Seeds of Desire by Karenna Colcroft

and she thought of him as nothing more than a spoiled rich kid.
    She had to be dreaming the words Jared had said.
    Except the water on her skin felt very real, and so did
Jared’s hands as he gently rubbed shampoo into her hair. “You never knew that,
did you?” he murmured. “You never realized why they gave you the job, or how I
felt about you right from the start.”
    His words yanked her out of her pleasant peace. She’d only
been hired because he’d told his father and uncle to hire her. If he hadn’t
been in the room that day, someone else might have been given the position.
That pissed her off. “I thought I got the job on my own merits,” she snapped.
“I didn’t realize you bribed your father and uncle into hiring me.”
    “Oh brother, I knew I should have kept my mouth shut. That
isn’t what I meant at all. You would have had the job anyway! Did you miss the
part where I said that? My father and uncle don’t take my hiring advice
generally. Maybe I sealed the deal. They still made the choice. They pretty
much laughed at me when I gave them my ultimatum, because they already wanted
you on JaBro’s team.”
    Right. And he thought that would make her feel better. Some
horny PR rep had demanded she be the one traveling with him, and since his dad
owned the company, lo and behold, he’d been granted his wish. It had nothing to
do with her knowledge of the environment, or her college degree, or any of the
other things she’d done in her life to show her competence. Nothing he said
would make her feel better about that. Not a chance.
    She bit her tongue as another thought occurred to her. Even
if they’d hired her because of Jared’s request, surely they wouldn’t have kept
her on the payroll if she hadn’t proven herself. She did know what she was
doing, and even if she struggled a little with speaking to groups of people,
she’d done pretty well so far in the towns she and Jared had visited. Maybe it
didn’t matter if he’d persuaded them to give her the position. Even if she didn’t
have it solely because she was good at what she did, she’d held on to it on her
own merits.
    She’d done her research on the environmental impact of
construction projects ranging from office buildings to highway extensions.
Despite her difficulty speaking to large groups of people, when it came to
explaining things to the JaBro higher-ups either verbally or in writing, she
demonstrated that she knew what she was talking about. Her review of a few
proposed projects had even saved the company money, because she’d detected
things that would have either required new permits or might have resulted in
fines if JaBro had gone forward.
    Jared might have gotten her the position, but she’d earned
her place.
    He stepped out from behind her to look her in the eye. “You’re
pissed at me again, aren’t you?”
    She narrowed her eyes, though she didn’t feel quite as angry
as she tried to look. “Yeah, kind of. I would have had the position without you
sticking your nose into it, though.”
    “Absolutely,” he said firmly. “You’re damn good at what you
do, Cass. I knew that the first day. My dad and uncle threw some ringers in
there with those questions they asked you in your interview, and they didn’t
faze you in the slightest. I didn’t tell them to hire you just because I wanted
to get you into bed, though I confess that idea appealed to me. You’re so
intelligent, so beautiful, and something about you just plain struck me. I
needed a woman like you in my life. I knew you’d be good for me and good for
the company too.”
    Cassidy rolled her eyes. Leave it to Jared to throw in
sexual commentary even when she was ticked at him. “You’re not making this
sound much better. Especially the whole wanting to get me into bed thing.”
    “I had you in bed,” he pointed out. “Twice. Last night when
you fucked me so hard I wanted to scream, and again just now all injured and
stuff. Today you were completely at