LOVING THE HEAD MAN (10 page)

       When he laid her on the bed and got on top of her, he was able to take it slow and easy.  He continued to kiss her, to suck on her, to pamper her with affection.  And when he entered her, he entered so slowly that he began to drip before he was even halfway there.  But by the time he was halfway in, and her wet, pliable body was allowing him passage further and further in, and he was catching his rhythm, his control broke.  This was Brianna.  This was the woman he had been thinking about, dreaming about ever since he saw her innocent face on that screen.   And he pounded. 

       “Oh, Brianna!” he yelled in a guttural tone as he pounded, as every muscle in his body fell prey to that sweetness between her legs. 

       Bree felt it too, as he pumped her.  She had never dreamed being with him would be this intense, this emotional, or would feel this unbelievable.  She screamed out too, as he pounded her, as she held onto the head board when he would not relent, as the intensity would not relent. 

       When the climax came, her body felt as if it was levitating.  She arched her back in an almost catlike, acrobatic maneuver.  He held her bare ass tightly against him, her legs wrapped in a death grip around him, as his penis made that final push so deep down within her that it seared her.  And both bodies, eviscerated,
exhausted,
rammed back down.

***

The jet-black Mercedes stopped at the curb in front of the Omni Hotel.  Robert, who was behind the wheel, looked over at Bree.  He had not wanted her to leave, not after what he had just experienced.  Not after the kind of lovemaking that had stunned him in its intensity.  And if an experienced man like him had been so captivated, he could only imagine how absolutely different Bree must have felt.  She was so spooked, in fact, that she had decided to leave shortly thereafter.  Robert was disappointed, he wanted to hold her all night if he could have, but he understood. 
Because he was spooked, too.
  And with his crazy schedule, he knew he shouldn’t dream of taking on this kind of intense, emotionally-loaded relationship in any event.

       “Thanks for the lift,” Bree said, her hand on the leather door handle. 

       The idea of going back to his empty apartment, without Bree, made him feel an instantaneous sense of loneliness.  And he couldn’t help it.  He wanted her.  “The Patrick trial is set to begin next week so I’ve got to leave for LA this weekend.  But I want to see you again when I get back, Brianna,” he said.

       Bree immediately began shaking her head.  “I can’t,” she said with some distress.

       “I know my timing is lousy.  I know I’m engaging in behavior I never dreamed I’d allow myself to engage in.  But Bree--”

       “I can’t, Robert,” Bree interrupted him.

      
“But why not?
  I’m the boss.  I give you permission.”

       “But I don’t give myself permission,” Bree said and looked at him.  “I didn’t come here all this way to Chicago for any heavy romantic
affair,
I’m just getting started in my career.  I can’t deal with this right now.”

         “You wouldn’t have to deal with anything,
Brianna,
I’ll take care of everything.  I’ll take care of you.”  He felt as if he was begging.

       Bree looked at him intensely.  “Why?” she asked.

       That one word threw him.  “What do you mean why?”

       “Why are you showing all of this interest in me?  Pru, Deidra, many of them look better than me.  I’m no beauty queen.  I’m smart, but so are everybody else here at Colgate or they wouldn’t be here.  I have no background and breeding like the others do. 
So why me?
  Why would a man like you, who can literally have anybody he wants, want me?”

       “Because I’ve had everybody I wanted,” Robert said.  “You’re more than that to me.  You’re somebody I think I need.”

       If Robert thought his declaration was going to touch Bree, he was incredibly misinformed.  It spooked her even more.  She wasn’t ready for this.  She didn’t sign on for
this
.”

       “You don’t trust me, do you?” Robert asked her. “You think I’m some womanizer already with more women than he can handle, don’t you?”

       “No, I don’t know, I mean . . . I just . . .”
  Bree
looked forward, then at Robert again.  “I have to make it on my own terms, not because you did me any favors.”

       Robert looked grim.  “Is that how you see our relationship?” he asked her. 
“As some kind of twisted quid pro quo?
  You let me fuck you, and I’ll move your career?”

       “No! That’s not how I see it at all.”  Then Bree frowned herself.  “But that’s how other people will see it.”

       “I don’t give a good gotdamn what other people will see!”

       “That’s because you don’t have to give a good gotdamn,” Bree said. “You’ve arrived.  You’re a man at the top of your profession.  I’m just getting started. 
Which is the whole point.
  We aren’t anywhere near on the same level.  When I get there, and if you’re still interested, we can maybe look into it.  But a relationship on these terms would have too much power on one side, and I don’t know if I want to cede that much authority over my life to somebody else.”

       Robert stared at her.  She was far wiser than her years, which, he remembered, she was only twenty-five.  And he understood.  “Okay,” he said, nodding his head.  Then he looked at her.  Leaned over and kissed her lightly on her lips, remembering how fantastic she was in his bed, wanting her there again almost desperately.  But he understood why she wouldn’t want that.  “Take care of
yourself
, Brianna,” he said as he leaned away from her.

       Although she had been preaching this gospel all along, that sense of finality suddenly coming out of Robert’s mouth still stunned.  It was as if the argument was over and he agreed with her.  And now, just like that, there was nothing more to argue about.  But what could she do?  Agree to become his what? 
Booty call?
 
Bed partner?
  Mrs. Right Now? 

       Bree stepped out of his Mercedes and headed for the hotel’s entrance.  She looked back as he drove away.  Although she already felt regretful, she knew she had done the right thing.  No matter how she sliced it, he was asking for something that would be great for him, and miserable for her.  Because she saw it tonight, when he made such passionate love to her, when she felt his rod deep inside of her, that she would fall for this guy in such an emotional way, in such a complete, all-or-nothing way, that a mere sexual relationship would be nowhere near enough for her. 
Although such a relationship would probably be the only kind that would work for him.

FIVE

Over the next several weeks, Bree couldn’t get that night with Robert out of her mind.  She would awake at night wet and ready, desiring to feel him deep inside of her again.  She had it bad.  And to make it worst, she began to have problems at work because of her intimacy with Robert, problems that had no complete basis in fact, but had taken on a life of its own. 

       Although Robert was still in LA defending that rapper in what was becoming a very messy trial, and she hadn’t laid eyes on him since that night, word had already gotten around the office, at least among the administrative staff and the
trainees, that
she had spent the night with Robert.  It wasn’t completely true, she hadn’t spent the entire night with him, but that was beside the point.  Somebody had told them that she had been with Robert.  Which meant Alan respected her even less than he already did, and the other contestants feared her more than they already should. 
Because previously they had only suspected that she had some inside track with Mr. Colgate.
  Now that she had slept with him, or so they were told, they knew she had the advantage.  A very unfair advantage, they added.

       And it wasn’t just the finalists who saw that he supposedly favored her.  Some of his own staff up in the tower
were
beginning to refer to her as
Colgate’s girl
, which was nonsense and Bree knew it.  She hadn’t seen or heard from that man at all since that night, had, in fact, told him that an ongoing, intimate relationship was out of the question.  But according to the gossip, Bree Hudson and Robert Colgate
were
an item.

       The gossip became so pronounced that one morning, after the mid-terms were posted and Bree’s score was the highest, with Prudence Cameron close behind, Alan called one of his quick meetings.   They sat in the board room, all in small conversations, until Alan walked into the room.  Bree was shocked, absolutely floored to learn that she was the subject of the meeting.  Some people, Alan said, were questioning the test results.

       “The results are accurate,” he assured the finalists.  “I graded each and every one of those exams personally.  And as all of you know, Bree and I have never gotten
along,
and still don’t.  But those exams tested your critical thinking ability, your ability to figure out some of the most difficult cases Colgate’s attorneys were now encountering, and Bree’s answers were the best.  That’s just a fact.  However,” Alan added, and Bree knew something bad was about to be spoken, something not good for her. 

       “I understand your concerns,” he said, continuing.  “I would be concerned too if I knew we had a female in our mists attempting to sleep her way to the top.” 

       Many of the other finalists laughed, especially Deidra and Pru, who high-fived each other.  Bree stared at Alan.  “So I contacted Mr. Colgate, who’s still in LA as many of you know, and explained the situation.  He agreed that this kind of dysfunction could not persist in this program.  He therefore turned over the entire selection process to me.  I and I alone will make the final selection on who will achieve the fifty thousand dollar signing bonus and become a card-carrying member of Colgate and Associates.” 

       Many of the finalists were applauding and hooping and hollering before Alan even finished, as if by their demonstration they were socking it to Bree even more.  Bree’s heart was in her shoe.  If Robert had ceded all power to Alan, she was doomed.  He’d let her come in second, her work was too excellent for him to do otherwise, but even if she were the best, he wouldn’t allow her to win.  He just wouldn’t.

       Her saving grace was that many of the other attorneys at Colgate, who weren’t privy to any nasty gossip about her by the administrative staff and trainees, who didn’t play around when it came to excellence, already knew of her legal mind and her excellent ability to problem solve.  If they felt strongly enough about a trainee, they could make recommendations that had to be considered in the final analysis.  She had to continue to work hard, and work even harder, to convince those attorneys that she was worthy of their recommendations. 

       After the meeting, when the other finalists had left to partner up with an attorney for the day, Alan asked Bree to hang back.  Just to rub it in, she knew.

       “So what do you think?” he asked her, as he stuffed papers into his briefcase, the suspenders on his shirtsleeves highlighting his slim form.

       “What do you mean?” she asked him, standing before him, her small arms folded.

       He smiled.  “Thought you had a sugar daddy, did you?”