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“You used to be that way, never wanted to settle. Tell me, Steven, are you still that way?” Cassandra was teasing, but she got a serious answer.
“It took me a while to know what I wanted and settling was never something that I wanted. I know what it is that I’ve been looking for now.”
Cassandra sighed at his elusive answer, taking a sip of the perfect coffee and feeling taken care of in a way that her husband had never managed. Why did Steven make her feel so much better about everything? It was like she couldn’t go wrong with him by her side.
“I think you meant to say yes.”
He chuckled, a deep sound that resonated with her and made her inside quiver. There was an awkward silence between them, Cassandra was clueless how to deal with it, so she got up to do the few dishes that were in the sink. They didn’t have to be done, weren’t bothering her, but she was nervous, and it would be good if she could keep her hands moving. It could help matters, or at least Cassandra liked to think that.
She didn’t expect Steven to come up next to her and ask her if she needed help. She didn’t, there was barely anything to do, but she couldn’t say no if she wanted to. Her whole body was shaking internally and soon Cassandra needed something more. She looked toward him and felt herself melting. Steven treated her so differently than she was used to. It was a shame that Cassandra had never had a man be so nice. She’d been married for years, but Nelson never did anything like that. Even when she was pregnant, he hadn’t helped her at all. There were several instances that Nelson had been a bad husband, but it hadn’t occurred how bad until Steven treated her right. She almost got teary eyed because of it.
His closeness was another circumstance that was hard to ignore. He kept brushing up against her and Cassandra moved closer, until he softly said her name and her stomach flipped. Cassandra knew what was going to happen next, what had to happen, and she tried her best to make sure that it did. Cassandra was dying for a taste, if only for a moment.
She turned and Steven said her name. She was handing him a utensil to rinse, and his hand was rough against her cheek. “What are you doing?”
Steven moved her red curls away from her face and said that he was doing something he’d died to do for a very long time. Cassandra felt all of the man’s exuberance as he leaned in and brushed his lips against hers. Cassandra melted almost immediately, the heat too much, and she moaned as the kiss deepened. Cassandra was tongue tied and only when they heard the front door opening, did she pull away. In his arms, time stood still, and they were both dismayed to have to separate.
Cassandra sighed and called out to her brother, “Hey, bro!”
Chapter 14
Steven
He wasn’t sure when it happened, but he’d fallen for Cassandra all over again. He felt just as strongly as he had the first time around and this time the stakes were even higher. That was brought right back to his attention when Steven heard Luke’s voice at the door. He was there, could have seen them, and then the two of them would have been fighting. Steven had been doing so good to keep his distance, but now that it had been shattered with a kiss, sadly, nothing changed. Something should have changed based on the way he felt, but it didn’t. Maybe that was the strangest part of all, that no matter what he felt for Cassandra, there was never a good time or a good way to love her.
Steven heard more footsteps as Dennis came in first, bursting through and talking excitedly about what he had done with Uncle Luke. The kid was sweet, and Steven could feel his own body wondering what it would be like if he had a kid of his own, if Dennis was his. Dennis didn’t have much in the way of a father that was with him much, so Steven wondered about what it would be like.
Then, he saw Luke and the offensive face he had. If Luke ever found out that he had even kissed his sister, there would likely be hell to pay, and Steven wasn’t going to lose his best friend. He wasn’t even sure if Cassandra wanted him, though she had responded after a few moments when he kissed her. Steven liked to think that was the answer that he was getting.
It didn’t matter, he reminded himself. Cassandra was off limits to him and from what he had heard, she hadn’t even filed for a divorce yet. Luke asked him how it went, and he shrugged and said that they had coffee. He knew what Luke was thinking. He’d made him privy to his thoughts and they weren’t ones full of trust. He worried about the betrayal that Steven said he wouldn’t do, yet thought about almost by the minute. It was awkward to be around the two of them together. Steven had to be two different people with each of the two of them and the harder he tried to separate the two relationships, the more impossible it was to do so.
He was grateful that they didn’t stay too long. He spent a little time with Dennis outside throwing the ball around with Luke. Luke seemed to be feeling a bit like him, wondering if it was time to start a family. He had really taken a shine to his nephew. Steven heard him talking about Dennis a lot and he felt the same way. Dennis was a good kid, and he filled that hole that both men had, yet neither had really known about. Steven was still confused by it all, Dennis and his mother. When he left with Luke, he didn’t know what to think.
Luke had a few comments about how he needed to find his sister a guy. She needed to start dating again, and Steven had no comment whatsoever. If he was anyone else, if she was not his friend’s sister, he would have taken up the job himself. He certainly wanted to. Instead, he just nodded when it was appropriate and tried not to make eye contact. Luke didn’t need to know how badly Steven wanted the title.
***
A few weeks went by before Steven saw Cassandra again. Like the last time, it wasn’t that he had necessarily wanted it to happen, it just had. Luke called him out of the blue. They were supposed to meet up after work for a drink, but instead he got a call that he needed to pick Dennis up at school. Luke had promised to, but then something came up at work and he wanted Steven to go pick up his nephew. Steven had no trouble with it, really he didn’t. He thought that Dennis was a cool kid and all. It was the fact that he would be seeing his mother that worried him the most.
The last time he had seen Cassandra, he’d kissed her. For a minute, it seemed like Cassandra was falling into his arms, reacting just the way he wanted her to, moaning ever so softly under her breath. Sadly though, that had changed when her brother popped up. He didn’t know if he was supposed to push it to see where it went or if he was going to pretend like nothing happened.
He picked Dennis up and gave him some candy that he found in the middle console. Steven hadn’t even known it was there, but kids had a way of finding things, so he was happy that Dennis was happy, munching along. He only asked Dennis not to tell his mom that he had sugared him all up before he got him home.
“I won’t.”
“Did you have fun at school?” Steven asked.
Dennis agreed that he had and said that they had fun singing and reading a book. Steven didn’t know what to say to that. He hadn’t been around many kids, likely by design. Dennis was four or five, he was young, and there wasn’t a lot that he could say. Dennis asked a lot about the car they were in, and Steven found that easy and comforting. He could talk about cars for hours.
When they got to Cassandra’s place, she wasn’t home yet, but Luke had given him the keys so that he could take Dennis inside. Steven’s eyes zeroed in on a bar that was thrown over the back of the couch.
He wasn’t going to be there for long, only a few minutes and the time went by quickly. He was teaching Dennis a card trick when the front door opened, and Cassandra walked in. He decided with the nervous look on her face, that he wasn’t going to say anything, not unless she did. He wanted to kiss her again, but instead asked her how her day was. She looked perturbed and Steven worried that it was because of him.
Whether she was mad he was there instead of her brother, Steven had to admit that she still looked good. He couldn’t help the places his gaze went, to her cleavage, and the rise and fall of it. She was turned on, much like he was.
“Bad day?” he asked with hope. Steven didn’t want her to be mad at him. He would much rather she be mad at the world. Then maybe, he would be able to make it all better.
Cassandra agreed and smiled, kissing her son’s head. “The worst, but it’s all better now. You want a popsicle, Dennis?”
