Business Connection Pt. 03

James clicked the "Leave Meeting" icon, gently closed his laptop, turned his desk chair toward the window behind him, and gazed at the snowy New England scene developing outside the plant.

The unexpected video conference with co-worker (and friend with benefits) Steve had brought shocking news that Steve was resigning his position as the California plant manager and taking over ownership of his wife's family's business in Tennessee. Her father had decided to retire and she was his only child. Steve wanted to tell James first, but wasn't going to notify the company yet, in the event something went sideways with the move.

James began to recall the last time Steve and he were together, three months earlier, at the company's September plant managers meetings. Since Steve and James were the only two participants who had to travel, from California and Massachusetts respectively, the company let them stay in an Airbnb condo owned by a senior VP.

His mind wandered to the last night of their stay. After grabbing a quick bite to eat, they hit the fitness room at the condo complex, then, as James started to feel a hamstring tighten, headed back to their shared condo. It was a two bedroom unit that shared a bathroom/shower. Over the previous two nights, they had only slept in Steve's bedroom, after they had first become intimate.

James limped into his room, pulling his T-shirt off, planning on stripping for the shower, but Steve quickly caught up, guiding him to the bed.

"James, let's ice your hammie first, then the heat from the shower. I used to get sore hamstrings all the time when I played baseball in college I can make it feel better."

Steve ran to the kitchen for a big bowl of ice and a plastic bag with more ice. He rolled James onto his tummy and began using the bag to massage the sore spots.

James felt his legs relax and moaned with pleasure from Steve's strong hands.

"I can tell this is working," Steve said, as he worked up and down both legs with the ice. "Let's work on your glutes a bit, too..." Steve eased James's running shorts over his juicy bubble butt and off completely.

"I don't remember complaining that my glutes were bothering me, " said James, as he saw both his shorts and undies and Steve's t-shirt get tossed aside.

"Complaining?" asked Steve.

James answered by spreading his legs just enough so that Steve saw an opportunity to climb on the bed and kneel between them. Steve began massaging the sexy hairy ass of his friend, then gently running his thumbs closer and closer to the crack where the thickest hair gathered, then ran one down, down to James's tight hole.

James first felt Steve gently but firmly massaging his hole, causing tingles of pleasure throughout his groin. He grabbed an ice cube and gently rimmed his friend with it. Then the sensation of Steve's whiskered face on his sweaty back sent the pleasure throughout his body. In one motion, Steve slid out of his shorts, gently laying his hardness between James's cheeks, letting his full weight rest on his friend.

James rocked under Steve, his cock pressed into the comforter. He felt Steve's large, soft balls rub his ass, Steve's cock leaking precum in his crack. He began to wonder if Steve wanted to fuck him...and also whether he wanted it, too. His only concern was Steve's girth.

Steve relieved James's trepidation when he moved off James, lying next to him so they faced each other. As if they were a married couple making love for the thousandth time, they pulled each other close and kissed...despite all the other things they had done the previous two nights, it was their first kiss...a deep, passionate meeting of lips, tongues...eyes closed, giving themselves to the other.

The two men pressed closer still, hands gliding over each other, legs intertwining, hips undulating. James felt Steve's hard cock against him, and moved to make both cocks touch. James found Steve's nipple, twisting, tugging as he kissed deeper, tongues jousting, then caressing.

Moans, the creaking bed, the sound of hairy legs rubbing, and soft wet kissing filled the room. Steve moaned even louder still, and, as James felt him thrust, he guessed why. James reached down to take Steve's cock, stroking it against his own. James ran his thumb over the top of his own drooling cock, then used his precum as lubrication, circling Steve's crown...one way...then the other...then down to his sweet spot, just under Steve's cumhole.

Steve's eyes opened wide as he let out a deep guttural moan, and James knew his friend was about to cum. He wrapped his fingers around both of their cocks, and rocked back and forth with his own tool, sliding it up and down Steve's shaft. James then felt Steve's cock spasm..and his hot cum bursting on their skin. The first hot spurt on James's cock was enough to send him over the edge, as he gently bit Steve's lower lip, their eyes locked...their seering jizz mixing between their tightly pressed bodies.

They kissed, snuggled, and held each other some more. James then whispered softly, "Steve, I hope you know, understanding all in our lives, that I love you!"

Steve smiled, pulled James back to him, kissing him again. "I love you, too, James."

As he snapped back to the present, James felt a sense of loss and loneliness thinking about Steve's exit from his company, and potentially his life. A lot had changed in the three months since they had been together.

In October, James and his wife had separated. She had spent the summer caring for her ill mother in Maine. When James returned from his business trip, she was sitting at the table, waiting for him, to tell him she was going to return to Maine for good. She didn't want to be married any longer; her life needed to be devoted to her mother. And James made no argument. He couldn't move to Maine, he had invested too much into his career with the company. The divorce papers were filed, and the process would be complete by the new year.

At Thanksgiving, his daughter announced she was accepting a job in New York City. She had been on her own for a few years, but still lived in Massachusetts at the time. And the final straw was his youngest son's decision to join the accounting firm in Philadelphia, where his oldest son had become a partner.

Just as Steve was making a major change in his career, James felt like he needed to make a leap. He began analyzing his options.

The following week James saw a video conference invitation pop into his email from his boss soon after he arrived at the plant. He had expected the invite - his boss would want to talk about Steve's exit and the process for replacing him. After hearing of Steve's planned departure, James had decided how he wanted to take control of the situation and make some changes in his life.

"Good morning, boss. I was wondering when I'd hear from you. And before you start, I have a request for you. I want to take over Steve's plant. Move me to California, and I'll help find someone to run my plant here in Massachusetts."

The VP was caught by surprise, but he saw the logic in the request. Other than Steve, no one knew the California operation better than James. And he would be around to mentor his replacement in Massachusetts. But it still took a week for the leadership to agree to the proposal.

With just a week left before Steve's exit, it was decided that James would be sent to work with Steve before he left the company. However, a surprise winter storm whittled the time they would have together down to one day, as long as the airports stayed opened.

Steve had seemed genuinely excited at both the prospect of seeing James again and the opportunity to turn his plant over to his former mentor. Steve and his wife, Val, had already sold their house. At the moment, she was back in Tennessee, settling their teenagers in and finding a home. So Steve invited James to share the hotel room he and Val rented.

Steve met James at the airport, dressed casually in shorts and a t-shirt. James pulled him close, hugging him tightly enough to feel Steve's impressive package. He was already thinking about going down on Steve like he did the first time they were together. It was evident that Steve had something similar in mind by the way he was rubbing James's thigh, caressing his bulge as he drove to the hotel.

As soon as they got to the room, James pushed Steve back on the bed and began to pull his shorts down. Just as Steve's fat drooling cock breached his underwear, his cell phone went off.

"It's Val," said Steve, with a concerned look on his face. James could only hear Steve's side of the conversation. "Already? Oh, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, we just got to the room. Yeah, almost. Ok, we'll be there when you get in. I love you, too"

As he hung up, shaking his head, Steve broke the news to James, "Val wasn't flying in until tomorrow, but she had to catch an earlier flight to beat a developing storm. She's landing in an hour so we have to get back to the airport!"

Steve pulled himself together, grabbed a jacket to carry in front of him, to cover up for the outline of his hard cock, and he headed out the door with a disappointed James following. James felt that his last opportunity to make love to Steve again was out the door, too.

Steve was noticeably quiet from the hotel room, down the elevator, to the parking lot. James wondered if he was also lamenting the lost opportunity, or even contemplating finding a way for them to be alone. He was not prepared for Steve's disclosure.

"James, Val knows about us." Steve said, as he maneuvered the car towards the airport. He said it in a way that was not panicked, nor desperate for help. To James, his friend sounded relieved, not that Val knew about their relationship, but that now James knew that Val was aware. James felt confused.

"How...uh...how long has she known...er how did she find out?" James stammered.

"I told her, maybe a month ago." Steve took a deep breath as he began to tell how their secret came out.

"You and I had talked about how my sex life with Val was near non-existent. When we did it, we rushed. But mostly we didn't do it. Then, at the meetings...those nights with you...it was amazing, you were...are...um...you take your time. So many little things you do, we did...it reminded me of how it used to be with Val. The past couple of years, it hasn't been like that. All the way back from Chicago, on the plane, I thought about how it was with you...and how it used to be with Val. I had a boner the whole way, but I also figured some things out."

"Can't wait to hear!" James prodded.

Steve talked about some typical strategies for saving a marriage, showing appreciation for his wife, paying more attention to the things she talked about, being more affectionate.

Then he talked about the night he drew a bubble bath for her, brought her a glass of wine, and, when she started washing herself, kneeled next to the tub and took over - scrubbing her back, even washing her hair.

"So that night, after the bath, she grabbed my hand and walked me to the bed. I wasn't finished taking care of her, though. I gave her a full body massage, then started kissing her all over, and, something you taught me, I slid my tongue down between her cheeks, and started French kissing her ass!"

"Sounds hot! She liked it, right?" Smiled James, remembering Steve's reaction to his tongue down there.

"Oh yeah, we fucked like teenagers all weekend after that," grinned Steve. "And I have spent more time eating her pussy since that night, too, than I had the past several years!"

"So, Steve, how did we get from Val and you enjoying a newly phenomenal sex life to her knowledge of our experiences?"

"At some point in November, after we made love all afternoon one Sunday, she started asking questions. It started out about things being different suddenly. Different, good, obviously, but she started trying different scenarios to see my reaction. Did you have an affair with some woman from the plant, are you seeing porn with stuff you want to do. Understand, I have never been with another woman, and I've never lied to her!"

"Ok, keep going. She asked if you were with another man?" James asked.

Steve laughed, "No, she never actually asked that. You know, she spied on your mentoring sessions when I first started. Yeah, when we did the video chats from home a few times. She used to joke that I had to ask you how to pee standing up."

"Oh, that's funny!"

"Yeah, so one night, after we made love, she asked if you taught me about oral sex! And, you kind of, did. I used to just go down on her just for me, you know, let's get this out of the way before I stick it in. Well, that night, she must have had four orgasms from me licking her. I even ate her out after I came in her!"

"Mmmmm... sloppy seconds!" James snickered. "And...what did you tell her?"

"Yeah, enjoying that!" Smiled Steve, thinking about eating his own cum from Val's pussy. "So, about her questions, I tried to just let it pass, but she kept pushing. Then it suddenly got real. She said she knew I was hiding something, but she loved me and was not going to let secrets exist between us. She grabbed her phone and pulled up these DMs from this woman Maria who was her roommate in college, when we started dating."

"The DMs mentioned that Maria had heard we were moving back to Tennessee, and were all about asking if Val wanted to get together ever, to revive their relationship! Then Val just said it, flat out, she said, 'Steve, Maria and I met up in October, when I went home to Tennessee. We spent the night together...our relationship in college was a romantic one...yes, I'm bisexual...but I love you, and I told Maria that our relationship was special, but it's in the past. Please believe me, I love you, and I only want to be with you."

"Oh shit. You never suspected anything?" James asked.

"I met her roommate a few times, but I just thought she was full of herself, so I never really hung around Val's room. Then one semester, Val just had a new roommate. And she and I started dating more seriously. I never realized..."

"So there we were, Val was opening up to me, and I believed everything she said about her love for me because I felt it, and never doubted it. And at that point, I was holding something back, and she knew it. I really had no choice. I told her that you and I had slept together. At first, she thought I was making it up, to get even or something. She asked a lot of questions...I answered them all...told her everything."

"How did she react?" James was wondering where this was all going.

Steve guided the car into a parking space as he contemplated how to explain things to James. "Val has a lot of respect for you. She has seen first hand how much you have unselfishly contributed to my success. She felt terrible for you when she heard your marriage had ended. And she knows how valuable our friendship is to me. She had listened to everything, and, odd as it was to hear it, she said she was happy for me...like she was proud that I had acted on my impulses. And that I had, you know, gone full in on the experience."

"She didn't feel hurt or betrayed?" James was still trying to figure out the whole scenario before him.

"James, I know what you are thinking. I was ready for the worst, too. I thought our marriage was done. But she said she weighed it out, saw that we were both missing something from the other...and felt that we had found it again. Then, when I told Val you were coming out here before we left, she said that you and I need to get together again...to be with each other...and she wanted to be with us."

"Wait...what?" was all that James could sputter out.

"James, she got so fucking hot listening to me talk about our time together. She begged me to ask you, if she could be in the room!"

James looked at his friend for a moment, thought about how much he cared about Steve...how much he wanted to pleasure this strong, masculine man next to him...and he thought about this woman whom he had never met, but he felt so much respect for her at that moment. "Steve, let's go meet up with Val, grab something to eat, and we'll see where things go."

James had only seen a few pictures of Val, mostly with her surrounded by family. He was anticipating the typical frazzled mom, hair askew, makeup attempting to cover her age. He could not have been more wrong.

The woman rushing towards Steve, arms outstretched, wide smile, was dressed in an oversized grey T-shirt and tight grey workout pants. Her straight dark brown hair fell just below her shoulders and not a hair was out of place. She wore understated jewelry - all sterling silver - from her rings, to bracelets, necklaces, which all helped accentuate her smoky grey eyes. She wore little makeup, if any...maybe just a subtle pink lip gloss. And her body - Kate Upton would be envious, especially considering Val was around 45 years of age. Even in the large shirt, James could tell Val was gifted with large, full breasts. Her waist was slender, flaring only slightly toward her sexy round ass.

Steve and Val broke from their embrace and turned to James. As Steve introduced Val, she wrapped her arms around James, burying her head in his shoulder, warmly exclaiming, "Oh, James, so glad to meet you!"

They gathered Val's bag, found their car, and headed to the restaurant attached to their hotel.

Over dinner, the trio talked of kids, moving, home buying, and the joys of commercial transportation. James enjoyed hearing Val's refined, elegant Tennessee drawl and was entertained by her gentle banter with Steve. Wine with the meal may have loosened all up, but no one had more than two glasses. James began seriously consider not following through on the request that Val had made, fearing it was not really what she wanted.

When Steve went to get another bottle of wine to take to the room, James found himself alone with Val. He saw that she was watching Steve walk to the bar with a serene, satisfied look on her face.

When she glanced away from Steve and saw that James was watching her, she smiled, reached across the table, putting her hand on his, and whispered, "James, thank you for flying out, and for coming to dinner tonight. And please know, I am totally ok with you and Steve being together tonight. Having you in his life has meant everything to him." James suddenly felt a sense of well-being, of belonging with his friend, Steve, that night, and of comfort with Val's presence however that would be manifested.

Steve returned, carrying a bottle of Merlot from a particular vineyard that he liked in the Napa Valley. "Check's paid, we have wine, loved ones to hold close, and the evening ahead of us. James, Valerie, shall we?"

This was the first time James had ever heard Steve call Val by her full name. Looking for her reaction, he noticed she blushed, seemingly suppressing a sly grin, before literally bouncing to her feet. She maneuvered her way between the two men, hooked her arms in theirs, and the trio was off to the room.

As they entered the room, Val quickly scanned the state of disorder before her - there was James's baggage, fast food wrappers from Steve's dining during her absence, towels strewn about. She gave Steve a mildly disapproving look, then waved her hand at the mess. "You boys straighten this shit up while I shower."

She headed for the bathroom, then stopped, spun with hands on hips, taking in the two queen beds separated by the typical hotel nightstand with a King James Bible in the drawer. "And can you pull the nightstand out so you can slide the beds together?"

James and Steve got to work as Val showered. As Steve got the room in shape, James went for ice to chill the wine. He returned to find the room reorganized, the lights dimmed, with Steve setting the plastic cups for the wine on the desk table as Val, towel wrapped around her, ran the blow dryer over her hair.