ASL2: Chapter 10 "Shutdown"

-- CHAPTER 10: Shutdown --

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The following chapter includes events previously detailed in my story Tom Billionaire. It is not required reading, but familiarity with that story will enhance your experience reading this chapter. And if you haven’t already read that story, this chapter will of course spoil some of those events.

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-- WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2008 --

“They’re calling it ‘The Heist of the Millennium’. In an unprecedented theft, believed to be the largest single monetary robbery in history, top executives at internationally renowned Jonathan Kwong Enterprises have stolen a reported 4.2 billion dollars from the company. CNN reporter Alison Kosik has the story…”

“Good morning! Here on the Today show we’ve been covering one of the greatest monetary scandals in history. Seemingly overnight, he went from ordinary worker on Wall Street to one of the wealthiest and most famous men in America. We’ll tell you the incredible story of Jonathan Kwong’s rise to power, and how it might all come crashing down…”

“But we at Celebrity Sightings have the juicy details. Our sources confirm that Jada Sharpley, the daughter of suspected executive Robert Sharpley, has been employed as a nanny to the family’s children for the past several months. Recently released photos of the Kwongs out about town reveal how intimately involved Miss Sharpley was with the family, for example here as the children played in Central Park and here as Taylor and Ashlyn shopped on Park Avenue with their babies. Our sources also now confirm that Miss Sharpley is one of the missing – and presumed ‘on the run’ – suspects…”

“In a theft that by far has topped the record of one billion dollars removed from the Central Bank of Baghdad, reports indicate that over four billion dollars were liquidated from more than a dozen escrow accounts held in trust by Jonathan Kwong Enterprises. The money was transferred out by top executives of the company and hidden in banks unknown, and the men responsible have disappeared. The FBI is now involved in the hunt…”

“Details on the exact nature of the transaction are still unknown. But with the purchase price reportedly paid to Daniel Hollister, and the assets already sold off, Jonathan Kwong Enterprises is an extremely precarious position, now holding a negative net worth. Dylan Ratigan. MSNBC.”

“Is the Prince of New York a pauper once again? Jonathan Kwong is no stranger to our headlines. He first made waves when he was revealed to be the unknown inheritor of Jonathan Kendall’s estate nearly five years ago. His whirlwind romance with supermodel Taylor Brynn, along with a whole variety of suspected affairs with various other women throughout their courtship, made him front-page fodder for the tabloids. And he threw the entire New York social scene off its axis little more than a year ago, when it was announced that he was both dating and had impregnated another supermodel, Ashlyn Scott, while still married to his current wife. Since then, the Kwong family has operated under the radar. But now, the intense media spotlight of this financial scandal threatens to put Jonathan’s entire lifestyle right back under the microscope. Already there are rumors swirling around Jada Sharpley’s role within the family, including suggestions of an affair between the wealthy billionaire and the young daughter of one of his top executives. Indeed, our sources say that--”

“Okay, okay, enough of that,” I grumbled. “Can we turn it off?”

Penny glanced back over her shoulder to look at me, a deep-set frown on her face. She was hugging herself while holding the TV remote in one hand and thumbed the power button for Dalton’s TV.

“Come back to the table and sit down, Penny,” Dalton muttered without looking up from his screen.

The four of us were in Dalton’s temporary lodgings for the duration of the 4D project, one of many well-furnished apartments owned by JKE within walking distance of the office. This was a 12th-floor unit with a view of nothing more than the next skyscraper building across the narrow street far below, but had enough room for Dalton and Penny to sit at the dining table with their laptops while June and I sat together on the couch with our laptops on the coffee table.

Collectively, we reasoned that executive management would let us into the office again within a day or two. Having everyone work from home for the time being served to (A) allow JKE Internal Audit and FBI investigators to go over the place with a fine-toothed comb in search of evidence that might indicate whether or not Sharpley and Matthews had any co-conspirators working out of our office, and (B) keep the media away. Having some experience with paparazzi, I could well appreciate not having reporters hounding me as I tried to walk into the building.

But for us, at least, the show must go on. Our target companies didn’t know we were pursuing them, after all, so the breaking news about JKE in theory shouldn’t change our timetable. There was of course some question about whether or not we’d ultimately have the funds to execute the project; even if the runaway executives were caught by Thanksgiving, there was no guarantee that all the money could be recovered.

For now, though, we all agreed that we had no choice but to proceed under the assumption that enough money would be found and restored in order to allow us to proceed. Better to be prepped and ready to execute than sit on our butts at home doing nothing.

At least, that was the plan.

It was about 11am when the email was broadcast to everyone in the company:

Stop whatever you’re doing. Log off VPN. Disconnect from the networks. Shut down your machines. Don’t turn them back on for 72 hours.

Well, the email used a lot more words than that, but you get the gist. Apparently the FBI wanted a complete and total lockdown. They didn’t want any of us opening files, moving files, transferring accounts, downloading stuff, etc. Most importantly, they didn’t want anybody DELETING anything or otherwise trying to cover our tracks. And the only way to guarantee nobody could do that was to lock us out completely.

June and I looked at each other, and then we looked over at Dalton. His eyes and mine met, and we simultaneously shook our heads. He then looked down at his computer with a scowl, made a bunch of clicks, and finally slammed the lid shut on his laptop.

“FUCK!!! Pardon my French.”

I chuckled. “You took the words outta my mouth.”

Penny, June, and I likewise shut our laptops down. June had hers in her lap and set it on the coffee table next to mine. She then sat up straight, primly erect in stark contrast to the way I slumped in my seat. With wide-eyes and a clearly nervous expression, she shrugged her shoulders and asked, “Now what?”

I glanced over at Dalton. “I don’t know about you, but I could really use a beer right now.”

Dalton smirked. “Good call.”

****

“So there I was, literally hanging off the side of a cliff ass-up, my buddy is howling like a fucking orangutan and just as annoying, all while Cathy is shrieking over and over again that she’s gonna die.” Dalton laughed while continuing to mime his predicament, diagramming the situation with his right hand to represent himself and his left hand further below as Cathy, his now ex-girlfriend.

“Then what?” Penny asked breathlessly, clearly enraptured by the story.

“The anchor bolt finally broke free, Cathy died, and Dalton here had to run away to California to avoid getting arrested,” I deadpanned before taking a sip of my cocktail. After burning through the six-pack of Coronas Dalton had in his fridge pretty fast, we’d moved on to hard liquor mixed with soda and currently sat around his coffee table with Dalton and Penny on the couch and me and June seated on two of the dining table chairs.

Penny promptly kicked me in the shin, hard enough to make me flinch and I nearly spilled my drink.

“In some ways, I like Ben’s version better,” Dalton laughed. “Would’ve saved me the next three months of heartache watching her turn into more and more of a bitch every day. I’m glad it’s finally over.”

June frowned. “You didn’t just seriously say you wished your ex-girlfriend had died, did you?”

Dalton snorted. “That’s correct. I did not say that ‘seriously’ at all.”

“You’ll have to forgive June,” Penny cut in. “She has a tendency to take everything literally.”

“I do not,” June muttered defensively. “Like I knew for certain that Ben was joking about the anchor bolt breaking free.”

“Seriously, though,” Penny continued. “How did you save her?”

Dalton shrugged like it was no big deal, ready to just wrap up the story now that we’d gotten off-track. “I got Eddie to lower me down three more feet, upside-down and all. I used the spare cable to clip her harness into mine. And then I got my feet untangled so I could right myself. The harder part, actually, was getting Cathy to start climbing again. She was understandably freaked out and too scared to move for a few minutes. But eventually we all made it to the top, collected our gear, and started the long hike down the back side. All good.”

“Always a good trip when everybody comes home safe and sound,” I agreed, saluting him with my beer.

Dalton raised his glass in return, took a drink, and reclined back in his seat.

“You said you and Cathy broke up?” Penny asked, scrutinizing her drink for a moment.

“Yeah, a few months ago,” Dalton explained. “That’s when I poured myself into work and came up with 4D. I guess you could say I’ve been dating the project ever since.”

“Ah.”

“How about you?” Dalton asked Penny. “You seeing anybody?”

Penny shook her head. “I don’t have the best track record with relationships. Never found a guy who could keep up with me.”

“Never found a project partner who could keep up with you, either,” June drawled.

“I suppose you could say being project partners with someone is quite similar to being in a romantic relationship. There’s a certain level of trust and faith in the other’s abilities required in order to function and I haven’t found someone like that…” Penny’s gaze slid over to Dalton as she added, “… yet.”

Dalton grinned rather cockily, but rather than comment directly, he turned to me and June and said, “So in a way, that would make you two as close as any boyfriend/girlfriend couple, right?”

June blinked in surprise. “Um, what?”

“Trust and faith.” Dalton shrugged. “Everyone says you two are the best team in the whole division.”

I raised my chin up. “I’d like to think our track record speaks for itself.”

“What’s the secret to your success?” Dalton asked.

“Frequent brainstorming sessions,” Penny mumbled into her drink.

June shot her a look, and Penny immediately blushed.

“The point is: you two seem pretty compatible,” Dalton continued.

“In the field of finance, sure,” June agreed.

“But personality-wise,” I explained, “we’re total opposites.”

“Yin and Yang,” June added.

“Opposites attract,” Dalton rejoined with a grin.

“Trust and faith in each other’s abilities, yes,” I agreed. “We make good project partners.”

Penny laughed, “Even though she somehow always ends up yelling at you.”

I rolled my eyes. “She’s not afraid of conflict, I’ll give you that.”

“Conflict is a highly-effective way of bringing forth all the best ideas,” June insisted. “People focus on harmony way too much. It’s inefficient.”

“I agree,” Penny concurred.

“Aaand we’re back to why you can’t hold onto a project partner,” I chuckled.

“OR a boyfriend,” June added.

Penny sighed. “Maybe if -I- could find a project partner who could keep me satisfied the way Ben does for June, I could kill two birds with one stone.”

June’s face went white and her eyes got big.

I stared down Penny with a look of disbelief. When she blushed and stared down into her cocktail again, I sighed and shook my head, muttering a disapproving, “Really?”

Dalton leaned forward, clearly interested. “So it’s true? You two are banging?”

I sighed. “Is it obvious?”

Dalton shook his head. “No. I mean, I know people talk, but they ponder the same thing about every mixed-sex teammates in the whole building. Like, I’m sure people have started wondering the same thing about me and Penny.”

I eyed him carefully. “You’re not?”

Dalton and Penny glanced at each other, and Dalton began rather hesitantly, “We… uh… I…”

Penny blushed and averted her gaze, surprisingly quiet.

“You’re both clearly interested in each other,” June drawled plainly. “It’s pretty obvious.”

“Is it?” Dalton winced.

“Well, I thought it was pretty obvious Penny was interested in you,” I admitted. “But I didn’t know if you were into her.”

“He’s into her,” June stated before sharing a rare smile with me. “Visual attention-duration is not itself a definitive gauge, but it’s certainly indicative.”

I laughed, found both Dalton and Penny looking at us, and waved them off. “Inside joke.”

“See that right there.” Dalton pointed at us. “When I see you two like that, I just see project partners who are really comfortable with each other. I don’t see, ‘Oh, they’re banging.’”

“Oh, they’re banging alright,” Penny muttered.

June shot her another look.

“I honestly believed you were… asexual,” Dalton marveled.

“And I’d like to keep other people believing that, thank you very much.” June glared at him, her lips thin in a hard, straight line.

Dalton immediately held his hands up. “My lips are sealed. But just between us here in the room, how does that work? Being co-workers and all? Doesn’t it get weird?”

June and I glanced at each other. I shrugged and said, “Not really. Neither of us is in a supervisory position over the other. I mean, I have no control over whether or not June gets a raise apart from helping her succeed in her career. She’s already my work-spouse.”

“A work-spouse you’re actually banging.”

“Well, neither of us is in a relationship.”

Dalton frowned. “But don’t you have a son and a baby mama?”

“I do. But my son’s mom and I aren’t on a path to marriage.”

“What about Adrienne?”

“What about her?”

“You’re banging her too, aren’t you?”

I took a deep breath and gave him my canned response. “I don’t comment about my relationship with Adrienne.”

“They’re banging,” Penny offered.

“YOU need to butt out of my personal life,” I scolded her.

Penny went back to staring at her drink, looking chagrined rather than reply with an acerbic comeback.

“You must really be into Dalton,” June commented. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you be this quiet for this long before.”

“I…” Penny began before faltering, blushing, and looking down again.

“Leave her alone,” I cautioned June. “You don’t need to embarrass her.”

Dalton reached over and patted Penny’s knee. “Don’t be embarrassed. I’m flattered.”

Penny brightened as she put her hands on top of Dalton’s and made goo-goo eyes back at him.

“To be clear,” I spoke up, “What June and I do behind closed doors is strictly physical. Pure stress-relief. An actual romantic relationship could get… messy…”

“Right… strictly physical… totally…” Penny agreed with an expression on her face that plainly said her feelings were NOT strictly physical.

Dalton’s expression wasn’t much better, and he sighed. "Especially at a time like this, when the whole world feels like it's crashing down, you know?"

"I know…" Penny nodded eagerly. "You feel SO wound up and wanna find just what you really need to relax…"

"Totally…" Dalton agreed, breathing hard.

June and I stared back and forth at the two of them, but now that their eyes had met it became clear that the two of us were rapidly becoming invisible to them.

“You know what?” I began, standing up from my dining table chair. The movement made Dalton and Penny stop making goo-goo eyes at each other and they both looked up at me. “I think it’s time June and I got out of here. Thank you very much for the beer and the drinks. I’ll bring you a case the next time I come by.”

“Don’t sweat it,” Dalton replied with a head shake.

“Meantime, I think we need to get some food into our stomachs. I’d suggest the four of us go get lunch together, but…” I winked at Penny. “I think you two will manage just fine on your own.”

“Thanks, Ben,” Penny replied warmly.

“Yeah, thanks guys,” Dalton added.

By now, June had stood with me. I jerked a thumb towards the exit and said, “We’ll just let ourselves out.”

Dalton and Penny weren’t paying attention to us anymore.

So June and I collected our laptops, put them away in our bags, and headed for the door.

Dalton and Penny were already making out before I got the door closed.

****

June and I were just getting into the elevator when I took a deep breath, shook my head, and muttered, “So Dalton and Penny, huh? Can’t say I’m all that surprised, but still…”

“Hold that thought,” June muttered. She had her phone out and was thumbing out a message of some kind. But a moment later she put the phone back in her purse and looked at me. “You were saying? Oh, Dalton and Penny. Yeah, saw that one coming a mile away. They kept tiptoeing around each other in the office. Dalton was trying to be aloof. I think he recognized that even if he’s not Penny’s manager, they work closely together and he IS in a sort of supervisory role. I didn’t know that he had recently broken up with his last girlfriend though, so that perhaps also played a role.”

I nodded. “And while Penny seemed pretty obviously into him, his lack of response scared her into thinking he wasn’t interested.”

“Agreed.”

“You think they’ll be alright?”

June shrugged. “If they can keep it strictly physical, sure. But Penny does seem a little infatuated. I don’t blame her. He IS quite handsome.”

“Noticed that, did you?”

“I’m well-aware of the physical standards heteronormative society has presently defined as ‘attractive’. Dalton matches those standards.”

“Do you find him attractive?”

June eyed me curiously. “Worried I might leave you for some other guy?”

“What? No. We talked about this.”

“We talked about your fear of losing what you have still holding great influence over your current decision-making.”

“I’m not having this conversation,” I muttered.

“Just like we’re still not having a conversation about what happened between you and Summer Monday night.”

“Correct. We’re not having that conversation either.”

“You can’t bury your head in the sand like an ostrich about this.”

“I’ll pull my head out of the sand and talk to you about it when you’re ready to talk to me about both Eve and Kim.”

Just then, the elevator doors dinged to let us out at the lobby level of Dalton’s apartment building. June took a deep breath, kept her eyes forward, and started walking out of the elevator even before the doors had parted far enough for her to easily pass through. She had to twist her torso sideways so as not to bump into the stainless steel.

I followed after, but June maintained an exceptionally brisk pace. In a public place, I didn’t quite want to start jogging or anything to catch her, but I speed-walked to keep up as she went out the doors, onto the sidewalk, and made an abrupt left turn.

But she couldn’t walk through traffic. I caught up at the next intersection where she and the other pedestrians on the corner waited for the crosswalk light. I stepped alongside her, asking, “Hey, what’s going on?”

“Not here. Not in public.”

“What not in public?”

June shrugged. “Talking. I’ll talk to you about both Eve and Kim, and you’ll talk to me about Summer. That’s what you said, right? The whole bit about pulling your head out of the sand? I’m accepting your offer.”

“I… I didn’t necessarily mean we’d--”

“No take-backsies.”

I snorted. “Did you just say, ‘No take-backsies’?”

“Indeed I did.” The crosswalk signal turned white, and we started across the street.

I sighed and shrugged. To be honest, I wanted to know more about Eve and Kim, and if talking to June about my feelings for Summer was the price of getting that information, I supposed it would be a fair trade. But… “Where are we going, anyway? You seem to have a particular destination in mind, but I’m still hungry. Do you have some restaurant in mind where we can still have a reasonably private conversation?”

June shook her head. “Not a restaurant.”

I made a face. “I’m hungry.”

“She’ll have food in her fridge. I’m not saying it’ll be gourmet, but you’ll probably still like it better than a Caesar salad.”

“She?”

“Haven’t you figured it out yet?”

I blinked, looked around, and finally recognized the street we were walking on. “Wait, we’re going to the apartment?”

“Adrienne asked me to help keep her in the loop with everything going on in your life. Sasha will be at work, but Adrienne doesn’t have a shoot or anything today. I texted her in the elevator to let her know we’re coming over. My first thought was that the three of us could take advantage of an afternoon with no work, what with the shutdown and all. Watching Dalton and Penny start to hook up made me… Well… I wanna feel Adrienne’s tongue in my ass while I’m riding you again, alright? Maybe the vibrating Ben Junior, too. I’m still buzzing off drinking so many cocktails on an empty stomach, and ever since we started with these butt plugs I have been on FIRE.”

I blinked. June’s words and tone of voice said that she was ridiculously horny at this very moment, but the expression on her face out here on a public street was as blank as a department store mannequin.

“Uh, duly noted,” I replied lamely.

“But yeah. Afterwards we can talk. You said I’m not a very good listener when it comes to this stuff, but Adrienne wants to be a better listener for you, she has less stake in the Summer situation than either Dawn or Kim, and likewise I’ll have an easier time talking to her about both Eve and Kim as well.”

“Oh. Umm… okay…” I suppose that all made sense.

June then turned to face me as we came to a stop at the next intersection. Leaning in close with quiet intensity in her eyes, she finished, “But AFTER you fuck my brains out. Fuck, Ben. I wish I could have your dick in me NOW.”

****

“Ngh! Ngh! Ngh! Ngh! NNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHAAAAAAAHHHH!!!”

With her eyes closed, June’s entire face went slack as her mouth gaped open from the force of her last orgasmic exhalation. Her bare chest was pressed down on mine, diamond-hard nipples etching my pectorals. My meaty paws gripped her ass to not only grind her clit against my pelvic bone but also spread her cheeks apart to help Adrienne buzz the Chinese girl’s starfish anus with a vibrating Ben Junior.

I pinned June’s body against my bone, undulating my hips to really maximize both the pleasure and pressure while fireworks went off behind her eyes. But eventually the tension fled her body and she collapsed flat on top of me, utterly spent.

I lay beneath her, content to let her recover and in no hurry to get my own ejaculation. Adrienne removed the business end of the blunt object from June’s butthole and thumbed it off. And after another minute or two, June picked her head up, smacked her lips a little as if just waking up from a power nap, and with bleary eyes glanced back at Adrienne.

“He’s all yours,” she muttered rather sleepily, and then with a bit of a grimace she pushed down with her left hand to help herself roll off me and onto her back.

I helped June roll off and smiled when I saw her curl up into a fetal position, looking wiped out but satisfied. I then glanced at the foot of the bed, where a naked Adrienne stood up straight, grabbed the sides of her mammoth mammaries, and squished her big bosoms together, creating a mouthwatering line of cleavage.

“Wanna fuck my tits and then splooge all over my face, Tiger?”

Umm, yes please.

Less than five minutes later I finished my last thrust through the tight tunnel of titflesh surrounding my turgid tool. Adrienne lay beneath me with her arms limply draped to the sides and behind her head, her gorgeous, smiling face cheerfully inviting my imminent shower of spunk.

My forearms strained as I tried to compress her coconuts even closer around my conquering cock, and I cried out in climax as I catapulted cannonballs of creamy cum across my cherished companion’s comely countenance.

“Ooh… heyyy… that looks tasty.” June woke up enough to smile sleepily and crawl across the mattress to start licking cum off the blonde’s chiseled cheeks.

I groaned and relaxed, still straddling Adrienne’s chest, smirking to watch such diametrically-different young women swapping my seed between them. We had certainly turned asexual June into quite the cumslut.

But the blissful relief of my exquisite ejaculation couldn’t last forever. Perhaps fifteen minutes later, I found myself wearing my boxers and seated upright against Adrienne’s headboard, almost mindlessly eating leftover Chinese food Adrienne had in the fridge since Sunday night while lost in thought over our myriad moral dilemmas.

Adrienne first returned back to the room having cleaned up her face of all traces of semen and dressed in a silk bathrobe. June followed less than a minute later wearing her panties, bra, and shirt.

“So June said you two needed to talk?” Adrienne began, climbing onto the foot of the bed before folding her long legs into a lotus position.

June pursed her lips and looked rather less comfortable. Rather than join us she paced over to the window, stared out across the San Francisco Bay, and gestured dismissively. “Let Ben go first. He needs to tell you what’s going on with Summer.”

Adrienne looked confused. “Tell me? Not you?”

June shrugged. “I’m not particularly invested in whether or not he gets together with Summer, unless for some reason she decides she doesn’t want him fucking me anymore. But the situation has clearly been bothering him, it’s been impacting his productivity, and I need you to fix him for me.”

I frowned and set the empty carton of leftover beef and broccoli on the nightstand and wiped my mouth with a tissue. “That wasn’t the deal. I said I’d talk to you about Summer IF you talked to me about Eve and Kim. That means YOU go first.”

June turned and frowned at me. “The grammatical conjunction ‘if’ was not a part of the agreement. If I recall, you more precisely stated that you would pull your head out of the sand and talk about Summer ‘when’ I was ready to talk about Eve and Kim. Well I’m ready.”

“Good. Then you can go first.”

“No, YOU can go first.”

“Well if you’re not ‘ready’, then there’s no deal.”

“I AM ‘ready’.”

“If you’re ‘ready’, then why aren’t you starting?”

“I can be ‘ready’ and not go first. The two are NOT mutually-exclusive.”

“Then you’re not actually ‘ready’.”

“Children. Please.” Adrienne had extended both arms outward, pointing at me with her right arm and June with her left. “Ben, just go first.”

I sighed and shrugged. “Summer and I went kayaking on Sunday, I told her I wasn’t in any state to start a new relationship, she promised not to pursue me but then after dinner we went for a walk and she started kissing me and we fell in the water and--”

“Yeah-yeah-yeah, I know this part already. What happened Monday night?”

I shrugged. “Haven’t you already talked to Kim about it by now? Thought you were big on keeping tabs on me.”

“She doesn’t know that much about this one yet. She, Dawn, and June went to pick up BJ from Lynne’s place and left you and Summer alone, expecting you to either hash things out and ask her out on a date, or decide you weren’t ready and shut her down completely. I gathered you went for Option 2 because when the girls came back to the apartment, Summer was gone. Apparently Dawn went over to Summer’s place to talk, found out that you two had started making out again, but you stopped things and Summer went crying back home.”

“Yeah. So you’re caught up. Not much to tell.”

“LOTS more to tell,” June insisted.

I rolled my eyes. “Look, she’s attractive. I’m attracted. But nothing’s changed in the last month. Do I need to bring out the tape recorder?”

“No, of course not,” Adrienne sighed.

“It’s messing up his productivity,” June complained. “He stares off into space lost in his own head. He wasn’t doing that a month ago. That’s why I brought him over to your place yesterday at lunchtime.”

“And then promptly found out JKE misplaced four billion dollars. Taylor told me the whole company is shut down?”

June nodded.

Adrienne glanced back and forth at both of us. “Now why exactly I had to learn this from Taylor instead of either of you is a side discussion we should have, but I’m gonna let it slide for now. You’re both clearly still in shock.”

“It’s…” I took a deep breath and sighed, looking over at June.

Her arms were folded as she stared out the window, but presently she looked back at me. Our eyes met, and at almost the same time, we both shrugged.

“Well, how IS Taylor doing?” I asked, grateful to have somebody else’s problems to focus on for a minute. “Quite honestly, this whole thing is a much bigger deal for the Kwongs than it is for me and June.”

“Oh, Taylor’s freaking the fuck out, but I’m focused on you right now.”

“It’s…” I sighed. “It’s not the end of the world for us. Knowing how much money is out there and how high-profile this is, I’m pretty confident it’ll work out. It’s not knowing how long this shutdown will last that really bothers me at the moment, especially with 4D looming.”

“IF the shutdown will be lifted,” June muttered. “For all we know, this is the end of JKE.”

“It’s not the end of JKE. Don’t be a pessimist. We’ll get the money back.”

“You don’t know that for sure. Better to prepare for the possibility and be wrong than be caught unprepared.”

Adrienne laughed. “Maybe you two should go into business for yourselves. Like become consultants or something. You’ve certainly got the industry knowledge and the connections.”

“What we lack are resources,” I pointed out. “BILLIONS of resources. The entire financial world is taking a big downturn right now, and we can’t run a consulting company out of our dumpy Berkeley house with Kim and BJ in the next room.”

June looked thoughtful. “Well, we actually could.”

I frowned. “What are you talking about?”

“The world is moving online.” She nodded slowly. “So long as we have dedicated high-speed internet, we could set up home offices, video conference when necessary, and travel to client sites instead of bringing them to us. This isn’t the first time I’ve considered the possibility, and the current economic downturn could actually be an ideal time for us to switch. Larger corporations who don’t want to shell out big bucks for major consulting firms might be willing to work with a small 2-person team who has all of the experience but none of the overhead.”

I blinked. “You WANT to leave JKE?”

June shook her head. “I said I’ve considered the possibility. Better to be prepared, remember? But only with you. I’m not the best at client relations.”

“Understatement of the year,” Adrienne drawled.

June waved her hand. “We’re getting off-topic. You’re supposed to get him to come clean about his feelings for Summer.”

“Only after YOU come clean about your feelings for Eve and Kim,” I shot back.

“You first.”

“No-no-no. I WENT first. It’s your turn now.”

“FINE!” June threw her hands up, paced along the length of the floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out over the Bay, and stopped at a padded armchair next to the closet. The armchair itself had three or four dresses draped across it, but June simply shoved these to the side to clear a little space on the seat cushion, crossed her arms, and turned around to drop heavily into the chair like a sullen teenager.

Adrienne and I both waited her out.

Arms folded and lower jaw thrust forward, June quietly seethed in her own thoughts before taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly. She didn’t turn to face either me or Adrienne, keeping her gaze locked in a straight line forward. And in a cold, monotone voice, she explained, “I can’t stop having incestuous thoughts about my own little sister. I’ve never been attracted to her before, and never even imagined I’d think of her in a sexual manner. But I think living with the rest of you has somehow corrupted me because I can’t get this fucking idea out of my head. It’s wrong. So wrong. And yet the wrongness of it is exactly what makes it so delicious.”

“She sounds like Brandi,” Adrienne muttered.

“Agreed,” I replied.

June sighed and shook her head. “If you took an exact carbon copy of Eve and made her some random girl on the street, I would think, ‘She’s an attractive young woman but I don’t have any particular urge to have sex with her.’ Make her my little sister and… everything changes. I don’t understand it.”

Adrienne leaned forward. “Is this something that’s been building for a while? Or are these thoughts that have only come up recently?”

“Recent.”

“Can you think of something that might’ve triggered it?”

I knew the answer, but stayed silent and let June speak. She took a deep breath, looked up at the ceiling as if weighing recent events, and finally looked over at Adrienne, explaining only, “Dayna came to visit Sunday night.”

Adrienne furrowed her eyebrows. “Did you and Dayna have some kind of conversation that made you--”

June shook her head and waved Adrienne off. “It was my first time watching Dawn and Dayna have sex with each other. Since then, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about having sex with my own sister.”

Adrienne glanced at me, giving me an uncertain look before turning back to June. “Haven’t you already been with the twins?”

June shrugged. “It’s not the ‘sister’ part that seems so naughty. It’s the ‘little’ sister part. Eden and Emma are equals. But the way Dayna just… just went AFTER Dawn with such… ferocity… such hunger…” June visibly squirmed in the armchair as her eyes unfocused, her mind drifting back into memory.

“So you want to have sex with Eve but you’re torn about it.”

June sighed, refocused her eyes, and sat up straight. “Eve and I aren’t close. Dawn said she and Dayna have been having sex with each other since they were teenagers. Dawn said Dayna was her teacher in everything. Their relationship is completely different. And even though Ben is the twins’ big brother, he’s a male – the only male with four sisters. It makes logical sense to me why they would want to be with him. But for Eve to want to be with me? I have nothing to offer Eve. I’m not exceptionally skilled, have no mentoring role with her, and let’s face it: I’m not particularly attractive.”

Adrienne leaned forward. “Don’t knock yourself. You’re sleek and sexy.”

June rolled her eyes. “Don’t blow sunshine up my ass. I haven’t forgotten your initial opinion of me, and I haven’t changed THAT much.”

“You’re not auditioning to be a Victoria’s Secret Angel, but you have your qualities,” Adrienne insisted. “And my past willingness to be frank about your appeal or lack thereof should reassure you that I’m not ‘blowing sunshine up your ass’ right now.”

June blinked and pondered that, unsure how to react for a moment before settling on a quiet, “Thank you.”

Adrienne continued, “It doesn’t sound like you have any moral qualms about becoming physically intimate with Eve. Rather, you’re… you’re nervous… You want to entice her into having sex with you but you don’t know how. If that’s the case, maybe we can help. We get the twins to put out feelers with Eve, gauge whether or not she might share your interest or at least react in an open-minded manner to the suggestion. We could perhaps arrange a night in Berkeley at the old house where you and Ben go visit Eve and the twins and the five of you can--”

“NO,” June abruptly cut her off. “I don’t want Ben anywhere near my little sister in that situation. I’ve been clear from the beginning that I don’t want him corrupting Eve.”

Adrienne sat back, blinking in surprise. “Uhhh… okay… Then we can skip the Ben part and just have it be the four of you. Two pairs of sisters.”

“No,” June stated with an emphatic shake of her head. “My apologies if I wasn’t clear. I DO NOT want to have sex with Eve. I DO NOT want to corrupt my little sister, period. She is… well I’m pretty sure she’s not pure, but she is… she’s normal… She does not have these… wrong thoughts in her head.”

“Well in all fairness, you don’t actually know that,” Adrienne muttered.

“Doesn’t matter. I don’t want to SATISFY these cravings to have sex with Eve. I want the thoughts to STOP. I don’t want to think about having sex with my little sister. I don’t want her thinking about having sex with me. Please don’t misunderstand. I have no moral qualms about the incestuous relationships in your families. Ben’s relationships with his sisters make complete and total sense to me. Dawn’s relationships with her sisters make complete and total sense to me. But that kind of relationship DOES NOT make sense for me and Eve. You understand?”

June pointed looked at both of us. Adrienne nodded, as did I. And I further stated firmly, “We understand.”

“Thank you.” And with that, June folded her arms and went back to staring out the window.

Adrienne and I looked at each other, and with a sigh I leaned back against the headboard. Adrienne arched an eyebrow at me and said, “She talked about Eve. Looks like it’s your turn to talk about Summer.”

“We already talked about Summer. I went first, remember?”

“And didn’t resolve a thing.”

“There’s nothing TO resolve, just like we haven’t actually resolved anything about June’s ‘naughty’ thoughts about Eve. Plus, she hasn’t talked about Kim yet.”

June shook her head and grumbled, “The Kim one is easy. I’m sorry I ever agreed to wait for her to be ready to give Ben my ass.”

I sat up. “Really?”

June exhaled slowly. “When she offered to prep the butt plugs with me, I was quite touched. She’s always been nurturing and caring for me, and while I had never been particularly sentimental about this sort of thing, I knew she would be. Doing this together gives her strength and support, much like a pair of friends going on a diet together. Solidarity, right?”

“Of course,” I agreed.

June shook her head. “But she can’t handle it. It hurts her, and it’s making her feel like a failure. I said I would wait for her, and on the one hand, she very much wants me to wait for her so we can do this together. I know it matters to her. Solidarity.”

“But…” I led her.

“But on the other hand,” June continued, “she’s genuinely scared and doesn’t feel ready.”

I nodded. “I can tell.”

“She’s offered to break the pact. She’s told me she knows how much I want to feel him… the real Ben… in my ass… and it’s not fair that I have to wait for her. She’s told me the pact isn’t really a big deal to her and she’d be just fine if I went ahead and did it.”

I arched an eyebrow, leading, “But…”

June pursed her lips and sighed. “But she’s lying. I can tell. She’s taught me the cues to look for when someone isn’t telling the truth, and while she’s pretty good at masking her emotions when she wants to, I know her too well to be fooled.”

Adrienne frowned. “You’re saying she wouldn’t actually be fine with it if you two had anal sex? That doesn’t sound like the Kim I know. Whatever makes Master happy, right? And at the moment, she’s the direct cause of Master Ben not getting into June’s Virgin Asshole. So if she says go ahead and do it without her, I’m pretty sure she means it.”

“Oh, she means it alright. She prioritizes Ben’s needs over her own, which is exactly why she’s doing this in the first place.” June sat up straight and gave me a cold look. “But I don’t WANT her to prioritize your needs over her own. I want her to think of her OWN needs. Don’t you agree?”

I nodded. “I agree.”

“If Ben asked Kim to bend over and let him cram his dick up her shithole today, she would bend over and spread her cheeks like that.” June snapped her fingers for emphasis. “She would bite her lip and try extremely hard to choke back tears of pain, but she would do it. That’s not what I want for her.”

“That’s not what I want, either,” I agreed.

“Kim will tell me to go ahead and finally get Ben’s dick in my ass for the first time. And then the night after she finds out I did so, she will go into her room, curl up into a little ball, and cry herself to sleep feeling like a complete and utter failure.”

My jaw dropped. “What?!?”

June pursed her lips and shook her head. “I was so thoughtless on Sunday night when I first got that deep-throat with you. I asked you, ‘Has Kim ever done that yet?’ I was just so excited I didn’t think. It was only later at night that I recalled the look on her face - recalled just how pale she got. I hurt her, even though I didn’t mean to.”

Adrienne and I looked at each other, and I winced. “Kim’s feeling like a failure.”

“And I don’t know what to do about it.” June sighed. “So there. That’s where I’m at with Eve and Kim. I want these sexual thoughts of Eve to go away, and I want to help Kim not feel like a failure. There, happy? It’s your turn again.”

I blinked and shook my head sadly. “No, I’m not happy.”

“That’s pretty obvious. Hence: Summer.” June gestured out the window as if Summer were right outside or something despite the fact that we were on the 35th floor.

I shook my head. “You can’t distract yourself from your own problems by choosing to focus on my issues with Summer.”

June shrugged. “You seem to be doing the exact same thing.”

I sighed. “I don’t know what to do about Summer. So I try to make my world a better place by helping you.”

“Likewise.”

I laughed. “At least we both have our hearts in the right place.”

Adrienne blinked. “Androids have hearts?”

June rolled her eyes. “After all this time and everything I said in the last two minutes about not wanting to hurt Kim anymore, do you really still think I’m a heartless bitch?”

“Little bit. In a good way.” Adrienne smirked and saluted June with two fingers. “A chick should be a heartless bitch when the situation calls for it; it can be a rough world out there. Goodness knows I can be a royal bitch when I want to be.”

“Yes, I’m aware of that,” June drawled. “So, back to Ben and Summer.”

“This is a fucking broken record by now,” I sighed. “I’m NOT going to start dating Summer.”

“Why not?”

I rubbed my forehead and looked at Adrienne. “Looks like June wasn’t paying attention. Adrienne, YOU recap for her.”

“I can’t.” Adrienne shook her head and stared straight at me. “I really DO think you should start dating Summer.”

I blinked. “Excuse me?”

“Blonde, busty… I heard she offered to be your butt-slut… Desperately infatuated with you and doesn’t care that you’re fucking everybody else. I mean… what’s the problem?”

I rolled my eyes, held up my right hand pretending to hold a tape recorder, and then dramatically clicked down with my thumb. “Kim, BJ, June, Dawn, You, Sasha, Eden, Emma.”

“Yeah-yeah-yeah,” Adrienne started talking over me halfway through, although I’d gone ahead and finished the whole list. “You’re maintaining your status quo. You’re treading water, and not doing a very good job of it.”

“So you think tossing another brick on top of my current load is gonna help me float?

Adrienne smirked. “Silicone boobs are buoyant, aren’t they?”

I rolled my eyes.

Adrienne shrugged. “Crack about Summer’s tits aside, you HAVE to start thinking about how you’re going to move forward with your life. I can’t have you dwelling on our failed relationship. I need you stable and settled so that -I- can feel stable and settled with Sasha. I need you HAPPY.”

“I AM happy.”

“No, you’re ‘fine’. There’s a difference.” Adrienne popped her eyebrows and paused, letting me let that last word sink in.

I sighed. “Come visit us in Berkeley more often like you said you would and I’ll be happier. Reassure me that you’re good with the state of your relationship with Sasha so I can worry less and feel happier. Reassure me you’re not gonna turn to drugs to drown out your pain if things turn south and I’ll be MUCH happier.”

Adrienne winced and rubbed her forehead. “I didn’t… I had it under control. I told you: it was just a phase, and I promised I’d stop, and I stopped cold turkey. Alright?”

“Alright, but still. Convince me that THIS isn’t just a phase, that you truly want Sasha’s name to be the one you want on your emergency medical forms. Make me believe without a doubt that being my eternal sister is what you truly want. Guarantee that YOU are truly happy with the way things are between you and me, so I can finally let go of any last shred of hope that you’ll change your mind and give US another shot at Happily Ever After…”

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, and when I opened them again, I found Adrienne giving me a pained look. I knew I was still hurting inside from her latest rejection, my expression showing the same sort of vulnerability I’d shown to Summer on the kayaking trip. And I knew she could tell she was the source of my current pain.

“Help me get over you, Adrienne,” I rasped, my throat suddenly quite dry. “Help me come to terms with the truth that we’re never getting back together. Help me stop… dreaming… of what our baby would’ve looked like. Only THEN can I ever really move on and even consider finding my Happily Ever After with someone else.”

“Tiger…” Adrienne frowned with a confused look on her face. “Are you… Are you really still waiting for ME?”

I sighed. “I love you, Adrienne. Forever and Always.”

“But…” She looked even more confused. “But you’re my rock. My eternal brother. I thought we already agreed on this.”

“Is that truly all we’ll ever be?”

“Is THAT it? Is this why you’ve never been able to move on with your life or even consider Summer as a potential girlfriend? Because you’re still hoping I’ll be your Happily Ever After?”

“I don’t know. Yes? Maybe? I mean…” My shoulders slumped. “Can you tell me with absolute cert… I just… IS there still a chance? Any chance? I mean, I know I’m rambling here and this is all out of left field because maybe I wasn’t even totally ready to admit this shit to myself but… but what if? I mean, what if I started dating Summer and then Sasha ultimately decided she wasn’t ready to be everything you want her to be for you and you showed up on my doorstep begging me to take you back only I was with Summer by then but if you came to me asking for… I mean… then I… I… I don’t know how I’d…”

I’d pulled my knees up as I reclined against the headboard, but somewhere in the middle of all that I sat up straight. Now, I folded my arms atop my knees and bent over, bracing my forehead atop my arms. Closing my eyes, I tried to focus on breathing while tears threatened to come spilling out.

The girls remained silent. I think Adrienne was still too shell-shocked at the moment to really say anything. June had never been one for lending emotional support. It was fine, because I didn’t need anybody cuddling me or telling me everything would turn out alright. This wasn’t some fairytale. There was no author of my life sketching out my story and promising a happy ending.

This was REAL. And these decisions were DIFFICULT.

Nothing was cut and dry. There were no obvious answers.

Should June find out whether or not Eve had any sexual interest in her in return (and risk corrupting her little sister) or try and find a way to make her naughty thoughts go away (probably causing herself more mental anxiety along the way)?

Should June get Kim off the hook by having anal sex with me (thus making Kim feel even more like a failure for not keeping up) or stick with her pact of solidarity (thus putting more and more pressure on Kim with each passing day)?

Should I ask Summer out (and risk upsetting the delicate balance of maintaining my relationships with the other seven girls in my life) or continue to keep Summer at arm’s length (thus keeping myself in a holding pattern just waiting for it all to fall apart)?

Should I continue waiting (hoping?) Adrienne might come around to the point where she’d consider me once more as her Happily Ever After or accept that her true happiness lay with another woman?

Hell, should Adrienne patiently wait for Sasha to be ready to take their relationship to the next level or cut her losses now and move forward as best she can?

And if she did would she come back to me?

What do I do?

What should June do?

What should Adrienne do?

Right now… for all of us… the answer was, “I don’t know.”

****

June and I took the BART back to Berkeley, seated side-by-side but riding in silence. We both still had a lot on our minds, and this time neither of us was about to wave a hand in front of the other’s face to interrupt the other’s private contemplation.

When we got off at our station, we at first headed together straight for home. But about a block away, I abruptly turned to June and asked, “Hey, can you take my laptop home for me?”

June frowned, not understanding. “Aren’t you coming home?”

I shook my head. “I need to talk to someone.”

June raised her eyebrows. “You should talk to Kim.”

I waved her off. “You can talk to Kim. It’ll be easier for you one-on-one. At least that way she can focus on you instead of me and my relationship problems at the same time.”

June pursed her eyebrows but only hesitated a moment before apparently deciding to go ahead and accept my offer. It would be in her best interests to have Kim all to herself for a bit. Raising her eyebrows, she asked, “Going to Dawn’s place instead?”

I shrugged. “Obviously.”

June reached out one hand, and I handed her the shoulder-strap of my computer case. “See you later.”

I smiled and nodded, replying in kind, “See you later.”

Less than ten minutes later, I hopped up the porch steps of my old college house and my key snicked in the lock. Even though I didn’t live here anymore, I was welcome to come and go freely to visit Dawn and the twins. There was no one in the living room, and at first I thought the house might be empty. Only then did it occur to me that I probably should have texted or something first to ask Dawn if she was available to meet me. It was only three in the afternoon, WAYYY earlier than I had ever come back to Berkeley on a work day in a long, long time. For all I knew, Dawn had a class right now and I’d end up waiting in the living room for the next hour or so.

But then I heard a breathy moan filter through a door to my right.

More specifically, the moan had filtered through Dawn’s bedroom door.

“Ohhh fuuuuck… So good… That’s it… Play with my tits. Squeeze my nipples. Fuck yeah your big dick feels so good in my tight pussy…” Dawn’s voice crooned in the throes of ecstasy, muffled because I’d put in some work soundproofing all of the rooms, but still faintly audible.

The words themselves in that exact same voice I’d heard countless times, but I couldn’t recall the last time I’d heard them without being present in the same room, usually doing the fucking with the big dick myself. I felt a shiver run down my spine and immediately two warring impulses surged through my limbs: one that wanted to break down the door, and the other that wanted to restrain myself, remain calm, and think things through.

Goddamn whore is stepping out on you again!

This is DAWN.

Exactly! Knew we should’ve never let ourselves trust the bitch again.

I’m sure there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation.

Reasonable my ass. Open the fucking door and find out just how ‘reasonable’ she’s being to some other fucking asshole’s fucking dick!

“Oh yeah, baby…” Dawn groaned. “You like that, huh? You like the way I’m riding you? Oh yeah… I can tell you’re excited by the way you keep thrusting like that <giggle>. I love it when you pinch my nipples while I fucking POUND myself on your fat cock. Oh yeah! Fucking FUCK!”

See!

Even IF she was in there with another man, we’re best friends, not boyfriend/girlfriend. I have no right to--

Don’t gimme that fuckin’ bullshit. She promised she would never bang another man without you present and giving her explicit permission.

I know. Which is exactly why I trust that there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for what’s going on behind that bedroom door. We’ve come too far together for her to fuck everything up with a careless mistake.

Open the door and find out.

I’m opening it. I’m opening it.

So I opened it.

And then my jaw dropped.

Dawn sat upright, completely naked and undulating herself in a cowgirl position atop her lover. Her creamy skin glistened in the afternoon light from sweat, all of her attention straight down at her lover’s face with an only-too familiar expression of exquisite ecstasy…

… at least until she sensed the movement of the door and gasped in surprise to see me.

Beneath my best friend’s bucking body was Summer: also completely naked save for a black blindfold and an honest-to-god rubber ball gag in her mouth. Her arms were stretched out to the sides, wrists handcuffed to the headboard. Her legs were similarly spread out and anchored to the foot of the bed with Velcro ankle-cuffs tethered by elastic cords. Near as I could tell, Summer had one of the double-ended Ben Juniors strapped-on, with Dawn fucking herself on Summer’s fake phallus while she mauled the platinum-blonde’s fake tits with her hands.

“Umm…” I began lamely, blushing pink and feeling quite embarrassed over interrupting the girls’ intimate encounter while simultaneously staring at them with wide-eyed shock.

“… oops?” I finished, equally lamely. And then backing my way out slowly, I closed the door, took a deep breath, and tried to calm my racing heartbeat.

I stand corrected. Dawn’s not a whore and she wasn’t stepping out on you.

Thank you.

Now can we FINALLY get a wicked-hot threesome with both of them? Pleeeeeeaaaaaassssseeee?

Shut the fuck up.

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