The Coming of Anna (The Manhattan Series) (9 page)

He pulls his dick from his pants and swears.  He rubs his
limp dick against me, while saying, “Come on, Doll.  Don’t be like this.  Open
up.  I want you.”

“Anton, get off me!”

I start crying.  Different feelings roll over me, none of
them positive.  Anger, revulsion, nausea all take over and I try to fight the
big bulk off me. 

I hear him swear again:  “Fuck!”

He lifts himself and I see him looking at his dick.  It
refuses to go hard and hangs on him like a limp vegetable far beyond its sell
by date.  I take my chance and jump up.  I run into the bedroom and grab my
robe which I quickly tie around my waist.  I don’t want to leave the room in
this state.  But I also don’t want to be in the room with a man who was clearly
going to rape me if he had not been too drunk. 

Anton comes toward me again.  He is unsteady on his feet. 
His pants are still undone with his dick hanging over the edge of his
underpants.  Is this the man I thought I had been in love with? 

I realize arguing with him is not going to get him out of my
room.  I don’t want security involved so I decide to open the door.  He comes
after me again.  I stand in front of the open door and when he lunges at me, I
get out of the way and he falls halfway out of the room.  I push him out the
rest of the way and shut the door behind him.  My legs give way under me and I
sit against the door, sobbing. 

I hear him swearing and slurring his words as he walks down
the hallway.  The shock from the previous ten minutes makes me tremble and I
know that I have to pull myself together.  What am I going to do?  If I report
him, our previous relationship will come out.  My name and reputation will be
dragged through the mud.  The fact that I did not know that he was married and
that I broke it off with him and resigned my position the moment I found out,
would not count in the judging eyes of others.  How will people understand that
I went to dinner with him even though I did not want to?  How do I explain that
even though I had sex with him in the past, it is not what I wanted tonight?

No, I can’t risk it.  What happened here tonight must never
come out.  But at the same time I am not up to attending the rest of the
sessions, knowing he is in such close proximity to me.

I get dressed and pack my bag.  I go to the bathroom and
clean up the mess Anton caused by falling and also letting me fall.  Then I
call a cab.  The nightshift reception worker is fast asleep behind the counter
when I leave the hotel.  I look around wearily but there is no sign of Anton or
anyone else.

When the cabdriver asks where I need to go, I ask him to
take me back to the airport.

The airport building is deserted and I find a seat from
where I can see the counter.  As soon as the counter opens, I will buy a ticket
to go home.  I came here because I really did not know what else to do.  I can
now feel my body starting to ache from the bruising.  All I want is to be in
Thomas’ arms.  I want to take the first flight home.

**********

During the night I realize that I cannot go home in this
state.  Thomas will know something is seriously wrong the moment he sees me. 
But I am also in no state of mind to attend the rest of the conference.

When the sun comes out the next morning, I walk out of the
airport and hail the first cab I see.  He takes me to a hotel on the opposite
side of the city. 

When I get to my room, I lock the door behind me.  Nobody
knows I am here but I need time to think and weigh my options.  First of all, I
need to call the organizers of the conference.  Even though my session is done,
they will still wonder what happened to me if I just disappear. 

I pick up the phone and dial the number.  It rings a few
times before Libby answers.  I tell her there was an emergency with one of my
children.  Nothing too serious but that I felt I needed to be there for them. 
Of course she is very understanding and she will pass along my regrets to the
rest of the organising committee.  I feel a bit guilty about lying to her but I
don’t feel like I had a choice.

Thomas will be more difficult.  I cannot go home yet.  He
will immediately know that something is seriously wrong.  He swore that he
would kill anyone who ever hurt me.  So I will just have to leave him with the
impression that I am still attending the conference.  I will call him tonight
just like I did last night.  The idea of lying to Thomas makes me feel even
worse but that is the only way I can protect him so he never finds out what
transpired the night before. 

I put the do-not-disturb sign on the door.  My body is sore
and I decide to have a bath.  I am shocked to see how badly bruised I am.  How
am I going to explain it to Thomas when he sees me?  Hopefully it would have
healed enough by the time I go home that he will not even notice. 

Since I did not get any sleep last night, I decide to get into
bed.  It is just after two in the afternoon when I wake up.  My head is
throbbing and my body aches really badly.  I know I need some pain medication. 
I will have to find a pharmacy so I get dressed.  Before leaving the lobby, I
ask the receptionist about a pharmacy in the area.  She directs me to one about
two blocks away.  When I get outside, the sun hitting my eyes makes me cringe. 
Something is wrong.  I am never this sensitive to light.

By the time I reach the pharmacy, I feel like crying.  I am
dizzy and feelings of nausea overwhelm me.  The young man behind the counter
gives me one look and asks whether I had seen a doctor.  He comes around the
counter and leads me to a stool standing next to the wall.

“Miss, it is obvious that something is very wrong with you. 
This is not just a headache you are having.  Do you have any idea what could
have caused it?”

“I slipped and fell in the bathroom.  I hit my head really
hard.”

“When did this happen?” he asks.

“Last night.  I slept most of the day and woke up with the
worst headache I have ever had.  I am from out of town so I cannot go see my
doctor.”

“Where are you staying?”

I give him the name of the hotel.  He arranges for a taxi to
take me back to my hotel and for a doctor to meet me there.

When the doctor leaves my room, I switch on the television. 
He diagnosed me with a concussion and advised me not to sleep too much for the
next 48 hours.  He gave me something for the nausea as well as the headache. 
If I feel worse I need to call his emergency number.

When he leaves, I call Thomas.  I now have an idea.

“Hello my love,” I hear his voice in my ear.

I do not know why, but I start to cry.

 “Anna?  What is wrong?”

His concern only manages to make me sob even harder.  It
takes me a while to calm down enough to make myself understood.

“I had a bubble bath and I slipped on some water on the
floor and fell.  The doctor says I have a concussion.”

“Damn it!  You have to come home!  You cannot stay in LA and
attend a conference if you suffered a concussion.  I’m going to have Eileen
immediately arrange a flight for you.  If we play quickly, you might still be
able to fly out tonight.  I will call you back.  Stay by the phone.”

I lie back on the bed.  When Thomas calls I need to leave
for the airport immediately.  The clerk at reception seems a bit stunned when I
settle my bill so soon.  I haven’t even spent a night and here I am ready to
leave again.  He looks at me suspiciously.

The flight home is absolute hell.  I struggle to stay awake
and the air pressure on the plane is making my head feel even worse.  I now
consider the fact that I did not mention to any of the flight staff that I had
a concussion and that I should probably not be flying.  But all I want to do
now is be with Thomas. 

Thomas will make everything alright.  Once I am back in his
arms, the world will be okay.

When I enter the terminal with my bag in hand, I see Thomas
holding his arms open to me.  He wraps his arms around me and for a few seconds
I just rest my head against his chest.  No matter how bad the past few days had
been, having his arms around me lets all the bad feelings fade away. 

He puts my bag in his car and helps me get in the passenger
seat.  He drives off without a word.  It takes me a while to realize he is driving
in the wrong direction. 

“Where are we going?” I ask.

“I had my housekeeper prepare my house for you.  While I am
at work, she can keep an eye on you and when I am there, I will play
nursemaid.  There is no way I am going to let you stay at your place alone
while I am at work. 

I want to protest but he is not having any of it.  So I just
sit back and allow him to take me home.  I can hardly believe it has only been
a few hours since I called him and told him about getting hurt.  He thinks I
slipped in the hotel bathroom and fell, banging my head.  What would happen if
he found out what really happened?

I have never been to Thomas’ house before.  He drives me to
a beautiful neighbourhood and it is easy to see by the surroundings that we are
definitely not in a working class suburb.

Thomas pulls into the driveway of a beautiful house with
huge trees and rolling lawns.  He walks around to my door and helps me out of
the car.  It is late and the street is quiet, except for the distant barking of
a dog.  The porch light has been switched on and another light is shining from
inside the house.  It must be the housekeeper who switched it on before she
left.

He unlocks the front door and steps back so I can walk in
first.  The plush carpeting and luxurious furnishings take my breath away. 
Could this really be his house?  What must he have thought of my scantily
furnished cottage?

“Do you want to go straight to bed or would you like to have
a bath first?”

“I had a bath before leaving the hotel tonight.  Goodness,”
I exclaim, looking at my watch, “it is past midnight already!”

“Straight to the bedroom it is then.”

I follow Thomas up a flight of stairs.  He opens a huge
wooden door and from the masculine smell coming from the room, I know that this
must be the master bedroom.  He puts my bag on a table and opens it.

“Get out of those clothes and into bed.  I am going to get
you some tea.”

With that he leaves the room.  I have just got into bed when
he appears in the doorway, tray in hand.  The tray has a pot of tea, two cups
and some sandwiches.  There is also a vase with a single pink rose in it.

He smiles at my astonishment:  “No, sorry, I am not
Superman.  This is all Trudy’s doing.  She is like a mother hen.  She must have
realized that you might be hungry after your ordeal so she prepared some
sandwiches.  Now you can see how I have been able to have a successful life
without a wife all these years.  Eileen sees that I stay on track at the office
and Trudy keeps my household in order and my tummy well fed.”

He sits on the edge of the bed and hands me a steaming cup
of tea.  He also hands me a small plate and pushes the sandwiches towards me. 
He pours a cup of tea for himself.

“So, tell me everything there is to know about the past few
days.  I said goodbye to you not even three days ago and here you are back in
my bed.  You seem to be unable to stay away from me.”

His smile disappears when I suddenly burst into tears
again.  Why am I crying at every whim?

“Hey, what is the matter, Little One?”

He holds me and strokes my hair until I calm down.

“I’m sorry.  My head just hurts so much and everything that
happened is making me feel a bit blue.  I need a good night’s rest and I will
be myself again.”

“So drink up and eat a sandwich.  I will get you some
tablets for that headache.”

“The tablets the doctor prescribed are in my handbag.  He
said not to take anything else.”

We finish our tea and sandwiches in silence.  When Thomas
finally returns from locking up the house, I watch him undress.  I have missed
the sight of his male form so much while I was away.  I don’t want to be away
from him another day.

When he folds his arms around me, I drift off to sleep.

A loud shriek wakes me.  I am sweaty and feel scared.

“What is it?  What is going on?  Are you okay?” Thomas asks in
an anxious voice.

I realize it was my own screaming that woke me.  I have been
dreaming about Anton and being trapped by him in that bathroom.

“I’m sorry.  I must have been dreaming.”

“Sounds more like you had a nightmare.  What were you
dreaming about?”

“I cannot remember,” I lie, again.  “I guess it is the bump
against the head making me have nightmares.  Go back to sleep.”

I get up and walk over to the en-suite bathroom.  I open the
coldwater tap and splash water on my face.  I wash my hands and apply some
lotion to help me calm down before I go back to bed again.

When I snuggle into bed, Thomas turns towards me and wraps
me in his arms.

“Sleep now, my angel.  Are you sure you are okay?  Can’t I
get you something?”

“No, go back to sleep.  It was just a silly dream.  There is
really nothing to worry about.”

Long after I hear his breathing become deeper again, I am
still staring at the ceiling.  Should I tell Thomas about what happened?  How
will he handle it?  I don’t know him well enough to know what he would do if he
knew that Anton tried to force himself on me.  What if I only make matters
worse?  At the moment nobody but Anton and I are aware of what transpired in
that bathroom.  Should I just keep it to myself and let it all blow over, or
should I be honest with Thomas the way we promised each other?  The first signs
of daylight are starting to show when I finally drift off to sleep again.

When I wake up, the house is quiet.  It takes me a second to
take in my surroundings and realize the bed I am lying in is not a bed in a
strange hotel room.  It is Thomas’ bed!  How wonderful it is to be in his bed. 
I lie back again and I can smell his masculine scent.  The room is made up in
deep browns and burgundy.  The heavy wooden furniture portrays him perfectly.    One
can see that this is a man’s room.