Seduction (3 page)

Theo-1

Matt-0

I reach out my hand and he grips it in a
handshake. "It's nice to meet you, Matt."

His handshake is weak as shit. Someone should
have taught him that a firm handshakes shows assertiveness. Every
new thing I learn about him affirms that he's less and less of a
competitor for Cassie's affection.

"I'll be over in a minute, Matt. I just need
to show Theo out."

Matt glances at me one more time and then
turns around to go back to the table he was at earlier with Cassie.
He's dragging his feet across the floor as he walks and I'm all of
a sudden wondering what Cassie could possibly see in him.

Yeah, walk away you little bitch.

And now I'm acting like an
eight-year-old.

"Theo, you need to leave," Cassie demands,
drawing my attention back to her.

"You never answered my question."

"I wasn't aware you asked me anything." She's
pulling at the hem of her cotton shirt and I know she remembers
exactly what I asked her, she's just hoping I forgot.

I'm not going to let her off that easily.

"Why are you shocked that I'm interested in
you?"

She drops the hem of her shirt and clasps her
hands in front of her. "It's not like you're oblivious to how
good-looking you are. It's how you've managed to dangle so many
different women all these years. I, on the other hand, am nothing
special to look at. You screw women who could be in swimsuit
catalogs and I'm not model material. I'm overweight–"

"Stop," I practically yell, placing my hands
over hers. "I don't appreciate you speaking poorly of the woman I'm
interested in. Your curves are sexy as hell and what makes you
think I only screw swimsuit model types?"

"Bailey."

I knew screwing Bailey was somehow going to
bite me in the ass.

"Bailey is inconsequential. She's no one,
Cassie."

"Wow," she murmurs, taking a step back so I'm
forced to release her hands. "Glad to know the women you screw are
inconsequential to you."

Jeez! She's taking this all wrong. I drag my
hand through my hair; pulling it from the roots as I try to fix the
verbal fuck-up I've just put myself in.

"That came out wrong. Bailey's a great
woman–you know what? I'd be a fucking liar if I told you Bailey was
a great person and deserves better. The truth is she's a horrible
woman and I never should have touched her. I don't have a lot of
regrets in this world but she is one of the few I have. I hope for
her sake she takes a long look at her life and makes some changes.
Now, that's enough about Bailey because I didn’t come here to talk
about her, or any of the other women I've been with. I came here to
talk about us."

"I'm busy, Theo. The doors are about to open
so this conversation is going to have to wait."

My heart starts to race in panic. If I leave
now I know it will be that much more difficult to get her alone.
Her guard is up with me, and understandably so, but I need to break
it back down. I've made a little leeway with her right now because
she's openly talking to me, and I'm not trying to strip her naked.
This is progress. I can't leave.

"What is it that you'll be doing when the
doors open?"

"What I do every Saturday. Feeding a few
hundred of Chicago's homeless population. We provide them with a
good meal, some snacks to take with them when they leave, and a
list of places in the city that will provide a warm place for a
limited amount of people to sleep this week."

She's a saint. Everything I learn about this
woman just solidifies what a pure heart she has. Where did she come
from?

I find myself volunteering before I can even
think the words through. "I'll help."

Her eyes squint at me skeptically. "That's
okay. I think we have enough volunteers."

"You can never have enough volunteers."

"Um, okay. You can help me in the kitchen, I
guess. I'm making hot chocolate and pouring it in disposable travel
cups for them to take on their way out of the facility. This way
they'll have something warm to drink for the next hour or two."

"You act like it's freezing outside, Cassie.
It's a little chilly, but it's late spring not the dead of winter.
The sun will warm them up."

"Wow, you're an a–" she pauses for a brief
second before continuing, "You're a real piece of work."

I laugh and wink at her. "Thanks."

Rolling her eyes, she turns and walks towards
the kitchen and I follow her. We step through the double swinging
doors into and empty kitchen and she starts to dig through the
cabinets, slowly pulling out all the ingredients she'll need to
make the hot chocolate.

"What can I do?" I ask, looking around the
spotless kitchen.

"In the cabinet underneath the microwave
you'll find pots. Can you grab the two largest ones and fill them
with water before placing them on the stove. Then turn the burners
on medium heat."

She doesn't even look at me as she gives out
her orders. She's completely focused on her own task. I grab the
pots, fill them with water and place them on the stove. As the
water slowly starts to heat, I turn to watch her. She's relaxed and
comfortable, completely in her own element here in the kitchen.

And even in her volunteer outfit I find
myself fighting off an erection.

Walking over to her, I spot an antique small
radio on the long island of the kitchen. I turn it on and the loud
sound of static fills my ears. I lower the volume, playing with the
tuner until I get a decent radio signal. I instantly recognize the
song as something that used to play at the roller rink when I was
at boarding school.

As
I Swear
by
All 4 One
plays
on the radio I slide up behind Cassie and rest my hands on her
hips. She's scooping out cups of cocoa from a large tin can and she
stills, dropping the measuring cup in the powder.

I lower my mouth to her ear and softly start
to sing along with the song, ignoring the fact that I sing for
shit. I switch to humming when the lyrics turn to words of lifelong
commitment, but as I hum Cassie starts to slowly move her hips to
the beat of the music.

I turn her in my arms so she's facing me and
then take her arms, placing them around my neck before resting my
hands back on her hips. "Dance with me."

It comes out as more of a statement than a
question, but I still give her a chance to tell me no. She
surprises me by tightening her grip around my neck and whispering,
"Okay."

We shift back and forth awkwardly and I'm
beginning to regret my impulsiveness. I should be having fun with
this. I willingly have her in my arms and I don't want to fuck that
up now. Loosening her grip around my neck, I dip her back and then
pull her up so she's flush against me. She giggles against my chest
and I can't help the smile that spreads across my face because she
looks likes she's genuinely enjoying this.

Who knew this cheesy shit actually works?

The song changes to
I want to be
Sedated
by
The Ramones
and our moment is over. I release
Cassie so she can finish up with the hot chocolate and I go to
check on the water.

"The water's almost at a boil. What do we do
next?"

She brings her measured cups of cocoa over
along with some cinnamon and stands next to me at the stove. "It's
pretty simple. We'll just mix the cocoa in with a teaspoon or two
of cinnamon and it'll be ready to go. At home I make my hot
chocolate with milk and fresh chocolate but we can't do that here.
We don't have enough money in the budget for that much milk and
bars of chocolate."

"I'm sure this will taste just a good."

Her face squishes up in disgust as she huffs.
"This powdered chocolate doesn’t hold a candle to the real thing.
Haven't you ever had homemade hot chocolate before?"

I'm not sure but I don't think I ever have. I
didn't have the
June Cleaver
mother who made home cooked
meals, helped me with my homework and went to my baseball games. My
mother's only concern was to make sure she hung on my dad's arm at
events and attended all the right social gatherings, while my dad
was out fucking women half his age.

"I don't think I have," I reply coolly.

"That's... surprising."

"Glad I can surprise you." I don't know why
it bothers me so much that I've never had a homemade cup of hot
chocolate before, but I guess it just reminds me of my mother’s
inadequacies.

"I'll have to make you a cup one day," she
replies smiling at me. Her smile is such a turn on and before I can
even think about the fact that I'm about to ruin our nice morning
together, I lean in and kiss her on the cheek, near the crease of
her mouth. My lips leave her skin as I inhale her natural scent
mixed with soap. I'm less than an inch away from her mouth and I
notice her breathing halt before she starts to take deep breaths in
and out. I watch her lips tremble as her tongue darts out to lick
her bottom lip. My eyes trail up her face until our eyes lock.

She's not moving away. In fact, she's not
even looking away. I don't want to fuck this up again, but I'm
unable to resist her when we're close like this.

Hesitantly, I lean in and brush my lips
against hers. Her bottom lip dragging against my top lip. When she
doesn’t stop me I kiss her again and again.

Her soft, full lips move tenderly against
mine and it's nice. I have no desire to speed things up. I'm not
thinking up plunging my tongue in her mouth or stripping her naked
and laying her down on the kitchen island. Okay, maybe I am but I'm
also enjoying the feeling of her lips on mine.

My hand comes up to caress her cheek before I
slowly pull away, ending what might possibly be the best kiss of my
life. I needed to end the kiss now or I would have followed my
impulses and stripped her naked, with hundreds of other people on
the other side of the kitchen door.

Her eyelids flutter and she slowly peels them
open and breathes out, "Wow."

"Yeah, wow," I reply back, letting her know I
felt exactly what she felt.

She places her hand over her mouth
suppressing a soft giggle as she looks down at her Chucks and then
back up at me.

"I don't know if that kiss is going to hurt
me or help me with winning the bet," she giggles.

"Screw the bet," I say seriously. I don't
care about our bet, or how long I'll have to wait to have her as
long as I get to continue to taste her, and kiss her like I just
did.

Although, it would be nice knowing how long
I'll be walking around with blue balls. Will it be days, weeks or
months?

As I cup her cheek my thumb brushes against
her lower lip before I lean back down and press my lips to hers in
a soft peck.

"I don't care about the bet, Cassie. Not
anymore," I whisper.

She pulls back and looks up at me. "What
about Chris? Yesterday you seemed really concerned with how he
would handle the two of us being together. What changed?"

"I don't know. I don't really think much has
changed. I can't really explain all that I'm feeling and I still
need to talk to Chris about us, but I also know that I don't want
to lose you before I have a chance to see where this could go.
You're different, Cassie. I can feel it in my bones."

Her smile is contagious and I smile back at
her. I think I'm... happy. What an odd feeling to have wash over
me. I'm so used to being brooding, dark and stuck in my own
sex-induced delusion of happiness. The only moments of euphoria I
have are the few seconds I'm coming at the end of sex.

Cassie introduced a whole new version of
euphoria and it doesn't even require her to touch my dick.

Strange.

"Hey, Cassie, is the hot chocolate
ready?"

I turn my head to see Matt's joined us in the
kitchen and is looking at Cassie expectantly.

This prick. I know his game. I invented the
fucking game.

"Almost. Give me five more minutes."

The fact that Cassie and I are so close
together isn't lost on him, but Matt nods his head and leaves the
kitchen just as quickly as he entered it.

"Can we talk about this later, Theo. I've got
to get this ready. I'm slacking at my job."

Stepping away from her I pick up the
measuring cup of powdered chocolate and hand it to her. "Sure. Let
me help."

Theo

Entry #1601

There are many women in history who are
admirable and will be remembered for what they did here on this
earth. Mother Teresa, Joan of Arc, Mary Magdalene, Susan B.
Anthony, and Eleanor Roosevelt, to name a few. Watching Cassie
today made me realize she could easily be on that list. She has
little resources but is such a selfless woman. I'm in awe of her. I
have an infinite amount of resources and I'm a selfish bastard.

After spending the morning at the park
district building, we've fed hundreds of Chicago's homeless
population and cleaned up our mess so the cafeteria is ready for an
event that will be held there tomorrow. I'm tired and really wish I
had a spare pair of clothing with me so I wasn't still stuck in
yesterday's clothes. I'm just thankful Cassie hasn't noticed.

Most of the volunteers have gone home. It's
just Matt, Cassie, an older woman with a full head of silver, and
me. I'm ready to get out of here but I don't want to leave without
talking to Cassie. We haven't had any more time together since we
were in the kitchen and I'm itching to touch her again.

"I think that's about it for the day. Do you
want me to give you a ride home, Cassie?" Matt is looking at me
when he asks her the question. I try my best to look unaffected by
the fact that he's trying to trample all over my time with her.

"My car's here, Matt. Besides, don’t you have
a date to go on? Wasn’t that the whole point of us driving
separately?"