He was being nice. Too nice. It was bad for her heart to have him so accommodating and empathetic. Still, she’d done as her mother had asked, and Kirk had said yes, despite her protests.
“Fine.” She sighed. “But don’t blame me if the dinner bores the pants off you.”
“I’ll remember to wear a belt, then.”
Her attention drifted below his waist. Kirk had come home from the office in his smart gray business suit, shrugged off his jacket, and instantly got to work in the kitchen. The fine woolen trousers hugged his slim waist and hips, emphasized the muscular heft of his thighs. Hmm, what would it take to get those pants off him? Her attention moved to his upper body. His rolled-up sleeves revealed tanned, muscled forearms dusted with fine dark hairs. He’d pulled off his tie and undone the top buttons of his white business shirt. The urge to run her hand over his chest hit her in a hot rush, and she sucked in a breath. Cool down.
Kirk pushed one of the plates across the marbled granite countertop toward her. “Here. Tell me if I’ve still got my magic touch with spaghetti Bolognese.”
“I can eat only half of this,” she said, pointing to her heaped plate.
“What? I thought you were allowed five hundred calories for dinner.”
“I promised my mom I’d try to eat less, no matter the calories.” She sure as hell didn’t want Lillian complaining about her back fat on the day of the wedding.
His gaze traveled over her. “You look just fine to me.”
Her toes curled. She wasn’t used to Kirk assessing her, and she wasn’t sure how to take his verdict. “Just fine” sounded like faint praise. But then, she’d never purposely dressed to attract his attention. Maybe one day she would, when she had the courage.
She picked up a fork and divided her food into two halves. “‘Just fine’ doesn’t cut it with my sister. I don’t want to ruin her wedding photos.” She tipped one half of her dinner into a Tupperware container then cast a doleful look at the small remainder on her plate. Her stomach would be growling by eleven tonight.
They sat side by side at the kitchen counter and began their meal.
“Mmm…” Cassie groaned in appreciation after her first mouthful. “This is amazing.”
She glanced up. Kirk’s eyes had narrowed on her as if he found something fascinating about her expression. “Amazing, huh?”
She swallowed. “You’ve definitely still got your magic touch.”
Kirk had the magic touch with everything. When she was with him, the sun shone brighter, jokes sounded funnier, even sad songs were sadder because she was with him. He sharpened the flavors in her life, deepened all her sensations, enhanced every experience. She wasn’t exactly sure what it was about him that did this to her. Maybe it was a unique combination of his sexiness, his drive, his simmering alphaness, which was always present even when he was goofing off.
“I admit I have an ulterior motive for going to your mom’s dinner,” Kirk said.
“And what’s that?”
“I’m taking Hank Parnell and his daughter to dinner Thursday night, and I need you to accompany me.”
Cassie set her fork down. “As your fake girlfriend?”
“Yeah.” He paused. “We’re going to Rawlins, so you might want to, uh, dress up.”
Her toes curled again as embarrassment seeped through her. What was he implying? That she had to raise her game if he was taking her to a swanky restaurant like Rawlins?
“Sure, I can do that.” She twirled some pasta around her fork, her appetite ebbing.
“If you need to buy anything, you can borrow my credit card.”
She nearly dropped her fork and it clattered against her plate. “Borrow your credit card! Why on earth would I do that?”
Kirk met her stare, unfazed by her outburst. “Because I can afford it.”
“We’re friends,” she hissed. “I can’t let you buy me anything.”
“Jesus, why are you getting so riled up? You’re going to this dinner for my benefit, so why shouldn’t I pay for things you wouldn’t normally buy for yourself?”
Oh, where did she begin, when there was so much about what he’d said to get mad at? He wanted her to be all tarted up for this important dinner, and he assumed she didn’t have anything remotely acceptable, and that she needed heaps of money—his money—to get herself up to scratch as his fake girlfriend.
She hauled in some air as she battled to stay calm. Well, she supposed he’d never seen her glammed up, and since she’d been back, she’d been running around in jeans most of the time. Also, although she’d come to enjoy dressing up on occasion, she’d never taken it to the lengths of the women Kirk had dated. If she wanted to make Shawna Parnell believe she was Kirk’s girlfriend, then she’d have to pull out all the stops. She could do that. Come Thursday night, Kirk would be in for a surprise. A good one, she hoped. Maybe, if she pulled it off, he might start seeing her as a desirable woman, and his feelings for her might progress from friendship.
“You’re right,” she said to Kirk. “You should pay, but I won’t let you. Whatever I need, I can buy myself. I’m earning a good salary these days. I don’t need to mooch off you.”
Kirk grimaced. “If I were Joe Blow from Oakland, you’d be happy to use my credit card. You’re refusing only because I happen to be loaded and you’re determined to keep money out of our friendship. It’s a kind of reverse discrimination.”
She pondered over his words. “Maybe,” she replied, “but I thought you’d be glad about that.”
“Ordinarily, yes. Too often I wonder if people are friendly to me because of my money.” He leaned toward her. “But I’ve never wondered that about you. Not once, ever.”
Cassie warmed with pleasure. This was the first time they’d ever discussed Kirk’s wealth and how it affected him.
“I’m glad,” she said. “Money can come between friends, especially if one has so much and the other doesn’t. But since you chose to ignore it, I ignored it, too.”
She hadn’t totally disregarded his wealth, though. The fact that Kirk was so insanely rich had been another reason she’d never been game enough to put herself out there for him—because hot billionaires like him usually dated super-gorgeous women oozing with style and sophistication, not girls like her. And she’d been proven right when he’d married one of California’s richest heiresses, the incomparable Alison Hancock. Kirk might have ignored his privileged background at college, but when it came to marriage, he’d stayed close to home. Mean of her to think that, but she couldn’t help it.
But now the hot billionaire was sitting opposite her, looking more delicious than the dinner he’d cooked for her. A tiny smudge of pasta sauce graced the corner of his mouth, and a sudden urge to lean over and lick it off gripped her.
“You’re sure about the credit card?” Kirk asked.
Cassie pulled her gaze away from his lips. “I’m sure.” She scraped up the last bit of pasta and eyed her empty plate regretfully. “You don’t have to worry, except for sewing up this deal with Hank Parnell.”
Kirk rested his chin against his hand. “Yeah, I’m determined to land this deal.”
“You haven’t had it easy at work, have you?” Cassie said, remembering the rumors she’d heard from her friends. “Not with that ruthless uncle.”
Kirk nodded. “He sidelined my dad and pitted me and Lex against each other at every opportunity. He wanted Lex to succeed him, which he did. For years Lex and I were rivals.” His hand on the counter closed into a fist. “Guess it didn’t help that I married his ex-girlfriend.”
Cassie remained silent. She’d known from the gossip columns that Alison had first dated Kirk’s cousin. Not that she read gossip columns, but her mom did and repeated everything to her. It wasn’t clear whether Alison and Lex had officially broken up when she and Kirk had gotten together, but after two months of dating they’d suddenly gotten engaged.
At the time, Cassie had been on a three-month work assignment in San Diego. She’d returned home to find a wedding invitation waiting for her. The next day, red-eyed and nauseated, she’d emailed her Aunt Betsy in Sydney and told her she’d be visiting sometime soon.
Kirk’s hand remained fisted mere inches from her. She wished she could place her hand over his, but she didn’t want to touch him when he was thinking about Alison. She’d learned her lesson the hard way.
Kirk’s hand gradually relaxed. “Anyway, that’s all in the past.” He sounded more upbeat. “I’m having Lex and his wife Jacinta over for dinner Friday night. Holly, too. You remember my little sister?”
That dollop of pasta sauce on his lips was killing her. “Yes, of course.” Holly was a spunky elf, a ball of energy who’d always made Cassie feel like a slow giant. “What about your dad? Will he be coming?”
Kirk shook his head. “No. He’s away at the moment.”
His shuttered expression caught her attention. Kirk rarely talked about his father. She knew his dad was a widower and that Kirk’s mom had died when Kirk was a teenager, but that was about it. From Kirk’s silence on the subject, she intuited that he and his father were fond of each other but not particularly close, and maybe that was another contributing factor to Kirk’s emotional distance from other people.