Vic Stone Takes the Hard Road

CHAPTER 1

Vic Stone dropped out of college after two years with an excellent academic record in his business management studies. That was the agreement he had with his parents. He didn't want to join his older brother on the ranch so his folk had agreed to send him away to college, but only for two years because money was short.

Although it was difficult to quit Vic had taken it on the chin, knowing money had been spent on him that should have gone into running the ranch. Returning home he worked on out the ranch for two months without pay to show his appreciation and then left for Wrightson's Falls to live with his mother's sister, Aunt June and husband Ken Jackson and son Larry.

The arrangement was he'd work in Ken's general store in accounts, gaining experience, and pay for his keep. Vic had already enrolled with an accredited on-line educational provider to complete his degree.

Vic arrived at the house and found no one around, although it was Saturday. Larry, still at high school, was probably playing sport.

"Hi, it's Vic," he yelled.

"Hi Vic, welcome," called his aunt.

He voice came from the bathroom. He went in and found his aunt in the bath, having just removed a dildo and was rinsing it.

"Oh god, you shouldn't be in here?"

"Sorry, I ought to have knocked. Please don't make it awkward for me."

"Awkward for you? Christ what about me. Do you know what this is?"

"Yeah a dildo, all women use them don't they? That's why they prefer baths over showers."

June couldn't hold back a grin.

He smiled and said, "Are you okay with me in here?"

"Yes but not when the others are in the house."

"Hell no."

She smiled and moved her wider away when seeing he was looking at her breasts.

"They look great. Give me your dildo and I'll wash it properly for you."

June was so embarrassed she almost didn't hand it across.

"You appear very used to women?"

"Yeah. This past year a pal and I shared a house with three females from college. They really were piggy in the bathroom and in the bedrooms but kept elsewhere very tidy and were pretty hygienic in the kitchen."

"But they left dildos and vibrators around?"

"Yeah, and made us use them on them."

"Ohmigod," June said, slapping a hand over her mouth to cut the accelerating wild laugh.

She stood up and allowed Vic to see her. He handed her a towel and June said thanks, he was well trained.

"You don't shave?"

"No, Ken won't allow me."

Vic and his aunt continued that level of intimacy for the two years he lived with the family. She appeared to come to accept it as normal behavior.

Before long June was used to walking in on Vic when he was in his bedroom or in the bathroom if Ken and Larry weren't around and she told Vic he was exceptionally well hung and that pleased Vic. Eventually June arranged a couple of dates for him, the younger sisters of her friends without mentioning that to Ken because they were both married and considerably older than her nephew. After that Vic was becoming known and found his own dates. He related very well with Larry, who was three years his junior, but not with Ken who was an uptight guy.

Perhaps not unexpectedly, Vic and his aunt did have sex at the end of his stay. He received the invitation to go to the city where the online education provider was based to receive his Master's in Business Administration in person. Ken said he must attend to call his parents to invite them. Vic was congratulated by his parents but told they would be away on a farm study trip at that time so apologized for being unable to attend.

Ken was appalled to hear that. "I'll be preparing for the sale, you go with him June."

"Nah, I'll tell them to post it to me," Vic said, bitterly disappointed at his parent's order of priorities. "You'll need Aunt June at the store supervising sale preparations."

Ken patted Vic on the back. "June will go with you and that's the end of that."

At Silverdale City June didn't gave Vic a chance. She'd made the booking and had booked a single bedroom suite and was into Vic as soon as the bellboy closed the door behind them.

A week later Vic was on his way to Chicago, ending a very happy two years with his adopted family. He still couldn't get over how brilliantly and old woman like June, who was forty-two, could fuck. And she bordered on the obscene, telling him it had been her first opportunity in all her married life to really let it rip.

Thanks to June he'd learned to love an older woman. He'd always known his mother didn't love him and his father was barely neutral about him. His mom had wanted a girl and when he arrived as the second child she'd been devastated and had to given counseling over rejecting her baby. He could have loved his parents, and had tried hard, but they'd never given him a chance.

Vic now loved June as if she were his mother. He'd told her the night before he left when they were fucking again, Ken being at a Rotary dinner. June and cried and cried and clutching him said he was a poor darling and she never wanted to let him out of her arms.

Of course she did and cried beautifully for him at the train station. Even Ken was astonished at the watershed and when he asked what had brought that on June sobbed, "He's our son, you fool. Through staying with us these past two years he's become our son, substituting us for his parents who don't really love him."

Ken looked even more astonished but nodded. He dug into his wallet and hauling out five hundred bucks that he put into Vic's hand and slapped him on the back and said, "Have great success in Chicago son. Now don't you forget to come back and visit us."

Vic sniffed, "You two and Larry will receive tickets and hotel rooms to come to celebrate with me when I get my first big job."

As the train pulled away June was bawling unrestrained and Ken was flicking at the corner of his eyes. Never had Vic felt wanted like this. He realized he now belonged somewhere and to someone, although the links were rather circumstantial, but when you had been unofficially orphaned the circumstances don't matter a damn.

* * *

The size of Chicago really blew Vic's mind. He hadn't appreciated any city could be so big, although he was aware that there were larger cities than Chicago. But until now he'd not learned to measure in terms of metropolitan areas how big really big is when you become up close and personal.

The company he was told was only medium sized, but still it employed 440 people. He'd been interviewed on the phone for the position after applying formally and was told few other people had applied and so the position was his, because he had the best credentials. Vic assumed that meant no one else had applied.

After being inducted by HR a girl in a tight leather skirt with an amazingly shaped ass took him to Charles Chalk, the assistant financial controller. Vic was to be Charles' assistant so figured that made him assistant to the assistant and his title was assistant finance officer. Well someone had to start at the bottom didn't they?

Charles took Vic to his office and there was already someone sharing it with him.

"Paula, this is Victor Stone, my new senior assistant. Victor this is Paula Thomas, your PA."

The woman had fleshy lips and big tits that made her okay but Vic knew she was old, almost forty. He found it unbelievable that he rated a personal assistant. How the fuck could he keep himself and someone else busy?"

"Oh hi Mrs Thomas."

"Ohmigod, I've been saddled with a kid."

Charles said anxiously, "I'll leave you two to get to know one another," and scuttled off.

Mrs Thomas glared at Vic as if he were intruding. He knew he had to take charge.

"Are you rejecting me outright or are you prepared to give me a chance?"

She took a step backwards and said there was no need to be aggressive.

"If you ever call me a kid again I'll put you over my knee and paddle your ass."

Paula caught the faint grin and relaxed a little. "That sort of talk can land you as an executive into an employment dispute."

"Only if you rat on me."

She smiled. "Sit and I'll fetch coffee and tell you what you have to do around here."

Paula returned with the coffee and had to pull her tight skirt up before she could sit. She saw Vic eyeing her and said, "Is there something wrong with my legs?"

"They look okay to me. How far do they go up?"

She couldn't stop giggling. "I'm a married woman."

"I thought you would be and that's why I called you Missus and await the invitation to call you Paula. If I am permitted to say so you have rather a lovely body."

She blushed and asked, "Are you coming on to me?"

"I guess that a really big ground for a personal grievance?"

"A huge one unless I know how to keep my mouth shut."

"Would you be offended if I came on to you? The truth now."

"The truth is I don't know what to say. You are not behaving at all like a kid and have kept me off balance since you entered this office and opened your mouth. I do have the occasional affair but with men."

"I only arrived in the city yesterday afternoon and you, Charles, Wendy and Phyllis are the only people I know in Chicago."

"Wendy is in HR, who's Phyllis."

"My waitress last night and this morning at the joint where I booked in."

"God you poor man but you might get lucky, that's a ratio of three females to one male. Keep that up and as I say you might get lucky."

"That's a lovely comment Paula and you make great coffee. Now perhaps you can brief my while I stare at your boobs."

"Ohmigod, I don't know how to handle you Vic."

"Gently."

She screamed with laughter, settled down and gave the briefing. Vic's primary role was to check and approve the expense chits of all company personnel, from the vice-president down. He used Paula to crosscheck and it was her task to do the spot-checking and the initial investigation on any suspicion of irregularities and to follow up on genuine mistakes by the claimant.

"We assume that everyone from the vice-president down is cheating the company?"

Paula looked towards the door nervously and whispered yes.

"And the majority of irregularities concern claiming above entitlements?"

"Yes."

"Don't look surprised. I have experience in this work and did go to college."

Charles and another senior officer had worked with Paula on expense claims so there was no backlog to clear. For the remainder of the day she outlined Vic's other duties and he spent ninety minutes with Charles who explained how Vic had to supply back-up for him assisting with his overload and acting for him whenever Charles was away from the office.

Vic returned to his office at 5:15 and told Paula he had an appointment to see the controller in the morning.

"You'll find Mrs Wren is a total bitch. I was thinking, do you want to have dinner with me tonight? My husband is in LA over night."

"Oh yeah."

"Is that sufficiently enthusiastic for such an invitation? The kids are at their grandma's tonight."

"Ah, so I get more than dinner?"

Paula colored and said she thought they needed to discuss the wisdom of doing that although her thoughts were rather neutral because she thought Vic had the look and feel of someone who'd rise rapidly.

"You mean after dinner tonight?"

"No you fool," she giggled. "I mean up the tower."

* * *

They entered the apartment and Paula turned and quickly kissed Vic softly. They lingered linked until she broke away.

"Well you appear experienced, not being a groper."

"Or else I'm gay?"

She grinned. "I'm nervous about this. I'm thirty-eight and my daughters are thirteen and fourteen. This is their home and I've never committed adultery here."

"Well you decide. I have learned to go without when expecting it because you'll know what women are. We can always go it another time, somewhere else."

"No here, tonight."

"Well you order take-outs and I run a bath."

"Take-outs? I was going to cook for you."

"Okay but get the stuff ready but come bath with me."

"With me? You mean you wish to bath with me?"

"Yes."

"Ohmigod, my husband won't even look at me in the bath."

"Well that's his loss isn't it?"

Paula arrived nude and immediately said she'd birthed two children and was carrying a little extra weight.

"That's fine and many women are a great deal fatter than you. Who said fat women shouldn't be fucked?"

"Ohmigod."

Vic dropped the towel from around his waist and Paula said "Ohmigod" again, looking at his entire body and not just his half-aroused dick.

Vic helped her in and they discussed what they liked about sex and what really turned them on.

"Will you do anal with me? My husband won't do it."

He replied, "Let's see how we go. Is that why you occasionally break out?"

"Yes it's the main reason."

A few minutes later after Paula had gotten Vic filly erect with her feet, he pulled her on to him and pushed most of it into her.

"Oh that's just great," she cooed, as they sat quietly with Vic playing with her breasts and when her nipples were taut she sucked one of them, staring at him.

They had a very late night and as Vic was leaving, their kiss ending, Paula thanked him for leaving her with a tender ass.

* * *

Paula became another June for Vic, being the presence of a more mature woman he needed to advance his emotional development. She taught him about women although she and he only had sex very infrequently, knowing the risks were high. They operated as a team, rather than in a master-servant relationship. He'd found the controller was not the bitch he'd been led to expect and worked on fine-turning Paula's attitudes towards other women after noticing whenever guys came in to berate her for challenging expense claims she treated them coolly like assholes but if the complaint was female Paula was totally defensive and if it was a woman in a senior position her voice and hands shook.

Vic's approach was to convince her it was not a tribal thing, that women were not out to get her or at least to belittle her, they were actually attempting solely to throw a smokescreen or to try to ensure their claim stayed intact, that it was nothing to do with Paula personally even if they treated her like a bitch. Paula wore that but no way would she accept that Mrs Wren wasn't and out-and-out bitch.

"She's just bad-tempered and possibly has piles," Vic said wearily and Paula gaped and replied, "But she can't have; Mrs Wren is god." At last came the breakthrough, with Paula inadvertently admitting what her problem was with Mrs Wren: Mrs Wren was a bad-tempered authority whom Paula subconsciously considered was a god and should act like one.

Vic gradually got Paula to see the light, so much so that when they heard Mrs Wren's PA had resigned Vic told Paula to apply for the position.

"No way. It's a senior position."

"What's the fastest way to gain seniority?"

"To work hard to secure higher grading."

"Or to gain a senior position on merit. Paula please think about it. You worked in three other sections of Mrs Wren's domain before coming here. She will know you two or three times better than any other PA from other departments interested in the position. Guess who Mrs Wren will be looking at intently."

"Me?"

"Yes Paula Thomas."

"Ohmigod."

"Yes Paula, work on your application now while I write you're a glowing reference."

"But why are you doing this; don't you like me any more?"

"Paula, you are singularly responsible in this office for assisting me to head towards maturity. Charles, bless him, hasn't done a fucking thing for me apart from dumping work on me that I accept is my role. Look at me now and think about it Paula... eight months ago when I walked into this office you called me a boy. Think about it!"

"Ohmigod. And now my faith in you is being returned? I can see it now."

"Actually what did it Paula was your desire to get a leg over and see how I went?"

"Ohmigod, you are so disgusting."

Three weeks later Paula left for her new office besides Mrs Wren's with its connecting door.

Vic thought he wouldn't get sexy with his new PA. It had been a risk going down that track with Paula but she'd turned out to be remarkably well suited for that sort of two-pronged relationship. He needn't have worried. HR turned up with a woman, a spinster who lived with her sister, aged fifty-five who was so fast, so competent and so dedicated that she reduced Vic's work volume by half.

Two months later Mrs Wren called Vic to her office. Paula called him a minute later and said, "Wash your face and brush your hair. This is really big."

Alice Wren, moving off her chair uncomfortably and standing, said, "Welcome Vic, I'd like to introduce our vice-president Mr Wood. You will have seen him in the distance. Evan, this is Victor Stone, one of the best young executives I've had through my department in years, in fact probably the best ever."

"Good morning Victor. We have a minor crisis and this is to be kept very confidential."

"Absolutely sir."

"Call me Evan. We had a considerable amount of money missing from petty cash and engaged an outside auditor who traced the thief to our own internal audit department. The department manager has admitted the theft. He's walked, not paying back a cent but his loss of entitlements leaves us about even. If he attempts to sue us he'll be prosecuted for theft and is aware of that."

"This is the messy side to business administration isn't it Evan, hitting you in the gut when you find it is someone you've trusted?"

Evan glanced at Alice and nodded. "Quite right."

Evan patted his reclining hairline. "We wish to make an internal appointment but for obvious reasons have no wish to appoint someone from within audit itself. I've chaired a committee who examined twenty-seven possible candidates to be the replacement manager. There were no interviews, just an examination of CVs and other documentation including work records."

"So I'm the pick."

"I haven't said that yet, but yes. The choice was almost unanimous. You are short on experience but the work you have been doing is the closet to internal audit and you did work with a firm on internal audit during a summer semester. And yes the position is yours if you want it, on three months' trial."

"I'll accept but only as a permanent appointment."

There was a minute's standoff.

Alice said, "Do it Evan; he's the best candidate."

"Very well. Your salary kicks up to $62,000 and you receive an expense account and company vehicle. Any questions?"

"Just the one. I assume I can trust no one in that department?"

Evan grinned. "As you told us Alice, this young man is good. It seems reasonable to trust your chief administrator, Miss Ryan, who is our president's daughter."

"Being the president's daughter doesn't make her immune from being implicated in theft as a servant. I'll have to be suspicious of everything."

"For goodness sake Vic, don't let Daniel hear you suspect his daughter."

"He won't hear it from me but if he hears anything he hears it. Internal Audit should have no friends, show no favors, don't you think?"

"Ah yes, Vic. It's a very expensive department so we expect high performance."

"Thank you for that vote of confidence Evan."

"Right that's all Vic, and congratulations," Alice smiled. "Please go down to HR and Helene the manager will attend to you personally. You are undoubtedly our youngest senior executive so watch your step because everyone will be watching you."

"Thank you Alice and thank you for your confidence in me."

Going down the elevator to the twelfth level, Vic called Paula.

"Wow!"

"Yes wow," she said, a big smile reflected in her tone. "Remember I picked you would be on the fast track but I must say this is bigger than even I expected."

Vic said truthfully, "Just a matter of being the right guy in the right place and the right time honey. Will catch you later."