Read Joan Hess - Arly Hanks 04 for Free Online Page B

her ankles?"
    "She leaps to her feet, kicks off her pants -- I like it, I like it -- and runs through the gate and across the road to where this widow lives. I am on a roll tonight, n'est-ce pas? Let me hear what we've got thus far."
    Carlotta read his scenario in a bored monotone, irritated because she was already late for her aerobics class. "And pounds on the door?"
    "There she is, tears running down one set of cheeks and the other set rosy from the spanking, and the father bellowing for her to come back. The widow -- give her a real hick name -- the widow hustles the girl in and locks the door."
    "Okay, Loretta's in the widow's house."
    "Wait a minute; I'm losing the flow." He walked into the washroom, but continued talking between gusty snorts. "Are we gonna have a problem with this mayor's wife?"
    "Probably. I promised her a few lines, but we'll have to tiptoe through the scene. Let's make sure we shoot it after we've used her house."
    Hal came back into the office, a towel around his waist, and made himself a drink from the bar. "Are we ready to roll?"
    "Everybody's agreed to the usual terms, and Fuzzy's willing to do the technical side." Carlotta hesitated for a minute, not sure if she wanted to prolong the conversation with her boss. At last her innate sense of responsibility overcame her distaste. "When I talked to him, he sounded tight, really tight. From what I've picked up, he's back on booze and his wife left him several weeks ago. He's on the edge, Hal. We might see if we can corral someone else until our boy either implodes, explodes, or regains consciousness in court."
    "If you can find someone willing to work nonunion in a hellhole three thousands miles from civilization, do it," Hal said, displaying his typical compassion. "Tell you what, baby, you've got enough of my input to finish the scene and have it on my desk in the morning. I'm going to run a little powdery present by Marty's and lay on some more crap about setting up a meeting with the swish at Cinerotica. Gawd, I hate swishes. They're so damn arrogant."
    After Hal dressed and stumbled away, Carlotta poured herself a drink and sat down behind her desk in the adjoining room to type up the scene. She toyed with the idea of Zachery raping the widow, but dismissed it (at least for the moment) and wrote out a charmingly steamy encounter between Loretta and Billy Joe in the widow's own bed. Out of mischievousness, she had the widow discover the two and demand coitus interruptus. The actor who would portray Billy Joe would be incensed, of course, which was why she devoted an inordinate amount of time frustrating him via the script.
    She was typing briskly when the telephone rang, and she mentally debated the ramifications of ignoring it. However, she'd given her office number to a rugged young actor who'd attempted to sound interested in her rather than her proximity to Hal. "Glittertown," she said into the receiver. "Lowenstein here."
    "I need to talk to you."
    "Hey, Fuzzy," Carlotta said, disappointed. "We were just talking about you. Were your balls burning?"
    "Naw, the penicillin took care of it. This is important. I ran over to Vegas yesterday. Took a room in one of those seedy joints out by the airport. Guess which soft-porn movie was available for a modest price?"
    "I just write them, Fuzzy. Once they're made, I don't care if they're the feature at Rockefeller Center after the Rockettes flash their panties at the tourists."
    "I think you'll care," Fuzzy said in a dark voice. "It was a new flick called Prickly Passion, starring Gwenneth D'Amourre and Frederick Marland." He paused for a minute, and she heard the tinkly collision of ice cubes. "I watched the damn thing. This well-endowed prospector finds a busty, half-naked woman wandering in the desert. He takes her back to his shack, and the two of -- "
    "Enough." Carlotta took off her glasses to rub her eyes and temples, then drained her drink. "Are you sure you didn't drink a quart of rotgut