Page 135 of Due Diligence

I finally saw her.

Her blond hair was tied up in a messy, high ponytail that swayed with her body. It was like catching a glimpse of a beacon on the shore. She was dancing with her arms in the air, eyes closed and smiling as the music washed over her. For a few seconds, I just observed her. I took in the way her body twisted gracefully, but freely. Her clothes were tight—a cropped tank top and a matching black skirt. Careless yet coordinated at the same time. That was her. That was my Cass.

Even though I hadn’t seen her in six months, my body responded to her. My pulse quickened and prickles of desire started to rise on my skin when I thought of all the times I had touched that body. That magnificent body. Her body. I pushed my way towards her, splashing whiskey and coke over the rim of my cup as I went. I didn’t care. My hand was wet from my drink and I took an elbow or two to the chest as I weaved through the tangle of bodies, but none of that fazed me.

Cass was my sole objective and only point of concern in this moment—and hopefully for a long time to come.

When I reached her, my hand immediately traveled to her waist and came to rest on the strip of bare skin above the waistband of her skirt. As soon as she felt a hand on her, her eyes snapped open. Concern and confusion traced across her face until her eyes met mine and she realized it was me.

Her tightened brow softened into recognition. She plunged forward and wrapped her arms up around my neck, craning to embrace me. I clutched her against me, my arm crooked around her back. The smell of her shampoo engulfed me as I buried my face in her hair and planted a kiss on the top of her head. When she pulled away from our hug, her lips immediately found mine. The kiss was searing, familiar, and long overdue. Her hands came to rest on my shoulders, and my free hand shifted from her upper back to her waist.

“What are you doing here?” she said into my ear, raising her voice so I could hear her over the music.

“I stopped by your place. Bethany said you were here.”

“What?”

“Bethany said you were here,” I repeated, speaking louder.

Cass shook her head, clearly still unable to hear me. God, she was so pretty.

“Fuck it,” I murmured before I chugged the rest of my drink, tossed the cup on the floor, and gripped her hips with both hands as I took her mouth again.

She moaned softly against my lips as my tongue pressed against hers. The taste of mint and liquor twined between us as the heat of her body radiated against my hands. I let them travel lower, cupping her ass over the thin fabric of her skirt. It was so short that my fingertips tickled the bare skin where her ass curved into her upper thighs.

We were smack dab in the middle of a nightclub, but I didn’t care who saw us. I needed more of her.

Cass clearly felt the same way about me, because as the intensity of our kiss began to ramp up, she tugged me close to her by pulling on the shoulders of my t-shirt. She broke our kiss to glance over her shoulder, looking over at the dark corner of the club where the walls met below the stairs leading up to the lounge. Without a word, Cass led the way over to the darkened alcove.

As soon as her back was against the wall, she urged me to kiss her again.

“I want you to fuck me right here,” she murmured into my lips.

Those words did things to me I couldn’t even describe. I tightened my hold on her body. “I can’t fuck you here,” I told her. “Not tonight, at least. Tonight I have things planned for you that we definitely can’t do with other people watching.”

Cass lifted an eyebrow as she pulled away from my face. Her expression, to my relief, dripped with intrigue. “Get an Uber,” she advised.

“Now?”

“Five minutes ago,” she answered before she stood on her toes to kiss my neck, while I desperately tried to get an Uber on my phone.

Chapter 37: Cass

As soon as we reached the front door of Marcus’s apartment, all bets were off. I couldn’t keep my hands off him as he struggled to locate the right key and put it into the lock. My lips were everywhere I could see bare skin. I wanted to touch every part of him. I wanted to kiss every part of him. And that still wouldn’t have been enough to show him how much I loved him.

When we burst through the door, I barely registered we were in a different apartment. I was riding a wave of lust, alcohol, and the sweet scent of this beautiful man. It wasn’t until Marcus picked me up and walked me in the opposite direction of his old bedroom that I realized we were in a completely different unit.

Luckily, he hadn’t gotten rid of his humongous bed. He dropped me onto the familiar white comforter and climbed on top of me, kissing a path up from my neck to my mouth. His heat drifted over me, surrounding me. It was a preview of things to come—of his body covering mine as he worked himself into me and claimed me.

Because I was his.

“Wait,” I declared, speaking into his lips. The word slipped out without me catching it, but I was grateful it was there. I needed a moment. I needed to make sure he was here.

He pulled back a few inches so he could look at me. Somehow, he had become even more handsome in the last six months. His jaw was scratchy with stubble and there was something different in his eyes. They were still striking and warm and such a pale green that they would turn heads whenever he was in public. So beautiful. He was so beautiful. I had thought about those eyes every single day. I pictured them fixating on me as I came in his arms, like I had done so many times—each one more intense than the last. But there was a weight in his eyes, like he had seen the world through a different filter for the past six months.

That weight made me love him more—if that was even possible.

“What’s wrong?”

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