Green Card (2 page)

Mason strode to the sink, grabbed a paper towel and took it to her. “What happened?”

“N—nothing.”

He parked himself beside her on the floor and said, “Come on. Tell me about it. I may be a guy, but I’m an artist so I can be sensitive—sometimes.”

“Do you still want me to pose for you?”

“Very much.”

“Then, we’d better do it soon. I might be pregnant.”

The disclosure silenced him. He had already noted the lack of a wedding ring.

“I sat in the waiting room all morning at the free clinic, and they couldn’t see me. Now, I have to go back and wait again since they don’t take appointments.”

Mason exhaled a long breath. Should he get involved? What could he do? He placed an arm around her, and she surprised him by resting her head on his shoulder. She leant against him in silence for several moments. It was none of his business. Perhaps the only thing he could do was sacrifice his lunch time and offer some sympathy.

* * * *

Katia had given him the address of the restaurant in which she worked. It happened to be close to his apartment so he strolled over the following night. Their food must be awfully popular because the place was packed. It certainly smelled good.

She hurried from a table to the ordering window, babbled something in another language so fast he didn’t understand a word, then rushed to the soda machine behind the counter. Mason leant on the counter and called, “Katia.”

Startled, she sloshed soda onto the floor and almost dropped the glass. He hadn’t even spoken her name especially loud. “Wow, you’re jumpy.”

“I’m sorry. I—I was unprepared. I mean, surprised.”

He straddled a stool and smiled with concern. “Well, you should try to relax. Being that high strung can’t be good for the baby.”

Her brown eyes widened and resembled root beer lifesavers floating in milk. She shushed him. Leaning over the counter, she whispered frantically, “No one is to know. Especially here.” Glancing back over her shoulder before she continued, she said, “My uncle would kill me.”

“Okay, I won’t say a word. I just wanted to know what time you get off work tonight.”

“Tonight? Not until eleven.”

“Is that too late to come up to my place and pose for me?”

Again she glanced over her shoulder. “I’d really like to. I need the money, badly, but I don’t know what to tell my uncle.”

Mason shrugged. “Can’t you just tell him the truth?”

A look of horror crossed her face. “Tell him that I’m going to a strange man’s apartment to take off my clothes for him? He’d murder me.”

“Not really.”

“Well, he’d hit me for sure…”

At that moment, a rotund, dark, hairy man appeared in the doorway with his hands on his hips. “Katia! What are you doing? I pay you to work, not flirt with the customers. Perhaps you don’t want to earn your green card after all?”

“I’m sorry, Uncle Demetri. I was just…uh…”

“Making plans with her friend,” Mason supplied. He stuck out his hand. “It’s nice to meet you, sir. I’m Mason Germane.” The man simply stared at him until it was clear he wasn’t going to shake his hand so he let it drop to his side. “I wanted to take her to the movies. There’s a midnight show. I’d come and pick her up here after work and walk her home.”

The older man narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms. “A friend? It sounds like a date to me.”

“No uncle. We’re just friends.”

“Humph. My little niece is very naïve. She doesn’t know men at all. She probably believes your intentions are completely harmless.”

Mason bristled and rose off the stool. “I haven’t harmed any woman, sir, and I’m not going to start with Katia.”

“Fine. What movie will you see, then?”

Mason’s mind blanked for a moment then he spit out the first chick-flick title that popped into his head. “Gone with the Wind.”

Her uncle nodded and said, “Okay. Now you be gone with the wind and let her get back to work.”

After her uncle lumbered away, she stared at Mason with huge eyes. “That’s a five-hour movie,” she whispered. “I’ve seen it back in Russia. I’d have to stay with you all night for him to believe you!”

Scratching his chin, Mason deliberated. Nothing would please him more than the idea of pulling an all-nighter with his perfect model, but if she was telling the truth about her uncle, he might murder them both. “We’ll think of something. Maybe I’ll say the movie was lousy or sneak you back in after we’re sure your uncle has gone to bed.”

She glanced over her shoulder once more. “All right.”

Suddenly, her uncle strode around the corner and grabbed her by the arm. “I told you to get back to work.” He towed her through swinging louvered doors to a back room out of sight.

Mason stared in disbelief as she disappeared looking terrified while her uncle dragged her away. What was even more unbelievable was what he heard right after that. The unmistakable sound of a slap!

The woman might be
with child!
Murderous thoughts leapt to his mind.
What should I do? Go into the back and punch her uncle?
He needed her to model for him. He had an appointment with a publisher at the end of the week and how much harm could a simple slap do? He decided to hang around outside until she reappeared to make sure she was all right. If he didn’t see her return quickly… He didn’t know what he’d do. He just hoped he wouldn’t regret it.

Chapter Two

Shortly after eleven p.m., Katia met Mason outside the restaurant where he waited. She was tired, but when he showed concern, she insisted she was all right. She wasn’t sure he believed her.

“Have you eaten?”

“I had a small salad. I’m trying to lose weight.”

“Forget about dieting. You might be eating for two.”

Dear Lord, I hope not.
“I suppose you’re right.”

She fell silent as they strolled towards his brick apartment building. Mason admitted that he didn’t know much about her situation but said he was concerned that her uncle might be working her to exhaustion.

He jogged up a few steps and let the two of them into his building. Once down the hall, he opened the door to his first-floor apartment.

“I live with a roommate, but he’ll be in bed by now. He has an early class.”

“Is he an art student, too?”

“No. He’s not sure what he wants to do, yet. He’s just taking some required freshmen courses to see if he can hack it.”

She glanced around the neat living room then strolled over to his one framed sketch of a curvy woman in a revealing costume decorating the wall between the kitchen and living room. “This is nice. Did you draw it?”

“Yes. I liked how she came out, so I was hoping to draw a whole series of her.”

 As she stared at his fantasy rendition of the leather-clad, butt-kicking woman on which he hoped to base a series of drawings, suddenly it dawned on her why he might have wanted her to model. She bore an uncanny resemblance to his fantasy heroine. At least in the face. Sadly, her body would
never
match.

When she placed her fists on her hips, he chuckled. “And she would be you.”

“Me? You can’t be serious. I am, as you said, curvy, but this one’s waist is so small. I could never look like her.” She hung her head in shame. “Especially now.”

“Don’t worry about that. I’m an artist, not a photographer. Besides, all comic book heroines are curvy. Have you seen Xena? Wonder Woman?”

“Really?” This man was too good to be true. Handsome, helpful, and he didn’t mind a little extra meat on a woman’s bones.

“Yes, really. By the way, my studio is in my bedroom. Do you mind posing for me in there?”

“No. That’s fine. In fact, it would be better. We might scare your roommate if he came out of his room.”

Mason shook his head. “We might surprise him, but he wouldn’t be scared. Just jealous.”

Katia grinned.

He hadn’t seen that striking radiance before and wondered why not. Perhaps it was because she didn’t have much to smile about. That bothered him, but why? He’d just met the girl.

He pushed the red flag warning to the back of his mind. Oh course, he’d behave professionally! He wasn’t some kind of Neanderthal.

Mason opened his bedroom door for her, and as soon as she entered, she began to undress.
I could get used to this,
he thought
.
Mason turned his easel to face the long, blank wall and plopped down on the edge of his unmade twin bed. As soon as she was naked, he asked her to stand against the white backdrop. She held herself erect, her head tilted downward.

“We can’t have you like that.”

“Like what?” A nervous look immediately supplanted the bland expression she usually wore.

“Passive. My character is aggressive to the max. She’s a butt-kicking, crime-fighting, super heroine.”

“Oh. You pose me, then. I’ll do whatever you say.”

Mason heard in his mind,
touch me. Squeeze me. Take me to bed.
He approached cautiously.

“Let’s have you look like you’re running.” She moved into something that resembled more of a jog than the flat-out run he wanted. “Here. Move this leg forward.” He stroked underneath her thigh. The light, silky smooth feel of her warm skin excited him, but he ignored the twitch in his jeans.

She moved as he asked and looked up expectantly.

“Okay, now the other leg further back.” She widened her stance and watched for his next direction. “Now, arms up and hands in fists.”

She stuck her hands up in a position that looked as if she were about to duke it out with somebody. He chuckled. “No, like this.” Taking her wrist and elbow, he drew one arm back.

“Now…” He placed his hand under her back thigh. “Straighten this leg a little more and—”

“Oh!” She toppled towards him, and he caught her in an awkward position. One arm wrapped around her torso against her breasts, and his other hand slipped into the V between her thighs, cupping her sex.

“I—I’m sorry,” she stammered.

Mason stepped back as soon as she’d righted herself. “No, it’s me who should apologise. I guess I threw you off balance.”

She nodded, looking at the floor, her hands clasped over her pussy. He noticed a dark rose blush rising from her neck to her cheeks.

“Hey, it was an accident. You know that, right?”

She stared up at him. “Oh, yes. I’m just…” At a loss for words, she simply looked at the floor.

“Embarrassed?”

She shook her head.

“Then what?”

She cleared her throat and gazed up at him, cheeks flaming. “Aroused.”

Mason raised his eyebrows. “You are?”

She dropped her gaze and stared at the floor, clasping her hands in front of her. “I apologise. You didn’t expect me to say that. Now, I’m embarrassed.”

“Don’t be. To tell you the truth I was getting turned on, too. If you want to call it a night and go home—”

“Oh, no! I want to stay. I really do.”

He wanted her to stay too—in his bed. As if tugged by a magnet, he reached for her and with one fluid movement, swept her into his arms and lowered his mouth to hers.

They shared a long, languorous kiss. Her lips were full and soft. Perfect for kissing. Without even thinking about it, his hand wandered over her soft skin, down her back and rested on her hip. Something tickled his waist and he realised she was pulling the waistband of his jeans, trying to unbutton them.

Still kissing, it was hard to argue about undressing, especially when holding a totally naked woman. Not that he wanted to fight her off, anyway. Letting her open his jeans, he unbuttoned his white cotton shirt until a cool breeze teased his chest hair.

She broke the kiss to shove the shirt off of his shoulders then waited as if giving him time to react. Burning with desire, he dragged it the rest of the way off his arms and tossed it aside. She stepped into his space, tilted her chin up and offered him her lips. They kissed, hungrily.

Mason became so lost in the fusion of their lips, the scrape and swirl of their tongues and the drag of her fingernails down his back, he almost didn’t feel her other hand on his jeans. When she cupped his erection, he startled.

She took a step away from him. “I’m sorry. Is that not what you wanted?”

His brain had clouded, probably from all the blood rushing down to his other head. Suddenly, he remembered the possible pregnancy and stammered, “It—it
is
what I want, but what about your condition?”

She rolled her eyes. “
Possible
condition and, at this point, it shouldn’t matter. For a man who spends so much time with naked women, you don’t know much about how their bodies work, do you?”

He chuckled. “Probably not. I’ve been focusing on the outside, mostly. But how would the father feel if he found out?”

She whirled away from him and folded her arms under her breasts. “He doesn’t know and never will.”

Mason tried to read her emotions. She said the words as if stating a fact. There was no bitterness in her voice. So why did she turn away?

He grasped her arms and rotated her to face him. The blush had returned to her cheeks and her long, black eyelashes hid her eyes.

“What’s going on?”

She heaved a deep sigh and faced him squarely. “It was a one-night stand. My uncle is so strict, and I have a woman’s needs. I’m not a little girl, anymore.”

“So you know who the father is, and you’re not going to tell him? That seems—”

“No.” She stuck her palm in front of him, halting his speech or the lecture she probably expected. “You do not know all the facts.”

“That’s true. But if I sleep with you, I need to know what I’m getting into.” It wasn’t any of his business, but this woman and everything about her piqued his curiosity. She didn’t seem the type to purposely have a one-night stand. “Tell me what happened.”

She rolled her eyes but came out with it. “It was for my green card. I was promised a little extra help if I did what I did. I can’t go to him and say, ‘Oh, by the way, you got me pregnant.’ I’d be deported on the spot.”

Mason nodded in semi-understanding. He reclined on his twin bed and leant against the wall. Then he held his arm out straight, offering Katia a comforting side-cuddle. She crawled into the space next to his side, and he curled his arm around her.