Call Me Casanova, Book Three: The Better Man Read online

  “I've drawn up the papers for you and Eleonore to sign.” Nigel laid out a stack of forms. “Of course, nothing will go into effect until she and Preston are married, thereby protecting both our assets until Preston and Eleonore are official partners.

  Official partners? Was he referring to business or marriage? Cassandra couldn't tell.

  Nigel motioned Abbott to sit at the desk, then laid a pen on top of the first set of forms. “Preston and I have already signed. The sections marked in red require your and Eleonore's signatures.”

  Cassandra watched anxiously as her father picked up the pen. She glanced at Preston, and he smiled. It had a triumphant gloat to it.

  “Abbott?” Nigel said when the older man gripped the pen but had yet to lay it to paper. “Is there a problem?”

  Raising his eyes to Cassandra, he said quietly, “The bible tells us, Cast not your pearls before swine, lest they trample them underfoot, then turn again and rend you.”

  Preston and Nigel exchanged puzzled glances.

  “I know the passage, daddy,” Cassandra whispered thickly.

  “You, Cassandra, are everything to me.” He hung his head, nodding slowly, gazing thoughtfully at the forms before him. “And I think,” he murmured. “That I'm dangerously close to casting my only pearl . . . before swine.” He laid down the pen.

  Nigel frowned. “Abbott? What is going on?”

  Uncertainty pinched Preston's normally smooth face. Cassandra forced herself not to smile with smugness. It's about damn time golden boy Preston didn't get whatever he wanted.

  “I've reconsidered,” Abbott said calmly, and Cassandra could only stare in awe as the powerful, confident man she had always known him to be emerged once again before her eyes. Had Nigel and Preston taken his poor health as a sign of weakness and vulnerability? She bit her lip to keep from laughing. Ha! In your faces, assholes. Abbott stood up and returned to Cassandra's side. “I've decided on an alternate merger.”

  This time, even Cassandra stared at her father in confusion. An alternate merger? He hadn't mentioned any of this to her.

  “Excuse me?” Nigel spoke tight. “Abbott, we have worked long and hard on this deal. I was under the impression it was what we both wanted. To strengthen our forces, provide security for our children. You stated that you wanted Eleonore to be provided for—financially and personally.”

  “And that continues to be my wish,” Abbott replied. “But there is a right way, and a wrong way to go about this. And at my age, you would think I would've recognized the wrong way from the start.” He smiled. “But I suppose even a seasoned businessman . . . and father . . . is subject to a lapse in judgment from time to time.”

  “Daddy,” Cassandra said quietly, “what's going on? What alternate merger are you talking about?”

  Abbott just smiled and squeezed her arm gently, then walked to the door and opened it.

  Cassandra stared in disbelief and mild shock. Her heart raced circles in her chest as her breath quickened. “Gregory?”

  He hadn’t left? But why...

  ______________________

  His entire focus rested on Cassandra. He needed to see how she truly felt about him being here. Early that morning, when he'd gone to say his goodbyes to Abbott, the man had proved to be much more observant than even Gregory had expected. With a little coaxing, he'd gotten Gregory to finally admit to himself his true feelings for Cassandra.

  When Gregory had expressed his doubts about Cassandra's feelings for him, Abbott had chuckled and told him, “My health may be failing, but I can still see . . . and hear.”

  Gregory recalled his face burning at the man's words and his own response. “Last night . . . it wasn't me she was with.”

  “I know.” Abbott had nodded.

  “How?”

  Abbott had smiled and replied, “Because it wasn't real.”

  It had taken a moment for Gregory to register what the man had been implying.

  “I'm rather surprised you didn't pick up on that, all things considered.” Abbott had seemed rather amused by Gregory's lack of interpretation of what he had heard. In truth, he had been surprised as well.

  Abbott admitted that he’d known upon arrival at the manor that it wasn't the first time Gregory and Cassandra had met. And he'd noticed right then and there that they had already been falling in love, though neither clearly had a clue.

  Now he stood before Cassandra, searching her eyes, praying her father had been right. As her eyes glossed over and her lower lip slowly tucked between her teeth, his tension and fear melted away.

  ______________________

  Her body trembled, and tears filled her eyes. Gregory held her gaze, looking nowhere else but at her, not caring about the reactions of his father and brother. He stepped into the room.

  “What are you doing here?” Preston demanded, but there was a shimmer of fear in his tone. For the first time, the man feared his younger brother's power. And hopefully felt inferior beneath it.

  Gregory didn't answer him, didn't acknowledge him. He walked up to Cassandra, cupped her face and kissed her. Not just a peck on the lips but one of his knee-weakening, mind shattering, heart-attack-inducing kisses. She clutched his shirt and sagged against him, a sense of peace as she hadn't felt in a long time rushing through her, flushing out all memories of Preston.

  She didn't know what had stopped him from leaving, thought about asking, but refused the break the kiss long enough to pose the question.

  “What in the hell is going on?” Nigel insisted sharply. “Gregory—”

  “It seems,” Abbott interjected, “that my instinct to take on a Stanton was on-point.” He looked at Gregory and Cassandra as their kiss finally broke and Gregory pulled her into his arms. “The details were just bit a fudged as to which Stanton that should be.”

  Preston scoffed. “You cannot be serious, sir.”

  “Oh, but I am, dear boy,” Abbott said.

  “If you put the fate of your business in Gregory's hands, you can kiss it goodbye. He will bring you to ruin.”

  Abbott sighed and looked at the young man sadly. “A little faith goes a long way,” he murmured softly. “Trust me, I know.”

  Though Nigel tried to reason with her father, Abbott refused to budge. Cassandra didn't give Preston so much as a last glance as Gregory walked her out of the study.

  Seated in the back of the limo with Gregory and her father as they left the manor behind, Cassandra leaned against Gregory's warm body as his strong arms slid around her and his lips touched her hair. She closed her eyes and smiled.

  “I believe I'm falling for you, Gregory Stanton,” she whispered.

  She felt his lips curve into a smile against her hair as he murmured, “Call me Casanova.”

  ###

  Other books in the Call Me Casanova Trilogy

  Call Me Casanova, Book One:What Meets the Eye

  Call Me Casanova, Book Two: An Affair to Forget