The Mistress and the Mouse: Honeymoon Blues

by JJ Giles

  Jerry turned out the light and dropped his clothes. Without hesitation, he slipped into the bed and rolled Alex to him.

  The muted voice, barely awake, asked, “You had a nice evening?”

  “Yes,” Jerry whispered. “Yes, I did. But it’s better to be home.”

  Chapter Six

  She awoke in Jerry’s bed with only Cherry at her side. And then she remembered Jerry and Brian were to be together this morning before the interview. She laid still for a while, trying to decide what was happening between Jerry and Brian, thoroughly frustrated that she wasn’t to be with them.

  “What’s going on downstairs?” she asked Cherry.

  “Hell, I don’t know. Why?” Cherry asked.

  “Is your father doing your brother?”

  Cherry sniffed a little. “I don’t know. Why would I care? Just remember, they know I’m doing you, and they’d trade off the Kingdom to watch ten minutes of that.”

  Easily, Morgan laughed as she swept into Cherry’s arms. But still, it was driving her to madness to think that Jerry was taking Brian.

  She left a few wet kisses on Cherry’s nose and hied to her own room to find Kitty still curled in sleep. In the bathroom, her clothes were already laid out, a sweet little sundress she had worn a few times. On her make-up counter, a red rose.

  Even as she drew in the scent, she could obsess about nothing but the goings-on in her discipline room. In record time, she was dressed and downstairs in search of them. In her office she found Alex.

  “Morning, precious,” Alex purred. “I changed my mind about the interview this morning. The peach room will definitely bring you out more.”

  “Bring me out?”

  “Your colors, Dear. You would look simply a horror in that blue room.” Quite busily, he turned back to the shelves placing every book in its proper slot, every objet d’arte where it was less conspicuous. “But I do love this room.” It looked nothing like it did the last time she saw it. The furniture had been moved with a small camel-back loveseat in front of the shelves and two matching chairs flanking each side.

  “How long is this going to take?”

  “Jerry gave them two hours.”

  “That’s a lot of chatter.”

  Alex shrugged. “Everything will be fine, Darling.”

  “Coffee?”

  He turned and smiled, Jerry having told him of her jealousy of Brian’s last girlfriend. “Yes.” He heard the echo of her cork-soled sandals plod away on the hardwood floor toward the kitchen. Perhaps Morgan’s motivation for suggesting this interview was of a more personal nature; only to prove to Jerry she could handle the attentions of the press as well as that shameless hussy, Renee, did. Alex had more in mind.

  * * * *

  Morgan spilled the first cup, only to curse the towel for not mopping it up quickly enough. She could think of nothing more than Jerry and Brian. Just then, they appeared, quite together, dressed for the interview, standing closely and smiling.

  “Good morning,” Jerry offered.

  A self-conscious smirk plumped her cheek. “So...?”

  “So...what?” Brian teased. Her stance told him that she could hardly contain herself wondering whether her lovers had had each other this morning.

  “Damnit,” she breathed, frustrated beyond repair.

  “It went very well,” Jerry offered in a tone of condescension. But Brian was merely enjoying the fact that he had found yet another way to hold her attention after ten years of cohabitation, happy that she wasn’t as bored as he once thought.

  Aggravated at this game, she snarled, “You know what I want to know.”

  Brian pulled out the barstool and sat, his gaze trained on her enjoying this immensely. “Why are you worrying about it, honey?”

  Her first instinct was to remind him that he belonged to her. Thankfully, her tongue twisted because that was no longer the case. The protocol of possession in this triangulated relationship was a little twisted as well. “I’m not worried. Curious, that’s all.”

  Brian glanced at Jerry infused with a new kind of love and respect for him. But Jerry led the defense. He rounded the bar and took her into his arms. His lips slid over her face with delicate kisses full of affection. “I love you,” he breathed.

  “I love you too, but that’s not the point,” she insisted.

  “Get me a cup of coffee,” he demanded.

  Huffy, she pulled away from him, and spilled yet another cup. Silently, Jerry laughed as he looked into Brian a moment, knowing the question of ‘did they or didn’t they’ would keep her entertained for quite awhile.

  Somehow, she managed to place the cup before him. “What’s so funny?”

  “You. You are so sweet.”

  “Fuck you,” she growled. “Now tell me.”

  “What’s got you so turned on this morning?” Brian asked. “I want coffee, too.”

  Her hands went to her cocked hips, the better to insist. Yet Brian only stared back, totally unaffected by her nagging curiosity. She relented and turned to the coffee pot. She placed it before him. “Here. I just want some information. Is that hard to part with or something?”

  “Abernathy stock is up a little this morning,” Brian offered freely.

  “Wonderful,” she hissed. She stormed out of the kitchen with a cup for Alex.

  Simply amused, Jerry laughed quietly. “This could be fun.”

  The hollow thud of her sandals came in their direction again. She propped in the doorway, her arms folded across her middle under her heaving breasts. Her expression was stern and filled with anxiety to get this question answered. “I want to know,” she commanded.

  His voice filled with more authority than her, he commanded, “Get over here.”

  Her lips locked together in a defiant grimace.

  “Woman,” he rasped, glaring boldly.

  “I want to know.”

  “Get over here,” he nearly screamed.

  Slowly, she approached glaring as boldly as he. She moved barely into the range of his arm and he reached out and grabbed her to pull her between his legs. His legs crushed in on hers; his hands forced hers behind her back and still she glared at him.

  “I see you want to be a problem today.”

  “I just want a little information.”

  “You want to know if I made a slave out of your husband today?”

  “Exactly.”

  His huge hand gripped tighter around her wrists while his other rode up the curves of her body to open her dress.

  “What are you doing?” She knew she was to be distracted. All their little tricks couldn’t dissuade her, because she knew them all. Yet the dress was opened, and quite rudely, Jerry pulled the bra cup down to let that softness spill out.

  “Reminding you who loves you.”

  She heard the metallic chink of nipple nails produced from Brian’s pocket. She merely held her breath to feel the nearness of the nail to her nipple. The anticipation of it, this, merely another tease, enlivened her. Boldly, she stared at Brian, daring him to do it.

  A wicked twist to his lips smiled at her and he drove it into that rounded flesh.

  She gasped as he held it there, the intense pain quickly moderating to a burning sensation, sizzling like cold oil in a hot skillet. He pulled the cup back over the breast to hold the nail in place and without remorse, stabbed the other.

  “That’s much better,” Jerry said softly. Firmly, he forced her against the bar, his legs still holding her captive.

  That burning left her speechless, her thoughts only on the men, who as a team, placed them there. Jerry’s thumbs circled over the rounded heads of the nails and then pressed in. “I don’t ask you to tell me what goes on between you and Brian. Do I?” Suddenly, the burn returned to pain.

  “No, but...”

  The thought was cut short by the sharpness of the pain in his recrimination. And then he lifted her breasts, still pressing deep and kissed them tenderly. “You keep these with you until you learn that
what goes on between Brian and me is just as personal and private as what he and you are doing. You and me, for that matter,” he insisted. He felt quite smug now knowing she needed him desperately to keep her contained.

  A small breath escaped her chest, yet she stared into him.

  “You will be disciplined for this as soon as the interview is over.”

  She tossed her head at Brian. “I want him to do it.”

  “You’re gonna get it twice for that. Now you pay attention. This is very important,” he warned. “You screw this up and we’ll have more problems than we have now. Is that what you would prefer?”

  “Of course not,” she whispered. “But I have to know.”

  He released her breasts and grasped her hand to force it to his crotch. A hard-on the size of Cleveland resided there, its heat swelling into her hand. “What is it you want to know, exactly? You know what he looks like broken over the horse. You know how he moans so softly, his breath shallow when he feels that first penetration. You know what I look like when I cram into someone. What is there left to know?”

  Those separate images burned into her psyche, yet they remained separate. In abject frustration, knowing they would keep this from her, maybe forever, when she would have been so content to be hung and merely watch, she huffed. “Can I please be excused?”

  “Yes,” Jerry said adamantly. “You’ve only got thirty minutes to get your head together. Pay attention. And if you find yourself lost, remember me.”

  “And I’m to be punished because I love you both and I want you both?”

  He laughed at her attempt to twist this into a head game. “Yes.”

  “Is he to watch?”

  “I haven’t decided. Go.” He released her now and swiveled away to let her depart.

  But she lingered, staring at Jerry a moment and then at Brian.

  Brian spoke up, “And when he gets done with you, I’ll have a little bit for you, too.”

  “I see. Excuse me.” She tore away from Jerry to disappear in a flurry down the corridor.

  Easily, Brian laughed. “This will be too much fun.”

  “I think you’re right. I can’t wait for Italy,” he whispered. Yet he was fearful that she would press this issue to the bitter end.

  “Yeah. I don’t know if she’s ever had it that way or not, but it will be memorable.”

  “Indeed. And you’ve received confirmation that all the equipment we ordered will be in place by the time we arrive?”

  “I have,” Brian said nodding.

  “If only we could leave today,” Jerry opined.

  * * * *

  She sat in the blue room with a cigarette, positively fuming. Leave me out of it, will they, damn it. They’re supposed to both be my lovers. A woman is supposed to know what her lovers are doing.

  The very thought confused her for a moment. Lovers? One leg draped over the other and swung like a pendulum.

  Jerry appeared around the corner. “Are you ready?” he snarled.

  Still so defiant, she crushed the cigarette in the ashtray and stood just as straight as he. “I am,” she answered quite properly though the tone was a bit too curt. She brushed past him, returned to the peach room, her office from where she paid her bills and ordered supplies for her home and work.

  The pocket doors were opened, but inside was a team of specialists were setting up the lighting and sound equipment. The order, “sound check” from one them made her quiver. She fell back into Jerry’s waiting arms.

  “You can handle this,” he said softly. “Just follow my lead.”

  She shook a little. This was more than she could handle, surely. But she was merely placed on the loveseat as lights were trained on her and men peered through cameras at her. Nervously, she crossed her legs again, a little defense in the matter.

  “You look fabulous,” Brian mewed as he sat beside her.

  “You’ve done this before?”

  He merely laughed. “If they could have found a way to televise my birth, they would have, honey. I don’t get out a whole lot without somebody recognizing me.”

  Curiously, she peered into him. “We go out all the time.”

  Gently, he took her hand. “Yeah, but the places we go aren’t exactly filled with socialites. They don’t have a clue who I am. They wouldn’t expect to find me in a club somewhere in a hell of constriction bondage getting crammed, would they?”

  She let him hold to her, comfort her. That was the very reason he ‘hid’ out with her. Hiding...just like she had been hiding, in a way. But the closet door was open now, and she nuzzled a little closer to him.

  “Jerry. Whenever you’re ready.”

  Jerry sat down in the chair, Alex already situated in the one opposite. The room quieted and Jerry said, “Mike, you remember my son, of course.”

  “Brian,” Mike offered. “Twelve years since last I saw you.”

  “But life is good,” Brian said smoothly.

  “And my brother Alex, my daughter, Cherry.” Mike nodded graciously. “And this is my son’s fiancée, Morgan McFaye.”

  “It’s a pleasure,” Mike offered.

  “Likewise,” she whispered, barely able to speak.

  “Jerry, I appreciate this time. Two hours of it. We’ll condense it to one and air it as soon as you’ve approved it.”

  “Let’s do it.”

  To the camera, Mike started quite formally, “We’re sitting in the home of Brian Abernathy’s fiancée, Morgan McFaye. This exclusive...”

  Morgan’s ears began to ring. Her chest felt about to explode. Brian hugged her a little tighter and then released her, still sitting comfortably close, Cherry on his other side. She awoke from that anxiety attack at the sound of Jerry’s voice.

  “Yes, Cheryl and I were married for thirty-five years.”

  “According to the report in the World Globe, Alex is Brian’s father and a prostitute is his mother. Is there any truth to that?”

  “That is the unadulterated truth,” Jerry answered.

  Mike hesitated. “Alex?”

  “Yes,” Alex answered. He controlled his voice within the tenor range to match Jerry’s. “My single indiscretion with a woman gave us a beautiful son.”

  Again, Mike hesitated, unsure how to handle this. The fact that Alex Abernathy was gay was passé. That Alex Abernathy once had a woman...so what? “But Jerry raised him?”

  “Yes, because Jerry married his mother.”

  Mike gasped. “Cheryl Abernathy?”

  A hint of a smile crossed Alex’s lips. Time to drive the stake into her heart. “Cheryl was a professional prostitute. Cheryl is still a professional prostitute. She and her business partner run a charter yacht service on the Mediterranean from the French Riviera. She’s there with him now.”

  Openly, the man stared at Alex. “Cut!”

  Jerry laughed. “What’s the matter, Mike?”

  “I don’t have a clue where to go with this,” he admitted.

  Jerry reached into his jacket pocket and retrieved a list of topics with a few notes attached to lay it on the desk before the interviewer. Quickly, it was read. Gratefully, Mike offered, “Thank you.”

  “It’s true,” Jerry admitted as the camera’s rolled again. “She was pregnant with Alex’s son.” Deeply, Jerry looked into his brother’s eyes. “But Alex wasn’t going to marry her and I’d go to hell before I’d let another man raise any one of our children. At first I deceived myself into believing she cared for me, a little, but that didn’t last long. Before my kids came of age, she constantly threatened me with taking them away from me. From us.” He looked at Alex. “After Brian went off to college, I just went to work.”

  “And you beat her?”

  Jerry paused. “Three times.”

  “The article said it was constantly. That she was chained to a cot in the basement of the Mansion.”

  “Ah, but it didn’t say what mansion exactly, did it? You see, everything in that article was true...to a degree. I lost control with
her exactly three times, although she’s got insurance documents stating that she’s been in hospitals all over the United States and France innumerable times. My ex-wife and I haven’t gone anywhere together since our honeymoon.”

  “So you’re saying other people have beaten her?”

  “I’m saying I’ve beat her three times. Where the other wounds came from I wouldn’t know. I wasn’t there.”

  “She claims you raped her.”

  “That’s a term not easy to define, is it?”

  “Either she wanted it or she didn’t.”

  “I didn’t pay her for it every time.”

  Alex smiled broadly and Brian nearly laughed. The interviewer choked. “Your wife charged you?”

  “Dearly,” Jerry admitted. “It cost me better than five thousand dollars every time I laid down with her. I have the canceled checks.”

  “But you have a mistress now?”

  “I did.”

  “Her name?”

  “Confidential.”

  The interviewer nodded. “Brian...where has the world’s most eligible bachelor been the last ten years?”

  “Right here, Mike. Me and Morgan,” he said smiling proudly.

  “You dropped out of the family business and out of sight overnight.”

  “How long do you figure it takes to fall hopelessly in love?”

  “Love at first sight.”

  “Absolutely. My father, Jerry and I were in a terrible circumstance that day. I went out that night and Morgan picked me up. I haven’t been the same since.”

  Mike laughed. “What happened that day?”

  Brian hesitated long enough for Jerry to interrupt. “Do you remember that mess with Genlabs, Inc.? Paul Howard?”

  “How could we forget? Breeding human babies for research, hundreds of genetically altered babies in cages. It was a travesty.”

  “Yes, it was. Unfortunately my son was still very young. Didn’t read the papers or listen to the news much. And he’s a very sensitive man.”

  “Ahhh... But he heard the part about Paul Howard’s suicide?”