Young Boss Unwilling Celebrity

Part 45

Carly noticed Tim's shoulders slump and his head drop when he recognized Shawna's voice outside the closet. She leaned toward him and whispered, "What's wrong?" He looked up at her, realizing what she was reacting to. She said, "Are you worried because it's Shawna out there?" When he didn't answer, she said, "What is going on with you two?"

"What do you mean," Tim said, defensively.

"I've watched you with your employees, and with Danielle, and with Marcy and the women from this tv show. And even with me. But there's something off with the way you act with Shawna."

Tim said, "Something wrong with just me, or something wrong with her, too?" Still defensive.

Carly thought for a moment, her eyes trying to search his in the darkened room. For the moment, it seemed like she and Tim had both forgotten that they were stark naked in front of each other.

"I think with both of you," Carly finally said, "now that you mention it. What is that?"

Tim didn't answer. She said, "You two have some kind of a history, don't you?"

Tim's face suddenly felt warm. Part of his mind was aware of the continuing conversation among the six women just outside the closet door. But his mind was also racing, trying to decide how much he should tell Carly, or if he should tell her anything at all.

"Come on," Carly urged. "Maybe I could help with whatever it is."

Tim looked down into her eyes, and decided. "We dated briefly. Years ago, when we were in college."

Carly nodded. When he didn't immediately continue, she said, "What happened?"

Tim fidgeted. "It... didn't end well."

Carly nodded again, encouraging. "How so?"

"She got mad at me, and she broke up with me. I didn't see her again until I interviewed for my current job, and found out that she was a boss in another part of the company. And things got... awkward."

Carly said, "Have you two talked about it?"

"No," Tim said. "Maybe that's the problem. It is obvious that she still holds some kind of a grudge, and I wanted to bring it up, but I'm pretty sure she doesn't want to talk about it."

Carly said, "That's not uncommon, when there is unfinished personal business from the past." She watched for a few seconds while he fidgeted. "What was it?"

"What was what?"

"What did you do wrong, that made her break up with you?"

"I didn't do anything wrong," Tim said quickly. "I mean, I don't think it's wrong. Necessarily."

Carly let the silence sit with him. Then he said, "I mean, in context, I didn't think it was wrong." After another minute of uncomfortable silence, he said, "Okay. I spanked her."

Carly's eyebrows went up. "You... spanked her?"

Even as distracted and uncomfortable as he felt, Tim noticed the change in her posture and voice. "Yeah. Um, we were making out, and joking around, and I just started whacking her butt."

"How hard?" Carly asked. "Did you hurt her?"

Again, Tim noticed that something was different in her demeanor. "No, no, nothing like that. I mean, it might have stung a little bit, but I wasn't mean, or trying to hurt her. I just swatted her butt a few times, over her skirt."

"Why do you think you did that?"

Tim squirmed again. "C'mon. She's got a very cute butt, and we were making out, and I don't know that I gave it a lot of thought, other than it would be fun. It was just foreplay."

Carly said, "It might have felt that way to you. But something like spanking can feel... different to different people, or in different contexts."

More of the dim hallway light fell on Carly than on Tim, and he saw a new, thoughtful look on her face. After a moment of silence, Carly once again focused on Tim, seeing the curious look on his face. She crossed her arms, and Tim was momentarily distracted by the way the gesture looked a little defensive, and also caused her perky breasts to jiggle.

Her nipples were still rock hard.

"I'm not sure what you mean," Tim said, even though he had an idea about what she was getting at. But the knowledge that something was going on in Carly's mind intrigued him. He had the impression that the topic of spanking had resonated with her somehow, and he found himself wanting to question her more.

"Well, if you're bigger and stronger than her, and you yank her over your knee and take physical control over her..." He couldn't be sure, but he thought her face was a little flushed. "And you can't disregard the pain involved," she continued.

"I didn't spank her very hard," Tim said. "And I didn't say that I put her over my knee. Why did you assume that?"

Carly definitely looked flushed now. "Didn't you say that? I guess that's the posture that-- I mean, isn't that the most common way that people spank each other?"

"I don't know, professor," Tim said, trying to keep from grinning. "I haven't done any research on the subject. It sounds like you have some...personal experience in this area?

Carly felt herself grow hot, and struggled to control her facial expressions. From the moment when Tim mentioned spanking, her mind had gone straight back to her experiences in college, and her struggle to understand her own attraction and hesitance about submission, and later domination. As she started to question him about that, she first pictured him yanking Shawna Green over his knee.

But almost immediately after that, she realized that she was seeing herself, not Shawna, in Tim's grasp, her upper body pulled across his legs, her round bottom bounced into a raised position, his hand gripping and squeezing her tush before he gathered the bottom of her skirt in his hands and--

She saw that Tim was grinning at her, and replayed the question he'd just asked her. Laughing nervously, she said, "No... and let's not be distracted here." She was careful to keep her voice to a whisper, worried that the females right outside in the hallway might hear her conversation with Tim. "And your relationship with Shawna is what we were discussing."

Tim's smile still played in his eyes, but he said, "I thought maybe..." Carly noticeably tightened her arms that were crossed just beneath her firm breasts, and Tim thought better of pressing the point.

"Nevermind. My point is that whatever... discomfort my spanking attempt might have caused Shawna could have been easily resolved. As soon as I saw that it bothered her, I stopped, and didn't even try to continue spanking her. I definitely didn't do anything against her will as soon as I saw that I'd...mis-read her signals."

Carly looked at him skeptically. "Then why do you think that encounter is still

causing problems between you two, all this time later?"

"That's just it, I don't know! I don't understand why it would have bothered her so much. And even if it did, I certainly didn't embarrass her nearly as much as she's been doing to me since we started working together." He remembered his current state, getting more animated. "And I damn sure never humiliated her like she did to me tonight, maneuvering me into getting stripped and spanked and sexually taken advantage of in a studio full of women!"

Carly stepped toward him, alarmed at how his voice had gotten louder. She held a finger up in front of his mouth and hissed, "Shhhh." She looked over his shoulder at the closet door, concerned that Tim's voice had risen above a whisper.

Tim and Carly looked at each other in silence, listening to the soft hum of female voices continuing outside the door. They both released a breath, realizing that the women outside had not heard them.

The silence gave Tim the time to process something he'd just realized. He'd known that Shawna had been enjoying his embarrassment at his escalating and coerced nudity during the developing Naked Attraction campaign. But he'd been more focused on how he ultimately deserved it, since it was his own plans to expose his pretty female employees as eye candy in his original idea that had come back and bitten him on the butt. Literally.

But his instinctive defense of himself with Carly made him recognize that Shawna really had gotten way more than an equal amount of revenge on him, given their brief encounter long ago, and his continuing, public exposure lately.

In fact, now that he thought about it, Shawna had actually started embarrassing him before he'd even come up with the Naked Attraction campaign, when she made him put on the skin-tight cycling outfit for the visit with the female management team at Cycle Wear.

She couldn't have known that he was going to have a wardrobe malfunction that

would mortifyingly expose him to a bar full of lusty women, but she had still maneuvered him into wearing the revealing outfit that--

Or could she? Thinking back, Tim couldn't see how Shawna would have been responsible for his suit falling apart. But she had certainly seemed to enjoy his shameful predicament since then, and her actions on the Naked Attraction campaign demonstrated that she was not above celebrating the various instances of his nonconsensual nudity that he'd partially gotten himself into.

The thought nagged at him.

Carly saw the contemplative look on his face. "What are you thinking right now?"

Tim said, "I'm just realizing how unfair Shawna's manipulation of me has been."

Carly said, "If I understand the campaign, you're the one who first came up with the idea of using funny, sexy exposure as the main appeal, and it was only after--"

"I know," Tim interrupted. "And I think I've been feeling a little guilty, like I brought this on myself. But as I've been talking to you about it, I'm starting to see that Shawna might have some kind of personal..." he struggled for the word, before continuing, "...vendetta against me. She's still mad about a personal moment between the two of us years ago, and she's turned that into a chance to take advantage of me now."

"Vendetta?" Carly said, her eyebrows slightly raised. "That seems like a bit of an exaggeration."

"You know what I mean, though," Tim pressed on. "I mean, look what I've just been through tonight, what happened to me out there! And now I'm stuck in here naked, and with no way to get my clothes back."

Carly could see that he had a point, but also that he was getting agitated. She definitely did not want him to make enough noise that the women outside might hear. She could absolutely NOT be caught in here, in her birthday suit, with Tim!

"I see your point," Carly said softly. "Even though it's clear that on some level you find some pleasure in being... dominated, it just as clearly makes you feel very vulnerable, and that is not okay. But I think you need to recognize that Shawna probably felt that same way. Even if you didn't put her into a subservient position over your knee, she likely--"

"Oh, I did put her over my knee," Tim said.

Carly stared at him, then put her hands on her hips, inadvertently causing her delicious breasts to jiggle again. "You said that you didn't put her over your knee!"

"No I didn't. I said that I hadn't told YOU that I'd put her over my knee. You just assumed that." Even in the faint light, she could see his grin. "But you were right. I think because you personally know that that IS the way that most people spank each other."

Carly could feel the heat in her face again, and was aware of her exposed breasts. She folded her arms again. "You think that you're hilarious, don't you? I was going to offer my help to get you and Shawna to communicate about this, but--"

"I'd appreciate that a lot!" Tim jumped in quickly. "Really. I'd like to clear the air between us, especially if we're going to be working together for at least as long as this campaign lasts." His brows furrowed. "But I don't think she'd agree to it. She's really got it in for me."

Carly said, "I think it's still worth a try. If you want me to, I can raise the subject with her, and see how she reacts--"

Just then they both turned toward the hall. They had heard the women outside talking louder.

Danielle said, "We really need to find Tim! I expected that someone would have found him by now."

Kaitlyn said, "Yeah. How far could he go, in broad daylight, without a stitch of clothes on?"

There were a few soft giggles. Anna said, "I sure wouldn't want to be in his shoes."

Julie said, "He doesn't even have shoes!" More giggling.

Danielle said, "I'm serious. There's a lot riding on this campaign, and we can't afford to have him go missing, or get hurt, or even involved in some sort of scandal."

Mia said, "He's not going to attack somebody! If anything, some horny women are going to attack him."

"Exactly," Danielle said. "We need to find him, and give him his clothes back."

Shawna said, "Have you still got the key to the padlock on his locker?"

Tim and Carly looked at each other, Tim just discovering where the lock that had kept him from retrieving his clothes had come from.

Danielle said, "Yeah."

"Why don't you give it to me?" Shawna said. I'll go get his clothes. Whoever finds him, call me, and I'll bring the clothes to him."

"I can't believe you're going to let him cover his nude self," Mia said.

"I didn't say that," Shawna said. "I said I'll bring his clothes to him. I might just show them to him, to tease him. And then make him run home naked before I let him get dressed."

The women all laughed, and Tim gave Carly an aggravated look that said, "See what I mean?" Carly pursed her lips sympathetically, and gave a little shrug. She realized how much Shawna had been taking advantage of the poor, hot guy in front of her.

Danielle said, "Okay, you four go outside and search for two blocks in each direction, just in case he made it out of the building and is hiding nearby. If you see him, call us. If you don't, come back here. Shawna, you and I can each take half of the building, and do a more thorough search."

The girls agreed, and Tim and Carly heard them leave. Danielle said, "Okay, let's split up and find him."

"I'll be right behind you," Shawna said. "I'm just going to check the downloads on the website real quick, and then grab his clothes and start searching."

"All right, but hurry up," Danielle said.

Tim and Carly listened as Danielle's footsteps receded. They both stood there quietly in the dark, both of their minds racing. Carly was thinking about how she would approach Shawna, and how she would handle an informal mediation between her and Tim.

But Tim was thinking differently. Shawna was just a few feet away, and she had the key to the locker where his clothes were. He didn't want her to see him naked yet again, but he realized that completely preserving his modesty was not an option. And he'd probably never get a better chance than this...

Before Carly realized what he was doing, Tim had put one hand on the door handle and his other hand on the deadbolt. He turned both as quietly as he could, and Carly heard a soft "snick" as the deadbolt unlocked. Tim eased the door open an inch, and saw Shawna standing just a few feet away, with her back to him.

He eased the door open a little further, sneaking a look both ways down the hallway. It was empty except for Shawna.

Tim pushed the door open slowly and silently, and then placed one bare foot onto the cool floor, and then the other. When he was right behind Shawna, he slipped one arm quickly around her neck and one around her waist, covering her mouth with one hand and lifting her trim little body off the ground.

Before Shawna had a chance to give a muffled gasp of surprise, Tim had lifted and turned her, and then ducked back into the closet with her, while Carly watched, wide-eyed.