Jordan's POV
I just came out of the bathrooms after completing the morning drill at the boot camp and was headed to do my own routine without the flabbergasted trainees I had punished with grueling activities earlier. For some reason, I woke up on the wrong side of the bed and was quite grumpy, and refused to look in the mirror and check out how long my beard had grown. I know it still suits me, though, modesty aside - if not, those ladies from the female boot camp wouldn't exert efforts coming over to the armory which was a good half a kilometer away from their lounge, and blurt excuses of resting and meditating while I noisily assembled my rifle.
"DI... Do you think it'd be helpful for us to carry rifles while trying yoga?" One of them waved at me unashamedly, while bending her back in such a way that her breasts were almost sticking out of her uniform. I knew she wanted me to notice, so I paid her a good sweep with teasing eyes and she looked rather pleased that I appreciated her cup C assets.
"I'm afraid I can't give you proper advice, babe," I told her as I started moving out of the room, walking backwards while headed to the door to avoid breaking eye contact with the lovely woman. "I haven't met a yoga instructor before, and I wouldn't have an idea whether lifting a rifle while twisting your sexy body would be a good thing..." There you go, smooth talker. I mentally chided myself. Part of me wanted to stay in the room and enjoy the view that the girls were giving me, but I knew I would send them the wrong idea if I did. They were already starting to discreetly undress themselves due to the warmth in the room, but I bet my own badge that they were silently inviting me for something more than just a view of sultry back-bending and yoga posing. I waved them goodbye without any more of a backward glance as I stepped out of the door and jogged straight to the open field to look for some company - by this, I mean a wholesome company.
It wasn't long before I stepped on the dry soil when I heard the booming voice of Franklin, shouting my name. I turned around and saw him jogging towards my direction, carrying dumbbells, but it didn't look like he was exercising at all. On the contrary, he looked like he was carrying grenades, and that he was tasked to take them to me and expect me to stop them from exploding. I stopped and waited for him until he was close enough to deliver the news.
"What's up, Frank?" I asked, hands on my rifle, ready to fire at him in case he was up for some ill joke like he always does in the morning. I normally would have had the patience to put up with Frank’s pranks, but if I hadn't said it earlier, I'm not my happy self today.
"I think the heavens descended on us today, Jordy boy," he began with a dramatic bodily movement, and I instinctively curled my finger on the trigger, eyes narrowed at him and awaiting more of his stupid rambling. "Hold it, don't kill me yet!" He almost laughed as he very well noticed my reaction. He raised his hands, still carrying the useless dumbbells and tried to look as seriously as he could.
"You're needed at the visitor's area. Someone's looking for you."
There. He said the most impossible thing that could ever happen, and I lifted my rifle to point at his head. "Jordan, I'm serious!" He shouted, not at all panicking even with my rifle muzzle pressed against his forehead. I wouldn't kill him - no, not yet. But what he said was the last thing that could ever happen in the world, and everyone in the camp knew it.
I had entered the military without anyone knowing it, and even my father, rich as he was, respected my need for privacy and simply believed that I was out traveling the world wasting my own money and never conducted any search party even if I didn't get in touch with the family for a year. Even the Brigadier General doubted it at first, but after a thorough espionage, the entire military was convinced that my family had not really sent a troop to start looking for me and investigate what I was really up to. With that reason, no one on Earth is expected to visit me, or let alone look for me at the Military camp.
"As the B-Gen told me, you have a visitor, Jordan," Frank repeated slowly and with emphasis, as though he was talking to someone who just had a new pair of hearing aids who might have trouble catching and stringing the words together. I looked at him with a frown and then lowered my rifle. "I'm serious, and I've already met the person." He added.
"And who might that be?" I finally asked. I felt stupid for believing his words, but he never uses the B-Gen's name for a joke.
"I don't think I'm in the position to tell," he said sullenly, but his face broke into a wide grin with his next words. "But she sure looks like an angel who fell from the sky!"
Okay, I get it. Stupid as he was, I knew Frank had standards. If he looked like struck by lightning right now, then that "she" must be beautiful. Whoever she was. I tried to rack my brain for some woman who would have the audacity to look for me in the Military - of all places.
I knew it wouldn't be my sister, since she never had the inclination to play detective and check on the whereabouts of a thirty-year-old brother who had been living independently since he was thirteen. She always regarded me as a "little brother" much to my indignation, but she also had so much confidence in me that I highly doubt she would start worrying for me and would want to take care of me after ten years of being out of the limelight.
Next thing I considered was whether there would be a woman who I might have slept with while on my break from the military, and to whom I could have confessed my secret job, and here she goes looking for me and about to tell me that she was bearing my child. I shuddered at the thought.
"She doesn't look pregnant, does she?"
"She doesn't look pregnant, does she?" I heard myself ask, and this time, it was Frank's turn to look at me like I just sprouted a second head – rather, third. I didn't have to explain what I was thinking since he knew me too well, and he just sighed like I was too difficult to deal with. "What? I might have impregnated some random woman and she's here to claim her rights..."Frank rolled his eyes and sighed once again, this time with the shake of his head. "No, she doesn’t look pregnant, dumbass."I let out a sigh of relief, congratulating myself for not stupidly leaving some woman longing for me and for a father to her child. I admit, I engage in some casual relationships when I'm out of the camp, but I always made sure that my affairs were never too serious to get hitched, and that the women I dated were not only the less clingy ones but also not the slutty ones. I valued my manhood and would never bow down to some random sex just to get satisfied. I'd rather jack off than get myse
By the tilt of her head and even with her eyes concealed, she was obviously looking at Frank and not me. I felt irritated for some reason but kept my face straight and void of any emotions. We wouldn’t want to be too obvious, would we?She turned to me and looked up. She looked like she wasn't pleased with the idea of me being six to seven inches taller than her, as she visibly tried to adjust her height and straightened her back all the more. "You must be Jordan Gallagher?" She queried, her well-defined eyebrows arched, awaiting any type of reaction from me. I noticed that she didn't extend her hand for a handshake, but simply looked at me behind her sunglasses.I found myself just staring at her. All of my experiences with women, my sweet talking talented self refused to take over, and I suddenly felt tongue-tied. The need to drink some cold beverage became so strong that I felt my throat go dry. She eyed me from head to toe, seemingly assessing why I was dressed in crumpled fatigue
With her new mobile phone in hand, Vee tried to keep herself occupied by watching music videos of her favorite bands. Since she likes having free time before her actual work, she is used to arriving at the venue not less than three hours before the call time. Her habit has made her image really pleasant in the eyes of designers and their staff as they never had to stress about her not getting enough preparation time before her shows start. Today, as she arrived much earlier than usual, she was greeted by a staff member right after she got off the service van that picked her up from the private hangar as she arrived in her private plane. She was then asked to wait for her stylist in her own dressing room while one of her assistants joined the rest of the staff who were preparing all the items needed for the fashion show - from different sets of face paint to five different outfits and props for each model. Her room was adjacent to the common one where the rest of the guest models wer
Her reverie could have taken that long, as Vee was surprised when she realized that Lenka was already shooing her towards the backstage to get ready for the show. She was now clad in her first item to present on the runway - a black, one piece all-lace lingerie which didn't really cover up anything that much. It was high-cut and showed off her entire thighs and crotch, and her buttocks were only partially encased in a V-web of pure lace. The bust part of the piece was cut with a very low neckline which again was shaped like a "V." She suddenly remembered Guy saying that the lingerie was patterned specifically for her.She squirmed as she recalled how she had spent grueling hours at the gym to get her entire body toned up to look perfect in her piece. She also tried to shove the memory of her very strict diet for the past few weeks and a part of her wished she belonged to the plus size group of models who would also walk for Guy’s lingerie line - a wishful thinking, though, knowing tha
Feeling the sexy vibe of the music and hearing the classy cheers around the catwalk helped Vee to project the appropriate facial expression which would match her lingerie piece as she strutted towards the elevated aisle. She looked ahead at an imaginary someone with inviting stares and a slightly parted mouth while striking a pose before twirling and walking back to the curtains. Upon reaching the backstage, she was shocked by the complete chaos - not the usual she sees during fashion shows. Instead of being led towards a spot where her outfit was meant to be redesigned, she was quickly ushered by one of the directors to her dressing room where Guy and Lenka were both slumped on the couch, visibly shaken and with swollen eyes. The unsightly atmosphere got her all tense."What's going on?" She asked, while trying to calm her growing anxiety as she sat in between the two, while the rest of the fashion show team was strictly asked by Guy's assistant to carry on with the show. Vee could s
Everything happened like a whirlwind after the sad news had come to Vee. On the very same day, she had to cancel all pending commitments and had her staff make important phone calls to file for her immediate resignation from her agency. Her managers and assistants had to coordinate with different agencies to send advanced notifications of the major changes on her plans for the year which would affect existing contracts. While flying in her private plane, she discussed pending contracts with her attorney and announced willingness to pay for damages or penalties for breach of contract, if any. After hours of calls making arrangements, Vee’s appointment for Guy's fashion line photoshoot for a magazine was the only one left in her line up for the rest of the summer, and her friend readily mentioned that he would be declining the invitation if the editors would demand for Vee, and offer other top models to grace the shoot and be given the opportunity to carry his brand as an alternative.A
After long, sleepless days and nights, when the time finally came for her to go home, Vee forced Guy and Lenka to leave her alone and assured them that she was alright. She wanted them to also get some rest as they had spent days and nights alternating with assisting her. She promised that if she needed anything, her house helpers would do a great job.In truth, she wanted to have some time to mull things over and process her own emotions. Just as how her father had raised her and Viktor, she would never show weakness in front of anyone she didn’t fully trust, thus she would always put on a strong face every time the cameras snapped at her during interviews. The first and last time she ever cried since hearing the news was in front of Guy and Lenka on that fateful day of her last fashion show. Her friends had expressed worry for her lack of emotional display, but she may have been trying too hard to follow her father’s teaching that even when she had tried to rele
Vee had never really paid attention to other business industries as she was growing up, chasing her own dreams. She had spent so much time traveling for her modeling gigs and the only world she had ever paid attention to was the world of fashion. Now that she practically didn’t have a choice but to enter the business industry which her father and her older brother had expertly navigated through, it took her by surprise that she may be facing similar worlds - business is business regardless of the industry choice. Businessmen seemed to have a smaller world than she had imagined.Now I know why everyone’s noses are following me.On the day she had decided to take her first step to solving her father’s puzzle, she only had to tell her driver, Max, where she wanted to go and he already knew how long it would take for the trip.“You may still nap a bit, señorita,” Max had told Vee.She found herself asking if Max e