by Ann Major
“When we met, you were so exciting. You even dressed differently.”
“And now I’m boring?”
His gray eyes drilled Vanilla. “I’m going to that party—alone.”
“Because I’m boring?”
“You never wanted to talk about it before. Why now?”
“When the baby leaves— When Walker leaves—”
“I thought you were wild…free…exciting. But you have this whole family thing.”
“They’re in Texas.”
“They call all the time. Not to mention half your tribe is living with us.”
“So—you think I’m boring—in bed and out of it.” Careful to keep her voice low, she stroked the baby’s hair.
“Don’t make me say things I don’t want to say.” He looked past her. “I’ll come back for my things later—when you’re calmer.”
“I am calm.” She measured out the words very carefully, her eyes glued to the point of the red tie sticking out of his suitcase.
“But your eyes are wild.”
You said you wanted wild.
From the bed he picked up a dark rectangular object about the size of a book. Carrying his black suitcase with the red tie flapping, he strode toward her only to stop and place the rectangular object on the dresser next to where she was standing. “I found this in your brother’s things.”
“You went through Walker’s things?”
“I was packing, looking for my stuff stored in his bedroom.” He stopped. “Oh…” His eyes changed, and he let the word hang ominously. “Nell called, too.” His smug expression filled her with dread.
She froze. “Nell?”
“I told her I wouldn’t be here to give you her message, so she called back and left a voice mail for you.” He swallowed.
“You listened to it, didn’t you? You’re leaving me, and you listened to my—”
“Maybe now isn’t the time to listen to her message.”
“What does that mean?”
“Wait until you’ve had a good night’s sleep. That’s all. Don’t watch that video, either…not until you’re feeling stronger.”
“Video?” Too much was being thrown at her. Vaguely Lizzy realized the black rectangular object he’d placed on the dresser was a VCR tape.
“I’m strong!”
Bryce stalked past her with his bags, his long legs carrying him through the apartment to the entryway, out the door. When his footsteps thudded down the stairs, Vanilla looked at her, a tentative smile beginning at the edges of her cherubic mouth. Then the doors three floors below boomed shut behind him, and Vanilla clapped.
“Oh, Vanilla, you are a little rascal,” she said numbly.
Vanilla smiled, and Lizzy tried to smile, too, but her lips were quivering too much.
“I’m not a weak, softhearted wimp.” Lizzy reached for the cordless phone on the dresser, intending to listen to her voice mail tonight. She could take anything this city and Nell could dish out. She could. Gently she set Vanilla down and got her a container and a lid for her to play with.
Lizzy had six messages. Nell’s was the last. It was short and sweet; well, not sweet.
“I’m sorry to do this over the phone—Liz. I should have told you today. I meant to.” A drumbeat pounded in Lizzy’s throat. “I should have told you before you went to Texas. It just isn’t working out… You’re too young. Your viewpoint is too softhearted and naive for this city. You don’t do the kinds of stories we do. Your research is sloppy.”
“What? What?”
Nell’s voice hadn’t stopped, but Lizzy’s mind went blank. When she could think again Nell’s brisk voice was saying, “…budgets cuts. I have to let you go. Your severance check will be ready first thing tomorrow. My assistant put your things in boxes. You need to turn in your security badge.”
“What? Boxes! No! No…”
Lizzy listened to the message a second time, but that only made the horrible words cut deeper.
Slowly she hung up the phone and picked up the videotape and turned it over in her hands. Vanilla had abandoned the container and lid and had crawled into the living room, over to her green couch. Pulling herself up and patting the cushions, she looked over at Aunt Lizzy, waiting to be congratulated on her accomplishment.
Aunt Lizzy was probably white as a sheet. “Darling, that’s wonderfu—” Her voice broke. Babies were so self-confident when they faced their challenges. They didn’t quit.
Lizzy was shaking too hard to speak. Still holding the videotape, she gulped in a breath. Then she went to the couch and sank down beside Vanilla, hoping to draw strength from her.
“Darling, darling, what would I do if I didn’t have you?”
Blue eyes sparkling, Vanilla grinned at her impishly.
Lizzy fought back hot wet tears. She wasn’t going to cry, and she wasn’t going to call home, either, no matter how much she suddenly wanted to talk to her mother—even though Mother had never understood her.
Nobody could know the terrible turn her life had taken. Nobody.
Lizzy wasn’t going home to Texas in defeat. Maybe her perfect life was unraveling, but she wasn’t going home. She’d get her job back and she’d get Bryce back, too. It was all a mistake. A terrible mistake. All she needed was a plan. Affirmations. She’d do some affirmations.
Downstairs the big doors banged, and she heard the fa miliar tread of boots on the stairs.
Walker! She’d forgotten about him.
The video!
Her brother was loping up the stairs two at a time as she shoved the tape underneath the cushions of her couch.
Wiping her eyes with the back of her hands, she pulled Vanilla into her lap and fought to look calm and composed.
By the time Walker entered the apartment and called to her, she and the baby were playing an innocent game of patty-cake.
“How’s it going, Little Lizzy?”
“F-fine.” She swallowed.
Their eyes met, and she knew he knew something was wrong.
Walker could read souls.
He waited for her to say something. When she didn’t, he reached for the baby, who started clapping.
Then all he said to Lizzy was, “What’s for supper?”
Three
Houston, Texas
Caesar
“Hi there.” Cherry’s lazy velvet voice caressed Caesar across twenty feet of darkness, but it was as if she reached out and circled his cock with her hand and lowered her head. His groin got as hot as if her talented tongue was already wetting him there.
Not that he was in the mood for sex or her lies. Hell, he’d just flown in from a board meeting in San Antonio. His temples ached with tension. He’d gone to the meeting hoping to iron out the details of the Golden Spurs Ranch Museum opening and the following celebration.
Only Joanne had been there. She’d asked the board to tell him to break up with Cherry or step down. She’d listed various ranch crises and how little he’d done for the ranch lately and how much she’d done. And how much Cole Knight had done as well—damn his rotten soul!
“You have no right to air our dirty laundry to the board,” he’d growled when she’d gone on and on about Knight.
“My children own stock in the ranch,” she’d said.
“She has no right to be here,” he’d yelled at the board, pointing toward Joanne.
Then Leo, the CEO stood up. “I invited her here.”
“Who is she—who are you, any of you—to tell me what to do?”
“I said, ‘Hey, there…’” Cherry’s warm, silky voice floated to him again.
“Sorry.” He rubbed his aching temples. “My mind’s a million miles away.”
Break up with her? In a week?
He was furious at the board, at Joanne, at himself, and at Cherry. And he had a hard-on.
So what else was new?
Lately he hadn’t thought about Cherry much when he wasn’t with her. Why was that? But when he was with her, she consumed him.
Lying naked beside her, he loved her female scent and the dark color of her nipples. He loved the way they lay together afterward, drinking Scotch from the same bottle. The only reason he’d agreed to marry her was that she’d said she wouldn’t let him screw her anymore if he didn’t. When she’d stuck to her guns, he’d figured he’d get out of the bargain somehow. Then he’d given her a great big diamond and a credit card at her twentieth birthday party to appease her. Ever since he’d felt like his life was hurtling toward some fatal destiny that he was powerless to avoid.
He slammed the door of her Houston studio apartment and stomped toward her.
“Want me to give you some special candy, lover buver?” she whispered.
His groin tightened. Special candy was their secret code.
Caesar flushed as he pitched the wad of credit card bills onto the low table near the bed.
“Did you bring me a present?” she cooed.
He looked around, pained. Sequined costumes, thong panties and bras dripped from chairs. T-shirts and dirty jeans littered the stained, turquoise shag carpet. Lingering in the closed room was a stale smell that he associated with airless rooms and unwashed sheets after too much sex.
Joanne was a neat freak. He used to hate the way she hung up each garment as she took it off—even when he was on fire to have her—and the way she stripped the sheets off the bed seconds after he came.
Caesar’s head ached. He’d taken more Tylenol than he should’ve today, but the tablets weren’t cutting it. The pill bottle in his glove compartment was running on empty. He felt old today, way older than fifty. Everybody told him, at least those who dared, that he was looking bad, that Cherry was dragging him down.
He’d given Cherry lots of presents because her joy in receiving them had always been rapturous. For her, presents were an aphrodisiac.
When he spoke, all he could manage was a rough, semiharsh whisper that didn’t sound much like himself. “You’ve been buying yourself quite a few presents lately. More than I can afford.”
She laughed. “Oh, is that all that’s eatin’ you, big daddy? You’re rich. I’m poor.”
“Land rich. Cash poor.”
“If it was the other way around, I’d give you the moon.”
Would she? Would she even look at him twice?
“Relax, big daddy. Relax.” She sounded young and spoiled and very self-confident.
He knew their affair was as ridiculous as everybody said it was. When he’d agreed to marry her, he’d made himself the laughingstock of the state. Joanne’s lawyers were having a field day, and still, he couldn’t stop seeing Cherry. He simply couldn’t…not when he remembered how he’d felt before he’d met her.
Sheets rustled as she rolled lazily across her bed toward him. Her diamond ring flashed. “Why don’t you come to bed? I’ve gotten real horny lying in this big ol’ bed playing with myself.”
The room smelled muskily of other men. Not that he’d been here lately. He wasn’t so stupid he didn’t realize that she didn’t crave him a tenth as much as he craved her.
He leaned down and yanked at the chain of the lamp beside the bed. Golden light flooded the messy room and lit up the silver sequined cowgirl hat she’d hung on a nail on a far wall. She’d been wearing that hat the night he’d first laid eyes on her. The rest of her fetching costume had been matching pasties, a G-string and high-heeled, sequined boots.
He pointed to the bills. “We need to talk.”
She stretched like a cat. She slept in the nude. Deliberately she pushed the sheets lower to expose her soft, round body. Then she smiled up at him, batting her long lashes.
Don’t look at that bright red mouth. But he did. Next he thought about what those lips did to pleasure him and was instantly aroused. She saw, and her smile brightened with childish delight.
“Come to bed, love. Let little mama scratch your itch.”
Then she shoved the bills onto the floor and said, “Let little mama prove she’s worth every single penny—and way, way more.”
He laughed. Within minutes her expert hands had stripped him of his jeans and boots. Soon she lay on top of him, her mouth licking, circling, wetting his tanned flesh everywhere. She started kissing somewhere beneath his ears and worked down across his chest and stomach and then his belly, her tongue dipping into his navel and then moving lower, trailing up and down between his legs…back and forth, and around and around until he burned like a wildfire. When he was breathing hard, she lowered her head, her long silver-blond hair tickling his stomach as she began to nip and nibble at the most erotic places.
Her damn mouth was like a vacuum. He was rock hard. His blood thrummed. His heart pounded. He felt wonderful, too wonderful for words, until the nagging pain began in his right temple.
Then it struck as viciously as a hammer blow. He felt an explosion in his head like his brain had come out of his skull, and then the pain stopped, and he felt different…numb…not in touch with himself…as if he were floating above them. He’d had the same out-of-body sensation when he’d been bucked off a bronc once and suffered a spinal injury. Only those symptoms had cleared after a day or two.
Like before, he couldn’t feel his hands or his legs. Only this time he couldn’t move anything, not even his lips or his tongue. It was as if his entire body were dead.
With total clarity he wondered what would happen when she figured out he wasn’t all right. Who would she call first—the police, or an ambulance? Would this make the papers and cause still more scandal?
Cherry kept licking him, unaware of the change in him for a while, but he couldn’t feel her tongue anymore. And he didn’t care. He didn’t care about anything. Not the ranch. Not Mia. Not Electra.
Her platinum head bobbed back and forth over his hard dark body for what seemed an eternity. Finally she stopped and looked up at his face, and her eyes grew so startled, they blazed in her white face.
With her fists, she pounded his chest. “Move! Say something! Do something!”
But he was made of petrified stone.
“What’s wrong?” He knew she was shouting, but her voice was dim. “What’s wrong with you?”
She slapped him hard across the face.
He didn’t feel her hand, either, or her nails when they dug into his cheeks a little.
She slapped him again. “Say something!”
All he could do was stare at her as she slapped him again and again.
When she began to cry, he thought about Lizzy.
Would this bring her home? Would she finally realize she had to come home? Would she ever forgive him for the disgrace and scandal he’d brought on her name? Or for Cole?
Vaguely he was aware of Cherry sliding off him and reaching for the telephone. To his surprise she didn’t call an ambulance or a doctor or even the police.
When he heard the name of the person she called, a chill went through him.
“You got me in this!” she screamed. “You made me hit on him! What do I do?”
He had been set up. When Caesar remembered who’d suggested that first night at the strip joint, his next thought was for Lizzy.
First Electra. Now him.
If Lizzy did come home, would she be next?
Cherry hung up and dialed another number. “You wanna know who I’m calling, I bet.” She flashed him a hateful smile. “Well, I’m calling your wife!”
“Hi there—Mrs. Kemble.” Brash as she was, even Cherry hesitated for a moment. “It’s me—Cherry. Your husband’s fianceé.”
Joanne must have had plenty to say on that score because it was a long time before Cherry could get another word in.
“Y—yes, well, I—I don’t care about any of that. He’s in my bed…not yours. And he’s as still as a stump. Somethin’s bad wrong with him. If you don’t send somebody to get him out of here, and send him fast, I’ll call an ambulance, and, and the newspapers. And if I do that—all hell will break loose.”
Another long silence.
&nb
sp; “No, he’s not dead, and I don’t want no corpse in my bed! Do you hear me? No! I didn’t do anything to him. We were making love.” Another long silence. “No. No drugs. A stroke maybe… I’m not a doctor. I don’t know. Just hurry!”
Lizzy—he had to warn her.
Why in the name of God had he told everybody he wanted her to succeed him? By doing so, he’d signed her death warrant.
He fought to say her name, but his lips felt like cold concrete.
Imprisoned in his own body, he could only stare helplessly at Cherry, who was watching him, too. Her pretty face beneath her straw-white mane was a mask of disgust. Her eyes were cold and soulless. His throat tightened.
She got up slowly. Lifting her sequined cowboy hat off its nail, she put it on. Then she twirled round and round for him just like she had the first night.
“What’s going on in that mind of yours, big daddy?” Spreading her long legs, she made a faux bow.
She pitched her hat toward the bed and went to her mirror where she made up her mouth with vivid red lipstick and combed and fluffed her hair.
When she turned around again and smiled at him, she looked more ravishing than ever.
But it didn’t matter. He felt nothing, absolutely nothing for her.
Only Lizzy mattered.
And Electra. She would always matter.
He remembered the day he’d stood in the rain and scat tered her ashes under the Spur Tree because she’d written in her will that that was her final wish. She’d chosen to be with him in death at least.
Joanne had been furious when he’d had a bronze marker placed beneath the tree with Electra’s name on it.
“Jack’s spurs are there, aren’t they?” he’d said to shut Joanne up.
Electra. Always Electra.
He had to stay alive to save their daughter.
♥ Uploaded by Coral
Four
Manhattan
Too much was happening to her.
The phone was ringing, but Lizzy ignored it. She was too busy watching the two naked men writhe on her television screen with a total absorption that would have embarrassed her had she been of sound mind, which after the catastrophic events of today—she was not.