Chapter 310: Then I Choose to Stay
Chapter 309
Then I Choose to Stay
"Not yet," Martin admitted. "I want to be. My body just needs a little time."
Cassandra raised her eyes to his. Embarrassment still colored her cheeks, but it no longer weakened her voice. "I wanted to make sure you hadn’t changed your mind."
"I haven’t. I still want you, Cassandra, and I’m nowhere close to done with either of you tonight."
Understanding smoothed the line between Cassandra’s brows. She released him at once, sat back on her heels, and placed both hands carefully on her thighs.
Martin could not reconcile the sight with the woman he knew. Cassandra Selfmore’s influence stretched across companies, contracts, and boardrooms scattered throughout numerous industries and countries. Every arrangement was disclosed wherever the law required it, but no government office had any reason to assemble those scattered records into a complete map. She had built every part of her life around preparation, authority, and remaining several moves ahead.
Now she knelt topless between his legs, her shirt and bra abandoned on the sofa, with both hands resting flat against her thighs. She had stopped touching him the instant he admitted that he needed time, even though she clearly wanted more. The effort she spent hiding her impatience only made the contrast with her usual authority hotter.
Cassandra noticed his expression. "Why are you looking at me that way?"
Martin leaned forward and brushed several strands of black hair away from her face. "Because you’re trying very hard not to look impatient. I wish you could see how beautiful you look from here."
Some of the suspicion left her features beneath his touch. Cassandra knew his smile held another thought, but the warmth in his voice persuaded her not to interrogate him. Katherine reached across and lightly squeezed her knee without teasing her.
Martin sat upright. "Both of you, get on the sofa."
Cassandra turned to him at once. Katherine raised one eyebrow, waiting for an explanation.
"You had your turn," Martin told Katherine. His hand left the back of her neck and settled beneath her chin. "Now get up."
The command took some of the playfulness from her expression and left anticipation in its place.
Katherine rose first and climbed onto the sofa. Cassandra remained on her knees, her gaze moving from Martin’s face to his lap as though she could not decide what he expected from her.
Martin caught her gently beneath the chin. "I’m not going to leave you kneeling there while I recover."
Cassandra glanced toward the sofa, then back at him. "You said you needed time."
"I do, but I have more than one way to use it." His thumb passed over her lower lip. "Get on the sofa with Katherine and let me take care of you for a while."
Cassandra searched his face. She no longer doubted that she wanted him, but she was still deciding how much control she could place in his hands.
"This still doesn’t change what I told you about Alexandra’s plan," she said quietly. "And it doesn’t erase what I did."
"I know. I won’t take tonight as your answer, and I won’t pretend I’ve forgiven everything."
Cassandra remained beneath his hand, but tension returned to her mouth. "You may still be angry tomorrow. You may decide you can’t trust me again."
"I may." Martin did not try to soften the answer with a smile. "But being angry with you doesn’t mean I’ve stopped wanting you. Stay with us because you want this tonight. We’ll face tomorrow when it comes."
Katherine listened without interrupting. Her teasing had carried much of the evening, but she understood that this answer belonged to Martin and Cassandra.
Cassandra’s shoulders eased. "Then I choose to stay."
He released her chin, and Cassandra climbed onto the sofa.
Katherine settled against the cushions and drew Cassandra down beside her. Both women remained topless, though the differences between them were impossible to miss. Katherine lounged with her legs parted and one arm stretched along the back of the sofa, openly anticipating what came next.
Cassandra sat upright with her knees together and her hands resting on them. Katherine quietly caught one hand, drew it away from that formal position, and massaged Cassandra’s tense fingers until they loosened.
Martin stood in front of them. Their eyes followed him, Katherine’s openly hungry and Cassandra’s warier but no less intent.
"I’m going to undress the rest of you," he said. "After that, I’ll make up for every moment I kept both of you waiting."
Katherine’s smile widened. "That is a great many moments."
Cassandra’s flush deepened. "Then stop wasting another one."
Martin stepped closer and rested one hand on Cassandra’s knee.
Her breath caught beneath his touch. She hesitated, then let her knees part enough for him to stand between them. His other hand reached for her loosened waistband.
All evening, Cassandra had expected Katherine to lead while Martin accommodated whatever the two of them chose to offer. Now his focus rested entirely on her.
Her money and status could not decide what happened next. The authority she carried into boardrooms held no power over this moment. Only the permission she chose to give him mattered, and Martin waited until her legs relaxed beneath his hand before moving any closer.
He had not forgotten what she had done, nor was he treating her desire as proof that everything between them had been repaired. He simply wanted her, with all the trouble that still stood between them.
Cassandra wanted to know what he would do with the permission she had given him.
Katherine reclined against the sofa and watched them with a widening grin. For once, she allowed the moment to continue without trying to claim it with another joke.
Cassandra drew an unsteady breath as Martin eased her trousers farther open. Neither woman looked away when his fingers curled around the waistband.
Her hands moved to the cushions, not to stop him, but to brace herself. Then she lifted her hips beneath his hands and allowed Martin to begin drawing the trousers down.
The dark fabric caught briefly against the curve of her hips. Martin slowed and worked it lower rather than tugging, his knuckles brushing the pale skin he revealed. Cassandra’s stomach tightened at the contact, but she kept herself raised for him.
Katherine watched from beside her, her orange eyes following Martin’s hands. She did not offer instructions or tease Cassandra for the color spreading across her chest. Without her voice filling the room, every shift of fabric and every change in Cassandra’s breathing seemed louder.
Once the waistband passed the widest part of her hips, Cassandra lowered herself onto the sofa again. Her trousers gathered beneath her, leaving Martin standing between her parted knees with his hands still curled around the fabric.
She looked up at him. The uncertainty had not disappeared from her crimson eyes, but neither had the desire that brought her this far.
Martin held her gaze and drew the trousers lower.