Anything for the Man of the House: Ten Brats who Learn how to Behave Read online

  Her books EcoErotica (2009), The Real Mother Goose (2010) and Heidi and the Kaiser (2011) were all Epic Award Finalists. Her only gay male romance, Second Chance, won the Epic Award in Erotica in 2011. Her story, Connections, was one of the runners-up for the 2006 Rauxa Prize, given annually to an erotic short story of "exceptional literary quality," out of over 1,000 nominees, where awards are judged by a select jury and all entries are read "blind" (without author's name available.)

  She can be reached on her website at www.selenakitt.com

  Also from Selena Kitt

  Naughty Bits (Revised): David has been brightening up his gray Surrey, England days with the porn collection hidden in his parents' shed, but when he finds that his older sister, Dawn has discovered his magazines, things really begin to heat up. Their parents insist that their just-graduated son look for a job, but their daughter has the week off and is determined to work on her tan. Distracted David finds himself increasingly tempted by his seductive older sister, who makes it very clear what she wants. Her teasing ways slowly break down the taboo barrier between brother and sister until they both give in to their lust? but what are they going to do about the feelings that have developed between them in the meantime?

  Filthy Rich 1 – Scarlett Skyes

  The flickering light in the ramshackle old fridge sporadically illuminated the lettuce and corn, and I had to make my choice quickly. The rust-bucket had already lost the ability to freeze food, if I held the door open too long and overworked it there was every possibility that it could stop working entirely, and then we’d be down to whatever wouldn’t spoil too fast in the cupboards. If our luck was really in it might catch on fire too and burn the apartment block down.

  I decided corn would go better with rice and snatched it out, slamming the door shut. Voila! The two ingredients for the meal I would be cooking were now selected. My stomach rumbled when I thought of the kinds of things that my classmates had for lunches at school, but I had to make do with what I had.

  The budget had always been pretty tight, for as long as I could remember, but it had gotten even worse a few years back when my Mom was in a car accident and had ended up needing to pay damages to the other party. The whole ordeal, legal expenses and everything, were far beyond what she could afford, so the court had ordered her wages be garnished until everything was repaid. This put even more pressures on our already frugal way of life.

  I didn’t hold it against her though, how could I? She was the only family I’d ever known, it was her and I against the world. I already saw in her eyes how sad she was, how guilty she felt about not being able to provide everything that my peers seemed to take for granted, why would I ever rub salt in that wound?

  I remembered one time when my pen stopped working when I was doing my homework, I had to finish the rest of it with a nub of a pencil that I had to sharpen with a kitchen knife. My teacher had phoned my Mom at work and tried to inform her of the ‘poor standard’ of my work. Judging by the pale-faced apology the teacher gave me the next day, I thought my Mom might have threatened to disembowel him or something. I knew she’d kill or be killed for me, I’d do the same for her. You could say we were close.

  The bland meal was still cooking in the pot when my Mom burst through the door with a look on her face I’d seldom seen, she was smiling and had a kind of dreamy faraway look in her eye. She dropped her tote bag on the ground and slumped into the rickety couch, kicking her feet in the air like an excited schoolgirl.

  “Uh… good day in reception, Mom?”

  “Yeah, the SUPERBOWL of working reception,” she replied.

  “Whaddya mean?”

  “Guess who Attison Technologies Ltd’s newest customer is.”

  “Abraham Lincoln?”

  “Better.”

  “Lady Gaga?”

  “Who? I don’t know who that is, but it’s better.”

  “I give up.”

  “Cal Willis.”

  “No way!”

  “True Story!”

  “Did you meet him?”

  “Yeah! He walked right in the front door like any other person, if other people had bodyguards, that is. Told me who he was there to see and talked with me while our CEO rushed downstairs like a chicken with its head cut off. I literally mean he rushed down stairs, the elevator was going too slow or something, so he ran down like Mr. Willis had his family held captive.”

  “Hahaha! He doesn’t strike me as the fittest person, what kind of state was he in by the time he got to the ground floor?”

  “Not a pretty one. Bald head shiny with sweat and all red in the face. Cal and I talked for the few minutes while he was waiting, can you believe it? He flashed me this smile, I think he was flirting with me! He said I was doing a great job. Get this, he saw the picture of you I keep on my desk and said that beauty must run in my family!”

  “Wow! What happened then?”

  “Well… then he had his meeting and left,”

  “Oh. Well, that’s a bit anti-climactic, isn’t it?”

  “I’d probably have had a heart attack with anything more, Nova. My God, you wouldn’t believe the presence this guy has, it’s like everybody was terrified of displeasing him. I don’t doubt that he got exactly what he wanted out of the meeting.”

  “Well, that’s pretty cool. You want salt on your rice and corn?”

  “Wait, I need help.”

  “With what?”

  “I know when his next meeting is scheduled. I… I hope you don’t mind me saying… I’d kinda like to flirt with him again. Can you help me with choosing the right kind of thing to wear? Maybe we can borrow some clothes and make-up from somebody. You always had such a great eye for that kind of thing, you should be in the fashion industry.”

  My Mom was being overly generous, as Moms are wont to do. She was always saying how great I was at this or that and saying I should be in various jobs or industries. I did enjoy following the fashion industry from a distance though, she was right about that at least.

  “Yeah, of course. When is the next meeting?”

  “Next Monday.”

  “OK. Well, let’s eat and then see what we can come up with.”

  *****

  Against the grain of our luck, it seemed that Cal and my Mom hit it off really well. After dressing to impress the following Monday, a big bunch of flowers and chocolates from an anonymous admirer arrived at reception on the Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, the next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. On the Thursday a note finally came with them saying that my Mom had to choose between going on a date with Cal or being drowned in flowers and chocolates, because he could keep this up for years.

  Suffice to say, she chose the date, and a second, and third. From having to borrow clothes to impress Cal, suddenly parcels containing expensive dresses were turning up on our doorstep. My Mom never had to wonder about what to wear, Cal made it easy, just wear what he sent. After their dates, my Mom always brought home some of the food for me, I’d never tasted anything like it, those expensive restaurants really know their stuff.

  After several weeks, Cal came up to our apartment to pick my Mom up personally and I finally had the chance to meet him. Straight away I understood what she had said about his presence, he was the classic tall dark and handsome with a build and facial features that made him appear much younger than his forty something years. Only his eyes betrayed his age, his experience, his commanding nature.

  “This is my daughter, Nova,” my Mom said.

  I felt like I should be curtseying, like I was meeting royalty or something. Cal’s eyes scanned me up and down and a flush of warmth rose up from my chest. You know those dreams where you go to school and wonder why everybody is looking at you funny, then you glance down and realise you forgot to put your clothes on that day? That’s what it was like being looked at by Cal Willis, like he knew all my secrets already, like he was seeing me completely naked. I hoped he wasn’t going to ask me to jump out the window, I wasn’t sure how many steps I w
ould have taken before I could have stopped myself.

  “Nice to meet you, Nova,” he said, raising my hand to his lips.

  I was surprised at the old-fashioned gesture, I thought people only did that in those Victorian romance movies. In those movies, the gentlemen never had the look of hunger that Cal had in his eyes though, which he never took from mine until he had released my hand.

  “Y-you too, Mr. W-willis,” I stammered out.

  “See you tomorrow, sweetie,” my Mom said. “I’ll be back around noon.”

  “Have fun.”

  The door clicked shut behind them and I leaned my back against the wall, letting out a huge breath of relief. How my Mom managed to stay so calm around that man I had no idea, it was almost impossible to think of anything beyond ‘what does this man want me to do?’

  When she returned home the next day, bow-legged and glowing with that dreamy look on her face again, I knew they’d been somewhat further afield than second-base, but that certainly wasn’t a subject I wanted to broach with her. It all seemed too good to be true, Cinderella stories didn’t happen in the real world, did they?

  When I turned eighteen, we actually went out to a restaurant to celebrate it for the first time in… ever. My Mom said it was for her and I to have some ‘us’ time because it was my special day and things might be very different in our future. The way she was talking certainly raised my suspicions, it was really odd, but when I questioned her about it, she just said that today was all about me, about her and I against the world, and to just have a good time. So I did.

  The very next day, however, she said we had to have a ‘serious talk’ and she sat next to me on the sofa, pulling something out of her pocket. She opened the small velvety case and showed me a ring with a huge diamond so bright that I almost had to shield my eyes.

  “Really?”

  “Yes.”

  “Really?”

  “Sort of…”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, there are… uh… some conditions.”

  “Like a pre-nup?”

  “Yeah… but there’s a little more to it.”

  “Just spit it out, I’m dying here, we need to celebrate. Wait, you said yes, right?”

  “No.”

  “What!?”

  “I needed to speak with you first.”

  I was almost floored. “No you didn’t!”

  “Yes, I did, it’s about the conditions. They… uh… involve you.”

  My heart sank and I began thinking the worst. I had some issues about my lack of a Father. Despite my Mom’s assurances, I always had to wonder if he left because of me. What were these conditions? Was it that he didn’t want me in their life? That would be the worst for me, another rejection like that.

  “Does he want me to… stay here when you go to live with him?” I asked. “Because, if he does… you should still say yes, Mom, I want you to be happy.”

  “No, it’s not that. It’s…”

  “Come on.”

  “He wants you.”

  “He wants me to what?”

  “He wants you. He wants an heir… uh… and he wants you to provide it for him.”

  “He wants me to be his heir?”

  “No, he wants you to provide it for him, the natural way.”

  “What? But…”

  “I know… it’s insane, but he’s a good man, really. And he can save us from all this,” my Mom did a general gesture around our shabby apartment.

  “But Mom,” I lowered my eyes and whispered, “I haven’t even had sex yet.”

  She paused for a moment and put her hand out to place it on my knee.

  “I know, baby… it’s too much to ask, isn’t it? I’m sorry for bringing it up, I should have just told him you wouldn’t do it… it was just so much harder to think when he was right there.”

  My Mom pulled her phone out of her pocket and began pressing buttons, presumably to find Cal’s contact details. I was surprised at the turmoil of emotions inside of me. Indignation that he thought he could just use me to breed, like I was his property or something. Embarrassment at having to mention my sexual experience, or lack thereof, to my Mom. Shock at the whole situation.

  Those were all the emotions I was expecting. What I wasn’t expecting was the flicker of hope at having the power to change our lives. The urge to stop my Mom from dialling that number was also there. Most unexpected was the faint tingle of flattery and shameful lust. Cal Willis was possibly the most eligible bachelor in the country… and he wanted me for sex and an heir.

  I thought back to the times I had met him, each encounter had left me feeling even more flustered than the first, and now it all started to make sense. The lingering stares, the borderline-inappropriate touching, like when he had squeezed past me in the hallway, his crotch brushing against my ass. I had sworn at the time that I felt a bulge in his pants, but brushed it off as my imagination. Now I wasn’t so sure, but the thought of him taking me had certainly sprinted through my mind when it happened. I reached out and placed my hand on top of my Mom’s.

  “Wait… let’s think about this a bit more.”

  *****

  I stared out the window of the limousine as it slowed to a halt outside the grandest house I had ever seen. Huge marble columns supported the ceiling over an imposing entranceway leading up to a heavy-looking wooden door with a security guard stationed there. My heart jumped into my throat, I couldn’t believe I was here, and really doing this.

  Cal had paid for first class return flights to LA, as well as a limo at each end. The journey had been awkward to say the least. It wasn’t enough that I was going to his house so he could use my virgin body, he had also given me instructions on how to dress, much like his dates with my Mom. In my case though, there was no expensive designer dress on the doorstep. He wanted me to wear my school uniform and have my hair in pigtails, and he wanted me to travel to him like that.

  As far as I had ever been able to tell, my school uniform must have been designed and rolled out at a time when whatever board or committee that made the decisions was fully populated by horny old men. The skirt was short, the knee socks left a tantalising gap of bare skin on one’s upper thighs, the shirt was white, with just the faintest hint of being see-through. Not completely see-through, of course, it was opaque enough for its defenders to claim that you had to be looking really hard at a schoolgirl’s chest to see anything, and nobody wanted to admit they were looking really hard at a schoolgirl’s chest.

  I wore a long coat to the airport, hoping people wouldn’t stare at my pigtails too much and think I was a bit strange for wearing my hair like that, but the airport security staff made me take it off when I went through the metal detector. The man with the metal-detecting wand thing after the big one that you walk through nodded to the person sitting watching the x-rays of carry-on luggage. Turning his gaze back to me, he motioned for me to walk through.

  Even though I was sure I wasn’t carrying any metal, it beeped. The man told me to hold my arms out as he waved the wand over me and patted me down. Finding nothing, obviously, he told me to have a nice flight. It was too hot and uncomfortable on the plane to wear my long coat, I could see everybody’s eyes on me. I’d always been thankful for the school uniform before, everybody wearing the same clothes meant I didn’t stand out as the poor girl. On that flight the uniform did exactly the opposite, I was as conspicuous as possible.

  The limo driver opened the door for me and I stepped out into the warm night air, took a deep breath, and headed towards the door. I’d already been told that my bags would be brought in for me and as I approached the security guard, he reached over and opened the door without a word, holding it ajar for me until I was through and it clicked shut ominously behind me.

  A butler who looked like he had seen everything before walked up to me with a face that would have seen him through to the finals of a poker tournament, a tray carrying three wine glasses balanced professionally in his hand. The wine g
lasses each held a different beverage, one red, one pink, and one white. I had to assume they were wine, I’d never drank any before so wasn’t exactly an expert.

  “Nova Thatcher?”

  I nodded, “That’s me.”

  “Welcome, I trust your journey was a pleasant one,” he held out the tray and continued before waiting on my response. “Please accept a refreshment, I wasn’t sure what you liked to drink so have a small selection. My name is Henry, by the way, let me know if you need anything while you’re here.”

  Well, why not? I thought, my alcohol-virginity wasn’t the most important thing I had planned on losing that night. My hand hovered over the red and the white before settling on the pink because it was the prettiest. The butler’s eyebrow raised almost imperceptibly but when I took a sip I was happy with my choice, the bubbles danced in my mouth and felt wonderfully refreshing going down my throat, leaving a little tingle in my nose.

  “Mr. Willis will see you in his study now, if you please Ma’am. Follow me.”

  Henry led me up the huge staircase directly across from the front door on the other side of a foyer and I took a moment to survey my surroundings. Marble, antiques and expensive-looking art was everywhere, it was such a contrast to our apartment, the only art on our wall was the scribble of crayon I had put there when I was little.

  Henry turned left at the top of the stairs and walked down a hallway past several doors before knocking on one and opening it for me. I gulped, thinking of how shaky on her legs my Mom had looked the day after Cal had first had sex with her and hoped he would go easy on me, I hoped I could just float away somewhere in my mind and come back when it was all done.

  Stepping through the door, I saw Cal reclining in a chair with his feet up on a huge desk, tapping away at a tablet PC as he smoked a cigar. I hated the smell of cigarettes, but the faint cloud of cigar smoke had a much less harsh scent, it conjured up images of twilight on a beach, if anything. That and money, it smelled like Cal might have saved a bit of cash if he’d literally just set a roll of twenties on fire.