Cassie’s gaze met his, one delicate eyebrow arched.
“My name. It’s Lucas Wilhelm. I’m head of McDermott Security, a position I’ve held for ten years.” Luc added the last part in the hope of reassuring her.
“Oh. Um, well…” She lowered her eyes, hiding the uncertainty swirling in their honey-coloured depths.
Placing two fingers under her chin, he tipped her head back until her gaze met his once more. “Don’t back down now, Cass. Where’s the woman who’s fought me for control for the last couple of hours gone?”
She shook her head, dislodging his fingers. “She just had common sense kissed right out of her.”
The small smile tugging at the corner of her mouth pulled at his gut and eased his mind. He hadn’t been sure at first, but now he didn’t doubt she’d bounce back from their mind-numbing lip-lock. Luc had expected they’d be explosive, he just hadn’t realised how unstable their chemistry was. He’d have to keep his hands off her until they were in more suitable surroundings or they’d find themselves sans clothes. There was one sure-fire way to keep her at a distance though. Strip her of control.
“As of now, this party is over.”
“What?” Her eyes narrowed to slits.
If looks could kill, the one she aimed his way would slice him to ribbons, and Luc figured she’d used it to de-ball many a man before him. Good thing he’d spent years developing a tough exterior. Although she’d found a way under his skin already, he wasn’t about to cower beneath her hostile stare. Luc embraced the hum in his veins. The zap delivered courtesy of her returning ballsy attitude. He’d never gone looking for a fight. Sure he’d been in plenty, but he’d never started one. Except now. With Cassie. And there was no denying the thrill thrumming in his blood. He was more than looking forward to their combat. He was eager for it to begin.
“As you can hear, there’s no longer music blasting through the house and that’s thanks to Lachlan McDermott ripping out power cables. If I were you, I wouldn’t be surprised when your DJ files a damage report and insurance claim.” Luc smiled as a growl rumbled in her throat. He’d never heard that particular sound from a woman, and he’d certainly never found it a turn on coming from any man, but there was no mistaking the tightening of his sac or the hardening of his cock.
“Damn men.” Cassie shoved passed him and flung open the door, using it to push him out of the way.
Before he got his head in gear and made it out from behind the door, she’d disappeared into the kitchen. With long strides, Luc followed only to witness her sexy arse vanish through the far doorway. Covering the distance in seconds, he found his men doing as he’d ordered. Between them and Cassie’s staff, the guests were quickly being ushered from the house in a tidal wave of drunkenness. His search for Cassie was hindered by the surge of bodies moving towards the front door, with his chances to spot her zero he let himself be swept up in the tide. When he reached the front yard, hire cars and drivers lined the street. Inebriated partiers tumbled into backseats, car doors slammed and departing vehicles were quickly swallowed up by the night.
With the party down to the last few stragglers, he turned back to the house determined to find Cassie while his men dealt with the remaining guests. He found her back in the kitchen. Leaning his shoulder against the doorframe, he folded his arms, crossed one ankle over the other and watched as she gave orders while packing box after box with glasses. The image of efficiency, her movements were economical and fluid, her speed and accuracy proving she’d done this a thousand times before. Luc relaxed and enjoyed the view. His pants grew snug and he had to shift his stance to alleviate the pressure on his hardening cock.
She turned and stared straight at him. Her gaze travelled from his face to his toes and back again, the slow survey like a physical caress, and a shaft of heat speared his groin. A knowing smile graced her mouth and more fire exploded in his crotch as he remembered the taste of those lips. He pushed off the wall and angled his body so the evidence of his arousal wouldn’t be so blatant. Cassie’s gaze dipped and her smile grew, sending the heat in his groin licking along his veins until he burned from top to bottom—inside out. The woman was dangerous, she poked at every nerve he had and flayed them raw without trying. Luc couldn’t wait to have her beneath him.
“Are you going to stand there all night scaring my employees or are you planning to make yourself useful?”
Luc jerked at her words. He’d thought for sure she’d continue to ignore him, and he smiled as he stepped towards her. Her next words stopped him in his tracks.
“Oh wait, that’s right, you don’t take orders. You give them.”
His gaze narrowed, the burst of anger he felt a total overreaction, but then every emotion involving Cassandra Moreland was exaggerated. The smart-aleck grin on her face didn’t help either. Nor the fact she was just as averse to taking orders as he was. It wasn’t as though he couldn’t take them. It was more that he normally delivered them. He could take direction just as well as the next guy. He’d taken an order from Lachlan McDermott hadn’t he? And Cassie definitely couldn’t talk. She was exactly the same if their recent interaction was anything to go by.
“Pot, meet Kettle,” Luc mumbled.
Her shoulders straightened. “What did you call me?”
“You heard.” He walked closer. “We’re two peas in a pod, Cass, and you know it.”
“Bullshit.” She slammed the plastic lid on the tub in front of her and snapped the locking handles into place with unnecessary force. “I can take orders.”
“Really?” Luc leaned on the bench that separated them. “Prove it.”
Cassie’s eyes widened before they reduced to narrow slits and his insides clenched. God, why did her anger get him off? And why the hell did he continue to poke at her? The suddenness of her smile didn’t bode well, but Luc waited with bated breath for her next words. She didn’t disappoint him.
“On one condition.”
“What?”
“You do the same.”
Oh, this was going to be good. Inwardly he smiled, but he didn’t let any of his excitement at her obvious capitulation to his challenge show. “Deal.”
“Wait, we haven’t worked out the terms.”
“That’s the easy part. We’ll each take orders from the other for twenty-four hours.” Luc couldn’t help it, he upped the ante. Leaning forward, he brought his face inches from hers. His gaze dropped to her lips and he watched as her tongue slipped out to slide along the plump pink flesh he wanted to taste again so badly he ached with it. “For a whole day, anything I tell you to do, you do and vice versa.”
Cassie sucked in a breath. He couldn’t be suggesting what she thought. “You don’t mean…”
“Yeah, that’s exactly what I mean.”
She glanced around to make sure no one was listening. “You can’t expect me to agree to this? You’re basically propositioning me.”
Lucas laughed. “Nice to know where your mind is, but I don’t recall mentioning sex.”
Damn. He was right, he hadn’t mentioned sex, but he’d definitely implied it, what with the way he kept looking at her. Or was it because her mind had been on a continuous loop of imagined pleasure with Lucas ever since their kiss in the pantry? Fantasies of being naked with him had plagued her from the moment she’d walked away. She couldn’t help it, they may not have done much more than kiss, but her body had shot straight to overheated and stayed there. Her recent lack of a sex-life might have something to do with her fixation with the sexily muscled giant in front of her too. God, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a man-delivered orgasm, and he’d promised to deliver one with only his lips.
Cassie took a calming breath—or at least she hoped the lungful of oxygen would be—and let her mind clear of carnal thoughts so she could at least weigh up the pros and cons of being what effectively was this man’s slave for twenty-four hours. If he had no intention of moving their little challenge into the bedroom then she could deal wi
th any order he gave. At least she thought she could. Hopefully he wouldn’t get her to clean his bathroom. She didn’t do boys’ toilets anymore. She’d spent her teenage years sharing one bathroom with five brothers and not one of them had ever cleaned up after themselves. Or aimed straight.
She studied the man on the other side of the counter. If he wasn’t planning to take this arrangement into the sexual arena then what was his agenda? Could she trust him to keep his word if she agreed?
“What’s wrong, Cass? You afraid you can’t handle me telling you what to do?”
Hah! “I can handle anything you dish out. Question is, can you say the same?” Cassie hoped he couldn’t see through her tough-girl act, because in spite of a lifetime spent being scared of nothing, this man had her insides shaking and her nerves jittering with a healthy dose of fear. It wasn’t the thought of taking orders that had her worried either. Her brothers had bossed her around for as long as she could remember, so she knew she was capable of putting up with Lucas telling her what to do. She was more concerned about her traitorous libido. The electricity arcing between them was enough to light up the entire city of Sydney for a month. But she’d be damned if she’d let him get the better of her.
He chuckled. “No question. It would take more than some little woman to scare me.”
A growl rumbled in her chest. “Did you just call me a little woman?”
Lucas shrugged. “If the shoe fits.”
Oh boy. That did it. She’d spent her whole life proving her size didn’t matter. She might be average height for a female, but in a household of extra-tall individuals that hadn’t made a difference. As the shortest, she’d endured every tease imaginable from her brothers, and hearing Lucas refer to her as little only tweaked her need to prove she packed as big of a punch as he did.
“Fine.” She stuck out her hand. “When do you want to start?”
“Now’s as good a time as any.” His large hand engulfed hers.
“I’m in charge first.”
He arched an eyebrow.
“I’ve got a job tomorrow, and Dan was going to help me but now you will.”
His other eyebrow joined the first, his eyes widening. “A party?” he asked as he glanced around them.
“Don’t worry. It’s not an adults-only one.” Cassie smiled. “I’m sure you’ll be fine, it’s a birthday party.”
“Oh.” Relief filled his face as he smiled.
Cassie had to hold back her laughter. She wasn’t about to inform him he’d be spending six hours with a bunch of pink-tutu-wearing six-year-olds helping them make jewellery from tiny glass beads. “I’ll give you my work address and you can meet me there in the morning to help me load up the supplies.”
“I thought we were starting now?”
“Oh, but I thought…” What had she thought? Cassie had just assumed they’d start in the morning; they were both still working after all.
“Okay, how about this.” Lucas glanced at his watch. “We start the clock ticking when we finish up here. You get me for twenty-four hours, then I get you for twenty-four.”
He held her with a look that sent shivers down her spine. “But when I finish here I’m going home to catch a couple of hours sleep before I have to prep for tomorrow’s party.”
“So will I.” He grinned and Cassie’s stomach fluttered. “You can get me to massage your feet before you hit the sack.”
Cassie gulped. Good God, that wasn’t all she’d like him to massage, and most of what she was thinking would be done after she hit the sack. “You’re coming home with me?”
“Yep. Twenty-four hours is twenty-four hours.” Lucas locked his gaze to hers, his stare and stance clearly telegraphing the words I dare you to back out.
She wasn’t stupid by a long shot, but Cassie may have just made the dumbest deal of the century with a man who had already proven he could scramble her brain with a mere kiss.
Luc watched myriad emotions flicker across Cassie’s face before she straightened her spine and yanked her hand from his. How either of them had forgotten to let go before now was a mystery. Then again maybe not. His hand felt cold without hers tucked inside it and the heat her touch generated still zipped up his arm and through his body, hitting every erogenous zone he had. He slipped his thumb through a belt loop and shoved his fingers into his front pocket, which only made the fit of his slacks tighter and his semi-hard cock even more uncomfortable. He removed his hand and placed it on the counter, palm down, and leaned forward. The urge to kiss her fired his nerve endings and scorched his veins with molten lust.
What was it about Cassandra Moreland that sparked such an incendiary reaction? Luc couldn’t recall any other woman having such an instant or profound effect on him. In fact, he couldn’t remember the last woman to have any kind of effect on him other than annoyance. He’d never been one to make close connections with anyone. It came with the job. Being head of security meant he had to be available twenty-four-seven, and the women he met in his line of work were usually the shallow money-grubbing kind of individual, and therefore even if he’d found his interest piqued by a woman she was unlikely to want anything to do with a lowly bodyguard. Of course, there were the few who wanted to take a tumble between the sheets with a dangerous man, but they tended to have their curiosity satisfied fairly quickly.
He’d left one-night-stands behind him sometime in his twenties. At thirty-eight he was extremely discriminatory with his choice of bed partner. He wasn’t in it just to get his rocks off. That type of dalliance left him unsatisfied and more often than not feeling selfish, used and disgusted with himself and the woman he was with. Might explain why he couldn’t remember the last woman he’d had sex with. If he had his way that dry spell was about to be broken, but not this weekend. Luc wouldn’t use their challenge to get Cassie into bed. No. When he slept with her it would be because they both wanted it with bone-deep need, not because either of them had ordered the other there.
And the quicker they got this place cleared out the quicker he could work his magic and have her panting for him. He wasn’t delusional though, he knew full well that he’d be panting just as hard and looked forward to one very long weekend of temptation and anticipation with Cassandra Moreland.
“I’ll get a couple of my men to give you a hand with the pack up,” he said.
“What?” Cassie turned from the clipboard she was marking items off on. “My staff is more than capable of doing their job.”
Luc smiled. “I didn’t say they couldn’t—”
“Then don’t imply it.” She squared her shoulders as though preparing for a fight.
He held up his hands. “Whoa. All I’m doing is offering to help.”
“Then offer, don’t order.” Her mouth stretched into a straight line, her lips pressed together, and Luc wanted to lean over and tease his tongue along the seam until she softened and the harsh lines were plump and wet.
“Fine.” He pulled his thoughts out of his pants and tried a different track. “It’s two-thirty a.m. Give yourself and your staff a break by allowing me and my men to help you finish out the night. I’m sure everyone is more than ready to head home. You’ve been here since two this afternoon.”
Cassie’s eyes narrowed and she crossed her arms over her ample bosom, drawing his gaze. “Could you not ogle me while we’re arguing? And how the hell do you know what time I got here? Have you been spying on me?”
Luc brought his gaze up to meet hers. “We’re arguing?”
“That’s all you heard?”
“Well, no, but it was certainly the part that got my attention. As for the other, no, you aren’t being spied on, but the McDermotts’ security is the highest priority and therefore anything pertaining to them I know about.”
“Anything?” She arched a brow.
“Yes.”
“So you know that Lil quit modelling?”
“Yes.” Luc quickly surveyed the space around them and judged the area safe. He knew he wouldn’t be telling
Cassie anything Lillian McDermott hadn’t already divulged. “I also know all about her children’s clothing label, Lilli Pond, and next month’s launch of her signature fragrance, Golden Lilli.”
“Oh.”
“It’s my job, Cass. I take it and the safety of those under my protection very seriously.” He placed his hands on the counter and leaned closer. “Now, will you let me and my men help you? You can give us orders and I won’t even count the time towards our little weekend challenge.”
She chewed the corner of her bottom lip. Her white teeth worrying the flesh until it turned a deep red caused Luc’s groin to tighten.
“Fine. I could use some help loading these boxes into the back of the van in the driveway.”
Luc smiled as satisfaction slid through his belly. She may not like taking his help, but she wasn’t stubborn enough to refuse it to prove a point. He just hoped the rest of their time together would run as smoothly.
Chapter Three
Cassie lowered the box to the van floor and tried to ignore the ache in her back. She didn’t normally cart around the heavy equipment, usually she left the serious lifting for Dan or one of the other guys, so she only had herself to blame for any injury she sustained. Lucas hadn’t actually challenged her competency, but after their earlier conversation her life-long compulsion to prove herself had reared its ugly head and she’d been compelled to show him she was more than capable of doing the job. Unfortunately, that meant a sore back, and unless she treated the area with a heat pack when she got home, she was bound to suffer for the next few days. Cursing her stubborn need to demonstrate she measured up in every way, Cassie straightened and winced as a sharp twinge of pain lanced her lumbar region.
With a groan, Cassie reached around and pressed her hands against her lower back. Arching slightly, she stretched the muscles and kneaded with her fingers. Two large hands covered hers, warm strong fingers working along her spine with harder pressure than her own. She slipped her hands free and allowed the far more skilled ones to take over. The ache eased with each caress and she couldn’t stop the small moans of relief the soothing massage roused. Cassie didn’t have to turn around to know who was behind her. Lucas. Heat radiated off him, surrounding her with the aroma of soap and man and a tantalising cologne she couldn’t name.
7 Minutes in Heaven (Are You Game?) Page 2
