Chapter 717 He has a flare for the dramatic

Lunch went well, with all of them joking and laughing with each other. Cass was glad that they were outside, getting fresh air, and that everyone else seemed so relaxed as well. Even when they bickered, it never felt serious.

The heat had been taken out of their words and Cass was just happy that he got to experience it.

He was, however, anxious to get back to his work. For completely selfish reasons. He needed to see how the convincing was going, check in with Christopher and see how in danger he was from his grandfather, and from that window see if he could do anything with the boys before they left.

A quick date would be nice, something short and sweet, but he needed to be able to fit three dates into that timeline, and they needed to be appropriate to the men themselves. Cass was taking this very seriously, maybe too seriously because he got another warning nibble on his ear from Lucy.

"Where is your mind drifting when you have three attractive men in front of you?" Lucy asked, clearly pouting, and Cass gave a light laugh.

"Sorry. I was thinking about work." Cass admitted. Lucy growled more.

"Work? Work?! While we’re here, spending time with you?" Lucy was getting pretty worked up and Cass couldn’t tell if he was putting on an act or not.

"Sorry. I was just so relaxed that my mind drifted." Cass admitted. That seemed to win him some brownie points as Eddie chuckled, leaning back against the gazebo, but not far enough that he was in direct sunlight.

"That’s fair, but work? That’s where your mind drifts?" Eddie teased. Cass rolled his eyes.

"What? Did you think my mind would go somewhere sexual? Did you want me to objectify you? I thought I did a rather good job of that during my heat." Cass said pointedly. Lucy coughed while Eddie gave a rather shocked gasp. Giddy nearly choked, reaching for a glass of juice so that he didn’t have to answer and cleared his airways.

"Excuse me?" Eddie sounded shocked, and Cass, for his part, smirked.

"What? Did you want me fantasizing about you? How do you know that’s not the reason why I want to get work done as quickly as possible? So that I can have as much free time as possible to just throw the lot of you around like my own personal sex dolls." Poor Giddy didn’t stand a fighting chance as those words left Cass’ lips.

"There are dolls made purposefully for sex in your world?" Lucy asked, curious and horrified all at the same time. "Why? Why would they do that? Why wouldn’t they just ask someone to have sex with them?" Lucy said it like it made the most sense, and in a way, he was right.

Cass just didn’t have the capacity to explain how some people were just...well, it was better for them to have the sex dolls and not interact with humans. Or others.

Eddie, however, wasn’t as shocked as the others. He did seem confused, but was clear from his time in brothels that he could see some of the appeal.

"Did you...have any of these?" Eddie asked. Cass made a disgusted sound.

"Absolutely not. I’m not some kind of degenerate, Eddie. I also lived with my sister as her husband was away and she had a baby on the way. I didn’t even have toys, let alone a whole sex doll." Cass said pointedly, and Eddie nodded slowly, processing what he said.

"So you only touched your cock?" Lucy asked, curious, and Cass scowled.

"I didn’t say that." Cass muttered, annoyed, and Lucy chuckled.

"Oh, so you used your fingers?" Giddy asked. Cass wondered if it would be better if Giddy said that, or Lucy? He decided that it didn’t matter, either of them asking was embarrassing.

"I’m not asking any of you how you relieved yourselves, so why are you asking me?" Cass muttered, feeling ganged up on.

"Do you want to know?" Lucy asked. "I’d be happy to answer, but I think you’d be a little upset, maybe even a little jealous." Cass frowned.

"I wasn’t asking, because I know you’ve had more partners then I could ever imagine, and frankly, yes, it would make me jealous, and no, not in a way that is going to benefit you in the slightest." Cass spoke quickly and sharply, much to Lucy’s surprise. Eddie blinked, before he furrowed his brows in concern.

"Are you going to be mad at me as well?" Eddie asked, pointing at his chest. Cass hesitated before he decided to be honest.

"I’ve already been mad at you about that, when you first kissed me." Cass admitted. "I cursed you out in my head for having experience and using it against me." Eddie blinked, while Lucy gently wrapped his arms around Cass’ stomach and hugged him from behind.

"I’m sorry. I was trying to make a cute joke, I didn’t know you’d be so upset at even the mention of it." Lucy murmured. Cass, who had tensed up at the joke, forced himself to take a few deep breaths and relax. It was, after all, a rather harmless joke and they hadn’t meant to make him upset. He was being a bit ridiculous for getting so upset so quickly. Too quickly for even him to notice.

"I overreacted, so you don’t need to apologise. I am a very jealous, possessive person at my core, and I’m coming to terms with that." Cass said, flushed. After all, Caspian had been rather...disconnected. Almost alarmingly so. Cass could reflect on himself and realise that was the case, while Cassian had wanted everyone and everything to like him, desperately. Of course he would have an obsessive personality in the end. He wasn’t a villain for nothing, after all.

"You’ve never really shown that you’re that possessive." Eddie commented lightly. Cass gave him a confused look.

"I said that Giddy belonged to me at a ball. I ordered Lucy around, I declared that Fiona and I were having a baby. I was all over you when we went shopping." Cass said, his face warming. "I admit, there are better ways to be possessive, but I won’t lie and say I’m not. I don’t like to think that you’ve been with others. I appreciate that they were your companions when I wasn’t there, but there will be no more of that. We have each other, and that’s enough." Cass said seriously.

"I agree with Cass." Giddy spoke up from where he’d been quietly listening. Cass turned to him, and Giddy was a little nervous, flushed, and his hands were gripping onto his knees rather tightly. "I am happy that we’re together, but I also don’t like to think about who got their hands on you two before we did." Giddy’s face was flushed, but his green eyes were serious. Eddie sucked in.

"Seriously? You’ve never said anything until now." Eddie muttered, a little confused and apparently, flattered. Cass wanted to snap at him, annoyed that his jealousy hadn’t made him react that way, but, he understood. Giddy was being possessive. That was a rather rare thing.

"I didn’t think it was my place to say anything until now." Giddy replied. Lucy shifted, squeezing Cass for a second before he spoke up.

"What about Cass? You aren’t jealous about what he’s been getting up to?" Lucy asked and Giddy hesitated.

"Well, he’s been getting up to things with you two, so why would I get upset? Cass, you were like me before this, weren’t you?" Cass opened his mouth to answer Giddy’s question but Lucy spoke up.

"He was intimately familiar with a couple of fake dicks, but he was a virgin until now, yeah." Lucy took the liberty to speak for Cass and then Eddie followed up.

"I stole his first kiss." He said proudly and Cass glared at him.

"It was a theft. You didn’t even like me at the time." Cass growled. Lucy tsked.

"Eddie. That’s not very nice." Lucy truly was not one to talk when it came to this arena, but Eddie gave a nervous laugh, raising his hands.

"What? Am I not allowed to be confused about my attraction towards Cass while also being married to Fiona? I was going through it, especially if you also threw in my attraction to Gideon that I was never allowed to acknowledge or touch. I did some rude or mean things, but I think some of it can be forgiven." Eddie met Cass’ gaze and swallowed thickly. "With time, of course." He backtracked his bold statement and that little bit broke Cass out of any anger that he had.

He laughed, tilting his head back as he did so, resting back against Lucy’s chest and shoulders as his body shook. The three men watched him, transfixed as Cass slowly came back to himself.

"Well, when you put it like that, Eddie, I’d feel like a real prick for not agreeing with you. Besides, I’ve already forgiven you. I think I forgave you when you cried in front of me, your enemy at the time, about your conflicted feelings regarding Fiona." Eddie flushed while Lucy squeezed Cass, letting out a bark of laughter.

Eddie raised his hands, covering his face in embarrassment.

"Stop. Those were the dark days." Eddie pleaded and Lucy laughed.

"How come I never knew about this until now? Have you been keeping secrets?" Lucy teased. Cass rolled his eyes, smiling.

"Of course I’ve been keeping secrets. How else would I get anything done in this house otherwise? Plus, can’t you see poor Eddie? He’s terribly embarrassed by it all." Cass pointed out. Eddie groaned, Lucy laughed, and even Giddy seemed to find amusement in the moment. Cass’ work was delayed for a little longer as the group teased each other, reminiscing on the time before they had gotten together and acknowledged their feelings for each other.

They, of course, didn’t touch the hard moments, the ones that still needed time to heal from, but these ones? These could be brought out into the light. They were safe.