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Max
I hated to leave Alex, but I was stressed over the selling of my Asian Properties. I promised her that I would be more attentive to her and the boys, but until I could get rid of my companies, I could never give her the attention she was expecting or requiring. I was sitting in my office gazing out of the window trying to figure something out. I hadn’t picked up a contract or read anything lately.
“Hi, Max.” It was Robert. “Why don’t you accept my invitation and go to this bar with me today? You stay in this office all day when you’re not in Hong Kong, then you rush out at night, and you’re in at 6 a.m. When do you see your wife and when do you have a chance to enjoy yourself?”
He didn’t realize that all I had was my wife and my sons. I didn’t need anything or anyone. Since Alex came into my life she filled my every need. “I’m not leaving here until you agree to go with me tonight,” Robert said standing facing me, and in front of the panoramic view he glanced over the city and turned with smile. I knew what he was thinking. I felt the same when I first bought this building near Wall Street.
I looked down and shuffled my papers on my desk pretending to be busy, hoping Robert would get the hint.
“It’s Friday. I’ve got plenty of contracts to go through. I should read and sign these papers,” I motioned to the stack on my desk. “I don’t know. I promised Alex that I would get home early.” I just told him a lie and I hoped he would stop pestering me. I couldn’t afford to let him go, though. I depended on him because of my workload, and I felt I could trust him. Where was Jonas when I needed him? “Look, Robert, I’ll let you know about eight.” Another lie.
“You know I can stay if you want to be home with your family.” I looked up and smiled. I knew he was trying to make my life a little easier. I guessed I must trust someone, but that wasn’t my best suit, trusting outside people.
“I can take a few minutes. How about eight? I should be ready then.”
I was hoping he’d say it was too late to go out. “Hell yeah, eight o’clock is good. This town doesn’t start rocking until about eleven. Maybe we can have something to drink and eat first. Then we can get down to the business of having fun. You do know what fun is, don’t you, Blackstone?”
He looked at me and I gave him a dry smile, lips closed. I was sure the word no was foreign to him. That was probably why I hired him. A persistent bastard. I remembered it was at Jonas’s insistence. Since when do I take Jonas’s advice?
“You must have taken the F out of fun, Blackstone, but I’m here to put it back,” Robert said with a sly grin lighting up his eyes.
“Okay. Fine. Just get the fuck out of here and let me get some work done. Don’t you have something to do?” I asked.
“Yeah. Yeah.” And he backed out of the office, rubbing his hand on the Blackstone bust of my father sitting in the corner of my office.
I thought of my grandfather and how he had taken the name of Blackstone from a black rock used to sculpt famous figures. My grandfather had been an orphan from England and brought out west. It was there he made his fortune, and it was there my father died. I felt loneliness creep over me. All I had now was my sons, Alex, and my brother, Jonas.
Nothing mattered to me now. Not my money or land, only them.
I’d tried to be everything that Alex wanted. I knew she was everything I had hoped for. We had our sons, and I should be satisfied. I feared I was falling into my old ways. I needed to make an appointment to see my therapist. I couldn’t concentrate on my work, and since Jonas had disappeared again, and Charles revealed that Jonas had been masquerading as me in my business meetings, I couldn’t seem to get into the rhythm of my work. I didn’t appreciate Jonas at the time. Now I wished he was around to help me and watch over my family.
Someone was knocking. “Max, I thought you would need a break. Let’s get a drink and something to eat, it’s lunch time.”
Robert is relentless, pestering me trying to make friends. I was his employer not his friend. I hadn’t had a friend since I was in grade school. I didn’t need friends.
“You look like you could use a drink and a good fucking.”
“Can we just talk about something else?”
“Whoa. Okay,” he said, holding his hands up.
“I’ll have one drink and then I’m going home. My wife and children are waiting for me.”
I hated living in New York. I liked space and I liked to fish and ride my horses at my ranch in Montana, disappear into the woods, and camp for a week.
I glanced up at Robert, maybe I saw myself. I didn’t have to say much, my face would say it all.
“The women like me,” he said reading my expressive face, straightening his tie, and twisting his heavy watch around his arm. “The flasher the better. That shit you have on, all that black would attract only Dracula’s bride.” And he tugged at his collar. “The white shirt is okay, but lose the dark clothes.”
“I didn’t hire you as a clothing consultant. Besides, I’m your boss. I dress for success.”
“Well, I dress for pussy. Had any lately?” I raised an eyebrow, and he knew he had stepped over the line. If I didn’t need him, I would fire him immediately.
Talking to Robert was a waste of time. I needed some exercise and I agreed to leave the comforts of my building, walk down the street with this cock hound and stop in at a bar. I thought it would be one where you would find only men watching sports. I should have known.
We entered the stylish bar, with mirrors, mahogany wood, and women wall to wall gazing with dazzling smiles, and wearing tight low-cut dresses. We sat at a table and women passing on their way to the ladies’ room would smile at him and drop their cards on the table. The waitresses wearing extremely short skirts knew him well, and I was sure in the biblical sense.
“See, Blackstone. The women love me. A man like you with his billions, and handsome, and not getting enough pussy from his wife, would be a god around here or anywhere.”
“Well said for a single man, but ...”
“Yeah, Yeah. Save the shit for your wife,” he said to me. I downed a Scotch over rocks and two more to calm me and keep me from firing him. After a few more drinks, and trying to keep my cool with Robert, I was disgustingly drunk. I talked too much about my life, and I knew it was time to go home.
“I’m leaving. My limo is waiting for me,” I said to Robert.
“You look drunk as a skunk, two sheets to the wind. I’m riding with you. I can’t drive.” Robert was from Pennsylvania, he came back to New York after spending time in Texas. He came back and Jonas hired him. I could imagine where he met Jonas. Jonas was probably impersonating me in one of his BDSM clubs and using my money to support his habits.
We had been bar hopping around New York since one o’clock, and when I looked up it was 8 p.m.
Trying to make my way out of the crowded bar to my limo, Robert caught sight of me and ran after me. I had plans to have dinner with my wife and sons at seven, which he had managed to derail. I thought I could just go for one drink. I went with him because he was my best attorney. I sent him all the places that I couldn’t go since I’d married.
I called my driver to tell him that I was ready. “Here, I can help,” Robert said holding my arm, realizing that I was drunk.
I glared at him. He was my age, and good-looking. Dark straight hair and startling blue eyes. I’d never seen him with a woman, and he never talked about one particular one. A man’s sexual preferences were none of my concern if he did the job.
I did a background check on him and everything turned out perfect. He came from a small town in Pennsylvania, moved to a small town in Texas, got his BA there, went on to graduate from Harvard Law at the top of his class. He made a fortune during the housing and banking crisis.
Finances in order. Clothes expensive, a bit over the top sometimes, but not exceptionally so. He had a mother and father and a younger sister. Nothing about him would raise a red flag, so I gave him an apartment in my building as part of his package.
He had been working for me for two years, and in that time I’d never invited him out or to my home for dinner.
His conversations were all about women every time I saw him. He even asked when he could meet Alex. That was when I knew that he wasn’t gay. Anyone who saw Alex would remark how lucky I was. I caught him staring at her picture one day and then he would smile, and say that he wished he could find someone as understanding and beautiful as Alex. Whereas I remarked that there was none like her.
“Let’s go, Blackstone.” The limo sat parked out front. We climbed in and had a brief conversation about my children, Maxim and Jack.
“There’s this private club that’s terrific. We should go there.” I looked at him too drunk to reject his idea. “You won’t be disappointed.” I raised an eyebrow. I never enjoyed socializing with anyone who worked for me, unless it was something I wanted from them, or they were of a particular use to me.
“Don’t worry, it’s discreet,” he said, grinning at me.
“All you have to do is relax and enjoy yourself. I’ve arranged everything.”
“It’s not that, Robert. You know I’m a married man.”
“But you’re not dead,” he said.
“I will be if my wife finds out about this.”
“Trust me she won’t find out anything.” Robert handed my driver an address. It was located off Park Avenue. “We can park in the private garage.”
My limo took a hard left and Robert opened the garage door. The car came to a stop in garage space 1905. We exited the car, my head began to swirl, and I stumbled. “Whoa,” I said. I think I had too much to drink. I’d better get home.”
“No. You’re not leaving me. Everyone’s expecting you.” He put my arm around his neck and helped me into the elevator. I glanced at him. He had drunk as much as I did, but he was on his feet and I could barely walk.
“Who is everyone?” I asked puzzled.
“A few friends. They mentioned that they had seen a picture of you in the papers, so I couldn’t help but brag about you being my boss. They want to meet a billionaire.” Somehow Robert convinced me that it was an innocent party. We entered the building on the nineteenth floor. He opened the door of apartment 1905 and then we stepped in. It was dark but for a few sconces hanging on the wall. The curtains were closed and the furniture sparse. A woman opened one of the rooms and walked out wearing a leather garment. It was a leather bra and bikini with six-inch black boots with a sheer robe covering her figure. I stood in surprise and asked Robert, “What is this?”
“I promised you a great time. You said that you were into BDSM on your last drink and your wife... Well... Why don’t you settle down and enjoy yourself?” He pushed me on the sofa, and I fell like a rock. The woman leaned in handing me a drink. I didn’t take it, shaking my head no.
“I shouldn’t have told you my personal business. Where are you going?”
“Just stay here until I return,” Robert said smiling at me, then leaving the room.
“It’s okay,” she said, caressing my hair. “You can relax and enjoy yourself without anyone knowing. I know what you like. You don’t have to worry about me. I’m discreet,” the young woman said to me pressing her breasts in my face. I had never been so aroused since I first met Alex. But the tension of being a father and husband was taking its toll on me, and I convinced myself that I needed to relax.
I thought, Why not? The woman handed me the drink again and I took it, piling more Scotch and sodas on top of an already-saturated mind and body. When I woke, I was in a room with Robert looking down at me. The room was dark and swirling around. I couldn’t tell if it was day or night, and frankly I didn’t know, and I was beginning not to care.
I sat up and realized that I was naked, and the beautiful woman was lying down next to me. When she opened her eyes, sat up, and began trailing her long nails down my chest, she squeezed my nipple. I didn’t respond, because my reaction to pain was not the same as others. Robert disappeared before I could protest.
I didn’t question why I was lying naked, but I knew that my sexual addiction had returned full force. It was time to get to my psychologist for a session, but first, I was here, and like all addicts who promised to change, I needed one last intoxicating mind-blowing round.
I lay back and forgot about Alex, I forgot the dinnertime we shared as a couple. I wasn’t happy about our arrangement. I piled on excuse after excuse. She said that we had to discuss our marriage after two years, and if it wasn’t working for either one, then we were going to get a divorce. I was thinking now that I had been a disappointment to her. I was beginning to question what I was doing married anyway.
I placed my hands on the woman’s soft skin and she turned and looked at me. “What’s the matter? Am I not doing what you want?”
“I need more. You understand what I truly need, don’t you?”
She reached on the nearest nightstand and gathered a pair of handcuffs. I lay on my back and she cuffed me to the bed, then she reached for a whip, and began lashing my back. “Harder. Harder,” I confessed. I wanted to feel the pain. I knew I had engaged in something I promised Alex that would never occur, and now guilt haunted me.
The only way to take the guilt away was to beat it away. It was then that I knew I had to get home and make love to Alex. I hadn’t had that feeling in a year. I needed the intensity of her body, I needed to be inside her.
The woman in the black garments took the handcuffs off, and asked, “Don’t you want to fuck me?”
“I don’t fuck anyone but my wife.”
After my session, I paid her for her night’s work and called Robert in.
“No one is to know about this,” I said. He nodded and called for my car.