Bella Lisa & Her Beast

Chapter Two-2

“I apologize for being a few minutes late for our appointment. I was unavoidably delayed. It’s good to see you again, Ms. Mauricio…”

Bella Lisa stared at him, speechless, mesmerized by his deep gravelly voice and cold dark eyes. Looking into his eyes was like peering into the mouth of a black fathomless cave, which he was beckoning her to enter. His voice had an oddly soothing effect upon her. As her breathing began to slow, she felt like some kind of willing prey, a field mouse held captive in the glamorous eyes of a coiled snake.

“Come. Let’s relax on the couch and have a chat, shall we? I know you must’ve had a long and trying day.”

Williamson crossed the floor and sat down on a matching loveseat, next to the couch, elegantly crossing his legs and looking up at her. She stood her ground.

Williamson marveled at how pretty and vulnerable she looked, even after the nine hour drive, in her simple yet fetching clothes.

“Come. Sit. Relax…,” Williamson purred, patting the couch with his long fingers.

His voice had the intended hypnotic effect on her and despite her misgivings she reluctantly obeyed, walking slowly and tentatively back to the couch and sitting down.

She stared ahead as Williamson gazed at her. Firmin cleared his throat and spoke.

“Will you be needing any further—?”

“No thank you, Firmin. You may leave us.”

Bella Lisa looked over and the man’s body seemed to have instantly disappeared, though she heard the butler’s echoing footsteps as he receded into the shadows. She looked over at Williamson and he smiled at her. He looked genuinely happy, no longer the tortured soul she saw at the theater, but more like a child about to begin a highly anticipated and long awaited play date. She relaxed somewhat in his presence, but stiffened every time her eyes drifted over to the thick mysterious file on the table in front of her.

“Where are my manners? I’m not used to having a guest here. I’m terribly sorry. Would you like a drink after your long trip, Ms. Mauricio? Wine, juice, soda? Sparkling water, perhaps?”

“A glass of water would be fine,” she said, avoiding eye contact and looking at her hands.

“Coming right up.”

Williamson walked across the spacious room to a bar and came back, placing two crystal glasses on the table in front on her by their stems, opened a bottle of cold European sparkling water and poured.

“Thank you,” she forced herself to say, tight-lipped, looking down at her clenched fists.

Williamson took a long drink and watched Bella Lisa take a little sip, leaving an impression of her red lipstick on the rim of the glass.

“Now, how was your last week of college? I wish I could’ve gotten away to attend—”

Suddenly the situation became clear to her. There was only one reason a man would want to sit through a long hot boring ceremony for her. Having another man obsessed with her was familiar ground, something she could understand and deal with. She interrupted him.

“Let’s stop the small talk, shall we? I’m sure you didn’t invite me here to talk about my last week of finals or the interminable graduation ceremony.”

“That is only partially true. Actually, I am quite interested in—”

“Would you mind telling me what’s going on here? Why did my father leave me here, trapped in your home? And why alone? With you…”

“I respect your directness. Shall I get right to the point, Ms. Mauricio?”

“I’d appreciate that, Mr. Williamson.”

“Please call me Phillipe.”

“I’d rather not.”

“As you prefer.”

Williamson took a deep breath and began.

“It’s quite simple really. Your father left you here so we could privately to discuss a job offer. He has conveyed to me your outstanding academic success in Stanford University’s School of Social Work. I’d like to hire you, Ms. Mauricio, on a one week contract, as my personal assistant. You could think of it as a trial internship, which will be over in the blink of an eye. Due to the success of my business enterprises, I find myself laden by an embarrassment of riches. For tax purposes, my lawyers have created what they’re calling, “The Williamson Charitable Foundation”. The endowment is described in the document you see on the table before you. There’s also a computer in your bedroom where you can also read more about it at williamsoninvestmentandrealestateservices.com, my apologies to your pretty little fingers in advance for having to type in my company’s abnormally long email address. I want to give away around Ten Million dollars or so to some worthy non-profit organizations. I thought with your particular expertise, you would know how best to distribute the endowment. Frankly, I get literally hundreds of fundraising requests, through my voice mail, snail mail, and I can’t delete them fast enough from my email. It’s all rather annoying to me, so I thought perhaps you’d have a better temperament to deal with it. Also, if you like the job and you choose to stay on as my permanent paid employee, you’d serve as my buffer between the Foundation and the recipients of the money. I can think of nothing more tedious than serving on the Board of another organization. You could go in my place, representing the Foundation, while I could stay focused on what I do best, making money. If you chose to stay on, your starting annual salary would be 100,000 dollars, you’d receive a very good medical and dental plan, and 4 weeks a year paid vacation. If you’d care to put a little something away for your future, my company will match up to three and a half percent of whatever you contribute to a pension plan of conservative income generating investments with a safe, fixed interest rate. Of course, the pension plan is totally optional. What do you think of my proposal, Ms. Mauricio?”

Bella Lisa listened to him with lips slightly parted, her chin in her hand.

I’ve got to give the guy credit. That’s the most original and elaborate seduction speech I ever heard.

“I’m not sure what to say – it’s a very generous and intriguing offer, but…”

“But what?”

“I’m sorry, but I simply do not trust you, Mr. Williamson.”

“Why not?”

“Well for one thing, you look at me like some kind of ravenous beast, one that has not recently been fed. Obviously, that makes me feel slightly uncomfortable. Also something’s telling me you haven’t been all together forthright with me here, Mr. Williamson. I have the feeling there’s a few more job requirements I would need to know about that you’ve cleverly chosen not to share with me.”

“You are most direct, aren’t you, Ms. Mauricio? It’s true; I haven’t put all my cards on the table. I suppose it is time for me to be honest with you. Completely honest. Perhaps then I could win some of that coveted trust of yours. Would you like me to be honest?”

“For a start.”

Williamson took a long drink of sparkling water, removed a white handkerchief embroidered with the initials P.W from his suit pocket, dabbed the sides of his mouth and folded it up neatly, returning it to his pocket.

“I don’t know about my being a beast, which may of course be true. But what I do know is… I confess to being hopelessly attracted to you, Ms. Mauricio. I have been since the moment I first saw you, in that darkened theater nearly four years ago now. Do you recall making eye contact with me at the performance of your father’s play? I sat in the row directly behind you. Do you recall?”

“I do…”

“It was a most enchanted, yet painful night for me.”

“Painful?” Bella Lisa asked.

“Allow me to explain. Yes, I am swept away by your extraordinary physical beauty as is, I’m sure, every red blooded male who has ever laid eyes on you. Upon first seeing you, I experienced the deepest desire to possess you, body and soul. Despite how inappropriate it is, I knew I wanted you. Despite our age difference, I knew I wanted to make you mine. But this passion I feel is accompanied by this painful ache…”

Out of the corner of her eyes Bella Lisa saw Williamson wince, shut his eyes, lean back in his chair and rub his pelvis area with his large hands. He didn’t seem the slightest bit uncomfortable touching himself in front of her in such an intimate area. It seemed to Bella Lisa that the pain was authentic, or else Williamson was not only a successful businessman but a very gifted actor as well. She didn’t know if she should feel pity or repulsion for him at this moment.

He opened his eyes when the stab of pain receded.

“A painful ache that has never left me in the four long years since you’ve been away.”

“When did you first experience this pain, Mr. Williamson?” Bella Lisa asked, looking down at her hands, unsure if she really wanted to hear the answer.

“The first moment I looked into your pretty eyes…”

Bella Lisa breathed in and slowly lifted her chin, making direct eye contact with Williamson for the first time.

“You literally stung me that night, you enchantress, and I’ve never been the same since…”

“I’m sorry,” Bella Lisa uttered, not knowing what else to say.

“There’s no need to apologize for being such an exquisite beauty.”

Bella Lisa was secretly flattered. She looked downward and hid her slight smile from him. Williamson watched her shyly pass a finger through her hair.

“You may recall I left the opening night party of your father’s play early and went home, due to the discomfort I felt. The next day the pain had not gone away. I set up an appointment with my physician who said I probably pulled a muscle down there while exercising and to call for a follow-up exam in a month. After the pain had not gone away or lessened in a month, he referred me to an internal medicine physician who ordered an MRI test to check for a disease she thought I might have, Deep Vein Thrombosis. Though I wasn’t the over 60, overweight, out of shape smoker she usually treated for this disease, she said she wanted to rule it out anyway, just in case. She thought I might have a blood clot in a vein on my pelvis, interfering with circulation and causing the swelling. She injected a fluid into my veins to enhance the images of the blood vessels, and put me through the machine, but didn’t find anything abnormal… Usually when a person talks about one’s own state of health, it’s immensely fascinating to that person, but dreadfully boring to everyone else. Am I boring you, Ms. Mauricio?

“No, not at all.”

“Then you are attractive as well as kind, a lethal combination.”

“What happened next?” she asked, the kindness in her eyes finally beginning to show.

“She referred me to another specialist, a urologist, who diagnosed my condition as possibly a severe case of priapism. He asked me if I had ever had an erection that lasted more than four hours. Feeling slightly uncomfortable, I made a bit of a joke in response.

“Do erections ever last less than four hours, Doctor?” I asked.

“The elderly doctor didn’t really get the joke. He looked at me severely, explaining when some men get aroused, as blood flows into the p***s, it becomes painfully engorged and the blood doesn’t drain properly. He told me to return to him when I had an erection lasting more than four hours and he would inject a needle on the side of my p***s and drain out the excess blood. Of course, I had my normal four hour erection later that night.”

Bella Lisa blushed.

“Did you return to the physician?” she asked.

“No, Ms. Mauricio. I decided I’d rather deal with a painful erection than get my private parts stabbed with a needle and have all the blood drained out.”

Bella Lisa couldn’t help but smile at the joke.

“He recommended surgery to ‘prevent long-term and permanent damage to the p***s’. Cutting open my p***s would prevent damage to it? Obviously, I didn’t go back to that specialist…”

Bella Lisa smiled again, biting her lip to stop herself from laughing.

“Ah, it’s good to see you smile, Ms. Mauricio. What do all those woman’s magazines say, ‘The way to a win a woman’s heart is through your sense of humor?’ Anyway, after all the tests and humiliating exams, no one quite knows exactly what’s wrong with me. It comes and goes, sometimes leaving me at peace, other times building in intensity to such a searing pain that it makes me want to scream. It is a curse, Ms. Mauricio, I assure you. Perhaps I was cursed by the Gods for not being generous enough to my fellow man. For not giving shelter from the cold to the old homeless woman who asked for my help one winter’s night many years ago. Do you think 10 million would be enough to buy my release from this? It’s as if this alien creature lives inside me, a beast that seeks a satisfaction and release, a satisfaction and release that… that only you can give, Ms. Mauricio.”