The CEO's Little Surprise (7 page)

His breath on her skin and his hard thigh between her legs—hell, his voice alone—ripped through her in a white-hot streak of lust.

Insanity.
She needed that nice man, pronto, so she could slake this thirst. A couple of rounds with Mr. Gentle-and-Attentive and she'd be good for another year or so. Gage Branson wouldn't cause so much as a blip on her sex radar.

“This is supposed to be business only,” she reminded him, but her voice cracked in the middle of the sentence and she doubted he was listening anyway.

“Hold still.”

Eyes on her hair, he reached up and plucked one chopstick from her chignon, tossed it to the wooden slats under their feet and went for the other one as she yelped.

“What are you doing?” she protested as her hair spilled down her back.

“I couldn't help it.” His own voice broke as he threaded both hands through the strands, winding up the locks around his fingers, a groan rumbling in his chest that vibrated her rib cage. “Your hair. It's so beautiful. Why do you put it up?”

“It's professiona—”

His mouth hit hers and stole the rest of her words as he kissed her into stunned silence. Hot and wet, his tongue slid through her lips and pleasured her relentlessly.

Tugs at her hair tilted her head back, and he took her deeper into the sensuous haze. She lost all sense of up or down, all sense period because,
oh, yes
, Gage was kissing her again and she wanted it.

The emotional tangle? Not on the agenda. If she could separate business from pleasure, she could surely separate pleasure from love. No broken hearts this time. She'd take a lesson from the King of Fun and have some.

Without warning, he pushed her against the wooden post. It wasn't brick biting into her back. Close enough.

His mouth drifted to her throat as his hands untangled from her hair to cup the back of her head, drawing her against his magic lips. She arched into him, and a moan escaped her throat, echoing in the still night.

All at once, his hands seemed to be everywhere, racing down her sides, at her shoulders. Pushing down the neckline of her dress. Her breasts sprang free of the fabric and he cupped one, bending to draw her taut nipple into his mouth.

She gasped. Exquisite. The pulls of his mouth and tongue buckled her knees but he had her. Yes, he did. He held her firmly in place as he pleasured her with his talented mouth. Shutting her eyes, she let the pleasure fork through her, damp heat gathering at her center until she thought she would burst if he didn't...

He did. One hand snaked under her dress and found her folds beneath the scrap of underwear. The barrier didn't exist to him. Clever fingers danced over her burning flesh, inside. Out.

Anyone
could walk by. It heightened the pleasure...somehow. She hissed and opened wider, encouraging him to go deeper. Faster. Her breath came quicker as he drove her relentlessly, sucking at her breast, touching her intimately.

And then one final stroke shattered her resistance. She rode wave after wave of release, crying out at the strength and intensity of the pleasure he'd given her.
Gage.
Smart, funny, tender, amazing Gage. She'd missed him.

That was...not good. Oh, it had been
good
. But somehow he'd gotten below the surface, past her emotional armor.

When she floated back down from the heavens, he was watching her. He leaned in to set her dress back to rights, hands lingering, touching, pleasuring, and he murmured, “Take me back to your place. I want to do that again properly.”

Again? She shook off the miasma of Gage and stared up at him, stricken with guilt. That beautiful face stared back at her and she longed to fall into him again without reservation, without fear. Without complications. Without agendas.

What was she
doing
? This wasn't the time to be playing around with fire, not with her career at stake and her company on the brink of disaster. Not when she wasn't sure she could actually stay emotionally uninvolved. She couldn't be vulnerable to him again, couldn't fathom how she'd pick herself up if he flattened her.
Could. Not.

“I...can't.”

And then her throat closed, forcing her to swallow the rest.

His expression blanked and he stepped back, releasing her. “Okay.”

His tone said it was anything but. He didn't press her, though, which she was pathetically grateful for. Because if he had, he'd probably have broken down her resistance in about four seconds.

Yeah, she was a whiz at separating business and pleasure. The moment his flesh touched hers, all thoughts of business went out the window and she'd forgotten about digging for his secrets entirely.

That wasn't going to work. She had to get back in the game.

* * *

Gage dropped Cass off at her house with a terse good-night.

They hadn't spoken at all after she shut him down. Apparently, she could flip the ice-goddess switch at will, melting in his arms for a gorgeous orgasm that nearly finished him off, as well, and then hardening her spine right back into place.

He was slipping if that hadn't gotten him an invitation into her bed. Cass had matured in many intriguing ways, but she'd also grown...distant. He had to figure out how to get rid of that space between them or he'd lose his bid for the formula. This was one competition he could not afford to lose.

When he got back to his hotel, frustrated and alone, Arwen greeted him at the door, leash in her mouth. He groaned. Last thing he needed right now. “All right.”

Happily, she sniffed her way in the dark to the small park across from his hotel, zigzagging between clumps of bushes as she always did. It got a small smile from him. He hadn't been able to send her home and midnight walks in the park were due penance.

Unfortunately, Arwen didn't talk so he was left with his thoughts for company and they were anything but restful.

This thing with Cass was a problem. She was making him lose his focus on the end game. He still didn't know why she'd asked him to help her or what that silly game at dinner had been about, but one thing was for sure—he'd fully intended to find out. That was before she'd put on that cranberry dress and driven him to thorough distraction.

Of course, his solution to eliminating the distraction had been—and would continue to be—burning off their mutual, insanely hot attraction with a night of uninhibited passion. Then, with that out of the way, they both could concentrate on the business at hand: the leak.

He hoped. He couldn't deny he wanted Cass more fiercely than he could ever recall wanting a woman. Maybe more. He still ached with unfulfilled release and it was an unpleasant reminder that somewhere in the middle of all of this, getting his hands on Cass had started to eclipse getting his hands on her formula. Somehow, his plan to remind her of what she owed him had vanished and become a plan to reacquaint himself with Cass as a lover.

That was an even bigger problem. He was not going home without that formula. So far, he wasn't balancing his two agendas very well.

That changed
la mañana
.

Seven

“H
i, Melinda,” he said easily to Fyra's receptionist the next morning. “I have a nine o'clock with Ms. Claremont.”

“Good morning, Mr. Branson,” she chirped. “She's expecting you.”

Looked as though Cass had already cleared the decks for their leak discussion, which was masquerading as a “consulting” gig. The cover story had been quick thinking on his part, if he did say so himself.

He knocked on her open door. Cass was waiting for him, leaning on the front of her desk, arms crossed over a sleek pantsuit. Chopsticks peeked over the edge of her crown and dang if his fingers didn't curl at the sight of them, itching to yank them out.

He tore his gaze away.
Focus.

“Ready to get to work?” Cass asked coolly as if last night had never happened.

“Sure.” He grinned to dispel the heavy vibe and slid into one of the chairs on the visitor's side of the desk. No power plays today. None of them had worked anyway.

Well...they'd worked to a degree. After all, he'd had Cass in his arms twice last night. That was progress. Very hot, very spectacular progress. His body sprang fully alert.

Focus, he reminded himself.

“I have a couple of thoughts I wanted to run by you,” she said.

She seemed agitated, though he couldn't put his finger on what had given him that impression when she closely resembled an ice sculpture. A subtlety in her tone, maybe.

“Do any of them start with
Gage
and end with the word
naked
?”

Cass's mouth tightened. So that hadn't been the best tactic, even though he'd been kidding in an attempt to lighten the mood. Mostly. He could no sooner forget his outrageous attraction to her than he could leave without the formula. The dual agendas were supposed to complement each other, not be at war. It was killing him.

“Not in the slightest.” The frost in her voice needed to go. “I've already done a couple of hours' worth of research. Now that you're here, I want to go over my notes with you.”

Would she balk if he yanked her into his lap and kissed that frown upside down? Since the door was open, he resisted. But only just. And only for now.

It was better to deal with business during daylight hours. Probably.

“All right. Lay it on me. I am a fount of advice.”

Her brow raised as if she didn't quite believe him. “I haven't even told you what I've got yet. How do you know you'll have anything valuable to contribute?”

“I'm motivated. Plus, you of all people should be aware of my résumé when it comes to that.”

“Well, then. I'm dying to hear it, O Sage One.”

Maybe her mood wasn't as volatile as he'd assumed if she was making jokes.

Memories of her, hot and pliant in his arms, damp heat against his fingers, all that hair like silk in his fingers...yeah.

It was totally worth taking a shot.

“My first piece of advice is to relax,” he said smoothly. Cass hadn't moved an iota from her no-nonsense pose against the desk. Gage couldn't work his charm with her so uptight. “Second, I advise you to have dinner with me again tonight. But let's actually eat this time.”

Other than a slight eye roll, she held herself impressively frozen with not even a leg tremor to give away her thoughts. “I can't display that on a presentation at a board meeting. I need results and I need them today.”

“Then sit down and let's hash it out,” he suggested with a nod at the other chair. “I'm starting to feel as though I was called to the principal's office the way you're towering over me.”

With a piercing side eye aimed pointedly in his direction, she perched on the other chair but he had the distinct impression she didn't like the idea. He held his hands up in silent promise to keep them to himself, which she acknowledged with a muttered, “Yeah, we'll see.”

The truth was he had as much of an interest in finding the leak and plugging it as Cass did—if nothing else, he wasn't prepared to hand over one single dollar until it was handled, or his investment would be worthless.

Nor could he afford to let the leak take the formula public. Then someone else might get the upper hand. The issues inside Cass's company needed to be resolved.

“Talk to me about your notes.” When she hesitated, he stuck his palms under his butt, and widened his eyes in an exaggerated
okay
? “Come on.”

It was so subtle, he almost missed it. But he was watching her closely enough to pinpoint the exact moment she relaxed. The victory shot through him with a sharp thrill.

“My theory is that the leak came from someone in the lab. Has to be. No one else outside of the four founders knows how the formula works.”

He'd considered that, too, and it was probably true, but she couldn't make broad assumptions. “Anyone could have hacked into your database or paid off a janitor to steal Harper's notes.”

“True. But I don't think that's how it happened. So I'm thinking about planting some false information and watermarking the files. If it gets leaked, I can trace it back.”

“Digital forensics? Like what banks use when they're hacked? That's expensive.”

“Formula-47 is worth millions of dollars. Maybe billions.”

Yes, absolutely. But you had to spend money where it made sense. “Regardless, you'd have to wait until the leak found the information and hope he or she didn't realize that the transferred files could be traced, then you have to assume the leak will decide to spill it, wait for the news to hit the industry and then try to track down who accessed the file on your server. You don't have that long.”

Her lips pursed but she didn't give away anything else of her thoughts. “That's exactly why I wanted to run this by you. I knew you'd find the holes if there were any.”

That small compliment from a tough customer like Cass held more weight than he would have imagined. It spread through his chest warmly. He could get used to that. Get used to combining business and pleasure in exactly this way, with a woman who could match him mentally and physically.

That's a new experience you can get behind.

Except it wasn't exactly new. This was like old times, but better because they were equals.

“It's not rocket science. I've just been around a while. Failed a lot early on and learned a few things. No big deal,” he said, and he ducked his head.

She swept him with a once-over laden with—dare he hope it—some heat?

“You'll forgive me if I disagree. It's is a big deal. You're the CEO of a billion-dollar company for a reason. And I'm not. Also for a reason.” Her self-deprecating shrug spoke volumes.

“Hey. You're being too hard on yourself.”

Her gaze flew to his and something raw flashed in the depths, a stricken sense of anxiety. The brief spurt of emotion in her eyes sucked him in instantly, spreading through him with equal parts warmth and a desire to fix it. He almost reached out then to comfort her.

Because she needed him that way, too. And he liked being needed by a strong, independent woman like Cass.

It had nothing to do with sex, nothing to do with business—or even fun—and everything to do with why he'd recalled their relationship so fondly. Why he'd wanted to revive that between them. He liked being her go-to guy, being there for her. How had he walked away from that so easily?

Better yet, how did he keep it going now?

“Am I? How many times has one of your employees spilled company secrets?” she asked, and he didn't like how matter-of-fact she was about it.

She'd accomplished something really fantastic here at Fyra. Insisting that a blip like the leak overshadowed that riled him up but good.

“That's not a yardstick,” he insisted right back. “If it was, then you could also compare yourself to the CEOs of companies that went bankrupt or employed executives that ended up in orange jumpsuits. You're a star in comparison.”

Her amused smile heated his blood unnaturally fast.

And if he could get Cass on the same page, this conversation could very well explode into something that didn't need words.

* * *

Cass let her smile widen.

She had Gage exactly where she wanted him. It had taken her a bit to shift the mood and even longer to convince Gage his charm was working on her. At this point, he was so busy flirting and shooting her heated glances, he was scarcely paying attention to the matter at hand—the leak. Advantage Cassandra.

Keeping it was another story.

“You really think so?” She leaned into him, letting her arm casually brush Gage's. His gaze darkened. “That means a lot to me.”

“This is not the conversation I thought we were going to have.” He shifted closer, crowding into her space and she almost flinched as the contact sang through her but caught herself in time.

That episode last night, up against the gazebo post, had kept her tossing and turning all night long. She couldn't forget it. She might never be able to jog by that gazebo again without reliving the feel of Gage's mouth on her flesh and the intensity of his heated gaze on her bare breasts as he watched her climax under his talented fingers.

It was enough to make her want to corner him, strip him naked and let the passion between them come to conclusion. Where she got to watch
him
fall apart at
her
hands.

Which she totally planned to do...while extracting the information she needed. She could not, under any circumstances, let him dissolve that goal like he'd done last night. No more would she let her emotions run away with her. It was all business, all the time, especially while she was seducing him.

This was her career at stake, and the careers of her friends, poised to vanish into thin air if she didn't produce the name of the person responsible for disclosing company secrets.

Fyra was her life and no man could replace it. Especially not this one.

“This conversation is better,” she said with a tiny smile guaranteed to pique his interest. “For example, I was just about to take your advice and ask you to dinner tonight. At my place.”

That got his attention. He sat up so fast, his back teeth clacked together. “Don't toy with me, woman.”

Oh, but he was so fun to toy with, especially as she gave him a taste of his own medicine.

“Does that mean you don't want to come?” she purred. “Or do you want me to tack the dinner discussion to the end of today's agenda?”

“Now I'm dying to know what topics we have to get through to reach that particular item.”

“Business,” she said firmly. “Then pleasure.”

His hazel eyes lit up and a wicked smile spread across his face. “Just so you know, the fact that you label dinner at your place as pleasure warms my heart tremendously.”

She held off the shiver because he didn't need to know he'd affected her
that
way. He
shouldn't
be affecting her that way. Her armor—the shield she easily employed with other men—seemed to soften far too easily when he was around.

“Business,” she repeated. “We have to make more progress on the leak. The news broke on Monday. It's Thursday morning. I'm no closer to plugging the blabbermouth than I was then.”

She'd done a considerable amount of digging this morning on her own and had found a couple of promising leads. Right before Gage had arrived, she'd ordered the most high-level background check money could buy on every last employee in this company. But he didn't have to know that. In reality, she didn't want him anywhere near her files or embroiled in a real discussion about her strategy.

His job was to tell her what his connection was to the leak. What strings he was pulling. Which angles he was playing. She needed to uncover every last secret, especially when he looked at her like he was right now, like he wanted to finish what he'd started last night in the gazebo.

Because as soon as she handed him over to the authorities, then she could remind herself with cold hard facts that he was the spawn of Satan. Somehow she kept forgetting that.

“It's a problem,” he agreed far too easily.

Suspicious of his capitulation, she nodded. “Right. We find the leak and then we can think about pursuing a...personal relationship.”

She caressed the term with her voice as suggestively as she could. She had to regain the upper hand.

“Oh, no, sweetheart,” he growled. “You have it all backward. That orgasm last night? Only the beginning of what's in store for you. For both of us. It's an absolute necessity that we start there and then worry about the leak.”

His heavy, masculine vibe snaked through the room, engulfing her. Tempting her down the wrong path, where she craved that pleasure, that connection more than anything else. “That makes no sense.”

His intense gaze zeroed in on her and she felt it deep inside, where he'd thoroughly woken up her latent sex drive. He didn't move, didn't touch her, and somehow that was more powerful than if he had.

“It's the only thing that makes sense. We're not going to get anything accomplished until this fire between us is extinguished. Admit it. You know it's true.”

She hated to say it...but he might have a point. Worse, she couldn't think of one solid argument against it, but she had to try as a matter of principle. “That's your logic? We're not disciplined enough to work together so we should just screw around instead?”

He didn't flinch. “If you want logic, then do it for the best reason of all. You want to. And I want you, Cassandra.”

His deep voice caressed her name, unleashing another wave of desire that grew very hard to contain. This was a seduction, plain and simple, but she'd lost track of who was seducing whom. Besides, dragging it out wouldn't change things. It was just sex. She wasn't going to fall for him again. Why deny herself what she wanted?