She held such an innocent look on her face, her eyes were wide, and her lips curled into a smile. He swallowed hard.
“Warning?” I asked.
“Yes, my darling. Your friend here can be a little too rough with my ladies and he’s on a yellow card already,” she explained.
“Stanton, how terrible of you,” I said, with mock disgust.
He tugged at his collar. “How do you know each other?” he asked, stammering slightly through his question.
“We’re cousins. Our fathers were brothers,” she said, brightly. “Now, my darling cousin, be sure to catch up with me when you leave, and I’d be delighted to meet for lunch tomorrow. We have so much to discuss.” She looked pointedly at Stanton as she spoke to me.
She left and I asked for the barman to refill our glasses. Stanton made a point to check his watch and spluttered a, “Good gracious, look at the time.” I chuckled as he made excuses to leave.
“And then there were two,” I said, raising my glass to Jeremy.
“And then there were two,” he replied, doing the same.
From then on, it became an interesting evening. It was very early on established that my business wasn’t a match for what he wanted and although I was very unsure on where the money he wanted to invest had come from, I was able to pass him on to others that I knew would do all the relevant checks. Money laundering, especially money laundered from Russia was a hot topic and highly investigated. Either Jeremy was aware of that and still wanted to take the risk, or I had misjudged him. Either way, he was a friend of Stanton and, therefore, not someone I wished to do business with.
“I think this evening hasn’t gone to plan, yes?” he said, placing his glass on the bar.
“Yes, poor old Stanton thought he had one over on me. Seems he just realised that he hasn’t,” I said, not minding for one minute if he knew that.
He nodded. “I think I know what. Good luck, Lord Duchoveny,” he said as he slid from his stool and patted my shoulder before leaving.
“Pour us some drinks,” said a voice from behind me. “In fact, just leave the bottle, we’ll shut up shop early. Please let the girls know to go home.” Veronica was back in the room.
“How did you know?” I asked.
“Camera’s everywhere,” she smiled.
We proceeded to drink the bottle of rather fine whisky, talk about our childhoods, life after my father’s suicide and her father’s recent death, and get drunk.
The following morning, I was woken in a strange and very sumptuous bedroom by a knock on the door.
“Are you decent?” Veronica called out.
I looked under the sheet to check since I had no idea how I’d gotten to bed the previous evening.
“Yes, just about,” I replied.
She giggled as she opened the door while holding two mugs of coffee.
“What a wonderful evening, Alex. Just like the old days. We will stay in touch, won’t we?”
I shuffled up the bed and she sat on the edge. She handed me a coffee and I took a sip, wincing as the hot liquid burned my lips.
I nodded. “Absolutely,” I replied.
As much as I wasn’t sure about her chosen profession, I did appreciate that the need to keep her ancestral home was so overwhelming for her that she’d do anything she had to.
Once I’d finished my coffee, I shooed her from the room so I could dress. I’d shower when I got home. We then sat with pastries and more coffee chatting for a good couple of hours. She told me all about her plans for the club and the more I listened, the more interested I became. She didn’t want to keep the girls, and I was grateful for that, she wanted to have a high-end facility with rooms designed for play by consenting adults. She wanted a great restaurant, a spa, some outbuildings converted into cottages for mini-breaks and she wanted to charge a fortune in membership to ensure she got the right people. What she didn’t have was the capital to do it.
“I might know someone,” I said, reluctant to give over any names in case I was way off the mark.
I had been a member of various clubs over the years and although there were plenty of women on offer, paying for sex wasn’t my kind of thing. However, a club where partners could indulge in their fantasies, where couples could hook up with others, did entice.
“I have a couple of people I’d like to approach, not that I know how to. If you’resomeoneisn’t suitable, maybe you’d help me?” she asked.
