“Trust me, you are. You’re always the first to jump to a coworker’s defense whenever James goes on the attack. You organized that meal train for Barbara when she was out for chemo last year. You ask people about themselves and offer a kind word if they seem down. You’re thoughtful. I’ve seen it over countless video conferences and here in the Galápagos too. Like how much you watch out for Walsh.”

Heat flushes my cheeks. I can’t believe he noticed all that. “I forgot my grandma’s birthday this year,” I mumble.

He lets out a hearty laugh. “You win. Rotten to the core.”

The sound of his laughter dances through my body until it coils in my lungs.

We’re close. But not close enough. Every cell in my body urges me to eliminate the distance between us. No, I can’t. But I want to.

My breathing turns jagged. When I peer up at him, our gazes collide. His smile fades and his eyes grow hooded. Golden light dances across his stubbled jaw. I find myself leaning closer, closer…

Sucking in a breath, I stumble back. “We shouldn’t do this.”

“Why not?” He steps back, brow furrowed. “There aren’t any rules in the employee handbook preventing consensual romantic relationships at work. I checked.”

“There doesn’t need to be. I already know what will happen. We do this, then Gustavo finds out. Then he tells James. And James loses the last dregs of respect he has for me and my career at Seaquest will be over.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I do.”

Confusion flickers behind his eyes and he frowns.

My stomach plummets. He’ll never understand if I don’t tell him the truth.

“It’s—it’s why I left my last job.”

Shock registers across his face for a handful of heartbeats. “What happened?”

“A guy named Sean happened. It was four years ago. I was working for an insurance company, Prima Health. Sean started several months after me, and we were assigned to work on the same big project: the digital rollout of a new branding concept. There were sparks from day one, but we didn’t act on it. Not right away. But then there were a lot of long nights, extra time spent together… one thing led to another…”

My thighs tense as I stare out at the blue-gray ocean. “For a few weeks, I thought he was it. He was funny and charming and seemed so interested in me and supportive of my ambition. Looking back, he was mostly interested in my ideas for our joint project. We spent almost every night together. I started thinking of him as my boyfriend, but it was all a sham.