I exhale and watch my breath fog the mirror. I don’t want to doubt my mother’s words. This would be an insane thing to make up, even for her. But I can’t shake my own doubts. I can’t stop remembering all the other times she’s lied to me to get money for other stuff. Frivolous spending, or gambling in Vegas, or weekends away with boy toys drinking herself blind.
If she’s in the hospital, I want to be there for her. Help her. I don’t want her to worry about money. But what if she’s lying again? And what if I just ruined everything I could have had with Lark by believing her?
He still shouldn’t have accused me like that.
I shouldn’t be allocating company funds to a private issue, either. I chew on my lower lip. Shit. Am I the one in the wrong here?
And then I ran away from him when he asked me to talk about it. Again. No wonder he thinks I’m just using him. If I can’t even open up enough to have a real conversation about something serious…
I think about Norman again. I tried to open up to him in the beginning, but he just always shut me down. I learned to keep my feelings to myself. I learned that anything upsetting, anything he might not like, should be hidden, not discussed.
Am I going to let Norman steal Lark from me to? Am I going to let the past define my future?
I wipe at my cheeks, then bend to splash some water on my face. He’s probably long gone already. But on the off chance that he’s not…
I grab a towel from the hooks near the lockers and sprint outside, not even caring that I’m barefoot. I race to the pool deck first, but the chairs where I left Lark have been taken over by a couple skinny brunettes, sunbathing. And Lark’s shoes and towel are gone.
I scan the bar. No sign of him. I hurry to the men’s bathroom, tap on the door. Open it a crack. “Lark?” I call.
A pause. “No Lark here,” some guy calls back. “But I can entertain you if you’re looking.”
“Gross,” I mutter and let the door slam again.
Downstairs. He could still be in the lobby. I press the elevator button so many times I’m surprised it doesn’t break. Then I wait for the elevator to ding open and sprint into it, leaving puddles on the clean floor. I hit the ground floor, hold my breath the whole way down. The elevator stops twice to let other people on, all of whom eye me sideways, but I ignore them, and just pull my towel tighter.
At the ground floor, I sprint out of the doors before anyone else can move.
“Hey!” someone shouts. A hotel bellman, maybe. “You need to wear shoes down here!”
I ignore him and sprint toward the exit. Lark used the valet parking. Maybe it will take them a while to fetch his car. Maybe…
Outside, a wave of heat hits me. My feet sting on the pavement, both hot and filled with pebbles. I scan the row of people waiting for their valet cars. No Lark. But then…
There. His car, just about to turn out of the driveway into the hotel. He’s waiting for a row of cars in the street to move first.
I run as fast as I can, not caring about how much my feet hurt. I reach the back window first and pound on it, hard enough to make Lark startle in the driver’s seat and turn around. When he spots me his eyes go wide.
I hold my breath, shivering despite the heat, the towel clutched tight around me. If he drives away now, I don’t know how I’ll ever explain this. How I can possibly apologize.
But after a long, agonizing pause, he puts the car in park, and opens his door.
29
Lark
“What the hell are you doing?” I ask as I climb out of the car. Somewhere behind me, I hear wolf whistles, and some guy shouting something obscene and honking as he passes.
In her towel, Cassidy does look nearly naked. Still, I flip the traffic off in general, and take a step toward her.
“Are you insane?” I murmur. “Did you run through the hotel like this?”
Her cheeks flush red. “I needed to catch you before you left.” She ducks her head. “I wanted to apologize.”
I watch her closely now. “For what, exactly?”
She raises her chin to meet my gaze once more. There’s such deep, pained sorrow in her gaze, it tugs at my chest in spite of myself. “You were right,” she says, and the words hit me like a punch to the gut. “I was trying to use you.”
Whatever I expected her to say, it wasn’t that. I take a step back toward my open driver’s side door, but she stops me, reaching out to grab my arm.
“I just…” Tears start to slide down her cheeks. “It’s my mom. She’s in the hospital; I need money to pay her bills. But it’s so complicated, she’s lied to me before, and I don’t know if she’s doing it again now, and I should never have asked you for money like that, but I didn’t know where else I could get it or who else to turn to and—” She breaks off, hiccupping, and before I can think better of it, I step forward and wrap both arms around her tightly.
“Hey, hey.” I squeeze, hard. “Cassidy.” Warmth floods through me. Not just at having her in my arms again. But at finally understanding where all of this is coming from. “Look at me, Cass.”
She sniffles, but she tilts her chin back to obey, meeting my eyes again.
“I just wanted to help her,” Cassidy whispers. “I’m so sorry.”
The pain in her voice breaks my heart. Even worse is the realization of how I reacted when Cassidy asked me for help. I assumed she’d be just like Sheryl. That she’d want to wring as much money from me as she could for no other reason than to have it herself.
“I’m sorry too,” I murmur. “I should never have jumped to conclusions. My ex…” I grit my teeth. “She left me more fucked up than I realized, I think. I shouldn’t have judged you by her actions.”
A car honk sounds, longer than the rest. I raise my middle finger again, but it’s coming from behind us this time. I turn to realize there are a line of cars waiting to get out of the hotel parking lot. All while I’m parked at the exit, holding a nearly naked woman in my arms.
“Come on,” I tell her, taking her hand and tugging her toward the car. “Get in. Let’s go back home and we can talk about this.”
“Really?” Cassidy gazes up at me, wiping at a fresh tear. “You mean, you don’t hate me?”
I laugh. “Cassidy. I could never hate you.”
Her lower lip quivers. But then, slowly, she nods. “Okay,” she murmurs. “Let’s go home.”
30
Lark
Somehow, Cassidy looks even more attractive when she’s dressed in my clothes. She’s curled up at the far end of my couch in a pair of my sweatpants and a baggy T-shirt. It should not make me want her, and yet, every time she glances in my direction, catching my gaze over the rim of the mug of steaming tea I made her, all I want to do is pull her off this couch and strip her back down.
But that’s not what we’re doing here. Yet.
“So,” I say, my voice quiet and yet still somehow startling in the silence.
“So,” she agrees. Her hands tighten around her tea mug. “Um. Thanks for the clothes.” She gestures at herself with a shrug. “And… the… tea.”
I stare.
She swallows hard. “I’m not getting out of this, am I?”
“We said we were going to talk, Cassidy,” I point out. “I think it’s well past time that we do.”
She nods, her gaze dropping back to the tea cradled in her lap once more. She takes a few breaths, and I think she’s going to go quiet on me again, but after a moment, she clears her throat. “My mom has spent her whole life living off of other people. At first it was the guys she dated. And I never wanted—I swore to myself, I would never be like that. I wanted to make my own way in life. But after I graduated, in between breakups, she started coming to me for money too. And… I mean, it’s my mom. What can you do? She’s family. So I supported her when she needed it. I pretended to believe all the lies she told me, about various debts that weren’t her fault, or overdue loans that didn’t exist… I guess I humored her.” Cassidy worries at he
r lower lip.
It makes me want to lean over and kiss her until she stops biting her own skin. But I resist. Because I need to hear this.
“And, look, I know I should be talking to my therapist about all this—and don’t worry, I have been. But you deserve to hear it too. My mom just… she made me never want to rely on anyone else. Or even ask anyone else for help. Because I look at her, and I just… never want to be that desperate. And then, when I was dating my ex…”
Heat flares in my gut. I restrain myself, because this is Cassidy’s past. It shouldn’t affect our present. It doesn’t.
“He was so controlling.” Cassidy’s voice drops lower. “He made more money than I did, so he wanted control over my whole bank account, everything I did… He said it was to help me, to ensure I didn’t wind up like my mother. But for him, it was just another way to control me, to ensure I could never leave him, even if I wanted to. Which I didn’t for way too long, because I had no idea how to recognize emotional abuse. I didn’t understand what a healthy relationship should look like.” Cassidy squeezes her eyes shut. “Until you.”
I breathe out slowly. “Cassidy…”
“No, I know. That’s pathetic. And I know it wasn’t healthy how I asked you for money earlier, but my mom really scared me this time. I don’t know if she’s lying again, if this whole hospital thing is another scam, but on the off chance that it’s not—”
I reach over to catch her hand, which silences her almost immediately. “If your mother needs help, then we’ll help her,” I say. And it makes my chest ache, the way relief and shock flare in her eyes at the same time.
It makes me realize that Cassidy has never been treated like this before. With simple, basic respect. I want to go back in time and throttle her ex. Fight everyone who ever made her believe that she’s less than worthy of all the love in the world.
“I don’t want to make you feel like I’m using you, or—”
“Cassidy.” I squeeze her hand. “You don’t. Look, I was projecting some of my shit with Sheryl onto you. And I get that you have a complicated past. I understand—so do I, obviously. But it’s understandable to want to help your mother through a difficult time. And it’s equally understandable to be cautious about that, if you’re not sure about your mother’s motivations yet. That’s all normal.”
Her breath hitches. “It’s definitely not normal,” she starts.
She breaks off when I lean in to kiss her, hard. “Fuck normal, then,” I whisper. “I don’t care about normal. I care about you. About what’s best for you, Cassidy Marks.”
Her pupils dilate as her gaze meets mine. “I care about you, too, Lark. So much.” Another bite at her lower lip, again. “Which is why, I can’t ask you to give up your business for me. You love this. You started this company; you’re the reason it’s gotten to where it is today. I can’t imagine you would have the customers you do without your support. Sheryl’s just grasping at straws trying to hang on to her share. It’s obvious to anyone on my end of the investments that she doesn’t really care. Not the way you do.”
My heart leaps at that. Not just at her saying that I’m the heart of this company—which, to be honest, I already knew. But she said she cares about me. The same way I care about her. “If losing the company is the only way I can really be with you, Cassidy, then I don’t care. I can start another company. Build up from scratch again. I don’t care. But I can’t build another you.”
Her cheeks flush bright red. Still, she shakes her head. “I can’t let you do that. Not for me.” She leans in to brush her lips against my cheek, so lightly that it sets me on fire. I want to grab her, toss her down on this couch, and…
I reign myself in with difficulty. The harder point is disguising the way my cock is stiffening against the seam of my jeans, impossible to control. “I want to,” I tell her, firmly.
She shakes her head. “I don’t care if some piece of paper says you’re married, Lark. I know your heart belongs to me. Just like mine belongs to you. That’s what really matters. Not the law. So if you want to keep your business, just stay married to Sheryl, I don’t mind. Really.”
Your heart belongs to me. Her words thunder through my body, like an electric current. I’ve never felt this awake and alive. Or this sure of what I needed to do.
I reach out to wrap my hands around her shoulders, drawing her back in close to me. “Cassidy… I don’t care about the business. What really matters is what’s right here in front of me. You.”
“What are you saying?” Her eyes widen ever so slightly. Between that and her flushed cheeks, her trembling lower lip, it’s almost impossible to keep my hands off of her.
But I manage, for now. Because there’s something left I need to confess. One last thing I need to tell her. “I love you, Cassidy.”
Her breath catches audibly. I know the feeling. I’m holding my breath too, waiting for her reply. Wishing that it will be what I want. Bracing myself, in case it’s not. After what feels like the longest pause in the world, though, Cassidy leans forward, until her forehead is resting against mine. “I love you, Lark,” she breathes.
And there we have it.
I bend forward to cover her mouth with mine, catching her in a slow, deep kiss. The rest of the world fades out.
31
Cassidy
One moment Lark’s lips are on mine, covering mine. The next thing I know, one of his arms is around my waist and the other is sliding behind my knees. He scoops me up off the couch like I weigh nothing at all—a move that, I have to admit, is seriously hot. I wrap both arms around his neck and kiss my way down his jawline to the spot where his neck meets just below his ear. I bite him there, lightly, and my reward is a low growl in the back of his throat.
“I’ve waited far too long to have you back in my bed,” he says, and the words send a thrum of desire through me, pulsing out from my stomach all the way to the tips of my toes where they curl in Lark’s borrowed socks.
But the words don’t turn me on nearly as much as what he said before this.
“I love you,” I whisper again, testing. Repeating. It’s the first time I’ve ever said those words to a man and truly meant it. It unlocks something new inside me, a depth of feeling I never knew existed before.
“I love you, Cassidy,” he replies, and I was wrong before. This is more emotion than I’ve ever felt at once, a torrent rushing through my whole body.
Because he feels the same way I do.
When we reach the bed, I expect him to toss me onto it. Instead, he lowers me gently, like I’m precious. Breakable. When my back hits the mattress he kisses me again, slow and forceful. Then he moves, his mouth trailing kisses down my jawline to my neck, my shoulder. He undoes my shirt with steady hands and peels it off, pausing only long enough for me to shift beneath him so he can unclasp my bra too.
He takes his time tonight. He kisses every inch of me, his lips moving over my shoulders, down my arms, until he sucks my fingers into his mouth one by one, teasing and smirking at me the whole time.
“I haven’t been able to get you out of my mind since the first night we met,” Lark murmurs, still kissing his way across my body, my curves now, my belly, the slope between my breasts. He cups one breast in his palm, soft yet firm, and his fingertips brush over my nipple lightly. Even that is enough to make me shiver, from the crown of my head all the way through to my toes.
“Neither have I,” I admit in a low whisper, and he leans back, eyes hooded with a mixture of desire and feeling.
“Show me what you do when you’re thinking about me, Cassidy,” he murmurs, and a warm flush creeps up my throat to my cheeks.
But there’s a low thrum of command in his voice, something I can’t ignore. And the way he’s watching me, as if he can’t get enough, just turns me on more. I reach up to trace my hands down my curves, feeling the heat of all the places where his hands were on me a moment ago.
While I do, he sits back, those intense eyes fixed on mine.
He grins. “A good start.”
My hands reach waistband of my borrowed sweatpants. I hesitate for a moment. I’ve never undressed myself in front of a guy. Normally I let them handle that, since they’re eager to get their hands all over me anyway. But Lark is different. Patient. And the wait makes the payoff all the hotter.
I slowly inch the sweatpants down my thighs. His gaze traces over my body, and I swear my skin heats up beneath his gaze almost as much as I flushed from his touch, his tongue.
“God, you’re so beautiful,” he breathes once I kick the pants aside, and I’m lying before him naked from the waist down.
My fingers trace the familiar lines of my mound. Down to my pussy, where I part the lips slowly, wetting the tip of my finger. Tracing it back and forth, I flush. I’m already so fucking wet. Lark always has that effect on me.
He leans closer, so his breath dusts my cheeks, before he kisses my jawline. The edge of my mouth. “I want to watch,” he says, voice low and heated. It sends a thrill through me, all the way to the tips of my toes.
“Spread your legs,” he murmurs.
My breath hitches, but I do it. I spread my legs wide, and his gaze drops to watch as I push my finger inside myself, curling it, stroking slowly and steadily. There’s a wet sound when I draw it out to brush my clit, and he grins.
“Tell me, Cassidy. Do you always get this wet when you think about me?”
“Always,” I breathe, and he laughs softly, before he leans in to kiss my lips. “My turn.” Then, before I can react, he slides down my body, and gently nudges my hand aside. I let it fall to the comforter, and he presses his tongue where my fingertip was a moment earlier, sliding it between my pussy lips.
Best of Penny Wylder: Boss Romance Page 36