Loving the CEO (bundle of five romance novels)

by Noelle Adams

  “Dad, please,” she murmured, not wanting to draw attention to her business while the enemy was sitting right there.

  Adam sensed more than saw, Matt sit next to him. He didn’t turn to acknowledge him; he was too wrapped up in watching as Cassie tossed the rice in a large skillet one handed without spilling any of it.

  “Lauren, grab me that lemon, please,” she said and in a flash had the pan back on the stove and had the lemon cut and was squeezing the fresh juice over the salad greens. Like a well choreographed dance, the three sisters were moving about the kitchen, each knowing what to do without speaking and soon there was a complete dinner set before them at the large kitchen table.

  “Well, well, well,” Bev said with a bright smile, “what have you made for us, Cassie?”

  Not really wanting the attention on her again, Cassie cast a glance at Katie who took over. “We’ve got spinach and feta cheese stuffed boneless chicken breasts with a balsamic glaze, rice pilaf, and of course, a Greek salad.” She smiled at her sister. “This is one of dad’s favorites.”

  “Oh, I can see why. Everything is fabulous, girls, thank you for preparing such a treat.” She took a small bite of her chicken and when she had finished chewing she looked at her son and said, “Isn’t it wonderful, Adam?”

  He nodded and grunted an agreement, afraid to say too much around this crowd. “Adam has always said that Cassie is an amazing chef. After every event that he has, he’s always praised your cooking,” Bev said, glancing between Cassie and Adam, hoping to ease some of the tension.

  “Really?” Cassie asked. “Funny, I don’t remember hearing that hell had frozen over…”

  “Cassandra!” Stephen hissed. “That is enough! I could see if you were twelve and you were behaving like this but you are a grown woman and Adam is our guest. Granted, I know this has been a rough day for you both but really…”

  “Please, Mr. Jacobs,” Adam began, “there’s no need to intercede on my behalf. I’m afraid that I handled things poorly this afternoon. I just don’t see where three days makes that much of a difference and…”

  That was it. It seemed as if everyone started talking at once.

  “Three days does make a difference…”

  “You were the one who broke the contract!”

  “Do you have any idea how much planning and ordering goes in to an event like yours?”

  “You’ll never get anyone to do this job on such short notice…”

  “ENOUGH!”

  All heads turned to look at Stephen. He reached for Bev’s hand and they held on tightly to one another. “You should all be ashamed of yourselves. There will be no more talk of this contract here tonight. The two of you can talk it out to your hearts content tomorrow but as of right now, you are done. Am I clear?”

  Everyone nodded. “Good. Now pass me the rice.”

  For an hour, there was peace. To Adam’s way of thinking, the Jacobs’ family was sneaky in their attack. No one said anything directly to him but the conversation did seem to continually find its way back to Cassie and her business. With each comment in her favor, the speaking sibling would give him an accusing glance. Fine, if they wanted to believe him to be Hitler, Scrooge and an Ogre rolled in to one, then so be it. Maybe after dinner he’d find some puppies to kick just to prove their point.

  Cassie’s laughter broke through his train of thoughts and caused a slight clench in his stomach. Why had he never noticed what a great laugh she had? Probably because he never gave her a reason to laugh when they were working together. Come to think of it, no one laughed around him. This was the first time in he couldn’t remember when that he was actually surrounded by people having a good time. Geez, when had his life become such a misery?

  Matt slapped his hands together, startling everyone in to silence. “What’s for dessert, Cass?”

  All eyes turned expectantly to Cassie as she cried out, “Oh, no!”

  “What? What’s the matter?”

  “I had some lovely pies and pastries and I left them back at the shop.” Standing, Cassie began clearing the table quickly followed by her sisters. Once again, Adam couldn’t help but admire the way in which the siblings worked together, and seemingly enjoying the domestic task.

  He held in the shudder that wanted to overtake his body at the thought.

  “Cass, go and get the dessert; we’ll do the cleanup, right Kate?” Katie nodded and continued to clear the table, all the while answering Bev’s question about baby Ella.

  Untying the apron that she’d forgotten to take off before sitting down to eat, Cassie tossed it into the laundry room and walked through the kitchen while telling everyone she’d be right back. Grabbing her purse from the living room sofa, she called to Lauren that she was taking her car since it was behind Cassie’s and walked out the door. It was pitch black outside and it wasn’t until she stepped around to the driver’s side of her car that she saw Adam.

  If there was a single thought that was prevalent in her mind as she was heading out it was that it would be good to have a few minutes reprieve from the man. Apparently, it was to be a short-lived one.

  “What are you doing out here?”

  “I thought that I’d take the ride with you so that maybe we can clear the air a little and try and salvage this night.”

  A mirthless laugh came out before Cassie could stop it. “You mean you want to make me fall in line like one of your employees so that my family will stop shooting daggers at you, don’t you?”

  With a shrug, Adam stepped aside as she came around the car to climb into the driver’s seat. Leaving him standing there, Cassie started the car and buckled herself in before rolling the window down. “It’ll be mighty hard for you to take the ride with me while you’re standing in the driveway…”

  With that, he walked around to the passenger side and climbed in.

  Cassie’s shop was only ten minutes away and they spent nine of it in silence. “I’ve never been to your facility before,” Adam said, noting it’s proximity to her family home as well as downtown Raleigh. “How long have you been here?”

  Parking the car right in front, Cassie turned it off before answering him. “It’s been almost three years. Although, most of the first year was spent renovating the place before I could use it to it’s full potential.” She climbed out and Adam followed.

  From the outside, it didn’t look like much; it was a brick façade with a large window display and a pretty wood door with a stained glass design. Walking inside, however, found Adam impressed. The showroom, for lack of a better word, was set up to show different table settings; each table was done in a different color scheme with different china and flowers. Around the room there were shelves that held displays of baskets, silk flowers and an assortment of pictures from what he guessed were events that Cassie had done.

  Walking further in, he stepped under an archway that led into a smaller room with pocket doors that felt open and inviting. There was a large desk off to the left sitting at an angle. In front of it were two large upholstered chairs, presumably for clients. This must be her office. Very clever, he thought to himself. Bring the customer through the showroom before actually sitting down with them.

  Adam heard Cassie moving around in the room behind her office. The door to it was wide and had swung as one would find in a restaurant leading to the kitchen. Once he stepped through, he realized that was exactly where he was.

  There was glimmering stainless steel everywhere. The smell of bleach was strong enough to know that it was used, and that the place was clean but not enough to be overpowering. He saw Cassie stepping out of what he saw to be a walk in refrigerator. There was a row of stoves, four of them, on the right hand wall. In the center of the room were work islands, to the left were cabinets and shelves; towards the back were the sinks. Again, Adam found himself impressed with the overall efficient layout.

  Cassie had several pink cake boxes in her hands and she placed them on the nearest island before turning to shut the
walk-in refrigerator door. Rubbing her hands together, she walked over to one of the cabinets to find a bag to place the boxes in for easier transport.

  “You’ve got a great set up here, Cassandra; truly impressive.”

  She had to stop herself from turning and giving him a snarky remark. After all, he sounded sincere; if what he said earlier about wanting to clear the air was true, it seemed as if now was not the time for sarcasm.

  “Thank you. It took a while to get it just right so that we can all work back here without bumping in to one another but I finally worked out all of the kinks. I’m pleased with it.”

  “You should be. I guess I never put much thought in to where you worked, just how it all looked once it arrived.” Looking around the kitchen he noticed two doors in the back corner; one clearly led to the outside and the other into an alcove. Cassie saw where he was looking.

  “We load everything out the back door. I have our truck back there in a small parking lot. There’s also a storage shed back there for extra tables, chairs and whatnot. The other door leads to my apartment upstairs.”

  “You live here?”

  His tone put her back up; he sounded a bit appalled at the prospect. “I don’t live here in the kitchen, Adam. My apartment is completely separate and soundproofed and it makes things easier for me when we have to pull a late night.”

  “I can drive the truck back here, have the staff help me unload and merely walk up the stairs to be done with the day. Don’t tell me you don’t have something similar in your building because I happen to know for a fact that you do.”

  “True enough but this is such a…a commercial space. I spend the occasional night at the office when I’m dealing with over seas accounts but I wouldn’t want to live there full time.”

  “Well,” she replied tartly, “lucky for you that you have the kind of income that you can afford both. Most of us in the real world only have one place of residence.” She scooped up the bag with the dessert in it and walked past him when Adam reached out and gently touched her arm to stop her.

  “Okay, okay, truce. I was out of line,” he said wearily. He had no idea why he had to explain himself to this woman but clearly it would make things easier when they got back to the house if they were playing nice. “Look, things got out of hand today at the office.”

  “You think?” She liked the fact that her tone had him arching an eyebrow at her.

  “Yes, I think,” he said with equal sarcasm. “The thing is, you were right.” Dammit. “If the tables were turned I would not break the terms of my contract for any client and that was what I was expecting you to do.”

  Cassie stood in stunned silence unsure of finding her voice.

  “Your company has done nothing but a good job for mine, Cassandra. I respect you as a business associate. I think that you are a fine cook; nothing that you’ve ever made for any of my events has disappointed. I would very much like it if you would continue on with the Fall Retreat plan and just maybe…forget what happened earlier today.”

  Adam stood and waited…patiently, for Cassie to say something. He became quickly irritated when she, like earlier, did not immediately respond. Taking a deep breath, he was ready to speak when…

  “Alright, Adam, I’ll continue on with this project.” He released the breath. “But there are some things that need to be said if we’re going to move forward and work together again beyond this event.”

  When he nodded, she continued. “For starters, I can’t speak for your staff but I can tell you that I, personally, do not appreciate being spoken to like I’m an idiot.”

  “I’ve never…”

  She held up a hand to silence him. “You do. All the time. To everyone. As you can see here, I own my own business and I know how to run it. I’m not operating out of the back of a van so clearly I know what I am doing. I would trust you if I hired you for some sort of security thing because that’s what you do for a living. As an act of simple common courtesy, I expect you to trust me when it comes to event planning and catering because this is what I do for a living.”

  “Now just a minute…”

  “I’m not done!” she snapped, pleased to see his mouth snap shut. “I am damn good at what I do, Adam, you’ve said so yourself. I appreciate you wanting to give your input, I honestly do, but I expect it to be given in a respectful tone; I’m a grown woman not a child.”

  She stood tall and crossed her arms over her chest and heaved a sigh of completion. “Now, do you have something to say?”

  Oh, man, did he! Adam’s first instinct was to blast her for speaking to him that way and then reigned himself in. Clearly that would not be the way to go and he had a feeling if he thought that dinner was awkward, dessert would be just plain painful. Mentally counting to ten, he leaned on the island in front of her. “I did not realize that the way I spoke was so offensive; no one’s ever said anything to me before about it.”

  “That’s because you would fire them,” she said blandly.

  He gave her a look that showed that she was grating on his patience. “I was not allowed to interrupt you; I’d expect the same courtesy.” Throwing her own words back at her, Cassie merely nodded and let him go on. “In my line of work, in my position, that is the way that it’s done. I demand perfection from the people around me because it is my reputation on the line, not theirs. I realize that while you are not a fulltime employee of mine that maybe I can be just as demanding on you. For that, I apologize.”

  Cassie nearly fell where she stood.

  “I would like for us to continue to work together, Cassandra, and maybe now that we’ve talked this through and know where we’re each coming from, we can do so with no hard feelings.” Adam held out his hand to seal the deal and watched as Cassie eyed him warily. Mentally he was kicking himself for having to apologize because it was beneath him. She was his employee and there was no way that he would have given in and admitted to being wrong if he didn’t need her to finish this damn event.

  When Cassie finally reached out her hand to his and shook, Adam was temporarily stunned. There was a jolt that had never been there before. He looked at her and saw that she felt it too as she snatched her hand quickly back. “Thank you, Adam.”

  “I’m looking forward to this event and I know that it will be perfect just as we discussed.” Adam scooped up the bag with the dessert and followed Cassie out of the kitchen. He watched the sway of her hips in faded jeans and smiled in the darkness with pure male appreciation as she turned out the lights.

  While Adam couldn’t deny that Cassie Jacobs was an attractive woman, he also couldn’t deny that she had crossed a line with him; one that he didn’t allow anyone to cross. Unfortunately, in this particular situation he had to bide his time in order to meet a deadline. If there had been anyone willing to take over the event, he would have taken them on in a heartbeat. But with the event being in a mere eleven days, his hands were tied. Once this retreat was over, however, so was his business with Cassie.

  Permanently.

  Three

  Adam walked out behind Cassie and waited beside her as she set the alarm and locked up. They climbed into the car and he could see that some of the tension had left her. Excellent. That meant that she believed what he had said and that the dogs should be called off when they arrived back at her father’s house with dessert.

  It didn’t take long, however, to note that something was wrong. Cassie had a white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel and she was breathing deeply as if trying to get through something. “Are you alright?” he asked, genuinely concerned.

  “Fine,” she said tightly, fumbling slightly as she reached for her cell phone. Adam wanted to offer to dial for her, or at least remind her to keep her eyes on the road while she dialed but in a flash she had the phone to her ear and was speaking.

  “It’s me…we’re on the way home…no, no I’m not. Thanks.” Tossing the phone back into her purse with some irritation, Cassie resumed her death grip on the wheel.

>   “Cassandra, what’s going on?” Adam demanded.

  “It’s nothing,” she managed through clenched teeth. “I would appreciate it if you just wouldn’t speak right now.”

  Before he could argue any further, they were pulling into the driveway – practically on two wheels – as her entire family piled out the front door. Within seconds, Cassie’s sisters were helping her out of the car while her brother grabbed her things. Her father stood at the door with Bev as Cassie was essentially carried into the house and out of sight. Adam stood by the passenger side of the door wondering just what in the hell was going on.

  With the dessert bag in one hand he slammed the car door shut with the other and stalked to the house. Stephen and his mother were still standing there waiting for him. He stopped in front of them and waited for some sort of explanation.

  “I’ll take that in,” was all Stephen said as he took the bag from Adam’s hand and went into the house. Adam looked to his mother for answers.

  Bev looked at the irritated expression on her son’s face and had to stifle a smile. “Well?” he demanded. “What was that all about?”

  Stepping away from the door and out on to the porch, Bev let the door close and stood next to Adam. “Cassie has a condition; it’s a woman-thing. It just flares up occasionally and apparently it did so tonight. She’ll be okay in a little while. No worries.”

  “No worries?” he snapped. “She damn well nearly passed out in the car! Then we get back here and the whole family just about carries her inside! That doesn’t sound like just a ‘condition’, mother. What’s wrong with her?”

  “Adam, trust me. It’s all okay and Cassie will be fine in a little while. Her family is concerned about her, but that’s because they love her and don’t want her to be in any kind of pain, ever. I think it’s kind of sweet.” Bev turned and looked into the house, sure that this was the kind of family that she wanted to be a part of. She sighed and looked back at her son who didn’t seem the least bit appeased by her explanation.