TheBillionairesPilot (11 page)

Keeping his gaze locked with hers, he
stroked a finger across her panties, as if to remind her where her needs lay.

A shiver raced down her spine and she
took the leap. “I need to be touched,” she said quietly.

His eyes darkened further. “Where?”

“My pussy,” she whispered.

“Good girl.” The praise echoed the
approval in his gaze. “Close your eyes, sweet Cassie,” he instructed, “and
relax.”

She lay back in her seat and concentrated
on loosening her muscles, letting the heat of her arousal wash through her. Her
nipples pebbled, and her breath grew short as his fingers teased and stroked,
heightening her desire.

As she forced herself to keep quiet and
motionless, her senses intensified. Knowing proper, stuffy Mr. Jacobs sat
behind them added to the kick of the moment by lending it an illicit feel,
giving her a heady rush.

Evan’s touch remained soft and slow and
on the outside of her panties, yet it drove her closer and closer to the edge,
but not quite over. She wanted to squirm and lift her hips, but she kept still
as he’d instructed.

His gentle strokes were maddening. She
craved more, more direct contact, but she hesitated to ask him for it. Would
asking for more of what she wanted disrupt the scene he’d initiated?

Before she could make a decision, he
slipped a finger under the elastic leg of her panties. The naked touch was
exactly right after she’d waited so long for it. He slid his finger down
through her wet heat and back up without touching her clit, making her crave
her release even more. Several more times he stroked down and up through her
hot, swollen folds until she didn’t think she could take anymore.

“Ask me, Cassie,” his words were
forceful, but not loudly spoken.

She barely hesitated before begging,
“Please may I come?”

With the barest of brushes, he touched
her clit, and her climax rushed through her while she fought to stifle her
desperate urge to cry out. She pressed her lips together as he stroked softly,
and her body seized with her orgasm. Clutching the blanket in her fists, she
shuddered with the force of coming undone, and throughout her body, her muscles
tightened as her mind floated free.

Her breath came back to her in a rush as
she came down from her high, and Evan left his large, warm hand on her inner
thigh. Slowly, her breathing returned to normal, and her muscles relaxed.

Before she could open her eyes and
express her sincerest appreciation, he spoke in his low, deep voice. “Now, take
a nap, Cassie,” he directed, giving a slight squeeze to her leg. “And let me
get back to my reports.” He pulled the hem of her dress down as he moved his
hand out from under the blanket.

A small smile played across her lips as
she kept her eyes closed and snuggled under the cozy blanket, now thoroughly
free of tension and capable of falling asleep. For a moment, she was tempted to
cover
his
lap with the blanket, so she could return the favor, but
fatigue overtook her.

A final thought flitted through her mind
before she surrendered to the drugging effects of a good orgasm.

Landing was going to hurt like hell, but
since this bird had already taken off, she might as well enjoy the flight.

* * * *

“
You’re home,
sleepyhead,” Evan whispered against the top of Cassie’s head, as the limo
pulled up to the curb in front of her apartment.

Reluctantly, she eased out of Evan’s hold
in the backseat. She’d been lightly dozing in his arms since leaving the
airport, and she regretted having to leave his warm embrace.

Evan opened the door and got out of the
car with her, walking her to the front door of her building. Evan’s driver,
Tony, followed them and set her new suitcase at her feet before returning to
the limo.

“Do you want to come up?” she asked Evan,
willing to sacrifice any sleep she might get for the rest of this short night
in order to be with him.

“Yes.” His response was immediate.

Her sleepiness dropped away at once as
she grinned up at him. Images of him naked in her bed flashed through her
brain.

“But I’m sorry I can’t,” he continued.

“Can’t?”

“It’s been an unbelievably long day.” His
voice was heavy with his apology. “I’m a zombie, barely still on my feet, and I
have to be in the office tomorrow morning for a six o’clock conference call
with the German office.”

“Damn. That’s early. You should have my
boss talk to your boss. I don’t have to be in until eight to fly my guy to a
meeting upstate.”

“I’ve met your boss.” He tucked a stray
hair behind her ear. “He’s pretty damn awesome.”

“Yeah, he kind of is,” she agreed without
much enthusiasm, enjoying the chance to tease him back.

His eyes widened. “Kind of?”

She leaned up and kissed him briefly on
the lips. “Yeah, kind of. Now, get home to bed before you turn into a frog.”

“I think you’ve got your fairy tales
mixed up.”

She made a show of checking her watch.
“Do you really want to talk about fairy tales when you need to be at work in
five hours?”

He groaned. “Oh God, is that all I’ve got
left of tonight?”

“Yes, boss man. This is goodnight for
you.” She kissed him again on the lips, grabbed her luggage, and scooted inside
the vestibule before he could grab her and further delay his leaving. She gave
him a quick wave through the glass panel and headed for the stairs, refusing to
stand there and watch him leave like a schoolgirl with a crush.

Lugging her suitcase with all her new
clothes up to the third floor, she smiled as she remembered the way she’d
responded so quickly to his touch on the plane. The man seriously turned her on
with his dominance. She’d have some great fantasies to keep her warm in bed
tonight, and she would refuse to worry about the eventual outcome, at least for
tonight.

She reached the top floor of the building
and dragged the rolling suitcase to her door. The hallway bulb was burnt out,
so she didn’t notice the paper stuck to her door until her key didn’t work in
the lock. She tore down the sheet and squinted in the dim light reflecting up
from the second floor.

Damn it to hell! Her landlord had used
her weekend away as an opportunity to evict her.

She cursed several choice words under her
breath as she stomped her foot on the hardwood floor.

“Knock it off up there. People are trying
to sleep down here,” a voice yelled from the second floor.

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Clive,” she called back.

“Is that you, Cassie?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Come down here, girl. I’ve got a message
for you.”

Cassie left her suitcase at the top of
the stairs and joined her neighbor on the second floor. “I’m really sorry to
wake you, Mrs. Clive,” she said to the white-haired woman, who stood in her
doorway in a housecoat covered in a thick layer of cat fur.

The older woman waved her hand. “No
worries, my dear. I was up watching late night reruns. I haven’t been able to
get to sleep at a decent hour since the first Bush’s administration.”

“Did you say you had a message for me?”
Cassie got to the point before Mrs. Clive could get started on her political
discourse. She was entertaining when Cassie had a few hours to spare, but right
now, Cassie had more pressing concerns, like where she was going to sleep
tonight.

“Yes, yes. It was from our most
sympathetic landlord.” Sarcasm thickened her words. “He told me to tell you, if
I saw you, that he had your stuff boxed up and stored in the basement. He
didn’t want to advertise in that note on your door that your stuff was down
there unsecured.”

“Well, that was thoughtful of him, wasn’t
it?” Cassie matched Mrs. Clive’s sarcasm.

“You got a place to stay tonight, dear?”

“Oh, yes. I’ll be fine.” No matter how
limited her options, there was no way Cassie was staying with Mrs. Clive and
her fifty cats. The stench of cat pee seeped out into the hallway from the open
doorway. Cassie couldn’t imagine being surrounded by it overnight. “Thanks for
delivering the message. You have a good night.”

“Goodnight, dear.” Mrs. Clive closed the
door, and Cassie listened to the three deadbolts clicking into place.

She went back upstairs to where she’d
left her suitcase. Sitting on the top step, she assessed her current situation.
She had no space on any of her credit cards, and Evan hadn’t handed over her
payment yet for the weekend. He said he’d have a check waiting for her at work
in the morning. So, there was no way to pay for a hotel room, and she was smart
enough not to attempt to sleep in her car.

She glanced around the darkened hallway.
She’d certainly slept in dirtier, more uncomfortable, and less safe places in
Afghanistan than this deserted, top floor hallway in a relatively safe area of
New York City. Plus, the only ones with access to the building were the tenants
with keys to the outer door. Besides, hers was the only apartment up here. No
one would have any reason to come up here tonight.

She was just lucky her key had still
worked in the outer door, probably because her landlord didn’t want to make the
effort of changing all the tenants’ keys to fit a new lock. The guy was
predictably lazy.

In the morning, she could put on last Thursday’s
suit that was tucked in her suitcase under all her new clothes. She’d get to
work early and wash up in the ladies’ room. At lunchtime, she’d call her
landlord and make arrangements to hand over the cash she’d earned this weekend.
That should be plenty to get her back into her apartment.

With that all settled in her mind, she
dug into her suitcase and changed in the dim hallway from her sundress into
some lounge pants and the Texas T-shirt she’d picked up at the airport when she
didn’t know where she’d be spending the night. She wrapped her cardigan tightly
around herself and attempted to find a comfortable position on the dirty
hardwood floor.

Fortunately, hot air rose, and she wasn’t
too terribly cold on this spring night at the top of her apartment building,
but she had to force herself to keep her mind off of the memory of her soft,
plush mattress that was probably now home to a family of rats in the basement.

Unfortunately, stress and exhaustion
seemed to trigger her nightmares. During the limited time she had to sleep, she
jolted awake twice from bad dreams, stifling the scream that lodged in her
throat as her helicopter spun out of control in a ball of flames.

When morning came, she was grateful to
get up and move forward with her day, even though her body ached from the hard
floor, and her mind was sluggish from lack of sleep. At least one of those
could be cured by stopping for a cup of coffee on the way in to the office.

She changed into her ugly suit and
repacked her suitcase. She couldn’t leave it here in the hallway all day, so
unfortunately, she was going to have to drag it into work with her, stash it
under her office desk, and hope no one noticed. Yeah, and she might as well
hope to win the lotto while she was at it.

God, her first week at her new job was
not
working out so well. And the highlights? She was nearly having an affair with
her boss, and she was wearing his engagement ring.

Chapter Eleven

At the knock on
his office door, Evan looked up from the reports he was reviewing on his desk.
“Come in,” he called out, glad for the interruption. Quarter two projections
were looking depressingly bleak. He hoped whoever was coming in was bringing
good news.

“Whoa,” he said when he caught sight of
Cassie in his doorway. His ultra-feminine fake fiancée from the weekend had
been replaced by the androgynous helicopter pilot again.

“I’m sorry to interrupt you. Do you have
a minute?” she asked formally.

Standing, he beckoned her into his
office. “Of course, anything for my fiancée.” He grimaced at her hideous suit
and tightly pulled back hair as she shut the door behind her and approached
him. “What happened to all your nice clothes from the weekend?”

“Nothing,” she answered briskly, “but
they’re hardly appropriate for flying helicopters.”

“I suppose, but isn’t this look a little
too far in the opposite direction? You are my alleged fiancée after all.”

“I’m not here to talk about my clothes,
Evan,” she snapped.

He was taken aback by her abrupt
attitude. “What’s going on, Cassie?”

“Do you have my payment for the weekend?”

That wasn’t the first thing he’d expected
her to say after how close they’d gotten, especially in the past twenty-four
hours. “Of course, I have the money I promised you.”

She held out her hand. “I’d appreciate
being paid this morning.”

He stared at her. It was like she’d
switched back to the old Cassie, and the one he’d gotten to know over the
weekend had been a figment of his imagination. What happened to the woman who’d
melted under his touch last night on the plane, then slept so sweetly in his
arms in the back of the limo?

She was changing directions on him again,
but he was getting to the root of the cause this time. “Are you backing out of
our engagement?”

“No, I plan to honor our deal.”

“Then, what’s with this look,” he waved a
hand at her ensemble, “and this attitude?”

She drew in a deep breath and let it out
with a sigh. “I’m sorry. I’m having a little money problem.” She quickly added,
“Nothing that this weekend’s earnings won’t resolve.”

“If you needed money, why didn’t you
ask?”

“I just did.”

“Fine.” He blew out his own sigh.
Obviously, she had an issue with asking for help and wasn’t willing to reveal
anything about her private life. Two things he would plow through if he were
her Dom, but they weren’t anywhere near that stage in their relationship.

Yet
, rang through his head.

Reaching into his desk drawer for his
checkbook, he asked her, “Will four thousand be enough for your problem, or do
you need more?”

“Four thousand is what we agreed upon for
my assistance this weekend. I will not take more from you until I’ve followed
through on my part of the deal.”

“You mean, until you’ve been seen around
town with me on a weekly basis.”

She nodded, and his frustration with her
grew. Why the hell wouldn’t she just tell him what kind of trouble she was in?

He signed the check and handed it over
the desk to her.

She glanced at it then raised startled
eyes to him. Reaching towards him with the check, she tried to hand it back. “I
can’t take this.”

“Why not? It’s exactly what you just
asked for.”

“It’s a personal check. This is
your
money.” She waved the slip of paper at him.

He shook his head. “No, it’s
your
money now. You earned it.”

“But it’s a
personal
check. You
didn’t pay me from a business account.”

“It doesn’t matter, Cassie. I can write
it off as a business expense,” he explained.

Shaking her head, she folded the check in
half and put it in her suit coat pocket. “It does matter,” she said softly to
herself. “But I guess beggars can’t be choosy.” She turned and headed for the
door.

His patience snapped, and he whipped
around the side of his desk, catching her upper arm before she grabbed the
doorknob. He spun her so she faced him. “What the hell is going on, Cassie?”

“Nothing.” Her eyes narrowed, reminding
him of her self-defense abilities.

He loosened his hold on her arm and
prepared to block a possible attack. “You’re not leaving until you tell me
what’s really wrong.”

“I said it’s nothing.” Her words came out
tightly pinched.

He squinted at her neck. With his thumb, he
rubbed at a dark spot. “Have you been rolling around in the dirt this morning?”

“Evan, please.” There was a pleading note
in her tone that he’d never heard before. “Let me go. This isn’t your problem.”

He studied her face closer. Dark shadows
under her eyes spoke of a bad night’s sleep, or perhaps too few hours of sleep,
which he could relate to. But something was definitely off with her this
morning.

“You’re my fiancée. Your problems are
mine.”

“Your fake fiancée.” She wiggled her arm
as if to get out of his grasp.

“Either way, I still need to know what’s
going on in your life.”

“I can handle it.” Her words came out
clipped.

“Let me help,” he insisted and wondered
how he was going to breach this impasse.

She glared at him for a minute more.

“Cassie, why won’t you let me help?” He
tried a slightly different approach.

Finally, she seemed to relent when he
didn’t back down. “Everything’s going to be fine. If you really need to know
the details, I was evicted for overdue rent. But now, I have cash and can pay
my landlord and get back into my apartment.”

Anger flared in his chest. “Where did you
sleep last night?”

She hesitated, and his hand involuntarily
tightened on her biceps.

“In the hallway,” she said quietly and
continued to meet his gaze, almost daring him to lose his cool because they
both knew she was capable of taking him down.

He dropped his hand and took a step back.
He forced his voice to sound calm. “Why didn’t you call me?”

“It was late, and you had to get up
early. I was fine where I was. You didn’t need to rescue me.”

But damn, he
did
want to rescue
her. He wanted to be the one she turned to with her problems. He wanted her to
trust him. He wanted to make it his responsibility to take care of her. “You
can’t be sleeping in apartment hallways, Cassie.”

“Why? Are you afraid Xavier will find
out?” She smarted off to him, tempting him to take her over his lap for a sharp
spanking.

“Damn it, Cassie. This has nothing to do
with Xavier. I’m your fiancé, and you should never have to sleep anywhere other
than in a bed.” Preferably
his
bed, he wanted to add, but he didn’t.
Even when she was dressed so unbecomingly and frustrating the hell out of him,
he still wanted her.

“I slept in plenty of worse places on
tour,” she replied calmly.

God, he wanted to shake her until she
agreed with him. Instead, he did something better. Before she could react, he
pulled her into his arms and kissed her.

She initially tensed, but after a moment,
she relaxed and brought her arms around his waist, her hands over his butt. She
kissed him as if she were as hungry for him as he was for her. No matter how at
odds they were with each other, it seemed their mutual attraction was stronger.

He slipped his hand under her jacket to
her waist, but he needed to feel her skin. He untucked her shirt from the
waistband of her pants, and slipped his hand underneath to the smooth skin of
her back. As he stroked, she arched into him, pressing her belly against his
growing erection.

Her hands kneaded and squeezed his butt,
pulling him tighter to her.

“You infuriate me,” he whispered against
her lips.

“I know,” she answered, but didn’t offer
any apology.

He smiled against her mouth. Then he bent
and trailed a line of kisses over her jaw, down her neck to the opening of her
shirt. He plucked one button open then another until he revealed her pale blue
lacy bra. “I guess you found something from the weekend that was appropriate to
wear on the job.”

“Mmm,” she answered when he pushed down
the lacy cup and sucked her breast into his mouth.

A knock on the door barely registered as
he savored the silky texture of her skin and the warmth of her scent.

“Sir, we are scheduled for…” Dan’s words
trailed off. “Excuse me, I apologize.”

Evan shot a look at the door that was
quickly closing as his assistant backed out of his office. In front of him,
Cassie was hastily rearranging her bra and tucking in her shirt.

“Cassie, we’re engaged. It’s okay,” he
reassured her, hoping to get back to where they’d been before the interruption.

“Maybe for you. You’re the boss, but I’m,”
she checked her watch, “damn, I’m fifteen minutes late for work, which means
you’re late taking off for your next meeting.”

“Cassie, we still need to talk about
this.”

“Fine. But not now.” She slipped out of
his office without another word.

He ran a hand through his hair and blew
out a breath. Was he destined to be forever frustrated by the incomparable
Cassie?

Before he could come up with a plan of
action to take with her, another knock sounded on his door. “Come in,” he
ordered.

“Sir, I apologize for my previous hasty
entrance.” Dan bowed his head slightly.

“Never mind.” Evan shrugged it off. “I
suppose you’re here to tell me we’re late for takeoff.”

“Yes, sir.” Dan turned on his heels and
headed for the door.

“Wait. I have something I need to discuss
with you first.”

His assistant faced him again. “Yes,
sir.”

“Don’t all prospective employees undergo
a background check? One that includes their financial situation?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Then, why the hell wasn’t I informed
that Cassie was on the verge of being evicted from her apartment?” Evan spoke
in a controlled tone, holding back from shouting his frustration out on his
assistant.

“It wasn’t relevant at the time of her
hiring. Her pilot credentials were outstanding, and her Army background
indicated she would be a loyal and trustworthy employee. There was nothing to
indicate she would be tempted to sell our secrets to the competition.”

“It didn’t seem relevant that she was in
danger of becoming homeless?” Evan asked incredulously.

Dan tilted his head and seemed to study
Evan’s expression. Whatever conclusion he came up with he kept to himself. “I
assumed once she began receiving her paycheck, she’d no longer be in danger.”

“I want to see the reports on her. All of
them.”

“Yes, sir. I will have them for you when
we return from our meeting upstate.”

“No. Now, Dan. Reschedule the meeting at
the manufacturing plant. I want to see Cassie’s background check now.” He
wasn’t willing to wait to get his hands on Cassie’s reports and find out what
else she’d been keeping from him. What he would do with that information, he
wasn’t sure yet.

He turned his back on his assistant and
returned to his chair behind the desk, not knowing whom he was angrier with,
Dan or Cassie. He felt like he’d been lied to by both of them. Lies of omission
were just as serious as intentional falsehoods.

Unfortunately, he was guilty of both.
This Estrella deal was eating at his conscience, but he couldn’t change course
now. It was too vital to the future of Mitchell Industries.

* * * *

Cassie
climbed back into the pilot’s seat after completing the external preflight
checklist on the helicopter.

“Shut her down,” her copilot’s words came
through her headset.

She turned to him. “What? Where’s the
problem?” Her eyes scanned the instrument panel for any obvious signs.

“Nothing wrong with the bird,” Ron
explained. “I just took a call from Mr. Jacobs. The trip’s been rescheduled.
We’ve been directed to secure the helicopter and return to our office.”

Cassie pinched the bridge of her nose
where a tension headache had settled in after her encounter with Evan in his
office this morning. “All right. Shut her down.”

With no wasted movements or extra
dialogue, they completed the procedure for securing the bird. As she walked
across the rooftop to the access door, a sense of doom settled over her
shoulders.

She glanced up at the nearly cloudless
sky and the bright spring sun, no sign of a storm front moving in from the
western horizon. She couldn’t blame the weather for her growing unease.
Clearly, she was dreading her next meeting with Evan and the conversation he
wanted them to have. Not only did having the very proper Mr. Jacobs walking in
on them embarrass her, but she also hated admitting to Evan she was so
financially destitute she’d been forced to sleep in a hallway last night.