The CEO's Little Surprise (14 page)

Business. Of course. The man separated business and pleasure like a pro.

“Hot date?” Alex asked wryly and Cass peeked over the compact.

God, she'd forgotten all about Alex and, lucky girl, she was about to witness Cass's complete breakdown.

“Actually, Gage and I aren't seeing each other anymore. We—”

He swept into the room and she forgot to breathe. The sharp, dark navy suit he wore would make an Italian tailor weep. His too-long hair was somewhat tamed and smoothed back, leaving his gorgeous face the focal point it should be.

She scarcely noticed the handsome dark-haired man at his elbow. Because next to Gage, Phillip Edgewood might as well have been invisible.

“Ms. Meer.” Gage nodded to Alex as she rose. “This is my cousin, Phillip Edgewood. Phillip, Alexandra Meer, Fyra's chief financial officer.”

The CFO and the senator shook hands politely, exchanging pleasantries while Cass shot Gage a look and hissed under her breath, “Senator Edgewood is your
cousin
? Since when?”

“Since I was born?” he suggested mildly. “His mother and my mother have been sisters for almost sixty years.”

“You never mentioned that.”

He shrugged, messing up the lines of his gorgeous suit, which was a shame. “I never mentioned a lot of things. Which, not so coincidentally, is why I'm here.”

With that cryptic comment hanging in the middle of everything, Gage repeated the introductions between Cass and Phillip and swung his attention back to Cass. “Phillip has graciously agreed to help Fyra navigate the FDA process required to get your formula to market. I came by with him today so you could meet him personally and get the ball rolling. Oh, and he'll also help you grease the wheels at the patent office. The sooner you get going, the sooner the leak will become a nonissue.”

Cass's mouth fell open. “We're not—I mean...what?”

“That's amazing, Gage,” Alex said, with a withering glance at Cass. To the senator, she said simply, “Thank you. We're honored to have such expert assistance.”

“Yes, of course.” Cass nodded woodenly, her faculties still scattered. “Thank you. We appreciate the assistance.”

And now she sounded like a parrot instead of a savvy executive. Gage
still
fuzzled her mind.

The senator smiled at Alex, and it took over his entire body, as if he was lit from within. Charisma radiated from him like the corona around the sun. Cass started to get an inkling of what the fuss over him was all about.

“It's no problem,” Phillip said, but he was looking at Alex as if Cass didn't exist. “Is there somewhere we can go to talk? And of course, we should include your chief science officer.”

“Dr. Harper Livingston,” Alex interjected, and the two of them were off, their conversation deep in the details.

Looked as if Alex was more than willing to stay in the senator's orbit, though he was hardly her type. They were a study in contrasts with Alex's face bare of cosmetics and clad in a gray shirt and jeans. Senator Edgewood wore Armani and power, and not necessarily in that order.

They excused themselves to Alex's office, leaving Gage and Cass staring at each other.

“What was that all about?” Cass demanded. “Waltzing in here with a US senator and throwing him at Fyra like some kind of peace offering.”

“You say that like it's a bad thing.” Gage shoved his hands in his pockets. “Does that mean it didn't work?”

“That's what it was?” A little stunned, Cass sank into her chair. She'd been about to grill him on his angle. Without reason apparently. “A peace offering?”

“Yeah. I needed an ‘in,' in case you wouldn't see me otherwise. Phillip was my trump card.” He grinned and she fought to keep from smiling back. Too many unanswered questions for that.

“But why did you ask him to work with us on the FDA process? If we file for approval, that's a pretty clear indication we're not going to sell it. To you or anyone.”

“That's why I did it. I don't want your formula anymore, but this seemed like the only way you'd believe me. Now it's not a factor between us.” He took her hand and held it without making any other move, but that alone connected them. “I owe you, and turnabout is fair play.”

“You owe
me
?” She shook her head, still dazed. “You've got that backward. You've been quite clear that it's the other way around.”

“That was before I fell in love with you.”

Her breath caught and she drank in the emotion spilling from his gaze. Love. Tenderness. All of the things she'd witnessed in his expression when he looked at his son. The same emotion she'd dreamed of seeing directed at her. And now it was.

Shell-shocked, she stared at him. “I...what?”

“Oh, am I stuttering again? Let me start over.”

He swept her into his arms and laid his lips on hers, infusing his warmth into her dark and frozen soul. Everything thawed instantly, blooming under his talented mouth as he kissed her senseless. All of her feelings for this man surged to the surface, spilling out of her heart in an endless flow. He was in love with her, and all of the sharp, painful places inside smoothed out as she united with him, body and soul.

No.
No, no, no. She wiggled away, breathless and still fuzzled because,
oh my God
, she wanted to dive back in and forget the past miserable week had happened. But it
had
happened.

“When did you decide this?” she demanded, but he just grinned and yanked her back into his embrace.

“For such a smart lady, you're being very slow to catch on,” he murmured into her ear. “I'm not letting you go again. So you might as well forget about throwing up your walls. I'll keep knocking them down until you admit you're in love with me, too.”

“Why would I do that?” She scowled but he just kissed the line between her brows.

“Because I'm sticking around this time. Forever,” he promised and crossed his heart, catching her gaze. The depths of sincerity in his expression put a slow tingle in her midsection. “And I'd like to know up front where we stand. No seeing how it goes. No agendas. Just two people in it for the long haul.”

“That's not what you want.” Eyeing him suspiciously, she tried to cross her arms, but he wouldn't loosen his grip on her waist enough to give her room. “You want the formula, not me. So what exactly is all this Gage-speak supposed to mean?”

He pursed his lips and contemplated her. “Here's the thing. I haven't given you any reason to trust me. So I've spent the past week convincing Phillip to clear his schedule, and then I cleared mine. Because I want you to go to market with your formula so we can compete head-to-head. May the best CEO win.”

That
sounded more like Gage. There was a gotcha in there somewhere. A yet-to-be-named angle she couldn't see. “Now you're just talking crazy.”

“No, I'm finally sane, thanks to you.” Tenderly, he tucked a chunk of hair behind her ear. “You
have
moved past my mentorship. Far past. And turnabout is fair play. Show me what you've learned since then. I fully expect you to win.”

It was as if he'd opened her heart and read the words she'd longed for him to say like a script. Where was this stuff coming from? Because if he kept going, she was going to completely lose all her safeguards against a bad decision.

But it was far, far too late for that. She'd been sliding toward Gage since the moment she'd recognized him in the parking lot of her building.

“Oh, I see.” She didn't. But she had to keep fishing. His real agenda was buried in these well-delivered lines somewhere. “You've given up your bid for the formula and forgiven the debt you've claimed I owe you. Out of the goodness of your heart.”

“That debt never existed.” His small smile wiped the one from her face. “In fact, I owe you. Because I didn't know I had such a bad habit of turning a blind eye to what was happening around me. Briana had a baby without me cluing in. You were in love with me and I didn't know. You didn't tell me because I was too busy pushing you away. And then when you did tell me, I handled everything wrong. I should have admitted I was falling for you then. But instead, I clung to my freedom, not realizing it was meaningless. I'm a serial idiot.”

This couldn't be real. All her dreams of being with Gage forever were not on the brink of coming true. Her life was not a fairy tale and he was not the guy he was claiming to be.

“So you've climbed aboard the commitment train?” She shook her head. “I'm sorry, Gage, but I can't buy that.”

“Then you're going to feel very silly once I do this.”

He pulled a small box from his jacket pocket and flipped the hinged lid to reveal something that might look like a diamond ring to someone whose vision wasn't instantly blurry with tears.

His arm dropped from her waist and he pulled the band from its velvet nest to slide it on her finger. “That's the sound of the conductor yelling ‘All aboard.' I love you and I want to marry you.”

She went a little lightheaded. “You know that if the senator is helping us get the formula to market, marrying me won't get you access to it, right?”

Gage just smiled. “No agendas here. Mine
or
yours. You know if you marry me, you have to trust me. No more dates where you pump me for information, or sleepover games designed to figure out my angle. When you have questions, we have to talk about things like rational adults. And when we spend time together, it'll be because we can't be apart.”

Guilt crushed through her chest. “Did you know the whole time?”

“No. I figured out later that all the strange questions were because you suspected I was involved in the leak from the very beginning. It's okay. I realized why you thought that was necessary. I hadn't given you any reason to trust me, which I hope I'm fixing right now.”

Finally, it started to sink in. He'd taken soul-searching to a whole other plane. And somehow figured out how to claim her heart in the process with a simple thing like forgiveness. She'd held him at arm's length, convinced he would break her heart, when instead he'd offered his up with no strings attached.

She shoved back the flood of emotion for a second time. Or was it a third? She'd lost count because he'd done exactly what he'd predicted he would—knocked down her barriers against him.

“No agenda,” she repeated dumbly. “Then why
marriage
? You could hardly say the word the last time this came up.”

He took that with surprising grace and nodded. “I've spent years running from anything that smacked of commitment under the guise of living life to the fullest and experiencing new heights. I've done it all, except one thing. You're my ultimate experience, Cass. Just you. Everything feels better when I'm with you. Why would I keep running from that?”

“Because you're a serial idiot?” she choked out, and he laughed, pulling one from her, as well.

That was the benefit of falling in love with a man like Gage. She was botching up his marriage proposal and he still managed to pull it off.

“I am a serial idiot. I hope that means we're a perfect match,” he said, his voice clogged with emotion she'd never heard before. “Because it would be dumb of you to take a chance on me. I'm going to immediately drop a baby in your lap. That's a lot to ask. I get that. But if you hand me that ring back, I'm only going to keep coming around until you say yes.”

It was real. The man she loved had just asked her to marry him. She curled her hand around the ring, holding it tight against her palm. “The best thing about us is that we're equals. Guess that means I'm a serial idiot, too, because I never fell out of love with you.”

Yes, clearly she'd gone mad because she never would have imagined admitting that in a million years. Never imagined being a mother. Never imagined she'd be this happy.

Strangely, Gage becoming a father had been the tipping point. She could trust that he'd stick around this time because she'd seen what he was capable of with Robbie. What it looked like when he loved someone. She knew it was possible and could finally believe it was happening to her.

A smile split his face and when he kissed her, he nearly split her heart, as well. Good thing. All the emotion inside was too big to be contained in that little bitty organ. Looked like she was getting her happily-ever-after.

Epilogue

P
hillip Edgewood threw a hell of party. His status as one of the nation's most eligible bachelors coupled with his deep Texas roots afforded him a wide circle of acquaintances. Gage had never socialized with his cousin. Shame it had taken him so long to reach out to a man he'd known since childhood. They'd had lunch a couple of times since that day Gage had shown up out of the blue to ask for help, and they might even be on the way to becoming friends.

But tonight, Gage only had eyes for his date. Cassandra Claremont put the Hollywood celebs, Texas oil royalty and glittery society wives in attendance at Phillip's fundraiser to shame.

And Gage had been apart from his fiancée for five long minutes. He crossed the crowded ballroom to the bar, where Cass laughed over something Alex had said. That was a welcome sight. Cass had mentioned she and Alex were at odds over Fyra's strategy and that Alex had been the main one speaking out against Cass's leadership.

Whatever had happened to cause the rift appeared to be repaired, which Gage knew was a load off Cass's mind.

“Ladies,” he murmured as he came up behind the most gorgeous woman in the room, wrapping his arm around her.

He couldn't touch her enough. Sometimes he did it just to assure himself he hadn't invented this fantasy out of thin air. But every time he reached out, she reached back. Commitment had its perks. Lots of them.

“Alex, you look fantastic,” he commented truthfully as Cass's arm circled his waist in kind. “Did you do something different?”

Cass smacked him playfully. “Spoken like a true man. Of course she did. It's a formal party and we spent two days getting ready for it.”

The two women exchanged smiles and piqued Gage's interest. “Sounds like there's a story there.”

He'd been privy to nothing as Cass had told him to butt out. Repeatedly.

“A boring one,” Alex assured him with a careful nod, likely in deference to the gravity-defying swept-up hairdo that drew attention to her lovely face. “Cass volunteered to give me a makeover, that's all.”

“That's all?” Cass squealed incredulously. To Gage, she said, “The woman works for a cosmetics company and never wears the stuff. So I taught her a few tricks and voilà.”

Alex blushed becomingly. “It's not that I didn't want to wear makeup. But every time I did, I felt like I was trying too hard.”

Phillip appeared at Alex's side, which was the most likely cause of her blush. They made a cute couple and Phillip deserved some happiness after the untimely death of his wife several years before. Of course, the senator and the CFO both brushed off their association as “working together” to secure Fyra's FDA approval. They weren't fooling anyone.

As their host whisked Alex off to the dance floor, Gage nestled his fiancée closer.

“So things are good between you now?” he asked.

Cass nodded. “Yeah. We had a heart-to-heart and she admitted she was feeling left out. I have a tendency to deal with issues on my own, and apparently that comes across as...cold.”

Gage stuck his tongue in his cheek. “You don't say.”

“No, really,” she insisted, oblivious to Gage's sarcasm. “I was acting like the title of CEO meant I had to do it all with no help and as if letting anyone see that I was uncertain was like some big crime. I ended up confessing that to all the girls when I told them I hadn't found the leak and you weren't involved. It was a real turning point and now we're 100 percent united. I have you to thank for helping me learn that.”

“Me?” That was a genuine surprise. “You're the one who's been mentoring me in how to do this long-term thing. What did I teach you?”

“That it's okay to use your head and your heart.” She smiled. “In all things. I couldn't have fathomed becoming a mother otherwise.”

Robbie had warmed to Cass instantly, so much so that his son cried inconsolably when Cass had to go back to Dallas on Sunday nights. It was only temporary until they could figure out the logistics of moving an entire company's headquarters. And until they finished arguing about whose company was doing the moving.

“I told you we're a perfect match,” Gage insisted. “I don't know what took you so long to get wise to how good we are together.”

Guess it turns out you can live life to the fullest with one woman, after all.

Gage smiled. Nicolas was right once again. Cass was the ultimate experience and he couldn't wait to get started on forever.

* * * * *

If you loved this novel, don't miss the next book in the
LOVE AND LIPSTICK
series by Kat Cantrell

A PREGNANCY SCANDAL

Available June 2016!

And pick up these other sexy and emotional reads by Kat Cantrell

THE THINGS SHE SAYS
MARRIAGE WITH BENEFITS
THE BABY DEAL
PREGNANT BY MORNING

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Keep reading for an excerpt from
FROM FRIEND TO FAKE FIANCE
by Jules Bennett.

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