chapter 7

7 Back in my room, while replying to emails and surfing the net, I picked up the other set of keys from the croc skull and toyed with them. Kunal came by with the full lot of pictures; Nat had wanted them all in colour and Kunal asked if I wanted to see them before he sent them away. I went over to the sofa and we looked at the contact sheets again, so I could mark the ones I liked.Nat and Cara walked in. ‘Hey! Busy?’ Nat asked.‘No. Tell me,’ I said, looking at them both. Cara smiled. ‘Cara?’ said Nat, turning to her.‘Hi.’‘Hi,’ I replied.‘I just thought . . . I should apologize . . . maybe? . . . and ask if we can look at the pictures together this evening? Here?’ I turned to look at Nat before I said, ‘Of course! And you don’t have to apologize for anything. Speak your mind.Always.’So this is what she had in mind when she asked me to work late!‘And you don’t have to worry about working late when it comes to him. He even sleeps here sometimes, by the way,’ added Nat.‘TMI,’ I objected. It definitely wasn’t a good thing for Nat to discuss my sleeping habits with Cara.Cara laughed and walked away. ‘Okay, thanks, see you later, Sid.’As soon as she split Kunal got up, saying, ‘Sid, if you are going to look at these again in the evening, let’s not do this now, you are going to begin hating them!’He was right. ‘Agreed. I’ll do this later. Nat, you don’t know what you’ve gotten us into. What were you thinking, letting a cat in among the pigeons?’ I asked as I watched Kunal sprint out of the room.‘A kitten and a sexy one at that,’ she winked.I smiled back at her, glad that she had no way of seeing the images of a naked Cara that were clouding my vision.‘It’s fine, Sid,’ she continued. ‘I think everyone is overreacting. I know it doesn’t help that she’s drop-dead gorgeous, speaks with a slight accent and everyone feels intimidated. But she’ll settle in, you’ll all love her, and everything will be fine.’Left alone, I leaned back against the sofa and thought about last night in Cara’s apartment. It seemed almost surreal that an amazing night of sex could happen without the prelude of a date, or a conversation even. The spontaneity of unabashed sex with a beautiful stranger, knowing that thebody was having its way and the mind, well, didn’t mind at all. Hedonistic! Maybe that’s why the evening turned out the way it had.And today? She walks into my office, and I mean literally my office, my place of business, the one I founded and ran, and it’s like we are complete strangers! Not an ounce of recognition. While she was talking to me at the meeting, all I could think of was last night – of kneeling between her legs while she lay spread out on the bed like a delectable offering, and licking her wet cunt. It had taken considerable effort to push those thoughts aside and act like this was the first time we were having a proper conversation. Had Cara felt the strangeness of it too?I returned to my desk and tried to resume work but ended up mindlessly surfing the net. There was a lot happening on Twitter, as usual, and I kept looking for things I might have missed reading. I suddenly remembered that Matt was expected in the office and called Aanya, who moaned that JWT had changed plans again and that Matt would come into the office the following day, if he managed to find time. That got my antennae up. I called Roy.‘Hey, Matt isn’t coming over. Can you call JWT and find out what’s happening? I know this wasn’t scheduled and we only fixed this last evening at the party but to keep moving the meeting seems odd. I am thinking about what CD said, about Jay Arora laying it on for Matt. I am not worried but I am thinking about it.’‘Okay, man, let me call them. Bastards!’ Roy replied.I smiled to myself. Roy came loaded with a generous amount of competitive spirit that didn’t need much prodding but the odd thing was that he was also the most patient photographer when we were on a shoot. Nothing could ruffle him. Idiotic designers, cranky models, power cuts, faulty equipment – nothing. He would sit there, zoned in, unflappable, and get his shot.I went back to my machine.Roy called twenty minutes later and said he had spoken with JWT. He didn’t think there was anything to worry about; Matt was indeed at the JWT office all day because they had begun conversations on restructuring (And this is confidential, he whispered) and so they didn’t want any offsite meetings. I hung up, reminding myself not to be swayed by sporadic shifts or delays and to trust my gut. And something told me that when it came to JWT or Matt and the ideas for going after a new stream of business we had it in us to get it.The office had begun to quieten down and the lights were turning off in various parts of the floor. I went and sat on the sofa again and began flipping through some magazines. I wondered if I should call Cara to find out when she would come to discuss the photographs, but then decided against it. I checked the time on my mobile phone – 18.26 p.m.‘Do you want to a grab a pizza?’ Cara asked as she walked in twenty minutes later.I looked up at her. She shook her head smiling, questioning.I smiled back and noticed that her body language had changed from what it had been in the morning. This was a more confident stance, her body fully facing mine, almost as an offering, or maybe my mind was making that up, considering I wanted to be offered that body again. The silver belt was missing. In the very low light in the office, emanating from the single large saucer fixture on the ceiling, and the bluish glow from the widescreen Mac on my desk, she looked devilishly beautiful.‘Okay, I’ll order something,’ she said, disappearing as suddenly as she had arrived.Aanya walked in a while later to say she was leaving. I wondered if that was all or if her appearance had another purpose.‘Cara is ordering pizza—’Ah!‘I’ve indicated what you like,’ she said, not happy that I hadn’t asked her to. ‘And please go home tonight.’‘Thanks, Aanya. I’ll split as soon as we are done,’ I promised, wondering if she meant go home to your place instead of sleeping in the office or don’t go home with Cara.I got up and walked out with her, down the passage, to the door.‘Are you making sure I leave?’ she asked, elbowing me. ‘C’mon, Aanya, can’t I see you out?’As I walked back towards my room I noticed a couple of the crew were still working, but that was normal, those guys tended to leave late. With not enough time to do allthe new stuff they wanted to, all they ended up doing during the day was tinkering with and redoing images. The best work usually got done when the office was quiet. I looked around and saw Cara, busy on her computer. I made a note to find out from Nat which projects she had been put on. Not willing to wait any longer, I called her as soon as I got back to my desk.‘Hi,’ she said, answering the phone. ‘It could have been anybody.’‘But it isn’t! You want me to come now?’ ‘Yes.’‘The office is sufficiently empty, do you think?’ ‘What exactly do you have in mind?’‘Let me come,’ she replied and hung up on me.I heard her walk through the office. She was wearing nude stilettos, I had noticed, that made her ankles look sexy and lifted her ass just enough to make an impact. Almost everything about her was designed to make her desirable, I thought. Sitting there hearing her come closer to my office, I asked myself if she was too much of a construct. But then the woman I had held in my arms, wet in the rain, warm from an explosive orgasm was anything but a construct. That person . . . she . . . was real. The passion I was subjected to was real.She opened the door and stepped in. ‘Hi.’‘Should we sit on the sofa?’ ‘Sure.’She continued standing there, as I picked up the contact sheets, walked past her and dropped them on the coffee table. I asked her if she’d like a drink.‘What do you have?’‘Okay, this is not a bar.’ I turned to smile at her. ‘I have a bottle of rum and some vodka. CD’s office is likely to have whiskey. And there’s ice in the fridge.’‘Okay, I think I’ll have whiskey. Can I bring it here?’ she asked.‘Of course. You know CD’s office, right? He keeps the bottles on the mantle on the left.’Just as she was about to step out, I called out to her. ‘Cara.’‘Yes,’ she replied, turning back.I stood there staring at her, not sure if I wanted to ask her about last night, looking instead for any sign of familiarity that might indicate something.‘Sid?’I smiled. ‘Nothing. Sorry.’She smiled back and blew me a kiss as she stepped out, pulling the door shut behind her. I opened the door and looked around to check how many people were left in the office. It seemed quieter than before and I noticed that there was only one person in the crew room.Cara came back with a bottle of Jim Beam and headed for the bar. She had also brought ice. She poured herself a large drink on the rocks and some rum for me, and turned around to ask what I’d like it with.‘There’s Coke on the table,’ I replied, organizing the pictures in the order in which I wanted us to go over them, so she could get a sense of what I had in mind.She brought the drinks and sat down next to me. ‘So?’I turned to her. The perfume she was wearing was subtle but lovely.I couldn’t help it any longer. ‘What are we doing? You, what are you doing?’‘Looking at the pictures?’ she replied, looking straight into my eyes. Her lips curved in a naughty smile, and I felt her hand on my thigh.‘Cara.’‘Yes.’As I leaned towards her to kiss her, there was a knock on the door and the night guard walked in with the pizzas. I got up hastily, took them from him and paid him, trying to gauge from his expression if he had noticed anything unusual at all, but he seemed sufficiently blank. Thank God! I had to stop myself from pushing him out. I rushed back to her side and, holding her by the shoulder, hauled her into my arms. I kissed her with a need that was primeval, like it was the only thing to do with her, her body.As our lips moved over each other’s, I opened my eyes and looked at her, noticing the curve of her ear, and the soft, light hairs on them, her long, natural eyelashes and the crooked line of her eyeliner. I closed my eyes again, and lost myself in the feel of her lips on mine, and the headytaste of her mouth and tongue. She was almost always warm, warmer than the normal human body. Well, she is hot! I smiled. My lips must have moved involuntarily, because she immediately noticed my distraction and pulled back from the kiss.‘What are you thinking?’ she asked with a twinkle in her eye.‘Nothing.’‘Should we see the pictures?’ she asked.‘That’s it? One minute we are kissing and the next we sit down and edit pictures?’‘Yes,’ she replied. ‘Isn’t foreplay more sexual than sex itself sometimes? Let’s sit at your desk, just in case the SWAT team at the door walks in again,’ she continued, mocking the overenthusiastic security guard.I took the contact sheets back to my desk and laid them out. She used that moment to leave the room mysteriously and came back in about five, or maybe three minutes.‘Okay, he’s not coming back in for a while,’ she said. ‘WHAT did you do?’ I asked, genuinely surprised. ‘I toldhim we have a conference call with someone in America and didn’t want to be disturbed.’‘Hmm. Okay, let’s do this. And thank you.’‘You’re welcome,’ she replied, and came around the table to stand barely an inch away from me and peered over my shoulder.‘Do you want to pull up a chair?’ I asked. ‘We have a lot to see.’‘Actually,’ she began and, squeezing herself between the table and me, sat on my lap with her back to me.‘Cara!’‘What?’Whatever I’d meant to say fled my mind. Having her in my lap, her full body leaning against mine, smelling as wonderful as she did, I couldn’t help but lean forward and take a whiff of her, not just the perfume she was wearing.‘You are heavy for someone so . . . lithe,’ I said, my hands on her thighs.She giggled. ‘Lithe? My boobs are my secret weapon; they’re what’s heavy. Feel them?’Instantly, as if her mind were controlling me, my hands moved up her body to her breasts, bringing back memories of last night. I slowly massaged her breasts as she leaned back into me, arching her back, firmly pushing her boobs into my hands. My fingers found her nipples through her dress and I began pinching and rubbing them as they turned hard. She put her left hand over mine and kneaded her breasts harder and with her right guided my other hand down her body to between her legs, spreading them to make room for me. I pulled up her dress – not that it needed much pulling – and slid my hand inside her panties. She moaned, leaning further back into me and, lifting her legs, planted her feet on the edge of the table. When I found her clit, she held my hand in place, firmly pressing my fingers deeper into her.‘Love that!’I began rubbing her slowly with my middle finger. ‘Mmm. Oh! Make me come. Yes.’I began moving my finger in a tight circle.‘Aah, aah,’ she moaned, and just when I thought she was being recklessly loud, she brought my left hand to her mouth and bit my palm.I shut my eyes both from the sudden pain and from feeling her wet cunt around my fingers as I pushed two of them in, finger fucking her, moving them in and out rapidly. I pushed them in deeper, finding the rough texture of her G-spot and began to tickle her, slowly at first, and then faster, harder, until I felt her body go tense and push back into me just before she climaxed.She lay on me like that I held her tightly, waiting for her body to calm down. Eventually her weight on my hard cock began to hurt and I squirmed to relieve some of the pressure. She turned and we kissed and then, pulling back, she gave me a small peck on my cheek.‘Thank you. I am going to return this favour,’ she said and flashed one of her million-dollar smiles, while stroking my stiff cock through my jeans.‘I can’t wait,’ I replied.‘I need to go to the loo.’ She stood up, pulled her panties into place and then yanked her dress down from around her waist, patted it smooth and walked away.When I got up from the chair, my back hurt from having to balance her while holding the chair firmly in place with my feet. I stretched a bit and walked over to the bar andpoured myself another drink. I felt a momentary pang of guilt when I realized that we hadn’t seen the pictures after all. Instead, we had made love again, once more without the usual preliminaries. I wasn’t sure how I was meant to react to that. Obviously, I knew I was incredibly lucky but at some point I had to talk to her about this. She walked back into the room looking fresh. She had brushed her hair and reapplied lipstick.‘I am hungry.’‘Yeah, we almost forgot the pizza.’She brought the pizzas over to the table and we sat down to eat. There were two boxes. One was my favourite Meatzza, and the other a simple Margherita.‘This one’s for you,’ she said, pushing the one with the meat towards me.‘Why, won’t you—?’‘I am vegetarian,’ she explained. ‘This is what happens when you decide to make out with me without even asking me out, or having a proper conversation with me.’ And then she winked.‘C’mon, Cara!’‘No, think about it. There are guys I have gone out with who haven’t as much as got to kiss me. You, you are the lucky one!’I had picked up a slice and was about to take a bite, but hearing her say that my hand just hung in mid-air. I didn’t know what to say; I stared at her blankly.‘But . . .’She laughed. ‘Sid! I am kidding. When we have to talk about this, we will. For now let’s eat, I am famished.’And she smiled again.There are a million reasons one might fall in love, but if I did, with her – if I did – it’d probably be because of the way she smiled. I returned her smile and popped the slice into my mouth. She began wolfing her pizza down too.‘Is it nice?’ I asked.‘I’ve had more delicious things in my mouth,’ she replied, and began laughing again.‘You are incorrigible!’ I said, nearly choking, my mouth full.An hour later we shut the office and headed home. ‘You didn’t really want to see the pictures. You wentthrough them in a flash and quickly deleted some,’ I began as we walked towards the parking lot, a tad annoyed that she hadn’t run them past me or even discussed what she’d done.‘No I did, but it is just impossible to work with you standing around looking at me,’ she replied. ‘I believe every word I said in the meeting, by the way. Show them the colour, go traditional and keep the girl. Pout or not. And that’s what I did. Your work is not too difficult to edit because this is stock work and you knew what you wanted when you shot these pictures. I tried as much as possible to keep to the brief.’‘Okay. Can I look through this again in the morning then?’ ‘Of course, though you needn’t. It’s not the kind of workthat will carry your personal credit; it’s going to say Alpha. Learn to take a step away from your work sometimes.’I looked at her, head cocked to one side, wondering if that was something I wanted to hear from an intern, and then reconsidered what she had said.When we reached my car she went around and got into the passenger seat. I buckled myself in and drove out of the lot. For a while I was quiet, as was she, engrossed in her smartphone. When we stopped at the first intersection, I took that moment to turn and look at her.Cara. Beautiful, divine, intelligent, young, sex goddess, funny even. And I began to wonder again, for the nth time, what was she doing in my life? And where had she been all this while?