One night in Daytona (One Night Stands #1)

by Ann Grech

  “Cassie,” Jos pleaded in barely more than a whisper after she’d stepped into the kitchen. Cassie hadn’t seen him sitting at the table when she’d walked in. Hearing him made her jump so hard she dropped the plastic insulated coffee mug she was carrying and screamed.

  “What are you doing here?” she started. “You scared me to death.”

  “I needed to talk to you, to see you again, so I set up lunch with Clifton. I’m waiting for him to get off air. Please, Cassie.” Jos wasn’t too proud a man to beg, not when it involved her.

  “Please don’t, Jos. Please.” Cassie sniffed, hating the wobble in her voice as her fright subsided and was replaced by hurt.

  “Okay, I’ll give you some space. But please, we need to talk.”

  “No, Jos, you might have something to say, but I don’t.” Cassie pushed past him carrying her mug over to her cubical. She wasn’t locking herself in an office again. She needed this job and she wasn’t going to let him distract her.

  Jos made it half an hour into lunch with Clifton before his frustration started to bubble over. He’d been given the cold shoulder by Cassie and he was getting sick of pussyfooting around. He wasn’t usually this impatient, but with Cassie it was all he could do not to go insane. Seeing her again had reignited all the chemistry he felt between them, not that it had ever really subsided. Cassie had the starring role in every one of his fantasies since he’d met her. His plan of quietly speaking with her this morning had gone up in flames when she’d shut him down, but he wasn’t done. He needed to know what the heck he’d done wrong to upset Cassie so badly. She was acting more hurt than angry, and that just didn’t make any sense. He dropped his burger on the plate and stood, nearly knocking over his chair.

  “’Bout time you went after her.” Clifton grinned at him. “Waited long enough.”

  “Huh?”

  “Cassie. She turned down every one of us who asked her out, and yet, with you, she melted. She’s got her walls up, but she wants you.”

  Grinning, Jos slapped a hand on Clifton’s shoulder. “Thanks, buddy. That’s everything I needed to hear.” He made it back to the station in record time and stalked straight through reception over to the cubicle she was sitting in. He didn’t want to cause a scene, but Cassie was too important to him to let things slide.

  “Time’s up. We need to talk.”

  “No, Jos, I’m busy.”

  “Make time, Cassie, this is important.”

  “Fine,” she sighed. “What do you want?”

  “Not here, the office.” Jos motioned to the glass cage Cassie had locked herself in yesterday. Grabbing her hand, he pulled her out of her seat and dragged her toward the office at the back of the building.

  Pinning him with a glare after he closed the door, she slumped down behind the desk saying, “You have one minute. I need to be on-air in five.” The devastation in her eyes sucker punched Jos breathless and he had to clench his fists by his sides to resist the urge to pull her into his arms.

  “I’ve missed you—”

  “Obviously not enough,” she snapped.

  “Again with this? You wanted me to wait for you? Sure, I bedded more women than I could count, but believe me, fucking you outta my system sure as shit didn’t work.”

  “Whatever, Jos,” Cassie said dismissively.

  “What more could I have done, Cassie?” Jos asked too loudly, his frustration getting the better of him as he paced the small room.

  “You could have called,” Cassie yelled.

  “How?” Jos yelled back. “I didn’t have your number; I didn’t even have your last name. You got up and left that damn hotel without a second glance. I begged you to stay with me and you didn’t even leave me your number. And now you’re pissed with me? What the hell more could I have done?”

  “I did leave it, you ass. And you never called me. You just went off and fucked half the state of Oklahoma,” Cassie screamed at him, tears cascading down her cheeks. “You think I didn’t read the stories. You were with a new woman every few days. Quit making out that I was more important than any of them. I understand exactly what I meant to you. Just don’t think you’ll get it again,” she ended her tirade on a whisper, shoulders shuddering as she tried to get her emotions under control.

  “What?” Jos asked quietly, sinking down into the chair completely deflated. Then the memory hit him. When the room service breakfast Cassie ordered the night before arrived, he asked for it to be put out on the balcony so he could throw his jeans on instead of his Henley bunched in front of the less-respectable bits of him. The open door must have blown the piece of paper out of sight while he was trying to find his belt. Could a simple breeze have been responsible for all the pain they’d both suffered in the last six months?

  “Angel, listen to me, please,” Jos said, moving around the desk to sit on the table in front of Cassie. She was still rigid, arms crossed protectively in front of her and looking away from him. But the tears still trickling down her cheeks spoke volumes. Untangling her arms after a moment of resistance, he took her hands in his. He marvelled at the zing that shot through his body at her touch. Giving her hands a light squeeze, he explained to her quietly, “I don’t know for sure what happened to your number, but I have a theory. I pulled apart that room trying to find a note that you might have left for me. I was gutted when I thought you hadn’t. But I didn’t want it to be the end of us. I called every TV and radio station in Chicago, every newspaper and a bunch of other places trying to find you. They thought I was some creeper stalking one of their employees. No one would give me any info about you. I s’pose it’s not surprising. I didn’t even really know who to ask for. I asked my agent to try and track you down. I had my media consultant, who looks after my social media profile, keep an eye out for any Cassies who had any contact with me on social media. I didn’t know what else to do. I couldn’t get you outta my system.”

  “You tried to contact me?” she asked, finally looking at him.

  “I never stopped.”

  Sighing, Cassie confessed, “I lost my job in Chicago. I finished up the day after we were together. I did a couple of weeks working at the diner I used to wait tables at, but they didn’t need me for longer than that. I had to give up my apartment and I moved back home. I started working here a month ago. There was no way you could have contacted me even if you got the right station. They wouldn’t have passed my number on in case you were a story.”

  “I’m so sorry, angel, so sorry I wasn’t there for you. So sorry I let you walk out that room without getting your number tattooed on me.” Jos smiled ruefully. “It’s my one regret from that night.”

  Looking at her watch, Cassie said, “Jos, I need to go. I need to get on the air.”

  “Yeah, okay. Go. I’ll be waiting here when you get back.” When Cassie stood, Jos pulled her close and gave her a lingering kiss. Cassie leaned in and kissed him again, beaming at him as she winked and left his embrace. As she stepped away, still looking at Jos, the room behind them erupted in applause and cheering. Cassie’s head snapped up and Jos spun around on the desk to see the entire office milling around the glass walls watching them.

  “Looks like Clifton passed on the message that I was coming back to see you.” Jos laughed as he ushered Cassie out of the door and walked her to the studio.

  Jos watched Cassie’s news report on the live feed being broadcast outside the studio. The station often put up funny YouTube videos of the announcers messing around. The cameras were still set up from yesterday’s interview with him, which to his dismay was already on YouTube for the entire world to see him making a fool of himself. Jos was as nervous as hell while he was doing his first on-air performance. But Cassie, she looked like a pig in mud, presenting the main stories and the fluff piece she’d been working on. It was something about a local family winning it big in the lottery. Both their kids suffered from rare diseases and needed full-time care. The winnings would help them get into their own house. They’d also decided
to donate some of the prize to the children’s hospital in town to help out other sick kids. Jos felt good for them knowing that the lottery had gone to someone who really needed it.

  “She’s got talent, hasn’t she?” Scott said from behind Jos. “She’s really become part of the family since she’s been here. We all adore her.” It was more the tone of what he said than the words that made Jos read between the lines of Scott’s comment.

  “Is that a veiled threat?” Jos asked, remembering the salt-and-pepper-haired man from his introductions yesterday as the general manager.

  “No, it’s a warning that you’ll piss a lotta good people off if you hurt her.”

  “I’m gonna let that one slide because you don’t know me and you’re protecting your own, but don’t question my motives or my integrity again. I’m here because I wanna be with Cassie, and not just for one night.”

  “Good, I’m glad. We don’t want to see her hurt.” Scott clapped him on his shoulder as he sauntered away.

  Jos waited for Cassie to finish her last news read for the day before he walked her out to his bike. “You game?”

  “Are you kidding? Let’s go,” Cassie’s eyes lit up, her excitement obvious.

  “Put this on.” Jos passed her his helmet. It would be too big for her, but it was better than her not wearing one. He’d have to get her a set of leathers and a helmet if she was going to ride with him again, and he couldn’t wait to take her for a test spin in his new race car. When she slid on the bike behind him, wrapping her body tightly around his, he willed his cock down for long enough that they could get to the restaurant he’d planned to take her to for drinks and an early supper.

  Sliding into the booth at the back of the steakhouse, Jos wrapped his arms around Cassie and crushed his mouth to hers. He was desperate to have her naked in his arms, but he fought down his frantic desire and turned it into a long, slow kiss. When they pulled apart, both their hearts beating out of their chests, he murmured against her temple, “Tell me everything about yourself, angel.”

  Cassie started with her most embarrassing secret: her name. It was commonly known that her surname was Lane, but no one except for the few people who remained in her hometown whom she went to school with knew her first name.

  “You’re kidding,” he said biting back a laugh. “Your name is Lois Cassandra Lane. And you’re a reporter. That’s gold.”

  “My parents are mad Superman fans. When they had me, they thought they’d give me something else to get teased about. Wearing glasses and having red hair wasn’t enough, so they called me Lois. You can imagine how happy they were when I decided to be a reporter,” Cassie huffed, rolling her eyes. Jos couldn’t help the chuckle that bubbled out of him.

  “See, that reaction, that’s why I use my middle name. My poor brother is stuck with Kal-El Clark.”

  “Gold.” He shook his head, capturing her mouth with his again. Her parents were a hoot. From what Cassie had already told him, he was sure he’d like her pops. And her mom seemed pretty kooky too. At that, thoughts of his own mom flashed through his mind’s eye. He’d stopped in to see his folks last week before leaving Oklahoma. His mom was flagging quickly, the breast cancer taking its toll on her. It was aggressive. She was barely diagnosed five months ago, and within three months of that diagnosis, she’d been told the cancer had migrated and was terminal.

  “There, what’s that? The sadness is in your eyes again.”

  “It’s my mom,” Jos murmured as he squeezed Cassie tighter. He told her about the diagnosis and the limited time he had left with her.

  “You should go and see her again soon. Spend as much time with her as you can.”

  “Come with me? She’ll love you.”

  “I’d love to.” Cassie smiled.

  Later that night, curled in each other’s arms, breathing heavily from the latest of their orgasms, Jos whispered against Cassie’s temple, “I love you, angel.”

  Gasping, her slender fingers covered her gaping mouth. “You don’t know me, Jos.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Cassie realised that even though they still had so much to learn about each other, it didn’t matter. She’d fallen for him their first night together too. She remembered the heartache of leaving him and not hearing from him and the feeling that the broken part of her was being mended when he kissed her yesterday.

  “My heart knows you. From the moment I met you, I knew. I’ll thank the good Lord every day for the rest of my life for bringing you back to me.”

  “I love you too, Jos. I knew it in my heart, too. I cried so much when I realised you weren’t going to call me.”

  “I’m sorry, angel. I’ll never hurt you again. Here.” He plucked his phone off the nightstand and handed it to her. “Put your number, email, Facebook details, Twitter handle, everything, in my phone. And now I know where you live, you ain’t gettin’ away from me again.” Giggling, Cassie complied and sighed into his arms again, enjoying simply being held by him.

  “You know you sound like a stalker?”

  “Mmhmm. I’ll freely admit I’m a creeper.”

  “My creeper.”

  Jos woke first, Cassie’s hair tickling his nose. He opened his eyes and gazed down at his angel’s soft form, which he was spooning tightly, her head resting on his pillow. Tucking a piece of her hair behind her ear, she mumbled, turning her face away from the light spilling in from the open window.

  Jos slipped out of bed and made a pot of coffee, adding a dash of caramel to Cassie’s mug before joining her back in bed again. Breathing deeply, Cassie’s body roused immediately from the smell of good coffee and the feel of Jos lying behind her. Jos murmured, handing her the mug after she’d propped herself on her elbow, “I made you coffee.”

  Taking a sip of the scalding liquid, Cassie immediately tasted the caramel he’d added instead of sugar – exactly the way she liked it. He’d only heard her order it the night they’d spent together, and yet he’d remembered. After their bath, Cassie needed a caffeine hit and Jos had teased her for drinking ‘girly’ coffee. “You remembered how I drink it?”

  “Of course. I remember everything from our night,” he whispered, kissing her shoulder.

  “I thought you just wanted one night together.”

  Taking the mug out of her hands and putting it on the nightstand, Jos said, “Angel, one night with you was never gonna be enough. It’s a good thing we have a lifetime together because even forever isn’t nearly long enough to love you.” Cassie pulled him close and kissed him, slipping her hand between their bodies to pump his cock to a steely erection. As Jos pushed her gently down into the mattress and entered her slowly, they made love, their future burning as bright as the orgasms that soon blossomed in each of them. One night in Daytona had irrevocably changed both of their lives.

  T H E E N D

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  By day Ann Grech lives in the corporate world and can be found sitting behind a desk typing away at reports and papers or lecturing to a room full of students. With her quirky glasses and shiny leather briefcase, she has the librarian look nailed. All laced up tight in her pencil skirts and killer heels, her students can only fantasise about what she gets up to in her spare time. If only they could see those tattoos! Oh, and those notepads of story ideas tucked away in odd places that would be sure to have them fanning themselves!

  By night she’s a wife and mum and a purveyor of saucy stories that are filled with lust, raunchy scenes and ultimately love. Ann’s an avid reader of anything sexy and firmly believes in the motto ‘leave mummy alone, she’s reading or writing.’ Because of that, she is pretty hopeless when it comes to getting dinner on the table on time or cleaning the house.

  Ann also loves chatting to people via Facebook, so if you’d like to keep up with what she’s up to, like her on Facebook, Tsu, visit her online or sign up for Ann’s newslet
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  The Adversaries’ Trilogy:

  Adversaries’ Lust

  Adversaries’ Pain

  Adversaries’ Love

  Upcoming releases:

  Delectable

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