Sky High (Three Contemporary Novella's) (7 page)

“Call me Charlie, please.”

“Charlie, then.” She gave him a practiced, professional smile. “I think many of our clients would love to schedule an event with you. The meeting facilities seem to be first rate, you’ve got plenty of hotel capacity for guests, and of course, there’s the idyllic setting.”

Charlie smoothed down the lapel of his suit and smiled. “Yes, the beaches here are magnificent. I’ve got a personal favorite, a little off the tourist radar. Let me know when you head out and I’ll point you in the right direction.”

“No time for a beach visit this trip, I’m afraid.”
Or ever.
Her conversation with Simon about never seeing the beautiful places she visited came back to her, and her heart gave a twist.

With every passing hour, she felt worse about what she’d done, and more desperate to get back to New York to try and make it right. Maybe Simon only wanted one night, and when he woke up to find her gone without a trace, he’d been relieved. Or maybe—just maybe—he’d felt that connection just as strongly as she had. And if he had, then she’d really screwed up. She only hoped it wasn’t too late to fix it.

“Ms. Sinclair?” Charlie peered at her in concern. “Is everything all right?”

“Yes. Yes, I’m fine.” She shook herself back to the present and forced a smile. “Still a little out of sorts after my day yesterday. The meeting halls are lovely, Mr. Curtis. You’ve done a wonderful job with them.”

He inflated slightly with pride. “If you’ll follow me, I’ll show you the business center. We’re very proud of it. The broadband capabilities are the best that you’ll find anywhere in the region. We laid our own fiber optics lines.”

Only half-listening as Charlie extolled the virtues of bandwidth and personal docking stations at every seat, she followed him down a long lushly-carpeted hallway towards the resort’s brand new business center.

“... and there are four conference rooms of varying sizes which can be reconfigured to any—” The door to one of the conference rooms Charlie had been gesturing to opened nearly on top of him. He stumbled to an awkward stop just in time to avoid Jeremy, one of the other heads of the resort’s new corporate center. They both laughed.

“Sorry, Jeremy, I was just taking Ms. Sinclair to see the business center.”

“Excellent timing, actually,” Jeremy said. “I’ve been showing Mr. Barrett around and I’d love to introduce him to one of our potential corporate travel clients.” Jeremy opened the door further and motioned inside. “Mr. Barrett, this is Ms. Sinclair from Omni Corporate Travel.”

“Simon…”

And then there he was, like they’d been fated to face each other in this hallway from the start. Of course. They
had
been fated to meet, but not on the doomed flight. She was meant to meet him
here
.

Jeremy looked between them in confusion. “Have you met before?”

Simon never took his eyes off her, but he smirked as he reached for her hand. “We were on the same disastrous flight yesterday, but I’m afraid we skipped a proper introduction.”

We had amazing sex instead, before I ran away like a child,
she thought wildly, reaching out to shake his hand. He gripped it tightly, his fingertips shifting to caress the inside of her wrist, just as he’d done last night at the restaurant. Just before he’d turned her hand over and kissed her palm. Just before she felt his tongue on her skin. Her knees threatened to give out. Most definitely not a corporate handshake.

“Simon Barrett, head of Investment Research at Rutger, Saunders and Smith.”

“Cassandra Sinclair, Associate Director of Corporate Event Planning at Omni Corporate Travel.”

“It’s very nice to meet you, Cass.”

Charlie and Jeremy missed his overly-intimate shortening of her name, thank God, but
she
felt like she’d just gone up in flames.

“Why don’t we all head to the business center?” Jeremy suggested. “I haven’t taken Mr. Barrett through it yet.”

“Sounds like a wonderful idea,” Simon said, still not looking away from her. He’d only just released her hand, making it the most intimate handshake she’d ever experienced. “After you, Ms. Sinclair.”

Finally, she tore her eyes away from his and took a deep, shaky breath. They said nothing as they walked side-by-side down the hall behind Charlie and Jeremy. There wasn’t any chance to speak, since Charlie was talking nonstop about computer terminals. And she had absolutely no idea what she was going to say when they did get to talk. He didn’t seem displeased to see her again. Quite the contrary. Maybe he was thinking of the pleasant possibility of round two tonight? Or maybe he was just as happy to see her again as she was to see him. Hope flickered in her chest, but she wasn’t ready to give into it yet.

When Charlie and Jeremy stepped a few feet away for a moment to power up the remote console for power point presentations, Simon leaned in close and whispered in her ear. “Don’t you dare run away again after this.”

She swallowed thickly and kept her eyes on Charlie, but she nodded, anticipation warring with anxiety. When he turned his attention back to Charlie and Jeremy, she took the opportunity to examine him surreptitiously. The suit was charcoal gray pinstripes today, as beautifully tailored as yesterday’s. He wore an ice blue tie that matched his eyes. She imagined sliding the knot free and pulling it from around his neck and clenched her hands into fists. He glanced at her just then and caught her staring. A tiny smile teased the corner of his mouth.

The rest of the afternoon was nothing short of torture. They finished touring the facilities together. She could barely string together a coherent sentence when he was smiling at her, standing slightly too close, casually brushing against her arm. And yet she needed to be asking pertinent questions about the facility and carrying out the job she’d come to do. Thankfully there were very few issues to address. She wasn’t sure she’d have done so well under more trying circumstances.

When they reached the main offices of the resort again, Jeremy turned to face them. “I hope you’ve both been pleased with everything you’ve seen today, for different reasons.”

“You’ve done a great job with the expansion,” Cassie said. “I’m sure our clients will think so, too.”

“Well, you both flew in this morning. I’m sure it’s been a long day,” Charlie said. “We’ve got a top notch steak house on site. Why don’t we head down there for drinks and some dinner?”

“Actually,” Simon interjected smoothly. “Would you mind if I had a word in private with Ms. Sinclair?”

Charlie and Jeremy glanced at each other in alarm.

“Not to worry,” Simon said, giving them his best charming smile. “It’s not about work. We’re starting a class action suit against the volcano. Ms. Sinclair? A moment?”

Before Charlie and Jeremy could comment, Simon took her elbow and steered her into an unused conference room beside them. The door clicked shut behind them. Simon walked a few feet further into the room and stopped, his back to her. Cassie leaned on the closed door, pressing her palms against the cool wood to brace herself.

“Imagine my surprise,” he said. “Waking up to an empty bed when it had been filled so delightfully when I fell asleep.”

“I didn’t know if you’d want me there in the morning and it wasn’t far from my place so I just—”

He turned back and in a flash, he was in front of her, palms braced on the door on either side of her head, caging her in. “You ran away.”

“I ran away,” she said quietly.

He cocked his head and narrowed his eyes. “Why? I’m not a mind reader but I’m fairly sure you enjoyed yourself as much as I did yesterday.”

She swallowed and looked down. “I did.”

“So why the midnight dash?”

“I’m not very good with one night stands.”

“Good. Neither am I.”

“You’re not?”

He sputtered in disbelief and straightened. “Do you think days like yesterday happen to me all the time?” She shrugged. His eyes widened in comprehension. “You did, didn’t you?”

“You’re a gorgeous, successful man, on the road all the time. I’ve made it a point to avoid guys like you for a good reason. Usually they
only
want one night and they’re trying to keep it a secret from the wife back home.”

“I don’t have a wife back home. You know that. I shared that with you along with my entire romantic history, if you remember.”

“I remember.”

“So you remember sharing yours with me as well?”

She nodded, keeping her eyes on the knot of his tie, because looking at his face was too hard.

“I’m not him, Cass.”

Now her eyes flew up to meet his. He didn’t look mad, only intent.

“Who?”

“You know who. The wanker who made you this skittish.”

“I know you’re not him. It’s just, since him, I’ve learned to be cautious. I don’t fling myself into things. I think things through.”

Simon leaned in again, placing one hand on her hip, his thumb rubbing back and forth. Something inside her relaxed slightly at his touch. “You made an exception for me, though.”

“You were different.”

He reached out and grasped her other hip, tugging her a little closer, crouching slightly to look her in the eye. “So were you.”

“I wasn’t sure and I was—”

“You were scared,” he said gently.

“Terrified.” She swallowed again, determined to be straight with him. “I don’t know about you, but for me, yesterday was intense. I don’t meet people like that. I don’t connect that fast. I don’t...
care
so quickly. Experience has shown me very clearly that it’s asking for trouble. But…but I wanted you and so I decided it was okay, as long as I kept it casual and didn’t get any crazy ideas about the future. But dammit… I had ideas. And that really, really scares me.”

He was silent, just watching her and nodding encouragingly. But she’d just laid enough on the line. Too much, really. If they were having this out, now it was his turn.

“Say something. You’re just nodding.”

“I’m agreeing. With everything you just said.”

She paused, looking up at him. He was smiling slightly, but it was a relaxed smile. He looked happy. “Everything?”

“Everything. I don’t connect so quickly with people, either. Not the way you and I connected. And yes, I started thinking about the future, too, in ways that would probably terrify you if I told you now, so I won’t. I know I told you what I was like when I was younger, but casual sex isn’t a regular part of my life anymore. But you didn’t seem casual. I wouldn’t have invited you home otherwise. Well, I was madly attracted to you, so maybe I would have. But I wouldn’t have been so upset to wake up and find you’d disappeared.”

“You were upset?”

He slid his hand around her waist and pulled her closer, bending his head down to whisper in her ear. “Extremely upset. I’d have tracked you down, you know.”

“How? You didn’t even know my last name. I didn’t know yours.”

“I saw your name on your carry-on bag when I got it down out of the overhead for you,
Cassandra Sinclair,
Associate Director of Corporate Event Planning with Omni Corporate Travel. You think I wouldn’t have taken advantage of that opportunity to learn your whole name? It might have taken a bit of work, but you’d have heard from me eventually.”

He’d made a point of figuring out her last name and job title? It hadn’t even occurred to her to do the same. Maybe that was because she’d already made up her mind about how they were going to end before they even started. She’d really made some terrible assumptions about him based on nothing but her own fear. And now he’d been so open and forthcoming. It was time to start making amends. Time to try trusting him.

She moved her hands to cover his, and then slowly traced the line of his arms up to his shoulders. “It wouldn’t have taken that much work,” she said, running her fingertips up the sides of his neck so she could touch his hair. His eyes fluttered closed for a second and he sighed. “I was going to go back to the restaurant as soon as I got home to leave you a note. I’m sorry. I was wrong to just leave like that.”

He looked surprised, amused, a little touched at her admission. “You were going back?”

“I regretted it as soon as the cab pulled away. I had a minor meltdown, actually. That was the only way I could think of to reach you.”

“See? Even if we didn’t end up here together, we’d have found each other before the week was out. But since we
did
run into each other here, I’m beginning to think this is fate.”

“Fate? That’s an awfully romantic concept.”

His face dipped a little bit closer to hers. She could feel his breath, warm on her cheek. “I told you I was a romantic at heart.”

“I think I might be turning into one, too.”

“So let’s agree— Fate threw us together, not once, but twice. And here we are.” He kissed the side of her neck and she blew out a breath. The tension that had been stretching her to the breaking point since she left his apartment fled the instant his lips touched her skin.

“Yes, here we are.”

His lips began tracing up her neck, leaving heat behind. She leaned her head to the side to let him.