Hush

Chapter One Like old celluloid playing in front of her eyes, the mellow glow of the neighborhood lights mixed with the evening fog making the world appear a little less than real. It felt as if she'd played this night before. Deja vu perhaps. Or maybe it was simply something ancient rattling through her chilled slight shoulders. She huddled inside her wool coat and took the steps of the brownstone swiftly. Her key in the lock, she was inside within seconds, setting her sack of groceries on the hall table where it teetered precariously until she had her coat hung on the rack by the door, her gloves and purse on the chair beside it. On her way through the dining room, she saw the light on the answering machine blinking red, and pushed the button. "Dana, this is Nick. We have stuff to talk about. Will you be home tonight? Call me." Her only message, the machine clicked off. Nick's voice froze her for an instant. Would she be home tonight or not? Would another argument with her soon to be ex-husband be as senseless as all the others, leaving her feeling more empty than she already did? She decided against calling him. When the phone rang an hour later, she answered without thinking. "Dana, you're home. Why didn't you call?" She heard Nick's baritone doing its commanding best. "I didn't feel like talking." "You know, you said you wanted to do this amicably. We can't really settle anything unless you agree to talk it over." There was a long pause. "Dana?" "I guess I need some space, a little sleep, and not a lot of extra anxiety. I'm starting a new project tomorrow." "Oh?" "Yes. Gordon found me this plum little expose on Ariel Broussard." "The painter?" "Yeah, there's supposed to be quite a collection of work that's never been on display. Her husband wants to do a photograph book in conjunction with a showing sometime next year." "Wow. That does sound like you." "You see, my life is taking some rosy steps forward," she quipped. "I wouldn't want anything else. You know even if we are splitting, I do care about you, and maybe in a way what we have will never really be over." "But we have to pretend it is," Dana said. How easy it would be to warm up to his words, only to get herself tangled in another battle a second later. "There are just certain things that you want, that I can't give you. You still dating Ellen?" She changed the subject. "Yes. And you should probably try getting out socially too. You don't want to work all the time." "Actually that's what I was counting on. This job will be perfect therapy. Something I can dive into and never come up." "Dana," he droned. "You know something, Nick Padget," she snapped at his condescending tone. "I'm not down, I'm not in mourning. In fact, I'm very happy. And maybe for once, you don't have all the answers for me." There was a long silence. "Yeah. Maybe not," he finally said. "We'll have lunch soon," Dana said, losing the edge in her voice. "Next week. I can't before. Will that work?" "I guess it'll have to," Nick said, sounding resigned. As Dana hung up the phone she thought of him, again. He wasn't ever too far from her thoughts, but he was an impossible piece of her life. Something she didn't know what to do with. She thought of the way she'd seen him last, leaning forward, arms on knees in the old rocker by the fireplace. A lock of his dark wavy hair was proverbially hanging loose over his forehead. Some women would find it sexy. He was intent, even vehement, his impulsive, energy-filled body eager once again to have her conform to his plans and his will and the determination he had to make her into something that she wasn't. But it wasn't going to happen. If there was anything that the past had taught her, it was that she and Nick were simply incompatible. She declined his suggestion for joint counseling for a final time, having been through the routine before with no decent results. She wasn't going to put herself through the pain again. He looked up at her that day, listening to her decline his offer. He'd been kind to start, and so very reasonable. And yet reason was not a factor in the dilemma that put a wedge between them. She'd never responded to him sexually the way he wanted her to, and she knew now she never would. Unfortunately, love, respect and friendship were just not enough for either of them. Nick's brown eyes change easily. They're eyes to melt the snows of winter with kindness, or turn a warm wind to a blizzard with their cold aspect. But when she made her point to him for the hundredth time, she watched his eyes turn – neither hot, nor cold, nor kind. They looked empty. She watched his granite jaw line tense, the muscles tighten as if he was holding anger very deep, not about to let it loose. Adept at building an invisible wall to separate him from disappointment, one went up that afternoon. She knew he'd finally given up. It was time now to put the "Nick Padget" part of her life to rest. Fixing herself a salad, Dana sat down at her table with a stack of artbooks and old news clippings she'd been collecting for her new project. Ariel Broussard was going to make a dynamite pictorial expose, such remarkable things hidden things in her psyche that the world would die to know about. *** After his less than thrilling conversation with Dana, Nick hung up the phone, grabbed his coat and quickly left his rented studio apartment. Ellen expected him at her place in fifteen minutes and he was late. "You look miffed," the svelte thirtyish woman said on answering the door. "A little," Nick agreed, as he moved inside her inviting flat. He could hear a fire crackling in the fireplace beyond, and could almost feel the heat of it warming his cold fingers. While having been preoccupied with Dana up to that moment, upon seeing Ellen, he was jolted into a much more pleasant reality. Her voluminous red hair was clipped back at the neck, though little wisps of it were loose and sexy, framing her face, making it look as if her cheeks were glowing. Incredibly white skin and pale green eyes made her look delicate. Her features were the same. And yet, Ellen Dunn was hardly delicate. In fact, she was strong as nails, as hard-nosed a detective as he was. Maybe it was the beginning of the end of things with Dana when he hired her for his private investigations firm. She had all the sensuousness that Dana hid so well, and a dash of motherly kindness that always made him feel welcome, especially in her bed. She made his first dalliance outside his broken marriage more easy than he figured it would be. "Want to tell me what's up?" she asked, taking his hand. Just feeling her easy grace settled him down, his flurry of agitation beginning to mellow. Nick shook his head. "Sad, I see," she commented, leading him to her living room and the long broad couch where they'd made love the first time. Just sitting on the surface of golden tapestry with the muted roses splashed all over it brought the aroma of Ellen to his nostrils, her perfume must have been everywhere in the room. "Not sad now, not with you," he said. "But you're thinking of Dana," she said. "I don't have to think of Dana at all. It's over, very over," he said quite certain of himself. "Are you sure?" she queried him with droopy eyes that dripped with s*x and concern at the same instant. "It'll be easier when the divorce is final. Besides, as Dana put it so succinctly tonight, I don't need to keep commenting on her life. She seems pretty happy, has a new project that will keep her busy. And I'm sitting here with you getting so horny, I don't want to wait." Ellen smiled. "I like the horny part," she purred to him as she kissed his ear, letting her tongue linger for a moment. "Why don't you kiss my ear?" she whispered to him, just before she tongued his again. Nick pulled her close, and pushing back her hair, found the long white line of her neck. Such delicate bones. He pressed his lips to her and then moved up from her neck to her ear, to her cheeks and then her lips. Her mouth opened wide as their tongues began to explore. The tease was making them both voracious. The swell between Nick's legs grew larger still when Ellen placed her hands on his crotch and began massaging him there. She was feeling his hand too as it pulled up on her skirt. Skimming along her thighs it rested where she was already getting wet from arousal. "You don't want to wait for the bedroom?" she asked. "No. I like it here," he said. Tipping her over with her back to the cushions, her legs parted without thinking. To have Nick Padget with all his exhilarating fullness deep within her was what she'd been thinking about all evening long. As many times as they'd made love, she wasn't even the least bit tired of it. She supposed it was his passion, that Latin zeal for good s*x. He hurt deeply over Dana, to the point she'd wished for months that the woman would come around for him. But since she hadn't, Ellen wasn't about to give up on him the way Nick Padget made her feel, pouring such soul and life into her. Their legs scissored as they were half on their sides, his erection driving deeply, in a position that managed to massage her clit perfectly. "Ooo! Ooo! Ah! Yes, Nick," she purred to him, all the conversation they needed. She replied as well with her groin greeting his, bucking against him. She sought her climax as eagerly as he was after his. The steady motion of thrusting and pounding making her reach for a little more sensation, and then a little more, and then more, until right there, right over the top, Ahhhh, she was there. She tensed against Nick's body and rocked within his arms, hardly realizing that he was beginning to climax himself, the joint explosion a real first, and what a perfect first for a night to remember. "I guess you were pretty horny too," Nick said, as he ran his hand through her wild red locks. Her hair clamp had come undone, now lying somewhere underneath them. The beautiful disarray of all that mass of curls made her look like a vision from a Boticelli painting. "I'm still hot, Nick. I don't know how you can do this to me." "It's refreshing to have a woman respond to me the way you do," he said. Ellen waited for a minute, letting the meaning behind his words sink in. "If you're going to keep referring to me in relation to Dana, this is not going to work," she said. There wasn't a trace of annoyance, but she was being blunt. "I'm sorry. It's just so easy with you. I keep waiting for the bomb to drop." "What's that supposed to mean?" "I figure that it can't remain good forever." "The s*x sure can," Ellen said. "I've got my problems, Nick, but s*x is not one of them." She raised up over him looking down with sincere eyes. "If it's over with Dana, then let it be over." "It is," he confirmed. "And I promise, it's just you and me in bed, or on the sofa. I'll keep all my other wives and lovers out of here." Ellen chuckled. "Sounds good to me."