Page 74 of The Monster and the Masochist

“Good night, Theodora,” she whispered, then she left me standing there–disappearing into her bedroom and leaving nothing but a warm cloud of vanilla in her wake.

Staring at the ceiling of Cass’s guestroom, I listened to the quiet sounds of her going through her nighttime routine in the next room.

It took almost forty minutes before I was sure she’d finally settled.

Once she was tucked in for the night, I allowed myself to imagine how pretty she probably looked in that big, California king with her dark hair spread out over her cream silk pillows.

What was she wearing?

Probably a sinfully delicious lace night slip or something equally sexy. When she lived with me, she’d never left her room until she was fully put together, so I couldn’t be sure. But she didn’t strike me as the type of woman who wore an oversized t-shirt to bed.

Not like I was.

I traced my hand over the waistband of the clean boxers I’d slipped on after I’d showered. This condo had two bathrooms, can you believe that?

I toyed with the idea of fishing one of my vibrators out so I could get myself off to the image of Cass alone, in bed… probably just dripping in silk and lace and looking like some sort of Playboy model…

Maybe I should use my fingers… What if she heard the vibrations through the wall?

Would she be weirded out? Or turned on?

Before I could make a decision, my phone buzzed on my end table.

Assuming it was Ryan checking to see how the move had gone, I rolled over to snatch it up, only to almost drop it when I saw it was a text from Cass.

I scrambled to catch my phone before it clattered to the floor, and ended up hanging halfway over the edge of the mattress in my rush to open it up.

Baby Girl:

So… Do you really sleep in the nude?

Holy fuck.

Was this… what I thought it was?

My mind was racing. If this were any other girl, I would have shamelessly flirted back. But this wasn’t just any girl. This was Cassandra.

I swallowed thickly, rolled back into the bed, and settled so my back was against the headboard.

Fucking go time, Theodora. Lock in. Don’t fuck this up!

Theo:

Yes.

Smooth, Theo.

I squeezed my eyes shut, cursing myself for hitting send before thinking of something more witty to say.

Baby Girl:

Pics or it didn’t happen.

My jaw dropped, and it took less than 0.5 seconds for me to strip out of my t-shirt and shimmy out of my boxers.

Once I was sufficiently naked, I frantically worked out how I was going to set up the shot, but it seemed Cassandra was feeling impatient, and my phone buzzed again.

Baby Girl: