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Cassandra stepped out onto the penthouse balcony, stretching her arms after the most restful night’s sleep she’d had in days. The mid-morning sun was out and she didn’t have anything scheduled until that afternoon, so she could afford some leisure time today. Sleep had come so much easier now that she has figured out a way to stay in the penthouse. The problem was that she had to tell her father that she wouldn’t be moving back into the villa with him.
With a sigh she took a seat in one of the lounge chairs and woke her cell phone. She had no idea how her father would react to the news. He would either be glad to hear she had accepted the terms of the card game he’d had no right to set, or he would find some reason to be upset about her maintaining her independence. Either way, once again her decision would be all about him.
Instead of calling she decided to hold off on an emotionally taxing phone call, and sent a text message instead. If her father was extra busy today, maybe he wouldn’t even see the text until later.
When she was done texting, she ate a quick breakfast and took a shower.
As soon as she had finished getting dressed in her bedroom, her cell phone rang.
Anxiety surging through her, she answered it quickly without bothering to look at who it was.
“It’s me. Jack Landry.”
For a moment relief washed over her. It wasn’t her father. But then excitement at hearing Jack’s deep, gravelly voice sent her stomach fluttering, forcing Cassandra to fight her body’s response to him. “Hey there, Jack.”
Damn, she hated how she sounded when she said his name. All breathless and foolish.
“I’m on my way,” he said. “Will you be ready to talk about our... arrangement?”
“Yes,” she replied. “I’m free all morning.”
“Great. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”
He hung up, leaving her enough time to recheck her appearance in the bathroom mirror to make sure she looked perfect. Cassandra had always relied on clothes and makeup to project the strength she didn’t actually have, but there was another motive now that Jack was coming over. She wanted to look her best, the same way she wanted to look her best whenever a guy she liked was taking her out to dinner. It was crazy to want that, knowing that any relationship between them was fake, but that didn’t stop the butterflies in her stomach.
Twenty minutes later she was opening the penthouse door to let Jack in.
He looked gorgeous, his wavy brown hair falling right above his soul-piercing blue eyes. The black suit jacket he had on was perfectly tailored, as was the crisp white shirt beneath it that contrasted with his tanned skin. And though he looked very well put together, the faint scar on his face reminded her that there was something deeply untamed about him no matter how expensive his suit was.
“Feel free to help yourself.” She motioned to the refreshments laid out on the table as she led him out onto the balcony.
“Thanks,” he said as they sat down.
“So, ready to talk ground rules?” she asked him, pulling out her laptop.
He took a sip of the coffee in front of him and nodded. “Yes. It’s best to discuss exactly what it is I’m expecting with this fake relationship of ours.”
The kiss they had shared just a day earlier had felt like the furthest thing from fake. All heat and simmering passion. Her body was still shivering from the contact.
Pushing those memories to the side, she asked, “Is this relationship just for your friend Walker’s benefit, or is it for everyone?”
“We have to make this look real, so, everyone,” he said.
She frowned, fidgeting with the stem of her glass. “My father isn’t going to like that one bit.”
“Does your father seriously have that much of a say in your dating life?”
“My father has that much of a say about everything in my life,” she confessed. Jack was bound to figure that out sooner or later, and it was better that she controlled her own life’s narrative with him as much as possible. Especially if she was going to be spending six months with him. “He bet me in a card game, after all.”
“So it sounds like he isn’t going to like this,” he said. “Why, though? Is it because you’d be mixing his business with your personal life, or because he’s got some alternative suitor waiting in the wings for you?”
“Because you’re not good enough for me,” she said. “Not in his eyes.”
“Why the hell not? Because I’m not some billionaire?” he demanded. “I’m not as wealthy as your family, but I’ve got enough to retire right now. More than enough.”
Why was it always about money? Men were ridiculous sometimes. “My father is one of the richest men alive, so enough isn’t in his vocabulary,” she said flatly. “And money isn’t the only reason he’d disapprove. You don’t run in our circles. You might get invited in, but you weren’t raised around elites like I was.”
“Neither was your father.”
She leaned forward, desperate to get him to understand. The entire charade depended on him seeing that her world was just as dangerous and ruthless as the one he was from. It didn’t matter if everyone was dressed in designer suits or flawlessly cut diamonds. She was willing to bet that her upper class world was just as deadly as whatever his security company was involved in. “Don’t you get it, Jack? My father doesn’t think you’re good enough because you’re self-made like him. Appearances matter to him. He wants to move our family further up. That means I’ll end up with—”
“Some sneering, weak-willed, trust fund type,” Jack bit out, interrupting her.
“It means I’ll end up with someone from very old money or an English lord,” she said, knowing in her heart that she would rather be broke than give in to her father’s choice for an eventual husband. It was another reason why she wanted out. Marrying for anything other than love was too devastating to even consider. Not that she could tell Jack anything about her plans to escape. “Anyway, why do you even care? It’s not like you’re trying to date me for real.”
He paused. Took a bigger sip of his coffee. “So you’re saying that if we put on this show for the whole world your father won’t approve. How bad is his disapproval?”
“I might be able to play this off as momentary rebellion on my part, but he’ll take it out on you,” she warned. “You need to be ready for that.”
“That lines up with my suspicions. From what I’ve seen, he isn’t one to mess with,” Jack said. “I’ll be on my guard.”
“You need to take every precaution necessary,” she said firmly. “My father is merciless when it comes to protecting his interests. If he sets his sights on you, that means your company might be in jeopardy. Plus, he’ll try to look in to you. Look for anything he can use against you to get you out of the way.”
“Got it,” he said, his voice tight. “Though for this to work, we’ll have to be seen publicly somewhere. Sell it so that enough people know about it, including your father.”
“You did tell your friend that we were celebrating an anniversary,” she said. “That makes it sound like we’ve been together a while.”
“It’ll be easy to convince him it’s a one-month anniversary,” he said. “That way the people who know us won’t get suspicious about why we haven’t told them about a long relationship.”
“I suppose that could work,” she said. “We’ll have to figure out how to explain that to my father, though.”
“Keeping the timeline short might be a way to keep his anger as minimal as possible,” Jack said.
“Maybe,” she murmured. “Maybe not.”
“There’s no turning back now,” he said. “Not if I want to get a business deal.”
She took a sip of her orange juice while she thought things over. “If you want a security contract with him, you might be throwing it all away by dating his daughter. Why jeopardize such a lucrative deal just to get close to this lobbyist friend of yours anyway?”
“This is a long term investment,” he said smoothly. “If I want to expand my security firm into the transportation business, I’m going to need allies throughout the entire industry. It doesn’t hurt to network as widely as possible.”
“I guess,” she said with a frown, though she had a nagging feeling he still wasn’t telling her the full story. “You’re the business expert, after all.”
“Don’t sell yourself short, Cassandra,” he said. “Everything I’ve seen from you shows that you’re already a skilled negotiator. I might learn as much from you as you learn from me.”
Her face heated the way it had all the other times he had complimented her. First he had said he was impressed by the painting she had restored. Then he had told her that she was tough. Now this.
Plus, he had called her an artist yesterday. Cassandra had never thought of herself as one. Not really. Not when there was so much talent in the world. Though she had created her own art, she had used it to decorate the penthouse. Never had she actually displayed it anywhere. She had always thought of herself as a dabbler and an appreciator of fine art, rather than as an artist herself. It felt strange to see herself in a new light. Strange and liberating.
“Well, I guess we’ll both be on our toes from now on,” she said.
Suddenly her phone rang, and she picked it up from the table. Her heart sank. This time it was her father.
Nerves fraying at the thought of a conversation with him, she answered the phone. “Dad?”
“What’s this about you staying in the penthouse I gave to Landry?” her father barked.
“We worked something out,” she said, swallowing hard. Her new living arrangement wasn’t the only detail she needed to tell him. “I get to keep living here. We both agreed.”
“Why the hell would Landry agree to that?”
“Well—”
“Whatever you do, don’t agree to a damn thing until he’s signed that gaming certificate.” Her father paused. “What’s with you? Landry isn’t there right now, is he?”
“He’s here,” she confirmed.
“Hand over the phone,” her father ordered bluntly.
Frowning, she lowered the phone and stretched her arm out across the table. “It’s my father. He wants to talk to you.”
~*~
JACK TOOK THE PHONE from Cassandra with a raised eyebrow. “This is Landry.”
“What are you up to?” Leo Monahan’s voice was cold. Sharp as razor blades.
“Your daughter and I have a deal,” Jack murmured.
“Why the hell would you work out a deal with her?” Monahan demanded. “You made this deal with me. Not with her.”
“I make deals with a lot of people, Leo,” Jack said, keeping his tone even. As much as he wanted to tell Monahan to go to hell, getting into an argument over the phone wasn’t in anybody’s best interests right now. “I have a right to make things fair with your daughter.” He left it there. Not adding anymore, but also showing Leo that he respected his daughter—more than her own father did.
He needed to sell this fake relationship with Cassandra. Not to mention, Jack didn’t want Monahan to direct his ire at his daughter. From what she had admitted just minute earlier, Cassandra’s father was beyond controlling. The urge to shield her from that was overriding everything.
“The Gentleman’s Club owners sent over the certificate that you need to sign to finalize the bet,” Monahan said. “I’ve already signed it, so you’re to come to my office immediately. Don’t think for one damn second the subject of my daughter has been closed. I expect you at my office in an hour.”
“We’re not going to be easing your father into the news about our relationship,” Jack told her after he ended the call and handed the phone back to her. “He wants me to sign the agreement at his office in an hour.”
Her eyes widened, concern flashing in them. “You have to be careful.”
The truth was, as much as he was prepared to be on his guard, it was Cassandra who was now filling his thoughts. Jack didn’t want this fake relationship to damage her reputation or her relationship with her father. That surprised him since he really shouldn’t have given a damn about a pampered princess and her caviar problems. But he did care. The way Monahan treated her was unconscionable. No daughter, no matter how rich, deserved to be treated like property.
Anger mounting, he rose to his feet. “I’ll be on my guard when I tell him we’re together.”
She nodded, her grip on her glass tightening. “Okay. You’ll call me when the meeting’s over?”
There was an intimacy to her question. It was the type of request she would have made to a lover.
Jack looked down at her, their gazes holding for a lingering, smoldering moment.
The trouble was, they weren’t lovers. Which made the request so dangerous. The was a tension between them now that was full of so much possibility that Jack was forced to take a step back. Moving any closer to her was too much of a risk. He was liable to touch her or kiss her. Both disastrous choices in the wake of the kiss that had knocked him sideways.
“I’ll call you,” he said finally, and then walked away without daring to look back.
Less than an hour later, a secretary was ushering him into Leo Monahan’s expansive office at the top of Monahan Tower downtown. As tall as the building was, Jack knew that it was nothing compared to company offices in other cities.
“Right on time,” Leo said from his desk. “Why don’t you have a seat?”
Jack gave the secretary a grateful nod as she turned away to leave, and sat down across from Monahan.
“What the hell is all this about my daughter staying at the penthouse?” Monahan asked, his eyes narrowing. “And don’t try to bullshit me about deal-making. There’s no deal to be had after the killing you made at that card game.”
“The card game where you sold your daughter,” Jack observed coldly.
“Don’t give me that judgmental tone. You agreed to those terms, so you’re no better than me.”
“No, I suppose I’m not,” Jack said, hating that Monahan was right on some level. They were similar in many ways. They were both self-made. Both willing to fight metaphorically and literally. Worst of all, they were both keeping certain truths from Cassandra. Jack might not know everything that Monahan was up to, but he was sure the shipping magnate had done things he didn’t want his daughter to know about. Monahan was too close to a criminal conspiracy to be innocent of anything.
“We’re the same, you and I,” Monahan continued harshly.
“Then you’ll be happy to know that Cassandra and I are dating.”
Deafening silence followed. Monahan stared at him. The shock on his face turned to barely contained rage. “What the hell—”
“We haven’t been together for long. Only about a month or so,” Jack said over him.
“You son of a bitch.” Monahan jumped to his feet, fires burning in his grey eyes. “So that card game was a setup. Some sick joke you were playing at my expense. You had my daughter and you tried to rub my nose in it, didn’t you?”
“I didn’t know you’d be at that card game,” Jack said truthfully. Just like he hadn’t expected to find Walker Smith yesterday. A fact he had mentioned to his contact first thing in the morning. Which meant that, right now, his contact was trying to find out if his stroke of luck was a coincidence or something more sinister.
“So this is why you’re letting my daughter stay in the penthouse,” Monahan said angrily. “That wasn’t a negotiating part of the deal. You’re screwing her and letting her stay.” The man had murder in his eyes. “Enjoy getting to screw her while you can, you low down piece of shit, because you’re not good enough for her and I’ll make sure she figures that out.”
“Watch yourself, Monahan. Don’t you talk about her that way,” Jack warned.
“You’re with her so that you can get to me. That’s what this is about,” Monahan said. “I don’t know why just yet, but I’m on to you, Landry. And when I discover the truth, she’ll be the first to know what I find out about you.”
“It won’t be anything worse than what you’ve already done,” Jack said darkly. Though it might not be worse, Jack knew that if anyone found out his real motives his life would be in jeopardy. There was a very good chance that Monahan was dangerous, and willing to kidnap an innocent target to further his own ends. Which meant that, if he found out the truth, he wouldn’t hesitate to violently get rid of Jack. Pretending to date Cassandra might be the only thing keeping his cover intact right now.
“You don’t know what I’m capable of, son,” Monahan said with a snarl.
“I already know,” Jack shot back. “If you want to do some trafficking with your own daughter, then you’re obviously a sick man.”
It was a low blow, but Jack meant every word. Monahan was scum for using his daughter, as far as he was concerned.
Monahan’s face reddened with rage. “You leave my daughter out of this from now on, you bastard.”
“She’s my girlfriend,” Jack said. “Which means that even without your sick, twisted bet she’s mine to do with as I please.” Just saying the words made him nauseated, but he had to bullshit as much as possible to get Monahan to take him seriously. From what he knew it was better to have Monahan’s hatred, because it was usually tangled up with his respect. Being liked was often a sign of pity, and the mission demanded that Jack kept Monahan’s attention.
“You don’t get to fucking touch her,” Monahan spat out, shaking as he spoke.
“Nothing you say matters.” Jack got to his feet and turned around. “Cassandra is mine.”
“How about another poker game?”
Jack turned back to watch Monahan pick up a piece of paper and saunter across the room. “Say that again?”
Monahan handed him the paper. “You need to sign this to make our deal official. But if you want to, say, try your luck again, I’ve got an invitation to the Gentleman’s Club with your name on it. Maybe I’ll win Cassandra back this time. Take her off your hands for good.”
Cassandra was not a bargaining tool. It sickened him to think her own father would use her and pretend to protect her in the same breath. Jack shoved the paper into his jacket pocket and gave a nod. As much as he hated the man, Jack needed to stay as close to Monahan as possible. At least until he figured out his plans with the lobbying firm. “And maybe, old man, I’ll beat you at your own game all over again.”
