7 Minutes in Heaven (Are You Game?) (10 page)

“Shame. Still, without a ring I’d say he’s fair game wouldn’t you?” Margo headed in the direction of her daughter and her latest prey without waiting for Cassie to reply.

Staring after the other woman, Cassie struggled not to follow. Lucas wasn’t hers. She had no right to go charging over and drag him away from the female piranha no matter how much the voice in her head yelled at her to go get her man. She watched as Margo leaned over to talk to Prissy, pressing her surgically enhanced cleavage into Lucas as she did. He shifted sideways. Margo followed. The frown on his face told Cassie that he wasn’t any more impressed by the woman than she was. Smiling, she turned back to the food table and continued to top up the bowls of lollies.

“Oh my God. I can’t believe that woman.”

Cassie jumped us Lucas brushed against her. She glanced up and almost laughed at the scowl on his face. “What woman?”

“The mother. She just propositioned me in front of her daughter.”

“Ah, yes, well, she is without her usual accessory at the moment.”

“What?” He arched one thick, dark eyebrow.

“She ditched husband number three. She’s on the prowl for number four.”

“Good God. And she’s looking at me?” He looked over his shoulder as though he expected the woman to be right there, claws ready to sink into him.

Cassie laughed. “Relax. We’re out of here in another hour or so. Besides—” she placed her hand on his chest, patting him twice, “—you’re a big boy. You can handle her. After all, it’ll take more than some little woman to scare you.”

“That’s not a woman, it’s a damn shark.” He stepped closer. “And there’s only one woman I want to be handling at the moment.”

She gasped when he dropped his head and planted a hard kiss on her mouth. “
Lucas
.”

“Relax.” He grinned. “I’m just making sure you both know where my interests lie.”

With that, he headed back to the row of tables where twenty-four six-year-olds were plying their skills as master jewellers. He squeezed his six-foot-five-inch frame into a child’s chair and immediately helped the girl next to him thread her beads on the thin elastic. Cassie’s stomach flipped and her chest warmed. If someone had told her Lucas Wilhelm could hold his own in a group of tutu-wearing princesses she’d have laughed and called them a liar. Except now she knew firsthand that Lucas was capable of handling any situation.

Margo caught Cassie’s attention as she headed back towards her. This would be interesting. From the look on the woman’s face she was not happy about something. “I don’t think that man should be sitting so close to all those little girls.” She put just enough inflection in her voice to have any one who overheard questioning Lucas’s intentions.

A burst of laughter came from behind Cassie and she turned to see several of the other mothers within hearing distance. The pretty blonde that had laughed stepped closer. “Why, Margo, are you jealous?”

Margo stiffened. “I have no idea what you’re implying, Sonia.”

“I’m not implying anything. I’m stating a fact. Prince Charming just shot you down and then made it perfectly clear who his princess is.” Sonia tilted her head in Cassie’s direction. “Getting desperate if you’re going after the hired help, aren’t you, Margo?”

“Well, I never.” Nose in the air, Margo flounced off.

Sonia put her hand on Cassie’s arm. “Sorry you and Prince Charming had to be subjected to that.”

“Oh, don’t worry. I’m finding the whole thing rather amusing.” Cassie turned to check on Lucas before turning back to Sonia and the other women gathered around. “And Lucas is a big boy. He can take care of himself.”

The redhead on Sonia’s left spoke, “Oh my, yes. He’s definitely a big boy.” Her grin was downright wolfish.

En masse
, they laughed and Cassie couldn’t help joining in. She shouldn’t be laughing at the situation, not with Lucas looking all offended and Margo stalking off. Still, from her position, having her temporary employee sexually harassed at a child’s party wasn’t something she ever expected to occur. Now if it had been last night… Cassie glanced back at Lucas to find him engrossed with the beads as deeply as the six-year-olds. Another thing that made her smile. He was so cute sitting there surrounded by pink princesses. She slipped her phone out of her pocket and quickly snapped a couple of shots of Lucas.

Grinning, Cassie put her phone away and went back to work. They’d had the birthday cupcakes and presents earlier, and she’d packed up the remaining cakes in little bags for each of the princesses to take one home. The party bags were lined up beside them ready to hand out, and other than the supplies being used she had nothing else to clear away once the party was over. She glanced at her watch. And that would be in approximately forty-five minutes.

Luc pocketed the bracelet he’d made for Cassie. He planned to give it to her later. Right now he had to pack everything away. The girls were pitching in to help close lids and stack boxes now the fun was over. Surprisingly, he’d had fun too. A lot of fun. He’d never own up to it, of course. But he had to admit, if only to himself, that little girls were unexpectedly amusing. They’d squealed with delight when the coloured beads were plunked down in front of them. There was more screeching when they managed to thread a few glass balls on the thin elastic to make a necklace or bracelet, and there were even more shrieks of joy when he’d helped them tie off their masterpieces and put them on.

Yep. He’d had a damn good time. Well, except for that one glitch… Speak of the devil. Prissy’s mother was heading his way. He was quite amused by little Priscilla’s reaction to her mother’s repeated attempts to get his attention. If he didn’t know better, he’d think the little girl was jealous and territorial, but he figured it was more a matter of not wanting to share. Prissy—who the hell named their kid Priscilla then shortened it to Prissy these days?—had told her mother point blank the last time the woman ventured near them that he was
her
Prince Charming and she should go find her own.

He smiled. Even saddled with a horrible name like Prissy, Luc didn’t doubt that was one girl who would always get what she wanted. And right now that was her mother at a safe distance from Prince Charming. With shoulders thrust back, Prissy marched over to her mother, grabbed her hand and dragged her over to the table where Cassie had set out the take-home party bags and cupcakes.

“Bet you never thought you’d be rescued by a six-year-old pink-tutu-wearing princess.” Cassie moved up beside him and began snapping the lids on the remaining containers.

Luc shook his head. “No, but then I never expected to be repeatedly propositioned by a woman at a kid’s birthday party either.”

“Have to admit, this is the closest thing to sexual harassment Are You Game? has ever encountered.” She grinned at him.

He arched an eyebrow. “Sexual harassment?”

“What else would you call it?”

“Well.” Luc rubbed his hand over his jaw. “Now that you mention it, perhaps I should put in a complaint?”

Cassie chuckled. “Technically you’re not an employee. Bit hard to make a complaint when you aren’t on the books.”

“Hmm…seeing how you’re the reason I’m here, maybe I should sue you for emotional duress?” Luc moved closer to Cassie, bent his face next to hers and blew a breath over her lips. God, he wanted to kiss her. “Or maybe you can think of some way to ease my distress?”

Her gaze met his, lowered to his mouth before bouncing back to his eyes. “Um, maybe.”

Luc had to stifle a groan when Cassie licked her lips. He also had to move away before he did something extremely inappropriate for a children’s party. “You think about it and let me know what you come up with.”

Before he gave in to the unrelenting urge to kiss her, Luc picked up a pile of boxes and headed for the van out front. By the time he got back Cassie had stacked the rest of the equipment ready for him to load and was busy talking with the mothers and girls as they collected their goodie bags. Hopefully today’s party drummed up some more business for her. Although he’d caught a glimpse of the huge calendar board in her office this morning and he’d noticed how many events Are You Game? had on the schedule. No wonder she needed to hire more staff. That thing was jam-packed full. Not one day was clear.

He gathered up another armful and made his way back to the van. As he turned around, he found two little girls with arms loaded. Both grinned from ear to ear. “Why are the princesses carrying such heavy things when Prince Charming is here to do all the hard work?” he asked.

“My mummy says even princesses have to take care of themself,” the little blonde—he thought her name was Michelle—said.

“Is that right?” He reached down to relieve them of their burdens. “Well, your mum’s right. But when there is a strong prince around you should let him do all the work.”

“Okay. C’mon, Cindy, let’s go get our cupcakes.” Michelle grabbed her friend’s hand and they skipped away.

He secured the boxes in the van and went back to find Cassie rolling up the throw-away tablecloths. “Here. Let me get those.”

“I’ve got this. I need you to take the cake-decorating equipment out to the van for me.” She indicated two large plastic tubs by the back door. “Once those are loaded we’re done and out of here.” Her grin lit up her face, her dimples winking, and he was struck again by the need to put his mouth on hers.

Responding with a smile of his own, he said, “All right. I’ll wait for you out front then.”

Luc grabbed the tubs just as Prissy and her mother came out of the house. Not wanting to talk to the woman but wanting to say goodbye to the birthday girl, he called out as he walked away. “Happy birthday, Prissy. Hope you had a great day.”

“Oh, yes, Prince Charming. Thank you for coming and making my day extra special.” She raced away from her mother to bounce along beside him. “I wished for you when I blew out my candles at Daddy’s house yesterday.”

He glanced down at her. “You wished for
me
?”

“Yes. I wished for Prince Charming to come to my party, and you did.” She clapped her hands.

Luc laughed. “I’m glad your wish came true.”

“Me too.” Prissy tugged on his T-shirt. “Can I give you a hug before you go?”

“Definitely. Just let me put these in the van first.”

“Prissy!” her mother called out. “Stop bothering the man.”

“She’s not a bother.” Luc put his load down and crouched to Prissy’s eye level. “I really enjoyed your party.”

The little girl threw her arms around his neck and whispered in his ear, “I love you, Prince Charming.”

Luc panicked, his gaze darting to Cassie. She stood a few feet away next to Prissy’s mother, a grin of approval on her face. Shame he couldn’t say the same for the shark. No, she was shooting daggers at him. He disentangled himself and stood. Patting Prissy’s hair he said, “Thank you for a wonderful day, Princess Priscilla.”

She grinned up at him, a gap in her front teeth where one was missing, before she took off towards the house. “C’mon, Mum. I want to have a bath with my new princess bubble bath.”

Not wanting to give Prissy’s mother a chance to corner him, Luc quickly shut and locked the cargo doors and strode to the passenger side where he climbed in and slammed the door. He couldn’t see what was happening from where he sat and he breathed a sigh of relief when Cassie slipped into the driver’s seat and started the engine. Staring straight ahead, he thanked his lucky stars he hadn’t had to rebuff another obvious come on before making his escape. Luc had a new understanding of what his boss went through after being the target of a zealous admirer.

“So what do we do now, boss?” he asked.

“We head back to work and you unload. I have some paperwork to fill out, but I can grab that and take it home to do later.” Cassie took her eyes off the road for a moment and glanced his way. “I thought we could pick up some groceries and I’ll make us some dinner.”

He was surprised by her offer and would love to have her cook for him, but he had a better idea. “How about I cook dinner? I am working for you after all.”

“You can cook?” She turned her wide eyes to him for a split second.

“I do okay. Do you have a barbeque?”

“No, only the grill in my oven.” Cassie navigated them through the late-afternoon traffic with ease. “Will that do?”

Luc could work with that, but another idea appealed more. “Why don’t we head to my place after we finish unloading? I’ve got everything I need at home to make us dinner and you can get your paperwork done while I cook.” The thought of having Cassie in his house sent a shudder down his spine and warmth into his groin. He could picture her sitting at his breakfast counter.

“Are you sure? I don’t expect you to cook for me.”

“I like cooking, and if I had any hope of doing the paperwork for you I’d offer.” He studied her profile. Her mouth was drawn tight in a frown, and he wanted to lean over and kiss her until she smiled again. “You still have hours left to boss me around, Cass.”

“I haven’t really bossed you around.” She chewed the corner of her mouth and he stifled a moan.

“Well, no, but you’re definitely the one who’s been in charge and you certainly took me out of my comfort zone in the last few hours.” Luc smiled at the little white lie. Other than a few minutes here and there, he hadn’t been uncomfortable at all.