Ask Cassandra

Chapter Six

“This is a bad idea,” Cassie said after several breathless minutes, and Manny got out of her space immediately.

“Do you want to stop?” he said.

“Nope,” Cassie said. Heavy, liquid warmth was spreading through her body, desire like honey in her veins. “Wait, what about your psychologist? Did your mom make that up too?”

“Mom told you about my therapist? What about him?”

“No, your mom said you were seeing a nice psychologist in the city.”

“Oh,” Manny said. “No. I was seeing a nice speech therapist in the city. But that was months ago, and things ended with Rose pretty quickly after my dad died.” He grinned at her. “She was warning you away from me.”

“Well, she’s got a point,” Cassie said. “This isn’t very smart of us.”

“So dumb,” Manny agreed, his eyes on her lips.

Cassie kissed him, a light, teasing touch, and pulled back. “I’ve been wanting to do this since I met you.”

“Me too.”

“But it’s definitely inappropriate.”

“We’re risking a solid working relationship,” Manny said, and slid his hands gently down her arms. Cassie shivered.

“Right,” she said. “So I just thought we should acknowledge that this is a fundamentally bad idea, and then do it anyway.”

Manny’s grin was slow and seductive. “You’re right. I definitely shouldn’t get my hands on your breasts, but I’m going to enjoy it.”

The words zinged through her, desire sparking in their wake. Cassie’s voice was shaky. “I absolutely shouldn’t grope the ass I’ve wanted to touch for weeks”

“I shouldn’t bury my face between your thighs.”

“I shouldn’t explore your cock with my tongue.”

They were pressed against each other now, eyes locked. Her nipples were hardening at the contact, and she could feel an impressive erection pressed against her belly.

“I shouldn’t slide inside you,” Manny said, and Cassie’s core went molten at the thought.

“I shouldn’t ride you till you break,” she whispered, and Manny shuddered.

“Right, since we’re agreed,” he said, and his mouth descended on hers.

This wasn’t tender. It was a devouring kiss, lips and tongue and teeth eating at her, and Cassie gave as good as she got, pushing against him until he groaned into her mouth. She grabbed his ass—finally—and felt the tight muscle flex under her hands as she pulled his pelvis flush against hers, grinding shamelessly against him.

“Okay,” Manny said, tearing his mouth away. “On this desk, or…?”

“On the archives?” Cassie said, sounding scandalized even to herself.

“Right, don’t know what I was thinking,” Manny said. He grabbed her hand, and Cassie reluctantly gave up her handful of excellent ass so that he could tug her further into the attic proper. The place was full of furniture. There were even a few deconstructed beds, though the thought of rodent nests in the old mattresses was a disturbing possibility…

Cassie was just about to suggest they go downstairs when Manny said, “Great, here it is,” and swung her around, using the momentum to half-lift her onto a sturdy old desk.

Cassie didn’t think of herself as particularly liftable, but Manny was evidently stronger than he looked. Or granted desperate strength by lust, because the second her butt hit the surface he was on her, hands sliding up under her sweater.

“Oh,” Cassie said, as his hands gently lifted the weight of her breasts and then “oh,” as his thumbs stroked over her nipples.

Manny was watching her, his eyes flicking from her face to the movement of his hands under the cloth. “Yes?”

“Fuck, yes,” Cassie said, and grabbed her sweater hem.

Getting the sweater off was slightly awkward, partly because Manny didn’t seem to want to let go of her boobs long enough to help, and partly because she just had to kiss him several times along the way.

“Is the beard okay?” he mumbled.

“It’s working for me,” Cassie said honestly. She’d kissed bearded men before, and the experience differed a lot depending on the man, his technique, and his general beard care practice. Kissing Manny was easily at the top of the list. She licked the seam of his lips and he opened for her again. She plunged in, enjoying the heat and the dizzy sensation of his hands as much as the soft tickle of his beard against her skin.

He pulled back, gasping, his eyes narrowed with intent, and suddenly she was lifting her arms and he was peeling her sweater off.

“Holy shit,” she heard him say while her face was still muffled in fabric, and when she got it all the way off, he was staring at her breasts, resplendent in red silk.

Cassie found time to thank the fates that she’d run out of laundry and put on her good underwear that morning. Then his mouth closed on her right breast and she momentarily lost the ability to think at all. Manny sucked her nipple through the fabric, his tongue toying with the hardening point, as his hand stroked the other breast, silk sliding against the tender skin. His free arm was around her back, helping support her weight and keeping her within ready range of his mouth and hands.

He switched to the other breast, and she arched her back in encouragement, bracing herself with her hands. Her legs were still dangling off the edge of the desk, parted so that he could stand between them, and she looped her calves around his back and tugged him closer.

Manny made an urgent sound, and his free hand leaped from her breast to the top button of her jeans. “Can I taste?” he said, his eyes glazed. “Please, Cassie, let me eat you out. I’ve been thinking about it for so long.”

“Well, since you asked nicely,” Cassie said, and when his fumbling wasn’t fast enough for her, she popped her own buttons and shoved her jeans and underwear down her hips. Manny peeled them off her legs, and she was suddenly naked from the waist down, splayed out in front of him.

This was the moment she’d never been able to talk herself out of, the moment where she wasn’t sure how a new partner would react to the silver stretch marks on her full stomach, or the dimpled, pale flesh of her rounded thighs. One glance at Manny’s face showed her that regardless of her own momentary uncertainty about her body, he definitely appreciated it.

In fact, he looked downright ravenous as he went to his knees. He ran his hands along the back of her knees, grinning as she jumped at the pressure, and then hooked her legs over his shoulders, his hands pressing her thighs wide so that he could lick a slow, lavish path up her cunt.

“Oh, fuck,” Cassie panted, and abandoned herself to being worshiped.

Manny took his time at first, learning what worked for her. Once he’d figured out the pressure she liked, he sped up. Cassie’s muscles tightened, her breath coming in tiny, gasping pants. This was great, this was fine, she could definitely come like this, but…

“I want you in me,” she said, on the edge of delirium.

Manny lifted his head and grinned at her. His mouth and beard were glistening. “If you think I’m heading downstairs to find condoms right now…”

Cassie’s mouth nearly said, “fuck that, and fuck me,” but her brain smacked her before she could voice it. Sex with the boss was already a mistake; unprotected sex with the boss was an undeniable step into outright stupidity. She whined in the back of her throat instead, and Manny slid two fingers into his own mouth, sucking deeply. He ducked down again, and she pushed herself up on her elbows so that she could see the golden head buried between her thighs.

Then he slid his fingers inside her and she thumped flat onto her back. His tongue was doing something incredible, circling around her clit, then pressing flat against it, while those magic fingers stretched her open.

“More, more, more,” she said, the words babbling out of her, and he withdrew his hand, then thrust in again, three fingers this time. No careful stretch now, he knew she could take it, and he gave it to her, over and over and over while his tongue kept the rhythm on her clit, and the pleasure built and built, until she hovered right on the cliff’s edge.

He pressed his tongue flat on her clit again, and kept it there.

Cassie flung her arms over her face and bit down on her wrist as she came, waves of pleasure rolling over her as her muscles shook and her toes curled.

Manny was suddenly leaning over her, looking smug. Well, he had every right to.

“Holy shit,” she said, when she got her breath back. “That is some serious hospitality.”

He laughed, but his eyes were still hungry, and she could feel his cock through his pants, jutting eagerly at the crease of her hip. She lifted her hips to give him a little more friction, and he groaned.

“Come here,” she said, and sat up again. She reached between them and unzipped his pants, eeling her hand between fabric and flesh until she had his erection in a firm grip, squeezing the base. “Hello, there,” she said, and Manny groaned again, tossing his head back.

“Are you trying to kill me?” he said through clenched teeth.

“Given the available options, how do you want to come?” Cassie said sweetly, and his eyes flew open, staring at her.

No, at her breasts, enclosed in red silk, still with the telltale wet patches where he’d done devastating things to her nipples. They peaked again at the thought of his clever mouth, and she squeezed her upper arms together, plumping her breasts so that they strained at the lace.

“Oh, fuck,” Manny said, his eyes locked on her cleavage.

“You want to come on my tits, baby?” Cassie said, and felt his cock jump in her grip. That was answer enough. She laughed and pushed him back far enough that she could slide down the front of the table to kneel at his feet while he made fast work of his pants. Her sweater was probably a lost cause, so she folded it under herself for a pad and sat back on her haunches.

Manny was staring at her, his breath coming in shallow pants. He was holding his cock in a tight grip, running his thumb over the head. Oh yeah, she wanted to taste that.

Next time, she thought, and then tried not to consider the part where she’d already assumed there was a next time. “Keep my bra on?” she asked.

“Off,” Manny said. “I want to see.” He stroked the mound of her breast with his free hand, and she felt her pussy clench again at the contact. She made short work of the clasp at the back and let the bra tip down and off her arms, tossing it to one side without breaking eye contact. Manny made a noise low in his throat and stepped closer, hand working roughly at his cock.

“You’re so beautiful,” he said, so low it was nearly a growl. “I’ve been thinking about you, Cassie. I’ve been thinking about what I want to do to you, what we could do together, and it’s wrong, it’s so wrong, but I can’t stop.”

“Tell me. Tell me all of it.”

“I want to bend you over this desk and pound into you from behind. I want you to ride me until you scream. I want you to come on my cock, again and again.”

Cassie licked her lips, slow and deliberate.

“I want your hands on me,” he said, his own hand working faster. “I want your mouth on me, fuck, Cassie, your mouth is a dream, your breasts are a miracle, you’re so soft, so gorgeous, so—” His eyes rolled into the back of his head, and his face froze in an expression that looked on the edge of pain. He grunted as if someone had hit him, and then he was coming in thick, hot spurts across her breasts. It wasn’t Cassie’s favorite sensation, but it was worth it to see his jaw drop, his eyes shining with something that looked very close to worship.

He braced himself on the edge of the desk, panting. Cassie thought his knees might be wobbly. She was feeling shaky herself.

Also, now that the fevered rush of sex was dying down, a little chilly. And sticky. There were wet-wipes in her archive kit. She got up to fetch them, and Manny’s eyes widened.

“I’m not running away,” she said. “Just cleaning up.”

Manny nodded and scooped up his pants and underwear. He’d somehow managed to keep his top layer on, which now that she was thinking about it, wasn’t completely fair. Cassie wiped herself clean and climbed back into her clothes.

Manny sat down on the attic floor beside her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, and she leaned into the heat.

“Regrets?” he said quietly.

“Nope,” Cassie said. “Although I wish we’d got as far as a bed.”

“Next time,” Manny promised, and then winced. “I mean, assuming you want a next time.”

“I was making the same assumption,” Cassie told him, and he relaxed against her. “We should talk about this, though. For now, can we say no complications and no expectations?”

“Meaning?”

“I don’t sleep with people who are sleeping with someone else. That would be a complication for me.”

“Not an issue,” Manny said, a note of something dark in his voice. “I don’t do that either.”

“And as for expectations… You’re planning to stay here and open your new business, and I’m planning to go back to the city. Any expectation of commitment past that would be a bad idea.”

“Right. That makes sense.” He didn’t say it with any great enthusiasm, but he didn’t sound upset, either.

“What about you?” Cassie said. She was remembering every time she’d written advice to people telling them to use their words and be open and honest with partners. Definitely one of those things that it was easier to preach than practice. “What would be a complication for you?”

Manny was quiet for a moment. “Don’t sleep with someone else kind of covers it for me,” he said. “And don’t… Don’t try to keep things from me because you’re afraid it’ll hurt my feelings or whatever. Just tell me if I’m doing something you don’t like, or if you want to end it.”

Ouch. There was obviously a backstory there, but now wasn’t the time to pry. He’d tell her more if he wanted to.

“I tend to be upfront,” Cassie said.

“I noticed that,” Manny said, and shook his head at her, grinning faintly. “I can’t believe you just straight up asked if I wanted to come on your tits.”

“Didn’t seem much point in being shy, considering where your mouth had been.”

“My mouth would be happy to return to that location any time.” He stretched. “So, in summary, we’re currently exclusively having sex with each other, but we’re not planning for anything beyond that?”

“And we’re going to be honest and not keep things from each other.”

“Great. Then I can honestly say that I want to see you tonight.” He stroked a line down the center of her chest, and she shivered. “Hopefully, with condoms.”

“I’d like that.”

“Your place or mine?” Manny asked, and Cassie pictured sneaking out of his room and being caught by Aerope.

“Mine,” she said firmly. “And this time, you’re getting naked first.”

He laughed, and kissed her again. No heat this time, just a friendly smooch that was somehow very touching. “I know it was a bad idea,” he said, nuzzling at her neck. “But I don’t have any regrets either.”

“I need a bath,” Cassie said.

Manny shook himself out of the light trance he’d fallen into, lulled by the warmth of her body against his. “Does that mean I have to move?”

“Ideally,” Cassie said, and gave him a gentle nudge. “I also need to do some laundry. Can I use the house facilities, or should I go find a laundromat?”

“Let me have an awkward conversation with my mother and get back to you,” Manny said. He shoved himself upright and held out his hand. “How serious is the laundry situation?”

Cassie grabbed his hand and levered herself up. “I’m wearing my fancy undies because I’ve run out of the normal ones.”

“And may I say that I appreciate that?”

Cassie kissed him. “You may. But I’ve got one pair left, and I intend to use them tonight.” She grinned at him. “You’ll appreciate those too.”

“Copy that,” Manny said, with feeling, and reluctantly left while Cassie locked up. He was hazily imagining it would probably look better if they didn’t leave together. Not that he intended to keep his expanded relationship with Cassie a secret, but the way his mother was acting right now inclined him towards discretion.

With that in mind, he stopped by his bedroom ensuite to quickly clean up, and then headed back to his office.

His mother was standing in the middle of the room, her hands clenched.

“I wanted to fetch something from the attic,” Aerope said, her eyes blazing. “And I heard noises.”

Manny controlled his automatic flinch. “Please tell me you didn’t keep going upstairs.”

“Certainly not,” Aerope said. “I cannot believe you slept with that woman. Now she can sue you for harassment when you fire her.”

Manny couldn’t remember ever raising his voice to his mother, but the temptation had never been stronger. He stalked to his desk and sat down. “I’m not firing her, Mother,” he said flatly. “And you’re not bribing her to leave, either.”

Aerope flinched.

“Yes, she told me,” Manny said. “Of course she did. Because she is being harassed in her workplace. By you.”

“You don’t understand,” Aerope said, her lips white with strain. “She has to leave.”

“Why, Mom? We might be able to work something out if you tell me why.”

The tendons in Aerope’s neck were rigid. “Because we don’t need outsiders in the archives.”

“That’s not a good enough reason, Mom. I don’t think that’s even your real reason.” He gestured to the armchair he’d cleared for Cassie’s lunch breaks. “Come on, sit down. Tell me about it. I know you’re hurting. We’re all hurting. If you need some extra space, we can discuss it, but these ultimatums have to stop.”

Aerope didn’t move. “This is my house, not yours,” she said unsteadily. “Your father left it to me for the rest of my lifetime. If I say she’s not welcome here, she has to go.”

Manny rubbed his temples. “He left the archives to me. If you bar Cassie from the house, then I’ll move the archives out.” Actually, that might be the best solution. Then Cassie could keep her contract, his mother couldn’t interfere, and Aerope would maybe get some respite to work on whatever the underlying cause was. “She said the documents need better storage anyway. Okay, this works. Tomorrow I’ll look into office space downtown.”

“No,” Aerope said. “You can’t take the archives!”

“Mom, legally, they’re mine.”

“I’ll contest the will,” Aerope said.

Manny froze. Dragging the family through the court system, exposing them to the speculation of the community… Whatever this was, it wasn’t just Aerope’s usual certainty that she knew the best course of action. If she was willing to contest the will to get her own way, she must be truly desperate.

“Mother,” Manny said. “Mom. Please, tell me what’s going on.”

Her chin lifted proudly, but he could see her wavering. “Can you not just trust that I know more about this than you do?”

“I can see that you do. But I need to know too, because Dad did leave the archives to me. I’m not willing to default on that responsibility.”

Aerope snorted, and Manny held up his hand. “Calling in a professional was responsible,” he said. “You’d agree to that if it wasn’t for... Whatever this is. I’m genuinely worried about you.”

“I’m not crazy,” Aerope said.

“You’re not really presenting the best case for sanity,” Manny said. “That was a damn stupid lie you told me this afternoon. Next thing you’ll be drawing lines of salt across the doorways to keep Cassie out.”

“Well, that wouldn’t work,” Aerope said practically. “She’s not a demon. I’m sure she’s a very nice woman.”

Manny wouldn’t have called Cassie nice. Kind, yes. Perceptive, absolutely. Gorgeous, oh fuck yes.

He tore his mind away from an inconvenient vision of Cassie on her knees, grinning up at him, evidence of their recent activities painted across her spectacular breasts, and refocused on his mother, who had lost the moment of levity.

“You really want to know?” she said.

“I think I need to.”

Aerope sat down as if her knees had been cut out from under her. The bleakness in her face warned him even before she opened her mouth.

“Your father didn’t die of a heart attack,” she said. “He killed himself.”

Manny felt it like a punch to the face. “No.”

Aerope’s eyes were glossy with tears that didn’t fall. “I didn’t want to believe it either. But he did. He waited until I went on that trip, and he washed down some sleeping pills with whiskey. He didn’t leave a note, he didn’t…not a single hint. After the autopsy, Doctor Olsen said that maybe it was accidental. Maybe Arthur had taken a pill to get to sleep, and gotten confused. Maybe he’d forgotten he’d taken it, so he took another and another. But I think he was just trying to be kind.”

“Did Dad even use sleeping pills?”

“No,” Aerope said, and her face crumpled in on itself. “They were mine.”

“Mom. Mom, it’s okay.” Manny went to her and wrapped his arms around her while she sobbed.

“He left us,” she said after a few minutes, her voice raw. “He left us, and he let me find him like that.”

He wouldn’t,Manny thought, feeling cold to the core. But everyone must think that, when they first heard about such an unexpected suicide. He couldn’t argue with an autopsy.

“Does anyone else know?” he asked.

“Only our doctor, and the coroner.” Aerope said. “And Theo. I didn’t want to tell you boys. I didn’t want to hurt you.”

“So you’ve been carrying this alone?” Manny said.

“I’m tougher than I look,” Aerope said, with dignity, and then she sighed, her face settling into lines that somehow seemed deeper, now he knew. “I’m sorry, Manfred. I know I’ve been just awful. But I never wanted you to know.”

“Mom, it’s okay. I’m glad you told me.” He hesitated. “I just don’t understand what it has to do with the archives.”

Aerope nodded. “He started researching last summer, after everyone came out for Midsummer. He said he was finally going to write that book.”

“But he seemed so happy about that.”

“At first. Then he stopped talking about it. He kept going up to the attic, but he didn’t share his new discoveries with me or show me old recipes he thought I’d like. I thought that maybe he was just finding it more work than he’d expected. You know how your father was, every month a new enthusiasm.” She gestured at the clutter in the office, the half-built model airplanes and redundant computer equipment, the stack of dusty origami paper on the bookshelf.

“I thought he’d move on to something else soon.” A spasm of pain crossed her face. “I didn’t recognize his reluctance to talk as a symptom that he might be unwell. I didn’t notice anything at the time. It was only afterwards, when Theo asked if Arthur had said anything about the archives that I realized.”

“Did he say something to Theo?”

“No, he clammed up on him as well.” She took a deep breath. “Theo thinks he might have found something terrible up there, something that might have… Well. Prompted his choice.”

Manny didn’t know what to say. He wasn’t a health professional, but it didn’t seem likely to him that a man who had no history of poor mental health could be driven to suicide by a historical scandal. “Had Dad been depressed before?” he asked gently.

“I don’t think so,” Aerope said doubtfully. “I mean, he had the occasional down day, but he was usually so optimistic.”

“Was the vineyard in trouble? The accounting’s kind of messy, but as far as I can tell we’re still in the black.”

“That was my impression, too.” Aerope sighed. “There was one sign, perhaps. He increased his life insurance coverage. At the time, I thought getting older was making him more cautious. And perhaps it was—that was months before he even started researching. But it’s the only other thing I can think of.”

“It just doesn’t make sense. What on earth do you think he could have found?”

“I don’t know. It’s such a mess up there. It could be anything—embezzlement, tax fraud, shady land deals.”

“Almost everything around here is built on stolen land, Mom.”

“Well, yes. But I meant more recently stolen.” She patted him again. “At least now you know why you need to fire Cassie.”

“Absolutely not,” Manny said, before he could think about it.

Aerope drew herself up. “Is this because you slept with her?”

“No!” he said then reconsidered. “Well, maybe a little. You’re right that she’d absolutely have a wrongful dismissal case against me and I wouldn’t blame her for pursuing it. But more importantly, Mom, we need her help. Whatever’s up there, we need to find it. That’s her job, and we need her to keep doing it.”

Aerope’s lip quivered. “But what if it kills you too?” she said, her voice wavering.

“Mom, I love you,” Manny said. “So please hear me when I say that’s not going to happen.”

“I know,” Aerope admitted. “I know I sound crazy. I think I am a little crazy right now. I miss him every single day. I know that I’m probably blowing it all out of proportion, but I keep thinking that maybe Theo was right. If the archives hold something that could hurt your father, when he was so strong… Maybe we should have just burned it all.”

Manny shook his head. “I don’t think there’s any secret that bad. I mean, I’m sure there are some skeletons in our closet. Every family has those, and we’re wealthy WASPs descended from colonists. I could name three or four awful possibilities off hand. But… We don’t even know that it was the archives. You and Theo were just guessing.”

Aerope stared at her hands. “If it’s not the archives, then neither of us noticed anything at all,” she said. “And that might be worse.”

“Mom,” Manny said. His voice came out thick, and he had to cough to clear his throat. “Mom, he waited until you’d left. He didn’t want you to know anything was wrong. He chose to shut you out. It’s not your fault.”

Aerope didn’t say anything for a moment. “Do you trust Cassie?” she asked.

“Yes,” Manny said promptly.

“You trusted Helen, too,” Aerope said, and Manny reared back.

To her credit, Aerope looked like she wished she could grab the words out of the air and stuff them back into her mouth. “I’m sorry,” she said immediately. “But it’s true.”

“As far as I’m aware, Helen never betrayed a confidence,” Manny said, trying to keep his voice steady.

“Just you.”

“It wasn’t—Mom, it’s been nearly twelve years.”

“So?” Aerope said. “I will never forgive her.”

Manny sighed. “What was she supposed to do? Stay with me when she didn’t want me, didn’t love me? That would have beena worse betrayal.”

“She should have been brave enough to tell you,” Aerope said, unbending.

Manny had come to agree with that, but he knew he wasn’t entirely blame free either. “I knew something was wrong. I should have been brave enough to ask. But, look, this is a different situation altogether. I’m not trusting Cassie with my heart or my future. But I do trust her to do her job, and she’ll do it better if she knows that she’s looking for something.”

“All right, tell her,” Aerope said, with sudden decision. “Make her sign an NDA.”

“I can’t ask Cassie to cover up a crime, Mom.” Manny thought about it. “I don’t think I want to cover up a crime, especially a historical one.”

“It might not be anything criminal. And if it is, you can ask her to show you the evidence first. If it involves the family, it would look better if we go to the police instead of her.”

All right. Aerope was clearly more concerned about the optics than any notion of justice, but he couldn’t say she was wrong. If his family had done something terrible in the past, it would look better for the current members to present the evidence themselves.

“Fine,” he said. “I’ll ask her to show me first, on the condition that you go and talk to Doctor Adams about how you feel.”

“I was thinking I should probably do that anyway,” Aerope conceded. She smiled tremulously at him. “Although telling you has made me feel a little better. Even though I know that it’s made things worse for you. Does that make me a terrible mother?”

“You’re a great mother,” Manny said. “Recent aberrations aside.”

Aerope gave him a stern look.

“And you need to treat Cassie better, okay? You don’t have to be her best friend, but basic politeness would be a decent start.”

His mother pursed her lips. “Well. At least she has good taste in men.”