“Okay.”
“I sort of got my job back.”
I watch her as she processes this statement. After a moment, her eyes light up.
“What do you mean?”
I give her the overview of what has been happening over the last few weeks. She puts the spring roll down as she listens. At the end, she gets out of her seat and wraps her arms tightly around my neck.
“Oh my God, are you serious?”
I nod. She kisses me on the lips. Tears run down her cheeks and she starts shaking uncontrollably. I pull her close to me and hold her until she stops.
“Are you okay?” I ask after a moment.
“Yes, of course! I’m more than okay,” she says, wiping her tears. “I’m just so happy for you. So, is this for good?”
“I don’t know yet. They fired Blake for good. And the board asked me to come back for a brief period of time as an interim CEO. Probably to keep the peace so to speak, to make sure that the investors don’t start scrambling and the stock price doesn’t continue to fall.”
“That’s great,” she whispers, giving me another kiss.
“They say that they like my ideas, the ones that Blake rejected when he took over. And at least, they never really made it clear to the public why I left, they’re now blaming it all on Blake to save some face.”
“Well, it was pretty much his fault.”
“Very true.”
I’m honestly shocked by how well Ellie takes the news. I mean, I knew that she would be happy for me, but not this happy. I didn’t think she would have much of a reaction.
“I’m actually sort of surprised by your reaction,” I say as we both dig into the Thai food. “You have been in such a funk lately—“
“Yes, I know,” Ellie says, finishing her spring roll and reaching for another. “And this news…I’m just so happy for you. Everything was just going to shit, you know. This really makes me feel better.”
We enjoy the rest of our dinner over a few episodes of Friends on Netflix. I’ve only seen a few of them, but Ellie finds that unacceptable. According to her, Friends is the type of show that will always improve your mood no matter how down in the dumps you are. A few hours later, right before we are about to turn in, Ellie’s phone rings.
“I’m not going to answer it,” she says. “I just want to get into bed and snuggle.”
“I like the sound of that.”
She brushes her teeth and her hair and climbs into bed next to me. I’m about to turn off the light when she reaches over me and looks at her phone.
“This is the DA from Maine,” she says. “What could he have to say?”
I shrug and look at the time. It’s after nine in the evening. Probably nothing good.
“It looks like he left a voice mail.”
She puts it on speaker phone.
“Hi, Ellie, I’m sorry to call you so late. But I’m afraid I don’t have very good news. I am going to have to drop the case against Tom Lackey since we no longer have Caroline’s testimony. There may be a way to move forward if you are willing to be the star witness and your friend, Aiden Black, is also willing to testify, but I’m not sure. It’s a long shot. Can you please give me a call back at your earliest convenience?”
“He’s going to drop the case?” Ellie asks with tears welling up in her eyes. I shake my head.
“Not necessarily. Not if you and I testify on her behalf.”
Ellie starts shaking and buries her head in her knees.
“He still said it was a long shot.”
I put my arm around her shoulders and pull her close to me.
Chapter 16 - Ellie
When I can’t handle all the darkness…
People say that time makes all pain duller and easier to deal with. I feel like it fills your life with so much darkness that at some point you just don’t have space for any more of it. A week later, after I couldn’t possibly cry anymore, I decide that I need to feel something else. I simply do not have the energy to mourn anymore. It wasn’t that I was over anything. Not at all. I just have to feel another emotion if for no other reason than I have to see whether I am still capable of feeling other emotions.
I invite myself over to Aiden’s for dinner. I open a bottle of wine and I ask him about his work. I’m so happy for him that he was able to get his job back. It’s not official yet. It’s just an interim position and there are no guarantees. Blake was the interim CEO before Aiden and look what happened to him. But it’s better than nothing. It’s a shot. And that’s all Aiden needs right now. Owl is his baby. It was something he grew, cultivated, and cared for his whole adult life. Losing it had made a hole in his heart that would’ve taken years to fill. And now? Well, things are looking up.
“So, what do you want to do tonight? Binge on some Netflix?” Aiden asks me, helping me clear the table.
“Something like that,” I say with a wink.
Aiden raises his eyebrows in surprise.
“I was thinking more like Netflix and chill.”
“Oh, really?” he asks, nearly dropping one of the plates.
“Don’t act so shocked.”
“I’m not.”
I walk over to him and take his hand. I lead him to the bedroom. After sitting him down on the bed, I pull out the piece of paper that I found in his office.
“This is the contract that you asked me to sign,” I say, handing it to him. “I’ve signed it.”
Aiden looks at the contract, at me, and back at the contract.
“Tonight, I’m yours to do with as you please.”
“Ellie, I don’t want you to feel like you owe me something. I totally understand what you’re going through.”
“No, it’s not about that.”
“So what? What is this about?”
“I’m just really tired of feeling so shitty. And I need to feel something else. Will you make me feel something else…Mr. Black?”
* * *
Mr. Black gets a coy smile on his face. He walks over to the nightstand and gets out a pair of handcuffs. Wow, that was quick. He leads me to the desk. I’m wearing a thin dress with spaghetti straps and he slowly pushes the straps off my shoulders. My whole body shudders. My nipples get hard and a familiar warm sensation starts to build within my body. I press my legs together, but he pushes them apart with his knees.
“Oh, no,” Mr. Black says, shaking his head. With one swift motion, my dress falls to the floor and I’m standing in nothing but a bra and panties. He unclasps my bra and lets my breasts fall into his hands.
“Oh, wow,” I whisper as he kneels down and takes my nipple into his mouth. He massages my other breast with his hand and then switches sides. My panties are getting wetter and wetter with each passing second. Just when they are pretty much soaked, Mr. Black pulls them down.
“Wow, that was fast,” I say. He shrugs and pushes me down to the floor. Then he pulls my arms up and handcuffs them above my head. Each motion is swift and direct. He’s in control and there’s nothing I can do about it. At least there’s nothing I really want to do, except to let him take me on this wild ride.
After pushing my legs apart, he gets down on the floor in front of me and spreads my legs. Then he buries his head in between them. This time, however, his motions are no longer swift or fast. No, now he takes his time. He lets his warm tongue run over every part of me prior to burying itself deep inside. He swirls it around and around until my head starts to spin and I forget about everything else in the world. Suddenly, the outside world ceases to exist entirely
“Wow, that feels so good,” I mumble and slump back against the leg of the desk. Luckily, it’s rounded and only slightly digs into my back.
“I’m getting close,” I whisper as he starts to make concentric circles with his tongue.
“Oh, no, we can’t have that.”
He pulls himself away from me and unlocks my handcuffs. I expect him to take me over to the bed, but he simply turns me around to face the desk and places me on all
fours. Then he handcuffs me to the leg of the desk again. My butt is now facing him. I’m stark naked and entirely exposed and it never felt so good.
He spreads my legs with his hands and pushes his finger deep within me. I moan in pleasure and say his name.
“Aiden? Who’s Aiden?” he asks, plunging his fingers deeper within me, making me moan even louder in pleasure.
“Mr. Black,” I correct myself.
“That’s better.”
While some of his fingers continue to swirl within me, others make their way toward my clit. They massage it and play with it, but stop short every time I feel like I’m about to reach my climax.
“You’re toying with me,” I whisper.
“Of course.”
I hear the ruffling of his clothes somewhere behind me. Before I get the chance to look back, I feel his big powerful cock plunge within me. He pierces me and then slides in and out, spreading me further apart.
“Oh, that feels so good.”
“It better,” Mr. Black says. His legs are in between mine, plunging in and out of me. He pulls his fingers away from my clit and stands up straight, holding me by my hips. He uses my hips as his guide, but quickly this isn’t enough for him. Oh, no. Before I know it, he makes his way toward my ass. At first, he squeezes each of my ass cheeks and then he presses his fingers inside of me. As he continues to slide and out of me, my whole body starts to tingle.
“Come for me,” Mr. Black commands. I take a deep breath and let go. Finally. Every part of my body explodes in pleasure as I let out one big moan. My head starts to spin and all I see around are stars before everything fades to black. A moment later, I hear Aiden yell out my name from behind me and fall down on top of me.
Drenched in sweat, we lie here in silence for a few moments before he says, “that was so good.”
“Yes, that was kind of amazing,” I mumble. “I love you, Aiden, and I love Mr. Black.”
“I’m glad you do.”
He unlocks my handcuffs and I snuggle up to him. He wraps his arms around me and we lie here, lost to the world outside.
“I want to stay here forever,” I say.
“Me, too.”
“I’m really sorry about everything.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’ve just been so cold to you. Not just that. I’ve been so lost. I don’t know,” I say.
“You’ve been mourning your best friend, Ellie. I totally understand.”
I let out a sigh and it feels like the weight of the world lifts off my shoulders.
“I should’ve never broken off our engagement,” I say after a moment. “I want to marry you. I want to be with you.”
Aiden leans over and kisses me on the lips. “I want to marry you, too. But I don’t want to rush into anything. I’m here for you. I’m yours. And I will marry you the minute that you say you want to. But I will stay with you forever even if you never want to.”
This statement makes me want to marry him even more. But he’s right. I’m just lost in the moment. Overcome with emotion. Overcome with feelings of…anything. Actually, this is the first time that I felt like someone who wasn’t grieving. This is the first time that I forgot about what just happened and enjoyed myself. I need to savor this. I need this to last.
Chapter 17 - Ellie
When something unexpected happens…
The following morning is the first time I feel somewhat normal. I faintly remember Aiden giving me a kiss on the cheek and telling me that he has to go to work, but that was hours ago. Now, it’s way past ten. I stretch and slowly get out of bed. The sun is shining and birds are singing outside. I climb into the shower and enjoy the way the hot water runs down my body. For a few minutes there, I feel okay. Actually, more than okay. My thoughts go back to last night and a warm sensation starts to pool in between my legs. Okay, okay. You need to calm down, I say to myself. You can’t get aroused again. At least, not yet. You have all that work to catch up on.
After getting out of the shower, I sit down at his desk and check my emails. I’ve been browsing through them every day, but to say that I was actually checking them would be a bold-faced lie. When I check my email this morning, I have over two-hundred unopened ones and another hundred or so which I’ve read but still need replies. This is just too big of a problem to tackle right now. No, I can’t do this. Instead, I turn my attention to the latest installment of my Auction series. I was about a third of the way through it before that happened. I carefully review my notes to try to figure out where I was in the writing process. Much to my surprise, I discover that I was in the middle of a very exciting chapter.
I can do this, I decide. I jot down a few notes of where I want the story to go and then set the timer. I always write in twenty minute intervals. I start the time on my phone and then write according to the outline that I wrote down. Sometimes, I stick to it. Other times, I go off script. The characters talk to me and become their own people and I let them. I don’t constrain them, I let them go. It’s when I decided to let them be free, and become the people that they are meant to be, that my writing got so much better than it ever was before.
When I start to type, the words just flow out of me and the twenty minutes expire in what seems like only five minutes. The timer goes off when I’m in the middle of a scene, so I press return a few times to continue the sentence a little further down the page and get back to work. The next twenty minutes flies by just as fast as the first and I’m still not done. I haven’t written in a long time and the words just keep pouring out of me. I guess last night’s escapades invigorated me much more than I had previously thought. When the timer goes off for the third time, I decide to take a break. I count up the words that each session produced. Seven hundred fifty, eight hundred sixty-seven, and nine hundred ninety-eight. That’s a total of two thousand six hundred and fifteen words. Not bad. Not bad at all.
Perhaps, I should keep this streak going. I pick up a pen and start to write down my ideas for the next scene. But then…oh, no. I press my hand to my stomach. Oh my God. No, no, no.
I run to the bathroom. Luckily, the lid to the toilet is already open because I wouldn’t be able to make it otherwise. Before I’m even able to kneel down, I start vomiting. I puke until I can’t puke anymore, and when it feels like I’ve flushed all of my insides down the toilet, then I puke some more.
“Oh my God,” I whisper, wiping the tears running down my cheeks. I’m not crying, they just come with the process. Somewhere in between the gags, my thoughts turn back to Caroline. I haven’t thought of her this whole morning. This was the first morning in weeks that was, by all accounts, normal. And now, suddenly, it’s not. I’m throwing up and I have no idea why. It has something to do with Caroline. I haven’t thought about her for some time and now I have to make amends. This is my punishment for forgetting her.
I barf again. And again. In between, I lie down on the tile floor and try to cool off. I’m not particularly cold. But I am covered in sweat. My entire body is out of whack. One minute my teeth are chattering and the next I’m perspiring as if I had just gone on a two mile hike through the Mohave Desert in the middle of summer. What the hell is going on? This can’t all have to do with Caroline, can it? No, maybe I ate something bad. I try to think. The last time I ate anything was last night. But then I would’ve gotten sick last night, right? Isn’t that how stomach flu works? I don’t actually know. I very rarely get sick and I hardly ever throw up.
I drape myself over the toilet and wait for more to come. But this time, it doesn’t. I flush the toilet and stare at the water as it fills up the bowl. Gathering some strength, I pull myself up to my feet and wash my face in the sink. The shakes have subsided a bit, but I still feel like I’m freezing. I change out of the sweat-drenched clothes and climb into bed. No, this has to do with Caroline. I threw up when I first learned about her death and here I am throwing up now as well. Is this how it’s going to be now? I’m going to go hours without thinking about he
r and then have this violent reaction at the end? Is this my way of not forgetting her?
Chapter 18 - Ellie
When I still don’t feel well…
I stay in bed most of the afternoon with occasional trips to the toilet. The only thing that seems to settle my stomach is bread. I can’t even drink very much water because it also makes me violently sick and sends me running toward the bathroom. Even standing upright makes my head spin.
“I stopped by and got some chicken broth,” Aiden says when he comes over after work. I hate him seeing me like this. Sick like a dog. Dressed in nothing but sweats with a smidge of makeup in sight.
“Thank you, but you really shouldn’t have.”
“Hey, I’m going to nurse you back to health if it’s the last thing I do.”
“You’re too sweet,” I say. And he’s true to his word. He waits on me all evening, bringing me chicken broth and making me toast upon request. He even climbs into bed with me, when I explicitly tell him not to, so we can watch Netflix.
“I don’t want you to get sick,” I say. “I mean, I might have a bad strain of the flu or something. You really should go home.”
“You’re throwing up every hour, Ellie. I’m not going home.”
I shrug and snuggle up to him tighter. I don’t have the energy to fight with him now.
“You know, this is the first time either one of us has ever been ill,” I say after a while.
“Yeah, I guess.”
“Well, isn’t it a saying that you really shouldn’t decide whether the guy or girl you’re seeing is a keeper until the first time you’re sick?”
“Why is that?” he asks.
“Because it’s all about whether that person is there for you. You’re not looking your best and you’re going through something pretty rough, and it’s all about whether or not the other person shows up and cares for you.”
Auctioned to Him 7: The Contract Page 17