thing. As it was, he’d given me massive side-eye the whole drive to the boat. It was like he knew she’d knocked me for six. Her green-gray eyes seemed to shoot straight into my soul.
Something about Josephine Marin messed with the carefully ordered equilibrium I’d honed over the last few years, like a faint earth tremor along a catastrophic fault-line. The kind that made my hair stand on end. And last night when she’d tried to quit … well, I wasn’t going to even admit to myself that her tirade and the way she’d stuck up for herself had been like a blunt force awakening of my libido, so there was no point thinking about it. If it had been anyone else reacting like that I’d have been glad they quit. But for some reason I’d found that unacceptable.
As much as I’d sort of encouraged her to stay, I realized now after a long night of barely any sleep that she was far too dangerous. I should send her home. I had to send her home.
I pressed the intercom button in the master stateroom where I was using the desk while on board. “Evan? See me in my office please?”
Minutes later Evan appeared at the door.
I waved him in from the desk where I’d been trying to concentrate for the last two hours to no avail.
“I have the tender ready to take you ashore as soon as you’re ready,” he informed me.
“Bon.” I raked my hand through my hair.
“Are you ready for the meeting?” he asked.
Meeting?
Oh, yes. Meeting. I absently looked at all the final chemistry reports, the results of which would win our company a billion dollar contract if we could secure the final round of funding for production. I could pay for it myself, but it was always a good idea to spread risk. My company had been working for years on a special film-like paper that could record the technological knowledge and code languages of the world without deteriorating. We’d gotten it to where it could survive extremes of heat and cold for, we believed, two thousand years in the event of cataclysm. Which, let’s face it, with the way we were treating the planet, was bound to happen sooner rather than later. Every government needed it. So did every corporation, to protect their knowledge and survive. But the reports on my desk weren’t my primary concern right now. “This situation with the new girl is not going to work. She can’t stay,” I said instead, leaning forward on my desk.
“I’m sorry. Excuse me?”
“The au pair,” I explained, picking up my pen and waving it dismissively. “Nanny, or whatever.”
Evan smirked.
“What is that?” I made a motion at his face.
“That’s me smiling at seeing you so ruffled.”
“Ruffled.” I stabbed the table with my pen and slid my fingers down to the point before flipping it on its end and doing the same again. Slide, flip, stick, slide, flip, stick.
“Wound up,” he elaborated.
I blinked at him. Slide. Flip. Stick.
He rolled his eyes. “You finally realized your male equipment might not be dead?”
The pen flew through the air, smacking him in the forehead. “I could fire you for that. Don’t think because I’ve known you practically my whole life that I wouldn’t.”
“Ow,” he grumbled, rubbing his forehead. “Wow. Pulling out the old firing you card, X? Things must really be hard.” He raised an eyebrow. “Pun intended.”
“Fuck you.” And he was the only one I let call me X, instead of Xavier or Monsieur Pascale. And only when it was the two of us.
“Sorry, that was crass.” He didn’t look sorry at all. “Anyway, here’s her contract and non-disclosure if you want to look at it before she signs. It just came through from the lawyer.”
I took the paperwork but stayed quiet since I was incriminating myself. I knew it was unfair to send the girl home just because I couldn’t stop the thrum that slid through my deepest core with one look at her. And now I’d admitted my weakness to Evan and confirmed all his assumptions.
Also, beyond the fact that I had no time nor willingness for distractions, it was also reminiscent of my father lusting after my nannies growing up. Except my father acted on those impulses. I blew out an annoyed breath to cover my cringe, trying to get my head away from her and back into business. It would be fine. She was just an attractive woman. I’d spent time with plenty of those. No