Saving the CEO (49th Floor #1)(36)

Chapter Seventeen

"I think Junior is going to agree," Cassie whispered in Jack's ear as  she came into the great room for cocktails. Relief washed over him. Not  at what she said, but at her presence. He'd spent the balance of the  afternoon after she departed wracked with worry. He'd invented a million  reasons to be roaming the halls of the house, hoping to see or hear  her, to find evidence that she'd returned from her time with Brian  unscathed. But since he could hardly set up camp outside her bedroom,  she must have slipped in without him noticing.

The thought of Brian Wexler with Cassie, even just walking with her,  made him crazy. It made him want to get this deal done not just because  he wanted to buy Wexler's company, but because he didn't want Brian to  have it. He was fully aware that this made him no better than a kid who  doesn't want a toy for himself but also won't share it, but he didn't  give a fuck. Cassie was too good to spend another minute in that  jackass's presence.

"What do you mean?" he asked, forcing his mind back to what she'd actually said.

"Junior may not be as bad as he seems," she whispered, but was interrupted by the arrival of both Wexlers and Tania.

"I have a crazy idea!" boomed David.

"You're going to love it!" said Tania.

"We have a room on the lower level that faces the back," said David. "A  kind of family room we sometimes use for garden parties in the summer  because the back wall is all windows. There's a big grill outside. Let's  have a winter picnic. We'll grill steaks. We can eat inside and watch  the stars come out."

"Or we can be hardy," said Tania, "and bundle up and go outside for a  stargazing party. I understand Cassie can show us a few constellations.  And I make a wicked Irish coffee."

"What about the projections you wanted to go through?" Jack asked David. They'd been led to expect a working dinner.

"This sounds like more fun," said Senior, waving a hand dismissively. "What do you say?"

Jack looked at Cassie. She was beaming, lit up like a big copper sun. "All right," he agreed.

As they tromped outside in boots, parkas, and hats, he wondered if it  could really be this easy. Every time he tried to turn the conversation  back to business, Wexler deflected him. "If I have any questions about  that, I'll call you after New Year's," he'd say. Or, "Why spoil a  gorgeous clear night like this with business?"

What the hell had shifted Wexler's mood so dramatically? He had an  unsettling feeling it had something to do with what had happened between  Cassie and Junior. Junior himself gave no clues. He'd eaten dinner with  them but had been uncharacteristically subdued. Then he'd begged off,  but not before saying a polite good night to everyone. It didn't escape  Jack's notice that his eyes lingered on Cassie for a long time as she  graced him with a wide, genuine smile.

Cassie. While he and Tania sat on lawn chairs near the house sipping  booze-laced coffee, Cassie and David stood twenty feet away, heads  tilted back to look at what was, he had to admit, a pretty spectacular  night sky.                       
       
           



       

He marveled anew at how Cassie managed to look so beautiful when nearly  every inch of her skin was covered by wool and Gore-Tex. Even from this  distance, even in the dark, she radiated a kind of energy. There was a  luminescence about her that was like a drug. He pushed to his feet. Why  resist? Maybe he could drive off Senior and find out what the hell was  going on.

They were talking in low tones when he approached.

"Stargazing parties," said Senior. "You'll have to make him do them. In fact, I'll make it a clause in the contract."

Holy crap. Wexler was going to sell. She'd done it. He didn't know how,  but somehow Cassidy James, bartender-slash-math student, had brokered  Winter Enterprises' biggest deal of the year.

She turned to him then, and she smiled. Just a smile. But it made his  chest tighten and his heart thump, because he thought it might be a  different smile than the ones she gave everyone else. It seemed like a  private smile. One that hinted at possibilities he hadn't considered. It  provided new information, variables that hadn't ever factored into his  planning.

It was a smile that promised love.

He decided right then and there, standing in the snow with Cassie James  smiling at him. He'd always avoided women because he thought they  distracted him from what was important. But this one, she was going to  distract him no matter what, whether she was in his bed or someone  else's. Even if he never saw her again, he'd never be able to get her  out of his mind. And the thought of never seeing her again, the image of  her in someone else's bed? He answered that question with another.  There would be no Winter Enterprises to protect if he became completely  unhinged, would there?

So screw the rules. He was going to take Cassie James back to her room  and fuck her all night long. Then they were going back to the city and  he was going to take her on a proper date.



Jack's little revelation scared him. But not enough to make him back  down. Cassie deserved to be wooed. And the thought of anyone else doing  that made his stomach churn. Still, there was no need to call attention  to themselves here, so when she started yawning and announced her  intention to call it a night, he said good night calmly and pleasantly,  just like David and Tania did, and watched her walk away, pretending  that his insides weren't churning like an overflowing river.

He'd give her maybe a half-hour head start. And then she was his.

The longest thirty minutes of his life, it turned out. Wexler had had a  few drinks, and was getting nostalgic about the early years of his  career. Jack tried not to keep peeking at his watch. It didn't do any  good anyway. The damn minute hand might as well have been broken for all  the progress he saw.

Thirty minutes was kind of arbitrary anyway. There was nothing wrong  with giving her a seventeen minute head start. Surely that was enough to  dispel any potential suspicions.

No answer to his knock again this time. Maybe she was back in the hot tub. "Cassie?" he whispered, slipping into the room.

He could hear the shower running in the bathroom. Hey, that worked, too.  As he crossed the room, her phone, which she'd left on the bed, buzzed.  He couldn't help but glance down at it. A picture of Danny flashed on  the screen. Had she forgotten to text him the latest update of her  continued survival? It was actually kind of cute how Danny looked out  for her. He was probably going to have to woo Danny a little bit, too,  when they got back to Toronto.

He picked up the phone, intending to carry it into the bathroom to her.  The phone beeped and he glanced down at an incoming text.

Gah. Glad it's over, too. Come home ASAP.

Danny again, who must have texted when she didn't pick up the voice call.

He could see the end of Cassie's last text to Danny.

 … it was awful.

He shouldn't. He knew that.

But he did it anyway. He scrolled back.

He made me say please. He made me say his name. It was awful. I felt like a total whore.

What?? These rich mofos, they have no idea, do they?

Well, I'm done. Don't have to pretend anymore. Can't wait to get out of here … it was awful.

Air. Jack had no air. Couldn't get enough into his lungs, and as  metallic saliva flooded his mouth, he thought for one irrational moment  that he might actually be drowning.

Then the sound of the shower stopped. The absence of noise spurred him  to action. He threw the phone back on the bed and made for the door. He  had to get out. He had to find something to hold on to.

He had to get back to the rules.

 …

The next morning Cassie woke up confused. As the bright sun sliced in  through the curtains she'd forgotten to close, she looked around the  room.                       
       
           



       

She was looking for Jack, which was totally stupid. In all honesty, she  had to admit that she'd fallen asleep waiting for him. She had no idea  what was going on between them, but she'd felt fairly confident, given  the epically spectacular sex they'd had earlier in the day, that he'd be  back for more.

At the very least, she thought he would have wanted to talk about the  deal. It seemed pretty clear from Wexler Senior's behavior at dinner  that he was going to sell.

But no Jack. She even got up and peeked out the glass door, hoping  against hope that he'd snuck in without her waking up last night and was  now ensconced in the hot tub. But that was irrational.

Stupid.

She didn't really begin to worry in earnest, though, until she made her  way downstairs and found David and Tania eating breakfast and reading  newspapers in the enormous sun-filled breakfast "nook."