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Picking up her mobile she dialled their home number after two rings the answers machine kicked in, the answer machine set so that the message would be loudly broadcast from the corner of the living room where she had no doubt her Mum would be sat, given her usual Television viewing rituals.
"Hey Mum, it's Maya ...no need to pick up... I'm just leaving the Office now and will be home soon ... I'll pick us up something to eat ... Love you."
Setting down her phone she spotted she was at 1% battery making a mental note to charge her phone in her car.
Saving the spreadsheet, she opened her email that she'd shut down to avoid the constant distraction it could provide. Opening a new blank email, she typed a brief one-line explanation to Will Marchant; literally stating she hoped the figures looked more realistic, even though she had no confidence in them herself. She attached the revised spreadsheet to the email and clicked on the 'Send' icon. Will had been great to her since their recent conversation, she hadn't known why she'd opened up to him so easily as had transpired but it had felt good to share and remove some of the burden, she felt she carried. She loved her job she enjoyed the positive distraction it could offer her but in the last few months knew herself she'd become distracted and that her performance was suffering. The deal she'd landed with Costmark for wholesale supply had been timely and without taking anything away from her had been a tough negotiation. Working for Marchant's had not been her full-time job of late though. Caring for her Mother who was suffering from the final stages of Multiple Sclerosis had taken precedence as soon as the 53-year-olds health had rapidly declined four months ago.
Maya heard the dull thud, but thought nothing of it, as she packed her laptop and belongings away in her laptop bag which she in turn slung over her right shoulder. Car Keys in one hand she grabbed the white mug with a red cartoon pig printed on it and despite the additional time it would take took the mug back to the kitchen area and thoroughly washed the multiple brown circular stains from inside the mug, she wasn't going to fall foul of another shitty thinly veiled email from Flick Bowerman about kitchen area etiquette.
Maya crossed back through the admin office. Confused immediately as when she pressed her flat palm against the door that led to the atrium it did not open. Instinctively she tried again. The door was not for budging. A brief sense of panic grabbed her. Was she locked in? Maya slapped her hand against the long thin glass window as with a sense of relief she immediately spotted two of the night shift team pass through the atrium. Neither of them looked up.
Heading back into the Boardroom Maya pulled back blinds she'd herself drawn on the windows that overlook the smoking shelter in the car park. The area was deserted. Trying not to panic further, but certainly a little flustered she took her mobile from her jacket pocket. Her first instinct to call Will Marchant, she didn't know who else to call but surely, he'd know what to do or at least be able to offer advice. She literally hit dial when the phone screen went blank in her hand, the minimal effort she'd asked of her phone draining the last of her battery on her.
"Fuck" she frustratedly slapped a flat hand against the wall to her right as she headed back into the Admin Office. Maya looked around her, only then realising that where there had once been lights and monitors on in the Admin Office there now where none. The office was suffering from a power cut hence why, and she thought rather dangerously the magnetic security door was not working. Someone would surely recognise soon and reset the power she thought to herself. Perhaps the rest of the processing plant is without power. She took a sigh of relief her panic subsiding as she rationalised the problem.
Immediately that thought wasn't good enough, what if that took too long. There had to be a way out. Maya couldn't be trapped here. To the far-right corner of the room to the side of Will's Office she remembered the narrow corridor that led to a fire escape staircase. There was a push barrier door to exit into the car park there at the very least. She smiled to herself and let go of a breath she hadn't appreciated she'd held on to in her concern.
Her heels heavy in the floor as she purposefully strode towards the corridor, halfway along the corridor the Stationary Cupboard door hung open into the darkened room. Maya passed the stationary cupboard and reached to push open the door opposite of it.
She felt the arm wrap around her waist, she gasped in panic kicking and struggling as she was pulled backwards into the Stationary Cupboard. She fell and landed on top of whoever had grabbed her, the arm clenched still tightly around her waist.
She yelped as she struggled feeling the sharp lancing pain to the right-hand side of her neck.
Her struggles diminished, she couldn't fight, her limbs starting to feel heavy and useless.
Panicking she could hear her own breath loudly in her ears.
The light of the corridor seemingly fading as her eyelids fell closed and she drifted unconscious.
**********
"I know I keep saying it, but this place is amazing" Kelly gushed, not the first time that Will had heard the sentiment since they'd arrived. He'd heard it at the high metal gated entrance, he'd heard it on the gravelled driveway, he heard it on arrival and when they dropped over night bags into a guest bedroom that made their master bedroom seem tiny. Now he was hearing it again. Kelly continued, "Oh my god ... it's to die for."
"Someone did," Ari Walker Smith offers matter of factly as she sips from a glass of champagne while standing next to Will. They all stood facing out across the outdoor swimming pool and sun terrace, illuminated with low level led lighting in the late evening twilight.
"You'll have to excuse Ari's dark humour," Marco interjects spotting Kelly's wide-eyed expression as he approached the three of them. "What she means is that I inherited the property when my Father suddenly passed away."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Kelly near enough fawned her condolences taking the opportunity as an excuse to lay her hand on Marco's forearm. If Will was spotting such open tactile behaviour he guessed the stunning blonde in the silver halter neck dress next to him was as well.
"It's fine" Marco offered with very little sentiment while he quickly slipped from Kelly's touch. "So anyway if you'd care to come through to the dining room... dinner is served."
"It is a great place you've got here," Will offered in small talk to Ari as they headed through to the kitchen from a conservatory that led to a games room, amongst others, a red baize Pool table immediately grabbed the attention of Wills inner child and reminded him of misspent youth.
"All the trappings of 12 bedrooms but we don't need 10 of them" Ari stated a little bluntly in response.
"Who uses the other bedroom?" Will said aloud unable to figure out her statement.
"Oh Will," she smirked fixing him with a suggestive gaze. "The other room is very Fifty Shades... bondage... spanking... torture."
Will was lost for words.
"Close your mouth Will you'll catch a fly," Ari stated as he followed her into the dining room, the long black table that was the centre piece of the room fully laid for the four of them.
Will closed his mouth completely thrown by her comment. Halfway through their starter of Garlic Mushrooms, which tasted a little too shop bought, he was still wondering on tentative glances in her direction if it was the truth.
**********
Dinner finished the two couples had moved back to the conservatory, glasses of wine still in hand.
Seated before a low coffee table on which two candles steadily flickered Kelly sits next to Marco on a sofa opposite to him, while Will sits next to the cross-legged Ari doing his best not to look along her toned thigh as the skirt of her silver dress rode up it revealing, unless he imagined it, the occasional glimpse of stocking top.
"Did we apologise for being late?" Kelly offers out of nowhere to the conversation; she's slowly showing now the effects of the constant drinking she'd partaken in since they'd arrived.
"Several times," Ari mutters quietly and Will's not sure if he's meant to have heard her or not.
"You see..." Kelly continues pointing vaguely in Will's direction, "... it's because Will is married to both me and his work."
"You weren't that late," Ari states jumping to Wills defence. "Marco only arrived back around ten minutes or so before you got here."
"Business is business," Marco responded, either to Ari or maybe also in Will's defence.
"I said to him..." Kelly ignored what they had said, "...I said be home by half seven at the latest and he comes home at nearly half eight... I get held up with a friend for an hour ...a friend who's shall I say having a really bad time lately." Kelly continues although nobody sat around the low table seems engaged or wanting to engage, "A little...just a little late back from an afternoon out was all I was ...and I get into all sorts of bother."
"Anyone for Coffee?" Ari offers completely ignoring now the slightly slurred outburst and no doubt keen to change the subject.
"Please," Marco and Will offered almost in unison.
"I'll go sort it out," Ari rises from the seat pulling down the hem of her short dress as she does. "Will, do you want to come and help me?"
"Uh yeah ...uh yeah sure" Will responded, although not entirely sure why she would need assistance for four coffees. As he stands himself, he catches Ari mouthing silently to Marco the words 'Fresh Air.' Marco nods his understanding come agreement.
Not looking back Will followed Ari back through the house past the dining room and into an impressive vast kitchen that Kelly would probably kill for let alone die for. The platinum blondes, black strapped high heels echo viscously on the cream tiled floors. He can't keep his eyes of the back of her slender calf muscles, the wriggle of her ass in the perfectly tight-fitting dress, the pale smooth skin of her back. An intriguing feint diagonal scar seems to cross from her right shoulder as she reached into a cupboard and grabs a metal tin of instant coffee and a cafetière.
"So..." Will breaks the silence that had unintentionally built between them as he sits himself down at the breakfast bar in the centre of the kitchen. "... You're not bothered by having a Friday night away from the Club you run... Sorry own."
"Not in the slightest..." Ari responded without hesitating or looking back at him, "... I learnt from a former owner not to get too involved... how a place like that ...how the lifestyle can consume you if you let it."
"Consume you?" Will stated as she set the cafetière and the tin of coffee down on the breakfasts bar.
"Yes ... Like it has the other owners."
Her statement intrigued Will, but he wasn't sure he should press her for further details, despite the intrigue and wanting to know more. The story's Maya had alluded to on their night out to the venue ran through his mind. There was something about her tone though that was almost reticent.
"You know what happened to Marco's Sister Laura when she ran the place right?"
"I wasn't aware he even had a Sister," Will offered.
"He's two... Sofia's away at University... and Laura who used to own the Club... it's best not to mention her around Marco." her blue steely eyes fixed on him she silent mouthed the words "She disappeared" to him.
"Disappeared?" Will couldn't help quietly repeat back to her.
"He doesn't... we don't talk about it."
"So that's how you came to be the owner?"
"In a fashion," Ari answered evasively. "Marco likes talking about that even less... it's not so much a long story as..."
Ari stopped short on the sentence, immediately changing tact.
" I forgot you've been to my Club... What did you think of it?"
"Busy," Will offered in honesty, still intrigued by what she'd said beforehand but taking her steer of the same conversation in a different direction he parked the thoughts he held to himself.
"It's always busy ... I'll only worry when it's not busy" she smirked mischievously. "Did Marco arrange for you to benefit from any of our specialist services?"
"I declined the offer," Will stated.
"Maybe some other time," her eyes narrowed seductively on him, Will should have felt uncomfortable as they sat here openly discussing such matters, but he didn't. He met and held the platinum blondes gaze, hanging on her every word. "Everything's available at the Dark Star... any desire ...anything at all ...goes without saying that everything is at a price."
"I'm a married man," said Will, unsure why he felt the need to qualify the matter. Unphased Ari scooped five heaped teaspoons of coffee into the cafetière before holding the silver and glass jug under an instant boil tap that protruded from the breakfast bar over a sink.
"This is our little secret...If Marco asks, I used the machine" she said with a devilish grin looking over her exposed left shoulder at a large silver coffee machine sat looking box fresh on the kitchen counter "Bought him that for his birthday ... it's never been used ...he thinks it has and can't tell the difference...fucking coffee snob."
Will smirked at her brashness. She intrigued him. He couldn't put an age on her and was too polite to enquire, at a guess he'd say she was mid-twenties, but she held an aura of worldliness that suggested both a maturity and suggestion that she'd already lived a lifetime of experience already, despite her relative youth. Will considered that you didn't find yourself engaged to someone like Marco Mancini if you didn't know how to handle yourself, let alone lie to him about something as trivial as instant coffee. Feeling his phone vibrate in his thigh, Will slipped the device from his pocket but he didn't even turn it over, instead he set it face down on the breakfast bar. Wanting to give her his full attention.
"Are you happily married though Will?" She bluntly stated, snapping him out of his thoughts.
"Pardon," Will responded a little surprised at what he heard.
"Well, if you were happily married you wouldn't have spent the last twenty minutes casting glances up along my thigh, now would you?"
Wills turn to smirk, he'd been busted.
Ari stepped back from the breakfast bar a little and he cast an unabashed look over her body as she sultry gazed back at him.
"Do you like what you see Will?"
Casting an eye back over him as she stood on the opposite side of the black marble surface. He didn't know how to answer her sincere question. She teased him, surely, he had to admit that she wore the dress that met her hosiery covered legs just above the knee very well, it was as if the material had been hand cut to cling to her body the way it did. Stepping back another half a pace she started to hitch her dress up a little. Will's initial thought being to throw a glance towards the open double doors that led into the kitchen before he looked back at her and his eyes came to rest back on her. Back on her toned slender legs as she hitched the skirt up enough over her left thigh to reveal the lace detail at the top of a dark denier stockings.
"Stockings seeing as I could tell you were wondering ...hold ups."
Below the line of sight of the breakfast bar Will felt his dick stir and grow, uncomfortably straining at the back of his zipper fly.
Ari dropped the bunched dress back down to her and with her latest flirtatious grin stepped back forward to the breakfast bar, grabbing a silver tray and four mugs and saucers as she did. Will eyes leave her as not for the first time this evening her lack of reservation had caught him completely off guard. She was trouble. The kind of trouble he could grow to like.
"Do you trust your Wife?" She matter of factly stated hands resting once again on the breakfast bar, leaning forward "Do you trust leaving her alone in there with Marco?"
Her question threw him a little, before he answered, "I do."
"The same words you probably said in your marriage vows in relation to love honouring and obeying," she grinned a sultry flirtatious little grin once again.
Will didn't reply, he fell silent letting her speak her mind.
"I'd trust her alone in there with Marco ...of course I would while were both in here ...I mean he's brash but he's not that brash." the irony of what she said given what she'd just physically done while stood before him was not lost on Will.
"But..." she looked straight into his eyes with her bright blue piercing eyes. "...I would never trust them alone together. Not the way I've seen her looking at him tonight. Someone like your Wife is impressed by the trappings, the lifestyle, the superficial persona she wants to see... she'd be putty in his hands. The little glances like you've been giving me the glint in her eye... I've seen it with other Women around him... I've gotten used to it."
Ari gently shook her head.
"Your Kelly is playing right into his hands... he'll revel in the attention, lure her in subtly ... until it's too late... There's a darkness in Marco... a selfish darkness he'll get what he wants and then discard her once she's served her purpose. It's not a lot different to how he conducts business. You'll have known that you know the pitfalls of dealing with Marco and agreeing to deal with him."
'How little you and I both know' Will thought to himself.
"I'm not naive Will I know there are other girls, other women ...it doesn't bother me not like it would most women I know how to handle him I know how to deal with Marco ...your Wife won't ...I can handle that darkness ...not many can."
Will wasn't sure if he should be intrigued or worried by her dark insight into Marco Mancini, let alone why she chose to mention all of this.
"It doesn't bother you?" he offered for his own clarification as much as anything else.
"We've an open relationship ...works both ways ...we don't feel the need to tell one another every detail but equally we never hide. We've a relationship that doesn't conform to normal expectations and boundaries... I'm happy with that... So's Marco."
Will nodded but in truth couldn't begin to understand.
"What can I say I've always had a thing for a bad man."
Her eyes narrowed again as she finished her sentence. Will had no idea what to think, the turn in the conversation had certainly taken his mind off his trouser situation. The impromptu erection passing as he'd listened intently to what she'd said. Was she warning him off? Was she dealing with a threat from Kelly she personally perceived and manipulating him so as to influence Kelly? Over and over in his head Will questioned himself, questioning himself mainly for his ill-thought-out involvement, his impromptu almost knee jerk reaction to dealing with the individual he'd never fully trusted. The Clandestine illegal operation that now seemingly encroached on all aspects of his life. Whatever Ari's motivation in sharing this information with him, should he be heeding the fair warning of the danger Marco Mancini represented?
"Do you or Kelly take sugar Will?" Ari asked straightening and sliding the tray across the breakfast bar in his direction.
"No, we don't." Will simply answered.
"Good ...that stuff is really bad for you," she threw him another of her devilish smirks as Wills hands reached for the tray. As Ari let go of the tray, she took his phone and turned it over in her hand.
"Passcode?" she stated softly.
"793250" Will responded without questioning.
Watching as her fingers tapped quickly on the glass fronted screen before she took barely moments before locking the phone and setting it back almost exactly where it had been.
