The Pastor’s Jezebel Lover (12 page)

For the first time since he’d set foot in the house, the older man smiled, his parchment face crackling at the cheeks. “I can assure you, Mr Ruffalo, that Eileen Stoker is in no way, shape of form capable of committing the crimes she’s being accused of.”

“Oh? And how do you come to such a conclusion, sir, if you don’t mind my asking?”

The old man rose from his seat, and walked over to the window. Frank caught a glimpse of a spruce tree, and wondered if Summers lived alone in this big house or if he had a family.

“I know Eileen Stoker as if she were my own flesh and blood,” he croaked, and Frank was surprised at the frailty of his voice. “In fact it was me who brought them together. I’d known Jack for years, having gone into business together, and seen him flit from flower to flower, drinking deep and hard from any nectar he could find. I felt it was time for him to settle down and raise a family, hoping it would give him the stability he required.” He turned to face Frank and shook his head. “Bad call, sir. Very bad call indeed. You can’t turn a man into something he’s not. It was a lesson learned, though at the expense of a good woman.

“Eileen Stoker.”

“Yes. Eileen was a delicate flower when I met her, having been spiritually weather-beaten by most of the people she associated with. She worked as my secretary and I’d seen Jack develop a keen interest in her. Eileen is one of the few people in this world on whom the expression ‘heart of gold’ is still applicable.” He shrugged. “I figured she could make something of Jack. Could apply some of that rare alchemy and affect his warped soul. Of course the reverse was what happened. His deviant behavior only worsened, and Eileen was crushed by the weight of his despicable behavior.”

“So you’re saying Eileen would never commit murder.”

The old man whipped his head around. “Never, Mr Ruffalo, is correct. Eileen wouldn’t hurt a fly. She’s the purest soul I ever encountered and I still rue the day I ever allowed Jack to place his filthy hands on her.”

Frank sat back, puzzled by this sudden outburst. “It seems to me, sir, that you’ve developed certain… feelings for Eileen. Am I correct in that assumption?”

If he’d expected the other to fly into a rage at this, he was mistaken. The man merely smiled serenely. “You’re quite right. I did develop certain feelings for Eileen, only not the ones you surmise. I felt like a father to that young woman. Protectiveness, not sexual attraction, is what defined our relationship.”

Frank nodded, deciding not to believe the old coot. “So you must have been extremely disappointed when the marriage failed.”

Summers let himself sink into his chair again. It seemed to dwarf him, which strengthened Frank’s opinion he’d been much a much bigger and stronger man before the disease—whatever it was—had eaten away at him.

“I was not disappointed, sir. Not at all. I was pleased when Eileen finally screwed up her courage and filed for divorce.”

“There’s some dispute about that. Jack claimed she never filed for divorce. He did, and she thwarted him.”

The old man placed his hands together. “That’s the crux of the matter, isn’t it, sir?”

Frank decided that it probably was, so he acknowledged by tapping his pencil on his notebook.

“Jack loved his wife, Mr Ruffalo. As hard as it may seem to believe that simple fact, he did. In his own way, he was very fond of Eileen, and when she filed for divorce, he was both horrified and extremely upset. That’s why he did what he did. And that’s why we’re sitting here, talking to one another.”

“I, erm, don’t understand, sir.”

“I bet you don’t. It wasn’t Eileen’s fault that she married that monster, sir. It was mine. So I did what was necessary to ensure her release from the prison I’d condemned her to. I filed for divorce, and when Jack found out, he had a hissy fit to end all hissy fits.” A strange sound escaped the old man’s throat, and Frank thought it might be a laugh of sorts. “So, young man. Shocked, are you?”

“I wouldn’t say shocked exactly,” replied Frank. “Puzzled, perhaps.”

The old man closed his eyes and emitted a light chuckle. “I thought as much.” He then fixed his pale blue eyes on Frank. “What would you say if I tell you Miss Stoker befalls no blame in all of this?”

“You mean her marriage falling apart? I’m happy to believe that.”

Summers clucked his tongue in annoyance. “Not the marriage, you young fool.” He stretched out his hand in an all-encompassing gesture. “All of it. The death of that lawyer woman Jack was screwing, the car accident and, last but not least, the sad demise of the great Jack Rafter himself.”

Frank eyed the man in astonishment. “You mean to say she’s innocent?”

Summers shook his head slowly and deliberately, then, with a twinkle in his eye, leaned back in his chair. “Would you like to hear an interesting story, Mr Ruffalo? Pray tell if you’re not interested. I won’t occupy any more of your time. But if you do? Hold onto your britches, my lad, for it’s a fine yarn I’m about to dispense with.”

Eileen was pushing through to the path that she knew led to the main road. She cursed her rashness when dressing to go out and shivered in her thin coat and simple sneakers. She should have known she couldn’t trust men in general and Ramon in particular.

“Eileen! Wait up!” he was yelling in her rear.

She paid him no mind. He could yell until he was blue in the face for all she cared. After the way he’d treated her there was no going back.

“Leave me alone!” she screamed when he finally caught up with her.

He’d all but called her a whore. From the others she’d come to expect as much, but not from the man who was supposedly in love with her.

He reached for her arm and pulled her back, flipping her so they were facing each other.

“Eileen, I’m-I’m sorry! I-I didn’t know—”

“This is the last time I’ll ever speak to you,” she bit back, “so if you have something to say to me you better make it good. After this it’s over between us.”

He looked properly horrified, she had to give him that. For a man only interested in her boobs he made quite an effort to convince her otherwise.

“I never tried to seduce your stupid friend, you hear? And if he says I did, he’s mistaken. I did hug him, yes, and perhaps a little bit too frivolously, but that was only my way of showing him my gratitude for coming to my defense.”

“He says you threw yourself at him, that you…” He grimaced. “… rubbed your tits in his face, practically inviting him to take you right there.”

She stood panting, horrified. It was her life story all over again, wasn’t it? Each time the same thing over and over. Suddenly a berserk inclination held her its grip, and before his surprised gaze, she ripped open her coat then her shirt, then yanked down on her bra and revealed her naked flesh to him, her large pear-shaped breasts tumbling out.

“Here. This is what you all want, isn’t it!” she screamed. “Take em. You can have em. This is all I am to you, right? A big pair of tits?” She shoved them at Ramon who involuntarily closed his fingers around her shivering boobs.

“I…” he began, then cupped her breasts in his hands, and stood gazing at her for the longest time. “Eileen… I’m sorry. It’s just that… Frank told me the story and I went crazy with jealousy. Just the thought of you with him… It was just too much.”

The feel of Ramon’s warm hands on her breasts stirred a deep and overpowering sensation of lust in Eileen, and when he gently started kneading them with his strong fingers, she emitted a soft moan.

“I-I did hug him, Ramon. I did press myself up against him, but never with the intention of sleeping with the man. I would never have done that. I merely wanted to express my gratitude the only way I knew how.” She stared down at his hands on her white flesh, and shivered, and not just from the cold. “I probably shouldn’t have done it. It was rash and stupid. I just figured that people say all those horrible things about me being a whore…”

“You might just as well prove them right?” he murmured softly.

She nodded, a tear stealing from her eye and trickling down her cheek.

“I understand,” he said simply, and he knew that he did.

“Oh, Ramon,” she whispered, throwing her arms around his neck. “You’re such a good man and I—”

“You’re a good woman, Eileen. Don’t let anyone convince you otherwise. You’re the perfect woman… for me.”

His lips hungrily sought hers, and she gave, again, as if nothing could stand between them, not even the incident with Frank, which was all her fault, she now realized.

“It’ll never happen again,” she muttered, and then his hands enveloped her and she found herself floating in his warm embrace, their tongues dancing the intoxicating dance she’d come to long for with all her heart. She quickly stripped off the rest of her blouse and now she was naked before him, uncovered in all her glory, her nipples, like the rest of her flesh, goose-pimply and cold but she didn’t care, and neither did he, for he warmed her bosom with the heat from his mouth, his breath misty wisps of fog, the fever of their passion enough to keep them warm.

“Take me, Ramon,” she urged. “Take me here.”

The memory of her dead husband a mere hundred yards away could only be dispelled by Ramon’s sweet caress, his hot kisses and his urgent pounding thrusts that drove every thought from her mind.

Leaning against a snow-covered three, she offered him her body, and when he gently stripped down her jeans and slip and entered her from behind, she cried out like a virgin experiencing physical love for the first time.

He came hard as he pounded her relentlessly in the heart of Brookridge forest, the wintry blanket muffling the sounds of their sex, Eileen’s loins soft and wet in spite of the icy cold. He slipped his burgeoning fury inside her as if he’d never done anything else, and as he melted inside her tender flesh, pummeling her sweet crevasse, he clasped his hands and held her twin mounds of joy, the ones that had caused her so much sorrow and pain in her young life, and made all the hurt go away simply by the soft touch of his warm hands and the deep urging of his flesh inside her belly.

Over and over again, he took her, the wet sounds of their connection providing a blanket of arousal that drove them to ever higher planes of pleasure.

And when finally he exploded inside her, directing a steady stream straight into the center of her sex, he was fulfilling her whispered desire, expressed over and over that he bless her fertile womb with the harvest of his love.

“I bless you, Eileen,” he grunted when finally the eruption sprang forth from his boiling girth. “I bless you with my life and soul and the seeds of my body.”

As the nectar of their love dribbled down her bare legs, he declared his love to her, and went down on one knee to offer her his heart and his everlasting devotion.

“I do,” she whispered, and they sealed the moment with a kiss before realizing they were both naked as newborn babes, and hurriedly got dressed before anyone would catch them in the act and cart them off to prison. Again.

Giggling and staggering like children, they finally reached Ramon’s car, and as they drove off, Ramon knew that this day had changed his life forever. Never again would he doubt Eileen or his love for her. She was a free woman now, the husband who never loved her a thing of the past.

Nothing could stand in the way of their love, and marriage was not a distant dream beyond the horizon anymore but a reality.

He was going to be married to Eileen Stoker, and nothing could have filled him with more joy.

Frank hurried home. Some of the things the old man had said were simply too outrageous to be true and he needed time to reflect on them, think things through before he made his decision.

“Are you in or out?” the old man had croaked.

“I’m in. Definitely.”

But was he, really? If what Summers said was true, he would be tied up in litigation for a long time. On the other hand, the rewards were stupendous.

At the moment when Franklin Summers had made the offer he’d eagerly agreed with whatever the contract stipulated, but now? Cool reflection would lead to the right answer, he thought feverishly, his brain fried from an overload of information.

His phone chimed and he checked the display. Ramon. Of course. He hesitated, then decided not to speak to his old friend just yet. First things first. And in Frank Ruffalo’s mind Frank Ruffalo always came first.

“If you’ll work for me,” Summers had offered, “you’ll never have to defend any slimy skunks ever again, and neither will you have to concern yourself with the sordid details of another man’s private life. The only sordid details that will be of your concern will be mine, and you’ll be generously compensated.”

When the terms had been briefly discussed, Frank had had to keep a cool head, for he would have jumped at the chance. Now he didn’t want to seem too eager. Perhaps even drive a hard bargain. Wasn’t that what you did in these circumstances? The chance of a lifetime came along and you played hard to get and drove up the price to a number that ensured you never had to worry about money ever again?

He didn’t have much time, however. The old man’s timetable was set in stone. Tonight was the night and if he didn’t give him an answer, he was out. It was as simple as that. It wasn’t as if the billionaire needed Frank. He had an entire legal team already in place, with one available spot for a mercenary lawyer. If Frank wanted that spot, he had to decide fast.

“You think things over as much as you want, Frank,” the old man had said. “But if I don’t hear from you when the clock strikes midnight, know that the best offer you’ll ever get in your life will have expired. No second chances, son. That’s how the game is played.”

For a moment, he wavered. What would Ramon think? And Eileen for that matter? But then again, the only reason he’d been offered this position was because he was the young woman’s attorney. A real stroke of luck, that. He pounded his steering wheel excitedly. Yes! Finally Frank Ruffalo made good.

His phone chimed a second time, and this time his hand hovered over the connect button placed on his steering wheel, and then finally he decided to ignore Ramon altogether. Not tonight, old buddy, he thought. Tonight is all about Frank Ruffalo and no one else.