Chapter 4

I wondered how I would feel without Neica sleeping just up the hall from my room. I found I didn't miss her at all. I could relax now and not worry whether she would change her mind or make some demands. Needless to say she was an attractive woman and I was a male with needs, but she hadn't tried to tempt me. I hadn't made any move on her either.

Karen was just as attractive as her sister and maybe more so. She had the same dark coloring. She was a couple inches taller, lithe and not quite as full figured. Still she was an attractive woman. She was better proportioned with smaller breasts and a tighter butt. Karen was my children's nanny and I did occasionally catch her looking at me and I certainly looked at her. She sometimes was in her nightclothes having coffee as I was preparing for work. Umm, interesting!

I didn't try to keep track of Karen during the day. I know from what Mom told me that Karen went shopping and was and did have her hair done at times. That part was obvious. Maybe I was just needy, but Karen to me was getting more and more attractive every day. Should I make a move on her now? I knew I would at some point. Mom was acting as if she and Karen shared a secret.

The kids loved Karen and she was acting almost like they were her children and she as their mother. I don't think they gave their own mother a passing thought. But think about it; Billy and Betty had been in Karen's total care for three months now. Neica had come and gone, so none of this realignment was surprising.

Mom asked me why I didn't take Karen out on a date. I put her off, but I was certainly contemplating it. Just before Valentine's Day I was getting terribly antsy. I went to bed fairly early and went right off to sleep. Sometime during the night, I became aware of an arm around me and someone snuggled up to me. "You're awake."

I lay still before answering. She got a little closer if that was possible. "Karen, what are you doing here?"

"I'm interviewing for the permanent position as mother to Billy and Betty. I have several qualifications I think you might be interested in. You notice I have pajamas on, so I'm not using my female equipment to influence you. That is not yet anyway. I think we should talk and I tell you about myself. Your Mom knows most everything about me already, but you should get to know about me before you make up your mind."

"I'll listen. How can I not?"

"Tell me to leave, if you think you should."

I chuckled, "I think you should, but I'll hear you out. I'm enjoying having you next to me and I admit I have imagined you in bed with me. Beside you have been a very secretive person and I am curious."

"Okay, here goes. First, I should tell you that my mother, who you met one time, was about as big a prostitute as any woman could be. But that was how sis and I grew up and we didn't think badly of her. She was our mother so how could we. She kept food on the table and a roof over our heads.

"When other girls were fooling around and doing their classmates I was out doing their fathers. Sis started even before I did and we were good. At least we were in demand and we were doing pretty well. A little later Mom still had her beauty, but she up and quit. She never found a man that wanted to marry her again though. We listened to Mom telling us to change our ways before she did at her age.

"Mom's advice was to find a rich man and then quit and put the past behind us. I was picked up and charged with prostitution before I could find the right person. I was not quite twenty when that happened. Sis was luckier, as she was never caught even though she was even more promiscuous than me. I moved to Fargo and swore I would leave my past behind me.

"Ha! Do you think that could happen? I went to work in an office. It was owned by a man and woman with their own business doing billing for a medical concern. I got hit on almost immediately by the owner and he found out somehow about my record and intended to blackmail me. He held me off before hiring me permanently. He kept looking at me and it made me nervous. I went to his wife with it, thinking I would be fired, but I would have my self respect.

"I ended up selling myself out. At the time I didn't have enough money for a decent place to live. You saw my apartment which was pretty nice. That was where I moved to before the first week was out. In return I was to entertain the man at least once a week. The woman was the one who set this up for her husband.

"She couldn't have sex, but she wanted to keep the love of her husband so this was her way of seeing he was satisfied. As long as I didn't entertain any other man the apartment was mine. They even furnished it and provided some of the food he preferred. I have kept my job all these years, earning just what a secretary earned, but I didn't have to pay for the decent apartment to live in. That was my only compensation for the times when he visited me. My salary wasn't much for it was labor intensive with a lot of help.

"Truth to tell, I came to love the old guy and he wasn't too demanding of me. I loved his wife too for that matter. I looked on it as a straight business deal. At work I was treated with all the respect due me as a secretary for that was what I was. Maybe even a little extra because I wanted to keep my apartment and worked hard to do my job. It is hard to tell, as I have never worked anyplace else. It went to hell early last spring when she died with the flu.

"He was lost and seemed to lose his will to live. In September of this year, he had a heart attack and died too. I had never saved very much. The business went to the administrator to be settled. I was let go the first of October when it was taken over by someone to run it for the estate. Neica asked me to care for Billy and Betty shortly after I was discharged. I had the free time and I couldn't refuse her as I was never able to see my niece and nephew as much I wanted to.

"I used what money I had, believing it was going to be enough until Neica paid me. I really was desperate when I called you and you didn't hesitate to help me out immediately. You don't know how I hated to go down to get twenty dollars from the landlord, but I was willing to do it for the kids. I had never considered hooking again until I saw it was necessary to get food to feed them."

Karen lay quiet waiting for a decision or whatever I had to say. "Turn over and let me put my arms around you. I have to think." My hand naturally found her breast when my arm went over her. I felt her tense up.

"So this woman found a mistress for her husband. Is that correct? And you have been his mistress for how long. Nine years?"

"About that. In a way it gave me some extra freedom. I could go out to a play and I enjoyed seeing a concert. Fargo, North Dakota is the cultural center for a large region. I took in what I could afford. Much more than if I had to find rent every month."

"Why did you tell me you were a prostitute the first conversation we had?"

"I wanted you to help the kids and figured you would want to get them away from a dirty old whore. It worked, for you were at my door in just a few hours." I twitched my fingers. "Stop that! I'm a prostitute. You have to pay up front." Karen let out a little giggle.

"I have paid. Twenty dollars, remember?" I didn't say anything more. Could I believe this woman? I felt I could. I had known her for the last two months. I had a sense of what she was and she certainly loved Billy and Betty. "Okay interview is over and you have the job." I twitched my fingers again and then I extended my hand to cup her whole breast.

"Wait, not yet."

"Why, is there more?" Karen lay still and I knew there had to be. "Well, tell me."

"There was an attorney of course and the will was read. The administrator was running the company. That is why I had to go up to Fargo last month. The business was willed to me and I had to agree to sell it if I didn't want to run it. There is a buyer waiting in the wings with a very good offer. I needed someone to tell me what I should do. I talked to your uncle. In fact he and I have become friends of a sort. He told me to sell."

"So, how much is the business worth?"

"Somewhere in the neighborhood of $200,000." Karen giggled. "With that much, I thought I could buy me a husband when I found one who would suit me. But then the man I chose might not like to be bought. How am I doing?"

"The man you choose might not want to be bought, and it looks as if he would be the prostitute if he accepted the money. I would have to think this through if I was the one chosen."

"It does give you a different perspective on life, doesn't it? It would be a straight monetary transaction. However, remember Billy and Betty are my niece and nephew, so the outlook of the perspective would change again if I put that money into an education fund for them. If all parties are satisfied, there is no harm. It is all in how you look at it. Are you satisfied?"

"Not yet. Let me talk now. You seem to have become the aggressor all of a sudden. Why?"

"It is because for once in my lifetime I have been able to look for something I really want and am in a position to go after it. I want you. I think I hold the stronger position between you and me. First, your top priority is to make Billy and Betty happy. You know I can do that for you. Second, I think I can make you very happy. You know that too. I've seen how you look at me.

"And lastly, I think you want to make me happy. I know you can do that. So all I have to do now is persuade you to make all of us happy."

"All you say is true. How are we going to work this?"

"Aaron, I admit I came to you tonight intending to use my body to convince you to my way of thinking. Our conversation could have been from across the table and the result would have been the same."

"My thought exactly. Let's cut all of that out. We are two adults and we have become friends. Would you like to take this just a little further? I don't want to destroy where we are with each other and I really would like to make love to you."

"I think you are saying, regardless of me being a nanny to Betty and Billy and the potential future we might have, you want to find out how good we are together right now?"

I did want to find out and I suspect Karen did as much as me so there was just one way to proceed. We woke up late and I started to rush out of bed. I wasn't worried about the kids. Mom would see to them. "What is your hurry, Aaron? Stay with me a few minutes longer."

"I have to go to work to see about finding financing for the expansion of the company. I have all of the figures ready to make a pitch to the bank."

"How much are we talking here?" There was a grin on Karen's face that I couldn't figure out. During the night I had promised her that I wouldn't let my job interfere with my family, of which Karen was going to be part. I lost one wife for not tending to things at home and I didn't want that to happen again.

"I'm looking for $1,500,000 at somewhere between six and seven percent per annum."

"Wow, that's a lot of money. Forget that for now. You can take another hour in bed with me, can't you? You can start looking for money at eleven o'clock as well as ten o'clock." I decided I could.

I was dawdling over the second cup of coffee. Mom had the kids out in the kitchen. The phone rang and it was my uncle looking for me. He started out with a question. "Has your mother said anything about the business?"

"No, why would she?"

"I was over visiting her yesterday and got to talking with Karen, the nanny who is watching your kids. You may not have known it, but I have been advising her since she came into some money. She's quite the woman."

"She is that. We had a long conversation last evening and she is just full of surprises. I'm going to start dating her. That seems the best way for me to assure the kids are taken care of properly."

"How about you? Is she taking care of you as well?"

"Not really any of your business, but yes she is. Bill why did you call me this morning? I am coming into the office."