by Alix Labelle
“Did you know she was gay back then?” Raine asked.
“I think I knew she was gay before she realized it,” he said. “I mean, we were like brother and sister almost from the first time we met, so I could see when she looked at women in the street, not men.” He laughed. “It was quite funny. She must have thought I was blind because she was so nervous when she told me, but I just said, ‘Oui, je sais’. I know this already.’”
Raine fell silent, trying to quell the irrational jealousy she felt over Celine and Antony’s friendship. Celine had known him for years, and they had a bond Raine couldn’t share. Knowing it was irrational didn’t make it any easier for Raine, but she managed to squash it down regardless.
“I love you, Antony.” she told him in a quiet voice, the miles between them like a dagger twisting in her gut.
“I love you more,” he said.
She smiled. “Not possible.”
“Is too,” he declared
“No,” she chuckled. “I love you more, and that’s the end of it.”
“I beg to differ.”
Raine laughed loud then. “Hey, I sort of said I’d go out with Celine now that she’s single again. Is that okay with you?”
“As long as you don’t let her empty the business accounts on your shopping trip beforehand, I don’t have a problem.”
“How did you know we were shopping?”
“Raine, I have known that woman more than half my life. I know she absolutely needs six new pairs of shoes and four outfits to choose from.”
Raine laughed.
“You are getting something as well?” Antony asked.
“No, I’ve got enough clothes and enough shoes. I’ll just wear something I’ve got.”
“But if you buy something new, I can look forward to peeling you out of it when I get home.”
A spike of desire lanced through Raine, and her mind filled with images of their lovemaking.
“Well, if you put it that way.” Her voice had deepened with lust. “Fuck, I wish you were here.”
“Me too,” Antony said in a seductive tone. “I would be kissing your neck, standing behind you with my hands running up and down your breasts and belly. Can you feel me?” Raine lay back on the bed, knowing what he was going to do, and touched herself where his voice guided.
“Mmhmm...” She breathed, already hot. Raine listened to the sound of Antony’s voice, urging her on to touch herself. Raine’s breathing sped up and her pulse beat quickened as her hand traveled down below the waistband of her pajamas.
“Feel my tongue as I lick your clit,” Antony growled.
Raine moaned as her fingertips slid wetly across the top of her clitoris, sending pleasure and heat up through her body.
“Oh, yeah,” she whined as his words and her fingers brought her quickly to the edge of orgasm. As she listened to the words dripping from Antony’s mouth, through the phone and into her ear, Raine squealed through her orgasm.
“I still wish you were here,” she eventually managed to say. “I want to feel you inside me.”
“I want that too,” he replied, “and I will be home soon, to give you everything you wish for.”
They hung up after saying goodbye, and Raine curled up in her large, empty bed and eventually fell asleep.
***
Celine met Raine in one of the small terminals, which served the modest airport near Raine’s home. In typical Celine style, she had booked them tickets on a plane to New York, planning to shop in some of Manhattan’s more expensive boutiques. She spent the short flight, and some of the taxi ride, taking various phone calls, making Raine wonder what she contributed to their lives. Both Antony and Celine earned money through their company, ADB Holdings, but Raine did nothing now that her journalism career had come to an abrupt end. Her thoughts had turned, again, to writing a novel. She could embellish the strange things, which had happened in her own life and see if it sold.
“Earth t0 Raine?” Celine muttered in her ear. Raine jerked around.
“Sorry?”
“No. I’m sorry for having to be on the phone all morning. What is it you were thinking about?”
“Oh, I was just thinking about writing again, and don’t worry about the calls, I know business has to come first,” Raine replied.
“What writing? Reporting again?”
“No...a book?”
Celine looked intrigued. “What kind of book?”
“Oh, I don’t know, just a novel.” She felt shy for some reason.
“What about?”
Raine laughed. “I don’t really know, Celine. I haven’t got a full plan written out or anything.”
“Okay, all right. ’Don’t get so defensive.” Celine teased. “I was just wondering if you might base the main character on someone you know?”
“Now, I have thought about that,” Raine said. “I want her to be a tall, blond businesswoman, possibly from a different country or culture and...”
“She’s a lesbian, right?”
“Straight as a Texas highway.” Raine giggled.
Celine nudged her and laughed herself.
The French woman managed to spend four hours selecting and trying on different dresses. At two different locations, she had the women who worked in the shops running about with various dresses, shoes, handbags and scarves. She was even passed the number of one of the women, but whether it was for a job or a date, she threw it away without a glance.
“Are you going to get something, darling?”
“Here?” Raine almost screamed. “There isn’t enough material in the whole shop to go round me!”
“Don’t be silly, of course they will have something for you.”
Raine just tipped her head to one side and looked at Celine as if she was crazy. She turned her attention to the most senior of the women, who had been fluttering around Celine for a while, and felt no surprise when she shook her head.
“See?” Raine asked. “I’ll stop off at Kmart or something, don’t worry about it.” She grinned at Celine.
“Kmart?” Celine looked horrified. “Are you being serious with me?”
“No,” Raine said lightly before turning to leave. They took a cab and stopped at one of Celine’s favorite bistros, where the French woman smelled some of the foods on offer, and Raine actually ate some.
“What is wrong, Raine?” her friend asked.
Raine wrinkled her nose and sighed. “It’s just the way those women back there looked at me like I’m some kind of genetic experiment, mutated from the norm.” Raine sat back and fixed Celine with a stare. “I’ve always been big. Got big hips and a belly. I do have to buy my clothes at different places than you. I don’t know. It just gets me down sometimes.” Celine covered her hand with hers.
“Do you think I don’t like you for you?” Raine shook her head, “And Antony?” Raine shook her head again, “That boy thinks you are gorgeous, darling, no matter how big your hips are.” She smiled. “He has never wanted to live with a woman before, so you should feel special to him for that.”
Raine could feel a deep pull inside her, not arousal, but something far more powerful and exotic as she thought about Antony. His face rose in her mind, a picture so clear it was as if he stood before her and knew what she felt was the deepest, most complete love for him she could feel. Nothing, no one, in her life had ever made her feel like he did. Her body came to life with just his presence in the room, and his touch roused fire in her veins.
“...ridiculous.” She caught the end of Celine’s sentence.
“Sorry, what?” Raine asked.
“I said it is ridiculous how when you are thinking of him you disappear from the world. You get this strange look in your eyes, as if you can see him, feel what he is doing.”
Raine smiled at her friend. “I can see him. I can visualize every pore in his face, the little fold of skin he’s got behind his right ear but not his left, and that way he has of smiling when the left side of his mouth goes up a little hig
her than the right. I know what that scar on his left shoulder feels like when I run my tongue along it, and it tastes different than the rest of his skin.”
Celine held her hand up. “Enough. This makes me feel ill,” she said, but the smile on her face told a different story.
“You know,” Raine started, “if I didn’t know you better, I’d say you were jealous.”
Celine looked as if Raine had kicked her in the crotch. “Of what?” Her French accent came through thickly. “I am liking women, Raine. I am not after your boyfriend. Plus I ‘ave known him since we were kids! Trust me, if I wanted ‘im I could ‘ave ‘ad ‘im years ago.” Several other customers had turned to stare at the screeching woman, but realizing this was just another day in New York, they turned back to their meals. Celine sat with her nostrils flared and red spots on her cheeks, clearly aggressive. Raine gently offered her an explanation.
“What I meant was it’s like you’re jealous of what we have. The bond we’ve got. I know you’re not interested in him like that, and I know he’s your oldest friend. I’d never want to jeopardize that. I never want to come between you two.”
Celine actually looked embarrassed. “Oh. I did not understand you.” She tilted her head from side to side. “You are right, I suppose. It would be nice to have what you and Antony have got. I am nearly thirty, and I have never had a lasting relationship.” She turned sad. “I do not know why I can’t keep a girlfriend.” Celine’s lower lip fell forward into an adorable little pout.
“You honestly don’t’ get it?” Raine asked.
“No. What?”
“You’ve got so many choices,” Raine told her. “You’re beautiful, sexy, clever and rich and you haven’t let that turn you into a complete bitch! That’s your problem, I think. You don’t have to work at a relationship because as soon as you find a little problem, you just go and get someone new.” Raine explained this to Celine as gently as she could, and the Frenchwoman seemed to listen.
“Maybe.” she nodded. “Maybe you’ve got it right.” Her face darkened a little. “So why did my friend not tell me this before?” She demanded crossly.
Raine just shook her head. “Because you seemed happy with your life. How was I supposed to know you wanted more when you look quite happy flitting from one woman to the next?”
The pair fell silent until Celine asked, “What should I do?”
Raine smiled at her kindly. “Muddle through like the rest of us?” Celine rolled her eyes.
“You are no help at all!”
***
No sooner had Raine opened the front door and stepped through, she knew something was wrong. Call it a sixth sense or feminine intuition, but even though she had not lived there for too long, she knew something was amiss.
“What? Let me in. It is cold!” Celine hissed from behind when Raine paused just inside.
“No,” she whispered back. “Something’s not right.” Raine flicked on the light switch to her right, filling the large hall with a warm glow from the large, overhead lamps. Nothing looked to be wrong. The small table, with an aspidistra sitting on it, was undisturbed, and the few pictures on the wall were as straight and level as always. Raine risked a glance up to the second floor, only just managing to stop herself from calling out to ask if anyone was there.
Celine managed to shove her way in and dumped the several bags worth of items she had bought earlier that day, scanning around to see what was happening.
“What is it, darling? The place looks fine to me.”
Raine just shook her head slowly, the tingle of something at the base of her skull told her something was wrong, and for the first time in her life, Raine wished she owned a gun.
Stepping quietly through into the kitchen, Raine flicked on more lights, banishing the evening gloom, which coated everything like a thick film of tar. She took a deep breath in and smelled...coffee. Her eyes flicked to the coffee machine, and she studied it for a second, looking at the few last drips of dark liquid in the bottom, the clear glass which...
Wait a second, we left before ten this morning, and it’s just after six now, so how come the coffee pot hasn’t got any condensation in it?
Raine made her way over to her prized possession and knew, even before her fingers touched it, the glass would be hot. Her fingertips came away tingling from the heat. Someone had only just turned it off, and they could still be inside the house now. She knew it wasn’t Antony, as he would have called to see where she was, or left a note, if he was going to get some sleep, telling her to come and wake him for some carnal fun.
“Celine!” Raine hissed. “Celine, where are you?”
No answer came from the hall. Raine’s heart was beating hard in her chest, and she felt dizzy and sick to think someone had been in their home, touching their things.
She grabbed the phone. Sure there would be no dial tone, but the familiar muted buzz rang from the handset. Jabbing buttons, she phoned Antony, who picked up after a couple of rings.
“Bonsoir, mon amour. How...”
“Someone’s been in the house,” she whispered hoarsely into the line. She heard something bang from his end and a rustling sound.
“What?” The tone of his voice had changed from sleepily happy to anxious in half a second.
“Celine and I, we just got back from New York, and someone’s been in here.”
“Get out!” he shouted at her. “Get out and call the police. Just run. Get to somewhere with people and call a taxi. Book into a hotel somewhere and don’t go back. I’m coming home.”
Raine felt warmed by his concern for her and quite shocked, and a little turned on, by his commanding voice. That was his business voice, the one she had only heard when he was talking to other business people. It said he was in charge, brooked no argument and demanded results, and he had never used it with her before, not even in the bedroom.
“Okay,” she said in a small voice, “but I can’t find Celine.”
“I will call her. You get out and call me from the hotel when you get there. I need to know you’re safe.” His voice shook, imparting his nervousness to her. “I love you. Go. I love you.” He told her. The phone went dead before she had a chance to say anything else, so she dropped it and bolted for the front door.
Reaching it, Raine felt a sense of relief. She was being silly. There wasn’t anyone there waiting for her to come home. From above, she heard Celine’s phone ring and her speaking French to whoever it was – it had to be Antony – before she came to the edge of the stairs and started down.
Raine saw Celine’s face go pale. That’s when she turned around and saw the man behind her.
***
Almost a thousand miles west, Antony’s heart felt as if it had stopped when he heard Raine and Celine scream. He heard a thunderous bang, like a gunshot, and a myriad of sounds he could not make out until a male voice rumbled into his ear.
“You call the cops, and it’s over for these two, boy. You get your wiry little behind back here just as soon as you can. We got us some things to discuss.” The phone went dead, and for a second Antony could do nothing but stare at the wall with his phone against his ear.
Fear clutched at his guts, unmanning him, as he replayed the voice in his head. Not only had he known that voice, he also knew what the owner of it was capable of.
He won’t hurt Raine. He can’t hurt Raine. I can’t lose Raine.
The new mantra played over in his head as his thoughts began to deal with the situation. Antony got up and began pacing his hotel room, looking through his cellphone for the contacts he needed to make.
***
Raine had barely hit the floor when the front door was slammed hard behind her, the report echoing off the walls and making her ears ring. She slid along the polished surface for a few feet, he had shoved her so hard, then rolled to a stop. Somehow she knew she had screamed and could still hear Celine screaming. The pain in her shoulder, where she had been shoved, and the pain in her knees, where she had falle
n, dissipated as she turned to look at the armed man in her hall.
“Carson!” she screamed. “Oh, thank God, it’s you.”
His features changed for a split second before twisting back up into a sneer. Raine felt fingers of ice trace up her back as the realization hit her. He wasn’t there to save them. It was him who had broken in!
“Carson what’s...”
“Shut your bitch mouth and you take the frog upstairs.” His voice was calm but dripped with malicious intent, his deep Louisiana accent overlaying every word.
Raine scrambled to her feet, noticing for the first time the huge gun he had trained on her. It looked massive in the bright lights of the hallway, bright silver with a little section of black where it jutted out of Carson’s hand. Although she had never owned a gun herself, Raine had grown up in Texas, so she knew it was a Smith and Wesson revolver and just had time to see it had seven cylinders.
She turned her attention back to Carson, who was still waiting for her to move.
He cocked his head to one side and waved the pistol towards the stairs.
Somehow he had managed to grab Celine’s phone, and her eyes flicked across to her friend, who sat on the bottom step, shaking and sobbing quietly. Although she was scared, Raine managed to keep her head and slowly crossed to take Celine’s arm and gently guide her upstairs. Unfortunately, Carson followed them immediately, so there was no chance of them running. Raine’s mind flicked through the possibilities. She could try and get them into their bathroom, where the granite and marble might protect them from whatever caliber bullets that hand cannon fired. The only problem with that was the door consisted of thin wood and wouldn’t stand up to much force.
There were no weapons in the house. Neither she nor Antony thought they would ever need them. Now, she wished they were the kind of people who had a baseball bat under the bed.
What the hell am I thinking? There’s no way I would take on someone holding a gun with anything, let alone a bat! Think woman, for the love of God.
“In the bedroom,” Carson ordered from behind them, and she steered Celine in that direction, flipping the lights on as she did. “Have yourselves a seat there, ladies,” Carson commanded them, throwing two pairs of shiny handcuffs on the bed. “Put those on, girls, one hand on either side of those poles there.
