"What would happen once they are here?"
He shrugged. "Whatever you are comfortable with. I would suggest we stick with heavy petting or oral as an expectation. If you want to take it farther than that, you can take it as far as you want. I would expect, given how sexual you are, that you would get into the experience once it begins. I would also suggest we set a time limit for your first time, like fifteen minutes. After fifteen minutes, I would get us alone and ask you if you want to stop. The goal is to make sure you are comfortable the entire experience, that nothing occurs that you don't want to. You would be in control until you are ready to turn that over to me."
I had tilted my head to the side, listening to his words and trying to envision the meeting. It sounded… fine. Not anything I couldn't handle. I looked up, into his expectant eyes and nodded. "Okay. I can handle that."
We cleared the table and did the few dishes in comfortable silence. Apparently Martha had trained Brad well, he seemed diligent about following her rules, a fact I found funny since he seemed to break every other rule. As I dried a glass, a sudden thought popped in my head and I started to laugh.
"What?"
"What was up with that elevator? The alarm, lights, sprinklers?"
"Sorry - I had a hand in the building design and specs. I pretty much used the philosophy “Go big or go home” with most of the building’s options."
"You knew that would happen?!"
"No!" He started laughing. "I didn't read the damn manual - I just told them to get every option available. In retrospect, it might have been a slight waste of corporate dollars."
"Well, at least I know never to pull a fire alarm in the building."
He grinned and handed me a bowl to dry.
---
At 10pm, Brad walked me to my car. The moon was out, and frogs everywhere were croaking. Other than that the road was silent, lights off in the surrounding homes. He invited me to stay the night, but I declined. I needed my own bed and some alone time to think.
We stood by my car, his hands in his pockets. I still had his gym shorts and enormous T-shirt on, my dress clothes were in a plastic bag hanging from my hand. I started to unlock the door and stopped, turning to him.
"What happened with Broward's wife?" I need to know.
He sighed heavily. "I don't have any big fancy excuse. There is absolutely no justification for what happened. We were on a corporate retreat, in Aspen. I was down at the bar, drinking, and Claire showed up. They had had a fight about something, and she was pissed, downing drinks faster than me. As time passed, she got less pissed at Kent, and more friendly to me. I should have said no, or called Kent, or done anything other than what I did."
"Had sex."
"Yeah. Had sex. We went to my room. It was over fast, I didn't even finish. We both knew it was a mistake and stopped. She went back to her room, immediately told Kent."
"I didn't know you guys had corporate retreats."
He laughed wryly. "We don't anymore."
"What happened after that?"
"The next morning, Broward had a meeting with Clarke. Told him what happened, said he wanted me gone. Clarke disagreed, told Broward if he wanted me gone, he'd have to buy me out himself. Broward didn't have the capital."
"So you stayed."
He nodded, his face grim. "So I stayed. I know Broward hates me, and I don't blame him for that, but the firm is my home too. I'm not leaving unless I'm pushed out, and I won’t leave without a fight.”
“Shocker. And you seem so docile.”
"Hey, go easy on me. It's been a long day." He moved close to me, pining me against the car and grabbing my waist with his hands. He bent down and gave me a long, deep kiss, squeezing my waist. I threw my hands around his neck, kissing back and tugging on his coarse hair gently.
"It has been a long day, Mr. De Luca." I pushed him off of me gently and opened my car door, getting in. He backed away and watched me, waiting until I backed out before he turned and headed in the house.
God, I was a glutton for punishment.
CHAPTER 32
I knew the girls would judge my decision harshly, so I invited Alex, my roommate, to a late fast food run. Alex grew up the son of hippies, and his parents took the concept of free love to heart. Alex often wanders naked through the house, and I have seen him date men and women, from young to old.. I knew I could freely discuss just about anything short of bestiality with Alex and wouldn't be judged. I called him on my way home. At the first mention of a free Whopper combo, Alex was game, and he was standing outside by the time I pulled up.
"Nice outfit, Jules." he said, crawling in my passenger seat. Alex is a six foot tall blond, who would probably be attractive if it weren't for the shoulder length dreads piled high on his head.
"Thanks," I said, not bothering to explain the attire. I pulled out of our driveway and headed for BK. We rode in companionable silence as I tried to organize my thoughts.
"How's your new job?" Alex asked, scrolling through my radio stations.
"It's good. Complicated. How's Julian?" Julian was Alex's current hook-up partner, a tattooed pothead who didn't believe in bathing regularly or shaving.
"She's good. I don't know how long we're gonna last. She's starting to get all bitchy on me, nagging me about stuff." I tried to look interested, but I was shocked they had lasted as long as they had.
"How's your love life? Luke still being all stalker on your ass?"
"I haven't heard from him in a while. I changed my cell and he still hasn't found out where I live, so I think I'm in the clear."
"Who you dating now? You went to Vegas with some guy, right?"
"Yeah. I wanted to get your advice on that actually. The guy I'm kinda seeing… he's into like, threesomes and stuff."
"And your not."
"I don't know. He's asking me to try it and I told him I would. One time." The words were out of my mouth and I cringed, wishing I could take them back.
"Good." Alex nodded. "Good for you, Jules."
"Really?" I risked a glance at him, while putting my turn signal on and preparing to turn into Burger King. He was tapping his knee with a finger and looking out the window, his face unreadable.
"Shit yeah. Why wouldn't you? You want to have plain old boring sex the rest of your life? Everything gets old after a while Jules, everything. You need to try stuff like this now while you’re young and unattached. Try everything, just to see what you like. You've got the rest of your life to be a married, boring, stay-at-home mom."