Sowing seeds

The pleasure of dominating Claudia was tremendous even the injuries that were mild annoyances before were completely healed with the carnally transformed mana.

Leonardo took his time to examine the improved mana's way of healing but as it was nothing like a healing spell the result was no different than if it had happened naturally.

Leonardo guessed that if Claudia zapped him the same way as before, it would just tickle.

Smiling, he continued to meditate stopping a few minutes later when a soft step caught his attention. He opened the eyes to see Hailey holding her mouth with surprise written on her eyes.

"W-What happened here!?" She asked looking around the thrashed room

Remembering her shoulder massage from before Leonardo immediately put on a painful expression and held his chest as if everything hurt.

Hailey panicked and hurried to hold him "Are you hurt!? Wait here, I'll call Cecilia!"

He held her arm and smiled weakly

"That Ugo was quite heavy-handed.. Plus those two women were not easy on me either, can you massage me like before?"

Hailey hesitated, then nodded, she circled him and sat down behind his back, but when she touched with her palms and examined his body, her face grew red as she saw there was nothing wrong with him.

She smacked his back lightly. "Liar!"

Leonardo laughed as she humphed. Nonetheless, he felt her fingers moving on his shoulder and smiled.

"It's been a while since I came to my room, how's mom handling the guests?" He asked as she massaged him.

Hailey looked at his thin body and tried to find a reason as to why he was able to beat Ugo.

"Hey," Leonardo called.

"O-Oh, she's fine. Mom's always good at making faces to the other wives, Silvio is drinking beer and laughing with the other men by the grill. Claudia took Rebecca and went home before we finished he whole bag of chocolate. Cecilia is drinking and watching from the corner of the backyard."

"Hmmm~~so good." He nodded and grunted with pleasure. A light blush covered Hailey's cheeks but was immediately replaced by a confused expression as she sniffed the air a couple of times.

She looked behind her, at his messed up bed  "Why is your bedsheet smelling so strong of sweat? And it isn't just yours either… and these other smells…" 

Milliseconds after the questions started coming, a pair of arms pulled her and placed Hailey back in the hallway.

A profusely sweating Leonardo stood at the door giving her an awkward smile.

"G-Go help mom in the kitchen, I-I'll just  put some of those stinky things to wash and will be right over."

She frowned and looked on with suspicion, she tried to peep through him and into the room, but her vision was suddenly blocked by his face

Hailey felt a light pack on her cheek and jumped back "Ah! What are you doing!"

He licked his lips.."Like cold cherries.."

Red out of shame, the sixteen-year girl snorted and walked away.

Leonardo breathed a sigh of relief.

*****

"W-We really should leave." A mosquito like a tone sounded beside Jeff.

He was laughing along with the other men's jokes when Cassie came from the bathroom and spoke.

Jeff smiled and walked slightly far away from the men. He looked down at Cassie with an amiable smile "Don't speak nonsense, this is our only chance of truly reconciling with Leonardo, besides, it seems Claudia is also in partnership with him, this is killing two birds with one stone."

Cassie went stiff. A panicked and obscure light was shining deep down Jeff's eyes.

"Wha- What? Earlier you said there was no way back to being friendly with Leo, and that we should keep distance instead."

He held her arm in an apparently caring manner, but only she knew how much strength was on his grip.

"My father has an assurance that he'll be able to expand the business with Silvio and Leonardo's help… Acknowledging it or not, Leonardo became equally valuable as Claudia. I'm sure we'll suffer a loss in the beginning…" He spoke, trembling with greed and fear. "But I'm sure profits will speak louder than grudges in Leonardo's ear. Now go, go make conversation with his mother and sister… I'll talk to him again later."

His eyes were red.

He was angry, too angry. Cassie could see that. She looked beyond him, at Jeff's father. Seeing the fat man laugh out loud with Silvio made her understand. 

Jeff has always been afraid and respectful of his father. Even when his opinion gets put aside, he still follow the man's orders.

And this situation spelled that as clear as day to her eyes.

Something shook inside of her. Fear and insecurity that she only felt when she was younger came from her stomach and iced nearly all of her upper body.

She smiled at him with care and nodded. "You're right, while you go and build a relationship with him I'll try and reconnect with Helen and Hailey."

"Hum!" Jeff nodded happily and let go of Cassie's arm.

The surrounding gazes saw nothing out of ordinary as they kissed, laughed and went separate ways.

But Cecilia who was observing in the corner chortled.

It was nothing eye-catching, it seemed like someone who saw a barely funny joke, but Cassie heard, and the fear intensified.

Cassie's steps were light and casual with her long red-hair swinging from side to side with her waist. But her mind was in complete turmoil. 

This wasn't the first time Jeff followed his father's order instead of his own thoughts and every time it happens, neither she or any other can influence him.

Cassie stopped by the kitchen where Helen was preparing the side dishes while talking and laughing with the other wives.

Her stomach was taken over by abysmal cold. She left- no, she betrayed  Leonardo at last minute for a safe bet, but it turns out the one she chose was commanding her to flatter her ex-boyfriend's family in order to acquire benefits for a business he still isn't legally part of.

Her hand holding the knob was shaking from the emotions inside.

But the door opened from the other side and a surprised Helen looked at her.

Looking at the woman in front, Cassie's dimmed mood seemed to suddenly have disappeared as she smiled. "Mrs. Helen, Where can I find Leo?"

Confused and slightly distracted, Helen casually answered. "He went to his room a while ago."

"Thank you." She smiled then bowed down low. 

"Sorry for the pain I've caused."

It was abrupt and out of nowhere.

Helen knew the other women in the kitchen were listening and chose to dismissively wave her hand "No child, don't worry. Things of the young ones should be solved amongst themselves."

Helen said, but with a callous expression.

Cassie stood up and walked to the hallway, where there was nobody. She paused and stood still, it was dark and alone. 

"Cassie?" A voice sounded from the other end of the hallway. It was too familiar, but also completely different.

She looked up and saw Leonardo smiling at her, "Came to visit me? Good, I needed to talk to you both."

"No, I came alone." She said while valiantly throwing her hair behind her ear and looking at him with slight pity in the eyes.

[Uhuhuhu! Would you look at that!] Azumi said while Leonardo silently gazed at Cassie.

"Leo, I know what I did wasn't right, but we're young and never truly thought to marry each other. You became so successful, can you stop playing with Jeff's future? As a man, shouldn't you be above that kind of grudge? Let's keep business and personal matters separated."

Her body was tall and straight, her tight summer dress exhaled femininity. She was like a diva addressing a mild inconvenience.

But the geisha seemed unable to stop laughing in Leonardo's mind.

[Ahahahaha! What a lousy actress! Insecurity, fear, confusion, rage, annoyance, self-doubt and much more! What a ball of discomfort that woman is!]

Leonardo heard in silence, a minute passed since her first words, she was leaning back on the wall and examining her nails, faking indifference.

But her discomfort only grew as Leonardo silently gazed at her. Her breathing got fast, and she glared at him with undisguised rage.

"I'm sorry! Is that what you want!? I'm saying sorry!" She huffed and puffed. "For what we had, please black off! I only want a peaceful assured future!"

Hearing her plea made a sticky and dark feeling came and flood his chest. Leonardo smiled and said in a common and casual tone of voice.

"On all fours, bleat."

Her eyes looked at him in confusion until it eventually she understood and it became rage instead.

She gritted her teeth "You want me to humiliate myself? You want to see me on all fours and bleat like a goat then deny what I ask for fun!?" She growled.

But Leonardo merely turned his back and threw his cellphone on the ground beside her. "Do it, I won't record or watch. I'll only hear it."

Two more minutes of silence followed before she spoke stutteringly.

"Y-you didn't even give me a guarantee  t-that you'll-"

"Don't think" He cut her short with a dry command. "Do it."

She went silent, only hearing the enraged heartbeat within her chest on the silent hallway.

Tormented by everything, she was about to scoff and turn around but then she remembered Jeff's gaze as he told her to warm up to Helen and Hailey.

Leonardo circulated the mana on his ears and heard the sound of the summer dress fluttering and touching the dusty hallway ground.

He smiled with a closed mouth and waited patiently with a sadist's pleasure.

"B-Be-eh-eh-eh-"

It was a broken, weak, stutteringly imitation of a sheep. But she did it.

An exciting chill made all of Leonardo's hair stand up, a grin stretched across his face, but he hid it well behind a tough, expressionless mask.

He turned around and walked back to her, took back his cellphone and started typing.

"W-will you let go of the g-grudge and keep things as b-business?" She said with dim eyes and trembling body, Leonardo ignored her and kept writing, she grits her teeth and opened her mouth again. 

"Answer m-"

He raised a shush finger at her and went back to typing, she waited in silence, almost an hour passed and thoughts that she humiliated herself uselessly started appearing, she lamented every decision from the weekend before to until now

Tears came down her expressionless eyes. But when everything turned black inside her chest and the tension of him denying everything reached the climax, Leonardo showed her the screen of his phone.

It was a contract. There were a lot of things, but what caught her eyes was a single term that forces Jeff's father to put his son as official heir and direct manager of his own shares and leader of at least twenty percent of the total stores owned.

Leonardo then scrolled down the chat log and showed the same contract, but this time it was signed with Jeff's father's signature and digital fingerprint.

Relief, like one she never felt before washed the tension out of her body, her legs grew weak and wobbly as she smiled and hugged him without thinking.

"Thank you." She said.

He hid the menace on his eyes and patted her back, comforting her, then whispered; "There, wasn't it easy? No need to grind relationships or schemes. Just act as you're told and be rewarded. How did that feel?"

She widened her eyes and pulled back in a hurry. Cassie looked at his amiable smile and was baffled, but the ecstatic feeling of relief right after the highest amount of tension made her fluster and mumble a simple thanks before leaving.

The geisha, wearing a golden yukata materialized herself in front of Leonardo.

[You gave her a taste of the pleasure of not thinking, the pleasure of having the decisions made in her stead, The small pleasures of the captive...Are you trying to make her your willing slave?]

Leonardo just smiled, took out his phone and started typing, one hour later he made a second contract.

Azumi read the letters on the phone and smiled with an equally insidious grin. "Oh my, you're bad."

He smiled, "I'm not being bad, I do need a CEO, Claudia and I can't deal with the administration of the business and it happens that Cassie has a talent for that. Plus, I need a puppet CEO that'll do what I say without too many questions."

[Isn't that a glorified secretary then? Huhu but will she sign it? Will Jeff allow her to sign it?]

Leonardo looked up at where Cassie's back disappeared and sighed with satisfaction

"Oh, I know they will"

A hungry grin appeared on his face