I had to turn my eyes away from the penetrating stare of Finn Bergstrum, so I took my first good look at his assistant, Nabil. "Satyr" was the first thought that entered my mind, and I almost was able to imagine two little horns above his ears there. Sharp, swarthy features with that almost sneer of a smile that was close to the edge of presumption and cruelty without losing an ability to claim interest and encouragement if challenged. Jet black hair and eyes, and that pointed goatee that accentuated the struggle between sensitivity and raw animalism. The struggle accentuated by the hand that reached out for his wine glass: Long, sensuous artist's finger, but curly black hair on the back of the hand down to his knuckles. He was giving me a proprietary look—which, of course, was his privilege. I'd been bought and paid for to be here.
I looked back at Bergstrum, embarrassed at the feeling that I was distinctly out of my depth and perhaps even out of my league, and further embarrassed that anything like this could ever embarrass me after what I'd seen in this business. When Leon had set this up and handed me the air tickets, he only said that this was a very special corporate arrangement, that I'd been very lucky to be selected, and that I should be very accommodating. From the amount on the accompanying check, I decided that, indeed, I could be very accommodating. I'd flown to Zurich, checked in by prior arrangement at the Hotel Softel, and had barely slept for five hours before I was called down to the hotel's intimate and heavily masculine "gentlemen's" bar.
I had known the name Finn Bergstrum even before being handed the assignment. Who hadn't heard of it? Entrepreneur on the grand scale. Instant relief to corporations in the need of being saved and even more immediate panic in the halls of corporations rumored to have been added to his takeover lists. Reclusive, eccentric, somewhere just short of God, the tabloids said. And whispers about his sexual tastes and capabilities as well—at least in the pools in which I swam. Well, I'd just met him, and already I was trembling. This didn't normally happen to me.
He was ugly as sin, a regular gargoyle. But when I looked back at him, here in the Softel Hotel's dimly lit gentlemen's bar, I was overwhelmed by his presence and the raw power he exuded. He could have tipped me over this table right here, stripped me, and plowed me in front of all of the sedate bankers and brokers sitting around us sipping their martinis and smoking their Cuban cigars and I would have moaned and moved my hips for him.
Craggy features, chiseled in a Mount Everest rawness and a powerful body, barely contained by a tailored silk tuxedo—heavy but obviously built for stamina and speed, the muscled presence of a bison. He filled the room; he owned the room. Strong hands the size of hubcaps and thick, gnarly fingers that set my butt atwitching.
There was no doubt why I was here, what I was supposed to do for him. This is what I did. I'd been told the bare facts of the deal. He'd agreed not to take over a major U.S. corporation for certain remunerations and accommodations. I—or someone like me—was just one of the accommodations. Just for one night. All the way from New York to Zurich just for one night. What I'd found in my paycheck was more than enough to cover anything that would happen in that one night. I'd done this before—if, certainly, not on this scale.
"So, is all understood, Mr. Smith?" Bergstrum asked me, as he took a long, thin cigar out of his mouth and tapped its ash head carefully in a silver-lined wooden tray. As he did so, I noticed three silver boxes, of varying lengths and widths laying on the surface of the cocktail table between us.
His milky blue eyes, peeking out from under bushy silver-gray eyebrows, pierced me, and I looked away quickly, down to his hand, resting atop the stack of boxes. Those thick fingers. My butt twitched again. Projecting ahead. Trying to remember whether I'd heard anything specific from the rumors about his proclivities.
"Yes, certainly," I answered. "I am ticketed for an early morning flight. I assume—"
"Of course I know your flight schedule, Mr. Smith," Bergstrum said, overriding my sentence.
"Then—," I started to say, indicating that I was quite prepared to vacate the bar and get on with the evening.
"Oh, do finish your drink, Mr. Smith," Bergstrum said. "I don't think that Nabil here has finished admiring you yet. And what do you think of my assistant, Nabil, Mr. Smith? Do you find him . . . suitable?"
"Ummm. Yes, of course," I stammered. What in the hell did that mean, I wondered.
"Nabil, here, is my right-hand man, Mr. Smith. My hands and eyes and my ears and my . . . well, let's just say all of my appendages."
Well, Hokay, I thought. But I wasn't being paid to be confused or smart. So I turned my face toward Nabil and gave him a friendly smile. He gave me back a smartassed look fully conveying that this night would be a double. Well, that was OK, too. That was no surprise. I couldn't shake the satyr image that pinged at my brain every time I looked at him. He wasn't tall or thin, but he was strongly built. I gauged him to be Turkish probably. Some Mediterranean blend certainly. Somewhat of a surprise set off against the hulking Norwegian. And much younger than Bergstrum. The image of the two of them fucking flashed through my mind. This was immediately followed by the vision of the two of them fucking me, and my hand trembled a little. Nabil would be nothing new, other than that satyrish puckishness about him. But Bergstrum. I just didn't know. I didn't usually lose control on the job, and he was such an ugly lump. But there was something about him that had me off balance. Those fingers. I looked at them again. Strong, thick. I couldn't help but thinking of—
"Three boxes, Mr. Smith." Bergstrum was holding up the top, squarish silver box over the table between us. "Perhaps you can give us some idea of your preference."
He flipped open the lid of the box away from me. Cigars. Five cigars, of varying brands laid out in a row, snuggled into red velvet as if they were the crown jewels—and, although I knew next to nothing about cigars, I had no doubt that these cigars were as preciously bought as crown jewels.
"Oh, no thank you," I said. "I don't smoke. Thanks anyway."
"Oh, these aren't for smoking, Mr. Smith." He paused and gave me a broad, friendly smile. I turned to Nabil; he gave me a leery grin.
"Let me tell you how we rate cigars," Bergstrum continued after that pregnant pause. "First, by length. All of these in this box are six inches or less in length. Sort of the standard size; but maybe a bit long . . . for a cigar." He gave me a piercing look; gauging whether I was following his meaning. I wasn't a dummy; I understood we weren't talking about cigars.
"The other rating is in girth, diameter, if you will, Mr. Smith. We call this rating ring gauge. A sixty-four ring gauge would be equal to an inch. The cigars in this box all range around fifty ring gauge. Again, a bit thick for a cigar . . . if perhaps a somewhat disappointing thickness for, well, you know."
Yes, I did know.