Chapter 11
Eleven
S teph had just finished dressing when there was a knock at the door.
Opening it, she smiled at Jon who was twenty minutes early. “Somebody’s eager.”
Pushing her through the open door, he kicked it shut behind them and without any warning had her pinned against the wall with his body and was kissing her roughly.
He pulled back and looked at her. “You have no idea just how eager I am, darling.”
She dropped her hand and gently squeezed the erection she had felt against her thigh. “I think I have a fair idea.”
He smiled at her as he began sliding her tight, black dress up over her thighs, up to her hips, exposing her stockinged legs and very small black thong.
“Oh, very nice. I knew they would be stockings under this very sexy, but rather tight dress.” He was already pulling her dress up a little more.
She smiled as he began to pull her thong down and once it was around her ankles she simply stepped out of it. Then he had her sandwiched again between him and the wall, but this time as he kissed her his fingers traced small, circular shapes between the top of her stockings and the triangle of dark hair that was now totally exposed.
“I’ve missed you,” he said hoarsely against her ear as he began to gently mouth it.
“I’ve missed you, too,” she replied. “In fact, I couldn’t stop thinking about you when I was in the shower and getting dressed.”
“Really?”
“Yes,” she replied almost embarrassed by her own admission.
“Did you touch yourself?” His question was serious as was his expression when he looked down at her.
She nodded.
“What did you think about when you made yourself come?” He held her head still with his fingers fisted in her hair now.
“You,” she admitted coyly. “And last night,” she added now.
“Good.” A smug grin spread across his face. “Just as it should be.”
“So arrogant,” she accused seriously, but wore a huge grin.
“Just the way you like me,” he replied as her hands found his trousers to undo them.
“I’m not the only eager one then.” He grinned as he allowed his trousers and jersey boxers to drop.
Removing a hand from in her hair, he put it at the back of her knee to bend it up and out before stepping between her now open legs. His grin broadened as he lifted her against the wall slowly, then with a leisurely pace, lowered her towards him before firmly burying himself in her making her cry out.
“I like that even when I am not here,” he pulled back then drove into her again . . . “I am still here . . .” he tapped her head to indicate her mind.
She pulled his face towards her again and kissed him until she was lost in him. As she felt the pleasurable sensation building in her she began to moan louder and louder until eventually she could hold back no more and cried out, a moan, his name and suddenly he joined her, momentarily frozen as one but, sated and breathless.
He kissed her gently on the lips. “What do you want to do tonight?”
She shrugged, “I don’t know, but whatever we do you may need to release me from the wall and we both may need to dress from the waist down.” She laughed.
“I’m not convinced, but if you insist, darling,” he told her with a smile.
They were just about to leave Steph’s flat when her phone rang and as she looked at it she smiled.
“Hi, Dad. You okay?”
“Yes, sweetheart, I am fine, thank you. How are things with you?” he asked, an edge of concern seeping into his voice.
“Things are great with me, actually.” She sat down on the sofa next to Jon, her legs draped across him as she gestured with two fingers to say, ‘two minutes.’
He waved his hand to let her know there was no hurry.
“Great how?” asked her dad.
“Work is good, we have secured a big contract and I am doing some work with the new contract people. Lindsay’s wedding was really lovely.” She sounded genuinely pleased with her life at the moment.
“That’s great, Steph. Janice wanted to know if you’d like to come for Sunday lunch?”
“Sunday lunch? When?” She grimaced at Jon.
She laughed as she repeated her dad’s next comment.
“Yes, Dad, I know most people have Sunday lunch on Sunday, but I meant which Sunday because I’ve kind of made plans this week. Lindsay will be back next week and will want to bore everyone with wedding photos.” She smiled at Jon’s pained expression as he realised she was right about Lindsay.
“I see, well if your plan for this weekend includes your new boyfriend, bring him too,” he told her.
“What new boyfriend?” She stared at Jon who somehow managed to frown and smile at the same time.
“The one Simon said you’ve been seeing,” said her dad now with Janice chipping in from the background.
“Simon called you and said I had a new boyfriend?” she asked, annoyed as she shook her head at Jon.
“Yes. He was a bit drunk but was very upset. You should talk to him.”
“He phoned me when he was drunk too, but I was upset when he was a crap boyfriend so maybe he deserves to be upset, but I don’t want to talk to him, Dad. I have nothing left to say. I don’t know if I can make lunch, but I will call you tomorrow with a definite answer. Oh, when and if I have a new boyfriend to speak of, then I will tell you, not Simon,” she said a little more sharply than she’d intended making Jon frown at her slightly.
“Okay, sweetheart, call me tomorrow then, okay?”
“I will, sorry for snapping.” As irked as she was, she meant it.
“I love you, pumpkin.” The use of his pet name for her dissolved any irritation that might have remained.
“I love you too, Daddy,” she said, feeling like a little girl again as she hung up.
“Simon strikes again,” Jon stated.
“Apparently so. I don’t know what’s happened, but I wish he would go back to pretending I’d never existed,” said Steph seriously.
“Have you considered meeting him or calling him to see why he’s suddenly being a pain, or if you have any mutual friends,” he suggested.
“Lindsay’s sister, Lauren. She is friends with one of the other teachers at Simon’s school.”
Jon shrugged. “It’s a possible way of finding out if there’s a reason for his behaviour, but it needs to stop because he is invading every part of your life now; your home, your office and now your family.”
“I know and he is becoming a pain, but I would be reluctant to meet him,” admitted Steph, although she didn’t explore why she might feel less than happy to meet with her former boyfriend.
“Speak to Lauren, but if he is still a pain in the arse then we need to be more proactive in dealing with him and I would rather you didn’t meet up with him alone,” said Jon seriously, his last comment suggesting that he may have picked up on her reasons for not meeting him.
“We?”
“We what?” Jon frowned his confusion.
“You said we , we need to be more proactive,” she explained.
“Well we do because he is really beginning to piss me off and as soon as you looked at your phone and saw all of his messages the other morning your whole demeanour changed, so we will deal with him,” said Jon serious again.
“I will speak to Lauren and see what she can find out first.” The sound of a phone ringing ended that conversation.
She looked at Jon and waited for him to answer, but he just laughed. “That’s not mine.”
“It must be my Brookers’ mobile; it hasn’t rung before.” She followed the sound of it.
Jon laughed again as she eventually found it, but his laughter stopped abruptly as soon as she answered it.
“Hi, Steve. Sorry, I couldn’t find the phone.” She laughed.
Jon watched her laughing at whatever Steve had said before picking up a pen and her diary.
“Yes, that’s fine. No, no problem, but she needs to understand that it’s not an opportunity for her to just sit across a desk from me and bitch. It’s a professional meeting,” she said. “Okay, I’ll e-mail her confirmation of it on Monday, yeah, you too, bye.”
“Steve Cannon?” Jon sounded suspicious.
“Yes. Apparently, Miss Roe, wants to meet with me, one to one, next Wednesday.”
Jon stared at Steph, the nerve in his face ticking while his mouth appeared downturned and his brow creased. “Don’t take any crap off her. She was bang out of order and I told him that.”
“I don’t make a habit of taking anyone’s crap and Miss Roe will be no different, but Steve said–”
“Steve? Not Mr Cannon, you and he are on first name terms now are you?” asked Jon less than happy.
“Well yes, he is very friendly–”
“Of course he is very friendly. You’re gorgeous and he has a passion for pretty, younger women. He didn’t want you in his department at any cost until he set eyes on you, darling, and he is beginning to piss me off too because he can’t take his eyes of you, tits, arse, legs! He even asked me after you left the meeting the other day whether I thought you were a stockings or tights kind of girl.” He almost shouted now.
“Ah,” she said making him frown.
“You’re not surprised by what I’ve just said. Has he said something to you, too?”
“He invited me for a drink after work and I did notice that his eyes were drawn to my legs,” she admitted.
“I think I may move you out of legal and put you on the twenty-third floor so I can keep an eye on you.” His serious expression made Steph laugh as she moved until she was sitting across his lap.
“That seems a little extreme and I think the rules of keeping a mistress probably don’t include keeping an eye on her during office hours.” She gently ran her fingers through his hair, something she loved doing, feeling the soft but strong strands tickling the skin between her fingers.
“But they could if I wanted them to and if you came to work for me full time–”
“No!” she exclaimed, shutting that down immediately. “I am not coming to work for you full time.”
“Have it your way, for now,” he replied and then changed subject. “Come on, let’s go, and turn your work phone off and don’t give Steve your personal number because that will just encourage his advances and look where that got Miss Roe,” he revealed as they both got to their feet.
“He is the reason for her rough time at home?” she asked with a shocked laugh.
“Yes,” replied Jon bluntly as he picked up Steph’s rather heavy bag. “I said we’d spend the weekend together. I didn’t realise I’d asked you to move in with me.”
She stuck her tongue out making him smile. “Even if you’d asked me to, I don’t think Mrs Brooker would be very pleased with that arrangement do you?”
She was already in the hall now with a suit bag and could see that the introduction of Mrs Brooker had turned things more serious as Jon’s smile was no longer present and her stomach dropped like a stone. She knew she was his bit on the side, his mistress but when they were together and the banter flowed she almost forgot that fact. “Maybe I should come back here on Sunday, and go to work from here on Monday, especially if my dad is going to pressure me into Sunday lunch.”
“No, stay at mine and if you want me to I will come to your parent’s house for Sunday lunch.” He smiled again at least.
“We’ll see.” How the hell could she take him home for lunch with her dad, and if she did, how would she introduce him, as her married lover?
“This is your idea of treating me to breakfast?” Steph shook her head as she looked around the tiny cafe squeezed between a barber’s and a pet shop on the small North London High Street.
“It offers breakfast and neither of us is cooking, so I am sticking with breakfast treat.” He grinned as he led her through the door and up to the counter and ordered two full English breakfasts, both with fried bread and two teas.
The pretty blonde assistant grinned up at Jon doe eyed as she took his order and cash before he led Steph to one of the oddly matched tables and chairs complete with a plastic coated tablecloth.
Passing her a paper napkin and mismatched cutlery, he asked, “And where else can you find breakfast for two in London for less than twenty quid?”
“I really did walk straight into our little wager last night, didn’t I?” she asked him seriously.
“Well, I think your arrogance may have got the better of you when you accepted my challenge.” He laughed for the umpteenth time since they’d made their wager.
“Perhaps if you had told me that you used to bowl in a league before staking breakfast on the best of three at ten pin bowling,” she said as breakfast appeared in the hands of the assistant from behind the counter followed by two mugs of tea.
“What is that?” asked Steph.
“Tea,” replied Jon sarcastically.
“I meant the vessel it’s in. It’s like a ceramic bucket,” she cried.
“You are a snob, Miss Pryor,” accused a smiling Jon. “Drink your tea and eat your breakfast. Then we’ll do something more middle class, like discussing our merger.” He grinned.
“Fine, but I am not a snob,” she protested.
“If you say so, but you’d be lying.” He was already tucking into the huge breakfast before him.
She frowned at him, but as she began eating her own food she had to admit that it was very good, if a little crudely assembled. Maybe she was a snob.
They had been driving for about half an hour when they turned off the motorway and headed into a more rural location.
“Where are we going?” she asked impatiently.
“Arrogant, snobbish and now impatient, this weekend is turning into a real eye opener.” He smiled across at her.
“I am not arrogant and I am not a snob!”
“Are you sure you don’t want to make it the best of five, Jon? Everyone wants me on their team on work outings,” he said mimicking her comments from the previous evening.
“If you’d told me how good you were.”
“Or if you’d asked me if I was any good I may have revealed my bowling past.” He laughed at her again. “And your idea of breakfast this morning if you’d won was fresh coffee and croissants at a very overpriced French deli bar in a very overpriced area of London, so you are indeed arrogant and a snob.”
“You are so annoying,” Steph muttered, unable to deny what he was saying.
“I know, but only because I am right.” He turned through the gates of a large stately home, complete with extensive gardens and a boating lake.
“I think this may be more upper class than middle class.” She couldn’t resist a little dig.
“Well, I am sure you’ll fit right in then.”
She gave his arm a gentle smack making him chuckle.
Once they’d parked under the direction of parking attendants, Jon opened the boot of the car to reveal a wicker picnic basket.
“See, I’m a classy guy when the occasion calls for it.” He took her hand to lead her towards the back of the stately home where there was a temporary staged area in front of sprawling lawns.
They found a space where Jon opened the basket, retrieving a traditional looking red checked picnic blanket that he spread out and gestured for Steph to sit down. He sat next to her. “It’s not quite the Proms, but–”
“But it’s lovely,” she interrupted as musicians began to take to the stage.
“So, we seem to keep avoiding a conversation we need to have, Steph. What do you want from, me? From us?” he asked seriously.
She swallowed hard and rolled onto her side on the blanket where she lay and propped herself up on her elbow.
“I like you,” she started. “I fancied you when I first met you, then I thought you were a bit of a knob who had his head up his own arse, but then after Lindsay’s wedding I kind of liked you again and I have to admit you have won me over now and if you weren’t married . . .” her voice trailed off.
“If I weren’t married?” His question encouraged her to continue.
“If you weren’t married I would very much like to be your girlfriend, but as you are . . .” Her voice trailed off again.
“I really do like you, Steph . . . and you were the one that suggested that we should see each other regardless of how you saw our positions, so I would still like to do that. To see each other and see what happens, but I don’t mean on a casual basis.” He reached across and brushed the loose hair off her face and gently kissed her lips.
“What does that even mean? See what happens, not on a casual basis?” Her confusion was on the rise as his words seemed to contradict the premise of their relationship and what it was possible for it to be.
“It means we see what happens between us. You may give me the elbow in a month’s time or in a year’s time we may decide we want more in some way. Nobody knows what is waiting around the corner and maybe that’s for the best, but I am very reluctant to enter relationships. That can be costly in every area,” he said mysteriously. “So, I would expect you to be faithful to me, and I know that you are discreet, but I would need that assurance from you, and honesty. I don’t like being lied to.”
She nodded, thinking that he hadn’t asked for anything she hadn’t expected to give anyway. “I’m not the slut you think I am, so fidelity is a foregone conclusion, for me anyway,” she said seriously.
“I have rethought that judgement, but your behaviour that night gave me that impression. Why is fidelity only a foregone conclusion for just you?” His earlier smile was replaced with a frown.
“Because unless you’re about to tell me that your wife doesn’t understand you.”
“Look about my wife–” started Jon as she interrupted.
“Ssh. Look, I hate that I might have to share you. I was cheated on by Simon and it’s shit, but if the choices are sharing you or walking away I think I would rather share, but it’s probably best that we don’t talk about her,” she said putting a negative inference on the word ‘her’.
“But maybe,” he started again, but this time she stemmed the flow of his words by leaning across and kissing him. As he reciprocated and parted his lips she accepted his invitation until she was on her back with him across her stroking her hair and kissing her gently, but passionately.
As he came up for air he smiled down at her. “I think our merger is going very well, don’t you?”
“Very, in fact I think our negotiations are almost done, don’t you?” she asked.
He shook his head and frowned. “Far from it, darling, there are a couple more things we will need to thrash out.” He raised his eyebrows at her, making her giggle.
“Sounds like fun.” She grinned.
“I do hope so.” He reciprocated with a huge wolfish grin.
“Although I was rather hoping we were ready to shake on the deal,” she told him.
“I promise you we will shake on this particular deal several times at each stage of the negotiations,” he said salaciously.
“Then I look forward to our ongoing negotiations.”
They both looked up as they became aware of applause around them. They joined in as the musicians on stage stood up and took a bow before some left the stage and others took to it.