CHAPTER 37: TOO MUCH TIME FOR A HONEYMOON

Elsewhere on the T-Vino Island and on the premises of one of the larger wineries, several people had gathered semi-formally.

One man stood in front of them with a thick file out of which he was reading.

"The grape harvest is done for the season, and preparations are being made for the-"

Alex Thornston, seated at the head of the group, looked at the empty seats on either side of him and then flipped his hand in the air, indicating that he go on and skip what he was about to read as if he already knew it...

"Sorry, Chairman, I’ll skip the festival aspect and continu-"

A slight irritative glare from Alex made the man clear his throat awkwardly, resuming his professional stance. "We have tallied up the harvest and preparing for processing of the grapes now. We had a 20% lower yield than we did in the last harvest-"

A low, dissatisfied murmur rippled through the gathering. The man kept his face in his report and continued,

"Processing of the grapes has already commenced, and the bulk of the activities will be tomorrow. The plums –

Just then, a door creaked open, and another Thornston waltzed in.

***

A few moments earlier, "Are you sure we can do this here?" A young woman asked. Despite the hesitance in her voice, she looked more than ready for whatever.

Brad, who was with the woman, looked dissatisfied and impatient. He looked at the blond, blue-eyed woman who looked similar in build to his sister-in-law and closed his eyes tightly. She was his new secretary for the week, and he only hired her for her looks, obviously.

’I do not like repeating myself...’ was what he wanted to say, but rather, he had a pressing need to take care of, and he had broken up with his girlfriend days prior.

’Patience, Brad. If I close my eyes and look at her back, then she will be very similar to her.’ He thought as he felt himself harden. Brad felt disgusted with himself because of his thoughts’ direction and subsequent actions.

Shelby was his brother’s wife, but after seeing that cursed dance, he could not get the girl out of his mind, and he had to resort to dirty things like he was doing then. Even though he assumed that Shelby was a witch of a sort from the night’s event, he still couldn’t help but want her.

It got so bad that Brad felt that he was losing himself. But miraculously, the feeling had subsided a bit for him to get some much needed sleep the night before. That was until he saw the secretary in front of him who bore some similarity to Shelby. They were just similar because the woman did not hold a candle to the ungodly beauty of his sister-in-law.

"Master Brad?"

He snapped back to the woman and looked at their surroundings. They were in an open shed by one of the grape vineyards.

He approached her slowly, bending down towards her, then slipped his hands under her pleated skirt, right past her panties and into her wet, dripping folds. A manly laughter left his lips. "You are so wet and ready for me!"

He stated as she moaned.

"What did you ask?" He moved his fingers in and out of her and she opened her legs wider for him. She did not answer as she had forgotten what was asked in her passion frenzy. He closed his eyes to avoid looking into her face.

A few minutes later, they lay slumped together on the bare floor. She had his seed all over her clothes.

With a pout, she purred, "Why did you not release inside me?"

Brad shook her off, got up and put his clothes in order,

"You are not worthy!"

"What! I-" But Brad was already gone without a backward glance. Pausing briefly at the door, he took out a wad of cash and threw it on her,

"I don’t want to see you here again. You’re fired!"

He left without giving the girl a chance to speak. Her flabbergasted expression was seen by no one else.

Brad grabbed a wine glass and walked confidently into the ongoing meeting. He was more than half an hour late but Brad just did not care.

The people gathered all turned their heads to look at him as he walked up and took one of the seats by his father’s side, sipping his wine as if it was the most natural of attitudes to have at a meeting. His clothes were still slightly dishevelled, and had sunglasses on, although the room was slightly dark; without care or an ounce of respect, he smirked at them. Knowing him like the back of his hand, his father cast a disapproving look at him but said nothing.

The man, reading the report, paused briefly and continued,

"The plums will be due for harvest in about a month, per our estimates. The..."

He continued reading the lengthy report. After this the faces of the stakeholders gathered looked grim. The situation on the ground was not promising at all.

"What do we do now?"

"There are so many issues springing up daily."

"It almost looks orchestrated!"

"We really need Ian here now! He’s been gone for far too long! I thought that we would see him after the marriage, but it’s been weeks! I think that is too much time for a honeymoon! Don’t you think so?"

A few chuckles went around the room. "His new wife must be very goo-"

"Gentlemen! You are sidetracking from the issue!" One snapped, and they all kept quiet.

Brad’s hands tightened around his glass of wine at the mention of his brother’s wife. A seemingly indifferent look crossed his face concealing his thoughts.

"I am too old to think of business in depth like this! Brad, what do you think of this?" His father asked.

"Huh?"

"We want to know if you have an idea on what we can do to solve some of the issues, we are facing?"

"Which of them?"

Alex sighed. ’Did I think that Brad would contribute to anything?’

Alex turned from him as he didn’t want to waste his efforts on him and addressed the rest of the room. Brad did not care one bit and continued sipping his wine. After the merchants’ meeting, all of them filed out with solemn faces. Brad was the first to have left under their judgemental gazes. Of course, he had bigger demons to fight and did not care.

"Mr Alex Thornston, may I have a word?"

Alex turned to see Abram Mush walk towards him.

*********

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