She’d been nervous about something, Michaela realized, but whatever it was, it seemed to have passed.
Michaela’s pager buzzed. “It’s the captain. Must run. Meet you for a drink later?” she asked. Felicity nodded, and Michaela went to answer her call.
The captain’s face was stern when Michaela arrived on the bridge, putting her on alert. There had been times when passengers hadn’t arrived back on the ship as instructed, and it was always a frantic scramble to try and find them. They’d left port with no fuss, though, and were now powering back toward Auckland Harbor. The cruise had whizzed by. They would be in New Zealand the next afternoon.
“Can you leave us, please?” The captain dismissed his staff.
A sense of foreboding washed over Michaela. Had one of her staff done something? Had Dylan…? She looked about the bridge for some sort of clue. A note, some paperwork of any kind, but there were just the usual charts on the captain’s desk, and his computer monitor showed only navigational radar readings.
“It has been brought to my attention that you have been having relations with someone onboard.”
Oh, dear lord, I’m going to kill Jake. Michaela tried to remember the look on Jake’s face. Had he seemed triumphant? Ready to dish the dirt on her?
“Well? Are you going to deny it?” The captain spoke in a clipped tone, as if he would like nothing better than to throw her overboard and be done with this business.
Michaela shook her head. Jake had looked genuine in his vow to be discreet, but clearly he hadn’t been all that genuine. “It’s only been the one time.”
“One time too many.” The captain warmed up, starting to enjoy himself. “I knew it was a bad idea putting a woman in this position. Too much power goes to your head, and then look where you end up. You’ll be lucky to work in this industry again now. You’ll have to resign straight away. Lucky it’s the end of this cruise.” He paused. “Perhaps you’ll be able to start again in another industry. You worked in music before, didn’t you? That might work. I hear they’re a bit more forgiving of this sort of thing. Groupies, et cetera.”
“What?” Michaela’s jaw dropped. It was officially frowned on to have liaisons with other staff, but to lose her job over it? To be threatened with never working in the cruise business again? She hadn’t thought the captain would stoop this low.
“Well, what did you expect? Using a position of power to seduce a younger man. And the way you did it—quite outrageous.”
“Seduce?”
“The passengers are all talking about it, so we have to make an example of you. You understand, of course.” The captain smirked at her, his expression full of disdain.
So Dylan had been too good to be true.
And here she’d been thinking of the stupidity of men only moments ago. What a fool she’d been. “He said I seduced him?”
“He did. Or so I hear. It’s good to see that you’re not trying to deny it. That makes it much simpler to deal with. No need to bring in those human resources people from head office or any of that. Investigations get messy. We’ll keep it simple, shall we? I’ll expect your resignation on my desk in the morning. You can hand over your responsibilities to your deputy.” His face closed against her, and she could read nothing in his eyes.
“But I—”
“I’m afraid there isn’t anything else to say about the matter. I have to admit that despite my concerns about your being a woman in this position, I thought you’d done a fairly good job. I’m surprised at you. Surprised and disappointed.”
Michaela opened her mouth to speak, but he held up a hand.
“That will be all. Thank you.” He turned away from her, pulling himself up to his full height and dismissing her from his office and her life onboard with an utter lack of sympathy.
Lifting her legs was like trying to move lead, but Michaela managed to shift one in front of the other and shuffle out of the bridge back to her stateroom. She could feel the hot sting of tears threatening to fall, and she poked her nails into the palms of her hands to stop them. She refused to cry in front of anyone.
A couple of passengers passed her by, and this time she noticed the looks she was getting from the men rather than the women. A younger man, probably in his early twenties, leered at her in a way that was entirely inappropriate between a passenger and a crew member, and she hurried away, worried that some other rumor might get started and that her distress was more evident than she thought.
When she got to her stateroom, she was alarmed to find Dylan waiting outside her door. “You’re not someone I want to see right now,” she said flatly.
His face fell, the filthy grin that had been waiting for her erased by disappointment.
After looking about her to check that they were alone in the corridor, Michaela sighed. “You better come in before someone else reports us.”
“What? Who? What are you talking about?” Dylan looked confused, giving no hint of the man who must have reported her for “seducing” him. Forget dancing, he was an amazing actor.
“The captain knows. I’ve just been up on the bridge. He’s threatening my job, my whole career.” She bit her lip, determined not to cry. “I’ve been instructed to resign.”
“Jake would never have said anything. And if he did, who cares anyway? Everyone else does it. The captain can hardly make you resign over—”
Michaela stopped him with a hand on his chest. “He said you accused me of seducing you.” The words were hard, and even as she said them Michaela still couldn’t believe the man in front of her could have stooped to such an accusation. “He said he was told that I used my position of power to influence you into being with me. Made it sound like we did something revolting.”
“Well, he’s clearly got it all wrong. It was definitely me doing the seducing.” A smile flirted with the corners of his eyes. His hands moved toward her waist.
Indignation got the better of her, and she shoved him away, much harder than necessary. “You accuse me of seducing you, putting my job and my career in jeopardy, and now you’re turning it into some kind of joke?”
The smile dropped away completely. “I’m not sure that was really called for.”
“You’re not sure, huh? My career isn’t worth much anyway, is that what you’re trying to say?” Even as she said the words, they sounded hollow and harsh.