Sloane runs into Simone.....
“I think I could fall madly in bed with you”…….. Dorothy Parker.
A chance introduction occurred in the lobby of Lyon Towers between two of its residents. Simone Serval was coming through the revolving door, carrying two hefty shopping bags from JAGGERS and Chanel. She ran headlong into Sloane Simba whose eyes were following the well-rounded fanny of an attractive female rather than concentrating on where he was going. He knocked the small Serval female, with a thump, on her own shapely derriere. Simone hastily got up and retrieved her packages from the floor.
“Watch where you are going,” snarled Simone before she focused her gaze on the culprit.
“I am so sorry, Miss. Can I help you with those packages?”
“Yes, you can. Please help me get them to my place.”
Simone’s heartbeat was brisk. She hadn’t seen a male lion look this delicious since Ashley Lyon and Shane Simba. They took the elevator to her leased penthouse. Simone rang the bell. Her houseboy opened the door.
“Great place you’ve got here, Miss er…..”
“Simone Serval,” she said by way of introduction.
“I’ve seen a couple of your movies. You can number me among your fans, Simone. I saw Lolita and the one you made with my half-brother, Roy Lee. I’m Sloane Simba.”
“I knew you had that look. Want a drink?”
He followed her to the library where the ebony bar rested. She poured a Scotch neat and handed it to him.
“How did you know what I drink?”
“All the males in your pride seem to favor that same drink,” she giggled.
“You are familiar with the males in my pride - in plurality?”
“Yes, I do know them. I dated Sam, then Shane and ended up in a raging affair with Roy Lee,” laughed the candid Simone.
“My, my, you are familiar with the group, aren’t you?” he asked, emptying his glass.
“Yes, I rented this penthouse from Shane. He never lived here. Just bought it for an investment, I guess.”
“Or an extra marital cathouse,” he laughed. “His reputation as a lothario is legendary.”
“I think he may be finished with all that. After Catherine died, he married Betty Chimpo.”
“That honeymoon will end soon enough and he’ll be back in the saddle in the not too distant future. Never fear about that, just in case you should fancy him again.”
He was standing so closely to her that she could smell the fine tobacco intermingling with the scent of expensive cologne on his tweed jacket. She felt dizzy for a few moments, a strong sense of arousal causing her to want to grab his waist and pull him even closer. But as things transpired, there was no need of that. He took her in his muscular arms and kissed her. She was a goner. She took his paw and led him to her bedroom, locking the door. There they stayed for the rest of the day, enjoying each other’s bodies to their heart’s content.
Betty Simba went to see Judge Bo Bonobo. He still maintained his private law practice with Leoparde & Bonobo.
“How can I help you, Betty? This time marriage truly seems to suit you. You look wonderful.”
“I want to go back to court and try to get some visiting rights from Sam Simba. He refuses to let me see my boys.”
“Have you tried the personal approach before we resort to court, Betty. I’m afraid it is going to get dirty.”
“Yes, Bo, I tried to talk to him. He was unyielding in his refusal.”
“Okay, we’ll hit him with a suit. Are you sure? Your husband is vice president. If Sam slings muck it will make the headlines.”
“Very sure, Bo, let’s go for it.”
“Okay, Betty.”
That evening when Shane arrived home after Betty, it was she who seemed depressed. She made him a drink and they went to the veranda.
“What’s wrong, Fifi? You seem down in the mouth.”
“I saw Bo Bonobo today. He’s filing suit for me to get some visiting rights from Sam.”
“Have you tried calling Sam?”
“I did better than that. I went to his office the other day,” she said, lighting a cigarette.
“And?”
She told him the conversation between herself and Sam. His tawny eyes flattened in anger.
“What a prick he is.”
“It will probably get nasty. Will that be too harmful to you in your position, Shane?”
He began to laugh softly.
“Betty, you’ve already written everything in your book. All of the squalid details are there. I think three quarters of the literate world has read it. It’s a matter of ‘so what else is new’. Sock it to that bastard and let the chips fall where they may.”
“You are so wonderful, darling.”
“Are you finished with the long face, Fifi?”
“Yes indeed. Let’s go to dinner and see what the kids have to say about their day. Babs has fixed your favorite Stroganoff.”
The soiree at Croc’s Bar & Grill on the Mara River was blessed with a full moon and wonderful weather. It is the season of our short rains and one never knows when the roads to the river will get too wet to negotiate. Although Terri and the deputy minister of justice attended, Sam Simba and his wife stayed away. The riverside restaurant was jam packed with a tent to hold the overflow. Sloane Simba brought Simone Serval who enjoyed flaunting him before Roy Lee, who couldn’t have cared less. Tookie Simba and her fiancé drove from Mombasa to attend. They spent the night with Betty and Shane. Bertram Baboon, Lachlan, Chad Cheetah and I attended together. Bertram and I decided to play our fly on the wall game. We viewed Carson Cougar and his wife, Monica, completely snub Alexander Simba. Linda Cougar came with Jerrilyn (Jackal) and Oscar Scar. We saw her make hasty tracks from the bar area when Sloane and Simone approached. Caroline Cheetah came by herself. She seemed fidgety and was visibly let down when she saw Sloane with his date. We saw her approach Luke Leoparde who was dateless. Apparently they didn’t join up. We saw Luke leave alone. There was much stir when the official Rolls pulled up with the back up Land Rover full of Masai guards who immediately flanked Shane Simba and Betty as they entered the party. Bertram and I decided we hated whatever Betty had done to her hair for the evening. It was a superb fundraiser and made a significant amount of money for the planned creative writing school.
Betty and Shane at the fundraiser at Croc’s Bar & Grill……
Leander Simba is an interesting personality. Completely dissimilar to her sister, Sarah Lee, she is fond of drink, addicted to her cigarettes in the extended holder and is disposed to an offhand state of mind. She is a blasé lioness, letting those pitfalls in life go down as smoothly as her martinis. She has given birth to five litters, mostly males. Her favorite is her son, Sloane, who she feels is the most like her nephew, Shane, in character. She finds nephew, Sam Simba, her sister, Sarah Lee and her son, Alexander, to be a bit on the censorious side. There is nothing of this in Leander’s make up. Hers is a live and let live approach. Leander would never condemn one of her offspring if they married a human. Her parent’s were killed by poachers but she thought of them as a sorry lot anyway. Unlike, Sarah Lee, she didn’t exalt her parents because they had gone on to the big lion heaven in the sky. The Simba males of that generation had been a trashy lot taking lionesses from other prides by sheer force. In the early days, before the Lyon presidency, where violence was widespread among lions, the Simba pride had been among the nastiest. Therefore the practical Leander didn’t mind that trophy hunters had snuffed her parents. She hadn’t liked them anyway.
All Thanks Day arrived. For most animal families it was a good one. For the Cougars who had suffered a division between Carson Cougar and his brother-in-law, Alexander Simba, it was thorny. The problem was resolved when Carson and Monica invited Sylvia, Bernard and their offspring with families, to his handsome home in the bush and Alexander chose to go to Sarah Lee Simba’s where his mother, Leander, would be. He took his wife, Lucy and their newborn, James with him.
For the Simba pride it was very prickly. Sarah Lee wanted all to come to her home. Sam and his wife, Allison with the six cubs, were only too happy to comply. Shane and Betty were having their meal at their home on Leoparde Drive. Attending that gathering was Roy Lee and Chloe and their children. Tookie and her yacht captain came there as well. The remaining pride members gathered at Sarah Lee’s. Sarah Lee would weep from time to time, moaning that her pride was divided. This caused Leander to freshen her martini.
Lachlan and I joined Bertram Baboon and Gloria Chimpo at his home for an elegant French gastronomic repast. Chad Cheetah also came.
Clint and Chelsea Cheetah Cougar had all of the Cheetah family to an evening meal after, first attending Carson Cougar’s luncheon. Dorian and Cynthia, Caroline, Christine, her cubs and Micah Mbube, with Cassandra and Sefu Simba and their children, enjoyed a sumptuous meal that Clint had prepared. Dorian, who gave the blessing, grew tearful thinking of the deceased Catherine.
President Ralph Lyon gave a televised talk, wishing everyone in Kenya a happy All Thanks Day. It was on a remote telecast from South Africa where he and Mildred were visiting Nelson Mandela and his wife.
Ashley and Leah Lyon had returned from South Africa in time to celebrate with their children. They joined the Lyon pride in their compound where a large buffet was set out.
Montecore had a large gay gathering consisting of Gerald Giraffe and some others, at his disco..
Judge Bo Bonobo put Betty’s custody fight on the front burner of the court docket. He was on the bench and Grover Leoparde was Betty’s counsel at the table. Sam sat with his lawyer, Alexander at the opposing table. On that first day, things got quite testy. Grover requested every other weekend for Betty to see her sons, Jason and Joshua Simba. He also asked for half the summer. Alexander Simba stood and reiterated the fact that Betty had lost the children due to an affair with their uncle, Shane Simba. He told of Sam’s desire not to have his children exposed to the loose moral structure of Shane and Betty’s lives. The media pricked up their ears and wrote furiously. Grover, on his rebuttal, spoke of the fact that Betty and Shane were now married with firm family values intact. Judge Bonobo called for an early morning session on the morrow. He banged his gavel and court was dismissed.
The evening news was filled with the details of Simba vs. Simba’s child custody case. But there was nothing scandalous to delight in if one had already read Betty’s book, Pride and Fury. Since ninety eight percent of the Mara had read it, there was no shock value left in the trial.
Sam already had his plans made. If he lost the case in the district court, which he easily could in that Judge Bonobo had a distinct aversion to the Simba pride; he would take it to the highest court in Kenya where his brother, Chief Magistrate, Sefu Simba, ruled the roost. Allison worried that her husband had never moved past his hatred of his ex-wife and brother. It seemed to grow in Sam Simba like a cancer.
“Sam, why don’t you move past this thing with Betty and Shane? Let it go. We have four wonderful sons and you still have custody of Josh and Jason. Let them see their mother. What can that hurt, Sam?”
“Never, Ali! I will not let my sons be with those disgraceful animals.”
Allison would turn from him rather than get involved in an argument that only provoked more hostility.
Linda Cougar was standing at the bar in the Watering Hole Pub. She had sold two houses that day and her purse contained a hefty commission check. She was purring to herself as she downed her vodka on the rocks and asked for a second. A tall shadow fell across her. It was Sloane Simba.
“Do I detect a sound of satisfaction coming from you? Hallelujah, the cat can feel pleasure,” he said, having just ordered his own drink. He lit a cigarette.
“I did for a few minutes and then you came along,” she snarled.
“Can we start from the ground up? Just why do you hate me so? You’ve never even bothered to get to know me.”
“I had a terrible experience with your brother.”
“Which one? I have scores of them.”
“Alexander. I had an affair with him. I got pregnant and had to have an abortion. Then he dumped me and went back to his wife who had a cub – finally.”
“That’s a sad story but what have I to do with it?”
“I don’t like you because you’re a Simba.”
“We come in many forms, Linda. There are weak Simbas, strong Simbas, bad Simbas and even good ones, believe it or not.”
She stared at him intently. She had thought from the beginning that he was a gorgeous hunk but had resisted getting to know him because of her experience with Alexander.
“In which category do you fall, Sloane?”
“I have a little of every trait, I suppose. I would never get you pregnant and leave you because I carry rubbers at all times,” he said, tossing a few on the bar and causing the bartender to gasp.
Linda began to giggle at the sight of the Trojans. Sloane removed them and put them back in his pocket.
“I’m on the pill now. I wouldn’t get pregnant.”
“Fancy you closing the barn door after the horse escaped. I don’t care to rely on the female’s birth control methods. Some can lie to you. I’m an attorney and know all about entrapment.”
“You are such a shit,” she stated and then burst into another round of giggles.
“I do have my virtues if you’d care to give me a test run, Linda.”
“Okay, why not?”
They went to his apartment in Lyon Towers. His phone was ringing as they came in. He didn’t answer. He made them drinks and they went straight to his bedroom. He removed Linda’s clothing in the most sensual method she had ever experienced, kissing every part of her as he took the garment. By the time they got in his bed, she was ravenous for him. He made love to her over and over until she thought she would faint from sheer rapture. Hours later, he drove her home. When he returned to his apartment he checked his voice mail. There were multiple calls from Caroline Cheetah and Simone Serval. He made another drink, went to bed and slept like the dead.
Linda and Sloane…..