Vignettes of a Master

by Luke, Jason

  New Paragraph 20

  Jonah and Leticia confront Jason Luke in his office.

  We were sitting side by side, Leticia’s chair close to mine, and across the broad desk, Jason Luke reclined smugly in a big, leather chair.

  The desk was an antique piece. I guessed it to be over a hundred years old. It had carved legs and ornate iron fittings on the doors and drawers. The desk was polished and completely bare except for a large statue of the Egyptian deity, Horus, which sat in one corner. I glanced sideways at Leticia – she looked like a naughty student who had been summoned to the school principal’s office. I turned my attention back to Jason Luke and clenched my jaw in defiance. “You called this meeting, Luke,” I growled. “We’re here. So why don’t you tell us what this is all about?”

  For a long time the author glared at me, and then his eyes shifted to Leticia as though she was far more interesting.

  “I called you both here because I want to discuss the events that will take place in the sequel to ‘Interview with a Master’,” Jason Luke began thoughtfully. “I wanted to know what you guys had to say for yourselves, and what you think should happen in the follow up book.”

  The bastard was looking at Leticia as though he was undressing her with his eyes. I was sure he was doing it to piss me off.

  Leticia began to reply, but my temper flared suddenly and I stood up and planted my hands on the edge of the desk. “Everyone wants me to live, dammit, and everyone wants Leticia and I to have a happily ever after.”

  Jason Luke turned towards me slowly as though he had forgotten I was even in the room.

  “That’s not going to happen,” the man said with a tone of eerie menace.

  New Paragraph 21

  Jonah and Leticia reading the transcript of her interview.

  Leticia brought the article up on her computer and leaned back in her chair for me to read over her shoulder.

  The article was her first draft of an interview I had given her.

  “It’s not normal for any journalist to show an article before it gets published,” Leticia explained. “We journos get quite defensive about our rights to publish, and the last thing we like is passing an article on to anyone for approval prior to publication – but I’m making an exception in your case because you’re so damned handsome.”

  She smiled and lifted her face to mine. I smiled back and then rested one arm on the backrest of her chair and braced the other on the edge of the desk, so that my face was close to hers and I could see the soft, tender skin of her neck and throat and smell the scent of her perfume.

  Leticia was wearing diamond stud earrings, and I suddenly had the overwhelming urge to nibble her ear.

  I gave in to the urge.

  I brushed my mouth across the lobe of her ear, trapping it gently between my lips. I sensed Leticia come alive as though little jolts of electricity had suddenly sparked along her spine. She sat perfectly still and I sensed she had closed her eyes. Her hands fell away from the computer and dropped into her lap.

  “I want to fuck you,” I whispered, keeping my voice to a low whisper so the words vibrated. “I want to take you right now, over this desk.”

  My hand slid off the back of the chair and tugged at the pins in her hair.

  “Imagine it, Leticia. Imagine you bent over the desk right now and me behind you, running my hands up your thighs and hitching your skirt higher until I can slide my fingers inside your panties.”

  Leticia let out a long sigh and slumped back in the chair. My mouth moved from beside her ear as I began to caress down her throat and across her shoulder. I tangled my fingers in her hair and tugged so that her face came up to mine and I covered her mouth with a hungry kiss.

  New Paragraph 22

  Leticia asking Jason Luke about the Egyptian statues on his desk.

  Leticia Fall crossed her legs and her expression became serious. She settled the notepad on her thigh and the pen in her hand was poised, ready to write.

  “Mr. Luke, people know you as the author of ‘Interview with a Master’… but I’m sure many readers of my newspaper would like to know more about you.”

  Jason Luke sat back in his chair and considered the young journalist with calm, steady eyes. “I am just a writer,” the author said, repeating a line he had used so many times before in previous interviews. “I am no kind of celebrity, nor do I wish to be. I do not discuss my private life with anybody – even attractive, ambitious, young journalists such as yourself, Miss Fall.”

  Leticia smiled thinly. She narrowed her eyes, thinking quickly. “I understand, Mr. Luke, but if you won’t talk about yourself then perhaps you would be willing to talk about your interests. For example, I notice you have several Egyptian statues on your desk. Are they significant?”

  The author paused for a moment and then nodded slowly. “I have a fascination with history, Miss Fall. For me, Egyptian history in particular is very interesting. The Egyptians were a highly civilized people and yet very devoted to a number of different Gods and Goddesses that ruled their religious and their belief systems. These statues that you see also serve to remind me that history always repeats, the mistakes we make today are the same mistakes people have been making for thousands of years, and although mankind has evolved dramatically over the centuries, we still serve many Gods. The reality is that these days our Gods are things like money and technology.”

  Leticia finished making notes and then sat back in her chair and considered the author with a frown. “Before I came to interview you, I thought you were an arrogant bastard,” she confessed. “I thought you were just another writer who had enjoyed five minutes of success and let that fame go to your head. I misread you… I didn’t realize you were such a deep thinker.”

  Jason Luke blinked, as though he was surprised at the young journalist’s admission. Then he shook his head slowly. “No,” the author said. “You were right. I am an arrogant bastard.”

  New Paragraph 23

  Leticia wondering what it would be like to sleep with Jonah.

  Leticia Fall lay in her bed, one hand draped over her eyes, and the blankets a muddle around her body. She lay in just her bra and panties, thinking of what Jonah Noble would be saying if he were standing over the bed, lurking in the shadows like some sort of wild predator.

  Predator? She asked herself. Is he a predator if his prey wants to be caught?

  She imagined herself lying on her bed, perhaps tied at the wrists to the ornate, metal headboard. She imagined him hovering over her near naked body, a hungry look glinting in his dark eyes. She imagined his soft lips trailing from her jaw, down her neck and towards her parted thighs. So strong was his presence that he was like a ghost lowering himself onto her body and she suddenly sat up, shocked by the vividness of her imaginings.

  The thought sent a shudder up her spine and she was unsure if the shiver was a sensation caused by her pleasure or a sensation caused by fear. What would it be like to make love to Jonah Noble? Would he laugh at her, say, as always, she was an inexperienced, immature woman stuck in a little girl world? Would he try to teach her to be sensual and passionate and erotic? Or could he ever be a man that would simply make love to her, with little or no thought to how she made love back to him?

  No, she sighed. Jonah Noble was too set in his ways. For Jonah, making love was an art form, and no artist approached a blank canvas without first considering its potential and limitless possibilities.

  New Paragraph 24

  Jonah and Leticia in a bar watching other people.

  “Leticia, learning to understand the secret signals of a person’s body can be very instructive and very helpful,” I explained. Leticia picked up her wine glass and took a sip then twisted the stem between her fingers to consider the wine more carefully.

  “Really?” she asked over the rim of her glass.

  We were sitting in a busy bar. I was nursing a tumbler of whisky. I propped my elbow casually on the counter and glanced around the room. The bar was crowde
d – there were lots of attractive, young women clustered around tables, and tight knots of men in the shadows around the edges of the room. Music was playing in the background so that I had to raise my voice and lean close to Leticia to make my words heard.

  “Look at those two women at the table across from us,” I said. “See how the blonde has her legs crossed and her arms folded – she’s clearly not interested in what the other woman is saying, but you can see by the way the other woman is leaning forward how hard she is trying to be convincing. If you can read a person’s body language, it will often tell you much more accurately what the person is thinking than the words they actually say.”

  Leticia seemed genuinely intrigued. She pointed to a woman who was leaning back against the bar with her elbows resting on the counter and a man who was standing close before her. “What about that woman?” Leticia asked. “What signal is her body sending to the man she is with?”

  “She is saying that she is available,” I said. “She is also saying that she is perfectly open to his advances. See how she has her elbows resting on the counter, she’s doing that to show that she’s not blocked off from what he is saying, and at the same time she is thrusting her breasts out at him in a silent invitation. And see how her body is facing directly towards his? That means she’s not turning away or closing him off from her attention.”

  Leticia smiled mischievously. “So what would a body language expert say about me at the moment?”

  I considered Leticia for a moment and then smiled. “He would say you are incredibly aroused and desperate to be taken to bed for endless hours of sexual pleasure.”

  Leticia looked truly shocked. “He could read that from how I’m sitting?”

  “No. I’ve just decided that’s what’s going to happen!”

  New Paragraph 25

  Mrs. Hortez and Jonah in the kitchen.

  Mrs. Hortez folded her arms across her ample bosom and stood like a roadblock, barring the door to the kitchen.

  “You not leave,” Mrs. Hortez shook her head solemnly and stared at me. “You must eat something, Mr. Noble. You must eat good food or be very sick.”

  Even in broken, thickly-accented English, I got the meaning behind Mrs. Hortez’s defiant message.

  Generally, I am my own man. I make my own decisions, and I do as I like. I am brutally honest with people, and often I know I can come across as intimidating, and sometimes arrogant. I know my blunt opinions often cause people offense – but I don’t care.

  Mrs. Hortez, however, was intimidating in her own right.

  She was the only woman who scared me.

  I dragged a chair back and sat heavily at the table. Mrs. Hortez relaxed suddenly and an angelic smile spread across her face. She flapped her arms and scurried to the kitchen counter where plates had been prepared and were waiting for her to serve.

  “Just a little, please, Mrs. Hortez,” I surrendered. “I really am not very hungry, and I have a lot to do today.”

  I might as well have been speaking to a wall. Mrs. Hortez loaded my plate with food and then retook her position at the kitchen doorway like a guard on sentry duty. “You take your time, Mr. Noble. Everything else will wait until you eat good food.”

  I sighed, and began to eat slowly.

  New Paragraph 26

  Jonah and Leticia in his office.

  This was different.

  Leticia was sitting in my big leather chair with a laptop before her, and I found myself in the unfamiliar role of being like a visitor on the other side of the desk. I crossed my legs. I had a cigar in my hand and I studied the feather of blue smoke as it rose towards the ceiling.

  “What are you writing?”

  Leticia looked up at me. “I’m writing about you,” she looked up from the computer screen. “I’m trying to describe you – I’m trying to capture the essence of Jonah Noble in just a few, short paragraphs.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “I imagine that would be challenging…”

  Leticia nodded. She had a distracted look on her face. She glanced at me, then bowed her head over the computer and tapped at the keys. I watched her intently. She was like an artist at an easel, glancing up at a subject, and then returning to the canvas to capture what she saw. I sat silently watching her and my eyes drifted across her body. She was wearing a short sleeved shirt, open at the neck, with the top button straining under the press of her breasts. I imagined leaning across the desk and unfastening that button, so that I could see the silky, creamy flesh beneath. I imagined taking her breast in the palm of my hand and bowing my head to her nipple. I imagined Leticia leaning back in the chair, groaning softly and giving herself to me with a soft whimper of desire. I imagined tangling my hands in the whorls of her blonde hair and lifting her face to mine as I kissed her.

  Leticia looked up at me quite suddenly with a frown. “You’re a complicated man, Jonah, but I feel like I know you so well now. Just by the expression on your face, I can tell that you are having deep, dark, serious thoughts – maybe about politics, or the meaning of life.”

  I looked at Leticia and smiled. “Yes,” I said slowly. “Leticia, there is no doubt you can read me like a book.”

  New Paragraph 27

  Jonah reading some of the press speculation about him after the articles have been published by Leticia.

  “I know this is not a serious newspaper – not like the New York Times – but seriously, some of these letters to the editor about me are ridiculous. This is the stuff of bizarre tabloids, not some small community newspaper trying to be respectable.”

  Leticia got defensive; as though she felt in someway I was attacking her for her paper’s editorial policy. I wasn’t. I knew Leticia had nothing to do with editorial comment or letters that were sent in by readers.

  I folded the newspaper and thrust it out at Leticia. “Look at this letter,” I showed her one example. “Because this person has not seen a photo of me, they have jumped to the conclusion that I must be either a three foot tall hobbit, or a vampire. Surely these people cannot be serious.”

  Leticia scanned the letter that had been published in the newspaper, and then glanced up at me. “Jonah, you cannot control what people think, but in fairness you haven’t made it any easier for yourself. Everyone wants to know what you look like. The fact that you are shunning the spotlight confuses people. We are a society who craves celebrity. And you are a celebrity who avoids attention. Naturally, people are going to speculate, and the more reclusive you are, the wilder their speculation will become.”

  I threw the newspaper in the fire. There was a burst of bright sparks and then the paper caught alight in a fierce orange glow.

  “Leticia, I never wanted to be a celebrity. All I ever wanted was to tell my story.”

  Leticia shook her head defiantly. “Well you are a celebrity, so you need to accept that in a void of information, people will make up their own realities.”

  New Paragraph 28

  Leticia and Jonah having an argument.

  “That kind of attitude is exactly the sort of thing I would expect a naïve, silly little girl to say,” I kept my voice calm, and my tone steady. I raised an eyebrow, taunting Leticia and it was too much for her to tolerate. She sprang at me, shaking with rage, and her lips a thin, white line. Her fingers were seized into claws that she flashed at my eyes. I drew my head away, recoiling like a snake, and seized her wrists in both my hands. Leticia’s growl of anger became a sudden start of fright as she realized my strength. I lifted her clear off the floor for an instant and then turned her around, pinning her arms behind her back.

  “Bastard!” Leticia hissed.

  I laughed. “That’s not very nice language,” I was condescending. “Naïve, little girls shouldn’t use words like that.”

  Leticia kicked back with one of her legs, aiming from my groin. I bent one knee to block her heel, and then pushed her forward over the edge of the desk. Leticia let out a small shriek of alarm: she was bent at the waist with her face pres
sed to the polished table surface and both her arms pinned easily behind her back. I put one foot between her legs and kicked them wide apart.

  “No!” Leticia grunted.

  “Yes,” I said. “If you want to play rough, you have to accept the consequences.”

  I gripped her wrists together and pinned her to the table with my weight, while my free hand slid up between her spread thighs, forcing her skirt to bunch high around her waist. Suddenly Leticia stopped squirming and her ragged breathing seized in her throat. The palm of my hand rubbed across the sheer silk of her panties and I could feel the heat and moistness of her arousal. “Are you going to play nice from now on?” I asked.

  Leticia gasped and then sighed. I felt her knees bend, and realized she was forcing her pussy down against the flat of my hand. In an instant, being taken and pinned had changed her attitude so that her anger had fused into arousal.

  New Paragraph 29

  Caroline’s thoughts while she is being trained by Jonah.

  Caroline had never felt so overwhelmed – it was the man’s presence, his unshakable confidence. She found everything about the power of Jonah Noble to be an erotic aphrodisiac unlike anything she had ever experienced in the hands of any other man in her life.

  He was an undeniable force – he was an iron wall that she could not resist, and nor did she want to. More than anything else, Caroline wanted to be completely owned by this man.

  With him she had gone to sexual places, and reached erotic heights of arousal that she had never imagined possible. He made her feel weak, yet he made her feel safe. She wanted to surrender to him in every way. She wanted him to humiliate her, to use her with no consideration for her own body, but only for his pleasure and satisfaction.