by Nella Tyler
“You’re staring,” she said as she continued to bounce.
“I can’t help myself.”
“Well stop it,” Alicia stuck out her tongue and proceeded to bounce all the way to the other side of the room.
She bounced up against the wall and then bounced her way back over toward me.
“I’ll race you to the other side. Whoever wins gets to decide what we do next,” I said as we both leaned against the edge of the trampolines.
“Ready, set, go!” Alicia yelled and then took off bouncing toward the other side.
“That’s cheating,” I said as I took off after her.
She was much more experienced and I could tell, but I had more strength in my bounce than her and I quickly overtook her. In just a couple bounces, I had made it to the other side of the room and waited for her to get there.
I smiled ear to ear as she bounced up to me.
“Oh, you have some secret skills; I see how it is.”
“Yes, I’m secretly a trampoline ninja. I just use my investing persona to cover up my real identity.”
“Oh, I normally hate it when people lie to me, but a bouncing trampoline ninja is probably something you should keep on the down low.”
I grabbed her and pulled Alicia toward me. By this time both of us had stopped bouncing and we were smack dab in the middle of a moment. Her eyes locked onto mine and I felt the electricity between us. It was undeniable; she couldn’t fight it, neither could I.
“I’ll try not to overpower you with my ninja skills.”
“Mmm, yes keep those ninja skills to yourself,” Alicia said as she leaned in even closer to me.
I couldn’t resist another second. I grabbed her and lifted her up off the ground.
Alicia wrapped her legs around me and I held onto her. My hands gripped her ass and we looked into each other’s eyes. If I could have fucked her right there, I would have. But instead I decided to take a different approach.
My lips made a move toward her neck and I just tucked them in there. Gently I kissed her, but then just held onto her and hugged her tight. It felt good. She felt good. I wanted to stay like that for as long as she would allow.
Alicia wrapped her arms around my neck and held on.
We stayed wrapped in each other’s arms for longer than I had ever held a woman before. It was a weird feeling, yet it felt so right. She had just had one of the most exhausting days of her life, maybe that was why she held on so tight. I wasn’t sure, but for whatever reason, it was perfect.
“So, where should we go next?” Alicia asked.
“Ice cream. I think we need ice cream,” I said.
“Really, ice cream. That’s where you want to go?”
“Yes.”
“Nowhere else?”
I had to laugh. I did want to take her back to my house, but there was something else going on between us and I needed to explore it some more. I needed to take her someplace where we could relax and really get to know each other.
“Nope. I’d really like to take you for some ice cream,” I smiled as I let Alicia down so she could stand up.
“Ok, let’s go get some ice cream.”
I grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the trampoline room and toward the locker rooms. As we each went to the locker room to change, I felt like I was giddy like a teenager.
With a quick change we were on our way toward the local ice cream parlor.
My normal dating game had already been totally blown up; there was no coming back from it now. I had just spent the last hour bouncing on trampolines, which was for sure nothing I would have taken a woman to do.
“I haven’t gone for ice cream in years,” Alicia said as we walked down the boardwalk toward the ice cream parlor near the ocean.
“Neither have I. So are you excited that today is almost over and you survived your IPO?”
“Oh yes! I haven’t slept in days as I prepared for this. I can’t wait to get a good night’s sleep.”
“I bet you are exhausted. How are your employees? Were they really excited about today?”
“Not really, most of my employees don’t understand the idea of stocks. To be honest I don’t even fully understand. That’s why I have Bill.”
“Oh, the guy you ran from?”
Alicia laughed as she remembered the other day when we took off down the hallway away from her financial VP. It was quiet the scene and still made me laugh to think about it also.
“Yes. He’s such a stick in the mud. Never wants to let me have any fun.”
“Why would he let you? Aren’t you in charge?”
“It’s a figure of speech, Evan. He’s in charge of the money and always trying to keep me on track. He’s really good at his job.”
I wanted to ask so many questions. I wanted to delve deep into the information about her past company and how Bill had been involved in that one too. But I had to be careful, I couldn’t scare her off now; we had started to build up a good relationship.
“How long has he worked with you?”
“Oh he’s been around forever. He was hired on with my first company and then moved to this one when things went wrong.”
“What happened?”
“Oh, nothing too crazy. But Bill was the one who got me out of some bad situations and made it so I could restart with this company. I’m forever indebted to him,” Alicia said as she looked off toward the ocean.
She seemed to think of Bill as more than just her Vice President. She admired him, I could see it in her eyes. But what I didn’t know was why she looked up to him so much. If he had been in charge of her finances back in the previous company, he had done a poor job. Didn’t she see that he should have made sure no money laundering had happened? Why couldn’t she see that this Bill guy was the best target for who was in charge of the money at her old company. Bill Yobi probably knew exactly what had happened there and he likely knew exactly what was going on with Alicia’s current company as well.
“It’s good you have someone you can trust,” I said as we finally arrived at the ice cream parlor.
There was no need for me to try and pit Alicia against her VP—at least at that moment there wasn’t. But the second I could prove he was doing something wrong, I was going to have to show Alicia. I knew for a fact that she had no idea about anything wrong with her company financials. My gut told me that she ran her business on the up and up. If there was wrong doing going on then she didn’t know about it.
“How do you feel about a banana split?” Alicia asked as we looked over the menu.
“I feel good about it.”
I wrapped my arms around her as I stood behind Alicia. We ordered at the window and then sat down to wait. I couldn’t stop smiling. I had not smiled that much in years. There was just something about being there with Alicia that had my mouth stuck in a permanent smile.
As we sat and ate our banana split, I had to think that it was the first real date I had had in such a long time. Most of my dates consisted of me taking a girl to dinner before fucking her. Typically I wasn’t interested in getting to know them. I wasn’t interested in anything about them, but I knew that I had to at least take them to dinner if we were going to fuck. Not all girls, of course, but most of them.
But as I shoved pieces of banana and ice cream into my mouth, I felt like I was on a true date. I had butterflies in my stomach when I asked her questions and I couldn’t help but want to make her laugh over and over again. It was a nice feeling, a genuine feeling, and I wanted to see Alicia again very soon.
“How’s date number four looking?” I said with a wink as I walked Alicia to her taxi.
“Oh, yes. I think number four sounds like your opportunity to get lucky,” Alicia mocked me, but I didn’t mind.
“A friend of mine has a gallery opening in a couple days. Would you be interested? Nothing fancy, just a low key event.”
“I’d love to, text me the information.”
Without warning Alicia got up on her tippy
toes and kissed me. I was shocked and tried to reach for her but she was already on her way into the cab. It wasn’t a passionate kiss, more like a friendly kiss on the lips. Certainly nothing like what I wanted to give her.
I wanted to bring her back to my bed. I wanted to feel her naked body underneath me as I slid inside of her. I wanted to hear her scream out my name as her body orgasmed with pleasure. But instead, I was left standing on the curb with a stomach full of sugary ice cream and a goofy smile on my face.
Chapter Sixteen
I couldn’t get over how easy Alicia was to talk to. It wasn’t something I was use to having when I was around a woman. I didn’t feel like I had to pretend, well only a little. I did still have to leave out the details about my work. I didn’t want her to think I was only dating her because of her company. Although, technically that was the truth, if she wasn’t the CEO of ALL Warren clothing then I never would have gone to find her.
Tuesday was an exhausting day. I could barely keep my eyes opened when I arrived at work. My late night hadn’t been because of my date though, just my thoughts of Alicia. After spending time with her on our date I couldn’t imagine that she was involved in hiding financial information. But I also couldn’t imagine that she didn’t know. How could someone run a company and not know where all of the money came from or went out to? It didn’t make sense.
The other thing I couldn’t stop thinking about was her creamy soft skin and how it would feel pressed up against my body. Time after time she had refused me, more than any other woman had ever done. It wasn’t something I was use to and certainly I wasn’t alright with it. I knew I would have her eventually, I just didn’t know how long I would have to wait for her.
My typical theory of just moving on to the next one wouldn’t work in Alicia’s case. I needed to wait her out. I needed to figure out what it was that would drive her wild and get her to finally give in to her desire for me.
I knew she wanted me. Everything about the way she interacted with me told me she wanted me. The way her eyes looked at me. The feeling I got in the pit of my stomach when she was near. The electricity between us when we touched. It was all a sign that we needed to get naked and let our bodies play with each other.
By lunch time I had finished all my research for the day and made my necessary trades. There was no need to stick around so I decided to try stopping by Alicia’s temporary office building down the street. She had set up shop for the months leading up to her IPO and they were preparing for New York Fashion Week which was only another month away.
Stopping by her office wasn’t something I had planned to do, but as the idea developed, I thought it might be a unique way to show her I was indeed very interested in her.
My plan was to stop by and take her to a quick lunch and that was it. Nothing more and nothing less, we could have a nice conversation and just relax a little bit.
“Hi, I’m here to see Alicia,” I said as I stood in front of the secretary at the front desk.
“Is Ms. Warren expecting you?” The mocha skinned secretary said with a smile.
“No ma’am, I’m here to surprise her.”
“Oh, I’m sorry darling. Ms. Warren doesn’t accept guests without a scheduled appointment.”
“Could you just give her a call? We are friends.”
I flashed the receptionist a grin and my magic had her calling up to Alicia. She motioned for me to sit down and wait for a minute while she talked on the phone.
It wasn’t long before Alicia made her way down from her office to come talk to me. She looked incredibly sexy in her short floral dress and heels. I wanted to pick her up and feel her legs wrapped around me in that very moment. But instead I just leaned in and kissed her on the cheek.
“Evan, what are you doing here?” She asked.
“Well I was just in the neighborhood and thought we could go out to lunch,” I said as I pulled out the smile again.
My boyish grin had single handedly been responsible for getting things that I wanted throughout my life. Surely I could get Alicia to go out to lunch with me.
“I’m sorry, I don’t have much free time while I’m working; let’s just plan on meeting up at the gallery opened. Would that work?”
“You can sneak away for twenty minutes to grab some food, can’t you? Everyone needs to eat.”
“Sorry, Evan, I really can’t. I’m meeting with my buyer to look at some new fabrics.”
“So you just won’t eat today?”
“I’ll probably shove a sandwich down my throat right before the meeting.”
Alicia smiled and was extremely pleasant, but she was visibly uncomfortable with me being at her office. I watched as she looked around with a paranoid look on her face.
“Can I use the restroom really quick?”
I couldn’t waste a visit to Alicia’s office. Surely there must be a file room with some of her financial information somewhere around the office. I just needed a clue, any sort of clue that would give me an idea of where I could be looking for more information.
“Yes, come with me.” Alicia led the way down the hall and she seemed extremely annoyed with me.
My priority had switched from taking her out to lunch to finding where the files might be stored. Even if I couldn’t get into the files yet, at least I could get a better idea of where they were.
I paid close attention as we walked behind the receptionist and made our way toward the end of the hallway. My eyes darted from one door to the next, but I couldn’t find a room that looked like it had the company records in it.
Finally, when we reached the restroom I saw an unmarked room across the way that appeared to be filled with boxes of files.
“Thanks, Alicia, I know you’re busy I’m sure I can find my way out from here.”
“It’s alright. I’ll wait for you just down the hall, third door on the right. Come grab me and I’ll walk you out.”
The first thing that came through my mind was to try and figure out how long I could look in the file room and not seem totally creepy about being in the bathroom so long. Two minutes to four minutes was all I could risk.
I waited for Alicia to go in to the office down the hall and then I slowly came out of the restroom and made my way to the file room. I could see the files through the class in the door and with one quick turn of the doorknob, I was in the room and face to face with boxes and boxes of files.
There were files on how much fabric cost. There were files on how much employees got paid. I even came across a box full recipes.
Certainly I could have spent days working my way through the boxes, but none of them appeared to be what I was looking for. I wasn’t exactly sure what it was that I needed to find, but I did have a feeling the files I wanted wouldn’t be left out in the open like these boxes. .
I closed the door behind me and made my way down to where Alicia was at.
She sat in the corner of a small office and flipped through a stack of papers which had just been printed.
“Well, that’s a large stack you have there,” I said as I tried to use my most suggestive voice possible.
She laughed and then looked absolutely miserable. It looked like she was about to cry as she looked at the stack of papers and then over toward me.
“I don’t know what to do. I have all these orders and absolutely zero inventory.”
“How is that possible?”
“I don’t know. We keep filling up warehouses with the product, yet I still can’t get my orders filled in a timely manner.”
“Problems every growing company has I’m sure.”
“It is stressing me out beyond words.”
“We will discuss ways I can relieve your stress after date number four,” I winked.
“Thanks for stopping by, Evan. I appreciate the offer for lunch.”
“No problem, anytime you want some free food just give me a call and I’ll come running. Just think of me like Superman without the ability to fly.”
“
So I can think of you in tights?”
Alicia laughed as she walked me out of the hallway and back toward the front door.
“You can’t think of me any way you would like,” I said as I walked toward the door.
I knew she wouldn’t have allowed a kiss or any other public displays of affection. She was much to paranoid that someone would see her in the lobby talking to me.
I wasn’t sure if it was me that had her paranoid or just the amount of stress she was under from her IPO, but she definitely did not want me in her office.
While I made my way back to my office, I felt a twinge of concern. How could she have warehouses full of product yet not be able to fulfill orders on time? There was something going on there and it just fueled my concern about the finances of her company. According to the public numbers I had seen, there really were warehouses full of product just waiting to ship out. There should not have been any worries about supplying the orders to her customers.
My brain made a mental note to talk it over with Rebecca the next time I talked with her. Rebecca was acutely aware of the financials of ALL Warren clothing and I knew she would be able to tell if I was on the right track or not.
Chapter Seventeen
It was like a drug to me. I couldn’t stop myself, as I walked into Edward’s on 5th I looked around the room for a woman that would be a good match for what I needed that night.
My body ached to feel the release from a woman. It had been days since I had been with Rebecca and I just couldn’t keep waiting for Alicia to decide if she was going to give herself to me or not. I had needs and they had to be filled right away.
From one side of the room to the other, I looked for a woman that would be fun for the night. It seemed to take me longer than usual as I found reasons why almost every single woman in the bar would not work for me.
One blonde was too young.
Her friend was too bubbly.
The group of ladies in the corner seemed too serious.
I finally found a hot brunette who was seated at the bar all alone. The girls who were all alone were the easiest to sway my way. Typically they were overworked and just trying to decompress after a long day or they had a recent break up with a boyfriend. Either option worked for what I needed. I needed a hot fuck for the night.
