The Six-Month Catch

“Selene.”

She stopped on the first step, her hand tightening on the wood.

Selene didn’t turn around as she asked, “What, Cassian?”

“Are you going to stand there all night, or will you come down so we can talk?” he asked, sounding unbothered by the fact that he was breaking a four-year silence over a jar of overnight oats.

She turned slowly while keeping her bag slung over her shoulder, wanting him to see that she had no intention of being in his space for a second longer than necessary.

And Cassian was leaning against the kitchen counter with his suit jacket unbuttoned, his thumb tracing the rim of his glass as he watched her. 

“We don’t have anything to talk about,” Selene snapped.

“We have six months under this roof before the final clause clears, we need to figure out how this works.”

“The same way it has been, the last four years Cassian, you ignore me, and I do the same to you, it has been working perfectly fine and there is no reason to change it now.”

A muscle ticked in his jaw as her words hit him. “I’m just trying to be civil.”

“Civil? You don’t get to use that word now, you chose silence every single day, Cassian. I survived this house alone, and I will survive the next six months the same way, so do not speak to me unless the house is on fire.”

She turned back toward the stairs, needing to get away from him, but he spoke before she could take another step.

“I passed by your office today, and it was empty, HR told me you cleared it out yesterday.”

“I wanted to get it over with,” she said over her shoulder.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were resigning?”

Selene finally turned back to look at him, with genuine disbelief in her eyes. The audacity of the question had caught her off guard. “Tell you? Why would I tell you? You never made me feel welcome in that building, Cassian. 

You addressed every person in the boardroom except your own wife, and I built Vellum Creative because I knew this day would come, so you don't get to act surprised that I’m actually leaving.”

“I’m not surprised,” he murmured, setting his glass down on the counter. His eyes held a look she hadn’t seen since the night Kayda left, a glimpse of something broken beneath his usual composure. “I just didn’t think you'd leave immediately.”

“I’m finally getting out of your way,” her voice steady despite the ache in her throat. “You should be thrilled.”

She didn’t wait for his response, taking the stairs two at a time as her heels clicked loudly against the wood, desperate to reach her bedroom and put some distance between them.

“Selene, stop.”

His footsteps came after her, stopping right at the bottom of the stairs.

“We aren’t done,” he called up.

Looking down at him through the iron railings, he looked smaller from up here, standing at the bottom with his hands shoved into his pockets.

“My mother is hosting a family dinner tomorrow,” his dark eyes locked onto hers, “Marcus will be there, your parents will be there, and we also have to be there, together, you know we still have six more months…,” he gestured between them and the empty house, “of this.”

Selene gripped the railing so hard her knuckles turned white, “I’m not going, tell her I’m sick, or tell her I’m busy with the new firm, I don’t care what lie you use, Cassian, but I am done playing the happy couple for our families.”

Cassian didn't move, standing there, as his silence, which had always been his greatest weapon against her, began to wear her down.

“You know how my mother is,”  his voice dropped into that deep tone she hated herself for realizing she’d missed, “if you don’t show up, she’ll come here, she’ll want to know why, and she’ll start asking questions neither of us wants to answer right now.”

“Let her ask,” Selene snapped, the anger finally boiling over, “what is she going to do, force me to stay married to you? the papers are signed, Cassian, it’s over.”

“The papers are signed, but the public announcement doesn't happen for another six months, until then, the press is still watching, and if we break up publicly before the clause clears, the stock goes down, your father's company takes a hit, and you know the rules of the what we just dissolved.”

He reached the fourth step and stopped, his eyes drifting down to slowly sweep over her body before his gaze paused, dropping to her chest, and the sheer heat of where he was looking sent a sudden ache straight to her core despite how furious she was.

“One dinner, Selene,” he murmured, the low vibration of his voice triggering a tight, familiar feeling between her thighs, “just give me three hours, and then you can go back to ignoring me.”

She stared down at him, her chest rising and falling with angry breaths as she wanted to scream that he was the one who had been ignoring her, but with the way his eyes were pinned to her body, she couldn’t bring herself to say a word. 

She hated that he was right about the contract, hated that their families still held this kind of leverage over her life, and most of all, she hated how easily he could talk her into things while leaving her consumed by a hunger she couldn't control.

“Fine,” she whispered. “Three hours, but the second it’s ten o'clock, I’m leaving, with or without you.”

She turned on her heel and walked down the upstairs corridor, the moment she reached her room, she shut the door behind her and stripped off her shoes. 

Collapsing straight onto the bed without even bothering to change, she lay there staring blankly at the ceiling, her mind and body totally exhausted.

By one in the morning, sleep still hadn't come as she lay on her side, scrolling aimlessly through her phone.

Finally, unable to take the restlessness anymore, she tossed the phone aside and got up to shut her curtains, hoping to block out the light pouring in from outside so she could finally sleep, but the sight below made her freeze.

Down by the pool lounge chairs, illuminated only by the faint glow of the water lights, was Cassian, slamming into a woman roughly from behind. 

He was hitting her hard, his hips driving into her with a fast, merciless rhythm that made a sudden, thick heat pool between Selene’s thighs. 

She froze, unable to tear her eyes away from the raw intensity of him plunging into the woman.

As she gripped the fabric of the curtain, the heavy metal rings clinked sharply against the rod. As if he could feel the weight of her gaze or heard the slight sound from the darkness above, Cassian didn't even slow down; he just looked straight up, his eyes locking onto hers while his body kept driving into the woman.

Panic surged through her as she ripped the curtains shut, her heart hammering violently against her ribs as she stood frozen in the dark.

Her nipples were painfully hard against her clothes, her mind entirely consumed by the image burned into her head. 

Leaning her forehead against the cool glass, Selene trembled from an overwhelming, need to touch herself right then and there.