“Don't think I'll forget this!” she called out. “I'll raid the mini-bar and then you'll be sorry!”

              “Go ahead! I dare you!” he laughed and closed her door.

              “Oh!” she muttered to herself. Just for spite, she opened the cabinet and took out several bags of cookies. She flopped onto the bed and clicked on the TV. An old episode of Prominence was playing; Katarina was about to shove Lexie off a cliff. She wondered why her father had wasted his time on such drivel. But as she tore into the cookie, she supposed there were worse things in the world.

              Like refusing to sleep with one's wife when that wife wanted her husband desperately. Fuming, she tore into another cookie. Before this trip was over, he'd be paying through his ears!

 

              Lucy awoke the next morning feeling cranky and out of sorts. After a quick dinner in one of the hotel restaurants, Alec had escorted her to her room and left without so much as a by your leave. Oh, he'd kissed her chastely on the cheek, but it was almost as if he were afraid to touch her. She'd been so insulted that she'd banged on his door determined to put an end to his nonsense. Several guests had opened their doors to see what the commotion was about, but Lucy had paid them no mind. After a while, her husband's door had flung open, he'd handed her a basket full of the contents of his mini-bar, and had practically slammed the door in her face.

              After that, Lucy had skulked off to her room with nothing to comfort her but chocolate-chip shortbread cookies and caramel nut popcorn. There'd been a horror movie marathon on and she'd watched it against her better judgment and fell asleep dreaming of some guy in a hockey mask.

              Lucy glanced at the clock and decided it was far too early to face the day. She curled up beneath the satin duvet and went back to sleep. When she awoke, it was half past ten, so she ordered a room service omelet and took a long, hot bath. Garbed in the complimentary robe, she was about call Alec, when she heard a knock at the door. Lucy flung it open eagerly, expecting to see her husband, but was met by an unsmiling butler instead.

              Lucy blushed to the roots of her hair and clutched the robe closer about her neck. “Yes...?”

              “Excuse me, Miss,” the butler said with a stately air, “but the gentleman across the hall wanted me to give this to you.” He produced a white envelope from inside his vest and handed it to her.

              She took the proffered envelope and tipped the man twenty dollars. Lucy closed the door and curled up into an overstuffed chair wondering what her mysterious husband had up his sleeve. Munching on a croissant, she opened the flap and found a thousand dollar gift card to Neiman Marcus along with a handwritten note on hotel stationary.

 

              Dearest Lucia,

              I have a few things to attend to, so I want you to go shopping. I'm taking you out to dinner. Make yourself beautiful and don't scrimp! I'll pick you up at eight.

              Love, your silly hubby,

              Alec

              Lucy giggled with glee, clutching the envelope to her chest, and hurried to get dressed. She was out of the hotel and in a cab twenty minutes later. As she perused the racks of designer dresses, Lucy couldn't help but feel a little guilty. Her mother had loved clothes and had an entire closet devoted to shoes alone, but her father hadn't liked to indulge his wife's preoccupation with sartorial splendor, and by the end of the marriage, had reduced her mother's clothing allowance to a humiliating trickle. The last time she and her mother were in New York they'd had to shop at a thrift store; her mother had fled the shop in tears. Vivian, of course never had such problems.

              Sighing sadly, Lucy wondered if she could get an entire outfit for less than a thousand dollars. Boy, was she wrong! It had been quite some time since she'd dared to shop in “the forbidden zone.” That is, most of her wardrobe consisted of sale purchases at Wal-Mart or Target. She wasn't picky about her clothes as long as they wore well and didn't shrink in the wash. With that being said, she didn't know where Alec was planning on taking her, so perhaps a cocktail dress would fit the bill. There were racks upon racks of little black dresses in every design and fabric imaginable: slinky, shimmery, formal, slutty, and the-I-guarantee-you-you-won't-be-sleeping-in-your-own-bed-dress.

              Lucy cringed at those. Besides, she'd already done the black dress thing. She wanted to knock Alec's socks off. But almost an hour into her shopping expedition, she had nothing to show for it except lacy underwear and some new lip-gloss. Lucy sat down on a plush sofa in the shoe department doing her best The Thinker impersonation and mulling the intricacies of shopping for the perfect dress. Then as she glanced up, she saw them. The perfect shoes! A pair of Kate Spade platform peep-toe sandals in black and champagne satin d'Orsay and a black self-rosette.

              And as for the dress to go with these perfect sandals? Lucy figured she'd know it when she found it.

 

              Alec fumbled with his cufflinks and swore as he dropped the tiny stud for the third time that evening. He was shaking like a leaf, and he didn't know why. It wasn't as if he'd never gone on a date before! Get a hold of yourself, man! He hadn't seen Lucy since the previous evening, and he was curious as to what she'd been up to all day. Hopefully, she'd put the gift card to good use. Anticipation filled him and he swore when he dropped the stud for a fourth time. He hoped his wife would find him handsome. He'd gone and purchased a new black suit and tie for the occasion. Nothing fancy. His new dress oxfords were pinching his toes and he wondered why in the hell couldn't he find shoes that fit? He never seemed to have this problem back home. It must be a Yankee thing.

              Glancing at the clock, he gave his reflection one last critical perusal, and fumbling with the cufflink once again, shut the door, and unceremoniously dropped it onto the carpet. He swore viciously and bent down to retrieve it. Alec panicked. He couldn't find it! It seemed to have vanished into thin air, and his fingers raked the plush fibers to no avail. He was about to give up all hope, when a pair of slender fingers fished it out for him, and held out the silver and onyx stud.

              “Drop something, sailor?” a soft female voice purred with amusement

              “H-Huh?” Alec repeated stupidly, and glanced up to find a goddess peering down at him.

              It was his wife, or someone who faintly resembled her. The creature standing above him bore no resemblance to the petite beauty he knew and loved. His eyes took in the peep-toe sandals with their black rosettes, the dainty ankles, and his eyes nearly popped out of his head at the rest of her. Lucy was wearing some red tulle strapless confection that made him feel lightheaded. The tops of her creamy breasts were slightly visible; she wore a black sparkly cardigan; a narrow ribbon of black velvet encircled the slender throat; red lip gloss gleamed wetly from that sweet little mouth; and her hair was done up in a softly braided updo.

              It seemed an eternity before he found his voice again. “Lucy,” he croaked, “is that you?”

              The red mouth curved upward into a saucy smile. “Well, it ain't yer Aunt Mary!” she quipped softly.

              “You're gorgeous!” he breathed in awe.

              She smiled down at her handsome husband in his new suit. “So are you.”

              Their eyes met and held and Alec couldn't breathe. “Help me up, will you?”

              And Lucy held out her hands, giggling helplessly as she helped him to his feet.

              He towered above her in his new shoes, and she reached out to help him with the cufflink. “You dropped this.”

              Alec bent his head and inhaled deeply. She smelled heavenly. “Blimey, you smell good!” he exclaimed.

              “Do I?” she laughed, firmly affixing the stud. “It's the most expensive stuff I could find.”

              “I-Is it?”

              Lucy nodded and kissed his chin. “You don't smell so bad yourself, husband.”

              He cleared his throat awkwardly, thinking he'd better get his wife into the limo before he took her here in the hallway. “We'd better go wife! Before I carry you off to bed.”

              “Would that be so bad?” she purred, slipping her arms around him and kissing his neck.

              Alec closed his eyes and tried to think of what he had planned. He'd ravish her later. “Later, wife!” he admonished gruffly. “Dinner first!” He pushed her away from him gently and offered his arm. “Have a care, woman!” he grinned. “A man can only take so much!”

              “Is that so?” Lucy looped her arm through his and strolled with him to the elevators. “Care to elaborate?”

              “Stop it!” he scolded hoarsely. “Or we'll be thrown out of this hotel for indecent exposure!”

              Lucy dissolved into a fit of giggles and couldn't stop. Alec's lips twitched in spite himself until finally the elevator doors opened to his relief. “Get in there, wife!”

              They were the only ones in the lift and the electrical charge between them was palpable. Alec reached down to take her hand and gripped it gently. “I've missed you, wife,” he said softly. “It's been hell sleeping without you.”

              “Me too,” she breathed and caressed his palm with her thumb. Delicious currents of excitement ran up and down her arm, and Lucy could feel him tugging slightly. Any moment she'd be in those sturdy arms...

              And then the doors opened and ruined it all! An elderly couple stepped in, and Alec felt the warm fire of sexual arousal being extinguished. He glanced surreptitiously over at his wife who he knew was feeling the same way. His thumb stroked over hers soothingly. The elderly couple got off six floors later and Alec couldn't wait. As soon as the doors closed, he yanked her into his arms, and kissed her with all the hunger of a man who hadn't slept with his wife in three weeks.

              Lucy gasped as he crushed her to him, his mouth moving hotly over hers. His tongue darted in and drank deeply, stroking and finding, taking and giving. She rose on tiptoes and slipped her arms around his neck, kissing him back with all the love and longing that had been building. He groaned and moved her against the wall. His mouth slid across her cheek and traveled down her throat to the tops of her breasts revealed by her gown. Her head fell back against his arm and her breath caught at his hand drawing her knee up over his hip, his fingers sliding beneath the hem, and caressing her thigh.

              “Alec,” she said breathlessly. “I-I don't think...we should do this...here.”

              He groaned against her breasts and allowed his hand to slide beneath her dress to cup the pert little bum encased in lace. Alec slid his knee between her thighs and yanked her up against him---hard. His mouth took hers again and he ground his pelvis sensuously into her belly. She moaned softly and her hands came up to cup his face. “We could... always order room service.”

              Alec kissed her again softly and let her go. He smoothed her gown and put her back together. “Later, wife!” he said hoarsely and offered his arm again. “Dinner awaits.”

              “Oh!” she pouted, feeling an unbearable ache between her thighs that only he could satisfy. “Now, I'm going to be frustrated all night!”

              He grinned knowingly. “Well, maybe I can help you with that later.”

              “Promise?” she breathed, unable to look away from his eyes, which were black pools of desire.

              “I promise,” he whispered, kissing her ring.

              The elevator reached the lobby and Lucy allowed her husband to escort her out of the hotel and into a shiny black limousine. Her skirt billowed up dangerously as she slid into the plush velvet seat, and she had to press it down hard. Her husband chuckled at her predicament and pulled her onto his lap. “Having trouble, wife?”

              The limo lurched forward and Lucy rested her head on his shoulder. “Where are we going?”

              Alec touched his lips to her fragrant hair. “You're so nosy, wife!”

              “I am not!” she protested lightly, nipping his ear and nestled against him, inhaling the spicy scent of his aftershave. “I'm happy to go anywhere as long as I'm with you.”

              “Good,” he sighed back and held her close.

              The three-minute ride to Per Se was almost an insult to modern transportation, but Alec was determined to make this a night she would never forget. The chauffeur opened the door and Alec slid out and held his hand out for Lucy. Her heeled sandal gripped the curb lightly, and she had to hold onto him for support. Four-inch heels were simply not made for the inane task of walking.

              Lucy ignored his soft laughter and followed beside him. Alec held the door open for her and placed a possessive hand on the small of her back. They were greeted by the host who escorted them through the elegant dining room and to a table with a magnificent nighttime view of Columbus Circle. She stared in awe at the monument all lit up like a Christmas tree.

              “Look!” she said, pointing at the myriad lights of circling traffic.

              “Reminds me of the Lambeth Bridge roundabout,” Alec said dryly, rolling his eyes. “We'll probably be stuck all day once we get back.”

              “You're a great driver,” she assured her husband and placed her napkin on her lap. “Have you decided where we're going to live?”

              He leaned forward as the waiter brought them matching leather encased iPads on which they could peruse the wine list. “As a matter of fact, love, I have.”

              “And....?”

              Alec chose a sake to go with the first course of the Chef's Tasting Menu which were the infamous “oysters and pearls”.  He scratched his nose, which Lucy took to mean he was nervous. “There's a house in Yorkshire.”

              “Just a regular house?” she asked, breaking off a chunk of a buttery roll and popping it into her mouth. “Or is it one of those cute little cottages with a thatched roof?”

              “No, no,” he chuckled. “Nothing like that. It's been in the family for years.”

              “Oh, one of those,” Lucy said solemnly.

              “Yes, one of those!” Alec sipped his water and soon the waiter brought their plates. He peered at the small mound of caviar with something akin to horror. “What is this?”

              Lucy giggled and took a small taste. “It's caviar. Try it.”

              He shrugged and dipped into it with his spoon. It was salty and sublime at the same time. The oysters practically fell apart in his mouth. “Not bad,” he grinned.

              “About the house,” she reminded him after a sip of sake. “How old is it?”

              “It's a family heirloom. I inherited the place after my father died.” Along with just about everything else. “It was built in the seventeenth century.”

              “No kidding?” she leaned forward eagerly, fascinated at this tidbit of information. “Details, English!”

              His splendid mouth curved upwards. “I suppose you're wondering how I finagled my way into Scarpetta.”

              “Yes, I was wondering about that.”

              “Well,” Alec began as the waiter cleared their plates, “dad was the fourteenth Earl of Northumberland.”

              Lucy's eyes grew round. “Really? So that makes you—”

              “--the Fifteenth Earl of Northumberland.” He shrugged uneasily. “It's just a title. There's hardly any money. In fact, the entire estate is in ruins.”

              “But there has to be something, I mean for your mum?”

              “Not really,” he sighed raggedly. “If there were, mum wouldn't have had to keep moving from council estate to council estate.” Alec winced at the memory of nights where she would go without food just so he could have something his belly. “There hasn't been money in the estate since the tenth earl went and popped off on top of his mistress.”

              “So how are we paying for this?” she said lightly, watching her husband shift uneasily in his chair.

              Alec gulped back his sake and grinned foolishly at his wife. “How do normal people pay for anything?”

              She simply rolled her eyes and buttered a roll.              

              The waiter brought the second course, which to Alec's horror was more caviar.

              Lucy giggled and changed the subject. “So what does your mum do?”

              “She went back to school and became a librarian.”

              “That's great. Any other relatives I should know about?”

              “Well,” he said, scratching his nose again, “there's an uncle in Glasgow that we never see. I think he's into taxidermy or something that involves the preservation of the dead and gone.” He took a sip of his wine and pushed his plate aside. “What about you?”

              “Well, dad was an only child and mama had a sister who died when she was ten.” Lucy pushed her plate aside as well. “And grandparents on both sides died a few years back. Rudy is the only non-relative that I've ever really known.”

              “Well,” he said, trying to lighten the mood, “you have me!”

              “That's true.” Her eyes were warm and expressive. “I'm glad of that.”

              Alec cleared his throat as they waited for the third course. “I hope that's the last of the caviar! I don't know why people love that stuff anyway.”

              “It's an acquired taste, English, “ she giggled. “It's supposed to be a luxury just to taste it.”

              “I can do without the fish eggs, thank you very much!”

              Lucy blew a kiss at him and he gave her a wink. The evening was by far, one of the most enjoyable and decadent she'd ever experienced. From the food, to the service, to the impeccable décor, Lucy was quite certain this night would go down in history as one of the most romantic nights of her life. The dinner lasted four hours, and she had never felt so spoiled. She'd had to stop drinking wine midway through because she was growing lightheaded and opted for water for the remainder of the tasting menu. Alec did likewise, and finished with coffee.

              Then when Lucy thought she couldn't eat anymore, dessert was offered. There were so many flavors and textures Lucy couldn't decide which she liked the most, the rhubarb and custard or the mango pudding. After that the server brought out a metal cylinder, which contained a variety of house specialty treats. She and Alec stuffed themselves on caramels and nuts, mini macaroons, and truffles. When they thought they were finished, the server brought out a huge box of chocolates also made in-house. Thirty pieces of all which they could choose to eat. Adding to this decadent damage, were sugared donuts and frozen cappuccino.

              As they got up to leave, they were offered an adorable souvenir tin of cookies to take with them. Lucy couldn't imagine a more perfect ending to a perfect meal. They strolled out into the night, happy and pleasantly full. “Where to now, English?” she said as she peeked inside the tin.

              “Well,” Alec began as he hailed a cab, “I'll give you a choice.”

              “A choice?” This night kept getting better and better. “And what are those?”

              The cab pulled to the curb and Alec opened the door for her. Lucy slid in and made room for her husband. He gave the driver a piece of paper and told him to make it snappy.

              She was perplexed. “Alec?”

              He turned to her and caught her hand. “We can either go back to the hotel and go to a Broadway show tomorrow night, or we can go back the hotel, get some sleep, and drive to Connecticut tomorrow.”

              “And get married?” Her voice was a soft, eager whisper and her husband's face was darkly chiseled angles, revealing his longing.

              “And get married,” he breathed and kissed her ring. “I know this great little bed and breakfast in Westbrook. If we leave in the morning, we can get there in the afternoon, and be married by nightfall.”

              “I'd love to,” she whispered and pressed her lips against his. He made a tortured sound and kissed her back, his tongue darting lightly as if to give her taste of what was to come.

              He pulled back, breathing raggedly. “There's something we need to do first.”

              “What?”

              “Shh!” he whispered back and said no more.

              Eight minutes later the cab pulled up in front the Empire State Building. “Alec?” she hissed. “Why are we here? It's too late! It's closed!”

              Alec began laughing and opened his door and climbed out. He held out his hand to Lucy who grabbed the cookie tin and nearly tripped over her heels. He paid the driver and watched the man pull away and drive off. He turned to his wife. “It won't be closed for us.”

              “What...?”

              “Hush, wife.” His broad shoulders shook with laughter as he escorted her to the door. There was a security guard on duty that peered at them through the glass and then unlocked the doors when he saw who it was. “Can we still go up?” Alec asked.

              The security guard was a tall, stocky fellow who looked like he hadn't gotten much sleep the night before. “You've got ten minutes,” he answered gruffly.

              Alec tugged along his wife who was having a difficult time keeping up with him in her heels. Next time she went out, she was wearing flats! “Alec! Stop! I can't walk in these stilts!”

              He laughed as the elevator doors closed and peered down at her feet. “And whose fault is that, may I ask?”

              “Ha-Ha,” she grumbled miserably. “Why are we going up to the Observatory at this hour?”

              “There's something I've got to do, and I think you'll agree.”

              “Well, I certainly hope it doesn't involve something out of Sleepless in Seattle.”

              “Didn't you like that movie? Mum couldn't get enough when it came out.”

              “I don't know. It was all so unrealistic that's all.”

              “And I suppose meeting at a casino in Vegas is more on par with reality?”

              “Well, sure it is,” she grinned impishly at him. “Look at us!”

              “Cheeky monkey!” he swore, his eyes darkening. “If we weren't in an elevator---”

              “But we are!” she whispered and put a slim finger to her lips. Lucy opened the tin and offered him a cookie.

              “Save those for later,” he growled.

              Lucy wrinkled her nose at him in defiance and popped a small treat into her mouth. “You don't know what you're missing, husband.”

              “Oh, I know exactly what I'm missing, wife!” Alec muttered and leered at her. “If you don't stop right now, I'll show you just how much.”

              She gulped and closed the tin. He had no sense of humor. “Sorry,” Lucy mumbled, duly chastened. Lucy didn't utter another word until they got to the eighty-sixth floor Observation Deck. The elevator doors opened and she was immediately assaulted by a cold, stinging wind. She shivered and crossed her arms over her chest, wishing she'd thought to wear something a little heavier.

              Alec noticed her discomfort and doffed his jacket and placed it around his wife's shoulders. She slid her arms into the sleeves and huddled into it, inhaling the scent of husband and aftershave. Lucy went over to the viewing binoculars and peered out into the glittering city. She saw the Chrysler Building glowing like a beacon, Times Square in all its electronic glory, and the grand lady herself, The Statue of Liberty. Lucy was so enthralled with the views that she didn't notice Alec had come up behind her.

              “See anything interesting, wife?”

              She whirled about. “You should see the Chrysler Building!” He was oddly quiet and peered through the finder, but just as quickly, he walked off towards the safety fence.

              “Alec? What are you doing?”

              He didn't answer but stopped a few feet away and reached, loosening his tie. He reached into his dress shirt and pulled out the chain he wore. Lucy caught a glimpse of their wedding bands and stepped closer, wondering what her husband was about. “Alec?” she whispered. “Why didn't you tell me you still had them?” She'd thought he'd gone and left them somewhere.

              “I've been thinking, love, “ he said suddenly, “about that night.” Alec's head turned towards her, “Do you?”

              “All the time,” she sighed and drew closer. “It all happened so fast, didn't it?”

              “Not for me. I wanted to marry you.”

              “Y-You did?”

              He nodded. “The first time I saw you sitting all alone at the bar, I heard those two bastards planning what they were going to do to you, and I couldn't let them hurt you.” His hand reached out to toy with her earring. “I wanted you so bad I couldn't let you get away from me.”

              “You didn't.” She pressed her lips against the inside of his wrist. “I wanted to marry you, too.”

              “You did?”

              “Uh-huh. You were so sweet.” Lucy blushed. “I--I think I was already madly in love with you.”

              “How could you tell?”

              “Because I wasn't afraid,” she whispered. “I've never been afraid since being with you, and I've been afraid all my life.”

              “Lucia,” he breathed, brushing her mouth with his. “That goes both ways, love.”

              “What are you going to do with them?” She pointed to the rings he held in his palm.

              “I don't know,” he said thoughtfully, removing the rings from the chain. “I was thinking of melting them down into something.” He took a few steps away from her and before she could react, he reached back as far as his arm would allow and hurled the rings off the side.

              “Alec!” Lucy shrieked and peered through the safety fence. It was too late. They were gone. Forever. “Why did you do that?” she demanded angrily. “Do you know how illegal that was? They'll have us arrested!” She burst into tears and didn't know why.

              He hadn't meant to make her cry. But he'd thought long and hard about what to do with the rings and this seemed the best way. To Alec, the rings represented something false and brittle. They way they were before they'd found each other again. The new wedding rings would represent all that they were, here and now. He went to her and thumbed her tears away. “I'm sorry, love,” he said regretfully. “But those aren't us anymore.”

              She sniffed. “They're not?”

              Alec kissed her brow, her eyes, her nose, and then her mouth. “I'm going to give you a new ring, remember? And you have to promise not to take it off!”

              Lucy gulped back tears. Of course, he was right. But it didn't make her feel any better. It was the first thing he'd ever given her. “Only if you promise never to take off yours!”

              “I promise.” He kissed her long and lovingly and held her tightly to him. Alec raised his head. “Let's go, love. We're getting married tomorrow.”

              “Are you still sleeping by yourself?”

              “One more night and then never again!”

              “I want that in writing!”

              He burst out laughing: real, joyous, happy laughter as if he hadn't a care in the world. “I'll have my solicitor draw it up!”

              “You could at least tuck me in,” she said as they strolled to the elevator.

              “What and risk temptation? You can suffer for one more night!”

              “You're impossible!”

              “I know, love,” he said softly as the doors closed. “I know.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Thirty-one

 

 

             

Alec peered anxiously toward the bathroom where his wife had ensconced herself for the last thirty minutes. He busied himself by turning down the bed and fluffing the pillows, but nothing could erase the fact that he was a bundle of nerves. He suspected Lucy was as well. More than once he'd heard something crash to the floor.

              They had made it at last to a little bed and breakfast in Westbrook, Connecticut. They'd left early the next morning after his ring tossing trick and rented a car. Alec had already applied for the marriage license so all they had to do was check in, have a light lunch, and since there was already a Justice of the Peace on the premises, the only thing that was required of them was to change. Alec had opted to wear his black suit again and as for Lucy...

              Well, what did he know about anything? He'd been left waiting for nearly an hour as she got herself ready, and it was well worth the wait. He'd been adjusting his necktie and there she was, wearing an ivory Edwardian tea lace thingy that looked like it belonged in an antique shop. He didn't know where she'd gotten such a thing, but it was dainty and modest, like her. There'd been a pink ribbon encircling her slender waist and a cameo on a matching velvet ribbon around her throat. Pearl and diamond earrings sparkled prettily from her ears and she'd worn no makeup. She'd carried a small bouquet of pink roses and on her tiny feet were satin heels. And as for her hair… She'd gone and swept it up into a loose knot with softly curling tendrils framing her beautiful face. Alec hadn't been able to form a coherent thought, let alone breathe properly.

              From then on, time seemed to stand still. The man performing the ceremony was an elderly gent, tall and wiry, with an air of authority. He'd made no concessions and had come right out and informed them that he was old hat at these sorts of things and he wouldn't stand for nonsense. With that being said, Alec and Lucy were properly wed in a small chapel not far from the main building. It was a sunny October day with the first fall leaves strewn about like an old tapestry beneath their feet, and when the ceremony was completed, Alec had carried his blushing bride out into the garden.

              He glanced down at his new wedding band now and found he liked it very much. The simple titanium band had their names engraved on the inside and the date on which they were wed. When Lucy saw it, she'd wept with joy. Alec had been so nervous he'd placed hers on the wrong hand. Luckily, he'd hastened to correct that minor infraction.

              So here they were, on another wedding night. Alec had carried his wife across the threshold much to her protestations. “You already carried me across!” she told him fretfully.

              “Not so, love,” he'd laughed. “Three. I carried you into the cottage when you were ill. That makes three.”

              “So make it a fourth time!” she'd relented finally. “And don't drop me!”

              He chuckled at the memory. But it was getting late and he wanted his wife. Alec was about to knock on the bathroom door when it flew open, and his heart fell into a pit that had somehow opened beneath his feet. His wife stood before him with softly falling hair and wearing a red lace negligee that barely contained her soft curves.

              Lucy was so nervous she'd dropped her hairbrush into the toilet. Before they'd left New York, she'd gone shopping and purchased her wedding gown and a little something to wear to bed. She'd never in her life dared to wear something so revealing, and she was terrified of how she looked in it. Lucy didn't dare look at her husband either. He hadn't said a word, and the silence was near deafening. She kept her eyes glued to the floor and suddenly wished she'd bought that blue flannel nightie that she'd had her eye on.

              Right about now, her husband could see all the way to Russia.

              When he finally spoke, she flinched. Surely her face must be twelve shades of red. “Lucy,” he said softly. “Look at me.”

              Lucy shook her head. No, she didn't want to look at him! He wasn't standing here in some transparent lace insult to sleepwear wishing the floor would open up and end her misery. Not only was the thing drafty, she was certain she had just made a place for herself in hell for wearing such a thing. She'd only worn it for him and had no intention of wearing something like it ever again.

              “Lucy,” he said again, his voice oddly taut and strained with emotion. He was crying.

              She glanced up in alarm to find tears in his eyes and falling down his cheeks. “W-W-Why are...you crying?” she choked, on the verge of weeping herself. “It's too much, isn't it? I--I should have bought the blue flannel!”

              Alec burst out laughing and stepped forward. He took her face in his hands and kissed her. “No, love,” he said shakily, “you look just right.”

              She breathed a sigh of relief and reached up to brush his tears away. “Then why are you crying?”

              “I don't know,” he said hoarsely, “I'm not really all here at the moment. I feel like I'm dreaming.”

              “Does that mean you like it?” She glanced down at herself and then at him. Her husband was wearing a pair of black satin pajama pants and nothing else. The hard planes of his taut chest and belly made her ache to touch him. “You look sexy.”

              He laughed again, a sort of hoarse croak and reached down to take her hand from where it had been hiding her breasts. “Don't hide, love,” he whispered, kissing her wedding ring. “You're so lovely.”

              Lucy laughed a little. “You said that to me on our wedding night!”

              “First wedding night,” he corrected gently. “I don't think that one counts. It shouldn't anyway.”

              “It shouldn't?”

              Alec pulled away and reached for two champagne flutes on the dresser. He handed her one. “We have to drink to this auspicious occasion, wife.”

              She stared in awe at the gold colored liquid. “I thought we swore we'd never drink again!”

              “Well, I think we should make an exception in this case,” he said, his blue eyes near midnight and caressing every part of her body. She swallowed hard. “What do you think, love?”

              Lucy nodded and clinked his glass with hers. She took a fortifying gulp and seeing her husband's eyes light up with amusement, she tossed the rest down, and hoped for the best. “Now what?” she asked stupidly.

              Alec tossed his wine down in one brave swallow and took his wife's glass and set it down beside his. Then he took her in his arms. “I think this is what's supposed to come next.” He lowered his head and kissed her.

              Lucy sighed into his mouth, feeling warm and giddy. Surely, the wine couldn't have gone to her head that quickly? Her breath caught as his hands traveled down her back and lower to cup her bottom. He lifted her up against him and she had to wrap her arms around him just to stay upright. “You're trembling,” he sighed in wonder, pressing warm kisses to the corners of her mouth.

              “So are you,” she whispered against his mouth. “Why is...that?” Then his mouth was spreading gentle heat down her throat. Lucy closed her eyes and then gasped as he kissed her breasts through the fragile lace. “My love,” she breathed in pleasure and cradled his head to her chest.

              “My wife,” he rasped and caught her mouth again. She gasped in shock when he bent and swept her up into his arms. He stared into her eyes promising carnal delights and she kissed his cheek shyly and buried her face into his neck.

              Alec's lungs weren't processing oxygen properly, and he was feeling lightheaded.  It could have been the wine, or the fact that his lovely wife was clinging to him and trembling as if she were still a virgin. He didn't know. But he was shaking just as badly and hurried to place her on the bed before he sent her back to hospital. He laid her gently on satin sheets and stretched out beside her. She stared up at him with eyes wide and searching, feeling as if this were indeed her first time. Her husband gazed down at her, awestruck by her dark beauty, and took his finger and lightly traced over her lips and jaw, pressing kisses after each touch. Lucy sighed and relaxed under his tender caresses, then reached up and cradled his face between her hands. She allowed her slender fingers to softly trace his handsome features, so familiar and yet so dear. He closed his eyes at her touch and sighed her name. His head lowered and he kissed her gently, parting the sweet mouth with his tongue, and meeting hers with gentle, beguiling strokes. Alec slid his hand down her body in tender possession, lingering over the softly swelling breasts, and nipples peeking shyly through the lace. Her breath caught as he slid his palm over her belly, down her thigh, and beneath the lacy hem of her nightgown. He slid it upwards and she raised her arms to help him ease it over her head. His fumbling hands were met with hers and she helped him off with his pajama pants. Then they were naked and he clutched her to him in desperate longing.

              “Wife,” he breathed and her mouth opened on a sob as he devoured her throat; his hand slipping between her thighs to claim the swollen flesh that ached for him. “Open for me, sweetness,” he begged softly.

              “Come to me, husband!” Lucy gasped and spread her thighs for him. Her head fell back, whimpering in an agony of want as gentle fingers probed the hungry flesh, parting the damp folds, and slipping into her tight heat. “Alec!” she sobbed. “I want you so!”

              “Lucia,” he murmured, dipping his head and licking her breasts, and groaning at the taste of sweet flesh. His tongue swirled over the aching peak, drawing it between his teeth, and drinking greedily. She sobbed softly and slid her hands into his hair, clasping his head tightly to her. Then he kissed her scars, allowing his tongue to trace over them lovingly, reminding him of how close he'd come to losing her completely. She was growing restless beneath him and he chuckled at her impatience. “Soon wife,” he soothed.

              Lucy didn't want to hear it. Her body was on fire, the ache between her thighs an insatiable hunger that only he could satisfy, and she wanted him deep and hard inside her.

              “Alec, please!” she spread hot, persuasive kisses over his face and throat, tracing his ear with her tongue, and gliding her hands possessively over his splendid body. But he only laughed softly, his thumb teasing gently over her clit, and making her insane with need. She writhed beneath him and finally allowed her hand to go where she had never dared: Lucy slid her hand down and closed it over his swollen cock.

              Alec cried out and shuddered in agonized pleasure as her small hand gripped him tightly. She'd never touched him there before, and he couldn't hold off longer. He spread her thighs wide and plunged in---deep. Lucy sobbed in anguish: part pain, part pleasure, his cock expanded within her, stretching and filling with exquisite fullness. She wrapped her thighs around his waist and gripped his shoulders as he began to move. He'd meant to take her tenderly as a husband should on their wedding night, but it had been too damn long. He found himself plunging wildly, unable to control his lust for her. Lucy whimpered as his cock impaled her starving flesh. He hadn't touched her for weeks, wanting to wait, and she reveled in his wanton possession, arching her hips hungrily against his, and gasping in delight at his thick heat moving swiftly within. His tongue fenced with hers and she kissed him back, crying out his name. His arms tightened around her and his whole body shook with the force of his thrusts. It was an intensely passionate fucking, and she gloried in it. Her nipples were scrubbed raw by the hair on his chest and she could feel the familiar, quickening ache in the pit of her belly.

              “Lucy!” Alec moaned and increased his pace, wincing at her tight little cunt pulling him in deeper. “Am I…hurting you, love?”

              “I want you to!” she sobbed, gripping him tighter within her arms. “Alec!” she shrieked, her nails biting into his back as she came.

              He groaned and with several quick, deep thrusts his body was consumed by fire. Wave after wave of deliciously sweet agony washed over him and he collapsed onto his wife, trying to draw precious air into his lungs before he passed out. “Lucy,” he whispered into her hair. “I love you.”

              “Shhh,” his wife shushed him, kissing his shoulder. “Alec, my darling husband, I love you so.”

              Alec didn't know what came over him. Perhaps it was the simple act of joining with her sweet body, or the fact that she cradled him in her arms like a baby, but he began to weep and couldn't stop. He felt her gentle hands stroking his back and smoothing his hair, and he knew that whatever happened tomorrow or the next day, that he would never let her go. He raised his head and found her tears with his mouth.

              They lay entwined in each other and fell asleep, endearments slipping from parted lips, each complete in the other, and in their love.

 

* * *

              Lucy awoke to rain pattering quietly against the windows. Alec slept beside her, his gentle exhalations fanning her throat and sending the most delightful sensations down her spine. After they consummated their marriage for the second time, they'd slept until he woke her with sweet kisses. They' d made love until dawn, when they finally gave in to exhaustion. She huddled deeper under the comforter and snuggled closer to her husband.

              She later awoke feeling deliciously full again and rose up to meet her husband's deep thrusts. His tongue ravished hers, and she sobbed against his mouth as he slowed his hips and plunged into her slow and hard. He loved her gently, and she wept in the tender aftermath of his passion. He kissed the tears away and laid his head down on the soft pillows of her breasts.

              “Happy, love?” he asked after a while.

              “Very,” Alec heard her sigh. “And you, English?”

              He raised his head and stroked a rosy nipple with his thumb. “If I were any happier they'd have to scrape me from the ceiling.” He bent and took the taut peak into his mouth, grinning at her response.

              “Don't, stop...doing that,” she moaned softly and arched her back, offering more for him to enjoy.

              “Never,” he growled against her skin, nipping gently. He felt her fingers weaving themselves through his hair and he groaned when she opened her thighs for him. Moaning with pleasure, he moved down her body, and buried his head into her. She gasped in shock, her body nearly bucking off the bed, and he chuckled against the moist flesh.

              “Alec...I don't think---” she started to say and then bit down hard on her lip as he speared his tongue into her. Lucy whimpered in wanton agony, snatching the pillow, and sobbing softly into it so no one could hear her shrieks of pleasure. “Oh...” she let out a shuddering breath, her body all at once hot and cold, and her husband nibbling and biting the tender folds. The pillow muffled the screams as best as it could, but it was difficult to concentrate when one's husband was plunging his tongue in and out of you, stabbing hotly, and swirling with deliberate torture around the most sensitive part of your body. And he knew it, too! She could feel the vibrations of his laughter, and Lucy wanted to hit him with something. But just when she thought she couldn't take much more, the pillow was snatched away; her mouth filled with his tongue, and the ache between her thighs being soothed with slow, hypnotic thrusts. Lucy moaned into his mouth and clutched his shoulders in a vain attempt to keep the world afloat. She failed miserably and cried out, his mouth absorbing the soft sobs, and giving her his own as he came. They clung to each other as their panting breaths returned to normal, though Lucy was reluctant for him to leave her.

              “Don't go,” she sighed, as he shifted his weight onto his elbows.

              “I must weigh a ton, love,” he breathed, kissing her mouth.

              “I don't mind.”

              Alec chuckled and pressed his brow to hers. “Sore yet?”

              “What do you think?” she answered tartly. “You should be very pleased with yourself!”

              “I am! I am!” he grinned down at his wife, who bore the countenance of woman who's just been shagged out of her mind. He brushed a few damp strands of hair away from her face. “If it makes you feel any better, I don't think I can go again.”

              She wiggled her hips to test his theory and burst into a fit of surprised giggles as his flesh swelled within her. “You were saying...?”

              Alec groaned and moved his hips in a slow circle, laughing as she cried out. “Well, maybe I can go another round. How 'bout you?”

              Lucy arched her hips, her eyes rolling into the back of her head as he withdrew to the tip and impaled her slowly. “I think you'd better,” she gasped, reveling in the delectable stretching ache. “Oh! That feels so...nice!”

              “I know something nicer,” he breathed and took her mouth again.

              Later, after their passion was fully spent, they lounged in a tubful of bubbles. Lucy rested her head against his chest and sighed happily. “Did anyone ever tell you, you could be a porn star?” she asked as she scrubbed his feet.

              “Me?” Alec said incredulously. “I already have a contract.”

              She sat up and drew a finger down the sensitive part of his sole, He jerked upright, laughing, sending water sloshing onto the floor. “Stop that!” he chuckled and reached around to tickle her ribs.

              “Alec!” she giggled and tried to move away. “That's not fair!”

              “Serves you right, you little imp.”

              “Imp, huh?” Lucy turned to get a good look at him and rubbed a few bubbles onto his nose. “I remember a time when you behaved like an ogre!”

              He wiped the bubbles off, wrinkling his nose. “If I was an ogre, it was only because I thought I couldn't have you.”

              “But you already did.”

              Alec shook his head. “I didn't know you were mine.”

              “When did you know?”

              “Well,” he took his finger and ran it down her arm in deep thought, “I used to have these dreams, but I didn't really know until after you'd left with Rudy calling me and screaming that you were pregnant.”

              “I used to have the same dreams,” she said sadly, “I'd wake up missing you and crying because I didn't know where you were.”

              He kissed her cheek. “I used to hear you crying in your room and didn't know what to do.”

              “And now?” She smiled a little.

              “Now, I'll never let you go! You're stuck with me.”

              Lucy leaned her head back, reaching for his arms, and drew them around her. “I can live with that,” she sighed.

              “Good,” he whispered, brushing his lips against the soft skin of her shoulder.

              Alec was basking in the afterglow of marital bliss when, lo and behold, his cellphone began ringing!

              He was determined to ignore it, but something about the urgency of the ringing made him think twice. “Should I answer it?” he asked his wife.

              “Well, who's got the number?”

              “I gave it to Pat before we left, just in case.”

              “It might be important.”

              “Bloody hell!” he swore and rose from the tub, sloshing water all over the tile, and nearly tripping over the bathmat. Alec snatched a towel and went to answer the phone. This had better be good! “Hello?”

              “Is that you, laddie?” Pat's deep voice shouted from a distance. “Where the devil have you been? I've been calling and calling.”

              “We've been busy.” Alec leered at his wife, who giggled. “We eloped.”

              “What the bloody hell did you do that for? You were already married!”

              “Yes, I know. Um...what's up, dad?”

              Alec had to hold the phone away from his ear lest he be made permanently deaf. Pat was screaming and carrying on so that most of his explanation was garbled nonsense.

              “Dad? Do you think you could speak a little slower? I'm having trouble hearing you.”

              “I said I've been arrested!”

              Alec's eyes were widening in mounting horror. “You what---!”

              Lucy climbed out of the tub, wrapping a towel about her, and went to sit beside her husband on the bed. Whatever it was, it didn't sound good. She motioned to her husband who shook his head in confusion. “Here, dad. Let me put you on speaker.”

              “Is she there with you?”

              “I think so,” Alec said, tipping his wife a knowing wink. “Are you here, my love?”

              “Stop that, you little twat! I just asked. Do you want to hear it or not?”

              “Yes,” Alec sighed. “What trouble have you gotten yourself into?”

              “I didn't get myself into anything!” Pat snarled into the phone. “It's that ungrateful little shite that got me thrown in here!”

              “Dad? Tell me you didn't try to see Gavin.”

              “Well, you weren't here and yer mum was carrying on wanting to know where her baby boy had gotten off to. So I went to that studio you told me about and---”

              “---ran into a tree?” Alec finished for him.

              “How did you know?”

              Alec hung his head and rubbed the flesh between his eyes. “Dad, you didn't!”

              “He was as big as you said he was!”

              “Dad, what have they charged you with?”

              “Um...I think it's trespassing with assault and battery. I had every right to hide that sorry bastard!”

              “I'm sure you did. Why are you there anyway? Where's Rudy?”

              “I don't know. Nobody knows where he is.”

              Lucy gripped her husband's arm. He squeezed her hand reassuringly. “What do you mean nobody knows where he is? Where the hell is he?”

              “Don't know!' Pat shouted against the sudden surge of male voices. “Hey, laddie they're trying to kill each other in here!”

              They could hear brawling and shouting, screaming and something being thrown.  “Dad! Have they set bail?”

              “What?”

              “Have...they...set...bail?”

              “Oh! Yes, it's twenty-thousand dollars!”

              “Twenty-thousand---!”

              “Well, I sent the Tree to casualty and broke me hand trying to fell him!”

              “Dad! You hold tight. We'll take the red-eye and can probably be there tomorrow morning. You hear that, dad?”

              “Yeah!” Pat shouted. “I hear you, laddie. I'll be here!”

              He hung up or the phone was snatched from him, Alec couldn't tell.

              Lucy took the phone from him and hurried to dress. “I guess our honeymoon is officially over,” she said through her sweater.

              “It takes all kinds,” he growled, reaching for his boxers. “I'd better call the airport.”

              “I'll do that. Get dressed and pack our stuff.”

              “Since when do you wear the pants in this family?”

              She blew him a kiss and dialed the airport. “Since now!” she grinned.

 

              They booked a midnight flight back to Los Angeles. In coach since most seats in first class were fully booked. Alec couldn't remember ever spending such a miserable night crammed into such a small space. The passenger in front of him decided to sleep the whole way, and Alec had to bend his knees to keep from smashing into the seat. Lucy didn't have such problems with her petite frame, and commiserated with her husband as best she could, offering him her packets of extra peanuts, and placing a pillow between the seat and his legs.

              “Remind me to kill Gavin when we get home,” he grunted and tried to get some sleep. Lucy smiled at her husband and decided to catch up on her reading. She'd managed to breeze through most of Lorna Doone by the time they landed the next morning.

              It was a long, tiring process through security and Alec was in no mood to be felt up by the burly TSA agent but gritted his teeth and smiled. By the time the guy finished, Alec was certain he wouldn't need to see a proctologist for at least a year. With that dreadful examination over, they rented a car, threw their luggage in the trunk, and hurried to bail Pat out of the nick.

              “Sign here,” the booking officer said, whilst munching on a bagel. Alec glowered at the little man and sat down next to Lucy as they went to fetch his stepfather.

              Pat emerged with his hand and wrist in a cast and flanked on either side by two disgruntled looking officers. “Hey, laddie!” he said cheerfully to Alec, who was in no mood to be gracious. The flight had been draining, and he just wanted to crash into bed and make it all go away. Alec glanced at his wife and helped her to her feet. He stalked off with her in tow and Pat swore and hurried to catch up.

              “Wait up, laddie!” he yelled. He must be getting old. Surely it wasn't this bad to chase after the boy after all these years?

              Lucy glanced behind her to see Pat struggling to keep up as they walked to the car. “Alec...”

              “Let him sweat a bit,” he said shortly. “Serves him right to interrupt our honeymoon.”

              “There'll be other honeymoons,” she said, stroking his arm in an effort to diffuse his temper. “I'll let you chase me around the Taj Mahal.”

              “Taj Mahal, huh?” He grinned and the fury died a little in those piercing blue shards of ice. “Make it the Eiffel Tower and you've got a date!”

              “Okay.”

              Pat caught up with them huffing and puffing. “What the hell's wrong with you, laddie? Can't you see your dad can't keep up?”

              “Whose fault is that?” Alec replied stiffly, taking in the black eyes and swollen mouth. “He really jobbed you didn't he?”

              “Like hell, he did!” Pat retorted. “I broke his bleedin' nose and a few ribs for good measure! Let's see who got the worst end of it!”

              “Get in the car, dad.”

              “Huh? Oh.” Pat eased his bulky frame into the backseat and tried not to think about how he was going to explain this to Maggie. She'd have his head on a platter. But it hadn't been his entire fault. “Boy Wonder” had something to do with it too. He didn't know what had happened to the lad, but his eyes had looked him straight into his own and Pat had seen nothing. Dead eyes, that's what they were. Cold and dreadful, Pat had only meant to talk to him, to try to make him see the error of his ways. But the lad hadn't wanted to hear it. As soon as he saw Pat, he started ranting and raving about what a fuck up his whole childhood had been and how Pat was the cause of it. And then the Tree had showed up. Alec hadn't been lying when he described the brute.

              The next thing he knew, the Tree had him in a headlock, and Pat would be damned if some blighter was going to humiliate him like that. A fist had landed in the Tree's eye and then Tree hit him back, and then they were on the floor. Pat had heard one hell of a scream come out of the Tree when he wrenched his arm back. He later found out he'd broken the Tree's arm. Of course, Gavin had pressed charges, the little shite!              

              What a balls-up the whole thing turned out to be.

              “Dad, you want to get something to eat?” Pat looked up and saw his daughter-in-law smiling kindly at him. She was good for Alec. He was just sorry about calling her what he did the first time they met.

              “Um...can we get some of those muffin things?”

              “Of course, we can.” She turned to her husband and nudged him slightly. “Can't we, dear?”

              “Yeah, yeah. “ He glowered at Pat through the rearview mirror. “Just as long as he doesn't order the whole restaurant!”

              Lucy giggled and tipped Pat a wink before settling back into her seat.

              They arrived back at Rudy's beach house close to noon and both Alec and Lucy were knackered and needed to sleep off the jet lag. Alec escorted Pat to the spare bedroom and handed him his bag of Egg McMuffins. “We'll be up later and you can tell me what the hell happened.” Then Alec went to find his wife who was busy tugging her boots off.

              He closed the door and tugged his own shoes off before collapsing onto the bed. “I'm wrecked,” he sighed, and urged his wife into his arms.

              “Me too.” She yawned and snuggled close. “Go easy on him. He meant well.”

              “Well enough to get a restraining order?”

              “He didn't!”

              “He did.”

              “Oh, for pity's sake,” she said, kissing his neck. “Go to sleep, English.”

              “Yes, ma'am,” he smiled and closed his eyes.

             

             

             

 

             

 

 

             

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Thirty-One

 

 

             

Lucy was the first out of bed after a six-hour nap. Her husband still slept and she smiled how he even frowned in his sleep. She kissed his brow softly and drew an afghan over him. She went into the bathroom to wash her face and comb her hair. Then she padded into the kitchen in socks and found Pat buried in the refrigerator, trying to find something to eat.

              “Bloody hell!' he muttered to himself. “Don't they have Wensleydale?”

              “I need to go to the store for that,” she said dryly and giggled when he bumped his head on the freezer door. “Or we could just order pizza.”

              Pat flushed with embarrassment. “How's my stepson?”

              “He's still asleep, poor baby. It was a long flight. We had to ride in coach.”

              “Ouch!” Pat found a can of iced tea and shut the door. “I suppose that's my fault. He told me not to go over there, but I did anyway.”

              “Well, if it makes you feel any better, I had a run-in with the tree as well.”

              “Oh?”

              “I'm glad you broke his arm!”

              “Lassie!” Pat gasped in shock and then peered at her closely. “What'd he do?”

              Lucy flushed and inspected the contents of the pantry, making a mental grocery list. She took some glasses from the cupboard and filled them with ice. As Pat poured the ice tea, she told him: “He wanted me to dress up in a leather thong and be his love slave!”

              “He didn't!”

              “Don't tell Alec, he might go to the hospital and smother him with a pillow.”

              Pat took a sip of the iced tea. “Serve the nancy right saying that to a nice lass like yerself.”

              She laughed. “Want to go to the store with me?”

              Pat's broad face broke into a grin. “Sure, why not? I ain't got nothing better to do.”

              They drove back with a backseat full of fattening goodies that wouldn't help their cholesterol. Pat helped her with the bags and Alec had gotten up and held the door open as they brought them inside. “Well, where have you two been?”

              “Hello, to you too!” Lucy said as they exchanged kisses. “We had to get stuff to eat, remember? There's nothing in the house.”

              Alec carried the bags into the kitchen and set them on the table. He began taking out boxes and packages of meat. Lucy joined him and started rummaging for pots and pans. “Sleep well?” she asked, and was answered by a grimace.

              “I've got the worst headache and he”---he nodded in Pat's general direction---“doesn't help.”

              “I know, but behave just for tonight,” she pleaded as she oiled a pan and set it on the stove.  “You can grumble tomorrow.” Lucy began to boil potatoes and chopped some garlic.

              “Grumble?” He handed her a spatula. “You make me seem like a bear.”
              “Well, you are!” she laughed and wrinkled her nose. “You're a horrible grouch when you don't get any sleep!”

              “That's true.” Alec handed her the salt and pepper. “I suppose I ought to go and talk to the old boy.”

              “There's an idea!” Lucy shooed him away when he tried to snag a dinner roll. He gave her a noisy peck on the cheek and went out to Pat who lounged on the sofa trying to figure out the intricacies of Yankee television.

              Pat switched from one channel to the next, trying to figure out why there were so many reality shows. Not one football game on the telly! He flung the remote aside in frustration and contented himself with some bloke trying to outrun one of those zombie things. He glanced up to find Alec studying him contemplatively. “Well, out with it laddie!” he growled at last.

              “I didn't say a thing.”

              “You don't have to. You've got Maggie's eyes, and they always say the same thing when she knows I've made a mess of it!”

              “Well, I would like to know what the hell you were doing over there. He won't talk to me, what makes you think he'll talk to you?”

              Pat sighed raggedly. “I did it for your mum. She's had a hard time of it, with the cancer and all. I wanted to put an end to all of it!” He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. “Do you know what it's like to see the woman you love lying helpless in a hospital bed?”

              “I've been there, dad and I don't care to go there again.” Alec handed him a can of Old Speckled Hen. “Here, better finish these off.”

              Pat took the can gratefully and after a thoughtful gulp, set it down. “When did you go there?”

              Alec exhaled heavily. “When that son of a bitch tried to kill Lucy, she almost bled to death. I sat and kept vigil, waiting for her to wake up, and fearing I'd never have a chance to tell her how I felt.”

              “There, now laddie.” Pat gave his stepson a comforting slap on the arm. “She's all better now, thanks to you. She glows when she's around you and you her.”

              “Well, it's been a long, hard road getting there.” Alec cleared his throat, flushing slightly. “So, when's the last time you heard from Rudy?”

              He shrugged. “A few weeks ago, before you left. He called me and said he had a few things to sort out and that I should tell you not to worry.”

              “That doesn't sound like the old boy. He's been acting strange ever since we got back from Point Reyes.”

              “How so?”

              “I don't know.” Alec and Pat watched some telly until he glanced up to see Lucy motioning for them to come eat. “Did you find anything up there?” He rose and helped Pat to his feet.

              “Well, now that you mention it laddie, I did find something.”

              “What?”

              Pat sat down at the table and began helping himself to fried chicken and mashed potatoes with gravy. He glanced up to see Alec scowling at him. “Not before supper!” he said, and buttered a roll. He'd tell him about the spectacles later. All he wanted to do now was eat.

              Alec shook his head at his inquiring wife and sat down across from her and watched his stepfather wolf down most of their dinner. After they ate what was left, Pat polished off half a chocolate cake, and went to bed. He and Lucy were left with the fudgy remains and sat in the kitchen licking the frosting off their forks and talking.

              “He 's going to eat us out of house and home if we let him.”

              She giggled and washed down her cake with ice-cold milk. “Well, he is a large man. It takes a lot of food to move that around!”

              “Very funny, wife!” He rose and got her plate and put it in the sink. ”I mean it! I don't know what's going on anymore. Rudy's gone off on some half-assed expedition, Pat's a criminal, and my wee brother is a porn star! Have I left anyone out?”

              Lucy got up, went to him, and slid her arms around his waist. “You worry too much, English. Everything will sort itself out. You'll see.”

              “Aren't you the least bit worried about Rudy?”

              She glanced up. “I'm worried sick. But I don't think I'll be helping anyone by being a nervous wreck.”

              “That's your logical side rearing its impossible head again,” he said huskily and kissed the top of her head. “Let's go to bed, wife. I'm tired.”

              She glanced at the dishes piled up in the sink. “What about those?”

              “We'll do them tomorrow!” He caught her hand and tugged her along with him to the bedroom. “Sleep first! Chores later!”

              “But Ale---!” she protested to no avail. But her husband was right. After brushing her teeth and changing into her nightgown, she was so tired Alec had to tuck her in. He climbed in beside her and drew her close.

              He lay awake for a long time, listening to the distant roar of ocean waves coming through a crack in the window, and wondering if they were ever going to have a peaceful marriage.

              Alec sighed and drifted off, content for the moment at least.

 

              The next few weeks flew by with Halloween fast approaching and still no word from Rudy. He seemed to have vanished into a black hole, and everyone was worried something awful might have befallen their favorite lawyer. Both Lucy and Alec braved on as best they could, with Pat lounging around the house, and being a general pain in the ass.

              Alec didn't like Lucy running around cooking, cleaning, and waiting on Pat hand and foot like some servant. He'd finally lost his temper and told Pat to start helping out or he was going to drive him out to the desert and leave his sorry arse out there. Pat of course, had laughed his damn fool head off, and washed a few measly glasses.

              Some help, Alec thought bitterly.

              When Saturday arrived, he told Pat he could do the dishes because he was taking his wife out---on a date.

              “B-But what'll I do when you're gone, laddie? There's nothing on the telly!”

              “Oh I don't know,” Alec drawled, escorting Lucy to the door. “Why don't you mop the kitchen floor and vacuum the living room? That's a good way to burn off all that cake you've been stuffing in that gob of yours!”

              “You'll not get away with this, laddie!” Pat blustered, shaking his huge fist at them. “I'll tell yer mum and then you'll be sorry!”

              “Temper, temper old boy!” Alec chided softly and shut the door as Pat continued to rail about kids today. He chuckled to himself as he walked Lucy to the car. “He's got such a nasty disposition!”

              “You're enjoying this far too much,” she scolded. “You should have told him to do his laundry. He used all the towels... again!”

              “See?” Alec told her as she buckled her seatbelt. “I told you what would happen, but nooo...you just had to invite him to stay.”

              “How was I supposed to know how many towels he uses in one day?”

              “That's the point!” Alec started the car. “Mum never lets him get away with this stuff. All she has to do is look at him and he goes off and does his chores like a good little husband.”

              “Maybe I should try that with you.”

              “I don't think you'd have to go that far, love,” he said laughing, and pulled out of the driveway. “So what movie are we seeing?”

              “I don't know,” she sighed, just happy to get out of the house and the never-ending mountains of laundry. “I guess we'll find out when we get there.”

 

              They loaded up on hot dogs and soda at the concession stand, and Alec was glad he'd bought their tickets early; the line stretched clear out into the mall. “I guess everyone and their mum wants to see this movie.”

              Lucy smiled and followed her husband into the theatre where they sat way in back to avoid the pitfalls of sitting in front of people who liked to kick. They shared popcorn and waited for the previews. The lights went down and the screen lit up. Soon the audience was hooting and hollering as their favorite action hero showed up and started kicking ass and taking names. Lucy had never given much credence to the genre, but every now and then the action sequences had something to offer in the most violent ways in which to dispatch a villain. There were several car explosions, two decapitations, an airplane crash, a painful disembowelment, and a particularly nasty sequence in which the hero threw several knives and then finished off the goons with his pistol, some of whom were already dead.

              Lucy shook her head and plugged her ears with her fingers. Everyone was screaming and cheering, even Alec was shouting for the hero to get the bad guys. And then...a familiar face popped up on screen.

              It was...him.

              Even ten years gone, she could still feel his hot breath against her cheek and his hands on her young breasts. Vivian hadn't believed her when she told her what her latest toy-boy had done to her after he left Vivian's bed. She'd just turned thirteen, and he was tall and handsome and charming. One night he'd come to her room and touched her. Lucy thought it all had been a horrible dream. Then it happened again the next night and the next and so on. He would try to kiss her and would punch her in the arm when she refused. Then one night he came again and grew enraged when he found Lucy bundled up in several layers of clothes. That's when he forced her...

              Lucy's stomach lurched at the remembered taste of him, and she clapped a hand over her mouth and barely made it to the ladies' room. Most of her dinner and all the popcorn she ate came up in a tasteless disgorge, splattering her clothes and hair. Tears coursed down her cheeks and her nose started to bleed. Shuddering with the last spasms, she grabbed a handful of toilet paper and tried to staunch the flow.

              She stood hunched over the bowl, shaking violently, and dreaded what would happen if Alec ever found out.

              “Lucy?” It was Alec! “Are you in here, love?”

              Lucy winced. She'd have to tell him. You couldn't keep a secret like this from your husband and not expect it to bite your ass sooner or later. She mumbled an affirmative and wanted to die.

              “Let me in, love,” he said, rapping lightly on the stall door.

              She reached up reluctantly and opened it. His eyes widened at her appearance. “My God, love! What happened?”

              She shook her head and turned away from him in shame. The tears wouldn't stop.

              “I'm a m-mess!” she croaked. “I--I'm sorry.”

              “Don't be sorry, love.” Alec went to dampen some paper towels and wiped off the blood and vomit. She wouldn't look at him. “What's wrong?” he asked in a frightened whisper. “Tell me!”

              “Not here,” she mumbled.

              Just then they were interrupted by an outraged woman's voice: “What are you doing in here?”

              Alec peered over the top of the stall door. “My wife is ill. I was just seeing if she was all right.”

              “Oh,” she frowned in concern. “Is there anything I can do?”

              Alec caught Lucy's arm and steered her out of the stall. The woman's eyes bulged out of her skull. “I'm going to take her home now. Thanks anyway.”

              With that Alec escorted his wife out of the theatre, out of the mall, and into the car, all the while she said nothing and stared off into space. She seemed to be in shock, and Alec wondered if he shouldn't get her to hospital so they could look her over.

              “Take me to the beach and I'll tell you everything,” she said suddenly, her voice taut and reedy.

              Alec nodded grimly and started the engine. He felt a cold sense of dread knot itself in his belly. He knew whatever it was she had to tell him, that he wasn't going to like it.

* * *

             

              He drove his wife out to a deserted part of Venice Beach and stopped in an empty car park. Alec turned the engine off and sat quietly, a gamut of thoughts racing through his weary brain. Lucy had not uttered a single word and he could hear her soft, agitated breaths as she struggled with some inner demon only she could sense. “Lucy...?”

              She didn't answer, but opened the door and stepped out into the night, the cool ocean air reviving her cowardice and before this night was through, Lucy would know whether or not she lost Alec.

              Lucy walked some way onto the beach and crumpled onto the sand. Then she felt him beside her, waiting and watching, trying to see inside her mind. Oh, Alec, she thought desperately, please don't hate me! She finally found the strength to speak. “Did you enjoy the movie?”

              “H-Huh?” he sounded confused, and a little frightened. “That's not what you wanted to tell me.”

              “Did you notice the guy with the wavy blonde hair?”

              “Who, love?”

              “The tall young man with the machine gun.”

              “Yeah, what about him?”

              Lucy slid around to look at him and rolled up her sleeve. “I'm going to tell you all about this...” she flinched a little as he reached out and stroked the thinly raised scar. “Do you want to...hear it?”

              “Lucy---sweet---you don't---”

              “Yes, I do!” She took a deep shuddering breath and jerked her arm away. “Promise you won't hate me.”

              “H-How could you think I-I could ever hate you?” Alec could hear the ocean roaring in his ears like a freight train, the brackish odor of salt water seared his nostrils, and burned his lungs rendering normal breathing impossible. “I love you!”

              “N-Not after you hear what I have to…say,” she gulped, feeling nauseated again. “Just remember that you’re the first person besides Vivian that I’ve ever told. “

              Alec felt it suddenly in the pit of his stomach. It was an awful, heavy certainty that he knew what was coming next. He could barely utter the words through a throat that was fast closing on him. “What did he do to you?”

              She gasped in horror and began to weep, placing trembling hands on either side of her face so she could explain, to tell him that it hadn’t been her fault. “Don’t talk until I finish, please!” she begged. “I have to explain…to tell you how sorry I am.”

              “Lucy, I don’t---”

              “Shhh,” she put her hand on his lips and could feel him shaking. “Let… me!”

              Alec nodded and sat quietly as she began to speak.

              “I had just turned thirteen,” Lucy began in a flat voice, trying to distance herself from the horror she was about to unveil. “After dad died, Vivian dated as many men she could sink her claws into. Some were models. Some were musicians. And some…were actors. The young man on the screen was one of the many flavors of the month. They started dating shortly after my thirteenth birthday. I didn’t know much about men. I was plain, skinny, and awkward. Viv used to tell me no one would ever love a skinny crow like me, and I believed her. So she brought him home one night and he stayed. He was tall and handsome and charming and he used to talk to me and tell me things. I was so stupid! I d-didn’t know. They started fighting about things. Stupid things. I would shut myself in my room so I couldn’t hear them scream at each other. One night after I fell asleep I woke up and there he was beside…me...”

              She caught her breath and held on tight to Alec’s hand.  “He started--touching me, whispering dirty words in my ear. Telling me how pretty I was and how hot I made him. I felt like screaming but I couldn’t! He touched me and made…me…touch… him. When it was over…he left and told me if I told anyone no one would believe me because how could anyone want to touch a scrawny little crow like me. So I kept my mouth shut and every night he would come and try to kiss me. I wouldn’t let him…I thought he could do whatever he wanted to me, but he couldn’t have that! I told him that, and he started punching me on the arms. I had to wear long sleeves in summer because of the bruises. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t sleep. I’d lay awake in the dark afraid…knowing he’d come and hurt me.”

              Lucy took a deep breath and loosened her grip on Alec, but to her relief he tightened his grip on her. “Do…you…want me to…continue?”

              “Go on,” he said tightly. “I won’t say anything.”

              She nodded and continued, “One night I decided I’d had enough of him and put on all my winter clothes. I put on all my underwear, my jeans, my sweaters, and put on my nightgown. He was going to have to go through all of that to get to me. Then he came and held me down…I could feel his hot stinking breath on my face…and then he lifted my nightie and found all the layers and he was so mad. He bit my cheek and dragged me from the bed. I couldn’t scream because he had his hand over my mouth. He told me I was a frigid little bitch and he was going to show me, that he was going to do me a favor. He started…unzipping his pants and---”

              “Lucy, don’t---” Alec choked, not wanting to hear what came next. “Please, love…”

              “Why not?” she said faintly. “I have… to tell everything…I have to tell you what he made me do.”

              “No!” he gasped in mounting horror. “You don’t...it wasn’t---”

              “It’s all right, my love,” she said numbly, and patted his hand consolingly, “it’s going…to be all right.”

              “All right!” he spat out the words. “Finish it, then!”

              “He pulled it out…and I didn’t know what it was at first. Of course, I knew. But somehow my mind just couldn’t comprehend. He grabbed a fistful of my hair and forced me down on my knees and he forced it into my mouth. I…he was so big…I couldn’t breathe…and I felt like puking… he tasted…I can still taste him in my mouth if I let myself.”

              Lucy swiped her hand against her lips as if to erase the sickening feel of his cock against them.

              “He started shoving it in and I couldn’t breathe. I kept tugging at his hand. I was crying and my nose started bleeding. But he didn’t care. He started to laugh and called me every filthy word you can think of. He just kept going and going and I could feel him at the back of my throat and he was making these sounds…he was grunting and groaning. And then I felt this awful salty gush flood my mouth and going down my throat. I started to choke and he wouldn’t let go. He kept my head on him and made me swallow every disgusting drop.”

              Lucy sagged forward, covering her face with her hands, feeling such shame and disgust that she’d allowed him to do that to her. “After he was… done…he shoved me away and I fell back on the floor gagging on semen and I puked all over myself and he laughed and said I was the best fuck he’d ever had. He threw a towel at me and told me to clean myself up. And then he put it back in his pants and he left. He left me there on the floor, covered in his filth and puke, and I wanted to die. So I crawled to my bathroom and cleaned myself up as best I could and then I took…a pair of scissors and slit my wrists. I figured it was better to die than go through that again.”

              She took a deep, pained breath and finished the tale. “They found me a few hours later lying in a pool of blood, going into shock. I don’t remember what happened after that. I woke up in the hospital and they kept asking me why I’d done it, and he was there and looking at me like he could kill me if he wanted to. So I kept my mouth shut and never told anyone about it. Life went on and he and Vivian kept fucking each other until she got sick of him and threw him out. I tried to tell her a few months later, but she smacked me and told me to keep my dirty mouth shut, that I was just jealous, and why would someone like him waste his time on a skinny little crow like me…

              She finished and it was quiet. Alec was sitting next to her and he’d let go of her hand. Lucy could hardly see in the dark, but she could tell he was angry. “Alec…?”

              He didn’t answer and she knew she’d lost him. Lucy got up sobbing bitterly and started toward the water. She tripped over her feet and fell to her knees. Her nose was bleeding again. Why had she told him? They’d been so happy. Now he would divorce her. She was so disgusting he couldn’t look at her. Lucy swiped at her nose and choked on the saltiness trickling down her throat. She was utterly broken in her grief and couldn’t see Alec rising to his feet and staggering after her. She didn’t feel his arms going around her nor could she feel him picking her up and cradling her against his chest. She couldn’t feel his lips against her hair; feel him carrying her to the car; feel him wiping her face; and she couldn’t hear his voice, hoarse and cracking with his own tears for her.

              Lucy sat numb and unfeeling as he drove her home. She sat numb and unfeeling as he carried her through the door, sat still as he undressed her, and put her in the tub where he washed off the blood and vomit. And she sat feeling dead inside as he washed and dried her hair, dressed her in pajamas, and tucked her into bed. Lucy wasn’t aware of any of these things. She could feel nothing, not even when he slid in beside her, and took her in his arms.

              It was only after he kissed her hair and told her how much he loved her that she felt anything resembling human emotion. She turned in his arms and wept. And Alec was still there when she stopped crying. He was still there when she finally fell asleep, and he was still there in the morning when she opened her eyes and stared up into his clear blue ones.

              Alec’s eyes which told her without saying anything… how much he loved her.

             

 

             

 

 

 

 

 

             

 

             

             

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

             

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Thirty-Two

 

 

 

“I’ll kill him!” Alec swore savagely to his wife, one week after her confession. “He’s going to pay for what he did to you!”

              “How’s he going to do that?” Lucy was still a little shocked Alec hadn’t left her. “You think I’m the only one he’s done it to?”

              His eyes widened. “What are you saying? Don’t tell me there are…others?”

              Her hands kept mixing the cake batter she had in a bowl. “It’s common knowledge in the industry that he’s a… pedo.” Lucy dipped her finger into the batter to taste and smiled sadly. “Do you know how many girls he’s molested?”

              “How many?” Alec sounded sick.

              “I lost count. But it’s an open secret. Everyone knows. No one cares what he does or who he does it to.”

              Alec sat down on a stool across from her. She hadn’t been sleeping well since that night. Even though he’d sat her down and told her he loved her and there was nothing on this earth that could ever change that, she was still afraid and had been skittish around him. She hadn’t let him touch her either for that matter. “How can he get away with it?”

              Lucy gave him wary glance. “It’s simple. He’s popular. He’s handsome. He’s a huge box office draw. As long as he’s a cash cow, everyone will continue to sweep it under the rug, and pretend it doesn’t happen. I think his people have paid off most of his victims, and the media continues to worship at his altar. He can do no wrong. Sickening isn’t it?”

              Alec sighed heavily. “I think I’m going to be sick.” He got off the stool and went to her. “Can…I hold…you?” he asked, almost fearfully.

              Her dark eyes widened in surprise. “You don’t have to ask.”

              “Yes, I do,” he said softly, and reached up to wipe some flour off her nose. Alec breathed a sigh of relief when she let him. “I want to ask. I should ask.”

              “No,” she shook her head, dropping the spoon she was using to mix the cake batter. Lucy wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tight. “I was so afraid I would lose you.”

              He returned the embrace and kissed her brow. “You can’t get rid of me so easily, wife. I’m madly in love with you. That has to count for something.”

              “Even if…I can’t… do some things…a wife should?”

              Alec reached and tilted up her chin. “What things?”

              She blushed. “I don’t think…I can…kiss…you… there…”

              “I don’t want you to!” he whispered fiercely, crushing her to him. “But if you want to try on my sixty-fifth birthday, I can’t think of a better way I’d like to go.”

              “Sixty-fifth, huh?” Lucy peered up at him dubiously. “Why that particular number?”

              “Because I’ll officially be a pensioner and approaching the age where I should have a bucket list. I might put that on there. I might not. I can be happy either way, love.” Alec kissed her adorable little nose. “But in lieu of that, maybe we can go skydiving instead.”

              Lucy stared up at him in horror. “Skydiving…?” she said faintly. “I’m afraid of heights!”

              “Don’t worry, love,” he grinned. “I’ll catch you!’

              “You will, huh?”

              “Certainly!” he laughed, and backed away when she took a handful of flour and began to stalk him. “Really love, can’t we talk about this?”

              “You’re not getting me anywhere near a parachute!” Lucy flung the flour at his head and laughed when a fine cloud dusted his immaculate head. “Gee, what a shame! You’re going gray!”

              Alec shook off the flour and scooped up a handful on the counter. He leveled it at her head but hit her square in the face. She gasped in mock outrage and tossed another handful. He ducked and caught her around the waist and dragged her giggling to the floor. Lucy slid her arms around his neck and drew his head down to hers.

              He kissed her long and deep, sliding his hand up her dress to test the waters, and sighed in relief when she arched against him in response. “Not here,” he breathed.

              “Why not?” she murmured against his lips. “Where’s your sense of adventure?”

              “You’re… sure?” he asked doubtfully as he ground his erection against her.

              “I’m sure,” she sighed with pleasure, tightening her arms around him. “It’ll be something to tell the grandkids someday.”

              Alec laughed, reaching between them to unzip his jeans, and took her right there on the kitchen floor.

* * *

             

              Halloween was more than a week away, and Lucy had decided it was high time they went and confronted Gavin. Alec was dead set against it. “And why not?” she demanded as he drove her to Marco’s salon for a touch-up. “If he won’t come quietly, then we should go and find the little bugger and drag him back kicking and screaming!”

              Alec glanced at his wife, who seemed to have undergone a transformation since that night she bared her soul. “I just don’t believe in forced coercion. Someone’s liable to get hurt, probably me!”

              Lucy giggled at her husband’s logic. “The Tree is still in the hospital. He can’t hurt anybody!”

              “Sure, sure. What about the toady? Don’t forget about him!”

              “Yes, you are right. There’s got to be a way to get close to him without him realizing we’re close to him.”

              “Why do I feel like I’m in an episode of Scooby-Doo?”

              “I don’t know, Fred!” she grinned, and mussed his hair playfully. “You tell me!”

              “All right, Daphne. What do you suggest?”

              Lucy shook her head, tapping a finger against her lips thoughtfully. “Let me work on it.”

              Alec rolled his eyes, Somehow he figured his clever wife already had something worked out. He just hoped it didn’t involve anything illegal. Like kidnapping. “So are you going to keep the color or go back to black?”

              “Why? Don’t you like me as a fiery brunette?”

              “I do. I just don’t want you to think that you have to please me by changing yourself.”

              “Duly noted, husband,” she smiled and ran her hand through the messy locks. “But I only dyed it to give myself some color. I hated looking like Elvira!”

              “I liked Elvira!”

              “Is that so?”

              Alec nodded, grinning and pulled alongside the curb. “So what’s the agenda today?” He cut the engine. “Anything I should know about?”

              Lucy unbuckled her seatbelt. “What makes you think there’s an agenda?”

              “Isn’t there?”

              She tilted her head to one side and then pecked him on the cheek. “A spy never reveals their secrets!” Lucy opened the door and climbed out.

              “Since when are you a spy?” Alec leaned across and shut the door. “What are you planning, wife?”

              “Go eat lunch, English!” she laughed and whirled on her heel, leaving him staring at her slender back with a dumbfounded look on his face. He drove off in a daze, wondering what mischief his wife was about to get them into.

              Wandering into the salon, Marco was there to greet her this time, and quickly ushered her into a chair. “Lucy girl, what have you been up to besides allowing your roots to show?”

              She smiled at him and wondered if she should ask him about Gavin. Alec would never forgive her, but Marco was discreet. He may be a gossip, but he was also known to keep a secret. “I think I’d like to go one shade darker, Marco. What do you think?”

              He nodded in approval. “Espresso is a hot color this year and you’ve got the coloring to carry it off.” Marco draped the cape around her. “So how’s married life?”

              “Fine, fine,” Lucy said, and scratched her nose nervously. “We’ll be leaving for London soon, but we’d like to enjoy L.A. while we can. Do you know any good parties we could crash?”

              “Crash?” Marco sniffed. “Honey, you’ve got to know someone who knows someone to get into one of those!”

              “Do…you know Jimmy de Wilde?”

              Marco’s eyes widened. “Do I?” he snickered. “How do you know about him, a nice girl like yourself?

              Lucy flushed in embarrassment. “It’s not like that.” She drew a deep breath. “You have to promise not to tell anyone!”

              He leaned down, eager for the latest juicy bit of gossip, but promised her that he wouldn’t tell a soul. “I promise! Now spill it!”

              “He’s sort of family.”

              He gasped. “Family?” he hissed low. “How?”

              “Brother-in-law,” Lucy confessed, feeling as if she were betraying Alec. “My husband has been looking for him for years, but Jimmy won’t talk to him. His mother has been ill and wants to know where he is. Do you…think you could help?”

              Marco tilted his head, taking in this vital information, and processing it like last season’s do-not-wear list. “Say no more, Lucy girl. Marco is on the case!”

              “You won’t…tell anyone?”

              “Cross my heart and hope to not die without a man!”

              “He can’t know who we are. I was thinking one of those Halloween parties. Everyone who’s anyone goes to those. Think you can find out where he is and finagle us an invitation?”

              “Does Cher sing like an angel?” Marco grinned slyly at her in the mirror and gave her a knowing wink. “Leave everything to me!”

 

              On Halloween night, Lucy and Alec had plans. They drove to Marco’s salon; he had come through with his promise of an invitation to the most exclusive Halloween bash of the year and even scrounged up costumes for them to wear. The biggest star in town was throwing a glamorous shindig at an old gothic mansion in the Hollywood Hills, and anyone who was anyone was invited.

              The theme of the party was classic Hollywood cinema, and Marco thought it appropriate since they were old movie buffs. He’d gone and rented Alec a Zorro costume a la Tyrone power in The Mark of Zorro. For Lucy, he’d gone one better and produced a red and black flamenco gown that seemed better suited to a Spanish epic than on some Halloween reveler. The dress was a study in feminine seduction with deeply scooped bodice, three-quarter sleeves, and flouncy skirt all trimmed in black ruffled lace. When she put it on she felt exposed, the tops of her breasts heaved dangerously over the bodice, and she was certain she’d fall into whatever they were serving for dinner. Lucy wanted to take it off and put on a sheet, but Marco was adamant.

              “Do you know what I had to go through to get that dress? You’ll wear it missy, and you’ll look great doing it!”

              “B-But you can see my---” she sputtered in outraged modesty and flung up her hands trying to cover a cleavage she didn’t know she had. “I look like a discount Rita Hayworth!”

              “Stop that!” Marco scolded her like a mother hen, and dabbed at the makeup he’d applied to cover her scars, clucking to himself when she smacked his hands away. He didn’t have such problems as he was going as Robin Hood `a la Errol Flynn. “Here,” he handed her a black rose on a red velvet choker, “try this.”

              Lucy took it and fastened it around her neck before he started to pin up her newly dyed hair. “Are you sure he’s going to be there?”

              “Of course! My sources are very reliable.” He arranged a few wispy curls around her face. Then he started applying her makeup. “They say he’s going as Richard Burton in Cleopatra.”

              “Who are these sources?” Lucy wanted to know and looked up while he expertly applied mascara. “I-I mean, can they be trusted?”

              Marco dabbed the applicator into some black eye shadow. “Don’t worry, they are very discreet!”

              “Who are they?”

              “Well, if you must know,” he rolled his eyes in exasperation, “it’s the Dresden twins!”

              “Those two trouble makers?” Lucy squeaked out in horror, wondering how long it would take for her husband to throttle her senseless. “How can you trust them? Didn’t Delilah just get out of rehab?”

              “She did.” Marco applied blusher to the apples of her cheeks. “But it wasn’t Delilah that told me, it was Denise.” He started to apply red lip liner. “Denise is the responsible one and she knows everything!”

              Lucy relaxed a little. “I-I suppose it’ll be all right,” she said grudgingly. “But how does she know he’s going to be there? I mean… he’s not easy to talk to. How would she get this sort of information?”

              “She has too much money and uses too much bleach. People think she’s an idiot, so they don’t keep their lips zipped when she’s around. She’s actually very smart.”

              “I didn’t know that.”

              “Neither do a lot of people,” Marco winked at her and applied shiny red lipgloss. “But that’s their own misfortune. I don’t feel sorry for them one little bit.”

              “I guess you can’t judge a book by its cover, huh?”

              “Well, I’m a walking example of that!” He stepped away from her and turned her around to study her reflection. “I don’t think anyone would recognize you, Lucy girl! Not even Viv who’s going to be there, too.”

              “As what? A Venus flytrap?” Lucy peered into the mirror and did not recognize the seductress staring back at her. That vixen had huge smoky eyes and seductive red lips with a rose in her hair. If Gavin had seen her that day at the studio, he wouldn’t be able to place her. Marco was a genius. “Who is that girl staring at me?”

              Marco began chortling with glee and called for Alec who was having an equally difficult time adjusting to his Zorro costume of flowing satin shirt and tight breeches.

              “Listen, guys,” he said, tugging at tight fabric that threatened to nix whatever plans he and his wife had for producing children, “I don’t know if this is such a g---” he stopped and simply stared at the exotic beauty sitting in the chair. For a brief moment he felt the world tilt on its axis. “Lucia, is that you?” he breathed once he could speak.

              Their eyes met and held, and Lucy stood up wobbling precariously in her black Mary Jane platform heels. She nearly tripped over them, and Alec hurried to assist his wife, grinning rakishly. “Need some help, Senorita?”

              “Don’t you dare laugh at me, English!” she said, pointing to his mustache. “You’re one to talk with that hovering over your mouth!”

              Alec smoothed it self-consciously and said to Marco: “This won’t come off, will it?”

              “Of course not!” Marco said, slightly offended by the suggestion that he would use inferior products. “I used the best stuff money could buy! If anything, you’ll probably have to get a plastic surgeon to remove it!”

              “See?” Lucy nudged her husband who was looking every inch the Spanish bandito with the requisite black sombrero, cordobes cloak, and domino mask. “He knows what he’s doing. Don’t you, Marco?”

              Marco adjusted his feathered cap and eyed them both like a proud father about to usher his children off to their first day of school. “You’ll knock them dead, which I hope you won’t take literally.” He frowned at Alec who kept tugging at his breaches. “They’re supposed to be tight.”

              “Really? I just thought I was supposed to be numb from the waist down.”

              “Funny!” Marco took out his iPhone to document his handiwork. And it was fine handiwork if he could say so himself. “Smile you two!”

              Then they were off in the limo Marco had rented for the occasion. “You can’t pull up to one of these things in a Honda!” he informed them matter-of-factly. “You’ll never live it down!”

              Alec tugged at his breaches for the umpteenth time that night, and it just wasn’t the fact that the fabric was tighter than a sausage casing. Lucy was sitting beside him in that dress which had no right clinging to the lush curves he craved to taste with his tongue. From the position he was sitting in, he was getting quite an eyeful. And since when did she wear fishnet stockings? And what’s more, her perfume was doing strange things to his equilibrium. He was all of a sudden lightheaded and couldn’t really concentrate on the task at hand, which was getting close enough to Gavin to try and reason with him. He stomped on his rising passion and tried to think of what he was going to do should he confront his wayward brother. If this didn’t work out, his mother would never forgive him.

              Lucy sat beside her husband and clasped his hand comfortingly. She knew he was nervous, but so was she. What if he was there? She didn’t know what she’d do if that bastard was there. She could handle Viv, but not that blond demon. Alec seemed to sense her discomfort and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.

              The limo ride took all of thirty-minutes with traffic. It seemed everyone in Hollywood had been invited. Shiny black SUVs were lined up clear up the winding road and along the driveway. Fortunately, Marco had anticipated this, and a friend of his had instructed the chauffeur to park about two miles down the road. They hopped out and continued on foot much to Lucy’s chagrin---her new shoes were killing her. But she gritted her teeth, and bore it the best she could, planning to ditch the evil footwear the first chance she got.

              Alec slowed his pace a bit sensing his wife’s distress, finally scooped her up in his arms, and carried her the rest of the way. He set her down gently as they approached the house and linked his arm through hers lest they get separated amongst the throngs of costumed revelers.

              Marco escorted them through the towering wrought-iron gate and helped them blend in with the crowd entering the candlelit foyer. “Act natural,” he hissed low. “And try not to stick out like a sore thumb!” With that he made a beeline for a group of men who were dressed as musketeers and partied the night away. Lucy and Alec were left to fend for themselves.

              “Now what?” she whispered in her husband’s ear while he leaned down. The music was deafening, and Lucy wasn’t sure he’d heard her until he whispered something loudly.

              “Let’s mingle.” Alec kept a tight rein on his wife while they were jostled about. He’d never seen so many people in an enclosed space in his life. And the costumes! He had to keep a tight lid on his laughter. There were starlets galore in tight evening gowns redolent of screen sirens Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe. Amongst the riot of vivid wigs, were garishly applied makeup, and equally vulgar displays of wealth. Several young women were dripping with diamonds that were apparently rented for the evening; the security guards stood close by growling at anyone who was stupid enough to try and get a closer look. He was also aware that people were staring…and they weren’t looking at his Zorro outfit.

              Hundreds of pairs of eyes were fixated on Lucy, who seemed to be causing quite a stir in her flamenco vixen outfit. Alec didn’t blame them any; she was having the same effect on him as well. Of course, Lucy being Lucy, she was oblivious to her allure, and tugged at his arm.

              “What’s wrong with these people?” she muttered to her husband, pulling him along with her through the crowd of unfamiliar faces. There were a few she thought she recognized but not many. For some strange reason, all eyes seemed to be on them, and it was making her nervous. Lucy steered Alec towards the refreshment table and hoped there was some liquor in the green liquid masquerading as punch. She needed something to take the edge off.

              Alec handed her a goblet of punch and grinned when she gulped it back, wincing in disgust. He took a small sip and nearly fell on the floor. Whatever the stuff was, it wasn’t punch!

              “Do you see him?” she half shouted above the din and bit into a crostini slathered in sun-dried tomato tapenade.

              Alec shook his head and scanned the crowd. There were several blokes dressed as Julius Caesar, a few as Dracula, and quite many as Casanova. He didn’t see Gavin. Maybe they weren’t looking hard enough. “Maybe we should split up!” he shouted and pointed towards the refreshment table. “We’ll meet back here in an hour!”

              “Okay!” she shouted back and squeezed his hand before watching him disappear into a sea of excess, his cloak flapping dismissively behind him. Then she was on her own. Where to start? Lucy was loathe to leave the food as she hadn’t had dinner, but several men were giving her the eye, and she decided it was probably in her best interest to leave for safer shores. She grabbed a few dry crackers and munched as she made her way casually through the crowds. Her eyes scanned the room, trying to make out a figure that even dressed as Marc Antony, would bear a slight resemblance to Alec.

              Lucy caught snippets of vicious gossip and vapid conversations between friends. But she didn’t see anyone resembling Gavin. Perhaps Marco’s source had been wrong. Maybe Gavin had opted not to come. She sighed and made her way to a desolate corner where a lonely palm tree sat in a black cauldron. At least here she could observe without being accosted as she’d already been propositioned by several married men, most of them known fathers! Lucy had never felt so ashamed in her entire life. And it was this dress’s fault! Whatever had she been thinking when she put it on?

              She tugged at her bodice and hoped she wouldn’t catch pneumonia. Lucy glanced up and her eyes widened in shock. It was Vivian. She hadn’t seen her stepmother since that awful night she’d walked in on her and Dean going at it. Lucy knew that arrogant stance anywhere. She posed regally as Cleopatra in a floor-length gold gown that clung like a second skin, and it was obvious to those around her that she wore nothing beneath. Her catlike green eyes were heavily lined in kohl, and a black braided wig covered the flowing blonde tresses. Lucy could see she was on the prowl---seen and being seen---and she rolled her eyes in disgust. The woman never failed to surprise her. She was about to leave her shelter when she saw that Vivian had spied her. But Lucy didn’t think she recognized her. An odd look flickered over her lovely face and then she looked away.

              Breathing a sigh of relief, Lucy left her shelter, and was immediately accosted by a fat little man dressed as Napoleon. “Haven’t I seen you somewhere, Senora?” His beady eyes were pressed into his doughy face like two lumps of coal.

              Lucy held her fan in front of her bosom to protect herself from his wandering gaze. “I-I don’t think so,” she said, feeling faint and wondering wildly where Alec was. He looked familiar, but she couldn’t place him at the moment. “This is my first party,” Lucy told him politely and tried to go around him, but he blocked her with his body.

              “I don’t think I can let a beauty like yourself get away from me!” He undressed her with his eyes, wondering where such a fetching creature had been hiding all his life. “You’ve got to dance with me! I won’t take no for an answer!” He grabbed her hand and Lucy was commandeered into dancing with the little toad…albeit reluctantly.

              Then that’s when it hit her. The toady! She was dancing with Gavin’s manager! Finally! She towered over him by several inches, mostly because of the shoes, but she allowed him to lead her in a clumsy tango. Lucy bit back a grimace of disgust at the feel of his sweaty palms and did her best impersonation of a brainless sexpot. “You’re such a good dancer!” she giggled foolishly. “I was just about to give up all hope of being swept off my feet!”

              “Really?” he leered at her, hoping he could get her into one of the spare bedrooms upstairs. “Are you here with anybody?”

              “Me?” she feigned confusion and smiled down at him, waiting for the right opportunity to inquire about her brother-in-law. “I’m here all by my little self,” Lucy shook her head sadly. “No one wanted to come with me!”

              He gasped in shock. “A pretty little thing like yourself? If that’s not a crime, it should be!” Harvey grinned when she dissolved into a fit of giggles, her delectable breasts heaving dangerously over her bodice. Damn, she was fine! He only hoped Gavin wouldn’t see her. Harvey wanted her all for himself, and maybe if she was willing, a career between the sheets. She had the face and from the looks of it, the body as well. “Have you ever considered a career in film?” he asked innocently.

              “Oh!” she gasped in surprise. “Are you a director?”

              Harvey chuckled evilly. “You could say that, little lady.”

              “What kind of films do you do?”

              “Well, it’s one of the largest industries in the country.”

              “Oh,” she sounded disappointed. “I don’t know anything about film making.”

              “You wouldn’t have to do anything. I’d do all the work. You’d just have to be your pretty self. It’s easy!”

              “Is it?” Lucy tilted her head to one side and acted as if she didn’t know what he was talking about. “What do you mean? I’ve never acted before. What would I have to do?”

              The music changed to an upbeat, and Harvey decided to sit this one out. He steered her towards the refreshments, his eyes wandering over her slender figure, and wondered how she would feel beneath him. He reached for a glass and handed it to her. “You’d have to audition. But I think you’d pass with flying colors,” he reached and pulled her fan away from her bosom. “You have the right…equipment.”

              “Do I?” Lucy was getting tired and wanted to ask him about Gavin when Vivian showed up. Damn her!

              Vivian draped a slender arm around Harvey’s neck. “Well, well, well,” she purred. “Harvey, who is this? Your latest paramour?”

              “I-I’m sorry,” Harvey frowned at Lucy, “I didn’t get your name, miss…?”

              “Maria,” Lucy said softly, avoiding Vivian’s eyes, and sipped her wine. “Maria Sutcliffe.”

              “Maria,” Harvey smiled with pleasure and gestured toward Vivian. “This is Vivian Havilland, the most beautiful woman in Hollywood.”

              “How do you do?” Lucy said politely, wishing Alec would swoop in right this minute and save her from this embarrassment.

              Vivian eyed the small woman with contempt. She’d never seen her before, but she looked familiar. There was something about her that she didn’t like. Vivian’s eyes swept over the petite figure that all the men had been drooling over since she sashayed in on the arm of that stud. Where he’d gotten off to, she didn’t know, but she wanted to find out. She allowed herself to take in the costume clinging to her young figure, and Vivian wanted to rip it off her. How dare she come in dressed like that, with that rose in her hair, and that flawless skin? Who the hell did she think she was? “Harvey, you must tell me about this… child,” she said mockingly. “I mean, where are her parents?”

              Harvey felt his blood run cold. She did look young. It would serve him right if she was underage! “How old are you, my dear?” he asked fearfully and was met by a ripple of musical laughter.

              “I’m twenty,” Lucy giggled. “My sister says I look twelve, but I don’t think so. What do you think?”

              “You see?” Harvey smiled in relief at Vivian who looked like she wanted to strangle the girl. “She’s old enough!”

              “Old enough to what, Harve?” Vivian sniffed disdainfully. “I don’t think she’d last two seconds with Jimmy.”

              “Who’s Jimmy?’

              Harvey glared at Vivian. “Don’t worry your pretty head about that. You’ll meet him soon enough, won’t she Viv?” He shot her a baleful glare, which she tossed back.

              “I’m sure,” she said scornfully and headed toward one of the Casanovas who was too busy eyeing Lucy much to her frustration.

              “What was all that about?” Lucy pouted. “I don’t think she liked me!”

              “There, there,” Harvey said, rushing to soothe his future mistress. “Don’t let her get to you.” He handed her another glass of wine and bade her wait for him. “Don’t go anywhere, I want Jimmy to meet you. I think you’ll like him.”

              “Okay!” Lucy said brightly and sipped her wine. Where was Alec? He should be here!

              “Well, well, well,” Vivian’s voice said smoothly behind her, “if it isn’t the prodigal daughter!”

              Lucy’s spine stiffened painfully at her stepmother’s voice. She didn’t sound happy. She turned slowly and tried to act nonchalant.  “I’m sorry…?”

              Vivian’s eyes narrowed. It was the little bitch… in the flesh! It had taken a few minutes for it to sink in, but only one person sipped wine like a nun trapped in a bordello. Lucy! “Come off it, you little crow! I know that’s you!”

              “Hello…mother!” Lucy spat out the last word and gulped back her wine. Vivian’s eyes widened a little. “How long did it take you?”

              “You’ve learned to drink! Impressive.”

              “I’ve had a lot of practice!”

              “So…” Vivian crossed her arms over her chest. Lucy must have stuffed her bodice with a year’s worth of tissue, there was no way in hell she filled that dress with those bones! “What brings you slumming, crow? Don’t tell me you’ve decided to climb down off the mountain to join us heathens in hell!”

              Lucy wasn’t about to let Vivian bully her into submission. “I got bored, dear. What’s your excuse?”

              “Sharpened your tongue, too,” Vivian observed coldly. “My, my. But then, an attempted murder tends to do that to people, doesn’t it?” She’d hit a nerve. Lucy paled beneath her blush and Vivian, tasting blood, went in for the kill. “I hear you also had a miscarriage, and here I was thinking you were going to take it with you to your grave. But it’s all for the best. I mean you wouldn’t want to poison the gene pool… with your mother and all?” She picked up a glass of wine and took a triumphant sip.

              “Where did you hear all that?” Lucy asked calmly, trying not to launch herself at the bitch and scratch her eyes out. “I’m surprised you’d have that kind of information.”

              “I have my sources, dear,” Vivian said flippantly. “They all said the same thing, Pity he didn’t finish the job.”

              “My heart bleeds, mother dear,” Lucy shot back. “Where’s Draco? I heard his wife proved to everyone once and for all that you’re about as real as those flotation devices you wrangled out of dad. Really Viv, didn’t anyone ever tell you married men sleep with whores, they don’t marry them?” Then she added loudly so their audience could hear: “Oops, my mistake! I forgot all about dad not knowing about your Whore of Babylon impersonation in high school.”             

              “You little bitch!” Vivian shrieked, beside herself with furious indignation, and hurled her wine at the little crow. Before anyone could react, the tall stud in black leaped in front of Lucy, and saved her from being doused. Alec had been searching for his wife and spotted her arguing with Cleopatra. It didn’t take him long to realize it was her stepmother. The open hatred in the woman’s eyes had him rushing to get to Lucy before the witch stabbed her with the butter knife. He’d seen what she was about with the wine glass and had flung himself in front of Lucy before she was able to do much damage.

              Alec turned to his wife. “All right, my love?”

              “My hero!” she smiled, and wrapped her arms lovingly around his waist. “How did you know?”

              “I heard,” he grinned, snatching a napkin to blot up the excess liquid. He found himself the object of a very pissed off woman. “I assume you’re the stepmother,” Alec drawled. He held out a damp hand. “I’m the husband.”

              Vivian snorted. “Husband?” she sneered, ignoring the stares of those who wanted to know what man-trouble she was having now. “You must be joking! What did you do, pry her knees open with a crowbar?”

              Alec’s eyes narrowed. Lucy hadn’t been exaggerating. The woman was certifiable. “I married her, and if you say one more thing about my wife…” he leaned in so only she could hear, “I’ll tell everyone in this room how you let a thirteen year-old girl be raped in her own bedroom, you miserable cunt!”

              Vivian paled beneath her heavy makeup and for the first time in her life, backed down from a man. She slunk off, humiliated, shoving people out of her way. She left soon after…alone. She spent the rest of the evening getting loaded and throwing Walter’s priceless collection of baseball memorabilia into the fireplace.

              There was a round of uproarious applause from their audience, and Lucy finally dragged her husband away and upstairs to an empty bedroom to clean him up. She wet a towel and tried to salvage his costume. “Guess who I ran into?” she said as she dabbed at his face.

              “Superman?” he quipped and took off his hat. He was drenched.

              “No, silly! Harvey!”

              Alec stared up her in disbelief. “You’re joking!”

              Lucy blushed. “He…um…sort of shanghaied me.”

              “He did? How?”

              “He just grabbed me and we started dancing. He was about to introduce me to Gavin, before mommy dearest showed up.”

              “You were dancing with another man?” Alec growled in mock anger and pulled her onto his lap. “How dare you!”

              She giggled as he nuzzled her neck. “It was all in the name of getting information, my love. He stepped all over my toes. You’ll probably have to carry me home!”

              He frowned suddenly. “Why would he want to introduce you to Gav?”

              “Um…he said something about an audition,” Lucy flushed and removed his mask and tossed it on the floor. “I think he was trying to get me to do something very naughty!”

              “You think?” He brushed his lips against her hair and slid his hand up her thigh. “I thought that was my job.”

              “It is,” she kissed him softly sighing as his tongue parted her lips and caressed hers.  He kissed her cheeks and allowed his lips to trail down her throat. Lucy slid her hands into his hair, murmuring his name. 

              “Lovely wife,” he breathed against her breasts. “I want you so.”

              Lucy sucked in her breath when his hand moved between her thighs and slid upward to find that most tender of flesh. He growled in disappointment when his hand met a barrier of stockings and lace. “Didn’t you ever hear of thigh-highs, woman?”

              “Take them off,” she whispered against his mouth, gently peeling off the moustache. She pressed eager kisses against his face. “I want you, too.”

              Alec groaned, reaching up beneath her skirts to tug at the waistband. Fortunately, fishnet stockings and lacy panties were no hindrance, and they shredded like tissue paper in his hands. He moved quickly to flip her beneath him on the bed and fumbled with his breeches. “Help me,” he panted.

              Giggling, her hands flew to assist his and quickly freed him from the tight fabric. Her husband’s cock sprang out at her, hard and erect. “A-Alec,” she panted as he pushed up her skirts, “Is the…door…locked?”

              “I can’t remember….” he muttered hotly against her throat, groaning as he buried himself snugly in her tight heat. He stared down into her sable eyes and began to move, thrusting impatiently, famished for her sweetness. She moaned softly and arched her back, clinging to him desperately. Alec’s head swooped down and took hers, groaning when she sucked on his tongue. Lucy pressed feverish kisses against his mouth and throat, cradling him between her thighs, and sobbed with delight as her husband rode her with wild abandon. He took everything and she gave willingly. His mouth seared and bruised her own and she reveled in it, bucking beneath his body, urging him on, the unbearable ache deep inside growing until her mouth opened on a scream and he caught it with his own, absorbing it on his tongue, and giving it back to her with his own cry of release.              

              They lay hugging each other tightly, panting while their breathing slowed. He kissed her neck and raised his head. “All right, love?”

              She nodded shyly and kissed his cheek. “And you?”

              “Never better,” he grinned wickedly and moved his hips. She gasped and tightened her thighs around him.

              “Was that a quickie?” she asked timidly, smiling up into his sated eyes.

              Alec laughed softly and kissed her brow. “I think so.”

              “We’ve never done that before.”

              “First time for everything,” he muttered and kissed her swollen mouth tenderly. “Was I too rough, love?”

              “Oh no,” she sighed happily, kissing him back, “you’re always careful with me.”

              “Good.”

              She lay content beneath him and smoothed his hair. “But I hope you’ll take me home and do it properly.”

              Alec raised his head to peer questioningly into the flushed visage. “I thought I did.”

              “I want more,” Lucy murmured and tightened her thighs around him. He groaned and closed his eyes.

              “You’re wicked, woman!”

              “I know.”

              They were quiet in each other’s arms for a long while, listening to each other’s soft breaths mingling with the distant strains of classical music playing downstairs. Then to their horror, they heard voices…male voices. Alec’s head jerked up, and he stared down at his wife. He withdrew quickly, making her wince, and ushered her into a closet. Lucy sat on her husband’s lap, his arms around her, and waited.

 

 

 

 

Chapter Thirty-Three

 

             

 

Two men barged into the room arguing with each other. Lucy recognized one of the voices as Harvey’s; the other voice was faintly accented and belonged to a younger man. She felt Alec tensing beneath her. Gavin!

              “Now, now Jimmy,” Harvey cajoled, “if you’ll just do this for me, I’d appreciate it. Besides, you owe me!”

              “I owe you for what?” Gavin shouted angrily. “A fucking spider bite! That’s what I owe you!”

              “It’s just a minor setback Gavvy, baby,” Harvey laughed, settling his corpulent frame onto a sofa.  “Besides, you’re clean. What’s to worry about?”

              “I’m clean for now! What about the next time, huh? I can’t do this anymore, Harv! I want out!”

              “A few more movies and you can do whatever you want. I promise.”

              “That’s what you said last year when me mum was sick! You wouldn’t even let me visit her! She had cancer for fuck’s sake!”

              “I did you a favor, Jimmy!” Harvey chuckled, ignoring the boy’s distress.  “How do you think mummy would’ve taken the fact that her baby boy used to suck cock for a living? Harvey lit a cigarette and waved the match out. “Besides, I sent her a very nice bouquet which didn’t come cheap. You owe me two hundred dollars by the way.”

              Gavin had had enough. He sprang forward and launched himself at the man who’d ruined his life. He wrapped his hands around the thick neck and began choking him. “I owe you? You miserable son-of-a bitch! I---” Gavin’s enraged snarl was cut off by a sharp jab to his ribs where his metal breastplate left him vulnerable. He sprawled backwards, clutching his side.

              Harvey stood up, gasping and rubbing the area where the boy had grabbed him. He shot out his boot and kicked the little bastard in the kidneys, eliciting a hoarse scream. Harvey bent low and grabbed Gavin by the chin. “Listen to me, you little shit,” he spat hatefully, “you were nothing when I found you sucking cock in Skid Row! Where would you be if not for me? I own you body and soul. You signed the contract, my boy, and you have to pay the piper.” He shoved him back onto the floor and kicked him again. “You’re nothing without me, Jimmy! Cross me once and I’ll make you sorry you were ever born!”              

              Harvey turned on his heel and left Gavin coughing and groaning in agony. The pain in his kidneys subsided a bit for him to breathe without puking, but he laid quietly on the floor for some time, wondering how the hell he’d gotten himself into such a mess. He could never go home now and look his sweet mum in the eye and not tell her what he’d had to do to feed himself. He couldn’t even bring himself to look at Alec…his own brother! Gavin sobbed out his frustration and as he tried to get to his feet, he spied something on the floor. It was a scrap of delicate black lace. He fingered it curiously before tucking it into his pocket and limping off to find the nearest pub.

              Alec sat in shock at what he’d just heard and wanted to chase down Harvey and shove the bloated whale down the nearest flight of stairs. But nothing seemed capable of working at the moment. He was cold and numb all over and it was Lucy who finally deemed it safe to open the closet door. He staggered out after her, snatching her hand, and proceeded to drag her along with him down two flights of stairs, a crowded foyer, and out the door where he summarily abandoned his wife while he puked off a fake drawbridge.

              Lucy hurried to assist her husband who was presently discarding his supper and having a rough time of it by the sound of things. She patted his back soothingly and tried to calm him, but his puking seemed hell-bent on remaining dry heaves, so she hurried back into the house to find a bathroom where she wet a cloth and rushed back to him. She wiped his face with the cool cloth much as he’d done for her when she’d been ill.

              Alec accepted her tender ministrations gratefully and gave a final shudder as the last of the dry heaves subsided. He wiped his mouth, wishing he had something in the way of hard liquor. “D-Did you hear all of that…?” he managed once he could speak. “D-Did you…hear what…h-he said?”

              “I heard,” she said, and wiped his face again. Lucy felt his brow. “We should get you home, you’re burning up.”

              “I want to get lashed,” he muttered and pressed her cool hand to his cheek. Alec stood up straight and moaned miserably as his stomach heaved in protest. “I-I’m going to be sick again,” he groaned and bent over, wracked with spasms. He could feel the cool cloth bathing his face again and heard his wife speaking softly, trying to comfort him. “Get me home,” he gasped. “I need to think.”

              She nodded, glancing about helplessly for someone to come to their aid, but no one did. Marco was having a blast inside the mansion, and the few people who were outside were blitzed beyond belief. “Where’s your phone?” she said urgently. “I’ll call a cab.”

              “I left it in the damn car!” he gasped, slumping down into a sitting position. “I didn’t think we’d be gone that long…”

              Lucy sighed and wracked her brain for some sort of plan to get them out of this hellhole. She thought of walking down to the main road and hailing a car, but that seemed farfetched as her husband was in no condition to go anywhere, let alone a three-mile hike down some strange road. Lucy sat down beside him and urged his head down into her lap. “It’ll be all right, my love,” she soothed, tears of despair filling her eyes. Just when she’d given up all hope, she heard someone ask her if they needed any help.  It was one of the kitchen staff on their way home.

              “What happened to him?” the young man inquired, inspecting the broken heap lying on Lucy’s lap.

              “He overdid it in there, I told him not to touch the punch!” Lucy glanced up at the young man dressed in chef’s whites. “Can you give us a ride back to Rodeo? We left our car there, and I need to get him home.”

              “Sure,” he grunted and bent to help Alec to his feet. The man weighed a ton! Lucy propped up one side of her husband, while the young man had the other. “My car’s over there,” he nodded in the general direction of a line of erratically parked cars near the driveway. He fumbled for the keys to his mother’s battered Buick and helped Lucy ease Alec into the backseat. He watched as she buckled him in and caressed his cheek lovingly. “Boyfriend…?” he queried of the petite beauty in her flamenco dancer’s costume.

              “Husband,” she answered faintly and allowed him to open the passenger side door. Lucy slid in, feeling oddly detached from reality. She had buckled her seatbelt without realizing she’d done so.

              Feeling slightly disappointed, the young man hurried to the driver’s side and slid in behind the wheel. He turned suddenly to Lucy and introduced himself before he lost his nerve. “My name’s Paul.”

              “I’m Lucy and that man is my husband, Alec.”

              “Pleased to meet you both,” he said politely and started the car. He couldn’t help but wonder what happened to this seemingly nice couple. The man was sicker than a dog, maybe too much wine, judging from the aroma permeating his costume. Or maybe he was a diabetic. If that was the case, he’d better hurry. Neither one said a word as he made his way to Beverly Hills. His mother was sure to be worried that he was coming home so late, but at least he would have a tale to tell.

              He parked along a darkened street in front of some fancy salon that his mother could only dream about and helped them out of the car. Lucy was grateful for his help and once she’d gotten Alec safely buckled into their Beetle; she turned around to thank the young man. She handed him a hundred dollar bill and told him to take it.

              Paul held up his hands, he couldn’t take money from her. He was just doing the decent thing. “P-Put that away, miss,” he said uneasily. “My mother would kill me if I took that.”

              “I insist!” she pressed the bill into his hand and closed his fingers firmly over it. “If it hadn’t been for you, I might have had to carry my husband all that way in these heels!” She glanced down and winced. “But I probably owe you for time and gas, anyway.”

              He was about to refuse and give it back to her, when she held out her hand. He took it. “Thank you!” she said, with a genuine and heartfelt gratitude that he never thought he’d see working in this rotten town and waved at her as she climbed into her little car and sped off.

              He stood alone on that deserted curb and finally tucked the bill into his wallet. He wouldn’t tell his mother where’d he gotten the money, but since her birthday was coming up, he decided he’d splurge and take her somewhere nice for dinner. He whistled to himself and headed back to his car.

                           

* * *

 

              Once home, Lucy left Alec in the front seat while she fetched Pat. He’d turned in early, not knowing where his stepson and his wife had gotten themselves off to on this Halloween. Nonetheless, he found himself being shaken out of a sound sleep by his daughter-in-law who looked like she’d stepped off some Spanish movie set. He was further intrigued when she urged him outside to help her with Alec.

              “What’s wrong with him?” he grumbled, tying his robe.  “Don’t tell me you let him drink! It makes him sick!”

              “He’s not drunk!” Lucy snapped. “He’s ill at having heard Gavin being blackmailed and assaulted by that blob of a manager!”

              “You saw Gavin?” Pat said with some surprise. So that’s where they went. “How was he?”

              She grabbed Pat’s hand and tugged him with her to the car. “We didn’t see him, we were hiding in a closet and heard him arguing with Harvey.”

              “What were you doing in a closet?”

              “None of your business!” Lucy said defensively, her cheeks now as red as her costume. “Help me get him out, he needs to drink something.” She followed Pat to the passenger side of the car and found it empty. She turned around in a panic and spied Alec’s tall form headed down to the beach. “Alec!” she shouted, and was about to chase after him, when Pat caught her arm and pulled her back.

              “Let him go, lassie,” he urged quietly. “He’s got to sort this out on his own.”

              “B-But…” she sputtered, tugging at her arm. “He needs me!”

              Pat sighed raggedly. “I know he does, lassie, but you’ve got to let him clear his head. He needs to be off by himself for a while. He’s done this before.”

              Tears filled her eyes and she brushed them away in embarrassment. “He has? When?” There were still so many things she didn’t know about her husband, and this was one of them. Pat let her go and put a fatherly arm around her shoulders.

              “I’ll fix us some tea and I’ll tell you all about the lad while he calms down a bit. How does that sound?”

              “Sure,’ she sighed wearily. “ But do I really want to hear it?” Lucy said to her father-in-law as he escorted her back to the house.

              He gave her a reassuring squeeze. “Don’t worry, lassie,” Pat smiled.  “It’s not as bad as you think.”

 

              While Pat was in the kitchen preparing tea, Lucy squirmed out of her costume and scrubbed the makeup off her face. She brushed out her hair and put on a flannel nightgown and robe. Tucking her feet into some soft slippers, she made her out way to the kitchen where Pat was slicing his prized Wensleydale cheese and placing it on some whole-grain crackers. He glanced up and smiled broadly, gesturing for his daughter-in-law to sit down.

              “Here,” he said, handing her a plate full of cheese crackers and sliced apples. He poured her a cup of Earl Grey. “Cream or sugar?”

              “Honey,” Lucy said, taking the proffered teacup. Pat handed her the small bottle and sat down, watching her solemnly as she stirred the sweet liquid around. She took a small sip and set the cup down. “Is he still out there?”

              “Yeah,” Pat grunted, taking a bite out of the cracker and savoring the sweetly bitter taste. “He’s swimming, I think. “

              “S-Swimming?” she said, nearly choking on the cracker. “In this weather? He’ll catch pneumonia!”

              “I tried to tell him that, but he wouldn’t listen. Takes after his mother, the laddie does.” He fished for another cracker and washed it down with his tea. “Gavin is more like his father.”

              “How did he die?”

              Pat glanced up, startled. He would have thought the lad would have told her by now. But he supposed it wasn’t something one would brag to his new wife about. The man had been a coward through and through. “He died in a lorry accident. He didn’t know what hit him.” He took another sip of tea, which had gone lukewarm. “Alec didn’t tell you?”

              “Um…no. I didn’t want to pry.” Lucy sighed and peered up into Pat’s greenish-gray eyes. “I…mean, I thought he’d tell me when he was ready.”

              Pat nodded. He supposed the lassie had every right to hear about the man who’d helped bring her husband into the world. But he figured by the time he was done, she’d probably wished he hadn’t. “He was barely four when he died.”

              “What happened?”

              “He was crossing the road to get back to the inn he was staying at.”

              “He wasn’t at home?”

              “He…left after Maggie told him what happened,” Pat said, and rose to fetch some brandy from the cabinet. He poured a good dollop into his tea. Then he poured some into Lucy’s cup as well. “Don’t shake yer head at me, missy! You’re going to need it.”

              After taking a swig, he continued with the horrible tale. “Maggie was spectin’ Gavin at the time and he just couldn’t get over the fact that the baby wasn’t his.”

              “What do you mean he wasn’t his?” she asked, and took a brave gulp of her brandy infused tea. “What are you saying?”

              Pat heaved a great sigh and finished his tea. Then he decided to drink the brandy straight. “Maggie had taken a job at a bookshop and was working nights. Johnny boy was off working at the factory and he’d forgotten to pick her up.” He paused to see the look on Lucy’s face. She’d gone white. She knew what was coming next. “Should I continue?”

              Lucy gripped the teacup in her hands and nodded.

              “Well, when he didn’t come to pick her up, she took the bus. But the bus didn’t stop at her street, so she had to walk all this way past this abandoned school. She told me she couldn’t remember most of what happened next, but a couple of yobs grabbed her and dragged her in there and…” he trailed off, unable to force the words from this mouth. “They beat her and took their turns one by one and left her there—naked and cold.” He took another gulp of brandy and poured a little into Lucy’s cup when she held it out.

              “John didn’t even call the police! They had to come looking for him at this pub and that’s when they told him what happened.”

              “D-Did they catch the guys who did it?”

              Pat shook his head, tears filling his eyes. “Nah. She didn’t see their faces and then a month later she found out she were pregnant with Gavin. John figured it was his at first, until he got it into his head that it wasn’t and he left…just like that!” Pat snapped his fingers, pursing his mouth in disgust. “Damn near broke her heart when he did that.”

              “H-How did you meet her?” Lucy rose to heat up some more water for another cup of tea. “I mean, was she alone at the time?”

              “Yeah, good ole John had gone and popped off. Good riddance to bad rubbish I say!” Pat polished off the rest of the crackers and Lucy’s too. “She were more than six months along when I saw her in the library.”

              “Was it love at first sight?”

              “Not at first,” he smiled, remembering how Maggie had looked that day in her red maternity dress. “She was a sight for these sore eyes, let me tell you. I fancied her right off. But she wouldn’t have nothing to do with me!”

              “Why? You’re a great catch!”

              His broad shoulders shook with laughter. “I was, wasn’t I? Nah, she was still grieving over that nob and what happened to her and I knew when to keep me distance, so I stayed away but I read an awful lot of books in those days!”

              “So what happened?”

              “She got thrown out of her flat in the middle of winter!” Pat shook his head at the memory. “I found her over in the romance section crying her eyes out. So I asked her what was wrong and she told me what had happened and I had an extra room at the place I was renting, so I told her she and the laddie could stay as long as they needed until she got back on her feet.”

              “That sounds romantic.”

              “I wish!” He leaned forward. “It weren’t like that. She and Alec lived downstairs and I lived upstairs. I was gone most of the time training and all---but when the time came for her to have the baby---that’s when I told her how I felt and she’d have to marry me, or I’d rip me heart out and I’d never be good for anybody!”

              “That’s a little morbid,” Lucy said with a little laugh. “So, what did she say?”

              “Well, she looked at me with those big blue eyes and told me I’d fallen off me trolley, but she said she couldn’t let me do that to myself and then her water broke!”

              “It didn’t!”

              “It did, right after we’d said the vows in the Register Office.” He laughed loud and heartily at this, making Lucy burst into giggles. “I had to carry her to the car and we nearly got pulled over as I raced to hospital.”

              “Did you make it?”

              “No,” Pat rubbed his temples as the brandy was starting to go to his head. “I had to pull over and all these blighters were honking at me. A couple of police helped keep the peace, but Gavin shot out of his mum at ten-fifteen on a Monday morning.”

              Lucy took a moment to absorb this information. No wonder Alec never spoke about his dad. “Does Alec know…about his mom…I mean?”

              “Sure,” he nodded, taking a knife and slicing more Wensleydale. “I told him the night before he left for Afghanistan. He was eighteen and he wanted to know about his dad and all. I had to tell him.” He sighed heavily, feeling immensely guilty. “But I didn’t know Gavin was in the next room listening to everything I said. He ran off that night.”

              Pat swiped at the tears beginning to fall. “I guess it was too much for a fourteen-year-old boy to take in to find out how he’d come to be in this world.”

              She reached out to clasp his large paw. “How could you have known? It wasn’t your fault.”

              “Yer a good lassie,” he said, trying to smile. “But I should have told him. I was a little hard on the lads. I didn’t want them to turn out like John, having no spine. I guess…I was a little too hard. Didn’t mean to.”

              “Alec turned out just fine!” Lucy said, gulping back tears. “He’s a fine young man and a fine husband.” She rose to pour hot water over their tea bags. “He stayed with me the whole time I was in the hospital, he didn’t leave.”

              “That’s ‘cause he loves you lassie. You’re good for him. Especially after what that chav did to him!”

              “He told you about that?”

              He shrugged. “When he was in hospital, they had him all doped up, so he talked a lot.”

              “Was it really that awful? The wounds… I mean?”

              “Were they? The bastards tortured him for days, ripping out his fingernails, breaking his hands, and using him as an ashtray. Not to mention pouring hot oil over his back. He had third-degree burns, lassie. He weren’t much to look at the first time his mum and I saw him in the burns unit.” Pat sighed again, almost as if something heavy had settled on his chest. “That was a bad time. They didn’t think he’d pull through.”

              “How long was he in for?”

              “Six months with the skin grafts and all.”

              “How did he cope? I mean did he talk to anyone about what happened?”

              “Not at first. He just sort of stared off into space most days. He kept a lot of things bottled up. He does that.”

              She nodded, remembering that day after he’d gone to see Gavin. “I wish he wouldn’t. You should have seen him that day he’d gone to see Gavin. He waited till we got home and started screaming at the top of his lungs! I’d never seen him like that. It was a little frightening.”

              “I know. I keep telling him not to keep things to himself but he’s like Maggie. She does the same thing. She’ll go off and sulk for a while before she loses her temper. It’s not a pretty sight.”

              “So that’s how he copes? He goes off and has a pity party? Is no one invited?”

              Pat chuckled at this. “It’s his way, lassie. He did the same thing after Maggie got sick. He come back from work that day and we told him what the doctor said. He must have gone a few shades of pale before going back out. Maggie sent me after him, but I couldn’t find him.”

              “Where’d he go?”

              “He took a train all the way to the house in Whitby in the middle of the night! I had to come back and tell Maggie and she told me to let him work it out and go fetch him in the morning.”

              “That’s awful. Alec said the house was in disrepair.”

              “It’s nothing but misery and strife! The place ain’t fit for a pack of dogs.”

              “So why not sell and get it over with?”

              “It’s been in the family for generations, and Alec is loathe to part from it. It’ll cost a king’s ransom just to make it livable again, but I don’t see how anyone in their right mind aside from rats would want to call it a home.”

              “Oh, I don’t know,” Lucy said, thoughtfully sipping the last of her tea. “Maybe it just needs a little tender loving care.”

              Pat grunted in disgust and took the plates to the sink. He rinsed them off before placing them in the dishwasher. “He won’t talk to me. Maybe he’ll talk to you.” He checked his watch. “He’s been out there long enough, lassie. Go get him.”

* * *

 

              She stood watching her husband swim back and forth to a distant bell buoy and flopped down into the sand clutching his robe and a blanket. Lucy wrapped herself in the blanket as it was damn cold and called out to her husband. But it seemed he was in his own little world where she was not welcome. Back and forth he swam, touching the buoy and heading for shore again with only a sliver of moonlight peeking through the clouds to light his way. Lucy observed him for a few minutes before she gave up and lay back, closing her eyes.

              The cool night air caressed her face, and the rhythmic lapping of waves lulled her into a semi-conscious state where she neither slept nor thought. She was about to fall completely to sleep when she felt something cold and wet on her face. Lucy swiped it away, only for another drop to hit her face, then another. Flicking out her tongue, she discovered it was seawater, cold and salty. Her eyes opened to find Alec standing in all his naked glory above her, the water glistening like thousands of tiny, scattered crystals and shook his head, flicking the water out of his hair.
              “Stop that!” she said irritably, taking the edge of the blanket and wiping her face. “You’re going to get me all wet!”

              Alec laughed wickedly. “I certainly hope so, love.” He bent down, reaching for her feet, and pulled her legs apart. He sighed and moved over her, settling himself snugly between her thighs. “I’m cold,” he complained, nuzzling her ear and warming his nose against her neck.