Brodie

For the first time in a long time, I had some clarity. I called my broker to liquidate a big part of my investment portfolio, so I’d have the cash to buy out my partners. It was hard to do, but it wouldn’t break me. Then I called my lawyer to put things in motion.

“Joe. Thanks for taking my call,” I said.

“Always happy to hear from my favorite client. Hey, the guy you hit dropped the charges against you.”

“Great. That’s a relief. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. It wasn’t hard to get him to do. Funny how fast he changed his mind,” Joe said.

It wasn’t funny to me, but my attorney didn’t need to know that.

“So what else is happening?” he asked.

“I’ve decided what to do about Evershire and Wooten. I’m going to buy them out,” I stated. Hotel Vertigo was part of my family, and part of me. They weren’t taking it away.

I heard a low whistle. “Now you’re talking. Let’s take them on.”

Relief washed over me. I hadn’t been sure Joe would support the move.

“All right. Can you start with filing the paperwork? I’m getting the cash together right now,” I said.

“Sure thing, buddy. I’ll round up the team and we’ll get right on it.”

“Thank you. I can always count on you.” When everything went down with my dad, Joe was one of the people who stuck by my family. You keep people like that around.

“Brodie, how long have I known you?”

“Long time, Joe.”

“How about since you were a little kid? I’d do anything for your dad, or for you. You know that.”

I choked down a lump in my throat.

“Thank you,” I said simply.

“Now you know what you need to do. Get the actuary going on valuing the business. Everything else will fall into place.”

I hoped he was right.

* * *

Next stop of the day was to make another situation right. I had the limo take me uptown to Nara’s office.

I walked into a typical tech firm, with walls painted a mish-mash of bright colors, cubicles for miles, and cheap Ikea furniture. It was textbook perfect.

A cheery receptionist greeted me.

“Hello! What can I help you with?”

“I’m Brodie Harcourt to see Nara Kincaid.”

Her smile was blinding. “Does she have a meeting scheduled with you, Mr. Harcourt?”

“No. No she doesn’t. I’m a friend. I hope she can see me for a few minutes.”

That changed her demeanor, and she looked me up and down.

“I see. Hold on one sec.” She disappeared through a door. I could hear her on the other side of it. Her voice was muffled, but enthusiastic, nonetheless.

The door flew open. It was Nara, wearing her usual uniform, but with her hair piled on her head, held in place with a pencil. How did she do that?

“Brodie,” she said hesitantly. She broke into a smile and drew me into a hug.

Maybe I wasn’t in as much trouble as I’d thought.

“Could we go somewhere to talk?” I asked.

“Yeah. Let’s do that. I’ll grab my purse, and we can get a drink at Bella Stella.”

Ten minutes later, we settled into the bar where we’d met for the first time. It seemed like a year had gone by since then, even thought it had only been a few weeks. A lot had happened—for both of us.

I ordered us a couple drinks—bubbly for her, and scotch for me. But I didn’t even wait for them to be served.

“I wanted to talk to you,” I started.

Her eyes widened. “Funny. I wanted to talk to you, too. And then you showed up at my office.”

We looked at each other for a moment, not sure where to go next.

So I dove in. “I’m sorry I got involved with your Simon problems. I never should have done that. You’re perfectly capable of taking care of yourself.”

Her mouth opened and closed a couple times before she could say anything.

“Oh gosh, Brodie,” she sputtered. “Thank you for saying that. I’m sorry I came down on you so hard. You did something I didn’t want you to, but you were only trying to help. Instead of losing my shit, I should have thanked you for caring. And then lost my shit.” She laughed.

Now it was my turn to be speechless.

“Thank you. Wow. I…I didn’t expect that.”

“So,” she said with a smile. “Let’s move on from this. Okay?”

Shit, yeah.

“Speaking of moving on, are you free tonight?” I asked.

“No, but I’d love to get together,” she said, smiling.

“Okay. That was confusing. But I’ll take it as a yes.”

“Yes,” she said. “It was a yes.”

* * *

I picked her up at eight. She walked out of her office building looking slamming as always with those never-ending long legs on skyscraper heels, and her uniform, which she wore painfully well.

She slipped into the limo next to me and laid a big kiss on my lips. As usual, my dick twitched in my pants as if to remind me it was there. Down, boy.

“Hello, beautiful,” I said.

Even in the low light I was able to see her blush. “Hey there,” she answered with a smile.

“What do you feel like doing?” I asked.

She rubbed her chin for a moment. “I know! Let’s do something naughty. I’m in the mood for naughty.”

She looked to me like I was the expert in naughty, so I closed the window between the driver and us. “What put you in that mood?”

“Well,” she said. “We just got over a major hurdle with the Mommy Knows software. I’m feeling very confident and gutsy.”

“No kidding. What was the hurdle?”

“It was that one I told you about, where the dirty diaper sensor was reading wrong. It was mixing up its signals. And that’s all you really want to know,” she said, laughing.

“Okay. I think you’re right. Dirty diapers are not really conducive to a naughty night out.”

“I don’t suppose they are. Actually, unless you absolutely have to, I’d recommend not talking about them at all, ever. Unless you’re dealing directly with one and have no choice,” she said.

Nothing like a smart girl with a sense of humor.

“Okay then,” I said. “How naughty do you want to go?” My dick was getting harder by the second.

“Gosh, I don’t know. Are there a lot of options?”

Oh, my sweet, sweet girl.

“You’re in freaking New York City, baby. The options are endless,” I explained.

“Really? Well I guess I’ve been living under a rock.”

“All right. First option. We could go to a strip club. A nice one, not a divey one,” I offered.

“Oh, that’s an idea. I’ve been to a strip club once before. On a dare,” she added.

“Or…we could go to a sex club,” I ventured, not sure how that would go over.

“A sex club? Like where people sit around having sex?” she asked.

“Something like that. Some people watch, some perform. It’s whatever you feel like. And always consensual.”

She looked out the window at the red light where we were stopped. At this point I didn’t care if she was into it or not, just as long as I could get her naked, and soon.

Then she turned back to me. “Is it safe? I mean, will you stick with me?” she asked.

I threw my head back and laughed. I couldn’t help it. “Will I stick with you? Hell, yeah. Just try to get rid of me.”

She reached across the seat and took my hand.

“We could do that. I mean, I’d like to try it,” she said.

“If you don’t like it, we’ll leave right away,” I offered.

“Let’s go.”

* * *

There were several sex clubs in Manhattan just like there were in every major city, and I’d been to a few of them with various kinky girlfriends. But never with someone as beautiful and elegant as Nara. And never with someone who I was as determined to keep all to myself.

I had the limo stop at the end of a block, and we walked back a few addresses until we landed in front of a plain black door that blended in with the rest of the building. A large bouncer stepped out of the shadows, looked us up and down, and let us in.

We entered a long, dimly lit hallway. At the end, a costumed woman waited in what looked like the ticket booth of an old movie theater. As we got closer, she smiled and slipped a few condoms onto the counter. Nara looked surprised but slid them into her skirt pocket. I paid the admission charge, and we were buzzed in. I could barely walk with the huge erection I’d already sprung. There wasn’t anything sexier than the thought of fucking Nara in front of an audience.