Real Love 7 (Love Knows No Bounds)

by H. H. Fowler

  But did Annalise really believe that Armando still cared about her? She did. That was why she was fighting like hell to save her marriage. Women like Rena should not be allowed to spread their witchery, pursuing men that didn’t belong to them. And even if Armando was the one to initiate things between him and Rena, Rena should have sent him back to his wife. Death was too good for such women, Annalise thought, yet it was the most appropriate solution to solve this annoying travesty. It was all Annalise thought about and by the time she got to Rena’s room, she was ready for action. She didn’t hesitate to use her ‘illegally-acquired’ key to 5020, pushing open the door wide enough for her to slip in unnoticed.

  The atmosphere smelt different than the last time Annalise remembered. A light aroma of assorted berries and vanilla, which immediately appealed to Annalise’s taste in feminine hygienic products. It boldly drew her deeper within the room where she soon heard the sound of running water. Her gaze leveled with the bathroom door, which had been left ajar, giving Annalise a sneak preview of Rena’s naked body held under a strong blast of water. Granted the shower glass prevented full clarity and the vapor from the warm water had clouded the small space, but it was enough for Annalise to make a calculated move. Good. She smirked, as she swiftly pulled the .357 Magnum from the terrycloth.

  The situation presented an easy prey. Annalise would strike quickly and unexpectedly, leaving Rena dead before she realized what hit her. However, Annalise wasn’t aware of her own demons, breaking free from an eighteen-month hiatus of her lesbian tryst with Sabrina Wheelie. The shower door slid open, revealing Rena’s intimacy in its most carnal form. Steam rose from her chestnut-colored skin, making Rena’s body a glistening feast to behold.

  Annalise froze. Those desires, forbidden as they may be, came roaring back to life and Annalise soon found herself running her tongue slowly across her bottom lip. It clearly evinced that her lust for lesbian sex was alive and well. She could understand why Armando was so smitten with this woman. Short in stature, but it hadn’t any effect on her sex appeal, as she was adequately endowed everywhere else. And despite Annalise’s finger pressing firmly against the trigger, she couldn’t overcome her lecherous gaze to finish the job she’d come to execute.

  The unexpected sensations threw Annalise for a loop. In fact, it made her all the more frustrated, because she didn’t care to feel anything else except hatred for Rena Henderson. The nerve of her debauched desires to have betrayed her in such a crucial moment.

  “Don’t fight it, Dearie…I have led you here for this very reason – to indulge in what you love most.”

  That voice, which Annalise had fought tooth and nail to suppress these past eighteen months had returned ten times more powerfully. No way was it going to allow Annalise to quiet its beguiling agenda.

  “Who needs Armando when you could have Rena,” the voice taunted. “Bangin’ body, pretty face…she is one helluva catch, isn’t she? And she can be all yours, if you will listen to my instructions…”

  “No!” Annalise’s voice came out louder than she would have liked.

  It certainly got Rena’s attention. She pulled a housecoat around her body and stepped back against the granite surface. “Hello? Is someone out there?”

  Agonizing over her next move, Annalise balked at Rena’s inquiry. If Rena came out of the bathroom and spotted her, she would have no other choice but to put a bullet between Rena’s eyes. Too messy of a death for Annalise to be sure that she would be able to get away with it. What if someone would see her running out of Rena’s room, only to discover that she’d left behind a dead body? It was too risky and too stupid.

  An opportunity to escape came when she heard Rena slam the bathroom door and lock it. She quickly pushed the gun between her breasts and made a hasty exit. It annoyed her that her perfect opening to do away with Rena may have been thwarted by those shameless cravings in her flesh. And it didn’t help that it was encouraged by that voice in her head. But Annalise was determined not to let any of it stop her from trying until she succeeded. Rena must pay for the disruption she’d caused in her (Annalise’s) marriage to Armando.

  ****

  Five Minutes Later

  Rena slowly pulled open the bathroom door, just wide enough for one of her eyes to inspect her hotel room. From what she could see, the coast seemed clear, but that didn’t mean anything. Whoever was in her room could be hiding, ready to pounce on her the minute she made herself an open target. Her gaze then dropped to the floor and noticed a terrycloth hand towel resting haphazardly in a pile. She didn’t remember dropping it there. Her initial thoughts were that the maid had been in her room to clean. But it seemed strange that the maid would not make her presence known. Rena was convinced that someone else (other than the maid) had been in her room and she was extremely disturbed over the idea.

  “Hello?” she called out again, before she gingerly ventured out of the security of her bathroom. “Be forewarned, my husband will be back any minute.”

  Obvious it was a lie, but Rena had heard that it was a good line to distract the intentions of a criminal – even though she seriously doubted it worked. Several minutes passed only to reveal that either Rena was alone or that she was probably hearing voices, which was highly unlikely. She had no history of mental illness. She’d heard someone shout the word, “No!” and it sounded like a female’s voice.

  Whatever the heck was going on, Rena had had enough of this hotel. First her handbag went missing without a trace, (which held her wallet, ID and of all things, a loaded weapon) and now this ‘breaking in and entering’ of a possible assailant. However, the loaded gun was of grave concern to Rena. In fact, it was one of the main reasons why she fretted over not being able to locate her handbag. What if the ‘alleged’ person who’d been in her room was the same person who had possession of it? That would mean they also had possession of a loaded weapon. The situation was too close for comfort and Rena decided to do something about it right away.

  She got dressed so quickly that she was out of her room and down in the main lobby of the hotel in less than five minutes. She slapped the front desk, causing the clerk to jump out of his chair. It was the same clerk who’d gone against hotel policy by giving a pregnant guest a key to Rena’s room. If the guest had been registered to the room, it wouldn’t have caused such a problem. Of course, neither Rena nor the managing staff had any idea that this had occurred. But the fiery way Rena had approached the front desk made the clerk feel as if Rena knew.

  “What kind of hotel are you people running where the guests can’t even be safe in their own rooms?”

  “Ma’am?”

  “I want to see the manager right away!” she demanded.

  “Maybe I can assist,” the clerk tried.

  “If you haven’t found my handbag, you can’t assist me with anything…tell your manager that I want to see him this very minute!”

  “I – I noticed that you were scheduled to check out yesterday,” the clerk stammered. “However, because of your unfortunate situation, the hotel has decided to cover the cost and will give you an extension on your stay –”

  Rena slapped the front desk again. “The hell’s the matter with you? Go and get your manager before I go all kinds of crazy in this place.”

  The clerk reluctantly backed away, knowing the manager was presently in a meeting interviewing hotel staff about the ‘alleged’ robbery in Rena’s room. The clerk and those who worked the front desk were next in line to be put under the gun. As Rena waited impatiently for the manager to return, she stared at her cell phone – the one item that hadn’t been stolen out of her possession. She noticed there were five missed calls, two from her editing director of Armonica Film and the others coming from Franco, one of her premier clients in the entertainment industry. She was in limbo, wondering whether to call back any of the numbers, when her ringer unexpectedly came to life.

  “Hello, Franco,” she answered stiffly.

  “Where the hell are you?” he de
manded.

  “I’m still in Devin’s Cay.”

  “Just great! Weren’t you supposed to be back in Paris by now?”

  “I was, but I hadn’t planned on getting my bag stolen –”

  Franco fired off a few expletives. “Just another bloody excuse not to get my work out on time. Do you know how much money you’ve cost me in the last three weeks? I had to push back the release date of my film!”

  Rena rolled her eyes, because she was not in the mood to deal with Franco’s unreasonable complaints, must less tolerate them. “Well, it’s not my fault you missed your release date. I did advise you to hire a different editor.”

  “Why did I have to be the one to look for a different editor?” Franco yelled. “It was your stress that caused you to not finish the work. Not me!”

  “Mr. Hernandez!” Rena yelled back, “I have a lot on my plate at the moment. I can’t deal with your crap right now.”

  “Well, you had better deal with it or I swear that whenever you return to Paris, you will be shocked to discover that you are on everyone’s blacklist!”

  Rena tightened her grip on her phone. “I can’t believe you’ve just threatened to ruin my livelihood.”

  “You bet the hell I did! Get your butt back to Paris, Rena. And I mean that with every bone in my body.”

  Franco cut the connection the same time the manager of the hotel approached Rena. The fire in her eyes almost caused him to retreat.

  “Ms. Henderson,” he said, spreading his hands before her. “I am presently handling this situation –”

  “I want you to put me in a different room,” she said, cutting him off.

  “A different room?”

  “You heard me quite clearly. Better yet, you need to bring in the police to speed up this process, because the way things are going at the moment, I’ll be a dead duck by the end of the night.”

  “I know you must be exasperated over this situation, and rightfully so,” the manager tried to assure, “but I don’t think it’s necessary to bring in the police at this point in time.”

  “Then you had better explain to me why my personal privacy is being invaded. Someone snuck in my hotel room and spied on me while I was taking a shower.”

  The manager cocked his head and stared at Rena as if she had a few screws loose in that brain of hers.

  “Stop staring at me as if I were crazy,” Rena snapped. “I know exactly what I’m saying.”

  “I’m sorry, but I can assure you that our security is top notch –”

  “It’s been well over fifteen hours since I reported to you that my blithering handbag went missing out of my room and still you haven’t found the culprit amongst yourselves. And you call that top notch security? I mean, how long does it take to interview a few people?”

  How can you even be sure it was one of our staff, the manager wanted to say. But he knew it would only infuriate the guest all the more. “You’re upset, Ms. Henderson, but we’re doing everything we possibly can–” he started to say, but was brutally cut off by Rena’s biting retort.

  “Save me that sorry line of a cliché! Contact the police or else I will go to them myself!”

  Trembling with anger, Rena turned swiftly and found her face suddenly wedged into a man’s stomach. She knew it was a man because of the mesmerizing aftershave cologne that bathed her nostrils. She stood back and allowed her gaze to focus on the man. As distracted as was she in her emotions, she had sufficient effort to admire the way his dreadlocks were spread around his shoulders.

  “Armando…”

  He cupped one of her elbows and said, “I saw you in passing and noticed how upset you looked. Is everything okay?”

  “No, Armando, everything is not okay. In fact, it feels as if I’m losing my mind…my clients are stressing me the hell out, on top of everything I’m going through at the moment.”

  “I’m really sorry to hear that. I gather you still weren’t able to locate your handbag?”

  “No and it’s very distressing, especially when there’s a loaded gun stashed inside of it.” Rena rambled on, not seeing the shock registering in Armando’s expression. “It’s bad enough that I had to cancel all my bank cards. I can’t even access the inheritance from my father for at least another three days. Thank goodness Lewis has offered to come to my rescue until I can get back to Paris…but I need to find that handbag. I mean, what if it has already fallen into the wrong hands?”

  “Why would you be even carrying around such a dangerous weapon?” Armando asked as soon as he could get a word in. “I’m not fishing for information, mind you – just asking.”

  Rena hadn’t realized exactly what she’d said. She turned away from Armando’s inquisitive gaze. It was a stupid slip of the tongue. How would she explain that she’d bought the gun to frighten Lewis into changing the instructions in her father’s will to benefit her? Armando would instantly see her for the greedy, heartless woman that she was and not someone that he should desire.

  “I’m not as innocent as you may think,” she said, turning back to him. The weight of everything she was currently under caused a film of tears to appear at the bottom of her eyelids. “I’ve done a few stupid things in my life, but most of all, I wish I hadn’t bought that gun.”

  Armando raised a brow. “You haven’t killed anyone with it, have you?”

  “No, nothing like that…I’d bought it to frighten my dad’s lawyer. But it’s all water under the bridge now, because as I’d said, Lewis is assisting me in this situation.”

  Armando smiled, though he was still not comfortable with the idea of Rena purchasing such a weapon. “Then I thoroughly understand why you really want to find that bag,” he said. “Because I do agree that if it ends up in the wrong hands –”

  “Please don’t say it,” Rena interrupted. “Because I’m terrified that the person who’d snuck in my room a few minutes ago, is the same person who has possession of my handbag.”

  Armando did a double take. “Say what now? You didn’t tell me someone had snuck in your room.”

  “Yes….that is why I’m down here putting fire under the manager. They are too lackadaisical the way they’re handling things around here. I could have lost my life.”

  Armando did not like they sound of Rena’s safety being jeopardized. He would have gladly asked Rena to stay in his hotel room, but he knew it was a very dumb suggestion. His wife would certainly flip out and probably strangle Rena in her sleep.

  “At least let me help pay to get you settle into a different room,” Armando offered. “I want to help, but I feel as if my hands are tied –”

  Rena was shaking her head before Armando even finished speaking. “I will be fine...you got your wife to worry about. She’d just lost your daughter, remember? I don’t want to interfere with that.”

  “You won’t be interfering.”

  “No, Armando…I said I will be fine. Besides, the hotel has already offered to compensate me. And Lewis is just a phone call away.”

  “You’re hell bent on pushing me away, aren’t you?”

  “Don’t…do that.”

  “What am I doing, except telling you the truth?”

  Rena rolled her eyes. “This has nothing to do with what you believe to be the truth. Because you know quite well that it’s senseless to pursue anything between us.”

  “I wasn’t trying to pursue anything,” Armando said in his defense. “I was trying to help out a friend.”

  “Well,” Rena retorted sharply. “I thought I’d made myself clear: I don’t need your help.”

  “Okay, you may not need my help, but it sure look as if you could use a hug.”

  Rena took a step back. “I was just leaving –”

  “To go where? If you’re so sure someone was in your room, I wouldn’t advise you to go up there. At least not until that place is checked out.”

  “I wasn’t going back to my room…and I can take care of myself…”

  Armando suddenly pulled her into him.
“Stop running away from me,” he told her. “I know you’re scared, maybe even terrified of the outcome of all of this, but it’s not going to change the way I feel about you – or the way I know you feel about me. Let me into your life, Rena; I won’t have it any other way.”

  Rena continued to protest, but soon found herself giving in to Armando’s persistent, but loving embrace. Her body pressing gently against his strong frame made her want to cry. It was comforting to know that somebody really cared about her and not just tolerated her. But was it really worth getting her hopes up? Armando was still married to Annalise and there was no way Rena was going to come between that. But despite Rena’s troubling thoughts, when Armando released her, it was only long enough to passionately smash his lips against hers.

  “I love you,” he whispered to her. “Give me some time to fix this…”

  Annalise hobbled out of the elevator in search of her husband. And although she was still shaken up over the way things had turned out in Rena’s room, she was certain her next visit would be a success. She kept her slow-moving strides moving toward the back exit, which led to the pool deck. If there were a place she would find Armando, it would be there. He’d been spending a lot of his free time at the bar, though Annalise believed he’d been using that as an excuse to secretly meet with Rena behind her back. Such thoughts gave her all the more reason to do away with that dumpy little tramp.

  Do away with her? Really? She’s everything you could ever want in a woman…huge breasts, nice hips, and a fiery mouth to use whichever way you please. Sabrina won’t please you the way Rena would. Trust me, I know her strengths. If you would just stop being stupid and follow my instructions, Rena would be in bed with you before you know it…

  Annalise ignored the evil voice and continued her strides through the back exit. Had she turned her head, just slightly in the direction of the front desk, she would have seen her husband locking lips with the very woman she intended to kill – or seduce – depending on the outcome of Annalise’s desire.