Facing The Consequences

"The tape..."

He was livid. He had fulfilled his part of the bargain but she was not done. Again he tried to free himself but she gripped him tightly.

"Do it!"

Ever fibre of his being said no but he had already come too far. With a huge effort of will he relaxed and put his tongue to work on her clitoris once more.

He thought that, having arrived at the plateau, it would be easy to get her to the summit once more but it seemed that, his time, she was going to retain control and enjoy it to the full. As the minutes passed she even got him to ease off once or twice and it was now her teasing herself.

His tongue was growing weary when she gave one final command.

"Now...suck it."

He took her clitoris between his lips and let his tongue brush over it as she rode out her second climax all the while whispering expletives.

He got up and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand as she slowly pulled herself together.

"Very nice. You know, under different circumstances I might enjoy working for you after all."

He resisted the urge to swear at her and simply said.

"The tape?"

"Don't worry...there only ever was the one copy."

He wanted to break her neck and for a second or two he saw fear in her eyes but she quickly moved towards the door. Only as she was nearly through it did she turn to drop one final bombshell.

"Your FinnSullu contract, you forgot to date it..."

Chapter 6

He literally felt his heart skip a beat as he feverishly tapped in the combination of the office safe. He wrenched the document from inside and turned frantically to the final sheet.

There, where the execution date should have been, was a glaring blank.

Cheryl had typed and e-mailed the document to his laptop in Helsinski and her covering note had reminded him that the one missing element was the date which would be witnessed by both signatories to the document. He had printed out the document still showing the generic narrative "DD/MM/YYYY" and in his haste to get the thing signed he had completely overlooked it.

He was over breathing and he tried to get himself under control. His first thought was to enter the date retrospectively but he would have to cross out the existing text and the obvious amendment would be open to challenge.

He found it hard to think straight but he forced himself to be calm. He sat down and tapped in the phone number of Finnsullu.

"Jaana Laureus please."

"Jaana, it's..."

"...I know who it is. I was expecting a call."

"Jaana, it's a silly thing I know, but I forgot to date our contract. It's just a formality; if I fax you a copy would you sign and date it and get it couriered back to me?"

He was finding it difficult to keep the stress out of his voice and there was a long pause before she replied.

"Look, I have to congratulate you, the profit on that deal was way beyond anyone's expectations."

"Was?"

"Things are difficult here right now. The customs people are all over us. If this deal goes through they are going to suspect something."

"But it's perfectly legitimate!"

"That's as maybe but how does it look?"

"Jaana, just what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that I can't sign it. Let things cool down a little and I'll see what I can do in the future."

"The futures no bloody good! I need this deal and I need it now!"

The line went dead and for the next hour she refused to take his calls. He examined all his options but could see no way out. He was still fretting when Susan arrived unexpectedly.

"Susan, I didn't know you were in town today."

"I wasn't planning to be but I thought that you would want to know about these. Would you like to tell me what the fuck is going on?"

She threw down onto the desk two of his company cheques both damningly stamped with the word "Dishonoured". It was the straw that broke the camels back. Over the next fifteen minutes he blurted it all out, the financial difficulties, trading whilst insolvent and he made the mistake of trying to mitigate the damage but telling her about the contract only to confess that he had screwed it up at the last.

He had never seen her so angry.

"What sort of bloody marriage do we have if you couldn't tell me about this? Did you even think about the damage to my reputation if you were to be prosecuted?"

She paced the room, deep in thought, and then turned to him.

"We're going to Helsinki. We'll see what we can salvage from this mess."

It was lunacy but she was not to be dissuaded. Later that same evening they boarded the Finnair flight and by ten p.m. he was once again checked into the Scandic hotel but, tellingly, Susan made a point of booking separate rooms. He was annoyed but he was certainly in no position to argue.

The next morning he rose early to take her to breakfast, in the hope of some sort of reconciliation, but she had already eaten by the time he arrived.

"I've made an appointment to see Laureus at nine."

"She's prepared to see us?"

"No. She's prepared to see me. You'll stay here until I phone you."

By lunchtime she had still not rung and he was growing evermore impatient. He tried to place a call to the office but he was told that Jaana was out which left him puzzled. At the finish the call did not come. He was sitting in the hotel bar at four p.m. when Susan walked in with Jaana at her side.

He sensed no tension between them; in fact they could almost have been taken for sisters on an afternoon out. He was confused, but the fact that they were together made him dare to hope that Susan's legendary powers of persuasion had worked their magic.

They joined him at the bar and, before he could speak, Susan had taken a sheath of papers from her valise.

"What's this?"

"It's a contract. Jaana and I have worked the numbers."

More confused than ever he flicked through until he found the contract prices. He was no maths genius but he could see at a glance that the new figures shifted things substantially in favour of FinnSullu.

"Susan, we can't sign this. We're being shafted."

He looked at Jaana angrily but Susan still held court.

"You can and will sign it. Let me set it out for you. If Jaana honours the original contract she will be investigated. The deal is perfectly legitimate but given all that is going on at Finnsullu at the moment the authorities will be suspicious."

"That's not my bloody fault!"

"Shut up and let me finish. With this contract everyone wins. Jaana gets the credit for a job well done and, given that a few senior heads are likely to roll over the next couple of months, she is going to be well placed to take a step up.

There will be enough profit on our side for me to recoup my losses in the company and a small balance left to tide you over. Once Jaana gets her due reward she has promised to put some new business your way."

"Susan! This is nonsense. The original deal will make us for life."

Her eyes narrowed.

"There is no "us". Once this is done we are through."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Jaana has told me what happened between you. I'm told there is some film and she felt it only fair to warn me."

"I was forced into it!"

"Perhaps you were, and I might have forgiven you if had you told me yourself, but you carried on regardless, determined to blunder through, without any regard for my feelings or my reputation."

"Susan, it wasn't like that!"

"Jaana and I are going up to my room for a drink. I'll give you one hour. Sign the contract or find your own salvation."

It was the longest sixty minutes of his life but he knew that, realistically, he had no choice. He had to sign and then he could only pray that things could be patched up between them.

With a hand trembling with anger and resentment he signed the new contract and made his way up to Susan's room. He knocked and waited for what seemed an undignified length of time until she finally let him in.

His heart lifted when he saw that her hair was wet and she was wearing a robe. It could only mean that Jaana had left and it gave him a chance to try and put things right. He stepped away from the door to let him in and his jaw dropped.

Jaana was sitting up on the bed, her back propped with pillows, and she too was wearing a robe. For a few seconds his mind refused to process the implications and he looked at Susan in the hope that she would provide a rational explanation.

"If you've signed you had better give it to Jaana for her to counter-sign."

At that moment he would have happily strangled Jaana and the more so when he saw her mocking smile. He handed her the contract but, even now, he glanced down at her breasts as she leant forward to take it from him.

"Do you have a pen?"

He reached into his inside pocket for his Montblanc and unscrewed the cap for her. She took it and made to sign but then stopped.

"Do you remember the last time we did this?"

He could not believe that she had said it and he could not stop himself from taking a nervous fleeting glance behind him in Susan's direction but her expression was completely neutral. He looked back at Jaana who was now holding the pen suggestively at her lips.

"You know what? I think we ought to seal this contract with a kiss...just for old times sake."

She was taunting him and he tried not to rise to it. He spoke quietly.

"Just sign it and leave us to get on with our lives."

"You don't mean that...come on...just one little kiss."

Again he looked back at Susan. What did she expect of him? Outrage? Compliance? Was this some kind of test?

He was determined to fight for his marriage and he girded himself to give Jaana short shrift. He returned his attention to her and gasped in amazement. She had lifted her knees and allowed her robe to fall open. Her sex was left blatantly on display and she was using the pen as a pointer.

"I'm still waiting for you ..."

He wanted to see Susan's reaction but he was frozen in place and could not tear his eyes away. Her sex was wet, the labia livid, and he could smell her excitement. He registered that she had been aroused for some time and now he wanted to know why.

"Susan, what's going on here?"

He was still staring between Jaana's legs as Susan came up behind him and spoke at his ear.

"It looks very simple to me. You need the contract signed and now you know the price you have to pay."

"Susan, be serious, you don't want to see me doing this."

"Oh, but I do."

He knew then, for certain, that his marriage was beyond saving. If Susan were prepared to humiliate him in this way then it was over between them. He summoned what was left of his pride.

"I'll leave you two to amuse one another. I'll be in the bar."

He had not gone two steps before she stopped him in his tracks.

"If you leave this room I'll go to the authorities with everything I know."

"Susan, you don't mean that."

"Try me. We either salvage what we can with this contract or I'll denounce you. The press will have a field day with the divorce and your court appearance but I'm prepared to take my chances. Are you?"

He could not risk it. Trading on the scale that he had been doing whilst technically insolvent was fraud and, in the current climate, a custodial sentence would be inevitable.

"Susan, I've told you, she forced me into it."

"And I suppose you were forced into it at Pam's launch party?"

For a second or two he could find no reply.

"What are you talking about..?"

"For a husband who has proved himself less than willing to go down on his own wife you seem to show a remarkable propensity when it comes to other women."

"Look, Susan, I don't what you've been told ..."

"I didn't have to be told. Pam rang me this afternoon. She was worried when she found out I had left in such a hurry and she instinctively knew it was something to do with you. She was reluctant but eventually she passed on some photographs that have been doing the rounds. Do you know how humiliated that made me feel?"

He wanted to explain, to let her know that he had had no choice, but now, so long after the event, anything he said would sound like a lame excuse. He needed time.

"Look, Susan, I'll leave now. You can finalize things here and we'll meet up at the airport. We'll talk when you're thinking a little more clearly."

He saw immediately that, not for the first time in his life, he had said exactly the wrong thing. She was furious and it was some seconds before she could speak.

"Let me make the position clear. I can live without this contract; it will be a financial loss but not too great in the scheme of things. You, on the other hand, need to stay out of prison. Now, according to your rather crude philosophy, a woman will only get on in business if she can give a good blow job. Well let's see how that works for you.

You'll go down on your knees and you will give Jaana the best orgasm she has ever had otherwise the contract goes into the shredder."

Jaana had obviously told Susan the whole story and he knew that nothing was more guaranteed to anger her. On the face of it he had always been sympathetic to her views concerning women in business and the difficulties that they faced; now, in one sentence, he had shown his true colours and from her point of view that was beyond forgiveness.

His thoughts were a disordered maelstrom but, at the finish, pragmatism won out. He just had to get through this, get the contract signed, and then he felt sure that could win Susan round. He looked at her one last time but there was no hint of mercy.

Jaana was smiling, the same mocking, triumphant, smile that he had seen that day in the restaurant and, once again, he bowed to her. It took a great effort of will as she shuffled a little making herself more comfortable.

He approached from the foot of the bed lowering himself between her arched legs and he could feel the heat of inner thighs as he reluctantly drew closer to his goal. Some internal reflex caused her sex to pout as he pointed his tongue in readiness and his nostrils were assailed by a strong, fresh, waft of her natural scent.

Her inner lips yielded easily to his touch and he could not rid himself of the notion that she had already been made ready. This thought was reinforced as his tongue slipped inside a channel both hot and rich with moisture. He sensed that he could make her come quickly but he was wary of Susan's threat.

He withdrew his tongue and licked gently at the lips themselves drawing them gently into his mouth from time to time. Over the next few minutes he ministered to her almost reverentially as she gave an occasional appreciative growl.

"How is he doing?"

"Not bad, he just needs more practice. He has to understand that a woman's pleasure is measured not in minutes but in hours..."

He hated them for talking about him in this way and he was particularly angry at Susan who seemed to be enjoying his predicament. He found himself trying to get back at her by intensifying the experience for Jaana. He held her open as he worked his tongue slowly back inside her pressing it as deep as he could.

Her body stiffened at this renewed assault and he thought that she was beginning to climax but he reckoned without her self control. She was simply adjusting herself so that she could take him deeper still.

The walls of her sex squeezed his tongue almost painfully as she drew him in and, in the process, he found his nose pressed against her clitoris. This was much to her liking, and she squirmed with pleasure, but it made breathing difficult not least because she was flooding his mouth with moisture.

He was uncomfortably hot and he was perspiring freely but she was unrelenting. He wanted to look at his watch, but knew that he dare not, and he could only guess at the passage of time. Then, in an act of prescience Susan spoke once more.

"Twenty five minutes. That's a new record for him."

"Maybe for him, but I'm only just warming up."

He hoped that she was lying. His tongue was getting sore and he was desperate to be allowed to give some attention to her clitoris but she remained unhurried. It was at least another fifteen minutes before she eased herself slightly upwards freeing his tongue in the process.

Her sex was now completely relaxed and the taut bud of her clitoris lay revealed.

"I'm ready now..."

He was working his tongue round inside of his mouth, trying to restore some sensation and to find some fresh saliva, but her taste was all pervasive. He bit back his anger and presented his tongue for one final effort.

He licked in slow circles, as subtly as pain would allow, and was rewarded when her thighs began to tremble. At first it was almost imperceptible but as minutes passed the movements became more pronounced until, finally, she began to squeeze at his head.

Her grip was fierce, drawing him tight to her, and all he could do was to try and keep his tongue pressed in place. Fortunately, this new pressure heralded the onset of her climax. His ears were blocked by her perspiring thighs but her exultant cries still reached him as a muffled sound of ecstasy.

If her orgasm had taken a long time to build she was determined to drain every last ounce of pleasure from it. Twice he thought it was over only to find her squeezing once more and filling his mouth with a fresh libation. At the finish her legs had cramped and they both laughed as she tried to release him but, at last, he lay free on the bed with his jaw aching and with a persistent ringing in his ears.

She sat up against the piled pillows without bothering to close her robe and he could see the flush of excitement across her body. He eased himself up and watched as she languidly reached for the contract once again. Her eyes skimmed the final page as she held the pen poised but then she turned to Susan.

"You know what? I don't think it's fair that I should have all the fun. I think we ought to make the price of this contract two orgasms."

She was taking the joke too far and he seethed with anger.

"You've had your fun. Just sign it."

Karen came up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"No, Jaana's right. You can call it your farewell gift to me."

He turned to her ready to spit venom but he was stunned to silence.

Susan stood completely naked having let the robe fall from her body. Her pose was assured, a woman happy in the knowledge that she was stunningly beautiful but there was something else. She said nothing as he continued to stare but she did not need words. He understood what she was telling him. He could have had it all but now he would never see her like this again.

In the next few seconds his body was consumed by an aching desire. It was not just physical it was an understanding that this was the woman he truly loved and now he had put it all in jeopardy for the sake of his own ego.

"Susan...I love you...I want to...but let's be alone."

"You just don't get it do you?"

The disdain in her voice cut into him as she stepped forward and pushed him onto his back but now he was angry.

"Look you've made your point. I've had enough"

He unconsciously pressed his tongue to the inside of his cheek to illustrate the fact that his face was hurting but she was not to be denied.

"I don't want your tongue. I want to try something else...lie back."

For an instant he dared to hope and his manhood stirred in anticipation but he was sadly disabused. She took hold of his wrists and stretched his arms over his head and then, in a single lithe movement, she knelt up over his face and pinned them with her knees.

He now guessed what was coming and tried to plead.

"Susan. Please, I don't want to...not like this."

"What you do or don't want doesn't really matter. Besides, from what I've seen and heard you seem to get some form of perverted enjoyment from it."