Saving the Starlight Ch. 01

(Set in New Zealand)

An agitated receptionist in a busty top encased in pink and her rounded belly pushing out a black pleated skirt hurried to the brass-framed glass doors of the office entrance and called, "Sir please removed your muddy boots."

"Madam, your reasonable request is granted – off come my boots. Guard them with your life. You may not know but good boots are every bit as treasured as a good woman."

"Yes sir."

Fenton Murdoch was directed to the boardroom of solicitors Wentworth, Philips and Cox for the signing. As he padded across the granite floor a rounded big toe peeped through the sock on his right foot and the younger receptionist eyeing that giggled into her hand.

Fenton winked at her and she shone pink.

"Ah, Fenton," Paul Wentworth said, looking at Fenton and then at the bared big toe tip.

"You're late but we are delighted you have arrived. This matter will take two minutes and then you can reunite with your footwear. You know Robert Duckworth, director of the Australasian division of Hammerhead Cinemas of Los Angles."

"Hi Bob. We should be pleased we've reached zero hour."

Bob nodded and said, "Hand Mr Wentworth your bank cheque. My wife and I are in a hurry to get to airport for our return flight to Sydney."

Paul accepted the envelope.

"Thank you Fenton. Oh it's a bank draft made out to your Australian office Robert and in Australian dollars at today's exchange rate. Please sign here and here and initial the agreed amendments where I indicate"

"Thank you. Now ditto Fenton."

"Gentlemen it's all done and congratulations. Let's celebrate with a drink."

Twenty minutes later, back in his boots, Fenton stood on Marine Parade looking at his purchase he'd just completed. It was the dilapidated Starlight Cinema on a valuable piece of prime central business district land.

The old theatre was boarded up, awaiting demolition, and the entire site was fenced off with No Trespassing and Danger signs displayed.

"It's a crime this community facility is for the chop."

Fenton looked at the speaker who'd appeared beside him and looked again, hard. He saw only profile – a cute turned up nose, chin jutting forward, bright red lipstick and windswept black curly hair.

Fenton wondered if she were married, in a serious relationship or was relatively unattached. He decided to find out.

"Do you date?"

"I beg your pardon – that's an impolite thing to ask."

Fenton gave her his impression of a trustworthy smile and said, "If men don't ask how women can get dates?"

"That's for them to ponder. Apologize please."

"Whatever for?"

"You have just treated me like a common street woman."

Fenton delivered his Number 1 smile that his mother called a boyish grin.

"We seem to have rushed ahead of ourselves here. You haven't replied to my question which was, do you date?"

The almost thirty beauty – yes, decidedly a beauty – turned and jousted: "I solicited the first comment that it was a crime that this community facility is scheduled for demolition. Answer that and I may consider answering your indecent proposal."

Fenton bristled.

"Firstly, the city authority has condemned the building, declaring it unsafe for public occupation. Secondly I've never made an indecent proposal in my life. Have you eaten something that's upset you?"

The young woman looked about to erupt...

"Hello darling. Oh Fenton I was unaware you knew my daughter Liberty?"

"Hi daddy. I take it you know this unsavoury man."

Paul Wentworth laughed.

"Steady on dear, loose-lip comments like that are potentially defamatory as well you know. Liberty meet Mr Fenton Murdoch, a gentleman poised to make a significant impact on our city."

Liberty looked surprised at her father's apparent endorsement of the uncouth man.

"Is he suitable to date me?"

"Liberty you ought not to embarrass Mr Murdoch like that. He has no reason to take such an interest in you."

Opening her mouth to retort, Liberty caught the mocking look of the stranger. She switched tack.

"Answer me daddy."

"Really Liberty, I..."

As seagulls screeched overhead and a warm breeze came off the sea, Fenton scratched behind his ear.

"Come on Paul, climb off your legal high horse. I've rather excited your daughter by my good looks and direct manner. She's thinking of asking me out but wants a character reference."

"I've directed a fat fee into your pocket today and you know me from the Professional and Business Club and occasionally we play golf together. Answer your daughter truthfully: Am I a suitable date for her? I promise not to thump you if you say no."

"I...er..."

Paul was stalling while attempting to determine whether his daughter wanted him to say yes or no but she offered no helpful indication.

"Er to the best of my ability I believe Fenton is eminently suitable to accompany you on an outing."

Annoyance darkened his daughter's face and indicated to Paul it was the wrong response.

"If you two would excuse me I must go," Paul said with lawyer verbal expertise useful for announcing a strategic retreat. He walked off with a wave.

Fenton was quick to say something anticipating this Liberty with a name like that would be polite as well as well-bred and would feel compelled to reply.

"Your father misread you. You were silently screaming for rejection."

"I cannot recall attempting to influence my father's opinion."

Fenton wondered if that were an untruth. Lawyers had the reputation for being a slippery lot; perhaps some of that rubbed off on to daughters?

"Then we have a date?"

"No."

"Then come for a drink."

She hesitated and then said very well.

"How is it joining me for a drink is not akin to a date, er a minor date?"

Liberty looked at Fenton as if seeing him for the first time.

"Are you normally this combative?"

"No but you are probably seeing me in a poor light because you are not flinging yourself at me for a date."

Liberty almost smiled.

"Look I suggest we cut this dog chasing its tail talk and have our drink. Just keep your hands off me. Touch me and you'll get the heel of my shoe through your heart."

Fenton grinned, looking at her nearest shoe with five-inch heel, and said reassuringly, "You sound my kind of girl. There's a bar just along here."

With Liberty safely defused sipping a Martini, Fenton said he'd not seen her around before; his eyesight might be failing.

Her eyes reflected amusement.

"Daddy and mummy are divorced. I've been living with mummy finishing formal professional immersion followed by several years' practice after completing my law degree. I returned here only two weeks ago."

"When do you start with daddy's firm?"

"I'm not doing that as my heart isn't in corporate law. I start officially tomorrow with a low-cost community law firm called Neighbourhood Law. The person I replace leaves this evening. I declined an invitation to attend the party as it could take some of the focus off her."

"That's considerate. When do you get your first community cases?"

"I have an adjourned traffic violation case to defend in Court in the morning and in the afternoon I meet with a deputation that intends to mount a public campaign."

"Hmmm that sounds like a busy day. Finish your drink then we'll adjourn to a comfortable restaurant, have another drink and I'll treat you to a lovely meal to mark our first friendship meeting."

"That's virtually a date."

"Technically I can't see how it can be," he said smoothly. "Dates are fixed in advance and pick-ups are excluded as you and I are not into that dangerous behaviour. This is the simple progression from engaging in a drink in a bar."

Eyes smiling she said, "And then after dinner you'll wish to take me to my apartment where we'll have another drink and you'll invite me to have sex to complete the simple progression to get what you wanted at the outset?"

"Liberty call me old fashion but I don't accept having sex on first dates unless I make an exception. Normally I perform my groundwork skilfully and that eliminates the need to invite my female companion of eminent suitability to seduce me. She'll be carried away by her rising passion."

Draining her glass, Liberty said it was amazing how just having one drink could lead a woman not on a date to face a perilous journey. The question she had to answer was should she proceed.

She asked as if testing him: "Do I qualify as being a companion of what you termed 'eminent suitability'?"

Fenton didn't hurry with his reply.

"Early signs look promising."

"Let me think about that. Meanwhile, what did you do of significance today?"

"I completed the sale and purchase of a notable property. I will be erecting a nine-level building on Marine Parade."

"Is that on this Starlight Cinema site?"

Fenton could see alarm spreading across Liberty's face but it was too late – his gleeful "Yes!" was already releasing.

"Please excuse me, I must go. Thank you for the drink. Good evening."

"Liberty – wait! What's wrong?"

"Good day Mr Murdoch."

She had become defensive, almost hostile; Fenton gave up attempting to detain her.

She didn't look back.

Fenton knew he shouldn't have hinted sex was on the agenda if she were interested. Yet her mood swing had been so sudden: it seemed more to do with the cinema property purchase. Had she been a member of a syndicate that had been an unsuccessful rival? Four other interests had submitted tenders below his successful one.

Fenton shrugged and ordered another scotch.

Next morning Fenton applied for a District Council permit for the demolition of the cinema and was told it would be ready in forty-eight hours. With time on his hands he went back to re-inspect the property.

The cinema occupied almost the entire frontage of the site with just emergency exit walkways down both sides of the structure expending over most of the double length lot, giving rear entrance to Coastal Parade, making it an ideal block for commercial redevelopment.

Sheepland Investment Trust had purchased the property for $8.25 million and Fenton considered that to be a 'sharp' buy because it almost matched the registered officially assessed value of the land. But demolition of the cinema would be costly.

What mattered most was future value. He began thinking more about his concept of building a notable structure on the site to mark his arrival as a local property developer.

The trust comprised Fenton with 50% control, his widowed mother Grace with 49% and their old family lawyer Charles Bridges now semi-retired holding a token 1%.

Grace had spent almost all her life on the huge sheep station (ranch) she'd inherited from her parents and now lived in a lovely small detached unit in a retirement village, surrounded by several of her long-time friends.

She'd left her only child to run the trust with assets in excess of $47 million.

Obviously money wasn't a worry for Grace. Her worry was her son – she wanted Fenton married. Whenever Fenton called to see her – which was often – she'd parrot, "Have you met her yet?"

* * *

Fenton had left the family farm that so large that it was run rather like a corporation when finishing high school at the age of eighteen. He went to Australia on holiday but stayed when the temporary job with a building contractor in Sydney's inner city area. That led to him being offered a permanent position. The owner of the firm said he'd found the strong youngster worked above his weight and had an ability to get things right the first time and to problem-solve remarkably well.

With permanent residency requirements for the New Zealander solved, Fenton was apprenticed to work at Wally Green's side, holding the title of personal assistant/trouble-shooter while also spinning off from those duties daily to gain practical experience in construction work to eventually gain industry qualifications.

Nine years on Fenton, bronzed faced with sun-bleached curly blond hair and usually laughing mid-blue eyes, left behind Wally and Wally's heart-broken 31-year-old daughter who was between marriages and had been enjoying his robust company socially and that included full-on sex.

He returned home to sell the east-coast farm and use those proceeds to generate growth of the trust formed by his late father many years earlier. Grace no longer had an interest in farming and was supportive of his son's plans when Fenton confirmed he had no interest in farming the 58,600 sheep plus 3000 beef cattle and 870 deer raised for their premium meat.

"Sell the farm, settle me into a comfortable little home in a sunny part of the Wainui-by-the-Sea and you can use the money to develop property and to invest in property," Grace had said expansively.

"My only stipulation is that you do it in Wainui, nowhere else as I'm not suitable to be left alone and unloved. I really missed you dreadfully when your father was dying and you were over there in bloody Australia."

Initially Fenton was appalled by that prospect of living permanently in Wainui. Wally in Sydney had been making noises about easing back and making Fenton operations manager.

A couple of weeks ago Fenton went to the golf club to return two trophies his father had won some years earlier. The club manager took him to the bar and they sat with a Wednesday foursome about to set off and play a round.

The group was interested to learn that Fenton worked in property development in Australia.

Lawyer Paul Wentworth and real estate agent Bryce Tucker suggested Fenton should work in property development in Wainui, his old hometown. Properties mentioned included the old cinema site.

Later Fenton inspected several of those sites and boggled when his mind pictured what he could do with the Starlight Cinema property. He didn't see a demolition-bound building, far from it, but it would require a study by an engineers and an architect to turn his basic concept into reality.

Next day Fenton went viewing small residential dwellings for sale with Bryce Tucker's wife, the sexy Sally who kept adjusting her skirt and then glancing at him.

After he'd briefed his requirements to Sally, who was staring at him and was by then adjusting her bra, Fenton spoilt her focus with the business-like request, "May we commence property inspections please Sally."

They went through two prospects and after the third 'showing' of properties suitable for renting, Fenton told Sally that third property divided into two titles, each containing a quality dwelling, would fit his mother like a blanket as she would regard the investment house as earning her own income.

He was right about that because two days later after his mother had inspected it they purchased the property just below the asking price that had been pitched fairly.

Meanwhile Fenton, accepting the right thing to do was to relocated in the city for his mother's sake, purchased an old house on a corner site that the old couple had held out for some years, wanting a price considered ridiculous.

Fenton simply walked in, said "Here's the money, when can I take possession?"

He had learned that a on the street behind the retail area had been rezoned for light commercial development two years earlier but as yet no redevelopment had taken place. He knew for investment and development purpose the corner site had huge potential value.

With his mother settled, Fenton lodged a tender in for the purchased of the cinema site and his bid was accepted. Now he was itching to begin his first commercial development in the city.

Fenton signed a contract with a firm to clear the site for him, subject to the demolition permit being issued.

Fenton's one niggle was these property transactions including development investigations had deflected him from searching for a satisfactory female to socialise with. He trustingly thought perhaps the right kind of female would find him.

Fenton had been reluctant to give up Wally Green's Australian daughter Samantha who moved more enthusiastically in bed than any woman he'd so far encountered.

He toyed with the idea of inviting Samantha to join him as um his social companion but then considered it would be best to start afresh.

If he were stuck he was confident the real estate agent's wife Sally would come to his side provided they could be discreet, but then that would not be smart move as he had been invited to play golf occasionally with her husband who seemed eager to develop a business association with Fenton.

The question was which 'partnership' should have his focus?

That left Liberty as the only other female in sight at the moment; there would be women he'd been at school with who'd he was bound to meet in due course – married women, probably.

He should be patient. He may well bump into Liberty any day soon and was keen for that to happen.

Typical of the way the cookie crumbles, Fenton received a call from Sally Tucker who said she was eating out alone that evening because husband Bryce had accepted an invitation to join a small party of local business people going on an overnight offshore fishing charter.

"That's a tempting invitation Sally but can you guarantee we'll talk business including about trends in Wainui instead of shopping and upcoming concerts and fashion shows?"

"Yes of course," she laughed. "I'm not interested in shopping and employ a personal shopper when I need new clothes and concerts bore me."

They met at the restaurant, both arriving in taxis.

After a great meal and interesting conversation the couple left the restaurant with Sally ordering just one taxi.

"Will you come home for another coffee?"

"Do you mean coffee or sex?"

She coloured but otherwise didn't miss a beat, saying he could choose.

"Then sex it is but not in the marital bed."

"I bet you are a hard man in business negotiations," she said admiringly and chuckled when he said she'd probably also find him hard that night.

Sally, already stripped down to her panties standing alongside one of the sofas in the lounge, gasped when her latest lover removed his shirt and she caught sight of his muscular torso and arms and splendid six-pack.

"Omigod," she wheezed and he delighted her by saying he'd also been impressed when she flopped out her great tits and displayed a flat tummy and attractive thighs.

"I've miscalculated over you," Sally admitted. "I picked you for a tough bugger but tonight you have display good manners, attentiveness and some gentlemanly traits."

"Wow careful Sal; don't send blood to swell my head when I want the power flow heading in the direction of my dick."

She looked at him intently, dug a couple of fingers in under a leg of her panties and said softly holding up dripping fingers, "Perhaps licking this will get really hard."

He sucked the two fingers, eyeing her and her tits that appeared to have firmed knew she was aroused.

Fenton was in the house for sixty-five minutes before leaving and yet had made Sally climaxed three times. She'd almost sucked him into an ejaculation at the outset and he timed the big eruption for when she was entering her third release when she bit into his should rather hard to smother the sounds of her climatic screams.

* * *

Two days after Fenton had banged Sally almost into unaccustomed exhaustion (she'd confessed to that), he spotted Liberty crossing the street carrying a sandwich bag and bottle of water.

Fenton strode after her but she disappeared into an office, giving him only enough time to think 'nice ass'. At least he'd found her workplace as the sign said, 'Neighbourhood Law'. There had been no such facility in the days when he lived in the district.

Fenton wondered why a woman of her vitality would want to work for the poor or clueless.

A couple of hours later Fenton drove off in a near-new Dodge pick-up he'd just purchased to opened an account at a builder's supplies depot. There was need to upgrade his dilapidated home a little.