Willow

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Pike finally passed out with his cock still hard inside of me.  I lost count of how many times he took me in the hours after dinner, before I had to leave or face the wrath of Lucielle.  From the moment he took me to the bedroom, if his cock wasn’t inside me, his mouth was on me or his fingers were playing me like a Stradivarius.

Holy orgasms, Batman.

I could write a year’s worth of articles for Cosmo about how the multiple orgasm is alive and well, thank you very much.

Pike wasn’t that far behind me. In my limited amount of knowledge I’d gathered over the years from friends, co-workers and the internet, it’s rare for a man to have more than one or two climaxes in a session.  Well, let’s just say, Pike is highly unusual.  

Highly, highly unusual.

In fact, his cock was hard the entire time.  Cum was streaming down the insides of my thighs.  I begged and he came in my mouth; only once, but God it was heaven.  It felt amazing doing that for him.  Knowing I gave him that pleasure.

He’d already been awake over twenty-four hours, so by 1 AM he was dead to the world and I wiggled out from under him. It felt strange not having him inside me though, I will admit.  In that short amount of time, he’s become part of me in so many ways.   I waited until his breathing became steady again, then I slipped out of the softness of the bed and tiptoed over the glossy wood floor of his top floor apartment.

It may seem dumb.  A girl like me, so focused on this job that doesn’t even pay me enough to get a decent apartment, but it’s a stepping stone.  And it’s mine.  All mine.  Something I made for myself.  Not something my mother deigned to grant me.

I texted Lucielle when I dropped off the shoes to the photo shoot.  I swear that woman must be an android because she doesn’t sleep.  Never.  Whenever I text her, all hours of the day and night, she replies.  Like she did just now.

Lucielle:  It’s about time.

I roll my eyes and wait for her to send something else. Some other mundane duty to fulfill.  But after five minutes my cell phone is silent and I let out a deep breath.  

It’s not my job that is weighing on me, though. It’s Pike.  

It’s this thing we have.  Whatever this thing is.  I shake my head and look up and down the street, my arm ready to hail a cab.  I’m wearing just my favorite pink T-shirt and the loose denim skirt, and it’s gotten chilly tonight.  My nipples are twinging and reminding me of the way Pike used his teeth on me just a few hours ago.  The other twinge, the one between my legs, is reminding me of the way it felt when he entered me the first time.  The pain, yes, but also the connection.  The two were intertwined, inseparable.

He doesn’t ask for anything and yet I long to give him everything.

When the first raindrops hit my nose a chill covers me.  A wind whips down West 28^th Street and goosebumps run up and down my bare legs.  For June it’s cold tonight, or maybe I’m just more sensitive than ever before.  Summer in New York isn’t quite as amazing as summer in Paris, but it’s pretty close. But right now, I’d do just about anything for a cab.  Or a coat.

“Thank God.”  I flail my arm like mad as I see the lit up sign on top of a yellow Caprice Classic on the street.

I plop into the backseat and for a moment think of where to send the driver.  I settle on Pike’s address, and when it leaves my lips a sense of peace comes over me as the driver hits the gas and the inertia settles me back into the seat.

I pick up my phone and log on to Facebook.  It’s not even thirty seconds before my mom is pinging me on Messenger.

Mom:  Willow.  You up?  I’m Skyping you now.

She doesn’t give me a chance to answer before my Skype ringer is going off.

“Hello, Mother.”  She’s in London so it’s a perfectly reasonable hour there, I guess.  She doesn’t even consider what time it is here.

“What are you doing?”  Her voice is sharp.

I sigh.  “What do you mean?  Like what am I doing at this moment or is this a broader question?  Because if it’s ‘what am I doing with my life’ I don’t think I have time right now——”

“I got a call from Pierson Marcus.”

Pierson Marcus.  Derrick’s father.

My heart stops beating and the cold that was outside on the street is suddenly in the back of the cab with me.

“What did he want?”

Truthfully, I don’t want to know the answer.  From my mother’s tone I can already surmise this is not something that is going to make me do a tap dance and sing a show tune.

“They are considering retaining my firm. He sits on the board of directors for Axix Telecom.  He and his group want us to represent them in the final stages of the merger with Richards’ Holdings.  And if that deal goes well, then they may consider us for representation ongoing.”

“Okay, so that’s wonderful.  I’m very happy for you.”  I deadpan my reply, knowing there is more to this conversation than meets the ear.

“It is wonderful, Willow. Or it was wonderful, until about twenty minutes ago.”

“Mom.  What I have to do with any of this is beyond me.  It’s the middle of the night here and I’m not all that great at decoding things at the best of times, so please, can you just give me the condensed version of whatever this is?”

“Don’t be smart with me, young lady.  You want to keep living in my penthouse and spending my money?”

No.  I want to snap back but I don’t.  Instead I count to ten, the cloak of my shame covering me with each number.  “Sorry, Mother.  What is it?”

“I hate to bring up the past...”

Oh, sure you do.  Like Elvis hates peanut butter.  “But...”  I say, looking out the window as the rain starts to create glistening streaks of water across the glass.

“This ugliness from high school.  With his son.  All that nonsense.”

I’m shivering even with the blazing heat inside the cab.  Words are caught in my throat as I sit up straight and my free hand wraps around my waist.

My mother’s voice deepens.  “I’ve done my best to support you, Willow.  Even you said that you were drinking that night. Drunk because you said yourself you don’t remember it all. Now, Derrick and his father need you to clear this up once and for all.  The silly accusations you made.  Derrick is one of us.  It’s time you straightened this out.  I won’t let one night of childish nonsense ruin one of the biggest retentions my firm will ever have, Willow.”

You call it drunk. I call it I tried one glass of champagne and ended up black out drunk.  I’d say that drink had more than bubbles in it, but you didn’t seem to want to hear that part.

Instead of saying what I should, I hold my temper and ask, “What are you talking about?”  

The stinging in my eyes is not from lack of sleep.  I hate that she can still wield this power over me.  Like I’ve not grown up at all.  The day after the party when Derrick was on top of me, his hand over my mouth and my innocence stolen from me, I’d cried to her.  

Cried my eyes out.  Sobbed and tore at my hair as she sat behind her desk, her arms crossed, telling me in an admonishing tone, ‘These things happen, Willow.  You can’t just put yourself in the position to tempt a man, then expect him to not take what he needs.  Especially when you are drunk.  Willow, really.  Just let this go.  You are as much at fault as Derrick.  More so, in fact.’

Her voice swims into my head, through the mists of memories, into the cab.  “...need to apologize to Derrick and his family.  Say you are sorry it’s taken you so long, but you want to make things right.  The accusations were unfounded, you know that, and you were the one that enticed him that night.”

My stomach threatens to release, right here in the back of the filthy cab filled with the scent of street hotdogs, mustard and a locker room.

My mother wouldn’t go to the police. But she did make me go to the doctor.  They gave me a pill, ‘just in case’ my mother said.  She said what happened was a private matter.  Even back then I knew rape was not a private matter, it was a criminal offense, even if I was intoxicated and couldn’t fight back.  But I deferred to her.  Then, when my brain couldn’t take it anymore, I blurted to Murphy at school.  She was the one who went to the headmaster, who then called me to his office.  

I knew I shouldn’t say any more to the headmaster.  I knew my mother would hate me for it, but for once in my short life I defied her.  I told him what happened.  The party. The drinking.  How I remember even in and out of consciousness that Derrick was on top of me.

The school opened a quiet investigation but no law enforcement was called.  Just my mother.  And Derrick’s father.

It was humiliating.  Sitting there in front of the group while Derrick told his side of the story.  In the end, it was kept out of the legal end of things, hushed up and kept quiet.  But to Derrick and his family, his golden name had been tarnished.  By me.

“This is bigger than your ego, Willow.  There is a lot at stake.”

“Isn’t there always?”  I mumble, trying to fight the sickness and anger bubbling up inside me.

“And...”  Her voice hardens and I turn to ice.  She’s always got an ace in the hole.  “This whole tawdry business with your stepfather?  That would be so unfortunate.  If it all came out, I mean.  Pike’s merger is at a critical point.  He doesn’t need bad PR right now, does he?”

Right then my phone dings through the Skype app.  It’s Pike calling.

“Mom.  This has been lovely, as always.  I’m hanging up now.”

“Oh no you don’t, young lady.  You want to see your grandmother?  You want a place to live?  That little black Amex in your wallet that pays all your bills?  That’s not an entitlement, my dear.  So you listen to me...”

I let Pike’s call go to voicemail as I lean over and curl my torso over my legs, holding the phone to my ear as my mother’s voice hits me in all the tender places.

“Anyway, there’s no need for any of this to turn nasty.  I love you, darling, you know that.  You will just write up a formal letter, recanting all those ridiculous accusations regarding that night with Derrick Marcus. You will meet at the offices of Stern & Bergman in the morning, 10 AM.  Derrick and his father will be there, you will apologize to them, you will give them your letter and everyone will get what they want.  My firm wins. Pike wins. Marcus and Derrick win.  You learn a valuable lesson. This is how life in our world works, my dear girl. I’ve coddled you too long.  Yes, time you grew up.”

Voices in the background on the other end of the phone are talking to her as the cab pulls off in front of Pike’s building.

I can’t help but ask, “Why does he even care mother?  It’s been so many years.  Who even cares anymore?  It’s not like anyone did anything about it anyway.”  My voice raises, higher with each word.  

Who cares?  I do.  I care.  

And if I can let it go, then surely they can let me do so.  The desperate anger I felt back then is coming back with every instant.  My own mother sided with my attacker back then and she’s doing so again now. In a even worse way now.

“It does matter to him, Willow.  If you were wrongly accused of something, you would want your name cleared as well.  It may not have gone to the police, but it still embarrassed Derrick and his family.  It’s time to set things right.  Time to grow up, stop being a petulant child, stop spreading nasty rumors like some spoiled little girl.  This is about business now.  Grown up business.  Do you understand?”

I sigh.  “Yes.”

“So you will write the letter.  You will go to the meeting.”

“I said yes.”

“Good, because——”

I end the call.  I can’t listen to another word from her.

Pike and my mother were already divorced when what happened with Derrick happened.  I don’t want him to ever know.  Last night, when we were together, I didn’t think for a second about it.  What happened between me and Pike was my first time.  I will always consider it that way.  Derrick will not take that away from us. I won’t let him.  He’s already taken so much.

The cab pulls to a stop in front of Pike’s building, just as my phone buzzes again in my hand.  I rummage in my bag for the $20 to hand the cab driver and stare at the screen of my phone.

Pike:  HEY.  Where are you?  You don’t just leave like that princess.

Even in the short time we’ve been together, I feel the impact of that single word.

I thank the cab driver, smiling a smile I don’t feel, and pull the handle on the door.  The deluge from the sky is picking up as I step out into the street, drenching me in the short space before I get to the protective canopy where the doorman is running to me with an umbrella.

As soon as I’m under some cover I text Pike back.

Me:  Sorry.  I had to take care of Lucielle.

It’s 2:40 am and I’m beyond exhausted.

Pike:  When I call you need to answer.  When you don’t answer, I will come and find you.  

Me:  Okay

The doorman opens the door and I step into the warmth of the lobby.  My hair is dripping into my face.  My pink T-shirt is plastered against my body and my canvas slip-ons squish water between my toes with every step toward the elevator.  I’m covered in goosebumps.  A shiver running up and down my back and tightening my muscles into knots.

Pike:  Okay?  That’s your answer?  

I heave out a sigh and let the back of my wet head rest against the elevator wall.  A chill starts in the middle of my back, spinning outward until it shakes me from top to bottom.  My phone buzzes with another text.

Pike:  I’m glad you are getting on the elevator right now.

My eyes snap open and I take a quick last glance around the lobby to see if Pike is watching me.

Me:  How do you know that?  

Pike:  Taking care of you means many things, Caramia. You will learn all of them. I’m waiting by the elevator upstairs.  We will talk about you leaving without saying goodbye as well. There will be new rules for you princess.  Rules that when broken will earn you punishments.  

His commanding voice rings in my ears even with the simple text message.  I feel his presence around me.  My belly tightens and...

My pussy is drenched.

Dripping.