Lessons for Lexi (4 page)

“Wait.” JT reached in his pocket for a
business card. She was just what he needed. After a week of looking for an
appropriate companion for his aunt, he had a feeling he had found one with the
flower child now leaving the table. In five minutes, his aunt Althea hadn’t
called the girl a hussy or potential thief. In Althea’s world, that meant she
was in love.
 
“I might have a job for
you, for both of you, if you need a place to stay.”

Alex pulled the card out of his hand
and took off down the street without responding, Radford following close behind
her.

***

“Holy
crap, that
was JT Hussner. The same damn Hussner I was supposed to have that meeting
with!” Lexi turned to Raj in astonishment. “Also, you are terrible at making up
names.”

“What’s wrong with my names?”

“Alex and Radford?
What are we?
A fourteen year old boy and his faithful butler?”

“I thought they were good for improvisation.
Besides, I wasn’t the one who invited him to our table.”

“I didn’t realize who he was until he
said his name. I only met him for like four seconds last time.” She looked back
down the street nervously. “Do you think he knows? Do you think he’s screwing
with us?”

“I doubt it.” JT hadn’t seemed
suspicious and both Lexi and he looked completely transformed. “He offered us a
job, remember?”

“That might be part of his evil master
plan.”

“I highly doubt it Lexi.” He tugged on
her arm and they started walking. “Let’s go see if Pennypinch can think of
something.”

Lexi nodded, plans for lunch now blown
anyway. Truth be told, she could just give up and get an apartment or hotel
room. She had more than enough money. But she didn’t want to do that. She didn’t
want to give up that anonymous feeling she’d had ten years before.

She was going to be invisible if it
killed her.

***

“I want the hippy girl and her little
friend,” Althea announced to JT loudly and he flinched as the waiter gave them
an odd look.

JT rolled his eyes. “Won’t it upset you
to have them fornicating in your house?” It was how Althea had responded to the
last candidate with a boyfriend.

“They’re not a couple.” Althea informed
him definitely. “The girl thinks you’re cute and the boy is gay.”

JT raised an eyebrow. “How did you know
that?”

“They were talking about you when you
left the table. My eyes might not be what they used to be, but my ears still
work.” JT sighed as he paid the bill. Just his luck, his aunt wanted the one
person who he was pretty sure he couldn’t get. The girl had looked horrified at
his job offer. “So are you going to get her?”

JT sighed again. “I’ll see what I can
do, but keep in mind, we have other candidates. We don’t even know that girl.
She could be a thief.”

“She’s not a thief,” Althea responded.
“I have a good instinct about these things. I want her and her friend. They’re
interesting.” Althea folded her arms. “I’m not as stuffy as you think you
know.”

“Fine,” JT resolved to come back to try
and hunt down the hippy girl the following day. Althea was not going to let it
go.
 

“Of course,
when she’s working for me, no making eyes at the girl.”
Althea
continued to lecture. “It won’t do to have you mixing with the help.”

“I’m with Faith, remember.” JT nearly
laughed out loud at the idea of the dopy golden retriever girl turning his
head. He liked his women classy and put together, like Faith always was. The
bohemian gypsy look that Alex was sporting had never been something he was
into. “Trust me; I’ll keep my hands to myself.”

Chapter 4

Lexi sat on a park bench the following
day, watching as her old friend Pinchpenny bustled around his van/house.
Pinchpenny was an older man who’d let his hair grow long.
Too
long.
His stark white hair landed mid back and his beard made it to his
belly button. He’d looked like that for as long as Lexi had known him. He’d
always made her think of a wizard. He currently had his VW bus parked outside a
parking garage and had already received a couple of warnings to move it.

“So what are you up to today?” Lexi
asked Pinchpenny as he took a seat with his feet hanging out of the back of his
van.

“Driving around, looking for a new
place to park.” He sighed. “I might have to leave Texas.” Pinchpenny had been living in his
van for months, since even the commune was hit by the economy and had to
disperse.
 

“That sucks.” Lexi frowned. She’d
decided to go downtown to find a place to stay for the next three months.
“We’re going apartment hunting. Wanna stay with us?”

“No can do, my man.” Pinchpenny smiled
an apology. “I have to be outside, ready to commune with mother earth.”

Lexi nodded. Even in the days of
commune living, Pinchpenny always slept in a tent in the yard, usually naked.
Lexi doubted this was going over very well with the parking authorities.

“Wanna come with us? Apartment shopping
with no budget is always fun. I might make somebody’s day and buy a
building.”
 
Lexi decided that if she
wasn’t going to be invisible, she was at least going to have a lot of open
space. She’d given up the idea of commune living or joining the circus after a
very stern talk with Raj the night before. He was right. There were certain
things she couldn’t do anymore.

Being too far away from a hospital was
one of them.

So she grudgingly admitted defeat and agreed
to go apartment hunting. She still insisted on staying downtown. She loved
downtown Austin.
It was huge enough to be anonymous, but still had that old west vibe that she
loved so much.

“Andrew would find you for sure.” Raj
popped out of the back of the van behind Pinchpenny. “Let’s just stick with an
apartment.”

“You don’t think we’ll run into him
again, do you?” Raj didn’t have to ask what she was talking about. Coming face
to face with JT, even though he hadn’t recognized her, had done a number on her
stomach. It had also been the main reason for the lecture from Raj and she
wasn’t interested in another one.

“No, Austin is a big place. Yesterday was just an
uncomfortable coincidence.” Raj wasn’t sure, but he was hopeful.

Two hours later he was swearing under
is breath as JT Hussner waved at them and started walking in their direction on
the sidewalk at 6
^th
. “God damn it.”

“Shit!”

Pinchpenny put out the joint he was
smoking. “Is that a cop?”

“No,” Lexi sighed, “but we were trying
to avoid him. I’m Alex, Raj is Radford, ok?”

“Radford?”

“I didn’t have time to think. It was
the best I could do on short notice,” Raj muttered darkly.

“Alex, Radford!” JT gave them a bright
smile and Lexi found herself a little dazzled. She had noticed he was handsome
before, in a kind of generic way. He was well put together, possessing the poreless
skin and perfect haircut that the truly wealthy always seemed to have.
But there was something else there that she couldn’t put her finger
on.

“Hi JT.”
Lexi smiled.
“No Althea today?”

“No, she’s at home.” He sat down next
to her and Lexi started to relax. He didn’t seem to recognize her.
 
“Thought anymore about my job offer?”

“Sorry,” she winked at him. “Living
with a strange man and his blind aunt isn’t really in the cards for me.”

JT chuckled. “I’ve never been called
strange before, but if it makes you feel any better, you wouldn’t live with me.
Just my aunt.
I have an apartment in the city.”

“I really can’t.” Lexi gestured to Raj
and Pennypinch, looking for another excuse. Even if she wouldn’t have to deal
with JT very often, he was sure to find out who she was when he processed her
employment paperwork. “We’re trying to stay off the grid and regular employment
would kind of ruin that.”

***

JT raised a brow and wondered if his
aunt’s instincts were off. “Running from the law?” He asked, half serious.

“Nothing so interesting,” Alex
responded. “We’re just simple migrant workers who don’t like dealing with the
government when we don’t have to.”

His voice was stern. “It would be
illegal for me to pay you under the table.” She might not be a criminal, but
Alex had a naughty streak. It was a streak he was a little intrigued by.

Alex shook her head. “I pay my taxes. I
just do it as an independent contractor at the end of the year.” She smiled.
“I’m not an idiot. Even I wouldn’t fuck with the IRS.”

JT held a smile in check, not wanting
to encourage her potty mouth. It seemed strange for dirty words to come out of
such a cute mouth.
 
“Then you could be my
independent contractor.” He shrugged. “That way, I could give you a 1099 at the
end of the year instead.”

“No background checks or anything like
that?”

JT was concerned again. “Something you
don’t want me to see?”

Alex shrugged. “I just think they’re an
intrusive pain in the ass.”

That potty mouth again. JT rarely
swore. It was something that had been worked out of him thanks to repeatedly
having his mouth washed out with soap when he was a kid. He was sure that it was
something that would benefit Alex greatly. “I really can’t risk that. For all I
know, you’re criminals.”

Alex’s eyes shot fire. “Well, fuck off
then.” She turned her head away, offended.

JT’s eyes widened at the response. Alex
apparently had never had any discipline at all. Years of southern courtesy,
along with more than a few trips over his dad’s knee, had instilled an innate
politeness in him. Alex clearly hadn’t had the same upbringing as him.

He could easily picture himself
remedying that for her.
 
Just the thought
of putting the little troublemaker over his knee, yanking down her panties, and
giving her a much needed paddling had his cock thickening.

It was one of his most secret and
shameful fantasies and he hadn’t had the opportunity to do it as much as he
wanted.
 
He liked being dominant in bed,
and he especially liked the idea of disciplining his own willful woman. Not
that he’d ever had a relationship like that.

He wouldn’t dream of spanking Faith.
She was too prim, too proper and would be horrified to even consider the idea. Their
sex life was sedate and perfunctory. He’d had his dalliances on the side, and
tried out his fantasies. While arousing, they were never really satisfying
because they weren’t real.

Alex was real. He doubted a sex life
with her would be sedate. She would be wild and uninhibited. She would give him
a ton of trouble as well.
Trouble that he would make her pay
for by disciplining her regularly.
He could picture it in his head.

Her strangely beautiful eyes would be
filled with trepidation as she begged him for one more chance. She’d promise to
be a good girl if he wouldn’t, but he’d be firm. He’d order her to drop her
pants and her eyes would tear up, but she would do as he said. Her tiny hands
would shake as she unzipped her jeans and pushed them down to her knees. Her
panties would be next, pushed down even more reluctantly. But he would insist.
The embarrassment of the punishment was a major part of the lesson, and
paddlings in his home would always be given to a bare bottom. Then, she would lie
over his lap, her bare backside poised and quivering.
 
 
He’d
raise his hand and…

“Hey?” Alex snapped in front of his
face. “You have a stroke? You got this fucked up zombie look going on.”

After he was done, he’d make her stand
in the corner, with a bar soap in her mouth, as an additional punishment for
swearing.
 
“Just thinking,” he answered
through an incredibly dry mouth. “Maybe we could work around this background
check thing.”

Alex’s aversion to authority and
background checks might work in his favor. He didn’t believe for minute she was
just trying to stay off the grid. She was hiding from something and people who
hid were not likely to go to the cops.
 
If he caught her misbehaving, or doing anything he didn’t like, he’d
give her a choice. He would contact the authorities or he would give her a
spanking.
 

She’d choose the spanking. He was sure
of it. He couldn’t believe the extent he was willing to go to live out his
fantasy but it was a once in a lifetime shot.
 
He’d likely never run into the opportunity again.

“Fine,” he finally said. “We’ll do this
without background checks and paperwork. But I’ll be checking in on you guys
regularly.”

“Ok,” Alex stood and he admired her
perfectly round ass as she stretched. “Let me talk it over with my friends.”
She walked away and had an animated discussion with Radford, along with a
strange old man who looked like a wizard. He wasn’t worried; she would say yes.
He knew it.