Fueled by Lust: Severus (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Celeste Prater

  “You’re lucky to still have your father. Mine is alive, I think, but really don’t care one way or the other. He left me behind without a second look. Mom hadn’t even gone cold, yet, and he just walked away. I wonder every day how a parent can just turn off the switch like that. Sometimes, I just want to hunt him down and ask what the hell he was thinking before I punch him in the nose.” Abruptly, she clamped her jaw down, shocked at her runaway mouth. She had no qualms telling others she had grown up in foster care, but never had she voiced that niggling curiosity of her father’s motives. Severus’s sympathetic voice made her guts roll. How pathetic she must look to him.

  “Shit, Cassie. That is just not right. He should be ashamed of his actions. He is not a worthy male, and not knowing what a fine person you have become is his punishment.”

  The look of anger crossing his face on her behalf left her speechless. She was saved from making a further fool of herself by the soft chime of the doorbell. The food had arrived.

  Severus leapt to his feet before she could move a muscle. “I got this.”

  The aroma of hot food and crinkling sound of cartons being opened wiped the air clean of her revelations and she found herself relaxing at gradual levels. They both decided to live on the dangerous, albeit hilarious, side by eating with the chopsticks Severus had discovered in one of the bags. She was surprised they managed to keep chunks of chicken from rolling across the floor. She absolutely sucked at chopsticks. Severus just started stabbing the damn things after the first futile attempts. Their easy chatter and bouts of laughter ended when her phone rang.

  “Hello? Hey, boss man. No, it’s good. Just finishing up dinner. No, I was almost done. We’re good. Oh. They called you in sooner? Okay, sure. Not a problem. You’re welcome. Yeah, you too. Night.” Placing the phone on the table, she covered both eyes with her hands and groaned. “Crap! Double crap on crap!”

  “What? You have to go into work this late?”

  Cassie removed her hands and watched as Severus wiped his mouth on a napkin and started to stand. She put up a hand to stop him.

  “No, we’re good. He was just asking me to do something for him and I would rather get my teeth cleaned with a drill bit. Damn, I wussed out and acted like it wasn’t a big deal. I should’ve told him I had something else to do.”

  Severus chuckled and sat back down. “What could be that bad where you would rather be in pain than do as he asked?”

  Rolling her eyes, she heaved out a resigned grunt. “He wants me to attend the welcome dinner for a new client. No, make that a prestigious new client. Gonna be in a fancy restaurant, with fancy people, and fancy tables, and fancy manners, and I’m going to hate the shit out of it, that’s what.”

  Severus must have known her appetite had been bashed to hell and back since he was steadily packing up the remains of their dinner. Well, at least they had knocked out a good portion before that damned call. She sat glued to her chair as she watched him place the leftovers in the refrigerator and made quick work of wiping down the table before he sat back down. Well look at that, the man cleans. What damn planet did he hail from?

  “When is this event?”

  “Three days from now. I’ve got three friggin’ days to figure out what I’m going to wear. It’s not like I have an evening dress taking up space in my closet. Hell, you’ve seen my car. I’d rather get new tires. He said I had to bring a plus one.” Again, the gut clench. Why did she tell him that?

  “What is a plus-one and where do you get one?”

  She was suddenly thankful that he was from another country and was absolutely serious, but she still didn’t want to answer his question. He raised his brows and she caved.

  “It means I have to take a date. They have a preset amount of plates prepared and no one ever ditches these things, so I need to park a body in one of the slots.” She watched as his head bobbed up and down, eyes skirting back and forth in rapid thought before they narrowed and locked onto hers.

  “You plan to ask Marcus to be this plus-one?”

  She couldn’t help the bark of laughter. “Hell no! Even if I was still dating him, he’d be my last choice. I’d die of embarrassment when he started burping at the table. I kid you not. There isn’t a cultured bone in that boy’s body. Granted, this will be my first fancy party, but even I know there are certain things you just don’t do. I’ll think of something. Don’t worry about it.”

  “Let me take you. I will be your plus-one.”

  At his offer, Cassie felt her stomach roll and wished she hadn’t stuffed it with heavy food. She flushed, left the table, and started unloading the poor, mismatched dishes from the dishwasher. They were all from goodwill or fast food joints. She’d never had a complete set. They looked a little sad, those assorted diverse cups lined up like good little soldiers in her cabinets. Just because they called you a cup didn’t mean you were the same as all the other cups, but it was a comforting illusion of belonging. In this moment, she felt exactly like one of those cups. She heard the scrape of Severus’s chair and his boots on the linoleum. His voice was husky and low.

  “What’s wrong, Cassie? You seem upset.”

  She couldn’t turn around. Just couldn’t seem to pull that hard-ass she had come to rely on out from her inner being. That was the entity that needed to come out and face this beautiful man. It wasn’t going to budge, too tired to fight yet another battle in a long line of them, so all she got was the one-finger salute before it burrowed itself back into the darkness. She actually felt tears forming and that just pissed her off, adding a hard edge to her words.

  “I know what you’re doing and you can stop now, Severus.”

  His voice remained steady but she could sense the slight edge building.

  “I do not understand why you will not look at me and what you think I am doing that I should stop. Explain this to me.”

  She tried to keep her head from drooping but failed at that as well. “I’m Lina’s friend but that doesn’t mean you’re obligated to take care of me, Severus. You fix my crap, defend me from crazy men, and now you feel the need to escort me to a fancy dinner that we both know full well I’m not ready to handle. You can stop now. You can tell Drusus that I am refusing your services from this point forward and I’m sure he’ll let you off the hook. You can go back to doing your other job escorting women with the means to pay for your services and who more than likely know what the hell they’re doing when they see all the forks and pretty glasses lined up on the table.”

  She wasn’t ready for the large hand that gripped her arm, the room-spinning turn, and especially not the very pissed-off male radiating enough heat to light her hair on fire. His eyes positively glowed with anger as his palms smacked onto the cabinet to either side of her head, effectively locking her in place.

  “I will not hear you speak of yourself in that manner. Ever! And how can you even believe for one moment that I do the things I have done or make the offers I have made because I have been told to do so by another? Do you think that low of me, Cassie? Do you truly think I do not have my own mind and can only be motivated by command or money?”

  Her gut clenched when he muttered a curse and pushed away from her. Dazed, her mind didn’t register the expletive was directed to the phone being pulled from his pocket. So caught up in his angry yet hurt gaze, she hadn’t even heard it ring. Eyes still locked to his, she watched as he struggled to calm himself before answering the phone. She had done this to him and she felt like the biggest bitch to ever exist.

  “Trejani. Yes, I was just leaving. There is nothing more for me to do here. Give me fifteen minutes. Later.” Hanging up and stuffing the phone back into place, he moved that big, angry body back to hers. Leaning down, he let his eyes travel across her face then down her trembling body, before flipping them back to hers.

  “This is not finished, Cassie.” Turning, he strode proudly out of the room with his back ramrod straight. She was surprised to hear the door shut softly behind him.

 
Chapter 5

  “I need your help.” Cassie rolled her eyes at the response from the phone held tightly to her ear. “No. I’m behaving myself and I’m definitely not in jail. It was one time Lina, just one friggin’ time and you’ll never let it go, will you? Well, she deserved to get her ass punched. No one talks to my friend that way and walks away without something damaged or throbbing on them. Okay, you’re welcome.”

  Leaning back in her chair, Cassie looked around to make sure none of her coworkers were hanging around. Biggest bunch of gossip bunnies she had ever met as they jockeyed around to claim the “I heard it first” trophy. Despite the empty halls, she lowered her voice.

  “I have to get a dress and I need your help. No. I’m perfectly capable of buying a normal dress, but this one has to be special. You know, one of those floor-length jobbies. Yeah, formal. So, you gonna help or not? Good. Uh…in two days. Hey! Hold up on the harpy crap will you? So totally not my fault. Boss just told me last night. You need to be yelling at him. Hey, this is a record. You’ve apologized twice in one phone call. Bite me. Okay, which crap-o-car do you want to go in? I actually have a full tank of gas this time. You’ll pick me up? I can live with that. Just oil the passenger door lock. I don’t want to crawl in the window again. Stop laughing. It wasn’t funny then and isn’t now. Maybe for you it was. Hey. Let me know if your boss, the she-bitch from hell makes you work over so I don’t wait too long. What? That’s awesome! I hope she ends up at a gallery in Siberia. Anyone will be better to work for instead of that fake-ass bitch. Okay, I’ll be out front at 5:05 p.m. I’m out.”

  Looking down at the silent phone, she fought the urge to call Severus. She hadn’t heard from him and couldn’t really blame him. That was a shitty thing to do to him last night. Even in her fucked-up head she knew she’d been wrong. She should’ve just smiled and accepted his invitation. No, best to leave that rattlesnake under the rock. He’d said it wasn’t finished, so she could just imagine the evil things he was cooking up in that brain of his. Tossing the phone in her bag, she glared at the pile of folders on her desk and figured being stuck in the filing room for a few hours would be punishment enough. At least it would kill the few hours left of this long and boring day.

  * * * *

  Cassie looked up and down the street, wondering where the hell Lina was. Okay, in all fairness, it was only 5:07, so she guessed she could cut her a break. She was craning her neck toward Sixth when she heard Lina’s voice call out.

  “Hey. Wanna ride, little girl?”

  Where the hell? Cassie finally realized where the voice came from and got a good look at the blue convertible that had pulled up to the curb a few minutes ago. No, that wasn’t just any convertible. That was a brand-new, shiny, still-had-the-paper-stickers convertible, and her best friend’s head was poking out the window sporting a smile bigger than Texas. Cassie could only stand there and gawk as her mind struggled to associate the face to the car. It wouldn’t compute.

  “Come on, Cassie. Get in before they give me a parking ticket. Hurry!”

  Cassie walked numbly over to the car, opened the door and sat down in the sexiest thing she’d ever seen in her life. It smelled just as fantastic. New leather, new carpet, and new everything wrapped around her senses. She glanced over at Lina and blinked. Lina let out a giggle and pulled away from the curb.

  “Put your seat belt on and breathe. I should’ve had my phone out and recorded that. No one will ever believe I made you speechless.”

  Cassie just stared at her best friend while she did an inner happy dance. Lina looked so cheerful and carefree. She also looked absolutely breathtaking in this car. It suited her. She deserved to be in this car. She deserved anything great that could ever happen to her. She deserved to be coddled, cherished, and loved. She fought back rare tears and swallowed a few times before finally finding her voice.

  “Oh my god, Lina. This thing is eye-blisteringly beautiful. What is it? I’ve never seen such a pretty blue color.”

  Lina stroked the leather-wrapped steering wheel as if it was a snuggly kitty and released another of her stunning smiles. “Drusus gave it to me last night. It’s an Infinity G37. The paperwork says it’s lapis blue. I’m just happy it isn’t yellow.” She flashed a grin at Cassie’s snort. “He said it was my birthday present, among other things.”

  Lina glanced over with wide eyes before focusing back on the busy rush-hour traffic. “To tell you the truth, the thing scares the hell out of me. I’m used to pressing all the way down to the floorboard and now all I have to do is lightly press my foot and I’m off like a rocket. I was positive I was going to wrap myself around a tree before I got over here, but I think I’m getting the hang of it now. In all seriousness, I’m apologizing to you early just in case I kill us both before we get where we’re going.”

  Cassie patted Lina on the arm. “Three apologies in one day. I’m on a roll.” She grinned back at Lina’s mock scowl. “You said ‘among other things.’ Spill.” Cassie didn’t think it was possible for Lina’s grin to get even bigger but she was wrong. She glanced at Lina’s left hand lifting from the steering wheel, fluttering like a beauty-pageant queen waving to her subjects. The sparkle on the ring finger left her open-mouthed and scrambling for words.

  “You didn’t!”

  “I did. We did.”

  “You’re serious? Not goofing on me? Like this is real?”

  “Yup. Down on bended knee and everything. Thought I was going to pass out. Oh, Cassie, he is so damned sweet. I feel like I’m dreaming.”

  Lina glanced over at Cassie’s snort. “What?”

  “Sweet? That big brute?” She couldn’t help but smile at Lina’s glossed-over gaga look. “Oh, honey, you got it bad.”

  Lina’s head bobbed up and down in agreement. “I got it bad and then some. He may be a huge, walking, talking monolith, but he’s my mountain, and that mountain is sweet to me and that’s all that matters.”

  Cassie leaned back in her seat, her mind zipping back to another mountain that was sweet to her, too. Yes, so sweet that she decided he needed to be bashed across the head and kicked in the nuts. Yep, that’s the proper way to take care of sweet. Squeezing her eyes tight, she rubbed between her brows, hoping the memory would disappear. How much more self-flagellation was she going to heap on herself today? Shut it down Cassie, this is Lina’s moment.

  Cassie felt Lina pat her on the leg. Looking over, she recognized the serious face. It was the one where Lina would analyze past your skin and come to some pretty decent conclusions. Her best friend’s words came out soft and placating.

  “I know what you’re thinking and I really don’t blame you.”

  Lina was obviously misunderstanding her quiet self-recrimination as something else. Cassie tried to stop her. “No, it’s all right, Lina. I’m totally on board with this. I’ve never seen you happier and it’s about damn time.”

  Lina huffed out a big breath. “I’m glad. That makes me feel better. I know this has been fast. I’m still reeling from everything that’s happened, but Drusus and I have been…well…we’ve experienced more together in the last two weeks than I’ve ever experienced with another man.”

  Cassie hid her grin as Lina’s face flushed red and she took a few deep breaths.

  “Well, in addition to the sex. Which by the way, I have no words to express…just absolutely no words.” Her face grew even redder and by the dreamy look on her face, she was reliving a pretty juicy flashback. Cassie decided she’d spare her the usual torment she loved to rain down on her buddy and remained silent, for a change.

  “I really want to tell you much more, but I can’t right now. Maybe one day I can. It will blow you away to hear what brought us together, how things played out, and how things got resolved. Let’s just say that I’m fully aware of what he is, what he does, and who he is to me. I love him, Cassie. From the top of my head to the end of my toes and deep in the center of my heart, I love him.” With that last statement, she glanced over to Cassie with a
heartfelt plea on her face. A plea to understand and accept, which she was more than willing to provide.

  “I got it, girlfriend. No further explanation needed. I see it in your face and those words are coming from the heart. I love and accept him just for putting that look on your face.” To keep from getting tagged as having a gooey center, she had to put the Cassie stamp on it or it just wasn’t official. “And if he takes that look away for any reason, I’m going to kick him in the nuts. No warning. Just foot to meat. Got me?”

  Lina’s laughter filled the car. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  Looking up, Cassie realized that Lina had parked the car, not at the mall, but in front of a fancy boutique. She knew this one very intimately from the outside, but had never set foot inside. Shaking her head, she glared over at Lina, which was ineffective since the object of her derision was already out of the car and heading to the entrance. Cassie got out of the car but refused to move any further.

  “Oh hell no! We are not going into Muzzie’s. You know damn well I can’t afford to buy even one of those pretty hair combs they keep flashing in the window just to piss me off.” Crossing her arms and propping a hip against the car, Cassie pretended she was stone and refused to move. Lina patiently walked over, her grin still in place, not the least fazed by her show of stubbornness.

  “Look. I have a black Amex burning a hole in my wallet. Drusus said if I didn’t use it to buy something frivolous in the next two days he was going to spank me. Given that I wouldn’t mind that at all, I’m thinking it’s not going to be the kind of spanking I like, so you have to help me out here.”

  Cassie worked her mouth but couldn’t seem to make anything come out. Damn, Lina was getting feisty. She could get used to this. Spanking huh? That was an interesting tidbit. Marked and filed. When Lina gave her the pout lips and pleading eyes, she grudgingly folded and pushed away from the car.