Todd Creighton tipped his swivel chair backwards in his home office. He held the phone to his ear and raised his eyebrows in a show of exasperation.
"Look, Len. Entry fee is four mil. That's not the final offer. It's the only offer. You're spread all over the place. If you want to come in, you've got to come in big. This isn't some penny-ante sideshow."
He stopped talking and began doodling on a pad. He dropped the pen and lit a cigarette, blowing a stream of smoke up to the ceiling.
"Look. There's no hurry. Why don't you sell some shit, you know? I mean, you own about half the property in the old neighborhood... yeah. Ditch a few storefronts. The market's right for it. okay? Are we good? Atta boy. Okay. See ya."
"Jeez. What a pollyanna." he mused, as he stretched overhead, revealing sculpted muscles beneath the blond hair of his forearms.
Trish, his wife, came to the open door.
"Hey, I'm going over to Maple's - short workout and a sauna. Want to come?" she said, zipping up a light-blue jacket.
"Hmmm, sounds nice." Todd pondered. "Nah. I'd better keep at it. I need a few more people on board to get this thing rolling."
"What about the guy we met at the club last week. Phelps? I think that was his name. Jack's friend. Seemed to be prospering."
"That's an idea."
"Anyway, I'm off. How about some cracked crab for dinner? I can swing by LaCosta's."
"You're reading my mind, babe."
"Really? Be careful what you think, then, big fella!" She laughed.
Todd heard the front door click shut. He went to the front room and stood watching in his T shirt and sweats. Through the blinds he saw Trish's Navigator move down the street.
Taking the long, sweeping staircase up to the second floor, he entered his daughter's room. He knew exactly what he was looking for, and a thrill ran through his powerful frame and settled into his loins. He made his way to the closet.
It was better than he could have imagined! Several pairs of her panties were visible in the wicker basket she used for soiled laundry. Not surprisingly, Todd began to feel guilty about creeping around his daughter's room, but he was good at dismissing such feelings. He knew how to compartmentalize. He held up a pale-yellow satiny pair and scrutinized it for the treasure he sought. And It was a gem! Jessie's dark honey stains were prominent in the front of the panty, and a slender brown streak graced the material behind.
He had missed these adventures for the four years that Jessie had been at college, but that absence only made the present opportunities all the more exciting.
Settling on this pair after perusing the others, Todd exited the room and headed for the hall bathroom, envisioning his tall, beautiful daughter as he went. He was getting in the mood, and the front of his sweatpants confirmed this with a sizable and shifting bulge.
Tod reached to open the bathroom door just as it opened from the other side. In the smallest fraction of a second, he gasped, the hair on the back of his neck stood on end, and his heart began to beat as if he had run a marathon.
He swiftly jammed the panties into his back pocket as the door swung open. He stood face-to-face with his daughter. Jessie was a woman just one year out of her teenhood, and she deliciously looked the part.
"Daddy! Whew! You startled me. I didn't know you were upstairs. What's up?"
"Just heading for the john, sweetheart." Todd said, his voice strangely high-pitched. Jessie looked at him quizzically.
"You okay, Dad? You look a little funny. I mean pale. I hope you're not sick, or anything."
"Could be." Todd replied. "There's something going around."
Jessie stepped out of the bathroom, and Todd entered quickly. He closed the door and pressed his back to it. He took deep breaths as sweat beaded onto his forehead. His shirt was damp, as well.
Back in his office, Todd reviewed over and over again the surprising presence of his daughter in the house. He swore that he'd heard her say that she would be going hiking with Bernard. But that was a few days ago. Something had changed. That was for sure. He chastised himself bitterly for just assuming this. Was he nuts? He couldn't imagine the fallout if his surreptitious hamper-diving got out. 'Fucking moron', he seethed to himself. 'Dumb ass'. He held his head in his hands as he sat at his desk, and began to calm down. There was a knock at the office door.
"Come in!" Todd called, feeling his adrenalin surge. It had to be Jessie. Now he did know she was in the house.
Jessie entered, her short brown hair spiked with gel. She wore tightly-fitting cutoff jean shorts and a gauzy white blouse with the tails tied at her midriff. She was barefoot.
"Daddy, I need to talk to you." she said in a serious tone.
Could be some personal thing, Todd thought desperately. She did often confide in him.
"Sit down, Jess. What's on your mind. Nothing terrible, I hope."
Jessie lowered herself into one of the two leather-upholstered chairs that faced the desk. Todd could not help watching her gorgeous tanned legs curl up onto the seat of the chair. In spite of the close scrape he'd just survived, he couldn't help imagining resting his face against the soft thighs.
Jessie sat there looking at the floor. Todd's mind was racing.
"Tell me all about it, honey." he said, feeling as if a judge was about to read his sentence to him. "Maybe I can help."
"I don't think that's possible." she said, and Todd noticed a tone of anger in her voice.
"Well, why not?" Todd rejoined, his bowels doing a slow churn.
"What were you doing with my panties, daddy!?" she blurted out, her lower lip quivering. She tried to control herself, but the tears came.
"Your...your..."
My panties!! for Christ's sake, daddy, I saw them sticking out of your pocket upstairs just now! And I looked in my room and they are missing!"
Todd let his head hang down so that he stared blankly at a pen and a crumpled page of paper in front of him. His mind was frozen, and the chill descended and lodged in his chest. Had he injured her, the one person in the world whose trust he had worked so hard to gain? Would she now think of him as a skulking pervert?
He listened to his daughter sniffling a few feet away. Slowly, he drew the undergarment from his pocket, and placed it on the desk.
"Here, baby. Maybe you can forgive me someday. I wouldn't."
With that, Todd slid from his chair onto his knees. He covered his face with his hands, and sobs rose up from deep within him. His shoulders shook.
"Maybe someday." he anguished. "God! I'm so sorry! I'm a shit. I'm not a father. I'm a fucking lowlife."
He looked up to see Jessie looking at him, confusion and pain in her reddened eyes. But there was something else there, too. Todd was too blinded by self-loathing to see it: the love and the pity that also shone through her tears. Weeping uncontrollably, Jessie left her seat and came around the desk to her anguished father.
"Oh, Daddy! Daddy! Don't cry. Please.Please, Daddy. Oh, Daddy."
She went to her knees and embraced him. She stroked the back of his head, feeling the thick hair between her fingers.
"Shhh.Shhh. It's okay." she said between her diminishing sobs. Forgiveness washed over her and the hard casing she had felt around her heart shattered slowly and fell away.
"I don't deserve you." Todd mumbled, unable to look at her. "Some father."
"No! No! Please, Daddy. You love me. I know you love me. What you did... well, really, was it so bad, so evil? But I was shocked. It just never occurred to me that..."
"That I'm a snake? That I am..."
