Obsession: Warm Bodies, Cold Hearts

by Rice, Rachel E.

  “Maybe. You aren’t afraid of me are you?” He asked, gazing at me with those heavenly blue eyes.

  “I’m not afraid of any man,” I said lying. I was now afraid of Danny. I was afraid that he didn’t want me anymore.

  “Oh” he said excited.

  As I engaged Phillip in conversation, I saw Danny sweating and his face turning red through his tan, barely containing his anger. His faced changed and his brow wrinkled, and that wonderful tan deepened with Phillip’s every word. I saw his raised eyebrow, and I knew he was pissed.

  He stood next to a lovely young woman holding him around his waist, and I could tell she was in to him. I recognized the body language, because I had seen it many times when we were together and in love.

  He stood there in those distressed designer jeans he loved to wear, and those expensive leather jackets that reminded him of his life in Scotland. He stared at me with a sinister look, as if to say, don’t you do this. Don’t go in that room with him. I could read his mind. I was intent on doing just the opposite.

  Danny tried to prove to me that he could live without me, and he had better mean it, because I was going to find out and find out in a hurry. I did not have much time to waste. I had to get back to our son.

  Phillip put his arm around my waist and I read Danny’s mind once again. He looked as if he would die; he turned colorless; he was a ghost. I was again ripping his heart out and laying it before him. I enjoyed it this time. Payback is a bitch, I thought.

  “Let’s go into the room and talk, no one is going to miss you,” Phillip said, assuming that no one knew me at the party.

  “Someone might miss me,” I warned.

  “I’ll take my chances,” he stated arrogantly captivated by my eyes and body, while fixated on my breast and lips.

  I walked into the bedroom of a movie star that was more famous then Danny and a great deal richer. We sat and talked, and just when I thought I had given Danny enough time to stew, I said, “Phillip I’m going to take a shower,” Phillip’s mouth began to water like Pavlov’s dog. He could not believe his luck.

  I took a quick shower, as I strutted out of the shower, with a towel loosely covering my body, you could play the scene again from last night, only I’m the one with a towel wrapped around me.

  Lying in his bed naked, fully confident that he had a great body, Phillip waited for what he thought was going to be an exciting evening of sex. Maybe a little of everything, but surely whatever his heart desired. Then the door sailed open.

  “What the bloody hell are you doing?” Danny said, talking to me, but looking at Phillip.

  “I’m in my bedroom and what I’m doing is none of your fucking business Danny,” shouted Phillip.

  Danny turned his head in my direction.

  “I’m busy, Danny; call me tomorrow when you have time, but don’t wait too long.” I punctuated each word as if I were in a black and white Betty Davis movie; giving as good as I got, with a smile that would make the devil proud.

  “Do you know this fucking Brit, Sydney?” Phillip said looking up at me.

  “He’s not British, he’s Scottish,” I said laughing, putting my hand to my mouth, and dropping my towel. Picking up the towel and peeping at Phillip and then Danny, I said, “I told you there could be a problem.”

  “There isn’t going to be a problem if Danny gets his ass out of my room.”

  “Piss off, I’m not leaving without Sydney,” Danny stated angrily.

  “So this is the woman everyone is talking about. This is the woman that dumped the great Danny McCloud in Vegas. I thought you were gay.” Phillip said in an envious rage.

  Phillip had become jealous of Danny because Danny was replacing him as the new action star. Danny had taken him down from his perch as the hottest star to date, the next big thing, and you could see the hostility between the two of them. I didn’t make it any better.

  “You’re not going to have my woman! Sydney, get your clothes on!” Danny said, exerting his authority.

  “Your woman, you seem to have forgotten you have one woman too many,” Phillip stated as he began to leave the bed.

  “Yeah Danny, go back to your little girl and leave the adults to do what adults do,” I said as I flashed my sexy smile. A smile that said I could give Phillip what you have been longing for.

  I shot a sexy gaze and then winked at Danny. Before I could say another word, Danny hit Phillip. Phillip didn’t look like a man who had ever seen battle.

  Phillip fell over the bed and tumbled to the floor. Danny walked around the bed and hit Phillip again before he could get to his feet. Phillip was just as astonished as I. Danny was a man who had to fight for everything he wanted in life, and what he fought for he wasn’t giving it up easily.

  I tried to help Phillip get to his feet, but Danny reached and grabbed my wrist as I screamed cursing him and him cursing me. Danny dragged me out of the room, down the stairs, and out of the house with nothing on but a towel, in front of every Hollywood personality in the world.

  Every news station on all continents would be televising this event, I thought. Pictures and videos would be in newspapers and on the internet from here to Rome. Twitter would be hot as they talk about how two famous movie stars fought over Sydney Benning. Others would ask who the hell is Sydney Benning.

  Someone grabbed a camcorder. Everyone holding phones began filming as if it was a movie of the week. I knew I would lose my job at W.O.W. There I was a leading columnist for Women of the World, and here I’m being dragged out of a celebrity party cave man style, in a towel. It wasn’t a pretty picture.

  Danny shoved me into his car and drove. I pleaded with him to take me back to the hotel. I yelled at him until I was hoarse. He did not say a word as he drove silently through the hills. Danny took me to his home, the home that would have been mine, if I hadn’t been so stupid.

  “Get out of the car!” he demanded with a faraway look in his eyes.

  “I’m not going anywhere!” I protested. He walked away after taking the keys and left me in a towel in a freezing car in the driveway of his home.

  Eventually, I calmed myself and hurried out of the car. I walked into his home and to a man I’ve wanted all my life. You could feel the tension and passion. Danny was calm now. He sat in a large soft brown leather chair near a fire, and then he stood. He had on only a towel wrapped around his waist.

  I saw a body that put me in a trance, his wide shoulders, and hard chest and biceps that moved with his motion. I closed my eyes and he could hear the hard breathing coming from my mouth.

  “What are you trying to do to me?” he asked as he moved close to me.

  “I’m not doing anything.” I hope he did not realize that I set him up.

  “Yes you are, Sydney, I can feel it. I feel everything about you. When you’re not here, I feel you. I still smell your scent you left on me in Las Vegas. That scent said that you love me. What went wrong?” He moved closer, then closed his eyes, put his head to the side, and kissed my neck.

  Sydney’s smell was a lullaby to Danny, it filled his life, it took his soul, and locked it away where only she had a key.

  “I’m not going to let you hurt me any longer.”

  I didn’t want to hurt Danny, I did everything because I loved him, and wanted him to have a career and be famous. He couldn’t accomplish that with me around, I thought.

  “Why aren’t you with Sean?” His eyes searched my eyes and my body like a hungry animal.

  “Remember I came to bring you your keys and ring.”

  “I don’t want that ring. I’ve been asking you why and you still haven’t said a word. When are you going to tell me the truth?

  I remembered a movie where one of the characters shouted, “You can’t take the truth.” Well Danny couldn’t take the truth.

  “You were going to give Phillip Cross what I wanted from you. You were going to give him what I’ve been longing for.”

  I let him think what he wanted because he wasn�
�t innocent. He tried to replace me. I couldn’t blame him no matter how I tried because I started all of this. I wanted him to continue talking because I wanted to be reassured of his love for me.

  Danny’s eyes opened wide. His eyes turned a shade of deep green. Then he tore the towel from my body and threw it to the floor. He peered at my naked body and my breast with his mouth opened. He grabbed my breast with one hand and with the other hand, slid his finger throughout my body, while reaching an erection with each motion of his hand.

  He knelt to kiss my stomach—then my thighs. He took both hands and began feeling my body. My nipples became hard as he gently moved his hands over them. I went to my knees. I was under his control. He crawled between my legs and began to explore places on my body he had never ventured. He turned my body where I was face down on the floor, and he kissed me from my shoulders, back, buttocks, on and on giving me unbelievable arousal as he controlled me with his kisses.

  He then entered me and repeatedly made love to me until he was satisfied that he was the one; and that no one could ever take me away from him again.

  He never wanted to leave me and I didn’t want him to go. We wanted to be forever in each other’s arms making love until there was nothing left inside of us for anyone.

  I began trying to explain what had happened to me and why I ran away from him.

  I tried to start at the beginning, but at that instance, the phone rang. I made him answer the telephone.

  “Yea, Danny here.”

  “Danny this is Max, are you doing anything important? Well, you have to catch a flight out tonight. You need to be in England in two days to audition for a part that will assure you millions.You don’t have to work again for a while if you don’t want.”

  “No, I can’t leave now.”

  “Danny, you know what it means, you have to go,” I whispered knowing that I was the only person who could stop him.

  “Max I’ll call you back.” He dropped the phone.

  “I’m not going to take that flight Sydney.”

  “Danny you have to.”

  “Only if you meet me or stay here. I don’t want to lose you again.”

  “I can’t stay here. What about Sean?”

  “Go get Sean. Sydney I need you more than ever. You have to be with me otherwise

  I’m lost.”

  There was a sense of profound need in his every word, but I thought he would be okay, at least until I could straighten out this mess. I have wasted so much of my life not being with Danny. Just when we need more time it appears, we never have enough.

  I wouldn’t tell Danny that I could not take Sean out of Texas without Robert’s permission, because Danny would have killed Robert and me. Danny was too busy trying to make money to have a life he had dreamed of when he was a youth in Scotland; a woman that he loved and children; he was too busy to see what had transpired all around him.

  “I’ll bring him back.” I convinced Danny. I didn’t know how much more of this I could stand or how much Danny would take from me; I had entangled his soul in mine. The lies began to get more intricate, and I watched as I set the foundation that breeds distrust and hate.

  When did the deceit begin and when was it going to end? Danny flew to England with my assurance that I would bring Sean to L.A. If life was easy and not complicated than that would have been a cinch, go to Robert, tell him that I was leaving him to be with Sean’s father. Oh I forgot he is Sean’s father—legally.

  I flew into Houston and Steven flew to New York. I remember the flight attendant saying how if there is trouble on or with the airplane, we could do 1-2-3. I remember wishing the plane would never land.

  I was hoping for a crash, but that would be unfair to my baby, and Robert would never get the chance to call me every whore he could think of, and Danny who would never get the chance to walk away from me and never see me again.

  I even forgot about the passengers with my selfish wish, but who knows, maybe I wasn’t alone, life is like that. Just when you think you are the only one feeling the way you do—miserable, you find out it’s a human condition and everyone gets their chance to wish they were dead.

  During my stay in Los Angeles, I learned that Steven was having problems with his boyfriend. Waiting for my plane, I heard that Steven is a suspect in a murder. How ridiculous, I thought. The next thought was: Steven wouldn’t hurt a fly.

  I promised that I would return to Danny’s home with Sean when he returned from England. I didn’t know what to do with Robert in Texas. So I by past Texas and rushed to New York to help Steven.

  Chapter 8

  Steven’s Problem

  I arrived in Manhattan just after midnight from L.A. in the dead of winter. Manhattan looks different now in the middle of the night; the lights give a false impression of the world around it. It’s the lights of a city embracing its darkness.

  The cabby drove me to my apartment and I longed for the silence it provided. I spoke to the doorman, and quietly entered, praying not to meet any neighbors.

  I opened my door and there sat Steven. I had given him my key. Tears began to stream down his face. These were tears of desperation. I understand that everyone some time or the other will have a moment when life becomes too complicated.

  “Steven what’s wrong?” I said, putting my arms around him trying to comfort him.

  “I’m in deep shit,” he said with his head in his hands covering his face.

  “What kind of shit?” I said all the time trying to unpack while pretending that his situation didn’t rank as serious.

  Steven followed me from room to room like a little puppy that had missed its owner and a meal.

  “I told you about that guy I was dating; well he was dating someone besides me.” Steven sounded as if he was describing a prom date that turned out bad. I wasn’t so cruel as to tell him what I was thinking: that he should get a fucking hold on himself.

  “Is that what you consider important and deep shit?” I stated impatiently.

  “No, I haven’t finished, stop interrupting me!” he stated tense and annoyed.

  “He’s married and had a wife.”

  “I know he’s married—but what do you mean…had a wife… is she alive?”

  “Stop interrupting! Steven shouted.

  “Well the wife is dead and they think I …I committed the murder.”

  “You didn’t kill her, did you?”

  “How could you ask me a question like that?”

  “Because people do strange things when they’re in love,” I said thinking about what I had done. “Wait a minute Steven, who are they? Identify your characters.”

  “Sydney, shut up!”

  “The police think I committed the murder.”

  “Do they have any suspects beside you and her husband?”

  “No, I’m the main person of interest.”

  “What about the man he’s seeing?”

  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “What do you mean you don’t want to talk about it? You are in serious shit and you better talk about something.” Steven paused then walked around my Chinese table with his hands tucked in his pockets and his shoulders hunched.

  “He said that he had broken off his affair with Mr. X and he was going to ask his wife for a divorce and come out of the closet so we could be together. We are in love Sydney. Don’t you understand?” Steven shouted.

  “I’m not the one you have to convince, Steven.”

  I did understand because love is love. It doesn’t matter where you find it, or with whom. Love is debilitating. Everyone in love is handicapped. There should be signs everywhere, “Watch out for People in Love.” People should be made to wear signs too, so that everyone can recognize them and know to stay clear, because people in love might do anything—walk in front of a moving car, lie, cheat, steal, or murder.

  “Sydney, don’t get ugly,” Steven said as if reading my mind.

  “Steven you are too close to the situation and you a
re not thinking.”

  “What happened to his wife?”

  “The police said she was hacked to pieces and dumped by the side of the road in New Jersey. I saw Sam on national television leading the search.”

  “Now that’s original. What are you going to do?”

  “I don’t know?”

  “Well I can’t get involved with this situation because reporters could connect me with Danny, then his career would be shot to hell.”

  “Screw Danny! It’s my life now.”

  “Steven, I told you about Sam and you didn’t want to listen.”

  “You can’t leave me now,” he said sounding like a small child.

  I felt compassion for Steven. He is such a good friend, and I couldn’t desert him at this point. I allowed him to stay overnight to get himself together. He couldn’t go home, or to work, because of the detectives and the press. Steven wished it would all go away, but it didn’t.

  Things like murder have a habit of hanging around like destitute relatives.

  The phone began to ring the next morning as Steven and I were having a cup of coffee. Steven hands waved violently, “No!”

  “I have to answer the phone.”

  “Don’t answer it! It could be a newspaper reporter.”

  “Don’t be stupid, how would they know you’re here?”

  Steven sat hiding from the world, because he couldn’t handle what life had just dealt him. I ignored Steven’s paranoia and answered.

  “Danny is calling and he is furious.” I held my hand over the microphone and whispered to Steven.

  “Sydney, why are you in New York? I thought you were going to Texas to get Sean?” Danny stated.

  “Everything is OK Danny. Steven is having a little problem. You know I love you and I’ll see you soon.” I didn’t want to say more because I didn’t want Danny questioning me further. Then I would have to lie. He finally hung up, satisfied that I would get Sean, and we would be together in L.A.

  I turned to Steven, “You can’t hide out forever. You have to do something.”

  “What do you want me to do?”

  “Look Steven we have to find out if Sam is seeing someone.”