“But then, for all the faults I thought it would bring, it also made me realize that I was capable of more with you,” he said. “They found true love, even amidst actual violence and carnage. So I called Prince. I asked him.”
Cassius drew in a deep breath and took another step forward. This time, the physical distance between us was not a theoretical distance. He put one hand on my shoulder.
“Sarah, you are like the artwork that you create,” he said. “The more I think about you, the more I think about us, the more I realize you have been the only person who has ever made me stop to think about who I am and what I’m doing. Being around you doesn’t just draw out my lust; it draws out something deeper. I can’t stop thinking about you and seeingwhat more there is to uncover. But it also revealed biases of mine. It revealed I did not so easily let go of control.”
He paused, gulped, and then took my hand with his free hand. I felt my fingers wrap around his.
“I doubt, outside of us, that will ever change,” he said. “But talking to Prince, I realized that to have what I wanted, I had to let go of outside interests. If I wanted you, I could not have it all. We do not get to have priorities. We only get to have a priority. I was trying to juggle control, vengeance, and love. But the three conflict and never allow the others to manifest. So I had to choose.”
He smiled.
“I have chosen you, Sarah. It pleases me to see that you came back. But I have to know now—what will you choose?”
Gosh, so many different thoughts, so many emotions running through me right now, that I could barely fathom the best response. No one hadeverspoken to me like that, but, more importantly, no one hadevermade me feel like Cassius had. He could have spoken to me with the vocabulary of a horny teenage boy, and I could not have denied the true joy, excitement, and comfort that he gave me.
Knowing that,feelingthat, I said what came to mind first.
“There’s one thing you said that’s wrong,” I said with a smile. “You said I came back? I never left. I never stopped thinking about you.”
27
CASSIUS
She never left. She never stopped thinking about me.
I never stopped thinking about her.
A thousand and one clever responses came to mind, but if there was one thing I’d learned through the years, it’s that oftentimes, the softest touch produced the most profound effects. The less I said, the better.
It was a risk what I was about to do next, but in some ways, it wasn’t risky at all. Sarah and I, standing right here, holding hands, had said so much to each other without ever taking a breath or opening our mouths. It was as sure a bet as anything as I’d made in my life, and it was one I would take in this spot a hundred times out of a hundred.
I leaned in to kiss her.
And without hesitation, with no part of her holding back, Sarah pressed into my arms, not just taking my kiss but increasing its passion with her own touch. She didn’t just embrace my body; she tugged on it.She never stopped thinking about me.
I never stopped thinking about her.
It’s time to show her what, exactly, I’ve been thinking about.
I pulled back for the only thing I needed to say before we ripped into the clothes off part.
“Let’s get inside,” I said. “It's a bit chilly in November to be outside.”
Sarah growled—she fuckinggrowled,how fucking incredible—and pulled me inside. It wasn’t even her own penthouse, and she was the one in control. I had no idea how much of the past few days had been spent in internal conflict, but apparently, the monster within wasn’t just something I faced.
We barely made it inside and to my bedroom before both our shirts were already off, pants right behind that. We stumbled to the bed, basically blind fools to what lay before us as it seemed like a race to see who would get the other's clothes off first. And who could be blamed? When you’d spent over a decade apart and weeks thinking you wanted to literally destroy the other person… but actually, you wanted to take them in a different way, there was no time to waste.
By the time we had made it to the bed, her hands were down my pants, stroking my stiff cock. I murmured and almost let her take full control of the situation. Fuck, she was so horny and so into it that it almost seemed foolish to let her have the reins.
But I was Cassius Vale, right? I did things my way and on my terms, right?
Which was why I pushed her off of me, sat to her side, and slid my fingers to her clit. She kept a grip on me, yes, but as I worked her like a violin, strumming and carefully working her, her grip faded, reverting to something she barely remembered to keep a hold on. Gradually, the violin playing became faster, moving down the spectrum of fingering instruments until I had her screaming bloody murder.
She grabbed a pillow from behind her, put it over her face, and screamed into it as she writhed on my hand. I was sure I was making her come, but I wasn’t going to stop until she physicallyforced my hand away from her. If that meant I had her coming for over a minute, well, I was Cassius Vale. When I had what I wanted, I didn’t just move on to the next; I fucking relished it.
And with Sarah, I made sure she fucking relished it too.
Finally, barely able to breathe, she pushed my hand away. I sat there, having not been stroked in over a good minute but even more erect than when we started, taking immense satisfaction in what I had done. There was no denying we were in it for the long haul… but just because we had that emotional bond didn’t mean the physical one had to get left out to wither. Fuck no, are you kidding me? The best sex of Sarah’s life was going to be the next time we fucked; that was my promise to both of us.
