Madam of Maple Court (21 page)

"No," Pam said when she could get a word in edgewise. "Does your Aunt Jenna have one?"

"No, silly," William answered. "They don't live on a farm. But there's a big one nearby and we visit every time we go there. I like cows."

Patrick was quiet, seemingly content to build with a collection of multicolored cars and trucks Marcy retrieved from a closet.

Zack was very attractive but obviously very much in love, and he kissed his wife soundly and grabbed her bottom from time to time when he thought no one was looking.

At six-thirty the doorbell rang and Zack let Linc in. Black with dreadlocks indeed, Pam thought when she first saw him. No, Linc Frawley was anything but. Pam knew immediately that he was as dangerous as Marcy had said. There was obviously a lot of black Irish in his background. His jet black hair was long enough to curl slightly over his shirt collar and his piercing blue eyes seemed to be able to see into one's very soul. His profile was all angles but his sensual, Elvis Presley mouth softened any hardness, lips slightly thicker than necessary and his habit of licking them with his tongue made her pussy throb.
This is silly
, she told herself.
It's like some bad romance novel
. But she couldn't deny the jolts of pure lust that speared through her when he caught her eye.
He must be very good as a male prostitute
, she thought,
if my body's reaction is any indication
.

Rock appeared from the back of the building and shook Linc's hand heartily. "It's good to see you, man. It's been a while."

"Good to see you, too," Linc said, his voice deep and resonant. "How've you been doing? Good to see you, too, Zack."

"Zack, Rock, and Linc," Marcy whispered. "Sounds like a nursery rhyme or a vaudeville team."

Pam couldn't help but giggle.

The three men talked for a while and Pam became totally involved in replying to William's constant questions. "You know you don't have to answer," Marcy said after the fifth "Why?" in a row. "He'll go away if you stop responding, but he knows he's got a sucker right now so he'll keep it up until you're ready to explode."

As the three men talked, Zack kept both eyes on Eliza, who was taking blocks from the gigantic box Rock had dragged out of a closet so she could build a castle next to her brother Patrick. When her activities got too close, Patrick merely moved his traffic arrangement a little farther away.

While the children played and the men caught up on their recent pasts, Pam's gaze kept straying to Linc. The three men were of similar height, all just over six feet tall, but somehow Linc stood out in the group. Lust at first sight, she realized.
Stop it! Just stop it
! Was this what she'd become now that she was having sex with two men?

The conversation broke up and Rock grabbed one twin under each arm and spun them around. While William squealed, Patrick merely grinned. "Do more, Uncle Rock. Do more," William kept yelling.

Linc picked up Eliza and nibbled at her neck. "I miss my sister's kids," he said to Zack with a slightly dreamy look in those exquisitely blue eyes. "I really have to get out there soon and get my fix."

"Where does your sister live?" Pam asked, eager to get to know him a little better. She didn't stop to examine her motives.

"You must be Pam. Hi, Rock told me a little about what you need. I guess you've figured out who I am, and we can talk business later. My sisters and their broods are in the Chicago area and I miss them like crazy. If you want to get into modeling or acting, though, you've got to be here in New York."

"Is that what you want to do ultimately?"

"I try not to think about ultimately. I'd just like to know I
can get into showbiz, then I'll figure out where to go from there. I'm willing to think about next week, but further than that can take care of itself."

"Good plan, as long as you have no ties, no responsibilities."

"That's me. No ties. No nothing."

"I see you two have met," Marcy said. Rock motioned everyone toward the back of the house. "We can talk business after dinner."

Rock had set up a table in the kitchen with a high chair and two booster seats for Marcy and Zack's children and a wrought-iron table and chairs in the backyard for the grown-ups. "The kids are pretty good and while we eat we can see them easily," Zack said. "I'm just as happy to have a little quiet."

"I need to be in the kitchen for a bit, so I'll keep an eye on them. You all eat like adults for a change."

"Rock, you're a prince among men," Zack said.

"I know that," he said, lifting Eliza into her high chair. "I'm terrific." He nibbled on her neck until she was helpless with giggles.

"And modest, too," Linc said. "But I'm sure Marcy and Zack are grateful."

Rock turned out to be a fabulous cook, and dinner was superb. Pam got to know and like both Rock and Zack, but she tried to avoid dealing with Linc. She needed to get some perspective on him before she thought about him too deeply. She remembered Rock's comment that Linc dressed up well. She looked at his simple short-sleeved denim shirt and jeans with a well-developed but not flamboyant body beneath. He dressed down well, too. She couldn't stop the vision of him naked that flashed through her mind.
Stop it. You're behaving like a silly teenager looking at some rock star
.

"Will it?" Linc asked.

"Sorry," Pam said, refocusing on the conversation, "I'm afraid I was woolgathering. What did you ask?"

"Marcy's told me about the party, and I wondered whether this would be the only time I'd be needed or will this kind of entertaining become a habit at your house?"

"Interesting question," she said. "I don't know what Rob, or anyone else for that matter, will want in the future."

Marcy chimed in. "I have a few ideas for your place if you're not too turned off by Rob's party. After all, we can't do any outdoor or country type stuff here." Pam watched the wheels turning in Marcy's head. "For an additional fee to my customers, I could hire a limo and transport clients up to your place and they could meet a lady there. Making love in a garden, or in the pool. Or," she said, planning as she spoke, "I could book your place for multiple encounters, like several guys who want to party together."

"I remember several weeks ago you had something you had to turn down," Zack said, lifting Eliza onto his lap. "Did you have a good dinner, sweetums?" he asked her as an aside to the main conversation. She patted his face and then, with a grin, took a cookie from his plate. "God, she's got me just where she wants me," he said, shaking his head slowly.

"Right. Those three guys from lower Manhattan who wanted a party with lots of space. Your place would have been perfect, Pam."

"Don't get ahead of yourself, Marcy," Pam said. "I'm still not sure about all this."

"You take all the time you need to be comfortable with whatever decision you make, but just remember the kind of money we're talking about."

At that moment a pair of little dynamos ran outside and attacked their mother. Patrick climbed onto her lap with William grinning but remaining in the background. "Uncle Rock says we can have ice cream but only if you say it's all right," Patrick said. "Can we, Mommy?"

Marcy looked at the people at the table. "William always puts Patrick up to asking stuff like this, the little conniver."

"He takes after you," her husband said.

Marcy nodded in agreement, then said to her son, "You may have a small ice cream as long as you ate your dinner."

"Rock says we did okay," William said, "and what's a conniver?"

Everyone laughed and Zack said to his son, "That's what you are, my love. Just like Mommy."

Pam knew that Marcy was manipulative, but she wasn't being talked into anything she didn't really want.

"Much as I'm enjoying myself, I've got to get home," Linc said, pulling a business card from his wallet and offering it to Pam. "Here are my numbers, both home and cell. I'm certainly interested in coming to your gathering, and I agree with everyone that you need someone to be there just in case, if only for the guy who's had too much to drink."

She'd told him the plans for Rob's party. "Does the date work for you?"

"No problem."

She rose. "I've got to get going, too," she said, "but first let me help with the cleanup." She gathered several plates and carried them into the kitchen.

Rock took them from her and put them into the dishwasher. "No need, Pam. This will only take a few moments."

"Take him up on his offer and beat it, Pam," Zack said.

"Right," Marcy chimed in. "This is the first and last time you'll be company here."

After a moment's hesitation, she agreed. "I'm driving back to Westchester," she said to Linc, "and I gather you live up that way. Can I give you a lift somewhere?"

"I've got my own car," he said. "Miracle of miracles, I actually found a spot on the street."

Pam walked out through the front door and turned right toward her garage, while Linc turned left. With a wave he said, "It was nice meeting you, Pam, and I hope there's a future in this entertaining of yours. It should be fun for both of us."

Was there a double meaning there or was she just hoping there was? Hussy! "I think there might just be."

"Great. Call me and we'll firm up arrangements."

Firm up. He would firm up well, she thought, then pushed the thought away. Would everything always be a double entendre for her now? More questions. "Will do," she said, and as she walked down the street she found she was glad she'd be alone on her trip home. She had quite a bit of thinking to do.

As she drove north, she thought about the morality of dating, and of course having sex with, two men at the same time, and now lusting after a third. Rob and Gary were wonderful fun, no ties, nothing serious. She knew Gary pretty well, at least as well as she could know someone after a dozen dates, and she had fun with Rob, both out of bed and in it. But she didn't love either of them, nor did she see a long-term future with either. Did she care? Not right now.

Then there was Linc, an actor and part-time male prostitute. There was some kind of chemistry between them, at least on her part. Had he reacted the same way? She had no idea. As attractive as he was, this kind of chemistry must happen all the time, and she certainly didn't want to become some kind of Linc groupie.

Then there was Rob's party. She was actually going to become some sort of a madam, inviting men and women into her house to have sex. Okay, okay, it was just a business party and she was not taking an active role in it, but still it would be in her house, with her knowledge. And Linc would be there.

The Madam of Maple Court. Quite a title.

She went over her discussion of prostitution with Marcy in her mind again. Why didn't she see anything wrong with it? Of course men should be home with their wives. Hadn't she been deeply hurt by Vin's defection? Why didn't men discuss these things with their wives rather than take out their frustrations with hookers?

How would she have reacted if Vin had asked for new, creative things in the bedroom? She hoped that she would have been supportive and adventurous. She was afraid, however, that she would have been a little taken aback and negative. Would Vin have decided to change the subject? That might just have happened.