"This conversation is better," she said with a tiny smile guaranteed to pique his interest. "For example, I was just about to take your advice and ask you to dinner tonight. At my place."
That got his attention. He sat up so fast, his back teeth clacked together. "Don't toy with me, woman."
Oh, but he was so fun to toy with, especially as she gave him a taste of his own medicine.
"Does that mean you don't want to come?" she purred. "Or do you want me to tack the dinner discussion to the end of today's agenda?"
"Now I'm dying to know what topics we have to get through to reach that particular item."
"Business," she said firmly. "Then pleasure."
His hazel eyes lit up and a wicked smile spread across his face. "Just so you know, the fact that you label dinner at your place as pleasure warms my heart tremendously."
She held off the shiver because he didn't need to know he'd affected her that way. He shouldn't be affecting her that way. Her armor-the shield she easily employed with other men-seemed to soften far too easily when he was around.
"Business," she repeated. "We have to make more progress on the leak. The news broke on Monday. It's Thursday morning. I'm no closer to plugging the blabbermouth than I was then."
She'd done a considerable amount of digging this morning on her own and had found a couple of promising leads. Right before Gage had arrived, she'd ordered the most high-level background check money could buy on every last employee in this company. But he didn't have to know that. In reality, she didn't want him anywhere near her files or embroiled in a real discussion about her strategy.
His job was to tell her what his connection was to the leak. What strings he was pulling. Which angles he was playing. She needed to uncover every last secret, especially when he looked at her like he was right now, like he wanted to finish what he'd started last night in the gazebo.
Because as soon as she handed him over to the authorities, then she could remind herself with cold hard facts that he was the spawn of Satan. Somehow she kept forgetting that.
"It's a problem," he agreed far too easily.
Suspicious of his capitulation, she nodded. "Right. We find the leak and then we can think about pursuing a...personal relationship."
She caressed the term with her voice as suggestively as she could. She had to regain the upper hand.
"Oh, no, sweetheart," he growled. "You have it all backward. That orgasm last night? Only the beginning of what's in store for you. For both of us. It's an absolute necessity that we start there and then worry about the leak."
His heavy, masculine vibe snaked through the room, engulfing her. Tempting her down the wrong path, where she craved that pleasure, that connection more than anything else. "That makes no sense."
His intense gaze zeroed in on her and she felt it deep inside, where he'd thoroughly woken up her latent sex drive. He didn't move, didn't touch her, and somehow that was more powerful than if he had.
"It's the only thing that makes sense. We're not going to get anything accomplished until this fire between us is extinguished. Admit it. You know it's true."
She hated to say it...but he might have a point. Worse, she couldn't think of one solid argument against it, but she had to try as a matter of principle. "That's your logic? We're not disciplined enough to work together so we should just screw around instead?"
He didn't flinch. "If you want logic, then do it for the best reason of all. You want to. And I want you, Cassandra."
His deep voice caressed her name, unleashing another wave of desire that grew very hard to contain. This was a seduction, plain and simple, but she'd lost track of who was seducing whom. Besides, dragging it out wouldn't change things. It was just sex. She wasn't going to fall for him again. Why deny herself what she wanted?
Maybe she'd failed thus far to get him to admit anything incriminating because she really needed to get him naked first. Naked and sated.
"I dug up some paper archives from Harper's research over the past few years that have names of the employees attached to each stage of the development. Can we at least pretend to do some work tonight?" she asked as the compelling force of his smile nearly drew her into his space, magnetically, like she'd transformed into a pile of metal pins straining toward him.
"Sure. If that's what turns you on, I'm game."
"Be at my place at seven." Her turf, her rules. And there was no way she'd let him get to her like he'd done last night. Ruthless detachment was the only way. "I'll bring the files and you bring the drinks since you're such a big baby about wine. I have until tomorrow to report progress back to the other executives. So we definitely have to do some work."
Hopefully she'd discover she did her best work between the sheets.
He grinned and saluted. "Wear something sexy and I'll read every one of those files word for word."
She'd removed all the proprietary information from the files and her employee's names were posted on the company website, so she had no qualms about sharing that information with him. With enough incentive, he might slip up and clue her in that he recognized one of the names. "It's a deal."
She just had to be very careful to ensure the only slipping going on was on his side.
Eight
Later that night, Gage picked up a bottle of cachaça, some limes and a bag of brown sugar, just in case Cass didn't have any on hand. Caipirinhas were a far sight more tolerable than margaritas, and women usually loved the way he made them. Plus the drink was about 85 percent alcohol, which gave a nice buzz but, because cachaça was distilled from sugarcane, the next morning didn't come with a busting headache.
On his way to Cass's house, Gage dropped Arwen off at a doggie daycare. With that heartbreaking task out of the way, he drove to Cass's house. She was worth a furious vizsla and the probability of an additional fee upon pickup after Arwen drove everyone at the daycare to the brink of insanity.
Cass opened the door, barefoot and clad in shorts that showed a mile of leg, thank the good Lord, and a fitted T-shirt that most women couldn't have done justice. On Cass, it was legendary. She'd twisted her hair up in a messy waterfall of a hairdo that was somehow more suggestive than the chopsticks.
His mouth went dry.
"Hey," she said, opening the door wider, which lifted the hem of her T-shirt just a flash, revealing a slice of bare stomach. "Hope casual is okay. I thought low-key might help us get some work accomplished tonight."
Yeah, no. She needed a better mirror if she thought that what she had on was supposed to provide some kind of Gage repellant. Her toes were hot pink, for crying out loud, which drew his attention to her bare feet again and again.
"Oh, good," he said when he could speak. "I was worried I wouldn't be able to keep my hands off you. Whew."
He mimed wiping his brow in relief and she shot him a sunny smile that heightened the flame inside his gut.
She motioned him inside and called over her shoulder. "Should we start on the paperwork first, then? Maybe later we can have a drink and relax."
Seriously?
"That was sarcasm," he said bluntly as he blew over the threshold, shutting the door behind him with a loud bang.
She whirled, clearly startled by the sudden noise, and smacked into his chest. Right where he wanted her. He set down his bag of goodies-caipirinhas had totally lost his interest.
"If you wanted me to keep my hands off you," he growled, hauling her into his arms. "A better plan would have been to move to Timbuktu."
He hustled her backward, against the wall, and shoved a thigh between her legs. Hard and high. She gasped, a throaty sound that crawled inside him and lit the fuse of a row of fireworks residing in his groin, threatening to explode without notice.
"In case you're not clear on this," he continued, nipping at her ear as he leaned in. The full body contact sang through him. "I want you. Now. Not later."
Her nipples pebbled against his chest as he rolled his hips to fit more snuggly against hers. Those shorts were made of much thinner fabric than he'd guessed and her heat engulfed his steel-hard lower half. Lust licked through his blood like a wildfire.
He needed her hot and pliant immediately, before he lost it. There was no way she would get the opportunity to leave him hanging like she had last night. Oh, he'd enjoyed every second of making her come against that post, moonlight spilling over her gorgeous body, while they were both fully dressed. It had ranked as one of the hottest experiences of his life. But tonight he deserved a turn, too.