Chapter Two #3
The pose, along with the set of her jaw, was a classic nonverbal message of distrust and hostility. But the placement of her hands highlighted the uplift of her breasts and pulled her blouse taut across her waist in a way that made his own hands itch to shape it tighter around her body.
Or take it off altogether.
He cleared his throat. ‘I’m giving you the opportunity to save your business, save your staff. The question you need to answer is, what are you prepared to do to make that happen?’
She drew herself up to her full height then, and even though he didn’t want to admit it, the straight line of her back was a thing of beauty. As for that shape her mouth was pulling—
‘Just tell me what I need to do.’
‘Stay on as CEO,’ he said blandly.
Her forehead was creasing in confusion. ‘That’s not what happens in a hostile takeover.’
‘Who says we’re hostile?’
She blinked, and he felt the brush of her eyelashes graze his skin. ‘Everyone at the board meeting, that’s who.’
He could see the goose bumps rising along her arms.
He held her gaze, pretended to think. ‘Obviously you were angry and upset. But then we talked here, in your office, and as a goodwill gesture, I offered to let you stay on so that we could work together to ensure a smooth transfer of power. A transition period. See?’ He held out his hands as if he was a magician who had just performed a sleight of hand. ‘Easy.’
‘I don’t want to work with you.’
‘I know,’ he said softly, and now he felt the buzz of euphoria he had anticipated for today’s meeting.
‘But you have to balance what you don’t want with what you want.
And to save your business, you’re going to have to stay on and persuade me to change my mind.
Or your staff will all be looking for new jobs by the end of the month. Your choice.’
‘That’s not a choice,’ she began, but he cut her off.
‘It’s more than you deserve.’ More than I got, he wanted to add. ‘I’m giving you the chance to fight for the people you say you care about.’
‘I do care about them, but it wouldn’t work. I hate you, and you hate me.’
His eyes met hers. He found that she was already looking at him, her green eyes wide and wary, and the floor shifted beneath his feet as if he was standing on sand.
‘Please don’t do this,’ she said then, and there was a scratchiness to her voice that made his body tense. ‘I know you’re angry, and I understand why. But I don’t understand why you’re doing this. To me.’
She was so near to him, he could count each individual eyelash.
Could smell the scent she was wearing—mimosa, was it?
They were an inch or two the wrong side of too close, he thought, as the silence stretched between them.
But he didn’t move. Neither did Cassie. She just kept staring at him as if her prefrontal cortex had, like his, been temporarily frozen.
Everything was frozen. The city outside the window had fallen silent.
It was as if they were the only two people left on earth.
Just Cassie and him, and the pounding of his heart and that shimmering wave of tension pressing in on them.
For a moment, she seemed to sway slightly, and he willed her to close the distance between her body and his—
From somewhere in the office, a phone blasted out ‘Go Big Blue’ as if it was game day.
It was enough to break the spell.
Shrugging, he said, ‘Because I can. Because justice was not served, and someone has to pay for what your father did to mine.’
He watched for a moment, waited for his statement to hit home, saw her throat bob.
‘How do I know that you’ll keep your word?’
He wanted to laugh. Why did she think he was here? It wasn’t just to punish the living but to honour the dead. Before he died, his grandfather had made him swear to avenge the wrong done to his son, and unlike Henry Appleton, he was loyal to those closest to him.
‘I keep my promises.’
‘So do I,’ she said huskily, almost angrily, as if he had accused her of not doing so. And there was no reason for him to be so fascinated by that note in her voice or the way her lips were trembling, and yet he was suddenly, intensely fascinated.
‘I need some time to think.’
‘And I need an answer.’ His voice was hard and uncompromising. He flicked his wrist, exposing the watch he had bought himself for his twenty-first birthday. He could afford better, more expensive brands now, but it was a reminder of everything he had lost. Of what Cassie’s father had cost him.
He snapped his fingers in front of her face, and her chin jerked upwards, her pupils fattening with surprise and outrage.
‘Fine. Then yes, I’ll do it.’
The satisfaction was unlike anything he’d felt before. It was immense and all-consuming.
‘You have ten days from tomorrow,’ he said, watching her face.
She frowned. ‘Ten days? Why ten days?’
‘If this was a public company, that’s how long I’d have to register my shares with the SEC. And now you have the same amount of time to save your business. I’ll be in touch.’
Stepping out of the shower, Cassie snatched two towels from the heated rail. She wrapped the first and larger one around her body and then used the second to create a turban around her hair.
Finally, she felt human again.