[Author's note: Cassie's husband is cheating on her with a younger woman, Lily. Instead of confronting him, Cassie has been blackmailed by his lover into doing what she she's told. Cassie needs to work out a way to win her husband back, so she's going to get in shape and upgrade her image. However, she finds herself exploring unorthodox therapies in her day job as a relationship counsellor, taking control in other people's lives even as Lily takes control of hers.
Also, look out for where this story crosses over with
All Under Control Ch. 07
]
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MORE THAN ONE WAY OF WINNING
Cassie sat nervously in the food court, toying with her phone as she waited. She checked her watch: one o'clock. Lily was twenty minutes late.
"Hi sweetie."
Startled, Cassie turned in her seat. Behind, a willowy blonde woman sauntered towards her, bare legs and high heels on display beneath a short, grey pencil skirt. Without waiting for a response, Lily slid into the chair alongside, smiling sweetly with no hint of an apology for keeping Cassie waiting.
Lily crossed her legs slowly, clenching her thighs together.
"I make that twelve to two now," she laughed. "I didn't think I could fit one in before meeting you. Turns out I could."
Lily leaned forward, her green eyes sparkling with mischief.
"In the car park in his lunchbreak. In the back of his car. I can still feel him inside me."
Cassie's stomach churned, caught in the merciless, mocking gaze of her tormentor.
"It's important to me that you believe it. I could show you if you want. There was such a lot," Lily murmured, then gestured at the people surrounding them, "But I guess not. Just take my word for it."
Again, like the last time they'd met, Lily had taken control effortlessly, putting Cassie in her place. She was left mute, unable to fight back or do anything other than absorb the younger blonde woman's barbs.
"He always performs so well when he's with me. Even if it's a quickie in the car at lunchtime. He's just so desperate to slip that gorgeous, thick cock of his into someone who deserves to feel it. He says he loves making me scream."
Lily laid a manicured hand on Cassie's.
"I guess it's been a while since he's wanted to make that much effort with you."
Cassie gritted her teeth against a surge of anger and jealousy as Lily made a show of uncrossing her long, slender legs and recrossing them, wriggling her pert bottom as if to adjust herself.
"Now, what shall we have for lunch?" Lily asked.
They got lunch, a salad bowl for Cassie and sushi for Lily. Cassie was told to pay. Lily then began to relate her weekend, what she and Cassie's husband had gotten up to while Cassie was running her boys to football practice and back. Lily spared none of the details, describing it like a porn film.
For her part, Cassie listened in silence, utterly miserable, as her husband's infidelities were relayed to her. Finally, Lily's stories drew to a close. She sat opposite Cassie with her chin cupped in her hand, watching Cassie's reaction.
"You know, I almost feel sorry for you now, Cassie. I mean, look at you. You've spent a fortune on that hair, those nails. You're battling to keep in shape in your designer activewear. I can see that you've even trimmed some of the fat. All that effort you've gone to, making yourself desirable. But he's not interested in you at all is he?"
Lily leaned back, a mocking smile on her lips.
"I just have to send two words in a message, and he's between my legs. Two words: fuck now. He forgets all about you. Frankly, given how you compare, I think he's probably glad to forget all about you for a while," Lily said, then grinned, "Oh Cassie, it must be so hard for you to see how easy it was for me to take your husband away from you. Poor thing."
Lily finished her speech and waited. Cassie didn't respond beyond glaring sullenly at the younger, prettier woman. Inside, however, she squirmed with the humiliation of being under Lily's control.
"Really?" Lily smirked, "After all I've said, you've got nothing to say. Really?"
Lily leaned forward again, reaching out to stroke the hair away from Cassie's face, a casually intimate gesture that made Cassie shiver.
"I'm disappointed, honestly. I thought you might at least put up a fight."
Cassie could feel Lily's fingers toying with her hair, building into a sudden, sharp pain as Lily pulled. Cassie resisted the urge to cry out, to deepen her humiliation in public in the middle of the crowd. She clenched her jaws together, staring into Lily's eyes.
"Oh there we are. There's the anger. You are human after all, Cassidy Hayes."
Lily released her hair and stood, gathering her phone and her purse from the table, tucking them into her handbag. She leaned over Cassie, and began to speak in a low, even tone, a pleasant smile on her face that belied the venom in her words.
"You know what I think?" she mused in a quiet voice, "I think you've realised it already, how worthless you are. You don't fight back because you already know what I'll do. You think that if you play along, make nice, I'm going to leave you alone, leave you with enough of your life intact that you can pretend you still actually have a life."
Lily straightened up, brushing her long, straight blonde hair over her shoulder with an elegant hand gesture.
"Pathetic," she murmured and walked away.
Cassie watched her leave, high heels clacking on the concrete, her pert bottom moving sensually beneath the fabric of her tight skirt, blonde hair glowing in the sunshine. Lily didn't look back.
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Cassie studied the figure reflected in the shop window. Lily was right: expensive hair, manicures, skin creams, personal training, none of it mattered. Over a decade of marriage, bearing two sons, organising lovely holidays, picking up and dropping off, keeping a nice house, all of it counted for nothing. Did Damian love Lily? Did he no longer love his wife? Was Cassie brave enough to ask that awful question, knowing what it would mean if he said no?
Lily was going to win their little contest. By the time Damian got home, he was usually way past the point that he wanted to spend romantic time with Cassie. On the two occasions she had coaxed him into making love with her, it had been a routine event without any of the fireworks Cassie was sure he was becoming used to between Lily's thighs. At the end of the month, Lily would announce the final score with that same, self-satisfied smirk Cassie had seen at lunch, and then Lily would remind her of the prize: exclusive access to Damian in bed. Lily was going to enjoy making Cassie lie next to her husband night after night, with Damian sated by his lithe blonde lover and Cassie denied any release ever again, shipped out of her own life by Lily's cunning.
Deep inside, Cassie burned with shame at how easily she, a trained psychologist and mother, had been bested by a twenty-something girl. But every time Cassie got a handle on the situation, Lily would send her a message, asking to meet up or for Cassie to make sure Damian was home alone for a couple of hours, and suddenly Cassie was back to the start again. It had to stop. Cassie looked at the displays in the window and took a deep breath. There was another way to win.
She pushed through the door into the shop, feeling out of place. Surrounding her, mannequins posed in skimpy outfits made of lace and rubber and leather. Cassie approached one, her eyes trailing over the detailed stitchwork of a lace bodice. Cinched around the dummy's waist was a matching corset, pulled tight around the flesh-coloured plastic torso. She heard the door open, but didn't look up from the display, embarrassed to be seen in an exotic clothing store.
This was Cassie's plan to win back her husband. Lily's only mistake was that she had prioritised quantity over quality; Cassie was planning a very special night for her husband, one that he would remember for a long time. She had lived with him for long enough now that she knew the way his mind worked. It was time that she showed him what she could do. After all, if Damian chose his wife it didn't matter who won the stupid bet. Who he slept with was his choice and not Lily's.
"Hmm."
Cassie became very still. The voice behind was female, bringing thoughts of Lily flashing back into her mind, paralysing her. Lily discovering her in this store would be the end of the world.
"It's always so hard to decide, isn't it?"
The voice was rich, deep with a melodious tone that seemed to match the clothing in front of her perfectly. Cassie turned.
A woman stood next to her, late forties or early fifties in age, but a slim, toned body. Her face was elegant with high cheekbones that framed her finely detailed features. Her eyes were blue, but pale like glacial ice. She turned to Cassie as smiled.
"Just a word of warning. They'll sell you anything in here if you're not careful. In my experience, a lady is either lace or leather, but rarely both."
The pale blue eyes scanned the display but dismissed it, locking onto Cassie.
"And what are you?" Cassie asked, more timidly than she expected.
The smile returned, lighting up the stranger's beautiful face.
"Oh, that would be telling," she murmured, conspiratorially. "Not lace."
The woman laughed, and Cassie felt herself begin to relax a little as some of the awkwardness of being discovered searching for exotic lingerie began to evaporate. Whoever she was, this woman was here for the same reason as Cassie.
"I really don't know, myself," Cassie confided.
"Ah, then we should compare and contrast."
The woman arched an eyebrow suggestively, but there was humour behind it. Not mocking, as Lily would have done; the woman was treating Cassie as a partner in crime. Cassie found that she liked it. They began to wander around the shop together, filtering past the displays.
