“Uh, yeah,” he said. “I’m here to see-“
“I’m Kari’s older sister, Elsa.” She smiled at him, never letting her eyes leave his. “It’s so nice to meet you. My sister has told me a lot about you.”
John took her hand into his as she presented it to him and felt her shake it with a soft firmness. He wanted to say something more, but no words came to him. Her beauty was striking, and suddenly the moment passed from being a simple meeting of two people into something with more tension and heat.
“I’m sorry,” said John. “For your loss.”
Elsa shook her head and then leaned against the side of the doorframe with her arms crossed.
“I appreciate your concern, Count John.” She had a smile on her face, as though to her, the entire interaction was some kind of game. John didn’t know what to make of her, but his lower half tingled with illicit excitement.
“I… I came to see Kari,” John finally said.
“Of course. She’s upstairs, John. Why don’t you come on in, and have a talk with her?”
Elsa moved so that he could enter, but only by sliding by her in the door frame. John felt his heart race as he did and caught the sweet scent of her perfume, which was intoxicating to his senses.
“I’m only going to be in town for a little bit, while the succession of the estate is settled,” said Elsa. “I’m sure that’s something that you understand all too well.”
“Yeah, it is.” John spoke carefully, so incredibly engaged by Elsa’s demeanor that he felt like anything could happen. She was standing a little too close to him, and another silent moment dragged on for what felt like an eternity as the two of them continued to stare at each other.
“I would love to get your thoughts on the matter, if you have the time,” she said softly, setting one of her soft hands on his shoulder. “There are a lot of details that I’m sure you could help me work out.”
John felt a little guilty as he slowly nodded, unsure of just what exactly he was agreeing to, and what he wanted.
“Alright,” he said. “That sounds-“
Footsteps interrupted John in midsentence. He turned and saw Kari walking down the lobby stairs, favoring both of them with a slightly suspicious look.
“John…” she said softly. “I see you’ve met Elsa.”
“Yes, uh…” John felt his cheeks heat up a little, as though he’d been caught doing something against the rules.
“He was just offering his condolences, Kari,” said Elsa. “I think John understands what we’re going through better than just about anybody else.”
She rubbed John’s shoulder, and he watched as Kari shot her a frustrated, jealous look.
“Come on John,” said Kari. “I need to talk to you alone for a bit, if you don’t mind.”
“Yeah, of course.” John stepped away from Elsa and hurried up the stairs towards Kari. It was only when he drew closer to her that the barely contained pain on her face became truly apparent.
The two of them hurried into her room. John shut the door and then followed her over to her bed, taking a seat next to her. Kari took a deep breath, and then began to softly cry.
“John, I’m so scared.” She leaned against him and buried her face into his chest, and John felt his heart ache as he empathized with her.
“Kari, I’m so sorry,” he whispered. “I’ll do anything I can for you, whatever you need.”
“Nothing seemed unusual,” said Kari. “You left, and it was fine. Elsa got here early this morning to visit for the weekend. I thought it was weird that my dad wasn’t up, and we went and checked his room, and…”
John felt a tingle go down his spine as he heard Kari’s sobbed recount of the story. Her older sister arrived back in town on the day of her father’s murder. He wondered if he was doing the same thing that the detective had done with him, and feeling suspicious over low hanging explanations.
“It’s okay, Kari,” he whispered. “It’s going to be okay.”
“John… My father never left a will, or any instructions about who was to succeed him.” Kari sat up and stared into John’s eyes. “I don’t know what’s going to happen. Elsa… she hasn’t really said anything. I don’t know if she wants all of the estate, or if she thinks I want all of it, or…”
John shook his head and then hugged her tight.
“None of that matters right now, Kari,” he said. “Your sister is here to look out for you, and I’m looking out for you, too.”
Even as he said the words, John felt deeply unsure of them. Just who was Elsa, and how was it that her arrival so neatly coincided with the death of the man he considered to be his foremost enemy?
John held Kari for a long time, until her tears began to dry up and her breathing returned to normal. She sat up again and looked him in the eyes. The pain that John saw staring back at him was enormous, but there was something else along with it, gratitude, and love.
“John,” whispered Kari. “Thank you.”
She leaned forward and kissed him intensely. John felt her pushing her body forward and against him. He kissed her back, and hugged her tight, but did nothing beyond that. Her grief was wild and erratic, and he didn’t want to do anything to needlessly exacerbate it.
There was a soft knock at the door, and then Elsa came in. She lifted one of her eyebrows at the sight of the two of them on the bed, and then slowly walked over.
“Kari, we need to make arrangements for our father…” She spoke in a soft voice, confident and resolute, but still intensely sad. “For what happens next, I mean.”
Kari nodded and then looked at John.
“Sorry, I think I should handle this with my sister,” said Kari. John smiled solemnly and stood up to leave.
“Alright. Call me if anything comes up.” He kissed Kari one last time on the cheek and walked across the room towards the door. Elsa stared at him with those same mischievous eyes, the eyes of a temptress, of a little girl who covets one of her sister’s toys.
“Bye, John,” said Elsa as he walked out into the hallway. He met her gaze and instantly felt bad for doing so, the electrified air in between them crackling with possibility.
“I… should get going,” said John. He stepped outside the bedchamber and shut the door behind him, feeling as though his situation had somehow become even more complicated.
CHAPTER 30
John headed straight back to the mansion, feeling as though he still had one major fire to put out before he’d get a chance to relax. He’d seen his adoptive mom’s face as the detective had led him away, and knew just how anxious and upset it had made her.
When he was about halfway up the slope to the mansion, John spotted a new car in the driveway, one that he didn’t recognize. He paused for a moment, and then continued, worried that a second round of interrogation might be waiting for him inside.
Something was waiting for him, and it was actually outside, right in front of the door. A woman that John had never seen before was standing in his way. She was tall, with a tight blond ponytail, blackout sunglasses, and wearing a dark navy suit that looked much more feminine on her than it should have.
“Uh… hello?” He walked towards her slowly, bemused by her stiffness.
“John Ludling,” she said after a moment. “My name is Sam Kent. I will be acting as your chief of security from here on out.”
John shook his head. He almost wanted to laugh. The woman may as well have been a robot for all the emotion that showed on her face.
“I’m sorry, I haven’t been told about any of this,” said John. “Did my mom hire you, or Olivia?”
“Lady Ludling was the one that hired me,” said the woman. John almost felt like cringing at how empty and formal her voice sounded.
“Okay,” said John. “Let me go and have a talk with my mom and see what’s what. You just… stay right here, okay?”
“That’s a negative, Count Ludling,” said the woman. “My training entails that I stick close to you at all times.�
��
John sighed, and then pushed through the mansion’s doors and into the lobby. As she had said, Sam followed behind him, keeping a respectful distance but making it clear that she was suspicious of every room and every corner.
“Just how long have you been assigned to me for?” asked John. “We’ve been through most of the first floor, can’t you just wait by the door now, or something?”
“That’s a negative, Count Ludling,” said Sam. John crossed his arms and stared at her for a moment. She was attractive, in a fit, sporty kind of way. He started to wonder just what it would take to shake her off him when he heard the sound of footsteps headed across the hallway on the second floor.
“John!” Olivia rushed down the stairs to greet him, lifting her short maid’s skirt up slightly to move more quickly. “You took so long to get back here! I started to worry…”
The expression on her face was deeply concerned. John felt a little bad about putting her through so much nonsense over the past few days. Instinctively, he pulled her into a hug as she stepped in close to him. Olivia flinched nervously and then accepted his embrace and hugged him back tightly.
“I’m sorry, it took longer than I thought it would to, uh…” John trailed off, realizing that it probably was a bad idea to mention Kari. “Anyway, I see with have a new addition to the estate.”
He glanced over his shoulder at Sam, who was alternating between staring awkwardly at John and Olivia and scanning the room. She smiled at the maid.
“Your mother hired her,” she said. “Honestly… I don’t think it’s such a bad idea. With just the three of us here, we’re not safe, John. Whatever happened to Erik van Katho might-“
“Don’t worry about that,” said John. “We’re safe. I’ll keep us safe.”
Sam cleared her throat from behind them but didn’t say anything.
“Anyway, your mom is talking to a lawyer about your case, and then she said she wanted to check into getting a home security system,” said Olivia. “She’s really worried, John. I… I’m really worried.”
Without thinking, John leaned in and gave her a soft kiss on the lips. Olivia shuddered slightly and melted a little in his arms before coming to her senses and pulling back.
“Count Ludling,” she whispered. “I should… be getting to my duties. Is there anything that you need?”
John smiled at her.
“Yes, in fact. I’d like to wash up in one of the larger, downstairs baths. Can you prepare some clothes for me and then meet me in there?”
John remembered what had happened between him and Olivia on his first day in the mansion when he’d taken a bath. From the way she blushed ever so slightly, and her eyes flashed with excitement, so did she.
“Yes, of course,” she said. “Right away, John.”
She hurried off. John smiled to himself and then turned to Sam.
“Thank you, Ms. Kent,” he said. “That will be all.”
The woman shook her head from side to side in a barely discernable motion.
“Negative, Count Ludling,” she said. “Your mother gave me explicit orders to keep you within my sight as soon as I got back to the mansion, at least until she returned.”
John chuckled.
“Well, I’m on my way to take a bath with the help of my maid,” he said. “I guess how strictly you take your duties is up to you.”
Sure enough, Sam followed him into the changing room that connected to the large bath. Olivia wasn’t there yet, but John felt like he couldn’t wait to get cleaned up. He pulled off his shirt slowly, glancing over at his bodyguard as he did and watching her reaction.
“Have you been a bodyguard for very long, Ms. Kent?” he asked. From the look of her, she was a little older than him, maybe in her late twenties or early thirties. Old enough to have a decent amount of training and knowledge, but still young enough to be fit and athletic.
“Almost seven years now, sir,” said Sam.
She blushed as John began to pull down his pants, and a strange, erotic thrill shot through his body. He smiled and wondered if maybe having a security detail might not be all bad.
“Have you been assigned to a lot of men before, Kent?” John turned towards her, feeling his cock harden in his boxers as her eyes glanced at it.
“No sir,” she said, faintly. “You are actually the first man that I’ve been… assigned to.”
“Is that so?” John smiled as he spoke, and pulled his boxers down. His cock was fully erect and snapped out of the elastic waistband and into view, vibrating back and forth with excitement. Sam blushed even more deeply, and then swallowed hard.
“Sir, I uh…” The bodyguard had a cute, conflicted expression on her face. John nodded to her and then walked into the bath area.
“Come on Kent, who knows what could happen?” he asked, sarcastically. “I could drown, or be attacked by ninjas in the water.”
She followed behind him, taking off her glasses as she passed into the steamy, humid room. John felt the warmth on his naked body, and slowly lowered one of his feet into a medium sized hot tub, sunken into the floor.
“Oh man,” he moaned, feeling the water massage his body as he dropped down into it. “You’re welcome to join me if you’d like, Ms. Kent. I think you’d be able to do your job just as well in the water as you would out of it.”
The bodyguard looked mortified and deeply confused by his question.
“I, uh, well…” Before she could answer, Olivia’s form popped through the door, clad in a large, white bathrobe.
“Count John…” She saw Sam standing in the room along with him and hesitated slightly. “Sir, is she going to be…?”
“Yeah, she’s been assigned to watch my every move,” said John. “Just get in, and act like she’s not there.”
Olivia forced a smile and raised one of her eyebrows.
“Okay…” She walked over to the edge of the same bath that John was in, and then let her robe drop to the ground. The maid had on a blue bikini that was even smaller than the one he’d seen her in the other day and it only just barely managed to cover the edges of the nipples dotting her nicely sized breasts.
Surprisingly, Sam appeared to watch even more closely as Olivia climbed into the water. John was still rock hard, and though he hated to admit it, Sam being there definitely had something to do with it.
“Grab the soap, Olivia,” said John. “I didn’t get a chance to take a shower this morning, so I’m going to have to take my time and get nice and clean.”
“Yes, sir,” said Olivia. The hot tub was big enough to fit both of them, but only just barely. As Olivia moved by him to get the shampoo out of the cabinet near the wall, John felt her soft flesh rubbing against him.
He took a quick look at Sam, and could tell from the way she averted her eyes that the bodyguard didn’t really know what to make of the situation. He felt oddly turned on by it, as though an exhibitionist streak had taken hold of him.
“Olivia, can you soap up my chest?” John was still looking at Sam as he asked the question. The bodyguard met his gaze for a second and her lips opened slightly.
“John…” whispered Olivia. “I’m not sure that it’s such a good idea…”
“It’s fine.” He spoke quietly, so that the sound of the water jets kept his voice from carrying beyond the tub. “She’s a straight-laced employee. This will get her to stop taking her orders quite so seriously, and give me a little bit of privacy.”
Olivia nodded reluctantly, and then pushed through the water over to him with soaped up hands. Slowly, she began lathering his chest, her own boobs jiggling above the water and drawing John’s eyes as she did.
“Oh yeah, that’s perfect…” moaned John. He grabbed onto Olivia’s waist underneath the water and shifted, letting his cock slide right in between the crest of her thighs.
“John,” whispered Olivia, who was nervously glancing over to Sam. John shook his head.
“You have to focus on getting me clean,” he said. �
�We’ll be done here soon.”
Olivia nodded, but the look in her eyes was worried and unsure. John fully expected to get an earful for his behavior later, but his desire to make the new employee uncomfortable outweighed all else.
He slid back against the wall of the tub, and then stood up. His hard cock poked right in front of Olivia’s face. She looked almost like she was going to swat it away for a moment but managed to restrain herself and play nice.
“Sam, if this is making you uncomfortable, you can always just wait outside, you know.” John was smirking, and feeling more than a little self-satisfied. His expression shifted as the bodyguard came closer to the tub, still blushing furiously, but pushing through it.
“This is my job, Count Ludling,” said Sam. Her breathing was heavy and lusty, and she had undone the top two buttons of her blouse underneath her suit jacket. John looked at her, confused, and then felt Olivia’s hand come to a rest on his thigh, dangerously close to his cock.
“John, you should sit down,” she whispered. John glanced down at her in the water, and then nodded and dropped back in.
He scratched his head. Now Sam was the one smiling, and he felt his own cheeks beginning to redden. What was he trying to do anyway, he wondered. Sexually harass his new bodyguard into quitting her job?
“Are you going to take care of that, sir?” Sam’s voice was still level and professional, and at first John didn’t know what she meant.
“Excuse me?” He looked at her with a furrowed brow and watched as she nodded to his now underwater cock.
“That,” she said. “You should take care of it while you’re in the bath. It’s a safety liability that any woman trying to get close to you could use to her advantage.”
John blinked a couple of times in disbelief. He looked over at Olivia, who was on the other side of the tub, and appeared to be holding back laughter. Sam’s face was almost unreadable, with only the flushing of her cheeks hinting at the inappropriate territory she was veering into.
Illicit Inheritance: The Complete Collection (Taboo Erotica) Page 22