Chapter 3

I walked back into my office a few minutes later, laptop in hand. Luci was sitting on my couch, legs tucked up under her looking very vulnerable. She started to open her mouth, but I held up my hand, similar to what she had done last night. At least I got a small smile out of her.

"I have to do my job and Paul's at the moment. Can it wait?" I added a silent please. I do not know if she was still angry with me, but I really did have to get the database up and running.

I was surprised when I got a smile and a nod of her head and a slight, very unladylike snort. She had been crying.

"Tissue?"

"Please." Her voice sounded raw. I passed her the box from my bookshelf and walked to my seat, putting the laptop on the corner of my desk. I do not think her eyes left me until I sat down. As I was settling into my desk and reaching for the phone, she took the opportunity to blow her nose and dab her eyes. I kept my finger on the hook release and then put the handset back in place, looking at Luci.

"Better? Ready to be seen in public?" I was smiling at her when I said it.

"No, but I don't have a choice do I?"

I wished I knew what was going on, but I had a list of things to do and really had to get moving before the day got much further along. As it was, my phone seemed to have a life of its own.

"This is Gary," I was in no mood to talk to accounting.

"Hi, Gary. Janice gave me an update, but I wanted to see if Paul had managed to get the database sorted out."

"Sorry Bob, Paul isn't in today and it fell on my desk, which is currently knee deep in alligators." Luci giggled from the couch and made rowing motions. I nodded my head.

"Any estimates?" I was guessing that his staff had not done a lot of work today and he was feeling the heat. I know how he felt.

"Well, I know what the problem is and in theory I know how to fix it. Now all I need is the time to do it."

"Which I am cutting into. I understand. Let me know if we can help." I hung up and put my head on my desk. I had aspirin in the office somewhere, but I could not remember where. I heard Luci move and then I felt her fingers on the back of my head. She was still on the far side of my desk, but it felt good. I was content to let her rub my head for a few minutes before my brain kicked back into gear and the task at hand came back to the forefront. I caught her hands in mine and raised my head up to look into her eyes. I kissed the palm of each of her hands.

"I don't know what I did that has you so angry at me," I said, never letting go, never breaking eye contact, "but I will try and make it right, I promise. However, right now I have to get accounting taken care of."

She pulled her hands out of mine and came around my desk and perched on the edge of it in front of me and took my head between her hands and kissed me. It was not passionate, but there was plenty of heat. It was a quick kiss and she looked right at me afterwards.

"You don't have anything to make right for." She leaned in and kissed me quickly again. "I am the one who should apologize." She kissed me again and let me go. I did not know what to say, so I said nothing and reached for the phone and punched in Eric's number.

"Eric? Gary. Saunter down this way when you get a moment will you, I have a project for you." I hung up the phone and captured Luci's hand and kissed it quickly before turning to the keyboard. Luci ran her fingers through my hair once and made her way back to the couch. She had just sat down with some sort of manual in her hand when Eric appeared at the door.

"Looking for me?" he asked, eyeing Luci, who was doing her best to ignore him.

"Yes. This one comes from the top." I picked up the laptop and explained what I wanted him to do and saw him on his way out. I then reached over to my book shelf where I keep a couple of signs, one of which says "Mad Genius at Work. Explosions Possible." and taped it to the outside of my door before closing it. I was certain that Eric's tongue would start wagging, but I really needed to get the database fixed.

I don't remember much of the afternoon. At some point I took my tie off and loosened my collar and that was about it. I was one with the system and if you asked me what I did, I honestly could not tell you. I seem to remember Luci slipped in and out a couple of times but I noticed it with the sort of consciousness that you notice the wind blow which is not at all. It was not until the phone rang that I really surfaced.

"Gary," I was still processing data in my head.

"When are you coming home, dear?"

"Oh, hello. Umm, I don't know. I have had my head in the array all afternoon. What time is it?" I was trying to find the clock of which there had to be a half-dozen in my office.

"A little after 5." Five!

"Don't hold dinner. I still have a fair amount of work to do yet. The accounting system died and Paul isn't here. And based on what I have been seeing, the system was going to tip over soon anyway. Sorry."

"That's OK. Don't be too late. I love you."

"I love you, too. Bye." I hung up the phone and rubbed my eyes at which point I noticed Luci was looking at me.

"Hi. Sorry, no fun on this side of the office today." I tried to smile as I did it.

"Actually, it has been interesting watching you work. Jerry wants to see you when you surface."

"Thanks." I picked up my phone and dialed his extension. "You want to see me, skipper? OK, be right over." I hung up the phone and tried to stand up only to find my legs were not working right. It took two attempts to stand up and I managed to haul myself to the door. "I will be back in a few minutes," I said to Luci as I let myself out.

"You look like hell," Jerry said when I stuck my head in his office. Not how are we coming or where do we stand, but you look like hell. And it was only 5:30 in the evening. An evening that was likely to roll into tomorrow morning at the rate I was going.

"Thanks. You are buying the pizza."

"Sure, just submit the receipt. How are we making out?"

"I am maybe a quarter of the way there. Paul really let things slide. I guess things were worse at home than we knew because there are real issues with the database. I am going to take over a PC and start the diagnostics on the array while I work on the script to put everything back together in case there are hardware issues we missed."

"Do what you need to and keep a record of what you are doing. We will need the documentation. Missy found us someone if we get stuck, but we cannot get them until Monday..."

"... at which point the accounting department will have been down for almost a week and there will be people sitting on my desk until it gets fixed." I finished for him.

"I wish we had other options."

"So do I, but we don't, so we soldier on. Maybe this is the excuse we need to get a junior in or trained."

"Already working on it as well as that other issue we discussed." Other issue? Oh, women's clothes. I was almost sorry I brought it up. Almost. The image of Luci in my office wearing nothing but her lingerie distracted me for a moment, but I knew it was for a good cause that I had made the request. "By the way, what happened to the laptop?"

"Oh, Eric has his hands on it. I honestly don't know how far he has gotten."

"Update me when you find out." He made a waving motion with his hand. "Get back to work. Your wife would like to see you tonight I am sure and Luci probably wants to go home as well."

"Probably," I responded, hoping just the opposite. "Actually, she seems fascinated by me hunched over a keyboard. Go figure. See you in the morning." I turned to go by the kitchen to get some more water and the bathroom before returning to my computer.

Luci was still sitting on the couch, her legs tucked up under her, apparently reading the configuration manual from yesterday.

"You should go home," I said sliding into my desk and resuming my tap, tap taping. I set up an alert to go off at 7 so I could order dinner and start the diagnostics.

"I already called home. Tonight is drawing class and I usually spend the evening in the bathtub before ravaging my husband when he gets home." Oh. Really. That was almost too much information. If I had not chanced to look up at that moment and seen the gleam in her eye, I would have missed the point of the statement. It was the part about spending the evening in the bathtub. I tried to keep my mind focused, but my body betrayed me and my erection began swelling.

"Wench," I muttered and turned back to my script.

"Sorry? I didn't quite catch that?" she was grinning, I could hear it. I had also left the door open.

"I called you a wench."

"You think I am a big busted serving girl?" She cupped one breast and lifted it slightly, running her tongue over her lips at the same time.

"Perhaps brat is a better term?" I was trying not to picture her in a tight-bodice dress.

"Oh, you think I am a pouty little girl, do you?" She affected her best pout. She was not helping my condition and I think she knew it.

Unfortunately I had run out of terms.

"What's the matter big man? Pussy got you tongue-tied?" I would have to remember that little turn of phrase.

"Yes darling, your pussy has got me tongue-tied." If you cannot beat them, join them.

"Not yet it hasn't," she responded with a very sultry voice and returned to the document in her lap. That was my cue to go back to work. Of course, it took a couple of minutes to get the image of her in a bathtub out of my head and make room for the arcane language I was trying to write in.

I lost myself to the project before my PC beeped at me. It was 7 and time for dinner. I had been at work close to 12 hours and had subsisted on water and a half a cup of coffee. No wonder my stomach was grumbling.

"Luci, what do you want on your pizza?"

"Hmm? Oh, whatever you are having is fine. Just no anchovies."

"Not to worry there." I dialed the number from memory and placed the order and then went next door to take over Paul's PC. It made the most sense. He had the array management software already installed and I fired it up and told it to go and find out how things were running. Housekeeping had been and gone and a quick walk around the department showed us to be the only ones there.

I walked back into my office and raided my pizza money jar. I kept loose change and bills in my desk for pizza and other munchies and for times when I had not made it to the ATM. Today was one of those days; I had been planning on going at lunch time.

"Pizza's here. Back in a minute. We might as well eat in the library - it will save clearing a space in here. What do you want to drink?"

She gave me a look that said "You" and licked her lips again before saying, "anything diet is fine."

Somehow I managed to make it downstairs and get the sodas, pick up the pizza and get back on the elevator without my erection subsiding one little bit. I was just walking back into our spaces when I finally returned to normal. We have a small conference room that was lined with bookshelves, and thus books. We called it the library and it served many function in the department. Tonight, it was a dining room. Luci padded in on stocking feet and dropped down in a chair as I fished some plates off a top shelf. She set about opening the sodas while I served up the pizza.

"Dinner is served madam," I said with a flourish.

"Oh, so now you think I am a senior prostitute?" I could tell I was not going to win so I just started eating. Luci joined me and her foot snaked up and down my calf.

"No charlie horse tonight," she said pulling her chair into a position across from mine at the foot of the table and ran her foot up my calf and across my thigh all the way to my waist before doing the same thing with the other foot. She was sitting on the edge of her chair, rubbing my flanks with her stocking feet while eating pizza. It was very erotic. I took a bite of my pizza, put the slice down and wiped my hands before I captured her left foot with my right hand.

"Hey, no fair," she started and then sighed out loud as I started rubbing her foot. She slumped back in the chair, her leg bent at the knee and her foot almost pushing into my crotch as I rubbed her foot and toes.

"Where did you learn that?" she asked breathlessly.

"Just something I picked up," I responded. I massaged her foot for a couple of minutes before I reached for the other one and gave it the same treatment. With her left foot free of my hands, she pushed the heel gently between my thighs, her toes moving back and forth over my erection while I was massaging her right foot. I do not know who was having more fun. I stopped to take another bite of dinner and she slid both feet together and twisted her toes so that they were on either side of my cock and my legs were slightly spread. She had a very content look on her face as she played with me.

"You know, I often lie in the warm water and think about your hands rubbing soap over my breasts," her hands started to slide over her breasts as she talked. "You have no idea how hard my nipples get, how wet and slippery my pussy becomes." How hard my cock was getting between her toes.

Luci opened her eyes and looked at me, smiled and slowly started undoing the buttons on her blouse. She undid the first three buttons, revealing the curve of her breasts and what looked like a purple lace bra that was close in colour to the blouse. Her smile grew as she undid two more buttons, which opened her blouse all the way to the top of her skirt. She had my complete attention as her feet squeezed my cock.

"Have I mentioned you are a very naughty girl?"

"You think of me as a girl?" Did I mention I was fighting a loosing battle? Time for a more direct track.

"No, Luci," I said as lifted her feet enough to stand up, trapping her legs between my mine as I levered myself over her. "I do not think of you as a little girl." I said as I bent down to kiss her lips. But it was only a quick kiss. I was not going to let her win this hand. I slid across her lips and along her jaw line which caused her to tip her head back as she slid her hand along my neck and into my hair. I was willing to let her direct the direction of my head, as long as it was along the line of her neck and down across her shoulder. I nudged her blouse with my nose and kissed down along the strap of her bra and across the top of her breast. The skin was so soft and I could feel her breath catch in her lungs as her heart pounded under my lips. Her fingers were alternating between squeezing my neck and floating through my hair as I trailed kisses along her breast and into the cleft between them and back up the other breast. I wanted to take them in my hand, but I was using my hands for support on the table. The nails on her left hand were slipping beneath the collar of my shirt and her right hand was sliding up and down my thigh as I kissed my way back up to her shoulder and across her shoulder to her neck. Three more kisses took me back to her lips and our tongues entwined as her hand slid across my chest. I balanced myself on my left hand as I let my right trail over her cheek, across the skin of her shoulder and over her breast. She moaned as my palm crossed her nipple, hard and ready as I gently squeezed it and she pushed up into my hand. The hand holding my head clamped tight on my neck as her other hand slid across the front of my pants gaining her a moan from deep inside me. I left my hand on her breast, gently squeezing and tracing my thumb over the smooth skin above her bra.

We broke our kiss and looked at each other. She squeezed my cock slowly and gently as I squeezed her breast.

"Oh Gary," she half moaned, half sighed. "I have wanted to feel you for so long. I have wanted to feel your hands on me for so long. I am so wet right now and I want you so badly." She squeezed me again as if to emphasis the point.

"And we are already way over a line that should never have been crossed." I have no idea where my conscience came from, but it decided to raise its ugly head now.

"I know and I don't care." Luci responded and squeezed me again as she pulled me down to kiss me again. Her hand was pulling at the zipper of my pants and she slid it down. She reached inside to trace my cock through my underwear. I pulled back from the kiss and slid my hand up to her chin.

"Luci, I have to finish." I meant my work, but I do not think she was following because she seemed more intent on my cock, which had already been oozing for the better part of a half hour.

"I know, but I want to feel you, taste you, hold you." Her kisses were almost desperate. I caught her hands and stood up.

"Luci," words were failing me. I wanted Luci to feel me and taste me and hold me. She pulled my hands to her mouth and gently sucked on my fingers, her tongue sliding gently between each digit. My cock twitched with each pass of her tongue over my fingers. I was fighting a loosing battle and I knew it. I pulled my fingers from her mouth with a great deal of reluctance and replaced them with my lips.

"Luci," I said pulling away and placing her hands on my chest, "I am going to ask you to do something very difficult. More, it is very difficult for me to even put it into words." I kissed her again and slid over and kissed her neck and run my tongue over her ear.

"Luci," I whispered, "I want you to go home." I could feel her tensing under me. "Yes, I am throwing you out." I kissed her again to take the sting out of my words. I could see a tear in her eye and I kissed it away. "Luci, I am not throwing you out to prevent you from having your way, but to get done what is an important job for all of our customers." She was trembling and the tears were forming in the corners of her eyes. I did not let go of her. "Luci, hear me, please. If you stay, I will let you let you feel me, taste me, and hold me, and more I will I will feel you, taste you and hold you. I will kiss you, lick you, nuzzle you, suck you and make you scream in pleasure. And tomorrow, Bob will chew me out, Jerry will chew me out, then Craig will chew me out. If there is anything left, you are welcome to chew on it, but I will be on the outside looking in." The tears were flowing and I tried to wipe them away, knowing it was futile.