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“I would love to rent this place. Are you sure that it is open?”
Steven agreed that it was. “The tenant left a few things but that was just because they moved so quickly. They have one more day to come get their stuff, and then you can move in the next day. I will have a cleaner come through and touch up before you come to move in. I want it to be perfect for you and your son.”
Cassandra just nodded her head, still filling her eyes with the perfect place, before she turned her gaze on him and asked him why he was being so good to her. Cassandra didn’t understand why Steven was doing it and something special about her didn’t cut it. Steven was going beyond helping. What was he doing, or was she ungrateful to even wonder and ask?
“What do you mean?”
Cassandra wanted to see what he would say when she asked about what he really wanted from her, but she couldn’t bring herself to say the words. They got stuck in her throat. She suspected that all of his kindness was going to be for something that she would have to pay him back for. Men all liked to do that. No kindness was free, or very few that Cassandra had observed.
Finally, she just shrugged and said that she had never met a man who was so willing to help, without getting something in return. He pretended that he was offended, but he wasn’t, not too much anyway. Cassandra was right about one thing. Steven wanted something more from her than to help her. He wanted something else, and Cassandra was afraid to even think it, let alone say it out loud. She wanted to believe there were no strings attached, but that didn’t seem likely.
Luke was waiting for them at their parents’ house when they got back, and he wanted to know what was going on. Cassandra told him about the apartment and how it was perfect for her and Dennis. Her brother was skeptical, and Cassandra tried to assure him that it was just Steven being nice. Luke thanked Steven and it was awkward as hell. Cassandra felt like they were going to have to be careful moving forward. The last thing she needed was for her brother to suspect something. There was nothing to suspect. They were just friends after all…
Maybe it was just a testament to the two siblings thinking alike. Nobody did anything for nothing.
Chapter 8
Steven
“Really, Steven, you don’t have to keep helping me. I know that you are busy. With your business, millions in profits each year, you should be focused on that, not me.”
He waved her off. “Do you really think that I can’t do both? I just wanted to make sure that everything that was supposed to arrive, did. You have to double check people’s work. That is one thing I have learned in business. No one does their job, so you have to make sure that they do, constantly.”
Cassandra giggled because it was good to see him, but even better to see all of the furniture that was set up for her already. When they had been looking at the place, Cassandra had mentioned how she was going to have to get all new furniture. Since she was the one that wanted the divorce, it had been decided that she was the one that was going to have to find a new place and all the trimmings. To have everything already there for her, in the style she wanted, Cassandra was speechless.
“This is too much, Steven. All of this is too much, and I really don’t know how to respond to this.” Cassandra didn’t know a better way to say it. No one had ever treated her with such care before and though it was sad that it was Steven of all people, not her husband, Cassandra tried her best to pull it together. She was close to weeping, and it wasn’t because of the stuff. She could have bought the stuff, but it was the thoughtfulness that had gone into it. He wanted to make her life a little easier and he had. Steven had touched her as well.
“It isn’t too much, Cassandra. This is how you should always be treated. I don’t know what the hell Nelson was doing, but it doesn’t sound like he was much of a husband. That was his bad, not yours. You deserve all of the care that you put out into the world. I am sorry that you were hurt by him, but I can’t tell you how glad I am that you are back.”
Cassandra thanked him again and she said that as soon as she got things straightened out, she was going to cook for him. Steven would be happy with that, anything that brought the two of them together. He wanted it to be just the two of them, but then she mentioned her brother Luke, and he had to agree that it would be great if they all got together.
“Let me get things straight and I will have Luke let you know a date. Sometime next week, okay?”
Steven agreed, still wishing that she hadn’t brought up her brother. Couldn’t they spend some time together, just the two of them? She was finally going through the paperwork and getting divorced. Steven wanted to slide in before he lost to a man who was bolder. He would be bold and get the girl this time, under her brother’s nose, and hopefully, Luke wouldn’t hate him in the end.
“We should go out sometime, just the two of us.”
Cassandra met his gaze and smiled, but she looked nervous. Steven worried that he had said too much. It was what he was thinking, and damned if he didn’t think that in a small way, Cassandra was thinking along the same lines.
“Just the two of us? Do you forget that I have a kid?”
Steven agreed that he hadn’t forgotten in the slightest. “Bring him along too.”
“What would we do?”
Steven’s mind filled with scenes of need and desire, sounds of her moaning underneath him. His face turned red, and he had to look away, somehow convinced that his eyes would give away the scenes playing in his head that made his heart race.
“Anything you want.”
His eyes conveyed too much. Cassandra’s neck started to carry its own pink creep of flush. Did she know what he was thinking about?
***
Luke told Steven that Cassandra was ready for them to come over. Luke had been a bit put off finding out that he wasn’t allowed to come by when she first moved in. Steven tried to assure him that he wasn’t either, but that had just been met with more confusion. Why would it matter if he was allowed to be let in? Steven really needed to watch himself when it came to dealing with Cassandra and Luke. It was getting complicated, and it was just getting started. He hadn’t done anything subjective yet.
“I have to ask, Steven. What is going on?”
Steven panicked that his friend knew his intention toward Cassandra, though he really didn’t know himself. Steven tried to hide his concern by asking what it was that Luke meant. The two men had been friends for a long time, so they understood each other. Steven knew that Luke could rightly see through him and that was what he was afraid of. His friend didn’t need to know how he felt about his sister. Luke would not appreciate Steven caring about his sister, desiring her. All of that was definitely off limits.
