Claire needed to get this weekend behind her and return home to her normal routine where Jason was the boss whom she lusted after from eight to five, and she neither thought about nor cared how he looked in jeans, well much, or how his eyes sparkled or whether he thought she was attractive. Claire looked over and noticed Julie giving her a questioning look.

“Did you say something?” asked Claire.

“Just asked if you were almost finished.” replied Julie. "You seemed like you were a million miles away with some interesting thoughts.” Claire quickly assured Julie she was just worrying about her mother. From the look on Julie’s face, there was no way she bought that excuse, but she was polite enough to let it go. She grabbed her cover-up from her bag, pulling it on as she walked out into the hallway to call home before the party started.

Hearing Louise’s voice on the other end of the line, Claire smiled and said, “Hey Louise, it’s me. How are you?”

“Oh hey honey, are you home?”

“No, I’m still in Columbia; I’ll be home sometime tomorrow afternoon,” replied Claire. “How is mom doing today?”

“Oh you know honey; she has moments where she’s living in the here and now and others where she’s living in the past. Today has been in the past, mostly,” Louise said sadly. “Physically though, she feels good; we sat outside on the porch for a bit this morning and enjoyed our coffee before the day got so hot; and she really loved that.”

“That’s great Louise; do you think I should try to talk to her?”

“Honey, if you want to I’ll get her, but I think it will just confuse her today since she’ll assume you're Chrissie and you won’t be here in person to try to calm her if she gets upset.”

“Ok Louise, I don’t want you to have to deal with that so would you just please tell her that I called when she’s more lucid?”

“I will honey, don’t you worry about us and try to have yourself a good time for once.”

“Thank you Louise, I’ll see you guys tomorrow when I get home if it’s not too late.” Claire gathered her composure and walked back inside. Time to put your game face on.

~~~

Jason settled back into the seat of the car they’d hired for the evening. With everyone expected to consume alcohol at Harold’s Bachelor Party, Jason had made the call to hire a car to ensure that no one was driving afterwards. The noise level in the car was steadily rising as the others were picked up at their hotel and a rare guys' night out, especially for those who were married with children, was kicking into full gear.

He was surprised when his thoughts turned to his assistant. In the time that Claire had worked for him, he had never seen her as a desirable woman, hell; he hadn’t noticed her appearance, period. When he had walked into her room after hearing a crash today and saw her standing there with wild auburn hair cascading down her shoulders and those green eyes flashing it had made him lose his train of thought.

Jason was rarely surprised by anything in life anymore but feeling himself getting hard when he was looking at her injury after one of her ‘mishaps’ had damn near stunned him speechless. He had discreetly arranged his jeans to hide his growing reaction to her nearness. The tight confines of the bathroom had made this challenging, to say the least.

After he made a hasty departure from the bathroom, he took the time before lunch to take some deep breaths and tried to get back under control. He tried to tell himself that it was just a normal reaction to a female in close confines, and he had managed to get through lunch and the afternoon with only a few curious and frankly confused looks across the desk at her.

Then when he had run into her in the hall this evening it had blown all his theories away. Again, his body had an almost immediate reaction to her presence, and again he was trying to shift himself around like a school boy. He probably would not have noticed if her hair had been on fire most days at the office and now this weekend he was getting an erection every time she walked in the room. Apparently, it had been far too long since his last night with a woman, and he vowed to take care of that; as soon as he returned home.

~~~

The party was to start at seven and generally the cake was rolled in at nine after drinks and canapés had been served. Claire worked in the kitchen for the first part of the evening. Pam thought some of the surprise was taken out of the evening when the ‘cake girl’ was seen ahead of time. She wore a long apron over her cover-up as she arranged trays for the servers and ran any errands that might be needed. By eight, the party seemed to be in full swing and trays of delicious food were leaving the kitchen and returning empty at a rapid pace. It was usually a welcome sign when the guests were enjoying food at the same pace as their drinks; it seemed to keep down the number of over intoxicated men.

As the time neared for the big cake performance, Claire began to get nervous as usual. Being the center of attention was never something she desired and for those moments when she popped out of the cake, she was very much in the spotlight. As she almost always did, Claire thought that maybe she could just tell Pam she would be a waiter during the parties and have someone else take over the cake. The main problem with that thought was the difference in the money. Her pay for the evening was almost double that of the wait staff and although that might not seem like a lot to some people, it was a small fortune to Claire.

After loading her final tray for a server, Claire went to the restroom to freshen up and begin preparations for being loaded into the cake. Pam had a couple of young men from college who assisted her into the cake. Brian and Max were a lot of fun and always made her laugh as they hoisted her up to the top of the cake. They’d also be the ones who wheeled the cake in and assisted her down during the party in a much grander manner than the tricks they tried to pull when loading her in. She swatted at Brian as he tried to get Max to help him toss her like a cannonball. Claire laughed as they finally got her to the top of the cake and she stepped down into the small opening.

If they could build skyscrapers and bridges to cover miles, they should surely be able to build a cake with a bottom door to avoid having to be lifted to the top. Brian and Max were always asking if maybe she’d gained a pound or two as they mock staggered trying to lift her. Claire checked the top of the cake to make sure there would be no mishaps with it opening and then settled in.

The increase in the noise level told Claire that they had entered the main room of the party, and she tried to settle the nervous butterflies in her stomach. The music cued up, and Claire listened for the tap from Brian that would signify it was time for her to pop the top of the cake. The signal sounded, and Claire took a big breath and jumped up through the top with her arms held high above her head to much enthusiastic applause.

The honoree of the party was always seated directly in front of the cake and, taking a moment for her eyes to adjust to the light, Claire started to focus on that seat. Slowly blinking her eyes and hoping that she was seeing things, Claire became aware that Jason’s friend Harold was standing in front of the chair of honor with Jason standing on his right. Harold was laughing and applauding, and his friends around him were all clapping him on the back, everyone except Jason, who seemed to be studying her intently as if she were someone he was trying to place in his memory. Harold seemed to have no clue as to who she was.

The time that she was required to remain standing seemed endless as she tried to keep her head averted and avoided looking directly at Harold or Jason. She tried to act normal but was desperate to leave the spotlight before she was recognized. Claire turned to the side and signaled to Brian and Max to lift her down on the left side instead of the normal front position.

They were confused at the change but quickly positioned to assist the dismount. Claire walked to the left of Harold to give him a hug from behind with the usual congratulations. She tried to exit the area as soon as possible to avoid looking in Jason’s direction. Finally, a path parted for her and Claire made her way to the restroom with the sound of applause following her.

~~~

Jason was completely and utterly dumbfounded. Unless his eyesight, and possibly his mind as well, was playing tricks on him, his assistant had jumped out of a cake at his best friend’s bachelor party wearing next to nothing. He had been paying very little attention when the cake had been rolled out and only just glanced over when the sound of the top of the cake popping open had caught his attention.

If not for seeing Claire at Harold’s with her hair arranged much as it was now, he might have possibly missed what his eyes seemed to be telling him. His demure, mostly genderless assistant was actually a drop-dead bombshell, and even if it took his mind several minutes to accept it, his body knew as soon as he laid eyes on her.

How in the hell had he been so blind to her all of these years and, more importantly, how did one not know that their assistant jumped out of cakes at bachelor parties after hours? Claire lived a whole other life outside the office, which might be normal for everyone to some degree; however, this seemed a little extreme. His little mouse of an assistant was a stripper?

He was sure seeing her with two heads would have surprised him a lot less. Harold didn’t seem to recognize her at all and was at present receiving well wishes from the others at the party and comments of the more lewd variety were flying about Claire. For some reason, he wanted to protect her virtue and start punching someone in the face. He stalked angrily towards the direction he had seen Claire disappear to.

~~~

Claire leaned against the restroom stall shaking in reaction. How could this have possibly happened and why didn’t she make a connection that this could be Harold’s Party? Julie had said the name was Winthrop, and she’d never given it another thought. She hoped against hope that she was wrong and Jason hadn’t recognized her. Claire began undressing and vowed to stay in the kitchen the rest of the evening no matter what.

Dear God, she would lose her job with Jason over this; he would never understand why it was necessary to work this job as well as for Danvers. Panic started to set in, and she was shaking so hard her fingers were fumbling trying to unsnap the garters. At just that moment, Claire heard the door open.

“Julie, give me a few minutes, I’m having a hard time with these darn snaps.” Not thinking anything of the silence, she continued on, “God Julie you will never believe what just happened, my boss and his friends were at this party. I thought you said the bachelor's name was Winthrop? I need to stay in the kitchen for the rest of the evening and steer clear of Jason.” As those words were uttered, she was suddenly aware that Julie hadn’t made a single reply. She looked up and was looking into the blue eyes that had haunted her all day.

Time seemed to freeze as she slowly became aware that she was standing in the ladies’ restroom practically naked with her boss leisurely lowering his gaze to the corset that barely contained her breasts. She could feel her nipples standing up and saluting. His gaze lowered to the skimpy matching panties and, heaven help her, she could feel her body continue to betray her as heat pooled between her thighs. She squeezed her legs together to try to control the fire that seemed to be spreading through her body like an inferno. Claire finally gathered her wits enough to sputter, “What’re you doing in here? This is the ladies’ restroom.”

“I thought I would visit with the stripper for the evening, how much for a private lap dance for my friends and myself?”

“Wha… What?" stammered Claire, "what do you mean?”

“Well you’re the stripper who jumped out of the cake, correct?”

“No no, I’m not a stripper. I just jump out of the cake with clothes on; I don’t strip!”

“Clothes huh? I’m not sure that qualifies as clothing,” replied Jason with sarcasm dripping from his voice.

It finally dawned on her that she was still standing in a restroom with her boss, almost naked. Claire averted her eyes from his and tried to cover herself with her hands. “Could you please leave? I need to dress, and this is the ladies’ restroom.” She made the mistake of looking up into Jason’s eyes and could feel herself melt. Heat blazed there and with a muttered oath, Jason gripped her arms and dragged her against his hard body.

She went rigid at the sudden contact and tried to pull back as she felt Jason’s palms start gliding lightly up her arms leaving a trail of fire as they settled on either side of her face, his thumb gently rubbing her bottom lip. By this point, Claire had given up any thought of getting free and was mesmerized by the smoldering look in his eyes. As if almost against his will Jason leaned forward and gently laid his lips against hers. His tongue took up the course of his thumb and slowly began stroking her bottom lip. Her heart racing and her nipples turning to stone, Claire went boneless and sagged into him.

Jason took this as a sign of surrender and suddenly deepened the kiss, his tongue thrusting into her mouth. Startled at the sudden invasion, a brief moment of reality started to intrude but was quickly clouded as a hot masculine hand slid down her back and firmly cupped the cheeks of her bottom bringing her up into close contact with a hard bulge.