She shook her head. ‘It’s a look you get when you’re not prepared to take no for an answer.’
Logan grinned at her slowly. ‘Finally we understand each other.’
Cassidy stared at the couture gown hanging on the outside of her wardrobe door. It was a strapless design in mint green covered in a swirl of tiny crystal beads that looked like it would hug every one of her curves before flaring out at her hips to fall gracefully to the floor.
And there was no way she could wear it.
Her phone rang, and she knew who it was without checking the screen. ‘I’m not wearing it.’
‘You absolutely are wearing it,’ her sister replied vehemently. ‘It’s stunning. And the twins and I want photos of you in it.’
Cassidy rolled her eyes. She’d been on the phone to her sister, talking about Logan’s coronation, when the beautiful gown had been delivered and her sister had demanded she send a photo. And not only the gown had arrived but also accessories, and various bags containing an array of casual clothes, nightwear and shoes. How Logan had guessed her size she didn’t know, but after having a quick look he’d got it exactly right.
Turning away from the shopping bags, she flopped back onto the bed. The coronation had been long and sombre, the full import of what Logan had now become slowly sinking in over the course of the day. ‘I’m not wearing it because I’m not going.’
And surely Logan wouldn’t come looking for her. Not with two hundred important guests all queuing to pay homage to the new King.
‘What do you mean?’ Her sister sounded like she was doing the dishes as she chatted to her. ‘Of course you’re going.’
‘I’m not. How did the exams go this week?’
‘I think I did okay. I might have written down the wrong chemical compound for a face peel but I’m sure I passed. And don’t change the subject. Why aren’t you going?’
Because she had a bad, sneaking, horrible suspicion that she was falling for her boss. Just as her sister had warned her not to do.
And really she’d like to blame Peta for putting the thought into her head, but she was too honest with herself for that. The fact was she’d held a faintly burning candle for Logan since the day she’d started working for him. Spending time with him in Arrantino and really getting to know him, she’d come to learn that he wasn’t the spoiled, arrogant, uncaring man she had convinced herself that he was.
He cared. Deeply. About his family. His country. It was love that he wasn’t interested in and for all her spouting on about not wanting to find someone special for herself, she realised that she did. She did want someone in her life who looked at her the way Dan looked at Peta. She wanted someone to curl up next to at night. Someone who found her interesting and sexy and desirable.
And even though Logan would never be that man, her senses still leapt with excitement whenever he was near, her body switching to high alert in case he touched her again. Hoping that he would touch her again.
The other evening when they had been sparring and he’d braced himself over her in a display of masculine strength she had been so aroused, so feverish with need, she hadn’t been able to move. All she had wanted was to reach up and pull his mouth down to hers.
Then he’d frowned, as if he’d read every one of her illicit desires and rejected them outright, and she’d managed to push him away. After that she’d gone into lockdown. Using her superpower to hide how she felt from him.
‘Cassidy?’ Her sister clanged a pot on the stove and cut into her uncomfortable ruminations. ‘Why aren’t you going?’
Not ready to admit to her sister how right she had been about everything, Cassidy sighed. ‘I’m tired. It’s been a long day.’
‘Oh, fiddle,’ Peta said. ‘It’s not as if invitations like this drop out of the sky every day. Of course you should go.’
‘I thought you advised me not to get too close to my boss.’
‘Oh, I might have been a bit cranky after you told me you wouldn’t be home this week. No, Amber, do not open those cookies, dinner will be ready in a minute.’ Peta let out a frustrated growl. ‘Sorry, what was I saying? Oh, yeah. I shouldn’t have taken my bad mood out on you. But I still hold to what I said. Do not fall for your boss. That would be a disaster. But you definitely have to go to the ball. Your boss has just been crowned King. This is a once-in-a-lifetime situation. You’ll be like Cinderella. Who knows, you might inspire lust in someone who turns out to be Prince Charming. You are in a palace after all.’
‘I’m not exactly lust-inducing material,’ Cassidy said glumly, wondering if the lust Logan had inspired in her on that mat the other night had been at all reciprocated.
‘That’s only because of what happened with that jerk in high school,’ Peta advised softly. ‘But that was years ago. You’re older now. And you’re gorgeous.’
‘You might think that but—’
‘You are gorgeous,’ Peta interrupted vehemently. ‘But you don’t see it. You need to stop hiding yourself away and let yourself shine. And don’t pull that face I know you’re pulling. You’re just afraid to put yourself out there in case you get your heart broken. Well, guess what, kiddo? It might happen. But it might not. And despite what Dad told us, not all men are bastards. I finally found a good one.’
‘So things are good with Dan?’ Cassidy asked, glad for the chance to redirect her sister’s energies toward her new fiancé.
‘Fantastic. Now do me a favour. Have a shower, straighten your hair and fully immerse yourself in this opportunity so that you have no regrets.’
Cassidy stared at the ornate ceiling above her head. She knew her sister was trying to be helpful but it wasn’t just the jerk from high school that had made her reticent to put herself on the line where relationships were concerned. She just didn’t know whom to trust. After her mother had left, and then the guy in college who had only wanted her for her study notes, on top of Peta now moving on...it just seemed that she was destined to be alone. And the only reason she had so few regrets in life was because of caution—not immersion.