by Simone Leigh
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Stanton says “We know who and where he is, but we’ve never managed to pin anything on him. If we pulled him in, do you think you could pick him out of a line-up?”
“I think so, yes.”
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“It’s mirrored glass. They can’t see you.”
I stare through at nine men; similar heights, comparable faces, easy to confuse. But I have no doubts.
“That’s him.” I point.
“You sure of that? You don’t want to think about it?”
“No, I’m sure. That’s him.”
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“You were quite correct, Charlotte, and quite sure of yourself. We would like to show you some more photos now, of people known to be associated with this man. Are you comfortable with that?”
“That’s fine.”
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Several hours, and pints of coffee later, I have five more faces for them. Stanton seems…. delighted is the wrong word, given the context, but certainly very pleased.
“Charlotte. I can’t thank you enough. With your evidence, we have enough to put a case together, and take this to court. Our only problem is that we know the locations of two of them, but not of the others, so we can’t simply bring them all in.”
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Michael
Breakfast at home: over toast, juice and coffee, Charlotte’s phone beeps.
She barely looks at it, obviously knowing what the tone is.
“S’cuse me.” she mutters, vanishing into the bedroom, leaving her phone on the table.
James’ eyes meet with mine, his expression quizzical. I lean over, looking at her phone screen.
“What is it?” he asks.
“Mmm… Calendar Reminder…. ‘Take your pill’”
He nods, looking thoughtful. We sit in awkward silence for a few seconds.
“You think she wants children?” he asks.
“Not sure. Certainly, she’s not mentioned it, so I’m guessing she’s not interested right now. In a few years, who knows?”
After another pause…. “And, do you?”
“It’s a big house…”
James stares into space, looking pensive.
Time to take the bull by the horns.
“James…”
“Mmm?”
“For the avoidance of doubt…. If Charlotte should fall pregnant, I will adopt, in the womb, any child she bears…”
He glances up for a second, no more, then drops his eyelids in acknowledgment, looking happier.
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Charlotte
Down in my small office in the Haswell Building, nothing else being asked of me just now, I am busy with a college assignment. There is a knock.
“Door’s open…”
A familiar face appears. “Hello, Charlotte. They told me you were down here. I was in the area, so I thought I’d call by.”
It is Daniel, originally introduced to me by my Master and Michael for one of our ‘parties’. However, he blotted his copy-book the last time we met, by making an unsubtle attempt to tempt me away from my two Lovers. He has not been invited into my company since.
And I am not comfortable with him turning up, unbidden, in my office; just the two of us.
“Hello, Daniel. What can I do for you?”
“I thought you might like to go out for a drink this evening? Or dinner perhaps?”
“No thanks. I’m busy.”
“Another evening then?”
“No. Daniel, you know that I’m with James and Michael. I don’t fool around.” I hold up my left hand, displaying my ring finger with its twinned bands of yellow, red and white gold.
He tilts his head, looking at me askance. “You don’t fool around? The last time I met you, you were fooling around with three of us. And the first time, as I recall, there were five of us.”
“That’s different. It was with James and Michael. If you want to play, you have to ask them.”
Very uncomfortable now, I gather my text and notes together. “You’ll have to excuse me. I have an appointment in a few minutes.” I’m lying, and doubtless Daniel knows it. I squeeze by him out of the office, making my way up to the canteen, where I can work in a more public place.
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“You’ve missed a bit.”
“Have I?” My Master peers sideways in the mirror, and I stroke his face where a little stubble has escaped his razor.
“Ah, yes. Thank you.”
“You seem nervous?”
He rocks his head one way and the other. “I’m always a bit edgy when there’s a meeting with the Thorntons. Thornton Junior is a bit of a firebrand, and I’m still the new boy, seniority-wise.”
Finishing his shave, he buttons on a shirt and puts on his tie. He’s all fingers and thumbs. After watching him, three times, trying to get the tie straight, I turn him at the shoulders, undo the tie and re-knot it for him.”
“Who are the Thorntons, Master?”
“They’re Haswell’s major shareholders in the City Project. Thornton Senior runs the show from their end. Thornton Junior thinks he does.”
“Richard has the larger shareholding though?”
“Yes. Jaye Thornton, the son, wasn’t happy about it apparently, but his ego was appeased by quite a lot of the Project being named after his father.”
I laugh. “The famously fragile male ego?”
“Mmm. Perhaps.” His smile is wry. “Interesting you should put it like that. Apparently, the idea to do it that way came from Beth.”
“Are you a shareholder?”
“I am now. It was part of the directorship deal. Haswell likes to have all his associates on board one way or another.”
“To keep all the interests aligned?”
“Yup.”
“And you wanted it that way?”
“Of course I did. Even as a minor shareholder, it’s worth a great deal of money…. After all, I have a wife de facto to support.” He gives me a half wink.
“I think you would have wanted it anyway, Master, with or without a wife; de facto or otherwise.”
He flashes eyebrows at me, grinning, but then turns serious. “You’ll be fine, Charlotte. You have me, as well as Michael. And that’s before you’ve even started earning properly in your own right. You’re never going to be short of money again. You can choose your life, rather than having it thrust upon you.”
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Up in Reception, my Master vanishes into his office to fetch the files he needs for the meeting. I am about to leave for my own office when Richard flags me down from the Conference Room.
“Charlotte, don’t disappear. Fetch your notebook. I want you as Meeting Secretary for this one.”
I follow him in, along with the rest of the attendees, trying to identify the Thorntons. I assume that they are the two men, one elderly, one much younger, who sit to one side of Richard.
Another man, whom I don’t recognise, starts to seat himself several chairs away, then sees me. He looks again, very unsubtly checking me out. I look away, but he moves from his original seat to the one next to mine. He does not however, sit in it.
Instead, he perches on the edge of the desk next to me. He’s good-looking, in an oily sort of way, but his smile is pasted on, fake.
“Well. Hi there. You’re new, aren’t you?”
“Fairly new, yes.” I make a show of arranging my notebook, ready to take the minutes. and trying to display my be-ringed left hand.
He slides closer to me on the desktop, and I lean backwards, “And what’s your name again?” he asks, his voice oily. “I didn’t catch it.”
“That’s because I hadn’t given it. And it’s Conners.”
Still smarmy; “No, I meant your first name?”
“Ms.” I snap.
He holds out his hand, still with his fake smile. “I’m Ewan.”
Reluctantly, I take it, shaking briefly. His hand is damp.
“Nice ring.” he says.
“Isn’t it?”
Thank God! Surely, he’ll take the hint now?
“Would you be interested in lunch later?”
He notices my ring, and still he asks?
“Yes, I’d be very interested, but not with you, thank you.”
Finally, flushing, he backs off, seating himself a couple of chairs away further along, his expression angry.
Have I overstepped the mark? Richard must have heard the exchange from the top of the table. I see him looking at me over his glasses.
“Are you ready, Miss Conners?” he asks.
‘Miss Conners’? It’s always been Charlotte before.
“Yes, I am, Sir.”
“Fine. I think almost everyone is here…. Ah James, there you are….”
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When the meeting is finished, my Master accompanies the Thorntons out. “I’ll see you at lunch then, Richard.”
I am about to leave myself when, “Charlotte, a moment please.”
Oh, Hell. Am I in trouble again….?
“Yes, Mr Haswell?”
Again, he looks at me over his spectacles, this time sucking in his cheeks against a smile. “I just wanted to say, Charlotte, that I appreciate that sort of thing puts you in an awkward position. I did consider blasting him myself. His behaviour was very inappropriate. However, I think you will do better by, for the most part, fighting your own battles.”
I let out my breath.
Hadn’t realised I was holding it….
“You look relieved?”
I dance from one foot to the other. “Thought I was in trouble again for a minute.”
He rubs his nose. “Not from me Charlotte. You handled it rather well I thought, left him stinging. But, trouble? You’re going to have that kind of trouble to deal with all the time.”
“Er, didn’t mean from you actually. From… er….” My eyes trail out of the office.
Richard follows my gaze. “From James? Sorry, but he’s going to have to learn to deal with it too….”
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I curse, muttering to myself as my laptop hums and flickers. Obliged to twiddle my thumbs for a while, I startle as I look up.
My Master leans against the door frame, smiling down at me. He looks elegant in his suit, which fits his long frame well.
“Aren’t you several floors away from your zone? The Directors’ Empire is on the Fifth Floor if memory serves.”
Sucking in his cheeks, “Oh, just thought I’d wander down and sexually harass some of the minions… one of them anyway. Problems?” He nods down at my laptop.
“It’s just decided to run an update, right when I was in the middle of something. Everything ground to a halt….” Exasperated. “Did you have this problem as a student?”
He snorts in laughter. “Computing has moved on a bit since I was a student. Home computers weren’t even envisaged then. They taught us on the university mainframe; Fortran, using punched cards…”
I gape. “Punched cards? You’re joshing me…”
Shaking his head, laughing, “No, I’m perfectly serious. We had one piece of work, a test-piece, writing the program for solving an equation by iteration. It meant breaking down the steps and individually punching the cards. It took me hours. Then my ‘friend’ decided to nudge my elbow and I dropped the lot. They scattered everywhere…. I had to do the whole thing again.”
“Couldn’t you just sort them back into order?”
He rolls his eyes to the heavens. “Imagine trying to sort out a pack of playing cards, but there’s no pictures, just holes in the cards giving you a code for what the picture is…”
I burst out laughing. “It puts my problems into perspective, doesn’t it?”
“Indeed, it does.” he says, smiling, then his face turns serious. “Listen, Charlotte. I came down here because there’s something I need to talk to you about…”
He sounds worried.
“Master?”
“I’ve been talking with Will Stanton. He’s concerned that with you giving evidence against the traffickers, but some of them still being at large, you may be…. at risk....”
“I know that. But I took it on board when I agreed to help…”
“Yes, but….” He is clearly uncomfortable about what he has to say. “……. they would like you to stay close by for the moment, so you can have protection.”
His meaning begins to penetrate. “Close by? You mean, here? They don’t want me to go back to the University?”
“That’s right.”
“But I can’t not go back. I’d miss lectures. I’d get behind on my work…. After everything I did to get there….”
“We’ll sort out some other arrangements.” he says. “I don’t want you away from here until this whole thing is sorted out, one way or another.”
“But Master, I got to go back.”
“No, Charlotte. You don’t. I don’t want you to go. And you’re not going, for now at least. And that’s the end of it. I expect you to obey me in this….”
I look away, swallowing hard.
“Was that a yes?”
He holds my chin, making me look him in the eye.
“Is that a yes?” he repeats. “You will not try to return to the University until we have made arrangements for you to be safe?”
I don’t speak. I try changing the subject.
I eye him.
He hesitates. “What’s that look for?”
“I thought I was going to be sexually harassed? I’m not feeling very harassed so far….”
“Is that right? I might just push this door closed and spread you on the desk….”
I can’t suppress my grin, nor he. I see the slant to his eye. He knows that I’m trying to distract him, but he goes for it.
We stare at each other, neither looking away. Clicking the door locked behind him, he stands over me, then grabbing me by the wrists, pulls me upright and into his embrace.
Kicking the chair away from behind me, he pushes me up against the wall, pulling my arms above my head. I slam backwards, he, grabbing a fistful of my hair. My hands flat against the plaster, I accidentally bang the light switch, which blinks on, then off once more as my fingers knock it off again…
Leaning in close to me, he presses my wrists tight against the wall. “Don’t move.” he mutters. “You want harassment? Let’s see what we can do…”
Carefully, so as not to disturb the order of anything, he lifts my books and notes from the desk, placing them on a bookshelf, then places my laptop next to them.
The desk cleared, he seizes me again by the wrists, swinging me around, pushing me rearwards down onto the desk. All but atop me, still stretching my arms over my head, he presses me down at the chest with the heel of his hand. “Are you going to stay like that, or do I have to tie you?”
My breath juddering. “I’ll stay, Master.”
There’s a gleam in his eye as he pushes my skirt upwards around my waist, displaying my panties, already staining dark with my arousal.
He stands up straight, taking off his jacket. “Now,” he says, looking down, dark eyed at me, “Do I lick you out first, or just fuck you where you lie….?”
“…. Too good an opportunity to miss….” he continues. Then, kneeling at the end of the desk, between my legs, he swings my feet over onto his shoulders, pressing his face into my panties. I hear him breathing in, scenting me, his face nuzzling against me. His fingers slide behind the fabric, scissoring open my lips, presenting my clit to his teeth as he nibbles at me through the fabric.
I squeal and buck. Immediately he stands, removing his tie. Binding my wrists together with the tie, he stretches my arms backwards down the desk, attaching the other end of the tie to the desk legs. Then, quick
ly pulling my panties down, he stuffs them into my mouth. “Exciting as it might be, this is not the place to start making noises and get caught in flagrante…”
Then he resumes his position, kneeling between my legs.
Now, with free access to me, he pulls open my lips and pussy, double-handedly, stretching me wide, the thumb of one hand pushing back the sheath of my clit. For a moment or so, he pauses, breathing warm over my exposed sex, then, very delicately, he traces the outline of my clit with the tip of his tongue.
Trying hard to remain still, to remain quiet; nonetheless, I moan through my stuffed mouth, my hips shivering and jerking.
He continues his work, lapping at my twitching bud, sending sweet pleasure stabbing through me. Continuously working me, he slips a finger inside my pussy, which clutches at him in response, then a second finger, and a third.
Now with his mouth wrapped around my clit, he sucks at me, circling all the time with his tongue, and the fingers rub up inside me at my sweet spot. My spiral up to climax is rapid, and the juddering of my hips quickly turns to the pangs of orgasm, blooming out in a slow vibrating wave from my fluttering pussy. It flows in waves, over my thighs, my belly, to wash over my calves and ankles, breasts and neck.
As I arch and cry out, muffled through my gag. He plants his mouth over my pussy, fucking me with his tongue, swiping around the inner muscles as I spasm and gush into his mouth.
As I relax, he rises, unbelts, unzips and releases his erection. Leaning over and into me he plunges in deep. Lying atop me, thrusting hard, he pulls the pants from my mouth, kissing me hard, open mouthed, then claps his hand over my lips.
I want to move with him, to take him into me more deeply, but my position is awkward, feet dangling over the end of the desk, and I can gain no traction. Instead, I must simply lie here, passive as he fucks me.
His eyes meet with mine, and he smiles a bright, white grin before, teeth clenched, he groans, and head dropping to my chest, he presses hard against me, juddering as he spills inside me.
He lies still, when outside, in the corridor, is the sound of a vacuum cleaner. Quickly, he stands, rezipping and rebelting, then unties me, and while I adjust my clothes, he replaces my papers and laptop on the desktop.