by Cate Cameron
Her skin rose in goose bumps when he left her breast and trailed his mouth down over her belly, tight with anticipation. His fingers slipped inside the waist of her shorts, and she lifted her hips without further invitation. Too eager, too slutty, not classy, not refined. Those were things for her to worry about at the same time she got embarrassed about the sounds she was making. Sometime later, some time when he wasn’t tugging her shorts and panties down and onto the floor, sometime when he wasn’t easing her legs open with his strong hands, sometime when he wasn’t looking up at her, a devilish glint in his eyes before lowering his head and making her writhe.
She’d been waiting too long. Weeks of foreplay, it felt like, weeks of teasing and anticipation. And now, as sweet as his mouth was, as wonderful as it would be to surrender to his attentions and let him bring her to a climax she knew wasn’t too far away, she wanted more. As good as she felt right then, she didn’t want him serving her, didn’t want to take while he gave. There’d been too much of that already, outside the bedroom; here, at least, she wanted them to find their pleasure together.
“Hey,” she murmured, and then a little louder, “Hey!” When he looked up she said, “Condom?”
He looked puzzled, maybe even hurt, and she giggled before she caught herself. It was just so wrong, his little-boy-lost expression looking up at her from that location. “Do you not like this?” he asked.
Her snort probably wasn’t too sexy. “I love it. It feels great, but I want you inside me.” And then she caught herself. “Is that okay?”
His expression was hard to read, but at least he didn’t look lost anymore. And when he smiled, devilish and sweet at the same time, everything was fine again. “It’s more than okay. I mean, I’d like to come back to this.” His voice was lower, huskier now. “I’d like to make you come apart while I watch and enjoy the view. But it doesn’t have to be right now.”
It didn’t have to be ever as far as she was concerned, no matter how sweet he looked when he was talking about it. She didn’t want to think about letting herself be that vulnerable.
She hitched a little farther up on the bed while he pulled open the drawer of his bedside table and pulled out the foil packet, and when he tossed it to her, a dare in his eyes, she caught it one handed. Her turn? Okay.
“On your back,” she said, keeping it just short of sounding like an order. When he did as he was told, she wondered how much further she could have pushed it. If it had been an order, would he have complied, or rebelled? It might be fun to try that out sometime.
But she shouldn’t let her musings about the future distract her from the all-too-interesting present, so she scooted around on the bed and then gave in to temptation, leaning down for a quick, wet kiss to the head of Will’s cock. His gasp made her want to do more; maybe she wasn’t ready for him to see her go to pieces while he was still in control, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t enjoy the reverse situation.
“Hey,” he said, his voice breathless and desperate, everything she wanted to hear from him. She let him pull her along his body until they were face-to-face. “I’m not going to be good for much else if you keep that up.”
And as tempting as it was to think of disabling him like that, to show that at least in this one area she was the person in control, she knew it wouldn’t be fighting fair. It was hard to fight fair when the other person wasn’t fighting at all.
She ripped the foil packet open and only added a slight extra caress as she rolled the condom on. She slung a leg over his hips and hovered above him, teasing both of them with just the slightest contact. His hands came to her ribs, his thumbs rolling up over her breasts, and he whispered, “You’re killing me, Cass. Come on.”
She didn’t give in to his pleas, but rather to the demands of her own body. She’d waited too damn long for this. The stretch was exquisite, the smooth glide of his entry into her body feeling like a homecoming. She forced her eyes open, unsure when she’d closed them, and looked down to see Will staring at her, his pupils so dilated they seemed to have taken over his irises. His fingers had tightened around her as she’d lowered herself, but now they loosened and one hand slid back to cup her ass and urge her to move, while the other stayed at her breast, teasing her nipple.
“God,” he whispered. “You’re perfect.”
She shushed him with a finger over his lips. She didn’t want sweet words, didn’t want him to lie to her just because he wanted to be nice. So instead of listening, she moved, finding a rhythm, working the angle, and letting out a satisfied gasp when Will brought his hand forward and found her clit.
Everything outside that bedroom was still messed up, but right there, right then, just the two of them in the moonlight? Maybe Will hadn’t been lying; maybe he’d just been confused. He hadn’t meant that she was perfect. He’d meant that they were. The way they fit together, the way they could make each other feel. The warmth of his lean body, the confidence in his clever hands, and when she bent over and he stretched up, the desire in his kiss.
She let herself forget everything else, let her body take over and shut down her brain. There were no worries, no past, no future. Just the two of them together, straining, supporting, driving each other higher and higher, both fighting to hang on just a little longer before finally plummeting together.
By the time Cassidy was completely back to herself, they were both lying on their sides, facing each other, their legs entwined. She felt a rush of something too strong, too scary to name, and closed her eyes so she wouldn’t have to look at him anymore.
“Hey,” he said, and his lips were gentle on her forehead, then her mouth. “You okay?”
She was, and she wasn’t, and she didn’t have the words to explain either side of that dichotomy. Instead, she took a deep breath and built up her strength. She needed to pull herself away from him, and it wasn’t going to be easy. “I have to get back to my room,” she said, and she eased her legs free, then sat up, her back to him. Her shorts would be on the floor, but what the hell had she done with her shirt?
“You don’t have to go yet,” he protested, as she’d suspected he would.
“If I stay, I might fall asleep.”
“And that would be so bad?” He sounded playful, but maybe a little petulant as well. Damn, it wasn’t a good sign that she thought he was adorable when he sulked.
“Em’s asleep now, but she’ll probably be up early. I need to be where she expects me to be when she wakes up.”
“Or we could stop hiding this from her.”
It wasn’t the first time he’d suggested it, but there was something about his voice this time that made her turn and squint at him. “No,” she said firmly. “Absolutely not. This is nothing to do with her.”
“Her father and her almost-mother are—” He broke off, then frowned at her and continued. “Are involved. Her almost-mother is being a pain in the ass about it, but her father is crazy about—”
“Okay, we’re done,” Cassidy said quickly. Desperately, maybe, but he didn’t seem to pick up on that. He was too busy staring at her in disbelief. “This was just meant to be casual,” she said without making eye contact, “and if you can’t keep it casual, then we should stop. So, good, we got this out of our systems tonight. Now it’s time to move on and forget about it.”
“What? Are you kidding me?”
And that was what she needed. A bit of attitude from him, a touch of arrogance in his disbelief. As if it was impossible someone like her could ever resist someone like him. “Nope,” she said, and she slipped off the bed and grabbed her shorts from the floor. If she had to, she’d go back to her room topless, but she’d really rather find her shirt. She half turned, enough that she could see the bed, see his legs, but not have to look at his face.
She saw a flash of gray, reached for the shirt, and just as she touched it, he caught the other side of the fabric. “Okay,” he said. “Fine. I won’t say anything to Em. It’s casual. Got it. Jesus, Cassidy, the room’s not on fire.
If you want to go, I won’t try to stop you; just take a second and get dressed. Okay?”
She tugged on the shirt, and after a moment’s resistance, he let it go and she pulled it over her head. Inside out, she realized, but that was too damn bad. “Okay,” she said. “Just don’t forget. Em doesn’t need to know about this.”
She waited for his answer, and finally he said, “Yeah.”
That was enough. She headed for the door and didn’t let herself look back. Moonlight could only protect her so much.
…
Will was used to keeping his emotions under control. He negotiated multi-million dollar deals fairly regularly and had developed a relaxed, nonchalant exterior that actually seemed to influence his interior, his calm expression making his brain settle, too. He was good at that sort of thing. He was focused, businesslike, and disciplined.
Or so he kept telling himself the next day as he, Cassidy, and Emily toured a variety of New York City’s best private schools. He had to keep his mind on the job at hand, and not be distracted by Cassidy’s presence. Well, he could pay attention to her, of course, but only as a part of his campaign to create a new life for Emily in the city. His daughter needed all the advantages New York had to offer, but she also needed the stability of her beloved aunt. So Will could think about Cassidy in terms of finding ways to make her want to give up her world and move into his.
But as soon as he started thinking about that sort of thing, his mind wandered. Back to the night before, mostly: the surprise visit, the even-more-surprising consummation of their long flirtation. He wouldn’t have guessed that insecure, diffident Cassidy would be so confident in bed, but he’d loved it. He remembered being blown away by Pippa, too, but looking back, her enthusiasm began to feel like artifice; she’d wanted to present herself as a free-spirited bohemian, so she’d made sure her sexual persona matched her goal. She’d been wild, but there’d been a calculated edge to it.
Cassidy, on the other hand, was as genuine in the bedroom as she was everywhere else. There’d been no performance, just the true sensuality of—
“NASA?” Emily almost shrieked, and Will yanked his mind back to the present. “Like, real NASA? I could do an internship with them?”
The woman showing them around this particular school was sweetly enthusiastic, and smiled in response to Emily’s outburst, then made a cute little face of reluctance. “It’s a very competitive program,” she said. “And it’s always difficult when a student comes to us from a different educational background. Our students have, in a sense, been preparing for this since kindergarten, and you may find yourself a little behind in some areas.” Another wrinkle of her nose. “Possibly all areas.” Her face brightened. “But we have an excellent tutoring program, with professionals and peers available to help you catch up.”
Emily nodded politely, then turned to Cassidy and mouthed, “NASA!” with an exaggerated lift of her eyebrows.
Cassidy seemed just as removed from it all as she had in the car the day before. She smiled in response to Em’s enthusiasm, but it was polite, not genuine. None of the honesty Will had seen from her when she—
Damn it, there he went again. His distraction was even more frustrating when she was so completely unaffected herself. Had she seen nothing new in him the night before, nothing that intrigued her, made her want to know more? Had it really been as casual for her as she seemed to want it to be for him?
He trailed along behind as the tour moved down to the library, and tried not to look at Cassidy’s ass, tried not to remember how firm the muscles had been, how soft the skin—
Son of a bitch. Maybe he should ask for a tour of the locker room and arrange to have a cold shower.
“Most of our students are day students, but we do have limited residence space for boarders in the upper grades,” the tour guide told him as they stood just inside the doors of the high-ceilinged library, watching a group of about twelve little kids picking out picture books. “Would you like to go across the street and see what the dormitory is like?”
“No,” he said, hoping he was right. If Emily came to the city for school, she’d live with him, or with Cassidy, or some combination of the two of them. She wouldn’t be one of those kids who needed to stay in residence even though their families lived nearby. That had been good enough for him, when his parents had been too busy to want to raise him, but it wasn’t good enough for his daughter. No way. “That’s not necessary.”
He called the driver for the car he’d hired for the day, and by the time they were out of the school, their ride was waiting. “Lunch,” he said as the three of them piled into the back of the car, “and then two more schools. Sound okay?”
“This one has internships at NASA,” Emily said. “You really think we’re going to find somewhere better than that?”
“It’s co-ed,” he replied. “Have you thought about that? Some girls really like their single-sex schools, especially if the girls are interested in science or other traditionally male fields. Apparently, they feel more comfortable participating in class without the boys around.”
Emily shrugged. “It’d be weird to go to school without guys.”
“One of the schools this afternoon is a sister school to the one I went to. They’re just down the street from each other, and we had so many activities together we might as well have been one school. Even some co-ed classes in the last two years.”
“Oooh, co-ed classes,” Emily said as if scandalized. She grinned at him, and he resisted the urge to ruffle her hair. She’d spent a long time getting ready that morning, and he didn’t want to disrupt whatever effect she was going for.
He glanced over at Cassidy, who was watching them talk. Watching the interaction, he realized. Evaluating, judging. Planning her next step based on whatever she was seeing between him and his daughter. Damn it, had the night before meant anything to her? Had any of their time together been real, or was it all just about evaluation and manipulation? He’d been so sure he could read her face, but maybe she was just that good of a con artist. Maybe the strong-but-exhausted thing was all just an act.
No. He couldn’t accept that. Watching her now, as her eyes followed Emily’s every move, he knew she loved the girl and would do anything for her. Absolutely. He knew that because he knew Cassidy. She hadn’t been fooling him.
“Would you guys be okay if a few of my friends came over for dinner?” he asked. “Nothing big or fancy, just—friends. People who want to meet you, and who I’d like you to meet.”
“It’s Friday night,” Cassidy said. “Your friends don’t have other plans?”
“Maybe. But probably mostly with each other, or with people they could bring with them.” He was exaggerating the simplicity of it, but he could make it happen and Cassidy didn’t need to know the details. “But only if it’s okay with you.”
“You don’t need my permission to invite people to your own home,” she said. She got snippy when she was insecure.
“Not permission. Courtesy. If you’d rather I didn’t invite them, I won’t.” But that correction wasn’t going to make her more comfortable about the plan. “They’re guys I went to school with. You already know Trevor, and there’s Silas, and Beckett. A couple others who don’t live in town, so they wouldn’t come tonight. I could get them to bring dates, if you want some female company.” Maybe she’d make friends, and he’d actually achieve something with his plan instead of spinning his wheels, mired in self-doubt.
“That would be fun,” Emily said. “I mean—they probably don’t have kids. But I’d like to meet them, even though they’ll be older than me. You’d like to get to know them, right, Aunt Cassidy?”
Cassidy’s smile was tight again. She clearly didn’t want to spend the evening getting to know Will’s friends, because she had no interest in being part of Will’s life. But she nodded anyway. “Sure. If that’s what you two want, it’s fine with me.”
Not quite the reaction Will had been hoping for, but at least it was ag
reement of a sort. “I’ll see what I can set up,” he promised. He’d take any victory he could get.
Chapter Fifteen
It wasn’t about being underdressed, exactly. During the day, touring around to the schools, that had been the problem: Cassidy’s jeans and a nice-ish blouse would have been fine for visiting the school in Lyonstown, but Emily had put together a cute little outfit with pieces from her own closet and those of several friends, and Will had worn a suit. So, yeah, Cassidy had been underdressed during the day.
But that night, with all of Will’s friends showing up at the apartment? Cassidy hadn’t had much choice in her wardrobe, so she’d pulled on a sundress she’d worn to a wedding a few years earlier, with a light cardigan over top. It was just a casual gathering, so her dress was probably the same level of formality as the outfits the other women were wearing.
But it had no style. That was it. Cassidy was playing the part of the country bumpkin so hard she felt like a caricature, but she couldn’t pretend she was being ironic. This was her. This was her best, and it was clearly nowhere near good enough. There were two servers in charge of a long buffet table in the dining room, and Cassidy was pretty sure their basic black pants and white shirts were classier than her floral stupidity.
Emily, on the other hand? The three of them had hit a few shops after the school visits, and Will had beamed with pride as he’d bought Emily everything she’d even thought about wanting. Cassidy had surreptitiously checked a few price tags and then stationed herself by the door, hands clasped together, afraid she might accidentally rip something and end up bankrupting herself paying for the item.
And now Emily was wearing one of her new outfits, and she looked beautiful and sophisticated and at home. Everything Cassidy wasn’t. Will’s friends had done a great job of rounding up all the teenagers they knew, which wasn’t many, but enough to create a cluster of kids gathered around Emily. If Cassidy hadn’t known, she wouldn’t have been able to say which of them was new to the city.
