The phone dinged a text through my subconscious brain at 7:10 as I slept beside Penny in London. It was Peter.
“Call me,” was the message.
“For what?” I texted back.
“I need to talk to you, urgently.”
“I’m about to wake this beautiful model up in the nicest way she has ever been woken in her life.”
“Carry on then, don’t let me disturb something of greater import.”
“What do you need?”
“Her thong.”
“The one from last night or the one from tonight.”
“I’m so proud of you, grasshopper.”
“My life is complete.”
“Fuck off.”
“What do you need?”
“I want for nothing, young maestro, but Mam wants a bottle of Remy Martin from the Duty Free.”
“Ellen can have anything she wants.”
“She’d also love a giant pack of rainbow condoms, large of course, and a pair of furry handcuffs, her’s are broken.”
“Lend her yours.”
“God forbid.”
I laughed quietly, put the phone back down on the bedside table and snuggled under the covers.
Penny woke quietly as I watched her. One eye flickered open, shortly followed by the other. She saw me through the early morning haze as her eyes adjusted to the new day. Her left hand reached for me as she smiled a soft, contented smile.
“Good morning, Tony.”
I slid over to her and kissed her lips.
“Good morning, love,” I whispered, “you look beautiful in the morning.”
“Thank you. What time is it, please?” she asked.
“A little after 7:00.”
“Did you sleep ok?”
“Yes, believe me, I had no trouble sleeping, Penny. You?”
“Oh Jesus, I don’t think I’ve ever felt so rested in my life, Tony.”
I touched her face and kissed her lips. She interlaced her fingers through mine and held it to her cheek. She smiled sleepily.
“A penny for your thoughts, if you’ll pardon the expression,” I whispered.
She laughed and kissed my hand.
“I’ve no thoughts beyond coffee, will I order some up?”
“Yes, that’d be a plan,” I said, “but first I’d like to help you wake up.”
“How do you propose to do that?”
I kissed her lips and she released my hand, pulling me close, intensifying the emotion of our touch.
“Can I shower first?” she whispered in my ear, “I lost count of how many times I orgasmed last night and I should really make myself presentable.”
“Penetrable?”
“Presentable! You fucker.”
“You go shower and let me watch your fabulous bum walk across the room. I’ll order coffee for us.”
“You’re such a gent.”
She sauntered across the room as I watched her, a semi slowly simmering. I reached for the phone as I heard the shower rumble into life. I sat on the bed and ordered coffee just as my phone rang. I didn’t recognise the number,
“Tony Harris,” I said, a bit distractedly, as the shower had stopped.
“Pat Dennison here, Tony.”
“Hi Pat, what can I do for you?”
“I’ve a shit pile of shit in front of me after that mugging of my men on Friday.”
“A shit pile of shit? Do you mean Joey Navan?”
“I fucking don’t.”
“Mr. Dennison, don’t go down that road again, I absolutely warn you.”
“You’re warning me? What can you do to me?”
“I will fucking bury you, Mr. Dennison. I mean that,” I said, “you think that pile of shit on your desk is a lot? Just wait until I get serious with you. You’ll need Joey’s fucking excavator to move it.”
“Ok, relax, will you? I’ve just got a few questions.”
“Ok, but I’m in London this week and I don’t have time for your nonsense. You can have one question,” I said, waving at Penny who had returned to the room and wasn’t sure if she should be eavesdropping on the call.
“Why do we have to have the plumbing done again? It’s perfectly acceptable as it is.”
“No, Mr. Dennison, it isn’t and you know it isn’t.”
“I’ve never been out there, Tony. Can you give me an insight please?”
I thought he was taking the piss but I answered him seriously, as Penny slowly removed the robe that she had been wearing after her shower. She was a minx as she revealed two erect nipples while I tried not to lose the thread of my conversation.
“Yes, Joey did the plumbing himself. Apart from not being a qualified plumber, or tradesman for that matter, he also used Qualpex instead of the specified copper piping.”
“That wasn’t Joey,” he said.
“Yes it was.”
“How sure are you of that?”
“Joey told us at the meeting. It’ll be in the minutes.”
“Minutes! Fuck off. What minutes?”
“The minutes of the meeting. I’ll have a copy of them emailed to you this morning. We can have a more fulsome discussion then,” I said, “now, if you don’t mind, I have something to attend to here.”
I dropped the phone on the floor.
“Am I just something to attend to now?” Penny asked with a smile.
“Would you like to be attended to, Ms. Milne?”
“I believe I would, Mr. Harris. You’re very commanding and assertive on the phone, it’s quite a turn on.”
“Did it get you wet?”
“Somewhat. Care to finish it off?”
“Oh, that’s not the finish, my dear. That’s just the beginning.”
“Where would you like me?”
“Everywhere, but this time it’s ladies choice.”
“What if the ladies choice wasn’t what one would call ladylike?”
“Ooh, I’m intrigued. Tell me more.”
“If you scoot yourself down in the bed a little I’ll demonstrate.”
“Practical demonstrations are always preferable,” I said, anticipating what she was suggesting and sliding down the bed a little as she slipped out of the robe and let it slide to the floor.
She knelt on the bed beside me and kissed me, her tongue probing my mouth, searching for my tongue. I touched her face and she moved my hand away as she straightened up and straddled my face, her hands gripping the headboard. Staring down into my eyes she watched as her vulva captured my tongue and moved slowly along it as my hands cradled her breasts briefly before taking hold of her hips as she seductively slid her vulva across my tongue.
Her breath became heavy as her arousal built and her need rose. The feel of her aroused clitoris on my tongue was heavenly and her scent was musky with a background of limes from her shower. My tongue lapped at the entire area of her vulva, settling finally inside her vagina as she bore down on me. I heard a heavy groaning sound from her as she bent forward, her hips undulating across my face.
“Oh, God,” she whimpered as she dismounted my face quickly and slid down my body.
Her lips devoured mine as she fought her orgasm, attempting to prolong it. Her need, though, overtook her desire and she guided my erect penis inside her as her lips and tongue continued their assault on mine. I turned her on her back and slid deep inside her. I heard a loud and heavy moan as I reached her full depth. She moved hurriedly against me, chasing the feeling, obeying the urge. I used my entire length as I moved inside her, slowly at first but increasingly quickly in response to her.
“That’s it, Tony. I’m nearly there. Come with me,” she panted breathlessly, as we both climaxed close together, our bodies trembling in ecstatic confusion as the waves of orgasmic release flooded our senses.
She lay on top of me and kissed my nipples, stroking my chest with her hand.
“I’m sorry I doubted you, Tony, this has been truly amazing,” she whispered.
“For me too, Penny.”
Our quiet observations were disturbed by the coffee being delivered, my phone rang again and so the day began. I answered the call, it was Natalie.
“Hey, babe.”
“Can you get me a bottle of Daisy Dot at the airport, Tony? I’ll make it worth your while.”
“In what way?”
“Let me count the ways.”
“Ah, that’s nice. A bit of poetry in the morning.”
“So will you get me one please?”
“Of course. What size?”
“I like a large one.”
“So I’ve noticed.”
“100 mls, is that okay? I’ll fix you up for it.”
“No you won’t, Natalie. Will I get you a smaller one for your bag too?”
“You’re such a girl, Harris. Yes, you might as well. Thanks. You’re going to be so sore in the morning, I promise you.”
“I’ll take my chances. Oh, Natalie, while I think of it, will you send out the minutes of the Cabra site meeting to Pat Dennison and highlight everything that Joey Navan said please?”
“Yes, I’ve just got them typed up now, I’ll do that straight away. When are you back?”
“Tomorrow evening.”
“Great, I’ll see you Thursday morning.”
Penny handed me a coffee.
“Girlfriend?” she asked.
“No, it’s Natalie at the office. She wants some Duty Free perfume.”
“Which one?”
“Daisy Dot.”
“I can get you that for free at the studio if you like.”
“Don’t let me stop you, love. Can you get a small one that fits in a purse too?”
“I overheard you telling her that and I don’t know why that never occurred to me.”
“You probably don’t have a smart arse little sister.”
My phone rang again. It was Peter.
“Jesus, does that ever stop?” Penny said.
“Sorry, it’s a workday.”
I answered the call.
“Peter,” I said.
“Yes, A little bit of a wrinkle on these HEFT plans, young maestro.”
“In what way?”
“Well, they’re a strange conglomeration of accommodation requirements.”
“In what way?”
“These, ‘efficiencies’, as they’re calling them, are a pain in the arse. I showed them to a mate of mine in the planning office and he doesn’t think they’ll pass muster with the local planner out in Blanchardstown.”
“Why not?”
“Well, they’re too fucking small in area for starters.”
“Did we not know this already, though?”
“Yes and we did specifically mention it to the undertaker.”
“We did, and it’s in writing too.”
“Yes, I know, but where does that leave us? It’s like a nun holding up her hand and saying ‘I couldn’t be pregnant because God is my husband’.”
“What do we need, Peter?”
“I think we need to make the building four feet deeper and every efficiency five feet wider. We also need to lose the term ‘efficiency‘, it sounds like something out of World War Two. Call it a store room, or a study, for fuck’s sake.”
“Will that work?”
“It’ll be a hard sell. If you don’t want any blowback, then I think a complete redraw of the facility is needed.”
“How much of a redraw?”
“It’s as I suggested in the beginning, we make the building twice as deep and 75% of its width. Divide it with a corridor and have every window accessible to the outside. It meets the Fire Regulation requirement that way. It also means we can call them 2 Bed Apartments and not ‘efficiencies’, which is the biggest flashing light at this stage.”
“Do we not lose a couple of Penthouses that way?”
“No.”
“How long would it take to redraw it.”
“Hang on a second.”
“Ok, this is a fuck up, isn’t it?”
“We’re actually making him look good here, Tony. There, it’s on its way to you now.”
“What is?”
“The redrawn plan. Take a look at it and let me know what you think.”
“You’re a little daisy. Would you have apartment layouts too?”
“It’s all in the email, including the penthouses, which, if I may say so, are a work of fucking art.”
“I’ll have to view it on my phone, I didn’t bring a laptop with me. Give me until this evening, will you? I’ll call you in the morning.”
“There’s no hurry, I just wanted to make sure you were in the picture. There’s no other way around this, Tony.”
“Any idea of the cost implications?”
“Probably around a mil or several. Three tops. I’ll get it out to the QS and put a rocket up his arse so we can have it to the undertaker before you head off to Galway. It actually might be worth dragging his arse in here for a sit down with him.”
“Good idea. Ok, Peter, that’s not as bad as I first thought. Would it help the budget if we build the ancillary stuff onto the accommodation block?”
“It certainly would, we might even be able to offer him a credit, but we won’t tell him that.”
“Ok. Take a look at that too, will you?”
“It’s in your email with everything else. I’m more concerned about the aesthetics than the finances, to be honest, but this looks quite nice.”
“You’re a fucking genius. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Don’t forget Ellen’s condoms”
“As if I could.”
I disconnected the call and took a sip of my coffee. Penny came and sat beside me on the bed, a small plate with toast on it. I snaffled one slice and took a hungry bite from it.
“You’re a wise and generous woman, Penny,” I whispered in her ear, kissing her as I did so.
“I know, but it usually goes unnoticed,” she said, her head leaning back in reaction to my lips.
“You’re also a sexy, beautiful, delicious woman, Penny,” I said as I eased her on her back.
“Delicious?”
“Absolutely.”
I kissed her, softly at first and then deeper as I felt myself becoming aroused again. I knelt on the floor before her, opening her legs as I did so. Her vagina glistened in the morning light as I touched it with the tip of my tongue. Her hands held my head in place as it dipped inside her.
“Oh, fuck, Tony. How do you do that?”
My hands nestled under her buttocks and my thumbs stroked her perineum just below her vulva, she squirmed at my touch, lifting her hips swiftly as she moaned loudly. I kissed her there then and touched my tongue to her sensitive skin. She groaned and pulled me to her.
“Jesus, Tony. Fuck me.” she breathed.
“What?”
“Please. Fuck me now. You’re driving me insane.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
She began to cry.
“Please, Tony. I badly need to have you inside me.”
I held her as she took my penis and brought it to her vaginal opening, slipping the tip inside her overflowing, pulsing vaginal lips. I slid my penis all the way inside her in one swift movement, a huge sigh accompanying the intrusion. I held it there as she caught her breath until I felt her vagina begin to contract and hold me.
“Oh, I’m going to come again. Please, Tony. No more teasing. Fuck me please.”
She kissed me then, her tongue assaulting mine as I made initial thrusts inside her. She wrapped her legs around me, fearing I’d withdraw completely. Her hips worked feverishly, forcing me to increase the pace of my thrusts in order to satisfy her rising desire. The volume of our lovemaking increased as I felt that familiar beginning of my orgasm approaching, encouraging a further increase in tempo and eliciting an equal response from her.
“Yes. Yes. Come with me.”
We both crashed through together. Her head on a constant swivel as her orgasm coursed through her and her vagina milked me dry.
I rested my head on her shoulder as she kissed me passionately, before she finally calmed and held me close. I lifted my head to look into her eyes.
“Where did that come from?” I whispered.
She stroked my hair and smiled.
“I honestly don’t know, Tony. This is all new to me,” she whispered, shakily, as she kissed me, “I’m tingling all over and I can’t turn the tap off.”
“I know how you feel. At this rate I’ll be walking around with a permanent erection all day.”
“Will you be here tonight?”
“Yes, my flight is tomorrow afternoon.”
“I mean here. With me?”
“I’d rather be nowhere else, love.”
“What about when we get home? Will I see you again?”
“You have my number, Penny, I hope you’d see me again. Unfortunately, I find that I’m just an inconsequential plaything for women. A toy. A curiosity to take out and display to the public. A …”
“Oh shut up, you beautiful fool,” she said, laughing hysterically.
“Can I have a kiss?”
“I haven’t kissed anyone this much in my life,” she said softly, as her lips met mine.
We parted at 11:00. I needed to shower and change, I also needed some time to acquaint myself with the files that Peter had emailed to me. I opened the first set of revisions but it was almost impossible on the small screen of my phone. Frustrated, I shut it down, threw it on the bed and jumped in the shower. I dressed in fresh clothes and headed for the hotel business centre, where I ran into Jimmy Evers.
“Hey, Jimmy. How’s it going?”
“Ah, Tony, the very man. I have your CPDs here in my briefcase, you just need to sign the register,” he said and pulled some pages out for me.
“Excellent, thanks, Jimmy. What time is your showcase tour?”
“We’re heading over there in about thirty minutes. John is doing some final tweaks. We have forty-seven registrants so we’ll look good back home.”
“I’ll walk over with you, I’m just going to try and email something to the computer so I can read it. The phone screen is a pain in the arse for larger-sized documents.”
“What have you got?”
I showed him. He rifled through his bag and pulled out a black cable.
“Try this on the PC screen,” he said.
“What do I do with it?”
“Gimme the fucking thing, I’ll do it for you.”
He hooked my phone up to the monitor using the cable, opened the new building layout file and it displayed perfectly on the computer monitor.
“There’s a forty-inch monitor over in the Exhibition Hall if you’d rather that,” he said, “I’ll give you my pass to get into the office.”
“That’s fantastic, Jimmy. Do they have a printer too?”
“Are you fucking serious? Of course they have a printer.”
“I just asked, no need to bite my head off, Jimmy.”
“Sorry, Tony, I’m having a bad day. Here, you come over with me and I’ll help you set it up.”
“When are you going?”
“In five minutes.”
“Great, I’ll run up to my room for a second, I’ll be back in a flash.”
The EXCEL Centre is a vast complex and takes quite a while to navigate. Jimmy brought me through to the Administration block, to a large room that served as a common office for sponsor and vendor participants. SEAI had their own area hived off and Jimmy led me inside. We sat at a white table and hooked my phone up to a computer via his fancy cable. The monitor was, as Jimmy intimated, a forty-two-inch screen. He fiddled with something and prodded something on my phone and, like magic, my email account appeared on the screen in giant proportion.
“That’s so cool, Jimmy,” I said, as he moved the mouse around and opened one of Peter’s emails.
“There you go, Tony, you’re all good now,” he said, “it looks like you’ll be busy, is there anything specific you need information on outside?”
“Actually, yes, there is, Jimmy. Will you text me when you’re close to the insulation portion of your tour. I really want to visit the Kore stand.”
“That’s probably the best installation I’ve experienced, Tony. We’re doing that one last. We also have some great digital files from them that I’ll share with you.”
“You’re like a father to me, Jimmy,” I said with a laugh.
“I’ll text you when we’re heading that way, it’s the middle display area on the left-hand side of the concourse,” he handed me a folder, “here’s your CPD stuff, all five credits.”
“Thanks, Jimmy, I’ll see you in a bit.”
I scrolled through the revised plans of the cobbled-together redesign and I was struck at how seamless the revisions were with regard to the initial conceptualisation. I called Peter.
“What?”
“That’s a lovely way to answer the phone.”
“I thought you were some other annoying little fucker.”
“Are you having an indifferent morning?”
“Yes, but you can cheer me up with tales of your carnal exploits with the finger model.”
“She’s hand modelling today.”
“Oh, was she promoted? Is her hand work more popular than her finger work?”
“She has very educated hands.”
“I’m listening.”
“Ok, to get a little bit of sense back into this conversation I’ll give you one little insight that might be of value.
“I’m nervous.”
“Is that your latest title for it?”
“Fuck off, just tell me.”
“I’ll put it this way, have you ever had your lips massaged by a vagina?”
“I’m not sure. I need a little more information than that before I can reply.”
“You’ll need a visual display, I think. I’ll tell you when I get back, I’m brewing a semi just thinking about it.”
“Ok, this conversation is going in the wrong direction. We’ve gone from her finger skills to your current state of arousal in less than a minute.”
“Sometimes that’s all it takes, Peter. Hang on a sec there will you?” I said, as two women from the SEAI approached me, looking humorously displeased.
“Can we speak to you for a minute, please,” the younger, blonde girl said in an Irish accent. Her lanyard told me her name was Sabrina.
“Yes, of course, Sabrina,” I said, as she placed her hand briefly over her ID.
“I’m sorry, but could you lower your voice a little please? A lady made a complaint about the subject of your conversation.”
I tried to convey a look that indicated I was completely appalled.
“I’m so terribly sorry, Sabrina. I honestly didn’t think there were other people in my vicinity,” I said, “I’ll apologise to her directly, if you point her out to me.”
“Thank you,” she said, screwing up her eyes to look at my accreditation, “Tony. She left the office and we’ve followed up on it. Let that be the end of the matter.”
“Fuck her, so,” I said and laughed.
Sabrina screwed up her face while Melissa, her assistant, burst out laughing.
“Can we get you a coffee or something, Tony?”
“Thanks, Sabrina. Who’s making it?” I asked with a straight face.
“Why, I am,” she said, a curious look on her face.
“That’s good, if there’s a flat white going, I’d love one.”
“I’ll make it, Sabrina,” Melissa said,
“You both have Irish accents,” I remarked, “are you over for the show?”
“Yes, we’re the whipping boys, or girls, if you prefer,” Melissa said with a laugh.
“I definitely prefer girls. Not big on the whipping though, but in a push, one never knows.”
They both went into a fit of giggles.
“Are you from Dublin, Tony,” Melissa asked.
“Yes, you?”
“We both are,” Sabrina said.
“I’ve an idea, if you’d care to consider it,” I said.
“Go on,” she said.
“I’ll tell you what, stand together and give me your loveliest smiles while I get a picture. When you come back with our coffees we’ll have a chat.”
“We weren’t going to have coffee, Tony,” Melissa said.
“You wouldn’t refuse a lone traveler from the homeland the pleasure of your company over a light beverage, would you girls?”
“Well I suppose it is part of our job description, Melissa, would you not say?” Sabrina said.
“We might get into trouble if we don’t, Sabrina. I think we should err on the side of caution.”
“We’ll be right back with our coffees, are you peckish?”
“No, I’m from the north side.”
They howled with laughter.
“Are you fucking hungry, you little fecker?” Melissa said through the laughing.
“I know what peckish means, Melissa. What have you got?”
“I have everything,” she said, thinking she’d won.
“You’ll need a good antibiotic then, Melissa,” I said, “I can recommend a top-class pharmacist in Dublin if you like.”
They left to get the coffees, and I could hear them laughing in the distance. I texted the picture to Peter, who was still on the call, and resumed our chat.
“Sabrina is the blonde,” I said.
“Melissa has the hots for you. I’ll take Sabrina off your hands,” he said.
“How do you know I don’t want Sabrina?”
“Do you?”
“I don’t know, they’re a foxy pair.”
“I know a way to sort this out,” he said.
“Go on,” I said, wishing I hadn’t.
“You lay some pipe into one of them before you leave the room, the other one will be mine.”
“It’s democratic, Peter, I’ll give you that,” I said, “do I UPS the other one to you?”
“We go on a double date,” he said, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, “now what did you want to talk about?”
“I’ll have to call you back, the girls are on their way.”
“Ok, we send you our best wishes from the Emerald Isle. Remember, grasshopper, you carry the hopes and dreams of the entire country and it’s diaspora on your eminently capable shoulders.”
The girls arrived carrying a tray and smiling as I hung up with Peter. They pulled a couple of chairs over and we chatted as we drank our drinks and demolished a few croissants.
“Do you get many people coming in here, girls?” I asked.
“Just the odd moaner. Most of the people who know what they’re at don’t need anything from us, except, maybe, accreditation or a need to make themselves look important,” Melissa said.
“So which one of you is the loudest moaner?”
She paused, thought quickly, a look of devilish humour crossed her face.
“You’re such a flirt,” she said with a laugh.
“You didn’t say it was Sabrina, so it must be you, Melissa,” I said with an inscrutable smile.
“Well how would I know?” she said, blushing slightly.
“I’m sure your significant other would have given you an indication.”
“Hah! That’s a joke,” she said.
“Why?”
“I don’t have a significant other, Tony,” she said, “I don’t see the point.”
“I know what you mean, Melissa,” I said, “but in the absence of one, you must have occasional flings.”
“The odd one, but nothing much to write home about,” she said.
“My mother doesn’t like it when I write home about my occasional flings, Melissa. She thinks it’s indiscreet,” I said, “I don’t know why.”
She laughed and touched my hand.
“That’s funny, Tony, I won’t try that with my own mother,” she said, “she’d have a heart attack.”
“I wouldn’t worry too much about it, Melissa,” I said, “not every romantic entanglement has a satisfactory outcome.”
“Does that imply that some do?” she asked.
“Does that imply that none do?”
“Well, ehm, I,” she stumbled over the words.
I took her hand and leaned closer to her.
“Maybe I should have said that none have, so far,” I said softly.
She smiled.
“Yes. We must be optimistic,” she said, as she cheered up a bit.
“So Sabrina is the loudest moaner then,” I said.
“Not in the sense that you’re inferring, Tony,” she said, “although I don’t know about that, not really. I think we both moan equally about men.”
“I think he means a different type of moaning, Mel,” Sabrina interjected.
“Oh, I’m sure he does.”
“Girls, I’m just a poor Irish lad, lost in the big city and trying to elicit a sympathetic understanding of the culture as it has evolved to, over a thousand generations.”
“Right, I know what that smell is, Sabrina,” Melissa said, “do you?”
“Yes, I smelt it every day at home on the farm before I moved to Dublin.”
“I’m hurt, girls. You’re very hard,” I said with a pout.
“Awhh poor Tony. How can we make it better?” Melissa said.
“Nothing less than a kiss,” I said.
“Does that mean you’re leaving room for it to be more?” Sabrina said.
“That hadn’t occurred to me, Sabrina, but now that you bring it up.”
We all laughed then. We were still laughing when a delegation of exhibitors guests entered the space in search of accreditation and the girls had to do some actual work. Melissa squeezed my hand and made a face. I kissed her hand and she left me on my own. I heard a buzzing from my phone. The battery was in danger of death and my charger was at the hotel. Melissa had just finished with a client so I purloined her ear.
“Melissa, can I borrow a charger please? My phone is about to die.”
“Yes, of course. There’s an express charging cable at every monitor.”
She brought me over to where I was working and found the one for my phone. I plugged it in and it began its journey to life.
“Thanks, you’re an angel sent from heaven,” I said.
“Now you owe me a kiss,” she said with a laugh.
“At the very least,” I said with a smile.
“I, ehm, better get back. I’ll see you in a bit,” she said, a little flustered.
I decided to go outside for a smoke while my phone was on life support. It was a nice day so I stood in the sunshine at the side of an access road, rather than use the overcrowded area designated for smokers.
As I inhaled the last of the cigarette I heard the roar of an engine as a Porsche 911 zipped through the entrance, slowed at the turn into the hotel, and continued a little slower towards the hotel’s entrance portico.
Penny was in the passenger seat. She was laughing as she appeared to be holding on to the dashboard in mock fear. They disappeared from view through the entrance doors as the valet took the car to park it. I thought she must have either forgotten something or finished early. I stubbed out my smoke and returned to my phone.
The remaining few people from the delegation were being efficiently handled by the two girls and they expertly moved them along. I sat down at my monitor and my phone was 70% charged. I was impressed. There were two unopened texts displayed. I hit the button to see what I had. The first was from Jimmy giving me a thirty minute heads up. The second was from Penny, cancelling our date. She had to work late. I didn’t reply to either. I put my phone in my pocket and went in search of Jimmy. Melissa saw me and called me over.
“Are you leaving us, Tony?”
“I’ve going to to meet Jimmy,” I said, “he’s going to show me something interesting.”
“Do you know where you’re going?”
“In a manner of speaking, Melissa,” I showed her Jimmy’s text, “this is my destination.”
“I’ll show you the way,” she said, “we wouldn’t want you getting lost, would we?”
“We certainly wouldn’t, Melissa, Thank you so much.”
She took me by the hand in a matronly fashion and led me through the doors, turned left and walked briskly along the wide corridor of people.
“There’s a shortcut along here,” she said, “it’s a little bit of a longer walk but there’s never any foot traffic.”
She took me through a pair of doors to a service area that was, basically, deserted apart from an occasional venue staffer. She released my hand as she walked slightly ahead of me and I watched her long copper coloured hair bounce as she walked happily along. Even though she was dressed in an unflattering work outfit, her bum moved sinuously from side to side as it appeared to mock me. Her slim hips emphasised the beauty of her form and her outfit struggled to contain her effervescence.
She indicated an exit off to the right hand side and we headed for it, our pace slowing as she relaxed beside me. She took my hand again and smiled at me as she continued to walk until we reached a small dark storage bay off to the side of the exit corridor.
“I’ll take that kiss, please, Tony,” she said, reaching for me.
She took my lips with hers. They were soft and lively as they immediately began a circular motion, carrying mine in her wake. I adjusted the pace to make it a slower, deeper kiss. A kiss to savour. I gently offered my tongue to her and she sighed as hers reached for it and slid seductively along the top of it, pausing to slide it under mine and caress it in a waltz of sensory wonder. She breathed deeply and our lips parted. She laid her head on my shoulder.
“That was worth the walk,” she whispered.
“You certainly know how to kiss, Melissa,” I said.
“So do you. Where are you staying?”
“The Crowne Plaza.”
“I’m at the Radisson.”
“Can I buy you dinner this evening?”
“Yes, it’ll have to be your hotel, though, I’m sharing with Sabrina and another girl.”
“Anything for a beautiful lady, Melissa,” I said, “I haven’t tried the hotel restaurant yet.”
“We ate there on Sunday night, it’s quite good.”
I kissed her again, lingering a little.
“I love your lips, Melissa, what time do you finish here?”
“I can leave at 4:00. Will you be gone?”
“No, I’m just taking thirty minutes at this stand and I’ll be back to go though this fecking email on my phone.”
She reached up and kissed me again as my hand slid down her back and over her bum.
“I love your bum, Melissa, it’s been taunting me all day,” I said.
“Kiss me one more time, I have to get back,” she said.
We kissed and she pressed a button on the wall to open the doors. She pointed at a large red sign.
“That’s where you’re going, enjoy it,” she said and smiled at me, her eyes making a silent promise as they met mine.
I watched her walk away and longed to follow her but, instead, I headed for the Kore exhibition stand. Jimmy saw me before I saw him,
“Tony, over here,” he shouted through the melee.
“It’s noisy here,” I said, as I reached where he stood with a group of people.
He looked at me curiously.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Nothing, you appear to have lipstick on your cheek there,” he said pointing at my face.
I reached up to wipe it off.
“Better?”
“There’s more there,” he said, pointing at my chin.
“For fuck’s sake,” I said, wiping it with away with my thumb.
“You met Sabrina, obviously,” he said.
“Yes, but this isn’t Sabrina’s lipstick, Jimmy.”
“Really? She’s a little raver,” he said, “I was going to warn you about her. Did she not come on to you at all?”
“No, she was nice enough, but there were two of them and I couldn’t split them,” I said, “then a group of people came in and that was that.”
“So whose lipstick is it?”
“Who said it was lipstick?”
“Don’t tell me then,” he said, “I was hoping to take Sabrina out tonight, if I could get her away from her mate.”
“Melissa?”
“Yes. Melissa the cock blocker.”
“I think I’d prefer Melissa, Jimmy”
“You’d be wasting your time. You wouldn’t get as much as a kiss off her.”
“I don’t know,” I said, “she seemed like a nice girl to me.”
“That the problem, she’s too nice.”
“Ah well, one can only hope.”
“Yeah, I might try Sabrina before I go home,” he said, “fortune favours the brave.”
“You’d have to go for it, Jimmy,” I said, “it’s worth a shot.”
“If I could get her alone, I would.”
“Tonight is your chance,” I said.
“Why?”
“I can’t say. Trust me though.”
“That lipstick was Melissa’s, wasn’t it?”
“I’ve said too much already,” I said, “do not mention any of this to Sabrina. Wait until after 4:00 to approach her. She’ll be on her own then. We’ll be gone.”
“You bastard! I fucking will.”
Instead of me following him around the stand, he followed me. He asked the most inane questions that I honestly couldn’t answer. After all, I knew very little about Sabrina, apart from the fact that she was a fox, which even a blind man could see. I didn’t humour him with his questions about Melissa so he did a U turn on that road.
It was a very interesting product line that Kore had on display and I took many pictures with my phone. One line of insulation products would suit our HEFT development to a tee and I asked the Kore representative to give me an overview and some related materials. We swapped cards and he scanned the QR code on my badge in order to send me some digital files with full specifications, Agrement certificates and implementation instructions. I spent forty minutes there and it wasn’t a chore in any fashion. Jimmy was busy with his clientele so I left the stand and headed back to the SEAI area. I wasn’t paying too much heed to the people present as I strode happily to the table with the gigantic monitor. I had left Jimmy’s cable connected to the screen and plugged the other end into my phone before booting it up. The file icons displayed in glorious perspective.
“I’ll have to get one of these things,” I said to myself before almost jumping as someone tapped my shoulder. I turned to have a pop at them but it was Melissa.
“Jesus, Melissa. You put the heart crossways in me,” I said.
“I’m sorry, Tony,” she said, “I just wanted to say hello again.”
“That’s allowed,” I said, “but you’ll have to kiss me to calm my beating heart.”
“Will that not make it worse?”
“It might well do, Melissa, but it might be worth the rush.”
“Can I sit with you while you work?”
“Please do,” I said, “but don’t be offended if I get too deep into this. It’s a very important file.”
“I won’t,” she said, “I’ll tell you what, I’ll make us some tea.”
“I’d murder a cup of tea, Melissa, thanks.”
She left to organise the tea and I enjoyed watching her bum walking away from me. I was at the point of following her when the phone rang, it was Peter.
“Well?” he said.
“You know that little convention, whereby someone who’s calling someone else on the phone offers an opening greeting, to ensure they have the correct person on the other end?”
“You forget that I know you already.”
“Yes, I know but,” I gave up. “What do you need?”
“Two things. The first, and most important thing is, how did you get on with the girls?”
“Melissa is coming over to the hotel tonight.”
“You dog! But what about the finger girl?”
“She’s a model.”
“Tomato tomato.”
“She has to work, but I’m sure she’s working someone’s cock, if you know what I mean.”
“Say no more. She obviously good with her hands.”
“Amongst other things.”
“I’m not going to ask because you don’t share well.”
“I share enough, I have a yellow lace thong for you, I can send a picture.”
“No, I want the real experience. It’d be funny if they searched your bag at the airport and pulled that out.”
“If they ask me my name I’ll ask what day it is.”
“It’ll be Wednesday.”
“Well, on Wednesdays, my name is Alison.”
“What’s it today?”
“Hard arse, now what the fuck do you want?”
“Did you look over those files yet?”
“I have them open here in front of me. By the way, I’m gonna send you a few files from Kore.”
“My dreams are all coming true.”
“Ok, what’s the story with these files? What am I looking at?”
“Open the file marked ‘Overall concept Rev 1‘,” he said.
“Ok, it’s open. What now?”
“Scroll down to the revised apartment floor plans.”
“Ok. What is this?”
“It’s a side by side comparison between what they asked for and what we’re now presenting.”
“Ok.”
“Do you notice anything?”
I peered at the screen but nothing hit me over the head.
“No.”
“Yes, neither did I at first.”
“Care to share?”
“If you look at ours against theirs, you’ll see that the small room that’s causing the problem appears to be treated separately from the rest of the unit.”
“How so?”
“Look at the fucking thing!”
“I’m looking at it. I don’t get it.”
“Ok, I was in Amsterdam a few years ago. I was young and irresponsible, one might say cavalier, almost.”
“What’s changed?”
“Fuck off.”
“OK, that was too close to home.”
“We’ll discuss that in the pub on the weekend, but back to the matter at hand. I had a few beers and a couple of schmokes, as they say in Holland,”
“The Netherlands.”
“It’s fucking Holland. Now shut the fuck up for a minute, and let the adult speak.”
“Go on, Mother.”
“Ok, Alison. As I was saying, I was a little the worse for wear and we found ourselves standing outside the door of a prostitute’s ehm, abode, for the want of a better expression.”
“Is there a better expression?”
“There is, Tony, my dear deluded friend.”
“What would that be?”
“It could be termed an efficiency.”
I was stunned. I looked at it from a different perspective. It was almost like an airlock on a submarine.
“Fuck,” was all I could say, “is he building a brothel?”
“I don’t know what he’s thinking but we need to bend that bastard over a table and make him cough. You realise that this could be the ruination of our careers, such as they are. Cadden would be a laughing stock, which isn’t a deal breaker by any stretch.”
“Does this mean we tell him to fuck off?”
“No, it doesn’t. Without raising his suspicions, we need to make this a regulatory and compliance issue. We also need to get him to sign a document that clarifies the scope of the development as a development of domestic living units. We’ll do the compliance work on that beforehand and place it before him as a fait accompli. We’ll make it a part of the Planning application. He can’t refuse that without admitting that we are right.”
“Ok, can I do anything from here?”
“Yes, you can bring your research and Planning law skills to bear on a draft outlining what we need to do. You’ll need to be aware of the placement of windows and fire doors where they’re shown on the revised floor layouts, I think they’re good enough to satisfy the Technical Documents because I drew them with those in mind.”
“Ok, I’ll go over them now and make sure they’re good. I’ll email them to you. Give me an hour.”
“You have thirty minutes, I’m going for a few pints.”
“Ok, Melissa and I are leaving here at 4:00 too.”
“Are we indeed? Where is she now?”
“She’s making us some tea.”
“A lovely picture of domestic bliss has flashed into my head.”
“On that note, you can fuck off now. I’ll email you what you need.”
I looked at the plans again. Peter was right. I tried to look at it from a different perspective but all things pointed in that direction. Melissa appeared with a tray carrying tea and assorted pastries. She pulled a chair over close to me and sat down.
“This is very nice,” I said with a smile.
“It’s just a few things we had in the kitchen,” she said.
“I don’t mean the tea, although that’s lovely too,” I said, taking her hand, “I mean you, and nice is an inadequacy.”
She blushed and smiled at me.
“Don’t spoil your appetite for later,” I said, “I’m looking forward to our date.”
“Is it a date?” she asked.
“I think so,” I said, “don’t you?”
“A date implies an introductory meeting with a view to continuing in the future?” she said.
“Does that mean you won’t want to see me again?”
“Oh no, Tony,” she said, “you may not want to see me?”
“I think I might, Melissa.”
“Me too,” she said, quietly.
“Let’s hope for a satisfactory outcome,” I said, harking back to what she had said earlier, “at the very minimum.”
She looked at her watch.
“It’s almost 4:00 and I’ll be leaving soon,” she said, “what’s a good time to meet later?”
“If you give me a minute I’ll walk you to your hotel, I have stuff to do in the business centre,” I said, “I’m thinking I can book a table for 7:00 or 7:30?”
“7:30 sounds good, I’ll get my coat and see you in a minute,”
I shut the screen down and disconnected Jimmy’s cable. I’d need it when I got to the hotel. We left the facility and walked across the bridge towards my hotel, she took my hand and led me off to the left of the bridge connecting the Crowne Plaza and the EXCEL Centre. The Radisson loomed in front of us and we walked to the entrance door, greeting a doorman with a smile. She turned and put her arms around me and we kissed,
“I’ll meet you here at 7:30,” I said.
“It’s a two-minute walk, Tony,” she said, “I’ll be in your lobby at 7:30.”
“If that’s what you prefer.”
“It is, now kiss me again and go home,” she said.
We parted with a kiss and I went straight to the hotel business centre, ensconcing myself in front of their computer. I worked quickly and was almost complete at 5:30. I read through it all again and it was in good shape save for a few spelling errors. By 6:00 I had it completed and read through one more time.
As I read, something was nagging at my brain. This wasn’t a brothel, that was becoming obvious. Looking at the original specification, it was more like a refuge. I’d have to research it, but, to my mind, a brothel would have some form of large mixing area and more communal spaces. The ‘workrooms’ wouldn’t be as plush, design-wise and there certainly wouldn’t be penthouse apartments for sale either.
No, this was something different. I put a note to this effect into the file and sent it off to Peter. I gathered up my stuff and saw the time, 6:45. It was time for me to scramble. I caught the lift and got to my room. It had been cleaned and was in good nick. A quick shower and shave later, I dressed in one of my new shirts and a black suit and I reached the hotel bar at 7:10. It was almost empty so I got a pint and sat by a window to drink it and watch for Melissa.
I saw her approaching ten minutes later. She wore a mid-length khaki-coloured trench coat that was open and showed off a stone-coloured dress underneath. She carried a designer bag and her bare feet nestled in a pair of comfortably stylish shoes with a low heel. Her fabulous legs carried her confidently and I was at the door to greet her as she smiled when she saw me.
“Wow, you look nice,” I said, as she leaned in for a kiss. “you smell nice too, what is that scent?”
“It’s Coco by Chanel, I got it at the airport,” she said, as I took her hand and led her inside.
“You can’t beat a classic. Would you like a drink first?” I asked her.
“Would you mind if we didn’t?” she said, “I’m actually famished.”
“I am too. The table is booked so we can go straight in,” I said, “we can hit the bar after dinner.”
I took her coat and led her inside. We were seated at a nice table near a window that had a magnificent view of a rubbish dump.
“Aah,” I said, “you can have your table with a view of the Alps, the Coliseum in Rome, the Eiffel Tower or the Ring of Kerry, but you’ll never quite match the understated elegance of an English waste facility in all its Victorian glory. All that’s missing is the smell for this to be perfect.”
She giggled as I held her chair for her to be seated. She looked at me with curiosity as I moved my place setting to her immediate right and pulled my chair beside it.
“What are you doing?” she asked with a laugh.
“I’m sitting beside you. Is that a problem?”
“No, it’s unusual.”
“This way I can hold your hand if I need to.”
She placed her elbows on the table and cradled her chin in her hands as I stroked her skin and chatted about work and home. A waiter brought menus and we ordered drinks and food. There was a lovely atmosphere in the restaurant and it was easy and relaxed as she settled in for the evening.
The only awkward moment was when I noticed Penny in the lobby, heading towards the door of the restaurant on the arm of a much older man. She was well-presented but had a forced smile as she listened to him speaking. She spotted me and got a little flustered before leading the man away following a terse exchange. Melissa was telling me about her family and didn’t notice my distraction.
We spent a relaxing two hours over dinner. It was perfect. We kissed often and held hands during courses. She laughed at my silly jokes and I smiled as she recalled past mishaps. We sipped a couple of cocktails over a shared dessert and, at the end I suggested that we adjourn to the bar. She looked a little nervous as she agreed.
“What’s wrong, Melissa?” I asked, “Would you rather go elsewhere?”
She blushed slightly.
“I don’t really like bars in hotels, Tony.”
“Why not?”
“They creep me out, it’s almost as if I’m on display.”
“I understand that, I’m not a huge fan either, to be honest,” I said, “do you want me to walk you home?”
“Oh no, it’s far too early and you’re such good company,” she said.
“Well why don’t we go to my room?” I suggested, “we can order something from Room Service.”
“That sounds better. Let’s do that “ she said.
I signed the bill and left it, and a tip, on the plate on which it was delivered, and we left the restaurant. We took the lift to our floor and walked to my room, hand in hand. As I placed the card in the door we looked at each other with shy smiles. I pushed the door open and held it for her.
“Welcome to my home from home,” I said, “it isn’t much, but it’s all I have.”
She laughed.
“It’s very dark,” she said, “are you a vampire?”
“I know, I think the turn-down service makes it that way so you can’t see the dirt,” I said, switching the bathroom light on to illuminate the way to the light switches. “I’ll switch the lights on for you while you can still see yourself in the mirror.”
“No, that’s better,” she said quickly, “it’s cosier this way.”
I smiled as she looked around the room, the table in the corner becoming a repository for her bag.
“This is a nicer room than ours,” she said with a slight tremor in her voice.
“Here, let me take your coat, Melissa,” I said, “what would you like to drink? I can order something to be sent up or I can offer you hot and cold water, no expense spared.”
She laughed as she shrugged her shoulders out of her coat.
“I’m fine with the bottled water on the desk, thanks,” she said.
The smooth skin of her bare shoulder met the edge of my hand as we maneuvered it free. A veritable tingling passed between us as we brushed against each other.
Taking a half step forward, she moved towards me, reaching up to hold me as our lips travelled the short distance to meet. I touched my hand to her face as we kissed. A brief, soft touch of my fingers to her skin. An infinitesimal, almost imperceptible, flicker crossed her eyes at my touch, receding and closing slowly as her lips opened to kiss mine. A soft sigh escaped her at their caress. A brief, confused interlude of anticipation and apprehension disappeared as our kiss deepened.
I kissed just below her ear as she held the back of my head and a low, clicking sound came from her throat. She twisted her head, demanding my lips to every surface of her throat and neck, murmuring loudly as my tongue travelled the snow white skin under her chin.
My hand travelled to her breast, cupping one and slightly squeezing it as she purred in satisfied arousal. It was deliciously soft and the smooth fabric of her dress amplified the feel of her breast. I moved my hand towards her back.
“Don’t stop, Tony,” she breathed, “that’s beautiful.”
I returned to her breast and continued my exploration of her as we kissed again with more animation. I let her nipple harden and become enlarged and could tweak it with my fingers.
“Oh, Jesus.”
“Can I take your dress off?” I whispered.
“Yes.”
I reached behind her and released the zipper with a slow, satisfying pull, all the way to the stop.
“Well that worked nicely,” I murmured in her ear.
She giggled a girlish titter.
“For once,” she whispered, as she began to extract her arms from the garment.
It fell forward, revealing a soft see through bra decorated with red lace roses, her nipples clearly visible through the fabric. It was tiny, with tiny straps that didn’t appear to offer any form of support to her perfect breasts. It was purely a sensory adornment which needed further examination. I went to release her dress from her hips but she stopped me with a quiet touch and a sexy smile.
“My turn,” she said, as she reached to open the buttons at the top of my shirt as I undid the ones below.
She unwrapped me in the same way as she would a present at Christmas. I removed the shirt as her hands roamed my chest, tracing circles around my nipples before gently kissing them and stroking them with her tongue.
“Fuck, Melissa, that’s good,” I whispered, as her hands reached to open my trousers.
I kicked my shoes off and followed them with my trousers, leaving just my boxers in place. Her hand slipped inside the waistband at the back as she allowed me slip her dress off the rest of the way. Naked, except for or underwear, we embraced tightly, luxuriating in the feel of the communion of our skin.
“You’re so beautiful, Melissa,” I whispered in her ear to an answering sigh.
She turned to draw back the bed covers and I took in her beauty for the first time. She sat on the bed and smiled,
“Getting a good look, Mr. Harris?”
“You can’t blame a man for that, Melissa,” I said as I pushed my boxers off, exposing a raging erection.
“Oh my,” she said, her hand on her cheek, “that’s nice. It’s big too.”
“It’s about average,” I said.
She reached out and took the shaft in her hand.
“It’s bigger than average,” she said, “mind if I have a taste?”
“Not at all.”
She brought the tip of my penis to her mouth and caressed it with her tongue, wrapping it around the entire head and driving me crazy. Slowly, she slipped her lips over it and began a light sucking which, in tandem with the attention of her tongue and my advanced state of arousal, had me fearing an early completion. The noises I was making made her aware of my condition and she backed off as I held her head in place. She looked at me and smiled again.
“No good?”
“Oh, you’re very good. Believe me,” I said, sincerely, “we have all night. Don’t we?”
“Are you sure you want me here all night?” she asked, smiling as she stood up before me.
I placed my fingers inside the waistband of her thong, which matched her bra. I gently pulled her towards me and feathered her mouth with my lips.
“I’m very sure, Melissa,” I said, “but how will you explain going to work in the morning wearing your street clothes?”
“I carry a spare set of clothes in my bag,” she said, with a wink and a smile.
“My word! You’re very organised,” I said, my lips almost touching hers, “is that a yes?”
“It’s a very big yes,” she said, standing on her toes and allowing the back of my hand to slide over her shaved Mons Veneris.
“Jesus Christ, Melissa. You are so fucking sexy,” I said, before taking her lips with mine and almost devouring her.
TBC
