The Layered World Pt. 03

They sat on the bench, enjoying the view. He removed his tee and bent down, head in hands, sun on his back.

She kissed his head, "Tell me what you can. About what Sybil said." She dragged her fingernails across his skin and he felt arousal creeping in.

"Hold on a sec, I'm sorting a few thoughts."

He was trying to remember some advice Philip had given on one of their Adirondack retreats.

"You'd better sit up, there is a couple coming up the trail. Right now, you look like a kid being sick."

She laughed, and he muttered, "A sick kid? What about a horny kid who is plotting to string you in a tree..."

The man and woman were in their Sixties, windblown, and looking proprietary about the bench. He had an inspiration and asked, "Did you, by chance, donate this bench? We will be happy to hike on farther."

The woman looked relieved, but the man said, "No, stay where you are. Having strangers in love find it was just what we had in mind."

Kelly had his hand, saying softly, "Thank you so much. I think he is going to propose right here."

The woman had her husband's hand as well, "You stay right there until he does. Sometimes a little encouragement is needed."

The couple moved on and Kelly kissed him as passionately as she could. "Jay, I am in love after that. Maybe babies are ok."

He leaned back and eased her to his chest. "We were coming here to work, were we?"

She wormed into him and giggled. "You know what your problem is, don't you? You give us great sex and protect us, and we ignore the big bad world, clinging to your embrace."

"I should never have hired an English major. You pluck my heartstrings so well."

He punched a number into his phone, which had signal here on the open bluff near the ocean.

"You are working too hard on a Saturday. I didn't expect an answer."

"Jay, you devil! They are standing right here, about to go to lunch. We had a morning new mother clinic."

He loved Patty's voice. She was thirty-nine but sounded like nineteen. The doctor sisters relied on her totally to organize their practice.

"Would you ask if I might drop by for a consultation toward the end of next week?"

"Only if it includes me. It has been too long."

He had the phone on speaker and Kelly was tickling his ribs.

"They are nodding, and giving me a look."

"I could meet you somewhere before...?"

"Ohhh, they heard that. I think we will both suffer."

"All right, I will email my arrival. Don't do anything rash before we see each other."

They could hear laughter as he clicked off.

Kelly pulled hard on his ears. "You are not getting enough loving from me?"

"I am past due for poking and prodding. You are building up rough sex points."

She bent to the pack and retrieved the sandwiches. Special ingredients wrapped around a smoked turkey core. She offered a beer, but he chose juice. She did too.

He asked, "Do you remember when we talked decision making with Philip? He described the S curve the quants use to show accumulation of data before a decision. How your mind assimilates information and then tapers off to a sufficiency conclusion and decision?"

"Yes. I was impressed by his comment that the quants don't pay enough attention to extracting the essentials. He said that they just assume a magic moment when everything is clear."

"But it never is, and being analytical about what you allow under the curve is important."

They sat in silence and she finally asked, "This is related to why you are here, and Jennifer is coming?"

"Yes. After the crash, we talked a lot in London about the extremists. Killing Claude means they have us in their arc of potential targets. A plot to take us out, I was thinking, until Sybil pointed to their need for money."

"So, we adjust how we deal with our funds?"

"Yes, exactly so." He continued, "Tell me, off the top of your head, what characteristic of the jihadists comes to mind?"

"Tricky...devious... secretive."

"I believe that also, which means their mindset is to suspect our motives and our means."

She kissed his cheek and said, "You are leading us into a spy novel. Layers deep. Nothing like what it seems."

He pulled her to his lap and worked fingers into the strong body. "You are trained up, as we agreed?"

"Yes. We need a private place where your three women can practice on each other. Will you join?"

"Perhaps. I am worried about keeping everyone alive. In London, we thought doing something was better than doing nothing. That a proactive strike had advantages, if we were going to be attacked anyway."

They were going back down the trail, slowly. "This is not comfortable, Jay. We are better at making money for you than chasing jihadists."

"I know. But perhaps a little home grown counter-terrorism keeps us alive a while longer."

After a silence, he said, "I have a favor to ask. Jennifer is bringing Scarafina Antonini, her roommate and lover. Scarafina comes from a family of brilliant computer scientists. She has been working with Jen to tighten up all of our security. When Jen asked for permission to have sex with her, I said I'd like to talk to her. Now it turns out that she isn't lesbian, she is bi-sexual and I am obligated for sex."

Kelly danced around in the grass, laughing and swatting at him. "Obligated! My god, you are so pussy whipped. Where is big tough Jay, who turns insubordinate women to stone with a single glance?"

She jumped into his arms and smothered him with kisses. "I should be terribly jealous."

He swung her to his shoulders and kept going. "She knows a lot of our secrets, and I am nervous. It's a risk you take with any of these tech people who look after the inside of your computer systems. I want you to get as close as possible to her, as in sharing orgasms, and give me a woman's perspective on our vulnerability."

She pulled his hair, "Damn, you really are making a secret agent of me. I don't have any background."

"Look at it this way. If the sex is good, you can call it on the job training."

They were approaching the parking lot. She hopped down and gave him a terrible whack in the ribs.

He followed her directions to the fish market. "I was beginning to feel accomplished in my work."

He kissed her hand and said in a soft voice, "You are just getting started, Kelly, just getting started."

"Oh shit."

They headed back over the hill, with a sixty dollar chunk of fresh caught wild salmon on ice in the back seat, along with asparagus from a farm stand, harvested an hour ago. He was going to say something about wine when he realized they were going to drink whatever Patricia decided to bring. A few yards from her grapes, you did not challenge the winemaker.

Kelly was back to driving her convertible, eyes masked behind dark glasses, hair streaming in the wind. She had found a message from Sam on her phone saying the young ones were arriving in time for dinner tomorrow. That gave him time to flesh out the idea floating in his head.

She reached for his hand and pressed it. "I shouldn't have been nasty back there."

"It's ok, I shouldn't have been flip."

"No, I'm the one who shouldn't have been flip. First, it is potentially a very serious problem. Second, you've been training us in sexual politics all along." Her smile was wide.

"Hold on. From that first night forward, I've been your victim."

"Foolish man. Natalie told me about how mushy you got last week."

"Speaking of sexual politics, is your mother going to hit on me?"

"To get back at me? I think we are beyond that. I hope we are beyond that."

She added, speaking over the wind, "Jay, if you let even one ounce of yourself loose at dinner, she is going to be in your lap."

"How far am I allowed to go?"

Kelly was paying attention to the winding road and didn't answer for a minute. "I'm sorry if this sounds insulting, but if she asks for your cock, please oblige her."

"Is the pool heated? Does she swim frequently?"

"Yes, and every day."

"So, if there is a midnight dip for the three of us, but things get out of control, that won't be a tragedy?"

"Jay, I am halfway to orgasm just thinking about it. Don't you dare fail to deliver." She slapped his face as lightly as she could.

In the kitchen of the guesthouse, the salmon and asparagus went quickly into the refrigerator and Kelly rang Patricia.

"Mission completed. Very fresh, looks wonderful. I'm thinking of our regular recipe with sliced onions and white wine and foil?"

There was more conversation and she clicked off. "Mom is bringing salad, dessert and wine."

He nuzzled at her neck. "You didn't tell me this B&B has a three star restaurant."

She grabbed a cold beer and led him to the bedroom. "We might need a nap. I'm going to share this with you. I have a great story to tell you about Jeremy and Michael."

He thought she was going to stop at her undies, but she didn't. "Hurry up. You can hold me but no sex. You are saving up for the pool." She stuffed his hand between her legs and he tossed her to the bed.

It took a while to get arranged. She was full of little twitches and motions and noises. Finally, he sat on her legs and massaged the tense back.

"Better. The story is that I went over to their place to deliver some sensitive papers that London sent encrypted. That is such a marvelous house. All the hundred year old redwood with high tech everywhere. And that doesn't count the underground fireproof vault.

"They are such hooligans! Instead of opening the package, they take me out on the deck and show me their newest game. Two five person teams, in totally black outfits, in the park at night. There are two goals, a quarter mile apart. Each pole has two pressure switches on it. When the game starts, with a horn sounding, a team is at each goal. You have ten minutes to get to the other goal and press your team's switch. And then back to press the switch where you started. The game is over whenever a team fails to make the ten minutes, or when one team presses its switches five times.

"But here is the wicked hard part. The black suits have targets on the front and back that illuminate in infrared light. Everyone wears night glasses set for those wavelengths. There are a dozen lights scattered in the trees, and an algorithm randomly turns them on for five seconds at a time. Everyone carries a paintball gun, and if you get tagged, you have to leave the field. A horn sounds every time someone is tagged, but you don't know which team the tagged person was on."

She switched them around and worked on Jay. "They knew you were coming and want us to play some night with them and other friends."

Jeremy and Michael were lovers and, respectively, his most important lawyer and most important IT person. They had an incredible disguise, working as park wardens and living in an original redwood house that Jay had purchased and very secretly remodeled for their work.

Her fingers were doing wonderful things and jet lag was sending him to sleep. "Sounds like something the two of them would cook up. The game strategies will be complicated. Tell them I am super interested but booked solid. Next trip for sure." His eyes closed. She cuddled as close as she could under the blanket.

Patricia walked in on them like that when she came a little early because it was such a warm evening and she thought cocktails out on the patio would be nice.

"I am glad to find you like this," she said. "From what I hear, you work too hard."

Two heads snapped up and she ran her hands over them softly. "Jay, this is a fine way to meet. Kelly finally admitted you are more than her boss. I am very pleased to be invited to dinner. I've brought wine and some cheese for cocktails and will get it organized while you do what you need to do." She let out a low, sexy chuckle.

In the shower, Kelly said, "She is halfway there already. Did you notice the husky voice? She never uses that when I am around. That is Hollywood woman on the prowl."

He laughed and used his teeth on her shoulder and soaped her. "I have a suggestion. Find a way not to say mom to her tonight. Be a little hot and territorial. It will make her feel even more competitive."

They were toweling off when she grabbed him in a tight clinch and said, "But I AM territorial about you!"

He was hard and ready to take his incredible woman right there, but reason prevailed. In the bedroom, she held out two tiny wisps of fabric, "Is this correct for the occasion, boss?"

"That is a most fashionable improvement on commando and is just right."

They went after each other, tickling and kissing, and finally arrived on the patio, mostly dressed and smiling.

"Jay, take a chair next to me and let me ask you all kinds of impertinent questions."

He poured two more glasses of the fine white Burgundy and sat down with a cracker in hand. "I am yours to command, Patricia."

"I have been researching you on the web, but you don't give inquiring minds much to go on."

Jay smiled, "The work we do, Patricia, seldom benefits from media exposure."

Kelly added, "Tricia, international finance is not Hollywood, thank god."

The questions continued, "I looked for gossip and it says you are fabulously wealthy, and are considered one of the most connected individuals on the planet."

"My associates and I," he looked at Kelly, "appreciate the sentiment, but that sort of talk does not get us the business we seek."

"What business do you seek?"

Kelly answered, "Jay is very entrepreneurial. Initially, when he was quite young, his interests focused on conventional stock trading. Today, we have the capability to participate in financial arrangements almost anywhere, and our contacts allow us to bring substantial assets to the table." She squeezed Jay's hand and left to see about the salmon.

"Forbes says you are one of the few individuals for whom it cannot make an accurate wealth estimate."

"In my business, Patricia, laundering your wealth is considered very gauche. Kelly and I and the other executives keep a low media profile for obvious reasons. Clients with assets to deploy do not wish to do it in a fishbowl."

She took a long sip of the wine, giving him a speculative look. "I suppose Kelly has told you about her father and grandfather? I come from a culture where any media exposure is considered a good thing."

Jay smiled, "To each his own in pursuit of wealth and pleasure. You are a beautiful woman and I am enjoying the opportunity to know you better." His gaze was intent, and for a moment, she wondered if he was flirting.

"Tell me a bit about your adventures in winemaking. You spoil me with this Montrachet, which only plutocrats can afford."

She laughed with him. "A gift from the owner, who visited and stayed in this very house eighteen months ago."

"California does not have a reputation for terroir as the French have. How do you compensate?"

"We have an advantage, actually, for a not very good reason. This wine is at its peak in four to six years, and lasts long after that. Americans are impatient and not willing to wait for aging. So our viticulture struggles to produce wine that is both excellent and drinkable in two years."

Kelly announced dinner and they went in. Jay was surprised at the crystal glasses, sterling flatware, and porcelain dinnerware. He seated the women and proposed a toast. "To a marvelous dinner and charming and beautiful companions with whom to enjoy it."

Between bites of melt in your mouth salmon, Kelly smiled at him with a look that said, "Keep going, you are doing well."

"Patricia, I hope you won't think me too forward, but Kelly has told me that you not only constructed this amazing wine enterprise from nothing, but reconstructed yourself from a very bad situation."

Her eyes darkened, and he thought he had indeed been too forward. He concentrated on another mouthful of food while he waited for a tart answer.

Instead, he got a soft and quiet reply, "I behaved very badly when Kelly was born, and for years afterward. I played out the worst stories you have heard of spoiled Hollywood brats. Fortunately, Rosario, my father's friend, kicked me hard down a path to being a decent person."

Kelly was out of her chair and embracing her mother. "Gosh, that took guts to say, mom, I really love you."

The mea culpa from Patricia pushed the conversation into a warmer tone, almost family. Jay wondered whether the midnight swim was actually going to happen.

He insisted on being allowed to deal with the dishes and the dishwasher, shooing them to dessert preparation.

Sitting in the down sofa, spooning ice cream and berries, both women left no room between Jay and themselves. It was cozy. Kelly kissed his cheek in thanks for the kitchen duty, and seconds later, he was receiving a similar warm kiss from Tricia.

She wrapped an arm around his shoulder and said, "I don't have much company here. Most nights, I curl up with a book, or maybe a movie. Do you let Kelly cuddle with you? That was very sweet, the way you were up against each other this afternoon."

Kelly was as soft and sultry as she could be. "You wouldn't believe the cuddling that goes on, especially when we are together for a meeting. Each PA apartment has the largest bed that can be purchased, because we all sleep together."

"Oh my. That sounds nice. Does he, um, do you...?"

"Yes! He would never consider stopping until we are all happy."

Kelly got up and started rearranging bodies until Jay had the two of them half on top, with a blanket over.

He said, "Kelly, you are a devil. You know this is going to get me hard and Patricia won't think that is polite."

The mother was definitely wiggling on him, her dress worked well up her legs. She whispered in his ear, "Jay, you seem to be a lot of fun to be around. Do you take in strays for a night?"

She was still wiggling and he could feel her sex on his thigh muscle, and then her hand finding his erection. Kelly's fingers were there too, and she said, "Tricia, are you hitting on my boyfriend?"

"Just a little. You said he was big and strong and can take care of..."

Kelly was over his back and leaning on Patricia, "Why you sexy thing, you ARE after him. I declare a timeout while we go to your house and get in the pool." Tricia's tongue kiss was wild and neither of them wanted to stop. He let his hands wander to her front and slip inside the dress. She broke the kiss and said, "He has wandering hands." Jay found a stiff nipple but took her lips first before caressing and pinching it.

Kelly was back with two terry robes. "We can leave our clothes here and wear these."

Jay was trying to stand, but Tricia was in his lap, taking more kisses. A naked Kelly pulled her mother off and said, "Save that for later. I want a swim under the moon."

They straggled up the path, Kelly leading because Tricia would not release the arm that was around Jay's waist. He said, "You don't seem like a stray to me. Are you, by chance, family?"

She leaned on him and bit his ear. "No wonder they like you. Yes, I would dearly love to be part of your family."

Tricia went inside and came back without a stitch, but carrying a bottle of champagne and plastic glasses. They clustered around a warm water vent in the pool, sipping and kissing. Kelly was making out with Tricia, telling her repeatedly what a hot item she was, and pressing her together with Jay, who made no secret of how hard he was.

With a laugh in his voice, he said to Tricia, "If you feed me some awful Hollywood seduction lines, I'll use them on you."

Kelly giggled and pinched a Tricia nipple. "Mom, I'll bet there was a time when you even memorized a few for a film audition."

"Jay darling, I never imagined I would be here. It's terribly daring, being naked with you in the pool, but I'll never tell. Kelly is away, isn't she?"