The Love Of Money - Episode 181
30-07-25 (04:11)
The door opened, and Chloe strode in. She shut them
behind her while looking around the room. I felt my
cheeks heat as she took in the situation. Clothes were
strewn across the floor, and there were two naked
people in my bed, with a third half-dressed, holding her
shirt in one hand.
"Hi!" Erin said, grinning at Chloe. She grabbed her shirt
in both hands and slid her arms through the sleeves,
obviously taking her time and making a show of doing
it. She raised her arms over her head, pulling her
breasts high against her chest as she began to slowly
work it over her head and down her torso. Eventually,
her silver head popped out of the collar, and she pulled
the hem the rest of the way down, covering her midriff.
Erin eyed my bodyguard Chloe glanced back at Danni,
then Erin, and I would have given anything to know
what was happening in that head of hers. She had such
a strong poker face that it was hard to understand
what she was feeling or thinking, which was a strong
contrast with most of the people in my life. With the
exception of Helen, everyone seemed to wear their
hearts on their sleeves.
So I did sornething that surprised the hell out of her and
let me see past her defenses, if only for a moment. I
limped forward and hugged her.
Chloe's eyes grew wide as I approached her and threw
my arms around her, hugging her gently because even
a firm hug hurt right now. Her arms hung limply at her
sides, and I felt her head turn. I imagined she was
looking around, confused, but she stood there and took
it.
"Before anything else, I wanted to thank you," I
whispered. I barely noticed how her hair smelled
freshly washed or that she felt really good in my arms -
small but firm. I barely registered that I could feel her
breasts brush against the silk of my robe or that they
gave a little as pulled her into me. Instead, I just
thought about how she stood in the light of that
doorway like an avenging angel who had just slayed
the man threatening to kill Natashya and me. I owed
this woman my life.
I let the hug continue a few moments longer, then
backed off, feeling myself choke up a little. "I wouldn't
be alive if it wasn't for you. You were amazing back
there, and I'll never forget what you did."
Never in my life had imagined I would see Chloe
looking uncomfortable, but there it was. She looked
back at the two ladies, then at me again, and cleared
her throat. "I was... just doing my job, sir.
"It doesn't matter," I said, shaking my head. I felt a little
of her discomfort seep into me and scratched at the
back of my head as I took a step away from her. I
searched her face for a hint that this was anything
more than a job for her, but once again, she was hard
to read. Her ability to obscure her emotions was helped
by the fact that she was cute as a button with the
slight upturn to her nose, freckles scattered across her
nose and cheeks, and framed by golden wavy hair still
damp from what I guessed to be a shower. "I'm
grateful."
She gave me a tight-lipped smile and a nod. Then she
looked straight into my eyes with her dark brown ones
and held my gaze for a long moment before quietly
responding, "Anytime, sir."
I gazed back at her a few moments longer, then gave
her a small smile and a nod. It was clear she was
uncomfortable with this much affection, which in turn
made me a little uncomfortable, sol did both of us a
favor and moved on.
"I'm glad you're here." I looked at Erin. "Both of you,
actually. I wanted to talk to you guys about
something."
"Oh?" Erin said.
"Yeah. This whole thing was scary, and I haven't taken
my new situation as seriously as I should have. I mean,
I've taken a few steps to try to understand the
company better, but for the last two or three weeks,
I've just been reacting to everything. Things keep
coming at me, and I just let them and do something
after the fact."
I took a deep breath. "I'm tired of it... and it's almost
killed me. Worse, it almost got Natashya killed. Ray's
dead and Charity."
"Charity isn't dead," Erin said.
My head snapped up to look at her. "What?"
"She spent a few days in ICU, but she's making a full
recovery."
"She's not dead?"
Whatever the look on my face was, it made Erin break
out into a huge grin-the genuine smile of someone who
had the privilege of delivering good news. She shook
her head.
I closed my eyes and took a moment to be grateful; it
didn't make everything better, but it was one less
death on my conscience,
"What are we doing for her?" I asked, looking back at
Erin.
"We're covering her medical bills at the moment."
"Good. I want to make sure she's well-cared for while
she's down."
"You got it!"
"And I want a personal trainer."
"Yeah. I'm building a collection of candidates already,"
Erin said.
"I want one as soon as possible. The best. I want one
to help me recover, so they need to have some
experience with physical therapy on top of the personal
training. I want to do it right... all of it
"Okay," Erin said. She'd picked up her notebook and
was taking notes. "Anything else?"
"Bonus points if they're martial artists."
Erin looked up from her notebook, her eyebrows
arched.
Chloe cleared her throat and said, "I seriously hope I
don't find a bat costume in the closet."
"No," I said, looking at her. "Nothing like that. I promise
I'm not going to be stupid, Chloe, but felt helpless the
whole time I was there, and I don't want to feel that
way again. I have a lot of free time, so why not use
it?"
Chloe gave me a wary look.
"I also want you to teach me how to shoot," I said. "I'm
going to take your advice seriously and respect that
you need to do your job, but I also want to learn as
much as possible. No one can protect me from
everything all the time."
I looked back and forth between them; they were both
looking at me with concern in their dark eyes. "I realize
that I've been naive and more than a little careless. I
know I'm not gonna change overnight, guys, but I'm in
a different world than the one I was in a month ago,
and it's time I started acting like it."
Neither of them spoke for what felt like a long time,
and then Chloe said, "Okay then. When do you want to
start?"
"Let me get through the board meeting on Monday.
Then we can work that out."
Chloe nodded. "Say the word."
"Thanks."
That all?"
"Yeah. Do you have anything for me?"
"Just one," Chloe said. "Ashlee didn't come back with us.
Erin said she disappeared about a day after you did and
never returned."
"What!?" I asked and looked at Erin.
"It's true," Erin said. "She said she wanted to grab a bite
to eat downstairs, and she never came back. Like a
long-lost dad going out for a pack of smokes."
"Do you think she had anything to do with my
kidnapping?" I asked, finding it hard to believe. The way
she'd been with me, it felt like she was developing
feelings for me. I hadn't sensed any ill Intentions from
her at all.
"We won't know until we find her," Chloe said. "I have
Henry on it. He'll let me know when he finds her."
"Okay. Arrange a call with him when you can. I have
something else for him to do."
"Will do, "Chloe said. "Alright then. I've got to go. One
of my guys is with your parents, but I need to create a
schedule while they're in town."
I hadn't thought of that, but I appreciated that Chloe
had the foresight to put some of her people on my
family. I watched as Chloe turned and made her way
toward the door, taking a moment to admire her ass in
those tight jeans. I needed to wise up, but that didn't
mean I still couldn't appreciate a damn fine-looking
woman when saw one.
"Oh, Chloe!" I said.
She stopped near the door and turned around.
The tracker in my ass." When she didn't look like she
would respond, I continued. "I appreciate the foresight."
I hesitated, then corrected myself. "No, actually, I'm
grateful for what you did."
Chloe gave me a small half-smile and nodded.
"But that's the last time you do something like that
without telling me.
She looked back at me with a stony expression, then
gave me a curt nod. When it didn't look like I had
anything else to say, she turned back around and left. I
looked at Erin, who was gazing at me as if I was a
different person, and I gave her an awkward smile,
letting her know that was still me.
"Well then," she said, looking around me at Danni, who
was still mostly hiding under the blankets. "You
spending the night?"
I looked back at Danni, and she batted her eyes at me,
her smile peeking out from under the blankets. I
couldn't help but return her smile.
"I'd love for you to stay, but I'm afraid I'm tapped out."
I looked back at Erin and asked, "Do we have any
more of those pain pills?"
"I'll get you some," Erin said. "Then we can curl up
under the blankets and get some sleep."
As always, Erin had the best ideas. I hadn't been
awake long, but the short amount of time had been put
to good use, and I was exhausted again. Fortunately, it
wasn't long before Erin returned with a painkiller and a
cold water bottle. Within a few minutes, it was dark,
and I was curled under my blankets, naked and
sandwiched between two beauties equally nude. In no
time, I had drifted to sleep. Only this time, my dreams
weren't as pleasant as my reality. I saw Natashya in
distress and Ray's lifeless remains. I heard the cold
voice of a woman bargaining with me-information for
sexual favors... and a man's outrage as he claimed I
was his to kill
Why did I feel like I'd heard that voice before? Don't forget to leave a Comment 
