Bad Boys Rule

by Naughty Aphrodite

  We all burst into a joyful laughter. Maybe this was just what we needed after all.

  THE END

  Billionaire Misbehaving

  NATHAN

  I could think of about a thousand things I felt like doing over the weekend and none of them involved having long boring meetings with Asian businessmen.

  I looked out over the ocean and enjoyed the feeling of the sun on my skin as I took another sip of my gin and tonic. I was taking it easy on my dad’s yacht, a shiny little vessel that had seen more than its fair share of gorgeous models and actresses sunbathing on the deck.

  My father wanted me to meet with our Asian business partners and cement new deals for the manufacture of our high-end computer hardware in China. Apparently, there were wonderful new opportunities opening up for the erection of new factories in Asia and our company could save millions of dollars on the manufacturing cost of our products if we relocated a large part of our existing operations to the Asian continent.

  As excited as I was about the prospect of making another couple of million dollars for our multi-billion dollar company, Edward Electronics, I was far more excited about the prospect of attending the incredible yacht party that Janine Riley was having on her family’s 500 feet yacht. There were sure to be scores of topless girls milling around on the deck and I felt like this would be a far more prudent investment of my time than sitting around a table with some Chinese guys while the interpreter tried his best to explain to me what they were saying.

  I thought that my dad was a great guy but sometimes I got a distinct feeling that he loved his business way more than he loved his own wife and family. He often called me a spoiled brat, but I would never have used that word to describe myself. I enjoyed all of the good things that money could buy but I wasn’t addicted to our wealth the way my dad was.

  My phone rang and when I answered it was the devil himself, my dear father.

  “I hope you are getting ready to meet Mr. Cheng and his delegation in two hours,” he said and I felt like throwing the cellphone right into the ocean. Work, work, work. That’s all my dad ever seemed to think about and I sometimes wished he would just take a chill pill and relax once in a while.

  “Sure dad, I will pick them up at the airport just like I promised,” I replied and lay back again after ending the call. I totally intended to keep my promise and pick up the Chinese delegation at the airport, but I was also toying in my mind with the idea of just popping in at Janine’s yacht party before I drove off to the airport to go and meet Mr. Cheng and his men.

  “No reason why we can’t mix a little pleasure and business together on the same day,” I whispered to myself with a smile. Yes, that’s exactly what I would do. I would pop in and say hi to Janine and everyone else on her yacht and then I would go and do my duty, just like the obedient son I was.

  There were still two hours left before I had to pick up the Chinese delegation so I felt comfortable that I would be able to show my face at Janine’s party and still make it to the airport on time.

  I put on a shirt and some sandals and got into my silver Porsche, which was parked right next to the pier. It was an about 3 miles’ drive over to Janine’s yacht but I made it seem like more 300 yards the way I put my foot down on the gas and sped like a silver bullet along the shore.

  It felt good to be alive and I found myself wondering if my dad ever really enjoyed anything in his dreary life as much as I was enjoying it all. He seemed to be relatively happy in his marriage with my mom, although I felt certain that he banged that sexy secretary of his with her big silicone boobs on a regular basis.

  “What the hell, the youngest of all the Edwards will show the rest of them how it’s done!’ I shouted exuberantly as I turned towards the place where Janine’s massive yacht was moored safely in the harbor. I could tell from all of the expensive sports cars standing around that most of the guests had already arrived for the party.

  “Nathan Edward! Get rid of that shirt so I can lay my eyes on your ripped abs and gorgeous body!” Janine shouted as she watched me getting on board.

  The deck of the yacht looked as if there were more than a hundred people on it and some of the girls were already topless.

  “Dear God, how on earth will I ever get away from all of this tonight?” I whispered to myself with a broad grin as I took off my shirt and picked up a glass of champagne to join the party.

  EMILY

  Justin was being impossible again and I simply didn’t know how to calm him down just so I could get to the factory on time.

  “I don’t want to stay here all by myself while you go to work!” he screamed and I wished his father was there to help calm him down.

  I’d been divorced from Justin’s father for two years now and I was still struggling to get to my feet financially. Randall was not paying any alimony or child support as he was unemployed himself. The little money I was earning at the factory was barely enough to survive on and most months I scarcely scraped together enough to buy food and pay the rent, even with all of the hours I was working overtime.

  “Please don’t be so difficult, you know I have to work night shift this week and you can always play with your cards while I’m gone.”

  “I want to watch TV! Why can’t we have TV like everyone else?!” Justin screamed and I found myself close to tears. I wished that I could provide him with all of the things his heart longed for and knelt down in front of him to look into his beautiful brown eyes.

  “I promise you that one day we will have all of those things. For now, I need you to be a big boy and look after the house while I’m gone, okay?” My words seemed to have a positive effect on Justin as he calmed down and I was finally able to say goodbye to him and lock the front door before taking a walk down to the factory. I was 15 minutes late already and felt extremely grateful to have a guy like old Jerry as the supervisor over my assembly line.

  “Just get to your workstation right away, I’ve already punched in your work card for you,” Jerry whispered and I snuck off to my workstation without anyone noticing that I was late again.

  Grant Belmont, our terrible and unreasonable factory manager, would have fired me long ago if he’d ever known how many times old Jerry had already covered for me in the past whenever I was late after some domestic crisis had prevented me from getting to my workstation on time. I settled myself in for another evening of mind-numbing routine. I was tasked with the fitting of the final casings on various pieces of electronic hardware that made up the inner workings of the laptop computers manufactured by my assembly line in the factory.

  Edward Electronics was always on the cutting edge of all of the latest in automated manufacturing methods, but fortunately for me, they had not yet come up with a way of replacing me with a robot. A stack of components had already heaped upon my section of the assembly line and it took me more than an hour of extra hard work just to clear out the backlog that had been caused by my late arrival. I looked over at Jerry and he winked at me. I gave him a smile and sent up a prayer of gratitude for the fact that there was at least one person on the factory floor who was completely on my side. The rest of the evening went more smoothly and I hit that familiar old rhythm of going through the motions and not thinking about the rest of my life.

  My menial existence was sadly out of step with the dreams I’d had for myself as a young girl. I’d always wanted to be an actress and I think I would have made it too, had it not been for the fact that someone spiked my drink at the prom party and I got pregnant with Randall Trent’s baby. I never regretted having Justin, as he was much more of a joy to me than he ever was a nuisance, but still, his arrival had cut short any dreams I might have had of receiving a standing ovation.

  Randall and I had hurriedly got married, more to please our parents than from a true desire to be together. Our marriage, predictably, didn’t last very long. Justin was now 5 years old and he’d spent the majority of his young life without a father at home as Randal
and I got divorced after just two years of troubled married life.

  After the divorce things quickly went downhill for me. I relocated to Round Rock, Texas, as this was the only place where I could find work. Randall was no help at all financially and I simply had to get out into the world to make ends meet for Justin and me.

  I had no idea how a computer worked and even less of an insight into the components that made up the inner workings of a laptop, but I had to quickly learn how to assemble them into a functional Edward Electronics computer.

  The work was very intimidating at the beginning but fortunately, Jerry was there to train me and he told me to simply concentrate on fitting the various parts according to the set of instructions he’d given me and to forget about the fact that I was assembling a computer.

  “Just imagine that you are playing with Lego,” he used to joke. That seemed to work for me and soon I was just another factory worker on the assembly line; doing my boring repetitive job until my shift was over and I could go home. God bless good old Jerry- I owe him more than I can ever pay back.

  “Emily, can you pass me your no.3 screwdriver, please? I seem to have misplaced mine.”

  It was Ben Orwell asking for my help. He was, perhaps, the only person in the assembly line less experienced than I was at doing his job. He’d only joined the factory a week earlier and he was struggling to adjust. Ben had been an insurance salesman for 30 years but lost his job after the company he worked for went bust. His wife had left him and he was now working overtime to try and repay some of the debts that she’d run up with his credit card while they were married and he was still gainfully employed.

  People out there in the world seemed to automatically assume that all of the workers in a factory like the one belonging to Edward Electronics were unskilled laborers that simply didn’t have the drive to make something better of their lives, other than working on an assembly line. They were dead wrong about that. Many of the workers who slaved away with me every day were highly skilled in other areas, yet had no choice other than working in the factory after they’d experienced some kind of setback in their lives. We weren’t all losers and many of us still dreamed of a better life.

  I was still hopeful that I would one day find something better to do with my life, so I could provide Justin with all of the things a young boy like him needed to grow up normally.

  Justin was almost ready to go to school and I just dreaded the day that he would have to tell his friends at school what his mother did for a living. He would not have the same toys and fancy gadgets they all had, like portable video games and cell phones and I was afraid that he might end up with an inferiority complex about all of the things he lacked unless I could somehow get a better job so I could buy him all of these things.

  Of course, there was always a chance that Prince Charming might ride up on a white Stallion one day and save Justin and me from the poverty we lived in, but I wasn’t exactly counting on this prospect any more. Life had smacked me around enough for me to realize that reality was far removed from the kind of dreams I’d had as a young girl. Recalling those old innocent days, a bitter smile formed on my face. What happened to that happy little girl I once was? I no longer believed in fairy tales, that was for sure.

  “Here you go Ben, just be sure to give it right back as I need it to do my own fittings,’ I said as I passed along the no.3 screwdriver to Ben Orwell.

  “Thank you, Emily, …don’t know what I’d do without you, honestly.”

  The horrible thing about working on a factory floor and never getting out to meet men anymore was the fact that even a guy like Ben started looking attractive after a while. He was bald and overweight, with nothing really going for him except a friendly smile and generally sunny disposition, and yet despite all of this, I sometimes wondered what it would be like to shack up with a man like him. Someone who could help me pay the bills and just do all of the things a man in the house was supposed to do…

  “Here you go, Emily, I’m all done with it,” Ben said with a smile and handed me back the screwdriver.

  I got right back to work and tried not to let my mind wander anymore as I concentrated on the job at hand. The assembly line and the rest of the factory was a well-oiled machine and all of us nameless souls on the factory floor made up the sum total of its parts. We were all just numbers in some strange equation that always delivered the same ultimate result; one more perfectly assembled Edwards Electronics laptop, ready to be sold to one more nameless customer out there.

  “Please God, just help me get through one more day of this,” I prayed silently and reached out to place another fitted electrical component on the conveyor belt.

  NATHAN

  The party was in full swing and after another glass of champagne I was really picking up speed myself. There was some loud rock music blaring across the deck and there was no one around to complain about the noise as Janine’s father had his own private mooring spot with no other yachts around for miles.

  There were only a handful of events per month that I felt I really had to attend and this was one of them. Janine was looking stunning, as always, in her tiny bikini and her silicone enhanced boobs threatened to pop out of her bikini top any second. Not that this would be a great deal at all; I fully expected her to take off her top sometime soon anyway, just like half of the other hot babes in attendance had already done at that point.

  “Get yourself another drink and come dance with me, Nathan!’ Janine shouted at the top of her voice and I gladly obliged after I’d slammed down the rest of the champagne in my glass. Soon I was holding onto Janine’s curvy body and dancing to the beat of a meaty Rock and Roll song as the yacht’s lights glimmered brightly through the summer night. The rippling surface of the water created a mind blowing effect as the lights from the deck shone onto it and I thought that this was just about the most splendid party I’d ever been to in my life.

  “Kiss me, bad boy,” Janine whispered in my ear and I was happy to do so. I could tell that it would not be long before Janine and I were headed for one of the spacious cabins inside to get down to real business, just like we always did at her yacht parties.

  I felt like I really needed and deserved a good time just to get my mind off of things. My dad was becoming more and more demanding with his constant requests for me to get more involved in the business side of Edward Electronics and it had gotten to the point where I sometimes felt it would be great to just leave home for a while and go see the world for myself. I thought that it would be great to get to a point where I could be myself and not constantly have to live up to my old man’s expectations. I had so many ideas that I wanted to try and I truly believed that I could do something exciting with my life if only I was given the opportunity to do so without my dad constantly nagging me to go to some boring meeting or to attend some mind-numbing dinner for the sake of getting to know our business associates.

  I thought of the world as a gold mine where you could dig as deep as you wanted and discover all of the treasures your heart desired. What was the point of just becoming a carbon copy of my dad and wasting away while there was so much adventure to be had out there? I felt the excitement and adrenaline of a young man coursing through my veins and I was not ready to become a premature casualty in my dad’s quest for a yet another billion dollars.

  “Let’s go inside and see what we can find to do there,” Janine whispered in my ear and nibbled gently on my earlobe.

  “I really need to go to the airport and pick up some people,” I replied, unconvincingly.

  “Do you think those dear people of yours could perhaps wait for 15 more minutes?” Janine asked and looked at me with those gorgeous naughty eyes of hers.

  “You know what? I think they will be okay there at the airport for another 15 minutes or so,” I replied with my own broad grin and followed Janine as she took me by the hand and led me to the large cabin deep inside the heart of her 200 feet long yacht.

 
EMILY

  When I got home early in the morning after my night shift, as always, I checked on Justin who was innocently sleeping in his bedroom. I gave him a gentle kiss and headed to my own room. I was so exhausted that I didn’t even take off all of my clothes before collapsing on my single bed and falling asleep.

  I woke up after just three hours of sleep when Justin hammered on my door.

  “I’m hungry!” he shouted and I just lost it completely.

  “Go make yourself a sandwich and shut the hell up! I worked all night long and I need some rest!”

  Justin started crying and I could hear him walking away towards the kitchen. I was too tired to even feel guilty for shouting at him.

  “I’ll worry about being a terrible mother later when I’ve had some sleep,” I muttered and drifted off as I closed my eyes. I had a wonderful dream soon after I fell asleep.

  I dreamed I was walking through a huge garden and letting my hands run through the flowers as I walked. There were large trees on either side of me and in the distance I could see Justin playing with a beautiful white dog. I looked up at the sky and it was clear and blue. Right in front of me, there was a magnificent mansion and a man was standing on the veranda, waving at me. I tried to make out the features of his face, but he was too far away for me to see what he looked like. I felt like I needed to get to him and started walking in the direction of the big house. All around me there were birds chattering away in the trees and I felt like this was the place I’d been looking for my entire life. The grass was green and soft beneath my feet as I continued to get closer to the large mansion and the strange man waving at me from the veranda. Just a small distance to go and I would be right there with him.