A Serpent in Paradise Ch. 01

Author's note: This story is primarily a continuation of "Paradise Obtained", but also includes characters from "The New Neighbours/The Good Master" and "The Friday Night Games Club".

This is the culmination of my 'Haller universe' stories, so is not the best place to begin. I would recommend reading the other stories first; doing so will add depth of character background and make some things clearer.

All characters are over 18.

Chapter 01

Part 1 -- Mike Roberts

Mike Roberts was sat in his office at Park Manor gazing at a computer screen. It was the same room that his predecessor Geoff Mills had used as for that function, but it had been completely redecorated and not one item of furniture or equipment remained from Mill's occupancy; Mike wanted nothing here that reminded him of that man. He was occupied in studying the state of his finances and it made grim reading. It turned that being Master of a harem of eight women was an expensive business.

Mike had never planned, intended or even dreamed of having a harem. Well, ok, maybe the occasional male fantasy about what it would be like to have a threesome with a couple of hot girls, but certainly not eight beautiful young women who thought of him as their Master. The truth was that he had inherited his harem from Geoff Mills, much as he had the spacious manor house, and not by choice either. Mills had used mind control techniques to make Mike's wife Jessica one of his sex slaves and to force Mike to obey him also.

It had taken a year for Mike to break free and then only because he had help from a man called Malcolm Brooke who held some sort of shadowy role in British intelligence. Geoff Mills had fled, although Mike had to admit it was in fear of Brooke, not him. But Mills' harem of mind-controlled slaves remained and was found to have a psychological need for a Master to follow. Left without this they would pine away and fall into madness. By default, he had got the job. He had also found himself working, at least part time, for Malcolm Brooke.

Initially he had been unhappy and dubious about the whole business of a harem. He had profound moral objections to being an owner of slaves. It was the girls themselves, and above all his beloved wife Jessica, who had persuaded him that he was doing a good thing, and that they needed him. In time he had come to enjoy it. Once he was convinced that he was giving them something they needed, then the pleasures of the company of so many beautiful and talented women were real enough, and he had come to know and appreciate them as people with their own individual personalities.

The eight, all now in their early to mid-20s were: Jessica Roberts, Mike's wife and official 'Head of the Harem'; her best friend and lover, Ellie Walcott, a pretty and vivacious girl of West Indian descent; Caitlin Kelly, a red haired, green eyed and very bright Irishwoman; Maria Sanchez, dark eyed Spanish beauty, notable for her fiery temperament; Sunita Lal, an elegant Indian woman whose blow-job skills were legendary; Sakura Tanaka, a friendly Japanese girl and regular keeper of the peace in the harem; Mike's other great love aside from his wife, Jessica's fellow blonde, Becky Langton; and finally their most recent recruit, petite, dark-haired Carly Stone.

However, very little about running a harem had proved to be what he had anticipated -- except possibly for his sex life, which was as great as you might expect. Living with so many women, it didn't seem to matter how many might feeling tired or having a period or just 'not in the mood tonight', there was always at least one who was as keen as he was, and often enough it was several.

One thing he had not anticipated was that in some ways his harem was a bit like having a wife only times eight. For example, if he had an argument with one of the girls about something -- and although in theory they were supposed to obey him that did sometimes happen -- then you could guarantee that the other seven would support their harem sister against him. They might not openly rebel, but there would be all sorts of significant looks given and cold shoulders turned until eventually he apologised to the offended one, which he always ended up doing, whereupon he would be forgiven.

But it was finance that was the real problem. True, there was a considerable amount of money coming into the household. All the women worked and contributed income, except Ellie, who was in her second year at university, and Carly who had just started a degree. They both had part time jobs, but needed every penny for themselves.

Because of his work for the British Government, Mike had been forced to give up his former job in IT. He was paid a civil service salary, which was actually a little higher than his old one, and he was able to supplement it with some freelance tech consultancy work, including for his previous employer. Fortunately, his work for Malcolm Brooke had not turned out to be as sinister as he had feared it might. All he really had to do was turn up places and ask specific questions of people who always seemed happy to answer. Mike assumed that the security services had dosed them with some of Geoff Mills' mysterious mind-control drug in advance.

However, despite having seven salaries coming in, costs were also high. For one thing, their family was growing. He and Jess had always intended to have children and four months ago their firstborn had arrived, a boy they had called Leo.

Unfortunately, Jessica's pregnancy had set off a chain reaction in the harem. He had fought long and hard against the idea of having children with any of the others but, in the end, he had lost that battle too. Even Jess had argued that he couldn't deny the other women their right to motherhood, if that was what they wanted. Caitlin was now five months pregnant and Maria four months and Mike was worried that Sunita was looking increasingly broody as well.

And then there was the housing situation. Park Manor was a beautiful place to live but the government owned it since seizing it from the fugitive Geoff Mills, and buying it was way beyond Mike's reach. To date Brooke had arranged for them to carry on living there, given Mike was working for him, but recently some pen-pusher in the civil service had decided that they really should be paying rent, and a high rent at that.

Mike had been forced to sell his old house on Park Drive, next to the Manor, as he couldn't afford both the mortgage payments on that and the rent on Park Manor. As a result, he had dropped off the housing ladder and was in effect stuck with renting a property that he simply couldn't afford. The whole thing was a mess. The fact that all the girls were fully confident their wonderful Master would sort it all out for them simply added to the pressure.

All Mike could do was hope that something would turn up out of the blue. He was pondering this unhappily when Sakura entered the office. She had come to ask if he wanted a cup of tea, but seeing her Master looking sad, her natural empathy immediately kicked in. The Japanese girl walked round the desk and sat on Mike's knee and kissed him.

"Is everything alright Master?" she asked.

"Better now you're here," Mike said, and smiled. It was true. He had liked Sakura from the beginning. The 24-year-old was sweet and kind; she was also very cute and the proximately of her slim body was awakening desires he had not thought of only moments ago.

With feminine instinct, she noticed this at once. Her hand slid down and stroked his hardening cock through the material of his trousers. "Is there anything I can do for you Master?" she asked in a throaty whisper. Mike answered by kissing her again, this time with more passion.

Taking her cue from his response, Sakura began to free her Master's cock from his clothing, undoing his belt and then fumbling with the zip. Mike helped her and soon the beautiful Asian girl's right hand was gripping his cock and stroking the hardening erection. She had spread her legs slightly and leaned against him so that Mike was able to slip a hand under her dress and lightly stroke her panties. They were wet with arousal.

They carried on this mutual masturbation for a few more moments; then Sakura stood briefly, before kneeling between Mike's legs. She gave a brief glance up at him, during which he took in her lovely brown eyes sparkling with excitement, then she leant forward and took the head of his cock in her mouth and ran her tongue across it. Mike gave a sigh of pleasure and the thought took his mind that while a harem could cause a lot of stress, it certainly did have its compensations.

*****

Sakura had succeeded in lifting Mike Roberts' spirits for a while; a beautiful girl making love to you will do that for a man. Her impromptu blowjob had only been the start. Before Mike had much time to consider it, they had both been naked and he had been lying on his back on the couch in the office with the Japanese girl moving up and down, his erection firmly embedded in her tight, wet, cunt as she fucked them both toward orgasm.

Becky Langton had walked in half way through, but had not so much as batted an eyelid; such sights were common in the Park Manor. Instead, she had sat herself comfortably in a chair, pulled her jeans and panties down and began to play with her pussy as she enjoyed the view. The sight of this had merely added to Mike's pleasure.

In fact, it had been Becky's moans of bliss as she jilled herself to climax that had put Sakura and he over the edge. He had humped upward harder, even as Sakura ground herself down on his cock. The Japanese girl's orgasm had seized her, and she gave little sobs of joy as she came. This, together with her vagina gripping his cock as she spasmed round it, had caused Mike to cum too, spraying his sperm into her hot tight cunt.

But now all three of them were spent for the moment, resting in post-orgasmic triste, and despite the pleasant feel of Sakura's slim body pressing against his as she lay atop him, Mike's gloomy thoughts returned. Quite aside from his financial predicament, it occurred to him that these wonderful bouts of unplanned sex would soon have to end. His son was just a baby at present, but once he got mobile they would have to be a lot more careful. He decided he would need to get locks fitted for this room and the main bedroom.

While Mike was considering this he was disturbed by the telephone on his desk ringing. He wasn't expecting a call and very few people ever used the landline these days anyway. He thought it was most likely to be a scammer or a nuisance cold sales call, but felt he had better answer it just in case it was important. Anyway, the chance to vent at some helpless bloke in a call centre in Mumbai was quite attractive in his present frame of mind.

Mike disentangled himself from Sakura and, still naked, crossed to the desk and picked up the receiver. He was surprised when a voice at the other end said, "Mr Michael Roberts? You don't know me, but we have a mutual acquaintance, a Mr Brooke. My name is Albrecht Haller."

The voice was speaking perfect English with just the slightest hint of an accent. Mike was immediately on guard, due to the reference to his employer. He suspected his phones were probably monitored but, in any event, he knew better than to say much about his work.

"My name is Roberts, but I don't know anyone called Brooke," he lied.

"Ah, very good Mr Roberts, but you need not worry. It was Mr Brooke who asked me to speak to you. He seems to feel that I owe you a debt of sorts. I may inadvertently have caused some of your current situation. If so, I can assure you it was unintentional and I wish to apologise for any inconvenience you have suffered."

'Inconvenience', Mike thought; well, that was one word for having you and your wife enslaved by a sadistic sociopath for a year.

Haller was still talking. "As some recompense I have resolved one of the financial issues that I understand has been troubling you. I have bought the house you live in -- Park Manor, I believe it is called -- from your government and I have arranged to sell the freehold to you for the sum of £1. The papers should arrive tomorrow and the house will be yours."

Mike was stunned. If this was actually true his housing problem was solved at a stroke. "But ... but this house is worth about £3million!" he gasped.

"Mr Roberts, if you care to perform an internet search on my name, I think you will discover that the money was not a significant issue for me. However, this is not to say that I do not have problems of my own and I believe you may be able to help me with one." Ah, here it comes, thought Mike. He wants something. "I am concerned that an associate of mine called Matthew Mitchell is about to have some difficulties. I believe you can help him."

"And why should I do that?" asked Mike.

"Well for one thing, although I have assisted with your housing problem, you will soon require more income. After all, you will shortly be father to four young children. I could help with that."

"Three children," Mike corrected automatically.

"If you say so, Mr Roberts," Haller said. Mike thought there was a note of amusement in his voice.

Annoyed, Mike added, "I am sure I will find some way to cope without your help."

"There is another, more personal, reason you might wish to help Mr Mitchell," Haller observed.

"And what's that?" asked Mike, desperately hoping Haller would go away soon and never call again. For one thing, he wanted to get dressed; he was beginning to be a little self-conscious about taking this call in the nude, even though Haller couldn't see him.

Then the German replied with an answer that made him forget about that. "Because his difficulties are being caused by another man; the one you know as Geoff Mills."

*****

Despite Haller's reference to his enemy Mills, Mike had turned him down, although to get the German to ring off he had been obliged to write down his contact details, "Just in case you change your mind" as Haller had put it.

He had taken up the suggestion to check the internet --although he got dressed first -- and Haller was indeed easy to find, although the information was curiously patchy. There was a lot about his business career, but very little personal detail.

It seemed that he was technically Albrecht Haller the Third. The first Albrecht, his grandfather, had founded an engineering business in Switzerland between the two world wars. It had done well and grown into a modestly successful medium sized company. His son, the current Albrecht's father, had expanded into Germany during the spectacular industrial recovery of the 1950s and 60s in that country. They had done well out of this economic miracle.

The current Albrecht Haller was born in 1967 in Germany and held dual Swiss and German citizenship. Academically brilliant, he had studied both science and business. Rising rapidly through the ranks of his father's company, as much on merit as nepotism, he had eventually taken control on his father's retirement, at the age of just 31.

In the subsequent 20 years or so Haller had grown what was a large, successful, German engineering company into a huge and diverse multi-national business empire. In particular he had expanded into electronics, software and chemicals. His exact personal wealth was unknown but no one doubted it ran into billions of US dollars.

Exactly how he had achieved this seemed more of a mystery. He was recognised as a brilliant and ruthless businessman who had a talent for spotting opportunities others missed. But somehow there seemed to be something vaguely dubious about it all, although no evidence of any criminality had ever been shown. Nor did many feel a need to delve too deeply, as Herr Haller was notoriously litigious when it came to his reputation.

About his private life there was almost nothing, beyond the fact that he had never been married and had no children. It was hinted at by some that he might be gay but, if so, then no known lovers past or present had been publicly identified.

As Mike concluded his research into Haller, the door to the study was suddenly thrown open and a gaggle of excited women flooded through the door. There was his wife Jessica, holding baby Leo in her arms, Caitlin, the redhead's baby bump now becoming clearly visible, and Becky Langton.

"What is it?" asked Mike is some alarm.

"Oh Mike, wonderful news!" said Jessica, joy and excitement in her voice.

"What news?" said Mike, a nervous feeling growing in his stomach.

His wife smiled happily at him. "Sunita has just taken a test and its positive! Mike, she's pregnant! Isn't it wonderful!"

Mike looked at his wife and the others, doing his best to hide his alarm. Then another thought hit him; how on earth had Haller known? He put that idea aside for later; there was something more important to consider. He was going to be a father to another child, and he was a man who took such responsibilities seriously. It would be his duty to care for and provide for four children and eight women. He would need money; more money than he had or could possibly get. Unless ...

Mike looked at Haller's phone number written on the pad next to him and made his decision. He picked up the receiver and punched in the number. After a few moments it was answered; a female voice. Mike summoned up his courage and said: "Can I speak to Herr Haller please ..."

Part 2 -- Katya

When Geoff Mills had fled Britain, it had represented a setback for the man who had supported and bankrolled him, Albrecht Haller. It left with without an agent in the United Kingdom. Haller would have been pleased to get Mike Roberts on his payroll -- indeed he tried and eventually succeeded -- not because he needed him for anything but because he represented a loose end and Haller was a tidy man. But Roberts was never going to be suitable as his agent; he was, putting it simply, too nice.

That didn't matter, as Haller had found someone much more suitable for the role. She went by a number of names but he always called her Katya. Her birth name was Katie Wade and she still used it for her day job working for an animal charity in London. By night she was Natalia Rostova and had quickly made a reputation as a professional dominatrix on the British capital's professional S&M scene. However, recently her activities in that regard had been partly overtaken by her work for Albrecht Haller.

Haller had become aware of Katya because she was herself a victim of Geoff Mills, albeit indirectly. Mills had been happy to sell his method to any unscrupulous person with enough money to pay for it and was uncaring about what they did as a result. One of these customers had been a man named Bradley Gilmour. Gilmour had mind-controlled Katie Wade and, in a cruel experiment, convinced her for a while she was a vampire and left her with a split personality; but in the process he also accidentally created someone strong enough to break free of his control.

It was this strength that Albrecht Haller had been keen to harness. It had taken him a great deal of money to persuade her and, even then, he suspected that it was the mission he had given Katya that was the real incentive. But either way she was now his employee and was close to completing the initial tasks he had given her, which revolved around clearing up the mess Mills had left behind him.

As to Geoff Mills himself, Haller had him contained at a chemical research facility he owned, deep in a valley in the Swiss Alps. His skills as a chemist remained useful, but for everyone's sake it was better the man remained locked away from both opportunity and temptation. As far as the German businessman was concerned, Mills could remain there indefinitely.