13 -- Business and pleasure
"You're staring." She couldn't help but notice.
"I prefer to think of it as admiring." I glanced up, making eye contact long enough to smile at her, and then my attention was firmly back where it had been.
"It's embarrassing."
"You're not blushing and your nipples have hardened. You like being looked at." And she didn't move away from me. I'd watched her approach the beach bar from at least a hundred yards out. She moved with such assured grace I couldn't keep my eyes off her. When she came right into the bar, I realized that she wasn't just graceful, but beautiful too. Mostly, I noticed her breasts, full, round and barely covered by that top.
"Just because I don't blush when some guy stares down the front of my bikini?" She sounded a little peeved, but not actually angry. I suppose she was used to brushing off unwanted men.
"You could just turn away. You haven't." Oh please! Please turn away. I really wanted to see what that hip-swinging walk did to her bottom.
"Because then you'd stare at my ass." Not stupid then. Another plus point.
"Would that bother you more or less than me looking at your tits?" And they were such lovely tits.
"About the same."
"You might as well stay where you are then. Can I buy you a drink?" I had no intention of being brushed off but I've never minded paying for my pleasures.
"I don't accept drinks from strangers. It's not safe."
"Not safe?"
"Rohypnol is very popular here. My best friend's been date raped twice."
"Well if the barman serves you directly, that can hardly happen." And Rohypnol really isn't my style. Who the fuck wants to fuck an unconscious girl?
"Or we could introduce ourselves. Then you wouldn't be a stranger." She finally figured out she wasn't going to shame me into leaving her alone and she capitulated. Persistence pays off, occasionally.
"Parry."
"Katharina."
"A pleasure to meet you, Katharina. Are you staying here long?" I made polite chitchat, because that's how this dance is supposed to go, but I kept my eyes resolutely on those lovely tits, not wanting to lose the ground I've gained.
"I live here."
"You don't sound local. Your accent is North American." And 'here' was a particularly picturesque Costa Rican beach.
"I lived in the States for a lot of my childhood, but San Jose is my home."
"So about that drink?"
"A Mai Tai. So where are you from, Parry?"
"New York, but I'm staying right over there." I pointed along the beach to Eric's bungalow. Katharina's gaze followed my finger and her eyes widened when she saw which bungalow I was pointing to.
It was one of many properties Eric had inherited along with his father's business interests. In this case, the bungalow was an asset of a coffee producer that Kruppa Holdings Inc. had a significant share of. The bungalow had rarely been used by Mr Kruppa Senior but Eric was going to love the Polaroids I'd found of the few occasions his father was here. Helen would be interested too, professionally so, in the innovative use of prostitutes.
"So how long are you here for?" Katharina sounded a little bit more... interested. I didn't think it was just the money implied by having the biggest bungalow on the beachfront, but a rich older man gets more than a poor older man and that's just the way of the world. Wealth is just another way to measure alpha-male potential.
"A week or so. I'm inspecting my employer's holdings here."
"Your employer?" She sounded cooler again.
"Kruppa Holdings Inc. I'm Mr Kruppa's proxy."
"Proxy?" She looked puzzled. It was a very cute expression on such a perfect face: Cute enough to distract me from her tits for a moment. That cute!
"I hold power of attorney for Mr Kruppa and exercise de facto control over 55.4% of the voting stock. Basically, I'm the boss but he's the owner."
"And you have time to sit in a beach bar and ogle girls?" She sounded a little incredulous. There was a definite pull-the-other-one vibe.
"Lasers in the jungle."
"Do what?"
"It's from a Paul Simon album. Graceland... I guess I'm showing my age. Lasers in the jungle? Staccato signals of constant information. A loose affiliation of millionaires and billionaires."
"You lost me at 'lasers'."
"I can do my job from anywhere. Satellite links, cell phones and the internet keep me in the loop, even here.
"And is there a Mrs Proxy?"
"Yes. She's back in New York."
"Well I didn't think you'd be trying to pick up girls in a bar while your wife was in the bathroom." She got all ironic.
"Oh, I would. Meg wouldn't have a problem with me wanting to take you to bed."
"Well that's direct."
"Not really. And it's nothing you haven't figured out for yourself already."
"It's academic anyway. I'm not going to go to bed with you." She finished her drink.
"Another Mai Tai?" I gestured at the barman without waiting for her reply.
"Ok. But the answer will still be no."
"Duly noted. Plan B then." What I actually noted was that her nipples were more prominent than they had been. Talking about sleeping with me had woken them. Should I take that as a positive sign?
"Plan B?" She looked wary.
"I'll just have to settle for imagining fucking you while I jerk off in the shower, later." Now that was direct.
"That's not nice. In fact, Parry, that's not only not nice, it's... its incredibly disrespectful too. I'm not just an object for you to drool over. I'm a person; I have feelings, desires, opinions of my own. I... I..." Her hand hovered in the air while she decided whether or not to slap me.
"Do you own a vibrator?" I risked making the slap-or-no-slap decision for her.
"What?" She raised her voice. Now she was really angry. The only reason she was still in front of me was that she wanted to retort before walking out.
"One of my girlfriends has this theory about objectification. She says women complain about how men objectify them but two out of three women in America own a plastic penis and don't realize that that toy is objectifying men far more completely than pictures of naked girls in magazines. She says that at least the porn models are still whole people, not just a disembodied vagina." I gave Katherina a synopsis of B's thesis.
"That's... rubbish." Her hand dropped though.
"Is it? So phallic objectification is ok but fantasizing about all of you is wrong?"
"Yes...No..."
"So? Do you own a toy penis?" I wasn't about to let the subject drop.
"Yes... I can't believe I'm telling you that." It was the first hint of embarrassment I'd seen from her. It was another cute look for her.
"And you've never imagined it was some guy you couldn't have?"
"...Ok... yes."
"So? Is it so wrong of me to think about you that way?"
"It's just... You're not supposed to tell people shit like that. It's... perverse."
"And if I hadn't admitted it, the thought would never have crossed your mind?" I knew damned well it would. Girls who look like her and dress like her know exactly how they make men think.
"Ok, I'd probably have figured it out for myself, but..."
"So I didn't tell you anything you didn't already know. All I did was eliminate any doubt. And Katharina?"
"Yes?"
"If you're so grossed out by my honesty, how come your nipples are still erect?" I played my trump card.