The next day, Kylie woke up with a pounding headache. She yawned, threw on her housecoat, stepped out into the hallway, and found herself face to face with Stephen. At first, she didn"t know what to say. He wasn"t wearing a shirt, and he didn"t seem to care that she had seen him half-naked. After a second, Kylie tightened her housecoat and started screaming."Why are you here?!" she shouted.
"Oh, calm your t.i.ts, toots!" Stephen laughed while looking at her, amused.
Kylie looked past Stephen and yelled for Ethan to come and save her.
The next door opened into Ethan"s gym, and when he emerged from it, he took one look at the situation and said, "Stephen, go to your room and get dressed, and don"t you dare come out until I"ve given you permission! How dare you walk around half-naked knowing that there"s a woman here,"
Frightened, Stephen turned around to go back to his room. Once he was gone, Kylie looked at Ethan and asked him what Stephen was doing in their house, especially without them talking about it first. She was so annoyed that he didn"t tell her earlier.
Ethan strode over to her, kissed her on the mouth, and said, "Stephen is having his house renovated. He will be out of our house as soon as his place was done with all the renovation. I am sorry. I should have told you, but it was a last-minute thing. He had made other arrangements, but they unexpectedly fell through."
Ethan kissed her again, but she couldn"t get into it. Unexpectedly, every time their mouths touched, she found herself thinking about Bethany, and she couldn"t stop herself from comparing the two. Ethan was strong, rough, protective, and kinky. She could never imagine Bethany being into Bondage, Dominance, Sadism, and Masochism – and she felt safe in his arm. There were things about Bethany too though that sent shivers down her back.
Bethany was soft and smelled so sweet. When they had touched each other, it was something different like an electric shock, and it was true what they said: only a woman could ever properly please a woman. She tried to remember the last time she"d had her head between a woman"s legs and realized that she wanted to be there again.
As Ethan moved in to kiss her again, Stephen"s door opened. Embarra.s.sed, he closed the door quickly, and Kylie used this as an opportunity to pull away.
"What did I tell you?" Ethan shouted as he pounded on Stephen"s door. "I told you to stay in your room until you are called upon. Don"t forget that I am helping you out of the kindness of my heart. If you didn"t listen, though, I would have no qualms about kicking you out!"
When Ethan turned around, he found that Kylie was gone. He went downstairs and found her in the kitchen, preparing a sandwich. "My brother is a very good cook," he said. "If you are ever hungry, tell him, and he will make something for you."
"Is he as good a cook as you are?" Kylie wondered.
"Much better," Ethan laughed. "Do you have any plans for the day?"
"I have a shareholder"s meeting," she replied. "If I don"t leave right away, I will be late."
"That"s too bad," Ethan said as he shrugged his shoulders. "I had hoped that we could spend the day together…
"Once I come back, we"ll spend time together," she said.
Ethan grabbed her again and kissed her lips, "You were so drunk last night, and I felt annoyed seeing you kissing, Bettany,"
"Hold it, honey. It was just a game!" she smiled at him yet, she still could feel Bettany"s lips to hers.
Before Ethan could say another word, he stuck a sandwich unto his mouth," It tastes good! I didn"t know you can make a sandwich like this,"
She didn"t answer, instead kissed him back.
***
Kylie was the last person to arrive for the meeting, and Laurence wasn"t impressed. Kylie looked at the clock and said, "I am not late. I am just on time."
"In this business," Laurence snapped, "if you aren"t early, then you are late. Consider that to be the first of many lessons to come."
Once Kylie was seated, one of the older shareholders stood up and said, "Now that we are all here, let"s get this meeting started. He pointed to Laurence and said, "As of yet, none of us know why this meeting was called. I know that some of us have our fingers crossed in the hope that there will be a bonus coming our way so, before everyone gets their hopes too high, the floor is yours."
The old man sat down as Laurence stood up. He was about to speak when Kylie stood up, looked at Laurence, and said, "Whatever you have to say, you can hold it. Once I"ve had my say, you might find that you actually don"t have anything worth saying."
One of the members scowled and said, "You have made a grievous error in a.s.suming you have a voice at this table. You have been invited as a guest. This is a shareholder"s meeting. Only shareholders have a voice here. The more shares that you have, the more say that you have. Since you have no shares, you have no say. I hope that I have made myself clear!"
Kylie smiled confidently and said, "I am surprised. Didn"t President Finch tell you the exciting news?"
The shareholders all looked at Laurence expectantly. One person asked him, "What is the exciting news?"
Laurence looked down at the table with fear in his eyes. "Kylie owns ten percent of the shares," he muttered."
Hearing the news, most of the shareholder"s faces turned a light shade of green. In the past, they had been unkind to Kylie. The realization that Kylie now had more control than they did frighten them. Some of them looked happy, though. These were the ones who weren"t happy with the way things had been going lately and were optimistic about having Kylie on board.