“Of course John, you as well. Tell your mother I said hello.” He smirked at John in a way that made him feel a little uncomfortable as he spoke the last sentence.
“Uh, yeah, I will.” John looked at Kari one last time, and then turned and headed out of the stairs, and then out of the van Katho mansion.
CHAPTER 10
John walked slowly through the town after leaving. The sun was dropping towards the horizon, and the sky was clear. Most of the street was empty of people, all of them either busying themselves with work or shopping for dinner.
He turned a corner, and walked a couple of blocks into one of the town’s older sections. The houses there were rustic, and looked as though they had been standing without much interference since the original founding.
His mind repeated the encounter between him and Kari, over and over again. Truthfully, John was attracted to her, but what he felt like he really needed on the island wasn’t a lover, but a friend. One that was living a life similar to the one that had been dropped onto him would have been even more perfect, and that described Kari perfectly.
He looked up towards the Ludling Estate as he closed in on the long driveway. John wasn’t sure if he was ready to retire to the mansion just yet, but he didn’t know the town well enough to be able to think of anything else to do. As he glanced up at his new home, his eyes were drawn to the other side of it, where cliffs inclined upwards into a rocky plateau, the same way they sloped down to the beach towards the town.
That was where he needed to be. The idea of getting close to a bird’s eye view of Blackthorn Isle and his new home was irresistibly appealing. It felt like it would give him a sense of control even if it was only illusory, and so he started off towards the craggy rock wall, which had a small, foot worn path running up along a curve in it.
John realized that he had come to a decision. He was going to stay on Blackthorn Isle, even if it wasn’t exactly what his mom wanted for him, and for herself. He wondered how he was going to break the news to her, and just how she would react.
He knew how much she loved him, and remembered the promise she’d made to stick with him as a mother regardless of which life he chose, but worry and doubt were creative emotions, able to work their way into the cracks of his mind.
There was a noise behind him, from around the street corner he’d just taken. Nothing unusual about that, but for some reason he couldn’t stop himself from glancing back at it. The road and sidewalk was empty, but John began to get the strangest feeling that there had been someone there.
He stopped walking for a second, and looked closely. There was nothing there, and John began to feel foolish and paranoid. He shook his head, smiled at himself, and continued toward the cliffs.
The feeling of being followed, of being watched, stuck with him. He was glancing over his shoulder every few minutes or so, and every time, there was nothing. John passed by a group of people that were standing outside of a café right on the edge of town. One of them whispered to another, and somehow, he knew he was the subject of the remark. He took a deep breath, and tried to break himself out of the strange mode of thinking that he’d been stricken with.
A grassy hill led up to the cliffs, which started as a series of jagged, jutting rocks, each at least as tall as him, and all of them pushing up at odd angles. This would be exactly what he needed, John realized. He could see the town, and see the lack of anything in it for him to be paranoid about.
There was another noise. He turned, expecting to see the group of people outside the café in the distance and nothing more. Instead, he caught sight of a woman wearing a black sweater and black sunglasses. Her body language was strong, almost arrogant, and threatening. John flinched as their eyes met, and glanced back in time to see her walk over to a table outside of the café and sit down at it.
Something about her unnerved John to the core. She picked up a newspaper on the table and began reading it, not looking as though she was paying him any attention. He knew that she was, though. There was something hanging from her hip, poking out ever so slightly from underneath his sweater, and John was pretty sure that he knew what it was.
He felt vindicated, but the feeling only lasted for a moment. His heart began to beat harder in his chest, and he started up the path leading up the cliff much faster than he should have, almost tripping over a stray rock on the ground.
John wondered why she was there, and more importantly, why she had a gun. He tried to convince himself that it was just a misreading of the situation on his part, and she wasn’t really following him, but couldn’t bring himself to look back towards the café and get any sort of confirmation from seeing whether she’d gotten up or not.
She could be there to kill him. The thought felt ridiculous as it went through his mind, but it carried with it a strange, fearful power. The woman was tall, and very fit looking, with long black hair and a pale face. If that was why she’d been sent, outside of being a woman, which really made no difference, she fit the bill of an assassin perfectly.
Instead of lending any more time to his worries, John doubled over and hurried up the cliff path with desperate speed, using his hands to pull himself up when he reached the steeper sections. The ground below him was growing further distant by the second, and a near slip as he rounded a sharp corner caused his heart to wrench inside his chest.
He didn’t let himself slow down, and after ten or so minutes of fast hiking, he’d reached the end of the trail. There was a thick wall of rock in front of him that led up to the top cliff, and John stared at it, contemplating whether or not it was riskier to stay where he was or attempt the climb.
In the end, he chose the active option, searching for starting hand holds to lift himself up the beginning of the rock wall. John had never been a climber, and was of merely average height, but the cliff wasn’t overly hard to climb, and a couple of spray painted dots pointed out a simple route for him to take, most likely left there by a local adventurer.
The wind picked up as he made it higher, and it took more effort for him to focus on keeping tight against the wall. Nevertheless, it only took him another few minutes to make it up to the top. Lungs lacking breath, he hoisted his chest onto the final ledge and then rolled to safety.
It took him a minute or two before he had recovered enough to stand and look down on the island. True to what he’d wanted originally, the view was amazing, but the one thing he wanted to see had vanished from where it had last been.
The woman was gone, and John didn’t know if that was a good thing, or a bad thing. He thought of his mom, and Olivia, and the undefended mansion. If his deepest fears were even partially close to the truth, they were just as much at risk as he was.
From his vantage point high in the cliff, John began to get a sense of how small the island really was. There was nowhere on it that could hide him from his problems, not even the estate that his grandfather had left to him. He would have to face the world and all of the challenges in it, head on.
He spent a couple of minutes enjoying the day, feeling the gentle breeze on his skin, and then moved to head back down the cliff. John had just begun to lower himself over the edge, still scraping his feet in an attempt to find the footholds he’d used coming up, when he heard a branch crack in the distance.
It was a small, singular noise, but it told him all that he needed to know. He was still being followed. If it was an assassin after him, this would be the best opportunity they’d ever had at killing him and making it look like an accident.
It would make for a perfect front page story, a two part affair tying the tragedy of his grandfather’s death, to him being named as the heir, and then finally, to the horrible climbing accident that had led to his own demise.
John felt his palms begin to sweat, and focused all his attention on slowly moving down the wall, keeping himself as anchored as he could. The woman he’d seen before didn’t appear over the top edge, as he’d half been expecting her to, and he made it to the ground safe
ly.
She’d been attractive, in a sharp, cold way, John realized. He pictured her in a bikini for a moment, and the comedy of the mental image was only outweighed by his growing sense of unease.
He hurried down the path, faster than he should have, given how steep it was. The town and all of its buildings were still right where he’d left them, and John continued on to them as he stepped off the trail, nervously glancing over his shoulder and feeling as though his paranoia was taking over his mind.
CHAPTER 11
The sun was setting in the distance, hanging just above the horizon like a fire burning down to its last embers. That, along with the relatively empty town streets, gave the place a sullen, depressing feel. John walked along, frustrated at how exposed and helpless the situation was making him feel.
He hadn’t seen the woman since he’d gotten down from the cliffs, but somehow, he could feel her eyes on him, watching every move he made and boring into the back of his head. John was fed up with it, but for some reason, the idea of heading directly back to the mansion made him feel angry. The woman was his problem, and as much as he could, as the new Count Ludling, he wanted to deal with it on his own, without having to rely on Olivia or his mom.
So instead, he headed into town, moving slowly, and acting as though nothing was amiss. He stopped at the same café that he’d seen the woman at, and walked inside. It had been one that he’d been interested in checking out, regardless, and a plan formed in his mind as he walked up to the counter.
“What can I get you?” The employee watching the shop was an older man, maybe in his mid-twenties, with a broad smile and a pudgy belly.
“I’ll just have a coffee, thanks,” said John. The man nodded, and then filled up a cup for him. He paid for it and spent a minute adding in cream and sugar, trying to sense if the woman was still watching him, without having to turn and look for her.
“Can I get you anything else today?” asked the man.
“Yeah… Is there a back door out to the street?” John saw the man’s surprised expression, and leaned in closer. “I just broke up with my girlfriend, and I think she might be waiting to confront me outside.”
The employee gave him and understanding nod, and then gestured to a hallway over to the side of the shop.
“Good luck, man,” he said. “She sounds like a crazy one.”
“Yeah, I’m only just starting to see that for myself.”
John hurried down the hallway, and pushed out through a door underneath a red exit sign. He took a big sip of the coffee, tossed it in a nearby trash can, and then broke into a run. There was an alleyway that spilled out to another road ahead of him, and he sprinted down it without stopping.
He continued running for what felt like an eternity, but was only a couple of minutes, in reality. As he ran out of breath, he glanced around and behind him, and didn’t see any sign of his pursuer. That didn’t mean anything, he told himself. She could still be after him, hiding in the shadows.
“Count John! Good to see you again!” Chad’s voice, loud and deep, boomed from the edge of the street corner. John looked up and realized that he’d run all the way to the Red Thorn Tavern, and the jovial bar owner that he’d met the day before was standing outside of it, grinning at him.
“Oh… Yeah, good to see you too, Chad,” he said. “I was just out for a run.”
Chad was leaning against the entrance of his tavern with his arms crossed. A young couple walked up, and he carded both of them and then let them inside.
“You should come on in, and have a drink,” he said. “There are a number of fine ladies within, tourists here on an engagement celebration trip.”
Chad smiled slyly at him and winked. John considered his options for a moment, and then headed for the door. If nothing else, the tavern would give him cover from the woman who was after him, and he could hide out until he was sure that he’d lost her.
“Alright,” said John. “Is your wife around?”
The question felt odd, and inappropriate. He had no reason to care about Amelia or her whereabouts, especially not after the stunt she had pulled on him the day before. Chad didn’t look as though his asking suggested anything out of the ordinary, though, and clapped John on the back as he walked through the doorway.
“She has one of the barmaids manning the counter, but if you find her, I’m sure she’d hook you up with a free drink or two,” said Chad. “You’re the Count, a little special treatment here or there comes with the territory.”
Hearing Chad say it out loud reminded him of it, not that he had really forgotten. He was the Count, and according to Olivia, Chad was in debt to him. The Red Thorn Tavern was technically his through the accumulated debts of the owner, and something about that made him feel a little inflated as he walked inside.
True to what Chad had said, there was a group of women sitting at the bar and at tables nearby it, loud in celebration, taking shots and teasing each other. John walked over slowly, picking a barstool to the side of them, and waved the barmaid, a girl a little older than him that he’d never seen before, over to where he was.
“Hey there,” she said. “What can I get you?”
“His drinks are on the house.” Amelia materialized from the group of women and made her way over to John. She was wearing a pair of denim cutoff shorts along with a tied off flannel shirt that did little more but cover the erotic areas of her big breasts.
“Oh, hey.” John wasn’t sure what to say to her, after what had happened between them the day before. “I’m just stopping in for a drink, buying some time before going home.”
He tried to convey another meaning to Amelia with his tone of voice. He was just there for his own business, and wasn’t interested in taking things any further than they had already gone. Amelia smiled at him with her flirty, seductive lips, and then sat down on the barstool next to him.
“John, you’ll have to join us,” she said. “One of my girlfriends is getting married, and I insisted that she and her friends come out to Blackthorn for the engagement celebration.”
John wrinkled his forehead at her and shook his head. The bar maid set a beer in front of him, and he took a long sip of it before turning back to Amelia.
“I’m just here for a beer, Amelia,” he said. “I have… Business to take care of. Estate running stuff, Count stuff, that kind of thing.”
Amelia just laughed and grabbed his hand, pulling him over to the group of women as though his objections were amusing to her. There were about seven or eight of them, and they were all attractive, dressed in well to do clothing, and very, very drunk.
“Everyone, this is Count John Ludling! He’s our special guest for tonight!” Amelia laughed and pushed John into the center of the group. He tripped over the leg of a chair as he went forward and practically fell onto one of the women, whose breasts pushed against his chest and under one of his hands as though they were there to break his fall.
“Sorry!” said John. “I’m really not, I’m just here because-“
“Ooooh!” The woman in front of him smiled, fascinated by him, and then kissed him on the cheek. “Do you live up in that big mansion, up on the cliffs?”
“Yes, I uh…” John trailed off as a couple of the women began drunkenly pawing at him. A hand came to a rest on his crotch and began massaging with gentle movements. He glanced at Amelia and saw her smiling from ear to ear.
“I’m going to put some music on the speakers,” she said. “I think a dance party is exactly what you need for your hen night, Jacqueline.”
“Oh, that would be perfect!” One of the women to the side of John giggled, and then all of them broke into laughter. He felt another hand on his cock, and this time his tool was hard enough for the woman to be able to stroke him off a little through his pants.
“Watch out you guys, the Count’s packing!” laughed one of them.
“I really should be getting going…” John started for a gap in between the group, but several of the women rubbed the
ir hands on his chest.
“You can’t leave yet!” the woman behind him whispered in his ear. “I want to dance with you, the dirty kind of dancing.”
John was well aware of just how drunk the women were, and felt like the best thing for him to do, the smart thing, would be to extricate himself from the situation. Unfortunately, one of the women was still rubbing his cock gently, and the feeling was intoxicating, enough to keep his legs parked right where they were.
Loud pop music began to play in the bar. It had filled up a little since John had first arrived, and even though it was still relatively early in the night, the place was surprisingly full. Amelia made her way back over to the group and pushed herself by a couple of the women, pushed herself forward until she was right up against John.
“I only just met John yesterday, but he’s already proven himself to be a strapping young lad.” Amelia spoke in a flirtatious voice, one that caused her friends to break into girlish giggles.
“You are evil, Amelia,” laughed one of them. “You can’t have him all to yourself, though!”
The group moved together, away from the bar and table and towards the clear floor section that had apparently been designated as a dance floor. John moved with them, smiling and beginning to feel a light buzz from the beer.
He was deep in the middle of the sexy women. One of them was keen on grinding her butt into his cock, an action that made his entire body pulse with pleasure. Without really thinking about it, John reached his hands around to the front of her and slid them up her stomach, coming to a rest just underneath her boobs.
“There you go, Mr. Count,” the woman whispered. “You know how to dance dirty, after all.”
John felt a hand reach out and caress his cheek, turning his face to the side. It was Amelia’s, and a moment later he felt her lips on his. She pushed her tongue deep into his mouth, and then pulled back, standing on her tip toes and pushing her cleavage into his face.
Illicit Inheritance: The Complete Collection (Taboo Erotica) Page 8
