If you want to read 20 Chapters ahead, be sure to check out my P-Tang12!!!
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(A/N: Don't forget to give those power stones to Skyrim everyone!)
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But as they wrestled, their slippery bodies sliding against one another, the playful energy inevitably began to change.
Suddenly, the atmosphere became a bit hot. The wrestling slowed to a halt as Caleb managed to trap her against the smooth, sloped back of the porcelain tub. He hovered over her, his hands resting on the edge of the tub on either side of her head. He looked down at Mary-Beth, his blue eyes darkening with a sudden, intense surge of raw desire.
The droplets of warm water clinging to her flushed skin, the damp hair framing her face, and the rapid, breathless rise and fall of her chest completely captivated him.
Mary-Beth felt the immediate shift in his gaze. She stopped laughing, her breath catching in her throat as she looked up at the intense, hungry expression on his handsome face. She blushed deeply at this, a furious, beautiful shade of crimson spreading across her cheeks and down her neck.
They didn't need to say another word. They leaned in simultaneously and kissed each other hotly right there in the tub. The kiss was deep, passionate, and heavily desperate, a physical release of all the pent up tension, adrenaline, and power they had wielded throughout the entire day.
Caleb's hands moved from the edge of the tub to grip her waist, pulling her flush against his chest under the warm water, deepening the kiss until the rest of the world completely ceased to exist.
The heat in the bathroom skyrocketed. Caleb's hands began to roam, and when Caleb wanted to do something more, moving his kisses down her jawline and toward her neck, the universe decided to abruptly intervene.
Suddenly, the heavy wooden door of the master bathroom was knocked.
Knock, knock, knock.
The sharp, polite sound completely shattered the heavy, passionate atmosphere like a pane of glass.
"Excuse me, Don McLaughlin? Madam McFarlane?" came the nervous, highly deferential voice of a young household maid from the other side of the thick door.
Caleb froze, his lips still hovering mere millimeters from Mary-Beth's skin. He closed his eyes, letting out a long, deeply frustrated sigh that vibrated against her collarbone.
The maid, entirely unaware of the intense moment she was interrupting, continued her dutiful inquiry.
She asked them if they wanted her to come in and change the water, or perhaps bring fresh buckets of boiling water from the kitchen stoves, since they had been in there for quite some time. She noted that it shouldn't be warm anymore, and she was terribly afraid that the new Don and the Madam might catch a cold.
Hearing that highly practical, utterly mood killing interruption, the two of them completely stopped.
Mary-Beth's eyes flew wide open in sheer panic.
The reality of having a house full of attentive servants suddenly crashing down upon her. She pushed against Caleb's chest, immediately scrambling to put some distance between them.
Mary-Beth immediately got out from the tub, her face completely bright red with embarrassment. She grabbed a massive, thick white towel from the heated brass rack and frantically wrapped it around herself.
As she then says, projecting her voice toward the door, trying desperately to sound composed and aristocratic, "W-We are already done, thank you! You do not need to bring any more water! You can leave now!"
"Yes, Madam! Right away!" the maid responded quickly, the sound of her footsteps rapidly retreating down the hallway.
With the threat of the servant entering completely gone, Mary-Beth leaned back against the marble vanity, clutching the towel tightly to her chest, her heart hammering wildly.
Caleb, still sitting in the rapidly cooling bathwater, let out another heavy sigh. He looked at Mary-Beth, completely stripped of his terrifying mafia persona, and began acting incredibly cute to Mary-Beth.
He rested his chin on his folded arms on the edge of the porcelain tub, giving her a slightly pouting, highly persuasive, and incredibly charming look, trying to convince her so that they could continue exactly what they had started and do it tonight.
"Come back in," Caleb murmured, his voice a low, gravelly purr of temptation. "The door is locked. Let them worry about the cold. We have plenty to keep us warm."
But Mary-Beth, though deeply tempted by the roguish charm of the deadliest man in Lemoyne, shook her head, her practical senses completely overriding the romance.
"Caleb Thorne, you stop looking at me like that," she scolded lightly, gripping the towel tighter. She lowered her voice, adding a very real, very serious concern. "And besides... it's a dangerous time right now. We shouldn't. I... I could get pregnant."
She was right. In an era without reliable precautions, the risk was absolute. For a woman who had spent years on the run, the idea of bringing a child into the chaotic, violent world of outlaws had always been a terrifying, impossible thought.
But Caleb didn't look deterred in the slightest. In fact, he let out a slow, incredibly confident, wolfish smile.
"Why is it dangerous?" Caleb asked softly, his blue eyes locking onto hers with intense devotion. "We aren't sleeping in a leaky tent in the Grizzlies anymore, Mary-Beth. We aren't running from Pinkertons in the mud. We own the biggest mansion in the city. We have a vault full of money, a private army guarding our front door, and the police chief in our pocket."
He tilted his head, his wolfish smile softening into something deeply loving. "Since we already have a massive safety net now, and absolutely no one would ever dare to mess with us... I think it's a perfect time. An heir to the empire wouldn't be the worst thing in the world."
Mary-Beth's breath hitched in her throat. The thought of a family, a real, secure, untouchable family with him, was the most beautiful thing she had ever heard. But the sudden, overwhelming leap from 'fake aristocratic Madam' to 'mother of a mafia dynasty' in the span of a single evening was too much to process.
She blushed even deeper, completely flustered by his bold declaration, while admonishing him slightly.
"You are absolutely unbelievable!" Mary-Beth stammered, pointing a finger at him from across the bathroom, trying to hide her profound happiness behind a mask of proper societal outrage. "You haven't even formally proposed to me yet! There is no ring on this finger, Don McLaughlin! How could you even think of such a thing before we are properly married?"
Before then, unable to look at his smug, incredibly handsome face any longer without surrendering entirely, she quickly turned around. She went to dry herself completely, unwrapping the large towel and quickly putting on a clean, soft set of silk nightclothes from the vanity drawers, before practically fleeing the bathroom, her bare feet padding quickly across the floorboards.
Caleb sat in the tub, watching her retreat. He chuckled warmly, a rich, delighted sound echoing in the marble room at the incredibly cute, flustered reaction from Mary-Beth.
To which he finally relented. He stood up, leaving the tub, and grabbed his own thick towel to dry himself up. He quickly ran a comb through his wet hair, before then putting on a set of comfortable, dark cotton sleep clothes.
He walked out of the bathroom to go and follow Mary-Beth. He found her already tucked into the massive, four poster bed, the heavy quilt pulled up to her chin, pretending to be completely asleep to avoid his teasing.
Caleb simply smiled, climbing into the bed beside her. He pulled her flush against his chest, wrapping his strong arms securely around her waist. She didn't resist, immediately melting into his embrace, and the two of them finally, truly went to sleep, the exhaustion of conquering the city claiming them both.
The next day, the sprawling mansion was entirely peaceful. The massive cleanup from the coronation banquet had been completed during the night, leaving the estate looking pristine and untouched.
Caleb woke up early, his internal clock permanently set to the rigors of command. He looked down at the woman sleeping soundly against his chest. He gently brushed a stray lock of dark hair from her face and kissed Mary-Beth softly on the forehead, not wanting to wake her from her much needed rest.
Before then, he quietly slipped out of the bed. He dressed quickly in a sharp, dark three piece suit, stepping back into the role of the corporate Don, and left the bedroom, the heavy oak doors closing silently behind him.
He walked down the wide, sunlit corridors of the second floor until he reached his private, heavily secured study. The room was lined with mahogany bookshelves and dominated by a massive, polished desk overlooking the front courtyard.
Just as he pushed the doors open and walked inside, brisk footsteps echoed down the hall behind him.
Antonio called out for him, stepping into the doorway of the study with a stack of telegrams and ledgers resting on a silver tray.
"Good morning, Don McLaughlin," the head butler greeted him with a crisp, respectful bow. "I bring the morning dispatches from our regional liaisons."
"Morning, Antonio," Caleb said, walking around to sit in his high backed leather chair. "What is the news from the frontier?"
Antonio picked up the top telegram, his eyes scanning the decoded text. He informed him of a massive, highly anticipated industrial milestone. He reported that the heavy machinery they had shipped out via train days ago, the massive, custom ordered Pelton Wheel, had arrived safely in the western town of Strawberry.
"Mr. Leopold Strauss sends his highest regards, my Don," Antonio read flawlessly. "He confirms that the heavy freight wagons navigated the mountain passes without incident. The Pelton Wheel has been successfully installed at the Hawk's Eye Creek site, and the initial water flow tests are positive. The hydroelectric turbine has been put to work and is currently generating raw power."
To which Caleb let out a wide, deeply satisfied smile. The hotel project in West Elizabeth was his premier legitimate venture, the cornerstone of his corporate empire that would eventually wash his mob money completely clean.
"Excellent," Caleb said, steepling his fingers on the desk. "That's great news, Antonio. But generating power is only half the battle. We need infrastructure."
Caleb leaned forward, his max level Business Skill instantly formulating the next logistical phase of the massive public works project.
"Send a wire back to Strauss," Caleb instructed smoothly. "Tell him the hardware is secured, but now we need the expertise. I want you to locate the premier electrical engineering and contracting company operating here in Saint Denis. Find the men who wired the streetlamps and the Mayor's mansion."
Caleb mapped out the grand vision. He wanted to hire them to send a full crew of technicians and foremen out west to help with the complex wiring and all the heavy infrastructural stuff.
"We aren't just lighting up my hotel," Caleb declared, his ambition stretching far beyond a single building. "I want the grid expanded. I want the wiring run down the mountain so that the Pelton Wheel's electricity could be shared to the entire town of Strawberry. We will provide power to the Mayor's office, the post office, and the main street. It will make the town entirely dependent on our good graces, and it will make the hotel the shining, electrified jewel of the state."
Antonio nodded rapidly, taking detailed notes on a small ledger. "A magnificent public works initiative, my Don. The political goodwill it will generate in West Elizabeth will be immeasurable. I shall contact the premier electrical firm immediately and negotiate the labor contracts."
But Caleb raised a single finger, completely halting the butler's standard corporate approach. He was a legitimate businessman now, yes, but he was still the Don of the Saint Denis mafia, and he utilized the leverage of the underworld to maximize his corporate profit margins perfectly.
"When you negotiate with the electrical company, Antonio," Caleb warned, a cold, ruthless smirk touching his lips. "Ensure that they understand who they are working for. I want the absolute best engineers, and of course, the prices need to be cheap. Dirt cheap. I will not pay the inflated city premiums for labor."
Antonio paused, his pen hovering over the paper. "They are a powerful union, Don McLaughlin. They may balk at heavily reduced rates for a dangerous job out in the mountains."
"They won't balk," Caleb stated with absolute, terrifying certainty. "You tell the owner of the company that if he provides the labor at cost, without a single cent of profit margin added to my bill... then in exchange, his business's mafia protection fees here in Saint Denis will be completely halved for several months."
Caleb leaned back in his chair, folding his arms. It was the perfect, inescapable mobster's bargain.
"Tell him he can take the loss on the Strawberry contract, and he will save thousands of dollars on his weekly envelopes here in the city," Caleb finalized. "And if he refuses... well, let him know that the protection fees might accidentally double tomorrow morning, and his supply wagons might start catching fire on the docks. He will see the logic of the discount."
Antonio, hearing that flawless, terrifyingly efficient blend of corporate negotiation and mafia extortion, simply smiled and bowed deeply. "It is a completely irresistible offer, Don McLaughlin," Antonio praised him, turning to leave the study to execute the ruthless economic maneuver. "The lights of Strawberry will be burning bright by the end of the month, and it will cost the family practically nothing."
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Name: Caleb Thorne
Age: 23
Body Attributes:
- Strength: 8/10
- Agility: 8/10
- Perception: 9/10
- Stamina: 8/10
- Charm: 8/10
- Luck: 9/10
Skills:
- Handgun (Lvl MAX)
- Rifle (Lvl MAX)
- Firearms Knowledge (Lvl MAX)
- Past Life Memory (Lvl MAX)
- Knife (Lvl MAX)
- Blunt Weapon (Lvl MAX)
- Sneaking (Lvl MAX)
- Horse Mastery (Lvl MAX)
- Poker (Lvl MAX)
- Hand to Hand Combat (Lvl MAX)
- Eagle Eye (Lvl MAX)
- Dead Eye (Lvl MAX)
- Bow (Lvl MAX)
- Pain Nullifier (Lvl MAX)
- Physical Regeneration (Lvl MAX)
- Crafting (Lvl MAX)
- Persuasion (Lvl MAX)
- Mental Fortitude (Lvl MAX)
- Cooking (Lvl MAX)
- Teaching (Lvl MAX)
- Trilingual Language Proficiency - G, I, & C (Lvl MAX)
- Inventory System (Permanent - 100x100x100)
- Acting (Lvl MAX)
- Alcohol Resistance (Lvl MAX)
- Treasure Hunter (Lvl MAX)
- Drugs Resistance (Lvl MAX)
- Business (Lvl MAX)
- Leadership (Lvl MAX)
Money: 3,322 dollars and 60 cents
Inventory: 282,992 dollars and 61 cents, 11 gold nuggets, 74 gold bars, 1 Double Action, 1 Schofield, 2 Colm's Schofields, 1 land deed (Parcel), 1 Mauser, 1 Semi Auto Pistol, 1 Lancaster Repeater, 1 Old Wood Jewelry Box, 1 F.F Mausoleum small brass key, 1 Ruby, 1 Braithwaites Land Deed, 1 Broken Pirate Sword, 1 Milton's Safety Deposit Key, 1 Senator Pendleton Sealed Envelope, Proof Of Marlin-Thorne Firearms Co., 10 Dynamites, 1 LeMat, 1 M1899, 1 Carcano, 1 Ownership deed of Doyle's Tavern, 3 Diamonds, & Important Documents & Deeds Of Cornwall
Bank: -