The Florencia Lozano Homepage - Fan Fiction
AFFLICTION
BY TROG |
CHAPTER
33 |
CHAPTER 33
Todd had watched the elevator in despair, watching as the lights blinked on and off one by one, each one feeling like a blow to his stomach, until it stopped on the sixth floor...Aaron Blackmoor’s floor.
When Tea was angry he knew she was capable of anything...treachery...violence...even knocking him out with a shovel at the risk of killing him. Her white-hot temper was quick and lethal, beyond her control....like her passion...and it often left her exposed and defenseless for the likes of an Aaron Blackmoor to take advantage of. And Tea could hurt back when she was wounded...and Todd knew at this moment she probably wanted to hurt him and betray him with some sadomasochistic need to retaliate against him and against her own heart...a heart she no longer trusted. They were so much alike in many ways...so volatile when they loved and when they felt betrayed...
He jumped into the nearest elevator and listened to its ominous hum as it traveled up to the sixth floor. Making his way quickly down the hallway, he stopped outside of Aaron Blackmoor’s door. A soft light was glowing from beneath it as Todd listened for the sound of voices, but there were none...only a sickening silence that exacerbated the pain and nausea churning in the tender pit of his belly. He closed his eyes with a painful grimace as his mind raced with images of the two of them...together... their perfect bodies writhing and naked...exploding with ecstasy.
“TEA! NO!” he shouted as he started pounding on the door with a hard fist. Pounding relentlessly, he suddenly stopped and taking a few steps back, he lifted his leg high in the air and rammed his foot against the door with such force that the door popped open splintering around the lock and sending wooden slivers through the air.
Todd rushed in to find Aaron Blackmoor standing there calmly, taking a sip of whisky. As Todd looked around the room he realized that Tea wasn’t there...they were alone. Aaron walked over and looked at his broken door calmly, closing it softly and taking another sip of his drink.
“Good evening, Mr. Manning...can I get you a drink?”
“Fuck you! Where’s Tea?”
“I don’t know. I assumed she went to her suite.”
Todd turned around and headed for the door.
“You don’t trust her, do you? That’s very wise because she will betray you...she will be with me in the end.”
Todd stopped and whipped around to face him.
“Tea will never be with you.”
Aaron laughed.
“If you believed that, Mr Manning...Todd...may I call you Todd...and please, feel free to call me Aaron...if you believed that Tea wouldn’t leave you...you wouldn’t be here, now would you?” asked Aaron.
“We had a fight...that doesn’t mean she’s leaving me. Obviously...she turned you down! Sorry to disappoint you...Aaron...but Tea and I are going to be together....there’s not a damned thing you can do about it.”
Aaron smiled at Todd, sipping his drink and sitting casually...gracefully in a near-by burgundy, wing-chair.
“Oh, there’s much I can do,” he said arrogantly.
“What? What are you going to do to me...are you going to kill me?” said Todd, noticing the shocked and surprised expression on Aaron’s icy face. “Is that what your going to do because that’s the only way I’ll ever stay away from her. And if that happened...she’d despise you...either way...YOU LOSE!” snapped Todd.
Aaron rose up.
“Why would I kill you, Todd...I’m not a violent man. Now you on the other hand...you have a rather violent past. I believe that you were in prison for...what was it, now...ah, yes...rape.”
Todd’s hands tightened into fists.
“Is that the best you can do, Aaron...throw my rapist past in my face to subjugate me...to bring me to my knees...well you’re too late. Bigger and badder men then you have tried that...but you’ll find I don’t break easy. And Tea knows all about my past...and she loves me in spite of it,” said Todd, walking closer to him. “And don’t stand there in your Italian suit and manicured nails looking down at me and my rapist past. I know what you are! I know what you’ve done! And you’re not better than me.”
Aaron Blackmoor’s face turned pale and his eyes recessed into his furrowed brow as he stared into Todd’s eyes, assessing his cryptic words.
“You have no idea who you’re dealing with,” Aaron hissed coldly. “You’ve just made a lethal error.”
“I’m not afraid of you. Go ahead, Aaron...one-shot Aaron. Take your best shot at me...SHOW ME WHAT YOU’VE GOT! You’re good at killing little birdies...or distant, defenseless targets...but what about facing me like a man...go ahead...be a man...TAKE YOUR BEST SHOT AT ME,” shouted Todd as Aaron Blackmoor’s rock-hard fist made contact with his face and sent him flying across the room, hitting the wall with a mighty thud that shook the room.
Todd was reeling with the impact of Aaron’s punch but he shook himself into alertness and quickly lunged at Aaron Blackmoor who towered over him, but Todd bent down and plowed his head into Aaron’s stomach with such force that Aaron fell to the floor as the pain brought him to his knees and he gasped for breath, winded and surprised at Todd’s brutal, raging strength.
Todd stood above him, his hair hanging over his eyes as he spat out his words.
“You stay the hell away from Tea...do you hear me, Blackmoor?"
Aaron looked up at him, shaking with rage.
“I will have Tea...and your fate is sealed, Todd Manning...”
Todd reached up and touched his bruised lip, feeling the tender, broken skin and the warm blood coating his fingertips as he headed for the door.
“Tea doesn’t want you...GET OVER IT! Get the hell out of this town...”
Finally Aaron got to his feet, his hand clutching his aching ribs.
“TEA IS MY WIFE...AND I WILL NEVER LET HER GO!” shouted Aaron, losing his composure for the first time since they’d met making Todd smile. Todd licked his bloody lip, tasting Aaron Blackmoor‘s blood for the first time...and liking it.
Todd opened the door, his hands fingering the splintered, broken lock.
“Tell Renee to send me a bill for this...I don‘t want you taking credit for my brilliance,” said Todd, walking out and slamming the door behind him.
He inserted the key in the lock gently and opened the door slowly and softly...it was late and he didn’t want to scare her. Closing the door behind him he looked around and noticed she wasn’t in the room but the bathroom door was open and he heard the sound of running water as steam billowed out into the bedroom through the open door. Approaching slowly he entered the foggy bathroom and saw Tea in the shower, her pale body distorted through the misty glass doors. Todd leaned against the doorframe watching her soaping her body, shampooing her hair and standing under the hot, running water rinsing off...imagining her clean, warm body against his...smelling the delicious scent of her skin.
Finally Tea shut the water off and stepped out of the shower, grabbing a towel and swabbing her eyes and face before she noticed Todd standing there like a beautiful vision rising from the mists. She barely reacted as she continued to dry her body and hair, completely disregarding her own nakedness, oblivious as he watched her...taking her time. Eventually she grabbed a white, terry robe, put in on and walked past him into her bedroom.
“I told you that you were free...no commitment. I don’t require the proverbial ‘I love you’ after a fuck. It was fun, Todd...it’s over. Go back to your wife...and to your children. That’s where you belong.”
Todd just leaned against the wall and watched her as she brushed her long, wet hair and rubbed perfumed lotion into her hands, neck and elbows, ignoring his presence. The sent of powdered roses came to him as she continued to rub cream on her silky legs and arms. Sitting at her vanity he watched as she applied balm to her soft lips leaving them pink and shiny. As she put cream in her hands and rubbed them together she caught site of him in the mirror, surprised that he hadn’t moved.
“Why are you still here? I told you to go. I don’t want you here,” she said, almost petulantly but with little conviction, turning and finally facing him when she suddenly noticed his bleeding, swollen lip. “Oh, God...what happened, amor.”
She ran into the bathroom and came back with a cold, wet facecloth and placed it on his swelling lip.
“Your hitman husband decked me,” he said, taking the facecloth from her and holding it to his mouth.
“When?” she asked, looking confused.
“A few minutes ago....I kinda followed you up to his room...and I thought you were going to sleep with him....so I sort of...you know...broke the door down...in a very noble and dramatic fashion I might add. Tea, were you going to screw that freak?”
Tea glared at him angrily then looked away.
“What I do is none of your business. I can screw whoever I want and you can go and screw Blair.”
Todd flung the facecloth across the room angrily and approached her.
“What the fuck is going on here, Tea? We have one stupid disagreement, you fly into a rage and suddenly we’re over?”
“ONE STUPID DISAGREEMENT? You referred to me as ‘anyone’ down on the docks...like I meant nothing to you. Then you tell me you spend your first therapy session discussing Blair! You shut me off emotionally then I’m suppose to be flattered that you’re still willing to fuck me?”
“STOP SAYING THAT! WE DON”T JUST FUCK, TEA...I wish you’d stop saying that! I’ve been fucked...I know what that feels like...in prison...by Blair...by...my...Peter Manning...so stop saying that’s all we do!” he shouted turning away from her suddenly and closing his eyes with the ugly memories of his past.
Tea buried her face in her hands, groaning loudly in frustration.
“Why is it always like this for us, Todd. It’s as if...we can only achieve a certain level of intimacy...and then we hit a wall. The Todd wall. And after all this time, after all we’ve been to each other...you can still freeze me out. I hate that...I just can’t handle that anymore.”
Todd turned around and walked over to her. Pulling he gently by the hand he sat her down with him on the sofa.
“I’m...scared,” he said quietly, “I’m scared of this doctor...I’m scared of stirring up the past...I’m scared of losing you.”
“And you think I’m not? When I couldn’t find you today...I was terrified. It’s like I could feel your pain inside me...I could feel you drifting away from me again emotionally.”
He crushed her hand against his mouth and rested his face against it. When he looked up at her, he looked anxious.
“Tea...I didn’t spend my session discussing Blair...at least not in the way that you think. It was about....how I allow Blair to hurt me...how we hurt each other...and...how I’m comfortable with it...like...with Peter...when he would brutalize me and I just had to learn to take it. You know...when I was a kid...I guess I loved him. I mean that part of me that thought he was my father loved him. Then when the beatings and burnings started...a small part of me still hoped that...someday...he would stop...and maybe he would love me and eventually he‘d be my dad again. When I grew to hate him...I hated myself more for ever having loved him...I hated my weakness in accepting what he did to me. It made me sick. Dr. Woolf kind of insinuated that there was a lot of that same stuff between me and Blair. That‘s what we talked about, Tea. Not my love for Blair. By the time I met Blair...love and hate were indistinguishable to me. Hate was a part of love...love was part of hate...pain was part of love and hate...they were all connected...that‘s how I saw it with Peter Manning...and to a lesser degree with Blair.”
Tea just listened quietly as Todd spoke and when he became aware of her silence he looked uncomfortable and embarrassed.
“I suck with words, Delgado. I don’t know how to explain what I mean.”
Tea took his hand.
“You explained it perfectly...I understand exactly what you mean. I‘m sorry, Todd...down at the docks...I thought you were upset about Blair...I got jealous and I just lost it. I know sometimes I’m too pushy...I can’t help it, it’s the lawyer in me, I guess...besides...I‘m a fighter...I don‘t know how to back off. I’ll try to give you more space...more time to diffuse, okay?...So...what‘s Dr. Woolf like?”
Todd stood up and paced around.
“Picture this, Delgado...Mr. Rogers in corduroy pants, with pruning shears and a tape recorder, tapping his foot to hillbilly music,” said Todd as Tea laughed. “But he’s smart...he doesn’t miss a trick. I feel like he knows me...like he can see right through me. It’s kind of scary...you know? Every word out of my mouth seems to reveal something to him that I don’t want revealed. I’m chicken-shit scared of this little man, Tea. He intimidates the hell out of me.”
Tea stood up and put a comforting hand on his arm.
“Are you going to see him again?”
“Tomorrow...I guess. I’m pretty much his only patient...he’s retired.”
She leaned against him as his arms wrapped around her letting her clean scent comfort him.
“Why are you doing this, Todd?”
“To make more room for you. All that shit in my past takes up way too much space in my head. Tea...I want to let it go...but I’m not sure I can. Can you live with that?”
Tea pulled away a little and looked up at his insecure face, caressing the scar across his cheek tenderly as she spoke.
“I’ve been living with it since the day I met you...I think I can handle it.”
Todd smiled at her.
“So...you love me again, right?”
“Well...I’m definitely leaning in that general direction. I‘m sorry querido...I shouldn‘t have run off like that,” she said.
He reached across and touched her fresh, unadorned face and ran his fingers across her lips.
“I’m the one who should apologize to you. I shouldn’t have said that junk down at the docks. I was just in a pissy mood... I didn’t want you to be a part of all that ugly shit in my head. I love you, Tea. What you think of me...it matters. I don’t want you to think I’m some kind of unstable, psychotic freak who you can’t count on. I want you to respect me, too...not just...feel sorry for me...I don‘t want you to feel like you have to carry me. I want to be your man, Tea...not your pet project.”
“Amor...is that what you think? I don’t feel sorry for you...I love you. And...you are my man...and in every way that counts. I just...I hate seeing you in pain...I wish I could take it all away.”
Todd pulled her close.
“You can take it all away...kiss my boo-boo.”
Tea laughed as she leaned against him, kissing his bruised lip delicately, afraid to hurt him, but he grabbed her face between his hands and crushed his mouth against hers, kissing her deeply...apologetically...moaning with the relief and pleasure of mutual forgiveness.
“I think you should see my shrink, Delgado...you’ve got to do something about that temper of yours.”
“You know...it’s strange but I’ve never had a fight with Aaron. I don’t think we’ve ever even raised our voices to each other. I use to think that was because we respected one another...but now...I realize that neither of us was being honest. I think we both sensed the fragility of our marriage and were afraid that the slightest disturbance would break it into a million pieces. We were just playing our respected roles...”
“Well...maybe what you felt for him wasn’t real, Tea, but what he feels for you is! It’s surreal! It’s twisted. He’s not letting go of you...or your marriage. He made that very clear tonight.”
Tea walked away from Todd and smiled.
“You know, querido, if Aaron Blackmoor is just an identity and Aaron Blackmoor doesn’t really exist...then I’m not Mrs. Aaron Blackmoor! Our marriage isn’t legal.”
Todd grinned.
“Poor bastard...I’m almost beginning to feel sorry for him. Well...if your not married then there’s no reason why you shouldn’t move into the penthouse...like right now,” said Todd, spotting her suitcase in the corner, throwing it on the bed and opening it with overly dramatic flare. “Come on, Delgado...I’ll help you pack.”
“But amor...you’re still married. And...your children probably won’t understand.”
Todd stopped, suddenly deflated, and sat down on the bed dejectedly.
“I’ll talk to Starr...and Jack...well, he’s too little to understand what’s happening. I served Blair with divorce papers a couple of days ago...so it’s no big surprise to her.”
Tea walked over to him and stood above him, playing with his hair.
“Are you sure about this, Todd? I can wait...and it will probably be a bit scandalous considering that everyone knows we’re married to other people.”
“I’m sure. I told you I don’t give a fuck what anyone thinks...only what you think. And besides...maybe Aaron Blackmoor will finally get the message if we‘re living together.”
“Querido...are you forgetting how dangerous he is? He killed Ben!”
“I’m not afraid of him, Tea! He wants you...and he knows he’ll never get you if he kills me...so there’s nothing he can do to me! Everyone in this town knows everything about me...and the other stuff...well, only you know about that...so...he can’t touch me.”
Tea smiled down at him.
“Well...okay...let’s get packing,” she said, starting to walk away, but Todd grabbed her and pulled her down on the bed beside him, pressing her delicate body deeply into the mattress with his manly weight with compelling urgency, the look in his sensual eyes unmistakable.
“Ah-ah. First...make up sex...we‘ll pack later,” he whispered.
to be continued...
2002 Copyright by Trog
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