Page 56

“You can’t,” I replied softly as I picked at the little nubs on the soft cotton blanket.
Casimir reached underneath the blanket and grabbed my foot. My eyes closed at the touch of his firm grip and the pressure he exerted on the sole of my foot with his thumb.
“Talk to me, Giselle.”
I sighed. “My late husband, Elijah.”
When I opened my eyes again, Casimir’s gaze was on me expectantly.
“Because he died?”
“He didn’t die. He took his own life.”
Briefly, but only for a short second, Casimir’s thumb stopped, and then he went back to work again. I told him the story, every little detail until I finished.
“He didn’t love me enough to stay,” I whispered. I hadn’t realized that a tear had fallen until he reached his finger out and swiped it away.
“Or he didn’t love himself enough to let your love be enough,” Casimir whispered.
I smiled briefly at him.
“What I mean by that is, more often than not, we take the actions of our loved ones personally. But it isn’t always about us. I think we believe that it is because we live in such a self-centered, superficial world. Sometimes, people drown so deeplyin their depression that they can’t focus on anything else beyond the blackness. It swallows them whole, and all the while they’re drowning, they don’t see the hands reaching out to help them. It’s a spiritual battle. It was never a you-battle.”
I smirked. “How did you become so wise, sir?”
“I had a friend who suffered from depression back in high school. He attempted it, but his family found him in time.”
“Wow. Are you still in touch with him today?”
“JR.”
My eyes bucked in my head. “That confident, bold, charming man suffered from depression and tried to kill himself?”
“He did. I missed all the signs.”
“We often do,” I whispered. “I felt like I failed Elijah. I knew he suffered from depression, but I never would have expected him to do that. I’m a trained and licensed psychologist, and I failed my husband.”
The tears started back up again, and Casimir reached over and removed the blanket from my legs. He pulled me onto his lap, held me, and rocked with me. He whispered “shh” the entire time that he rubbed my back.
When I finished crying, I looked up at him and asked, “What did I do to deserve so much pain, though, Cas?”
He wiped my face and stared into my eyes. Before he could answer the question, I pressed my lips against his, sampling what I didn’t need to sample, taking what wasn’t mine to take, and indulging in the sinful pleasure known as Casimir.
I moaned as I twisted in his lap until I straddled him. My hands went to his face, and I held him in place as though he might pull back from the kiss. My hips had a mind all their own as they worked in time to a beat that only existed in my head.
My need for him grew stronger with every pass of my hips and provoked Casimir to place his hands there. He gripped me tightly as if to secure me to him and thrust upward. I could feelhis erection through my cotton night shorts, and I wanted no distance between us.
Every thought about my license and the repercussions of what would happen in the morning passed away. I only cared about the moment, the here and the now. This precious, stolen moment was the only thing that mattered.
Just because Casimir had divorced Beth and moved out didn’t mean that she was no longer in his heart. Tonight, that was a risk that I was willing to take as his large, firm hands moved from my hips, slid underneath my top, and stretched across my back.
Heat stole up my body, and I arched my back and pressed my breasts against him. His hands circled to the front, and large, gentle fingers rubbed back and forth in a slow rhythm across my nipples, bringing them to life.
His erection prodded me, begging for entrance. My hands reached down and tugged at the waistband of my night shorts until I pulled them over my ass. I lifted slightly, and Casimir moved in to take one tightly budded nipple into his mouth.
The warm heat of his tongue and lips almost caused an instant explosion in my body. I was surprised that I didn’t leak out on him immediately. His hands helped me get out of my shorts and panties. I climbed off him, and my chest heaved as I struggled to breathe through the intensity of the moment.
Casimir stood and removed his basketball shorts before he leaned around me and grabbed his phone from the table.