Chapter 5: THE TOUR

Hiraya was no spring chicken. Neither was she an innocent. After losing her family to a short local war during her adolescent years, she had already been introduced to a great number of "weird" tastes and interests by several questionable, and even demanding individuals. Just to survive, she's had to deal with them in the best way possible.

So this man's request was not something she was used to, so she found herself hesitating. Especially since she somehow knew this man and yet, she finds that fact quite impossible considering how his youthful appearance was.

The man I know and who rescued me and my best friend a few years ago would probably be in his mid-forties by now but His Highness certainly looks like he's in his late twenties or early thirties. So no, that's quite impossible. And he's still waiting for my answer.

"So, you are serious? You'd rather walk around with me wearing this than fuck?"

"You didn't have to be so graphic but to answer your question, yes. I would rather enjoy doing something with you other than being in bed before we get to that stage," was the man's reply in a low, serious tone.

"Your Majesty, may I remind you that I'm your personal whore. Emphasis on the last word. You don't need to parade me around to show everyone you own me. Everybody here fucking knows it."

"It's Marion, and you have got me all wrong. Despite what you may have heard about me, I don't make public displays of what I own. That can get me easily killed. I want to walk around with you so you can share the beauty of The Resort with me, in a dress you want to wear. You are looking for a reason to wear this, yes?"

Marion had to wait quite a while for her to answer. Also, he could have sworn that he could almost see her eyes glaze over with disbelief and… tears?

No, it can't be. There was nothing so strange in my request… or was there?

After her long bout of silence, the woman suddenly grabbed the dress from him and turned around, giving him a full view of her smooth tanned back and her pinch-worthy, bouncy butt cheeks. He only had a few seconds to enjoy the view before the shirt finally covered her scrumptious backside completely.

"I don't think it's right for me to wear this while you're wearing a suit, Your Majesty," she sighed, still facing away from him. "I'm totally underdressed."

"Please. Again, it's just Marion when we're alone, Orion when we're in public. And if that's your only problem…"

It took him only half a minute to remove his personalized Kiton black suit jacket, branded blueish silver tie, and his signature dark long-sleeved shirt. He dropped all his clothes on the floor, keeping only his signature sleeveless black undershirt, dark pants, and personalized Italian leather shoes on. He reached out to her, grabbed her shoulder, and turned her around to face him.

"So, what do you think?" Orion asked a little too eagerly.

He couldn't help but flex his biceps a little as he felt her dark blue-violet eyes slowly taking in his broad shoulders, muscular torso, and well-built arms. Marion, who had regular workouts and sparring sessions with his army generals, knew how physically magnificent he could look when he needed to be.

And for some odd reason, he felt he needed to impress at that very moment.

It took the tousle-haired call girl a few seconds to reply…

And close her luscious and reddish lips which had remained open for a few seconds at the sight of him.

"Yeah, that look… goes much better with my… dress…" she stated with forced indifference as she tried to look away from his impressively toned body.

He couldn't keep himself from smirking at the sudden shyness he seemed to feel from her. It's normal for him to be able to read a person in just one meeting and yet she has managed to surprise him repeatedly despite her unexpected transparency to him and her jaded attitude to his rank and wealth.

"Shall we?" the royal asked with an inviting smile.

"Wait, before we go…"

Raya reached down towards the clothes he had just removed and shook the wrinkles and possible dust from them. She then opened a closet door and took out a couple of hangers and arranged his coat, shirt, and tie on them before hanging them on a clothes peg attached to one of the cabinet's sides.

Marion couldn't help but be touched by her concern for his clothes despite her supposedly "weird" and "aloof" demeanor.

So much for her promoted goth personality.

"Alright, then," she said with a sprightly smile while slinging her arm around his. "Time for your tour, Marion. I promise you, you're gonna love it."

Later on, he won't just be seeing immaculate gardens but her favorite praying mantis' bush. Not just clean streams but the empty cocoon of a caterpillar that she rescued from the cook's vegetables. Not only the edges of the woods behind the resort but also the nest of a bird she rescued and fed with her own mouth when it was abandoned by its mother. A small hole within an old tree bark where she found pink infant mice with their eyes still closed and nursed with milk-moistened bits of bread until they could fend for themselves. Not just the marble pool and Zen bamboo fountains but the small and shallow puddle where she rescued tadpoles from and allowed them to grow up until they turned into small frogs in a large glass bowl in her room and released into the wild not long after…

So now I do know that she has animal assistants.

He found himself engrossed, entertained, and enchanted while wondering how fascinated he could get, over a place that he had visited only once.

And how the hell can I feel so much from someone I've only met now?

+++

"Sorry Sir, he said they'd like to stay out in the open. He insists on it," Alexia said while standing beside one of their security experts, as they gave their report to The Supervisor

"Are they nuts? Who knows what kind of wild animals could be out there?! What about mosquitoes and poisonous spiders? I don't want some legal case slapped on The Resort by his rich and powerful parents, alright!"

"Well Sir, there haven't been any sightings of wolves, lynxes or bears in the area for a very long time. Most probably because of the traps and special measures that's been put into place since your long-dearly departed brother-in-law Major Antonio Agpalza was put in charge of The Resort by your father," replies the security expert who goes by the name of Oman.

"The mosquitoes can easily be solved with frequency-emitters that we can leave beside their tent. And he did order one, Sir," assures Alexia. "The worst they could possibly harm them would be an anaconda, Sir, and they'll be safe from those as long as they stay in the tent."

"Fine, fine… I'll go talk to him on his mobile first before you send him anything alright? Just get his requests ready and wait for further instructions."

"Yes, sir and goodbye. We'll just wait for your call then," Alexia assures her anxious employer.

The Rube watches as his head security officer and personal assistant walk out the door of his office. He swears to himself as he reaches for his antique-looking desk phone…

Damn it, just because he was given some semblance of freedom doesn't mean he should go all out with it and not think of possible consequences! Wasn't he a part of his father's special militia squad when he was younger? He should know better!

The good-natured monarch picked up after the second ring, "Hey Reuben, I hope my requests are on their way. It's starting to get dark out here. I want us to be under the sheets by the time evening sets in.

"Heeeyyyy yeah, about your requests Orion… Are you sure it's okay to have you guys sleeping out there in the open with hardly any lights or security around?"

"Come on Rube, you do remember who you're talking to, right?"

Yeah… how can I forget…

++++++++++

"You sure about this place Orion? Kinda looks dark and dingy to me…" mumbled the Rube while fingering his hidden gun in the secret pocket of his long coat. He worriedly looked around the dim and crowded club, checking for fast places to exit just in case trouble erupts. And with the kind of jerks and assholes in that place, it's not such a far-off situation.

His present partner-in-crime, equally armed with hidden guns along with a knife or two was quick to whisper back, "This is where our contact told us to go, Rube. And we need his photos to get that corrupt politician we're after."

"Couldn't you get your private army to get those pics, bro?" The concerned cohort softly answered.

"Afraid not, bro. He can't even trust the postal service or the bloody internet for those images, not even encrypted e-mail. That's how important his evidence is man. He promised to give it to us if we personally pick up his package from him." Marion quickly but quietly muttered.

"Gentlemen! Good evening, I didn't expect you to drop in so soon..."

The two armed friends froze where they stood. They knew that fucking voice!

"Mayor Powell, what a nice surprise," sarcastically exclaimed Onion with gritted teeth, his jaw locking in anger as he saw the last speaker. "I didn't know you frequented places like this."

"And why shouldn't I? I meet most of my men here," the politician sneered derisively. "Besides, I heard that some of my enemies do, too…"

Powell then snaps his fingers, causing a group of large muscular men to bring out, as if on cue, a tied and gagged wirier, balding man; whose eyes were tear-filled and terrified, wordlessly begging the two newcomers to save him.

Marion gasped imperceptibly and tried to reassure his witness slash contact with his meaningful expression and silent gaze: Relax, we're going to get you out of here… safely and alive! Then quickly nodded at The Rube.

At that exact moment, Reuben decided to play his hidden card...

"Hey, do you guys have a fucking death wish?" He asked aloud so everyone in the criminal-filled club could hear him, then suddenly flung a grenade into the crowd. "I know I do!"

The small mob broke out in chaos and panic, some even jumping on the smudged and scuffed vinyl-tiled floor with their hands covering their heads…

Orion took this chance to run to the criminal Mayor's unguarded hostage and dragged him to the door, which obviously was not guarded. "Rube, come on!" he authoritatively hissed/commanded his companion.

"Hey, it's a fuckin' dud!" screamed the closest diver near the grenade. "It didn't friggin' explode!"

"Well, if that didn't, this surely will…" Orion replied as he tossed another grenade before leaping out the door with his two friends running before him. "Tally-hooo! The last one out is a dead man!"

BOOM!

The man the dynamic duo rescued didn't get to testify anymore because the criminal he was supposed to make a stand against died in the club due to the last and only explosion there.

++++++++++

More so now, with Marion trying to get his former military academy schoolmate to agree…

"Yeah, how can I forget dude? But those days are like twenty years ago already. You haven't gotten much practice with those kinds of skills for quite some time now."

"Rube quit acting like my Grandad and just give me what I requested, ok? Just because he's already dead doesn't mean you get to take his place," joked the comely prince in an amused tone. "Remember, you only got to be my personal bodyguard once in my life. And even then, you never got to order me around, ahaha!"

"Hey, if it not for our fathers insisting we serve in the same militia together and then later on hiring me to be your personal bodyguard for a few months, we would never have known each other and you wouldn't even be talking to your precious little food supply. So can it, bro, haha!"

Rube only realizes that he was laughing on his own a few seconds later. There was absolute silence from the other line and the bordello owner didn't like that…

"What did you just call her?" asks Orion in a cold, cutting tone.

"Whoa, dude that was a joke! I didn't mean anything by that, alright…"

"Make jokes about anything EXCEPT THAT! You hear me, Rube?"

"Alright, alright! Geez… didn't think you'd take that seriously,"

"I do take it seriously and I will EVERY. SINGLE. TIME! Now promise me you won't say that again."

"Sure bro, I won't…"

"PROMISE ME!" harshly insists the indignant monarch with a loud growling voice.

"OK! OK! I PROMISE! What the hell, Marion? Calm your tits, man!"

"I'm fine and so are my tits! Now I want the largest and most luxurious tent you have there, the best sleeping bags you can find and the most comfortable mattress you can provide, along with the people who can set it up for us. I want all that here on the front lawn in thirty minutes or less, along with the other toiletries and items I've requested. Got it?"

"Of course, Your Majesty!"

Rube's irritated tone was not lost to his still-provoked friend, "Fine call me that, I know I deserve it for being a hard-ass bastard right now. But this means a lot to me, Rube. So please… just do it."

The phone call ends.

Rube then calls another number and starts giving out orders…

After five more minutes, he dials another…

"Wife, I hope you don't mind but can I just lie down on your couch again?"