by Luke Steel
She’s moaning, getting louder, and this time I have to put a hand over her mouth to stifle some of the noise before it starts to echo on the tile. She hangs on to my arm, kissing and nuzzling into my palm with her open mouth, biting down when I start to pump into her faster.
“Shh, baby. We only have another minute or two. Come for me again.”
My arms are still around her, up high while I fuck her, both of us spiraling closer. Kari sinks her fingernails into my arm. “I want you to come, too. I want to feel it.”
“Honey, I can’t.” I press my forehead to the back of her neck and close my eyes, focusing on the sensation. Like a moron, I didn’t bring condoms. I thought I could control this. Client dinner. Right.
Pushing into Kari, feeling her wet and needy against my cock, was just too much and I couldn’t stop it. At the very least I know I shouldn’t come in her, even though just the thought is dragging me closer to doing just that. Shooting another load into her, watching it dribble out the same way she swallowed my come the other day.
The way she tightens and releases around me is unreal. She’s starting to shudder and pulse harder. I know it’s going to happen for her soon. I want to see it. I want to see her shake apart.
She won’t take no for an answer. “I want you to come in me. I want all of it. Please, Wes. I can’t if you don’t come, too.”
“Liar,” I singsong back to her, the same way she did the other day. She whimpers, buries her face against my arm and reaches back to tug on me harder, urging me faster, deeper into her.
I’m learning fast I have no fucking willpower when it comes to this woman. It builds and I tell myself over and over to get ready to pull out. But the vicious pull of her pussy on my cock is just too much. When Kari finally comes, her pussy locks hard and tight on my cock as she uses the wall for leverage to keep grinding it out on me. I’m practically delirious, loving the pull of her body around me. When I start to come too, I forget to breathe, I forget everything but the warm kick of come that I shoot up into her again and again and again.
We stand together for a few minutes after that, out of breath, completely slack, crushed flat against the wall.
And that’s when I hear a discrete knock on the door. Winston is still out in the lobby. The reality of where we are and what we’ve just done is like a kick to the head. For a second I panic and grow cold, trying to remember if we got too loud. I feel like a sonic blast went off in this room—everyone must have heard it. But I’m grateful for the thick wood panels in the bathroom. Whoever designed it was a genius.
It’s been about fifteen minutes, I think, but we have to get the hell out of here.
Kari stirs first, stepping out from my arms and straightening her skirt. I hand her my handkerchief and she grins at me before turning discretely away.
When she’s done, she folds it neatly and hands it back to me with only a slight blush. I trap her hand before she turns away again. “Are you on anything?”
“No. But don’t worry. I can’t anyway.”
“Can’t what?”
Kari sighs, suddenly looking a little peakish. She doesn’t answer and lets go of my hand.
She walks to the mirror and calmly reaches for the clutch purse I threw onto the counter before I jumped her.
Standing before the full-length mirror, she reaches into the bag and pulls out a tube of lip gloss. Her eyes meet mine as she unscrews the cap and touches the tip to her lips. I’m spent, but I can feel my muscles clench as I watch as she slowly and deliberately paints the candy pink gloss back into place. When she’s done, she breaks the eye contact and blows a pouty little kiss to herself in the mirror. And then walks out the door, the stiletto heels clicking the floor as she goes, her head high, the lines of her body long and sexy as ever.
I make quick work of the cleanup, and try to look around for any mess we made. Kari’s ruined panties are on the floor, but nothing else amiss. Not even fog on the mirrors, a minor miracle. I pull a hundred out of my wallet and make sure it’s front and center in the tip bowl. And then I step out.
I’m heading back to the bar when Winston steps out discretely from behind a large lobby hedgerow.
“Winston. Thank you. I’m sorry, but I made sure to take care of you.”
“Never doubted it. But I have a message for you.” He pulls out a hotel key card from his uniform suit pocket and hands it to me. “And a reminder. The reminder is that The Carlsbad is a hotel. You can, in fact, rent your own, private room here.” He’s being sarcastic, but the man has a point. I’m in a goddamn hotel. I could have taken her up there. He’s not finished. “While you were indisposed, I took the liberty of reserving one for you. They have your credit card on file.” Winston winks, “Although … I don’t know that I would have made it past the lobby with her either.”
I tuck the keycard into my pocket and shake Winston’s hand, a little in awe of the guy right now. “And the message?”
“I conveyed the same to the young lady and she is waiting for you upstairs. I let the bar know to transfer your tab to your room. Have a good night.”
I promised her dinner.
We’re wrapped up in hotel robes, kissing over the ruins of late-night room service. It’s two-thirty in the morning, and we’ve been gorging on each other for hours.
“I’m glad you liked my dress.”
“I like all your dresses. I like the vintage, war-baby look on you. I like the naked look on you, too, for what it’s worth.”
Kari stretches like a cat perpendicular to me, her head on my chest. Distracted, I stroke her hair.
“What did you mean? When we were downstairs. You said you can’t.” I’ve come in her two more times since the “appetizer” we shared in the lobby.
Kari barely stirs. “What I said. I can’t.”
“Can’t get pregnant?”
She doesn’t answer for a moment, so I take that as an affirmative. She’s monotone when she speaks again, matter-of-fact.
“It’s a big part of the divorce, actually. I caught Danny cheating for the second time and he blamed it on that. I can’t have children so there isn’t much use for me to him. Broken, he said. Time to sell the stock.”
She’s drifting to sleep, but I’m not fooled. I remember a moment in my office with her the other day, when she got so angry when I told her she wouldn’t get the settlement she wanted because she and Danny had no children. Probably a very painful thing to be reminded of over and over.
I sit up to set the room service tray on the floor away from us, and then I haul her up to lie down beside me. I’m gentle with her, tucking her in close, but my heart is heavy and hurts for her. She’s the furthest thing from broken. What a fucked-up view of life, much less your own wife. The more I hear about and get to know Danny Michaels, the more I hate him.
Of course, there’s no question that I am disqualified from objective judgement. As a divorce lawyer, I’ve seen the dissolution of countless marriages, and the other party is always the bad guy. Kari nestles deeper in my arms tonight, but I have to go back to thinking of both my clients’ interests soon. More and more I can see that getting Danny Michaels out of Kari’s life forever is the only gift I can give her.
And whaddya know, that’s actually fine by me.
Kari rubs her cheek against my chest. “This,” she says, “feels suspiciously like cuddling.” She has a point. “You did not strike me as a cuddler.”
“I’ve been accused of many things—I’m a lawyer, comes with the territory. This is a first.”
“Mmhmm. Very buttoned up guy, you are?”
“New service we’re trying out at the firm. Full service client care.”
She pokes me now. “Am I being billed for this?”
“Of course.”
I feel a sharp pain in my shoulder.
“Hey. Cuddling is free. Bites get bills.”
“Can I pay you in pastry?”
I slip a hand down to her ass. “You paid me in something else … Ow! The teet
h, woman. Again with the teeth.” She laughs and snuggles in closer. I pause, “Though that cake you baked the other day was pretty damn great, and I’m not much on sweets.”
“Don’t sound so surprised.”
“I was, though, I admit. You did make it, didn’t you?”
I get an arched brow and a pleased smile in answer.
“So are you going to keep baking? After all this?”
“Ugh! Let’s not talk about the case anymore …”
“Agreed. But I’m curious about you. What do you want when it’s all over?”
Kari presses her cheek to my chest again. I like it. But I get the impression she’s trying to decide why I’m asking. After a while, she shrugs.
“I’m going to start my own business this time. On my own. I still love what I do. I love design and the business side of it all, not just the baking. I want to build something for myself.”
“You still have a taste for it?”
“I always did. In the beginning, that was the best part. Starting new projects, new ideas, finishing things. Seeing it all come together. I grew the business.”
Her face is bright, relaxed as she talks about the things she clearly loves. And she looks happy. Not an emotion I see very often in my line of work. This Kari is soft, and hopeful. It’s a glimpse into the real her.
“What about you?” she asks.
“Me?”
“Yeah. Do you … I don’t know, do you like what you do? Being a lawyer?”
My turn to close my eyes and breathe deep. “People assume a lot about lawyers, even more about divorce lawyers.”
“They assume it’s the money.”
“Or ‘the kill’, yeah. I see my work as getting people through one of the worst things that can happen to a person. Divorces are always pain. Wreckage. Desperate, hopeless or indifferent, there’s always pain in it somewhere.”
“And you help them through it.” Kari says it and she’s assessing, not asking.
“Yeah, that’s it exactly. Divorce and death start with the same letter, and they’re different forms of the same thing. I try to get people through in one piece. I feel like there’s something worthwhile in that.”
I feel Kari trace a fingertip along my forehead, my face, the bridge of my nose. It’s a feather light touch, but soothing and kind of sweet. I pull her tighter into me.
She’s quiet so long I open my eyes. She’s looking at me, still tracing, calm and open. A little sad again. After a while she says, “We screwed this up, didn’t we.” Another non-question.
I think I know what she means, but I don’t have an answer. What would it have been like to meet Kari under different circumstances. Still gorgeous, striking, smart and sexy. But free. And what could it be like, without the danger dogging us—financial ruin for her, career suicide for me. I’m in bed next to her after we’ve already screwed our brains out, and I’m not looking for the exits. Everything I want is right here. I just don’t know what that means yet.
I lean up and let her fall back to the pillows. “Let’s agree to something right now, ok?”
She looks up, thinking about it. “I dunno. Should I be negotiating without my attorney present?”
I reach down between her thighs and press the very sensitive spot there on the left one. She squeals and then giggles. It’s girlish and completely hot and I’m hard. Again.
But I’m serious for a little longer. “Trust me. Trust me to get you through. I’m good at this. I’ll be fair, I’ll protect you. And you’ll be free. And then after that, we start over. Hi nice to meet you. The whole thing.”
“You buy dinner and I’ll bake dessert?”
“Exactly.”
She sighs and closes her eyes as I go back to that spot, stroking instead of tickling this time. “And, will we get to do this all over again, do you think?”
I hover over her lips as I stroke up to her pussy. She’s hot and wet, still. Ready.
“We should practice. Just to be sure.”
Chapter Five
Danny’s late. Shocking no one.
Kari and I are sitting together in a small conference room this time, only slightly bigger than my office. We’re seated at adjoining sides of the table, but she’s staring me down again, that little smile on her lips.
I’m not taking the bait. She’s beautiful, but I’ve got my game face on. This is game day. If Danny and Kari can come to some sort of mediated arrangement today, the divorce is only a formality from here. Despite Danny’s tantrums and wild calls for bloodshed, he’s getting most of what he wants so there’s very little room for him to complain. Kari seems to have accepted the outcome, preferring not to fight or drag it out. I’ve arranged it today so that all Danny has to do is formally respond on the record, and then we’ll all move on.
And I fully intend to move on with Kari after this. One way or another. I haven’t broken the news to her yet, but there’s no question as far as what I want. I want to see Kari after she’s free. Maybe even every single day after.
Financially we’ll make sure she doesn’t come out too worse for wear. We had to drag out the debt detail from Danny, of course. He dug in his heels until I informed him that not sharing a full account of debts or assets truthfully is illegal. What surprised me is Kari seemed to have no interest in the house at all, even getting nothing in return for this concession. Danny therefore is still on the hook for the property and the mortgages, but neither seemed to belabor this. Kari hinted that she had one or two things she thought she might request today, but family mementos and nostalgic items only. The finances are almost all done. Not ideal. But not the bloodbath we were all trying to avert. She can feel good about this for herself.
I’m gathering some papers, studiously ignoring Kari, who looks gorgeous in a simple white summer shift and platform heels today. The ruby red lips are back, but if I look at them too long, she puckers them at me. Time to work.
I notice something for the first time on the papers, though. A detail I must have seen and ignored. Kari’s full name is listed as Karina S. Michaels. But when I pull up a copy of the marriage license, her name is Karina T.
“Kari, what’s your full middle name. I need to make sure this is right.”
“Theresa. After my mother.”
“So what is the S, a maiden name?”
“Stanzione.”
“Wait a minute … ’S’ is for Stanzione. Stanzione?” I blink at her. “Do you know Leo Stanzione?”
Kari jerks, though she tries to hide it. I check the name and look up at her again, as though I might see the connection that way.
“Well?”
Kari’s playful teasing completely vanishes. “Yeah, I know Leo. Everyone calls him Uncle Leo. But he’s my father.” That might have been all of it—she doesn’t look like the wants to talk about Leo at all—but then she stops, suddenly suspicious. “Wait, how do you know him?”
Speak of the devil, and he appears. As though we conjured him, over Kari’s shoulder and out the window, I spot Uncle Leo’s sporty little beamer parked up the street.
We’re outside my office, standing in the small parking lot one building over.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me. Leo. Your daughter?”
“It doesn’t matter, bubby. She won’t talk to me. Has no idea. And I haven’t influenced your case in any way, have I?”
“Jesus, Leo, don’t. Tell me what’s going on or I swear to God I’m going to quit the case now. Now!”
Leo shakes his head at me as though I’m telling him the saddest story. “I know you don’t mean that.”
“What’s the angle? What’s in this for you?”
Leo puts a hand over his heart. In his hand, he’s holding a red office folder. “Protecting my daughter. It’s just like I told you. I didn’t want El Asshole Ex-husband to keep dragging her into court. All of that is true.”
I stop pacing and get real close to his face. “And what else, Leo? Don’t forget, I know you, I worked with you. Why are you here?”<
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Leo gives it up, a shark’s grin on his face, and hands me the red file. “I got him, Wes. Danny’s dead to rights. He’s been hiding money from the bakeries in a sweet little offshore account. He wasn’t so stupid that he didn’t pay the taxes, but he moved around the money and pretended to make some bad investments to hide them from Kari. And we’re talking about a lot of money. All of it earned after they were married. All of it marital property according to the Grrrreat State of California!”
Uncle Leo does a little modified jig on the pavement, dialed back a bit because of his bad knee.
I’m floored by what he’s found, though not shocked that Danny would be such a sonofabitch to his own wife. The amount in this account covers all the existing debt for the couple and their businesses. Split equally, Kari could start over anywhere she wants.
There’s just one problem. “Leo, I can’t use the information. The findings of the file weren’t initiated by Kari, and therefore violating my client’s privilege and opening him up to potential criminal litigation, even by another client, could land me in jail. Or disbarred.”
“She’s your client! You do what’s best for her.”
“He’s my client, too, Leo, remember? This was your idea. If you’d just hired me outright, we could have dug this up on him and it wouldn’t have mattered!”
“She wouldn’t let me!” Leo shouts, loud enough to echo outside. He must have startled himself because Leo pulls his peaked hat further down over his eyes, forcibly calming himself down.
“Kari hasn’t talked to me since she married that prick. I told her he was trouble from the jump and she wouldn’t listen. She won’t talk to me now, and she won’t accept my help. How else could I protect her? “
I’ve got enough professional pride to want to counter that he could have had more faith in my ability to take care of the issue as Kari’s lead attorney, but I’ve been around long enough to know how these things go. Leo’s way, had he not been able to dig up anything, the only bad outcome would be what we were resigned to Kari settling for an hour ago. But now, seeing how much she stands to lose that she doesn’t even know about? Fuck! And the only way to help her get it is for me to break the law.
