Trading In Strange Places Pt 02

Part 2- A Fishing Trip

Chapter 4 - Meeting Marie in Salmon

After seeing the women off on the short haul plane to Denver to select new office space, I headed over to the private side of the field. The small jet just coming to a stop was for me, and the pilot didn't bother to shut down. He had clearance and we were rolling in minutes.

The co-pilot was an acquaintance and asked, "Going fishing?"

"Yes. My travel agent said the Salmon is in good shape."

"Joe and I are envious. Business is good, or we would take an extra day layover and find some fish ourselves."

When I got to the Wagonwheel Inn, Marie was hiding behind the door to my room and had my arm twisted up to my neck in a flash. "Don't make any false moves. This knife is very sharp."

"Damn, Marie, you get better at that every time." I folded her into my arms for a warm kiss.

"Lucas, I don't know why I have anything to do with you. You call out of the blue and order me over here. What about my business?"

She went on complaining as I removed one article of clothing after another. Her nipples were already stiff when I slipped the bra from them. My tongue was quick to lick and suck.

"God, you are bad. What is it this time? Up against the wall or on the carpet?"

Marie St. George came from a French family that immigrated to a small town north of Seattle after WWII. She was stocky and well muscled. An honors graduate of UDub, she and I had met in a curious way. We both signed up for a guided climb of Mt. Rainier, and were tied into the same rope with a guide. Like others, we cursed the stumbling around in the dark as everyone made their way with headlamps around the corner from the overnight hut and up the rocky Cleaver. But the first light on the glacier as we cramponed up had our spirits as high as a kite. Instant altitude headache at fourteen thousand didn't offset the beauty of the top, with its steaming fumaroles and views for a hundred miles past St. Helens to Hood and the other snowy volcanos.

She needed a ride back to Seattle as we limped to my car, having hiked all the way out after summiting. Explaining that her housemate was in San Diego, I was invited in for a beer and a shower. Taking my hand, she led me to the bath, saying, "I need someone to wash my back."

One thing lead to another and I found myself pounding her to a grand climax. The only words as she kissed me afterwards were, "I think you'll do."

Here in Salmon, in the dimness of a motel room with the drapes drawn, she had the same look. Waiting to be taken, but with a fierce glint in her eye. I decided some suspense was needed and pushed her against the wall without letting her feel my cock.

"I have a proposition. I think you will like it."

She was tense, waiting for an attack, but relaxed into my arms when it didn't come.

"What about fucking?"

I loved the feel of her whole body pressed to mine. The unruly cock was clamped between her thighs.

"What about a drink and some talk and loving later?"

She cuffed my head and went to find a robe. "You have gone soft on me."

My traveling pack provided the makings for two gin and tonics, which I took to a table in the grass outside, yards away from the rushing river.

Her dark eyes bore through me. "This isn't like you. Something must be going on."

"I need someone to be the boss of my special operations unit. Someone with a lot of talent, who is trustworthy and doesn't need visibility."

"I thought you only wanted my body and my head for numbers."

"You are that and much, much more."

"Lucas! Don't go all sappy. I'm not a coed anymore." She smiled at me. As if she had ever been just a coed.

"You remember that morning on Rainier? Above the steep place, the guide put you in front and I followed your lead?"

She laughed loudly. "Don't bullshit me, what are you thinking?" She looked around and seeing no one, eased into my lap.

I kissed her gently, "I've snagged a real star and we are moving up in the world."

Her eyes sparkled. "I know that look. It's a woman, and you have already had her in your bed."

"Would you believe me if I said it turned out she came looking for my bed?"

Taking a good grip with both hands in my hair, her tongue traced my lips. "I suppose I would. It didn't take very long before I wanted you in my bed. Tell me more."

"It's not a short story. What about some dinner?"

"If you wash my back first."

The restaurant had an outdoor veranda with a river view and privacy at a distant table.

We toasted each other with glasses of Snake River Pinot Gris.

"I don't give up my martini easily, this better be good."

By the time we had worked through salad and excellent fish, I had finished the Ellen story.

She had a soft smile, "I'll be damned, a woman after my own heart. You lucky dog."

"Yes, but you are as big a part of my luck as she may be. Let's go back to the room."

"No, we are going to get some ice cream and drive in my rental to a place with a view."

It was a nice view, part way up a slope above the big earthen bowl surrounded by mountains. The village and rushing stream lay in the middle before us.

We were both in the passenger seat. She lounged in my lap, and we fed each other spoonfuls of rocky road. "Did you have a high school boyfriend to take drives like this with?"

"No. I missed out. You get the honors." Her icy tongue played with mine.

I liked the privacy of where we were and described how the expanded operation needed a powerful computing base. Our own private cloud database, and millisecond access to the market computers.

"Funny you should say that. I've been thinking to myself that our machines in Bellevue are too risky. Seattle is a hotbed of hackers."

"You have done some research on other sites?"

"Just to prove I am worth my pay, I have. You know about major fiber routes next to the railroads?"

"Yes. Sometimes more than one provider running along the tracks."

"You are familiar with Nampa?"

"Nampa?"

She kissed me. "It is only 250 miles from here, silly. And no one knows Nampa. It's ag and religion and railroads. And a major data center with the kind of facilities we need."

I mumbled, "Nampa," and kissed her back.

I took a chance and said, "So we have a deal?"

Her voice was loud. "A deal!? You take another woman to bed and ask me if we have a deal?"

As I drove back to the motel, she cuffed me repeatedly, muttering, "A deal!"

After we brushed our teeth, she left the light off and peeled back the bed cover, lying full out in the darkness. "If you fuck me properly, we have a deal..."

She was easy to enter, but hard to stay tight with. I asked myself why my partners always seemed to be athletic women who wanted a wrestle as much as a screw.

About the third time we flipped each other over, she wailed and came, cursing me. "Bastard, why do I have anything to do with you?"

I pulled her tight to my side, still coupled, and used my pack leader voice. "You are just a horny slut. You put up a fight and then come like a banshee. You think I don't know what you need? You need a good fuck every day and I haven't been around enough to take care of you!"

She licked me and I whispered, "I promise to do better. Are you willing to move?"

I didn't get an answer because she was asleep. I separated us and slept myself.

Chapter 5 - A Journey to Nampa

I heard the drapes being pulled back and opened my eyes to early slanting sunlight coming into the room from across the river. Her naked body was silhouetted against the daylight and looked as strong as ever.

She walked to the bed. "What do you see in me anyway? I don't have a proper woman's body. Not like those city girls. I didn't even get asked out in school."

"Come here."

She straddled me, kissing my neck and feeling my morning hardness pulsing against her belly.

"Everyone is different and broken in some way. Your rough edges and my rough edges fit together just fine. We don't have to go looking for perfection, do we?"

"Hmmm." She hummed and got dressed.

We gathered some of the motel breakfast and brought it back to the room. Sitting side by side, she said, "Do you actually want to fish? I brought your gear with me."

"Why not? We'll both get in our waders and go to that catch and release stretch out of town."

I was driving a little while later and she asked, "You said something about moving last night?"

"I did. I need to clean up my act with these houses scattered around. If we are going to play out this front side, back side business, there needs to be more attention to invisible locations for our work."

"Hideouts, you mean. Like Billy the Kid?"

I looked at her serious eyes. "Maybe without the six guns?"

The face didn't smile. "I wouldn't be too sure about that. There are bad guys around..."

She continued, "I see where you are going with this. Marie is going to become a non-person. Tells her housemate, family and friends she is having a lifestyle crisis and leaving for a year around the world to find herself."

I was nodding and she went on. "Pamela Longworth, with an English accent and no papers, shows up in Nampa, saying she is setting up an American computer location for her British company. The whole nine yards. New domain names, new IP numbers, two different fiber circuits..."

There was a side road and she gestured for me to take it. I pulled over under some trees.

"There are conditions." Her smile was thin.

"I'm not a mole. This is not going to be a sentence to solitary. You are going to live with me at least as much as you live with the others."

I was still nodding and she went on. "One of these days, you promise to talk to me about a baby. Our baby."

There was a long silence. I was daydreaming about the conversation in Steamboat about babies.

"That's ok?" Her smile was tentative and the tough look was gone.

I reached and pressed her hand to my chest. "Yes. Yes, that is very ok. If it makes you feel better, the others also insisted on that condition."

I held on to the hand and said, "We are having a meeting of everyone in ten days at Grand Lake. Meet each other and get the story straight. The others do not know much about you and your many talents on their behalf."

She smiled and repeated, "Many talents. I like the sound of that."

I reached playfully for her breast and was batted away.

"You've got me too excited for fishing. Let's go check out and drive to Nampa. I'll rearrange our flights from my cell."

An hour later, we were headed southwest and she was smiling from ear to ear.

"Damn, you do get a girl's juices running. How did you know I love this spy stuff?"

"We are two of a kind, Pamela. Wild, untamed, unwilling to acknowledge authority. Smart enough to get by in a conventional society and still have our independence."

"We have to fix the Pamela business. The woman without papers is actually French and can be named Catherine or Denise, your choice. The accent is rural France. I actually have that from my upbringing. And I can pass for a Catherine or a Denise. I'll bet you've never seen a Pamela with a body like this. She would be slender and rosy complected."

"I am going to pair you up with Amelia. She is dark and has the same dark personality you do. Devious. Sneaky. Sexy as hell."

"What about the other two?"

"Two fair skinned goddesses, one Nordic, one Celtic. Smart, sexy, in your face. Ellen and Kathleen. They are ideal for the public face of our enterprise."

"Lucas, even you are going to have trouble keeping this stable of gorgeous, overachieving women happy."

"Actually, there is a fifth. Rya. They sprung her on me yesterday. The newest publicist for the company, but doing great things. Don't know anything about her except she is Finnish, a knockout model, and a sailor."

"She is going to sink your boat, smartass."

"Catherine is going to meet her in ten days. Are we bringing your sailboat to Nampa?"

"Oh god, what a comedown! From glorious Puget Sound to an irrigation lake in the Idaho desert?"

There were more chuckles and giggles as we made our way down the winding river canyon. Catherine and her dark lover were feeling exhilarated with their plans for doing in the overly confident traders on the Street.

In three hours, we came out onto the plain leading to the Snake River, now filled with the commercial busyness of Boise and Nampa and bisected by the railroad and the Interstate.

She said, "Don't be put off by the people crush. We need them to hide among. Catherine will be just another sturdy woman, dealing with life's problems and challenges."

I glanced across. "You folded into that role without half trying."

"Yes, I've already decided Amelia and I are going to open a diner. A perfect cover and the schools will provide inexpensive help. Maybe some computer help. From time to time, the cousins will have a visit from their uncle, who is an irrigation consultant and travels all over the West.

"Damn, why didn't I do this sooner?"

"Thinking with your dick!"

"Now I know I am in serious trouble. That is exactly what Ellen said!"

"Live with it. I am going to look up a nice place to stay tonight. Your French niece wants a soft bed to cozy up with her uncle in."

The smoldering look would have singed an ordinary guy. The tough uncle stared her down and promised rough sex with his eyes.

The small B&B was out by Lake Lowell and the wildlife refuge. There was a detached cottage available that suited us perfectly. The unit was available immediately, and after dropping our duffels, we headed out for some lunch and a search for likely commercial properties.

I looked at her. "Are we going to use an agent?"

"Stop leaping tall buildings with a single bound. I have an enormous pile of homework to do so we exit Seattle without leaving a lot of tracks. I am going to need Amelia's help to mirror all our existing servers and stage the data at her place until Nampa is ready. I want to close the Seattle hosting accounts without pointing to a new location."

"We need to discuss money."

"I have to take a pay cut to do this?"

"What about $200K base, plus a share in the net after provision for reinvestment in the business?"

She added, "And a car, and any moving expenses, and a temporary living allowance, and a new wardrobe for Catherine. She has to have French business clothes and Nampa clothes also."

"You have an accounting mind like a steel trap. Are you going to be Catherine by the time you go to Grand Lake?"

"Oui."

The eyes sparkled as they hadn't in a while. I fist butted her and almost ran off the road.

We found a sidewalk deli in an older commercial district and had a leisurely lunch, working out kinks from the windy road and talking more about the ways in which we could remain anonymous in Nampa.

"We will need a local business name to get licenses and so on. Are we going to bank here? Probably need to, or questions will get asked. These are close knit people, and rumors spread."

"Catherine will supply a vaguely French name, and her uncle will produce letters of credit on a Paris bank."

We were playing a fun game.

"Amelia will provide an Italian name for the diner, and a fusion menu, except we won't use a word like that around here."

"The seating chart at the front desk will have a sidebar with real time market info. Selected customers will be issued tablets with their favorite stocks and commodities highlighted next to their previous menu choices."

I dialed Kath on my cell and put it down with speaker on.

"Where are you?"

"Nampa."

"What's a Nampa?"

Marie giggled, "I told you."

"You are with her?"

"We are having a wonderful lunch at an outdoor cafe in downtown Nampa, which you may look up on Google maps since you are so ignorant."

"Did you call to insult me? We have been busy. Ellen used her business card and put money down on a perfect suite in a place in the Stapleton redevelopment. We've decided to take the late flight tonight and sleep in tomorrow."

"You will be with her?"

"No, she prefers my apartment and my cat."

"Do Manhattan cats do corporate relocations?"

"It won't be necessary. There has to be a pad in New York anyway. We will keep mine, it's rent protected. The girls across the hall look after Regina already, and they can be hired to do more. Annie told me it's nice to be able to retreat to my sofa and kitty when the sex in their place gets too raucous."

"There seems to be a lot of girl sex in that location."

"You know what the ratio of young women to young men in Manhattan is, don't you?"

"I apologize and take it all back."

"Better. Are we still on for Grand Lake?"

"Yes, although your colleague here says it is a terrible imposition to extricate us silently from Seattle and get ready for that at the same time. Have you talked to Rya?"

"She is coming for brunch at my apartment tomorrow. How far can we go with the story?"

"Tell her that your boss has an incredible opportunity he wants to discuss. Say that you have signed NDA's with me, but if she comes to Grand Lake and signs an NDA too, all will be revealed. Make it sound like a startup. Emphasize hiking, climbing, skiing, sailing on Grand Lake, etc etc."

"What if she looks at us and asks whether you are married and whether we have been in your bed?"

There were giggles at both ends of the line.

"That, my dear Irish lover, is for you and Ellen to figure out. Use guile and deceit." Click.

I turned to the woman next to me and said, "Mon amour, Catherine..."

She slapped my face. "Beast, don't try that stuff on me. Catherine knows all about boorish American men and their nasty ways."

I thought about hoisting curvy Catherine over my head, but restrained my impulse.

After two more hours of driving the city, and a pad of notes, we relaxed on the cottage bed, admiring the view over the lake, and sipping on a drink.

"I've always liked Kathleen's voice. Is she as nice as her voice?"

"Yes. She is another of my accidental lovers. Was told to take my calls at the office, a newbie in the pool, and everything proceeded from there. She is really the one who makes it possible for me to still be anonymous."

"What about Ellen?" She wiggled her way on top of me. I tickled and ran my hands around her in a rude way.

"All I knew of Ellen until the last few days was that she had a reputation as miracle CFO, saving two or three trading companies headed for bankruptcy court. She called and said the company Directors told her to reel me in.

"My god, how did you turn that around?"

"The short version is that she had a bad divorce, hiked the AT to work out of it, and was halfway out the door anyway. I carried her upstairs to the bed and she told me to get busy. Can't believe she is part of a deal where she gets to hike and ski, have frequent orgasmic sex with loving partners, and be CEO of her own trading firm."

"I know how to ski, a little. I've been climbing with you. I know all your secrets. Almost all, anyway. You always help me come. You've enticed me into your new money making scheme..."

"So?"

"Hold me."

After a few minutes of little shudders, she said, "Darn you, I get in your arms like this, and there's nothing I wouldn't do if you asked me..."

I kissed the top of her head and we napped. Later, a quick trip to a pizza place was enough dinner. In the morning, she headed to Seattle and I went back to Steamboat Springs.

Mely was at the curb at the small airport. "Why are you back so fast? Not that I'm unhappy to see you." Her arm wandered near mine and I kissed the back of her hand.

"I couldn't stand to be separated from your charms one moment longer."

"We are going for a run and I'm going to kill you."

We did, and she did. Miracle of miracles, I discovered she had cleaned the hot tub in the backyard and turned it on. I was collapsed inside when she came from the shower with a beer for each of us and climbed in.