Chapter 13

Between Harry on one side of her and Margo on the other, they managed to get Tamara into the restaurant and back to the room without anyone noticing how weak she was.

While Carol went to tell Karen, Patricia and Kelly the edited version of the story, Harry pulled Eddy to one side and Margo checked Tamara over.

"Eddy, that girl over there, her name's Tamara, I don't know her last name and we just paid a thousand dollars to buy her from Phil Philouma. You know who he is, I'm sure."

"Yeah, I know who he is."

"He wasn't real happy about the transaction and I'm afraid to keep her at my place, I need to stash her for awhile until I'm sure things have blown over. She's going to need constant care, for the first week or so at least, and I know it's a lot to ask, but could you..."

"Say no more, Harry, I got more than enough time off built up, my boss has been tryin' to get me to take some of it for awhile now. She'll be safe with me, I'll see to her."

"Good... now, she needs to be owned, even more so than Carol, with Tamara it's 'need with a capital N', so we're going to give her to you and you'll accept her and then it'll be all kosher in her headspace. Got it?"

"Yeah, I got it, Harry."

"How are you fixed for cash because I'm more than willing to pay for her upkeep..."

"Shut up, Harry, I've got more money than I know what to do with. You'll probably need all your cash right now anyway, what with you and the ladies having to live elsewhere for a bit."

"What?"

"Harry, if it isn't safe for her to be at your place I kinda doubt it's safe for you to be at your place either."

Harry was caught in a web of his own spinning.

"Shit, you're right. I've been so worried about her I completely missed that. Eddy, do you know anybody you'd trust to house-sit our place, twenty-four-seven, let the workmen in, that kind of thing, make sure it doesn't get trashed by Philouma's boys?"

"Yeah Harry, two of the boys that work with me, if I'm taking time off, so are they. They'll keep an eye on the place. We get you home tonight, you write out all the instructions you can think of, we'll get you and the girls packed up and out of there for a week or so, they'll be there tonight before you leave so you can meet them."

Margo came over, half carrying Tamara.

"Harry, Eddy, that asshole hadn't been starving her long enough to do serious damage. I'd say she's alright to eat semi-solid foods tonight, Bubba's Mashed Taters would probably be a great choice, but I'd keep her away from solids for another day or two. Think soups, broths, fruit juices. By Tuesday she should be fine to eat pretty much whatever she wants."

"Tamara, I bought you," Harry said to the girl, "and now I'm making a gift of you to this man, Eddy. He owns you now."

"Yes sir, I understand."

She walked towards Eddy and hesitated, just a second, and before anyone could have registered what they were seeing the large man had gone to her, scooped her up in his arms and was back in his chair with her on his lap. She almost looked like a child as he cradled her, speaking to her in a low, soft, gentle voice.

Harry gathered Margo and Carol and told them about the necessity of covering his lie to Eddy and then went over to say hello to the rest of the crew.

"Patricia, it's great to see you again." Karen stood up and hugged him hard. "Ouch... Sappho... ribs... breaking... vision... going... dark." She broke the hug.

"Harry, you picked a really good reason to be late to supper. If you were a girl..."

"You still wouldn't fuck me because you and Patricia are soooo traditional," he finished, grinning widely.

Karen hugged him and whispered in his ear, "If you were a girl, I never would have met Patricia, we'd be Karen and Harriet."

Harry smiled, hugged Karen back and reflected that there were worse alternate realities to contemplate.

Kelly came and gave him a hug.

"Arthur, why do I think you're pulling a fast one on Eddy and the rest of us?" she asked him quietly as they embraced.

"Because I am," he replied, kissing her ear.

As everyone settled into their chairs and the newcomers ordered their well-deserved drinks it was impossible for anyone to avoid noticing that Eddy and Tamara were in their own world. She was curled up in his lap as he stroked her hair and murmured softly to her something only they could hear.

Margo snagged the waiter before he left.

"I need an order of Bubba's Mashed Taters and a bowl of Granny's Chicken Soup for the young lady there. Make sure they get here as soon as possible."

She handed him a twenty.

"They'll be right here ma'am."

Elsewhere at the table, Kelly had sat beside Carol.

"I know that when you're in control you call me 'Princess', but what should I call you when you're in control," she licked her lips, "or when I want you to be in control?"

Carol thrust a hand into Kelly's halter, grasping her breast and caressed it firmly. Her other hand snaked up into Kelly's hair, gripped it hard and pulled her head back; Carol put teeth to her neck for a bite that had Kelly gasping with pleasure.

"Oh, 'Mistress' will be perfectly acceptable, Princess," she growled.

She pulled Kelly onto her, sitting her a-straddle her blue-jeaned leg while she continued to stoke her breast, lick and bite her neck. Kelly leaned her body down and ground her cunt on to Carol's leg, back and forth, a wet spot beginning to form in her shorts.

Karen leaned over to Harry. "Jesus Christ! Are they always like this?"

"Pretty incendiary, aren't they?" Harry said with a smile. "The two of them with each other would have the President grabbing for an intern and fucking her on national TV in the middle of the State of the Union address."

"I thought you said Carol was submissive. That ain't no brand of submissive I ever saw."

"There's something about Kelly that brings her dominant side out with a bang. Was that way the very first time she saw her. She gave me a look that I thought meant 'can I play with her?' I said yes. Turns out it meant 'can I take her and make her mine?. Small error in translation. And they don't play this way all the time, most of the time there's no dom or sub between them. I better stop them before we end up either having to buy off the staff or get thrown out.

"Little Cunt! Stop it right now! The time for play is later!"

"Mistress please, I'm sooo cloooose, don't leave me this way," Kelly begged.

"Sir... I... Princess..." she put her mouth to Kelly's ear, "come for me, Princess, right now!"

"Ummmm hmmmmm!" Kelly rocked back and forth on Carol's leg as her orgasm ripped through her.

As Carol held up Kelly's slumping body to her breast, she looked at Harry. "I'm sorry, sir," she said, dejectedly.

Harry was about to forgive her when Margo briefly laid her hand upon his mouth as she walked by on her way to Carol. She reached down between the two girls, gently stroking Carol's denim-clad pussy while she spoke softly to her. Harry caught only Carol's answering "Yes Madam" and the grateful smile on Carol's face.

Margo stood up and walked back to sit beside him. Harry looked at her and asked, "So, if it's any of my business, what did you just tell her?"

Margo looked at him, and noticed Karen and Patricia leaning in to hear as well. She shrugged.

"I told her that you were far too easy on her and I knew that she enjoyed being punished so for that little act of disobedience we were going to oblige her. Later tonight you're going to slowly spank her while she eats me. As soon as I come, the spanking stops. It doesn't stop before then. She liked the idea a lot. Then I told her that since I knew she'd been caught between obedience to you and responsibility to her own toy, even though that was no excuse for her failure to stop immediately, that you'd give her a nice ass-fucking when the spanking was done, while of course she continued to eat me."

There was a soft whimper from somewhere nearby and Harry wasn't sure but he thought it came from Patricia.

He looked at Margo with a touch of surprise.

"If I didn't know better my love, I'd say you had a dominant streak in you."

"Harry, you don't know better. After years of feeling I had to serve, I had to be the one to make people happy, make sure everyone had what they wanted. Thanks to you two I'm now safe and in a place where I can be in charge when I feel like it. I don't want to be there all the time, mind you, but being there sometimes?" She took his hand and moved it towards her crotch through the slit on her skirt. Before he was even there he felt the heat and dampness. "It's a turn-on, Harry."

She leaned in and murmured in his ear. "And that being completely restrained and at someone else's mercy fantasy of yours? Carol told me about it. Whenever you're ready you just let Madam Margo and your Baby Girl take care of that for you... Princess too, if you'd like."

Harry didn't know his cock could get that hard that fast.

Cuddled in the arms of this giant of a man Tamara felt safer and more secure than she had in years.

First thing, right off the bat, she'd told him something almost no one else knew.

"Tamara is a very pretty name. What's the rest of your name?"

"Well sir, I call myself Tamara Oleander, but really my last name's Osowski. Tamara Theresa Osowski."

"Alright, I'm Eddy, uh, Edward John Janak. What do you like to be called, do you like Tamara or Tammy or would you rather I call you Theresa?"

"It would make me very happy if you would call me Theresa, sir... everyone else calls me Tamara or Tammy. May I please call you Edward? 'Eddy' is a little too familiar for me."

"That would be fine, whatever you're comfortable with."

"I'm very comfortable with you, sir."

Eddy felt his heart give a little lurch. That was not good. He had no business having any heart lurching where this girl was concerned.

Theresa looked into Edward's pale green eyes and wondered how hard it was going to be for him to accept that she was his for good, if he'd have her. As his huge hand stroked her hair, she thought that it probably wouldn't be that hard for him to accept, but it would take a little time before he was ready to know the truth. That was okay with her. She snuggled in closer to his chest, smelling him all around her, a touch of sweat, a whiff of beer, soap, shampoo... and a growing sense, not really a smell, just a sense, of desire.

"Now Theresa, when I take you home with me tonight, I'm apologizin' in advance for my place. It's a mess. I been livin' alone since my last divorce and I'm a slob..."

"Stop right there, sir. It may be a mess now; it won't be when I'm through with it. I may have to take it a little more slowly than I normally would, but I'll soon set it right.

"You don't have to do that..."

"But Edward, I do have to do that. I have to! For me. For me to feel right about you taking care of me I have to and I don't mind, I like keeping house."

"And there's only one bed so I'll sleep on the couch..."

"Please Edward, don't do that. If I'm not worthy to share the bed with you I can sleep on the couch or the floor, anywhere. I slept... I lived in a closet when I belonged to Phil, two foot by three foot. Anything larger and more luxurious than a closet is me moving onto Boardwalk or Park Place."

"Well it's not a matter of me letting you share the bed, I don't got no problem with that it's just I didn't know if you wanted to sleep

with a monster

in the same bed with a man you hardly know."

"Edward, sir, I'm your property, I'll sleep where I'm told to sleep. But if I had my preferences it would be with you or very near you." She shuddered. "I don't think I'd feel safe too far away from you."

"Well then of course you'll sleep with me, Theresa, because you feeling safe is one of our primary concerns."

Everyone talked for awhile. Harry noticed Margo on the phone and briefly wondered if there was something wrong. When she began smiling he knew better. It was good to relax after the stress of earlier events.

Tamara's food and everyone's drinks arrived and Harry felt it the appropriate moment to make their big announcement so he tapped the side of his drink with a fork until he had everyone's attention.

"Friends and loved ones, today before we left the house, two very important matters were settled.

"Margo announced that she was home to stay and she agreed to marry me as soon as our divorces are final."

He would have said more but Kelly and Patricia were mobbing Margo. Karen and Eddy, with Tamara held with one arm, riding his hip like a baby, clustered around him, hugs, kisses, handshakes and backslaps and then the congratulatory groups changed targets. Through it all Carol sat to the left of and just behind Margo, beaming her happiness. Soon the two people she loved most in the world would be wed, the house would be finished, all would be right with her world.

Eddy and Tamara returned to his seat and Eddy began to feed Tamara small spoonfuls of food, checking to see how she was after every mouthful. For her own part, Tamara was eating very slowly. She didn't want to embarrass Edward by getting sick or somehow otherwise spoiling this night of celebration.

The other celebrants sat down, worked on finishing their drinks and considered their own supper orders.

"Karen, what do we have going this next week?" Harry asked.

"Nothing much... just interviews for a new executive director for the company, little thing like that, nothing you need to worry about."

"Holy shit, that's right. Okay, that means we hang around town while we're hiding out, otherwise I felt Chicago calling our names. Ladies, name your hotel."

Margo smiled at him. "Harry, we're already booked for a week at the Omni in their Presidential Suite. I'm picking up the tab. We have an indefinite option to extend if we need to."

"How the hell did you manage that in the summer during tourist season?"

"Money, Harry, they tell me it makes the world go around. Plus I did a face-lift, a boob job and a butt tuck on the manager's wife. As much as I hated it, the cosmetic surgery line was good for making contacts. You know, for that reason alone, it might be worth keeping my hand in... say, one day a week."

Their food orders where taken as was the order for another round for everyone.

Eddy held Theresa in his arms. She had pushed away a spoonful of sinfully delicious mashed potatoes.

"You full, little one?" he asked.

"I think so, Edward, sir. At least I am for right now. I'm sure if I get hungry later, I can find something else to eat."

"Yeah, you get hungry we'll find you somethin' to eat. You wanna go join in the fun or would you rather sit here, just the two of us?"

"If you don't mind, sir, I'd like to just sit here for a bit. I'm sorry that I'm keeping you from your party."

"Don't you worry about it. You've been through some tough times and you're not up to snuff so we'll just take it easy."

"Sir, I can sit in a chair if holding me is bothering you or if I'm getting too heavy."

He looked down at her and for a moment she found herself in awe of the tenderness she saw shining through his eyes. She was even scared of it.

"If you want to sit in a chair, just say so Theresa, but you don't hardly weigh nothin' and holdin' you is no problem at all. I'm fine with you right where you are."

She snuggled up closer to him and sighed. "Then sir, I'm fine right where I am."

"How old are you, Theresa?"

"Twenty-five, sir... I know I don't look it but my birth certificate doesn't lie. Of course, I'll have to get another copy of that and another I.D. now. All that got left with Phil."

"Well we'll go get it back."

"No sir, please. Nothing in my pitiful pile of crap is worth anyone even risking getting hurt for. It's not worth it. A new birth certificate and I.D. is really not expensive at all. Messing with Phil Philouma could cost you everything. Please sir, no."

"Alright, I see your point. Even I ain't crazy enough to want to fuck with 'Fat Phillie' and his boys, much less with his old man."

"Alright then, it's settled, sir." She cuddled back in and tucked her head under his chin. She liked the feel and the smell of this giant of a man. She liked Edward. She liked Edward a lot.

Their orders arrived and everyone dug in. The food at Chez Bubba's was far too good to waste valuable eating time with anything as unimportant as talk.

Everyone finished and slowly pushed themselves away from the tables to sit and wonder if there was any possible room for dessert. In almost every case the answer was "no way in Hell". In Patricia's case it was "maybe but I'd probably better not".

Eddy and Tamara had joined the party, although she was still shyly staying almost hidden in the shadow of Eddy's arms as the friends and lovers talked and visited, letting their food digest and drinking their after-dinner coffee.

Harry looked at Karen and Patricia.

"You two got anything planned for tomorrow?"

They looked at each other. "No," Karen answered, "nothing comes to mind."

"Fine, you're having a post-hangover brunch with us at the hotel. I hear they put on a hell of a spread for Sunday brunch. So are you, Eddy, Tamara."

"Harry, other than the pleasure of your hung-over company, which is negligible at best, why would we want to drive all the way to downtown for brunch tomorrow?" Karen asked.

"Who said anything about you driving in? I'm thinking Margo the Wonder Arranger gets hold of her friend the manager, books us two more rooms, one for you two and one for Eddy and Tamara, and we go mount an assault on the Omni's bar. We close the place down, sleep late in the morning, get up, meet for brunch, the four of you go your merry way and the four of us spend our Sunday in sexual debauchery and hedonistic excess."

Kelly leaned on the table, her tits about to spill out of her halter. "Damn Harry, I like the way you think."

"Me too," added Carol.

Margo scooted herself and her chair close to him, threw a leg over his hips and began to chew on his neck.

"I take it Mrs. Wohler-Grimes approves?" he asked.

"Oh fuck that hyphen shit," she answered, "your present and future wife loves the idea." She broke off attacking him, looked at their friends. "You've got to say yes. If you don't I'll never invite you over to use the pool and hot tub, once they're installed."

Karen and Patricia looked at each other. "We're in," said Patricia.

Eddy and Tamara spoke quietly with each other. "She's awfully weak still, but we're in till we're not and then we'll bid you fine folks good night."

"Fair enough, beloved wench, make the calls."

"Yes my lord," responded Margo.

"Carol and I will go pack up at the house, leave instructions and talk to Eddy's boys while all of you get to the hotel and settle in. Margo my sweet, is there anything special we need to pick up at the house for you?"

"Nothing that I haven't already spoken with our pet about."

So Harry paid their bill and he and Carol headed for the house while everyone else descended on the Emily Morgan.

As Harry and Carol drove towards the house, he rested his hand on hers.

"Baby Girl, I'm thinking you and I are due a minor nervous breakdown some day soon."

"Yes sir, I know what you mean... between dealing with Angie and the scene with Phil, I'd really appreciate some time with no strong negative emotions for awhile."

"Yeah... I've got a lot of shit in my head about that night with Angie that I'm slowly working through... most of it I keep pushed into a corner so I'm not the Amazing Depression Man. What I did to her really makes me... uncomfortable... with myself."

"I think I may have some of the same feelings, Harry but I don't regret the physical and emotional abuse I put her through... I don't regret that at all. She earned every last bit of it.

"But there was a time there Harry when I wasn't sure I wasn't going to kill her. That's been scaring the hell out of me. I never hated even Rick that much. But there I was, right in front of her and it would have been so easy to do it, Harry. And I wanted to. I wanted to end her pathetic shit right there. Then I wanted to come find you and hold you and fuck you and tell you Mommy had made sure that bitch would never hurt you again."

Tears were rolling down her cheeks.

"Don't get me wrong, Harry. I don't regret feeling that way about her or why I feel that way. I just can't stand the way hating someone that much makes me feel inside. Like there's a place in me that's gone black and cold and dead. A part of me that should've felt something besides disgust when she was pleading for her life... it's like there's a part of me that's no longer human."

"Have I told you lately how much I love you?" he asked her.

"No, sir."

He pulled the car over to the side of the road and turned to face her.

"I love you so much that even if somehow Margo and I were together without you being involved, my life wouldn't be complete, because you wouldn't be there. I love you so much that if I look at you too long I start to cry because I'm so happy. I love you so much that my biggest fear when we were in Campisi's and all those guns were pointed at me was that you wouldn't be safe.

"I love you so much I finally understand what my father did."

Carol looked at him. "Excuse me Harry, what?"

"Time for some Grimes family history. My mother got sick, breast cancer, which, by the time they caught it, had metastasized all through her. It was inoperable and the chemo and radiation weren't doing much to halt the spread. She got worse as did the pain. The amount of morphine she was taking kept going up. She was miserable and so was Dad. It was a very bad time for all of us.

"She never got out of the house except to go to treatments and that hardly qualified as a pleasurable outing, so he started taking her for rides on Sunday afternoons. They'd drive around and she'd sleep through most of it sometimes, other times she'd actually be able to stay awake and enjoy it.

"One Sunday afternoon in April it had been raining and Dad lost control of the car on a bridge and went over the side. It was five hours before the Sheriff's Department got the car out of there."

Harry's voice was breaking, tears welling up in his eyes.

"Accidental death, insurance paid off, everything's copacetic... tragic, but copacetic. What no one else knew, what no one to this day knows except me, is what was in a letter I got from my father. It had been mailed the Saturday before the accident.

"He said he'd talked to Mom and it wasn't that she didn't love him or Nicki and me, but she was tired and she wanted the pain to end and she wanted to go home... and that he couldn't see letting her find her way home without him... so he figured he'd go along with her... that way even if they got lost, they'd still have each other.

"I never really understood what he did until you became a part of my life."

Harry broke down completely and the two of them hugged awkwardly in the front seat until Harry was calm again.

"Whatever we have to deal with, whatever issues need to be resolved, you and I and Margo and probably Kelly as well can handle them, and support each other through them and in the end, it'll be okay," he said.

"Okay sir," she said, kissing his hand, "I think we're all going to be fine. But I think you and I need a stiff drink. For that to happen, we need to be at the Omni, so let's get home and get packed and get to the hotel."

Harry put the car back in gear and they pulled out into traffic.

When they arrived there was a battered old truck out front with two young men in it. They got out and waited for Harry to approach them. They were almost twins, from their muscular builds to the short, blond mullets atop their heads.

"You Eddy's friends?" he asked as he walked up.

"Yes sir," answered one of them, "my name's Perry, this is Bevy. Eddy told us you needed somebody to watch your place, water the plants, keep arsonists away, repel airborne assaults, protect your secret vault where you stashed the proof that Johnny Carson killed Kennedy in Dallas. Now, I got to tell ya, anything special like defendin' the Holy Grail or the Ark of the Covenant against attacks by Martian zombies or shit like vampires we got to acquire victims for... it's gonna run ya extra."

"Does Eddy know you're certifiably insane?"

"Yessir, says that's why he likes workin' with us."

Harry and Carol were laughing as they led the men into the house.

An hour later, with help from Perry and Bevy, the car was loaded, and a detailed list of instructions along with a check for Anna and their cell phone numbers was left with them.

The guys had unloaded their stuff from the truck and set up camp in the living room. Bevy was hard at work on something on a laptop.

"He doesn't talk much, does he." stated Harry.

"Nosir, only time he says much of anything is when someone makes fun of his name, what he says then you mostly don't never wanna hear."

"What's he working on, if I might ask?"

"Oh, he's doin' the final colorin' and shadin' on the next episode of our web comic."

"Dare I ask?"

"Yessir, It's called 'Dinosaur Ho', about the adventures of a flight attendant for American named Candy who becomes unstuck in time and ends up in the Cretaceous period where she discovers that there was a civilization of intelligent dinosaurs, most closely resemblin' the Acrocanthosaurus. They had actually achieved a level of scientific achievement superior to our present technological level. Well, she ends up becomin' a freak attraction in one of their brothels and develops a taste for it, a condition which makes her rescue by a group of time-traveling do-gooders a bit problematical. So she's trying to escape the clutches of her rescuers so she can return to her tawdry life of sin and degradation and convince a young 'saur from their Ministry of Technology named Risstalthaaak'kark that has fallen in love with her that it's their experiments with moving asteroids into orbit to facilitate minin' them for mineral resources that's gonna end up accidentally wipin' out their whole civilization.

"We've won the Web Cartoonists Choice Awards Outstanding Comic Award for the last three years running."

Harry walked away, shaking his head.

It was 11 PM by the time they hit the hotel. Courtesy of a bellman and two carts the car was unloaded and they were off-loaded in the suite, and back down in the bar by 11:15. A valet had parked the car,

The bartender told him that his crew had taken over one entire corner of the bar. Harry began to suspect something though when he noticed that the lights were completely off in that section. There was some minimal ambient light from candles but otherwise it was very dim.

As they passed the velvet ropes that were blocking the section off, Harry noticed that there was very little sound coming from the cave-like interior, just the burbling of a small waterfall in the corner and the low murmur of Eddy and Tamara conversing with each other. They were, in fact, the first two that Harry came upon, Tamara still in Eddy's lap as the big man continued to cradle her.

Harry leaned down next to them. "Hey Eddy, how's it going?"

"Just fine Harry. Ther- Tamara and I have just been talking."

"What's everyone else up to?"

"Harry, you're not going to get me to answer that question no matter what you do... did you meet Perry and Bevy?"

"Uh, yeah... you've got some... interesting... people working with you."

"They're about the strangest of my crew but I'd trust them with my life. You go on, get comfy, get something to drink."

Harry and Carol moved into the darkened corner.

They came across Karen and Patricia, sitting on the floor, making out like a pair of teenagers. From what Harry could tell, it looked like Karen had just made it to third base. On the table behind them were two large empty Margarita glasses.

The new arrivals quietly skirted the two and walked further in.

They found Margo leaning back in a chair, eyes closed, her feet spread wide, braced low against a wall. Under the edge of her long denim skirt, they saw Kelly's legs as she knelt between Margo's thighs.

Harry crept up to her and suddenly kissed her, putting his hand on her breast.

She kissed him back and the kiss became long and sensual, only slightly interrupted by a small orgasm running through her.

"Hello my love," she said when they were through, "I'm so glad you made it back. Carol, I really hope you don't mind that I'm making use of Princess."

Carol knelt beside her. "No Madam, what's mine is of course yours to do with what you will."

"Funny," Margo said, smiling, "that was the way Princess was looking at it too when she started humping my leg."