Sex with Luke was something Cassia found herself enjoying more and more, despite her lack of emotional connection to him. Of course, most sex with Cassia lacked an emotional connection. It was kind of her job to mindlessly fuck strangers without getting attached, which definitely made the whole blackmail thing easier for her.
It wasn't like she didn't have a heart, though; she did feel some guilt stringing him along. Most of it disappeared when he whimpered in her ear and asked her to grab his balls, but there was still a very small, very slight sliver of guilt.
Work got easier. She no longer had to wait in line for coffee (or wake up early to get it, for that matter)- Luke always dropped off a cup of her favorite brew at her desk before she got in, then stopped by when he dropped off paperwork, giving her a sly wink.
She wondered if they'd ever get caught hooking up in the empty hospital rooms, or the cramped, dank utility closets that Luke seemed to be so fond of pulling her into. She'd begun to feel like a nympho, between casual hookups with Luke and her second job; not that she was complaining.
“Whatcha thinkin’ about?” a low voice sounded in her right ear, startling her. She jumped, probably worse than she should’ve, which caused a low rumble of laughter from deep in Luke’s chest.
“Nothing,” Cassia huffed, crossing her arms tightly over the white silk of her blouse. She tried to ignore her heart beating at a mile a minute in her ribcage, making almost painful thumps as it went.
“Nothing means something,” he teased. Cassia didn’t have a chance to look back at him before he leaned forward, his chest pressing into her shoulder blade (which couldn’t have been comfortable for him) to set a large paper coffee cup in front of her on the desk. “Something dirty?”
“How are you horny all the time?” she frowned. She took the coffee cup in both her hands, taking a tentative sip. She still winced when it burned her tongue.
“Who said I was horny?” Luke raised his voice defensively, earning a few disapproving looks from the other secretaries. He cleared his throat softly, lowering his voice, then continued. “I’m not horny all the time, thanks. Just in the mornings, usually.”
“Speaking of after work,” Luke shifted himself, now leaning against the counter. He was apparently oblivious to any look of annoyance that Cass may have had. “You wanna come over to mine after work?”
She almost sighed again. The rest of the month’s payment on her dad’s place was coming up soon, and Christmas money was an issue for them too, whether her dad wanted to mention it or not. Jack needed another tape, this was her chance to provide.
“Sure,” she told him, looking up at him with a quick smile. “I’ll be over around six, then?”
Her stomach bubbled up with something like guilt as a boyish grin spread across his face. “Six sounds great.” He pushed himself off the desk, slipping a hand to her chin. Using the edge of his pointer finger and his thumb, he tilted her head up in one fluid motion, catching her mouth with his in one of the most obscene public kisses she’d ever experienced. She was too shocked (and a little too turned on) to pull away herself; she simply let her eyes flutter closed, drinking in the scent of boy and feeling his soft mouth on hers.
She nearly whined when he pulled away, but it died in her throat the second she opened her eyes, seeing the devious smirk playing up his lips. That shit knew exactly what he was doing.
“See you at six, baby.” he hummed, making his grand exit from the room, leaving her with the awkward silence as the aftermath.
Six came altogether too quickly; so quickly that Cass wasn't even dressed to go over.
Fresh out of the shower, she hadn't even noticed the time. She'd taken her time in the shower, achieving baby-soft skin with special scrub, shaving twice just to be sure.
"Are you still coming?" Luke's loud sigh cackled in the receiver of her phone. Cassia unintentionally mimicked him, chest deflating as she riffled around in her closet.
"Yeah, it's just taking longer than expected," she told him, pushing a blue dress back on the hanger. "I've gotta stop by the studio and pick up a script for later this week, too."
There was silence from his end for a moment, and then, "Do you have to?"
She laughed a little. "Unless I want to lose my job, yeah, I have to."
Cass frowned slightly, tugging out a black dress, then shoved it back near immediately. Distractedly, she weaseled her way into the clothes to get a better view amongst the dresses she'd never even worn.
"..does that sound alright?" Luke hummed.
"What?" She snapped back to reality. "Oh, yeah, sounds great."
"See you soon, then." Cass could almost see the smug grin that matched the tone, and for a brief second, wondered what she'd missed in the 20 seconds she hadn't been paying attention.
Luke clicked off the line without waiting for a response from Cass. "At least I can focus now," she grumbled. She knew full well that she'd get distracted again and probably be in the same boat as before.
Clothes were hard, makeup was easy, she decided. All she needed to do for makeup was dust some powder foundation on, maybe eyeliner and mascara, and she was done. With clothes, she wasn't sure if she should wear a dress or jeans or maybe just a skirt and a tank top.
"What's easiest to take off?" Cass sighed, digging her hands through the endless hangers of fabric.
There was a knock on her wall, and without a word from her, Orion took a few steps inside her room. Cass stopped, expecting her to say something, or tell her what to wear, but neither seemed to be happening. She only paused, then took a few more steps to climb on to Cassia's bed.
"You need something?" Cass asked slowly.
The other girl just pulled her knees to her chest, resting her chin on the knobs of them.
Orion normally wasn't untalkative. It was a common occurrence for Cass to suggest that Ashton come over in order to get her to clam up. A knot tightened in her stomach seeing her friend so solemn.
"Ri," Cass said tentatively. She moved away from the closet, making her way over to the empty space next to Orion. "What's going on?"
Orion was silent for a few moments, and then buried her face into her knees. It took another few long, almost uncomfortable minutes of silence for her to make a muffled noise.
"What?" Cass whispered. There was another louder noise from Orion, though still as muffled as before. "Orion, you've gotta talk louder or-"
"I'm in a lot of trouble." Orion's head poked up, eyes now puffed and tear filled. Cassia was almost shocked- she'd never seen Orion cry, in all the years that they'd been friends.
She inched closer to her friend, tugging her towel tighter around herself. "Rion, it's alright," she tried hesitantly, but was interrupted.
"You don't understand," Orion's voice was thick. "I'm fucked."
Cass slid a hand out on to Orion's knee. "Tell me what's going on."
Orion took a shuttering breath, and made a move to talk, but nothing came out. Her face contorted into an unattractive form, and a fresh round of sobs shook her body.
"Rion, who died?" Cassia said incredulously, pulling the smaller girl into her arms. She cried into the front of the towel- awful, heart wrenching sobs. "Did Ashton do something?"
Orion sobbed harder; this time, hard enough to where she wheezed for air in between.
It took a few minutes of Cassia murmuring as many comforting things as she could think of for her to slow to silent crying and shaking.
"I-I'm pregnant," she finally choked out, clutching the towel at right above Cassia's knee. "I tried te-telling you yesterday, but.."
"Pregnant," Cass echoed, tightening her arms around her friend. "How does Ashton feel?"
"Ash doesn't know," she whispered, sniffing. She wiped her eyes off on Cassia's towel, sitting up. She took a deep breath, then let it out slowly through pursed lips.
"Are you gonna tell him?" Cass asked slowly, letting Orion take her hand comfortingly. "What're you gonna do?"
"What can I do?" she said miserably. "I'm not getting rid of it."
Cassia nodded. She knew that Orion had grown up incredibly religious, and while she'd always subtly rebelled in every way possible, she kept some of the same beliefs as her parents. Though she wouldn't ever say it to Orion, Cass thought it was odd to pick and choose which bits of her childhood learnings she wanted to keep.
"I'll tell him tonight. He's coming over in half an hour or so." Orion mumbled.
"I think that's a smart idea," Cassia said, smoothing her thumb over the back of Orion's hand. "Do you want me to stay home with you?" An uneasy feeling crept up in her stomach at the thought of not getting another tape for Jack that night, but if her friend needed her, she'd risk it.
She was almost relieved when Orion shook her head. "No, don't stay for me."
"Call me if you need anything, okay?" Cass frowned, trying to catch Orion's eye. They were red-rimmed and swollen still, and her nose was like a running sink.
She nodded, sniffing what she could into her nose, wiping the rest on the back of her hand. Cass almost made a face, but decided to take someone else's feelings into account, just once.
"Go with the black dress," she said as she climbed off the bed, making her way slowly to the stairs. "All guys like black dresses."
"You think?" Cass swung her legs off the bed.
"I'm positive." Orion nodded. With that, she disappeared down the steps.
It wasn't 15 minutes later that Cass heard a knock on the door, followed by the sound of muffled talking. She was done blowdrying her hair, and had moved on to makeup, and wasn't trying very hard to eavesdrop on whatever conversation Orion might have been having with Ashton. She did, however, take a bit more time to put on her mascara, thinking that maybe she might catch her kicking him out of the house or something, and need to stay with her.
Orion didn't cry, though, and another 15 minutes later, Cass was all finished getting ready, minus the shoes, which were down by the door.
She walked down the steps, and as she did, the voices stopped being so muffled. She recognized Ashton's loud laughter, and Orion's girly giggles, but as she reached the bottom step and heard a third voice, her blood ran cold.
"Ah, took you long enough!" Luke's voice was more cheerful than she'd ever heard. It was a huge contrast from the deep, flirtatious tone that it usually held, and it was almost a nice change.
Orion and Ashton were snuggled up together on the long couch, their legs all tangled and Orion resting on his chest; they looked like high school sweethearts.
Luke, however, was sat on the love seat opposite of them. His long legs were spread, his forearms resting on his legs, leaning forward. He was dressed casually, but somehow still managed to upstage her, which only annoyed her a little.
"Cass, why didn't you tell us your boyfriend was so cute?" Orion grinned up at her.
Cass frowned, walking over to the couches slowly. "He's not my boyfriend."
"Aw, don't be that way," Ashton laughed, his chin dropping down to rest on his girlfriend's head. "Luke's a pretty good guy for you."
"Yeah, don't be like that," Luke smirked, stretching out a hand and curling his fingers around her wrist. He tugged her over next to him on the love seat. "I'm a pretty good guy for you."
"Right." Cass mumbled, colliding into his shoulder a little uncomfortably. Ashton went on to say something about a story Luke had been telling them, with Luke chiming in with loud laughter, but she hardly noticed. Her eyes flickered up to Orion, who met her gaze quickly. Cassia raised an eyebrow, nodding subtly up at Ashton, but near immediately Orion shook her head. Cass sighed, watching as Orion clamped her eyes shut tight, pressing a little kiss into Ashton's collarbones.
"Did you hear me?" Luke's hot breath suddenly tickled her ear. Cassia felt a shiver run down her spine, goosebumps rising quickly. "You look beautiful."
"Thanks." she murmured, glancing over at him. His eyes were focused on her, though he was continuing to make contributing noises to Ashton's mostly one-sided conversations.
"Ash," Luke spoke up, catching him while he was pausing for air- which was usually the only time you could interrupt Ashton. "We're gonna take a rain check and head out, that cool?"
"Yeah, yeah," Ashton took a hand off of Orion to wave around. "Go on, lovebirds. Enjoy your night out."
"You are going out, right?" Orion asked quickly after. "Should I expect you home tonight?"
A million thoughts raced through Cassia's mind at that moment. Should she say yes and then just not come home, or say no and let everyone know that she had intentions of sleeping with him? Not that that was a big deal, she slept with people for a living, and sleeping with him was kind of part of that, but-
"Nah," Luke grinned confidently, in almost an arrogant way. "We'll prolly stay out all night."
Cassia's cheeks flushed a heated red color, which only made Ashton laugh, which apparently inflated Luke's confidence.
"C'mon, babe." He smirked. He tugged her up with him, locking his hand in hers, and then nodded at the other two. "I'll take good care of her."
"I want her back by noon tomorrow," Orion said firmly, watching as Luke led Cassia to the door.
He paused while she put her shoes on, nodding. "You got it."
Within minutes, they were out the door.
They didn't end up going out. Luke was distractedly driving down the road to his place, his hand planted firmly right underneath the hem of her dress. His fingers were inching up closer and closer eagerly, but when he spoke, his voice was calm.
"Almost Christmas and you're wearing a dress that short," he tsk'd, shaking his head ever so slightly. "Didn't your mum ever teach you anything?"
A jolt of something shot through Cassia, and it wasn't exactly something pleasant. She considered ruining the mood and saying something about her mom, but luckily, Luke resumed talking and made her decision easy.
"Lucky for me she didn't. You look so fantastic in that dress." his hand squeezed her thigh, and she smirked a little at him.
"Didn't your mum ever teach you to be polite to women?" Cass pried his fingers off of her playfully, setting them back down over the crotch of his pants.
"My mum died when I was little, so, no," he quipped, glancing over at her. Cassia almost choked on her spit, her head turned so quickly. "I'm polite to you!"
"Your mom died?" she asked curiously, studying his face. He'd obviously had experience talking about it- he hid his discomfort well. "Nevermind, you don't have to talk about it."
"No, no, it's not a big deal-" he started, his eyes shifting over to her.
"It's just, my mom did to." Cass interjected. Immediately, she regretted it.
"Cass," Luke lowered his voice, but it was sympathetic. "I didn't know."
"I didn't either," she mumbled. "About yours, I mean. Not mine. I'm sorry."
"Me too," he said. She felt his hand snake back over to her leg, but this time, it found her hand and slid into it.
Cass let a smile creep on to her face, turning to look at him before speaking. "You're going soft, Hemmings. I knew you weren't that much of an asshole."
"Nah, I'm still an asshole," he smirked. "And being in the dead mom's club doesn't change anything, I'm still gonna fuck you are when we get to my place."
"You couldn't if you tried." Cass teased back. She jolted forward a little as he tapped the breaks, parking. He had a wicked grin playing up his lips.
"We're here. You wanna take that back?"
It took a few minutes for them to get out of the car, between half-assed kisses and tangled seatbelts, and another few minutes up the stairs and into Luke's home.
It was a flurry of heated kissing, with his hand stuck to her body, trailing down her sides down to her waist and ass. Hot and heavy and a little sticky, even, she ended up flat on her back in Luke's bed, his heavy breathing causing a tight knot in her stomach.
"Luke," Cass half whimpered, hearing the ripping of fabric that was most definitely not from any of his clothing.
"You can wear my clothes," he muttered back, lips trying to find any bare bit of skin that they could. "You look better in them anyways."
Cass desperately tried to focus on finding a way to get whatever was happening on tape for Jack, but listening to Luke whisper dirty things in her ear was making her brain fuzzy.
It wasn't hard to get lost in fucking Luke. He was good; he was better than a lot of the guys she worked with, and knew how to use what he had to benefit her, too.
"Luke," she breathed out quickly, tugging on his already messed up blonde hair that was quickly disappearing down her stomach. "Luke, wait."
Immediately, the feeling of lips above her underwear line stopped, and his weight shifted to worm his way up on top of her. "Did I do something wrong?" he mumbled, face hovering above hers. He sounded concerned, but he looked disappointed.
"No, no," Cass replied back quickly, slipping a hand down his lean chest down to the half tent in his boxers. "D'you think we could try something new tonight?"
All traces of worry disappeared from Luke, replaced with a certain smugness. "Are you finally gonna let me do an-"
"No." she interrupted, earning a loud sigh from Luke.
"You're no fun," he nuzzled into her neck. "So, what's the something new you want to do?"
Cassia paused. Subliminally, she ran her fingers through Luke's hair, trying to think of a good way to bring it up. She knew she should probably just come out and say it, but it wasn't as simple as that.
"Is it weird?" Luke's lips pressed under her ear, which caused her to grip him over his boxers a little more firmly. "I'm down for weird, baby."
"It's not that weird." Cass huffed, slipping her hand inside his boxers. Her fingers slid down the shaft to wrap around the base to give him a few slow pumps.
"Just tell me," he groaned. When she didn't reply, his hips stuttered, jerking into her touch. "If you don't tell me, I'm gonna cum."
Immediately, her motions ceased, which caused him to let out a low groan of displeasure.
She massaged her fingers against it softly, hesitantly starting. "D'you think we could film it, maybe?"
Luke hovered over her, breathing a bit ragged, but pulled his head from the crook of her neck. "Like, making a sex tape?"
Cass' cheeks heated up, and when Luke smirked, her entire body followed in suite.
"You dirty girl." he grinned wickedly, sitting up. He tapped on her wrist, signaling for her to move her hand out of his boxers, and then crawled off the bed, headed to his room's closet.
"Is that a yes?" She breathed out, eyes following his every move. He emerged from the closet with a large camera, and then rushed over to the dresser parallel to the bed. "I'm taking that as a yes."
"Take that as a hell yes," Luke mumbled. "I'll fuck you on camera any day."
