The Ruthless Gentleman(30)
“What about other women?”
“There’s Jean and Helen.”
“I don’t mean other people on your executive team. I mean women.”
Was he five? “You mean girls I’ve fucked? Well, you know the score there.”
“Are you still as prolific as you’ve always been?”
I chuckled and amusement sliced through my anxiety. It seemed so odd that my brother was asking me personal questions in a way that was clearly meant to be professional. I was used to a different side of him. “Prolific? Jesus, I bet locker room talk was boring when you were in the SAS. I fuck a lot of women, but they never come back to my place. I don’t take them to dinner or talk about my day with them.”
“So it’s just shagging. No pillow talk?”
“You want details? Okay, well if you must know, generally I like to start with getting my dick sucked. I like women to take their bra off for that but leave their knickers—”
“Shut the fuck up. I don’t want to hear about how bad in bed you are.”
Given how differently our lives had turned out, it always surprised me how quickly we reverted to our teenage selves around each other. There were lots of upsides to being successful, but there were downsides too. I didn’t get to kick back with the guys much. I didn’t have many friends. They’d been abandoned along the route to the success. And at work I was the boss—a leader. I was deadly serious and laser focused. Landon was really the only person in my life I could joke with.
“Think about it. Is there anyone you’ve shagged over the last couple of years you changed your MO for? Maybe she turned up to your place, naked, wearing just a fur or maybe you’ve fucked some office junior—”
“Hey, that’s enough. I’ve never taken advantage of a junior member of my staff. Like I said, there’s no one. I’m not saying there aren’t girls, but I never bring them back to my place and I never discuss work with them.” I fucked to forget about work. It was my release, the way I disappeared from the stress of the day.
“Calm down.” Landon paused. “If you’re sure then we’ll put all our efforts into the office. I just want to make sure we’re not missing anything. I expected it to be easier. Whoever it is has covered their tracks.”
“When I call Anita, I could ask her to arrange for me to be sent a couple of IMs and have her send them to me on USB.”
“IM?” Landon asked.
“Information Memorandum—the sale particulars of a company.”
“Sounds good. It could help flush someone out. That way if Cannon swoop in and buy any of the companies whose sale particulars you’ve requested, we’ll know Anita is the source.”
“Right, Einstein.” I hated to consider the possibility that Anita was the leak but if she was, I needed to know sooner rather than later. She had too much access to too much information. More than anyone, she had the ability to destroy me and I wasn’t going to let that happen.
Fifteen
Avery
There was no end of lobster, steak and chocolate on a yacht, which meant I craved the most basic things. It might not be everyone’s idea of a perfect meal but as far as I was concerned, carbs and cheese were as close to heaven as it was possible to be while still breathing, and combining them was just the best invention outside of tampons, the internet and lipstick.
“Hey, what are you doing?” Eric came into the galley as I was shredding the perfect strength cheddar, which I knew Neill stocked just for me.
“Making myself a cheese sandwich, or changing a tire—delete as appropriate.”
He checked his watch. “But we’re heading to the restaurant in like twenty minutes, and are you grating cheese to go in a cold cheese sandwich?”
I shook my head. “First, with August in your party, you’ll be lucky if you make it out within the hour. Second, I don’t see how I can join you.”
He drew back as if I’d whacked him in the face with a frying pan. “What do you mean?”
I shook the grater, small curls of yellow tumbling onto the board. “I don’t see how I can? I mean, is the captain going to make Hayden a coffee if he wants one?”
“Captain Moss said himself that Hayden had given us all the evening off. Neill’s prepped some food and left it in the refrigerator. Wolf knows there won’t be any crew on board.”
“I know but it doesn’t feel right.” It did go against my instincts to leave a guest on board, knowing there was no crew other than the captain. But the reason I was still in my crew uniform was more complicated. I’d enjoyed watching the sunrise with Hayden the other morning. No one else had been awake and we’d had the boat to ourselves. I could pretend for a moment that he wasn’t a guest and I wasn’t a stewardess. And although I knew it was stupid, reckless even to think like that, I wanted that feeling again. Maybe that was a good reason to go ashore.
“We’re in Italy, dude. You have to come ashore.”
I smiled. Not at anything Eric had said but at the fact that after my conversation with Hayden and my suggestion at moving the yacht, he’d done exactly that.
“Don’t be such a martyr. You’ve got to come. Neill’s told me how much tequila you can drink. I want to see it for myself,” Eric continued.