“Dad, I’m sorry to do this, but I want to ask you some questions about the trial.”

  “Yeah, your mom said. What do you want to know? Has Carter given you a different version of events?”

  “Sort of,” I confessed. “I just want to know whether anything at the trial seemed unusual? Did the version of events make sense? That sort of thing.”

  “It made enough sense for a jury to convict him,” Dad said. “I don’t know what you want me to say. The trial did get a bit messy at times and Carter got caught changing his story more than once. That’s why the sentence was so heavy—there were perjury charges tacked on.”

  “He changed his story?” I asked.

  “There were inconsistencies about how events unfolded and he had a crappy lawyer.”

  “Really?” That did surprise me. I imagined Carter’s parents hiring some hot-shot defense attorney for him.

  “Yeah, just a public defender who wasn’t really up to it. Are you going to tell me what this is all about? Whatever he told you, it doesn’t change anything. That man killed your brother. He may have served his time, but he still did it and I don’t ever want to see him again.”

  “I know. Thanks, Dad.”

  I hung up without waiting for a goodbye. There was no point telling Dad the whole story right then—I would have to work up to it.

  What I found interesting was that Carter had a public defender for the case. He was only twenty-nine now and had spent five years in prison, but he had access to a lot of money, that much was obvious. I’d assumed the money had come from his parents, but perhaps not.

  The truth was that I knew very little about him. Did he even have a job at a big bank? That seemed unlikely for someone with a serious criminal record. So where was the money coming from?

  John had told me how important trust would be in our relationship, and at the moment, I couldn’t trust Carter. He had some more explaining to do.

  Chapter Ten

  “I have more questions,” I said to Carter as we met for lunch in a restaurant on Sunday. I’d let Carter chose the place, so it was horrendously expensive and a little snobby.

  “I figured you might,” Carter said. “I will answer if I can.”

  “Tell me more about Bella,” I said. I didn’t want to know about her, but I had to get all the information if I was to ever move on. If she remained a mystery, then that would always come between us. “How close were the two of you?”

  “We were close,” Carter said. “She’s still the only person I have been in a serious relationship with. We got together when we were seventeen and she was on holiday in England. We were both trying to get into a bar, but were underage. We bonded over our distaste for bouncers, I guess. We wrote to each other after that and called when possible. Her parents were loaded, so she came to England a few more times, and when it came time to apply to university, I chose to go to the States.”

  “That’s quite a commitment for someone so young,” I said. I couldn’t imagine anyone moving to another country for me. Carter tried to keep his voice casual, but his actions for Bella spoke volumes.

  “I guess. But I was young and stupid. We stayed together throughout university, but once that was finished, I had to go back home. I managed to get a job that paid enough for regular visits, and she had no problem flying out. I was visiting her on holiday when the accident happened.”

  “When did she... overdose?” I was going to say “die,” but the word stuck in my throat.

  “Two years ago while I was in prison. I was allowed out to go to the funeral.”

  I unconsciously rubbed at my artificial leg under the table as I tried to get my head around her death. All I got was emptiness. It didn’t help at all. I was glad she wasn’t alive and living a full life, but her death left only a bitter taste in my mouth.

  “If your family is poor, why do you now have loads of money? I don’t mean to sound rude, but it seems a little unlikely for an ex-con to land a good job with a bank after coming out of prison.”

  “Her family has connections,” Carter said. “They felt like they owed me after what I did.”

  “Tell me about your parents,” I said. “How do they fit into all this?”

  “Emily, I can keep answering all your questions, but the fact is you are going to have to decide whether or not you can trust me.”

  He’d seen right through me like he always did. I sought answers for everything I didn’t know, but that wasn’t how trust should work in a relationship. We would never know everything there was to know about each other, and sometimes you just had to take a leap of faith.

  “You’re right. But tell me one last thing. It wasn’t a coincidence, was it? Meeting me at the bar the night of the conference?”

  Carter shook his head. “No, it wasn’t. I sought you out that night, but I had no idea how to approach you. When, well… when everything got a little embarrassing, I just knew I had to see you again.”

  He placed his hands on mine, and I saw small cuts and bruising on his knuckles. Had he got those the night he saved me from Mason? I didn’t remember him throwing any punches, but it all happened so quickly. The cuts only made him look more manly and rugged. I had to have him.

  “Take me back to your place, Carter. I want to start making up for lost time.”

  ---

  I don’t know what got into me—maybe too much coffee that morning—but a passion had taken hold of me and would not let go.

  As soon as we got into the back of Carter’s car we started wrestling with each other, pulling at clothes and pressing our hands into each other’s bodies.

  Carter dragged me into the elevator once we arrived back at his building and then threw me down onto his bed. He pulled my jeans off and dove between my legs, greedily lapping at my wet panties. His teeth clasped onto the delicate cotton and he pulled them off me, only needing to use his hands when the cotton got caught on a joint on my artificial limb.

  That kind of embarrassment would normally throw me off, but I was gushing between my thighs and nothing could stop me. Carter ate me with a force and passion I had never known, his tongue hammering at my cunt like my fingers had never managed. When he slipped two fingers inside I came hard and writhed on the bed in a sweaty heap.

  “Be right back,” Carter said, heading to his drawer for a condom.

  “No, come here,” I replied. I got up onto my knees and pulled him down onto the edge of the bed. I got up and stood there in front of him completely naked. I’d never had the confidence to stand naked in front of anyone, but now I glowed under Carter’s lusty gaze.

  Looking directly into his eyes, I lowered myself onto my knees and crawled between his thighs. Placing my hands on his legs I looked at his member, seeing it up close for the first time. The shaft pulsed in front of me—not yet hard but stiffening—as I admired its length and girth. No wonder the sex had been a tad painful; Carter’s shaft was the size of one of the big black dildos they sold at the sex shop on the corner.

  I took hold of him in one hand and slowly stroked up and down. As he grew in my grasp, I lowered my head and slowly licked his tip. Carter gasped and flinched under my touch. The head tasted a little salty, but I had nothing to compare him to. I’d never had a man in my mouth before.

  My lips opened slightly and wrapped around Carter’s head while my tongue flicked against his slit. I sucked gently and pulled my lips away with a “pop!”

  “Baby, you don’t have to do this,” Carter said. “I know you’ve never done this before.”

  “You want me to stop?” I asked, looking up at him with a smile.

  “Fuck, no!”

  I went back down on his cock and opened my mouth wide. There was no way I would get the whole thing inside me, but I would give it a damn good go.

  I sucked hard as I moved down his shaft inch-by-inch until he reached the back of my throat. I held my mouth there for a few seconds before springing back up for air, leaving a trail of drool over his cock.

  Carter didn’t seem to mind. I kept tossing his shaft—easier now that I had left it wet and slippery—while sucking as much of him as I could fit in my mouth.

  “Oh shit, this is so good.” Carter squirmed under me, tensing his muscles and revealing his huge quads. He placed a head on my head and let his fingers weave through my hair. “Do you trust me, Emily? I need you to trust me.”

  I didn’t look up at him, but gave a nod with his cock still filling my mouth. Carter pushed his cock further inside me, his hand holding me down. I thought I was going to gag, but I remembered what he said. I trusted him. My fingers dug into his thighs, but I didn’t push back. Finally he let me up for air.

  “Again,” I said, surprising myself. Carter thrust himself back inside my mouth. I sucked hard as he released.

  “I’m close, baby.” I put my hand back on the shaft and tugged hard at his wet, slippery cock. Just as my lips were about to lock around his head again, a hot burst of thick white goodness sprayed forth into my mouth. I quickly swallowed without thinking, pleasantly surprised by the taste, but didn’t get my mouth open in time for the second load. The spray hit my chin and dribbled down my neck onto my breasts.

  Carter shook a few more times, then looked down at me in all my messy, sweaty, sticky glory.

  “I have never seen you look more beautiful,” he said.

  Chapter Eleven

  After Carter and I showered together, we wrapped ourselves in a couple of thick bathrobes and curled up on the couch. I decided not to question why Carter had more than one bathrobe—I wasn’t sure I would like the answer and I knew he would get mad at me for asking.

  That was my first ever blowjob and it was not at all like I had imagined. I’d always assumed I would feel dirty and used after doing it, but as I lay under Carter’s heavy arm, I had never felt more secure or confident in myself and my sexuality.

  The next morning, we went out for a cup of coffee. Carter had expensive taste for the most part, but he rarely had good coffee at home. There was plenty of tea, of course, but that wasn’t strong enough for first thing in the morning.

  “So, what’s the latest with work?” Carter asked. “Tell me in terms I can understand.”

  “We’re moving along okay. I’d like it to go a little faster, of course, but that’s the way these things go. We only have a small group of beta users at the moment and need to expand drastically to get more useful information, but that is going to be expensive.”

  “Is this like clinical trials?”

  “Kind of,” I said. “We’re quite lucky in that none of the technology we use is new, so we don’t have to get any special licenses. We are just using the technology in new ways.”

  “Like what?” Carter asked. “I need a basic description of your business so that I don’t sound like a complete prick if people ask me what you do.”

  “Right, that might not be easy. Well, take my leg as an example.” I lifted my leg up under the table and rested it on his lap. “This is a normal prosthetic leg and has been around for quite a few years now. It’s not even a particularly good one, actually, because my parents never had good health insurance. What FriendlyLimb does is collect data from that leg through lots of small electrodes that track movement and pressure.”

  “And you have that in your body?”

  “Not really, it’s just rubbing against the skin. And again, that is old technology, but we are the first to analyze the data with some damn complicated algorithms.”

  “Hmm, I think that’s about as much as I can store in my head for now,” Carter said. “Do you have much of the investment money left? Finances, I can understand.”

  “Yeah, we do, but if we move forward with this next set of trials, then we will burn through it quick. Essentially, every time we do something big like this we have to keep our fingers crossed it will succeed, because if it doesn’t, no new investors will want to come in.”

  “And I thought banking was a high-pressure job. Speaking of which, I have some work to take care of, so we won’t be able to spend the day together.”

  I shrugged, but was a little disappointed not to be going back to his place to have a bit of fun before getting on with work. My to-do list was huge, so a day without Carter was probably for the best, but that didn’t stop my hormones for lusting after him.

  ---

  “Well, hello,” John said when I walked through the door at midday. “Someone didn’t come home last night. I take it things are back on with Carter, then?”

  Things were as “on” as they were before, but I still had no idea what that really entailed. I had not yet used the term boyfriend and he had never referred to me as his girlfriend. Not with me around, anyway.

  “We’re on,” I said eventually. “Still taking it slow and steady, but we are spending a lot of time together.”

  “That’s great news, Emily. It really is. I know there is a lot of shit to work through, but you look radiant after spending time with him.”

  “I do feel better,” I admitted. “I’m not walking on the air or anything, but I guess I can see the positive side of life at the moment.”

  “I’ve got some more good news for you,” John said. “I thought about not telling you, but I think you have a right to know. Plus you may find out anyway and I don’t want you thinking I kept it from you.”

  “Uh, this sounds ominous. What is it?”

  “You know the bar owned by that Mason guy I set you up with because I am complete moron?”

  “I’m not likely to forget that in a hurry,” I said.

  “You do remember it, then? What happened that night?”

  That was an odd question, but he had a point. I was nearly raped, but my recollection of it was hazy to say the least. Not that I was complaining—better than having it burned into your brain—but it was weird to not remember.

  “I remember roughly what happened. Why?”

  “The police shut the place down and arrested Mason. They found drugs behind the bar.”

  “What kind of drugs?” I asked.

  “Roofies. Seems like Mason was spiking drinks and having his way with women. Emily, that’s why you just went along with it. I thought it was a little odd at the time, but that explains it.”

  “And that’s why I can’t remember,” I added. How could I have been so stupid as to let a stranger get me a drink like that? At least now I could sleep a little easier knowing that I hadn’t tried to betray Carter. “So, Mason is now in prison?”

  John shook his head. “Hospital. Seems he took a bit of a beating yesterday. We have a mutual friend who says his body now looks like it was used as a punching bag.”

  I closed my eyes and thought back to the marks on Carter’s knuckles. I never did ask him how he got them because I didn’t want to bring back memories of Friday night.

  “What is it, Emily? Are you okay? Don’t spare any sympathy for that man. He deserved everything he got.”

  “You’re right,” I said. “I don’t care about that prick. I’m going to get some work done today. We should catch up later, though, and talk about the cost of this next trial.”

  “Will do. And Emily, I don’t want to jinx anything, but I’m glad you’re happy.”

  “Me too,” I said. I was happy. It was a weird feeling and I wasn’t used to it. No doubt something would go wrong soon enough.

  The only question was whether it would be the business or Carter—or both.

  Chapter Twelve

  “Emily, we have a big problem.”

  That wasn’t how I liked to wake up on a Wednesday morning. Carter had insisted on spending time apart during the week because he was busy with work, so that meant John and I were spending more time together than usual. We were still getting along well, but I had gotten used to having my own place and sharing it was a little strange, especially when I wanted to sleep in.

  “What is it?” I asked groggily.

  “We’ve been sued.”

  That woke me up. “What? By whom? What for?”

  “No surprises who—PharmaTech. They are suing us for IP infringement.”

  I quickly threw some clothes on and ran into the living room to see John scanning the papers.

  “Oh, this is complete bullshit,” John said. “They are alleging that our technology is in violation of one of their existing patents. It’s not even close. This is something we already hold a patent on ourselves.”

  “This is what we feared would happen,” I said, taking the pages of the lawsuit from John as he finished reading them. “They are just hoping we can’t afford the legal fees and will give up.”

  “Are they right?” John asked. “We still have some money, but the new trial is going to absorb most of that and Scott’s services don’t come cheap.”

  “This could be a problem,” I conceded. “They know this is a losing case, but we’ll have to pay to get it dismissed. No doubt another lawsuit will follow, and then another and another.”

  “There must be something we can do,” John said. “Surely there are laws against companies filing suits like this.”

  “Probably. But we’ll have to pay a lawyer to find out and then sue PharmaTech ourselves. That’ll cost a small fortune.”

  “Goddammit!” John snarled. “Do you ever wish we had just accepted that ten million dollar offer? I hate them as much as you do, but it would be nice to be a millionaire and not have to worry about this shit.”

  I thought for a few seconds before answering. Not once since the offer had I regretted our decision to turn down PharmaTech, but I’d never given much thought as to why.

  “You know what? I don’t regret it,” I said. “Because knowing that company, they would have found a way to screw us out of the money somehow. They would have knocked the price down and found ways to make payment contingent on certain milestones. We’d be just as stressed as we are now, but we would have also sold our souls.”

  “You’re probably right,” John said. “I’ll pass this on to Scott and see what he has to say. You want to be on the call?”

 

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