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Shiv didn't plan on bringing a guy home from Paris & certainly not a Minnesota guy, from all places. She went to France for her graduation trip, planning a stereotypical sabbatical year where she fed in the adolescent hope of turning herself into an intellectually depressed French lady with a mildly ugly French boyfriend. Of course, she was brought back to earth by a phone call from one of Kendall's friend's dad urging if she was interested in an internship for being his secretary - a judge that played in estate cases and practically decided the end of important politically aligned people. She promptly left the arms of the first boy who held her tight during the night in a tiny apartment near the Passerelle Simone de Beauvoir. The paradisiacal utopia of living in a dump lasted three months. She was twenty two then.
Now she was twenty seven and the situation was not vastly different: she was, now, actually depressed (as she ideally wished she would be when she was stupid enough to think that it attracted men rather than driving them away) and she had a man by her side but the circumstances did not meet. Her two and a half rooms in France became a flattering penthouse right in the heart of Manhattan and her man was called Tom, Tom Wambsgans. Stupid long name.
Tom was self made, partially. His mom was a fairly respected attorney helping nobody's wives get rid of their boring husbands in nowhere Saint Paul and his father was the mayor for some good years without any prospect of political ascension, quite well off but not... quite. He was one more of several businessmen-to-be that got to New York with a metropolitan dream and worked their asses off getting harassed for more than six digits on their paychecks but he had actually made it. He had a vision when he entered Waystar - by her suggestion - but that didn't interest Shiv, at least not at the very start when he exposed his ideas as soon as he knew who Logan was for her.
She lured him in, not the other way around. She showed him cracks and he was trying to glue her all together. It was her fault that they were where they were now, in unknown territory. That scared the shit out of her.
It was the first time he was staying in her apartment, having had his profile recently excavated per her father's request & the confirmation that they were for real. Tom fucking loved it and now he wouldn't leave her alone, not while they were celebrating. At least Shiv could admit that she was a pain in the ass, he was giving her what women wailed about not being given by their boyfriends and there she was getting sick of it on literal day two.
Bending over the stove with a cigarette still on her lips she twisted the button the side again and again but it would simply not light it, getting her spine straight she held onto it while still waiting for that little thick noise but nothing happened.
"Trying to cause a fire, Shiv?" He startled her when she finally got it to enlighten and rapidly positioned the butt over the flame without realizing Tom was moving nearer. She always got frightened when she realized added weight to her bed in the morning or cum oozing of her while she showered and having someone in her house was no different, even more when said someone was a total dick about certain things. "You're gonna lose it."
The motherfucker was basically singing his line and she wanted to remind him they weren't in fucking Oklahoma! but she simply grunted. "I know. Care to help?"
The fleeting smile of his dragged across his face, it was there whenever she was. His face practically smirked up whenever he saw her across the conference rooms, maybe thinking about how she was only there for him if he was dumb enough to buy that out for now. Tom picked up the cigarette from her and lit up the stove correctly. The whole thing didn't last more than five seconds and he was dragging his mouth over it in no less time. Shiv's face reddened. Out of embarrassment? Disgust? She didn't know for sure but Tom took a truth to himself.
"Don't."
"Don't what." Giving him her back she walked to the balcony that had rusted glass running doors in this amazing new building that shouted more than a groundhog in an irrational meme that Roman would send just to spite her. Shiv opened just enough to get her through and sat by the edges, he hated it when she did that and she could see it in his face. It was just what he was thinking as he let the door scream just a tiny bit more to fit his figure, his forehead touching the top of the wall. Tall like a streetlight.
"You don't know how to light up a stove. It's fine. You never had to learn how to light a stove." The cigarette burned in his hand but still he wouldn't take a drag of it, Shiv didn't feel like it anymore. The after sex haze did not linger anywhere else in her body and they were fully dressed anyway - as fully dressed as pajamas went but still.
They haven't slept since they got the e-mail clearing Tom out of any suspicions one could possibly think of accusing another of. That happened circa eight hours beforehand when they still had their work day attire, then they had underwear then they had nothing and now they had half-nothing. Shiv with a crop top and linen shorts and Tom with a nice satin shirt that didn't match his flannel pants. Shiv liked to admire it, to try to convince herself that it was trying to function the way his mind worked but in reality she didn't give a damn. He was what he showed her and nothing else, that's what she believed in.
"Shut up i– I cook. I know how to light a damn stove but these are almost automatic ones. They came with the flat. I'm not supposed to know how to operate this fucked up ass machinery." She glanced beyond the glass doors staring directly at the kitchen way past them.
"We don't have to fight over that, honey." Shiv rolled her eyes. Tom finally gave in to the tobacco before weeping the smoke out in a low tone. "But we both know what you're doing. You're upset."
"I'm not upset."
She couldn't say why she was upset. It would hurt his feelings and he would either go away or stick with her for pity. She didn't like either of the options. Although he vexed her she didn't know what life was without him anymore, she had gotten used to it for fuck's sake.
Her pout wet her upper lip and she got the back of her hand through it before staring at him again, the silence starting to create a buzz on her ear. Oh no, that was the wind. Her miserable little top got her to crank on herself before dropping herself from her 'seat' and moving towards the apartment again, sneaking past Tom's body. He was still warm, as warm as when he was pounding her from behind.
"Stop." He regurgitates.
And Shiv does as she's told. Not a single muscle in her body tempts to move. She's brought back to when she used to play by her father's office door, the last to dare. When that was said, Ken and Rome ran excitedly but Shiv remained still, waiting. Of course he couldn't know that, she wouldn't blame him for it.
She can hear as he exhales and she tries to get something from him by watching his reflection on the walls but it's still too early in the morning, it is only when the heat gets to her, when he places both of his hands on her hips and moves her to stand by the stove, the kitchen trolley & him that she gets ahold of what he's trying to do.
"Lift your hand." He instructs and she snorts before she does it- that gets her a grunt from him. Only guttural noises, they're really animals. "Place it closed on the button, press it and flick it to the right as fast as you can but without losing your hold on it."
She has to breathe before she does as she's told, like dipping her toe in the water for the first time. Tom's voice sounds exactly like how he instructs his staff; practical and operational. For that she knows he has no idea of what he's doing to her but when she presses herself against him and sighs she thinks she gave him an idea of what because he makes his hands meet in her waist, thumb to thumb. Siobhan finally makes a flame appear, she does it fast enough that it's a big one, she can feel the ghost feeling of it on her palm.
"Now you can let it go, you're forcing the gas." He says it but she can't hear it. There's a share of her hair that takes away the vision of her right eye and all she can see is bright burned red, not the same as the industrial blue flame, no. Fire should be red. That's not natural, she thinks. They used to call her 'Fiery' in school and now she acknowledges it's stupid. "Shiv, let it go. Are you trying to make the whole house explode... Siobhan!"
His touch deserts her before he pushes her left arm hard and she pushes her hand to the fire, it happens way too fast and both her reflex and Tom's instinct practically throw her over to the opposite side of the stove as she watches the damage, it's red and it's hot but it's not burned. Far from it, it's untouched. He was fast enough, he saved her from herself.
Tom makes a secession of his moves - turn off the fire, close the glass lid and turn for her - before he actually says anything. His mouth is open and he's stunend but he can't still voice quite right what just happened but he knows if he doesn't she's not going to open her mouth.
"Shiv, what the fuck? How could you do that? You know how hurt you could've gotten? Have you ever seen actual burns?"
( Dad marked Rome once in front of her. He rode a Jeep, the only time he drove her and him anywhere. It was a trip around the city where St. Andrew's was and they were going to an ice cream shop. She doesn't remember what triggered it but she does recall him picking the incinerator from the car board and smashing it against his thigh.
Roman still has that burn. Left thigh.
She doesn't think it's the only one but it's the only one he told her about and she feels like that if she hadn't seen it happen he would've never told her. )
"Quit painting me a spoiled cunt." She drops her act of surprise as she gets her hands to lift up her hair, munching her knuckles into her scalp. Her hair is so heavy, she should cut it. Tom would like it. It would take him some time to get around it but he would.
"Well, you are. I mean you're not but you're acting like one now. I'm not your employee, Shiv. Nor your super hero. I'm not here to save you." He says it so fast she doesn't get to move, she only watches him through her distress as she lowers her arms and breathes. She remembers to breathe.
Tom's face rapidly deconstructs as he clicks his tongue and brushes his palm over his chin, the growing beard that scraped against her groin earlier probably pinching it.
"I didn't mean that.. I genuinely want to help you, Shiv. This was– I'm sorry."
Threatening to suffocate, he hugged her and Shiv didn't take her time this once, she brought her arms around him and mashed her cheek against his biceps, opening her legs to bring him between her and lifting her head so he could bend and kiss her. Everything was fine, everything was normal.
He tried a chaste kiss, like the ones they say goodbye with but she delved into it and Tom refused her just as Shiv refused opportunities to make her father react to her. Tangling her tongue on his, his hand came to brace her and it filled one half of her face, one of his fingers too near her nose so she could breathe in the scent of herself on him, of what they were on earlier.
Breaking their seal he didn't say anything as he got his hand on her back and his thumb on her exposed stomach rising his finger on her skin.
"Lay down." Shiv blinked, her eyelashes meeting the apples of her cheeks as she cracked her spin just enough so she could meet the cold marble. As she laid her forehead on the dark stone she didn't feel his hand guiding her to look at him - she was primarily out of focus, lately, he didn't want to have the pleasure of losing her entirely - in actuality she didn't hear anything, raising her neck she watched as he worked getting her shorts down and exposing her crotch, even helping him undress her by lifting her legs and holding to the drawer openers, elbows on the kitchen trolley carefully. Contracting her condition she hadn't bothered to get to her panties so she was just as bare as she entered the world and spreading open was the only safe instinct she felt kicking in at that moment.
Before anything, before even touching her properly Tom brought his index to her lips & waited for her to engulf it completely until he could only tell he had that finger attached to his hand by the tension on his tendon, it was the kinkiest thing he could bring himself to do and she found it amusing.
Tom was good at making her come & he had a nice big dick, there's nothing she can complain of him in that department. He's willingly and flexible too and was it mentioned he always makes her come, no matter what and that he has a big cock? She figures she would get tired of it if they kept on the same rhythm for a lifetime but she hopes he'll grow out of his sooner-than-later old age & accept some of her suggestions before their fucking becomes mechanical.
Bobbing her head his way Tom was the one to call it done and press the finger down on her clit, Shiv immediately reacted - her whole body did - by shrinking onto herself, the littlest of sounds escaping her like she would think she would sound if she had actually gotten burned but that didn't happen. Now they were there, now they were doing this. It felt rough, not enough slickness gathered to make Tom's moves nice & soft but she didn't mind, if anything the way he descended to her slit without stopping the pressure on her clit, adding a finger to his operation, did nothing to upset her.
Lining up to her stomach with his free hand he narrowed the movement to her ass and sat her down on the trolleyas she simultaneously got her forehead pressed to his shoulder, muffling her mouth by opening it on his shirt, moisture along her breath staining it. Shiv's hand started battling with her own line of consciousness as Tom sliced it with repeatedly hitting her cunt with his fist producing squelched - embarassing - sounds. Finally getting ahold of herself she stuck her hand under his pants and briefs tatting his cock until she pumped him closer to her, caressing him as she made sure he'd touch the skin of her thigh.
Tom grunted like a man and not the type she had laid with and would spend too fast and keep her on sight just so they could recover and start riding her along as if she was a mini riding kart. He could take it, actually take it and she didn't miss the feeling of being stared at while boys had to keep themselves going manually before or during the entering-her process. Again, she would probably get tired of his high stamina sometime or she probably already was but that wasn't trouble, for now.
For now she was using both of her hands to pull at his foreskin as she lifted her hand and moaned with her eyes closed, only hearing him get on the same high as her as he pressed his face to hers and searched for her mouth hungrily. Slowly leaning up to his face when she closed her mouth around him he took himself out of her and started working the pair of fingers he placed in her on her clit, ignoring the way she had just started jerking him off she got her touch over his face, grabbing his jaw forcefully as she cried out slipping her pussy over his fingers before he sank his others deeper in her ass.
“You're a fucking marble statue, Venus In Fur incarnate, Shiv. So fucking hot.” He always said stuff like that too but it slipped right out of her mind, even more when her head seemed to be buzzing and there was still a thread of spit connecting their mouths which she swallowed up and didn't care to clean out of her face, which Tom did.
“You're not cleaning anything.” The same fingers he was using, she didn't think he had noticed it.
“Oh, fuck.” He began to wave his hands as if to dry them without paper around but Shiv stopped him, pulling at the hem of his shirt and disposing of it. She had her teeth sink in her lower lip as she stared at him, still riling herself up on the rush of sensations. “What are you– what are you laughing at?”
Almost nervously Tom starts laughing with her but Shiv interrupts his overthinking with yet another kiss. “Take your clothes off, honey.”
Tom blinked in the velocity of a shooting star coming down and it didn't take him long to start doing so, malleable like a rag doll. “This goes too.” He added while lifting up her arms with ease and robbing off her last piece of bodily decency. Now they were equals, in that.
“Don't you wanna ahm, maybe… go upstairs?” He tried, muscles flexing as he put his hands to her hips all exposed. Heavy arms, places to put her head in, toned legs. Not bad enough for a new attendee of the fortie's house.
“Why? Afraid of cross contamination? We don't even cook here–” But the cooker did. Shiv closed her eyes, taking in what he meant earlier with all the stove talk. She really was useless, wasn't she. “Whatever.”
Trying to put her feet on the floor, it was easy for him to squeeze his hands and make them meet just below the line of her breasts and lean her back against the counter, her head hitting that unfavorable space again, but she was far from caring about that.
“No.” He said. It sounded experimental, like he was waiting for her to say something but nothing would come out. Not of Shiv at least. “No. Let's just… spread.”
A raised eyebrow for that. “Ask nicely and maybe I will. What the fuck is spread ?”
A glitch in his system. He had gotten some of her attitude, yes, but that was in any other scenario, especially since he was everything and more charitable when it came to her so he simply stood there while she fluttered her lashes. Still but not for long. Tom kneeled and touched up to her right inner thigh making his way for himself with his eyebrows rising in a silent plea for consent, Shiv's mouth opened and she nodded vigorously nullifying any other action he might have taken before. It simply didn't exist, it wasn't real. Not like that was.
Shifting the direction of his hand he got up holding on her and subsequently sinking his hand into her skin until he was at a height again to palp at his briefs, bringing himself loudly out of it and laughing at the process but Shiv didn't utter a single reaction, if anything she was out of it; reality. Sex was much like drinking, so she thought, the more you do it the more rewards it shows. Turning her head looking for a snap to stretch she was stopped by Tom's hand, close enough to her hyoid bone as he went towards it to kiss it and moving up finding comfort in her hair, pressing his fingers tightly against the strands.
Lowering her lips to the top of his - that she already identified there wouldn't be much to do there if he ended up like his own father - she decided on getting her weight to him, arms entailed along his hips as he cracked the code.
There was definitely insecurity on her part as she placed herself on her hands and knees on the kitchen counter and in her head so did Tom, he was just too careful when it came to placing his hands on her sides and drowning her in it as she could hear him whimper words of praise she didn't quite get around all the stimulation of her own brain. Perhaps he'd thought she would look her best fuller, carrying his child someday… ha! Mama Wambsgans would love that but Mama Wambsgangs and Big Wambsgans would have to wait to sit for that one.
Picking on one of her hands and providing her less balance as she laid her elbow on the marble, Tom's heat covered her back and made her relish the sensation of the throbbing there, brushing her lips against his pinkie.
“You tell me when it's not ok, alright? You tell me and we can stop, Shiv. It's all you.” She could feign disdain at his preoccupied voice but if he was inside her he would have felt how it made her squeeze.
“Get it done with, Wambsgans.”
A brush of cold air from his nostrils, for others a sign of annoyance but for Tom it was just another evidence of how down bad he was for Siobhan Roy. Meeting the tip of his fingers with her palm in a embrace of their two hands he impulsed his cock inside her, a rude intrusion. Her forehead met the coldness of the furniture she was laid in before turning her cheek to it so she could force herself to see him until the sides of her eyes turned black, just then did she notice looking at her front as a circular mirror stared at the two of them.
( “They say it's bad luck.”
“What?”
“Circular mirrors. In Latin America, they say that if you have one in your house there's probably a witch living with you.”
Shiv scoffed. “I picked the mirror. That one semester of Culture Around The World did pay-off, didn't it?”
“Well, guess you're my witch then.” Nate grinned. )
The memory goes as fast as it came and hitting her hand hard and away from Tom's grip she raises herself in the two, fucking herself back as to stand with her back to his chest. Moaning more from the effort than anything else, she gets his help as he rearranges her thighs higher and fills his hands with the fulness of her breasts, feasting at her neck.
He doesn't even stare at the mirror, only focused on starting thrusting and making her choke on her own spit as it hits her deep and nice. It's damned work for sure, the overstimulation of the entirety of a night having its toll on her.
“I'm sure I make you feel young.” She muses as to turn her face his way, searching for his look as she breaks his concentration.
Tom has to breathe deep before he even says anything, twisting her nipples just so she twitches her nose and perhaps forgets about his answer. “You know what, you do.”
Bringing her hand to join his, the disproportion that she can see in the vision of the two entangled in each other but especially the difference between the size of his hand and hers only makes what he says matter even more.
“Here's for an old man.”
Closing her eyes she throws her head to his shoulder as she craves her teeth in his neck and pulls back, flexing her ass against his groin trying to take control of the fucking. Tom groans but it's not like it really hurts him, Shiv stings with her words way more than with her teeth.
He's rolling on an edge just as much as her and it's no surprise when he overthrows her back where she can't see them, her boobs bouncing at the cold surface, hurtful. As he takes himself out of her she can hear a wet noise and the harsh sound of him probably wiping his own forehead and it takes him some time before sitting down, he seems to be looking for something.
“Do you know where we have paper towel–”
“Do you think I should cut my hair?” She never notices that mirror, not really but what she sees in mirrors, in general, doesn't satisfy her. Too out of step with his own pack to belong and too far from the norm to fit in. He used to be proud of it but it doesn't make sense anymore.
“Ahm, boy-like? A little bit of Channel or just…” He strikes her fast, twisting her hair up and making her laugh as he gets it on top of her head creating what most looks like a bunch of grapes. “80's like?”
“You're 80's like.” Seeming satisfied with the answer he nods as he gets his touch on her somewhere else, massaging her shoulders as to bring her close for a peck.
She could get used to this, really.