Happily Ever After With My Dad's Best Friend

God, this feels so good, and I’m so close. I squeeze down harder on my cock, stroke faster, my hand straining. I imagine sinking my cock inside her and watching her eyes go dark with lust. Groaning as I’m enveloped by her heat. I can’t even breathe; I’m so close. Cora. God. Fuck.

My cell phone rings shrilly in the silence and I can suddenly hear how hard I’m breathing. The spell is broken and I lose momentum. It’s okay. I ignore it. Pleasure builds at the base of my spine again and I focus on that final image: my cock buried deep inside Cora’s pussy, seeing it filled up with me and hearing her call my name.

The phone rings again, and again I lose how close I am to coming.

“Fuck.” I stalk into the living room, completely naked and cock still standing at attention to retrieve my phone where I left it. Jack’s name is on the screen. “What?” I practically growl.

The amusement in his voice makes me want to throw the phone. “Did I interrupt something?”

“Yes, actually.” And you’d kill me if you knew what.

Jack laughs like he knows that he’s caught me with my dick in my hand. “Sorry,” he says, even though it’s obvious that he’s not. “Need you to haul ass to the bar.”

I sigh. “I just got home, Jack. Can it wait?”

“Unfortunately, no. I’m at the Silver Spoon. I’ve got some guys in from New York with Jefferson Tech—they’ve got some great ideas for us and might be willing to help finance them, but they want to meet you. You’re the brains of this thing after all.”

My stomach sinks. “You took a meeting with potential investors without telling me?”

“I was planning to, Michael. They were supposed to come next month, but they came out here for something else and suggested we get drinks, so I couldn’t refuse. They’ll be back again next month.”

I don’t say anything. I’m still hard as a rock and barely thinking straight. The last thing I want to do is go meet a bunch of business people right now. Especially since Jack and I are clearly not on the same page about some things. “Look, I don’t think I’m up for that right now. Show them a good time, and I’ll be better prepared to talk to them when they come back to town next month.”

“Michael,” he says, and I recognize the tone. He’s not going to let this slide, and I can practically hear him seething over the phone. “I don’t care if you’re up to it. This is our business, and I need you to get your ass down here now.”

I sigh. “Jack—”

“This is not something that’s negotiable. Be here in ten minutes.”

The line goes dead and I have to lock down my entire body in order to not throw the phone across the room. Somewhere in the last six months our communication has degraded. We need to sit down and talk all of this out, because if we don’t agree on where Tailor Me is headed, we’re going to sink the business by trying to pull it in two different directions. In order to have that sit down, I need Jack to be speaking to me. That means I have to get myself to that bar. I don’t even have time to shower, and I don’t have enough time to finish.

Few things are worse than masturbating and getting that close without being able to finish. I’m going to be on edge all night, jumpy because my body is still waiting for the release that never came.

At least Cora won’t be there so I won’t be fighting yet another hard-on while I talk to these New York guys. Small favors. I file away my fantasy to finish later. I said I’d only do it once, but I was robbed. I need to do it once and finish.

Sighing, I glance out the window to see if she’s still there. The chaise where she was tanning is empty, and I don’t see any sign of her around the pool. Probably for the best. Let’s get this over with.

3

The Silver Spoon has been one of Jack’s favorite places for as long as I can remember. It’s an upscale tavern that marries classic Texan charm with a sleek twenties sensibility. I like it, but I prefer my bars with a little more natural character.

I see Jack immediately when I walk in. He’s a good head taller than most men, and he’s towering toward the back of the bar. From the looks of it, the group is mingling around a table. Four men are in conversation and laughing, and I can see from here that the suits they’re wearing cost money. When you’re in this line of business you learn how to evaluate someone’s clothing quickly, and what they’re saying is “money.”

I put on my business mask and approach the table. “Jack,” I say, giving him a heads up.

He nods at me. “Gentlemen, I’d like you to meet Michael Foster, my business partner.”

They each shake my hand in turn, and now that I’m closer, I’d be surprised if any one of them had hit thirty yet. Their names slip in and out just as quickly. It might seem callous, but I don’t plan on getting to know these men that well.

“So, Michael,” one of them says to me when introductions have finished, “Jack here has been telling us all about these new ideas you have for the company expansion into different markets.”

“Has he?”

“Yes,” he continues, missing my sarcasm. “We’re very excited about some of the possibilities that would allow you to break out and compete with companies like Takedown.”

I press my lips into a line. “If you look at the numbers, I think you’ll see that they’re expanding so that they can compete with us.”

His eyes narrow a little. “All the same, you can’t stay on top of the pack if you don’t change, and we’d be excited to help you with that.”

“Well, I’d be happy to talk about that with you, but I think I need a drink first.” I laugh a little, a trick I use to put them at ease, and they laugh with me right on cue. “Jack, can I speak to you for a moment while I order?”

“Certainly.”

We take the few steps over to the bar, and I flag down the bartender who’s at the other end serving someone. He gives me a nod to indicate he’ll be with me shortly. “What are we doing here, Jack?”

“What do you mean? I told you.”

I lean my elbow on the bar, making a point to look casual so Jack’s companions won’t see any tension if they happen to glance over. “Yes, you told me. But I don’t understand. This morning you said you wanted to evaluate Takedown’s strategies, and now you’re talking to investors and pitching ideas without consulting me.”

Jack rolls his eyes. “You’re being dramatic. I have a plan; you just have to trust me.”

“We didn’t build this company just trusting each other. Everything was planned and explored. We’re in too deep to fly off on whims. We need to talk and evaluate. That’s how we do things.”

I don’t miss the way his left hand tightens into a fist. He’s irritated. “Don’t you see what a huge opportunity this is? We could expand in the way we need to without spending our own capital.”

“And we’d also be beholden to them. Jack, we need to have a discussion about these expansions and why you think we need them.”

He waves a dismissive hand. “Of course, of course. We can do that later this week. But tonight’s not about that. Tonight’s about showing them a good time, telling them what they want to hear, and make sure they’re willing to write as many checks as we ask them to, for whatever we ask them to.”

The bartender appears and I order a shot of whiskey.

“And to that end,” Jack grins, nodding behind me, “my night just got easier.”

I turn, and impossibly my stomach leaps and drops at the same time. Cora just walked in the door, wearing a dress that’s even more gorgeous and maddening than the one she was wearing at the office. Black and flowing, the neckline plunges low, making it clear that she’s not wearing a bra, and my cock rages back to life. Her red hair falls around her face in waves, and suddenly I’m imagining it spread out on a pillow as she writhes beneath me. Damn it. She wasn’t supposed to be here. Any more of this and I’m going to spontaneously combust.

“She’s my secret weapon,” Jack says conspiratoriall

y and watches Cora as she walks across the room, nods to the two of us, and introduces herself to the men at the table.

The back of her dress plunges even lower than the front, and damn, that’s the only word my brain has for it. Within seconds she’s smiling and laughing with the guys, and I find my fingers gripping the edge of the bar to the point of pain.

“I lucked out when she contacted me, didn’t I?” Jack says, “We get free arm candy for three months while she’s here. Business dinners will never be so easy, and since she’s my daughter, they’d never think of mistreating her. As long as I get her back in the morning, right?”

“Are you serious?” I think I might throw-up. He brought her here to seduce these men, to use her to grease their palms so they’ll be willing to make a deal with him. Whatever deal that might be.

Jack gives me a long look. “You use whatever you need to, and we need this.”

“No, I don’t think that we do.” I grab the shot glass off the bar and pound it back, the whiskey burning my throat. I walk away from the bar, away from Jack and Cora and the group of New Yorkers. I know I can’t leave, but I can’t be here just now. I need a second to regroup. The hallway in the back of the bar that leads to the restrooms is long, and I know I’ll have a little bit of privacy while I try to fight off my anger and get the mask back in place.

I don’t know what I’m more furious about: that Jack is using his own daughter to further our business or the fact that watching his daughter flirt with these men makes me see red. I don’t know what it is about Cora that sets me off. I’ve never encountered a woman that made me feel this way before, especially one that I’ve known for such a short time. But I couldn’t even look at her with them. I saw her smile and laugh, and all I want is for that smile and laugh to be directed at me.