Things were never quite the same after my parents died. My relationship with Mrs. Bancroft didn't fundamentally change. I was still her ward and protΓ©gΓ©. But our physical relationship transitioned from tutor/student to something completely unique and different. The term "friends with privileges" comes to mind except we weren't exactly friends. And although we spent a lot of time naked in each other's arms, I also wouldn't call us lovers. We were who we were, and it worked.
By that time in my life, I was having absolutely no trouble wooing girls and no longer needed her to import a different one each month for me to practice on. Yet, Mrs. B still employed a different maid every month ... mostly because the Company paid for it and not having to do domestic chores made our lives easier.
Penny was a great example. She was our maid during the tumultuous period when I received the heart-breaking news of my parent's death and also had my heart broken for the second time by Amanda. The last thing on my mind during those four weeks was getting into yet another young lady's pants.
I made absolutely no attempt to seduce Penny. Not that she wasn't desirable. With long auburn hair, dark brown eyes and a body that belonged in a centerfold, she might have been the best-looking maid of the bunch. But my mind wasn't in it. I was so focused on the disasters in my life I hardly spoke to the girl. And when she slipped into my bed a week after she arrived, she didn't have much to say either. She didn't have to. Her naked body said it all.
Mrs. B didn't hire normal domestic servants. Some were budding actresses, many were students and let's not forget Jasmine, the infamous sommelier. Penny was no different. She was working on a graduate degree in social work, and one might think she took me on as a pro-bono client. Like a parent giving a crying child a Teddy Bear, Penny gave me her body to soothe my grieving soul. Some nights I made love to her, if for no other reason than coaxing orgasms out of the woman kept my mind and body busy. More often though, I just held her, letting the feel of her soft warm body comfort me as I tried to sleep.
But were Penny's nightly visits completely altruistic or was there something else in play? Perhaps, instead of being a modern Mother Theresa with high cheekbones, she was responding to an instinctual, animalistic need? Like I said previously, I did absolutely nothing to encourage Penny. We didn't tell her that my parents had recently passed. She didn't know that the one girl I truly loved chose her career over me. Yet every night, she waited until she thought Mrs. B had gone to bed, stripped naked and snuck into my room.
My theory was that Penny was indeed a wonderful caring woman who would help anybody that needed it ... with her clothes on. But she went the extra mile for me. Because, for some odd reason, women were drawn to me. As I approached my twentieth birthday, I exuded a shy confidence, a timid power, a hidden openness that women craved. Yeah, I know those words don't belong together. I just don't know how else to say it other than, deep down inside, women knew I had what they wanted. Kind of like I exuded some mystical "come fuck me" pheromone. And it wasn't just the maids that were affected by my mystical powers.
***
Two weeks after Quinnlyn replaced Penny in the upstairs bedroom, Mrs. B sent me on a little errand.
Several months earlier, the Company had planted several bugs and video cameras in the office, home and car of a mid-level German diplomat named Gunter Feiner. Gunter was suspected of passing NATO secrets to the Russians. After a hundred days of constant surveillance, the Company discovered that the suspect diplomat was screwing his secretary, his wife was fucking their next-door neighbor and their eighteen-year-old daughter routinely smoked pot in their garage. But they had absolutely no evidence that Gunter was a Russian spy. And that was the rub. The bugs and cameras had to be clandestinely removed before Gunter found them and accused the UK of spying on an ally. The British government would naturally deny the accusation and eventually place the blame on the US ... i.e. the Company.
So, the bugs and cameras had to be retrieved without the Germans' or Brits' knowledge. That was my errand. Get rid of the bugs.
Gunter, being a good German, drove a Mercedes which he parked in an underground carpark when at work and his garage when home. Not wanting to risk being seen breaking into a car in a public place, I chose to remove the bug from his Mercedes when he was sleeping. I started the job at midnight, a good two hours after all the lights in the main house had been extinguished and felt confident that I wouldn't be disturbed. Opening the unlocked garage door, I immediately smelled the distinctive earthy smell of burnt weed. I closed the door behind me and crouched by the side of the car for a couple of minutes before convincing myself I was alone.
With a little luck, I'd quickly find the bug, snip a few wires and be on my way.
Like everything else in a modern car, the bug was damn near impossible to get to. I ended up laying on my back with my head stuck under the front passenger side dash. My ass was propped up by a short stool and my feet were flat on the concrete floor. With a penlight stuck in my mouth, a pair of wire snips in my left hand and a Philips head screwdriver in my right I damn near jumped out of my skin when a voice said ...
"Was machst du gerade." (German for what are you doing?)
"Shit." I spat the penlight out of my mouth and speared my cheek with the screwdriver. "I'm uh ... from the auto club. I'm here to fix your car phone."
"At this hour?" the female voice asked with a distinct German accent.
"I could ask the same of you. Why are you in the garage with the lights out? Is that marijuana I smell?"
"I couldn't sleep," she said after a pause. "This is where I go when I want to be alone."
"Sorry I disturbed your solitude. I was told the garage would be empty."
"No need to apologize. My parents think I'm in bed."
"Is there anything you need to get off your chest?" I asked. "I'm an excellent listener."
"Get off your chest?" she laughed. "Is that a British expression?"
"I think it's American. It means to tell someone about something that's bothering you."
"If I tell you my troubles, will I feel better?"
"No guarantee, but you won't feel any worse."
Having successfully guided the conversation away from why I was in her parent's garage at midnight, I retrieved my penlight and continued my search for the well-hidden bug.
"I miss him," she said.
"You're boyfriend?"