Page 59 of The Monster and the Masochist

I didn’t think I’d ever heard her giggle like that, and it was making my heart fucking soar.

“I’m glad I got to be the one to help you figure that out, princess,” I said, shifting us so we were both lying facing each other on the couch. I gently tugged her skirt back down to cover her up, and she grinned at me from inches away. Her cheeks were still pink and rosy from the orgasm we’d worked out of her moments before, and I took a mental snapshot so I could always revisit it later.

“Theodora?” She smirked.

“Cassandra?” I teased.

“Will you fake marry me so I don’t look like a dumbass at work?”

Another breathy laugh burst out of me, and my heart swelled.

I nodded, tugging her in close and kissing her on top of her head, like I’d always dreamed of doing.

“Yes, princess. I’ll marry you.”

“Thank fuck. The lead times on mail-order husbands were just not going to work out.”

I jerked back to gape at her.

“Tell me you’re joking. You were not going to get a mail-order husband.”

“I mean, I definitely looked into it. But Cal and Ryan convinced me to ask you to marry me instead. So far, it’s proving to be a much better option.”

I shook my head, unable to stop myself from grinning at how insane this woman was.

“Good. I mean, I can hold my own in the ring, but I don’t know how well I’d do trying to fight off some 300lb male Russian beef cake. A little above my weight class. I would have had to get creative.”

Cass laughed and swatted my shoulder.

“No fighting Russian beef cakes while we’re married. I want this gorgeous face intact.”

She pinched my chin playfully, but there was an undercurrent of seriousness there, too.

I didn’t bother mentioning that I was planning on fighting a Russian in a few weeks. She just wasn’t a beefcake. More of a rigorously trained, lethal street fighter that already had two casualties under her belt.

But that felt like a bit of a mood killer, so I resolved to keep that piece of information to myself for now.

“Fine. No beefcakes,” I agreed solemnly, and she snorted.

“Good. Now, have you eaten? I think I have some chickpea salad or something in the fridge if you haven’t,” she offered, sitting up and shoving at me impatiently until I followed her lead.

I’d never had chickpea salad before, but if Cass wanted to eat chickpea salad with me, that’s what I was going to eat.

“Sounds like heaven, princess,” I said, resisting the urge to smack her perfect ass as she stalked off toward the kitchen.

We weren’t quite at the casual ass smacking stage yet, but for the first time since I’d met her, I finally had hope that there might eventually be some potential ass smacking going on.

I didn’t care who was smacking whose ass.

I was just happy to fucking be here.

And I would do whatever it took to convince her to let me stay.

It was harder than I’d expected it to be to let Theo leave my condo after she’d let me dry hump her leg like some feral cat in heat.

If it had been anybody else, maybe the way I’d basically mauled her would have been embarrassing for me, but…

Holy shit.