Asking for Andre (8 page)

Andre, however, had other plans.

He glanced back at her briefly but didn’t respond other than to grab her arm and guide her around the corner until they came to a small café. She’d seen it in passing but never stopped there. It had a lot of French writing and fancy menus in the window.

“We will sit here.” He practically shoved her into the wrought iron metal chair. “Anya told me you like the beignets here. I do as well. Apparently we have similar tastes.” He smiled and sat in the chair across from her.

He’s been asking about me again.
It gave Casey a strange feeling. She clenched her fists in her lap and tried to remember all the rules drilled into her head growing up.
Keep your elbows off the table. Sit up straight.
She wasn’t used to eating out, especially not at these prices. She hadn’t realized the beignets Anya brought to the office each week were from such a fancy place.

A waitress appeared almost immediately, smiling flirtatiously at Andre. Casey gritted her teeth as the simpering blonde took their orders with a series of unnecessary hair flips. To his credit, Andre didn’t seem interested. His eyes stayed on Casey the entire time.

Fed up, Casey finally got the nerve to meet his eyes directly. “What are we doing here?”

Their drinks arrived, a small cappuccino for her and some kind of espresso drink that she couldn’t even pronounce for him. Andre leaned back to allow the waitress to set them down. After she left, Casey waited for him to explain himself but he just took a few appreciative sips of his drink, watching her over the brim the entire time.

Casey banged her fists on the table. He looked up in surprise. “What does all this mean? You can’t just put me on the spot in front of everyone like you did today! I can’t afford to lose this job.” To her horror, her voice broke a little on the last words. His face softened slightly.

“
Cara mia
, you will not lose your job.” He put his cup down and leaned across the table. “I apologize. I should have explained right away. Mr. Lawson mentioned that you were recently promoted and will be assisting the designers. Congratulations. I’ve already requested that the agency assign you to work on my account. I just wanted to welcome you to the team.”

Casey sat back, stunned. She clenched her thighs together against a sudden ache.

“I don’t understand any of this. And just because we have this…” She gestured between them uncertainly. “
Attraction
between us, doesn’t mean you should lie and say I’m working on your account. Somehow I doubt Law will let me anywhere near this campaign after what I said today.” She shrugged and took another sip of her drink.

“
Tesoro
, I will do many things but I rarely lie. An intelligent man doesn’t need to. You will be working on my account. For what I’m paying this agency, they’d assign the janitor to work on the account if I asked them to.”

Casey laughed. Other diners turned to stare but she couldn’t stifle it. “You really have gone mad. I am the
last
person you should want working on this. You saw what happened in that meeting today. Law was furious. I’m lucky if I still have a job after this.”

Andre put his cup down and pulled his chair closer to hers. Her breath left her chest with a sudden whoosh. She examined her fingernails, anything to avoid looking at him. She couldn’t look at him when he was this close. She might do something crazy, like lean over and bite his plump lower lip. Then he would think she was even more of a tease than she’d been on Saturday.

“Cassandra.” Andre took her chin in a gentle grip and tipped her head up until she met his eyes. She loved the way he said her name, rolling it around in his mouth as if he loved the taste. When he said her name, she was exotic and feminine.

When he said her name, she believed she could do anything.

“Cassandra, you are the only one who understands what I’m about. You saw those campaigns the others designed for me. They do great work but it wasn’t right for
me
.” He tapped the tip of her nose and a thrill ran through her. “On their own, they seem to have no idea what appeals to me. You’re the only one who gets it. You can at least tell the designers if they’re on the right track.”

She nodded. In that moment, she would have agreed to do pretty much anything. How incredible to have someone need her. It was a feeling she could easily get addicted to if she wasn’t careful.

“What exactly do I get out of this?” Casey demanded, unsettled by how quickly the conversation was getting out of control. “Nothing in life is free, right?”

His brow furrowed at her question. “You are right. I would never want to take advantage of you. I’d much rather
you
take advantage of
me
.”

Casey struggled to hold back a smile at his provocative response. She’d expected him to argue, not agree with her. She got the sense he was used to giving orders and having them obeyed.

“I was just saying, you know, as a matter of principle.” Casey sat back in her chair, and crossed her arms. “There isn’t actually anything I want.”

He leaned forward, his eyes locked on hers. “Isn’t there,
piccolina
? I was under the impression Saturday night that there were some things you very much wish to learn.”

It took about two seconds for her to go from bewildered to embarrassed. Then another three seconds for her to go from embarrassed to furious. After sixty seconds of counting under her breath, she spoke over the lump in her throat.

“Saturday night was a mistake. I was…” She gritted her teeth, appalled that they were even discussing the subject. “I was drunk, all right? I wasn’t really asking for lessons in, you know,
that
.”

“Are you saying you don’t need them or you don’t want them?” Andre reached across the wrought iron table and grabbed her hand. “Tell me you don’t want me and I’ll never bring it up again.”

She closed her eyes and all she saw were images of the two of them kissing, her hands running up and down his hard chest. She opened her eyes, defeated.

“I can’t deny it. So I guess you get the last laugh, huh?”

He squeezed her hand so tightly it was almost painful. “Does it look like I’m laughing? I haven’t had a decent night of sleep since you said that. I can’t stop thinking about what you felt like, what you tasted like. I’ll do whatever I must to get you back in my arms again. Either that or I’ll go crazy.”

She sucked in a shocked breath at his bold words, her eyes sneaking down to the part of him covered by the table. Was he hard? Did he lose his breath thinking about her, about the things they’d done together? If she wasn’t so afraid that the answer would be “no” then she would ask.

Right after she died of mortification, of course.

Andre leaned forward, his voice hushed so they wouldn’t be overhead by any other diners. “I want you, Cassandra. Tell me you want me too?”

Her face heated. “You know I do,” she admitted warily.

Standing, he extended his hand. She regarded it for a long moment, unsure of whether to accept—both his hand and the unspoken offer. Even though he’d been discreet enough not to spell it out, she knew very well what he offered,

But still, she had to be sure she could deal with the consequences, to the mind and the heart. She had to be sure the pleasure she was sure to find in his arms would be worth it.

Casey sucked in a sharp breath. “This is probably a bad idea. You don’t even live here.”

“Well, I have a residence here. Does that count?” He grinned at her.

She looked into the startling cloudlike eyes that had haunted her for months and found desire, along with respect. Patience. Fondness.

I want you, Cassandra.

He was a client so there would be hell to pay later if anyone found out, but it would be worth it. Of that, she was absolutely sure. If they both played by the rules, no one would ever find out. She just needed one night to be touched. Once she got this craving out of her system, they could pretend it never happened.

“One night and we’ll never speak of it again. If neither of us has any expectations, then no one gets hurt.” She took his hand and stood, smoothing her hair back self-consciously.

“One night.” Andre scanned her from head to toe, the bulge in his slacks growing larger with every moment. She felt a momentary sense of triumph. She might be terrified but at least he wanted her. That was something.

“I’m going to teach you what your body is made for.” He cradled her against his chest, every rock-hard inch of his erection imprinted against her stomach. “And I’m going to enjoy every hot…” He nibbled her ear. “Wet.” His tongue flicked over the earlobe. “Minute of it.”

Casey swallowed. “So we have a deal. When do we start?”

His eyes lit with hunger. “Right now.”

* * * * *

Half an hour later, Casey folded her hands nervously in front of her, scared to touch anything. One minute she was at the café agreeing to the most scandalous proposal she’d ever heard, and the next she was twenty stories off the ground in a penthouse almost as big as the Mirage offices.

Andre had disappeared immediately, telling her to make herself at home. She snorted.
Nothing about this is remotely like home.
She turned in a slow circle, awed by the wide expanse of space. Everything in the place was white, black or stainless steel. It was perfectly decorated and utterly cold.

“Come. Let’s get you comfortable.” Andre reappeared at her elbow and led her gently to a large, white sectional sofa. Casey smiled inwardly at his words. She’d just agreed to be tutored sexually by the man of her dreams. Nothing in the world would make her comfortable except perhaps a Valium or a bottle of vodka.

“Cassandra, relax. I won’t bite you. We aren’t here to do anything you don’t want to do.” Andre sat on the other end of the sofa, reclining casually into the large cushions. There was so much space between them she figured he was trying not to scare her.

Suddenly, she felt ashamed of her behavior. After all, she was a willing participant in this arrangement. It wasn’t as if he’d clubbed her over the head and abducted her.

“Of course not. You’ve been nothing but a gentleman.” She patted the space next to her. “You can come closer. I’m not frightened, just nervous.”

He was up and on his feet so fast it startled her. “Good. It’ll be difficult for us to get to know one another if we’re so far apart.”

Casey tried not to dwell on what he was really saying, that they were here so he could make love to her again. So he could strip her naked and touch her all over. She wanted his touch, craved it actually, but the reality of the situation was more overwhelming than she was ready for. She had to remind herself he was the same man who’d teased her about her shyness and understood her love of travel. It was hard to remember how nice he was when she was thinking about what was beneath his tailored suit.

Casey swallowed hard as his hand landed on her knee. In the bright light of day, it was hard to believe this was happening. That he
wanted
to touch her. His hand swept over the sensitive skin on her inner thighs, higher, higher until he met the damp cotton covering her mound.

In that moment, she wished she could be the exotic, glamorous type. A Cassandra who would wear silk and satin under her clothes and know all the intimate secrets of how to please a man. If only she could live up to her name and be that confident, that alluring. But all she knew how to be was Casey.

She had to hope that was good enough.

“Just your scent is enough to make me hard.” Andre brought a handful of her long curls to his face and breathed deeply. His grip was tight enough that it should have been painful. Instead, she felt wonderfully entrapped.

Casey moved against him restlessly, trying to relieve the dark, twisting need roiling through her veins. She needed things she didn’t know how to articulate.

“Touch me, please.” She would have been ashamed of how desperate she sounded if she could think over the roaring of her pulse. Her pussy clenched every few seconds, hungry for what it knew was beneath his clothes. Every inch of her skin tingled, desperate for the touch of his hands or mouth. Anything to calm the ache.

Andre lifted her to straddle his lap. The position left her completely open to his touch.

“A good girl like you would be shocked by the things I want to do to you. I plan to fill you in ways you can’t even imagine.”

As if to illustrate his words, his fingers slipped beneath the edge of her panties, easily pushing the cotton aside. She was soaking wet, the moisture slipping over the skin on her inner thighs.

He pushed one finger inside gently. Her pussy clamped down on the digit immediately. He gasped. Her eyes flew open at the startled sound and met his. He stroked her, all while watching her face with a harsh, intense focus.

“You’re so tight. I didn’t ask Saturday but considering our agreement I need to know.” He closed his eyes for a moment, his jaw clenching as he fought for control. “Have you known a man before? I mean, before me.”

Heat surged through her in undulating waves with every slow glide of his finger. It was all she could do to nod her answer as she fought to keep from crying out for him to hurry.