Perfectly Normal (3 page)

“I
disagree! I think it makes perfect sense. Let me show you my undying gratitude by ending the man who almost destroyed you. I can continue to train and we can search for something that will expose Sergei’s soft side. He has to have one, every man has one,” she said and reached for his cock, now spent and laying against his leg. “Even you, my love…my Dimi.” She felt it jerk to life at her touch, contradicting her joke and she giggled. “You always have to prove me wrong.”

“You are a cock hungry little bitch, aren’t you?” he rasped as he swelled to his full length. “This time you will know your place,” he added and with a swift motion he had her off him and flipped on her back before she knew
what was happening. All talk of Sergei was forgotten as when she saw the singular intent in his eyes.

“Come on
,” she pleaded with a laugh, “I liked being on top.”

“You’ll like this too, little dove,” he said with fire in his eyes and a wicked grin on his face, “I promise you that you will like this.” He dragged the rest of her clothes off and proceeded to make good on his earlier threat.
He devoured her pussy until Columbia was shaking and begging to suck his cock. Ever a man of his word, he allowed her to and Columbia drank him dry under the bright heat of summer.

*****

After they were both satiated they went for a swim. Columbia dared herself to swim to the edge overlooking the city, to help conquer her fear of falling. Dimitri knew by now how she felt so he hung back, letting her tackle it on her own. Small things like this added to her growing confidence. She wasn’t a little mouse any longer, but she certainly was far from feeling like the lioness she felt growing inside of her. Once at the edge she forced herself to bend over, looking down to where the water poured, being drawn back into the pool.

“This isn’t that bad,” she said and turned back to Dimitri, “who knows, I might even get down there to clean it some day.”

He swam to her, joined her looking over the edge and said, “Let’s not get too crazy here, we have staff for that.”

“You elitist pig,” she teased him. “But you’re right, I need to conquer my lousy fighting abilities before I conquer the rest of the pool.”

“We will have the concierge start back with your training first thing in the morning,” he said and wrapped his arms around her. They were both naked and she loved the slippery, indulgent sensation of his body pressed against her in their own private pool. A few short months ago she was scraping by on the small allowance her father saw fit to dole out. Now she wanted for nothing and money was no longer a concern.

“What’s his name?” she asked, “Are you ever going to tell me?”

“That’s his choice,” Dimitri replied, “I’ve told you this already.”

“Why is he so stubborn with it?” she asked and
let her body relax against him. They watched the lights come on all over the city. Soon they could see the nightly light show over the harbour. She never grew tired of it.

“He’s a stubborn man,” Dimitr
i said and held her tighter. He nuzzled her neck and she felt a thrill of sensation travel from her pussy to her nipples. A tingling buzz that occurred almost every time he touched her. Which is exactly why he wasn’t teaching her to fight himself. They’d tried at first, but every single time ended up with them sweating and writhing on the floor of the gym or up here. She learned nothing but where he liked to be bitten and how much she loved being held down by the throat and madly fucked.

“Ok, but what about his name? Why won’t you tell me if he doesn’t?” she pressed on. It was driving her a little crazy these last weeks. She lived with the man but knew nothing about him.

“His name is his to give,” he replied, “I saved his life long ago and he pledged his to me. To serve me. If it weren’t for him I would have never survived Sergei’s attack, so in turn I owe him my own life. He is a very stubborn and private man who believes in the power of knowledge. He deals in knowledge. So for him to give you his name, his most intimate part, is to give you power over him. That will come with time, but for now be patient.” He kissed her neck and she turned to face him.

“You know he loves you, right?” she said and ran her hands over his body. She couldn’t keep herself from touching and teasing him every chance she got. They had drifted closer to the shallow end of the pool so Dimitri could now stand. She let him hold
her up and she loved the sensation of floating in his arms.

“We have affection for one another,” he replied. “You
can’t help but care for someone with whom you have forged such a close bond. Someone who has seen you through the worst times in your life and remained steadfast by your side. It’s one of friendship though, you aren’t jealous are you?” He smiled and looked a little smug. He loved it when she got jealous. They fired a housekeeper for that very reason, Dimitri glanced at the girl when they were having breakfast and Columbia had felt her jealousy flare up, a white-hot rage. She played it up a little to please Dimitri, but she was glad the woman was gone. She believed herself to be above such petty emotions.

“I’m not jealous, but I saw him here, earlier. When we were having sex. He was watching us,” she said.”

“That seems natural, he’s a man with needs after all. Of course he’d be curious to see what a magnificent creature such as yourself would look like in the act of love.” Dimitri swelled with pride.

“He wasn’t watching me though,” she said, “he had his eyes fixed on you. Until he saw me looking, then he got flustered and left. I think he loves you.”

Dimitri considered it for a moment, then shrugged his shoulders and said, “It doesn’t matter either way. I am made for you, and only you. My poor, lonely concierge will have to find his other half elsewhere.”

He kissed her
and made her forget their conversation. By the time the light show started on the harbour, Columbia was twisting and panting under Dimitri’s strong hands as he plunged into her yet again that day. She never grew tired of this either.

Chapter Two

“Listen to me, god damn it!” the concierge yelled at Columbia as she faltered again and fell. He took the opportunity to land a swift kick to her ass and she rolled away from him.

“Fuck, I am listening, you just aren’t explaining yourself,” she said in a huff as she stood up. They were in the gym practicing again, yet one more training session in a long string of sessions that seemingly went on forever. At least that’s how it felt for Columbia.

“If you were listening, you
wouldn’t be dead again. For the millionth time,” he spat, his face twisted in disgust.

“But I’m not,” Columbia retorted, her own anger rising in the face of her own defeat. She hated to lose to him, but it felt like for every victory she suffered ten losses. She was getting sick of it, and was physically exhausted by the constant training. Her body had never looked so amazing, she was long and lean and her muscles sculpted perfectly under her tight skin. If it weren’t for her ridges and scars from years of cutting, her body would be perfection. As it was, Dimitri found it perfect so that was enough for her.

“You’re not what?” the concierge replied coolly, one brow raised.

“I’m not dead. This is just practice.”

“Neither your heart nor your head are in this, little girl,” he told her, “your lack of ability will be the death of all of us one day.”

“Whatever,” she replied and turned to leave. “I’m going to find Dimitri,” she said and stormed away from the concierge.

“You won’t find your knowledge at the end of his cock,” he called out to her as she left, “and you won’t find him at all right now. He’s on a call with Madrid.”

She slammed the door as best she could, but it was a large door on a pneumatic hinge so the effect was less than satisfactory. She would have given anything to slam someth
ing like her old bedroom door. It had been made of cheap, hollow pressboard. Now that gave one hell of a good feeling when storming away from somebody.

She ran to her and Dimi’s room and flung herself on the bed. She’d
been at this training for five weeks now and felt like she was going half mad. She never quite got the results she wanted and she was ready to give up.

She even missed home. More specifically she missed her freedom and she missed Eden.
She hadn’t spoken to Eden in over a week, and only when Dimitri and the concierge had set up a secure line for her to call out. She was sick of being treated like an imbecile, she was sick of being trapped and she was sick to death of being afraid of something that happened long before she came along.

She decided to call her little sister
against their orders. They’d been here long enough for her to deduce that nothing was happening, and how would his enemies know where she was, or even who she was?

She hesitated. The other
concern was that the police would still be looking for her after the murder of her father. Her stepfather. She was starting to allow herself to call him this now that she had killed him. Calling him anything but father had been one of the biggest sins in her former life, one that would often result in a beating and possibly more in the dark cover of night.

What if they were monitoring Eden’s phone?

She decided to fuck it, and call anyhow. She was desperate for some connection and a modicum of stability, especially given her pent up anxiety.

Eden picked up on the first ring, “Hey!” she exclaimed brightly. “
You weren’t supposed to call for another day or two. Can we Skype? I want to show you my new hair.”

“Sure,” Columbia replied, “I’ll call right back.” Eden was notorious for getting different hair each week. At least Columbia knew the millions they’d given her family was going to something beyond her mother’s gambling and drinking.

Eden answered the video chat immediately and said, “Ta-da,” as she bent her head down and moved it back and forth for Columbia to get the full effect.

“Wow,” Columbia answered, “that’s very…pink!”

“Yeah, I’m kind of a girly girl this week,” Eden giggled.

“Did you ever talk to
the admissions people at St. Michaels?” she asked. Now that they could afford it, she wanted Eden to go to the best private school in Vancouver. Eden seemed really reluctant to leave her current school and all her friends though.

“Yeah, about that,” Eden said and trailed off. “It’s just that I really don’t want to go. I’ll be going
there in grade nine and I don’t know how well I’ll do with all the preppy douchebags. I like my school. All my friends are there and Ethan…”

“Ethan who?” Columbia asked, surprised. Eden had never mentioned a boy before.

“Just this guy I met, he transferred in from North Vancouver. His parents moved over here.”

“You’re a little too young to have a boyfriend,” Columbia said sternly but felt helpless. She couldn’t enforce it from here and their mother was essentially useless when it came to dealing with her daughters.”

“I know, but he’s not my boyfriend. And I don’t want to wait until I’m practically a forty year old virgin like you,” Eden replied and blushed as if instantly regretting her hasty words. “Oh hey, Mom’s home. Say Hi!”

Before Columbia could pr
otest, she saw the blur of the new kitchen in their new house as Eden handed the phone over. Her mother’s face filled the screen before Columbia had time to click the end button or feign a late appointment. She never had been able to explain to her mother the reason behind killing her father. Columbia knew the other woman had to know something was up all those years, but to speak of it to her was too much.

“Columbia, where are you?” her mother asked right off the bat.

“You know I can’t tell you that,” she answered. “How are you mom?”

“How do you think I
am? I’m still mourning. Widowed for the second time? Having to explain to everyone that my own daughter killed my husband. Seriously, how do you think I feel?”

Her mother had obviously had some cosmetic work done but it couldn’t cover the years of hard drinking and hard living. She still looked pinched and
angry, even with new hair, new make-up and new clothes.

“I’m sorry,” Columbia
replied, but not sorry one bit. Killing that man had been the best thing she’d ever done. She’d single handedly saved herself and Eden. And Dimitri, if what he said was true. She believed him though, that she had saved him from himself, from going deranged with paranoia.

“Sorry ain’t gonna cut it, Col. Is that all the money you’re sending us or will there be more?”

Columbia had transferred the contents of her own seven-figure account to her mom, and she knew Dimitri had sent a few million more. How could she have possibly spent even a portion of the money by now? “We’ll send more when you need it,” Columbia replied. “Is the house ok?”

“Yeah, it’s nice,” her mom reluctantly agreed. They had purchased her mom and Eden a five thousand square foot mansion close to the UBC Endowment Lands. It was on a huge private lot overlooking the ocean.

“How’s the staff? Is Eden getting along with her tutor?” Columbia asked. Eden’s tutor was actually a highly paid bodyguard, sent there to watch over Eden in case anyone made the connection between Dimitri’s new houseguest and her former life.

“She’s nice, Eden seems to like her,” her mother replied. “She hangs around too much maybe, but Eden needs somebody. I’m just so busy these days.”

“Ok mom, I have to go, tell Eden I love her. Bye,” Columbia said and hit the end button finally. She just couldn’t keep up this façade any longer. She knew what her mother meant by busy, she meant gambling and drinking and fucking whatever men she could drag between her legs. At least Eden would be protected, Columbia was glad they had seen to that. The call wore her down, to face her mother, the woman who had put her in such peril in the first place, and the woman who had abandoned her to the wolf in her fairy tale life.

Columbia rolled
off the bed and paced the room. She knew she’d have to deal with the bitter emotions her mother brought up in her at some point, but not today.

She had a quick shower
to ease her frustration but it didn’t work. She dried her hair and carefully applied her make up as the woman who delivered it had taught her. She chose casual but beautiful and luxurious clothing, pants and a blouse. She paused in front of the floor length mirror in her closet and barely recognized herself. She looked elegant and monied. Not the same ratty girl she used to be.

It was only ten in the morning and she suspected Dimitri would be busy for hours on the phone or on Skype. He dealt with his associates this way, still never leaving the penthouse. Columbia had only been out a couple of times with the concierge, she needed to work on Dimitri’s confidence. She’d been
encouraging him to deal with his facial scarring lately. She thought he might be warming up to the idea.

“Fuck it,” she
muttered and grabbed her purse. It was crocodile Birkin Bag, something she’d once only dreamed of after seeing it on a “Sex in the City” episode. Now it was hers, as many as she wanted. She thought about going to get the concierge but decided against it. She wanted to explore the city on her own for a little while without his watchful eye.

She slipped on some comfortable but stylish shoes and left through the front door. She almost decided against her plan when she was heading down the elevator, but decided she needed to conquer this fear. She didn’t want to end up like Dimitri, hiding away
. She knew she would be nameless and faceless among the residents of the city; she could blend in as long as she didn’t show her arms or torso.

She decided to not call their driver and hopped on a bus. She
rode to Central Station and bought herself a Coke, feeling giddy with this small act of rebellion. She watched the crowds pass for a time, overwhelmed by the sheer number of people coming and going. She was going to head back when a little voice encouraged her to spread her wings farther. It might have been her reaction to losing to the concierge every time they fought, it might have been the bitter bile she’d bottled after speaking to her mother…or it might have simply been her long-suppressed wild side, but she decided to listen.

She bought a ticket and got on the Star Ferry to Tsim Sha
Tsui, intending to hit the open-air markets in Mongkok. She sat near a window and felt the ocean breeze on her face, listened to the Cantonese and various languages around her and basically enjoyed her time alone.

She walked
all the way to Mongkok, pausing along the way to shop at some of the nicer places on Nathan Road, dodging the hawkers and their calls of, “Madam, handbag? Copy watches? Madam?”

She might have followed them to their stores a year ago, but these days she didn’t need to purchase knock offs. Her trip
to the market was more for the experience than to haggle for counterfeit Ed Hardy clothing and Coach purses.

She found the
Lady’s Market and was not disappointed. She cursed her greed along the way and found it difficult to maneuver through the thick clots of people with all the shopping bags hanging from her wrists.

Columbia felt absolutely uplifted with her freedom
though. The scents of the street, even the bad ones coming from food stands and restaurants made her feel connected to the city somehow. She took in the movement of the crowds and the sharp sounds of languages foreign to her ears. She loved every minute of it and felt positively exotic, like an early explorer on a grand adventure. She paused and got caught up staring at a stall of Angry Bird stuffed toys, wondering if pink haired Ethan-loving Eden would even like these things anymore.

She felt a tug on her hand and in a flash a young man made off with several of her bags. “Hey, stop him!” she cried out but nobody heard or
cared. She was one of a million people on the streets today, and nobody wanted to get involved.

She raced after him and
luckily the thick crowds catching on her shopping bags slowed him. She almost caught up right before he darted into a side street. She ran around the corner and saw a flash of colour near the end of the block and he turned yet again into another side street. She was in hot pursuit, too fast and angry to notice that she was being lead into a trap.

She dodged around the corner
and he was standing there, bags on the ground and kicked to the side. It was then that she noticed how dangerous he looked, this was no common street thief, she was sure of it. He was Chinese, much taller than her, lean and strong. His hair was cropped short and his clothing was stylish but loose in the fashion of Hong Kong’s underground cage fighters. His eyes were beautiful, too deep and soulful to belong to a petty criminal. He looked more like a poet than somebody who steals for a living.