by Cassie Cross
All I Need Is You
Cassie Cross
Contents
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Also by Cassie Cross
1. Alexa
2. Jesse
3. Alexa
4. Jesse
5. Alexa
6. Jesse
7. Alexa
8. Jesse
9. Alexa
10. Jesse
11. Alexa
12. Jesse
13. Alexa
14. Jesse
15. Alexa
16. Jesse
17. Alexa
18. Jesse
19. Alexa
20. Jesse
21. Alexa
Preview: Meeting Mr. Wright
Preview: Dirty Little Secrets
About the Author
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Copyright © 2018 by Cassie Cross
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations for reviews or other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.
Cover design by Mayhem Cover Creations
Also by Cassie Cross
Standalone Titles:
Meeting Mr. Wright
Kiss Me At Midnight
Series:
The All Series:
All I Want is You
The Dirty Little Series:
Dirty Little Secrets
Dirty Little Lies
The Billionaire’s Desire Series:
The Billionaire’s Desire
The Billionaire’s Christmas
The Billionaire’s Best Friend
Quickies Series:
The Quickies Collection: Volume 1
1
Alexa
This isn’t my day.
I have a make-or-break-my-career meeting in a little over half an hour, and a coffee stain the size of Georgia is seeping into my shirt across my left boob. This is my favorite white button-up. Well…was my favorite white button-up.
In retrospect, the coffee stop was a bad idea. But I’d been up late perfecting my portfolio for this meeting, and after barely three hours of sleep I needed a little pick me up. I guess that’s why the universe laughed in my face, then spilled a grande Americano all over me.
If I go home and change I’ll be late to my meeting, so I make a beeline for Target, the only place open this early that will have something passable to wear.
In the dressing room, I peel off my shirt, fold it, and put it in my bag. I’m not sure if espresso comes out, but I’m gonna try. I put on the only decent replacement I could find and book it up to the register, the shirt’s tag in hand.
As I’m paying, my phone rings. I’m greeted with a picture of my best friend Hayley’s smiling face, which is just the thing I need on a morning like this.
Even though I’m a year older, Hayley and I were inseparable in college. We’ve only gotten closer since she moved up here to DC after she graduated a year and a half ago. She knows how huge today is for me.
“Hey,” I say, smiling at the cashier as she hands me my change.
“Where are you?” Hayley asks. “I thought you’d be in a cab by now.”
“I’m at Target. Spilled coffee all over myself this morning.”
“Alexa,” she sighs affectionately. I can’t blame her; it’s not the first time my need for caffeination has soiled my clothing.
“I know, I know. I got a new shirt, it’s all good.” I think I sound pretty convincing, considering my nerves are frazzled and my heart starts beating faster the closer the clock inches toward 9:15. “I’m hoping no one notices it’s discount.”
“Not to burst your bubble but Alice Buchanan, Queen Bee of DC socialites? She’s gonna notice.”
“Let me have my delusions,” I argue, walking out onto the busy sidewalk. “Hang on a sec.” I hail the first cab I see, and luckily it pulls over. The cabbie gives me a smile as I slide across the seat—a ray of sunshine in this crappy day—and asks me where I’m headed.
“31st and M Street Northwest, please.” He nods and maneuvers the car into the flow of traffic.
I lift the phone back to my ear. “Okay, I’m back.”
“I know you were trying to get Marin to take this meeting. No dice?”
“No,” I reply, picking some lint off my skirt. “I knew it was a long shot. She’s more on the management side of this operation and wants to stay in the background if she can help it. Since her grandmother gave us a big chunk of our startup money, I told Marin she could pass one bad job off on me no questions asked. She chose this one.”
Hayley lets out a little chuckle. “You’ve only been in business for five months, that’s a little early to be cashing in. Her grandmother knows Alice Buchanan, doesn’t she? She hired you as a favor?”
“Yeah, Alice hired us as a favor,” I reply, embarrassed that we’re still having to get big jobs on favors instead of merit. The business is still so young, and everyone needs to get a foot in the door, but still. It makes me bristle. “Marin knows Alice, and she still didn’t want to come. That should tell you something about how awful this is gonna be.”
“You’re gonna wow the shit out of her,” Hayley tells me with that breezy best-friend confidence of hers. “Your work is impeccable; she’d have to be blind not to see that. I wouldn’t have hired you to do my wedding if I didn’t think so.”
My chest warms at her unwavering faith in me, even though it’s totally unearned in this case. Hayley didn’t exactly hire me, I offered my services up as a wedding gift. “You’re getting married in the backyard of a tiny lake cottage. All I have to do is string up some fairy lights, and pick up some chairs. The hardest part was finding an amazing caterer that would drive out to the sticks and not set the place on fire.”
“And I wouldn’t trust anyone but you to do all that,” she replies lightheartedly. “You’re planning a…what is it?”
“A birthday party. Sixteenth. It’s for Riley, their only child.”
Hayley groans. “You don’t have a princess situation on your hands, do you?”
“No,” I reply with a relieved laugh. “It’s a big party, but with a strict budget. They didn’t buy that penthouse in Georgetown by blowing money on parties for their only kid.”
“Isn’t there something going on with that family?” she asks. “Like…the dad, his name was in the news recently, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah,” I sigh. “Securities fraud and insider trading. Daddy dearest definitely isn’t the most popular man in town. Apparently Holt Buchanan was managing the previous party planner’s retirement portfolio, and…well, he lost almost all of it. She ditched them and canceled all the reservations, so Alice needed someone last-minute. It’s gonna be a challenge, given we only have a few weeks to pull it together. I get the impression that Alice has a big chunk of the party budget earmarked for security in case anyone’s looking to settle a score.”
Hayley’s fiancé Hunter owns a personal security business, and I was planning on asking him to do me a solid and provide some muscle at a discounted price, but Alice insisted on hiring a firm on her own.
“Yeah, about that…” Hayley’s voice is tentative, and years of friendship and hearing this tone of voice tells me she’s biting her lip. I can picture it perfectly. I also know that I’m not going to like the next thing she says.
“What?” I ask hesitantly.
“That’s kind of why I called. I wanted to wish you luck of course, but I also wanted to tell you something so you wouldn’t be blindsided by it.”
My heart skips a beat. “Okay.”
“She hired Hunter’s company.”
Jeez. I let out a long exhale that instantly calms me. “That’s not a big deal. I was actually—”
“She hired Jesse, specifically. He’ll be at your meeting this morning. I just found out this morning.”
“Oh,” I say, a little stricken.
“Yeah.”
It’s okay, it’s gonna be fine. I met Jesse about a year ago when there was a situation with Hayley’s drug-addict ex. He owed a shady guy a lot of money, and said shady guy threatened Hayley’s life to get her ex to pay up. Hunter kept Hayley safe and sent Jesse to look after me, just in case. The two of us had a pleasant weekend full of what I thought was lighthearted flirting and long, lustful looks. At the end of it, I told Jesse I thought we had the potential for more.
He didn’t. He let me down easy.
I never heard from him again.
So, of course he’s gonna be working with me on this project.
This really isn’t my day.
2
Jesse
I’m sitting on a bench outside one of the most exclusive buildings in DC, balancing a large cup of coffee on my knee. The security guard manning his post at the door is doing a terrible job at inconspicuously sizing me up. He’s a rent-a-cop, someone in a uniform whose presence makes the people who pay out the ass to live in this building feel a little safer.
While he’s busy with me—a confirmed visitor whose name he’s already checked off his approved visitor list—he’s totally missing the blind spot I noticed in the surveillance camera setup when I checked out the building on my way in. Anyone savvy and sneaky enough could slip right in the side entrance without him noticing. For all he knows I’m a planted distraction for someone intent on getting inside undetected.
Idiot.
The terrible security worries me since I’m here to meet a woman whose husband has been involved in some pretty big shit lately. I should ask Hunter if we have the capacity to take on building security right now. He owns the firm I work for, and we’ve never been hurting for business, but scoring a few points with him couldn’t hurt. Especially since I seem to be in the doghouse lately.
I pull my phone out of my pocket and scroll through my contacts, looking for Hunter’s number so I can send him a text.
My thumb hangs right over Hunter’s name as I fixate on the one right below it. Alexa Jameson.
I keep her number for reasons I still don’t understand. She’d given it to me during the short weekend we’d spent together a year ago, when Hunter sent me to make sure she stayed out of the mess her best friend Hayley got caught up in between her drug-addict ex-boyfriend and a crime lord he owed obscene amounts of money to.
Alexa was gorgeous and easy to talk to. We flirted, and I let myself enjoy it more than I should have. More than I had any right to. Before I left that weekend, she typed her number into my phone.
“This is something, right?” she said, gesturing between us. “You and me. Do you feel it too?”
I did, and it scared the hell out of me. But I let her down easy, and left with an ache in my chest that still hasn’t gone away.
Hunter and I once talked about the clients that stuck with us long after the job was done. He’s about to marry his, and I can’t stop thinking about mine.
Not that I’m going to do anything about it.
My phone rings, snapping me out of my thoughts. My friend Carlos’s picture pops up on screen. He runs the gym down the street from my apartment; Hunter and I have taught some self-defense classes for women there.
“Hey,” I say. “I only have a sec.”
“I thought you were off today?” he asks.
“I got pulled in on a project last night.”
“Anything good?”
I run my hand along the back of my neck. I used to run security for A-list celebrities, for government bigwigs, for CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. In the years I’ve worked this job I’ve put my body in the line of fire to keep important people safe.
These new assignments I’m getting? They’re valuable work, but difficult to admit to.
“I’m running point for security for a birthday party,” I say quickly.
Carlos laughs. “Hunter really busted you down to the D team, didn’t he? From guarding celebrities to being a chaperone. What in the hell did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything.”
He snorts a laugh. “Yeah right.”
“I know you didn’t call to give me shit. What did you call for? The party planner I’m meeting is gonna be here any minute.”
“She cute?”
I shrug. “No clue. I have no idea who she is.”
Carlos sighs. “You up for some drinks later at the Red Derby? It’s dollar-off draft night.”
“And Penny’s gonna be there, isn’t she?” It’s my job to read people, to anticipate their motivations. Carlos is more transparent than most. He’s been showing up at Red Derby on Wednesdays trying to make a move on Penny for weeks now.
“You got me,” he admits. “She’s bringing a friend, too.”
A setup. I figured. “I don’t think I’m up for it tonight.”
“Jesse, man, you’re never up for it.”
A taxi pulls into the circular drive. I figure this must be who I’m waiting for. “I gotta go. Maybe some other night.”
I barely hear his “Yeah, yeah,” before I hang up. I grab my coffee and stand, then move to open the door for the woman in the cab.
My breath catches when she steps out.
Alexa.
She’s more beautiful than I remembered, and she’s the very last person I expected to see this morning.
Her long brown hair falls in waves across her shoulders. Her hair smelled like flowers when she hugged me goodbye the last time I saw her. I’m struck with the strangest urge to bury my face in her neck and breathe deep. Her shirt accentuates her breasts; I’m teased with enough skin that I want to pluck open each button, and lick my way down.
I give her my best smile, hoping like hell it hides my surprise.
“Hey Jesse,” she says. She doesn’t seem as shocked as I am. Figures Hunter would give her a warning but leave me hanging out to dry. She shuts the cab door, and the car drives away.
“What are you doing here?”
She arches her brow, a subtle reminder that I’m being rude.
“What I meant is,” I continue, “I thought you were working for a software development company?”
“A lot’s happened in the last year.” I don’t blame her for the attitude she’s giving me, honestly. “Long story. The abbreviated version is I lost my job and didn’t want to have to move home with my parents. I started this business with a friend, and it’s taking off.”
“Congratulations,” I tell her.
“Thank you.” She fidgets with her bag, taps her fingertips along the shoulder strap. “You’re nervous.”
She lets out a huff of a laugh. “Yeah. Have you met Alice Buchanan?”
I have. “Briefly.”
“Well then, you know why. A lot’s riding on this for me, and she’s not the most agreeable person.” She gives me the once-over, her brows knit together as she sizes me up.
“I’m surprised you’re the one working this party. I thought you were doing more high-profile stuff, not sixteenth birthdays.”
“Long story,” I say, repeating her earlier words. “The abbreviated version is this is where he needed me, so this is where I am.”
“This isn’t going to be a problem, is it? Y
ou and me working together?”
“Absolutely not.” That’s the truth. Personal feelings cannot get in the way of my work, it’s one of the requirements of the job.
“Okay,” she nods, letting out a shaky breath. “Are you drinking that?” She points at my cup.
I look down. “Uh…no?”
She gently pulls it out of my hand and takes a big gulp. “Thanks. Caffeine helps with my jitters.”
“It helps?”
“Weird, right?” She shrugs, then motions toward the building. “C’mon, we’re gonna be late.”
I follow her to the rent-a-cop’s station, where he takes her name and consults his list. The kid can’t be more than twenty, and he’s a clumsy mess trying to do his job and flirt with Alexa. His hand shakes as he takes her license to verify her name, and he drops the pen when he gives it to her so she can sign in.
She’s gracious about it, but he’s annoying the hell out of me.
His hand lingers on the small of Alexa’s back as he leads her to the door, and I can tell by the way she shifts uncomfortably that she doesn’t like it, but she’s trying to be polite. I imagine snapping every one of his fingers.
Instead of doing it I say, “Hey. Keep your hands to yourself.”
I give him a look that lets him know I mean business, and it must scare the shit out of him because he stumbles when he opens the door for Alexa. He hits her with his elbow and knocks my former cup of coffee all over her shirt.