by Annie Jocoby
I felt that I had to get out of there quickly. I packed up my briefcase with the research material that I had found regarding Margot’s defense and also with some of the files that I was going to take home and study, and headed out the door of my office.
I was still spooked by the fact that I had tried to get a read on Derek’s emotions and felt just nothingness. Was he a true sociopath? I remembered that I was afraid that Slade might be, before I met him. Then, after I met him, I knew that Slade was a good guy. He had true emotions. But this guy…he was truly scary.
Just before I got to the door of the suite, I heard Derek’s unmistakable voice behind me. “Serena, this is just perfect. Everyone is gone for the day. Everyone but you and me.”
I ignored him, and kept on walking. I could see the suite door right in front of me, and I knew that it was just a matter of time before I was out by the elevators where there would be plenty of people milling about. This was a large office building and I was a bit surprised that everyone had left my own office this early – there was always somebody who worked a bit late.
“Serena, I just addressed you. Turn around and look at me.”
I just kept walking, but I felt his hands on my shoulders. The icy fear that had gripped me earlier was soon spreading all over the rest of my body. Just keep on walking, just keep on walking.
He put his arm around my neck, and, for just a moment, I froze completely. “You like being hurt, I know you do. You love the pain, the humiliation, the fear. Don’t think that I don’t know all about your lifestyle in New York City. I would love to be your master.”
It was then that I did the only thing that I could think of doing in that situation. I shoved my heel right in his crotch and he crumpled to the ground. I then ran to the door of the suite, and proceeded to run down the stairs. All 50 flights. I took off my shoes and just ran.
As I got into my car, I tried not to think of the encounter with Derek in the office suite. All that I had to concentrate on was getting the keys in the ignition of the car, putting the car into gear, and driving off.
I somehow managed to put my shaking hands on the steering wheel, while turning the key of the ignition. How I managed that, I don’t really know. All that I knew was that I soon found myself barreling down the road while wiping away my tears. My mind was a jumble of so many things…I knew that I couldn’t tell Slade that Derek had intimidated me, because I didn’t know how he would react. I also knew that I couldn’t possibly quit my job, because it was so important to me to represent Margot. I had to do that for Slade and for Margot herself.
Dammit! How did that bastard find out about my “lifestyle” in New York City? Why was that any of his business? And the thought that he “wanted to be my master” was a thought that I couldn’t even begin to comprehend. There was nothing sicker, in my mind, than what he had just proposed.
As I slowed my racing heart and got my shaking hands under control, I knew that what had happened that day was something that might continue to happen in the future.
Even with this revelation coming to light, though, I was also aware, that I could never run.
Chapter 13
When I got home, I found Slade in his office. He apparently was on a Skype call with somebody overseas, because he was talking to somebody on a screen and was speaking a different language. I was briefly fascinated by his fluency in this particular language, which sounded like German. I looked at my watch and saw that it read 7 PM, which would mean that this person Slade was speaking with was up at a very late hour. By my rough calculations, it was in the early morning there.
I wondered if there was some trouble brewing on that front. That’s all you need right now – Slade having problems at his company.
Slade’s voice was getting louder, and then, just like that, he wasn’t talking anymore. I went into the office after I heard him stop speaking, and he was just staring at the computer screen, which was blank. He jumped a little when he heard me come in.
“Serena,” he said, coming over to me and putting his arms around me. “It’s good to see you. I’m glad your home.” The dogs came up to me, and excitedly started to try to jump on me. I pet them absent-mindedly while Slade had his arms wrapped around me.
“I didn’t interrupt anything, did I?” That was my polite way of inquiring about the Skype call. Whatever was happening, it didn’t seem to be good news.
“Not really. I was just speaking with an overseas investor, and apparently one of our patents is about to be denied over there in Germany. That poor guy has been up all night trying to figure out how to circumvent their government on this.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“It’s not that big of a deal. It wasn’t one of our marquee drugs, so I’m not going to get too upset about it.” He kissed me, a long, deep kiss, and then he backed off of me slightly. “I’m more interested in what’s going on with you. You don’t seem to be quite yourself right now.”
I had made up my mind that I wasn’t going to tell Slade about my encounters with Derek. If Slade knew that Derek was giving me as much trouble as he was, then there was the possibility that he would try to make me quit my job. I just couldn’t do that to Margot. So, I was going to keep quiet about what was really going on.
I shrugged my shoulders. “It’s been a long day. You know, I was away from the office for a few days, and I had a pile of work to catch up on. I’m sure you’re quite familiar with the concept.”
He smiled. “Me? Nah. My life has always been charmed and hard work has never factored into the equation at all.” Then he winked and I had to smile.
I spent the rest of that evening just making some small talk with Slade over dinner about different things. I didn’t necessarily want to talk about anything stressful, and I got the feeling that he was the same.
Eventually, however, I did feel more comfortable about talking about what was on my mind. Not about Derek, necessarily, but about my revelation about perhaps needing a therapist for my own PTSD. “Dr. Sanderson is going to evaluate Margot, and perhaps she could also use him as a therapist,” I told Slade. “And maybe I should think about doing the same.”
He nodded. “I was wondering about that. It seems that, ever since Derek came back into the picture, you’ve seemed just a little bit off. I don’t want you to go through your life afraid. I’m going to do what I can to keep that bastard in line, and I really wish that you could just quit to get away from him.” He looked down at his glass of wine, and then took a sip. “If I knew what Charlotte would do if you did quit, then I would almost certainly be all for you just getting out of there.”
Oh, of course. The Charlotte factor. Outside of the fact that I didn’t want to desert Margot, Charlotte was still the reason why I was trapped working with Derek. There was always the danger that she could come after me if things didn’t go quite her way. “It doesn’t matter, Slade. I want to keep working there. I really do think that I can do Margot’s case justice, much more than other attorney. Remember, I have an uncanny knack in picking the right jury, and that’s going to be absolutely crucial in this case.”
“I understand that, but I also think that Derek is causing you too much stress.” He shook his head. “I’d like to kill that bastard. I really would.” His eyes were flashing, and I knew that he was at least partially serious. Not that Slade would actually kill Derek, but that he was tempted to.
“Hey,” I said, putting my hand on his. “It’s going to be okay. I’m a big girl, I can hold my own, and I need to face this down. I need to face it down and know that I’m strong enough to get through this. I love that you’re in my corner and that I can count on you, but, believe me, it’s all going to be for the best. What happened to me all those years ago is something that has haunted me, and now I have the chance to really face it. Derek working with me is the best thing that ever happened.”
In a way, I was lying to Slade when I said those words. Working with Derek was something that definitely didn’t seem to
be a blessing. Yet, at the same time, I knew that I was also partially right – I had to face him and I had to get stronger about it. If I could do that, then I could finally start to live my life completely without fear.
“You’re a remarkable woman,” he said, as he came over to my side of the dinner table. “You know that?”
I smiled. “So I’ve heard. So you’ve told me.”
“I have?” he asked me softly. “Well, let me tell you again.”
He took my legs and spread them on the chair. He kissed me as he wrapped my legs around his back tightly. I was wearing a skirt, like I usually do at work, but I also was wearing thigh-highs which were held up by a garter and high-heeled shoes. He massaged my inner thighs as he looked down at my garter lustfully.
“Do you like?” I asked him.
“Oh, yeah,” he said as he kissed my inner thigh. He continued to massage my thigh as his other hand made its way to my thong panties. He kneeled down in front of me as he casually brought down both of my knee-highs and my panties. My legs were still stretched out in front of me, and he held me by my feet. He kissed my calves and my thighs and his tongue made its way to my clit. He hoisted me up on the table, which excited me, because his cock was now on the same level as my nether-region.
He lightly pushed me down on the table as he unbuttoned my shirt and unhooked my bra. His hands stroked my breasts and nipples, and he sucked and nibbled on them while his hands swirled around my clit and inner folds. He kissed my neck and teased my nether-parts with his enormous and proud manhood, which sprung forth from his pants. I unbuttoned his shirt and ran my fingers along his hard pecs and eight-pack abs. He kissed me on the lips, and I ran my fingers through his thick hair.
With a sigh, I felt him enter me slowly, and then pick up his rhythm. I lay backwards on the table again, and brought him to me. My legs were wrapped around him tightly, and they clenched his backside as he continued to stroke in and out of me. He rooted deeply inside of me, hitting my G-Spot and making me scream in ecstasy. I had one sweet release, and then another and another, in rapid succession. I briefly thought that I would lose consciousness, because my orgasms were that powerful.
He finally had his own release, and he kissed my lips and my eyelids and face. “Well,” he said, “I’m guessing we’re going to have to wash this table pretty good before we eat on it again,” he joked.
“Indeed.”
Chapter 14
The next few weeks went by like a flash. I was finding, more and more, that all the glaring media attention that Slade’s case was garnering was getting to be a pain to deal with. It seemed like, every time I turned around, there was a reporter that was calling me, ostensibly to get the dirt on Margot’s case. I never told them anything, of course, but they kept calling anyhow. And once again, just like when Slade was accused of murder, the pundits were talking about this case pretty much non-stop. This was a case that excited the pundit class even more than the murder case, because Slade was clearly guilty of covering up the murder of Hugh and disposing of his body, and the media was absolutely salivating that he would finally get his comeuppance that he, in their eyes, so richly deserved.
For Slade’s part, he shrugged all the attention off. He also didn’t appear to be taking the charges against him very seriously. “Jackson has it all under control,” he said. “And my PR team is starting to bend the media attention the other way. They aren’t there yet, but the media’s narrative is beginning to question the prosecutor in this case, and the new narrative is starting to become that this is all a witch-hunt. That the prosecutor desperately wanted to pin Jordan’s murder on me, and, since the prosecutor’s office couldn’t do that, they’re going all out against me on this case. We’ll see if that new narrative sticks.”
Indeed, Slade seemed impressed that his PR team was able to spin the entire case in that manner. They were completely on the offensive, on Slade’s behalf, sending surrogate after surrogate to the talk shows to try to get the story out that the prosecutor simply has it in for Slade. And the media was starting to buy it. Slowly but surely, the talking heads were being less hard on Slade and there were even a few hosts who entertained the notion that Slade was simply being railroaded again, by an overzealous prosecutor, mainly because he was a mini-celebrity and had just been exonerated of a heinous crime. The prosecutors, so the narrative was going, were trying to take revenge on Slade because they were so upset about letting him slip through their fingers in the murder of Jordan.
So, that was a development that gave all of us a bit of breathing room. Not that the media wasn’t still obsessed, but they were slightly less so, and were getting even less so every day. I was able to concentrate more on Margot’s case and less on what was going on with Slade and his case.
Derek was still an issue, and, even though I had intended to return to my house, I found myself making excuses not to. Every day, though, Slade asked me about him and how he was treating me, and I honestly told him that Derek was not that big of a problem anymore. He was still around, of course, but he hadn’t cornered me like he did that one evening when we were all alone in the office suite.
I was also making headway on Margot’s case. I had set her up with an appointment with Dr. Sanderson, and he evaluated her and decided that she did have PTSD. He also determined that she had a reasonable belief that Hugh was going to rape her, because of what had happened previously to her in prison. He agreed to keep seeing Margot on a regular basis, so it was just a matter of scheduling depositions with this doctor and having the prosecutor ask him questions under oath. They also scheduled to have her evaluated by their own expert. Basically, it was going to come down to dueling experts, and the jury was going to have to decide which expert was more credible.
My relationship with Slade was also continuing, and was deepening by the day. We were in a good place, which felt right. After all that we had gone through, it was really about time that we had a little bit of happiness. Happiness was something that was fleeting, I had always found, and I wanted to just hold onto it tightly. Just put both of my hands around our happiness and squeeze it.
Then, one day, I went to get my mail – I had opened up a PO Box when I went to stay with Slade originally, and I went to it every other day. It was then that I discovered that Slade and I weren’t the only ones who were trying hard to grab onto happiness. Luke and Dalilah were finally making things official, and they were to be married at her father’s estate in Montauk.
I went to talk with Slade that day, after finding out that I had been invited to this wedding. “Slade,” I said to him. “I have to travel to New York in a month. My brother Luke is finally getting married.”
He raised a single eyebrow. “You’re going to see your brother?” he asked accusingly.
I suddenly felt shy. “Well, I was going to ask you to go with me, but…” I felt weird asking him, for some reason.
“Well, what?”
“Nothing. Would you like to go?”
He smiled big. “I thought you would never ask. We’ll take my plane and we’ll make a weekend of it.”
I nodded my head, feeling foolish that I was too shy to ask him to accompany me to New York. We had been together for months by this time, and I still was never quite sure where I stood with him. “That will be fun,” I said. “It will definitely be a much-needed vacation for us.”
“It’s a date.” He came over to me and put a spoon in my mouth. It was a delicious sauce that he was making for some pasta. He had definitely developed some skills in cooking vegan foods, and I loved that about him. He was really trying to accommodate me. That was one of the things that we did together - cooking. It was a relaxing thing and it gave us a chance to really bond with each other.
I took a deep breath as I inhaled his scent. It was always intoxicating to me, and I always felt, when I was with him, that I had just met him. I hoped that being with him would never get old.
“Are you going to have Jackson make a motion to the court to allow you to
leave the state?”
He shrugged. “I guess so. I don’t think that it’s a big deal, because the judge didn’t put a condition on my bond that I’m to stay in the jurisdiction.”
“That’s certainly promising.” His judge, Judge Richards, seemed to be a fair sort. So far, there hadn’t been any major rulings that went against him, and we were both hopeful that he could beat his charge.
“It is.” He put his arms around me, and I felt the warmth of his skin on mine. “Mmmmm, I’m really hungry, but I’d love to just take you upstairs and do things to you that you’ve never had done. Which, admittedly, doesn’t leave much.” He grinned as I slapped him lightly with the kitchen towel that I had in my hand.
“Let’s eat first,” I said, “and then we can do things to each other.”
We set the table and both of us sat down to eat. The dogs were at my feet, and Bella was whining softly. They were almost fully grown, and they had really developed their own personalities. Bella was more demanding of my time, attention and love. Gigi was more laid-back about everything, being seemingly content to just watch the world go by. Whenever there was begging at the dinner table, it was usually Bella leading the way on that.
I fed both dogs from the table, and they seemed to inhale the food. I smiled at both of them and talked to them. They seemed to understand every word I said, or, at least, they pretended to. Their ears were perked up, which meant that the ears on both dogs were pointed to the ceiling.
We drank our wine and he asked me how things were going with Margot’s case.
“They’re doing fine,” I said. “Of course, the real test will come when the trial actually happens. As you know, it’s set for trial in two months.” I shook my head. “I don’t know what to expect at trial at all. If we get the right jury, then we have a chance.”