Any Way You Want Me - By Jamie Sobrato Page 0,25
family plans.”
Another shrug. “Yeah, I do.”
“You sure about that drink? You could keep me company while I cook.” She surprised herself with the insistence that he stay.
For whatever silly reason, she wanted companionship—anyone’s, apparently.
“Sure, some water would be great.”
“Let me just print these recipes, and I’ll be all set.”
Five minutes later she was wrist deep in the stuffing for her mushrooms, and Drew was busy hollowing out the mushrooms’ centers, even after she’d insisted he didn’t need to help. He’d claimed he couldn’t sit still and watch other people work, so she’d given in.
“You cook at home?” she asked.
“Not much. I’m always forgetting some important ingredient. Guess I don’t have the patience to be a great cook.”
“And I don’t have what it takes to be a computer genius.”
“So have you and Yasmine been friends long?” he asked.
“We met in college. I was a struggling grad student, and she was a prodigy acing all her classes without cracking a book.”
“A grad student. Let me guess—business? International relations?”
“Am I that obvious? I earned my MBA with lots of blood, sweat and tears.”
If he knew she’d really spent most of her college years working as a stripper, he’d have seen her in a totally different and not nearly so pleasant light. Cass saved that bit of information for her closest friends and confidantes—a category where the men in her life simply didn’t fit.
“So what do you do now?”
“I’m VP of marketing at an investment company downtown.”
“Wow, a vice president. Do you have your own office and everything?”
“Of course.” She glanced over and caught an odd smile on his lips. “What?”
He looked at her, and his smile faded. “Oh nothing.”
“No, really, you were smiling. You probably think I’m a cliché, don’t you? The stereotypical career-driven female with no time for a life.”
“Not at all. I swear, I wasn’t thinking anything like that, and you clearly have a life.”
“Then tell me what you were thinking.” Definitely the earliest Cass had ever made that request of a guy, and probably a welcome kiss-of-death for this doomed flirtation.
“I was thinking, it’s really sexy that you’re a high-powered career woman with your own office.”
She laughed, but secretly she was flattered.
“You think?” Cass had always considered the whole female exec thing pretty sexy, too, but she’d never heard a man express the sentiment.
“Guess I’ve got a thing for women in powerful places.”
Cass stared at the glob of mushroom stuffing she’d formed in the bowl. She’d been mixing it furiously with her hands as they talked, and now it was ready to be used as filling for the mushroom caps. But her mind was a million miles from finger foods. It occurred to her then that what Drew had said about her job wasn’t just flattering. It was an incredible…turn-on.
Her plans to ditch Drew at the earliest opportunity weren’t sounding so great now. In fact, she was beginning to wonder what lay beneath his unpolished exterior. Could computer geeks be sexy, too? Never one to shy away from the big questions, she decided to face the matter head-on.
Cass’s hands were covered in stuffing, and she brushed them off as best she could. Then she scooped up a glob with her finger and closed the distance between herself and Drew. “Want a taste?”
He spun around, and she nearly pinned him between herself and the counter. “Um, sure,” he said, looking a little perplexed by her proximity.
Up close he had a thoroughly male presence, and she was only a few inches away, close enough that if she shifted her hips, she’d bump against him.
She lifted her finger to his mouth, and it occurred to her only then that he might be one of those fussy guys with hygiene issues. If she had to point out to him that she’d washed her hands before diving into the mushroom stuffing—
But she didn’t.
He took her hand in his and guided her finger into his mouth, then let his tongue caress it, lingering and tasting long enough to make her panties wet. He may have had no fashion sense, but he knew how to work over a finger. And if he knew how to work her there…
Cass slid her finger from his mouth, then caught the look of confusion in his eyes, and she flashed a smile.
“Thanks,” she whispered.
“For cleaning your finger off?”
“Yeah.”
“Tastes good,” he said. “The stuffing, I mean.”
There was a pause, not exactly an awkward one. Cass suddenly wanted a better feel for his lips. When he kissed, did he use his tongue as