by Louisa Neil
“Want to race back to the house?” Alice suggested.
“No. I’m going to walk back to cool down.”
“I’ll meet you in an hour. Will that be enough time for you to walk back and shower?”
“Go, get on your way, smart-ass.” Jeff laughed when she turned, bent forward, and shook her butt at him. “All right, I give. It’s a nice ass. Now leave me alone with my misery.” She gave him a wave as she jogged off. He could hear her laughing as she left.
Jeff stood and groaned. His cock was hard. One little wiggle of Alice’s ass and he’d gone from semi-erect to a full-on hard-on. That hadn’t happened in a long time. Usually they worked together without sexual tension. Today he was tense. Maybe it was the way her breasts swayed under her T-shirt. Or maybe it was because Naomi wasn’t around to take care of his needs. As he walked back to the house, he realized in the last month, their sex life had gone downhill. They both claimed they were busy getting ready for the move. For his part, he was just busy. He wasn’t sure why Naomi had backed away from him. “Just finishing work,” he said aloud as he jogged up the front steps.
In the shower he began to count back. When was the last time he’d made love to Naomi? When was the last time they’d had sex? It had been a while, he decided, and he stroked his cock with a soapy hand until he shot his load. Somewhat refreshed from the shower and temporarily relived from his jerking off, he headed downstairs to meet his friends. The one thing he did know for sure was he couldn’t start looking at Alice in a sexual way under any circumstances. Living and working in the same home would throw them together more than usual, and he knew Naomi never understood how they could work together and not be sleeping together.
While he continued to reassure Naomi he wasn’t attracted to Alice in that way, he neglected to mention the short, intense relationship they’d had during her last semester of graduate school. He’d been out teaching for several years when they met. Thankfully, she had never been one of his students. When they decided to work together, they agreed they couldn’t have sexual contact and get anything done. He knew Alice disagreed and would have slept with him and Mason if the mood struck. When they did start the lab, they both began dating other people, so it wasn’t an issue. And it wouldn’t become an issue now. To this day he didn’t how Naomi found out about their time together. He knew neither Alice nor Mason would have told her. It was only when she threw the affair in Alice’s face he realized she knew.
He respected Alice as a woman and a friend. Not to mention the fiancée he had arriving shortly. He knew Mason was aware of their youthful affair, but he’d never brought it up or let on that he was jealous of the time they had spent together. Jeff knew Alice had had an affair with Mason when he approached them about his business idea. At that time they decided to end their affair for the sake of working together. He wondered on occasion if Alice and Mason got together, but it wasn’t his business. When they were in the lab they were all professionals. Just because he got an erection this morning when she shook her butt at him didn’t mean anything. He had remembered how he’d taken Alice from behind over the small kitchen table in his old apartment years before to facilitate his coming in the shower this morning. He knew he should have been thinking about Naomi, but this image filled his mind, so he used it as a catalyst to come.
* * * *
The rest of the day he refused to think about the past in any way. The three of them piled into his uncle’s old Lincoln, stored in the garage along with several sports cars that Theo thought he couldn’t live without. The old Lincoln purred to life. It was like driving a truck, but he got the hang of it quickly, along with the width of the vehicle. He also decided to sell the sports cars before Naomi arrived and decided she couldn’t live without them. Two-seater vehicles weren’t reasonable for his new way of life.
He called the lawyer when they hit town to see which car dealer he recommended. Their first stop was to negotiate the sale of the Ferrari, Maserati, and the MG. Alice, Mason, and he each chose the vehicle they would feel comfortable driving. By the time they left, there were three large, four-wheel-drive vehicles scheduled to be dropped off the next day when the other vehicles were picked up. He allowed himself one concession. He kept the four-door Jaguar for Naomi to use. He knew she’d seen the other vehicles the last time they were there and was talking about him teaching her to drive the sporty vehicles. Jeff hated to drive with her in the car she did know how to drive. She was reckless and abused speed limits. She often drove distracted, thinking everyone else should clear a path for her because she was on the phone or texting. He could only hope she would relax a bit on the curving back roads.
They enjoyed lunch and shopped the local area stores. As a last resort, they spent the rest of the afternoon at a movie, a creepy zombie feature. Mason was in all his glory watching the gory film. Alice went along with the choice, mainly so she could nap in the dark theatre. Jeff went just to kill time. He’d checked his phone for messages every half hour, and still nothing from Naomi.
At home, they shared another of Cook’s wonderful meals and retired to the living room to watch television. After a few sitcoms and more popcorn, Alice headed to bed. Mason wasn’t far behind her, citing all the work they had to do tomorrow when the moving trucks arrived. Jeff left one last message for Naomi on the way to his bedroom. One side of him was slightly worried something had happened to her. The other side of him was annoyed with her that she couldn’t find the time to make a simple phone call. But he remembered how often he’d waited for her to call. Her excuses were always plausible, but he always felt she could give his feelings a bit more credence.
When he’d decided to marry her, he’d thought long and hard about her dismissive attitude toward him when she was busy with work. She reminded him of the missed dates and calls when he was working in the lab. So he’d made his choice, bought a ring, and decided she’d be a good wife for him, personally and professionally. When he first met her, she likened herself to Rita Hayworth. He saw a resemblance with the hairstyle, but she didn’t have the bone structure or simple kindness to her features to be as stunning as Rita Hayworth. It also made him pause every time she mentioned the resemblance. Apparently, it was the appearance she wanted to project.
Naomi excelled at several things. She could talk a client into a design they hated because she thought it was right for the space. She knew how to throw a party and how to work a crowd toward her own end. Several times she’d managed to acquire funding for their work in the beginning. Those were the early days, when they were madly in love and willing to overlook the small inconsistencies of their daily life. He decided he loved her. She was always telling him she loved him. When he’d formally asked her to marry him, she said yes. But he knew her yes hung on the ring he was about to present her with. He never told her Alice had helped him pick out the stone and the setting. Alice promised she’d go to her grave with the secret. Jeff believed her. Hell, he trusted Alice more than he trusted Naomi in all instances. That worried him on one level, but he hoped once they were living together, they’d fall into a natural rhythm.
In the privacy of his own master suite, he tossed the phone on the bed and headed to the shower. He found she’d called him back precisely when he was in the shower. Her message sounded short to his ear. “So busy, try to call tomorrow, etc.” There was no “I love you” or “I miss you.” It sounded more like a business call than a message from a lover. It bothered Jeff, but he dismissed it to his own unsettled mood. He needed to work, and then he’d get back to his normal personality, and the little things like phone messages wouldn’t hound him.
That night in his king-size bed, he started jerking off again. He hadn’t pictured Naomi, rather remembered how Alice had sucked his cock in his computer lab one night after the rest of the employees had left. It was a lifetime ago, but to his memory it could have been last week. Part of it was for relief, and part of it was for the idea of being caught. He remembered how she’d opened her blouse and dropped to
her knees, sucking him until he came. He remembered how she’d used one hand to rub her own clit while taking him down her throat.
“Damn,” he said when he came on his belly, embarrassed by his actions only slightly. What bothered him most was using the old memory of Alice and him. He began to wonder if she did similar things with Mason when he wasn’t around and dismissed the thought. He couldn’t become jealous, especially since he was the one planning to get married. He woke the next morning with his cum dried on his stomach. While he wanted to be embarrassed, he found he wasn’t. The rumbling of large trucks interrupted his thoughts. He jumped into a quick shower, pulled on old jeans and a T-shirt, and pushed his feet into old sneakers.
When he made it downstairs, he saw Alice was already in charge of the moving men and the unloading of their equipment. Mason was in the lab, pointing to where each carton or crate should be placed. It was easy to forget about sex with all the confusion. They spent the rest of the day and well into the night uncrating equipment and testing each machine. The following days went buy in a blur of grabbing sandwiches and living on endless pots of coffee as each machine was connected to the next. By Sunday, they were all exhausted but proud of themselves. Tomorrow morning they would start back to work.
He’d missed Naomi’s call that night. Again she’d left a curt message, and it annoyed him there was nothing personal mentioned. He’d been ready to confront her about it, but his call went directly to voice mail. That pissed him off, too. Jeff decided he was being ridiculous. She was busy, and he was bored. That would change tomorrow when he got back to work.
* * * *
Jeff woke to the smell of coffee, coffee that wasn’t burnt, which meant someone other than Alice or Mason had made it. “Marilyn’s back, and so is Cook,” he said with a smile. Pulling on clothes, he bolted down to the kitchen, hugging both women and welcoming them back to Hudson House. Within minutes he had a full breakfast before him that he demolished in no time. Mason joined him, enjoying the meal. Alice only drank coffee until noon. He learned she’d been there, taken a thermos of the hearty brew with her, and was already in the lab.
The next few days sailed by for Jeff. He no longer stewed over the lack of contact with Naomi. He became engrossed with the work they were doing, and if Marilyn hadn’t brought them lunch on a tray, they probably wouldn’t have stopped to eat. Their one concession was to retire each night to eat supper together. It had been decided before the move that they had to have that steadfast rule since they now lived and worked in the same location. That didn’t mean one or all of them didn’t bring a laptop or notebook to the table, only that they all left the lab.
Cook made it easy to leave, her meals the highlight of their days. Jeff made a point of telling her and Marilyn often how thankful he was that they’d returned. Even Mason was complimenting the meals and how the house seemed to run on autopilot around them. Alice was forming her own bonds with the women.
He cringed when he realized Naomi would never attempt to bond with Marilyn or Cook. Instead, he was afraid she’d treat them like the hired help, which they were. But he always felt they got along because he didn’t remind them of their place in the household. He made a mental note to remind Naomi to be nice to them or she’d be overseeing the household, something that would make her cringe at the mention.
Naomi was not domestic in any way. She knew how to bark out orders and reprimand when things weren’t done to her satisfaction. If anything was going to blow up about this major life change for all of them, it would be Naomi alienating the staff and his partners. But his own work sidetracked his thoughts over the next days. By Thursday, they were all settled and working to their full potential. It dawned on him then that he hadn’t even thought about Naomi in days. Neither had she called him. Then again, he hadn’t called her!
The next morning they contracted for a new program design for a Manhattan company that wanted to streamline their accounting processes. Busy wasn’t a word they used. Immersed was a better term for their attentions. There was only one problem for Jeff. When he was near Alice, he found it hard not to drop a hand on her shoulder or push a strand of her blonde hair from her face. He also found he was watching how Mason touched her in passing. He’d never been jealous of their relationship, and he berated himself for feeling that way now. But he couldn’t help it. It hadn’t been this way when they were working in their old lab, so why now, he wondered.
The answer was simple. Alice appreciated Hudson House and the land as much as he did. She and Mason had begun taking long walks around the gardens while working through a problem. He’d gone with them several times, always amazed how she became sidetracked by the views. They were learning the species of trees, bushes, and plants. When Alice was in work mode, nothing mattered except the work. In the last weeks, he’d seen her take a step back occasionally to enjoy the land. She seemed much more grounded these days. It wasn’t something he could picture Naomi doing.
Over the next days, he received a short e-mail each morning. They were just as curt as Naomi’s phone messages. The thing was, he really didn’t care anymore. With that realization, he left the lab, something that rarely happened. Outside he stood overlooking the Hudson River, trying to remember when and why he fell in love with Naomi. He couldn’t think of a reason, only that after awhile dating, they’d just become comfortable. Getting engaged and married seemed the next logical steps, only now he wasn’t feeling logical, he was feeling lust for his business partner, Alice. He tried to wipe away the idea but couldn’t. Being here pronounced the differences in the women. It wasn’t fair since Naomi wasn’t there, but he didn’t see her easily slipping into an easy life on the estate.
Jeff began to wonder if he wanted to marry Naomi and spend the rest of his days dealing with her moods. In that moment, he realized there were a lot of things they’d have to settle before actually making it legal, topics that should have been settled long before this. It was another realization that every time he’d tried to have a serious discussion about their futures, she’d interrupt the conversation with sex. Not that he was complaining, but he accepted he’d taken the easy route delaying their conversations. Now he had to make a decision. Did he still want to marry Naomi? Before he said anything to anyone, he decided he had to think long and hard about his future.
Back in the lab, Alice and Mason working so easily together made him jealous. He had no right to be, but it was the emotion he was feeling. They weren’t overtly sexual in front of him, but he began to wonder if they were a couple behind closed doors. There was nothing he could do about it. If they were involved, they were keeping it very discreet. In the long run, he decided if they became a couple, it might give Naomi a reason to back off her objections of having had both Alice and Mason make the move.
Chapter Four
Three weeks into their move, a telegram arrived for Jeff. The first thought was that some legal wrangling had gone on and he had to leave Hudson House. The idea turned his stomach. In the weeks they’d been there, he’d found a small slice of heaven and was loath to give it up. That he felt only relief when reading the telegram was startling and surreal. It was short and to the point as only Naomi could be.
Not coming. Eloped with David in Vegas last night. Keeping the ring.
That was it. Naomi was curt even when dissolving their engagement, short and to the point. Had he wondered if she’d been having an affair? Not really, but that was mainly because he was so busy. He’d been introduced to David on several occasions and always thought of him as slick and self-serving. Exactly like Naomi could be at times. He started to smile then laughed aloud. “Dodged that bullet,” he said, rereading the telegram. The time away from her had made him realize their relationship was mainly one of convenience. He wanted more from his life partner. If that meant not marrying Naomi, better they found out now instead of a year or two down the road. At least this way she had no claim to Hudson House. Of course the prenuptial agreement they’d had written up stipulated that, but he alway
s wondered if she’d try to get her hands on the place, if only to screw him.
“I’m so relieved,” he said, realizing he truly was.
Mason was the first to acknowledge Jeff’s muttering. “What’s going on?”
“It seems Naomi isn’t coming.” He handed the telegram to Mason. He read it twice and handed it back.
“I’m sorry, Jeff. How do you want to handle this?”
“Handle what?” Alice asked, realizing they weren’t discussing work.
“Naomi married David yesterday in Vegas. Needless to say, she won’t be relocating.” Jeff handed her the telegram. She glanced at it and cursed.
“That bitch,” she said. “How dare she think she can keep your engagement ring.”
“The ring is the last of my worries. Besides, what else would I do with it? If I ever find another woman I want to marry, I wouldn’t give her that ring just for general principles.”
Alice was quick to respond. “You could sell it and get your money back.”
“It’s just money, Alice. Let it go. I can. As far as I’m concerned, it was a light price to pay. If we’d married, and in the future she decided to leave, she would have wanted a piece of the business and the house.”
“I thought your prenuptial specifically guarded against that?” She leaned on the corner of a work table, watching him intently.
“She would have found a way,” Mason said and then seemed embarrassed by verbalizing his private thought. “I’m sorry. That was rude. I know you loved her.”
“I guess I did.” Jeff tossed the yellow piece of paper onto the desk beside him. “But I’m realizing that I’m not that upset. What does that say about our relationship? To be honest, between us, these least weeks we’ve been so productive, I was beginning to dread her arrival. I knew when she came here, things would change.”