“It’s according to which one you’re talking about,” said Dominic, still smiling.
“Did you have anything to do with that bridge across the Rio Negro?”
“I designed it. Then the crazy company let me supervise its construction. Is it still standing?”
Bonny’s eyes were shining. “It’s still there, just like you left it. Did you know they named a village for you on the north side?”
The family had never seen Dominic embarrassed. Rose clasped her hands. “Dom, you never mentioned that.”
“Oh, it was just a two bit town.” He made a move on the checker board. It was a wrong play and Ettore pounced on it at once.
“Keep talking, Bonny,” he chuckled. “I need all kinds of help against this immortal.”
Later that night, when all the rest had gone to bed, Dominic and Bonny sat on the front porch swing and talked and talked. She is not a plate of noodles, he thought to himself as she met him head-on discussing this subject or that place, and switching to fluent Spanish with equal ease. In the midst of a comfortable silence, the night air from the lake wafting cool breezes on their faces, Dominic’s eyes closed. Soon he was asleep, breathing deeply and evenly. Bonny sat looking at him, a smile on her lips. His head tilted to one side and came to rest against her shoulder. She slipped an arm around him, drawing his head to her breast. Suddenly, an uncontrollable surge of desire welled up inside her. Her loins grew hot, then wet and started aching. She never had a man before, but she realized what was happening. Unable to control herself, she roused Dominic. When he woke, he found her lips pressed to his.
Dominic awoke again three or four hours later. Bonny was curled up at the far end of the bed, the sheet up to her knees. He looked with pleasure at the smooth lines of her back and the surprising narrow waist, at the firmness of her hips and thighs. She had slipped off that weird rubber band from her hair, and it had fallen, thick and clean smelling, over the pillow and around her face.
Dominic had made love to so many women in his life, and they had been so varied, from virgins to over-the-hill whores, and from those who lay passively beneath him preparing an excuse for the next confession to those who ate him up and stopped only when dazed by overly satiated climaxes, that having sex with one more girl was not earth shattering. But Bonny had amazed him. His first surprise came at finding her a virgin. Entering her had been relatively smooth and enjoyable, especially since she was hot and wet and eager. He knew at once she was not an experienced lover, but he was pleased that she made such an effort to adjust. Nonetheless, she was having a ball beneath him, and he knew that in time she would develop into a fantastic lay. It was only when he washed up that he learned this twenty-eight-year-old firecracker in bed had been as pure as the driven snow. He asked her about it later as they were resting up. She shrugged and said something to the effect that she had never before felt the urge so intensely.
She was still experiencing this strange emotion when she ran her fingers down his chest and around his penis. It set off that urgent need again, so she pulled him back over her. She had come only partway the first time, but in the midst of their second linking, she felt the earth drop out from under her and a dizzying blaze sweep up to engulf her brain. She gushed, jerking and shuddering, forcing her panting mouth against Dominic’s shoulder to keep from crying out. A moment later he peaked. When he finally rolled off, she purred like a kitten.
“Hey,” he whispered to her, knowing full well that the walls Ettore built in the house would contain the sound of an exploding grenade. “You can get babies that way. That stuff coming out of me isn’t eggnog.”
She snuggled up closer. “Aren’t there certain tablets one can take?”
“Yeah, right after a doctor performs a D and C. It keeps the headaches away.”
She stabbed a forefinger in his ribs. “If I’m destined for a D and C, I might as well get some fun out of it.”
“Don’t rush the baby making machine. A man must accumulate thirty-seven billion baby bugs before the automatic baby making motor gets turned on. The latest report is that I have now rounded up eleven or twelve.”
“They should have pills which contain thirty-seven billion baby bugs and work instantly.”
“The person who develops such a pill will own the world.”
She ran her hand over his stomach and across his loins. “How many baby bugs have you accumulated now?”
“They are rushing down like mad from all parts of my body. I’m now up to fourteen.” He kissed her lips. They were soft and sweet. “Hey,” he said. “Since you are new to this type of sport, albeit learning like mad, I’d better tell you that boys are different than girls. They must charge their batteries after turning all those pulleys and pumps.” She laughed gaily and cuddled tightly against him. In one minute she was sound asleep.
He lay there a few moments more savoring the sight of her body and the memory of a satisfying night. He decided he liked her. Quietly, he slipped out of bed, caught up his clothes, and stole through the door. He went to the room he shared with Vincent, dropped his clothes here and there as he normally did, then slid beneath the sheets. In a twinkling of an eye, he was back to sleep.
It was Eleanor who first noticed the change in Bonny the next morning as she entered the kitchen for breakfast. “Your hair is pretty, Bonny,” she said, looking with approval at it brushed and falling naturally below her shoulders.
Bonny smiled as she picked up a plate to serve herself from the buffet table. “Thank you, Eleanor. I’ve gotten in the habit of dressing for travel like I do for research.”
Carol sipped her coffee as she scrutinized Bonny more carefully than had her daughter. Yes, she had tried to make herself more presentable. There was applied the slightest touch of lipstick to her mouth, she had donned a dress similar to that of the previous evening but a little smaller in the shoulders. Carol’s experienced eye inspected the strange girl. She had fine bone structure in her face. Proper makeup could achieve a world of difference in accenting those somewhat high cheek bones. But that would be like sticking one’s finger in the dike. Bonny needed a complete overhaul. Her hair was cut wrong, didn’t compliment the lines of her face. Her brows required straightening. And her hands called for the works. One could see they were more accustomed to outdoor living than to a manicurist. It would take two full bottles of Jergens to do the trick there. Most of all, she should burn everything she wore, from dress to heavy-soled brown walking shoes. Carol almost laughed aloud at the thought of what kind of underclothes she must be wearing.
Dominic and Vincent came in together. They were always the last down for breakfast, Vincent because he liked to read in bed after waking, Dominic because he had not yet taken his week of round-the-clock sleep since returning to Chicago, what with Maria’s funeral and going to Italy and France and England.
It was quickly obvious to everyone in the room that Dominic and Bonny had taken a shine to each other. They both acted casual, but one could sense an awareness of each other from across the table.
Rose, Carol and Vito took their second cup of morning coffee in the living room to watch a news program on television. Ettore had eaten earlier and left with Bob for his office to catch up on his paperwork. Michael, Bert and Eleanor had gone directly from the table to the cellar where Michael was soldering a loose wire on Eleanor’s cassette player.
During a commercial, Rose looked over at Carol. “Those two seem like that porch swing has done it again.”
“What two?” asked Vito.
Carol began laughing. “One thing about Vito, he can lose a niece and gain a sister-in-law without noticing it.”
Vito raised his brows. “You mean Bonny and Dom? It will never happen. Like I said, she’s still in the fifth century B.C.”
“Methinks she spanned a good thousand years last night,” said Carol.
“Dom seems to be taken by her, too,” said Rose. “That’s new for him. Usually it’s just the girl who falls head over heels.”
&n
bsp; “With all her mother’s money, you’d think she would buy her some proper clothes,” said Carol.
“Wait a minute,” said Vito. “Don’t knock my sister. It may interest you to know that at the last report Bonny has twenty-two million dollars and some loose change in grade Three A tax-free bonds.”
“You’re kidding,” said Carol, impressed to learn that this strange girl had a fortune five times as great as her own.
“Not at all,” said Vito. “Furthermore, she can tell you where every dime is invested and the rate of return.”
“Why do you think she allows herself to appear so plain?” said Carol, sipping her coffee, watching the news program again, and listening for the reply.
“I think it’s protective coloration,” said Rose. “She’s never been seriously interested in any man, and it’s probably her way of keeping them off.”
It was such an important statement that Carol diverted her attention from the program to tell Rose and Vito. “If she’d do some fixing up, she and Dom might hit it off.”
Rose thought it over carefully. “That’s possible, but she doesn’t seem like Dom’s type at all. Dom likes them a bit.... you know what I mean....alive. But even if he became interested, he’d take off like a flash the moment he heard she has that kind of money.”
They changed the conversation when Bonny and Dominic walked into the living room.
“Where’s Vince?” asked Vito.
“Down with Mike,” said Dominic. “Says he wants to exercise his arm soldering.”
Carol took the bull by the horns. “I need some new clothes,” she announced at random. “Rose, come along with me.”
Rose was not the one to discourage a female designed plot. “All right. I can use some lightweight shoes.” She fluffed her hair. “And a wash and set. Bonny, come join us.”
Dominic sat in a chair, watching the end of the news program, but a part of his mind registered respectful amazement at how neatly his sister and sister-in-law inveigled Bonny into getting all dolled up. For the first time in his life, he did not mind this quite patent attempt to parade and offer up for his inspection a woman to court.
CHAPTER 12
The women returned from their day of shopping via the back door late in the afternoon, loaded with parcels and sporting newly serviced hair. They spent an hour upstairs closeted in secret rites, then Rose and Carol descended with smiles reserved only for Cheshire cats. A short while later Bonny entered the living room and it caused a great stir. The transformation was astonishing. The ends of her flowing hair had been curbed by trimming, the brows were smoothed and drew attention to the fact that her eyes were an alert gray-green, her face was brightened and lively looking by expert applications of rouge. A marvelous figure was suddenly evident under a trim, knee length printed dress, shapely legs were set off by flesh colored nylon stockings, and multicolored, toeless slippers added another two inches of height to keep from being dwarfed by the DiStephanos.
Ettore set the tone by rising to his feet. “Bonny, if I were a Scotsman, I would find your name very appropriate.”
Dominic waited his turn to present his compliments, and the two conspirators, Rose and Carol, were delighted at his look of frank admiration. Supper that evening was a gay affair. Michael commented later to Carol that the acceptance of Bonny and Dominic as a unit within the family seemed to seep into the others as if by osmosis. Even the two principals, who are generally the last to realize what is happening, appeared aware that a quite solid tie had been planted and was blossoming. What the family misinterpreted as falling head over heels was the ease with which Bonny and Dominic were able to communicate and their comfortable manner with each other. Rose told Vito in an aside that they hit it off like a pair of old shoes. But, in truth, although they found each other more interesting than any others they had met, their thoughts were focused on getting the evening over so they could climb back in bed to continue where they left off.
After supper, Ettore and Dominic went straight to the checker board. Soon Bonny sat between them trying to decipher the strategy, for in short order she realized that their seemingly aimless moves were actually well planned attacks. Dominic won the first one to the great disgust of Ettore. As he noted the fact on a scratch pad covered with figures from previous games, she coyly asked, “How many games do you play? Thirty-seven billion?”
Ettore wondered why this inane remark threw Dominic into such a spasm of laughter.
The house was still when Dominic and Bonny left the porch swing to go up to her room. She was in bed waiting by the time he undressed, and her sigh clearly expressed how long the day had been, especially the hour on the swing where they had smooched and Dominic’s hands passing over her body had driven her up the wall. In bed, she came tightly against him as he took her in his arms, her mouth hot and breasts hard and womb wet with passion. He leaned down to kiss her breasts, but she didn’t need or want any of that.
“Come in me,” she said, her voice thick with emotion,
Dominic drew away to take out a condom from the pocket of his pants lying next to the bed.
“What’s that?” she asked.
“A rubber. Can’t have those thirty-seven billion baby bugs running amuck, racing down canals and raping innocent ova.”
Her curiosity was totally aroused. “May I see it?”
“Do you mean you’ve never seen one?”
“Of course I have, but never up close. Especially one which is about to be used on me.” He handed it over. She held it up to the moonlight streaming through the window. “It has a lubricant on it,” she commented.
“It certainly wasn’t designed for the likes of you,” he replied, grinning.
“May I put it on you?” she asked.
“Sure, but don’t horse around. Those baby bugs are all lined up at the starting gate.”
She enjoyed herself enormously unrolling the slick condom over his swollen penis. But the moment it was on, she rolled to her back and pulled him on top of her.
She gushed before he had taken half a dozen strokes, then held him tightly to stop his movements while she went through the paroxysms of climax. When her jerking and spasms ceased, she let out a great sigh of contentment, and, kissing Dominic full on the mouth, she resumed love making. But now she was no longer satisfied to be merely the sheathe for his motions; she started experimenting, shifting her hips to the left, then the right, then rolled like she was cantering on a horse. She reached down and caressed his testicles.
Dominic tried to warn her, but it was too late. He exploded in a series of short, hot ejaculations. She sensed him coming and drove violently against him three or four times, climaxing again, drawing in gulps of air, her body shuddering furiously,
In a short while they calmed down. She ran her hands slowly up and down his back.
“Is it always that great, Dom?” she asked.
“Gets better,” he said, his heart still pounding.
She chuckled. “Guess I shouldn’t touch you down below.”
“Not unless you want to see Mount Vesuvius blow up.” He kissed each of her breasts, now soft and slack with release of passion. “You really went great guns there.”
“Did I please you?”
“You sure did.” He drew himself slowly off her. “You must be smoking Virginia Slims.”
“Why is that?”
“You’ve come a long way, baby.”
She started laughing.
Dominic woke at the thud of a pillow on his head. He looked round to see Vincent dressing. “Get up, Romeo. That porch swing is more detrimental to proper sleeping habits than owing people money.”
Dominic yawned and stretched lazily. “What is the hour, big brother?”
“Almost nine-thirty. Second brother, Michael, has sent up signals that Vito received some news about Ed Franko.”
That was enough to bring Dominic wide awake. He made his toilet, dressed quickly, then went straight to the sitting room where Vito kept the files. His brother-in
-law was making photocopies of a two page report.
“Something hot?” asked Dominic.
“It’s a lead from the detective agency.” He handed over a copy of the report. “Everyone will be here soon, except Carol and Eleanor. They’re keeping Bonny out of the way.”
Ettore walked in with Michael, Vincent, Bob and Bert. Vince was finishing up a piece of toast liberally coated with jam. Vito gave a copy of the report to each one, allowed them time to read the contents, then took over.
“As you all see, Franko is thirty-three years old, married, has two children, both girls, ages eight and eleven. He has been in prison four years for assault with a deadly weapon and armed robbery, and has been out four years. His place of employment is listed as the Newmark Vending Company, and he is still carried on the rolls as a salesman. We can assume that if he is the new bodyguard of young Bonazzi, the Newmark Vending Company is controlled in some manner by Bonazzi père. He resides in a middle class apartment complex near Oak Park, and has not been seen in the neighborhood since mid–July. That could indicate that he was sent off to Bonazzi directly after the incident near Juan-les-Pins.” Vito deliberately used this explanation to avoid speaking directly of Junior, for the family had still not recovered from the shock of his death. “The second page of the report contains a major point of interest - that his wife receives letters with a foreign stamp.” He looked up from the paper. “That is probably what we are after, so we have to make a choice now. There are two ways to learn more about those foreign posted letters; by having someone touch base with the mailman, or by a breaking and entering operation into Franko’s apartment. If the breaking and entering goes without incident, we are off and running. I’ve been assured that only top professionals will be employed. But if for some reason, be it a freak discovery or an unforeseen accident, the word gets back to Bonazzi, we will have forewarned him and he will take action to separate Franko from his son. On the other hand, if the mailman doesn’t cooperate when approached, he could turn it into a federal case. What do you think is the best course?”
I Contadini (The Peasants) Page 22
