Feelings of Fear Read Online Free Page A

sorry,” said Susan. She glanced back toward Jack Amberson’s table. He was beckoning to her and mouthing the words, “C’mon over here.”
    She hesitated. It was so strange, seeing him sitting there in the flesh. She had seen him in so many movies that she felt as if she knew him already. He always played wolfish men with bad reputations, although he usually managed to convey a sense of little-boyish vulnerability, too. He mouthed “C’mon, come here,” for a second time, and she thought to herself: why not? We’re in a public restaurant, what harm can it do? Think of the story I’ll have to tell Hazel tomorrow. She’s absolutely crazy about Jack Amberson.
    And besides, at least it shows that some men appreciate me for what I am.
    She said, “All right, then,” and slipped off her barstool. The big blond bodyguard led her by the elbow to Jack Amberson’s table. He stood up, and grinned, and kissed her on the wrist. For a man who played laborers and cowhands and oil-rig workers, his hand was unexpectedly soft.
    â€œWhy don’t you let me buy you a drink?” he asked her. “They do great frozen daiquiris here. Or maybe a tequila slammer?”
    â€œA glass of wine will do fine, thanks.”
    Jack clapped his hands and called, “Champagne, please, barkeep! A bottle of your Dom Perignon, and some of those Parmesan nibbles!”
    He turned conspiratorially to Susan and said, “I can’t resist their Parmesan nibbles. I mean that’s the way I’d like to die. Making love to a tall blonde woman and choking on a Parmesan nibble.”
    â€œYour friend here said you had a thing for tall blonde women.”
    Jack Amberson frowned at her as if he didn’t understand what she meant. “My
friend
?” Then suddenly he turned to the big blond bodyguard and laughed. “Christopher isn’t my
friend
! He’s simply a hired lump of meat. Anyhow, I don’t have any friends. Only enemies and lovers.”
    â€œBut I’m neither of those things. Why did you want to talk to me?”
    â€œIn the hope that you might become one before you become the other.”
    â€œWell, you obviously have a pretty high opinion of yourself. I’m already married.”
    â€œI know you are. You’re too badly dressed to be single.”
    â€œThanks for the compliment. You sure know how to make a woman feel on top of the world.”
    Jack Amberson laid his hand on top of hers, and when she tried to draw it away he pressed it harder against the tablecloth so that she couldn’t. His eyes looked like two gray mismatched stones, and he had the screen actor’s trick of never blinking.
    â€œYou’re also too beautiful to be single. Women as beautiful as you never stay unmarried for long. The men in their lives think that if they’re married, that’ll keep the wolf-pack at bay. In my experience, of course, that almost never happens. A beautiful woman is still a beautiful woman, even if she’s wearing ten wedding-bands and a chastity belt with a Bramah lock.”
    Their champagne arrived, along with a large glass dish of Parmesan pastries. Jack Amberson crammed a huge handful into his mouth and sat smiling and munching and staring at Susan and never once blinking his eyes.
    â€œI’ll give you a toast,” he said, when he had swallowed the last of the pastries. He raised his glass and clinked it with hers. “Here’s to simultaneous orgasm.”
    She didn’t know exactly when she decided to sleep with him. But afterhe had turned the Dom Perignon bottle upside-down in the ice-bucket he said, “I’ve got plenty more champagne at home,” and she knew that she was going to go back with him, and what it would mean if she did.
    They left the restaurant shortly after one o’clock, surrounded by a human barricade. Two girls screamed and called out, “Jack! We love you!” but when