Jon
The bed hog was spread out like a starfish in the dead center of the bed. She’d been pampered with a lavender bath to relax her muscles, a rose oil massage curtesy of Patrick, and had her hair washed. She even squirrelled away an orange juice box and several granola bars in the nightstand. There was absolutely no one in this city, probably the world, that was as spoiled as she was tonight.
The aftercare was important however, because no matter what was said during our games, we needed to reaffirm that she was still respected, she wasn’t worthless. It wasn’t just for her either, because after that, I needed to ease myself back into reality and remind myself that I wasn’t a bad person for hurting her.
I couldn’t get the image of her kneeling on the floor, clutching at Pat’s pantleg and thanking him, out of my head. He’d fucked her ass brutally, leaving her teary eyed and begging him to hold her afterward. That feeling of her pleading for us to touch her and kiss her gently, it was the best part, there was nothing quite like being the one depended on.
I watched her sigh and roll over while I leaned against the doorjamb, my hands were stuffed into the pockets of my pajama bottoms and my glasses were pushed back into my hair. She was always delighted to see me wearing them, but I honestly didn’t quite understand why.
“Is she out?” Patrick called from the bathroom.
I glanced back to see him washing his face in the sink. “Yup, and she’s already commandeered all of the pillows.”
“It’s disingenuous to say all the pillows when you know damn well you only have three functioning pillows.”
“Well excuse me for not expecting to share them with two other people.” I rolled my eyes. “How was Edward?”
Pat shook his head and shut off the tap. “Not here, let’s go sit in the office.”
I swept my arm out, gesturing toward the door. He walked on ahead of me, I closed the bedroom door behind us with a last glance back at Lydia before following him down the hall. The sound of the vacuum travelled up the staircase in a quiet hum as we passed by, signalling that one of the housekeepers had come out to tidy up behind us. Patrick stared at the stairs for a minute before shutting the office door behind us and flipping the lock.
I let him take a seat at the desk and grabbed us both a glass of whisky from the bar. It felt familiar to sit across from him with the desk between us like this. I relaxed back into my chair while I nursed the drink, Patrick browsed his phone quietly and neither of us had anything to say for the moment.
“So, yeah I met with Edward again,” he began without looking up. “We went to Sapphire Sixty.”
My smile was instant, but I kept my gaze fixed downward on my drink. Of course Edward brought him to a strip club, the man knew all the dancers by name and spent every minute of free time at any of the dozens of clubs around the city. He’d been a regular member of Plaisir until he met his wife, Kim, Christine and I were friends with them once upon a time and attended events together. I could just imagine how confused Patrick would have been, thinking that he was this respectable man who steered clear of drama and bad publicity only to find out that he one of the biggest perverts I’d ever met. I didn’t want to spoil that surprise for Pat.
“Did you have fun?” I asked happily.
“You fucking knew he would take me there.”
“I actually thought he would take you to the Plaisir penthouse on billionaires’ row, seems like he has some restraint now.”
Plaisir Interdit had miniature clubs all over the country, none were as elaborate or private as the one back in D.C., but Edward wasn’t picky and the penthouse was a hell of a lot more intimate than a regular strip club. I wasn’t personally a fan of the penthouse, I found it too conspicuous, and guests were more likely to bring strangers with them that weren’t as discreet. Not to mention that there was something about taking a private jet on to another state just to visit a mansion full of women eager to throw themselves at my feet that just wasn’t the same as a plain apartment.
Patrick threw his arm over the back of his chair and looked away, assessing the awards and my degrees on the shelf next to the desk. NYU, Yale, some of the best schools in the country. Edward and I both went to Yale. By all accounts, I should have been closer friends with him than with Pat, but Edward never had the hunger for power and money the way Pat did.
“He said something, and I don’t know how to take it…” Pat trailed off and rubbed his jaw. “He uh, he sort of asked me and Lydia to dinner with him and his wife…”
Kim McNamara. My eyebrows shot up and I had to resist the urge to laugh out loud; Edward propositioned him, and Patrick knew it.
Edward was an interesting man, since I’d known him, he refused to answer to the name “Ed” or any shortened version of his name, he was extremely vocal about his sharing fetish, and all he wanted was to have another man fuck his wife while he fucked theirs. He was certainly not the most secretive person around, but somehow he’d managed to avoid any controversies. I had some out there kinks, a lot of people did, but I had the decency to not proposition every person I met.Well… I guess maybe being Lydia didn’t prove that, but I really wasn’t going after every person I found attractive.
But I had to approach this tactfully, Pat was only just getting to know the man after all. “So how do you feel about fucking his wife?”
“Horrible and I don’t think Lydia would let me do it anyway.”
The words had barely left his mouth and I couldn’t get myself stopped laughing, I covered my face and tossed my head back as I cackled. I should have warned him, I thought when I finally composed myself again, I knew this would happen.When Pat had told me about getting in touch with him after Lucy’s party, I knew that it would probably open a strange can of worms but I couldn’t say anything because Edward had opened doors for me at NYU that would have been bolted shut without his influence. And Patrick was over the moon about joining Edward’s firm, we were sort of at the man’s mercy right then.
But he was right, there was no universe where Lydia would let Patrick fuck another woman. I was allowed, but definitely not him. I think she had a bit of a jealousy issue similar to his.
“She might be more interested if it’s swapping in the same room,” I offered. “Or if you both went to town on Kim.”
“True.” Pat mused. “Not that I would want him to touch her anyway, I don’t know what it is about that, but it turns me off.”
I liked other men having what was mine, I got to bring her home at the end of the day, but this was less of a fun sexual exchange and more of a business transaction and I wasn’t interested in that either.
“You probably hate the idea of him hiring you in exchange for hooking up with Lydia.” I did too, it set alarm bells off as I thought it over and began to see a darker intention behind his actions. “Did he mention this before?”
“Kind of?” Patrick groaned and spun back around in the chair to face me fully. “I don’t know, I just kind of latched onto the idea when mum mentioned running for congress and brought him up… I think I might have jumped the gun. Thinking about it now, he sort of danced around it and this isn’t the first time he’s invited us but now he’s being honest about what he’s really looking for.”
He was saying “I don’t know” a lot for a man with multiple degrees and education that most people could barely dream of. “When else did he invite you two over?”
“Earlier in the month, we were supposed to go to their anniversary dinner.”
Oh, right. I’d planned our night with Lydia the same day as their anniversary event and Patrick sent their condolences so that I wouldn’t have to change my plans. Lydia wasn’t worried about it, I think she was kind of getting tired of the constant parade of events we took her to.
Well… I had a feeling that Patrick probably ignored or glossed over those comments from Edward, and I was also pretty sure that he was throwing himself into this job to distract himself from what was waiting for him in Poland more than anything. Lydia and I had talked about broaching the topic with Pat, wanting to know what was going on with his siblings and grandmother, but it was awkward and uncomfortable to finally address it.
Patrick had given A.J. and his sisters the deed to the house just outside of Krakow, he’d visited his grandmother Celestyn and visited his father’s grave, but since his visit to Poland back in November, there had been no other discussions about what he would do. We all knew he was grieving a man he didn’t know, I personally knew that strained his relationship with his mother, and I wondered just how much of this Edward business was to distract him.
“Maybe you should focus on something else for a little while,” I offered. “Have you thought about going back to see Celestyn again?”
“This close to the wedding? Lydia would kill me.” He shook his head before downing the rest of his glass. “No, it’ll be fine, I just need to tell him that sex is off the table.”
“You know, I’m sure she wouldn’t mind spending some quality time with Kim, she certainly enjoyed her time with Eloise.”
He snickered and pushed himself up from the chair. “I’ll let her explore that in her own time, I’m not pushing and making her think that I’m fetishizing her sexuality. That shit doesn’t fly when you have lesbian moms.”
“Oh please, as if she doesn’t take every opportunity to watch me and you have at each other.” I scoffed and crossed my legs, watching as he made his way across the room slowly. “Are you going to bed?”
“Yeah, it’s been a long day.” Patrick paused at the door with his hand on the trim, he glanced back over his shoulder and cocked an eyebrow. “Are you going to be up early for a shower tomorrow?”
“I wasn’t planning on it, but plans change,” I teased. “Go, don’t let the princess get too comfortable.”
He laughed and shot me a small wave before closing the door behind him. I listened to his footsteps get quieter until there was nothing but the hum of my computer and my own breathing. I would see about meeting with Edward and Pat as a group on more neutral ground, the other man would back off when he realized that Lydia wasn’t just a toy we were passing around to friends. Why is this happening before Christmas?
This time last year I was staying with Christine and Peter at his house in Portland, I’d worn a chastity cage and spent my holidays begging my ex-wife to get me off while in the back of my mind I couldn’t get rid of the thoughts to pin my new assistant down. I’d been riding the high of our most successful year yet and still basking in the glow of our most recent award for best corporate law office in the United States. I was supposed to be on track to become one of the most influential people in the country with my new-found wealth and several large business deals on the horizon. Instead, I was five months away from becoming a father again and out of the job. And my ex-business partner was busy prostituting out the mother of my child. What a fucking year.
It hadn’t even been an entire year.
Still, I loved my girl, I loved the asshole that was probably spooning with her right that minute, and I was happier than I had been in a long time. I worked so hard to keep myself shut off from people, to work my way up the ladder and become the shark that did everything he needed to do to succeed, to other myself for wealth and power, and she’d shattered that shell without batting an eye. I couldn’t stand the thought of using her to get further in life, the way I inadvertently did with Chrissy, and I wouldn’t let Patrick do that either. I had to protect both my babies after all. Or all three of them, considering Patrick was pretty much my baby at this point too.
This Daddy title was getting tiring quickly.
Shaking my head, I moved the mouse, waking up the computer and pulled open my email to see if I had anything new from the real estate agent. The first step in taking care of our family was finding somewhere suitable for us to stay long term. Lydia wanted out of the city, despite how much she loved having everything right at the tip of her fingers she was adamant about wanting something more traditional for starting a family. I think part of it had to do with the fact that this was originally where Chrissy and I lived while raising Maritza, and while the two-floor penthouse had seemed perfect then, I recognized that this was a new situation and Lydia wanted a place we could make our own.
I would miss my apartment, but I wasn’t selling it, I had plans to give it to Mari and Allison after we moved.
The agent had already sent me a confirmation for a second showing when we got back from Aspen, it would be perfect to finally bring both Lydia and Patrick by the house to see what they thought. The townhouse wasn’t far from the apartment either, it was in the middle of Manhattan and steps away from Central Park, it also checked all the boxes that I knew Lydia wanted. Outdoor space for the kids? Check. Balcony off the master suite? Check. Office space for the three of us? Check. There were more bedrooms than we would ever need but it was nice to have the space anyway.
Finding this house was a huge stress off her shoulders because at the moment she didn’t feel like she could really enjoy her pregnancy or start preparing for the baby since we weren’t going to be here forever. This also meant the three of us weren’t just moving into someone’s apartment and trying to retroactively make it a shared space, this would be shared right from the beginning. It was so close I could taste it, I just had to get them in there to see the house too.
“Vacations, house hunting, a baby on the way, this seems familiar,” I joked quietly to myself as I shut down the computer.
When Chrissy got pregnant it was unexpected. Extremely unexpected. I was starting law school, she had just graduated and I was on my way to Yale, I truly thought her dad was going to put a hit on me when I found out. Norm didn’t though, he just made me swear on my life to marry her and he would make sure I succeeded. Not to mention lived. I was absolutely convinced that he was in the pockets of every major crime syndicate in the city, it was shocking I hadn’t just been offed before I could initiate a divorce. But a year later, when Mari was only a few months old Chris and I finally went house shopping and then spent the summer in the Bahamas with my new bank account.
Time flies, that’s why we need all the memories we can make. I opened up the bottom drawer of the desk and pulled out the manila envelope, inside was a bundle of photos that I had collected; Lydia sleeping in Patrick’s bed, the two of them on the beach holding hands, several of her growing belly, and so many more, but my favourite was hidden at the bottom, one Patrick had taken the night I gave her the ring. In the photo she had her mouth covered while I held the ring out to her, she was watching me with watery grey eyes and I could still feel her reaching into my chest, squeezing my heart and leaving me exposed.
At one point I thought these photos would be all I had to remember our trysts. I don’t know why I still took them, maybe it was just to have when she was gone, maybe it was to have something to give our children, but I just liked having this physical memory.
I would give her everything I gave Chrissy and more, I would give her and Patrick both all of me and I would take care of them the way I craved taking care of people.
I gingerly wrapped the photos back up and slid them back into the desk, making sure to lock the drawer. When I finally got up and shut off the lights on the way to bed, I could feel all the tension from the evening leaving my body. I had a purpose in the coming weeks, and I would make sure I did everything I could to make everything go as smoothly as possible.