Page 18 of Carnal Risk

“Thank you.” Her voice wavered slightly and she pushed a stray hair from her face. His approval wrapped around her like a warm blanket and the butterflies in her stomach did a happy dance. The flicker in his eyes told her that he’d remembered everything from last night and that whatever they’d started was far from over.

“And Selby…”

“Yes?” She gathered her things in her arms, carrying them protectively against her chest as if to block him from seeing the emotion brewing inside her.

“Hope you remembered what I told you to bring yesterday.”

“Um, what?” A bathing suit. What the hell could he possibly be thinking?

“This won’t take too long.”

“Yeah, okay,” she managed.

“Nice job.” Lars patted her shoulder as the boardroom door shut.

“Lars, I don’t know if I should stay on…”

“You’re staying. Garrett needs you whether he knows it or not. And I need you to get things transitioned after the contract is approved.”

“You think they’ll sign?” she asked as they walked to her office.

“Yeah, I do. Nate’s just being difficult as usual. And Ryder…well, they’re all taking things hard, with Evan out of the picture.”

“About that.” Selby rounded her desk and placed her things on top. She kicked off her high heels and fell back into her leather chair. “Evan. How well did you know him?”

“He’s been…he was with Garrett for a long time. Even though he was the CTO, he was a jack of all trades. Ex-military. Helped Garrett when he first started going after the government contracts. He also worked with Chase on the science stuff. Had his hands in all sorts of things.”

“Did you sky dive with him?”

“Of course.” Lars paused and closed the door.

Selby opened her desk drawer, pulled out a piece of candy and waved it in front of him. “Lollypop?”

“It’s ten in the morning, Selb.”

“Yeah, I’ve been up since five and I’m runnin’ on a few hours of sleep. Give me sugar or give me death.” She laughed, unwrapped it and popped it into her mouth.

“You know that shit’s not good for you,” Lars pressed. “Red dye. Yellow dye. Corn syrup.”

“Don’t care, Lars. I just got baptized by fire, so bring it on.”

“You did well today in there. Evan and I had this all hammered out before his accident, but we hadn’t taken it to the board. Garrett’s a yes.”

“Hmm…well, he could have said so during the presentation. Would it have killed him to let Nate and Ryder know that this was a done deal? It’s like he wanted me to go through every last detail of the feasibility study. I read Evan’s notes. He’d paved the way for this project. But you would never have known that this morning.” She sighed, considering how much she should share with Lars about what had happened last night. “Speaking of Evan, how close were you? I mean, we’ve known each other a long time and I never met him before. But when you talk about him…I don’t know, it just seems like you all were really close.”

“Yeah, we all were close friends. I met him after you and I got out of college. I guess I never introduced you to him for the same reasons I never introduced you to Garrett. It’s not like you all have anything in common. And Evan was always the craziest out of all of us. It’s not like you’d date the guy.”

“How would you know?” she countered. Not only did I date him, I kissed him and he tried to get me to steal for him.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but it’s no secret that you’re kind of tightly wound. You’re all about control. And some of us… we like being out of control.”

“I just like being alive is all. Death isn’t up there on my to do list.”

“I’m just saying that Evan would not be your type.” Lars paused, scrubbing his chin with his hand. He cocked an eyebrow and gave her a sideways grin. “You want me to be honest about this morning?”

“No. Lie to me. It’s awesome.” She knew his critique was coming but couldn’t stifle her sarcasm. Lars always enjoyed pushing her buttons.

“Garrett’s main concern about you is that you really don’t get his company and why people want what they provide. You already know that some of the stuff they develop is used for the military, things having to do with the skydiving, advanced technologies. But some of their products are for everyday people who just enjoy the extreme adventures we partake in. The bottom line is that no matter what the numbers say on the deal or how much money his company brings in, this is still not a publicly held company. Garrett built this from the ground up. All those guys sitting around him know it and most of them helped him.”