24
Henry sent Jia off on her way promising her that tonight, he was going to give her the date of her dreams: a home-cooked meal
and lots of sex on a bed. She was thrilled. She was not the high-maintenance type.
He hadn’t gotten much done today, but for once, Henry decided not to stress about it. Work was slow, it was why he’d been
able to get away. And he was going to take the advice he’d given Jia and not carry the weight of everyone else’s burdens on
his shoulders.
So when the phone rang, he had a brief thought of letting it go to voice mail. But Henry wasn’t going to change that easily.
So he grabbed it before even looking to see who was calling.
“Goddamn it, Shin. What the fuck is going on over there?”
And that was why he was surprised by the voice of his boss on the line screaming at him before he’d even managed to say hello.
“Sir? What’s going on over here? In the desert?
” Henry was trying to put two and two together in his head and was not sure what he was missing.
His boss was in Saint Lucia this week. Henry was still within the two-week vacation period he’d requested to come to Palm Springs.
And nothing, from what he’d heard from his team at their last check-in this morning, was happening in New York.
He’d just checked his email an hour ago . . .
“Don’t you check your email? I forwarded you the message from Harrison, Mars, and Leighton. We’re being sued.”
Henry rushed to his laptop set up on the kitchen table and logged in. A message had been forwarded to him from his boss.
Subject: FW: What do I do with this?
It was from none other than Edison Wainwright, Jia’s old boss.
Wainwright had been served papers. He was being sued for unlawful termination and a hostile work environment. The company
was included in the lawsuit.
“Okay, I’m reviewing it all now. I’ll get back to you when I know more. I’m on it,” he told his boss.
“I don’t need you bothering me with this over the weekend. Just take care of it, Henry. Jesus fucking Christ.” And with that,
he’d hung up. Missing were the effusive Well dones. No son at the end. Just an order to get it done.
Henry looked at the clock: 3:36. Dennis would be home any minute. And it was after close of business out in New York on a
Friday.
The Henry of a couple weeks ago would have canceled all plans and immediately pored over every word of the documentation and then gone back to review everything in the employee files and his own personal Cover Your Ass file.
He’d have answers for any question lobbed his way and a strategy set for how to move forward, taking no prisoners, and would be prepared to update his boss first thing Monday morning.
He would have gone over it all again and again, singularly focused on it the entire weekend.
But Henry already knew what he’d find deeper in the lawsuit and in the files. He’d looked them over before, hadn’t he? He
had turned a blind eye to things that had been brought up and subsequently swept under the rug. And though he was confident
he could figure out how to keep the company protected and get the lawsuit taken care of, he felt an unfamiliar turning in
his stomach about it.
Dennis had bragged to everyone at The Sunset about his grandson the lawyer.
Mimi had patted him on the back time every time she saw him, greeting him like he was her favorite person.
Jia trusted him and looked at him like he was worth falling for. And he had fallen too, as much as he tried to deny it. Shit,
and she had come to ask him for help today, to offer support to good people who needed and deserved it, and he’d refused.
There were people here who believed in him. Not like his boss did, to just get something taken care of. The people here believed
he’d do the right thing.
He looked back at the email chain from his boss, from Edison Wainwright, from the law offices of Harris, Mars, and Leighton.
He wasn’t surprised by what he saw there. He just didn’t know what to do. Was this the kind of lawyer Henry had worked his
ass off to become? He closed his eyes, releasing a deep breath.
Henry wasn’t so sure if he would do the right thing.
But he didn’t want to think about this now. He didn’t have to think about this now. He’d tackle it tomorrow.
Tonight, he was going to focus on Jia and making their date an amazing one. Because Jia deserved it. And in the back of his
mind, Henry knew, circumstances being as they were, with the world working against them, that this could very well be their
only date.
Henry took one last look at the email, took one closer look at the names of those on the claim, Stephanie Novak, Taylor Ann
Graff, and Jia Chung. He wouldn’t tell anyone at Bakerson’s this—he wasn’t bound to disclose this feeling. But damn if he
wasn’t proud seeing Jia’s name there on the documentation. He’d hoped it would be.
Henry closed his laptop and went to change for his date. They had one more night and he was gonna make the most of it.
“Watching a man cook me dinner is possibly the sexiest thing ever,” Jia said. She came up behind Henry and peeked around him
to see what he was working on.
Henry liked cooking. Following recipes with clear directions and an immediate payoff satisfied his brain.
Jia’s arms wrapped around Henry’s waist, and he turned to face her. She was affectionate in ways he usually found uncomfortable.
But with Jia, it felt nice. He took a quick glance at the timer on the pasta. He had seven minutes. The sauce he was putting
together could wait a few. He was going to take advantage of every opportunity tonight to be with Jia in every way.
He bent and wrapped his own arms under her ass and lifted her up to sit on the kitchen island. “This is brand-new. Mimi always
wanted an island,” Jia said. The words came out breathy and made Henry feel feral.
“Well then, we’ve got to christen it, don’t you think?”
Jia nodded feverishly. Henry laughed. “Oh, and, Jia? No more talk about Mimi. Or Dennis. Or Gladys or Betty or Gordon, for
that matter. Let’s let the young folks have some fun tonight, okay?”
Jia pouted. “But what about Ernie? He planted new rosebushes and got—”
Henry crashed his lips against hers, swallowing whatever Jia was about to say about Ernie’s rosebushes. She smiled against
his mouth and pressed herself harder against him.
Henry pulled back for one sec to check the timer.
“I’m sorry, am I not holding your attention, sir?” she said playfully.
“The pasta,” he explained.
“Did I mention I love overcooked pasta?” she said teasingly.
“Well, in that case . . .” Henry pushed Jia’s legs open, and she leaned her body back on the island. “We’ve got at least nine
minutes, then. Plenty of time for an appetizer.”
Jia had another one of Mimi’s colorful, bold muumuus on. Henry realized these were quickly becoming her favorites to wear.
As he lifted up the bottom of the dress, exposing her legs, it felt almost immodest, forbidden. He was rock-hard in his shorts.
Jia’s hands came to Henry’s head, and she threaded her fingers through his hair, gently pushing him where she wanted him to
go. His impatient girl. He smiled. “Eight minutes,” she teased.
It was all the encouragement he needed. Henry reached for the top of her panties and pulled them down her legs, exposing all of her to him.
God she looked so fucking tasty. He could go slow, savor it, draw it out.
But they were on a timer, and she was the one reminding him.
He’d give it to her good, hard, and fast.
Henry’s tongue went straight in lapping her folds, and Jia cried out, bucking her lower body up. He reached and placed his
hand on her stomach. Bent over her body like this, he felt the burn in his legs. Better than doing a hundred squats, he thought.
Still, his back wouldn’t last this way.
“Baby, scoot back just a little,” he encouraged her. He helped push her back farther onto the island. And then lifted her
legs and placed them straddled on his shoulders. Perfect. With one hand bracing the edge of the marble, the other grabbing
hold of one of Jia’s legs, he propped her up just a little to give him the angle he needed. He bent his head down and went
back to devouring her.
He licked up one side and back down the other. God, she tasted so sweet. “Henry,” she kept whispering. Henry kissed and sucked
and licked, and she took it all. He speared his tongue into her hole, and Jia bucked again. “Yes,” she said, louder this time.
“God, yes.”
Her hands tightened in his hair, and he could tell she was already close. His responsive girl. As his tongue continued to
go in and out of her, he brought his hand up to her clit, pressing down on it with his thumb and then rolling it between his
thumb and forefinger. “Oh my god,” she cried out.
She wriggled and squirmed, pushing herself against his face. She took without apology, and Henry happily gave her what she
wanted.
She moved faster against him as he worked her clit, his tongue moving in time with her body. He felt the pulsations against his tongue immediately as Jia gave a loud moan and came, wetness coming out of her and into his mouth. He swallowed the taste of her as her body collapsed onto the island.
Henry kissed up her stomach until he reached her breasts. Her nipples were hard and pebbled. He sucked the right one and then
moved over to the left. Jia hissed and bucked. “Everything’s really tender after I come,” she confessed.
Henry was amazed how freely Jia spoke about anything and everything. Henry was usually guarded in what he shared. He wanted
to tell Jia more about his thoughts and feelings, or at least, he could try. He could start by talking to her about the lawsuit.
He wondered if she would bring it up tonight. He wasn’t sure if he wanted her to or not.
But it would be the biggest buzzkill. And right now, he just wanted to raise a shield around them both and shut out the rest
of the world.
Henry’s head appeared through the neckline of the muumuu. “These things are big enough for the both of us to wear,” he joked.
He leaned on top of her and kissed her just as the beep of the timer went off.
“Perfect timing,” she said against his lips.
He lifted his head and looked directly into her eyes. “Perfect” was all he said back.
Henry grabbed a clean washcloth and turned on the tap until the water quickly turned warm.
“On demand water heater,” Jia commented. “It’s new.”
He came over and helped clean Jia up before going back to wash his hands and get back to making dinner.
“But I want to return the favor,” she said, hungrily eyeing the erection in his shorts.
“After dinner. Consider it dessert,” he said.
Jia’s lips turned down in a pout, and Henry kissed them back to smiling. He went on to plate their dinner, and the two of them sat down to eat at the small kitchen table.
“Oh my god, this looks so good. You’re an amazing cook,” Jia said as she shoveled a forkful of pasta into her mouth. When
she pulled the fork out with her lips wrapped around it, Henry thought about those same lips wrapped around his—
“Are you thinking dirty thoughts right now, Henry?” Jia’s eyes sparkled.
He loved how she wouldn’t let him get away with anything.
Henry finished off his wine, took Jia’s hand, and stood up.
Jia put down her fork, took one last, longing look at the rest of her pasta, and quickly grabbed her own wineglass, downing
the rest of it, before standing up. “It’s even better as leftovers,” Henry assured her.
She smiled and nodded as he led them to the bedroom.
They stood there in the small but tidy bedroom. It had been less than a month since he’d first met her, first brought her
to his apartment, first had her. A lot had changed in that time. He had changed in that time. And he wanted her now, to show
her how it could be between them.
The room carried her scent, her energy, her vibe. He felt drunk off her presence.
Jia gave Henry a small push to sit down on the bed. “My turn,” she said. “I’ve been waiting too long for this.”
Henry had been half-hard all evening, so by the time Jia had unbuttoned his shorts and pulled them down, he was fully erect
and ready. Henry loved a good blow job. But the way Jia carefully removed his boxers and kissed up his leg, nuzzling her nose
at the base of his shaft, kissing the tip, lapping at the slit, small breaths whispering over him, it all felt so intimate.
Henry swallowed. He wasn’t sure how much of this he could handle.
He could stop it. He could flip her over onto the bed, crawl on top of her, and enter her.
He could follow the motions of what he knew and was used to.
He could avoid the feelings that were creeping up inside of him, a new kind of discomfort bordering on pain where his panic attacks usually hit him in his chest.
But as Jia wrapped her lips around him and took him in her mouth, he forgot it all. Every thought of self-preservation out
of his mind. Knowing that he’d give her whatever she wanted and protect her at all costs.
If he’d just let go and let himself.