I raised an eyebrow at him. Was he seriously trying to talk these two out of sex?
“Considering what they were doing when we walked in the room,” Robin said. “I very much doubt it.”
“They could've just been experimenting,” Zeke pointed out. “Or they were drunk and horny. It happens.”
Robin gave him a look and then glanced at me. “Has it ever happened with the two of you?”
“No,” I said. “I have no problem with people loving who they love, but I'm straight.”
“Me too,” Zeke added quickly. “Just wanted you to be sure that's what you want.”
“I know what I want.” Janette put her hand on my thigh and squeezed.
“Me too,” Robin practically purred.
Judging by the way Zeke jumped, Robin had grabbed something of his too. I was certain it hadn't been his leg.
“We're sharing a hotel room,” Janette said. “Unless it bothers you guys to be in the same room.”
I looked at Zeke and he shrugged before draining the last of his beer. “We're game if you are.”
Less than fifteen minutes later, we were in a semi-dark room, Janette and me on one bed, Zeke and Robin on the other. My shirt was somewhere on the floor and I was working on getting Janette's over her head. Her mouth, however, had other ideas. Her tongue was in my mouth, as demanding as her hands were on my body. Finally, I grabbed her wrists and pinned them above her head. She gasped in surprise, then moaned as I nipped at her bottom lip.
“Don't move,” I said quietly. I couldn't see much of her face, but her head nodded and she didn't move her hands when I released them.
I quickly pulled off her shirt, then moved to her jeans. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of Zeke stripping an eager Robin. Her hands were all over him and I could feel the tension radiating off of him in waves. I turned my attention back to Janette, pulled down her panties and tossed them aside. Her creamy skin gleamed white in the dim light.
“Take off your bra,” I said as I pulled off my own pants and underwear. Before dropping them, I pulled a condom out of my pocket and set it on the bed. I considered tossing one over to Zeke, but I decided against it. If he needed one, he'd ask. Besides, the chances of him not having one were slim. From the way he talked, he had sex almost every night.
Janette already had her legs spread when I turned back to her and I settled between them, stretching out with my legs half-hanging over the edge of the bed. I looked up at her as I put her knees over my shoulders. She had her hands on her breasts, rubbing them, playing with her nipples. I couldn't see much of her face, but I could feel her eyes on me.
A masculine groan from the next bed told me that Zeke was on the receiving end of something quite pleasurable. I lowered my head and pressed my mouth against Janette's pussy. She whimpered and made an inarticulate sound that mingled with what Zeke was making when I slid my tongue between her folds. I wanted her to be louder than Zeke. Might've been a bit of chauvinistic arrogance, but I wasn't going to apologize for it.
I found her clit easily enough and began circling it with my tongue. Her body writhed on the bed above me. I was pretty sure I heard her say someone else's name, but I ignored it. I didn't care if she called me by her boyfriend's name. I didn't plan on seeing her again after tonight. Hell, I didn't even care if her name wasn't Janette. As long as she was overage and consenting. Nothing else mattered.
I shifted my body so that I could slide a finger inside her. She was already wet and I could feel her body quivering around me. A second finger joined the first and she tensed. I took her clit between my lips, teasing it as I waited for her to relax. When she did, I began to slowly pump my fingers in and out, stretching her in preparation for what was to come.
“On your hands and knees.”
I heard Zeke's strained voice above Janette's moans. Then, a few seconds later, a gasp came from the next bed. I didn't need much of an imagination to know that he'd just entered her.
I crooked my fingers, searching for that spot inside her that would make her come. Her hips bucked up as I found it and I rubbed my fingertips against it until she cried out and I felt her climax, her body clenching, her thighs tightening around my head. I worked her through it with fingers and mouth until she was still and gasping for breath. Then I moved back.
As I opened the condom wrapper and rolled it on, I glanced over at the other bed. Robin and Zeke seemed to be enjoying themselves, if the noise was any indication. I could only make out the shadows of them. Robin on all fours, Zeke behind her, pounding into her with surprising force. She didn't appear to mind though, pushing her ass back towards him to meet every thrust.
I looked down at Janette and caught a glimpse of a smile, before she looked over to watch the other couple as well. I grasped her hips and lifted her so that her ass was resting on my thighs. She wrapped her legs around my waist as I positioned her. She made a small sound in the back of her throat as I pushed just the tip of my cock inside her. Slowly, I pulled her towards me, letting her adjust to my size. By the time I reached the end of her, she was shaking, her breath coming in gasps.
“Say when.” My fingers dug into her hips with the strain of waiting. She was tight around me, the wet heat almost too much.
Fortunately, I didn't have to wait long.
“I'm okay,” she said. Her voice was breathless, but I didn't detect any pain.
I moved slowly for the first couple strokes, not picking up the pace until she began to raise her hips to meet me. Only then did I hold her still and began to thrust into her hard and fast. I rolled my hips every few strokes, rubbing her clit against the base of my cock until she cried out.
From the other bed, I heard Robin make a sound that was halfway between a yell and a squeal. A grunting sound from Zeke followed, telling me that they'd both finished. I shifted my weight, leaning forward slightly so that every thrust would hit Janette deep and my pelvic bone would put pressure on her clit.
Her back arched, a nearly soundless cry falling from her lips as she came again. I didn't let up, slamming into her even harder than before. I was close. I felt the heat inside me, coiling into a tight knot of anticipation. Her pussy fluttered around me, muscles spasming from the overstimulation. I squeezed my eyes shut, unsure of who I was trying to see, only that I knew it wasn't Janette.
Finally, I came, tensing as the pleasure coursed through me, heat and electricity combining to give me momentary relief. But that's all it was, momentary. As soon as I started to come down, the world was back and I was awkwardly aware of Zeke and Robin watching.
As I flopped back on the bed to catch my breath, I wondered if this had been such a good idea after all.
Chapter 4
Part of me wished Curt would've been at work on Monday just so I could tell him that his suggestion of going out and having a life was completely fucked up. It hadn't really done much of anything except make me even more exhausted than I normally felt after working most of the weekend. I hadn't gotten much sleep, and what I had gotten hadn't been very restful. I hadn't gone to the gym either and that didn't help matters much. I was far from obsessive when it came to working out, but I liked to stay in shape, and the exercise always helped me clear my head and get ready for the new week.
Instead of that, however, my brain was still foggy and I had a slight headache. Even as I walked into the office, I felt irritable for no good reason. This was going to be one of those days, I just knew it. The kind of day that the slightest little thing was going to annoy the hell out of me and I would end up snapping at someone, regretting it later.
“Here's your coffee.” Emmaline smiled brightly as she held out my cup.
“Thank you.” It took way too much effort not to sound annoyed even though she hadn't really done anything. Bringing me coffee was going above and beyond. “Have you seen Christophe?”
“He was taking something up to your office last I saw him.” She followed me to the elevators. “I didn't think you'd mind.”
“I don't,” I said. And I really didn't. If I couldn't trust Christophe in my office, I couldn't trust anyone. “How's the beta testing going?”
Emmaline was part of a group of employees who were monitoring beta testing of a couple of new games as well as a minimum security firewall. They weren't programmers, but rather collected the data, collated it, and wrote up a report about the various products. Technically, she was more of the assistant to the group, running errands, that kind of thing, but she also paid attention to what was going on and offered her opinion when she could.
“It's going well,” she said.
She seemed pleased that I'd asked her rather than one of the senior members of the team.
“
Guardian's Cross
has been testing well in its demographic,” she continued. “And it doesn't seem to have too many glitches. I think someone mentioned some sort of problem with a graphic, but nothing big.
Legions
has been having problems on level five, but Nadine said she'd be able to get it fixed before the launch.”
I nodded, taking mental notes as she kept going, telling me other stats and tidbits she'd gleaned from the group as well as her own insights. One of the reasons I'd asked her, aside from the fact that she'd been right here, had been because I knew she'd give me everything. The others in the group might've tried to gloss over some things, figuring if they could get them fixed, I didn't need to know. I wanted to know though. If programmers were turning out faulty products, it was my job to deal with it. Glitches happened to the best of us, but repetitive issues meant I needed to take a closer look at people.
The elevator dinged and the doors slid open.
“Thank you, Emmaline,” I said sincerely. “I really appreciate you being so thorough.”
I had a mental list of things to check, but put them aside when I reached my office. Christophe was at my desk, a serious expression on his face. He looked up when I came in, cheeks flushing slightly.
“Sorry, Rylan. I knew you'd want to see this as soon as you came in and I didn't want to risk not catching you until later because I was off on another errand.”
“It's not a big deal.” I glanced down at the manila envelope on my desk. I wasn't close enough yet to see the address. “Who's it from?”
“The Justice Department,” Christophe said nervously. “Is something wrong?”
I shook my head, relieved. If it was coming to me rather than our lawyer, it didn’t have anything to do with the easter egg issue. If it had been a summons or something like that, it would've gone straight to me. The fact that Christophe had it meant it couldn't be too bad.
I took a gulp of my coffee and sat down. “Thanks, Christophe.”
“Anything I can get for you?” he asked.
“If you could start a pot of coffee, I'd appreciate it,” I said, not looking up at him. “Caffeinated.” I'd never get through today with decaf.
I opened the envelope as Christophe went to do as I'd asked. It wasn't anything bad. In fact, it was very good. I'd been selected as one of the frontrunners to receive a contract from the Department of Justice for digital security. I'd forgotten that I'd even put a bid in for it. I'd done it the week before Curt's accident, so I'd been a bit preoccupied at the time. No surprise it had taken the Justice Department so long to get back to me.
I smiled as I leaned back in my chair and called up my latest security program. I was still tired, but at least the day was looking up. The system I was working on now might be exactly what the Justice Department needed. There were still bugs in the system, but the big glitches had already been worked out. I hoped I could try it out on my system here within the week.
Like most things at Archer Enterprises, the program wasn't the work of a single person, though I'd done most of the detail work. I had programmers who wrote the base code for pretty much every system we put out. Then there were the second level people who specialized in certain areas like games or security. In groups of two or three, they wrote the rest of the code, and then sent the program to be reviewed by a select set of people.
I'd had other CEOs tell me I was crazy to let that many people have their hands on each program, but I'd found it worked much better. Not only was each person only working in their area of expertise, but they held each other accountable. The field we were in was a competitive one and if anyone saw someone else slip up, they'd point it out in a nanosecond. The multi-layered approach also allowed for teamwork within the competition. I always gave bonuses for work well done, which meant they had to work together if they wanted those bonuses.
I frowned as I looked at the time logs for work done on the security program. One particular programmer seemed to be logging extra hours, but doing it alone rather than with his assigned team. It wasn’t strange that someone seemed to be trying to show off by working overtime – that was fairly common. What was strange was that it was Ned Baker.
Ned was one of the quietest, most unassuming men I'd ever met. He was also a lot older than most of the other programmers. Well into his fifties, Ned had been on the cutting edge of technology from moment one. He'd not only been coding on some of the first personal computers, but had kept up with changing technology.
That left another option. One I really didn't want to consider. Someone else was using Ned's information to work on a system they hadn't been authorized for. If that was the case, it meant two things. Not only did I have someone in the company who was up to no good, but my security technicians hadn't caught on yet.
I had three, two part-timers and one who worked full time. He was supposed to be in charge of the digital security here, making sure all the electronic records were accurate. If someone was using Ned's log-in, Truman should've caught it.
I frowned. Truman might not know Ned very well, so I did have to consider the possibility that it was an honest mistake. Still, something in my gut told me that I had a problem at Archer Enterprises and I needed to figure out what it was before something bad happened. When you worked at a place like this, bad didn't necessarily mean someone slipping an obscene image into a game. It could be federal indictment kind of bad. The last thing I needed after the recent flood of bad press was the NSA or FBI breathing down my neck.