Chapter 30 – Mal lays out Paris’ new story

Mal’s hand starts casually rubbing up and down my leg, his fingers tickling my inner thigh as he continues to lay out my future. “Grace knows what I like to see and has dressed and styled you appropriately. I particularly like the pink lipstick and matching nails. I wish we could show off more of your breasts but understand your body shapers limit that. I know it’s not an option now but maybe you’ll consider getting real breasts one day. It’s reversable and gives you far more freedom in clothing selections. Regardless, this is fine, and I trust Grace in keeping your dress, makeup, and overall style in line. That leaves you and how you act. How you present yourself. And almost as important, the story we tell.”

As I shiver at the thought of getting real breast implants, Mal’s hand leaves my leg only to come up and cup my cheek. Gently, he turns me to face him. If he is intimidating in his normal demeaner, he is twice so, being this close to him. I feel like I do with Trixie… like I’m about to be kissed. And while I absolutely don’t want that, my body responds as if it IS Trixie, by getting excited. Mal’s tone doesn’t change but it seems far more serious being this close, this intimate, with him. “You will act like a sexy secretary straight out of a television show or movie or, if you prefer, a pornographic film. You’ll be a flirt, you’ll be a tease. I want you perky and smiling and giggling at almost all times. You’ll be crossing the line of appropriate office decorum with your happy go lucky attitude. This is a serious office where money is made, careers are cemented, and lives are ruined. And you will act like you could care less about that. You care about how you look. You care about how people see you, and by extension, how they see me. You care about making people happy. You will be my perfect perky girl. That will be your core being here in the office until we’re allowed out of this arrangement, and if you don’t act that way you will be punished. Is that understood?”

There’s nothing new to what Mal is laying out. It’s what I expected. But to have it put in such simple terms… his perfect perky girl… is beyond intimidating. Not to mention being punished if I don’t act that way. I’ve gotten used to this pay and now it seems my paycheck is going to rely on being this caricature of a secretary. And in this moment, all I can do is silently nod my agreement. I’ll be his perfectly perky girl.

Mal’s lips curl up just a touch on each corner. His eyes open a little bit wider. His whole face relaxes slightly. It actually takes me a moment to put these small actions together into what they mean. He’s smiling. He’s happy. “Good. This doesn’t have to be tedious, Paris. I don’t want it to be tedious for either of us. If you can keep that mentality in mind, keep yourself being a happy perky secretary, you’ll be able to do everything else easily. It’s just playing a part.”

Mal’s hand remains frustratingly on my cheek, caressing there as he was on my thigh while he continues, “Let’s go over how you’ll present yourself. You aren’t the first girl in this job to not be naturally attracted to men. Frankly I could care less what your gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation is. I want you to present as a sexually attractive woman who is sexually attracted to men. Exclusively.” I open my mouth to mention my relationship with Trixie but Mal’s thumb simply moves to press against my lips and silences me. “You’re going to mention the HR secretary. I know you’re seeing her socially. I assume sexually. I can’t blame you as she’s very attractive and interesting. Outside of this office and my presence you can do whatever you want. You can invite three women over to your apartment and recreate Caligula’s orgies if it catches your fancy. But here in the office or wherever you’re representing me, you’ll be Paris, the perfectly perky, boy crazy, secretary.”

I can’t help but let out a quiet whimper as Mal’s thumb not only remains on my lips but slowly starts rubbing over their smooth surface while he talks about me presenting as attracted to men, “In this office I want my subordinates to act a certain way, and that’s going to include many of the men here flirting with you. Hitting on you. You are to respond in kind. You are to encourage that behavior. There are limits to everything and I imagine you’ll have to establish these limits with some of the boys out there. Obviously, you dictate if you have sex in any way with them. I’d suggest HAVING sex with them, at least oral sex, but that choice is entirely in your court.”

Mal emphasizes this suggestion by slipping his thumb in-between my lips and tapping at my closed teeth. Knowing what he wants and fearing what denying him this simple action this early would mean, I open my mouth and let him slide his thumb in. When he starts sliding it in and out, I simply stay still until he raises his eyebrows expectantly. Closing my eyes, feeling another defeat cross my soul, I clamp my lips around his meaty thumb and complete the mimicking action of oral sex on his hand. Mal continues as if I weren’t giving a blow job to his thumb. “They can touch you. They cannot hurt you. And before you even think it, no a playful spank to your bottom isn’t hurtful. They also cannot prevent you from doing your job. If they want to steal a moment in the copy room but you’re delivering something to me, you’re to tell them that and refuse their advances. Finally, you’re free to refuse any offers of going out with them. Your outside life is yours.”

Mal’s thumb pulls free of my mouth, and he pats my cheek in what I assume he thinks is a comforting action, “Beyond that, you aren’t to refuse them. If they want to sneak a kiss in, kiss them. If they want to rub your bottom, then let them rub it. If they want you to bend down and file paperwork so they can ogle your ass, then bend down and wiggle it for them. I honestly don’t expect this to be too difficult. The guys out there are playful but if you deny them sex and tell them, politely, that you don’t want to go out with them, they’ll get the hint and simply enjoy you as eye candy.”

Mal relaxes back in his seat, pulling me closer to him as he does to keep me balanced on his lap. His happy look seems to fade away but instead of his normally intense, serious, look he seems… off. Confused. “The last part is the story we tell. And, before I lay out that out, I need to confirm things with you. You still think of yourself as a straight man? You sexually prefer women, you don’t sexually enjoy men, you would rather dress up as a man… things like that?”

It takes me a moment to get what he’s asking. When I do get it, I nod emphatically, “Yes! Yes, I’m a normal straight man. This is NOT what I like or enjoy at ALL.”

Mal shakes his head in obvious disbelief, “All right, I’ll believe you. I have no reason not to. But you must know that you make an attractive woman. Not just a passable woman, an honestly sexually attractive woman. All I see before me is that sexy woman. Stirling has shown me photographs of you before you were this and, in all honesty, it just doesn’t mesh. I don’t see that person, that boy, at all. So, as we go on if you wonder why I act the way I do toward you, why I look at you the way I do, it’s because of that. I’m simply seeing another woman who’s attractive and whom I’d like to have sex with.”

I knew we set me up to be specifically attractive to Mal. My body shape, my hair, my clothes. And all of that’s been amped up to eleven since Grace and I have been doubly blackmailed by him. But I didn’t realize until just now that he was still attracted to me. That he still wanted to have sex with me even knowing that I’m a man under these clothes. As horrible as that thought is, it gets worse as he continues, “That is also what everybody else here is going to see. A woman that would naturally attract me. They know I fool around and often go out with my secretaries. Seeing as you haven’t been fired or voluntarily moved on, they’ll assume we’re having sex of one type or another. And since I cannot get rid of you, I refuse to have my staff believe that I’m seeing this attractive woman in front of my office every day and not having sex with her. Especially since HR is practically forbidding me from going out otherwise. That leads us to the story we’re both going to tell.”

Our morning meeting lasts a couple hours as Mal goes over seemingly every aspect of our new story, my new office reality, in painstaking detail. By the time he finally lets me up off his lap we’re behind on the day’s schedule and both have to put our noses to the grindstone to catch up. It’s at lunch with Trixie, which Mal lets us have out at Stocks and Blondes, that I have to start living the story. Making it real by telling Trixie what’s going on as if it were true. And knowing that she’s the center of several gossip rings, this story will get all around the office by the end of the day.

The hard part isn’t telling the story as Mal has clearly thought things out and made the details match what everybody will have seen between us since I was hired. No, the hard part was smiling and acting like I was happy while just letting my good friend and my lover know that Mal and I were done being secret lovers, “Okay, yes, Mal and I are dating openly now. We went out once just after I started and, well, like, you know him. He’s so strong and intimidating. He scared me.”

I can’t help but wonder if Mal was in my head as that part, believing he’s intimidating, is completely true, “After that big thing with Mrs. Birdie, and Mr. Stirling, Mal got in trouble. At the same time his wife and he were making up, so he didn’t want to go out again. That’s when you found out about, like, me. Like, how I’m not a normal girl. Anyway, everything seemed to change, and I tried out a new look at work. Like, relaxed. It wasn’t until this past weekend, like Friday night, that Mal kept me after work and admitted he wanted to see me again. He took me out and showed me a whole new side of himself. That’s a big reason I wanted the new wardrobe and that he paid for it.”

Again, I have to internally wince as that part of the story is true, just not how people will hear it. That’s when Mal showed me his cruel side. That’s when he blackmailed me, not wooed me. “We ended up at his apartment and well he like confirmed that he knew about me like you know about me. I was so scared, but he doesn’t mind. But you have to promise to keep that secret. He wants everybody to see me as a normal girl, and I just adore him for that. Anyway, he likes how good I am at going down on him and he even let me stay over the night at his apartment.”

I can see that Trixie is hanging off every word. It’s like a double whammy as I’m not only putting the story out of Mal and I being an item, but I’m confirming more with Trixie that I’m attracted to men and enjoy giving head. “Anyway, Mal’s wife goes up to Wisconsin every Wednesday to visit with her sister, so he’s going to make Wednesdays our date night. He’s so thoughtful as he thinks that will help us keep it, like, professional in the office.”

I think I may die a little saying this, but Mal was clear. I had to hint at this as it’s what his staff would expect. Leaning in closer to Trixie I make my smile as big as possible as I wink and add, “But that doesn’t mean I can’t slip into his office through the week for some play time!”

As expected, me telling Trixie about Mal’s and my supposed relationship, get around the office faster than the internet could have distributed it. By the beginning of the following week, I’ve had open invites from both Frank and Thomas to blow them ‘like I do the boss’. I’ve had both Jennifer and Claire become cold to me again, avoiding contact in the breakroom entirely. And maybe worst of all, I’ve had an email from Margret regarding sexual relations in the office. It wasn’t so much that sexual relations in the office were only frowned upon and not outright restricted, it was the fact that she suggested making sure his blinds were closed and that the door was locked when we had ‘relations’ in his office so that our private time would remain private.

During that week, Mal returned to his normal indomitable self. He was demeaning to me, constantly using terms like girl, babe, and sweety when referring to me and his physical touching resumed, with frequent caresses of my rear and hovering over me while I sat at my desk. I didn’t resume sitting on his desk while I took notes, but that’s only because he moved that up to sitting in his lap. If I had to guess, I’d say I was sitting on Mal’s lap more than I was sitting in the break room chairs.

The final indignity was Wednesday. We were to finish up our tasks early so that we could leave together in full view of everybody. Mal was sure to escort me to the elevators with his arm draped around my shoulders or possessively around my waist. At least the date ruse got me a ride home in his Mercedes as opposed to the train even if it was only because he wanted to be sure people saw us driving away together.

Two Wednesdays in a row I’m paraded out as Mal’s date. The ultimate signal that we’re an item. It worked perfectly until that Thursday morning. How could I possibly not know that Darnell occasionally takes the train in to work? And how could I possibly know that he lived further out on the pink line than me?