What If

                                                                          Chapter 32

As August turned into September, things began going well for them. Billy had been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation, and other than the occasional phone call from Trish informing Oded about any upcoming appearances and such, they were left pretty much alone. Raegan even consented to spending one or two nights during the week with Oded at his place, which thrilled him to no end. Some minor talk about him and Rae started popping up in a few entertainment magazines, but it wasn’t anything dramatic. Fortunately for their relationship they weren’t being hounded by the media every time they went out in public. Unfortunately for Oded’s career that the media wasn’t hounding him because it meant he hadn’t made the impact yet that he had hoped for. But Raegan was always there encouraging him. On the weekends they began double dating with Nancy and Rick. The first time the foursome had gone out together had been hysterical. They had gone miniature golfing, something Oded had never done before.

“So the object of the game is for me to hit this little ball into that hole down there with this club?” he’d asked skeptically. He knew of golf, had even tried it a time or two, but miniature golf had not come into the picture until now. He glanced down toward where there was a windmill, the blades turning slowly, every so often blocking the entrance to where the ball was supposed to go.

“Yes, sweetheart, you have to get the ball through that opening down there without hitting the blades,” Raegan had answered with a smile.

Oded had bent over, placing his ball in the spot Raegan had indicated. He lined up his shot then glanced up at Nancy and Rick, who were trying desperately to keep straight faces. “Why do I get the feeling that I am the butt of some joke?”

“Sorry Ded, it’s just that I find it hard to believe that you have never heard of miniature golf,” Nancy said, trying not to smile.

“I never said that I never heard of it, I said I never played it,” Oded answered as he concentrated on timing his hit with the passing of the blades over the entrance to the windmill. He tapped the ball and smiled in triumph when it appeared that the ball would make it through the opening, but at the last second the blade of the windmill came down and caught the ball before it could go through and sent it off in the other direction. “Shit!”

Nancy snorted and Rick chuckled as Raegan moved up next to Oded. “You missed,” she observed with a straight face. Oded turned to glare at her. “Oh, did I happen to mention that you have to get the ball in the hole in the least amount of hits to win?”

Oded leaned forward until his face was mere inches from hers. “You will pay for this later, I promise you!” Raegan squirmed as she caught his meaning.

She cleared her throat and smiled. “You get another try,” she informed him sweetly.

He closed the remaining distance between them and kissed her before going to retrieve his ball and trying again.

“Having a bit of a hard time there, Dedster?” Nancy teased unmercifully.

“Bite me!” Oded growled, flashing her his white teeth.

“Promises, promises!” Nancy sighed, then yipped when Rick playfully smacked her on the rear end.

By his forth try Oded was cursing in Hebrew. “Who invented this stupid game anyway?” he growled as he picked up his ball and shoved it through the opening before a blade swept past.

“Hey, that’s cheating!” Nancy quipped.

“So sue me!” Oded growled back at her, but his eyes were twinkling showing that in his frustration of not playing the game well, he was still having fun.

“Maybe I will!” Nancy smirked as Raegan set up her ball to go next.

“No fighting, children!” she muttered as she aimed and tapped the ball. It went through.

“Oh crap!” Oded rolled his eyes and smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand. Raegan grinned at him and moved out of the way for Nancy and Rick to take their shots. After losing gracefully, Oded treated them all to dinner.

It was nearing the end of September when things started falling apart once again. Oded was getting ready to leave for Canada to film the small part he had in a new movie called Texas Rangers. He would only be gone for a few weeks, but still he had no desire to be away from Raegan that long, and he wanted her to come with him. He didn’t understand her resistance to it. The argument started the weekend before he was to leave and continued on through that week and into the next weekend, with Oded never really clearly understanding Raegan’s reasons for refusing to go with him.

“You remember I am heading to Canada a week from Monday, right?” Oded had asked her that Saturday evening. They were cuddled together on the couch, watching the television, just enjoying each other’s company rather than going out with Nancy and Rick. The four had gone to a Dodgers game the night before and then for a midnight stroll on the beach afterward. Tonight however, they had wanted to spend alone together.

“Mmmm hmmm,” Raegan had answered.

Oded nibbled on the back of her neck. “You going to come with me? It’s only for a couple of weeks,” he said as he pulled the collar of her shirt back to nibble on her shoulder. Raegan stiffened slightly, then quickly relaxed, but Oded had already felt it. “What?” He pulled back, his hand pushing down on her shoulder so that she was forced to turn and face him.

“I can’t, Ded.” She flinched when she saw his expression fall. “I’m sorry, but I just can’t take that kind of time off.”

“Why not?” he asked softly. “The trial is long over and you’ve been complaining that you have nothing to do at work lately. You said so yourself, you have lots of vacation time built up, so use it. Come with me.”

Raegan squirmed uncomfortable with the conversation. She wouldn’t look Oded in the eyes and he sensed that there was something more to what she was telling him. “It’s not just work, I have other responsibilities. I just can’t up and leave whenever you want me to.”

“Whenever I want you to? Raegan, I’m going to be gone for two, possibly three weeks to film a movie. I don’t want to be separated from you for that long. God, I hate being away from you the few days during the week. I can’t imagine two or three weeks without holding you or making love to you.” Oded ran his hand down her throat and down between her breasts, his fingers spread wide so that his thumb brushed across one nipple and his pinky brushed the other.

Raegan breathed in deeply, closing her eyes. She bit her lower lip then sighed. “I can’t go, Oded. Please don’t ask anymore.”

His hand stopped suddenly, the mood ruined. “I’ll stop asking when you give me an answer that makes sense.” His voice was gruff, almost harsh, and he regretted the tone immediately, but he couldn’t help it. She drove him insane with her refusal to go. “Raegan, if you don’t want to go, just say so, you don’t need to make up excuses.” He sat up and pushed his way to a standing position.

Raegan felt hurt over his words, but she knew she deserved it. How could she explain to him that she was scared to death of his celebrity status? She was scared of the very thing that had drawn her in the very beginning. How could she tell him that she didn’t want to go with him because she felt intimidated about hanging out on a movie set with people who would probably just think she was in the way and would most likely think she was just some groupie? She didn’t find hanging out by herself in a hotel room very appealing either. He just wouldn’t understand. He was used to that lifestyle. Just the little mention of her name linked to his in one of the entertainment magazines recently had terrified her. She had told him once that she wanted to make sure that she was falling in love with Oded the man, not Oded the actor. Well, she fell in love with the man all right and suddenly found that she was terrified of the actor. “Please, Oded, I don’t want to argue over this.” Her chin quivered slightly as tears formed in her eyes.

Oded sighed. He hated it when she cried; it always made him feel like a heel. He knelt down next to her. “Alright sweetness, I’ll let it go, for now.” He kissed her, then proceeded to make love to her on the couch.

Oded did let it go for a few days, but then brought it up again when he took her to lunch on Tuesday. It was the same question, the same answer. Oded had taken a deep breath trying to rein in his temper, but his fuse was getting shorter. “Does it not even matter to you that we will be separated for two weeks?”

Raegan picked at her food with her fork. “Of course it does. I’ll miss you terribly.”

Oded searched her face, his intense gaze looking past the outer shell of her beautiful features and staring right into her soul. “You don’t act like you’ll miss me,” he commented finally.

Raegan put her fork down and pushed her plate away. She had butterflies in her stomach, and she was scared that Oded would figure out the truth of why she wouldn’t go and laugh at her. Maybe she had some kind of “celebrityphobia” that was preventing her from going. She wanted to go with him. She was beside herself missing him already and he wasn’t leaving for six more days, but the thought of actually going with him terrified her more than she could imagine. Her guilt nearly consumed her, eating away at her stomach, causing her to feel sick inside with dread. “And how do you want me to act? You want me to fall on my knees crying and clinging to your leg, begging you to stay?”

“Now you’re being sarcastic,” he snapped. He tossed his napkin on the table and threw some money down for the meal and stood. “Come on, I’ll take you back.”

It was the first time he had ever returned her to work so early. She still had a half hour left for her lunch. She wanted to lock herself up in one of the empty offices and cry. By the time he’d picked her up from work on Friday, it was obvious that their relationship had become strained. Oded knew she was holding something back from him, but didn’t know what, and Raegan felt guilty for the way she felt. Even Rick and Nancy noticed the strain on their double date that night. Conversation between the four was good, but Rick and Nancy both noticed that Oded and Raegan hardly said two words to each other, and the couple who normally couldn’t keep their hands off each other sat across the table from them with a good twelve inches or more between them. Oded found himself nit-picking everything Raegan did, and her guilt began to turn to anger as they began to argue over little things. Even their lovemaking suffered from it, to the point that they didn’t even bother on that Sunday night before he was to leave. It was as if their connection had been severed by her refusal to go. By Monday morning when he dropped her off at work, they still were hardly talking to each other.

“Rae,” Oded called to her as she opened the passenger door.

“What?”

He sighed at her tone. “I don’t want to leave with this hanging over us, sweetness.”

Raegan looked back at him over her shoulder. “I don’t see that we have much choice. I’ve got to get to work, and you have a flight to catch. Besides, it’s a little late to be thinking about that now, don’t you think?”

“Damn it, Raegan, why are you being so stubborn about this?” he snapped angrily.

“Why are you?” Raegan replied just as angry. “I’ve got a life and responsibilities here that I can’t just pick up and leave for weeks at a time.” She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “We’ve already been through this, Ded. I’m not coming with you, and you are just going to have to accept that. Maybe what we need is a break.”

Oded’s eyes narrowed. “What are you saying?”

Raegan shook her head and looked out the window. Already there were a lot of people moving in and out of the federal building, going about their business. “I’m just saying that maybe this will give us both a chance to step back and see where our relationship is going.”

Oded swallowed hard, feeling as if he’d been kicked in the gut. “Rae . . .”

Raegan twisted in the seat and leaned over to give Oded a quick kiss. “Have a safe trip. We’ll talk when you get back,” she said quickly, and climbed out of the car with her overnight bag before Oded could say anything more.

Oded watched as she left. He thought their relationship had been going great until this past week. Had something happened that he wasn’t aware of, or was this whole thing about her traveling with him a much deeper problem than he had realized? Well, one thing was for certain, he had a flight to catch and they wouldn’t be able to solve the problem until he got back.

Raegan entered Nancy’s office with tears in her eyes. Nancy glanced up, then did a double take as her best friend shut the door behind her. “What happened?” Nancy asked, jumping up and circling around her desk to give Raegan a hug. Raegan began crying uncontrollably as Nancy held her. “Rae, what happened? Come on, let’s sit over here.” She directed Raegan over to the chairs that sat in front of her desk, and they sat down.

“I think Oded and I just broke up again.”

“What?” Nancy asked, shocked. “I thought things were going great now!”

“I did too, but Oded is really upset with me because I won’t go to Canada with him while he is filming. We fought about it all last week and this past weekend.” Raegan sniffed. She reached for the box of Kleenex on Nancy’s desk and blew her nose.

“So that is why things were so tense between you two Friday night. Rick and I both noticed it,” Nancy commented.

Raegan nodded. “Well it only got worse.”

“So did he break up with you?”

“No. I just told him that we should use this time apart to think about where our relationship is going, and that we would talk about it when he got back,” Raegan answered.

Nancy frowned. “So what makes you think you broke up then?”

“I don’t know, it’s just the way we parted. It was so stiff and unfeeling,” Raegan answered with a shiver. “We didn’t even make love last night, and now I won’t see him for at least a few weeks.”

“Can I ask you a question?” Raegan nodded and looked over at Nancy. “Why wouldn’t you go with him?”

Raegan didn’t answer at first. She just stared at Nancy. “I suppose you’re going to tell me I’m wrong. That I should have gone with him.”

Nancy shook her head. “No. If you don’t want to go, you don’t want to go. I’m just curious as to what your reasons are that’s got him so upset about it.”

“I’ve got responsibilities here, Nance. I can’t just pick up and leave every time he gets a movie role.”

Nancy pursed her lips together and nodded. “You are right. You shouldn’t pick up and leave every time he gets a movie role. But why do I get the feeling there is more to it than that?”

“I don’t know what you mean.” Raegan looked down at her hands as they twisted the tissue.

“I think you do. This is me you’re talking to, Rae. What is the real reason you won’t go with him?”

Raegan struggled with her thoughts before she finally answered. “I’m afraid, Nance.”

“Afraid of what, Rae?” Nancy asked as she reached over to push a stray hair behind Raegan’s ear.

Raegan took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Her hands had begun shaking, and she clutched them together in front of her. “I’m afraid of his celebrity status.”

“Oh boy!” Nancy replied as she sat back in her chair. “Damn girl, you should have thought of that before you two fell in love. Acting is a major part of who he is. He needs your support, and sometimes traveling with him is a part of that support.”

“Don’t you think I know that?” Raegan snapped as she scrubbed at her eyes with the heels of her hands.

“Hey, take it easy. I’m on your side here.”

Raegan sighed. “Sorry. I know that.”

“So what did Ded say when you told him how you felt?”

“I didn’t tell him. I just said that I had responsibilities here I couldn’t leave.”

“Raegan Delaney Lacy! Somebody needs to take you over their knee and whip the tar out of you!” Nancy sat up and glared at Raegan. “Why the hell didn’t you tell him?”

“He wouldn’t understand,” Raegan whispered.

Nancy softened her tone, realizing she needed to approach this with kid gloves. Her best friend was hurting and struggling to deal with something that could really determine her future with Oded. “Honey, I don’t understand, and I know you better than anyone.”

Raegan began to cry again. “I don’t want to lose him, Nance, but God help me, I’m terrified of becoming another statistic with him. You know as well as I do that celebrity relationships rarely last. Look at all the divorces or break ups between actors. Even the ones who are married to non-celebrities are splitting up. And let’s say I went with him to film this movie. What the hell would I do all day while he was on the set? I would be by myself in a place I am unfamiliar with. If I go hang out on the set, then I would be bored and in the way. If I hang out at the hotel, then I’m just plain bored.”

“Raegan, you need to talk to Oded about this. I think he’ll understand better than you think. At the very least you owe him the truth. He’s always been up front and honest with you. You should be the same way with him.”

Raegan grabbed another tissue, wiped her tears, and blew her nose. “You’re right, I do need to tell him the truth. I just don’t know how.”

“Just say it like you did with me. I don’t think he would judge you for it, Rae. But the two of you can’t get past this if you don’t tell him. Why don’t you go call him?”

“Can’t. His cell phone is broke, and we were so upset with each other that he forgot to give me a number where he’d be. Either that or he didn’t want me to have it,” Raegan sulked. “Besides he’d be at the airport by now.”

“Oh get real, Rae. Of course he wanted you to have it. I’m sure he’ll call you tonight, and you can talk to him about it then.”

But Oded didn’t call that night. In fact when Raegan hadn’t heard a word from him by Saturday, she began to panic. She tried to call his voice mail only to have it cut her off in the middle of her message. When she tried again, it didn’t even pick up. It seemed to her that fate was trying to keep them apart, and she wanted to scream!

Oded had a rough week himself. Filming was going slower than anticipated and there were a lot of retakes. Props weren’t working, and the horse he was using refused to cooperate. After a few days he was informed that he would be required to stay at the very least another week. The urge to call Raegan was nearly overwhelming, but he was going to respect her request even if it killed him. She had said they would discuss the problem when he returned. He took that as a “don’t call me”, so he spent his evenings sulking in his hotel room, staring at the phone, wishing that Raegan were with him. He had checked his voice mail, hoping that she would have left a message only to find it wasn’t working. He had to call the phone company the next day to report it, and they said they would get right on it. He knew they would get through this, just as they had gotten through all the other obstacles that seemed to get in the way of their relationship. One thing was for certain, when he returned he was going to ask her to move in with him. He knew it would be better for both of them. It was time to move forward and take the next step.

Through the second week, Raegan was beside herself. Oded hadn’t called. She didn’t even know if he was all right. Nancy had managed to worm out the entire conversation that Raegan had had with Oded when he had dropped her off at work the Monday before, and constantly reminded her that if Oded wasn’t calling, it was her own fault for it.

“But I never told him not to call!” Raegan had complained on one of those times.

“Doesn’t matter, you inferred it. At least he thinks you inferred it,” Nancy had answered. Regardless of what had or had not been inferred, Raegan was miserable, and by the end of the second week, she was in a state of depression. The only thing that perked her up was the fact that he was due home any day now. He would call her.

But by the end of the second week, Oded had slipped into a depression. Once his voice mail was fixed, he checked it everyday to see if Raegan had called, but it was always the same: messages from friends or family, but nothing from Raegan. He had called Trish, and in a moment of insanity he had asked her to call Raegan and let her know he would be another week. Trish had questioned him subtly and then informed him that she would call Raegan immediately. To her surprise she actually did call, but she made the call during a time she knew Raegan would not be at home and just left a formal message that Oded was detained a week longer than was expected. If Oded and Raegan’s relationship was on rocky ground, then this was her chance to step in. She flew out of LAX that Saturday morning and was knocking on Oded’s hotel room that evening.

                                                            ********************

                                                                       Chapter 33

“Trish!” Oded blinked when he opened the door. He frowned. “What are you doing here?” He swayed a tiny bit, feeling a little lightheaded from the wine he’d been drinking. God, this is all I need, he thought. He was having a hard enough time dealing with being separated from Raegan and not being able to talk to her; he didn’t want to deal with Trish too.

Trish took one look at him and knew that it was worse than she had thought. Oded was not a drinker, and here he was well on his way to getting drunk. If she worked it right, she would be in bed with him in a few hours, then any hope of working things out with Raegan would be history. “I was worried about you. You sounded depressed on the phone, and since I had a few days I thought I would come up and see what I could do to cheer you up.”

“The only thing that would cheer me up is if Raegan were here,” he mumbled as he turned and headed back to the couch and the bottle of wine that sat on the coffee table. He was barefooted and wore a pair of well-worn faded blue jeans. He was shirtless and the top two buttons of his jeans button-up fly were undone, giving Trish a very delectable view of the tantalizing bit of hair that dipped down below his belly button.

Trish knew that if Oded had been in his right mind, he would have never let her in his hotel room without getting fully dressed. He was very conscientious about that regarding her; the fact that he didn’t give it a second thought showed his current state of mind. This seduction should be a breeze, she thought with a smile. “You got enough of that wine left for me?” she asked as she sat down on the couch.

Oded paused and scrunched up his face as if he found it difficult to think. “Yeah, I believe there is more in the cupboard.” He refilled his glass and sat down. Trish sighed when she realized that if she wanted a glass of wine, she’d have to get it herself. She got up and returned a moment later with a glass and an unopened bottle of wine.

“You’re hitting that stuff pretty hard there, Ded. Are things worse between you and Raegan than you originally told me?” Trish asked, trying to feel her way around Oded’s mood. She opened the bottle and poured herself a glass of red wine and sat back to observe Oded draining his glass.

Oded turned his head to look at Trish. He was confused. Trish was being too nice. She actually sounded concerned, but his wine-fogged brain could not detect the warning bells that were surely going off in his head right now. “Why do you care?”

Trish noticed there was no malice in his voice. No “mind your own business” tone, and she took that as encouragement to continue. “Believe it or not, Oded, I do care. It took me a while to realize that you truly love Raegan, and that I was acting like an idiot for trying to interfere. I’m sorry about all the trouble I’ve caused before, and I hope we can put it behind us.”

He studied her face intently, then seemed to come to a decision. “Forgiven.” He smiled and turned to pour what was left in his bottle of wine into his glass. It was barely enough for one swallow. He never was one for holding grudges. He preferred to get along with everyone; made life much easier.

“Here, take some of this,” Trish offered as she leaned forward to pour some wine from the bottle she had brought in.

Oded blinked. “Thanks.”

“You want to tell me what happened?” Trish asked, not really caring but needing to play the charade a while longer.

Oded swallowed almost half the glass in one gulp, then leaned back next to Trish. “She is leaving me, Trish.” He laughed a bit hysterically, sloshing the wine in this glass a bit. His words were starting to sound a bit slurred, even to him. This will be my last glass, he thought to himself as he drained the rest of it.

“Why is that, Ded?” Trish asked softly, tenderly, like a friend who truly cared. She grabbed the bottle and refilled his glass.

Oded held his glass steady, already forgetting that he didn’t want anymore wine. “That’s the real kicker, cuz I haven’t a clue!” He took a drink of his wine. “She does not want to travel with me to the places where I’m filming. I don’t know, Trish,” He turned his head towards her. “I thought we were getting closer after the incident with Billy, but it appears that I was wrong.” His heart felt as if someone were squeezing the life out of it. God, he missed Raegan! Just the thought of not seeing her for a few weeks was maddening, but never seeing her again was making him sick, and he felt as if he could hardly breath.

“I don’t see a problem with a part as small as this one. You will only be gone a few weeks, but what will happen next year when you have to leave the country to film the Mummy sequel?” Trish casually placed her hand on his shoulder in an act of comfort.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself, Trish. I haven’t even been signed on yet to reprise my role in that movie,” Oded pointed out.

“You will,” Trish answered confidently, waving him off. “Who is Billy, by the way?”

Oded snorted. “Billy Bronson is Rae’s lowlife ex-boyfriend.” Suddenly Oded was angry, and he sat up a bit. “Do you know what that bastard tried to do? He tried to blackmail Raegan. Threatened her with deporting me if she didn’t break up with me and date him again.”

“Really?” Trish replied, surprised. Damn! Why hadn’t she known about this guy sooner? They could have worked together to accomplish the same goal. “What happened?”

Oded drained his glass before answering. “He did it just before that San Francisco meeting I had early last month.”

“Did she actually break up with you?” Trish asked as she poured him more wine. Oded failed to notice that she was not drinking any of hers. He was too busy thinking of Raegan and that jerk who nearly cost him his heart. But now here he was again, no Billy involved this time, just a stubborn woman who insisted on hiding secrets from him.

“Yes. She caught me just as I was leaving to the airport. She called me. I couldn’t do a damn thing.”

“That was pretty cowardly,” Trish commented, then immediately realized her mistake when Oded’s head whipped around, his dark eyes blazing.

“It was the bravest thing anyone has ever done for me!” he snapped. “She did it for me, because she loved me!”

Trish back peddled quickly. “I’m sorry, Oded. I didn’t mean it like that. Of course what she did was very selfless! I was referring to her ex being cowardly.”

Oded relaxed, his eyes softening as he sighed. “I’m sorry, Trish. I don’t mean to jump all over you.” He reached out and gave her thigh a friendly squeeze, and would have taken his hand away, but Trish quickly latched onto it, holding it there, giving it a friendly pat. But Oded had already forgotten that he had even placed his hand there, and he stared off at some unseen object. Without thinking, he drank more of the wine. He was completely numb now, not caring about much of anything.

“So why did I never hear about any of this? If this guy was threatening you, I should have been informed,” Trish asked, shifting into her ‘nobody fucks with me or my clients’ mode.

“It didn’t really matter, Trish. I didn’t find out what had happened until later, and then Raegan filed a complaint against him and now he’s being investigated by the FBI. There was no need to tell you.”

“Still, these are the kinds of things I need to know about, Ded.” Trish commented before deciding to let that part of the conversation go. “So what will you do if she is breaking up with you?” she asked, enjoying the feel of his hand on her leg.

“I can’t allow it,” Oded answered softly, tears welling up in his eyes and spilling unnoticed down his cheeks. “I love her so much it hurts. She is everything to me, Trish. I will do what ever it takes to win her back.”

Trish hated that, hated that Oded loved this woman that much, and she could barely get him to look at her. She scooted closer to him in the ruse of comforting him, her left arm sliding around the back of his neck as she took the empty glass from his hand and dropped it to the floor. “Shhhh, Ded. It’s all right. You’ll work it out,” Trish cooed as she drew his head down to rest against her breasts. Inside Trish was seething; Raegan was a nobody who could not help his career at all. At least with her, she could continue to handle his publicity and be a partner as he climbed up the ladder of success.

Oded allowed it, allowed Trish to comfort him because he needed it, and he really thought she was being genuine in her concern. Her left hand stroked his hair, her right hand sliding across his bare chest, slipping down across his belly to brush softly against that bit of hair that was driving her nuts. Oded’s breathing became more shallow, his left hand crossing over to catch her wrist as her fingers started to disappear beneath the waistband of his jeans where the two buttons were undone. “Trish,” he whispered softly as he raised his head to look at her. His eyebrows were furrowed together in suspicion as he tried to connect what Trish was doing.

“It’s alright, Oded. I’m here to listen. I just want to offer you some comfort, that is all.” She pulled her wrist from his grip and traced her fingers along his cheek. “I’m your friend and I’ll help you.” She gently wiped the tears from his cheek as the suspicion left his eyes. He sighed as he leaned forward to lay his head back down against her breasts, but somehow he ended up kissing her.

“Trish?” he whispered against her lips, confused.

“Shhhh.” She hushed him by deepening the kiss. At first he responded. He didn’t take over the kiss, but he allowed her to kiss him, allowed her to part his lips and taste him, taste the sweet wine on his tongue. Trish knew a moment of triumph before suddenly Oded was not moving. He felt heavy against her. “Oded?” She pushed his head back to find his eyes closed. “Oded?” she called again. She gave his face a couple of hard taps. No response. “Son of a bitch!” she cursed. She wanted to scream. She couldn’t believe she had him just were she wanted him, and he passes out on her. She shoved him away from her, disgusted. His limp body fell over the other direction, and he slumped against the cushions. How the hell was she going to seduce him if he was passed out on her? Then she had an idea. If she couldn’t actually make love to him, then she could let him think they had.

Trish spent the next half hour dragging Oded into the bedroom. She managed to get him up on the bed and remove his pants. “Oh my god!” she gasped at the site of his gorgeous body. Even in his present state she could tell that he would be a sight to behold fully aroused! Taking a deep breath, she covered him up and removed her own clothes. Slipping under the covers next to him, she curled up against him and fell asleep.

The next morning Oded came awake slowly. The first thing he realized was that his head felt like a herd of elephants had stampeded through it. The second thing he realized was that he wasn’t alone. A warm body lay against his side, and he frowned in confusion. Raegan? He remembered drinking some wine last night, trying to escape his depressing thoughts, then Trish showed up. At least he thought Trish showed up. He groaned as he tried to remember, but only squinted in pain as his head thundered. He forced his eyelids open and looked up at the ceiling. Taking a deep breath, he glanced down to see blonde hair. Oded frowned, blonde hair? “Christ!” He groaned as he pushed Trish away from him, rolled over, and tried to stand up. His head exploded at the sudden movement. He stumbled under the sharp jabs of pain and sat down hard on the bed.

“Oded?”

Oded grabbed the bedspread and gave it a hard yank as he turned to glare at Trish. “God damn you, Trish! You set me up!” He tried to stand, but his legs were shaking too badly, so he sat back down on the bed with the bedspread wrapped around his waist.

“I don’t know what you are talking about. I came over here to check on you, and you were drunk. You needed someone to talk to, so I, being a friend, listened. You went on and on about how Raegan left you, then you were all over me.” Trish sniffed indignantly.

“Right! So you couldn’t just have gotten up and left.”

“Ded, you were pretty intent on screwing me. I couldn’t have stopped you if I wanted to,” Trish said as she got up, not bothering to cover herself.

“Damn it, Trish, cover yourself!” Oded commanded, looking away from her. “So are you trying to tell me I raped you?” he asked, disbelieving.

“Rape me? God no! It was definitely consensual sex!”

“Consensual for you maybe.” Oded turned back to look at her after she had wrapped the bed sheet around her nude body. “You know damn well I would not have touched you if I had been sober.”

“Well, you weren’t and you did,” Trish snipped as she gathered up her clothes, went into the bathroom, and shut the door.

Oded flopped back onto the bed in horror. He couldn’t remember a thing after Trish had gotten there. Had they really had sex? God he hoped not! “God, please let this be some kind of nightmare that I’ll wake up any second from!”

Trish came out of the bathroom a few minutes later fully dressed. Oded had put his pants on, and he stood there by the bed glaring at her. “We made love last night, whether you like it or not.”

“Get out.” He said the two words in a tone that brooked no argument.

“We will discuss this when you get back to L.A., Oded. I hope you are not one to shirk your responsibilities!”

Oded frowned. “You make it sound like your pregnant or something.”

Trish raised an eyebrow. “Maybe I did get pregnant last night. We used no protection…” She let the sentence draw out its own conclusions.

“I don’t remember anything. How do I know we actually did have sex? How do I know that I didn’t just pass out and you set this whole thing up to make it seem like we did?”

“You don’t!” Trish snapped. “You only have my word for it. But let me tell you something, Oded, we did have sex last night! What are you going to tell your dear little Reagan now?”

Oded breathed in sharply. Son of a bitch, he hadn’t even thought about what he would tell Raegan! “Get out!” Trish hid a smile and left the hotel room; leaving Oded to deal with the mess he’d gotten himself into.

                                            ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

                                                         What If - Chapters 34 - 35