Innuendo!

Eventually, after she had bucked her way through the shockwaves of a climax and soaked me with her juices, I moved up next to her. I slung her right leg over mine to give my erect cock access to her pussy as I lay on my side and gently stroked her tits and stomach, nibbling on her earlobe.

She put her hands down between her legs and pushed my cock into her soaking wet pussy. She rubbed herself as I thrust conservatively upwards in a strong and stable rhythm. After a while of this slow and steady love-making, she turned and leant back to bring her head onto the pillow next to mine.

"I love you, Jay Dee," she whispered into my ear.

"I love you too, Susie," I whispered in reply, knowing I was telling her the truth, but knowing also that my love for her had been mortally wounded and was damaged beyond repair.

*

On Tuesday the following week, Susie had some news at dinner time.

"My boss has been suspended while some sort of investigation is taking place. It's all very hush-hush and we've not been told what's going on, but I heard a rumour it's something to do with pandering? No idea what that means. Maybe he was using inside information for personal gain or something like that."

I was surprised Susie had got hold of the wrong end of the stick and was blissfully ignorant. I could have said nothing, but I wasn't going to pass up the chance to stir the shit.

"Could be," I replied. "But I'm not sure. The word pander comes from Pandarus, the name of the dirty old man who arranged the affair between the two main characters in Shakespeare's play Troilus and Cressida."

Susie looked puzzled. "So how does that fit with insider trading?" she asked.

"I'm not sure. A panderer is a pimp who procures sexual favours, so the investigation could have something to do with prostitutes. Maybe your colleague paid for sex and put in a false claim for expenses."

Susie frowned and I thought she looked a little worried. "I still don't get it. I mean, why would Bobby do something like that?"

"Hang on a minute," I said. "I thought your boss was Erica Smith?"

"She's the department manager, but Bobby Jackson's my team manager."

"Okay," I replied, as yet another piece of the puzzle fell into place. "Sounds like you'll just have to wait and see what happens. No doubt you'll get the full story soon enough."

*

On Wednesday evening Susie was in tears when I got home and it took me a while to get her to tell me the next bit of news. She was upset, but also enraged that she had lost her job.

"I got fired for moral turpitude, for fuck's sake! I mean what the fuck? They tried to explain it but I had to look it up. It's because of an act or behaviour that gravely violates accepted standards. I had no idea we had a clause in our contracts about termination for moral turpitude. They're a bunch of hypocritical, lying, two faced bastards! I didn't do anything that was all that bad."

"Was anyone else fired for the same thing?" I asked, although I was fairly certain I knew the answer.

"Bobby Jackson and Janet Strang were let go for the same reason," she replied and then she added, "Bobby was suspended yesterday and Janet seems to have been given the same treatment as me."

I wondered whether she would give me the full story at this stage in proceedings. "So tell me how did all this come about?" I asked.

"It happened so suddenly. I got called in to a meeting with Erica and the HR Manager was there. That's when they gave me the bad news. Terminated with immediate effect, for fuck's sake! No notice whatsoever and I couldn't even go back to my bloody desk. The HR Manager escorted me to the front door, took my pass and gave me my jacket and handbag that someone had fetched while I was in the meeting."

Susie had decided to tell me about the day's events, but not what had led up to them. She was nowhere near telling me the whys and wherefores and I concluded that would have to wait until the dirty linen was out in the open, getting well aired.

Susie seemed to think she would have some grounds to appeal her dismissal, but she didn't want to explain her reasoning and I wasn't really interested in pursuing that as a topic of conversation. Her initial rant over, Susie clammed up and we spent a quiet evening in front of the TV.

*

On Thursday afternoon I brought home a copy of the Edinburgh Daily Post. Above pictures of Susie and Hutton, the banner headline read: "Handling His Portfolio."

"The Post can exclusively reveal that police are investigating evidence of improprieties in business dealings between Alpha General and Financial Asset Management Ltd and its major clients, including the city and a major bank. It appears the man tasked with ensuring that regular deposits are made on behalf of the city is none other than 'Teflon Tom' Hutton. He was seen leaving room 329 of the Scotlandic Hotel recently after a meeting with a female AGFAM employee who is reported to have subsequently been terminated for moral turpitude. It looks like things could get stickier for Hutton, who is relying on the city's voters to re-elect him at the polls next week. In the meantime, the Post understands from staff at AGFAM that there is no shortage of well-equipped small meeting rooms at their offices, which are located just round the corner from the Scotlandic Hotel."

There was no sign of Susie and, as far as I could tell, all of her stuff was gone. I wasn't completely surprised. The Post is published early and reaches the local newsagents before noon. There's also an online version, which carries video and audio to support the online versions of reports in the newspaper itself. I sent Dan Wetherston a short text to let him know that I had enjoyed reading his article and reminded him to edit the video that I had taken at the Scotlandic Hotel, which he had used to illustrate the online version of the article. I didn't want that short clip of Susie leaving room 329 to be on the Post's website for any longer than necessary. After all, her identity was not of any great interest to the public. However the section with Teflon Ted could play on a loop forever, as far as I was concerned.

*

Epilogue

I got a text from Susie the evening she left to let me know she was on her way down south to stay with her parents for a while. She never did come back to Edinburgh and I sent the divorce papers to their house. We met up briefly a couple of months after she left, when I was in London on business for the bank. She told me how Bobby had got her the job at AGFAM in the first instance and that the sexual favours for Teflon Tom and a couple of others were minor matters compared to what she had been up to previously. She had seen it as just business and she had thought of her business life and her personal life as two separate existences. It seems Susie's friend Clare had an idea that the leopard hadn't changed its spots, which explained the cooling of their friendship.

My feelings towards Susie had changed. I still loved her in some way, but I now saw her as some sort of lovely, lovable tart with a heart. In any case I'm not the forgiving and forgetting sort, as Bobby Jackson, Jeremy Robbins and Ted Hutton found out. Bobby got a three year sentence for pandering, Jeremy decided to take early retirement from the bank, having received an offer he couldn't refuse, and Ted got an "Out of Office" message from the electorate. His third wife divorced him and he was left with little in the way of funds for future investments or entertainment activities.

*

PS

This is a work of fiction. The characters in this story are not real and they will not be able to read any helpful advice or damning invective that you provide for them as feedback. No real people took part in this story, no real politicians were hurt (drat!) and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. However Edinburgh is a real nice place.