’s red vinyl upholstery.
“Like, done? Like, you’re not searching for her anymore?”
“Exactly.”
“What, you want me to take over?” Hollister expected them to search for the heir separately. But he hadn’t expressly ordered them not to work together. “I’ve got a trip scheduled for next week, but after that—”
“I’m done.” Dalton leaned forward. “I’m not looking for her anymore. I’m not jumping through any more of Hollister’s damn hoops. I’m out.”
“Fine. You need me to handle this, I’ll handle it. You know how I feel about Hollister’s games. I’ll pass on to you whatever I find.”
“When I say I’m out, I mean I’m out for good. I’m not searching for the Cain heiress. I don’t want Hollister’s damn prize. I’m stepping down as CEO. I’m passing the torch to you.”
“To me?” Griffin dropped the folder like it had caught fire. “I don’t want Cain Enterprises.”
“Neither do I.”
“Of course you do. This is what you’ve wanted your whole life. Every—”
“Right. Everything I’ve ever done has been for Cain and what has it got me? Nothing. So this morning I submitted my resignation.”
“You what?” Griffin recoiled from Dalton’s words.
“I resigned,” Dalton said simply. “I recommended the board name you interim CEO. I can’t guarantee they will, but I talked to Hewitt, Sands and Schield personally. I think they’ll be able to sway the others. Now—”
“You quit?”
“I resigned.” Dalton looked like he might bust out laughing. “Try to keep up.”
“You can’t quit.” Great. His brother finally developed a sense of humor and it turned out to be sick and twisted. “Cain Enterprises needs you. More than ever with Hollister sick.”
“I agree. Cain Enterprises needs a strong leader. But you can be that leader just as easily as I can.”
And that’s where Dalton was dead wrong.
Dalton had been preparing for this job his whole life. Griffin, however, had spent his whole life waiting to take his inheritance and get out of the business. “Even if I wanted to, I’m not prepared to be the CEO. I don’t—”
“My assistant knows everything that goes on in the office. If there’s anything you don’t know, she can bring you up to speed. I know you haven’t worked much with Sydney in the past, but she’s top-notch. She’ll take good care of you.”
Shock must have made his esophagus seize because the sip of coffee Griffin had just taken went straight into his lungs, damn near choking him.
“I don’t … You can’t …” Griffin shook his head. Dalton was stepping down? And he was saying that Sydney would take care of him? The irony was just too much. For years he’d been phoning it in for his job at Cain Enterprises. Just biding his time until he could walk away free and clear. He’d stayed with the company out of duty and because if Hollister knew where his interests really lay, he’d be cut off without a dime. And now, after all this time, Dalton wasn’t just giving him more responsibility, he was handing him the entire damn company. “What the hell brought this on? And what on earth are you going to do if you’re not the leader of Cain Enterprises?”
“I’m going to win the heart of the woman I love.”
Okay. So Dalton had officially gone crazy.
“You’re what?” He sat back, waving aside his question. “Never mind,” he said darkly. “I know who’s to blame for this. Laney.”
Dalton’s mouth curved into a sappy smile. “Yeah. Laney.”
Griffin muttered a curse. “You’re throwing away everything for a woman?”
“Laney’s not just—”
“Yeah. I’m sure. Laney’s delightful. Frickin’ wonderful.” He leaned forward and tapped the center of the table to emphasize his point. “I’ve always liked Laney. And even when we were kids I saw that she was special to you. So if you want to be with her, then be with her. But don’t throw away everything you’ve worked for all your life over it.”
Dalton shot him a look that was somewhere between annoyed and amused. “I never thought I’d say this, but you sound remarkably like our father.”
“God, I hope not.” Griffin leaned back and blew out a frustrated sigh. “It’s not that I don’t want you to be happy, it’s just that …”
He had a lot on his plate right now. In the next month alone, he had two trips to Guatemala planned and one more to Africa. The project in Rwanda was at a critical stage and it was the first in that country. On Griffin’s most recent visit, he’d made inroads to get the project financed by a local bank, but if he didn’t get back down there soon, it might all fall through. The simple truth was, he didn’t have time to be CEO.
Griffin set down his coffee cup to see Dalton watching him with that slightly dazed look people in love usually wore. Griffin wanted to leap across the table and strangle some sense into his brother. “Did it ever occur to you that I might have better things to do?”
For nearly a full minute Dalton just stared at him. Then Dalton burst out laughing, and didn’t speak for another minute until he stopped. “Better things.
