Snowed In with His Boss

When Rita took over as departmental head, the working environment changed abruptly. She had been head hunted from another company when George took early retirement. He had been an easy boss to get on with. He had a natural authority and had been with the company since a pair of young entrepreneurs set it up thirty years before, but his health had deteriorated, partly due to the way he drove himself, and when his doctor told him he was killing himself, he took the hint and quit. Under his guidance his staff had worked extremely hard, but he was such a competent man manager that no one ever complained, and the department always met its targets.

Rita was a very different proposition. She was in her early thirties and had made her way up the promotion ladder at her old firm by a combination of great ability and total ruthlessness. She was very much a woman in what was primarily a man's world, and she was prepared to trample any one underfoot to get to the top. This new job was going to bring her a fresh challenge that she planned to meet head on, and she didn't propose to court popularity to succeed, and, as a result, she soon became thoroughly unpopular, not only with the men but the women also. Her arrogance was exacerbated by the fact that she was brilliant at everything except personal relations, so that there was no chink of incompetence in her armour.

Just to add salt to the wounds, she was a very good-looking woman. She dressed very soberly, always wearing business suits, usually with knee length skirts, shoes with reasonably high heels and dark stockings, showing off slim ankles. She always wore white blouses, buttoned to the neck, and no jewellery. Her hair was pulled back from her face, and she wore no make up, although she spent quite a lot of time and money on skin creams. The end product was to make it clear that she was a manager first and a woman second. Inevitably the discussions that went on behind her back - mainly in the men's toilets - was centred on, firstly, what a bitch she was, and, secondly, what she would look like naked, and some of the younger men talked about the possibility of putting her in the family way to get rid of her. Needless to say, no one had any suggestions about how that might be achieved - as one man said "She'd take you in and blow you out in bubbles!" So, several months passed in a state of uneasy truculence. There was no doubt that she was achieving good results, but several of the staff were actively looking for other jobs.

When George had been due to retire, it was generally expected that John would inherit his position. He had been George's deputy for several years and was a competent and loyal employee, generally highly regarded within the company, and this would certainly have happened if the company had not taken on a new young Human Resources Director (that's Personnel Manager for those of you older readers) who believed that anyone who had been in the same job for more than a year could have no ambition and was unsuited for promotion. Thus, John was overlooked, and this did little for his morale. However, he liked his job and was prepared to give Rita time to settle in and see if he could get along with her, but, after a few months, he started looking for other employment as he couldn't tolerate the regular criticism and bossiness. Ironically, she had a very high regard for his work, but would never admit it to him, as she thought that the best results were achieved when people were afraid for their jobs.

John was thirty-eight years old, tall and good-looking. He had married young, and was happily looking forward to being a father, when his wife was killed in a car crash. Left a widower at thirty, he still lived in the house he and his wife had had built together, and had had several desultory affairs, but never found a woman with whom he could consider living on a long-term basis. As he had no one to go home to, it was easy for him to put in extra hours, or to make visits to customers which could involve several days away from home. Needless to say, Rita exploited this ruthlessly, and he found himself doing much more travelling than before. This had the advantage of getting him away from Rita's constant carping, but also gave her the opportunity to deal directly with his staff while he was away, often reorganising projects that he had set up.

He had spent many hours recently with the rest of his staff compiling a bid for a major project which would be worth a substantial amount over a long period of time, and would take the company to a very high standing in their world. When the detail of the bid was finished, work began on how to present it to the client. Although the written submission would be all-important, the client had asked that all bidders should make a one-hour personal presentation, and it was obvious that this would carry a lot of weight in the bid process. Rita had decided that she would lead the presentation with John in support, and after many hours of argument and re-writes, the final decision was made as to how it would be done, and the two of them rehearsed it in front of the rest of the staff to ensure that they were word perfect, with a question and answer session to ensure that they were on top of all the details that might be questioned.

As the client's premises were a hundred miles away, and the presentation was timed for eleven o'clock, Rita decided that she and John should drive there the night before and spend the night in a hotel close to their destination. On the day the weather was not good, with snow in the air. Rita normally drove a Range Rover, but this was being serviced so she borrowed a Japanese 4x4 from Jake, a colleague. They left work early, going home to change and pick up their overnight gear, then Rita drove to John's house to pick him up. He was surprised to see her wearing jeans and a big sweater, sensible in the circumstances, but the first time he had seen her out of business clothes, and it made her a bit more human, also showing off a pleasant looking arse.

By the time they left it was beginning to snow more seriously, and as they drove northwards it became quite thick. However, they made good progress on well-salted motorways till they were within about fifteen miles of their destination, when suddenly the traffic came to a halt, and soon afterwards they heard on the traffic radio that the road was closed by a major accident. By chance, they were approaching a junction, so Rita drove along the hard shoulder so that they could leave the motorway, and turned onto a two-way road that would take them to where they needed to be, but, after a few miles, this road was also blocked by an accident.

'We passed a road off to the left a few hundred yards back, I'll turn and we'll try that'

'It didn't look much of a road to me' said John 'I'm not sure you'll get far'.

'Don't be negative, man. We'll get there'.

John was very doubtful, but he decided to keep quiet. Rita turned the car around and soon turned off onto a little by-road leading into some woodland. After a couple of miles, the snow was getting deeper and John was getting concerned, especially as he wasn't over impressed by Rita's driving, after she had a couple of slides. She sensed his concern.

'It's all right John, I've got lots of experience driving 4x4s '

'Maybe, but you normally drive a Range Rover, it's a damn sight more sophisticated than this load of Jap crap. It's got clever traction control systems and so on.'

Even as he spoke, they went round a gentle bend and the vehicle slid completely out of control across the road sideways and finished up firmly against a tree, and all of Rita's efforts to drive it off were unsuccessful. She was cursing, then finally admitted defeat. The snow had stopped falling and the moon was out, showing them a view of a small house lying back from the road.

'There's a house there, I'll go and see if anyone's at home.'

Rita spoke, and was quickly out of the car and walking briskly towards the house through the snow. John's door was jammed against the tree, and he had to climb across to get out, pausing on the way to open the glove box and take out the torch that John knew that Jake kept there, from having borrowed the vehicle before. He had just got out, and was pulling on his anorak as he heard a scream from Rita. He ran towards her and found that the level snow covered an ornamental pond, and Rita had crashed through the thin ice and fallen full length into the icy water. She had struggled to her feet and was crawling out as he got there, and he gave her a hand to pull her to her feet. He led the way to the house, treading carefully to avoid any other unforeseen traps. When they got to the door of the house and knocked, it was soon clear that there was no one there, but when he turned the latch, the door opened.

He shone the torch around, and got an immediate feeling of déja vue. It was a small wooden chalet of a type that his father owned, and looked as though it came from the same set of drawings. He found a light switch and turned it on, with no effect, and he guessed rightly that it would normally be powered by a small motor generator set. However, there were a couple of liquid gas lamps, and he found some matches and lit them both, lighting the place up quite brightly. He saw that there was a big wood-burning stove, ready laid up, and he turned to Rita, who was fiddling with her mobile phone.

'I can't get a signal, my phone must have got wet' she fumed.

'I doubt you'll get a signal here anyway, but I'll try mine.'

He tried, but with the same result.

'We're just going to have to stay here till the morning.'

'But this place is freezing, and I'm soaking wet.'

'I'll light the fire and these stoves heat up pretty fast. You'd better get out of your wet clothes.'

She didn't reply, and he went and lit the fire. Within a few minutes it was starting to burn well. He went over to the kitchen alcove and found a bottle gas cooker, and he turned on the bottle and lit one of the rings. Fortunately, the gas was propane, not methane, which would have frozen at those temperatures. He found that the kettle had water in it with a layer of ice, which he broke before putting it on to heat. Rita had not spoken while he was doing these chores, and, when he turned around, he was horrified to see her standing trembling and blue with cold.

'Get those wet clothes off before you freeze' he said, but she was incapable of speech or action, and he realised he had a real problem on his hands.

He decided that he would have to undress her himself, and he pulled her jumper up over her head as she limply raised her arms to allow him. She had a tee shirt underneath, and that was soaked, so it soon followed the sweater. Then he undid the waistband of her jeans, pulled down the zip and pulled the garment down to her knees, then pushed her onto a seat so he could take off her shoes and socks and pull the jeans right off. He took the torch and went into the washroom where he found a big towel and a towelling robe. She was still sitting where he had left her, and he pulled her to her feet. He took in briefly the plain and unsexy white knickers and bra, both wet, and decided they would have to come off as well. She said nothing as he turned her round to unclip the bra, which dropped down her arms, and to push her knickers down to the floor, lifting each leg in turn to remove them. Then he turned her round and freed the bra from her arms to remove it, leaving her naked.

It was an indication of how serious he found the situation that he didn't really notice what her body looked like. He took a towel and began to vigorously dry her, trying at the same time to help restore the circulation to her cold skin. He got her dry, then put the robe on her and began to rub her skin firmly, her back, her shoulders and hips and belly, then her legs, and after a bit she seemed to be shivering a bit less. He examined the bed, and found that it was ready for use, so he pushed her down onto it and covered her with the duvet. Then he went to the kitchen and searched the cupboard, finding a tin of drinking chocolate, and he filled two mugs with water from the hot kettle and mixed in a generous quantity of the brown powder.

He took the drinks over to the bed and sat Rita up. He offered her the hot drink, but when she tried to hold it she was shaking so much that she could not hold it. He had to support her head while he offered the hot liquid up to her lips, and she managed to drink a little, which seemed to ease her shaking a little. He sat by her as he drank himself, but as soon as he released her she grasped her knees and sat curled up, still shaking violently. He was afraid that she would not survive unless he did something, and, as he said to her later - much later - desperate times demand desperate actions, and he could only think of one heat source to defrost her - himself.

John went and made up the fire, which was now burning brightly, and he closed the dampers a little so that it would not burn out too quickly. He arranged a couple of chairs in front of the fire and hung Rita's clothes on them to dry. Already the cabin was beginning to feel much warmer, and would soon be up to a comfortable temperature. He turned out one of the gas lamps, then went over to the bed and stripped off all of his clothes, shivering a little as he did so. He pulled down the bedclothes and pulled Rita up to a sitting position, then opened her robe and pushed it down from her shoulders. After a bit of pulling and pushing and rolling her from side to side, he managed to take the robe off and leave her naked, and still shivering violently. He climbed into bed beside her and drew the bedding up over them, then drew her firmly into his arms. He was shocked at how cold her body still felt as he moved so that he was half laying on her and in contact with her from head to toe, one of his legs pushed between hers and the other draped over her. It was a job to hold her close as she was still shaking with the cold, but he had one arm round her and started rubbing her back, long strokes from the shoulder to her buttocks, as hard and as quickly as he could.

He was so concerned about what he was doing that at first it didn't really dawn on him that here he was, with the hated boss naked in his arms to do what he wished with. As her body slowly thawed, he became conscious of how pleasant it felt against him, but then he managed to put it out of his mind with the thought that it was just a patient receiving therapeutic treatment, and he was the practitioner in this case. After a while her body stopped shaking and her breathing became deeper and more regular, and he realised that she was asleep. After a while, he said quietly 'Turn over, there's a good girl' and she did as he asked and rolled over. He drew her back against him so that she was still benefiting from his warmth, and once again her deep breathing told him that she was asleep. He lay for some time, his arm round her waist holding her close. He felt a mild stirring of his penis, but felt no real urge to follow up the animal instinct, and soon he too was asleep.

A beam of winter sunlight through a crack in the shutters wakened him, and he got out of bed and checked the fire and put a kettle on the gas ring. He had quite a substantial erection, but it was only a piss hard, and he walked past the bed and into the bathroom to relieve himself, then back into the living room to put his clothes on. He saw that Rita's eyes were following him round the room, though she said nothing. He went and fetched her clothes, and brought them over to the bed.

'Feeling better now?' he asked.

'Yes, thanks, but I need my work clothes, I can't go in jeans, nor can you.'

'It's nearly nine o'clock, we'd better move fast if we are to get to the presentation on time.'

'Oh my God, we're stuck here, there's no way we'll make it.'

'Not impossible, I looked out the bathroom window and the snow's melting fast. I'll go and see what I can do about the car while you get dressed.'

He had noticed that there was a door leading off the kitchen area, and, when he opened it, he found a storeroom cum tool shed, and hanging from a peg was a small hand operated winch. He put on his topcoat and went out to the car and found that it wasn't badly stuck. He was fortunate that there was a tree on the side of the rode opposite the car and, by fixing the winch to the tree and the hook to the car's towing ring, he was able easily to winch the car sideways clear of the tree against which it was jammed. He then tried to open the boot to get their suitcases, but the lock had frozen and he couldn't shift it, so he returned to the house to give Rita the bad news about her clothes. She was wearing a robe over her undies, and she just said 'Shit!' and put on her jeans and sweater.

'We'll just have to dream up a story to explain our dress, but it'll be better than not arriving at all.'

'Just tell them the truth about the boot lock - we don't need to say where we passed the night.'

'OK, let's go.'

John shut the fire down and they left, leaving the door unlocked as they had found it, while Rita left her business card and a note to the owner to contact her. John had the car keys and when he got in the driver's seat Rita opened her mouth to complain, then thought better of it and left him to drive. He drove quickly and well over roads still slippery in places, and they arrived at the client's premises half an hour before the appointed time, and were ushered in to the Managing Director's office. After Rita had made their apologies for their casual dress, Roger, the MD welcomed them with surprising news.

'Your competitors aren't here yet. They both phoned to say that they had left the journey till this morning and they are snarled up in a major motorway crash and don't expect to be here till after lunch. Now, as I'm sure you know already, any bidder who did not present his bid by eleven o'clock this morning would be automatically excluded. As you are the only bidder to meet the deadline, the business is yours if you if you put your bid on the table now.'

'And if we don't.'

'Well, we've got to have a supplier, so I'd have to put back the deadline till - say three o'clock.'

'May we have a quick discussion, please?'

'Sure, stay here. It's five to eleven. I'll be back at eleven, if your bid's not on the table, I'll defer till three.'

He left the office, and Rita turned to John, and startled him by asking his opinion.

'What would you do, John? And why?'

'If we get the business this way and there are any problems, they'll start thinking that they might have done better with one of the others, and life will get hard, so I'd wait. I think it might give us a slight advantage on a moral plane, and remember Roger is a God botherer, and I guess morals count a bit with him. Anyway, I've got confidence in our bid, haven't you.'

'Right, I agree.'

When Roger came back in, there was no bid on the table.

'I'm delighted. I would have hated to award a contract by default. Mind you, I'll be telling them in no uncertain terms what I think of them for not having the sense to travel the night before for something as important as this. I'll expect your bid to be on the table at three o'clock.'

Rita and John walked out to the car and got in.

'Let's go the hotel. We can get lunch and change, if the boot lock has thawed.'

'You startled me by agreeing to the delay. This isn't the hard nosed businesswoman I'm used to, why the change.'

'Well, you gave one good reason. The other is that we'll have to work with one of the other two on the Ministry job that's coming up. If they think we've shafted them, they can make it difficult for us. Anyway, I've got confidence in what we're presenting, and I reckon we've got some brownie points already, just by being sporting. Mind you, if I'd thought we wouldn't win anyway I'd have taken his offer. They don't bloody well deserve to win. Even if the weather hadn't been crap, leaving the journey till today was absolutely stupid, and it's got Roger wondering if they can be trusted to be reliable suppliers. And, what do you mean by hard nosed?'