It was another Friday night. I was relieved to see that Jamie wasn’t there. I asked mom about him, and she told me that she would not be inviting him back to the house. I knew that she was still thinking about what I had told her about him, and I was trying hard not to say any more. I should have kept my mouth shut, but it was just too much to have him there.
The evening was more like usual. I was helping mom in the kitchen when I heard someone coming in the front door and getting greeted by Karen. I looked over to my mother and she kind of shrugged. There was a sinking feeling in my stomach as I poked my head through the swinging doors. I was shocked to see who was standing there.
“Hey, Nicola. Tell your mom that I brought the wine.”
I nodded my head and then moved back into the kitchen. “Mom?!?”
“What?”
I knew what she was doing. She was never very good at being sneaky. “What is he doing here?”
“Jerold?”
I gave her an exasperated look. She was trying to pretend like she didn’t know what I was talking about. “So why is he here, mom? Why did you invite my boss here?”
“Well, he isn’t really your boss, dear. You are subcontracted out.”
There was a look in her eyes and a tone in her voice. “Mom, you can’t be serious!”
She was, though, I could tell. She was shameless in her pursuit of finding me a boyfriend, and I didn’t think that she was ever going to stop until I finally gave up and married one of them. “He is a nice man. Your father and your brothers all think so. He is rich, handsome and he looks at you like you are the only woman in the world. You need to see what is right in front of you, Nicola.”
All of what she said was true, but there was another side of him that no one else knew about. I was the one who’d had to bend over and be spanked, pleasured and punished. Jerold was all of those things, but he was so much more too.
“He is my boss. I know that you are thinking technicalities, but he is still my boss, so please don’t start messing with him. I can’t take another crazy guy right now. Jamie is following me, I think. He showed up at Clinton’s and told me that he wasn’t leaving until I went back with him.”
Mom looked like she felt bad, but I still kind of thought it was her fault. She was the one who was still talking to him, and if she hadn’t called him and given him updates on me, maybe he never would have come. Maybe he would have forgotten what it was like when we were ‘us’ and stayed away.
“Do you want me to talk to him?”
“No, mom, I want you to stop talking to him. And stop calling my boss and trying to make a love match!” I could feel my heart racing and my temperature was going up. I couldn’t really yell like I wanted to, knowing that he was in the next room with all of my family. “I mean it. Just leave it be.”
I didn’t stop to see how she responded. I knew that she most likely had a hurt look on her face that was going to make me feel guilty, and I didn’t want to feel that way. I wanted to be mad at her. It was not the first time she’d spent too much time and energy on my love life. I just wanted to make my own decisions, even if they were the wrong ones. I was sure that Jerold was a bad decision, but it didn’t matter. When I was with him something took over me. When we were together it didn’t matter that it was wrong. But having him here with my family, and them knowing who he was to me, was not something that was so easy to see past.
Taking a deep breath, I went out to the dining room and started to put a few plates on the table. Jerold met my eyes from his spot in the living room. I sent him a look of wonder and he just kind of grinned at me in the way that he did. His smile was disarming and I couldn’t help but smile back. It didn’t help that my mother was coming out of the kitchen just then and saw the look. She didn’t say a word, but I could tell that she wanted to say something.
The dinner was one of the longer ones that we’d had recently. There was a lot to talk about, and I was happy to listen to everyone else and keep my business out of it. I didn’t have much good to say. I graduated the next week, but I wasn’t really worried about that anymore. I was too wrapped up in Jerold and the games we played to actually care too much about a piece of paper. It didn’t seem to matter much at all now. Before it had been a dream, but dreams and priorities change.
When everyone started to leave, Jerold asked me if I wanted to go for a walk. I was surprised, but I did like the idea of being with him just a little bit longer. Last time he’d been mad at me, but this time was different. Jerold was open and laughing, something that I’d never really seen at work. It was a whole other side of him, and I wanted to see more. It was one thing to be around him with the family. It was another to get away from everyone’s prying eyes.
“I think this is the first time that we have really been alone.”
His eyebrow went up. I was unconsciously steering him down to a small swimming hole that I had been going to since I was young. It had a nice dock and was rather private. That was what I think I wanted it for. I wanted a place to be alone with him, and more than anything I wanted to play some more games. We hadn’t played any in a long time, days that seemed to feel like full weeks of no touch.
“Where are we?”
“This is called Smitty’s Pier.”
He didn’t seem too impressed, and when I looked back I could see why. There really wasn’t anything wonderful or spectacular about it. The best part of Smitty’s had been how close it was to my house. It had been close enough to walk to every morning and I had done just that many times in my youth.
“I’ve never heard of this place.”
“Well, I’m sure that has something to do with the fact that there would be no place to park your yacht.”
He gave me a strange look. I wondered what it was about. I guessed I shouldn’t have said anything about the fact that he was filthy rich, but I was certain that he hadn’t been to many places like the pier. It was a small and kind of out-of-the-way place for locals. I imagined that he stayed in his gated community on the other side of town. He wasn’t from my area.
“You don’t like that I have money, do you?”
I shrugged. It didn’t matter to me either way, it never had. But I liked that he got so defensive about it. I don’t know why, but I did. “It’s not that. I’m just not used to people that have money. Both of my parents work for the city, so you know that they aren’t making a bunch of money. So all of that fancy stuff that you keep ordering I usually have to find a recipe for. Just different in a lot of ways, is all.”
It occurred to me that that was the most I had ever said to him in one go. Usually I was so quick to get away from him, but now all I wanted to do was be near him. He was walking closer, and as we made it to the pier, he took my hand and tucked it into his arm. I felt safe with him and leaned in against his strong shoulders.
“You can make me anything you want, Nicola.”
“Well, aren’t you easy today.”
“Not easy, very hard. It is the state I am in with you all of the time.”
I didn’t know what to say to that. It wasn’t something that I could really comment on, but I hoped that his saying that meant that he was ready to do something about it. I couldn’t believe how much I wanted him, to be with him in all ways, but ever since I had taken him into my mouth, he had changed a little. I wondered if I had gone too far. I hadn’t really thought much of it then; it was just a way to pay him back for what he had done for me. It had been perfect and a little maddening, but if I would have known that he would act like this, I wouldn’t have done it at all.
“Well, you haven’t asked for any more special lunches, sir. I thought maybe you’d had your fill.”
He stopped me when we were almost to the end of the pier. I was looking down into the water and I had a moment where I wanted to ask him to swim with me. It was not something I thought he would do, but the water called to me, and when I asked him, I think he surprised us both with his yes.
I hadn’t really thought it through, though. It wasn’t like I had a bathing suit on. But all thoughts left my mind when he started to take his shirt off. I hadn’t seen much more of him than his manhood, and the hard lines of his chest made me pause. I couldn’t take my eyes off of him, and quite frankly, I didn’t want to. He was gorgeous. I was still standing there fully clothed. I needed the man badly, and I felt like once again he was teasing me. He had to know what he did to me, he had to.