Chapter 53: Chapter 53

CASSANDRA BATES

THE DOWNSIDE OF staying at someone’s place meant tolerating any visitors she brought to crash for the night.

And while I loved my roommate, God bless her, hearing her all night getting pummeled over and over by some guy she picked from the bar was something I couldn’t endure for another night.

The thought of moving out crossed my mind but then again, the high rent New York had to offer for a single apartment discouraged me against doing so.

“I’m so sorry for last night girl”, Anna slumped in the seat opposite her kitchen island.

“No, it’s fine. It’s totally fine. It’s your place bring anyone you want over”, I said working my way through the Avo toast that was already in my hands.

Anna, blonde and pretty even with her morning hair all over the place reached out for my hand stilling my actions.

“We’ve known each other since high school Cass, you do know you don’t have to feel guilty for anything right? Mi casa is also your casa”

Pretty sure the expression didn’t go that way but I forced a smile,

“I’m just…getting my shit together you know and when I do, I won’t have to buy ear mugs to tune out your gnarly moans and the sound of a guy slapping your ass”

She laughed. A guilty laugh.

“Were we that loud?”

“You two were going at it like deranged bunnies Ans. That gross memory is forever etched in my brain”

It was, no cap.

“Sorry not sorry. He was hot but again I’m sorry for not giving you a heads up I would be bringing a guy over. Though you are at fault too Cassandra Bates”

She gave me a dirty look, her eyes perusing my navy blouse and the tight skirt that pressed my butt at the back.

Work wouldn’t begin at least for another hour. I had a few minutes to spare…to gossip anyway.

“Pray tell, how am I at fault?”

“I bought takeout the other day. Chinese takeout for dinner, your favorite. Guess who wasn’t in her room at eleven fifteen pm?”

Memories about Kade assaulted my cranium, it hurt.

I went with him to his place, horny as fuck, drunk out of my mind, then had the audacity to twerk in front of him begging for his touch, begging him to fuck me.

“And the next morning, guess who snuck into the house with nothing but heels and a guy’s t-shirt on her? I was happy for you so happy I thought yesterday you’d be crashing at your mystery man’s penthouse again hence I brought a man home too”

My eyes went wide. How did she know I was in Kade’s penthouse?

“Oh don’t look at me like that, that shirt you were wearing cost more than this apartment and the man it belonged to I suppose must live in a penthouse”

Her detective skills were top notch. She prodded me with her green ember eyes and I escaped her by telling her I was late to work.

The same work that had the man who slept next to me with his hands protective over me, the same man who made my knees buckle with his intense stare, the same man who might have been the reason I was still stuck at rock bottom.

“The usual please”, I told the barista.

Anna’s apartment luckily offered a few cafes along the way and this had been my favorite one since I moved to this side of the city.

My daily dose of caramel macchiato was the only thing holding me together with Gorilla glue and preventing me from calling it quits and running back to my mother’s arms in TEXAS.

Leaving a tip in the usual candy jar by the counter, I turned on my heel taking a sip of my macchiato.

The macchiato stopped halfway on my throat before it traveled back up choking me with embarrassing coughs.

The man nose deep in a Wall Street journal a few chairs next to me looked up at me with a disapproving glare. Another person scoffed to my side, I didn’t give a shit as someone wiped the macchiato off my chest with a hankie advancing to my lips and wiping the liquid off me.

“Are you okay?”

No. I was not okay.

“What are you doing here?”

His eyes lingered on my chest.

I knew for a fact that my light blue blouse had brown stains on it and I was not prepared to take a walk back to the house and change.

“I just want to talk. Can we talk?”

His brown eyes practically made my irises melt but I was not backing out from the decision I made the other day.

Him and I weren’t going to be a thing.

“No. I don’t want to talk”

I moved past him, my macchiato in my hand and my dignity on my sleeve.

The minute the peaks of the sun’s rays hit my wet stained blouse and air slapped my nostrils, I was walking. Faster than anyone in heels should have been.

But that’s the thing, even with walking I could feel him behind me, I could smell his fucking scent and it turned my skin to gooseflesh.

His hand landed on my shoulder and I stopped because that’s how he made my heart stop when he was near.

I didn’t want to turn around. Looking at him was like looking at the forbidden apple and trying to stop the urge to take a huge chunk of it.

While I was half sure I was weaker than the Biblical Eve, anyone in my position would take a huge chunk of Kade Hawkins if he as much as said a simple ‘hey beautiful’.

“You don’t want to talk? Then I’ll do the talking, Red”

Move. Walk Cassie. Run.

But I wasn’t running. I was standing still waiting for him to speak and swivel my head back to his arms.

“I want you more than I’ve fucking wanted anything in my life. You don’t want us together? Fine but you are not going to make that decision on your own. You don’t want me well I fucking want you and I’m not quitting till I get you back in our house and in my fucking bed”

No, no.

I turned around and with a hard stare I blurted,

“The other night…you say you want me but that’s not what I got from our date, from you keeping distance, from the night in the shower. I gave you the hints I wanted you, I wanted more of you Jesus Christ, my mother would be mortified IF SHE KNEW what I had done in that shower to get you to have sex with me!”

His lips curled up into a smile, smoke was already making its way out of my ears.

“You think it’s funny? I’m drenched in coffee, pouring my heart out to you and you think it’s funny?”

“You might be the cutest thing I’ve seen in a while when you are mad”

The words might have been cringy as fuck but they seeped into my heart and I got even mad because of that.

“You know what? We are done, Kade”

“Cassandra, wait. I-I didn’t touch you even if I fucking wanted to because you were drunk. I might be an asshole, a murderer maybe but I wouldn’t take advantage of a woman”

“I wanted you to take advantage”, I huffed like a floozy.

“You didn’t. You would hate me for everything come the next morning. I’m not going to lie though; I wish you were sober that night and I wish I could have fucked you all night you wouldn’t have the energy to get up from that bed and say it’s over between us”

“I don’t—I don’t know what to say to that. You left me and you know how I feel about that. I can’t feel like that again”

“I’ll never leave, Red. One fucking chance is all I’m asking for”

“I can’t trust you. I can’t do that to myself”

And I turned around walking away like that decision hadn’t hurt me like it did him.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The air at Elite felt stale and I felt so suffocated when the lift dropped me at my floor.

Kade was lurking in the corners, hell knowing him, he was probably watching me through the CCTVs with a bruised face.

I didn’t get to my cubicle when Linet poofed in front of me with a grinning look.

She stared at my stained blouse then back at me with a cheeky smile.

“Ooh now I get what’s going on”

“Good morning to you too pal”, I said dryly walking with her beside me.

“It is a good morning, Cass especially when someone drops a big ass gift on your desk”

“What are you talking about?”

I placed my bag on my seat the minute we reached my cubicle. And there right there on my desk was said big ass gift with a satin bow on it.

“You think it’s from Adam? I knew he was a romantic but not this romantic”

Linet cooed.

Other co workers poked their heads out at my cubicle.

The pink gift box was a dead giveaway who it was but I didn’t have the courage to open it. Not when I knew it would shatter me altogether.

“You can’t keep us waiting Cass. Some of us have been dying to see what’s inside”

I didn’t want to open it but pressure from the nosy people behind me had me ripping the material out of the way.

A Givenchy box was inside and when I opened it, I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who gasped.

“Damn now that’s classy and ooh look there’s a note”, Linet cheered.

I grabbed the note, heart beating, pulse chewing its way out of my veins.

----Apologies for the coffee. YOU MIGHT BE A CLICHÉ but purple looks good on you.

--K.H

He remembered.

My favorite colors being purple and pink.

“Lemme read that. K.H, well so it’s not Adam umm isn’t that the boss’ initials? Wait a minute are you and him?”

“Yes! I mean no, I mean I said no to him but I regret it now and I want to give us a chance. I need to see him”

Linet peered at me like she had seen the boogeyman walking around naked and with a cough she said,

“Wow, so this is a thing? Since when?!”

“Linet”

“Right, right you need to see him. Take the elevators to the top executive floor but I think I heard something about a meeting”

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Five minutes later I was standing outside the boardroom full of business men all clad in expensive suits.

But the only one who stood out in that room was Kade. On the head seat, clad in a midnight black suit that fit perfectly, one hand was on his chin and the other one—the one with two rings on different fingers was tapping the conference table with a major scowl on his face.

The glass windows enabled me to see everyone in there and anxiety roared fiercely than my courage.

“You can do this. Just walk right in and demand to talk to him, it can’t be that hard. It’s not like I’m disrupting an important meeting or anything.

Oh God, I can’t do this. What am I even doing?”

“Miss?”

Someone spooked me from behind, I might have jumped a little.

“Sorry, sorry I just— “, I think I’m having a panic attack is all.

In a plaid skirt, a pink blouse, five-inch heels and wide rimmed glasses on her face, she perused me with an annoyed look.

“I haven’t seen you before. Are you lost? If you are I can happily direct you to the elevator and escort you out of- “

“I have to talk to him”

I pointed in Kade’s oblivious direction.

She laughed,

“Okay you are definitely lost, miss. I’ll just call security to escort you out”

Oh fuck it.

I ran.

My hands slapped the glass doors and I escorted myself right into the boardroom.

The woman giving a sales report paused, the men in there stared hard and I get the reason why.

I wasn’t exactly appropriate. Coffee-stained blouse and all.

I had a feeling my hair was out of place but who gave an eff.

My eyes landed on the man at the end of the long table.

“Can we talk?”

Kade stood up, opened his mouth and said,

“Everyone, out”

Without any other words, everyone left but not before casting me a look of disapproval. It was only after everyone had left that the woman I had met before stormed right in.

“I’m sorry boss, she ran in here before I could call security. Security’s on its way- “

“It’s okay. You can leave”

She left and then it was me and the man who made any room he was in feel tiny.

I walked around the table, each step as painful and as agonizing as rolling a boulder up a steep hill slope.

Then we were standing so close together.

Me in front of him.

Him in front of him.

I had heels but that didn’t mean I could match his height because this powerful man was towering in front of me, looking at me like I was an enigma he couldn’t quite figure out.

The fact that I said enigma told me I was already borderline crazy. Running towards the bee sting instead of away from it.

“You don’t like the blouse?”

“I don’t want the blouse; I want a promise mister. If you leave me, I’ll hunt you down and I’ll jab a knife where it hurts. Right here”

My hand landed on his chest, his breath came out uneasy as he held my hand on his chest and before he said anything that would make me fall harder than I was at the moment, I clamped my lips with HIS.

KADE HAWKINS

CASSANDRA’S MOUTH WAS LIKE A SLICE OF HEAVEN, WARM AND WET AND WITH THAT FLICKING, fluttering tongue that danced with mine in an effort to conquer me.

Her scent was exquisite and she smelled like soap and skin and that delicate feminine scent that turned men feral and possessive.

I was feral for her and that pumped my engine to clear everything on the table ad fuck her senseless right here right FUCKING NOW.