Realtor Revenge is the sequel to Real Estate Games. For the full experience, I suggest you start with Part 1 of Real Estate Games.
***
Realtor Revenge
Chapter 9
I had two days off. Forty-eight hours of respite between the Chinese departure and the arrival of the next group of foreign investors. My plan for the weekend was to do absolutely nothing and to do it alone. I was tired of entertaining clients, tired of dealing with the city council and tired of Mark Seiman. Yes, the incredibly handsome man promised to make me a wealthy woman. And the one time we had sex it was by far the best I'd ever experienced. But the price I had to pay for a promise of riches and one incredible orgasm was weeks of near constant physical and mental abuse. So, when I pulled into my driveway, after waving goodbye to the Chinese at the airport, I was more than ready for a hot bath, a cold drink and a good night's sleep.
The bath and chilled pinot-grigio were both heavenly. But the good night's sleep was not to be had. I was still hearing noises and voices coming from someplace under my bed. The sounds weren't just in my master bedroom. I also heard them in the guest room and even in the hotel room where I tried sleeping one night.
The only nights I didn't hear anything unusual was when Flanagan slept with me. For some reason, nothing supernatural happened when he was in the room... which didn't seem fair since he had just as much to do with Janis' demise as I. And even though his presence seemed to keep the evil spirits at bay, I still didn't get any rest when he shared my bed. The misguided policeman thought I wanted him for entertainment, not protection.
Forced to choose between spending the night with an oversexed policeman or the ghost of Janis Moorehead (
surely she was dead, she'd been in the grave three weeks
), I chose the stiff dicked cop and caught up on my sleep the following afternoon.
***
The Russians
The next group of foreign investors were Russians. The contrast between the Russian and Chinese contingents couldn't have been greater. The Chinese arrived on a commercial airline. The Russians flew in on a private jet with their company's logo prominently displayed on the tail. The small stature Chinese men wore conservative business attire that obviously came off the rack. The overly muscular Russian men dressed like mafia Dons in expensive casual wear accented by gold chains and large rings. And while the Chinese women were attractive, when the Russian ladies stepped into the terminal, everybody stopped and stared. It was as if Victoria's Secret was doing a photo shoot in Merryville. Except Victoria didn't exclusively hire tall, slim blondes as their models. If I didn't know better, I'd swear the five women were full size, animated Barbie Dolls.
Despite the obvious differences between the two groups, our goals for the Russians were exactly the same as they were for the Chinese. After the city council agreed to let them operate tax free for twenty years, the Russians agreed to buy a good portion of Northeast Merryville at extremely inflated prices. Unlike my Chinese experience, I was able to keep my clothes on when showing the Russian men around town. Surprisingly, they not only didn't try to get into my pants, they seldom acknowledged me at all. Probably because they brought their own walking talking sex toys with them.
I won't go into the gory details, but I spent a good part of the week answering emails on my phone while one of the Russian men banged the Barbie Doll de jour in the master bedroom of whatever house we were in. I probably could have sold them an outhouse, just as long as it came with a king size bed. But I didn't. They had a huge budget, so I made sure they only saw the most expensive properties in their section of Merryville.
One of the houses the Russians purchased was a six-thousand square foot mansion on five acres of wooded land. The humongous living room which emptied onto an even larger pool deck made it a perfect party house. Two hot tubs and seven bedrooms promised even more. It was the natural choice for our end of the week celebration.
Mark insisted on driving me to the event. He had traded his boring SUV rental for a late model BMW and was thirty minutes late picking me up.
"Aren't you afraid of offending the client by arriving late?" I asked as I slid onto the expensive leather seat.
"If it was a business meeting, I'd get there exactly on time," he answered. "But fashionably late for a social event is as normal in Russian culture as it is here."
It was a lame excuse, but I let it slide. I was dreading a repeat of the last "end of week" party and wanted to know what was expected of me up front.
"Is there anything I should know about tonight?" I asked. "Will I be forced to eat pickled pig feet or drink some disgusting vodka-based witches brew?"
"We have all the contracts in hand, but we don't yet have their money. So yes, I will expect you to eat and drink whatever is offered and do whatever is asked. Are we clear on this?"
"Crystal clear."
"Good. Now quit sulking, I have a present for you. It's on the back seat."
I turned around to find a small box wrapped in red paper with a white bow.
"Should I open it now?"
"Of course. I expect you to wear it tonight."
I was hoping for a diamond necklace or perhaps some pearl earrings. But when I unwrapped the present, I found a white silk scarf.
"It's uh -- it's very nice," I said, trying not to sound as underwhelmed as I felt. "But it doesn't really go with what I'm wearing."
"Nonsense. Try it on. Let me see how it looks on you."