Unforgettable Page 10

  “Right. Wonder why that is? I mean there are beautiful women at the house every Saturday. They’re on the sets, in the bars, everywhere. But why Sam?”

  Fritz shook his head. “The spell. Her dead mum cast a spell on us. I hear she bunked with you last night. Not fair.”

  “Do we have to discuss this? Especially since I’m sitting right here?”

  “I thought I heard a little squeak in the backseat,” Fritz grinned.

  “Not me. Nothing there. Yeah, she joined me under the covers. We fucked…wild…all night. What that woman did...you could get arrested for.” He laughed a sleazy, horrible laugh.

  “You are such a horrible liar. No sex. None.”

  “Tell him about the castles, Sam. And the nursery.”

  “Castles and nurseries. What the hell?”

  “It was a very attractive, stimulating, loving offer. He told me that he could take me to England. Buy me a castle—I love castles—and we could live there. Fix up the castle, add a nursery.”

  Fritz raised his eyebrows in triumph and winked at Jack.

  “Nursery?”Jack made a hrmphing sound.

  “Yes, mate. Nursery.”

  “You rich enough to buy a castle?”

  “Two, if I wanted.”

  “Damn, I’ve been paying you too much. You always were good with money, though. I could never keep a dime... always blowing it on somethin...”

  A long silence fell.

  “Nursery?” Jack repeated.

  Fritz smiled and saluted him.

  “Beat that you old bastard.”

  “I’ll beat that. Damn right I will. Not sure how, but I sure as hell will.”

  I laughed.

  Fritz and Jack got out, Fritz bought drinks, and the two of them sat on the decking while I ran down to the sand and water.

  I met a little girl. Her big, pink hat almost hid her chocolate brown eyes and wispy hair.

  She asked me to help her build a sand castle next to the volleyball games. We played, she laughed an outrageous belly laugh.

  Her mother was a few feet away and very pregnant. I said hello.

  “What’ your name?” the girl asked.

  “Sam. What’s your name?”

  “Amelia Maria Stevens and I’m four years old. See I use ta be one, then I was two,” she struggled to hold up the right number of fingers, “then I was t’ree, then I was four.”

  “So that’s how it works?”

  She nodded, solemn, wise.

  “Now I’m gonna be a big sister. Mommy’s goin’ to the hospital to get a new sister for me. She says she hopes ta hell its soon. Me too.”

  I laughed.

  “Amelia, time to go sweetie!” her mother called her.

  She gave me a hug and they left. She was so powerfully fragile. I wanted to keep her.

  Nurseries.

  And castles.

  And little girls with big pink hats.

  Maybe God was sending me a message.

  We walked to the restaurant, waving Luis and Gloria to come in and sit. Jack, Fritz, and I sat at a table by the windows, watching a storm roll in.

  Fritz’ phone rang as the waiter brought the crème broule.

  “Yes. Six. Okay. Yes she is.”

  He looked at Jack, puzzled, and handed me the phone.

  “Yes?”

  “Hi Sam, its John Black. I wanted to pass on my regards. I am looking forward to tomorrow night. With great...anticipation. You strike me as a woman who wants to please her partner. And others.”

  “Well... I am a people pleaser I suppose."

  "Yes. I am aware of this. Little one. I’m very much looking forward to your presence. Excellent, excellent.”

  I handed Fritz the phone back. I shivered. He gave me an inquisitive look. He told Jack, “that was John. We’re going up to the ranch tomorrow. Rain or shine.”

  Jack moaned.

  “The ranch?” I asked, avoiding Fritz’ stare.

  “It’s a big ranch the studio owns. Where they have horses. And hills. And rocks. And snakes that make horses fall down. This should be interesting. What did John want with you, Miss Rose?”

  “He wanted to make sure I was going to be there. Strange, but very intriguing.”

  They looked at each other.

  “John’s a great director,” Jack began. “But…he’s always in trouble, always in the tabloids. In the courts. In and out of rehab and marriages. Trouble. You don't understand people like John, Sam.”

  “Okay. I won’t marry him.”

  Jack laughed. “But you said ‘intriguing.’”

  “He is somewhat attractive. Never know.”

  “Now hold on, you won’t sleep with me, you won’t sleep with Fritz, but you ‘never know’ with John Black?”

  “I feel like I’m back in high school.”

  As we were leaving we were crowded by a group of paparazzi, all armed with large cameras. They shot pictures of us before Luis and Gloria could push them back.

  I felt like the ocean was sucking all the oxygen out to sea. I stared at the cameras and knew this was not good. This was really not good.

  “Where are you going?” Eddie tried to stop Robert. “I want to go.”

  “The only clue I’ve got about where Sam is probably is that old psychic woman. I seen Sam go in there once. You stay here. Get some food.”

  Eddie started to protest but Robert shoved him down.

  He walked to her building and watched her for a while. It only took seconds for him to break into the sliding door from the patio.

  She was waiting, sitting at her table, staring.

  “Where’s Sam?”

  “Where she should be. You know you should listen to me. You’ll die if you keep after her. I can see it. You should leave town now. South America would be best. And go alone, traveling with your brothers will be too obvious.” She closed her eyes and waited for the end… and the babies …

  We got back and David called.

  “Have some time?”

  “Yes.” A buzz of excitement zapped me.

  “I’ll send Edgar for you.”

  I didn’t tell Jack until the last minute.

  He was pissed but Edgar was at the door.

  David was out on the deck when I got there, watching the sunset with a bottle of wine. I didn’t think it was his first.

  “To bed,” he ordered, pulling me along like a child in tow.

  He stripped, lay on the bed and I climbed on top of him and kissed him. I stripped very slowly, he grinned.

  “Do you like it up there?”

  “Yes.”

  He rolled over on top of me.

  “How about here?”

  “Awful. Can’t breathe.”

  He rolled back and put me on top.

  “Now?”

  I sat up.

  “I like it on top.”

  He grinned.

  “You’re in control on top. When he raped you, what was the position?”

  “His lower trunk was on top of me,” suddenly the nightmare was engulfing me. “He was covered with blood. He was so big I was pinned…I couldn’t move…I couldn’t make him stop.

  “No matter what I did I couldn’t make him stop!” I closed my eyes, falling so fast into that familiar terror. “I wanted him to just kill me and I kept screaming, begging him to kill me.”

  I lay on the bed, curled in a ball.

  He didn’t touch me.

  “You’re doing fine, Sam.”

  I moved next to him.

  “…You couldn’t make him stop.”

  “Right.”

  “We’re going to make love and you’re going to make me stop. Whenever the anxiety gets to be too much you tell me. Okay?”

  “And you’ll stop.”

  “Yes.”

  “And you won’t get mad at me.”

  “Not ever. You’re in charge. What are you going to do?”

  I was tentative.

  He was incredibly hard. He quickly slipped a co
ndom on.

  I wanted him like a dying plant wants a monsoon. He rolled on top of me and slid in with a rough push.

  My panic was rising, breathing fast. It was terrifying. I wanted to keep going. I closed my eyes and felt the cuts, saw his eyes, the blood on his mouth, the teeth in my wounds.

  And I screamed, running to the living room, then the kitchen where I hid in the pantry.

  He was dressed when he sat next to me. He held me. I couldn’t quit shaking.

  He was quiet for a long time.

  He played with my nipple.

  “Did you grow these yourself because they really are superb.”

  I laughed and he held me tighter.

  “Hang in there, Sam. It’s going to work out. What happened…what did you see?”

  I told him about the image if Welsh.

  “Why didn’t you tell me to stop?”

  “I wanted to work through it.”

  “By yourself.”

  “I suppose.”

  “You have to trust me to help you. You have to trust your lover.”

  “I was afraid to stop you.”

  “Did it feel good?”

  “No. What if it never feels good?”

  “It will be wonderful. Very soon. I promise you.”

  I was home by ten. Jack was in the den, Luis let me in and told me I'd received lots of new clothes, upstairs in Jack's room. My room temporarily. I went upstairs quietly and began trying them on.

  The bedroom door opened as I was in-between a skirt and some jeans. Jack walked in. I grabbed a shirt and held it up to my chest.

  “Sorry, I should have knocked.” Jack smiled.

  “How did you get up here?”

  “I hopped. I am so sick of that old bed downstairs that I thought I’d sleep in my own bed tonight.”

  “Oh, great. I’ll gather my stuff…I’m all spread out in the bathroom.”

  He stood in front of the door.

  “No need.”

  He yanked the shirt away.

  I covered my breasts with my arms.

  “Jack, what are you doing?” He was scaring me.

  “I would love to sketch you,” he said in his low gravelly voice that made me instantly wet. The scotch was directing him. He touched my breast softly.

  “You did that one over the fireplace?”

  “Yes. But that was years ago and I’m much better with nudes now. Come sit on the bed with me. I’m tired from all of that hopping.”

  I pulled one of his shirts out of his closet and put it on.

  “Do you know how destroyingly sexy that is?”

  “No. Now what did you want to say?”

  He took my hand.

  “Be careful, Sammy. You’re very vulnerable right now and there are so many wolves in this town. Like John Black. I don’t want you hurt.” He held my hand to his dangerous lips.

  “Marry me, Sam.” He took my hair and rolled it in his fingers.

  “All I think about is you. You went to David, I went insane. All day long I thought about holding you last night. I need you, you need me. I loved last night. I want you in my bed every night, not in David’s, not in anyone else’s” he whispered.

  I did not say yes. But I could not say no.

  I kissed him on the cheek and went to find a beer.

  I stared at my beer for a long time, then I walked to the back and knocked on Fritz’ door.

  He opened the door and smiled. I had to have him, at least hold him.

  He took me by the hand and led me through his amazing house, to his bed.

  “No sex,” I whispered.

  He moaned.

  His shirt was off .

  He lay down beside me and kissed me.

  “I love you Samantha Rose.”

  “I love you, too.”

  We kissed.

  “Marry me tonight,” he whispered. “We would be so fantastically happy, you and I.”

  I nodded. He was right.

  I turned over, hugging his arm, kissing his hand, feeling warmth and fear all at once. What would Jack do in the morning?

  I had a hard time falling asleep.

  The Chief of Police, Eugene Matthews, was not a large man. But his face was a screwed up symphony of mean. He met the council member, a pert, blonde, woman, behind an ice cream shop.

  "Eugene," she smiled.

  "Yeah."

  "Any requests this month I need to know about?"

  "Seems there was an unfortunate suicide."

  "Again, Eugene?"

  He nodded.

  "People get very depressed around you."

  He grinned and handed her a box of doughnuts.

  "Some people get very happy. Like you."

  She peeked in the box and smiled.

  "I'm sure the evidence will support you, Eugene. As always. I'll back you up you with the council. Again."

  He nodded. He leaned forward as if to kiss her but withdrew.

  "How's the wife?"

  "Visiting her sister."

  "Again?"

  He shrugged.

  She noticed, for the first time, the attractive blonde woman in his car.

  "Guess you keep busy while she's gone."

  "Always."

  She walked to her Mercedes, got in, winked, and drove away.

  Wednesday

  I woke up, still in my clothes, in Fritz’ bed.

  Without Fritz.

  He strolled in with coffee.

  “You’re awake.”

  “Is anyone awake at three-thirty in the morning?”

  “Yes, lots of people. Did you sleep well?”

  “No. I woke up twice and worried about what Jack would do. If he knew I was here. Terrible.”

  “This is all his world. That’s why I keep saying we need to go away. I think you would feel much more relaxed and we could work on that panic problem of yours. Day and night. Night and day. Relentlessly. I’ll sacrifice everything. In the name of fabulous, fear-free, fornication.” He had that mischievous twinkle.

  I hit him with a pillow and he tackled me. We wrestled until I landed on top. He had my hands. He thrust against me.

  “Now, love,” he whispered.

  “You have no idea how much I want to. But I can’t. Soon, though.”

  He smiled, playing with my nipples. I was on the edge of a seismic orgasm, leaning back like a kid on a merry-go-round.

  His fucking phone rang.

  “Yes?” He pretended to breathe hard. “She’s not missing, she’s here naked with me. Oil dripping from her sweet, sweet body. I was just about to shag her…again. What is that, love, twelve times now?”

  He laughed and hung up.

  “Bugger’s always testy this time in the morning. ‘Suppose we should get on the road.”

  I kissed him, he slipped his hand in my pants, laying me down. Seconds later the waiting orgasm exploded.

  He held me tight, playing through it.

  “Oh my God.” I rolled into him curling up in his arms.

  “I always like to finish what I start.”

  “You are so good at this. Can’t we lock the door and stay here all day?”

  “You’d be breaking your own rules. And David’s instructions. Not to mention Jack breaking down the door. You worked up quite a sweat. ‘Can’t wait until we do the whole show.”

  “Me, too. Fritz?”

  “Yes.”

  “How will I ever choose? I love you, I love David, I love Jack. I’m going insane.”

  “I don’t know. But time will tell. It will. Just know I’m here. And I love you.”

  We were on the road by four-thirty, driving in the dark.

  “This reminds me of when I was a little kid and we went on vacation. I don’t know why but my dad would make us get up really early so we could beat the traffic.”

  Jack, never the morning person and already pissed that I had spent the night with Fritz, leaned the seat back and tried to ignore me. We were in one of the SUV’s, Gloria and Luis were foll
owing us.

  “I’d love to drink this coffee but if I do I’ll have to pee and pee and you’ll have to stop…just like on my family…,” I stopped as Jack turned around and stared at me.

  “You want me to stop talking?”

  He put his head back down and closed his eyes.

  I waited to deliver the final blow.

  “That’s just how my parent’s friend, Martha, was, always asleep—and I mean snoring. And she’d stick her feet right over the heater so we’d all freeze—for the first…”

  Jack threw his empty cup at me and I laughed.

  Fritz got us there at ten after six. I was surprised at how worn and rugged the ranch was. To the right was one long, low house that looked like it’d been stepped on, with a tent city around it. Horses and pigs were corralled and cars, trucks and vans occupied one entire field. The place was moving, people going everywhere even though the sun was just waking up.

  Jack told Fritz to go ahead. He looked at me.

  “I need to talk to Sam.”

  “Don’t start anything…” Fritz almost growled, hesitating, then walking on.

  My stomach was churning.

  He motioned me to the front seat.

  “You went to Fritz last night.”

  “Yes.”

  He nodded.

  “Have you made your decision?”

  “No.”

  “If I recall, when you were in my bed, you told me you wanted me more than you wanted anyone in your life.”

  He turned, facing me, holding my hand.

  “Yes.”

  “You weren’t lying.”

  “No, Jack.”

  “Then why? Last night? With Fritz?”

  I really didn’t know. Then the truth suddenly spilled out of my mouth.

  “In the bedroom. Upstairs. You scared me. I felt out of control. I wanted to be with Fritz. Feeling in control.”

  “I’m sorry I scared you. Did you and Fritz…?”

  “Have sex? No. Played a bit. Clothes on, no sex. I’m going to have tee shirts made.”

  Jack grinned.

  “Played a bit. I can only guess what that means. I take it you’re going to see David again.”

  “Yes.”

  “You’re going to bed with him, aren’t you?”

  “Jack…I can’t…”

  “You’re driving me insane.”

  “I don’t mean to.”

  He stared at me then got out.

  We left the car and walked toward the center of the activity.