by Jamie Knight
It was like a restaurant getting another star. And it was something the senior partners would do anything to get. I had heard rumours of bones rattling from inside Smyth’s office, but somehow doubted that even he would turn to the dark arts. As to evoking the Dark One, it was a fair bet that both he and Smith already had I.O.U.s penned in blood. No good asking for another favor.
In lieu of calling on the Forces of Darkness, they instead elected their champion analyst, i.e. me, to go over every figure and decimal of the proposal the company had sent over. They were quite clear on the fact that I was not to show, or even tell, anyone else. The opinion had to be mine, and mine alone, with no outside influence. At best, all goes well, and everything is good. At worst, they have both plausible deniability as well as a scapegoat if things really went south.
I didn’t have to do it. I could have quit, refusing to have that kind of pressure put on me. But jobs were difficult to find at the best of times and I had already been poor once. I had no intention of doing it again.
I went through the company’s financials, three thick binders representing the past five years in business. They were doing well. The president, Amelia Greene, was already into the billions. By all projections, including the one I was just then forming, their new product could make them even more. They just had to get it with the right investment firm. It was a win-win with no obvious downside.
The company and the investors made buckets of money and the public got what was going to be, by all accounts, a really good product. The company was even into environmental concerns. The ‘Planet’ in ‘Greene Planet’ was no doubt a play on words. At least Mom would like that. Dad didn’t seem to care much about what I did or who I worked with as long as I wouldn’t get hurt and didn’t have to kill anyone. He would have more trouble with me becoming a cop than a corporate raider. I think we all knew where my mom stood on the subject.
Everything looked very much in order. To be absolutely sure, I skipped to the end of the last folder. Even if there were a few hiccups in between, it really didn’t matter much as long as they recovered from it. Every business goes through ups and downs, and like a good mystery novel, it was the end that really counted.
The more I read, the more a crazy thought came into my head. Kingsley had often talked about what he wanted to do. Part of the reason he applied to West Point was to study engineering. A lot of the ideas sounded pretty far fetched to me at the time, but still I listened. He even had blueprints.
He swore that as soon as he had financial backing, he was going to start building them. Had he finally found it with Greene Planet? The last I had heard from my beautiful man he was stationed in Afghanistan, fighting out ways to make tanks go faster and turn better. For all I knew he could be dead, taken out by a sniper who had just seen his uniform or blown to kingdom come by a roadside bomb.
According to the write up, the new vehicle Greene Planet was going to be rolling out was based on a long-term personnel carrier that had been specially designed to withstand roadside bombs. There were shields over the tires to keep them from being blown, specially designed deflective armor at the front and sides that was fireproof and most forms of shrapnel just bounced off, and a lower, wider chaise than on something like a Humvee that made the vehicle all but impossible to flip.
Kingsley wasn’t dead. If something had happened, news would have gotten back to me somehow. Besides which, the connection between us was so strong I was sure I would have felt it. No, he was alive and by the looks of it working as an engineer, first in R&D for the military, which only stood to reason, and then either for or with Greene Planet. I wondered how much he would be making doing that. Was he a millionaire? A billionaire? My mind spun with the possibilities.
I never told him about Matt. We had already broken up when I found out I was pregnant. I could have gone after him for child-support, but we were already broken up and keeping the baby had been my decision. Besides, we were doing fine. My parents were there for me, which is more than some girls could say, and I had Amy who helped not only with childcare, quickly becoming ‘Auntie Amy’ to Matt’s mind but with work.
Most of the work that I had after graduating came from her and people she knew. Amy Apab vouching for me was all most of them needed to give me a commission. She was already a known and trusted figure, having been in the independent arts and publishing scene since before she could vote.
Still, I wondered what might have been. The three of us as a little family, living in a nice place downtown where I could walk to my office and Kingsley could go to his lab, or work from home or however he managed the magic he created. Meeting at home for a bit of family dinner cooked by Kingsley and Matt. Kingsley was always an excellent cook and Matt was becoming one. Despite the two never having met and Kingsley not even knowing that Matt existed, our little boy was very much his father’s son.
I wasn’t even exactly sure how it happened. I understood the biology well enough, but we were always so careful. Even though birth control made me feel like hell and there weren’t always condoms on hand, Kingsley was so careful never to cum inside me, even though sometimes I really wanted him to.
I was curious to know what it would be like to have his hot, thick, massive load, which always felt and tasted so good going into my mouth, and occasionally my ass, would be like filling up my pussy. The weirdest thing was that when it happened, which it would have to for me to get pregnant, I had apparently missed the whole thing because I couldn’t for the life of me remember it. All I could think was it happened that time on the road.
Kingsley came down to get me for spring break as we always did. We had been in college for two years at that point and had been fucking fairly regularly. His parents didn’t mind at all, being secular humanist types. Mine didn’t really know, or if they did, they didn’t say anything.
Near as I could figure, they recognized I was an adult and able to make my own decisions. Mom had pretty much stopped believing in Hell as an actual place when John Paul II gave the game away back in the 1990s. I seriously doubt that my dad ever believed it at all, which only stood to reason given his job.
Kingsley and I were driving back up to West Point to spend the 4th of July weekend at his place. Not at the college, the dorms were too expensive, and he also didn’t like sharing much. He had his own place in town. It was only one room but was comfortable and very much him. Much of the apartment resembled a mad scientist’s lab. The giant robot and death-ray type.
It was a relatively short drive there from Manhattan, but we hit traffic and were only halfway to West Point when the urge struck. My pussy got super wet and tender and I could barely keep from squirming in my seat. Kingsley was well aware, as he always seemed to be about such things, and had reached over and stroked me. Eyes on the road, other hand still on the wheel as he gently brought me to orgasm.
While it had taken care of the initial ache in my pussy, I still had a furious hunger in me that only his cock could quell. I needed to be fucked and I needed it right then. It was getting dark, so Kingsley pulled off into a rest stop. It was the naughtiest thing I had ever done in my life, but I was far too horny to care. Kingsley barely had time to get his beautiful cock out of his pants before I had pounced on it. Sucking and licking like I would die if I didn’t get his cum soon. Which was actually how I felt at the time. I was still only 20 and full of hormones and burning lust. It can make reality go a little wonky.
His precious load filled my mouth and I swallowed it down like a good girl. To be honest, I was really more of a cock monster and a cum addict but always tried not to be too dirty about if such a thing was possible. I always used my hands and made eye contact, doing my very best to get all his sweet cum into my mouth and down my throat and not just because I fucking loved it so much.
The fact that I had ever and would only ever want Kingsley was the main thing keeping me from feeling like a slut. Sure, I was fucking like a demon, out of wedlock no less, but at least I was with my
soulmate.
The last bit of his cum down my throat I pulled my panties aside and got on top of him. Holding his hard cock in position with my hand. I had always been a fan of skirts, a proclivity which was proving to be quite useful giving pretty easy access to my pussy, particularly in emergency situations.
I was unstoppable. Riding him so hard I actually had to grab on to the emergency handle as I bounced on his beautiful cock, his hand over my mouth to muffle my screams. I wasn’t thinking about that. I wasn’t thinking about anything except for coming. A lack of awareness that made me completely miss it when Kingsley came inside me. Filling me up with his thick, warm cum.
I would never regret getting pregnant. If I hadn’t, I never would have met Matt. I did, however, regret missing the event that had led up to it. I was convinced it would have made the connection between me and Kingsley even stronger. I thought I would get over it. ‘Time heals all wounds’ and all that, but there still wasn’t a day that went by when I didn’t think of him. Matt was a constant reminder of what could have been. Matt!
Dumping the files into a drawer, I switched back to my sneakers and literally ran out of my office. Everyone else had left, making it possible for me to get in the passenger side and climb over. The driver’s door very much pressed up against the concrete wall. The music started up again as I backed out and I decided to leave it.
Amy still lived in Park Slope, so it was a bit of a drive from where I was on Wall Street. Luckily most of the traffic had already come and gone, letting me move quite a lot faster than ten inches every twenty minutes.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, was he okay?”
“He was fine, I was serious about coming back at breakfast. If you wanted to, I mean. We had a great time. He fell asleep about an hour ago.”
I could see past Amy’s head to the couch where, sure enough, Matt was asleep, curled up like a puppy.
“I hope he wasn’t too much trouble.”
“No trouble at all,” Amy said breezily, “he spent most of the afternoon teaching me how to code and then made the most amazing meal I had ever tasted.”
“You let him use the stove?”
“Of course not, what am I, an idiot over here? I did all the hot and heavy work. Okay, that came out wrong, but you know what I mean. I worked the stove and the oven and all that. While he gave me instructions. I think it was some French thing I heard about in a movie.”
“How was it?” I asked.
“Like an orgasm in my mouth.”
“Amy!”
“What? He’s asleep and it was. I really can’t think of another way to describe it. I have some leftovers, if you’d like.”
“Maybe a bit,” I acquiesced, a sucker for French cooking.
“Atta girl.”
Getting Matt into the car, I also took an aluminum covered dish of his apparently amazing food.
“Later,” I said.
“See ya,” Amy replied.
We kissed each other lightly on the cheek, definitely something we had seen in a French movie once, and I headed home to the Lower East side. Not looking forward to the three fights of stairs that awaited me. On the other hand, I saved a fortune in gym memberships. Getting all the cardio I needed just by coming home.
Getting little Matt tucked into his bed, I warmed up some of this heated brilliance in the oven, having it with a half a glass of red. It was the only way to really experience French food. Amy hadn’t been exaggerating. It really was a near orgasmic experience. Much like the food Kingsley used to cook for me when I was at his place. Leaving the dishes to soak, I retired to my studio.
Actually a den, I had transformed the space pretty easily into a passable art space with lots of help from Amy and even my mom. My dad always mysteriously indisposed. There were times I suspected that he might actually be a shut-in but never really broached the subject.
My pallet prepared, I worked on adding color to what might be my masterwork. A portrait of a particular state official as St. Peter, meting out harsh punishment at the world. Amy was going to love it.
Chapter Six - Kingsley
It was synchronicity. The blast beats on “Her Ghost in the Fog” were matching my heartbeat, which went in time with my footfalls as I ran on the treadmill. After adding up what I was spending on the gym for one year, I decided it would probably be easier and cheaper just to buy the equipment I used the most. Heavens knew my condo was big enough.
It was two floors, in fact, with a library and an atrium. It really wasn’t hard to fit a gym in too. Besides, my condo had one of the best views in the city. The building was so high and faced just right that on a clear night I could swear I could make out the hills in the distance.
I had often wondered what it would be like out in the country. I guess it was a classic case of the grass being greener on the other side. Though, to be fair, I had never heard of anyone escaping to the city.
Going to the city or moving to the city, sure. But it was almost always for school or work. “Escaping” was a word that seemed reserved for the context of moving out of the city and into the country.
Historically, the human desire to leave the city was what the RV culture, as well as the billion-dollar industry that went along with it, was all about. At least that was what I dearly hoped, as much of the adaptation process for The Pilgrim was based on similar logic. It had been sound enough for Amelia Greene to sign on, so there must have been something to it. You didn’t get as rich as she was by taking stupid risks.
The real proof, though, was going to be the presentation for Smith & Smyth. Or was it Smyth & Smith? I had heard it both ways, no one seemed to be able to get it right. Not that it mattered much anyway. Like that old band Tony! Toni! Tone! When you got right down to it, who could tell the difference?
In any case, that was the big test, not only of the viability of The Pilgrim but also of myself as an engineer and an investor. It all seemed sound, but that didn’t make it seem any less scary. All I could do was prepare as well as I could and hope. There really was no way of telling what people were going to do.
One of the biggest surprises of recent years had been when Amelia Greene had invited me out to dinner. It became pretty clear really quickly that it wasn’t going to be strictly professional and she had great interest in being more than just my business partner.
I wasn’t even tempted. Not even for the sake of my reputation and contribution to my career. I would have considered it a betrayal, which was strange because I hadn’t even seen Ada in years, but I still cherished what we’d had. I cherished it even more knowing that I was the reason that it had ended.
Amelia was beautiful, rich, powerful, and could go great things for my career, but she hadn't hidden under the bleachers with me when Billy Thomas, who was only in 8th grade but already shaving, said he was going to ‘knock my lights out’ for no other reason than he could and thought it would be fun.
We hadn’t bonded over prime number conjectures and shared a good laugh at the fools who thought that Catalan was out to lunch. We hadn’t shared our first kiss ever while sheltering under the giant Yew tree in the park after getting caught in a freak summer rainstorm, also on the 4th of July. There had been some question as to whether the fireworks would go ahead as planned. Of course they did. The colors lighting the sky matched those bursting in my fifteen-year-old head.
I had known Ada for two years at that point. We were still ‘just friends’ but already the chemistry was starting to brew. That first kiss was the first of many we would have over the next six glorious years. Every one of them made it so I never wanted to kiss anyone but her again.
I had always heard that first times were supposed to be awkward, with lots of fumbling and not quite sure what to do. It wasn’t that way with us, though. I guess we already knew each other so long by the time we did it on the night of my eighteenth birthday, forever after referred to as ‘the best gift ever’, that we were already comfortable with each othe
r.
I felt no shyness being naked in front of her, despite the way her eyes widened when she first saw my fully hard cock, and she didn’t seem to either. We just took off our clothes and got right to it. The orgasms we had that night were our first ever, sealing our bond even tighter.
There were, of course, dangers from going from friends to lovers, but with Ada it felt less like a change and more like a progression. We were finally getting to where we were supposed to be.
The machine let out a loud, long beep as I hit the emergency stop. I was too depressed and way too hard to safely keep running. The machine returned to its flat position from the highest possible incline and I slowly backed away, carefully taking down my shorts after I was off.
Making my way to the bathroom, I stripped down the rest of the way before getting into the shower. I had started working out to try to focus on preparing my presentation. Boy, did that go well. It was clear what I had to do if I had any hope of finishing before the presentation the next day. Wrapping my hand around my throbbing shaft, I closed my eyes and started to gently stroke. I worked my hand down from the head down to my balls and then back again.
Distantly, like something in a dream I heard a door open. More distinctly, I heard her bare feet on the tile floor, something I swore I would never forget as long as I lived. It is funny what you hold onto.
I didn’t turn as the shower door slid open, so soft it was almost silent. It wasn’t until she first touched me that I even raised my head. The soft, warm touch of her hand was too much for me to ignore. Slowly, softly, she caressed her hands down my back and around my side, kissing the back of my neck as she did so, something that required her to stand on her tiptoes to accomplish.
The kisses traveled down my back as she lowered herself back down to a standing position, Ada moved her hands down to my cock. Pressing my hands against the shower wall, letting her take total control, Ada cupped my balls with one hand as she stroked my cock with the other. Getting me close to the edge, she relented at the very end, gently squeezing my cock at the base to keep me from coming.