Catering to the CEO

by Samantha Chase

  Sensing trouble, Bev cleverly changed the subject and soon the topic of the wedding was dropped. Adam excused himself with claims of a call to make but Cassie knew better. Waiting all of thirty seconds, she followed him outside where she found him pacing on the porch.

  “Is everything all right?”

  He glared at her; that cold hard stare that she’d seen him give dozens of times to his employees. “What could possibly be wrong?” he snapped. “One weekend in my home and you’re already making plans for it yourself. Tell me, do you always make yourself at home that quickly or is it just with me?”

  Her eyes grew wide with shock. “Are you kidding me? She’s your mother, for crying out loud and it’s her wedding! That’s hardly planning something for me! How can you be so cold about this?”

  “Cold? This has nothing to do with being cold, Cassandra. I simply don’t appreciate you stepping in and offering up my home for parties without consulting with me first. I hired you to plan an event for my company; if my mother wants to hire you to plan her wedding then you two can discuss other venues or maybe talk to me privately before you start renting out space that isn’t yours.”

  She looked as if he’d slapped her. Clearly she had crossed a line, again, and he was not happy. Fine. Apparently she was good enough to sleep with but not good enough to make suggestions for things that involve both of their families. She made a mental note to never go there again.

  Stiffening her spine, she nodded her head. “Fine; you’re right. It was not my place to speak up.”

  It was the way she said place that got him. Their conversation yesterday about being the hired help rang out in his mind and as much as he wanted to be pissed off at her offering the house up for the wedding, he felt like crap for making her feel like their weekend together meant nothing to him.

  “Cassandra, look…”

  She held up a hand to stop him. “No, really, let’s not go there right now. You made yourself abundantly clear.” Turning, Cassie walked back into the house, firmly shutting the door behind her, leaving Adam alone in the darkness.

  Chapter Ten

  Cassie took a final look around her kitchen and picked up her checklist from the butcher block island to make sure she had everything.

  “Are you sure you still want to do this? Because I can go in your place.” Katie was standing opposite Cassie, arms folded across her chest.

  “It’s going to be fine. I have a job to do and as much as I am still ticked off at Adam for being…well, Adam, I am going to do that job and impress the hell out of those Europeans!”

  In the two and a half weeks since that fateful night at Bev’s, Cassie had refused all of Adam’s calls. She had gotten all of her information to Grace and managed to pick up the keys to the beach house while Adam was out of town.

  He had been relentless that first week in his attempts to talk to her. It had been painful at times and downright impossible at others to completely avoid him. He’d called, he’d sent flowers, and he’d shown up at her apartment late at night. Cassie refused to talk to him or even answer the door. When the family had gotten together for dinner one night the previous week, he had shown up. Her family, while being polite to him, had rallied around her and made sure that they kept her busy and unable to talk with him alone.

  In this whole rotten situation she felt the worst for Bev. After all, none of this was her fault; her son was a grown man who had control issues. Well, Cassie wasn’t going to let that bother her. She had a job to do and while it might be a bit awkward and uncomfortable to be with Adam in the house where they had nearly made love, Cassie knew she would be too busy with her job to pay much attention to him and, in turn, he would hopefully be too busy with his clients to focus any attention on her.

  Walking around the work space, Cassie grabbed her sister and hugged her. “You are the best, you know that?” She kissed Kate on the cheek and smiled. “I appreciate how much everyone wants to fight this battle for me but I am a professional and I am going to do what I was hired to do.”

  “At least he didn’t fire you this time.”

  “Yeah, thank God for small favors.” Pulling her keys from her purse, Cassie took one last look around. “I think I’ve got everything that I need; everything else is already there. Call me if you need anything. The Miller party…”

  “Is a walk in the park, Cass. I can do a party of that size with my eyes closed. Go, get on the road and enjoy the peace and solitude before Satan arrives.”

  “You have got to stop calling him that!” she laughed.

  “I will when he stops acting like that.”

  “I guess we all never outgrow the rubber and glue scenario…” She kissed her sister one last time and walked out the door feeling confident and ready to take on the world.

  The drive to Manteo was the perfect time for Cassie to clear her head and get mentally prepared for dealing with Adam. The only thing saving her was the fact that he wouldn’t be arriving until Friday with the rest of the group. By that time, she should be more than able to handle seeing him. Actually, by that time, she’d be in full-service mode and she could make sure that every second of her time was spent doing something for his guests.

  Her first inclination was to say ‘their guests’ but it was thinking like that that got her in trouble in the first place. Damn him! Damn him for ruining what was looking like being a really decent relationship. Cassie was the first to admit that she didn’t have the greatest taste in men but that taste usually ran to picking men who were unmotivated and content to still live at home with their moms.

  She had finally found someone who was confident, independent and successful and he ended up being a damn control freak. Wait…why was this a surprise to her? She knew this about Adam all along. As a matter of fact, if she were honest with herself, this was the exact reason she had quit on him a month ago! What was wrong with her? How could she have forgotten?

  So now the blame lay fully at her own feet and she didn’t like it. He had seduced her with his kindness and sexy looks and if her feelings were hurt then it was her own fault. Well, there was a bitter pill to swallow.

  No, she was not going to take all the responsibility for this. Adam needed to learn to not be so rude and to treat people with respect. Ha! Fat chance of that happening! Clicking on a CD, Cassie decided to wipe all thoughts of Adam out of her mind for the remainder of her drive. Checking the GPS, she saw that she still had two hours to go and decided to let her inner 80’s child out, and sang along to Bon Jovi for the next stretch of road.

  The clock read six-fifteen when Cassie pulled into the massive driveway at Adam’s house. There were a couple of lights on and she stiffened for a minute but then realized that he must have them on a timer. She got out of the car and glared at the closed garage door and wished that she had asked for the remote to that so she didn’t have to walk up the steps to the front door with all of her stuff; using the elevator would have been easier.

  Deciding to just grab her suitcase, she took the house key out of her purse and climbed the stairs; she could come back for the rest of her supplies later and open the garage door from the inside so she could haul all of her stuff up with ease in the elevator.

  Several things hit her at once as she opened the door. First, there was music playing softly; second, something was cooking and third, clearly she wasn’t alone.

  “Hello?” she nervously called out, refusing to walk any further into the house and unsure of what was going on.

  Adam stepped out into her field of vision and she wanted to scream. Whether the scream was of frustration or anger or fear, she wasn’t sure but just knowing that he’d thrown a monkey wrench in her perfectly crafted plan of clearing her head before he arrived had her thrown off.

  “What are you doing here?” she demanded, hands on hips, eyes ablaze.

  “It’s my house,” he stated simply. “How was your drive?” Adam walked towards her and took her suitcase from beside her and moved it to the bottom of the stairc
ase. When he noticed that she hadn’t moved from her spot next to the door, he strode over and closed it and walked back towards the kitchen.

  If she wanted to scream a minute ago, she wanted to howl in rage now. How was her drive? How was her drive? That’s all he had to say after showing up here unannounced after being such a jackass? How dare he! Cassie’s first instinct was to turn around and flee but if she knew anything about Adam Lawrence, she knew she’d be kissing this job goodbye and she’d worked too hard to make it perfect to allow that to happen.

  With no other choice, she sighed heavily and followed Adam into the kitchen. She stopped dead in her tracks at the sight before her. There were candles set along the breakfast bar, a fire roaring in the living room fireplace. Cassie could see steam coming from the grill outside and saw that there was a table set for two under one of the heat lamps and it was covered in linen with tower candles as a centerpiece.

  There were no words for what was going on in her mind. Adam was here and he had prepared a dinner for her. In all of her adult life, no man had ever taken the initiative and attempted to cook for her. She wasn’t sure how to respond to this; what to say, how to act.

  “I’m glad I timed this properly,” Adam was saying as he poured them each a glass of wine. “I hope you didn’t stop for something to eat on the way. I’ve got a couple of filets on the grill and picked up some crab cakes from that seafood market we saw last time.” He looked around as if getting his bearings.

  “I will admit that the salad is a kit that I bought so I’m sure it won’t taste as good as yours but my culinary skills are quite limited.”

  “What’s going on, Adam?” Cassie knew that things had gone badly the last time they had been together and while she was aware of the fact that Adam had tried to make it right, for him to go to this extreme seemed well out of character for him.

  “I thought that was obvious, Cassandra. I’ve made dinner for us. I figured you’d be hungry after a long drive.”

  “That’s not what I meant and you know it. We haven’t spoken in weeks and you weren’t supposed to be here until Friday so what’s going on?”

  He smiled. That was it, he just smiled and put his glass down and walked slowly towards her. When he was standing directly in front of Cassie, he cupped her face and kissed her. Slowly, gently, luxuriating in the taste of her even when she wouldn’t kiss him back.

  Raising his head, Adam stared deeply in to her eyes, the smile returning to his face. “I have to go and check those steaks; they should just about be done.” He walked away and went out to the grill. Cassie watched him remove the steaks and place them on a platter and then on the candle lit table. Next, he came back into the house and moved the rest of their meal outside.

  Cassie followed and found that everything looked beautiful. Adam held out a chair for her and Cassie sat and waited for him to do the same. She slowly sipped at her wine, the cool evening breeze gently blew her hair but the heat from the tall lamp kept her warm. Anger simmered inside of her but she had enough curiosity in her to want to taste what he had prepared for her.

  The hope was that the meal would be terrible and she could use that to fuel her bad feelings towards Adam but after one bite of the tender filet which melted in her mouth, she found that she couldn’t use that excuse.

  He was trying. There wasn’t a doubt in Cassie’s mind that Adam was well and truly trying to make things right. Her problem was that she was afraid to even discuss what she was angry about because there was a very real possibility of them arguing some more and she knew that fighting with Adam never ended well for her.

  “How’s your steak?” he asked, concern and curiosity in his voice.

  “Everything’s delicious, Adam, thank you.” She returned her attention back to the meal and refused to let herself look at him for any length of time because Cassie knew if she did, all traces of anger would disappear; he seemed to have that effect on her and right now she wanted nothing more than to be angry just a little bit longer.

  He had hurt her; maybe not intentionally, but he had hurt her just the same. Cassie had come to accept that in her line of work she was going to meet wealthy and successful people who had a lot more money and power than she did and that no matter how glamorous the atmosphere, no matter how posh the setting, she was always going to be the hired help. There had never been a time where it had bothered her like it had that night at Bev’s house when Adam had made it so abundantly clear of what her place was.

  Thinking back, Cassie still couldn’t see what the big deal was and even if he wasn’t that close with his mother, using this house that sat empty most of the year for her wedding should not have been such a big issue. But thinking about it, obsessing about it was not going to help her right now. Right now she was here with Adam, sharing a meal and preparing to cater an important event for him.

  She was hired to do a job.

  There had been a momentary lapse in judgment on both their parts when they’d almost made love. Cassie knew that it had been a mistake; the only thing saving her pride at this point was that they hadn’t made love because otherwise she would have been mortified to have Adam speak to her as he had at Bev’s that night. From this point on, she had to remember that he was the employer and she, the employee. There would be no repeat of what had happened here last time.

  Adam was watching Cassie intently; trying desperately to read her mind. She wouldn’t even look at him and Adam knew that she used that technique on him before, ignoring him, and he didn’t like it. What was she making such a big deal about? So he didn’t want her taking it upon herself to offer up his house to people. That wasn’t so unreasonable, was it? After all, it was his house, not hers. Just because she had spent one weekend here did not give her the right to invite other people.

  True, the other people in question consisted of his own mother and her fiancé but still, if anyone was going to offer out this home for a wedding, it would be him.

  Only it wouldn’t.

  Adam had no desire to get sucked into all of the wedding hoopla and if Bev and Stephen were going to be married, well then they could make the arrangements themselves. Stephen probably expected him to foot the bill. Well, he would be sorely disappointed because Adam had no intention of shelling out anything for the wedding. If they were foolish enough to want to be married, then they can carry the expense themselves.

  He was scowling at the thought and that was when Cassie finally lifted her head and looked at him. Adam noticed that she had finished her meal and she was standing and clearing her place.

  “Everything was delicious. Thank you, again.” Cassie turned and carried her plates into the house. Once the plates were rinsed and loaded into the dishwasher, she considered finishing the clean up; after all that was what she was hired to do.

  Looking around the kitchen she saw that Adam had not made too big of a mess and she began collecting bowls and pans and loading them into the dishwasher as well and then wiped down all of the counter tops. That’s what Adam saw her doing when he strode back into the house.

  “What the hell are you doing?” he demanded, stopping short as he entered the kitchen, hands on hips.

  Cassie looked at him as if she didn’t understand the question. “What do you mean? I’m cleaning up.”

  “I can see that, Cassandra, I’m not an idiot. What I want to know is why you’re cleaning up.”

  Confusion, plain and simple, showed all over her face. “There was a mess, I’m cleaning it up. I have to work in this kitchen for the next several days and so it needs to be clean in here. That’s what you’re paying me for.”

  Adam cursed under his breath. He had had it! He had planned this meal as a peace offering but clearly Cassie wasn’t ready to forgive and forget just yet. Well, dammit, he was tired of waiting.

  Cassie had turned her back to him and was rinsing something in the sink. Adam stormed up behind her and grabbed her upper arm and spun her around. Her eyes were like fire when they met his and although he actu
ally hoped that she would put up a struggle, she didn’t. Cassie merely stared at him, daring him to prove her wrong.

  “The job I hired you for doesn’t start until Friday so don’t give me any of that crap about being hired to do a job. Dinner tonight had nothing to do with business and you know it. Now I have made multiple attempts to talk to you and you have avoided me like the damn plague. I’ve had enough, dammit!”

  He’d had enough? Cassie yanked her arm from his grasp. “Really? You’ve had enough? Well too bad, Adam. You can’t have everything your own way.”

  “Meaning what exactly?” his eyes narrowed to slits. He had a feeling what she had to say was going to raise his ire.

  “Meaning that I refuse to be treated like your lover one minute and an employee the next. I thought that we shared something that weekend and as soon as I did something that you didn’t agree with, instead of talking to me privately about it, or perhaps giving me the benefit of the doubt, you lashed out and reminded me of my place.”

  “So really, if I had to choose which relationship with you I’d prefer, it’s the business one. At least there I know exactly where I stand and have the option of whether or not I want to do business with you ever again; and believe me, after this weekend I think I’ll be opting to not do business with you again.”

  Adam saw red. This was not going as he had planned. Cassie was supposed to be wowed by his gesture of a romantic dinner. By this point in the evening, he was sure that he would have her on the sofa or well on their way back up to his bed. How the hell had it all gone so wrong so fast?

  “What exactly is it that you want from me, Cassandra?” Unfortunately, she had already answered that question. Adam was just unwilling to accept it.