The Sandstone Affair (An Erotic Romance Novel) (14 page)

~~~

While driving to Mark’s, my mind shakes out
of its haze and anger takes the place of shock. Why would Blake shut down and
lock everyone out? He must have been tipped off. We still have a week before
the filing deadline and that’s a lot of time to work. But how did he know? My
mind instantly goes to Mark. Maybe’s he’s been stringing me on all along. But,
I can’t think that, and I don’t want to believe it’s true.
“Miss Conway?” the doorman asks, wondering why
the cleaning woman is showing up at nine o’clock at night.
“Mr. Stone called for me to come. Apparently
he made quite a mess in the kitchen and now isn’t sure how to clean the
specialty stove up without scratching it. Can you believe that crap? I’m like
‘Really, Mr. Stone?” But you know how it is with these folks.”  I hope the
lie is enough not to cause suspicion. I’m so mad about Blake I don’t even
really have to act upset. And since I doubt we’re going to save Lynx anyway,
what do I have left to lose.
I step off the elevator and see Mark lying on
the couch with the TV on mute talking on the phone. He jumps up when I see him
like he’s been caught with his hand down his pants.
“You won’t fucking believe this!” I shout.
“HEY! Julia. Wow. What… um… what are you doing
here?” He puts his hand over the receiver. “I need to let you go. Someone’s on
the other line. No, no… I will talk to you later.” Mark gets off the phone and
runs around the couch to where I’m standing.
“Who was that?” I demand as if it is any of my
business. He puts his hand on his hip, clearly agitated by my unexpected
presence.
“You should call, Julia,” he says severely. “I
might actually have other interests besides you. Lynx might have run your whole
life but it doesn’t run mine.”
“Oh, I’m an interest? Is that all I am?” I
need to calm down. This isn’t a good way to start this discussion.
“No, of course not.” He sits down. “But this
is my home, and I do have other things besides Lynx to handle. Now tell me why
you’re here.”
“You won’t have to worry about handling Lynx
very much longer,” I say glumly. I start to hold back the tears, but I also
remember the lesson of the spanking. Holding things in is what got me to this
point. My voice quakes and a tear starts to fall.
“What’s happened?” he asks gently.
I explain all that Janice told me. The
tripwire thing, the shutting everyone out, and the section of Ladies World all
add building blocks to the huge stone wall between us and our goal. He nods as
he listens and then gets up to think.
“I didn’t know what to do when I heard it. I
started blaming you in my head.”
“Me? I didn’t have anything to do with this.” He
chuckles, shaking his head. The tone of his voice sets me off again. It’s like
he’s saying, “Julia, you idiot.”
“Of course you did, Mark. Someone tipped off
Blake that we were looking. Maybe your little fiasco in his office was not as
smooth as you thought. Maybe Valerie James found out you were snooping through
her company’s files at work. Maybe your IT person gave Blake a freaking full
account of you interviewing him about the program. You act like you’re so
perfect but more and more I’m starting to see this as your fuckup. You just
don’t want to admit it.”
“This wasn’t my fuckup.” His jaw locks, and
his posture clearly shows his unhappiness even though his tone retains the same
volume and control. “This is just an unexpected turn of events and we will
overcome it.”
“Well, if it wasn’t a mistake, maybe it was on
purpose. Maybe you’ve been working with Blake all along and this whole thing
was just to keep me busy and waste my time until the month had passed.”
BAM! He slams his hand on the coffee table and
I jump.
“I have had it, Julia. I’m done. I’m done with
you. I’m done with Lynx. I’m done. Go figure this out yourself, and good luck
to you.” He points at the door. “And be aware tomorrow I am telling the doorman
that Lucy Conway was fired!”
“Wait,” I say, stunned by his reaction and
realizing I’ve been a lot less than grateful or giving to Mark. “I’m sorry.
Don’t give up on me, Mark. I need you. I need you to help me with Lynx. I need
you to help me… well… with me.”
“I’m sorry, too. I don’t mean to threaten. I
just…” He shakes his head and lets out a big sigh. His eyes are so beautiful,
and sad. “I am tired of being accused every time something doesn’t go your way.
I know trust is a huge issue, but you’ve got to get around it. I’m not helping
Blake or Val and I don’t ever intend to betray you to them. I don’t control the
world, Julia. I just control how I respond to it.”
“I know, I know.” I nod in agreement. He’s
right, of course. “But now, more than ever, we need a response.”
I turn and lean back as he puts his arms
around me. I regain my sense of security, comfort, and hope in his embrace. He
hugs me tightly and starts ruminating quietly about the situation.
“I’ve got my own notes from when Lynx was my
account, the affidavit from Howard, Janice’s print-out from your IT guy, the
bank records I snagged from Intrend, the info from Val’s office and some
memo’s—”
“Intrend? Memo’s? What are you talking about?”
“I’ve been doing a little more than sitting on
my hands and planning your retirement from journalism, Julia. I’ve had
investigators doing a lot of extra chores.” He squints his eyes just enough to
tell me that’s all the info I am getting about that.
“Is it enough?”
“If it’s all we have, we’ll use it and try.
But, it’s all circumstantial. The judge might give you an extension but the
moment we ask for it, Blake will burn those records. He’s only keeping them now
so he knows how to lie and not get caught. He has to know what he did in order
to know how to frame it. We need to get that folder.”
Mark hugs me tighter, his hands running up and
down my arms.
“We need to get in Blake’s office and we’re
running out of time. The good news is the closer the deadline gets, the cockier
Blake gets. Still, if he’s closing down Lynx, you can bet he isn’t going to let
anyone waltz around through his office–especially me.”
Suddenly, he blinks and smiles. He has an
idea, I can tell. But I’m in no way prepared for what comes out of his mouth
next.
“Do you trust me?”
“Um… of course, I… well… ” I struggle and
realize submission means giving him my honesty, not just my body. “I’m trying
to trust you. I trust you most of the time.”
“But, you’re open to trusting me?”
“Yes,” I laugh with one of those maniacal
giggles that says I no longer have any idea what we’re talking about.
“How well do you deal with pain?”
“What?”
“Not the bang your head on the counter pain or
I just lost my best friend pain, but pain that leads to something better. How
well can you endure something if you know it leads to something else? Would you
accept pain if you trusted the person giving it to you? Could you trust them
not to hurt you?”
“I don’t know. I don’t like pain so I avoid
it, like most people.” I struggle to answer because I’m trying to figure out where
this is coming from, and where it’s going. It went the last place I expected.
“I want us to have anal sex.”
“Are you crazy? NO!” I say standing up. “As
usual, I’m dealing with the worst crisis in my professional life and you’re
thinking with your dick. Typical man!”
“Hear me out.” He rises and takes my hand,
pulling me toward the playroom we’ve used before. “Sometimes we have to put
ourselves in a position that’s painful, that’s humiliating, or that we fear.
But after we go through it, we get what we need in the end. If we can get
through that position with someone we trust, it makes it easier with someone we
don’t.”
I allow Mark to walk me into the room and sit
on the bed. No hairbrush. Thank goodness.
“Look, Mark,” I say matter-of-factly. “I’m not
having anal sex with someone I trust, someone I don’t, or anyone else, because
I’m not doing that with anyone ever! Never did it, never going to. Case
closed.”
“Why?”
“Because, no. I’ve reached my limit.”
“Why is it a limit? Look Julia, I’m not going
to force you. I’m not going to abandon you. But let’s just talk. Why won’t you
have anal sex?”
“Because it hurts.”
“How do you know it hurts? You just said you
never had it.” He sits up straight, clearly in rational mode. I’m leaning back
against the headboard trying to work up a good answer to an honest question.
“Everyone knows it hurts. It’s common
knowledge. Sun starts in the East, water is wet, anal sex hurts.”
“But what does it feel like after the hurt?”
“I… I don’t know,” I confess. “I’ve never
really thought past the hurt.”
“That’s exactly what I’m getting at, Julia. I
think I know a way to get you to trust me. But in order to do it, you’re going
to have to get past the hurt. You’re going to suffer the pain, but you’re going
to have to keep going because the reward is so much better. You need to trust
me enough to know I wouldn’t hurt you, even when there’s some present pain.
You’ve got to trust me past the hurt.”
I want to trust him. God knows I do. I
consider what he’s saying and it makes a lot of sense. Still, I’m terrified by
the prospect of this. I’ve never been this open, this intimate with anyone. Can
I really do it with him?
“And,” he adds, “If you can learn to get
through the hurt because of the rewards–I think I know how we can get that
folder out of Blake’s office.”
“Look.” I raise my hands in surrender. “I know
he’s an asshole, but I really can’t think about Blake and having anal sex with
you at the same time. It’s really too much.”
Mark laughs and kisses me gently.
“Then let’s leave Blake out of it for now, and
work on that trust.”
I sigh and nod, more to feel his body against
mine again than an urgent desire to test the limits of my trust of Mark. We
undress in a slow and luxurious manner, with Mark kissing and caressing me as
our clothes come off. He reaches down, rubbing my mound and getting me aroused.
His lips pulling at mine and his hands over my body send shivers throughout my
entire being.
I rub his cock and lean down to take it in my
mouth, my lips pursing on his head, sucking with purpose and passion, hoping to
bring him to such a quick place of pleasure he’ll forget all about this ‘plan’
for the night. He leans back allowing me to take more and more of him in. I
feel him growing inside my wet, warm, welcoming mouth. Then he gently lifts my
chin.
“That was beautiful,” he says sincerely. “Now
I want you to let me guide you. I want you to trust me.”
My body trembles, and I bite my lower lip. I have
no idea what to expect. I nod my head yes.
Mark guides me onto my stomach, lifting my
hips slightly. He rubs my breasts and kisses the back of my neck, at one point
letting his tongue lick all the way down my spine. He massages my buttocks and
runs his finger up the sensitive tissue toward my small virgin hole. I jump a
bit the first time his finger runs across it.
He opens the drawer of the nightstand and
brings out a bottle of lubricant. I hear the cap snap open but don’t feel any
on me. Then I feel his wet finger once again rubbing at my anus.
“Try to relax. This part isn’t going to hurt,”
he coos as his lubricated finger presses against me.
“Is this a medical exam or sex?” I try to
joke, hoping to ease the tension. I feel his finger enter me, and my body gives
way. He rubs the inside of my opening with lube and takes a long time, allowing
me to become used to the sensation.
“It’s trust, Julia. It’s trust.” He squeezes
more lubricant out and soon his finger is joined by a second. My body spasms
slightly, the stretching needed to fit both in. He continues exploring and
moving in me and I understand what he was trying to say. After the discomfort
of the unfamiliar presence, my body is responding to the feeling of him in me.
I begin to move my hips, enjoying the sensation of my body rubbing against his
fingers.
I’m doing this. I’m actually doing this. I’m
overwhelmed by the physical sensation and the emotional reality of how
vulnerable I truly am at this moment. He withdraws his fingers slowly, dripping
some more lube in my hole.
He leans his body over me, kissing and
nuzzling me again. His hands grip my hips as I feel the head of his well lubed
shaft press against me. There is just a slight pressure pushing on me.
“Are you ready?” he asks sweetly. I know in my
heart if I asked him to stop, he would. I also know if I did that, I would
spend the rest of my life wondering what I had passed on. I nod. “You’re going
to feel a stretch, like a cramp, and it will hurt a bit. Just try to relax. The
pain passes quickly, but the pleasure’s just beginning.”
I feel him guiding himself into my small
opening. He moves slowly, just inching his head into me. I groan aloud as I
experience the first cramp pull through my entire backside. My breath comes out
in small huffs and tears fill the corners of my eyes. I’m just about to say
stop when there is a sort of “pop” and he’s inside me.
At this point, my mind takes over where my
body has left off. I’m so overwhelmed by the intimacy and reality of this
connection. He is taking my body in a way it has never been before, and I am
opening to him a part I’ve never even considered. The pain subsides, going from
a harsh cramp to a slight pulling as he inches further into me.