Chapter 19

Wednesday evening--Brooke and Jeremy.

Carson Newman took it upon himself personally to watch Jeremy and Joyce this afternoon during their jog through the neighborhood. His other team members were attempting to get into good overwatch positions now that they had penetrated the gated neighborhood in order to acquire audio and video evidence of the activities of Jeremy and Joyce and Tommy Onagawa and Brooke, as well as Melanie and Kitagami and Peggy and Derek.

Carson was at the playground alongside the jogging trail, waiting to get candid shots of Jeremy and Joyce as they passed, knowing that they would take three circuits around the trail if their usual pattern held in the improving weather. He was startled by the bored-sounding male voice that used his name as a man sat down on the bench next to him. "You know, Carson, you guys have made this all look too easy."

Carson looked at the guy next to him; early forties, muscular, from what he could see in the jacket that the weather still demanded despite its officially being Spring, and graying dark blonde hair. "Pardon me, but do I know you?" he asked the stranger.

"No," the man said. "But I know you. Or should I say, I know about you and what you do for business, and what you are doing here."

Carson was about to rise and simply walk away when the man said, "You can just call me Harold. I'll tell you what we have in common, if you will simply identify someone for me." Carson looked down as the man placed a photograph in his lap. It showed Carson and Cal Swinford. Carson instantly realized from this that he was himself under surveillance; this was just the type of photo he and his own team took regularly.

"Why should I tell you anything?" Carson asked matter-of-factly and without rancor.

"I'm sure that you make a good living doing what you do. It would be too bad if your all business contacts were to dry up suddenly. You'd have to move to another part of the country to start over or change professions. And I don't think you really want that to happen. And believe me; my superiors could make that happen easily." Harold was not smirking as he related this to Newman.

After about fifteen minutes of back and forth conversation, Carson Newman came to realize that this Harold guy knew way too much about him and his operation. And Harold convinced him that he and his backers could, in fact, put Carson's company out of business here in the Northeast. Finally, Carson took the pragmatic approach.

"His name is Calvin Swinford," Carson said at last. "He's a sometime freelance writer for various newspapers and he has tried for years to be the next George Stephanopoulos; you know; a politically-motivated reporter who gets into politics just long enough to establish his creds for something bigger later in journalism."

Harold nodded, encouraging Newman to continue. "Swinford does not realize that I know, but this whole thing he has us hired for is to help out the political prospects of Lyle Carter."

"That political dick weed?" snorted Harold.

Carson smiled and said, "Yeah, he is that; but evidently he already has a campaign war chest started. He is paying well, using Swinford to do all the dirty work, so that he can somehow get some leverage on my targets." Looking at Harold's face, he said, "You know that if I simply drop things now, my guys won't get paid our last installment on this job. They are all just working men who are good at this business."

Harold looked back at Carson and said, "If you were to get paid anyway and simply ceased the coverage, would you be satisfied?"

Carson frowned slightly and said, "That might be okay for this job; but my client would probably put out the word on me afterward. Then, I am in the same position of losing business as you threatened me with a few minutes ago. So, I am sort of stuck here."

Harold pulled a thick envelope out of his inner coat pocket. "Here; we estimated what a job like this would cost and I think you will find that you have enough to pay all eight of your watchers," he got an inner charge out of seeing Carson Newman's eyes confirm that Harold's information about the number of men in Carson's on-site team was correct, "and even provide a sort of a bonus."

Carson was a bit stunned, but Harold continued to sweeten the deal. "And my superiors will be in contact with your clients to ensure that they understand the situation well enough NOT to take any action against you, personally or professionally. Good enough?"

It only took Carson Newman about three minutes to reach his decision and pull out his Smartphone to send out a text to all of his team members to stand down and meet at their evening rendezvous site. After he hit the 'Send' command, he looked up and realized that the envelope with the money was on the bench next to him, but Harold had vanished.

Kyle Evans watched as the two observers from Carson Newman's team packed up their gear and left their observation point near the house. 'Well, ' thought Kyle. 'I guess Harold took the direct approach right away. This did not take long.' As the two men Kyle had been watching disappeared around the block, he waited for his own recall order by phone text.

Grinning to himself, Kyle thought that it would be humorous to see Brooke again just to let her know that he was here. But that would go against the rules of operational security for the mission for which he was contracted. No; maybe he would tell her later, if he saw her back in Middlebury at one of the functions out at the Sigma Lambda Tau house with Dee, his ... what?

Suddenly, Kyle realized that he was not quite sure what term he should apply to his relationship with Dee. 'Girlfriend' might be the best way to phrase it, but he was sure that in the almost eight months that they had been dating that their relationship had developed into something more than simply boyfriend/girlfriend. He could see it in Dee's face whenever they were together and he knew that he was feeling it more deeply inside himself lately. They had even voiced mutual love for each other the last time they were together Friday evening.

'Yeah, ' Kyle finally put words to his inner thoughts and feelings, 'I guess this ole boy is really in love.'

Kyle had begun to realize more and more lately just how much he wanted Dee to be in his life. But there were several potential pitfalls along the way.

First, Dee was not yet ready to be thinking about a lifetime commitment. She was still only a freshman at Middlebury College. She had at least three years till graduation, and then she faced the prospects either of graduate school or possible employment. As the daughter of the second wife of Richard Morris, president of J.A.M. Aluminum, surely she had a guaranteed job working for that company. But that posed the second problem for Kyle.

Kyle was good at what he did as a fabricator for J.A.M. Aluminum and he liked his friends and coworkers on the line in Fab 2 out at the Middlebury plant. A couple of them already knew that Kyle was dating the Big Boss' daughter and ribbed him good-naturedly about working his way up the corporate ladder by way of Dee's bed; or trying to get out of working in the long run by marrying into money. Kyle was sure that all his friends knew him well enough to realize that Kyle was not like that; he would always be a down-to-earth sort of guy, and he had simple needs in a rather simple lifestyle that did not gravitate toward greed.

But Kyle knew that, at some point in his relationship with Dee, he would have to come to grips with the propriety of being involved with the Big Boss' daughter. And he would have to do it without it appearing as if favoritism might come into play in the workplace. When that happened, he would certainly have to find employment somewhere besides J.A.M. Aluminum.

The last problem, of course, was Dee's choice to enter into Courtesan training and the professional Courtesan lifestyle by way of her membership in the Sigma Lambda Tau Society. Kyle and Dee had addressed this before they had even started formally dating. Dee had assured Kyle that she could be emotionally monogamous with him while being physically and sexually involved in the activities of Sigma Lambda Tau and those engagements in which she would be associated as part of that group.

She would be fucking other guys ... and lots of them; and girls too, evidently.

Was he a wimp for allowing this type of activity with a woman who professed to be emotionally his?

After a moment's thought, Kyle grinned and said to himself, 'Hell, no!'

Kyle thought about the times that Dee had arranged for him to have glorious sex with her two fellow Society Sisters. He had realized that he was just kinky enough sexually to be part of a relationship with Dee that involved sex with others. Hell, he had read up on the internet about spouses of porn stars who went about their daily personal and professional lives, realizing that while they were at work or at home with the kids, their spouses were on set being videoed performing all forms of sex with others. But on weekends, they would picnic with the kids, go shopping at the mall, attend church, or even go to Disneyland together, just like other normal couples. That was the kind of acceptance of a different sexual lifestyle that Kyle felt inside himself toward his situation with Dee and her friends.

As long as their lifestyle choices did not become public or even common knowledge among their uninitiated mutual friends, and thus subject them to any degree of censure, Kyle was okay with the arrangement. But they both knew that the shit would fly if things became known more openly about their arrangement. They would have to make sure that they continued to be discreet about things, as they had been doing for the past eight months, and planned to keep on doing.

Kyle made sure that the two members of Newman's team that he had been watching had disengaged completely and then he responded to the text he received from Harold telling him to disengage from his task and meet the rest of Harold's team at the rendezvous for debriefing.

"Howard; you got the job offer; that's wonderful!" Jeremy heard Joyce say into her cell phone. She had been talking to her husband for about fifteen seconds when she let out that exclamation. Although he tried not to eavesdrop, it was impossible in the confines of their bedroom for him not to hear at least her side of the conversation.

"Don't worry about me, Honey. That offer sounds almost too good to be true. And if it is only half as good as it sounds, it is STILL too good an opportunity for us to pass up.

"No, I don't think that Peggy will be upset. She always tells us that she wants the best for her team members, especially when it comes to great opportunities like this one!"

Suddenly, Joyce's face took on a stricken expression. The volume of her speech decreased by half as she said, "What do you mean, Honey ... what 'special' requirements ... Peggy ... me..." sob, "yes ... but, Honey, I never ... you mean you knew? How could you ... oh..." Joyce had tears rolling down her cheeks now.

"Howard, I'll admit that those types of requirements were brought up when I first joined her team, but ... NO ... I did not have ... look, Howard, you are just going to have to take my word for it ... Yes, I knew the potential for that to be required, but so far ... NO ... NEVER..." Joyce was silent for a few seconds and Jeremy could hear the indications of Howard's speaking loudly into the phone at her. Then Joyce, with a miserable expression said, "Honey, I ... I can't talk right now ... there's ... yes..."

She had said the last word as a whisper. "Just a minute..." Joyce held out the phone to a surprised Jeremy and said, "My husband would like to ask you some things and he says that he wants and expects honest answers."

Jeremy looked at the phone as if it were a poisonous reptile. Hesitatingly, he took the phone from Joyce. "Hello?"

"This is Howard Duncan, Joyce's husband. I just KNEW that Joyce would be with some guy, given the track record of Peggy Cornwall and her team. Who the hell are you?" came the voice over the phone.

"My name is Jeremy Winter."

"And just what do you do for a living Jeremy Winter--besides keep lonely or ambitious wives company, I mean?"

Jeremy's discomfort was suddenly replaced by irritation. "Look, Mr. Duncan, I don't know what you think is going on here. All I know is that I am fulfilling an academic internship requirement here as part of college..." okay, so he was stretching things, but this guy was getting on his nerves and evidently thought--reasonably so, given the evidence--that Jeremy was sleeping with Joyce.

Well, under ideal circumstances, he WOULD have been sleeping with Joyce, but since the rules had been bent at Joyce's request, Jeremy felt that he owed it to Joyce to try to help her out here. Howard did not let him continue his sentence.

"Yeah, right; just how stupid do you think I am? You think that I just let my wife take on that job with Peggy Cornwall without checking out the situation and learning about the reputation that harpy has? She keeps things pretty well buttoned up, but there are still enough rumors and stories out there, in and around Montpelier, that everyone can pretty much figure out how she attains her success through arranging sexual pairings during her negotiations. And I only just now got off the line with a friend of mine in the Vermont Commerce Department who was kidding me about watching out for my wife if she were part of Peggy's team. That's how I drew my conclusions about what Joyce might be up to." Howard was still irritated, according to what Jeremy could hear, but there was something else in the man's voice; disappointment and hurt, maybe?

"Look, Mister Duncan ... Howard; I only got assigned to the negotiating team a month ago and have only this week been a part of this project associated with my International Politics and Economics major at Middlebury College. I got paired up with Ms. Duncan ... Joyce ... as a professional arrangement. I don't know what the usual arrangements are for these things..." Okay, it was a little white lie, "but I can assure you that I have not been involved sexually with your wife, Joyce. She has been very up front with me about how much she loves her job, but not at the expense of causing any problems with her personal life. I would assume that means keeping her marriage safe in the process."

Jeremy looked over at Joyce, who was blowing her nose and trying to smile at him for his efforts on her behalf. Jeremy continued, "I'll admit that she is a really attractive woman. But she made it very clear to me early this week that this was to be strictly a professional effort this week. She has been avoiding even the slightest hint of anything improper so that she would not endanger her relationship with you."

Jeremy could hear Howard breathing on the other end for about fifteen seconds before the other man spoke. This time, Howard's voice sounded more subdued, but there was still some concern there. "So, you have not had any kind of personal interaction with Joyce ... I mean ... sexually ... or..."

"Howard, besides working with Joyce during these business negotiations, I have only gotten the privilege of ogling her fine ass while we jogged along the trail in the afternoons for our daily exercise workouts. Other than that, I have not had any sexual contact with her at all, and she has made it clear that any approaches that I might make of that nature would not be welcome. Does that answer your question?"

Jeremy listened for a few more seconds, and handed the phone to Joyce, saying, "He wants to talk to you." He went into the bathroom to shower up after his run. Before Howard had called, he had been waiting in the bedroom for Joyce to finish her shower and dress in the bathroom.

When he came out--fully dressed--later, he found Joyce had calmed down. She walked to him and hugged him in a friendly manner, with no sexual overtures involved. "Thank you for what you said." She looked up at Jeremy's face for a second and continued.

"I know that you stretched it a bit, but thank you anyway. Howard got a wonderful job offer out in Portland, Oregon, and he wanted to share the news with me; but he was also unhappy at what his friend had told him about what folks are saying back here concerning Peggy Cornwall's methods ... you know, all the sex." Joyce stepped back and continued.

"Howard wants me to give my notice to Peggy of my intent to leave this job and start preparations for us to move out to Portland within the next three months. He has made several good business and political connections out there while he was having his job interviews. He assures me that I can continue to be active in politics, as I have been doing. I will just have to get into the swing of how they do it out there in what he calls 'The Land of the Poppy Sniffers.'"

Jeremy had to chuckle; not just to be polite, but because of his relief in avoiding a really unpleasant situation. He was finally realizing just how close Joyce had come to fucking up her marriage because of her belonging to Peggy Cornwall's 'special' team--without being explicitly candid with her husband beforehand.

Jeremy grinned at Joyce and then turned serious and said, "Joyce, I really want you to sit down and talk to Howard about things ... I mean everything. You have to decide ... TOGETHER ... just how far you both are willing to go to enjoy success in your chosen professions.

"If it means having sex outside of marriage for the purpose of advancement, then you need to establish the rules and get the 'All Clear' from both of you beforehand. And then, you need to be absolutely honest about all that happens. And you need to reveal everything involving plans for sexual encounters beforehand and the results of any sexual encounters afterwards--that includes details about all the specific sexual activities as well, including birth control and especially disease prevention. Otherwise, your marriage could come unglued."

Joyce grinned and said, "You said that you are eighteen? Are you sure that you aren't forty-eight? Just how did you get so much insight into marriage and sexual relationships at such a young age?"

Jeremy chuckled and said, "I've been getting advice and help from some classmates and some very skilled upperclassmen in this sort of club to which I belong, as well as some very good mentoring from a very special lady over this past school year. That's what I was talking to you about a couple of nights ago." He grinned and felt his own cock twitch a bit from his mental image of Irina Mirkova, the very sexy Sigma Lambda Tau mentor and training coordinator.