Sky High (Three Contemporary Novella's)

by Amanda Weaver

  “Cass,” Simon mumbled into her hair, more asleep than awake. Whatever he was about to say was lost as his breathing evened out and he fell asleep. She could barely keep her eyes open, either. Getting up and getting dressed was out of the question for the moment. So like she had all day, she didn’t think about what she should do. She didn’t think at all. She just closed her eyes and gave into the exquisite pleasure of falling asleep in Simon’s arms.

  #

  She awoke much later. So late that even New York’s eternal noise had lowered to a background hum. Simon slept heavily behind her, his arm still around her waist, his body warm against her back. Cassie glanced at the glowing clock on his bedside table. Her new flight to Mexico departed in four and a half hours. Her bag was here. For a moment, she imagined staying the night, sinking back into sleep, waking up next to Simon in the morning, showering and dressing alongside him, sharing a ride back to the airport. Her heart fluttered with fear. That was far too intimate for whatever they’d been for this one day.

  She could just slip out of bed, throw her clothes on and go. Odds were, he wasn’t going to call her again anyway, so what did it matter? She imagined him dressing in the morning, making an effort to avoid eye contact, keeping the conversation pleasant and impersonal. He’d get her number, of course. That was only polite. And he’d probably kiss her cheek when they separated at the airport, promising to call her soon. A call that would likely never come. It hurt to imagine.

  She’d already broken the rules with this guy. Falling for him in less than twenty-four hours was definitely a disaster. Obviously, it was best to get out of here before she had to watch him slowly, politely extricate himself from this situation tomorrow. That would kill her.

  Sliding out from underneath his arm, she rolled to her back and turned to look at him. His face was just inches from hers on the pillow. He looked younger, gentler in sleep. His golden eyebrows lost that little furrow between them. His mouth was soft, his lips parted very slightly. Good God, the man was beautiful. Her fingers curled in against the impulse to trace his jaw and his straight, refined nose.

  Definitely time to go. She slithered out of the bed and away from the warmth of his body.

  Padding silently across his floor, she gathered up her clothes and escaped to the bathroom to put herself back together. When she came back out, he’d rolled to his stomach. Watching him sleep like that, utterly sated and beautiful, she felt a twinge of remorse. Should she stay? No, surely he’d be relieved that she’d gone. But…yesterday felt like more than a casual hook up. Was it? Or was that just her overtaxed, undersexed imagination getting carried away and reading too much into things? This is why she didn’t do hook ups anymore. She was terrible at keeping her emotions out of it and that’s all these guys wanted.

  Shoes in hand, she made her way to the front door where her purse was still on the floor and her carry-on bag was tucked in the corner with his. Pausing with her hand on the doorknob, she tried to squelch the gnawing guilt that she was behaving badly. Once more, she ran through the sensible reasons for leaving and ignored her gut. Her gut had terrible instincts when it came to men. When Simon’s door clicked shut behind her, she slipped her heels back on and walked to the elevator without looking back.

  The cab hadn’t quite made it to her apartment when regret hit. What had she done, sneaking out like a thief in the night? She hadn’t left him her number or her address or even her last name. She didn’t know his last name. After the cab dropped her off and disappeared, she stood on the dark sidewalk in front of her apartment building, torn up with doubt.

  Maybe it wasn’t just one night. Maybe he really liked her. The way they’d talked, the things they shared…that couldn’t just be the build up to a one night stand, could it? He wouldn’t have opened up to her the way he had if he didn’t care at least a little bit? Of course he could. Mitchell had. Mitchell had shared his whole damned life with her, except for the parts when he slept with other women.

  But Simon wasn’t Mitchell. Unless he was, and she just didn’t know it yet.

  Still, she should have at least left her card, left the door open, so he could call her if he wanted. Now she’d never see him again.

  Feeling worse than she had in years, she dragged her bag up the stairs to her apartment, not even turning on the lights until she reached the bathroom. Her flight was boarding in less than two hours. There was no time to go back over there or do anything but get ready to leave again. Turning on the hot water, she let steam fill the bathroom as she stripped off her clothes. Every button she unfastened, every movement of silk over her skin, made her remember Simon doing it to her hours before, and the remorse grew.

  Miserable at her cowardice, she stood under the water, letting it pound her skin and wash Simon away. He didn’t deserve her cut and run. She’d talked herself into believing he was a player and that he’d be glad to wake up and find her gone. And maybe that would have turned out to be true. Or maybe she’d been wrong about him and everything that happened, everything she felt yesterday, was real. Now she’d never know one way or another.

  The truth was, she didn’t leave because of Simon. She left because it was easier to run than risk getting hurt again. Was she really going to do this for the rest of her life—letting stupid Mitchell and that pain control all her other relationships? What a waste. Sure, Simon might never have called. But she should have given him the chance to show her who he was for himself, instead of deciding that for him.

  She climbed out of the shower, thinking through things as she dried off. He didn’t have a doorman that she’d seen, so she couldn’t leave a note there for him. She could tape one to the front door, but this was New York and it probably wouldn’t last an hour. Then she thought of the restaurant, Ron and Rita, and their easy friendship with Simon. He said he ate there whenever he was in town.

  It was too late—or rather too early—to do it this morning. They’d be closed and beside, she still had a flight to catch. Thankfully this trip was a short one, just overnight. As soon as she got back, she’d leave a message for him there. She’d apologize and leave her number, and then she’d hope that was enough. Resolved but still miserable, she started repacking her bag for the trip.

  #

  Cassie stifled another yawn and pinched the skin between her thumb and finger to perk herself up. Charlie Curtis had been enthusiastically dragging her from room to room in Las Fuente’s state of the art new corporate meeting facilities all afternoon. It was taking everything she had to stay awake and alert, despite sleeping through most of her flight this morning. Even when she managed to keep her eyes open, she was still distracted, replaying every moment of the day before.

  “As you can see, Ms. Sinclair, we’re capable of hosting events with as many as a thousand participants. You’ll find there aren’t too many facilities with that kind of capacity.”

  “It’s a very impressive space, Mr. Curtis,” she replied.

  “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 sh
e’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 b
ack 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.”