True Bliss

by Cameron, Stella

  Jim Moore, Crystal's father, sat in the Z chair Nose had once occupied. Maryan and Ron flanked him. The three were too absorbed in their hate battle to notice Sebastian's arrival.

  "He's somewhere around here," Jim Moore said, turning his haggard, gray face up to Ron. "Don't you tell me he isn't. I read it, see. In the papers. And I already talked to him. You were there. You're all against me."

  Maryan fingered the collar of the old man's frayed brown shirt. "And I suppose your God sent you running over here to demand more payoff."

  Bliss's grip on Sebastian's hand tightened. Her short fingernails dug into his skin. She'd have to know it all before they could have anything permanent together. Now was as good a time as any to let her start hearing how he'd made a mess of his private life. Better from Jim Moore's mouth than his own.

  Even at a distance Sebastian saw Moore tremble. The man was a shrunken, fleshless version of what he'd been the last, the only time Sebastian had seen him.

  With the pointed end of a pencil, Ron York made little jabs on top of Moore's stooped shoulder. "When a lady asks a question, a gentleman answers," he said, sending his next lead poke into the man's neck. "Who sent you here? God?"

  "My Crystal," Moore muttered, straining away from the pencil point. "She was untouched when that boy took her."

  "This is old," Maryan said, yawning theatrically. "And Crystal doesn't talk to you anymore. Crystal hates you, old man. If she hadn't been so scared of you she might not have gone looking for love somewhere else."

  "God will strike you down!" Jim Moore's voice rose to a querulous rail. "All of you. That man defiled a pure girl. He twisted her mind and made her into a foul thing God turns his face from."

  "My brother did very well by your daughter," Maryan said. "He married her and he paid you for the privilege."

  "He paid me because he was afraid I'd let on how he raped my girl."

  William stared directly at Sebastian.

  Maryan's and Ron's eyes met over Moore's head.

  "Wouldn't have done her much good if you'd done that when Sebastian was her husband, would it?" Maryan said.

  Moore got unsteadily to his feet. "He says he ain't her husband no more," he shouted. "But he's still up to his tricks. Those loudmouth women came to my place. I know things they'd like to know, and maybe I'm going to tell 'em."

  "What things would those be?" Sebastian said.

  Moore, with Maryan and Ron, swung to look at him.

  "What things would those be, Mr. Moore?" Sebastian repeated.

  Jim Moore's watery eyes shifted between Sebastian and Bliss. "Who's that then?"

  Sebastian ignored the question. "What do you think you could say that would hurt me?"

  "The papers only hinted at what you were up to before you left all those years ago. I can tell them the truth. I can tell them you raped my girl and got her pregnant."

  Sebastian released Bliss and strolled to stand in front of Moore with the chair between them. "And will you tell them you threatened to kill her if I didn't marry her? Will you say that as I began to build a name for myself, you arranged for us to pay what you called a pension to guarantee you wouldn't make things difficult for me?"

  "I got nothing to lose anymore."

  "Crystal remarried." He knew what Moore was going to say next. "Isn't she taking care of you?" He'd never felt the depth of loathing he felt for this man—except, perhaps, for his own adoptive father.

  "Divorced him, too," Moore said. "Not that she could ever

  be married again as long as the two of you are alive. Married to you for life, she is."

  "We won't start that discussion."

  Maryan went to the bar and poured vodka into a tall glass. "Tell the little fart to get lost, Seb. He can't do anything to us anymore."

  She was probably right, but some shred of pity for Crystal made Sebastian ask, "What is it you want from me?"

  "Money," Moore said. "Big money. Or I'll tell those women what they want to know. I'll tell 'em what they asked me about."

  From the corner of his eye, Sebastian saw Bliss move for the first time since they'd come into the office. She took several rapid steps forward and Jim Moore's head snapped toward her.

  "What did they ask you?" Sebastian said.

  "Who's she?" Moore asked, pointing at Bliss. "You're his latest whore, aren't you?"

  "Shut your mouth, Moore," Sebastian snapped.

  "You're that Winters bitch. I warned you to stay away from her, Plato. You can't afford another whore."

  Maryan sniggered.

  Sebastian said, "That's enough," too numb to feel the full force of his anger.

  "Mr. Plato," William said in an admirably even tone. "Perhaps I should summon someone to escort this man from the building."

  "Perhaps you should toddle off to your desk, Billy boy," Ron said. "And forget every word you've heard here if you know what's good for you."

  "I am Bliss Winters, Mr. Moore," Bliss said clearly. "I was in school with Crystal, but I haven't seen her for years. How is she?"

  Sebastian swallowed acid self-hatred. Of course Bliss had always outclassed him, but she'd loved him, probably still loved him now—or had until a few minutes ago.

  "Crystal needs help," Moore said to Bliss. "Aren't you the one who's in with those women who want Plato out of Washington? Didn't you have trouble with him, too?"

  "No."

  Sebastian met her eyes and she stared back without blinking. He wanted to thank her, but now wasn't the moment.

  "Don't you have nothing to do with him, then. He raped my girl and got—"

  "I already heard what you suggested," Bliss said. "And he did marry her, didn't he?"

  "Doesn't take the act away."

  "If there was something to be prosecuted, you should have done it at the time, shouldn't you?"

  "He doesn't know I've found out other things," Moore said, the corners of his colorless mouth jerking. "I know all about the girl who died."

  "Do you want to get back to your desk?" Sebastian asked William, who raised his brows and left the room, closing the door behind him. "Look, Mr. Moore, if your daughter hadn't once been my wife, I'd have you thrown out. On the long shot that there's still some way you might be able to punish her if I did, I'll ask you to leave quietly instead."

  "You think because everyone believes you don't make filthy movies you're off the hook for that girl's death."

  "I was never on the hook for the poor girl's death," Sebastian said. "Ron, why don't you go over to Bellevue Square and spend some more of Maryan's money."

  "Sebastian!" Maryan's thin lips all but disappeared.

  "All right," he said to her. "Sorry. Why don't you go and spend some of your money on him. This is private."

  His sister's face turned white. A bright spot of red burned on each cheek. "How dare you speak to me like that in front of her." Her nostrils flared and she glared at Bliss. "Get rid of her now."

  "Not unless she wants to leave." He looked at Bliss, sent her the message that she could choose to be for him, or walk away now.

  "I came with you," she told him. "If you want me to stay, I will."

  Maryan insinuated herself between them and faced Sebastian. "You've never needed me more than you do now. Listen to what

  this old leech is going to say, will you. He can hurt us, Seb, and he knows it."

  "No he can't. I don't have anything to be ashamed of—nothing that isn't very old."

  "You made that girl take off her clothes," Jim Moore said. "Then, after you'd had your way with her, you got that killer who makes porno movies to come and look at her."

  Maryan covered her mouth.

  The only noise Sebastian heard was Bliss's small cry. He shook his head. He couldn't afford to lose control. "I don't know where this is coming from and it won't work, Moore, so forget it."

  "You'd like that, wouldn't you—for me to forget it. Well I've got my duty to do so I can't."

  "Unless I pay you to?" Sebastian said.

/>   Moore hitched at his baggy gray pants. "Only so I can help the family she left behind."

  "I never met the girl who was murdered," Sebastian said, skirting the chair to stand, toe-to-toe, with Moore. "I never met her. I never touched her. I regret her death, but it had absolutely nothing to do with me. Do you understand?"

  "One of them women came to me and told me all about it. And if you won't pay me not to talk about what you did to my Crystal, she'll pay me to tell everything."

  Bliss made another sound.

  "What's that supposed to mean?" Sebastian asked Moore.

  "The girl who died had a friend. She told this friend everything, see. How you said you'd help her if she did what you wanted. Then how you made her go with that killer."

  Bliss crossed the room and touched Jim Moore's sleeve. "Who told you all this?"

  "I ain't sayin'. But all I got to do is let on what Plato did to Crystal and everyone's going to stop believin' his story."

  "That's blackmail," Bliss said. "Sebastian, he can't do this to you."

  "No he can't," Ron agreed.

  Maryan pushed Ron aside. "Shut up, all of you. And get out. Leave this to Sebastian and me. We'll deal with it."

  "There's nothing to be dealt with," Sebastian said. "As Bliss and Ron have already pointed out, there's no threat here."

  Maryan upended the vodka she'd been steadily drinking and drained the glass. "She's on their side," she said, pointing at Bliss. "You're so stupid, Seb. She hates you because you chose Crystal instead of her."

  "Be quiet," Sebastian said. "Mr. Moore, I'd appreciate it if you'd leave."

  "She's the one Crystal talked about," the old man said. "The one you were going to marry, only you got Crystal pregnant."

  "That's right," Bliss said. When Sebastian started to speak she shook her head emphatically. "I can deal with this. I am the girl Sebastian was going to marry when he had to leave Seattle with Crystal. It's all very sad, Mr. Moore, and I think I understand it now. He did it to protect her from you, didn't he?"

  "He wanted her," Maryan shouted. "Every male in miles wanted her."

  Ron reached for his mistress. She tried to hit him, but missed.

  "I wanted you Bliss," Sebastian said. He hadn't had any idea this would become so ugly. "But I thought ... I had a responsibility to Crystal. She told me what her father was like. He'd told her he'd kill her if she ever disgraced him as he put it."

  "You forced yourself on her." Moore ranted now. "I'm going to tell that O'Leary woman I'll tell anyone who wants to know. Then see if you don't get run out of this town."

  "Go for it," Sebastian told him. "If Prue O'Leary's so desperate she'll try using you as a witness for the prosecution, she's already lost her case."

  Jim Moore backed away toward the door. He raised a fist and shook it high. "It won't be me who'll be the star witness against you," he said. He leveled an arthritic finger at Bliss. "There's evil here. If you know what's good for you, you'll get away before you end up like my Crystal—locked up in a place for mad people."

  Twenty-two

  Bliss watched early evening rain beat against the windows in Sebastian's conservatory. He'd gone to the front door to pay for the pizza he'd ordered.

  She blinked back the all-too-familiar tears. He thought they could pretend nothing stood between them anymore. Coming here to his home was probably a mistake, but she couldn't have refused him, not after what she'd seen him go through in his offices.

  She'd wanted to come.

  "It's dinner!" Clad in black sweats, he arrived bearing the pizza box aloft. "I hope you're not very hungry because I am."

  Bliss got to her feet. "I suppose that means you want the whole thing?"

  He put the box on a green wicker table and took a wad of cocktail napkins from a heap on the wet bar. "Not the whole thing, just most of it. Sit down. Let me wait on you."

  Bliss remained standing while he opened the box and poured two glasses of red wine without asking if she wanted any.

  He gave her a glass and tapped it with his own. "Here's to us, Bliss." His smile had fled. He looked into her eyes and his own held question, and sadness—and hope? "Can we drink to us?"

  Bliss put her glass on the table, took Sebastian's and set it beside her own. She wrapped her arms around him and pressed her face to his chest.

  "Sweetheart?" A second passed, and another, before he held her, held her so tightly it hurt. She didn't care. He pushed a hand beneath her hair to clasp her neck. "It's all been such a goddamn waste."

  He'd feel her tears. She tried to blink them away. Instead her throat closed and she gasped for breath.

  His hands trembled. "I didn't do it."

  Bliss kneaded his back. "I know." She didn't have to ask what he meant. "I've always known."

  "There can't be any more lies between us. I did sleep with her. At one of those damn parties after the games. Before I met you."

  Her heart drummed, she heard its wild flight.

  "I don't want to say anymore. I slept with her. And I married her when that old man threatened to kill her. She was my wife. I didn't know she'd been in a clinic until old man Moore told me. Not that I'm surprised. I owe her some dignity, even if it was all so wrong. But do I have to give up the rest of my life for it?"

  "No one's asking you to do that," she said.

  He drove his fingers into her hair and forced her head back until he could see her face. "You are, if I have to lose you again."

  "I can't let you go, Sebastian." She waited for his kiss and closed her eyes at the tender warmth of it. He kissed her lips softly, kissed her eyes shut.

  Something wet and lumpy brushed her leg and she jumped. Her forehead bumped Sebastian's chin and she looked down to see Beater offering up an ugly, orange rubber spider.

  "He really likes you," Sebastian said, his voice heavy with emotion. "I'm the only one who gets to throw his spider."

  Bliss took the toy and looked for a clear path to throw it.

  "You're going to marry me, aren't you?" Sebastian asked, covering the spider and her fingers with one big hand. "Beater and me, that is? You'll take us on, please?"

  Her legs didn't want to hold her anymore. She clung to him.

  "How could a woman turn down a dog like that?" The dog in question watched his spider with unwavering concentration.

  "Or a dog like me?"

  "I don't seem to have any choice anymore."

  "That's a yes?"

  "That's . . . Yes, Sebastian. I've got to say yes, because if I say no, I'll only have to come back and beg you to let me change my mind."

  "We shouldn't be eating pizza," Sebastian said, holding her shoulders in another crushing grip. "I need to take you somewhere. We've got to get a ring." He swung her around. "I'll have rings brought here. I'll make a call now."

  Bliss laughed and shook her head. "I want pizza. I don't want red wine. I do want beer. And forget the ring."

  "No." He kissed her again, and again. "No. Yes. Beer coming right up."

  Pressing her fingertips to her lips, she watched him turn in a circle. "What?" she asked him. "What is it?"

  "Beer? I can't remember where the beer is."

  "In a refrigerator somewhere?"

  "The kitchen." He started from the conservatory, only to retrace his steps and grab her hand. "I'm not going anywhere without you. I know someone who'll come over with rings. I'll call him from the kitchen."

  "Not now," she told him, dropping Beater's spider. "All I want now is you."

  "You've got me." He made to draw her to him again, but Bliss placed a firm hand on his chest. He said, "I thought you said all you wanted was—"

  "After the beer"—she smiled—"and the cold pizza."

  Beater growled softly.

  "Damn," Sebastian groaned. "We must have visitors," and the front door opened and slammed a moment later. He narrowed his eyes and pulled her against him. Side by side, with his arm around her shoulders, they confronted Maryan and Ron.

  Marya
n came into the conservatory in front of Ron. "Seb," she said quietly, "I've been an ass. I'm sorry."

  "Yeah," Sebastian said. "You have been an ass."

  "You're my kid brother and I want the best for you. I was wrong to interfere, but I was afraid you could get hurt again. Is that a sin?"

  Bliss was grateful for the warmth of Sebastian's arm.

  "Do you think it's a sin to worry about your brother?"

  Maryan was talking to her. "No," Bliss said when she could make the word. "No, of course not."

  "When we were growing up there were only the two of us, weren't there, Seb?"

  Sebastian didn't reply.

  Maryan threw down the purse that matched her chartreuse dress and jacket. "What else can I say?"

  "We brought you these, Bliss," Ron York said and held out a huge bunch of multihued day lilies. "I'm the outsider in all of this, but Maryan means everything to me. If you can help her by making this easier, you'll make me a happy man."

  His blue eyes were serious, his fair eyebrows drawn down.

  Bliss took the lilies. "Thanks." She could try to forget that Maryan Plato had all but accused her brother of being unbalanced, and that she'd tried to make Bliss distrust him.

  "Seb?" Maryan said, stretching a hand out to him. "Forgive me?"

  Sebastian felt rigid at Bliss's side. She glanced up at him, then at Maryan and said, "I never had a brother. If I had, I'd probably have been pretty protective."

  "Thank you," Maryan said, and her gratitude shone in her tense face.

  "Okay, Sis," Sebastian said. He squeezed her outstretched hand and released it. "I don't think I can stay mad about anything tonight. Bliss has agreed to become my wife. You can be the first to congratulate us."

  Maryan's mouth opened and remained open.

  "God, that's wonderful," Ron said. He grinned and slapped

  Sebastian's shoulder. "Congratulations, man. This is one of those stories that isn't supposed to come true. I'm glad it has for the two of you."