“How old are you? I mean, it’s unusual, right? Is it a religious thing?”
“I’m thirty-five. It’s not a religious thing. More just...family values. I’ve been saving myself.”
“Saving yourself,” she whispers, “for who?”
“For the person I want to spend the rest of my life with.”
This is it, she knows he’s turning her down. Thirty-five-year-old virgins who are saving themselves don’t just give up their values for her. She’s curvy to the point of being obese, and can barely be consideredpretty. Boring as all get out. No way he’s giving up his values for her.
“I want to...with you. I just want to go slow.”
“With me?”
“Yes,” he smiles again and tucks her hair behind her ear. “With you.”
She doesn't ask more, and they go back to kissing. She wades further into the water till her toes are barely touching, then he pulls her to him and she wraps her legs around his waist.
It’s nice, not having a rush towards sex. Not that she’s had a ton of experience herself. But it’s nice. There’s no scrabbling of clothes. No skipping foreplay. There’s kissing, fast and slow, hard and soft. She explores the upper half of his body with her hands. And he holds her waist, wraps his arms around her, runs his fingers through her wet hair. She can feel how turned on he is from the hard cock nudging her sex through their underwear. It’s nice.
They float on their backs in silence, holding hands. He seems to want to touch her always, and she has no problem with that. She wraps her arms around his shoulders from behind, and he swims them out to the middle of the lake, where there’s a floating platform. They lay on the platform in the sun, tangled together, kissing. She peeks at his crotch exactly once and isn’t that surprised to see a big dick tenting his boxers.
Chloe's stomach grumbles after they’ve been making out like teenagers for a couple of hours. She pulls away and quickly places a hand on her stomach like that will stop it.
“Hungry?” he asks, but his eyes zero in on her hard nipples peeking through the lace of her bra. Hismouth is open a little, and he licks his lips. She wants to pull him down on top of her again, but before she knows it, he’s standing and stretching. Still hard as a rock in his boxers in the hours they’ve been here. His body is dry now from being on the platform so long, and his hair is soft without any product in it. Chest and arms tanned and incredibly strong with a dark trail of hair leading downwards. If anyone told her she’d get to kiss a man as attractive as Axel, she’d laugh right in their face.
He crouches down as she sits up. “Let’s get you something to eat.”
He swims them back with her holding on tight to his shoulders. The feeling of muscles moving beneath her arms is astounding. He’s so strong and she loves it. They dress in silence, sneaking peeks at one another and blushing. He seems to like her body for some reason, so she doesn’t try to hide it from him. Once she stands from tying her boots, he squeezes her waist and nuzzles her hair. She’d swear he was sniffing her, but she likes his touch too much to care.
He’s stealing. That fucker Maury has been stealing from Axel and his brothers. She got the documents from the county assessor. From what she can tell, Maury told them they owed twice what they did. Sometimes, taking additional payments for which she can find no receipt. Also, she sees that they paid Maury for taxes on the land the town sits on, but according to the county, it was sold about two years ago.
She doesn’t know how she’s going to bring this up with Axel. Maury is someone he trusted, whom he put faith in to help them run their business, and he’s been siphoning money from them for years. One big chunk of one hundred thousand dollars was given to Maury for what Axel noted as an investment, but she found no investment account in Axel’s name. She needs to tell him.
When Axel pops into the office with a big smile and a warm cup of coffee, she puts it off. When he brings her a toasted turkey panini he made himself instead of having Jack do it, she doesn’t tell him. When he sets up a romantic dinner on the patio for just the two of them with steaks, butter sauce, and wine, she doesn’t want to ruin the mood.
The next day, she sits in front of the computer screen. She’s gone through all the accounts, seen the pattern of payments that doesn’t add up. But she’s done as much as she can, she needs Axel’s help. When he comes in with a fresh cup of coffee, a croissant, and a warm kiss to the cheek, she tells him, “We need to talk”.
“What’s wrong? If I...if I pushed you or moved too fast-” He lowers himself into the chair across from her and looks lost.
“No, Axel, you’ve been a perfect gentleman. I’d tell you if I wanted to do things differently.”
“Ok,” he says with a soft smile. She doesn’t want to hurt him and hesitates in saying anything. For being such a big, burly man, he’s really a giant teddy bear, and she doesn’t want to make him upset. She takes a deep breath.
“Axel. I’ve been looking over the accounts, and there are some payments that don’t add up. I think Maury’s been stealing from you.”
She hears his breath hitch in his throat, and she leans back, bracing for him to yell at her. He’s trusted Maury for years, he’s known her for a week. She knows what’s coming. But instead, he stands slowly and comes around the desk to her side.
“Show me, please.”
She’s printed out the payment coupons for the taxes owed on the land and the lodge.
“If I start at the first one after Maury took over, you can see the state said you owed this much,” she highlights the amount on the paper, “but you made a payment to Maury for almost double.”
He’s frowning, eyes swinging between the computer and her printouts.
“Are you sure? He said at the beginning we owed back taxes-”
“You didn’t. I checked and double-checked. I’m not a forensic accountant, but I know what to look for. He definitely committed fraud. Look here,” she circles two dates. “You’ve been making four payments a year, but the state only bills twice a year.”
