17. Cassidy
Chapter seventeen
Cassidy
A s the weekend approaches, I’m excited to spend time with the guys again. We’ve not seen each other since our lunchtime rendezvous and it’s felt like a bit of a drag, if I’m honest. The group chat fires up on and off throughout the week, but I’m keen to catch up with the guys on Saturday at brunch.
My plotting session the other day seemed to help, and the words have been flowing once more. I’m about halfway through the book now and have spent most of the morning writing a big sex scene. I’m trying to build in lots of emotion and feeling into it so it’s not just the characters boinking. I love this part of my job. I love writing, but I really love building the relationships that lead to the happy ending. There’s also a sick delight in all the angst I put my characters through.
I’m wondering about taking a break for lunch when there’s a knock at my door. I make my way over to peep through the spyhole and see Jack standing there, looking smart, with his laptop bag slung over his shoulder. I unlock the bolt and pull the door wide with a big smile on my face.
“Someone looks pleased to see me.” He kisses me briefly on the lips.
“This is a nice surprise.”
“I had a meeting over this side of town so decided to work from home after, to save going back to the office. How’s the writing going?” he asks as he leans on the doorjamb.
“Do you want to come in?” I ask. He looks at his watch and grimaces.
“I’ve got a call to join in fifteen minutes, but I was knocking to see how you are and if you wanna catch up tonight?”
“I’m good. The writing is good. And tonight sounds good.” I pause, then ask, “Just us?”
“Tom’s working until late. But I’ll be free anytime after my last call, which finishes around 5 pm. What do you say?”
Just Jack and I together? “I’d like that. What are your plans for dinner?”
He scratches his chin. “I hadn’t thought that far ahead.”
“I was planning to order takeaway. Do you want to join me? It’ll be just like old times.”
“That sounds fab. What time?”
“How about you come over at 6 pm? We can decide what we want and order from there.”
“Sounds great.” He smiles and leans in to kiss me again. This time he lingers, one of his hands caressing the back of my head while he pushes his tongue against the seam of my lips. I groan, letting him in, enjoying how he plunders my mouth until he eventually pulls away. We blink at each other.
“That’s quite helpful, as I’m writing a sex scene at the moment and you just got me all fired up,” I tell him with a breathy sigh. His eyes sparkle as he gives me another peck before backing away.
“6 pm. I’ll see you then. You can tell me all about your sex scene. I look forward to it.”
Jack is prompt. I hear him banging on the door just before 6 pm. I mosey over, pulling it open wide, gesturing for him to step inside. He’s carrying a four pack of bottled IPA beers and holds them up to show me.
“How do you feel about beer? I know you normally drink wine, but someone recommended these.”
I wrinkle my nose. “I’m not usually a beer drinker, but I’ll give them a go.”
He makes his way in and puts the beers down on the coffee table. “So, what shall we order for dinner?” he asks as I close the door.
I pull up the local delivery app and begin to browse as I walk towards him. He comes to stand behind me, resting his chin on my shoulder so he can see the choices. I tip my head towards his, delighting in the intimacy. We debate a few different options and he points out a local Thai place that has amazing reviews. Once our order is placed, I turn to face him.
“We’ve got at least half an hour before it gets here—what do you want to do?”
He waggles his eyebrows before responding with, “What are my choices?”
“We could put the telly on and start looking for a movie to watch—it’ll probably take that long to decide,” I chuckle. “Or we could feel each other up and kiss a bit?”
“I’ll take option B.” He grabs my hand and leads me to the couch, sitting down with his legs sprawled and pulling me so I topple on top of him. “Comfy?” he asks as he moves my legs until I straddle him.
“Sure. Let me just put my phone here so we know when our food is nearby.” I make sure the volume’s turned up before peering at him, feeling a little shy. He brushes the hair back from my face, tucking it behind my ear.
“It feels strange doing this without Tom here,” I tell him honestly.
“You’re right, it does. But we can tell him all about it later. He’ll enjoy the replay, I’m sure.”
We close the gap and our lips smoosh together. He dominates the kiss, keeping a hand on the back of my head with gentle pressure. His tongue plunders my mouth and I can’t help but be reminded of the difference between his and Tom’s kisses. Tom tends to take his time—teasing me, whereas Jack is all in straight away. How lucky am I to have the best of both worlds?
He’s changed from his earlier work clothes and is wearing a soft cotton t-shirt; the kind that’s been washed a hundred times, wonderfully soft under my palms as I let my hands venture all over his chest.
His hand reaches under my top to stroke across my ribs, caressing first one breast and then the other. I moan, enjoying his touch, arching into him for more.
I fidget, wanting to take things further, but knowing dinner will be here soon. I wonder how the evening will play out. Will we have sex after dinner? I’d like that. I love being with both guys together, but I’m also intrigued to see how different things are when it’s only two of us. And how Jack will feel inside me for the first time.
My hands make their way down to the hem of his t-shirt and I tuck my fingers underneath it to explore his abs. The way he’s sitting means I can feel each bump and ridge of his six pack—he’s firm under my hands. I tickle his happy trail. He’s wearing sweat shorts, making it easy to tuck my hand inside and continue stroking downwards.
We’re both panting by the time my phone dings with a notification. I ease back from the kiss to suck in a breath. “Dinner’s almost here.”
He smoulders at me, the ridge of his erection digging into me through his shorts.
“I’d rather eat you,” he tells me, his voice an octave deeper than normal.
“You can do that later if you like.” I wink. “I really enjoyed it the other day.”
“Me too. Your pussy is delicious, Cass. I’d happily feast on you for breakfast, lunch and dinner if I could get away with it.”
“Ah, but you need some food to keep your strength up.”
“True.” His mouth finds mine again, but it’s a lighter kiss this time.
He groans when the door buzzer sounds, easing back and slowly pulling his hand away from me. He helps me straighten my top and even finger-combs my hair.
“I’ll… er… go get the door,” I tell him as I climb off his lap.
“Hurry back.”
I head over to the door entry system to check who it is, before pressing the button to let the delivery person in.
I look back at Jack while I wait beside the door. His head is thrown back, eyes closed. I wonder what he’s thinking. He gulps, and I think he might be trying to calm down before dinner arrives. It feels powerful knowing I turn him on this much. I secretly fantasised about this for months after meeting him. And can’t quite believe that it’s happening. And not just that, but that Tom is involved with us too.
A knock sounds at the door, jolting me out of my reverie. I open up and thank the delivery person before grabbing the bag of food to bring it in. Jack’s off the couch, coming towards me. He takes the bag out of my hand, heading through to the kitchen. “You happy for me to dish up?”
“Please do,” I tell him. “I’ll grab the bottle opener for the beers.” I take the opener out of the drawer as well as cutlery.
He’s pulling lids off containers and peering in. “You want a bit of everything?”
“Sounds good.”
Jack piles food on the plates and I open a beer for each of us.
“Can I run something past you?” Jack asks me after we’ve returned to the lounge and been eating for a few minutes.
“Of course. What is it?”
“There’s an opportunity coming up with work that I’m considering.” I nod, waiting for him to say more. “Remember when I told you ages ago about Duncan from my office? He got a new job in the New York office and left a while back?”
“Ah yes, I remember. You said you’d always wanted to go to New York.”
“Yeah…” He pauses, drawing in a deep breath. “His new place is looking for some extra help. He’s reached out to see if I’d be keen.”
“Oh wow, Jack! Would it be based here or there?”
“There. It’s all uncertain at the moment. I’m not sure how long it would be or anything.”
“Duncan obviously thinks highly of you to recommend you to his new boss.”
“Yeah, I guess so. I just don’t know what that would mean.”
“For what?”
“For you, Tom and I. If I go.”
“Ah, I see. Well, we did say for as long as it lasts. And it sounds like this could be an awesome opportunity, Jack.”
He stares at me intently and I sit quietly, waiting for him to say something else.
“I guess it wouldn’t hurt to have a proper chat with Duncan’s boss and see what they are offering.”
“I think that’s a good idea. You don’t have to make any decisions until you have all the facts. I think you should probably mention it to Tom, too. Just in case it does happen.”
I feel torn. On one hand, it feels momentous that Jack has decided to share this with me and he’s been thinking about the impact this would have on our relationship. On the other, I’m sad that if this works out for him, it would mean an end to the fun we’ve been having. But I take a deep breath and shake it off. Like I said to Jack; there’s no point worrying until we know more.
“Yeah, I’ll talk to Tom at some point. Enough about me. Tell me how the book is going?”
“It’s coming together. I’m over halfway now.”
“How much of what we’ve done is going in the book?”
“Well, it helps to have contorted myself into some of these positions I’m writing about. It also helps me understand the dynamic between three people. So far I’ve only written books about couples but I’m enjoying the throuple set up.” I pause. “Both writing it and in real life.”
“I’m glad you’re enjoying it. If you want me to read it I’d be happy to. No pressure if you’re not ready to share.”
“I think I want to get through the first draft before I share the whole thing. But if you would be happy to, it would be good to get your thoughts on the scene I wrote today.”
He nods. “Yeah, I’d love to… maybe give me the background of what’s happened so far?”
I give him a brief rundown of the story. The book I’m writing is different to the way we met as it’s a male-female couple that adds a male friend.
“So why are you keen on my thoughts on this particular scene?”
“It’s written from the male friend's perspective and he’s developed feelings and is unsure how and when to express them. I was hoping you could give me your thoughts on it?”
“Okay.” He nods. “Now?”
“If you want, or I can send it to you to read later?”
“If you’re happy to wait for my slow reading, I’m happy to read it now.”
I grab my laptop from my desk and wake it up to open my current document.
“I’ll copy and paste the scene to a new document and that way you can annotate it if you like and I’ll incorporate that back into the main document.”
I set that up before handing him the laptop. He takes it from me, settling it on his knees.
Rather than sit here, watching him read and feeling nervous about what he thinks, I get up to tidy up after dinner.