Passion of Erika Christensen Ch. 05

"Yes," Shane whispered as he nailed her behind. "Yes! Here it comes!" He hunched into Erika and ejaculated. Erika smiled and shook as she felt the spurts. She slid her tongue faster along Keri's rough slit. Then, feeling her heartbeat quiet, she leaned into Keri and took the other woman's clit bud between her teeth.

"Ah!" Keri yelled, her body shaking at the bite. She climaxed a second later as Erika opened her mouth and again thrust her tongue into Keri's snatch. Erika lapped up the first stream of juices and then moved her head to the side so Shane could catch the remainder. Keri moaned in joy.

The three cuddled with each other as their bodies settled down. Shane pulled out of Erika and then hugged her. He rubbed her thighs, easing their soreness. Erika and Keri moved their lips back next to one another's and shared several kisses with each other and Shane.

"You know, guys," Erika said once the making out ended, "maybe I need to see that other floor too, and that shower."

"Sorry, lovely," Shane replied, kissing her forehead. "My wife has first dibs."

"We will show you later, though," Keri promised. She pecked the tip of Erika's nose and her girlfriend beamed.

The loud chords of the Star Wars Imperial March shattered the moment. Shane and Keri glared at Erika, who was startled by the trumpeting sounds.

"You left your cell phone on?" Keri asked Erika, rolling her eyes. "You are such a nitwit!"

"I'm sorry!" I suppose I was absentminded in my excitement tonight, Erika thought. Then again, I don't have any clients scheduled. That's my "potential trouble" ringtone too. Who could it be? Pushing away from Shane and Keri, she rolled over to their nearby discarded clothes. She reached into the pocket of her jeans and took out her phone. "Erika Christensen," she answered the caller, catching them just before her voice mail could pick up. "This better be important."

"Erika, it's Tom," a stammering voice replied. "Tom Cruise."

Erika blinked. Tom Cruise was an old friend of her family and a follower of the same church but they had not spoken to each other in several months. We're not always on good terms when we do speak either, she recalled. That's why I assigned him that ringtone. I wonder what the hell he wants. "Hi, Tom, how you been?"

"Okay. Um, look, I'll come right to the point. I need a favor."

Erika frowned and looked towards Keri and Shane. They were kissing each other and settling into a new coupling, both ignoring her. She glared at them and then turned her attention back to the phone. "Go ahead."

"Katie and I are on the rocks. You've probably heard all the nasty rumors about us and I can confirm most of them. John tells me you're a relationship counselor."

"Yeah, I am," Erika answered, surprised. "John told you?"

"He's depressed over his son."

"I know. I was at the wake. We missed you."

"Sorry I had to be in L.A. John's okay, I think. Do you agree?"

"I hope he's all right. I'm more concerned about Kelly. Their son died suddenly of a terrible illness. It will take them time to get over what happened."

"Sure." Tom coughed. "Look, what's this about you being a counselor? It's why I called."

"It's a sideline I took up recently. I keep getting independent film roles that don't go very far, so I thought — wait. Are you asking me to take you on as a client?"

"Yes. The main problem is that Katie's distant from me. She's happy some of the time, the sex is great, but she won't let me get close to her or tell me what the deal is. I sort of drove off all the friends Katie has that are her age. John thinks that's an issue, and I, well, I guess I have to agree."

Erika grimaced. This call was much unexpected, she thought. I've met Tom's wife Katie Holmes a few times. I watched her show "Dawson's Creek", and a few of her movies. I think she's a talented actress, though not quite at my level. We know each other but I wouldn't call us friends even if I do drop her name now and then to meet people. Katie keeps herself closed off from everyone or at least I got that impression. Why does Tom think she would want to be friends with me?

"John says you know some kind of counseling that's not like what we've been doing," Tom continued. "He says it helped him and Kelly and also Will and Jada. Can you try it with me and Katie? How much do you charge?"

"Uh..." Erika blinked. She looked at Keri and Shane again and found neither was paying her any attention. Instead, they were in a deep embrace with each other. Shane was licking his wife's breasts.

Erika turned her face from the tantalizing sight and focused on the call. I need to get rid of Tom, she mused, before he comes to his senses. "I would have to insist on taking your case pro bono, Tom. I do that with all my clients. I'm just starting out in private counseling, so I don't want people expecting too much of me. You can pay me whatever you want after I'm finished if I help you, but I don't want you to feel pressured. Okay?"

"All right," Tom answered, surprised. "Listen, this has been going on for years. It's really frustrating me. I need you to start immediately."

"Tom, I'm in London right now. I'm here for another two weeks and then I have a movie shooting in Toronto. I can't just clear my schedule for you. Unless..." I want to help him a little if I can, she mused. Tom's a strict jerk but he's not really a bad person. He's the sort you always want on your good side, a friend when he is and an asshole when he's not. I'm not sure I can help him but I want to try. "You can come to me."

There was a long pause before Tom responded. "Do you know how busy I am? I run my own film studio, Erika. I have meetings every day. I can't fly across the world at the drop of a hat!"

"I see. In that case, let me give you the name of a great counselor I know in L.A."

"No!" Tom snapped. "I know you and I don't know them. I don't want this going any further." He took a deep breath. "Erika, despite all the flak between us, I trust you. Some consider you a negative influence. I've never thought that, though. Remember when I referenced you to Jodie Foster five years ago?"

"Yes. You also referenced me to Michael Douglas and Steven Soderbergh in 1999." The references had led to "Traffic" and "Flightplan", two of Erika's most popular films.

"So you know I don't think you're a bad person." Tom's tone made Erika think he was convincing himself of that. "I need you on this." There was another pause. "I can't come to you myself but maybe I can send Katie to you."

The control freak strikes again, Erika thought. Does he really think acting like this ever helps?

"You say you're in London? I can put Katie and three people on a plane tomorrow."

Damn it, Erika swore to herself. He's serious. "Tom, no handlers! She has to come alone and of her own free will."

"Erika, I don't think you realize how much the tabloids follow us. Katie and I are very popular. Without handlers —"

"They'll get in the way, Tom!" Erika interrupted him. She realized she had no choice other than to go through with things. "It's my tech. I know how it works."

There was an additional pause, the longest so far. "Fine," Tom said finally. "I'll warn Katie to be careful. Can I reach you at this number? The first number I tried didn't work, so I had to call your mother."

"This number's fine. Can I call you back? I'm in the middle of something right now."

"No problem. Just one more thing. Erika, I've heard a lot of rumors about you. I'm not going to ask what's true and what isn't. I have to say this, though. I don't know how exactly you counsel people but you are professional, right?"

Erika forced down a tide of anger. "Tom, if you're saying what I think you're saying, you need not worry. I usually don't sleep with my clients."

"Good. You will not sleep with Katie."

"Of course not," Erika replied with a snarl.

"Right," Tom said. He sighed. "We'll speak again after I talk to Katie and book her flight. Listen, Erika ..."

"Yes?"

"Thank you." The connection ended with a click.

Erika looked at her phone, disbelieving that the call had really happened. She then put the phone down and turned back to Keri and Shane. They were still screwing, their bodies entwined around one another. Both were sighing in happiness and flushed with sweat. Erika hated to spoil their mood but she knew she would need their help. Theirs and that of several others in this building who know Tom and me, she thought. It's good they're all in town.

"Keri!"

The other actress looked up from kissing her husband. "What?"

Erika took a breath before challenging the storm in Keri's gray eyes. "Do you remember 'Mission Impossible 3'?"

"Yes," Keri replied with a frown. "What about it?"

"Yes, Erika, what?" said Shane. Erika ignored his perturbed glower.

"Your co-star just called me," she told Keri.

"Tom?" Keri blinked. "That Tom?" She had once idolized Tom Cruise, and enjoyed a brief working friendship with him on the set of their action thriller. I didn't like everything about him, though, Keri recalled, especially the publicity that followed him around. I had a bad experience when some of it rubbed off on me. She also remembered Tom and Erika were very different people. "Did he want something from you?"

Erika nodded. "You're not going to believe this. We need to convene on this — now."

***

Some hours later, they were all in the Inside Out club manager's office. The room was large, clean, and full of books and knickknacks. A black leather couch, a mahogany coffee table, and four red felt visitors' chairs sat near the huge oak desk. A large window along the east wall showed a panoramic view of the city of London and several of its most famous landmarks. The most dominant was the clock tower Big Ben.

Erika, Keri, and Shane were clothed in white T-shirts and jeans and occupied three of the visitors' chairs. A curvy blonde woman in a black dress sat on the office couch next to a fresh-faced brown-haired man in a tan suit. Seated on the man's other side was a tall pale red-haired woman with sparkling brown eyes and slim figure who wore a sky blue blouse and white pants. The club's manager, Doug Ramsay, was in a black leather chair behind the desk. He was a stocky thirty-year old with rugged good looks, thick dark blond hair, and glasses. He wore a brick red button-down shirt, a pine-colored jacket, and stonewashed jeans. A tall bald black man in a gray pullover, tan coat and urban camouflage pants stood to his right.

"So Tom Cruise wants you to help him," the redhead, Alicia Witt, said to Erika. Like Keri and Erika, she was an actress who had starred in "The Upside of Anger". Alicia's relationship with Erika had been going on almost eight years. It was Tom, Alicia's co-star in "Vanilla Sky", who first introduced her to Erika and Alicia was familiar with their issues. "Why do you want to do anything for that man?" she asked.

"He needs me," Erika said with a shrug. She looked at the blonde, Hollywood A-list actress Scarlett Johansson. "Katie needs me too. You remember how Tom met her, right?"

"Yes," Scarlett said with a groan. "That awful woman from your church set things up. Tom wanted a wife but no one wanted him. Then several actresses respond to a phony film audition, including me. They tested us for compatibility with Tom. You were on the list too, but you didn't show up because the Friendship tipped you off. I realized what was going on and they trashed me in the yellow press. Stop that!"

The man beside her reversed his grin. "Sorry."

Scarlett laughed as she recovered. "Then Katie scores high and they introduce her to Tom. The fake movie falls through, and they get together. Rumors come out in the years after that and their stars go down."

"Thanks for the recap," Erika said. I'm glad Scarlett already knew me before that happened, she added to herself. I'm also glad she judges people as individuals, like everyone else in this room. Scarlett knows I'm not the same as the people who set up that audition or Tom. We wouldn't be friends if I was.

"I understand your sympathy with him, Erika," said the man seated next to Scarlett, her husband Ryan Reynolds. Like Erika and Alicia, Ryan was an actor who had appeared in many hit TV shows and films. "I've met Tom Cruise on a few occasions. He can act nuts but he's not a bad guy."

"I think he is," Shane said. "Keri introduced us at a party last year and he totally treated me as disposable."

"He drops that if you're around him enough," Keri said. "I saw it myself during our film. Tom's publicist handed you that pamphlet, not him." She saw no change in Shane's expression and grimaced. "I'm sorry, Erika."

"It's okay," Erika replied. "I am aware of how Tom and his associates can be." Tom likes to project a certain image in public, she reflected. He tries to live a strict interpretation of Scientology and sell it to others. He surrounds himself with people who are similar in their actions and values.

Erika shared Tom's religion but she followed its teachings in a far more liberal manner. She preferred to live the good she saw in her beliefs and avoid the practices with which she found fault. She also kept herself open to friendship with anyone. Rarely would Erika mention her faith to others unprompted and she always tried her best to respect views that were not her own. When she saw disrespect for her creed in other people, she taught them how their opinions were in error rather than prove them right by distancing herself. Keri was among her successes at this course.

This attitude towards life had molded Erika into the free-spirited polyamorous woman she was and she was happy with her character. However, the attitude also led to many differences between Erika and people like Tom. Erika was able to tolerate such conflicts in part because she knew she was not the only adversary of Tom and his fellow zealots.

"They're not our allies," Shane repeated, turning to Doug. "You know that."

Doug laced his fingers and brow. In addition to a club manager and popular novel writer, he was a prominent leader of a worldwide secret society known as the Friendship. Everyone in the room was a member of that group and so were many other people from all walks of life. The Friendship's connections and influence were of great benefit to those within and to others. The society was dedicated to the sharing of knowledge for mankind's benefit and the promotion of freedom and charity towards all. The stances it took on these issues had made it many enemies, though. Among them were several leaders of Tom and Erika's church.

"Scientology has never been a perfect ally to us," Doug said, giving Erika an apologetic glance. "The leaders say they share our aims but their actions often prove otherwise. Many of their practices are controversial and we've never liked how they treat those they perceive as enemies. Their church's founder also stole a lot of knowledge from us and corrupted it for his own use. Many people in the Friendship have issue with that."

The club manager changed his expression, seeing his lover's downcast eyes. "However, as you know, we've always maintained sympathy with the people inside the church, in particular those who share our values and follow through on them. Some of these are members of both Scientology and the Friendship. They include you, Erika, and Tom Cruise too. We stand by these people as we would anybody. Every person has a right to find benefit in religious beliefs, no matter how crazy those views may seem. We have to respect and support that right."

Everyone in the room nodded in agreement and Doug continued. "Tom Cruise joined our society in the early 1980s. We helped him achieve his early success. Then he married Mimi Rogers, she led him to Scientology, and his involvement with the Friendship tapered off. We've never forgotten him, though, even if he has forgotten about us."

"I didn't know," Erika said with a blink.

"You didn't need to know."

His words hurt Erika and her face told him so. He gave her a deep look of sorrow and she nodded in forgiveness. Doug was one of Erika's biggest fans and the closest thing she had to a regular boyfriend. She had met him in 2003 when she and Alicia saw and became intrigued by his club during a night out in Soho. Erika and Doug became fast friends and lovers a few weeks later. If not for their busy lives keeping them apart, Erika mused, they might even be more.

Both were members of the Friendship when they met but Doug had been inside longer and was of higher rank. His intelligence and creativity had caught the society's attention at a young age and promotion was swift. Doug's club and his duties as a Friendship Viceroy demanded much. He also had other women besides Erika in his life. They were the type to sometimes feel jealousy even though Erika was good friends and lovers with most of them. Doug did his best to keep them all as balanced as he could.

"Katie Holmes is not one of us," Doug went on, "although I myself would welcome her. We're going to help both her and her husband."

"Why?" Alicia asked with a shrug. "Just let them break up."

"Alicia!" Erika stared at the redhead. "Just because you can't maintain a lasting relationship is no reason to neglect and sabotage those of other people!"

Alicia glared at Erika, not liking the airing of her negative personal life. "I've gotten close a few times," she said. "It's not my fault my boyfriends keep turning into jerks or deciding they can't handle my fame compared to theirs."

"We're going to help Tom and Katie," Doug repeated. He looked around the room, locking gazes with everyone. "Erika, are you sure Tom's serious about this?"

"He called me again five minutes before this meeting," Erika said in confirmation. "Katie's coming here the day after tomorrow. She'll be landing at Heathrow around ten a.m."

"Okay then. That gives us just enough time to prepare. I contacted some Friends in your church's ministry right after you asked me to organize this meeting. I told them our helping Tom and Katie could be of benefit to the reformation in your church, something we support. After much convincing, they forwarded these documents." Doug tapped two red folders on his desk. "I have here personality profiles of Tom and Katie, including what Scientology knows of their sexual histories."

Scarlett directed a hard look towards Erika. "Don't your people know keeping files like that is illegal?"

"If these files weren't consensually gathered and supposedly secret they would be illegal," Erika answered Scarlett with a groan.

All followers of Erika's church were encouraged to submit to having such files made out. The official reasons were so that any minister could know as much as possible about any parishioner's personality and thus serve as their effective confessor and life coach. In reality, the information in the files was often used to harm the followers of Scientology as much as it was used to their benefit. Thanks to foresight and a series of deft political maneuvers, Erika avoided the practice for the most part. What information was in her widely available file was bleak. She only shared her life's full details with people she trusted, and they kept her secrets classified. For most Scientologists involved in the organization's shadow reformation this was an increasing trend.

I wouldn't be surprised if a fanatic fool like Tom told everyone everything about him, though, Erika thought. I'm sure his file is detailed as heck.

"And let me remind you," Erika told Scarlett, "the people who use these files to harm others are not like me."

"Sorry," Scarlett said. "I know you're not the same as other people in your religion and you're among those who are working to change things for the better. This is bringing back bad memories. That's all."