His smile warmed his whole face and made Cassie's stomach fill with excited butterflies. She felt like a teenage girl getting smiled at from her crush.
“Will you come to dinner with me tonight?” he asked, green eyes hopeful.
She spoke before thinking. “Sure.” Though, with him smiling at her like that, she would have said yes to just about anything he asked of her.
He grinned wider, and the butterflies increased their dancing in her stomach.
“I'll text you the address to my apartment,” he replied. “We can go from there.”
“Okay.”
There was an awkward silence for a moment as they both just stood there and smiled. Cassie wasn't sure what she was supposed to say next. Should she apologize or kiss him? The bed was right there, and her body said that it was a good idea, but she was at work.
“I should let you pack,” she said, going with the safest option for her job. “Thank you again for your understanding about alternate lodging.”
Wyatt nodded. “Of course. Thank you for kicking me out.”
Cassie rolled her eyes and laughed. She looked up at him and his beautiful green eyes. Her chest tightened, and she bit her lower lip without meaning to. She didn't stop to think. She just went over and kissed his cheek. He smelled like fresh soap, and his face was smooth from a recent shave. It made goosebumps flow down her arms.
“Thank you,” she said, and quickly darted out the door.
She'd gone against at least three different policies in the last five minutes.
Everything about Wyatt was against corporate policy.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Cassie
The rest of the day was a nightmare.
The press kept the lobby filled and nearly caused a car accident when they saw Wyatt's SUVs leaving the parking lot. Even after they learned he was no longer staying at the hotel, many of them refused to leave.
They'd figured out that Cassie was the mystery woman from the night before. The press figured out why Wyatt Landers would be staying in a regular business hotel faster than Lenny did. It wasn't long before they were trying to sneak into her office and were calling her work phone non-stop.
She couldn't leave her office. Every time she stepped out to check the linen supplies or go to the employee areas to post the schedule, some reporter was hounding her for information.
Where had Wyatt Landers been hiding? How did she know him? Were they in a relationship? What was he doing back in the states? Was he going to disappear again? What did this mean for his company?
She didn't have answers for any of them. She didn't even have answers for herself.
“No comment” and “You should ask him yourself” were repeated until she grew hoarse.
It wasn't even lunchtime, and she was exhausted. It was easy to see now why Wyatt had chosen to hide out on a tropical island. A deserted one sounded even better at this point. She wished the reporters would just leave her alone.
There was a knock on her office door.
“Please go away,” she shouted at it. “I'm not interested in any interviews.”
The doorknob rattled, and she picked up her stapler, ready to chuck it at whoever decided it was a good idea to open the door. The door opened, and she let the stapler fly.
The stapler crashed against the wall, luckily avoiding Lenny's head by inches.
He jumped in the air and looked at her completely startled. “Misuse of company materials is not allowed, Miss Turner.”
Cassie blushed a deep crimson and hurried over to the fallen stapler. It was luckily unbroken and still in perfect working condition. “I am so sorry, sir. It's been a rough day.”
“Indeed it has,” he agreed. He cleared his throat. “That's actually why I'm here.”