While I felt slightly out of place, it was nothing compared to the man in a suit sitting at a table by himself in the corner of the room. He could have been a poor relation of Carter’s, but fell just short in every department. He was good-looking, but you wouldn’t stop and stare at him. The suit looked expensive, but wasn’t made to measure like Carter’s were. He had an air of confidence or perhaps arrogance about him, though, and might also have been in a similar line of work.
“See that man over there?” I asked John with a subtle nod toward the corner of the room.
“Yeah. Why?”
“I’m going to guess he is only in town for a conference. He looks like he’s from the East Coast, judging by the suit and tie he’s wearing. Probably saw that this place is highly rated on one of those review apps and figured he would pop in. I bet he had quite a shock when he walked into a place like this.”
John smiled. “Yeah, this doesn’t look like it’s that kind of place, does it? But then, I guess we shouldn’t judge by appearances. Carter seems to have gotten the hang of places like this now.”
“I’m not sure I would go that far, but I am trying to get him to broaden his horizons a little bit. I’m not sure whether it’s the food, the people, or both, but he’s getting used to it. Anyway, I’m not giving him much choice in the matter. I love the expensive restaurants he’s taking me to, but I can’t eat at them all the time. I find it kind of exhausting being on such good behavior in public. It’s like you can’t really be yourself, you know?”
“Unfortunately not,” John said. “I don’t have as much experience eating in lah-de-dah restaurants as you do.”
“How about next time, you come with us? Actually, why don’t we make it a double date—Carter, me, you, and your new man?”
“We may have to save up a bit first, unless—”
“Hello, John. Emily. How are you?”
I hadn’t even noticed anyone approach, but the man in the suit was now standing at our table looking down at us with a cheerful grin. He knew our names, so my instant reaction was to think that I had met him somewhere and forgotten him, but as I stared up at his face I was sure I did not recognize him.
“Um, hi,” John said. “Can we help you?”
“Oh, it’s more about how I can help you. Mind if I take a seat?” The man didn’t wait for an answer. He pulled over a chair from another table that no one seemed to be using—although he didn’t ask—and sat down with us.
“Do we know you?” I asked, inching my seat ever so slightly away from him. There was something about him that I didn’t feel comfortable with, not to mention that it seemed incredibly inappropriate to sit down with people before introducing yourself.
“No, you don’t, but I think we will get to know each other quite well over the next couple of months. My name is Brian Smithson. Not ringing any bells? I’m the CEO of a little company called PharmaTech.”
For all intents and purposes, the CEO was in charge of the company, and in theory, dictated company policy. In other words, if PharmaTech had been bribing people to push its drugs onto markets, this guy would know about it. Hell, he was probably the guy who came up with the idea. I had no clue what to say to him; I wasn’t sure if we even could talk to him. Did he know about the lawsuit? It would be one heck of a coincidence if he were here otherwise.
“I’ve just come from having a nice little chat with our lawyers,” Brian said. He retained a smile on his face, as if he was giving good news. It freaked me out no end. “We get sued all the time. It comes with the territory. But usually, those lawsuits are just against the company, so you can imagine my surprise when the lawyers said that I had been named personally in the suit.”
“I don’t think we should be talking to you,” John said. “Whatever is happening, our lawyers are dealing with it. Let’s not make this personal.”
“Listen, you little shit,” Brian said, the smile on his face replaced by a snarl. “You made this personal when you fucking sued me. This is most certainly—”
“How did you know we would be here?” I asked, interrupting his little rant. “I really hope you aren’t spying on us. We’d have to add that to the lawsuit.”
“You have your stupid boyfriend to thank for that,” Brian said.
Shit. What had Carter done? I was about to speak when I noticed Brian was looking at John.
“Your little waiter friend couldn’t resist talking on Twitter about how his perfect new man was coming to the restaurant just to spend time with him. It doesn’t matter, anyway. What matters is that I am giving you an opportunity. An opportunity I recommend you think long and hard about.”
“Or what?” I asked. “You’ve already tried to take us down at every opportunity. If you could do anything else, you would have done it already, so don’t think we are scared of you.”
Brian leaned toward me. “We have plenty more options here, and many ways to make your lives miserable in both legal and illegal ways. In case you haven’t noticed, I don’t play nice, and I’m certainly not going to start doing so for you. Don’t think I’m going to make exceptions just because one of you is a fag and the other a cripple.”
I took a few moments to let his words sink in, but I refused to let myself react to them. John let it wash over him as he always did. He once explained to me that he now found homophobic abuse more funny than frightening these days, because homophobes were the ones in the minority, at least in San Francisco anyway.
“You’re scared,” I said. “That’s why you’re here. You’re scared of us and what we can do. If this were just another lawsuit, then you’d assume it would go away. I bet that’s what usually happens, isn’t it—your lawyers just deal with it and you never get involved? Well, this time, you should be scared. You should be worried. Because we know what you’ve done. And not just that—we have proof. That lawsuit isn’t the half of it. You just wait for the rest of it to hit you. All those stock options you have won’t be worth jack shit by the time we’re through with you.”
Brian stood up, sending his chair to the floor as he did so and attracting the attention of those around him. “You’re going to spend thousands on legal fees and end up losing your company. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“Wow, Emily,” John said, once Brian was gone and out of earshot. “Where did that come from? You kicked ass.”
“Honestly, I have no idea. But I could do with a drink now.”
“Let me buy you one,” said a voice from behind me. This time, I recognized the speaker. It was Carter, and boy, was I glad to see him.
Chapter Nine
“My, my, what an attractive table this is,” Michael said as he approached to take our order.
I sensed his eyes linger a little too long on Carter instead of John.
“Oh, don’t worry. You’re the best looking of the bunch, sweetie,” Michael added when he noticed the look on John’s face.
I liked Michael already. He was a little more camp than the men John usually dated, but he seemed sweet and a lot more fun than Tom ever was. Lately, John seemed to be taking my place as the serious one. Michael would do him good, although it was hard to say if it would last.
“Emily and I aren’t eating,” Carter said. “So just drinks for us, please.”
“Why not?” I said. I was starting to get a little hungry, and as good as his cooking was, I really didn’t want to wait for Carter to cook us a meal at his place.
“We’re leaving soon and heading back to my place.”
“But—”
“Emily,” John said slowly, “you’re going back to his place. Take the hint, dear.”
“Oh,” I muttered, looking down at the table to try and hide the redness blossoming on my cheeks.
John ordered enough to eat for the three of us, so Carter and I snacked at his appetizers a bit. That is, when Carter didn’t have his hands full of my thigh. Every time John looked away for even a second, Carter would place his hand on my leg and give it a light squeeze. Each time
he reached down his fingers would be further up my thigh than the time before, and I knew that soon he would graze against my lower lips.
Without realizing it, I was holding my breath in anticipation, waiting for his hand to creep up toward my sex. Finally I felt his little finger flick against my increasingly wet panties. I inhaled sharply and bit down on my lower lip. Fortunately, John was too preoccupied sucking up his food to notice.
“Do you want some more drinks?” Michael asked when he came by and saw we were nearly finished.
“No,” I replied much too quickly. “No, that’s it for us. We have to leave soon.”
Carter threw some money down on the table and I practically dragged him out of the restaurant.
“Where’s your driver?” I asked. “He had better be here soon. I’m not sure I can hold out much longer.”
“He’ll be a while. I only just asked him to pick us up and he mentioned that there is traffic. We may have to wait twenty minutes or so.”
“I can’t wait that long,” I said.
“Emily Saunders, are you suggesting what I think you’re suggesting?”
“I need you to fuck me, and I can’t wait till we get home. Can you make it happen?”
Carter looked around, grabbed hold of my hand, and dragged me up some steps into a small park. I’d never had sex outdoors before. Hell, I’d never had sex outside the bedroom before. The evening was mild enough and the grass wouldn’t be too damp, but being so close to the street and to people scared me stiff.
The park was right by the street, but slightly elevated. There was a brick wall, about waist-height, that went around the perimeter. It would offer some defense from prying eyes, but there were more than enough tall buildings around for people to get a good view if they looked out at the right time. The streetlights nearby meant that the dark would only offer so much protection.
“Are you sure this is okay? What if we get caught?”
“The risk is half the fun,” Carter said.
He dragged me over to the far end of the park that had the advantage of not looking out directly over the streets, although it was still far too close for my liking. He grabbed my blouse and pulled me close to him while at the same time pressing me back against the wall. I gripped the cold bricks as Carter clawed at my blouse, practically ripping off the buttons.
Once my chest was exposed to the cool air, his fingers wandered between my legs and quickly worked their way under the thin cotton of my underwear before slipping inside my wet slit. I needed to moan but wanted to keep as quiet as possible, so I pressed my lips hard against his and sighed into his mouth.
My hands went to work opening his pants and freeing his growing member. I pulled down his boxers as I went down onto my knees, reluctantly forcing his fingers out of me before opening wide and taking him inside my eager mouth.
Carter moaned and held the back of my head as I sucked hard, feeling him stiffen between my thirsty lips. I clamped my hands on his ass and used the support to push my mouth down hard onto his cock, taking as much of its inside me as I could manage before my gag reflex kicked in. Carter’s fingers massaged my head as his legs started to tremble from my efforts to suck him dry.
Just as he was close to finishing, he gripped me under my shoulder and pulled me up, then flipped me around and bent me over. I rested my hands on the wall and stuck my ass out behind me. Carter stuck a thumb under my knickers and pulled them to one side, exposing my arousal to anyone who happened to walk past. He quickly thrust himself inside me, forcing the air from my lungs as I tossed my head back and moaned, forgoing all attempts to remain quiet.
Carter slammed himself inside me while his fingers dug hard into my hips. The sound of his balls slapping against my sex echoed around the park and probably gave away our secret passion to half the city.
My attempts to remain quiet just made me need to scream all the more. I found myself trying to resist the orgasm building rapidly inside me, but that just brought it on quicker. When Carter grabbed my hair and pulled my head back, simultaneously thrusting himself even deeper inside me, I lost all control and came wildly. The sound would have been unmistakable. Carter’s orgasm followed soon after, and he shook violently inside me until every last drop was out.
I collapsed onto my knees, utterly exhausted, and sucked the last drops from his pulsating shaft.
“I can’t believe we just did that,” I said. “I’ve never even dreamt of doing anything like that.”
“Incredible,” he said, slightly out of breath. “You’re incredible. The car will be here soon. Let’s go, I want to get you back to my place to do that again.”
He pulled me up to my feet and we walked back to the street, trying to look innocent. We didn’t even make it back to his apartment. Carter grabbed me as soon as we were in the car and I came again before we arrived at his place for a night I will never forget.
Chapter Ten
“Should we be worried about this meeting?” John asked. “It would have been easier to have just sent us an update via an email, or even a phone call, wouldn’t it? Why do we have to go meet the lawyers in person?”
“John, are you scared of lawyers?” I teased.
“No, although Bethany does weird me out a little.”
“She’s sweet.”
“Exactly. She looks like she wouldn’t hurt a fly, but based on her reputation—which I looked up online—she’s a demon in the courtroom. Anyway, I was more talking about the money this is all going to cost. With Scott and Bethany in the room, there’s at least a thousand dollars an hour’s worth of attorneys on the clock—and that’s assuming they don’t rope in any junior associates to sit in, as well.”
“They agreed to the contingency fee, remember?” I said, reminding John of the email we’d received from Bethany a few days ago. “It means we only pay if we win, and the amount we pay is a fixed percentage of the proceeds. It doesn’t matter if they have the owner of the law firm or a trained chimp in there. We still pay the same.”
“Oh. Good.”
I didn’t tell John, but I was rather excited about the law firm agreeing to the contingency fee. Not only did it mean we could avoid forking over cash now, but it might also be a sign that they had confidence in our case. Otherwise, why would they agree to risk not getting paid at all?
The case had been active for a few weeks now, which didn’t seem like long enough for there to be any developments of note, but Scott had insisted on a meeting. If I had read between the lines correctly, that meant there was major news.
This time, there was no waiting in reception. Scott and Bethany were ready for us and we were taken straight to a meeting room. This one was much bigger than the last one we were in and could have fit twelve people around the table easily. The extra space was needed for all the documents piled high and spread out around the table. Scott and Bethany had made some effort to clean the place, but the empty cans of soft drinks and the pizza boxes in the trash made it clear this was a war room of sorts.
“Hi, Emily. John,” Scott said, beaming. “So glad you could come and see us in person. Please, take a seat.”
John and I sat down at the part of the table with the least mess on it. I pushed some paperwork out of the way to make room for my laptop in case I needed to take notes. Bethany finished debriefing a junior attorney about something and sat down next to Scott.
“As you know, we’re still in the early parts of the process,” Bethany said, “but we have had an incredibly productive few weeks. I’ve never seen a case move so quickly. I think PharmaTech is hoping they can shut it down before the media gets wind of it.”
“Can they?” I asked. “Shut it down?”
“God, no,” Bethany replied. “Not now. This train is well and truly in motion and it’s heading to its destination without delay. You’re going to win your case easily. We have a confession on record from one of the employees we deposed. My God, you should have seen the look on her attorney’s face when she started talking about thing
s they had clearly not rehearsed.”
“It’s that easy?” John asked. “We’re going to win, just like that?”
“Yes,” Scott replied, “but that’s not the interesting part. Sorry Bethany—you run with it. I’m just excited.”
Bethany smiled at Scott in a way that screamed sexual chemistry. “You can tell he doesn’t work in litigation much, can’t you? Scott’s right, though. You will win your case, but we also have them on the faulty drug issue you mentioned.”
“You’re kidding!” I said, although Bethany didn’t look like someone who would kid about her cases.
“Nope. We deposed the CEO, a Mr. Brian Smithson, and he cracked. At first he was cocky and arrogant, but then I mentioned that we had another employee on record talking about bribes. I kept asking questions about that and his lawyer kept shutting me down for asking irrelevant questions. The lawyer was completely right; I shouldn’t have been asking those questions, and I was about to quit when Mr. Smithson lost his cool.”
“It was like something out of a movie,” Scott said. “Mr. Smithson referenced the drug by name, even though we hadn’t mentioned it. Bethany said something like, ‘How did you know what drug we were talking about?’ and that was the end of it. His lawyer shut down the deposition instantly, but it was too late. We have them, and they know it.”
“These depositions are official documents,” Bethany said. “There was a court reporter present who recorded every word, and they can be filed with the court and become part of the record.”
Crash - Part Four Page 4
