Billionaire and the Sisters Ch. 95

I hung around for round two. As usual, having sex once made me hornier. Instead of feeling sated and ready to sleep, I woke up and got even more aroused. Maybe that made me the ideal date. Carter and I found each other, and then Cindy joined us. The man surprised me by being as ardent to please my sister and me, as I was to give each of them a memorable and romantic encounter.

When we were relaxed after our beautiful encounter, I again evaluated and decided I was fairly well sated and I could go to sleep. Carter offered to hold me all night in his bed, but I reminded him that I wanted to sleep near the nursery in case Philip Emerson woke up in the middle of the night. I nudged Cindy and Carter together, and they headed off towards his bachelor pad downstairs.

I noted that Tom and Julie had been partners on round two. They were still coupled together in the missionary position with her legs wrapped around his thighs as she held him snug to her. They were making out, and I even heard a few sentences of some very romantic words between them. As one of several matchmakers in the family, I was overjoyed about what was happening between them.

Greg waved me into his office from across our mostly open floor plan. Sean was already in there when I went in, but I couldn't guess what was going on. He was in pure business mode, so I could tell he was under some degree of pressure, probably from a client.

Greg said, "Sorry to interrupt your work with this request, but it's kind of important. I know you have the baby at home, but we need you to take a trip to Las Vegas and play architect on that condominium project you were on a couple of years ago. They started phase three and both the contractor and the city are in a dither over the plans and how to interpret some of the specifications."

"I thought Sean was going to handle that."

"He was up to go until we had a crisis a week ago on the high rise in Omaha. He's about to leave now for the rest of the week, and probably next week. You're the only other person here at Darwin Architecture that understands those specs and the project. Sean will be tied up in Omaha, but available to consult by phone and FaceTime or Skype."

I wrinkled up my nose. I'd managed to avoid all but local travel for the past two years, in part because of being pregnant and then birthing Philip Emerson.

"Any chance we could do it by video conference calls?"

Greg shrugged, "I didn't think so, but if you can work it out with Manning Construction and the Code Enforcement Office more power to you. You can even invoke motherhood if you want. I'd go myself except I have another fire to put out on a high riser in Buffalo.

Two hours later I knew that the motherhood card wouldn't work. The project manager for Manning Construction had explained the issues to me and they would require being onsite for at least a couple of days and liaising between Manning and the city, including trying to get everyone together in one long half-day meeting to iron out differences and approaches to problems.

I took my immediate problem home at the end of the day hopeful that I'd find a solution with Julie - my nanny, except now she was also the nanny for Patricia and Jenny, KC's and Alice's babies. When I explained, Julie and Celeste pledged their total dedication to making sure Philip Emerson would be kept warm, fed, dry, and happy during my absence. Aunt Cindy also stepped up to the plate, even volunteering to stay home from work. I felt like the world's worst mother for abandoning my one-year old son for a few evenings.

At that point, I took another unprecedented step. I told Lucas about my travel plans so that our head of family security would know what I planned. Normally, he'd assign one of the staff to accompany me to Vegas and keep me in sight whenever I was out. This time, however, I asked to not be 'tailed' morning, noon, and night. The constant scrutiny by a bodyguard had finally worn thin. Lucas thought about it, and finally agreed, but only if I carried my Glock in Vegas.

Flying to Vegas with a handgun, meant that I had to break down the gun into component pieces, carry the requisite paperwork, and check the bag the pieces were in so it wasn't available to me in the passenger seating area.

All that seemed like too much work and bother, plus the weapon could be confiscated anywhere along the journey through the airport with the possibility that I'd miss my flights while 'things were sorted out.' It had happened already to Deke.

Consequently, I took the Cessna Citation since Mark wasn't traveling during the week. This worked exceptionally well since I could also leave about any time I wanted to with only a simple call to the FBO at the airport to position the small jet for departure.

The next morning I fed and played with Philip Emerson for an hour in the morning as Julie tended to Jenny and Patricia. I then headed out to The Meadows and was wheels up at eight-thirty, single pilot in command to LAS - McCarran International Airport. A little over three hours later, I touched down at my destination, checked the plane into the FBO, collected a rental car, and became somewhat of a normal road warrior there to do my job as an erstwhile architect.

I connected with the project manager at Manning Construction, a middle-aged man named Miles Stone. We'd talked cordially on the phone, but after being in his presence for about ten minutes I had a suspicion what part of the problem was with the job and the city inspectors. I held my thinking in check, as I observed and learned.

I spent the last hour of the business day at the City of Las Vegas Building Code Enforcement Office. Surprise, surprise. The person in charge of the overseeing phase three of the large condominium project was Valerie Manby, a woman about my age with a civil engineering degree from University of Minnesota.

Valerie was all business and had a list of worries, issues, and potential violations she wanted to avoid on the project. Valerie was also attractive, busty, apparently single (no rings), and very competent. She sure wasn't dressed provocatively, wearing long baggy pants, work boots, a high-neck long sleeve shirt, and no make up. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail. If anything she looked severe and serious. She was polite, crisp, knew her building code and construction, and worked off both a checklist and her own notes regarding the plans and her field observations about the project in phase two and the start of this new phase.

After I'd captured all of the items on her list, we sat across the battered gray metal conference room table in the city hall annex near her office. I looked at Valerie across the table and we both kind of sized each other up.

I asked, "Did Miles harass you? Come on to you?"

After a long silence, Valerie nodded almost imperceptibly.

I said, "Off the record, could you amplify a little. He's not part of my company, but I might have some influence to fix this."

Valerie said in a near whisper, "He's patted my ass several times, and asked me out. When I see him he gets inside my personal space - closer than arm's length. He makes me uncomfortable. Every time we're due for an inspection he seems to know and is there to escort me around ... and assert himself."

I posed, "And the ideal solution would be a new PM?"

Valerie nodded. "That's one fix, provided that his replacement isn't as bad or worse."

"Can I ask why you didn't say something?"

Valerie shook her head. "Come on. You must know since you're a good-looking woman. If you say anything you're a bitch, a whiner, or you did something provocative to invite the guy's behavior and then turned on him. You become known as a cock tease. I swear I never did anything to flirt with the man or lead him on. I kept backing away from him, and putting distance between us.

"As we've learned with Cosby, Schwarzenegger, and Trump, you need at least ten other women saying the same thing before people even start to believe you, and even then you're suspect. A lot of the time, people just won't care to do anything about it. The longer-term results are no pay raises, mediocre performance reviews, and lost promotions, and those are the best case. If there's a layoff, guess who goes first. I happen to love this job, and up until this project I thought I had a thick skin about this kind of stuff.

"If someone does pay attention, your concerns are trivialized, and you're made to feel like a schmuck for raising such things and besmirching a good man's reputation and standing.

"Moreover, if you keep your head down perhaps it'll stop and then you'll know that burying your head in the sand worked. If you need to you could trade off the project with someone else in the office - another man, but you can only do that so many times and you'd never want to indicate why.

"Miles is not the first time I've had this problem, and he won't be my last. I can sit on my uncomfortable feelings and the love pats on my butt, but if nine other women come forward, I'll gladly be the tenth." Valerie looked relieved at having spoken up.

I expressed my sympathy for having to put up with Miles and pledged to see about making some changes. I didn't share my own observations about him, specifically how he ogled me - especially my tits and ass, and how he'd also come insidemy personal space. At one point, I expected an unwanted kiss from the larger overweight man. Maybe it was time for a little practice with my martial arts.