Chapter 12 #3
"Don't be ridiculous." Diane's nostrils flared — she could smell the blood of her prey. "It's not appropriate. It's—"
"And sleeping with you is?" Cassidy cut her off without moving an inch. "Because if you're right, what exactly is the difference between you and him?"
The sound of her own molars grinding was something only she could hear. Her heel hitting the floor was not. Cassidy raised an eyebrow and shook her head. She refused to have this pointless conversation, so she turned and headed for the door.
She heard Diane's footsteps behind her but didn't stop, and just as she was about to walk out, Diane put one hand on the wood and blocked her way.
"Why have you never told me I'm wrong, that I'm way off base — or that I'm actually right and you've been with him for a while now?"
It was true — Cassidy had never sat down with her and calmly explained that Diane's overheated fantasies about her and her mentor hooking up anywhere they could find had no basis in reality.
She hadn't done it because Diane had never asked directly either — she'd only ever fired off biting comments that went nowhere.
And besides, she didn't think she should have to justify herself to a woman she slept with occasionally in an office when no one was left on the third floor.
Cassidy turned around sharply, and her answer wasn't words. She caught Diane's lips so fast that Diane barely had time to react — but she responded immediately, and both of them let out a quiet sound. It was a hard kiss, with no warmth in it whatsoever. A display of lust. Maybe control.
"Do you see what you do to me?" Cassidy took Diane's right hand and slipped it inside her pants. She was already wet — because a single blue-eyed glance was enough to make her body respond. "This is you, Diane. No one else."
Cassidy parted her legs when she felt Diane's fingers start to move, stroking her, while she worked open Diane's pants to be able to touch her in return.
They'd never done this when the floor was in full swing. They'd never risked this much before. But whatever nameless thing they had between them had been growing with time, not fading the way Diane had been so sure it would — and it seemed the wanting had slipped well past anyone's control.
"Don't close your eyes," Cassidy demanded when she saw the blue disappear. "Look at me."
Diane bit her lip because Cassidy was deep inside her and her whole core was trembling. Both of their fingers moved in an identical rhythm, an erotic give-and-take pulling them closer and closer to the edge.
"Are you jealous?" Cassidy asked again, and when she saw Diane about to deny it, she added, "Don't lie to me."
Cassidy picked up the pace, because she knew this body, and that kind of shift drove Diane out of her mind.
Diane closed her eyes again, but they snapped back open when Cassidy went completely still — leaving her hanging in a silence that stole her breath.
They looked at each other for a moment, studying one another like it was the first time, until Diane opened her mouth.
"I am," she breathed.
Cassidy turned her, pressed her back to the wall, and fucked her again — harder this time — while she sank into her mouth, licking her lips, swallowing Diane's moans.
"You shouldn't be," Cassidy said against her mouth, biting her lower lip. "Because I'm completely yours. No one else touches me."
Diane came, and a second later drove her hand back inside Cassidy desperately. She didn't know what she was doing — her whole body was shaking — but a moment later she felt Cassidy clench around her fingers and the waves hit her too.
"Samuel Barnes is my mentor," Cassidy began, her forehead pressed to Diane's once they'd both caught their breath.
"He lost his daughter a few years ago. Cancer took her when Jessica was my age, and for some reason Samuel sees something of her in me.
He guided me through college. He's given me opportunities no one else ever has — and he's never asked for anything in return, Diane.
I don't care what you think of other people.
But don't imply that you know me. Because if you did, you'd know I'm not that kind of woman — and I sure as hell wouldn't be sleeping with anyone else when I have you. "
Cassidy took a step back, straightened her clothes, and opened the door after moving Diane gently aside. Diane's gaze stayed fixed on the window.
The head of business development didn't know how long she stood in the same spot — her mind a mess, her heart threatening to crack through her ribs.
It wasn't just that she wasn't sleeping with Samuel.
It was that Cassidy had declared, without so much as a tremor in her voice, that there was something between them that filled her, and that she didn't need anything more.
Fear settled at her throat and began to squeeze slowly, cutting off the air in a way she couldn't stop. Her body started shaking again, and she had to make it to her desk and grip the edge to keep from going down.
"I can't," she whispered, her gaze unfocused. "I can't do this."