by Kimball Lee
“Thanks for the advice, I’m going home to shower and change clothes and then I want to drive out to Greenlea and see Walden. He’s not happy with the idea of spending the next few months in Switzerland. I doubt that he would go if Dr. Selig wasn’t coming to personally escort him to the clinic. Thank you for arranging that by the way Tanya, sending the jet for Dr. Selig and for your powers of persuasion in convincing her to come to New Orleans. And I really owe you for helping Abigail with The Cathedral, it’s not like we can trust just anyone in that environment. Looks like the job will last for the rest of the summer, how are you handling it? Give yourself a raise and Abigail too, you both deserve it.” William said as he stepped into the elevator and the door began to close.
“Oh yeah, I meant to thank you for the raise. I’m exceptionally good at anticipating your every move boss, fear not, my sister and I have been very generously compensated. I do love to have my way with your checkbook!” She said, and he smiled and she laughed as the elevator door closed.
*
“Your brother would not have these troublesome issues, William, but he refuses to comply with my prescribed therapies. His Bipolar disorder is far out of control at this point, he has been functioning in a dangerously advanced manic phase and now he has crossed over into a state of extreme dysphoria. He’s plagued with hypersexual behavior, an addiction to sex that consumes his every thought. Alright then,” Eleanor Selig’s eyes narrowed as she studied William, then she took a sip from a china tea cup and continued. “You aren’t my patient, obviously, but this illness more often than any other tends to afflict multiple members in the same family. It’s almost certainly inherited, have you any symptoms, William? And for the record, in my country we are not so politically correct in embracing this new term ‘Bipolar’. It is what is—Manic/Depression.”
“I appreciate your concern for my mental state, Dr. Selig, but I’m quite well I assure you. I do indulge in sex a bit vigorously and too often I suppose. But it is one of the true joys in life when a man and a woman connect on that most intimate level, wouldn’t you agree?”
The good doctor blushed and raised her tea cup to her lips with an unsteady hand and William smiled and suggested that it was time to leave for the airport.
“One more thing I’d like to mention, William, something your father seems overly concerned with. Walden claims that he is in love with a woman. He’s beginning to respond to his medications as I had your family doctor administer them in IV form immediately. Walden claims to have released the fantasy of your mother’s ghost which he then replaced with the idea of a specific angel. Together he and I will work toward the truth that your mother’s ghost was nothing more than a fantasy that plagued his mind in the extreme and that angels rarely appear to mortal men. To add fuel to the fire, so to speak, now his obsession has become an actual woman. A fair haired young woman who has ties to your father’s past. I’m quite disheartened that the elder Mr. Warfield unwittingly showed Walden an image he had recently taken of the girl with his iPhone. Walden is convinced that he is quite desperately in love and the girl is his destiny, that delusion will be addressed at my clinic, but I did want to make you aware of the intensity of his fantasies were she is concerned. I understand from speaking with your father at some length that you have spent time with this girl Alaina. It will have a distinct bearing on how I deal with Walden’s fixation on Alaina if you and she are intimately acquainted.” Dr. Selig set her cup in its saucer, raised her left eyebrow in disapproval and waited for William to answer.
“Yes, I’ve spent time with her. We should go now, Dr. Selig, the jet is waiting and the departure time has been approved. The New Orleans airport is busy this time of year and we wouldn’t want to forfeit that particular time slot. I’m sure you’re anxious to have my brother in a clinical environment as soon as possible.” William called for the butler and maid and asked them to bring Walden down to the car. “My father’s driver will get you to the airport in the nick of time, thank you for your generosity in coming here and for your excellent care of my brother.”
The doctor brushed her short black hair behind one ear and straightened her crisply pleated skirt as she turned to go. She hesitated and faced William, “I hold your family and your brother in high regard. As well, your brother’s mental health is of the utmost importance and I must know certain truths so that I might guide him correctly. To that end may I be so bold as to ask if you are seriously involved with this girl, William?”
“I’m not sure,” William said and immediately he was sorry the words had slipped out.
Chapter Seven
It was highly dangerous, William was well aware of the fact. Dangerous to let his foot rest so heavily on the accelerator that the Maserati Gran Turismo was barreling back to the city at one hundred and twenty miles an hour. Dangerous to think that his proclivity for sex anywhere but in the bedroom might be construed as an addiction. Above all, dangerous to think he was obsessed with Allie Darling.
The Cathedral was what he needed, Tanya was probably right about that. And if not The Cathedral, well he had a never-ending supply of condoms in the glove box of the Maserati, so random sex with a stranger in a semipublic location might wipe Allie’s face from his mind. He parked the car in front of the Countess Warfield and threw the keys to a bellman in his rush to get to his office. In the elevator several teenaged girls were glued to their cell phones, thumbs flying furiously as they texted. A woman stood in the midst of the girls, she was older than William by at least ten years, thirty-seven or thirty-eight, he guessed. She was tall, slender and attractive and holding a dozen shopping bags from the boutiques in the lobby. The woman was flawlessly dressed and manicured and made-up, it was clear that she went to great lengths to achieve her perfectly polished beauty. She started to follow the girls when the elevator stopped on their floor but she hesitated as William tilted his head and his lips parted and she told the girls she would catch up with them later.
“I don’t want to know your name and we won’t kiss or talk about the weather. We’ll fuck once, fast and hard, and that will be the end of it,” William said and she nodded her head and dropped the shopping bags.
He hit the emergency stop button on the elevator as she stepped out of her panties. She pushed his suit jacket aside and quickly slid her hands down the tautly ridged muscles of his abs to his belt and zipper. When her greedy hand gripped his massive erection she whispered “Oh my!” as a delectably indecent thrill coursed through her. He ripped open the condom packet but he had to stop and look away from her when she spoke. Her voice was all wrong, her carefully crafted beauty was all wrong, she was just the wrong woman for him. William had never lost his erection before, he was always ready, always interested in something different and someone new, but he couldn’t make himself touch her. She wasn’t Allie Darling.
*
The only personal object that decorated Allie’s office at the Southern Gothic Literary Society was a framed picture of her with her mother. Allie was about six or seven in the photograph and she looked happy but her face was rather plain in comparison with the effervescently lovely Liza. Maybe if I were as beautiful and enchanting and unforgettable as Liza then William would love me now and forever.
“Stupid thoughts go away,” she said aloud and hoped Thelma had forgotten to put in her hearing aid. She didn’t have to worry about Brodie listening in as she talked to herself like a mad woman, he had gone to an interview for a real job, as he put it. He’d grumbled about how low-rent it was to work at the law office of some sleazy piss-ant ambulance chaser, but it was good experience for his chosen profession. He was happy to leave the dusty stacks of books and hand written pages to Allie and his mother and he felt it would be good to put some distance between himself and Allie during the day so they would be excited to see each other when they dated in the evenings. His plan, not hers, but she agreed with him because he was so nice and so adorably handsome in his boyish way and so very, very open to an actual relationship. Unli
ke William Warfield. And what the freaking hell was it with nice girls who always fell hard for the emotionally screwed up and completely unavailable bad boys?
Allie had the overwhelming sensation of being watched just then and the office air was filled with the most delightful fragrance of fresh flowers. She stared out to the courtyard trying to decide where the smell was coming from when a movement in the hallway caught her eye.
“Is this going to be like a daily thing,” she asked, trying her best not to smile or jump into his flower laden arms. “Should I expect you to drop by my office at the slightest whim? And come on, seriously, what’s up with the flowers? Do you have a fixation on the whole Pride and Prejudice scenario, one minute you dislike me and the next minute you’re standing in my office with an armful of flowers? Because honestly William, I would never have imagined you as a fan of Jane Austen.” She promised herself that she would keep her eyes on the gargantuan bouquet and not look into his haunting dark eyes. He’d been so adamant that romance was for fools that she needed to be irritated with him. But instead she lifted her gaze to his and what she saw in his eyes made her feel as if she wasn’t in this crazy love thing all by herself.
“Not a Jane Austen fan, but it seems I am a fan of yours. The flowers, yeah, I admit it’s a bold gesture and clichéd as hell, but here I am holding this ridiculous bouquet and all because I needed an excuse to have one glimpse of your face.”
The remark left her unable to utter a sound, he needed one glimpse of her face. She had never expected to hear such a romantic statement directed at her, and certainly not from a man as opposed to romance as William Warfield.
“I… love the flowers… and I have a date… tonight. Brodie’s not in the office today but he’s picking me up at the hotel in an hour,” she managed to say and an array of conflicting emotions played across William’s handsome face.
“Brodie’s taking you out tonight, well that’s wonderful, that’s great news, Miss Darling.” he said tossing the flowers on her desk, his eyes were like the darkest depths of the sea, a place too deep for the sun to penetrate. “I won’t bother you again if your interest lies elsewhere, I wouldn’t want to come between you and Brodie Maguire. The fuck I wouldn’t! Why would you go out with him, Allie, are you looking for more of what you had last night? Please tell me that’s not it, tell me you’re not going to…”
“William, no! Is that what you think of me, that I fall into bed just like that? Well, thank you for your vote of confidence in my good judgment. And maybe I should rephrase that and leave out the word bed, you do have a reputation, you know. An aversion to beds and privacy and reputable women. Thanks again for the flowers Mr. Warfield, goodbye.”
“Allie…” he said but he stopped when Thelma Maguire stuck her head through the door of Allie’s tiny office.
“There you are Alaina, shouldn’t you be on your way? It’s past time to lock the doors and close for the day. Oh! Mr. Warfield, I didn’t see you come in and oh my, what an absolutely breathtaking abundance of Peonies. Allie, darlin’, you should hurry now, Brodie will be waiting and I’m sure Mr. Warfield understands how it is when a pretty girl has her first date in our romantic city.”
“This isn’t her first date,” William snapped, “and Brodie should take you out to dinner Mrs. Maguire and save his energy. Allie and I are… she and I… we are… together. We’ve been seeing each other and I’m sure she was too nice to hurt your son’s feelings but we are most definitely a couple.”
“Well my God, you could knock me over with a feather! When on earth did this come about? Allie, why didn’t you say something? That’s fabulous news, of course, I didn’t realize you cared for the concept of dating, Mr. Warfield. Oh dear, oh my goodness! Should I call Brodie now, Allie, and let him hear the news from me?”
“I think I should be the one to tell him, don’t you William? It will come as a surprise to him just as it is… I mean, it was a huge surprise when you and I decided to become an honest to goodness couple. It totally took me by surprise. Oh to hell with it, you call him Thelma. William and I have places to go and things to, so lock up won’t you? See you tomorrow,” Allie said and she grabbed William’s hand and led him out the door.
*
“So I don’t have any say in this? Honestly William I should cause a scene and tell you to go away and never come back,” Allie said as they stood next to his Maserati and she held out her hand for the keys. “If you and I are a couple I should at least get to drive your car, don’t you agree?”
“Allie, you are welcome to drive my car anytime, darling girl, and I’m sorry I was a little slow to catch on to the idea of monogamy. We’ll have to play it by ear and see how it goes, this is new to me and I’m sure you’re going to make me pay in some way…” That was as far as William got before Allie reached up and pulled his lips down to hers. It was one of those kisses that led straight to a bed or a desk or a streetcar and when it ended they leaned heavily against each other breathing hard.
“You’re right Mr. Warfield, I am going to make you pay… I’m going to exact a certain punishment at least. Now, hand me the keys and get in the car.”
She drove fast, handling the car like a pro and William was impressed. She turned into the parking lot of the Audubon Aquarium and zipped into a parking space in one smooth motion.
“The Aquarium is open tonight for a private fund raiser, I’m surprised you weren’t invited,” she said hopping out of the car and pulling him along with her to a side entrance.
“I was invited but I never attend these black-tie affairs, what the hell are we doing Allie?” He wanted to touch her, to fuck her, to take her to his bed and discover what it was like to ‘make love’ for the first time in his life. But she gave him a quizzical look, held a finger to his lips when he started to speak and led him through the door into the brightly colored undersea world.
“Shhh,” she said when he asked her again when he pointed out that they were severely under-dressed for the party. She’d met with the director, Mr. Lansing, earlier at the Aquarium to discuss the details of the benefit since the proceeds would be given to restore literary landmarks in the city. She looked for him now, weaving through the gaily dressed crowd and when she found him she asked to have a word with him alone and told William she would back for him.
“All set, we have twenty minutes alone in the shark tank, come on William, we have to make the most of our time,” Allie said and she nearly doubled over with laughter at the horrified look on his face.
“For fuck’s sake, Allie, what’s this all about?” He demanded as they entered a room where the floor, walls and ceiling were all made of glass. They were surrounded to the sides and above and below by every size and species of shark imaginable. They were frightful and awe-inspiring creatures, lethal and beautiful and terrifying at once. It must have been feeding time because they swarmed suddenly as blood and chum floated down from above.
“You don’t do beds and I want to do you, so here we are and why not? Lean back against the glass and relax Mr. Warfield, you’ve unleashed an erotic creature inside me and I like it. I also intend to have you inside me ASAP but first things first. Since our time alone in here is limited would you mind helping me out by unbuckling and unzipping your pants? I’ve decided to walk on the wild side and do whatever I want and right now I want to suck your amazing cock.”
“Such a pretty little mouth to speak such dirty words and intentions, I’ll stop that bad habit before long,” he said, but he had followed her instructions and as she knelt before him and ran her little cat’s tongue over the head of his cock he was utterly speechless.
Allie had never given a blow-job before but she was a fast learner and Google and YouTube had some wildly informative videos. She held the shaft of his cock in one soft slender hand, and wrapping her fingers around its thickness she could feel his blood surging through the ropey veins. Her mouth used all the skills she had learned a few more she made up as she went along, sucking and licking and drawing
him in deeper as he sank back against the cold glass wall with his hands buried in her thick blonde hair. His moans spurred her on and the sight of the terrible sharks lurking just behind the wall of glass had them both in a fevered frenzy.
William pulled out of her mouth suddenly and held her away from his body until he regained control. Then he drew her hard against him and his hand was under her skirt and dragging her panties down before she could protest.
“Face the glass, place your hands on it and spread your legs, do it quickly Alaina,” he said and one hand reached in front of her so that his fingers caressed her swollen clit as he guided his cock to the trembling opening of her sex from behind. She pressed back against him and he moved forward as she did and he was inside her, sheathed in her, pumping and filling her deeper and harder until they both seized and shuddered and fell over the edge together.
*
“Allie Darling I have to admit you never cease to amaze me,” William said as they left the Aquarium and drove toward the French Quarter. “That was intense, there’s no other way to describe it. Before you completely overwhelmed all my senses in the shark tank I had an idea for an entirely new way that we might want to have… sex. But only if you’re brave enough and willing to work with me to try it out.”
“Sounds interesting and I would think by now you can see that I’m willing to follow wherever you lead, Mr. Warfield. What is this novel idea of yours, does it involve getting naked on a Mardi Gras float or having me parade around in a leather bra and crotchless panties at some bizarre sex club?” She gave him a wicked smile and then her big grey eyes turned serious and questioning when he parked in front of his town house.