Twelve Nights

by Remy, Carole

  “We’ve been worried, Dad,” Angela admitted. “But you are a good father. Aggie and I always knew you loved us.”

  “I could have done a lot more,” he insisted.

  “Dad,” Aggie interrupted, this time successfully. “Do you have a certain number of sentences you have to get out to make it to the next step?”

  Her teasing worked. Their father chuckled and sat down.

  “No,” he admitted. “But you know me.”

  “A steam engine,” the three women chorused.

  “I have some more news,” he announced. “Mary and I are married.”

  Angela jumped up and hugged first her father and then Mary.

  “That’s great news, you guys!”

  Aggie followed her sister into their embrace.

  “I just wish you’d waited so we could be there,” she protested.

  “I wasn’t sure you approved,” Mary commented, her eyes intent on Angela’s.

  “I’ve grown up a little,” Angela explained. “I’m sorry if I was a brat before.”

  “You were a young woman who had just lost her mother, Angela,” Mary smiled. “I never blamed you for resenting me.”

  “Well, I don’t now.”

  “Let’s all go out for breakfast,” her father offered. “I’ll take my three women to that fancy place downtown, the Vancouver Hotel.”

  Angela looked at Aggie. They couldn’t possibly go out for breakfast together, especially not to the Vancouver Hotel.

  “I have a headache, Dad,” Aggie said. “I’m going to take a aspirin and lie down for awhile. You and Angela and Mary go ahead.”

  It was a solution, if not perfect. Their father and Mary’s arrival intensified an already complicated situation. Angela thought about the coming evening. How on earth could she pull it off? Leave the hotel at 5:30, have sex or whatever with Jimmy, steal the statue, get back to the hotel and leave town. All without tipping off her observant parent that anything was going on. Well, she would go enjoy breakfast somewhere other than the Vancouver Hotel. She would figure out a way to make it all work later.

  In the end, the evening began more easily than she had expected. She had spent the morning and early afternoon with her father and Mary, then Aggie had taken over for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Angela had explained that she had a dinner date and they had accepted the explanation without comment. She was the flirty twin, after all. Her going on a date was hardly a shock.

  She dressed carefully for the evening in black stirrup pants, a black cashmere sweater, flat shoes and a large black leather shoulder bag. If she succeeded in getting the Giacometti, she wanted to be able to fade into the darkness of the waterfront, just in case. She checked herself one last time in the mirror and decided this was a good look for her, arty and a bit European. She smiled at her reflection. Maybe she could pull it all off after all.

  When she arrived at the apartment building, Jimmy wasn’t in the lobby. She almost brushed by the strange man who stood silently by the window but she recognized him at the last moment from Aggie’s description. Mr. Urbano. The lawyer. She turned and held out her hand with a smile.

  “Mr. Urbano.”

  His hand wrapped around hers in a grip that was almost a caress. Her breath caught in her throat as she felt each individual finger press into her giving flesh.

  “Where’s Jimmy?” The words emerged softly, the impetus stolen by their still joined hands.

  “He asked me to meet you tonight,” the man explained. “Please call me Richard.”

  He looked as awestruck as she felt.

  “I don’t understand.” Angela finally withdrew her hand from the lawyer’s grasp.

  “He’s still suspicious,” he explained.

  Angela tried to remember the details Aggie had told her of her two meetings with the lawyer.

  “I thought I convinced you two nights ago.”

  “You did. Both of us. But Jimmy thought you were different again last night.”

  “Oh.” Angela didn’t know what to do or say so she shrugged. “Well, here I am.”

  “Shall we go upstairs?”

  “Sure,” Angela agreed. Maybe it would be easier to steal the statue without Jimmy there. At least she wouldn’t end up in bed with the lawyer. Aggie had said he was all business.

  As they went up in the elevator, Angela studied Richard’s reflection in the mirrored wall. He was Jimmy’s opposite in almost every way. Where Jimmy was shorter than she, Richard topped her by half a head at least. He must be six foot two or three. His face was lean, not fleshy, his neatly groomed hair was brown with distinguishing gray wings. He had warm blue eyes and a small scar in his left eyebrow. The tiny flaw somehow made the overall features perfect. He was one of the most appealing men she had ever met. She wondered briefly why Aggie hadn’t liked him.

  Angela had been too enthralled to watch which button Richard pushed, and she was surprised when he ushered her into an unfamiliar office lobby. She almost asked where they were, but remembered that Aggie must have come here for the interviews. She started to take off her coat and Richard moved to help her. A sentence from downstairs snapped into her brain and she stopped in her tracks.

  “You said both of you,” she looked up at Richard, almost in his arms as the coat entangled them both. “You said both of you were convinced, but Jimmy wasn’t there.”

  Richard finished helping her out of her coat and laid it across his arm.

  “I videotaped us,” he admitted.

  Angela saw red. As usual, anger made her icy calm.

  “That was inexcusable.”

  “It worked.” Richard spread his hands. “The tape convinced Jimmy to continue the contract. Isn’t that what you wanted?”

  “What else have you videotaped?”

  Richard reared back as though she had slapped him.

  “Nothing!” he exclaimed. His eyes narrowed and turned suspicious. “You’re cold tonight. I see now what Jimmy means. There are two of you.”

  “I’m only one person,” Angela lied. “I’m just more in control tonight. Don’t ever videotape me again.”

  “Would you like a drink?” Richard asked.

  The abrupt change of subject startled Angela back into awareness of her purpose tonight. She wanted the Giacometti. She had earned it.

  “Is Jimmy upstairs?” she asked.

  Richard nodded. So much for sneaking into the apartment tonight. She would weather the evening and come back tomorrow to steal the statue. It was only night four of twelve. There were still lots of chances. Besides, Richard was a handsome companion, probably charming when he wasn’t busy being a lawyer.

  “I’ll take that drink you offered,” she smiled.

  If he was confused by her abrupt about-face, he didn’t show it. He escorted her into a large office with a treed terrace outside the window. It didn’t look like Aggie’s description of Jimmy’s office and Angela hazarded a careful comment.

  “Nice.”

  “It’s my office,” Richard obligingly clarified. “We were in Jimmy’s before.”

  Angela nodded as the lawyer handed her a glass.

  “I hope Scotch is okay. It’s all I have in my office.”

  “Scotch is fine.” In fact, it was Angela’s drink of choice. She took a sip. The blend was a smooth whisper with a bite in the tail. Glenfiddich?

  Richard motioned her to a chair then sat opposite, not behind a desk but just across, knees almost touching. The proximity without contact ignited the scotch in Angela’s belly. He was an amazingly handsome man.

  Angela noticed Richard’s empty hands. “You’re not drinking?”

  “Not tonight. How have you and Jimmy gotten into such a mess?” he asked. The change of subject was smooth, his voice no more than mildly curious.

  Angela shrugged and took another sip of scotch. At the moment, Jimmy was far from her thoughts.

  “He’s crazy about you, you know.”

  Angela frowned. Jimmy was crazy about Aggie, not her.


  “What?” Richard probed.

  “Nothing.” Angela swallowed the rest of the drink. She put down the glass and walked to the window. “Can we go outside?”

  “It’s chilly.”

  “Another scotch will keep me warm.”

  Richard took the hint and poured her another drink. He brought the glass and her coat. She shrugged into the jacket then took the scotch. He opened the glass door and led her outside. The view to the mountains was stunning. The office was on the opposite side of the building from the seashore and looked out over the tops of other buildings past a vast expanse of dark forest toward a lighted slope.

  “Skiing?” Angela asked. She walked to the railing and Richard followed.

  “Grouse Mountain,” he explained.

  “It looks like the Rainier R,” Angela commented. The lighted slope was shaped almost exactly like the beer symbol.

  “I’ve always thought they should use it in an advertisement,” Richard agreed.

  “Do you like me?” Angela turned to face him.

  “Tonight?”

  Angela nodded. Their faces were almost touching as they instinctively huddled for warmth in the chill breeze.

  “Yes.” The word was almost a caress.

  “Even though I’m cold?” Angela reminded him of his earlier comment. Her body edged closer to his.

  “You weren’t cold the other night when you blew up,” Richard reminded her. “I’m not very hot-blooded myself. Jimmy is though.”

  “You and I; Jimmy and Aggie,” Angela whispered under her breath.

  “What?”

  “Nothing,” she smiled. “It’s beautiful out here.”

  Angela looked up into Richard’s eyes. She saw a confused attraction. He wanted her. He knew she wanted him. And he was thinking about Jimmy.

  “I think I should go,” she said.

  “Yes,” he agreed heartily. “You should.”

  They went back inside and Angela put her untouched drink on a side table. Richard called for a taxi.

  “Thank you.” She held out her hand. Richard took it between both his and held on.

  “For what?”

  “For the drink and the view,” Angela smiled. “For being nice.”

  Richard released her hand and walked in front of her to the elevator. They descended silently.

  “Aggie,” Richard began as the elevator doors opened.

  Angela touched his lips with one finger.

  “Shh,” she whispered and kissed him on the cheek.

  She smiled to herself as she climbed into the cab. Life was still complicated, but suddenly the view seemed a lot more beguiling.

  The next morning dawned drizzly and gray and found Angela heaving over the toilet bowl. A sympathetic Mary consoled her that it was probably just a twenty-four hour flu. Angela didn’t care. Her optimism of the evening fled down the swirling drain with what she feared was the lining of her stomach. When her sister squeezed her shoulder in reassurance, she didn’t even get the message.

  Chapter 17

  Jimmy didn’t hold out much hope for the coming encounter. Richard had been right; putting an ad in the paper had been a stupid idea. Still, he waited in the lobby of the apartment building at six o’clock, feeling foolish but clinging to a shred of anticipation. The young woman who stepped from the cab looked as perfect as always. Jimmy had come to distrust the perfection and looked for even the least crack in the beautiful armor. He found none.

  “Okay,” he greeted the smiling woman. “Come on upstairs.”

  “Jimmy?” The voice was tentative. He stopped in the lobby and turned to face her. She began again. “Jimmy, I have an apology to make. I know you haven’t been happy with me, but tonight I want to make everything up to you.”

  “All right,” Jimmy decided on the moment. If she wanted to prostitute herself, he wouldn’t stop her. The Aggie he wanted was a figment of his middle-aged imagination. Tonight he would settle for the look-alike. He turned back toward the elevator. “Tonight we’ll make up for lost time.”

  When they arrived at the apartment, Jimmy was surprised when the woman walked straight into his library. By the time he caught up with her, she was running her hand along a row of seventeenth century leather bound books.

  “Chaucer,” she intoned reverently.

  He felt like that himself and smiled despite himself. She caught his eye and smiled back.

  “I love your library. Do you have an original Samuel Johnson dictionary?”

  “Yes,” he admitted, hope rising. She was beginning to sound like Aggie.

  “I’ve been looking for one forever for my branch in Cincinnati. The closest I’ve found is an 1832 revised edition and I can’t afford even that.”

  “You can buy a lot with a hundred twenty thousand dollars,” Jimmy reminded her.

  She looked startled.

  “I suppose I can,” she agreed. She turned with obvious reluctance from the books. She seemed to draw up courage with a deep breath. “But this isn’t what you’re paying me for, is it?”

  Jimmy wanted to argue with her, to hold this fleeting glimpse of the woman he dreamed about here in the library where she might not try to escape. But she walked past him toward the bedroom as he stood rooted to the polished hardwood floor. One more test, he decided. The Aggie at lunch had told Richard she didn’t want to try discipline, while the one of the bedroom had seemed to enjoy it. He would see how the young woman entering his bedroom reacted to the threat of a spanking.

  When Jimmy saw her standing mute beside his bed, he almost decided not to proceed, to instead woo her as a shy bride. But no, this woman had the hands of a pro.

  “Take off your clothes,” he demanded, his voice harsher than he intended.

  She jumped. Then she turned her back as she had the first night and began to remove her sweater and skirt. Her simple movements made no attempt to seduce him and Jimmy found himself bewitched all the more. When his fingers touched her back to unhook her bra, she stepped forward out of his reach and undid the fastening herself. Last, she slid her sheer silk panties to the floor. Jimmy wallowed in the sensuous curve of her hip, the delicate calves, even the arch of her slender neck. Still he didn’t touch her.

  “Turn around,” he muttered, his voice hoarse.

  “I can’t,” she admitted. She tried to laugh. “I’m sorry, but I really can’t.”

  She had given Jimmy the perfect opening.

  “I’ll spank you for your disobedience.”

  Her reaction was all he could have imagined and more. She whirled toward him and almost caught him off guard with her fist as he gazed at her perfect beauty. He caught her wrist at the last moment. Then she wrenched back out of his grasp.

  “You touch me and you’ll never touch anyone again,” she blazed.

  Jimmy backed up and held out his hands placatingly.

  “You liked it the other night,” he reminded her.

  “I pretended to. You won’t touch me again.”

  She stood with balled fists hugging her hips and Jimmy’s eyes were drawn to the thick thatch of auburn curls that nestled between her legs.

  “God, you’re beautiful,” he breathed out on a sigh.

  The fight drained out of her as swiftly as it had arisen. She was a tsunami, dreadful in its force but quickly spent. Jimmy waited cautiously for the backwash. She looked into his eyes and suddenly laughed.

  “You got what you wanted, didn’t you,” she chuckled. “I turned around.”

  They stared at each other.

  “Well, are you just going to look, are you going to get naked and have some fun?”

  Jimmy didn’t need a second invitation. By some miracle, the enchanting woman he had met with his brother had finally returned. She stood naked before him and challenged him to love her. Jimmy stripped off his clothes under her watchful eye. He wished he had kept up his jogging. Her body was incredible and his was … well, a lot less than perfect. Still, she didn’t seem to mind. Her eyes grew large
when he stripped off his underwear. His cock swayed full and ready, but her eyes remained riveted to his prize possessions.

  “Would you like to touch?” he teased.

  She took him up on his offer and hefted his balls in her hand.

  “Impressive,” she commented. “Let’s see what you can do with them.”

  Somehow her suggestive humor felt real to Jimmy, not professional. He picked her up and dumped her on the bed.

  “Be careful what you wish for, strumpet.”

  “Hoist the galliard!” she rejoined.

  “I think you mean the petard, wench. The galliard is a dance.”

  “Whatever,” she agreed and opened her arms and legs.

  Jimmy fell down between her open legs and lowered himself above her.

  “Are you ready?” he asked.

  “Try me,” she smiled.

  Jimmy pulled back in dismay and the woman frowned. He had almost forgotten to use a condom. She smiled as he pulled a reef of rubbers from the bedside drawer. As she unrolled one down his ripe cock with eager seduction, Jimmy groaned. His frustration eased as he again lowered himself above her.

  “No preliminaries?” he asked. He didn’t want to rush her.

  “Let’s eat dessert first,” she suggested.

  Her hand found his straining cock and guided it toward her opening. His entry was sure and swift down her slick slope. He moaned and moisture sheened his eyes as he slid deep home. He looked down and saw echoing tears in her eyes.

  “Aggie,” he whispered.

  She nodded as a lone teardrop drifted down her cheek. Jimmy kissed the salty spot where it landed and then closed his eyes and relaxed into her soft depths. His Aggie lifted her legs and wrapped them tightly around him. Her hands found his shoulders and gripped him hard. Jimmy began slowly, giving her time to adjust to his pace. Her hips rose and fell with his movement and soon her vagina squeezed once, tentatively.

  “Yes,” Jimmy groaned.

  Aggie squeezed again. They soon found a pace that suited both and he rode her like a beloved racehorse, coaxing her gently with his cock and then spurring her with hard deep thrusts. Soon she began to make noise, half moan, half croon. The lullaby urged Jimmy on and he rode her faster and harder. She matched his pounding and her crooning became a cry of first release and Jimmy felt her vagina tighten and pulse around him. He was beyond conscious effort to hold back and he pounded vigorously unheeding into her throbbing cavity. Miraculously she screamed out just as he came and his moan mingled with her cry and he felt their hearts entwine.