As he neared the table, a happy woman’s voice funneled into his ears.
“She always looks like a cornered rabbit. I can’t understand why she married that man. Do you suppose he was abused as a child and now takes it out on everyone else? Linda knew this man who was assaulted by a neighbor and ended up firing birdshot at passing teenagers. I hope that man isn’t armed on this ship. That was a wonderful idea, Honeybunch, about asking her to join me on Catalina. She just needs a friend…and time away from her husband.”
If that’s Sally Brent, Li thought, I’ll drop food on Paul’s shoes again.
A man responded. “I knew you wouldn’t want to be alone, my little cupcake.”
And if that’s Aaron Brent, I’ll EAT Paul’s shoes.
The Brents had abandoned the remnants of their food at the table. A new couple had replaced them. The woman’s voice sped over her tongue at a velocity no formula could measure. Li tacked on his friendliest smile and hustled over to them.
“So sorry about that,” he said, hastily bussing the table. “Allow me to offer our popular potato bacon hash as compensation.”
“Oh, no problem!” Mrs. Piston Jaw replied, her ample lips spreading into a smile. “It’s our fault really. We were chatting with this couple we met after dinner last night. The Brents. It’s a shame they couldn’t stay and join us, wasn’t it Joshy-poo?”
“I’m afraid you’ll have to excuse my wife,” the man said. “She likes to share.” He speared a potato cube on his fork and inspected it. “You don’t give free food to ALL the passengers, do you?” His eyes shifted from potato to waiter.
“Actually, sir, we do.”
The man glared at Li as if trying to melt the boy’s organs with his mind.
Li felt his intestines twist into nervous knots. “Erm…are you ready to order, sir?”
The customer popped the scrutinized morsel into his mouth. “A man has to wonder, you know. Wouldn’t want him to think you were being too friendly with his wife.”
“Oh Josh!” the woman said, “don’t tease me!” She giggled. Li drew up the fantasy of her as a Southern belle, blushing and twittering behind her grandmother’s fan.
“I wouldn’t dream of it, Daphne,” He lowered his lips onto the back of her hand and pecked it. However, his eyes continued to burrow into Li’s soul like twin augers.
Trying to ignore the look of hate and disgust, Li proceeded to advise them on the menu, took their orders, listened as briefly as he could to Daphne’s compliments, and went back to the kitchen. The couple’s voices shadowed him.
“Isn’t he sweet, Joshy? Complimentary food and attentive service. This potato hash is just delicious!”
“He’s practically a baby, Daphne dear. Don’t make him chase after you.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Honeybunch.”
“The hell you don’t. If I even catch him sniffing at your skirt—”
The swinging kitchen doors clipped the tail-end of their conversation.
“Paul’s fuming that you’re taking the breakfast order to Her Majesty,” Chef Will said upon Li’s return. “Then again, he’s been out to get you all morning. Did you know I caught him trying to sprinkle habanero chili onto one of your breakfast plates? If I were you, I’d give him a wide berth. Here’s Charlegne’s breakfast. We’ll keep an eye on your tables while you deliver it. Now get your butt moving, Johnson!”
Li sped to the service elevator in the back of the kitchen, pushing the room service cart topped with a cloche-covered dish. As he strode out onto the Verandah Deck, he swerved to avoid hitting David.
“Whoa! Watch your step, Li! I guess my shoes are working wonders for you. What do you have there anyway?”
“Charlegne’s breakfast. Sorry, I can’t stay and chat. I have a table in the dining room waiting on me.”
“Try not to run anyone else down.”
Li brushed past his bunkmate and arrived at V1, Charlegne’s stateroom. He performed his standard duties: placed the tray outside the cabin door, knocked, announced “Room Service,” and walked away. This time Charlegne did not answer. Li left without being seen.
The thought struck him as he trundled into the service elevator again. Last night, I delivered tea to her in V5. Now it seems her stateroom is V1. Then whose cabin was she in last night?
CHAPTER 7
The Ice Queen
She stepped out of the pool and strode toward him, her long, blond hair slung over one shoulder in a loose cascade of wet curls. She did not wear makeup, but her eyelashes were thick and dark as if combed with fresh mascara. Her lips, naturally pink, parted with a sigh. The man watched a single bead of moisture drip off her wet hair and trace a path down the curve of her neck, over the landscape of her collar bones, and into the nook of her cleavage.
It was a cousin to the beads of sweat following the line of his jaw.
She’s ruining my marriage.
A seagull squawked overhead, jerking Martin Hale out of his Charlegne Jackson daydream, scattering the drips of sweat gathered in the cleft of his chin. He daubed away the newcomers brewing along his hairline. His knuckles, clenched around the arm of his deck chair, were white as bone.
I hate this bitch.
The chill of the sea breeze helped. Martin turned his face toward the wind and ocean spray. Catalina Island lay just a few miles beyond the ship, rising out of the waves with the superiority of an old sea god. And his mind conjured Charlegne from the sea mist.
Charlegne! Millions of boys across the globe cited her as their first: the first fantasy girl, the first orgasm, the first wet dream. She had graced the covers of every fashion magazine on Earth. You couldn’t walk past a newsstand without seeing her staring back at you. And for gentlemen with a little imagination, Charlegne’s “for-the-camera-only” bedroom eyes hypnotized them into complete submission.
Not a single man on the planet could explain why she fascinated him.
She never did nudes. Her swimsuits were always one-piece. There were no exaggerations in her figure. She was slim and healthy, but with feminine lines and curves. She never posed in bizarre angles or shapes like the fashion mavens adored. There was hardly anything provocative about her modeling. It was just…the way she existed. She stood differently than other women. She moved differently. She occupied space in a way that most people couldn’t help but gravitate toward.
The woman is a witch, plain and simple.
Yes, Charlegne was a damn witch. There was restraint—modesty, really—in her appearance. People saw glamor, ice and diamonds, a woman drowning in champagne and Swarovski. This was not Charlegne. She was in control. She would slam the door on any suggestive behavior. She played it cool. Somehow, this made all the little monsters found in men tear at themselves with dirty screams.
Her eyes did most of the work. Martin remembered the way they seemed to burn through you. Like lasers. A woman who could incinerate your soul with her gaze, was capable of violent, passionate feeling. It boiled beneath her skin. You couldn’t model like that, express yourself with that sort of laser intensity, without being capable of suffering. Though, in later years dubbed “The Ice Queen,” Martin knew Charlegne could feel intense emotion, so intense that it would destroy a weaker soul.
Her eyes said it all. To him, they said one thing loud and clear.
You can never have me.
Martin did not love Charlegne, not like he loved Rosemary. But he wanted her in the filthiest way his body could imagine.
“Sir?”
For the second time, Martin wrenched himself from his fantasy. His right hand hovered above his waistband.
“Sir, is there anything I can help you with?”
The deck attendant lingered at Martin’s elbow.
“Oh…uh. No, I think I’m fine.” He hauled himself into an upright position, stretching out the cramps in his fingers. “Just…uh…waiting for the boats to get their act together, so we can go to the island. How much longer anyway?”
“About fifteen minutes, sir. The tenders are scheduled to depart at ten.”
“Good. I…uh…I have to wait for my wife. We won’t miss them, will we?”
“Oh no, sir. The boats run every ten minutes.”
“Well, that’s a huge relief. I—”
“Oh dear. I’m too early. It figures. I’m always too early for things. Then again, we did just make these plans, and Josh had to leave breakfast sooner than he intended.”
Martin heard the woman long before he saw her. Lost under a hurricane of black hair, she scrambled up from the lower decks. Her lips never stopped moving.
The attendant approached her. “Ma’am? Is there anything I can help you with?”
She shoved back a mess of hair. “Oh! I’m sorry. I didn’t realize there was anyone up here. Is this the Seaview Deck? I’m supposed to meet someone up here. At least, I think it was here. It could have been the Lido Deck.”
“The Seaview Deck is just behind you, ma’am, but perhaps you’d care to wait over by the pool instead? I’ll take you to the port side closest to the Sunbathing Deck, so you can get the most sun. After all, the shade of the Seaview Deck is very cold in the morning.”
“Oh, nothing is too cold for me. I used to spend Christmas in Minnesota. Now that’s some serious cold weather. I remember when the pipes froze while my grandfather took a shower—”
“You’d probably enjoy waiting for your friend in the sunshine.”
She wrestled the tentacles of her hair into a ponytail. “Oh, she’s not my friend, really. I only met her at breakfast. Poor woman. Completely trapped under her husband’s thumb. The way he bullies her. But enough about that. I’m sure poor Sally wouldn’t want me to gab on about her marriage. I do feel bad for her, though. She’s just so…meek.”
The attendant pulled out the chair next to Hale, who opened his mouth in protest and decided against it. “It’s a shame, ma’am. Could I get you anything else?”
“Oh, I don’t know. I really shouldn’t. Breakfast was just delicious. And our waiter was so cute. Quite young, too. The most ADORABLE blue-gray eyes. Oh, what the heck! It IS my vacation. I’d like an iced tea with lemon, please.”
“Right away, ma’am.”
The woman turned to Martin, who was slumped in his chair. “This cruise is just fabulous! I haven’t been on many, you know, but the few I did go on were mostly for families. It’s so pampered here. I feel like a queen! The staff here takes such good care of us, like…like shepherds with their flock.”
Martin rolled his eyes and sank his chin to his chest.
“It was really nice of Josh’s sister to give us this surprise cruise. We really did need to get away for a while.”
I think I need to get away for a while, Martin thought.
“Of course, Marcia warned me about stewards who help themselves to a little easy money and captains who are too friendly with their passengers, but I think she was just jealous. The Howard Line is perfect. I couldn’t find fault if I tried!”
They certainly don’t discriminate against passengers.
“And the weather has just been—Oh my God! It’s HER!”
Martin felt his little monster moan. The shielded, golden head of Charlegne Jackson, in rich, sensitive flesh, rose from the starboard-side ladder. He let a small grunt escape his lips. She wore a white, one-piece bathing suit with side cutouts revealing the tight cinch of her waist. A wide-brimmed purple sunhat guarded her face from the sunlight. Martin watched several locks of her hair tickle the pearly skin of her breast, sometimes slipping quietly underneath her swimsuit. His hand twitched. It became uncomfortable to sit upright.
If Rosie knew how I felt, she would kill me. She might know already. God help me if she does. She just keeps me around because I belong to her. The only way she can survive this…problem…is if I belong to her. God, this hurts.
The woman’s relentless commentary droned on next to him.
“She’s so untouched. It’s like turning the pages of Vogue all over again. Don’t you find it incredible how some people never seem to age? They have all the luck, don’t they? And just imagine being Charlegne for a day…the clothes…the jewelry…the trips around the world…”
That’s all they ever see. The diamonds…the champagne…the smooth elegance of each ivory limb. Oh hell, I’m going to burst.
Charlegne, overhearing this flood of praise, raised her hand in acknowledgment. Martin traced the languid curl of her fingers, and the moisture evaporated from his throat. From his poolside vantage point, he watched her amble onto the neighboring Sunbathing Deck, deposit herself onto a lounge chair, snap her fingers, and give orders to the attendant. He saw the way her pink lips shaped the words. She turned to him then. Those lips parted into a sleepy smile, revealing the clean, white pattern of her teeth. Sunshine stroked the curve of her cheek with golden fingers.
Even the gods love her.
“And I’ll always remember that Vogue spread fifteen years ago. Maybe I could have her sign a copy for me. I always bring an issue of Vogue on trips. I don’t suppose you know what I’m talking about. Men aren’t concerned with fashion. My husband didn’t even react when I said I saw Charlegne in the dining room, last night. He just sat there like a big mannequin. Well, no matter. I remember she wore this long white gown by Christian Lacroix, I think. Unbelievably couture. It’s funny, though, it always reminded me of a wedding dress.”
The closest thing she ever came to wearing a wedding gown.
Charlegne lathered her limbs with sunscreen. Martin felt the top of his inseam grow stiff. He rested his hand there and hoped he didn’t start sweating. Charlegne took extra care to smooth out the lotion on her legs, leaving her skin gleaming gold in the strengthening sunlight. The deck attendant deposited a steaming cup of coffee on the table to her right.
She’s the most beautiful bitch in the world.
Again the sleepy smile, the hat tilted to keep the sun from melting the ice blue of her eyes, the swelling atom of sweat coursing down Martin’s jawline.
“Oh no!”
Martin yelped at the woman’s outburst. He wiped away the sweat on his hairline again. His heart moved into his throat.
“How could I be so stupid? I was supposed to meet Sally on the Seaview Deck at ten! I hope she hasn’t left the ship yet. I don’t want her to think I totally forgot about her. What with everything she has to endure.” She ran her hand underneath the lounge chair. “Oh, this is not my morning. I left my purse in my cabin. I’ll have to go down to the stateroom, grab my bag and the magazine, and come back here to meet Sally. I hope she won’t mind it if we get Charlegne’s autograph. I don’t think she would. Lord, if I stay here talking your ear off, I’ll never get off this ship! Sorry to run, Mr.—Oh, I never learned your name. Nice talking to you!”
She bustled down the starboard-side ladder, continuing to make all her private concerns public.
Martin exhaled. Oh thank sweet baby Jesus, she’s gone! He stole a glance at the sunbathing figure to his left. Charlegne, sunhat sheltering her face, dozed like a cat, letting the sunshine envelop her. Martin’s little monster whined.
I hate her. I hate her because she makes it hurt.
He moved towards the starboard-side ladder. The sea breeze didn’t help him as much as he thought it would.
Dustin, how could you?
Rosemary felt the wind take a fancy to her hair. Standing at a strip of observation deck at the extreme tip of the bow, nicknamed the Prow Deck, she tried to settle her heartbeat. She suddenly felt like Kate Winslet in Titanic, embraced by the breeze, unaware of disaster. Where the hell is my Leo? The crinkle of paper shifting in the wind brought her eyes down to her hands.
She clutched a folded sheet of paper. Her knuckles burned red while the rest of her fingers glowed white. Her green eyes darkened to nearly black.
This is all wrong. She should be the body floating in the river.
Her fingernails punctured the skin of the letter. A muscle tensed along her throat.
Rosemary unfolded the note, and her eyes swallowed the first line. Her pupils started to tighten into snake-like slits.
Rosie,
I know you love me, and I also know you won’t understand this, but—
She stopped. There was a sharp, stabbing pain just to the left of her heart. She drew in a large gulp of salty air through her nose, trying to squeeze the knife out of her chest. Her pupils relaxed.
No, Dustin. I don’t understand.
She wanted to hurt. Yes, she wanted to hurt someone badly. She wanted to make that someone suffer.
A distraction. That’s all it is. I need something to distract me from this javelin in my heart. Isn’t that how bullies work? How did that get in my head?
Rosemary wrapped her fingers around the railing and leveled her gaze with the far horizon. The sky and sea were perfect mirrors of each other. This cruise should have been peaceful. After a depressing visit to the doctor, Rosemary needed a vacation. Then she saw Charlegne, white and golden, the perfect princess of the land of milk and honey, glide past her before the ship even thought about departing. And then there was the look in Martin’s eyes—the slight dilation of his pupils.
I came so close. It was like Fashion Week all over again. I was back in the tent I shared with that bitch. She sailed in, trailed by that mob of nitwits, their tongues wagging out of their mouths. The hate was there. The same old hate as always. I saw her push Dustin over the edge again. But I thought I could handle it this time. Focus on the clothes. Focus on the collection. Then I looked at Marty’s face…his eyes…the way his pupils dilated just a little. I knew it then! I knew he loved her! Oh Marty, you son of a BITCH!
Her fingers squeezed the handrail like they would around someone’s neck.
It was insanity. I have no other defense for it. Everything just started to go dark…like passing into a tunnel. All I could focus on was Charlegne’s neck, white and smooth and untouched. She laughed then, I think. One of those patronizing little titters she likes to give. The muscles along her throat bobbed up and down and up and down. I thought,“It would be so easy to stop that bobbing.” And my hands…I don’t remember moving them…they were pressed against those muscles. I felt them shift and pull under my fingers. I pushed. The only way to stop a pull is with a push. Simple physics. The muscles trembled. I think there was a shout then. I pushed harder. Then more shouts. There was a big burst of light, like a sun exploding. I remember the relief! Even as my fingers cramped, I remember how all my other muscles relaxed. Like the muscles in my heart. And didn’t Charlegne relax too? She gave this weird little sigh. The lines around her mouth started to smooth out. I think she even smiled.
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