9. Chapter Nine ~ Chris
Chapter Nine ~ Chris
I’m still seething about seeing that man touch Emma, and yet even I know that it’s ridiculous. I know that I’m being foolish. That this kind of thing happens all the time here and if the girls don’t say anything we don’t fuss about it.
Clearly Emma didn’t mind. But as soon as I saw his hand on her ass I saw red. And it seemed like someone or something else took possession of my body. I had to stop it.
But from the way she looked at me in that hallway, it’s clear that she didn’t entirely mind my interference either.
“So what just happened down there?” Ethan barges into the office and I turn on him with a scowl.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“No?” He raises an eyebrow at me. “Because one of our regulars is down there complaining about being accosted by someone who looks a lot like you. I had to get him a drink on the house to get him to stop whining.”
“Well if he’s stopped whining it doesn’t matter, does it?”
But Ethan isn’t about to let this one go. He’s still staring at me. Still waiting for a response.
“I lost my temper. It happens.”
“Sure, I’ve seen it happen. But usually it’s when there’s something to actually get upset about. Not because a regular slapped one of the girls on the ass and she didn’t even complain.”
I grit my teeth together and turn back toward my desk. “It’s handled. So let it go.”
“What’s going on with you and this girl? I’ve seen her up here a lot. And now you’re down there defending her honor when it doesn’t even need defending?”
“It’s … complicated,” I reply, conscious of the fact that she didn’t want Ethan to know about our agreement until it became absolutely necessary for him to know.
“Complicated? Are you actually dating one of our girls?”
Ethan is a partner in this club, but his referring to Emma as one of ‘our girls’ sets my teeth on edge as well. Even though I know that he doesn’t mean anything by it.
“Don’t worry about it.”
“If whatever is going on between the two of you is causing you to act like a crazy person I’m going to be worried about it. You can’t be chasing off the clientele. So either you need to chill about the behavior or you need to let her go. Because this kind of thing can’t keep happening. Word will get around and it’ll be bad for business.”
He’s right of course, but that doesn’t make me any happier about it.
Luckily he seems to think he’s made his point and instead of continuing to badger me he heads out of the office, closing the door behind him.
I groan and settle in behind my desk. They’re both right of course. But that doesn’t mean that I have to like it.
That evening when I get home, it takes a long moment for me to place in my mind the car that’s currently parked in front of my house. And when I do, I take a slow stroll around it and frown, shaking my head.
Whatever this thing is supposed to be it’s clearly seen better days. And I don’t like Emma driving around in it. I certainly don’t like the idea of my child being driven around in it. I’ll have to do something about that, too.
Walking into the house I can hear the TV on in the living room. So she’s made herself comfortable here, which I’m pleased with. I want her to enjoy herself in my home and not be a prisoner in the wing I’ve assigned her.
“Hey, I was wondering if you were going to come home tonight,” she says as I walk into the room.
“I always come home at night.”
“Oh? No overnight … excursions?”
I raise an eyebrow in her direction. Is that her way of asking if I spend the night with other women? “No. I don’t do overnights,” is my response.
“Ah, well, that’s your prerogative I suppose.” She looks a little uncomfortable, but perhaps a little pleased as well.
“And nothing else, either,” I add. “This arrangement between us is all I’ve got going right now.”
At that she definitely looks pleased, though she’s trying to hide it by glancing down at the book in her hands before she responds. “Well, that’s your prerogative as well.”
“You had nothing else to do after work?” I ask, changing the subject slightly and she shakes her head.
“Nope. Mom and Leann are busy tonight.” She looks like she’s unhappy with herself for saying that and rushes on. “And Becky, that’s my best friend, she’s out of town.”
For now I decide to let things go. If she doesn’t really want to talk about her family, that’s fine with me. It’s not like I’ve been volunteering a lot of information about mine.
“What do you do when you don’t have people to visit?”
“You’re looking at it,” she replies, gesturing with her book toward the TV. “Read a book. Watch TV. Waste time.”
“Doing things you enjoy doing isn’t a waste of time,” I tell her.
“Oh? And what do you enjoy doing?”
“I enjoy my club.”
She snorts and shakes her head at that. “You enjoy working? Really? Or is your ‘hobby’ the girls who come into your club?”
I just give her a little smile and she rolls her eyes.
“All right, well, when you’re not at work or with some strange girl you’ve brought home from the club, what do you tend to do around here?”
I pause for a moment like I’m having trouble thinking of something but she stares back at me, waiting. “The gym, for one thing. And … much the same as what you’re doing otherwise.”
“You’re a reader?”
“Does that surprise you?”
“A bit.” But I can tell she’s pleased with it as well.
Our days start to fall into somewhat of a routine. Since the club is primarily open in the evening hours there’s not a lot to do during the midday period. And that’s when we tend to sit together in the living room and watch TV or talk about random things or read in a sort of companionable silence.
And when we go to the club at night …
I’m learning even more about her from others. Like the way she picks up shifts anytime someone asks, which at first I thought was about the money. After all, she did ask to become a dancer for more money. But then, I started paying attention to the people who were asking.
Like Sherry who has a little one that’s sick a lot. Or Jen who is trying to go back to school and sometimes needs someone to cover a shift so she can study.
And whenever there’s a problem, Emma is the one who rushes over to take care of things. She sticks up for the other girls, even the ones that are older than her. And she’s good at diffusing situations.
In short, she’s exactly the right person for what I need. One that I’m sure will be an excellent mother.
“I think your girl has been here every night this week,” Ethan says, walking into the office as we’re getting things shut down.
“What girl?” I ask, feigning dumb even though I know exactly who he’s talking about.
“Oh come off it. The one that you can’t stop staring at all the time.” He scoffs at me and I just roll my eyes, looking back at the papers I’m packing away.
“Emma? She’s got a strong work ethic.”
“Girl’s got something, that’s for sure.” He sinks down into a chair and stares out the window toward the floor.
“Chris, I-Oh!” Emma stops short as she sees Ethan sitting there with me in the office. “Sorry. I didn’t realize you had someone here. I’ll come back later.”
“Ethan was just leaving,” I reply. But Ethan gives me a look that says he is definitely going to be back later before nodding to Emma and strolling back out.
The fact that Emma came to me for anything is somewhat suspicious. After all, Ethan handles most of the day-to-day operations, including dealing with any problems that the staff might be having. But he already knew there was something going with Emma and me so it’s not like that was a big secret.
“I didn’t mean to make things awkward.”
“Having a sexy woman come into my office never makes things awkward,” I reply and she rolls her eyes with a little smirk.
“Do your lines really work on women?”
“Well, I’ve had you on this desk more times than I can count so, I’m going to say yes.”
She flushes slightly at that but then sinks down into the chair across from my desk.
“What is it you wanted to see me about?” I ask and she pauses a moment, like she’s not really sure what she wants to say. “Or did you just come up here to see if I would put you over my desk again?”
“You wish,” she retorts. “I wanted to let you know that I’m picking up some other shifts. I won’t be home until late the rest of the week. I mean, I know you’re usually here until closing anyway but just so you know.”
“I’ve noticed you’re picking up a lot of shifts. Is that so you can avoid me?” I ask and her eyes widen in surprise like she hadn’t thought of that.
“How long do you think I can avoid having sex with you and still get paid?” she asks with a grin and I can’t help but return it, striding around the desk so that I can put my hands on the arms of her chair, leaning in close.
“How long do you think you can go without begging me for it, Sweetheart?”
“I was doing just fine without sex before you called me up here the first time. As far as I know it hadn’t been too long since you last had sex when you brought me up. So … who’s the one that can’t go without it?”
I like her fire. Like the way she gives as well as she gets. But I’m also quite keen on putting her in her place, so I lean in closer, my lips less than an inch from her own, our breath mingling. But I don’t kiss her. I don’t lean forward that little bit more to press my lips to hers. Even if I do want to desperately.
For her part she stays completely still, waiting, but her eyes drift closed and I can see the way her chest rises and falls rapidly. She wants it, too.
And then I’m not sure who moves first but suddenly she’s in my arms and her lips are on mine. The taste of her envelops everything else so that I don’t care where I am or what’s happening around me. Don’t care about the music that filters in through the speakers or the paperwork on my desk that I was working on. I just want her.
It’s like every other time that I’ve had her, where it feels almost like the first time all over.
This time I simply pick her up, and carry her behind my desk, sitting down in the chair and pulling her down to straddle my lap.
The flimsy skirt of her work uniform is easy to shove out of the way so that I can feel her closer, but still not close enough. And she seems to feel the same way because her hands are immediately at my shirt, pulling it up and over my head. And then I feel them at my belt, reaching to free my cock from the too-tight confines of my jeans.
“Oh, hey, Wendy, what are you doing here?” Ethan’s too loud voice enters my subconscious but it takes a moment for the words to process.
“Shit,” I groan and Emma looks up, surprised, stopping what she’s doing immediately. “My sister,” I explain, and her eyes widen.
She scrambles off my lap quickly, righting her uniform and I can’t help but grin, even as I’m struggling to adjust my own clothes. Normally I wouldn’t bother making a lot of fuss about Wendy, but we didn’t lock the door. And I don’t want her to see Emma like this. Not when I’m later going to present her as the mother of my child.
The door opens just as Emma’s barely managed to scramble back to the chair behind the desk and somehow put a completely professional look on her face. A look that turns to surprise at the woman standing in front of her.
“Who is this then?” Wendy asks, glancing Emma up and down.
“She’s one of our waitresses, Wendy. I’m conducting business. What do you want?”
She stares at Emma for another moment and I can just see the way she dismisses her. It wasn’t so long ago that Wendy was joking about getting a job here and how Mom would freak out to see her in one of those uniforms. But now she acts like she’s above all of it.
“I came to tell you that Margie’s dance recital is this weekend. And we’re going out to dinner after.”
“You could have texted me that.”
“I thought I would deliver the information in person. It seemed more personal.”
“Is that it? Or did you want to get another good look at this place because you miss it? Hobnobbing it with the country club elite gets pretty boring, doesn’t it?”
She scowls at me and quickly turns and stalks back out of the room, but I wonder if I might be onto something. She’s been down here twice in as many months. And even though she never lingers downstairs (as far as I know) at least she has to walk through the place to get to my office, right?
“I should get back to work,” Emma says, quickly standing up once Wendy is gone and I barely manage a nod before she’s also out the door and hurrying down the stairs.
But I’m not ready to let this one go. In fact, I’m ready to pick things up again right where we left off, which is exactly what I do when she walks through the door that night; I grab her and pull her into my arms.
“Oh!”
My hands are immediately sliding up, under the skirt of the uniform she’s still wearing, gripping the sides of her panties and pulling them down in one smooth motion. Because I can’t wait to touch her. To enjoy her.
Her surprise seems relatively short-lived and she quickly grabs my shirt, dropping it behind me as she immediately reaches for my pants. And then we’re right back where we were in the office. Me carrying her to the couch so I can pull her onto my lap and feel her wet body pressed against my throbbing cock.
“Hell,” the curse bursts out of me and I pull her down tight on my body, loving the feel of her surrounding me.
She’s gripping the couch behind me, holding onto it tightly as she rides me hard and the moans spilling out of her are certainly making me just as crazy. But even when she comes, when both of us have succumbed to the heat that’s been burning all day, I’m not done with her.
Instead, I pick her up again and carry her upstairs, to my bedroom, where I’m planning for round two to take even longer.