S.E.C.R.E.T. Revealed (Secret 3)

“How about Gus?”

“He has a terrific father, last I checked, who often takes him for longer stretches when necessary.”

“And what about the news station?”

She really didn’t want me to go.

“I’m owed a vacation.”

Matilda exhaled loudly, clearly sensing there was little she could say to dissuade me.

“Solange, I don’t like this.”

“When I signed up, you said anything I wanted. Any fantasy. I want this one,” I said.

When I became like this, when I sank into that trance-like state of single-mindedness, Julius used to cut me a wide berth and let my obsession run its course. After all, this was the kind of tenacity that won me accolades. But it also got me in trouble. I was hoping for more of the former and none of the latter.

“Fine, Solange, but I have my own condition,” Matilda said. “We’ll make this your eighth Step. I have something else in mind for your Step Seven do-over.”

“Remind me what eight is again?”

“Bravery, Solange,” she said. “Though I’ve never met a woman in S.E.C.R.E.T. who needed less work on that quality than you.”

CASSIE

Jesse and I were in a post-sex tangle, an arm and a leg overlapping lazily, each of us lost in our thoughts. I almost fell asleep, completely forgetting the last-minute Committee meeting Matilda had called that afternoon. I soon snapped out of it, launching off Jesse’s bed with a groan. I was so tired, I could have slept straight through the afternoon into the night.

For the past five months, it had been nonstop work, work, work. But it was already paying off. There were lineups at Cassie’s every night, and there was a palpable buzz on the street about the place. We wouldn’t turn a profit that year, but we’d certainly make money next year, if things continued as they were. And we had scored a featured review in New Orleans Magazine: “Don’t miss this new eatery on Frenchmen called Cassie’s. It has the cozy warmth of your best friend’s house, one where you don’t have to take off your shoes and you always know that whatever’s served will be vivid, surprising, yet somehow deliciously familiar.”

I pressed my foot on Jesse’s butt, which was cutely peeking out from the sheets and the only spot on his body not covered in tattoos.

“Jess. You sure you still want to drive me?”

He groaned. It used to require all my effort to keep the emotional intimacy between us at bay. But I was happy with what we had at that moment. I was busy and distracted. So was he. I had great sex when I wanted it. And Jesse remained my stray cat, happy to see me, starved for affection, but ultimately wanting nothing more than to be let out to roam at night, which I was happy to oblige.

I bent to pluck my socks from the floor, but Jesse snatched me back onto his naked lap, where I blithely continued to dress myself. His hands slid between my legs, opening my thighs. I bent to retrieve my bra from the chair. This was our game.

“I’m late.”

“I don’t give a fuck,” he whispered into the crook of my shoulder. He began to grind me on his lap, reawakening his barely asleep erection.

“I have to go,” I said flatly, closing my eyes and reaching up and back to rake my fingers through his messy hair.

“Then you should go,” he whispered, sliding his fingers into the front of my panties, finding me, unsurprisingly, very wet. “You should definitely leave.”

With one swift movement, he spun me onto the bed face down, my limbs splayed. He tugged down my panties, leaving them askew across the backs of my thighs. I could feel him hovering over me, taking in the sight of my ass in the air, his knees knocking my thighs apart. Then, without warning, he entered me fiercely, all thrust and muscle, like he was taking something from me, something I was instantly reluctant to hand over. But my resistance didn’t last. I couldn’t help it. I clutched the sheets and arched my back, giving myself over to him, as he plunged deeper and deeper, his hard fingers bruising my hips, his cock pinioning me onto the bed, my whole body tightening around it. My clitoris was perfectly positioned against the coverlet and he knew it, timing his rhythm and thrusts to make me come. Even if this was all I ever got from him, it was everything I wanted in this moment.

“You like this, don’t you?” he murmured, his fingers entwining my hair and tugging my head back

a bit. The intensity of his thrusts increased.

I nodded, mute with pleasure, the build accelerating.

“I love fucking you, Cassie.”

And with that I exploded around him, my body convulsing as I arched to pull pleasure from his thrusting cock. I could see his veined shaft in my mind’s eyes, easing in and out of me as he spurted across my ass and back. Our bodies were moving together, each taking something from the other until we both began to plummet from the heights, back down onto the rumpled bed.

“Holy shit,” I said, collapsing across the sheets. He rolled onto his back next to me, breathless, laughing lightly. “I’m going to be late.”