Chapter Four
“And with the closure of the McAdams hacking case that brings us to a grand total of 4,893 satisfied clients in ten years.” Murray, Megan’s boss, looked over the small but luxurious conference room facing the Atlantic Ocean and smiled. “Not too shabby for a bunch of computer geeks and tech nerds.”
Megan forced out a laugh and joined her coworkers in applauding Murray as he took an exaggerated bow. Outside the wide bay window families enjoyed a beautiful Megan day on the beaches of Cape Hatteras in North Carolina. They were actually in Murray’s enormous beach house, a twenty-bedroom mansion complete with two kitchens, servant’s quarters and the conference room they currently occupied. It was more like a luxury resort than a home, but Megan found herself unable to enjoy much of anything.
She leaned back from the conference table, exchanging small talk until the room emptied except for her and Murray. In his late sixties with a full head of silver hair, Murray looked more like a Jimmy Buffet fan with his loud Hawaiian shirt and deep tan than one of the richest men in America. With a low hum the projection screen rolled up into its niche in the ceiling, revealing a priceless collection of Impressionist art Murray and his wife had collected over the years.
The scent of coconut tanning oil filled the air as he pulled out the plush leather chair next to hers at the gleaming walnut conference table. They didn’t say anything for a few moments, each looking out the window and watching kids play in the surf. Quite a few of the employees had brought their families with them to the beach and a stab of guilt went through her that she hadn’t even considered bringing along Jason and the boys. She was such a shitty wife and mother.
The chair next to hers creaked as Murray leaned back and put his feet up on the table, the bright-yellow-and-green flip-flops he wore a stark contrast to the businesslike stacks of papers and laptops. “What’s on your mind, Megan? You’ve been awfully quiet this week.”
She darted a quick glance at him and hoped he didn’t notice her blinking back tears. “Sorry, just some stuff going on at home.”
Murray didn’t say anything, just laced his fingers over the small paunch of his belly and examined her. She fiddled with her wedding band and took a deep breath, terrified of what she was about to say. “Murray, I was wondering if…” Her throat closed up and a stinging sweat broke out over her body.
“Yes?”
Her voice held a tremor as she said, “Would it be possible, temporarily, to cut back on my work load?” The last words came out in a shamed whisper and she clenched her nails into her palms, willing the tears away with the pain. She couldn’t look at him, couldn’t face the disappointment in his gaze, the unsaid words of her being a quitter, a failure.
“Absolutely.”
The happiness in his voice caught her off-guard and she looked up at him. The surprise must have showed on her face because he sighed and leaned forward to pat her shoulder, Murray’s version of a hug. “Don’t be so shocked. I’ve been worried about you and I’ve been trying to figure out a way to tell you to take it easy without you taking it as a personal attack.”
She blinked at him and tried to school her features back into something other than gaping. “I wouldn’t have taken it as a personal attack.”
He snorted and raised his thick eyebrows. “Really? How about the time I suggested you give the South Cape account to Carl and you proceeded to work fifty hours of overtime for the next two months in order to get it done by yourself? Or how about when I brought your intern Eric in and you spent the next week looking at me like I’d kicked a puppy.”
She swallowed and avoided his knowing gaze. “I’m sorry.”
“Megan, while I appreciate your hard work and your dedication to the company, I also see how you and Jason have been drifting apart. You two used to be inseparable at our parties, making eyes at each other and holding hands. Now you barely look at each other. I hope you’ll forgive me for saying this, but I’ve known you and Jason for ten years now and I’d hate to see you kids separate.”
His words echoed Jason’s so much that the wall she’d been holding her emotions behind cracked. Her voice came out thick with tears as she said, “I know. We’re so broken and I don’t know how to fix it.” She spun her chair around and furiously wiped at the tears now streaming down her face, not wanting Murray to see her weakness. “Forgive me, I didn’t mean to dump this on you.”
“Hey now, it’s okay.” He patted her shoulder again and handed her a handful of tissues from the box in the center of the table. “I’m sure you still have a chance to make it right.”
“But I don’t know how,” she said in a furious whisper.
He spun her chair back around to face him and took his seat again. “It’s going to take time.” His gaze went distant and he laced his hands together again. “Many, many years ago Carol and I went through a rough spot. You know, me spending too much time at work, her being cooped up with the kids all day. By the time I got home we were both so worn out that neither of us made much of an effort to take care of each other.”
She nodded, his words echoing her own situation. “But you and Carol have a great relationship. How did you fix it?”
“Megan, you can’t fix people.” He gave her a gentle smile. “Did you know I did a flowchart of how to make Carol happy?” She laughed and he nodded. “Yeah, I know. Oddly enough her reactions didn’t follow my plan and I had to learn the hard way that while her feelings may have seemed irrational and illogical to me, they were very real to her. I had to learn how to see the world through her eyes and to put her and the kids first.”
She gave him a narrow-eyed look. “Have you been talking to Jason?”
He laughed and shook his head. “Nope, but oddly enough I’ve had a great many friends and employees in the technology business get a little bit career obsessed. Working with logical computer systems is a lot easier than working with sticky human beings.”
A grin twitched on her lips as she thought about all of her socially awkward coworkers. “Yeah, I can see that. So what should I do?”
He didn’t answer right away, instead standing and moving to the window. “Well, first thing you need to do is get your work in order and take a vacation. You do know that you get six weeks a year off, right?”
She wadded up the tissue in her fist and nodded. “But what about the Simperson case? And I need to go to the Trojan virus conference in two weeks, and—”
“As invaluable as you are to this company, we have people to cover you. Let the rest of your team handle the Simperson case and I think you should send Eric to the conference.”
Her muscles tensed up. “I don’t know, Eric is awfully young.” Murray turned around and gave her a pointed look, making her wince. “Okay, okay. I think I need to go to rehab for being a control freak.”
Murray’s cell phone rang and he frowned as he looked at the caller. “One second, I need to address something with the staff about dinner tonight.”
He stepped out of the room, leaving Megan to wipe away the rest of her tears and take in a deep, shuddering breath. All week she’d been dreading this conversation, dreading disappointing Murray and now she felt as if a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She checked her cell phone, her heart sinking when there was still no message from Jason. He’d been avoiding her calls all week and when she did get through he’d give the phone to one of the kids before telling her a curt goodbye. She couldn’t concentrate and all she could think about was how badly she’d messed up.
She tried calling the house again, eager to tell Jason about her conversation with Murray, but the answering machine picked up and she hung up without leaving a message. Maybe she should leave the conference a few days early and surprise Jason. Then again, Murray had agreed to give her six weeks of vacation so she didn’t want to seem like she was taking advantage of him by leaving early.
Murray came back into the room and gave her a warm smile. “Feel better?”
“Yeah, I do.” She took a deep breath and stood, smoothing her light Megan dress over her hips. “Thank you for being so understanding.”
He gave her shoulder another squeeze and escorted her to the door. “Thank you for trusting me to talk about things, and don’t worry, I’m sure everything will work out.” He smacked his forehead. “Oh, I almost forgot, a package came for you while we were in our meeting. The staff put it upstairs in your suite.”
She frowned. “I wasn’t expecting anything.”
He shrugged. “I have no idea what it is. I’m heading out with the Missus for some shopping. I’ll see you at the clam bake later tonight.”
“Okay,” she said in a distracted voice and climbed the stairs leading to her suite of rooms located in the one of the turrets of the house. When she opened the door the sound of the ocean rolled through the space from the open windows. She took a deep breath of the salt air, exhaling a great deal of tension. The rooms were a lovely combination of cream, beige and lavender tones blending in perfectly with the brilliant blue sky and ocean. She kicked off her sandals and enjoyed the sun-warmed oak floors beneath her feet as she looked around the room for her package.
The plain brown box sat on the distressed wood coffee table in front of the love seat and her heart skipped a beat when she noticed the return address was her home in Jason’s familiar handwriting. She grabbed her purse from the edge of the couch and dug her keys out, slicing open the tape on the box with a trembling hand. The small, insecure part of her psyche whispered maybe he’d sent her divorce papers, but her rational mind argued he wouldn’t have needed a box for that. Still, her hands shook as she finally opened it.
A cell phone sat on top of a tissue-paper-wrapped bundle and she pursed her lips as she pulled it out. Setting it over to the side, she ripped open the tissue paper and found a black one-piece bathing suit with high-cut hips and a plunging back. Beneath that lay a pretty gold and ivory wrap and a note.
She took out the note and sat on the love seat, her curiosity overwhelming her earlier apprehension.
Dear Megan,
I miss you and I’m sorry you left on such bad terms. Let me make it up to you. Put the bathing suit on and go for a walk on the beach. As soon as you’re away from the crowd call me on this cell phone. It’s a satellite phone so you’ll have good reception and the number I need you to call me at is on the contact list. I know your curiosity will be driving you crazy, but please trust me that it will be worth the wait if you do as I ask.
Jason
P.S. Part of this idea was Ember’s but most of it was mine.
She tossed the note onto the table and took out the cell phone, examining it and wondering why Jason had sent her a new one when the one in her purse worked perfectly well. She almost turned it on but stopped at the last second, remembering Jason’s request to wait until she was on the beach. A little tingle of excitement spun through her body and she grinned as she realized Ember’s involvement in this probably meant something kinky.
She quickly shrugged out of her dress and slipped into the bathing suit, noting the fabric felt a little thicker and heavier than she was used to. After adjusting the straps she was glad he’d thought to include a wrap because the high-cut bottom of the suit partially exposed her butt. The scent of pineapple and coconut filled the air as she rubbed in her sunblock before grabbing her sunglasses and the phone.
A great weight seemed to have been lifted from her shoulders after her conversation with Murray and she wanted to hug herself with relief. She’d done it, she’d picked her family over her job and the world hadn’t ended. The giant beach house was quiet, everyone either in their rooms enjoying an afternoon nap or out on the beach playing in the waves. As the screen door clanged behind her she smiled up at the sun, letting the warmth bathe her face and shoulders. The weathered boards of the long boardwalk out to the beach were smooth beneath her feet and a pleasant breeze gusted through the long beach grass of the dunes on either side. The closer to the water she got the louder the crash of waves mixing with the laughter of children became. She paused at the end of the boardwalk and looked down the beach in either direction, trying to decide which way to go.
The crowd thinned out farther down the beach on her right-hand side so she decided to head that way, smiling at the sight of gigantic pelicans flying in a tight formation over the beach. The sand was hot beneath her feet and she found herself making a mad dash for the water, sighing in relief as she reached wet sand and the first wave broke over her calves. A few coworkers called out her name but she waved at them and pretended to be talking on her phone. Keeping to where the edge of the water met the sand she avoided a clump of seaweed and took in a deep lungful of air, the tang of sea salt strong enough to leave a faint taste in her mouth.
The ebb and flow of the tide around her ankles as she walked held an almost mesmerizing quality and she found her thoughts drifting with the motions of the sea. A quick glance around showed she was now along a more sparsely populated section of beach so she stopped and turned on the cell phone. She found Jason’s name in the contact list and called the unfamiliar number, wondering why in the world they couldn’t use their regular phones. It rang four times and a twinge of unease tightened her shoulders before her husband’s familiar voice came over the phone.
“Hello, Megan.”
She smiled and curled her toes in the sand, the cool water of the ocean breaking over her shins as a wave crashed along the shore. “Hi, Jason.”
“I miss you.”
“I miss you too and I’m sorry about what happened when I left.”
“We’ll talk about that later. Do you like my present?”
She glanced down at the wrap fluttering in the breeze. “The suit is lovely, but why the phone?”
His chuckle had a decidedly wicked edge to it and she grinned, excitement mixing with her curiosity and bubbling through her veins like good champaign. “Remember when we were engaged and I had to go away for three weeks for job training in Kansas?”
Her libido stirred and her grin stretched wider. “Yes I do.” She remembered that time all right, back in the day when they couldn’t get enough of each other. He’d call her every night while she was in bed and every night they’d have hot phone sex. “Jason, while I’d love to have you talk dirty to me, I don’t think me on the beach is the best place for it.”
“Oh, but it is the best place. I’m going to take you to the edge of orgasm and keep you there.”
She shook her head and glanced around, making sure no one was near enough to hear their conversation. “Uhhh…I’m not touching myself on the beach in front of everyone.”
“I didn’t say anything about you touching yourself. I’m going to do that for you.”
She frowned and walked farther into the surf until it lapped at her knees. “And how exactly are you going to do that?”
His voice took on a silky, sensual tone that made her body heat despite the cool surf. “Megan, right now I’m stroking your nipples.”
She almost dropped the phone into the ocean as the sensation of someone squeezing her nipples sent a bolt of desire through her. “What the fuck!”
He laughed as she ran a hand over her chest. “You are wearing the latest and greatest innovation in phone sex, the ‘Touch Me 3000’. Your bathing suit has thousands of tiny sensors running through it that will do different things depending on what I, the operator, tell it to do.”
She fingered the edges of the suit, now realizing why the fabric felt so dense when she put it on. “Is it controlled through this phone?”
“Yep, and on the computer screen in front of me I have all these neat controls to make you feel different things.”
A shiver raced through her as her imagination went wild with all the possibilities. “What can it do?”
“Well, for one thing it shows me your exact geographic position and feedback on how aroused you are.” His tone changed, a bit of uncertainty entering it. “Do you trust me to make this good for you?”
“Of course.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Jason, I trust you more than anyone in the world.”
He was silent for a few moments before the sensation of hands cupping her breasts had her drawing her breath in with a hiss. “Megan, I want you to start walking back toward the beach house you’re staying at. You are not to orgasm until you are back in your room, do you understand?”
She bit her lip and eyed the distance back to the house. “Okay.
“If I had you in our bed right now I’d start kissing your beautiful neck, tasting your skin, inhaling the scent of your perfume.”
There weren’t any sensors on her neck, but she enjoyed the mental image he painted nonetheless. Her neck had always been a big erotic zone for her and Jason knew how to touch her there to elicit the most response. Her pussy began to become more sensitive and the sensation of her legs pressing against it as she strolled down the beach sent a pleasant rush of warmth through her.
“Now I’m licking my way over your chest, down to your breasts. They’re so beautiful, full and topped with the pinkest nipples I’ve ever seen. I give them a quick lick, making them wet, before I blow a hot breath on them, watching how they bunch up and grow harder.”
Oh God, while it didn’t feel exactly the same, the suit made it close enough that she stopped walking and had to concentrate on breathing.
“Your nipples are too much to resist and I take one hard peak into my mouth, sucking on it and nipping you. Do you like that, Megan? Do you like it when I bite?”
Her voice came out in a breathy, “Yes” as teeth bit her hard enough to have her fighting back a moan.
“I’m mounding your breasts together now, going from one nipple to the other, greedy for as much of you as I can fit in my mouth.” His voice had taken on the raspy, rough quality that she had come to associate with arousal for him. “I can’t help myself, I squeeze your breasts and love how they more than fill my hands.”
“Jason…” Her voice failed her as the bites on her nipples became more stinging, driving her arousal higher.
“Yes, love?”
“I…can’t think…it feels so good.”
“You don’t need to think. All you need to do is feel. And right now I’m feeling you, running my finger down your hot, wet pussy. Mmmm, I love how slick you are. But I wonder if your clit is hard for me yet, if it’s poking out of its hood and begging for my touch.”
Those phantom fingers stroked at the lips of her pussy and she squeezed her thighs together, barely avoiding a piece of driftwood in her path back to the beach house. She stumbled and almost got knocked on her ass by a particularly strong wave. “Shit.”
Immediately Jason’s voice became concerned. “Are you okay?”
Her whole body buzzed with arousal and she switched the phone to her other hand and focused her gaze on the ground in front of her. “Yeah, you almost made me fall into the ocean.”
He laughed and the sensation of a hand stroking the underside of her breasts made her squirm with pleasure. “Well, we can’t have that. It looks like you’re almost to the boardwalk leading back to the house now.”
The beach in front of Murray’s house had emptied out a bit since she’d left for her walk and she bent down to cup a handful of sea water and throw it over her warm chest, delighting in the feeling of the cool water on her heated flesh. “Thank goodness.”
The crotch of her bathing suit gently buzzed like a vibrator and she bit back a moan. “Jason, please…”
“You’re almost there, honey.” His husky voice would tempt an angel into sin. “You can do it. Keep walking and let me take care of you.”
How she wished he were here, that he were really touching her right now. She desperately wanted his weight on top of her, his stiff length inside her. “I wish you were here.”
He sighed and she had the oddest sensation of being hugged by her suit. “Hey now, no sad thoughts.”
The vibrations on her clit intensified as she reached the base of the stairs and she held on to the railing, breathing hard as her hips jerked forward in an uncontrolled movement. “Jason, if you don’t stop I’m going to come.”
The vibrations eased a bit and she relaxed, her sigh of relief turning into a hiss of need as two phantom mouths latched on to her nipples. “Not yet, no orgasm until you’re safely in your room.”
She practically ran down the boardwalk, having to stop every few feet to grip the railing as Jason did something particularly naughty with her suit. Her arousal slicked her thighs and she could smell her own musk mixing with the tropical scent of her sunblock and the salty sea air. The finger was back, stroking her slit until she wanted to pull aside her bathing suit and thrust her fingers into her hot, aching pussy.
“I have a perfect picture of you in my mind, your legs spread wide to show me every inch of your pretty cunt.” He made a deep groan that caused goose bumps to rush over her skin. “So fucking wet, I want to shove myself into you, to fill you up with my cock until I don’t know where I end and you begin.”
She sighed in relief as she opened the back door of the beach house and stepped into the air-conditioned quiet of the lower level. Thankfully no one else was in sight and she tried to brush the sand off her feet as best she could while imaginary teeth nibbled a trail over her hip and down toward her pussy. She was tempted to duck into one of the downstairs bathrooms but didn’t want to be interrupted by people coming in from the beach.
“I’m almost there,” she murmured as she took the stairs two at a time.
“To your room?” Jason asked in an innocent voice as he did something that made it feel as if her clit was being gently rolled between two strong fingers.
Sweat trickled down her back as she gave up all attempts at being subtle and ran to her room once she reached the top of the stairs. “When I see you, I’m so going to repay you for this,” she said as she fumbled with the door to her room, the need building to the point of pain as her body cried out for relief from the slow, sensual torture.
“Promise?”
She jerked the door open and slammed it behind her. “You—”
The words died in her mouth as her heartbeat thudded in her ears. She had to be imagining the sight before her, it couldn’t be real. There was no way that she saw Jason sitting on the love seat, clad in only a pair of worn jeans with his hard cock straining against the fabric.