by Noelle Adams
Cassie looked at him and desperately wanted to believe him and to just give in and say yes. Unfortunately, she’d been down this road before and wasn’t willing to take that chance with him again. Adam Lawrence had broken her heart and the wound was too fresh for her to be willing to give him the opportunity to do it again.
A look at the clock showed it to be nearing midnight. She was so tired and just wanted the day to end. “I can’t do this with you now, Adam. I’m tired and I’m confused and the thought of facing everyone tomorrow knowing that they are all believing a lie…it’s just too much for me to deal with right now. I just want to go to sleep.” She walked away and went to get her suitcase. Adam followed her into the closet.
“It’s late and you’re tired. Please stay here tonight. I promise to be a perfect gentleman and keep my hands to myself. The bed is big enough for us to both sleep in it without ever touching.” He saw the hesitation in her eyes and it made him ache. “Please.”
The slight nod of her head was all he needed. Carrying the suitcase back out into the room, he placed it on the bench at the foot of the bed. Cassie opened it and grabbed a nightshirt and her toiletries and went into the bathroom. When she emerged a few minutes later, Adam was already in the bed, facing away from her with his bedside lamp off. She was thankful to not have to speak to him again.
She crawled into the bed and got comfortable under the blankets and then lay on her side with her back to Adam and was as close to the edge of the mattress as she could get without falling off. Turning off her bedside light, a small sigh escaped. This was supposed to be a wonderful event; it was Christmas and her father was getting married. In a matter of hours, all of the joy that she had been feeling had been replaced with despair. How was she supposed to face her family in the morning?
Though Cassie longed for answers, her body longed for sleep even more. Morning would be here soon enough and she hoped that by the time the sun came up she’d have the answer to all of her troubles.
Seventeen
The first rays of the sun were starting to make their way across the bedroom. Cassie snuggled down deeper into the blankets and sighed. She loved this bed. It didn’t take long for her brain to engage and realize that she was pressed up against Adam from head to toe; their legs were tangled together, her head was on his chest and his arms were wrapped around her. Dammit! She thought. He’d promised!
At the slight movement of her head Adam knew she was awake and was patiently waiting to see what kind of a response he got. Reluctantly loosening his hold on her, he opened his eyes as met her furious gaze.
“You promised,” she hissed.
“Yes, I did,” he said evenly.
“As if you weren’t despicable enough, you had to go and try something like this!” She sat up and pushed her hair from her eyes, sighing with frustration.
“Like what?”
Her head snapped towards him at his comment. “Like what? You told me that you would be a gentleman and yet here we are, all tangled up together!”
Adam chuckled and sat up, adjusting the pillows behind him. “I hate to break it to you, sweetheart, but look and see which side of the bed you’re on.”
Cassie’s heart sank as she realized that Adam was exactly where he’d been last night when she’d come to bed. She was the one who had crossed the invisible line and into enemy territory. “Oh.”
Taking a chance, Adam reached out and gently pulled Cassie back down beside him against the pillows. She didn’t resist and if anything, she seemed to just sigh and relax beside him. She was the first to speak.
“I’m sorry.”
Unable to resist, Adam wrapped an arm around her and kissed the top of her head. “It’s okay,” he said, “I’ve given you plenty of reasons to distrust me.”
Cassie looked up at him and gave him a weak smile. “I don’t want to go downstairs and face everyone. I don’t know what to do.”
“Then we’ll just stay up here all day and let them draw their own conclusions,” he teased and gave an inward sigh of relief when Cassie’s smile grew.
“I definitely don’t want that,” she said, nudging him with her elbow. “But seriously, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. I don’t want to lie to everyone. I’ve never lied to my father and I’d hate to start now, right before his wedding.”
Adam placed a finger under her chin and tilted her face up toward his. “The last time we were in this bed together, you said that you loved me.” When Cassie went to protest, he placed a finger over her lips to silence her protests. “You were half asleep but you said it. It was the most wonderful and yet the most terrifying thing anyone had ever said to me and I know that I reacted badly. This was never supposed to happen between us and yet I can’t even begin to regret it. You turned my life upside down the day that you quit in my office and as angry as it made me at the time, I can’t be sorry that it happened.”
Removing his finger from her soft lips, Adam continued. “I can never apologize enough for all of the ways that I’ve hurt you but I want you to know that not a day has gone by since that night in the restaurant that I haven’t kicked myself for the way I treated you. You mean the world to me and I don’t want to imagine a life without you.”
Everything in Cassie softened. In all of the time that she and Adam had spent together, this was the first time that he had ever spoken of his feelings and she knew, by the sincerity in his eyes that this wasn’t a game; it wasn’t a means to an end.
“Don’t go downstairs and lie to everyone, go downstairs with me, hand in hand, and celebrate.”
A stray tear rolled down her cheek. “I want so badly to believe you…to believe in you, but I’m just so scared. I don’t think I can survive if you break my heart again.”
Leaning forward Adam kissed her gently on the lips. Pulling back, he stared in to her eyes hoping that she’d read his true feelings there. “Cassandra, I love you. I’ve never said those words to anyone and yet there are no other words to describe how I feel about you. My life has been so empty without you and even though I know that there is no baby, I want that to be just a temporary thing. I want to marry you, have babies with you, and have a life with you. Is it possible that you still love me?”
His words were Cassie’s undoing. “Adam, I do love you; I tried not to but I couldn’t do it. Being here without you was so hard! Tell me again; tell me that you love me.”
“I love you. I’ll tell you all day, every day if that’s what you want.”
Wrapping a hand behind Adam’s neck, Cassie pulled him to her for the kiss that she’d been craving for weeks. They lay down more comfortably on the bed as Adam kissed her like a starving man finally being able to feast. In between kisses, he told Cassie how much she meant to him.
When they finally surfaced, Cassie was the first to speak. “As much as I want to stay right here in this bed with you, we have a full schedule of wedding preparations to attend to.”
Reluctantly he agreed. “So then you’re feeling better about going downstairs and facing everyone?”
“Well, I’m not totally lying to them but I dread the time when we do have to tell them that it was all a misunderstanding and that I’m not pregnant. Hopefully they’ll all get a good laugh out of it.”
“Or,” he began, “we see what we can do to rectify that.” A wicked grin crossed Adam’s face as his hand skimmed over Cassie’s face.
“A man with a plan…I like that.”
About the Author
Contemporary romance writer Samantha Chase released her debut novel, “Jordan’s Return”, in November 2011. Although she waited until she was in her 40’s to publish for the first time, writing has been a lifelong passion. Her motivation to take that step was her students: teaching creative writing to elementary age students all the way up through high school and encouraging those students to follow their writing dreams gave Samantha the confidence to take that step as well.
Her second book, a holiday novella titled “The Christmas Cotta
ge” climbed the Amazon charts and peaked at number ten on the Best Sellers in Women’s Fiction on Christmas Eve 2012 in books and number 116 in Kindle books. Watching the numbers rise and fall was a daily roller coaster ride but definitely an exciting one!
The follow-up, “Ever After” was not a planned book; the response to “The Christmas Cottage” was so great that fans of it begged to know Ava’s story. It was something that was planned for a future book but due to the many inquiries, it was moved up to be the next story written.
Now with “Catering to the CEO”, gears shifted a little. Originally, “CEO” was planned as a submission to Harlequin for their Desire line, but with the success of the previous books being self-published, she decided to keep moving onward and upward in the world of indie publishing. This book is a little spicier than the previous two, but in keeping with her style, the focus is still on the building of a relationship between two very different people.
Currently, Samantha is up for three Indie Romance awards! “The Christmas Cottage” is up for Best Indie Romance Novella, Best Indie Contemporary Romance and Samantha Chase, herself, up for Indie Romance Writer of the Year!
When she’s not working on a new story or editing the ones that are in progress, she spends her time reading contemporary romances, blogging, playing way too many games of Scrabble on Facebook and spending time with her husband of 23 years and their two sons in Wake Forest, North Carolina.
Where to Find Samantha
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SamanthaChaseFanClub
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SamanthaChase3
Website: http://samanthachaseauthor.com/
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B006CZWRGC
Blog: http://allstace.blogspot.com/
Tumblr: http://samanthachasewriter.tumblr.com/
New From Samantha Chase
Trust in Me
Book Two in The Montgomery Brothers Series
(Available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble)
Chapter One
“She has to be married.”
“Excuse me?”
“Whoever it is that we choose, she has to be married.” Jason Montgomery was adamant on this point. There was no way he was going to get caught with someone looking to snag the wealthy boss.
“This is about Lucas isn’t it?” The head of human resources eyed him with a mix of suspicion and humor. In her late fifties, Ann Kincade had been with Montgomery’s for almost twenty years and had watched William Montgomery’s sons grow up. “Honestly, Jason, you are making a big deal out of nothing.”
“Am I?” he asked incredulously. “Ever since Lucas and Emma hooked up, I have gone through four different assistants. Why? Because now they all think that they can hook up with the boss.”
“That’s a slight exaggeration, Jason,” she admonished.
“Is it?” He stood and began to pace his office. “First there was Rose…”
“Rose got promoted to being your father’s assistant when Emma left. That had nothing to do with you.”
Jason sighed with frustration. “That wasn’t what I was going to say. When Rose moved over to the main suite, you replaced her with Janice.”
“She was a very nice woman; great organizational skills.”
“She was a damn stalker who I found watching me through the bushes at home with binoculars!”
“Okay, I’ll give you that one. But then there was Lynda…”
“Cougar on the prowl. She didn’t want to work; she wanted to find a rich, younger husband to take care of her.”
“And her typing skills sucked.”
One of Jason’s dark eyebrows arched at that comment but he said nothing. “Then there was Claire.” He stopped and stood in front of Ann, his arms crossed over his chest. “Do I even need to remind you of that little debacle?”
Ann looked down at her pile of files in her lap. “I still think it wasn’t what it looked like.”
“The woman was sprawled out on my desk in her underwear. What do you think it looked like?” he shouted. A growl of frustration escaped before he could stop it and he raked a hand through his hair. “Now I have this trip coming up that I need to take an assistant on and I don’t have an assistant! I’m walking around on eggshells here because I feel like everywhere I turn, there is someone looking to marry me!”
“We’ll have to put an ad out and look for male assistants,” Ann suggested.
“There’s no time for that and what if he’s gay?”
Ann let out a hearty laugh before she could help it. “Oh, Jason, do you hear yourself? Now you think that men are going to be after you, too?”
He sat back down behind his desk and put his face in his hands. “I’m going crazy here, Ann. I have a lot to do to prep for this trip; there’s a lot riding on it and I can’t spare the time to be fending off women who are hoping to be the next Mrs. Montgomery.”
“Is it absolutely necessary for you to have someone go with you?” she asked seriously.
“It’s a long trip with meetings set up with dozens of potential clients. I need someone to be with me taking notes and organizing contracts and getting them back here to the office. I can’t do it all myself. As it is this went from a ten day trip to about three weeks. What am I supposed to do?”
“That’s a long time to ask anyone to travel with you, especially if they’re married. No one is going to want to be away from their spouse for three weeks.”
Jason frowned. “Damn, I hadn’t thought of that.”
Ann started sorting through the employment profiles she held in her lap. “As of right now there are no male candidates. You could always take one of the junior execs with you to…”
Jason shook his head. “No, the ones that I talked with can’t be spared for that length of time.”
“What about a temp?”
Again he shook his head. “I need someone with a working knowledge of the company. I won’t have time for hand holding and training. I need someone who can step right in and get to work. I’ve got less than two weeks before I leave and I’ll need every minute of it to get organized.”
Placing the files down on Jason’s desk, Ann stood and frowned. “What you’re asking is impossible.”
“I’m relying on you to make it possible,” he countered.
“Jason, be reasonable.”
“I would love to be reasonable, Ann, believe me. Right now there is nothing about this situation that makes things easy for me, either. I cannot afford to take someone with me who ‘accidentally’ shows up in my bed or worse, makes a spectacle of themselves at a corporate event. I don’t want to lead anyone on or give them the impression that they are with me to play corporate wife!”
She stared at him until Jason started to feel like he was going to squirm. “I’ll see what I do, Jace; but I can make no promises.”
He nodded and then she was gone.
****
Maggie Barrett did her best to live her life under the radar.
Getting called into the boss’s office did not fit with that motto.
She had barely stepped into the executive suite when William Montgomery’s assistant Rose told her that Mr. Montgomery was expecting her. With a heavy sigh and a straightened spine, she walked through the doors.
“Maggie!” William Montgomery boomed. “How have you been?”
Taking the seat that he indicated, Maggie sat down and swallowed the nervous lump in her throat before responding. “Fine, Sir. How are you?”
“Great, can’t complain,” he said with a sincere smile and then he reached for a folder that was on his desk. His expression turned slightly more serious as he read the contents. Quietly he closed the folder and studied Maggie. “Ann tells me that you were offered a promotion.”
Maggie nodded. “Yes, Sir, I was.”
“And that you turned it down.”
Again, she nodded.
“Care to tell me why?”
“I’m perfectly happy with the position that I have.”
Her shoulders sagged slightly. “You and I both know why I took this job, Mr. Montgomery. I’m not looking to be anyone’s assistant ever again. I’m very happy working in customer service.”
“Answering phones all day in maddening,” he replied. “The move up to an assistant would mean that other people would be fielding the calls and you could actually do the kind of work that you are more than capable of doing.”
It probably wouldn’t look good for her to cry in front of her boss. Not that he hadn’t seen her do that before but it wasn’t something she wanted to repeat. “I appreciate your concern, Mr. Montgomery, I really do. I’m just not willing to be put into that type of situation ever again. I can’t.” Her voice trembled on the last word and Maggie silently cursed herself for showing weakness.
It was never William’s intention to upset Maggie and sitting there looking at her as she fought to keep her composure, he hated himself even more for what he was about to do. “Maggie,” he began, “I am not the type of person who throws his weight around. I think you know that about me.” She nodded. “We have a situation that you are the only one qualified for. I’m not asking you if you want the position, I’m telling you that I want you to take the position.”
Maggie’s head snapped up as she stared at him with eyes wide. “But you know why…”
William held up a hand to stop her. “Believe me, I remember quite well why you feel the way that you do and I think that by now you should know that I am one of the good guys. Have I ever done anything to make you doubt me?”
Silently, Maggie shook her head.
“Have I asked anything of you in all of the time you’ve worked for me?”