Alex

This is the third part of a three part story. This chapter is told from the point of view of Alex.

I was drifting in and out of sleep, snuggled against the sleeping body of my lover. His presence was nice, but his snoring was annoying. Perhaps I would need to insist that he went back to his own room from now on after we did our dirty deeds together. I wondered how Steph put up with it. I didn't really know enough about their home life to speculate. We'd been intimate, but we weren't yet together in that way that couples or long-term throuples get. I wondered if we would reach that point. I had been sincere in my promise to Steph to not take her man, and I also knew the long-term statistics about throuples. However nice things were now (apart from the snoring), this was unlikely to last.

My Dad had drilled me on classic rock history. I thought of our little arrangement as the pre-Yoko phase of the Beatles, the pre-Wall phase of Pink Floyd, the pre-Rumours phase of Fleetwood. Without the drugs, obviously. The pre... actually would it be the pre-conception phase of Oasis? I'm sure that they weren't fighting prior to Liam's birth. Anyway, the point was, this would evolve into something else, and soon enough we would be choosing whether the break-up song would be a fond farewell or Swiftian in its intensity. I thought that we were adult enough for the former. And in the meantime, we were making great music.

Todd and I had had a good trip so far. We left for Riyadh today, and then we would be heading home, with new contacts and contracts lined up. We really were a good team, and Steph had proven to be well worth bringing on board despite the closeness of it all. She had good ideas, and had a winning sincerity with officialdom. I could be arrogant and impatient, and sometimes I needed to be kept shut in my box while Steph negotiated stuff.

She must have sensed me thinking of her, because suddenly my phone was ringing. 5:30am? Surely she remembered the time difference. Frowning, I picked up the call, bleary eyed.

"Steph?"

"Alex? Oh God, sorry did I wake you? I keep forgetting!" She gave a ditzy laugh. My frown deepened. This was not a good news call, particularly if she felt it was so important that she had to play the blond card.

"Hey Steph, it's okay. How can I help?"

"Oh I'm so sorry. It was nothing really. It's just that Todd didn't pick up, and I tried ringing three times. I so forgot about the time! He must have his phone on mute. Maybe when you see him, could you let him know to check his phone? I mean I feel bad calling three times. I need to make some décor decisions in the new house. I mean hopefully when he sees three calls he'll call be back at a better time, just as long as it's not three in the morning for me!" Could you mention it anyway, just in case?

"I surely shall, Steph. Three times, you say? Okay, I've got the message! Hey honey, do you mind if I get a couple more hours sleep first? Then I'll go knock on his door."

"Sure!" she giggled. "And sorry again!"

I put the phone down, seriously concerned. I knew their alarm signals. One squeeze for alert, two for danger, three for emergency. Steph had definitely been working on the assumption that she was being overheard, and she had something big going down.

Todd was awake, having heard my end of the conversation, and he'd picked up my expression. We'd installed a secure signaling app for this circumstance, but we were normally reluctant to use it. Nothing is truly secure.

I bent over to whisper in Todd's ear. "Emergency call from Steph. Message her back. Assume we're being monitored."

He nodded, brow furrowed, and unlocked his phone. Grimacing, he showed me that there had indeed been three missed calls from Steph. He established a VPN connection and pulled up their messaging App. He sent a single "?" to Steph. It wasn't long before her message came back. His eyebrows shot skywards, and without comment he gave his phone to me to read, and started putting himself together to go back to his room.

Steph's message was pretty blunt.

"We are cooperating fully with US and Saudi authorities. It appears that A has been using our software for fraud. Please be warm towards A/F and invite them BOTH to visit us at a date to be arranged later. BEHAVE yourselves. Any trouble contact.."

The message ended with the contact details of two people who were apparently US agents of some kind.

Todd came out of the bathroom, and I pointed to the way that Steph had emphasized 'BEHAVE'. He nodded, and made a fucking gesture with his fingers, followed by a slit throat gesture. Well, that was it for our summer of love, at least for now. At least the snoring would no longer be a problem: with the strength of Steph's messaging this morning, perhaps we would be sleeping at separate hotels. Or in separate jail cells.

***

We made it to Riyadh that afternoon. In snatched, oblique conversations, we had agreed to keep to our original plan except for following Steph's instructions. We only had two nights here and then we were headed home.

Keeping some distance from Ahmad was impossible. As soon as we arrived at the airport, we were met by his personal chauffeur, who told us that our rooms had been upgraded to be on the top floor of the hotel, next to Ahmad's Presidential Suite. When I protested, I was told that he was fully covering our costs. I wondered what he was chasing from us.

I didn't have to wonder too long. We had been informed that Ahmad was unavoidably detained and that we would see him and Fatemah in the morning. But after Todd and I had had a thoroughly professional dinner together and gone to our separate rooms, there was a quiet knock on my door. I looked through the peephole, and there was Ahmad.

I open the door, furiously trying to work out how to handle this. Almost certainly, Ahmad was being watched even more closely than we were.

"Ahmad! What a pleasure," I said, but I didn't invite him in.

"Alex," he said, smiling and extending his hand. "I happened to get here earlier that expected, and I thought to myself... 'who better to spend my bonus time with?'"

"How sweet of you!" I said, clapping my hands in joy. "Your sensitive consideration knows no bounds! But I do wonder... would it be seemly for us to be alone in a hotel room together? I wouldn't want to give Fatemah any cause for concern."

"Oh," he said, waving airily, "she doesn't get here until the morning. And it would be a shame to waste such a brilliant night! The view from my balcony is simply stunning, and I must insist that you look at it. And if you play billiards, we have an excellent table." The phrases rolled off his tongue so smoothly, he must have used it a hundred times. Despite myself, I could feel the sleazy but intense charm that had pulled Steph in, hook line and sinker.

"Ahmad," I said, leaning forward conspiratorially, "I'm much reassured, and ordinarily I would be delighted. But I'm under strict instructions to follow the highest possible standards while I'm here. Apparently Stephanie had some sort of strange interaction with somebody last time -- something about a gift of lingerie? She said it didn't mean anything, but Todd has laid down the law to us. I am not to leave this room tonight or to have company."

I lowered my voice, maxing up my sultry tones. "I do have a surprise for you though. We are going to invite you both to visit California. I'm very sure that Stephanie and Todd will be able to entertain Fatemah for a day while we go over the details of some 'product development.' As I said that last bit, I made the same fucking gesture that Todd had shown me earlier, and turned on my brightest, sexiest smile. "More liberal laws in California, too. We can try some innovations that you can't do here. Perhaps I could convince Stephanie to join us in the discussion while Todd entertains Fatemah?"

He had been looking frustrated, but brightened up at the last part of my speech, and particularly when I suggested a threesome with Steph. The more I could get him thinking with his balls, the better. Men were easy.

***

Fatemah proved remarkably obliging the next day too, and I began to think that she was collaborating with the Saudi authorities in the same way that we were in the States. When Todd formally made the invitation, it looked for a second like Ahmad was about to intervene with some reason why he had to go alone, but she immediately swooped in with a delighted acceptance.

"And I'm

so

looking forward to spending time with Alex and Stephanie while Todd and Ahmad talk shop," she exclaimed, with a mischievous glint in her eye. "After all, we women will be delighted to have a spa day while the men do their important work."

I just about choked, and Todd struggled to keep a straight face, but he rose to the challenge. "I think that we can have a mixture of activities. I know that Alexandra is looking forward to briefing your husband on some of the more technical questions that he's been asking about. Something to do with the fluidity of the client interface, wasn't it Alex?" I nodded, not trusting myself to speak.

"And Stephanie and I would be delighted to discuss some of the concepts that we've been thinking about for the Women in Saudi business program with you, and combine that with a visit to some other companies doing similar programs. That way we can use our time efficiently," Todd continued smoothly.

We agreed to set dates for the visit as soon as possible, and then moved onto other things.

***

We were on edge until the moment when our flight left the airport at Riyadh, but nothing happened. I almost wondered if Steph was being overdramatic, but she wasn't like that at all: she had actually proven to be calmly thoughtful and logical when Todd and I were being over-excited. We had to trust her judgement.

She was there to pick us up from the airport when we passed through customs. Business had been going well, so we had splashed out on business class flights, and had both had some sleep.

Steph welcomed us warmly, just touching her finger briefly to her lips to warn us to be careful. She wasn't driving her regular car, and surprised us by taking us to a nearby hotel rather than their home or mine.

"I thought that we could debrief here rather than drag you all the way to our home, Alex," she said cheerfully, and Todd and I played along.

To our surprise, she had booked us into a luxurious, large suite.

"Let's all freshen up," she said. "Drop your clothes here and I'll run the jacuzzi." She disappeared into the bathroom, and Todd shrugged at me. We stripped right down, and I realized what this was all about when Steph came back out, dropped all of her clothes, and then carefully removed a hair clip from my hair. She put it aside with a small wink, and then looked me up and down, smiling her approval. She checked Todd over as well, hamming it up a little by carefully inspecting all around his nice cock, which was rising to half-mast under her attention. Then she gathered up all of our washing and shut it into a small secondary bedroom attached to the suite. Grinning, she gestured us towards the bathroom, leading the way with a saucy shake of her delectable bottom.

Once we were in the tub and she closed the door to the bathroom, she finally confirmed what was going on. "Sorry guys. I might be overdoing it. The thing is, although we know that our own people and the Saudis are watching us, we don't know Ahmad is doing for gathering intelligence. We shouldn't take him too lightly, so that means no clothes and in a place that he didn't know about. And of course I wanted you naked for other reasons, but work first, then fun."

She had one device in the room with us: her portable memo recorder. "I promised that I would erase this after I played it to you," she said, pressing play.

We sat in the jacuzzi, listening in silence as the recording of her meeting played out. Steph was obviously very familiar with it, and relieved her boredom by sitting in between us and lightly teasing each of us with her hands as we listened. I gave her a grin when she started rubbing me down below, but playfully slapped her hand away. She had been sex-starved, but I wanted to listen.

"You weren't overdoing it. Fuck that's intense," Todd said quietly when it was done. "They could easily have come in to arrest you and tear the company apart, but for some reason they decided to play nicely. And you handled that perfectly. Alex and I owe you big time."

"I agree. One false move and they would have switched tactics. I probably would have tried to bluster through, and failed," I said. "I also think that it's likely that Fatemah is working this at her end for her own reasons. Saudi Arabia have got a fraud problem and they need results, but she might be influencing them to play nicely, because then she's got more of a chance of preserving everybody's face. Except maybe Ahmad's."

Todd gave a little chuckle, which reminded me that I hadn't briefed either him or Steph on what had happened.

"Speaking of which," I said, "you'll be pleased to know that he tried to seduce me with the Penthouse suite, the promise of a great view, the billiards table and of course his magnetic personality. Honestly I would have been pretty strongly tempted if I hadn't been forewarned. He didn't even pull the lingerie card and I was almost getting moist listening to him."

"You're fucking with me," said Todd.

"I fuck you not, Todd. Why do you think we got upgraded to the top floor? It was so he could knock on my door while you were surfing Netflix." I gave them the detailed blow-by-blow, and this time I did let Steph feel me up. We kept playing as we started speculating about things that we

could

do respectively with Ahmad and Fatemah. It was getting silly, but the conversation was also getting hot. Finally we abandoned pretense. We needed a bit of relief.

"Steph, you know you seriously cramped our style with that dramatic but necessary warning," said Todd.

"Yes, you were a very naughty girl," I said, playing along. "It was a complete fuck-o-rama until you found a way to shrivel your husband's interest in me."

"Let me tell you, it was a complete frig-o-rama at our house until that visit from the Feds," said Steph drily. "It was very hard to not be obsessively thinking about you together."

"Be that as it may, you stopped our sex carnival in its tracks," said Todd, "and you're going to be punished." Suddenly he turned and lifted Steph out of the jacuzzi, shrieking, turning her around and putting her down face first on the edge, legs waving pointlessly, ass in the air. He got out himself and then started tickling her on the sides of her ribcage, and she started giggling helplessly. He looked at me and nodded towards her ass.

I put on a stern voice. "Five each cheek, I think."

"No," Steph cried out plaintively, but she was still laughing and sounding relieved. It had been a hell of a burden for her to carry back here.

I smacked her, moderately hard but not enough to hurt her, alternating between cheeks while I counted to ten. And then I stopped and nuzzled the crack of her ass, gently rubbing each cheek. Todd, meanwhile, was leaning down to kiss along her spine, and then straddled her to give a light shoulder massage.

I moved down further, playfully tonguing around her jacuzzi-cleaned asshole before continuing to her vulva, which was easy to access in this position as I could duck further down into the pool. I tongued her up and down several times and then started gently working my fingers inside while I kept increasing the tongue action.

It wasn't long before she was shaking and shuddering in her first orgasm. As she calmed down, Todd looked towards me enquiringly, but with a smile, I waved him towards his wife. I turned the bubbles on and laid back in the jacuzzi as he laid a towel down on the tiles next to the tub for her to kneel on and maneuvered her into a doggy position, now facing me. As he mounted her and started ploughing her from behind, I spread my legs lewdly, touching myself with them both watching. Steph was clearly quickly building towards another climax. I left them to it and focused on myself, closing my eyes so concentrate on the sensations. I felt, rather than saw, Steph come again before Todd came himself with a yell, and that sent me over the edge as well.

They came back into the tub and for a while we just cuddled before we started strategizing again for a possible visit from Ahmad and his secretly furious wife. Sex and business strategies. For me, it doesn't get more of a turn-on than that.

...

By the time all the arrangements came together, a few more months had gone by. There was some mysterious hold-up with the visa applications, which I took to mean that the Feds were controlling the timing until it suited them. We had sought guidance from them about what we could and couldn't do in the meantime, and we were slowly ensuring that we could cut Ahmad off overnight if necessary. We were setting aside all profits made through him that could be considered potentially shady, and we were intending to offer that as the seed for our 'women in business' proposal if the Feds didn't seek to acquire it directly. Meanwhile we made our plans for Ahmad himself. Steph hadn't forgotten the stealthing or him pretending to be an unmarried prince, and we knew that Fatemah hadn't forgotten either. I was quite happy to be the bait laid for him, although it remained to be seen if he would fall into the honey trap that we were setting.

This was a high risk game. We didn't think that either government could be trusted to treat us well, even if we helped them land charges against Ahmad. Obviously Ahmad was himself pretty slippery, and even though we all liked Fatemah and respected her position as a wronged spouse, that didn't give us any real protection from her anger. If she turned on us, she could damage us badly.

Finally all was in place for a week's visit from our most important client and his apparently loving wife. Steph and I greeted them at the airport, smiles all around (although Fatemah's was still hidden behind a niqab), and we whisked them away to Steph and Todd's house, where a guest room had been prepared. Steph had organized cleaning and catering help for the week. We wanted our guests to be completely in our 'eco-system', as it would make events easier to control, but of course there were practical challenges with that.

They had quite a lot of baggage with them, and as soon as they'd settled in, they came out to the living area with a large parcel. They had also changed from their Saudi gear. Ahmad wore a nice casual suit in a medium blue, and Fatemah a modest but attractive long navy dress. She had taken her niqab off to uncover her beautiful face, but still wore a hijab.

"We have a gift for the company," Ahmad announced, and together they unwrapped their parcel and presented it to us. It was a triptych, a three panel artwork, done in a contemporary Islamic style but on wooden panels. Each panel had geometric, mosaic-like patterns intricately worked into the wood and painted in a simple color scheme. One panel was red dominant on a black and white background, one was black-dominant with red and white, and the last was white-dominant.

"One panel for each of us," Todd said with appreciation.

"The three together complete the pattern," Fatemah explained, and she showed us how the panels should be arranged. It was a truly thoughtful gift, and it also hinted at their understanding of the complexity of our intertwined personal and business relationships within the company.

Our guests had an early night after their trip, although not before I had an awkward moment with Ahmad. I was coming back from the bathroom, and he was coming the other way. I stood aside for him with a polite smile, but he was suddenly holding me close, lips pressed to mine, tongue pressing into my lips. I didn't want to put him offside, but this was taking too much of a liberty.