Hot! (2 page)

Or, it might be a matter of simple professionalism; a nasty little voice from deep inside tormented her. Just because you’re ready to throw caution to the winds, is not to say everyone is.

Phaedra had raked over every inch of Holly’s apartment looking for clues as to where she was going on the day she disappeared. “I couldn’t find a thing,” she told Curtis. “It’s uncanny.”

“I’ll take a look,” he offered. “You might have missed something.”

Now she was in an agony of excitement and trepidation waiting for him to arrive. What should she wear? Then castigating herself for such a frivolous thought given the nature of his visit and the circumstances.

She ended up wearing all black–blouse, slacks and shoes.

He was taller than she remembered, although it had only been a few days, it seemed much longer. But his eyes were the same luminous blue that had so captured her soul at first sight.

“Come in,”she muttered awkwardly, convinced that he could read her every thought. And oh my what a naughty book they would make.

He started with the clothes closet. “Did you check through the pockets? She may have written an address or something on a slip of paper.”

             
“I thought of that, but there was nothing.” She plugged in the kettle and asked him if he would like tea. It was a warm day and she served it out on the balcony.

             
“If it’s any consolation,”he said. “I’ve seen this sort of thing happen before, and it’s always ended up with the missing person simply showing up unharmed.”

             
“I hope you’re right,” she replied, although inwardly she knew it wouldn’t happen in this case. Holly would never go away and not telephone.

             
They watched the panorama of Burrard Inlet under a moody sky. The cargo ships, water taxis and floatplanes weaved their way through the choppy waters. “Did you grow up here?” she asked.

             
He shook his head. “I’m from Ontario.”

             
Phaedra longed to touch him, to take his hand. As if sensing this he looked directly into her eyes. “I better be going now,” he said, although it was delivered more as a question than a statement of intent.

             
“Please don’t…” The words slipped out before she had a chance to stop them. And immediately, she stood back from her deed in horror. How could she have said such a thing? How could she have been so inappropriate and…bold? “Sorry…” she murmured, trying hard to cover up this horrible faux pas. “It’s just that I don’t know anyone here…and what with worrying about Holly and so forth, it gets lonely.”

             
Curtis stood up. “I know all about loneliness,” he said.

             
Phaedra had a sensation of lightness, a feeling of unreality, of floating. When he left she leaned against the wall and sobbed. Then as if a power outside of herself had taken over and robbed her of freewill, she wrenched the door open and ran after him. She caught up with him at the elevator. “…I…” she stammered, and threw her arms around him. She found his mouth through the tears and kissed him until she was breathless.

             
Curtis picked her up and carried her back down the hallway. When they reached the apartment, he kicked the door shut behind them, and pushed her against the wall.

He wasted no time in taking her, hard and fast and without finesse.

His breathing was labored and his cock rock hard. Phaedra gasped and met his thrusts with an eagerness stripped of all pretension. In their quest to mate, they had shed their identities and reverted back to the primitive.

It was all over in a matter of minutes.

* * * *

“Still no sign of Holly?” Ailsa called at first light. She was at the clinic. A dog barked in the background.

             
“Not a thing.” Phaedra sat up in bed and adjusted the pillows. “I’ve talked to all the neighbors, including the apartment manager, and no-one either saw or heard anything. It’s just as if she vanished into thin air.”

             
“Have you spoken to all her friends?”

             
“She didn’t really have any. Holly has always been something of a loner. She’s a deeply spiritual person, very much into the goddess culture and alternative healing. The social circuit never interested her.”

             
“Any boyfriends?”

             
“She had a few off and on, but nothing serious.”

             
While she chatted with Ailsa, Phaedra watched the Sea Bus leave the North Shore and chug across the harbor to Vancouver. She would miss this panoramic view from every window when she returned home.

             
“Look I’m sorry about leaving you in the lurch like this. I know it can’t be easy coping at the clinic shorthanded.”

             
“Don’t give it another thought. I wouldn’t expect you to do anything else under the circumstances. If it were my sister who was missing, I’d do exactly the same thing.”

             
“I really appreciate your understanding. So how are things going anyway? How is the new receptionist working out?”

             
Ailsa chuckled and took a sip of her coffee. “She isn’t. I had to let her go.”

             
“Oh that’s too bad. How many has that been? Since Morag left, I mean?”

             
“Well let me see. There was the one they sent from the agency who couldn’t type. The one who was terrified to answer the phone. And…the latest one, of course, who just couldn’t get anything right.”

             
“Let’s hope it’s fourth time lucky,” laughed Phaedra.

             
“Oh by the way, I saw Baxter yesterday.” Ailsa’s tone was casual–a little too casual. “He called me out to his place to look at a foal.”

             
Did she just imagine it, pondered Phaedra, as she got out of bed and plugged in the kettle. Or had there been a certain coyness in Ailsa’s voice as she mentioned seeing Baxter?

             
Either way, flashbacks of her sizzling encounter with Curtis had kept intruding throughout their conversation. She recalled how he had pulled down her pants and impaled her with his cock. His hand brushed against her clit as he fitted it inside her.

             
I better stop this, or I’ll end up in bed with my vibrator all day. And there was work to do. She intended to get posters of Holly printed up and distributed.

             
“No news yet about Holly?” asked Evelyn from across the hall. A tiny, bird-like woman, with beetle brows, she was a notorious gossip.

             
“I’m afraid not.” Phaedra was anxious to keep the exchange as brief as possible. My gawd, she thought with a shudder, what if she looked out her spyhole yesterday and saw Curtis carrying me down the hall? Yet a sharp thrill shot through her recalling how she had clung to him throbbing and wet with longing. And how he had satisfied her, up against the wall, beyond her wildest expectations.

             
“Did you know that Holly was friendly with that fellow who runs the bookstore?”

             
“…Er no, I didn’t.” She had been so caught up in her own hot thoughts that it took a moment for what Evelyn was saying to register.”

             
“She spent a lot of time in there. It could be that he might know more than he’s letting on.” She leaned forward in the age-old gesture of the conspirator and added cryptically. “He’s visited her here a couple of times too.”

             
Alan Thorpe had overly large feet and hands. He looked anemic.“Of course, I know Holly,” he answered congenially. “She’s an avid bookworm.”

             
It was a small cluttered store with used books piled high in bins and a layer of dust over everything.

             
“Have you any idea at all where she might have gone?” Phaedra never took her eyes off his face.

             
But if Alan had any deep dark secrets regarding her sister, he in no way showed it.

“None at all, I’m afraid. I just wish I could be of more help.”

             
“I was told that you visited Holly…you know, at her apartment.”

             
Alan laughed. “So that old biddy across the hall’s been nattering again.” Then on a more sober note explained the reason for the visits. “Holly ordered a number of titles, and I would drop them off when they came in.”

             
As Phaedra left, he assured her there was nothing going on between himself and Holly. “We were just friends,” he said. “Who shared a common interest.”
             

             
It wasn’t until she was some way from the book shop that the relevance of how Alan had phrased the final disclaimer hit her. He had spoken of Holly in the past tense.

We “were” just friends, rather than we “are.”

“It could just have been a manner of speech,” suggested Curtis.“What did you think of him otherwise?”

“Well I didn’t get any bad vibes from him. He seems like a normal and quite decent sort. And you’re right; it probably means nothing at all. She realized how paranoid she had become. She was beginning to suspect everyone.

“Even so, I’ll check him out, if it’ll make you feel any better.”

She found it impossible to talk to Curtis for any length of time, and keep her raging libido at bay. “You’d make me feel even better,” she murmured seductively.

“How about later tonight?” His voice grew husky with desire.

* * * *

What must he think of me?
Phaedra relaxed in a steaming bubble bath. I threw myself at him like a shag hag. Yet, it had seemed so natural and necessary at the time. There was no doubt she would do the same thing again. She had no regrets.

             
Curtis answered her unspoken question without realizing he had done so. He brought her a teddy bear dressed in a Mountie’s uniform. “He’s our mascot. I wanted to give him to you as a small token of my esteem.”

             
She felt so uplifted by his words that she was flying. “This is as close to rapture as it gets,” she murmured.

             
“Hush.” He laid a finger on her lips. Phaedra licked it and sucked it into her mouth. Her eyes heavy with passion, she dropped to her knees and unzipped his pants. His cock was swollen, hard and ready. She took the full length of it in her mouth and worked her head up and down. He moaned and ran his hands through her hair. She fondled his balls. They were tight and full. She knew he wouldn’t last long. When he started to cum, she inserted her finger into his ass to increase the sensations.

             
“Be sure and keep the door locked at all times,” he advised, as he left the following day.

             
“I always do. But why are you telling me this. Do you think I might be in danger?”

             
Curtis shook his head and buckled on his holster. “Now don’t get alarmed. But with your sister still missing…we have to take every precaution.”

             
“So you think that Holly was kidnapped and who ever done it might come back and get me?”

             
“Look, Phaedra, I didn’t say that. But we can’t afford to ignore any possiblity, no matter how remote.”

             
This exchange made her more nervous than usual. She had to admit there was something in what Curtis had said. She put the chain on after he’d left, then wedged a chair underneath the handle for good measure.

             
However, if Holly
had
been abducted, it had to have been by someone she knew. Otherwise, there would surely have been some signs of a struggle? Was it possible that the pale Alan in the musty bookstore might not be as innocent as he appeared? He was certainly not attractive to women. Perhaps Holly had repelled his advances and sexual frustration had got the better of him? He could have returned later with some ruse to get her to leave with him,
quietly.

Phaedra knew she was reaching, and yet stranger things had happened.

Like a sister, for instance, who had always kept in touch on a daily basis. And who had suddenly disappeared and not been heard of for almost ten days.

             
She could feel the imprint of Curtis’s cock branding deep inside her pussy. He had pounded her–in bed this time instead of against a wall–until she went off like a rocket. He had licked her too, for what seemed like a glorious eternity, paying special attention to her clit, which hardened and throbbed against his tongue.

             
The posters of Holly were up in all major locations. There had been a few calls, from the curious mostly and the inevitable cranks. But nothing concrete that shed any light on the mysterious disappearance.