Justice

For his part, Hayden always appreciated the impersonal philosophy that Stacy advocated with her choice of sexual positions. Theirs was a purely physical relationship, frequently devoid of even the smallest and simplest of intimacies such as kissing, holding hands, or embracing one another. They came together to screw each other and nothing else. There was no exclusivity between them, but their lack of emotional involvement had made them each other's favorite fornication play thing.

Frequently, their genitals were the only parts of their bodies to make contact. That was not to be the case today, however, as Stacy's hips began to aggressively push back at Hayden to establish a rhythm that would hasten her climax. He had to place his hands on Stacy's hips to support her from falling off the edge of the bed.

Knowing from past episodes with Stacy that the feeling of his orgasm while inside of her would push her over the edge to achieve her own, Hayden didn't feel the need to hold back. With one final hard thrust, he began pulsing deep inside of Stacy. Her wanton cries of ecstasy, clamping legs, and thrashing arms told him that history had repeated itself.

Leaving Stacy's panting body on his bed, Hayden scoot-walked into his bathroom to dispose of the condom and clean himself off before pulling his pants up.

When he returned to the bedroom, Stacy was lounging in a chair on the balcony, watching the sunrise over the Atlantic.

Hayden replaced his polo shirt and said, "I should be back by 10 if you want to hang around. It might be beneficial for you if you do."

"No, I open the pub today at 11, but if you want to stop by later, I'll buy you a drink and we can discuss my returning here when I get off tonight at 8."

"If you're sure that you'll get off at 8, I'll wait to eat. Come here after work and we can cook something on the grill while watching the sunset."

Stacy wrapped her arms around his waist before he could pull away and said, "Sunrise and sunset from your place on the same day. You better be careful or I might start seeing an engagement in my future."

He quickly kissed her lips again as he extricated himself from her embrace.

"Now that would just ruin a perfectly good friendship," he teased. "Save me a seat at the bar and I'll see you sometime between 4 and 5. I need to run now, and you need to get out to the beach to see the sunrise."

As he headed out of the bedroom, he watched Stacy grab the top sheet from the bed and wrap it around her body. Hayden stifled a laugh, confident that the sheet was large enough that she would need to wrap it around herself a couple of times to keep it from tripping her, and that should provide her with enough coverage on the beach to prevent her getting cited by the police. He had "dirtied the sheets" with Stacy Bloom many times, but letting her do it herself with sand from the beach was new.

Pulling onto Ocean Boulevard, Hayden laughed to himself at the number of pancake houses that he would be passing on his way to his breakfast meeting. There would be dozens of them along Ocean Boulevard, Kings Highway, and a few of the connecting streets. All would be filled with tourists from hotels and resorts dining from almost identical menus at each of the restaurants. This is why he always held his monthly meeting with the project management team at Denny's. It was one of the few places in town that served breakfast but also had a private room that could be sectioned off from the regular dining area and the tourists.

Like most locals, Hayden would normally avoid driving on Ocean Boulevard, but it was still early enough in the morning that he shouldn't have to worry about getting stuck behind a golf cart, and there were still few pedestrians crossing the street to make him stop for them too often. He was able to maintain the 25MPH speed limit from his house to 8^th Avenue North where he had to stop for one of the few traffic lights on the street.

As he waited, he saw a Myrtle Beach police cruiser turn onto the street end a couple of blocks ahead. This was a short section of one of the side streets that dead-ended after less than fifty feet, allowing access to the beach beyond, with a few metered parking spaces for cars. What drew his attention was the fact that the police car had navigated around traffic cones to pull onto the street end. That meant that the section of the roadway had been purposely blocked for some reason, and Hayden suspected that this reason was related to his company.

Hayden's attention was drawn to the blue lights in his side mirror. He watched as another police cruiser pulled to the left of his stopped truck, checked the intersection for cross traffic, and then proceed through against the red light. By the time this cruiser had reached the street end where the first police cruiser had turned in, it was joined by a third one coming from the south.

With four major divisions and more than five hundred employees, Hayden couldn't stay involved in every project that Coastline Multimedia had going at any one time, but some naturally stood out. The one that had a sign crew from his company out on a particular street end this morning was just the sort of project that Hayden would have been aware of.

A major international hotel chain had purchased an oceanfront resort and spent the last year renovating it to become part of their flagship hotel brand. With most of the interior work completed, the new signage was contracted through Coastline Multimedia, which included his company obtaining approval for the signage from the Myrtle Beach Community Appearance Board. This quasi-judicial board reviewed all requests for exterior signs throughout the city and approved or disapproved of these requests based upon guidelines that were often ambiguous and arbitrary.

When his project manager had brought the design plans for the new hotel sign before the CAB, the volunteer board members had taken issue with the style and color, ignoring the fact that these were the hotel's internationally recognized brand identifiers. The project manager attempted to explain that requesting the changes that the CAB wanted would be similar to requiring McDonald's to make the arches for their Myrtle Beach locations green instead of the golden color that was recognized around the world.

All arguments fell on deaf ears when the CAB denied the sign design. The project manager appealed the CAB decision to the Board of Zoning Appeals, which supported the CAB ruling. Coastline's attorneys were forced to take the City of Myrtle Beach into court to get both the CAB and ZAB denials overturned. This apparently hadn't sat well with supporters of these boards within the city and resulted in the necessary permits required for Coastline to perform the actual installation of the sign being delayed and finally restricted to the work being done on a weekend day.

Hayden now hoped that the police activity that he was approaching wasn't further intimidation by city powers over losing their case in court. When he reached the cross street where the police cruisers had turned in, Hayden pulled his truck into the center left-turn lane, turned on his hazard flashers, and turned off the ignition. Quickly exiting his truck, he headed across Ocean Boulevard towards his work crew next to their crane truck on the street end.

Recognizing the female officer closest to him as he approached, Hayden selected her for his inquiry, "Good morning, Becky. What's going on?"

The officer, Becky Zimmerman, turned to see who had addressed her and upon seeing Hayden smiled broadly and said, "Hey, HO. I see your guys are out causing problems for us bright and early on this fine Saturday morning."

Hayden appreciated the familiarity that he shared with many of the department's officers. He had always made it a point to demonstrate both his personal as well as his corporate support for law enforcement, with awards, special events for the families of law enforcement personnel, and several monetary donations which had contributed to the purchase of equipment and supplies that the officers would have had to either do without or pay for out of their own pockets. Most officers who recognized him showed their appreciation by referring to him by his nickname, "HO", which was derived from the initials of his first name and his middle name, Oliver.

"What is the problem this morning?" he asked her.

Becky laughed and said, "It's not your problem. Public Works barricaded the street end last night per the city manager's directions to block parking on the street end and keep the area clear for your crew this morning. A couple of entitled young women decide that the barricades didn't apply to them and drove around to park and walk the beach for sunrise. When your crew arrived and set up for the job, they couldn't locate the occupants of that vehicle over there, so they proceeded to start work. When the ladies returned to their car, they found it blocked in by the crane truck and are now insisting that we make your guys stop what they are doing to move and let them out."

Looking at the situation, Hayden saw that there were two of his men in the boom on the end of the crane, two hundred feet in the air trying to position the frame for the sign that was to be installed. He knew from experience that it likely took several attempts to position the crane truck in the best position for the installation. He also knew that all the components for the installation were already in the boom with the men and asking them to stop their work so that the crane truck could be moved would present them with several challenges now that the work had commenced.

"So, what are you going to do?" He asked.

Becky laughed again, and said, "We're going to protect your guys. We told the ladies that they had parked illegally and would now have to wait for the workers to finish their job and leave. They pitched a fit, claiming that they had to get to work. One of them tried to climb into the cab of the truck saying that she was going to move it herself. We'll stick around to keep the peace, but my partners are a thin thread of patience away from arresting both of those ladies."

Hayden stifled a laugh at Becky's comments. The officers with the MBPD were no strangers to the entitled behavior of people, especially those who felt that because they were spending a few hundred dollars to vacation in the town, they could act as if they were in Las Vegas and do whatever they wanted with impunity. While he would put the professionalism and courtesy of the MBPD up against any other law enforcement agency in the country, Hayden knew that no one wanted to push their luck too far in his hometown.

Glancing at the two women in question. His view was partially obstructed by the hood of one of the police cruisers, but the body language of the two women as they spoke animatedly with two police officers was indicative of a pending physical confrontation. Hayden knew that such an event would not bode well for these ladies.

"Do you mind if I speak with them?" Hayden asked Becky.

Becky merely nodded and began heading toward her partners who were still trying to defuse the situation. Hayden followed her, tossing a wave of greeting to the members of the sign crew standing to the side, alternately focused upon their team members in the sky and the police officers talking to the two women. When one of the officers saw Becky approaching, he held up a hand to encourage the irate woman speaking to wait. He recognized Hayden and smiled.

"Good morning, HO."

Both of the women immediately straightened their backs and screamed in unison, "Who you calling a HO, Motherfucker?!"

Before the officer could attempt to apologize and explain the meaning of his greeting, Hayden stepped before the two women and said, "Good morning, ladies. My name is Hayden Oliver Justice and I am the President of the company doing the work here. My friends call me 'HO', so rest assured that the officer's words were directed at me and not either of you."

Zimmerman shared a glance with the other two officers as they watched the jaws drop on both women when their eyes fell onto Hayden's face. No matter how objectionable some African-American women claimed to find white men, there was no mistaking the immediate effect that Hayden's tall, masculine physique, handsome appearance, and soft-spoken yet confident voice had on these women. Their entire demeanor suddenly morphed from nasty and aggressive to tame and docile, as their body language flipped over to full flirtation mode.

Hayden ignored the change and politely asked, "Is there anything that I can do to be of assistance to you ladies?"

The taller of the two women was about to ask this gorgeous hunk of a man if he would be so kind as to lift their car over the truck that was blocking them when she caught herself. As strong and virile as this blonde Adonis appeared to be, he likely couldn't actually lift their car, even if it looked like he might be capable of doing so.

Instead, she asked, "Is there anything that you can do to help us get our car past that truck?"

Turning to glance at the truck and then up at the workers in the boom, Hayden pointed and replied, "I'm afraid that once the truck gets into position, it can't easily be moved until the work up there is completed. Is there a problem with you leaving your car where it is until early this afternoon? They should be done shortly after lunch, I would expect."

The shorter woman spoke up, "Her boyfriend will kill both of us if his car gets towed..."

Glancing at Zimmerman, Hayden asked, "Is that the plan?"

"Not if it can be avoided," Becky said. "We can cite the car for illegally parking in a restricted zone, having it towed, or none of the above. As long as the occupants of the vehicle are cooperative, it saves everyone a lot of hassle and paperwork to just let them move the car once the work area is cleared."

The two women tore their eyes off Hayden long enough to look at each other. The taller one finally asked, "Will I be able to get the car out by one? I have to be to work this afternoon at two."

"Give me a minute," Hayden said before walking away to speak with the head of his crew.

"Joe," Hayden asked, "once they finish the mounting and installation, how much trouble would it be to move the rig so that the ladies could get their car out?"

Joe smiled at his boss' boss and said, "The electrical is all that would be left, and Andre and his crew are working that inside the building right now. We could move the truck out of the way and then reposition it so that they could finish the final connections easily enough."

"How long?"

Looking up to check the progress of the crew in the boom, Joe said, "Probably another forty-five minutes by the looks of things."

Hayden shook Joe's hand and said, "Thanks. Get the ladies out as soon as it works for you."

Returning to address the women and the police officers, Hayden explained, "I know that it's inconvenient for you, but if you can hang here for about forty-five minutes, my crew will be at a point where they will be able to move the truck to let you get your car out."

Becky Zimmerman added, "If you ladies would like to spend the time grabbing some coffee or breakfast, I can assure you that your vehicle will not be disturbed by the police while you are gone. Just be certain to lock the doors on it before you go anywhere."

Wanting to walk back to his truck with Zimmerman, Hayden quickly addressed the two women, "Ladies, I apologize again for the inconvenience. It was a pleasure meeting you, and have a good rest of your day."

"I wish we could bottle that charm of yours," Becky said once they were out of earshot. "Let me ask you, HO, have you ever failed to talk a woman into your bed?"

Hayden laughed. A lot of people would be disappointed to know that his reputation as a satyr was nowhere near the reality of his life. Except for Stacy Bloom and one other occasional 'friend with benefits", his love life was as barren as the Mojave Desert. He decided to tweak Becky's tail though.

"You are my only failure, Officer Zimmerman, and I intend to rectify that someday."

Becky couldn't help blushing, and that pissed her off. Even though she and her wife, Jade, had discussed their shared fantasy of bringing Hayden Justice into their bed at some point, she certainly didn't want him to perceive any attraction to him from her. On the flip side, she didn't want to shut him down entirely. Jade would have a fit if she did that.

"Keep dreaming, HO," she told him. She knew that she would herself.

Chapter Three

"But it's boring at Grandma and Grandpa's house," Alex complained.

Minerva ruffled his short blond hair, returned to packing her rolling suitcase, and said, "I know it is. That's why Grandma agreed to come over here to stay with you rather than you having to stay at their house. It's nice of her to agree to that, so I expect you to be a good host for her. Can you do that?"

The most challenging part of Minerva maintaining two separate law offices was the need for her to share time between them. The Myrtle Beach office was still relatively new, but the client list there was growing each month, primarily through corporate clients keeping her on retainer to deal with legal issues involving their employees as they arose. Lana Street had been able to handle the majority of the matters with minimal oversight of her work, but there were certain aspects of building and maintaining a client base that required the boss' personal attention.

One such event was the employment law symposium being held next week at Horry-Georgetown Technical College where Minerva had been invited to participate on a panel to discuss sexual harassment in the workplace. Lana didn't think that they would get any new corporate clients from Minerva participating, but she felt that it would help get her name out to employees who might need an attorney to represent them against their employer.

The symposium wasn't scheduled to start until Monday, and Minerva wasn't up until the afternoon session. She could have waited another day to make the trip, but she wanted to spend some time with Lana reviewing clients and pending cases, so she decided to drive to Myrtle Beach on Saturday. That would allow her and Lana to spend a few hours on Sunday alone in the office. Her mom had been more than happy to stay with Alex in his own home and give her husband some alone time for his woodworking hobbies.

For his part, her nephew Alex was used to spending time with his grandparents. Although his Aunt Minerva was his guardian, he had been raised almost equally by her and his grandparents since his birth. It wasn't like he had three parents though, because it had always been Minerva who had set the rules, with his grandparents deferring to her decisions on everything related to his upbringing. Alex couldn't complain though. Minerva was as much a single mom to him as his own mom would have been, had she lived.

"When will you be back," Alex asked his aunt when she latched her suitcase closed.

"Unless something unexpected comes up, I should be back Thursday in time for us to have dinner together to celebrate your birthday, so start thinking about where you might want to go. You and I haven't had a decent dinner date in weeks."

As Alex contemplated his aunt's words, she thought to herself, "Hell, I haven't had a decent date since college."

"Jack-in-Box?" Her nephew teased.

"Go jump in the car," Minerva said with a chuckle. "I have time to take you there for lunch before heading to Myrtle Beach. But that means that I get to pick the spot for our date night next Thursday."

He didn't bother to argue. He knew that in all likelihood, they would be having pizza delivered on Thursday night, and he was fine with that. His Aunt Minnie worked hard and frequently long hours to ensure that she was always able to make time for him when he needed her or to attend one of his games.