Page 4 of Titus

“You handled that situation without consulting me,” I said carefully.

“You were upstairs.”

“And yet you believed you had the authority to intervene.”

“I believed that allowing a five-billion-dollar investor to insult your event staff in front of the entire guest list was… unproductive,” she said calmly.

Her gaze held mine steadily with no hostility in it. Just confidence, which was almost worse.

“You work for me,” I said.

“No,” she replied curtly, her answer landing between us like a dropped blade.

I studied her. “You’re running an event on my yacht.”

“The only reason I’m here.”

“Which means you work for me,” I pressed.

“I was contracted by your events director.”

“Who no longer works for me after making decisions without my approval.”

“Then it seems we both learned something new tonight,” she said coolly.

I lowered my voice slightly. “You challenged one of my investors.”

“I prevented him from embarrassing you.”

“You don’t know that.”

Her eyebrow lifted slightly. “I’m fairly certain you don’t build empires by letting men shout at your staff.”

The deck felt quieter suddenly. Not because the music stopped, but because she wasn’t backing down. Most people tried to impress me, while others tried to avoid me. This woman simply evaluated me as if I were another problem she might need to solve.

“Petrov is not someone you provoke casually,” I said.

“He’s not someone you reward for bad behavior either,” she insisted.

I stepped closer. Not enough to touch her or intimidate the way Petrov had—just enough that she’d understand the conversation was over when I said it was—but she didn’t move. She didn’t so much as lean back or even look away.

Interesting.

“You’re very comfortable making decisions that aren’t yours,” I said quietly.

“I’m very comfortable doing my job with precision and flawless execution. So yes, I am comfortable making decisions that aren’t mine. And in this situation, someone had to make a decision to handle Mr. Petrov.”

“And you assumed that someone should be you?”

“I assumed,” she said calmly, “that your investors expect competence.” Her gaze flicked briefly toward the lower deck where Petrov had disappeared, then returned to mine. “And they received it.”

There was a breath of silence. Then I heard Wyatt speak behind me, “I’m just going to point out that technically she’s not wrong.”

“Wyatt,” I said without turning.

“Right,” he replied. “I’ll shut up.”

I looked back at Cat, “You seem very confident for someone who arrived here without my approval.”