I glanced at Didier, unsure of what his game was.
“Ask away,” I encouraged him.
“What was your most pleasurable sexual experience?” he asked, fixing me with a stare.
This threw me slightly, but I refused to allow my face to betray my anxiety. If I was to gain his trust, I would have to answer his questions.
“It’s difficult to say,” I spoke slowly.
“Is it difficult to say because you do not believe that it is socially acceptable to answer?” Didier asked. “Or is it difficult to say because you do not feel comfortable around me?”
I grinned. “Neither. It’s difficult to say...because there have been so many.”
Didier raised his eyebrows.
“Which one did you most recently masturbate over?” he asked.
“A threesome I had in college. There were two men, and another in the corner watching.”
Didier sat up in his chair.
“Kudos to you Nicole, for your candidness,” he said warmly. “An experience which I’d love to have myself one day.”
“Are you kidding me?” I asked. “I’m sure a man of your wealth and status has the opportunity for all manner of perversions.”
“That’s true,” he nodded. “However, those who approach me are often lacking in that one thing that impresses me the most; authenticity.”
I arched my eyebrows. “I’d imagine you get many women throwing themselves at you; hoping to get a handful of those jewels; if you’ll pardon the pun.”
Didier laughed raucously.
“I’ll admit it, Nicole,” he explained. “You have swayed me. I’ll hire you on a two-week trial basis.”
***
I hadn’t seen Jason’s face light up like that in months. When I told him that I’d secured the job, it almost felt like I’d dropped the Pink Jupiter right into his lap. But there was a long way to go yet.
“I can’t believe it...” he exclaimed. “I mean... I can believe it because you’re you... but wow!”
He lifted me up in the air and embraced me tightly. “Settle down big man,” I laughed. “We’ve still got a long way to go yet.”
Jason squeezed me tightly, his strong arms firmly wrapping my entire torso.
“Now all we need to do is to find out where he keeps the diamond,” I said, “and the type of safe he’s using. Everything else will be child’s play. I took a cursory glance at his security system, and it looks like he’s using an older model, easy enough to crack. But breaking into the safe will take some work. Whatever kind he’s using, it won’t be anything we can open with a drill or an auto-dialler. We’re talking hardplate steel embedded with tungsten carbide chips and-”
“-who says we have to crack the safe at all?” Jason winked at me.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well, if he paid fifty million for a diamond ring, at some point he’s gonna want to wear it,” Jason grinned.
Chapter 3
When Didier told me his habits were unusual, he wasn’t kidding. I’d heard of his eccentricities, but I’d assumed that - like many others - he simply used them as a method of maintaining a perceived personality. A man of Didier’s position was almost expected to be unique, and so would be expected to maintain this character. I’d wrongly assumed this was all part of the show; a way to keep the press interested in his activities. I’d thought that some of the bizarre habits - both sexual and otherwise - were nothing more than an invention of the media, or an invention of Didier himself, in order to manipulate the press into talking about him more. Well, I was wrong; Didier was indeed committed to his unusual activities and invested time and money into ensuring that these activities were performed correctly, and at the right time.
In the morning, Didier would sit for no less than twenty minutes on the balcony of his mansion, completely naked. The position and height of the balcony were such that it made it incredibly windy. He would refer to this process as an “air bath”. He would tell me about how Benjamin Franklin would frequently take a swim in cold rivers - such as the river Thames - during winter, as he believed it helped him to think with more clarity and precision, and make more logical decisions.
He told me that sometimes he went through periods of fasting; this was not for any religious purpose, but because he believed that fasting increased the regeneration of brain cells; which gave him a higher level of emotional intelligence; a trait which he insisted was integral to acting.
In the evenings, he would spend up to an hour sitting in the Gold Room; a room entirely lined with 24 karat gold, and simply write in a notepad. He stressed that the gold helped to block out the effects of radio waves and television signals that ‘muddled his imagination’. The Gold Room was located on the second lowest floor of the mansion, deep under the ground, and was entirely soundproof. When we were in there, he refused to let me speak, move too much or even breathe too heavily. The feeling of absolute silence was unnerving but oddly beautiful; disturbing and yet peaceful.
Each day, he would sit in a Jacuzzi filled with bubbling ice water; he insisted that this process was an ancient one, and caused the body’s vital organs to become engorged with fresh blood, allowing for faster healing and regeneration of brain cells; this too - he told me - was a habit inspired by Benjamin Franklin, and was designed to improve cognitive function, which he channeled into his acting.
He drank mead infused with lychees, and champagne, yet never let himself become drunk; this was often accompanied by deep-tissue or Swedish massages. These were among a plethora of strange and unusual activities in which he engaged. Each time I asked him what pleasure he derived from them, he’d always have an answer. Sometimes, he based the activity on some sort of psychological or physiological benefit. Other times, he simply did it for the hedonistic enjoyment.
I spent every waking moment by his side or close to it. I sat with him on the balcony during his air baths and prepared the icy water for his ice baths. I had mastered deep tissue, hot stone, and Swedish massage; skills which I used to personally massage Didier’s entire body. It was usually after these massages that he’d fall into a deep, almost trance-like sleep, and he’d allow me to ‘do as I so desired’ for an hour or two.
It was during these periods that I would wander the mansion, seemingly to admire the beautiful paintings and the majestic architecture of the building. In reality, I was mapping the positions and models of the various infrared motion detectors, cameras, and other security features of the mansion. Unable to write anything down, I simply took mental notes, remembering where each camera was located, the make and model of each security device, and the internal infrastructure of the house.
I was always on-call, which meant that I never really had a day off. I was - of course - allowed time for myself, but had to stay close by, with my phone switched on; ready to return to Didier should he require my services. During these periods, I would scribble down everything I’d learned over my time spent in the mansion, research the security systems, and begin to plan ways in which Jason and I could overcome them. Sleep became scarce, and I began to start taking sleeping pills to help me drop off when I needed to. I kept a stash of them in my bag so that when I had the opportunity, I could catch a few hours of sleep at the mansion, or back at home.
It would not be easy, but the more I learned, the more I began to realize that the possibility of stealing the Pink Jupiter was becoming more of a reality every day.
During my time spent with Didier, sometimes we would sit in silence; other times we’d engage in deep conversation about everything from fine art to philosophy to engineering, science, and language. He was an exceptionally intelligent man, who seemed to possess some kind of knowledge on almost every subject, ranging from minimal to profound. I deduced that he’d picked up much of his knowledge from his work as an actor.
To act - he claimed - was not just to create an entirely different persona, but to bring it to life. To do so, one had to know th
e wants, desires, motivations and history of the character intimately. That, he surmised, is why he had such a trenchant wit and broad knowledge base.
One thing that we discussed quite frequently was sex and sexuality. He believed that sex was - far from a purely reproductive activity - an ineffably beautiful phenomenon; something which could be used as a catalyst for conflict resolution; a form of pleasure to which all other pleasures simply cannot compare; and a method of expressing one’s deepest carnal desires, and acting them out.
Despite this, I had not yet seen Didier with any women or men since I’d began working with him.
***
“How are things going?” Jason asked excitedly, as I came back from the mansion.
“Better than expected,” I smiled. “But I still don’t feel he fully trusts me.”
“Why is that?” Jason inquired. “Does he suspect something?”
“No,” I shook my head. “But I do.”
Jason furrowed his brows in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“One of his cleaners has been stealing from him,” I explained. “I noticed it today when I was wandering the mansion. One of his rings - which he kept in a small lock box - was missing. The only person who could have taken it was the cleaner Eleanor. She’d been the last person in the vicinity and was the only one who had the opportunity to take it. It was a small white gold ring encrusted with rubies and small diamonds; on a street level it would probably fetch about $200,000.”
Jason nodded. “Stupid risk for that amount of money.”
“Yes,” I grinned. “But this tells us something; Didier does not realize the ring is gone, this means that his security team and his own vigilance are vulnerable; secondly, it presents us with an opportunity. If we recover the ring and sell out Eleanor; Didier is more likely to trust me, which inches us closer to the Pink Jupiter.”
***
“Didier, I have something I need to tell you,” I said as he sat in his ice bath.
He took a deep breath. “Go ahead, Nicole.”
“When hiring me as your personal assistant, you were looking for somebody who would bring more to the table than just a simple servant doing chores, am I right?” I asked.
“Absolutely,” he nodded, his skin turning deathly white in the cold of the bath.
“Now, as we discussed at interview, I have had a broad and varied career as a personal assistant. What you probably paid less attention to was my short career working at Gamplast Home Security Services and Technology,” I explained.
Didier looked at me with interest.
“When I worked at Gamplast, I developed all manners of security devices and home appliances; but I also learned a lot about the habits of thieves. We needed to know about thieves’ habits so that we could produce technology to undercut their abilities to steal from our clients.”
Didier rose from the bath, his naked body shivering. As he stepped out of the Jacuzzi, I wrapped a towel around him, and began massaging his shoulders.
“If you’ll allow me,” I said, “I’d like to show you something.”
Didier watched the camera footage with intrigue, as Eleanor cleaned and dusted the mansion. She deliberately moved a set of drawers to temporarily obscure the lockbox which contained some of Didier’s rings. Moments later, the drawers are back in place, and Eleanor is cleaning once more.
I reverse the camera footage, “Now if you zoom in on the safe before she moves the drawers,” I said, zooming in on the camera footage, “you’ll see that the highest number on the safe is the number 4.” I explained, fast forwarding the footage to the point after which she’d moved the drawer, “However, after the drawer has been moved, the highest number is the number 6.”
Didier examined the footage, smiling eagerly.
“She watched you enter the combination, and whilst she has been pretending to clean, she’s been stealing from you.”
Didier nodded. “Thank you for bringing this to me Nicole. You’ve truly gone above and beyond the call of duty.”
“Thank you for your praise,” I smiled. “But I have not yet gone above and beyond. I have contacted an old colleague whom I met at Gamplast, who is on his way now to recover the stolen rings. He will be here within the hour. Whatever legal action you choose to pursue with Eleanor after this point is entirely up to you.”
***
I knocked on the door three times in quick succession.
Meekly, the door opened, and Eleanor stood in front of me.
“Good evening,” I said, “Eleanor, my name is Jason Hartford. I’m here to recover some items on behalf of Didier Diva.”
Eleanor’s face became white as a ghost, “What do you mean?” she stuttered.
“I think you know exactly what I mean,” I said, raising my palm.
She moved to close the door but I placed my foot in the way to prevent her from doing so.
“Listen Eleanor,” I spoke softly. “I don’t want to do this the hard way. Give back the ring you stole, and I may be able to convince Mr. Diva not to pursue any legal action. I know you have it in there, and we have CCTV evidence of you stealing that ring. My advice to you would be to get them and hand them over to me immediately; otherwise I’ll be forced to take more drastic action. Do you understand?”
Eleanor looked at me. “I’ll call the police!”
“There’s no reason to involve the police,” I explained. “You see, at this point, I have committed no crime. You however, have stolen thousands of dollars’ worth of jewelry from your employer. By the mercy of Didier himself, he has decided not to call the police at this point. So I suggest you go and get that ring. Bring it to me, and apologize to Mr. Diva.”
Eleanor swallowed hard.
***
Jason stood straight-faced and stoic as he removed a bag from his pocket, laying it down on the table before Didier.
“How did you recover this?” Didier asked in awe.
“I can be quite persuasive when I need to be.” Jason nodded, holding his hand out openly. “But I did not hurt her. She handed it over willingly.”
Didier rifled through the bag, carefully examining the ring.
“I had no idea it was missing,” he admitted. “Not one of my most favored jewelry, but I thank you both for helping me to recover it.”
“It’s all part of the service.” I smiled.
“Jason… Hartford is it?” Didier asked, looking him up and down.
“Yes, Mr. Diva,” Jason responded.
“Well, I suppose I should offer you some form of recompense for recovering this item.”
“Not at all,” Jason said, waving his hand. “Consider it a favor for Nicole.”
Didier looked Jason up and down with admiration.
“Well, then Mr. Hartford, or may I call you Jason?” Didier asked.
“You can call me Jason if you want.”
“You really are quite the impressive specimen, truly a man amongst men. Are you of gainful employment at the moment?” Didier asked.
“Not since my brief career at Gamplast,” Jason spoke.
“Then perhaps you’d be interested in joining my security team,” Didier offered. “We could certainly use a man of your stature on our team.”
Jason looked Didier square in the eye. “That’s a very generous offer Mr. Diva.”
“Please, call me Didier.”
“Thank you, Didier,” Jason smiled. “I will certainly consider it.”
Chapter 4
“In Ancient Cyrene, Roman and Egyptian culture, they referenced a plant called Silphium. It was known to be a potent aphrodisiac and even a contraceptive. Its seed was shaped like the heart symbol commonly used today,” Didier spoke. “The popularity of Silphium was such that the plant is now, unfortunately, extinct. Instead, we use chemically created medicines in its place.”
Didier lifted an oval-shaped blue pill in the air, put it in his mouth and swallowed it.
I eyed Didi
er’s body up and down - as I’d done many times - as he sat on the balcony. His body was strong, toned and tanned. Not the large, raw muscle that Jason possessed. Instead, Didier’s body was leaner, taller and slimmer. I’d become so accustomed to seeing him naked, sitting in the wind, his long dark hair swaying listlessly in the breeze.
“Do you like what you see Nicole?” he asked, noticing that I was examining every inch of him.
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