“Mmm,” she said, looking over his shoulder to the rusty, hulking boiler in the recesses of the basement. The coal gate was open and something dangled from the dark recess. Phillippe nibbled at her ear and she giggled.
“Ticklish?” he whispered.
More like thinking he was silly, with all his well-oiled moves and suave maneuvers. She was used to the high school boys in their pick-up trucks, whose rough hands would grab and squeeze and push her into compliance. Not that she’d spent much time on that scene. She’d seen enough classmates pregnant at fifteen, with nothing but bruises and food stamps in their futures. She dreamed bigger, and if it meant she had to endure Phillippe’s wine-softened tongue, well, a woman couldn’t count on looks forever.
Besides, his tongue wasn’t so rough, and his lips were not too slobbery. But she couldn’t relax under his tactics, because of the thing dangling from the boiler. She squinted, trying to make out more detail.
A rag, maybe?
Phillippe’s hands did a slow crawl across her back and shoulders, kneading and stroking. They were strong but also gentle. Like she was a soufflé and he had to fold the eggs just right so the whole recipe wouldn’t collapse.
“Your skin is lovely, ma cherie,” he said, his nose against her cheek.
“I still don’t see any ghosts.”
“Perhaps we should turn out the lights, my sweet.”
But the switch was at the top of the stairs and the whole moment would be blown. And she couldn’t quit staring at the thing dangling from the boiler. It was cloth, but it wasn’t a rag. And there were...what?
Fingers?
“Phillippe,” she whispered.
“I know,” he moaned, grinding against her as if he were trying to break the wooden totem pole in his jeans. His hands slipped lower and cupped her buttocks, and then he locked lips. His little goatee irritated her chin, but at least he didn’t suck all the air from her lungs. But the moment she parted for a breath, he slipped his tongue in, like a snake heading for a hibernation hole.
“Murr-umpha,” she said into his mouth, trying to pull free, but he was too busy proving his French manhood to listen. One hand slipped to her breast and circled, stretching the lace of her bra. The bra cost her $35 at Victoria’s Secret, and if he popped the elastic, it was coming out of his wallet without his permission. His fingers found her nipples and he pinched as if it were a generous helping of salt.
The cloth thingy in the boiler...had it moved?
No breeze, except for the lust hurricane from Frenchie’s mouth.
God, maybe it was a rat’s nest. The hotel had plenty of them. She’d have J.C.—
Ouch.
“Easy,” she whispered. Maybe they went for pain on the Seine, and the French had a million reasons to be masochists, but if she wanted to be abused, she’d have married a cop.
“You’re so beautiful,” he said, rolling out the words with a husky richness.
Good one. What’s next, “I love you”? Just do your thing, or at least the warm-up part of the act.
He thumbed free the middle button of her blouse, not even pausing in his oral attention, and then his hand was inside, teasing bare skin at the elastic frame of the bra. She wasn’t stacked by any means, but she had enough there to fill the cup without padding. She’d let him go at it a bit, maybe even a finger in the panties, but no way was she giving the milk before she got the deed to the farm.
The cloth thingy definitely moved, and it wasn’t just Phillippe that was breathing heavily. She looked around. That pervert J.C. might be down here drinking and goofing off, doing God-only-knew to kill time. It would be just like him to watch. Phillippe’s turgid snake was demanding to be free, and she’d have to make a decision soon or he’d whine about blue balls and she’d never get another chance.
She touched his zipper but all she could think about was the rats in the boiler. And the heavy breathing was louder, like a hundred pieces of sandpaper on wood.
“Phillippe?”
“Oui, ma cherie?” He was focused on his little mammary maneuver, inching toward raw nipple and disrespecting expensive lingerie.
“There’s something in the boiler.”
“The ghost thing...we already played that game. Now time for a new one.”
He squeezed hard and bit her neck, sending a jolt through her. Not all of it hurt, and she was disgusted by the tiny hotwire of pleasure that raced to her vagina. She moaned and closed her eyes. Encouraged, he bit again, this time hard enough to leave marks. His zipper was halfway down and heat plumed from the opening.
“Eeee-zy,” she said, knowing he was pushing the limits to see how much he could get. Men thought they were so damned clever, like they were setting the ground rules. But even if she’d wanted to bone him up, the dreary, creepy basement was jangling her nerves. She never relaxed during sex, not completely, because a girl had to stay on guard. But here, with that weird noise and the cloth thingy moving and—
His teeth clacked together and drew blood.
“Ow. Goddamn it.”
Before she could consider the consequences of having an enemy on staff, she slapped him across the cheek. If his goatee were long enough, she’d have yanked his head off and tossed it into the corner for the rats.
“I’m sorry, eez not like me....” Phillippe stared at his hands as if they belonged to someone else, but she was already to the stairs, adjusting her clothing, patting the narrow gash below her ear. Her fingers were warm and wet. The heavy breathing now sounded like giggles oozing from the dark, secretive nooks of the basement.
By the time she reached the door, she was somewhat composed. She’d been hit harder by better, and Violet Felkerson would make sure to sharpen the guillotine as soon as she became manager. Phillippe was toast, French or not.
“Cherie?”
“Stay down there and rot,” she said.
Behind Phillippe, the rag thingy was crawling out of the boiler, wormy fingers clawing at the door for traction.
Rats.
An old hotel like this, what could you expect?
By the time she’d slammed and locked the door, the giggling had turned into a laugh track.
Chapter 32
The Roach pressed back against the stones, fingering his crucifix. He’d drifted in and out of consciousness and couldn’t tell how long he’d been in the basement. Eloise’s—check that, Belial’s—blow had given him a concussion. His tongue probed a few loose teeth, and his nose was clotted with dried blood, which forced him to mouth breathe. His broken jaw throbbed and he wasn’t sure he’d be able to speak.
Not even the prayers he would need.
He awoke the first time with something touching his leg. The touch had given way to a slithery, slick stroke, all the more disturbing because it was vaguely sensual. He opened his eyes to near-total darkness, his night-vision goggles knocked somewhere across the uneven floor.
A dull orange glow emanated from a distance, like a star trying to wink in the gathering dusk. The touch became a turgid rope, and it continued across his thigh and moved on. Seconds, minutes, or maybe hours later, he heard the skuffff of something heavy being dragged across the dirt. Then he remembered Nancy’s corpse.
Disoriented and too sore to move, all he could was lie in the clammy dirt and assess his injuries. The scuffing lasted several minutes, followed by a meaty thunk, like encased bone hitting metal. The orange glow deepened and the fire roared to life. The woman’s body was thrown in silhouette against the bed of embers, then the fire roared to life and engulfed her flesh.