This is the first conversation I've ever had with Cassie and I don't want it to stop, but for the first time, possibly ever, I don't know what to say. I'm great at talking to women. I know how to read them, read their body language and say the right thing, but I can't read her and I know if I don't say something soon to break this awkward silence between us she'll walk away.
"I think you've just found some competition. Maybe I need a four-year-old as a best friend too. I'll have to up my game with Alyssa to win her over."
"When I say it, it's sweet; when you say it you sound like a potential sex offender. No grown man should be best friends with a four-year-old girl," she jokes.
"Good point. You win, I'll just have to stick with being her favorite uncle."
The kids continue to jump in the ball pit and Alyssa has abandoned her doll and joined the other kids in the pit. Balls are being tossed and kids are burying themselves until only a hand or foot can be seen above the rubble.
Without being too obvious I shift on my feet from side to side until I'm much closer to Cassie and our arms graze each other.
"Can I ask you something?" I blurt out suddenly.
"Go ahead."
"I don't know if you recognize me, but I recognized you right away. You swim at the health club I attend and this may sound invasive, or creepy, but I have to know. Bailey, who's a member service representative at the club, she told me your name was Maria, but Chris called you Cassie. Which is it?"
She looks down at her feet before looking back up at me, biting her lip. "I didn't know you even knew my name. Of course I recognize you from the club, you swim next to me almost every day. Umm... my legal name is Maria, which must be why Bailey called me that, but everyone calls me Cassie."
"Everyone?"
"Everyone who's close to me. Bailey doesn't even look me in the eyes when she talks to me. She's too hung up on herself and the latest fads, but I definitely told her I go by the name Cassie."
"Why Cassie and not Maria?"
"Listen, I don't know you very well, or actually at all, except for the few things Chris has said about you in passing. Although, I didn't know the Theo he talked about and the guy I swim next to is the same person. I'm not going to go into detail, but I go by Cassie because that's the name I choose to go by."
Her response is not at all what I expect and instead of satisfying me, it makes me want to know more about her. I watch her take a deep breath as her chest expands and her tits stretch the material of her dress. Fuck me, those tits. Even with all that weight loss they're still large, round, and what I would give to lower the top of her dress and feast on them right now.
Shit. I need to get it together.
The kids are still playing in the ball pit and Alyssa has forgotten about us as she continues to jump in the balls in her pink dress. I nudge Cassie's shoulder to get her attention.
"Want to sit down? Chris's study is down the hall and we can raid his liquor selection."
She stops watching the children and brings her attention back to me. "I work here, remember? I know where Mr. Smith's study is... and I don't really drink."
She doesn't drink? How am I supposed to get her comfortable with the idea of letting me fuck her in one of the abandoned rooms if I can't even get a shot or two of tequila in her?
"Okay, no alcohol but we can talk. Get to know each other."
She watches me hesitantly, but then nods in agreement before turning around and walking down the hallway, leading the way to Chris's study.
We walk into the large room, bypassing the desk and bookshelf and going directly to the large leather couch in the corner. She waits for me to sit down and when I do she sits at the opposite end of the couch, with her feet on the ground and her hands clasped together in her lap.
She looks nervous and for the first time I can actually read her body language. Her perfect posture and the fact that she sits so far away from me proves how unsettled she is. But is she just a nervous person or is she nervous to be alone with me? That I'm not sure of.
I turn to face her on the couch, getting comfortable by leaving one leg on the ground and bending my other leg and placing my foot on my knee. I want to make her comfortable, too, and I know the only way to do that is to show her that I'm a nice guy who really does want to get to know her, and not just get in her pants. I ask her the same thing I asked her in the loft.
"Now that we're alone and have some time, why do you go by Cassie?"
Her arms tense and she squeezes her hands together tightly in her lap. "Why do you want to know so badly?"
"Just curious. I'd like to get to know you and Maria is a beautiful name so it's interesting to me that you would decide to go by something else instead."
"Cassandra is my middle name. It's actually very popular in the south for women to go by their middle names."
"Yes, but we're not in the south. We're in Chicago."
She takes another deep breath and it takes all my inner strength to focus on her eyes and not look down at her breasts.
"When I was just a few days old, my birth mother dropped me off at a convent in Wisconsin and left me with the nuns. When we first arrived the sisters immediately took us in and convinced my mother to stay the night and sleep on her decision. They felt like after a good night sleep my mother might change her mind and realize that children are God's precious gifts to the world."
"And did she? Did she change her mind?"
"I don't know. I'll never know. The next morning when they went into her room she was dead. The coroner ruled it a drug overdose. She had so many prescription and recreational drugs in her system on top of a lethal amount of cocaine. The nuns never checked her purse before giving her the room. She did a couple lines right there in the convent, but with all the track marks on her arms it seemed cocaine wasn't her only drug of choice. She had been an addict for a while.
"I was only a few days old so the nuns were worried for me as well. I was screaming and crying all day, I wouldn't drink the bottles they made for me and when I started to convulse they called an ambulance and I was rushed to the hospital. Turns out I was a newborn baby addicted to cocaine, heroin and meth. She never stopped taking drugs the entire pregnancy and she breast-fed me to save money so I was getting the drugs from her breast milk. Wherever we lived those first few days added to the addiction because she was cooking the meth where we lived. The hospital could tell by the fact that my skin and clothing were saturated in it."
"That's fucked up," I whisper, interrupting her story.
"Yeah, you're telling me. I stayed in the hospital for weeks and then the nuns continued to take care of me under strict doctor's orders. They gave me great medical attention at the convent. It took months and months to get me clean and by the time I was no longer addicted and considered healthy, I was almost a year old.
"The nuns couldn't keep me nameless for a year so they named me Maria Cassandra Ward. I was named Maria after Saint Maria. She was the pagan saint of... the youth, or children, or parentless. God, I can't remember but I don't believe that story anyway."
She turns to face me, more comfortable after telling me a little bit about herself.
"You see, I must have seen The Sound of Music a thousand times as a kid because it was Sister Cassandra's favorite movie. She can say I was named after Saint Maria all she wants, but I believe I was named after Maria Von Trapp.
"I was given Cassandra as my middle name after the sister who took care of me. Sister Cassandra was like a mother to me, especially because I was never adopted. I was in foster care my entire childhood so I would go from foster home to foster home, only able to stay at the convent during the times I didn't have a foster home to go to."
She looks down at her hands with sadness, but then looks up at me, masking her true feelings. "I won't bore you with the details, but at some point Maria was not the name I wanted to hear come out of people's mouths so I started going by Cassandra, and eventually Cassie. I plan on legally changing it. I've just been
too lazy to go down to the social security office to get it fixed."
I'm stunned silent by all the admissions she just told me in that brief story. Although I feel like I know her well due to my fascination with her this past year, she barely knows me but was still able to share that personal story from her childhood.
I want to break the somber mood she's in so I resort to humor. It's what I do best. "Surrounded by a bunch of virgin women growing up is a man's dream. Do you still go back to the convent from time to time? Maybe I can come with you and try to seduce a few women to leave Jesus and try me out."
She smiles and no matter what happens next, it's worth it because I was able to bring a smile to her face.
"The sister's are married to Jesus. They won't just give that up because a man comes in and offers them his... well, you know," she says, gesturing to my pants.
"Umm, no I don't know."
"Because a man comes in offering his..."
Her blush is almost too much to take. She's embarrassed at where this conversation has turned.
"His... I can't believe you're going to make me say it. His... dick."
Holy shit. I don't know if it's the blush that has spread over her face, or hearing her soft voice say that four letter word, but now my dick is hard and aching to be touched.
Before I say anything stupid and jeopardize the leeway I've made with her here today, I stand up and try to discreetly adjust myself in my slacks. She catches me and I can't help the words that fall out of my mouth.
"I wouldn't have wanted a nun anyway. Although I'm sure I would have been able to convince them to sleep with me, I'm also sure that would guarantee me a seat in hell. Plus, I'm trying to focus my attention on one woman right now, but she's making it really hard to focus right now." I look down at the bulge in my slacks and then back up at her, but she's focused on the bulge in my pants as well.
I want to ask her to sort this out since she's the reason I'm hard, but for the first time ever I don't want to risk scaring a woman away. She doesn't seem like the type of woman who would enjoy my sexual comments or me using her body for sex. She needs to be fluffed, nurtured, and treasured before I strip her naked and ravish every inch of her body.
The strain in my pants tightens and I need to find a reason to walk away.
"I'm going to make a phone call and then go find Chris. Meet you downstairs?" I ask her.
Her eyes drift to meet mine and she nods her head in response. I quickly walk out of the room and head up the next flight of stairs to the third floor. I find the hallway bathroom and walk in, locking the door behind me.
My pants are unzipped, and my fist is around my cock in seconds as I try to alleviate the pressure in my cock. I picture Cassie in that dress, then I picture myself ripping that dress off of her, spreading her legs and pushing my cock inside her hot, tight cunt. As I imagine her tight pussy squeezing my cock I come all over my hand, relieving some of the built-up tension, but not fully satisfying the need I have for her.
***
The rest of the party is rather uneventful. I'm unable to get any more alone time with Cassie, Kim was a pain in the ass like normal, and the only people I could stand to be around were Chris, Molly, and Alyssa, but Alyssa fell asleep on the sofa next to me thirty minutes ago. Cassie picked her up and brought her upstairs to her bedroom and hasn't come down since.
The only reason I'm still hanging around this party is in hope that I get one more chance to talk to Cassie. I've already texted Jenny and canceled on her tonight. I thought she'd be pissed but it seems she's used to me canceling our Saturday nights recently.
We're all sitting in the large living room. Michael, Chris's brother, is in the recliner, Chris is on one end of the couch as Molly and Eileen, Michael's wife, sit huddled together drinking wine and gossiping I'm sure. I'm sitting on the love seat and listening to Michael talk about the boring case he's been working on for some biohazard company and I want to stab myself in the ear just so I don't have to listen to any more of this. I'm about to interrupt the conversation and change the subject when Cassie walks back in the room. She waits for Michael to finish his story before speaking.
"Alyssa's in bed and I cleaned up the loft. If it's alright with you, Chris, I'm going to head out."
She can't leave. Not yet.
"Don't leave," Molly practically shouts and I'm thankful not to be the only one wanting her to stay. "I was just waiting for you to come down to ask you to join our bridge game. Chris has to go with Michael to the office, but since it seems like Theo is sticking around, the four of us could play."
Cassie looks to me, then to Eileen and Molly, and I can tell she wants to respectfully decline the invitation, and as much as I don't want to play bridge because it reminds me of when I was a kid and my mother would have bridge nights at the house, I can't refuse because I really don't want to give Cassie the chance to leave.
"Come on, Cassie, it'll be fun," I say, standing up from the love seat.
"I've never played before."
"That's fine. You can be my partner. I'll explain the basics while Molly sets up."
Molly sets her glass of wine down on the glass coffee table and stands up from the sofa. "That's not how to play, Theo. You're already teaching her wrong. We draw for partners."
"I think we can make an exception this one time," I reply. Michael and Chris have already left the room and I'm already plotting ways to get Cassie alone.
I loosely grab Cassie by the elbow and direct her out of the room so I can explain the rules to her. Once we make it into the hallway I stop walking and turn around to face her. We're standing much closer than I intended to, but I lean in anyway.
"Bridge is easy once you get the hang of it, but it takes a while to learn the rules. If at any point you get confused let me know and I'll make up some excuse to pause the game so I can explain it to you."
"Why can't I just whisper my questions in your ear?"
"Because we're partners, Cassie. We won't be sitting next to each other- we'll be sitting across from each other at the card table."
Her shoulders slump and she pouts slightly before realizing her mistake and standing back up tall. She almost seems disappointed that we won't be sitting by each other.
"Molly will most likely deal. I'll sit to the left of her so that I go first and you can see what I do. Eileen will go second and then you'll go third. The four suits are ranked during bidding but not during play, unless we name a trump suit in play. Spades are highest, and then hearts, diamonds, and clubs are the lowest. The object is to win tricks for our side-"
She lifts her hand up and places it over my mouth so I'll stop babbling and I have the sudden desire to open my lips and suck her delicate fingers into my mouth.
"You've lost me. Tricks, bidding, play... I have no idea what any of this means. Maybe I shouldn't play."
I raise my hand up and gently grab her wrist, pulling her hand away from my mouth, but instead of letting go I intertwine our fingers together and rest them by my side, slightly pulling her closer to me.
She gasps. Her breathing changes to short erratic breaths as she looks up at me, waiting to see what I'll say next.
Fuck, she looks so tempting right now.
"You're going to play and you'll do well. I'll be there every step of the way. You'll learn that I don't like to lose so you'll have to play well."
I wink at her and give her hand a squeeze before releasing it and heading back into the living room with her following behind me. It took everything I had not to lean in and kiss her plump lips when she innocently looked up at me with her big, brown eyes.
Molly has already set up the card table and she's sitting across from Eileen as she pulls the deck from the card box, shuffling the cards inside.
"How did the lesson go?" she asks, taking a sip of wine.
"Like I'd tell you our strategies," I reply cockily.
I reach the chair on the right of Molly and pull it out before making a gesture for Cassie to sit down
. She smiles at me and sits before I push her in gently. I move my hands and grasp her shoulders, giving her a small squeeze of encouragement before letting go.
Honestly, I just wanted another excuse to touch her.
Making my way over to the kitchen, I spot a half empty bottle of scotch from Chris's study sitting on the countertop. I pour myself a glass on the rocks and walk back over to the living room, sitting down in the empty chair across from Cassie. She's watching my every move so I watch her in return. I figure if she's allowed to openly gawk at me, then I'm allowed to gawk at her, too.
Molly offers Cassie a glass of wine before we start but she declines. Then the game starts. After an hour of what can only be called the worst game of bridge ever played, Cassie and I take our fourth break and she meets me out in the hallway.
"I'm not getting a hang of this and, quite frankly, I'm not having any fun," she pouts.
"Bridge isn't fun. It's a game that bored housewives play so that they can socialize and gossip. At least that's my experience with it."
She giggles. "You're neither a bored housewife nor a gossip, so how come you play?"
I'm trying to focus on our conversation but every time her lips move I'm drawn to them and what they would feel like against my lips, or around my cock. I distract myself by repeating what Chris said.
She's off limits.
"I don't play. I only know how to play because of my mother and her friends."
"Why did you agree to play tonight then?"
I answer her as honestly as I possibly can without giving away how much I want her. "I wasn't ready to leave."
She smiles and starts to say something but we're interrupted as Molly walks down the hallway in our direction. I pull Cassie closer to me, her chest against mine, and whisper in her ear, "I have no strategies. I think we're done for, but let's pretend we're huddled here, coming up with an elaborate way to win the next hand."
"Oh, now I get it, we'll totally win if we do that," she replies loudly, almost shouting and I can't help laughing at her horrible acting skills.
"Hurry it up, you two. I don't want this game to last all night," Molly says from behind me. She then turns and walks back into the living room, leaving Cassie and me alone.
Lane One: Temptation Page 5