Chapter 21: Red Handed

Bobbi pulled her mouth off my dick as if it just turned into a live adder and looked over her shoulder despite the grip I had on her hair. She screamed as soon as she saw Natalie in the doorway and lunged for her discarded shirt, her hair ripping free from my grasp. I grabbed at my pants and underwear, pulling both up at the same time as Bobbi bunched the fabric over her chest to cover her tits.

"Natalie! You're back!" I said, buckling my pants.

"I am..." Natalie replied, her wide eyes fixed on Bobbi. "I..."

Whatever she was going to say died before she could voice it.

"I thought..." I started to say, but Natalie disappeared from the open doorway.

"Shit!" I cursed under my breath.

I stepped toward the doorway, then remembered I had a half-naked Bobbi on her knees in the middle of my office. I spun and thrust a finger at her.

"Go home," I snarled.

Bobbi looked up at me, her eyes wide as she said, "But what-"

I cut her off, "If I find you in this fucking building, we're through."

I left the office without waiting for a response. I caught sight of Natalie as she turned the corner toward the elevator and took off after her, sure my chances with her were shot. Rounding the corner, I saw her disappear into the public women's restroom, reaching the door just in time for it to shut in my face.

My brain was going ninety miles an hour. Should I just abandon ship? Consider Natalie a lost cause? Was I looking at some sort of legal trouble because she caught me with my dick in the office bitch?

I cursed myself for not being more assertive with Natalie before she left. Maybe I wouldn't have been in this predicament if we'd locked down an official relationship. I also felt overwhelming regret for giving Natalie unfettered access to my office. Ultimately, this was my fault, and, and I would have just been better off if I'd just sent Bobbi to fucking prison.

I'd already lost Natalie, and I knew it.

I stared at the closed door for a full ten seconds, then took a deep breath. If I'd torpedoed my chances, what was the worst that could happen in trying to talk to her? We hadn't been dating, so I technically didn't do anything wrong besides take advantage of Bobbi's predicament.

I silently prayed to whoever was out there that Natalie would be forgiving and understanding, even if that meant letting Bobbi go. Natalie was worth a hundred Bobbis.

"Natalie?" I called through the door.

Nothing.

I spoke a little louder, "Natalie?"

No response.

"Can we talk?" Still, no response.

I gently tried the knob, and it turned freely. When I opened the door, I saw Natalie leaning against the bathroom wall, hunched over with her face in her hands.

"Hey," I said, then hesitated. What was I supposed to say? 'I'm sorry for fucking another woman while showing a lot of interest in pursuing a relationship with you? By the way, I've fucked nearly every woman I've hired since becoming a billionaire and just fucked my way through a squad of strippers the entire weekend. I've had orgies, and I'm really fucking enjoying myself, but I still care about you.'

"Look, I know I've probably fucked this up," I said. "I'm sorry you saw that."

Her shoulders trembled, and she shook her head; her face was still buried in her hands.

"Can we just... can we talk?"

Natalie looked up at me, and the look on her face was the very last thing I expected to see - she was giggling. When her eyes met mine, her giggles broke out into a fit of laughter. "Oh you should see the look on your face!"

"What?"

"Fuck, Marcus! You think I'm mad at you?" She giggled again.

I glanced around, unsure of what kind of footing I was on and terrified of saying anything at all. Everything I knew about women told me she should have been furious with me. "So, you're not mad?"

She shook her head and then took a moment to calm down.

"Actually, I feel a little bit better about things. What was going on between us was pretty intense, and it was scaring me a little. I would have been less surprised to open that door and see you humping a pillow with my face or something, But that..." she said, pointing in the vague direction of Bobbi, "that was the last thing I expected."

I couldn't help but smile a little at how humorous she found all was, even though she had essentially accused our budding relationship of crazy behavior. I guess I couldn't blame her. We had been friends for a long time, and the moment I got a little bit of power, I fired Gina and gave Natalie the job, then got intense with her really quickly. She had told me as much before she left for the wedding.

"I've got some questions though, Marcus," she continued.

I'll bet she did.

"Bobbi? Really?"

"Well, she

is

insanely hot," I ventured, hoping it wasn't the wrong thing to say.

"Damn, Marcus! She's fine as hell, but the bitch is crazy!" Natalie protested, "and mean, which leads me to the second question. How?"

"How?"

"She hates your guts! She hates everyone here!"

"Oh. That. Um..."

Suddenly the idea of telling Natalie that I'd been using Bobbi as a personal fucktoy in exchange for not turning her in to the authorities for embezzlement seemed like a bad idea. I didn't have to say anything though. Natalie read me like a book.

"You've got something on her."

"I-"

"Did she kill someone?"

"What? No!" Natalie wasn't reacting negatively toward the possibility of extorting Bobbi, which was a good sign. We had also been good friends for a long time, so I decided to go ahead and trust her. "She's been stealing from Marduke. Gina was too. It's why I fired her. Well, it's not

why

I fired her. I hated her and wanted her gone anyway, but it's the justification I used."

Natalie was enthralled for the next few minutes as I filled her in on the details of my time with Bobbi. When I was done, she simply shook her head, "Damn... I could tell something was going on with her, but I couldn't figure out what it was."

"You're not mad?" I asked.

She cut her eyes toward me and said, "I should be. You're blackmailing a woman to have sex with you. If it were anyone else, I probably would be. Not Bobbi though. She made my life hell a lot longer than yours, and she's been at her most pleasant over the last week. Now I know why."

That's not what I meant, but I figured I would take the win. The fact that she was taking this so well was a testament to how much she hated Bobbi.

"I meant, about me having sex with someone else."

Natalie sighed, "No. We aren't officially dating, and since we're being honest... I hooked up with someone this weekend at the wedding."

I felt my stomach drop.

I fucking hated hearing that, but I could hardly accuse her of anything when I had a veritable harem at my fingertips.

"Oh. Okay."

"It was just a stupid thing," Natalie was quick to explain. "There was alcohol, and... you know... wedding stuff."

"Yeah," I said, my heart in my throat, "I get it. Is that all it was?"

Natalie didn't answer immediately. A long moment passed where we simply stared into each other's eyes. My dread grew with each unanswered second that passed.

"At first," Natalie finally said, "it didn't mean anything. It's just... I hadn't had any since Garrett."

Her old boyfriend.

"I was thinking about getting into another relationship, but I met this guy. I didn't think we would see each other again, so I thought 'Hey, I owe myself this one thing. Let's just get this out of my system.' But then we started talking over breakfast, and we clicked. Turns out he lives in New York. We..."

The look of pity she gave me was enough for me to piece together what she was trying to tell me.

"You guys decided to date," I finished for her.

Her expression became even more piteous.

"Fuck," I said, leaning my head back against the wall.

"I'm sorry," Natalie said, her voice quiet.

"Yeah. Me too. I thought we had something special."

"Not special enough, apparently," Natalie said, and I could hear the tinge of sarcasm laced in her voice.

"You said we were just friends for now," I retorted, "I would have kept it in my pants all weekend if the situation was different."

"I'm sorry," she said "That wasn't fair."

Neither of us spoke for several minutes, both of us contemplating the floor in silence.

"So that's it for us, then?"

"I think so," she said. "I didn't plan for this, Marcus. It's just that so much has changed for you so quickly. You have all this money, and you bought out the company. You made me head of the department, and then we almost started dating. We went from really good friends to making out in my office, and..."

Again, Natalie didn't finish her thought, but she didn't need to. I understood what she was getting at. Every other woman in my life right now was throwing themselves at me. I never stopped to think that most of them were either paid to be in my life, desperate to lock me down, or just plain crazy. Natalie was a level-headed woman that didn't fit any of those categories. It made sense that she shied away from whatever was happening between us.

"I get it," I said.

"You do?" Natalie asked.

"Yeah. I don't like it, but I get it."

More silence followed. After about a minute, Natalie sighed and pushed herself off the wall she was still leaning against. She fidgeted with her fingers, looking up at me with a puppy-dog expression. "Are we going to be okay?" she asked.

I stared back at her, not knowing quite what I should say. Would I still want to be friends with Natalie after getting a taste of her? Could I see her every day and be okay when I knew I almost had her if it wasn't for...

"What's his name?" I asked.

"Tyler," she said reluctantly.

Tyler. I suddenly felt an irrational hatred for the name. Maybe I could have Tyler killed. I had the money for it.

Wait...

could

I actually have him killed?

I finally shrugged one non-commital shoulder at her. It wasn't fair to either of us to lie.

"I don't know if we're going to be okay," I said, pushing off the wall and stepping toward the door. "I need some time."

"Okay," Natalie said. It was obvious that wasn't what she wanted to hear but didn't protest further.

With nothing else to say, I opened the door, stepped into the hallway, and headed back to my office without looking back.

The first thing I noticed when I entered my office was the faint odor of Bobbi's sex, but that was the only evidence that she had been there. As instructed, she had gathered all her belongings and left. That was good. I felt so sour that I probably would have made good on my promise of putting her out on her ass if she had still been here.

I dropped in my seat, feeling a pang of bitterness that was dulled by disbelief at how close I'd come to getting what I wanted, only to have it whisked out from underneath me. I'd been crushing on Natalie for the better part of a year and had come so close to seeing my long-time unrequited affection returned. All the money in the world, and I couldn't buy a way to reverse time.

Needing something to occupy me while I tried to process what had just happened, I pulled my phone out of my pocket. I hadn't looked at it since arriving at the Dunbar building and found myself staring at a full inbox and over thirty unread messages - normally an unwelcome sight, but a bunch of unanswered messages was exactly what I needed right now.

The first one that caught my eye was a message from my brother, Jacob. It stated that he saw me on the news, was proud of me, and wanted to meet up since he would be in town this week. That meant he needed money. Jacob wasn't a bad guy, but he had never really been able to crack the code to a normal life. He couldn't hold down a nine-to-five job to save his life and was always chasing some scheme promising him six figures in a matter of months.

Starting with Jacob, I texted him back with a noncommittal response before moving on to the next one. The remainder of my afternoon was spent catching up on messages, talking to friends and family, and managing my new life in the public spotlight as one of the wealthiest men in the world.

Monday, 10:45 pm

After catching up with my messages, I spent about half an hour downstairs with my old co-workers. Gerald was unusually chatty, filling me in on the latest gossip. He told me that Bobbi had been on her best behavior, and Natalie was already making some stellar changes around the office. I was glad to hear some good things had come out of decisions I'd made out of selfish desire. I seemed popular among my old plebians, which wasn't surprising. I'd always been liked by most of my co-workers, but giving them all substantial raises had apparently generated extra goodwill.

Working through the initial shock of Natalie's news, I found myself in need of releasing some steam and decided to pay Bobbi a surprise visit. At some point in the afternoon, Chloe switched out with a different security agent, and I had him drive me to her hotel just down the street. After working out a lot of pent-up aggression, I told her that she was done living in hotel rooms. She was to take tomorrow off and move into my apartment.

Now I was back home and starting to wonder if that was the wisest decision. This was quickly becoming my sanctuary, and I didn't want something to mess up the tranquility. It was strange how peaceful the middle of New York could feel when you lived six hundred feet above everyone else. Despite dwelling in a city of 8.5 million people, from this height, I could barely hear anything other than the occasional stray noise from below.

Walking through the small garden on the roof of my building I gazed at the cloudless sky through the garden's canopy. Thanks to the light evening breeze, the leaves rustled and completely drowned out any remaining artificial sounds. I found an expensive bottle of Mckellen in my office. Grabbing that and a glass, I decided that after a day like today, it was a good time to sit beside my pool, drink, and do some soul-searching.

Most people would see my fortune and immediately envy me. They would have rolled their eyes at my naval gazing and scoffed at any attempt to see my inheritance as anything other than a blessing, but aside from Bobbi, Gina, and Jessica, I liked my life. I enjoyed my friends, where I lived, and even my job when left to my own devices.

When I first inherited my money and took Helen to bed, I assumed life would be rainbows and blowjobs from that day on, but it hadn't. The money came with an empire, and an empire came with responsibilities. The money had also come with a lot of attention - wanted and unwanted. Last but certainly not least, it had come with a price - Natalie. One could argue that the loss of Natalie was on me, but I couldn't help but wonder where we would be right now if I hadn't received that call from Karl.

I rounded the final corner of the little garden path and stared at the pool. I wasn't alone.

Chloe sat on one of the chairs with a small table pulled between her legs. Pieces of something were strewn across its surface, and she had one piece in her hand, polishing it. In the background, I could hear a voice drone on from what I assumed was her phone; it sounded like some news program or podcast.

I hesitated in the opening of the garden path, unsure if she wanted company and even less sure if I wanted it.

"Need anything?" Chloe asked without looking my way. The fact that she knew I was there without giving any sign was a little eerie. It was also impressive and probably a good skill to have as a bodyguard. Since my cover was blown, I walked the rest of the way out of the garden and made my way to the pool.

"Hey," I said, "No. Not really. I just thought it would be a nice night to take in the stars."

Chloe glanced at the sky and muttered, "Looks like you might be disappointed."

I followed her gaze. Despite the lack of clouds, the light pollution from New York drowned out all but the brightest of stars even this high up. "Yeah. Guess so."

I looked back down at her and said, "Hope I'm not intruding."

"It's your house," Chloe said as she laid down the piece she'd been polishing and picked up another. She had changed from the blouse-and-jacket combo she had been wearing all day to a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. Her hair was in a messy bun held in place by a pair of chopsticks or pencils, strands of it appealingly falling around her face. It was hard to make out much else in the dim illumination cast by the lights that lined the pool.

"Do I need to go?" she asked, still focused on what she was doing.

"No," I said, finally realizing she was cleaning her gun. "That's fine."

Reaching the corner of the pool about four feet from Chloe, I rolled up my pants and then sat on the pool's edge. I enjoyed the coolness of the water as I submerged my legs.

She eyed the bottle and said, "What you drinking?"

"McKellen. I've seen it on TV and in movies. It's associated with wealthy people, so I thought I'd give it a shot. Want some?"

"Sure," Chloe said, "If you're cool with me drinking on the clock."

"Aren't you always on the clock?"

"Yep."

"So you don't drink?"

"Not if I'm on the clock."

I glanced at my phone to see the time; it was approaching eleven. "I think we'll be fine in the penthouse," I said.

She got up from the table and approached me as I poured a generous amount into the single tumbler I'd brought. I handed it to her and she took it, giving me a small smile as she held it out toward me. I clinked the neck of the bottle against the rim of her glass, and we both took a sip of the expensive scotch. Not really in the habit of drinking alcohol without mixers, I immediately set to coughing. Chloe was much cooler about it, only grimacing slightly as she swallowed.

She returned to her seat with the rest of her glass, and as I recovered from my first interaction with McKellen, I found myself enjoying the view of her ass in those sweatpants. It had all the prominence and apparent firmness of someone who didn't miss leg day at the gym.

"What are you working on?" I asked, looking back down at the bottle in my hands before she could catch me checking her out.

"Just cleaning my gun," she said, taking another sip of scotch before picking up where she left off.

"Does that actually help?"

"It does," she said. "One of the best ways to prevent it from jamming. I keep all my guns cleaned and oiled regularly."

I took another sip of scotch and fared better this time, only coughing a little. I was grateful Chloe didn't seem to be judging me for my lack of experience.

The two of us sat there in near silence, she cleaning her gun while I stared at the water and listened to the news podcast drone on about some peace talks falling apart between two countries I didn't catch the name of. The clacking of gun parts interrupted the broadcast at random intervals.

I took another sip of scotch. "So... earlier today..."

"Yes sir?"

"You heard everything?"

She didn't respond immediately, and I glanced in her direction. Her face wasn't giving me anything to work off of as she bathed her firearm in oil.

"No sir," she finally said, but there was a catch in her voice that made me almost positive that she was lying. I appreciated what she was trying to do.

"It's not always like this," I said.

"Yes sir."

Her tone meant 'if you say so'.

"Well, it's a little like this."

Chloe set down the piece she'd been cleaning, grabbed the small table, and moved it to the side. She stood up, grabbed the tumbler of scotch, and approached the edge of the pool where I sat. Her t-shirt was thin and clung to her frame, giving me a slightly better idea of her fitness level. Her arms had the tone of someone who made working out a regular hobby, but still maintained a fair amount of her femininity. Her shoulders were a touch broad. She looked like she could hold her own in a fight. She also looked like she could handle being thrown around in the bedroom.