The Desert Rose Page 8

  Madonna sort of stood there waiting for her to explain but Pepper didn’t really feel like it, Madonna would just freak out when she heard about the modeling, she was not all that different from her real mother when it came to how she was supposed to behave.

  “What do you think, should I understudy?” Pepper asked, thinking it was time to get back to the immediate problem, what to do about Bonventre’s offer.

  Madonna wiped her eyes with a towel and sort of watched the other students trail out.

  “Maybe I should do it,” Pepper said. “I could be getting some experience. Anyway, it’s just understudy.”

  “No, it’s the lead,” Madonna said. “He is ready to destroy Monique. I knew it. Maybe he wants to destroy your mother too, so this is the way he chooses.”

  Pepper thought that was a little farfetched, even if the guy did have a terrible reputation.

  “Who said anything about her?” Pepper asked.

  “She is a star too,” Madonna said. “As much as Monique.”

  “Come on, she’s a showgirl,” Pepper said.

  “Who is this rich man who is so sweet?” Madonna asked, watching her for every clue she might give away. Pepper thought fuck, why am I standing here getting grilled so she ignored that question and left, maybe in a day or two when Madonna got a little more used to the idea—either idea—they could discuss it some more.

  Then she told Buddy who was extremely impressed, it meant he was fucking somebody who was a lead dancer, at least he would be if he could hold onto her for a few more weeks, of course he wanted her to take the job. They went to his house where he wanted to do practically every imaginable sex act in order to keep her interested. She was polite but actually not that interested, which Buddy recognized, he was not totally insensitive. She didn’t go so far as to tell him that Mel did more for her with a camera, he blamed Mel for all their problems anyway. Then he refused to let her borrow his Mustang, that was a first, usually he pretended to be sort of good-natured about it. It pissed her off but she had a pocketful of money she was about to give to Woods so it was no big deal, she just called a cab. Then Buddy said it’s just cameras you like he knew some people who went a lot farther than Mel had the guts to go. Pepper didn’t like the insinuation that Mel had no guts, she got rather cool when Buddy let that one slip. Naturally it turned out the people made fuck films. “Oh great,” she said, “I bet I know what my part would involve, sucking your fucking cock for about a week.” Then he backed off, he always backed off when she got angry, he even pretended he had been kidding about not loaning her the car but she had already called a cab and went outside and waited until it came, with Buddy trying frantically all the while to get her in a better mood. He apologized so many times she thought she might vomit if she heard him say it one more time, and he said he had only mentioned the fuck films because he thought it might be kind of exciting. It was true they had talked about doing that once, most people in fuck films were ugly and they weren’t, they decided they could probably be the first couple of porn, but it was just mainly joking, it was just stuff they discussed when they were first dating.

  Finally the cab showed up and she left, leaving Buddy in a frenzy, on the road to town he passed them in the Cadillac doing about ninety, he was on his way to collect a few tickets if he didn’t slow down. It was quite a relief to get to Mel’s. Right away she told him she had been under a lot of pressure, of course he was completely understanding and just said, “Forget about modeling tonight, Pepper, let’s just go sit by the pool. Would you like some dinner?” Sure, she said, she was starving, between the dance class and Madonna getting upset and then the fucking and a big fight with Buddy it was enough to give anyone an appetite. So Mel ordered a steak for her and they sat and watched the stars come out, another nice thing about Mel was that he didn’t pry, he didn’t just ask her to tell him every secret thing. He sort of listened to what she felt like telling him and then he might give a little advice.

  When she told him about Bonventre’s offer he said right away take it, which was a surprise, they hadn’t even settled the question of whether she was going to marry him. She wondered if maybe it had been a joke about marrying him, after all nothing that had happened between them had been very normal, maybe he just got a turn-on from asking or something.

  “Why do you think I should take it?” she asked.

  “Oh, because it means you’d stay here,” Mel said.

  “Yeah, but I wasn’t going anywhere,” she said.

  Mel just smiled, as if he knew things about her that she didn’t know.

  “I have a confession to make,” he said. “Jackie Bonventre is an old friend of mine. I showed him a little bit of one of the films. The one where you’re in the blue bra.”

  That was definitely a surprise, she didn’t know if she liked it or not.

  “He was extremely impressed, and he’s hard to impress,” Mel said. “He said you were more beautiful than your mother.”

  She couldn’t help smiling at that one, after having heard ten thousand times that her mother was the most beautiful woman in Las Vegas. Pepper couldn’t see it, her mother was very good-looking but the horrible way she dressed sort of spoiled it, all those loud blouses and shiny pants.

  “I don’t know about the job,” Pepper said. “He’s supposed to be mean.”

  “He is mean, but he wouldn’t be to you, since he knows I like you,” Mel said. “For one thing, we’re friends, though he says terrible things to me too. For another, I have money in all his shows.”

  “Why, are you a gangster?” Pepper asked. That thought kept occurring to her, maybe he was a gangster, just one of the gentlemanly kind—there were supposed to be some.

  “Sorry to disappoint you,” Mel said with a grin, he thought that one was funny. “I just happen to be rich.”

  Once she had eaten the steak Pepper felt fine, things had certainly stopped being boring, at least. Instead of just trying to decide who she could go out with if she broke up with Buddy, right away she had a rich guy who wanted to marry her and a weirdo producer who wanted to star her. She felt a little excited just having it all to consider—she asked Mel if he wanted some coke and he said sure. One of the Japs brought some out. What she would have liked was maybe to hit a disco but it was hard to imagine Mel wanting to do that, in fact it was hard to imagine him going out of his house at all, it was definitely his world.

  Then, to show what a perceptive man he was, he cocked his head at her and said Pepper, would you like to dance. It was a surprise, though of course he had a great sound system and thousands of records, which seemed to appear as if by magic. Often when she first came in there would be a new pile in the study and she would check them out before she got undressed, he had all the right ones immediately, which was pretty amazing.

  Also he was nice to dance with, better than Buddy although Buddy thought he was John Travolta II or something. Mel wasn’t flamboyant but he was okay, mainly it was an excuse to watch her, he definitely loved watching her move. They hadn’t really discussed his proposal yet, and she hadn’t mentioned it to Buddy yet either, there was no telling what kind of a freak-out it would have produced.

  They danced until they were pretty sweaty, Pepper said how about a swim, of course Mel was agreeable. “I think I’ve got a suit for you,” he said, but Pepper said forget the suit, she just went out to the pool and shucked and dove in, wondering if he would go naked with her or if that would upset him. In fact he did go naked with her, she had been beginning to wonder if he had something missing physically, no cock or something but from what she could see in the moonlight there was nothing wrong there. There were times when she loved to swim, almost liked it better than anything, so she swam a lap or two while Mel rested and watched.

  “Pepper, you’re so gifted,” Mel said. “If my father could have got hold of you at the right time he’d have had you in the Olympics.”

  “How come?” she asked.

  “Well, he’s a swim coach,” Mel sa
id. “But of course if you were a swimmer you’d just be peaking. Sixteen’s the best year.”

  “Where was your father a swim coach?” she asked, that was an interesting piece of information.

  “In New Jersey, at a high school in Trenton,” he said.

  It was sort of startling, she had assumed his family must be rich too, though actually she’d never spent that much time thinking about his family, obviously he didn’t have any around very close.

  “A swim coach?” she said. “So how come you got so rich?”

  “I just happened to be good with money,” he said. “Sort of like you’re a good dancer. I’m that good with money. Or maybe a little better.”

  Her hair was dripping, he reached out and sort of sluiced the water off of it, he liked it that she cut it so short. It was unusual for him to touch her, but he did it and he didn’t seem nervous, maybe it was the dancing or the coke. She wanted to kiss him, when were they going to get a better time? but he didn’t, he had just wanted to stop her hair from dripping apparently. It annoyed her a little, enough was enough, she was normally willing to make a move if she felt like something but with him she felt it ought to be him, he was too much older.

  “Pepper, I think you’re getting impatient,” he said immediately, as if he had just read her mind. Her bangs were stuck together, he sort of took a finger and gently smoothed them out. They dripped on her face again and at that point he did kiss her, not for long, sort of light, but still it was a kiss, plus he caught the drip just when it hit the corner of her mouth. It was a delicate move, not something Buddy would have come up with, she liked it, but then Mel smiled and asked her if she wanted to go in the Jacuzzi, the night was getting cold.

  She said sure, so they did, he had already turned it on. Mel had a nice little body, very trim, but once they got in the Jacuzzi he didn’t renew the move right away, she didn’t know what to make of it. Maybe he was so old-fashioned he thought you had to get married before you fucked. It didn’t seem possible he was that old-fashioned, but something was weird.

  “Hey,” she said. “Did you mean it about getting married, Mel?”

  “Yes, I did, Pepper,” he said. “I’d like to marry you very much.”

  “What would it be like?” she asked. She felt a little cautious. He had always been extremely kind, but still, a guy who collected old underwear could turn out to have bad tendencies of some sort.

  Mel chuckled, he seemed delighted that she had asked.

  “Pepper, from your point of view maybe the best thing about it would be that I’m very rich,” he said.

  It was interesting he emphasized that, because she had been thinking that too, no more living in a duplex with a yard full of peacocks and her mother’s stupid boyfriends. Plus she could stop modeling in order to get clothes and she would never have to do things like hand out fried chicken at Gino’s, which she had done the summer before for practically no money.

  “I have so much money that now it makes itself faster than I can spend it,” Mel said. “That can be nice.”

  I bet, Pepper thought.

  “That’s the simplest part of it, you’d like the money,” he said. “I guess you’re thinking this is all weird, I could have just tried to sleep with you instead of making movies of you in old underwear. Though actually I find it exciting to make movies of you, and I suspect you find it a little exciting too.”

  Then he touched her breasts. “I do want to sleep with you, Pepper,” he said. “Do you know what usually happens when I make movies of young girls?”

  She didn’t, she had kind of been wondering, maybe he had closets full of the real scuzzy stuff, little cunts to look at whenever he wanted to. After all she was only there a few hours a week, other girls could still be coming for all she knew.

  “Usually I just dress them and photograph them a time or two and then I undress them and photograph them and that’s usually it, I never see them again. Oh, maybe we fuck or maybe we don’t but pretty soon they’re gone.”

  “Why?” she asked, she just wanted to know what he made of his own behavior.

  Mel shrugged. “I get bored so easily,” he said. “If I get bored with someone visually then I don’t even care if I sleep with them. I’m very visual. I like really complicated effects, but most people just aren’t subtle enough, either visually or sexually. Sexual effects can be very good effects but mostly they don’t vary that much. Usually there’s a kind of time limit, before I get bored.”

  She could sort of follow it, already with Buddy the fucking could seem boring. He was so obsessed with himself that he tended to grind away, well past the boring point.

  “Now with you that’s not true,” Mel said. “You’re never boring visually, because you’re never the same.”

  She knew it was a big compliment, he was looking at her sort of keenly.

  “You’re very beautiful, Pepper,” he said. “A lot of beauty is static, but not yours. You never look quite the same to me. Whatever happens to you shows up in your face or the way you move—there are always subtle differences. Like today it was a fight with your boyfriend, you were angry but very beautiful.”

  She liked hearing that, it was interesting, what he was saying.

  “You don’t understand yet how selfish I am,” he said. “I made all this money for myself, so I could enjoy myself absolutely any way I want to. I’m very snobbish visually, and very easily bored. I need someone like you, extremely beautiful and very subtle. Also you’re not scared of the unusual. I think if we’re adventurous the effects could keep changing for a long time.”

  “I’m not saying no,” she said. “So would we ever fuck?”

  “We certainly would,” he said. “For periods. Probably there’d be other periods, when we wouldn’t.”

  Then he grinned, sort of appealing, his looks were growing on her more and more, the curly hair certainly didn’t hurt.

  “The problem is how to preserve some effects that we both find exciting,” he said. “Most things get monotonous, you’re too young to really know that yet. We want to try and keep some kick.”

  The words made sense, so far as she knew, it was just nothing she felt she had to worry about.

  “I’m forty-five,” he said. “You’ll have to live nearly thirty more years before you really understand what I mean. I won’t get bored with you because just looking at you is exciting, but what’s going to keep it interesting for you?”

  Pepper had no idea, she just wasn’t too worried. At the moment she was more interested in why he wanted her to work at the Stardust.

  “Why do you want me to take the job?” she asked. “It’s two shows a night.”

  Mel shrugged. “It’ll keep you in town,” he said. “Besides, you’re a dancer, you’re not going to stop dancing just for me.”

  Nope, sure wasn’t. “Maybe I should leave town though,” she said.

  Mel grinned the appealing grin. “That’s right,” he said. “Maybe you should.”

  Still, where she worked wasn’t the big issue, there was one for sure that was more important.

  “So what about guys?” she asked. “What if we weren’t doing much and I got involved?”

  “Of course you’ll get involved,” he said. “You’ll have many, many men. You’ll draw them like moths and most of them you’ll just burn up in a twinkling. I don’t want to be one of the ones that’s burned up.”

  She didn’t know about that, why would he marry her if he didn’t care about the other guys? That was one she’d have to check out with Myrtle, who claimed to be an authority on the complications of things like that.

  “You’re not even jealous?” she said.

  “Oh yeah, I’m jealous,” he said. “If I happened to catch Buddy standing on the edge of a cliff I might push him right off.”

  “I wish you would,” she said. “He’s an asshole anyway.”

  “Just bear in mind that jealousy doesn’t preserve anything,” Mel said. “My jealousy won’t keep you from getting bore
d.”

  I don’t know, maybe this is not for me, Pepper thought. It was stupid that Buddy thought he was so cool when he wasn’t, but Mel was cool and that was definitely worse. It was hard to understand but it was worse.

  “What about you?” she asked. “What if you find someone more beautiful than me?”

  “That’s not too likely,” Mel said. “I couldn’t believe it when you walked in.”

  “What if you do?” she said, it was a key point. Somebody could always arrive.

  Mel grinned. “If I do you can divorce me and get a lot of my money,” he said. “Then you could do whatever you wanted to do.”

  Pepper got out of the Jacuzzi, she’d had enough of talking about it, she was not sure she believed he wanted to marry her. Maybe it was just some kind of come-on that was more complicated than it needed to be, maybe it was too much to think that all that money could be hers. He had a room where he kept towels, some of them vast, as big as rugs, of course there was a sauna and a little room with a massage table in it, apparently he liked to get rubdowns. She was angry and ready to split, she felt he was just enjoying some game of some sort with her. All that talk about preserving effects was bullshit, plus she didn’t like it that he was prepared to be so cool about the other guys. Then he came in, wet and naked, looking upset, maybe he had thought she would enjoy talking all night or something. What she felt like was leaving and figuring it all out later, but to her surprise he came right over and kissed her, she thought boy are you weird, but it turned out okay, they ended up fucking on the massage table. It took her anger away. Then Mel gathered up her clothes for her and they went in the house and she dressed. She would have been happy to stay the night but he seemed a little depressed.

  She sort of got worried, maybe she had blown it somehow, he was actually a lot better lover than Buddy, it was just that she had been impatient with all the talk. He put on a beautiful blue Japanese robe, he still looked sort of low but while she was drinking some orange juice he disappeared for a minute and when he came back gave her a thousand dollars. She felt really worried for a second, maybe he thought she had hustled him or something, he had never given her that much.