Seduction (4 page)

"Oh yeah, right." He looks genuinely
disappointed that he has other plans besides driving Cassie home. I
don't blame the guy. No date could be better than being alone with
Cassie.

Sucker.

"Go. You don't want to be late for your date.
I'll lock up."

Matt glances at me again and then back at
Cassie. "I don't want to leave you here... with a strange man I
don't know."

Strange? How would he like a bloody, broken
nose to go along with him on his first date because I can make that
happen? Who knows, maybe I could fix the crooked mess it already
is.

"Theo's harmless. Go, Matt." She practically
shoves him out of the cafeteria behind the older woman who's
already started to make her way out of the building. Cassie turns
back to me and we're the only two people left in the room. I want
to say something but I'm suddenly speechless and unsure of what to
say next, which is so unlike me.

Shit.

I act like an entirely different person
around her. I want the old Theo back who would say something crass,
kiss her, and then take her home and fuck her.

"You don't have to stick around, Theo. I'm
just going to lock up and head out."

"I was hoping we could talk about
everything."

"Everything? That's pretty vague. Could you
be a little more specific?"

Okay.

"I thought we could talk about what happened
between us at Chris's house, and in the pool, and again at Chris's
house and then in the parking lot of the health–"

"Okay. I get it," she interrupts. Her cheeks
turn a bright shade of red. "Where do you want to talk?"

"I'd suggest my place, but I don’t know how
comfortable you'd be there and I want you to be comfortable so
you'll speak freely. Why don't we go to your apartment? We can
order food and talk things out."

I'm hoping she'll agree to this plan easily
because I want to be alone with her again. I want to feel her lips
against mine and I wouldn't reject her if she decided she wanted to
screw my brains out. The wait is an unwelcome torture, one I'll
continue to endure if I need to, but I'd love it if we could stop
the back and forth.

"We should go back to your place. I'll be
comfortable there."

Well, that's a little shocking. I would have
thought she'd want to be on home turf when we talked, but I'll
gladly take home court advantage and let her be on the visiting
side.

"Alright, let's get out of here and you can
follow me to my condo."

***

My condo is in pristine condition when we
enter it. Every item is in its exact place, not a speck of dust or
leftover food on the counter top. It's easy to live this way when
I'm hardly ever home and like my things in order. That was the one
thing my parents did teach me–to clean up after myself so I didn't
embarrass them with uncleanliness.

I order food from the Chinese restaurant down
the street and the regular delivery boy drops it by. We have an
early dinner and pass the time talking about mundane things. I'm on
my third scotch when I settle down on the sofa in my living room. I
pick up the tablet on the coffee table, entering my passcode and
clicking on my entertainment center app. The soft sound of
Keane
comes over the surround sound, and I place the tablet
back on the table and turn to face Cassie.

She's sitting comfortably on the couch with
her legs tucked beneath her ass, while she sips on her sparkling
water.

"So why is it that we've spent most of the
afternoon together, yet I still feel like I know very little about
you, Cassie? Tell me something. Anything."

She takes another sip of her water as she
looks nervously down at her lap and then back up at me. "What would
you like to know?"

I adjust my body to get myself more
comfortable, bending my right knee so my right leg is on the sofa
while my left foot is still on the ground. I changed into a pair of
jeans and my worn
Lollapalooza
t-shirt when I got back to
the condo, leaving Cassie on her own to wander about the living
room. She's still in her volunteer clothing, but she's pulled her
hair tie out and let her hair fall in soft waves down her back.

"Tell me about yourself. What was your
childhood like? Where did you grow up? How many boyfriends have you
had and where do they live so I can inspect them and see if they
were worthy of dating you," I tease.

"Wow. You want to know an awful lot about me
for someone who just wants to win a bet and then get in my
pants."

The fucking bet. Why does she insist on
continuing to bring that up? I'm not going to deny I want in her
pants, but I wish I never made the fucking bet with her. My dick
wishes I never made that bet with her, too. While it'll be easy to
abstain from sex for thirty days, it's unnatural to ask a man not
to masturbate. It's like asking a woman not to breathe.

"Can we forget about the stupid bet? I don't
want to play that game anymore. I don't want to win a date with
you. I want you to go on a date with me willingly."

"So you're conceding and I win? Wow, I've
never won anything before. It feels kind of great, even if I only
won because you forfeit." She rises up from the sofa and starts
moving her hips back and forth as she raises her hands above her
head, pumping her fists in the air.

"What are you doing?" I ask, laughing at the
odd way she's moving her body.

"My victory dance," she answers seriously as
she continues to sway her hips.

I completely loose it, grabbing her hips and
pulling her down on top of me, laughing hysterically into her
shirt. This woman is absolutely adorable.

Once I've calmed myself down I look up at her
as she smiles down at me. "I like it when you laugh. You look
completely relaxed and content, Theo."

"Compared to?"

"Compared to the demanding, overtly sexual
man that I'm usually in the presence of."

She moves to adjust her body and it's then
that I realize she straddling my cock. I look up at her; my hands
still on her hips, and see the moment she realizes the position
she's in, too. I'm about to apologize when one of her hands wraps
around the back of my head and she leans down to kiss me. It's
nothing like the slow, sweet kiss we shared earlier at the park
district building. This kiss is rushed. Her urgency to have me
expressed by the way she's grinding her core against my body.

I feel my cock harden underneath her and I
thrust my hips up to meet every rotation of her hips. She moans
against my lips, opening her mouth and I use this opportunity to
slip my tongue between her soft lips.

She tastes sweet, too sweet. My hands move up
her body, caressing her sides before grazing her breasts on their
way up to cup her face. When my palms reach her cheeks I slow the
kiss down, sensually licking the roof of her mouth before sucking
on her top lip and biting her plump bottom lip.

She whimpers against my teeth and it's taking
every ounce of willpower I have not to take her here and now, but I
know if we sleep together tonight it will blow any chance I have of
a future with her.

And for some fucking reason I want a chance
at a future with her.

My palms stay on her cheeks as my thumbs
caress underneath her eyes. Our mouths continue to move together
and I've never enjoyed kissing a woman so much. I could spend the
entire evening just kissing her. The problem is my dick isn't
getting the message. My cock is strained against my pants and
Cassie's small hip thrusts aren't helping the situation. My dick is
in search of a hole and it knows the only thing coming between him
and Cassie's pussy is a couple layers of clothing.

I pull my lips away from hers, ending our
kiss while I can, but I'm still holding her with my hands.

"God, you're stunningly beautiful. Do you
know that?"

The honesty in my words seems to hit a nerve
with Cassie. She pulls away from me, standing up before sitting
back down on the other end of the sofa.

"Did I say something wrong?" I ask puzzled at
the distance she's put between us.

She doesn't look at me but I see a tear fall
from the corner of her eye and I know I fucked up. Something I did
or said set her off.

"Cassie, what's wrong?"

"You don't have to say things like that to
me. I know I'm not beautiful so when you say things like that it
makes me question your motives for wanting to hang out with
me."

Is this woman blind? She's the most beautiful
woman I've ever been around.

"Cassie, you are beautiful. I don't know why
you think so negatively about yourself. I wouldn't have been so
fascinated by you this past year if I didn't think you were
beautiful."

She fidgets on the sofa, clearly
uncomfortable talking about herself. It just makes me want to strip
her naked and worship every inch of her body until she realizes
just how beautiful she is.

"Sorry. I'm just so used to seeing myself one
way that I find it hard to believe that anyone sees me
differently."

"Don't apologize to me, Cassie."

"It's just that I've been working so hard the
past two years to have a more positive image of myself. I started
taking better care of my physical appearance and working out. I
gained so much weight as an adult to hide from the things of my
past, and I realized that the weight was just a mask and I couldn't
hide forever. I needed to come to terms with my life and move past
it.

"I feel better than I have in a long time,
but physically I'm still not where I want to be. I'm still
overweight and unhappy with my body. If I could just lose another
thirty pounds–"

"You want to lose more weight? Cassie, that's
crazy."

"You don't understand. In my teens I was a
size four."

"Then you were too fucking skinny. I think
you’re perfect the way you are. I’ve watched you drop a significant
amount of weight this past year and at a fast rate. That can't be
healthy. You have a great figure; you have soft, luscious curves in
all the right places. There’s no reason to lose any more
weight."

"But, Theo, I'm a size ten. I'm still
considered to be plus-size."

"Fuck what is considered plus-size. If you're
a size ten then that's the size you were meant to be because you
look fucking perfect to me. I can't stop imagining having your full
tits in my hands or grabbing onto your plump ass. If you don't
believe me, my dick can confirm it. Come reach over here and feel
how hard you have me."

It's only now that I realize what I've said.
I've never wanted a woman who was a size ten before. I've
definitely never fucked someone larger than a size eight, but I'm
realizing now, for the first time, that I'd want Cassie at any
size. I'd fuck her now, and I would have fucked her a year ago when
she was twice the size she is now. It's never been about her size.
It's always been about Cassie.

"That's very forward of you," she replies,
her cheeks flushed.

"Get used to it. I'm trying to be a
gentleman, but I can be a bit vulgar sometimes."

I reach over and grab her hands, placing them
between mine and then look her straight in the eyes. "Tell me,
where does all this insecurity come from?"

"What does it matter to you?"

"I told you, Cassie. I want to know more
about you. I want to know everything."

I can see the indecision in her expression as
she decides whether or not to confide in me, and just when I think
she's about to avoid the topic and continue to leave me in the dark
about her past, she starts to speak.

"I already told you about my mother and the
fact that I was left at a convent, but what I didn't get into was
what my childhood was like in and out of foster homes. I never felt
wanted... by anyone. I think I was in a total of eleven foster
homes up until I was sixteen. In between my time in each home, I'd
stay back with the nuns at the convent in Wisconsin, but they
weren't equipped to take care of a little girl. Oddly enough,
neither were most of my foster parents.

"There was one great family I got to live
with when I was eight years old. The Nelsons. Mrs. Nelson had the
warmest home and she always smelled like cake batter."

Cassie's eyes glaze over as she stares off in
the distance while telling her story. It's obvious the Nelsons had
an impact on her in some way.

"I know cake batter is an odd smell to
remember, but she loved to bake and she would let me bake with her.
After school we'd go to the local park for a little bit before
coming home and preparing dinner. With every dinner she always made
a homemade dessert and I would help her. Then we'd work on my
homework before her husband got home and the three of us sat down
to eat. I thought we were the picture perfect, happy family. I
thought they were going to adopt me. They nearly did."

"What happened?" I ask her, trying to fill in
the blanks of her story.

"Mrs. Nelson became pregnant and they no
longer wanted a foster kid. I went back to the nuns and started to
be shuffled between foster homes again. I was with the Nelsons for
almost two years.

"Then, when I was sixteen, I was put in a
foster home with a single man in his forties. There were three of
us in his home–two boys, both around eleven or twelve, and then me.
At first it was okay. He kept to himself and made sure there was
always food in the house for us. I had a roof over my head and a
warm bed to climb into at night, so I was content. Then things
changed. It was subtle at first. He'd make a sexual comment or
briefly caress my arm or waist. Sometimes he'd come up behind me
and start massaging my shoulders. I was uncomfortable with him
touching me, but I figured it was harmless. One night that
changed."

Oh shit. I don't think I want to hear
this.

"He came into my room. I didn't hear him
because I liked to fall asleep with headphones on. One minute I'm
sound asleep and the next minute I feel someone lifting up my
pajama top. I woke up to him standing over me, attempting to strip
me naked. I fought him but he was so much stronger than me. He
managed to strip me completely naked, and when his hand slipped
between my legs, I wanted to hurl.