The Boss and Her Billionaire (12 page)

talcum powder sand reflected the afternoon sun, and beneath arching palm trees those who sought

more relaxation rested in the shade. Seeing so many people at play made Michaela think once again

about her own life. For so long, she had thought herself happy in this existence, traveling among some of the world’s most beautiful places, meeting interesting people, earning their respect. But was she

looking for something more?

Her promise to herself of five years at sea had already expired, and now here was a man. A man who

had offered her more advice and support than she’d had in a long time. A man who made her every

nerve buzz with anticipation whenever he touched her.

“He’s a dancer, Michaela,” she scolded. “He’s hardly going to be the settle-down type.” Yet despite her protest, she couldn’t keep her heart from soaring at the thought of him. But…

But what?

But he was incredibly talented, his looks were more than okay, he liked children in the same way she

did, and he made her very core melt.

Tonight, she thought. Perhaps tonight we’ll see whether this is just an irresponsible fling or something that could be more.

As the day came to a close, passengers began reappearing by the pool, happy and relaxed from their day in the tropical sun. Michaela walked among them. She noticed that a number of women looked away

from her, and some even turned and whispered among themselves. Odd, they seemed to be talking

about her. That didn’t make sense.

An onshore scandal, perhaps. A husband caught out flirting too vigorously with another woman, even

while his wife was playing with their children. Or maybe a husband on holiday with his mistress,

confounded by being discovered by a friend of his wife’s. She could never understand how some men

could be so stupid.

Lucky for her, the liaison with the captain had been a secret, and it had ended quickly when she’d found out about him being married. Bastard. She’d never have gone there if she’d known.

She set her mind wondering over Dylan’s left hand. It had been ring free, and there was no telltale tan mark from a ring removed, either. If she’d checked Captain Atkinson’s hands a bit better, she might have come out of the whole affair unscathed. But Dylan’s hands were definitely single.

Those hands. They’d certainly wanted to consummate something. Perhaps tonight she might just let

them.

She saw Felicity and waved.

“How was your day?” Felicity asked casually.

“Lovely,” Michaela gushed, her thoughts of the evening with Dylan still simmering.

“Oh.” Felicity paused, her demeanor changing. “Great.”

She’d been nervous about something, Michaela realized, but whatever it was, it seemed to have passed.

Michaela’s pager buzzed. “It’s the captain. Must run. Meet you for a drink later?” she asked. Felicity nodded, and Michaela went to answer her call.

The captain’s face was stern when Michaela arrived on the bridge, putting her on alert. There had been times when passengers hadn’t arrived back on the ship as instructed, and it was always a frantic

scramble to try and find them. They’d left port with no fuss, though, and were now powering back

toward Auckland Harbor. The cruise had whizzed by. They would be in New Zealand the next afternoon.

“Can you leave us, please?” The captain dismissed his staff.

A sense of foreboding washed over Michaela. Had one of her staff done something? Had Dylan…? She

looked about the bridge for some sort of clue. A note, some paperwork of any kind, but there were just the usual charts on the captain’s desk, and his computer monitor showed only navigational radar

readings.

“It has been brought to my attention that you have been having relations with someone onboard.”

Oh, dear lord, I’m going to kill Jake. Michaela tried to remember the look on Jake’s face. Had he seemed triumphant? Ready to dish the dirt on her?

“Well? Are you going to deny it?” The captain spoke in a clipped tone, as if he would like nothing better than to throw her overboard and be done with this business.

Michaela shook her head. Jake had looked genuine in his vow to be discreet, but clearly he hadn’t been all that genuine. “It’s only been the one time.”

“One time too many.” The captain warmed up, starting to enjoy himself. “I knew it was a bad idea

putting a woman in this position. Too much power goes to your head, and then look where you end up.

You’ll be lucky to work in this industry again now. You’ll have to resign straight away. Lucky it’s the end of this cruise.” He paused. “Perhaps you’ll be able to start again in another industry. You worked in music before, didn’t you? That might work. I hear they’re a bit more forgiving of this sort of thing.

Groupies, et cetera.”

“What?” Michaela’s jaw dropped. It was officially frowned on to have liaisons with other staff, but to lose her job over it? To be threatened with never working in the cruise business again? She hadn’t

thought the captain would stoop this low.

“Well, what did you expect? Using a position of power to seduce a younger man. And the way you did

it—quite outrageous.”

“Seduce?”

“The passengers are all talking about it, so we have to make an example of you. You understand, of

course.” The captain smirked at her, his expression full of disdain.

So Dylan had been too good to be true.

And here she’d been thinking of the stupidity of men only moments ago. What a fool she’d been. “He

said I seduced him?”

“He did. Or so I hear. It’s good to see that you’re not trying to deny it. That makes it much simpler to deal with. No need to bring in those human resources people from head office or any of that.

Investigations get messy. We’ll keep it simple, shall we? I’ll expect your resignation on my desk in the morning. You can hand over your responsibilities to your deputy.” His face closed against her, and she could read nothing in his eyes.But I—”

“I’m afraid there isn’t anything else to say about the matter. I have to admit that despite my concerns about your being a woman in this position, I thought you’d done a fairly good job. I’m surprised at you.

Surprised and disappointed.”

Michaela opened her mouth to speak, but he held up a hand.

“That will be all. Thank you.” He turned away from her, pulling himself up to his full height and

dismissing her from his office and her life onboard with an utter lack of sympathy.

Lifting her legs was like trying to move lead, but Michaela managed to shift one in front of the other and shuffle out of the bridge back to her stateroom. She could feel the hot sting of tears threatening to fall, and she poked her nails into the palms of her hands to stop them. She refused to cry in front of anyone.

A couple of passengers passed her by, and this time she noticed the looks she was getting from the men rather than the women. A younger man, probably in his early twenties, leered at her in a way that was entirely inappropriate between a passenger and a crew member, and she hurried away, worried that

some other rumor might get started and that her distress was more evident than she thought.

When she got to her stateroom, she was alarmed to find Dylan waiting outside her door. “You’re not

someone I want to see right now,” she said flatly.

His face fell, the filthy grin that had been waiting for her erased by disappointment.

After looking about her to check that they were alone in the corridor, Michaela sighed. “You better

come in before someone else reports us.”

“What? Who? What are you talking about?” Dylan looked confused, giving no hint of the man who must

have reported her for “seducing” him. Forget dancing, he was an amazing actor.

“The captain knows. I’ve just been up on the bridge. He’s threatening my job, my whole career.” She bit her lip, determined not to cry. “I’ve been instructed to resign.”

“Jake would never have said anything. And if he did, who cares anyway? Everyone else does it. The

captain can hardly make you resign over—”

Michaela stopped him with a hand on his chest. “He said you accused me of seducing you.” The words

were hard, and even as she said them Michaela still couldn’t believe the man in front of her could have stooped to such an accusation. “He said he was told that I used my position of power to influence you into being with me. Made it sound like we did something revolting.”

“Well, he’s clearly got it all wrong. It was definitely me doing the seducing.” A smile flirted with the corners of his eyes. His hands moved toward her waist.

Indignation got the better of her, and she shoved him away, much harder than necessary. “You accuse

me of seducing you, putting my job and my career in jeopardy, and now you’re turning it into some kind of joke?”

The smile dropped away completely. “I’m not sure that was really called for.”

“You’re not sure, huh? My career isn’t worth much anyway, is that what you’re trying to say?” Even as she said the words, they sounded hollow and harsh.

“You know that’s not what I was saying. You’re upset, I’m sorry, but the captain’s clearly got his wires crossed. It’ll get sorted out. Don’t worry about it.”Don’t worry about it? I’m told to resign and all you can say is I’m sorry, don’t worry about it?” She practically spat the words and watched the shock at her

vehement outburst spread over Dylan’s face. “I think you should leave.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” he said. “You’re in no state to be left alone. Calm down before you do anything stupid.”

“Now I’m stupid?”

“God damn it, that’s not what I meant.” His voice ratcheted up a notch, his exasperation finally turning to full-blown anger. “I didn’t say anything about us to anyone. That you could think I did clearly shows how little you think of me.”

A glimmer of reason tried to get Michaela’s attention, but she dismissed it. She was too angry. Enough was enough. “What I think of you is no longer important. You asked me to tell you I didn’t want you.

Well, you got your wish. I don’t want you. I never really did, I was just confused by being on my own for so long.”

His expression turned icy. “You don’t mean that.”

“It was just a silly fling. I was a fool to think anything good could come out of it.”

Dylan looked at her carefully, calculation in his eyes. “Sure.”

They were both silent a moment. Then he shrugged. “It’s just a job,” Dylan said, his voice flat. “Think of this as an opportunity to start a new career. You said you were almost done with cruise ships, anyway.”

“Stop trying to tell me what to do with my life. If I lose this job, I lose everything.”

“Everything?”

“Everything.” The anger left her, and her whole body sagged. The truth that she had built her life around her career finally slammed into her. She really would have nothing if she was forced to resign.

Michaela held back a sob. It felt as if someone had pulled the bones from inside of her but left the skin and muscles and organs intact.

“Well, then. I’ll get out of your way.” Dylan straightened, turned on his heel, and stalked out of the room.

The sound of the door closing seemed to echo her life closing in around her. With the evaporation of

anger came despondency. Finally, the dam burst, and her tears fell. What was she going to do? The

thought of leaving the ship had been appealing when it was on her terms, but to have the decision made for her threw everything into disarray. There would be no international management job now. No job

anywhere if the captain had his way. She could hardly get a senior position after leaving Adventurer

Cruises under circumstances that implied she couldn’t be trusted with power.

Faced with the facts, she realized she had no desire to start all over in another industry. She wanted to go upward, not to begin at the bottom again. Getting off the ship was supposed to herald a new chapter in her life—more responsibility, more money, more prospects. Leaving under these circumstances

promised none of that. Oh, how could she have been so stupid?

Michaela threw herself on the bed and cried in earnest. Very soon, her pillow was wet with tears, and her throat was raw. Trying to think through what to do next only brought on another round of tears.

“I’m ruined,” she said. “I’m going to be one of those women who grow old alone, with nothing.” The

next round of tears completely exhausted her, and she lay on her bed for almost an hour, empty and

unmoving. She stared at the ceiling and felt the movement of the ship through the water. How would

she be able to sleep without its gentle rocking? How would she relearn how to cook?

The idea of cooking made her realize she was hungry. Pull yourself together. Crying isn’t going to solve anything. But the thought of facing everyone in the canteen was just unbearable. She reached out for

the phone and rang Felicity’s stateroom.

“Hello? Michaela, is that you?”

Michaela gave a small sob.

“I’m coming.”

…

Dylan couldn’t believe Michaela would cut him cold like that. She was the one woman he’d felt he’d

been able to read. Her candor was so refreshing, so unlike the personalities of the women he usually

dated. But now that she was upset, the rawness of her emotional state stabbed at him. And that she

could even have thought for a second that he’d reported her to the captain, that he’d said she seduced him… It hurt.

And that was nuts. She was a beautiful woman, sexy, interesting, but all they’d had was a fling. Nothing worth getting bent out of shape over.

Dylan drifted toward his stateroom. They had a music night on tonight, and the dancers who didn’t sing weren’t required.

On his way downstairs, he saw a group of women huddled together and overheard one of them talking

about Michaela. She spotted him.

“Hey sexy, how you doing? Isn’t it outrageous? That filthy woman. I didn’t think it would be allowed,”