by Lexi Archer
I’d wait just a little longer, give him just a little more time, before I brought it up myself.
“So what about you? Why is the son of the owner coming up through the ranks rather than just starting with a cushy job?”
Of course he was starting out with a cushy job. He was starting out with a job that I’d kill for. He was starting out with a job that should’ve been mine by rights if it wasn’t for the fact that he had connections. Of course I’d been with the company long enough to have no illusions about how that sort of thing worked, so it’s not like I held any animosity towards him for using his one hell of a major connection to get his current job.
“It’s pretty simple really. I’m trying to screw my brothers and sisters out of their inheritance.”
I nearly choked on a bite of my chicken. Did I really hear what I thought I heard?” I looked up at him and he was smiling.
“What?”
Ryan shrugged and grinned. “Let’s just say my siblings and I have grown accustomed to a certain standard of living, but grandpa doesn’t like that we’ve grown accustomed to that certain standard of living.”
“Grandpa?”
Ryan’s grin grew wider. “You didn’t know? Really, you should pay attention to how the company is run!”
“What are you talking about? I thought your dad was the owner?”
“Dad’s the CEO, but he doesn’t own the company no matter how much he likes to pretend he does. No, that’s all in grandpa’s hands, and the old codger is the one who controls the purse strings and who gets the company when he eventually goes.”
“I didn’t know that,” I said.
And it was true. I’d only met Ryan’s dad on a couple of occasions, but he always made it seem like he owned the company. Sure we knew it was a family business, but everyone assumed he was the owner as well as the CEO. That he’d inherited complete control after the elder Arnold retired.
Now this was very interesting information indeed, not that I could do anything with that information. I’d have to have millions of dollars sitting around to even consider a corporate buyout. Or I’d have to know somebody with millions of dollars just sitting around. I bit back a smile and a chuckle at that.
“So what does that have to do with you being here? Or with screwing your siblings out of their inheritance?”
“Grandpa doesn’t really approve of how dad raised us or that we’re more or less living the high life on his dime. Most of my brothers and sisters spend all their time lounging around and enjoying the finest things gramps’ money can buy. Only grandpa’s been making rumblings that the gravy train is coming to a halt soon, and he’s also made it clear he’s definitely not giving any of us to continue leading life as we know it after he kicks it. I really want the gravy train to keep going after he kicks it.”
“So that’s why you’re here?”
Ryan leaned back in his chair, moving his hands behind his head. “That’s exactly why I’m here. Grandpa isn’t too fond of how dad is running the place either, too concerned with the prestige of his position and not concerned enough with the bottom line or something like that. So I figure the best strategy is to show up, work in a department that nobody wants and show gramps that I can do the whole bootstraps thing just as well as he did when he started the company. I impress the geezer so much that he gives me the company and I get all the money without having to worry about pesky little problems like getting cut out of his will.”
Huh. This guy was like a bargain basement Machiavelli. Not that any of this crap was any of my concern. Still, I was intrigued.
“You really think that’ll work?”
Ryan waved a dismissive hand. “Please. It’s already working. I went to business school, got my MBA, came back and asked to work for the company but start out low man on the totem pole without anyone knowing my name. I think gramps is all sorts of impressed.”
“So what will you do if you take over the company?”
Ryan leaned forward and grinned. “That’s the beauty. I don’t give a fuck about any of this. I don’t give a fuck about the family name or the family business. I get the company out from under my dad, and then I sell it off to the highest bidder and I wind up a very rich man who doesn’t have to work for the rest of his life. All I had to do was put in a few years in college and a few years here waiting for gramps to die. And all my brothers and sisters can sit out in the cold for all I care.”
I blinked. I wasn’t sure how I felt about all that, but at the same time I was low enough on the org chart that it’s not like I could do much about it anyways. I was just an assistant HR director after all. All the stuff he was talking about was well above my pay grade.
“So why are you telling me all this?”
Ryan leaned forward and winked. “I’m telling you all this because I like you. I told you, I’m a man who gets what he wants. And I want to make it clear that if you stick with me you’ll go far in this world.”
That sounded suspiciously close to him trying to steal me away from my husband. He hadn’t come out and said it outright, but it was dripping with insinuation. And I have to admit I was slightly offended that he thought I was that kind of girl, but at the same time there was a part of me that was screaming that I should just go along with it. That he was so damn hot, and all I really needed to do was tell him what he wanted to hear long enough to have a little bit of fun!
Basically the rational part of me was at war with the horny part of me that just wanted to have a roll in the hay with this delicious man consequence free. I knew he was a snake in the grass, but I figured better the snake in the grass that was sitting in front of you rattling and making itself known than the one that was sneaking up behind you to bite you in the ass.
I knew I was rationalizing. I knew I was trying to explain things away because I was really turned on by this guy and wanted to have a little fun, but at the same time I didn’t care. It’s not like I was breaking any company rules by keeping quiet about his little takeover plan.
Rules. Rules were good. Ground rules. I should go over the ground rules with him. Make it clear that I wasn’t the kind of girl he was insinuating I was with that almost offer he just made me.
I leaned forward and smiled. “Look, I appreciate what I think you’re trying to offer, but I’m really not that kind of girl. Fabulous wealth isn’t something that interests me. Trust me.”
He arched an eyebrow and held his hands up defensively. “Hey, I was just saying…”
I grinned at him. “Trust me. I know exactly what you were trying to say. So I think it’s important we talk about some ground rules before we go any further.”
His innocent look dropped in an instant. It was replaced by a scowl, but then he recovered and he was smiling. He was good at controlling his expression, good at controlling his emotions and his features, but not good enough. I could still read him like a cheap paperback.
“My husband has a few simple rules,” I said.
Ryan leaned forward, a smile and cocky confidence written all over his face once more. Oh yes, he was definitely trying to take back control of the situation. “And your husband didn’t want to tell me these rules in person?”
“He trusts me implicitly,” I said.
“If it was me then I’d come in person,” he said.
I ignored that and went right on. I figured it’d be best not to point out how he’d been looking around in terror when he thought there was a possibility my husband might be dropping in on our impromptu lunch date.
“He’s confident I can do the job,” I said.
Ryan shrugged. “I call that cowardice, not confidence.”
I decided I wasn’t going to rise to the debate he was trying to start. Oh yes, he was going to be trouble. But he was so delicious. I wondered if this is what it felt like for men when they said they were thinking with their dick. Because I certainly wasn’t thinking with the rational part of my mind. I was still thinking with the part of my brain between my legs that said
everything was okay as long as I still had control of the situation.
Of course there was a part of me, a small voice, that was saying I didn’t have control of the situation at all. That I was just pretending. I ignored that voice. It was annoyingly accurate.
“Number one,” I said holding up a finger.
“Go ahead,” he said.
“Safety first. That means we use protection.”
Ryan nodded.
“Two. I get final say on whether or not we do anything. If at any point I say no we’re done. No means no.”
“Fine, though I’m insulted you felt the need to make that a rule at all.”
“Three. He wants to watch us at least once. It’s sort of his fantasy, the whole reason we’re getting to do this, so I figure that’s the least we owe him.”
Ryan’s brows lowered. “He doesn’t want to participate or anything does he? I’m not really into threesomes. At least I’m not into threesomes unless you have a cute girlfriend you want to bring along.”
“No, he doesn’t want to participate. Just watch.”
“Fine. We can arrange something.”
“And the fourth thing isn’t a rule so much as a warning. I wanted to make sure you knew about this part.”
Ryan’s eyebrow rose. “A warning?”
“My husband wanted to make sure I passed this along to you. He wanted to make sure you knew that if you break any of the rules that he’ll make you seriously regret it. And I know my husband. He’s serious.”
I can’t say I was particularly surprised when Ryan’s smile turned into a chuckle. That chuckle turned into a full on laugh. After a moment he was positively chortling with glee and drawing the attention of other people. I glanced around the restaurant in a panic and had a moment of vertigo as I looked out across the city. I hated heights, but this restaurant was so damn good! Of course the panic had nothing to do with the vertigo. The last thing I wanted was for other people to look at us. To realize what we were talking about.
“What’s so funny?”
Ryan wiped a tear from his eye. “Sorry,” he said. “I just think it’s a little funny that the guy who can’t even tell me his rules in person is threatening me like that.”
I shrugged. “He’s serious. You’ve been warned.”
Ryan grinned. A wide grin. A cocky confident grin that said he didn’t take me seriously at all. Oh well. His problem if he decided to cause trouble. Besides, he said the right words, and so I lied to myself and figured that was close enough for now.
14: Reporting Back
I was pacing around the living room when I finally heard the door to the garage open. I breathed a sigh of relief. I was starting to think Kristi was working late just like she had back in the old days.
Of course there was a major difference between her working late now and her working late back in the old days. Back in the old days I’d just fantasized about her maybe getting a little naughty with one of her coworkers when she was working late. Now I knew there was a very real chance she might be getting naughty with that guy. With her new boss. With this young guy that seemed to have taken her interest so suddenly.
I still couldn’t believe how quickly the fantasy had taken hold with her. I mention it one night and she acts like it’s interesting but never going to happen. And now this guy comes along and she goes from “never gonna happen” to deciding she wanted nothing more than to play around with the sexy new boss now that there actually was a sexy new boss.
If I was perfectly honest in my moments of introspection, and this was the sort of fantasy that invited completely honest moments of introspection quite a bit, especially now that it was actually happening for real, I was jealous that this guy came along and suddenly made my wife so into the idea of going along with the fantasy. I was jealous that I wasn’t the one who convinced her to go ahead with it, as stupid as that jealousy was.
Of course if I was also being completely honest with myself then I’d also have to admit that jealousy was just adding fuel to the fire. After all, the taboo nature of this fantasy was, at its root, all about jealousy. At least that seemed to be what it was all about to me.
I heard Kristi making her way from the kitchen into the living room. I stopped and looked at her.
My gorgeous wife didn’t look much different from any other day of the week when she came home from work. She didn’t look quite as tired today as she had over the past couple of months, God how it annoyed me that she had to keep those late nights over the past year or so, but I was searching her for any sign of the fun she got up to earlier in the day. Any sign of the forbidden tryst she’d had in the elevator with that guy. I must’ve reread that text a hundred times during the day while I was trying to get some work done in the studio.
I didn’t get much work done in the studio today.
I smiled. It was probably a good thing I went down to deal with the charity stuff earlier in the day before I got that message. Otherwise I would’ve been a complete mess, completely unable to focus and pay attention to anything, and I hated it when it looked like I wasn’t paying attention. The last thing I wanted to seem detached. That was one of the lessons I’d learned from my grandpa when he got me started on the charity thing as what I assumed was a sneaky way to keep me close to the family business.
Kristi’s hair was done up just the same as it had been this morning, but was that a hint of a stray hair I saw sticking out? It was hard to tell. It’s not like I took a picture of her in the morning for comparison, and a stray hair sticking out of her ponytail could be caused by any of a hundred things that happened during the day.
Wind, running into something, messing with her hair, a stray strand of hair definitely didn’t have to be caused by some guy getting up close and personal, nuzzling up against my gorgeous wife and God my cock was getting hard just thinking about it. I forced my eyes to travel down the rest of her body, taking an inventory of her delicious body that I knew so well and double checking that there was nothing else out of place. Hoping that there was something out of place.
Her blouse looked like it had been messed with. It was slightly more wrinkled than usual. I imagined his hands running up and down her body, exploring her in earnest for the first time. And was that one of her buttons undone near the top? How far had they gone? What happened?
I could play this guessing game forever. I locked eyes with Kristi. I raised an eyebrow. She looked straight at me and bit her lip in one of the sexiest moments in my life. My cock was raging.
“I was a bad girl today,” she said in a whisper.
I was on her. I picked her up and she wrapped her legs around me with a delighted squeal. She started grinding against me and gasped in surprise as she felt my cock pressing up against her pussy. I pulled her down to me and then I was devouring her as I held her in my strong arms and carried her back towards the bedroom.
I tossed her down on the bed and she was so fucking hot as she leaned back looking up at me, looking like a forbidden workplace temptress. I was imagining him looking down at my gorgeous wife and thinking the same thoughts and that just made my cock rage even harder. It made the white hot lust that was burning inside me flare up even more.
I jumped on her and then I was grinding my cock against her once more as I leaned down to kiss her, only she put a hand against my chest and pushed me up. I wanted nothing more than to take my wife, to make out with her, but I held myself back. She was looking up at me with such a sexy lust fueled stare. Damn was she turned on!
Did I owe this to that guy? Was that the reason why she was so turned on right now? If so then that was fucking hot. It also caused that jealousy I’d been talking about to a flare up again, but that jealousy was part of the allure. Part of the arousal. That just made this forbidden scenario even hotter knowing that she was taking all of the sexual energy she’d gotten from whatever the hell had happened during their encounter earlier in the day and now she was pouring it into sex with me.
And still there was
a part of me that was disappointed that she was coming home to pour that sexual energy into me. There was a part of me that very much wanted her to take all of that sexual energy and let him pour it directly into her, if you catch my drift.
“What happened today?”
“He started feeling me up in the middle of a crowded elevator, surrounded by people from work and people from other parts of the building,” she said.
As she was talking I was undoing her blouse. Freeing her tits that looked a little red. As though somebody had been manhandling them.
“Did he feel your tits?”
“Fuck yeah,” she hissed. “His hands were all over me, unbuttoning my blouse and feeling me up with a crowd of people right in front of us. If anyone turned around they might’ve seen us! They’d definitely get a good look at my tits.”
I groaned and my eyes rolled into the back of my head. No time for unbuttoning the rest of her blouse. I could just go to the mall and get her a new one. I ripped it aside and her tits were free. She was lying there almost completely naked with just a bra covering her, her torn blouse to either side of her. She gasped and her hips bucked up to meet my cock as I ripped her blouse aside.
I moved down and started licking and kissing along her tits. Licking and kissing along those red spots I imagine he’d been moving his hands earlier in the day. It was making me feel lightheaded, so turned on, thinking that my mouth was covering territory that another man had been exploring on my wife just a few hours before in this insanely hot forbidden elevator tryst she was telling me about. This was hotter than any of the stories she’d come up with in the past week!
I stopped and pulled back from my attention on her tits. She looked up at me and I groaned in frustration, her breath coming in cute little gasps as she thrust her hips up towards me and tried to maintain some sort of sexual contact with my body. She looked so hot writhing under me, but that stray thought made me think of something.