by T V Hartwell
“Oh my God, stop. You’re starting to sound like Mom,” Amanda said.
Alex giggled. “Well, it’s true. You’ll rebound and you’ll be back on top. You watch.”
“That’s probably exactly what I need right now . . . to get me out of this funk. A good ol’ rebound.”
Alex snickered. “I think your rebound has been waiting in the wings for a while now.”
Knowing exactly to whom Alex was referring, “Yeah, maybe it’s time for him to come onstage,” Amanda said with a laugh.
* * *
Chapter Nineteen
After Jake had quickly found a place of his own, he promptly moved out of the Hollywood Hills bungalow he’d been sharing with Kirby for a little more than a year. The plan all along had been for him to move out after he and Amanda married. So he stuck with that plan, albeit not as a married man, but still single and very much the eligible bachelor.
Once news began to spread that Jake was no longer attached, women seemed to appear out of the woodwork, willing and ready to take a number to audition for the highly coveted role of girlfriend, future fiancée, even occasional booty call if that’s what it took to get their hands on the young, rich, sexy stud with the Stanford law degree and blue blood pedigree. A couple of female co-workers were among the first to make their move and catch Jake’s attention. One of them was Samantha Jamison, a first year associate, slender, petite, blond, and a USC law grad. Very much a Southern California girl, Samantha hailed from Newport Beach and liked to surf. She worked in the healthcare practice group so she and Jake did not directly work together, but the blond haired, blue eyed cutie had caught his attention from day one.
Jake was part of a team of second year associates responsible for helping to acclimate newbies like Samantha to the firm, a task which included spending time together socially during and after work. During these events, Jake and Samantha naturally gravitated toward one another with their shared interest in surfing and having a couple of mutual USC connections. At first it was entirely friendly and platonic as Samantha, like everyone else, knew that Jake was about to marry the beautiful and fabulously wealthy daughter of one of the firm’s biggest, most well-known clients. But after Samantha heard that Jake had broken things off, she eventually made her presence and availability more known to him.
It was nearing the end of October, and Jake appeared less stressed and taxed than he had been over the last month and a half. The big acquisition deal he’d been working on for months had successfully closed, his relationship with Amanda appeared to be completely over and behind him, and he’d begun the process of shedding himself of his intensely emotional and conflicted relationship with Kirby. For the first time in more than three weeks, he was able to join the first year associates he had been tasked with mentoring for happy hour.
They all headed across the street to one of their usual spots, the rooftop bar of The Standard hotel. The typical crowd of local and out of town hipsters along with young, smartly dressed, white-collar professionals spread about around the pool, some lounging on the assortment of waterbed pods—nursing cocktails and beers while mingling, chatting, flirting, and grooving to the sounds of a live DJ. The shimmering lights of the surrounding skyscrapers danced around them in the balmy evening’s glow.
Jake along with three other people huddled together in a corner engaged in animated conversation until Samantha walked over to steal him away. She slipped right up next to him and scraped the tip of her shoulder against the side of his right arm. “Hey,” she said with a bright smile on her face as she lightly touched Jake on the shoulder blade.
“Hey,” Jake said, returning her bright, inviting smile with his own. “What’s goin’ on?”
“I feel that we’ve been like ships passing in the night lately.”
“I know. I’ve been so busy these past few weeks. I haven’t had much time for anything but work,” Jake said. As he spoke, the three other people he’d been chatting with turned to socialize among themselves upon seeing how Samantha had commandeered Jake’s full attention.
“I heard that the Gateway deal closed. Congratulations,” she said.
“Yeah, finally. It got a little complicated in the end with a last minute transfer of liability issue that arose, but everything got worked out.”
“How great for you to have worked on such a big, multi-billion-dollar deal. That’s a feather in your cap. It looks like you’re being put on the fast track for partnership with projects like that.”
“I don’t know about all that,” Jake said bashfully. “I was a member of a team . . . a very, very junior member of the team,” he added with self-deprecating humor and facial expression.
“Oh, don’t be so modest. Take some credit. I’m quickly learning around here that if you don’t take it, at least a part of it, nobody’s going to give it to you voluntarily.”
“Really? Well, that’s not what I’d hoped to hear from someone who just joined the firm in August. I hope that you’re not being treated poorly or unfairly or anything.”
“No . . . that’s not what I meant to imply. Oh my gosh, I should be more careful about how I say things,” Samantha said, holding her hand over her mouth sheepishly and then giggling at herself. “No, I just mean in general, you’ve got to toot your own horn sometimes and not be afraid to point out your contributions and what you bring to the table. We will kind of be forced to do that anyway during our quarterly reviews, right? I think all of us first-years are feeling pressure to bill and to prove our value as much as possible during our rotations.”
“Oh, don’t get too worried and concerned about the quarterly reviews. That only happens during the first year and is meant to be more of a check-in to see how you’re feeling about your work and to help you identify your strengths and interests as you make your round of rotations. To be honest it’s more of a survey than a review . . . to see how enthusiastic you are about your work as you rotate between practice groups, because that could ultimately impact where you’re assigned after the first year.”
“Although I guess you’d want to show enthusiasm for all of them, right? It wouldn’t look too good if I whined about not liking my work or the lack of work in one particular area.”
“Yes, that would be the prudent approach,” Jake said with a sly grin. “I would strongly advise against complaining about lack of work, in particular, because the comeback will be how that time could have been spent researching the industries and clients the practice group mostly works with or proactively asking for work from partners or more senior associates. They’ll always turn complaints back on you and your initiative or lack thereof. Oh, and never complain about a partner, unless you’re being subjected to harassment, of course. In general, you want to keep them happy and be as enthusiastic as possible even when they give you the most boring, most mundane tasks to do.”
“I wouldn’t complain about a partner. I know better than that.”
“You’d be surprised. There was one guy who came on board when I did. He thought he was the shit because he graduated at the top of his law class and had all sorts of job offers from top law firms, etc., etc., but he went a little too far when he challenged a partner on a legal opinion he was asked to draft. He didn’t like her edits and said that her interpretation of the statute was incorrect and then he went to another partner to get his opinion and to see if he would side with him. I mean are you fucking kidding me?”
“Which partner was it . . . that he was challenging?”
“Leah Duncan.”
“Ooops,” Samantha blurted before covering her mouth to contain her mirth.
“I know, right? I can’t imagine why he thought that he could challenge her like that and get away with it.”
“Because she’s a woman. That’s why.”
“Well, he was dead wrong, in a major way.”
Samantha snickered. “Leah doesn’t seem like the kind of person you’d want to fuck with.”
“Exactly. She’s one of only three female pa
rtners in the LA office for God’s sake. I’m sure she went through hell and took a lot of shit to get to where she is and she wasn’t about to take that kind of treatment from a smart ass, first year associate who thought he was God’s gift to the legal profession.”
“So what happened to him? Did he get fired?”
“Not exactly fired, but he saw the handwriting on the wall. He was a marked man and he knew it. No other partner wanted to work with him after that and once he saw that he wasn’t going to get the plum job assignment he thought he was entitled to, in the practice group he preferred, he ended up leaving.”
“I’m surprised he wasn’t dressed down and shown the door.”
“Well, Duchovany has a more genteel, non-confrontational way of handling things. It’s kind of like an old boys club for lack of a better term. If you screw up or if you’re not liked, you’ll get blackballed and people will start avoiding you until you slowly wither away, or they’ll make it so that you’re not able to meet your performance goals in which case you’d be forced out.”
“So how does it feel, now that you’re in your second year as an associate here?”
“I like it. I like it a lot, actually. I’m doing exactly what I wanted and hoped to do. My dad was a corporate transactions lawyer before he became general counsel at THC Global and I wanted to be one too. It kind of rubbed off on me, I guess. I really like working on deals—mergers, acquisitions, private equity stuff.”
“But how’s your social life?”
Jake laughed at the implication, rather intended or not, that he didn’t appear to have one. “So what are you saying?”
Samantha laughed along. “I mean . . . oh my gosh . . . I’m really putting my foot in my mouth tonight, aren’t I?” she said as she continued to laugh at herself. “Anyway, you know what I mean.”
“I don’t know if I do actually,” he said, rubbing his chin and feigning offense with a curious glare.
“Jake!” she said, stomping her foot and playing cute.
“Okay, okay. I know what you meant. I’m just giving you a hard time.”
“You know . . . I mean you seem to put in a lot of hours.”
“Well, I have recently. Whenever there’s a big deal like that going on you can expect to be working round the clock practically. But the beauty about transactional work is that it ebbs and flows. Sometimes things can be pretty slow and low key and other times it can feel like you’re in the middle of a tsunami. On the whole, I’m pretty happy with my work-life balance.”
“Do you go out a lot?”
“Yeah, I do. Not as much as I used to, but—”
“But you’re no longer engaged, right?”
“Right. I guess that means I probably should start puttin’ myself out there more . . . so I can meet new people, right?” he said whimsically before taking a sip of his beer.
“Well, you don’t have to. . . I mean, perhaps you have other options in front you,” she said with a once-over glance that was subtle yet unmistakably suggestive.
“What about you? Do you go out a lot?”
“Sometimes,” Samantha said coyly.
“Are you dating anyone?”
“No,” she said flatly.
“Sounds like you and I are in same boat. I guess we both should start coming to places like this more often.”
“Eh,” she said dismissively.
“Eh?”
“I don’t typically find the kind of guys I like at bars.”
“So what kind of guys do you like?”
“Oh, I like guys that are smart, who have a sense of passion and drive for what they do, but who are also athletic and into being outdoors, you know what I mean? Especially into outdoor sports, like surfing,” she said, dropping a hint that Jake was the type she was describing.
“Hmmm, I think I know a few guys like that,” Jake said with a chuckle. “Maybe I should hook you up.”
“Don’t you like to surf?”
“I do.”
“Okay, then maybe you should hook me up with you first,” she said, giggling at herself and blushing.
“That can be arranged,” Jake said as he grinned and stared back, looking her over.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Was that being too forward?” Samantha asked, still giggly.
“No, not at all,” Jake said, as he scanned around the crowded outdoor space to see how many other associates from the firm were still there and maybe watching them.
“So what kind of girls do you like?” Samantha asked, licking her lips and giving Jake a sultry stare.
Before he answered, Jake paused for a moment to make sure he was reading the situation he suddenly found himself in correctly. You want to fuck me, don’t you? he asked in his mind, but expressed with his eyes. Upon seeing how her eyes stared and answered back in the affirmative, he made his move. “I like girls who surf.”
* * *
Chapter Twenty
Beginning to feel hot and bothered, plus a little too cramped on the rooftop of The Standard, Jake and Samantha decided to leave together. They continued to talk and flirt with one another playfully as they stepped out of the hotel doors and walked across the street toward the office building where they worked. Once they made their way down the escalators to the alcove that led to the underground garage, they stood and faced one another.
“So where are you headed?” Jake asked.
“I don’t know. Where are you headed?” she retorted snappily.
“I’m going home unless you have a better idea.”
Not wanting to appear easy or too pushy, Samantha played coy. “Oh, okay. Well, since I must be boring company, I guess I should probably do the same,” she said, pulling her hair and looking at Jake as if he’d just rejected her advances.
Jake grinned. “Come on . . . that’s not what I said. You’re not boring at all.”
“Yeah?” she said, pouting her lips in sultry fashion, looking him up and down while still pulling on her hair.
“No. In fact you’re quite the opposite, and I like your company.”
“You do?” she said with a smile.
“Yeah, I do,” Jake said as he stepped toward her, looking straight into her eyes.
She allowed him to pursue by not stepping toward him in return, but her eyes said it all, conveying exactly what she wanted him to do. With their faces inches apart, Jake touched the tip of his nose to hers and then his lips met hers. She lifted her chin to press her mouth more intently to his and then he reached to hold her face with both his hands as their kisses became more fervent and intense. “You want to hang out?” he stopped and said, now aroused and hungry for more. He had found Samantha attractive since the day they’d first met, and he had been curious to know what it would be like to bed her. Now that he was no longer attached, he felt pleased at how quickly and easily the opportunity fell into his hands. Besides, he hadn’t had any pussy since before he called things off with Amanda nearly two months before, so he felt that he was more than overdue for a good lay.
“Yeah. Let’s hang out,” she said, before asserting herself and pressing her lips back to his.
***
After caravanning to Jake’s new apartment, hot kisses quickly turned into hot sex with Jake laid flat on his back in bed, butt naked, his lean, muscular legs stretched out and slightly spread apart and Samantha straddling him doing all of the work and not seeming to mind one bit. “Ah . . . that’s it. Fuck me,” Jake said encouraging her as she bounced herself up and down on his erect tool with increasing vigor and excitement at his command.
“Oh, baby . . . yeah. Just like that. Use me like a surfboard,” he teased.
She giggled and smiled broadly as she worked herself into sexual delirium, pleasuring Jake and herself at the same time and appearing to enjoy every moment of having the stud happily beneath her. “Oh my God, you are so beautiful,” she said as she pressed and rubbed her hands to Jake’s well defined and sculpted chest.
Jake grinned and responded to her praise and adm
iration by switching things up a bit, raising and bending his legs at the knees putting his feet flat to the bed as he pumped his hips rapidly, ravishing her sex with his cock. He loved hearing Samantha scream in rapture as he rammed his length inside her deep and hard. He watched her as she became overcome with the pleasure and titillation of his thrusts, lifting her hands to run through her hair and then down to squeeze her breasts as she allowed herself to get lost in the ecstasy of the moment.
Jake flipped her over to her back and then he went down on her, tasting and tantalizing her with his tongue. He stopped and pushed her legs wider apart to get a better view. “Beautiful,” he said simply, before then spreading her opening with his fingers to insert his tongue into her more deeply and then torturing her clit with long, hard sucks and tugs, sending shivers up and down her spine and causing her body to tremble.
Not yet done with her, Jake helped her as she turned and rose to her knees so that he could take her from behind. He slapped and spread her ass cheeks as he pounded his sex into hers, first slow and easy then moving into more rapid and forceful thrusts. In between bursts of screams, “Fuck yeah, spank me. Spank me more,” she pleaded as she pushed herself back into him, their lightly sweaty bodies slapping together in synchronicity. Jake liked that Samantha was a screamer and vocal during sex. It turned him on even more.
As he approached climax Jake moaned and began to shout expletives more loudly. Panting heavily, his chest rose and fell with each breath and the muscles and veins in his arms became more pronounced from the rush of adrenaline and exertion of physical energy, and then he hurriedly announced, “I’m going to come, I’m going to come.”
He pulled out of her and then quickly pulled off his condom to stroke himself to completion. However, without his prodding or request, Samantha turned on her knees toward him and expertly took his cock into her mouth, indicating exactly where she wanted his load to land. Although the unexpected invitation caught him by surprise, Jake was thrilled nonetheless and happily obliged as he thrust into her mouth, screaming his release.