Jules returned to the island with her coffee, miraculously managing not to spill a drop, even though her hands trembled again. “And that’s important?”

“Very important.” Vivian looked a trifle paler than usual. She said nothing else.

After a moment, Jules said quietly, “This is the ‘caring for me’ part, isn’t it?”

Vivian swallowed hard. She kept Jules’s gaze, but it seemed difficult. “I said earlier I didn’t need you.” She paused and with visible effort said, “I lied.”

Jules let out a huge breath and looked down at the quartz countertop to steady herself. She could only manage, “Okay.”

“And that—look. I’m your boss. I know that. Coming up through the ranks, I saw so many men— it’s disgusting. The exploitation and coercion.”

Jules looked up again, her heart hammering. “Did that ever happen to you?”

Vivian hesitated. “I knew how to play the game. I knew how to pit them against each other until I could climb another rung up the ladder and escape. I knew to find connections who could protect me. And I knew how to play dirty until they were afraid of me more than they wanted me. That was lucky.”

Jules nodded, realizing only now how lucky she’d been too, to work for mentors like Simon and Vivian. Whatever their other demands, they’d never demanded that.

“Anyway, back to the subject,” Vivian added with a bitter laugh. “My whole point is, I refuse to be like them, so I’m offering you the chance to spread your wings and fly, if…”

Jules’s hands were too hot from clenching onto her coffee cup. She still couldn’t relax them. “I can find my own chances. And I’m not worried you’ll exploit me, Vivian.”

Vivian bit her bottom lip. She flushed.

Jules’s heart stopped. It probably wasn’t good to think but maybe you could prey on me just a little bit. That wouldn’t be nearly as sexy in reality as it was in fantasy.

Jules would just tell herself that over and over until she believed it.

Then she realized Vivian was still red-faced and staring at her with a look that Jules recognized. She saw it in her own mirror after spending a whole shower thinking about fucking Vivian. And it made Jules’s nipples get so hard they ached in the space of one second.

“Right,” Vivian said hoarsely. “I don’t want from you what they wanted from me.”

Jules fought to get her brain out from between her thighs. Focus. Focus. “Then what do you want?”

“I mean—” Vivian met Jules’s gaze again. “I do want more out of you than an employee could reasonably be expected to give. Not sexually. I already told you. I’m not attracted to women.”