She shooed me away. “Go oh, get. Clean yourself up I’ve got this.” She looked at Claire and murmured softly to her. “It’s okay sweetie. Momma’s here.”
I felt bad but knew that Claire would be furious with me - and with herself - if I wasn’t at that meeting.
We could not afford to skip out on it, for any reason.
I hopped in the shower, quarantined the shirt she’d been sick on and got dressed in the only suit I owned. Something I had tailored to my specific frame. It fit great but the charcoal color was kind of bland after seeing the various colors of other suits at the last meeting.
Now that I was attending business meetings with people whose net worth was probably larger than Sunrise Valley as a whole, I should probably look into getting more.
Claire’s voice drifted back to me. Eventually, you’re going to be doing high-level decisions and leave the daily running to somebody else. That’s what it means to own a business, Thomas. The ultimate goal is to manage the business itself and leave the day-to-day for somebody else. You’re a captain, not the navigator and oarsman and deckhand.
It was a hard pill to swallow. The work was part of what I loved about owning my own business. I knew she was right but it didn’t make it any easier to accept.
Being a control freak was something deeply ingrained in me. I could not stand to relinquish control to somebody else. Giving Sam that managerial position had been one of the hardest decisions in my life.
I took one glance in the mirror, tied my favorite Eldridge knot and gave Claire a kiss on the head from outside the splash zone on my way out the door. She murmured something to me that I didn’t catch, and I replied, “I love you too. I’ll be home soon.”
The drive didn’t take much more than an hour. I knew the path well enough. I passed Rick and Jill’s orchard on the way. I reminded myself to call Sam before I came back to see if we needed any supplies. I could swing by on the return to Sunrise Valley.
We were meeting in a small workspace rented out specifically for traveling clients. It had everything a person like Claire might need; a projector, whiteboard, privacy curtains, a small workstation, and of course a long table with plenty of boring padded seats.
Once inside, I opened the glass door one-handed, balancing the box of pastries in the other.
Gary was already there, fiddling with his phone. He rose as soon as he saw me, the look of shock plain on his face. He was clearly expecting Claire, as he should have.
We shook hands and then I noticed something. There was a briefcase in front of his chair and another across the table. “Be just a sec,” he said glancing at his phone. “Frank’s running a little late and Ryan stepped out to get something to eat.”
I grinned and set down the box. “I already took care of that. Unless you don’t like the pastries I brought last time?”
Gary looked a little panicked and placed a hand on top of the box. “If you have the apple-spiced pumpkin turnovers, I might kiss you.”
“Look for yourself.” I was already more at ease. Talking about my food made me feel empowered, relaxed. I felt more in control at that moment than I had all week.
Around the time I was setting up, Ryan walked back in with a bag from a nearby fast food joint. “Are you serious? Hey! Get your hands off that spiced cruller Gary! If I had known you were going to bring something to eat I would have stayed put.” He looked around. “Where’s Claire at?”
“She’s come down with the flu, I’m here in her stead.” I motioned to the two briefcases. “Was there something specific I was supposed to bring?”
They both looked at me, then each other, then at the box of pastries. “This is your typical business strategy meeting. We’re trying to decide a plan of action going forward. Each of us has a proposal of how to best do that, and we’ll go around the table giving a presentation and then discuss.”
“Eventually,” added Ryan, setting down his greasy bag of food with obvious disgust. “We’ll find common ground among them, build a new plan of action from there and pick it apart and put it back together again until it’s as sound as we can make it.”
“I know I’m fairly new to all this,” I said sitting down beside Gary since I couldn’t stand the smell of whatever Ryan had in that bag. “About how long does the planning phase take?”
Gary blew out his snowy-white mustache in thought, gave Ryan a glance. “Fastest I’ve seen it done? Three months or so. Sometimes up to a year but I know you were both hoping for a faster turnaround and with a smaller town, the various layers of red tape should be less intensive. Not to mention the lack of competition. I’d say we could get started before the year is out.”
I don’t know why but that made me feel better. A lot better, actually. This wasn’t going to be the one end-all-be-all meeting that decided the entire fate of Sunrise Valley. It was just one meeting in a long list of them and if I fucked this up, Claire could probably fix it.
While it wasn’t as big a meeting as I had worried about, it was still of dire importance. Frank walked in carrying a similar briefcase and started when he saw me. Each of them were clearly expecting my better half but they took the news fairly well, considering.
“Hey, Thomas! Good to see you,” said Frank. He swung his briefcase up onto the table and took off his coat, placing it on the back of his chair. “Glad to see you here. Are you going to be giving the presentation? Good to hear it. Mind if I?” He was halfway stretched to the box of pastries when I gave him the nod.
They might be rich and successful and wield considerable influence but they were hungry like any other person and loved good food all the same. That thought comforted me and made me feel like things weren’t quite so uneven between us.
All I had to do was treat them like I did the first meeting. Like any other people. Not the three people who would decide the fate of my business, and that of my hometown.
No pressure. None at all.
“And then I said, ‘Is that for your waffles, or for you?’” The gruff older men broke into uproarious laughter clutching their sides and ruddy-faced from the effort.
The presentation was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I heavily relied on my cheat sheet to decrypt the most difficult parts of local zoning and tax laws. The rest oddly enough was more like a group effort than a single person pitching an idea.
Everything I had ever seen growing up had made it seem like business meetings were the most brutal, cutthroat thing you could engage in without physically killing another person.
This was the exact opposite of that. Every time I got flustered or had to refer to my notes, one of the partners were keen to step in and offer their help.
In fact, the whole affair was far more low-key and jovial than I would have expected. Perhaps it was the genial nature of the three men and how taken they were with my pastries but the meeting was more cooperative than I had been led to believe.
If I hadn’t been so worried and stressed out about Claire being sick and potentially fucking this all up I would have had a good time.
I had sheet after sheet of new collaborative ideas that even Claire hadn’t thought of. Though I was far from surprised when most of Claire’s designs ended up being the base model for much of the discussion.
A strange sense of pride filled me when I saw whole pages of discussion thrown out as I went over a point in Claire’s proposal. She may not have been able to attend in the flesh but she was there in spirit.
Provided Dawson didn’t find anything untoward in the language of the contract, I could definitely see myself working with these men. They had a rare air of competence and compassion.
It would have been far easier to gut Sunrise Valley. To speed its death along like some wounded animal and when it was dead use its parts for whatever they deigned.
Instead, they wanted to save it and were willing to put considerable resources into the effort. Of course they would make a profit off it, that was a given. But if that was all they wanted, there were better way
s to go about doing it.
If going through Claire’s business proposal had taught me anything, it was that.
We said our goodbyes and I left them with what was left of the pastry box. They fought over it as I gathered my things and headed into the lobby.
I called Sam on the way out.
“Yo, buttface how’d the meeting go? Did you get us all killed? Are you a town murderer now?” said Sam with her over-eager morbid humor.
“Everything’s good,” I said slightly cheerier than I felt. “I need you to give me a rundown on the fresh produce we have. Apples, pumpkins, squash, the whole list. Text anything that is low or will be in the next few days. I’m out by Rick and Jill’s orchard so I can pick some stuff on the way back.”
“Who do you think you are ordering me around like this!”
“Your boss.”
“Oh. Right.” There was an awkwardly long pause. “Sometimes I forget.”
“Clearly.”
“Anyways, supply list, fresh fruit. On it boss-man.”
She hung up and I hopped into the Caprice feeling light and airy. It was finally over. Now all I had to worry about was… everything else.
I was five minutes out from the orchard when Sam texted me the supply list. It was long.
I really need to get a truck.
16
Claire
The flu hit me hard and fast like some sort of heavyweight boxer itching for a first-round knockout. One moment I was a little achy and the next I was nearly delirious. For an entire week I was more asleep than awake.
It felt like everything bad I had ever done in my life was calling in a debt, demanding sleep as payment. Stayed up late once in college to finish that assignment? That’s three hours more sleep on the couch. Pulled an all-nighter with the Prilox consulting case? Five hours.
On and on it went.
Thomas was there, more often than not his handsome scruffy face hovered like something out of a love-struck girl’s fantasy. He’d kiss me, hug me, and take care of me.
And when he didn’t my mom was there, of all people. She fed me, helped me change, did everything a mother was supposed to do.
I was vaguely aware that I had missed something vitally important but I could not remember what.
About a week later, after Thomas had taken me to the doctor and I was beginning to feel myself I remembered. “The meeting!”
Apparently, that was funny because Thomas laughed. I glared at him. How could he be so jovial at a time like this?
“You’ve already had that epiphany about four times in the last week,” he explained, pulling me close to his chest. I was still so stuffed up I couldn’t even smell his wondrous scent. So unfair.
“And what happened?” I asked as if it was some TV show instead of a pivotal moment in our lives. That meeting could have made or broken the deal.
“I went in your stead. I stayed up most of the night with a little help from Sam translating your business plan into something I could understand and talk about. They loved it, Claire. We had a very good meeting, and another one a few days later after we signed the contract. Do you remember doing that?”
I shook my head. I totally did not. Some fuzzy memory nagged at me, I was dimly aware that I had probably signed something. I definitely did something weird with my hand and a small object.
I had chalked it up to a dream.
There were a lot of those.
In fact, I clearly remembered one where I- Oh no.
The memory came flooding back in fever soaked delirium. I had been so against the idea of me being sick, so vehemently in denial that I had tried to seduce Thomas as proof that I was not sick.
I hid my face as it burned with the memory of the moment. My clumsy attempt at undressing, fawning all over him like a drunken sorority girl. Every horrible bit came back like I was watching an embarrassing home movie I never remembered starring in.
Thomas cupped my cheek, brought my gaze back to his. He placed the inside of his wrist against my forehead. “You look flushed, but you feel normal. What’s going on?”
“I’m remembering… things.”
His lips twitched in a suppressed grin. “Oh. I see.”
“Did I really try to seduce you?” I did not want that memory. And I definitely did not want my fiancé having a memory of me pawing at him while I was high off my ass on Nyquil and over the counter pain meds.
His soft lips brushed mine, the rasp of stubble on my cheek as he nuzzled against me. It made everything better, even the words that came after. “You did, and it was adorable.”
“I really didn’t want to be sick.”
“No, you really did not.” He chuckled and I smacked him for it without any force. Not that I didn’t want to, I was just horribly weak.
The worst was over and I was mostly back to my old self but every little thing tired me out. “You know,” I said, dragging my fingertips along his hard chest. “I’m better now.”
I could see the hunger in those dark eyes, ready to swallow me whole like some beast waking from a long hibernation in a deep, dark cave. He locked it down with an impressive display of self-control and shook his head.
“Not until you’re better.”
Maybe I was horny, or maybe I was just frustrated that he was so capable of controlling himself when I knew deep in my soul that he wanted me right then. He probably wanted me when I tried to sloppily seduce him a few days ago.
Or maybe I was both.
I dragged my hand down from his sturdy chest, over his rock hard abs. Felt the way they rose and fell like small hills of stone. As always his body responded to my touch with lightning-quick reflex.
Before I reached his groin and slipped into his boxer-briefs his hips were thrusting out, hungry for my touch. My hand wrapped around the base of his rapidly thickening member and my panties immediately soaked at the sensation.
He throbbed in my fist like a second heartbeat.
My own heart was thrumming in my ears. Even though this was far from my first time with Thomas, it had been so long that it felt like it. Every fiber of my being ached for his touch, for his love.
I was practically drunk with anticipation.
Thomas let out a deep growly groan that sent a delicious shiver of pleasure down into my belly. The tiny flame that had been growing day after day of being babied and cared for by this man turned into a raging, crackling fire.
So many days where I wanted to touch him, to feel him inside me but I couldn’t get the words out much less the energy to mount him.
My grip tightened and slowly, far slower than I wanted to go, I began pumping him up and down. The feeling of him hardening to silk-covered-steel was driving me wild.
Unfortunately, Thomas was right. I was not completely better yet, but I would show him it didn’t matter. The only problem was… I was too weak to do much more than what I was.
I fumbled with his underthings trying to get them off clumsily but unable to do the job myself even with his hips lifting his firm ass off the couch where we were tangled up.
With a swift motion, he pulled them down and kicked them off halfway across the room.
Leaning forward I pulled myself by inches into his lap. Hunger and need drove me on until I was face to face with the object of my desire.
The tip of his cock was already beaded with moisture and I was quick to lean over it and lap it up, relishing the taste of him. I swirled my tongue along the base of the head and was rewarded with another growling groan of pleasure.
High on my power over him, I lowered my lips onto the crown gently sucking and swirling my tongue, paying special attention to the sensitive spot just below the tip.
Every so often while I pumped him into my mouth and hungrily sucked, I’d flick my tongue over that spot making his hips thrust himself deeper into my mouth.
There was a salty sweetness to him that I adored. And it was all mine. My other hand came up and I cupped his balls. Fondling them with care and love, lavishing
him with the attention he so richly deserved.
I loved him. I loved every last inch of him.
Was it my imagination or were they heavier? I gave a gentle lift to his balls and they definitely did feel heavier. I grinned despite myself and worked harder to give him the release he so desperately needed.
“Claire,” he husked, voice barely able to get out among the moaning he was making.
He was close. How I loved having the power to make him come.
I could almost taste it, there was something feral in the need to make him come that overtook me and if he hadn’t pulled me off him just then I would have been happy with the result.
What happened, however, was even better.
He lifted me off and gently caressed my cheek. I hungrily licked my lips and before I could bend back to him, he had me by the hips. With one smooth motion, the tendons on his neck standing out with barely checked desire, he set me onto his lap. I felt the hard wetness of him press against the inside of my thigh.
He ripped my panties off. Literally. He ripped them right off me and it was the hottest fucking thing I had ever seen him do. If I wasn’t already slick with my own desire I would have immediately been ready.
Let’s file that away for later, shall we?
With a grin and a grunt of sheer, overwhelming pleasure that I echoed with a moan of my own, he impaled me on his cock. Every inch that filled me up was like coming home. I was stretched to accommodate his girth. I was so full of him, of love, of life. It felt new and yet familiar, enticingly different.
I clamped down on him reflexively when he began to move his hips. Some deep-seated fear of him pulling out and stopping but I had no reason to worry. Thomas was given wholly to me now, to our need.
I ground my core against him, desperate for more friction and deeper penetration. I couldn’t get enough. I needed more. So much more. I wanted him to bruise my hips with his grip and fill every millimeter of me like before.
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