Chapter 29: Morning After, Urban Survival, Matchmaking

Mark

Brita, KC, and I were up early. We went to the kitchen and started to make a large buffet breakfast for everyone. By some magic, the house larder and refrigerator were restocked everyday. KC cooked up about ten packages of bacon. I used four-dozen eggs, along with spices, shredded cheese, spices, and cream, to make scrambled eggs a la Worthington. Brita was doing both regular toast and French toast. KC also produced two huge bowls of mixed fruit and set the large dining room table for our fare.

The first to show up looking ridden hard and put away wet was Elsa. She had a sheepish grin as she strolled into the kitchen. She had dried cum in her hair and on her thighs. A new hickey showed on one breast. She snagged a piece of bacon and wandered out by the pool as she ate it. I saw her dive in, her lithe body making a clean splash in perfect form.

Lucas appeared looking official and ready for any threat or contingency, but I watched as his eyes followed Elsa’s hot body to the pool’s edge. He nodded to her and then disappeared. I felt certain that Elsa had scored with Lucas. He seemed to be blushing, a most uncharacteristic trait for my stoic head of security.

Marcia appeared a few minutes later, also looking armed and dangerous. She took one look at me and her whole mood softened. I got a bright smile and then she too backed out of the area to circulate on morning rounds. She was blushing, and I took that as a good sign that she was fondly recalling our time in the sailboat. I wanted more time with her. I wanted to make love to the pretty woman.

Andy, Mike, and Sheila arrived and sat down. They were verbose about the great odors permeating the house – coffee, bacon, and cinnamon seemed to top the list. Carter, Ryan, and Melanie strolled in from the far end of the patio. They had slept outside in the tiki hut that doubled as a large cabana and changing area, if anyone around the villa decided to wear clothes. They also had that freshly fucked look about them. The cabana had several large chaises in it that were more than suitable as comfortable beds for sex.

Deke, James, and Margo appeared next. The men looked recently worn out, and she looked electrified and had fresh semen seeping down her thighs. She’d brought a towel to sit on. The last to appear were Tom and Cindy, who were still wet from their morning shower. They too looked like they’d recently made love. They were holding hands and making ga-ga eyes at each other. I found I had warm feelings for the two of them because of how they were acting about each other. Love begets love.

I glanced around at my naked compatriots. I guess we were all nudists at heart. I’d never acted this way before. Except for our trips to town for meals and shopping, and the trip out in the sailboat, I hadn’t had too many clothes on during this trip. The experience was amazingly leveling and ego busting. It’s hard to puff up your feathers as a CEO when everyone is looking at your penis.

That thought made me recall some advice a public speaking coach gave me: ‘Don’t get nervous in front of a group. Imagine the audience is naked. It’s a great leveler.’ As my career progressed I realized I didn’t want to see most of my audience naked, but by then I was a great public speaker.

KC played hostess and got everybody seated, and the great breakfast began. After that, some informal groups formed up for various activities. The sense that our grand vacation was winding down was evident.

Andy, Tom, Brita, and I got in a business discussion about fostering and rewarding creativity in our businesses. One result was that we decided to set up several centers of excellence that cut across our business lines under the corporate umbrella where we could place some of our geniuses and turn them loose on the world without the worry of day-to-day business pressures.

Tom got my attention when he started spouting off statistics about the percentage of revenue going to R&D in various business segments. To my surprise, Worthington Industries was under spending in half the segments. Brita backed up Tom, citing the importance of the seed corn as she called it. I agreed, and soon we were making notes of action items again.

Brita suggested that we find a way to involve university professors and grad students in some way – an advisory board, interns, summer faculty at large, symposia, and other ideas were kicked around. Tom suggested that some of the Worthington staff teach at local colleges, to help make the street run both ways. We were on a roll.

Melanie got wind of what we were talking about and on her own showed up with a steno pad and started to take notes of all the ideas we were voicing. Not to be left out, Sheila slid into the discussion. We went for two hours, and by the end of that time Melanie was also joining in the discussion with suggestions from the trenches – as she called them. We liked every one of her ideas. I love smart women.

We broke up after a couple of hours. I heard the sharp cracks of gunfire from the firing range, so went down to see what was going on. Deke, Cindy, and Elsa were dressed in some body protection from their exercises. They were running across part of the range, falling and rolling into some kind of crude firing position, and then squeezing off three shots at the target. I heard Deke praising them.

I sat on a stair tread and watched, curious about what they’d do next. Each person wore a shoulder holster, which was actually both a holster on one side and several pockets for clips on the other.

Deke started each girl walking along across the range, and then he’d yell, “Draw.” The idea was how fast they could pull their weapon and respond. Neither girl had done this before, so their first attempts were struggles with the holster. Deke made some suggestions and adjustments to how the holster hung around their shoulders and held their weapon. Things improved. Deke started to time them with a stopwatch.

After ten minutes of that exercise, Deke got them firing with a single hand in the quadrant behind them. The girls would be walking away from the target or away at an angle; again, Deke would yell, “Draw,” to start the exercise. Accuracy again improved as they repeated the exercise and as Deke made suggestions about their positioning and situation.

As noon arrived, so did Lucas and a security man I only knew as Geck. I wasn’t sure if that was his first, last, or nickname. The girls cleared their weapons, and left them in Deke’s care to take up to the house. They then followed Lucas and Geck along a path descending to the beach. I tagged along.

Once on the beach, Geck immediately rushed Elsa with the intent of taking her down in some fashion. I expected the smaller woman would be putty in the hands of the muscular large man if not completed bowled over, but was proven wrong a second later. Geck went flying through the air and came down on his back, the air leaving his body in an explosive gasp. Elsa was on him instantly, with her knee against his throat and one of his arms twisted in an unnatural position. She could have done more, but this was a ‘friendly’ sparring match. After ten seconds of obvious capitulation, Elsa stood and helped Geck to stand. They shook hands and bowed slightly to each other.

Lucas tried the same maneuver on Cindy. She wasn’t as smooth as her sister, but he did end up on his back with a knee against his neck and an arm lock. The pair stood and bowed. Lucas critiqued each attack and response. I heard him reminding the girls of an alternate move, depending on how cogent the men were after being slammed to the ground.

The four repeated the exercise, this time with Lucas rushing Elsa, and Geck trying to take on Cindy. Both girls were smoother and more in control this time through. The major change, apparently based on what Lucas had said was that each man ended on his stomach with a knee on neck and both arms twisted back behind.

Lucas announced, “I’m going to escape this and attack again. Be ready.” In a flash, one of his legs swung up and kicked Elsa in the shoulder forcing her to release one arm and fall slightly. She released the knee to his neck. He rose rapidly, but Elsa kicked his legs out from under him and used her body to slam his rising form back down in the sand. The arm she continued to control wrapped nearly to Lucas’ shoulder painfully forcing his submission until she again had both arms in a lock.

Lucas yelled, “Clear.” Elsa instantly released him, stood, and helped him up. They bowed to each other. He critiqued her response. Cindy was paying rapt attention. After a pause, Geck and Cindy repeated the drill with greater success on Cindy’s part. I was very impressed with their training and left them to further practice.

The girls showed up on the pool deck about two o’clock. They’d been doing martial arts training for almost two hours. I could see bruises on Elsa’s cheek and leg, and both of Cindy’s arms. Cindy was limping.

I went over to them. “Shouldn’t you back off a little. You’re both damaged.”

Elsa grinned, “You should see the other guys.” She frowned, “Unfortunately, I did damage to Geck.”

Lucas came up behind them, again oblivious to the nudity on the patio. He put an arm around each girl and said to me, “You have two awesome fighters here. They have improved significantly this week. You can be proud of your girlfriends.”

“I was just asking if the martial arts sessions weren’t a little too rough?”

Lucas shook his head, “If they run into a challenge of some kind, those people aren’t going to pull their punches just because they’re women or only five foot six. Cindy and Elsa need to feel the real thing, or close to it. They need to respond in kind. Just so you know Geck went off to the local medical center, probably with a dislocated shoulder.” Lucas rolled up his pants leg to reveal a spate of black and blue bruises. I also noted that he too had a bruise on his cheekbone. Point made.