Chastity Claire Rochester sat with her stockinged feet curled up under her, reading a contract on the sofa in the Californian beach house she and her husband owned. Her stilettos sat neatly on the floor next to her. Taking off her shoes was, she often said, the privilege and only advantage of working at home. She hated taking work home and much preferred leaving everything at the office. But tonight, she had a late night dinner appointment and could not finish reading the contracts that needed to be signed the next day.
The meeting meant that she missed putting her two year-old daughter to bed, something her husband resented though he tried very hard not to show his disappointment at her frequent absences. She worked very hard and he would not resent her income. She had not sought his company when she came in but sat down to finish reading the contracts that had been discussed at dinner. He was not aware that she was at home and was only made aware of said fact when he set out to turn off the lights before going to bed.
"Hey!" she said when she was plunged into darkness. He turned the lights back on and noticed her sitting on the sofa.
"C.C.!" he said, "I didn't know you were even home." He sat down next to her folding his hands and studying her, though she kept her eyes on the contract, picking up where she left off.
"I put Clara to bed," he said.
"Hmm?" she said, "Did she go down easy?"
He shook his head 'no' but she didn't seem to notice.
"That's good," she said.
"How was the meeting?" he said.
"Fine... Sheffield talks too much sometimes. He lays all his cards out on the table and leaves us nothing to bargain with for a better deal..." she said. She flipped the page and kept reading.
He sighed finally after a few moments of silence and turned on the lamp next to her. He kissed her head, turned out the main light and went to bed.
Half an hour later, after she had read the same clause four times, she rubbed her eyes, stuffed the contract into her briefcase and turned off the lamp. She picked up her heels and walked to their bedroom. She softly opened the door. Though the light was on, she knew her husband's proclivity to fall asleep while reading. The sight that greeted her, however, was not her husband reading, but participating in another activity altogether. She smiled before leaning on the doorframe and clearing her throat.
"Got started without me, eh?" she asked, clearly amused.
Startled, he quickly attempted to cover himself without much success.
"What's the matter, Butler Boy? Shy?" she said. She looked like the cat that got the cream. He sat with his mouth gaping and stuttered a weak explanation. Try as he may, he found no words that could adequately explain his hand wrapped around his member and his other hand gripping a photograph of what, his wife did not know.
"Niles, Niles, Niles," she said shaking her head. She dropped her shoes and reached up to pull the pins from her hair. Her hair had grown considerably since they had married and fell in soft curls on her shoulders. His mouth sank further and immediately went dry. He stopped his movements and stared as she reached her hands down to pop one button of her suit down at a time, rolling her shoulders back as she did.
"Did I say you should stop, dearest?" she said with saccharine sweetness, though she herself was aroused by the darkening of his eyes. He pulled off his reading glasses and pulled his pajama bottoms lower. He resumed stroking himself at her command. With tantalizing slowness, she unbuttoned her suit. She did not slip it off her shoulders as he expected her to, but instead began unbuttoning her blouse beneath. He wet his lips as her hands found the zipper to her black skirt. She unzipped enough to be able to ease it off of her hips and down her long legs. She wore tights, but it was strangely elegant with her blazer still on her shoulders and her black push-up bra clearly visible through her wide open blouse.
She strutted over to his side of the bed and felt up his legs until she reached the band of his pajamas. She helped him out of them and stroked up and down his thighs as he pleasured himself. From this angle, he got a view of her full breasts peeking out of the material. She straightened and grabbed the cuff of her suit, loosening it from her arms. She eased it down her shoulders, puffing her chest out as she did. His member jumped as more of her creamy skin was exposed. She then leaned in to take his lips lightly. He leaned forward into the kiss, but she leaned back as he did so his lips fell upon her neck. He growled in frustration.
His hands left his body to move to slip into her blouse. She moved back entirely then, teasing him, mercilessly. She placed a kiss on the head of his cock, then grasped his hand and kissed it as well before moving it back to where it had been. She crawled up the bed and sat next to him, her eyes keenly fixed on his cock as he pleasured himself.
She was gaining a deep satisfaction from this slow torture of her long suffering husband. It was unfair, she knew, but she was also annoyed at his greediness in starting before her. She leaned again, once more to kiss him, this time taking his mouth in a searing kiss. She pulled the hand that was on his cock up to cup her breast which was still encased in her bra. She groaned as he kneaded it gently. She began to stroke him in return, pulling him hard and fast. His other hand found its way into her tights, stroking her intimate parts roughly. His fingers found their way inside her and his thumb rested firmly against her clit. He wanted to make her come undone as quickly as she was doing to him. As her breathing grew more laboured, he knew it was working. She pulled down her tights quickly then and straddled him.
Her mouth formed a perfect "O!" as she sank onto him, pulling him into her. She opened her eyes and looked deeply into his. She could see arousal and something else. Hurt, perhaps? She kissed him then, though her movements were becoming more and more erratic as she climbed towards her peak. He too became swiftly undone and grasped her hips sharply. He felt her spasm around him. He then thrusted more earnestly into her and shouted her name as he too, came.
She collapsed on his chest and his fingers weaved into her hair, stroking it. She caught a glimpse of the photograph to which he had been pleasuring himself. It was bent and looked like it had been grasped in such a way on several occasions. She picked it up and rested her chin upon his chest as she studied it closer. It was a picture of her that he had taken on their honeymoon. She was in a bikini. It was obvious, at least to her, that she was a few months pregnant, though not pregnant enough to be repulsive in a two-piece... though he said that he was never repulsed by her pregnant body and demonstrated it several times. She was reading and sucking carelessly on a popsicle in this photo. It was seductive, but had an undoubtedly innocent quality to it as she was certain she did not know he had taken such a picture of her, much less kept it for such an intimate purpose.
"You think I'm sexy?" she said looking deep into his eyes which were now dark blue with affection.
He smiled down at her, tired from their activities, "Yes, my Ice Queen. How could you ever doubt it?"
She looked at the edges of the picture, which were so obviously worn. She frowned, "Niles? How often... do you do look at this... like this I mean."
He sighed. He didn't want to admit that he had been doing it very often recently as she had grown busier and busier with her work.
"Often," he said. When she gave him a glance that he knew meant that she wasn't buying it, he said "Every night this week."
It was her turn to sigh as she let the photograph drop. She began drawing circles in his chest hair.
He rubbed his eyes with the hand that wasn't stroking her back, "Can you blame me? You haven't been home earlier than 8:30 all this month. All you want to do then is finish your contracts then sleep. I'm not even sure you're eating right. Poor Clara has been throwing fits all this week, waiting by the door for you to come home and pick her up and play with you. Your mother used to neglect you... surely..." his voice cracked, "surely you know how that feels..."
She rolled off of him and sat up, squaring her shoulders, "Work has been heavy. We're a week away from filming on Season 2... this is a crucial time..."
"There's always going to be something," he said, sitting up himself, "You can't just ignore us like this, C.C..."
She had an answer ready for him, always. But as he got up to walk to the bathroom, his lower half naked, she remembered how much she missed this intimacy with him. When was the last time they had made love? Last week? Last month? Too long ago to properly remember. She remembered the early days of their courtship, if one could call it that, when she hadn't been able to keep her hands off of him. She remembered their evenings together talking late into the evening over coffee and Bailey's. She remembered crying herself to sleep a few times when they'd argued, or even the first time she refused him. She'd laughed at him to his face and to everyone who would listen, but when she was alone in her apartment, she died inside, craving his touch.
She couldn't imagine life without him. His constant jokes at her expense... his childish flirting... his deep love for his wife and daughter for whom he cared deeply... enough to stay home and not pursue his own career, but to care for her. C.C. and Clara were his world and she loved him for it. Suddenly, she couldn't bear the fact that she had hurt him so deeply with her neglect.
She walked into the bathroom where he stood washing his face. Her body pressed into his back, her arms grasped firmly around his chest.
"I'm sorry." she choked on the words as they did not come easily to her.
"Hmm?" he said drying his face with their embroidered towels.
"I'm sorry," she said again. She turned him so he faced her and pulled him down for a kiss, "I'll tell you what... if Maxwell tries to keep me late tomorrow... I'll just leave. He has a set twins and a pretty wife that he should be paying attention to, doesn't he? If he tries to keep me there, I'll just tell him to stuff it."
He tapped her chest with his towel, "Tomorrow, yes. But what about all the days after?" He threw the towel into the hamper and headed towards the bed.
She shrugged, "I'm a partner in his business, aren't I? He can't do work without me, can he? I'll... I'll hire an assistant. Yes. I'll hire an assistant... Someone else to slog through mountains of paperwork. I've been thinking about it for a while, but I keep putting it off. You know how much I like control... I'll start looking tomorrow."
"I thought you were coming home early tomorrow," he said pulling back the covers and climbing into bed.
"Do you want me to start coming home earlier or not?" she said placing her hands on her bare hips.
Finally, he smiled knowing at least that this was a step, "Have I ever told you how sexy you look when you're just the teensiest miffed?"
She rolled her eyes and climbed into bed next to him, "Only every day."