The Sunday Arrangement (33 page)

He pulled his fingers
all the way out of me. I looked over my shoulder at him. “Are you crazy? I was
just about to climax.”

He smiled at me and picked
up a condom that had been sitting next to the jelly. He tore it open. I waited with
anticipation as he put it on along with more jelly.

“Remember, stay
relaxed. I won’t hurt you.” He moved to kneel behind me, and I focused on
keeping myself relaxed as he slowly pushed himself into me. He waited after he got
himself all the way in. “You okay?” he asked. It hurt a little—his cock was
obviously thicker than his fingers had been, but it didn’t hurt as bad as I
thought it would.

“Yes, keep going.”

He started to slowly
thrust in and out of me. It took me a moment to get used to the new feeling,
but soon the pleasure that he had been teasing me with the entire time began to
build again, slower this time. My arms and legs were starting to get tired.

“Can I turn over?” I
asked. He pulled out of me, and I turned over onto my back. I put the pillow
under my lower back.

He placed my legs
over his shoulder and leaned over me. Again, he positioned himself and pushed himself
in, quicker this time. His thrusts were steady, and he used his hand now to
come down and stroke my excited clit. I moaned. My pleasure bubbled over and I
came, his name falling from my lips. He thrust into me harder now, and I held onto
the sheets. I could feel the muscles tighten around him with the after-spasms
of my orgasm. He moaned, then stilled his movements, and came.

Pulling out of me, he
lay down beside me and caught his breath. He looked at me. “Did you like that?”

“Surprisingly, I did.
I didn’t think I would. The thought of it never really appealed to me before.
But you made it enjoyable and made me feel safe. Thank you.”

He smiled and leaned over
to kiss me. Not long after, we both fell asleep.

I wrote Pierce a
note, letting him know that I would see him Tuesday morning, and I snuck out
before he woke up so that I could catch my flight  to New York to meet up with
my mother. As I left his place, I couldn’t help but feel the hairs on the back
of my neck stand on end. Someone was watching me again, and it wasn’t paparazzi.
That terrible feeling I got from whoever it was wasn’t a good one. It wasn’t until
I was up in the air that the feeling left me. I wished I knew where it was coming
from.

As I expected, my
mother wasn’t as thrilled to see me as she usually was. Perhaps she knew why I
was there. She hugged me briefly before getting in the car, but we sat in silence
as we made our way back home. I wanted to say something, but I didn’t know what
would be appropriate.

It wasn’t until she was
pouring us tea on the second-level sun balcony of our home that she spoke.
“Your brother told me you know about the affair. That’s the reason you’re here,
isn’t it?”

I slowly stirred sugar
into my tea; it gave me something to do so that I didn’t have to look her in
the face. “Yes. I want to know more about it. How it started and ended. Why she
killed herself.”

My mother took her
time unfolding a napkin and making it line-free on her lap. “I always knew
you’d ask me about this one day.”

I sat forward, eager
to hear her explanation.

“The feud between the
companies at that point was more or less just a friendly rivalry between
college friends. They were always trying to top each other; they thought it was
fun.” My mother’s thumb played with the edge of her tea cup. “I’d always known
your father loved Julia. They were college sweethearts before I met him. I
don’t know the full story, but somehow Peter wooed Julia away from Joseph.
Joseph knew they were happy together, and with them being his best friends, he never
tried to get her back then. I met him soon after they broke up.” Tears appeared
at the corners of her brown, almond eyes. “Julia and your father started up an
affair, and toward the end, they weren’t even trying to hide it anymore. I’m
not sure what prompted it all of the sudden, after so many years. But there was
no stopping them.”

“Why didn’t you leave
him?”

She smiled sadly. “I
was raised to believe a woman should stand by her husband no matter what
happens. So that’s what I did. Stood by him in the face of the tabloids and didn’t
back down.”

I took a sip of my
tea. “Pierce says that Daddy is responsible for Julia killing herself.”

She looked out at the
scenery and sighed. “Everyone has their own opinion about that. I guess the
only one that really knows the truth is Julia herself. I don’t think she meant
to take her own life though.”

“What do you mean?”

My mother looked at
me. “When the affair became public, Joseph turned his back on her.  He
pretended to be the perfect family man, wanting to rebuild what he had almost
destroyed. Peter, even though he had been openly having affairs for years, made
Julia stay inside the house. He told the public that she had put herself in a
self-imposed exile. Mainly, he just wanted to keep her away from your father.
They say she was under twenty-four-hour watch so that she couldn’t leave
without him knowing.” She took another sip of her tea. “I don’t think she ever
meant to go through with it. I think she tried to overdose on sleeping pills so
that she would have to be taken to the hospital, thus, getting out of the house
and alerting the public to what was going on.”

“Except it didn’t
work out like that?”

“She was never sent
to a hospital, and the coroner concluded that she had overdosed on prescription
sleeping pills and that was all. I think Peter knew what she was up to and let
her die. But there’s never been a way to prove it.”

“So you think she was
murdered?”

“Yes.”

I sat back in my
chair, trying to digest everything she had told me. “I should have known about
this, Mom. How can you bear to look at him?”

She reached across
the table for my hand. “No, sweetheart. You were so young. There’s no way you
would have known what was going on. I had to remain strong for you. I didn’t
want you to see the pain your father had caused.”

“You should leave him.
He doesn’t deserve you.”

She stared at the tea
cup in her hand. “I’ve been with him for so long I don’t think I could make it
without him by my side. We all carry our own burdens, Lauren, and we learn to
eventually walk with a straight back while doing it. It’s just a fact of life.”

Anger boiled up in
me. “Mom, if I chose to leave the company, would you be mad at me?”

 “No, I would be
proud of you. Very proud.”

I ate an early dinner
with my mother and then made the trip back to Vegas. As I walked into my
apartment, I speed-dialed Kat on my cell. I had questions for her. When it went
straight to her voice mail, I sighed and left a message telling her to call me
as soon as she could. I walked over to the window and looked out over the city.
Should I call Pierce? He would have some of the answers to my burning questions,
so I dialed his number next.

“Hello?” he answered sleepily.

“Hi, can you come
over to my place now?”

“Lauren? I was
sleeping—and having a rather nice dream too.”

“Yes. Please? There’s
something I need to talk to you about.”

“Can it be done over
the phone or in the morning at work?”

“No. Please, Pierce,
come over.”

“All right. I’ll be
there in fifteen.” He hung up. My heart raced. I sat down on the couch and
tried to calm myself. I felt a small headache coming from my sudden burst of
adrenaline. Time seemed to fly as I thought about all the details and just how
much I wanted to make my dad pay.

Soon there was a
knock at my door. When I opened it, I was met by a tired and pajama-wearing
Pierce. I let him in.

“What’s so important
that we couldn’t talk about it over the phone or in the morning?”

Out of pure impulse I
kissed him. He looked at me with surprise. “What was that for?”

“I felt like it,” I
said. “Listen, I just got back from seeing my mother.”

He yawned. “And you
woke me up to tell me that?”

“No, I want to tell
you that I’m in. It’s time our fathers paid for what they did.”

Before Pierce could
react to my news, there was a knock at my door. I frowned, looking toward the
entrance. Only a handful of people knew I lived here, and none of them would be
stopping by at this time of night. I went to the door and looked through the
peephole. There was no one there. I opened the door and looked down the hall.
It was as empty as my father’s soul.

I then glanced at the
floral carpet; in front of my door was a manila envelope. I picked it up and brought
it inside. Opening the envelope, I pulled out a DVD. I looked at Pierce,
confused, and he took it from me.

“Did you have our sex
tape delivered?” I joked. “You promised me an edited version, remember?”

He kissed the top of
my forehead. “I did, didn’t I? Well, I was going to surprise you because I just
finished editing it. And I must say, you look fantastic in the whole thing.”

I beamed. “So is this
it? I think we need some popcorn while we watch our fantasy fuck. Don’t you
agree?”

“Actually, no. I have
no idea what this is.” He put the mysterious disc in my entertainment system
and turned it on.

April’s face,
stunning as ever, appeared on the screen.

A chill sent
goosebumps down my arms. What the hell could this possibly be?

She was smiling.
“Hello, Lauren,” she said with disdain. “And my handsome love.”

I looked at Pierce,
and he seemed just as confused as I was. What was this psycho going to do?

“I realize you two
have been quite distracted with each other lately. Pierce, honey, I love you. I
wanted you to be happy, so I let you sleep with her. Now, however, I think it
is time for your little games to end.” She put a finger to her lip mimicking a
contemplative thought. “You and I are going to move things to the next level. Say
good-bye to your little Sunday delight.”

I looked at Pierce.
“What is she talking about—”

“You see, Pierce,”
the voice from the video continued. “I can see that you’re falling in love with
her, and I can’t have that. That is why you and I will be married next month.”

He snorted. Unease
rolled through me. What was she going to do to force him to comply?

“See, I was cleaning
your apartment the other day, love, and I found the little sex videos you and she
made.” Both videos appeared on the screen with her, and I covered my mouth with
my hand. “Pretty interesting view, if I do say so myself,” she said. “I doubt
you’ll object, my love, but in case you do . . . if you don’t agree to marry me,
I have friends who will hack into the screens at Times Square and stream these
movies for all to see. I can’t imagine what that will do to Lauren’s image, let
alone your careers. Kiss that fuckin’ casino good-bye and any other project
you’d want to oversee in the future. Call me when you’re ready to say yes, but
don’t wait too long. You know I’m not a very patient girl.”

The screen went
black, just as my world did.

I turned to him.
“Pierce, what are we going to do?”

He frowned. “She
can’t blackmail us like this. We’ll stop her.”

My hands started to
shake as I watched him take out his cell phone. “What if she does this? Can you
imagine? We’ll never work again. Our plan to thwart Hart Corp—none of it will
be possible.” I crumbled to the floor. Now it occurred to me that the feelings
I had been having of being watched were confirmed.

“I said I can fix
this, Lauren,” Pierce snapped.

I had a feeling that it
wouldn’t be that easy. April thought she was in love with him and would do
anything to have him. She wouldn’t go down without a fight—I could tell that
much from the look in her eyes. We had to get those videos back. We had to save
our reputations. We had to do something. How were we ever going to recover from
this?

“I’m going to make a
few calls,” he said. “I suggest you start racking your brain for ideas about how
we’re going to get those tapes.”

I wrapped my arms
around myself as I lay fetal on the carpet. I knew if the investors found out
about our affair, they’d pull out of the casino. But the thought of Pierce
being married to April shook me to my core. In that moment, my feelings for him
were ridiculously clear. I didn’t want a Sunday arrangement. I wanted a forever
arrangement with the man who had awakened my sexual being, reviving life in me.
No one would deprive me of that. I didn’t care what kind of proof she had.

~*~*~*~

A few hours later, I
still hadn’t moved from the plush rug in the middle of Pierce’s living room. I
was frozen, unable to move. I’d never experienced a silence so resoundingly
loud. My mind screamed at the impossibility, yet it remained still in fear. Maybe
if I just stayed put, everything would go back to the way it was. Maybe then
our biggest threat would be overthrowing our malicious fathers and bringing
this casino to life within the bustling city of Vegas. Maybe then we could go
back to thinking of every Sunday’s new exploits and fantastical adventures.