May Be the Case

by Rachel J. queen

  "I spilled some salad. I'm not hungry tonight."

  " Me neither. What are you watching?" She leaned over to pass him a DVD case. " Here it is."

  "With that I would surely fall into catalase."

  Lidi withdrew the hand on which he lingered. " So will I."

  "Let's go for a ride."

  "No, I want to be in pajamas."

  "Then don't change."

  Finally, Lidi gave him an uncertain look. A fleeting flash lighted her turquoise eyes. He caught an irresistible heat in her.

  " Really?"

  "Yes, I'll take you like that."

  They got out undisturbed in that gloomy evening. The girl in slippers and pajamas, he messy and in a shirt. In the car park, a moment of embarrassment.

  "What is it?" Lidi asked.

  He showed her Glenn bundle. "I got the wrong keys."

  One was worth the other, she thought. Ferrari and Porsche had equally intimate spaces. When they sat in close contact, she tried to retreat to a corner. "I never got in Glenn's car."

  Logan lowered the window and adjusted the seat for his height. "Seen how he guides, I don't mind." The engine gave a thin grunt. "Where do you want to go, Skeep?"

  She was surprised. "Can I choose where?"

  "Natural."

  She said, excitedly. "To Grobery! I rarely go there and I really like it!"

  It was a hilltop. It hosted renowned restaurants. From there, you could enjoy a sensational panorama of the town.

  "Perfect" agreed Logan. "We'll look at the stars, tonight it's clear."

  Lidi felt an alarm in his head, but with discomfort, she ignored it. It was a long, monotonous day, she just wanted to escape a bit. Her mood was almost getting up. "I'll look for some music!" She opened the dashboard and pulled out a cd case. As they reversed, something fell into her womb. She shouted a terrified scream.

  "Oh my God!"

  Logan braked instantly, abruptly. The fright startled him. He looked down and started. "Fuck! Don't move!"

  He thought for a moment, then grabbed a handkerchief, carefully caught the gun over her legs and examined it. "Thank God it has the safe."

  Unfortunately, its weight didn't convince him. Knowing the weapons, as he had often been in the shooting range and had a gun license, he turned it over and pulled out the loader. It was full. "Jesus Christ!"

  Lidi gasped in the seat. He turned to look at her, asked if she was fine. "Sure" she confessed, confused, her eyes glistening.

  Logan breathed deeply. He rubbed his face with his hand, then pulled the gun back into the dashboard and closed the door with a dry shot. "Put your belt on, let's go to Glenn for a moment."

  A whine came back. "Okay..." The Porsche screeched in reverse and departed storming out. In a few minutes, they were in the town center.

  The crowd walked through famous streets and came out smiling from the best stores. Piccadilly hosted a live music show. There were several police patrols. To preserve calm, Lidi thought of something to say that would break that silence. "I didn't know Glenn had the license..."

  Logan was driving like a robot, surpassing, entering among machines where there was enough space. "I have it" he pointed out. "He doesn't."

  "Do you think it's a good idea to disturb him at this time?"

  "I would say that's inevitable. He's surely with the usual actress in need of a social rise. If he gets angr, he can't shoot us, we have his gun. Damn, I had no idea he was so stupid. We're gonna give him a good earful right now."

  "What do you want to do, I'm afraid, holy heaven!"

  Logan wrinkled his forehead, glancing at her. He noticed too late that serious lack. Lidi was pale as a ghost. He found a free corner in the street, stopping in a forbidden stop. He took off her belt and pulled her to himself. "Come here!" Lalanny would never have believed that he could do it. She dived on him with impetus. Logan closed her in a hug she had waited and hoped for all day, every day. "It's all right, darling!" She replied, dumbfounded by that comfortably hideout. "Next time we'll stay home watching a horrible movie"

  "In my opinion the saga you chose was perfect." He wanted to embrace her strongly. Not just protect her. Those breasts pressing on his chest were a bitter punishment. After a long moment of silence, they both realized when they would have had to break it, but didn't. "My god, Lidi..." He shook her tighter. One hand on her back, one arm around her shoulders, with his other free hand he took her face. How could he deny her to himself, when she poured in him like a full creek? He was overly excited. He imagined the fullness of her breasts in his hands, her nipples in his mouth. He now saw himself reflected in those eyes, and inside them there was a unique passion. He felt that sooner or later it would have overflowed. It would have overwhelmed them, he understood it the very day they met. It was a sweet thought, the dream of those breasts in his hands. Giving her pleasure. If Lalanny's body was irresistible, her details destroyed him. The tender fold of her neck, the way a pendant fell in the groove of those roundness, with the thin chain drawing a straight line between depressions.

  The thin fingers holding his hand, fearful that he dared to push further. He dreamed of kissing them one by one. He inhaled her perfume, and had a violent impulse that crushed his self control. He put his hand in her hair, looking at her mouth in an impetus. Feeling touched, Lidi drove back in time to avoid it, but collided with the fury of his desire. Logan took her with passion. "Stay! Today it had to happen. Stay, please!"

  The bracelet, Lidi thought, stunned. It was a signal that something would have changed. Just like that time... She opposed to the thoughts. She had put all her energy to erase that one moment of the past. She couldn't believe he had done everything for nothing. He had said naturally that it had to happen, as if he knew. Logan knew everything! She just moved her fingers. Feeling the muscles of his arms stretching, she shivered. All the city chaos wandered over the windshield.

  Logan was a barrier to the outside world. To not yield to weakness, she got silent, but couldn't hold her body chained for long. She lifted her face, hidden into his chest, touching his neck. When the aroma of the aftershave he used invaded her, a wave of desire overwhelmed her, she felt herself falling apart, had to close her eyes, fighting against herself. But Logan was there, his passion was engaging her, erasing past and future for that one present instant. Soon, logic abandoned her, and with no breath she felt no shame nor resentment. She put her arms around his neck, and he shrugged her like a treasure. A vein beat deafly at the point where Lidi put her closed, inebriated.

  He heard her moan. Then he realized what he had done.

  " Let me go!"

  Logan took her face. "Leave you? I want you, Lidi "

  "No!"

  Caressing her, Logan pulled her face, looking for shelter elsewhere. "I'm mad about you! Don't you realize!"

  She was bewildered. " We're married!" A flash of the past carried her to that summer in Greece. "You are married to my sister!" Paris was always away, never cared for him, that's why!

  "Give me a chance to explain, it's not like you think!" He lowered his face. "I want you! Only you. Let's go away, darling, stay with me tonight." He brushed her with a kiss, almost frightened, triggering an unbearable languor in both.

  "Stay with me"

  Clutched to his back, Lidi barely recognized him. Yet he was Logan. Seeing he blush under the tan excited her. Those dark eyelashes were lowered on eyes of an intense green. He looked at her like he was thirsty. She could only keep staring at him, she couldn't think straight. She heard a roaring murmur in her ear, his hands on her hips, dangling boldly under the pajamas.

  "I dream you naked every night... I would like to take you every time I see you... here too, now..." He laid some tender kisses on her face, her eyelids closed. He covered her with his own body, pressing her against the soft seat. "Remember what I told you that summer?"

  That summer...

  "Logan..."

  He passed his closed lips on her neck, caressing the soft fold of her sho
ulder. "Remember this? Oh God, it was true, I always have..."

  A decisive knock against the glass interrupted them abruptly. Taken aback, they startled, remaining embraced. Logan cursed.

  He reluctantly recovered, tried to hold her, but Lidi stepped away, getting aside. He then lowered the window with a sigh, trying not to look drowsy.

  "Good evening."

  It was a police man.

  "Good evening to you, did I interrupt something?"

  "Only the most beautiful moment of my life. What can I do for you?"

  "You should kindly remove the car, you can't park in this area." Logan recalled that he had stopped in a forbidden park.

  "Sure, I'll move right away, sorry."

  "No problem." The dubious look of the man in uniform went to Lidi's pajamas and congested faces. "Is it all right?"

  "Certainly" they said in unison.

  Lalanny nodded, easily. She had been surprised in kissing Logan. She got a smile on her lips. With a nod, the guard dismissed them. "Ok. Good evening."

  That moment of weakness seemed passed, but Lidi held her breath. Logan couldn't have missed the impudent way she abandoned herself. Five minutes alone had been enough to make her fall! She glanced at his blue eyes, he was thinking of his embarrassing condition and was silent. They departed and found regular parking under Glenn Palace. Lidi didn't dare to look in the mirror, conscious of being in disarray. She was greatly affected by the brutal betrayal of her body. She had to be very tired for allowing her brother-in-law to hold her and tell her those obscenities, but above all to feel melted by the desire to make love with him. She shuddered, looking fuzzily at his hands. It would have been a mistake to add him faults, as if she didn't cling to him. Logan had recovered. In his eyes, in addition to desire, a light of hope shone. He gave her a smile she couldn't interpret: Did he consider the arrival of the policeman provisional to separate them? He rummaged through the cellphone and waited for the call to arrive, getting serious again.

  "You're beautiful, you know it…"

  Lidi couldn't say anything. She was literally shocked. The flame this time had burned her. "I'm dying of thirst, and you?"

  "I can't move." After warning Glenn, they waited, silent. The road wasn't busy, Logan noticed. Better like that. From afar, they saw Glenn's unmistakable shape.

  "Here's the absolute champion of stupidity" announced Logan, staring at him from the windshield. Lidi believed the worse could happen as soon as she saw him. The man, in simple jeans and t-shirts, seemed quiet, unlike Logan, who was on the turn. That night he was unrecognizable, he had absurd mood swings. Glenn approached the car with his thumbs in the jeans pockets. He was surprised.

  "Lalanny..? What are you doing in my car? " Logan's voice sounded glacial when he warned Lalanny softly. "Stay in the car." He got off right away. Glenn got alarmed, suddenly launched by the thought of opening Lidi's door, but Logan was faster and held his arm, shaking his head and closing it with a thud. "Are you looking for something? I took your keys by mistake and while I was fishing a cd, a gun fell on the seat. Have you already consumed a loader or can we be calm because there are no missing bossies?" Clenched, Glenn fell silent. Lidi shrugged. She didn't expect Logan to go straight to the point. "In the last few months, I've been taken the permit. No problem, guys!" His arm was still, however, locked by his older brother Logan.

  "So why you're going around like a delinquent, where are its documents and case? Do you keep it inside yout car like a pack of gums, ready to use?"

  "The documents are at home. Do you want to get upstairs for a drink?"

  "No, thank you, we're fine here!"

  With a twitch, Glenn found himself banged violently against the car. "What the hell..!"

  Lidi yelled. Logan grabbed his shirt, furious. "Your game's discovered, Glenn! They want to blow you out for scheming dangerous people! I know everything, I saw the bills paid to a comfy company to control ours and Atom's budgets, the judge who tried to cover the corruption charge for Sinn was disrupted from the list and you agreed to bust the acquisition of Atom.

  What does that Talbot worm want? Money? Does Sinn also want them? Saving is on the brink of bankruptcy, your friend lurks in debt and is using you as a cue for not sinking! How much will it take to blow off the purchase and persuade them to join his shack? If you persist with this baldness, you'll get our company into shit and they'll attack us from all sides, is this what you want?"

  "It's not my company, it's yours!"

  Logan hit his stomach fist. Glenn bent over, breathlessly, got yanked and slammed back against the car. "Asshole! This time you got dragged by the wrong current! I had twenty-four hours to get you saved! Now I'm going to give you one day, free yourself of that man and go talk to my lawyer, or I'll get the fucking papers and all of you, including that Vaughan bastard, will celebrate your pension in jail!"

  Lidi covered her mouth, terrified. Logan pushed him away. Glenn stumbled on the sidewalk and slammed. Recovering balance, he stood up, turning to him with a look of hate.

  "Fuck you. Good evening, brother!"

  Logan climbed back into the car and checked only that Lidi had her belt fastened, then turned on the engine and with a roar departed, marking the asphalt with tires trails.

  They remained silent for much of the journey, with their minds full of thoughts. Passing through some suburbs, the car drifted into deserted, dazzling, shaded streets, spotted by lampposts, seemingly without direction. Both didn't pay attention to where they were, or to where they would be. Logan drove coldly and smoothly, internally tangled by the extreme discomfort of the clash. And the Porsche ate asphalt in just a few moments, turning it into tens of miles. He could have driven for hours, Logan thought, the situation had worsened so much that his date with Lidi got ruined. His brother could be prosecuted legally and end up in jail along with those cowards. Sinn could put his hands on Atom, buy it, do what he wanted. He didn't care anymore. He reversed and got back again just before home, but only when he felt his legs stiffened he slowed down to get into a parking lot.

  Like him, Lidi hid behind a frenzy silence. They shared a single thought: despite ups and downs, they were a united family, what would they be now? Whatever motivation Glenn had to behave badly, whether it was valid or not, tonight fight was the demonstration that he declared war on his brother. From what Lidi had heard, Glenn tried to promote the firming up of a company that was supposed to be absorbed by Lance. He was in serious trouble. Uncertainty darkened their faces. Being in touch in a tight environment, as noted, was heavy, if not in the prospect of venturing their attraction once and for all, which Lidi prevented, terrified.

  When they stopped, Logan's voice brought her to the present. "You have to tell no one what you heard."

  "I have no intention" he guaranteed, cold. She regretted his habitual silence, able to erect that comfortable, indolent wall, to be preferred to the eagerness resignation fell over them. Part of her still wanted Logan's passionate momentum. She tried to stamp the blame on wine, to that extraordinary condition, but in the meantime she noticed aspects of him so far unknown: vulnerability, for the deep bond that Glenn had easily trampled upon... tenderness, in the talk with her, that sweet insistence, throwing his cards, discovering his own game. There were always moments in which Logan's condition excited her: She felt her heart close whenever Paris left him alone. She stood aside, embarrassed, when he came back from work and the acceptance of a hug or kiss was denied to him by a wife who had never been there. He indeed, in the most rigorous silence, didn't look for Paris' eyes. He looked for hers.

  It was as if he suddenly threw a mask away. "You're going to solve everything, Logan. Don't be sad." She had struggled with a detestable man for a life with sarcastic jokes, but she didn't know the one who had brushed her, abducted her senses, and then humanized. Why that momentum? "You're right, I'm sad for Glenn's business" Logan cut short. "But you're the one that disappointed me the most." With his eyes dark of tension, he loosened his belt and remained
silent.

  Lalanny twisted her fingers on her womb. He was thinking of Glenn, but was angry with her. She felt her eyes moistening. She stopped tears with her own will. She wanted to comfort him, to give him what a loyal woman would offer him. The fear of surrendering made her retreat to her corner, paralyzing her. The problem was that he reciprocated her interest with something savage and primordial that didn't share anything with her compassion. Something overwhelming. "I'm sorry to disappoint your self-esteem, but you should think about Glenn at this time."

  An oblique look. "Really? Try it in my place. You don't even have a bra."

  "You'll have thought of a confrontation with Glenn, right? Or do you just think about sex?"

  "You make me think about it, or do you think I get excited buying a bag?"

  "Logan! Concentrate on Glenn!"

  " Whay? What's the difference here?"

  "You should care for him, or at least try it!"

  "Didn't I try it? I warned him! Do you want to use him as a screen, do you think I'm stupid?"

  "No. I'm genuinely worried about him and you. Yours is not a divergence of opinions, you are characteristically different but here there's not just a paradoxical obstinacy to pursue a mistake, there's something else!"

  "Yes, I was expecting it. I know what he's all about, all the members know it, and inside this fucking dash he even holds a weapon. Of course I'm worried about my brother! But it has been forever I tried to keep five minutes of holy peace with you, and I can't! Tonight it's all gone to waste in the five minutes that I wanted. Five. Do you have a vague idea how I feel?" Lidi hid her face behind her hand. Only a few hours before she was lying in the couch watching television without thoughts, in a bad mood. Or not. It was the exact opposite. She laid down to watch TV not to think. Did she succeed? Damn, no!

  The full circle of the moon was somehow inauspicious. The darkness of night gave her a sense of restlessness. Too many emotions in that man's arms. Too many revelations together.