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The Fantasy Maker Chapter 17
"I want to go back."Jen studied Emma over the top of her coffee cup. "Emma, I don't""I want to go back. I want to know more about the things they do there.""Why?"Emma took a sip of her own coffee before glancing over her shoulder for eavesdroppers, even though she knew Steve and the boys were safely on their way to their appropriate Wednesday morning destinations. Then her eyes moved to the tightly closed door that opened into her recently completed studio. No one to worry about over there, either. They guys had taken the day off to wait for more supplies. Or something like that.But, somehow, she still felt like she was revealing a secret that had the power to destroy her."I just-" she bit her lip, annoyed that yet another blush was burning across her cheeks. "I just want to try it one more time."Jen put down her cup and sat back, her eyes moving slowly over Emma's face. "Did you tell Steve?"She nearly laughed at the thought. They might coexist in the same house, but it
The Fantasy Maker Chapter 18
Emma shouldered her way through the growing crowd, her camera clutched tight against her chest to protect it from an accidental jab from someone's elbow. She caught her mother's eye and offered a slight smile, as though to say, what can you expect?The smile faltered when Steve moved up behind her mother, tapping her shoulder to let her know he was there. Of all the school programs he had ever made it to since Seth had started school, he had to make it to this one. She wanted to scream with frustration. The last thing she needed today was Steve.But he was their father.Emma found a blank spot against a far wall. She lifted the camera to her eye, focusing the lens on the stage where Justin's class would soon appear. They had worked on this play for weeks. Emma knew Justin's part better than she suspected he knew it. He was so nervous this morning that he almost talked her into letting him stay home. She hoped he was better now that he was around his friends. But she suspected not.
The Fantasy Maker Chapter 19
The glass of wine tasted like sweet nectar on her tongue. It wasn't even five o'clock in the afternoon. She had just picked up the boys from school, should be in the dining room helping them with their homework. But she so needed the oblivion the wine offered. She wasn't sure how much longer she could do this.It took so much more effort to pretend that everything was okay than it did to accept defeat. Her marriage was over. She could say it to herself. Why couldn't she say it to him?Speaking of the devil. Steve walked into the room, tugging at the tie around his neck as he spotted the bottle of wine on the table. He went to a cabinet and pulled down a glass. "What are you doing here?" she asked as he made his way to the table."I still live here," he said, helping himself to the wine.Emma let the comment slide, not really in the mood to argue with him. Instead, she swallowed the last of the wine in her glass and held it out for a refill. He obliged, filling it to the rim
The Fantasy Maker Chapter 20
Dante stood in the middle of the room, his wrists tied with a thick silk rope that ran through an eye in the ceiling and tied off on another eye attached to the wall. He was naked, his body fully exposed. Emma, dressed in a tight bustier and her a thong, walked slowly around him, a leather flogger with no less than thirty distinct lashes clutched too tightly in her hand."I don't want to hurt you.""You won't.""But this thing looks pretty solid."Dante smiled. "It'll sting, but it won't leave marks."Emma bit her lip. "I just don't want do something wrong.""You won't," he said again. "Trust me."She moved close to him and ran a hand along his chest. "I like this, I like the control," she said as she let her hand wander down the length of his abdomen. "I like touching you.""I can't say I mind it all that much," he said, stepping forward as far as the rope would allow him. "You can do that all you want."Emma looked up, attracted by the rough edge to his voice, but it was the
The Fantasy Maker Chapter 21
"You've been married twelve years, is that right?"Steve nodded. "Yes, twelve years this past November."The reporter nodded, looking at her phone where she had notes stored. "And you celebrated in the Turks and Caicos Islands, correct?"Emma couldn't help the tension that slid into her shoulders at the mention of that recently contentious location. Steve squeezed her hand, as though trying to remind her of the pact they had made."It was a gift from my in-laws."The reporter looked up, her blue eyes roving slowly over Steve's face as though looking for some sort of clue in his expression. She had been looking at him that way since she walked into the house. Emma looked away, trying to remind herself that she was no longer supposed to get jealous when women looked at Steve in a certain way. It was no longer any of her business.But some habits are hard to break.She shifted slightly on the couch, her eyes roaming the tidiness of the great room. It was perfect for this sort of th
The Fantasy Maker Chapter 22
"Did you really think they wouldn't put it together?"Steve shook his head as he tugged at the bow tie he had already tied four times and still couldn't get quite right. He dropped his hands to his sides in frustration. Emma glanced at him, annoyed that he was there. If her parents hadn't arrived early to sit with the kids, he would be downstairs in the study, dressing in front of a handheld shaving mirror."How?""I guess investigative reporters are pretty smart, Steve," Emma said. "At least, they aren't as oblivious as I was.""Emma""Don't," she said, her voice filled more with defeat than anything else. She leaned forward, trying to apply eye liner with a hand that shook. He'd turned back to his laptop, tension in every line of his body.Some blogger had printed a post just two hours ago that accused Steve of an affair. Although Steve had managed to ignore the bait Amanda Barker had thrown out at him three days ago, this anonymous blogger had found what he called 'strong evid
The Fantasy Maker Chapter 23
Emma found herself sitting between the governor's chief of staff and a Houston oil man. Steve sat across from her. She could feel his eyes on her each time she said something to one of her dinner companions, or took a sip of the white wine they had served with the salmon. She disliked fish with a passion, so she swallowed more wine than food."There must be some perks to being married to the mayor," the oilman, Ted-something, said in her ear."A few, I suppose," she said."Like a break on sales tax."Emma laughed. "I wish.""Or prime parking spots."Emma shook her head. "No, not really.""Then what?" he asked, his eyes wandering her chest as he gazed down at her."There's always exciting dinners like this and meeting people like you."His muddy eyes moved up to hers. "But I'm sure you get bored, meeting new people all the time.""Not always. I've met some really good people at these events."He leaned closer, practically drooling down the front of her dress. "How many of the
The Fantasy Maker Chapter 24
"Is there anything you won't do?"Dante glanced at Emma as he rolled up the thin silk rope he had just removed from her wrists. "Only one.""What's that?"He dropped the rope into a cabinet where it would wait for its next victim. "Autoerotic-asphyxiation.""What's that?"Dante came to the bed where she had crawled to rest against the pillows. He moved up beside her, lying on his side as he ran a couple of fingers over her belly."It's where you put a rope around your throat and apply pressure while you, or someone else, applies sexual stimulation.""What do you mean, pressure?""This." He slid his hand over her breasts slowly before allowing it to come to rest at her throat. Then he grabbed it roughly, choking her for a brief second. "Cutting off the air supply."Emma took hold of his wrist, even though he had moved his hand back down to her breasts, to push it further away from her throat. "Why would someone want to do that?"He shrugged. "I've heard that the resulting orga
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The Fantasy Maker Chapter 56
Emma managed to stay ahead of the truck for a few miles, speeding dangerously on the little back roads that led to Pilot Point. Just as she came around the bend that would take her into the tiny hamlet of downtown, the truck gained on her and swerved around her. Emma slammed on the breaks and tried to move around him as she had before. However, the truck anticipated her movements and slammed his transmission into reverse, cutting off her escape. She swerved, the car stuttering to a stop in a shallow ditch at the side of the road."All you had to do was pull over," a voice said as her door was wrenched open. Rough hands grabbed her upper arm and yanked her from the car.Emma stumbled, her sore ankle felt wrong, as though she had hurt it even more in the attempts to control the car."What do you want?" she demanded."Just doing what I'm told, lady."He dragged her to the truck, pushing her in through the driver's side door before climbing in after her. Emma slid over to the passenge
The Fantasy Maker Chapter 55
She dialed Jen's cell number as she navigated the still dense late evening traffic on the interstate just outside of Denton. Jen answered on the first ring."Steve, I've been trying to get through to you all day.""It's Emma, Jen.""Oh." There was a long silence on the other end. And then, as though a switch had been flipped, her voice filled with concern and caring. "Is everything okay, sweetie?""Fine," Emma lied. "I wanted to apologize for the way I was with you the other day.""Don't worry about it. I understand.""Do you?""Losing Tommy like that must have been difficult.""It was. Especially the way he died.""Suicide, right?" Jen asked, an undercurrent of cruelty in her voice. "Such a pity."Emma maneuvered the car around a curve, nearly dropping the phone as she tried to hold it in the crook of her shoulder."Where are you?" Jen asked. "I went by the house earlier, but there was no one home.""We took the kids to the airport." Emma grabbed the phone with her right h
The Fantasy Maker Chapter 54
Emma lay on her back, her bruises aching, her muscles popping along her back, her sides, as she tried to find a comfortable position. Steve lay on his side next to her, his fingers moving lazily along her belly, playing a game of their own making around the scar of childbirth. She watched him, her thoughts swirling in a dozen different directions.Guilt lay heavy on her shoulders. She couldn't help but think of Tommy now that the heat of passion was done. She missed his easy smile, the way he looked at her as though she was the center of his world. She wanted to run her fingers through his thick, dark hair, wanted to feel his heavy hands on her breasts, her belly.It hurt, how much she had in such a short time and how much she would never know.Was it possible to love two men so completely?She ran her fingers through Steve's hair, traced the curve of his ear. He looked up at her and smiled. It was a beautiful smile.She wished she could return it.She closed her eyes, her mind s
The Fantasy Maker Chapter 53
It was a slow, gentle kiss. But it touched her in places that had forgotten what it felt like to with the one she loved.She stepped into him, felt the tip of his tongue just brush against her bottom lip. She opened to him, and was rewarded with a sigh of such power that she could feel it as though it had issued from her own lungs, her own lips.She ran her hand slowly over his chest, could feel his heart pounding against her fingers. His hand moved from her jaw to the back of her head, buried its fingers in her hair to pull her closer, always closer. And then he buried himself inside of her, moaning against her lips with more pleasure than she had thought possible from such a simple touch.Her breath stuttered in her chest as he ran his hand over her back, slipped his palm over the curve of her hip, the roundness of her bottom. He pulled her to him until she could feel his need hard against her hip. She slid her hand around his back, drawing him so close that there was nothing but
The Fantasy Maker Chapter 52
Emma handed Steve the lists she had made on the hotel stationary after they finished eating. The DVDs were back in their bag, waiting to be destroyed. That had been her promise to Tommy. If anything happened to him, she was to take the DVDs and destroy them. He had no desire to hurt anyone else.Steve just glanced at the lists at first, but when he began to recognize name after name, he slowed and began to read the lists again."You're kidding me, right?" he asked.Emma shook her head."Some of these people are worth billions. And he slept with all of them?"Emma paled slightly. She had been trying not to think about that aspect of the situation. "I don't know. I didn't watch any of them."He nodded absently, as though it didn't really matter. Finally, he put the lists down and sat back. "There are a lot of important people on those lists," he said after a moment's thought, "but I don't see a single one who might want to hurt us or hurt you specifically. Except for maybe the incu
The Fantasy Maker Chapter 51
Steve arranged it all.After arranging for a garage to pick up Steve's car and for a rental car, they picked up the boys and Emma's parents. They boarded a plane for Florida three hours later. Her mother was a little concerned by the rush, but was thrilled for the chance to get out of town. It had been such a long winter, she kept telling Emma on the ride to the airport. They would stay at a resort down there near Universal Studios in Orlando. The boys had wanted to go back there since a trip they made as a family two years ago. A trip Steve had abandoned them to when he was called back to his office three days early.Funny how she and the boys remembered that time so differently.Instead of driving home, Steve pointed the rental car toward downtown Fort Worth."We are we going?" Emma asked."A hotel."She turned in her seat. "Do you really think that's necessary?""Someone slashed the tires on my car, Emma. In the middle of downtown." He glanced at her. "Someone ran you off the
The Fantasy Maker Chapter 50
Emma slid the key into the small lock and took a deep breath. She wasn't sure it would open. He had told her it would, but some little piece of her was still uncertain about this, about all of it. What if he had lied to her?It did turn.Steve stood behind her close enough that she could feel the heat of his body. She had expected him to argue, to insist they drop the whole thing and go home, back to their broken lives. But he didn't say a word when she told him what she wanted to do. Simply drove them to the bank like it was something they did every day.She flipped the little door open and reached inside for the safety deposit box. Steve grabbed it as it began to fall into her hands, lifting it away from her and carrying it to the small table. She hobbled over, her ankle still causing her a great deal of pain. Her knee, too, had gotten stiff where the stitches pulled and tugged with every step. Between the two injuries, her sore ribs and constant headache, it was a miracle she was
The Fantasy Maker Chapter 49
They drove to the house together in Ray's Escalade. A police car sat in Tommy's front yard, the driver's side door open. Emma had a flash, imagined a large number of police cars sitting here, their lights flashing as the uniformed cops walked in and out of the house. She imagined a hearse, imagined them rolling a gurney out of the house with a big, black body bag lying on top.She shivered despite the warmth of the day.Ray climbed out of the car and went to speak to the cop. Steve glanced back at Emma from his place in the front passenger seat. "You don't have to go inside. You could just tell us what you need."Emma shook her head. "I have to do this."He looked at her for a long minute and then nodded, turning his attention to the windshield and the two men just a few feet in front of them.Emma looked out the window at the front door. Again she imagined him as he had been the last time she saw him. Monday morning. He stood on the little porch, his hand lifted in a gesture of f
The Fantasy Maker Chapter 48
"I talked to McWhorter, the contractor, this morning," Steve was saying around a bite of Danish. "He said that he turned in all the keys he and his men had.""Do you believe him?" Ray asked.Steve shook his head. "I keep the spare keys in a locked drawer in my office. There was one missing."Emma sipped at the hot vanilla latte the waitress had just brought her. "Who else has a key to our house?"Steve looked over at her, his eyes so dark from a restless night's sleep that they looked almost as bruised as hers. "Just your parents. And Liz."Emma's eyebrows rose. "Why would Liz have a spare key to our house?"He sat back, pushing his thumb into a corner of his Danish. "She ran by the house a few weeks ago to get some paperwork I had forgotten. You weren't there, so I had to give her my keys. I gave her a spare the next day in case it happened again."Emma glanced at Ray. He was watching the two of them like a child waiting for World War III to break out between his parents. She b
