Lucy put a calming hand over Julie’s, but Julie snatched her hand away.
‘How could you do it Lucy? How could you?’ She ran out of breath and the last word ended in a high pitched squeak. Lucy slapped the table with the palm of her rejected hand and snapped back at her. ‘Calm down Julie and listen! Listen to what I have to say.’
Shocked by the sever tone coming from the woman she had been on such intimate terms with the previous evening, Julie stifled a sob and sat up straight. Lucy looked at her kindly and spoke softly.
‘We have other things to do you and I Julie. I don’t want my lover spending her days cleaning; I want you to help me run my other business interests – as a partner.’ Lucy got to her feet, moved behind the first stack of papers and folders, placed a hand on it and waved her other hand to encompass the other neat piles. ‘Each pile of papers relates to a business I either own outright, or have a substantial interest in.’ She touched the first pile of folders. ‘This is my Property Portfolio. I’ve got over thirty properties, including this one and whilst that gives me a good rent book I need to keep on top of decorating, and repairs – that sort of thing.’ She moved to the next pile. ‘Over the years, as a spin-off from my properties, I’ve acquired a substantial financial interest in a well known firm of Estate Agents. Then, because I had difficulty in obtaining the security I needed for my properties, I bought and developed a security business. A retired police officer runs that for me.’ Moving towards the other end of the table she picked up and waved a folder enthusiastically at Julie. ‘You’ll love visiting this one, an antiques shop in Chelsea, a fantastic business. It’s managed by an old school friend of mine, you‘ll like her.’ She moved on. ‘I have a substantial interest in a small chain of exclusive cosmetic shops. Another spin-off, from my property interests, is this specialist kitchen and bedroom fitting company.’ She touched the next pile briefly. ‘This is my website,’ and moved quickly to the last two folders. ‘This is Top Choice Dynamic, my travel company and finally, until yesterday, Pro-Clean, our little cleaning company.’ She arrived behind Julie and gently stroked her hair. Catlike, Julie moved her head in appreciation. Lucy carried on stroking as she whispered softly in her ear. ‘All my businesses are growing Julie and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to keep track of what’s going on. I need someone I can trust to help me and that someone is you.’
Julie reached up for Lucy‘s hand. ‘Sorry,’ she whispered, ‘it’s just that yesterday seemed too good to be true. I guess I was half expecting something to go wrong.’
‘I understand, but it hasn’t. So let me tell you precisely what I’m offering, so there can be no doubts’ Lucy gave her hand an affectionate squeeze before returning to her chair. ‘It’s a very complex situation Julie, I’m going to tell you everything and when I have, you may not wish to remain close to me. I hope that will not be the case, because I love you very much, but you must know what you are getting into.’
‘I’ll always want to be close to you.’
Lucy returned her smile. ‘Let’s see, shall we?’ Julie gave a silent nod of assent. Lucy reached across and took the envelope back. ‘That was very thoughtless of me, it’s not money that motivates you and I like that. I wish I could be more like you, but I can’t. I’m driven by two things, money and sex. Most of the time they go together, or they certainly did in the early days, but I’ll come to that later. First, let me tell you about Pro-Clean. I set up our cleaning company for two reasons. One because I didn’t want to see you go off, do something else and lose contact with you.’
Julie flashed her a grateful smile. Lucy returned the smile and continued.
‘The second and you must believe me, nowhere near as compelling a reason as the first, despite what I’ve said about being motivated by money, was to get close to Travel Plan and gain some information on their dynamic travel business.’
Julie was wondering what dynamic travel was all about. She was a bit shocked about the industrial espionage, but delighted to think Lucy didn’t want to lose her. ‘It’s probably just as well I didn’t know about your spying. What is dynamic travel?’
Lucy smiled, she was thankful that Julie had calmed down, but there was the biggest hurdle still to overcome. How was she going to react when she found out where the money for all her ventures came from? One thing at a time though, first she had to convince her that selling Pro-Clean had been the right thing to do.
‘Travel Plan have a new division called Travel Plan Dynamic. Basically, what they do is identify the people who have outgrown, or wouldn’t be seen dead on a package holiday and, for a fee, offer to put an individual dream holiday package together for them. It’s a fast growing area in travel and one I identified as offering great profit potential for my flagging travel business, especially if I could get hold of Travel Plan Dynamic’s customer data base.’
‘Isn’t that illegal?’
‘It would be if they could prove anything, but it will probably be some weeks before they realise they’re losing business and even longer, if ever, before they trace that loss to a cleaning lady. As far as I’m concerned they shouldn’t leave stuff lying around.’
‘You mean you just picked up lists of customer names and walked off with them?’
‘Not exactly, I had to hack into their computer system.’ She was tempted to tell her about the unwitting help she received from the sales director, but thought better of it. Perhaps later when they knew each other better and Julie appreciated and understood her sexual appetite. She simply told her they had all the information they needed for Top Choice Dynamic which had already generated an incredible level of new business. She owned fifty one percent of Top Choice Dynamic, her sister, Helen, who ran the business on a day to day basis, owned the remainder.
‘So what do you say Julie? You’ve lost Pro-Clean, but you have an equal share in my interest in Top Choice Dynamic and all my other businesses. Julie was excited at the prospect, not so much by the money as being tied closely to the woman she loved but it was all too much too soon. She voiced her doubts.
‘But why Lucy? Why would you give me half share in all your businesses? It doesn’t make sense.’
‘It does to me Julie. As things stand, if I should die, everything I own will go my family and believe me, they don’t need it – or deserve it. Sounds harsh I know, but, apart from my sister Helen, no one has spoken to me for years.’
‘You’re too young to die.’
‘Through natural causes maybe, but an accident can happen to anyone at anytime. So, apart from something for Helen, I’m determined my family won’t profit from my chosen career, which brings me to the way I have amassed my small fortune. When I wanted to lose my virginity, Helen, who is two years older, warned me that if I was anything like her, I would hate being penetrated by a man – but, I loved it. I became desperate for sex but no one man could satisfy my needs. My family are wealthy, one of the most well known and respected names in private banking. They wanted to pay to cure of my nymphomania, but I didn’t want to be cured. I loved being fucked and fucked and fucked again. I soon realised the best way to fulfil my needs, earn lots of money and be independent from my family, was to become a high class call girl. Lovebrace incidentally is not my family name; I changed my name to Lovebrace by deed pole, much to the relief of my parents. Lovebrace is the name I use in all my legitimate business transactions and for my – other business, I use Anita von Beta.’ Lucy paused, waiting for Julie’s reaction. Surprisingly, she did not appear shocked or disapproving, she simply pointed to the folders on the table. ‘But you don’t need that sort of money now? These must provide you with a very good income?’