Chapter 319: Equal Ground
He did, shortening his strokes only when Katherine’s knees began to weaken. Cassandra kept her hand on Katherine’s breast as Martin brought her to another shaking climax, and together they supported her until she could stand without the window holding her up.
The three of them returned to the sectional instead of searching for somewhere else to continue. Cassandra brought clean towels from a cabinet, and Katherine distributed water with surprising seriousness. Martin’s erection faded as Katherine lay across his lap and Cassandra rested against his shoulder.
They shared olives and cheese while arguing over whether the skyline looked better from the bedroom or the living room. Katherine took one more sip of wine before abandoning the glass, while Cassandra refused to touch hers at all. By the time Martin’s pulse returned to normal, their conversation had slowed without becoming awkward.
After they had rested, Katherine trailed her fingers down his stomach and smiled when his body responded beneath her hand. "I haven’t finished testing the bed."
Back in the bedroom, she straddled Martin and lowered herself onto his recovered cock, taking him with the same confidence she had shown on the sofa. Cassandra rested beside them with her head against his shoulder, tracing Katherine’s thigh while Katherine controlled the speed. When her strength began to fail, Martin planted his feet and met her descent with harder upward thrusts until she came with both hands braced on Cassandra.
They paused again for water, quiet kisses, and enough time for Katherine’s shaking legs to settle. Then Cassandra moved over Martin.
Cassandra began cautiously, studying how each movement changed the pressure inside her. She adjusted her hips a little at a time, and once she reached the base, she remained there with both palms flat on his chest, feeling the full length of him beneath her.
Katherine watched from the pillows. "How does it feel from up there?"
"Different." Cassandra rose halfway and lowered herself again, her eyes narrowing with interest. "I decide how deep he goes."
"You sound pleased by the discovery."
Cassandra tested another careful descent, then repeated it faster. "I am beginning to understand the appeal."
Once she found an angle she liked, caution disappeared. She gripped Martin’s chest and began riding him hard enough to set her breasts bouncing. Whenever he tried to guide her by the waist, she removed his hands and placed them back on the bed.
"You had control in the other positions," she told him. "This one is mine."
Katherine grinned. "Apparently, control suits her from that side too."
Cassandra rode him until her thighs trembled with the effort. When Martin tried to slow her, she caught his wrists and pinned them beside his head, using the leverage to drive herself down harder. The sight of her above him, black hair loose and crimson eyes stripped of their usual distance, brought him dangerously close.
She reached her climax first. Her rhythm lost its precision, and Martin freed his hands in time to catch her as she folded over him. They remained joined while her breathing settled against his throat, with Katherine’s hand moving idly along her back.
No one had checked the time in hours, and none of them seemed interested in starting now. Eventually, Cassandra lifted herself from Martin and walked naked into the hall. Katherine followed with the wine bottle hanging from one hand, while Martin carried their water.
"Where are we going now?" Katherine asked.
"I was considering the shower." Cassandra glanced over her shoulder. "It will not accommodate all three of us comfortably."
"That sounds suspiciously like a challenge."
"It was an observation, though I should have known better than to make one in your presence."
Katherine smiled. "Same thing tonight."
Cassandra shook her head and continued down the hall, though the smile at the corner of her mouth remained. They passed a section of wall Martin had only glanced at earlier, where tournament plaques and framed photographs hung among several archery medals.
Cassandra slowed at the display and stopped before its largest portrait. When she turned toward Martin, he crossed the remaining distance and took her hand.
Martin kept Cassandra’s hand in his as he looked past her at the photographs lining the wall. Her black hair had lost its careful shape hours ago and now fell over one shoulder in a heavy wave, leaving the opposite side of her neck bare. She was still flushed from the bedroom and every place they had stopped since, but the warmth in her face began fading when she followed his attention.
"What are you looking at?"
"You."
Cassandra glanced at the championship portrait behind her. In the largest photograph, she stood on an archery platform with a bow in one hand and a trophy in the other. Another showed her laughing at someone outside the frame, while a third had captured the instant a teammate poured champagne over her head.
Martin had never seen her look so unguarded for so long. He had caught flashes of that woman when Cassandra laughed freely or lost herself in archery, but the portrait made that openness look natural rather than momentary.
"Those were taken a long time ago," she said.
"Not long enough for that woman to be someone else."
Katherine stopped a few steps away with the bottle still in hand. Martin offered her his water, and she set the wine on a display shelf before drinking. Rather than inserting herself between them, she leaned one shoulder against the wall and studied the younger Cassandra with open curiosity.
"I imagine she was terrifying even then," Katherine said.
Cassandra gave her a flat look. "You did not know me then."
"No, but that expression leaves room for a reasonable inference."
Martin moved behind Cassandra and rested both hands on her hips. She did not retreat. Her back eased against his chest, placing his cock between the warm curves of her ass while her eyes returned to the wall.
"I used to enjoy competing," she said after a moment. "The target did not lie, flatter me, or expect me to become something else. I either struck it or I did not, and no one could turn the result into an argument."
"What about the people beside you?"
"They were my team. We competed against one another, but once a tournament began, we stood on equal ground."
Martin let the answer settle before asking, "Not your employees?"