Chapter 93

I watched Abe Cohen’s face as I listened to him tell me how to talk Nell into doing something that she said she didn’t want to do.

He began to perspire as he warmed to the subject, and he looked like he was actually enjoying himself when he said, “You have to be forceful. You have to go in there and overwhelm her. The hard part could be letting you tie her up, but I think that she’ll let you from the way she acted on the phone, and you’ll be in control once you do. Women like her always want to be in control, and the rest will be a piece of cake if she’ll release that power to you. I’m having a document delivered to your house. Take it to her when you get home tomorrow and get her to sign it.”

From there he explained in graphic detail how I should tease her, constantly getting her to the brink of orgasm, but not letting her go over the edge. I should slip the document in front of her when she was ready to climb the walls, and tell her to sign it ‘or else’.

“Or else what?”

“Or else you might have to slap her around! Don’t worry, she’ll love it, and...”

I held my hand to stop up. “I would never do that. I understand how important this is, and I’ll try to help if I can, but I’m not going to be mean or do anything to hurt her.”

“You’re not being mean. I know women like her; they love that kind of shit!”

“Well, I don’t love that kind of shit. There must be another way.”

“We need you to act on this right away.

“You keep saying ‘we’. Do Sylvia and Herb know what you want me to do?”

“I called Herb when I saw you today. I told him that I was going to ask you to talk to Nell. I didn’t say what I was going to ask you to do, so I don’t know if he talked to Sylvia.”

I stood there thinking about what he wanted me to do. I had restrained girls before. The first time was at Kate’s and I had also done it with other girls. They acted like it was a turn on. It was kind of exciting to me as well, but I never quite understood why. All I knew was that I wasn’t going to get physical with Nell, and I wasn’t going to hurt her.

Cohen interrupted my thoughts. “I get it. You want to know what’s in it for you, right.”

“That isn’t it at all. I just need time to think about it.”

“Like I said, there isn’t time! We need an answer by Tuesday at the latest, or that other outfit might step in front of us. C’mon, there must be something you want. How would you like to go to the after party tonight for starters?”

I glared at him. “I can’t go to the after party, I’m here with someone. The only thing that I want is for you to quit pestering me. I’ll talk to Nell when I get back to town, and I’ll let you know what happens.”

He scribbled something on a business card as I started to leave, held it out to me, and said, “Call her as soon as you get to shore and ask her to meet with you when you get back to LA. I’d ask you to do it now, but our cell phones don’t reach out here, and I don’t want to use the ship’s phone again because I can’t tell who might be listening. I’ll be back on shore tomorrow morning. My cell phone number is on the card. Call me as soon as you talk to her.”

I stared at him for a minute, “It’ll be after midnight by the time we get to shore, besides, I want to talk to Herb about this.”

He pulled the card back, scribbled something else on it, handed it back to me, and said, “Here’s Herb’s private cell number. I’ll tell him that you’re going to call.”

I stuck the card in my pocket and left.

There was a small group of women gathered around our table when I got back to it. Monique had taken her wrap off, and the women were talking with her and making comments about the bikini she was wearing. Meg and Marla were there as well, and they seemed to be talking and doing something.

Jay and Lane were standing off to the side, so I walked over to them, nodded in Monique’s direction, and asked, “What’s going on?”

Jay gave a half smile, “Someone noticed that Monique was wearing that special bikini, and they all came to see it.”

“What are Meg and Marla doing?”

“Meg is helping Marla hand out WE business cards. I think that Marla’s going to try to talk Tammy into giving Meg a job.”

“But that bikini wasn’t part of the WE ad campaign.”

“I know, but the women don’t know that. It’s a way to get WE business cards out there.”

“Who’s idea was it?”

“It was Marla’s. She’s pretty damn smart. isn’t she?”

“Yes, she is. You like her a lot, don’t you?”

“Damn right, I do. Monique said that Abe Cohen wanted to see you, by the way. What’s that all about?”

“He and a friend of mine are doing a business deal, and he wanted me to talk to someone about it. What do you know about him?”

“He and my dad have done business together. Dad says that he’s okay, but he gives me the creeps. Did you see that girl he was with?”

“Yeah, she looks about fourteen.”

He grinned and said, “She’s almost thirty. She says that she owes her looks to large applications of, uhh, male protein. I heard that she had sex with every guy on the boat last year.”

“Was it at the after party?”

“Yeah, where did you hear about the after party?”

“Cohen asked me if I wanted to go. What’s it all about?”

He rolled his eyes, “Shit! This is the fourth time I’ve attended this thing, and I’ve never been asked to it. It’s by invitation only and I’m pretty sure that my mom told my dad to make sure that I’m not invited. It’s supposed to be a no-holds-barred sex party.”

“Cohen says that your dad knows about what goes on.”

“I think that he went to a few of them before my mom put a stop to it.”

“She can do that?”

“She sure can. My dad’s a pretty big deal in business, and he was quite a player at one time. Mom used to let him get away with it, but she put her foot down a few years ago, and he pays attention when my mom gets serious about something.”

I thought about things for a minute, “Are you planning on spending a lot of time with Marla from now on?”

“I hope to, why?”

“I hear that you’re a player too. What are you gonna do about that? Are you going to give it up?”

It was almost a full minute before he said, “Yeah, I think I will,” then he added, “No, I know I will!”

Lane stared at him, and said, “Are you kidding?”

Jay shook his head, “No, I’m not. I’ve screwed around long enough. It’s time that I settled down.”

Lane raised an eyebrow, “Aren’t you rushing things a little? What makes you think that Marla wants to get serious?”

“I don’t know anything for sure, but I know that she likes me and I’m going to do whatever it takes to get her to like me more. Speaking of which, you seem to be getting along okay with Meg.”

A smile came over Lane’s face, “Yeah, she’s quite a girl. She beautiful, exciting, and what’s more important, I really like being around her. I haven’t been this comfortable around a girl since ... well, you know.”

Jay was wearing an even bigger smile when he put his hand on Lane’s shoulder. “Damn! There may be hope for you yet. I haven’t seen you this excited for a long time.”

The band started playing a slow number just then, so the three of us gathered up the girls and headed for the dance floor. Even though Monique wasn’t a great dancer, holding her close to me was exciting and I began to forcefully lead her around the floor. I was doing simple steps and she started to get a feel what we were doing before long. She began to follow me and she was wearing a big smile by the end of the tune.

She wanted to head back to our table as soon as a song ended when we danced before, but she expectantly looked up at me when the band immediately started with another slow tune, and we began again this time. Most everyone had left the dining room, so our three couples had the dance floor to ourselves. I took a second to watch the others while we were dancing. Both Jay and Lane were holding the girls close to them. Marla looked like she was talking about something, but Jay seemed to be staring off in the distance with a sort of dreamy look on his face. Meg and Lane were by themselves at the edge of the floor and were slowly moving. She had her head on Lane’s chest, and they both had their eyes closed.

Mom used to say that some people have natural rhythm and learn to dance quickly while she was teaching dancing. Monique unfortunately wasn’t one of them, but she was trying her best and holding her close and feeling her body against me had me so turned on that I was sorry when the song ended.

The band started packing things up, so Jay walked over to us and said, “That’ll about do it for us. Most people will be hanging around for the after party. Let’s get our stuff and get ready to go.”

We were joined by Doctors Snow and Engle when we boarded the water taxi. I think that they were trying to appear nonchalant, but I noticed that they sat close together when they sat down. The boat was about to leave when we were also joined by Delores Rio. She was wearing a sweatsuit, carrying a small travel bag, and she looked angry. I wanted to ask her what was wrong, but she sat by herself and didn’t act like she wanted to talk. She began calling on her cell phone as we approached the shore. It was nearly midnight, and she apparently wasn’t able to reach whoever she was calling, so she got so angry at one point that it looked like she was going to throw her cell phone in the water.

Meg surprisingly went over and sat next to her. They talked for a few minutes, then Meg went to Jay, and I heard her say, “She’s stranded down here and can’t reach anyone. She wants to spend the night in a hotel and try again in the morning, but she’s scared. I asked her if she wanted to fly back to LA with Pete and me in the morning. Would it be okay if she spent the night at your place?”

“Of course, but she looks upset. What’s the problem?”

“That asshole Jack Hedden said he was going to drive her home tonight, but he hooked up with that basketball player and they are going to stay for the party. He wanted her to join them, but he didn’t tell her what kind of party it was. She left when she found out.”

“I don’t mind her staying with us, but she’s a big TV star. Wouldn’t she be more comfortable in a hotel?”

“All I know is that she’s scared and doesn’t want to be alone. She can bunk in with me.”

“It’s fine; tell her we’d be happy to have her join us. But it’s still early, and I was thinking that we might stop for a drink or some ice cream on the way home.”

Meg’s eyes lit up, and she said, “Ooh, a big banana split sounds great. Let me tell Delores.”

She started toward Delores, then she stopped and went to Lane. She whispered something to him, then she kissed him on the cheek and went to talk to Delores. Meg gave us the ‘thumbs up’ sign when Delores smiled and nodded, but Meg put her arm around Delores instead of coming back to Lane, and they rode the rest of the way to shore together.

I had my arms around Monique to keep her warm while we were watching this. She looked up at me and quietly said, “Meg is a nice person.”

“Yes, she is.”

“Have the two of you and her been dating?”

“No, we just work together.”

“Why not, she’s a very pretty girl?”

I wasn’t sure why she was asking me this, so I thought the safest thing to do was to change the subject. “Because you got back to town, and I can’t think of other girls when you’re around.”

She turned around until she was facing me. “Am I really your girlfriend, Pete?”

“You are if you want to be. Do you?”

“Yes, I do. It’s like I told you, I’m not used to having a boyfriend, and I’m really not sure how to act.”

“You’re acting just fine.”

She smiled and said, “Good,” then she kissed me on the cheek, turned around, and snuggled against me.

I remembered the first time I saw her at school when I looked down at her. She and Alice had been walking across the quad and the sight of her had given me a chill. There were pretty girls at school, but nothing like her. She had just transferred there that year, and every guy at school was talking about what a babe she was. Thinking back at what happened between us later was like a dream. I tried to picture her in the hotel that day. She had looked like a goddess when she had dropped her robe and stood there wearing nothing but that feathered mask. I tried to remember what it was like making love to her, but all I could think of is what she looked like. She once told me that the reason she never made it big in modeling was because there were a lot of pretty girls in the business who would do the things that she wouldn’t do. I couldn’t imagine anyone more beautiful than her, and I wondered what her life would have been like if she’d been willing to do those things. It made me wonder how far I would go to further a career. Some unpleasant things came to mind, and I was suddenly glad that I didn’t have to make those kinds of decisions.

Something then came to mind. It occurred to me that other people had been making decisions about my life up to now. Maybe it was time that I started making some decisions of my own. Things like, what did I really want from Monique? Being around her was a thrill, but I get the feeling that she was becoming needy. She was older and had actually been out in the world. How could she look to a kid like me for answers? About this acting thing, did I really want to do it? Where did I want it to take me? I was brought out of my reverie when the boat pulled up to the dock.

The doctors had been sitting close together during the ride and Jay said to Dr. Snow “Would you and Dr. Engle like to join us for some ice cream, Aunt Jane?” when we all climbed onto on the dock.

She answered, “Thanks, Honey, but it’s late and it’s a two hour ride home,” after a quick glance at Dr. Engle.

They started toward their cars and Jay grinned and said, “Watch this,” when they got out of hearing range.

Dr. Engle didn’t turn toward the freeway when he drove out of the parking lot. He headed toward town instead, and Dr. Snow followed him.

Jay chuckled and added, “There’s gonna be a ride all right, but what do you want to bet it’s going to be in a local hotel.”

It got a laugh from everyone.

The extra person made things a little crowded when we got to the car, so Monique ended up sitting on my lap. The ride to the ice cream parlor was a little bumpy and I had a pretty good hard on by the time we got there in spite of me trying to think of something else. Monique’s hand brushed against the bulge in my pants when she turned to slide off me. I felt her body stiffen for a second and she looked down at it when she stood up, then up at me with an odd look on her face that became a smile as we headed into the building.

The place was big, noisy, and crowded, but we lucked out because a small group got up from a table just as we stepped inside. Meg ran to it and sat down. She stood up and grinned at Monique when we got there, “You probably just want a small diet soda, right?”

She said, “It figures,” when Monique nodded. “Okay, you guard the table while we order,” and we followed her as she headed for the counter.

Most of us ordered cones or small sundaes, but Meg said to Delores, “C’mon, we can share something,” and ordered a huge triple banana split. Delores had been quiet since she joined us, but Meg soon had her laughing and the two of them began telling stories about people at the studio between bites of ice cream.

I noticed something interesting while watching Delores. She was pretty, but she didn’t have any outstanding features. Her show is very popular and her face was very well-known, but the only people who noticed us at all weren’t looking at her, they were looking at Monique. I’m sure that it would have been greatly different if the people knew who Delores was, but she was just another pretty girl now. She seemed tense at first, but she started to relax as she and Meg talked. They were about half finished with their ice cream when Delores sat back and said, “Wow, I’m full.”

Meg made a face, growled “Amateurs,” and began attacking the remainder with a vengeance. Everyone laughed, especially Delores, and I began to see a pleasant, more attractive side of her.

Then I glanced at Lane...

My mom and I were watching a movie one time, and the hero was staring at the heroine with a silly look on his face. Mom had said that he was ‘smitten’ by her. That’s the way Lane was looking at Meg. He was definitely smitten by her and it was nice to see.

It was late when we got to Jay’s place and Monique seemed to get nervous as we pulled into his driveway. We walked up to the second floor when we got inside, and Jay asked, “Anyone for the hot tub?”

He said, “Marla and I are going up to the deck to say goodnight to the stars. See you all in the morning,” when we all shook our heads.

Meg whispered something to Lane as they walked away, then she said, “C’mon, Delores, let’s hit the rack,” and they headed for her room.

Lane went to his room, and I turned to Monique. I thought about asking her to spend the night with me, but she said “Goodnight,” and hurried to her room after a quick kiss. It happened so quickly that I didn’t have a chance to ask her.

I could hear the girls in the bathroom when I got to my room, and I crawled into bed and turned my light off. I was a little wired and couldn’t fall asleep, so I lay there thinking about tonight. I was remembering what the dancer looked like standing amid the antennas on the ship, so I didn’t notice when it got quiet in the bathroom and I was surprised when the bathroom door opened and a voice asked, “Are you awake, Pete?”

I answered, “Yes.”

Delores stepped into the room. I could tell from the bathroom light that she was still wearing the sweat outfit and I asked, “What’s up?”

It took her a few seconds before she answered, then she asked, “Do you mind if I leave your door to the bathroom open?”

“No, I don’t mind, but why?”

“I, uhh, really don’t like being alone.”

“Isn’t Meg with you?”

“She went to say goodnight to Lane. I told her that it was okay to stay with him if he asked her, and I don’t think that she’ll be back.”

It was a bit of a shock, but I said, “Good for her, Lane seems like a nice guy,” after I thought about it for a few seconds.

“Yes, he does, but, umm, I don’t like being in unfamiliar places. It kind of scares me, do you mind?”

I was surprised. She was a famous TV star. I’m sure that she traveled places to promote her show, so why would she be afraid of staying in a strange place? The look on her face told me that she wasn’t kidding. She really did look scared.