by Tia Siren
The moment was comical, even though we had just been arguing. I chuckled to myself inside but showed no sign that I found any of it funny.
“You better check what it is, don’t you think?” I said.
“I better,” he said. “It could be important.”
I glanced from the corner of my eye. I watched him open his message box.
“It’s the hotel,” he said.
“What do they want?” I asked.
“They said there’s a package at the reception desk for me,” he said.
I looked at his face, and he looked really puzzled at the text.
“Can you take me to the hotel, please?” he asked.
“I guess I’ll have to!” I replied.
Evan frowned, clearly puzzling over what it could be.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“No one leaves packages at the hotel unless they have been instructed to. I have no idea what’s waiting for me there.”
We arrived at the hotel, and I stopped at the front doors.
“You can go now,” Evan said.
“You’re joking,” I replied.
“Just leave me, and I’ll deal with,” he said.
“No chance,” I said. “We’re not finished yet.”
Evan stepped from the car, and the valet came to open my door. I got out of the car and followed Evan into the lobby.
Chapter 29
Evan
Piper halted the car next to the lobby doors. I unfastened the seat belt and opened the door before the staff could open the door for me. I shoved my cell phone into my pocket as I stepped from the car. I started to walk into the hotel lobby and could hear Piper behind me.
“Evan, wait for me,” Piper called.
I had no intention of waiting for her. I was still pissed at finding the business card in her car. She’d said she was going to toss it, but she had shoved it in the place you generally put things where you don’t want to lose them.
I walked through the doors and crossed the marble floor toward the reception desk. I could hear Piper’s footsteps as she hurried to catch up to me.
“You texted me,” I told the girl behind the desk. “You said I have a package?”
“Yes, it’s a large envelope,” she replied.
The girl reached under the reception desk and pulled out a large brown envelope. She handed it to me, and I felt it in my fingers. It appeared to be empty apart from a small box like bulge that was in the middle.
There were no identifying marks from the sender. The only thing written on it was the number of my hotel suite in thick black marker.
“A courier delivered it just before we messaged you,” the girl said. “We thought it could be important so we let you know right away.”
I peeled open the tab of the envelope and peered inside. I could see a smaller envelope and a little red box. I reached into the envelope and pulled out the box. I put the envelope under my arm and flipped the lid. Inside the box sat a pair of rather expensive gold cufflinks.
Now I know. It’s from the cute client. I remember her.
I knew exactly where it would have come from. One of my older clients was due to give birth around this time. It was evident to me she had given birth successfully and fulfilled the final stage of the agreement. She must have sent the picture, too, as they were all instructed to do. The cufflinks were a welcome addition.
I shoved the box back into the large envelope and rolled the top so nothing would fall free.
I took hold of Piper’s hand and walked her toward the elevator. She resisted and tried to free herself from my grasp. I had not really finished talking to her. I wanted to figure things out between us once and for all before she left. She was pissed about the cuff links I supposed.
The elevator doors opened, and we stepped inside. I could see Piper’s reflection in the mirror. She’d gotten upset since seeing the cufflinks. She now had first-hand knowledge that I did indeed have older clients. Up until today, it had just all been abstract, which was easier to accept.
I could feel the way things were going. I wasn’t going to be able to talk to her about what I wanted to. The situation was pulling in the wrong direction.
“Is that a regular thing?” she asked.
“Is what a regular thing?” I replied.
I pushed the button, and the elevator started to rise. Piper gazed into the mirror and into my reflection.
“Receiving gifts for services rendered,” she snapped. “Do they all do that?”
“Not all of them. Just some of the more satisfied customers. And it’s just a token gesture more than anything.”
We reached the floor and exited the elevator. In silence, we strolled toward the door of the hotel suite. The number on the door was a reminder I had just received a special gift. I walked into the living room and placed the envelope onto the table. Piper sat on the couch, and I went to the bedroom.
You shouldn’t be looking inside this box, but I know you will not be able to resist.
I returned, carrying a large wooden box, and placed it onto the table next to the envelope. I flicked the combination and opened the lid. Piper stood beside me at the table. I slid the smaller envelope from the package and slipped it into the box next to the others without opening it.
“Are you going to open that envelope?” she asked.
“No, that stays sealed,” I replied.
I have no interest in the contents; it’s no concern of mine. The agreement says so.
“What’s in there?” she asked, puzzled. “Evan, you haven’t even looked!”
“I know exactly what it is, so I have no need to look at what’s inside,” I replied.
“Well, what is it?” Piper asked, confused.
I knew once I told her this, the cold realization of what Baby Maker was all about would finally be dumped firmly on her shoulders. I wasn’t sure how she would react, but I wasn’t in the mood to pull any punches with her at the moment.
“It’s a photo,” I replied.
“A picture of your client?” she asked.
“No, it’s a photo of their newborn child,” I said.
Piper looked inside the box and then looked at me in shock.
“All these envelopes are photos of your children?” she asked.
“They are pictures of the clients’ children, not my children,” I replied.
“There are a lot,” she said, softly. “Have you ever counted them?”
“No, I have never counted, and I have no interest in counting them. And it’s just something I do as final closure of the agreement.”
I looked at Piper, and she looked pale. Even without counting the envelopes, it was obvious the box held a lot of pictures. It was a lot for her to take in. I had accumulated nearly ten years’ worth of photos from previous clients. As my success rate was ninety-nine percent, this meant basically all the women I had serviced had, in the end, sent me a picture that would be filed away into this rather large box.
I stared into the box myself. Business had been good, and I had been very busy.
“I don’t feel well,” Piper said. “My head is swimming. I have to sit down.”
Piper returned to the couch. She sat and placed her head in her hands. I could hear her breathing deeply, trying to regain some composure.
“I’m at a loss for words,” she said. “That’s a hell of a lot of clients you’ve had, and they all have babies from you.”
I closed the lid of the box and picked it up. I walked past Piper and returned it to its hiding place in the bedroom. I returned to the living room and stood close to Piper.
“That is who I am,” I said. “There’s no hiding the reality of what I’ve been doing.”
“I don’t know how you could do all that,” she said, distraught.
“You knew who I was the day you signed the contract,” I said, angrily. “It’s the cold facts that are hard to swallow.”
I could sense Piper judging me after seeing the box of pictures.
This upset me. She wasn’t in a position to judge me or what I did. After finding the business card from fucking Kyle in her car, she should look closer at herself first. Especially before judging me for what I was doing.
“This was not who you used to be,” she muttered.
“Maybe so, but it is who I am now, and it’s who I’ve been since I was at college,” I said.
“I can’t believe I loved this person that you’ve become,” Piper said.
“You knew all of this and what you were getting yourself into. I gave you the opportunity to get out, and you still came back.”
“Yes but—”
“Don’t fucking ‘yes but’ me,” I snapped. “You knew exactly what was involved. You just chose to ignore it.”
Piper was getting me angrier and angrier, which would lead me to say something I might regret. That was her choice. She knew if I were backed into a corner, I wouldn’t go down without a fight.
Please, Piper, don’t push me any further. I don’t want to argue with you.
“I see what this is all about now,” she said. “This is because of Kyle.”
That was it. The final straw. I went to the desk drawer. I rifled through folders and pulled out Piper’s agreement.
“You have filed me with the rest?” she asked.
“You’re a client, and that is where all the client information goes,” I said.
“But I thought—”
“I know you thought it was an exclusive agreement, and it is. But at the end of the day, it’s still a client’s contract, so it lives in that drawer with all the others.”
I could see Piper was horrified I had put her folder with the others. I had said that the cold hard facts would hurt.
You should have trusted me more, and not got involved. Now, look at the situation.
I opened the folder and held the agreement right in front of her face. I pointed to the clause which clearly stated she shouldn’t be with anyone while she was under the terms of the agreement.
“You have no need to shove that in my face,” Piper hissed.
“Well, you were the one who was—”
Piper cut me off mid-sentence and butted in. “I told you I was not going to see Kyle. That card was supposed to be in the trash.”
I could see Piper was genuine with what she was saying.
“Just don’t be so fucking stubborn and hard-headed,” she yelled. “Fuck Evan, just because you control everything by what is written there.”
Piper stood and faced off against me. I dropped the agreement to the floor and wrapped my arms around her. I placed my lips on hers and kissed her in my strong embrace. Our lips touched, and I could feel Piper melt into my arms.
I rubbed the front of her body and placed my hand on her pussy. I gripped hard and stared into her eyes.
“While the contract is in force, your pussy remains mine, and mine only,” I murmured.
Piper looked into my eyes endearingly and wrapped her arms around me.
“Can I ask you something, Evan?” Piper murmured.
“What do you want to know?” I asked, aroused by her.
“Will you be servicing those other clients while we are under our agreement?” she asked.
You had to go and ask me that? I’m not going to lie to you, and you may not like the answer.
I would usually think about what I was saying at this point, but I’d had enough of her attitude today. I wanted her to understand her position with respect to the contract. My whole intention that day had been to discuss the agreement with Piper but in a much different way. I wanted to tell her our relationship had progressed beyond the contract. I was going to tell her the agreement put too many restrictions on our relationship. Our conversation had gone a totally different way. We had discussed the contract, all right, but under very different circumstances.
“Well, if I decide to service any other clients,” I said. “That’s my business and my business alone. It has nothing to do with you.”
“Oh!” she said.
“After all, it’s my business, and it’s me alone that makes any decisions regarding it,” I said.
“I was just wondering,” she replied.
“No matter what happens or what you think. Remember, whatever I decide, it’s just business!”
We have just taken a few steps back in our relationship. Damn you, Piper.
I could feel Piper stiffen as I released her from my embrace.
I looked into her eyes. “You just have to trust me.”
Her puppy dog eyes melted me. But I was too proud to give in completely.
Chapter 30
Piper
I went into the office, even though nobody else was working. I wanted to get away from everything for a while. I was pissed and still reeling from how yesterday had gone.
After all the arguments finished, Evan had placed his hand on my pussy, and I was sure he had wanted sex. I was up for it. Make up sex was fantastic. Then it didn’t happen, which pissed me off even more. I left the hotel suite frustrated and feeling horny.
Evan left me with a hot pussy out in the cold and the rain. How ironic.
I knew Evan was punishing me for Kyle’s business card and for the way I had both judged him and misjudged him. He had given me good reason to be left in the cold. And he had rubbed it in my face that I was just a customer like all the others. I would be filed away. I guessed he would just want me to provide him with a picture when my baby was born. Then he would lock it away in his damned box. He wouldn’t even know what the baby looked like.
All night, I had tossed and turned in bed. That was half the reason I had come to the office. The apartment stifled me, and I had no distractions there. My thoughts wouldn’t stop churning in my head. God, Evan would be a father to my child, and there was a good chance he wouldn’t be interested in how his child was actually growing up. In fact, he would continue to service other clients, and both my child and I would be another statistic.
Come on Evan, answer your god-damned phone.
That had been the worst thing; he had not answered my calls or returned any of my messages. The player. If he wanted to punish me, he was undoubtedly doing it with a vengeance. I was in a pit of pure torment.
I thought about his life before I arrived back on the scene. How could one person live a life of such loneliness? This was not the Evan I had grown up loving. The one who’d been sweet, kind, and considerate. Could breaking up with me when we were younger have caused all of this? Had it hurt him so much that he couldn’t face any other relationship apart from me? And now, even that had gone to shit. The damned contract had come between us. It had brought us together, and now it pushed us apart again.
I thought about the wooden box he had put on the table; it had been crammed full of small envelopes. He had endless numbers of kids roaming around, and he had no idea who they all were now. The reality of the situation was a big slap in the face. Damn! A cold hard wallop right on the kisser. His children could even be kids I knew. And if it was word of mouth, some of his kids could be best friends, or in a sick and twisted way, they could end up dating each other in years to come.
You knew he had kids, but not that many.
I continued sorting a few things around the office while my mind churned away. Could I trust him after yesterday? He had made such a point of saying that I was just another client, and if he wanted to continue being the Baby Maker, that was his choice.
I knew Evan had this job and being with other women was a part of it; he also gave all of the money to charity which, in itself, was a massive undertaking from him. But there was one dominant feeling that came from all of this. I was not sure if all the other clients had realized this yet. He was basically just a high-class whore who sold himself for money, good deeds or not. He had his own sexual needs that needed fulfilling. He did it by presenting himself as a super stud. A cock for hire.
I had nearly finished in the office, and I decided to call my mom. I needed to hear that voice of
reason. I still couldn’t tell her about everything that was going on. Maybe I could tell her some of it. She would say I should choose someone like Kyle. Then she would tell me something like this was bound to happen. It was not something I really wanted to hear, but I needed somewhere to vent my frustrations.
I reached into my bag and pulled out my cell phone. The damn thing had been acting up; the ringing sound worked, and then it didn’t. It had turned into a real piece of junk. Now the damned thing had turned itself off. I turned the phone on. I waited for a few seconds until it started. Shit. I noticed I had received a text from Evan, but over two hours ago. Shit, he had wanted me to pass by his house.
Sorry, Mom, you will have to wait. Evan wants me.
Stupid fucking gadgets. Just when you need your cell phone to work, it has a problem. If I had seen the message, I could have been at Evan’s house. God, and with any luck, we could have made up our differences and been halfway through some extremely amazing makeup sex.
I grabbed all my things and threw them into my bag. I rushed all around the office and turned everything off that I had used.
Come on elevator. Quickly, hurry up.
I hoped we would finally put things right after yesterday. It had been too much to bear. I halted at a stop light and tried to call Evan. Shit, the phone had gone off again. I turned it back on. The screen came to life. I dialed his number.
Crap, he wasn’t answering again. I threw the phone onto the passenger seat and started to drive again. My phone buzzed. I had received a message. It was from Evan, saying he would call me later. Shit, I was almost at his house. Might as well keep going.
I had a feeling he wasn’t home; there was no car in the driveway. There were no lights on, and the whole area was deadly silent. Fuck, Evan, if you had meant the hotel, you should have said the hotel. I dashed back around the side of the house.
I climbed back into the car and headed off in the direction of the hotel. I got stuck in traffic, so I thought I would try calling him again. Still no answer. Was he just ignoring me on purpose? Or is the stupid fucking phone not working? I didn’t know.