Con Man

by Amy Brent

  This wasn’t going to take nearly as long as I wanted it to.

  I dropped down and captured her lips with mine while her hips rose to meet my thrusts. Her tits bounced against my body as she moaned and quaked underneath me, and I could tell she loved every single second of this newfound territory. She was willing to explore things with me I had never been able to try with another woman, and it was just another tick in the column labeled ‘perfect’ which was why I wanted to be around her.

  Why I wanted to experience her.

  Why I wanted to be with her.

  “Oh fuck, L. Please. Shit, I’m so close.”

  “Cum for me, Charlie. Cum for me as perfect as you always have.”

  “Shit. Shit, shit, shit. Oh, fuck. This feels so good. I’ve never—felt this—”

  I could feel her pussy clamping down around my dick and it caused my hips to stutter. I stopped her words with my lips because I could feel them pulsing my dick. With every single syllable that dripped from her lips I got closer to spilling myself inside of her again, and I wanted her to go.

  It was her turn to experience what she had given me.

  “Yes. L. Please! Ellison James, don’t you dare stop!”

  Hearing my entire name fall from her lips pushed me over the edge. I buried myself deep into her as my balls pulled up into my body again. I began to soak her pussy walls with my cum while she wrapped her arms around my neck. Her body trembled as I laced my arms behind her, our bodies dropping to the couch as we shook with our orgasms. Her entire form convulsed in my grip as I held her close, her pussy drawing me further and further into her depths. Her body didn’t want to let me go, and I was just fine with that.

  Because I didn’t want to let her go either.

  We panted against one another, covered in sweat and cum as the vibrating dildo continued to make her legs shake. Prying myself from her grip before I slid out of her, and eyeing our juices as they seeped from between her legs, I pulled the toy from her ass before I shut it off and tossed aside, then simply took in the view. Charlie, with her legs splayed open and her body covered in me, would never look more beautiful than she did in this very moment.

  And I committed it to memory before I helped her off the couch.

  We cleaned ourselves up before we got dressed and headed back up to the deck. I held her at the bow of the ship while we watched the waves knock up against the boat. The sun had been gone for what seemed like hours and the stars twinkled their applause at our adventure. I nuzzled my nose into her hair, feeling her lean heavily back into my body, and my lips found her ear before the phrase slipped effortlessly from my lips.

  “I love you, Charlie.”

  She turned around quickly in my arms, her wide eyes giving away the shock she was feeling. But, it was the truth. She was my perfect counterpart and complimented me in ways I had never thought possible. This entire night would’ve been a waste had she walked away from here not understanding how I felt.

  “I love you too, L,” she said, with a broad smile.

  I cupped the back of her head and pulled her to my lips, thrusting my tongue into her mouth. Never did I think I’d hear those words come back from her. Nowhere in my thought process did it ever occur to me that she would feel the same way, and I smiled against her lips as she climbed into my lap.

  “Really?” I asked.

  “Oh, yes,” she said breathlessly.

  “I don’t know what this means for—”

  “Ssshhh,” she said.

  She pressed her finger to my lips, silencing what I knew was going to be a hard conversation. Eventually, we would have to talk about what this meant. If we really wanted to do this, we only had two options. I could fire her and she could start her business now, or we would have to risk my entire company in order to keep our stations.

  But, she didn’t want to talk about that, and neither did I. I didn’t want to think about what this meant. I didn’t want to think about the future, or work, or how we were going to navigate this with burner phones. I didn’t want to think about us keeping to the shadows or what we were going to do when we saw each other at work. I didn’t want to think about matching tans or renting out different hotel rooms or having to sneak romantic trips off into the sunset just to be with one another.

  All I wanted to do was exist with her in this perfect, timeless moment. With her soft green eyes gazing into mine while the boat slowly turned around and took us back to shore. I wanted my hands to slowly roam her body while she sat straddling my hips. I wanted to relish in the way her hands slowly raked themselves through my hair.

  I wanted to lose myself in the warmth of her lips as she peppered mine with kisses.

  Right now, the future wasn’t important to either of us.

  And again, it simply showed me how perfect she was for me.

  Chapter 24

  Charlie

  ‘I love you, Charlie.’

  The words rolled around in my mind all weekend. I couldn’t believe he’d actually said them. I cared about him more than I ever thought possible, and the moment those words slipped from his lips, it took all I had not to squeal and throw my arms around his neck. Every time I thought back to those words he said on the boat my skin crawled, and I couldn’t wait to see him at work on Monday. I knew we were still keeping our distance unless it was necessary, but mounds of paperwork I had been entering and altering needed to be delivered throughout the day, which meant I’d get a glimpse of him through his office windows.

  And sometimes, that was all I needed.

  But, when I got to work things felt weird. I ran into Michael—the senior VP of the company— and he gave me this odd look. I asked him how his weekend was and his answers were shorter than usual, which I found odd.

  Especially since L was training me to work alongside the two of them in the boardroom.

  I sat down at my desk and got to work on the last little bit of paperwork, but I couldn’t focus. Something about Michael’s interaction with me this morning had my stomach rolling, so I decided to take the files already done up to L’s secretary.

  I ran into Michael in the elevator.

  “Hey there,” I said, smiling.

  “Hi,” he said.

  “How did that property spec meeting go? I’m assuming Mr. James took you since he didn’t ask me to be there,” I said.

  “It was fine,” Michael said.

  “Anything I should know?” I asked.

  “Nope.”

  His answers were clipped and he wasn’t looking at me at all. The elevator doors opened to the level I needed, and he strode by me quickly before I could get off the elevator. A few of the files fluttered from the top of the pile, crashing to the floor in front of me, but instead of helping me with them like he normally would, he simply kept walking.

  “Here, let me help you.”

  I looked up and saw L’s secretary smiling at me, but her eyes were glancing all around my body. My mind started to panic, running every single scenario in my mind as to why everyone was acting so strange.

  “I’m not quite done with all of them, but these are really piling up. I figured I’d bring them to you before I finished the rest. There are about fifteen more,” I said.

  “Yeah. This project’s a hefty one,” she said.

  But still, she didn’t meet my gaze.

  “Is everything alright with Michael? He seems a bit off today,” I said.

  “I know he just came off his crutches. Maybe his pain medication isn’t doing the job,” she said.

  “I suppose.”

  “I’ll take these from here. Should I expect the rest of the files today?”

  “Yeah, I’ll try to get them to you,” I said.

  I turned my gaze down the hallway and saw Michael staring at me. We hooked eyes for a brief moment before another wave of fear crashed over my system, and I turned around on my heels and slammed my palm into the elevator door. Something had happened since my night with L, and I stepped onto the elevator just be
fore my body was flooded with nervous nausea.

  This entire time, we had been petrified that someone would find out. While we were doing this salacious dance in the shadows, we were also sidestepping people who saw L on a regular basis. People like his secretary and Michael who could read him like an open book. I didn’t have any issues like that because I wasn’t particularly close to anyone on my floor, but L had to be cautious.

  From the moment we began this shit with the burner phones and the sneaking around, I’d been nervous about coming to work. My heart would always drop to my toes just before I walked into the building, but my conversations with Michael would always bring me some relief. So long as Michael didn’t know, I could rest assured that no one else knew.

  But now, I wasn’t so sure, and as the elevator dumped me out onto my floor, I felt the nausea grow worse.

  I made my way back to my desk and sat down before looking around to see if anyone was watching me. My paranoia was slowly bubbling to the surface, so I grabbed my purse and headed to the bathroom. I shut myself into a stall and pulled out my burner phone, then shot off a quick text message to L.

  I needed to make sure he was alright.

  BF doesn’t seem too happy. You alright?

  I sat there on the toilet while my entire body shook. The building felt as if it was freezing and my skin was puckering with nerves. I could taste my breakfast at the back of my throat as I tried to swallow down the feeling, but I had to rip myself off the toilet and drop to my knees before I threw up. The coffee and bagel I had while coming into work found its way into the toilet, and my body shook as tears sprang to my eyes.

  Something terrible had happened, and L wasn’t responding because of it.

  I stayed on my knees in the bathroom for 15 minutes, retching up my breakfast while listening for the phone to vibrate. All I needed some sort of message. Just one little sign to let me know things were alright. Hell, I’d take a fucking emoticon if my phone would just vibrate and relieve me of the stress plaguing my body.

  But it never came, and the heaving didn’t stop.

  I knew I wouldn’t be productive like this. Those fifteen files I’d set for myself as a goal wouldn’t get entered in properly because my mind would be elsewhere, and I still had a week’s worth of sick days in my file. When I couldn’t physically bring up anything else, I went to the sink to rinse my mouth out before writing my direct boss a quick note and leaving for the day.

  I always heard back from L. Always. The day I planned the boat trip for us was also a day where he had all sorts of meetings, but that was just a fluke. One of the great things about my job was that I got direct access to L’s schedule in case he needed me for something last minute. So, when I pulled it up and saw he had absolutely no meetings today, it only raised more questions.

  Why wasn’t he messaging me back? Didn’t he know what we were up against? Surely if he said he loved me, he would want to abate my fears. Every time he messaged me, I messaged him back. Every time I messaged him, he messaged me back. Unless either one of us were in meetings, we always responded.

  He had no meetings today. So, where was his response?

  Didn’t he know what his lack of response was doing to me?

  Did he not care?

  Did someone find out?

  Was this his way of communicating to me that something was wrong?

  The honking of a car horn startled me back to reality as I drifted into oncoming traffic. I ripped my car back into my lane before I pulled into the parking garage of my apartment complex, and all I could do was sit at my steering wheel and cry. Something terrible was happening, I could feel it. Michael wasn’t right and his secretary was studying me with a watchful eye. I felt my paranoia fully take over my mind as I sobbed in my car, and then a frightful question crossed my mind.

  Could this all fall apart so soon after we had both declared our feelings?

  I’d just told the most powerful man in real estate development that I was in love with him, and that was after he had said it to me first. Up until this point, reality was better than my dreams, and I found myself trying to stay awake just so my dreams wouldn’t taint the perfection of my reality.

  Was it all falling apart? Was someone currently putting L under a microscope? Was he being interrogated by someone while I just burst free from the confines of the company?

  Was I going to get fired?

  “Why the fuck did I do this?” I asked myself as I sobbed in my car.

  “What the fuck was I thinking?”

  Chapter 25

  Ellison

  For the second time that morning, I was in the breakroom for coffee. Last night had been exhausting as I lay awake again, replaying the events of our trip on the boat, and simply thinking about it made my bones sigh. It was the perfect date with the perfect woman, and it had sucked every ounce of energy I had, taking the weekend to recover. I wanted to return to that place. I wanted to hold her again and feel her feast on my body. I wanted to kiss her nose every time the waves battered against the boat.

  I wanted her to sit that pretty little pussy on my face again just so I could watch her writhe and twitch the entire time I slurped her down.

  Holding the woman I loved in my arms felt amazing. But, hearing that she loved me back was almost unbelievable. I had found a woman that enjoyed me, without or without my money. I had found a woman who matched me intellectually as well as sexually. I found a woman with a competitive spirit that not only drove her to be better, but pushed me to be better as well.

  There was nothing that could compare or replace that feeling, and the moment her words registered in my heart, I knew I’d do anything to keep her.

  She had been on my mind all night last night. I stayed up thinking of her smile and listening to the echoes of her laughter. I kept licking my lips, reminiscing over the taste of her. Every time I got into the shower I wished she was there for me to pull against my body. Every time I woke up in the morning I wished I could look over and see her red locks sprawled out on my pillows.

  I wanted evidence in my life that she was there. Evidence we didn’t have to keep hiding in order to have our relationship.

  I sighed over my coffee. Slipping my hand into my pocket, I closed my eyes for just a moment. I pictured her eyes—those piercing beauties staring back at me as they crinkled with her smile. I thought about her body—rolling with curves and parting themselves just for my touch.

  I thought about her sounds in bed—how she huffed and panted. How her tits bounced with every breath of air. How her voice whispered in my ear. How her—

  “Have a good night last night?”

  I opened my eyes and saw Michael standing there, but the scowl on his face forced my mind into the conversation. I took a second to study him, to really take him in. I saw how his hands were tucked into his pockets—his fists balled up beneath the fabric of his pants. I saw how his eyes were unwavering, almost accusatory even, after he asked me an innocent question. I studied his posture—how his shoulders were rolled back and his chest was puffed out.

  This encounter was anything but innocent, and I braced myself for what I knew was coming.

  “Very much so,” I said. “How was yours?”

  “The pier was pretty nice,” he said.

  “Which pier did you find yourself at last night?” I asked.

  “The Miami Beach Marina,” he said.

  “Mhm. Taking in the sights?” I asked.

  “What the hell were you doing?” he asked, crossing the room and lowering his voice.

  “I’m not sure what you mean,” I said.

  “Cut the shit, L. I saw you on the pier with Charlie.”

  “How’s your leg feeling, Michael?” I asked.

  “Could be better,” he said. “Stop diverting.”

  “I’m not. Are you still taking your pain medication?” I asked.

  “Of course. Hurts like a bitch.”

  “Then what were you doing hiking wooden steps and trying to balan
ce yourself on a floating dock?” I asked.

  “Like you said. Taking in the sights.”

  I clocked his small facial expression. I saw the way his eyes were darting and how he had slipped his hands from his pockets. I saw the corner of his eye twitch ever so slightly when he told me what he was doing at the pier, then I watched his pupils dilate after the rush of adrenaline flooded his body. One of the things I’d become very good at was reading people. You had to in a boardroom. You had to know when someone was bluffing, when someone was hiding something, and when someone was vulnerable.

  If you didn’t, things like hostile takeovers took place. CEO’s of companies like mine always had to be on-guard, searching for people who weren’t telling the truth or were trying to wiggle their way into areas of your company they had no business being in.

  But now, Michael was wiggling into an area of my life he had no business being in, and I had no intention of believing he was doing anything less than tracking me.

  “You followed me to that pier,” I said.

  “That isn’t the point,” he said. “The point is you’ve now become not only the biggest hypocrite in this company, but you’ve placed everything at risk.”

  “You followed me, and I would like to know what hunch brought you to the conclusion that you needed to,” I said.