Crowning His Unlikely Princess (Mills & Boon Modern)

by Michelle Conder

  Peta gave her a look. ‘Your problem is that you’re always too willing to help the underdog and it will come back to bite you one day.’

  Cassidy laughed and shook her head. ‘If there is one thing Logan de Silva cannot be described as, it’s an underdog.’

  ‘I was speaking metaphorically,’ Peta dismissed. ‘But he plays to your sense of obligation and I don’t want him to take advantage of you.’

  Perhaps he wasn’t the only one who did that, she reflected, instantly contrite at the unbidden thought. Her sister was beautiful and wilful but she was also loyal and loving.

  ‘Just don’t be a pushover,’ Peta continued. ‘You deserve more for yourself. You deserve to have a life other than work and me and the twins. It’s something to think about.’

  Cassidy felt her hackles rise at the underlying message in her sister’s tone. ‘I have a life. And I love taking care of my nieces.’

  ‘Yes, but you don’t have anything else.’

  ‘I don’t need anything else,’ she said, struggling not to feel testy at her sister’s insistence. ‘Look, I can’t stand here and argue with you right now. I need to grab a shower, change, and do my hair before he arrives to collect me. And, yes, I know that makes me a pushover in your eyes but...’

  Right now she didn’t feel as if she had any choice. Logan had made it clear that she had to go with him and unless she was prepared to lose her job—which she wasn’t at the moment—she could hardly defy him.

  A shiver went through her as she recalled that moment in his apartment when she’d seen him standing there half-naked, dripping in sweat. It was as if she’d never seen such a thing before. She had. Plenty of times at her dojo.

  The last person she wanted to find attractive was her boss. And hopefully the feeling was an aberration, the result of stress, and would be completely gone by the time she joined him in the car.

  Noticing that Peta was still watching her with a frown on her face, Cassidy lifted her chin. ‘I’ll be fine. I’m always fine.’

  But half an hour later, as Dan carried her case to the front door, she didn’t feel fine.

  ‘Don’t worry about the girls,’ he said, giving her shoulder a light squeeze as he leaned down to kiss her cheek. ‘I’ll look out for them while you’re gone.’

  Cassidy murmured her appreciation as he handed Logan’s driver her suitcase. She especially didn’t feel fine as she followed Gordon down the short walkway and climbed into the back of the town car. She felt more of a pushover than ever.

  Her sister’s comments kept replaying in her head, particularly the one about her being secretly in love with her boss, as she glanced over to find him sprawled in the back of the car like a disgruntled model wearing faded jeans and a knit sweater that hugged his muscular frame. She really wished that he didn’t look so good because she couldn’t deny that the flashes of sexual chemistry she’d felt in his apartment earlier had seriously unsettled her. Particularly since they hadn’t gone away as she’d hoped. It was as if seeing him half-naked had revealed a deep-seated desire inside herself she hadn’t even known she possessed. And she needed to close it down. Now.

  Despite what Peta said, she was happy with her life. She didn’t need anything else, and she wasn’t about to jeopardise her job by making the fatal error of creating more out of this unwanted attraction to her boss than actually existed. Today was just one of those days and tomorrow she’d be back to normal. Until then she’d grit her teeth and focus on work.

  ‘Why are you wearing a suit?’

  His voice was low and smooth in the confines of the darkened car.

  Cassidy glanced at him. ‘Because we’re going on a business trip.’ And, in her view, clothes maketh the person.

  Growing up in a small, conservative parish, you soon learned that the way you dressed mattered a lot. She knew what it meant to be gossiped about and turned into an outcast. After their mother had deserted them Peta had become a bit of a wild child, running with the wrong crowd and falling pregnant by the town rebel at sixteen. The townsfolk had gone from supportive to vitriolic, and in the blink of an eye the Ryan girls were bad news. Then Cassidy had inadvertently added to their newfound notoriety in a way that had seemed to solidify her family’s reputation in the eyes of their town.

  She still remembered how devastating it had felt to walk down the street and know that everyone was whispering about you behind your back. Their father had lost his job, having to find work in a nearby parish, leaving her and Peta alone for long periods of time.

  Finally they had moved and things had slowly improved, but with twin babies to clothe and feed, they had all gone into survivor mode. During that time Cassidy had vowed to step out of the mould she’d been placed in so that now, when people met her, they saw the smart, capable woman that she was and not the downtrodden girl she had once been.

  ‘It’s late,’ Logan said, dragging her mind out of the past she’d left behind. ‘And we’ll be flying all night. I don’t expect you to be uncomfortable.’

  ‘I won’t be.’ And even if she was she’d never let him know.

  Wondering if she was going to get anything right today, she pulled her tablet out of her bag to check her emails. What she needed to do was think of this unexpected trip to Arrantino as a godsend because it would give her a chance to work up a plan and think clearly about her next move.

  Because no matter how much she hated the thought of it, her sister was moving out and Cassidy had no clue as to what she would do next. She couldn’t afford to live alone, but the thought of getting a new flatmate depressed her. What if the person she chose turned out to be a weirdo? Or what if things didn’t work out between Peta and Dan? Perhaps she should remain alone in case her sister and the twins needed to move back in again. The whole situation made her feel vulnerable and rejected—two emotional states she worked very hard to avoid.

  Just as she had worked hard to help her sister out, upgrading to a larger place when Peta and the twins had moved to New York so she could be on hand to support them. Peta had barely been able to make ends meet since the twins had been born and as Cassidy had been finishing an online degree at Colombia, it had made sense for them to all move in together.

  But she really wanted to ask Peta if she was sure about Dan. After she’d had the twins Peta had vowed to never trust another man again. She’d devoted herself to bringing up her girls and giving them a stable life and, okay, maybe it had been short-sighted to think that Peta would never meet another man again, but Cassidy had believed her when she’d said she was done with men. They had even joked that if there were any good men left in the world they wouldn’t come near the Ryan sisters.

  ‘Are you planning to turn that on, or just stare at it the whole time?’

  Cassidy blinked, embarrassed to discover that she had become so engrossed by memories of the past that she had yet to turn on her device. ‘I had an argument with Peta,’ she admitted with a slight grimace. ‘It’s distracted me.’

  Logan’s brow climbed his forehead. ‘Over you coming with me, I presume.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘You did explain that it’s just business.’

  ‘Of course,’ she said briskly. ‘But apparently I’m always putting work ahead of my social life. It’s unhealthy.’

  ‘Peter sounds a little demanding. I hope this isn’t going to interfere with your work.’

  ‘Not at all.’

  Although hadn’t Peta’s announcement about her engagement been the thing to put her in a spin in the first place?

  Logan must have noted something in her expression because he scowled. ‘You had better be sure because I need you to be your usual self while we’re in Arrantino.’

  ‘I know you’re referring to how many times I mucked up today,’ she said, ‘but that was out of the ordinary.’

  ‘I want ordinary.’

  Well, if the
re was an annual award for Miss Ordinary she’d win it uncontested. ‘You’ve got it.’ She gave him a tight smile.

  Despite the lateness of the hour, Republic Airport was busy and noisy as Gordon drove the car straight onto the tarmac. A light plane was about to land, and a jeep sped out of a nearby hangar to greet it. Another plane was set to take off and closer at hand a small black helicopter sat like a squat beetle, its rotors suddenly whining and whipping up the air around them.

  Cassidy ducked her head against the downdraught, moving quickly toward the set of airstairs connected to Logan’s private plane. Strands of her hair had come loose from the downdraught and she pushed them back, missing one of the steps as she did so.

  Logan immediately clamped his strong hand around her elbow, sending a bolt of sensation up her arm.

  Disturbed by even that small touch, Cassidy thanked him and quickly scrambled to ascend the stairs.

  Taking in the plush leather interior in one quick glance, she settled into one of the armchairs by the window, buckled her seat belt and handed a customs official her passport to check.

  Once they were cleared to fly, Logan took the seat on the other side of the glossy table from her.

  Ignoring the way her heart sped up, she scrolled through her boss’s schedule and fired off a few quick emails, cancelling the most obvious meetings.

  Then she worked through the various emails on her tablet. So far there were none relating to the scandal in Arrantino, but Cassidy knew that it was just a matter of time. ‘Once we’re airborne we’ll need to go over my schedule for the week and decide which meetings to delegate and which ones to cancel.’

  ‘I’ve already worked that out,’ she said without looking up. ‘I’m just not sure what to do with the stakeholder meeting for the new Westgate tunnel development on Thursday morning. It’s still two days away so we can wait, but I don’t want to cancel at the last minute because there’s a very real chance that the Peterstone Organisation will get cold feet and pull out before then.’

  Which would undermine the whole process, not to mention render all the work they had done winning over the relevant Australian government agencies over the last eight months to be the front runners to win the bid to build the new tunnel. It was a ten-billion-dollar deal, but they needed the equity that the Peterstone Organisation was looking to invest to cover the debt. She knew it was an important deal to Logan because it would launch the Arrantino bank into a whole new market.

  Everyone had said that he wouldn’t be able to pull it off, which had only made him work harder, and she’d hate to see all that effort go to waste.

  ‘If they pull out because I can’t make it then they pull out,’ he said dismissively. ‘The future of my country is more important than one deal.’

  Knowing he was downplaying how disappointed he was at the prospect of losing the coup, she nodded. ‘I’ll draft a response and put it on hold until you’ve had a chance to speak with your brother.’ Her fingers flew effortlessly across the keyboard, only pausing when the plane set off down the runway.

  Cassidy glanced out the window and gripped the armrests with both hands.

  ‘Are you a nervous flyer?’

  Unaware that Logan had been watching her, she glanced up, a wide smile curving her lips. ‘No.’ She sounded breathless, a warm buzzing feeling in her stomach as the jet rocketed down the runway. ‘I love flying. Particularly take-off. I’ve only ever flown once before and I don’t want to miss a single part of it.’

  Peta had won an all-expenses-paid trip to Cancun on the radio after arriving in New York and for one blissful week she, Peta, and the twins had soaked up the sun and sipped mocktails by the swimming pool. It had definitely given Cassidy the travel bug, but since then she’d had little time or money to set aside for holidays.

  Suddenly the plane lifted off and her stomach bottomed out. ‘Does it always feel that way?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Logan said with a frown. ‘I barely take any notice any more.’

  ‘Well, I definitely want to experience that again.’ She released a rushed breath, and then coloured when she noticed the frown on his face. ‘Sorry. You’re probably used to travelling with women who are a lot more sophisticated. Shall we get back to work?’

  ‘Actually, it’s probably best if you turn in and get some sleep. There’s a bedroom at the rear of the plane. You can use that.’

  Cassidy could feel the weight of the whole day bearing down on her and she groaned softly when she mentally went through the clothing she had packed and realised that she had been so distracted by her discussion with Peta that she hadn’t packed anything to sleep in. In fact, the only thing other than suits and clean underwear she had packed was her dobok, and she’d only grabbed that because it had been lying on the end of the bed freshly laundered. She hadn’t even packed a change of shoes.

  As if sensing her frustration, Logan glanced up from the reports he had spread out on the table. ‘What’s wrong?’

  Reluctant to go into the specifics, she shrugged lightly. ‘I forgot to pack something to sleep in.’

  His eyes caught and held hers for a moment. ‘I have plenty of shirts on board, you can use one of those.’

  ‘No, that’s fine.’ She already borrowed an item of his clothing today and it was more than enough. ‘Just tell me how many hours are left in this day.’

  ‘Two.’

  ‘I think I’m going to sit here and count the seconds before I move again. I swear I must have walked under a ladder or a black cat crossed my path this morning without me noticing it.’

  His brow quirked. ‘You’re superstitious?’

  ‘No.’ She sighed heavily. ‘But how else do you account for a day like today?’

  Logan’s lips curled into a rueful grin. ‘You roll with it.’

  That is exactly what her sensei would tell her to do.

  ‘Easy for some,’ she said despondently. ‘I’m not a roll-with-it kind of girl.’ She never had been and she never would be. ‘I’m more the pull it apart, analyse it to death and put it into a plastic food container kind of girl. That’s why your office runs so well.’

  And maybe why her love life sucked. She’d discovered on the few dates that she’d had that men generally didn’t appreciate being picked apart so that their motives were laid bare. Unfortunately for them, Cassidy didn’t like being used so it inevitably turned into a lose-lose situation.

  ‘My office hasn’t run quite so well today,’ Logan drawled.

  ‘I know. And again I’m sorry about that. I had a few things on my mind.’

  ‘Such as?’

  Cassidy blinked with surprise, absently noting the granite-hard line of his unshaven jaw. She had never seen him as anything other than clean-shaven in the office and she couldn’t stop herself from wondering if it would be hard or soft to the touch. ‘You really want to know?’

  ‘If it means I have my EA back then I do.’

  For a moment she had thought that he’d actually been interested in her as a person and now she felt...disappointed. Wondering whether to tell him or not, she decided that he had asked and, knowing him, he’d likely push until she answered anyway.

  ‘My sister told me that she’s getting married and it threw me out all day.’

  Logan frowned. ‘You don’t like her partner?’

  ‘No, I love him. He’s great...but she... It’s just taken me by surprise. And on top of that she needed me to look after my twin nieces this week so she’s not happy with me for leaving.’

  ‘Can’t she find someone else?’

  ‘I’m hoping she can, but really I look after them all the time so we’ve never had to rely on anyone else on a regular basis.’

  ‘All the time?’

  Seeing his surprise, she shrugged. ‘Pretty much. But I’m always happy to do it. I love my nieces.’

  ‘I’m sure you d
o. But it sounds like your sister is taking advantage.’

  Having felt guilty for thinking the same thing herself once or twice, Cassidy jumped to Peta’s defence. ‘She’s had a hard time. She was a teenage mother and the twin’s father bailed before they were born. She didn’t have a lot of help and it was really hard for her.’

  ‘I have no doubt. So who did help out?’ he asked shrewdly. ‘You?’

  ‘There wasn’t anyone else. Our mother had left two years earlier, and our father sort of lost the plot. He became depressed and started gambling...’ She bit into her lower lip as she remembered how worried she and Peta had been that something would happen to him. That fear had been realised when a few years back he’d died after his car had collided with a tree.

  ‘Logan, I’m pretty sure you don’t want to hear any of this.’ And she was shocked to find that she was seriously at risk of blurting out her long, sordid history, including her own awful indiscretion, and she never talked about the past to anyone, preferring to leave it long buried. ‘I promise that once we land I’ll be back to normal. In fact, I’ll start now. I’m going to sit here and work all night then my lack of packing won’t matter.’

  ‘You can’t do that. We’ll arrive just before lunch Arrantinian time tomorrow and I need you fresh. If you don’t sleep you’ll suffer jet-lag.’

  ‘I’ll be fine.’

  Logan sat back in his chair, regarding her steadily. ‘I didn’t know you were this stubborn.’

  ‘I’m not stubborn.’

  ‘Cassidy, if I have to order you into the bedroom, I will.’

  Cassidy’s eyes went wide. She blushed, even though she knew there was no reason to. Still the devil on her shoulder whispered to her that she should ask him what he would do if she disobeyed and the heated anticipation that shot through her sent her flying to her feet.