Chapter 14: The Driver’s Niece

“DON MIGUEL, I need your help.”

That there was no “please” attached to the request was significant. He had a little leverage at this point, true, but he was cagey enough and experienced enough not to overplay his hand. His years of close observation of Monsieur M, hundreds if not thousands of kilometers of driving him everywhere as well as the time he spent with Alejandra and her mother, gave him a pretty good idea of what leverage was useful and what was a waste of time.

I wonder how many movers and shakers have been brought down or at least dented a little because they didn’t notice their staff, chauffeur, bodyguard, maid, butler, whoever, was within earshot? The best ones, the smart ones, never let on they listened. It’s a double-edged sword, for certain. The big guy, the boss, ultimately has the high cards, especially if he doesn’t care about the information the employee has.

In most cases it’s a case of momentary embarrassment. Depending on the context, what it is and how often it’s happened before, the boss may get off with nothing more than a psychic or financial scratch, if that. In every case, however, the employee is out of a job and perhaps in danger, it depends on who the boss is and how ticked he is at what’s happened.

In my case it was sex. I should say it was our case, since my partner was Alejandra. I still didn’t know if she was a virgin, although I was beginning to think she might not be. Her friends had too many stories and hints and Alejandra knew her way around a dick too well to be totally unfamiliar with said organ and how it fit into her.

It might be like Sofía, for sure. Sofía had showed me and Javier that weekend at the Rain Festival how much she liked to play, even if the full performance was still off the table. Sofía was a cocksucker supreme. A couple of things she’d let drop made me think she might like playing for both teams, but so far I’d only had experience with her in a pretty straight encounter. Except for me sucking Javier’s cock and Javier returning the favor, of course.

Carlos had made it clear from the moment I met him that his first priority was protecting Alejandra. It’s possible he had designs on her or at least hopes about what might happen, but I’m pretty observant as well and it seemed to me his protective posture was personal and genuine in addition to professional.

I’d been very straightforward about my own feelings for Alejandra. I thought Carlos and I understood each other. Nor, for the record, do I think he was trying to spy on us. We were careless, that’s the long and short of it.

It had happened a few weeks after my weekend with Sofía and Javier back in the village. Sofía and I weren’t exclusive, far from it. In fact, I don’t think either of us really knew where we were going. Under Mme Bertha’s watchful eye, however, we were finding moments here and there. Of course Mme Bertha knew her niece and knew what might be going on. Indeed, it was evident she knew pretty much everything that had transpired at the Rain Festival. She didn’t say anything. She didn’t have to.

Alejandra had her favorite spots in the family’s extensive gardens. There wasn’t a straight path or border in the place. From the patio outside the main house one had a choice inviting courses of gravel that led seemingly in all directions, some directly to the pool, others to all points of the garden.

At the end of a path the casual visitor was unlikely to explore because it didn’t look like it went anywhere, Alejandra had arranged to have a bench and flanking seats installed, with a small low table in front of them. It wasn’t a secret. All the staff knew where to find her, and Alejandra often had tea there in the afternoon either by herself or with friends. Even if the location was known to everyone, the arrangement of the path and the growth of bushes and trees was such that a person approaching could not see what might be going on there until after the last curve of the path. Or vice versa.

That’s what gave us away. In retrospect I’m surprised I didn’t hear Carlos approaching. Like lovers everywhere and throughout time, Alejandra and I were good at straightening our clothes and looking presentable in seconds when it became necessary. And like lovers everywhere and throughout time, we probably weren’t entirely successful in disguising our activities from any visitor who took an interest. Many did not, deliberately, and one must commend the untold numbers of domestic staff who professionally fail to notice something that’s under their noses. It’s an art form.

Not that afternoon. The heat had begun to abate but the shower earlier had left the air muggy and heavy and hot and humid and generally icky. Alejandra and I were debating whether to go for a swim, but we didn’t have the energy to get up and do it. Instead we’d been chatting about this and that and our hands began to wander a little. I kissed her then, her lips and tongue welcomed me, and I didn’t care about the heat or my sweat or hers. I moved to her neck and inhaled her burning skin, the sweat and the touch of perfume or shampoo, I didn’t know which.

Her sundress was loose enough to permit exploration, and my hand had found its way to a warm and firm breast with a delightfully perky nipple, and I was enjoying the exploration as much as my hand was. It was sticky, no question, but we were both more than willing to put up with a little stickiness.

Alejandra’s hand was on its own expedition between my legs. She was unlikely to get very far, but I was firm enough for her fingers to find me and to rub me exactly the right way. She was doing well enough I was starting to think I’d better stop her rather than add the results of my orgasm to the general wetness all around us.

I’d let the strap of her dress down so as to enjoy her the more, and I’d dropped my head to suckle her. I had my hand under her skirt where I first stroked her thigh before I moved to her center. I’d rounded third and was headed for home. I’d just bit her nipple when I heard Alejandra cry out. I thought it was in ecstasy. I was wrong. When I raised my head to look around I saw Carlos standing at the edge of our little clearing.

He immediately made a “Sorry, sorry,” motion with his hands but I noticed he didn’t move immediately to turn. Instead, he paused long enough to make it clear, to me, anyway, he was taking in every detail of the little tableaux before him. After a long second, he dipped his head and turned and moved away.

“Oh my god.” Alejandra was in tears. “He’s going to tell Daddy, I know he is.”

I hugged her. Her father would not be happy with the news, I knew that, but I think he was unlikely to try to have me killed. Banning me from the household was a more likely development.

“Why, Alex?”

She looked at me as if I were nuts.

“Because Daddy has assigned him to protect me and that’s what he’s going to do. He may be my bodyguard as well as my driver when he’s not with my father, but he works for Daddy and he reports to Daddy. He doesn’t work for me.”

“I’ll talk to him, Alex. I think he trusts me.” I wasn’t entirely certain on this point but I hoped it was true. “I’ll ask him if he can let it go by, and persuade him it’s what you would want.”

More important, I thought to myself, I’ll persuade him I’m not a threat to Alejandra.

“I love you, Alex. I think he knows that.”

She kissed me, but she didn’t look convinced in the least.

“OK, Michael, but be prepared for the worst.”

I had a chat with Carlos later that afternoon after I’d left a shaken Alejandra sitting in her little garden nook. There was a glimmer of something I didn’t like in his eyes, but he was properly deferential on the surface.

“I know you have a responsibility to Mlle Alejandra and to Monsieur M, don Carlos, and I would never attempt to dissuade you from carrying out that responsibility.” Even as I was doing so, of course. “I would ask, however, if you could see your way clear to not embarrassing her this time.” I paused for a moment in the hope my next words would sink in.

“I care for her immensely, don Carlos. Indeed, we are perhaps drawing close to the point where custom and courtesy demand that I have a conversation with Monsieur M myself concerning our relationship and the future for Alejandra and me.”

This was not total baloney but it was an exaggeration. We were perhaps headed more or less in a direction that might lead to a talk with her father some day, but even if that were true we were nowhere near the point of needing a conversation with Monsieur M.

“Under these circumstances I would be very grateful, and I believe Mlle Alejandra would be very grateful, for your discretion in this matter.”

Carlos studied me for a minute. I had a flash of a thought he was estimating how much money I had in my wallet.

“Very well, don Miguel. Very well. But I do so with reluctance. I take my responsibility seriously, to Mlle Alejandra as well as to her father.” He stared at me in a fashion that might be construed as impudent, but I wasn’t going to quarrel or dress him down at this point. “Very well.”