Adam saw red. This was not going as he had planned. Cassie was supposed to be wowed by his gesture of a romantic dinner! By this point in the evening, he was sure that he would have her on the sofa or well on their way up to his bed. How the hell had it all gone so wrong so fast?
“What exactly is it that you want from me, Cassandra?” Unfortunately, she had already answered that question. Adam was unwilling to accept it.
“I want to do my job here and not be bothered by you. I had planned on arriving here and having the place to myself to set up and prep, but your being here messed that up. As my employer, it’s your prerogative to stay and oversee, I guess, but honestly, I wish you’d leave.” The slight tremor in her voice unsettled Cassie. She had wanted to come off as strong and confident in her decision to not want Adam around. As she spoke, however, she felt nothing but turmoil.
How had she gotten this embroiled with this man in such a short time? They had never had conflicts like this before, and honestly, Cassie never fought with anyone the way she did with Adam. It was a side of herself that she wasn’t enjoying very much. She wanted to do her job and be left alone. Her heart would heal. Eventually.
It was the slight catch in her voice that did it. In that moment, Adam realized what exactly he had done. In all his life, in all his dealings with people, Adam had said what was on his mind and never gave a thought to how it was received or how the other person felt.
Until now.
That little tremble while Cassie was trying to sound brave hit him like a ton of bricks. Adam realized that he had, indeed, hurt her. Even though, in the moment, that was his intent, seeing the results of that hurt caused an ache in his chest that was new to him. Maybe Cassie was the only person to feel this level of hurt at his hands, but Adam had a sinking sensation that wasn’t the case. There were countless others he had treated with heartless disregard over the years; he would never know how his words had affected them.
Cassie’s posture was rigid, her face one of cool disdain, but Adam would not let that stop him. If he was ever going to gain her forgiveness, if he was ever going to cleanse his very soul for what he had done to her, he had to knock down the wall that Cassie had around her and not stop until she knew how deeply sorry he was for hurting her.
Stepping forward, he ignored Cassie’s retreat until her back was against the countertop, reached out, and gently cupped her face. Staring intently into those beautiful blue eyes, Adam leaned forward and rested his forehead against hers.
“I am sorry…so sorry, Cassandra, for hurting you.” He placed a light kiss on her nose. “At the time, I didn’t realize how hatefully I was behaving, and I am well and truly sorry for making you feel like you are nothing more to me than an employee. You are far from that to me.”
Adam lifted his head and held Cassie’s gaze. “I don’t know how this happened, how we arrived at this place together after years of working together, but all I know is that I want to spend time with you. I want to get to know you.” Skimming a hand along her cheek, Adam watched as Cassie’s eyes drifted closed. “I want to kiss you and hold you. I want to take you upstairs to my bed and make love to you as I’ve wanted to for what seems like forever.”
Cassie’s eyes slowly fluttered open, and she trembled at the heat in Adam’s eyes. “I am asking for your forgiveness, Cassandra. I need your forgiveness.”
Adam’s breath was warm on Cassie’s face, and she desperately wanted to lean in and feel his mouth on hers and have his arms around her. She knew, though, that until she said she forgave him, Adam would respect her boundaries and not touch her. Which did she want more? Her pride or Adam?
Straining toward him, Cassie realized that with his apology, her pride was intact. For weeks she had dreamed about being in this house with him and finishing what they had started. If she didn’t act now, if she didn’t give in and take what she wanted, Cassie had no doubt that she would regret it for the rest of her life.
With a deep breath, she straightened slightly and whispered, “Yes, Adam, I forgive you.” The last word barely left her mouth before Adam claimed her. His hands, which had been cupping her face, ran along her back and pulled her close. He was already aroused, and Cassie reveled in the hard length of him against her belly.
The madness claimed them as it had before and, now that Cassie knew how things could progress, made her want all the more. “Upstairs…” she panted. “Please…”
As much as it pained Adam to break contact with her delectable mouth, he released her long enough to swing her into his arms and up the stairs. “Elevator…” she whispered, hoping to encourage him to take the faster route, but he was already halfway up the first flight of stairs, taking them two at a time.
“Trust me, this is faster.” True to his word, Adam had them in his suite faster than Cassie thought possible, and he wasn’t remotely out of breath. He didn’t release her until they were next to the bed, and then he placed her on the mattress and followed her, anxious for the full-body contact, even fully clothed.
Adam feasted on Cassie’s mouth, her cheek, her throat. His hands shook with need as they roamed her body. He wanted this to last; he wanted to take his time and pleasure her in every way possible, not to make up for his callous behavior but simply for the sake of wanting to give her pleasure.
Cassie whispered his name. In response, Adam moved his hand to the hem of her T-shirt and lifted it up and over her head, exposing the blue lacy bra he swore matched her eyes. He had seen her naked before, and yet he was still stunned at how perfect she was. Slowly lifting a hand, he skimmed the smooth skin of her rib cage and up to cup one rounded breast, lifting slightly to force her nipple from the bra.
Once he could see it and see how tight and puckered it was for him, Adam lowered his head and first kissed it and then laved at it with his tongue before finally suckling from it. Cassie’s back arched, and she cradled his head. It was an eerie sense of déjà vu, only this time Cassie knew that it wouldn’t end with her climax or pain.
The thought of having Adam make love to her, having him inside her, had her clawing at Adam’s shirt. She needed to feel skin; she wanted him naked. She wanted him as frenzied as she was. Adam released her breast long enough to pull his polo shirt over his head. Before returning his mouth to her, he unhooked the front clasp of her bra and pulled it from her body.
Leaning forward, their sighs mingled at the skin-on-skin contact. Adam’s mouth returned to first one breast and then the other, and Cassie’s head thrashed from side to side at the sensation. It was too much and yet not enough. She wanted to ask, beg, for his touch on other parts of her body but was, at the same time, reluctant to let Adam stop what he was doing.
Finally, when the tugging became too much, when she wanted nothing more than to rip her jeans from her body, Cassie cried out his name, and Adam sensed what she wanted and readily obliged.
Cassie’s jeans skimmed her legs, followed by her panties. Adam rested on his knees and simply looked at her. Had he ever felt this way? Had there ever been such rampant need crashing through him to the point that he felt he couldn’t breathe without having a woman?
He felt it now.
Her arms were flung behind her head, and her legs parted, drawing his attention. Adam ran one rough hand up her leg from ankle to thigh before looking Cassie in the eye as he surged forward and touched her intimately. At the first touch of his fingers, Cassie cried out. By the time he circled and teased and inserted a second finger, her climax was upon her.
It was too soon, too much, too fast, but Cassie didn’t care. She wanted this, needed this, and would do nothing to stop it. Crying out Adam’s name over and over, she rode the wave of pleasure until she thought she could take no more.
In the distance, she felt Adam move and heard a tearing sound, and as her orgasm was about to subside, he entered her and had her soaring over the edge again. Hips pumping, Cassie reached up and wrapped he
r arms around Adam to pull him close; she wanted to kiss him, needed more than anything to feel his mouth on hers while she rode the crest.
Adam’s tongue dueled with Cassie’s as he stroked her deeply, mimicking the action of their loving. She was so incredibly tight wrapped around him, taking all of him until he could swear they would never be able to separate where one stopped and the other began. The sensations were intense as he rocked into her body, loving the feel of Cassie writhing beneath him.
Adam had known they’d be great together, but the reality of it was way better than the fantasy. Cassie moved her mouth from his and kissed his jaw, his throat, before settling on his chest and raining kisses across it. She flicked her tongue across one nipple, and Adam knew that his orgasm was imminent. He pumped, once, twice, harder, and suddenly it was upon him. Cassie cried out his name at that moment, and Adam knew that this experience was like nothing he’d ever felt before. His body stiffened as he emptied himself into her. Pulling him close, Cassie held tight as his body convulsed, loving the feel of him, relishing the hardness of muscle.
Adam rolled over and pulled Cassie with him, kissing the top of her head. “That was better than I’d thought possible,” he whispered. “That was what I had hoped for the last time we were here.” At the memory of their time in this bed, he stiffened.
“Are you okay? Did I hurt you?” His voice was laced with concern. It would have been horrible if he hurt her again, especially after what they had shared.
Cassie smiled and placed tiny kisses on his chest. “I’m fine, Adam. I knew this time would be different. The doctor told me that it would take a few weeks for me to recover. This time it was perfect.” She pushed herself up so that she could look at his face. “Don’t worry. I don’t think it would be possible to feel any better than I do right now.”
She was rewarded with a killer smile she wished he’d use more often. Adam reached a hand out and smoothed the hair away from Cassie’s face, loving the feel of it, the softness. “You are so beautiful, Cassandra, so damn beautiful.” His hand roamed around and cupped her nape as he pulled her face toward his to kiss her. With his mouth lingering on hers, Adam wondered if it was too soon to have her again.
Cassie purred and rubbed and snuggled closer to him. “So…” she began, “you run your own business, you cook a decent steak, and you’re not half-bad to look at…” She teased him with light kisses, and Adam found himself wanting to play along.
“Not half-bad, huh? Well, what if I told you that I also had a fabulous dessert planned for us?”
“You mean this wasn’t it?”
“Oh, no…I’m smarter than that. And besides, that would have been way too obvious. No, I thought I was going to have to woo you a bit more, so I found the best dessert possible.”
“Is there chocolate?”
“Baby, it’s chocolate wrapped in chocolate and filled with chocolate.”
“Okay, that upped your appearance factor…”
“Lucky me.”
Cassie smiled wickedly. “Any chance of us eating dessert in that swimming pool of a tub you’ve got?”
Adam’s eyes darkened with desire and the thoughts of the possibilities. “I think that could most definitely be arranged.” He leaned in and kissed her, deeply, thoroughly. “Later…”
Chapter 11
Cassie was busy supervising the arrival of rental chairs and the setup of lights while Adam sat in the living room talking with Grace on the phone. He was only half-listening to his assistant; he was too enthralled with watching Cassie waltz around the deck as she assisted in all the commotion. He was having a hard time seeing how it was all going to come together, but Adam was confident that Cassie had everything under control.
Hell, the woman was an expert at being in control.
Adam thought of all the ways Cassie had been in control during the night and had to shift in his seat to accommodate the erection those images brought on. While he hadn’t put into play his original fantasy of making love to her in every room of the house—yet—they had certainly made love in enough places that it would take Adam a long time before he could come into this house and not think of her.
Finishing his call with Grace with instructions for her to contact him as soon as their European clients arrived at the office on Thursday, Adam returned to watching Cassie. She was shouting orders to the electrician and moving and repositioning chairs that the crew from the rental company had set up. She was militant in her details, and Adam knew that it was only one of the reasons that he had used Cassie’s company for the past two years. Every event she had ever done for him was executed exactly as he had wanted—something that was hard to find in any service industry, but Cassie seemed to know exactly how he wanted things and she listened to his needs.
That brought another smile and image to mind, and Adam knew he had to do something to get these work crews out of here soon so he and Cassie could be alone. Soon. Rising from the sofa, Adam walked out onto the deck and stood next to Cassie.
“How’s it all going?” he asked, though all he wanted to hear was that the workmen were leaving.
“Great…” she said distractedly before turning her attention to the electrician. “Jerry, I don’t want the lights so clustered together. I’m looking for a starry night, something twinkly, not stadium lighting.” Cassie sighed with frustration and then turned to Adam. “Honestly, I would like someone, for once, to understand the difference between romantic lighting and highway lighting.”
Adam chuckled. “Does it make a difference?”
Cassie looked at him wide-eyed. “Of course it makes a difference! If it didn’t matter, I’d go to the store and grab some Christmas lights and throw them around! Geez, Adam.” She took a couple of steps away, leaning over a railing to watch the progress of the lights being strung on the lower level. Nodding with approval, she returned her attention to Adam.
“I think it’s important to create the right atmosphere. We’re going for the whole ‘enticing them with the beach’ thing and eating outside to listen to the sounds of the waves crashing on the sand, and if you have a spotlight in your face, it sort of takes away from the appeal. Don’t you think?”
She was so serious about twinkly lights, and all Adam wanted to do was yell at everyone to leave his home immediately. Walking up to her, he leaned his face against hers and whispered, “I think that tonight, when it’s good and dark outside, we’ll turn off all the lights in the house and come out here and test out your lighting.”
“Oh, really,” she purred. “To what purpose?”
“To see if it all meets with my approval, of course.” When she swatted playfully at Adam’s arm, he added, “And to see how glorious you look naked under the twinkly lights.”
Cassie sucked in a breath at his words. Twenty-four hours before, she couldn’t have imagined the turn in their relationship. She had come here fully intending to stick to her guns and be all business.
She was so glad she had let that go! Too bad night was such a long way off. “I’ll be looking forward to that.” She kissed him lightly on the cheek and then turned to yell at Jerry for not spreading the lights out properly.
Adam wanted to be annoyed that she was working when he wanted to play, but he respected her work ethic, another reason they seemed to click. Resignation dawned, and Adam knew he would have to find something to do so Cassie could complete her own work without him distracting her.
He knew she needed to drive into town later on to confirm all her orders and do some shopping. He would accompany her, of course, and then perhaps when she was done shopping they could have an early dinner so they could simply play when they got home.
The idea had merit, and Adam smiled at his plan. Tonight he would like to take her skinny-dipping in the heated pool. After dessert in the tub last night—an image that would never have him looking at a bath the same way again—he couldn’t wait to g
et Cassie naked and in the water again. True, their shared shower this morning had been adventurous, but his mind was made up about the pool.
Cassie was an incredible lover, responsive to his touch and not afraid to ask for what she wanted. She gave tirelessly, and she was exciting to be with. It wasn’t often that he found a woman who met his needs in bed so completely or was as insatiable as he. Adam looked up at the sound of Cassie’s laughter and thought of how well she truly did fit in here, in his world.
It was only a matter of time before Bev and Stephen married, and then they would be family. Adam knew that he was not the marrying kind, but he also felt a strange ache at the thought of a time when that was all Cassie would be, a distant relative he saw on holidays and at the occasional family get-together.
Eventually, this relationship would end, and he would move on, and so would Cassie. Adam imagined she would get married and have children someday, and…that thought did not sit well with him. How could he possibly sit around the Thanksgiving table and watch Cassie and her husband sharing a laugh or a kiss, knowing exactly what it was like to do those things with her?
He supposed it didn’t matter because in the end, this relationship would be over and he would have to deal with it. Cassie came sprinting into the house and ran past him and up the stairs, her jean-clad legs taking the stairs two at a time. “Everything okay?” he yelled out.
Stopping on the stairs, she yelled to him, “No, it’s all fine. I have some sketches for the layout that I need to get. It seems Jerry is more of a visual guy, and I can’t seem to explain to him exactly what I’m going for. I’ll be right down.”
That was the difference between the two of them, he supposed. If he were out there dealing with Jerry the electrician, the man would have been fired by now. How hard could it be to string a set of damn lights? Cassie was being fair with the man, but if he didn’t get his act together soon and finish up, Adam was going to step in and politely “suggest” that the man send someone who knew what they were doing if he wanted to get paid. Of course, Cassie would have a fit at that, so, watching as she sprinted past him with a poster board in her hand, Adam decided to go down to the lower level and play a game of pool to distract himself for a little while.
In the Eye of the Storm / Catering to the CEO Page 28