Behind Closed Doors

by Anna Stone

  Emma did as she was told, placing her phone on the pillow next to her head. She closed her eyes.

  “Are you ready?” Lillian asked.

  “Yes,” Emma replied.

  “Tell me, what can you feel right now?”

  Emma thought for a moment. “The bed. The sheets. The air.”

  “What can you smell?”

  Emma breathed in deep. “My hair. It’s wet, and it smells like my conditioner. Like flowers.”

  “And what can you hear?”

  “The cars going past on the street. My neighbor's TV.” Emma let all the noise fade into the background. “And you. Your voice.”

  “Good. Now, where were we?” Lillian asked. “I want you to keep doing what you were doing. But this time, imagine that it’s me touching you.”

  Once again, Emma closed her eyes. She pictured Lillian in bed with her, on top of her, tracing her fingers all over Emma’s bare skin. Her hands strayed back to her chest.

  “You have no idea how badly I’ve wanted to touch you like you are now,” Lillian said into her ear. “To feel every inch of your skin. To make you tremble under my fingertips.”

  “Yes,” Emma whispered. She wanted to touch Lillian too. So far, their hurried encounters hadn’t allowed for that. She wanted to see Lillian’s naked form, to touch her bare skin, to taste her. All of her.

  “I want you to open your legs and touch yourself over your panties. Softly.”

  The explicitness of Lillian’s instructions only added to the illicit thrill. Emma slipped her hands between her thighs, pressing the damp fabric into her lips.

  “Just like that,” Lillian said, her voice soft and low. “Imagine that those hands are mine.”

  Emma recalled that day in the bathroom, recalled how Lillian’s hands had felt, how her body had felt, how Lillian had felt inside her. Emma’s nipples tightened under her fingertips. She wondered what Lillian was doing on her end of the phone. The images that filled Emma’s mind only spurred her on.

  Lillian spoke again. “Take off your panties.”

  Emma ripped them off.

  “But don’t touch yourself down there.”

  Emma groaned. “I want you so much right now.”

  “I know,” Lillian said. “Don’t stop.”

  Emma continued, a desperate longing whispering through her. She felt compelled to obey, enthralled by Lillian’s words. Lillian continued to guide Emma, her voice reverberating through Emma’s whole body. When Lillian was silent, Emma could hear her faint breaths. A low moan spilled from Emma’s lips.

  “It’s time for you to open the box,” Lillian finally said.

  Emma reached across to the nightstand and grabbed the box. She removed the lid. Inside was a small, pink, silicone vibrator. It was shaped like a stretched-out egg that tapered into a long, curved tail, with tiny buttons at the end.

  “Is this what I think it is?” Emma asked.

  “It is,” Lillian replied. “Go on. You know what to do with it.”

  Emma lay back down and slipped the egg end of the vibe inside her. The tiny tail curved up toward her belly button.

  “Don’t press any of the buttons. Remember, I’m in control tonight.” Lillian said. “Now, you were playing with those lovely nipples of yours, weren’t you?”

  Emma’s cheeks grew hot, but this time it wasn’t out of self-consciousness. She obeyed Lillian’s command, waiting for Lillian to give her permission to turn on the vibrator.

  “Are you all warmed up?”

  “Yes,” Emma said.

  The other end of the line fell dead silent.

  “Lillian?”

  Suddenly, Emma felt the vibe start up inside her. She jerked on the bed as the vibrations ripped through her.

  “Was that you?” Emma hadn’t touched anything.

  “It was.” As if to prove it, Lillian changed the setting on the vibrator, making it shoot out short, sharp pulses.

  Emma gasped, her eyes rolling into the back of her head. The vibrations were so powerful for something so tiny. They felt incredible.

  “Don’t hold back,” Lillian said in her ear. “I want to hear you. I want to hear everything.”

  Emma shut her eyes and nodded, forgetting that Lillian couldn’t see her. Her hands gripped the sheets beneath her, the concentrated vibrations making her squirm with delight. Emma moaned with every pulse that Lillian sent her way. She wasn’t usually this vocal, but the knowledge that Lillian was listening made sounds flow freely from her. As the vibrations deepened, Emma could feel her wetness soaking into the sheet beneath her.

  “You can touch your clit if you’d like,” Lillian said.

  Without hesitation, Emma slid a hand down to her slit and strummed at her hard nub, her other hand up at her breasts. She let out a whimper as her pleasure mounted.

  “Are you close?” Lillian asked in her ear.

  “So close,” Emma said between breaths.

  Lillian turned up the vibe for a final time. Immediately, Emma was hit with an orgasm that seemed to rock the entire room around her. She cried out as she convulsed on the bed, her feet curling and her toes digging into the mattress beneath her.

  Lillian didn’t stop the vibrator until Emma fell silent. Emma lay back on the bed and pulled it out. Moments passed with only the sounds of Lillian’s breaths filling the air. Emma wondered if Lillian had been doing the same thing she had been doing.

  “Did you like that?” Lillian finally asked.

  “Mm-hmm,” Emma said. “I feel like I could pass out any second.”

  “I don’t want to keep you up.”

  “Wait. Stay. Talk to me for a few more minutes.”

  “Okay,” Lillian said. “What do you want to talk about?”

  “Anything,” Emma replied. She searched her mind and spoke the first question that came to it. “Tell me about the first girl you kissed.”

  Lillian chucked softly. “You really want to hear about that? And now?”

  “I do. I’m curious.”

  “Well, the very first wasn’t very exciting. It was with my best friend, in middle school. Neither of us had kissed anyone before, so we decided to try it. It was… sloppy. My friend decided that she never wanted to kiss anyone again. I agreed, until I started high school.”

  “What happened then?” Emma murmured.

  “Sophie Adams happened. She was straight as hell, of course. But that didn’t stop me from kissing her. We had a sleepover, and she stole tequila from her older sister, and one thing led to another. Like my friend from middle school, Sophie decided that kissing girls wasn’t for her. Of course, I felt differently by then.” Lillian paused. “Are you still there?”

  Emma muttered something unintelligible and burrowed deeper into the covers.

  “Goodnight, Emma,” Lillian’s voice said next to her. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

  16

  Lillian

  “Emma,” Lillian said, barely glancing at her assistant as she passed Emma’s desk. “Come with me.”

  Emma got up and followed Lillian to her office. Lillian had arrived at work late after a morning meeting with a client. She had plenty to catch up on. But after last night, Lillian desperately wanted to pin Emma to the wall with her hips and kiss her till they both were breathless. It didn’t help that Emma was wearing that sexy red dress again.

  They entered Lillian’s office. Lillian shut the door behind them and walked over to her desk. She pointed to the chair in front of her. “Sit.”

  Emma sat down and looked up at Lillian, a mischievous smile on her face.

  “That dress you’re wearing,” Lillian said. “It’s a problem.”

  “Oh? What’s the problem with it?” Emma asked.

  Lillian leaned in close to speak into Emma’s ear. “The problem is that every time you wear that dress, it makes me want to tear it off you.”

  Lillian drew her hand down Emma’s cheek. Emma exhaled softly. Lillian pressed her lips to Emma’s in a firm, possessive kiss. />
  “Did you enjoy last night?” Lillian asked

  Emma nodded. “I did. I wish you were really there though.”

  “Believe me, so do I,” Lillian said. “I have a few ideas about how we can make that happen.”

  “Really? Like what?”

  “That would ruin the surprise.” She silenced Emma’s protests with a finger on her lips. “For now, it’s back to work. I need a moment to myself to get organized.”

  “Okay.” Emma kissed Lillian again.

  “Go,” Lillian said. “If you’re good, I’ll call you again tonight.”

  Emma smiled. “All right.” She got up and left the room.

  Lillian sat down behind her desk and settled in. A tall stack of files on the class-action suit sat on her desk. She picked one up from the top and flicked through it. The case was still in its early stages, so Lillian had her team collecting evidence and performing investigations, but she had to review it all herself. She didn’t mind. The case was more interesting and complex than she originally thought. And it was nice to know that the work she was doing wasn’t simply going to result in some rich asshole getting even richer.

  A short time later, Stuart from IT came by with the helpful update that although they were still looking at her laptop, there were no signs of a larger security breach in their system. He said it was likely that Lillian had probably just picked up the virus randomly. Lillian didn’t find that comforting. It didn’t eliminate the possibility that someone had intentionally hacked into her computer.

  Lillian pushed the thought aside and got back to work. The rest of the morning was a blur of paperwork and phone calls. Before Lillian knew it, it was 3 p.m. She had missed lunch. And she had skipped breakfast that morning, so she was running on nothing but coffee. She hadn’t even noticed that she was hungry. No wonder Emma was on her case about looking after herself better.

  As Lillian got up from her desk to go find something to eat, Emma burst into her office. Her face was ashen, and she was clutching her phone.

  “Emma?” Lillian rushed over to her. “What’s the matter?”

  “It’s my mom.” Emma’s voice quavered. “She’s in the hospital. She was in a car accident. I have to go see her.”

  “Oh, Emma. I’m sorry. Is it serious?”

  “I don’t think so,” Emma said. “They said she was fine. She was rear-ended and injured her leg, so she has to have surgery. But…” Emma swallowed. “When they called me, I thought it was something worse. I thought she was sick again.”

  “Come here.” Lillian held out her arms and pulled Emma in close. She could feel Emma’s heart racing against her chest. Lillian wondered what Emma meant about her mom being sick again, but it wasn’t important right now.

  Lillian didn’t know how long she held Emma for. But when Emma pulled away, she looked a lot steadier.

  “I should go,” Emma said.

  Lillian reached for her hands. “Are you going to be all right?”

  Emma nodded.

  “Are you sure? Can you drive?”

  “I’ll be okay,” Emma said

  “Let me know when you get there. And call me if there’s anything I can do.”

  “I will.” Emma slipped her hands out of Lillian’s.

  Lillian watched Emma leave the room. Seeing Emma like this made her chest ache. She seemed so unlike herself. Whether Emma was happy, or sad, or angry, she always wore her emotions on her sleeve. But just then, in Lillian’s arms, she’d been so flat and detached. It worried Lillian. At that moment she wished for nothing more than to take all of Emma’s pain away.

  Late in the afternoon, Thomas strutted into Lillian’s office without even bothering to knock.

  “Thomas.” Lillian suppressed the irritation boiling inside her. So far, she’d kept her promise to Avery to be civil with him, but she was running out of patience. “What can I do for you?”

  Thomas didn’t answer. Instead, he strolled over to the couch, sat down, and put his feet up on the coffee table. He was wearing a smug grin that Lillian wanted to wipe right off his face.

  “I’m not in the mood for your shit, Thomas. Get your feet off my table and tell me what the hell you want.”

  “Jesus, relax.” He removed his feet from the table.

  Lillian waited. “Well?”

  “I know about you and Emma, Lillian.”

  Lillian’s heart stopped. Had they slipped up somewhere? She could worry about that later. Right now, she would have to talk her way out of this. Fortunately, her poker face was impenetrable. “What are you talking about, Thomas?”

  “You know what I’m talking about,” he said.

  “No, I don’t.”

  “I saw you two in your office this afternoon. Together. You left the door open.”

  Shit. Emma must have forgotten to close it in her distressed state. It had been careless of Lillian not to notice. “Been lurking outside my office, have you, Thomas?” Was Thomas behind all the unusual things that had been happening to her? She wouldn’t put it past him.

  “I happened to be walking past. And I saw the two of you. Embracing.”

  “Embracing? Do you have any idea how ridiculous you sound?”

  “Are you denying it?” Thomas asked.

  “I’m not denying it. Emma had just gotten some upsetting news about a family member. She left early because of it. I was consoling her.”

  “Consoling her? We both know that you don’t give a damn about anyone’s feelings.” Thomas sneered. “You know, it all makes sense. You two always seemed a little too cozy. The way she’s always in your office. And always calling you ‘Lillian.’”

  “Your point?”

  “You never let your subordinates call you by your first name.”

  “Are you serious? Allowing my assistant to call me Lillian is evidence that we have some sort of”—Lillian paused for effect—“illicit relationship?”

  “It sure looks like it to me.”

  “You’re grasping at straws, Thomas. You of all people should know better than to accuse someone like this based on a hunch.”

  “This isn’t a courtroom. You can’t get away on a technicality. And it’s not a hunch. I know what I saw.”

  “I don’t care what you think you saw. You come into my office, you accuse me of having an inappropriate relationship with my assistant, and for what? Are you really so petty that you’d try to get me fired for being nice to Emma?”

  “You don’t get to flout the rules under everyone’s noses and get away with it.” Thomas crossed his arms. “You know what? This entire conversation, you haven’t denied that the two of you are involved.”

  Lillian knew she hadn’t. She’d hoped he wouldn’t notice.

  “Tell me straight, Lillian,” Thomas said. “Are you in a relationship with Emma?”

  “No. I’m not in a relationship with Emma.” The lie left a bad taste in Lillian’s mouth.

  Thomas scowled. “I know that you’re lying.”

  “What are you going to do?” Lillian asked. “Tell Avery this little story you’ve concocted?”

  Thomas shrugged. “Maybe.”

  “Do you really think he’ll believe you?” Lillian didn’t doubt that Avery would believe Lillian over Thomas. But the last thing she needed was to have to lie to him too. Or come clean and deal with the fallout.

  “It doesn’t matter. Eventually, you’re going to slip up. And I’ll be watching.”

  Lillian scoffed. “You’re delusional.”

  “You know I’m right, Lillian.”

  “Get the hell out of my office, Thomas.”

  “Gladly.” Thomas stood up. “You can’t hide forever.”

  Lillian watched Thomas leave, staring daggers into his back. As he soon as he shut the door, she leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. This wasn’t good.

  Almost immediately, her phone buzzed. It was a message from Emma. She had made it to the hospital. Her mom was okay. Lillian shot back a quick text. She would have to talk to
Emma about all of this, but it could wait until everything with her mom settled down.

  When Emma came back, the two of them would have to be a lot more careful.

  17

  Emma

  Emma shut the door to the master bedroom. Her mom had just been released from the hospital. She had some cuts and bruises, and her leg was in a cast, but otherwise, she was fine.

  Emma headed down the creaky stairs. The usually chaotic house was eerily silent. The kids were at the neighbors. Emma had just called to tell them they could come home, with the caveat that they leave their mom alone to rest.

  She sighed. She had been through this with her mom so many times in the past that she was struck by the same sense of hopelessness she used to feel back then. Emma had felt it the day before when the nurse had called her at work. He had opened with the words, Your mom is in hospital, before stating that it was because of a car accident. Her panic still hadn’t quite subsided.

  Before Emma knew it, she was dialing Lillian’s number.

  Lillian picked up. “Emma? Is everything okay? How’s your mom?”

  “Everything’s fine. Mom’s fine. We’re back home now. She has to have another surgery in a few weeks, but she’ll be okay.”

  “I’m glad she’s all right. How are you?” Lillian asked.

  “I’m okay, I think,” Emma said. “It was hard seeing her like this. Seeing her in the hospital again.”

  “Emma. You know you can talk to me if you want to.”

  Emma sat down at the bottom of the stairs. “It’s my mom. She’s the real reason it was so hard for me to leave home all this time. I was worried that she wouldn’t be able to cope. I don’t mean because of the kids.” Blue padded up to Emma and stuck his head on her lap. She stroked his fur absently. “When my dad passed, my mom got seriously depressed. Everyone said she was just grieving, and it was normal, and it would get better. But it kept getting worse and worse. After a while, it got so bad that I had to beg her to get help. When she finally did, she was in and out of the hospital for two whole years. And even when she was home she wasn’t well. The medications had terrible side effects, and her depression was still there, just muted. She wasn’t very functional, so I had to look after her on top of the kids. I had help. Relatives, neighbors, family friends. But at the end of the day, it was left to me to hold the family together while making sure that my mom didn’t spiral into a dark place again.”