by Diana Fraser
Her breathing came hot and hard. “My pleasure.”
The elevator doors opened and they entered.
Slowly he let her slide down off him. He pushed her away from him and held her, looking at her, at the way the wet dress clung to her body. He came towards her and turned her around. He undid the zip of her dress slowly, pressing her from behind as the elevator moved onto the exterior wall of the building.
The night lights of the office tower opposite flicked up, floor after floor as Dallas’s hands slid against her damp skin and around her body until they found her most exquisitely sensitive spot. Still the lights flickered in front of her eyes and still he played with her, responded to her as she pressed against his hand, squashing it against the rail.
Then they emerged above the buildings into the night sky and the dark pool of the harbor, dotted with late ferries and boats.
He moved his hands away from her when the elevator stopped and the door opened. Indignant she turned to him. He gripped the shoulders of her dress and ripped it down off her body.
She stepped out of it. Her heels clicking on the hard marble, just as they had done a lifetime—or so it seemed—ago. Except this time, the heels were all she was wearing.
“You’re beautiful.” He whispered huskily into her ear.
“Because you make me feel beautiful.”
“No, because you are. Would you like a second opinion? The security guard would probably be happy to oblige. Ow!”
Cassandra withdrew her teeth from his fingers. “Perhaps that’s how you really lost your finger. In a fight, yes, but with a woman.”
“You’re asking for it Cassie.”
“I certainly am.”
He withdrew, eyeing her cagily and opened the door for her to formally enter.
With all the aplomb she could muster on five-inch heels and not a stitch else, she entered the apartment and flicked on the lights, turning the glare to dim. She might be naked, she might be about to seduce the man she loved, but she wasn’t going to do it under the brilliance of a ceiling full of twinkling white halogens.
She turned and smiled, enjoying the blatant lust in his eyes and wanting to prolong it. “Drink?”
“Are you toying with me woman?” She heard him slam the door close behind her.
She could feel his eyes on her as she strode over to the fridge and peered inside. The cold air hit her body in a wave that sent a shiver over her skin and made her nipples hard. “Whatever gives you that idea? Just thought you might be thirsty. What would you like, soda water, tonic, mineral water?”
“I’d like you to keep looking.”
“So you could—keep on looking?”
“Yep. But I’m not just looking, I’m imagining too.”
“Really? Imagining what? Some late-night business to accomplish.”
Cassandra stood up and opened a bottle of soda water. Its content ballooned up and escaped over the top, fizzing over her hands. She licked her fingers free of the stickiness, before looking up at him.
He hadn’t moved.
“No, no business. Nothing like that. I’m imagining your legs wide open and me coming into you so hard, so fast that you can’t do a thing except hold on to me and let your body take control of your mind until you come. I’ll have you again then. And then again. Because this is only the beginning.”
Cassandra felt a pulse of moisture escape from between her legs. “Umm. Nothing neanderthal then, just total sophistication.”
“You want sophistication, you’ve come to the wrong man. For now anyway.”
“I told you that you’d be desperate for me by the end of the evening.”
“I can make you come like that,” he snapped his fingers.
She laughed. “We’ll see about that.”
Two strides and he was upon her. He swept the bottle away—its contents spilling unheeded over the floor—and pulled her up to him, his hands cupping her bottom, while his mouth sought her nipples and sucked hard. His hand covered her sex tightly, rubbing with his palm and teasing with his fingers, turning her words around.
Her head fell back as delicious sensations rolled through her body leaving her gasping and arching her back so she could push harder into his palm. He pushed his fingers deep within her as she cried out and shuddered in his arms.
Slowly, teasingly, he dragged his teeth across each nipple in turn as he let her down, gently, to the floor. She fell against him, weak with desire as he continued to feel her and caress her with his fingers.
“So, remind me, Cassie, who was the desperate one?”
She reached up and bit his ear. “Bastard.”
She pushed her hands up and under his jacket and tore it down off his shoulders until his hands were captured in its folds.
“You’re at my mercy now.”
She undressed him then, and he willingly gave her control. She faced him and raised an eyebrow in question, a smile quirking lightly on her lips as she pulled down his zipper. His chest and stomach tightened under the pressure of her lips as she slid down and pushed both his trousers and boxers off.
His erection was the only thing that gave away his urgent need. She slid her tongue along his hard shaft and felt it twitch under her touch. She grinned then and knelt on the floor before taking him fully in her mouth, relishing the sharp intake of breath and tearing of cloth as he threw away his jacket and gripped her shoulders.
“Enough! Get on the bed.”
She bent to take off her shoes.
“Leave them on.”
She lay down obediently on the bed.
“Open your legs.”
She smiled and did as he instructed all the while watching him, watching her.
His groan told her everything. Within seconds he was upon her. He wasn’t lying. Their mutual need was explosive. This was not a time for gentle touches or pretty gestures.
He thrust into her hard, gripping her hands tightly, pushing her back with each urgent thrust. She met his gaze, their minds held in abeyance as their bodies continued to dominate their being: sensation layering upon sensation until both cried out in unison as they climaxed, unable to prevent the bliss overpowering them.
Slickly entwined they held each other waiting for reality to return. Too soon, it did.
“I warned you.”
She rubbed herself against him and felt him respond. “Warn me again.”
“What?”
“Warn me again.”
He raised himself off her, still connected and pushed some errant curls off her face. “Well, Cassandra, this time I need more than that. This time it will be different. I will show no mercy.”
Cassandra wriggled around him. “How so different?”
“Well, not so very different. The essentials are the same, but perhaps a little less ‘neanderthal’ I think you called it.”
“And I was just growing to like the neanderthal style. Something very direct about it.”
She grinned and he nipped her lip between his teeth.
“Don’t get cheeky with me woman. On second thoughts,” he withdrew and flipped her onto her stomach, “perhaps you should.”
Her muffled laughter soon turned into gasps and moans as he slowly, very slowly, slipped into her from behind.
Wellington harbor was lit by a soft grey light, calm and peaceful, as if the storm had never happened. Cassandra lay awake, watching the hills on the far side of the harbor slowly change color. She’d miss it. Wellington. And him. But she couldn’t stay. He’d hate her when he found out, either through James or his IT team.
She turned to Dallas, sleeping peacefully beside her, one hand possessively resting on her hip. He had an almost serene look on his face. But how long before the serenity evaporated, leaving hatred in its place?
Carefully, she slipped her body away from his hand. He moved slightly but didn’t awaken. Quietly, she walked away from the bed, away from him, desolation filling her soul at the thought of him hating her. She would be gone before she became a wit
ness to his disillusion.
The shower was hot and cauterizing. It sealed her feelings and it sealed her fate. Dressed, now, in the coldly crumpled dress, she stepped back into the bedroom.
He was propped up on his elbows as if he’d just woken up. “You’re leaving?”
“I have to.”
“Why? Where are you going? It’s Sunday. Your boss surely doesn’t make you work on a Sunday.”
She smiled, despite herself. “Strangely, it’s nothing to do with my work.”
“Really? Then you must have a life. Your boss didn’t want to hire someone with a life.”
“I know. I got him to hire me under false pretenses.”
“Really? Tell me more.” He reached over to try to grab her. She moved back. They stared at each other.
“I can’t. You’ll find out.”
He sat up then, grabbed her hands and held them tightly. “What’s this all about Cassandra? Tell me. Enough of your games. Where are you going?”
“Away.”
“Where to?”
“Dallas—”
The phone rang. He ignored it, his eyes fixed on her. “Go on.”
Cassandra waited, the phone rang and rang. “Aren’t you going to answer the phone?”
Angrily Dallas picked it up. “What the hell—”
His words was cut short by what he heard on the other end of the phone. He continued to stare at Cassandra, frustration and anger simmering as he listened. “I’ll be right down.”
He dressed quickly and roughly smoothed his tousled hair with his fingers.
“I have to go but I want you here when I get back. And then we’ll discuss this. No more mysteries. I won’t be long. Just some IT mix up.”
The door slammed shut and she rose off the bed. It was time to go.
“You see here, sir.” Dallas looked over the technician’s shoulder and watched the screen. “We were doing a random check and discovered the security had been by-passed and your personal financial accounts accessed.
“How the hell could this have happened?”
“If you watch, we’ll see the key strokes that have been recorded.” The techie began the sequence and Dallas watched how an unknown assailant had lain siege to his finances.
“And then it stops.”
“There? Don’t tell me he was just looking.”
“Looks like she was either flexing her muscles, showing you what she’s capable of—and it was extremely clever—or she had a change of heart.”
Dallas went cold. “She, you say?”
“Yes, sorry sir, we know the culprit is. For all her skill she didn’t attempt to hide her identity.”
Dallas didn’t ask because, in his heart, he knew.
“Do you want to know her identity, sir?”
“I think I know. It was Cassandra Lee wasn’t it?”
The techie nodded, embarrassed. Presumably their relationship had become common knowledge.
Christ, how had he allowed himself to get into this position? He’d always prided himself on his invulnerability on all fronts: business, personal, emotional. And here he was duped by this woman and nearly destroyed by her.
“You want me to begin legal proceedings?”
“No. I’ll deal with it.”
Dallas rose from his chair with effort, the weight of Cassandra’s betrayal pressing on him like a weight, as if all the crazy feelings of the previous night had solidified into a hard and heavy stone that dragged him down from the inside out.
But he could also feel the stirrings of anger surging within: an anger he knew would never end.
Even before he entered the apartment he knew what he would find. The room was empty. No message, no note. No trace of Cassandra remained.
He wandered, as if in a dream, into the bedroom and plucked up a pillow and held it to his face, inhaling her scent. He’d wanted her more than he’d ever wanted anything or anyone in his life. But all she’d wanted was his money. Her “mystery” was now crystal clear. She wanted to steal his money and ruin him.
What a damn fool he’d been. He ripped the pillow case in half and flung it across the room.
There was only one question he wanted to know an answer to. And that was why she hadn’t finished the job. Was it fear of being caught? Couldn’t have been. Or else she would have covered her tracks better.
A fleeting thought that she didn’t proceed because she’d fallen in love with him, occurred to him. But he dismissed it. She’d said she was crazy about him. But she’d said a lot of things hadn’t she? Many of them had been proven to be lies. How could he believe anything she had ever said?
He picked up the phone and spoke briefly with Rosa.
So Cassandra had always intended to leave. Her bags had been collected the previous night by taxi and deposited downstairs with security. All she had to do was collect them on her way out this morning.
The scheming woman had everything planned down to the last detail. Including last night. Somehow that seemed a worse betrayal than attempting to ruin him.
He dialed her cell phone.
Watery sunlight filtered through the high windows of the busy railway station. Cassandra could only just hear her phone ring above the public announcements and the shouts of the school children as she waited for the small country train that would take her to a new life.
“Hello?” She could barely hear her own croaky voice.
“Why didn’t you finish me off as you intended?”
“I—”
“Come on Cassandra. It’s all I want to know. It’s all I want from you. Surely you can give me that?”
His freezing tone made her shiver. There was a long pause.
“I made a mistake.”
“You made a mistake!”
She pulled the phone from her ear at his raised voice. “Yes, I did. And I’m sorry.”
“Why? Just tell me why. What was it all about? Did you really hate me so much? Or did you need the money? I’d have given it to you if you’d asked.”
“It wasn’t as simple as that.”
“The truth is always simple. Try me now.”
“It’s too late. I deceived you Dallas—from the very start—and I know that you won’t ever be able to forgive me.”
“How? How do you know that?”
“Because I can’t forgive myself for what I’ve done in the past, and what I nearly did to you.”
“I don’t understand.”
“That’s best. I’m not the woman you thought I was.”
“No you’re not. You’re just like all the rest, aren’t you, Cassandra? Out for what you can get.” She could hear the ice-cold anger and hate emanating from his words.
“It’s true.” Cassandra tried not to choke on the tears that streamed down her face. “I’m not the fresh, bright woman without a past who can fit into your perfect world. I’m flawed.”
“Flawed is fine. Deceit and dishonesty isn’t. I won’t be seeing you again.”
“I understand.”
Before she could say goodbye, he cut her off. And he had every right to do so.
She rose from the seat, hands instinctively holding her stomach and looked around. She had to think of her baby now. She grabbed the bag and pulled it down the platform towards her train. She had just enough money to get clear of Wellington and then she’d make a new life: one in which she could atone for the guilt she felt over Danny’s death—she’d never put business ahead of her child again—and one in which she could try to deal with the heartache of loving a man who despised her.
CHAPTER TWELVE
“I caught up with Guy and Lucia at the weekend.”
James sat back on the leather couch, a picture of perfect ease, his smile as warm as his eyes and Dallas remembered how he used to envy James his charm. While life still seemed as easy for James, as it seemed hard for Dallas, Dallas’s acceptance of his own fate made it easier to also accept his love for his brothers, James and Callum.
“In the Wairarapa?”
“Yep, one of their intimate gatherings of a couple of hundred people. I thought you’d be there.”
Dallas twisted in his seat, rose and clicked on the light, absently looking out across the harbor. “Not in the mood.”
“Not since a certain woman left your life?”
Dallas looked sharply at James. “If you’re referring to a certain PA who attempted to ruin me, then you’d be right.”
“Umm.” James took a sip of his whiskey, his chocolate brown eyes that girls found so irresistible, narrowed as they watched Dallas. “But she didn’t, did she?”
Dallas swept up some papers and dumped them into a filing tray, as if unconcerned by the turn of conversation, while inside his heart beat furiously at the conflicting memories of Cassandra. “What?”
“Ruin you.”
“No. Could have done easily. Probably realized she’d be found and jailed. I’d not have rested until I found her.”
“But you didn’t try to track her down when she disappeared?”
“No point. Nothing to say.”
“From what Lucia was telling me, I imagined you’d have had plenty to say.”
Dallas contented himself with giving James a dirty look. He checked his watch. “Where’s Callum?”
“You know him. Won’t want to be wasting time on small talk. He’ll be working. He’ll turn up just before we’re meant to be leaving for dinner.” It was James’s turn to flick a look at his watch. “About now.”
As if on cue, Callum strode into the room—taller than both of them, dressed in casual clothes—and poured himself a drink while nodding at his brothers comfortably.
“Have I interrupted something?”
“I was just telling Dallas he should track down the woman who tried to ruin him.”
“And why would he want to do that?”
“Hey, stop talking about me as if I weren’t here, will you,” snapped Dallas.
“Because he’s fallen for her big time and doesn’t understand why she did it,” continued James.
“And you do understand, I suppose, with your extensive experience with women,” Callum laughed.
James grinned a disarming smile. “It’s true, I have extensive knowledge of women. However,” he cast a sly glance at Dallas, “in this case it’s not required. I happen to have a very good idea what motivated her. Trouble is Dallas doesn’t want to hear.”