Chapter 14

Armed with the fact that Rafeal always has a massage session every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday after his Yoga classes. Early Saturday morning, Matilda Begot slipped out of Deloria's bed and tip-toed back to her room. In dramatic moves, she began to roll out from her wardrobe the best of her Bikinis, pyjamas and couture lingerie in preparation for a possible head-butt with Rafeal to break the gripping spell.

She had trouble choosing which of the under-things she should wear as she doesn't want to leave room for a 'nearly but missed' scenario. She intends to go for the kill and put the matter to rest, once and for all.

Finally, she settled for a white silk-slip lingerie dress she got from Deloria recently and then set to work.

It was 6:00 am in Lady Stefflon Don's chambers as announced by a table clock on Rafeal's side of the bed with three successive beeps.

Three minutes before the alarm went off, Rafeal has already woken up and hit the yoga grounds, making the clock feels somehow cheated and disrespected by Rafeal for not sticking to his side of the gentleman's agreement they had by waking up earlier than the agreed time.

Ten minutes into the yoga session, Rafeal was soaked in perspiration, striking different yoga poses lying face up in corpse style, bringing his legs to the outer edges of his mat like a starfish. Displayed his feet out to the sides. Place arms along sides, palms facing up and his eyes closed. Other exercises he did with intervals of breaks between them lasting up to two hours was the triangle pose, the four-limbed staff pose, the seated forward fold and the Bridge pose.

Acting not to be aware that Rafeal was out on a work-out, Matilda, holding a white Ostrich feather duster, with her feet buried in white bunny slippers barged into the room, bumping into Rafeal. "Oh, dear!" He whined, "you scared the balls out of my nikah."

"I did?" Sorry about that. I hope they come back pretty soon because you are going to need them in a short while. Miss Barley phoned in this morning to announce that she would not make it for the massage because she was having mild flu, that she hope to report to work as soon as she feels better. But if it's what she was suspecting she is suffering from, then it might take long before she showed up for duty."

"She said that?"

"Yes, monsieur."

"Argh," groaned Mr Rafeal, "this grumpy old body is going to ache pretty well today, what a bad day is going to be for me."

"Worry not, Mr Rafeal, you are going to be in for a big surprise only if you will allow me to massage you."

"Are you trying to tell me you can massage better than Miss Barley?"

"Sure, Mister; I did it for Lady Stefflon, and occasionally to miss Deloria too."

Rafeal was delighted at her being a multi-talented jack. "What are you waiting for?" Said the excited Rafeal, "let's get to work!"

"This is it!" Said Matilda, "this is the moment I've been waiting for!" Her hands let loose of the Ostrich feather without knowing when she discarded it and led Rafeal to the spa section and got him undressed, leaving him in pants and lay him facing downwards, covering his bum with a white towel. Without much ado, Matilda warmed up her palms and leather them up with coconut and Hibiscus oil. She starts from his lower back to the upper back and then gave him long relaxing strokes on the back of his lower legs and calf muscles. eight minutes later, she turned him around facing upwards, his penis too went the same direction, shooting upwards.

Matilda grabs and pull the rising cock out of its pit and gave it a gentle tap.

"Hey Matilda," said Rafeal in a low sleepy voice. "What are you doing?"

"Sheee!" She said, placing her index finger across her lips, telling him to shut up and enjoy the moment. Matilda saddled him and begin to ride. In less than two minutes he was done.

There was a strike on the door that rattles them just when she was about to unburden herself from him.

"Open the door, it's miss Barley reporting for duty,"

"Matilda, but I thought you told me…"

"Told you what, Rafeal?"

Quickly, Mr Rafeal jacks up his trousers and said to Matilda, "you are one bad massager I've ever met." "Thank you, Mister," she said and escaped through the other route.

Matilda went to her room and celebrated her conquest with a hot cup of coffee laced with milk. Like an immortal, she lies in a tub loaded with rose petals and had a long bath in it, promising herself another mega celebration if after seven days nothing happens between her and Deloria.

******

After a long spell of absence from home, Alessandro and Deloria meet each other once more face to face for the first time in months, not in the traditional person to person meeting but through a virtual means aided by some kind of weird high-tech software that enables them to communicate on an HD screen, thousands of miles apart.

Deloria was hyper excited to see her love, and so was Alessandro, with both parties feeling guilty deep down their hearts for betraying one another. She rebuked him for not picking her calls and replying to her emails, a claim Alessandro denied as untrue.

"Anyways," she said, "everything is going on as planned and in our favour. There is another hearing in the courts, the last of its kind coming up tomorrow that will determine whether we continue to roam the streets freely or permanently put away in a correctional facility. The good news is that nobody knows your whereabouts; everyone thought you were kidnapped. And guess what? The Vatican desires your unconditional release and returns to work. Another bad news is that your parents, Don Rocco and Mrs Margaritta are behind bars, pending the final ruling on the case. What a tragedy," she said, "for they are used to the silky smooth lives of the billionaires.

Alessandro knew all that she has told him but decided to keep mum and pretends to be sad at what happened to his parents. Marilyn, his secretary, to whom he has had a romantic affiliation in the past, also doubles as his lawyer, has been his informer all through these months of absconment from home. She fed him with what he needed to know about his father's possession: his will, and inventories of all assets owned by him, spanning across Europe, Africa and the Americas. He instructed her to make sure everyone at a management position accounts for what comes in and what goes out of their respective stations of operation and report directly to her on his behalf, daily.

"I miss you like crazy," said Deloria, planting a kiss on the liquefy crystal display unit so that the red gloss on it stuck on the plasma with the shape of her lips.

"I…," hesitated Alessandro, prompting her to look at him questioningly. "I love you too," he said, placing his right hand on the monitor and asks her to do the same. This lasted for a minute, triggering deep-seated emotional trauma, and tears began to roll down on her already paled cheeks.

"You are crying,"

"yes, Alessandro, I cry because I remember the good times we used to have before… before everything went haywire." She took away her palm from the screen and grab a serviette placed on a table beside her and dabs away the tears lightly.

"Very soon," she said, everything is going to be over, I mean, with the court cases and other side distractions that have been keeping us away from each other."

She wanted to ask him the motivation behind his cancellation of their much-anticipated wedding, and that whether he has truly changed his mind for good. All these and more but thought the time may not be ripe to ask the questions, lest it spoils the romantic tone of their discussion. So, she decides to cock it up and keep it away for a better time.

"The house is a little bit smaller compared to what you used to live in back in Italy nevertheless, it's homely. You will see the reason why I said so sooner than later. My Mongolian chef lives in the annexe twenty metres away from the mansion, you don't need to border yourself about anything that concerns food. I call him Aladdin's Lamp; ask him to prepare anything for you and your wish will be granted."

"Just a few days that I've been with him," said Alessandro, "I mistook his exquisite cuisine for five-star hotels in Moscow. Beginning from the table setting to his services and then the sumptuous meals."

"I told you!" said Deloria, blushing over it. "Welcome home, Alessandro. If you need to drive around the city, do so with the help of my savvy driver on the wheels or you would be impounded by the Police for flouting the City's Roadworthiness rules."

"I got it, ma'am,

Once more, Deloria placed her right hand on the computer screen and Alessandro did the same, and off she fades from the screen.

It's late March and officially springtime in the northern hemisphere. Buds are beginning to shoot out on the bald-branched trees, and the snow thawing away by the second. Deloria stole time out of her busy schedule to go out there and have a feel of the flora and fauna in her immediate environment. She wore a dark U.V shield on her face and a flashy piece of white furry coat on blue denim, an edgy hairdo, and rocks on white Panama jackboots and beckoned on the brown golden retriever to come along. The golden retriever was brought into the house to take the place of Mascara, the cat, slain in the wake of the pandemic to cushion the effects of its loss on Lady Stefflon Don. It also inherited the name Mascara from the departed cat. Together, they mingled down the sprawling lawns on a long meandering pavement to the horse's stables to check on Otto the horse. The outing was originally meant for them to incur deep into the woods on a horseback with Mascara trailing behind only to find out that Otto has just given birth to a gangling pony.

"Oh my God!" she exclaimed, "look at that adorable little thing." She knelt closer to it and said to it, "welcome to the world, wild one." By now, Mascara is getting too excited, sticking its head in between her legs to pay homage to the new arrival too but Deloria bars it from doing so. "Herod!" She said, "back off!" She picks up the white plastic disc she brought with her and throws it far away and asks it to go and fetch it.

"Woof! Woof!" Went Mascara, barking and running after his toy in a hard to conquer euphoria. Deloria went back to the horse again and ran her hands on its mane. "So this is how far I've gone to neglecting my equestrian friend in pursuit of mundane things of life. Otto has been pregnant all these while and I did not care to notice; oh Lord, shame on me." Mascara is back with a bang: barking, wagging and scratching frantically for an audience.

The adventure between Deloria and Mascara did not end there, it continued far into the forests nearby and lingers well into the time the brilliant yellow sun settles comfortably at the western horizon.