A Win-Win Proposition (6 page)

He must have read her thoughts because he lowered his head still farther. Missy closed her eyes in anticipation of his kiss. When it didn't come, she blinked in surprise. Sebastian had his own eyes closed. Tension pulled at his features, drawing his mouth into a grim line.

His chest lifted as he sucked in air. A second later she was free. Her heels hit the floor with a jarring thud that loosened her grip on the towel. It slipped off one breast before she caught it.

Snarling a curse through clenched teeth, Sebastian shifted his gaze to the pile of clothes spilling out of the trash. When his attention resettled on her, the only emotion he let her see was cool curiosity.

He used his chin to gesture toward her former wardrobe. “What's going on with you?”

“Nothing.”

“You've thrown away your clothes.”

“I don't need them anymore.”

Iron-gray eyes swept down her body once again. “Planning on spending the entire week naked?”

“No.”

He'd buried his mood beneath a neutral tone and an impassive expression, but her stomach muscles tightened. Getting caught half-dressed in Sebastian's suite meant their encounter was no longer a complete secret. Were they to be boss and assistant or secret lovers? She tingled in anticipation of the latter.

“I thought I would buy some new things,” she continued.

He shook his head. “You don't have time to shop. I need you to go over the arrangements for tonight's cocktail party.”

Missy's mood deflated. As far as Sebastian was concerned the night was over. He'd paid his debt. Time to get back to work.

“There's no need,” she said. “I double-checked everything yesterday. We're good to go. Let's go down to the casino and have some fun.”

“This is a business trip.”

“And you can't mix business with pleasure?” She cocked her head.

“I've already done that,” he retorted, biting off each word. The way he stared at her mouth, she could almost feel the firm pressure of his lips against hers. She swayed into the gap between them, brought up short by his next words. “Get dressed and let's go over the arrangements.”

“I quit, remember?”

“You gave me your two-week notice,” he said. “Time to get back to work.”

He pivoted and left her staring at his retreating form. With a huff, she shut the door. She kicked at the pile of business attire that lay on the floor. At the thought of wearing any of it, a frustrated shriek built in her chest.

The phone on her nightstand rang. Summoned already? It had only been a minute since he'd left. She glanced at the door to Sebastian's suite and imagined him pacing. She understood his impatience. This was his first time leading the summit. In past years, his father had been the CEO of Case Consolidated Holdings. Since taking over, Sebastian had made numerous changes to the business that involved selling off two companies that hadn't fit their new business model and looking for new investments that were a better fit. He was growing into the CEO role and had a lot riding on this week in Vegas.

In the month leading up to the annual event, months of
planning had gone into every presentation, every speech. Months of hard work and not just by Sebastian. When he worked hard, so did she. Sixty-hour work weeks meant late nights and weekends.

No wonder her boyfriend had strayed. She was never around when Tim wanted to get together. A part of her didn't blame him for dumping her. She just wished he hadn't done it the day before her birthday and that it hadn't taken him less than a month to decide to marry someone else.

When the phone refused to stop ringing, Missy snatched up the handset.

“Missy? It's Susan.” Sebastian's mother sounded unfazed by Missy's cranky greeting.

Over the years, Missy had grown close to Susan. And Brandon for that matter. They practically treated her like one of the family instead of Sebastian's employee.

“Because my husband insists on golfing today,” Susan continued, “I wondered if you had any plans.”

“Sebastian expects me to work.”

Susan made a dismissive sound. “Tell him I need you to keep me company by the pool. I'm sure he'll give you some time off.”

Missy ran that conversation in her head and didn't arrive at Susan's conclusion. “He really wants to make sure the conference goes smoothly.”

“And with you behind the scenes, it will. Now, you've done enough. Grab your sunscreen and meet me by the pool. I'm not going to take no for an answer.”

The people who thought the Case brothers got their determination from Brandon had never met Susan. “Sure. Give me ten minutes.”

“Wonderful.”

Feeling squashed between a rock and a hard place, Missy replaced the phone and scooped up her bathing suit. If she told Sebastian about his mom's request, she would be in for
another argument. She dropped the towel and stepped into the suit. Sebastian was already accustomed to her flaky behavior on this trip. And it wasn't as if she hadn't already decided that she wanted to go have some fun. Susan had just given her the nudge she needed to act.

She slid the straps onto her shoulders and shot a last glance at the door to Sebastian's suite. Deserting her boss was going to make him even more irate than he already was.

Too bad.

Since starting as Sebastian's assistant, the only time she'd taken off was to visit her family. And there's no way anyone would consider that relaxing. Sebastian owed her four weeks of vacation. The least he could do is give her the morning to have some fun.

Grabbing her cover-up and a hat, she slipped out of her hotel room.

And when he caught her?

She'd cross that bridge when she came to it.

Besides, what's the worst he could do?

Fire her?

L
ocation?

Sebastian hit the send button on the text to Missy as the elevator doors opened. It had taken half an hour for him to figure out she'd pulled a vanishing act on him again. He'd intended to spend the morning going over his opening speech for the summit, catching up on emails and checking in with Max and Nathan. Instead, he was cruising through the casino, once again, in search of his wayward assistant.

His phone vibrated.

Pool.

Tucked into a protected hollow created by the hotel's tall towers, the pool area, with its waterfalls, swim-up bar and assorted potted palms, looked more like tropical paradise than a desert oasis. Two-thirds of the lounge chairs were occupied, but as it had the night before, his gaze went straight to Missy.

She wore a cerulean blue one-piece with a wide white band around the waist that drew attention to her hourglass shape. Barely a hint of cleavage showed above the suit's straight, unadorned neckline. In color and style, the suit was unremarkable. Sebastian doubted that anyone would give
her a second look with so much skin being bared by the less modest women in her vicinity.

But she was all he was interested in.

His mother waved to him from the pool as he neared Missy's lounge chair. Missy looked up as his shadow fell across her.

“Are you sure you should be sitting in the sun with your skin?”

“Don't worry.” She pointed to the sunscreen label. “It's SPF 75.”

The morning sun poured over his head and shoulders, warming the charcoal wool suit he wore and raising his temperature. He tugged his tie loose and unfastened his shirt's top button. “Maybe you should move into the shade.”

“I'm fine.”

“With skin like yours you should be careful.” His gaze trailed down her legs, following the movement of her hand as she smoothed lotion over her creamy skin.

His fingers balled into fists as memories of the night before intruded. The taste of her kisses. The way she'd moaned his name. How her breath caught as he slid deep inside her. The fact that her hunger for him had matched his need for her.

“Sebastian?”

He wrenched his attention back to her face. “Yes?”

“I said, if you've come to drag me back to work, I'm not going without a fight.”

For a second, the notion of tossing her over his shoulder and carrying her back to his suite blocked every sane thought in his head. “I'm not paying you to sit by the pool.”

“Then consider this a vacation day. I have plenty to burn.”

“You picked a hell of a time to go AWOL.”

She sighed. “Everything is organized. The summit doesn't start until the cocktail party tonight. There's plenty of time for me to have a little fun. You should, too.”

“I'm not here to have fun,” he reminded her.

She wrinkled her nose. “Yes, I know. But you're so prepared you could probably do the entire summit in your sleep. Why don't you relax a little today?”

“How do you suggest I do that?”

She stopped in the act of spreading lotion on her arm and brought her gaze to bear on him. The unbridled hope in her eyes twisted his gut. Was he that much of a tyrant?

“You could start by buying me a drink.”

“It's ten o'clock in the morning.”

She snapped the lid of the suntan lotion closed and picked up a beige sun hat, adorned with blue forget-me-nots. Once she set it on her head, the wide brim hid her expression from him.

“Make it an orange juice.”

Sebastian held his hand out to Missy and braced himself for the contact with her skin. She wiped lotion from her palms before giving Sebastian her hand. As expected, a pulse of fire sped up his arm and struck below his belt. He released her before the temptation to pull her close gave him away. Instead, he set his palm at the small of her back and nudged her toward the tiki-style bar.

From beneath her ruddy lashes, she peered his way. “I'm sorry I ran off without telling you this morning.”

“I'm sorry you felt you had to.”

“Am I hearing things or did the never-wrong Sebastian Case just apologize to his lowly assistant?” Laughter brightened the green in her eyes.

“I'm wrong on occasion and am not such an ass that I can't admit it.” Driven by compulsions too strong to fight, he grazed his fingertips upward until he encountered bare skin. “And you are far from lowly.”

A faint tremor beneath his hand told him she found the skin-to-skin contact as disturbing as he did. This attraction between them was a distraction he couldn't afford.

He directed her on top of the only empty stool and stood
behind her. Her sun-warmed shoulder brushed his chest as he leaned forward to order her a drink, increasing his temperature even further. With a dismayed sound, she scooted away.

“You're going to ruin your suit if you get suntan lotion on it.”

“I don't care.”

“How can you not care?” she countered. “You spend a fortune on your clothes.”

He lifted a shoulder. He'd ruin a hundred suits if it meant being close to her. The scent of suntan lotion rising off her skin aroused the craving to strip that boring bathing suit off her body and determine if the sun had marked her gorgeous pale flesh.

She gasped as he hooked a finger beneath her bathing suit strap and tugged it out of place. “What are you doing?”

“Making sure you aren't getting too much sun.”

“When you touch me, I have trouble thinking straight,” she whispered.

Her admission awakened a rumble of pleasure. “You shouldn't say things like that.”

“I don't understand what's going on between us.”

Nor did he. “Nothing is going on.”

“We made love last night.”

It took a great deal of effort, but he locked away his erotic musings. “It should never have happened.”

“But it did.” She met his gaze, her eyes soft with curiosity.

She wanted to know why he'd made love to her when he'd been so determined it was the wrong thing to do. He hadn't quite answered that question for himself. He could blame it on intense sexual chemistry, but that wouldn't be the whole truth. Grasping the whole truth might just lead him into uncharted territory where his assistant was concerned.

A familiar figure emerged from the pool and reminded Sebastian that he had more problems at hand than his
wayward assistant. “Did my mother give you any hint of what my father is really doing here?”

 

Reeling from what she'd glimpsed in Sebastian's somber gray eyes, Missy scrambled to reorient her thoughts. “She said your dad went golfing this morning. I assumed they came here on vacation.”

“He took Lucas Smythe golfing. Probably intends to talk him out of selling Smythe Industries to us.”

Missy's chest tightened. Sebastian's relationship with his father was uneasy. During the years she worked for the eldest Case son, she'd had a front-row seat to Sebastian's battle with his father over business strategies and the direction the company should move in the future.

When Brandon's health problems had surfaced and he'd announced his plans to retire, Missy had assumed Sebastian and Max would at last have the chance to run things their way. Then the surprise announcement—Brandon had convinced Nathan to return to Houston and join the family business.

Although everyone at the company knew Nathan was a half brother to Max and Sebastian, Missy suspected she was the only one outside the family who knew that Nathan was a love child produced by Brandon's long-time mistress who died when Nathan was twelve.

Because Missy had gotten to know Sebastian's mother fairly well, Susan had discussed those early days when her husband first insisted that Nathan move in with them. Missy wasn't sure she could have put aside her hurt and anger at a husband's betrayal the way Susan had. In fact, she'd treated Nathan no differently than if he'd been her own son.

Nor had her biological sons made things any easier. Susan had described a house in turmoil. Sebastian and Max were old enough to understand how deeply their father had hurt their mother and resented the appearance of a half brother that didn't belong. Bitterness led to bad behavior. It was no
surprise when Nathan took off after college. And from what Missy had gathered, he might have stayed away if Brandon's heart problems hadn't grown serious. Too bad having Nathan work for Case Consolidated Holdings was just the first of many times Brandon had interfered since his retirement.

“My father's planning on attending the summit,” Sebastian continued.

“Are you going to be okay?” She put her hand on his arm, sympathy spilling into her voice.

“Fine.” His terse reply was typical of how Sebastian coped with any emotion having to do with his father. Shut it down and pretend nothing's wrong.

She offered up an inaudible sigh to St. Monica, the patron saint her mother often prayed to for patience. “This is your summit, Sebastian. He won't interfere.”

“He's here, isn't he?” His gaze shifted from her to his mother. “He's already interfering.”

“Maybe he won't.”

“Stop being so damned positive.”

Rarely, in all the years that they'd worked together had she dared physical contact. Sebastian wasn't the sort of person who invited anyone to enter his space.

But last night, a shift had happened. A connection, however tenuous, had formed between them. Before she considered her actions, she dropped her hand from his arm to his thigh. His focus swung toward her. A quick squeeze and she had his complete attention.

“Missy.” Her name sighed out of him, a weary, reluctant sound that spoke of weakening resistance.

Delight found its way around her guards and set up camp inside her heart. If she was smart, she'd shut it down. No good would come of flirting with Sebastian. This thing between them had nowhere to go. She should be content with their one night together. But her willpower was a fickle thing where he was concerned.

“Yes, Sebastian?”

“I can't focus with your hand on my thigh.”

“Seems to me you're focusing just fine.” The long muscle beneath her fingers tensed.

He trapped her hand beneath his. His touch heated her as hot as the Nevada desert in July and baked her mouth dry. The crowd gathered around the pool vanished as she lost herself in the pull of his charismatic allure.

“What I mean is I can't focus on the problems at hand.”

“I thought I was your problem at hand.” She tried a smile.

His shoulders relaxed. “Only one of them.”

“Stop worrying so much,” she coaxed. “Enjoy the moment.”

“That's not the way I work and you know it.”

“Maybe you should try something different and see how it goes.”

“I'd love for it to be that easy, but it's not.” He carried her hand back to her side and patted it. “I'm not going to take advantage of the situation.”

No, he was too damned honorable to take advantage no matter how much she pleaded for him to do so. Why had she picked such an upright guy to get worked up about? Because his principles contributed to his appeal. She'd be proud to bring Sebastian home to meet her father. He would see the same admirable qualities she did and approve.

Too bad Sebastian was out of her league.

“Your mother spotted us,” she said, waving back at Susan.

Sebastian nodded. “Grab your drink. Let's go.”

The air cooled dramatically without Sebastian's warmth beside her. She trailed after him, her untouched orange juice clutched in her hand.

“Hello, darling.” Dressed in a black one-piece that showed off her athletic figure, Susan Case offered her cheek for Sebastian's kiss. “Never expected to see you by the pool. Of course, you're not really dressed for it, now, are you?”

“Not exactly.”

The easy affection between mother and son made Missy smile. Sebastian treated his mother with relentless charm. He was at his most unguarded around Susan. The first time Missy had ever seen them together had been the moment her hopeless crush on Sebastian had begun. Her brothers had been that way with their mother, reverent and affectionate. The same behavior spilled over into how they treated their wives.

She knew Sebastian would treat his wife with similar adoration if he ever married again. The thought hammered her confidence flat. No use wishing she could be the woman who captured Sebastian's heart. He would probably choose someone like his mother. Sophisticated, elegant, gracious, and well connected. A nobody like her wouldn't have a chance in hell of surviving in his circles.

“Sebastian, it was good of you to let Missy have some time off for a little fun. You work her too hard.”

“I didn't give her time off,” Sebastian growled. “She took it.”

Susan's brows rose. “Well, then good for her. You should follow her example. I'm getting tense just looking at you.”

No one but his mother could speak to Sebastian like that and get away with it. Missy bit the inside of her cheeks to contain a grin.

“Then perhaps I should return to work and leave you two to enjoy the sunshine.”

“You're letting me stay?” Missy asked.

He shot his mother a severe look. “It seems I don't have much choice.”

Susan watched the exchange with interest. When her son was out of earshot, she turned to Missy. “I thought he'd never go. Let's order some cocktails. Then perhaps you'll tell me what's going on between you two.”

 

Sebastian had just finished up a conference call with Max and their financially troubled overseas supplier when his
mother sauntered into the suite. She'd come straight from the pool and smelled of sunshine and chlorine. She loved the water and kept in shape by swimming two miles each day.

“Can you break long enough to take your mother to lunch?”

Sebastian checked behind her, half expecting to see Missy using his mother as a protective shield. “Just you?”