Quaranteam Ch. 42

"She's simply cross because I made her cum before she made me cum earlier today," Emily said, leading him out of the room.

"Liar!" Sarah cackled in between laughs as Emily closed the door behind them.

"Now, Andrew, I know part of this conversation is going to be something you don't want to hear, but I simply must insist you hear me out before you voice any concerns or reservations. Agreed?"

The two of them started walking down the hallway, and Andy started leading her up to the third floor. "I'm already getting nervous hearing that, Em, but you know I trust you."

"Excellent. When our dear Mister Watkins gave you that large sum of money, he also bequeathed you the services of his money manager, correct?"

"Sure, because I've never had this much money before, so I had no idea what to do with it or how to keep it all working for me when I wasn't using it."

Emily nodded. "And it was very kind of him to do so, but you my dear betrothed are too trusting for your own good. While your interests may be aligned some of the time, they will not always be so. Because of that, it occurs to me that you should have someone dedicated to looking out for your interests first and foremost."

Andy led her up to the third floor and over to the secret entrance behind the bookcase. He'd shown his fiancees the room recently, so it didn't come as any surprise to her, but it was still a nice place they could continue the conversation with less chance of interruption. His one rule to all the women he was engaged with was that there would be no sex in the secret room.

He hoped that rule might make it a year before one of them convinced him otherwise.

They pulled the bookcase back in place behind them and walked down the short corridor to the little hidden study, each of them sitting down in one of the chairs. "I'm taking by the direction this conversation is heading that you have someone in mind?" he asked her.

"I do, although I'm not entirely certain how we would go about getting her over here," Emily said to him. "I take it you know who Aiden Devonshire was?"

"He's only one of the best known British actors ever, Em, so yes I... wait, did you say 'was?'"

She nodded somberly. "I'm afraid so. He died from DuoHalo about three weeks ago, although that hasn't been released to the press yet. Quite a lot of celebrities have died and haven't gone public, at the urging of the government. To carry on, Aiden was something of a mentor of mine, an old friend who helped me get on my feet and figure out how to take care of myself when I was a young starlet just finding her place in the world. He put my parents in touch with people to help manage my finances and control my public image."

"That's great," Andy said. "Then we can just use your money manager to look after mine."

"If only it were that simple, my love," she sighed. "My money manager, Elliot, passed away from DuoHalo rather early in the pandemic. So control of my assets passed over to the firm Elliot worked for, which was run by Aiden's money manager, a man named James Stewart..."

"Then we can just-"

"Who's also dead."

"Okay, clearly this is going somewhere other than a trail of dead bodies, Em."

"So, of James' team, there is a woman named Mali, who is still alive and has recently assumed management duties of my assets. She reached out to me a few days ago to inform me that she would be handling my affairs on the day-to-day for the foreseeable future. I'm thinking perhaps she should be your money manager as well."

"Adding my money to yours would be quite the pool of assets to manage."

"Agreed, Andrew, and we would want someone we would trust implicitly with that, and no one else. So while I know you wanted to consider the House of Rook closed, I think you should make an exception and bring in one more person. I'm suggesting you add Miss Mali Merrick to the family. She would manage the money, and I'll tell you what's what, she would definitely have a plane guy. If you like, she could buy the plane out of my assets and take it over here to meet up with us. She would need to send the pilot home via commercial, naturally, but since your assets and mine are to be merged eventually, I don't see why it would be a problem."

"You've got that impish smile on your face again, Em," Andy said, amused trepidation in his voice. "There's something else you aren't telling me, isn't there?"

She giggled furiously as she nodded. It took her a moment to regain her composure before she tried to speak, started giggling again and then tried again. "Well you see, my beloved Andrew, Mali completes your set."

Andy cocked his head to one side, confusion plain on his face. "Either you've lost your mind, or I've completely forgotten what this is in regards to, Em."

"You dolt!" she laughed, swatting him lightly with one hand. "You don't recall that when Fiona arrived, I told you, you only needed one more to complete the full set of UK darlings. You have me, I'm English, obviously. You have Aisling, who's Irish. You have Asha, who's British and Indian. You have Moira, who's Scottish. All you need is a Welsh woman, and you've caught them all!"

Andy grinned, shaking his head. "I had forgotten. And this Mali Merrick-"

"-is Welsh, yes."

"Have you broached any of this with her yet? You know how adamant I am about not bringing anyone into the house who doesn't want to be."

"I have, and she's game if you are, although she does have a rather odd request regarding the matter. I might understand why, as unusual as it is, how you could have some reservations."

"What's her request?"

"She doesn't want to speak to you at all until after she's imprinted."

That gave Andy pause. "Excuse me?"

"Oh, she'll send you a video explaining exactly how she's willing and eager to do this, but she's afraid in the moment that she's bound to start crying until the hormones and neurochemicals for joy are flooding her brain from the orgasms, and she does not want that to be your first memory of her."

"Now I have some serious questions, Em, and maybe a few reservations."

Emily reached over and took his large hand within her small fingers, giving it a very tender squeeze. "Yes, Andrew, I imagined you might, so let me explain it. Mali was engaged to be wed, but her fiance was killed by DuoHalo in May. When the lockdowns hit, he was in Bangladesh, which was hit especially hard by the virus, and so she's stuck somewhere between trying to let him go and not really being able to fully mourn. They were childhood sweethearts and she's still very much in love with the memory of him. But she thinks that with the aide of the serum, she'll be able to move past that, and to imprint those feelings onto you, the way she'll be physically imprinted onto you if she takes the serum. That is her hope, anyway."

"That sounds like quite the risk to be taking, Emily."

"I know, darling, but I have spent at least an hour a day talking with this woman for the last week or so, and she is a drowning woman in need of a lifeline," Emily said, bringing his hand to her lips, kissing the back of it. "In need of a hero to save her from her ocean of grief. In need of you."

"It's already twenty women in this house, Em..."

"So what's one more then, eh?"

Andy rubbed his face with his other hand, agonizing over the decision. "It's what this Mali wants? You're certain of it?"

"As certain of it as I am my love for you, my dear."

"You're thinking staff, then? Or another partner who doesn't share?"

"I imagine something akin to your relationship with Alexis, dearly beloved," Emily said, stroking his fingers reassuringly. "It can start as something professional and if it blossoms into something emotional, none's to mind."

He chuckled a little bit, shaking his head. "You knew I wouldn't be able to say no to you on this, didn't you?"

"Now Andrew," Emily said with a mysterious smile, "I'm only looking out for your best interests. But yes, I have had Mali investigating what it would take for her to get a couple of pilots to bring her via a newly bought private plane over here to California from England. To be frank, she might even turn it into a refugees plane trip, and bring a handful of women over, netting us a tidy little profit in the end."

"You knew I'd need a plane in the end, didn't you?"

"You're practically royalty at this point, my sweet man," Emily tittered in amusement. "Of course I knew it would be something you would need. We're all planning for your lifestyle adjustments since you clearly aren't giving it any thought."

"I'm a little busy trying to make sure my household of beautiful women are all satisfied," he laughed. "Forgive me for not thinking 'Do I buy a private island with my new found wealth?' or something along those lines."

"Don't be ridiculous, Andrew," Emily sniffed. "You don't have private island money. You do have 'fuck you' money, so that means you need to start thinking like a wealthy man with a family to care for instead of a writer struggling to make his next rent check."

"Yeah, okay, I've been short-sighted, but at least I quit my day job and decided to take up writing full time."

"Marvelous, darling, you're very smart. So I take it this is approval to move forward with Operation: Wales?"

Andy narrowed his eyes at her, which made her giggle all over again. "You gave it a codename?"

"I'm simply doing the one thing you've always been the worst at, Andrew - taking care of you."

He paused then shrugged. It was a solution that made sense, even if it was pushing him past what he thought his limits were. "Alright then. Reach out to her. Have her get the jet, find the pilots and start heading over here on it. If she can sell seats to other people coming to the area, that's fine too. But I will want to have that video from her explaining this to me before she arrives, so I know this is all on the up and up, and that it's what she wants."

"Absolutely, my love. I would expect no less from you."

"And we're going to need some sort of signal, some form of non-verbal communication to confirm when she gets here that she still wants to go through with it, especially if I'm not going to talk to her beforehand."

"Something can be worked out, Andrew, I promise you."

"Then okay, yeah, go ahead and do it," he sighed. "Once she's here, I can have control of all the family assets transferred over to her control and away from Watkins' money man."

"It's for the best, Andrew," she said, standing up, pulling him to his feet and kissing him. "You're far too trusting, especially of people who aren't guaranteed to have your best interests in heart."

"And you are, Em?" he teased.

"You're the keeper of my cum and my salvation, my soon-to-be husband," she giggled. "You're damn straight I'm looking out for you above all else..."