Denouement (8 page)

As if on cue they both moaned in approval as she
massaged him. Heat was building inside of her and she didn’t know how much more
teasing she would be able to take. Biting down gently on his shoulder, but not
hard enough to break the surface, her tongue slurped on his skin. Her hips
jerked against his hand as he worked another finger inside of her. The telltale
sign, the tingle in her toes and the rumbling at the bottom of her womb warned
her of the orgasm that was about to tear through her. She bit down on his
shoulder as she jerked against his fingers as a wave of pleasure rolled through
her.

Her breath became shallow as she leaned motionless
against him. His fingers had soon left her nub and were tightening around her
thighs. She rested her head on his shoulder. Out of the corner of her eyes she
saw his jaw tighten as he positioned his hands to grip on her rear.

“Are you ready?” Tobias rumbled into her ear.

He growled as an animalistic hunger surged through
him. Making sure he had a sure grasp on her buttocks he thrust into her. The
gasp of pleasure and shock that echoed in his ear urged him on. He could feel
her tiny body shiver against his. Tobias dropped the reins he had put on
himself and drove into her, harder and faster moving in the rhythm of their pounding
heart beats. He felt her fingers dig into his flesh. He chuckled taking
pleasure from the erotic pain. Tobias felt Marietta’s body begin to tremble and
he knew she was about to climax yet again. He pounded inside her even harder as
her orgasm rolled through her. He rocked against her until she was done, before
he went after his own release. A couple of more hard thrusts and he poured
inside her, leaning against her so as not to lose his footing.

They sank onto the floor and leaned against each other.

Tobias eased her out of her dress and stared at her
naked body. He could feel the animal within him growl in approval as his desire
began to build up. But one look at Marietta made him wonder if she could take
anymore. He shed the rest of his clothes and carried the limp, satisfied woman
and tucked her into bed. Tobias wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her
against his body, and with his heavy leg, he trapped her in place.

*
* * *

Marietta wasn’t in any position to argue with him. She
wasn’t going to ruin this happy place that their hard coupling had left her in.
Under the weight of his heavy leg and shackle of his arm, she eased into a
comfortable position and let his hard breathing lull her to sleep. Tobias had
woken her up three times that night, twice for hard and rough sex, but the last
one she felt as if they had made love. He was sweet, delicate and each time he
surged inside her it seemed like he was reaching for something more.
Something that said forever.

The sun poured into her room through the shutters.
Marietta pretended to be asleep as she felt him leave the bed. He took a couple
of seconds to get dressed, and then kissed her temple. She didn’t bother to
open her eyes even when he whispered ‘I love you’ in her ear. With the night they
had just had, Marietta wasn’t sure what exactly about her he loved. He had made
it
clear
,he
wasn’t one for
serious relationships. So when the door opened, she clutched onto the pillow as
if stopping herself from getting up and begging him to stay. When the door
finally closed, Marietta buried her face in her pillow and let out a heart
wrenching cry.

So many times when she was a child, after
he
had
left her room, she found herself in this same position, curled up in a ball
crying. She was left in the midst of loneliness while the emotions that aimed
to destroy her tracked her down. Marietta froze up, straightened up and closed
her eyes willing herself to fall asleep.

****

“Ouch!” Marietta doubled over in laughter the whole
time her hand was on the side of her stomach. For the past few weeks, each time
she made a move or laughed there would be this dull ache in her side.

“Are you all right?” Jessie asked through bouts of
laughter.

“I’m good, just stop making me laugh.” Marietta stood
up and took a deep breath. Her eyes cruised around the room, taking in the set.
It was coming together nicely, she remarked to herself. And as her eyes
continued to scan the room, she felt her body go rigid as she locked
onto
his
cold icy gaze. Marietta took a step back in
retreat then all hell broke loose.

“Look out!” she heard Jessie scream and saw the terror
in her eyes. But it didn’t register, not until the fear was replaced by mind
numbing pain.

* *
* *

So what happened between you and Mattie?” McKenzie
stared Tobias down waiting for a straight answer. He had been surprised to see
that he and Tobias were on the same project again six months later. Tobias was
a great actor but he didn’t think he would join another Marietta Parks
original. McKenzie had waited until the table read was over to ask him.

“I thought I was the only one who called her that.”
Tobias chuckled a nostalgic feeling enveloping his heart.

He had gone after this project specifically because he
thought Marietta would be there. But she hadn’t been at the casting, or the
table read. He wondered if she would be there during the shoot or if she had
forfeited her project to another script supervisor because he was there.
Tobias’ plan to ease back into Marietta’s life was a bust.

“She’s in Miami. It’s the last day of filming on a two
part fantasy movie, just in case you were wondering.” The old man added the
last bit with a chuckle.

“So…she will be here for this movie?” Tobias asked
hopefully.

“If she doesn’t know you have been cast, maybe she
will be.” McKenzie laughed once more. “Let’s step into my office.”

Tobias followed McKenzie to his home office He was the
only director producer that he knew that would conduct a table read in his own
dining room. Tobias guessed that he was trying to make everyone comfortable. But
because he had already worked with the old man before he knew it was just
aruse
. The director was anything but comfortable he
demanded hard work from his crew members and lived by his mantra, ‘time is
money and a second wasted is a dollar lost.’

“By the way how did you know about…
”
Tobias left the sentence hanging hoping that the director wasn’t past his years
and unable to understand what he meant.

“It was obvious. They pay me to see everything.
Besides no woman grinds on you like that if she doesn’t already know what makes
you tick.” McKenzie poured two glasses of old malt whiskey and drank them both
with gulp. “You want any?”

“It’s not even mid-day, old man.”

“It’s happy hour somewhere.” McKenzie traded his
whiskey for a bottle of water and sat in a chair across from Tobias. He gazed
at Tobias with an old wise man look then said, “You only
love
once. The rest of the time it’s your heart trying to replace what you lost. If
you don’t go after her now you are going to regret it. What if she ends up with
that tall dark guy from her birthday party?”

“Chris?” Tobias shook his head in denial more than in
doubt. “She wouldn’t. He is her past.”

“The past has a way of coming back unless the future
can stop it.”

“We are too similar in too many different ways.” He sighed,
“We wouldn’t have time to nurture the relationship with our careers and besides
we both like our independence.”

“That is crap!” McKenzie piped in. “Schedules can be
coordinated. Women like to have someone they can lean on and men like being
taken care of. Differences and similarities just give you more to talk about
and discover about each other. Trust me I’ve done it six times.”

“You are a very wise old man,” Tobias teased.

“I’m not that old. I’m fifty five years old. Having
six wives is what made me look older than my actual age. Take it from me, get
one wife and stick to her. If you need to get more than one don’t have more
than three.”

Tobias laughed at the old man’s damaged expression.
Just as he was about to land another joke one of McKenzie’s assistants came
running in, short of breath and in a panic.

“What is it?” the old man asked.

“I think she’s dead,” The girl gasped out.

“Who, my wife?
Which one, the
second, third or sixth?” he teased.

Tobias noticed how McKenzie had left out the others. Evidently
his first and fourth had been the ones he truly loved or the ones who caused
him less trouble.

“No!” The girl picked up the television remote and
flipped through the channels. She stopped on TMZ and McKenzie let out a snarl.

“You know I don’t watch that.” His protest was cut
short by a gasp from Tobias.

Tobias’ fingers dug into the chair he was sitting on.
He wasn’t exactly sure what had happened or what had led to the picture he was
seeing now, but that didn’t keep him from panicking. On the screen in front of
him, he saw Marietta on the ground, a panicked Jessie fussing over her as a
blood chilling shrill for help escaped her lips. Marietta was motionless and
there was no sign of life.

“You need to go.” McKenzie almost pushed Tobias off
his chair. “I will call Jessie and find out where they took her, and have a car
waiting for you at the airport.”

Tobias barely heard what he said. He was fighting with
his brain to work as his whole body just wanted to collapse. He wanted to sit
in a corner, his knees held to his chest as he rocked himself trying to
extinguish the image of a motionless Marietta from his head. He blamed himself,
on his way to the airport and on his flight from New York to Miami. Tobias
cursed
himself,
he was supposed to be there,
protecting her. If he loved her he should have protected her.

Tobias barely noticed the army of body guards that led
him through the airport to the car waiting for him outside. Someone was in
there, trying to brief him on something that his mind wasn’t connecting. All he
could hear was his heart pounding in fear, and his brain trying to come up with
coping mechanisms. What if he lost her? What if she was the one and he had
walked away from her six months ago. If he had given their relationship a
chance he could have been at her side and could have stopped her from getting
hurt.

But he didn’t. He’d left and now he was stuck in a car
playing a what-if game. “Can this car move any faster?” he barked at the
driver.

“Is she dead?” He finally talked to the woman in the
car.

“No. Not since the last time I checked half an hour
ago.” She winced as she spoke.

“Half an hour?
You are a
joke.” He chuckled in disdain.

“Sir, they aren’t giving any outsiders information.
Plus I can’t reach her assistant, not since the last time Mister McKenzie spoke
to her.”

Knowing Jessie she had probably switched off her phone
or she wasn’t taking any calls that were not important. Tobias wondered if
Chris had been contacted. Not that he took what McKenzie said to heart, he knew
Chris was the only family she had. The car stopped and Tobias jumped out. He
walked into the small triangle the body guards had managed to form as they
fought through the throngs of paparazzi and their flash bulbs. When he got in,
he didn’t have to ask which room she was in. Everyone seemed to be rushing in
one general direction.

He stepped over a velvet barricade and almost ran when
he caught sight of Jessie. She was walking back and forth as the doctor was
trying to talk to her. Tobias knew the news wasn’t good and almost stopped in
his tracks out of fear. But Jessie had already seen him and called out to him.

“Explain it to him,” she urged the doctor.

“Is he family?” the doctor asked.

“He is…I mean he was the father of the baby,” Jessie
stammered out as she spoke.

Tobias felt his heart chill to a block of ice. “What
baby?”

“She didn’t know, I swear we didn’t know.” Tears
flowed freely down Jessie’s cheeks as she trembled.

“We need someone to sign a consent form,” the doctor
said.

“Why? What for? Can’t Marietta do it?” Tobias was
trying to
un-
hear the news about the baby while trying
his best to concentrate on Marietta’s health.

“She’s unconscious. Plus it would be less traumatizing
for her if we expelled the fetus without her being conscious.”

Tobias swallowed the lump in his throat then asked,
“What if she was?”

“She’d have to push it out after we induce labor.” He
paused. “We also need to stop the blood loss. Surgery is our best option.”

“I’ll sign it.” Tobias couldn’t imagine having to hold
Marietta’s hand as she gave birth to their dead baby. At this point he didn’t
know if she knew there was a
baby.She
was the
priority now. He signed the form the doctor gave him and watched as they rolled
her to the operating room. “What happened?”

“We were standing and laughing one second them
wham!”Jessie
slapped into the wall next to her, causing
Tobias to jump into shock. “One of the ladders fell on her and she just lay
there trapped under it.”

Tobias didn’t remember seeing the ladder. They must have
removed it before someone decided to catch the ordeal on camera. “And the…and
the…uh…baby?”

“She stood up for a second. Then it was like the flood
gates opened.” Tobias noticed the dazed look in Jessie’s eyes and wondered if
the girl hadn’t gone into shock. “It was clear liquid, then blood. Then she
doubled over in pain. She let out one scream, I swear my dead grandmother heard
it, and then she dropped back on the ground.”

“Does she know?” Tobias was glad that he hadn’t been
able to see it to that point. He was sure just the sound of her screaming out
in pain would have sent him to an early grave. “Does she know about the baby?”