“Different?”
“You’re so relaxed out here in the world,” she teased. “Like you left ‘the boss’ at Charisma and you’re just a regular guy.” A fun, sexy, intriguing regular guy who was seriously easy on the eyes and appeared to be totally into her.
“As regular as a guy can be who’s traveling around Central Park in a horse and carriage.”
He’d done this for her. He’d done this all for her.
The realization hit her heart like the clopping hooves on the asphalt drive.
“So what are we drinking to, Jessie? Horses and wide open spaces?”
“And surprisingly regular guys.”
He winked as their crystal touched and rang softly. In the background, Jessie heard the occasional shout of some teenagers playing Frisbee on the lawn, and the very distant hum of New York traffic and horns. The carriage rocked and the champagne tickled her nose and lips.
It suddenly seemed very unreal and magical.
“When did you arrange all this?” Jessie asked as she glanced at the rolling vista of green hills and autumn-dipped trees around them.
“This afternoon.”
“Right after you ordered the lilacs.”
His lips tipped up in a smile. “I couldn’t resist.”
She gave him a dubious look. “I’m not that irresistible, even in my bumblebee sweater.”
“I’ll be the judge of what I can’t resist,” he said, leaning back against the leather seat. “And you whet my appetite for horses and fresh air.”
“So you probably don’t want to know how much I miss the cattle.”
He laughed and put his arm around her, tugging her just a little closer to him. “Let’s not push it.”
Colorado seemed a million miles away. And for the first time in more than five months, Jessie didn’t care.
An hour later, as they passed the carousel and skating rink, the sun dipped lower over the skyline of New York turning the treetops a fiery orange-red. The driver stopped at the edge of a lush park, announcing that they were at the Sheep Meadow, a vast green field dotted with dozens of other couples, families and small groups playing football or enjoying a blissful evening in the park.
Within a few minutes, they carried the basket and a blanket to a clear spot.
“He’ll be back in a little while,” Cade told her, indicating the hansom cab driver. “Are you hungry?”
“Starving. What’s in your basket?”
“I have no idea,” he admitted. “I just asked for a deluxe picnic dinner from that deli near the office. It’s not like I actually packed it.”
As they set up the picnic and discovered they had shrimp cocktail and crispy chicken, fresh bread and even chocolate-covered strawberries, they talked about New York and how difficult—or, for Cade, how easy—it was to get used to.
“Once I bought my apartment, I knew I was here for good,” he told her as he settled next to her on the blanket and picked up the container of shrimp.
“Where do you live?” she asked.
He tilted his head in the general direction of south.
“Columbus Circle.”
“In one of those towers? The new ones?”
He nodded and offered her a piece of juicy shrimp. “It’s not huge,” he said. “But it’s on the twenty-ninth floor, so the view is indescribable and the location is insane.”
“Twenty-ninth, huh?” She squinted in that direction, able to see the tips of the buildings. “Does it feel like you live in the air?”
Laughing, he bit into his shrimp. “No. I have a floor and walls. Want to see it?”
A blast of heat shot through her. “Are you asking me to go back to your apartment?”
He snagged her gaze, his expression serious. “Only if you want to.”
For a moment, she said nothing, caught in the reflection of his gray eyes, absolutely unable to look away. “Let me ask you something, Cade. Is this a date?”
He touched the corner of her lips and used his finger to slide a teeny bit of cocktail sauce into her mouth. “Yep.”
At least he was honest. “Why?”
“Why?” He let out a quick laugh. “Because I like you.”
“But why?”
He grinned. “You want a mirror? It’s pretty easy to see why.”
“But you don’t date Charisma employees, Cade. I’ve watched you for five solid months.”
“Yeah?” He teased her with that half smile. “Well, that makes two of us. Because I’ve watched you for five solid months.”
“What I don’t understand,” she said, shifting a little on the blanket as she carefully phrased her thoughts, “is why someone as by-the-book professional as you would suddenly decide to break the rules and date an intern.”
“There are no rules about dating anyone at EPH.”
“Unspoken? Unwritten?”
He shook his head. “It’s up to the individual manager. Which, in this case, is me.”
As much as Jessie wanted to follow her father’s ageless advice about not looking gift horses in the mouth, something somewhere didn’t quite fit. She decided to press on. “And you were just suddenly so overcome by attraction that you impulsively asked me out?”
“Jessie,” he said, with a little note of exasperation in his voice, “you ask too many questions. You’re like Fin.”
The words shot the hairs on the back of her neck to full attention. “I am?”
“She always asks questions, wants to get to the bottom of things. In fact,” he said, dipping another shrimp tail in a spicy red sauce and holding it up to his mouth, “she was asking about you today.”
All of Jessie’s cool confidence evaporated. Could he know? Could Fin? “Really? Why would she care about an intern, with all she has on her mind?”
He popped the shrimp into his mouth and chewed it while he regarded her. “Her attention to the staff is one of the keys to her success. She likes to know everyone at Charisma, professionally and personally.”
She didn’t know Jessie. Because Jessie had made sure to stay out of Fin’s range. “So, what did she ask?”
“If you were going to be the shadow intern.”
Jessie busied herself trying to open a bottle of water. “And what did you tell her?”
“That I was still considering the candidate.”
Her hand froze on the twist-off lid. “Did you tell her I wasn’t in the running?”
“No.” He reached over, took the bottle and opened it easily, then handed it back to her. “I told her I would let her know next week.”
Jessie took a long drink of water, letting the liquid cool her suddenly dry throat. Could she do this? Could she date Cade and keep a secret this big from him?
“She thinks you avoid her on purpose.”
Jessie choked and sputtered the water.
“You okay?” Cade laid his hand on her back, patting her gently.
“Yes.” She gasped for air and coughed again. “The water just went down the wrong pipe.”
He slid his hand down her back and pulled her ever so slightly toward him. “Do you?”
“Do I what?” As if she didn’t know.
“Avoid Fin on purpose?”
A million responses flipped through her brain. The only one she’d never tell him was the truth. But she didn’t want to lie, either. How could she date Cade and not reveal her secret? The only way was to avoid the subject of Fin altogether.
Slowly, she turned to him and touched his face, loving the way his eyes darkened at the contact. “Will you do me a favor?”
He looked as though she could ask him for the moon and he’d say yes. But he just nodded.
She stroked the rough shadow of his whiskers with her fingertips. “Since we’ve established that this is an official date, can we not talk about work?”
He dipped his head to kiss her fingertips while he held her gaze. “Whatever you want.”
“Then let’s leave the office at the office.”
For a split seco
nd, she thought he was going to disagree, but then he said, “Consider it done.”
“Thank you,” she said and then gestured toward the picnic basket. “And thank you for all this. For the lilacs, and the horse and the…space. You took away all my homesickness.”
“It’s my pleasure,” he said, his gaze dropping to her mouth. When his lips captured hers, all Jessie could do was hang on for the thrill of it and make a mental note to stop asking questions like Fin.
“You taste like strawberries,” Cade teased in between kisses in the back of the hansom cab.
“You taste like chocolate.” Jessie closed her eyes and kissed him again with a soft moan.
“Gotta love dessert.” He pulled her into him, vaguely aware that they were getting closer to Columbus Circle. The carriage ride had to end, but, he hoped, not the night. Not yet.
Their picnic had long ago finished on a high note as they fed each other chocolate-covered strawberries, and he and Jessie remained curled up in the warm leather of the carriage, torturing each other with long, wet, lazy kisses. He glided his hand over the silky skin of her throat, slipped his fingers into her braid and guided her mouth back to his for another taste.
He ached with hardness and need for more of her but still, he hadn’t touched her. At least, not in all the places he wanted to.
He hadn’t tugged that black zipper on her bumblebee sweater and eased it open. He hadn’t lifted her from her seat and guided her legs around his hips. He hadn’t slipped his hand around her backside and braced her against him so she could feel exactly what she did to his body.
But, man, he wanted to. His breath tight in his chest, his hands hot from the need to touch her, he finally managed to give the word to David, their driver, that they could end the ride.
Jessie leaned forward to gauge their location. “I can grab the train up to my apartment.”
As Cade paid with a wad of twenties, he shot a disbelieving look to Jessie. “You’re not taking a subway at this hour.”
She smiled as he helped her out of the carriage. “All right, I’ll take a cab.”
As the horse trotted off, Cade tugged her into him for a long, close embrace. “Don’t go,” he whispered into her hair.
She leaned back and looked up at him. He could see the desire and arousal in her eyes that matched what he felt.
“Cade,” she said, “we work together. You’re the boss, for God’s sake. I’m an intern.”
“Hey.” He put a finger over her lips. “No talking about work. You made me promise.”
“Yes, but, now…”
“Now what?”
“Now we should say good-night.”
She was right, of course. Making sense, thinking straight. He dipped down and kissed her lips, gliding his tongue between her lips and along her teeth to see if he could get rid of all that sense and straight thinking. This was too good. She was too good.
“You don’t want to leave any more than I want you to leave,” he told her.
Her only response was to moan softly and squeeze her arms tighter around his neck.
“Was that a yes?”
Closing her eyes, she nodded and he didn’t give her a second for her to change her mind. Or for him to change his, as unlikely as that might be. This night, this time, Cade didn’t feel like monitoring his mistakes. Turning her in his arms, he started toward the doors of his building, threading his fingers into the thick braid that hung down her back.
“Good,” he said softly. “’Cause I’ll die if I don’t see your hair down again.”
Wordlessly, they walked over the glossy marble floor of the ultra-modern lobby, past the boutiques still humming with tourists and shoppers, down to the teak-paneled bank of elevators that would take them to the twenty-ninth floor.
Cade didn’t waste one second pulling her into his arms the minute the doors closed behind them and they were alone in the elevator.
“Jessie,” he said huskily, as he reached down to kiss her.
“You’re sure you want to stay, right?” He braced himself for any answer, ready to turn right around and get in a cab if he had to.
“I want to stay.”
At the simple declaration, he kissed her again, and again as they reached the hall, and again at the apartment door, and again as they stepped into the entryway.
Easing her against the wall, he fully invaded her mouth with his tongue. She sucked on him, her hands traveling under his jacket, pushing it back, as hungry to touch him as he was to explore her.
He began to unbraid her hair. It fell in thick sections against his fingers and he let out a soft groan of pleasure when he finally got his hands into her mane.
“Your hair is amazing,” he whispered, peppering her throat with kisses. “You are amazing.”
When the braid was free, he pulled the locks forward, over her shoulders, and let it tumble down to her chest. He stroked the strands, and his palms covered her breasts.
Under her sweater, he could feel her nipples bud, her breath coming through her parted lips in tight, ragged bursts.
“Time to unzip Jessie,” he said into a kiss, finally hooking his finger into the zipper hoop that some designer had added to the sweater just to torment men. “I haven’t thought about anything but this all day.”
The first few zipper teeth scraped open. She arched into him, riding his erection and offering him her breasts. A strip of a black bra appeared under the sweater.
His throat went bone-dry at the sight.
“Courtesy of The Closet,” she said with a little laugh.
He trailed a kiss down the flesh of her throat, dipping into the rise of her breasts, sliding his tongue over the silky, feminine flesh. “Remind me to thank Scarlet.”
“Don’t you dare,” she gasped.
He chuckled, easing the zipper lower with one hand, then spreading the sweater back.
He traced the black lace with his tongue and she rose on her tiptoes to offer him more. His thumb grazed her nipple, sliding against the satin of the bra.
“Cade.” Her voice was raw with tension and desire.
“Please. I can barely stand.”
She didn’t need to say more. Wordlessly, he picked her up in his arms, kissing her mouth as he carried her across the living room to the bedroom. As he laid her on the bed, she pulled him down on top of her.
In a tangle of wild, wet kisses and hungry hands, he took off her sweater and pants, and she lay on the bed in the sexiest black bra he’d ever seen, and black lace panties, her hair spread like fiery silk over his bed.
“I can’t believe this,” he said, the awe and ache making his voice hoarse. “You’re even more beautiful than I imagined.”
Her smile was dubious as she started to unbutton his shirt. “You never imagined.”
He snorted. “Wanna bet?”
Her fingers froze and she looked up at him. “You imagined this? I mean, before tonight? Or last night?”
Cade closed his eyes and let her finish the job of unbuttoning his shirt, then he shimmied out of it. Sliding down next to her, he lined up their bodies, easing his hand over her tiny waist to turn her toward him. He took a deep breath and willed his aching arousal to resist her for just a few more minutes.
He would be inside her. He knew that. But first, she had to know that this was not just a convenient office affair.
“Listen to me,” he said. “I want you to know this before we make love.”
In the dark, she looked at him, her eyes wide, her lips parted. He could feel her heartbeat hammer through her whole slender body.
“I noticed you the minute you walked into Charisma,” he said, thinking back on the first time the auburn-haired beauty walked in his office. The first time he smelled that hint of spring and saw the grass-green eyes of Jessie Clayton. “I remember the first word I thought of when I looked at you.”
“What was it?”
“Fresh.” He tipped her chin toward him, so he could look into her eyes as he shared the memory.
“Not like other New York women. You’re so…well, there’s always been something different about you—”
She backed up and laughed a little self-consciously. “Different? Like odd?”
“I mean that in a good way,” he said quickly. He stroked her skin, gliding one finger over her lovely breast and into the cleavage he’d been thinking about since he saw her on the street that morning. “You’re unaffected and real. And there’s something about you that’s…”
He felt her stiffen. He wanted to say familiar. But would she take that wrong? Like she reminded him of one of his sisters or something?
It wasn’t that. It was just that she was…comfortable. “You make me comfortable,” he admitted.
“Yeah? Well, that’s funny because you have just the opposite effect on me.”
“Really?” He tightened his grasp a little. “I make you uncomfortable?”
“Completely,” she said, her lips quirking in a smile. “When I walked into your office for that interview I was totally and completely uncomfortable.”
“Why?” He’d been friendly, easy to talk to. Hadn’t he?
“Because I thought that you were—are—the sexiest guy I ever met.”
He almost choked. “You did?”
“And, let me tell you, it’s very uncomfortable to be so…” She pressed her hips against him and slid one leg around his waist. “Hot. And tingly. During an interview.”
“Oh, man,” he murmured a helpless groan and dropped his head into that irresistible cleavage, gently leaning her on her back. “If I had known that, I would have…”
“What?”
“Well, I would have…” He licked her flesh and with one hand, unclasped the front of the bra.
“You would have what?”
He eased the satin over her breasts, the rosy tips of her nipples jutting out for his mouth. “I would have never let you be uncomfortable. I would have just done…this.”
She started to laugh, but drew in a sharp breath as he closed his mouth over one of her breasts and began to suckle her, his hand caressing the other.
She moaned under his ministrations, her hips writhing against him. Licking the hardened bud, he trailed his fingertips over her stomach, down to where her hips moved to the natural rhythm of sex.