CHAPTER TWELVE
THE NEXT MORNING, Quin woke up with a smile on his face. It had everything to do with the warm body pressed against him. Celia had stayed the night. He knew they still had a lot to discuss. He still didn’t know where they stood—were they a couple? Were they friends? Would they end the charade of needed lessons from each other? He had no idea. But he didn’t care what they were as long as he could wake up next to her, holding her in his arms every morning.
He realized that was what his life was missing. If he could just spend every day wrapped up in Celia, he would die happy. He checked the clock and saw that they both had a couple of hours before they had to be at work. He did a mental inventory of his fridge—maybe he could whip them up a little breakfast in bed.
He watched her sleep for a few minutes, and she shifted in his arms. Her eyes fluttered open and she smiled when she saw him.
“Good morning,” he said, placing a kiss on her forehead.
As quickly as the smile had formed on her lips, it faded. “Quin,” she said, as if she was surprised to see him. “What time is it?”
“Almost seven.”
“Oh, hell, really? I need to go,” she told him, disengaging from his arms. “Where are my clothes?”
He looked around the room—their clothes were scattered around the floor. “They’re everywhere,” he told her.
“Can you give me a ride back home?”
“Yeah, of course. But what’s the rush?”
“I have to be at work. Jared’s back today.” She pulled her hair back and deftly stuck it in a knot that somehow stayed in place. “I didn’t mean to fall asleep here.”
“No? What’s wrong with that? You have plenty of time to get to work.” He felt hurt that that she was willing to dismiss the feeling of waking up together.
“I can’t be late.”
Quin watched her as she finished gathering her things. Maybe this was them falling back into friend territory. There were some seriously blurred lines to whatever relationship they had. The sense of peace he’d woken up with dissipated and he knew that life was becoming once again more complicated. His heart thundered in his chest—and not in a good way. Her reaction to waking up in his bed had surprised him. He was hurt and needed to get away for a few minutes. To sort it out before he did or said something he would regret. Like tell her his true feelings and make himself too vulnerable.
“Okay, just let me get a quick shower and we’ll be on our way, okay?”
“A shower, really? I have to go.”
“I need to get ready for work too. I’m not going to drive you home and then come back. I’ll be five minutes.” That made perfect, logical sense to him, but Celia looked annoyed at having to wait for him. He got out of bed and headed for the en suite. He was still naked and saw that Celia was watching him. “Care to join me?” he asked with a smile, unable to help himself, hoping to alleviate the tension between them.
“No,” she said, and Quin knew she was trying harder to convince herself than him. “We don’t have time. I’ll go make some coffee.”
“Okay, sure.”
* * *
Celia sat at her desk. Quin had dropped her off at her house with a quick goodbye. Maybe she’d reacted badly that morning, waking up in Quin’s warm embrace. It had been heavenly, and she’d wanted to snuggle back into him and forget the world for the day. But the harsh light of the morning had made her realize where she was, what she’d done. Goddammit, it was happening again—she was falling in love with Quin Rexford.
She felt a shadow come over her cubicle and she turned around and saw Jared standing behind her. She looked over her shoulder at her boss. “Good morning, Mr. Foster.”
“Good morning, Celia. Nice of you to finally join us.”
“I was fifteen minutes late. I’m sorry.” It was ridiculous to apologize, of course, especially when Jared didn’t even typically arrive at the office most days until after eleven, if he showed up at all.
He put a hand on her shoulder and she almost squirmed away. “Maybe you can make it up to me.” Her skin crawled. “Come to dinner with me tonight.”
“I can’t.”
“That’s too bad. You’re doing some good work here,” he noted. “It’d be a shame if you squandered your life and career here by not being promoted.”
The things that Jared said to her were not okay. He was a predator. But Celia had to smile as he said them, because she knew that he was digging his own grave. The recorder on her laptop had captured every word, and even video of the way he touched her. “Are you saying that my success here is based on me sleeping with you?”
“Celia, you hurt me. I said no such thing. But I would encourage you to meet me for dinner, after all.”
Celia knew she was trying to get dirt on him, but there was no way she was going to meet him alone for dinner. She wasn’t stupid. As much as she wanted to bury the bastard, and even though she could probably take him in a physical confrontation, she wouldn’t put herself in danger to do it. So she thought quickly. As much as she didn’t want to think about it, going on his boat had been dangerous and reckless. He could have easily hurt her. She would have to be safer around her boss, but that didn’t mean she wanted to be alone with him ever again. “I don’t think my boyfriend would like it.”
He seemed taken aback by that. “I didn’t know you were seeing anyone.”
“It happened recently.”
“Is that so? Well, I assume you’re going to bring him to the marina mixer then,” he said in a way that sounded like a taunt.
“I’m sorry, the what?”
“You need to check your email, especially since you’ve been gone for three days. You need to catch up. It’s the Seacoast Marina Mixer this Saturday. People come in, check out the merch and they buy. It’s our biggest event of the year. And attendance is mandatory. And bring this boyfriend of yours. I’d love to meet the guy.”
“Will do,” she said. When she was alone again, Celia panicked. What had she done? She didn’t have a boyfriend. The closest she had to anything like a boyfriend was Quin. And she remembered the dejected look on his face when he’d dropped her off. She’d put distance between them. But he was her only shot.
* * *
Quin was seated at his desk in his office at the distillery. Seacoast Prestige had sent an official contract, which sat to his right, and he thumbed through the pages again.
There was a knock on the door, and he looked up. It was Reid. “Just tell me, are we signing that contract or are we just going to look at it.” He sat down heavily next to him.
“I don’t know,” Quin admitted. “I know it’s what’s right for the business. A collaboration between our two companies would be mutually beneficial. If it was just about business, I would sign in a second. I don’t think he’d renege on a contract. But as a person, I don’t trust that guy. There’s no one else I would rather see lose everything.”
“Are you sure you’re right about him?” Reid asked. “If he was as bad as we’ve heard, would he still be in control of a billion-dollar company? He might be an incompetent, but thankfully, there’s a whole company of people working there. Plus, Celia seems to enjoy it.”
“She doesn’t,” Quin said with finality. Right? She’d been in a hurry to get to work that morning. Would she have lied to him about how she felt about Jared and the company?
“Okay, well I’m only going on what she said last night. But whatever.”
“I just don’t know if I want to get in bed with this guy.”
“But if we don’t, John Cain will.”
That got Quin’s attention. Cain Rum out of New York was their biggest rival, and not only were they business competitors, but there was also a lot of bad blood between them. The CEO’s current wife had been married to Reid—and had stolen many of their recipes and handed them over to their rivals. “I kno
w.”
“If we don’t get back to him, then he’ll go with Cain, right?”
“It’s incredibly likely.”
A deal with Seacoast Prestige would put them above and beyond anything Cain was doing. Quin knew that Reid didn’t want to let them have the advantage. It now meant a lot more to Reid to win the job. Great. Quin would have gladly ripped up the contract, just because of his opinion of Jared Foster, but now the stakes were higher for his brother. Reid’s—the entire family’s—pride was at stake. But this was Quin’s deal. This was his shot to prove to his brother that he could handle more business responsibility. But all he’d managed to do so far was mess everything up.
“Dinner was fun,” Reid said, changing the subject.
“Yeah, it was.”
“Celia was your date, huh?”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
Reid smiled. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on there?”
Quin shrugged. “We’re just friends. I think.” He figured that was the closest thing he could say. They’d gone to sleep as lovers, but the way they parted that morning was barely even friendly.
“Did she spend the night?” he asked.
He sighed and sat back in his chair. “Yeah.”
“Sounds pretty friendly to me.”
“Okay, we tried to be friends. But it quickly became a friends-with-benefits kind of thing. Now we’re dancing on this weird line of ‘are we friends? Are we more?’ And anytime we try to have the conversation, we end up in bed.” Reid laughed, and it annoyed Quin. “I’m glad my torment is funny to you.”
“Look at you, you’re all torn up over a woman. I never thought I’d see the day.”
“I don’t know. I don’t know if I can see her anymore.” He breathed out. “Maybe we should keep our distance.”
“Why are you so bashful?” he asked. “You’re not exactly a stranger to casual hookups.”
“But that’s exactly it. I think I want more than a casual hookup.”
Reid’s eyes widened. “Really?”
“I look at you and Lila. You guys are so happy.”
“That didn’t just happen, though. Sure, Lila quickly became my world, but us being together didn’t just happen overnight. I resisted hard. But if you want Celia, go for it. Tell her how you actually feel.”
“I just don’t understand what she wants. I fucked up almost a decade ago, and it’s her right to never forgive me. She says she doesn’t want a relationship—” he shrugged “—but she still spent the night. She woke up in my arms and everything felt so perfect, so right. I thought we’d made progress. But she went into panic mode. I guess I was disappointed. But it really just kind of hammered home that we won’t be a couple. I’m finally paying for the consequences of my past actions and it sucks.”
“It all stems from what happened between you guys before?”
“Yeah, I absolutely crushed her, and I know I don’t deserve another chance. And I get her not being able to trust me again. I’ve apologized, and I just don’t know how to make it up to her. Get this, don’t laugh, but on the yacht, I was in such a weird headspace—I was so desperate to be with her that I asked her to teach me how to be a good boyfriend. How to romance a woman.”
Despite being told not to, Reid laughed, loudly, and Quin glared at him. “What could she possibly have to gain from that?”
He thought about Celia’s end of the deal—teach her how to be a more assertive lover. Mission accomplished there. “She wanted something from me, too, but I don’t want to get into it.”
Reid nodded. “Fair enough. But are you going to tell her how you feel?”
“I tried. I don’t know how I can just be her friend, though, especially now that we’ve been together.”
His phone rang and he picked it up. The screen showed Celia’s number. “That’s her.”
Reid took the cue and stood from the table. “Good luck.”
When he was alone, he answered the call. “Hello?”
“Hi,” she said, sounding breathless.
“Hi, Celia, what’s up?”
“Can we meet for lunch?”
He checked his watch. It was close to noon, and the rumble in his empty stomach told him he hadn’t had anything but coffee that morning. “Is everything okay?” he asked.
“I’m fine. I just have something I need to talk to you about.”
That got his attention. She sounded worried, hesitant, and he hoped nothing had happened to her. She named a place he knew near the marina.
“Yeah, sure. I can be there in twenty minutes.”
* * *
Celia sat at the table on the patio of the waterfront restaurant. She wasn’t sure why, but she was nervous. Something had happened between her and Quin that morning. She’d woken up, comfortable and warm in his arms, and then gone into panic mode. She’d been agitated and scared, and he’d been moody and sullen when he’d dropped her off. She’d hurt his feelings, no doubt. Would he be open to what she was about to propose, especially since she’d been so reluctant to have any sort of romantic relationship with Quin? She looked up and saw him, strolling across the crowded patio to her table.
“Hey,” she said as he took a seat.
“Hi.”
The server came and took their drink order. Perrier for Quin, and iced tea for herself. She had thought about ordering an alcoholic beverage to settle her nerves, but decided against it. She needed a clear head.
When they were alone again, Quin put his elbows on the table and leaned in. “So what’s going on?”
Before she could discuss the real reason she’d invited him, she needed to get something off her chest, and instead launched into something that had been on her mind al morning. “I can’t believe it that when I told you I needed to leave this morning, you decided to get a shower.”
He blinked in what looked like surprise. “What?”
“It was so inconsiderate. I really didn’t appreciate it.”
“I explained that this morning. It made sense” he said. “And I invited you join me to save time.”
“That wouldn’t have saved any time.”
“I suppose you’re right. Okay. I’m sorry if I was inconsiderate. Is that why you invited me to lunch? To chew me out about this morning?”
“No, it isn’t.” She paused, knowing that he didn’t owe her anything else. “I need a favor.”
She was a little surprised that he didn’t walk away. Instead, he didn’t hesitate in responding. “What is it?”
“I need a boyfriend.”
His eyes squinted and he tilted his heat to the side a little, showing his confusion. “Well, I offered that not too long ago and you turned it down.” He smiled, and she knew he was being lighthearted.
She put up a hand. “No, wait. I didn’t explain that right. I don’t want a boyfriend,” she clarified. “I need a boyfriend.”
“I’m not following you.”
“It’s Jared. He came to me this morning and asked me out. I told him I was seeing someone. Then he told me to invite this boyfriend to the Seacoast Marina Mixer this weekend.”
“Okay. I’ve received an invitation to that. I’ll be going, anyway.”
“Well, that’s great.”
“Wait. What’s going to happen to my deal with Jared if I show up with you?”
Celia sat stunned. She hadn’t considered that Quin wouldn’t play along with her. “I—” She didn’t think for a second that Quin would pick a business deal over her. “Huh. I see. So, you’re going ahead with it.”
“Come on, Celia, this is a big deal for us. It opens us up to new markets around the world. It would be worth millions to us.”
“That’s fair,” she said with a nod. She felt hurt. And disappointed. Sometimes money won out, after all. She plucked her napkin from her lap and stood. “Thanks f
or meeting me. I’ll be seeing you around. Well, at the mixer, I guess.”
“Celia, wait.” He stood and reached out to her. But she was too far away, out of his grasp.
* * *
Quin watched Celia leave. He couldn’t help but know he’d fucked up. She’d come to him for help, and instead of turning her away, he should have been her friend. That’s what they both wanted, right? “Fuck.” He wasn’t even sure he wanted to sign the contract. He wanted nothing to do with Jared Foster, but he was frustrated, confused. He sighed and threw a twenty down on the table to cover the cost of their drinks. He had to do something. How could he make it right? What could he do without entirely blowing the deal? It was what he’d wanted—to show Reid how he could improve the business. He wanted to be taken seriously. And then there was the Cain Rum rivalry to think about. Quin shook his head. He knew what he should do—cancel the deal with Seacoast Prestige and forget that Jared Foster even existed, but with people depending on the collaboration, it wasn’t that easy.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CELIA ARRIVED AT the marina early on Saturday. All staff were required to attend the event and put on the impression that they were a close-knit happy family. She rolled her eyes. If she could call her workplace a family—she wouldn’t, though, because that was some manipulative shit that bosses claimed to take advantage of their employees—they would be a dysfunctional one. From what she had heard, morale had dropped since the retirement of Jared’s father. But today, it looked like everyone was glad to be out of the office, out in the sun, hanging out on luxury yachts, mingling with some of Miami’s elite.
As You Crave It Page 13