Saving the CEO (49th Floor #1)(27)

He surprised her by sitting on the couch, too, and not even on the opposite end, but right in the middle. She pulled her legs back a little to make room for him, but he only moved closer and tugged her legs back so her feet were in his lap. He rested his hands on her shins, and she could feel the heat emanating from him even through the jeans that covered her legs.

“Tired?” he asked, wrapping his fingers around one of her ankles and drawing his thumb up the sole of her foot.

Pleasure shot through her as she let her head fall forward. “Ohhhh.”

He responded by increasing the pressure.

This was probably not a good idea.

But, on the other hand, if they were done sleeping together, what could it hurt? “Okay, you can just forget the fifty grand and pay me in foot rubs,” she said, hoping to signal that she wasn’t taking the whole thing too seriously.

Then he peeled off her sock and repeated the stroke with his thumb against her bare skin, watching her face the whole while. “I’ve been thinking.”

“Yeah?” It was hard to concentrate. There was the inherent deliciousness of the massage, yes, but the fact that it was him with her foot in his hands had her nerves humming. It was an odd combination of relaxation and alertness.

“I’m not the kind of person who plays games,” he said, sliding his thumbs to the front of her foot and stroking up the sides of her ankle. “I have these rules, see.”

“Yeah, you’ve mentioned them once or twice.” And she understood. She had a few of her own.

“Several apply here. I don’t do relationships. I don’t sleep with my employees.”

“Yep. Uh huh. Got it.” She really did. There was no need for him to keep reminding her of all the reasons nothing more was going to happen between them.

“So you’ll appreciate how I’m between a rock and a hard place.” He looked down at his lap. “Literally.”

She followed his gaze. A telltale lump in his jeans gave her a little thrill.

“Because on the one hand, I have the rules.”

“And on the other?” she prompted.

“Every second that I’m in your presence I’m thinking about how badly I want to f*ck you again.”

…

A slow smile blossomed on Cassie’s face. She was such an incredible mix of innocent and wicked. It drove him apeshit.

“I see your dilemma,” she said, pointing the toes of the foot he wasn’t holding so they could just reach his cock, which, as usual in her presence, was at full attention. Case in point: one minute she’d be all guileless and sweet, laughing and pasta-swearing, the next she’d be pressing purple sparkly painted toes against his poor beleaguered dick. “However, I believe there’s another interpretation. You just need to look at the situation creatively.”

He closed his eyes and clenched his fists to keep from lunging at her. “How so?”

“First, I’m not your employee. I’m more like an independent contractor.”

He smiled despite himself. “That’s true. You’re not on the payroll.”

“You said it yourself. I have skills you value. Think of me as a very expensive hairstylist. Or electrician or something.”

He couldn’t help smiling. “And second?”

“Second is don’t stop rubbing my feet.” He unclenched his fists, grabbed the foot that was pressing on his dick—somehow, removing it didn’t provide any relief—and began kneading it.

“Third…oh, that feels amazing.” She let her head loll back. She looked so f*cking good when she did that, lost herself in a sensation—and she lost herself so easily. She was good at pleasure, this one, and just watching her made him hot.

“Third,” he prompted gruffly.

Lifting her head, she was suddenly all business. “Third. You don’t do relationships. But we aren’t in one.”

“So what is this then?” He nodded at the space between them, her legs draped over him.

“This,” she said emphatically, “is a no-strings-attached…” She trailed off.

“See, that’s the problem. The next word is relationship.”

“Entanglement,” she pronounced.

“That doesn’t sound any better,” he said, though he asked himself why he was arguing with her. If he wasn’t mistaken, here was a woman he was attracted to like no other making a case that they should keep sleeping together. Anyone with half a brain would worry about the details later.

“It does sound better,” she insisted. “Because it can be untangled. And it should be—when we leave for Muskoka. You were right about that. We have to be 100 percent on our games with Wexler. No distractions. So let’s get it out of our systems now. It’s Sunday now. So that’s four nights.”

“Three,” he countered. “I have a work thing on Tuesday night.” And though he’d much rather spend Tuesday night in bed with Cassie, the goddamned Winter Enterprises Christmas party wasn’t going to be much of a party without him.

“Three then.”

He could feel himself starting to weaken, but he remained silent.

“Look, Jack, I get it. You don’t have to worry about me. I’ll take my money, you take Wexler’s company, and we part ways after a job well done—no hard feelings.” He must have looked skeptical because she pulled her feet off his lap. “Fifty grand—it’s not that I don’t appreciate it, and it will make life a lot easier in the short run. But it’s not going to change anything, not fundamentally. I’ll still have to work and inch my way through school. I don’t do relationships either, see? They never feel like they’re worth it, and I don’t have the time.”