The Black & The White (32 page)

When we finished our drinks, he
suggested that we go somewhere else, and I said okay.

The chauffeured car was still sitting
patiently outside of the restaurant. Stephen gave directions to the
driver in a muffled voice that I could barely hear. The driver
nodded and then opened the door for me.

We continued to kiss inside the car.
He pulled me on top of him while he leaned back against the tinted
window. He reached under my shirt. “Fuck, I love this shirt. You
look so sexy in it.”

His right hand rubbed and pinched my
nipples between his forefinger and thumb. His other hand made his
way under my jeans, grasping my butt. “God you’re so sexy,” he
whispered in my ear.

Then he turned away from me to
instruct the driver. “Okay, you can go there now.”

We continued to kiss. After a while, I
looked out the window and realized that the car had just circled
the block.

I reached under Stephen’s light,
cashmere sweater. His skin was soft and smooth with a light amount
of hair between his pectorals. He was in good shape. He brushed my
hair down with his palm, to the middle of my back. I lost all sense
of control. I felt myself grow increasingly excited, warmer, and
wetter at the thought of him.

Stephen unzipped his pants. With both
hands, he gently guided my head down. I uncomfortably kneeled in
the backseat of the car as Stephen slid further down into his seat
to avoid the glances of the driver through the rearview mirror. I
had forgotten he was there, consumed by my own
excitement.

He was warm. His penis was larger than
Dani’s. I wondered if his girth would hurt me. I looked up at him
and smiled. He was biting his lips.

The car stopped and parked only a
block away from Tao. We had driven around Manhattan for twenty
minutes only to arrive a block from where we had started out. I
recognized the buildings. Midtown had a distinguished, cold,
business-like aura about it.

I looked up from my kneeling position.
“No, no, no, no, no… Ahhhh… Don’t stop, please!” he
said.

I shook my head, as I got back up onto
the leather seat, back in control.

We jumped out of the car. Stephen
bounced up and down on the sidewalk as he fervently tried to zip up
his pants. We both laughed. It was then that I realized we were
standing in front of The Four Seasons hotel. Stephen opened the
door and ushered me inside the vast lobby. Immediately, I spotted
Andrew and Carin at the check-in counter.

“
Oh, my God! What are they
doing here?” I asked. “This is weird. Let’s go.” Although they
hadn’t seen me, I felt as though I had been shamelessly
caught.

“
Just stay back for a second
and let them pass.”

Stephen and I made our way around the
corner and waited until we thought they had left. “Stay here,” he
said. I waited while he obtained the key to the room.

The room was smaller than the one he’d
had in Vegas but just as elegant. Stephen carried me in his arms
and threw me on the bed. I melted into the comforter. He placed a
pillow under my head and continued to kiss me. This time, he was
gentle, touching his soft lips to mine. He lifted his head and
stared into my eyes. With his index finger, he traced the contour
of my face, with periodic kisses on my lips. “I really like you,”
he whispered.

I wondered how long the foreplay would
continue. Stephen started to undo his shirt, button by button. Not
having the patience, I helped him undress.

Slowly, he unbuttoned his jeans. He
wore no underwear. I had never known anyone to not wear
underwear.

“
Let’s get you out of these
things,” Stephen said as he lifted my shirt and undid the clasp of
my bra with expert hands. He was better at unclasping bras than I
was. He then pushed my body further up onto the bed and peeled off
my jeans. I lay nearly naked in only my apple-print cotton
thong.

I felt each warm breath on my skin as
his lips explored my shoulders, neck, throat, and cleavage. The
cool air from the room dried each drop of moisture Stephen left on
my chest. He inched his way lower down the middle of my body, to my
belly button. He moved slowly, gently, kissing every inch of my
skin. My body arched in anticipation of what he was going to do. I
wanted him to continue, to hurry, but he was patient.

He moved up to kiss my mouth and
whispered, “You have the softest skin in the world. I love kissing
your body. Can I kiss all of your body?” I nodded yes. He retraced
his steps down past my belly onto my hipbones, which protruded
high, rubbing my chest simultaneously. “This is so sexy,” he
whispered as he continued to explore the rest of my
body.

Don’t stop,
I whispered in my head.

I gripped the down pillow and pulled
it over my face. He moved his tongue in a conscientious manner. I
had never been touched like this by anyone.

I bit into the pillow. Each minute my
body grew increasing more aroused and sensitive. until I finally
climaxed.

He removed the pillow from my face and
kissed my mouth and slowly, with measured precision, inserted his
penis deep into my body.

I gasped.

Stephen called for room service the
next morning as we lounged naked in bed, gently touching each
other, not talking about what had happened between us. I felt
comfortable being in bed with him as we recounted the events of the
night before. He kissed me. He brushed my hair away from my face.
Suddenly, his cell phone rang.

He rolled over and checked the caller
ID. I quickly glanced and read “Home” on his phone.

“
Excuse me, I’ve got to get
this.” He picked up his jeans and walked out the door and into the
bathroom.

I thought of his wife. I quickly got
dressed, picked up my purse from the dresser, and left the
room.

“
Hold on,” I heard Stephen
say into the phone as he opened the door. He pressed the Mute
button. “Where are you going?” he asked me.

“
Home. I have to go to
work,” I responded coldly. “And feed my cat,” I added.

“
But I just ordered
breakfast.”

“
We’ll talk later. I really
have to go.” I ran out the door and made my way to the elevator.
The elevator couldn’t arrive fast enough. I pressed
again.

Stephen chased me down the
hallway.

“
What just happened?” he
asked me.

“
Nothing. I just have to
go,” I said. What the hell was I doing? I thought. Why did I think
that what we had just done was okay?

“
Did I do something wrong?”
he asked.

Yes, you idiot,
I thought,
you slept with
me, and you’re freaking married.

“
No, nothing. I just have to
go,” I said. I was very upset at myself.

“
Then wait for me. I’ll pick
up my stuff and go with you.”

“
I’ll wait here,” I
said.

“
Okay, five seconds,” he
said as he ran back into the room. The elevator came while he was
gone. I got in and left without him.

Meowser was waiting for me when I got
home, crying and begging to be fed. “Oh, kitty, don’t hate me.
Mommy is sorry.” I patted his head. He began to drool, making me
feel even worse.

By the time I’d gotten home, Stephen
had called me five times. But I refused to pick up. I finally
turned the phone off. I wanted him out of my life. I wanted to
forget him.

When I arrived at work half an hour
late, Andrew was relieved to see me.

“
I was wondering if you were
okay. I kept on trying to call you. You had me worried,” he said.
“We need to get some trades done. I need your help.”

Moments later, Carin called me from
her desk. Andrew looked at me, wondering if I was going to pick up.
I wondered if she was calling for him or for me. I decided to pick
up the line.

“
We need coffee. Now. Free
to chat?”

“
Sure. I just got in, let me
check my messages,” I said. I logged on to Bloomberg and checked to
see what the markets were doing. It was going to be a quiet day. I
had several messages from Stephen thanking me for last night. I
didn’t respond.

Carin and I met across the street at
the coffee cart parked outside the office.

“
What’s going on?” I asked.
I didn’t want to let on that I had seen her the night
before.

“
We went to the Four Seasons
last night,” she confessed as she took a sip from her coffee. “So,
I didn’t get home until early, early this morning. It was so weird.
At first he was like, ‘I have a lot of money.’ Which was bullshit
because I really don’t care. But I was like okay…”

“
Who is he?” I asked
feigning ignorance.

“
Andrew!” she exclaimed.
“Who else did you think? Blake? Yeah right!”

“
Anyway,” she continued,
“then he started whispering in my ear all of the things he wanted
to do to me. Then I got all hot and bothered.”

I recalled her telling me how sexy my
boss was in the bathroom of SoHo House. I wondered exactly what
about him was at all appealing.

“
After we left you, we went
to the bar next door and made out in the bathroom!” It creeped me
out that she had done the same thing I had. It made my night seem
so much more tawdry and depressing.

“
Then he was, like, let’s go
somewhere, and we ended up at the Four Seasons. Have you ever been
there?”

I shook my head.

“
It’s so nice. The bed is
amazing. It’s like sleeping on clouds or something,” she said. I
remembered the same thing.

“
He couldn’t stop touching
me, groping me in the elevator. I almost hit the emergency button.
I went down on him
in the
elevator,
” she said.

I took a sip of coffee. Listening to
her made me question my own night. I was overcome with guilt and
regret.

“
We get into the room and
we’re ravenous. We just started ripping each other’s clothes off,”
Carin said. Listening to her, I recalled Stephen gently undoing my
shirt.

“
How cinematic,” I said
sarcastically.

“
We were rolling around in
bed, sweating. It was hot! I’m talkin’ spicy. He kept on playing
with my butthole,” Carin said.

“
TMI,” I said, “as in
way
too much
information!”

“
I should have known though.
I mean, when I was giving him a blowjob in the bathroom in Vegas,
he kept on asking if I could lick his ass.”

Do people do this stuff,
for real?
I wondered.

“
Alright. I still have to go
upstairs and work with him. That’s disgusting,” I said. I was still
upset from Stephen’s phone call earlier. I was sad, guilty, and
slightly rejected. I was the other woman. It didn’t feel
good.

“
I started spanking his ass.
Did he used to be fat? Because that guy has a lot of extra flabby
stuff around the belly,” she said.

“
You spanked him?” I
laughed. A flashback to Stephen’s tenderness entered my
mind.

Carin paused and then laughed, nearly
spitting her coffee out onto the sidewalk. “He told me to call him
Daddy!”

We burst into cackling laughter. My
stomach muscles became sore from it.

“
Then….” Carin paused,
smirked, and took a sip from her coffee. “I stuck my vibrator up
his ass,” she said.

I looked around to see if anyone was
listening. There were people everywhere, but everyone was engrossed
in their micro-worlds. Suits on cell phones. Suits on cocaine. No
one was listening. No one cared at all.

“
You did
what? A vibrator?
Get
out!”

She nodded.

“
Oh, my God. I can’t believe
I am hearing this,” I said.

“
Yup. I carry one in my
purse. You know, you should too. It keeps my day interesting at
work.”

“
At work? You’re nuts.” I
couldn’t believe she would masturbate in the office.

“
He was like, ‘Don’t leave.
I like you being here. You’re so sexy,’” she said, mimicking
Andrew.

“
I thought it was just sex,”
I said.

“
It was. I told him he was
being stupid because he doesn’t really like me and not to get
confused.”

“
Just be careful. Kim said
the same thing about M.D, remember?” I said.

“
Come on, Isabelle, M.D is
nothing like Andrew,” Carin emphasized. “My M.D is an asshole,” she
said.

I was confused. I thought she liked
him.

“
You think I would ever get
involved with a fucking married man?” she asked. “You see what
happened to Kim and that girl, what’s her name…Jessica?” she
recalled. “That is not going to happen to me. I just need a
boyfriend who is not a banker who can spend some time with
me.”

I wanted to tell her just to what
extent Andrew was an asshole. But I kept quiet.