28. Christian #2
“Mhmm. But there’s no one here my age.”
“Sorry about it. Maybe when we start having grand openings you can invite some friends.”
“What about a boy?” she asked.
My answer was immediate and definite. “No.”
“But what if?—”
“No.”
“I’m gonna ask Miss Cass.”
“Still no.”
As the band faded out, Cassandra stepped up on stage and thanked everyone for coming. I felt Bree squeeze a little closer as she listened to Cassandra’s speech about the project and the good it would do in the community.
“I like her,” she said thoughtfully.
My heart tightened. “Yeah?”
Bree nodded. “I mean, I know we have Grandma and Aunt Becks, but Miss Cass is—like— ours .”
I fixed my eyes on Cassandra as she called up each member of the Griffith family to take one of the ornate gold shovels while she spoke animatedly about the future of the ranch.
And as I stood shoulder-to-shoulder with her, my parents, brothers, Becks, and the next generation as we dug into the soil, all I could think was yes.
“Thought you might like these,” I said as I came up behind Cassandra and offered the slippers I had snagged from her things when I took Bree and Gracie back up to the house to go to bed.
She was supervising the flurry of activity as the last of the rentals were packed, loaded, and hauled off.
Cassandra groaned as she slipped out of her heels and wiggled her toes in the grass. “Thank you. You’re a godsend.”
I knelt in front of her and slipped them on her feet. “Least I could do after you made us look civilized and successful.”
Her laugh was tired. “I think it went well. Only time will tell, but I have high expectations.”
“Not high hopes?”
She shook her head. “Hope is simply hanging onto threads of abstract desire. Expectations are the application of hope. I expect excellence, and I will work for it. ”
I pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Poetic.”
“I learned from you.”
I waited until the tent was down, the vendors were tipped, and the last box truck disappeared down the lane before I spoke up again. “You make it sound like you’ll stay.”
Cassandra slipped her hand in mine. “What if I did?”
Our steps were quiet as we walked back to the house.
Although no one was out to hear us, it still felt a little like sneaking around.
My parents had retired shortly after the party ended.
Ray left early to head back to Houston before the championship tomorrow.
Nate and Becks pulled the baby card and went back to their house—not that I blamed them in the least.
“You know what I want,” I said.
She let out a breath. “Then maybe you should know I called Mike earlier today.”
I stroked my beard for dramatic effect. “Really.”
“We caught up on the project a little bit. I sent in my final projections so he could add it to the never-ending metric of success. He told me Tripp had been put on administrative leave because of yet another Lillian Monroe headline that should have never made the news.”
“Those two fuckers really deserve each other,” I muttered.
Cassandra laughed. “He doesn’t even know what’s coming. Looking back, I have no idea what I saw in him.”
“You’re not sad?”
She thought for a moment. “I’m sad that I wasted my time, but I learned my lesson. The people you should be around will make it very clear that you’re wanted and valued.”
I chuckled. “And how about the people you’re around now?”
“They smell. They wake up far too early. They’re bullheaded and stubborn and infuriating.”
“And?” I pressed as we made our way up the porch steps.
Cassandra paused at the top. “And I’ve never felt more at home.”
“Is that all you talked about with Mike?”
Slowly, she shook her head. “Not quite.”
I slid my hands around her waist and gently stroked her hip. “What else?”
“I emailed my resignation before we got on the call. He told me that he’d pass it along and get the paperwork started.
” Pearly teeth sank into a crimson lip. “So, I hope that job offer still stands. And maybe the housing stipend. A commute from my apartment to the ranch is a little out of the question.”
I grinned like the luckiest son of a gun to ever live as I backed her up against the porch column and kissed her. “It stands.”
We weren’t frantically trying to get in the house, but our lazy kisses under the porch light grew needy as moths flitted overhead. Cassandra whimpered into my mouth when I dragged my hand up her thigh, hitching it around my waist.
“Tell me you’re gonna stay,” I whispered into her mouth as I cradled the back of her neck.
Cassandra nodded. “Yes.”
I grabbed the back of her thighs and picked her up as she wrapped her legs around me. “We need to set some ground rules,” I said as I carried her in and kicked the door closed behind me.
Her arms snaked around my neck. “Rules already?” She stuck her tongue out. “You’re such a dad.”
I wove through the house on silent feet before tossing her on the bed and closing—and locking—the door behind me. “I think you’ll like these.”
Cassandra shimmied up the bed.
“What’s mine is yours. My house, my?—”
“Truck?” she guessed.
“You still can’t drive stick.”
“I’m a quick learner.”
“We’ll work on it,” I promised as I undressed and climbed up with her. “I trust you. Even as we are now—no rings, no long-term vows—you’re part of this ranch. You’re part of this family. You’re part of this legacy. You want something done? You have the weight of my name in your own.”
“I already knew that,” she said with a coy little look. When I paused curiously, she said, “I overheard you telling CJ’s boys that when I first arrived.”
I cupped her jaw. “I meant every word.”
Silver eyes grew heavy as I hovered over her mouth. She nodded slowly, solemnly, and soberly. “I know.”
Piece by piece, I undressed her until we were skin-to-skin. Her breath was hot and staccato against my neck as I squeezed her breast, working it in my palm.
“Christian,” she begged, trying her best to keep quiet. Her lungs hitched and strained as a whine escaped when I thumbed her nipple. Cassandra squeezed her thighs together, trying to ease the ache I was causing.
Good. I wanted her to know how much it pained me when she wasn’t near.
She twisted and thrashed, but I kept her pinned beneath me, teasing her rosy nipples until they were flushed bright pink and pebbled.
I drove my knee between her legs and pressed it against her hot cunt. “There you go, Princess. Make yourself come. Show me how much you want my cock.” I sucked on the paper-thin skin behind her ear and made her gasp. “Do a good job for me and I’ll fill your little pussy up.”
“Just fuck me already,” she gasped as she rolled her hips, rubbing herself against me like an animal in heat.
“Keep going,” I said as I cupped one heavy breast and sucked her nipple between my teeth.
She pressed harder against me, jolting with each thrust as she edged closer and closer to an orgasm.
“Don’t stop now, Princess. Show me how pretty you look when you come with my name on your lips.” I pinched her nipple and relished the shock that morphed into a moan. “That’s what you wanted that day I walked in on you touching yourself. You wanted me to be the one making you come.”
Cassandra nodded desperately. “Yes.”
“Then make yourself finish like the dirty girl you are, and I’ll make that fantasy come true.”
I hissed as her teeth sunk into my shoulder as she came. Before she had even finished orgasming, I rolled on a condom and sank deep inside her soaked pussy.
“Goddamn, you feel incredible.”
Lingering flutters of her release teased my cock as I pushed inside.
“Yes,” she said, releasing a weighted breath. “That’s what I needed.”
I stole a kiss. “I’ll always give you what you need. Tell me how good it feels, princess.”
Cassandra hissed as I thrust into her again. Her words were strained and tense. “Full. So tight,” she whimpered, resting her forehead on my shoulder.
I slammed my hips into hers. “I know it is, but you’re a tough little thing. You can take it.”
“Christian,” she keened as I scraped my fingers up and down her tits, teasing her peaks with each pass.
Her pussy clenched around my dick, desperate and wanton. “I feel you, Princess. Come when you want. There’s more where that came from.”
Cassandra gasped, her back arching off the bed when I reached between us and slowly, steadily massaged her clit.
“I’ll always give you what you need,” I promised over and over again as she begged and pleaded for another release.
I breathed through waves of arousal that threatened to push me over the edge until she broke apart beneath me. We collapsed, chest-to-chest as my cock jerked, pouring into the condom.
Her cunt still strangled me, even as we lay together, slowly catching our breath.
“Christian?” she said quietly as she tipped her head back on the pillow and closed her eyes.
I peppered her chest with dotted kisses. “Hmm?”
“Thank you for being patient with me.”
My hair hung around us as I pressed a kiss to her lips. “I love you too.”