Working Stiff:Casimir (Runaway Billionaires #1)(19)

But now, sitting in his windowless television room, deep in his house, she was uneasy.

It wasn't that she didn't feel safe. She felt perfectly safe with Cash. She always felt perfectly safe with Cash.                       
       
           



       

She wasn't sure that he was safe with her.

Sure, they sat side-by-side, facing the television.

Sure, they were just watching a funny movie that was a romantic comedy, probably. She wasn't actually watching it much.

Sure, the leading actor kind of looked like Cash, with his brilliant  green eyes and strong cheekbones and jaw but, quite honestly, the  actor's abs weren't as defined as Cash's ripped torso.

Not that the lumps of his abs were clearly pronounced under his snug blue tee shirt or anything.

Not that she was looking at those masculine lumps of muscle.

Not that any heterosexual female could help but sneak a look at the  mounds of his firm flesh that shifted under the thin, blue fabric of his  shirt every time he breathed.

If the man sitting next to her had been anyone but Cash, she would have  had fantasies about leaning over, lifting his shirt, and licking the  bricks of his abdominal muscles.

But not Cash, she reminded herself. No way.

Besides, he deserved to be able to heal without some idiot chick slobbering all over his sore, battered, bruised, hurting body.

Rox could be a real slimeball sometimes. All the women in the office  treated Cash like a piece of ass, and she shouldn't. Jesus, they were  supposed to be friends, the kind who took each other in and took care of  each other. She shifted her laptop on her legs to move the heating  battery to a new spot on her leg before she got a burn.

Beside her, Cash drew in a deep breath and sighed. His muscular  pectorals swelled under his tee shirt as he breathed. When he grabbed  the back of the couch with one hand, stretching his chest, his muscles  on that side all shifted up, and his heartbeat fluttered under his tee  shirt.

She couldn't quite take her eyes off of him.

Cash pointed to the television screen. "This movie is really funny," he said. "We should watch more of these guys."

"Yeah," she said, wondering what the movie was about.

On the couch beside her, Midnight stretched and rubbed her leg.

He said, "You don't seem to be laughing."

"I'm laughing on the inside."

"Come on. This is really funny." He smiled at her, that cute and corny  smile that sometimes took her breath away. He probably smiled at his  girlfriends like that, too.

She agreed with him, "Yeah. It is," without any idea of what she was agreeing to.

One of his eyebrows pressed down. "You don't seem amused."

"The movie is funny. I'm just still thinking about these contracts. I  just can't believe that we're finding all these problems with them."

He nodded. "I'm concerned about them. At this point, we've found so many problems that I think the law firm can't be saved."

Wow. "Seriously?"

"If the problems are in only a few of Valerie's contracts, we might be  able to save it, keep it operating. If they're more widespread, and I  suspect they are, I'm hoping to wind down the business so that people  can find other jobs before I go to the ethics committee. I don't know  what else to do."

"My God, Cash. People depend on those jobs."

"I know. That's why I want to wind it down slowly. We've got over a  hundred people in there, and I don't want to dump them all on the L.A.  job market at the same time. With some planning, we can move everyone  into new positions without disruption."

"That's thoughtful." She was kind of surprised that oh-so-wealthy Cash  had thought of that, had even known that other people lived  paycheck-to-paycheck. A lot of rich people didn't even know that twenty  bucks can be a lot of money at the end of the month, and it could be  even more money if you needed it but didn't have it.

Cash set his computer aside on the couch cushion beside him and closed  it. "We've done enough work today. Let's just watch this movie."

On the television, the actor slipped and fell in a vat of something  orange and slimy, splashing the bad guy, who fell on his back and  scrambled to get away. This was a lot more slapstick than they usually  watched.

Cash cracked up, but he grabbed his side under his ribs, over the incision where they took his spleen out and winced.

"You okay?" she asked. Her fingers drifted toward his side, but she  pulled her hand back. There was no reason for her to fondle him. He was  just sore from surgery.

"Yeah, let's just watch the movie."

Rox closed the screen of her laptop and set it aside, too.

She had no idea what was going on. The good guys just seemed to screw up  everything, and the bad guys seemed to be the ones that she should be  rooting for. The actress who played the love interest was just a blond  placeholder.                       
       
           



       

The good guy scrambled out of the vat of orange slimy stuff and chased  after the bad guy, grabbing his ankle, and they both nearly fell over  the side of the suspended walkway because it had no railing.

"Of course it's a suspended walkway," she said. "Movies don't have  ordinary sidewalks that are on the ground. Shouldn't it have railings?  Where is OSHA in all of this?" Her tone was a little drier than she had  intended, but it was a pretty stupid thing in a movie.

Cash chuckled. "The walkway should have been suspended between two skyscrapers. That would have been even funnier."

"Why is it funny if he fell?"

"Because of this." He pointed at the television.

As the two actors plunged off the suspended walkway, falling toward  their doom, the main character sprouted wings and flew, saving the  astonished bad guy.

Rox's mouth fell open. "No way."

Cash cracked up. "Oh, come on! It was funny!"

She shrugged. "I suppose."

"It was!" Cash elbowed her lightly on the arm. "You really haven't been  watching it. Don't let work take over your life. Laugh at the movie."

"I really should have watched the movie more." Her smile was a little sheepish.

Cash bumped her with his shoulder and grinned. "It was funnier than that."

"I promise that I'll actually watch the next movie. I guess I'm just distracted."

In the movie, the main character was yelling something about the beauty  of the clouds to the bad guy, who was wound around his leg about four  times. The look of sheer terror on his face was pretty funny,  considering that he was so evil that he had been trying to steal money  from baby sloths. His shoe fell off and plummeted hundreds of feet  through the air, landing in the orange vat of goo, where it bubbled and  disintegrated.

"Wait, how did the other guy fall in the big vat of orange goo and not die?" she asked.

"Because he's Awesomeman. He just looks like a shlub because he's still undercover in his secret identity."

"I love it when you say ‘shlub' with that British accent. That's even funnier than the movie."

"Is it? Do I amuse you with the way that I speak?"

"Of course. It's just darlin' when you try to speak American." She  looked back at the TV as if she didn't even need to keep an eye on him.

He asked, "Do I make you laugh?" and he grabbed her side, pinching her ribs with his fingers just hard enough to tickle her.

His move surprised her, and she flinched, trying to jump away from him.  He never tickled her. They never laid hands on each other unless it was  absolutely necessary. It was a rule.

His fingertips crawled up her side, digging in and making her whole body contract while she laughed helplessly. "Stop it!"

"Do I make you laugh?"

"Oh my God yes! Stop it. Stop it!"

He grabbed her side harder, clutching her flesh with his fingertips, and  she flipped over on the couch and tried to crawl away from him,  giggling like she'd gone insane. "Please, oh God. Stop!"

"Now you're laughing." He grabbed her around her waist with his other  arm and dragged her back to him, her stomach sliding on the couch  cushions. "I'll make sure that you're laughing, this time."

She reached behind herself and slapped at his head and shoulders, but  she was laughing too hard to do anything effective. "Cash!"

He tossed her in his arms, turning her back around to face him and then  dropping her on the couch. As he hovered over her, his green eyes were  bright with laughter, and his hair had fallen down over his forehead.  "Come on, laugh!"

"What do you think you're doing?" she demanded, breathless from laughter  and trying to wiggle away from him, but he drew her body against his.

"Making you laugh." Cash dug his fingers into her ribs harder, and  paroxysms of tickling ran up her ribs and through her whole body. She  laughed and writhed in his arms, kicking futilely.