She was dressed in a red wrap around and dangerously high heels. As much as she irritated me, I felt a twitch in my pants.
“What can I do for you, Miranda?” I asked.
“I just wondered if you had time for lunch? I haven’t heard from you this week and I was in the neighbourhood,” she lied, she was never ‘in the neighbourhood’.
I looked at my watch. I should be concentrating on work, I should be telling her that I wasn’t interested but my cock overruled my brain. I stood from my desk and walked towards her. I watched her pupils dilate, her tongue run across her upper lip yet she took a step back, away from me.
“I have half an hour,” I said.
I walked to the office door, towards the elevator. She followed. We stood in silence as we travelled one floor up, to the apartment. I took the key from my pocket and opened the door, stepping to one side to allow her to enter. The least I could do was to be well mannered. She walked to the centre of the lounge, keeping her back to me. I watched her undo the belt at her side and shrug her shoulders, the dress falling to the floor. She slowly turned. She wore black lace panties and a matching bra. I strode towards her, taking her face in one hand turning it to the side giving me access to her neck.
I very rarely kissed on the mouth. I guess that was too intimate for me and I didn’t feel the connection with her to want that intimacy. However, my lips trailed a path down the side of her neck and across her shoulder. I heard her breath quicken, I felt her hands on my chest, loosening my tie. I pulled her bra down, releasing a breast and sucked on her nipple while she fumbled with the zipper on my pants.
Her hand closed around my cock, squeezing and pumping as I hooked my fingers in the side of her panties. They tore away easily enough, the delicate lace having no resistance. Holding her by the hips, I turned her away from me, pushing her until she was bent over the back of the sofa. I reached under her, teasing her clitoris, feeling her tremble at my touch. I listened to her moans of pleasure as I brought her to an orgasm. As she recovered, I pushed into her. I held her hips as I fucked her from behind. She pushed back against me, forcing me deeper and deeper with every thrust.
I reached around her side, clamping a nipple between my thumb and forefinger. I twisted and tugged, harder as her moans increased. I wrapped my other hand in her hair, pulling her head up.
“Fuck me, harder,” she said.
Miranda liked it rough. She often came to me already bruised and with broken skin across her back. I could still see the faint handprint sized markings on her ass from whoever she had been with, probably just a few days ago. We weren’t exclusive which always made me wonder why she pushed for a relationship with me.
Letting go of her now tender nipple I ran my hand over her pussy, back up, spreading her juices over her ass. I slowly pulled out of her. She knew what was coming next, I watched her grip the edge of the sofa and spread her legs further. I ran my hands over her ass cheeks, spreading them before running the tip of my cock over that one place I knew would send her wild. Did I do this for my pleasure? Not really, it was more for a sense of power, I was claiming a part of her body.
“You want this?” I asked.
“Yes, now,” she demanded.
“What do you say?” I asked.
“Please, Robert, fuck my ass.”
So I did. She screamed out my name as she came. As I was about to give in to my release, I pulled out of her, my come pumping onto her ass cheeks.
I stood and took a step back, I watched her legs tremble and her breathing start to slow. I pulled my shirt over my head, undid my pants and walked to the bathroom. I needed to shower, not just to clean myself but to also rid my body of the scent of her. I had finished my shower as she walked, naked but carrying her clothes, into the bathroom. I exited the shower, leaving it running for her.
“All yours,” I said as she passed.
Heading to my closet, I pulled off the rails a clean shirt and tie, a fresh suit. I was sitting at the small table in the kitchen, tapping my foot impatiently when she returned.
“Are you busy later?” she asked, still standing as I hadn’t invited her to sit.
“Yes,” I replied.
I stood and made for the door, holding it open so she could leave. I needed to get back to work. The elevator doors opened and I placed my hand on her back, ushering her in. Just as it closed she turned to me. She placed one hand on my chest, the other around the back of my neck, raising herself to kiss me. I moved my head, her lips just catching the side of my cheek.
“You are one mean bastard,” she said.
“So I’ve been told, many times,” I whispered as my teeth bit down hard on her earlobe.
The door opened at my floor and I walked out without a backward glance. I saw Gina glance up, her eyes dart between me and her friend, an uneasiness in her look. I heard the elevator doors close and I settled back at my desk to continue my day. I chuckled as I recalled her comment. ‘One mean bastard’ was probably one on the tamest things she had called me over the past few months.
“What are you laughing at,” I heard Travis say as he entered the room.
“Just had a session with Miranda,” I said.
“What did she call you this time?” he asked with a laugh.
“A mean bastard. Pretty nice for her.”
“I really don’t know why you go there,” he said, shaking his head.
“Neither do I. It was a cock over brain moment,” I replied, picking up my papers.
Miranda and I had a very toxic relationship. As much as she pushed for us to be together, I doubted she liked me very much. She wanted the publicity that came with being with me, nothing more. I decided that I didn’t need that toxicity in my life at that point. I had enough stress with the business, without Miranda adding to it. I sent her a text.
“That was the last time.”
“You say that now,” she replied.
“I mean it. Don’t push me.”
She didn’t reply but I had no doubt that wouldn’t be the last I would hear from her. All I wanted was to concentrate on a rather difficult takeover I was caught in the middle of, an ailing business that had defaulted on its loan payments to Vassago.
Chapter Seven
Travis had fallen in love. He spent days telling me all about her and I was, at first, genuinely pleased for him. I would watch from the house as he took one of the cars from the garage, dressed in a suit and tie for his date. By the time he had seen her constantly for a month, I knew he probably was, in love. It was unusual for Travis to date someone for that length of time, even more so to see them nearly every night of the week. Previously, he would declare his undying love after a couple of days of good sex then get bored two or three weeks later.
“Mack, keep this between us, but check out this woman,” I said as I handed him a note with her name written on.
“Travis’s new woman?” he asked.
“Yes, just want to be sure, you know?”
He nodded as he left. I felt it was important to know the background of not just our employees but the people we dated as well. I remembered the Evelyn and Carlo situation and I wanted to be sure the same wouldn’t happen to Travis. There was one thing that was making me a little uneasy though. Although he hadn’t mentioned it, I wasn’t sure that I would be comfortable if she visited him at his apartment. I guess he had every right to take her home but having a stranger around didn’t sit well with me.
“Me and Shelly went to the club last night,” Travis told me when he had returned to the office.
“Nice meal?” I asked, looking up from my papers.
He certainly had it bad. He told me what she had ordered, how she ate, the delicate way she dabbed her napkin to her mouth even. I smiled and nodded along, pleased for him. But I was also aware that he was telling me inconsequential things, perhaps he was building up to asking something. I wasn’t ready for that and thankfully the phone rang on my desk cutting short our conversation.
“Yes,”
I said.
“Got what you asked for but I see you have Travis with you,” Mack replied.
My office, as with the rest of the building, had concealed cameras which fed a live link direct to the office Mack sat in.
“Okay, give me ten minutes or so,” I replied.
“I’m heading for the deli, you want me to pick you something up?” Travis asked.
“Sure, whatever you’re having will be great,” I replied.
With Travis gone, I made my way to the next office.
“Mark, take a break for ten minutes,” Mack said to the guy beside him.
I took his vacated seat and Mack opened a file on the desk.
“A couple of concerns. She told Travis she was the manager at a restaurant but she’s just a waitress and she has a lot of debt,” he said.
“What kind of debt,” I replied, this piece of information was important.
“Rent arrears, utilities, car payment,” he listed off the amounts.
“Think she’s looking for a meal ticket?” I asked.
“Mmm, possibly. What do you want to do?”
“Nothing, I won’t interfere, not yet. He’s a grown man and I guarantee if that’s what she’s after, he’ll pick up on that.”
Travis wasn’t a dumb man, he was more than aware of the many gold diggers that had come and gone. I just wanted to be sure there was nothing I needed to worry about and it pained me to do that to Travis. He would know that I would check, we did with everyone we came in contact with and perhaps that was the reason he had told me her full name, told me information about her. Perhaps he already knew what Mack had found out. He had done the same for me in the past. In that office was a cabinet with files on everyone we had dated over the years.
****
I picked up the telephone that had started to ring on my desk.
“Mr. Stone, I have Luca Gioletti on the phone for you, shall I put him through?” Gina said, as I answered.
“Yes, put him through.”
I waited for the connection.
“Luca, it’s good to hear from you,” I said.
“Robert, thanks for taking my call. I wanted to speak to you about your new development if you have the time?” he asked.
“Of course, what do you need to know?” I replied.
The development he was referring to was our third over the years in Manhattan and was to be the largest. A complex of apartments, restaurants and high end boutiques framing a courtyard.
“We would like to buy some of the apartments, off plan of course. However, I would like to make an offer. We supply the labour in return for the apartments,” he said.
“An interesting offer, Luca, but I do have my own teams of labour, as you well know.”
“But not based in New York. Using mine would certainly make things easier for you. I have some terms drawn up and would like to send them over, for your consideration.”
“Of course. I’ll need to run them by the board you understand. Send them over and I’ll get back to you in a week or so. Now, how are your family, your father?” I asked.
“The family are good, our lawyers are looking at negotiations with our friends for an early release for dad,” he replied.
“That’s good news, give him my regards when you speak to him next.”
We said our goodbyes and I sat and looked at the phone for a little while. That was an unusual request. I knew Luca’s family were not as cash rich as ours and perhaps the offer of his labour was because he couldn’t afford to outright buy my apartments, but I would look through his proposal and run it by the team, as promised. Over the years I had began to distrust Luca, not that anything he did had an impact on me but rumours were rife that he was under investigation by our ‘friends’ the FBI, and I wasn’t about to get pulled back into a lifestyle I had spent years shedding.
I had much respect for his father and his great uncle, Gianfranco. They reminded me of Joe, old school and well respected. Luca, however, was a different man altogether. Because of the development it was beneficial to maintain a professional friendship though.
“Lunch,” I heard Travis say, as he walked through the office.
“Thanks. I just had an interesting conversation,” I replied, telling him about the call.
“I wonder what he’s up to?” Travis said.
“No doubt we’ll find out soon enough.”
His phone beeped alerting him to the fact he had received a text message, his smile broadened as he read.
“You need me for anything? That was Shelly, she wants to meet,” he asked.
I shook my head. “Mark can run me home.”
He left the office, replying to his message. I sat for a while thinking. I really hoped this relationship would work for him. I certainly hadn’t seen him smile so much. He hadn’t been gone ten minutes when I received a call that the girlfriend was in the foyer. Wondering what she could want with me, I told security to send her up. I had been approached in the past by one or two of his girlfriends, mainly for advice. He was as difficult as I could be sometimes. I wasn’t really able to give relationship advice so often just diverted them back to him.
I watched a blond in a skirt too short and a top too tight walk across to announce her arrival to Gina. I frowned, this was not Travis’s usual. And since Travis was on his way to meet his girlfriend I began to wonder who this woman was.
I picked up my phone and called through to Mack while she waited in my reception.
“Take a look at the camera, is this woman Shelly Masters?” I asked.
I heard a rustle of papers. “Yes, fits the photo I’ve got, although she certainly looks a lot trashier in the flesh,” he replied.
Placing the phone back on the desk I nodded through the glass to Gina. Shelly was shown into my office. The very first thing I noticed was an overpowering smell of cheap perfume. She stopped midway across the room.
“Robert, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you,” she said.
“What can I do for you?” I asked without any real pleasantries.
With that she moved towards my desk, I assumed to sit at one of the chairs. Instead she perched on the edge, angling her body towards me. Her already short skirt had risen and her shirt strained against her breasts.
“Isn’t Travis on his way to meet you?” I asked.
“Yes, I just wanted five minutes to meet the secretive Robert Stone,” she replied.
“Well, now you have. Perhaps you should get going,” I said, standing from my chair.
“Oh now, don’t be mean.” At least she had the grace to look a little nervous as she spoke.
“You haven’t seen me mean. I recommend that you don’t,” I replied, taking a step towards her.
“I like a mean man, Robert. Someone as powerful as you is a real turn on.”
I glanced up at the camera in the corner, checking the little red light was on ensuring this was being recorded.
“You’re coming on to me?” I asked, a little stunned and trying to swallow down the anger that was rising.
“If you want me to,” she replied with as much sultriness as she could muster.
“Get the fuck off my desk. You are dating my best friend and you walk in here, looking like a cheap whore and coming on to me?”
Her smile faded and she closed the legs she had slid apart earlier.
“I, err, I just thought...”
“You just thought, what? I’d be interested in you. I’ll repeat myself. You. Are. Dating. My. Best. Friend.” I growled.
She finally slid of my desk and moved towards the door of the office. I noticed her hands shake and I didn’t give a fuck if I had scared her. I was livid, I was more than livid, I was sad for Travis. That piece of trash had caught his heart and it was all a lie. I shook my head as she scuttled out, rushing for the elevator.
I saw Mack leave his office, he nodded just the once as he made his way after her. I closed my office door behind me and sat at my desk, slamming my fists on the glass top.
It wasn’t the first time one of Travis’s girls had come onto me, but it was the first one he thought he was in love with. I screwed my eyes shut and ran my hand through my hair. What the fuck was I to do? Do I tell Travis and break his heart? Or do I say nothing and hope that was a one off? I checked my watch, he would have got to wherever he had arranged to meet her and found out she wasn’t there. The fact that she had lured him away, that level of deceit, made me more angry. I received a text from Mack.
“She’s gone to a bar, accepting drinks from a guy next to her. What is more important, the Range Rover is still in the parking lot, I don’t know where Travis is,” he said.
I frowned and rung down to security.
“Stan, what cars of mine are parked up?” I asked.
“Both, Sir. The Range Rover and the Merc, still in their usual spots,” he replied.
“Okay. Did you see Travis leave?”
“He was here just a minute ago, shall I go find him?” he asked.
“No, it’s fine, Stan. I’ll give him call.”
Travis hadn’t left the building. Thinking about the time between when he had left and when Shelly had arrived, it could have only been ten minutes at the most, she was probably already waiting outside. But that didn’t account for Travis’s whereabouts. When Gina returned, I called her into my office.
“Did you see Travis leave?” I asked.
“I didn’t, Mr. Stone. I’ve been in the meeting room, with the PA’s for a diary meeting. Is everything okay?”
“Yes, now, grab me a coffee will you?”
It was a half hour later that Travis returned. He had a smile on his face as he came into the office.
“You okay, bro? How was lunch?” I asked.
“Shelly had to cancel, she had a chef throw a fit at the restaurant,” he replied.
“Where did you go then?”
“Gym, thought I’d have a quick workout,” he said.
I nodded, relieved. For a moment there, I thought he might have seen her come in, seen her lounge over my desk. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, whether to say anything or not but at least I had a bit of time to think. We finished up the day and headed for home.
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