by Kari Wray
The longer I worked, the angrier I got, feeling that I was being punished for something I wasn't even guilty about it.
All of a sudden, I stood up.
It was as if someone was controlling me, and I was no longer fully responsible for my own actions.
I left my desk, marched up to the door to his office and, before I could change my mind, barged in.
Xander was speaking on the phone; he froze, open mouthed, staring at me wide-eyed with a mixture of surprise and confusion dancing across his swarthy face. Then, composing himself again, he said into the mouthpiece of the phone, "I'll call you straight back, something's come up."
He placed the phone very gently and calmly back on the desk, then looked up at me, one eyebrow raised, crossing his fingers and resting his elbows on his desk in front of him.
"Can I help you, Miss Lawrence?" he said with a professional calmness so icy it made my blood boil.
"I don't know," I blurted out. "I don't know what it is you think I've done wrong, but I swear to you that I haven't done it …"
"Whatever do you mean?" he asked, in the same cold, condescending tone as before.
"Stop pretending," I said, almost shouting now. "You're mad at me, admit it, and I don't even know what I've done …"
“Oh, you know exactly what you've done …" he growled, his eyes narrowing. "Or who," he added under his breath.
"Oh?" I replied. "Is this about …"
I searched in my head for his name.
“Is this about Caleb?"
At the mention of this name, it was like a self-destruct button had been pushed inside Xander. He stood up immediately from his desk, slamming both his hands down, an angry flush rising to his cheeks.
"Get out of this office," he roared, little bits of froth gathering at the corners of his mouth. "And don't you ever come back."
"Fine," I screamed back. "I wouldn't want to work here anyway, for a maniac like you.”
And with those final words, I turned and strode out through the still-open door to his office and out past all the rows of desks and pairs of eyes who, this time around, had definitely heard absolutely everything …
Chapter Sixteen
§
Into the Fire
"It makes no sense," Lauren said on the phone that evening. "And he's being a total asshole."
"Yeah," I agreed. "I just don't understand it. Obviously, this Caleb guy pushes his buttons, but there's absolutely no need to take it out on me, the way he did. It was awful, Lauren.”
"Especially like that … And so close to the anniversary of …"
"Don't worry," I interrupted her. "I'm okay."
"I know, but I've a good mind to call him up, tell him what's what. What he did is no way to treat a person, especially someone as beautiful and fantastic and warm and caring as you …"
"Thanks," I said, feeling so lucky and glad to have a friend like Lauren. "But promise me you won't call him, okay?"
She was the kind of person who might actually follow up on a threat such as this.
"Okay," she said, a little annoyed. “But just give me the word and I’ll tear his balls off.”
"So what do I do now," I said, trying to steer her away from this line of conversation, "apart from look for another job?"
"Well, what about this Caleb guy?" she said, taking things in a direction I hadn't even considered. "What do we actually know about him? Maybe if you find out some more about Caleb, Xander's weird mood swings might make a little more sense. Not that I'm letting him off the hook, you understand."
“It’s certainly an interesting idea," I said. "And thanks, Lauren."
"Don't mention it. Let me know how you get on, sweetie."
The way she called me that reminded me for a brief second of Mom, and again I felt so thankful that I had such a good, caring friend, hot tears welled up in the corners of my eyes.
“Speak to you soon,” I said, then hung up.
§
That evening, inspired by what Lauren had suggested, I decided to do a little internet detective work. I typed in ‘Caleb B. Marchand’ and ‘Ignis Incorporated’ to see what I could find, but it seemed like there was much less information available than when I’d first Google-searched Xander.
There were hardly any photos of Caleb, save from one or two grainy long-distance pics, and the only information I could find was a rather sparse company website for Ignis and the information that Caleb was CEO. It didn’t even say what Ignis Inc did.
I decided to give the office number on the website a call.
I don’t know what I was expecting to find, but I was surprised when the voice that answered it sounded suspiciously like Caleb’s.
“Hello?”
“Hi … Um … I’m looking to speak to Mr Marchand,” I said, hesitantly.
“Speaking,” the cold, stern voice said.
A strange, icy thrill ran through me, just like when he’d grabbed my arm in the lobby. I shook the feeling from my head.
"My name's Cassie Lawrence," I said, "and we met, very briefly at the ball on Friday."
"Oh yes," he laughed, warming up a little. "I gave you my card. And you dropped it on the carpet in front of me.”
"That's right," I said, a little embarrassed.
I hesitated for a moment, unsure quite what to say next. Why had I called exactly? I couldn't just outright ask him what was up between Xander and him, could I?
But as I was scrabbling around for something to say, I felt relieved when he took control.
"I'm glad you finally called me,” he said, his tone lowering a little.
Even just over the phone, I could picture him; those cold, piercing blue eyes, his blonde brow, his prominent jaw-line, so similar to … to .. who?
"Listen, why don't you come over to mine for a drink this evening?" he continued, taking me a little off-guard. "There's a business matter I'd like to talk to you about, actually …"
“I don’t know,” I said hesitantly.
But then I thought about Xander. I just had to find out what the deal was between him and Caleb. It was a puzzle that I needed to crack.
“Just one drink,” I said.
"Good," he said quickly, before I could change my mind. "My apartment is 656, West Lake Heights. See you at eight."
And then, before I could say anything else, he’d hung up the phone.
§
I timidly knocked on the door to the top-floor penthouse apartment, and when there was no answer, I wondered if I was making a huge mistake — if I should just turn around right now and head back home. What the fuck was I doing, exactly? Sure there was a chance I might find out the truth about Caleb and Xander, but if Xander ever found out that I’d been here, he’d never speak to me again.
I'd dressed in a short black dress and heels. Beneath the dress, I felt my breasts rise and fall with my nervous breathing, and I shifted uncomfortably, feeling the tiny g-string I'd chosen sitting snugly between my buttocks.
Just as I was about to knock again, the door opened and standing in front of me was Caleb Marchand, his face fixed in a provocative grin, his blue eyes blazing.
I'll admit it; the sight of him caused another electric shiver in me. Was I developing a crush on him too? Or was there just something strange and compelling about him? Something familiar and yet at the same time distant and otherworldly?
That night he was dressed in a white silk shirt, and I could make out his broad, muscular chest beneath it. He wasn’t in bad shape. I felt my eyes flicking down over his body, coming to rest on the obvious bulge in his jeans. A blush rose to my cheeks when I realized he'd caught me checking him out.
“Glad you could make it,” he said slickly, stepping aside so that I could make my way fully into his, dimly lit apartment up on the fiftieth floor of the exclusive complex building of West Lake Heights. Everyone knew that the only people who lived here were celebrities and playboys.
Like Xander's office, the large glass walls of Caleb’s apartment
looked out onto the glittering lights of the cityscape below and from up here they looked like twinkling fairy lights on a huge black Christmas tree.
I walked self-consciously into the room, feeling my body moving awkwardly beneath the slinky dress, as Caleb’s smoldering blue eyes watched my every movement.
What was I doing?
Why was I here?
Had I made a terrible mistake, going through with this meeting?
I turned round to speak, about to tell him that I thought I should leave, and realized with a gasp of surprise that he’d followed me, coming right up close behind me. As I turned to face him, my breasts brushed against his rock-solid chest and with each step backwards I took away from him, trying to regain some distance between us, Caleb took a step too, closing up the gap.
“Do you want anything?” he murmured, his eyes fixed on mine with a hypnotic intensity. “A drink perhaps? Some coke?”
I didn’t know whether he meant cola or cocaine, but either way, I shook my head a little nervously. I could feel my heart pounding and hammering, going a mile a minute in my chest as I tried to remain composed so as not to betray my obvious nerves.
“Nice place,” I croaked meekly.
“Thanks,” he said, taking another step towards me. I was backed right up against the glass wall now, and I could smell his cologne; a different scent to Xander's but just as obviously expensive.
I looked at his lips, which were only inches from mine and felt a sudden, surprising tingle in my pussy.
And in that strange moment, I realized that what I wanted most of all was to get back at Xander, for the way he'd treated me that afternoon, and right there and then it seemed that the best way to do it was by kissing Caleb.
Okay then, I thought. But if I'm going to do this, then it has to be on my terms. I’m going to be the one in control; the one calling the shots. It’s either that or nothing.
So with a final gulp, I reached out and grabbed the taught bulge of his meaty package, feeling the blazing heat of it right through his tight white jeans.
I watched his lips curl into a wry smile of acknowledgement and he moved his head forward to kiss me, but I reached out and stopped him, pressing my hand firmly against his broad chest, holding him in place.
Then I grabbed him by the shoulders, swung him round, and pushed him back against the glass wall. I leant in and kissed him full on the mouth, feeling his stubble prickling against my skin, and then his eager tongue searching my mouth, before once again I pulled back and held him in place, panting, my mind racing and spinning.
Then I did something that surprised even me: I dropped to my knees.
My heart was pounding as I tugged at his belt, then pulled open his pants and yanked down his white silk boxer shorts, freeing up his large, swollen cock.
I could feel the heat radiating off it as I brought my face towards it. I spread my legs wide apart, hitching my dress up around my thighs, and tugged my panties to one side, my urgent, trembling fingers finding my sopping wet pussy and clit. And as I began to masturbate myself with one hand, I grabbed hold of Caleb’s thick pink dick with the other, opening my mouth wide, unfurling my tongue and slapping the hot, swollen head of his cock against it.
Then I closed my lips fully around it and began sucking on it, bobbing my head, while down there beneath my fingers, my clit felt bigger and more swollen than it had ever felt before.
After a while, I felt him begin to stiffen and grunt and I quickly pulled his cock out of my mouth, feeling a slight ache in my jaw from how wide I’d had to stretch it to fit him in.
I stood up once more and this time turned myself away from him, hitching my dress up around my waist, then slapping my palms against the cold glass of the window as I began to slowly, sensuously grind my ass back against his hot, twitching cock, feeling my bare buttocks working him into a state of grunting, animal arousal.
I thought he was going to fuck me from behind like that, but I watched his reflection in the glass with surprise and trembling nervousness as he instead knelt down behind me. I felt him tug my g-string down over my thighs and then his hot hands parted my buttocks and I felt a twinge of embarrassment, realizing that that he must be staring right at my asshole; a part of my body so private that I’d not let any boyfriends or lovers see it before now.
I gulped and closed my eyes and then my mind melted away as I felt Caleb’s hot wet tongue touch gently against my most private, puckered button. As his tongue ran in delicious, tantalizing circles around my tingling hole, I whimpered with pleasure, feeling him push his tongue all the way into me, fucking my behind gently with his mouth.
Oh god, it felt so good.
I closed my eyes, lost in the moment, cupping my own breasts, scooping them free from the front of my dress and pinching my rock-hard nipples between my fingers as I ground my willing ass into his face.
Then his mouth moved down, his tongue flicking over my dripping pussy before coming to rest on my swollen throbbing clit hood. I felt his hands cupping my thighs, parting them further so he could gain better access to my pussy, closing his full hot lips around my clit and sucking it all the way into his mouth.
I cried out in a mixture of pleasure and confusion, wondering if what I was doing was wrong, but simultaneously feeling those first distant sensations of orgasm beginning to flow around my body like waves of tingling electricity.
He sucked on my clit, while his hands shifted back to my pussy and ass. He began toying with both of my holes simultaneously, slipping his fingers into me in this way, while his mouth remained clamped around my pussy and he knew exactly what he was doing. He played my body like an instrument, knowing when to speed up, slow down, knowing just how much pressure to apply and when, and before long I found myself cumming hard against his face, bucking and thrashing as I pushed myself against him, and I heard him too grunting with pleasure, his lips still clamped around my clit.
Then he stood and pressed his hot cock head against the soaking wet opening to my cunt.
It was time.
There was a moment’s pause and it felt like everything stood still as I heard him tearing open a condom wrapper and the soft slap of rubber on his dick.
And then he was inside me, his thick hot rod stretching the walls of my cunt wide open, his cock head hitting a sweet spot inside my pussy that I never even knew existed, each thrust sending a new wave of white hot pleasure through my still-trembling body.
I watched myself in the glass of the window, mirrored against the black night sky, my face lost in the throes of ecstasy, my mouth open, my breasts swinging free as he fucked me harder and harder, faster and faster from behind, his own face fixed in a state of pure animal lust.
“Oh fuck, baby!” he groaned as I ground myself even harder against him, his cock now buried all the way to the hilt inside my pussy, and I reached down between my legs and cupped his tight, hot, swollen balls, just as he exclaimed, “I’m gonna cum!”
I felt his cock spasming inside me and my pussy clamping hard around it, his balls twitching in my grip as he pressed himself against me from behind, both of us lost in our own instinctive pleasures.
§
It wasn’t as awkward afterwards as I’d imagined it might be. As I stepped back into my g-string, and smoothed down the folds of my rumpled dress, Caleb put on some jazz music on his expensive hi-fi sound system, and poured us both some drinks.
I joined him over on the couch, and it was only as we sat there and sipped from our glasses, that I realized I still knew absolutely nothing about him, other than that I’d experienced a moment of pure animal abandon with him.
He was the first to break the silence.
“That sure was something …”
He smiled at me, with genuine warmth, and I felt bad for having him pegged so wrong at first: as an arrogant, self-obsessed asshole. It seemed like I’d perhaps got him and Xander mixed up …
And that’s when it hit me. That’s who he looked like! He looked like Xander, except
with a paler complexion and with blonde hair and blue eyes instead of dark brown. How in the hell had it taken me this long to work out something so obvious!
My heart was thumping as I mulled over the permutations and complications of the situation that was suddenly presenting itself to me.
Had I really worked it out?
Were they really brothers?
Or was I getting a little ahead of myself?
Either way, I had to find out; I had to find a way to ask …
“I still don’t know anything about you,” I said, quietly and seriously. “Tell me about yourself. Do you have any family?”
At this, he shot me a sudden, surprisingly icy glance.
“Not anymore,” he snapped.
“I’m sorry,” I said, feigning ignorance. “I hope I didn’t touch a nerve …”
“No, no. I just …” At this he stopped. “You won’t understand.”
“Try me,” I said.
“Okay, well, it’s kind of a long story …” he said.
Chapter Seventeen
§
Caleb's Story
When I was a kid, I remember feeling this frustration, because everyone assumed that, due to my family's wealth, I had a nice life. But they didn't know the half of it. No one did. Let me tell you now, just because your dad's rich, doesn't mean that you actually get to see any of that money …
But I'm getting a little ahead of myself.
I grew up the youngest of two children.
There's Xander and then there's me. And he's only my half brother, on my father's side.
Xander's mother, I never met. But the rumor was that daddy beat her so hard one day, he accidentally killed her. Not that it's ever been proven. The official line is that she just upped and left, leaving him to raise Xander by himself.
That must have been tough on the kid, especially when my daddy remarried again. Then I came along, six years later, just enough time and distance to drive a real wedge between us. We were never that close. When I was starting kindergarten, he’d already finished it. Etc, etc. We never shared any experiences or fun when we were kids. He was always kind of aloof. Snooty. Thought he was better than everyone else.