"There's no moon tonight."
She was lying in the grass staring up at the sky.
"What are you doing out here?" Lorenzo asked.
She lifted up the joint he hadn't seen and offered it to him. He declined but sat down beside her as she took another toke, held her breath as long as she could stand it and let out a long breath.
Lorenzo watched her eyes water. He looked past her to the back of the barn where Luis had pulled his new convertible around. He had the top down and the cassette player was blasting as Isabella danced around in front of the head lights for his amusement.
"Luis was an idiot to bring that stuff back on the plane." He shook his head.
"He didn't," Juliette mumbled beside him. "Isa got it."
So much had changed in a year. When he and Luis went back to school the previous fall, they had left behind two chubby little girls. There were changes underway by Christmas but the full affect set in that spring.
Only that afternoon they'd come home. Luis from his freshman year at Princeton and Lorenzo from his last year at boarding school. Luis had offered to pick the girls up from school so he could drive the new convertible Carlos had bought him.
They found both girls waiting out front. Juliette sat on a bench, doodling in a notebook. But Isabella? Isabella was so busy flirting she hadn't even seen her brothers pull up. If not for Juliette, they might have driven past her completely.
The school uniform was ghastly, but Isa made the most of it. Rolling up her skirt so high that if she bent over, red panties would be in full view. The bra matched and there was no bending needed to reveal this. It was clearly visible through the white school blouse. There were numerous bracelets on both arms. Long dangling ear rings and a large gold cross that looked anything but Holy resting between new fully developed breasts.
Juliette climbed in the back of the convertible with out a word but Isa made a huge scene when she ran from the boys to throw herself into Luis's arms and cover his face with red lipstick.
Isa was now out of uniform and on full display. She wore a leather mini skirt and over sized sweat shirt she had cut the neck out of so it fell from her shoulders to show off the black bra she had changed into. She spun in circles on heels so high it seemed to Lorenzo they would be impossible to walk in, much less dance in.
"What time is it?" Juliette asked.
"Three o'clock."
"Where have you been?" she asked him as she plucked a blade of grass and looked at it with utter fascination.
"To see Daphne."
"Why are you back so soon?"
Lorenzo flashed on the picture in his head of the whore he'd left naked and crying in the middle of her apartment. "We were finished," he shrugged.
"Everyone is pissed at you. She sees no one when you are gone."
"Who is everyone?" He narrowed his eyes.
Juliette shrugged. "All the men she used to fuck, I guess."
"Where did you hear this?"
"Where I hear everything. Carlos's men."
"They shouldn't tell you..."
"They don't tell me anything. I HEAR. They're pissed. She loves you."
That was the problem. One he was going to have to solve. He paid her rent, he did it because it kept her in town and it was a nice thing to do. It wasn't about love. It was about convenience. Daphne was becoming inconvenient. And VERY demanding. She was 32 years old, at least! What the hell did she think was going to happen? Was he supposed to marry her? A prostitute? A barely literate prostitute?
He could take the mood swings. The pouting. The screaming at him. He was used to the drama, it was part of the thrill. But the crying? That's all she seemed to do now. Instead of exciting, it just made him feel guilty. Who wanted to pay to feel guilty?
"You have to get rid of her," Juliette nodded, giving a voice to the thoughts in his head.
What was more disconcerting? The fact that she knew him so well? Or the fact that at 14, she understood the situation so well?
"She said she'd slit her wrists."
Juliette decided she was too stoned to come up with a solution to the Daphne problem. "What about the other one?"
"Jenny?"
"How many are there?"
"Jenny's fine."
"She wants to come."
"I told her we would be out of the country."
Juliette took another hit off the joint and sat up beside her brother. Jenny. The opposite of Daphne she supposed. She sounded that way on the phone anyway.
Juliette wouldn't even know the American girlfriend existed except she called every single day when Lorenzo was home.
American girls were idiots. French girls would NEVER be so stupid as to call men constantly. Where was the mystery? Where was the intrigue? How could a woman give up her power so easily?
Lorenzo never mentioned her. But she called, asked for him in her broken and irritating French. She'd try to make polite conversation with whoever answered the phone while she waited for Lorenzo, who always took the call and from what Juliette could see, did much more listening than talking.
Jenny's Mommy and Daddy were taking her to Europe this summer. She would be in France in July and wanted to meet his family.
Juliette was half inclined to invite the very sunny and sweet Jenny over for a visit. No trip to Europe was complete without a trip to the Alcazar home.
Come see the decaying and crumbling old mansion! The men with guns that roam what used to be the gardens. Come listen to Carlos curse in three different languages! Come join us for dinner as Mother is chained.
Jenny and her folks would never forget Europe!
"Where is the moon?" Juliette looked up at the sky.
We are young, heartache to heartache we stand.
No promises, no demands
Isabella swayed seductively to Pat Benatar. She looked free. But they weren't.
They weren't young either. Never had been.
No one had to tell them everything was wrong. No one had to tell them never to bring their friends home. They knew. They knew from the time they toddled off to kindergarten.
He knew he couldn't explain it to Jenny. It would horrify her. He knew Daphne wouldn't understand it. She just knew they had money. For Daphne, people with money didn't have problems. No one would really understand it.
So he'd keep his Daphnes for fun and his Jennys for show. He could fight and fuck Daphne. He could talk and listen to Jenny. Neither one would ever come close to the truth that Juliette knew. That Isa rebelled against. That Luis seemed to thrive on.
What sort of woman would understand such a depraved existence? And even if she did, wouldn't she run?
"I love the dark," Alexis moaned.
"I thought you might." Lorenzo reached for her and dragged her limp body to him, over him, grasping her thigh to pull it over his hip.
She settled in with out complaint, kissing his chest, trying to make out his eyes in the pitch black room. "I think I'm dead. I think you killed me."
He ran his hands up and down her back, stopping to squeeze her ass. "I think there is life left in you yet."
She moved up and kissed his neck. "You are going to wake up tomorrow next to a corpse" she whispered.
"You feel alive to me."
******Locked Suite********
E-mail paytilee@bellsouth.net or Reb for a password if you are over 17.
********
"Lorenzo?"
"What?"
"Is it always going to be like this?"
"No."
"How do you know?"
"I just do."
"He won't ever let us leave."
"It won't be up to him."
"Where would we go?"
"Anywhere we want."
"But we'll still be alone."
"You're stoned Juliette."
"Yes."
"So don't try getting deep when you're stoned. You just end up sounding foolish."
"You know you can't ever tell either of them. Jenny or Daphne I mean."
"Yes."
"So...what's the point?"
"Maybe there isn't one."
"Maybe you're right. But I hope you aren't."
Lorenzo watched as Isabella took a tiny vile from her bra, held it up to her nose, snorted the white powder from one of her long finger nails and continued to dance.
"So do I."
There was light when she opened her eyes. Not the bright kind of sunlight that made her want to burrow under the covers but just a soft gray that seemed to tumble in from above.
Soothing, inviting her to open her eyes slowly without recrimination from her pupils.
He didn't snore. Wonders never ceased. She turned under the possessive arm thrown over her and watched him.
She bit her lip. It was true. There were no scars. No marks of any kind. Just perfect lean muscle over a tall and solid frame. Warm skin. Tousled hair. The beard Kristina loved.
"What are you doing?"
"Admiring the view."
He nodded but didn't open his eyes.
He was tangled in sheets. Alexis realized there was only one pillow still on the bed and she had it.
"Still admiring?" he mumbled.
She moved closer and kissed his chest. "Yes. And procrastinating."
"Why?"
"I don't want to get up."
"We don't have to."
"Yes I do."
"I'm your boss. Take the day off. Stay in bed all day."
"Nice boss. But I have things to do."
"Like check Kristina for horns?"
Alexis slapped at him playfully. "I can't believe you made me watch that."
"I didn't make you."
"I know, I know."
"But I'm glad you didn't kick me out last night."
"So am I," Alexis smiled.
"Because I would have had nightmares if I'd gone home and had to sleep alone." He smiled but still kept his eyes closed.
Alexis tried to move away but he pulled her closer. "I told you, day off."
"I have to call my brother," she grumbled.
"Why?"
"I don't know. I don't think he cares but I guess I should tell him I moved."
Lorenzo finally opened his eyes. "Why didn't he help you?"
Alexis thought for a minute. "There are other things going on."
"You're his sister."
"It's a Cassadine thing. Don't ask me to explain it, I can't."
"Try."
"Why didn't you stay longer with your sister at the hospital?"
"It's a Juliette thing."
"Not you?"
"No. I would have stayed but she wouldn't want that."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
"So you can't explain it either."
He pulled her in closer. "But I want to try."
She could feel the tension in his body. His eyes were focused, sharper than she could believe for someone who just woke up. She leaned forward and kissed his neck. She reached up and fingered the chain around it. "Do you ever take this off?"
"No."
"Why?"
"It doesn't come off. My Mother gave it to me."
"It...it doesn't come off?"
"No."
She felt more than tension then. He was sad and..anxious? It pulled at her suddenly. More than she expected. More than it should.
"Lorenzo?"
"The Cassadines are notorious. I've heard stories that seem unreal. They seem like something out of ancient history, a fairytale..."
"A nightmare? Trust me. They are true."
"I know."
Alexis frowned. "I'm not part of that. I try to stay out of it."
"But you never really can, can you?"
"I try," she whispered. "You don't know."
"I know."
What sort of woman would understand such a depraved existence? And even if she did, wouldn't she run?
She realized her heart was racing. They were on the edge of something. "I don't need to know." She gave him the out.
"But I need to tell you. But if I start, I might not be able to stop."
Kristen
