Bad Reputation, Good Reputation

Daniel drove right up to the front gates of Harrington Villa, announced his presence and was buzzed through, the sentry having already been informed of his coming. There was no more need for subterfuge. Aside from the fact that it was very unlikely that Harringtons would allow themselves to be watched, by Ravers Enterprises or otherwise, with Robert off doing his own thing Daniel no longer had to pretend he wasn’t meeting his brother. If anyone did see him, well he could simply say he was paying a visit to a client to ensure their continued support. That was technically the truth, he just wasn’t specifying whose support he was lobbying for.

He parked right outside the steps up to the main door, the family crest looming above. It wasn’t until he knocked on the door and it swung further open that he realized it hadn’t been latched. The Harringtons were a cautious bunch, planning and preparing for outcomes no one else even thought of, so leaving the door unlocked and ajar was a huge red flag to Daniel. Peering inside, he looked around but saw nothing out of place. Exquisite furniture and furnishings adorned the halls, priceless works of art Daniel had only ever read of lined the walls, but all of that was typical of Harrington manor, or what he could remember of it. He and Robert had only been inside once, and that had been some years ago.

Not a soul could be seen, but still Daniel called out ‘Hello?”

There was no reply, which was both a relief and even more unnerving. Yet, when he strained his ears, he could hear the sounds of voices talking. A conversation taking place not far away. He stepped inside, anxious of what the Harringtons might do if they found him inside their villa without being welcomed. But what if something was wrong? What if all the rumors about the other side of their business was true and someone was in real trouble?

He followed the discussion through the villa, finding where it was louder and heading in that direction until he found himself stumbling out onto the courtyard, the wide open space allowing him to take in the majesty of the Greek and Roman blend of architecture again, especially the impressive water fountain that served as the centerpiece. Beside it, his eye was drawn to the two deck chairs laid out, and the incredibly hot, curvy, topless female bodies sunning their skin upon them. Realizing what he was seeing something he shouldn’t, he decided it would be best to sneak back to the door and try knocking again, just a little louder. Unfortunately, he also decided to take one last look at the four perky, medium sized tits and lingered just a little too long.

Karen happened to glance over at her sister as she continued their previous conversation, stopping immediately when she saw Daniel standing, leering at them. She jumped to her feet, her first instinct to cover her breasts, her second instinct to look for a weapon since she felt very **** in nothing but her small blue bikini bottoms. The courtyard was rather lacking in fitting weaponry though, but if she could get to the basement, she could get a gun.

Rebecca’s laughter tore her sister out of her thought process, but before Karen could ask what was so funny, Rebecca said to Daniel, “I was wondering if you’d be too honest to use the open door. Guess I got my answer.” She sat up, swinging her legs over the edge of the chair as she pushed her sunglasses up on top of her long dark hair, baring her cool grey eyes.

“What’s the meaning of this?” Karen demanded, confused. “Do you know this perv?”

“This perv is Daniel Ravers, or don’t you recognize him?” Rebecca informed her twin, and now, with her panic fading. Karen looked again and realized that she did know the man, albeit not well and only to see. “We have a business meeting this afternoon.”

“Dammit, you didn’t tell me Becca,” Karen grabbed her towel and wrapped it around her chest, while Rebecca made no effort to cover up her gorgeous chest. “I never would have gone topless if I knew we were going to have company.”

While Karen stormed off inside, Rebecca turned again to Daniel and said, “Yes, shall we head to the parlor before we burn? It’s so hard to tan with skin so damned pale.”

Daniel didn’t really have a choice in the matter. Rebecca had already risen to her feet and was walking across the yard, back into the villa, so it was either follow or be left behind. Choosing to just go along with it, for the sake of the deal he hoped they could hash out together soon, he followed the girls inside. His eyes dropped to Rebecca’s ass, swaying tempting in front of him and he was certain that she was doing it on purpose, just as her arms swung consciously at her sides, still making no effort to cover her exposed, bouncing breasts.

“This has been fun, girls,” Daniel announced, seeing Karen standing behind a chair, her arms folded across herself, keeping the towel in place over her tits. “But I do have a meeting. Is Jeremiah about? Or Jack?”

“Nope,” Rebecca informed him in a sing song voice as she crossed the room and took a seat in the armchair, crossing her legs and resting her hands on the arms, her bared breasts sitting proud upon her chest. “Just us two.”

Daniel raised an eyebrow. “I’m not kidding. This is an important meeting.”

“Neither are we,” Rebecca assured him. “While our parents are out of town, we’re in charge. Jack only gets involved if there’s…trouble. Elias would get involved, but he’s currently away on business as well, and you did say this was urgent.”

By trouble it was obvious that she meant Jack was the one who dealt with the family’s suspected criminal ties. Though ‘suspected’ was putting it generously; it was all but a known secret at this point. However, Daniel couldn’t be sure that they weren’t simply pranking him again, so he looked to Karen. She was smiling too, seeming just as amused by his misjudgment.

“You two still look like teenagers,” Daniel remarked, imagining Heather and Zack being left in complete control without any oversight. Then again, the Harrington children had grown up with tougher lives than Zack or Heather. “I really don’t have time for any more tricks.”

“We are. Nineteen to be exact; young, innocent, **** little women, really,” she said, thrusting out her chest and inhabiting none of the adjectives she’d used for herself. “But, if you really don’t want to do a deal, then you’re welcome to leave.”

Daniel’s eyes moved between the girls once more, still weighing his options and whether he could trust them. With a sigh, he unbuttoned his jacket and took a seat opposite Rebecca. “I’m sorry. I hope you weren’t offended; I was just…expecting someone more senior.”

“Not a problem,” Rebecca replied, completely self-satisfied by Daniel’s decision to stay. “We were expecting Robert Ravers, so there’s disappointment all round.”

“Shall we get straight to business then?” Daniel asked, sweeping past his previous mistake. “You’re aware of the agreement struck between Robert and your father shortly after Robert assumed control of Ravers Enterprises many years ago?”

“Yes, when you said you wanted to come and ‘chat’, I assumed it would be about this, so I went digging in the archives in our library and pulled the contract,” Rebecca said, her voice taking on a serious tone, somewhat offset by her jiggling breasts as she reached into a briefcase beside the chair and produced a large brown envelope. He tried to look at her eyes and not her hanging tits when she then leaned forward and slid the letter across a table towards the younger Ravers brother. “There’s a lot of technical jargon but basically it states that we don’t build property that competes with your properties, but we get a discount when using your properties. So, say if we were having business associates flown in from out of town, they would be put up at your hotel at a severely reduced price on our end.”

“That’s exactly right,” Daniel agreed, impressed by the young woman’s aptitude at understanding and discerning such a heavy business and legal text in a short amount of time. “However, Robert is no longer a part of Ravers Enterprises, and-”

“We know,” Karen interjected from behind the chair, still grated at having been caught topless. “It’s all over the news. Miles Zurbrugg had a press conference not long ago announcing it to the world.”

“Did he say who would be succeeding him?” Daniel asked, perking up.

Long dark hair, almost identical to her twin, shook as Karen nodded no. “He said that information would come later.”

That made Daniel frown. It could mean nothing, that the board was simply taking a staggered approaching to releasing the announcements to keep from causing outcry or outrage at Robert’s firing. But announcing the he, Daniel, would be taking that spot would have been the ideal way to provide confidence to the shareholders and the general public that things were going to continue as normal. Daniel felt uneasy, sensing that their time may be running out much faster than even he’d anticipated.

“Is that a problem?” Rebecca brought him back to the topic at hand.

“No, not a problem, just all the more need for urgency I believe,” Daniel said, composing himself and trying not to worry the potential client. “The truth is that Robert is breaking off and starting a new company, with myself and some others. We have a project ready to go, and we’d like to pour all of our capital into that, but we also need to ensure money keeps coming in. Even at the discount, and compared to the foot traffic of tourists coming to town year round, your family and your company as our client bring in the most business. We’d like that to continue as we transition into this new corporation.”

“So, you get our continued service and we get…more of the same?” Rebecca mused. “That doesn’t seem fair. Let’s not forget the benefit of working with us that goes unmentioned in that document. Our reputation. There are a lot of people and groups, gangs one might call them, that might think about making a pretty penny by hitting a Ravers hotel or affiliated property. But they think twice about, knowing your connections with our family. That peace of mind…it’s invaluable really. Worth more than just a discount, at least, don’t you think?”

“It cuts both ways though,” Daniel argued, staring intensely at the young woman. “That same reputation is precisely what keeps our two companies from working more closely together. Especially at a time like this, when we’re just starting up, we can’t afford to run into any, what was the word you used, ‘trouble’.”

“I don’t see that you have a choice,” Karen insisted. “You’re the one coming to us looking for a deal. We set the terms.”

“My sister is right. We don’t need this deal,” Rebecca stared coolly at Daniel as she spoke. “The Harrington’s have hotels and properties all over the world. It would be well within our means to build a hotel here in Azure Rocks and then we wouldn’t even have to pay you a cent.” A smile creeping onto her lips, she added, “I was curious about the circumstances of this deal, so I gave our mother a call. Apparently, we were dealing with trouble from the 42s and The Jackals at the time, so dad agreed to the deal so that he could focus on those problems. Now, however, you would have our undivided attention.”

Daniel stared her down in return, unfazed by her posturing. She was good at it, and those tits were a marvelous distraction, but he had been in this game for far to long to be put off so easily. “You should know, girls, in a negotiation it’s never a good idea to have unmovable red lines. Both parties should be willing to make concessions. In that spirit, I have a suggestion for a compromise. You want a hotel, then fine. We’ll build you a hotel, a joint project by the Ravers and Harrington's, in which we put up the cost of materials, labor, development, publicity, so you don’t pay a single thing out of your own pocket, but we cut the profits, 50-50, straight down the middle.”

It wasn’t a hard offer to make for Daniel. With the loss of the Lakeside hotel, the Ravers-Bishop Corporation would have to build a second hotel sooner or later. If building that property could help bring the Harrington’s in step, then it would be worthwhile to split the profits with them. Although Daniel wasn’t going to simply give it to them for nothing.

“What’s the catch?” Karen demanded, eyes narrowing.

“The singular caveat is this, that the hotel can have absolutely nothing at all to do with what you call Jack’s side of business. If there’s so much as a whiff of a rumor suggesting anything illegal or criminal is happening in or around that hotel then it will activate a clause in the agreement that **** sole propriety of the property to revert completely to the Ravers-Bishop Corporation.”

“You really trust us that little?” Rebecca asked, slightly insulted. “Why would we agree to that when we could, again, just build our own hotel and do what we like with it?”

“Because that would put you in direct competition with us. I’m not suggesting you couldn’t hold your own. Besides the less than flattering reputation, you are known to be shrewd businesses people, a fact I’ve had firsthand experience of today. But my brother and I aren’t newbies at this either, and we’re not just going to roll over. Competition eats into both of our profits, meaning neither one of us makes as much as he or she wants. I gave another teenager this same advice earlier; it’s better to have a little bit of a large pot than a lot of nothing.” Daniel shrugged and leaned back in his chair, as if he could take or leave the deal. “Besides, staying out of trouble shouldn’t be difficult if you keep your businesses as separate as you implied.”

Rebecca stood abruptly. “Let me discuss it with my sister.”

The twins didn’t leave the room, but they did shuffle off into a corner to chat amongst themselves, their backs to the older man. It was a large room so it was quite easy to move out of earshot, though he could still hear their hushed murmurings, especially as the back and forth got a little heated. Finally, Karen cried out, “What? No! Becca! You can’t!” as her sister walked back to the table, a smirk on her face.

“Alright, you have a deal,” she told him, but didn’t offer to shake on it. “but we have caveat of our own.”

“I’m listening.”

“Well, we were expecting Robert, as we already said, so we”-

“Don’t drag me into this,” Karen interrupted her sister with an added scowl.

“…so _I _was hoping to find out if the rumors of his rampant sexuality and promiscuity were true.” Rebecca finished, and Daniel could already see where this was going. “But now that you’re here, I’m kind of curious about you as well. Is Robert the only deviant in the family or did you pick up some of those genes as well?”

Daniel chuckled, deciding to humor the girls rather than protest. “Robert may be more voracious, but I’ve never had any complaints myself. Is that all you wanted to know?”

“Of course not,” she said, slinking closer, until her fingertips grazed his belt buckle. “Do you really think I’m just going to take your word for it?”

He placed his hand on hers, stopping her. “Are you sure you want to do this? I really am in a hurry, and your sister…” he glanced up at Karen, who glowered at the sound of her name. “…she doesn’t seem pleased by this tactic.”

“Don’t worry about her,” Rebecca said, kneeling and continuing to unbuckle his belt as he moved his hands away. “She’ll get into the swing of things after she sees how much fun we’re having.”

“No, I won’t,” she insisted, but despite the dirty look she was giving both of them, her eyes did linger briefly, just a few seconds too long, telling of her hidden curiosity.

“Well, then just watch.” Rebecca told her sister without looking around, licking her lips as she unbuttoned his pants and zipped him down, drawing ever closer to seeing his cock. Glancing up at Daniel’s face, seeing the conflict written on his face, she settled the matter. “This is my prerequisite. No cock, no deal. Think of it like…instead of shaking on it, we’ll fuck on it.”

Realizing there was no way out of it, not that he really wanted one, Daniel relaxed, joking as he felt the girl’s hand slide into his boxers. “I guess you’ve got me by the balls on this one.”

Rebecca smiled when she heard how he was getting into it, a smile that turned into gasp, eyes widening, when she tugged his long, hard cock out of his underwear. The sheer length of it was enough to make her lip tremble and her mouth water, feeling a little bit wetter elsewhere too. “Ho-lee shit,” she sang as she gripped the beast at the base and counted how many inches above her knuckles it rose. Wiggling it slightly, its stiff shape barely moving, she looked over her shoulder at her sister and asked with amazement, “look at the cock on this guy!”

“I, I’ve seen bigger,” Karen protested feebly, but her eyes, just like Rebecca’s, were fixed on the huge erection, twitching in the contrast between the cool air and her sister’s warm hands.

“Liar,” Rebecca said, taking the shaft in both hands, one above the other, and admiring how he still had inches left to spare. “There’s enough here for two, easily. Bitch, get over here and help me.”