Take It - Part Two

by DJ Stone

  “You’re giving me too much credit. I don’t think I’m that woman. It’s not that I don’t want to be. You’re the best man I’ve ever met. The most heroic, upstanding guy and I’m also attracted to you, a lot. There isn’t a thing wrong with you, but there is plenty wrong with me. The mistakes I made were significant, and they’ve changed me. As much as I love what we’re doing right now, what we have, I can’t help but think there’s going to come a time where I’m going to disappoint you. You deserve the kind of woman you just mentioned, but I might not be her.”

  A tap on the window by the valet slices the moment open and spills out any chance of us resolving anything now.

  “Tonight, Jenny. We’ll work it all out tonight. You just go in there and knock them dead. Be yourself, and they’ll love you.”

  As we walk through the large metal doors I realize something. Pierce thinks my inability to get back into my field is a crisis of confidence. Another shiver rolls over my spine as we step into the drafty, intentionally stark ballroom. It’s clearly meant to be a minimalist modernism theme, but to me it just seems cavernous. There is already a sea of people chatting and laughing in little circles.

  “Over there,” Pierce says, gesturing to a man standing by the buffet table. “That’s Warren Seinfeld. He’s the man waiting to meet you. I don’t want to look like the hovering boyfriend or anything, so I’m going to grab drinks and head out to the patio. Whenever you’re done, just come join me. You got this, babe.” I feel his hand move from the small of my back to push me forward slightly, shoving me toward what he mistakenly thinks is my destiny.

  I consider bolting. I could grab a cab, get my stuff out of his place, and be gone before he even realized I wasn’t at this party anymore. I could get a job somewhere down south, where it’s warm all the time. I could start completely over. Change my name.

  “Jenny Collins,” Warren says, as he steps into my view. I guess any name changing will have to wait.

  Warren is a skinny but tall man. His head is shaved, clearly to compensate for a receding hairline. His features are pointy, his chin and his nose both looking like triangles.

  I obediently extend my hand, the business professional rushing back. My smile is so wide I’m sure he’ll think something is wrong with me, that I’m having a stroke or something.

  “It’s very nice to meet you,” Warren says, still holding my hand. “I’ll be honest, I didn’t think you’d be applying for many jobs, especially an entry-level one, with your unique qualifications.” His hand is still firmly gripping mine, and he leads me to the corner of the room by a large cement pillar.

  “I’m not sure I’m interested in the position. A friend of mine set this up.”

  “That’s not what I hear.” He winks, and I wonder if he has some kind of tick or something in his eye.

  “What have you heard exactly?”

  “Let’s just say I’ll be anxious to have someone like you in the office.”

  “The position might not be a good fit for me.”

  “From what I know about you, you’re into all different kinds of positions. I only got to see two of the photos that were circulating around, but they certainly made me want to hire you. I’m a married man, and I don’t get to have much fun anymore, so having you in the office would change that.” Dropping my hand finally, he traces a finger up my arm and toward the strap of my dress.

  “Don’t touch me,” I growl, slapping his hand away. “My boyfriend is here, and if he sees you touching me he’ll kill you.” My whole body quivers at the idea of the photos circulating, at the proposition of this disgusting man.

  “Oh I see, so the boyfriend doesn’t know you’re a dirty girl. He wasn’t the one in the photos was he? I can keep a secret if you can. I’m hard just thinking about it. Come with me, I’m parked out back. I know you like fucking in cars.” He takes my wrist tightly and tugs me behind the pillar toward one of the doors on the side of the building. “This will be your interview.”

  “Let me go.” I dig my high heels into the floor but it’s useless, he’s tugging me forward another foot. “I’ll scream.”

  “I’d like that. Fighting back is a nice touch, too. I like that in a whore.”

  “Normally I’d give a guy three seconds to stop what he’s doing before I destroy him, but you’re fucking with the wrong girl, so I’m giving you one second.” I hear his voice over my shoulder and the look on Warren’s face shifts from devilish to sheepish. He lets my arm drop and stumbles back a step.

  “What the hell is going on here, Jenny?” Harrison asks as he steps to my side, puffing his chest up at Warren. “Is this guy bothering you? Because it sounded like he was calling you a whore and trying to drag you out of here.”

  “Listen, something got lost in communication here. She has a reputation, and I was going with it. That’s the stuff she likes.” Warren’s face is blood red and the vein in his forehead is pulsing.

  “Get the hell away from me,” I stutter, clutching Harrison’s arm to keep myself from falling.

  “Go,” Harrison barks, “before I change my mind and rip your tongue out of your mouth.”

  Warren retreats, banging himself awkwardly into the doorframe on his way out of the building. When he’s out of sight I let go of Harrison’s arm and stumble away, my legs hardly able to hold me up.

  “Where are you going? Who was that guy?” Harrison demands, catching my elbow and spinning me back toward him. We’re still hidden well behind the pillar, but I feel utterly exposed, not knowing who else in the room has seen the photos. “Listen, I just bailed you out, the least you can do is explain why I needed to.”

  A rage erupts from my toes to the ends of my long red hair. “Way to go, you solved a problem you caused. Now you can get the hell away from me too.”

  “I caused that guy to be a fucking pervert? I caused him to call you names and try dragging you out of here? You can accuse me of a lot of things, Jenny, and I’m not saying my hands are clean, but I don’t even know that guy.”

  “You don’t, but thanks to you, he knows me, very intimately, actually. The pictures of us that you sent to my boss, they’ve been shared everywhere. You violated me in a way that keeps stealing my dignity, piece by piece.”

  “What pictures? I didn’t send any pictures of you or us to anyone.”

  “Sure you didn’t. I saw them in your email. I know you did. I don’t know why, and I don’t care anymore. I’m finally putting back together what you shattered, or I was before tonight.”

  Harrison loses his breath as though a cannonball has been fired into his gut. “Jenny, I didn’t send any pictures. I swear. Please come outside with me. Talk to me. I have things I can explain, I’ve screwed up, but I had nothing to do with that. These last few weeks I was trying to give you space because I thought you were pissed that I distracted you from work and stuff. If I had known you thought I sent pictures of you to anyone I’d have—”

  “What, Harrison, what would you have done?”

  “Exactly what I’m doing right now, begging you to listen. Come outside with me and talk. Please.”

  “No.” I glance over at the patio door and fully expect to see Pierce step through it. “Pierce is outside. He doesn’t know about the pictures, and he doesn’t deserve to find out this way.”

  “Then follow me. I’ll explain everything, just come with me.”

  There’s intensity in his eyes, a shadowing of tears that’s making my anger falter. If I don’t hear what he has to say I’ll spend the rest of my life wondering if it could have changed things.

  “Five minutes,” I concede as I glance again over my shoulder to check if Pierce has come back in. There is no sign of him. I take a deep breath and follow Harrison across the ballroom floor and down a hallway. He unsuccessfully tries a few door handles and then finds one that’s unlocked. He sticks his head in, checks the room, and then steps in, holding the door open for me to join him. It’s a conference room with a large oval table with a phone in the mid
dle of it, conference speakers attached.

  “Tell me about the pictures. Tell me what happened.” Harrison is speaking in a hushed voice, his body just inches from mine as the door closes behind me.

  “Mr. Jones called me into his office on the day I got fired and had a stack of pictures of me. They were all of you and me together in very compromising positions. You know how Jones is, you know how a man like that would react to those pictures. He was a pig, and he got his jollies off then fired me.”

  “I don’t know what to say. I’m so sorry, Jenny,” Harrison apologizes, pulling me in for a hug that I instinctually return. His arms are the best place I’ve ever been and, in this moment of distrust and hurt, I still want to be in them.

  “When you were on the phone at your house, I clicked the mouse on your computer and the photos were there in your in-box. I deleted them and got the hell out of your place and almost killed myself on the way. You sent those pictures, and you ruined me. My life, my heart. Why?”

  “I didn’t send them, Jenny; you have to believe that. But I think I know who did, and I swear I will make it right. They’ll pay for it.”

  “Why should I believe you?”

  “Because I love you. I fell in love with you.” Harrison’s words blow through my body like a hurricane. How are you supposed to react when the one thing you thought you’d never hear passes through someone’s lips? I open my mouth to speak, but close it again as he keeps talking. “My intentions, my motive for working with you specifically, may have been murky, but I promise you two things: I never intended for you to get hurt, and I never meant to fall in love with you. I’m only sorry that one of those things happened.” He leans in to kiss me and then stops abruptly, his hand resting on my cheek. “I’m not going to kiss you unless you want me to. Unless you believe me. If you don’t then I’ll just find a way to prove it to you. I won’t stop until you know the truth.”

  “I believe you,” I whisper in a raspy voice before diving into the kiss he stopped. Like a prisoner in complete isolation finally regaining contact with another human, I’m bursting with a need. A need to touch, to feel, to be felt. Every splintered piece of me is shoved back together. Every doubt of who I am and what’s right for me disappears. In his hands I’m completely myself, a person I’d lost since losing him.

  “You’re all I’ve thought about, Jenny,” Harrison sputters between passionate kisses as I push my body as hard as possible against his firm frame. “It’s been impossible without you. I’ve been drowning; I need you.” I yank at the button of his tuxedo pants and they pop open. He pulls his zipper down and drops his pants away, revealing his excitement. Containing my desires feels almost impossible as I hike up my red dress and slip my thumbs behind the strings of my panties, working them hastily down my legs.

  It would be easy for Harrison to slide inside me right now and take me back in his arms. He could pull my head back and devour my neck as he plunged deeper and deeper. With a one-track mind he could take what I’m offering him and fulfill his own desires. But he doesn’t. He drops to his knees, moves me back against the table, and grabs both my ankles. He parts my legs, lifts them, and drops my calves onto his shoulders. I let out a hushed yelp as his tongue flicks at the spot he knows intimately from our many other rendezvous. His tongue continues to tantalize me. I feel his fingers begin a rhythmic dance as he enters me over and over again. In record time I’m clawing at the wooden conference table for traction as my body pulses and quivers with ecstasy. The rhythm of his plunging fingers and his flicking tongue are completely in tune with my rocking hips. If we were instruments, this song would be glorious.

  “Fuck me, Harrison,” I beg, knowing with him that sentence won’t make me anything other than human. Wanting him so badly isn’t a crime in his eyes. He won’t see me as a whore or a demanding shrew. My desire for pleasure will empower us both, just as it had before.

  He lifts me from the table and, in one fluid motion, buries himself deep inside me, banging my body against the large white dry-erase board on the wall. I beg him for more. More speed, deeper. I call out his name, and like the moment we shared on the lighthouse, he looks deep into my eyes and connects. “Jenny, oh, Jenny. I’ve missed you so much. You are my everything.”

  He shimmies the straps of my dress down and yanks so hard I hear the material rip as my breasts come flying out. They bounce with the fury at which he’s fucking me, and they only stop when he takes them into his mouth. This is his magic. Whatever he does with his hot and powerful tongue should be studied, documented, and shared with the world because it is mind-blowing.

  I feel his hands clutch my ass, angling to push deeper inside, opening me up so that no centimeter is left untouched by his hard cock.

  He spins around toward the large conference table and clears its contents with a sweeping of his arm. “Ride me,” he demands as he plants his back on the table, his cock standing tall and begging to have me slide down onto it. I long for the chance, praying we won’t limit this reuniting to just one position. I shed my dress and leave only my high heels on as I climb onto the table and straddle his perfect body.

  His hands plant tightly on my ass, grabbing handfuls as I guide him inside me. Like the first time I rode him, he holds me there. We don’t move an inch; I don’t rock back and forth no matter how badly I want to. I stare at him as he clamps down harder on my ass, raising his hips off the table so he can claim all of me.

  “Ride me baby,” he demands as he releases his grip on me and tucks his hands behind his head, smiling up at the view. “Ride me until you’re coming all over my cock. I want to feel your hot white cum dripping all over me.”

  “Yes,” I cry out. I’m finally in the presence of someone again who can be real and fiercely honest. He’s not holding back for what is right and wrong for us. We’re here, our bodies vibrating with anticipation, and that is all that matters.

  I take my breasts into my hands and start pinching them tightly as I start rocking back and forth, grinding my clit against his tight abdomen. He replaces my hands with his own as though he can’t stand to share my breasts even with me. After less than a minute of fucking him, I give him what he’s asked for. My core clamps down and pulses, eliciting a desperate grunt that tells me he’s about to release his own thundering fury. I want to give him more, so I slide off him, and before he can protest, I wrap my lips around his throbbing cock.

  This sends him into outer space. He arches his back and dives deep into my throat. I pull back, grab his balls, and circle my tongue quickly around his hot tip. He tastes like me, like us, all mixed together, and I can barely contain what that does to me. Knotting his hands into my hair, he holds me there as his cum begins to spurt, and his body quakes uncontrollably.

  I crawl my way up his body and lie by his side. His kisses are soft on my lips and then my cheek. “I knew you’d understand. I knew you’d trust me. Come with me.”

  I’ve barely caught my breath as he slides away to stand and our bodies part, leaving me feeling empty without him.

  “Where?” I ask, forgetting how much reality waits for us beyond this room. How much we haven’t actually talked about yet. Even if Harrison didn’t send the photos, he still hasn’t been completely honest with me. That’s apparent. But he does love me.

  “I need your help. I can explain on the way, but we have to get to the lab at BioSim tonight while everyone is here.”

  “Why would we go to the lab?” I feel instantly sick as the conversation turns away from his love for me and back toward the place where all this pain started.

  “It’s a long story, and the more I tell you the more trouble you could be in if this comes out. There is real danger here, legally and otherwise. The players won’t hesitate to hurt you if it serves their purpose. I’m trying to give you some plausible deniability here, but you trust me, right? You said you did.” Harrison’s thumb grazes my cheek, but I pull away.

  “That was before I knew you needed something from me. Had I known th
is was all another part of some game I don’t know the rules to, I can assure you I wouldn’t have declared my trust in you.” Rolling away from him I get back on my feet, snatching my panties from the floor, and slide back into my dress.

  “It’s not like that. How I feel about you and what I need to do for this drug are completely exclusive of each other.”

  “Then go do whatever the hell you’re planning without me. If you really love me, don’t bring me in on whatever fucked-up thing you’re trying to do. If you care about me at all you’ll see what you’ve done so far has destroyed me. And now this, what we just did. It’s going to destroy the one thing I was holding onto.”

  “Are you talking about that guy? You really want to look me in the eye and tell me you love him? That he means more to you than I do? I saw him that day, telling you what’s best, what you need. He doesn’t even listen to you.”

  “But he doesn’t use me either,” I bark back, too confused and hurt to cry.

  “I’m not using you, Jenny. I need you; there’s a difference. We could be in this together. You could help me.”

  “Is it legal? Is it moral? Because if not, don’t pretend to love me while you drag me into your mess. Call it what you want, but I’m not going to be your means to an end. Before I met you I did my job with pride. People’s lives depend on that. If you love me, then you come with me. You walk away from whatever the hell you’re doing, and we just go. I don’t care where, but that’s the only way I’m going to know you want to be with me.”

  “Please don’t make me choose, Jenny. It’s impossible right now. I can’t walk away. It’s already a done deal. This is the last step. I’m too close; I’ve invested too much to bail.”

  “You’re that hungry for money and status? I don’t mean more to you than those things? Then why would I stay, why help? So that when this is over and you get whatever you’re after, you break me all over again?”

  “It’s not about the money or my name all over something. God, I can’t tell you how badly I wish my name never touched this thing, but now I have to see it through. I’m begging you to understand, to believe in me.”