I Opia (7 page)

She was becoming more aroused by the moment. She released the restraints on his hands and his feet. She released his gag. She leaned down and whispered in his ear, “Roll over, Julian. I want to see your face.” Chow complied and rolled over. Blaine was pleasantly surprised at how aroused he was. She gazed admiringly at his erection. Among his many virtues, she could certainly add that he was well endowed.

She took the nipple clamps that he had shown her prior to submitting to her and placed one on each of his nipples. He took in a sharp breath as she clamped each one. She then took the oil and gently rubbed it on his chest, then down his torso. She was careful to not touch his erection yet. She then took the oil and gently rubbed down each of his legs.

She reached up and pulled the chain attached to each clamp. He tensed but did not make a sound. He was watching her intently and she knew that he was trying to read her next move. She stood over him and looked him in the eye for what seemed an eternity. For once, she felt confident enough not to blush, not to look away, but to meet his eyes as an equal. She would later realize that this was the greatest lesson that he would teach her.

She placed one knee beside him on the bed and swung her other leg over him. She now straddled his erection. She reached between her legs and released the snaps on her corset. Very slowly while continuing to make eye contact and while pulling on the nipple clamp chain, she eased herself onto his hardness. She could feel him becoming even harder inside her as she lowered herself.

Once he was completely inside her, she sat very still, then leaned over and kissed him. She placed her tongue in his mouth and he responded in kind. With his hands now free, he grabbed her by the back of the head and kissed her long and hard. Blaine could not remember a more sensual moment.

He slid his hands down her corset and grabbed her by the hips. He began to lift her and then thrust himself into her. Blaine instinctively responded. She felt her internal muscles tighten around his erection. As he thrust inside her harder and faster, she closed her eyes and leaned her head back. She was trying to slow her breathing and stop herself from falling off the edge too soon. She wanted this moment, this sensation, to last forever.

She could finally stand it no longer and leaned forward and grabbed his hips as her body shuddered with sweet release. She literally felt like her head and body would shatter with the pleasure flowing through her. She heard something amid the explosion in her body and realized that it was the sound of her own voice calling out in a sense of urgency. Before she could catch her breath, he began thrusting harder in his own release. The feel of his erection, the motion of the thrusting, and the sight of his beautiful shining body as he came overwhelmed her. She felt her body begin to shudder as she came again, even more intensely than the first time.

After both were spent, she still sat on him, still savoring the sensation of him filling her. After they both cooled down, she eased herself off of him and moved to the side of him. For the first time, she felt unsure of what to do next. Chow seemed to sense this and pulled her to him. With her head on his chest and his arms holding her, he stroked her hair in tenderness.

“Blaine,” he said quietly and she realized this was the first time she had heard him say her first name, “You now realize how much better it feels to be in control. For you to be successful, you must use your beauty to obtain a position of power, never let someone use your beauty to control you. I will help you as you maneuver the new world you are about to enter. That world is one where power, control, and intelligence will net you many rewards. Your beauty is only one means toward that end. Don’t depend on it more than your mind.”

She lay there and pondered what he had said. She realized that she was indeed about to enter a new world. In two months, she would also enter her next decade of life when she turned 30. She realized she was ready for what this new world had to offer.

“Thank you, Julian.” She whispered.

That was five years ago.
Now she and Vince ran a successful company, iOpia, Inc. They came up with the name as a combination of Utopia and Cornucopia—in other words, pleasure in a lot of things. The years seemed to have flown by since their first procurement for Julian Chow. Chow to this day remained their best client, and his referrals were indeed paying off.

He also remained one of Blaine’s lovers and her teacher, though both held true to the promise not to ever be public and to never let pleasure interfere with business. iOpia, Inc. had a loyal group of clients whose procurement requests were available on the open market and obtained through legal transactions. Blaine teased that these were the boring clients.

When Vince had agreed to the partnership, they established a legitimate, tax-paying corporation. Julian Chow had led them to the right attorney. Right, of course, meaning one that would not ask too many questions. Chow’s final payment for their first procurement allowed them to move to a bigger space—the Wynne Gallery expanded and occupied the bottom floor of a building on 4
th
Street, with iOpia, Inc. on the top floor.

Chow had reinforced Elizabeth’s advice to Blaine—no one with money wants to deal with someone who doesn’t have, or at least have the appearance of, money. Thus the space iOpia occupied was gorgeous and reeked of success.

In addition, Vince specially designed the conference room so that it was soundproof. He had installed a device that would scramble any message that someone may try to record or electronically send. The two were also very insistent on regularly scanning the room for bugs. One of the many downfalls of a double life is that one never knows when someone else is also leading a double life or may in fact be a member of law enforcement.

They had kept Matthew on staff and moved him with them to the larger space. Blaine had met Delores shortly thereafter and she became the fourth member of the team. Other staff had since been added. However, only Blaine and Vince knew about the procurements that were not on the open market. Delores and the rest of the staff had no clue. Matthew, however, after the first heist had suspicions. After all, he had found the two paintings Blaine had asked him to find, only to learn later that the paintings were missing.

He had asked Blaine, “Boss, ummm, did you see that
'The Nude in Blue' and 'Nude Reflections’ paintings were stolen?”

She had looked Matthew in the eye and without flinching said, “Matthew I trust you explicitly. If I didn’t you wouldn’t still be with me. That said, I also care about you and would never put you in harm’s way. So please, never question me again about any research I ask you to do. You will be compensated nicely. In fact, there will be a nice bonus for you.”

Matthew had sat there for a moment in silence, pondering. “Matthew, if you feel uncomfortable continuing with me, I understand. I would love for you to stay and help me grow this business. You decide.” And with that she walked toward the back office to start packing for the move.

He called after her, “Boss?”

Blaine stopped and turned, “Yes, Matthew?”

“I am in. Whatever you need, let me know. You are the only person who has given me an opportunity. I really like working for you.”

“Thank you Matthew. In return, I promise to take care of you and protect you. Understood?”

“Yea, boss. I understand. Thank you.” And that was the last time Matthew ever questioned Blaine or questioned the nice bonuses that came his way.

Though they were legally incorporated, Blaine and Vince had their own partnership agreement. No notaries, no attorneys, no witnesses involved. They had sat with a bottle of wine and created the partnership that would bind them.

Our Partnership Agreement

Partners will always split 50/50, regardless of who discovers the inventory, unless otherwise agreed upon.

Never take an item for the sake of taking. There must be a buyer for every item.

Never take items to keep. All inventory is procured to be sold. Keeping inventory increases the risk of discovery.

Never steal from someone the Partnership stole for. Once the inventory is delivered to the client, it will not be taken by the Partners again. In other words, we will not procure an item from someone whom we procured for.

Partners will only accept procurement jobs that can be accomplished with limited personnel, preferably the two partners only. The more people involved, the greater chance of discovery.

Partners must always agree on the assignment.

Partners will hide in the open and both agree to maintain respectable status.

The partners agree that staff will be well compensated and protected.

We will only call the number when we ourselves cannot figure out the situation.

There were no signatures and nothing in the document to reflect the authors or the partners. It was a ‘pinkie swear’ between two lifelong friends. “The number” referred to in the agreement was one that Chow had provided Blaine. If she were trapped or in an emergency situation such as being caught, she could call the number. It would not be Chow at the other end, but the message would get through and help would come. That said, he warned her, it was to be used only when her back was to the wall and there was no other way out. Once action was deployed from use of the number it could not be stopped.

It was funny that to this day, Blaine never got nervous during a procurement, but Vince struggled each time with his nerves. Blaine had no idea why this double life came so easy to her and was so much harder for Vince. Perhaps because she was a woman and women always had to live a sort of double life to be successful in a man’s world. Or perhaps because she had made up her mind to be financially secure and the means to that end was not something she was going to second guess or to judge. Whatever the reason, she was damn good at what she did, and now to be a recipient of the Woman of the Year Award was proof that she had indeed made it work.

Both Blaine and Vince had their own homes now. They had selected nice, spacious townhomes in a gated community where they could live next door to each other, but still have their privacy. Blaine had giggled about Vince’s insistence that it be a gated community for safety.

“Really?” Blaine had teased him, “You mean to keep us safe from people like us?” Vince had just rolled his eyes at her.

They were located near the country club where they played golf, entertained, and rubbed elbows with the upper echelon of Austin. It never ceased to amaze Blaine how open rich people were about their purchases and their possessions.

What she didn’t hear about in conversation, Matthew found out via social media postings. Nothing like a tweet,
“Nightfall by Monet is mine!” #sothebysauction
or better yet a post on Facebook, “
Heading to India for a two week tour. Can’t wait!”
Only to let Blaine and Vince know that an inventory item was available for a two-week period while the owners were travelling.

In fact, it was during their first procurement
for Julian Chow five years ago that they realized how invaluable Matthew’s research was and how open people were on social media. Matthew had found the two paintings that Chow wanted. Both paintings were owned by a couple in San Francisco. He tracked the owners on Facebook and discovered they were having a huge fundraising event for a local charity. Chow had worked some magic and secured an invitation for Blaine to attend.

Vince and Blaine had debated back and forth how to travel to San Francisco and how to get the paintings. Chow left that up to them. After days of agonizing, they had developed a plan. Vince, through his work in the security industry, realized that if they flew, too much information about their coming and going would be recorded. It would be much better not to be able to track their travel. Not to mention there was the issue of delivering the inventory. It wasn’t exactly like you could check multi-million dollar paintings in baggage claim.

So the idea had emerged that the two would travel in an RV. This would provide them space for the inventory and their equipment, plus RV parks were used to people coming and going. This is still how they travelled to this day when securing items that were located in the country.

They had spent a day on Craigslist and found the perfect rig. It was small and inexpensive, but the two decided it would be a good investment. They had since upgraded the rig they used to a luxury RV, not to be pretentious, but to ease the long hours of travel the two often had to endure. Since the first RV was somewhat small, it immediately became clear that being confined in such a small space under such stressful circumstances could be more that even two of the best of friends could handle.

Once the problem of travel was solved, the two turned their attention to how to get the paintings out of the house. After all, Blaine couldn’t simply show up for a party and walk out with two multi-million dollar paintings. The idea had occurred to Vince in the middle of the night.
Of course! Why didn’t I think of it before?
He ran to Blaine’s room and burst in, “I have it! The perfect idea!”

Blaine had sleepily opened one eye, “Huh? For what?”

“For what? Wake up! For what we have been thinking about day and night.”

Blaine sat up in bed and shook her head to clear it, “Okay, okay, I am with you now. What’s the perfect idea?”

“Well, Eric and I went to this fundraiser at his boss’s house. By the way, a fabulous party! Did I tell you about the . . .”

“Come on Vinny! For crap’s sake, it is the middle of the night! Get to the point.” she interrupted him exasperated.

“Oh, sorry. Well, the event was catered! Rich people aren’t going to cook it by themselves. It was catered!” Vince was excitedly pacing back and forth at the foot of her bed.

Blaine watched and waited for him to continue. He just kept muttering to himself. “Vinny, I don’t get it. So, the Mortons are not going to cook.”

“Yes, Blaine, they will have it catered. I just need to figure out a way to be on the caterer’s staff—that gets me into the house ahead of time and lets me be there without being noticed.”

Blaine’s eyes widened. She was fully awake now. “You’re right! Damn! That’s brilliant. Just one problem though—how the heck do you get a job with a caterer in San Francisco for this one event?”

“Hey, I didn’t say I had all the details worked out yet.” He ran his fingers through his hair as he continued to pace. “We need that kid of yours . . . what’s his name . . .”

“Matthew, his name is Matthew.”

“Yea, Matthew. We need him to do some digging and find out who is catering. I will figure out the rest.”

“Okay, speaking of rest. Try and get some will you?” and with that she lay back down and pulled the covers over her head.

“You know, Blaine . . . “

“Good night, Vinny.”

“Yea, good night.” Vince went back to his room and tried to sleep.

The next day, Matthew’s research revealed that the Mortons were using one of the top caterers in San Francisco. In fact, Anthony Chavez, was renowned as an event planner, caterer, and somewhat of a celebrity himself in the Bay Area. Anyone who was anyone called Anthony to cater. Matthew’s research revealed of photos of Anthony at various events and always with a man on his arm.

I just might have an advantage here
thought Vince, very pleased with himself.

Vince decided that the only way to get in with Anthony was to fly to San Francisco and meet him in person. Blaine had called Anthony’s office and pretended to be Vince’s assistant.

“Yes, this is Cynthia Pace, personal assistant to Mr. Vince Marcellias. To whom am I speaking?”

“This is Charles, Mr. Chavez’s assistant. How may I help you?” responded the voice on the other end of the line.

“Mr. Marcellias is the owner of iOpia, Inc. in Austin, Texas. The company is looking to expand into the event planning area and Mr. Marcellias has heard that Mr. Chavez is absolutely the best person to visit with. May we secure an appointment?”

After several minutes of questioning by Chavez’s assistant, Blaine was finally able to get Vince an appointment.
Holy crap! What a bitch.

She walked into Vince’s bedroom where he was working on his laptop, “Well, Mr. Marcellias. You have an appointment Tuesday with Mr. Chavez. Please don’t be late. Mr. Chavez expects promptness. Please also be totally prepared with all questions etc. as Mr. Chavez does not appreciate it when his time is wasted.”

Vince raised his eyebrows, “What?”

“Oh, yes, I just spent the last half hour not only getting you the appointment, but getting explicit instructions that go with said appointment. That said, you best start pecking away at your little laptop and make yourself a reservation.”

Two days later Vince found himself facing the one and only Anthony Chavez. Chavez was dressed in a velvet jacket with matching skinny jeans and boots. He had long dark flowing hair that he had a habit of tossing when emphasizing a point. Luckily for Vince, he was Chavez’s type so Chavez was a bit nicer than he normally would have been.