The Ruthless Gentleman

by Louise Bay

  When I finally heard her footsteps on the stairs I took a seat and watched the door, willing it to open.

  Avery knocked, then entered when I called for her. I had to clear my throat. I hadn’t imagined it. Her eyes were puffy and red. She’d definitely been crying. I shot to my feet. “Avery.” I didn’t know what to say, didn’t know how to navigate this situation. This was a woman I wanted to strip naked and kiss head to toe then fuck through to next week, but she was also a woman I didn’t want to see cry. I wanted to make it better for her, whatever was wrong. Before I had the chance to question my own instincts, I’d moved around my desk and pressed the door closed with my palm, locking it with my other hand.

  “Sit.”

  “Please, I need to go.” Her voice quivered as she set the thick envelope of papers on my desk. “I have a lot to do.”

  “Sit,” I repeated, and she relented, sinking into the chair, her limbs heavy and her eyes sad. I leaned against the desk, our legs almost touching. “What is it?”

  “I have to organize lunch,” she said. “Then—”

  “Please don’t make me repeat myself. Why are you upset?”

  She took in a deep, jagged breath and shook her head. “It’s nothing.”

  I didn’t reply but I wasn’t going to be fobbed off. She was going to tell me what was wrong and then I was going to fix it.

  She wrung her hands and avoided my gaze, but I stayed silent, despite the way my muscles twitched, desperate for action. I wanted her to talk to me.

  Eventually she spoke. “My father was taken to the emergency room last night.”

  Shit. I clenched my hands, wanting to reach out and touch her, but after last night, I didn’t know where we stood, what I should do. I just knew that I wanted to do something—anything—to soothe her pain.

  “He’s okay. They thought it might be a heart attack, but apparently it wasn’t. They’re doing tests.” She glanced up at me, her face filled with sadness, and I hated myself for not being able to fix it immediately. I wanted to pull her into my arms and tell her everything was going to be okay, but I couldn’t make this better for her. Wealth and power meant nothing in a situation like this. “Jesus, I’m sorry. Do you need to leave?”

  She exhaled. “God, my father would never forgive me. He’s . . . a proud man. Would hate for me to make a fuss.” She shook her head. “He only accepts the money I send for Michael’s sake. No doubt he’s making the nurses’ lives hell at this precise moment.”

  It wasn’t enough information. Did her dad have a heart condition already?

  “My aunt is staying with my brother.”

  Where was her mum? I didn’t ask in case she got more upset. Thinking back, Avery hadn’t mentioned her at all.

  She pressed her palm against her forehead, as if trying to cool herself, and I found myself wanting to be that momentary relief for her. “I should have seen this coming. He’s getting older and it’s too much for him to be working and looking after my brother. But trying to get either of them to accept a caregiver when my dad’s at home is impossible. My dad says he doesn’t like strangers in his house when he’s there.”

  I reached for her, my need to provide her with comfort overwhelming, but she recoiled and stood, shaking her head. “Don’t,” she said sharply and then looked away as if her own tone had shocked her.

  “We can’t. We never should have in the first place.” Her voice started to falter again. “I’ll have to insist my dad accepts more help.” Her gaze flitted about the room as if she were going through her options, making a plan. “We’ll need more money. Maybe even a full-time nurse.”

  She looked me straight in the eye. “My job is more important than ever. I should never have—last night—I just can’t.”

  A dull ache looped in my stomach. It was unfamiliar. I couldn’t remember a time when a woman had evoked that feeling in me, as if I was missing out on something by not having her close, by not knowing her.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “You don’t need to be,” I said. “But I would never allow you to lose your job over me, you know that?” I was careful not to touch her, despite how much I wanted to. I didn’t want her to feel uncomfortable, but more than that, I didn’t want to have to suffer her rejection again.

  “It’s not up to you.” She glanced at her feet. “It’s Captain Moss’s decision. And in any case, gossip runs riot in this industry. An affair between a crew member and a charter guest would get out and I’d never find another position.” She paused. “It’s not that I don’t . . . There’s just too much at stake.” Her eyes welled with tears. “I feel like I’m being punished. Last night—I should have never. And now my dad and I’m thousands of miles away, with no way to contact them. I’m not going to find out the test results until God knows when. I just wish I could be there.”

  “But you can call, every hour if you need to, surely. The captain doesn’t ration the phone, right?”

  “We don’t have access to the satellite phone. The calls are too expensive.”

  I stood and rounded my desk. “Then use mine. In fact, stay in here today. And you be on the phone the entire time if you need to.” Thoughts of the legal documents she’d brought with her had faded with her desperation. She was driving chaos into my priorities.

  She looked up at me. “Really?”

  “Of course.” I hated to see her upset and I could easily work in any of the countless other rooms on the yacht.

  She shook her head. “I shouldn’t use your phone. I think it would be frowned upon. I mean, I really shouldn’t have told you all this. It’s unprofessional.” She pushed her shoulders back, but her eyes still glistened with tears.

  “Avery Walker, I will be offended if you don’t use this phone.” I checked my watch. “I’ll need to use it at three fifteen New York time, once I’ve read these documents. So make the most of it.”

  She shook her head.

  “Avery, I am a paying guest. I thought guests always got what they wanted?”

  She paused and exhaled. “Thank you,” she said, her voice quivering. “You’re a very nice man.” I winced at how formal and awkward that sounded and as if she agreed, she frowned. “And a very good kisser. I just—”

  I shook my head and tried to bite back my grin. “Shhh. You don’t have to feel bad. My heart is intact.” I dipped, trying to catch her eye, and she nodded, reaching out to place her palm on my shoulder.

  I smoothed my hand across her back. “Sit down. Call your aunt.” I guided her around my desk so she could take a seat in my chair.

  “I need to keep busy,” she said. “But I don’t want everyone asking me why I’m upset.”

  “So stay here. Tell people you’re helping me with filing if they ask.”

  “I can’t believe I’m having a meltdown on a guest.”

  My stomach pinched at her referring to me as a guest. “Being away from your family when they’re vulnerable is tough,” I said. “I understand.”

  Talking about personal stuff wasn’t something I did often. In fact, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d spoken to anyone about anything other than business. I’d talk a little to the women I slept with but only enough to get them into bed and never anything personal. I found that the ultimate seduction technique was to listen. Or at least pretend to.

  I leaned on the desk beside her. “I told you that my brother was in the special forces. During his deployments, it was . . .” I swallowed, remembering the time he went missing for three days in Afghanistan. “It was difficult. Not knowing what’s going on is the worst part. But your father’s doctors have ruled out a heart attack—that’s good news. I’m sure you’ll feel better when the test results come back and you know what you’re dealing with.” I swept my thumb under one eye and then the other. “Save your tears until you have more information.” It was what I’d said to my mother when we heard Landon was missing.

  In the days Landon had been unaccounted for, anger, not fear, had been my primary emotion. Anger
at the armed forces. Anger at his decision to enlist. Anger at my inability to do anything. My mother’s tears had represented a lack of hope, so I’d channeled my fear into anger.

  “Do you want me to call the hospital to see if I can speed things up?” I asked.

  “No, but thank you. My aunt is a lioness. She’ll be all over those physicians, riding their asses. But I appreciate it.”

  I stood and headed out to leave her in peace. “If there’s anything I can do, just say it.”

  She gasped. “No, I’m meant to be doing things for you. I just—”

  “Avery,” I said, warning her as she put her hands on the arms of the chair as if she were about to stand. “Stay there. I’ve already had Skylar bring me some water.”

  “You did?”

  “Yes, I’ve been too demanding of you—”

  “I don’t mind.” Her eyes went wide—open and honest—her professional veneer long since gone. “I like to be busy.”

  “Stay there. I’m a grown man and I can fend for myself with the rest of the crew on board running around after me.”

  She surrendered and sat back. Even if I couldn’t mend everything that was broken, at least I was able to provide her with a way of contacting home.

  This was Avery Walker—all emotion and kindness. It was a raw, more honest version of the yacht stewardess. They were both beautiful, but I preferred this girl a lot more. This was the woman I’d held, kissed and was still desperate to devour. But now she was also the woman I wanted to cloak from sadness and protect from pain.

  Eighteen

  Hayden

  I dialed Landon’s number and caught a strain of Avery’s perfume. It was sexier and more complex than her professional gloss would indicate—it hinted at the woman beneath the mask. I shook my head, frustrated at the way my thoughts slid to Avery more and more. I had enough to think about with Phoenix and the leak at Wolf Enterprises, but somehow Avery had taken up residence in my mind, day and night. In the days since the evening of fireworks and our kiss, we’d reverted to what we had been when I first arrived on the yacht—guest and crew. Perhaps that was really all we ever had been. Since her tears in my office, she’d only confided in me enough to say that her father had been discharged and that everything was going to be fine. I was relieved, but also disappointed that she’d shut down. I liked her. I enjoyed her smart mind and generous heart, but now all I got to see was the yacht stewardess.

  “Any news?” I asked my brother as he answered the phone. Due diligence on Phoenix was uncovering opportunities rather than issues, the risks were as expected and the contract negotiations productive. I’d been on this yacht nearly four weeks and if things continued like this, I might be leaving early. But before I got back to the office—or bought Phoenix—I wanted to understand who’d been betraying me to Cannon all these months.

  “Yes, I’m fine, thanks for asking. I had a great weekend, took a woman out for a second date on Saturday which went well, though disappointingly I didn’t get laid, and then on Sunday I played lacrosse.”

  “Lacrosse? Since when?”

  “Oh, so you do take some interest in my life beyond whether or not I’ve found your mole.”

  “Not really, but if you’re going to demand attention like a five-year-old, I’ll indulge you a short while. You are my little brother, after all.”

  “Christ, you’re a dick.”

  Landon no more wanted to share details of his weekend with me than I wanted to hear them, but he liked to make it sound as if I was the less emotional and the more uptight of the two of us. But we both knew there was no way he could have done the job he had without being able to put aside everything other than the moment at hand. We had that in common. Most of the time, at least. “Do you have any news about the leak?”

  Landon sighed. “Nothing. You getting Anita to request the information pack doesn’t seem to have tipped Cannon off. According to my intelligence, they haven’t placed a bid or so much as a made a phone call. But still no clue as to where that additional money came from that she has in her new bank account.”

  I should be more relieved than I was. Anita was smart. And if she really was the leak, which even after hearing about her newly acquired nest egg, seemed impossible, she’d understand that if she was the only one who knew about the company I was looking to buy, she shouldn’t pass that information to Cannon.

  “Right, and what about the finance team?”

  “The treasurer is clear. We’re still digging around the financial controller.”

  “So, no real progress?” The thought of having to go back to the office, knowing someone was betraying me, wasn’t something I relished. I wanted to leave this boat a winner, not still under threat.

  “We’re eliminating people, which is helpful, and there is one thing. Looks like there’s been an attempted break-in at your building.”

  “In my flat or the building?”

  “The building.”

  “Okay, well that happens from time to time. They weren’t trying to get to me, were they?”

  “Difficult to say. A panel of glass was removed from the ground-floor windows but apart from that no one is reporting any damage or disturbance. CCTV from the street shows two masked men enter and leave but the building security cameras don’t show anything. I’m following up.”

  Surely this wasn’t connected to Cannon. Bribing someone for information was one thing, but breaking and entering? It all seemed to reek of some kind of underground, criminal gang. James Cannon was a pig, but his collar was white. Perhaps it was graying in his old age.

  “It could be nothing. But I’m going to check your flat and we’re going to check it for surveillance devices.”

  “Jesus, Landon. This sounds like it’s getting out of control. Should the police be involved?”

  “I’m on it. I’m probably being paranoid because of what that guy did to Dad, but I’m not taking any chances.” We hadn’t talked much about James Cannon being at the helm of Cannon. The man who’d tried to destroy my father and succeeded in many ways. We didn’t need to go over old ground. Landon understood how serious the situation was. We’d lived the aftermath of James Cannon our whole lives.

  “Thanks, Landon. I appreciate it.”

  “Okay, well I’m too busy to chat like sisters, so fuck off,” Landon said.

  “Actually, there was something else I wanted to talk to you about. I want to get off this boat.” Even saying the words lifted my spirits. Avery still used my satellite phone periodically, and she was in the office and my bedroom to change sheets and towels, fiddle with the loo paper, folding it into shapes and whatever else she did. Her perfume surrounded me at every turn. Everywhere I looked on this boat, there was a shadow or a memory of her—a sign she’d been there and would be back soon. If I couldn’t have her, I needed a break.

  “What do you mean ‘get off the boat’?” Landon asked.

  “Like, experience dry land for a day or something.”

  I wasn’t used to not getting what I wanted, and I wanted Avery Walker. I respected Avery’s decision, but it didn’t make it any easier.

  We arrived in Taormina tomorrow and Avery still hadn’t had a day off. If I offered the crew the evening off as I’d done before, Avery wouldn’t go with them. She might even think I was trying to engineer some alone time with her. I might be a manipulative bastard in business, but I wasn’t about to trick a woman into letting me kiss her again. I reckoned the only way Avery would take a break would be if I wasn’t onboard. If I was ashore for the night then she’d have no possible excuse to keep working. And she needed a break. I couldn’t give her much, but I could give her that.

  And I could give myself a break from wanting her. Maybe even find an Italian woman to seduce and bury myself in. Perhaps that would push Avery out of my mind.

  “Are you fucking crazy? Everything is working. You’re making good progress with your deal, Cannon haven’t figured out what you’re doing and we’re eliminating potential leaks. Why
would you jeopardize that?”

  Why indeed?

  “I’m not suggesting I come back to London,” I replied. “I’m just feeling a little stir crazy. I want to go ashore. Overnight.” True, but it was only part of the story.

  “What? Stay in a hotel or something?”

  “Yeah. Maybe get rid of my sea legs. I’ve been on this thing a month and I just want to get back on dry land for a few hours.”

  Landon was right—I was in one of the most beautiful places on earth. As well as trying to make things easier on myself, maybe I could enjoy it if I was away from the yacht and everything connected to the Phoenix deal. I had a day or two while I waited for the lawyers to review everything. I could afford to catch my breath. I wanted to see the place Avery was so keen to visit.

  “You mean you want to get laid,” he said. I didn’t respond. I had no desire to discuss my need to fuck Avery Walker out of my system with Landon. “I don’t know. We’d need some time to set it up. I’d want to check out the hotel before you got there, and you’d have to do a full sweep for bugs when you got back.”

  “I do a full sweep twice a day on the yacht anyway so that’s not a problem. And I won’t do any business on shore or make any calls. I want you to set this up.”

  He sighed, and I could almost hear the cogs in his brain trying to process what I was saying, trying to find a solution. “I could send in someone to conduct surveillance while you’re there. You never know, if we get lucky someone might be following you.”

  “Lucky?” My brother was a twisted fucker.

  “When were you thinking?”

  “Day after tomorrow.”

  I could almost hear the eye roll.

  “Okay, leave it with me. I’ll find a hotel. I’ll also get some security for the boat while you’re ashore. It’s a good job you’ve got money. This is going to cost you.”

  I chuckled. “Just stop whining and make it happen.”