It was time to claim Simone.

We all started eating. There was some chatter, but Simone stayed very quiet. After awhile Nicole got another text message.

"Oh no!" she said after she read it.

"What is it?" asked Opal.

"Ainsley just broke up with her boyfriend!"

"What?" said Opal. "Why?"

Nicole reread the message. "She doesn't say exactly. It just says she made a big mistake and had to call him."

Simone jumped up from her seat and ran off. Kennedy got up and ran after her.

"What's wrong with her?" I asked.

Nicole looked extremely sad, as if she'd been holding something back and now it had to come out. "Simone broke up with Steve this morning."

I knew that was a lie, but of course Simone would claim she broke up with him. "Oh, that's too bad. What happened?"

"She was really unhappy about that contest the other night. She really didn't like hooking up with anyone other than Steve. You know how she is. One-person-at-a-time is her thing. The fact that he watched her... you know... with that dirty local girl was getting to her, so she broke it off."

Yeah, sure. Whatever story you needed to tell, Simone. The important thing was that this was a perfect segue into my next mind fuck.

"You know, we've already talked about what will help Simone get over a guy."

Nicole's eyes went wide. She leaned in close and said, "You mean hook up with some random guy again?"

This was it. The big one. "No, not random this time. Me."

My raven haired bride looked shocked. "You?"

"Yes, me. You did promise to get me something special for my bachelor party. This is what I want. Simone."

"But, I... I was talking about a stripper."

"Right. Simone as a stripper."

"Oh. Well, if it's just a striptease, I guess-"

"It's not just a striptease. I want to fuck her."

Nicole bit her bottom lip and trembled a little. "You... you want to cheat on me?"

I could barely hide my excitement. "It's not cheating if you give me permission."

Her eyes didn't go blank, but they glazed over a tiny bit as she gave me more of a chance to explain myself than she naturally should. "What?"

"Come on, you were clearly talking about sex when you brought this up. You wanted me to fuck a stripper at my bachelor party."

"I-I-I never said that!"

Mr. Astor looked across the table at his daughter's outburst. I shot him a viscous look. He bent over and busied himself with his food, pretending he hadn't heard anything.

I turned back to Nicole, making sure she only saw my sweetest face. "Nicole, baby, that was clearly what you meant, even if you didn't want to admit it to yourself. The idea of it obviously excited you. Right?"

She looked down, embarrassed. "Yes."

"Well, that was okay because you were giving me permission. The same thing is true whether it is a stranger or a friend. It's not cheating when someone gives their partner permission."

-40 BS. 61 Remaining.

"Yeah, you're right," said Nicole. "But still... Simone? She doesn't actually... I mean, she doesn't dislike you, it's just that... couldn't it be one of my other friends?"

"No," I said firmly. "You need to get Simone to do this, and she'll do it if you really want her to."

"Why her?" asked Nicole.

"Because she's hot as fuck. You know she's insanely hot, right?"

"Well, obviously." Nicole sounded wounded. This is what I loved about rich idiots. Their sense of reality is so off kilter that all their outward confidence is fake. Nicole had the kind of figure and face that gets women on magazine covers, and she had been on quite a few. But she grew up around Simone, and the busty Asian beauty got just a little more attention, making Nicole insecure around her best friend whenever they were compared.

"Well," I continued. "I would really enjoy fucking her. I would love to get my dick between those huge tits. It would be an incredibly hot way to spend my last outing as a bachelor, and I think the thought of that gets you hot, too."

It obviously did. Every dirty word I whispered about my personal sexual satisfaction made Nicole blush and squirm more. She wrestled with her response, but with my price-predicting perk, I already knew the answer.

-57 BS. 4 Remaining.

Nicole brightened up as soon as she accepted it. "You're right, that would be so hot! I'm getting a little... you know... just thinking about it!"

I spent the rest of the meal keeping Nicole calm. She was extremely excited about asking her hot friend to be my stripper/last-hurrah-fuck at my bachelor party.

+3 BS. 7 Remaining.

Ainsley was getting diminishing returns now. She must have finally run out of new things to do with the Itos. It didn't matter, I had everything I wanted for now.

When we were done, I went back to my room to grab some things for the morning hike we had planned. As soon as I opened the door, someone grabbed me and threw me to the floor. I heard the door close, then all the air went out of my lungs as my attacker knelt on my chest.

"Hello, Will," said Vlad, putting a knife to my throat. "We need to talk about your expenses."