Page 50 of Rival Hearts

“Why is that?”

I looked toward the ocean again. “There is a whole world out there just waiting to be explored. There is so much beauty to see, and that’s what we’re trying to do. To give people a way to see it in the lap of luxury.”

“It seems very elitist.”

I raised my eyebrows.

“I mean, the fact you’re focusing on luxury,” Charlotte said quickly. “It eliminates a lot of people because of the price tag.”

I shrugged. “We cater to a certain market. It’s business.”

Charlotte nodded slowly. She curled her hands around her handbag on her lap. Her nails weren’t painted, but they were neatly trimmed, and her fingers were long and slender.

Everything about her was natural and beautiful—nothing like the high-maintenance girls who always fawned over me, who vied for my attention.

It was what had drawn me to Charlotte since the first moment I’d seen her.

“What is it you wanted to talk about?” Why the hell was she here, making it hard for me to think straight?

“Well… I might have been wrong.”

I blinked at her. “About what?”

“What you’re doing,” she said. “I mean, I know what the yacht manufacturing business is about… sort of. But I don’t know the details, and you keep telling me you’re not the enemy, we’re on the same side. You kept saying I don’t know what you’re doing.”

I nodded slowly.

“Well, that’s what I’m here for. To find out.”

I frowned, confused. “Find out what?”

“How your company practices sustainability in a way that eliminates you as a threat to the campaign and to the ocean life out there.”

My ears started ringing. That wasn’t exactly how things worked around here. Yeah, we did focus on a few things that were more eco-friendly than before, but we weren’t nearly as good at it as we could be.

That was what I’d wanted to team up with other companies for.

“If you want a tour of our facilities, I’m afraid you’ve come at a bad time. Everything is closing up for the weekend.”

“Monday, then? Maybe you can show me the factory or something. I could talk to your yacht designer. Chris?”

I shook my head. “I’ll have to see if we can fit you into our schedule. This isn’t a show-and-tell, it’s a business.”

I was getting more and more flustered that she wanted to see things I wasn’t ready to show her. What would my investors sayif I just brought one of the activists to have a look behind the scenes?

She narrowed her eyes at me. “If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought you were trying to get rid of me.”

I stood, walking around the table. “It would be better if you make an appointment.”

“So that you can prepare for my visit, find things to show me that will hide what’s really going on behind the scenes?”

“I don’t have anything to hide,” I said hotly.

Charlotte stood, facing me, but she didn’t walk to my office door, which was where I wanted her to go. I needed her to leave. Her visit was out of the blue, and I hadn’t had time to prepare. I had nothing I could show her, and I wasn’t ready for this onslaught on my senses. Because she smelled fantastic, she was a vision to look at, and even the sound of her voice was soothing.

“Look, I realize that I might have been too harsh in my judgement at first,” she said. “I thought things were a certain way and I learned that I don’t know what I’m talking about, so I’m trying to find out. That’s all. I’m not here to try to make you look bad or to tell you you’re wrong. I’m just trying to learn.”

Why did she have to be so reasonable?