Going Up

By reading any further, you are stating that you are at least 18 years of age. If you are under the age of 18, it is necessary to exit this site.

An Excerpt From: GOING UP

Copyright © LENA MATTHEWS, 2011

All Rights Reserved, Ellora's Cave Publishing, Inc.

Chapter One

“Mr. Desoto.”

The voice of Reese’s senior officer blared out into the otherwise quiet office. Without looking up from the document he was filling out, Reese picked up his cell phone that also moonlighted as a walkie-talkie and pressed the send button. “Yes, Calverton.” He released the button as he awaited the reply.

“Sir, you instructed me to inform you when Ms. Brown made an appearance.”

Oh that’s right. It was Tuesday. Interest piqued, Reese laid his pen down and sat back in his chair. “Is she on her way up or on her way down?”

“Up, sir.”

Reese smiled. Perfect. He hadn’t missed the show yet. “I’ll be there in two minutes.”

“Sounds good, sir.”

Standing, Reese snapped the phone into the holster on his belt and grabbed his navy suit jacket. He slipped it on as he left his office and made his way down the hall to the security office. Taking off his badge, he swiped it down the ID reader then twisted the door handle and entered the room filled with shots of almost every possible angle of the large high-rise.

“Gentlemen,” he said as he came farther into the room. “How are things going?”

“Good.” Billy Calverton set his coffee cup on the table and smiled up at Reese. “Glad to see you could make it to the noon showing.”

“I do what I can.” Reese stood behind the two men sitting in front of the wall of monitors and ran his gaze over every screen, trying to pick out the familiar face. “Where is she?”

“She got off on the fifteenth floor,” Calverton replied.

“Not true. She hasn’t gotten off yet. Hopefully soon though. I tell you, gentlemen, she’s the reason I wake up on Tuesdays and Thursdays. You know, I don’t normally find black women attractive, but she is sexy. I mean, even her name sounds delicious. Koko Brown. Num, num, nummy.”

Reese dropped his gaze to Gordon Putney, the heavyset security officer who’d spoken. The dislike he felt for the other man rose inside him swift and sharp. Although Koko’s presence had long since become the end all, be all of his Tuesdays and Thursdays, Reese detested the slimy tone to the other man’s voice when he spoke the words Reese thought.

Turning, Reese grabbed the clipboard off the wall and dropped it down on the desk in front of the idiotic man. “Putney, time to do your rounds.”

Putney glanced down at his wristwatch then up at Reese and frowned. “I don’t have to do that for another half-hour.”

“Start early.”

“But…”

Reese arched a brow and waited for the other man to finish. He really hoped Putney would protest again, just to give Reese a reason to send him packing, other than his general dislike of the bothersome fellow. Unfortunately though, the other man was a bit brighter than Reese thought because he wisely closed his mouth, rose to his feet and ambled from the room as if every step he took was more painful than the last.

Calverton chuckled as the door shut behind the muttering man. “You’ve fucked up his whole damn day.”

“Good.” Reese shook his head as he glanced back toward the monitors. “Remind me to fire him tomorrow.”

“I’ve been reminding you of that since the day he started.”

“True.”

“You should have seen his face when I contacted you. He was not a happy camper. Said I was ruining all his fun by calling you down.”

It probably was the only fun the rat bastard got. “Ask me the biggie.”

Calverton played along. “Do you care?”

“Hell no.”

“Didn’t think so, but figured it was still best to ask. Check it out,” Calverton pointed to the center screen with the antenna of his walkie-talkie. “Your lady is back.”

“Mmm…so she is.” Reese watched as the attractive African-American woman slipped into the busy car. Her wavy brunette hair bounced around her shoulders as she made her way to the back of the semi-crowded elevator, lugging her small rolling cooler behind her.

This was the part he didn’t have to see to know what would happen next. It was the same every time she came in. He knew her routine by heart. After dropping off her deliveries, instead of taking the elevator going down to leave, she would always get on the one going up. No matter how full or empty the lift was, she always went to the very back and placed the rolling cooler in front her. Then the real fun would begin.

Calverton pulled the keyboard closer to him and typed for a couple of seconds. When he was done, the elevator Koko was on dominated every screen. With a few more clicks, the camera zoomed in on the brown-skinned beauty leaning back against the wall. She had a firm grip on the handle of her cooler, and the other one was hiding behind the container.

From the little smile that appeared on her full lips, he could just imagine where her hand was and why.

Naughty little vixen.

“She’s looking very nice today.” As she did every time he’d seen her. But today she looked especially lovely. The white form-fitting T-shirt she wore showcased her full, lush-looking breasts while advertising the name of the gourmet sandwich shop she co-owned front and center. With the shirt, she wore a fall-colored plaid kilt-style skirt that was as short as it was sexy. Her outfit reminded him of a naughty version of a schoolgirl uniform, and with a figure like hers, he was more than willing to keep her after school.

While Reese was busy salivating, Calverton tilted his head to the side and peered intently at the screen. “I wonder if she has any food left in her cart.”

Amused, Reese spared the other man a quick look. “One of the sexiest women in the world is masturbating in an elevator full of people and all you can think about is your stomach.”

“Hey, I can’t see her hand because that stupid cooler goes all the way up to her belly, but I can see the deli sandwich logo, and it’s making me hungry.”

Reese didn’t need to see her hand to know where it was. It was more than obvious by the way her teeth sank into her bottom lip and her breasts rapidly rose and fell under the scoop-cut shirt she wore, but if Calverton wanted to be blind, deaf and dumb, Reese was more than pleased to let him. “Good, that’s all you need to see.”

“You know, if it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t know she existed.”

“True.” Calverton had pulled Reese aside after noticing Koko’s strange riding habits. Always mindful of corporate spies, Reese had requested a full investigation of the deli company she co-owned, only to find nothing noteworthy. Unsatisfied with the findings, he had Calverton and Putney pore over the archived security tapes. What the two men discovered changed Reese forever. “Which is the only reason I haven’t kicked you out of the room.”

“Yet.”

Reese nodded. “Yet.”

If the elevator emptied before it hit the bottom floor, the other man would have to go. Koko always got a little bit more risqué when she was the only one left in the lift. She never completely undressed or pushed the cart out of the way while she fingered herself, but she would do other things, like slip her hand inside her blouse and play with her nipples as she strummed her clit.

He’d caught her doing that on several occasions, he even had a special little DVD he’d made of her most memorable moments, but that wasn’t something he shared with his subordinates. He was already mad enough he had to share this part with them. In fact, the more he thought about it, the more he realized he really had to bring an end to all their fun. Including Koko’s.

“Looks like there isn’t going to be much of a show today,” Calverton said, drawing Reese’s attention back to him. “She’s only a few floors from the lobby and it doesn’t look like it’s going to empty completely before she gets there.”

“I wouldn’t say I’ve missed out.”

“No,” Calverton agreed.

“No.” Reese rose. “But I do think it’s time I arrange for a private viewing.”

“Private. That’s no fun for me,” Calverton teased good-naturedly.

“Which is why I know it’s a good idea.”

With that parting shot, Reese exited the security room and walked quickly toward the bank of elevators near the rear of the building. By the time he made it over there, she was already out of the lift and heading in his general direction and out of his life again.

He knew she would be back in just two days, but it was two days too many. It was time for a face-to-face, and he knew exactly how to arrange it.