Chapter 47: Inferno

March 28, 1995, Chicago, Illinois

“Happy birthday, Kara!” I said when I returned from my run with Gina on Tuesday morning.

“Happy birthday, Kara!” Jessica said as well.

“Thank you both! And thank you for taking the day off!”

I chuckled, “When I asked you what you wanted for your birthday, you said you didn’t need anything. So Jessica and I decided to give you what you WANT!”

“And what is that?” she asked impishly.

Jessica laughed, “For us to wear you out, but we’re not sure that’s possible!”

“And have Abbie film it!” I added.

“That might be a bit much, Tiger!”

“For you and me, maybe, but not for our wife!”

“Are we going to talk or make love?” Kara asked.

“I need a shower first. Shall we?”

“Yes!” she exclaimed, scrambling from the bed and following me into the bathroom.

Jessica was right behind her, and once I adjusted the shower spray the three of us got in. The girls grabbed the soap and shampoo and began washing me. I enjoyed the soft hands roaming over my head and body, and rinsed off when they finished. I pulled Kara into a tight embrace, and Jessica stepped behind her and put her arms around both of us, at least as far as she could.

“We love you, Kara,” Jessica said, kissing her shoulder.

“Yes, we do!” I agreed, giving Kara a quick kiss on the lips.

“Prove it!” she hissed.

“Tell us, Kara,” Jessica said. “Whatever you want!”

Kara sighed contentedly, stroking my dick, as Jessica continued her kisses up Kara’s neck, flicking her tongue on Kara’s earlobe.

I released her and turned off the spray. We quickly dried off and moved to the bed. I moved the pillows against the headboard and leaned against it. Two mouths quickly got me hard and then Kara straddled me, facing away. She grasped my shaft, rubbed it along her labia, then impaled herself on me. She leaned back a bit, and I reached around to cup her wonderful breasts. This had become a favorite position when the goal was ultimate pleasure, and it was no different this time. Kara rocked her hips and I felt Jessica’s tongue move along the exposed part of my shaft, tracing gentle circles around where Kara and I joined.

“Ungh,” Kara groaned just a few minutes after we began.

“One,” I whispered.

“Thirty-one?” Kara giggled.

“You greedy hussy!” Jessica teased, lifting her head.

“It’s my birthday!” Kara sighed.

I ran my hand down between Kara’s legs and drew small circles over Kara’s clit, as Jessica moved to kiss me, then latched onto Kara’s nipple and sucked gently. Kara moaned softly and shuddered. Fifteen years after her first orgasm, she still had them easily and achieving thirty-one was not out of the question. We’d come close before, and I was determined to fulfill her birthday wish.

“Two...” I whispered.

Jessica kissed her way down Kara’s stomach and once again I felt her tongue move along my shaft. Her lips brushed my hand, so I moved it out of the way, and returned it to my wife’s luscious breast. Kara had a series of small orgasms, and I counted them off. As I got closer, Kara moved more forcefully, squeezing her muscles tightly around my shaft.

“Cum in me,” she hissed when I said, “twenty.”

I felt Jessica’s tongue on my shaft again and her hand on my balls. She squeezed lightly, just enough to take me over the edge, and I groaned as I pulsed and fired jets of cum into Kara’s pussy, which spasmed hard after the second spurt. When our orgasms passed, Kara gently lifted off me, and moved next to me.

“Jess, I want to taste you,” Kara said.

We shifted so that Jessica could straddle Kara’s face and lower her pussy to Kara’s waiting lips. I got up and went to the closet and got the ‘personal massager’ from the toy bag, and came back to the bed. I got between Kara’s legs, turned on the vibrator, and gently inserted it into her sopping pussy. I lowered my lips to her clit, took it into my mouth and sucked gently, causing Kara to groan, though it was muffled by Jessica’s pussy.

I began slowly fucking Kara with the vibrator while I lashed her clit with my tongue. Kara bucked her hips and groaned again, as her walls spasmed around the vibrating plastic. Kara’s tongue worked its magic, and Jessica shuddered and came a moment later. Using my lips and tongue, plus the ‘personal massager’, we reached thirty-one.

It had taken long enough that I had recovered, and I tapped Jessica on the shoulder. She moved aside, and I climbed on top of Kara and gently slid into her. We made love slowly, and languorously, for fifteen minutes, with Jessica lying next to us. When I came, I moved off. Jessica and I snuggled close to Kara, cuddling her.

“Breakfast?” I asked about ten minutes later.

“No,” Kara sighed. “Jess, I want to do something we almost never do. I want you to make love to me like Steve just did.”

“Whatever you want, Kara,” Jessica agreed.

I got up and went to the closet. I got out the harness and the largest dildo, and slipped it into place. I took the strap-on to Jessica who put it on, then climbed between Kara’s legs. I looked on as she rubbed the dildo along Kara’s lower lips, then slowly pushed it in until it was fully embedded. Kara wrapped her legs around Jessica, and Jessica lowered her face so they could kiss. I very much enjoyed watching the extremely erotic movements as Jessica slid the fake dick in and out of Kara’s pussy.

I changed positions a few times, watching their tongues tangle, their breasts mashed together, and Jessica’s sexy butt moving up and down as she thrust in and out of Kara. I would have loved to take Jessica from behind, but Kara hadn’t asked me to, and with Kara’s legs wrapped tightly around Jessica, there really wasn’t a way for me to do that, so I simply enjoyed the sexy action unfolding before my eyes.

A few minutes later, Kara groaned into Jessica’s mouth and broke the kiss. She whispered into Jessica’s ear and they repositioned themselves so that Jessica was on her back, and Kara was impaled on the large dildo. Kara leaned forward and kissed Jessica softly, then broke the kiss.

“Steve,” she hissed, “fuck my cute little ass!”

I went to the nightstand and got the tube of K-Y jelly, liberally spread it over my rock-hard erection, and got behind Kara. I positioned myself against her rear entrance and pushed hard, burying myself in her tight backside. Kara bent down to kiss Jessica and after a few tentative movements, we developed a slow rhythm, with the dildo creating interesting sensations on my dick.

A few minutes later, Kara groaned and shuddered as she had another orgasm. She broke the kiss with Jessica and ground hard against her.

“Cum for me, Snuggle Bear,” Kara gasped.

I let my pleasure build until I reached the pinnacle, and pushed deeply into Kara’s rear as cum exploded from my dick. Kara groaned loudly and had a huge orgasm, then collapsed against Jessica. I gently extracted myself, and went to the bathroom to clean up. I got into the shower, and just as I’d finished washing myself, my wives joined me. First, Jessica and I washed Kara, then Kara and I washed Jessica.

“NOW are we ready for breakfast?” I asked playfully.

Ten minutes later, we were in the kitchen. I made breakfast for the three of us, and after we ate, we went to the sauna to relax.

“Not a bad start to the day,” Kara teased as steam hissed from the rocks.

“She’s hopeless,” Jessica laughed. “I swear, she could wear out a squad of Marines!”

I chuckled, “Two squads!”

“Poor babies,” Kara teased. “You suffer SO much!”

“Was she like this when you met her?” Jessica asked.

“Yes!” I chuckled. “She just had to discover that part of her and set it loose!”

Kara laughed, “It didn’t take very long for that to happen! And YOU have no room to talk, Jess!”

“So what’s the plan for the rest of the day?” I asked.

“Sex, lunch, sex, dinner at Alex’s place, and more sex! Any objections?”

“No!” Jessica and I both exclaimed.

March 30, 1995, Chicago, Illinois

“Steve, I have Arthur Drake on the phone for you,” Kimmy announced on Thursday morning.

“Arthur Drake? From Boston?”

“Yes.”

“Put him through,” please.

He was on the line a few seconds later.

“Art? Steve Adams. What can I do for you?”

“I had a strange call yesterday, which I dismissed until Jefferson came to talk to me this morning.”

“Who was the call from?”

“A Dante Puccini.”

“What did HE want?” I asked warily.

“He asked me if we could provide custom programming for electronic test equipment. It appears he’s calling big custom programming shops on the East and West coasts.”

“OK. That doesn’t surprise me, really. He’s trying to seize control of the company he founded and sold, and wants to line up someone to replace NIKA. What did he want with Jefferson?”

“I have him here with me. Let me put the call on speaker.”

I heard a click and then some background noise.

“Steve? It’s Jefferson.”

“Hi. What’s up?”

“Dante asked me some questions about the legal software. I didn’t tell him anything, but you need to know something he said. He said he wanted me to agree to come to work for him.”

“He’s starting a software company?”

“No. I can’t prove it, but I think he’s trying to buy Lone Star.”

“Son of a bitch!” I swore. “Can you tell me exactly what he said?”

“He said he needed someone who really understood how NIKA’s software worked to be a lead software engineer at a company he was buying. When I asked about moving, he was cagey, but in the end, said it was in the Southwest. I know your main competitors are Lone Star, the company in Atlanta, and that new company in Vancouver. That only leaves one option in my mind. Well, unless he goes for one of the really small start-ups.”

“I wondered what his next move was going to be,” I replied. “And both of those make sense. Art, what did you tell Dante?”

“That we’d need more details and need a look at the equipment, and we’d need to speak to the electrical engineers. He hemmed and hawed about when that could happen, which made me suspicious. When Jefferson came to talk to me, he told me about the work you did for Dante’s old company.”

“Which I very much appreciate.”

“You should thank Jefferson. He’s the one who insisted I call you. And strongly encouraged me to turn down Dante’s request.”

“Art, it’s a fool’s errand,” I said. “Even if Dante somehow gets back control of his company, which I don’t believe is even remotely possible, all the patents on the testing equipment, as well as all the software copyrights, are held by an LLC which licenses them back to the company. You’d have to start completely from scratch, and you’d have to deal with my legal team when the LLC enforced its intellectual property rights. That’s not a threat against you, but against Dante. You’d get sucked into it, though.”

“That’s a headache I don’t need,” Art said.

“Jefferson, how did you leave things with Dante?” I asked.

“I told him I wasn’t interested.”

“Do me a favor,” I said. “Call him back and tell him you’ve reconsidered.”

“You want me to feed you information?”

“Yes.”

“Given how you treated me after what I did to you, of course I’ll do it. But I’ll never go to work for him.”

“Honestly, that’s up to you, but I’d certainly advise against it. Just make him believe you would for now.”

“Got it.”

“Art, I owe you a favor. A big one. Just let me know.”

“Will do.”

“Thank you both for the heads-up.”

“You’re welcome,” they both replied.

They disconnected the call and I hung up. I needed to think about the best way to deal with the issue. I could simply call Brad Giesma at Lone Star and talk to him directly, but if he was negotiating with Dante, he wouldn’t be able to talk to me about it, and if Dante used his usual business acumen, he’d have asked for an exclusive right to negotiate. I’d done that with BLS when we’d bought them out.

That said, I had no idea if Lone Star really was for sale. If it was, did I want to buy them out? I could certainly get the financing, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to nearly double the size of NIKA overnight. BLS had been less than half our size, and integrating and converting their customers had taken longer than we’d planned, and we’d run into some hiccups along the way. Doing the same with Lone Star would be even more challenging, and we’d likely have to run the two organizations in parallel for a long time.

“What the heck was that about?” Penny asked, interrupting my thoughts.

“I’m not totally sure,” I said. “I think Dante is playing more games. Keep it to yourself, please, until I decide what to do.”

“You should have let Sam, Charlie, and me take him out when he made his pass at Sam!”

“That thought has crossed my mind once or twice. Nose back to the grindstone, Pretty Penny! We have a release to get out.”

“What about you?”

“I sent the revised common backend code to Elizabeth for testing right before I went home yesterday. I’m waiting for the bug reports to come back. In the meantime, I’m doing CEO stuff and now dealing with the next chapter in Dante’s ‘Inferno’.”

Penny laughed, “Which Circle of Hell are we in now?”

“The Ninth, of course, ‘Treachery’; though I suppose the Eighth, ‘Fraud’ could apply.”

“Isn’t the Eighth the one with the seducers?” Penny teased.

I laughed, “Yes, along with hypocrites, thieves, sowers of discord, liars, and, my personal favorite, those guilty of barratry.”

“I always thought lawyers should be in the Ninth Circle!” Penny laughed. “I know YOU do!”

“Only certain ones. Remember, they do keep us in food, clothing, houses, nice cars, and all the other stuff.”

“True. So now what?”

“I’m not sure. I need to think about it.”

“Are you going to tell Melissa?”

“Once I order my thoughts.”

I spent the next two hours reviewing résumés, reading financial reports, and doing the things I’d normally do during my usual half-day dedicated to CEO work. As I worked, an idea formed in my mind. One that would help me discover the truth, and help NIKA without the risks associated with trying to outbid Dante for Lone Star, if that were even possible. I picked up the phone and dialed a number. Without saying anything that would give away what I was doing, I made a lunch appointment.

“I need you to do something for me,” I said when I sat down across from Samantha at Star of Siam.

“Anything. What’s up?”

“Get a rumor published in the Tribune‘s ‘Heard on the Street’ column for me.”

“Blue Horseshoe loves Anacott Steel?” she asked with a sly smile.

I laughed, “I started wearing suspenders because I thought Michael Douglas looked totally cool in them.”

“So what do you need published?”

“That someone is trying to buy Lone Star Systems in Dallas.”

She nodded, “Your competitor. Why not buy them yourself? I think I know where you could get the financing.”

I laughed, “Me, too. But doubling the size of the company overnight and taking on all their staff would fundamentally change NIKA in ways I couldn’t predict or probably control. I have a different strategy. If Lone Star is in play, I can use that as a competitive advantage.”

Samantha nodded, “You’re stable, you own your company, and you aren’t going to sell out. That creates FUD against Lone Star which you can exploit to win deals or take away customers.”

“The Microsoft strategy,” I said.

“Yes. They learned it from IBM and became even better at it than IBM. Gene Amdahl made that point in 1975 when he said, after leaving IBM, ‘FUD is the fear, uncertainty, and doubt that IBM sales people instill in the minds of potential customers who might be considering Amdahl products.’ My dad was an admirer of Amdahl for taking on IBM.”

“So can you do it?”

She nodded, “I’ll make a couple of phone calls. ‘Blue Horseshoe loves Lone Star Systems.’”

I chuckled, “That’s close enough to ‘Blue Star Airlines’ to make it even funnier!”

“Who’s buying them? Or trying to?”

“Dante Puccini, of course. He’s also trying to find a contract software company to do the custom programming if he gets control of M&M somehow.”

Samantha laughed, “Does he know about the intellectual property?”

I shook my head, “No.”

“Attorneys for the LLC will keep him tied up in the courts for a decade if he somehow pulls it off. Do you know if he’s tried to sow FUD with M&M customers?”

“I don’t. I’m going to talk to Melissa later, but I wanted to get this ball rolling.”

“You missed your true calling, Steve. You really should have taken my dad up on his offer to work for Spurgeon. Together we’d own the world.”

I chuckled, “You got the more conniving, devious sibling!”

Samantha shook her head, “That might be true, but you’re subtle, and subtlety is MUCH more dangerous. Look what you asked me to do. Subtle. And extremely effective. What’s your next play?”

“Once the rumor runs, Cindi will be in my office in an instant, seeking to take advantage of it. I’ll instruct her to do so, and then wait. I assume you know the Napoleon quote I’m thinking of?”

Samantha laughed, “Never interrupt your enemy while he’s making a mistake!”

“Exactly, though the Sun Tzu quote I taught you applies as well.”

“Hmm, you taught me several. I think the correct one for this instance would be ‘Making no mistakes is what establishes the certainty of victory, for it means conquering an enemy that is already defeated.’ But, for the overall situation, I think it’s ‘Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory.’”

I nodded, “You’ve learned well!”

“If only you had been single when we met...”

“A logical fallacy.”

Samantha laughed, “You and your damned aversion to ‘What if?’!”

“It’s a hypothesis contrary to fact fallacy,” I grinned. “Steve Adams, single, at that point would have been a very different person.”

“True. You’ve taught me the difference between analyzing your past actions and speculation about creating different results.”

We finished our lunch, and Samantha promised to call me and let me know when she had spoken to her contact. We exchanged a hug, and I headed back to the office.

“Elizabeth was looking for you,” Kimmy said when I stopped at her desk. “She has a bug list.”

“I bet!” I laughed. “I’ll go see her. If Samantha calls, please find me. It’ll be important.”

“She has your private line. Do you want me to pick up those calls or let them go to your voicemail?”

“Pick them up while I’m meeting with Elizabeth, please.”

“Will do!”

I turned and walked down the hall, then down the stairs and over to Elizabeth’s workstation.

“Kimmy said you had something for me?”

“Yes. Do you have time to meet?”

“Sure. Let’s go up to the ‘Orr’ room.”

“Eve Falvey will join us. She helped run through all the tests. Zeke was cool with her helping, and he said it’s OK for her to be away from the phones for thirty minutes.”

“OK. I’ll meet you in the ‘Orr’ room in a few minutes.”

I went back upstairs, got a bottle of San Pellegrino from the fridge in the break room, then went to my office to get my notes. I walked to the conference room to find Eve and Elizabeth waiting for me.

“Here’s the regression testing report,” Elizabeth said, handing me two sheets of paper.

“This looks pretty good,” I said. “At least I didn’t reintroduce any of our old bugs.”