Chapter 11

Tuesday, 9:09 pm

“What a fucking day,” I said as I walked through the lobby of Solomon’s Palace.

I meant it too - I’d woken up to a fantastic blowjob from Bobbi and made a Faustian bargain with her, though in this instance, I felt more like Mephisto to Bobbi’s Faust. After that, I’d reserved the room for another week, displacing some honeymooning couple over the weekend, but I made sure they were taken care of on my dime. her with her own set of errands. After sending Bobbi off on her errands which included the morning-after pill, I’d gone to Marduke to meet up with Helen, who had arranged for me to interview three incredibly gorgeous women for the opportunity to be my right hand. All three of them had promised to essentially be my beck-and-call girl, one of them going so far as to blow me. Then Helen and I fucked in my office. We fell asleep on the couch for a couple of hours, I visited Natalie, then met with Ashlee for coffee, paperwork, and seduction. After that, I headed back to the office with coffee for Natalie and nearly fucked her before being rudely interrupted by a call from my neighbor to inform me that someone broke into my apartment.

After retrieving Jack from Phoebe, Erin and I stayed with Detective Reese until they called it quits an hour later. We stuck around afterward to give our statements, and then we stopped at one of my favorite places to pick up some sushi before heading back to Solomon’s Palace.

“You’re not wrong,” Erin said beside me as we made our way to the main elevator.

“You know, you can go home now,” I said as the elevator doors opened.

Erin followed on my heels. “I will. I figured I could see where you’re staying first. Maybe meet the infamous Bobbi.”

I leaned against the glass wall of the elevator, watching through the transparent elevator shaft as the gamblers milled about and placed bets for five floors until we ascended into the hotel portion of the casino. “How do you know about Bobbi? Helen?”

Erin nodded and leaned back against the wall next to me. “Yes sir. She told me about pretty much everything. Knowing everything is the best way for me to help you and anticipate your needs.”

“Even the bad stuff?”

“What bad stuff?”

I shrugged, still feeling uncomfortable with the grey area that was Bobbi. “I don’t know. Rich people crimes?”

“Ah. Yeah, especially the bad stuff. Do you have anything planned that I need to know about?”

She grinned at me, and I sized her up as I thought about it. At just under six feet, I wasn’t what some would categorize as tall, but her small frame and height made me feel that much taller.

“Not really. I might have pushed things a little too far with Bobbi yesterday.”

“Are you talking about the extorting loyalty and sex from Bobbi through blackmail?”

“Well damn,” I said sheepishly. “When you put it like that-”

“I don’t know the situation with you guys,” Erin cut me off. “According to Helen, you guys have an air-tight case to lock her away for at least a decade if you needed to, so you probably don’t need to worry about it. Concerning ethics, it sounds to me like Bobbi’s a bitch and had some hard times coming, and Helen thinks that Bobbi could come around to a certain way of life if it means the security and protection you could provide, so as far as I’m concerned you’re fine. I’m not a bastion of morality though, so I probably shouldn’t be your only go-to for things like this. Now, if you’re disappearing random people and chaining them up in your dungeon completely against their will, then we might need to have an ethics conversation.”

I smiled a little at that and said, “That sounds fair.” Then I spent the remaining few moments of the elevator ride imaging Bobbi chained in a dungeon.

Finally, the doors opened and I took the lead into the large hotel suite. I heard her whistle as she followed me. “Nice digs!”

“Thanks. It’s just temporary,” I said and whirled on her. “So how does this work? What keeps you from ratting me out?”

She put her hands on her hips and cocked her head slightly to the right. “Client/attorney privilege.” The tone of her words called me stupid.

“I didn’t realize you went to law school,” I said as I turned and started looking around the suite. I hadn’t detected any signs of life in the suite and was starting to wonder if Bobbi was even here. I entered the bedroom to take a look.

“Didn’t you interview me for a job this morning?” Erin said.

“Fair enough,” I called out as I emerged from the bedroom, finding no sign of Bobbi. Erin was currently at the bar, looking through the various bottles of liquor. “I guess I got distracted by the picture you painted for me earlier,” I said as I headed for the bathroom.

“I imagine the dick-sucking you got from Bella probably gave you brain fog too?”

“So sure of your theory, Sherlock?” I asked. Bobbi wasn’t in the bathroom either.

“More like it was confirmed. Like I said, Helen gave me the full story. If I’d known how much you were worth, I’d have gotten on my knees and sucked your dick too. Nine-hundred billion? I assumed it was high nine digits.”

“Does it change anything?” I asked as I walked back into the foyer of the hotel.

“For me? Hell no. Just makes me want to keep the job all that much more.” She turned, holding a crystal tumbler with several fingers of brown liquid. “What are you looking for?”

“Bobbi,” I said as I pulled out my phone and looked for her new number in my contacts. I’d had a phone delivered to the room after I left for her use with my number already added as a contact “She was supposed to come back this evening.” I called her but got no immediate answer.

After the fourth ring, it went to the canned voicemail response that came default on a new phone number. “Hey, Bobbi-” I started to say, and then got a call waiting beep.

Bobbi was calling me back, so I switched over and said, “Hey pet.”

Erin’s eyebrows rose at my tone and choice of words, and she took a sip, hiding the rest of her reaction. I had been too tired to play games, but the moment I saw Bobbi’s name pop up on my screen, something within me snapped and I somehow found the energy to be a dick.

“What do you want?” Her tone was flat and lacked any of the malice she displayed yesterday, but it was still jarring.

Something in my chest snapped at the curt words I turned and started pacing toward the bedroom. “Where the fuck are you?” I asked. My tone was full of venom.

There was hesitation on her end. “I called a friend on the new phone, and she picked me up. We did some shopping and I got the pill like you asked. I feel a little sick, so she said I could stay with her.”

“What did you tell her about the situation?” My stomach twisted at the possible answer to that question.

“Chill the fuck out. I just told her I was in a bit of trouble and needed some help. I didn’t say anything else. She’s cool.”

“Okay,” I said, suddenly feeling very tired and not in the mood to put up with her bullshit. “But be back at work tomorrow.”

There was silence on the other end that went on for several seconds. Then she finally said, “Okay.”

She hung up before I could say anything else. I considered calling her back but decided against it. Again, it had been a long day and I just didn’t have it in me to go another round with Bobbi Nanford.

“It looks like Bobbi-”

Whatever I’d been about to say died instantly as I turned and saw what was in my doorway.

Erin stood against the entrance into the bedroom in nothing but an exquisite set of deep purple satin and lace lingerie, and I got a good look at her body for the first time. My mouth immediately went dry.

She was slender and feminine, with a tiny waist and frame. Her arms and legs were lithe and appealing, confirming that she had the build of a dancer or runner. Her olive complexion appeared uniform across her entire body, a testimonial to Middle Eastern or Indian influence. I was rewarded with the view of her feminine midriff, which displayed a subtle hint of her abdominal muscles. Her bra encased a pair of breasts that looked healthy on a woman her size - roughly the size of a pair of grapefruits. It molded to her chest to maximize the cleavage, shaping her breasts to meet in the middle in a gorgeous valley of flesh that I wanted to bury my face in. Her panties left little to the imagination; the cut barely covered the top of her groin, and I could see the faint outline of her pussy. It appeared completely shaven.

Aside from her petite frame and breathtaking beauty, her biggest distinguishing feature was the single tattoo on her right arm which started at the halfway point of her forearm, traveling up her arm to a stopping point on her shoulder. It was a series of black lines making a pleasant pattern in the appearance of a tribal motif. The ink still looked dark, giving me the impression that the tattoo was fairly recent.

Her entire ensemble worked with her dark eyeliner, dark shade of lipstick, and silver/purple hair to create an appealing image of a young, confident woman who knew exactly who she was and what she wanted. That same woman had not only decided to work for me but had made me a lot of interesting promises.

“Won’t be here tonight?” She finished my thought and sipped from the tumbler. “I heard.”

“God damn,” I said.

“Since you hired me, I thought I could give you the Bella treatment,” she said, straightening and taking slow, sultry steps toward me.

The weariness I’d felt a few moments ago was suddenly gone.

“I ... This is what you want?”

“Marcus,” she purred, leaned into me, and offered me the tumbler. I took it from her and threw it back, barely suppressing a cough as I swallowed the burning liquid.

She grabbed the collar of my shirt with one hand and slowly reeled me down, bringing my face closer to hers, The register of her voice dropped into a husky, low tone, “I spent a fair amount of time with you today. I like you.”

She brushed her lips gently across mine. “And like I said ... you’re rich and hot. Not only am I okay with this arrangement, but I consider myself a very lucky woman to have caught your interest.”

Erin lightly kissed me on the lips, sliding them gently back and forth and teasing me mercilessly. “Why don’t I show you just how grateful I am.”

I nodded and Erin smiled, pressing her lips to mine as she kept a vice-like grip on my collar. I felt her lipstick smear across my mouth as her lips began exploring mine. Her lips weren’t quite as full as Natalie’s but were still exquisitely soft. She was also less desperate than Natalie had been ... more playful and teasing with her kisses. When I matched the intensity of her kisses, she would pull back, coaxing me into trailing after her to capture her lips before they could get away. With Erin, kissing was a dance - equal parts give-and-take from each other, and Erin knew how to dance it perfectly.

Instead of relying on my partner, I escalated things for a change, tentatively pressing my tongue against her lips. Erin grinned into the kiss and wrapped her slender arms around my neck, pulling me in for a full-bodied hug as our tongues began to duel. She tasted like mint, blackberries, alcohol, and a natural flavor that differed from Natalie or Helen; my head reeled as I imagined savoring this daily.

My hands roamed down her back, sliding across her smooth skin and down to her small, peach-shaped ass. I kneaded it as she moaned into my mouth, marveling at the tightness of her ass cheeks.

After a solid two minutes of making out, Erin pulled away, her arms sliding from around my neck, and grinned as she used her thumb to wipe away some of the dark stains on my mouth. “Please have a seat.”

Obliging her, I backed up the remaining three feet to the bed and lowered myself until I was sitting on the mattress, tossing my phone on the nightstand beside the bed. I licked my lips in anticipation of whatever Erin had planned and faintly tasted the residue of lipstick she had tried removing. My new assistant simply stood there, looking me up and down with a mysterious half-smile on her face. God only knew what was going on in her head, because I sure didn’t. From the moment I met her, Erin had been a wildcard. I was only able to predict what she was going to say a fraction of the time. She was irreverent, crass, and funny; despite the downturn my day had taken this evening, Erin had been able to make me laugh several times. Now that we were in a much more intimate setting, her posture and the soft expression on her elfin features felt warm and comforting.

She closed the remaining few feet between us, her hips swaying with every exaggerated step as she approached me. Once she reached me, she didn’t stop; she slid one knee onto the mattress followed by the other, straddling me. She then reached for my phone - still unlocked from my call with Bobbi - and started doing something on it I couldn’t see, that playful little smile still on her face. I was just about to ask what she was doing when music started to play.

It was a slow melody with a strong beat; it was something I recognized but couldn’t quite identify. Erin dropped my phone somewhere on the bed, grabbed both my wrists, and guided them to her waist, which was impossibly small; my fingers could almost touch each other.