Big Deal

by Soraya May

  “Well, okay. You’ve got me there. But, there is one question I have to ask.” I turn to him, and move closer.”

  “And what, pray, is that?” He’s taller than me, even in my heels, and he looks down at me, green eyes right on mine.

  I take a deep breath. “Where…do you keep all the suits?”

  Tom bursts out laughing. “Touché. To be honest, I do have a very large closet, and I’ll confess to spending more than I should on tailoring.”

  “Ha! Got you! I knew you were a fashion plate.”

  “What can I say? It’s an essential investment for investment. Or something”

  “What? That doesn’t even make—”

  “Yeah, I know. Don’t think too much about it. Ah, this is our floor.”

  The elevator dings, and we get out. As we do, Tom puts his arm around me lightly, and guides me out. The gesture is completely unconscious—I can tell he’s not even looking at me. Always taking care of people, despite what you say.

  A little way down the hall, there’s a door, with ‘18’ on it. “Are you the only apartment on this floor?”

  He nods. “I am, but it’s not that grand. Half the floor is plant and maintenance stuff. It makes it noisy at times, but it means I don’t have to worry about bothering the neighbors.”

  The door clicks open, and I stare inside.

  Whoa. Not what I expected.

  “You look…surprised, Ms. Haas.” Tom is solicitous, clearly enjoying my amazement.

  “Well, yeah. It was the full-length cardboard cutout of Doctor Who that did it.”

  “Ha. There’s a Dalek in the bathroom. A small one; it’s not that big an apartment.”

  “Mmmm. How could any girl resist this?” I walk across the living room to get a closer look at the Millennium Falcon suspended from the ceiling by the window. It rotates gently in the wind from the ceiling fan, and I hear him closing the door behind me.

  “Well, the answer to that question is ‘quite easily,’ as it happens. Besides, you’re kind of the first visitor I’ve had for quite some time. Please, sit. I’ll find us some wine. And a whiteboard.”

  “A whiteboard? What did you have in mind?”

  Tom winks at me. “Work, of course. You don’t think I lured you up here with purely evil intentions, did you?”

  Dammit, Tom Macaulay.

  “Well, the thought did cross my mind.” He busies himself in the kitchen, and I hear the clink of glasses.

  “Shiraz.” The pop of the cork brings me back to myself, and the comforting glug of wine into glasses makes me focus on his face. Taking my wine glass, I settle back on the couch and look at him.

  “You are a man full of surprises, you know that?”

  “Well, I try to be pretty transparent, although I think sometimes people just see me as a pretty face.” A pained expression coupled with a theatrical sigh.

  “You’re lucky I don’t have anything to throw at you right now. This wine is far too good to waste on that comment.”

  “I will count myself fortunate to have escaped serious injury at your hands.”

  “You haven’t escaped yet.” I try to smile evilly, and Tom nearly spits out his wine. I look offended. “What?”

  “For a minute there, I thought you were choking on a bit of cork.”

  “I was trying to look evil.”

  Tom covers his eyes. “Hmm. I recommend you stick to your usual range of facial expressions; they suit you very much better. Now, to business.”

  I clink my glass with his. “To business!”

  He rolls his eyes, and moves closer to me on the couch. “You know what I mean. I’ve been thinking about what we can do to reduce the fallout from the deal, and some of the things you’ve said gave me a bunch of ideas. Hold on to your glass, and let me go through it.”

  After an hour, the whiteboard is covered in scribbled equations, notes and question marks, and the bottle of wine is empty. We sit back on the couch and look at each other; Tom has a satisfied expression on his face.

  “You think that’ll work?”

  I look at the whiteboard again. “Yeah, I think that’ll work. We can reduce the volatility of the underlying instruments. It’ll reduce our profit a bit, but when the bond goes up in value, the small investors on the other side won’t be totally wiped out. Some of the math is going to have to be worked through again to make sure we haven’t made any silly mistakes, but it all hangs together. In fact, you could get Errol and Adam to do just that.”

  Tom looks thoughtful. “That’s a good idea; what they lack in sartorial elegance, they more than make up for in work ethic and commitment. I think we’ve really got something here. Thanks, Ronnie.”

  I hold up my hand. “High five for the team!”

  Laughing, Tom holds up his. “High five for the team!”

  We slap palms, and then stop, hands touching.

  Bzzzzt.

  After a moment, our fingers twine. I look at Tom, and feel my face flush. I’m not sure if it’s the wine, or something more serious. He looks at me.

  “Thanks for coming to work on this.”

  “My pleasure.” I try to keep my voice steady. “Was there something else?”

  Our hands are still touching. “Yes, Ms. Haas. There was something else.”

  “And, what, precisely, was that?” Slowly, he draws my hand toward him, and gently untwines my fingers. His lips brush against my nails, and he kisses my fingertips, one after another.

  “Well,” turning my hand over and gently kissing from my fingers, down across my palm, over my wrist, “it turns out, I did also have evil intentions at the same time.”

  I shift on the sofa, feeling my arousal in my breast. “How—ohh—evil are we talking, exactly?”

  His kisses have reached my forearm now, and I can feel his tongue snake out to draw a line up towards my elbow. “About as bad as they come, to be completely honest.”

  “I see.” I keep very still. Further up, harder now, with a little nip on the bare flesh of my shoulder that makes me whimper, and now he’s right in front of me. “Well—ah—I’m glad you said something. I would. Hate. To be caught by surprise.”

  “Oh, Ronnie. Surprise is something I think we can do very well.”

  My hands go around him, and under his shirt, sliding it up, and suddenly I’m kissing him with an intensity that surprises even me. I kick my shoes off and pull him towards me.

  Damn, this feels good.

  Tom guides me down onto the soft cushions of the sofa, his mouth on mine. He smells of cologne, and the sharp scent of musk, and I can taste the wine on his lips. He’s kissing me fiercely now, down over my neck, and onto my collarbone. Uh-oh, I’m going to have to wear high-necked sweaters or something pretty soon. Don’t care.

  All around me, all I can feel are his arms, and the warmth of his embrace. I’m holding on to him so tightly it must be painful for him, grinding against him, and I can feel him hard against me.

  I can’t believe this is happening. He breaks for a moment, looking at me. I can see the desire in his eyes, and I resist the urge just to kiss him again.

  “You know this is what I’ve wanted for some time, don’t you? All of you, in my bed, tonight?”

  I smile, and trace my tongue over his lips. “You should have damn well told me earlier, then.”

  20

  This time, my arms are around her, and I’m not letting go.

  This time, there’s no one to interrupt. Tonight, she’s all mine.

  Ronnie’s underneath me on the couch, and my knee works between her legs, pressing into her. She pushes herself against my knee again, and I let out a growl of appreciation, enjoying the shiver that runs down her body every time she grinds into me.

  “You know,” I say, when I can think clearly for a moment, “I wondered about…huhh…exactly this, the first day I saw you in the foyer.” Her hand runs down my chest, down to my pants, and brushes across me, making me harder and harder.

  “Uh-huh?” She nods slowly
, blue eyes fixed on me, lips wet. You damn tease, Ronnie Haas.

  “That’s…uhh…right.” I am having extreme difficulty keeping my voice steady, as her hand massages me slowly. I’m rock-hard in my pants now, and I know that soon I want to feel her hands on me, skin to skin, her mouth on me, everything. “Ever since then, I’ve been wondering just how good it would feel to do this.” I slip one hand down, and take the hem of her dress between my fingers. Very slowly, I slide it up, slowly working her dress up those smooth thighs, inch by inch. She knows just what’s going to happen, but she’s determined not to give in just yet.

  “Was this…mmm, that’s very nice, Tom…full-time wondering, or part-time? I must say I did wonder a few times what you were thinking, when I was looking at you. And I was looking at you…mmm…a lot.”

  My fingers brush over her panties now; very thin and lacy, so thin they can barely be seen under that fitted dress which shows off her ass so damn well. I twist the hem of her panties in one finger, just enough to pull it to one side, and graze the other fingers across her clit, very lightly. She’s wet already, and as my fingers touch her, she gasps. I love that sound. I want to hear it all of tonight.

  “W-well, Ms. Haas,” stroking her slowly, pausing in between, just long enough for her to catch her breath, “I do wonder how I got any work done, it’s true. It turns out fantasizing about your employees—your gorgeous, foxy employees who make you…huhh…horny every time they look at you—really is hard on your concentration.”

  There’s a soft metallic sound as her fingers find my zipper, and lower it. I hold my breath as her fingers slip inside my pants, and close around me. The feeling of her hand around me, stroking me, drives me even harder than before, and I stiffen against her. She lets out a low, throaty chuckle.

  “Foxy, huh? I like that. Seems to me like you’re…ah…concentrating just fine right now, Tom Macaulay.”

  “I do my best, ma’am.” I stop grazing my fingers across her clit, and push one of them just a little way inside her. This time, she doesn’t gasp; she sighs, a drawn-out sound of pleasure, and the note of pure hedonistic joy in her voice is the sexiest thing I’ve heard in a very long time. I can’t wait any longer; I have to have her soon.

  “You. Me. My bedroom. Right now.” My voice is harsh with arousal.

  Her breath is hot in my ear, and when she speaks, it’s barely above a whisper. “About damn time. Take me to bed, Tom.”

  I put one arm around her back, and the other underneath her butt, and pull her bodily off the couch in one movement. Ronnie is slim, but she’s damn nearly as tall as I am, and she gasps in genuine surprise this time. “You’re coming with me,” I growl, and she giggles.

  “So it seems. Quickly, please.”

  I stand up, holding her, and she wraps her long legs around my back, grinding herself into me. My cock is painfully hard now, and I know I have to be inside her soon. “Are you always so damn bossy?” I start to grumble, but she forces her mouth down onto me, hard and hungry, and my next words are muffled.

  I walk down the corridor, carrying her, and try not to run into anything—which would kind of kill the mood, even as horny as I am right now—as she pushes her tongue into my mouth. After a few seconds, she surfaces, and looks at me again, flushed with arousal.

  “Let’s just say I’m…very clear on what I want when I make up my mind. And,” she tosses her hair back as we reach the bedroom and I push the door open with my foot, “what I want right now, is you inside me, as soon as possible.”

  I grin, trying to look as wolfish as I possibly can; it seems appropriate, but sometimes I really don’t know if I pull it off, or if I just look confused. Hell, it doesn’t matter. Stop making faces and give the lady what she wants. What you want. “As you wish.” I lower her down onto the bed, and kneel at her feet. In one movement, I slide her panties down her silky thighs, and off over her toes, tossing them over my shoulder. A soft noise indicates that they landed somewhere in the vicinity of my dresser; I know we’re going to have a hell of a job finding them tomorrow morning, but it’s the last thing I care about now as I drink in the sight of her, open in front of me.

  God, that’s delicious. Another throaty giggle.

  “Was a Princess Bride reference?”

  I smile despite myself. “Might have been. Now, enough questions from you.”

  Her eyes widen in mock-outrage. “Oh rea—oohhh.” Her sentence cuts off abruptly as I part her thighs, and dive into her with my tongue. Her whole body shivers, a delightful sensation which starts at her shoulders and carries on all the way down to her hips. The movement pushes her clit against my tongue, and I taste her in my mouth, firm and musky. After so long thinking about her, wondering about this moment, finally having her like this is almost soothing, like scratching an itch that’s been bothering you for weeks, and I groan with relief.

  “Oh no, Ronnie. You’re not wriggling out of this, believe me.” I slide my hands under her firm buttocks, and press my mouth into her, licking and circling. She bucks against me, harder and more violently this time, but I’m holding her firmly, and I keep pleasuring her as her hips lift off the bed.

  “I…ohh, God, Tom…I wouldn’t…ah…dream of it. Yes, please, just there, please…” Again and again, stroking her with my tongue, until she stops bucking and settles down to a steady rhythm of deep breaths, in and out. She’s sheened with sweat now, and the taste of her sweat and her juices in my mouth is making me wild for her. I’m getting desperate to have her, and finally, reluctantly, I slide my tongue off her, with a last swipe that makes her whimper.

  I stand up, unbuckle my belt, and step out of my trousers; in the half-light coming through the curtains, I can see her, lean and golden, spread out on my bed, just where I’ve been dreaming of her. She props herself up on her elbows, still breathing deeply, and gives me that melting smile again.

  “Oh, yes. Yes, please.”

  I kneel on top of her, my hands on either side of her shoulders, and kiss her forehead. “Do you know how I want you the first time?”

  She tilts her head up toward me. Her face is inches from mine, and the full redness of her lips is very clear against her golden skin. “Tell me.” She draws in a breath.

  I press myself very gently against her clit; I’m rock-hard now, and just the movement is enough to make me throb against her. “I want you on top of me. I want to see you astride me, to feel you sink down onto me. I want to feel you riding me.”

  Another melting smile. “As you wish.”

  I roll her over on top of me, and she strips her dress off over her head. Her small, firm breasts are high and proud on her chest, and her hair falls down over her shoulders in a blond wave. I take a moment just to look at her like that, to think about how exquisite it’s going to be in moments when I’m inside her.

  She straddles me, taking me in her hand. Slowly, she licks her lips, and the gesture is so erotic, I almost come from watching her. “Ready?”

  I groan involuntarily. “Damn right I’m ready. Are you?” The careful, insistent motion of her fingers on me are making it hard for me to think, to do anything except focus on my need to be inside her, to fill her up.

  “Oh, Tom,” pressing me against her, in a low voice, “I’ve been ready for this for…ohh…a very long time.” On the word ‘time’, she takes me inside her, finally, slick and enveloping; it takes all my willpower to stop myself from driving up into her in one movement. “Yes, a very long…ahh…time. Very, very…ahh…long.”

  Gradually, she lowers herself down onto me, eyes widening as I fill her up. I wait, concentrating as hard as I can. I want to take her, hard, to drive up into her, but that’s for later; right now, I want her to adjust to me inside her, to move at her own pace.

  Finally, I’m completely inside her, and she’s pressing against me. Ronnie starts to move on top of me, back and forth; all I can hear is the sound of her breathing, and the blood rushing in my ears. I put my hands on her hips, and guide her rhythm, faster now
, gaining pace with every stroke.

  Her eyes are locked on mine, and she arches her back, leaning close to me, trying to get as much of me inside of her as she can. I know she’s desperate for release, and I thrust into her harder, making her shudder with every stroke. Later, I want us to take our time; but this first time, the edge, the burning need to satisfy her, is overwhelming, and I want to make her come as fast as I can.

  “Now, Ronnie? Would you like to come right now?”

  “I…thought you’d…oh, Tom…never ask. Pleeease!” The last word comes out as a long drawn-out moan of pure pleasure. Her hands are on my chest, fingers digging in tight enough to hurt, but I hardly notice. I feel her tighten around me; she throws her head back and starts to come, and I can’t control myself any more. I explode inside her, giving her everything I have.

  Damn, Ronnie. What have you done to me? How can I go back now?

  21

  In the quiet and dark of his bedroom, I can hear Tom’s breathing, and feel his fingers twined in mine.

  Boy, this is really going to complicate things at work. But I don’t care.

  Being close to him like this feels…more natural than I expected. After thinking about him, and wondering what it would be like to kiss him, all this time, last night was so simple. We worked, we talked, we kissed. We made love. Everything unfolded as if it were how things were supposed to be.

  But can we go on like this?

  What happens if I don’t get this job? What happens if I do?

  The answers don’t come easily, but the feeling of being close to him is like taking a long drink of water on a hot day. And I want more of it.

  I need to trust myself. I need to trust that I know what’s right for me. And being with Tom feels more right than anything I’ve felt in a long time.

  22