by Lexi Archer
“Felix,” Mr. Roth said, a huge smile coming to his face. “So good to see you tonight!”
“And it’s a pleasure to see all of you gentlemen, of course,” he said with a slight nod. I was immediately on guard. This guy might be nodding to them out of respect, but their body language told a different story. It was obvious that this guy was the one the senior partners were deferring to, and until I knew how the hell that was possible I didn’t want to put a foot wrong. That was a good way to get unceremoniously fired.
“So are we ready for the big event this weekend?” Mr. Roth asked.
“Please, Daniel,” this Felix guy said. “I prefer that we do not talk about events in public where they might be overheard.”
He looked at me pointedly. It was very clear that whatever they were talking about, this guy wasn’t exactly comfortable with them talking about it in front of me. All the senior partners turned and looked at me with something that looked very close to disapproval, and I wondered if I should exit stage left before I upset one of them.
“You are Edward, correct?” Felix asked, suddenly turning his attention on me. I felt like a bug under a magnifying glass, and I wondered how long it would be before I got burned.
“Um, yes?” I said. “I don’t believe we’ve met.”
I shifted my drink to my left hand and held my right out for him to shake. He did so with a warm and inviting smile on his face. That was a disarming sort of smile. The kind of smile that was so genuine that I had a hard time believing anything bad could happen just from talking with this guy.
“I have heard much about you, Edward,” he said.
I blinked. What was this guy talking about?
“You have?”
He glanced over my shoulder and it was pretty easy to figure out what he was looking at. Though I suppose it would be more accurate to say it was pretty easy to figure out who he was looking at. Anne was off in that direction, probably still talking to the asshole. Though for a surprise this guy’s eyes didn’t do the up and down that most other guys did when they were looking at my wife. Either he wasn’t interested, not likely, or he had exceptional self-control.
I was willing to bet on the latter.
“If you gentlemen would excuse us?” Felix said.
For a moment I thought he was talking to me. I almost turned and left out of habit. As a junior associate I was more than used to being casually dismissed. Especially in the company of the senior partners. Only he turned to those very same senior partners and looked at each of them in turn.
I held my breath and waited for the explosion. These weren’t men who were accustomed to being ordered around. I remembered one instance where a junior associate who’d had a little too much to drink had been joking around doing an impression of Mr. Roth ordering everyone around, never realizing that Mr. Roth stood right behind him the entire time with a frown on his face. The guy had cleared out his desk the next day and no one had heard from him since.
For a wonder, though, it was the senior partners who made their excuses and left. I could only stop and stare in wonder at this man with the accent I couldn’t place who had the power to order some of the most powerful men in the city, in the state, around. Who was this guy?
I was even more nervous about standing near him now than I’d been moments ago.
“That was pretty impressive,” I said.
“What are you talking about?”
I thought about that for a moment. I couldn’t exactly tell him that I was impressed at the way he managed to order around a bunch of old guys who essentially ran my life. I didn’t know the nature of his relationship with them, after all. If it turned out he was buddy buddy with them, something that seemed likely considering the way they were all smiles when he was near, then saying something like that could very quickly get back to them.
I didn’t want to be the one clearing out my desk come Monday.
“You are talking about how I asked them to leave and they listened right away, yes?” he asked. “It’s okay. You can speak freely around me.”
My eyes went wide. This guy was like a mind reader or something. Very impressive.
“I guess that was a little impressive,” I said. “I’ve gotten so used to those guys running my life that it’s odd seeing someone who can get them to do that.”
“Not so impressive,” he said. “In my experience power belongs to those who want to take it. Defer to someone and they will treat you as a subordinate. That is a lesson for you tonight.”
I took a drink and wondered if he had a point. It seemed crazy. The senior partners did have very real power. The power to hire or fire me. The power to make me a rich man with a life of relative luxury if they decided to promote me.
“I saw you talking with your friend and that lovely woman over there,” Felix said.
I had to stop for a moment and do some mental gymnastics as I switched tracks from thinking about office power politics to my wife talking with Brad.
“Oh yeah,” I said. “That’s my wife Anne. Talking to the office sleaze. I wasn’t too happy about that, but I think she’s got it under control.”
I stopped. Had I really just said that? What was it about this guy that had me thinking I really could speak freely? That was something I wouldn’t even say to Anne, and here I was spilling my guts to this guy.
Felix smiled. “I would not worry if I were you,” he said.
“Really?” Some of the doubts I’d had ran through my head. They were still there. I was just trying my best to ignore them. “Why’s that?”
Felix’s smile turned to an outright grin. “Is that something you really want to know? I have lessons for those who would listen, but all lessons come at a price.”
“I don’t know about lessons, but I’m interested in hearing why you think Ross over there doesn’t have a chance with my wife.”
For that matter, why was I disappointed at the thought that Ross didn’t have a chance with my wife? Why was I getting a bit of a hard on thinking about Ross doing what he did best with my girl?
Felix gestured for me to follow him. His arm pointed towards an exit to a balcony on the other side of the room. “Follow me and we will talk.”
I glanced over my shoulder to Anne and Brad chatting. As they talked she reached out and put a hand on his arm. A simple gesture, but it got me so hot watching it. What was coming over me all of a sudden?
“I can assure you your wife will be quite safe with the office Lothario while we chat,” Felix said. “Please, join me.”
And so I followed this mysterious stranger out onto the balcony, glancing over my shoulder to Anne and Brad every couple of steps. Not because I was worried about something happening between them, I realized, but because the idea of something happening between them suddenly excited me very much.
What was going on here and what the hell was wrong with me?
3: Knowing Women
The night was warm, but it was helped a little by being so far above the city. The noise of cars rushing past below and the occasional honk drifted up. Off in the distance I saw an elevated train move past a cross street with the usual loud rattle that accompanied it.
It was a beautiful night in the city with a beautiful view of the street down below, and being up this high meant that it was cool enough even if it would be uncomfortable in this suit jacket down at street level.
Felix leaned against the railing as though he didn’t care about the view. He only had eyes for the party inside. For everyone at the party. I didn’t follow his gaze. I was too busy admiring the view that I hoped to one day have from my own office after I made partner. No more cubicle in the middle of a room stuffed with other junior associates for me.
“Beautiful, no?” Felix asked.
“It really is. I never get tired of this view. It’s part of the reason I came to the city in the first place.”
“I wasn’t talking about the scenery out here on top of this building,” Felix said.
I turne
d and followed his gaze. He was looking right through the window that ran the length of the balcony, and it was pretty obvious that his focus was entirely on my wife and Brad who were still chatting with one another. It felt like it had been an eternity that they were talking, but of course it couldn’t have been more than maybe ten minutes. It just felt as though time had been stretched out while I was talking with the senior partners and then with this Felix guy.
“Truly you have nothing to worry about with her and him,” he said.
“How do you know that?”
“Let’s just say that I have a way of knowing these things. Knowing women is something you can become an expert in. Some are good at interpreting a fine wine. My particular skill is interpreting a fine woman.”
My eyes narrowed. “What exactly is it that you do for the law firm, again? Are you one of the lawyers or something?”
Felix smiled and took a drink. “Consider me something of an independent consultant working on behalf of the senior partners.”
An independent consultant working on behalf of the senior partners. I was still on guard, of course. This guy could be anything. What if he was an independent consultant whose job was to test the junior associates in some way before we were made partner? What if I was being tested right now and I’d have no way of knowing until it was too late? There were already so many mind games that went into this job. It was enough to drive a man insane.
It actually had driven a couple people in my position insane. Certifiably so. They ended up spending some time at a nice mental health facility for a few months to unwind from all the stress. Though I suppose they were luckier than the ones who took to alcohol or drugs to deal with the stress.
I got stressed, sure, but it was the sure knowledge that I was in this with Anne until the very end that kept me centered.
“Truly she is a beautiful woman,” Felix said. “You’re a lucky man to have such a jewel.”
I took a swig of my own drink and looked at Anne. I know I’d said it before, but she really was gorgeous in that dress. It clung to her body in all the right places, and from the way Brad was constantly sneaking glances at her when he thought she wasn’t looking he was in complete and total agreement with my assessment of my wife. I might be biased, but other guys staring at her was proof that she was every bit as beautiful as I thought.
Not that I would’ve loved her any less if other guys didn’t check her out. I did have to admit that it was exciting to watch other guys giving her a once over, though.
“We’ve been married for five years now,” I said, not really sure what else to say.
Felix turned and smiled. Arched an eyebrow. “Really? So the two of you married young?”
“Well we married right out of undergrad. Not sure if that’s considered young by today’s standards. We got hitched well after everyone else we grew up with, though most of them are divorced now. I guess getting knocked up as teenagers isn’t a good foundation for a long term relationship.”
“Interesting. So the two of you have been together since you were children? Childhood sweethearts, as they say?”
“Something like that,” I said. “We knew each other growing up, but we didn’t really start dating until high school.”
“Still, that’s quite some time. You’re a lucky man to find someone so early who you’re happy with.”
“Tell me about it,” I said.
“A woman that beautiful, that innocent, wouldn’t fall for the charms Brad has to offer,” Felix said with certainty.
“You keep saying that, and I keep asking you how you can be so sure,” I said.
Felix shrugged. “As I said, it is my business to know these things. I could as soon explain how I know as you could explain some of your complicated legal things to me. It just is. As I’m sure you often tell your clients, sometimes you have to trust the expert.”
I wondered who the hell made this guy an expert in women. Sure he seemed like a good looking guy, but if that was enough to make someone an expert in women then every jacked up asshole who ever hit the gym looking to hit on a girl would be an expert. Every idiot with more gelled hair than brains who went out to bars looking to pick up on a girl would be a frickin’ genius.
I was curious, though. And there were these new feelings. There was this excitement I felt watching Brad checking out my wife. I figured it would be safe enough to indulge some of those thoughts with this stranger.
“So what do you think it would take to get a sweet and innocent girl like Anne to step out on a guy like me?” I asked. “Seems like it would be an awful lot considering she’s the only woman I’ve ever been with and I’m the only guy she’s ever been with.”
Felix shrugged. “That is a challenge, I will admit. A seduction like that would take skill, or perhaps some sort of leverage.”
“You mean forcing her? Blackmail? That sort of thing?”
My tone said that I didn’t like that one bit, but the way my cock raged in my pants was telling another story entirely. I hated that I got turned on by the idea of someone blackmailing Anne into fucking them. The thought shouldn’t have been nearly as hot as it was, damn it.
“I didn’t say blackmail,” Felix said. “I merely said that someone would need some leverage. A girl like that might think that she wants to be faithful to her man, but inside every woman there is a tigress roaring for release. I think it would take something to push her to that release, is all. Something that would allow her to excuse her behavior. Something that would let her tell herself that she wasn’t giving into the seduction that she very much wants.”
This was getting pretty fucking hot. I never thought I’d get turned on talking to another guy, but the way he spun this story of my wife stepping out on me had me going in a way that I didn’t understand. It had me turned on in a way that wanted me to go snatch my wife away from Brad for completely different reasons. I needed to get her someplace private where we could work through some of this intense emotion, and I needed that now, damn it!
“You enjoy this thought, don’t you?” he asked.
I blinked, shocked at the way this guy could seemingly read my mind. I needed to play this cool. I didn’t want to let on that I was getting turned on by this. Guys weren’t supposed to get turned on at the idea of their wife cheating on them. They were supposed to be pissed off at that idea. They were supposed to get raging mad.
Yet all I got was a raging hard on. Talk about fucked up.
“I don’t know about that,” I said. “She is beautiful, but she’s all mine.”
“To say your wife is beautiful would be an understatement. She’s radiant. Her beauty dominates that room, and that’s saying something considering all the trophy wives in there picked for their good looks. I should know. I’m the one who introduced most of them to their new husbands.”
I gave him a sharp considering look. This guy was just full of surprises. “So what are you, some sort of matchmaker or pimp or something?”
“I am all of that and none of that,” Felix said with another of those enigmatic smiles.
“And what would you want with my wife if that is what you’re all about? If one of the senior guys has his eye on her they can forget about it. She’s spoken for.”
“Oh no, nothing like that,” Felix said. “Though your wife is a challenge that would need to be savored. She is not a girl to fall for the first guy to come along. It’s obvious she chose well in choosing you.”
That wasn’t exactly an answer. This guy seemed very good at deflecting. Almost frustratingly so.
Abruptly he stepped away from his perch leaning against the balcony. He rummaged in his pocket and pulled something out. A small white card that he handed over to me and I inspected. It simply had his name and a phone number on it. Not exactly the most descriptive of business cards. I’d hoped it might have some clue as to what exactly his business was.
“You should call me if you ever want to learn more about what I do,” he said. “I have a feeling that
both you and your wife would be pleasantly surprised.”
“But I don’t even know what it is you do. Why can’t you just tell me? Give me a little hint, maybe?”
Felix wagged a finger at me. “Ah, but that would ruin the fun of discovery, and in my business the discovery is as much a part of the amusement as everything else. You have my number. You know what to do if you want to know more.”
I looked down at the card in confusion. Who the heck did this guy think he was? Did he think I was going to be so intrigued by this bullshit mystery routine he pulled that I’d be all about offering me and my wife up to him for whatever bullshit service he offered? Knowing my luck he was just running a pyramid scheme or something with a compelling sales argument.
Where did that guy disappear to? I looked around the room once more, but he was nowhere to be seen. Oh well. If he wanted to pull this mysterious bullshit then he could pull this mysterious bullshit. I was intrigued by what he was going on about, but more than anything I needed to see my wife. Anne was still on the other side of the room talking with Brad, and thoughts of her under him while his cock pressed against her pussy and she bit her lip and moaned were running rampant through my mind.
That Felix guy might not think Anne was the kind of girl who would ever cheat on me, but she was certainly that kind of girl in my imagination! God it was fucking hot thinking of her getting with another guy. I don’t know where these thoughts were coming from, but I was helpless to resist them.
I stepped back into the room, the din of people chatting and laughing and carrying on washing over me as I walked over to meet my wife. I was a man on a mission, and I didn’t have time to get back to our house. No, it was time to take her back to the place where the magic happened and let some magic happen.
4: Escape
I stepped easily through the crowd. None of the junior associates moved up to stop me and none of the senior partners seemed to be around. Odd how they disappeared as soon as that Felix guy showed up, but I chalked it up to coincidence. That was none of my concern in the moment.
