Chapter 47
A s the days passed, I didn’t mention the wire issue again.
I hadn’t let it die, but I could see how much it had affected Morgan, and I had no interest in revisiting that when it was so fresh.
Better, I thought, to let Morgan forget about it or at least let the intensity of the emotion settle down and then bring it up when he had a meeting scheduled with his father.
That didn’t mean I didn’t do my due diligence, however.
And the source of my help came from a place that…
well, I was finding myself saying “I never would have expected” so much that I guess I had to start saying I really did expect it to come from somewhere nearby but unexpected, strange as it was.
“So you’re telling me your uncle can really do it?” I said as I sat on the couch, eating a slice of pizza.
“You owe me so much,” Claire said as she popped open a bottle of champagne and poured me a glass. “I don’t know what sort of games you’re getting into, but it better not involved you getting killed.”
“Not yet,” I said with a morbid, defiant grin on my face, one that Claire didn’t react especially well too. “Oh, don’t worry about it. We just have some resentful asshole in my adoptive father that’s upset we got good deals and he didn’t.”
I was pretty sure Claire already knew the details of my relationship with Edwin Hunt and others, but even if she didn’t, it didn’t much matter.
As weird as it was, the lack of emotional commitment made it much easier to tell me these kinds of things.
I didn’t have to worry about her fucking me over in a few weeks time like Layla had—and if she did, the detachment would be that much easier.
In theory.
“I’m not going to die,” I said with an eyeroll. “If things truly get fucking crazy, if it’s the kind of thing where I fear for my life, I’ll let you know where I’m going off-grid.”
“You’re crazy,” she said. “You and Morgan both are the same way. You throw yourselves into the fire that’s in front of you without wondering if it will burn.”
“Ahh, but there’s always something on the other side of the fire. We’re not stupid, you know.”
“No, but stubborn as a mule should be stubborn as a Hunt.”
That I could not argue, not in the slightest.
What I couldn’t also argue, however, was that things seemed strangely calm for the time being, which either meant shit was about to hit the fan or Edwin had grown tired of what he had sought to make happen.
The latter seemed far too unlikely, but I didn’t get the ominous sense things were going to be destroyed, either.
It just seemed… like I had a down period and I had to appreciate it.
And what better way than by celebrating Claire’s newest hire, a young 24-year old female graduate from Columbia as one of her programmers.
It benefited her, it increased the value of our company, and it gave Claire an employee that we hoped was less likely to be persuaded by fake gossip and false news.
“Well, let’s not celebrate the crazy tonight, let’s celebrate the stable,” I said, holding my glass up to Claire, who clinked hers with mine. “To the improved stability of Rising Sun, may you never set.”
“Oh Jesus,” Claire said as she took a sip. “Did you have that one in your tool belt for a while?”
“Ever since I met you, actually. How does that make you feel?”
“You waited that long?”
“Would you use a hammer at first glance?”
“Yes?”
I just laughed. It was nice to fall into the flow of basic conversation every once in a while. Especially with a girl I liked.
A girl I was beginning to like a little too much. But as someone to watch out for or as a romantic interest? Damn, Chance, you got some shit to figure out between the three ladies in your life.
“Well, I’m not breaking out a hammer here,” I said. “Things are too calm and too peaceful.”
“For sure,” Claire said.
She and I locked eyes, and I did the only thing that felt perfect for the moment. I leaned in to kiss her.
But unlike before, when our kisses might have devolved into passionate, animalistic, rough sex, I just lingered there a bit. I daresay that my kiss was a little romantic. I daresay that my kiss was showing my true side.
I think Claire got that sense too, because as gently as she could, she pulled back. She gave me a smile, but I knew what that pull away meant. You’re getting too close for comfort. Remember this works well because you are on the same page. Don’t jump ahead.
“What are you going for, Chance?” she said.
She said it as flirtatiously as she could, beginning to unbutton her shirt. My eyes lit up and my cock got rock hard. I wanted her, sure… but goddamn, for a girl so pretty, she could be so bad.
“You know the answer to that,” I said as I crawled forward on the couch.
“Do I?” she said, her hair fluttering over her face. “I’m not so sure I do. Can you show me?”
I got the message. I didn’t need any more hints. I didn’t need to say anything else, either. I just moved over her, kissed her much harder, and pressed my groin into hers.
Her hands reached down to reach into my pants as she tried to stroke me off.
I moved a little more slowly than normal, still with the force of a man in control but not quite like the animal that I was in prior engagements.
Claire would see that I had a soft touch as well as a rough one, and that the key laid in the delivery of it all.
Rather than tear at her clothes, I made sure to remove them garment by garment, kissing her on the newly exposed skin that had been there to cover her in the cold air of New York City.
I waited until I heard the soft moans, until I saw the hair on her arms, until I saw the quivers of her limbs to move on to the next feature of her body.
Even when I got her naked and I was naked too, even when I could have gotten inside of her, I took my sweet, sweet time.
Claire, on the other hand, got driven absolutely mad by this.
I knew she wanted me to fuck her badly, so much so that she was reaching down to push me inside, but I kept it at a distance.
This got her sweaty and red so fast I was amazed I hadn’t considered the idea sooner.
Granted, I had in other relationships, but I guess I was just apprehensive about doing it with Claire.
Not anymore. Not after tonight.
“Goddamnit Chance get the fuck inside me!” she finally screamed after I’d kissed her neck and her breasts.
“Is that so?” I said, but I went in slowly.
Oh, this was so delicious, watching Claire turn into a kind of sex-crazed devil who just had to have me inside of her. She grabbed my ass and tried to make me move inside her faster, but I was too strong for her.
That was the funny thing that Claire didn’t realize. Just because I used my strength and dominance to control her didn’t mean I would always treat her as a rag doll to be tossed around. Some nights, she would be like my porcelain doll, to be handled with extreme care as if she might break.
Of course, that turned her into the opposite, but that was half the fun. Two opposing sexual forces, united as one but never quite able to mold perfectly. It was that tension that made this so damn fun.
At one point, she tried to flip me over so she could get on top, seemingly unsatisfied with the pace of it.
Well, who was I to refuse a lady such a request?
I rolled my hips, never letting her fall off me, but I quickly realized even if I wanted to retain some control, her being on top eliminated any such possibility.
To say that Claire rode me was an understatement.
She grinded on me like she would have died if she hadn’t had sex that night.
She went at me like a horny teenager, so out of control that she slipped off me more than once and I legitimately worried she would smash into me.
But she always stopped just in time and went back at me.
The intensity was such that already, just in this second position, I could feel myself coming. I held it in as best as I could, trying to get Claire to orgasm, but there was only so much I could do with a woman this sexually charged.
She put her hands into my chest, digging her nails in, as her face became so red I almost had to remind her to breathe, I feared she would pass out.
I grabbed her breasts and squeezed at her command as all the sensation in my body centered into my groin.
I could feel the cum rising in me, ready to blow out at any second.
“Claire…” I groaned.
“Chance!” she growled.
I came with a loud cry, one that belied the slow pace I had just gone on. That seemed to be the magic touch, because Claire also came moments later, my cries seeming to be the key that unlocked her orgasm. She shook uncontrollably, which of course intensified the pleasure of my own orgasm.
When she and I finally finished, she just collapsed straightforward onto my chest, breathing as if she’d just sprinted to be with me.
Which, well, we had kind of sprinted to that climax.
“Fucking a, Chance,” she said. “I don’t know if you did that slow shit on purpose, but you got me the fuck riled up.”
“You could say that,” I said with a laugh, running my hands through her hair.
I found myself in a weird place after I ran my hands through her hair. I didn’t have anything more to say. I was just… speechless. What I’d experienced was awesome, yes, but I knew the real reason why.
“Can I ask you something?”
Surprisingly enough, it was not me that had broached that question.
“Of course,” I said.
I could already tell by the way she asked me that question that we were headed for “the talk.” I just hoped this talk wouldn’t wind up with us refusing to speak to each other as it usually did with my past flings.
“Do you really think we’re going to succeed? Rising Sun, I mean?”
OK, that was not the question I expected.
“I do,” I said. “I wouldn’t have invested in you if I didn’t believe.”
“I know, but it was so sudden, and you know the story, but—”
“Shh,” I said, petting Claire’s head again. “It’s OK. I really do believe. I want you to succeed. I like you. But more than that, I know you will succeed.”
A long, pregnant pause came. And then the real question I was nervously expecting came.
“What do you mean by you like me?”
Shit. No dodging it or pushing it off now.
“I wish I knew,” I said, perhaps the most honest thing I could muster. “I like you a lot. That is not a secret. And I know you’re not looking for anything serious. That is also not a secret. But I don’t know how I like you.”
I paused, taking care to consider my words carefully. It was rather bizarre for me to be having this conversation with her naked body on top of mine, but I couldn’t avoid it any longer. If I wanted it clothed, it was a little too late for that.
“You are someone I admire greatly, not just as an entrepreneur but as a human being,” I said.
“In some respects, there’s a lot of reasons to like you.
But on the other hand, I just went through some crazy shit with the last girl I saw.
And on top of that, I’ve never been great at establishing relationships with women.
But you seem different. You’re… normal.”
Claire mustered a sweet smile. I was very tempted to kiss her there but held back, worrying it would ruin the impact of the moment.
“I know you don’t want anything serious, and I know I shouldn’t either. I just care a lot about you. Why not leave it at that?”
Claire nodded, gave a soft “OK” and leaned over to kiss me.
“Just promise me you’re not going to want to become exclusive or serious,” she said. “Or if you are, just be honest with me before it makes you upset.”
When she phrased it as such, I realized it was probably too late to avoid that. I would get bothered when our end came, even if I knew rationally it would come, probably sooner rather than later. If that signaled I had feelings for her, well, too bad.
“OK,” I said.
It was all I could say.
And given what everyone else in my life wanted to tell me, maybe it was best that I just left it at that. With one of the few people who things weren’t that complicated or dramatic with, less truly was more.
Claire and I were in about as perfect a spot as we could be for the moment. The question was just how long it would remain perfect.