Saving the CEO (49th Floor #1)(63)

Jack lay on his back, hands clasped at the back of his head as if he were reclined in a meadow somewhere in the country, taking in the night sky. “He did, but had one condition. Insisted it be written into the documentation.”

“What was it?”

“I get Wexler Construction and the island, but two weeks a year the resort is reserved for math camp.”

“What?” she shrieked, throwing herself down next to him and swatting his shoulder. “Shut up!”

“I told him fine, but I had no idea who was going to run the thing.” He shot her a wry smile. “It sure as hell isn’t going to be me.”

“Shut up!” She didn’t seem to be capable of saying anything else.

“I did promise you a bonus if the deal went through. What do you say? Camp Cassie? It has a certain ring to it, no?”

Her throat felt like it was closing, so she took a moment to arrange herself next to him, lying on her back the same way he was. Looking up, she could easily spot the Big and Little Dipper, Orion, Draco—all the constellations she knew from books. When she’d gotten control of her voice, she said, “What happened with Carl?”

Jack turned over so he was lying on his side. “I showed him the email—the email I suspect you sent—and he admitted everything. I’m not going to press charges in exchange for him going into treatment.”

“Did you fire him?”

“Yeah. I might hire him back, though. We’ll see.”

“So Carl and my mother are both in rehab for Christmas,” Cassie said. “Kind of ironic, huh?”

He reared back a little, almost involuntarily, it seemed. “Your mom showed up again?” His tone had turned cold.

“Don’t worry, I’m not paying for it this time. I finally see that there’s no point in continuing to pay for these gold-plated programs if she’s going to keep skipping out.” She shrugged. “Who knows, maybe the seventh time’s the charm.”

“For her sake, I hope so.”

God. How did he do that? All he’d done was touch her arm and breathe near her ear, and everything inside her came alive. The urge to burrow into his arms was almost overwhelming. But how often did a girl get a private planetarium show? She snuggled into the crook of his arm and whispered, “So let’s see this show of yours.”

“Oh,” Jack mock-groaned. “I knew it. You’re going to want to pay attention, aren’t you?”

“I’m not even going to ask how you did this.”

He grinned as he got up and went to the projector. “I know people.”

“Of course you do.” She smiled as he pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and surreptitiously studied it as if he were cheating on an exam.

Once the show got going, he moved back to stretch out next to her. After a minute or so, he began inching closer.

“No way!” said Cassie, scooting away from him. “I want to see the show.”

Jack made a strangled, vaguely frustrated noise, but planted a quick kiss on her neck and rolled over onto his back so that he wasn’t touching her at all.

They spent the next twenty minutes marveling over the universe as it unfolded before them. Well, Cassie did. Jack watched her more than he watched the show. She could feel his attention as surely as if he’d been shining a spotlight on her, but she kept her eyes trained upward, watching gasses condense and explode, throwing out new elements into the heavens, the elements that would, over billions of years, go on to make everything in the universe.

Cassie felt a little like she had a universe inside her heart, like big glowing suns were coming to life in gorgeous violent explosions as everything expanded outward, creating space where there had been none before.

She hadn’t realized she’d been crying until the narrator finished. “And so,” boomed the disembodied voice, “when people say we are made of stardust, it is literally true.”

It was dark then. Just dark. She swiped at her eyes but didn’t have a moment to regain her equilibrium before Jack took her in his arms, his mouth crashing down on hers. It was so familiar. It was so new. It was everything at the same time. But what hadn’t changed was the undercurrent of heat that was always there between them. Snaking her arms around him, she kissed him in the secret planetarium, where, in contradiction to the laws of the possible, the stars shone just for them.

Tearing his mouth from hers, he whispered, “We’re made of the same stuff, Cassie.”

“Yes,” she said, pressing her mouth against his again, imbuing the kiss with everything she had, with all the stardust in the universe.





Epilogue


A Tuesday night in May.

When Jack came into Edward’s that night, he was grinning. He couldn’t help it. He was just so damned proud.

“Jack!”

He wiped the smile off his face as Camille, the hostess, approached. A man did have limits.

“I read about you in that Forbes “Ones to Watch” thing!”

“Mmmm,” he murmured, scanning the bar as he left the Queen of the Ballerina Girls still talking.

There was everyone—Danny, Amy and her boyfriend Mason, Dax and some of the guys from his company, a few of the women from Marcus’s advertising firm. Cassie had grown close with lots of the folks from the forty-ninth floor. Of course she had—everyone loved her. She was f*cking irresistible.