The Arrangement [Box Set] (24 page)

She turned to her right and gave Edward as nice a smile as she felt she could manage. He was obviously taken by her beauty. The pink silk and lace dress looked stunningly intricate and detailed up close and he seemed to be admiring the complexity of the work on it. He was obviously a man of details. The cut at the neck was fairly low and April felt exposed sitting at the head of the table with no less than eight important and wealthy men. She knew she had an elegant neck, she had always been proud of her clavicle and her graceful posture, and she felt she looked good with her bare shoulders and low neckline but she still felt very self-conscious. The dress was also short so that the white fur trim came high on her thighs when she sat down. She had to sit with her legs tightly pressed together to maintain a sense of decorum or modesty in that dress. Her jewelry, which matched the dress, glittered beautifully in the candle light.

The men were all chatting and drinking expensive wine and she looked down the table at Midge and shrugged. Midge winked back at her. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. It was just a meal after all and it felt like Herb had been trying to honor her and Midge by placing them at the two heads of the table. A waiter came with a bottle of chilled, white wine. It was a dry, perfumed, sémillon. The waiter uncorked it and poured a small amount into her glass. She picked it up and swirled it in the glass before tasting it. It was truly delicious. She nodded to the waiter and he finished pouring.

—You seem to know your wine, Edward said to her.

She looked at him and tried to gauge what sort of a man he was. He had sharp, angular features and the beginnings of a dark stubble on his cheeks. His hair was medium length and slicked back. His dress was impeccable but unimaginative, he looked like every other businessman in the building with a well tailored black suit and a tame colored shirt and tie. A gold watch and cufflinks sent out the signal that he was wealthy, as did everything else about him, but somehow it seemed like it didn’t matter. He was a small, weaselly looking man with a mean, wiry build and a smug face and no amount of money would ever change that. She looked down the table at Walter and realized that this was probably Walter’s goal, to become a man like this, utterly detestable but so rich that everyone had to put up with him.

—Not at all, really, she said, trying to be friendly. I just taste it and say it’s fine but I don’t have a clue what I’m supposed to be tasting.

Edward nodded as if this confirmed what he had suspected.

—My family have vineyards in France and Italy.

—Is that so? April said. She didn’t know what she was supposed to say to a man who was so obviously bragging.

—I’ve tasted a lot of wine. The secret is always in the fragrance. The nose can detect a thousand times more flavors than the tongue.

April hadn’t even taken the time to smell the wine. She didn’t think it really mattered. It was always good at a place like this. She felt like changing the subject.

—What do you do for your firm?

—Andersen Strathern?

—Yes.

James, sitting to her left, had been listening to their conversation and gave a little laugh before interrupting.

—He comes in and drinks brandy.

—It’s true, Edward said. Truth be told, I do very little there. Not like this guy who has to earn his keep.

The comment had been jocular but it seemed it had been a rebuke to James. He probably worked for Edward and Edward was the kind of man who liked to put those beneath them in their place.

—I beg your pardon, James said. Edward is one of our owners. Edward Strathern. The firm was founded by his grandfather.

—Oh my, April said, pretending to be impressed. She couldn’t care less who owned Andersen Strathern. She’d never even heard of it.

—And what is it you all do?

Edward smiled at James. James took it upon himself to answer her but he adopted a tone like she was a child who was pressing her nose into matters that were not of her concern.

—You do ask a lot of questions for something so pretty, James said.

April smiled and remembered that she and Midge hadn’t been invited here to discuss business. They were here because their discretion could be guaranteed and because these rich and powerful clients got a kick out of knowing they could sleep with other men’s wives. She shuddered as she looked at James and Edward and realized they would be allowed to do whatever they wanted to her. The injustice of the situation welled up in her consciousness but only momentarily. She knew she couldn’t afford to have feelings like that on a night like this. Herb had her children under his control and she wasn’t even able to get them on the phone without his say so. She would just have to grin and bear whatever these men had in store for the evening.

As usual, no one ordered any food and the waiters just brought out plate after plate of the most expensive delicacies they had as if everything had been arranged beforehand, which of course it had. April had a second glass of wine as she played with the small plate of glass eel that had been put in front of her. Never in a million years would she have ordered something that looked like that but apparently it was a delicacy that she should be enjoying.

Midge, at the far end of the table, looked similarly unimpressed by the eel. She hoped there would be some beef or something later in the meal as she really was quite hungry. Next to Midge were the two older Andersen Strathern men, George and Jonathan. They looked like nice enough guys and Midge was having fun talking to them and flirting. Frank and Walter were down at that end of the table also, making sure the men were having a good time. April wished she could get up and join them but she was uncertain of what was allowed.

A waiter came and removed their plates, April’s was untouched, and Herb raised his glass and made a toast to a successful business relationship between the two firms. The men all seemed relaxed and jovial but she knew that behind the scenes they were fighting desperately for Andersen Strathern’s business. She’d heard all the partners talking about it for weeks. Walter often stayed up late, actually doing work, something that had grown rare for him since becoming partner.

She decided that she would do her best to help the firm impress these men and she tried again to start up a friendly conversation with Edward. Given that he was one of the owners of the firm, she decided it was his opinion that mattered most. He hadn’t wanted to discuss business with her so she would have to choose a less serious topic.

—Do you live in DC? she said to him.

Edward scoffed. —I wouldn’t live in this town if you paid me.

James nodded. They were like rude schoolboys. They offered nothing and just waited for her to start the conversation but when she did they made fun of it.

—I have a number of homes, April, but none of them are within five hundred miles of this place.

April felt her heart beating a little faster. It was not going to be easy to make friends with this pair and she looked down the table longingly at Midge who seemed to be having such fun with the four men at her end. Herb and Pete were trying to enjoy themselves too, or at least appear as if they were, but April knew they were tense. They were far quieter than usual and kept looking at her to see if she was winning Edward over. They had a lot riding on her ability to charm this pig of a man and she had a lot riding on them being pleased with her performance.

—That’s wonderful, she said, as cheerfully as possible. I can’t imagine what it would be like to live all over the world.

—It’s something, Edward agreed.

—Tell me some of the places you’ve lived.

He seemed to be warming up to her a little now. This was exactly the mode of interaction that a man like him would enjoy with a woman. He wasn’t very masculine or attractive and the only thing he would ever have to impress girls was his wealth. She smiled and nodded attentively as Edward listed the places he had houses.

—Monaco, Capri, Saint-Tropez, Paris, London, Los Angeles, Grand Cayman.

The list went on and on. It seemed this rude and petulant man had over twenty homes in the most exclusive neighborhoods in the world.

—I’d love to see those places.

—Maybe one day, Edward said and gave her a leering smile.

It made April’s blood crawl to have to flirt with him but she was resigned to doing what it took to help out the firm. It was the only way her own life would be bearable.

—And you’re a lawyer? she said to James, trying to bring him back into the conversation.

—I guess you could say that.

—Like my husband.

—I’m afraid so. There’s nothing so dull as a room full of lawyers, is there?

—I find lawyers fascinating, April said.

—Now you’re just charming me.

—No really. The law is like the key to society. It underlies everything we do. From the moment we leave our homes in the morning, the law is there, underpinning our actions and relationships. If you understand the law, you can control everything. She looked up and saw James smiling at her. He was definitely enjoying this thread.

—I had no idea women thought like that.

He was a classic chauvinist. Why wouldn’t women think like that? It was the truth after all. Everything was controlled by the law. People spent their lives being controlled by rules and regulations they didn’t understand.

—What kind of lawyer are you?

Edward rolled his eyes.

—Corporate finance, James said.

He was enjoying the conversation too much. Edward had to step in and get the attention back on himself.

—I hired him straight out of law school. He was one of the smartest guys in his class but he didn’t have any contacts. He comes from very modest beginnings.

April wondered what
modest
beginnings meant for a man like Edward. She doubted he had in mind the motels and boarding houses she had grown up in.

—Well it seems to be working out quite well for you, April said.

Edward nodded. He loved being the center of attention and he loved being the one in power.

—As long as he keeps up the good work, I’d say his position is fairly safe.

She wondered how James could bear working for this man. Not that he was much better himself. She could see why they got along. They both had an air of entitlement about them. Ordinarily she would have steered wide and clear of men like these.

Herb caught her eye from where he was sitting, next to Edward.

—April, Edward is being very modest. He’s actually the inventor of an entirely new method of futures trading. He’s figured out a way to make more money in a matter of minutes than most men can make in a lifetime.

—Is that so? April said.

—Let’s just say, Edward said, that every time you exchange a currency, a tiny percentage of that money goes to my firm.

—Even if I’m changing at my bank?

Edward nodded. He looked so pleased with himself. April couldn’t explain it but there was just something about him that gave her the creeps.

—April’s Walter’s wife, Herb was saying to Edward. She’s been settling into the firm for the last few weeks. She’s just getting used to how we do things.

April wondered what all of that meant but she might have guessed when she felt Edward’s cold hand on her knee under the table. Edward was definitely the type who enjoyed playing with other people’s things. As soon as he knew whose wife she was he wanted to touch her. She gasped in surprise. He couldn’t even wait till they were out of the restaurant to get started. Herb couldn’t even see what Edward’s hand was doing under the table but even if he could she doubted it would have made much of a difference. He was slowly sliding his cold hand from her knee up along her thigh and in between her legs.

—And what sorts of things do you like doing? Edward said to her.

His eye met hers and she could hardly bear to look at him with his cold hand placed where it was between her soft thighs. She thought frantically what to say. Her mind was blank. All she could concentrate on was the greasy hand pawing its way up her dress, closer and closer to her bear crotch.

—Swimming, she managed to say.

Edward leered at her lasciviously. She also saw him wink at James and she gasped again as she felt a second hand, this time James’s, on her left knee. For some reason, James’s hand was just as cold as Edward’s and it too was inching its way up along her thigh toward her bare pussy. She looked around the restaurant at all the tables of rich diners and hoped no one there would notice what was going on under their table.

—I bet you like getting wet, Edward said.

April looked at Herb but he offered her no help. He just smiled back at her like everything was ok although by now it must have been clear to him that the men’s hands were becoming quite active beneath the tablecloth. She couldn’t believe it when Pete chimed in, offering his first contribution to the conversation.

—I can tell you gentlemen, April likes nothing better than to get nice and wet. I’ve personally experienced it.

She blushed brightly at the bold words from Pete. She barely knew Pete at all, she’d had the least contact with him of all the partners and now that she’d heard how he spoke of her she was glad of it. The two cold hands under the table were just a couple of inches from the lips of her pussy now and it seemed the men couldn’t reach any farther. Edward and James were both leaning forward slightly in their seats, trying to reach as far as they could and their hands were right up inside her dress, between her thighs. Her thighs were clenched tightly together but there was no way she could stop their fingers from climbing up toward their goal. The only thing that saved her was the fact that the two men couldn’t reach any farther without making it completely obvious what they were up to.

—I bet she likes nothing more than getting a nice, wet cock in her slippery little cunt, James said.

April couldn’t believe it. She looked at Herb but he refused to meet her eyes. There was no way he would be stepping in to interfere with this. The whole thing had been his arranging after all. This was exactly what he’d wanted to happen. He might be a little uncomfortable with it now but not much. If anything, Herb was a bit of a coward it seemed. He was two-faced. He pretended to be a nice gentleman who had everyone’s best interests at heart, he liked to talk about everyone in the firm being part of a family, but when it came down to it the only thing that really mattered to him was getting this business deal agreed. The creeps who had the power to make the decision could do as they liked with his so-called
family
.