by Ellie Danes
I gave her another hug. “Thank you. I'm so lucky to have a friend like you.”
“And I'm lucky to have a friend like you. You've been there for me just as many times as I've been there for you.”
“Still, I have to say thank you. Thank you for helping me see straight after all of this craziness.”
“How did this happen though?” asked Ella. “I mean, obviously it's a pack of lies, but why was it printed? Who would want to do such a horrible, mean thing?”
“Marsha Hendrikson, CEO of Hendrikson, Inc.,” I answered, absolutely sure that it was indeed her behind this scandal.
“Wow. That's the mother of the woman Kyle's father was trying to pressure him into marriage with, right?”
“That's right. What I didn't tell you was that she made threats against me. She said that she was gonna get me. I knew it was coming—I just didn't realize how quickly and how severely she would hit us. I didn't realize how low she would go.”
“Some people are just pure evil,” said Ella sadly. “And that's the truth of it. But, the article is a bunch of lies, and once that's cleared up, once the public knows that it's nothing but lies, you'll be okay. You and Kyle. And then you can be together again, and you can put all of this behind you.”
I sighed. “I don't know if there's going to be 'me and Kyle' after all of this.”
“What?” she asked, shocked. “But you were so, so happy with him! You've just been gushing about how amazing he is, this whole past week. And from the sounds of it, you two are perfect for each other. But now you want to end it?”
“What else can I do? Everyone's going to think that he and I are just together because I'm some sort of gold-digger slut, that—”
“No,” she said firmly, “they're not going to think that. This is going to blow over, and you're going to be okay. You're both going to be okay. And your relationship is going to be stronger than ever before. You can't throw in the towel just because you hit this one hiccup. Don't give up just like that. He's worth fighting for, and your relationship is worth fighting for!”
The more I thought about this, the more I realized she was right. Kyle and I had a connection that was special—no, that was beyond special—and it wouldn't be right to simply throw it away. Yes, this scandal had thrown us into chaos, but it wouldn't be right to let it devour us.
“Thank you, Ella,” I eventually said. “You've always been great at helping me to put things into perspective.”
“And I'm happy that I've been able to do that for you,” she said. “So, you're ready to get back on your feet now after being knocked down, and keep on fighting?”
“I'm gonna fight,” I said, feeling a powerful sense of determination growing within me. “I'm gonna fight.”
* * * * *
It had taken a long time, but I had finally worked up the courage to call Kyle. I dialed his number and waited for him to answer.
“Meredith,” he said as soon as he picked up. “I've been waiting for you to call.”
There was no hint of annoyance or impatience in his voice. There was only kindness and compassion.
“I'm sorry I've been ignoring your calls and messages,” I said. “I just...I needed some time on my own.”
“I understand.”
“Can I see you now? Do you want to see me?”
“Of course. Where are you?”
“I'm at my place.”
“I'll be right over.”
“Thank you. I'll see you soon.”
I sipped wine from a glass I'd just poured and went out and sat on my tiny little fire escape balcony, staring out into the night as I waited for Kyle to arrive. After around twenty minutes, I heard the roar of a sports car howling down the street, and soon the bright beams of its headlights stabbed through the dark as it rolled up to my apartment complex. The car stopped and Kyle got out. He was still dressed in his Armani business suit, tailored to his broad-shouldered form, and he looked great. I felt a surge of physical desire shooting through me as I watched him approach.
I stood up and waved at him. “I’ll buzz you up,” I called.
A few moments later, he stood in my doorway. “Hey, Meredith,” he said.
I embraced him tightly and whispered, “I'm sorry I ran out earlier.”
“It's okay,” he said, hugging me back. “We're together again, and that's all that matters.”
We stared into each other's eyes, and a deep, powerful attraction glowed like a fire in the night between us. My blood was hot in my veins, and delightful thrills rippled along my skin. I slipped my hands down over his lower back, pulling him in closer to me. In turn, I felt his strong, manly hands sliding down over my back, lower and lower.
And then, suddenly, our mouths were together, our tongues dancing, our bodies pressed together. We kissed with a desperate hunger, releasing all the tension that had built up to boiling point over the course of this difficult day.
Kyle slipped one hand down onto my ass cheek and gripped it hard, letting me know how intense his desire for me was. I felt a blast of heat shoot through my body and down at the meeting of my thighs. We staggered back inside my apartment, kissing and moaning as we went, and we started undressing each other as we moved, throwing and dropping items of clothing all over as we stumbled toward my bedroom.
My pulse was pounding, my blood was hot in my veins, and a delectable wetness was soaking through my panties. I wanted him, I wanted him so badly, and I could feel, from his throbbing hardness pressing with against my belly, that he wanted me just as badly.
We reached the bed and he pushed me down onto it, standing there panting with lust as I lay there on my back, dressed only in my bra and panties. He was shirtless, and his chiseled muscles, so sharply defined, glistened in the soft light with the thin glow of sweat that coated his darkly-tanned skin. In his pants was the outline of his fully hard member, making a tantalizing shape behind the fabric. He dropped to his knees, reached up, and slid my panties off, and then gripped my knees, one in each hand, and opened my legs. I felt swollen and wet, and definitely ready for him. He moved in, closing his eyes, and he pressed his mouth over my wetness, kissing it and sucking gently on it, and swirling his tongue softly into me.
His tongue on me, inside me, sent shivers of utter bliss coursing through my body, and I let out a long, soft moan. As he continued to explore the center of my femininity with his eager tongue, he reached up with his hands for my chest. I undid my bra and pulled it off, and then his large hands were on my breasts, gently squeezing and gripping and massaging. My nipples stiffened at his touch, and a hot flush reddened the skin of my chest.
The waves of pleasure from the actions of his tongue on my clit were becoming more and more intense, driving pulse after pulse of ecstasy through my body. An orgasm was beginning to build, and I wanted more. As he continued to caress and grip my breasts with increasing pressure and fervor, I slid my own hands down and gripped two fistfuls of his hair, pulling his head closer into me, and arching my hips and slowly grinding myself against the motion of his firm tongue.
Oh, yes, yes...this was it, this was getting me there. The ripples of pleasure became waves, giant, thundering ocean waves, and now the ecstasy was becoming too much to bear. I gasped and started breathing harder and harder, moving my hips with more vigor, feeling the buildup growing within me until it got to the explosion point.
And then, with glorious force, the orgasm tore through me. I cried out and arched my back, allowing it to rip through me and saturate every nerve ending in my body with its electric joy. Wave after wave of sheer bliss filled me, and I cried out again and again until finally the waves began to abate.
Now I wanted him—all of him. I couldn't wait a second longer.
“I need you, Kyle, I need you inside me...now, right now,” I purred.
He stood up, dropped his pants, and then his massive manhood sprang out, proud and stiff and beautiful with its throbbing hardness. I opened my thighs wider and he stepped in, slipping the head
into my hot wetness, which welcomed him. I let out a long, slow moan as he slid inch after steel-hard inch into me, and felt a shudder of pleasure rippling through my whole body as he filled me up completely.
Then, when all of him was inside me, he leaned forward and started to kiss me deeply and passionately. As our tongues danced in each other's mouths, he started to move slowly inside of me. Not quite thrusting, just a gentle rocking motion that sent shivers of ecstasy rippling through me with each movement. I moaned into his mouth as we kissed, and then he slipped his fingers into mine and we gripped each other's hands.
Now he started to thrust in and out of me, and he stood up straight. Each thrust brought a fresh burst of pleasure, and he lifted my legs up over his shoulders so that he could get in more deeply. And as he started thrusting with those deep, powerful thrusts, intense waves of bliss began to tear through me. Another orgasm was building, this one with even more power and force than the previous one, and I cried out and moaned and writhed beneath the power of what his hard length of flesh was doing to me.
The orgasm was building with a rapid force, and he started thrusting harder and with more speed and ferocity as the minutes passed.
I was breathing hard now, on the brink of orgasm, gasping and crying out as he gripped my breasts tightly, almost ferociously, as he thrust and grunted. And then my orgasm exploded through me with a beautiful force. And at the same time, he came, crying out and thrusting one final, intense thrust into me, as deep as he could go. We rode the waves of bliss together, gasping and shuddering, and then he collapsed into my arms, sweating and hot and panting.
“That was...that was amazing,” I managed to utter.
“It was, it really was,” he said.
And then, he looked into my eyes and brushed a finger gently along my cheek. “I love you, Meredith,” he whispered.
“I love you, too, Kyle,” I said to him.
I had never spoken truer words in my life.
Chapter 20
Kyle
I stared at Meredith for a long time, basking in the afterglow of our lovemaking. She was glowing, radiant, and supremely beautiful. I couldn't believe how lucky I was to have a woman like her. She stared back at me and I saw nothing but love in her eyes. A profound sense of warmth and affection swelled within me, growing so powerfully that I thought I might explode.
“You know,” I said to her, “my dad came and spoke to me earlier.”
A look of worry flashed across her face. “And...is he angry with you?”
I smiled and shook my head. “That's what I was expecting but no, he isn't, not at all.”
Now she looked surprised. “Wait. He wasn't angry or upset?”
“No, he wasn't. He actually came to apologize for trying to force me into a marriage I didn't want.”
“You must have been pretty surprised,” she remarked.
“I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I mean, this is the most stubborn guy in the universe. And yet, here he was, apologizing to me.”
She laughed—a warm, gentle bell-like laugh that sent a surge of attraction ripping through me.
“They say that a leopard can't change its spots, but maybe your old man never was a leopard to begin with, huh?”
I laughed. “Maybe he wasn't.”
“So, what else did he say? Did he tell you why he changed his mind about everything? Because, uh, he seemed pretty much sold on this idea that you and that Tracy should get married.”
“Well, for the longest time he was. But I guess when the Financial Times article came out today, he finally understood just how evil and nasty someone like Marsha Hendrikson could really be. I think he'd always had a suspicion that she was a really mean person but seeing what she did here finally opened his eyes to it. And he realized what a mistake it would be for me to marry into that family.”
“I'm glad that he came to that realization.”
I nodded. “I am, too, trust me.”
A look of worry came across her face though, and it seemed almost as if her happiness was beginning to deflate. “But even if he's changed his mind about her, and about everything else, it doesn't change the fact that the article is out there.”
“No,” I said, “but it does mean that we now have him on our side instead of on her side. He's mad as hell about what Marsha did, and he wants to get her as badly as I do. And over the course of his long business life, he managed to make friends with many of the best lawyers in this city. He and I sat down earlier and formulated a strategy to fight this.”
Now her expression began to brighten up with new, fresh hope. “That's great!” she exclaimed, beaming one of her gorgeous smiles at me. “So, you guys are going to get the article retracted, and force the Financial Times to make an apology to you and me?”
“That's only the beginning of it,” I said. “We're gonna sue them, and we're gonna sue and prosecute Marsha.”
She nodded slowly, and a look of determination flashed across her eyes. “Good. And I'm going to help you to do that. Together, we're gonna take that bitch and her firm down.”
I chuckled and caressed her cheek playfully. “Oh, really? Wow, getting feisty now, are we?”
The look of determination on her face grew even fiercer. “I want to get revenge on her just as badly as you do, Kyle. I'm not joking.”
“I understand that,” I replied, “but my father and I have this under control. I don't think we need any assistance—and I'm not saying that you can't, that you're not capable of helping, not at all—I'm just saying that we did a lot of strategic planning earlier, and we've got everything under control. It's all set up. All we need to do now is to meet with the lawyers, and then get the ball rolling.”
“And I understand what you're saying,” she said, “but I want to personally get that bitch back for what she did to me.”
“You're uh, you're not gonna do anything crazy, are you?”
She chuckled. “No, don't worry, nothing crazy, nothing like that at all.”
“Well, what then?”
“I'm gonna hit her where it really hurts,” she said with a confident, knowing smile. “In her wallet.”
“And how are you gonna do that?”
“I'm gonna work my ass off for your company. I know that you and Hendrikson, Inc. are neck and neck in the race for who comes out top in terms of earnings this quarter—and I'm gonna make damn sure that your company wins. I'm gonna work on a platform that competes directly with Hendrikson's main platform. I'm gonna go right for the jugular; I'm gonna steal Hendrikson's biggest clients and bring them over to us.”
My attraction and love for this woman was growing by leaps and bounds with every syllable she uttered. I nodded slowly, smiling at her.
“Brilliant,” I said eventually. “Absolutely brilliant. An attack on all fronts. She doesn't know what's about to hit her.”
“No, she doesn't. And it's going to be one sweet, sweet moment when all of this does hit her,” she said. “She’ll realize just how bad she screwed up, and how she should not have taken things as far as she did.”
I nodded, and we both stared at each other in silence for a while.
“I'm really, really glad to have you,” I said to her. “You're so inspiring, you're just amazing.”
She blushed, her beautiful cheeks glowing softly. “Nobody has ever made me feel like this. I'm so lucky to have a guy like you. I feel like we could conquer the world together.”
“Well, we're gonna take it on, I promise you that. One battle at a time. And the first battle... well, we're ready to fight it, aren't we?”
She nodded, her eyes aglow with fierce determination. “You bet. Let's do this.”
“I love it when you talk with that fighting talk,” I said, feeling desire swelling with delectable heat within me. “I really love it.”
We stared into each other's eyes again, and I could see the flames of desire crackling inside her as well. We started making out, and soon I was hard again, and she was wet...
&nb
sp; * * * * *
I lay on my back, exhausted and drenched with sweat after our second marathon lovemaking session. I reached down for Meredith's hand, slipped my fingers through hers and squeezed tightly.
“That was even better than the last time,” I said, an ear-to-ear grin stretched across my face. “Damn, it really was amazing.”
“You're amazing,” she said, and leaned across and kissed me gently on the cheek.
“You know,” I said, “getting revenge on Marsha wasn't the only thing my father and I talked about.”
“It wasn't? What else did you talk about.”
“I talked about my future,” I replied.
“Your future. Okay, and what about your future specifically?” she asked.
“Well, who I'm going to spend it with.”
“Ah, the marriage question. Well, we've already established that you're not going to be marrying Tracy Hendrikson.”
“Yes, but that wasn't the end of the conversation about marriage.”
She turned her head and looked across at me with a curious smile. “All right,” she said. “So where is this going?”
“Well, I told my father that I had found someone who I really wanted to spend my life with. You. And he supported that decision.”
She stared at me for a while, and I couldn't tell if she was overjoyed or totally shocked. Maybe it was a bit of both.
“Well, obviously he knows that we're together, you and me,” she said. “But the whole question of marriage to me—you brought that up with him? And he was okay with you getting married to me?”
“He's totally okay with it. He supports the idea completely.”
“And what do you think about it, you personally?” she asked.
I breathed in a deep breath before replying. “I've been very resistant to the idea of settling down. All my adult life I've resisted that idea. I've lived the rich playboy lifestyle, I've never let a woman tie me down. I always thought that it was what I wanted—to live like that, like a player. But it never made me happy—not truly happy. However many girls I had, it never filled the hole in my soul. And I think part of it was simple rebellion against my father, who had been so strict and controlling. And, of course, there was the fact that I simply never met a girl who influenced me enough that I wanted to settle down with her. Not until I met you.”
