Fire & Ice ~ The Drake Legacy: Book One by Kari Wray Read Free Book Online Page B

deep waters without a life jacket, and I had the distinct feeling that they were probably all thinking I was just some stupid, silly bimbo, hired more for her looks than her secretarial and organizational skills.  
    At this thought, I decided to knuckle down and work hard; to show them that I was the right person for this job, despite my looks and my accent.  
    I had been planning to color code the diary entries and tidy up the database a little, to make things much easier for Xander — and me — to keep track of all his various different types of appointments.  
    So with a new vigor, I threw myself into my work and before I knew it, most of the afternoon had flown on by. I was still busy typing away, when I was interrupted by a loud buzzing sound, one that I rarely if ever heard. I looked up, puzzled, trying to locate where this odd sound was coming from. Then the little antique intercom speaker to my left crackled into life and out of it came Xander’s voice.  
    “Uh, Cassie? Do you mind coming in here for a moment?”  
    I pressed the little red button beneath the speaker and leaned in to reply.  
    I’d thought that the intercom was just there as a kind of joke; an echo of the kind of offices of old, like you’d see in TV shows about ad executives and such like.  
    “Sure,” I said, chirpily, getting up from my desk and taking a deep breath to steady my nerves, before turning and pushing open the heavy wood door to Xander’s office.  
    He was standing with his back to me, overlooking the sprawling, glinting buildings perhaps watching the a crane that was swinging its heavy concrete and steel load, no doubt another Glacis Inc building project that Xander himself was helming.  
    “Hi,” I said, hearing the obvious tremble in my voice … I hoped to God that he couldn’t hear it too.  
    He turned, smiled briefly, then headed over to his desk and took a seat.  
    I took this as my cue to do the same.  
    “Sorry about my rather garbled answer phone message last night,” he said, not quite making eye contact with me as he spoke, instead concerning himself with his fingernails.  
    I felt my heart begin to pound.  
    My mouth went dry, and when I opened it to speak, no sound came out, and I realized my head had gone blank.  
    “Th-that’s okay,” I croaked, eventually.  
    “I just wanted to ask you something that … well … maybe isn’t particularly work related. If you know what I mean?”
    He looked so shy and boyish, still not quite able to look me in the eye, his cheeks very possibly starting to blush … Was I just imagining it? Or was Xander Drake embarrassed ?  
    “Don’t worry,” I said. “I don’t mind. You can ask me anything you like.”
    The suggestion — the sexual suggestion — was clear in my voice. My whole body was trembling with nerves. I had no idea what he was planning to ask me, but in that moment I felt like I would have said yes to anything …  
    “Oh good,” he mumbled, the red blush spreading even further across his stubbly cheeks. “You see, there’s someone I want to ask to that silly ball thing on Friday night, you know the one? And, well, the thing is, I don’t quite know how …”
    I’d been looking at at that event in Xander’s calendar just moments previously: a glitzy private fundraising ball, for a number of wealthy patrons, contractors and other big-hitters in the development and construction business. The ball was being held at the function room of The Excelsior, an exclusive and sprawling five-star hotel on the other side of the city, right up in the hills. There were plenty of juicy rumors revolving around the debauchery that went on between the rich and famous patrons of The Excelsior that went back as long and as far as anyone could remember.  
    Just then, a thought came to me - an icy cold realization that caused my stomach to jolt with shock and surprise.  
    “It’s the girl you bought the necklace for, isn’t it?” I said,