Chapter 17
When the weekend was over, Sugar did not return to her Santa Monica apartment. Instead, Cummings informed her that she would move into the big house in Benedict Canyon with him, to which she had no particular objections.
It wasn't until the weekend was past that Sugar had her first real opportunity to look at the place that would be her new home-at least temporarily. The sprawling stone house, she discovered, was, in every sense of the word, a palatial mansion, with more rooms than she could count on her fingers and toes. Each of the rooms furnished with such exquisite taste and meticulous care that they were small wonders in themselves.
The grounds outside were equally impressive, covering several acres of carefully manicured lawn and shrubs and trees of every variety. There were two outdoor swimming pools in the gardens, big enough for Olympic competition, while behind the big house was a parking lot large enough to accommodate more than fifty cars without crowding.
Right from that very first Monday that Sugar agreed to stay with him, Cummings began showering her with everything that a girl could possibly want. Clothes and jewelry that made Ordway look like a piker. He also gave her a weekly check for five thousand dollars as agreed upon, as incentive for her to stay with him. The balance to be paid to her at the end of six months if she completed her mission.
There was no question that she earned every penny of the money he paid her as her life became one endless succession of sex. Not the kind of sex she had known with Yale, or even with his father. This was depraved sex that ran the gamut of every perversion Cummings had ever read, or heard about, or fashioned in his warped brain.
Several times the going got so rough that Sugar didn't think she could take any more of his debauchery, that she had reached the point of saturation. But each time, she told herself that surely the worst part was over, that it was impossible for anything to be worse than the things she had already endured-so she stayed on.
Christmas came and passed, but it was little different than any of the previous weekends she had lived through in the big house. There were the same guests, the same depraved play, the same "religious" services that, by now, to Sugar had become a mockery.
For Christmas Cummings presented Sugar with her first genuine mink coat that cost a small fortune, because, as he told her, he was so pleased with the way she had adjusted. Sugar probably should have been thrilled. But somehow she was not. Because by this time, she had come awfully close to detesting the man who gave the coat to her and wanted nothing so much as to finish out the required six months and be free of him.
True, she had no one to blame except herself for the situation she was in. But never would she have believed that any man could possibly be so perverted.
The following weekend-that would include New Year's Eve-Cummings once again invited the followers of his cult to his canyon mansion for what he promised would be a New Year's Eve Party to end all parties. Everyone was invited, even those members who didn't attend regularly, and as an added incentive, they were told they could each bring a guest who might want to join his flock.
Cummings promised, too, that at midnight on New Year's Eve, he would have a very special surprise. He didn't give Sugar even the faintest inkling as to what the surprise might be, but she had an uncanny feeling that the surprise would include her.
As far as the New Year's Eve party itself was concerned, the only thing unusual about it was that it was a masquerade. Only no one wore a costume or clothing of any kind. All anyone had on was a mask to hide their faces.
To add to Sugar's apprehension that she was to be an important part of Cummings' "very special surprise," she was kept locked in her room throughout the entire evening. She was not permitted in the big hall where the party was being held, or allowed to meet any of the guests. When, shortly before midnight, Cummings' two faithful deacons came to fetch her, Sugar's fear soared to a new high.
Naked, she was led down the stairs and into the big hall. From what she could see of the bacchanalian revelry, it was little different from any of the other parties Cummings had held during her stay there. There were more people and, of course, there were the masks. Otherwise, it was the same sort of drunken, brawling, sex orgy.
Even after she got into the hall, Sugar was kept at a safe distance from the crowd, where no one could get to her. Then, as the big clock in the hall struck twelve-midnight and everyone began yelling and screaming "Happy New Year" and using it as an excuse for a display of sexual enthusiasm and exhibitionism, Cummings made his customary announcement for quiet.
When the noise died down, Sugar was led up onto a small, specially built, raised, curtained platform. This, Cummings told his audience, was the moment for the big surprise. The curtain was drawn, and to everyone's startled gaze, behind it was a huge cage-and inside the cage was a full-grown, male gorilla!
Sugar froze in mute terror at the sight of it, realizing only too well what Cummings intended for her. He was going to have her put into the cage with what obviously, by its unmistakable actions, was a sex-starved, manlike ape!
She turned to flee. But the two deacons grabbed her arms and held her securely and at a nod from Cummings began to drag her toward the door of the cage. She screamed hysterically and fought with every last ounce of strength in her body to try to get away. But escape was impossible. Then, as Cummings stepped forward to unlock the cage door-a figure suddenly materialized out of the crowd. Nude, as was everyone else, the man charged forward and onto the stage.
"Stop it!" he cried out. "Let her go!"
One of the deacons did just that and rushed forward at the man. But the man straight-armed the deacon in the face and sent him skittering backward, ass-over-head off the raised platform.
"What's the meaning of this?" Cummings demanded furiously as he came forward. "Who the hell are you?"
Even before Cummings asked him, the man had his mask half-off and said, "I'm Yale Ordway."
Sugar let out a squeal of amazement. "Yale!"
Cummings caught only the last name. "Ordway?" He raised his voice and screamed out into the crowd. "Ordway! Goddam you, Ordway! Come up here!"
Yale's father could be seen coming up the aisle, shoulders stooped, mask off and his face distorted with anguish.
"What the hell is this all about?" Cummings demanded, his face beet-red with rage. "Is this goddamn guy your son?"
Ordway wagged his head like a chastised child. "I didn't know it would turn out this way, Mr. Cummings. When he heard she was here and that you were throwing this New Year's Eve party and that as a member of the cult, I could bring along a guest, he wanted to come with me. Christ, I thought seeing her with his own eyes like this, finding out what she is, would make him never want to even look at her again. Jeez, I never knew he'd try to piss on the parade."
"Okay, okay," Cummings rumbled with great annoyance. "Now get him the hell out of here, so we can go on with the show."
"There isn't going to be any show," Yale cut in with sudden authority. "Not with her." He took a couple of steps to where the second of the two deacons was still holding Sugar. He barked, "Let her go!"
The deacon's eyes went from Yale to Cummings inquiringly.
Cummings considered a moment, then scowled and said, "Okay, let her go. She's not going anywhere."
Yale stepped up to Sugar. From his expression, he wasn't aware for the instant whether or not she was naked. All he saw was her face, her eyes, her mouth. He held out his arms to her.
Sugar hesitated for only a split-second, then rushed forward into his arms and clung to him as he hugged her close to him. She didn't care that he'd run out on her. She didn't care about anything else in the world, except that he had come back to her. That he'd dared all these people, to save her.
He kissed her, and as he continued to hold her trembling body close to his, he whispered so that only she could hear. "You must think I'm a lousy bastard for what I did to you. But I didn't know it would turn out the way it did. That night of the graduation, my mother and father told me that if I didn't leave the country, that if I even dared try to see you again, they'd put you away in prison on a moral's charge, as a juvenile delinquent. I didn't want that to happen. I didn't want to leave you, Sugar baby. But I wasn't of age, either, and I had no money. So I had to do as they said. But I had no idea of the heartache I'd caused you. Had no idea of what my father did to you, or that he arranged for you to come here. I didn't find out until I came home for the Christmas holidays. Then I looked for you. I searched everywhere. Until finally my father broke down and told me the whole story and where you were."
He wrapped an arm protectively around her and started to lead her away.
"Wait one minute!" Cummings called after them. Then he looked down hard at Sugar as she faced him. "You sure you want to go with him?"
She nodded without hesitation.
"And give up a quarter of a million dollars?" Cummings reminded her. "The worst part of the deal, you know, is over. From here on in, it would be a breeze for you."
Sugar glanced at the cage.
Cummings laughed harshly. "That was a gag. I never would have let you go in there. I just wanted to test you, see if you really would."
Sugar wasn't altogether sure she believed him. Not that it mattered. As long as Yale was here with her, nothing mattered. They started to go again.
"Wait," Cummings called out to her again. "I've got a better proposition." He hesitated to make sure he had her full attention, then added, "I'll make you Mrs. Clyde Cummings."
Before she could start to shake her head, Yale cut in and said, "I think Mrs. Yale Ordway is going to fit her a lot better."
"Yale-no!" his father yelled in horror at the thought of her as his daughter-in-law.
Yale looked down at him censuringly. "I think you've said and done quite enough, don't you?"
"I'm thinking about your mother," Ordway perspired. "What'll your mother say?"
"Frankly, I don't give a damn what either of you say, or do," Yale retorted.
"But I can say and do plenty!" Cummings inserted.
Yale regarded him with mild contempt. "I wonder?"
He cast his gaze out at the crowd, some of whom were listening, but most of whom had lost interest and gone back to their drunken orgy. "All this'd make a pretty juicy scandal."
"Who'd listen?" Cummings disparaged. "Who'd take your word against the word of a man like me?"
Yale smiled amusedly. "I'm afraid you don't read the sports page very thoroughly, Mr. Cummings. If you did, you'd know that I've just been awarded the Heisman Trophy. Which means that right at the moment, I'm pretty hot copy. The news media'd be interested in just about anything I'd have to say, right now-about football or any other subject."
His father made one final, desperate appeal to Yale to try to change his mind. "The boutique, Yale. Your mother'll disown you for sure. She'll never let you take over the business."
Yale looked down at his father unemotionally. "That's kind of tough. But right after I was awarded the trophy, I signed with the New York Jets. I didn't tell you, because I wanted it to be a New Year's surprise. Well, it's New Year's and now you know that I have an idea I'm going to be able to take care of a wife very nicely-without any dress business."
With that, he and Sugar turned once more, stepped down from the platform and walked out of the big hall. When they got into the corridor, Yale halted, put his arms around her and kissed her-and they both became suddenly aware of how naked they were.
"I wish we could go some place where we could be alone," he whispered.
She looked up at him and smiled as she rubbed her tummy deliciously against his hardness. She only hoped that he still had the key to the back door of the boutique, because that little dressing room had a very special place in her heart. Not only that, she could look into the mirrored walls and see a hundred and one Yales making love to her all at the same time. That and that alone would compensate for all those agonizing months she'd been without him.