by R. R. Banks
“Thanks Richard,” said Alexis as she grinned at Hannah.
“We can’t wait to see you guys again!” exclaimed Hannah, fist bumping Alexis as Richard hung up the phone. With two enormous sighs of relief, the girls leaned back in their chairs and looked up at the ceiling, taking the next few moments to relax and gather their thoughts. Hannah, still looking up at the ceiling, started to chuckle as she leaned forward, placing both of her hands on Alexis’s desk before shaking her head with a very wide eyed smile. “I cannot believe how well that went.”
Alexis laughed before sitting up and repositioning herself in her chair. “I can,” she replied confidently. “You made the company a lot of money. They don’t care about how it happened, just that you got the deal in writing. Honestly, Hannah, you could’ve told him you blew the owner of the company if it got that signature on a contract.”
“Well, now that you mention it,” implied Hannah.
“Hannah Burchfield!” yelled Alexis in a state of shock. “Is that why he signed off on the deal?”
Hannah bit her lip and looked back at Alexis with a sly grin. “Maybe,” she said, letting the awkward silence set in before shaking her head. “No, we had already finished negotiating before other things happened.”
“Oh, well, alright then,” replied Alexis. “So, what happened? I have to know.”
“Look, you know me Alexis, and you know that there are times when I think a little emotionally instead of rationally,” began Hannah, looking across the desk as her best friend looked back in morbid curiosity. “So, when we got off the phone yesterday, I walked into a small trailer to meet with an Italian man who I thought was the foreman of the oil field…”
I got out of the car without my normal disposition. After the car ride, I felt a bit uneasy, simply because the terrain scrambled my brains and made my muscles ache like they never had before. So while I was incredibly sore, I still had a job to do and didn’t drive to the Oman border to come home empty handed. The sandy dirt was everywhere, and when I opened the door of my car and put my expensive shoe into it, I immediately became upset with myself. These shoes - Prada, were white leather, cost me the better part of six hundred dollars, and without even thinking, I stepped into the dirty sand and sunk in. Normally, I wouldn’t let something like this deter me, but, I also don’t normally travel out to oil fields in the Middle East.
The pathway to the management trailer was paved with a thin layer of asphalt but still covered in the sandy dirt. I walked along the pathway softly, trying not to stir the dirt with my footsteps. I stepped up the three, wooden steps and placed my hand on the silver knob, though not turning it because I was listening in to the incredibly loud conversation coming from the inside of the small structure. Though it was in Italian, which I can speak pretty well, the dialect was a bit different and the sounds were muffled from the well-insulated trailer. The man inside was on the phone, having a conversation with someone from Italy and it was about me, and how he was going to have to entertain some idiot from America and let them know about how their company ran.
I giggled, loving that he was already upset with me and I had yet to walk through the door. I kept listening at how he referred to most Americans as ugly, rude, and above all, classless. While some of what he said could be true, I felt like I could immediately gain the upper hand. I was wearing khakis; the same ones I wore yesterday while I was at the office, along with that white button up blouse and the khaki vest. I unbuttoned the top two buttons of my blouse and tightened my bra straps, raising up my breasts just enough to where my cleavage was showing through the opening of the shirt. I fixed my hair, making sure it looked perfect, though still pulled back in a ponytail. I had checked my makeup before I got out of the car, so I knew my face looked fabulous. I put my hand back on the door knob and turned it, pulling the door open and stepping into the room with authority. I walked straight to the Italian man in front of me, who totally caught me off guard.
He was very well built; tall, muscular shoulders with thick biceps and a very broad torso. His legs were thick and muscular, almost as if he had worked on the rigs his entire life and had to lift the hundred pound pipes daily. His skin tone was olive, just like most Italians, but was incredibly tanned from what I perceived to be too many days in the sun. His accent was different from what I was used to, though the only real interaction I ever had with Italians speaking in their native tongue was either in Rome, Milan, Naples, or Turin. Though the northern states tend to sing their words a little bit more, this man’s accent was very direct and loud. Anyways, he turned and looked at me, placing his phone down and maintaining a very firm scowl.
“And might I ask who you are?” he asked in English, which surprised me. I honestly expected him to greet me in Italian, which tipped me off that he knew who I was.
“Good afternoon!” I said with a very perky smile, over doing it a bit with my aggressive personality. I knew he didn’t want to see me, but hearing that he thought most American’s were rude, I decided to go quite aggressive with the happiness.
I set my bag beside the door and walked toward him, stretching my hand out to shake his. His eyes immediately relaxed and his scowl turned into more of a curious frown as he stretched his hand out and shook mine. “My name is Hannah Burchfield and I’m with the American Oil Trade and Refiners,” I introduced, still being incredibly positive and perky. My eyes were relaxed as I looked at his with our hands interlocked, trying to read his emotions to get a better feel for the negotiations.
“Gregorio Bonnucci,” he said calmly, releasing my hand and staring into my eyes as I gazed into his. “So, you are who they sent to talk about our relationship?”
“I am,” I replied, catching him off guard with my answer. “Am I not what you were expecting?” I asked coyly, trying to provoke an answer to see where his head was at. If he said no, then I knew he was a liar and I was already in his head. If he said yes, then I knew I had to charm him a bit more, but by his facial expressions and body language, I did not think it would take much longer.
However, my mind was also wandering during the very brief moment. His name sounded incredibly familiar, and the more I thought about it, I remembered hearing it before. I didn’t dwell on it though, because that didn’t help me at all. Knowing who he was did not offer me an immediate advantage, though once I realized who he was, I knew that I was in the best position of my career. “You are much different than what I had imagined coming to visit me today,” he answered. “Normally, the people who are sent out to the fields are grizzled men who are way too vulgar, thinking that they are talking to some foreman on a rig.”
I grinned, walking over to a couch and having a seat at the end as he stood up in the center of the room. I started to analyze him more closely, trying to pinpoint who this man was and what he was about. I started feeling that he wasn’t the rig foreman. He looked sure of himself, standing tall with his hands in his pockets. His khakis were neatly pressed and his shoes while worn, looked incredibly expensive. His shirt was a white button up with the sleeves rolled up, didn’t look very impressive. “Well I can start swearing a bit if it will make you feel more comfortable,” I stated, trying to charm him a bit. “I’d hate for you to feel out of sorts.”
“Oh no, you’re fine,” he responded, pulling his hands out of his pockets and motioning at her that it was not a problem. He was incredibly relaxed, which was starting to unnerve me a bit. “How was your drive from Dubai? The roads here in the U.A.E. are not exactly spectacular. For all the oil money that is flowing through the veins of this country, it doesn’t tend to end up in the country’s infrastructure outside of the big cities.”
“Clearly,” I acknowledged sarcastically, pointing to my shoulder and hip. “The bumpy roads gave me the worst massage I think I’ve ever had.”
He laughed at my misfortune. “Well, fortunately you didn’t have to pay for it,” he quipped playfully, working with my banter a bit and unwinding. I felt like he was starting to get comfortable wi
th me. Fortunately, one of the biggest things I learned in negotiating is to keep your opposition comfortable, because when they’re comfortable, they’re more likely to give in to stay comfortable. “I always try to take a helicopter from the port or from another one of my family’s sites to get to this location,” he continued, tipping me that I was speaking to one of the owners of the company. “The roads here, no matter which direction you come from, are just awful. It’s as if the United Arab Emirates is trying to keep their citizens in the country by deterring them with poor travel conditions.”
“Ha!” I laughed, still working to charm him, though with a hint of legitimacy. He was incredibly charming, relating to me while I sat on the couch in front of him. Gregorio Bonnucci was the son of Geovani Bonnucci, the wealthiest oil tycoon in Italy. The family controlled vast amounts of oil fields and possessed a great deal of influence.
Alexis, you and I have dealt with this family a few different times, though never in a face to face encounter. We’ve always dealt with their intermediaries and have always been remotely successful. While I knew that they owned and ran this field, I was definitely not expecting one of the owners to meet me personally at the field. For the first time in a long while, I got somewhat nervous. I honestly felt like I wasn’t in control for the first time in my career.
“So Mr. Bonnucci, why have you requested a meeting with us?” I asked, prying for information while trying to look relaxed, sitting back on the couch and leaning against the corner with my arm draped over the side. He walked up to me and sat on the other side of the couch, turning his body sideways placing his back against the arm of the couch and placing his left arm on the top of it.
He smiled softly as he got comfortable, adjusting his hips a bit as he slid around. “Ms. Burchfield, I understand that your company is very influential, powerful, and wealthy. We have relationships in most of the countries that we have fields and you all are very good to us in a sense that you pay us on time and pick up your product expediently. I wanted to talk to a negotiator because I feel like our relationship is incredibly jagged and not as fruitful as it could be,” he explained, talking softly while gesturing with his right hand while leaving his left firmly on the back of the couch.
“Please, call me Hannah,” I asked politely, hating to hear people call me by my last name. “My mother is Ms. Burchfield. I’m just Hannah,” I said playfully, smiling while delivering the message with sincerity, though with a sense of immaturity.
“Fine, Hannah,” he laughed, “Please, call me Gregorio then.”
“Ok, Gregorio,” I replied, turning my body to face him, placing my back against the inside arm of the couch and tilting my body toward the back cushions. “What do you feel we can do to make our relationship more fruitful?” I asked, knowing that I needed to understand what my reason for being out there was. I had given up on my pursuit for acquiring new products now and shifted my focus to making sure I could maintain our current relationships.
He smiled, leaning back a bit more while composing himself, thinking about his answer and the phrasing he needed to deliver it. I could tell we were both very aggressive in our negotiations typically, furthermore by watching his body language and facial expressions, I deduced we were both posturing for position in our discussion. “There is a lot of money flowing from this portion of the region. While our relationships in the past were devoted to, as one of your negotiators told us before, stop gaps in production, we feel that we are able to produce enough to actually become a much larger producer for you all. We feel that, given the right arrangement, we could deepen both of our pockets and create a relationship based on making each other richer than ever,” he explained, pointing out how he and his company were starting to think a bit more globally.
“Oh, so you want to expand our relationship?” I asked, trying to see what he was hinting at while not being abrasively rude.
“I think that would be amazing,” he answered. “We haven’t spoken to any other companies yet because we really understand that you are one of the best in your field. We want to work with your company.”
“Oh,” I said with a hint of surprise. “We have a few openings in our inventory. Perhaps you could give me a few minutes to see what I can make happen?” I asked, surprised that he wanted to expand our relationship. When I came out here, I really thought our relationship had soured, not the other way around. I started thinking frantically, going through our inventories in my mind about what orders I knew we could fill with their product, though I really didn’t know the volume they were seriously considering offloading on us.
I hammered home my points, playing on their need for us to be in a cooperative relationship with one another and how we must help one another in order to achieve the goals that we need for both of us to succeed. We kept talking for the next hour about logistics, discussing the quantity in terms of barrels, boat loads, and even complete ownership of the product produced from certain fields. It was an incredible conversation that I was not expecting to have. I went in there with the feeling that I would have to be an absolute bitch, but instead, I was able to really talk about products and how we would move them. This was incredibly beneficial for all of us and a huge boost for me.
Alexis, my confidence was sky high. I honestly felt unstoppable as we ironed out the finer points of our deals. While this wasn’t the biggest deal I had ever negotiated, the fact that I was able to throw in everyone from the consortium made it even better. There was no amount that his company could produce that the consortium couldn’t offload. For me, personally, this was great. Once we had everything finished, I stood up from the couch and started walking around, noticing that I was sweating a bit. “Do you mind if I take this vest off?” I asked, trying to be polite, even though I was going to do it anyway. He shook his head as I pulled the vest off, still showing off my cleavage from the unbuttoned portion of my blouse.
Gregorio looked at me differently now as I placed my vest on one of the chairs. “Are you alright?” he asked, looking at me as I placed my hands over my head and stretched my arms out, accidentally poking my chest out more.
“Yeah, I’m just a bit stiff from that car ride,” I answered as I rubbed my shoulders. “Everything is just a bit more sore than normal after that road trip.”
He chuckled. “I completely understand,” he replied. “Would you like for me to call our physical therapist we keep on staff? Maybe she can work out any of those sore spots?”
“Is she a massage therapist?” I asked playfully. “I don’t think a physical therapist can really help what I’ve got going on. It’s just in my muscles.”
“Well, what’s sore?” he asked as he stood up from the couch and stepped toward me as I pointed at my shoulders, turning around as he placed his hands on them, pushing his thumbs into my muscles firmly. His hands were incredibly gifted as he caressed my shoulders. I tilted my head up and looked at the dark ceiling of the trailer, enjoying every second that his hands were on me. “Is that good?” he asked, still rubbing the same spots. “Very.” I said, stepping forward to place my hands on a table, slouching over a bit letting him go a little lower. His hands started working down my back, spending a great deal of time in each square inch. I looked forward, feeling his fingers work magically as I bit my bottom lip. He worked the muscles in my neck and lower back simultaneously, staying on them for a few minutes before moving his hands back to my shoulders rubbing them again before working down my upper arms to rub my biceps.
“Please don’t stop,” I requested, moaning slightly again his hands began moving progressively down to the small of my back to work the muscles there. I gripped the table tightly as he pushed his hands into the muscles above my waist. I bit my bottom lip as perverse thoughts started to go through my head. Acting on impulse, I turned around and made my move. Placing my arms around his neck, I pulled him to me as I kissed him. He opened his mouth and I started to suck on his bottom lip, nibbling on it while we kissed. After a few moments, we started walking toward
the couch.
With him sitting on the center cushion, I placed both of my legs on the outside of his, straddling him with my breasts against his solid chest. We continued to kiss passionately as our tongues started to stroke each other. He placed his fingers on my thighs, working them slightly like he worked the muscles in my back, it felt amazing. My muscles tensed up just enough that I could feel every push from his fingertips. I could tell that Gregorio was an aggressive, dominant man, and to be honest with you, I was incredibly ok with it.
“Wait a second,” interrupted Alexis, trying to piece together where they were at in the story with the facts that she knew about her best friend. “First off, you’re never ok with a dominant man. Second, this all started with him giving you a friendly massage to work out some of the muscles that were aching after your travels? I’m sorry, but I’m having a hard time believing both of those.”
Hannah smirked. “Alexis, sometimes I enjoy not being in control. While yes, I possess an incredibly dominant personality, I also understand that it is in my best interest to occasionally let someone else be in control. Even after my confidence was the highest it has been in ages, I felt this was one of those occasions that would best serve me if I did happen to let go,” she explained calmly, almost in a condescending tone. “And as for your second point, you can think whatever you want to think. It may or may not have started that way, but you, Alexis, will never know if I’m lying or not. Now may I continue with the juicy details?”
Alexis scoffed with her mouth open as she looked across the table at her friend giving her a smut filled story. “Fine, please continue,” requested Alexis, accepting that Hannah never had to tell her what the real reason for their encounter was.
Now, before I was so rudely interrupted. I was still straddling his waist, letting him caress my thighs. His hands worked up to my ass, caressing it firmly as I started to rub my hands across his well-defined shoulders and chest. I started unbuttoning his shirt, pulling it out of his pants. His chest was very well-defined with tight pectoral muscles and chiseled abs. He looked as if he stepped off a runway and just so happened to end up in this trailer with me. I started caressing his chest, running my nails lightly over his tight, dark nipples. He groaned, when I took one of the little buds between my fingers to give it a slight squeeze. With a low growl, he firmly grabbed my ass, pulling me toward him.
