How Cassie Got Her Grind Back (22 page)

Ivan narrowed his eyes and frowned, imagining the arrogant prick dismissing her talent. “I’ll bet you supported his dreams, though.”

“I tried, but most of his dreams centered around promotions and making more money. I used to play my guitar and sing for the kids when they were small because it helped to soothe them or because I wanted to entertain them. If Bill came home and saw my guitar or music out of the case, he would ask me what I’d done all day, as if I’d neglected the baby or the house. That hurt because I took good care of our home. His lack of care about my dream hurt, but at least he made enough so I didn’t need to work with my father anymore. I was grateful and felt letting go of the dream was a fair trade.”

“That’s not what I’d call fair,” he murmured, trying to keep the attitude out of his tone so she wouldn’t think he was judging her.

She got up and went to the window by the door. “I don’t enjoy telling such personal details, and I’m not exactly proud of how easily I capitulated to Bill. Anyway, by the time Joseph was in high school, I’d been having recurring problems with my cycles for several years, and it was about that time I discovered Bill had been cheating on me. I confronted him with the proof, and he swore it would never happen again. I guess what he meant was that he didn’t intend to get caught again, but he did…and it crushed my trust in him.”

Her gaze out the window was unfocused, and the slight quiver in her lips and her chin told him she was reliving the memory. Even though it had cleared the way for them down the road, he hated that she’d gone through a divorce. A loving person like her should’ve been cared for so much better, but he didn’t feel right mentioning that. He got up and went to her and put his arms around her shoulders but kept silent, allowing her to collect her thoughts before she went on. Without looking over her shoulder, she caressed his bicep, and he felt her subtle shift as she leaned against him a bit.

“There was no debt to worry about, and once the divorce was finalized, rather than selling the house, he and I agreed we’d keep it so the kids didn’t lose their home. He loves his kids. I’ll give him that much credit. He’s never tried to play them against me. He’s just an asshole to me. During that timeframe I had the surgery done, and after I’d fully recovered, I opened the coffee shop, another dream of mine. Divine Drip took off, and the deal he offered me on the house was one I could manage financially. I will say, even though he enjoys holding it over my head, he didn’t try to cheat me on the price, and I think that’s mostly because of the kids.”

Mentally, Ivan acknowledged what she was saying, but he refused to see Bill as anything other than a conniving bastard, through and through, dating as far back as high school.
Well, if you want in her life, guess who you get to see and hear from on every major holiday and birthday.

He kept his grin to himself as the answering thought came to him in a flash.
She’d be worth it, though.

Turning to him, she gazed at his mouth, and his lower lip tingled where she slowly brushed her finger across it, lighting up nerve endings and awakening his cock. He licked his lip, catching her finger with a flick of his tongue. Her smile was bittersweet as she said, “And now, for some unknown reason, he wants back into my life…and my pants, evidently.” She chuckled and shook her head and then pointed at him. “You owe me for having to share all of that.”

“Whatever you want, I’ll pay.”

Cassie gazed at him for a few seconds, and he wondered what was going through her head. She’d shared everything with him, like he’d asked, and he couldn’t gauge her mood.

She reached for the remote, and he paused, wondering why she would want to watch television at this juncture in their evening until she used it to change the song selection on the sound system and adjusted the volume.

Setting the remote aside, she got up and held out a hand to him. “I’m glad you pushed me a little, but now Bill and all my other…stuff is uppermost in my mind. Dance with me and make me forget.”

Responding to her soft plea, he rose, took her hand, and circled around her, drawing his fingertips up her arm and around her shoulders. She turned her head to watch him and caught her breath when he dragged his fingers across the ends of her hair, and a brief memory came to him, one from many years ago, on a Christmas if he remembered correctly.

In his memory, Samson had been seated on the couch and she’d sat on the floor in front of him while they were watching a movie. Samson had been playing with her hair, gathering it and twisting it, tugging gently at the ends. The slight stimulation had made her shudder and given her goose bumps. Ivan had gotten uncomfortably hard as he’d watched her reaction to the gentle play, but now he paused behind her.

The song on the sound system changed, and the soft intonation of the next one began, the haunting vocals filling the room. As he wrapped his hand around the base of her ponytail, movement caught his attention, and he noticed the mirror hanging on the living room wall above the couch. He saw the two of them in it.

Perfect.

Goosebumps lifted the fine hairs from her forearms as she reached up to touch him, her hand landing on his shoulder as he stood behind her. He brushed his lips against her neck, beneath her hairline right at the juncture between her neck and her shoulder, and her breath caught in her throat.

“Did Bill know how to kiss?”

He watched her expression in the mirror, the way her brows knit. “Huh?”

“Did he know how to kiss you?”

“Um, I—” She looked up, and he caught her gaze in the mirror, and his cock grew thick as he watched her lick her lips and swallow. “I don’t know. To be honest, I don’t recall…”

“Too bad,” he murmured before brushing his lips against her soft, fragrant flesh, smiling when she shivered lightly. “A beautiful, giving woman like you should know what it means to be kissed. Kissed so you never forget what it means to be kissed properly.”

“He never…oh…” She shivered again as he traced the tip of his tongue from beneath her earlobe to the base of her throat. “That is so…good. He never kissed me the way you and Samson have. I…oh Ivan, I can’t think when you do that.”

“Good. No more thinking, only feeling. Your skin is so silky in this spot,” he whispered before tracing the slightly damp path he’d created with his lips. Her hand tightened on his shoulder, and her warmth seeped through his shirt as she leaned into his chest.

Wrapping an arm around her waist from behind, he began to sway with her to the soft music. She leaned her head against his shoulder, baring her throat to him as she moved with him, and the reflection in the mirror was hypnotic.

“I can’t make you forget him. He’s the father of your kids and has a place in your life because of them. But I plan to help you forget what it feels like to be neglected, to have your needs come second. In my book, baby, you come first. Always. First.”

A shudder rippled through her.

“You’ll forget what it feels like to be left hanging, left wanting.”

“You should know that may be difficult for me.”

“Difficult? Why?” he asked, already guessing the answer.

“It’s…that’s hard for me.”

“What is?” he asked, enjoying the feel of her soft flesh under his fingertips as he continued guiding her in the rhythm of the music, unwilling to let her back into her head, to the place where Bill had hurt her at the core of her being—her own sense of her womanliness.

“It takes a lot for me to…to come.”

He brushed his lips in a light caress from her jawline to her temple. Bill was an idiot for never exploring her sensuality with her, but then the self-absorbed jackass probably hadn’t even had a clue what that meant.

“Think so?” He rubbed his fingertips over her hipbone, keeping her back pressed against him with his forearm. She gasped, and her hips flexed at his touch. He suppressed a groan as her ass rubbed against his thickening cock.

“Oh…” She could barely speak over her panting. “Bill said I took a lot of work.”

“Work?” he asked, tonguing her earlobe. “This isn’t work, love, this is pleasure. I plan to show you just how easily you can come.”

“You do? You are? I mean…”

“Stop thinking so hard. Let me show you.” He wrapped his hand around her ponytail again, lightly tugging at it to tilt her head back, and brushed his lips down the other side of her throat. He licked his lips and then chuckled. “I taste a hint of sugar on your skin, from when you were making the frosting earlier, I’ll bet. Vanilla, sugar, and Cassie. So sweet.” He closed his eyes, but he could sense her smile as her cheek brushed his, and her breathing rasped a little.

She tilted her jaw to offer him better access, and he kissed the underside of her delicate bone structure, fighting the pressing urge to tighten his grip on her hair. Not yet.

“Are you getting warm, love?”

“Y-yes,” she whispered before licking her full lips. They’d darkened to a deeper pink, showing her arousal, and he imagined her nipples and her sweet pussy were rosier as well. She tried to turn her head, but he gripped the ponytail a little tighter, not allowing her to turn to him. She wanted a kiss, but he intended to make her ravenous for it before he’d give it to her. Have her right on the edge first. He couldn’t just tell her she came first—he had to show her.

Her breath stuttered as he peeled back the shoulder of her top and continued kissing and licking her there. Her rosy cheeks were hot as she rubbed against him, and she reached, wrapping her free hand around his forearm, holding on to him. “Ivan, you make me…” She laughed. “You make it hard to talk—hard to think.”

“Good. I want you to feel. Are you wet?”

She inhaled sharply. “What?”

“It’s okay, love. Tell me, is your pussy wet for me?”

“Y-yes. Yes, I’m very wet.”

“Are you aching and hot for me?” he asked, grinning as her hips flexed in reaction. He wanted to feel for himself, slip his hand inside her jeans, beneath her panties, and feel how slick and hot her sweet cunt was, but he resisted. If she could still talk, then he needed to focus on what was going on up top, in her head.

“Yes, I’m so hot. I…hurt…I thought…”

“Thinking again? What did you think?” he asked softly, allowing her to express herself only because the tension was noticeably absent from her body, except where he wanted it.

“The last time I felt anything like this with someone was…was when I was a teenager. Before Bill.”

Chuckling, he said, “With Samson?” he asked, letting her know it was okay to mention him.

“Yes. He could kiss me and make me hot like this.”

“Good. He loved you and would’ve wanted you to feel good. Now you’re a beautiful grown woman, and I plan to do more than just kiss you, if you’ll let me.”

Her pulse raced at the base of her throat, and she moaned, her arousal and the sensual beat of the music getting to him. “This is how you should be kissed, Cassie, as if you’re the only woman in the world.”

“But…But you haven’t kissed me. Not yet.”

“Who says?” he asked as he released her waist to gather her ponytail in both hands. “Maybe not on the lips, but that’ll come, too.” The muscles in her neck were relaxed, and she allowed him to tilt her head to the side, and she kept swaying with him, following his tempo, so they moved as one.

Time to move on.

He nipped at her shoulder, and the gooseflesh returned, and then he tugged at the elastic in her hair. He gathered the thick strands as they came loose between his hands, his touch firmer as she tilted her head down, giving him access to the center of her spine. He slid his teeth across her skin, and when she trembled, he bit down a little harder, just at the base of her neck. The elastic dropped to the floor, and she sighed as he gently twisted her hair into a long rope, enjoying her impassioned expression in the mirror’s reflection. She let out a long sigh, and then he tightened his grip on her hair suddenly, drawing a gasp from her as he gently kneaded her breast.

“Oh!” she moaned at the contact.

He rubbed her tightened nipple with his thumb as he handled her more firmly before releasing her sweet flesh to squeeze her shoulder and then gently palmed her throat. He could barely rein in his anticipation, listening to her panting. Her trembling increased as he held her there, her pulse racing beneath his fingertip as she let out a shaky moan. Angling her jaw to the other side, he nipped at her earlobe, delighting in the way she allowed him to control her movements with his grasp on her hair.

When she reached upward to touch him, on impulse, he wrapped his hands around her wrists and gently lowered them, pulling them to the small of her back. “These stay here.”

She made an incoherent sound, which he took for compliance.

Samson had said he’d be willing to give up his lifestyle, the dominance, the bondage, and sadistic stuff, but the way she shivered and moaned and acquiesced as he bound her hands with his own told him Samson might not want to hang up his kink just yet—and maybe Ivan was a little bit kinkier than he’d thought.

“You are so beautiful, so sexy, so fucking hot, baby,” he murmured against her shoulder before trapping her tender flesh between his teeth.

“You…You make me feel so…Mmmm, Ivan…” She moaned incoherently as she bowed her back, her body telling him how much she loved the heightened play, and then she rubbed her ass against his erection.