Rapture

by Sonia Icilyn

  No, it was not, Dale mused. If anything, love was more like a roller-coaster ride. The dizzying heights, the stomach churning dips. Only a fool would want to embark on such a journey. Maybe he should be up in that dock himself, explaining why he was so bewildered right now.

  “Isn’t it right that your love for Cassandra Moore consumed you and made you confused?” William Katz provoked. “It took you over the edge when you realized she was reciprocating her feelings to someone else. Your love rival had stolen her from you and you decided to do something about it?”

  Dale rose to his feet, feeling overwhelmed. He needed to talk to Avril. He needed to talk to her now to explain. He’d wanted to do so all week and had it not been for this trying case— “The prosecution is badgering my client,” he complained.

  “I didn’t shoot nobody,” Marcus Davy jumped to his feet and yelled. “I didn’t hire no gunman,” he admonished further. “I didn’t kill Cassandra’s lover. I just wanted her to be happy.”

  “Mr. Lambert, please restrain your client,” the judge ordered. But Marcus Davy could not be calmed. He went full out of control and was eventually taken from the dock. “I’m calling a recess,” Judge Baines ordered, banging his gavel. “Court will resume Monday morning.”

  Dale nodded and cast a pouncing stare at William Katz. He caught the winning look on the Bulldog’s face and inwardly realized he had to start attacking like a wolf on their next encounter. Then he suddenly remembered his client saying something about a witness that had never been questioned. It could be the card he needed to play.

  He glanced at his watch, sighed his relief that the day was over and threw William Katz a fighting look as he left the courtroom clutching his briefcase. There was another case he had to sort out. The one on Avril Vasconcelos, and that’s where Dale was heading when he climbed into his car.

  Chapter 13

  Avril’s mind was filled with uncertainties. As she closed her apartment door and pressed her back against the hard wood, she felt her bottom lip tremble.

  Soon enough, the trickle of tears followed. What was wrong with everybody? Was she missing the point? Should her life be about playing an elaborate juggling game with no thought as to the consequences or outcome? She wanted to scream.

  After everything Kesse had told her and the way she’d put on a show of affection with Rakeem at Media Plus, there would be no reason at all for her to have suspected that Kesse didn’t love him. And it wasn’t about Kesse inviting Meyrick Armstrong into her bed. To Avril, it was about common decency.

  She was shaken and appalled. Moreover, she liked Rakeem. And though she’d never really gotten to know Delphine, she respected her role as Meyrick’s fiancée, in spite of becoming fond of him. Deep down, she knew her vendetta against Maxwell could never have been achieved had there been a risk of Delphine being hurt.

  Feeling weakened and drained by the shedding of her emotions, Avril took off her boots and gingerly walked into the living room. The minute she’d done so, the telephone rang. Her heart stopped. Certain it was Dale to check on their date for the evening, Avril fretted on answering it.

  She couldn’t possibly go out with him now, not in her state. Not after what she’d been told. But the phone kept on shrilling, loud and persistent. Momentarily, Avril considered it could be Kesse, begging that they talk. She loathed the very prospect of enduring another moment of hearing more lies. Kesse would want her secret affair kept quiet and Meyrick would, too. Avril did not want to consort with either of them to deceive Rakeem.

  Then again, the call could be from Elonwy with news of having told the truth to her brother. That would be one less headache to worry about. Or it could be Antonio himself, full of self-pity, if not blame, for her becoming romantically entangled with the man whose law firm had been retained by his estranged wife.

  Either way, the prognosis did not look good. The only cure was to answer the damn thing and deal with the person invading her sanity. The sooner it was over with, the better, Avril reasoned. Drying her eyes, she picked up the handset.

  “Hello!”

  “Avril!” Her mother’s voice sounded back. “I was beginning to worry.”

  She could hardly believe it. “Really, Mom?” It was not like Bertha to show that she cared in this way.

  “I haven’t heard from you all week,” her mother elaborated smoothly. “Not since the night you spoke to Antonio.”

  Avril sighed. Of course his name would find a mention someplace. It had always been this way, ever since they were children vying for their mother’s affection. “What’s he done now?” Avril questioned, trying to keep her voice equable to disguise any hint that she’d been crying.

  “I don’t know,” Bertha answered curiously. “He got a phone call, put on his jacket and went out.”

  Avril yawned. “So what else is new?”

  “Nothing much,” Bertha sighed, bored. “How’s the new job?”

  Now this was a surprise. Avril was bushwhacked to have garnered her mother’s interest. “It’s going okay,” she replied, feeling an instant boost. “I think the residents of this building have a case against their housing association. I don’t think Reuben Meyer is going to like it, so I can’t imagine being in this apartment for much longer.”

  “You’ll be moving back to the house then?” Bertha asked suddenly.

  Avril remembered her promise to be out by fall. Technically, she was, but in a few weeks, things could be different. “I’m not sure,” she said, quickly recalling Dale Lambert’s offer. Her mother was one for allowing her children to stand on their own two feet and Avril was reluctant to return back there. “I have another option,” she added, prevaricating.

  “And how are things with Dale Lambert?” Bertha moved on as though she’d tapped directly into her daughter’s mind.

  Avril coughed. “Fine,” she muffled, awed by her mother’s perception.

  “Lennie told me that you two have started dating,” she continued on an exclamation. “It’s the theater tonight, isn’t it?”

  Avril closed her eyes. “I’m just waiting for Dale to call,” she told her mother. “I’ll tell you all about it later.”

  “I’m not too old to remember the details for myself,” Bertha concluded excitedly. “Bring him over for dinner tomorrow. I’m serving roast. We’ll expect you both at four o’clock.”

  “Mom,” Avril panicked. “Wait…I…”

  “Enjoy your evening.” The phone clicked dead.

  Avril stared at it in disbelief. Her life was twisting in convoluted patterns at every juncture. She glanced at her watch. It read 6:17 p.m. Considering she’d arranged to meet Dale Lambert at 8:30 p.m., there wasn’t much longer to wait to discover whether he would arrive at her apartment.

  Suddenly, she jumped. The knock at the door rocked her senses. Avril took a long breath and ran both hands across her face. It felt like she was smoothing out the creases from a trying day, making her appearance ready to receive one of her neighbors. She wore the well-practiced look of a model as she made her way over to the door. It was that blank stare she’d learned to manufacture for the benefit of the camera lens. The only thing missing was her winning smile and that was something she couldn’t force.

  She peeked through the peephole and her heart stopped. Avril pulled the door open. “Dale,” she gasped.

  He had the urgent look of a man wanting to unload a sack of potatoes from his shoulders as he stood at the doorway. Avril welcomed him inside without thinking. His expression was enough. It signified that Dale, too, had undergone a vigorous day. He put his briefcase down and charted her mien. Dale was so happy to see her.

  “We need to talk,” he sounded out on an uptake of breath. “About what happened the other day. About everything. I can’t leave it like this.”

  Avril was almost wordless. “Dale…I…” She shook her head. “I shouldn’t have behaved the way I did, throwing you out like that. It was a stupid, idiotic kneejerk reaction. I’m sorry I—”

  “
I’m sorry, too,” Dale interrupted. Her nut-brown eyes glittered awash with tears. And then Dale knew. She desired him. He wanted her. He felt his mouth go dry and his voice took on an edge. “I don’t know what to do from right or wrong anymore. All I know is, I don’t want to lose you. Am I forgiven?”

  Avril stepped toward him so overwhelmed with a myriad of feelings, she was unsure how to react. All she knew was that their future rested with her response. “Yes,” she shuddered. “So much has happened to us and—”

  Dale took her hand and pulled her forward. “You’re trembling,” he said, startled.

  Avril crumbled. “I’m not strong enough anymore,” she whispered. “I just want it all to end with Elonwy and my brother and the Armstrongs.”

  “As long as we’re together, we’re doing just fine and that’s all that matters,” Dale murmured, pulling her tightly to him and rubbing her body with his hands, enjoying the feel of her close to him again. His penis stiffened in immediate response. “This is just the beginning for us, not the end.”

  Avril looked up into his face. “How can I be sure?” she asked, unconvinced. “There’s so much I don’t understand anymore.”

  “This is all you need to understand,” Dale whispered, moments before his lips came crashing down onto hers. He hadn’t planned this moment. Yet the rightness, the inevitability of it seemed real.

  Avril shivered with delight. In one quick motion, she was taken from despair and thrown into Dale’s world of pure rapture. It was as though this moment was the only time they had left. They hurried to the bedroom, their clothes thrown in every direction.

  The world stood still for what seemed an endless time frame as they made love—once, blissfully, swiftly. And when it was over, each of them sensed that something in their lives had irreversibly changed, forever.

  “That wasn’t supposed to happen,” Dale gasped, seconds later as he gazed up at the ceiling, totally spent. “Are you still sore?”

  Hell, she’d forgotten all about that. “No,” Avril whispered.

  Dale glanced across at her and marveled at the amount of sweat that clung to her brown skin. Heady, sensual sweat. “Sure?” he ventured.

  Avril nodded and stared at the ceiling, too. “I don’t know what happened, either,” she said, confused. “I didn’t think I’d see you again.”

  Dale caught her expression. “I’d planned to take you to the theater tonight, remember?” he began. “I’ve booked two seats and have the tickets.”

  “Oh,” Avril exclaimed, startled. “It’s just…after you didn’t call and the way I forced you to leave, I thought—”

  Dale chuckled. “I’ve been busy on the Marcus Davy case and have a lot on my mind about everything,” he told her, turning on his side to face her head on. Gently, he rubbed a hand across her wet stomach. “But I’d like to go out if you still want to?”

  Avril happily considered. “Can we?”

  “Of course,” Dale answered. “You’ll love this play and the dancing is fabulous.”

  “What play is it?” Avril asked, excited.

  “Wait and see,” Dale teased. He sat up and confidently removed his condom. “I’ve seen them before and don’t want to spoil it for you. After the show, we talk properly, okay?”

  Avril agreed. They showered together, where Avril endured another onslaught of kisses before dressing in a peach-colored blouse and brown corduroy skirt. With camel-brown suede boots on her feet and a burgundy leather jacket, the long curls of her hair brushed vigorously into a full array around her shoulders, she joined Dale at his car.

  The short stop at his Swiss Cottage home was enough for him to change into a Pierre Cardin blue shirt and jeans, with a navy-blue cashmere jacket for the cold evening weather. Momentarily, they made the theater and enjoyed the show. Later, they had cocktails at Dale’s favorite haunt in the West End before they returned to his place just before midnight.

  “Drink?” Dale offered, as he made toward the kitchen.

  Avril laughed. She was happy. She had never felt so free, fresh and full of new emotions as she did tonight. It was as though the drama of the last few weeks had disappeared entirely from her mind. This was a new time in her life now. One she had never expected to happen, certainly not after the treachery she’d faced. “Don’t you think we’ve had enough to drink already?” she voiced.

  “I mean tea or coffee?” Dale corrected.

  Avril took off her boots and dutifully placed them on his shoe rack. “Tea, please.” She couldn’t help looking at him—the man who’d tickled her senses with his manhood until she’d screamed. Her heart was still racing just looking at him. Was this what it felt like to be in love, she mused. Because her senses were shaky, her mind was delicately balanced and her stomach lurched forward and backwards like a rocking chair. “I’ve enjoyed tonight,” she appended with a smile.

  Dale watched her take a seat on one of the high stools. “You liked the show?” he asked.

  “Rumble,” Avril began, quoting the title of the play. “I’ve never heard of it. The show guide says they’re from Germany, but they way they danced. Wow!”

  “Rumble is a performance by Germany’s Renegade Theatre,” Dale clarified. “They made a strong presence at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival last year and I knew you’d enjoy it.” He switched on the electric kettle. “The play is based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, but this show swaps the feuding families of Verona for rival break dance crews in an urban setting.”

  “The hip-hop dancers were extraordinary,” Avril marveled. “Those video projections from stairwell to a balcony, tower block to a graffitied street corner… A nonstop rush of sweat, passion and exhilaration,” she emphasized. “Thrilling.”

  Much like what they’d shared in her bedroom, Dale mused happily. “And the two massive scaffolding towers,” he added. “The theater company did a spectacular job.”

  “Yes,” Avril agreed.

  “Speaking of jobs,” Dale moved on, while pouring hot water into two cups. “How’s your job going?”

  “I’ve found out a lot,” Avril summarized.

  Dale looked surprised. “Already?”

  “I know,” Avril giggled. “And I’ve only been in the apartment less than a week. But I’ve talked to a handful of residents in the block and they’re all more or less saying the same thing.”

  He raised a brow. “Which is?”

  “Well,” Avril sighed. “They’ve complained to the housing association which is backed by the investors, so I’m assuming Reuben Meyer knows about this. They’ve also filed reports of their complaints to their local council, the Housing Corporation and even the Housing Ombudsman. In each case, the housing association has defended itself leveling accusations of racism, so the authorities to whom the complaints were filed have backed off for fear of being branded racist.”

  “You say Reuben Meyer knows about these complaints?” Dale questioned, carrying the two cups of tea over to the half-moon shaped wooden bench.

  “I’m assuming so,” Avril answered, catching the serious look in Dale’s chocolate-brown eyes.

  “Which then makes me wonder why he hired you,” Dale finished on a curious note. “When do you plan to tell him your findings?”

  Avril shrugged. “Next week,” she said. “I’m getting bored now, anyway. I’d like to work on another project. Something more interesting and where I can publicize my celebrity a little more. Maybe do something that involves working with children instead of tenants.”

  Dale took the seat next to her. “For what it’s worth,” he said. “Private associations answer neither to the tenants or electors, but to their lenders. At the end of the day, it’s the investors who get the cast-iron guarantees.

  You only have to look at what they earn in salary.”

  Avril accepted Dale’s summary. Repairs. Modernization costs. The lender would want to recover their investment somewhere. Eventually the tenants could find themselves facing rent increases. “Some of the residents are very vul
nerable,” she added, sipping her tea. “I spoke to a widow recently. It must be very difficult for her to live as a single mother without the protection of her husband.”

  Dale’s brows rose. “Your mother survived it.”

  “At times, between marriages,” Avril nodded, “but it was never easy. She was hard and emotionally detached, and much closer to Antonio than me.”

  He heard the pain in her voice. “You think she loves him more?”

  “We don’t share the same father,” Avril explained with her eyes low. “Mom probably loved his father more. She always saw mine as having let her down.”

  “What’s his name?” Dale asked.

  “Maurice,” Avril answered, raising her head slightly. “He found love again second time around with an English woman.”

  “Caucasian?” Dale assumed.

  Avril nodded. “My step-mother suits him,” she expanded. “She’s a really lovely woman and keeps him in line. They played no game with each other and I liked that because they both wanted the relationship to happen.”

  “Game?” Dale probed, picking up on the manner in which she’d spoken.

  Avril dipped her eyes again. “There are some people who live on the fringe of society, who have no morals and seem to have a radically different way of looking at relationships,” she explained.

  Dale was lost. “What are you talking about?”

  Elonwy and Kesse’s affairs loomed like a dark shadow to haunt her. “The freedom to experiment and to share love with as many different people as possible,” she finished.

  Dale could see she was fighting with the ugliness of some new revelation. “What’s happened?” he demanded.

  Avril sighed heavily. “Earlier today, I found out that my best friend…my maid of honor…is sleeping with Meyrick Armstrong,” she said, embarrassed that she’d once seen merit in such a man. “I don’t know how long it’s been going on, but—”

  “Don’t make this your problem,” Dale advised, reaching for her hand where he immediately folded her fingers into his own. “They’re both grown people. Meyrick’s animal rights may be exemplary, but his moral ones fall short. What we have,” he added for clarity, “is different.”