Page 32 of Marcellus: House of Drakos

Alex Drakos ran an empire second to none in size and scope, with subsidiaries that stretched from the contiguous United States to Europe, Southeast Asia, Africa, and even The Peoples Republic of China.

His main office was at his corporate headquarters in New York, but he was spending more time at his hotel in Florida for family reasons: He and his wife had things to iron out.

And they were just scratching the surface.

But the Talent Director for The Drakos Hotel and Casino was upset again.

She needed to vent again. And despite his heavy work load as evidenced by the stack of files on his desk, she asked if he had a moment.

He didn’t, but he knew what she was going through.

She vented to him numerous times before.

He allowed her into his office, leaned back in his swivel chair, and let her have the floor.

It was the same series of issues: Her teenage son was on the wrong track and her husband was useless. Alex had a teenager son as well: his wife’s biological son that he adopted. He knew how he would feel if his beloved Jordan ever lost his way.

After roaming around the office, Emily Ratcliffe finally walked around her boss’s desk, leaned her butt against the front of his desk next to his chair.

With her legs outstretched she folded her arms. When she flipped her long blonde hair back with a coquettish jerk of her head, it was only then did Alex realize she had tears in her eyes.

“We had to get an attorney,” she said to him.

Which surprised him. “He’s been arrested?”

“No, but it’s headed in that direction. He won’t go into rehab. He steals everything that isn’t bolted down every time he’s home, so Stan locked him out of the house. Which means he’s getting his drug money in other places.”

She leaned her head back and shook it. “I can’t do it anymore, Alex.

” Then she looked at him. “We’ve considered putting him in a treatment facility against his will, under the Baker Act, but we were told they won’t do it for drug addicts.

It has to be a mental cause. I say drug addiction is all mental, but they don’t look at it like that. ”

“He could fall under the Marchman Act,” said Alex, “but you have to demonstrate that he’s a harm to himself as well as others. And they don’t mean because he steals things. They mean physical harm. Has he shown any violent tendencies?”

She shook her head. “No. He just wants to get high and stay high. But eventually it’ll come to that if he can’t get those drugs any other way.

And Stan is . . .” She shook her head again.

“Stan’s staying out later and later. Sometimes he doesn’t come home at all.

He’s of no use to me whatsoever anymore.

” Then she looked at Alex and smiled. “Why can’t he be like you? You’re perfect.”

“Like hell I am,” Alex said with a snort, and she laughed too.

Then her look turned serious. “Compared to any man I’ve ever known,” she said, “you are perfect, Alexio. Maybe sometimes we can do something together. I have this cabin in the woods. Really quaint, peaceful place. Away from all our problems. Maybe we can go one weekend and just get away from it all.”

Alex knew where that was headed. Women came on to him all the time.

It was a constant situation. Which was why he and Kari kept going through the ringer.

“That’s not going to happen, Emily,” he said to her bluntly.

Then he looked her hard in the eyes. “You have a great position here. You manage every A-list talent that comes through these doors to put on a show, and you do it well. Don’t jeopardize that with bullshit. ”

“Or you could go alone,” she quickly interjected. “I didn’t mean to imply that you and I. . . Of course not! Please don’t think such a thing. I was just speaking friend to friend. That’s all.”

Then the office door opened without any knocking, which was reserved for only one person in this world, and that one person walked in.

When Emily glanced back and saw that Kari Grant-Drakos had entered the office, she quickly stood erect from the desk as if she’d be caught red-handed, and walked behind Alex to look out through his floor-to-ceiling window.

She might have been fast, but not fast enough for Kari’s eyes. “You didn’t have to stand on my account,” she said as she walked toward her husband’s desk.

Emily put on her best smile as she turned around. “Oh hey, Kari. How are you?”

Kari could see that she’d been crying, so she didn’t press her displeasure. But she was very displeased. “I’m fine. And you?”

Emily nodded her head as if her eyes weren’t tear-filled. “I’m good.”

Kari wondered if those tears were real or fake, or, even worse, if she was crying because she knew she couldn’t have Alex. It was no secret she wanted him. And she wasn’t the only one. Kari was getting tired of it.

That was why, instead of sitting in one of the chairs in front of Alex’s desk, Kari walked behind his desk and sat on his lap.

She was a small woman, but her plop down was heavy. But even with that heaviness, as soon as her tight ass touched his penis he went hard. It never failed. He’d had more women than he’d ever admit, but no one had ever turned him on as easily as Kari could.

But Kari knew what was next. As soon as she sat on his lap, Emily suddenly got in a hurry. “I’d better get back to work,” Emily said as she began to leave.

“Yeah I thought so,” Kari replied, causing Emily to glance back at her as she briskly left the office.

Alex looked at his wife. “Was that little comment necessary?”

“Yes, it was necessary!” She began moving from side to side so that the chair could swivel, but in so doing she was swiveling his arousal too.

“I’m tired of these women behaving as if I don’t exist. As if you aren’t married.

And from here on out I’m calling it out every time I see it.

Particularly since my husband,” she added as she turned and looked at him, “act like he can’t tell a hoe when he sees one.

Since he keeps giving them a pass over and over again. ”

They stared at each other momentarily. They had issues of their own still unresolved, and that wasn’t helping.

“Get up,” he said as he took her by the hips and forced her up. “I’ve got work to do.”

“You had work to do when Emily was in here with her fake trail of tears,” Kari said as she stood up, “but that didn’t stop you from listening to her.”

Alex frowned. “What was fake about her tears? Her son is drug-addicted, Kari. That’s a fact. She needed to vent.”

“Then let her ass vent with me! Or with one of the other female supervisors. Why she always got to be all up in your face? Why she have to take it all the way to the top?” Then her looked turned worried as she stood on the side of his desk. “Why do you let her?”

Alex let out a hard exhale. “I’ve known her and Stan for a very long time.”

“Here we go.”

“That’s why!” he said angrily.

Then he calmed himself back down. He could tell Kari regretted her little scene. She always did. And he knew he was the reason she was becoming so suspicious of every little thing. “You okay?”

She wasn’t, but she nodded. “I will be.”

Alex inwardly smiled. “Are you going to apologize to her?”

Kari frowned. “Hell no!”

He laughed. “I’m just messing with you. You know I knew the answer to that!”

Kari couldn’t help but smile too. She truly loved that man although he gave her fits sometimes. She didn’t trust those bitches and hoes who kept coming for him, that was for sure, but she trusted him. “We’re in danger of losing our Diamond status because of a spat of bad reviews lately.”

She was willing to move on, which he appreciated. “Yes, I’m aware.”

“Mostly it’s coming from Housekeeping, which is my territory.” Kari slanted her dark-brown hair off of her forehead. “We need help from outside. I have hundreds of supervisors on staff and half of them aren’t doing their jobs. I can’t police each and every one of them.”

“I told you to get more help long ago. But you insisted you could do it. By all means get help.”

Kari nodded. “I just wanted to let you know there may be some mass firings that won’t look good initially.”

“Do what you have to do,” Alex said. But when he looked at her, he could see the anxiety on her face.

When they first met she owned a tiny cleaning service.

When she agreed to work for him at his brand-new hotel and casino, she became the head of the housekeeping department.

The hotel and casino had expanded exponentially since then, and she was still the department head.

She was still certain that a hotel with an excellent housekeeping department was a hotel people would book return visits time and time again.

Clean rooms, she believed, were more important than A list celebrity performers or even great food.

It began with the rooms. And great housekeeping had always been one of the keys to their great success. But now it was a drag on that success.

“Come here,” he said to her.

“I’m okay.”

Kari could be hard as nails, and even harder on herself, and Alex knew it. “I didn’t say you weren’t okay. Come here.”

When she moved over to his side, he pulled her down onto his lap in a cradling position. She smiled. It reminded her of the way he used to dip her when they were dancing. Although they hadn’t gone dancing in a very long time.

But Alex was staring at her with all seriousness. “You worry too much,” he said to her.

Her smile left too.

“You’ll get the right people in place and turn it all around. I don’t say it enough, but I have total confidence in you. We’ll be just fine.”

She nodded her head, as they stared into each other’s eyes.

And then his face began to move down to her face and he captured her mouth with a kiss.

Sweet at first. And easy. And hard and long and with so much passion that he turned her around on his lap to face him, opened her legs to straddle him, and then pressed the button that locked his office door.

And then he ripped the seat of her panties with a hard tear and prepared her with his fingers as he continued to kiss her. And then he entered her slow and big. The tip and then the whole thing. She leaned her head back, her anxiety replaced with pure joy, as she rode that wave.

They made love for nearly half an hour with no interruptions whatsoever, which shocked them both. And then, once complete, they collapsed into each other’s arms and remained in that chair, with him still deep inside of her, for as long as they possibly could.

Alex had no idea that the brother he’d heard about all his life but never met, the man he was taught to despise with a bitter disposition, was well on his way.