The Reluctant Dom: Obsession Series, Book 1

Chapter Two-1

Chapter Two

Cassandra’s Secret

We walked silently, this mystery woman and I, arm in arm, through the parking lot and across the street to Starbucks. God, it was nice to be close to someone again, however strange the encounter. Was Cassandra a prostitute? If she was, it didn’t matter to me in the least. I would pay whatever it cost to spend time with her. It was my birthday, after all. Maybe it was healthy for me to give a present to myself. I felt happy for once and exhilarated to have my arm around a woman again. Hopefully my luck had finally changed and the dark cloud hovering over me for years had finally gone away.

We found a table and Cassandra went to the counter and ordered a drink. From across the room we made eye contact and she winked at me. I noticed all the men and some of the women were checking out her exposed bra and the curvy shape of her body over the brims of their coffee cups, laptops and I-Phones. The sexy way she dressed and her sensual beauty easily made her the center of attention in the room. I couldn’t believe my luck that this angelic creature plucked me out of the Safeway produce aisle and was now sidling over to our table with a Frappuccino in her hand, swirling with whipped cream on top. Though no one else in the place even knew I existed, Cassandra looked me directly in the eyes. Me. I had gone through life virtually ignored by humanity, and Cassandra’s recognition made me feel like my life had meaning, purpose. She placed the coffee drink on the table, sat down and crossed her legs.

“You have your own straw. See?”

“Yes. Thanks, Cassandra.”

“Do you like to share? I do. It’s more fun that way. Do you like to share too, Charles?”

“Sure. I like to share.”

We both leaned over and sipped our straws, my eyes automatically drifting down to her tantalizing flesh, the light brown rings of her areolas peeking out from under her bra.

“You like to look at me, don’t you? Even more than the melons.”

“I do. Yes… I mean, I’m sorry. I don’t mean to stare, but you have the prettiest…”

“The prettiest what?”

“Uhh…”

“Breasts? Is that what you’re trying to say? You like to stare at my breasts, Charles?”

I nodded. My heart raced and I hoped she wouldn’t be offended by what I was about to say.

“Back in the store, I loved touching them, squeezing them. It… aroused me,” I whispered.

“I could tell,” she said.

“You’re such a sexy woman, Cassandra. You’re the sexiest woman I’ve ever met in my life.”

She placed a finger on her lips and lightly tapped them.

“I wonder… Can I trust you, Charles? I don’t really know you.”

I reached across the table and took her hand in mine.

“I know we just met,” I said, “but you can trust me, Cassandra. Believe me, you can.”

“I feel like I can, Charles.”

She smiled and squeezed my hand in hers.

“You know, when I first saw you in the store I followed you.”

“You did?”

“I did. I had the feeling you might be the one.”

“The one?”

“The one I could trust.”

Cassandra leaned forward slightly in her chair and spoke in a softer voice.

“There’s something I need… that only a man can help me with.”

I wondered what it was she might need from me.

“OK. What can I do?”

“Would you be free to help me over the next few days?”

“Sure. What exactly do you need my help with, Cassandra?”

“Let me explain… But first, may I ask you a personal question?”

“Sure, go ahead.”

“Are you a religious person?”

I was slightly taken aback. It seemed a strange question to ask after what had just transpired in Safeway.

“No, not really. My parents didn’t go to church, so I wasn’t brought up religious.”

“Oh. I see…”

She seemed disappointed by my answer for some reason.

“Are you religious?” I tentatively asked.

“Yes. I’m a Born-Again Christian,” she said with an enthusiastic smile.

I nodded my head once, not sure I had heard her correctly. I started to feel completely confused. The woman who just let me fondle her breasts by the honeydew melons was a Born-Again Christian? I shifted in my seat.

“OK…”

“Do you like this gold cross I’m wearing? My boyfriend gave it to me the night before he left for his deployment.”

Boyfriend? I knew it was too good to be true. I looked down as the air left my chest. The hopeful exuberance I felt just a moment ago was now crushed.

“Uh-huh.”

“He served in Afghanistan.”

“I see…”

Cassandra glanced down at the engagement ring on her finger. I hadn’t noticed it until that moment.

“I go to the First Assembly of God, out near the Target, right before the exit off I-80. We’re getting married there by Pastor Orman next month. He’s been my minister ever since I was a little girl.”

“Oh…”

A long pause went by as I looked at the ring on her finger. Cassandra took a sip of her coffee drink and licked the whipped cream off her lips in a provocative manner. We made eye contact for a brief moment and then I stood up. Our awkward words came out in unison.

“I’m terribly sorry, Cassandra. I didn’t know -”

“Please, Charles, where are you going? Sit down, don’t—”

“You are engaged to be—”

“Leave. Please allow me—”

“Married.”

“To explain… Please don’t leave yet, Charles. Let me explain myself first. Would you? Please sit back down. I have no one else to talk to about this.”

“OK...”

I slowly sat back down.

“Would you like a sip? You’ve hardly had any.”

“Sure.”

I politely took a sip from the straw.

“Do you like it, Charles?”

“Yeah.”

“I like sharing my drink with you.”

“Thanks.”

“I know this all must sound terribly confusing, Charles. It must be rather awkward for you and…it’s very hard for me to talk about as well.”

I took a breath in and exhaled. I didn’t know what else to say.

“You must think I’m some kind of freak,” she said, ashamed.

I reached across the table and placed my hand briefly on her arm.

“No, Cassandra. I don’t think that at all. It’s just that I don’t understand the situation or what you want from me,” I said. “I mean, you have a boyfriend, you’re engaged…”

She smiled stiffly at me and I smiled back. Just a moment ago we were staring deeply at each other and now we couldn’t make eye contact.

“You know what I was thinking, Charles?”

“What?

“Sometimes you can tell something to a stranger you can’t tell anyone else,” she said.

“That’s true,” I said.

“I don’t really blame you if want to go, but would you mind staying a little longer so I can talk to you?”

The situation was quite odd. If Cassandra was in a relationship, not to mention religious, why did she flirt with me and allow me to fondle her breasts in the grocery store? Despite my confusion and the fact she was engaged, I decided to stay. Maybe she just needed a friend, someone to talk to perhaps. I would need to do a better job at keeping my hands to myself around this attractive woman.

“Sure I’ll stay. You can talk to me about anything you’d like, Cassandra. What’s on your mind?” I asked.

“Well, it’s difficult to talk about. Like I said, I’m engaged to be married to a very nice Christian man. He’d be so jealous if he knew I was talking to another man right now. He hates it if anyone even looks at me in public. I have to wear plain clothes so I don’t draw attention to my body.”

She leaned forward again and whispered very quietly in my ear.

“When we go out he even makes me put band aids over my n*****s so they don’t attract the wrong sort of attention. They have a tendency to pop out under my clothes a bit.”

“I’ve noticed.”

“It feels nice to just let myself go and not worry about it for once,” she said.

“You should be able to wear whatever you want. Doesn’t he trust you?”

“Oh, he does. He knows, once we get married, I’d never cheat on him.”

“What’s his name?”

“Patrick… We started dating in college. His family is poor, so he signed up with the military to pay for his education. After graduating he had to serve his time to repay the debt. On the last night before his deployment, he asked me to marry him. He said he was afraid something bad was going to happen to him and he wanted to have something to look forward to when he came back home. He finished his last tour in Afghanistan a few months ago and is flying back to Chicago from Fort Bragg on Wednesday. I haven’t seen him for over three years, though we’ve written back and forth. Am I boring you with my story?”

“Not at all, Cassandra. But if you’re boyfriend’s coming back, I just don’t understand what it is you want from me.”

She took a sip of the Frappuccino and breathed in.

“Well, I know I want to marry my boyfriend and he’s a good person, but…”

Cassandra leaned in again and whispered her deep dark secret to me. Only to me.

“There’s this... other person… living inside me… no one knows about. She has these... needs… I’ve never been able to express them to anyone. Before my boyfriend returns, at least once in my life, I’d like to… no, I have to… act upon them, in order to be happy when I actually get married, I think.”

Cassandra sat back in her chair and breathed out, relieved to unburden herself from the weight of such a great secret. I tried to make eye contact with her, but she cast her eyes downward. Her cheeks flushed red with shame. I wasn’t sure yet what “needs” she was referring to, but she seemed quite tormented about it. I assumed it had something to do with s*x.

“Why don’t you express these… needs… with your boyfriend?” I asked.

“I’d like to, very much, but I think it would ruin our relationship if I revealed the secret to him. I don’t think he’d be able to accept it. Even if I told him, I don’t think it’s in his nature to interact with me… in that way.”

I nodded. Cassandra intertwined her fingers together on top of the table, as if in fervent prayer.

“I’ve tried to rid myself of these impure thoughts. I’ve tried. I wish I could.”

“What thoughts, Cassandra?”

“They’re too… naughty… to talk about.”

“You can tell me. I’m not going to judge you. What thoughts?”

Cassandra looked at me, closed her eyes and leaned across the table again. I met her halfway and felt her soft cheek brush up against mine. She paused, trying to summon the courage to speak. Then she whispered her secret in my ear.

“At least once in my life, I want to submit myself to a man and become his s****l servant, his slave… I want to be tied up and spanked… hard... and…”

Tied up and spanked… I must confess I wasn’t expecting to hear that! I noticed my mouth had fallen open and saliva once again was accumulating at the back of my mouth. Cassandra squeezed her eyes shut even tighter.

“And I… I want to make love to two men… one right after the other… while they watch… I want to bring each man to an orgasm with my body… and my mouth.”

Cassandra leaned back, her eyes still shut, her hands so tightly pressed together that her knuckles had turned white. Her breathing was shallow and she appeared to be trembling. She inhaled in once very deeply through her nostrils and pushed the air slowly out through her pursed lips. Cassandra seemed stressed out about admitting these forbidden desires to me and perhaps, to herself.

“I know it’s bad, but I long to do these things just once, just once in my life…”

I leaned back, astonished. She finally opened her pretty eyes and blinked, fluttering her eyelashes.

“I’ve prayed about it, asking God to take these inappropriate thoughts away, but my prayers have gone unanswered. I’ve tried exercising like crazy when I have these desires, jogging around my neighborhood, taking cold showers, reading, watching TV, anything I can do to take my mind off of it, but nothing seems to work. They wake me up in the middle of the night, these dirty thoughts. I think about them all day long, I can’t get them out of my mind. I thought perhaps, if I could talk to someone about them, it might help, but the only people I talk to are my friends at church and they wouldn’t understand.”

“Is there anyone in your family you could talk to?” I asked.

Cassandra took another sip of her coffee drink and stared out of the window for a long moment.

“I have a sister.”

“Yes, you mentioned that.”

“She’s my closest friend. You would like her, Charles. She’s so free-spirited. When I started having these… fantasies… I was too embarrassed to tell even her. If there’s anyone in my family I could tell, it would be her. I could talk to my sister about anything.”

“She sounds nice. Why don’t you talk to her about your feelings?”

“I can’t… She’s gone away…”

“Gone? Where?”

“Chicago.”

“Oh… Do you know where she lives?”

Cassandra cast her eyes down at the table and shook her head no. Looking closely at her face, I noticed dark circles under her eyes covered up by makeup. She seemed lost in thought, with a pained look in her eyes. I wanted to ask her more about her sister, but I thought it would be best to change the subject.

“I think what you’re experiencing is not uncommon for someone about to get married. Couldn’t you just have… a little fling with someone… before you enter into your long-term relationship?” I asked, hoping that someone would be me.

“I wish it were that easy, Charles. What I want is… a little more complicated… I did consider, as you say, having a little fling. Earlier this evening I finally decided to try to fulfill these urges in a discreet manner with a stranger. I put on this slinky dress and went out to a singles club. I sat at the bar and ordered a cocktail, even though I don’t drink. Several attractive men approached me, asked if they could sit down next to me, buy me a drink. I knew they were attracted to me. I could have easily gone home with any one of them, but… it’s so hard to explain. What I fantasize about is much more than just a simple affair. Anyway, I wasn’t comfortable with anyone I met at the bar tonight. What I want could be dangerous… very dangerous for me… if I picked the wrong person… or persons. The men at the bar intimidated me, made me nervous, so I didn’t give in to my urges with any of them. I left the bar and stopped at the grocery store on my way home. That’s when I saw you wandering around Safeway. Something about you made me relax. I could tell you were a polite and gentle person… someone who wouldn’t hurt me if I made myself vulnerable to you. I wasn’t intimidated by you at all.”

Cassandra raised her chin and looked into my eyes.

“And then in the store…I knew it was wrong of me, but I had this desire to talk to you, to flirt with you… To see what it felt like to have a stranger’s hands upon me. And this time I didn’t… I couldn’t… hold myself back. The way you held me and squeezed me so hard… and in such a virile fashion... I knew you were able to give me exactly what I wanted.”

Cassandra looked back down at the table, ashamed to continue. I felt embarrassed again and mumbled an apology for my crass behavior.

“I don’t know what came over me. I don’t usually… I think I sort of lost control for a moment, back at the store. I promise you, it won’t happen again.”

“You really shouldn’t worry about it, Charles. You didn’t hurt me at all.”

“Are you sure?” I asked.

“I’m sure. It was exactly what I was looking for. You see… I have a high tolerance for pain,” she said, biting down on her lower lip and looking up to make eye contact with me. “The way you touched me, Charles. I could tell you are a very s****l person. I thought you might be the one, the only one able to give me what I want, what I need. That’s why I flirted with you in the store and let you touch my breasts.”

Exchanging a smile, we reached out across the table at the same moment and held hands.

“I thought, perhaps, if I shared these desires with someone I felt comfortable with, someone who doesn’t know anyone in my circle of friends, someone like you, Charles, perhaps these thoughts wouldn’t have such a grip over me and I’d be able to get them out of my system. Then I could settle down and get married without being plagued by all these inappropriate desires. I know it sounds crazy, but I think it would be better to explore these fantasies now, rather than have some scandalous affair after I get married.”

“That makes sense,” I said.

“Charles, do you have any plans this weekend? Would you be available to spend some time with me?”

Though her situation seemed odd to me at first, after thinking it over it began to make perfect sense. Cassandra hadn’t seen her boyfriend in quite a long time and probably had cold feet about getting married. What would be the harm in spending a little time with her this weekend? I wasn’t usually the type to go out with someone else’s girlfriend, but if Cassandra and I had some sort of experience together, perhaps it would make her feel more comfortable about settling down and getting married. But… what was it she whispered in my ear? She wanted to be tied up and spanked? She wanted to make love to two men? She wanted to be some kind of s****l servant? I wasn’t sure about all that. It made me a little nervous, frankly. That kind of kinky stuff is normally way out of my league, though I had just fondled her breasts rather roughly in the grocery aisle, so who knows what I am capable of, I thought.

“I don’t have any particular plans this weekend, Cassandra. Since its Labor Day, I’m off on Monday. Are you?”

“I do most of my work from home, but if I put in some extra time on Sunday, I could take Monday and maybe even Tuesday off,” she said.

“Ok then. I’d love to spend the weekend with you, Cassandra.”

She smiled and tears came to her eyes. She seemed extremely relieved, took another deep breath and exhaled.

“You don’t know how glad I am to hear that, Charles! Thank you. I promise we’ll have a fun weekend together.”

Her enthusiasm made me excited too.

“Can you tell me a little more specifically about these… fantasies of yours?” I asked.

“I’d rather describe them to you in a more…intimate setting,” she said.

“OK. We could go to my apartment if you’d like. I live just a few blocks away. Did you drive here?”

“Yes.”

“Follow me in your car. You can park off the street in my guest parking spot.”

“OK.”

We stood up. I cleared the table of the coffee drink and napkins. When I returned to the table, Cassandra touched my cheek with her soft lips.

“You’re very sweet to listen to my situation. There is one last thing, before we go. Do you have a computer and a printer at your apartment, Charles?”

“Sure.”

Cassandra leaned in closely again and whispered.

“Part of my fantasy… involves signing a contract… that we must go over together and agree upon.”

“A contract?”

“I know it must sound strange, but it’s necessary. We need to agree on our rights and responsibilities to each other, the hard limits I have, and especially the time period of the contract. If you sign the contract, you are agreeing to let me go after our time is up, no matter what happens between us, no matter how you might feel about me. I’ve pledged myself to my boyfriend and I intend on keeping my promise to him. That means you and I will never be able to see each other again after my boyfriend returns in four days.”

“In… four days?”

“Yes, can I trust you about that, Charles?”

At the moment I would agree to anything to spend time with this pretty woman.

“You can trust me, Cassandra,” I said.

“OK then.”

Cassandra kissed me on the cheek again, her lips lingering a bit longer on my skin.

“I’m so excited,” she said.

“So am I. Come on. Follow me, Cassandra. I’ll take you to my place.”