Page 15 of Midnight & Magic
“Hey, stop worrying about me. Work will be there when we get in. An extra couple of hours at the office will not make or break me for the world markets, okay?” He said, pulling away from her to meet her gaze.
She lowered her head and squeezed her eyes closed to blink back the tears that were welling around the corners of her eyes.
“You don’t have to do this for me. In fact, you shouldn’t have to do this for me.” She said as she lowered her head and stared at the ground.
He raised her chin to meet his gaze.
“Hey, it’s like you said, I’m your boss, and I’d be a horrible one if I didn’t recognize that my employees need a work/life balance. Now please, let me do this for you. I’m only suggesting the personal shopper, so you are comfortable tomorrow when you walk into the office. Men don’t have the same stigma for the ‘walk of shame.’ Our suits are all the same color.” He said with a smirk.
Cassidy smiled back and palmed his cheek.
“I don’t deserve this.”
“You deserve this! God, I hate that your ex of yours for making you feel this unworthy! I guess I have my work cut out for me—don’t I?” He said with another smile while getting up from the lounger. He extended out his hand.
“Come on—I’ll show you to the guest room and let you change.”
They walked down the rest of the long hallway until it led them to the opposite side of the penthouse, where all the bedrooms were. Camden ducked into one room, and Cassidy followed.
“This is my room. I’m gonna grab you a tee shirt.”
Cassidy smiled a little and crossed her arms as he disappeared behind a door that appeared to be his master bath area. She looked around at the decor and couldn’t believe how elegant everything looked for such sleek, stark lines in the room. It was minimal. Tasteful grays, whites, and blacks dominated the room’s color scheme.
His bed was immense! It looked more prominent than a standard king, and Cassidy wondered why a single man would want a bed so large. Then the thought of him being the most eligible bachelor in New York hit her like a ton of bricks. She wondered exactly how many of his one-nighters slept with him in that bed. Though, it seemed as if only one side had been disturbed. She thought that strange because the men she knew were always sprawled out—even if she was sleeping on one side. Her ex-husband was especially notorious for kicking her out of bed because of his sleeping habits. And by the end of their marriage, they were sleeping in two entirely separate rooms altogether.
Camden came back with a tee shirt within a few quick minutes.
“You have a gorgeous room.” She said as she took the shirt from him.
“Thanks. I wish I could enjoy it more. I’m in the office more than I am here. And I often wonder why I didn’t take the top floor as my office across the street.” He said with a half-laugh, but Cassidy understood he wasn’t kidding.
“You really need to relax more.”
“Yeah, someday. But that someday isn’t today. Come on, let’s get you settled in the guest room.” He said as he motioned to the door.
Cassidy walked through the threshold, and Camden followed, motioning her to enter a room directly across from him. Her stomach did a backflip from the mere thought of knowing how close he’d be to her all night. It was a little unsettling, and she wondered if she’d get any sleep at all. She prayed a cold shower would suffice her desire for him, and hopefully, the water would also help her sleep.
“I’ll leave you to it. Holler if you need anything. I’ll be right across the hall.”
He closed the door and returned to his bathroom to turn on the shower. The need for the cool water pelting down his body to wash away his jumbled thoughts was overwhelming as his head seemed to get more and more screwed up with each passing minute he spent with her. They weren’t bad thoughts. Only ones that were foreign to him. It had been a long time since he considered inviting anyone to his place. Sure, he’d had one-night stands, often to satisfy his manly needs. But he always took them to a hotel—never to his home. He didn’t want any fling knowing where he lived because they wouldn’t be around long enough for him to even make breakfast.
But Cassidy was different. He didn’t mind the slightest bit about her getting closer to him for some reason. Perhaps it was because she bore all of herself when she had her attack. That would make anyone vulnerable. And maybe he needed to open up after she inadvertently did. But he understood his feelings for her were so much more than what she recognized yet.
She was his. A perfect match. A perfect mate. And he had no intention of letting her go just based on that alone. He hoped she would, in time, understand that they were meant to be together. By her heightened heartbeat when he was around and her heightened scent, she was nervous around him—hence—she, too, was attracted to the idea of being with him. But he wondered if that was enough. Would she flake on the fact that they were meant to be together? Because her panic attack seemed to stem from being worried about dating the boss. And he didn’t want her thinking that way.
Camden would never hurt her. He wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. He wanted to marry her, and if they were married, he’d promote her as a co-CEO since he knew she was his equal.
He turned to face the showerhead, and water flowed down his face. It was refreshing to have it pelt his cheeks and a much-needed relaxation after such a long day with the markets. He didn’t want to tell her, but that phone call was important. The markets were plummeting because of the start of a human Coronavirus pandemic in China. He wasn’t sure how the world—not just America—would handle it. He really needed to go in early tomorrow. Still, given the severity of the situation, he planned to have a Zoom meeting with his Tokyo colleagues around 3 AM. As soon as he got off the call, he’d help her pick an outfit and get the two of them to work. He’d hand her the notes from the meeting to type up and send them out to his colleagues in London and Paris. That would probably get them through at least noon before he’d have to see how much farther the market had declined. A thought hit him about taking her out for an early liquid dinner if the markets did, in fact, go down the toilet by the end of the day. He knew he could use her company to commiserate. Still, he wasn’t sure if that was a good idea because he didn’t want her worrying about her job with the financial status of the world’s economy so far up in the air.
The only good thing about the human pandemic—at least according to his colleagues in Japan was that vampires were immune to the disease. This was positive news since vampires, out of all the magical creatures that lived among the mortals, needed blood to survive. And since the disease was spreading to animals, to succumb to such a disease would have been devastating to the vampiric race. Witches and shifters also seemed immune. All of this was positive because the magicals knew they’d all have to work together, despite their differences, to help the mortals rebuild the planet. He prayed under his breath to the gods that this pandemic wouldn’t be as devastating as the Spanish flu, but he wasn’t all that hopeful. Back then, people didn’t gather in sizeable crowds all that often. They only went to church. Today’s society is far more different. They love gathering in enormous crowds for food and entertainment and attending church. He had no idea how he or the others would fix it, but he had to find a way for the sake of all the mortal and immortal races.
He turned off the water and toweled off. He dressed in a tee-shirt and some jogging shorts before firing up his laptop to get onto the Zoom call early. Sure enough, he was the first one there. It was not a surprise to him. He was always the first to be anywhere. It wasn’t like him to keep people waiting. He didn’t like it being done to him, so he tried to give people that same courtesy. To him, being late was a sign of selfishness. It doesn’t take a massive amount of effort to be on time to meet up with someone as long as you prepare early.
Perpetually late people always seem to want you to understand their lateness, and that would be fine if they understood about deadlines, specifically the deadlines of the person they were meeting. And no person he has ever come across that is always late seems to ever understand that. Nor do they know their complete disregard for the other parties involved. It also seemed that this selfish practice seeped into the women that constantly wanted his time, attention, and money. He could never understand the human condition to ride someone’s proverbial coattails. Still, it always seemed to happen, and often. Just once in his life, he wished others would put him first in front of their own selfish agenda. And he hoped Cassidy was that person.
She showed up early for her interview, which made him want to hire her for that action alone. She also was on time for the 3 PM dinner he scheduled for the two of them and was highly attentive when he spoke to her about himself. He knew because the most astute people add to the conversation with bits and pieces of their own lives to show an understanding of yours. Everything proved to him she was perfect in every way, and he couldn’t wait to convince her of that starting in the morning.
Within a few brief moments, his colleagues pinged in one by one. Each showed concern over the pandemic, and each wondered how they could keep the market running while still keeping the vulnerable humans safe. It was suggested to start up a rumor that computer currency was the wave of the future, and the idea had a bit of merit. Still, Camden was worried that the mortals who loved the tangibility of paper money would get scared. And then pandemonium would supersede the pandemic.
