Black Light: Charmed (Black Light Series Book 15) Read online

  Dammit. How much longer is this thing?

  Chapter 4

  Cassandra

  The cheer in the tent was loud, interspersed with the popping of champagne corks, and Cassandra leaned into Delilah, laughing as they were peppered with raining champagne.

  Glasses were filled almost to overflowing as people passed them out, and Delilah handed one to her with a big smile. “All done!”

  “All done!” Cassandra cheered, tapping her glass against Delilah’s before taking a sip. They’d ended up chatting during the change since she was only one model behind, and the other girl had still been anxious at that point, but she seemed to have let it all go now that the show was complete.

  “Let’s do a selfie,” Delilah said, squeezing in next to Cassandra as she held up her phone to snap several quick shots.

  Laughing, Cassandra dug in her bag to grab her phone. “Here, let me text those to myself so we have each other’s numbers!”

  “Definitely!”

  The other girls crowded around, taking more pictures, swapping phone numbers, posting to Instagram, and everyone was sharing usernames to get tagged when Mrs. Casqueiro’s loud voice boomed over all of them. “Attention, please!”

  Everyone slowly settled down, and Cassandra caught sight of Chase behind the designer. Jaxson was standing beside him, whispering something in Chase’s ear that made him grin ear to ear.

  “I want to thank all of you for making my show a success today,” Anna Casqueiro started, allowing everyone to clap again for a moment. “Yes, yes, I am grateful to our models, our stage team, and my wonderful design team, today’s show meant much to me and I feel each of you are now a part of the Casqueiro family.”

  “To Anna!” someone cried out, and everyone echoed them, raising glasses high to drink in her honor.

  “Thank you,” Mrs. Casqueiro said, touching her chest before she stepped to the side to gesture at the men behind her. “And, of course, I owe many thanks to my dear friends Jaxson and Chase for sharing their beautiful venue. We are only the second show to occur at Runway West, but I think it will become popular. Thank you both!”

  More applause cascaded around the tent as Jaxson stepped forward to hug her, followed quickly by Chase as Jaxson faced the group. “It’s really us that are grateful that you brought your beautiful designs to Runway today, Anna. Thank you for trusting us to give your show the care it deserved and thank you to every one of you who helped us pull it off today. Whether you work here at Runway, or were just here for the day, thank you very much for all your hard work.”

  “Salud!” Mrs. Casqueiro called out, raising her glass high, and Cassandra followed suit before turning to clink glasses with the other models crowded around.

  Everyone started talking again, chatting about the various members of the press who had attended, placing guesses on which publications might feature the show — and therefore, the models too. Just because this show was done, it didn’t mean any of them got to rest. Models had to always be promoting, maintaining and building their brand on social media and anywhere else they might appear. Being in one of the shots chosen by a big newspaper could make a career, because like so many other things, it was all about being in the right spot at the right time.

  “You were amazing!” Chase shouted, and Cassandra turned to see him beaming next to her. Standing up, she hugged him, laughing when he lifted her off the floor with a tight hug in return. “Oh my God, it is so good to see you again!”

  “You too, Chase, but put me down!” Laughing, Cassandra shoved his shoulder as he set her down, but he just shrugged.

  “I wanted to sneak out here to see you before the show started, but it was crazy inside. Jaxson was—”

  “Jaxson was making sure everything went off without a hitch for everyone,” Jaxson finished for him, smiling at his husband before he offered his hand. “It is good to see you again, Cassandra. You were beautiful.”

  “Thanks, Jaxson,” she said, shaking his hand before smoothing her dress back down. She’d already changed back into the little swing dress she’d arrived in, and much more comfortable heels, but she was still eye to eye with the ex-model as she faced him. “You guys did a great job with everything. Definitely one of the smoother shows I’ve been in.”

  “Right? It went off without a hitch!” Chase said happily, and Jaxson chuckled as he wrapped his arm around Chase.

  “It helped that it wasn’t a larger show. Our East Coast location can hold a lot more guests, and we have the space for a much larger event.” Shrugging, Jaxson pointed to one side of the tent with the hand holding his champagne. “Over the summer we had a really nice show near the pool, and I think we had twice as many guests because we had more space.”

  “I think I saw pictures from that,” Cassandra said, trying to remember the designer’s name. “Who was it again?”

  “Jiri Kalfar,” Chase answered, but waved his hand quickly. “I don’t want to talk about work though, I want to talk about you. How have you been? How’s Roberta?”

  “I’ve been great.” Shrugging, she gestured around her with a laugh. “I’ve been doing this all over the place. I got booked for a Badgley Mischka campaign, which was amazing, and… it’s been a lot this year. I feel like I’ve barely been home! Roberta is a freaking angel, and I love her so much. She’s intent on getting me everywhere.”

  “Well, don’t let her run you into the ground, Cassandra. She’s good, but she also doesn’t know the meaning of a break.” Jaxson was being serious, and his concern for her made her smile. He’d always been prickly, more than a little standoffish, and she had a feeling that it was probably Chase and Emma’s positive energy rubbing off on him.

  Or fatherhood.

  “I appreciate it, Jaxson.” Reaching over to touch his arm, she gave him a little squeeze. “I mean it, and I promise I’m looking out for myself. My roommate would totally call me out on it if I wasn’t, and if she didn’t, my family would be all over me.”

  “That’s good,” Chase said, leaning into his husband’s side. “But Jaxson is right. It’s why we got out when we did. Emma was obviously a part of it too, but we were burning out, and neither of us want that for you.”

  “My God! You guys are almost as bad as my brothers. I swear, I’m fine. I’m twenty-two and still perfectly happy to end a call at one AM, only to be back up for another at four.” Grinning, she glanced around the hectic tent with all the noise and the people, the designer clothes now securely stored in their hanging bags, the trashed makeup tables, and she shrugged a little. “It’s what I love to do.”

  “Then I’m so fucking happy for you,” Chase said, leaning forward to press a kiss to her cheek. When he stepped back, he rolled his eyes. “Now I think we have to head back in to make the rounds before all the guests leave.”

  “I saw you roll your eyes,” Jaxson whispered, doing a little tsk-tsk under his breath. The blush on Chase’s cheeks had Cassandra biting back another smile as Jaxson looked at her. “Unfortunately, we do need to head back inside. I’m glad we got to see you again.”

  “You guys too!” she called after them as Jaxson led Chase to the entrance of the tent.

  “Holy shit, you know them?” Delilah asked as soon as they were out of earshot, and she turned to find a few models standing close.

  “Yeah, we met years ago. I was still a kid, had no idea what I was doing traveling for runway shows, and I got lucky.”

  The questions tumbled out of the other girls — who, what, when, where, how — and Cassandra tried to answer them without sounding like she was bragging.

  She knew her story wasn’t everyone’s. Many girls fought hard through hundreds of cattle calls before getting booked for the first time, and others were like her. Discovered at a beauty pageant her mom had dragged her to when she was only fifteen. Her first runway had been at sixteen, and a few months later she’d somehow ended up at the same event with Jaxson Davidson and Chase Cartwright.

  It wasn’t as if she hadn’t worked
hard too. Finishing high school on the road, dealing with the pressures of modeling as a career before most kids had their first job, but she’d done it. That didn’t mean Chase and Jaxson weren’t a major part of her success. Their influence, and getting connected to their agent, Roberta Price, had been one of the biggest blessings of her career. Doors had started opening, and in no time, she was booked practically year-round.

  Most days, it didn’t feel real, except she was exhausted enough to know for sure it was.

  “Guys, I’m starving,” Cassandra finally said with an apologetic grin, trying to change the topic from her to food. “What are you doing after this?”

  “I’m in for food,” Poppy immediately replied, clearly excited about the idea.

  “I’m in too,” Maritza added, glancing at Delilah, who rolled her eyes.

  “Of course I’m in.”

  “I can go with you guys, too!” another girl said. “I just need to say bye to a friend that came to see the show.”

  Logan! Fuck.

  “I actually need to say bye to someone before we go too!” Grabbing her bag from the floor, she started backing toward the entrance of the tent. “Meet in the parking lot in fifteen?”

  “Sounds good!” Maritza called back as she hurried out of the tent and across the lawn to the stone stairs.

  Guilt was tugging at her as she ran up the steps, digging in her bag for her phone so she could text him, and then she heard a low laugh.

  “Took you long enough.” The voice made her freeze one stair short of the patio, and she abandoned her search for her phone as she looked up to find Logan Chisholm leaning against the wall. He looked just as good as he had the night of Roulette, the winter sun turning his pale blond hair into a halo as he walked over to her with a wicked smirk. “I was starting to think you were going to ditch me for the little party going on down there.”

  Grinning, she took the last step onto the patio. “And what if I did?”

  “Well…” Logan shrugged a shoulder, his perfectly tailored suit shifting with the movement. “I might have contemplated walking down to join the festivities just to drag you away.”

  “Drag me away?” She bit down on her lip for a second as she pictured that particular scenario before the grin took back over. “I’m not sure that would have gone over well with all the security guards and, you know, the vanilla crowd in attendance.”

  “Doesn’t mean I didn’t think about it,” he replied, moving close enough to be well within the bounds of her personal space. “Just like I’ve been thinking about you.”

  So. Damn. Smooth.

  Laughing, she reached over to pluck at the lapel of his suit jacket. Wool, finely woven, likely Italian. Everything about Logan Chisholm screamed money at the top of its lungs — just like he had the night he’d bid on her. Tweaking his lapel, she leaned in closer to him. “If you’ve been thinking of me, why haven’t you texted? Called?”

  “You haven’t reached out to me either,” he challenged.

  “Who says I wanted to?” she asked, keeping her voice light, but the flicker that passed over his face for a second was definitely not humor. “I’m kidding. I’ve been busy.”

  “I noticed,” he said, a lot more stiffly than before. “I think the last time I tried to get you out on a date, you told me you were in Paris. Before that it was… Rome? And before that it was either New York or Rio de Janeiro or—”

  “I get it,” she cut him off with a chuckle, feeling the guilt trickle back in. “I tried to tell you the night of Roulette that I don’t get to be in L.A. as much as I’d like.”

  “Well, you’re in town now.” Logan grinned, tilting his head toward the mansion as he closed the gap between them. “And I know a great place to spend an evening.”

  “Logan—” she started to explain just how tired she was, but then his lips were on hers, his hands finding the back of her neck and her waist at the same moment to pull her against him. The kiss seared her, bringing back every intense moment they’d had in Black Light together. Every sting of pain, every orgasm, and every explosive kiss that had earned her a free month at the club that she had yet to cash in.

  God, this feels good.

  It had been too long since anyone kissed her, too long since she felt anything like this, and even though it was the wrong thing to do, she leaned into it. Let him take control, claiming her mouth as heat spiraled through her in a way it hadn’t in months. Nipping her lip, he turned them, pressing her back against the stone railing, and then his body was against hers as he reclaimed the kiss. The moan was uncontrollable, only made worse when she heard an echo of it rumbling in his chest, because she wanted more.

  Dropping her bag to the ground, she caught his shirt in her hands to pull him closer, and his fingers tightened on her waist as he broke the kiss to trail more kisses down the side of her neck, nipping her skin.

  “Say yes,” he commanded, and all she could do was let out a little whine as he bit down a little harder on her shoulder. “I want to take you out to dinner, on a real date, and then I don’t care what happens. We can come back here to Black Light, or I can take you to my place and show you my playroom. Just say yes, Cassandra.”

  It was the low growl in his voice, the dominant edge, that had her weakening — but it would be wrong to lead him on. To make him think this could be a thing, a real thing, because she was already booked out for London in January. New York after that. The list went on and on.

  Logan lifted his head, his blue eyes searching hers as he reached up to cup her face in his hands. “Say yes.”

  You want him. You know you want him, and you know exactly how good it will be.

  Swallowing, she wrapped her fingers around one of his wrists and did the only right thing. She said, “No.”

  Chapter 5

  Logan

  It felt like the earth had spontaneously shifted to one side, and as he stared into her eyes the only word he could work past his lips was a confused, “What?”

  Cassandra smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes as she pulled his hand away from her face and shifted out from between him and the railing. “I can’t go on a date with you, Logan.”

  “Yes, you absolutely can,” he argued, running a hand through his hair as she stepped back to put more space between them. “Just say yes, Cassandra!”

  “Logan…” She sighed, shaking her head as she looked at him with what almost seemed to be pity. That was not a look he was used to seeing, and he wasn’t sure if he’d ever seen it. Especially not on the face of a woman he wanted as much as he wanted her.

  Had she really not felt that?

  Kissing her had been like striking a match in a dark room. So much better than he remembered, and then she had pulled him closer. She’d wanted it just as much. Fuck, he’d heard that little moan slip past her perfect goddamn lips!

  Shaking his head, he moved forward, catching her by the waist to pull her close again. “Tell me you haven’t thought about it. Tell me you haven’t spent a single night since we played Roulette remembering our scenes, and I’ll walk away right now. I won’t ever bother you again.”

  “You don’t want to date me,” she whispered, staring directly into his eyes as she told a complete lie. It grated him, and if they weren’t outside Runway in broad daylight, he’d have swatted her ass for it.

  “Don’t tell me what I want, Cassandra, because I think I’ve made it pretty damn clear that I want you.”

  “Logan, you—” A little frustrated screech escaped as she shoved his hands away from her, turning to pace a few steps one way, and then the other.

  He wanted to grab her again, to shake her until she stopped denying the obvious fire between them, but this wasn’t Black Light, and she definitely wasn’t his submissive. Yet.

  “I’m a persistent asshole when I want to be,” Logan finally said, spreading his arms a bit. “If you want me to text you every day asking you out — fine. You want me to be your own personal stalker? Okay. I can do that.”

&
nbsp; That made her stop, her brow furrowing for a second as she stared at him, and then she laughed. At first he thought she was mocking him, but when it continued he found himself smiling despite the confusion and frustration whirling inside him.

  “Did I say something funny?” he asked, fighting the urge to laugh himself.

  “You’re insane, you know that?” Cassandra’s laugh wound down, and she reached up to delicately sweep under her eyes as she grinned at him. “Who on earth offers to stalk a girl?”

  Shrugging, he tucked his hands into his pockets to keep himself from touching her. “Hey, I don’t judge kinks. If you’re into that, I can absolutely stalk you. Maybe wait until you’re alone… take you to my secret lair.”

  She groaned, biting down on her lip for a second as she shook her head. “Don’t tempt me.”

  Fuck.

  He’d already been working toward a hard-on with her pressed against him, but that little bit of sass was about to make it impossible for him to walk back inside Runway with any shred of decorum.

  “Jesus Christ, Cassandra.” He had to swallow to erase the image of taking her, pinning her down, and making her come over and over. “Do you think I’m playing around? That I’d show up here if I didn’t mean every word? I want you, Cassandra, and I’ll do whatever it takes to have you. Stalk you, be your daddy, make you scream — whatever it takes.”

  “You don’t even know me,” she said, but a smile tugged at her lips, and he knew he was close to closing the deal. He had the same thrumming tingle running down his spine that he got at work before something big happened.

  “I’ve already had my whole hand inside you, Cassandra, and you liked it. What more could I do on one date?” Logan felt the grin spreading across his face as she gawked at him for a moment before breaking out into another laugh.

  “I cannot believe you just said that!”