Life as a New Hire Ch. 42

Meanwhile, Elsa was quietly amused. It wasn't like I could request the SD to force my House Guard to not do something they had been told to do by someone in my hierarchy. That would lead to chaos ... and it was unfair to Juanita.

"Fine," I decided. "Get us three some water. Elsa and I will be practicing."

Now Juanita was stuck. I wasn't asking her to leave the room, just leave me alone. I was technically her leader, respect notwithstanding.

"It is good to see you have not become drunk with power," Elsa smirked once Juanita had left on her errand.

"Your mockery is unappreciated," I glared back. I was only kidding. "I haven't seen you around recently. It is good to see you."

"It is good to see you too," Elsa said in a voice far softer and compassionate than I would have preferred. After all, she had me drugged, beaten, then beaten me up again in the not so distant past.

Of course, I had also sexed her up, bringing her to orgasm with my fingers alone. We had also exchanged a burning French kiss in Katrina's office that Buffy was aware of. Then there was the Buffy-Elsa personal feud and the Elsa-Rhada family feud. Balancing that was Elsa's super-hot body and intriguing personality. Sex with her promised to be memorable ... more memorable than normal.

"What have you been up to? I'd like to say I've been behaving myself, but I don't want to advance our relationship by lying (right now, about this)."

"You are largely responsible for what I've been up to the past two weeks," she stepped back. She tossed her spear aside and entered her fighting stance. How nice of her to warn me -- and get rid of her weapon. How erotically odd of her to give me the illusion of a chance.

"I deny everything," I rocked back. She was blindingly fast. The fact that I was able to block most of the blow was a testament to how much I had learned in the past two and a half months.

"Watashi wa nihongo o hanashimasu', 'Wǒ shuō pǔtōnghuà', 'Wǒ shuō guǎngdōng huà' and 'Aku isa basa jawa'," she lectured me as she maneuvered me into a corner with a series of kicks and feints. She spoke Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese and Javanese. That was nice to know.

"Wait," then she kicked me off the mat.

"Amazons don't have a 'time out'," she smiled. I cautiously worked my way back onto the practice area.

"What part did you play?" I readied myself. This time, I went on the offensive. I used my greater strength and reach to compensate (rather poorly) for her superior reflexes.

"Someone had to ride herd on those disparate forces. My status was respected by the Amazons, I had experience dealing with outsiders, plus your person Addison nominated me, and Katrina suggested that you and I were close. That was enough for the Khanate. Your embassy and earlier aid to the Seven Families brought the 9 Clans along."

"And you stole the carrier?"

"It was an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to humiliate the Seven Pillars," she grinned. "Riding in a nuclear submarine was interesting, right up there with running around, spray painting translations next to all the markings onboard the captured vessel. Herding regular civilians wasn't nearly as much fun."

"In the annals of the SD, that is going to be a victory hard to surpass," I got out right before my legs were swept out from under me. Before I could roll over, she landed on top of me. She didn't go for a pin. Elsa simply sat there, straddling my hips and looking down at me. We were both breathing heavily.

"I owe you for that," she patted me on my bare chest.

"Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?"

"I'll let you figure that out during the Great Hunt," she gave a sliver of a smile.

"Not you too," I groaned.

"Who else are you worried about?"

"You and twenty-nine other Amazons. By name -- Rachel. She's pretty upbeat about her chances and believes she has a score to settle."

"Rachel will be a tough one," Elsa acknowledged.

"Comfortable?" Juanita muttered.

"Yes, I am," Elsa grinned her way. "Thank you for asking." Juanita gave me a look that suggested I do something like protest, or actually try to fight her off.

"Why are you being nice to me?" I wondered.

"I've learned to appreciate your numerous qualities," Elsa enlightened me. "I am also honest enough to admit I was completely wrong about you. You make a good Amazon." That was huge praise indeed and more importantly, it was to a public audience. I was double fortunate that no one was close enough to see Elsa's camel toe resting against my lightly covered hard-on.

"Thank you. Is there anything I can do for you?"

"Aren't you engaged to someone?" Juanita reminded me. What she was really saying was 'don't you know you belong to the maidens of House Ishara?' Trust me, I know these things. Had she meant Hana, she would have said Hana.

"She has the patience of Job," I reasoned. "Oh, Elsa, Job is a figure in the Old Testament of the Bible." I doubted she knew.

"Oh. Is he a bloody-handed butcher, raging misogynist, or one of those pacifistic wimps?"

"He's a nice guy who gets swallowed by a whale."

"That's Jonah," Juanita corrected me. "Job is the one who was tested by God. Job accepted God taking away all his family, wealth and health, only to be rewarded for his loyalty to God with more than he ever had before."

"Wimp."

"I would never turn away from Ishara," Juanita rumbled.

"Zorja would never feel the need to test my loyalty so," Elsa riposted.

"Oh look," I thrust my hips up. "I seem to need a shower." Elsa's expression was of superiority and lust combined into a lethal cocktail of my demise.

"Let's go. You can wash my back," she said as she rose over me. She even offered me a hand up. That was unexpected and accepted warily.

"Is there some battle wound that makes you incapable of bathing yourself?" Juanita got feisty. Holy Hell, she was my Caribbean Buffy-twin.

"None," Elsa smugly commented. "I like the feel of his hands on my body. He possesses non-threatening masculinity wed with sisterly solidarity. It is a unique experience that you seem woefully unaware of."

"Yippee!" I whispered.

"You really are a man-whore," Juanita declared under her breath.

"Check," I gave her a thumbs-up. Sadly, Elsa gave me enough respect to walk at my side, not in front of me (so I could have been mesmerized by her buttocks.) As I was stripping down in the locker room, I noticed Juanita hovering close by. "Are you going to follow me into the shower?"

"Yes."

"Why? I am not going to be in danger in the middle of Havenstone."

"I'll be the judge of that," she insisted.

"You do realize I've had sex with an audience before, don't you?"

"I've been warned about that and know proper counter-measures."

"What? What kind of measures?" I was now naked and, towel in hand, was making my way to the communal showers.

"Charlie horses, trips, stun-gun if applicable," she informed me with relish.

"You are threatening to damage my prestige," I enlightened her.

"Cáel, I was chosen for more than my martial skills. I was selected because I will not wilt before your childish ways."

"Are you a lesbian?"

"NO. Why would a woman have to be a lesbian to withstand your wiles?"

"You'll figure it out eventually," I chuckled. Actually, knowing what a playboy-cad I was turned out to be a counter-intuitive edge for me. Expecting me to be a letch just meant I totally ignored the woman. Then the doubt would set in. 'Why wasn't I hitting on her?' she would think. She'd go through the phase of her not being good enough for me to knowing that wasn't the case -- definitely -- and would come at me to prove herself right. Wham-bam, another one in the can. Oink.

Step One: reduce the amount of time talking to her as a fellow human traveler of life. From here on out, I would address her by her name when I wanted something and otherwise treat her like furniture ~ furniture I was comfortable with. In this case, I treated her like a towel rack. She promptly dropped it. That was okay, I was planning to get dressed wet anyway.

I rinsed off my hair quickly as Elsa settled underneath the showerhead beside me. As soon as I finished, she handled me a bottle of (scentless) body soap. It was probably one of those the jaguar will smell me coming ten miles away excuses Amazons used to avoid being girlie. I got my hands all sudsy and began working on her shoulders and neck from behind.

Wordlessly, Elsa followed my physical directions, allowing me to wash her arms before working my way down her back in languid, amorous circles. Around the 10th thoracic vertebrae, Elsa gave me a deep, cleansing exhalation. I dug my fingers into her taut back muscles, racking them down to her buttocks, deftly ran them along the sides of her glutes and finished up caressing them along the line between her thighs and ass.

I worked her buttocks apart, worked my fingers along her perineum, tickling the back of her labia then up, across her anus and back to her tailbone and the small of her back. A crazy idea came to me: maybe I could talk her into a tramp stamp; something like If you are reading this, know I'll kill you next. That would be so Elsa.

I lathered her ass up for another half-minute before working my way down to her thighs, starting with the hip joints and then coaxing of her parted lips. I knelt down so that I was resting on the balls of my feet. Elsa obliged me by parting her legs, standing on her toes with her feet over a foot apart, then placing her hands against the shower stall while arching her back so that her hips were thrust back.

"Oh, come on," Juanita protested. "What kind of bath is this?"

"Did you hear something?" Elsa looked down at me.

"Nope. I was focusing all of my attention on you," I smiled up at her. I was really liking the way her muscles were stressed through her exertions. I couldn't seem to pay enough attention to her robust calves. I didn't pass up the opportunity to plant gentle kisses on each cheek either.

Elsa's ankles and feet happened all too fast and the pretense of a bath was complete. She looked at me while she soaped up her breasts then let the water cascade all over her body.

"Thank you, Cáel," she gave me a regal nod of her damp head, turned and left. "Train harder for the Hunt. You are going to need every edge you can get."

"I'm stalking oysters over the weekend. They are cunning and stealthy adversaries," I replied sagely. Elsa snorted, then started toweling off as she left, going toward her own locker. I walked past my soaked towel on the floor without a single glance. Juanita stalked behind me, clearly with a lot on her mind she was now waiting for the proper moment to share. I got dressed.

"Not going to dry off?" she grumbled.

"I never use towels," I lied. "I like the rain-washed feel." By ignoring her act of defiance, I really steamed her. I wasn't done. As we headed toward the elevator, I opened up with my next jibe. Buffy really shouldn't challenge me so. I'm a past-master of dealing with clingy, bossy women.

"Regretting you made that bet?" I mused while we waited.

"What bet?" she simmered.

"The bet where you assured Buffy and whomever else was in the room that you wouldn't break down and physically harm me ~ punishing me for my wicked ways?"

"What? How did ..." she groused then, "You are playing me."

"Yep."

"You really are full of yourself," she seared me with her gaze.

"No, but I know what I'm good at and I'm good at frustrating women. I've been working at it for the past four years and I've got over 200 women who would agree that I'm very good at doing it."

"Why are you doing this to me? I'm on your side," she turned all pouty and hurtful.

"Because if I don't, I'll go mad, Juanita," I enlightened her. "You want to protect me, right?"

"Yes," she sensed a verbal trap. The elevator opened and we stepped in.

"See, I don't want to be protected," I started.

"That's ..."

"Let me finish, please," I stopped her. She gave me the visual 'go-ahead'. "I don't want to live a life where I need to be protected. I don't want to worry that women I hang out with could be cornered by some unsavory types at an eatery because those women happen to know and like me."

"I admire what you are doing -- I really do. This is not the life I wanted, though. This is not what I wanted to be doing four months after leaving college. I wanted to be some corporate worm, barely scraping by on my work reviews and being, as you said, 'a man-whore'."

"You don't have that luxury," she pointed out.

"Am I not doing my job?" I countered.

"I guess you are," she grudgingly admitted.

"Yet you feel you have the right to critique my personal life and how I approach it," I related. "I'm not beating you up by playing the I am Ishara bullshit. I certainly don't expect anyone to be grateful to me for the opportunity to be in a House. I don't because I believe that every member of House Ishara has already proven they belong here before I ever meet them. I believe in you. Sometimes I would appreciate it if my sisters would give me the same respect."

She looked away because my harpoon had struck home.

"Unlike the rest of you, I inherited my place in this madhouse. Unlike every other Amazon here, I am only a part of House Ishara because I am the choice of a thousand ancestors to be our leader. Notice that no one asked me if I wanted to do this. And I don't think I ask too much of you because frankly, there are times when I feel unworthy to be in your company."

"You are still Ishara and I must still be your guardian," she held her ground. I glared at her. She glared back. I coughed. She kept glaring.

"What's my name?"

"Oh," she shrugged. "Cáel Wakko Ishara."

"That may sound silly you to, but I have chosen the designations for myself, my First Ancestor and the Goddess for a good reason."

We rode in silence. When we got to the ground floor, we made our way to our bikes and got ready to head home.

"What is the reason?"

"To never take ourselves too seriously. The worst thing I can think to befall my House is we become as humorless as the rest of the bitches around here. 'Laugh at Death' should be our motto."

"Isn't that a bit childish?"

"Of course it is," I groaned. "You clearly haven't been paying attention to a damn thing I've been saying. I swear I'm thinking about bringing back 'National Clown Nose Day'."

"We had a 'National Clown Nose Day'?" she pedaled to keep up.

"God help me," I muttered.

(Where is my Serge?)

"You are not going to let me go through my door first?" I sighed in exasperation. Juanita insisted that she go through every door first ... because today was so very different than yesterday ... when I had Pamela ... perhaps I protest too much.

"You have a gun," a somewhat familiar voice said from inside my/Timothy's apartment. Oh ... fuck. Ya know, because Juanita was as pretty as she was lethal -- which is to say 'too much for the given company'.

"Don't make any sudden moves unless you want to see it," Juanita cautioned her.

"Oh, it's okay," Odette intervened. "This is Anais Saint-Armour. She's a Mountie."

"Oh ... she's on the List too," Juanita grumbled. "What has he done wrong this time?"

"Why don't you tell me who you are first?" Anais growled at Juanita while I pushed my way into the room.

"I don't like your attitude," Juanita glared.

"Anais, this is Juanita Leya Antonio Garza; she's my latest bodyguard. Juanita, this is Anais, a good friend of mine who helped save my life in Hungary when the 'terrorists' were closing in," I somewhat exaggerated, ... she had helped me catch up with the rest of the team when Pamela and I got sidetracked.

"Why did he chose you?" Anais fumed. Did I mention she's insanely jealous with an aching need to know why I was marrying anyone else, but her.

"What list?" Odette proved to be on the ball.

"He didn't chose me. I volunteered for the spot."

"Buffy made an anti-girlfriend list. Elsa is on it too," I mumbled.

"I bet you did," Anais (responding to Juanita).

"It is not like that," I moved to interpose myself between my Mountie and my non-mounted (for now) guardian. "I'm on the board of directors for Havenstone now and ..."

"How did that happen?" Anais turned 'The Force' on me. [That's Canadian for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police ... really] "You insisted (reference back in the days we were seeing one another) you were impoverished."

"I inherited it from my Father ..."

"He's poor too. I ran a background check when we first started dating," Anais kept up the pressure.

"My Mother?"

"She's dead."

"Okay, it was my Father through a convoluted meandering of genetics," I went back to attempting the truth (shame on me).

"Which is it?" she glowered.

"My Father, but it's too complicated to get into now," I tried to touch her. She recoiled. She was still pissed with me.

"He's telling the truth this time," Odette rose to my defense.

"Why didn't you tell me this when you were in Hungary? For that matter, if you are rich, why didn't you use those resources to get yourself out of trouble instead of involving me?" She really was a great cop.

"I had to make a call to someone I trusted and who couldn't be traced back to me, or Havenstone, or the Irish Embassy," I fibbed.

"What have you gotten yourself into?" Anais thawed somewhat.

"I believe I promised you dinner," I reminded her.

"You did."

"Where are we going?" Juanita stressed our lack of privacy.

"'We' aren't going anywhere. Ms. Anais Saint-Armour and I are going to a restaurant of her choosing. Don't worry about it. She carries a gun."

"I'm not carrying a gun," Anais torpedoed my plan.

"Where are we going?" Juanita repeated herself. I had to switch mental gears quickly to take in the new looks I was getting from Anais. I shouldn't have ignored those cues.

"I can't get around my personal security service," I sighed. Why did I give in? Anais was all about gathering evidence and then drawing conclusions from the facts in available.

I HAD been involved in some significant bad-assery in Europe that was way beyond anything she would have associated with the old me. Terrorist cells duking it out with me (and others) in a Budapest metro station? A rustic inn being reduced to ashes after a suspected firefight? Bomb threats? A full-scale military operation in Romania?

I HAD been kidnapped with a resultant massive manhunt for me then returned under highly mysterious circumstances. There had been a young girl with me, we were close for reasons not really gone into and I had saved her despite all forms of parenthood had been anathema to me.

I WAS a man who others deemed necessary to protect, thus a man making secretive phone calls, getting snippets of information and being involved in the deaths of way too many people to be the old, playboy me. Who had I become?

I therefore MIGHT BE a man who 'needed' to marry a billionairess due to some unspeakable political reasons, not out of any romantic/sexual desire of my own. Anais knew that I was a commitment-phobe, not a gold-digger. That meant she could be involved with me without it really being cheating. I needed her help, I had reached out to her when I was in crisis and she was in the people-helping business, right?

There was clearly more evidence out there for her to discover and she had the good fortune to be able to have me in a spot where I could be interrogated.

"Where do you want to go?" I disengaged and went to my room. The door was only partially shut as I changed.

"Eleven Madison West," I was told.

"Oh," Odette cooed, "that place is expensive."

"I know," Anais remarked.

"Why did you pick it?" Odette inquired.

"To remind Cáel that meals can be very expensive." That was my 'date' reminded me that I'd cheated with her over the course of a home-cooked meal -- cooked not-by-her in someone else's home. I wondered how Maya was doing.