Naked in LA (17 page)

I didn’t regret anything. He had helped me get a start in the movie business, already given me far more than I could ever give him. I just didn’t intend to get hurt by believing everything he said. If I didn’t fall too hard, this could yet be a very good thing.

I stood outside the bathroom door, hesitating. Finally I made up my mind, stripped off my clothes and left them right there on the floor; that would be the first of hundreds of ways I intended to drive this man crazy.

When I walked into the bathroom I wasn’t completely naked. I still had on my father’s silver wedding ring.

He heard me come in and slid aside the shower door. He grinned and put both hands on the top of the door. “Come on in, the water’s fine.”

“I’m already wet,” I said.

Reyes Garcia was an impressive man, and no less so when he was naked. I watched the water running down his body and bit my lip. He was larger than life in every way. I wondered how this would be. For all the offers, for all the come-ons, there had only ever been Angel until now. After so much anticipation I hoped I would not be disappointed.

“I’ve always thought,” he said, “that with patience and a little skill, a man could make a woman faint. What do you think?”

“Do you want to try?”

“We have all night, and you’ve had this coming for a long, long time.”

He kissed me hard, pressing me against the cold tiles.

“You’ve wanted this for a long time,” I whispered. “I hope you’re not going to be disappointed.”

His mouth slid down to my throat and then to my breasts. “I can hear your heartbeat,” he said. “It’s beating way too fast. It’s a good start.”

I don’t know why I ever thought I could be disappointed.

It wasn’t the violence of it that was spectacular; Angel only ever lay there, so I had no experience of this kind of acrobatics anyway. Reyes entered me right there in the shower, and I thought,
Well okay, it will be like it is with Angel, I’ll just hold on for the ride
.

At first I didn’t think he would fit.

But he pulled out again before I could find out. I wrapped my legs around his hips and he carried me out of the bathroom, still kissing me, and we collapsed onto a chair, but it wouldn’t hold us and we ended up on the pinewood floor. His head hit the edge of the coffee table as we fell and there was blood leaking down his face but he just ignored it. I guess it added to the excitement.

And that was when he really went to work on me with his fingers and his mouth, he made me come three times right there sliding around on the cool timber floor, little shuddering climaxes that ebbed and flowed and were never quite enough, and sometimes too much. Finally I pushed his head away.

He picked me up and tried to carry me into the bedroom, but I grabbed the kitchen bench as we walked past and leaned back on the marble top and kissed him, holding his face in my hands and running my hands through his hair. I wanted to devour him.

When he finally carried me into the bedroom, that’s exactly what I did. My repertoire wasn’t as broad as his, but I did my best. When he was close he rolled me onto my back, but he still wasn’t finished with me. Supporting himself with one arm he used his other hand to make me come again while he was on top of me, and this time it went on and on.

Perhaps that was why I didn’t have the strength to stop him when he came inside me. It was a stupid thing to do, but I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t drag myself away from him and neither could he. I looked into his eyes as he came and it was the most intimate moment of my entire life, and frankly, I was shocked.

Chapter 24

It was still dark when I woke. For a moment I didn’t remember where I was, then I rolled over and found him sprawled beside me. The sheets were bunched on the floor.

I put my head on his chest and listened to the slow rhythm of his heart. Papi had said to me once that you never really knew anyone until you heard their heartbeat.

I couldn’t sleep. I went out onto the deck, naked. There was a cool breeze and I leaned onto the rail and looked down into the valley. The city shifted black and massive, its rhythms rolling like the sea. I could hear music coming from somewhere, and I saw lights through the trees.

It was still too dark to see where the sky ended and the horizon began. A coyote whined somewhere in the hills and I heard the cry of an owl hunting for field mice close by.

I had never imagined any of this when I was growing up in Havana. Papi had never expected me to make my own way in the world. He thought I would marry a good boy with a good family and a father in business, have children and grandchildren and supervise the house and the servants. It was the life my mother had before the sickness took her away from us.

Instead I had the chance to be rich and famous in my own right, if I had
buena suerte
.

Fidel was the worst thing that had ever happened to me and he was also the best. There were so many things I might never have known if not for the
revolucion
. I may never have discovered what I had missing all along with Angel. Reyes was a revelation; I had never had a man pay me so much attention in and out of bed. Bed? The whole house was wrecked. In the moonshadow, the living room looked as if it had been the scene of a brawl. There were puddles of water everywhere, wet towels all over the floor, shards of china from a vase we had knocked off a coffee table. There were even bloodstains from where he had hit his head. Another night of love with Reyes Garcia and I’d have to make a will.

When I came back to bed he was still asleep, his arm sprawled across the bed. I knelt down and pushed a comma of hair from his face. Suddenly I felt terrified. This tenderness, this need, this was perhaps how love felt when it started. What if it was still here when it ended and he was gone?

He stirred, pushed the hair out of his eyes and sat up. “What time is it?” he mumbled.

“I don’t know. Late.”

“You okay?”

“Just restless. I feel like I’ve been ravaged by a regiment of marines.”

“Yeah? I’ve never been ravaged by a regiment of marines. Is that a good thing?”

“Actually, it feels okay.” He lay down again and closed his eyes. I gave his shoulder a playful shove. “Wake up.”

“Sorry, guess I’m still exhausted after the flight.”

“You guys are all the same, there’s always some excuse.” I got back into bed and put my head on his chest. There it was again, that heartbeat. “Damn, you’re good.”

“I bet you say that to all the boys.”

“There’s only ever been one before you.”

“A girl as beautiful as you, I find that hard to believe.”

“When I was in Havana - well you know the story. When I came to Miami, I was too busy looking after Papi to think about boys. When I came to LA I met you again, and after that I just wasn’t interested in anyone else.”

He rolled onto his belly. “So if you’ve only had two lovers, how do you know I’m any good?”

“Good point. I’ll have to keep checking around.”

He laughed.

“That thing you do with your tongue drives me crazy, I could get addicted.”

“Then maybe I should charge.”

“And I’d pay. By the way, I think we broke one of your chairs.”

“You broke it, I told you to keep still.”

“How am I going to keep still when you’re doing that to me?”

“It was my favourite chair, too.”

“That’s not such a big deal when you only have two.” I wrapped my leg across his thigh. “It’s a nice house.”

“Thanks. Remember those two suitcases I threw on the back of the plane that night in Havana?”

“Did it pay for this?”

“And the furniture as well.”

“And the Roadster?”

“I had to assassinate the president of a small African nation to get that.” When I didn’t say anything, he added. “That was a joke.”

“How am I supposed to know the difference?”

“I don’t kill people, princess. Well, not unless they try to kill me first.”

“I’ll have to take your word for it. You like being mysterious, don’t you?”

“I don’t feel anything about it either way. It’s just sound business strategy.”

“Is that why you don’t have any photographs?”

“Is that important?”

“It tells people where you’re from.”

“Like I said, I don’t want people to know where I’m from.”

“But this is different, this is your home. You keep business separate from your personal life, right?”

“What are you, Perry Mason?”

“There must be something from the past you want to remember.”

“My childhood wasn’t quite like yours, princess. We couldn’t afford a camera, and there weren’t that many happy memories that I feel the need to treasure.”

“What about when you were growing up?”

“I guess there were a few mug shots but the police wouldn’t let us keep them.”

“Was that a joke, too?”

“Not really.”

I ran my fingers through the tight curly hairs on his chest. “The thing I miss the most is our photograph albums--more than the money or the car or even the house. Fidel can have them. But I wish I’d remembered to take the photograph albums.”

“They mean that much to you?”

“They mean everything to me. It’s like a part of me is missing. I’ve lost my history. There are days I can’t even remember my mother’s face.”

“I wonder if Maria salvaged them before she left,” he said.

“Perhaps she did, but I have no idea where she is or how to contact her. Even if she doesn’t have the albums, I’d like to know she’s all right. She was always very good to me.”

He didn’t say anything to that. I thought perhaps he had gone back to sleep. I ran my fingers down his belly. “Wake up,
mi cielito.
We’ve waited four years for this, we have a lot of time to make up for.”

“I don’t think I can.”

“It feels like you can. You may be tired but he’s not.”

He groaned in mock despair. Or perhaps the despair was genuine but I didn’t care. We had a lot of time to make up for. If I’d known that sex could be like this, I would have taken it up a long time ago.

Chapter 25