Chapter 5

"Of course, honey, I understand. We'll be there as soon as we can, just give me a couple hours, okay? Don't you worry about a thing, Sissy's on her way."

Kathy hung up the phone, carefully, then slammed her hand down on the counter.

"Fuck!" she cried out angrily, "Fuck, fuck, fuck!"

She was glad the girls weren't home to hear her outburst. In fact, she'd been just about to go pick them up from school when the phone had rung. It was her sister, Carla, and she was in trouble.

Not real trouble, mind you, Kathy thought angrily, just the kind of trouble that was going to ruin their plans for a nice evening out.

She dialed her husband at work.

"Hello, Karl Davis here."

"Hey baby, it's Kathy," she said, unable to mask the frustration in her voice.

"What's up, Kathy?" Karl said with concern. "You sound upset."

"You don't know the first of it," she said, exasperated. "It's my god-damned selfish sister."

Karl suppressed a chuckle, knowing how angry Kathy got when her sister came up. It wasn't that she was a bad kid, it just seemed that she never grew up. Even getting married last year hadn't made much difference; she was still the dim-witted ditz she'd always been, only now she was a mother to boot. It drove Kathy nuts.

"What's the story this time around?" Karl asked calmly, hoping to keep Kathy from blowing up.

"It's that bozo husband of hers, Doug. He's taken off drunk somewhere and Carla's out of her mind with worry. Of course, he's taken the car, too, so she's stuck out at their place, frantic that he's left her for good. She's begging me to come out to stay with her."

Karl groaned. They'd both heard this story before, and it never changed. Doug would be back in a day or so, hung-over and begging for forgiveness, and Carla always took him back. But in the meanwhile it meant Kathy's life was on hold, babysitting a sobbing Carla.

"What's it been, about six months? I suppose they were overdue."

"Ha, ha," Kathy said coldly. "I told her I'd drive on over after I pick up the kids."

"But what about tonight?" Karl asked, suddenly realizing what this meant.

"It means my dumb-ass sister and her loser mate are once again fucking up my plans to have a nice night out with my husband, dammit!"

"Jeeze, honey, there's no way you can tell her you'll be there tomorrow morning? Tell her we've got plans."

"I'm sorry, baby," Kathy said, sounding defeated. "Believe me, I hate to do this, but you know as well as I do that she'll go absolutely nuts if I leave her alone like this. And she's got the baby now. I just can't put her off when she's in this state."

Fuck! Karl thought to himself. He'd really been looking forward to getting alone with his wife. He'd been feeling incredibly horny ever since he got back from his business trip, as had Kathy, but the last couple days had been busy for both of them. This was supposed to be a chance for them to spend a night with just the two of them, without worrying about the girls.

"Okay, I know, Kathy," he sighed, obviously disappointed. "I'm just frustrated, that's all. I feel like I haven't gotten to spend any alone time with you since I got back."

He looked out at the office from behind his desk, his team members diligently working away at their workstations. Tandi was going over something with Lisa, the two of them concentrating on a series of slides. He turned around so that he wasn't looking their direction, not wanting to be distracted.

"I'm not mad at you, honey," he said more softly. "I was just really looking forward to tonight, that's all."

"I don't suppose there's any way you can get out of work early?" Kathy asked, already knowing the answer.

"I might be able to swing it, babe, but I'd still have to be back here by 10 tomorrow morning, remember?"

"Fuck, that's right, your conference call." Now it was Kathy's turn to sound dejected. There wasn't any point in asking if he could get out of it; Karl had made it clear earlier in the week that while it wouldn't last more than an hour, there was no way he could miss this call. It could lead to another large account, this time with a multinational corporation. "Don't worry about it, then. Goddamn it, it's not fair!"

"What's the plan? Are you taking the girls with you?"

"I have to, don't I? Unless you want to take them into the office tomorrow morning. No, I'll just bring them along. They love their Auntie Carla, and it'll do her good to have them around."

"I'll plan on driving out to your sister's right after the meeting, Kathy. I can be there by two o'clock or so, so long as this conference call doesn't go over."

"Okay," Kathy said, resigning herself to the inevitable.

Karl spoke with his wife a little longer, trying to cheer her up. He promised he'd make it up to her, sooner rather than later, and she said she'd hold him to it. Then, just before they were about to end the call, Kathy remembered something.

"Oh, I guess we need to cancel the babysitter, too. Do you mind calling her? I'm running a little late as it is, and I didn't want to have to bring the girls back after I pick them up."

Karl didn't miss a beat.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of that."

"This is really impressive work, Lisa," Tandi said, admiring the presentation slides spread out on Lisa's desk. An imbedded light in the desk's surface made viewing slides easy, but they also used one of her over-sized flat-panel monitors to go through the various elements of the proposal.

"Well, I feel like I didn't really have much to do with it. I'm really indebted to you and Rebecca," Lisa said humbly. "I just was lucky enough to come along when I did."

"Nonsense, Lisa," Tandi said, shaking her head. "You can be proud of this. Granted," she said with a grin, "Rebecca and I laid a fine foundation, but," and she became serious again, "you've really done a lot of quality work in a very short time. This account is a huge deal."

"Yeah, it's been a little overwhelming," Lisa admitted.

It was an understatement. Lisa had spent long days at the office since winning the Wilson account, obsessively plowing into every detail of their proposal. Winning the account had been just the beginning; now came the hard part.

But it was incredibly rewarding work, and Lisa loved it. She felt like she might actually have the hang of this stuff, and it was a good feeling. While she'd been able to maintain a certain level of self-confidence through sheer willpower before, she know was coming to learn that she really did have the skills to pull this off, and that was quite satisfying.

Both Tandi and Rebecca had noticed the change in her as well. While she'd never been a timid worker, it was now apparent that she'd been holding back due to her insecurities about her capabilities. Now, thrown head-first into such a challenging project, she was really blossoming into a sharp professional.

Tandi made a couple suggestions, and asked Lisa a few more questions, before she headed off to get back to work on her projects. Lisa watched her go for a moment, then leaned back in her chair and stretched. Glancing up at the clock, she realized that she'd worked well past lunch again, as it was nearly 3:30 already. Where did the day go?

She checked her email quickly, zipping off a couple replies while getting a vendor on the phone to arrange an order. Then she pulled up another series of images for the campaign and called the photographer to arrange another shoot. She was in the zone, and it felt great.

As she typed away, her phone cradled between her head and shoulder, she glanced up at Karl's office. He was on the phone, apparently agitated about something but not losing his cool about it. She longed to go speak to him but resisted the urge. Since the trip she'd been on eggshells around him, afraid of doing or saying something wrong.

He'd been nothing but professional with her, behaving as if their wild night of passion had never taken place, and while Lisa was relieved to see that nothing at work had changed, part of her felt an intense longing for him, a lonely, empty void that her all-encompassing work routine had failed to fill. He looked even more dashing to her now as he juggled the demands of several projects, hers included, masterfully keeping all of them moving forward quickly. He was so good at what he did, it was an inspiration to her.

But that didn't change the fact of their encounter. She couldn't stop herself from thinking of him sexually. That night had been incredible, a true sexual awakening for her. Steve had called her a couple times since then, hoping to repair things with her, but she'd ignored him completely. What a joke that relationship had been, she realized, every relationship she'd ever had, in fact; the men in her life all paled in comparison to Karl.

It was impossible, she knew. Karl was happily married, professionally driven, and, more importantly, he was her boss. She had decided that his professional attitude towards her was his way of telling her in no uncertain terms that such a relationship with him was off-limits. She tried to convince herself that it was a relief, but she couldn't deny her hunger, her need for him.

Karl sat down and looked over his calendar for the rest of the day. He could get out of the office a little early, he reasoned. He'd been working pretty hard all week long, and there was nothing pressing on his agenda for now. Glancing up at the clock he saw that it was almost 4:00. Kathy would have picked up the girls from school by now and was most likely on the road to her sister's.

He smiled, shaking his head as he pictured Carla, Kathy's moron sister. It was hard not to like her, despite her almost child-like lack of sense. For one thing, she was a total knock-out. Not that she compared to Kathy in Karl's opinion, but she seemed to ooze with a bubbly sexuality that was hard to miss. On more than one occasion Karl had passed up an opportunity to get into her pants, and he was sure he would have enjoyed her immensely, but there was no way he could trust her to keep her mouth shut, and there was no way he'd risk his marriage for a roll in the hay with Carla, no matter how much she flirted with him when she'd had too much to drink.

Kathy really loved her sister, too, he knew. It was just times like this when Carla was such a chore that Kathy lost all patience with her. Doug was really an unfortunate event in Carla's life, a lazy bum who'd knocked her up and had no idea what to do about it. They'd gotten married before Carla had found out she'd lost her first baby, but it wasn't long afterward that Carla was knocked up again, this time with little Suzy. She was an angelic little kid, and Karl adored her, but he worried about what sort of brains could possibly come from parents like those.

He looked out at the rest of the office again, watching Lisa at her desk. He'd avoided any mention of their night together so far, and that was how he planned to keep it. It had been a fantastic night, and he'd enjoyed her immensely, but now that he'd had her he felt his need for her satiated somewhat. Not that he wouldn't want to taste her sweets again sometime, but he had become much more pragmatic about it since they'd returned. Sex with Kathy had been incredible this past week, and work had returned to normal.

Maybe it'd been a mistake, but he couldn't bring himself to regret it. Lisa was so fucking hot that night, and now he couldn't look at her the same way, it was true. But he had a career to think about, and it was stupid to think that an office affair was anything but a ticket to disaster. So he'd returned to his usual self around her, maintaining a scrupulously professional relationship with her.

In any event, while he was sincerely disappointed to find that his plans for a night out with his lovely, sexy wife were now shot to hell, his mind was already racing ahead to other possibilities for tonight. He'd planned on fucking little Ashley silly when he drove her home; now he figured he didn't need to wait that long. In fact, he was getting all sorts of ideas about what the night might hold in store for the sexy little babysitter...

"Mom, I'm heading over to the Davis' house now," Ashley called up the stairs. She hoped her mother wouldn't come down with a bunch of questions about what she was up to.

"Okay, honey," came her mother's voice from the upstairs hall where she was putting laundry away in the hall closet. "Will you need a ride home tonight?"

"Naw, Mr. Davis will take care of me." Ashley grinned as she said that. "See ya!"

She stepped outside, closing the front door behind her. She wore one of her favorite skirts, a plaid number that revealed most of her shapely thighs. Her blouse was one she considered flattering as well, a light, frilly thing that opened attractively at her neck, drawing attention to her small but well-shaped breasts. Karl had told her before that he liked how she looked in skirts, and she'd never worn anything else around him since.

It was a short walk across the neighborhood to the Davis house. Along the way her cell phone went off and she saw that it was Fiona calling her.

"Hi, Fiona," she answered after she'd flipped open her phone.

"Hey there, Ashley," Fiona's voice came through the tiny speaker. "Are you there yet?"

"I'm on my way."

"Well, give me a call later. Ally and I are going to the pizza place in a little bit, but I thought maybe we could swing by to say hi."

"We'll see," Ashley said, a little apprehensive. "I'm not really supposed to have people over, you know."

"Okay, well, call me anyway, 'kay?"

"Sure, have a good time." Ashley flipped her phone shut. She knew Ally and Fiona would probably be all excited about the party they were having the next night, when Ally's parents would be out of town.

Karl had considered picking up some carry-out on the way home but decided against it. He could order some food later, but the first thing on his mind was having Ashley all alone at his house. It was a little bit of a risk, he figured, but no more than banging his sexy little babysitter in the back of the minivan.

He'd just thrown his jacket on the bed and pulled off his tie when the doorbell rang. Chuckling to himself, he went downstairs and opened the door, grinning like an idiot.

"Hi, Mr. Davis," Ashley said, unable to hide how happy she was to see her lover.

Karl's eyes roamed all over Ashley, drinking in the sexy sight of her standing there in her little skirt.

"Come in, Ashley," he said with a smile, "come right in."

Ashley stepped into the front hall, expecting the girls to come running in like they always did, but the house was strangely quiet. Karl closed the door quickly behind her, then walked down the hall into the family room, motioning for her to follow him.

She entered the family room expecting to see his daughters and was again mildly surprised to find the room empty. Karl just stood there, grinning at her and watching the look of confusion on her face.

"Um, are the girls outside, Mr. Davis?"

"Ashley," Karl said, stepping closer to her, "when we're alone, you can call me Karl."

Ashley's expression slowly changed from one of confusion to a wide-eyed questioning look, followed by an excited smile as the situation finally dawned on her. Kathy and the girls weren't home!

"We're... oh Karl, we're alone?"

"That's right, baby," Karl said as he pulled her into his arms. "It's just you and me."

"How? Where are..."

Karl stopped her by pressing a finger to her soft lips, then replaced it with his own, kissing her deeply. Ashley reflexively pressed her body to his as they kissed, her hands on his chest.

"Don't worry about it, Ashley, don't you worry about a thing," Karl whispered, his hands on her waist. "You and I are going to have a nice night together, that's all."

"Oh Karl, really? Oh my god, Karl, this is such a surprise!"

Karl's hands were already pulling her blouse free from her skirt, and Ashley felt like she might swoon at the idea of having an entire night with her lover. She reached up to run her fingers through his hair as they kissed, moaning into his mouth.

Karl hadn't realized just how horny he'd been until he actually had hot little Ashley in his hands. She was sucking on his tongue as they kissed, making soft, happy noises, and his cock was straining to be free of the confines of his pants. He reached down to tightly grip her firm ass, rubbing his hands over her skirt before pulling it up to discover her cotton panties.

Ashley pressed her body into Karl's, lost in the wonderful dream-come-true of being alone with him. She felt his powerful hands cupping her ass, pressing her crotch into his, and she pulled on him eagerly, sloppily kissing his face. Karl resisted the urge to just tear her panties away, still aware enough to realize he couldn't very well send her home without anything under her skirt, but didn't want to wait much longer.

He pulled back, gently pushing Ashley back, and he sat down on the sofa. Ashley sighed contentedly as Karl slid his hands under her shirt to cup her perky little titties, squeezing them greedily. She reached down with crossed arms and pulled her blouse up, her soft brown hair falling back around her face as it came through the opening of her shirt. Karl pulled her closer, deftly unsnapping her bra and quickly removing it. Both articles of clothing were tossed to the side, discarded, and Karl sucked first one, then the other of her firm, young globes.