Chapter 8

The bay window was calling me and I stood there with the first beer of the day and tried to think. Hell, my brain was hardly functioning. Chrissie had left late Sunday and I'd fallen into bed, slept like a dam' log for fourteen hours straight. I guess I only woke up because I was close to incontinence. That dealt with, I decided to hit the gym, think about Candice a little, ponder the idea of having two friends with privileges at the same time again. Sorta thing that can go both ways, and I sure didn't want it to turn into hard work.

Trouble was, Chrissie had been seven different kinds of fun, and I was real glad she'd decided to make the journey, but when she was getting ready to go, chattering about her job and all, I'd started thinking about Kelly again. I mean, Chrissie was nothing like her, but the clothes and the talk of dollars, and takeovers, and mergers, sorta brought all that time back to me. I was trying hard not to think about that when Candice came up the street, and smiled and waved as she saw me in the window. I made beckoning motions, went to open my door. When I'd settled her, given her a beer, she looked at me quizzically.

'Busy weekend, huh, Doug?' Crunch time. I nodded cheerfully, fingers and toes crossed tight. I for sure didn't want her to go prim on me.

'Friends stay in touch, Candice. Chrissie was a good part of my life for a while a coupla years back. She's moved on, I guess, but she wanted to visit, and it was real nice to see her.' She thought about that.

'Were you and she... ?' There was a soft click in my head: excellent. I put my hand up and she stopped.

'Candice, you need to remember what I said last week. I didn't say squat to Chrissie about you, nor about Ellen, and I guess she wouldn't be real happy if she thought I was talkin' about her to anyone else. Friends with privileges goes both ways, and if it don't then the friendship's fuckin' doomed and the privileges ain't worth shit. You don't understand that, then plain friends is all it can be.' I realized I'd sounded kinda firm and checked for offence. Didn't seem to be any and she was looking at me with a mixture of surprise and pleasure.

'I've finally found something that looks like a genuine principle, ' she said, 'and that's a relief. Part of me thought you said that stuff last week just because you want to get in my pants'.

'Shit, Candice, course I wanna get in your dam' pants, but not hurting you, nor letting other people get hurt, nor damaging friendships either. I done that a couple of times and I learnt my lesson.' She nodded and smiled, looked like she'd heard about the Second Coming. When those clicks are on form I say exactly what people want to hear. Course, it's mostly complete bullshit, but if Candice couldn't hack it, then there'd be problems with Ellen, and I sure didn't want that. Regular pussy is kinda necessary too. Candice swallowed, looked kinda apprehensive.

'It's not something I've done before, and it makes me a little nervous. Will you be upset if I take it at my own pace?' Easy to tell she didn't know much about guys. I wanted to pull her across the table and drill her good, but that wasn't a real option. Some girls woulda liked it, but not her.

'All the time you want, Candice, and then a bit more.' Click. 'Maybe you oughta talk to Ellen some, think it through. You got upset, wanted to leave the house, I'd feel kinda bad about that, and she had problems, we'd both be sorry.' Her shoulders relaxed some.

'You're serious about not hurting people, aren't you? Enlightened selfishness or something, I suppose. Whatever it is, it's reassuring.' She leaned over the table and took my hand, lifted it, and held it to her breast. The nipple was hard and I could feel her heart pounding. 'I think I've made my mind up though. As long as you remember it's a big step for a black dyke.'

'We're none of us ordinary.' I let my fingers drag across the tip of her nipple and she shivered then straightened up.

'Good point.' She blew me a kiss and left, and I heard her humming as she went upstairs, the way she did when she was pleased. I went back to the window, wondered if things mighta been different if I'd said that sort of stuff to Kelly before it all went sour. Candice was right, I thought. I sure don't like the idea of hurting people any more. Then I thought that maybe that was because I only wanted her on her terms. She was in the way of something I wanted real bad, then I'd probably be ready to shit all over her, like I done plenty of times before. Talent like mine, you gotta be careful what you wish for.

Course, the first thing had to happen after that night with Kelly was to get her the hell out of the apartment. Trustworthy Doug is one thing, live-in sex toy is another. Way too tiring. That weekend I sat her down in her armchair, gave her a scotch.

'Kelly, what you said the other day was right. It's time to move out. We wanna practice bein' friends with privileges you gotta have a home base. Livin' together is way too risky. I know you done it before, but I never tried, never even thought about it, tell the truth, and I'm not an impetuous guy.' She came sat on the couch, gave me a kiss.

'You're wise beyond your years, Doug.' I managed not to smile and she went on. 'I'm going to find an apartment and we can work at this together. Will you help me choose a car?' Didn't like the way she used the words 'work' and 'together'.

'What kinda car you got in mind?' She thought for a minute.

'I've always wanted a red one.'

Gee, that narrows the field down some.'

Shit, I was glad to have her outa the place, tell the truth. I never been one for waking up with the same person day after day. She was a real surprise though. Look at her, you'd say nice girl, poised, cultured, way upscale, but after dark, hell, the change was one hundred eighty fuckin' degrees. I mean, she liked to warm up some beforehand, romantic kissy-face and stuff, but second time round she was wetter than Seattle in winter and dirtier than a bucket of dogshit. Only woman I ever met who genuinely liked it in the ass, suggested it even, though if you mentioned it to her before or after she'd blush and change the subject. Not that we did that too much. Screwing about with lubricant and stuff, all those preparations, always seems kinda contrived to me. Still, I was like a kid in a toyshop for a while, exploring her and all. The best part about fresh pussy is the finding out. For a while there I almost wished she hadn't moved out quite so quick; didn't much enjoy paying all the rent myself either.

Annie knew straight away. Jeez, considering how much grass that woman used she was real sharp. Coupla weeks later I was lying on her bed, her nestled in the crook of my arm, the way she liked, when she reached down and tugged my cock.

'Workin' out a little more with this, ain't you Doug?' No point trying to bullshit her: tell the truth, I didn't really want to. I sometimes wonder what I'd have done if she ever got in the way of something the talent was working on. That would for sure have been a difficult call.

'Hell, Annie, how d'ya do it?' She yanked my dick again.

'How long we known each other, Doug? I like you a lot, and you like me some too, but I ain't ever gonna get between you and somethin' you want. Rather stand in front of a fuckin' bulldozer. That poor girl works with you, you're someplace where there's a helluva lot of money flyin' about, you're goin' to the gym real regular, and you only do that when you're workin' on something, and now you're screwin' her ass off: shit, I feel kinda sorry for her, tell the truth. She seemed pretty nice that time I visited. Gonna be good to come round to your apartment again though: nothin' wrong with a change of scenery.' She stretched against me and wriggled. 'You gonna lie there looking like a goddam codfish or are we gonna fuck?' Shit, no contest. She knew what I was and didn't care, and she fucked like a dream. I didn't mind her being just skin and bone either: hell, I kinda liked it by now. I scooped her up and set her on my chest, smelled the urgent scent rising from her.

'Top or bottom, you choose.' She laughed in that good way she had.

'You tryin' to turn my head?'

One thing led to another and we managed both: one of the advantages of light girls. What she'd said made me think some though and if the live one hadn't crossed my desk that week I might have thought again. McCarthy was right: smelling real money for the first time kinda focuses you. All the gym time and the brain time and the wanting were in synch and I was as sharp as I've ever been. Kinda frightening, looking back at it.

It looked good the minute I saw it. Fuckin' great click in my head. American Exchange, way undervalued, overextended, dumb but ambitious management, trying to expand in all directions at once, hurting for capital that the banks weren't gonna come up with. I worked up the figures, gave them to Kelly.

'The parts alone are worth thirty percent over book-value. Kelly. Buy it, break it, sell it, count the cash.' She ran an eye over what I'd done, talked to McCarthy that afternoon. Came out with a sparkle in her eye that made my heart-rate turn up a notch. Kept my head down though, got on with my chores. I hadn't been home ten minutes when she called.

'It's exactly the sort of thing Mr. McCarthy likes, and he loves being a white knight. He wants to... ' I cut her off. Click.

'You want my famous spaghetti mess and some wine while you tell me? Hadta leave the office in a hurry so the old biddies didn't see me huggin' you.'

'I'm going to shower first, just to save time.' The phone went dead and I smiled and went to fix the pasta. I had the table set up with candles and all by the time she arrived, wasn't surprised when she left half of it and stood up. She came round the table and kissed me hard enough for me to know that she was simmering already. She was wearing shorts and a T-shirt and the beginnings of a tan, and when she reached round and pulled the T-shirt over her head I blinked. No bra and pinky looking tits.

'You been sunbathin' topless, you shameless fuckin' Jezebel? She nodded and whipped the shorts down. Shit, no panties either; she did a twirl, then bent and pulled herself open, little ass-ring winking above a shiny swollen pussy.

'Bottomless too, and if you want me to tell you what Mr. McCarthy said, you're going to have to give me your considered opinion on progress so far.' I stood up and grabbed her, twisting her round and bending her over the table. Her sore breasts slipped over her half-finished plate and she squealed as the warm sauce spread over them, but I kept one hand on her neck while I pulled my sweats down with the other. Shit, I'd been hard since I served the fuckin' spaghetti, and I slid straight and fast and deep into her dripping pussy. Her hands flew out and clawed at the cloth and I felt a stab of worry in case the glassware got damaged. Better not to mention that though, so I took hold of her hips, heaved in again. The sauce spread over the table-cloth as I got my rhythm, and she began to respond, thrusting back against me, her breasts smearing the sticky mess around. She was completely ready and I could feel her beginning to tense, but a quickie wasn't the best move here. I kept it hard but slowed the tempo, the table shaking every time I drove into her.

'Now, please, right now... ' she muttered, then yelped and thrashed about some as I reached under her and pinched one tomato covered nipple. I scooped some sauce up on my fingertips and smeared it over her asshole and the yelping turned into a guttural moan of pleasure as she tried to force herself back. There ain't much you can do though, not when you're bent over a table with your tits covered in spaghetti sauce and a pretty fit guy reaming you from behind; I took no notice, kept right on pumping, taking her to the edge and no fuckin' further. The moaning turned to whimpering, and I pressed my thumb gently against her ring just to tip her a little. Shit, she came straight away, shaking under me like a plate of Jell-O, sauce everywhere as she tried to get more. I held her steady and when she'd quietened some I started again, feeling kinda mean, but enjoying myself just the same. Same slow trip, same pressure building, and I managed to hold myself till she was bucking and squirming again. Then I gave her ass another load of spaghetti sauce and pushed my thumb into it hard, twisting and rolling it round as I buried my cock in her one last time, cum flooding outa me in a warm wave, mixing with the sauce that had dribbled down her slit.

I swear her feet left the floor as she came the second time, and if I hadn't had my thumb hooked in her ass she might have escaped and scooted clear across the table. She was making noises like a locomotive and I held her firm, stayed rammed balls-deep inside her while she calmed. When she was still I lifted her, turning her round and holding her trembling body tight. That was another T-shirt gonna go to Goodwill, but small price to pay. I nuzzled her neck the way she liked, growled in her ear.

'The ass is tanned real well, but the tits are kinda red. You want I should clean them off?' Her arms tightened round me and she nibbled at my shoulder so I eased my sweats off from round my ankles, carried her through to the bathroom. Shower fun is always good, and sure enough, I got a thank-you BJ before we were through. There was a lot of hugging and squeezing and mumbling about how spontaneous I was, but I put up with that, and when we were stretched on the couch, her smooth body firm against mine, scotch on the table in front of us, I slid us back to the important stuff.

Hell, it sounded great. McCarthy was gonna take a position, build it, ride the shares up way carefully, making sure they didn't take off, express an interest to the dumb-ass management and then drop the hammer.

'About a year to payback, Doug, ' she said as she sipped scotch and stroked my cock with her free hand, 'and there'll be a nice bonus for you and me both. There's a hell of a lot of money in there waiting to be harvested, twenty million net maybe if it goes right. How did you spot it? Mr. McCarthy was impressed with that.' I shrugged, concentrated on her sore tits for a while, and it was another while before the conversation got coherent again. Then while she was panting and recovering I found out that she was gonna be the one handling the day to day stock purchases, controlling the rate. Step up for her too, she was real excited about it and it was all thanks to me. Bingo. The extra extra stuff I'd slipped into her program was finally gonna be useful. Clicks work in a mysterious way and they don't give a rat's ass for anyone except me.

Shit, remembering that time is kinda sweet and sour. Sweet for the excitement of making money, sweet for Kelly giving me everything she could think of, sweet for the time I spent with Annie relaxing and enjoying no questions and no strings screwing. Sour for the knowledge that I was using Kelly, sour for the tension that she'd suspect something before it was ready, sour for the amount of fuckin' gym time and brain-bending I had to to do, sour knowing that the hurt was gonna arrive. Sour didn't do anything to change my mind though, and the sweet was pretty goddam sweet.

The trigger in her program fed me the trades she was planning and it was easy to open a brokerage account and shadow them. I used what was left of McCarthy's thank you money, took it easy, never made like a big player, but I was able to buy when it slipped and sell on the bounce, and by Christmas I'd turned six thousand into sixty and was still going. Cautious Doug. Hell, I was still learning, but tailgating's an easy skill.

I got a little bolder in the spring, used the margin, upped the volume I was trading, and the sixty was a whisker over half a million when I pulled out and moved the money into government paper, closed my account. Here's a word of advice. Never hang in for the last cent. Eighty percent of a sure deal is always better than getting burned going for everything. Ask them dot com boys: a little less greed and a tad more bailing out woulda saved their sad asses. I knew Kelly'd reached the point where McCarthy was gonna hafta make his next move soon. Hell, he was happy. Her buying and selling and then buying back meant he had thirty million dollars worth of stock and it had cost him way less than half that. I stayed bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, anxious to learn.

Annie knew something was happening. Hippies gotta strong sense of self-interest, I guess.

'Ya know what I like best?' she said one day. She was curled in the crook of my arm like always.

'Tell me what you like best, ' I said lazily. I was playing with her nipples, circling them with my fingers and they were reacting real positive.

'What I like best is when stuff's goin' good for you. Hell, you're always fun, but when you're feelin' good, you're way fun. Last few months have been fuckin' ace, Doug. Promise you'll warn me when it's gonna stop. There's a tiny part of you that ain't selfish, stops you bein' a real bastard, and I don't want you ta feel I won't be here when you hurt a bit. Hell, you heal quick enough, but a gal likes ta be needed.' I rolled over and pinned her, then slipped gently into her as she raised her legs and hips to meet me. She sighed happily and bit my neck hard as my cock stretched her.

'I'll take that as a yes, huh?'

Kelly was a different story. She was happy as a clam, excited about what she was doing, planning how to spend her bonus. Trouble was, she kept calling it "our bonus". Be careful when a woman starts saying that. It means there's all sorts of stuff going through her head, and none of it likely to make you feel good. She was getting kinda possessive too. Hell, not her fault I guess: she was the sorta person who likes the idea of being settled, being a couple, kinda like Judy was. I tried to slow her down some.

It was a Sunday afternoon in May and we were at her place. We'd been hot and energetic and dirty, and were laying on top of the covers letting the sweat dry on us. She tightened her arms round my neck, pressed herself against me.

'Confession time, Doug. I think I'm falling in love with you. From the moment you took over and helped me get over Carl actually. No-one's ever cared about me this way, and no-one's ever made love to me like you do, and I've never felt this way about anyone.' Well, fuck that.

'Shit, Kelly, it's less than a year. Love's a strong word to take on board.' She worried my ear gently. One thing about Kelly, she never left marks. Didn't much like the ones Annie left either, but had kept quiet about them so far.

'Just so as you know how I feel. This is my heart talking, and it's never talked this way before.' Romantic bullshit of course; trouble was, she was serious. She slithered down my body, and took my cock into her mouth, running her tongue over the head, coaxing me hard again. Shit, I could manage that. Made a note not to kiss her till she'd cleaned her teeth though. I'd been deep in her ass only twenty minutes before, but she didn't seem to care. Those well brought-up girls will surprise you every time.

Annie sure called it right when she said that people in love want more. Hell, seems to me love is wanting someone till you got every last ounce of them and they kinda disappear. Sure enough, Kelly began hinting about the time I spent with Annie and I had to start lying to her some, then tell Annie that I might be seeing a little less of her for a while. She smiled and pulled my ear.

'Happened before, Doug, and it'll happen again. I guess I know you pretty well by now. I been crazy in like with you since that day you sweet talked me into having a fuckin' pizza and you never done anything to make me change my mind, nor nothin' to make me love ya either, except that trip to Florida mebbe; I kinda liked that. You gonna do that thing with your tongue like I want you to?' God bless skinny little hippies.

Hell, I ain't telling it too well; even now I get a kinda hot flush when I look back, feel ashamed of myself. Not that it was illegal: I took real good care about that. Paid my taxes, cleaned up behind me, all the stuff I'd learned the past year.

What happened was, McCarthy got clever, decided to leak the fact he was interested in the company, ramp the shares a little more, sell out before he had to declare an interest. Kelly didn't like it, sailing too close to the wind, she said, but McCarthy had his eyes on getting everything. I guess Kelly argued with him some, but she did what she was told; didn't enjoy it though, and her performance in the sack tailed off some. She never had learned the trick of separating business and pleasure. She set up the strategy, her computer told mine, and I grinned, opened another brokerage account and piled in. McCarthy wanted greedy, then I'd take some fuckin' cream too. I bought big on the margin, sweated like a fool through a couple of little spikes and dips, sold out two days before McCarthy dumped his stake and sent the price through the floor. Another three hundred big ones for me. I reckoned that with the bonus at the end of the day, that'd take me into the six zeroes that I'd promised myself. So the wanting kinda faded away. Mission accomplished. When I'd closed the account I cancelled my gym membership too, just to show I wasn't a greedy guy. Nothing to do now except sit tight and then get out gracefully.

I wish. Too late to stop by then.

The real mistake was letting myself relax. I'd hated that whole part of the last year so fuckin' much, the pointless exercise, having to be careful the whole time, so I guess my wanting had been as much for a quiet life as a rich one. No goddam time to myself, no music, no reading except the fuckin' financial press. I counted the money in the bank and kicked back.

Kelly was purely loving when I told her I was tired. She scampered round being attentive and thoughtful, picked up some of my workload, acted real devoted. Spent a lot of time pointing out that this was what love was about, caring for each other through the hard times and all. Scared the shit outa me, tell the truth, started that little tickle of guilt as well, because what I really felt was fuckin' wonderful: no gym, reading what I wanted, marking time and no more at work. Good thing McCarthy was concentrating on the project and wasn't noticing much else. After a while she got worried though, started being extra caring. Made me even more uncomfortable.