Trapped Read online

  Serena laughed too. “Yeah? Well, I’m glad that you find me humorous, instead of hating me. Maybe you can talk to dad, Chris, Mark and Amy too, huh? I would like to be welcomed back into the family, as opposed to feeling like such a pariah all the time.”

  “I’ll be sure to do that,” Luke said, honestly.

  We drove along until we got into a tree-lined street of brownstones. There were kids playing on the sidewalk and women walking their dogs. One of them stopped to talk to Serena, and I was kinda amazed about how much Serena seemed to love the dogs. Every time we got to one, she would bend down and baby-talk the animals, and she let every one of them lick her face.

  I was charmed by this, really. I always was partial to people who loved animals. I always wished that I had the passion to really commit to animal welfare, like my parents. They really walked the walk. Neither of them used any animal products, at all – they wouldn’t even make Jell-O for me when I was growing up, because it was made with animal products. Lanolin was strictly verboten because it was made from sheep. I knew that even they were not always that way – before they got involved with their animal sanctuary, they ate meat and used animal products.

  But I never could commit. I always wanted to, but, somehow peer pressure always got the best of me. It had something to do with my desire to be normal, and I never was because of my abilities. So, I needed something to make me feel like I wasn’t such a freak, so I went along with everyone else and indulged in animal products.

  I wondered how Serena felt about all of that. Come to think about it, I had never seen her eat any kind of animal product. Even during the Christmas dinner, she didn’t partake in the turkey. She just made a plate of the trimmings and didn’t make a big deal of it.

  We eventually followed Serena into her home. Her home was a two-level place with hardwood floors throughout, and crown moldings. A bay window was in the living room, with throw pillows on the ledge. Her kitchen was enormous, by New York City standards, as it was large enough to have an island in the middle. Her countertops were dark blue granite, and her appliances were all new, including her gas burners. Throughout the home there were houseplants and real trees.

  In all, it was a cozy home, yet, by the standards that I was used to in New York, it seemed like a veritable mansion.

  “You know,” I said to her. “I never even asked you this. And I don’t think that Luke was very clear, either. What is it that you do?”

  She smiled. “I was a law partner at a firm here in town. But we didn’t do family law, so I can’t really help you there. We were more into white-collar defense, so, you know, we got paid the big bucks. We also defended pharmaceutical companies.” She paused. “I got out of that, though, and I got money now because, well, I hate to admit it, but my ex-husband is pretty wealthy.” Her eyes gleamed. “And, what can I say, I know a lot about him. A little too much for his comfort. Which means that I was able to extract a pretty good settlement from him. Now, well, I’m trying to find myself.”

  I nodded. I kinda knew what she meant by that. “Trying to find yourself. God, that sounds so familiar.”

  “Does it?” she asked. “Well, Dalilah, it’s one thing to try to figure it all out when you’re only 20 years old and haven’t really lived. It’s quite another when you’re 28, gone through college, gone through law school, been married, etc. I should have more figured out than I do. You – well, when you’re 20, you’re not supposed to know crap. So don’t feel bad.”

  “But,” I said, and then whispered. “You’re just now trying to come to terms with what happened to you when you were a baby. That’s why you’re having problems right now.”

  Serena looked over at Luke, who was examining a picture that she had on her wall. He was apparently oblivious to Serena and me talking, as he examined the shapes and colors that were on the canvas in front of him. That was Luke – sometimes, he could get so lost in a piece of art, he barely knew that he had surroundings at all. “Yes,” she said. “That’s true. Listen, Luke doesn’t know about all of that. I hope you haven’t told him.”

  “I haven’t,” I said. “You told me not to, and I’m going to be as good as my word.”

  “Thanks,” she said. “I mean, I probably should tell him sometime about it, but I’m afraid that he’s going to freak out. I mean, he had that same baby-sitter. I wonder if she did anything to him when he was a kid? I mean, probably not. One thing about Luke, he’s always been a great kid. Always. Man, sometimes I so much wanted to be like him. Trade places with him. He has always seemed like somebody who not only rolls with the punches, but shakes off the pain of all that has happened to him. When I see Chris, I know what Luke could have turned out like if things would have gone a different way for him. But I’m so glad that it didn’t.”

  “Why? What’s up with Chris?”

  “Egads. Drugs, cutting, you name it. But Chris was a special case. He saw our mom die. Our mom died trying to save him. That has to fuck up a person, no matter what.”

  I nodded my head. “Yeah,” I said. “Sometimes I think that perhaps what happened to me when I was a baby affected me.”

  Serena looked at me wisely, as if she knew what had happened with Andrew and my dad. “I suspected as much. You’ve known darkness. I mean, I know that Luke has told me about how criticism made you turn against yourself, but I always thought that there was something more.”

  “There was. When I was a baby, I was so afraid that my dad was going to die. I couldn’t even put it into words. I was a young child, yet I knew that there were things that were seriously wrong. My dad was shot, he almost died, and I was always afraid that he would just not wake up one day. And, well, I think that I always carried around the fear that I almost died, too, when this crazed gun-man had me.”

  I then launched into the story of Andrew, my father and my mother. “Well, that explains it,” she said, taking my hand. “Perhaps that was why your art was always so deep. So dark. You know, I’ve looked at your stuff on-line. It amazed me that you were only 11, not just because you had the ability to do what you did, but also because you had the experience to produce that stuff. Those raw, explosive paintings. They came from somewhere. They weren’t the work of a girl who hadn’t known tragedy.”

  I smiled. Perhaps Serena was right. I had never even thought about what kind of hurt and rage was bubbling beneath the surface when I composed that stuff. “Yes, I suppose you’re right. And that was probably why I became so depressed when I lost my voice and my abilities. Because I no longer had an outlet for what I was feeling. Not just about that stuff about my dad almost dying, and me being in the arms of a crazy man. But also because I have never felt like I have fit in. As much as I’ve always wanted to be normal, it was very difficult for me. And I think that my art always reflected that.”

  Serena nodded her head. “That was what I saw, too, when I looked at your paintings. Someone who was really like me. Because I never fit in, either. I always had the special sight that made me feel that I was weird. The ability to see things and know things which others couldn’t. I mean, there was a spirit who befriended me when I was 11. And my dad would come into the room when I was talking to Thomas. That was his earthly name. He didn’t understand. He scolded me, and told me that I was too old for imaginary friends. So, I tried to tell Thomas to go away, but he wouldn’t. And, goddamn it, I really didn’t want him to. He understood me, more than anybody in my family ever did.”

  I smiled, and put my arm around her. “Ah, we’re two freaks, aren’t we? Nobody would ever know by looking at us, though.” I looked over at Luke, who was at another of Serena’s paintings, carefully examining it. “I wonder if Luke has ever felt like that. Ostracized, like an outcast. He’s such a good-natured, gorgeous guy. I doubt that he has ever felt like that.”

  “Well,” Serena said. “Maybe not to the extent that we have. But, come on, if he’s human, then he’s felt moments of being weird and less-than. I’m quite sure. If he hasn’t, then he’s the weird one, not
us.”

  “True,” I said.

  That evening, while Serena and Luke shared a bottle of wine, and I enjoyed some Perrier, we discussed what was going to happen in the morning. “I have an appointment with Marissa Herschel in the morning. And, from there, I’m going to file for divorce and see what shakes out.”

  “Are you scared?” Serena asked me.

  “Are you kidding me? I’m petrified. It’s bad enough that I have to ask for a divorce at all, but to admit that I’m pregnant…the knives are going to come out, I can guarantee you this.”

  “Yeah, well, just have guts. You wouldn’t believe some of the stuff that I’ve come out of. I’ll have to tell you some of my exploits later on. But I always had faith that the universe knows what the fuck it’s doing.”

  Luke was sitting next to me, drinking his wine, and playing absent-mindedly with my neck. “That’s what I’m counting on. We’re finally going to draw our inside straight, and we’re going to not only beat this down, fair and square, but we’re going to come out of it happy. I’d like to think that, in the battle of good verses evil, the good should win. Although I know that’s not always the case.”

  “Oh, I wish that I could be so optimistic,” Serena said. “Not to mention naïve.” She shook her head. “But you have to know that I’ve not always been on the side of the angels. My old law firm handled cases where the people were as crooked and base as they come. Unfortunately, we were good at what we did, so these unbelievable bastards would just walk away. These greedy fucks would embezzle millions, or get caught doing all kinds of blatant acts of fraud, or cheated people out of millions of dollars, and they’d either walk or pay a small penalty for it. Thanks to us.”

  She shook her head. “Never underestimate human nature, kid. There’s a part of every one of us that isn’t so nice. We might acknowledge it, or we might not. But it’s always there. And, sometimes, people who display their dark side for all the world to see, gets away with it. Just sayin.”

  I was quiet. I knew that she was right. Having been in the world of the privileged and the high society, I knew, first-hand, how people could be when it came to money. To maintaining a certain image and lifestyle. Those were the people who Serena defended in her old job. That was Nottingham. Nottingham was a zero-sum guy, too. He had to be. Nobody could be as wealthy as he was, at such a young age, without stepping on more than one toe along the way. He knew how to play dirty.

  And something told me that playing dirty was exactly what he was going to do with me.

  Chapter

  Luke

  After dinner, Dalilah and I decided that we needed a shower. So, we headed up to our private bathroom, which was attached to the bedroom where we were staying, and climbed on in.

  This was a time for us to relax and just enjoy each other. Tomorrow would be a stressful day for her, I knew, so I wanted to have this evening just to be with her. To let he know how much I loved her, and how much I would always be there for her. No matter what.

  She took off her clothes to join me in the shower. She was so beautiful, always, but, at this point, she was even more than that. She was radiant. She might have been a little bit self-conscious about her tiny little pooch, which was growing by the day, and the way that her already-ample breasts were swelling, but, I had to admit, I was completely turned on by her new body. She was sensuous. She glowed from within. The combination of her milky white skin with her red hair, and pregnancy glow and pregnancy body – there were no words to describe how hungry I was for her.

  And, lucky me, she had informed me that, because of her raging hormones, she wanted to attack me every second. Since I was feeling just the same way about her, I thought that we would be a match made in heaven.

  So, when both of us got into the shower, and I started to soap up her naked body, I immediately got a hard-on.

  She smiled. “What’s up with that?” she asked, gesturing to my boner. “I haven’t even touched you yet.”

  “Oh, you don’t have to,” I said. “I only need to look at you, and I’ve got a hard-on. But being close to you naked like this…mon dieu.” At that, I kissed her, and she lost her breath.

  She smiled after my kiss. “Really? I mean, I’m so fat these days. I just can’t stand it.”

  “Fat? Hardly. Voluptuous. Sensuous. Radiant. Gorgeous. Those are all good words for you. Fat never even comes to my mind, not even for a millisecond.”

  She sighed. “Oh, Luke. Just shut up and fuck me, would you please?”

  At that, she got down on her hands and knees, and I turned off the shower. I teased her just a little by bringing down a loofah, and scrubbing her back with it. She lowered her head and moaned a little. “That feels awesome, Luke, but you know what I want. What I need. Give it to me, please.”

  It wasn’t difficult for me to do just that. I thrust into her, and she was completely wet inside, so I was able to slip into her easily. She felt incredible, as always. She moaned loudly, as I thrust in and out of her easily yet slowly. I grabbed her beautiful breasts, and squeezed them. She moaned louder, and I thrust into her harder and harder. Then she laid down on her back, and put her legs up in the air, and I thrust into her some more.

  “Give it to me, Luke. Give it to me hard. Fuck me, Luke. Goddamn, you feel so amazing.”

  She felt even more amazing. I tried to stop it, but I could feel my river of cum sliding inside of her. “Oh, god, I’m so sorry that was quick,” I said. “You just don’t know what you do to me. What you’ve always done to me. Being with you…I can’t even describe it. It’s so fucking amazing, I just can’t even put it into words.”

  For her part, she was breathing heavily. She was still lying on the tile floor, her legs up in the air. She was shaking all over. She shook her head. “Oh, please. I know exactly what I do to you. Because you do the same to me. You know just what to do to make me go absolutely crazy with lust and desire.”

  At that, she flipped me over and got on top of me. She had the loofah in her hand. She scrubbed my stomach with it, and then got some oil, and rubbed it all over my chest. I groaned as she bit my neck, and then went down to my cock and started to suck it. I grabbed her hair, and brought her up to me so that I could kiss her. She met my lips with her own greedy ones, and the two of us devoured each other while she continued to massage my cock.

  She smiled as she felt me getting hard again. “Hmmmm, well, maybe I can take control this time.” At that, she lowered herself down on me, and the sensation was so intense, I thought that I was going to cum right then and there. But I held off, and she raised herself up so that she was at the tip of my dick, and then slammed herself down, forcefully, back on me.

  I shook my head, feeling that this was sensation was more powerful than anything I had ever had before. I shuddered, trying hard to think of something, anything, that would delay the inevitable. I kissed her, as she rode me, again and again. She kept up the cadence – she almost would pull completely out, not quite, then she would slam herself down on me. Before long, though, she was more rhythmic, and she was able to squat on me rapidly. I sighed, no longer able to hold it back, and I cum inside her again.

  She smiled. “Oh, see, I can get you going twice in a row.”

  “Do you feel powerful, Dalilah? Because you know that I’m just putty in your hands.”

  “Powerful isn’t really the word. I would like to say that I feel sated, but I just can’t, right now. I’m kind of a raging beast, I’m ashamed to say. I’ve never quite felt like this.”

  “Well, I’m more than happy to oblige,” I said.

  “Are you?” she said. She looked serious this time. “God, Luke, I’m just so happy, you can’t imagine. I mean, everything is fucked up, of course. Everything is up in the air. But I love you so much I can’t stand it.” There were tears in her eyes. “I mean, everything that has happened…well, everything I did was because of my warped view of what I thought that you needed. It was all so stupid, though. But I now know that, really, you just need me.
And I just need you. We’ll be able to help each other through anything at all, if we just say strong together.”

  I interlaced her fingers with mine. She smelled like the shampoo that she had just used to wash her hair, along with the minty body wash that I used to soap her up. I kissed her forehead and held her tight. “You’re right, Dalilah. We’re going to get through this. There’s nothing that we can’t do together. Just wait and see.”

  “I will, Luke. I have faith.”

  Chapter

  Dalilah

  I slept well the previous evening. I was completely satisfied, sexually, by my romp with Luke in the shower. Serena’s bed was totally comfortable, and the bedroom where we were staying was totally cute. She had excellent taste, really, with her choice of furniture, wall colors and drapes. Everything was color coordinated, without being too matchy-matchy. I felt comfortable being there.

  So, I felt, all in all, that I was prepared as I ever could be to see my new lawyer. I had money for her retainer¸ courtesy of Luke, and it seemed that she was eager to see me and talk about my options.

  There was only one problem, though – I knew that, once I saw her, and she filed what she had to file to get the ball rolling, there was no turning back. Nottingham would know about the baby. And I had no idea what to expect at that point.

  Maybe he had moved on, and he would just let me have the divorce without incident?

  Ha, fat chance on that.

  Maybe he would go ballistic, knowing that I was having Luke’s baby. He had proven, in the past, that he could be completely stalky. Would he resort to stalking me again? Would he come over here, and confront me, and maybe lose his temper with Luke and me? That seemed a more likely scenario.

  Or, perhaps he would just quietly let his slimy lawyer speak for him. That wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, because I thought that Marissa could probably take him, knowing what I knew about Marissa and about Nottingham’s lawyer.