“Well, don’t you just look stunning,” Kevin says, putting his hand on my lower back. “Are you here to show yourself off? Everyone’s watching.”
I shrug, blushing.
“Em and I are just spending a bit of time together, you know, checking out the talent around here.”
Kevin glances at Emma, grinning. “And? What have you seen so far?”
“Oh, nothing that catches my eye,” I say. I look Kevin up and down before glancing at Scott. He’s looking at my body, his eyes trailing down slowly, touching me in intimate places.
“Carly hasn’t seen anything because there isn’t anyone here for her,” Emma says. We all look at her.
“Em, we’re just joking around,” I say. Emma is being a real pain.
She shakes her head. “No, you’re flirting with them and I don’t care for it. I’m not going to stand here watching you make a fool out of yourself.”
She turns and leaves before I can say something. I groan, tipping my head back.
“I don’t know what’s up with her, lately,” I say to the boys.
I’m sure she is jealous. She only gets upset when I’m around men. Okay, when I’m around two particular guys. But she said a lot of things at my apartment, too.
“Come on, dance with us,” Kevin says. He pulls me closer to him, pressing himself against me. I want to, God knows, I want to. But I shake my head.
“I have to find her. I can’t leave it like this again. Besides, the last time this happened we got into all sorts of trouble.”
I look at Scott when I say it and I can see by the way he looks at me that he remembers. He pulls me closer to him and nuzzles my neck, grinding himself against me. I gasp.
“I want to see you soon, okay?” he says. “We both do.”
When he lets me go I’m out of breath and my body is on fire. If they take me somewhere to fuck me now, I will be ready.
“We’ll arrange something,” I say and my voice is breathy. I look at Kevin who has hungry eyes, too. He pulls me into a hug that is equally intimate and kisses me. It’s a quick kiss, his tongue darting into my mouth. I’m melting into my panties by the time the two of them are done with me.
“I really have to go,” I say and walk away from them without looking back. If I don’t, I’ll stay, and I must fix things with Emma before they get me to unravel again.
I search for Emma everywhere. She isn’t on the dance floor or drinking at any of the bars. I look in the ladies’ rooms as well. When I can’t find her anywhere I stand at the bar. I don’t order another drink. I want to wait until I find her. When I try to call her, she doesn’t answer her phone and she doesn’t respond to texts, either.
After an hour, I call it quits. The bitch must have left without me. I think about finding the boys again, but I’m not in the mood. I’m pissed off and tired. So, instead, I go home.
Kevin
Everything about Carly is intoxicating. Whether she is at the club dressed for the kill and oh-so-fuckable, or whether she’s in the office wearing appropriate clothes, everything about her is delicious.
Seeing her at the club made me hot for her. Just thinking about her, how she feels when she is on my cock, with her pussy or her tight ass… I shiver when I think about it.
And Scott is just as taken with her. He got a boner the moment he saw her. And I don’t blame him. A tiny part of me wants her all to myself but the threesome was so fucking hot I don’t mind at all where we stand, now. Scott and I are so close, too, it’s a different game altogether.
My phone rings and I answer, ready for the conference call with Franklin Hull and three of the other investors. We agreed on these once a month to keep up to date with what’s happening. It’s our first call. What a way to kick off our working relationship – with a threat about withdrawing already in the mix and tips about my fucking my secretary.
“Kevin,” Hull’s voice sounds loud over the phone. He sounds serious, but then, he always does. “I don’t like the way we’re starting this off.”
“What do you mean, Franklin?” I ask. He’s probably referring to the anonymous tip he got. “I’ve taken steps to…”
“We’ve been threatened with a sex tape,” he says, cutting me off. My blood drains from my face and I’m grateful he can’t see me. I swallow.
“A sex tape?” I ask. My voice sounds a lot less panicked than I feel. Point for me.
“A sex tape, with you and that secretary of yours. They’re threatening to leak it.
“Under what circumstances?” I ask. Is this some kind of ransom situation?
“No matter,” another investor, Bill Hayes, says. “This looks bad for us. How can we pump money into a business that has such bad publicity following it around?”
My stomach turns to stone. I can’t lose the funding. This is bad news. Terrible news.
“I’m sure it’s just a stunt for attention,” I say. “Naturally, I’ll do everything I can to get to the bottom of this.”
“You do that,” Hull says. “Our patience is running thin. I don’t need to tell you that image is everything, Meyers.”
Meyers, not Kevin. I’m in deep shit.
They end the call. As soon as I’m off the line, I groan. What the hell is going on here? I’m pretty sure this is personal. Carly’s sister is my first suspect if I must think about it, but blaming the woman when I hardly know her is just as unfair as her doing something like this to me.
I take a deep breath and try to calm down. I’m starting to panic, now. Verbal accusations about sexual encounters aren’t nearly as threatening as an actual sex tape being leaked. A tape suggests evidence that is impossible to lie about.
I dial Scott’s number and he answers on the second ring.
“What’s up?” he asks.
“I just got off the phone with the investors. Hull says there’s a tape.”
“What?”
“A sex tape, Scott. They’re threatening the investors, telling them they’ll leak it.”
Scott is quiet for a while.
“Are you there?” I ask.
“How the fuck?” he asks.
I shake my head even though he can’t see me. “Whatever it is, I have to get to the bottom of this. If it comes out and it’s real, it’s not only our careers but our personal lives, too.”
Scott continues swearing, letting out a line of colorful words. I wait for him to get through them all.
“How are we going to get to the bottom of this? I can only think of one person that might be behind this.”
“Carly’s sister,” I say. “I thought of that, too.”
“So? What are we going to do about it?”
I sigh. “I don’t know. I’m not going to confront Carly about this – it won’t be fair because it’s not her fault – but she should know. And if this goes any further we might have to cut things off with her.”
“No,” Scott says right away, so quick that I frown.
“Forget about the bet, Scott,” I say. “And it’s just sex,” I continue, even though I know it’s not entirely true.
He hesitates before he says, “it’s just as detrimental to her image as to ours, we should rather try to fix it.”
The hesitation made me think that he thought something else, first. I’m not going to ask. He is right, of course. This will affect all of us and I don’t know if we will be able to bounce back from it. Carly might be able to – a PA isn’t in the same circles as we are. But she wants more than just being a PA – how can I crush these dreams of her? Of course, Scott and I… I will fall the hardest of all, of course.
The rest of the day’s work is slow. I struggle to concentrate and I get very little done. By the time I finally finish, it is after nine. Everyone else has left. The office is dark and quiet and I’m the only one locking up to leave. I glance at Carly’s desk when I walk passed. She is a good PA, no matter what we do behind closed doors. She doesn’t deserve to fall from grace like this because I was set on fucking her. She deserves so
much more and I want to see her succeed.
My heart is heavy when I make my way down to my car. I put it in gear and pull out of my parking spot. When I come to the intersection, I take a left instead of a right and drive to Carly’s apartment.
The light is on when I look up at her window. When I knock on the door she opens it, dressed in shorts that look like she’s ready for bed and a t-shirt with Daisy Duck on it. Her hair hangs loose around her shoulders and she’s not wearing makeup at all.
“Kevin,” she says, surprised. She steps to the side so I can walk into the apartment. “Is everything okay?”
I shake my head and sit down on the couch. Carly comes to sit next to me. I notice her legs – long and slender and smooth. I want to reach out and touch her, feel her skin beneath my fingertips. But I’m not here for that and I will get distracted if I do.
“I had a call from the investors today,” I say. “The conference call.”
She nods.
“They have a sex tape.”
Carly blinks at me, confused.
“Of us?” she asks.
I nod and watched as she makes the connections by herself. Her face changes from confused to shocked to panicked.
“Oh, my God, Kevin. Is it real?”
I sigh and scrub my face with my hands. “I don’t know. We can’t afford to ignore it.”
Carly nods. We sit in silence for a while. When I glance her, she’s staring at the carpet, chewing her lower lip. She’s nervous.
“I don’t know what do. We must figure out what’s going on, if any of this is true. It can be that someone is just looking for attention but this time it’s a bit close to home.”
Carly nods. “It’s not as simple as the anonymous phone call. This can be… real.”
I take a deep breath and blow it out slowly. She’s right. It can be real.
“And if it is,” she continues. “We’re in big trouble.”
I nod again. I feel down about it. I don’t know what I can do to stop it. I’ve been stressing about it so much all day, it’s hard to think about anything other than the mess we’re in.
“I’ll see what I can find out,” Carly says. She sounds more determined than shocked, which is more than I can say for myself. She looks at me and her eyes are drowning deep. “I won’t let this happen. I won’t let you go under.”
I smile at her and raise my hand to her cheek. Her skin is soft, like the skin of a rose, and her eyes are serious.
“You’re so caring,” I say.
She shrugs. “I know what it means to you. And this thing, the accusations and the alleged tape… it’s wrong. It’s just wrong to bring someone down that way. I want to do some digging, get to the bottom of it.”
Her eyes bore into mine, her face beautiful when she’s this passionate, this determined. I lean forward and press my lips against hers. Her lips are soft. She kisses me back, our lips careful on each other. When I push my tongue into her mouth she opens for me and I explore her mouth, tasting her. I pull her against me and she sighs against my lips.
Desire unfurls inside me, but it’s warm and gentle, very unlike the savage hunger that I’ve felt with her before.
Scott flashes in my mind’s eye. What will he think of this? What will I think if he’s the one doing this?
I break the kiss and pull back. I’m already hard in my pants and when Carly looks at me, her brown eyes are dilated. She feels it, too. She wants me like I want her. But I’m not going to do this. I clear my throat.
“I have to get going,” I say.
“You can stay,” she says softly.
I almost agree, but I shake my head instead.
“I’m sorry, princess. Not tonight. It’s been a rough day.”
Carly nods and she stands up when I do. She walks me to the door and opens it for me.
“I’ll see you in the office, tomorrow,” I say. She nods. I lift my hand and brush the back of my hand against her cheek before I leave her apartment. The door clicks shut behind me.
What am I doing? Why am I walking away? Because Scott will care that I’m here. Or at least, I would care if the roles are reversed. Scott and I fucked the same girls before. It wasn’t ever a problem. But this isn’t just about fucking anymore. This is about Carly. And Scott is on the picture, and if it were reversed I would hate if he were here, kissing her the way I did, thinking of her the way I was.
Because it’s not just about the sex, now. And we aren’t doing this, it isn’t part of the deal.
I glance up at Carly’s window and see the light go out. She’s going to bed and I’m not going there with her. I sigh and pull into the road.
When did it become about more than sex and bets? Maybe I’m just in a bad place because my company is in danger, because I feel like my hands are tied.
That must be it. This can’t be about emotions, because I don’t care about Carly. Not like that. Sure, she is a hell of a good fuck. And the threesome with Scott was something else. But other than that, she is just my PA and I care for her as a person and a great assistant.
The emotions I feel aren’t anything more than that.
Are they?
Carly
After work, I stop at Emma’s place. I knock on the door and step to the side a little so she can’t see it’s me through the peephole. I don’t want her to be able to decide if she wants to see me or not.
When the door opens and it’s me standing there, Emma’s face hardens.
“You walked away from me twice, now,” I say. “Are you going to be childish about this, or can I talk to you?”
Emma shrugs. “There’s not much to talk about, but if you insist I guess you can come in.”
I groan inwardly. She’s going to make this as hard as possible. If it was any normal fight I would have walked away and let her have her temper tantrum alone, but this is about more than that.
“Is Ron here?” I ask.
Emma nods.
“I want to talk to you alone,” I say.
“I was just leaving,” Ron says, coming up behind Emma. He’s tall and lanky with dirty blond hair and eyes that aren’t exactly green or blue, but something in between. He kisses Emma, flashes me a smile and walks away from us, whistling.
I walk into the apartment. The place is so much neater than mine. It is so neat, in fact, that it is almost uncomfortable. I sit down on the couch.
“Something to drink?” Emma asks.
I shake my head. I’m not planning on staying that long.
“Alright,” Emma says, sitting down without getting herself something to drink, either. “What do you want to talk about?”
“I’m not even going to touch on you being a little bitch about my relationships and who I do or don’t sleep with.”
She raises her eyebrows but I’m not going to give her a chance to talk.
“The investors mentioned a sex tape threat. You’re acting all innocent about the anonymous tip, pretending to be hurt that I suspected you. What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
Emma’s eyes widen when I swear at her.
“You think that is me?”
I nod. “I do.”
I remembered something in bed, after Kevin left last night. I remembered how I wondered about Emma’s intentions when she picked up my key, how secretive she was.
“You have my key,” I say.
Emma shakes her head, looking down her hands. A smile plays on her lips and I don’t like it that she thinks this is funny.
“So, what if there is a sex tape?” she asks.
My mouth drops a little. “You’re saying there is?”
Emma looks up at me. “God, Carly, you’re so naïve. I can’t believe you haven’t found the camera yet.”
I blink at her. I came in here, ready to confront her, but now that she’s so open about it I can’t believe what I’m hearing.
“How can you do this to me?” I ask. “You have the tape?”
Emma nods, looking pleased with herself. I jump up
.
“Where is it?”
“Yeah, sure, I’m just going to give it up to you. You think you’re so awesome, sleeping with more than one guy. It doesn’t make you awesome, Carly, it just makes you a slut. Besides, they’re using you – I’m just trying to help you.”
If I wasn’t so stressed about the sex tape I just realized is real, I might have been insulted by what she must say about me. Now, I don’t care. I march to her bedroom.
“Where are you going?” Emma calls after me. I storm into her room and turn in a circle. Where am I going to start? I walk to her nightstand and yank the drawer open, rummaging through it. The chest of drawers is next and I ruffle through her underwear, her socks, and then the vanity case on top.
Nothing.
It isn’t in her closet, either. Fuck, it can be anywhere.
When I turn around, unsure where else to look, Emma is leaning against the doorpost with her arms folded. She smiles at me.
“You know, if this isn’t about the fact that your morals are so screwed up, I would be amused by this. But it’s sad, instead.”
I shake my head.
“You’re a real piece of work, you know that?”
Emma shrugs. I’m so angry I feel like I’m going to spontaneously combust.
“You’re sly, Em. Cunning, like fox.”
Emma is still smiling. I want to say something that will wipe that smile right off her face.
“No,” I say. “Not a fox. You’re cunning, just like dad.”
That did the trick. Comparing her to our dad is the one thing that hurts more than anything else. I push passed her.
“I have nothing more to say to you.”
I let myself out the front door and get into my car. I speed home, unlock my door and run to my bedroom. I turn the room upside down, looking for a camera. I look everywhere a camera will still have a view of the bedroom – in doors and the curtains and the lamps. Eventually, I find it. It’s a lot smaller than I thought it would be. I don’t know much about this kind of technology, but I know enough to know what I’m looking at.
I turn the small device around in my hands and notice a small groove on the side. When I press it with my nail, a slot pops open for a micro SD memory card. And the slot is empty.
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