Sheets rustled as she rolled lazily across her bed toward him. Her diamond ring flashed. Why dont you come to bed? Ive gotten real horny lying in this big ol bed playing with myself.
The room smelled muskily of other men. Not that hed been here lately. He wasnt so stupid he didnt realize that she didnt crave him a tenth as much as he craved her.
He leaned down and yanked at the chain of the lamp beside the bed. Golden light flooded the messy room and lit up the silver sequined cowgirl hat shed hung on a nail on a far wall. Shed been wearing that hat the night hed first laid eyes on her. The rest of her fetching costume had been matching pasties, a G-string and high-heeled, sequined boots.
He pointed to the bills. We need to talk.
She stretched like a cat. She slept in the nude. Deliberately she pushed the sheets lower to expose her soft, round body. Then she smiled up at him, batting her long lashes.
Dont look at that bright red mouth. But he did. Next he thought about what those lips did to pleasure him and was instantly aroused. She saw, and her smile brightened with childish delight.
Come to bed, love. Let little mama scratch your itch.
Then she shoved the bills onto the floor and said, Let little mama prove shes worth every single pennyand way, way more.
He laughed. Within minutes her expert hands had stripped him of his jeans and boots. Soon she lay on top of him, her mouth licking, circling, wetting his tanned flesh everywhere. She started kissing somewhere beneath his ears and worked down across his chest and stomach and then his belly, her tongue dipping into his navel and then moving lower, trailing up and down between his legsback and forth, and around and around until he burned like a wildfire. When he was breathing hard, she lowered her head, her long silver-blond hair tickling his stomach as she began to nip and nibble at the most erotic places.
Her damn mouth was like a vacuum. He was rock hard. His blood thrummed. His heart pounded. He felt wonderful, too wonderful for words, until the nagging pain began in his right temple.
Then it struck as viciously as a hammer blow. He felt an explosion in his head like his brain had come out of his skull, and then the pain stopped, and he felt differentnumbnot in touch with himselfas if he were floating above them. Hed had the same out-of-body sensation when hed been bucked off a bronc once and suffered a spinal injury. Only those symptoms had cleared after a day or two.
Like before, he couldnt feel his hands or his legs. Only this time he couldnt move anything, not even his lips or his tongue. It was as if his entire body were dead.
With total clarity he wondered what would happen when she figured out he wasnt all right. Who would she call firstthe police, or an ambulance? Would this make the papers and cause still more scandal?
Cherry kept licking him, unaware of the change in him for a while, but he couldnt feel her tongue anymore. And he didnt care. He didnt care about anything. Not the ranch. Not Mia. Not Electra.
Her platinum head bobbed back and forth over his hard dark body for what seemed an eternity. Finally she stopped and looked up at his face, and her eyes grew so startled, they blazed in her white face.
With her fists, she pounded his chest. Move! Say something! Do something!
But he was made of petrified stone.
Whats wrong? He knew she was shouting, but her voice was dim. Whats wrong with you?
She slapped him hard across the face.
He didnt feel her hand, either, or her nails when they dug into his cheeks a little.
She slapped him again. Say something!
All he could do was stare at her as she slapped him again and again.
When she began to cry, he thought about Lizzy.
Would this bring her home? Would she finally realize she had to come home? Would she ever forgive him for the disgrace and scandal hed brought on her name? Or for Cole?
Vaguely he was aware of Cherry sliding off him and reaching for the telephone. To his surprise she didnt call an ambulance or a doctor or even the police.
When he heard the name of the person she called, a chill went through him.
You got me in this! she screamed. You made me hit on him! What do I do?
He had been set up. When Caesar remembered whod suggested that first night at the strip joint, his next thought was for Lizzy.
First Electra. Now him.
If Lizzy did come home, would she be next?
Cherry hung up and dialed another number. You wanna know who Im calling, I bet. She flashed him a hateful smile. Well, Im calling your wife!
Hi thereMrs. Kemble. Brash as she was, even Cherry hesitated for a moment. Its meCherry. Your husbands fianceé.
Joanne must have had plenty to say on that score because it was a long time before Cherry could get another word in.
Yyes, well, II dont care about any of that. Hes in my bednot yours. And hes as still as a stump. Somethins bad wrong with him. If you dont send somebody to get him out of here, and send him fast, Ill call an ambulance, and, and the newspapers. And if I do thatall hell will break loose.
Another long silence.
No, hes not dead, and I dont want no corpse in my bed! Do you hear me? No! I didnt do anything to him. We were making love. Another long silence. No. No drugs. A stroke maybe Im not a doctor. I dont know. Just hurry!
Lizzyhe had to warn her.
Why in the name of God had he told everybody he wanted her to succeed him? By doing so, hed signed her death warrant.
He fought to say her name, but his lips felt like cold concrete.
Imprisoned in his own body, he could only stare helplessly at Cherry, who was watching him, too. Her pretty face beneath her straw-white mane was a mask of disgust. Her eyes were cold and soulless. His throat tightened.
She got up slowly. Lifting her sequined cowboy hat off its nail, she put it on. Then she twirled round and round for him just like she had the first night.
Whats going on in that mind of yours, big daddy? Spreading her long legs, she made a faux bow.
She pitched her hat toward the bed and went to her mirror where she made up her mouth with vivid red lipstick and combed and fluffed her hair.
When she turned around again and smiled at him, she looked more ravishing than ever.
But it didnt matter. He felt nothing, absolutely nothing for her.
Only Lizzy mattered.
And Electra. She would always matter.
He remembered the day hed stood in the rain and scat tered her ashes under the Spur Tree because shed written in her will that that was her final wish. Shed chosen to be with him in death at least.
Joanne had been furious when hed had a bronze marker placed beneath the tree with Electras name on it.
Jacks spurs are there, arent they? hed said to shut Joanne up.
Electra. Always Electra.
He had to stay alive to save their daughter.
Four
Manhattan
Too much was happening to her.
The phone was ringing, but Lizzy ignored it. She was too busy watching the two naked men writhe on her television screen with a total absorption that would have embarrassed her had she been of sound mind, which after the catastrophic events of todayshe was not.
The late-afternoon sunlight was still red and sparkling outside her window, and the air was crisp and cool. It was a gorgeous evening for a walk. The smart Lizzy had known she should have gone with Walker and Vanilla when Walker had been nice enough to invite her, but the self-destructive Lizzy had been depressed at the thought of an activity that might cheer her up. That Lizzy had wanted, no, needed, to indulge in her very own pity party.
How could such a gorgeous day have been so terrible?
Finally the phone was silent.
For the first time in her life Lizzy wished shed listened to her friend Mandy and had gotten into astrology or something useful. Maybe then she would have seen some cosmic warning in her horoscope or palm today.
Your life as you know it, as you dream it, is over now.
Her life was a joke. First Bryce. Then Nell. And now Walker.
Its your own fault that you know about Walker.
Curiosity had led her to darker places before this, surely it had, although she couldnt think of any.
Finding out about Walkers private tape collection was the last thing she needed tonight. So why had she played the video the second Walker had left with Vanilla?
Because Im a glutton for punishment. Because like every other female on earth, Im like Pandora. If you tell me something is forbidden, I just have to open the box.
She remembered her father being hell-bent on making a man of Walker, as hed put it. Hed made Walker hunt and ride and participate in rodeos. Daddy had bragged and bragged about how Walker had tamed the wildest broncs or killed the most game while both Hawk and Walker had flushed and looked uncomfortable. She thought about how Hawk had always been so protective of Walker.
The phone started ringing again, and Lizzy felt heavy demands from home. She felt guilty about not answering and torn because she actually wanted to talk to her mother. But if she talked to her right now, shed tell her everything. Maybe shed even mention Walker.
Motherget a life.
Tough talk for a self-destructive wimp.
How many times had Mother called already? Seven? It seemed to Lizzy the phone had been ringing forever as she stared at her television screen where two men, obviously lovers, embraced. Then almost immediately the men lay down together on the bed again, and their bodies began to writhe.
The phone stopped ringing for at least a whole minute. Not that the lovers stopped what they were doing on that bed.
Just because he has a gay video doesnt mean hes gay.Maybe he was just curious and bought it as a joke. Maybesome gay guy with a crush on him had slipped it into his luggageMaybe
The phone started again. Mother had to be the most persistent human being in the world. Lizzy knew it was her mother because shed checked her caller ID twice before when the phone had rung right after Walker had taken Vanilla down for a walk in the park and to buy take-out Chinese. Shed been hoping, of course, that it was Bryce or Nell calling to say they hadnt meant any of it.
As the phone continued to ring, Lizzy wiped at her damp eyes. One of the men was tall and blond, like Bryce; the other short and dark and very muscular like her cousin, Sam. The darker man had seven little daggers tattooed onto his forearm. Lizzy knew exactly how many daggersbecause shed counted them twice, maybe to keep her gaze there instead of drifting to the lower part of the mens bodies, which the camera was now focusing upon.
She averted her gaze, but out of the corner of her eye, she was aware of the mens supple, perfect bodies tensing, coming closer to some fatal edge. She saw all the parts of their magnificent bodies, yes, all the parts, those long rigid parts with the thick purple veins, and suddenly she started thinking about how long it had been since she and Bryce had had sex.
Men liked watching women with each other. Why? Should she be turned on by watching two men? Was something wrong with her because she resented this video? She thought about Bryceabout his leaving herabout her being too dullespecially in bed.
It was all her fault. What would a kick-ass fantasy heroine do?
What ifwhat if she proved to him she wasnt as dull as he thought she was? What if she made him see her as a completely different kind of womanthe way she was seeing Walker in a whole new light?
The men in the video were shouting at each other, soundlessly, because Lizzy had muted the volume.
Look away. Dont watch anymore. Dont torture yourself.
She felt far too insane to take sane advice, even from herself. It made her feel crazy to associate her sweet, wonderful brother with what she was watching. Walker had been so dear and thoughtful before hed left with Vanilla. Hed sensed something was wrong, but unlike Mother, he hadnt pushed her. Hed simply offered to take the baby out and buy dinner for them. Hed given her space, a precious commodity in Manhattan if ever there was one. Especially, for a Texan used to wide-open spaces.
Youre sure Bryce wont come home starved
She mumbled something to Walker about Bryce working late.
So, if Bryce isnt coming home, are you sure you dont want to come with us? His eyes had been so kind. As if he knew. Its a beautiful night.
Just go. Im really tired.
Hed lingered at the door, tall and cowboy dark in a plaid shirt and jeans, until shed said, go, again.
Walker was all male, tougher than any cowhand she knew. He was! Hadnt her daddy told everybody that over and over again? Walker wasnt He couldnt begay. Not her brother.
But despite her fierce determination to cling to what she wanted to believe about him, her life with him was flashing before her eyes like images on cards. Only now every image had a new meaning as she viewed it with fresh insight.
Walker was as formidably large and male as his brother Hawk and as tough as any man. He could stay on a bucking bronc longer than any of thembut he was so kind and gentle and thoughtful. He never bulldozed over people the way Daddy or Hawk or even Cole sometimes did. He loved art and the theater.
Walker couldnt be gay. Women threw themselves at him.
They asked him out on dates.
But he never asked them.
The big glass doors downstairs opened and crashed closed. Even before she heard Walkers heavy boots on the carpeted stairs, she jumped up, took the tape out of the player, rushed to the second bedroom and hid it in a drawer.
As her brother strode up the stairs, she ran into her own bedroom and took the phone off the hook, so it couldnt ring again. If he knew Mother was calling, hed call her.
By the time Walker walked inside carrying Vanilla, Lizzy was back on the couch with her hands folded primly in her lap.
Vanilla clapped when she saw Lizzy.
Lizzy wished shed had time to turn the lamp on. She wished shed grabbed a book or something. It probably looked odd, her just sitting there in the dark.
She steeled herself to look at Walker and felt instantly guiltily disturbed when she did. Instead of his kind, handsome, dark face, she saw those seven tattoos and the joined forbidden parts of those two male bodies.
She took a deep breath.
You seem in an odd mood, he said.
IIm fine. H-how come you and Daddy How come you left Texas?