Shimmers of Pearl (The Pearl Trilogy, Part 3) (9 page)

It’s HIM. No less dangerous than a mugger. He’s dressed in a long military coat that looks as if it’s from World War One and big, black boots. His hair is damp and ruffled from the snowflakes, his dark eyelashes sparkling with moisture, his curvy lips red from the cold, tilted up into his signature crooked smile. He looks delicious, sexy, mysterious. Uh oh.

“Pearl, stop!” Alexandre rushes up to me and grabs my arm forcing me to stumble into him. His breath is on my face, hot mist clouding the tiny space between our mouths. He has the ‘I’m going to fuck you’ look written all over his face and I know I’m in trouble.

“What do you want Alexandre?” Stupid question. I know what he wants.

“I can’t bear this any longer, Pearl – please.” He starts kissing my eyes, my nose and the animalistic groan deep within him makes my stomach flutter. I know what will be beneath that military coat. A big, huge, rock-hard Weapon of Mass Destruction.

“Christ, I’ve missed you.”

“How’s Laura?” I hiss from my tightened mouth. My white, steamy breath is like a dragon’s; no less furious.

“Please let’s not argue. Please, chérie, I’m going crazy without you. I need you.”

“You just want me for my body, Alexandre.”

“That’s not true. I need you, baby. I need—”

“You can’t have your cake and eat it, too.”

“You’re the only cake I want, I swear.” He takes my gloved hand and pulls me towards him. “Come over here, we have to talk.”

“We can talk right here.”

“Too public, please baby.”

He draws me behind him towards a large elm tree and pins me up against the solid trunk. “I have to kiss you.”

“No.”

But he starts with his trademark wispy kisses on my eyes again, on my icy cheeks and then my temple. I quiver all over and can feel my panties moisten. “Leave me alone, you bastard. How did you find me, anyway, now that I don’t have my phone?”

He breathes in the scent of me. “I have ways.”

“Did Sally sell me out?”

“No, annoyingly Sally is on your side.” He slips his black leather-gloved hand through a small opening in my coat and around my waist. Then the other hand. I can feel him un-glove himself and his warm fingers are tracing their way about my bare flesh. My skin tingles. He starts a familiar journey down the back of my butt cheeks but I slam my behind against the tree, trapping his hand. He was inches away from knowing how wet I am, and how I long for him inside me.

“Ouch, tigress, that hurts.”

“Take your hand away, Alexandre.”

“I know that you secretly want me, chérie, but as you wouldn’t let me see you, I thought I’d better come and claim what’s mine wherever I could - and it happens to be here in Central Park.”

“Get it through that arrogant, ego-inflated head of yours that I do not belong to you! I am not your soul mate, nor your
media
naranja
. You have all that already with
Laura
.”

“You
are
my soul mate, my
media naranja
, my wife-to-be, my everything, Pearl. You’re Rex’s mother, too. We’re a family.”

Little does he know there’s more family on the way.
“You ruined and destroyed all that by seeing Laura again!”

“How many more times do I have to tell you that I don’t love Laura? I don’t want her - haven’t for years and certainly not since I met you. The truth is, I don’t even
like
her anymore.”

I bellow at him, “Love and like have nothing to do with it for you. You covet her because you can’t bear to give up any of your women. You’re like a cock with his hens. You
are
a cock! One big walking, talking, cock! You have a Weapon of Mass Destruction which you go around using at every opportunity!”

He strokes a loose tendril of hair from my cheek. “I swear, believe me, it’s been tucked away, unused except by my own hand since I last made love with you.”

“You haven’t ‘made love’ with me for ages, you
fuck
me! ‘Fuck my ass off’ ‘fuck my brains out’ as your expressions go.”

“Come back and live with me again and we’ll be making love again…just…I go crazy when I see you…this
diet
of sex - of us not living together is making me go insane so the last few times we got together I felt like a beast.”

He takes my hand. “Feel it. Feel how hard it is. All I can think of is your voice, your smile, Pearl, your face, your lips, your ass, your tits and most importantly, your soul - your essence, your very being. I can’t live without you, chérie. Every waking moment, every sleeping second I’m dreaming of you, Pearl, I’m so crazy about you, it hurts.”

“Then fucking stay away from that asparagus stick bitch, Laura!” I yell, remembering how Sophie had described her as an asparagus.

Rex comes bounding over and jumps up. My screaming has alerted him and he starts to bark at his master. “You see?” I screech - “even Rex is on Team Pearl. He knows what a prize jerk you are. A lying, two-timing jackass!”

“Look, I’m dealing with Laura—”

“
Dealing
with her? You are unbelievable. Unbe-fucking-lievable!” I try to break away from his devouring gaze which is swallowing me whole.

But he has my wrists in a clasp so I can’t escape. Christ he’s sexy.

“I swear I haven’t lied to you. I swear I’ve been faithful – I haven’t touched Laura – please trust me, Pearl. Please have faith.”

“Then why have you been seeing her?”

“I can’t tell you. But trust me.” He breathes into my face seductively – he smells of apples and sweetness. “I was just protecting someone I love.”

“Someone
else
you love? How many of us
are
there, Alexandre? How many more women have you got hooked on you with your panty-melting antics?”

“I’m sorry, chérie. But I had to see Laura – I had no choice.” He looks down at his boots. “And I’m afraid I’ll have to see her again.”

His words stab my heart.
I’ll have to see
her again.
I shout out in a jealous rage, “What is it that Laura has that I don’t?”

“Something I need from her. Once I get it, I’ll never go near her again, I promise.”

I try to struggle free. “You are quite something, Alexandre Chevalier. Wow! You really win the prize for being a French, macho SHIT-head!”

He keeps hold of my wrists. “Please, baby, trust me. I can’t say more, just trust me.” He pushes his soft lips onto mine and kisses my closed, bitter mouth. He begins to lick me very gently and an unbidden low moaning sound escapes my throat which I know is my downfall. He pushes his wavering tongue inside my longing mouth and parts it. My jaw drops open. Even through his thick military coat I can feel his erection pressed up against my thighs.

“Hey, you two! No indecent behavior in public!”

I open my eyes from my reverie and say a little prayer to St. Lucy. Thank you, Santa Lucia, for saving me; for shining a light on this situation and showing it up for what it is…madness. It’s a police officer and now he’s making his way over towards us, half smiling as if he was kidding about ‘indecency’ but I take this opportunity. I slip from underneath Alexandre’s clutches and dash towards the uniformed stranger.

“Bye, Alexandre. Rex! Come boy, come!” I start galloping at full pelt in the direction of the East side.

Rex runs behind me, following at racing speed. Rex has chosen me over his master and I feel triumphant.

I don’t look back.

***

Daisy and I are sitting on her bed with our legs tucked under us while Amy’s playing with her teddies in her wigwam.

“It’s just my body he wants, Daisy, nothing more. Laura was right; he’s in ‘lust’ with me.”

“Nonsense, he wants all of you.”

“All of me
and
all of Laura. He wants her for…I don’t know what…and me…just to fuck.”

“Rubbish. Look, Pearl, if all he was after was a sexy body…well… I don’t mean to sound harsh and you do have an incredible body and you really are beautiful but…well…if all he wanted was a body, he could flick his thumb through any Victoria’s Secret catalogue and pick off any top model he wanted – well, anyone who Leonardo di Caprio hasn’t already claimed, that is. With his money and looks Alexandre could, literally, have any
body
. But he’s chosen you.”

“I suppose you’re right. It’s true, he could be going out with a supermodel. A supermodel who wants world peace and plays chess, to boot. He could get anyone. Sometimes…no - not sometimes, often - I wonder what he sees in me.”

Daisy rolls her eyes with irritation. “Stop sounding so poor-me and buck up, woman! He sees your good heart, your soul. And you may not be a supermodel but you look bloody amazing for your age. You have a better body than most twenty-five year olds, and a beautiful face – sometimes you remind me of Grace Kelly. It really pisses me off when you start all that, ‘I’m just an average-looking girl next door’ nonsense. It’s bollocks. Plus, Alexandre feels at ease with you, likes to hang out. You both love dogs.”

I suddenly think of Laura (Cruella De Vil) calling Rex a ‘creature’ and it makes me seethe. “Alexandre swears nothing is going on with Laura and that I should trust him.”

Daisy sucks in a lungful of air. “Well, I’m obviously not the best person to discuss this with after what Johnny did to me. And to Amy. I trusted him implicitly – I don’t think I’ll ever be able to do that again with any man.”

“At least he wants you back and he’s groveling.”

“But I don’t want him back now. How could I live with that uncertainty again?”

“What about Amy?”

Daisy looks over at the wigwam. Amy is muttering to herself in different voices and playing ‘tea party’ inside. “That’s my only concern. Amy loves her dad, obviously, but at the same time it’s no good if we’re unhappy together – that’s no good for her at all.”

“You need more time to think it through. Let Johnny wallow in his misery a bit, it’ll do him good. Make him appreciate what he’s lost.” I realize I sound like Alexandre – that’s exactly what he said to me.

“Coming from you, the eternal forgiver, that sounds tough.”

“Well, some men deserve the cold shoulder, now and then. If you’re too nice they walk all over you.”

“Actually Pearl, I have a confession to make.”

“Really?” A gamut of possibilities runs through my mind. Perhaps she’s been having private conversations with Alexandre and has been holding out on juicy information.

She looks at the wigwam and whispers, “About Zac.”

“Zac, the surfer? The good looking one we met on the beach?”

Daisy looks down; her face flushes pink. “We kissed.”

My jaw drops open. “You are
kidding
me? Daisy – that’s so exciting…”

“It gave me confidence – made me realize I was still attractive.”

“Are you kidding? You’re gorgeous. Especially since you’ve lost all that weight. He should be so lucky.”

Then she squeals quietly, “But wait. There’s more!”

I laugh. “You sound like one of those infomercials…’but wait, there’s more.’”

“I shagged him.”

Shag - British for ‘fuck’.
I scream, “No!”

Amy pokes her head out of the wigwam. “Why are you shouting, Auntie Pearl?”

“Nothing, honey. I thought I saw a spider but I was wrong.”

“I like spiders. I would never kill a spider.”

“That’s because you’re an angel, sweetheart. Don’t worry, I don’t kill them, either.”

Amy slips back inside her wigwam and continues her tea party.

Daisy whispers, “I haven’t been able to get him out of my mind since.”

“I’m not freakin’ surprised. He was gorgeous. When did this happen? You’re such a dark horse, Daisy.”

“That day when you three all went on a walk in the woods. Remember? When I said I’d stay behind? Zac popped over.”

“Sounds like he did a lot more than just pop over.”

“Well, yes. It started with a kiss and then…well, I thought, ‘I’m on holiday, what the hell.’ I didn’t mean it to go so far but my hormones took over, I couldn’t resist him.”

“And? Was it worth it?”

“Let’s just say that he woke up a certain part of my body that had lain dormant for a long while.”

“You were very brave to just
go
for it like that.”

“Like I said, I was on holiday - I felt reckless. As far as I was concerned it was a one night stand…I mean a ‘one
day
stand’…but he had other ideas.”

I’m still grinning at this gossipy news. “Like what?”

“He told me he wanted more. Well, I left him hanging - you know, it wasn’t exactly the right time in my life to be jumping into another relationship. When a woman doesn’t give a damn, it makes a man all the more interested. I told him I wasn’t ready for a relationship.”

“
Relationship?
You’d even consider Zac as
boyfriend
material?”

“He’s gorgeous, Pearl. And he’s a really sweet guy. And not dumb either – he’s interesting. Yes, I see potential there.”

“But… but… he’s a
surfer -
the non-committal type - he’d drive you nuts.”

“That’s what your dad’s like. Zac is more demonstrative.”

“Really? What did he demonstrate?” I laugh at my silliness and wait for a detailed description of the nitty-gritty.

Daisy replies in a serious tone, “Nothing like ‘absence making the heart grow fonder.’ He wants me to think about moving to Kauai and living with him.”

Stunned doesn’t even begin to describe how I feel. “You’d consider leaving New York? Living in
Hawaii
?”

“You bet. I mean, it’s so beautiful there, so peaceful. A great place for a child to grow up. You get a tropical life but it’s still part of America – the best of both worlds.”

“Are you sure it wasn’t something he just
said
– the way guys do sometimes. Empty promises and all that?”

“We’ve been in touch by email. No calls. I told him not to call – I don’t want to upset A. M. Y.”

A little voice pipes up from within the wigwam, “Mommy, I know you’re talking about me.”

“Just saying how pretty you are, Amy,” I shout out. “My God, she’s bright for her age.”