Hide & Seek - James Patterson [56]
Will and Suzanne Purcell.
No!
Damn the paparazzi anyway.
CHAPTER 63
THERE WERE NO paparazzi for this particular moment.
SCENE: Ellie's bathroom. Beautiful morning light everywhere. Ellie is soaking in a tin tub, covered with thick suds, occasionally brushing them aside so she can look at her stomach. North enters, looking concerned.
CUT TO: Ellie's reaction. She looks at her husband with shame. North kneels next to the tub. He's not like most men. He understands the way his wife thinks.
NORTH: Why have you been avoiding me, Ellie? Ever since our baby, you won't let me come near you. This isn't the way we wanted it.
ELLIE: ’Cause I'm not pretty now. That's why. (She begins to cry.) I'm never going to be pretty again. That baby ruined my body. It's made me an old woman.
NORTH: Nineteen isn't old. You're as pretty as ever. You're my beautiful wife. (He starts to brush away the mounds of suds.) You're Ellie, and that will never change.
ELLIE: Don't! Please … oh North, please.
NORTH: Hush. (He swipes away the suds, revealing her breasts.) See, you're very pretty. You're so pretty, I almost can't stand it.
ELLIE: I'm swollen, like a suckling pig. I ache and I feel old, even if I'm not.
NORTH: (Picking up a washcloth and tenderly caressing her body with it, his hand hidden by the suds as it goes beneath her breasts): Not here, you're not. Or here … Or especially here.
CUT TO: Ellie's reaction. She is obviously excited by his touch. She smiles, and the smile is beautiful. Ellie is as beautiful as North says she is.
NORTH (Continuing to caress): My beauty. My Ellie.
ELLIE (Breathing hard): Am I still? Am I?
NORTH: Yes, you are. You always will be. I told you that, and it will never change. Even when you do become an old woman.
CLOSE UP: Ellie and North kiss, more and more passionately. Suddenly the room is extremely steamy.
CAMERA: Moves down to show the bathwater moving as North's hidden hand gets more and more agitated.
“Cut!” Michael Lenox Caputo's voice knifed through the stillness of the scene. “Great take. Wrap it. I have to go masturbate now!”
Neither Will nor Suzanne Purcell stopped though. The technicians kept their cameras rolling, and would soon have film of the two stars that they could sell to any of the tabloid TV shows.
Will and Suzanne seemed to notice nothing around them. She had stepped out of the tub and, naked, unashamed, was laughing and pulling at his belt. He picked her up and, mouth on hers, in a kiss no patron of Primrose would ever see, carried her to his trailer. Will slammed the door behind him with his foot.
The werewolf of Perth.
CHAPTER 64
“WHAT HAPPENS NOW?” Will asked. Principal shooting on Primrose was finished; only editing and dubbing remained to be done.
He and Suzanne were walking together on the dusty plain. He hadn't meant to get involved, but as they say, shit happens. Suzanne was truly one of the most beautiful women in the world, and Will had always appreciated the very best.
“I go back to California, you become Mr. Maggie Bradford, just like you were.”
Will blinked. The words stung. “And what we had out here?” he asked Suzanne.
“We had some fine times, didn't we? You're good, Will. One of the best.”
“One of?” He snorted out a laugh. “You're beautiful and you're a comedienne.”
Suzanne laughed as well. “Yes, I have a brain, Will. Oh, sweetheart. I've had the best! Actors, other athletes, ski bums. But you are very good. No worry there.”
He could feel ancient demons. Roused from sleep, they began to claw upward, from the pit of his stomach to his brain. Jesus, he hated to lose. He couldn't bear failure.
“This picture will make me a star,” he said, fighting to keep his voice level. “Then I won't be ‘Mr. Maggie Bradford.’ ”
“I made you the star,” Suzanne Purcell said. “Don't forget that. You really shouldn't let this insane business get to you anyway. It can, you know.”
Destroy her, he thought. But not now. Take it easy, Will. Go slow. You learned your lesson in Rio.
He kept silent. They turned