Taking Care of Business (2 page)

'What can I get you?' The bartender had waited until Leah's phone conversations finished before asking. He tossed a towel over one shoulder while he put both hands on the bar between them. 'You look like you could use something.'

'That bad?' Leah tried a laugh but it came out sounding more like a sigh.

The bartender grinned. 'We're supposed to say that to everyone. Gets the customers in a drinking mood.'

Now her laughter trickled out of her with more force. 'Really?'

He nodded and grabbed up the twenty-dollar bill one of the suits had just passed to him. He filled two mugs with beer as he talked, then handed them off and made change. 'Not really. But it usually works.'

He wasn't as young as many of the bartenders working at a lot of the new pubs and clubs springing up in downtown Harrisburg. Not that Leah had been out to a club in a long time, but sometimes she had lunch down here with some of her coworkers. This guy, though, looked to be in his early forties with a head of dark hair going nicely silver. He had a sweet smile, too.

'I'll take a glass of Cabernet,' she told him. 'It's too early for anything else.'

'Never too early,' countered the bartender, but he filled her glass with red wine anyway. 'Cheers.'

'Cheers,' she said, and sipped.

'It won't put hair on your chest,' the bartender said with another grin, 'but I guess it'll have to do, right?'

It would have been too simple for her to merely sit and have a glass of wine by herself. No, the beer-drinking suits in the corner booth kept glancing her way. Only a matter of time before one of them worked up the gumption to come over and hit on her, she thought as she sipped and made casual conversation with the bartender.

She was wrong, though. One of them didn't come over. They both did.

One on either side, they flanked her. The one on her right, the blond, wore a wedding ring. The dark-haired one on her left flashed her a grin of teeth so white and straight he could have been in an ad for cosmetic dentistry.

They introduced themselves as Stu and Larry, and she told them her name. They asked her if she was in town on business, and she said yes. The bartender made himself scarce, and, while Leah appreciated his discretion, she had absolutely no intentions of taking up these men on their obvious intentions.

Their flirting was easy, if a little too . . . calculated . . . for her tastes. After fifteen minutes she felt like a deer being run down by wolves. The tag-teaming was subtle but unmistakable and, though she gave them loads of credit for the effort, she finally had to ask the question.

'Does this usually work for you?'

Stu, the married one, looked faintly surprised. 'What?'

'Sometimes,' said Larry, obviously the brighter of the two.

'Is it working for you?'

Leah smiled. 'Not really. Sorry.'

Stu looked a little confused, exchanging glances with his friend. 'Listen —'

'It's OK, Stu.' Larry shook his head. 'The lady isn't interested.'

'Thanks for the drink, though,' Leah said.

Stu's phone rang and he excused himself to answer it. Larry turned to her. 'What about if I ditched him?'

It was unaccountably refreshing to talk this way, the pretence of flirting gone. It had been quite some time since Leah had flirted with anyone, but she was pleased to discover being courted still made her tingle.

'It's not you,' she said, but added his name, slowly, easing it from her lips, 'Larry.'

He grinned. 'Sure. That's what they all say.'

'I just broke up with my boyfriend today,' she explained.

'Congratulations. All the more reason for you to celebrate.'

'You really know how to work it,' she said, impressed.

He feigned a moment of modesty quickly overtaken by pride. 'Thank you. You're beautiful.'

'What about your friend?' she whispered, leaning towards him as though to share a secret. They both looked over at Stu, still on his cell phone. 'Won't he get upset?'

'Stu? Nah.' Larry shook his head. 'Disappointed. But not upset.'

Leah leaned almost close enough to allow her lips to brush his ear. 'Let me ask you something, Larry.' Again, the name. It added intimacy. This all would have been better in dim lighting with the pound and throb of music around them, but she could work with mid-afternoon and the buzz of construction on the street outside if she had to. 'Do you and Stu do this often?'

Larry murmured directly into her ear, and his lips did brush her skin. 'Yes.'

She leaned even just a teensy bit closer. The satin lining of her skirt slid over the tops of her thighs, bare above her stockings. She'd dressed for Mike every morning for close to two years, but today she'd dressed for herself.

'You both take a woman to bed?' she whispered. Larry smelled good, like expensive cologne. 'At the same time?'

'Sometimes.' His hand had inched forwards, fingers tracing her knee.

'Do you fuck each other too? Or just her?'

The slow circling of Larry's fingertips, which had been inching higher, stopped. He pulled away a little bit to look at her, his smile a little crooked. 'What?'

Leah swiped her tongue slowly along her lower lip, and Larry's eyes followed the motion. 'Do you fuck each other too?' she repeated slowly, so he was sure not to miss a word.

'You and Stu, Larry. Do you suck each other's cock? Does he rim you while you fuck some strange woman you picked up in a bar?'

The words came out mildly, casually, as if she were enquiring about the weather, but she might as well have poked him with a sharp stick. Larry jerked back. He looked past her, presumably at Stu, and when he looked back at Leah his gaze was faintly panicked.

'No,' he said with a shake of his head. 'Hell, no.'

Leah leaned back in her chair and swivelled round to face the bar. She lifted her glass of wine and drained it, then set the empty glass carefully back on the coaster. She licked her lips clean and pulled a five-dollar bill from her bag. She put it on the counter.

'Too bad,' she said with a sweet smile for Larry, who still looked as though someone had hit him on the back of the head with something heavy. 'Because, if you'd said yes, I'd have gone upstairs with both of you.'

The bartender stifled a guffaw as Leah winked at the flummoxed Larry. She headed out of the bar, with a small wave for clueless Stu, and went to see if her room was ready at last.

It was, thank God, and she was already stripping out of her suit jacket as the door closed behind her. She tossed her bag on to the bed and went straight to the bathroom to turn on the hot water. She still wanted a hot shower, but she no longer needed the good cry.

The bartender seemed to think she was joking, maybe just using an excuse to get rid of the too-exuberant suitors, but Leah had told the truth. If Stu and Larry had promised more than just a standard tag-team screw, she'd have gone with them to their room and fucked the stuffing out of both of them.

Steam filled the bathroom as she slid open the buttons of her silk shirt and hung it carefully on the hook behind the door. Next came her skirt, until she stood wearing only the white lace bra and panties, the matching garter belt and sheer nude stockings. The lace between her legs was already damp.

That morning after fucking Mike —and there was no way for her to think of it as making love, because there had been no love to it —she'd wondered if she'd ever want sex again. The thought of another person's hands on her had made her stomach churn. Her relief at knowing she wouldn't have to suck his cock any longer, wouldn't have to suffer him pumping away on top of her, had only strengthened her resolve.

There had been no one thing at which to point blame. The break-up was the accumulation of months of dissatisfaction. But if there was one thing that had tipped her over the edge, it was the toothpaste. He'd left the cap off the toothpaste yet again, left squeezed globs of goo all over the place and expected her to clean it up. That had been the final straw. He'd woken her early with a demand for oral sex, but it was the toothpaste that had stayed with her until she could no longer face a life with him.

Leah had always had a healthy libido and her sex life with Mike had been compatible . . . at first. Over time her desire for him had been squelched by his lack of consideration. Their games of dominance and submission had become nothing more than an excuse for him to act like an asshole.

Larry's touch on her knee, the purely masculine smell, the look of interest in his eyes: all had triggered something lying dormant in her for months and months. He'd thought he was in control of the situation, but Leah had been the one manipulating and manoeuvring the conversation. She'd been the one in charge, though Larry hadn't realised it.

It felt good.

A sigh whispered out of her as she ran her hands over her body. The woman in the mirror didn't look like the Leah she'd come to recognise: the one who kept her eyes downcast when she was naked; the one who gave in.

Leah slid her fingers into the front of her panties, over her clipped curls. Her clit throbbed under her touch and another sigh opened her mouth. Her finger dipped lower, between slick folds, and she shuddered.

Leah stripped out of her panties, leaving the whole pile on the floor and climbed into the hot water. She hissed at the sting even as she welcomed it. She turned her face to the spray.

'Oh,' she breathed when she saw one of the reasons why this hotel room cost so much. 'Yes.'

She pulled the detachable shower head from its hook and turned the massage setting from spray to jet. Immediately the water pulsed from the shower head in short hard bursts.

She hadn't made herself come in a long time. Mike had been a big fan of orgasm denial as a show of power and, since the less often she came, the more likely it was she would climax when he fucked her, Leah had complied with his commands.

But that was over now. No more Mike, she reminded herself as she centred the pulsing jet of water directly on her clit. She cried out at once, the pressure almost too much. Too strong. Her hips bucked forwards and she reached for the handrail.

She thought of the two men downstairs. Of having two cocks, four hands, two mouths on her. Of how Larry's neck smelled and how it would taste if she bit it. How it would feel to have one of them kneeling between her legs, lapping at her cunt, while the other tongued his way down her spine.

A soft muttered curse slipped out as the water pounded her. Already her breath was coming in short sharp pants and her vision was blurring. Leah, shower head still in hand, lowered herself to the floor of the bathtub and opened her legs as she adjusted the spray to a gentler setting.

The water caressed her flesh like a hundred tiny tongues licking her. Her cit, the soft folds, her ass. She moved the water back and forth across her flesh, her back arching as she came so hard a grunt escaped her. Her entire pussy spasmed, clamping down on nothing, and she longed for something to fill her.

Unfortunately, she hadn't thought to pack anything. She had a drawer full of toys that had lost their appeal when wielded under Mike's dominating hand. This morning she'd been sure she didn't care if she ever saw her vibrator again.

Fortunately, she had her hand and she knew exactly where her G-spot was. The water tickled her as she slid her fingers inside herself, stroking. She came again, as hard as the first time.

It was a miracle.

Leah lay back in the tub, the spray now directed towards the wall so only a fine mist came down to cover her, and tried to catch her breath. Her heartbeat slowed. Relief.

'Wow,' she said and then laughed. 'Thank God.'

She'd been half-afraid she'd never want to fuck again.

More afraid her body would never demand pleasure the way it had in the past, that somehow she'd allowed Mike to break her.

Well, Leah thought as she got out of the shower and wrapped herself in a fluffy white towel, at least she wasn't broken.

'So, I took a job here at Hargrave.' Kate dropped the biggest bomb of her day into the conversation she'd been having with Leah. Her friend had picked her up at the train station and they were on the way back to the hotel. Leah had neatly avoided Mike talk for the time being so Kate let her evade. God knew she'd been evading enough herself.

'Seriously? How long have you known? Why didn't you say anything?'

Kate sighed. 'It's all tied in with something else I haven't told you. First things first though. I closed on a really nice condo yesterday. I'll start full-time next week. It's a pay raise, my moving expenses, a nicer office. I'm a senior partner here.'

'Well, good. Having you two hours away is great. Better than an entire country away. So tell me the big thing.'

Kate braced herself and blurted it out before she could change her mind. 'I've been having a fling with Charles Dixon.'

'Get out! Dix? A fling like how? And you didn't tell me?'

'A fling. An affair. Sex. Guilty, really hot, furtive sex where we both fly in somewhere, fuck for the entire weekend and go back home. It's, oh my God, it's fucking marvellous.'

Leah grinned. 'Wow! How long?'

'We've been flirting since day one, then, um, emails followed. Phone sex, he's very inventive.' A shiver went through her at that. 'We met in person for the first time four months ago. We've only done that twice, first in Chicago and last month in San Francisco.'

'You know I have to ask this, does he make you scream out the "Star Spangled Banner"?'

Kate laughed. 'Upside down from the chandelier. How do you think he is? I'm not a virgin by any means but he's a rock star in bed.'

'I'm totally shocked. Not that you'd have a fling and all, but that you didn't tell me. He has seemed more chipper lately. I guess you're the reason for that. How does he feel about the move here?'

'I haven't told him yet. I don't know what to say, Leah. We've had this no-strings thing, just fun meetings for sex and suddenly I'm here in his backyard. He's got kids and an ex-wife . . . a life. And he hasn't asked me to be part of it in any way other than what we've had.'

'Wow. Well, I suppose you won't know until you tell him. Am I going to have to pretend like I don't know?'

'I told him I was going to tell you today. But no one else knows. I'm already uncomfortable enough with people thinking I got this of counsel job because I know you; I'd be horrified to think anyone thought I got it because I was fucking in-house counsel.'

'Anyone who knows you would laugh at the idea. I expect to hear everything, in great detail. Now that you live here we can actually hang out. I can almost forgive you for not telling me because of that.'

'Well, you're the one who has a string of cute male strippers all lining up to give you attention every time you go to the club. I'm just there to grab your sloppy seconds.' They both snorted and began chatting for the rest of the short trip to the hotel about nothing much but all the stuff that makes you really like someone else. Shoes, Duran Duran, Clive Owen, the newest sci-fi movie they both wanted to see.

Kate had met Leah in the eighth grade when Kate's parents had decided she should try public school. It was love at first giggle and they'd been friends ever since. Leah had seen Kate through a lot of rough times. Leah had stood by her during the whole mess all those years ago and it was Leah who she told all her secrets to. There hadn't been an important moment in Kate's life that Leah hadn't shared in some sense.

Hell, they'd even shared a man once. The summer after high school they'd worked at a horse camp for junior high-schoolers. There'd been another counsellor who worked mainly with the horses and he'd been older. Delicious even. After an evening in the barn, just the three of them doing shots of Jack Daniels, she and Leah had stripped him naked, tied him up and tag-teamed him quite nicely. Kate snorted to herself at the memory. They'd rocked his world and she couldn't even remember his name.

Still, of all the people in the universe, Kate knew it was Leah who'd tell her the truth, even if it hurt, who'd listen to her without judging. It was a huge comfort to have a person who'd keep you honest with yourself and who also gave you safe harbour.

By the time they arrived at the hotel, Leah's spirits had risen. Being with a good friend could do that. Make even the crappiest day better.

'He'll get that,' Leah said when Kate lifted her suitcase from the trunk. She pointed at the bellboy, who'd been lounging by one of the tall marble columns. He snapped to attention at Leah's gesture. 'Take these up to room 223.'

He nodded as the valet stepped up to take her keys. Leah turned back to Kate to continue their briefly interrupted conversation as they headed inside the hotel. She stopped just inside the doors when she saw her friend's expression. 'What?'

Kate shook her head with a small laugh. 'They just do whatever you want. I love watching it.'

Leah's brow furrowed. 'Who?'

Kate waved a hand towards the bellboy carrying her suitcase towards the elevator. He gave them a smile and a nod as he passed. 'Boys. You say jump, they ask how high.'

'Oh, stop.' Leah laughed and led Kate in the direction of the bar.

'I'm serious.' Kate gave her a look. 'Don't tell me you don't notice.'

Leah paused, her smile fading as she thought of Mike. She sighed. 'Not usually.'

They took seats at one of the booths instead of at the bar. A different bartender was on duty, a girl this time, and Leah insisted on paying for the drinks even though Kate protested.

'You can get the next round.'

'Next round?' Kate lifted her glass in a semi-toast. 'OK, if you're talking more than one round, I know you've got a lot to tell me. Start talking.'

Leah hesitated. Not because she didn't trust Kate's judgement, or because she thought her friend would criticise. It was just hard to admit she'd made a mistake —another one. Some things were too personal even for a friendship as long and close as theirs.

'I woke up today with a dick in my mouth,' she said finally.

Kate's eyebrows rose. 'And you didn't bite it off?'

Leah laughed, feeling the knot coiled in her stomach start to ease. 'No.'

Kate took a swallow of her drink. 'Leah. You never talked much about Mike, so I know I can't say too much, but . . . he sounds like an utter asshole and I'm glad you dumped him.'

Leah sipped some of her drink. 'It's not as simple as that.'

'Is it ever?' Kate sighed, commiserating. 'So tell me.'

Leah drank again, thinking exactly what to say. The bar had been mostly empty earlier, other than the two absolutely-not-queer suits, but now as evening wore on it had filled. Mostly young professionals stopping on their way after work or staying in the hotel, she judged by their clothes. Typical for a Monday night.

Kate was waiting and Leah really wanted to tell her. She doubted her friend would be shocked or even surprised, yet somehow her mouth wanted to keep holding on to the past eighteen months like a secret. Like something shameful, when that wasn't it at all. At least not because of what she'd done. Just because of why.

'I really thought,' she said slowly, shaping the words to keep her voice from shaking, 'it was what I wanted.'

Kate said nothing, the perfect response.

Leah looked at her. They'd shared just about everything with each other ever since the eighth grade. 'Do you remember Todd?'

Only one of Kate's brows raised this time. 'I was just thinking about that on the way over here. I'd forgotten his name but it's kinda hard to forget him, don't you think?'

Leah laughed. 'Yeah. I guess so.'

'Mike doesn't sound like Todd, sweetie.'

'He wasn't. But . . . you remember the rope?'

Kate laughed and covered her face briefly with her hands.

'Oh, God. Yes. Of course. He didn't know what hit him. I bet he thinks of us every time he uses rope.'

Leah laughed too, remembering how they'd tied him up in the hayloft and had their wicked way with him. 'I couldn't ever forget that.'

Kate sobered a little. 'And?'

Leah sighed and finished off her wine, wishing she'd ordered something a little stronger. 'You know I've had a few boyfriends since then.'

'You and me both.'

'Well . . . I guess I just kept looking for something that reminded me of that.' Leah shrugged, took a breath. Took a chance. 'I always thought it would be so nice to have someone just . . . do stuff. For me. To me, I guess.'

Again, Kate only nodded, listening.

'Mike wasn't the first,' Leah continued. 'But he was really into it. Dominating. And, at first, I really liked it, you know?

He laid it all out for me. What I would wear. What I'd make for dinner. The sex was great. He knew just what to do. I never had to tell him a thing.'

Leah gestured at the waitress to bring another round. 'But, after a while, he stopped knowing what I wanted and expected me to know what he wanted.'

'And when you didn't?'

'That's the thing,' Leah said. 'I did. I always did.'

Kate smiled. 'Of course you did.'

Leah shrugged. The conversation didn't hurt as much as she'd expected. In fact, the more she talked, the less it seemed to bother her at all. The less important Mike and his demands became.

'He never made me do anything I didn't want to do.' She wanted to make that clear. 'He was just a little more into the whole master/slave dynamic than I was, I guess. And it started feeling all very one-sided. I never felt like a slave,' she said finally. 'And I realised he really wasn't much of a master. He was just a selfish, self-involved prick who liked having someone do everything for him.'

'And getting his dick sucked apparently.' Kate waited until the waitress delivered their drinks before continuing. 'And no, he doesn't sound like much of a master.'

They'd always been open with each other about their sex lives —sharing a boy had sort of broken down any barriers there might otherwise have been. But Leah had never told Kate about the particular quirks of some of her relationships. Now she wondered what had held her back.

'So that's that.' Leah drank thoughtfully. 'And you know something? I thought I was going to be way more upset about it. Now I'm just relieved. I'm just . . . yeah, relieved.'

'Good for you,' Kate said sincerely. 'I mean it.'

Leah grinned. 'And I thought I was going to be completely soured on even the thought of ever having sex again, too.'

She told Kate about the afternoon, Stu and Larry, and how Larry had practically run away at her suggestion.

'But let me tell you,' Leah continued conspiratorially, 'those massage shower heads? Awesome.'

Kate snorted with laughter. 'Glad to hear you're getting back on the horse.'

This set them both off into gales of laughter at the memory of a barn, a boy and a bale of hay.

'I'll tell you what. I'd like to break off a piece of that,' Leah said when her laughter subsided. She discreetly pointed with her chin towards the bar.

The man there had leaned forwards, elbows on the polished wood, to talk to the bartender. From this angle she got a good look at the way his black dress pants clung to the curve of his ass.

He stood, up and up as they watched. He stood at least a head taller than most of the other men in the bar. His dark unruly hair looked thick enough to get lost in. It was hard to see the colour of his eyes from this distance, but Leah guessed they'd be dark, too. His white dress shirt, sleeves rolled up and tie pulled loose, wasn't showy but it flattered his broad shoulders and lean waist.

He grinned at something the bartender said. A true, genuine smile, not a smirk or a seductive, sly quirk of lips.

He ducked his head briefly before replying.

'Him?' Kate pursed her lips and spoke in a put-on, deeper voice. 'Golly gee whiz, ma'am, can I mow your lawn for some extra money? I'm saving up to go to Paris with the band.'

He did have that look a bout him, just a little. A clean-cut, earnest sort of aura that wasn't entirely out of place in the bar but not entirely in place, either. Leah couldn't hold back the chuckle at her friend's assessment.

'I like that,' she said. 'Like he's just waiting to be corrupted.'

Kate gave her a look, serious even though she was smiling. 'Did it ever occur to you that you've been putting yourself on the wrong end of the leash?'

Something tightened inside Leah at her friend's words. She looked again at the guy by the bar, who was still chatting up the bartender. He looked serious now, his hand tracing something like a list on the bar's polished surface. The bartender was nodding, solemn.

Leah looked at her friend. 'I think I'm done with all of that, Kate. I think I'd like to try something just . . . normal for once.'

'First of all, just because not everyone does it doesn't mean it's abnormal.' The lawyer in Kate was coming out and Leah sat back with a grin for the lecture. 'Second, you're so full of shit, because having a fantasy about fucking two guys at the same time and wanting them to also do each other is so not something your average soccer mom is dreaming of.'

'I'm not a soccer mom,' Leah pointed out. 'And I bet more of them than you realise want to have two men.'