by Hamel, B. B.
I haven’t negotiated anything in my life. Subtlety isn’t exactly my strength. I’d rather bash some skulls open or break a nice vein with an axe, but that’s not my role anymore. Well, I’ll still mine, but mostly I’m running the union, negotiating with the mine bosses, doing all that crap. Roy takes care of a lot of it, and it still all comes down on me if the shit gets blowing.
I sigh and finally sit. We’re here to meet the new head of Evans Energy, apparently crazy Tommy’s daughter. I don’t know anything about her. She hasn’t lived in Wheelville for years, and nobody I talked to knows a damn thing. As far as I can tell, she’s just some rich guy’s daughter, way too young to run a company, but that’s crazy Tommy for you. The guy made sure she’d take over if he ever died.
“Here they come,” Roy says, looking over my shoulder. “Smile and be nice.”
“Always am,” I grumble, standing and turning and stopping in my fucking tracks.
Three people walk into the room. I recognize the guy in the front. That’s Ingram Jones, crazy Tommy’s close friend and the second most powerful guy at Evans Energy. The next person is Laura Shane, an older brunette with too many wrinkles and too much eye makeup. She’s the head of PR, and I’ve never spoken to her in my life.
And the third person is the girl I fucked a couple weeks back, the one that left in the middle of the night and I never heard from again.
I stare at her, shocked. I’m not the kind of guy to be rendered suddenly speechless, but here I am, wearing khaki fucking pants with my shirt tucked in, feeling like a fucking fool.
Ingram steps up to me. “Mr. Carter?” he asks. “I’m Ingram Jones, Vice President of Evans Energy.”
I can’t stop looking at her. Amelia, that girl I haven’t stopped fucking thinking about, not for a second. She’s staring right back at me, equally surprised. She looks gorgeous, her full figure tucked into a nice, slim-fitting business outfit, that tight skirt accentuating her gorgeous firm little ass so perfectly. I can still picture my big cock slamming into her pussy from behind, making her scream. For a second, I want to pull her thick, blonde hair, but I quickly get a hold of myself.
“Uh, yes, good to meet you, Mr. Jones,” I say to him, taking his hand and shaking.
“Please, call me Ingram. We’ll be working closely in the coming weeks.”
“Of course. And you can all call me Samuel.” I glance at Amelia, but she quickly looks away.
“Samuel, this is Laura Shane, head of Public Relations.”
“Hello,” she says, shaking my hand.
Ingram smiles tightly. He’s an older guy, about crazy Tommy’s age, with a balding head and a skinny frame. He turns to Amelia and gestures at her as she steps toward me, eyes locked on mine. “And this is the new President of Evans Energy, Amelia Evans.”
I can tell she’s holding her breath as she reaches her hand out to shake mine. I stare at her for a second, maybe a beat too long, before I smile. “It’s nice to meet you, Ms. Evans,” I say.
“Amelia,” she says softly. “Nice to meet you too, Samuel.”
I shake her hand, smiling, looking into her eyes. I let it go and step aside, introducing Roy to everyone.
Introductions out of the way, we all sit down at the table and start talking. Ingram’s droning on and on about the upcoming contract, how he wants things to go smoothly, wants everyone to be happy, but the economy, blah blah blah. Laura Shane takes over when he’s done with his bullshit and talks about how important the coal industry is right now, how all eyes are on us, but I’m just not listening.
I’m staring at Amelia. I can’t help myself. She keeps glancing at me, and each time she catches me looking, she blushes a little bit deeper. I know what she’s thinking. She’s picturing the way I made her feel just a couple weeks ago.
I bet she’s been touching herself all week, closed up in that big house her daddy bought, touching that tight, delicious little pussy, thinking about the coal miner she fucked. I gave her a nice rough fuck too, probably made her feel better than any of her douche boyfriends ever did before. I won’t pretend like my cock hasn’t gotten hard every night just thinking about her sweet, tight body, how eager she was for my cock, how good it felt to come deep between her creamy thighs.
“Samuel?” Roy’s voice pulls me from my reverie. “What do you think?”
I hesitate a second. I didn’t hear what they were talking about, although everyone’s staring. I put on a serious face and nod. “Good,” I say, taking a shot in the dark.
Roy cringes and Amelia smiles. “They asked if you’d like to begin preliminary discussions.”
I frown a little. Damn, I should have just said yes. “Okay,” I say. “That would be good.” I think that might help cover it up a little bit, although the look on Ingram’s face isn’t exactly welcoming.
Well, fuck him. These people are my enemies. I pay attention to the rest of the discussion now, and I don’t let myself get distracted by the memory of Amelia writhing up and down on my thick cock.
I can’t fuck this up. Sure, this job got passed along until it landed in my lap, a big fat fucking steamy turd, but it’s my job to do. And all the guys are going to depend on me. I know I can’t make everyone happy, and they’ll inevitably hate me no matter what I do, unless I manage to get some absurdly perfect contracts. That’s why nobody wants to do this shit job. I’ll be the bad guy, even if I manage to get a decent deal. It’ll never make everyone happy.
Still, they’re depending on me, and I have to take this seriously. I can’t let my one-track mind fuck shit up. So I’ve got the boss’s pussy still on my lips, so what? I can negotiate with her, and I will. Or at least I’ll do my best, because that’s my fucking job, and I care about these people.
I wasn’t lying about what I said to her back at the bar. I was just elected that night, and we were out celebrating. And when I told Amelia that I wanted to help people, I wasn’t kidding.
This town is shit. People’s lives here are hard, short, and often brutal. They depend on this mine, and the mine takes everything from them without question or hesitation. I’m the only thing standing in between them and an even worse, even more fucked up life. I want to help them, ease some of their suffering.
I’m fucked in all this. I know I can’t win, but I’ll do my best. And maybe in the process, I’ll get another taste of the boss’s tight cunt, and maybe that, plus the potential good I can do, maybe that’ll be enough.
3
Amelia
Of course it’s him.
When I heard that the new head of the miner’s union is the youngest guy in history, I just knew it’d be him. The way they were all looking at him that night, like he was the center of attention, someone special, I had a feeling something was up. I knew it would be him, but seeing him in that conference room still surprised me.
It was the deep, ringing desire that flared up that really took me off-guard. I’ve never felt that way before, about anyone. I’ve had one-night stands before, mostly drunken stupid flings in the dorms, and I should be able to separate myself. I should be able to keep sex in one corner, and work in another.
But I suddenly felt it all in that conference room. When he touched my hand and smiled at me, I could see what he was thinking about: my body, sliding up and down his thick cock, his hands on my hips, his lips against my neck.
He kept looking at me that whole meeting until they caught him off-guard. I thought he’d pack it in right then and there, but instead it just made him pay more attention. By the end, I was impressed with Samuel Carter, even if I still think he’s a cocky asshole.
I lean back against the toilet and sigh. All that just makes this so much harder. That meeting in the conference room was about a week ago, and my period’s late. I’m as regular as it gets, and even just a few days late means something’s wrong. Nearly a whole week means something is really, really wrong.
And the positive pregnancy test lying on the floor in front of me isn’t helping with this huge ston
e of anxiety sitting on my chest.
I can’t even look at it. I get up and pace my bedroom anxiously. I don’t know why I’m staying in my old room, since the master room is technically mine now, but I can’t bring myself to move in there. My dad’s dead, died in some stupid fucking skydiving accident, and my mom’s been dead since I was little. This house, the one that used to seem so welcoming when my dad was raising me, now just seems empty and barren and depressing.
I put my hand on my stomach reflexively, but pull it back. I can’t be fucking pregnant, not with that asshole’s baby. I run back into the bathroom and take another test, but it comes out positive again. I toss it on the floor next to the first one, and the pair stares up at me, physical proof of my utterly changed future.
I don’t know what to do. I leave the bathroom again and get dressed. It’s Saturday, and I can’t go into the office and try to drown out the voice in my head that’s screaming for me to run away. I’m the new president of a coal mining company, a business I barely know anything about. I’m practically relying on Ingram, my father’s old second in command, to run the whole thing for me while I slowly get up to speed. I never wanted any of this, but my father made sure the company would pass into my hands, and the board unanimously voted to make me president the day after he was buried.
I suspect Ingram had something to do with that, but I don’t know why. All I know is, a lot of money just suddenly became mine, along with a company I don’t want. I thought I was going back to New York, back to my life as a budding young urban lawyer, but that future’s gone now.
My life is in Wheelville, and I don’t even know if I want it. But I feel obligated to my father and to this town for some insane reason, and so I’m still here.
I sigh and curl up in a ball on my bed. I grab my phone and slowly scroll through it. An old friend of mine messaged me on Facebook a few days ago, saying we should get together, and so I text her on a whim.
Callie May was my closest friend when I was a little girl. She was a neighbor back then, although apparently they moved in the years since I last saw her. She invites me out to a coffee place in town and I agree to meet her, since it’s way better than lying around feeling sorry for myself.
As I drive over there, I can’t stop thinking about him. Samuel Carter, big and bold and beautiful and so fucking arrogant, is the father of the baby that’s growing inside of me. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I can’t imagine raising a child with that beast. I have a ton of money now, so I can probably get by on my own, even if I don’t stay the President of Evans Energy. Daddy made some great investments, and I’m set for life.
That worries me too. I’ve never had this much money, and I don’t know what to do with it all. I don’t really need to work, but I feel obligated to stay on with the company, to help keep my father’s legacy alive. I’m angry that he died in that stupid accident, but I shouldn’t be so surprised. My father was an adrenaline junky, barely missing death over and over, and finally it caught up with him.
Now I’m here, broken and picking up the pieces.
I park outside of the little coffee shop and spot Callie inside. She’s changed a lot, although of course she has, it’s been over thirteen years. We were twelve the last time I saw her, right before I was sent to boarding school.
“Hi, Amelia!” she says, standing up. She’s a bubbling little brunette in jeans and cowboy boots. Her southern accent is thick, which just makes me smile. I’ve lost most of mine.
“Hi, Callie,” I say, hugging her. “It’s been so long.”
“I know, right? I got you a coffee.”
I sit down and thank her, sipping it. We fall into small talk, basically catching up on each other’s lives. When my father finally comes up, she frowns and sighs.
“I’m so sorry about him,” she says. “Everyone in town loves Tommy.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Tommy?”
“Sure,” she says, grinning. “He always insisted we call him that.”
I sit back, surprised. I never heard anyone call my father anything but “Tom” or “Mr. Evans,” although I only ever saw him around his business associates.
“He did a lot for the town, you know,” she continues. “Funded the firehouse himself for years. Started a bunch of local charities. I think he even bought the public library.”
I nod, smiling to myself. I knew about all that. He was proud of Wheelville, for whatever reason. “He loved his home,” I say to her.
She nods, smiling. “That’s why we’re happy you’re home.”
“Yeah,” I say softly, glancing away. “I’m happy to be home, too.”
“I hear you’re having some trouble with Samuel Carter.”
I look back at her, surprised. I’m a little taken aback, and she laughs at my expression.
“Girl, nothing’s secret here in Wheelville. You’ll learn that again.”
I sigh. “It’s not really trouble.”
“He’s the head of the union, and you’re his boss now. You’re, like, enemies, right?”
I bite my lip. “Something like that.”
She leans forward, grinning a little, and for a second I’m terrified she’s going to bring up the night he brought me home. It was dark in that bar, and everyone was drunk as hell, so I’m assuming nobody remembers or recognizes me. Well, he remembers, but I don’t want it to be common knowledge that I slept with him. That’ll only complicate things.
“That Samuel, he’s really something, isn’t he?”
“What do you mean?” I ask, hesitating.
She gives me a sly little smile. “He has a nickname, you know.”
I raise an eyebrow. “What is it?”
“Big.”
I stare at her for a second then burst out laughing. It’s the most absurd name I’ve ever heard in my life. “You’re kidding, right? Just ‘Big’?”
She shakes her head, blushing. “He has these… girls, and they all call him that.”
My laughter died down a little bit. “Girls call him that? Like, girlfriends?”
“Not girlfriends, exactly. More like fuck buddies.”
I nod again, my smile slowly disappearing. I shouldn’t be surprised. Samuel is a big man, loud and handsome and outgoing. Of course he has girls fawning all over him in this town. I doubt there’s a guy anywhere within an hour of driving that’s anything like Samuel.
Still, that nickname. I can’t believe anyone would call him that…. but it also makes sense. He’s the kind of man that could protect me, take care of me, at least if I were into that sort of thing. Of course, I’m the president of a big company and apparently I’m rich now, so I don’t need him. But maybe he could take care of me in other ways.
I lean toward her and try to pretend like I don’t care that much. “What else do you know about him?”
She leans back, a wicked little smile on her face. “Well now, Amelia Evans, are you interested in getting some Big?”
I wince at that. “Not interested, exactly.”
She laughs a little bit. “Come on, every girl has a crush on him. Hard not to.”
“We work together,” I admit to her.
She cocks her head. “I heard he’s the new head of the union.”
“And I’m taking over for my father.”
Realization dawns on her face, but I’m not sure if that’s an act. I can’t imagine there’s anyone in this town that doesn’t know all my business intimately, but maybe she just hasn’t heard yet.
“So you guys have to…” she trails off.
I nod. “Right.”
She sighs. “Well, there are a lot of rumors about Samuel.”
“Like what?”
She hesitates a second. “I’m not sure I should say, honestly. I don’t know what’s true and what’s just bullshit. I don’t really know him.”
“I’m just trying to get on equal footing with everyone else in this town.”
“Well, word is he gets around, but that’s not a big surprise. I hear he
has a few kids with a few different women… but I think that’s bullshit.”
I wince at the mention of children. “What else?”
“Petty things. Like he used to steal when he was younger, got in some trouble. Some of that’s true, apparently. He’s mainly really well liked. I mean, he’s head of the union. That’s a big deal.”
I nod, though inwardly I’m trying to process all this. Samuel is my biggest adversary, but I can’t see him that way. I just can’t bring myself to think of him as some person that I have to defeat in a contract negotiation.
Fact is, I have sympathy for him and the other miners. I don’t want them to get screwed in this negotiation, but I also know that Evans Energy isn’t doing that great. Coal overall is slowly shrinking as an industry as the world moves away from polluting energy sources. We’re stuck in the industrial revolution while the world moves on from us.
I have to find a balance between what will take care of my workers and what will ensure that the company keeps going. If they get too good of a contract, that might hasten the demise of Evans Energy. If they get a bad one, Evans will keep on going, but they’ll bear the burden.
Callie changes the subject, which I’m grateful for. She tells me more about her life back home, and I tell her about mine. We basically chat and catch up, but I can’t stop thinking about Samuel.
He’s a big man, and apparently he has a following in this town. He has a bunch of girls that call him that. I have no clue how I fit into that little harem he has, or if that rumor’s even true. I don’t know if anything Callie told me is real.
The Samuel I know seemed genuine, and kind, and sexy as hell, but there’s definitely more to him than meets the eye. I don’t know what I want from him, if I want to be involved with him, or if he’s just a business associate. Fact is, we work together, whether I like it or not. And I’m going to have his baby.