by ROD HARLEY
“What about like, country?” I laughed.
“There are a few country songs that I like.”
“Ugh, I can’t stand country music, all that damn whining just works my nerves.”
“Wait a minute now,” I countered. “There are some whining ass R&B singers out there too.” Michelle agreed.
“I don’t listen to any of them either,” she returned while continuing to scroll through her playlist. She smiled at me as she turned and slid into the bed, positioning her body snug against mine.
“What kind of music do you listen to?” Before she could answer the mesmerizing guitar intro to Bob Marley’s classic, “Natural Mystic” caught my ear.
“Ahhh, you’re into reggae,” I said a little surprised.
“Yeah, I’m a big Gregory Isaacs fan. I also listen to some hip hop and jazz. I don’t listen to too much R&B. It seems like it’s gotten to be so generic lately. All the songs are about the same thing you know?” I nodded in agreement. “Say what you want about hip hop but most rappers are passionate about what they are doing and it comes through in their music. The same thing is pretty much true for reggae and jazz. That’s what draws me to a song…the passion.” Michelle looked over at me and smiled. “I’m sorry; I’m not boring you am I?”
“Not at all, music is obviously something you have strong feelings about, I can dig that.” She looked me up and down.
“Are you comfortable?”
“I’m straight.”
“I know you’re not going to lie in bed with me fully clothed.” I laughed.
“No, but I wasn’t trying to come up in here, getting butt ass naked, making assumptions about what was going to happen.” Michelle giggled.
“Kalem.” She stared at me. “Why do you think you’re over here right now? I didn’t bump into you by accident outside the restroom. I saw you come in with your two friends. You didn’t choose me. I chose you. You’re here because I want you here.” I smiled.
Isn’t that how it is with men and women? Women always have the upper hand. Men often think that the strength of our game is what affords us inroads with women, but in reality it is a simple matter of choice…their choice. They just let us think that we’re in control. Besides, they get a benefit from the coy approach. An opportune stroke of the ego can be like a hit of Viagra and lead to a supercharged sexual experience.
“So, you would have been cool if you had walked back in here from the kitchen, and found me sitting up in your bed naked?” She leaned in close to me, her lips inches away from mine.
“I’m an aggressive woman. I go after what I want and I like a man who does the same. I asked you to come over here, after midnight, and answered the door in a negligee. I don’t play games; I think it’s clear what’s on my mind.” I immediately thought: tell that to Mike Tyson.
She leaned over and began to unbutton my shirt exposing my chest. Her hands caressed my chest as her fingers teased my nipples. The softness of her lips touched my skin, and she began to trace the path down to my belly button with her tongue. She maintained eye contact with me the entire time. “I’m glad you kept your clothes on,” she said as I ran my fingers through her hair.
“Why is that?” She traced a circle around my belly button with her tongue.
“I want to watch you undress.” She sat up on the bed and eyed me. “Take your clothes off,” she demanded. I was turned on to the max. Michelle employed just the right mix of sensuality, sass, and aggression to get me going. Too much of either of those three can be a quick turnoff. But when dispensed in the proper dosage they are a serious aphrodisiac.
I stood up and walked around to the foot of the bed. Michelle sat at the edge of the bed facing me. I slid my shirt over my shoulders and let it fall to the floor. I looked over at Michelle. She placed her index finger in her mouth and began to tease it with her tongue. I tugged at my belt buckle, my gaze remained fixed on Michelle. She lay back on the bed. Her hands ran slow from her mouth down over her shoulder to her breast. She cupped her breasts with both hands and gently massaged them through the lace fabric that covered her.
I unbuttoned my pants and slid open the zipper. Michelle’s left hand slid further down her stomach descending to her private place. I dropped my pants to the floor exposing my erect penis beneath my boxers. I stepped out of my pants one leg at a time. Michelle parted her legs in a teasing motion and began to rub her fingers over her love nest. Her right hand slid the top of her negligee over her shoulder exposing her breast with fully erect nipples. She brought her fingers back to her mouth and moistened them.
Again they found the fullness of her breast, her fingers stroking her nipples. Soft moans of ecstasy slithered from her lips. I stood over her and observed, yearning for my chance to join in. She sat up on the edge of the bed. I tried to touch her, but she moved my hands away.
“Take off your boxers,” she instructed in a soft but firm voice. I pulled my boxers over my erection; it bobbed up and down as the elastic waistband slid over the tip. They fell to the floor and I stepped out of them. Michelle pulled the rest of her negligee over her shoulders, down over her hips, her thighs, and over her ankles. It fell to the floor in front of me. I surveyed her beautifully proportioned brown body. Michelle glanced at my erection then up into my eyes. She took my hand and slid it over my chest, down my stomach and onto my rock hard penis.
“Stroke it,” she instructed. I began to slide my hand up and down my shaft from the base to head. “That’s it, baby, stroke it for me.” She licked her fingertips and slid her hand down to her now dripping wet vagina. She lay back on the bed and began to trace her finger over the lips of her pleasure while massaging her clitoris with her thumb. My stroke became accelerated. Her other hand found its way back to her breasts.
I quickly neared my breaking point and was forced to remove my hand from my penis. It throbbed as if begging for me to return, but I knew not to. One more stroke and Michelle would have seen me in all of my self-induced ecstasy. I moved closer to her and stood in between her legs. “You want me?” She asked.
“Yes,” I moaned.
“You want it?” She asked again. I nodded yes. “Tell me you want it,” she teased all the while continuing to work both of her hands on her hot spots.
“Damn girl, I want it!” Michelle slid back towards the top of the bed and stretched her hands over her head. I followed her up the bed on my knees. She reached back from under the pillow and found my throbbing penis with her hand. Just the touch of her hand on my member caused me to shiver. She pulled me closer and I became aware of the condom she was so effortlessly sliding onto my penis.
I was amazed at how prepared she was. I was also impressed by how responsible she was. I was relieved to avoid that critical and awkward moment when having to reach for the condom in your wallet or pants pocket, fumble through getting it out of the package, and trying to slide it on before your dick goes soft. Michelle made the whole transition smooth and effortless.
Safely strapped in latex she guided my penis to her loving. I entered with guarded depth, and began to stroke her slow and methodically. Her hands reached around and clasped my butt. With each thrust, she guided me ever so gently deeper into her wetness. I allowed her to control the depth of my penetration. Her hips grooved a rhythm and I followed her lead. “Is that what you wanted?” She prodded.
“Damn, hell yes!” She bit her lips and pulled me deep into her warm love. The movement in her hips accelerated and I upped the pace of my thrust.
“Take it, Kalem,” she commanded. “Take this pussy!” I began thrusting at a frantic pace. Her shouts of encouragement became louder. “Fuck me, baby. Fuck me!” I was pounding away at her like a madman and she was loving every body-slapping minute of it; all the while screaming for more. She continued to egg me on, now taunting my efforts.
“That’s all you got?” Lemme see something, show me what you got,” she challenged. I tried to get every inch of my dick into her. She moaned in pleasure with each thrust. I slid out of her and
rolled her onto her stomach. She got up onto her hands and knees offering the spectacular sight of her ass tooted up in the air.
I slid into her from behind with one slow but powerfully deep thrust. She released a soft moan as I entered and began stroking her from behind. She continued to urge me on with each thrust. The force of my thighs slamming against her butt cheeks made them tingle. We worked our way from the middle of the bed until her head was pressed against the headboard.
Michelle reached forward and grabbed the top of the headboard using it as leverage, and began to push back meeting my thrust with her own. I held onto her waist for support. She turned her head and looked back over her shoulder at me all the while continuing to talk to me. “That’s it, baby. That’s it.” I began to feel lightheaded as my body began to exude a familiar warmth. I knew that I was nearing climax. I began to return her verbal taunts with some of my own.
“You like that? You like that dick?”
“Oh yes, baby,” she yelled. My pace increased.
“This dick is good to you ain’t it?”
“Yes!” I slapped her on her ass with my palm. She yelled at impact.
“Get this pussy, Kalem. Fuck this pussy, baby.” I reached up and grabbed her shoulders.
“You want me to fuck you?”
“Mhuh,” she moaned.
“That’s what you want? Alright, I’m goin fuck you.”
“Fuck me, Kalem!” I was giving it everything I had and Michelle was as well. Sweat poured from both of our bodies. I felt it rising from deep within my loins. It was slow and increasing in intensity with each stroke, like a locomotive starting from a standstill its powerful engine slowly churning as it picked up speed. I was burning up. My engine was at full speed.
“Oh shit, I’m coming,” I announced. Michelle declared not five seconds later.
“I’m coming, baby.” We were both moaning and cursing in a chaotic off key duet. My body began to convulse and my thrust lost its rhythm. I could feel Michelle’s body twitching beneath me. She collapsed flat on her stomach underneath me, her fingers dug into the mattress. I lay on top of her, my mouth open gasping for air. Besides the periodic involuntary mini convulsions we were both still experiencing, we didn’t move. We were both sapped of energy and lay as if paralyzed.
After a few minutes I withdrew myself from inside her and rolled off of Michelle onto my back, exhausted. I lay there staring at the ceiling fan spinning slow above me. I looked over at Michelle, she was knocked out. I could feel the heavy breathing of weary sleep coming from her body. Damn, I haven’t had sex like that since…shit since Cherise, years ago. Michelle straight worked a brother out up in here. I thought about Cherise for a minute. Then I glanced over at Michelle lying next to me, smiled and closed my eyes to sleep.
I awoke around five-thirty that morning, sat up in Michelle’s bed and collected my senses. I was consumed by a tremendous feeling of guilt. I glanced down at Michelle still wrapped in her comforter, asleep and remembered the promise of the fading night, and the depravity of the fledgling morning. My conversation with Toya and the way she expressed her desire to take our relationship to the next level. The way she reaffirmed her love for me and I confirmed that I too felt love for her. And, how less than an hour later I was in here boning Michelle.
I slid out of the bed careful not to wake Michelle. I took light guilt infused steps over to where my clothes were still sprawled on the floor at the foot of the bed. I slid into my pants and shirt then grabbed my cell phone off of the floor next to my shoes and called up the cab company I had used to get over there. I asked them to send a cab to pick me up ASAP. I sat on the side of the bed for a few minutes with my face buried in my palms, struggling to stay awake. A while later as I was putting on my shoes Michelle stirred from her sleep.
“What time is it?” She asked peering up at me from under the covers. I stood up and buckled my belt.
“Five forty-two.” She yawned, stretched and scratched her head.
“What are you doing up so early?” I walked around and sat on the side of the bed next to her.
“I have to get going. I have a really important meeting today at eleven. I need to go get myself together.” She sat up and looked me over.
“You okay?” She asked showing some concern. I nodded and forced a smile. “You okay about last night?”
“Last night was,” I paused. “Last night was tight.” She smiled.
“It was tight for me too. I really enjoyed myself.” I forced another smile. Just then I heard the horn of the cab I had summoned to take me back to my apartment.
“Well, I have to get going,” I said as I stood up. Michelle climbed from under the covers and led me towards the door. At the door I gave her naked body a hug and kissed her on the cheek. “I’ll give you a call okay.” She nodded. I turned and opened the door; Michelle called after me.
“Kalem.” I turned to face her. Her head was peeking around the door, which was cracked open.
“You don’t have to feel obligated to call me if you don’t want to. I went into last night with aspirations of nothing beyond one night. You don’t owe me anything.” I smiled.
“I’ll call you,” I told her as I turned and walked towards the waiting cab. I heard the door close behind me. I felt even more guilt about what had transpired between Toya and me and then Michelle and me. The cab ride back to my apartment was to say the least uncomfortable. Even though I wasn’t dating Toya or in a relationship with anyone else for that matter; I couldn’t shake the feeling of guilt suspended over me. I felt as if I had committed an act of betrayal against Toya. Damn, I fucked up big time.
The cab driver dropped me off at the elevator in the parking garage of my building. I walked over to check on Raoul and Josh presumably still asleep in the back of my truck and was surprised to see that they were both gone. I figured they had awoken and made their way back up to the apartment. I walked over to the elevator and pushed the button for the twentieth floor where my apartment was located.
When I opened my door I saw Josh stretched out across the sofa. The spare key that I sometimes leave under the doormat was sitting on the coffee table. In the guest bedroom Raoul was draped across the foot of the bed. He was still fully-clothed; shoes and all, like he had come in and collapsed, passed out across the bed. I shook my head and headed for the stairs. I needed to take a shower and get ready for a long day. The day promised to be full of intrigue. I had two meetings lined up back to back, both of huge importance. I planned to take it one problem at a time. First Reasons and then Toya.
When Reasons walked into my office he had a staid look etched on his face. He barely cracked a smile when we shook hands at the elevator. We walked into my office and I shut the door behind us. Things weren’t looking good. Reasons sat down and immediately snapped open the latches on his briefcase. He pulled out several stacks of papers and placed them on the desk in front of him. I walked around the desk and sat in my chair. He turned the papers around so that he was looking at them upside down and me right side up. Then he slid them across the desk in front of me.
“Kalem,” he said almost in a whisper. “Take a look at these.” He folded his hands in front of his chest and leaned back in his chair. I stared at him for a moment somewhat surprised by the eccentric manner in which he was behaving, not to mention the fact that he had never referred to me as Kalem before. Up until this point it had always been Mr. Kingsley. I glanced down at the papers in front of me and immediately recognized them as the buyout proposals we had made to Intellica. I again glanced up at Reasons unsure of his purpose; he nodded and gestured for me to continue.
I flipped open the cover page and started scanning through the document. I recognized it as copy of our third proposal. The one I had spent countless hours slaving over, ensuring that everything was just right, and guaranteed that Reasons could not say no to. The one that I was supremely confident that he would accept, and was five percent over the net worth of Intellica. I flipped through the pages
. Page after page appeared to be in order with what I could recall being in our proposal.
I had begun to question the purpose of this unavailing request from Reasons when I turned to page thirty-two. Page thirty-two broke the package down into dollars and “sense.” It was the one section of the proposal that could be easily assimilated by a legal novice. The remainder of the proposal was rife with legal jargon.
I scanned through the numbers and immediately perceived something to be different. I studied the numbers carefully but I couldn’t put my finger on what it was. I glanced down at the total compensation or purchase amount and it jumped off the page at me. The amount on the page was well below what I recalled of our proposal. I glanced up at Reasons; he leaned forward in his chair.
“Notice anything he asked.” I nodded.
“Give me a second to check something.” I picked up my keys and unlocked the drawer on my desk. I pulled out my copies of our proposals to Reasons. I pulled our third offer out of the stack and opened it up to page thirty-two. I couldn’t believe my eyes, the numbers were all wrong. They were correct on my copy of the proposal, but on the copy Reasons had produced the numbers were all lower than they should have been. In fact they were even lower than our first two offers. I looked up at Reasons.
“Where did you get this? This isn’t the proposal we sent to you, these numbers are all wrong.”
“I know.” He reached into his briefcase and pulled out another set of papers and handed them to me. “I got these out of the safe in Kyle Perkins’s office. The idiot left it unlocked. I took the papers from his hand and hurriedly reviewed them. They were the buyout proposals; the real proposals. Reasons sat back in his chair. He ran his hand across his forehead.
“At first I couldn’t figure out what was going on. I didn’t know what I had found. That is until Kyle Perkins came into my office this morning and presented me with-” he grabbed yet another set of papers from his briefcase and handed them to me “this,” he continued. I opened what I immediately recognized as a financial proposal. It was from some entity named Datachek Information Systems.