Strangers on a Train I (9 page)

The door slid opened again. Exiting the elevator, I found myself standing in the middle of an elegant marble foyer that must have stretched fifty feet. It was lined with large abstract paintings, pedestals with crystal vases of white roses and lilies, and arches. Holy shit! The elevator led right into his apartment. A thin, coffee-skinned woman wearing a black and white aproned-uniform immediately appeared from one of the arches.

“
Hola,
you must be Señorita Greene. I am Luisa. Señor Golden has been looking forward to your visit. Follow me,
por favor.”

She led me to a palatial step-down living room with a spectacular view of the city. It was filled with fabulous art deco furniture including a burled wood baby grand piano that held richly framed photos and yet another vase of fresh flowers. The overall color scheme was beige with accents of burgundy and turquoise, with an exquisite antique rug anchoring the room. Several outstanding sculpted pieces flanked the seating arrangements, and more abstract paintings lined the molding-encrusted creamy walls. Wow! This place must have cost a small fortune to decorate. It was straight out of
Architectural Digest.

A woman, who looked a lot younger than the sixty-years she likely was, immediately stood up from the white silk couch she’d been sitting on. She was very elegant, with her platinum blond hair pulled back in a regal chignon, as tightly as her taut skin, and clad in an expensive white linen pants suit that was accented by lots of chunky gold jewelry. This, of course, was Ari’s mother. They shared many of the same features, including bronzed skin, jewel blue eyes, and a strong jaw line. Before she could introduce herself, a familiar, velvety voice from behind me called out, “Saarah.”

My heart leaped into my throat, and I spun around. Ari, with his young son beside him, strode into the room. He was still wearing the jeans and blue-and-white striped shirt, but he had changed from his tennis shoes into a pair of shiny black leather loafers. Alligator? He wasn’t wearing socks.

His face brightened when he saw me, his blue eyes twinkling. He quickly gave me the once-over. I bet he was already using his x-ray vision to see through my dress. No, I was not wearing panties beneath the Prada.

“Let me introduce you. You’ve met my son, Ben.”

The little boy politely held out his hand for me to shake. “Hey, you’re the lady from the park.”

I nodded and smiled. He was absolutely adorable in his pint-size version of Ari’s ensemble. “Happy Birthday” I handed him the bag. “This is for you. I hope you like it.”

“Cool! Thanks!” He peeked inside the bag and gazed up at his father. “Daddy, can I open my present?”

“In a minute, my little man.” Entwining his arm with mine, he led me over to the platinum-haired woman. Ben followed behind us.

“Sarah, this is my mother, Lila.”

The elegant woman planted a kiss on each of my cheeks. “So lovely to meet you, my dear. And I adore your dress.” Her voice was deep, with the affectation of someone who was wealthy and cultured. I instantly liked her, drawn to her warm, inviting personality. She smiled at me. “Ari has told us so much about you.”

Inwardly, I cringed. Did he tell her that we fucked on a train? And how he taught me how to eat lobster?

“Nice to meet you too,” I said nervously.

“Sorry, I’m late.” I gasped as another woman breezed into the room. She was wearing ivory linen trousers that accentuated her long legs and a jade green silk blouse that looked stunning against her flaming shoulder-length hair. It was the beautiful redhead!

“And, Saarah, this is my twin sister, Gwen.”

His twin sister?
I was speechless.

The willowy redheaded beauty extended her long-fingered hand. I shook it; her grip was firm. “So, we officially meet at last. ” Her tone was frosty and distrustful, totally unlike her mother’s.

She made me uneasy. I forced a half-smile. “Yes, finally.”

“Can I open my present now?” asked Ben eagerly.

A dimpled smile formed on Ari’s lush lips. “Sure. Go ahead.”

He removed the package from the bag and tore off the wrapping paper. The box was marked Jimmy Choo. At last minute, after discovering that I didn’t have another box for my gift, I had decided to recycle it. Regrettably, I had no further use for it.

“You got me shoes?” the little boy exclaimed, disappointment evident in his voice and on his frowning face.

Ari shot me a look that read: What the fuck?

“Open it.”

The little boy ripped off the lid and grew wide-eyed with excitement.

“Cool! A train.” He immediately dropped to his knees and rolled it on the hardwood floor. “Choo-choo-choo-choo-choo-choo-choo!” He gazed up at me with his big chocolate eyes. “Where’d you get this?”

Ari gave his son a stern look. “That’s not polite, Ben. You should say thank you.”

“It’s okay.” I smiled, pleased that the little boy was so exuberant. “I made it when I was in college.”

Ari’s sister fired me a chilly look. “And, Sarah, what college might that have been?”

The look Ari shot her was definitely disapproving.

“The Rhode Island School of Design.”

“Such a prestigious school,” said Ari’s mother before Gwen had a chance to respond.

“You must come from quite a comfortable family to afford that kind of education,” Gwen quickly added, her tone snarky.

Ari was cringing from his sister’s interrogation. Before he could utter a word, I proudly said, “I was on a full scholarship, and I worked my way to pay my expenses.”

My words worked magic. “Young people are so resourceful today,” said Ari’s lovely mother. His sister Gwen shut up.

My eyes shifted to Ben. He was examining the train, turning it upside down and spinning the wheels. “Does this train need batteries?”

“Yes. It’s programmed. You can tell it to do all kinds of things.”

“Like what?” asked the little boy with wide-eyed curiosity. Even Ari and his family—including his judgmental sister—looked intrigued.

“Tell it to backup.”

“Train, backup!” Ben commanded with a hint of his father’s bossy tone. The train sped backward, crashing into Ari’s loafers.

“Wow!” exclaimed the child. “What else can it do?”

“Ask it to spell ‘come’”

Ari shot me a wry smile. Shit! Choosing this word was bad enough
(did I have sex on my
brain?)
, and I only hoped the smart-train wouldn’t be a smart-ass and spell the homonym. What was I thinking?

“Okay, train, spell ‘come.’”

“C-O-M-E,” the train responded in one of those computerized voices. I inwardly breathed a sigh of relief, but the electricity between Ari and me coursed through my body.

“Wow! It’s a brain train!” The little boy shouted for it to move forward. It shot off across the living room. Ben crawled on his knees, chasing after it.

“Very impressive, Saarah,” said Ari in that low, sultry voice. “You seem to do very well with trains.”

The innuendo sent a tingle down to my core. My muscles clenched. Damn him for making me want him!

Before I could utter a word, Ari’s sister asked me to help her with making a salad in the kitchen. As much as this stunning woman intimidated me, I couldn’t say no.

The kitchen, off the long foyer, was enormous. Twenty of my galley kitchens could easily fit inside it. Rich mahogany cabinets lined the walls, and in the center of the black and white tiled floor, there was an island. Luisa was scooting about the kitchen, organizing platters of tasty-looking Mexican food. The tantalizing smell of a baking cake wafted in the air.

“Luisa, we’ll take it from here,” said Gwen, already tearing up greens and placing them into the large ceramic bowl that was sitting on the island.

“Sí, Señora. I will set up the dining room.” Taking a platter of homemade burritos, she skittered out the kitchen.

Without her asking, I helped Gwen with the salad, cutting up tomatoes and cucumbers. I noticed she wore a simple gold band on her left fourth finger, indicating that she was married. I wondered where her husband was, but did not feel comfortable asking. We shared an awkward stretch of silence before Gwen started in.

“Sarah, you are the first one of Ari’s women that we’ve formally met.”

The words “one of Ari’s women” unnerved me. How many had he had?

Tearing up greens, she continued, her tone chilly. “And to the best of my knowledge, the first one that he’s brought to this apartment and introduced to Ben.”

I said nothing and tossed the cut-up veggies into the bowl.

“Sarah, I don’t know how long you’ve known my brother or how much you know about him.”

“We’ve just met recently.” Make that twenty-four hours ago, I added silently. “I don’t know him well.”

“Then, let me tell you.” The expression on her face grew menacing, and her voice took on a foreboding tone. “My brother is very fragile. He was in a very abusive relationship. The divorce, in which I represented him, was very damaging and costly.”

So, she was an attorney. No wonder she was so adept at interrogating me.

“My brother—and his son—have both been in intense therapy over the last three years. Although Ben still suffers from nightmares, he does not have any recollection of his mother. And thankfully, Ari is finally beginning to heal.”

I processed all this information carefully and slowly. I was gaining insight into Ari’s former wife. It was clear to me that she had emotionally damaged both Ari and his son in some major way. While my lips were burning with questions, there was no way I was going to pry information from his fiendish sister. My gaze met hers in silence.

Gwen’s emerald eyes flared and her lips, full like Ari’s, pressed into a hard, grim line. “Sarah, I’m very protective of my brother. Be careful. If you hurt him, you will pay the price.”

Her words made my blood run cold.
Come on, Sarah, don’t let her intimidate you
. And then I remembered, Sarah, plain and tall, wore combat boots.

“I don’t want to be hurt either.” With my cancer-stricken mother, I had enough pain in my life.

My words silenced her.

Dinner was casual. A Mexican buffet in the grand dining room. The polished blond wood dining table, which could be extended, was sized down to keep the dinner intimate. Ari sat the head and his mother on the other end. I sat to right of Ari, across from his sister who was seated next to Ben.

While I piled food on my plate, I didn’t have much of an appetite. Ari kept shooting me flirtatious smirks that did not go unnoticed by his sister. Her eyes darted back and forth between us, catching the sparks flying between us.

The conversation was also casual. I mostly listened. I lived by the saying, “
Speak only
when spoken to.”
Ari’s mother chatted about her philanthropic endeavors that ran the gamut from fund-raising for MOMA to educating children in third world countries while Gwen revealed that her husband Greg, an import-exporter, was on a business trip to China. All Ben wanted to talk about was
Spiderman
and his new train. I was pleased he liked it so much.

Suddenly, I jumped up an inch from my chair. Holy guacamole! Ari had taken off one of his loafers and was rubbing his bare foot up and down my leg. It made its way under my dress where his big toe immediately found my clit and massaged it. Hard, deep, little circles of erotic pleasure. Oh God! He was making me wet and wild. Stiffening, I gripped the sides of my chair so that I wouldn’t squirm. The liar! He said he wouldn’t try anything in front of his family.

He shot me a deadpan stare. “Saarah, you should really bite into one of Luisa’s homemade burritos. They’re the best on this side of the Rio Grande.”

How did he expect me to eat at time like this? If I let go of the chair, I was going to leap to my feet and scream.

Gwen eyed me suspiciously. “Sarah, why don’t you tell us a little bit more about yourself.”

I’m hot and horny as hell and I want to scream
. “Um, uh, I work for a toy company.”

“That’s the bestest job ever!” beamed Ben.

“Which one, my dear?” asked his mother.

For a second, I didn’t remember. The hot, pulsating sensation between my legs was taking up all of my concentration. Yikes! “Ike’s Tikes.”

“That’s so cool!” exclaimed Ben. “I’ve got lots of those little beanie things. Wanna come see my collection?”

Ari looked my way again, his gorgeous face a total polka face. “Sarah will
come
as soon as soon as dinner is over.”

“I’d love to!” I gulped.

Holy shit! I might not last that long. Slathered with my juices, his big toe rammed into my opening. He bobbed it hard up and down my moist canal. The pressure was building. My heart was racing and my temperature rising. Inside I was throbbing, ready to explode.

The throbbing grew more intense, almost unbearable. The waves of pleasure had started. Oh my God. I was going to have an orgasm right here in front of Ari’s mother, sister, and son!
Oh please, not here. Oh please, yes now!

I was so close. Just as I thought I would scream out in divine pleasure, Luisa entered the room with the candlelit chocolate frosted birthday cake. Everyone shouted “Happy Birthday,” including happy, happy me.

Ben made a wish and blew out the candles. My wish came true. Sweet spasms coursed through me, zapping every nerve in my body. The flames on the candles might be extinguished, but I was on fire.

Ari withdrew his toe and shot me a playful glance. “I hope everyone enjoyed dinner.” His tongue sensuously licked the frosting off a forkful of the cake that Luisa had sliced for everyone’s enjoyment.

The frosting on my own slice of cake melted in my mouth. I swallowed hard. Gwen grimaced. The intensity of the fire raging in my body equaled that of the iciness coating her eyes. Damn him! Damn her!

Shortly after the cake was served, Ari’s sister and mother dismissed themselves from the table. While Ari’s mother gave me a warm embrace and said she hoped to see me again, Gwen left with a cold good-bye. The chill in her eyes told me that she had not warmed up to me one bit.

“Do you wanna come see my playroom now?” asked Ben as I was about to say good night. Before I could utter a word, he clutched my hand and led me down the long foyer. Ari trailed close behind us. I could feel his eyes on me and imagine the satisfied smirk on his gorgeous face. I was still experiencing intense tremors in my core, and I bet he knew it.