"Do you have time for coffee?" Eric asked, wiping his mouth clean with the cloth napkin.

I glanced at my watch. "I think I can squeeze it in," I said, even though I was already running over my lunch hour by five minutes.

Eric waved over our formal suited server and ordered two cappuccinos. Once the server left to make the coffee, Eric leaned forward and stretched his hand palm up towards me. I reached back and enjoyed the feeling of his hand in mine.

"This was nice. We should have lunch together more often. My office is just three subway stops away."

"That would be nice."

"So, how are you liking working with Ryan?" And there it was, the topic that had loomed over me the entire way through lunch.

"He's fine," I stated without wanting to give more.

"I still can't believe I didn't realize that he was the Herman you mentioned you were going to work for," Eric chuckled.

"I know, you keep mentioning that." Referring to him making similar comments ever since the night at the bar.

"I do, don't I? I'm sorry. Did I ever tell you why we stopped talking?"

"I thought it was because you moved away," I said, just as the server returned with the hot beverages. Eric and I unclasped our hands as the cups were placed in front of us.

Once the server had left again, Eric continued, "Yes and no. Yes, I moved away, but we still talked. In fact, we still visited each other until our senior year in high school. D.C. has a great bus connection to the city, so it wasn't hard to take a weekend here and there to see each other." Eric took a brief pause to sip his drink.

I sipped my drink too and continued to look at him quietly.

"He even invited me to join him and our group of friends to go to their prom night. I agreed to go and went stag, and Ryan took his girlfriend at the time. Felicity, I think it was. We all had a great time, and I danced with countless girls and guys, and we all had a ball."

"I bet," I added a little commentary but was eager to hear more.

"Then came the After Prom." Eric paused for a moment, probably to add some dramatic tension. He always liked to embellish his stories. "We all went back to Ryan's house since his parents were out of town, and well, one thing led to another, and I ended up having sex with his girlfriend that night."

I choked on my mid-sip and slightly spat out some of my coffee, which sprinkled onto the tablecloth and Eric's blazer. I put my cup down and handed him my napkin. "Eric! You did what?! That doesn't sound like you."

"I don't think you would have liked me much in high school. I was more of a 'bad boy.' Especially after finding out my dad had a mistress, and my mom knew about it. I was all sorts of backward then. But since going to college and meeting you, I have grown up a lot."

"Did you tell Ryan about it?" I asked, needing to know more details.

"Well, the next morning, his girlfriend and I were in his kitchen, agreeing that what we did was a drunken mistake and that we should keep it between us. Then Ryan walked in mid-conversation and asked what we were talking about. His girlfriend blurted it out that she and I had sex. Ryan was livid, and he punched me hard. 

"I didn't fight back, because I knew I deserved it. He threw both Felicity and me out of his house. I'm guessing they broke up. I tried reaching out to him several times since, but it wasn't until the other night at the bar that I actually saw him. This is probably why he greeted me the way he did." Eric recalled the aggressive shove by rubbing his shoulder as if it still hurt.

Now Ryan's behavior started making much more sense. I looked at my phone again. I had a text message from Ryan asking me to bring him lunch.

"I hate to end this, but I have to get back to the office. Thank you for telling me all this."

"You don't think less of me, do you?" Eric asked, waving the server down for the check.

I giggled slightly at the comment. "Not in the slightest. I can't be one to judge your actions from what you did in high school. I wasn't an innocent rose myself, you know."

"Well, I would love to hear more of those stories sometime. Maybe tonight?" Eric suggested with intrigue.

"We'll see. I know I can't wait to enjoy a cozy night in with you. Maybe we can take a bubble bath?" I gave Eric my sexiest smile.

*****

Ryan and I spent a good portion of the afternoon in back to back meetings and barely had any time where it was just us. I was grateful for the busywork, which kept me from thinking about everything Eric told me about Ryan.

As the last meeting of the day wrapped up, I finished taking the last bit of notes while everyone was getting up and making their way back to their workspace. I closed my notepad and walked out of the conference room. Ryan was standing just outside, looking down at his cellphone. He looked up at me and smiled.

"Did you need something?" I asked, surprised he hadn't already gone back to his office.

"Nope, I was just waiting for you. You were taking notes like a journalist back in there." He chuckled.

"I've always been a serious note-taker. Especially for important projects, like this next build."

"It's not that important," Ryan waved it like a fly in his face. "We've had bigger builds than this before."

"I know, but this is the first big one I'm going to get to be apart of. I am so excited! I feel like my degree is going to be paying itself off a bit through this project."

Ryan laughed, "You're cute."

I blushed.

I went around my desk and sat down in my chair as Ryan opened his door and went into his office. I typed up my notes and emailed the main points of the meeting to Ryan for his reference. I saw that there were only fifteen minutes left before it was time to clock out. I started getting excited at the thought of taking a hot romantic bubble bath with Eric. I looked around and didn't see a soul in sight. I noticed Ryan's door was closed and suddenly had the urge to do something crazy.

I lowered one hand under my desk and slipped it under the black and white checkerboard dress I was wearing. I moved my white laced panties to the side and played with myself. I was impressed with myself that I was able to stifle the urge to moan as I was about to climax right there at my desk chair. Then, I heard the sound of Ryan's door open.

I snapped my hand out, hoping he didn't see anything. I looked up at him, and he was looking down at his phone. I don't think he saw anything. If he did, he played his poker face well.

"Time to go," he said, looking up from his phone to me. He shined his new-to-me genuine smile.

"I was just going to say the same thing," I said, grabbing my purse from my desk drawer and standing up.

As we made our way to the elevator, I discreetly shimmied my panties back into place. 

"Any plans tonight?" he asked, making conversation.

"Just a quiet night at home."

"That sounds boring."

The elevator dinged open. I stepped in and ignored his comment. "What about you?"

"My brothers and I have to go have dinner with our parents. It's our monthly family dinner. Come to think of it, your night sounds a lot better than my own. Want to switch?"

I laughed politely. "I think that's a nice family tradition. I would never survive a family Thanksgiving dinner, let alone a monthly one. Then again, I wouldn't survive working with my family either, as much as I love them."

"I never really had any other choice, to be honest," Ryan admitted. "Working here was inevitable. Trust me. I fought over countless years with my parents about going off on my own, exploring my interests, but alas, here we are."

"What were you interested in doing instead?"

Ryan looked thoughtful at that moment. "I wanted to explore many options, photography, veterinarian, even wanted to be a doctor for a short time. A lot of interests were short-lived. I think that was another reason why my parents continued to urge me to stick with the family business."

The elevator opened to reveal the lobby and we walked outside together. Ryan had a driver that day waiting for him to take him to his parent's home out of the city. He approached the open door and turned to me, "Ms. Ashcroft, I hope you enjoy your quiet night at home. Send my greetings to your fiance for me. Tell him that he needs to call me for a guy's night out soon."

"Um, sure?" I responded, waved him goodbye, and walked towards the subway as he got into the car and drove off.

*****

I arrived home to my apartment before Eric, which wasn't uncommon. I used that time to pre-wash myself and made sure to shave my legs, armpits, and vagina. Once I was all cleaned up, I dressed into a sexy pastel pink, eyelash lace on silk cami pajama set. It was accompanied by a sheer floor-length robe that I loosely tied together.

By the time I applied a little bit of makeup to make it look like I wasn't wearing any, Eric was home. He shouted his arrival from the front door. He walked back to the bedroom, where he found me on the long lounge chair reading a magazine. I was positioned as if I was posing for a photoshoot but still acting casual.

"I am one lucky man," Eric said, picking his jaw up off the floor. "I love that I get to come home to you," He added, approaching me.

He knelt in front of me, leaned in, and kissed me deeply on my natural pink, painted lips. It was brief, but my mind flashed to Ryan, kissing me against his office door as Eric kissed me. The vision made me respond to Eric even more passionately. I told my mind to stay focused on Eric and leave Ryan out of our bedroom. Eric maneuvered himself to place his body vertically on mine while making sure his lips barely left mine.

I wrapped my legs around his back and pulled his body into me. We made out for a good ten minutes. It's was incredible. When we finally pulled apart, it was only long enough for Eric to stand up and lead me to the bathroom.

"Are you ready for that bubble bath?" he asked, kissing my neck and then moving to turn on the Jacuzzi facet.

"I have been ready since I suggested it at lunch."

Eric poured a little bubble bath liquid into the Jacuzzi and started taking off his clothes. I, in turn, undressed too. I made sure to do it as sexy as possible because Eric couldn't keep his eyes off me. I was tingling all over from his entranced stare. We both stood in the bathroom, completely naked, as the steam filled the empty space. 

Eric closed the gap between us and knelt in front of me. Slowly he teased his mouth by kissing my lower region everywhere but my vagina. When he finally grazed his lips on my vagina, the sensation sent shivers up my body. Even in the heat, I was covered in goosebumps and couldn't help the moaning sounds that came out of my mouth.

By the time Eric made me climax for the first time, the water in the Jacuzzi was filled. I turned off the faucet and climbed in. Eric followed and sat behind me. I leaned up against him, closed my eyes, and enjoyed feeling his body against mine, while listening to the quiet sounds of the remaining water dripping from the faucet.

After a few moments, I felt Eric's penis throbbing against my lower back. I turned around in the water so that I was facing him. I smiled lovingly as I positioned myself and lowered my body back in the water and onto his stiff erection. We moaned together at the feel of him being pushed deep inside me.

The water around us waved with our movement, making the bubbles hit my chin. We got into a rhythm and it escalated, which made the waves turn into more splashes around us as if we were caught in a storm, in the middle of the ocean. His groans were getting lower, while his hold was tightening around my body. That was my signal that he was about to climax, and I wasn't far behind too. Since I was on the pill, I kept myself on him, until we were both spent. We kissed each other once more as we collapsed apart in the water with silly smiles on our faces.

How could I even consider anyone else? Eric always knew how to rock my world. That night I did not have a single dream that involved Ryan.