He hadn’t expected her to say that. “Of course. If the curtain is drawn stay away from that end of the pool. It means a Master is there with his slave, but apart from that, the pool is never out-of-bounds.”
She nodded thoughtfully but her lips were still tilted at the ends. He got dressed and the three of them moved back up the slope and around the building to the main entry. Nevis’s apartment, like Raleigh’s, was on the second floor. He dropped her off at Nevis’s door and then headed back up his own apartment.
He grabbed two steaks from the freezer and dropped them into a pan and placed them on the stove. He sprinkled garlic salt on them then poured a little red wine over them and considered that was a good enough marinade.
Raleigh had already opened his refrigerator and was pulling out vegetables to make a salad.
“Okay, tell me the kinds of things you want Bronx to look out for. Tomorrow we’ll send the chopper for him and get him started on it.” Kingston enjoyed working with Raleigh. The man was not only a good friend, but he also thought fast and usually had some damn good ideas.
They continued the conversation while they cooked and ate their meal, and then he made a list and sent it off in an email to Bronx. Less than an hour later Bronx had replied very positively. A phone call to the helicopter pilot, and they were all set for tomorrow.
It was late when Raleigh left the apartment, but Kingston knew it’d been a good day. He’d needed the time and space with Andorra, he could see that now, and everything was set to ensure the pack business remained successful and viable.
The next day went really well, too. Bronx was a little older, forty to his thirty, but he had a very good grasp of business and his own branch was doing extremely well. Likely it was time to move him to a bigger branch. Or perhaps put him in charge of a new branch and give him the freedom to set it up and grow it in any way he chose. Hmm, likely the new branch was a better idea. The freedom from structure would allow the man to move and shape the future of that branch office as he chose.
Meanwhile they made a list of some branches that had not been as productive as Kingston wished them to be and the three of them planned a series of unannounced visits to those offices to see what was going on there. “I want to know what really goes on all day. Are the sale representatives really out there drumming up business or just buying lunch for all their friends on my dime?” he asked.
“The atmosphere in the office is important, too. Some of the managers are so anal and controlling anyone who has a good idea soon leaves, because he knows it’ll never get past the manager,” added Bronx.
Kingston nodded. That was a good point. He was anal and controlling, too, he knew. It was part of being a Dom. But if a boss didn’t trust a worker, why hire them in the first place? That made him think about Andorra again. Did he trust her? Being cold and logical, he had absolutely no reason not to trust her. Everything she’d said and done had been the truth. It was just that past experience made him wary of opening himself up to any woman—or the man who might be her puppet master.
* * * *
The more time Andorra spent with Nevis the more she liked her. They had similar thoughts and ideas and got along really well together. They’d worked together to bake and decorate a decadent double-chocolate fudge brownie cake, then they’d spent an hour in the gym exercising to make sure they’d burned enough calories off to enjoy a large piece each. The next day they’d gone back to the gym, then soaked in the hot spring, and Nevis had introduced her to several other women.
When they were alone in Nevis’s apartment, she said, “So, how do you feel about Kingston and Raleigh.”
Andorra knew she was blushing. “I like them both very much, but I keep thinking I shouldn’t let myself get too involved as I’ll soon be leaving here and never see them again.”
“Why not stay? Don’t you like it here?”
“Oh I do. I really do. But I have to get a job and an apartment to support myself. Once winter comes and the snow begins falling, I can’t just backpack around like I’ve been doing all summer.”
“Yes, but you could get a job here. Work for the company.”
“The problem is, I don’t have any skills or qualifications. I’ve actually been thinking maybe I could learn to drive a B-Train. You know, get a commercial driver’s license to operate a tractor trailer, then maybe get work with this company or another one. That way I could still be traveling and seeing new places but earning money and looking after myself as well.”
“But won’t you miss the men? I know if I found my Master I wouldn’t be able to leave him.”