Getting Down To Business

When I returned to the bedroom it was to find Kara sitting up on the bed her back propped with pillows. She smiled as I walked in.

"Would you mind if I don't make coffee? You've just about worn me out.."

I stood still trying to make sense of what she was saying.

"...I'll call you a cab while you get yourself dressed."

As her words finally sunk in the shock must have registered on my face because she suddenly leaned forward.

"Oh my God! You didn't think....?"

Chapter 3

Without another word I grabbed my clothes and dashed into the living room. Less than two minutes later I was standing outside her building and then the tears came.

I suppose I could have stayed and argued but what would have been the point? A generous interpretation would suggest that I had given out the wrong signals but looked at more cynically I had been taken for a fool.

I anguished over the affair for the whole weekend and was tempted to call my father and tell him that I was not going back to the job but that would have involved explanations and further deception.

In the end I decided to brazen it out. If Kara said anything in front of the others I would deny everything; after all, what could she prove?

Those final few steps into the office on Monday morning were the most difficult I had ever had to take. I said good morning on the way in but there was no suggestion that anyone knew anything and, fortuitously, my workstation was not in Kara's line of sight.

I could not avoid her for the whole day, she was notionally my supervisor, and I had to finally pluck up the courage to ask a question on one of the accounts. She answered straight-forwardly and there was nothing about her look or demeanour that even hinted at what had taken place between us.

I returned to my desk assuming that it had all been a big misunderstanding and that she was probably as embarrassed as I was. I got through the week without further mishap but I have to admit that once you have seen a female work colleague naked it is difficult to look at her in the quite the same way again.

On the Friday Zoe came out with the highest sales figures yet again and she went off to collect her "Barbie" with a big grin on her face. After she had gone I had difficulty concentrating for a while, thinking of what was going on just two floors above me, but, worse still, my mind was plagued with images of Kara lying in readiness.

As it drew nearer to five p.m. I was simply glad to have gotten through the week but just as I was about to leave Zoe insisted that everyone join her for a quick drink. She had just received news that she was being offered a modeling contract.

Everyone was outwardly gushing but I am sure that I sensed an undercurrent. I tried to make excuses but everyone was going and it seemed churlish to refuse. As I collected my coat Tara caught me alone for a moment.

"You don't have to worry...unless, of course..."

I left her standing and quickly joined the others.

In the event I quite enjoyed myself. Zoe and Lily's boyfriends turned up and, not surprisingly, they were very easy on the eye. Kara said nothing further untoward and I took the opportunity to have a long chat with Dawn.

I found her something of an enigma. A year younger than Kara she still lived at home but was involved in a long term relationship. I discovered that her boyfriend was white and this had caused friction with her West Indian family. They accused her of becoming too anglicized, a charge she resented, but I could see why they might think so. She spoke impeccable English, with no trace of an accent, and in looks she reminded me of a young Halle Berry.

At one point in our conversation her mobile rang and she became involved in a heated argument. She apologized and said that she ought to go home and smooth things over but I insisted she stayed and offered my sofa for the night.

Fortunately, Tara was one of the first to leave, and so I was saved any embarrassment when Dawn and I caught a taxi together at the end of the evening.

She was impressed with my apartment as well she might be. It belonged to my father and he used it when he was in town overnight but I was living in it for the duration of my sabbatical.

I made coffee and we chatted for another hour or so and then I dug out the spare bedding and a clean nightshirt for her.

Once in bed I fell asleep almost immediately but was woken a little later when I heard Dawn padding to the bathroom and then, later still, I heard her in the kitchen presumably helping herself to a glass of water.

I settled once more but only to be woken a third time. I was beginning to regret being so generous with my hospitality when I realized that, this time, the disturbance was much closer at hand. My eyes flew open and I found myself looking at the back of Dawn's head.

"I'm sorry, the sofa's really uncomfortable. Are you okay with this?"

What could I say? The bed was king size and offered ample room. In the event I said nothing. I turned over but, in doing so, my hand brushed against her and encountered bare flesh.

I lay for a moment hardly breathing. It was bad enough that I was sleeping naked but now, it seemed, Dawn had discarded her nightwear too. We lay back to back and I could feel the heat radiating from her.

I could not help but wonder if there was an ulterior motive but, within a few minutes, it was clear that she had fallen asleep.

For me, sleep would not come and I was burdened with troubled thoughts. Dawn had seemed to me the most straight laced of all the girls but I knew that she too had, from time to time, enjoyed what was on offer from Christine. I had wanted to ask her how, given that she was almost engaged, she managed to square her conscience but there had not been an opportune moment.

The fact was they all seemed to regard it as a bit of fun and none of them weighed it down with the same emotional baggage as I did; and now, of course, I had taken it further. I was no longer just a recipient.

I reasoned that, if one of the others made love to me, the balance would be restored and I could put the whole thing down to experience. I would be satisfied that I was no more or less heterosexual than they were. This was all well and good as an exercise of the mind but I was not sure if I could summon up the courage in the cold light of day.

The bedside clock showed three a.m., suggesting that I had lain awake for at least an hour, when Dawn turned over. Her steady breathing told me she was still asleep but she was now mere inches away and her hand was resting lightly on my shoulder.

Cocooned in the darkness, beneath the warmth of the quilt, I felt my heart beating a little faster. Could this be the moment? Had fortune delivered her to me?

I stretched lazily and, as I relaxed, I allowed my body to close the gap between us.

Her knees spooned into the back of mine and I could feel the points of her nipples pressing lightly into my back. I tried to imagine what they looked like, their size, their colour, and all the time I was getting hotter.

She had not stirred and so I moved again, turning slowly onto my back, and the hand that had been on my shoulder slipped downwards. Hardly breathing, I moved slightly so that it came to rest on my breast.

Her fingers were warm and their presence was enough to bring my nipple to erection. I wanted her to wake up, to think that she had instigated it, but she was still out to the world. My awkward manoeuvres, and my attempts not to disturb her, meant that my head was now almost beneath the quilt and I could smell the musky, combined, scents of our two bodies, and the sharper pungency of my arousal.

I was at a loss as to what to do next. I was tempted to put my hand between my legs, to stimulate myself in the hope that the scent might act upon her unconscious but I found myself reluctant to take the final step. Even now, where she to wake up, I could pretend that nothing improper had occurred.

It was at that moment that her sleep was jarred. She gave an almost inaudible whimper and, at the same time, her fingers closed clawing into my breast.

I tried not to cry out but the pain was as sharp as her nails. I bit my bottom lip and eased all the way down the bed until her grip was relaxed. I waited for a second or two for the sting to ease but I was now buried beneath the quilt with my face pressed against the warmness of her thigh.

I shifted the quilt a little to move myself away but, with another whimper, she turned over towards me.

I froze in the smothering darkness with my nose now pressed to a nest of curls and, I drew a panicked breath.

Whatever the nature of her dream it now had a physical manifestation. I could smell her excitement and with it a phantom taste on my tongue.

She seemed to have settled and I lay guiltily breathing her in. Her scent was little different to Kara's but in the closed confines it seemed to have an almost tangible quality. I knew that if I lay for much longer it would seep into my skin and my hair and that I would have to wash before she woke but I could not pull myself away.

I could feel beads of perspiration prickling my brow and in the moist heat her unconscious arousal seemed to grow fueled by my ever more ragged breathing. I started to count slowly, telling myself that I would move away when I reached ten, but I had hardly started before her body stirred again.

It was a tiny change but it was enough to bring my mouth within touching distance. Damp hairs brushed tantalizingly and her labia met my lips as if in a kiss.

I tried to visualize her sex. The surrounding growth seemed unruly, her labia protuberant, and I imagined a large clitoris. This, taken together with the now strong reek of her arousal, imbued it with a feral quality.

The tingling between my own legs was becoming more insistent but I was no longer fired by the desire for to her to go down on me. It was the simple proximity of her sex that was fanning my excitement but I was all too aware that I had reached a turning point.

The urge to put out my tongue was almost overwhelming but I feared that to do so was to surrender to a craving which would, thereafter, continue to haunt me.

In the end I was undone by a single bead of moisture.

It formed on her labia, growing pendulous, and then it slipped away to fall against my lips. I sought it with my tongue and brought it inside my mouth to relish the taste. Just one droplet, but it acted upon me like a drug.

I began to lick, at first barely touching, content just to take the taste from her labia. It was slightly salty, tainted by perspiration, but l licked soothingly for minutes on end. I concentrated on one side and then the other the inner surface smooth and the outer textured with a soft growth.

She gave a muted moan but otherwise remained still as I laboured devotedly in my own private grotto.

After a time, without any outward pressure, her lips began to part in a secret welcome allowing me to partake of a rich warm ooze. I touched my tongue to the centre feeling the heat at her core and the tremor of her racing pulse.

Time seemed to stand still as I lay there perfectly still. My tongue began to ache but, slowly but surely it was being drawn deeper inside and held in an intimate embrace.

I envied her her dream state but the physical reality was beginning to have its effect.

She slowly raised a leg, bending it at the knee, and her thigh pressed down on the side of my face as if she was frightened that I might stop.

I began to move my tongue, flexing it inside her, and I heard her sigh.

We lay locked together for an age but I was getting uncomfortable. My body was cramped from remaining still and it was telling me that I needed fresher air. Dawn, for her part, was radiating heat. Her thigh was slick with perspiration and I was sweating freely.

I worked my tongue more purposefully setting up a steady rhythm as I pushed it in and out and her body began to rock gently in a sympathetic motion.

Her climax crept up on her. There was no explosive finish but rather a steady rise to the top of the wave where she held herself in stasis before the inevitable gentle fall at the other side. She hardly made a sound as her body tensed and I drank down one final flood of moisture.

I wanted to quietly extricate myself but her leg kept me trapped in place and I decided to wait for a moment or two to ensure that she had succumbed to a deeper sleep once more. I was still breathing her in, and I was reminded of my own needs, but I was worried about what memory she would have of events when she woke.

My thoughts were interrupted as she muttered something and started to move. I readied myself but I was caught by surprise as she rolled over me. She was now lying on her stomach with my face firmly fixed between her open legs.

It was hard to believe that she could still be asleep but she was a dead weight as she pressed down on me. To make matters worse I had opened my mouth to protest and it was now filled by the cool, damp, delta of her sex.

I tipped my head back a little, as a prelude to sliding out from under her, but in so doing I finally came upon her clitoris. My tongue discerned a large nub with a distinct fleshy ruff and my first touch made her body squirm.

I was fascinated by its size and apparent sensitivity. I played my tongue around the circumference and, at the same time, I reached down to my own sex.

I now mirrored my tongues movements with my finger and found that I was more aroused than I imagined. Familiar waves of pleasure stretched out to my extremities and I was heedless of the discomfort as Dawn began to grind herself on to my face.

We moved as one, bound as a writhing couple. One finger was no longer enough and I rubbed at myself almost angrily with the flat of my hand.

I was gasping as I licked at her, a combination of excitement and a lack of air, and a world away she was screaming.

"Yes! Lick me!"

She was starting to come and my hand was moving frantically as I tried to catch up.

With the onset of orgasm we both stiffened my tongue and fingertips teasing out every last ounce of please for both of us. Where before there had been darkness it now seemed to me that there was blinding light and I tried to breath more regularly.

With her course run she rolled away from me and I tentatively eased my way back up the bed. As I came out from under the quilt my wet face was quickly chilled by cool air and I crept to the bathroom to clean myself up.

By the time I returned Dawn was sleeping as deeply and peacefully as ever and, notwithstanding my orgasm, I felt frustrated. Sleep proved as allusive as ever and from time to time I looked and wondered if I dare wake her.

At some point I must have drifted off because when I opened my eyes the sun was well risen. Dawn was still there and, as she lay on her back, I studied her peaceful features. My particular focus was her mouth with its full, sensuous lips, and the more I looked the more aroused I became.

I do not know what possessed me to do it. Slowly, furtively, I moved up on to the pillows In slow motion I maneuvered myself until I knelt straddling her head and facing towards the foot of the bed.

My heart pounded as I remained poised with my sex just inches above her mouth. The temptation to simply lower myself was strong but I did not want to frighten her. I guess I hoped that if she woke naturally everything else would simply follow.

I remained still but I began to brush my fingers across my sex in anticipation. The shamelessness of what I was doing was exciting in itself and I soon found myself with my eyes closed and my fingers deeper inside.

I was still lost in my own desires when I saw the flash.

"Well here's one for the family album."

Chapter 4

In the next few seconds panic ensued. I almost fell off the bed and Dawn woke with a scream. As I tried to make some sense of what was going on Dawn ran from the room and I saw her grabbing at her clothes.

I tugged the quilt from the bed to cover my own nakedness as I tried to come to terms with the fact that Amanda was standing in my bedroom smiling at the image she had just recorded on her camera phone.

"What the hell are you doing here!"

"I just dropped by to collect a couple of things. I'll see you on Monday."

Without another word she turned on her heel and left the room and by the time I had scrambled into my clothes the apartment was empty

I made coffee and tried to get my frantic thoughts into some sort of order; slowly, but worryingly, pieces began to fall into place.

My mother died when I was young and, out of deference to both her and me, my father had not remarried. He had female companions from time to time and I certainly did not begrudge him. I knew that he sometimes used the flat to entertain them which was why I was using the spare bedroom leaving his room sacrosanct for the duration of my tenancy.

It now appeared that Amanda had a door key which seemed to hold all sorts of implications.

I had known her for years, ever since my father recruited her, but I had never imagined that their relationship was anything other than professional. I found myself feeling jealous and it was more than just the question of my father's affections.

I had been groomed since childhood to one day take over the business and had known no other goal. That I might have a rival had never occurred to me. In my mind Amanda would eventually work for me, as she had for my father, but now, for the first time, I saw a threat to family loyalties.

By the time Monday came around I felt drained. I had hardly slept and I was no nearer a solution. The temptation to simply have it out with Amanda was strong but I decided not to.

My father held strong religious beliefs and, after my mother had died, he converted to Catholicism. Any suggestion that my sexual leanings were other than hetero would break his heart and destroy his cherished dreams of becoming a grandfather.

Amanda now held evidence to the contrary but I reasoned that, if she was having a relationship with my father, she was hardly going to produce a photograph showing me in flagrante. The very act of capturing the image would appear prurient.

The atmosphere at the office was strained. Every minute I was expecting a call from Amanda but nothing happened. Added to that Tara and I were still being overly formal to one another and now there was the further complication with Dawn.

I wanted to talk things over with her. The truth of it was that I thought that we had made a connection but she seemed even more shaken by events than I was.

So, of necessity, I found myself allying with Zoe and Lily. I was putting together a large sales package and I needed assistance to get it off the ground. They were initially reluctant because it meant taking time out from their own campaigns but they had to weigh that against the prospective benefits for the team – annual cash bonuses were based on the performance of the department as a whole.

It went well; so much so that I was able to put other thoughts from my mind for a couple of days. Once on board, Zoe and Lily proved enthusiastic and they even stayed late on the Thursday evening so that the production deadline could be met.

Zoe gave a whoop as she switched off her computer and Lily suggested the local pasta restaurant. The choice amused me as it was almost certain that both of them would simply be content to push a salad around a plate.

In line with their modeling ambitions they were almost unhealthily thin and could pass as sisters. This was, in part, because they tended to follow fashion trends together. They were both dark haired and wore their hair in a mid length style with soft curls.