Eighty One – Laura's Story Pt. 08

26

The things Laura got up to lately no longer astonished Abbie. Her initial concerns had slowly developed into an abnormal curiosity of how far she would go with this and if she would, at any point, say no. They spent a good half hour over a coffee discussing both the meeting with Amelia Chambers and Andrew’s role before Abbie ran out of questions.

“And you’ve got to do that, today?”

“That’s what she said, look.” Laura turned her laptop so that Abbie could read the email.

“Bloody hell, he’ll think it’s his birthday.”

“Again.” Laura added. In reality the task wasn’t a big deal compared to what she’d been through already.

“But he’s a slime-bag, doesn’t that bother you?”

“That’s what makes it more of a challenge. If he were some hunk that I could fancy it would be me who was being a sicko.”

Abbie looked at her long and hard. “You’re loving this aren’t you?”

“No I am not! I’m saving the business, and all your jobs I might add. You should be grateful.” Laura felt the heat of the blush spread to her cheeks. Abbie could read her like a book.

“Well I know somebody who’s going to be very grateful. Come on then give me the bra.” Abbie held out her hand.

“I can do it myself, I’ll take it off in a minute.”

“I’m not having you cheating, hand it over.” Laura huffed, then pulled her blouse from her skirt, put her hands behind her back and undid the clasp. After a little twisting and stretching she pulled the bra out through her sleeve. “Now undo the top two buttons. We want this to be right.”

“My God, you’re not one of them now are you?” Laura said light heartedly.

“Just protecting my job, that’s all.” She made her way to the door swinging the bra round as she went. “I’ll call him, tell him you want to see him. I won’t tell him what for. I like watching him squirm. I’ll tell him ten minutes.”

As soon as Abbie left, Laura went to the cloakroom. Standing in front of the mirror she checked her clothing. The blouse wasn’t see-through, but not far off. It wouldn’t have been so obvious if those traitorous nipples hadn’t turned to rock. Still, nothing she could do now. Returning to her desk she brought the presentation up on the screen and tried to think of some intelligent questions to ask. She couldn’t concentrate enough to think of any before a knock on the door told her it was too late anyway.

“Laura, Shaun’s here to see you.” Abbie said, showing him in. She never did that normally. “Shall I bring some coffee through?” she asked, a big smile on her face.

“No, I think we’ll be fine thank you, this won’t take long.” With her back to Shaun, Abbie made a point of looking at the front of Laura’s blouse. She widened her eyes and lifted her eyebrows, then gave a discrete wink and made her way from the office. At the door she called back.

“If there’s anything I can help with just call.”

“Oh, Abbie,” Laura said, “this afternoon, can you remind me to fire you?”

“Of course.”

Shaun sat in silence listening to the banter. “What was all that about?”

“Take no notice of her, you know what she’s like.” Laura quickly changed the subject. “Now, about this presentation.”

“The presentation?” There was an exhaling of breath and visible relief in his face.

“Yes, the presentation. What did you think you were here for?” She tried to be casual but knew exactly why he thought he was there.

“I just thought that, you know, I might not be needed here any more after…you know…the incident.”

“Water under the bridge Shaun, just a misunderstanding, don’t worry. Now about this presentation.”

She spent the next few minutes facing Shaun across the desk, her folded arms protecting her modesty while they discussed the various options. Knowing what she had to do induced that now familiar activity down below.

Eventually she bit the bullet. “Let me show you what I’ve got done so far then.” She opened the file on her laptop. He didn’t take the bait. “Come and see.” She left the screen in a vertical position so that he had to bend down to look over her shoulder. She talked him through the work she had done so far knowing that she hadn’t got his full attention. His eyes spent most of the time looking down her blouse at the dark, hard nipples brushing against her silky blouse as she moved her arms. Quickly turning her head she saw his eyes flick towards the screen and his face redden.

“What do you think of it so far?” She asked.

“Er…very impressive…yes…very good.” He gave a slight cough.

“I’m not very happy with this bit here.” She said, taking her time to find the relevant part, knowing that once again, he would be taking in the view. “There, do you think that looks a bit amateurish?”

“No, I think it all looks good, I’d leave things just as they are.” There was a slight tremor to his voice as he spoke.

“Great,” she said, “and one more thing, is there a limit to what I can do? You know, a maximum size that the file can be?” Turning to face him again she saw the lustful expression on his face, and she loved it. “Only I want to get some more points in, make a real impact, you know.”

He assured her she had already and that the file size was unlimited so she could add as much as she liked. “Well thank you Shaun, you’ve been a great help. I’ll finish it off and let you have a look again, okay? Thanks.” He took his cue to leave. As he did so Laura kept her eyes down pretending to concentrate on the screen. When she heard the door close she blew out the breath she hadn’t realised she had been holding.

As expected Abbie immediately rushed in. “I think that went well.” Laura said.

“Went well? The poor bloke rushed past me with his hands in his pockets, trying to hide how well it went.”

“Good, at least it was a bit different from our last meeting, and where’s my bra?”

As instructed Laura called Amelia. “Good afternoon, Laura. I assume this means you’ve completed your task.”

“I have, yes.”

“Good, come on, tell me all about it then.” Laura felt a little unsure of what to say, in fact there wasn’t a lot to say.

“There’s not a lot to tell you. I called him in and asked some pointless questions about work and had him look at the screen over my shoulder.”

“So he got a good look at them?”

“He must have. Abbie said she’d never seen anybody so excited about a presentation.”

“And were you?”

“Was I what?” She understood the question perfectly and knew the answer but preferred not to have to admit it.

“It’s not a good idea to mess with me Laura.” The stern edge to her voice needed no further clarification.

“Yes. Yes I did find it exciting.”

“I thought you might. The task was easy enough, considering what you have already done for him. The point of it was to find out whether you enjoy exhibiting yourself or whether you tolerate it because you’re instructed to. I think we have our answer, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Yes Amelia.” She corrected.

“Yes Amelia, sorry.”

“So it looks like this is an area we can develop, push your limits a bit. What do you think?”

“I’ll do what you want me to.” She spoke very softly, openly voicing her desires was a new concept. Just saying those simple words made her heart race, and she felt the perspiration forming on her temples.

“What I tell you to,” she corrected, “it’s what you want to do. So I think we need to up the stakes and put you to good use, don’t you?”

“What did you have in mind?”

“Well, letting a colleague catch a peek of your boobs is not very challenging is it, and certainly not enough to push the boundaries for someone of your potential. No I think we need to see how far you’re prepared to go. Would you like to do that?”

“Yes Amelia, thank you.”

The phone went dead.

27

Running the business had become second nature to Laura, well to be fair it almost ran itself. She liked that, it left her free to concentrate on the creative role, which she loved so much. She had always been an ideas person, one who enjoyed a challenge and solving a problem. The boring stuff, finance, drawing up contracts and such like she was happy to leave to others who knew more than her and whom she could trust. But, she still held the reins, it was her business after all. It was her attention to detail and enforcing high standards which enticed clients to return, and subsequent word of mouth which brought in many new ones.

Laura could concentrate on a task for only so long before her thoughts crept back to the game and what she might have to do to win it. Waiting had become the bane of her life. Waiting to hear from Weston, Amelia, Andrew or any other person who may have been brought into the game proved to be tiresome.

Without real events to concentrate her mind she had taken to invention. The odd word overheard in an innocent conversation, a familiar face in the street or a picture in a magazine proved sufficient to revert her mind to a recent experience. Once introduced that was often where it stayed, unable to be driven out by the present and real life. With a single image or phrase she could contrive a full blown fantasy within minutes–she knew she had to get a grip. Looking for hidden meanings in everyday conversations, checking for new emails every few minutes and snatching up the phone on the second ring could be quite tiring, and often disappointing.

And then, after all the waiting, it appeared, an email from Amelia. But it wasn’t to Laura, she had just been blind copied in: Shaun Cooper was the recipient. It informed him of the package he would receive by courier and what it would contain. While not giving any direct instruction the letter hinted at how he might use his ownership of the object to his advantage and drawing his attention to the value another might place on it. There was no explanation of why it was important only hints of the power it would offer the owner. It also gave a telephone number should he want any clarification or questions answered. As she read, Laura could feel her heart beating faster. Whether it was through alarm or anticipation she had no idea. Her previous ordeals had been orchestrated by people in the know, those playing the game, but, if the email was true, a line had been crossed. From that point on she would be at the beck and call of an outsider.