Maybe in this situation, cowardice was disguised wisdom. Maybe she should be late tomorrow.
As Ben guided her out the door, he threw an enigmatic expression over his shoulder.
When it closed after them, silence reigned for a long moment. Peter glanced at Jon. Jon looked toward Matt, who was studying the stone passive face of his CFO.
"If you wait too long, Ben will drive off with her," he observed at last, sitting down on the desk.
"No, he won't. He'll stall at his car, if he values his balls." Lucas directed his next comment toward Peter and Jon. "I may have need of the three of you tomorrow on this. If you can wait a few moments, I'll come back and explain the details shortly." His gaze shifted. "Matt, it's probably best if you're not privy to it."
"One of the very few drawbacks to being married," Matt noted, but shook his head. "I'll take the risk. I'd like to hear the discussion. We'll wait on you. I assume you'll bring Ben back up with you. Intact, if you don't mind."
Lucas gave a feral smile and slid out the door. Once out of sight, he took the stairs, glad for carpeted hallways to mask the sound of sprinting feet. As well as for the shape he was in, so he wouldn't be wheezing like an asthmatic once he got to the parking deck.
As he expected, Ben did have her at his Mercedes McLaren Roadster, in its assigned place in the parking deck. He was propped against the car door, about two steps too close to her as he gestured through the opening of the parking deck at the building across the way. Probably explaining how Savannah worked at that building, or some other smooth lawyer talk.
There'd been no prearrangement to Bens delay. Lucas knew he'd still be here, just as he knew what was said about the five of them, both informally as well as in the many articles that had been written. That they were in tune with one another like a wolf pack.
However, someone else had called them the Knights of the Board Room, because they had an unbreakable honor code when it came to business associates, community giving.
But the code was much more personal than that. Ben knew Lucas had marked Cass as his.
As well as he knew what her power play was about and, being a gentleman, had played along. A little too enthusiastically for Lucas's tastes, but then Ben did like to yank his chain. Lucas made a mental note to have Jon mix up the numbers this month so it looked as if Legal was about 200 percent over their annual budget.
"Lucas," Ben straightened from the car, arching a brow. "Is there a problem?"
"Matt needs us all upstairs. Something just came up at the Seattle plant. I would have buzzed you, but your cell apparently doesn't work in the parking garage."
"I think I must have turned it off. Wanted to give my full attention to a beautiful woman."
He turned to Cassie. She was doing an excellent job looking unperturbed by the disruption. Good enough that Lucas wanted to toss away the briefcase she was holding in front of her and lay her out on the hood of Ben's disgustingly expensive car. Wipe every act off her face except the truth of her own desire and sexual nature, a match for his own.
"My apologies. Some other time." When Ben picked up her hand and gallantly kissed her knuckles, his hand curled over her wrist and palm so that as he pulled away, his fingers slid along her pulse. It never failed to elicit a shudder, and even Cass was no exception. It had to be an involuntary reflex, Lucas reflected darkly. Kind of like smashing a hammer into someone's knee.
He gave Ben a tight, I'm-going-to-kick-your-ass smile, which Ben returned with an anytime-you-feel-lucky glint in his eye.
As Ben left them, Cass reshouldered the briefcase strap. "Well, then, I'll just catch a cab and head back to the office to get my car." She was keeping an eye on Ben, trying to move past Lucas, for he knew as well as she did that she didn't want Ben to get out of sight.
"You didn't mention your evening plans were with Ben, when we were in the restroom."
While he made the comment mildly, when she shifted, he moved to block her. "Though I admit I did keep you a little preoccupied. I'm also surprised you didn't offer me dinner. I worked at least as hard on the financial piece as Ben did on crafting his usual bullshit."
"Taking Ben to dinner is a business courtesy you should understand. And I've offered you as much as I'm going to." Her eyes flashed blue fire. "You're pushing it, Lucas."
"Funny, that's what I was going to say to you." Then, going with inexplicable fury instead of reason, he trapped her against the car, closing his hand over the briefcase. Yanking it away from her, he dropped it to the asphalt as he cupped her head and dived in, covering her mouth with his.
He was vaguely aware of the chirp that cut short the startling blast of an alarm. Ben, probably at the elevators just around the corner, had been astute enough to hit the security alarm just as Lucas pushed against her, hard enough to rock the light-bodied car. Okay, maybe he'd only show him as 100% over budget.
So she didn't want to touch him. She didn't want to remove the corset. She was doing everything she could to manage the situation, control it. Taking Ben to dinner, letting him flirt with her, just to tick him off. Well, she was touching him now, from chest to groin, and Lucas pushed himself against her harder, yanking at her skirt so he could pull one of her legs up and around him, put himself firmly against her bare pussy.
She made one of those maddening noises in the back of her throat, which he answered with a triumphant growl of his own when she let loose and kissed him back, her hands sliding along the short hair of his skull, nails digging in.
Too soon, she stiffened, tore her mouth away. "Just because my cunt says yes, it doesn't mean anything."
He jerked her head back so he could stare into her face, make her meet his gaze. "How about your racing heart? The breath sobbing in your throat because you won't let yourself draw a deep, real breath? Just when do you take the corset off, Cassie?"
"I'm Cassandra, not Cassie," she snapped the reminder. "Cassie is a girl's name. A little girl."
He remembered Savannah saying once that men were always boys when it came to the women they wanted. And a woman's heart pounded like a girl for the boy she wanted. He wanted to believe that was why Cass's was pumping madly for him.
"You're my girl." He changed the hard grip on her hair into something different, loosening the barrette and letting it ping off the side of the car as he stroked his hand through the thick pelt of it, moving his thumbs over her lips. Her hands gripped his forearms, conveying uncertainty with the switch to tenderness. She was rigid, ready to stave off an attack.
Rocking up to his toes because of her heels, he put his chin on her head, emphasizing the difference in heights. "See. My little girl." He could feel the softness of her full breasts, straining over the hold of that ribbed cage she'd designed for herself.
"Idiot," she muttered. "I'm not little. I'm tall."
"But you didn't deny the mine part."
"It didn't dignify an answer."
"Or maybe you liked the sound of it."
She pushed back from him then, her expression sobering. "Lucas, I told you, I'm not going to deny we have some chemistry. Hell, if I can arrange my schedule, you might even talk me into checking into a hotel room for a few hours tomorrow to get it out of our system, split the bill, but that's it. The finish line."
Did she realize he could read her? That her eyes told him how much more she wanted?
What she wouldn't give herself? Pressing his body against hers again, this time he laid a hand on her throat, thumb passing over the sensitive network of bones and thudding arteries there. "Don't write a good deal off before it even hits the table, because you're afraid of how it might change things in your life."
"I don't have room for you in my life, Lucas. If you really knew me, you wouldn't want to be part of it anyway."
She bit her lip as if she hadn't meant to say that. But Lucas tilted her chin up. "I don't know it all, but I've figured a couple things out. You've worked hard on it, so it doesn't come through often, but there are some inflections in your speech which suggest you came from a poor Baton Rouge family." At her stunned look, he raised the hand wearing his Yale class ring. "Linguistics was part of my studies. I'm guessing that's why you don't like being called Cassie. Maybe the last time people called you that was when nothing was expected from you but becoming some drunk guy's Friday night punching bag and breeder."
Muttering an expletive, she tried to pull away, but he gave her a little shake, commanding her attention again. "The five of us come from diverse backgrounds. But the one thing we all respect is a person who worked her ass off—your own words—who didn't whine and ask for handouts, but managed to make a success of herself.
"I'd love to hear your story," he said sincerely. "I'd love to get to know you. Whether you want to admit it or not, it wasn't just sex. You think every guy gets the privilege of stumbling upon a gorgeous woman stretched out on a Harley in nothing but a corset and panties? And then has her show up in his conference room a month later?"
She made a desperate sound. "That doesn't make the problems any simpler."
"Well, tell me, then. If its something I can't handle, then fine. I'll take you up on the wild monkey hotel sex. But I'll pay the bill. I'm old-fashioned that way."
She blinked, then let out a chuckle that disturbed him with its note of weariness. "You're better than I expected you to be, Lucas."
"I assume you mean in terms of kindness. Not my overwhelming sexual prowess."
She gave him a narrow look, but then averted her glance. He noted her swallow, her sudden discomfort. "About the restraints and all, earlier. I mean, I do fantasize, but that's not really me."
"Yeah, it is." Guiding her face back, he made her hold his gaze. She belied her own words with the tremor that went through her at the demanding touch. "You're just embarrassed by it. Don't ever apologize for the way you like to be pleasured. I'm very much a Dominant when it comes to sex, if you hadn't noticed. You think I don't recognize a compatible match? I won't let you lie to me about that. It is what it is, and we'll let that unfold the way it needs to. All right?"