‘Yes.’ Logan checked an incoming text on his phone. ‘l need you to come with me.’
Cassidy blinked as her brain slowly processed his words. ‘But I can’t go with you.’
Logan’s head snapped up. He looked at her as if she’d never said no to him before, perhaps because she hadn’t. ‘Why not?’
She thought about the conversation she still needed to have with her sister, and her obligation to take care of the twins two evenings a week while her sister studied at night school. ‘I have obligations. Commitments.’ She smoothed her hand over her sodden hair. And if this trip did by chance go longer than twenty-four hours her sister wouldn’t be happy. Not with her final exams about to start.
‘Yes, you do have commitments. To me. And right now I need you.’
‘You need me to run your office, which I can do better from New York.’
‘I decide where you’re best fit to serve me, Cassidy, not you.’
Up until now Cassidy would have said that she didn’t have a temper, but she was so exhausted from all the issues she’d had to contend with today that she could feel it rising. And not once in the time she had worked for him had he ever spoken to her in such an imperious tone. It made her think of a spoiled, rich prince getting everything he wanted. Which no doubt he had done.
Having grown up in the opposite of the lap of luxury, she couldn’t even imagine how it would feel to have every one of your needs met whenever you desired it. Unfortunately her boss didn’t share that experience. Which was no doubt why he showed so little emotion whenever one of his ex-girlfriends rang up begging for a second chance. Which he never gave. Once you were off Logan de Silva’s list of intimate contacts, you were off. From what she had seen, he was a man who cared very little about anything other than winning his next billion-dollar deal, and she sometimes envied him that because she cared too much about everything.
‘Well, I’m sorry but I can’t just drop everything to be at your beck and call. When I first started working for you I explained that I would need advance notice if you ever needed me to travel with you.’ Which so far he hadn’t. ‘And leaving to go halfway around the world in five minutes hardly counts as even short notice.’
‘And might I remind you,’ he said with lethal softness, ‘that when you signed on as my EA I explained that I pay above and beyond the average wage because I specifically require you to be at my beck and call, and you were more than happy with that at the time.’
The dark look in his eyes made her feel hot and bothered. She was still uncomfortably aware that he was standing in front of her half-naked, her eyes constantly drawn to the pelt of dark hair that curled over the top of his singlet. She couldn’t seem to stop herself from imagining how he would look naked.
She was also uncomfortably aware that what he said was true. But all she could think about was how she was going to tell Peta that she wouldn’t be around this week when her sister had to take her final exams. It must be another one of Murphy’s laws that when something horrible happened, it happened at the worst possible time.
Silence stretched between them with such savage intensity it completely took the wind out of her sails. She’d never been good with confrontation, which was why she was so good in her role as peacemaker in her family. It was her other superpower, along with her ability to compartmentalise situations and move on.
Knowing by his expression that he wouldn’t take no for an answer, she grimaced. ‘You’re right, I did agree with your requirements when I took the job, but...’ She faced him as one might face an angry lion in a small enclosure without a whip or a chair. ‘I’ll have to make a call first. Peta needs me more than ever this week.’
Logan came toward her, all power and languid grace, and for a moment she didn’t think he was going to stop. Her eyes widened as she was assailed with the unexpected vision of him wrapping one of those large hands around the back of her neck and drawing her up on her toes to kiss her. Heat travelled swiftly up through her body, making her tingle in all the wrong places.
Breathless, she waited for what would no doubt be the kiss of her life to happen, but of course it didn’t. He stopped an inch from touching her. ‘As I said, so do I.’ The look he gave her could have cut glass. All signs of the vulnerability she had glimpsed when he’d been speaking to his brother had completely disappeared. ‘And my needs take precedence over Peter’s. I’ll have Gordon drop you home so you can shower and change and then I’ll collect you in an hour. Be ready.’
His gaze flicked slowly down over her body and back up and Cassidy became very conscious that she must look like the Wicked Witch of the West with her hair drying in clumps and wearing one of his sweatshirts
that was miles too big for her.
Then he was gone, leaving her to stew in silence.
She wondered if he was ever like this with his dates. But if he was they wouldn’t be crying on the end of the phone when he broke up with them, they’d be rejoicing.
Like this he was domineering and exacting. There was only one way and that was his. Usually she didn’t mind it. Usually she went with it.
Usually when she didn’t feel like her life was falling apart at the seams. It made her want to tell him just where he could take his demanding attitude and what he could do with it when he got there. Which would shock the heck out of him because, while he encouraged her to give him her opinion on matters of business, he would never encourage her to outwardly defy him.
And she was sure if that ever happened he’d be the juggernaut he always was, speeding over whatever roadblocks were in his way like a souped-up supercar. Cassidy, by comparison, was more like a moped, dodging life’s pitfalls as best she could with only one cylinder.
Logan stepped into the shower and doused his head under a stream of hot water. He didn’t know what had shocked him more, the fact that Cassidy had said no to him or that she had a lover called Peter.
A shaft of something akin to jealousy speared through him and he knew why that was. She was the best EA he’d ever had. There was no way he wanted her falling in love, getting married, going off to have babies and leaving him.
Was she already in love with the guy? Is that why she was so keen to leave on time two nights a week and baulked at working weekends?
He thought about the way her bright green eyes had widened as he’d invaded her personal space. For a moment he’d been overcome with the urge to keep going and power her back against the wall until he had her flattened against him, and the intensity of that urge had been the only thing that had stopped him.
Had she felt the inconvenient chemistry between them?
Had she wanted him to claim her?