CHAPTER 28
When CC left the mansion early that evening, Niles wondered why she had lied about going to the benefit with Damon.
What was she trying to prove? She had admitted that there were few things for which she needed a man. He shuddered thinking of her needing McMann for one of them. The man irked Niles to no end. Besides that, if she preferred to be alone, why hide it?
CC lounged in the tub with bubbles up to the rim. Steam rose as she sat thinking of Niles being in her kitchen on a daily basis. She had to admit she wouldn't mind having home-cooked meals everyday. She definitely wasn't getting the right nutrition during her busy schedule. There just never seemed to be time to worry about cooking or eating and the stress of her job seemed to zap her appetite anyway.
The steam from the hot water of the bathtub disappeared into the air of her large bathroom as she thought back to being in Niles's bathroom and how he'd handed her a towel to make her more comfortable.
Then her mind dashed back to her standing in his bedroom while they had blow-dried her clothes after their water fight. She'd been in his room an awful lot lately.
She grabbed some soap and ran it over her body, hoping to wash away the images. She felt aroused for no reason. She couldn't seem to quell her sexual thoughts lately either. She realized she had stood in front of Niles in his room in a wet, semi transparent blouse.
Since all that had happened since then, she felt awkward just thinking about how comfortable she had been with him in that moment. She had had no idea that things were going to become so... twisted. He hadn't laughed at her or looked at her in disgust or even commented on her wobbly bits. He'd just looked at her. And touched her gently, told her not to burn herself. She should have known then and there that something was beginning to change. I could have prevented all this. Maybe I didn't want to?
She couldn't remember how that moment had ended but she liked the version she had dreamed up in the shower the morning after it happened.
She sighed as she remembered it. She had been so rudely interrupted by her alarm clock. Not this time! She decided.
She set down the soap and slipped her hand under the water once more to touch herself. She ran her hands down her body and grazed them over her abdomen. She lowered her right hand slowly and thought about him in the leopard print boxer briefs...
The way he'd lifted her onto Maxwell's desk with no regard for the important paperwork piled on the desktop; the way he'd tugged her dress up at her thighs to stand between her legs; the way he'd grabbed her breast and squeezed it while he kissed her... She lifted her left hand to pinch her nipple and moaned.
The way he'd looked at her; the way he'd licked his lips and smiled that stupid, lopsided grin as he touched her; the way he'd pushed himself against her center. The hardness of him. She moaned loudly as she slipped a finger inside herself and stroked gently.
She thought about their dirty talk in the Sheffield kitchen; the way he had pushed himself against her back; the things he said he had wanted to do to her; the things he said he had thought about her; the way he had cupped her breasts; the feel of his erection against her; him sucking on her finger to lick off the cinnamon and sugar...
Ring, ring
CC absentmindedly used her free hand to pick up the portable phone from its cradle next to the bathtub. "Hmm, Niles."
"How did you know it was me?" He asked.
Damn it!
"Witchcraft?" He asked.
"What?" She questioned, still caught off guard that he was really on the line with her when she had been fantasizing about him and still had a finger between her legs.
"You knew I was calling... You're practicing witchcraft again aren't you." She could hear the smirk in his voice. She wanted to get off of the phone and get herself off but she was curious as to why he was calling.
"Why are you calling me?" She asked, half moaning at her own movement against her hand.
"Oh, now you don't know? I thought you'd be able to tell." He teased.
"Ah... Niles. What do you need? I'm in the middle of something."
He heard the water splash around a little. "Getting ready for the benefit? It's already past p.m."
"Benefit? Hmmm. Oh. No. Cancelled. I'm just... Mmmm...enjoying a night in. I'm in the tub right now so could you hurry it up?!"
"In the tub? I thought your bathroom was too big to get steamy? Or are you feeling better." He inquired.
"Hmmm. Yeah... I feel good." She said, trying hard to hold her composure. "Hurry up, Niles."
The slight moan in her voice was making him wonder what she was doing. He started to picture her in the tub. He became a little embarrassed by the images her voice drew up in his mind's eye.
"Mr. Sheffield requested that I check on you since you left work early this evening."
"I'm fine. I'll come in early tomorrow to tie up any loose ends I left this evening. Bye." She removed the phone from her ear to hang up but heard him say something so she listened once more.
"Ugh, what?" She groaned as she shifted against her hand and circled her thumb on her clitoris.
"Have you eaten dinner?" He asked.
"Mmmhmmm uh..."
"Is that a yes? What's wrong with you? Why do you sound funny?
"Yeah..."
"Miss Babcock? You sound stranger than usual. Do you have a fever? I'm coming over."
"No! Don't be ridiculous. Goodbye, Niles." She moaned and hung up, and without looking, tossed the phone onto the pile of clothing she had created at the end of the day.
CC lowered her free hand into the water and grabbed her breast once more. Her hand had been out in the cool air for a while and when she touched herself with it, she could feel the cold. She delighted in the feeling of it. She imagined it was someone else's hand... his hand.
Hearing his voice had helped, even though she was loathe to admit it. She felt like he had been there in her bathtub with her.
Why was she so attracted to this man? On paper they were all wrong for each other and she couldn't want to be in a relationship with him. She was a public figure after all - a socialite - a Broadway businesswoman. But physically... she just wanted to have her way with him.
The thought of being naked in his presence with all the tension between them made her stomach flip - partly out of anxiousness that he would judge her figure but mostly out of the anticipation that he wouldn't. She imagined him wanting her; taking her. She continued fingering herself until it became too much. She felt her body begin to go rigid and her chin lifted as her feet pushed against the end of the tub. She gasped and sucked in a few breaths as she came.
She sighed and smiled to herself. This was the closest she had come to... coming with a man present in more than a year. Well, he was almost present.
She hadn't been intimate with a man in a long time and hadn't been intimately touched in ages but the past few days had awakened her libido. Maybe I should consider sex toys? She contemplated, forgetting that she had Damon to fall back on; or forward on.
Still smiling, she dipped her head under the water to wet her hair. Her head emerged through the surface and she began washing her locks gently. Once she had finished, she pulled the plug and got out of the tub while the water whistled and slurped down the drain.
She dried herself off and slipped on her red silk robe. She patted her hair dry and walked into her bedroom to turn on her laptop. She hunched over to type in the search bar on the Internet browser.
She typed 'Sex toys for women, NYC'. She felt a thrill rush through her as the search results began to pop up. She scanned through the first few and was unsure where to start. What would I even like?
She grabbed her hairbrush and began untangling her knots as she opened a webpage of a store in the Hell's Kitchen area of New York City. It was quite fitting for her. Niles would think so. She snorted in amusement.
A few sale items leapt up into view, the leather lingerie begged for her attention but she read through the list of categories in a dropdown menu at the top of the screen.
Kinky games for you & your partner...
Special oils and lotions for you & your partner...
Dancers for hire
Mature reading materials and videos for subscription...
Outfits for her...
Outfits for him...
Sex toys...
Sexy edibles...
She scrolled back up. What outfits would there be for a man to wear?
She clicked on the link and got up to slip on a pair of panties under her robe while it loaded. She went into her bathroom to fetch a bottle of her Chanel-scented body lotion.
When she entered her room again, her eyes bulged in glee and she began to giggle evilly at the pictures of men's costumes. There were firemen outfits and cowboys with ass-less chaps, a couple of different policemen outfits - standard fetishes, she mused, smiling. The models aren't bad either. Then she saw one that said 'male servants & domestic submissives'. Her heart flipped. She clicked on the image to get a better look.
A handsome male model appeared on screen, clothed in yellow rubber gloves, a black feather duster, and a revealing apron with a convenient Velcro flap in the front. CC laughed when she pictured the butler in it and then almost fell off of her seat when the doorbell frightened her out of her investigation.
She cinched her robe up tighter, seeing as she had no bra on. She was still giggling when she grabbed a tissue to blow her nose as she ran to the door. She peeped through the keyhole, only to see Niles waiting outside, holding a bowl.
She turned around to face her apartment. "Ugh! What the hell is he doing here?" She whispered to herself.
He rapped his knuckles on the door again.
She looked down at herself and her skin flushed scarlet. She held her robe tighter at her chest and turned to open the door.
"I told you not to come." She said.
"First of all, hello. Secondly, you tell me not to do a lot of things. Why would I start listening now?" He said and then took in the sight of her. "I came to check you out- check on you. I came to check on you." He noticed her damp hair and flushed cheeks.
"I'm fine, I told you."
"You don't look fine. You look feverish and you were talking gibberish on the phone." He walked past her and into her apartment. She watched him and he looked back at her to see her frowning in confusion. "Mr. Sheffield ordered me to check on you."
"Yeah, right... That halfwit didn't even notice me leave," She mumbled. "What are you doing?" She asked as he entered her kitchen.
"You lied."
"About what?" She asked, shutting the door when she realised he wasn't going to leave.
"You said you'd eaten dinner. I don't see any dishes."
"I have a dishwasher." She said.
He eyed her and then opened the dishwasher to look inside.
"Excuse me, Yenta! Why are you being so nosy?" She said in annoyance when she knew he'd found her out.
"It's my job," he said. "Your dishwasher is empty as I suspected. I brought soup. Sit down."
He lifted the bowl he was carrying into the microwave and pressed a few buttons until it began to heat.
"I don't come into your home and make myself comfortable!" She said, slightly irritated.
He gave her a look. "I've never been in your bedroom, sitting on your bed with wet clothes." He reminded her.
"You invited me in that time." She said haughtily and crossed her arms.
He shook his head. "You should dry your hair. You can catch a cold like that." He pointed at her head.
"Too late. And you can't. You get them from viruses... Hence, I got mine from you!"
"Very funny." He said, emotionless. "Come here and sit down, will you?"
She obliged, albeit with some reluctance.
He set the soup down in front of her and she smiled unintentionally when she saw and smelled it.
"Spoon?" She asked.
"You're ordering me? I'm not the butler in this house." He said but fetched a spoon nonetheless.
She took it and sipped a first bite.
"How would ya like to be?" She buzzed in contentment at the taste of the soup.
"Your butler?"
"Mmhmm. Or just my cook. You don't have to be here. Just make meals for me. You could make them at the Sheffield's even. I could take them with me when I leave after work." She began musing aloud.
He considered it. "Why would I work for you?"
"Coz Maxwell's only paying you six bucks an hour for everything you pretend to do there," She smirked.
"I'd pay you that for the meals alone," she singsonged. "And perhaps some grocery shopping as well." She swallowed a few more spoonfuls and then looked up at him.
"It's a deal, Babcock." He said hesitantly.
"Great! You start tomorrow!" she held out her hand and he shook it.
"What are you making me for breakfast?" She said happily.
"Whoa, Nelly. I haven't even found a store that carries freshly harvested hay yet. Have you got any of Chester's dog food on hand?" He teased.
She smiled and rolled her eyes.
He laughed as she licked her spoon clean, pushed the bowl towards him and got up. "I'm going to blow-dry my hair and put on some pjs. Feel free to explore the kitchen and pantry," she suggested.
He took the bowl, placed it into the dishwasher and began looking around, searching through her cabinets.
CC ran into her room and slipped on a pair of short, ladies' silk boxer shorts and a silk spaghetti strap vest before putting on her robe once more.
She dried her hair and looked down at her vanity table wondering whether she should put on some makeup to make herself a little more presentable. She pinched her cheeks for some colour. She picked up her lipstick and then set it down again, shaking her head angrily at herself in the mirror. What the hell, CC?!
She returned to the kitchen to find him removing items from the pantry.
"You're going to make something now? Here?" She asked.
He peeked his head out at her. "No, like you, these all need to be thrown out."
She should have been embarrassed that she hadn't noticed the items had expired but she wasn't.
"Do you ever eat in this house?! None of this stuff could make a suitable meal."
"Open the door to your left." She said.
He did so and found a fully stocked bar. He pursed his lips at her.
"If I'm really hungry, I'll add more olives to my Martini," she joked.
He shook his head. "I'm not surprised."
She grinned.
He threw all of the expired items into a trash bag. "Are these all you have?"
"I have a stash of junk food in my bedroom... Chocolates and stuff. But I'm sure those are still fine," she said.
"I'll check," he said as he picked up the trash bag, highly doubtful of her and also interested in exploring the apartment.
"First door on your left," she called as he walked down the passageway. She walked into the kitchen to close the doors on the cabinets he had been digging through.
Oh, fff-! She bolted to her bedroom, remembering that she had left her laptop on.
When she burst in, she ran to her laptop where he was standing and she slammed it shut, grinning innocently. But she knew he had already seen it.
"I'm not wearing a uniform to work for you," he remarked with his best poker face.
She blushed. "The junk food is in that drawer over there," she said, pretending that hadn't just happened.
As he turned away from her she looked back at the laptop and checked that it was properly closed and then looked around the room, seeing her bra lying on the bed. She quickly grabbed it.
"No, not that drawer!" She ran to his side and shut the drawer containing her underwear. Before she shut it, he had spotted the black lace & sheer underwear she had described during their dirty talk in the Sheffield kitchen.
"This one." She indicated and he looked at her with the bra in her hands.
She quickly hid it behind her back and bit her bottom lip.
"I've seen your undergarments before, Miss Babcock. In Atlantic City, remember?"
"Yes, you ransacked my drawers without permission. I couldn't exactly stop you, I had no choice."
He began looking through her stash of junk food. "So much chocolate!" He said. "You need to get laid so that you don't have to waste so much money on these for your feel-good hormones."
She snatched the slab of chocolate he was inspecting. "Dark chocolate is good for your health, FYI! I saw it on TV."
"And you don't have to cook it." He knew she ate all the junk food because it was just easier than preparing a meal.
She scowled at him and opened the wrapper to take a bite.
"And it's known that women who eat a lot of junk do so to cover sexual frustration."
She slowed her chewing as she processed what he had said. "Oh please, that's such a misconception and frankly it's insulting to all women everywhere!"
"Oh damn, I was hoping to insult you."
"Shut up. I'm a real woman."
He looked down at her silk-covered chest as she tore off a little more of the wrapper to take a bigger bite. His eyes followed the contours of her breasts and he could see that she wasn't wearing a bra underneath. He swallowed and turned to look through the drawer again. He threw a few things into the trash bag and she lifted her head to watch him.
She leaned against her vanity table and when he turned to look at her, he noticed the bottle of body lotion behind her.
"Chanel." He said.
"No, Chast-. It's CC. Still Miss Babcock to you."
"I was referring to the body lotion."
She turned to look at it. "Oh." She blushed and remembered how she'd told him she had imagined his rough hands lathering it onto her thighs for her.
She turned to look at him again. He moved towards her to reach for the bottle. She felt her body tingle at his nearness. He opened the lid and sniffed it. "Not bad." He said and grasped her wrist, bringing it to his nose to smell her pulse point. She watched as he closed his eyes to breathe her in. She had a forgotten block of chocolate in her cheek.
"You could almost convince people you're a woman with this aroma floating around on you." he teased.
She smirked. "I haven't put any on yet."
He opened his eyes and looked embarrassed. He dropped her wrist. "I was talking about the bottle."
She smiled and he reached up to grab a piece of chocolate from her hand, stuffing it into his mouth.
She mimicked him. They watched each other chew. Glancing between each other's lips and eyes.
"I'll come over in the morning after I've done some grocery shopping," he said quietly and watched her lick the chocolate off of her lips. "Mmhmm."
"Ugh! Babcock!" He groaned in frustration and walked out of her room towards the front door, firmly clutching the trash bag.
"What? What'd I do?" She asked, coming up behind him as he opened the apartment door.
He turned around. "Nothing. What time do you wake up in the morning?"
"Depends how heavy my night was."
"I'll just catch a cab over here after serving the Sheffields and then I'll get a ride back to the mansion with you after you've had your breakfast," he decided.
"Seems logical," she said, and reached out to hold the door open as he stepped out. He noticed her robe open a little and caught a glimpse of her cleavage.
She noticed his eyes drop and she lowered her arm, feeling vulnerable.
"Thanks for the soup."
He nodded. "I'll see you in the morning then, Miss Babcock." He said and walked away as she shut the door, stuffed another piece of chocolate into her mouth and frowned, deep in thought.