by Lucy Monroe
“Speaking of work hours, my teleconference call for this evening got rescheduled. Would you like a dinner guest?”
“Hasn’t your housekeeper already prepared your dinner?”
“Whatever Dora made will keep.”
“Wouldn’t you rather eat out?” she asked and then wanted to smack herself for the defeatist behavior. He was already aware of her shortcomings; she didn’t need to outline them in stark relief.
“I would rather share this time with you.”
Oh, darn. Could he get any more perfect? That feeling of love she was so sure couldn’t be real so soon only got stronger. “Then by all means, come over.”
“I’ll be there in thirty minutes.”
“I’ll see you then.”
He was as good as his word, ringing the bell exactly twenty-nine minutes later.
“It smells good,” he said appreciatively as he followed her into the kitchen.
“It’s just pasta and chicken.” She picked up the serving dish and headed to the dining room, but didn’t stop at the table. “It’s such a nice night; I thought we could eat on the back patio. There are no shatterproof clear barriers, but I think we’ll survive one night.”
He chuckled. “Don’t let my bodyguards hear you say that.”
“Heaven forefend.”
“Just so.”
“So, tell me about the project in Dubai,” she said as they took turns serving each other.
She put pasta on his plate while he served her vegetables. It was all very smooth and domestic, as if they’d been sharing meals like this for years.
He told her about Dubai, enthralling her with his vision for the complex he and his investors were building. “It sounds amazing.”
“That’s the hope.”
“You’re a real visionary, aren’t you?”
“You have to see what can be, not what is, if you want to reach the top.” He made it sound like no big thing, but in fact, it was.
“You don’t limit yourself by what others are doing.” And she really, really liked that about him.
“Zephyr and I made a name for ourselves thinking outside the box, pulling together projects no one else would have considered.”
“That’s how I see music, as too dynamic to fit inside some preconceived set of parameters.” Sometimes, that garnered her praise and others, harsh criticism.
“No doubt that is why I enjoy your music so much.”
Now that was so worth any number of comments from petty critics. “Thank you.”
“I don’t imagine your father encouraged you to stray from playing the classics.”
“No.” He hadn’t encouraged the composing, either. He believed it diluted her focus. If only he had understood; after a while, making the music was all that kept her going.
“So, how did you get into New Age composition?”
“I heard a George Winston CD when I was a young teen, I was hooked. His music had a lot in common with the classical composers, but he took it a new direction and I knew that was something I wanted to do.” And no matter how many fights it had caused between her and her dad, she had refused to give that creativity up.
“And the rest of us benefitted.”
She smiled, warmth suffusing her. “I only wish I had a voice like Enya to add to my piano.”
“Your piano doesn’t need it.”
“You’d better watch yourself. I’m likely to get addicted to compliments like those.”
“That is a problem?”
“Only for me,” she admitted.
“It is no problem so long as I am around to supply them.”
“Right.” But how long could she reasonably expect that to be?
CHAPTER ELEVEN
AFTER dinner and another lavish compliment about her talents, this one directed at her cooking accompanied by a promise to return the favor, they migrated to the music room. Neo was the only billionaire tycoon she could imagine making a promise of dinner and meaning he intended to cook, not having it catered.
He ran his hand along the Fazioli’s glossy top. “Play for me?” The request really pleased her, showing that he wasn’t afraid of invading her personal space like he had invited her into his.
She slid onto the bench, letting her fingers play gently across the keys as she always did when she sat down at a piano. “With pleasure.”
He turned to face her, his expression as serious as she’d ever seen it. “Is it?”
He couldn’t know how much that question meant to her. “It is. I want to play for you.”
“Do I have to sit in that chair over there?”
“Not if you don’t want to,” she said uncertainly. Did he want to stand?
Her unspoken question was answered when he joined her on the piano bench, filling her space in a way nothing had in her life except the music.
“Don’t hold any mistakes against me. I find your nearness distracting,” she admitted with a smile.
“Then we are even.”
“I distract you?”
“Near, or far. Yes, you do.” He sounded bemused by that fact.
She didn’t reply to what was a pretty shocking revelation to her as well. Instead, she started to play. It was a 1940s big band piece that sounded romantic on the piano. At least she thought so.
He listened in silence with a faint smile on his face for a minute before saying, “I like this, but I don’t recognize it.”
“It was popular in the forties.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yes.”
“Maybe I should expand my musical horizons.”
“I’m always for opening yourself to new styles of music, or new to you anyway.”
“You do know that I wouldn’t be aware of any mistakes you might make?”
She grinned up at him as her fingers moved over the keyboard in a well-memorized pattern. “Maybe that’s why I played it.”
“Maybe it’s time I upped the stakes.”
Before she could ask what he meant, his strong arm snaked around her waist and his thumb began to play a matching beat to the piano music against her stomach.
Her fingers fumbled on the keyboard like they hadn’t done since she was a small child. “That’s upping the stakes all right.”
“Do you want me to stop?”
“Not at all.” She could play her music in her sleep. His nearness wasn’t going to get the best of her.
She concentrated on the song and tried to ignore the movements of his hand, but when a gentle kiss landed on her temple, she froze. “I thought you wanted me to play for you.”
“So did I, but I have discovered there are other things I want even more.”
“What things?”
“This.” He tipped her head up and kissed her, his lips molding hers with definite intent.
“Oh,” she breathed against his mouth.
That was all she got out before he deepened the kiss. They were upstairs and she was only marginally aware of how they’d gotten there. She had a vague sense that she’d been carried, but she was too busy touching him and reveling in his touches to think much about it.
“I wasn’t going to do this,” he said when he had her naked beneath him.
“Why not?”
“You need time to recover from last night.”
“I feel fine.” She had a few twinges of soreness, but not anything near enough to stop her from pursuing pleasure like she’d experienced the night before.
But the pleasure wasn’t like it had been the night before, it was bigger. She screamed his name when she climaxed and again moments later when he drew a second orgasm from her oversensitized body as he found his own completion.
Then he held her, helping her to come down from feelings so intense her body shook uncontrollably in the aftermath.
“If you ever get tired of being a big-shot tycoon, you’ve got another career as a gigolo waiting for you.”
He laughed, the sound large in her usually silent bedroom. “I’ll stick
with unpaid pleasure, thank you.”
“I’m glad. I don’t think I could afford you.”
“You are a nut.”
“So I’ve been told,” she said more soberly than she meant to.
“That is not what I meant. I do not think you are crazy.”
Not yet anyway, but it always came. Sooner or later. That lack of comprehension when she could not make herself do something “normal” people took for granted. Regardless of what the future might hold, she was grateful for his attitude in the present.
“Thank you.”
“My pleasure.”
She grinned and shook her head. “Oh, I think that particular commodity is entirely mutual.”
“Yes.”
“Seriously. If I had known sex was this wonderful, I would have taken up with one of the groupies that showed interest,” she joked, only half-kidding.
“It would not have been like this.”
“Because none of them were the great Neo Stamos?”
“Because no one has ever given me anything approaching the pleasure I find with you. What we have here, Cassandra, it is very special.”
She could think of nothing to say in response to those words that would not reveal the depth of her feeling, so she remained mute, but placed a tender kiss filled with the love she could not give voice onto his shoulder.
He smiled and returned the kiss, on her mouth. “I should not spend the night.”
“Why?”
He sighed. “I have to be at the office at six a.m. for a phone call.”
“Why so early?”
“Time differences.”
“I understand. You could leave early,” she suggested tentatively, unsure if she was reading his desire to stay right, or not.
“If you don’t mind me possibly waking you when I get up to go?”
“I don’t mind.” And if her agreement was offered with the speed of light, who could criticize?
“Then I can sleep here. Thank you.”
She was just very happy he wanted to stay. She’d only spent one night in his arms, but knew it was fast becoming one of her favorite things. Maybe even a necessity. It was the first time anyone had ever stayed overnight, and rather than make her feel anxious it made her feel excited.
Neo didn’t wake her getting out of bed. In fact, she barely woke when he kissed her goodbye and warned her he would be resetting the alarm.
He followed the pattern of the day before, calling her at random intervals to ask this or tell her that. At one point, she teased him, “Why don’t you just admit you called to hear my voice?”
“And if I did?”
“I’d be even more melted than I already am.”
“Then I had better not admit it.”
Did that mean he really did just call to hear her talk? She knew she loved listening to his voice. Adored it, really.
The trip to Napa Valley was incredible. The rental house Miss Parks found for them was nicer than Cass’s own house, with a truly decadent master suite complete with two-person Jacuzzi. The sunken living room was a romantic paradise and Neo took full advantage of the option for candlelight and low-heat gas fireplace.
Cass discovered that flying on a personal jet did not trigger any of her agoraphobic fears. She also discovered that lovemaking was as much fun in the living room as the bedroom and up against a wall as on the bed. She seduced Neo in the pool, but decided after nearly drowning that the Jacuzzi might be the better option.
She slept the entire flight home. Neo worked.
Over the following days, Neo showed no signs of getting bored with her, or frustrated by her limitations. He continued to call her randomly throughout the day and came over or cajoled her into coming to his penthouse almost nightly. She loved swimming in the pool, so she didn’t mind at all. He requested that she use the suit she had the first time and kept it in his private changing room so no one else could. In the event Zephyr had guests. Neo wasn’t seeing anyone else.
So, a couple of weeks later, when he suggested she try hypnotherapy as they lay in bed together after making love, she didn’t automatically assume he was like everyone else. Trying to fix her because she was not good enough the way she was.
“Bob suggested that a couple of years ago, but I wasn’t willing to consider it because I knew he just wanted me to get well enough to perform publicly.”
“I do not care if you ever perform for an audience. If you wanted it, I would do all in my power to help you achieve it, but you don’t. However, I know you feel the pain of the limits your fears put on your life.”
“I would like to go out to a restaurant with you without breaking into a sweat over it, or hyperventilating if someone recognizes me.” She’d done well at the wine-tasting in Napa Valley and they’d eaten out there as well, at a quiet, intimate restaurant where no one but the waitstaff would have considered speaking to her.
She knew she’d been able to enjoy those things because she’d been with Neo. Not only did his presence give her the courage to try new things, but he adroitly ran interference between her and others. And he never took her anywhere overly crowded, or that made her get that sick feeling she might not be able to get out.
He was so careful of her and with her. She felt cherished.
“I, too, would enjoy this.” But he said it with his arms wrapped firmly around her and she didn’t take that to mean he was getting sick of eating in with her.
“Did you have someone in mind?”
“Of course.”
She laughed and traced a shape over his chest, only realizing it was a heart when she finished. He didn’t seem to notice. “Of course. You never offer a suggestion without a full plan behind it.”
“Her name is Lark Corazon and she has had marked success treating agoraphobia and other phobias.”
“You’ve met her?”
He shrugged.
Cass leaned up to look down at him. “You did. You met with her. What was she like?”
“A normal person.”
“No crystal balls or colorful silks hanging from the ceiling.”
“I think you’re confusing a hypnotherapist with a fortune teller.”
“Maybe. I’m willing to meet her.” But only because it was Neo making the suggestion. She trusted him like she had never trusted anyone.
He gave her that look of approval she’d become fully addicted to. “I knew you would be. We have an appointment with her tomorrow.”
“We?”
“You do not think I would make you go alone, do you?”
She snuggled into him. “You’re too good to me, Neo.”
“What are friends for?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never had one like you.”
“Ditto.”
“Hypnotism is…I don’t know.”
“Different?”
“Yes.”
“And a little scary,” he suggested.
“I’m afraid of enough in my life.” She didn’t want to be afraid of this, too.
“But the idea of being hypnotized is overwhelming.”
“Yes.”
“Do you want me to stay through the session?”
“Would you?”
“Yes.”
And he did, sitting in the corner, a solid presence that made her feel safe enough to answer all the hypnotherapist’s questions honestly and then relax as much as she was capable during the hypnotherapy.
A month later, Cass and Neo shared a table at the restaurant at the top of the Space Needle. She had always wanted to come, but had not been able to deal with the thought of the crowds, much less being trapped in a restaurant that could only be reached or exited via a very long elevator ride.
Happiness bubbled inside her like delicious French champagne. The real thing.
“Lark says there is so much trauma mixed in with my public performing, it could be months or years before it’s completely redirected.”
“That is all right. Performing is not something you ever have to do
again.”
Cass’s joy just increased with Neo’s words. It was official, she was hopelessly, irrevocably in love with the billionaire Greek tycoon. Her Chinese scholar pen pal agreed, as did several of her online friends. The only one who didn’t know and probably wouldn’t agree was Neo himself.
She didn’t let that thought hamper her current pleasure. “I know, but I love being able to do this.”
“It is a joy to see you so happy.”
She laughed. “You convinced me that you would never have grown tired of our friendship regardless of my limitations. You don’t know how special that is.”
“What was to grow tired of? We went piano shopping. And to Napa Valley.”
“Yes, we did.” And he was taking her to Dubai for the grand opening of his complex. His contractor had come through and Neo had told Cass he wanted to wait to go until she could go with him…comfortably.
Was it any wonder hope that he might feel something for her besides friendship sprang eternal in her heart. Some days, she was even convinced he would welcome her words of love, but she always chickened out at the last minute.
“And now you will accompany me to that charity event,” he said.
“Tell me again why you are going to a five-hundred-dollar-a-plate dinner to raise money for pet neutering? You don’t even have a dog.”
“And I don’t plan on getting one, but lots of business gets done at dinners like this.”
“Just like the golf course.”
“A tedious game, but one in which I am more than proficient.”
She shook her head. “Anything for business, hmm?”
“Perhaps that is why your friendship is so special to me. It is for me and me alone. Not the business. Not the next deal.”
His words warmed her even as they gave her heart a twinge.
She wanted so much more than friendship with benefits and sometimes she thought he did, too, but then he reiterated his stance on their relationship. And as wonderful as she found his friendship, it hurt to know one day he would fall for another woman and she would be relegated to the fringes of his life.
That night, she decided to expand her lovemaking repertoire and when her mouth first touched his hardness, his body jerked in shock.
