Chapter 9
She was lying naked under the sheets when he returned to his room.
"Hello," Dana said in a singsong, lush voice. A bottle of rum and a half empty glass stood on the night table. "I thought you'd never get back."
"I was tending to a couple of matters."
"Yes," she said, reaching for the glass, "a couple of matters. Exactly a couple." The sheet slid off her breasts. She made no effort to pull it back up. She took another slug of liquor and repeated "Exactly a couple."
"What does that mean?"
"Why Isabela and her daughter, of course. Or Carmina and her mother. Either way it adds up to a couple, doesn't it, darling?"
He walked over to the night table and took the bottle and glass away, pouring himself a shot. "You've been drinking too much. I don't know what you're talking about."
She slid low under the sheet again, pulling it tightly around her so that every slope and hill of her body was clearly outlined. As they talked she kept running her hands over herself, molding the sheet firmly to the fit of her figure. Soon her nipples started to rise, pushing the sheet up like marbles. "How about joining me in here so that we don't have to shout to each other."
"No, thanks."
"Suit yourself. And speaking of suits, do you like mine? It's the latest thing." She smoothed the sheet between her legs. "What's the matter, darling, cat got your tongue? Which cat? Mama or daughter?"
He spun around. "Drunk or not, you'd better keep your mouth shut!"
She pouted. "But I'm here to help you."
"How can you help me?"
"Oh, I have ways."
"Do you? You don't even know what the trouble is."
"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure. I have ways of finding things out, too."
"Well suppose you tell me what you've found it."
"Suppose you sit down beside me."
He stared at her, feeling a wave of nausea. After his experience but an hour before the thought of making gross love with this woman was repulsive.
"If you'll make it worth my while, I'll make it worth yours. Come on, Vic, I won't bite you. And bring the rum with you. I'm not quite as well oiled as I'd like to be."
He hesitated, wondering what she knew, and how much damage she could do with what she did know. He decided it wasn't worth taking any risks. He sat down beside her, filled the glass with rum, and handed it to her. "Well?"
"Well yourself," she said arching her back. "Go easy, my love. They're tender.' With a practiced hand he started to caress her breasts, smoothly and slowly over the sheet, first one and then the other in lazy circular motions. "That's very nice," she whispered, shutting her eyes.
"What do you have to tell me?" he asked in a voice calculated to be gentle. There was no sense demanding. She'd only get belligerent.
"First, that you're in love with Carmina."
"How do you know?"
"Sheer intuition. The way you got panicky when Sparling told you to find the girl. The way you tried to throw everybody off the trail. The way you went running to her mother when Sparling laid down the law this morning. Am I right or am I wrong?'
"You're telling me, not asking me. Go on."
"Caress me a little harder." He did what she asked, fondling her breast with a sure hand, bringing the tip to a fine head between his fingers. "Mmmm, that's much better. I like when you touch me that way."
"Where is this girl Carmina?"
"I don't know, but you do. Hidden out somewhere around here, I'm sure."
As he rubbed her breasts he began to pull the sheet lower, revealing a little more flesh each time. "And what about Isabela?"
"Yes, what about her? You certainly are playing both ends against the middle, aren't you? And guess who's in the middle? Little old Dana. Old little Dana. Pull the sheet lower, Vic." He put his hand over her stomach and gathered the sheet in. It slid down, down her breasts until it hovered over their tips. Suddenly they were free, large creamy bulbs with erect nubs of pinkish tan. "Hold them in your hand, Vic. That excites me."
His hand hovered and then plunged down, like a hawk settling on its prey. "I wish I had your hands for a brassiere. I'd be the happiest girl in the world. I'd never come back to earth. Oh, don't stop, darling. Keep it up. Faster!"
"What do you know about us?" he asked with a keen edge to his voice. He was growing impatient.
She sat up and took another drink, then lay down again and shut her eyes. "That you were-or maybe still are--lovers."
"Okay. That's what you know. Assuming it to be true, and I'm not admitting it is, what are these 'ways' of yours to help me?"
"Nothing for nothing. If you want information, you'll have to keep paying for it." She put her hand behind his head and pulled it down to her breasts. "Kiss them nice and gently. Let me feel your mouth. That's it."
Suddenly he stood up. "That's enough," he snapped.
Her eyes shot open and she stared at him with an expression of fear and amazement. "Dana, what do you want?"
She caught her breath. "I want to help you. Don't you think I know what you're going through? With Sparling practically holding a' gun to your head and ordering you to play pimp for the girl you love?"
"That's very noble of you, but if it's one thing you've taught me it's that there are no giveaways. Nothing for nothing, something for something. Now how do you intend to help me, and what do you want from me?"
She put her arms around her knees and rested her chin on them. Her features softened and a look of tired sadness came over her eyes. "Vic," she started in a tremulous voice, "I'm not an old hag by any means, but I am getting along in years. I'm the wrong side of twenty five, and that ain't good."
"What are you getting at?" he asked, sensing damned well what she was getting at.
"Darling, you know, don't you, that I've loved you for a long, long time. That I'd do anything for you and anything to get you."
There was sincerity in her voice. "I know that, yes," he answered in the same tone. "But I don't love you." She flinched. "Do you know that?"
"Yes, I know. I've always known. But I've always thought you could grow to love me."
"I would probably grow to hate you."
"I'm willing to take that chance."
"I'm not, and I'm not willing to marry you to prove I'm right. That's what you're leading up to, isn't it?"
"Yes, that's it."
"Since you know how I feel about you, I would be doing you a favor by marrying you, wouldn't I?"
"I suppose you could put it that way."
"Let's put it that way, since it happens to be true. Now I want to know what favor you're offering me in exchange?"
She looked intently at him. "I can pull Clayboro off Carmina for the rest of the convention."
He put his hand to his chin. "How can you do that?"
"I have a certain charm, a certain way of making men happy, of making them forget. I have a couple of tricks in this little body that would put Clayboro's redheaded girlfriend in the little leagues. I'll use them. He'll walk around here with a perpetual boyish grin on his face."
Vic shook his head thoughtfully. "So you'll occupy him for the duration of the convention and leave me alone with Carmina, is that the idea?"
"Yes, that's the idea."
"In exchange for which I agree to marry you when the convention is over."
She nodded.
"What makes you think I'll be willing to give Carmina up then?"
"I think you will. Darling, I can understand how you feel about her. But you're a grown man and she's a child, unsophisticated, unworldly, inexperienced. You have to go back to civilization at the end of this party. Can you see yourself taking her with you? Can you fee something like that lasting? You're having a wonderful, beautiful thing with her, but it's not permanent. It can't be. It has to end, Vic, and I'm not saying that because I want it to. It just has to."
He poured himself another drink, brooding.
"But at least you'll know that when you do leave her and Topaz, the affair will have been unsullied. No harm will have come to her. You'll have something beautiful to cherish for the rest of your life, instead of looking back to the memory of her tumbling in Lucas Clayboro's bed-and maybe in a thousand beds after that."
There was truth in the picture she painted, very seductive truth. What was he going to do with Carmina anyway? Take her back? Stay behind with her? He hadn't even thought that far ahead. He had lived from day to day with her and for her. But Dana was right. Shortly the convention would come to an end. Then what?
But one thing he was sure of: he was sworn to protect her as long as he was on this island.
Was a lifetime with Dana worth a few weeks with Carmina?
He had only to think of the overpowering beauty of their lovemaking on the boat, and the answer came to him resoundingly: yes, it was worth it. For what love would life hold for him when he had left Carmina and was back in the states? What did it matter what happened afterwards? He would indeed cherish Carmina in his heart forever, wherever he went, whoever he was with-whomever he married.
"What happens if I don't agree?"
"Sparling will ruin you."
"The way I feel now, I'm willing to face that."
"But if you could have both-both Carmina and your position with Sparling, it would be all the better, wouldn't it?"
"Of course it would."
"Then there shouldn't be any question in your mind."
"Well, there still is. I have to spend the rest of my life with you. That's enough to make me pause."
"I'm offering you your cake and the chance to eat it too. On the other hand, I can take the cake away and you won't have had even a nibble."
"Oh?"
"Yes." She reached under the pillow and took put a photograph. She handed it to him, saying "If this fell into Carmina's hands, the shock would overcome her. She'd never understand you, and she'd never forgive you."
It was a picture of Vic embracing Isabela on the beach in their cove. It had been taken this morning.
"Compromising, isn't it?"
He tore it in half and cracked her across the face with the back of his hand. "You miserable bitch. You had us followed this morning, didn't you? That was the sound I heard up above us. One of those photographers Sparling has hired to catch our victims with their pants down." He grabbed her by the throat and pushed his thumbs into her windpipe. Her eyes bulged out as he shook her. She clawed at his arms and back and writhed naked on the bed. Then her grip started to relax.
Suddenly he was stricken with the horror of what he was doing and he let go, letting her drop back on the bed, her mouth wide open and her tongue hanging out. She heaved and moaned for several minutes. Vic buried his head in his hands.
Finally all was silent.
"You have the negative of that picture, don't you?"
She nodded, and her lip curled in vengeful hatred.
"All right. You win." He grabbed her by the hair and she threw her hands in front of her face protectively. "But if you don't keep Clayboro satisfied for the rest of this convention, I just may finish what I started to do just now. Now get dressed and get out of here."