High Stakes, Hard Sell Ch. 03

"The two of you started dating," Jane said with an encouraging smile.

"Nah. Not dating - there was no spark there. But Brynn was good company - real easy to talk to - and Nessa was always happy and full of energy so I liked hanging out with them. We got along really good. So it went like that for a couple of years, just a Saturday thing. I quit the soup kitchen and started training to fight again and every Saturday it was Burger World."

"That sounds nice," Jane said, and meant it.

"Yeah. But then she didn't show up one week. Or the next. So I figured maybe there was a new man in her life and that was that. Then two weeks after that she tracked me down at the gym and wanted to talk. I figured it was going to be quits between us since she seemed kind of upset. She told me she had pancreatic cancer. Terminal."

Jane didn't try to conceal the horror on her face. She reached out and took Mike's hand. He didn't pull away from her.

"She was going to be doing surgery and chemo and all that but the doctors said she probably had six to eight months, if she was lucky. The worst thing was there was no one to look after Nessa. Brynn had a big falling out with her family and didn't have anyone around her she could trust. She didn't want a foster home for her little girl. So right there in the gym she asked me to marry her and adopt her kid. Just like that. There was no time to be subtle."

"Wow."

"And it hit me right then that this could be my chance. My shot at salvation. I hurt you in a bad way, so maybe I could make it up by helping Brynn and Nessa. It was like...the universe was giving me a chance to make things right and erase that black mark. You know...balance the scales."

"Wait - you married a dying woman and adopted her kid because you felt guilty about hitting me? That's just..." Jane trailed off, incredulous. That was...what? Noble? Crazy? Beautiful? Stupid?

"I married Brynn because she and Nessa needed help," he said with an oddly peaceful smile. "And because I needed help, too."

Jane stared at him wordlessly. Mike chuckled.

"Yeah, Greg gave me the same look when I told him. He thought I was insane. All my family did, and they tried to talk me out of it. But I'd already decided. We got married at City Hall; we didn't even have wedding rings. A sympathetic judge sped up the adoption process and gave me temporary guardianship over Nessa until the adoption was official. Brynn...passed away...a few weeks later. Been just Nessa and I ever since."

"That's amazing," Jane said, and found herself tearing up.

"Don't - you'll get me going, too," he said. "I've shed plenty of tears already. Nessa too - Brynn's death really messed her up bad. I moved into Brynn's apartment so Nessa wouldn't have to cope with any more change than necessary. It was rough going for the first four or five months. It's been almost a year now, and things are starting to normalize."

"And now I'm here, disrupting things again," Jane said.

Mike didn't answer immediately. He took the cards and began shuffling.

"I'm still not sure what's happening here, with us," he said. "But the last couple of days you've really done a lot of work and saved me a ton of time. I won't complain about that."

"I could do a lot more, if you'd allow me. You can trust me with Nessa. I promise I won't do anything to hurt her."

He shook his head. "It's not even a matter of trust, Janey. You and I both know you're not in this for the long term, but Nessa might not understand that. It'll be better for her if you're just the nice lady who does the housework." He dealt the cards.

"I can make her understand that it's only temporary. She won't get hurt," Jane said, keeping her tone light. She didn't want this to become a confrontation.

"She's five years old. She won't understand. The concept is way too big for her at this age." He tossed a bet into the pot, two checkers.

Jane let the matter drop. She didn't want to push too hard or seem too aggressive, but she needed to find a way past the three-hour-per-week limit that Mike was imposing on their time together. Even Betty agreed that mending trust required time, and the trust between Jane and Mike was badly damaged and would need a lot of time. But Jane didn't have a lot of time. The curse would kill her before spring; that meant before March twentieth. It was February twenty-second already, which meant her death was four weeks away, maybe less.

On the other hand, Jane could understand why Mike was shielding Nessa after all the hardship the kid had gone through with her mother. Jane didn't want to cause the little girl any confusion or pain, but how to explain the situation properly to a child whose main source of worldly experience was her collection of Disney movies?

Her surprisingly complete collection of Disney movies.

Distracted by a new thought, Jane missed Mike's bluff and lost the hand. An amateur mistake.

"Looks like the tide is turning," Mike said, gathering the checkers.

Jane humoured him with a smile and tossed another ante down. Mike shuffled and dealt.

"Nessa's got quite the collection of Disney movies," she said, nodding in the direction of the cupboard where they were stored.

"Yeah. Brynn didn't have much money, but whenever she saw one second-hand she grabbed it. She wanted Nessa to enjoy them the same way Brynn had as a child."

"New ones, or the classics?"

"Both, I guess. There's the old Jungle Book, Dumbo, Cinderella..."

"Mary Poppins?" she asked, hopeful.

"Yeah, that too. Peter Pan, Pinocchio. A lot of the older ones, really. Why do you ask?"

"Let me be Nessa's nanny," Jane said, looking Mike in the eye and grasping his hand for emphasis.

"Nanny? No one has a nanny anymore," Mike said with a laugh.

"Nessa doesn't know that. She's seen Mary Poppins. She understands about nannies, and she understands that they leave when their job is done - just like in the movie."

Mike looked at her doubtfully, and Jane took it as an opening.

"You could tell Nessa I'm going to be her nanny for a little while. Remind her about what nannies do, and that they leave when the job is finished. Then I could do the cooking and cleaning as well as taking care of Nessa, dropping her off at school and picking her up. She wouldn't find it weird because she's seen it in the movie."

"Well..."

"And then I could be here seven days a week," Jane added, "which means more time for you to train, more focus that you can devote to your fight in February."

"That would be helpful..."

"And Nessa's a little girl - shouldn't she have a strong female role model in her life?"

"I suppose."

"Sounds like win-win-win to me," Jane finished.

Mike was quiet, and she could see in his face he was considering it, following her line of reasoning, searching for flaws or anything dangerous to his daughter. Jane let him work through it at his own speed but mentally scouted ahead for any possible objection.

"So how would that affect our deal?" he asked at last.

She was ready for the question. "We just take the three-day-per-week deal and expand it to all seven days. I do everything you want seven days a week, and in return I get an hour every night where we do what I want."

"Poker?"

"Or whatever," she said with a shrug. She didn't want him thinking it could only be card games.

There was another long pause before he spoke.

"Let me think about it a bit," he said.

How she hated that response!

"Okay, that sounds fair," she forced herself to say. She never dreamed it would be so difficult to sell herself into virtual slavery, nor that she'd ever need to. But there was a time to push and a time to back off, and she'd reached the latter point with this line of conversation, at least for one night.

Of course, there were other methods at her disposal, too.

They played three more hands and she won them all. He was down to his last two checkers; she was having trouble preventing her large pile from rolling off the couch cushion and onto the floor.

"Shall we go all-in for the next hand?" she asked. "You could go out with a bang instead of a whimper." She pushed all the checkers into the middle of the couch.

"Next time let's do arm wrestling instead of Poker," he said, tossing his two pieces on top of her pile.

She dealt. Part of her - a very small part - considered throwing the game to soothe his bruised ego but that part was quickly silenced when she turned up three queens. Game over.

"Good game," he said in true sportsmanlike fashion, shaking his head in disbelief. She was able to suppress a gloating remark, but only barely.

She gathered the checkers and returned them to the proper box, then stood at attention in front of his place on the couch, eager for a different sort of game.

"Presenting myself for dress code inspection, sir," she said in her best British nanny accent, trying but failing to suppress a mischievous grin.

He laughed. "I don't recall this scene from the movie."

"Maybe the director's cut?"

"The porn parody, more likely."

"I haven't seen that. You may have to walk me through it," she said.

He rose to check in on Nessa, then flashed Jane a smile and gave a thumbs-up.

"It feels like we're horny teenagers sneaking around on our parents," Jane said.

He chuckled at that. "She's a fairly sound sleeper. We'll be fine as long as we keep the noise down."

"Or maybe get an apartment with more than one bedroom."

"That's the plan. I just didn't want too many changes all at once for Nessa, but now that things are settled a bit I'll be looking for a better place in the spring." He stood in front of Jane. "At least then I won't have to sleep on a lumpy couch every night. But you'll have moved on by then, I suppose."

She looked up into his eyes. "I'm here now."

He looked at her quietly for several moments and she started to feel a warmth rise inside her.

"Do you know how hard it is to keep my hands off you when you dress like that?" he said.

"Why do you think I dressed this way?"

He raised an eyebrow at her brazen statement, then a sly grin spread across his face.

"Was there anything else you wanted to do? You've still got some of your hour left," he said.

"I'm all yours," she said, not breaking eye contact.

"Yes, I suppose you are. Anything I want, right? That was the deal?" Mike said, as though the full impact of those words had only then occurred to him. His grin widened, and Jane felt a quiver of nervousness and excitement at the unconstrained mischief in his gaze. He could ask for anything and she'd have no way to refuse him without scuttling their deal - and she needed the deal intact in order to save her own life. Mike had more power than he realized, and she hoped he never understood the full extent of that power.

She nodded her agreement, not trusting her voice.

He grabbed his cell phone from a side table then sat on the couch, leaving her standing alone in front of him. She flushed when she recalled the wanton show she'd given him two nights ago.

He raised the phone then tapped the screen. She heard the shutter-click sound of a picture being taken. She couldn't see the screen but could imagine the picture she presented, bra-less with the outline of her nipples clearly visible through her silk top. Not obscene, but far more risque than normal.

"Hey, wait a minute now," she said, taking a step forward.

"Put your hands behind your back," he said in a quiet voice. A command. Delivered with a wolfish smile, but a command nonetheless. She met his gaze and read the challenge in his eyes.

"Mike, I'm not really sure..."

He held a finger to his lips, and shook his head, silencing her. His eyes gleamed with roguish lust as he waited on her to act. The choice was clear: obey, or don't. Given the stakes, it wasn't really a choice at all.

Slowly she moved, linking her hands behind her back, aware of how the change in posture pushed her breasts forward and pressed her erect nipples tight against the thin strappy top. Heat burned her cheeks as he raised the phone again and took a moment to focus the picture. Click.

"Lift the front of your skirt," he said.

She hesitated, aware that once she passed a certain point there would be no turning back. Where would she draw her line in the sand? Was she truly ready to accept any command he gave her? Her blush heated her face and neck, and beneath it all she felt the unmistakable tingle of her own lust rising to meet his.

She grabbed the hem of her skirt and bunched it up against her stomach. The cool air on her upper thighs, naked sex and abdomen recalled her lewd display from Monday night. Her legs began to quiver as Mike again raised the phone.

"Feet a little further apart," he said, intent on the cell phone camera image.

Her body responded to his voice, widening her stance even before she was aware of it.

Click.

"I want you naked now. Start with your top." His beautiful, hungry eyes held her own.

The buttons on her top were half undone before her conscious mind caught up to her hands. How was he doing this? Why was she allowing it? A few seconds later the silk top slipped from her shoulders and pooled on the floor at her feet, leaving her topless. Her breathing quickened.

He raised the phone again and she felt a powerful urge to cover her breasts. She couldn't have topless photos of herself floating around online. Instead she stood transfixed, arms at her sides as he deliberately snapped another picture. Click.

"Continue."

For a moment she couldn't move as her rational mind fought to establish some control over the situation, but a few seconds later she capitulated and unzipped the skirt. It fell around her ankles, and just like that she was naked. He raised the phone again and she began to tremble. Was it fear or lust? It couldn't have been the cool air - she was overheating and practically panting.

Click.

He lowered the phone and looked up at her as she stood before him, exposed and unguarded.

"Are you wet, Janey?" he asked.

She tried to speak but her throat had closed off and no sound came out. Instead she just nodded.

"Soaked?"

She nodded again. She didn't need to touch her pussy to know it. Her desperate arousal was obvious. Why had her body succumbed so quickly and so completely? It had never been like this.

"What shall we do about that?" His voice had turned warm and gently teasing.

She tried to formulate a response. "What...what would you like?"

"My choice?"

"Yes." No use denying it now; the heat between her legs cried out for attention and Mike was most certainly in charge at this point.

"Take my place on the couch," he said, standing and stepping aside. Jane sat, feeling vulnerable, overheated and incredibly aroused.

Mike stood over her.

"Lean back," he said. "Legs wide."

She reclined and inched her knees apart. She caught the scent of her own arousal in the air. Could he smell it too? She was burning up; humiliation and sexual need had her heart pounding and her skin hot.

"All the way, Janey," he said, then raised the phone.

She closed her eyes and splayed her legs apart as far as they would go.

Click.

The shutter-snap noise of the picture sent a tremor through her. Her breath was coming faster, the smell of her juices more noticeable now.

"Touch yourself."

She opened her eyes and looked up at him. From her vantage on the couch he seemed to tower over her, sculpted and powerful. Some shred of modesty within her found its way to the surface.

"Mike...please..." Her voice was a hoarse whisper, barely audible even in the silence of the apartment. She couldn't do this - not for the camera.

He didn't reply, merely aimed the phone at her. He waited.

She felt fingertips on the soft skin of her slit and it took her a moment to realize they were her own. Her eyes went wide at the sudden shock of pleasure and she gasped.

Click.

Her fingers trailed over the open, sensitized lips of her pussy and encountered heat and wetness and pure pleasure. Her sex throbbed, demanding attention.

Click.

The tip of her middle finger found her swollen clitoris and gave it a gentle caress, then another. The long-awaited contact sent tingles and shivers through her core. She moaned quietly. The muscles in her abdomen tightened.

Click.

She was panting, her heart hammering, her own scent thick in the air. The finger on her clit moved in slow circles and waves of pleasure rippled through her. She lifted her hips a little, rocking her pelvis forward. Her gaze fell to the prominent bulge in Mike's track pants. She wanted that perfect cock.

Click.

She looked up into his lovely eyes and he returned her heated gaze.

"Condoms?" he said. His voice was thick, lusty.

"My purse." Her finger continued to trace delicious circles over her clitoris.

He tossed the phone onto the couch, snatched her purse off the floor and dumped the contents onto the cushion next to Jane. She closed her eyes and savoured the feeling of her own caress. The sensations flooded through her, more intense and powerful than ever before. How had he done this to her?

"Open your eyes."

She felt his cock nudge between the soaking lips of her pussy and she opened her eyes, then bathed in the brilliant green of his irises.

His entry was slow, and she felt a gentle, pleasurable stretching as Mike re-claimed the territory that had once been his. His cock touched all the right places inside her as he pushed in deep.

"Yessss," she said, her voice a satisfied hiss. Her finger continued to stroke her clit and she could feel an orgasm approaching. "More. More, please," she breathed.

He drew back and thrust back in hard and fast, stealing her breath and sending shivers up her spine. He knew her well, knew what she needed. He set a rapid pace, thrusting hard, pounding her wet sex roughly and drawing savage grunts and moans from both of them.

Her orgasm hit hard and pulled an ecstatic whine from deep within her. Her pussy spasmed and waves of pleasure reverberated through her as his cock pumped in and out. She closed her eyes again and delighted in the tingles, shivers and rhythmic contractions of a long and deeply satisfying climax.

Mike continued to work his cock in and out of her in a frenzy, his breathing heavy. She opened her eyes and saw his eyes were shut, an expression of intense concentration on his face. She bore down with her inner muscles and pushed her hips up to meet his thrusts, trying to make it good for him. She loved the look of him above her, the feel of him inside her and the idea that she was bringing him pleasure.

She could feel the swelling and pulsing of his shaft when he drove his cock as deep as it would go and came inside her with a strangled gasp. His thrusting became gentle and deep as his orgasm slowly faded. She opened her arms and pulled him down on top of her, welcoming the contact, his weight on her. She wished he'd taken his shirt off so she could feel his skin again hers, but holding him close to her as he came down from his orgasm was one of her favourite things.

Too soon he began to stir.

"Mmm. That was incredible," he said, then slowly disengaged and pushed himself into a standing position. He looked down at Jane and winked. "I'm going to clean up a little." He closed the bathroom door behind him. She heard the shower run a few seconds later.

Still basking in post-coital contentment, Jane pulled on her skirt and buttoned the strappy top, then began collecting her scattered possessions and putting them back in her purse. Her eyes fell on his phone, unlocked and unattended on the couch, and she recalled with alarm the type of pictures he'd taken. Pictures that could ruin her if they ever got out, humiliate her, make her an unemployable laughing stock. What would he do with the pictures? How would he secure them? Did he plan to use them as leverage against her?