Never Too Rich (54 page)

The maitre d’ returned, greeted them formally, and
looked at Edwina questioningly.

Edwina turned to Hallelujah.

“
The Tanquerays’ table,” Hallelujah
said, using the false name under which she had reserved the table
when she’d called—Tanqueray because it was her mother’s favorite
martini gin, and thus had been the first word to pop into her
head.

“
Tanqueray?” Edwina murmured. “What
a curious name.”

The maitre d’ bowed slightly. “If you will please
follow me? The rest of your party is already at the table.” He led
the way, positively floating across the carpet.

Edwina followed, and Hallelujah felt like the
caboose. The spectacular view outside the huge windows caught her
attention, and she walked without looking where she was going. When
her mother abruptly stopped six feet short of the table that was
their destination, she walked smack dab into her back.

“
Ma!” she claimed. “Why’d ya stop
so—” She hushed the moment she caught sight of R.L. and Leslie
rising, like the perfect gentlemen they were, from their corner
seats. “Oh-oh,” she said under her breath. “Now comes trouble.”
Ducking her head, she licked her lips nervously and looked out from
under hastily lowered eyelids.

Edwina stood there like the ice queen for one full
minute. Then, placing her hands on her hips, she turned slowly
around. “Haaaaal. . .” she growled out of one corner of her mouth,
her flush of anger glowing right through her brilliant blusher.

Hallelujah decided it would behoove her to dart past
her mother to the table—and did. Once there, she turned back
around, her hands clutching the back of a chair behind her. Feebly
she attempted an innocent smile. “Ma?”

Edwina took stalking steps toward her. “All right,
young lady. She wagged a furious finger and her voice quivered with
barely controlled rage. “I think you’ve got some quick explaining
and apologizing to do. You’ve conspired. You’ve deliberately,
underhandedly schemed to set—”

“
It was for your own good, Ma!”
Hallelujah said quickly. “Isn’t that right, Les?” She looked over
her shoulder for his confirmation.

Leslie’s head was bobbing up and down like one of
those dolls in the rear window of a car.

“
See?” Hallelujah said, kicking the
heel of one boot nervously against the toe of the other.

Leslie inched forward, nervously thumbing his
glasses up his nose. “It’s all my fault,” he blurted as he reached
Hallelujah’s side. He looked at her for fortification. “Isn’t it,
Hal?”

“
It’s
our
fault,” Hallelujah
corrected him, taking his hand in hers. “We’re in this together,
‘member?”

He nodded miserably.

Edwina drew a deep breath and let it out noisily.
Then she looked at R.L. Now that she was closer to him, she gave a
little start. “What happened to
you?”
she asked. Momentarily
forgetting her anger, she leaned closer in on him. “You’ve got cuts
and scratches all
over
your face!”

“
Oh, that. It’s nothing.” He
laughed and shrugged it off. “Leslie’s always badgering me for a
cat, and I happened to be passing a pet store. You wouldn’t believe
it. They had one of the cutest kittens you ever saw. A Bengal, I
think it’s called. Bred to look like a tiny leopard, all tan-yellow
with leopard spots. Well, damned if it didn’t take an instant
dislike to me. Flew right out of my hands and into my
face.”

Her eyes narrowed. It’s what I should have done to
you months ago, she thought with relish. But despite the clawing,
he still looked handsome; she couldn’t deny that.
Too
handsome. Too well-dressed. Too at ease. Too
everything.

The maitre d’ discreetly cleared his throat.

They all looked at him. He was still holding a chair
for Edwina.

She hesitated. She had a good mind to grab Hal by
the arm, march off with her, and give her a good thrashing once
they got home. But now that she was here, it seemed childish to
stomp off in a huff. She might as well stay. For one drink. A
quick
drink.

She sat down with stiff dignity, and the maitre d’
pushed her chair in.

Hallelujah remained standing. She cleared her throat
and made an awkward gesture. “Hey, you guys. Les and I are gonna
split now, okay?”

Edwina turned to her. “You are
what?”
she
said incredulously.

“
We’re gonna like go see a movie or
something. This isn’t our kind of scene, y’know?”

“
Hal—”

“
Ma, just enjoy yourself, okay? Oh.
An’ Les’ll stay the night over at our place. Ruby knows all about
it, and she’ll be there. That’s just in case . . . you know. The
two of you decide you wanna get it on at
his
place.”

“
Hal!” Edwina was shocked. “How
dare you talk like that?”

“
Ma! Like this
is
1989? An’
I
am
thirteen? Right?”

“
Yes, but—”

“
So s-e-x is not exactly a big
secret, y’know? C’mon, Les, let’s blow this joint. These clothes
are
killin
me!”

And then they were gone.

Edwina turned to R.L. “Can you believe it?” Shaking
her head in disbelief, she added, “I’ve been had.”

“
Seems we’ve
both
been
had.”

“
Hal deserves a good
beating.”

“
And Leslie deserves to be grounded
for a year.”

“
They’re rotten kids.”

“
Spoiled and insufferable.” He
nodded.

“
Makes me wish I’d stayed on the
pill.”

“
A vasectomy might have been a good
idea.”

And suddenly they both burst out laughing.

He had lobster thermidor.

She had pigeon en cocotte.

Together they were working on their second bottle of
champagne.

“
I missed you,” he said, holding
her gaze.
“Damn
but it’s good to see you again!”

Edwina looked at R.L. over her champagne glass and
then quickly poked her nose in the glass and sipped in order to
avoid saying the same thing.

She was confused as all hell. What was it with her?
Why
wasn’t
she flying across the table to rake his face for
all the grief he’d caused her, instead of feeling insanely weak and
warm and trembly all over?

Face it, Eds, she told herself. One of the reasons
you threw yourself into Edwina G. with such a vengeance was to try
to forget R.L. ‘Cause he does things to you, like making you want
him. And you know you’ve long since forgiven him his indiscretion.
And besides, it wasn’t as if you two were husband and wife—you were
both
free to play the field. So either grow up and be happy,
or—

She set down her glass.

If she wasn’t careful, he would be right back in her
life, and she didn’t want a steady man. No way. She liked her
freedom.

Didn’t she?

Maybe it was all the champagne.

Or the slow dances, which had amounted to
foreplay.

Whatever the case might be, even before he shut the
front door, he was all over her.

“
Wait!” Edwina gasped, trying to
push away his hungry mouth and clutching hands. “First go upstairs,
and see if Leslie’s here.”

“
He’s not,” R.L. whispered
definitely, his hands holding her face. “You heard what Hal said.
They’ll spend the night at your place.”

“
Yes, but—”

“
Just shut up,” he commanded
good-naturedly. His strong fingers found her lips, forced them
apart, and probed inside her mouth.

She was momentarily startled, her eyes widening, and
then a sudden fever took hold of her. Slowly she sucked his fingers
in.

She felt oddly aroused. Her legs were spasming.

Gently he probed her mouth, watching intently as her
lips closed hungrily. Then, moving his fingers to the sides of her
mouth, he forced her lips wide and ducked his head down.

Their mouths coupled. And nipped and tasted and
sucked.

Slowly he trailed his fingers on an exploratory
course over her shoulders and down her silk blouse, gently moving
in slow circles over the contours of her breasts.

His feather-light touch was driving her wild.
Squirming, she pressed herself harder against him. “Not so light,
R.L.! I want to feel you. Oh,
yes.
That’s so
good!”

He looked at her. Her eyes were shut and her mouth
was partly open. A rapturous absorption had come over her face.

He reached up under her cashmere skirt, dug inside
the panties, and put a finger up inside her.

Her entire body arched. “Yes, R.L., yes!” she moaned
in agony, and shivered. “Oh, God,
yes!”

A millennium-old power thundered inside him and fire
burned in his loins. He could smell the scent of her aroused
sex.

And she wouldn’t let him go. She squeezed her legs
tight and locked him to her while she reached for his crotch.
Feeling the surging bulge under his pants, she cupped it with one
hand while unzipping his fly with the other.

Suddenly neither of them could stand the slow
torture, and they never made it to the bedroom upstairs . . .
barely made it into the living room. There, grappling like
wrestlers, they tore at each other’s clothes.

“
Easy,” she panted as her blouse
buttons popped off and went flying.

“
Hush,” he mumbled, and still
kissing her hungrily, struggled with her skirt.

In a sudden frenzy she attacked his clothes, ripping
them off him with the same careless abandon with which he had
attacked hers.

Their moist, starving mouths tasted of each other’s
flesh, and his fingers kneaded her breasts while hers gripped the
hard power of his manhood.

She cried out when he dived between her legs with
his mouth to taste her honey and myrrh.

He groaned and trembled as she massaged his
testicles, which hung heavy and low.

But when he entered her, it was slowly and
gently.

She shut her eyes, giving herself over entirely to
sensation, and let caressing zephyrs carry her high into a blue,
blue sky. Deliciously weightless, she let herself drift.
Cotton-candy clouds cushioned her, lifted her, passed her from one
fluffy cushion of down up to the next. In the distance, separated
from the others, she saw a small round cloud. Spreading her arms,
she drifted over to it in a slow upward takeoff. When she reached
it, she clung playfully to its soft cotton sides, tumbling slowly
over and over and over with it, as if it were some slow-motion
beach ball. Opening her mouth, she tasted of its sweet forbidden
fruit. And then angry thunder rumbled, and the cloud was torn out
from under her and shredded by a buffeting wind. Forks of lightning
rent the darkening sky. Suddenly she was no longer airborne. She
was falling swiftly, tossed head over heels by the sudden
turbulence, wind tearing at her face and ripping through her hair
while everything inside her pounded and rushed. And then she heard
the flapping of massive wings closing in on her, and out of the
darkness a giant hawk swooped and seized her, and she seized it
right back in a strangling wrestle hold. Thus clutching each other
fiercely, they both plunged down, down, down into the fiery crater
of death.

“
I’m dying!” she screamed in
gasping ecstasy. “I’m dying I’m dying I’m dying I’m—”

And then the earth moved, the heavens cracked open,
and the juices of life spewed forth.

Still embracing, they collapsed against one another
and lay there spent, waiting for their exhausted bodies to cool and
his erection to subside. Each breath was a rasping fire in their
lungs.

Edwina opened her eyes lazily and luxuriated in the
heady musk of contentment, in the secure knowledge that his
half-hard cock was still inside her.

Ah, there was nothing quite as wonderful as being
fulfilled; nothing else in the world even came close.

And amazingly, she could feel the beginnings of lust
taking possession of her again.

She sighed softly to herself, her mind drifting with
wishes and dreams. Why did it have to be over? Why couldn’t the
acute heights of passion last a lifetime? Why couldn’t this be all
there was to living?

It was as though he had read her mind. Carefully, so
as not to move his hips and withdraw, he pushed his heavy torso up
off her.

She looked up at him and smiled.

His eyes glowed down at her. “Now that we’ve
released all the poisons,” he said softly, bowing his head to plant
a kiss on the left side of her throat, and then the right, “we can
make serious, leisurely love.”

Inside her, she could feel his manhood beginning to
stir again. As though in reply, her own heat rose to meet the
challenge. She was inflamed by the wild thought of him driving her
up, up, up to ever-increasing heights of ecstasy, before leading
her straight down into the raging fires of a lustful hell.

She dug her fingers desperately into the thick
muscles of his back.

“
But not too leisurely!” she
whispered fiercely.

And inside her, the pulsating giant came fully
awake.

Chapter 56

The twice-weekly cleaning woman was alone in the
town house.

“
Coming,” she called out as she
headed for the foyer in response to the door buzzer.
“Coming.”

Ermine Jeannot was too imperturbable to let herself
be rushed.

The door buzzer sounded again. Insistently. It
didn’t speed her one little bit. She was used to doing things at
her own particular pace, a legacy of the relentless tropical sun
and even more relentless humidity she’d spent the better part of
her lifetime in.