Stray (6 page)

The big-boobed blonde on the screen was being serviced by two men, one white, one black. Or maybe she was servicing them, depending on how you looked at it. One of them, the black one, had her legs stretched wide, holding her ankles and thrusting an unbelievably large cock into her pussy, while the other was fucking her mouth, to her evident enjoyment based on the sounds she was making. I watched until the throbbing between my legs grew unbearable, then muted the sound on the TV, closed my eyes and gave in to the fantasy that had been tormenting me ever since Jon burst into my life with an injured dog in his arms.

My nipples throbbed as Jon teased them with thumb and forefinger, occasionally taking one into his mouth to suck and  nip. I thrust Bob all the way in, jumping in shock when the butterfly came into contact with my own, personal ‘on’ button. My skin tingled and my toes curled, eliciting mmmm’s and ah’s as I pulled him out and pushed him in again. The sensations were almost unbearable, I couldn’t quite… A vision of Jon, naked and erect flitted through my fantasy and my breath caught. Finally, I moved the controls to the next higher vibration and then stiffened, convulsing  as waves of the orgasm rolled over me, leaving me shaken and yet not satisfied.

Bob was a poor substitute for Jon
, I thought. But, Bob would have to do. Jon was one of the most beautiful men I’d ever seen, but it was clear he wasn’t for me. He had a girlfriend. He was a resort person. And he thought I was an idiot, someone to laugh at. I could use the memory of his face and the fantasy of his body to get off, but it was plain as the nose on my face that the real thing would never happen. I was right, this little episode had only made me miserable, and lonelier than ever.

That shower was so going to happen now, only it was going to be a cold one. I snapped the remote at the TV, catching one last glimpse of the threesome with some kind of sandwich going on, the girl in the middle. I’d settle for just one man, especially if it could be Jon. Oh, who was I kidding? I knew nothing about him, not really, and I didn’t think I was shallow enough to go on looks alone. So why couldn’t I stop thinking about him? Must be some kind of pheromones that gorgeous men have.

It wasn’t fair. If there was a spark, shouldn’t both of us feel it? And yet, he hadn’t ever given me any indication that he felt anything other than amused around me. Not cool, not at all. Despite my best intentions, I couldn’t deal with the cold water, so I adjusted the temperature and thought about Jon’s body as I gave in to the desire for release again

The glimpse I’d had of Jon’s chest and intriguing tattoo began the fantasy. It seemed to be a swirl of some kind, with fat spikes edging the outside, all in black. In my mind, I followed the swirl with my tongue, and felt him swell against me below. I lifted the showerhead from its hook and aimed the water where it would substitute for his fingers until, overwhelmed by the sensation on my engorged clit, I convulsed, then folded up into a fetal position on the floor. The water grew tepid, beating down on my naked body as I lay there, shaking with the intensity of what had just happened.

I wandered into the living room after my shower, wrapped in a fluffy terry robe against the chill I caught in the tepid shower, and searched until I found another old sitcom to take my mind off everything. On the first commercial, I got up and took a pint of Ben and Jerry’s out of the freezer, foregoing a bowl and eating it straight out of the carton as I watched the sitcom without seeing it. Unfortunately, it just acted as white noise as I circled back to my earlier musings.

What was I doing here? What would I do if I wanted to get out of here? Why was I watching TV at midnight when I needed to be up by seven in the morning to get ready to go to work? And where the hell was a twenty-nine year-old veterinarian supposed to look for male companionship in a tiny mountain town like this? I finished the ice cream without coming up with a single answer.

As I left the vet clinic, I couldn
’t help but wonder what I’d done to piss Erin Timms off. She’d almost had a panic attack when I asked if she’d like to grab a bite, as if I might actually bite her. Come to think of it, a little nip or two would be just fine… But, I had to stop thinking that way. As much as Dr. Timms intrigued me, I couldn’t afford to pursue that right now. I was in enough trouble already.

I hadn’t seen Ashleigh since Friday, so I knew she was seriously pissed off at me. It was like one of those movies where the hero and his girlfriend kept missing each other by minutes. I’d known on Saturday that she came back to the suite, probably while I was out talking to some of the old-timers in town. I left a note in case she did come back, but I guess it didn’t mollify her. It said, ‘I have a couple of errands, then going to check on the dog and be back mid-afternoon. Dinner tonight?’

I guess I shouldn’t have mentioned the dog, since she crossed that part out with what looked like her lip liner. It was red and angry, anyway. I dutifully sent her a text every couple of hours and even tried calling, but she had her phone turned off. If she thought I was going to search all over for her on the slopes, she was nuts. Dinner came and went, and once again I went to bed alone, waking up still alone the next morning.

Well, screw her
, I thought. I had other people to see, and she knew I wouldn’t be with her every minute when we made these plans. I’d told her I had to put out some fires among the stockholders, and she knew it was important. As usual, Ashleigh pouted that I never spent time with her, as if I didn’t have a job, but agreed to come anyway. Now, though I was beginning to have an uneasy feeling that I’d have some serious fence-mending to do when she finally showed up, I was free to go about my business without worrying about what she wanted to do every minute.

After a very satisfactory Sunday for business and still no answer from Ashleigh, I went down to Boulder to spend that night, returning this morning to discover she’d come back to the suite, since the bed hadn’t been made up yet. She was gone again, though. Now I was really in trouble. It was okay for her to disappear and refuse to answer her phone or return a text, but I’d better be where she expected me to be, or the shit would hit the fan.

I drove back to the resort, wondering if I had enough support yet to put my strategy in motion. If so, I’d break up with Ashleigh over this vanishing act. It was as good an excuse as any. After counting votes, though, I knew I wasn’t quite there.

To my relief, Ashleigh was there this time, and ready to make up. I took her to the nice dinner we didn’t get on Friday night and then up to the suite. She was expecting make-up sex, she made it plain. I felt like a gigolo, but it was vital to keep her happy until I was ready. Fortunately, she knew what would always get my motor running. I closed my eyes as she opened my zipper and pretended it was Erin’s lips on my dick.

I wasn’t usually so impulsive in my attractions, and I had good reason for being circumspect right now, but the vet had gotten under my skin. From the minute I saw her stressed-out face with the messy hair falling out of a loosened braid and God-knows-what on her lab coat, she intrigued me. In spite of her disheveled state, I could tell that she would be lovely all cleaned up. And her concern for the dog! She was magnificent, giving orders and expecting obedience without question.

I had no doubt that if she had to choose the injured dog or me to throw to a pack of hungry wolves, I’d be fighting for my life with the wolves. I wondered what it would be like, to have someone care that much about me. That the someone would never be Ashleigh was manifest. But, what chance would I have with the vet, given my current project?

Erin Timms wasn’t one-night-stand material. She was beautiful, intelligent and driven. The man lucky enough to have a relationship with her had better be on his A-game, all the time, focused solely on her. Why did I always have to meet the ones I could make a life with when I couldn’t do anything about it?

Ashleigh’s attentions grew more frenetic, and I realized I’d probably lost it there for a minute, thinking about other things. I must be getting old, to lose attention span in the middle of a blowjob. Or maybe I was just with the wrong woman.

~*~

I thought the toughest nut to crack was going to be Doc McGraw. I didn
’t know if he remembered me, but I remembered him. His brother and my dad had been friends forever, partners in an engineering firm in Boulder, but the partnership had been dissolved by the time I was old enough to understand anything. Doc McGraw and my dad had their differences, too, chiefly because of the company’s failure to keep the promises they made to the town about the resort. I was hoping to bond with him over the differences I’d had with my dad, but I hadn’t had any luck talking with him on the phone.

I didn’t even know if he knew my grandpa had passed away, just three months before dad was killed in a car accident. My mom was long gone by that time; she’d packed her bags and disappeared, leaving me as a twelve-year-old kid wondering what I’d done. I didn’t even try to find her for dad’s funeral. Good riddance.

Dad had died three years ago, and I’d spent that time learning the ropes in the company for which I’d inherited about thirty percent of the outstanding shares. Ashleigh’s father, Rowland Egren, was old Boulder money. Somehow, he’d acquired around forty percent, along with proxy votes that kept him firmly in place as CEO and Chairman of the Board. When I applied for a low-level accounting position, he knew exactly who I was. Instead of regarding me as a threat, he personally saw to it that I was given the job, and then that I moved steadily up the ranks. Meanwhile he introduced me to his daughter, a beauty who fooled me for a while.

Somewhere I’d heard the phrase ‘beauty is as beauty does’. By that standard, Ashleigh was a hag. The only people she had any use for were those who treated her like royalty, while she treated them like serfs. She had a gaggle of girlfriends who weren’t allowed to outshine her in any way, and a string of disgruntled ex-fiances, one of whom tried to warn me.

However, I had my reasons for risking it. If Egren thought I was willing to put up with his daughter, he’d think I wanted the same thing he did—to consolidate our shares so that we would dominate the Board and all the rest of the shareholders combined.

So, on Tuesday morning I kissed Ashleigh on the forehead and whispered that I had some work to do, but I’d be back by mid-afternoon so we could hit the slopes for a couple of hours. She didn’t answer.

Since Doc McGraw wouldn’t talk with me on the phone, I’d made an appointment under a false name. As far as he knew, a Jason Longmont needed a doctor’s okay to work at the resort on the slopes crew after a head injury three years previously that had been treated in Salt Lake City. By the time he knew who I really was, I would have disarmed him with my story, or so I hoped.

It might have worked, too, if I hadn’t been, in the words of my grandmother, ‘the spit and image’ of my mother, masculine version. I didn’t even get a chance to open my mouth before Doc thundered, “What part of ‘I have nothing to say to you’ did you not understand? You think coming to my office under false pretenses is going to get you anywhere? Get out!”

“But, Doc, you don’t understand,” I tried.

“You’re damned right I don’t understand. I don’t understand why my best friend screwed me over. I don’t understand why he stole my girl and then drove her away, and I damned sure don’t understand why his son has any notion that he can get on my good side under any circumstances. Now, get out and don’t come back. As far as I’m concerned, if you never show your face in this town again, it’ll be too soon.”

Doc’s face was red and he was breathing heavily and sweating. I worried about his heart; after all, he was in his sixties. “Are you okay?”

“NO! And I won’t be until you’re gone.”

At that, I turned and left his office as quick as I could. I was going to alert his nurse/receptionist to his condition, but before I got a word out, I heard him behind me. “Myrna, this man is not welcome here. I don’t care what name he uses, if he shows up again, throw him out, and if he won’t go, call the police.”

Myrna’s eyes widened as I gave her a pleading look, and then I ran as something from the counter, a pot of ivy I thought, came whizzing past my head.

That went well
, I thought as I stood flustered on the sidewalk in front of his office. How the hell was I going to get through to him? I knew what he was mad about, I was mad about it, too. But if he wouldn’t let me even say hello, how was I going to explain an elaborate plan that started with him letting me proxy vote his shares? Hell, with his, I’d be done and ready to roll. I was running out of shareholders who had enough of a stake to do me any good.

In spite of bearing one of the last names that graced the name of the company, Miles-McGraw Enterprises, and in spite of holding a good portion of the shares, I couldn’t swing a vote. I’d tried without success to block the last high-rise hotel, knowing that the growing concrete skyline was alienating the town folks. Now another one was in the planning stages and I would stop at nothing to gain control of the company to put an end to the insane growth.

The mountainside couldn’t handle any more ski traffic; in fact, we should cut back. There wasn’t enough water and frankly there wasn’t enough open air to accommodate all the tourists and their cars. Even now, the trees close to the road coming up here were dying from the exhaust trapped in the narrow canyon. Next would be fires in the dead and brittle wood. Something had to be done to stop it, and it appeared I was the only one with a viable plan to take over the company and scale back in this area.

Foiled in my attempt to make Doc understand that we were on the same page, I consoled myself that the vet clinic was only two blocks away. I shrugged off my frustration and walked briskly over there to see Max and hopefully ask the good doctor to have coffee with me.

It was eleven in the morning, a good time for coffee in my opinion. Evidently in Dr. Timms’ opinion, too, because she wasn’t there when I got there. The brat who wouldn’t let me in that first night was behind the counter, and from the look on her face, something on her computer must have been pretty interesting. She looked up with a strange expression on her face when I came through the door. If I didn’t know better, I’d have said she was enjoying a heavy petting session, with her flushed cheeks and a languorous look in her eye.

Her face changed as soon as she recognized me, though, to a near-sneer as she said, “Erin’s not here.”

“Oh?” I remarked. “Well, I came to see the dog.”

“Well, I can’t leave the counter, since no one else is here. You’ll have to come back.” This girl had a serious chip on her shoulder. I wondered who she was, whether local or come-here, the local term for someone who’d moved from elsewhere, as Dr. Timms had. I knew most of the original families and their kids who were around my age or older, but I’d lost track of the younger ones when I stopped visiting as often after my grandmother passed away.

“That’s okay. Any chance you’d tell me where Dr. Timms is?”

The girl narrowed her eyes at me. “I can take your payment, if that’s what you want.”

“My payment? Didn’t I pay on Friday?” I distinctly remembered laying a thousand dollars on this very counter. What were these people playing at?

“That was a deposit. It didn’t cover everything. You have a balance of $547.” For some reason, maybe because she reminded me of a porcupine, I didn’t trust this girl.

“I’ll wait until he’s ready to go home and pay it all then, if you don’t mind.” I said.

She shrugged. “Suit yourself. I know who you are, though, and my dad will take you to collections if you don’t pay.”

“Your dad? You’re Chuck Simmons’ daughter? What’s your name?”

“Megan. And yes, I’m his daughter. What’s it to you? How do you know my dad?”

“I’ve been trying to reach him. Is he in town?”

“No, he and Mom are in the Yucatan somewhere, playing archaeologist. Why?”

“Business,” I said, having no intention of answering the next question.