Authors: Elaine Overton
Rent-A-Bride
By
Elaine Overton
Contents
“Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place.”
Zora Neale Hurston
S
tanley Bouchard was dying and there didn’t seem to be a single oncology specialist in the world willing to contradict that verdict. As Edward Bouchard stood by the hospital bed of his grandfather one rainy September afternoon watching the life leech out of the only person in the world he gave a damn about, Ed was left once again feeling like the helpless little boy who’d landed on his grandfather’s doorstep orphaned and homeless twenty years ago.
The irony of the situation was that Dr. Ed Bouchard was considered one of the most promising young surgeons in the country. But no amount of skill could counter the cancer rapidly eating its way through an eighty-three year old body.
Fighting back the tears Ed reached down and took his grandfather’s warm, limp hand in his rubbing his fingers over the wrinkly skin. He stared down into the face he knew so well, quietly memorizing every single detail. The coffee with cream complexion, the bushy eyebrows now completely white, the knife sharp nose and thin pale rose lips.
All his life, Ed had been told of his physical similarity to his grandfather by those who’d known Stanley Bouchard as a young man, and that resemblance had always been a point of pride, even now.
His dark eyes roamed over the line of machines that stood sentinel beside the hospital bed, the various beeping sounds co-mingling into some sort of strange cacophony of death, each piece of equipment dutifully proceeding in their specified task of monitoring, regulating, and doing what the disease ravaged body could no longer do for itself.
Ed’s only comfort was that the head of the medical team caring for his grandfather was his best friend, oncologist, Dr. Steve Allen. And therefore, Ed knew that everything that could’ve been done—was. Still, despite all their efforts, chemotherapy and radical medications nothing had worked. Steve had forewarned him that he didn’t believe Stanley would make it through the night.
Sometimes everything you can do is simply not enough.
There was a time not so long ago when Ed would’ve sworn this man was indestructible. Where had the years gone? How could someone so strong and powerful have been brought so low?
It was time to say goodbye.
Ed sighed heavily before sinking down in a nearby chair and settling in for the long night ahead of him. Earlier the nurse had administered a type of pain killer that Ed knew typically caused a patient to sleep for several hours. It didn’t matter. Even if his grandfather never uttered another word in this lifetime Ed wanted to be there with him at the end holding his hand and letting him know that he was loved just as he had for Ed all those years ago.
Twenty years ago on a cold, rainy autumn night much like the one outside the hospital window their roles had been reversed. And it had been Ed who lay in the hospital bed while his grandfather stood at his side.
As the only surviving member of the tragic car crash that had killed his entire family including his parents and infant sister, a barely conscious, nine year old Ed had been questioned about his next of kin and he’d given the answer he’d been taught from the time he could speak.
When Stanley arrived at the hospital that dreadful night his world changed as much as Ed’s had. In a matter of moments he lost his only child, his son Dennis, his daughter-in-law, Monica, and his baby granddaughter Francis. And he’d become the guardian of a nine year old boy who was now just a shattered shell of the carefree child he once was, a child who would eventually be tortured by nightmares and startled by his own shadow.
Even now, the dark, hollow place in Ed’s chest that had once been filled with the light and laughter of a well loved child was tender to the touch of mental probing. But there was a time when the pain was so deep there, so constant it was almost unbearable. Back then he never would’ve believed, never could’ve imagined his life could be as it was now.
Some would say that it was all the inevitable result of the natural healing process and that with or without the loving understanding of his grandfather he would’ve recovered in time.
But those people knew nothing of the battle for his soul that his grandfather had waged during those next ten years. They didn’t know about the troubled thoughts that consumed a rebellious teen. They didn’t know about the local gang leader who with one look in Ed’s dark eyes recognized a kindred spirit and then fought like hell to possess him. They didn’t know about the gunshot wound on his lower left hip, the eight weeks in rehab, and the juvenile record that was expunged when he turned eighteen.
Those people didn’t know anything about what it took to turn that damaged child into Dr. Edward Bouchard. But his grandfather did because he’d been there every step of the way. And although it seemed little comfort, Ed fully intended to return the favor. No matter what the next few hours would bring he would be there…every step of the way.
• • •
“You want me to
what
?” Amelia Young stood feet braced apart, hands fisted on her slender waist, her hazel green eyes blazing with homicidal intention.
The object of her fury was staring down at the clipboard in his hand, completely unaware of the danger. “You’re Terry’s girl, right?” He glanced up at her curiously.
“The
girl
has a name, its Amelia Yo—”
“Whatever!” He snapped and tossed the board onto a nearby table. “Look, do you want the part or not?” He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. If not, I have to find another girl to audition—fast.”
Amelia tilted her head watching him warily. “So…this really is an audition?”
“Of course it is.” He muttered around a cigarette while struggling to light it.
Amelia’s finely shaped eyebrows crinkled in confusion. “But, you just said—”
He matched her frown and pulled the lit cigarette from between his teeth. “What? That I needed to see your tits?” He blew a puff of air across the small space separating them.
She nodded slowly fanning away the smoke.
“Well, how the hell am I going to know if I can use you if you don’t take your damn clothes off?” He made a frustrated hand gesture before returning to his seat behind a folding table.
Besides the table and one chair he occupied the only other piece of furniture in the room was the large king size bed sitting in the far corner and two stationary cameras’ trained on it.
“I mean, yeah, you’re gorgeous,” he continued as his dull eyes crept up the length of her body in a slow perusal that raised the tiny hairs on her skin. “But beneath those clothes you could be covered in warts for all I know.”
Amelia glanced at the bed again her mind racing with thoughts. She wasn’t a fool. One look at this so-called director and that bed and she pretty much knew what this
audition
was for. Still, she’d hoped she might be wrong until a minute ago when he’d demanded she strip down.
As soon as she could Amelia would deal with her low-life agent, Terry, who’d sent her into this without warning, but for now she had a decision to make. The problem was that every part of her wanted to tell this high paid pimp what to do with his part
and
his movie. But the bald true of the matter was she couldn’t afford to. Her unemployment had run out a year ago, she didn’t qualify for any government aide and this was the only role—only job of
any kind
—she’d been offered in almost five months and so…pride be damned.
She hadn’t eaten anything other than Ramen noodles in three months, and what she’d been able to pass off as fashionably thin up until now was beginning to look like what it was—starvation.
She hadn’t paid her rent in over two months and every time she left the boarding house where she rented a room she expected to return and find her stuff sitting out on the curb.
She was in desperate straits and lying on the table between her and
Mr. Sleazy
as she’d nicknamed him in her mind was a check already made out to her for fifteen hundred dollars.
Mr. Sleazy glanced at the clock high up on the wall behind him. “Sweetheart, you’ve obviously never done this before so I’ve tried to be patient. But you’re gonna have to either take your clothes off or leave because I’ve got a lot to get done today.”
He leaned forward and snubbed his partial cigarette out in the overflowing ashtray on the table. Then blowing out a final puff he sat back in his folding chair and sighed.
“And just to let you know I plan to tear your agent a new asshole next time I see him. He knows better than to send me a virgin.” He folded his arms across his chest. “So, what’s it gonna be?”
Amelia bit her lip nervously.
Do I really have a choice?
Coming to a decision she started with the top buttons on her cotton blouse. Her cold, numb fingers struggling with each one until the shirt stood slightly parted, her pink bra peeked out of the opening.
“Can I ask you something?” She asked quietly.
“Sure.” Mr. Sleazy stood from his chair and came around the table watching her in such an analytically, clinical way it was strangely comforting. This could be her annual physical in her doctor’s office for all the sexual intent he showed.
“What exactly would I have to do?” She muttered.
He came to a stop in front of her and gently parted the panels of her blouse taking in every inch of her flesh. “Very nice.” He muttered to himself before his eyes came up to meet hers. “What do you mean?”
She took a deep breath. “Well, I know there are different kinds of…movies. So, what do I have to do?”
Without warning his hands moved to the top of her slacks and began pulling down the zipper. “Your role would be purely masturbation. You’ll be in the background. Honestly, I doubt if anyone will see your face. So, don’t worry about your high school science teacher recognizing you.” He chuckled.
Amelia balled her hands in fist at her side as she fought the instinctive urge to claw his eyes out. If she was going to do this she had better get use to strange men touching her body.
To distract herself from what was happening she took several deep breaths and concentrated on the words she needed to say. “So, that check is just for me…
touching
myself?”
He grabbed the top of her slacks and yanked and the pants easily slide down her legs to pool around her ankles. He stood back still watching her with the intensity of a scientist studying a lab rat. “Very nice indeed.” He made a gesture and then spoke the thought. “Turn.”
With several more deep breaths she scooted in a tight circle trying desperately to keep her pants around her ankles and not accidentally step out of them. For some ridiculous reason her mind seem to think keeping the clothing against her flesh was essentially important.
When she came back around to face him he had already returned to his seat. “I can definitely use you.”
His analytical look had turned predatory and once again Amelia felt the hairs on her body stand up.
“In fact,
you
could be a star—I mean this,” he picked up the check on the table. “This is small potatoes. With that face and body you could be making forty, fifty thousand dollars a movie.”
Her eyes widened in amazement even as she doubted the truth of what he was saying. “No way!”
A slow smile came across his face. “At
least
that.”
“Just for…?”
He nodded slowly that predatory smile still firmly in place. “So, you ready to do this?” He glanced at the big clock on the wall once more. “If you are, we really need to get moving. I have to be across town in less than an hour.”
“You mean now? Like
right now
?!” Her heart was pounding, her mind racing as her instinct for survival battled against a lifetime of beliefs.
His predatory smile turned playful and caught Amelia totally by surprise. “And who knows? If you’re as good as I think you will be I may even let Terry live.”
Somewhere in the back of her mind Amelia was aware that his disarming demeanor was part of what led her to her decision. The other part was the almost constant rumbling in her stomach. If she was careful with it fifteen hundred dollars could feed and shelter her for a few months.
With one final deep breath she nodded. “Okay.”
“That a girl!” He stood and clapped his hands together. “Now take off the rest of your clothes and get on the bed.” He called to her over his shoulder as he crossed to a door on the opposite side of the room. He opened the door and yelled inside. “Let’s get rolling, people! We don’t have all day.”