Chapter Twenty-Two
“Hey, Biscuit. Come here, girl.” Cassie patted the cushion beside her on the couch. “You played with that pink monkey all morning. Don’t you want to do something else now?”
On the floor with her beloved toy, Biscuit let out a whimper.
Cassie grabbed the toy and flung it to the other side of the room. Biscuit trotted off, retrieved the monkey, then deposited it at Cassie’s feet.
“Oh, so now you want to play fetch? When I took you to the park, you weren’t interested at all.” She threw the toy again, and Biscuit dutifully brought it back to her, dropping it on the floor with a bark that seemed to say, “Look at me, aren’t I clever?”
She really was cute.
It was nice to have something to snuggle, even if that something wasn’t a six-foot-tall geotechnical engineer. But Cassie was far from cheery.
Rather than throwing the pink monkey again, she put it on the couch. Biscuit hopped up and happily started chewing the toy, and Cassie picked up her e-reader. She was nearly finished the book she’d started at Blaine’s last weekend. Only two chapters left. Reading with a little dog curled up beside her sounded like a nice way to pass a Saturday afternoon, even if it wasn’t enough to make her smile.
It had not been a good week. In fact, it had been even worse than when she’d realized she wasn’t pregnant.
All week, she’d been a slob. Then this morning, disgusted with herself, she’d gone on a cleaning spree. Her muscles were still sore from scrubbing the tub. Biscuit had also managed to tear up a pillow, and she’d had to clean up the carnage.
Cleaning had been good, though. It had helped push Blaine out of her mind. Just a little, but she couldn’t expect more than that.
Later, she would clean out her cupboards, but for now, she’d take a break and lose herself in the erotic adventures of a CEO and his young submissive. Ooh…there was a fisting scene. How about that.
Her heart twisted as she thought of Blaine. But as she kept reading, she got more into the scene, and her hand drifted between her legs. She pushed aside her panties—big, ugly yellow ones, because what was the point of wearing sexy underwear for no one?—and touched herself idly as she read. When the CEO finally penetrated his submissive with his entire hand, she thrust her finger in—
There was a knock at the door. She jerked up guiltily.
Crap. This was inconvenient. Perhaps the person would go away if she ignored them. She read another page…
Another knock. Damn it. Why couldn’t people just leave her alone to masturbate and get over Blaine?
She pushed herself to her feet and fixed her clothes before heading to the door, not in a particularly friendly mood.
“What do…?”
The words died on her lips when she opened the door and saw Blaine. He was wearing a lavender dress shirt—which was a great color on him—and carrying a bouquet of pink roses.
Oh God. He was gorgeous, and he was here. Just when she’d been about to get herself off. That was quite convenient, actually.
She yanked him inside and tossed the flowers on the counter.
“Cassie, I—”
She kissed him. If she let more than a couple of words come out of his mouth, she would undoubtedly realize this was a horrible idea. But he was here, and she wanted sex, and she wouldn’t let anything get in the way.
When he understood she wasn’t going to let him speak, he pushed her against the door, one hand holding her wrists above her head. She ground against him shamelessly and kissed him in a frenzy. It felt so damn good to be physical.
“Touch me,” he ordered, releasing one of her hands.
She undid his pants, which was a bit of a struggle with one hand, but then she was reaching inside, touching the hardness of him, stroking up and down, running her thumb over the tip. A bead of pre-cum leaked out, and she slicked her finger through it greedily.
He pushed down her pajama pants and ripped off her underwear. Yes, he actually ripped them off and threw them to the floor.
“I wasn’t expecting company,” she said, trying to explain why she’d been wearing such a hideous undergarment.
He reached under her shirt. “No bra.”
And then her chest was thrust against the door, her bare nipples pressing against the chilly wood as his hands kneaded her ass.
“Do you want me to use a condom?” he asked.
“No. Just fuck me.” He hadn’t touched her pussy yet, but she was wet and full of need. She needed to feel him inside her. “Please.”
“Very well. As you wish.” He shoved inside her from behind.
She groaned as he filled her, giving her exactly what she craved.
His thrusts were quick, and the wood of the door scraped the tender flesh of her breasts as he pounded into her. She squeezed her eyes shut and let the touch and smell of him wash over her, losing herself in the sensations, in the sound of his skin slapping against hers.
Biscuit yelped.
“Shut up,” she snapped.
But then Biscuit let out a stream of high-pitched barks.
For the first time in her life, Cassie was tempted to kick a puppy.
“Oh, for God’s sake, can’t you tell I’m getting laid?”
Blaine chuckled in her ear as he continued to pump.
And then, even worse, there was a knock at the door. With a low curse, she put her hand on his hip to still him. “Let’s go to the bedroom,” she whispered. “Away from the dog and the damn door.”
Much as she’d enjoyed being fucked against the door, apparently the world had other plans for her today.
“Cassie!” said a voice from outside. “I can hear you. I know you’re home.”
Her eyes widened. Oh, hell no. And she’d thought this couldn’t get any worse.
She pushed Blaine away and handed him her ripped underwear. “Get in the bedroom. Now. Don’t you dare make an appearance.”
“Who is—?”
“Just go.”
She pulled up her pants and ran to splash water on her face and hands before opening the door.
“Hello, Mom,” she said.
“Hello, dear. Sounded like there was a bit of a commotion in here. When did you get a dog?”
“Oh. Um. I’m watching a friend’s dog. Biscuit.”
“You know, perhaps you should get a dog of your own. Since you’re home by yourself so much. It would be good company.” Her mom crouched down and scratched behind Biscuit’s ears. “Who’s a good boy?”
“Actually, she’s a girl.”
“Do you have someone over, too? Or were you just talking to Biscuit a minute ago?”
Thank God. Her mother hadn’t heard her exact words.
“Biscuit and I were reading together. Weren’t we, sweetie?”
The dog yelped in response before trotting off to play with her beloved pink monkey.
“Anyway,” Cassie said. “What’s the reason for the visit? More carrot-pineapple muffins? I’ve still got one left.”
“No, no. It’s just… Doris said you were looking rather glum at the doctor’s office yesterday. I thought I’d stop by and see how you were doing.”
Her whole body was sparking with frustration. “I’m fine. But I’ve got to get going soon. I have plans with Jenna.” Or a certain hot guy hiding in the next room.
Her mother eyed her suspiciously. “It’s very clean in here.”
“That’s a good thing, isn’t it?”
“After I kicked your father out, the house was positively sparkling, even though I had two young children. I was obsessed with keeping it clean. Is something wrong, Cassie?”
“Nope, nothing’s wrong!” she said, perhaps a bit too cheerfully.
Just the fact that you interrupted some mindblowing sex with the man who broke my heart. Nothing else.
“Boy troubles?”
Cassie plastered a smile on her face. “No, I’m happily single.”
Her mother looked at her for a minute. “You sure you’re okay?
“You worry too much. Seriously.”
Five minutes later, her mom finally made it out the door, and Cassie went to the bedroom, where Blaine was pressed up against the wall by the door hinges.
“Why are you standing there?” she asked.
“In case someone opened the bedroom door.”
“Ah.” She looked at his cock, which was no longer at attention. Well, an impromptu visit from her mother was definitely a mood killer. Hopefully it wouldn’t take long to get back in the mood. “So where were we?”
He cleared his throat. “I didn’t come here to have sex with you.”
Disappointment shot through her. “Maybe you should have made that clear when I jumped you.”
“I’m not complaining. But that wasn’t the reason for the visit.”
She sat on the bed, and he sat beside her. “I was just reading an erotic romance and thinking about you. It made me a little, well, horny. So when you actually showed up…”
He laughed. “We can get back to that in a minute. But first…” He took her hands in his. “I admit I did things wrong last week. I thought I would give you one great weekend and that would make it impossible for you to walk away from me. But you did, anyway.”
She released a breath. “I had to.”
He nodded. “What you need isn’t one great weekend. It’s for me to prove that I won’t leave you again. To prove how committed I am. Which, for understandable reasons, you don’t believe. Your hypothesis is that there’s a one in three chance I’ll leave you. Not great odds. I want to show you I can be reliable, that there’s not a thirty-three percent chance I’ll walk away.”
She looked down at their hands, twined together. “I don’t know if that’s possible.”
“I’d like to try, if you’ll let me,” he said. “I’ll come to see you every weekend. An hour every Sunday afternoon, or three hours on Saturday morning, or all weekend. Whatever you want, each week. I’ll do that until you believe I’m serious, and you agree to be my girlfriend.”
“Is sex going to be part of every visit?”
“Whatever you want.”
“Can I see other men?”
“If you like. Just don’t tell me about it. I promise I won’t see anyone else, though.” He rubbed his thumbs over the back of her hands. “What do you think?”
A million thoughts jumbled through her brain. “How long will you do this?”
“As long as it takes. But I might re-evaluate my approach if it doesn’t work within a year.”
Shock rocketed through her. “A year! You would willingly do that for a whole year?”
“Only for you.” There wasn’t a trace of doubt in his voice.
A part of her was still unconvinced.
“We can talk during the week, too,” he said. “Not just sex. I want to try having a more…normal relationship. Think of it as me auditioning to be your boyfriend.”
But another part of her was slowly starting to believe this man just might be her future.
“Do you still want to marry me?”
“Yes. But first, you need to be able to trust me.”
“I do trust you…in some ways,” she said. “A lot of ways, actually.”
It was rather remarkable what she had trusted him to do. With her. To her. Things she never would have done with anyone else.
She gave him a sexy smile and touched his knee with a finger.
His eyes darkened.
A moment later, she was on her back beneath him. He quickly unzipped his pants and pushed down hers, and then he was inside her again.
Oh God. He felt so good. So right.
“Yes,” he murmured. “Take it.”
He may have been in a rush to get inside her, but he seemed to be in no rush to get off. He worked her slowly until she had come three times, until she was a warm, sated puddle on the bed.
She couldn’t do it again—she couldn’t.
Still, she moaned in frustration when he pulled out of her.
“On your knees,” he said. “Cock in your mouth.”
He tasted of sex. The combination of the two of them. She sucked him, and he kept his hand in her hair, exerting a little pressure. Then he held her cheeks and fucked her mouth with every big, thick, overwhelming inch of him. When she looked up, she could see the crazed desire in his expression.
She loved pleasuring him.
He pulled out and pinned her beneath him, slamming into her pussy once more. When he came inside her, she cried out, not because of her own orgasm, but at the joy of being so close to this incredible man.
All of the things they’d done together last weekend…she wanted to do them again. She didn’t want them to simply be memories.
“So?” he said. “Will you give me a chance?”
“You can visit me next Saturday, just for the afternoon. We’ll start slow.”
“Barring family emergencies or natural disasters, I will be here.”
She did believe that. And for now, it was enough.
When they left the bedroom, Biscuit was sitting just outside the door, as though guarding it from intruders. She barked once when she saw Blaine.
“Whose dog is that?” he asked.
“Darrell’s.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“We’re just friends,” she said. “He was the guy wearing the toga at the Halloween party.”
He gave her a smile, but she could tell it was a little forced. “As I said, you can date anyone you want. Just give me a chance.”
No way would she date anyone else, even if he let her. She had no interest in any other man. Not when she might be able to have Blaine for keeps.
After he left, she made mac and cheese and watched a movie, then finished her book with Biscuit curled up beside her.
She didn’t do any obsessive cleaning.
And she didn’t shed a single tear.
Her heart was slowly piecing itself back together.