Crowning His Unlikely Princess

‘Don’t worry about the girls,’ he said, giving her shoulder a light squeeze as he leaned down to kiss her cheek. ‘I’ll look out for them while you’re gone.’

Cassidy murmured her appreciation as he handed Logan’s driver her suitcase. She especially didn’t feel fine as she followed Gordon down the short walkway and climbed into the back of the town car. She felt more of a pushover than ever.

Her sister’s comments kept replaying in her head, particularly the one about her being secretly in love with her boss, as she glanced over to find him sprawled in the back of the car like a disgruntled model wearing faded jeans and a knit sweater that hugged his muscular frame. She really wished that he didn’t look so good because she couldn’t deny that the flashes of sexual chemistry she’d felt in his apartment earlier had seriously unsettled her. Particularly since they hadn’t gone away as she’d hoped. It was as if seeing him half-naked had revealed a deep-seated desire inside herself she hadn’t even known she possessed. And she needed to close it down. Now.

Despite what Peta said, she was happy with her life. She didn’t need anything else, and she wasn’t about to jeopardise her job by making the fatal error of creating more out of this unwanted attraction to her boss than actually existed. Today was just one of those days and tomorrow she’d be back to normal. Until then she’d grit her teeth and focus on work.

‘Why are you wearing a suit?’

His voice was low and smooth in the confines of the darkened car.

Cassidy glanced at him. ‘Because we’re going on a business trip.’ And, in her view, clothes maketh the person.

Growing up in a small, conservative parish, you soon learned that the way you dressed mattered a lot. She knew what it meant to be gossiped about and turned into an outcast. After their mother had deserted them Peta had become a bit of a wild child, running with the wrong crowd and falling pregnant by the town rebel at sixteen. The townsfolk had gone from supportive to vitriolic, and in the blink of an eye the Ryan girls were bad news. Then Cassidy had inadvertently added to their newfound notoriety in a way that had seemed to solidify her family’s reputation in the eyes of their town.

She still remembered how devastating it had felt to walk down the street and know that everyone was whispering about you behind your back. Their father had lost his job, having to find work in a nearby parish, leaving her and Peta alone for long periods of time.

Finally they had moved and things had slowly improved, but with twin babies to clothe and feed, they had all gone into survivor mode. During that time Cassidy had vowed to step out of the mould she’d been placed in so that now, when people met her, they saw the smart, capable woman that she was and not the downtrodden girl she had once been.

‘It’s late,’ Logan said, dragging her mind out of the past she’d left behind. ‘And we’ll be flying all night. I don’t expect you to be uncomfortable.’

‘I won’t be.’ And even if she was she’d never let him know.

Wondering if she was going to get anything right today, she pulled her tablet out of her bag to check her emails. What she needed to do was think of this unexpected trip to Arrantino as a godsend because it would give her a chance to work up a plan and think clearly about her next move.

Because no matter how much she hated the thought of it, her sister was moving out and Cassidy had no clue as to what she would do next. She couldn’t afford to live alone, but the thought of getting a new flatmate depressed her. What if the person she chose turned out to be a weirdo? Or what if things didn’t work out between Peta and Dan? Perhaps she should remain alone in case her sister and the twins needed to move back in again. The whole situation made her feel vulnerable and rejected—two emotional states she worked very hard to avoid.

Just as she had worked hard to help her sister out, upgrading to a larger place when Peta and the twins had moved to New York so she could be on hand to support them. Peta had barely been able to make ends meet since the twins had been born and as Cassidy had been finishing an online degree at Colombia, it had made sense for them to all move in together.

But she really wanted to ask Peta if she was sure about Dan. After she’d had the twins Peta had vowed to never trust another man again. She’d devoted herself to bringing up her girls and giving them a stable life and, okay, maybe it had been short-sighted to think that Peta would never meet another man again, but Cassidy had believed her when she’d said she was done with men. They had even joked that if there were any good men left in the world they wouldn’t come near the Ryan sisters.

‘Are you planning to turn that on, or just stare at it the whole time?’

Cassidy blinked, embarrassed to discover that she had become so engrossed by memories of the past that she had yet to turn on her device. ‘I had an argument with Peta,’ she admitted with a slight grimace. ‘It’s distracted me.’

Logan’s brow climbed his forehead. ‘Over you coming with me, I presume.’

‘Yes.’

‘You did explain that it’s just business.’

‘Of course,’ she said briskly. ‘But apparently I’m always putting work ahead of my social life. It’s unhealthy.’

‘Peter sounds a little demanding. I hope this isn’t going to interfere with your work.’

‘Not at all.’

Although hadn’t Peta’s announcement about her engagement been the thing to put her in a spin in the first place?

Logan must have noted something in her expression because he scowled. ‘You had better be sure because I need you to be your usual self while we’re in Arrantino.’

‘I know you’re referring to how many times I mucked up today,’ she said, ‘but that was out of the ordinary.’

‘I want ordinary.’

Well, if the

re was an annual award for Miss Ordinary she’d win it uncontested. ‘You’ve got it.’ She gave him a tight smile.