"Is that the best you can beg, Lenore? Do you really think he'd care about those fucking pictures? He doesn't want you. You pay him to work here, that's why he's here, not because of you. I fucked you because I wanted to. He fucked you to keep his job, that's all."
Santiago had just confirmed what she had long suspected. Carlos didn't want her. She didn't want to believe that, not until Carlos told her that flat out. Until that time she at least had some hope. "Please, I just don't want him to know," Lenore said, feeling dangerously close to tears.
"Why?" Santiago challenged. "What difference does it make?"
"Because, he wouldn't understand. He probably already thinks badly of me, the way I behaved in the past ... He would think even less of me if he knew about those pictures."
"Is he here? Is he giving you what you need? He doesn't think of you at all! You aren't anything to him."
Lenore shook her head, not willing to accept that. "Look at the garden he made for me. You're wrong."
"Okay, he planted flowers for you, maybe he likes you, but he has no idea what to do about it. Be happy that I want you. Carlos will never give you what you need. He'll plant you flowers but he won't give you what you need. I'll tell you what, Lenore. Take good care of me, and I might be able to get Carlos to let you suck his dick again. You'd like that wouldn't you?" He grinned broadly. "You know, I could give Miguel a call. Maybe he'd do you again too. Me, Carlos, and Miguel, we'll gangbang you while my girlfriend watches. I'll get her to take some pictures. Sound fun?"
Santiago's smug expression enraged her.
"You're fired," Lenore said coldly. "Get out of my house!"
Santiago didn't flinch. "If I leave, not only will I tell Carlos about those pictures but I'll make sure he goes with me. You wouldn't want that, would you, Lenore? Because he's such a good worker," Santiago mocked. "And if he won't go with me then he will just go – right back to fucking Mexico. He's not here legally. I could make a couple of phone calls and see about having him sent home. Then it would just be me and you, Lenore."
Lenore chewed her bottom lip. She loved Carlos, and she couldn't stand the thought of not seeing him anymore. Thanks to him she found that she finally had something to look forward to again, seeing him each day. Brushing by him, smelling his scent, although she could rarely touch him, his presence made her feel alive again. She needed Carlos like the crops in the fields needed today's rain. It felt like she'd wither and die if he went away.
Lenore sighed. "Fine," she relented bitterly. "We will forget this conversation ever happened."
Santiago threw the wet shirt at her. "No, don't you forget it. Think about it – think about it long and hard." He leaned closer. "You like being a slut, and that's what you'll be. You'll be my little whore, mine and my girlfriend's. You'll do her too if I tell you to ... I'll treat you just like your old man did. I'll let you think it over. You have until tomorrow, and if I don't get what I want then you can say goodbye to Carlos."
"Get out," Lenore said.
Santiago smiled. "Until tomorrow, Lenore." He winked at her. "Maybe sooner, huh? Maybe you'll come down to the trailer tonight?"
Lenore watched the door close behind him. Numbly, she wandered into the bathroom and removed the rest of her wet clothes, putting on a thick robe to chase away the bitter chill that had settled over her. What the hell was she going to do now?
Lenore went to the window and looked outside. Santiago was almost to the trailer. Not surprisingly, he hadn't gone to go help Carlos. She wondered if she should go down there to the barn and tell Carlos the truth. Tell him what Santiago was doing. Tell him about the pictures, tell him that she and James hadn't ever had a normal sex life and she'd liked it that way. Wouldn't he already know that after the things that had happened? He was probably already disgusted by her. How could those pictures make it worse?
Maybe she should confess that she hopelessly hung up on him and that if he would just give her one chance that she would do anything to make him happy.
How could she do that? She couldn't tell him. Carlos was kind and he was caring, and as much as she loved him she had the feeling that Santiago was probably right, because Carlos could never be anything like James. James had tried to force him to be, and that was the only reason Carlos had touched her in the first place. James had paid him.
Lenore crept into her bedroom, feeling as always, like a stranger in her own home. She hadn't changed anything since James passed away. It felt like she needed permission to change things, and there was no one to ask. No one to serve.
In the dim light of the stormy afternoon she pulled open the drawer full of James' photos. He had loved taking them, he always had, but when he discovered that he was dying his interest in photographing her increased. The poses he put her in became more and more extreme. She understood why, and when the time came and James no longer had the strength for sex she would watch him sitting up in the bed, sifting through the pictures he had taken with a weak smile on his tired face. When she could not please him physically any more, she had the comfort of knowing that she still did through these pictures.
Lenore rifled through them, she hadn't looked at them since James had died. He wasn't in any, but she could remember precisely the events surrounding each photo, and the satisfied smile on his face as he took them.
She could only imagine what Santiago thought when she found these. As she went to push the drawer closed Lenore noticed that the yellow envelope wasn't in the drawer. She dug through the pictures, pulling them out and scattering them on the floor. Almost at the bottom of the pile she found James' death certificate. She hadn't left it just lying here loose in the drawer; it had been in a big yellow envelope.
Lenore picked up the pictures from the floor; fairly certain she knew why that envelope was missing. Santiago must have stolen some of these pictures and needed something to put them in. What would he want them for? Maybe he thought that he'd be able to get some money if he threatened to show them around in town. The idea made Lenore uneasy, not that she really cared what those people thought of her. She already had a bad reputation, a reputation of being a gold digger, and she didn't particularly want to be known as a whore too.
She considered walking down to the trailer and demanding that Santiago return the photos, but Lenore knew that he would deny that he'd taken them. Then what? She already wanted to fire him, but she was stuck with him if she wanted Carlos to stay.
Lenore hadn't even wanted Santiago to tell Carlos about these pictures, and now if he wanted to, he could show them to him – or worse, to other people. Her stomach lurched at the thought of someone like Henry Blevens seeing any of those photos.
She picked up the last stray picture and glanced at it before she put it in the drawer. James had taken it standing over her as she knelt with her lips wrapped around his cock, and just the smallest glimpse of his skin was visible in the picture. James' cock. She could remember even the smallest of detail about it. The way it felt in her mouth, the way that it smelled and it tasted. A sob rose up in her throat as she tossed the photograph back into the drawer. How foolish it would look to someone if they saw a woman crying over a picture of herself with a man's dick in her mouth.[Chris Hal2]
When Carlos knew the things she imagined he would be disgusted by her. She'd been hoping that he might have some real attraction to her, but those hopes were all beginning to fade. Now, if he saw those pictures, saw what she'd been like with James... He was never going to want her. James had paid him that day in his office. Paid him. Just like he'd paid her stepmother to bring her here in the first place.
Lenore rubbed her eyes and stood up. Through her bedroom window she looked down at the barn. Carlos was through unloading the hay. She walked to the glass and stared out, trying to see him better. It was getting dark out and it was hard to tell what he was doing.
It looked like he was walking towards the house, probably on his way to have a cigarette beside the calf barn. She often watched him from this very window. With
the lights off in the evening she could see him in the glow of the outside lights[Chris Hal3] , but she knew that he couldn't see her. He leaned back heavily against the building. Lenore couldn't see his face clearly but she knew he was tired. He would smoke a cigarette and walk back to the trailer.
The cigarette glow illuminated his face for a moment. Tonight he didn't look tired, he looked sad. She wanted to take that sadness away, and her own too. If she could only go out there and tell him how much she wanted him.
She leaned forward, waiting for the next soft glow of orange to light his face. Her robe gaped open and the cool air of the room stiffened her nipples.
Boss, Ma'am, Ms. Lenore. She wanted to show him that she was none of those things. She was just a woman, a woman who wanted Carlos with an intensity and a hunger that surpassed any that she'd ever had.
Impulsively, Lenore switched on the bright lights of the overhead ceiling fan. She was unable to see outside anymore, the windows reflecting the room around her almost like mirrors. No, she couldn't see outside, but if he was looking he could see in. Let Santiago show him those fucking pictures, because if Carlos was looking right now, she'd remind him exactly what the real thing looked like.
She slipped off the robe and stood totally naked leaning towards the window. Her nipples grazed the cold glass and Lenore pushed them against it, the chill of the cold surface making them harden like pebbles. With her breasts pressed tightly against the window, she shifted her feet on the floor, parting her legs for her hand. She rubbed her clit slowly, the way she had done many times, imagining herself pleasing Carlos. On her knees, sucking his cock, his hands in her hair, forcing her to take it all deep in her throat.
Her hand moved between her legs and she felt the slickness of her own desire. At the first touch of her own fingertip, she thought of Denali. The things that Denali's mouth had done to her, and how good it had felt, in that little room down in the basement. The things that had happened after that ... the things that Master James had made her do to Denali. The way that Denali shrieked and moaned, her pussy pulsing against Lenore's mouth just the way that Dot's had. [Chris Hal4] She thought of Carlos, watching like Master James, excited only by watching.
The most sensual feeling in the world, turning a man on without even touching him, doing exactly what he wants to see you do. Maybe pretending to be disobedient, just to earn a punishment. Not just a punishment; the ultimate punishment, a trip to the stable to face the crop. James had procedures, certain preparations, always the same, being stripped if she was not already naked, and then marched slowly down the path. Depending on the time of year, sometimes there would be snow beneath her bare feet and her nipples would ache with cold, not that it ever mattered as her body would be hot in anticipation of the feeling of that familiar sting against her skin.
Perhaps the hired man will whip you, James' voice echoed in her mind.
The image of Carlos with the crop in his hand; the lines of his tendons and veins beneath his skin, arms of strength viciously wielding that crop, no mercy, no softness, only the punishment she deserved. She needed...
Lenore began to rub her swollen clit roughly with her fingertip, feeling a surge of pleasure go through her. As her arousal built, Lenore had more and more perverse visions of herself being used by Carlos, his cock buried deep in her freshly whipped ass...
In her head, she heard Carlos' voice saying things James had said to her. "That's it Lenore, show me what a good slut you are."
Lenore gasped and cried out as she came, her pussy achingly empty as it spasmed.
She stood trembling for a moment, staring at her reflection in the window before she picked up her bathrobe and turned off the lights. It took her eyes a few minutes to adjust to the darkness, and she could make out the shadowy image of Carlos walking down towards the trailer.
Lenore rested her hand on the glass and sadly whispered goodnight, as she watched Carlos open the trailer door and go inside.
She glanced over at the clock – time was running out, she needed to think of a way to fix things with Santiago. There was no way she could go on here without Carlos.
Sleep was not going to come easy tonight.
When she stretched out alone in the big bed she realized that she'd done something she'd thought she was incapable of doing. She'd turned Santiago down. Even though he could give her what she needed sexually, she had told him no. Maybe she had made a big mess of things, but she couldn't help but feel just a little bit proud of herself.
Softly, Lenore ran her hand over James' empty pillow. He had told her that one day she could be Carlos' if that was what she wanted.
That's what I want, Master James, but maybe I am greedy, because I don't just want Carlos I want you too.
She hugged the pillow tightly. Help him, James. Help him to be like you were.
CHAPTER NINE
Carlos stole a look up the walkway that led to the big farmhouse. It was late, and the light was off in Lenore's room. He was relieved that it was, because if he saw her the way he had earlier he would not have enough self-control. He would kick the fucking door down to get to her if he ever saw her that way again.
He had watched her touching herself – and he would never be able to forget that. The image of her pale, naked body was fresh in his mind and just recalling it was enough make his cock come alive beneath the rough denim of his work pants.
Carlos leaned back against the coarse wood of the barn and took a long drink of warm beer, unable to stop thinking about Lenore. She'd made him lunch again today, brought it down to the field along with a shy smile and a cold jug of iced tea. He'd never had someone do things like that for him, especially not an employer. She seemed to wait on him every opportunity that she had. It was out of the ordinary, but he liked it. He liked the way that she made him feel cared for ... the way she made him dream that she would do anything for him if he would only ask.
He pushed back harder against the barn, letting the wood bite into his aching back. He needed to stop this; he was spending far too much time obsessing over Ms. Lenore.
When James Acheson was alive, Carlos had dreams of making love to Lenore, gently, lovingly. That had all changed now. Given the opportunity, he was afraid that he would hurt her. Not her heart, but her body.
He finished his cigarette and walked stiffly back down to the small trailer, glancing back for one last look over his shoulder at the darkened glass of Ms. Lenore's window.
Santi was seated on the sofa, sipping whiskey.
"Where you been at, Carlos? Up there playing in your flower garden?"
"No, just outside, smoking, thinking..."
"Thinking about Lenore," Santiago said. "Thinking how bad you want to fuck her again?"
"No."
Santiago laughed. "You know you have, Carlos. Why do you lie? I have too, even before that day in her old man's office, even before her old man brought her down here, I thought about it." Santiago took a long gulp of cheap bourbon from his cup. "She wants to be fucked – by you. In fact, I think she's past wanting it now, because she needs it."
Carlos sat down at the table unsure what to say.
"What do you think Carlos?" Santiago asked.
"About what?"
"About me and you sharing Lenore."
He cringed inside at the word "sharing." "She's our boss," Carlos protested. "We could end up getting fired. Besides, I thought that you loved this girl you're with now. That's what you said. If you loved her, then why would you want Ms. Lenore?"
"We wouldn't get fired. You could get us another raise! We could sleep up there in that big house every night. Me being in love doesn't change the fact that we could run this whole fucking place if you did this just right! My girl loves women, and if you told Lenore to do her, you know that she would. I have a feeling Lenore would give you anything that you want. Sex. Money." Santiago looked at him with a smile. "She wants you bad, Carlos. Hell, she said that she loved you, remember?"
"I saw her through her window to
night. She was naked," he admitted, while purposely leaving out the rest of what he'd seen. Santiago didn't need to remind him that she'd said that she loved him, as Carlos had thought of little else.
Santiago grinned, "Oh, so you have been looking at her?"
"I didn't mean to," he lied.
"You should walk up to her house right now."
"What would I do up at the house?" Carlos asked nervously.
"Tell her you want her."
"It's late, she's probably asleep. She wouldn't let me in."
Santi laughed. "She would. She wants you; she wants you so fucking bad, Carlos. When she walks by, I swear I can smell how hot she is for you."
"I don't think that's true," Carlos said. He didn't think it was true, he knew it was, but he wouldn't tell Santiago that.
Santiago waved his hand in the air. "Then we'll make her do it. That's what she wants anyhow. Let's go up there to the house right now."
He shook his head, amazed at Santiago's impudence. "She would call the police."
Santiago shook his head. "She would not, but if that's all that you are worried about then just, you know, take it slow. Seduce her."
"Seduce her?"
"Oh don't play stupid, Carlos. You're a good-looking guy. Surely you know how to seduce a woman. That's all you have to do, make her want it more, want you. Give her what she wants a little bit at a time, make her give you things in return."
Santiago got up and went to the kitchen counter. He pulled out a thick yellow envelope from the drawer where the foil and plastic wrap were stored.
Carlos watched him open it and pull something out. A piece of paper fluttered through the air and landed on the table in front of him.
"Could you do that to her, Carlos?" he asked.
It wasn't a paper; it was a photograph. A picture of Ms. Lenore, naked and bound, she had a gag over her mouth and her legs were wide open.
"Where did you get this?" Carlos asked in amazement, without taking his eyes from the photo. Ms. Lenore's pussy was spread like an open flower, without so much as a hair to cover her. Her eyes were glazed with arousal and Carlos felt an ache in his groin at the thought of her looking at him the way she looked at the camera.
Mastered by the Hired Man Page 12