PARANORMAL ROMANCE: Haunted Whispers (4 page)

              For the next gathering, Julie changed her tactics. She chose a pretty dress that came down four inches above her knees. She'd chosen it for its scoop neckline. She remembered the dream and stood before a mirror looking at herself.

              Etienne and Veronique stood directly in back of her. Veronique sighed. "I have done no good with this one. That dress won't make Jim howl like the wolves."

              "The dream you gave her was perfect. It should have worked."

              "Just a minute. Now, she responds."

              Julie raised her skirt up her legs to mid-thigh, then higher, and turned from side to side. She had to admit she had really pretty legs from all those years of dance classes. She'd spent time and a good deal of her budget buying shoes that resembled those from her dream. She'd worn them on and off to get used to their high heels.

              She took a deep breath and bent over. Her dress fell away from her chest. She looked and frowned. She could see her breasts and the bra she wore, but the bra would hardly attract a man.

              Veronique said, "That bra is better done holding a water dam together."

              "I understood that. Your English is improving."

              "Merci, mon amor."

              Julie took the dress off and removed the bra. She put the dress back on and bent over again. She could see everything she owned above the waist.

              Veronique murmured, "You're very lovely, dear heart. Your breasts are perfect. But Jim will suffer the heart attack if you show him that."

              She remembered a bra she'd purchased a year earlier. It went with a dress she never wore. She put it on and bent over a final time. Perfect. Just the right combination of lace, ribbon and her lovely figure. If Jim didn’t react, she could assume he’d died and take him out and bury him.

              At the party, Julie showed Jim her legs by sitting opposite him during a game of Charades. As she sat down, she slid her skirt up her legs and moved it a little higher each time she moved in her seat. Her legs trailed down and to the side and looked very long and graceful.

              She crossed her legs and let the shoe on one foot drop off until it was held by her toes and nothing else. She bounced her foot up and down. The movement distracted Jim from the game. He glanced… then looked… then memorized.

              There was a mirror on the wall. Julie kept track of Jim by looking in the mirror. She never looked directly at him.

              After the game, she helped serve cookies. She bent at the knees when she held the tray in front of everyone else, but when she offered the plate to Jim, she bent at the waist as she had done in her apartment. She knew her push-up bra made her breasts look full and soft above the cups. The bra had lace across the top and a tiny, blue bow in front.

              She watched him as she held out the plate. He brought his eyes up from the cookies until he looked down her dress. His hand stopped halfway to his mouth and his jaw hung open. He froze. Julie paused to see how long he'd stay that way. It didn't end. She realized that people were going to notice if she prolonged it any more. She moved on to the next person and glanced back at Jim. He hadn't moved. The cookie was still suspended in mid-air.

             
It’s working,
Julie thought.
He’s finally noticing me
. She sunk the hook after the food was eaten. She invited him to clean up the kitchen with her. No sooner had she spoken the words, than he was following behind her as she led the way to the kitchen. If she wasn’t mistaken, she thought she saw him in the mirror studying her ass.
Yesss!

While they washed the dishes, they talked about things other than Monica. This time when she spoke, he actually seemed to be hearing her. He conversed with her while looking into her eyes, and asked questions about her life with genuine interest. In spite of the sexual tension, their conversation flowed easily.

              They'd finished putting the dishes away when Julie lifted her shoulder and moaned. Jim said, "What's wrong?"

              And that’s when Julie sunk her hook. "I have a cramp in my neck. I get these when I stand for a long time." She turned her back to him and lifted her long hair. "See, I've got a knot in the muscles of my shoulder and neck. It hurts."

              The Jim that never noticed her, that was slow to act on her suggestions or enticements, disappeared. The new Jim quickly put both hands on her shoulder and neck and massaged. "Does this help?"

              "Yes. That's perfect." His touch was amazing, and Julie had waited for this moment for so long. The moment when the man of her dreams was genuinely attracted to her as a man to a woman.

              Jim spent time on the muscles in her shoulders. After a few minutes, the massage turned from attention to her muscles to gentle strokes across her skin. She encouraged him by leaning toward the hand that was caressing her the most. She moaned. "This is perfect."

              She had to make a decision. Should she acknowledge the change in their relationship or act as if it hadn't happened?

              She was pretty sure she knew what to do. She’d seen Jim play basketball a number of times. Whenever the defense pressured him, he reacted immediately by attacking the basket. She smiled at him and said, "Thank you. The cramp is gone" and moved back toward the sink.

              One of Jim's hands landed on her shoulder and stopped her progress. The other turned her around slightly. He looked down into her eyes with a very serious expression. He turned her back around so she was facing away from him, pulled her in close to his body and moved her hair away from the side of her neck. She tilted her head a little to make it easier for him.

              She felt his lips graze her skin and smiled knowing she’d made the right play. He kissed the tender skin of her neck just under her ear. She lifted her hand to his head to hold him against her. The soft, tender kisses went on for some time.

              Jim said, "I'm sorry."

              "For kissing me?” Julie felt as though her stomach had dropped to the floor. He was sorry? Now what would she do? “I… I wanted you to do that."

              "No, I'm not sorry for kissing you. Not sorry at all. I’m sorry I didn't do it sooner. I'm sorry I never looked at you as anything more than Monica's friend.” He whispered against her ear, “Will you forgive me?"

              She turned. "Only if you continue to kiss me," she grinned widely at him.

              "Definitely," he smiled back. Jim wrapped his arms around her and held her the way a man holds a bouquet of flowers he doesn't want to crush. His lips pressed against hers. Julie put her arms around his neck and he pulled her against him. Jim felt the fullness of her breasts against his chest and inhaled her perfume. His tongue parted her lips and slowly explored her mouth. She moaned softly. Julie was in heaven. This was the exact moment she would never forget as long as she lived. Their first kiss.

              Veronique and Etienne crowed with delight. Veronique said, "I have done well. Jim sees her as the woman now. Que magnifique!"

              They should have turned around. Inez and Jacques stood in the doorway. Inez looked at Julie with deep hatred. She was pissed and under any other circumstance, she would have simply done something mildly annoying as retribution like writing Julie's name and phone number on a men's room wall with the inscription "For a good time, call Julie". Not tonight. Jacques reached inside her and pumped her emotions up to a boil. He whispered in her ear. "She doesn't deserve him. You do. He will come into a fortune when his parents die. That money should be yours. She’s taken it from you. She must be punished. How can you do it? Think, mon cheri, what could be horrible and permanent for this stealer of men." Her face became hard with cruelty and aggression.

              Inez picked up money from time to time by selling drugs on campus. Her supplier, BB Thompson, would be able to aid her in this situation, she was certain of it.

              She left the gathering and drove to the industrial part of town. She pulled into the driveway of an odd house right in the middle of the factories and warehouses. The companies who constructed the buildings bought out all of the houses but one. By chance, no one wanted or needed the small post-war bungalow. It served as a luncheonette for a while and then a house of prostitution. Finally, it was abandoned and BB moved in.

              Inez could hear screams coming from the back of the house. She didn't knock. She passed several bikers sprawled on a couch and walked into the back bedroom. BB was beating a man close to death with his fists. The man was covered in his own blood. Inez didn't notice him. She said, "BB, I need to talk to you about something that will make you a lot of money. Is there someplace private?"

              BB stood five feet eight inches tall. When he was fourteen, a gang of bullies beat him savagely with baseball bats. He survived, but hate and revenge made a home in his heart. He recruited his own gang and dealt with the bullies with drive-by shootings.

              He built himself up with weights the wrong way. Impatient and short sighted, he took steroids to put on muscle. The drugs emphasized his natural cruelty and lack of self-control. He led Inez outside to his car. They were alone. He said, "How much money?"

              Inez said, "Ten grand."

"That works. What do you want done?"

"I want a girl's life ruined. Permanently. Any ideas?"

              "Yeah," BB smiled. His eye were tiny slits in a round, pudgy face. "I'll sell her to a man I know. He runs a brothel in Mexico. She'll never recover after a year as a hooker. He'll get her addicted to meth if I ask him to."

              A dark shadow fell on Inez' emotions. For a second, she shuddered at the prospect of forcing another woman into prostitution. Jacques said, "No, my little one. She must be punished. She should have her life torn apart. She stole your man and embarrassed and humiliated you. That's not something you can forgive or forget." He paused. "And there's the money that should be yours."

              Inez nodded agreement, although she didn't know she was agreeing with Jacques. At that moment, she embraced evil and cruelty. She handed a small piece of paper with Julie's address and phone number to BB. She said, "Grab her any time after midnight. She'll be asleep and alone. She's a goody-goody." Inez turned on her heel and strode away quickly, an excited half-smile across her face.

              Jim drove Julie home and took her hand in his as he walked her to her apartment entrance. Few words were spoken, this was all so new, but he kissed her again long and slowly at her doorway. He didn't try to get into her apartment.

              Julie walked inside, and leaned against the closed door. Tonight felt as though it was the best night of her life. Tonight was the start of what she knew to be her destiny - a future with Jim.

She changed into her nightie and went to bed. Etienne and Veronique watched from across the room with a smile on their faces. They had succeeded with this couple, time to move on. They slipped away.

              A minute later, Veronique lay down on a small bed beside a four-year-old girl who was twitching in her sleep. Veronique put her arm around her and said, into her ear, "Quiet, little Michelle. All is well. There are no monsters under the bed or in the closet. Your loving grand maman chased them away." Veronique stroked Michelle's forehead and hair. In a few minutes, Michelle slept soundly.

              They left Michelle's bedroom quietly, even though Michelle wouldn't have heard them if they'd driven away in a steam locomotive. Outside, Veronique said, "I am restless, dear husband. Watching the fine Julie discover herself has stoked my memories. How I loved being alive and having a proper body. So stirring. I want more."

              "I know a way," Etienne said. "Come with me."

              BB found the address easily. He studied the apartment building and grinned. Julie’s apartment was on the first floor and next to a door leading outside. This couldn’t be simpler. He walked inside and kicked the door in with one blow.

              He stomped through the front room into the bedroom. He didn’t see the pictures of her family on the dresser or the lacrosse stick from her high school days. He didn’t see the handmade quilt on the bed or the stack of letters from home on her night stand.

              He paused as he stood by the bed. Very gently, he lifted the single sheet covering Julie and tossed it down by her feet.

              Slowly, he picked up her tee shirt and laid it back under her shoulders. His hands hovered over her breasts for a second then clamped down on them. He pulled and twisted.

              Julie woke up immediately. She looked down at the hands abusing her body then up at the walking nightmare who owned them. She opened her mouth to scream and BB hit her with his closed fist on the point of her chin. Her head whipped back, and she lost consciousness.

              BB spent a few minutes exploring her body until he heard someone in the apartment next to Julie moving around. He threw her body over his shoulder and walked quickly out of the building to his car. He dumped her in the back with two members of his motorcycle gang and drove off.