A Twist of Hate (15 page)

              He couldn’t drive because his father had placed a lock in the steering wheel of his car. He took refuge in Camden’s treehouse because it was so close.

              Most of White Fir Court had been awakened by last night’s gunshots, but no one had yet discovered that the Dougherty tree house had been the victim of the late night shooting. A troop of White Fir Court rent-a-cops had gone to every house, asking questions, but no one had seen a thing or reported any damage.

             
I guess no one was at Camden’s last night
, Michael thought. Wondering where Camden could have been, he happened to glance at the house. Activity in the pool house held his attention.

              Camden dragged together three square café tables edging the pool. The grinding of the wrought-iron legs over the rough ceramic tile faintly reached the treehouse. Camden left the pool house for a moment, then returned with a big cardboard box. He pulled a white tablecloth from it with a flourish, letting it settle over the tables. He took paper plates, bowls and bundles of plastic flatware from the box and arranged place settings around the table. He darted around the table with the same speed and placement he showed on the football field. He left the pool house once more, returning with four sets of candleholders—two silver, one brass and one crystal. He didn’t come back alone this time. The black bitch was with him.

              Siobhan put elegant white tapers in the candleholders while Camden placed the last of ten black wrought-iron chairs up to the elongated table. The two stepped back to briefly admire Camden’s work before they placed arrangements of flowers on the table.

              Siobhan plucked chrysanthemums from the professional arrangements and tucked them into each napkin ring. She helped Camden break big, colorful blossoms from their stems to set them afloat in the pool. Once done, she and Camden exchanged a few words, a laugh, an embrace, and finally, a long kiss.

              Michael took a noisy swallow of the whiskey, his unblinking gaze glued to the pool house.

              Instead of attacking Camden with both fists flying, Siobhan let him unfasten her tan trousers. She pulled her top over her head and shook her hair free from its ponytail holder. She unbuttoned Camden’s shirt as he slid aside one of the thin straps of her lacy bra. He kissed the spot on her shoulder he’d exposed.

              She peeled Camden’s shirt from him, baring the broad shoulders and sculpted torso that brought throngs of giggling girls to the practice field every afternoon to watch varsity quarterback Camden Dougherty change shirts in the middle of practice. Siobhan let his shirt fall to the tile and hooked her arms under his, drawing him to her.

              As if hypnotized, Michael watched Camden remove the rest of Siobhan’s clothing, then his own, before they slipped among the lotus blossoms and tiger lilies floating upon the azure water of the heated pool.

              Siobhan draped her slender arms over Camden’s shoulders. His muscular arms drew her into a kiss that seemed to steam up the glass walls. He handled her as though she were priceless treasure, adoring her in ways that looked as natural and familiar to him as walking.

              Their union, heated yet unhurried, stirred a vicious yearning in Michael. It wasn’t the rushed, messy affair Michael and his partners made of it in the backseat of his car or on a blanket near the secluded 16
th
hole of the Twin Lakes golf course.

              Afterward, they lay together on a cushioned chaise by the pool, her nude body cocooned in his. They talked and laughed, attentive to one another and completely unaware that their private moment hadn’t been so private.

***

              Courtney and Brian arrived earlier than expected. Siobhan was still dressing when the doorbell rang. “Where is she?” Courtney pushed past Camden, who held the door for Brian. She was halfway up the stairs before doing a double take. “You look amazing, dude,” she told Camden, taking the time to really look at him.

              He wore a generously cut dress shirt, pleated trousers and leather uppers, all in black. His hair, still shower damp, had been finger-combed from his face. He looked like a dashing soap opera hunk.

              “You and Siobhan must have had a good afternoon,” Courtney remarked, smiling slyly. She skipped on up the stairs, the sheer layers of her flirty designer dress barely covering her backside.

              “You told her.” Camden led Brian into the pool house.

              Brian rolled his eyes. “I didn’t have to. Her radar went off the second she saw the two of you together in Mr. Cleese’s office.”

***

              Courtney knocked but didn’t wait to be invited before she barged into the room where Siobhan was dressing. “Cool outfit,” she said. “You have to let me borrow it.”

              “Anytime.” Siobhan pulled a sheer black stocking over her knee and up to her thigh. “My dad bought it for me in Hong Kong.”

              The calf-length dress, a traditional Chinese
chi pao
, was designed to flatter the female shape. Fitted at the bust and hips, Siobhan’s black satin
chi pao
was intricately embroidered with black silk chrysanthemums. Generous side slits offered glimpses of her legs. Tiny capped sleeves emphasized the grace of her arms. Rope enclosures in the asymmetrical neck opening suggested a vine with budding flowers that led the eye to the mandarin collar and subsequently to the face of the woman wearing the dress.

              Siobhan completed the outfit with a pair of black heels with ankle straps. She swept her hair up and secured it with three onyx stick pins.

              “I’ll bet your dad wouldn’t have bought it if he knew you’d look like that in it,” Courtney said. “You really look gorgeous.”

              Courtney had felt pretty when she left her house in the short, floral-print dress that perfectly complemented the peach undertones in her complexion. She had labored over the application of her makeup, to get that “natural” look, and here Siobhan was, as beautiful as Venus, with little more on her face than her own natural blush.

              Courtney leaned back on her palms at the foot of the bed, one leg elegantly crossed over the other. “You and Camden are lovers now, aren’t you?”

              Siobhan applied mineral oil to the tips of her lashes with a cotton swab. She sat beside Courtney and fastened the straps of her heels before she said, “Yes.”

              Courtney bolted to her feet, her fingers splayed with excitement. “Oh. My. God.” She grabbed the sides of her head. “Oh! My! God!” She sat back down and took Siobhan’s hands. “How was it? Oh, my God, what kind of protection did you use? You did use protection, didn’t you? Tell me everything!”

              “We didn’t plan it. I was the one who initiated it.”

              “I can’t imagine Camden put up much of a fight.”

              “He rose to the challenge,” Siobhan giggled.

              “Was it good?”

              Siobhan nodded. “It hurt, at first, but then, it was the total opposite of hurt. I didn’t want it to end.”

              Courtney rolled her eyes. “You sound like Brian. What does ‘opposite of hurt’ mean?”

              “It means I won’t ever make fun of your romance novels again. That whole melting, dizzying, screaming, exploding thing is for real. The second time, in the shower, was even better.”

              “Second time?” Courtney lifted an eyebrow. “In the shower.”

              “Camden thought he, um, shortchanged me the first time. He compensated for it in the shower.” She tingled in remembrance.

              “You are so lucky. My first time with Brian was like a heavyweight prize fight.”

              “He knocked you out?”

              “He knocked
himself
out. And I couldn’t stop crying afterward. It just wasn’t what I expected.”

              “I almost changed my mind, when Camden was ready to, you know...”

              “Breach the chapel?” Courtney supplied.

              Siobhan nodded. “I was scared that he wouldn’t fit. I know nature takes care of that but he seemed so big.”

              Courtney’s eyes widened. “How big?”

              Siobhan shrugged her shoulder. “It matches the rest of him.”

              “Oh.” Courtney lifted her eyebrows and puckered her lips. “Ooh.”

              Siobhan gave herself a final once over in the mirror.

              “Were you too caught up in the moment to think about protection?”

              “Nope,” Siobhan said. They left the room and started for the pool house. “Remember those boxes of free samples we got at Nicole Daley’s health and beauty seminar last semester? I still had the condoms. The condoms were an extra safeguard. I started taking the pill two years ago, to regulate my periods.”

              “Brian and I stopped using condoms once I’d been on the pill for a couple of months,” Courtney said. “Big mistake. Remember that sinus infection I had around Hanukkah? I had to take antibiotics for it. They killed the good bacteria in my body along with the bad bacteria. I got a yeast infection and gave it to Brian. My symptoms were mild but Brian had a lot of itching and burning and cracked skin. He totally flipped out. He thought he had some king of flesh-eating disease, or worse.”

              “He tried to diagnose himself on the internet, didn’t he?” Siobhan chuckled.

              “Exactly. He Googled his symptoms, talked to his parents because he thought his schlong was gonna fall off, and he finally went to his doctor. He was okay once he realized his penis wasn’t going to disintegrate. We always use condoms now. You are so lucky, Siobhan. You had your first time with a great guy and you scored the big O.”

              “’O’?” Siobhan wondered aloud.

              “Orgasm,” Courtney whispered behind her hand as they entered the pool house.

              “Was Brian your first?”

              “And only,” Courtney sighed. “And I’m still waiting for the big O.”

***

              Camden was talking to Mr. Curran when Siobhan and Courtney entered the pool house. Camden spotted Siobhan and stopped speaking mid-word. She looked spectacular. He ached as she greeted their guests before drifting over to him and her father.

              “Hi, Daddy.” She planted a kiss on Mr. Curran’s cheek.

              “Hello, there,” Mr. Curran said happily. “Camden gave me the impression that you had withered away to nothing working over a hot stove all afternoon. You don’t look like you broke a sweat.”

              “I didn’t.” Her eyes twinkled at Camden. “Not in the kitchen.”

              “Can I get you a refill on your cranberry juice, sir?” Camden hastily offered.

              Siobhan grinned wickedly and took Camden’s hand. He caught a whiff of her perfume, a light floral scent with a hint of exotic spice. He pressed his cold glass of ginger ale to his forehead to cool the heat rising in his face.

              “I’m fine, Camden, thank you,” Mr. Curran said.

              “I’m really looking forward to Monday,” Camden said, easing farther from dangerous ground.

              “Depending on how you enjoy the week, perhaps you’d be interested in a summer internship, if you have nothing else planned.”

              “My options are wide open at this point,” Camden said.

              Siobhan left them, to mingle with other guests. Partially hidden behind a row of potted palmettos, Brian and Courtney engaged in what looked to be a pretty fierce argument. Brian caught sight of Siobhan. The harsh lines of tension around his eyes and mouth fell away. Courtney grabbed his chin and jerked his face back to hers.

              Mr. Cleese’s guest for the evening, a statuesque blonde, was none other than the infamous Amanda. Before greeting the Drs. Livingston, Siobhan introduced herself to the woman who had so enamored Mr. Cleese.

              The two most important men in Siobhan’s life watched her chat and laugh with the other guests. “Her mother could charm the legs off of a chair,” Mr. Curran said. “Siobhan is so like her.”

              “I’m going to marry your daughter, sir,” Camden said.

              Mr. Curran choked on his drink.

              Camden gave him a couple of helpful whacks on the back. “We don’t have immediate plans. She hasn’t accepted my proposal yet. But she will.”

              “Oh, really?” Mr. Curran coughed once more, his eyes tearing. “You know my daughter that well?”

              “She’s one surprise after another, but I think I can keep up with her.”

              “It’s gonna be fun watching you try,” Mr. Curran chuckled.

***

              Siobhan discreetly glanced at her father’s watch. She held the call to dinner as long as she could, but she finally invited everyone to the table. The tenth place setting remained conspicuously vacant.