Everyone's Dirty Little Secrets (12 page)

A
nd wonders who is seducing who.

*****

Dodge doesn’t know if he’s h
iding from Jaime, or inviting
her.

It doesn’t matter.

He knows she will follow him no matter where he goes.

Living room.

Kitchen.

Jacuzzi.

Bedroom.

Maybe the hot tub in the steamy, private sauna room in the pool house is a bad idea.

Maybe it’s a great one.

He doesn’t know how to stop what’s happening from happening.

*****

Jaime figures that Dodge is hiding from h
er, or at least avoiding her -
avoiding this
situation.  He doesn’t want to be responsible for this.  Jaime’s not going to make it easy for him, though.  Easy either way.  If this isn’t what he wants,
he has to do a better job convincing her.  And he can’t hide from it.  If he can’t be man enough to decide what he wants, she won’t give him a choice.

She was in the pool house, of course, at her stepmother’s house,
when
she was kicked out of
forever.

One of the boys that
began fawning over her, around the time she started to wear bikinis, was
Mark -
her father’s stepson, the
half
brother of her half sister.

When she’d come ove
r to use the pool, he’d hover
around her, always teasing
her
, prodding
and
poking her.  He’d come up from behind her and fake wrestle with her, pulling her down to the ground.  He made like it
was play, just fo
r fun, but of course it was simply
a pretense to gro
pe her
and fill his hands with her at every chance he got.

They weren’t sibl
ings, but it didn’t feel right
– they were family
, even if not related
.  But Mark couldn’t control himself – he was just a bundle of ho
rny hormones and wandering paws, taking
advantage of their familiarity, of having wrestled as children when it was still innocent.

He treated her like she was one of his toys he left lying around the pool house.

Jaime had to constantly be on guard, avoiding Mark or at least not letting him get too near her – opposite ends of t
he pool, locking the
door if she was changing.

But even so he caught her one day when she was napping by the pool and didn’t know he had come home.  He was suddenly there tickling her - trying to untie her top really – while she tried to squirm away.  But he had her trapped in the chair, straddling her.

Jaime was afraid of how far he’d really go, so she was relieved when his mother – her stepmom – showed up.

“Mark, get off of her,” she shouted, slapping him on the back of the head.

But her real anger was reserved for Jaime, staring down at her with disgust in her yes.

“And you,” she sneered.  “Put some clothes on.  And go home.  You don’t live here. 
Stop teasing
Mark.”

Flaunting herself at Mark became her new favorite hobby after that.  She decided to take control of the situation.  She had him stealing booze for her, scoring pot, and best of all, keeping his hands off her – simply by making him think she would let him.  So he didn’t need to sneak up on her any more.

It drove her stepmother crazy, of course.

Crazier than it was driving Mark.

Which Jaime relished.

Tensions at the house were already reaching a boiling point whenever Jaime was there, well before the day that Ja
ime let Mark climb in the hot tub with her
.  She normally wouldn’t let him get that close, but he had bought a joint from an older high school kid for her, and they were smoking it together – while their sister Jane was out at the pool, drinking the wine c
oolers Jaime had made Mark steal for her
.

When he
r stepmom came home, Jaime was spaced out and
giggling
,
stoned
,
in the Jacuzzi
,
while Mark was playin
g with himself under the water.

And
Jane was lying
in a puddle of puke, twitching
in a fit of
near
alcohol poisoning.

Jaime’s father didn’t really fight on her behalf when her stepmom ban
ned her from the house forever
.

She thought it was a relief to him, an excuse to sever the last tie to his previous life.

Surrounded now by the luxury of Siobhan’s property – the mansion, the pool – memo
ries of those awful, confusing - painful -
years threaten to drown her
.

Except s
he feels now like she
’s coming home, claiming what should have been
rightfully hers.

Dodge i
s in the Jacuzzi when she walks in, staring into space.

*****

Chuck pauses to listen at the pool house door.  It’s only polite, after all, to know what he’s intruding upon.  They have to see this coming, in any case.  No one even asked what he is doing here.  Jaime’s friend excused herself from his company, from his stare, as soon as Jaime vanished after Dodge, striking out for the bathroom and liquor cabinet in the house.

He hears nothing.  He is not sure if he is surprised by that.  He knows they’re doing something, but it would be the height of indiscretion if it makes much noise.

The main room is empty, but there are a couple of articles of clothing strewn on the bar - a tie, a jacket.  That’s when Chuck sees the wallet.  This is a tough call.  He looks toward the closed door to the Jacuzzi room.

Jaime could be naked in there, which he would kill to see.

This is only going to get weirder here, though.

Time to get while the getting is good.

He snatches the wallet - and the passport under it.

And walks out the gate that is never closed.

*****

Jaime
unloads her
best smile. 

Dodge isn’t staring into space anymore.  He’s staring at her.

This is not an
innoce
nt smile
.  S
he walks
slowly
to
ward
, and steps up on, the
edge of the Jacuzzi.  She makes sure,
as she plunges
into the water
,
as she glides toward him,
that
his eyes never leave her
.

“Jaime,” Dodge says, stopping her at his knees.  “You got to go.  This is only going to make things worse.”

“I have a plan, Dodge,” she says, pushing his knees ap
art with her
hands and sliding
herself between them. 

She presses against the fabric
of his trunks.
  He can’t stop her, of course. 

“She’s going there tomorrow, Friday,” she tells him.  “Rod Dressler’s.” 

He doesn’t move, so she wraps
his arms around h
er shoulders herself.

He doesn’t resist.

“
This is your chance
,” she tells him.

He just sits there, still as a rock.

“You’ve got to go there, and get photos of them tog
ether.  She has more to lose tha
n you do, so you’ve got to turn the tables here.”

She
stares into his eyes, their noses barely an inch from each other.  She doesn’t want this to go on much longer.  It will break the spell.  She just needs him to agree. 

“OK,” he promises
.

Just to break the tension.

Finally.

“I’ve got to find Brigitte,”
she tells him, pulling away, climbing out of the tub.

He look
s bewildered, sitting in the Jacuzzi, alone all
of a sudden, as she looks back from the doorway.

“Dodge
,” she says, reclaiming
his attention
. 

He looks up at her.  She can’t belie
ve he even looked away.

“
This is all going to work out,”
she
promises.