“He said something about how it must feel to use the LolaRing. The whole being licked and fucked. It just made me wonder where he’d heard that.”

Casey laughed. “It’s a freaking cock ring with an oral sex simulator vibe attached to it. It damn well better feel like being licked and fucked at the same time. I don’t think it takes insider knowledge to conclude that. Besides, I would never ever try to screw you or anyone else on a deal. You know that, right?”

He inhaled deeply, and a smile dared to appear on his face. He believed her. It was that simple. Kat was right. You simply made a choice to trust, a choice to believe, a choice to move forward. He was doing all three and would keep on that path.

“I do know that,” he said, and all that anger and fear faded away. In its place was something better. Something that came from a true and deep faith in another person. Ethan had tried to shake that but he’d been unsuccessful. He would, however, get a piece of Nate’s mind after his board meeting.

33

New York, a few minutes later . . .

Casey infiltrated his office easily, making it past the receptionist by claiming a meeting. Hell, if he was going to make up shit about her, she could very well do the same. She marched to Ethan’s office, knocked on the open door, and stepped inside. He raised his face from his screen, and the look in his eyes was one of pure guilt.

“Knock, knock,” she said in a cool, even tone.

“Who’s there?” he choked out.

“The ballbreaker,” she said as she walked over to his desk, parked her hands on the wood, and stared him in the eyes. “You thought I was a ballbreaker. You thought I was cutthroat. You thought I screwed you over. Does that about sum it up, Holmes?” she asked, completely in control, even as she broiled inside.

He nodded, like he’d been caught stealing. “Because I sent you the idea,” he said, as if he were on the witness stand under cross-examination.

“You did. You did send me an idea. And it was a good idea. It also was not an original idea, but that’s okay. I don’t require original ideas. But do not act as if your idea was patented. You would not have been the first hotel chain to offer sexy perks in the rooms,” she said, rattling off the names of a litany of hotels that featured late-night menus. “Yet, you are acting like you brought me the prototype for the next iPhone and I stole it from you because I didn’t respond to your email right away. The reality is this—I am a busy woman. I didn’t read your email for a week. And during that time, I struck a deal with Nate Harper, a deal I am sticking to. And you had the nerve to try to turn a line—one line—in an email to you into some sort of character assassination of me,” she said, pointing at her chest as she continued to deliver her speech, “but here’s what you left out. The parts where I said we should find ways to work together in the future. The parts where I said I had an idea for you. You want to know what that idea was?”