Grumpy Best Friend

“This is how I pictured you back then, every night when I was alone in my bed,” I whispered in her ear, filling her, fucking her faster. “I pictured you giving yourself to me. That’s all I want, Jude. Your body in my bed. I want you to feel good. I want to give that to you, Jude. God damn, I want to make you feel right.”

She gasped, back arched, breasts shaking with every hard thrust, and I felt her come, incredible gasping breaths, pussy clenched down tight like heaven, and I kept going, hands on her hips, taking her body rough, her lean gorgeous legs, her perfect firm ass, I fucked her deeper, kissed her pink nipples, kissed her birthmark above her right breast, kissed the little freckles on her nose, before she pushed me back and took me into her mouth, sucking me faster, and faster, and I came deep between her lips. She swallowed me, every drop, and collapsed onto my chest as I fell back on the bed.

We lay there breathing hard, dizzy and light with pleasure.

“I keep thinking this’ll get less complicated,” she whispered. “And then we do something like that.”

“Fuck simple,” I said, and kissed her. “I want complicated. I want dirty, and messed up, and wrong, so long as it feels good, and it’s with you.” I pulled her tighter against me and listened to her breathe.

There was a lot holding us back, but in this moment, in my bed, none of it mattered. There was only me and Jude, and the world outside the door didn’t exist.

20

Jude

Lisa frowned at the folder on my desk then looked back up at me. “You’re saying that’s full of naked photographs of Lady Fluke?” she asked.

I nodded but didn’t offer to show her. I brought it only as proof that it existed, and if she insisted, I planned on showing her only a portion of the top picture—just Fluke’s face, minus her naked, spread legs.

Bret sat on the couch nearby, legs crossed, watching with a carefully composed neutral expression, although Lisa basically ignored him. I kept glancing in his direction, and I felt like it was painfully obvious where I’d slept the night before, and that Lisa would jump up at any moment and accuse me and Bret of being in a relationship.

But of course, that wouldn’t happen. We were her bosses, first of all, and we were adults. If I wanted to sleep in his bed, and let him fuck me not once, not twice, but three times, and if I wanted to sleep for maybe three hours at most because I was too busy staying up late with him, letting him touch me in places and ways I only ever imagined, and stroking his thick, massive cock, and moaning his name, and basically making up for all the lost time, well, that was my business, and I could do whatever the hell I wanted.

She didn’t notice, though, or if she did, she didn’t mention anything.

“I’m saying that her ex-husband has compromising material,” I said, shrugging a little. “He’s threatening to go public with it.”

“Whatever happened to the, uh, what was it? The patent?” She made a face then laughed. “I guess he’s dropping all pretense.”

“I think that’s the idea,” I said. “He wants to get paid faster.”

She tapped her fingers on the armrest and leaned forward, staring at the folder. I wondered if she’d ask to look inside, and hoped she wouldn’t. “So you think he’s desperate?” she asked.

“Maybe, but I can’t be sure. We had a short meeting and he seemed very confident, but he always seems that way.” I glanced toward Bret, who nodded slightly in confirmation. “He said he needed the money, so I have to imagine he’s got some kind of financial problem.”

“I wonder what kind of money problems a mobster would have,” she said softly, then shook her head. “Probably something dangerous. Which means he’s probably dangerous.”

“I was hoping you’d have some insight,” I said, hitting my hands palm-down on the folder. “We’re sort of out of our depth.”

“I’ll admit, I don’t know much about being blackmailed with naked pictures,” Lisa said, her tongue rubbing up against her front teeth, her eyebrows pulled down in concentration. “But if I were in your position, I’d pay the man.”

I glanced at Bret, who showed nothing, though I was surprised. “Really? You think we should just pay him off? There’s no guarantee he won’t come back for more, or won’t release them anyway just out of spite.”

“That’s true,” Lisa said, “but then again, he might take the money and run. I mean, wouldn’t you, if you got five million? This guy’s desperate for cash.”

“Which makes me trust him even less,” I said.

“Fair enough.” Lisa leaned back and looked out the window. “I do have this one experience that might help.” She hesitated, blinking a little, like she was remembering something difficult. “I signed an NDA, so I won’t go into details. But basically, this company I worked for, some hackers got control of the computer system and held it all for ransom. The company paid, and the hackers went away. I hear that’s pretty common these days, but really embarrassing when it happens, so most companies would rather pay then get the bad PR, or at least that’s what I recommended.”