Catering to the CEO (25 page)

Though Cassie longed for answers, her body longed for sleep even more.  Morning would be here soon enough and she hoped that by the time the sun came up she’d have the answer to all of her troubles.   

The first rays of the sun were starting to make their way across the bedroom.  Cassie snuggled down deeper into the blankets and sighed.  She loved this bed.  It didn’t take long for her brain to engage and realize that she was pressed up against Adam from head to toe; their legs were tangled together, her head was on his chest and his arms were wrapped around her.  Dammit! She thought.  He’d promised!

At the slight movement of her head Adam knew she was awake and was patiently waiting to see what kind of a response he got.  Reluctantly loosening his hold on her, he opened his eyes as met her furious gaze.

“You promised,” she hissed.

“Yes, I did,” he said evenly.

“As if you weren’t despicable enough, you had to go and try something like this!”  She sat up and pushed her hair from her eyes, sighing with frustration.

“Like what?”

Her head snapped towards him at his comment.  “Like what?  You told me that you would be a gentleman and yet here we are, all tangled up together!”

Adam chuckled and sat up, adjusting the pillows behind him.  “I hate to break it to you, sweetheart, but look and see which side of the bed you’re on.”

Cassie’s heart sank as she realized that Adam was exactly where he’d been last night when she’d come to bed.  She was the one who had crossed the invisible line and into enemy territory.  “Oh.”

Taking a chance, Adam reached out and gently pulled Cassie back down beside him against the pillows.  She didn’t resist and if anything, she seemed to just sigh and relax beside him.  She was the first to speak.

“I’m sorry.”

Unable to resist, Adam wrapped an arm around her and kissed the top of her head.  “It’s okay,” he said, “I’ve given you plenty of reasons to distrust me.”

Cassie looked up at him and gave him a weak smile.  “I don’t want to go downstairs and face everyone.  I don’t know what to do.”

“Then we’ll just stay up here all day and let them draw their own conclusions,” he teased and gave an inward sigh of relief when Cassie’s smile grew.

“I definitely don’t want that,” she said, nudging him with her elbow.  “But seriously, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.  I don’t want to lie to everyone.  I’ve never lied to my father and I’d hate to start now, right before his wedding.”

Adam placed a finger under her chin and tilted her face up toward his.  “The last time we were in this bed together, you said that you loved me.”  When Cassie went to protest, he placed a finger over her lips to silence her protests.  “You were half asleep but you said it.  It was the most wonderful and yet the most terrifying thing anyone had ever said to me and I know that I reacted badly.  This was never supposed to happen between us and yet I can’t even begin to regret it.  You turned my life upside down the day that you quit in my office and as angry as it made me at the time, I can’t be sorry that it happened.”

Removing his finger from her soft lips, Adam continued.  “I can never apologize enough for all of the ways that I’ve hurt you but I want you to know that not a day has gone by since that night in the restaurant that I haven’t kicked myself for the way I treated you.  You mean the world to me and I don’t want to imagine a life without you.”

Everything in Cassie softened.  In all of the time that she and Adam had spent together, this was the first time that he had ever spoken of his feelings and she knew, by the sincerity in his eyes that this wasn’t a game; it wasn’t a means to an end. 

“Don’t go downstairs and lie to everyone, go downstairs with me, hand in hand, and celebrate.”

A stray tear rolled down her cheek.  “I want so badly to believe you…to believe
in
you, but I’m just so scared.  I don’t think I can survive if you break my heart again.”

Leaning forward Adam kissed her gently on the lips.  Pulling back, he stared in to her eyes hoping that she’d read his true feelings there.  “Cassandra, I love you.  I’ve never said those words to anyone and yet there are no other words to describe how I feel about you.  My life has been so empty without you and even though I know that there is no baby, I want that to be just a temporary thing.  I want to marry you, have babies with you, and have a life with you.  Is it possible that you still love me?”

His words were Cassie’s undoing.  “Adam, I do love you; I tried not to but I couldn’t do it.  Being here without you was so hard!  Tell me again; tell me that you love me.”

“I love you.  I’ll tell you all day, every day if that’s what you want.” 

Wrapping a hand behind Adam’s neck, Cassie pulled him to her for the kiss that she’d been craving for weeks.  They lay down more comfortably on the bed as Adam kissed her like a starving man finally being able to feast.  In between kisses, he told Cassie how much she meant to him.

When they finally surfaced, Cassie was the first to speak.  “As much as I want to stay right here in this bed with you, we have a full schedule of wedding preparations to attend to.”

Reluctantly he agreed.  “So then you’re feeling better about going downstairs and facing everyone?”

“Well, I’m not totally lying to them but I dread the time when we do have to tell them that it was all a misunderstanding and that I’m not pregnant.  Hopefully they’ll all get a good laugh out of it.”

“Or,” he began, “we see what we can do to rectify that.”  A wicked grin crossed Adam’s face as his hand skimmed over Cassie’s face.

“A man with a plan…I like that.”

#   #   #

Contemporary romance writer Samantha Chase released her debut novel, “Jordan's Return”, in November 2011. Although she waited until she was in her 40's to publish for the first time, writing has been a lifelong passion. Her motivation to take that step was her students: teaching creative writing to elementary age students all the way up through high school and encouraging those students to follow their writing dreams gave Samantha the confidence to take that step as well.
   Her second book, a holiday novella titled "The Christmas Cottage" climbed the Amazon charts and peaked at number ten on the Best Sellers in Women’s Fiction on Christmas Eve 2012 in books and number 116 in Kindle books. Watching the numbers rise and fall was a daily roller coaster ride but definitely an exciting one!

The follow-up, “Ever After” was not a planned book; the response to “The Christmas Cottage” was so great that fans of it begged to know Ava’s story.  It was something that was planned for a future book but due to the many inquiries, it was moved up to be the next story written.

Now with “Catering to the CEO”, gears shifted a little.  Originally, “CEO” was planned as a submission to Harlequin for their
Desire
line, but with the success of the previous books being self-published, she decided to keep moving onward and upward in the world of indie publishing.  This book is a little spicier than the previous two, but in keeping with her style, the focus is still on the building of a relationship between two very different people.

Currently, Samantha is up for three Indie Romance awards!  “The Christmas Cottage” is up for Best Indie Romance Novella, Best Indie Contemporary Romance and Samantha Chase, herself, up for Indie Romance Writer of the Year!
      When she's not working on a new story or editing the ones that are in progress, she spends her time reading contemporary romances, blogging, playing way too many games of Scrabble on Facebook and spending time with her husband of 23 years and their two sons in Wake Forest, North Carolina.

Where to Find Samantha Chase

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Website:                            
http://samanthachaseauthor.com/

Amazon:                             
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B006CZWRGC

Blog:                             
http://allstace.blogspot.com/

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