Tangled Web: Flattery

Title: Flattery
Author: Tira Ravenwings
Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer: Lyrics for 'Destination Unknown' from the Top Gun soundtrack are used without permission.
Summary: From "Truly Outrageous: Kimber's Rebellion". Kimber warned Eric to keep the Misfits in line. And after the fiasco on the Lin-Z Pierce Show, she'd had enough. Too bad that Kimber is no good at negotiation. . .

The Tangled Web Series, Part One: "Flattery"

"I wanna talk to you!" Kimber snapped as she stormed into Eric's office at Starlight Music.

The dark-haired, dark-eyed man glanced up from his paperwork, and a smile crossed his face as he exclaimed, "Kimber! Oh, I haven't had a moment alone with you since your father's funeral. . ." the record executive stood, "May I say again how sorry I--"

"Can the phony sympathy, Eric!" Kimber shouted, furious. He had no right to talk about her father, he had no right to try to bring her low with grief. She moved away from him, fighting down tears. Then she turned and pointed at him angrily. "I'm warning you, tell the Misfits to lay off! You're not gonna rig *this* contest!"

Eric was momentarily stung by her accusation of 'phony sympathy'. He was genuinely sorry that Emmett Benton had died, and so suddenly, leaving his two young daughters to fend for themselves. And he himself had really cared for the older man, who had been one of the few to believe in Eric when he was merely an up-and-comer in the business.

But, regardless of his feelings, Eric wouldn't allow himself to be bullied into an agreement by Ms. Hardly-Out-of-High-School Kimber Benton. He laughed ruefully. "I've honestly tried to control the Misfits," he sighed, truthfully enough, as he shook his head, "but. . .they're impossible. If only I had someone like you to promote. Sweet, beautiful. . ."

Kimber watched him with those big, dark blue eyes of hers. Her face was like an open book to those who knew her, and he could see the loss and pain beneath the anger of her expression. But, as he closed the distance between them, lay a hand on her soft cheek, he glimpsed the strength and iron will that he'd known was still there.

"I know that you're the real talent, not Jem," he said softly, as if sharing a secret, as his fingers threaded through her strawberry-hued hair. "But she gets all the publicity while you write the songs."

And Kimber's eyes flashed with renewed jealousy and hurt. Eric didn't know it, but she was remembering conversations in Paris -- conversations that had revealed to her the extent of the gulf between Jem. . .and the Holograms. Her sensuously formed mouth trembled, and Eric ached to kiss her, to hold her. . .

"Sign on with me," he offered then, impetuously. "I could make you a name overnight." He was hardly even considering that if he stole Kimber away, the competing band would fall apart. The thought was there, but it was swathed in layers of physical attraction and desire and lure of Kimber Benton. His voice was husky, pitched low, as he murmured, "Think about it, Kimber."

Kimber turned away, confused by his behavior and her own response to his words. "I. . ." she stammered, mentally kicking herself for reading any non-business intent in Eric Raymond, "I have to go."

****

Mere hours later, Kimber was once again retreating from a confrontation. She grabbed a set of keys from the hook where they hung, and slammed the front door of Starlight Mansion. Then she jumped into the Rockin' Roadster, turned on the radio, and -- ignoring Jerrica calling her name -- peeled out of the driveway.

Blinking away tears of frustration, Kimber groaned, "Je-sus, I am such a moron! Did that stupid shit really come out of my mouth? 'Get some other flunky to pluck keys for you'? Oh, my Lord. . .Jerrica must think I'm an idiot."

But, she reflected, that was the problem. Jerrica didn't take Kimber, or any of the others, really seriously. They were all just the women behind Jem. Eric was right. And if he'd been right about that, then maybe Kimber did have what it took to 'make it' on her own in the industry.

She glanced down at the radio dial, wincing when she saw where it was lined up. Classical music, playing very softly, streamed out of the speakers. Boring Jerrica and her boring old stuff. Twisting the dial to KMAX, she also turned up the volume, and sang along with Marietta as she took the I-5 onramp to just drive for a while before she headed to any destination.

"I see life, and it's passing
Right before my eyes
And the past is the past,
Can't regret it, time to realize. . .

I need to walk on the wire
Just to catch my breath
I don't how, or where, but I'm going
It's all that I have left. . ."

****

It was nearing midnight by the time that Kimber could get out of the house and head over to Eric's place. Everybody else was super-concerned about Jem, as usual -- Snyergy had even managed to leave a worried phone message from 'Jerrica' on the Mansion's answering machine. The only one that Kimber wasn't mad at was the computer personality, because at least Synergy was only trying to complete the illusion of Jem and Jerrica being two different people. Not even Jerrica was doing that much, getting all lovey-dovey with Rio regardless of which persona she was wearing.

Kimber ran a hand over the keyhooks in the foyer, considering. It wouldn't be a good idea to take the 'Starlight Express' van to Eric Raymond's place, and Aja had the keys to the roadster. Kimber mentally kicked herself, for the twentieth time that day, for allowing that "message for someone special" to dissuade her from going to Starlight Music and signing on with Eric. No matter what happened, 'Jem' seemed to suck in attention like a sponge and complicated everyone's life with her existance. Especially because now, Jem had ruined her opportunity to go solo.

Her fingers brushed over one set of keys that chimed softly, from the two metal keychains it held. She slipped these off their hook and inspected them closely. One was a souvenier keychain from Vallejo, and the other was a unicorn plated in fake gold. The key that shared a ring with them was to an older Chevy. Kimber smiled.

She would take Shana's car.

****

Eric Raymond muttered dire curses as he watched the late-night repeat of today's Lin-Z Pierce Show. Trust Pizzazz and her girls to throw a temper tantrum and ruin things, again. He'd gotten an angry call from one of the VTV studio supervisors while in a meeting, but had missed the live broadcast. Even now, watching the show, he didn't see exactly what had gone down. Sure, the Misfits had charged onto the set, demanding an interview and the chance to play their music, but Lin-Z had cut to commerical so quickly. . .

And when they got back on air, Jem wasn't there. He'd assumed that she'd gone off to whine to Jerrica about how the Misfits had ruined things, or that she was giving Pizzazz a piece of her mind. Eric smiled ruefully, knowing from personal experience that confronting Pizzazz was a losing battle before it even started.

The doorbell rang. Once, twice, then with infuriating insistency. Eric stalked to the front door and flung it open, shouting, "What?!"

And he barely had time to deflect a slap headed his way courtesy of Kimber Benton. She might have been angry at Jem, but she was angrier at Eric Raymond, for allowing the Misfits to run wild and nearly kill her sister. "Eric, damn you, I told you that the Misfits were bad news!"

"Hey!" Eric cried, catching her wrist as she swung her arm back for another attempted slap. "What happened today? I just saw the broadcast; that didn't show anything!"

That gave Kimber pause. He didn't know? And she'd come over here with the intent of beating him up! She was such a dumb shit!

But he didn't need to know that. She shoved at his chest with her left hand. "You're hurting me. Let go!" And when he did, she hissed, "When Lindsey went to commerical, she had the Misfits escorted out. And your pet diva slapped her and struggled with Rio."

"Oh, crap. . ." Eric sighed, putting his palm to his forehead.

"Then," Kimber continued, raising her voice, "she shoved Rio away from her and caused a lot of electrical equipment to fall apart. Jem got trapped by herself. She could have died! I don't care how 'impossible' the Misfits are! You can't let them do things like this!"

"Kimber, get inside." Eric told her. "You're lucky that no one rents the other half of this duplex, but you're shouting. My neighbors could complain to the landlord."

He stepped aside to allow her in, and Kimber walked past him, trying to hide the embarrassed flush of her face.

****

"I'm sorry," she said, sipping from the glass of ice water he'd given her, and pressing her cooled palm to each of her cheeks in turn. "I've been. . . I've been angry about a lot of things lately, and I shouldn't have taken it out on you."

"It's alright," Eric replied, leaning against the kitchen counter.

Kimber glanced at him, but looked away just as quickly. Out of his usual gray three-piece suit and in a pair of worn blue jeans and a t-shirt, he looked much more approachable. . . and more attractive. She couldn't think of him like that. Not now.

"After all," Eric said, "this is a really stressful time for you. It's a stressful time for all of us. In retrospect, maybe I shouldn't have been so quick to verbally attack your sister, to challenge her to this 'Battle of the Bands'. What a nightmare it's turning out to be."

"You'd do anything to win." Kimber stated flatly.

"Not anything!" Eric denied quickly.

Kimber shook her head. "Can you blame me for assuming the worst? The fire, the bomb, the Misfits trashing the Countess's party, the accidents in Paris, and now the thing on Lindsey's show? It's almost like someone was engineering all these bad things to happen. And you and your band are the most likely suspects."

Eric was silent. Damn Zipper and his incompetence! The thug seemed set on killing the Holograms, when all Eric wanted was intimidation. But finally, Eric dredged up a laugh and asked, "Do you really think that I'd try to kill you and your friends, Kimber? That sounds a little paranoid!"

Kimber sighed. "Look, I don't care if you want Jem and the Holograms out of the contest. I'm not too fond of them at the moment, myself. But please, *please*. . . try to get the Misfits under control, Eric?"

"What's in it for me?" Eric demanded, cutting to the chase.

"Anyt--" Kimber cut herself off. Stop being stupid, she chided herself. "You wanted me to sign on with you?"

"I did," Eric answered breezily, pushing off the counter and coming toward her. Kimber stood, anger rising again. But Eric cut off her outburst with a gentle hand across her mouth. "But now I think that I just. . ."

He trailed off, removed his hand from her mouth, and replaced it with his lips. If she tried to hit him again, or pushed him away, or fought him, it didn't matter. He'd have this, at least. At least he'd have this kiss.

But she didn't do any of those things. She kissed him back.

Unable to resist the temptation anymore, Kimber ran a hand up the side of Eric's leg, cupping the rapidly swelling bulge at the juncture of his legs. He groaned and sucked in a surprised breath in the most satisfying way, and, with a small, triumphant smile, Kimber murmured, "So that's what it is you want. . ."

"Tease!" Eric gasped accusingly, as the redhead giggled and oh-so-slightly, oh-so-gently, massaged his erection through his pants. Kimber's retort was silent, and achieved by tugging his shirt free of his waistband and lifting it up; she leaned down and flicked her tongue in and out of his navel, licking a swirl around his belly.

He endured this exquisite torture for as long as he could, finally pushing her away and shoving her up to the wall, grinding at her crotch in a near-savage echo of coitus. With a squeal of delight and desire, Kimber responded in kind, also licking and sucking enthusiatically at his neck.

Eric embraced her tightly, and suddenly moved toward the living room, where he spun her around and pushed her in the direction of the couch. Bracing herself on both hands against the high back, she leaned over slightly, looked over her shoulder, and wiggled her hips enticingly.

"You are so going to get it. . ." murmured Eric, tugging his belt free and unfastening the rather painful fly that restrained him. She repeated her hip motion, earning an appreciative slap on the ass for it.

Kimber replied challengingly, "C'mon and give it, Eric."

He obliged, lifting up her skirt and pulling the slim strip of fabric that was her underwear out of the way. His index finger slid into her slick channel, soon joined by another and, after a little stretching and twisting (that made Kimber cry out and buck backwards against his palm), yet another. She was obviously not an inexperienced virgin, barely legal eighteen-year-old though she was. Eric wondered for a moment about her first time, wishing vaguely in a completely unreasonable way that it had been him.

After all, he mused, repeating that half-twist that she liked so much, it didn't matter who it had been or where. Even though it had probably been some rushed affair in the cramped backseat of a car, with one of her many high school boyfriends. What mattered was that he was about to have her now.

"Fuck me," she was moaning, "Oh, Christ, Eric! Please, fuck me now, fuck me hard. Baby, I want you. . ."

And then he was sliding into her from behind, his erect and straining manhood stretching her tight, an unbelievably wonderful pressure inside of her. He growled, thrusting deeper, and she spread her legs wide, taking in all of him. He was so big! Her inner muscles flexed wildly, trying to accomodate his unexpected girth, and she felt her fluids flowing to ease the violence of his movements.

Those talented fingers of his did not stay idle, either. Kimber cried out as his right hand stroked the lips of her cunt, seeking her hard, sensitive clitoris. Then he was rubbing his first two fingers on that little bud of flesh, and all the strength went out of her arms. With a muffled scream of passion, Kimber slumped forward onto her elbows and sobbed as an orgasm crashed into her. Eric laughed wildly, pumping his hips faster and harder as she came, revelling in her shrieks of gratification.

Her knees went weak, but he caught her around the waist with one strong arm and held her up as he continued to pound into her, his desire and need demanding fulfillment. Kimber's swollen labia were much more tender now, and she could feel his engorged testicles slapping against them, becoming even more aroused at the sensation. The feeling of his erection inside her body was bordering on pain now, but she couldn't stop him; she couldn't stop herself.

"Eric!" she moaned, half out of breath. "Eric, Eric, oh, Eric. . ."

"Mm, you like that?"

"Oh, yes, Eric," she gasped -- then screamed again as he pinched her throbbing clit between thumb and forefinger, a bit roughly, and rubbed in a quick, circular motion. Another orgasm gripped her, just as intense as the first. Following on the heels of that, Kimber felt a flood of heat through her body as Eric orgasmed as well, bucking and jerking as his semen shot deep into her. She whirled on him as he pulled out of her, and claimed his mouth with hers.

They collapsed to the floor, trading grateful kisses. But Eric wasn't satisfied yet. He pinned Kimber's voluptuous hips to the floor with both hands and lowered his mouth to her dripping slit, sucking and licking powerfully. Kimber shrieked hoarsely and thrashed as his tongue lapped at her clit. Her fingers tangled in his dark hair and tugged slightly; he hummed tonelessly, enjoying her shocked and pleased reaction to the vibration. Her hips began to heave rhythmically again, and she came twice more before he stopped.

Kimber entwined her body around his, listening to his heartbeat as she drifted off to sleep. Eric stroked her long, soft hair and smiled.