Every Man's Fantasy Ch. 27

Quickly on a peak, the heat from her battered buttocks spread around her body, blending with the hot joy from her ravished pussy. It tingled along her thighs, over her belly and chest and back down her spine. A deep ache built in her, as the joy in her pussy spread around her body in warm surges. The blood roared in her ears and her throat constricted, stopping her voice. She floated on pink cotton wool clouds. She shut her eyes tightly and saw fireworks.

Her deep ache built to a tense and messy climax whose intensity hit her almost by surprise. She hunched (as much as a greatly pregnant woman could hunch) and her thighs shook. Now she sighed in happy ecstasy as Ezra ploughed on and on.

There was a knock on the door.

"Ezra, are you in there?"

Danielle left work early to collect Freya and Tahney from their school, while Annela was delayed at her meeting. She had the girls with her and was looking for him.

"I'm here, ... ugh ... , Sis," Ezra said, breathlessly. "Ugh ... Solanj is with me, but we're, ... er ..., rather busy."

"Good God, Ezra," Danielle exclaimed. "Can't you keep it in your trousers for even ten minutes?"

"What can't Daddy keep in his trousers?" Tahney asked.

"His cock!" said Freya with a huge giggle that Tahney joined in.

"Freya!" Danielle said. "Who taught you that word?"

"Yael taughted me."

"I should have known. That girl has a lot to answer for. ... Come on, you two. We'll wait in the living room until your father and Solanj are ready to join us."

Half an hour later, after Ezra had finished off in Solanj and they had a shower together, they came into the living room. Ezra looked a little sheepish but Solanj looked triumphant. Freya and Tahney ran to jump on him, demanding to be tickled, while Danielle rolled her eyes and gave up trying to censure Ezra or his bedmates.

******

Although Gloria disapproved of Solanj's exhibition, she would not criticise her deputy in public, so it was not until the evening after Ezra punished Solanj that the two women managed to have a private conversation.

When the Council Hall emptied after a meeting, Gloria stayed behind to make a videocall via the comms link to Danielle's study in her flat on Celetaris, where she could talk to Solanj alone.

Solanj looked happy rather than contrite, with a glow of sexual contentment.

"Madam Deputy Prefect, you're a menace," Gloria said.

"I know."

"Why are you standing up?"

"Ezra also thinks I'm a menace. He expressed his disapproval in a physical fashion on my arse."

"Serves you right. How are you going to reverse the damage you caused?"

"I'm not sure I can."

"I don't believe you had no backup plan for when your ruse failed."

"I may have an idea how to salvage the situation."

"And I suppose you can't tell me what that idea is?"

"I'm still working on it. Besides, we don't yet know if my ruse did fail."

Gloria made the hum of doubt. "If you're going to interfere again, I would like you to tell me first, in case I disapprove. If you would be so kind."

"Yes, Madam," Solanj said with unaccustomed (but not perhaps entirely convincing) meekness.

******

It was a treat for Danielle, now Solanj was forgiven, that the girls' sleeping arrangements went back to normal. Annela, Freya and Tahney joined Ezra and his other bedmates in a crowded flat, while Hazel, Wildchild and Yael returned to their rooms in Danielle and Roger's apartment. Sometimes Freya and Tahney wanted to stay with their aunt Danielle and uncle Roger. Sometimes Ezra's bedmates stayed with them.

When the News Web circus began to die down, seven days into the nine-days' wonder, so that questions about Ezra's many bedmates took second or third place behind the latest political scandal, real-life crime, or vapid celebrity flashing her boobs in public, Andrew Claydon's initial report was confirmed by an official message from Outworld Ventures to the Samothea Project.

The planet was still for sale and, if the purchase could be expedited quickly, the company would reduce the price to six million galactic pounds. There were some conditions because the settler company had commitments to the women of Samothea and potential settlers to honour. And although the price was more reasonable, it was still more than the Project could likely afford.

However, the impetus was now with the Samothea Project to come up with a lot of money and an attractive deal for Outworld Ventures, one that would insulate the company from the cause of the public scandal and the disapproval of Earthside politicians.

Danielle, Eva and Ezra allowed themselves to hope again.

Solanj never took credit for her role in making the settler company come to the negotiating table. Nor for releasing, in one big publicity splash, the scandal that would have undoubtedly been a disaster if it had come out when negotiations regarding the planet's status in the Anglosphere were more advanced.

Far from acting as if her actions were vindicated, Solanj took a modest role in Ezra's extended family, expecting no special treatment due to her status on Samothea. The tattooed Zulu woman with the famously aggressive manner was relaxed, comfortable, friendly, helpful, and so obviously in love with Ezra that Danielle succumbed, as Ezra had done, to the charm of a woman with no off-button but also no rancour or meanness.

Danielle stopped trying to hide her pleasure at Solanj's company, despite sharing Annela's wariness of the woman's frustrating charm. So, in a few days, Solanj had Danielle and Roger wrapped as firmly around her little finger as Ezra was himself.

2The auction

With Outworld Ventures willing to sell, it was time to raise the money to buy the planet Samothea by auctioning the rights to the new hyperdrive technology.

When the technology to upgrade the Beltway Hyperspace System was first proved a success, business analysts valued the whole package, including patents for the original engine and the hyperspace beacons, at 12 million galactic pounds. Now it was in full production by a consortium of space engineering firms led by the Nakatani Corporation and Oakshott Industries, with long-lasting contracts and a regular income, the technology might be worth even more.

Stephen Oakshott announced an auction of shares in the new technology for one month's time. The question was: Would the money raised be enough to enable Danielle, Eva and Ezra to buy Samothea from Outworld Ventures?

Danielle owned 25% of the shares. Stephen Oakshott and the Nakatani Corporation owned 25% each. The last 25% in equal portions belonged to Rosa Silverstein, Li Qu Yuan, Herman Melzner, Jonathan Wright and Hestia Smith.

Danielle called her partners to tell them she intended to sell all her shares. Stephen again promised to give Danielle his 25% share and, again, she refused, although between them they might have gathered the price that Outworld Ventures asked.

The Nakatani Corporation was holding onto its shares, so only 75% of the business was for sale. Everyone expected Nakatani to bid for a controlling majority of the business, though many other bidders were lining up, including members of the consortium and outside companies who wanted a piece of the promising technology. With luck, there would be a bidding war, although Danielle and Stephen thought it would be simpler if Nakatani gobbled up the entire public offering.

The other shareholders were happy to cash in their shares, believing Danielle when she said it was a good opportunity. They would all make their fortunes.

******

A week after the auction was announced, Sakura, Michio Nakatani's estranged wife, had a big row with her father, who demanded she return to her husband and become a dutiful spouse again. Sakura was not to be ordered around. Instead, she took a good hard look at her life and realised she had been only drifting for years. Now she wanted to take control of her future, beginning with a divorce so she could step out from the shadows of her father and her husband.

The papers had been signed months ago. In them, Michio agreed to a generous settlement. After a short hearing, the family court granted the couple an amicable divorce. Knowing how his ex-father-in-law, Genzo Ayikama, would react, Michio asked Sakura not to announce the divorce until the auction for the new technology was completed in three weeks' time.

Unfortunately, society news always leaks out. Sakura's father felt ashamed of his daughter for negotiating a divorce without consulting him; and he felt insulted by Michio for trying to keep it a secret. Genzo Ayikama threatened to break up the merger between his company and the Nakatani Corporation, which would be financially disastrous at the present time, when the Corporation was going to bid for full control of the new hyperspace technology, borrowing a good proportion of the company's value to support the purchase.

A board meeting was called and there was a lot of polite but unfair blame put on Michio. The directors were shocked and dismayed at the danger that the company might be split up due to Michio's actions. Genzo Ayikama was silent, letting the board express his anger, but Touma Nakatani sat next to his son and glared defiance.

As the directors took turns, courteously but severely, to rebuke Michio, Touma whispered to his son:

"I still have the photographs of Sakura's wild parties. If I threaten to make them public, Genzo will relent."

"I refuse, father. I will not allow anything to harm Sakura."

"Genzo has poisoned the board against you. If you don't fight back, they'll demand your resignation, or the company will split."

"Then I'll resign."

"No, my son. The company is our family. If Genzo can't live with us, then he is the one who must go."

The whispering was noticed. The room went silent as the directors waited patiently for the private conversation to finish.

In the silence, Touma Nakatani stood and bowed to the board.

"Gentlemen," he said, "my son has offered to resign to keep Mister Ayikama and his company in our partnership."

The directors and Genzo looked satisfied.

"However," Touma went on, "I've persuaded him to stay in his post. I'm sorry if you're unhappy, gentlemen, but this company is my family and I stand by my family."

After expressions of outrage from Ayikama, and a discussion too excited to be heard properly, the meeting broke up in acrimony.

Genzo Ayikama was unhappy and said so in public. It did not take long for Nakatani shares to go into freefall as rumours of an imminent split were spread. Fear of a split threatened to prevent the company raising the short-term financial capital it needed to buy the hyperdrive technology outright. Even worse, shortage of cash might threaten any role the Nakatani Corporation could play in the upcoming auction.

Without a strong bid from Nakatani to prevent rival companies getting a foothold in the business, a Sino-Russian company could buy the technology and take over the Beltway upgrade. Chinese companies were notorious for harvesting valuable technologies and replicating them at home, regardless of intellectual property rights.

The problem affected Oakshott Industries, as Stephen sadly told Danielle during a videochat.

"Goldrick," he said, "I have to withdraw my 25% of the business from the auction. I hoped Nakatani would buy the new technology outright, but now they're not bidding at all. If we lose control of the technology, then I have a problem."

"What problem?"

"I can lose the Beltway upgrade business."

"You have a contract to upgrade the Beltway."

"True, but there are ways around a contract, especially if someone else controls the technology. I can't afford to do without the Beltway upgrade. My company has been preparing for it for more than a year, diverting our resources, turning away work. Without it, our order books are quite slim and the finance people are giving me warnings."

"I understand, Stephen. Do we go ahead with the auction or call it off?"

"I think the technology is such a valuable prize that we can go ahead. It might make us look stupid if we announce that only 50% of the new technology is available for sale, but I don't think it will put off too many bidders. Even those who were going to bid for a controlling interest can take a position on the technology now with the hope of increasing their stake in the future. The enterprise is already profitable."

"Good, because a delay might put our purchase of Samothea in jeopardy."

"I'm sorry I can't let you have the proceeds from my share of the business. You know I meant to give you the money."

"I was going to refuse it anyway."

"There's something else, Goldrick. Will you keep back 1% of your shares so we retain a controlling interest?"

"Won't having half the business available for purchase bring in keener bidders?"

"It will, but you've seen the plunge in the Nakatani share price. Some dealers hope that Nakatani splits up before the auction, so it may be forced to sell its shares to raise funds; in which case up to 75% of the technology will be available. They're swarming like vultures."

"Vultures don't swarm, Stephen," Danielle said, letting her mouth run itself while her brain was thinking. "So we put up 49% for sale: my 24% and the 25% of Rosa, Li, Herman, Jonathan and Hestia combined?"

"I think it's best. I'm sure the Nakatani Corporation will survive its present problems, so we'll keep our combined 50% to prevent being manoeuvred out of our parts in the upgrade. That's a real earner for both of us at the moment. If you keep back 1% of your shares, then you can have the casting vote."

"All right, Stephen. I'll do it."

******

The Nakatani Corporation held together. Threatened by a protracted, messy and expensive split that would inflict damage on both partners, the directors agreed to outside mediation, but the damage was done. Nakatani shares were down 30% and the corporation felt the hardest squeeze on its finances since it was founded.

The corporation need not sell its stake in the new technology but it was safer to keep its cash and not increase its exposure. Michio Nakatani called Danielle to apologise.

"My father and I will always be grateful to you and Stephen for not letting the technology leave our hands," Michio said. "I promise I'll do what I can to help you buy Samothea."

"You're a good friend to the Project," Danielle replied. "You don't have to apologise whenever bad luck comes along - though I'm sure a statistician would wonder at how much misfortune we've met."

"It seems we've been smitten by more than our fair share of bad luck, Danielle, but what you've done is new and experimental, so there's bound to be more failure than success on the way. Besides, some of it's my fault."

"All right, Michio. Let's see what the auction brings before you blame yourself anymore. We might find our luck is turning at last."

******

The auction took place in the grand ballroom of a London hotel. It was fitted out with a dais for the auctioneer, chairs for the audience and booths for the holographic images of remote bidders on Earth. Delays over hyperspace comms links meant off-world bidders had to travel to Earth or send an agent to the hotel.

The auction was well-attended, despite the reduced number of shares available. 49% of the shares in the technology were to be auctioned in seven tranches of 7% each.

The bidders were identified by numbers, though Stephen told Danielle the names of the likely candidates.

The bidders sat in rows. They held wooden paddles with their numbers, which they raised to place their bids.

It was all very old-fashioned but fascinating to the members of the Samothea Project, who watched the bidding in a room of the Institute's conference centre, hosted by Joan Mayfield, with Eva, Ezra, Roger and all the women of Samothea. The auction scene was holo-projected onto the conference table. They could see the auctioneer on her dais, gavel in hand, display boards behind giving the number of the highest current bidder and the value of the bid.

The auctioneer was quick and repetitive as the bids came in thick and fast, at first in increments of 5,000 galactic pounds, then 10,000 pounds and on up. She acknowledged every new bidder, saying: "Welcome bidder 3 from Hong Kong," or "Welcome bidder 7 from Dubai." There were bidders from Chicago, London, Los Angeles, New York, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo.

Rod and Ed sat with Hazel and Wildchild. The boys had a good understanding of financial matters and could help the girls follow some of the details, such as guessing who were the names behind the anonymous bidders and explaining why the bids sometimes jumped up quickly, hung around on a plateau, then ascended again, when a bidder who had sat out since the beginning joined the contest again.

The auctioneer captured the interest of the viewers on Samothea when she said: "Welcome bidder 14 from Outworld" to the agent of a remote bidder in the third row. Once bidder 14 started, he was very keen, taking part in the final stage of every tranche.

The women of Samothea enjoyed the spectacle and the tension. They clapped after every tranche was sold. For them it was quite an event, though they were disposed to make anything unusual into a party.

"We should have brought food," Ash said and no one from Samothea disagreed with her.

Bidder 14 from some Outworld colony seemed very unlucky because he bid in every round but never won a tranche of shares. Ed thought he was trying to push up the price and did not want to win. Roger suspected that bidder 14 represented the consortium of New Exeter traders over whom Mayor Esther Grandley exercised some personal influence. Hazel and Wildchild had no better information, but they had a different suspect in mind.

At the end of the two-hour auction, amid the celebration in the conference room and applause at the auction, it seemed that Danielle was right to say the Samothea Project's luck had turned. Despite the problems of the last few weeks, the share auction was a success. 49% of the technology was sold for just over seven million galactic pounds. Including fees, this gave Danielle 3.5 million pounds.

She was short 2.5 millions to buy the planet outright, but it was an excellent start.

The first step toward acquiring the planet Samothea would be to incorporate the Samothea Project as a trading company. Danielle threw herself into the task to the exclusion of everything else, beginning with the appointment of Elspeth Bereded's company, Bereded Solomon Partners, as the Project's accountants.

3Yael's whales

A week after the auction Solanj was fully nine months pregnant. She knew it was almost her time and announced to Ezra in a cool matter-of-fact way:

"I've done what I came here to do. I should go home."

"You can't go now. You're almost due."

"I can have my daughter at home, among my sisters."

"You have sisters here as well, plus the medical centre, in case of complications. I want to see you and our daughter safe."

"You worry too much, Earthman. We're hardy folk, us Samotheans. At home, a woman can drop a brat in the morning and be back at work in the afternoon."

"You talk a lot of crap, Madam Cowgirl. I want you here so you're staying here. Now do as you're told!"

"As I'm told?"

"Commanded."

"I like being commanded. What other commands do you have for me?"

"Kneel down and open your mouth."

Solanj obeyed, licking her lips, though he had to help her kneel, and kindly placed a cushion the floor for her knees.

"Now I see the advantages of staying on Celetaris," she said, though it came out more as "Mumble, mumble, mumble, hmm!"

******

It was mid-winter on Celetaris and Yael was out of sorts.

The vibrant girl, always enthusiastically engaged on a task of utmost importance, or dreamlike with her head in a book, was often now to be found sitting on the couch in the window-seat of Roger and Danielle's apartment, staring out at a cold wet world, contemplative and unusually quiet.