Missy's Gentle Giant

by P D Miller

  Reality hit Ben. No more chaperones! Now what? Nervously he led Missy upstairs to their room, glanced around, mumbled something about her changing and left. He thought maybe Missy would want something to eat, raced downstairs to find Mrs. Diaz and discovered absolutely no one was in the house. Slowly he walked back upstairs and paced in front of the bedroom for several minutes. Then he took a deep breath and slowly opened the door.

  Missy was sitting on the side of the bed in a beautiful, frilly, white night gown which sent blood racing through his body. She shook nervously, and tears rolled down her cheeks. Reality had hit her too, and now as Mrs. Ben Spinelli, she had wifely obligations to fulfill. Her mother had told her all about how from now on she must not deny her husband his needs. And then her mother warned her: if she wanted to keep her man faithful, she must smile and appear to happily do his bidding.

  Ben raced to her and hauled her into his arms. “Please don’t be afraid of me.”

  “I—I—I’m—no—not—Ben.” She cried and shook more.

  He kissed her hair and tried to comfort her. “I won’t hurt you.” But when he pulled her close she shuddered more.

  “Ben I—”

  “Go on and get into bed, honey.” He pulled away and held her at arms length. “I’ll sleep in another room.” Stifling a groan, he turned her away and pushed her toward the bed. As he held the covers up, he fought with his urges, covered her, bent over her and kissed her lightly. “Missy I love you.” He swept to a bureau to get some clothes and was gone.

  Ben alternately cursed and groaned in the next bedroom while he took off his tux and put on a sweat suit. Still dying inside, he started running at the top of the stairs. The way he felt, he might have to run all night. Damn! Tomorrow he’d take her out sightseeing or something to make up for trying to push her.

  Guilt and fear riddled Missy so much she got out of bed and went to the window. It surprised her when she saw Ben running away from the house. For a long time she stood at the window while his figure receded from her view. Had she married a nut who ran at night? Eventually she became tired of seeing nothing and went back to bed. She was sure now Ben didn’t want her and had married her only because she said she was in a family way and to please her parents.

  As with many nights before, Ben ran until he hurt and was forced to walk home. By now, after so many nights, anyone but a fool would run halfway, so he could run back, but Ben ran to exhaustion and forced himself to walk back. In agony he climbed the stairs slowly, breathing heavily and dropped on the bed in the other bedroom. What else could he do?

  Chapter Ten

  At seven in the morning Missy opened her eyes and saw Ben standing in front of the bed with a breakfast tray. Quickly she scooted up to sitting and hugged her legs.

  “Thought I’d bring you some breakfast before I have to leave.” He stiffly put the tray down. It hadn’t been in his plans to go to work, but he’d received an emergency call and was already dressed.

  “Thank you. You’re going to work?” She watched as he pulled a jacket from the closet.

  “Yeah, I’m sorry, honey, but they called and need me—”

  “No, it’s all right.” She forced a smile. Had he really received a call?

  “Mrs. Diaz will be here around nine, and the people working on the pool should come around ten.” He turned away and glanced at her through the mirror while he adjusted his clothes and brushed his hair. Picking up his billfold, he took a deep breath and then turned to her. “Ask Mrs. Diaz if you want anything.” He glanced at his billfold, walked over to her and dropped it on the bed. “I won’t be in until around six, but Geevers will take you anywhere you like if you decide you want to go out. If you do go and get an urge to buy something, you can use any of the credit cards.” He glanced away and then back at her with a forced smile. “Missy, I love you.” He bent and kissed her forehead before he turned away and was gone.

  After a near sleepless night, Missy’s day was miserable. Without even touching her breakfast, she rose, dressed and carried the breakfast tray downstairs. She was wandering aimlessly about the house when Mrs. Diaz came in wearing a knowing look. Ben must have called her. Instantly Missy felt her face turn crimson and ran sobbing to the bedroom. When she threw herself on the bed, it made her angry to have Ben’s billfold poke her in the ribs, so she grabbed it, threw it across the room and cried herself to sleep. Just after ten she awakened, got up and saw the men were working on the pool. She forced herself to go downstairs and face Mrs. Diaz.

  “What time shall I plan dinner?” Mrs. Diaz smiled.

  “Ben said he’d be in about six.” Missy wandered out on the grounds. It surprised her when Mrs. Diaz came out just after one and told her she was wanted on the phone. Missy felt a rush of excitement hoping it was Ben. Instead she stood by the phone while Mrs. Diaz told Missy her mother wanted to know if everything was all right.

  “Tell her yes; everything’s fine.” Missy lied. Unhappily she left the kitchen, went to the living room and turned on the television. She ignored the workmen outside, ignored Mrs. Diaz cleaning and forced herself to stare at the soundless television. When the news came on at five-thirty, she stood, turned off the television and went upstairs to change. At six she was seated back on the sofa in front of a huge blank screen. Crouching up and hugging her legs, she stared at it while the clock ticked away. She ignored how Mrs. Diaz kept poking her head in the room. At eight when she saw Ben come in the front door, she fought the urge to jump up and turned her head away from him with tears and confusion in her eyes.

  Ben’s day was lousy too. Every time he turned around something went wrong. Just as he solved one problem and reached for the phone to call and see how Missy was doing, something else came up. Then for the last two hours he argued with inspectors about the safety of a walkway until he finally suggested making a model to check it out. When he let himself in the house, he was surprised to see Missy just staring at a blank television. Mrs. Diaz greeted him with worried eyes and pointed to Missy. He ran a tired hand across the back of his neck, apologized for being late and went to her.

  “Honey, I’m sorry I’m late, but—”

  “It doesn’t matter.” She cut in, but Ben could see tears behind her eyes.

  He glanced down at the floor and then slowly up to her. “I—”

  “Dinner’s ready.” Mrs. Diaz interrupted.

  “Time to eat.” She glanced away with a forced smile.

  Dinner was practically silent, although Ben tried. “What did you do all day, honey?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Nothing?”

  “Mrs. Diaz helped me talk to Mom.”

  “What did she have to say?”

  “Nothing important.”

  “Oh.”

  Silence.

  “Did the workmen come?”

  “Yes.”

  Another silence.

  “Did you go shopping or anything?”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know—just thought you might want to look around—”

  Silence again

  “Would you like to go somewhere? A movie? Dancing or something?”

  “No.”

  Ben dropped his fork on his plate. “Missy—”

  “I think I’ll go to bed.” She jumped up fighting tears and pushed her chair under the table. “Good night.”

  “Yes, good night.” Ben watched her run upstairs.

  An hour later when Ben entered his—no their bedroom, Missy appeared to be asleep. He walked over to the bed and dropped upon it. For several moments he stared at her tiny body curled into a ball before he reached out, touched her hair, then bent and kissed her wet cheek.

  “Oh Missy, I love you so.” Painfully he rose and forced himself to leave the room.

  Rather than run, he went to the library and poured a double shot of scotch. The first drink led to another, until he finally carried a new bottle out to the living room, where he dropped on the sofa and poured more. Near one in the mornin
g he had trouble putting the bottle back on the coffee table after getting another drink, and he lay back silently begging for strength. His senses were dulled so when he gulped what was in his glass, he let it drop, threw his arm over his eyes and quietly passed out.

  At, six when Mrs. Diaz shook his shoulder, Ben jumped up to hammering in his head, dizziness and nausea. He smiled weakly when a few minutes later she placed a tray of coffee on the coffee table and handed him a bottle of aspirin. He gulped down four aspirin, a second cup of coffee and hauled himself upstairs to shower and shave.

  All the while he showered Missy’s tiny curled up body haunted him. After brushing his hair he went over to her, bent down and whispered of his love in her ear. Her gown was open revealing a breast, and without thinking his huge hand slid down inside it and touched her firm nipple. She shuddered. He forced his hand to pull her gown closed and slide down her arm to her hand so his fingers could speak.

  “Oh honey, I love you.” His fingers flew. At the same time, his tongue lashed out seeking, needing hers.

  Missy turned toward him, and their tongues met. Then as he dropped on the bed, his lips crashed against hers again, and sought release of his pent up need. One of her arms flew up around his neck and dug into his hair. When he pulled away gasping for air, his lips and tongue sought to taste more, trailing down her throat and shoulder over her gown toward her breast. Groaning again, through her gown he touched her breast tentatively with his tongue, grasped a nipple with his lips and began to suck. Missy moaned and tightened her hold on his hair. Then fear seared her, and she began shaking, but Ben was lost to the taste and touch of her.

  Unconsciously his hand slid down her side over her thighs and then to her abdomen. He stopped sucking on one nipple to search for the other. Frantically he tried to shove her gown away with his face trying to touch her nipple while his hand snaked down to the space between her thighs. When his tongue touched her other nipple and his fingers pushed her gown between her thighs, Missy stiffened, began to shake convulsively and tried to pull away.

  “No please—” She whispered breathing heavily. Tears rolled down her cheeks.

  He didn’t seem to hear and tried to touch her tender peak through her gown.

  “Ben—I’m afra—”

  Instantly he stilled his hand, tore his mouth away from her breast and moved up to her lips. “No, Missy, please no—” His tongue lashed out seeking hers while his fingers started a circling motion rubbing her tender peak. “Missy, I want to show you—” His lips and tongue crashed against hers, but she shook so badly she bit him, and he came to his senses. Groaning loudly, he pulled away. “I’m sorry, oh honey, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to push you.” He kissed her cheeks, licked her tears, loudly cursed himself and jumped up from the bed.

  “B—Ben I—I—n—need to talk to my mother.” She shook all over.

  “Yeah, sure.” He rubbed the back of his neck, sighed heavily and bounded from the room.

  Seeing Mrs. Diaz surprised face as he flew down the stairs, he stopped. “Have Geevers take Missy—I think she wants to go home!” He was out the door and gone.

  Missy sobbed and shivered when she saw the car screech away from the house. She lay down, pulled the covers over her shoulders and curled into a ball. Fifteen minutes later Mrs. Diaz came into the room and stood beside the bed.

  “Ben said you want to go home.”

  “Y—yes, I—I just can’t—” Was Ben sending her home?

  “Geevers will be ready in half an hour.” Mrs. Diaz coldly glanced around, saw Ben’s billfold on the floor, put it on the bureau and walked from the room.

  Slowly Missy crawled off the bed as a feeling of total defeat encompassed her. She dressed, went to the bathroom and washed her face, then stood in front of the mirror and brushed her hair. Curiosity grabbed her when she saw Ben’s open billfold. Slowly she picked it up and flipped through the pictures. She saw one with him standing next to a man who had to be his father. In another, Ben was with a woman who was definitely old enough to be his mother. She confirmed they were his parents when the woman and man were together with their signatures on another picture. Missy wondered why Ben never mentioned them and didn’t have them come to the wedding. Where were they? The next picture was a group shot, one she recognized of four guys in Iraq. One like it was on the mantle in her house.

  Another picture was of a very beautiful young teenage girl, signed “All my love, your other half, Connie.” Had Ben been married? It looked like an old picture. Surely if he was divorced he’d have thrown the picture away. And wouldn’t he have said something? Now as she thought about it, Ben never did talk about a family or his past. She knew nothing of these pictures. Her breath caught when she saw the next picture—it was of her when she was sixteen. Shaking, she turned it over and pulled the credit card out behind it.

  “My wonderful pen pal, Missy,” it read, “she’ll never know how she helped me get through Iraq.”

  Missy dropped the picture on the bureau and then the billfold with tears streaking down her face, but there was a new grim determination in her eyes. Yes, she’d go home if he wanted her to. She’d do anything he wanted now. She wiped her face and walked to the bedroom door with an expression showing anger.

  “Well, is Geevers ready to take me?” She stood in the foyer. Moments later she was enclosed in a new Porsche and on her way. She sobbed so hard when she entered the house her mother thought the worst and rushed her upstairs to her old room.

  Gonzalo and the others banged into the house around six, only to be hushed to silence by their mother.

  “What’s wrong?” Gonzalo cocked his head.

  “Melissa came home.”

  Three words, was all it took, and the family was totally subdued for the rest of the evening. Missy didn’t come out of her room for dinner, so Mrs. Sanchez took it to her. It was a wasted effort. Half an hour later the tray came back untouched. Gonzalo went up to see her.

  “Melissa?”

  She glanced up at him but said nothing.

  “What happened?”

  “Ben sent me home.”

  “He what?”

  “Returned me like—just said—” Tears welled behind her eyes.

  “What did he say?” Gonzalo’s anger rose. “Melissa, what did he say?”

  “He just told Mrs. Diaz to have his driver bring me.”

  “The damn son of a—”

  “No Gonzalo, it’s best this way.” She wiped her tears. “He’s a stranger, not the man I thought—even does weird things—”

  “What kind of weird things?” Gonzalo glared. “So help me—”

  “No, he didn’t hurt me. Look Gonzalo, I should have known better.”

  “Whatever you say Melissa. Look why don’t you come and help in the shop tomorrow? Maybe it will—”

  “No, I’m fine, really, I’m fine.” Missy forced a smile.

  As soon as Gonzalo left Missy, he got in his car and drove around trying to find Ben. He checked his house but he wasn’t home yet. When he realized it would be impossible to find him, he headed home.

  Ben had called the house early in the afternoon wanting to apologize to Missy. Mrs. Diaz informed him politely Missy went home. For a long time Ben sat in his office and stared out the window. Well, he really fixed things this time. Now what could he do? He called Missy’s house but was told she didn’t want to talk to him. He should have kept his damn hands off her.

  He went out to check progress on the shopping center. Later he was glad he did because he ran into a couple of problems which could have cost him a great deal of money if they passed unnoticed. It was nearly seven when he got back to his office, and the thought of going home to an empty house was more than he could handle. Instead he looked over folders on prospective renters for the mall and their special needs. Well after midnight he wrote notes to his secretary stating which stack contained possibilities and which would be rejected. He left the two stacks of folders, tiredly got up, went home and fell on his
empty bed.

  The next day Missy asked her mother to call Ben, but it seemed he was always out somewhere or in a conference, and when she had her mother call the house in the evening, no one was there. The second day Ben tried to call Missy, but no one answered, and in the evening Gonzalo told him she had nothing to say to him.

  Missy had gone to the doctor to see what was wrong with her, but it was a waste of time. The doctor told her the only thing she could do was force herself to live through her wifely duties and hope everything would go all right. She didn’t know what the doctor meant.

  Ben in the meantime, trying to keep his mind off Missy’s problem, worked until he wanted to drop. It was after twelve before he left his office. He was so tired he just fell into bed in a dead sleep.

  Then Ben found one of his foremen was ordering cheap materials, and he hit the roof. He yelled and screamed through the entire day while he checked inventories, materials, and double checked for standards. Late in the afternoon he called a meeting of the foremen. After thoroughly, chewing everyone out, he expounded on the need to do the best possible job because the mall was his design and a reflection on him. Further, if something was found to be defective, he’d be held liable.