The Arrangement [Box Set]

by Abby Weeks

  —Not at all, really, she said, trying to be friendly. I just taste it and say it’s fine but I don’t have a clue what I’m supposed to be tasting.

  Edward nodded as if this confirmed what he had suspected.

  —My family have vineyards in France and Italy.

  —Is that so? April said. She didn’t know what she was supposed to say to a man who was so obviously bragging.

  —I’ve tasted a lot of wine. The secret is always in the fragrance. The nose can detect a thousand times more flavors than the tongue.

  April hadn’t even taken the time to smell the wine. She didn’t think it really mattered. It was always good at a place like this. She felt like changing the subject.

  —What do you do for your firm?

  —Andersen Strathern?

  —Yes.

  James, sitting to her left, had been listening to their conversation and gave a little laugh before interrupting.

  —He comes in and drinks brandy.

  —It’s true, Edward said. Truth be told, I do very little there. Not like this guy who has to earn his keep.

  The comment had been jocular but it seemed it had been a rebuke to James. He probably worked for Edward and Edward was the kind of man who liked to put those beneath them in their place.

  —I beg your pardon, James said. Edward is one of our owners. Edward Strathern. The firm was founded by his grandfather.

  —Oh my, April said, pretending to be impressed. She couldn’t care less who owned Andersen Strathern. She’d never even heard of it.

  —And what is it you all do?

  Edward smiled at James. James took it upon himself to answer her but he adopted a tone like she was a child who was pressing her nose into matters that were not of her concern.

  —You do ask a lot of questions for something so pretty, James said.

  April smiled and remembered that she and Midge hadn’t been invited here to discuss business. They were here because their discretion could be guaranteed and because these rich and powerful clients got a kick out of knowing they could sleep with other men’s wives. She shuddered as she looked at James and Edward and realized they would be allowed to do whatever they wanted to her. The injustice of the situation welled up in her consciousness but only momentarily. She knew she couldn’t afford to have feelings like that on a night like this. Herb had her children under his control and she wasn’t even able to get them on the phone without his say so. She would just have to grin and bear whatever these men had in store for the evening.

  As usual, no one ordered any food and the waiters just brought out plate after plate of the most expensive delicacies they had as if everything had been arranged beforehand, which of course it had. April had a second glass of wine as she played with the small plate of glass eel that had been put in front of her. Never in a million years would she have ordered something that looked like that but apparently it was a delicacy that she should be enjoying.

  Midge, at the far end of the table, looked similarly unimpressed by the eel. She hoped there would be some beef or something later in the meal as she really was quite hungry. Next to Midge were the two older Andersen Strathern men, George and Jonathan. They looked like nice enough guys and Midge was having fun talking to them and flirting. Frank and Walter were down at that end of the table also, making sure the men were having a good time. April wished she could get up and join them but she was uncertain of what was allowed.

  A waiter came and removed their plates, April’s was untouched, and Herb raised his glass and made a toast to a successful business relationship between the two firms. The men all seemed relaxed and jovial but she knew that behind the scenes they were fighting desperately for Andersen Strathern’s business. She’d heard all the partners talking about it for weeks. Walter often stayed up late, actually doing work, something that had grown rare for him since becoming partner.

  She decided that she would do her best to help the firm impress these men and she tried again to start up a friendly conversation with Edward. Given that he was one of the owners of the firm, she decided it was his opinion that mattered most. He hadn’t wanted to discuss business with her so she would have to choose a less serious topic.

  —Do you live in DC? she said to him.

  Edward scoffed. —I wouldn’t live in this town if you paid me.

  James nodded. They were like rude schoolboys. They offered nothing and just waited for her to start the conversation but when she did they made fun of it.

  —I have a number of homes, April, but none of them are within five hundred miles of this place.

  April felt her heart beating a little faster. It was not going to be easy to make friends with this pair and she looked down the table longingly at Midge who seemed to be having such fun with the four men at her end. Herb and Pete were trying to enjoy themselves too, or at least appear as if they were, but April knew they were tense. They were far quieter than usual and kept looking at her to see if she was winning Edward over. They had a lot riding on her ability to charm this pig of a man and she had a lot riding on them being pleased with her performance.

  —That’s wonderful, she said, as cheerfully as possible. I can’t imagine what it would be like to live all over the world.

  —It’s something, Edward agreed.

  —Tell me some of the places you’ve lived.

  He seemed to be warming up to her a little now. This was exactly the mode of interaction that a man like him would enjoy with a woman. He wasn’t very masculine or attractive and the only thing he would ever have to impress girls was his wealth. She smiled and nodded attentively as Edward listed the places he had houses.

  —Monaco, Capri, Saint-Tropez, Paris, London, Los Angeles, Grand Cayman.

  The list went on and on. It seemed this rude and petulant man had over twenty homes in the most exclusive neighborhoods in the world.

  —I’d love to see those places.

  —Maybe one day, Edward said and gave her a leering smile.

  It made April’s blood crawl to have to flirt with him but she was resigned to doing what it took to help out the firm. It was the only way her own life would be bearable.

  —And you’re a lawyer? she said to James, trying to bring him back into the conversation.

  —I guess you could say that.

  —Like my husband.

  —I’m afraid so. There’s nothing so dull as a room full of lawyers, is there?

  —I find lawyers fascinating, April said.

  —Now you’re just charming me.

  —No really. The law is like the key to society. It underlies everything we do. From the moment we leave our homes in the morning, the law is there, underpinning our actions and relationships. If you understand the law, you can control everything. She looked up and saw James smiling at her. He was definitely enjoying this thread.

  —I had no idea women thought like that.

  He was a classic chauvinist. Why wouldn’t women think like that? It was the truth after all. Everything was controlled by the law. People spent their lives being controlled by rules and regulations they didn’t understand.

  —What kind of lawyer are you?

  Edward rolled his eyes.

  —Corporate finance, James said.

  He was enjoying the conversation too much. Edward had to step in and get the attention back on himself.

  —I hired him straight out of law school. He was one of the smartest guys in his class but he didn’t have any contacts. He comes from very modest beginnings.

  April wondered what modest beginnings meant for a man like Edward. She doubted he had in mind the motels and boarding houses she had grown up in.

  —Well it seems to be working out quite well for you, April said.

  Edward nodded. He loved being the center of attention and he loved being the one in power.

  —As long as he keeps up the good work, I’d say his position is fairly safe.

  She wondered how James could bear working for this man. Not that he wa
s much better himself. She could see why they got along. They both had an air of entitlement about them. Ordinarily she would have steered wide and clear of men like these.

  Herb caught her eye from where he was sitting, next to Edward.

  —April, Edward is being very modest. He’s actually the inventor of an entirely new method of futures trading. He’s figured out a way to make more money in a matter of minutes than most men can make in a lifetime.

  —Is that so? April said.

  —Let’s just say, Edward said, that every time you exchange a currency, a tiny percentage of that money goes to my firm.

  —Even if I’m changing at my bank?

  Edward nodded. He looked so pleased with himself. April couldn’t explain it but there was just something about him that gave her the creeps.

  —April’s Walter’s wife, Herb was saying to Edward. She’s been settling into the firm for the last few weeks. She’s just getting used to how we do things.

  April wondered what all of that meant but she might have guessed when she felt Edward’s cold hand on her knee under the table. Edward was definitely the type who enjoyed playing with other people’s things. As soon as he knew whose wife she was he wanted to touch her. She gasped in surprise. He couldn’t even wait till they were out of the restaurant to get started. Herb couldn’t even see what Edward’s hand was doing under the table but even if he could she doubted it would have made much of a difference. He was slowly sliding his cold hand from her knee up along her thigh and in between her legs.

  —And what sorts of things do you like doing? Edward said to her.

  His eye met hers and she could hardly bear to look at him with his cold hand placed where it was between her soft thighs. She thought frantically what to say. Her mind was blank. All she could concentrate on was the greasy hand pawing its way up her dress, closer and closer to her bear crotch.

  —Swimming, she managed to say.

  Edward leered at her lasciviously. She also saw him wink at James and she gasped again as she felt a second hand, this time James’s, on her left knee. For some reason, James’s hand was just as cold as Edward’s and it too was inching its way up along her thigh toward her bare pussy. She looked around the restaurant at all the tables of rich diners and hoped no one there would notice what was going on under their table.

  —I bet you like getting wet, Edward said.

  April looked at Herb but he offered her no help. He just smiled back at her like everything was ok although by now it must have been clear to him that the men’s hands were becoming quite active beneath the tablecloth. She couldn’t believe it when Pete chimed in, offering his first contribution to the conversation.

  —I can tell you gentlemen, April likes nothing better than to get nice and wet. I’ve personally experienced it.

  She blushed brightly at the bold words from Pete. She barely knew Pete at all, she’d had the least contact with him of all the partners and now that she’d heard how he spoke of her she was glad of it. The two cold hands under the table were just a couple of inches from the lips of her pussy now and it seemed the men couldn’t reach any farther. Edward and James were both leaning forward slightly in their seats, trying to reach as far as they could and their hands were right up inside her dress, between her thighs. Her thighs were clenched tightly together but there was no way she could stop their fingers from climbing up toward their goal. The only thing that saved her was the fact that the two men couldn’t reach any farther without making it completely obvious what they were up to.

  —I bet she likes nothing more than getting a nice, wet cock in her slippery little cunt, James said.

  April couldn’t believe it. She looked at Herb but he refused to meet her eyes. There was no way he would be stepping in to interfere with this. The whole thing had been his arranging after all. This was exactly what he’d wanted to happen. He might be a little uncomfortable with it now but not much. If anything, Herb was a bit of a coward it seemed. He was two-faced. He pretended to be a nice gentleman who had everyone’s best interests at heart, he liked to talk about everyone in the firm being part of a family, but when it came down to it the only thing that really mattered to him was getting this business deal agreed. The creeps who had the power to make the decision could do as they liked with his so-called family.

  She looked down at Midge’s end of the table and again wished she could be sitting down there, even with Walter.

  The waiter arrived with their main course. It was a delicious looking marbled steak but April had completely lost her appetite. Edward and James sat up slightly as he walked around the table but didn’t take their hands from her thighs. April felt extremely uncomfortable in her position. She was supposed to be looking glamorous and beautiful in this fabulous restaurant but she didn’t know how she could even pretend that with two men’s hands between her legs. It was a terrible situation and she was ashamed to be in it.

  April watched Edward whisper something in Herb’s ear and she wondered what he’d said. She didn’t have to wonder for long. Herb got up from his chair and came around and pushed April’s chair in closer to the table. She was surprised at what he was doing till she felt the two men’s fingers reach the lips of her vagina and then she realized. She’d had her seat out but now she was pressed tight to the table and they could reach her vagina much more easily.

  She couldn’t tell whose fingers were doing what but they’d definitely gone in past the lips deep into her cunt. It was the most humiliating feeling April had ever had. She’d been through some pretty crazy situations in the past few weeks, she’d even been forced to eat out all the other wives, but for some reason this felt a hundred times worse. It was because of the looks on James and Edward’s faces. There was something about these guys that she didn’t like and that made everything they did harder to bear. She looked down at the eight men sitting at the table and all of them but James and Edward were digging into their steaks. Even Midge was enjoying the food. But she couldn’t touch hers, not while the two men fingered her right under the table. She knew Herb and Pete were fully aware of it and it made her feel so helpless and powerless to have to sit there while they had their way with her pussy right there in public.

  —Aren’t you going to eat? Edward said, and the meanness of his sneer instantly brought her back to her childhood.

  She’d certainly seen her share of meanness in her life, her mother had been with some of the vilest men you could possibly find, and there was something now about the look on Edward’s face that brought her back to those dark times, to the scary places she’d been as a child and the horrible men she’d had to confront. Edward definitely seemed to think he was more important than everyone else. He was arrogant and egotistical and there was simply nothing that April could find redeeming about him at all. But there was something deeper about him that disturbed her even more profoundly. There was a selfishness in the way he spoke and the way he interacted with other people that told her that he cared only about himself. She shuddered at the thought of being alone with him and hoped that whatever happened, Frank or Midge or Herb, or even Walter, would at least be there to defend her.

  Edward was still looking at her, expecting an answer to his question. Of course his hand, as well as James’s, were still fondling the folds of skin around her vagina and she felt extremely uncomfortable. Herb and Pete had now joined the conversation at Midge’s end of the table, leaving her completely alone with the two creeps who were fingering her. She cleared her throat and picked up her knife and fork and cut a piece off her steak. When she put it in her mouth both Edward and James drove their fingers into her vulnerable vagina. It was a struggle to swallow the food.

  —I knew you’d like it, Edward said.

  —Like what? she said, instantly regretting the question.

  —Meat, he said with the same cruel, heartless sneer.

  This was a disaster. She longed to be anywhere but here. She had a sinking feeling that she was going to end up alone with these two lat
er on that night.

  —Have some more, James said.

  Obediently she cut off another piece of steak and put it in her mouth and chewed. As Edward and James’s greasy little fingers played with her pussy, the only thing that helped her was the thought that she was chewing up their cocks.

  VIII

  DINNER SEEMED TO LAST FOREVER and it came as a relief to April when the waiter finally came to take away their plates. Edward and James had eventually stopped fingering her long enough to eat their own steaks but no one had spoken to her or helped her to feel that she wasn’t alone with the two of them. Walter hadn’t even looked at her end of the table. He’d been talking to George and Jonathan through the entire meal, trying to impress them with the firm’s credentials, or else laughing at Midge’s jokes. Midge seemed to be having a great time, sitting next to George and Jonathan who seemed so much more friendly and human than Edward and James.

  After dinner a selection of desserts was brought out, all of them beautifully presented on a silver tray. If it weren’t for the company, April would have quite enjoyed the meal. The Saint Regis was truly fabulous. The waiter came back and took liqueur orders. She’d had enough wine so she ordered espresso, which arrived in a charming little silver pot.

  When the waiter left, Edward dropped his fork on the ground. April saw him do it and it was obviously deliberate. He pushed it under the table with his foot and then looked at April questioningly. She knew what he wanted her to do.

  —Would you get that for me, dear? he said.

  April looked at him ruefully. She felt like she was being bossed around by an ill-behaved child. There was no point even looking down the table for any help. No one would interfere with Edward getting what he wanted. She looked around for a waiter but for once, none was near their table. She gave a resigned sigh and got off her seat. She flattened her dress and tried to look as dignified as possible as she got down on the ground. Edward had pushed the fork under the table and since the tablecloth went all the way to the ground she had to lift it to look underneath. As soon as she did she felt Edward’s strong leg behind her, shoving her under the table. She understood now that he was trying to get her under the table and she had no option but to obey. He was pushing her so forcefully that she didn’t have time to do anything other than crawl under and she was relieved when she got in there and he’d put the tablecloth back in its place, hiding her.