31. Robbie
ROBBIE
Cassie whirls around so fast her hair whips her in her face. “What the fuck?”
“I could say the same thing to you.”
It took me less than five minutes to wheedle out of my brother where Cassie was, and even less time to load all my shit in my car and drive over the speed limit to get here.
Cassie flicks her hair over her shoulder as she straightens. “What are you doing here?”
“What are you doing here?”
“I’m a musician.” She waves her hands in the direction of the barn I barely spared a glance at as I stormed across the gravel. “This is a recording studio.”
I take a deep breath, resting my hands on my hips.
Cassie pushes past me, her body so close to mine it’s easy to put my hand out and catch her hip. My thumb brushes against the hem of her t-shirt, and all I want to do is tug her to me fully. She keeps her head down even as her chin tilts towards me, as if she needs to be as close to me as I do her.
“Is everything okay, Miss Hamilton?” a whiny voice echoes from behind me. I grind my jaw at the interruption. I catch Cassie’s gaze with mine, her green eyes drinking me in.
Cassie shrugs out of my hold. “All good, Ian.” She walks away from me, hips swaying in her jeans as she climbs the gentle incline to where the guy is waiting for her. “Can you show me the cottage now?”
Ian glances over at me and then speaks to Cassie, their conversation too quiet for me to hear.
I wait where she left me, hands on my hips until she disappears into the house behind Ian.
My jaw tightens. How could she just walk away from me like that?
I return to my car, almost ready to climb back inside and drive off. This was a wasted trip. I open the door, eyes catching on the seat, and I’m reminded of Cassie in my passenger seat scrolling through my music and filling the interior with her strawberry scent.
I slam the door and lean back against the car. She’ll come out again, and when she does, we’ll talk. Properly.
I wait for nearly half an hour before the door finally opens. Cassie’s laugh echoes through across the drive as Ian stumbles out into the sunshine. He hands her the key and gestures once to me. Cassie’s reassuring nod tells me all I need to know. I’m not a problem for her.
Ian waves at me as he passes, sliding into a beat up Land Rover and driving away. The cottage door stays open, Cassie propped against the frame like it’s her home, and I’m the annoying mailman taking too long to deliver her parcel. Her eyes narrow, and she slams the door closed.
I settle further back against the car, crossing one leg in front of the other. I have a plane to catch, training to return to on the other end, but I’ll wait right here for—yep, there she is.
The door swings open, and Cassie storms across the gravel. “When are you going to leave?”
She stops a few feet from me, eyes blazing with an avenging fury.
“After we’ve talked.”
“Talked about what?”
“How about why the hell you ran out of my parents house without so much as a goodbye?”
She blinks.
“Ffion was devastated, by the way.” My words hit their mark and Cassie winces.
“I wouldn’t have left if you hadn’t been so…” She stumbles, heat filling her cheeks. “So you.”
I bark a laugh. “What are you talking about?”
“You know what I mean.”
“Enlighten me.”
“I can’t keep doing this with you, Robbie. I can’t keep putting myself out there for you to reject me. I am Cassandra fucking Hamilton. I don’t get fucking rejected.”
“When did I reject you?”
She makes a disbelieving noise in the back of her throat. “This morning, after your mother knocked on the door.”
“This morning.” I lick my lips at the memory of her underneath me, of her warm soft skin that had spent the night cocooned in my sheets. All I had wanted was to taste her. “You ran off before I could—”
“Tell me to.”
She cuts me off before I can finish, but the words tumble out of me anyway. “—kiss you.”
She stops, her lips falling open with a faint gasp that I want to catch with my tongue.
“What?” she breathes.
I take a step closer, until the tips of my shoes are meeting hers.
“Did you really think I was going to kick you out?” I lift my hand to her cheek, gently brushing her dewy soft skin before my fingers drift to her red hair.
The curls cascade through my fingers, and I have to stop myself from letting them get tangled in her, stop myself from using them to tug her to me and finally tasting her lips.
“You drive me mad,” I whisper as she tilts her head back. “I can’t stay away, Cassie. I can’t. I’ve tried.”
She’s so close now her nose is brushing mine, her hand resting on my chest and clutching my t-shirt.
“I shouldn’t be here.” Cassie whispers.
“Neither should I.”
Her lips fall open, soft and pink and fucking delicious. Her cool breath fans across my cheek as I wrap my free hand around her waist. She whimpers, and I’m a goner.
“Fuck it.” My mouth crashes on hers and we erupt.
It’s messy, chaotic, a desperate clash of lips and tongues and teeth.
I spin us, crowding Cassie back against the hood of my car and wedging my thigh between hers.
She gasps as she chases my lips, her hips grinding against my bare thigh underneath my shorts.
My hand tangles further in her hair as she hikes her leg further up my hip, opening up wider for me.
“You are trouble,” I tell her as I press kisses along her collarbone, biting at the thin strap of her bra with my teeth.
“You like it,” Cassie whimpers as my hands climb inside her shirt, cupping her gorgeous tit in my hand, thumb flicking against her hardened nipple, and I can’t deny it.
She tilts her hips, and I can’t help but press my aching cock into her softness, desperate for the relief I’ve been depriving myself of for so long.
She grinds into my thigh, speeding up her movements before I capture her mouth with mine.
I wrap my arms more firmly around her body, my hands exploring her tight stomach.
It’s easy to flick open the button of her jeans and slide my fingers inside, feeling the lace of her underwear.
I almost groan myself as I press my fingers closer, teasing the wet lace with every brush of my finger.
Her lips open with a moan that I try to catch with my tongue.
I slide my fingers inside her underwear and gently brush across her clit, a hitched breath the reward for my efforts.
“Don’t suppose they have a bed in that big house over there?” I mumble into her neck as I flick my fingers over her hot pussy.
She laughs breathlessly. “One or two.”
I pull my hand from her jeans, her hooded eyes following as I take my fingers into my mouth and taste her sweetness on my tongue.
She swallows, and I lean in until our mouths are a whisper apart. “Lead the way, trouble.”