by Lucia Jordan
“You forgot this.” She brought the cup over to him. “Is there anything you need?”
“No. Yes.” He dropped a large envelope on his desk. “Switch the phones back over onto the service, now, and then come back in here.”
Lacey nodded and hurried out to her desk to take care of the task, and then slipped out of her jacket and unbuttoned the collar of her blouse. She felt a little nervous taking her hair down, but the feel of it spilling over her shoulders reassured her. I’m the same woman no matter what time it is.
It still took all her courage to walk back into his office with her notepad, and saunter up to his desk, where he was checking his mobile. “So is there anything you need now Christopher?”
His head snapped up and he stared at her before he picked up the envelope. “This was what you meant when you talked about taking the next step?”
Slowly she circled around the desk, sidling up to him with a beguiling smile. “I’m not ashamed of being with you. I want everyone to know how I feel. How you make me feel.” She reached up to caress his cheek. “I love you.”
“You love me?” He took hold of the front of her blouse, and jerked it open, causing the buttons to scatter onto his desk. “And this is how you show it? By fucking another man?”
Sarah rushed into the office. “Lacey, is he — oh, my God.” She spun around to face the door. “I am so sorry and I am leaving right now.”
“No, you’re not,” Christopher said as he pushed Lacey in front of him. “Shut the door and get over here, Sarah.”
“What are you doing?” Lacey found herself bent over the desk, Christopher’s hands pinning her down by the shoulders. “Christopher, please.”
Sarah shut and locked the door, and walked carefully toward them. “Chris, there’s been a huge mistake.”
“What are you talking about?” Lacey tried to straighten, but Christopher pushed her back down, and jerked up her skirt. “Wait.” Panic streaked through her as she felt him yank down her panties and heard him unzip his trousers. “Please, not like this. Not with Sarah here.”
“You watched her fucking Jack. But she didn’t get to watch you, so it’s only fair.” Christopher clamped his hand over her nape and prodded her sex with the swollen bulb of his penis. “Besides, you love me, remember? You want everyone to know about us. You’ll do anything for me, isn’t that right? Even act out your favorite sexual fantasy for me — with her lover.”
Tears streaked down Lacey’s face as she whispered miserably, “I didn’t. I would never do that.”
“I’m not watching you do this,” Sarah protested. “It’s wrong, Chris, you’re wrong — “
“Advise Miss Tate to sit down and watch me fuck you, Lacey,” Christopher demanded. “If she leaves or says another word she’s fired.”
“Sarah, don’t go.” Lacey tried to brace herself, but her hand knocked the large envelope off his desk. “It’s all right.” Although her heart was breaking like cheap glass, she tried to smile. “We’ll finally be even.”
“You don’t understand.” Sarah snatched up the envelope and pulled out a stack of photos from inside. She turned them to show Lacey the first picture. “This is why he’s really doing this.”
The glossy photo showed Lacey having sex — with Jack Wilkes. Lacey couldn’t believe her eyes at first, until she realized that in the picture there were freckles all over her skin, and in the background were two faded, ugly paintings — exactly the sort found in motel room.
“That’s not me. I’ve never had sex with Mr. Wilkes.” She felt sick now. “Look at the woman in the picture. She has freckles on her arms and legs. I don’t. It’s not me.”
Christopher leaned over and jerked the photos out of Sarah’s hands, staring at the first before he went through the rest, swore and flung them across the room.
Lacey reached back and pulled down her skirt before she straightened, and then stepped out of the panties tangled around her ankles. Christopher fastened his pants before he backed away from her and began pacing back and forth. For several moments, the silence seemed deafening but it gave Lacey time to compose herself.
It also gave her the chance to make some new connections.
“What I was trying to tell you, Chris, is that the woman in the photo is me,” Sarah said slowly. “Someone photographed me with Jack at a motel, and then Photoshopped Lacey’s face over mine. They sent a set of the pictures to me.”
“Did you do this, Sarah?” When she shook her head, he glared at Lacey. “Then it had to be you.”
“Nora Bonner did this,” Sarah said. “She blames Lacey for everything because she found out she went to the party to warn you, and — ” she stopped herself. Her eyes shifted from Lacey to Christopher and back again. “Okay. I’ll leave you two alone to talk now.”
“No.” Calmer now, Lacey wiped the tears from her cheeks. “Stay, Sarah.”
“I don’t want to get in the middle of this — “
“I think you have been, from the very beginning. You keep calling him Chris. The only people I know who do that are part of his sex circle. You knew I went to the party to warn him. I never told you that.” She pulled off her torn blouse, and watched her friend’s face turn red. “I never told Christopher that I caught you with Jack, either.”
Sarah started to say something, and then hung her head and fell silent.
Christopher came up behind Lacey and put his hands on her shoulders, caressing them now. “I’ve made very some stupid mistakes.”
“Actually, both of you have been pretty clever. If someone hadn’t faked these pictures I might never have known. But now I do.” She methodically unfastened her bra and her skirt, and let both fall to the floor before she bent over the desk again, completely naked this time. “Go ahead, Mr. Wolfe. Show Sarah what a real master you are. Fuck me in front of her.” When he didn’t move, she looked back at him. “This is the last chance you’ll ever have to get inside me. I wouldn’t waste it.”
“Damn it, no.” Christopher tore off his jacket and draped it over her. “Sarah, get out.”
“I guess we’ll never be even.” Lacey watched as her friend jumped to her feet and fled, sobbing out of the office. She turned away when Christopher tried to take her in his arms. She bent down to pick up her discarded clothes.
“You don’t understand how much I wanted you,” he said he watched her dress. “From the moment I saw you, I had to know everything about you. So, yes, I asked Sarah to befriend you and find out if you were involved. As soon as you finished your assignment here I was going to call you, and ask you out. That is the truth, sweetheart.”
Lacey laughed a little as she hung his jacket over the back of his chair. “You wouldn’t know the truth if it ran you down in the street and backed over you twice. Here.” She dropped her torn panties into his hands. “A souvenir to go with the phony pictures. Oh, and you can consider this… performance my two week’s notice. Goodbye, Mr. Wolfe.”
“Stop.” Christopher stepped between her and the door. “I’m not letting you go. We can get through this, together — “
She slapped him as hard as she could. “Shut up, you bastard. I’d have done anything for you. I gave you my days and nights. My body and soul. God, my love. I love you, Christopher. And it means nothing. None of it does. It was all a game to you. What do you and Sarah call this? ‘Let’s Screw the New Girl?’”
“I never intended to hurt you.” He pulled her into his arms. “I can make this right, Lacey. First let me deal with Nora, and then — “
Lacey dragged his mouth down to hers, and kissed him with all the pain and fury burning inside her. She made him take her tongue in his mouth, jabbing it in and out in mimicry of sex. His taste got to her as it always did. She began savoring him, relishing the dark seduction of his midnight forest scent, and pressed closer.
Christopher made a strange sound in his chest. She lifted her head, anger building.
“You like that, sir? Or do you want me to kiss you somewhere else
?” She palmed his erection. “Should I suck your cock one more time? Should I beg first?” When he did nothing but stare at her, she put her mouth against his ear. “I’m in charge this time, Christopher. Now take off your clothes.”
He stripped and stood naked before her. She walked around him, inspecting him as she squeezed his buttocks and worked her way around to his front.
“I suppose you’ll have to do one more time.” She leaned forward until her breath warmed his lips. “Now fuck me and make me come.”
A heartbeat later he was dragging her down to the floor, jerking her legs apart and tearing at his trousers before pushed into her.
This was what she wanted. A hard, fast pounding so she could forget all the other times they’d spent hours and hours exploring each other. Lacey wrapped her legs around him as he thrust deep, her hands gripping his hair to bring his mouth to hers again. She kissed him and bit his lip before he rolled onto his back, lifting his hips to drive his shaft into her tight pussy.
“I’m yours,” he growled. “Take whatever you want.”
Lacey knew he would never be hers but she wanted him one more time. To keep him from talking she pulled aside her torn blouse and bra and bent down to plug his mouth with her hard nipple, gritting her teeth as he licked it. “Suck it. Harder. Make me feel it in my pussy.”
She lowered herself as he did, screwing herself down his swollen length. But it wasn’t enough. To make him feel some of the torment, she pinched his nipples as she bore down on him, forcing him deeper and deeper, watching his eyes as he turned his head and attacked her other breast.
It would never be enough, Lacey decided, and lifted herself off his pole to slide down and engulf him in her mouth. She could taste herself on his throbbing cockhead. She took every inch of him she could fit between her lips before she began bobbing her head up and down, sucking and fucking him with her mouth until she felt his thighs tremble. She reached down, cupping his tight balls as she let him pop free from her lips and used her other hand to stroke him as she swiveled around and straddled his face.
“Kiss me,” she said. “Kiss my pussy. Fuck me with your tongue.”
Christopher pressed his lips to her folds before he began thrusting his tongue in and out of her pussy, using it to work over her clit. She could feel him moaning against her sex as she moved her hand up and down his cock harder and faster, told herself she didn’t care if he liked it. She could feel his veins pulsing against her palm. As the first jet spurted from him bent to take his full length into her mouth, sucking and swallowing everything he gave her.
When Christopher finished coming, he laid her out on her back, and sucked on her nipples before he planted his mouth between her thighs and lashed her clit with his tongue again.
Lacey turned her head to stare at the wall. She didn’t want to come for him but he was penetrating her with his fingers now, two of them stroking in and out of her pussy while his thumb pressed deeply and rhythmically into her ass. She didn’t want to come and then it came out of nowhere, a monstrous pleasure that steamrolled over everything, flinging her from rage to delight and back again. Lacey could hear herself sobbing and begging as he kept her suspended, his tongue pushing and licking her to one peak and then another until she had to use both hands to shove him away.
“Lacey,” he said, breathless now. “Don’t do this. Stay with me.”
Without a word Lacey got up, straightened her clothes and walked to the door, which she went through and let slam behind her for the first time since she’d begun working for him.
“Wait,” he called out.
At her desk she pulled on her jacket and buttoned it to cover the shredded condition of her blouse, and grabbed her purse to retrieve her swipe card. When she walked out into the hall, she inserted her card in the reader and left it there, which engaged the default lock.
Christopher came up to the door and looked down at the jammed lock. “That won’t stop me forever.”
“It doesn’t have to.” She turned and went to the elevator, and pushed the down button.
*
Christopher dialed the number to building maintenance to get someone to come up and let him out of the office, only to be greeted by his answering service.
“Did you want me to leave a message for the supervisor, sir?” the operator asked.
“No, thank you.” He hung up the phone and went to the window to watch for Lacey. She emerged from the building and went straight to her car without looking back. “Damn it. Not like this.”
He checked his watch, and realized it would be another hour before maintenance clocked in. He then called Sarah Tate’s extension but got no answer at all. She must be sitting there at her desk, he thought, watching it ring.
His frustration grew as he tried to call Lacey’s mobile and apartment, both of which sent him directly to voicemail. He was considering calling 911 when he heard a tapping on the outer office door.
Nadia stood, frowning on the other side of the glass. “This device appears to be jammed, Chris.”
“Remove the card.” When she did, he was able to open the door. “I have to go. It’s an emergency.”
“Not as dire as this, I should think.” She handed him the large envelope she carried, and sniffed. “Why do you smell like sex?”
“Because I’ve just had sex.” If anyone could call what he and Lacey had done to each other such an ordinary thing. He opened the envelope and took out a stack of glossy photos, the first of which depicted Lacey performing oral sex on another man — David Zellwood. “What the hell is going on?”
“A poor joke, perhaps,” Nadia said. “David found them in his office this morning and called me immediately. Of course I was upset to see them but I know they are fake. Aside from the fact that I do not allow David to have sex with other women, he is so well-trained now he cannot achieve an erection without my permission. I assume you keep your sweet redhead on a very short leash. Leather, perhaps?”
“Someone set me a similar set,” Christopher said. “Lacey fucking Jack Wilkes.”
“Jack would never go near her. His ex-wife is a redhead. I think someone outside our group wished to humiliate your assistant in the worst way. Your former assistant, I would guess.”
“That’s what Sarah said.” As much as he wanted to go after Nora, he had to find Lacey. “I’m sorry you and David were involved in this mess. I hate to be rude but I have to get out of here now.”
“Go.” She patted his arm. “Go and get her.”
*
After Lacey stowed the last suitcase in her trunk she gave her keys to her landlady. “Thank you for being so understanding. I’ll call you as soon as I find a new place.”
“It was nice of you to leave all your furniture for the next tenant. I’ll be able to rent the unit by the weekend.” The old lady kissed her cheek. “Have a safe trip, honey.”
She climbed in her car and drove to the end of the parking lot but the beeping of her mobile phone made her sigh and pull into a visitor’s slot. She took out the phone and saw she had a dozen new messages from Christopher and a call waiting from Sarah. After a long moment she answered the call with, “What do you want?”
“You never gave me a chance to apologize,” Sarah said tearfully. “Please, Lacey, I am so sorry for what I did. So is Chris.”
“I’m sure you are but don’t speak for him. He doesn’t have a conscience.” She glanced in her rearview mirror and saw an unfamiliar car park at the curb. When Christopher climbed out and headed straight toward her old apartment, her heart clenched. “I have to go.”
“Wait — you can’t leave him, Lacey,” Sarah told her. “He’s in love with you. I know he is.”
“Then we’re both fools.” She watched in the mirror as Christopher began hammering on the apartment door. “Goodbye, Sarah.” She ended the call, switched off the mobile and reversed out of the space, driving out to the road that would take her to the interstate and as far away from Christopher Wolfe as she could get.
“Welcome to the Java Joint,” Lacey Easton said as she offered her latest customer a laminated menu. “We’re featuring our espresso happy hour with two for one latte flavor shots. What can I start you off with, sir?”
The burly man didn’t even glance at the menu but instead leered at her. “What makes a beautiful woman like you wait tables in a dump like this?”
Lacey forced a smile. “Five bucks an hour plus tips, which are always deeply appreciated. Would you like to try a Cuban coffee? They’re half off.”
The man shrugged. “Sure, why not?”
Lacey retreated behind the counter to prepare the order and compose herself. Since she’d started working at the cafe not a day went by without some guy hitting on her, something she’d forgotten about her waitressing days back in college. Fortunately the cafe was constantly busy, keeping her on the move and making it more difficult for customers to chat her up. She also liked the job. It kept her from thinking about the life she’d left behind in Denver… along with her deceitful lover.
Christopher Wolfe wasn’t my lover. He was a manipulative jerk who conned me into becoming his assistant by day and his submissive sex slave by night. Lacey placed the demitasse of Cuban coffee on her tray. I just wish I could stop thinking of him every time I say “sir”. She marched back over to the burly man’s table.
“Here you are.” She set down the cup with a napkin-wrapped spoon. “Have you decided what you’d like to have? The cinnamon buns are great, and so is the smoked turkey reuben—”
“I know who you are, Miss Easton.” The man tugged the lanyard hanging around his neck to show her a battered press badge. “Steve Lee from the Denver Daily. I’d like to talk to you about the time you spent working for Christopher Wolfe.”
Lacey felt as if she’d been punched in the stomach. “I’m sorry, but I only worked at Wolfe International for a couple weeks as a temp. Sure you don’t want a sandwich? We bake our bread fresh every morning.”