Chapter 26: Balancing Act

Wednesday, 6:45 am

"Mmm... leaving already?"

I turned as I finished buttoning my shirt, looking at the lovely blonde propped up on one elbow, watching me through sleepy eyes. Even waking up, Helen was a vision. The sheet draped partially off her back, exposing a shoulder and generous amounts of teardrop-shaped side boob - a feast for my eyes. That hunger must have been obvious despite the low light of early morning because she smiled at me and reached up to tuck some stray hair behind her ear. Something was different about the way she looked at me this time. Usually, she was a tigress. A seductress. A goddess of lust and hedonism taking human form. Now, she looked more like a blushing, vulnerable young woman with about fifteen years less experience. She felt more like a girlfriend the morning after an intense lovemaking session. It was adorable.

"Yeah," I said, "Erin's downstairs getting everything together. We're leaving in about fifteen minutes."

Helen sighed. "There goes morning sex, I guess."

"You have other options," I pointed out.

Helen snorted. "That's more work than I'm willing to put in right now."

We were talking about Bobbi.

After finishing with her, Helen suggested we leave her trussed to my bed and find a different room for the night. I'd been reluctant, but Helen convinced me she knew what she was doing. She confessed to having spent time in Bobbi's position and was confident she would be alright. I made a note to ask Helen about that when I had more time.

"But," Helen continued, "I guess I should give her a break."

"I had Erin untie her about thirty minutes ago," I said as I approached her. I ran my fingers through her hair until they caught several tangles, and redirected them to stroke her cheek. My fingertips traced the faint pattern of lines left behind by the pillow's creases as I looked into her beautiful blue eyes.

"I'm sure you know what you're doing," I said, "but maybe go a little easy on her this morning. I don't want to push her too hard."

Helen turned her head and pressed her lips into my palm, eyes closed as she inhaled my scent. Finally, she pulled away and said, "She'll be fine. I promise."

We exchanged looks for several moments; I was unsure if her words were enough for me but conceded with a nod. If there was one area where I could show Helen trust without too much cost, it was with Bobbi and my apartment. Erin made sure that nothing vital was being kept here while I was gone, so in case things went south with Helen, there was only so much damage she could do. I hoped it was an unnecessary measure. I wasn't ready for this to end.

"You're going to order the things we talked about last night?" I asked.

"I'll do it today," she said with a smile. "I'll send you images along with all the documentation on the company."

"Awesome. Thank you."

I leaned toward her and pressed my lips to hers in a soft kiss. There was no heat... just intimacy. Something in her had definitely changed.

"Be careful with Ashlee," she said as I straightened. "She's smarter than she looks."

"I can't believe you're okay with this."

"You're extracting information from her. Not having her assassinated."

"And you're okay with me messing with her feelings?"

"That's her doing," Helen said, falling back onto the mattress. The way she stretched emphasized the feline qualities I often associated with her, and I watched as her breasts - a little more than a handful each - flattened against her chest as she lay on her back with her arms over her head. "Maybe she'll learn a valuable lesson from it. Either way, I gave up on anything resembling a mother-daughter relationship a long time ago. I think she resents me."

I simply watched her for several moments, mulling over the relationship she had with her daughter while enjoying the view. I found their situation a little hard to swallow, but I wasn't going to press her on it. I needed to leave soon. "Okay, Helen. I'll be back Sunday. See you then."

She murmured a non-committal response as she rolled over, and I caressed her blonde hair once more before walking through the bedroom door and shutting it behind me. I went downstairs and headed toward the kitchen, following the smell of coffee. Sure enough, there was a fresh mug on a warmer for me on the kitchen counter. I wasn't the only one in the kitchen though.

Bobbi sat a couple of seats down from where my mug was, sipping on a cup of coffee and staring off into the distance. It wasn't until I approached the counter that her head snapped around to look at me, large eyes wide for a moment and shoulders tense as if she were ready to bolt. She looked rough, but not as rough as I anticipated. Her hair had a few tangles, and her makeup from last night had smeared and streaked, giving her a severe goth look. She wore one of my band T-shirts that looked baggy on her; the collar had slipped off one shoulder, leaving it bare. I couldn't quite tell what she was wearing under it, but judging by the generous flash of thigh I got as I approached the counter, she was either wearing underwear, boyshorts, or nothing.

"Hey Bobbi," I said and sipped my coffee. "Sleep well?"

She stared back at me for several heartbeats and then looked away as she took a sip from her mug, acting as if she didn't have a care in the world. "I slept great."

Judging by the bags under her eyes - or it might have just been old makeup - she was full of shit, but after the rough night Helen and I had given her, I decided to let it slide. "Good."

"At least until your fucking assistant woke me up."

"I asked her to," I shot back. "Sorry. I didn't think you'd mind. Next time I won't bother."

"Next time?" Bobbi said, and I noticed the slight waver in her voice.

"Listen," I said, ignoring her question, "I need to leave soon, so I want to make this quick. Here's the deal. Helen's staying here while I'm gone, and she's in charge. As far as you're concerned, if she says jump, the only thing you need to ask before jumping is 'how high?' I don't know what she has planned, but you're to participate."

"This isn't what I signed up for," she said.

"This is exactly what you signed up for," I replied, staring her down.

We gazed silently at each other, challenging each other to break. I took a sip of coffee without breaking eye contact, and then she finally looked away.

"I didn't know there would be other women," she muttered.

"Would you have been more comfortable with men?"

"Probably."

I hadn't expected her to answer like that; it gave me pause, and I wondered how I felt about sharing her with other men. I considered how I would feel sharing any of the women in my life with another guy. The thought of a different cock being anywhere near Erin immediately set off a visceral reaction. Question answered, which could be a problem down the road. When I hired her, Erin pointed out that if she became serious with another man, we would have to revisit our relationship. After what happened with Natalie, the very thought of that twisted my stomach.

Helen was a tricky situation. As far as I knew, I was the only man she had slept with in the last two weeks except

maybe

her husband. For some reason, the thought of Roger and her together didn't summon the green-eyed monster like with Erin, but I hated injecting anyone else into the equation.

So, I clearly wasn't into the idea of sharing Erin or Helen with other men. What about Danni?

I immediately hated the thought of her being with anyone else, but unlike the other two, we didn't have an understanding. As far as I knew, she could find Mr. Right tomorrow and disappear from my sex life just as quickly as she appeared. Was there a future for me and Danni? Did I want that?

As I sipped and navalgazed, the elevator doors in the living room rolled open and footsteps sounded on the hardwood floors as someone approached. A moment later, Erin entered the kitchen with a bright smile and said, "Chloe's got the car parked out front, bags are packed, Ray and the Johns are ready, and no paps in sight."

"Paps?" Bobbi asked.

Erin mimed taking a picture as she made a clicking sound.

"Ah," I said, looking back at Bobbi. "Paparazzi."

"Oh," Bobbi said. "Fuck 'em. One of them ambushed me yesterday outside of Marduke. I told him to fuck off, and he wouldn't leave."

"What did you do?" Erin said, a bit of wariness creeping into her voice.

"Broke his camera across his nose," Bobbi said, taking another sip of coffee.

"Ha!" Erin said.

I watched Bobbi thoughtfully, realizing this may have been the closest thing to a normal conversation I'd ever had with her. True to my natural tendencies, I had to stop myself from actually feeling some kind of human connection with this swamp hag of a woman, reminding myself how loathsome she had treated everyone we worked with.

"Okay," I said, putting my coffee on the table, "We need to go."

"Okay," Bobbi said dismissively. "Bye."

"Come here," I said.

Bobbi stared at me for several unnecessarily long moments, then got up and slowly walked around the countertop to stand in front of me. The pace she set was sending a clear message - she was taking her sweet time and if I didn't like it, then I would have to do something about it. Sure, I needed to leave soon, but I wasn't going to give her the satisfaction of telling her to hurry up. She stopped less than a foot away and looked at me with a dead-eyed expression on her tired face.

"What?"

I placed a hand on her shoulder and gently turned her around, facing her away from me. Surprisingly, she didn't resist at all. I reached for the hem of her shirt and pulled it up just enough to expose her ass, showing off the high-cut emerald panties she wore. The faded marks Helen had given her last night peeked out from underneath her emerald panties. I ran my fingers gently over some of them, getting a little jump from her. I released the shirt, letting it fall back over her ass as I tugged at her hip, turning her back around.

"Not putting up much of a fight," I observed.

"Compared to last night," she snapped, "I'm getting the royal treatment."

"Having Erin here doesn't bother you?"

"She's already seen everything," Bobbi said.

"Fair enough," I said. "Kiss me. Then clean this." I gestured to my coffee cup.

Bobbi regarded me for a full thirty seconds, and I could see her working through the scenarios of how to obey my orders. Then she leaned forward and placed her lips on mine for a quick peck. She straightened, clearly waiting for my response.

I sighed and decided not to push it. She was being relatively tame this morning, and I had already asked Helen to take it easy on her. When I didn't ask for more. Bobbi grabbed the coffee cup and dumped the hot coffee on my lap.

"Fuck!" I said, jumping out of my stool. Erin gasped and was immediately on me with a towel.

"Oh shit! You okay, Marcus?" she asked as she dabbed at my pants.

"Yeah," I said, taking the towel from Erin so I could clean myself. "It's not

that

hot."

We both looked up at Bobbi and saw that she had the mug dangling from one finger; as soon as we made eye contact, she let the mug slip from its perch. It fell to the floor and shattered and shattered into countless pieces.

"Shit!" Erin exclaimed.

"It's fine," I said to Erin, backing us both away from the shards as they skittered across the floor. "Go ahead and go downstairs. I'll be there in five minutes."

Erin glanced between me and Bobbi and then backed away before turning around and heading for the elevator.

I turned back to Bobbi and gave her a sickly sweet smile. "Looks like you just made more work for yourself."

"I'm not cleaning up shit," Bobbi said as she calmly walked back around the counter and sat back down. She took another sip from her mug.

"You will," I said. "I have a feeling it'll be clean before I get back."

"We'll see," she said, giving me a sickly sweet smile in return.

"Have a good week, Bobbi," I said and left, heading to my room to change my pants before meeting the rest downstairs. I had to admit, she got the best of me that round, but we were far from through.

Wednesday 8:54 am

I assumed we would pull into a parking lot and take a tram or bus to my plane, but I was dead wrong. After being cleared at a special gate, Chloe drove onto the tarmac and stopped about ten feet away from my plane.

My plane. I had my own personal plane. I was having a hard time getting over that fact. No more going through security checkpoints. No sitting in economy class with barely enough room to move. No more cramming myself in a gross bathroom and having to sanitize the entire thing before doing my business. What I was about to do could easily be ranked in the top three - right behind buying my apartment and having orgies.

The trip had been uneventful, with Erin and I mainly talking in low tones about what Helen and I had done with Bobbi the night before. She sounded a little scandalized, but the way my assistant adjusted herself in her seat was telling; she was more than a little interested in our project.

Erin also filled me in on the new hires, letting me know that the chef would start this week, as would the new groundskeeper. She left Helen an email with the specifics and Chloe had informed the team she'd left behind at my apartment building. She had anticipated that I would want the chef to go ahead and prepare meals for Bobbi and Helen and had told her to have something ready for when we returned Sunday evening. She had also hired a housekeeping service to temporarily take care of the place until we decided to get a more dedicated cleaning staff. I told Erin to make sure they didn't touch the broken mug Bobbi had dropped.

As I stepped out of the SUV, a man in full uniform walked up to me from the bottom of the plane's steps with an extended hand. "Mr. Upton?" he said. "Quinn Ryan. Miss Malik hired me to be your pilot.

My first thought on meeting Quinn was to ask him for his pot o' gold. He was the most ginger man I'd ever met, with orange-red hair, and freckles covering his face. They even dominated the back of the hand he'd offered me. His accent, however, was mid-west American..

"Good to meet you, Mr. Ryan," I said, shaking his hand.

"Please, call me Quinn," he said.

"Only if you call me Marcus."

"Sounds like a plan," he said grinning ear-to-ear. "So, it looks like clear skies all the way to Vegas. The flight plan's been logged and we've been cleared for take-off. We're ready to leave whenever you are."

"No issues with the registration or anything?" I asked as I climbed the stairs, trailing just behind by the pilot.

"Took some doing," he said, "but your man Mr. Suhr helped us get everything settled."

"Good deal," I said as I stepped into the plane, my eyes taking a moment to adjust from the bright morning light outside to the interior as I looked around. "Has everyone else arrived?"

"All but one," a pleasant voice behind me said.

I turned and stopped in my tracks as I saw a stunning woman standing in front of me.

She was five feet tall with dark brown hair that fell down her back in soft waves. Her skin was nearly Erin's shade of olive, but her eyes weren't quite as dark as my assistant's. Her full lips, dark, mono-lid eyes, and cute button nose made it plain as day that her family was from the Pacific region. She wore a blue flight attendant's uniform, with a hip-hugging skirt that stopped just above the knees and showed off a beautiful, plump little ass. The double-breasted top created a sharp V that stopped about mid-breast, showing the inner slopes of breasts that looked to be slightly larger than what her height would suggest. If I had to guess, they were somewhere between Erin's and Helen's in size.

She showed off a dazzling smile and said, "Hello Mr. Upton. It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Shea. I'll be serving you and your party while you're in the air."

She offered me a dainty hand and I shook it. "Oh! Uh... good to meet you, Shea! I, uh..." Fuck, I hadn't even thought about a flight attendant. I glanced at Erin, who entered the plane behind me. She smirked at me with a twinkle in her eyes.

"You don't need to call me Mr. Upton," I said. "Marcus is fine."

"If that's what you'd like," she said and looked back down at the sheet of paper she held. Then she glanced up as my security team was filing in behind me. The captain was no longer around; I assumed he had made his way to the cabin.

"It looks like we're only waiting for... one more," she said.

"Cool," I said. I assumed Ashlee was running late since I'd sprung this trip on her late last night. "So the other guest is here?"

"The other two are, yes," Shae said. "Would you like me to take you to them?"

"What?" Chloe immediately perked up. "Where are they?"

"They?" I asked.

"Um." Looking confused, Shea pointed in the direction of the main cabin. "That way?"

Chloe brushed past me and disappeared through the door in the direction Shea pointed. One of the Johns followed on her heels.

"I'm sorry," Shea said, looking at me and leaning close, "Is there a problem?"

"There was only supposed to be one other person," I said. "Excuse me."

I moved past Shea and followed my bodyguards, my mind already starting to run through several scenarios of what this could mean. When I walked through the door and into the main cabin, I saw Natashya sitting in a small booth with a table. She looked a little confused while watching Chloe conversin with a second woman sitting in the booth opposite Natashya. All I could see of her was dark brown hair almost the color of Ashlee's. Had Shea missed Ashlee getting on the plane?

I approached my bodyguards and asked, "Is everything alright?"

"Everything's fine. I think there was just a little mix-up," Chloe said, her mouth screwed tight in disapproval.

The dark-haired girl turned in her seat to look up at me with pale eyes; her full lips were turned downward into a confused frown.

"Marcus?" Emily said. "Is something wrong?"

"Emily?" I said in shock and horror. "What are you doing here?"

Emily glanced from me to Chloe, then back to me. "I'm... coming to Vegas?"

"I..." I looked at Chloe, but as always, she wasn't giving me anything to work with. As soon as Emily proved to not be a threat, she was out. I closed my eyes and pressed my fingers to my eyebrows, massaging them to make the sudden headache I was feeling go away. "Look, don't take this the wrong way... Did I invite you?"

"Yeah," she said, clearly taking it the exact way I had told her not to. "I asked you yesterday when we were on the phone."

"What?" I said. That couldn't have been right. "You asked if you could use the house while I was gone."

"But that was before you told me where you were going." she said, getting more upset with each passing moment. "I specifically asked..."

Emily looked like she was on the verge of tears. She'd always been sensitive even when we were young, but after what happened to her in the wake of her fiance's death and her subsequent recovery, she'd gotten worse. Especially when she felt like she already owed me so much.

"Hey! It's okay," I assured her. "We're okay."

Then a thought struck me. "How did you know where the plane was?"

"I didn't," she said. "Vikram arranged it. You told me to ask him..."

I wracked my brain, going back over the conversation I had with my sister, and remembered saying something about Vikram arranging it. I'd meant access to the apartment, but now that I thought about it, Erin and Helen had been fooling around while I was on the phone with Emily, and I might have missed some of what she had been saying. This was on me.

I shook my head and said, "Hey, you know what? I'm glad you're here. This is going to be great."