Thanks everyone for the support and comments thus far. Hopefully I have fewer errors in this one as I still need an editor. Enjoy and remember, any comments need to be polite and useful.
*****
Mmmmmmmmmm.
Damn, the Countess is one hell of lay. I'm laying here all sweating and reeking of sex while the sun comes up looking at her naked body sprawled on her back, with a big dumb grin on her face, and her eyes glazed over from the cocaine and fucking.
I don't do drugs of course, but my lovely little noble-woman had the habit when I enthralled her and I discovered she got really wild after a nice line or two. So I made sure her habit was under control, but also made sure she always had a nice hit ready for some fun.
I had a good night, played cards until nearly 4am and made a nice net profit to the tune of $7 million US and a nice deed to a very nice piece of beachfront property that I just happen to know will soon triple in value as someone is going to try and build a resort hotel there. My talent and my little spy network at work.
Heh, I swear it's almost too easy. I had my investigation team research several of the players. I found one was between girlfriends and found out the kind of woman he liked. Then I called in one of my "on call agents" and molded her a bit into the perfect match. I set up a meeting and my girl had him wrapped around her finger in less than a day. For the three days prior to the game, she had worked his ass over and he was dopey and worn out by the time it came to play. Easy pickings for me.
The property owner was not nearly as good as he thought he was at cards (he had a system but he had never really used it in a real high stakes game against real gamblers) so he was no issue. He made the same mistake I had made when I was younger and had first started out.
The guy with the development plan had a hot young wife (she was just turned twenty and he was pushing forty) and was at the game to try and win it from the property owner. My hackers had put this together from some digging while we were profiling the game. I arranged to run into his wife (actually the Countess did and invited her over for tea) and then turned her into one of my little spies for a week. She fucked her husband silly, pulled out the information I needed on the plan, made sure he was tired and dopey from sex and drinking, and sent him on his merry way to get cleaned out.
I got the property and a load of cash and his wife introduced us through the Countess. I made another little bet and we made a nice deal. I have a 25% stake in his new development, which will be a HUGE hit.
Of course, while this is probably something you are all dying to hear about, that's for later. Right now I need to go back to that card game in Zurich. It was important as it was my true entrance to the high-roller lifestyle and I made a very good impression and made some serious money.
And got some more women added to my, uh, collection.
You already know about Lily, Astrid, and Alyssa. Alyssa is still my banker and my main money woman. She keeps my budget, moves my money, handles legal issues with it, and in return she got a nice senior VP position in the bank even though her primary job is to handle my finances alone. Certain members on the Board of Directors liked to play cards and lost some bets and the rest is history. Everyone in the European, Asian, and North and South American gambling circuit knows Alyssa by now as she has made her rep as MY money woman, but also as someone who can set someone up with a bank that caters to gamblers. While not exactly what the bank's senior management had in mind, they made a lot of money because of my efforts and Alyssa's so they can't really complain.
I'm getting a bit ahead of myself though so let's get back to my grand entrance into the real high stakes gambling world. After Alyssa got cleaned up and ready again we headed out. The private club we went to was amazing. It made all the private VIP level stuff I had seen at the track back in college and some of the VIP lounges in some of Indian Casinos I had hit look like the bathrooms in a truck stop. Everyone was wearing suits and dresses that cost easily more than most Americans can make in two weeks, everyone had a gold watch, every woman had jewels worth a king's ransom, and everyone moved like they owned the planet.
Now I had a pretty good swagger but I will admit I really felt out of place when I walked in despite my suit, watch, and haircut. I looked the part, but I could see I would need some work on it. But on my credit side was the fact I had Jessica and Astrid on my arms and they did the strut like pros. I had both of them and it was obvious by how my girls acted that they were MINE. That got me a lot of "wasta" as I have heard it called. Lots of men gave me appreciative nods and I got openly checked out by several very fine looking women.
Astrid gave me some input as we moved into the club and introduced me around as "Jessica's dear boyfriend and my own very close friend" (which was usually followed by her nuzzling my neck or kissing my cheek). She pointed out the who's who, and made sure to tell me about the women. Usually the hot unattached ones were divorcees on the prowl for the next husband and she kept me clear of them. Astrid could turn away a woman with an icy stare that made me shiver and she used it a lot.
After some dancing, drinks, and meeting various people Alyssa came up and introduced me to an older man named John. "Sir John" (he had been knighted for something apparently, never did get the full story) had heard I liked to play cards and amazingly enough so did he. After some chatting where he scoped me out on my level of play he nodded to Alyssa and said "Ted, we just happen to have a game going on upstairs. Why don't you come on up as my guest and play a few hands."
I made some noise about not wanting to intrude, but he merely waved my protests off and said "Alyssa has already let me know that money isn't an issue, and simply put, we need some new blood in our game. The current group has, well, come up and see for yourself."
I was a bit curious and agreed. I had to leave my lovely ladies behind, this was a "man's game" after all. We went upstairs and past a set of doors with two rather large guys in sunglasses standing in front of them. They gave me a look that was clearly the "Don't make trouble" warning and I smiled and nodded.
Inside was a large room with a large table in the center and a bar off to one corner. Seven men were seated around the table and I noted the very large pile of chips in the center. These guys were playing for several hundred thousand dollars in this one hand. Sir John led me to the bar and we got a drink and I watched from the bar. The hand ended with a younger guy winning. He looked to be about maybe five years older than me, had a beard and looked Middle Eastern. He had the largest pile of chips and he made some comment and laughed rather loudly. The others at the table laughed but I could see it was forced.
"That man doesn't seem too popular." I said softly to Sir John.
"That is Haissen. Prince Haissen actually, of the Saudi Royal Family. One of the very distant cousins. He's highly educated, attended Oxford, and he is the only son of his particular very distant branch of the family. His father was very rich and he passed away about three years ago leaving it all to him. He is rather spoiled and is a playboy. Rather useless man."
"Like most of the people here" I thought to myself. Out loud I said "But he seems to be pretty good at cards."
Sir John frowned. "It is his one talent. He has no qualms about showing it off and is rather loud and obnoxious about it. I'd kick him out, but he owns part of the club through his inheritance."
I realized why Sir John had brought me up here. I looked at him and noted he was giving me a fairly careful appraisal.
"I get the feeling you know a lot more about me than you let on." I said very softly and Sir John gave me a very tight smile.
"I took the liberty of checking up on you when Alyssa inquired about the game. You seem to have some talent with cards, more than any of us do. We simply do this for fun, and we are all so rich that a million here or there doesn't matter much now and then. Usually less than $200,000 ends up changing hands as we really are not serious. Prince Haissen though likes to win all the time, and he likes to rub our faces in it. The man really has no manners at all."
