Lost and Found (25 page)

"I'm sure you're wondering why I use the one upstairs,
huh?" I nodded my head and grinned back at him.

"There is a steam room with a sauna upstairs and trust me,
when my muscles get sore, it's a blessing to have access to
the sauna."

I nodded my head to let him know that I understood. He led me back down the hallway and across the room where the
elevator was, and led me to the other side of the wing and that's when I realize we were walking into his bedroom.

I was actually expecting a bigger room than this. It's not
much bigger than the suite that I had on the same floor as
the children. I would assume that he and Vanessa shared a bigger room than this. Not like the huge massive one on the
top floor, but close to that size. I also noticed the decor was all male with a lot of dark colors mixed in.

"This was the nursery that adjoined mine and Vanessa's
room. When she died, I closed our room up and turned this
into my master suite. I just couldn't sleep in there anymore
without her. I'm sure you could understand why."

Oh, indeed I did. It was the same reason I never went back
home and had my dad sell our old house. I just couldn't
face it. I grabbed his hand and gave him a reassuring grip,
letting him know that I did understand.

"Down this hallway is the library and the movie theatre. The
library is big and I have a lot of first editions in there, so
feel free to use it any time you want."

It was very big and it was nothing but wall to wall books on
each shelf and a lot of artwork hanging on each wall, and
I'm sure originals at that. He kept leading me further down
the hallway to the movie theatre, and once again, it was a
jaw dropping moment. You could easily fit 100 people in
this theatre and I could picture future birthday parties for
the kids.

"This is also one of my favorite rooms. I have the luxury of
getting to watch movies before they're even out in theaters,
so if you think of a movie you'd like to watch, I probably
have it. There's even a popcorn machine up top with all of
the sodas you can think of."

"Wow! I'm very impressed. Claud would love this
room. We usually spend one night a week watching
movies."

"I was thinking we could come up here later tonight, if you
don't mind. A director friend of mine has been harassing
me about watching his movie and giving him my thoughts
on it."

"That sounds fun. I wouldn't mind at all." He grabs my
hand and leads me out of the theatre and we are heading
towards the elevator again.

"So, we are getting closer and closer to the dungeon. Are
you nervous yet?"

I honestly don't know what to say, so I just give him a
sideways grin and shrug my shoulders. The more he talks
about it, has me scared to death. He starts laughing at me.

"I love how I can read you like a book, just by the
expression on your face. Your eyes give you away every
time. They're so big and beautiful and you say a lot with
your eyes, without even having to open your mouth!"

I could say the same thing about you, Mr. Cash! I
immediately turn red, because whatever my eyes were
telling him, had him laughing again.

"I swear you're thinking the same about me right now." I
blushed and put my hands over my mouth, because I know I
didn't just say what I was thinking out loud. How does he
do that?

"It's ok, Liv. I assure you, there are no dead bodies in the dungeon. I'll show you the wine cellar first. If I remember
right, you do like wine. Or would you prefer a
Cosmo?”
That gave him a belly laugh. It seemed so long ago that I
met him and got completely wasted, and I remember griping
to Claudia that I would have preferred wine over her classy
drink order, but I still continued to drink them.

"You must have thought I was crazy the night you met me."
I was dying from embarrassment, but
evidently he thought it was funny. He grabbed my hand and
led me out of the elevator.

"No, I thought you were rather funny, opinionated, and
gorgeous. I couldn't keep my eyes off of you. Couldn't you
tell?" I remembered how I couldn't keep my eyes off of him
and couldn't quit staring at his gorgeous eyes.

"Aside from kicking you when I thought it was Claudia, no. I didn't notice."
There. That should shut him up. He's not looking at me
in the rated PG way we had agreed on, but all I hear is
laughter.

"See what I'm talking about? Funny! Did I tell you that I walked with a limp for three days, because of your kicks? I bet you played soccer in school, didn't you?"

This had me chuckling, because I did play a season my sophomore year, but the coach told me I'd make a better
cheerleader like my friend Claudia, because I was too girly.

"Yes, for one season, but the coach pretty much kicked me
off the team for being too girly."

He grabbed my hand again and started leading me back to
the elevator. I looked around and realized that while we
were talking, we had walked completely around the wine
cellar, which had thousands of bottles from what I could
tell, and were already back to the elevator.

I looked at him and he had a Cheshire cat grin on his face,
as we headed down to the dungeon. The elevator doors
opened and I couldn't move, I was so scared of what I was
going to see.
He started laughing and held his hand out and when I wouldn't take it, he reached in and pulled me into the

Darkness. When the elevator doors closed it, was pitch
black!!

"Are you scared yet, Liv?" Yes! I'm terrified, but I'm not
about to tell HIM that. I try to find my voice, my not
afraid voice.

"Of course not! I'm not afraid of the dark." Especially in
rooms that are referred to as dungeons. Can we turn the lights on already?

"Then how come you've climbed up my body like a cat
climbs up a tree when they're running from a dog?"

Oh my god! He was right. I was literally in his arms and I
could feel his breath at my neck, which had me thinking all
kinds of thoughts and had me forgetting I was in a
creepy dungeon that looked like who knows what, and then
a light comes on. I look around and see boxes everywhere
and old furniture that would belong in an attic, if there was
one.

I look at him and he's laughing at me. Laughing at me so
hard, he drops me and falls to the ground flat on his butt,
patting the floor with his hands and is STILL
LAUGHING.

I crawl over to where he is and start slapping at him and
calling him every name in the book, and he keeps yelling
back for me to stop.

"You had me terrified, you big idiot! I think I just lost 5
years of my life, when the elevator doors shut." He starts
laughing again and tries to catch his breath.

             "Welcome to the dungeon, Olivia! Or should I say the
castle’s version of the attic. I think dungeon sounds better
though, don't you?" And he starts laughing again.

*********************

I'm sitting down on an old retired, but comfortable couch in the "dungeon", looking around the room. Cash is doing his
best to stay away from me, while I calm down from his little
prank that scared the shit out of me. Every time I look at
him, he's staring at me and he just grins and looks in another
direction.

"Ok Cash. I've calmed down, but I will find a way at
paying you back for scaring the shit out of me one day!"
And I will. I'll find some way to pay him back. He
chuckled and walks over to the couch and sits down on the
other end.

"I'm sorry Liv, but I really wish I had a picture to keep
looking at the look on your face. It was priceless!"

He starts laughing again. God, I love his laugh. He can't
control himself, he's so absolutely hysterically laughing.
Again. This has me rolling as well. I couldn't help it. It was definitely one of my top ten moments of funny.

"You laugh now, Cash. All you want. Get it out of your system. And to think, just 24 hours ago I was puking my
guts up and now here you are making fun of me. I see what
kind of friend you are!"

"I'm sorry. You're right. Wait! Did you just say that we
were friends? So does that mean that I'm not just your boss
anymore, as far as how you feel about me?"

Did I just say that? Well, yes I did, but I honestly hadn't
thought of him as my boss all day. Surely he could tell
from how we've been interacting.

"Well yeah, I mean, things feel less formal, don't you
think? After last night? I don't know how you treat your
other employees, but I can't picture any boss taking care of me the way you did last night. You were definitely a God
send to me. Even when I had, ya know, my nightmare.
You took care of me like Claudia would have."

"Claudia's family, so that doesn't count and I think you
know that I want to be more than just friends. Don't you?"

Here we go. This conversation again. But I'm really not
scared of him like I was. I have been thinking all day that
he was going to kiss me at different times, but shockingly, he's been a perfect gentleman.

"Claudia was a friend before we were family. One of the
perks of marrying Derek was her becoming my sister-in-law,
even though we are more like sisters."
I completely avoided his question and by the way he's
looking at me now, I can already tell that he's going to
remind me of just that.

"Do you purposely do that to drive me crazy?" He starts
scooting over closer to me on the couch.

"Do what exactly?" I batted my eyes at him.

I am shocked at myself, because I'm actually flirting with
him. As he's moving closer to me, I extend my legs out to
stop him from coming any closer and he does stop, but what
he did next, I was not prepared for.

He pulled my legs up onto his lap, throws my flip flops
on the floor, starts massaging my left foot, and looks up
at me, as if to ask what we were going to do now.

"Wh what are you doing?" What I meant to say was ‘oh
please don't stop’, because what he was doing felt so good.

"I can play this game too, Olivia. You don't answer my
questions; I don't have to answer yours."

I'm speechless, because now he's gone past my foot up to
my ankle and is heading toward my calf, causing shots of

electricity all throughout my body. He sure knows what
he's doing with his hands, because at this moment I can't
think. He stops and starts on my other foot, which has me closing my eyes and leaning my head against the cushion of the couch, purring like a kitten.

"You like that don't you, Liv?" Oh boy, do I ever. I open my
eyes and look at him, and he's grinning from ear to ear with
heat in his eyes.

"Have you ever had a foot massage before?" I shake my
head no, because I still can't talk. He shakes his head and
mumbles something under his breath.

"What did you just say?" He stops what he's doing,
scoots my legs over, and starts moving up closer to me, until we are side by side and face to face.

"What I said was that I'm beginning to think that you've
never been worshipped the way that you deserve to be
worshipped."

He leaned forward and lightly brushed my lips with his, and
then slowly brushed his lips against each cheek and then
my forehead, leaned back and looked into my eyes with
such intensity, I couldn't breathe.

            "Cash, I feel it too. Just please don't hurt me. I don't
think I could
" He shushes me with his finger and kisses
me right below my ear at my jawline and whispers into my
ear with that deep voice of his that I've come to love.