The things we do for love. (16 page)

She could taste the salt on his lips. She could taste him. She could hear the roar of her blood as it pounded in her ears and the musky male scent of him filled her nostrils satisfying her lungs need to absorb him.

She clung to him as he devoured her lips. His hand tangled in her hair at the back of her head and she arched her back pressing herself closer to his hard male muscle.

Luke’s other hand ran up her spine and then back down past the small of her back and his hand pushed her closer to him. She gasped as she felt his hard arousal against her.

Cassie’s mind gave up trying to think and she succumbed to the earthy sensations that washed over her body in delicious teasing waves. “Cassie.” Luke’s voice, raw with emotion called out to her and she murmured in response.

Luke lifted his head a little so that he could look down on her face. She opened her eyes to look into his eyes. She could see the hunger there. she knew that he wanted her and she shivered.

“I…”

“I’m sorry you had such a bad start in life. You don’t have to be brave all on your own anymore.” He promised as he lowered his lips to hers once more.

She felt the tip of his tongue slide across her parted lips and she heard a moan and then realised that it came from her. Luke’s tongue dipped in further inside her mouth and back out again, before dipping in deeper still.

She felt her own tongue move, chasing his, sliding over his. His fingers at her scalp massaging, releasing the tension that had sat there for the past few days.

“No, please.” Cassie tried to save herself.

“Stay.” He said as he trailed little kisses down her cheek and then down the column of her throat. “Just stay. There is nothing else you need to do.”

He came back to her mouth. His teeth capturing her bottom lip. His mouth sucking on it. She groaned as she felt the throb such an act produced between her legs. This was getting out of hand very quickly. She had to stop this.

She stiffened and felt his body tense in response. Luke’s hand tightened in her hair but it was already too late. Already reality seeped back into her consciousness and the spell had been broken.

Mustering up every ounce of strength she had she pushed at his chest and, much to her surprise, she managed to free herself from him.

Luke let go reluctantly and before Cassie could think about what she was doing she had taken a step back from him and her hand came up and she felt the sting as she heard the resounding slap of her hand meeting his cheek.

She stepped back again horrified. Horrified at her reaction to Luke and horrified at then resorting to slapping him. She put her hands to her own cheeks.

“I...” she had been going to say that she was sorry but the thunderous look in Luke’s eyes stopped her instantly. Instead she turned tail and ran as fast as her legs could carry her. Even when she caught Luke’s voice calling her she did not stop until she was almost home.

Chapter 19.

When Luke arrived back at his home late that afternoon, Vera was waiting for him in the dining room. Great, that was all he needed. A circling vulture. He sighed heavily.

“What’s up?” she asked as soon as she saw him. “You look like you’ve been told its black Friday and blue Monday all in one.”

“I’m not even sure I know what that means.” He complained to her.

“Never mind what it means. What happened?” Vera asked him.

“What happened with what?”

“Oh no you don’t. With Cassie, what happened?”

“How do you know whether I managed to get to see her?” He asked her.

Vera walked around the table to stand in front of him and then she reached over and grabbed something between her finger and thumb from his shirt collar and then held it up between them. It was a single strand of hair.

“O, would you look at that. Cassie’s hair colour.” And then she dropped it. “So, what happened?” she asked again. See, a vulture, Luke decided.

“I messed up that’s what happened.” Vera gave a grimace as she studied his face for quite some time before she said.

“I knew it. Why did I think I could trust you to get it right?” She threw up her hands and dropped them again. “Do I have to do everything myself.  I mean honestly.”

“Calm down.” Luke told her. “You are not getting any younger. You’ll give yourself a stroke or something.”

“Now you listen here buddy. I could still run rings around you.” He was informed.

“I have no doubt.” Luke said.

“So how did you mess up?”

“Well, I…”

“Didn’t I tell you not to talk about the halfwit sister?” Vera fixed him a stern stare. She could look quite fierce when she wanted to.

“Yes you did...” he agreed. “... and I tried.” Luke defended himself.

“You obviously didn’t try hard enough. Did you?” Vera shook her head and rolled her eyes as she picked up the napkins from the table.

“Obviously not.” There was no point in arguing with her. Luke had many years’ experience dealing with his housekeeper. Which was a pity.

“What is the point in asking for my opinion if then you don’t listen to it.” She walked over to the dresser, opening a drawer and putting the folded napkins in it before closing it up again.

“I wasn’t aware that I actually asked for your opinion.” He commented dryly. “You offered it to me unsolicited, if you will remember?” He reminded his housekeeper.

“Huh... Pish, Posh, Tosh.” She replied instantly and began departing from the room.

“Does that mean you are going to refrain from giving me advice on this subject from now on?” Luke asked hopefully.

“You should be so lucky.” She told him. Just as Vera reached the door she slung over her shoulder. “Don’t forget that charity thing tonight it’s at Seven so you’ve still plenty of time to get ready.” Vera stepped out into the hall beyond the door, leaving it ajar.

Luke groaned loudly. That was tonight? He had agreed to it weeks ago to impress his new would-be partners. He really didn’t want to go. “Well you have to go.” Vera shouted from the hallway as if he had spoken aloud.

It was uncanny how Vera managed to do that. Luke was often left wondering whether she could actually read minds.

Sighing wearily, he ascended the stairs to get changed. As he went he cast his mind to Cassie and what he needed to do to salvage something from the wreckage of today.

What he needed was… He thought for a moment, and then admitted defeat. He had absolutely no idea what he needed.

“You know what you need?” Vera’s voice came from the bottom of the stairs and he stopped and turned to look at her expectantly.

“What is it I need?” he asked her.

“A plan.” She told him.

“Is that it. I need a plan.”

“What? I have to think of everything for you?” she tutted very loudly and began to walk away but then stopped and turned back. “Apart from talking about her sister what else did you get wrong?”

“I kissed her.” Luke admitted before he had a chance to stop the words and he groaned inwardly, why had he said that? What was wrong with him? Hadn’t he learnt by now not to encourage his housekeeper?

“How was that wrong? Wasn’t that the idea?”

“Well… yes… just.”

“Yes.” Vera raised her eyebrows expectantly.

“Not yet. You know, we need time to get to know one another.”

“You’ve known each other for months.”

“Staring at each other across a court room is hardly getting to know each other.” Luke pointed out.

“You have spoken too her many times.” She pointed out.

“They haven’t exactly been conversations have they.”

“She spoke and then you spoke and then she spoke some more to which you replied. How would you define a conversation?”

“Put like that then yes we have had a conversation.” Luke reluctantly agreed with her.

“How old are you?”

“Thirty-three. What does that have to do with anything?”

“How old is she?” Vera continued.

“Twenty-seven, twenty-eight. What does that have to do with anything?”

“Well, the two of you aren’t getting any younger you know. Time waits for no man, or woman come to that and her biological clock is ticking away.” She told him.

“Vera.” Luke protested. Vera put her hands on her hips.

“Vera nothing.” She told him sternly. “This place needs kids like I need a foot rub at the end of a hard day at work. I mean honestly. If you don’t hurry up now, then you will have lost your chance.”

“Okay, I think you need to slow down a bit. We haven’t even gone out on a first date yet and already your talking kids.”

“Slow is for tortoise.” She pulled a face. “And you’re not a tortoise are you?”

“Vera…”

“Do you love her?”

“Vera, please I have to get ready for the fund raiser thing.”

“Do you love her?” Vera asked again, more firmly, louder.

“Yes.” Luke sighed heavily. “Yes.” He said again in a quieter voice.

“Then go get her.” And Vera turned and left Luke to go upstairs and get ready for his fund raiser.

Vera made it sound so simple. But, Luke knew that it wasn’t. At the beginning Cassie had seemed so strong, having to deal with that sister of hers. She had held her own in arguments with him.

Though he had also seen something else in Cassie, she had been careful not to let that side of her show. Until today.

As much as Cassie put up a front of being brave and strong and even independent. And a front was all it was. Today he had seen and heard a different Cassie.

A Cassie who was still a frightened little girl. A little girl that had sat helplessly watching her mother drink herself into a stupor and having to deal with all of the repercussions that went with that. Today that little girl had stepped forward and had shouted and screamed and stamped her foot demanding to finally be heard.

What must that have been like, to see someone you love drink to the point where they had no understanding of what they were doing. Having no understanding of how it was affecting two young, impressionable, vulnerable girls.

And Cassie had had to deal with that day after day and with another young child, her sister. A sister, who by Cassie’s own admission, had been a little more delicate than herself.

Luke was able to read between the lines. Faye had obviously found coping with life in general difficult. Watching those kind of events unfold around her would have aggravated that.

Luke had his suspicions that she was bi-polar and probably had a borderline personality disorder as well. Both had gone undiagnosed, both left untreated. It wasn’t going to go all by itself.

If anything it was only going to get worse. They were both lucky that Faye had not turned to self-medicating, either with alcohol or drugs as so many others do.

He had to make Cassie see that Faye needed help. That Faye needed to get the treatment she so desperately needed. That to do so was not an admission that she couldn’t cope, or that she had failed her sister.

The problem was how did he manage that. Cassie was almost content in her role as official mop up after Faye counsellor. It was all she had known for so long, getting her to relinquish that would be difficult. But he had to.

Luke walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower. He would think about it some more later, now though he had a fund raiser to go to.

Chapter 20.

Cassie had not been home for more than ten minutes when her phone rang. She ran to answer it hoping that it would be Faye letting her know that she had landed safely and that all was well. But, it wasn’t.

“Oh. It’s you Adam. What’s up?” She said sadly.

“You sound upset that it’s me.” he exclaimed.

“No of course not.”

“Are you sure, there was a definite twinge of something in your voice.” Adam sounded as though he were pouting. Which, he probably was.

“I am fine. I am not upset.”

“Well, as long as you are sure?”

“No, sorry, I was hoping that it was Faye.” She said as she sat down on her couch and with her free hand she rubbed at her forehead.

Cassie tried hard to disguise the fact that she was upset and also the real reason for it. She had cried most of the way home and she knew her cheeks were streaked with tears and her eyes were all puffy.

Luckily Adam couldn’t see that through the phone. Which was just as well as she knew that she looked a sight. He could, however hear her voice and she did not want to fend off a hundred questions that she knew her friend would throw at her.

She was too emotional, too vulnerable and too raw right now to deal with all that.

“Oh She is not going to phone you for weeks yet and, when she does, she will apologise and say she forgot and then you will pretend to be angry at her for a little while and she will then say something to make you feel guilty. You will back down and tell her that it’s okay and not to worry her pretty little head about it.” Adam informed her. “And all will be forgiven without so much as a thought to how worried you have been for weeks.”

Cassie thought for a moment before answering. She wished she could tell her friend that he was wrong but, she knew, that he wasn’t.

“Am I really that bad?” she asked her friend gloomily.

Cassie cast her mind back over today. Hadn’t Luke accused her of the very same thing this afternoon? Hadn’t Luke told her that outside the court house weeks ago? And then again when Faye had re-sprayed his car?

Had she inadvertently created Faye’s behaviour? Had she somehow turned her into the monster she had become. What a depressing thought that was.

“Not bad no, you just need to take a step back a bit and let her breathe. And you need to breathe come to that.” Adam said, his voice soothing.

“She needs me.” Cassie said. “You know how she gets.”

“Yes I do. She needs help Cassie, help you cannot give her. And you need…” There was a pause. “There are many things you need darling but you choose to run away from that fact.” If only he knew how accurate that was.

“Luke said the same thing.” She admitted.

“Luke Pearson?” Adam asked, she could hear the keen interest in his voice.

“Yes that Luke.” She wished she had kept her mouth shut now.

“When did you see him?” Great, here it comes. Why hadn’t she kept her big mouth shut. did she never learn?

“Um…” She stopped.

“Yes.” She heard the interest in his tone.

“Well.”

“Today.” He said. She could lie and say that he had it wrong. She wanted to but instead she admitted.

“We bumped into each other.” Because she struggled to lie at short notice.

“Bumped? Sounds interesting. How much of a bump are we talking about?” she was asked.

“Just a bump.”

“Just a bump or a bumpety bump?” he continued. She had no idea what that meant.

“I was in the coffee shop by the hospital and he happened to be walking by and saw me.” She shrugged, then realised that Adam couldn’t see it.

“He just happened to be walking passed?”

“Yes. It wasn’t planned or anything.” She bristled, what was he suggesting?

“Yes, because when you are that close to a hospital it would be quite difficult to bump into a doctor.” Adam commented dryly.

“What are you trying to say?”

“I have no idea, what am I trying to say.”

“I think you are telling me that you don’t want to be my friend anymore.” She teased.

“Sorry, today is not your lucky day.” He said. “Anyway, enough of this, you can tell me all about it later. I was phoning to say I managed to get hold of some tickets for a charity gala party tonight...” She cut Adam short.

“Not tonight.” Cassie began. She wasn’t in the mood for some swanky party. Not that she had managed to go to many of them and, if it hadn’t been for the afternoon she had just had with Luke, she would have loved to have gone.

She wasn’t about to go into any of that with Adam though. She didn’t want anyone knowing what a fool she had been this afternoon or how she had resorted to physical violence. That made it twice in a twenty-four-hour period, not bad going she congratulated herself.

Up until yesterday she had never struck anyone in her life. And here she was just one day later and she had become a seasoned pro. Well maybe that was an exaggeration

“No you don’t. You are going. Put your best dress on and be ready for me to pick you up at six.” Adam told her firmly.

“Adam please.” But she was cut short again.

“Joe and I bought the tickets and let me tell you it ran into thousands so you are going.” Adam said firmly.

“...Thousands.” Cassie gasped.

“It was five thousand for a whole table for six people. So we bought a table. Joe has someone from work going and I have given a couple of tickets to a couple at work and there is one left so you are going.”

“Adam. I just....”

“It’s a good cause Cassie, Futures for kids. Put that blue dress on. You have still got it?” He asked her.

“Um… yes I still have it.” She told him.

“Good then wear that one. You can tell me all about your date with dishy doc.”

“It was not a date?” She huffed immediately.

“All right calm down. Your tete-a-tete then.”

“It wasn’t even that.”

“A dalliance.” He suggested now, she could hear the humour in his voice.

“Adam, it wasn’t even that.”

“A dipping in of the toe.”

“Adam.” She exclaimed.

“I think the lady doth protest too much.” Adam said.

“I just bumped into him, that’s all.” She tried again.

“Did he say words to you?”

“Yes.”

“And did you say words to him?”

“Well, yes.”

“Then it was more than a bump then wasn’t it.”

“Adam please don’t make a big deal out of it.” She shifted uncomfortably.

“I’m not, I mean, it’s not like I am suggesting you kissed the guy.” Cassie fell silent, which went on for quite some time. “Oh.” Adam said and she blushed profusely. “You kissed him.” He said.

“No, I did not.” She jumped to her defence hastily.

“You didn’t?”

“No, he kissed me.” She said.

“And you didn’t kiss him back.”

“Well no… yes… no… I mean.” She felt the heat in her cheeks more keenly now.

“Ah.”

“Ah… nothing.”

“We shall see.” Adam said and she could hear the laughter. “You can tell me all about it later. I will pick you up at six so be ready for then. It’s at the pavilion so it’ll take forty minutes in the car. We need to be there for seven.”

“Where’s the pavilion?” she asked.

“Are you serious?” Adam shrieked down the phone. It obviously was a very high profile place by the way Adam reacted.

“It’s part of the tower of London. You’ll love it.” Adam informed her. “Just be ready.”

“Adam lis...” Cassie heard the click and the line went dead. She put the phone back on its cradle. So that was that. She was going to the party whether she wanted to or not.

She picked up the cushion on the sofa and threw it across the room then resigned herself to the inevitable and tiredly got to her feet and began to trudge upstairs to look through her wardrobe.

She found the blue dress, tucked right in the corner of the wardrobe. It had been a long time since she had worn it, there weren’t that many occasions to wear it. It wasn’t like she went out all that often.

Faye kept her too busy for that. She never even got to go out on dates. the last time had been after Mathew just after university, and enough said about that incident.

There had been Stephen. a nice chap, but it certainly wasn’t love or anything. it had just been casual and hadn’t lasted long.

Once Faye had found out about it she had turned up one night in hysterics, screaming and shouting about how she was being abandoned for a boy.

He hadn’t stuck around for very long and she hadn’t blamed him. She wished that she could not stick around too at times. But no such luck.

Oh well, she sighed, no use crying over spilt milk. As her mother would say. She looked up at the clock on the wall. She should jump in the shower now and start getting ready.

Adam was a big girl’s blouse when it came to waiting for people. He would expect her to be ready to go the minute he turned up and if she wasn’t he would complain very loudly for every second that she kept him waiting. She knew that from experience.