Heller's Revenge (10 page)

Damn!
It was going to
take more than a bunch of pretty flowers to make up for that. My
phone rang again. You know what it’s like – nobody rings you for
ages and then they all think of you at once.

“What do you want?” I demanded
into the receiver.

“Tilly?” It was Will, his voice
hesitant at my heated greeting.

“Oh hi, babe. Sorry for the
angry tone. I was just talking to Dixie and Mum and they were both
giving me some grief.”

“Sounds like you need a lot of
good loving.”

I thought about his soft lips
and his hard penis. “Oh God, yes! Where and when?”

“My place, later tonight. Let’s
say about six? I’ll make you dinner, then make you a grinner.”

I laughed – my first real laugh
for the whole day. “You’re on, sunshine! And if you don’t deliver
the goods, I
will
be reporting you to the consumer
protection agency. I just want you to know that.”

“No problems about delivering at
all, gorgeous. I can’t wait to see you again. And remember, at my
house panties are always optional.” I giggled. “Speaking of
panties, did you see that YouTube clip of that chick beating up
that old guy? I sent you the link. What a babe! She could wrangle
me to the ground any day. She reminded me a little of you.”

“Wasn’t me,” I shot out
immediately.

He laughed. “I didn’t say it
was, Tilly. But if you’re in the mood to model, bring over your
lingerie and give me a private show tonight.”

I laughed dutifully, but after
my experience with Jenna, nothing held less appeal for me than
parading around in my lacy nothings.

I said my farewells and hung up,
smiling happily. Immediately, there was an enthusiastic rap on my
door. When I opened it, Niq and Daniel stood in front of me, both
with a smug expression on their faces.

“Hello guys. What’s up?” I
asked, wary.

“Tilly, we are going to make you
dinner tonight,” Niq burst out with excitement.

“We’ve been planning it for
weeks! We have the menu perfect, right down to the last detail,”
beamed Daniel.

I groaned to myself. “Guys, when
you were planning this, didn’t it occur to you to check that I was
actually free on the night? Because I’ve made plans to see Will
tonight.”

They stared at me,
disappointed.

“You’re
always
with him,”
Niq accused.

“I’m sorry. If you’d only asked
me before . . .” I felt like a monster looking at their unhappy
faces and offered an olive branch. “I’m free tomorrow night.”

“I guess,” agreed Daniel
ungraciously. Niq merely glared at me, mutinous misery on his face.
They returned to Daniel’s flat, across the hall from mine, Niq
slamming the door behind him.

Double damn!
I couldn’t
make anyone happy today. And with that thought in mind, I decided
to dispense with the worst task of all. I took a deep breath,
picked up my phone and rang Heller.

“Matilda?”

“I’m going out tonight.”
Silence. I took another deep breath and shot out, like machine-gun
fire, “I’m going to Will’s place. I’m going to stay all night this
time. And I’m going to drive myself there.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“I said no.”

I flung down the phone and
grabbed my handbag. I flew out the door, not even stopping to put
on any shoes, and bolted down the stairs, two at a time, to the
basement garage. Looking over my shoulder in fear, I swiped my
staff card to retrieve the set of keys to the small black hatchback
I drove, slid in, quickly reversed and was gunning up the driveway
when I saw Heller jumping down the last few stairs to the garage in
my rear view mirror. I gave him a little wave as the automatic door
to the garage closed behind me. My heart was pounding. I didn’t
know what he would do. He was quite capable of chasing me.
Quite
capable of shooting me too
, I thought nervously, remembering
his extensive armoury in the first basement.

I floored the accelerator and
ignoring all speed limits arrived at Will’s house a while before he
was expecting me. In fact, I was so early that he wasn’t even home.
I sat in my car watching anxiously for that black Mercedes with its
distinctive gold and black HELLER licence plate, until Will came
home. As soon as he turned into his driveway, I jumped out of my
car and greeted him passionately to his enormous, and surprised,
delight. He was even more pleased when I told him I was there not
only for dinner, but for breakfast as well.

I’d finally made somebody happy.
And I proceeded to make him even happier three times during the
night as well.

Chapter 6

“We should do this more often,”
said Will softly, holding my hands across his kitchen table. He had
made me a delicious breakfast; he was a good cook and that’s always
a bonus in a man for me, because I loved to eat. It had been
blissful to wake up in his arms in the morning. I gazed at him with
dreamy happiness. He really was one of the sweetest men I had ever
met.

“I love you, Tilly,” he said.
Momentous. The first time.

I decided to jump into the deep
end with him, even though I wasn’t entirely sure about my feelings.
“I love you too, Will.”

We reached across the table and
kissed gently. He cupped my face with his hand.

“You’re so beautiful. I don’t
know what you see in me.”

I frowned at him. “Are you
kidding? Not only are you cute, but you’re also one of the nicest
men I know.”

“I’ve found that women aren’t
usually interested in nice men. I guess that’s why I’m still not
married at the old age of thirty-five.” There was a slightly bitter
twinge in his voice that made me uncomfortable. I didn’t want to
talk about marriage.

“
I’m
interested in nice
men,” I said instead with deliberate lightness, reaching across
again to kiss him on the nose.

“I’m glad.” His face grew grave.
“Tilly, I don’t want to spoil anything, but I really think we could
become serious. I don’t see you enough though. Once a week’s not
enough for me. I want to see you more often. All the time, even.
Maybe you could think about moving in with me. I have this whole
house to myself.” He stood up and clumsily placed some dishes on
the sink, embarrassed, and I guessed that it had taken a lot of
courage for him to propose that.

But my heart sank. “Will, that
sounds like a great idea, but my life is a bit complicated at the
moment. I have to work very strange hours, and it wouldn’t be fair
on you.”

I couldn’t tell him the truth
that I could never contemplate leaving the Warehouse. I could never
leave Niq and Daniel. I could never leave Heller.

Will struggled to smile. “That’s
okay. It was only a suggestion. We can talk about it again one day,
maybe.”

“Sure we can.” He was hurt and I
felt terrible. I wasn’t very good at making people happy, after
all.

I walked over to him and hugged
him. He needed to prepare himself for a new school day and for once
I watched him getting ready. I even scrubbed his back in the
shower, eventually managing to elicit a smile from him again.

“Why didn’t you bring an
overnight bag with you? Or any shoes?” he asked with understandable
curiosity, adjusting his tie in the mirror.

“I just ran out the door with
excitement after your phone call and forgot to pack,” I told him,
with a deplorable lack of truthfulness.

He laughed and slipped on his
suit jacket.

“I love a girl who’s keen,” he
said, leaning over to kiss me. I tugged on his tie so that he had
to kiss me several more times before I would let him go. We walked
outside together, arms around each other, and went to our separate
vehicles after a very sweet parting. I watched him drive away
safely, before I started my car and headed back to the Warehouse. I
was dreading the welcome on my return, and drove home very slowly.
I knew that Heller would know the second I came home – he’s not in
the surveillance business for nothing.

However, I managed to park the
car and make it to my flat without being accosted. I was about to
step into the bathroom to take a shower, when he walked into my
flat.

“You’re supposed to knock,” I
reminded him, my voice frigid.

He didn’t answer, but walked
over to me and grasped my chin roughly in his hand, his eyes
searching my face. I stared back at him unflinchingly, not ashamed
of my well-satisfied features. He looked tired, as though he hadn’t
slept much during the night. My shoulders slumped suddenly and I
sighed hugely. Knowing him, he had probably sat up all night
waiting for me to return.

“You’re exhausted,” I said,
reaching up to stroke his face gently. He grabbed my hand and
kissed it.

“I thought you’d come home.”

“No. I told you I was going to
stay with Will for the night.”

“Was it worth it?”

“It was . . . nice.”

“This is what you want?”

“God! I don’t know. He told me
he loved me, Heller.”

He stared down at me, eyes
intense. “Do you
love
him?” An emphasis on the word, as if
that emotion was unfamiliar to him.

“I don’t know. I told him that I
did, but I don’t know if that’s true.” No response from him. “He’s
exactly the kind of man that I always thought I would marry. He
wants me to move in with him.”

“No.” It was not a tone that
would accept any argument.

“I told him that it wasn’t
possible at the moment,” I said with a melancholic half-smile.

He was unsmiling. “It’s not ever
possible.”

“No,” I agreed, my voice
quiet.

“You upset Niq and Daniel
yesterday,” he remarked coolly.

“Stop it. Don’t make me feel
guiltier than I already do. They didn’t check if I was free.”

“They shouldn’t have to.”

“Why not? Can’t I have any life
not connected with this place?” Silence from him. “I need a
shower,” I said wearily, turning away.

He clutched my shoulders, spun
me around and gathered me in his arms, pressing me closely to him.
I slid my arms around him and rested my cheek against his neck.

“Don’t run away from me again,
Matilda,” he murmured, tickling my ear with his breath.

“I didn’t run away. I told you
where I was going. And I came back.”

“You did run away from me
though, down the stairs. I didn’t know what was going to
happen.”

“Neither did I. But I knew you
were going to stop me if I didn’t get out of this place straight
away.”

I looked up at him. He looked
down and ceded a faint smile. “You’re getting faster.”

I laughed and shoved him away,
turning towards the bathroom again.

“You haven’t asked me about my
night with Jenna,” he teased slyly.

“I don’t want to know.”

“It was very good.”

“I don’t want to know.”

“She was disappointed when I
left her.”

“I don’t want to know.”

“She told me I’m very . . .
talented.”

“I don’t want to know.”

“She said I had the biggest
–”

“Ego she’d ever seen? I’d
believe that!” I butted in with shrewish sharpness.

He smiled lazily. “No, Matilda.
The biggest –”

“Heller! I
really
don’t
want to know. Okay?” I’d already seen his big talent in all its
fleshly glory, so I didn’t need to hear Jenna Mackenzie’s
endorsement of its magnitude. Although he was very discreet with
everyone else about his many romps, he seemed to have an intense
need to tell me everything. And he was embarrassingly shameless
when he did.

I pushed him out of my flat and
took a shower. It was glorious to stand under the hot water,
washing away the libidinous excesses of the night.

Niq and Daniel were frosty with
me during the day and I had to be extra sweet to both of them to
coax a smile from their lips. I made sure that I dressed up for
their dinner for me that night, and arrived in style at Daniel’s
flat right on time as directed. I brought my digital camera with me
and took many shots while they were cooking. Niq gave me a few
poses, being the atypical extroverted Goth that he was, while
Daniel was understandably much more reserved around a camera.

Their dinner was wonderful. I’d
been slowly teaching them both to cook since I’d started living at
the Warehouse and they’d taken it up with enthusiasm, if not much
skill. But they really had excelled tonight, managing to produce
three beautiful courses – smoked salmon frittata, a stuffed loin of
pork and a berry and rhubarb crumble. It was an impressive
spread.

I couldn’t praise them enough.
They both shone with pride and afterwards I sat wedged between them
on Daniel’s lounge – Niq slipping his arm through the crook of my
elbow and Daniel holding my hand – a willing captive of their
occasionally overwhelming affection. Daniel and I sipped a very
nice pinot grigio, my high heels kicked off and my bare feet
resting on his black glass coffee table, while we watched one of
their favourite blood-splattered horror movies. After the third
repulsively graphic decapitation though, queasiness made me clamp
my eyes shut for the rest of the film.

“Are you going to marry this
Will guy?” Niq asked casually when the credits were rolling and I
was brave enough to open my eyes again.

“No! I’m not marrying
anyone.”

“But what if he asked you? Would
you?”

“I don’t know, sweetie. Probably
not.”

“I don’t want you to leave,
Tilly.” He looked at me plaintively with his huge light blue eyes
encased in their usual layer of black eyeliner. I reached over and
ruffled his black hair. He grimaced at me, hand immediately raised
to his hair to smooth down the disruption.

“I know. I’m not going anywhere,
kiddo.”

“Promise?”

“Yes, I promise.” And I meant it
too. There was no way that I could ever leave Niq. He was only
fourteen and, like Daniel, had also had a terrible childhood, the
details of which were still unknown to me. I’d ask him one day,
when I thought he was ready to tell me. Heller had explained once
that I was probably the first positive female role model that Niq
had ever had in his life. I didn’t take that responsibility
lightly, even though it was uncharacteristic of me to be sensible
and mature about anything.