Read Online Paradise - Part Four (The Erotic Adventures of Sophia Durant) by O.L. Casper - Free Book Online Page A

or not at all?”
    “You can sit in if you like. Other than that, I just want a relaxed holiday in the Seychelles.”
    “You come here often?”
    “This is only the second or third time.”
    “Can I ask you a silly question?”
    “Ask away. You can ask me whatever you want.”
    “Why do you do what you do?”
    “In business or in life—or both?”
    “Business.”
    “I suppose it always changes. It started mostly by accident. Growing up, I never intended to go into business.”
    We got out of the water and dried off, continuing on the bed in his room.
    “What did you want to do as a kid?”
    “I don’t know. It always changed. I got into something. Got tired of it. Got into something else. Everything from painting to playing cards to studying animals and archeology.”
    “You had money as a kid…or your parents did?”
    “No. Definitely not.”
    “Paint costs money.”
    “Not that much. Never received anything from my parents. If I needed paints I stole them. I stole animals. I stole pretty much whatever I wanted. I was a good thief and it was pretty much the only way I could get things.”
    “And now—how do you get things now?”
    “Pretty much in the same way.”
    He winked.
    “How did you get started in what you do?”
    “I was in Africa, actually. On an adventure.”
    “What in the world were you doing in Africa?”
    “I’d saved up for a summer. I worked odd jobs and saved for a ticket to Angola. It was a country I randomly picked on the map. I’d dreamed of going to Africa since I found it on a map as a boy and was told the most interesting animals lived there. I was twenty-five when I went. From Angola I found my way into Nigeria. And there I found the oil business. I discovered local millionaires who had made all their money diverting the funds from the oil. What economists call the natural resource curse .
    “I was deep in the jungle with some ‘friends’ I’d met there—thieves actually—wanted to kidnap me and make a fortune from the ransom. They were unsuccessful. But it was through them I discovered some very powerful natives. Rich natives. Politicians who had stolen the wealth of the country. I wanted to go into business in that country in order to divert some of the money away from the politicians and help the poor masses. Later I would realize what a futile effort it would be; the people were no better than the politicians when it came to distribution of wealth. Nigeria is a nation of thieves. Not everybody, but most of them. But that’s beside the point.
    “I wanted to go into business for myself and I came up with a plan. I had met someone there who I became friendly with. He was a local prince who had no money but had inherited an island off the coast of Bayelsa State. He believed it to be rife with oil just waiting to be plucked from the ground. He said he could prove it if I went there with him.
    “I never went there with him. I was too scared of getting kidnapped and killed. Bayelsa was in the South where all the kidnappings and killings of Americans were happening at the time. But I trusted the prince implicitly. He had saved me from falling into the hands of the local police on more than one occasion, which would have resulted in a bad fate indeed. He had saved my life. And he had proven to me through his actions that he wanted nothing more than my friendship. Some Africans are very noble.
    “He told me that if I could get ships down to his island, he would sell me oil at twenty-five cents a barrel. He promised the capability of producing up to five hundred-thousand barrels a day. In about two months I managed to convince an Italian oil company to provide two ships. I promised them great prices. Bonny Light Crude was on the market for about twenty to thirty dollars a barrel at the time. I told them I’d sell it to them half-price.”
    “This was on the black market.” I cut in.
    He smiled.
    “I started selling to the Italians for their reserves and money just