Amy dragged herself back to her room, feeling outside of herself. It was as if the real her was on the ceiling, observing herself from above. Was this really happening? She hadn’t signed up for any of this – she just wanted to do her job, but now suddenly she was being manipulated by Adam and Tariq. Her muscles tensed of their own accord and she decided she wasn’t standing for it any longer. They could squabble amongst themselves and leave her out of it.
She turned off her cell phone – to avoid any more drama tonight – then she opened up the fridge in her room and pulled out two vodka miniatures, which she downed directly from the bottle. She gasped as the alcohol rasped her throat, burning the inside of her cheeks. But it gave the room a nice soothing warmth, softening the edges of her surly mood.
Through blurry eyes, she opened up her laptop and searched for images of Ivan Quinlan. Yep, that had definitely been him bound and gagged. But was it really that much of a scandal these days? People were gay and this was New York.
But it was Quinlan Senior’s gun running that Tariq was planning to expose, wasn’t it. And it probably wouldn’t exactly do the Quinlans’ reputation much good if the papers got a-hold of those bondage photos of Ivan. The public loved a scandal; the shareholders would surely go ballistic. Quinlan Brothers certainly would be affected by Tariq’s plans.
Amy sat on her bed and tried to think straight, but the vodka was now preventing that from happening. Her mind surged with confusion. What should she do? Tell Adam the truth about his dad? About his dead brother? Or should she allow Tariq to blackmail her? Become his spy? No way.
She laid down on her bed and allowed her devastation to crack, letting it gush out in a hard sob. The tears rolled down her cheeks, and she wished she’d never met Adam. She resented Tariq for putting her in this position. It was as if he’d taken away her last shred of innocence by poisoning her with this truth. She had no idea what to do. She was stuck between two men who had a nasty history between them. She wanted to go home.
Amy’s mind started to drift into unconsciousness, but she jolted as the landline by the bed rang. She sat up to answer it and the room spun furiously after all that vodka.
“Yesh?”
“Ma’am, this is reception. We have an Adam Quinlan here to see you, asking if he can come up or if you can come down?”
“No,” she muttered. “Tell him I’m unwell with a debilitating migraine, but I will be at the meeting in the morning. Thank you. Please don’t call me again.”
Amy slammed down the handset. Then she leaned over and unplugged the phone from the wall. She quickly set the alarm on her cell for seven, and turned the ringer to silent, determined to close off any avenue of contact from anyone for the rest of the night.
She laid there in the thumping quiet, totally agitated. Her body felt fidgety – too twitchy to sleep – so she decided to take a shower. She padded to the bathroom and undressed, then she caught sight of Adam’s beautiful pendant nestling between her breasts. She gazed at her naked reflection in the mirror and fingered the blue jewel, wondering why he’d taken the time to bestow this item of sentimental value upon her, when she obviously didn’t mean as much to him as he’d made out. Amy bit her lip and tried to make sense of it all. Perhaps she ought to give it back to him? Or maybe she’d keep it and sell it – it looked expensive. Maybe that’s what all Adam’s other conquests would do…
She shook herself out of her thoughts and climbed und
er the powerful shower, and – as the warm water soothed her weary body – she realised she just needed to get through tomorrow, and then she’d get her flight back to London and leave all this behind.
But her heart throbbed with a tender bruise. Despite him being an asshole, she actually felt an overwhelming affection for Adam. He had, after all, helped her to discover the power of the female orgasm – that wonderful, exciting, new experience that had unlocked an inner-confidence. Amy really didn’t want Adam to be humiliated by Tariq. For reasons unknown to her, she wanted to keep him and his reputation safe. She was obviously more of a sucker than she’d thought.
She washed her skin clean under the warm water, deciding that maybe at the meeting tomorrow she could blurt out what happened tonight, and then Adam and his cronies could deal with it, and she could start looking for a new job.
She turned off the shower and climbed out to drip on the bathroom floor, then she gazed at her naked body in the steamed-up mirror and sighed. She hated feeling like this; like a victim. Powerless. If only there was a way to make herself feel as powerful as she’d done earlier, when her soul had soared with the magnificent orgasm from Adam. She shook herself out of it and cleaned her teeth, then – as she dropped her toothbrush back into the glass by the sink – a wicked thought struck her and she grinned. She dried off her toothbrush handle, then strode back to her room, where she slid her warm clean body between the tight fresh sheets. She laid her head back on the soft pillow and raised her hand to fondle her breasts. Her nipple hardened and she imagined Adam sucking it in that wonderful way that he did.
Oh yes…
She eased her other hand downwards and gently skimmed her fingers over her clit. The tangy pleasure washed through her body and excitement swirled. She grinned and lowered the rubbery toothbrush handle down there, too, then she softly rubbed. It was thrilling to be doing this for herself for the first time; it was like discovering another dimension – which had actually been there all along. She’d found the key to her own box of delights. Perhaps this was what it felt like to find god or to fall in love. In love with herself.
In her imagination, she pictured herself lying on the boardroom table tomorrow morning, dressed in a satin robe, which was falling open at the front. Amy was surprised to discover that Preti was there in her fantasy, caressing Amy’s bare breasts, licking her nipples, and turning her on. Adam and Dylan were there too, both gripping their erect cocks, pleasuring themselves at the sight of two women touching each other.
Then Amy was kneeling on the table, with Preti lying below, sucking her clit. Amy arched her back and lifted her hips, sticking her ass in the air and grinding her pelvis. Adam crawled onto the table and knelt up behind her, then he slapped her ass and grabbed her roughly. Dylan watched eagerly as Adam took her strongly from behind, thrusting his glorious cock into her pussy and stimulating her G-spot, as Preti worked on her from below. Amy’s wrist moved the toothbrush harder and faster over her wet clit, and – as the orgasm caught – she came hard, guiding the toothbrush into her pussy, filling her up. The waves of delight rippled over her straining, tense body, and her lips grinned in ecstasy. All worries forgotten. She drifted back to the room and giggled, feeling proud that she’d done this for herself at last. How wonderful to know that she could always hide out in her mind, and enjoy her body whenever she wished. She relished the wonderful warm post-orgasmic glee, but then a wave of sadness surged up and she burst into tears, feeling tonight’s humiliation and confusion resurface, and wishing that Adam was here to hold her tight.
Chapter Sixteen
Amy arrived at Quinlan Brothers HQ half an hour late for the meeting, but she didn’t really give a fuck. As she bounced along the corridor in her heels towards the boardroom, she felt strangely free. She no longer needed to care about impressing Adam and Dylan, which was good, because her head was pounding with a hangover and she reeked of perfume to hide the lingering alcohol smell. But what difference did it make? It didn’t matter if she messed up this whole deal, did it – she was being made redundant in six months, so why should she care? It was liberating.
And, of course, she had some dirt on the Quinlan family that she could blackmail them with herself if she wanted to. It was nice to be in command of them for a change. And Tariq Shard wasn’t the deranged psycho that Adam had made out. He was a man who’d lost his life’s love and his life’s work to these two money-grabbing bastards.
She swanned into the boardroom to find Adam, Dylan, Preti, and Lucy already sitting at the huge walnut table, talking loudly. They plunged into silence as Amy strutted in.
“Good morning,” she said, feeling like a teacher walking in on an unruly class. She stood at the head of the table and dumped down her laptop bag. Remaining standing, she threw Adam a curt glare. “Sorry I’m late.”
Adam looked tired and tense. Good. Hopefully he’d been up all night worrying about her. “Amy, are you feeling better?”
“Yes thank you, Mr Quinlan. Sometimes I get these awful migraines. I think they’re connected to my hormones.”
“Well, it’s good to see you. We’re all very glad you could come.” Adam threw her one of his pyroclastic-flow smiles, but it misfired and withered in the canyon between them.
Amy opened her mouth to begin her ‘you’re all a bunch of bastards’ speech, but Preti jumped in. “I’m sorry to hurry this along, but I’ve got a plane to catch. Ms Carter, we’ve assessed the contracts thoroughly and we’re willing to sign in agreement with your terms. We can send the contracts to Frank Grafton to sign right away. Unless you have anything else you needed to discuss with us?”