“Cass. I know you. You can’t have changed too much over the years. At least I hope you haven’t.”
Before she could figure out how to respond to that, he rounded the desk and took her hand to hold it tight in his surprisingly smooth one. For a guy who’d always spent a lot of time outdoors, his skin should be rougher. It was a testament to GB Skin and the effectiveness of his products that it wasn’t.
She stared at his chiseled jaw, gorgeous hazel eyes and beautiful face framed by the longish brown hair he’d always favored and something unhitched in her chest.
Gage had broken her so thoroughly because she’d once given this man her soul.
That hadn’t been an accident. A mistake, surely, but not because she didn’t realize what she was doing. She’d fallen in love with Gage willingly. He’d filled her, completely. Because he understood her, believed in her. Taught her, pushed her, stimulated her.
All of it rushed back and she went a little dizzy with the memories of what had been holy and magnificent about their relationship.
“Say yes,” he prompted, squeezing her hand. “I promise not to mention how boring you are.”
Despite everything, she laughed, oddly grateful that he had figured out how to get her to.
“Yes,” she said. There’d really never been another choice. “But we split the check.”
He couldn’t be allowed to affect her. The good stuff about their relationship didn’t matter because at the end of the day, Gage didn’t do commitment and never would.
“That part’s nonnegotiable,” he said with a wicked smile. “I’m paying. After all, I bullied you into it.”
Mission accomplished. He had no clue he’d spent this entire conversation persuading her into exactly what she wanted to do. For that alone, she returned the smile. “You haven’t seen the price of the obscenely expensive wine I plan to order.”
“I’ll pick you up at eight,” he said, clearly happy to have gotten what he wanted, though why he considered dinner such a coup was beyond her. He had an angle here that she hadn’t yet discovered.
She watched him leave. That gave her nearly ten hours to figure out how to keep Gage at arm’s length while cozying up to him. Hours she’d use to figure out how to pump him for information while keeping him in the dark about her motives.
Ten hours to figure out how to seduce answers out of Gage Branson without falling for him all over again. All she had to do was focus on his sins and the rest would be a walk in the park.
* * *
Gage knocked on Cass’s door at seven fifty-five.
Nice place. A bit too glass-and-steel for his tastes but Cass’s house overlooked a big lake with a walking trail around it. His own house in Austin was near a lake. Funny how their tastes in views had aligned all these years later.
She swung open the door wearing a sheer lacy dress that hugged her body in all the right places. Cranberry-colored, which was somehow ten times racier than red would have been, it rendered him speechless. When he’d told her to wear a dress, he’d fully expected her to wear anything but.
His body sprang to full attention. He could not get a handle on her.
“You’re early,” she said with an amused brow lift. “I like an eager man.”
The blood that should have been stimulating his brain into a snappy response seemed to have vacated for a warmer locale in the south.
Cass wasn’t a college student any longer. Not that he was confused. But he was having a hard time reconciling how much she’d changed. Cassandra Claremont, CEO, might be the most intriguing woman on the planet. She was also far more of a challenge because she seemed to have developed Gage-proof armor.
Dinner was supposed to level the playing field. Warm up that ice so he could get her used to the idea of selling him the formula because she recognized what she owed him. She might be willing to talk to the other ladies about the formula, but he needed her to convince them, not talk about it. For that, she had to be totally in his corner. How was he supposed to get her there when he couldn’t get his feet under himself long enough to figure out what game she was playing?
“Uh...” Brain not engaging. He shook off the Cass stupor. “It’s only early if you’re more than fifteen minutes ahead. Technically, I’m right on time.”
“Where are you taking me for dinner, Mr. Right-on-Time?” She cocked her head, sending her dangly diamond earrings dancing.
His body was not interested in food. At all.
“I’ll let you choose,” he allowed magnanimously. “Since you cancelled your previous plans.”