Chapter 102: Games People Play

Hath was walking (stalking actually) down the hall when her blackberry buzzed at her hip. Annoyed, she pulled it from its holster and stared angrily at the screen. Her expression softened when she saw it was a message from David.

Hey baby, miss you, love you, WANT you.

She fired one back. Miss you too, love you more, want you NOW

HOW MUCH? came back over the airwaves.

Hath laughed. What do u have in mind? she typed.

Find an empty room, came the reply.

Hath called David. “I can’t do that,” she said. “All the conference rooms are fishbowls. You’ll have to wait until tonight when I can Skype you.”

“But I’m hard NOW,” he whined.

Hath laughed. “Then take matters into your own hand. I’ll wait,” she said softly.

“No,” David said. “That’s alright. I can wait until tonight, but you’d better be more cooperative when you get home.”

“Aren’t I always?” she asked.

And later that night, she was.


Days later, most everyone was on the board feeling extremely frisky. The men were finally home, and had clearly missed their women, and vice-versa. After a couple days of getting-reacquainted sex, they were still feeling randy, and were letting it all hang out on the board. The conversation turned decidedly sexual, talking about Jon’s ass, then turning to Hath’s breasts, and the girls started talking about their men’s better attributes.

Then they started talking about trying out the other merchandise. It was all in good fun, but Hath was blushing furiously when they were talking about who got whom and when and in what order. Eventually, they arranged a “scorecard” so everyone could keep track. Richie and Jon were getting all indignant, but David was playing along, and wondered how far he could push it.

Hath and David were sitting in the living room, on opposite ends of the sofa, typing furiously on their laptops. Hath would call out “Watch this” before she typed something, and David would ask her what phrase she thought he should use. They were having a good time, and getting awfully turned on. Finally, on the board, Sam told Joker to bring it on. He looked at Hath.

“Should I?” he asked, the devil twinkling in his eyes.

Hath laughed. “Oh yeah, absolutely. Jon will have a shit fit.”

David smiled and typed that he was on the way over. Hath typed back for Sam to give “Joker” her green sweater back when he got there.

“Hey,” Hath said as David was getting ready to leave. When he turned, she continued. “Don’t do anything you wouldn’t want Jon doing to me.” David winked and left for Sam and Jon’s. Hath let Sam know that he was really on the way, and settled back to wait for the fireworks. She was pretty sure that if she looked out the window, she’d be able to see them.

A short time later, Sam was sending a message on the board. “I can't decide if I need to go break them up down there....or go hide!” She ended up going down to confront them, and called Hath later to tell her about it.

* * * * *
Sam could hear the shouting from upstairs.

“She invited me over here!” David shouted , “I am gong to hold up my end of the bargain!”

“You will NOT be fucking my wife!” Jon shouted back, and grabbed his shoulder, fully intending to manhandle him out of the house.

Sam hurried down the stairs, barely containing her laughter. David was standing toe to toe with Jon, yelling in his face. Her husband’s face was red with anger and disbelief. Sam pushed between them.

“Jon,” she said, putting a hand on David’s chest. “There is no way I’m letting you hurt David. I did invite him here. If you have a problem, you take it up with me.”

The look in Jon’s eyes had David grabbing Sam’s hand and pulling her behind his back. Sam smiled and surprised the hell out of David by leaning into his back, making his eyes go wide. David had his hands behind his back, holding Sam’s waist, and Jon went ballistic.

"Get your hands off my wife!" he yelled, then looked at the door for the zillionth time.

“What are you looking for, man?” David asked.

“I’m waiting for your intended to come barreling here at any minute,” he said.

David looked at him, agape. “You’re kidding, right?” he said, then burst out laughing.

“Just what is so damned funny?” Jon asked, getting even more irritated.

“Some ego on you, bro,” David said.

Sam joined in the laughter. “Before David, sweetie, she was a Richie girl. Not into you at all,” she taunted.

“I could change that,” Jon said, heat in his eyes as he bored a hole into Sam’s forehead with his gaze.

“Oh really?” Sam asked.

“Oh yeah,” Jon answered.

David raised his voice to a falsetto. “Ego,” he sing-songed, making Sam and Jon laugh.

“It was hysterical,” Sam had said to Hath. “Oh, and I sent David home with your sweater. Watch out, though,” she had warned. “I think Jon’s gonna be after your ass, Hath! Watch out for an amorous Kidd.”

Hath should have heeded that warning. Days later, Jon was on the board and asked Hath what the hell a Caramello bar was. Hath educated him in the ways of delectable Cadbury chocolate and smooth, creamy caramel. She told him it was one of her favorites, and David had laid in a supply if Jon wanted to swing by and get some instead of cruising all the way out to a store.

Jon said he was on the way and Hath berated herself for typing without thinking. She was dressed for bed, and didn’t really want to have to entertain, even though it was only Jon and only for a couple of minutes, but it was too late now. She considered having David answer the door, but he was down in the studio working on a “secret project” for another half hour (or so he promised) and Hath didn’t want to disturb him. Sighing, she pulled on her robe, grabbed a box of chocolate, and waited.

Finally, the doorbell rang. Hath brought the chocolate to the table by the door, and after checking to confirm it was Jon, opened the door wide to him. Jon stood there in the doorway, leaning on the door jamb and cocking a hip. He looked her up and down, a sexy smirk crawling across his face, and Hath felt vaguely uncomfortable.

"Glad you dressed for me, baby,” he said.

Hath barely had time to register his words when Jon stalked into the house, pushed Hath up against the wall, leaned into her, dug his fingers into her hair, and kissed her. Not a brotherly kiss by any stretch of the imagination, but a full on, lip-locked, tongue dueling kiss. Hath tried to resist, and put her hands up to his chest, fully intending to push him away, but her senses left her, and she instead, kissed him back for all she was worth. For a fleeting moment, as Jon’s hot mouth was on hers, she forgot all about his wife and her fiancée, and lost herself in his kiss.

Footsteps in the hallway didn’t register, but David’s voice did. "Did I hear the bell?" he asked, then stopped dead. He saw Hath pressed up between the wall and Jon, and asked, "so does this mean I get Sam after all?" Hath’s eyes went wide. Why wasn’t he furious? He should be furious with her for kissing another man like that, even if she didn’t start it.

Jon smiled a sexy smile and didn’t even take his eyes away from hers. She was helplessly staring into those glistening blue pools. He answered David, "After I'm done with Hath," and wrapped his hands around her waist and leaned in to kiss her again. This time, Hath got control of herself, and shoved at Jon’s chest.

Jon’s fingers had tangled in the tie of Hath’s robe, and when he took a staggered step backwards, he pulled on it, and the silky robe slid down off Hath’s shoulders to pool at her feet. Her arousal was clear and Jon gave her a once over before chuckling. “Thanks, Hath,” he said, and with a smirk at David, left.

“Are you okay?” David asked, barely containing his laughter. “Because I have some stuff to finish downstairs.”

Hath nodded absently and bent to pick up her robe. She put it on and tied it securely around her waist, watching David retreat down to the studio again. She sat hard on the couch and put her fingers to lightly swollen lips. “Oh God,” she groaned, then buried her head in her hands.

Her laptop was pinging – Sam wanted to know what the hell was taking Jon so long. Screwing up her courage, she told Sam exactly what happened, and waited to be yelled at. Sam told her it was pretty funny and that Jon did do the “you, him, and the wall” thing really well. Hath was floored, and called Sam, confident that Jon hadn’t made it home yet.

“Well, he did a good job,” Hath said to her meekly. “But now there’s no way I’m taking that job. Uh-uh. There is NO way I can go on the road with them now. Uh-uh. I'm totally mortified at my reaction. godDAMN it. He must think -- I don't wanna know what he must think.”

“Calm down,” Sam said. “It didn’t mean anything.”

“I KNOW that,” Hath said, exasperated. “That doesn’t mean that I can look him in the eyes again.” She groaned. Then she started getting angry. “How dare he! David didn’t even hardly touch you! Why would he do that? Oooh, I hope he gets a flat tire on the way home. Sorry Sam.”

Sam just laughed. “Come on, Triple-G; surely you can come up with something better than a flat tire.”

Hath thought about it for a minute. “Know what? Tell him that I called you all upset because he felt me up. That I was crying after he left, and David asked what was wrong, and I told him Jon got a good grope in before David came upstairs and that David is pissed and is gonna call Richie. That oughta get his ass in trouble.”

Sam was silent. “He touched you like that?” Hath could hear the anger wafting off of her. “I’m going to kill him.”

“NO!” Hath said smiling for the first time since the doorbell rang. “He didn't feel me up, just tell him I told you he did. He did shove his tongue in my mouth though and fuck, he leaned into me Sam. I can't believe he did that. He had me pressed up against that wall, and I swear to God, the only thing keeping me from hooking a leg around his ass was David coming upstairs.” She was getting all worked up and Sam had to call her name a few times to get her attention.

“Calm down Hath!” she said. “You've got to get a hold of yourself. Shit, he’s home. I’ll talk to you later.”

Hath was sitting on the sofa in the living room, still trying to wrap her head around what had just happened. Her gaze kept straying to the spot on the wall where she could swear she still saw the imprint of her body. The phone ringing startled her.

“Hello?” she said, tentatively.

“Hath, he's on his way back there to apologize. He left about ten minutes ago. I went off on him for feeling you up, then told him how you were all upset and crying and that David is pissed.” Sam was laughing, enjoying the hell out of this little prank. “I told him the whole deal. Now, he feels bad and is on his way back over there to apologize. I had him feeling really low. “

Hath groaned. “Dammit, he isn’t really coming over here, is he?”

“Hell yes, he is,” Sam laughed. “When I went off for the feeling you up, he said, ‘NO. NO. Sam I swear to you I never touched Thelma and Louise!’ and he looked all scared like I was not gonna believe him and kill him.” The two girls shared a laugh, and Hath couldn’t believe he remembered, and used the pet names. “Then I told him you weren’t going to work for him, and that David was pissed that you weren’t going to Europe with them. I barely kept my laughter in check until I heard his car gunning down the driveway,” Sam finished.

“Christ, Sam, what do I do?”

“Get your own back,” Sam said. “Make him feel as uncomfortable as he made you feel. Just keep your hands above the waist, thank you very much, or I will kill you.”

“You aren’t serious?” Hath said. “You want me to what, molest your husband?”

“Not up to the task?” Sam taunted.

“Jesus,” Hath said, and hung up and ran to the kitchen. She sliced up an onion so her eyes would water. When the doorbell rang, and Hath answered it, Jon was stricken by the tears. He had his hands shoved into his pockets, and he looked remorseful.

“Hath,” he started, and she turned away and he followed her into the house and closed the door.

“Can I take your jacket?” Hath asked him, her voice devoid of emotion. Jon started to shrug out of his jacket. He had it halfway down his arms when Hath went on the offensive. She shoved him hard against the wall, and shocked the hell out of him.

“What are you...” is all he got out before Hath attacked. She scraped her nails lightly down his chest then tore open his shirt.

“I wasn’t ready for you before, baby,” she said to him, her voice a raspy shadow of its usual firm timbre. She ran her hands over his chest, savoring the silky softness of his chest hair, and the rock-hard muscles of his pecs. “Nice,” she said, before pushing her hands up his chest to his neck and pulled his head down to kiss him. She shoved her hands through his hair, her tongue into his mouth, and attacked. He couldn't move his arms, so he couldn’t push her away, and Hath was satisfied to find that he couldn’t help himself either and was actually kissing her back. Hath had just leaned Thelma and Louise against him, letting him feel her arousal as she was feeling his, when David came back upstairs.

"Jesus, you two still at it?" he asked, and walked out again.

David startled the pair apart. Jon was panting and blushing and working to get his jacket back up onto his shoulders. He looked at Hath, who was also panting and blushing, and said, "So, we good now? You still gonna work for me?"

Hath had to laugh at his remarks. She crossed her arms over her chest and answered, "That depends, baby, is this what payday is like?"

Jon gawped at her, and backed out of the house muttering something like "crazy fucking bitch.”

Hath burst into a fit of hysterics, called Sam to tell her what had happened, then went upstairs. Though she didn’t mean to be, she was all worked up, and needed real passionate release. She brushed her teeth to get the taste of Jon out of her mouth, and changed her clothes; opting for a filmy long white peignoir and matching robe. She floated down to the studio and knocked on the window. David looked up and saw Hath standing there, looking intently at him.

David smiled and shut down the electronics. He left the studio and took his woman into his arms. Then he took her to bed.