Catering to the CEO by Samantha Chase Page A

business woman, he already knew that, but it was the way that she passionately spoke about her work and her vision that intrigued him.
    Most women that he knew were shallow; they were either too career oriented and ended up coming off as being cold or they had no desire to have a career and merely marry someone to support them for the rest of their lives. 
    While Cassie was definitely career oriented and seemed to have big plans for the expansion of her business, she came off as anything but cold.  Her ideas sparked his own imagination and she had a way of talking that wrapped around you and made it easy to visualize whatever it was that she was saying.  The only flaw that she had was that one brief meeting in his office.
    He shrugged that thought aside, enjoying himself too much to let it get him down.  Maybe she’d had a bad day.  Hell, he had them a lot. For this weekend, however, that lone meeting, the only blemish on her impeccable record was going to be forgotten.  Adam had big plans for this weekend and only some of them were business related. 
    “So I’m thinking that, weather permitting, you can make the deck into a fabulous dining venue.  We can add twinkly lights and rent some extra tables and chairs, use some real linen table coverings…you know, move what’s inside to the outside so that your guests can enjoy the sounds and smells of the ocean.  What do you think?”
    In that moment Adam realized that she had been talking the whole time he’d been thinking.  Cassie had not even seen his house and yet she was already making plans as if she’d been there and what she had planned, from the little he’d heard, sounded lovely.
    “I don’t think we’ll have to rent too much, after all, they’ll only be eight of us.”
    Cassie did the math in her head and she knew it was three couples and Adam.  She was wondering who that eighth person was going to be.  “Okay, that makes things a little easier and more intimate.  You can do a large table for eight so that everyone is not crammed together and it can still be covered in linen, we’ll do seat covers so they’re not feeling like they’re sitting on folding chairs.  We can decorate the table with tea lights and larger candles and pull together a centerpiece that is themed with seashells and sand…Oh, it’s going to look lovely.” 
    Adam’s head snapped towards hers at the use of the word ‘lovely’ ; a word he’d just used in his mind earlier.  Cassie was describing everything that he’d had in his mind for this weekend without him prompting her in any way.  Grace was the only other person that thought like him and even that had taken time.  She had worked for Adam for over a year when she finally stopped asking him how he liked things and simply presented what he liked. 
    “What about the menu?  What are you thinking on that?”
    Cassie glanced at him out of the corner of her eyes and with a wicked grin on her face.  “I thought you’d never ask.”   
    “Okay, you said that they would arrive on Friday afternoon after lunch, right?”  He nodded.  “So you’ll want to greet them with something light to eat, some cocktails.  We can do some cheese and crackers, some crudités and dip and perhaps some fresh fruit.”
    “For dinner, we’ll keep it casual.  After all, they’ll have been on the road for several hours after traveling the previous days so we don’t want to command a formal environment that will have the wives fussing about getting ready.  We can grill some steaks, get some fresh lobster…I do a fabulous seafood bar for some events that I can scale back and make for eight.” 
    She stopped and thought some more.  “We’ll do grilled vegetables, a field green salad, and lots of wine, fresh baked bread…”  Cassie turned and looked at Adam whose face looked grim.  “Uh-oh,” she mumbled.  “You’re not liking any of that, are you?”
    On the contrary, she’d nailed it again. 
    “No, no,