Page 45 of Contention

And, she doesn’t want to acknowledge what she wants.

This thought process isn’t healthy, so she quickly returns the subject to Gale. “What did Gale say to you?” Kara asks, even though she’s afraid of finding out. “I’m surprised you listened to her.”

Calais scoots closer to her, having her neatly cornered against the side of the limo now. His proximity is making her nervous, her mouth dry, and she feels achy where she shouldn’t. He’s oblivious as he boxes her in, practically blocking her from the rest of the limo. “What have I told you about sticking your nose in my business?”

Shakily, Kara whispers, “What did she say to you?”

His eyes flicker over her face and whatever he sees in her gaze makes him pity her a slight bit more, which Kara finds repulsive. “She wanted to bring you with; she likes working with you. I said no, obviously, and told her what you did to deserve my refusal.”

Kara opens her mouth to hiss at him about refusals, anger in her eyes, but some loud shouts and laughter cut her off.

There’s a lot of noise in the limo, Walter of the Goatee and his playtoy, Jade, doing some extremely heavy petting horizontally across the seats. Kara can easily see the woman is practically jerking him off through his slacks, without a care who sees. Kara flushes, embarrassed. She’s not a prude, but she has a few limits. What is it with these men? Do they literally have no shame to fucking give?

On the far end, Bittinger is sandwiched between his girls, drinking up a storm as they paw at him, their tongues on his neck, hands running up his spread legs. Fingers at his gleaming belt buckle, playing, undoing.

His eyes occasionally cross over to Kara and Calais, with a singular sort of dark curiousness in his gaze.

Kara can feel the heat of his stare on her face as she turns to look up at the man practically on her, feeling lost, relieved, and slightly angry at herself. There is no use in arguing about why he doesn’t want her working at his firm; it isn’t like Kara wants to be anywhere near him. Right? She switches gears to something else.I came to this circus limo for nothing. “You…really weren’t going to lodge a complaint against me anymore? Gale talked you out of it?”

He’s almost done with his gin and tonic, which she can smell on his breath. She’s tipsy enough to not truly care about the scent, it’s almost overwhelmingly fresh. “She convinced me to let you be, if I wouldn’t hire you.” He rolls his eyes then. “What she sees in you, I’ll never know.”

You could,Kara finds herself thinking before she mentally scolds herself. She goes to sip from her drink, out of anxiousness more than thirst, but finds it empty. Huh. She really drank it all?

She pours a sliver more in her empty cup. Kara shouldn’t, but she needs to blot the embarrassment away of this whole situation. She’s well aware that this past week has completely ruined all the hard-earned progress she made with limiting alcohol. The stress, the mental anguish…it’s running the show again. The tequila is smooth Kara chooses to lose herself to it. If she’s going to burn, she may as well burn explosively.

Blearily, she tilts her head up to look at Calais, overwhelmingly close, and her eyes widen as she sees him staring at her intently, his eyes on her wet lips. His throat works and his eyes are a heavy weight on her skin.

Kara wonders if he wants her. He doesn’t have to like her, or even care about her, after all.

She whispers to him, “You’re an awful man.”

Oh, how beautiful his eyes are, hot and cold, with flecks of gold inside of the sea of blue. Sunlight and sea mixed together. His lips brush her ear as he leans down to rasp, “You’re right. And you should know better than to be here with me.”

Laughter and yelps, choked moans and gasps, white noise in the background. He’s all she can focus on, alcohol going straight to her head. She’s shaking and she doesn’t know why. Is it nerves? She shivers and shrinks against the side of the limo, as if she wants to become one with it.

She should be angry, but she’s not. The drink has mellowed her out and suffused her in vague feelings of excitement and nervousness. She’s lucky she’s not in an aggressive mood anymore; Calais is turned on by aggression. It wouldn’t be safe to rile him up, not with her in this state.

Fighting him is something she shouldn’t do right now.Don’t fuel the fire, girl. Stay calm, don’t get angry.

His voice is doing things to her, low and breathy as he takes notice of her shaking frame. “Are you scared of me?”

She looks up at him, letting her soft brown eyes meet his own. She wonders what he’s thinking, if he really doesn’t think she’s pretty; he’s used to getting whatever he wants and it can’t possibly be her.

Except, it was her, that one night.

“Isn’t that what you want?” Kara asks him in a hushed voice. “For me to be afraid?”

His eyes dilate, taking over the blue of his eyes and he smirks, lopsided and hungry. That’s all the answer she’ll ever need, feeling her gut clench and her heart race, veins sluggish with alcohol, yet filled with so many confusing things.

She shivers again, furious with herself.

“Are you cold?” He knows she’s not, the look in his eyes confirming that.

The limo hits a decent sized bump in the road and someone spills a drink by the sounds of the yelps and gasps. Dietrich’s voice coils through the space, low and dangerous, “You’d better lick that up. These slacks are worth more than you, slut.”

A flash of dyed hair, ducking down into his crotch. His hand, tightly holding her down.

There’s a sound of wet, slurping noises and it’s probably Long Leg Jade, on top of Walter.

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