Real Challenge (Atlanta #2) (23 page)

She was sitting over him, still holding him inside of her, and breathing heavily. Her shirt was pushed awkwardly up over her breasts; her skirt was still pooled around her hips. His pants were sitting floor-level around his ankles; his shirt and shoes were still on. And not one bit of that mattered.
 

Cassie moved his cuffed hand up to her shoulder, apparently wanting more of his touch. He wanted that, too, but he was too far gone to be sweet. He felt something entirely new from all the action, and he had to let her know exactly what she did to him…exactly who she was to him.

Instead of resting his hand at her shoulder, he jerked his hand back so Cassie would get one more dose of shock factor. He was in control again for the moment, and he reached up and grabbed her by her wavy hair at the base of her neck. He pulled her forward quickly, but not enough to cause her pain. He just needed her to see in his eyes up close. He spoke intensely, but with deep and adoring love, too.
 

“I never want another person with you, Cassie.
Ever
. You belong to me. I need you.”

Cassie looked a bit shocked at his words, and he hoped she understood that this wasn’t part of the game. Scott wanted her forever. He couldn’t stand the thought of her with anyone but him. This couldn’t just be a casual thing. They never had the “relationship talk” at all, and even though they both understood their being together was exclusive, he didn’t want any room for misunderstanding. He spoke more to her,
needing
her to know.
 

“You belong with me. You know that, right? This is it.” He made sure she saw the truth in his eyes.
 

He felt her fingers from that cuffed hand lace right up along with his in her hair and force his hand to hold tighter. “I do know that, Scott. I’m yours.
Completely
. I don’t want anyone else…just promise me that you’re mine too…that you save this for me.”

“Every bit of me,” he said before he pulled her down by her hair and kissed her with more passion and love than he’d ever been able to kiss anyone before. When the kiss finally broke, he released her from his grip. He stood them both up and kicked his shoes and pants off. He walked Cassie across the room to get the key to the cuffs. With loving gentleness the cuffs dropped from her wrist as he unlocked them both.
 

He pulled Cassie over to the bed and lifted the covers to tuck them both in. She tangled her legs up in his and held him tightly. There was no way they could break the connection after a moment like that.

Chapter Twelve

As amazing as the weekend had been, the next week was back to the same thing. Scott let Cassie study all week and worked extra hours, still trying to impress the partners in his firm. He wanted the prestige of another early promotion. Disappointment filtered into his mind for thinking that way still, but he had that kind of drive his entire life. He didn’t know how
not
to be that way. Regardless of how much he should be able to play, he still wanted to be the youngest partner at the firm. She didn’t seem to think that’s what he really wanted, but he was fairly sure that goal remained his desire.
 

But still, he was jealous of the ease which with Cassie lived her life. She only lived for joy in the moment and only worked toward that which would make her happy. He tried hard to understand completely and figure out a way to apply her priorities to his own life. But he had been so driven for so long he had no idea how not to be so goal-oriented. If he weren’t, then who would he be? He still wanted to be at the top.

Trying to draw from her side of things, Scott tried very hard all week to play. Sadly, childlike joy wasn’t natural to him. The best thing he came up with was walking barefoot through the grass to get his mail on Tuesday. The cool grass was nice under his toes, but the effort certainly didn’t feel like
playing
.
 

By Thursday he gave up completely and only found himself smiling when Cassie texted him. Other than those little workday snippets, he was back to the grind, trying to impress the partners and play the authority figure from his eighth floor office. By Friday he was fully back into businessman mode, feeling both important and defeated. He needed to be with Cassie to feel that lightheartedness lacking from the rest of the week.

He showed up at her door Friday at exactly 7:12 per her texted instructions. She promised to make his effort worthwhile. He was greeted at the door by Cassie in the sexiest set of lingerie he had ever seen. It was all black lace and skimpy lines. Her bra pushed her breasts up enticingly, making her perfectly round shape strain against the lace and escape substantially out of the top edge of the thin fabric.
 

Her bare midriff was decorated with a tiny onyx gem and her sexy panties hugged her hips so low they barely covered her. And if that wasn’t enough to drive him insane, she had on thigh-high black panty hose and those strappy black stilettos he loved so much. She stood with one ankle crossed over the other with her hands on her hips. She was staring at him with nothing but heat in her eyes.

It only took Scott about one second to forget about his too-grown-up week. He took a single large step toward her and shut the door behind him. Without hesitation, he reached down her back, grabbed each ass cheek in his hands fully and lifted her entire body up off the floor. The move opened her hips completely to him, and he pushed his fingers up between her legs.
 

He let a fingertip enter her wet hole while she wrapped her legs around him and held on to his shoulders while their tongues danced together wildly. He walked her straight back to the bedroom, forgetting his sullen mood completely. When he practically threw her down on the bed, he stripped off his own clothes before moving over top of her.

“Did you miss me?” she asked in a throaty voice.

“You have no idea how much,” he said as he ravaged her body in a fury of movement with his lips, tongue and teeth, removing her skimpy attire as he did. She moved with him and under him, making rather loud noises at his attention. She gripped and dug her nails into whatever muscles she could reach as he undressed her so passionately. He left the stockings and stilettos on.

Once he had her near naked under him, he was in a greater frenzy still. He pushed inside of her quickly and roughly pushed her hands over her head again. Her excited gasp spurred him into greater passion still. He pulled her wrists together to hold them with one strong hand and used the other to move in her mouth with the rhythm of his hips against hers.
 

She wrapped her lips around his two fingers and moaned desperately into them. The silky black hose rubbed along his hips and twisted around his lower back while he brought her so quickly to orgasm. Fast and frenzied passion left them both sweaty and satisfied.
 

“God, you are good at that,” Cassie said to Scott when her breathing came down to a pace that allowed conversation.

He roamed his hands over her body and kissed her neck in response. She tilted her head back to allow him more access and encouraged him with soft noises of pleasure. She ran her hands across his sexy shoulders and felt the sweat along the defined ridges of his muscles. She made a show of licking his sweat off her fingers and he groaned through a grin.
 

He nearly attacked her again at the sight, but instead he slowed the pace. He had just taken her like an animal, and he knew they both loved it, but he needed to draw out the pleasure now. He wanted to listen to her breathy moans and bring out the loving, demure Cassie to hold against him.
 

He spent forever on the foreplay this time around and allowed her the same decadent, slow teasing along his entire body, too. By the time they came together again, they were completely wrapped up in each and moving in perfect syncopation, looking in each other’s eyes as they did. Their eyes held the passion of the moment, but their loving smiles demonstrated the depth of emotion.
 

When they came down from the slow rush, Cassie moved delicately off the bed and rolled the hose down her legs slowly and removed her sexy heels. She reached for her favorite silk robe and draped the cool material delicately over her subtle curves. Scott noticed how sexy she looked with the thin fabric belted at her slim waist and the peaks of her nipples pushing against the dark emerald silk. She also opened a nearly-empty drawer to toss him a pair of black cotton pajama pants.
 

“I found these for you on my thrifting spree this week and I put them in your drawer. I’m hoping you won’t wear much more while you’re here…”

He grinned at her and slipped the pants over his legs and hips. He sat up and rested his back against the headboard and laced his fingers behind his head. She fanned herself at the vision of him there, all muscled up and satisfied. He grinned his dimple at her and she grinned right back.
 

“Do you want any dinner, or did you eat before you came over? I was starved so I already grabbed a sandwich,” Cassie asked.

“No, I’m good.”

“Ok, then I want us to watch the movie I picked out for us. It’s the sweetest romantic comedy you’ll ever see. Come on!”

He watched as she walked toward the living room and heard her turn on the tv and open the DVD tray. He couldn’t imagine her wanting to watch a romantic comedy, but he’d force himself to tolerate the torture for her. Once he walked out and crashed down on the couch, he heard the theme song for
Rocky
and just about died laughing. “You had me scared for a minute there.”

“Like I said before, I have to keep you on your toes. Is
Rocky
ok, or would you rather watch
Return of the Jedi
or
The
Terminator
? I’m in the mood for some good 80’s testosterone.”

“Rocky is fine,” he said, completely amused by her unpredictability. “Now come sit with me so I can cop a feel while we watch.”
 

With an eye-roll and a grin, Cassie opened her robe a little wider and sat down in his arms. They relaxed down into the couch together and he kept his hands moving slowly along her chest and abdomen throughout the movie. By the end of the show, they didn’t quite make it off the couch before he took her again, ever so slowly. They slept there on the couch like their first innocent night together those months ago.

“I have an idea,” Scott said after they woke up Saturday morning and had their coffee. They were sitting on the floor at her steamer trunk eating the eggs she scrambled for breakfast. “But I don’t want you to take this the wrong way.”

“Ok, this should be interesting,” she said with a puzzled look on her face.
 

“Not that I don’t love eating while sitting on your floor; I do. But I thought it would be nice if you had the
option
of a table. Even if it’s a small one. Can I take you back to that warehouse and buy you one?”

“You don’t have to spend any money on me, Scott.”

“Don’t worry about the table. I’m not trying to impress you, and if I wanted to spend a lot of money on you, I’d take you on a trip for a weekend. Tables aren’t all that romantic and don’t allow for a lot of hot sex.”

She laughed and agreed to get a table. “It’ll have to be a small one if it’s going to fit in the living room. I’ll have to move my chair a bit, I think. But we could put it by the side window with some minor adjustments. That’s actually a very cool idea. Thanks.”
 

They both dressed, finished their coffee and breakfast, then started to walk out toward the car. Scott kept his arm tight around her. He couldn’t get enough of her when he had her with him. The only time he felt real or playful was next to Cassie. At work he was still the same driven “strut and charm” Scott he always had been. He couldn’t tell that to Cassie, though. He didn’t want her to be disappointed in him. He planned to keep learning from her example until he found balance.
 

“So when we shop,” he said, “we have two criteria. We get something that fits your style and also fits in the back of my SUV.”

“I accept your terms,” she said with a grin.

The chaotic scene of the warehouse baffled Scott again, this time on the second floor. Cassie spun around in the big industrial freight elevator that took them up.

“I wish I could fit one of these in my house,” she said with a grin, “because this thing is so fun.”
 

Scott smiled at her whimsy again and shook his head. His neck muscles were getting stronger from all that shaking.

Up and down all the rows of tables and booths they went, looking at furniture, large crates they could stack, and many other creative ideas Cassie could come up with on how to rig-up a table out of the things she found. Still, nothing seem to fit. They went back down to the first floor and Cassie managed to contain her squeal to a low volume when she saw exactly what she was looking for. Scott laughed as she ran toward a booth that had an old, worn-out, wooden industrial-cable spool lying on its side, looking like it could roll away. In the upright position the spool would be the perfect height and shape for a table.
 

Scott kept on the lookout for something to buy for himself in an effort to play right along with Cassie in her favorite pastime. Epic fail. While she found the perfect table from the strangest item, a metaphorical spotlight was shining on his inability to be anything but a driven corporate robot. He envied Cassie the ability to look at a beat up wooden cable spool and see something new and beautiful.
 

“Do you think it will fit in your car? Because I can totally see this in my house.”

“If we put the back seats down it should,” he said, laughing at the pure joy she had running her hands on the deep character of the weathered spool.
 

“Lets find some chairs and a cloth for this. Ok?”

“Sure. I can’t wait to see what you come up with next,” he smiled as he watched her look along more of the booths while he paid for her new table, which was only $30. Scott asked to pick up their purchase when they finished shopping. A gruff looking man scribbled a large “sold” sign for the spool and nodded to him.