Distress is an understatement? First I'm accused of being a woman because of the terrible crime of liking chocolate and appropriately themed charcoal and now my distress is understated. I think I managed a scowl of sorts in her direction before attempting to usher the butler out lest he decide to share any further information. Maybe Kat does know a lot about me but I hardly see any need to further dissuade the opinion of my manliness. Even if the carpet beneath my feet is rather divine if I do say so myself, proceeding to flop back against the bad as Kat made her way towards the terrace and the vineyards that stretched away from it. Personally, save for the first, I thought all my options were rather good. I suppose logically I could have unpacked but my need to organise things in appropriate places was perhaps better left to a moment when Kat simply wasn't looking. The blue gold of my gaze flickered briefly to meet her own as I reclined, marvelling at the overly comfortable bed although truly why anyone chose white sheets I don't know- they only show stains. It took no more then her leaning on the bed to focus my entire attention upon her, the words practically a purr as her lips brushed against my own in a kiss far to fleeting and far to teasing as I leaned up towards her, fingers knotting within her shirt- quite content to pull her abruptly down and beside me with a chuckle.
"I wasn't suggesting we test the bed out quite like that. I was suggesting we simply lie on it for twenty minutes because it is by far one of the nicest I've ever been on, don't you agree? It might actually be too soft."
See? I can make it not about sex, at least ten percent of my thoughts can focus on other things when I attempt to actually engage them to consider how comfortable the bed actually is. Besides, there will be plenty of time later for anything else of that nature, her request to assist me become a juvenile delinquent and find our way to the cellar I am entirely sure I can still break into unless they've managed to change the locks was met with an easy grin. I could use drink I suppose. I had only truly just managed to pull myself upright with the intent of locating my shoes when the doors to the room flinging open very nearly saw me fall from the bed in surprise. Maybe things had changed in the years I'd been away but the last time I checked I specifically remember most of the staff were content to knock, particularly when coming into my bedroom, features frowning slightly once more at the tall, fair-haired woman in the most unflattering business attire I think I may have ever seen. It was almost as if she had attempted to omit any shape or curve to the skirt and shirt in an attempt to deny the fact she was a woman- a fact I personally think all women should celebrate as she strode across the carpet with a wealth of papers in one hand- managing to look up at the last moment as if I was some sort of insect that had managed to get in her way as I managed a sigh, moving to stand at last in an effort to well.....I was hardly going to embrace her. Her blue gold eyes holding a look that suggested much the same. Kat, evidently, has ceased to exist for the strawberry blonde woman, her hair longer then I remember. In fact, everything about her seemed older, though I was entirely sure she was only twenty one, if I remember correctly her birthday was still several months away. If the silence was uncomfortable, my attempts to find something to say were surely more so, whatever I had managed to conjure up silenced quite before I could get it out as she looked sharply up from her papers as if my voice was about to be a cardinal sin. She really hadn't changed.
If I had a dollar, Kohl, for every time I had walked in here to find you with a woman I'd have more money then you. You haven't changed at all. Shame.
Evidently our thoughts were mirrored, my own scowl deepening slightly. I'm not sure Kat has ever seen me truly irritated, I have the occasional moment but in general I tend to be bereft of a more pleasant demeanour- why shouldn't I be? I have everything. Today however, she might very well be about to witness an entirely unexplored side of my agitation, teeth grinding slightly against each other though for now I attempted civility all the same.
"Sorrell, this is-"
I honestly don't care who she is and if you even remember her name I'd be more then surprised. I suppose it does get hard after you've the first two hundred.
"I think you're giving me a little too much credit- she is hardly number two hundred and she is not just-"
Kohl, I don't care, I stopped carrying ten years ago
"Sorrell, your not-"
Is she going to stay here? Most of them generally scuttle out when I come in.
"Sorrell, will you please let me-"
I really-
"SORRELL!"
I think the fact I had actually managed to shout seemed to stun her into silence, arms folded across my chest in considerable contempt as frustration lined my frame and Sorrell managed to silence herself long enough to acknowledge I was speaking.
"Rell, this is Kat, my girlfriend- and for quite a long time now. Kat, this is Sorrell- my baby sister who has no fucking manners."
Alright, maybe my demeanour is capable of changing when I try hard enough, the words holding an entirely false pleasantness. I hadn't seen my sister in over two years, we spoke on the phone occasionally, we sent the obligatory birthday and Christmas cards and yet that was really it. We'd....become distant I suppose you'd say, shortly after our parents died although I am entirely sure that distance was by her own doing, yet another point we failed to agree upon. For her part at least she managed to appear mildly contrite as her blue eyes flicked from myself to Kat and back again. One hand suddenly extend towards Kat as she strode forward. Hmm- debutante manners still existed in their somewhere- a virtual miracle.
I apologise then, Kat was it? I've known my brother a very long time and he's never been with one girl longer than a week so you can see how I might have come to that conclusion. Frankly I don't know how you have the patience for him. I find him insufferable.
Oh lovely. I think I managed an eye roll as Sorrell managed to step away from Kat at last and I attempted to gather some further composure once more. A veritable lifetime of business meetings having at least prepared me for such things in that regard. Why she was even here however, was another matter entirely, had I known, I certainly wouldn't have come. One hand reached absentmindedly upwards, running through the golden brown of my hair, sending it askew it nearly every direction, waiting for my sibling to explain herself- her words once more seeming to mirror my own thoughts.
I won't be staying long, don't worry, I meeting some friends in England I just stopped by for a few hours. When Ten mentioned you were here I couldn't resist giving you these myself- it's far more satisfying then posting them to you.
"Oh? And what is it?"
My sister hadn't given me anything since I was eighteen years old, the wariness to my gaze surely indication of that as Sorrell moved to pass me the wealth of papers in her hands, my confusion surely palpable as I took them all the same, turning them over, glancing briefly towards Kat as I did- if only to assure myself she had no intention of nailing my sibling with a crossbow bolt for referring to her as some sort of hooker- essentially. Then again- given what I was reading I might well have been entirely inclined to allow Kat to assassinate my sibling. I wonder how many years in jail that would be, I don't truly think I could handle jail, I do not do orange and I certainly do not do stripes. I managed to draw my gaze smoothly away from the paperwork to meet her own now.
"You're suing me- I take it?"
It was perhaps the calmest I had managed to be so far- if only because this was by far the stupidest thing my sister had ever managed to do. I think I even managed a slight chuckle, lip quirking upward.
"Rell, I don't know what this is about but this is enough, whatever game your playing- it's enough, just go home, your not suing me."
Oh, I am. I want what's mine, what you refused to give me when you were eighteen and what you've been refusing to give me for years. You don't even know what you have, do you? Of course not because you haven't looked at a bank statement or your own portfolio in years, you have other people do everything for you so you don't have to pay attention to the real world. You sit there and just enjoy the money- money you don't even know where it comes from. You never wanted the company, you never did- you don't even run it and I want what's my share! I know more about the finances of it then you do!
This was getting dramatically out of hand, my own temper beginning to flare slightly, a fairly difficult thing to actually encourage as I very near glared towards her- about to speak when she went again, pointing at something on the pile of papers in my hands.
And what in gods name is this?! Some other side company registered in your name, it's cleared ten million in a month. What sort of business clears money like that? Are you embezzling it? Offshore accounts? Are you trafficking people, Kohl? I want what's mine and if I have to bring up everything you want to keep hidden then so be it. Did he even tell you, Kat? Did you have any idea he even had a second business? I didn't think so.
I'm not sure what pleased me more, seeing her turning to leave or slamming the door so loud on her way out I think she may have actually broken it- leaving us in silence once more as my gaze remained on the pile of papers before me. This one- was going to give my lawyers quite the work out. My more immediate concern however, was for the woman standing beside me, my gaze returning to her own at last. I never was good at the serious conversations but this, I think, was one we needed to have.
"Let me assure you, first, I haven't done anything illegal. That much I promise you. There are no offshore accounts or embezzlements or anything going on- that is Sorrell being dramatic and also the reason I have never actually invited my sister over- she's always had a flare for the dramatic. I'm going to put this down and then I'm going to sit on the end of the bed and let you ask whatever questions I rather firmly believe you have just formulated from that encounter. As I already said though, as far as legality goes, I have done nothing illegal- that much I promise. Alright- ask away."
k o h l
so you want to play with magic?
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