Obsession (10 page)

“What changed now?”

“You!” he said, while looking her directly in the eye.

Allison laughed, and slid closer to Rick.  He could feel the warmth of body heat glowing down the length of his side as they lay close together, and Allison’s hand rested against his hip.  His lips were close to her ear as he murmured softly, “I’m going to make you happy, Allison.  I’m going to give you everything that you ever wanted in life.”  Cupping her head tenderly in his arm, he traced around the back of her ear with the tip of his tongue until Allison was shivering from head to toe.  “I’m going to be there for you.”  He moved over on top of her and their lips met for the briefest, lightest touch before Rick’s head began to move down her body.  Allison closed her eyes and waited, tense, expectant.

Rick lifted her from the tub and carried her across the room to the bed.  He let her down just besides it, and dried her with a soft white towel, before lifting her again, and placing her in the middle of the bed.

Rick’s lips circled her body, his tongue darting teasingly over the flesh, and Allison’s breath caught in her throat every time that she felt the warm moist tip brush her skin.  Again and again, Allison thought that he was going to do something more, but then he would draw away at the last moment, leaving her twitching and aching.  He kept the pendulum swinging between anticipation and disappointment, until Allison was going mad with it.  Her limbs were chasing Rick’s movements, lifting, shivering, and desperately trying to find his mouth.

Rick looked up and as their eyes met, Allison saw the mingled triumph and desire there, and she prayed, just prayed, for this man to love her, just like she was starting to love him.  She wanted it to be Rick.  She needed it to be him.

“Please,” she whispered, and Rick covered her body with his own.

There was something unique and calming in the way they completed each other – Allison moved when Rick did, he touched her just where she longed to be touched.  It was scary, and it was exiting.  During those few minutes, neither of them remembered Monica or any of the problems they had.  All that mattered was the feeling inside them, and the fact that they were together.

She did not really remember what happened next, but Rick managed to heave himself out of bed at some point.  Allison heard water running in the bathroom, and then Rick came back with a warm, wet cloth and cleaned her gently.  She drifted further towards sleep before Rick came back again.  He lay down next to Allison, and pulled the sheet over them.  Rick kissed her, and Allison turned automatically, opening into it, and lazily dragging her tongue against the velvet of his lips.  She fell asleep with his mouth moving slowly against her, Rick’s hand wrapped possessively around the back of her neck.

*********************************

Later that night, Rick’s phone rang, and he answered it before even looking at the caller id.  Allison was sleeping peacefully beside him, and he wanted her to have her rest.

“Hallo!” he spoke into the phone.

“Rick?” he heard Monica saying from the other side of the line.  “I need to talk to you.”

“Where are you, Monica?” he asked her coldly.

“I know you are mad, but I really need to explain my actions to you.  I promise after that I would leave you alone,” she pleaded with him.

“I am away from home,” Rick said as an excuse for not seeing her.

“I know, I am in the hotel’s bar.  Please come for few moments.”

“Okay, wait for me.”

*********************************

Chapter 17

“Can’t you see how much I love you...” 
Monica’s Diary
.

Rick walked into the resort’s night bar, and looked around for Monica.  He had already called the police, and the detective had warned him to stay away from her until they arrived.  Rick, however, felt sorry for her, especially after reading her diary, and wanted to have a final talk with the woman that he once liked.

He saw her sitting at a small table near the window, and approached her carefully.  Rick could tell that she was watching him, although her face was well hidden in the shadows.  Monica was dressed in a stylish black dress, which looked very out of place at this hour and at this bar.  The rest of the clients were all middle age men, who were drowning their sorrows at the bottom of a glass of whisky.

“Hi, Rick,” she greeted him with a pretty and sweet smile.  “I am so happy that you came to see me.”

“Monica,” Rick said seriously.  “I came here only for one reason.  I came to tell you that you have to stop what you are doing, and turn yourself in to the police.”

“Why?” she asked him, surprised.  “I came here to be with you.  Why are you sending me away?”

“Look, there is no us, and now that I think about it, there never was,” Rick said firmly, looking her directly in the eye.  “You killed a man, Monica, and there is no going back for you now.  You also attempted to kill Allison twice and escaped the police...”

“I did all that because I love you,” she cried out, moving forward and trying to take his hand.  “I did it all for love, Rick.  Why is it so hard to understand that?”

“You need help, Monica.  What you are doing is not right, and you need to realize that.  I think that you are delusional and unable to accept the reality.  I am sorry, if I was the reason for you to lose it, but that is not an excuse for you to act like this.”

“What did I do to make you so disappointed in me?” she asked, as if being responsible for a murder was nothing to her.

“You killed a man!”  Rick responded seriously.  “You stalked me and my girlfriend, you tried to kill her too, and now you are running from the police.  What is there to like here?”

“But, it was all for you!”

“I never asked you to do this, and would never accept it from you or from anyone else,” he replied.  “Monica, I have called the police, and they are coming to take you.  Please, do the right thing and go quietly.”

“You want to give me into the hands of the police?  Why?  So that you can be with that bitch who you brought here?  I would never allow that.”  She stood up, and walked closer to the glass doors that let into the garden. “I would never let her have you and be happy with you.  If you are not going to be mine, you will not be anyone else’s.”

With those last words, Monica opened the door and ran into the white night.  The police came through the other door seconds after, but they were unable to find her.  She had once again disappeared.

“I told you to stay away from her,” Detective Martinez told Rick, once it became obvious that Monica would not be found tonight.

“I wanted to make her realize that what she did was wrong, and that the only way out was for her to let the police arrest her.”  Rick singed sadly.  “It did not work out as I intended.  The moment she started realizing that I came down here only to bring her to the police, she was running away.”

“I understand your intentions, but the woman is unstable, and now is not the right time to try and reason with her,” the officer said.  “Did she tell you something about her intentions?”

“No, all she talked about was that she loved me, and that she did it all for me,” Rick explained.

“That must be very hard for you to hear, but I do not think she meant it that way.  The department’s shrink says that she is suffering from a nervous breakdown, caused by too many suppressed emotions.  Her life had not been an easy one, and all that happened between you two made her lose it completely.  According to the doctor, Monica is not completely responsible for her actions, although there is a fair chance that she is faking it all.”

“God,” Rick exclaimed.  “Is that even possible?”

“Yes,” the detective confirmed.  “There are multiple cases similar to this one.  The criminal, for example, would choose to behave like a mad man or woman, so that he or she could do whatever they wanted, and then escape persecution.”

“I do not believe this to be Monica’s case,” Rick said sadly.

“I concur with you, but we should leave the professionals to decide,” Detective Martinez answered him.  “Now, about you and your girlfriend.  Are you staying here?”

“Yes, we booked the room for the weekend.”

“Okay, then I will leave two officers at the resort to watch out for Monica, and you be sure to call them as soon as you see her.”

“Thank you very much,” Rick said, and after exchanging phone numbers with the two officers, Rick returned to his room.

*********************************

Chapter 18

“It is always hard to forgive the person you love the most...” 
Monica’s Diary
.

Allison was waiting for him in their room, uneasy and afraid of what Monica could do to him.

He told her everything that ever happened between him and Monica, underlining especially her unexpected reaction to the news.  Rick told her then about the strange meeting he had had with Monica, and they laughed at how easily things could have turned a different way.

“She wanted to convince me that she is the only one for me.  Monica insisted that I should leave you and go away with her.  In her twisted mind, everything would be back to normal, if only I would accept the truth and admit that I love her,” Rick explained, still unable to conceive how an educated woman like Monica could believe in such delusions.

“I told her once again that between me and her there never would be anything else, but she seemed completely out of it.  It was as if she did not hear what I was saying.  Monica continued with her own agenda, describing all the things that we would do together, and all the success we would have.”  Rick continued.

“After almost an hour of talking, she asked me to go with her right then, and I refused.  I told her that I had called the police and that they were coming, and that she should turn herself in.  But, it was like talking to a wall.  All she heard was that I was not going with her, and that I had betrayed her.”  Rick shook his head, reliving the events of the last hour.

“She started shouting and trashing everything around her, calling you names, and saying that she would get rid of you.  Unfortunately, before the police arrived, she managed to escape through the veranda door.  The resort’s security was supposed to keep her in until the police arrived, but the anger was giving her inhuman strength.”

“I am sorry, Rick...,” was all Allison could say.

Then Rick kissed her, slowly and deliberately, reminding Allison of all their previous kisses and giving her something more to hope for. 

His eyes never closed, and Allison’s remained fixed on his long after the kiss was over.  Rick gently swiped his hand through her hair, and tried to tug her up, closer to him.  The shake of her head left him confused, but she already knew that what happened was not about her. 

“It’s okay, I’m okay, and actually, we’re okay.”  Walking away to remove his jacket.

Rick came close to her, glad that Allison managed to get herself under control.   She was settled on the bed, watching some local news program with the sound down low.  Rick came over and sat next to her, easily letting their thighs brush, their feet knock together.  Rick had gotten gradually more physical every morning they woke up in the same bed.    Every time she rolled over and found Rick there, blocking her way; every time she woke up and he was already awake, watching her, the whites of his eyes picked out by the morning haze; every time she slid under the covers at night and Rick got in on the other side like it was expected, like it was something they've always done, Allison was a little more in love with him.

She tried not to show that she noticed when Rick turned to look at her, breath ghosting across her face.  She really tried.  The last few weeks she had been fighting for Rick, the way she had never fought for anything else in her life.  But, no matter how much she liked him, Allison still felt unsure in her feelings towards the man.  There was something scary in the way she felt about him.  Rick was becoming an important part of her life, and Allison was scared that she might lose herself.

Monica and what she was doing had damaged Allison in a way she never imagined possible.  Her behavior and sick reasons were making her uneasy and afraid to let her heart feel something.  Allison knew that her connection to Rick was real and unique, but nevertheless, she doubted their future together.

Allison laid a hand against Rick’s cheek, thumb rubbing contemplatively across the mole next to his nose.  Rick’s eyes slid closed involuntarily.  He had not realized how worried he had been that Allison wouldn’t be able to sleep after all that happened.

Allison’s lips against his were a complete surprise.  Rick jerked back, his eyes flying open.

“Allison...?”

She did not answer and chased him, pushed him down into the blankets, and followed quickly after, layering herself on top of him, a leg between his thighs, and hands wrapped around his biceps.  She kissed Rick again, pressed at his lips with her tongue, and he almost gave in.  Almost.  He twisted his head to the side, and pulled free. 

“We have a lot to talk about...” Rick said, panting loudly in the silent room.

Rick intended to tell Allison how he felt about her, and ask her to live with him.  He knew that there were too many things to sort out, but now that Monica seemed to be almost in the hands of the police, he needed to think about the future.

Rick still did not know when for him
future
started to mean
Allison
.  During the last few weeks, she had become for him an indispensable part of himself, someone he wanted close forever.  He never talked about it, however, because Rick was still a little afraid of how Allison would react.  He could see that she had feelings for him, but Rick was not sure if those feelings were strong enough to overcome everything.

He was also a little afraid.  Monica and what she put him through would always remind him of the danger of coming too close to someone, to let her see your soul.  Deep inside, Rick knew that Allison was different, and that there was no danger of her every behaving like Monica, but some primal part of him was still cautious and afraid to give her everything.