Chapter 9 – Hyde to the Rescue

If someone had told Hyde a year ago that he would one day be lying on a sun lounge by the olympic pool at the Playboy Mansion, surrounded by beautiful girls wearing skimpy costumes he would have had a hard time believing it. If you had then told him that he would be oblivious to his surroundings, he would have known you were lying. But such was the case as the angry young man moodily sipped on a pineapple daquiri, sunbathing in his jeans and Aerosmith Tee.

"I thought for sure she would listen to you," Kelso said, massaging sunscreen onto the shoulders of one of the bunnies. "You could always make her do anything. Hell, you even made her stop craving me!"

"That girl is as stubborn as a truckload of mules," Hyde declared. "I should just leave her to the drug-dealing bastard." Even as he said it, he knew he wouldn't. If there was a chance of Jackie being seriously hurt, he could not stand by and let it happen.

"Excuse me, Mr Hyde" a melodic voice interrupted. Hyde turned to see a well endowed blonde in a bikini holding a bottle of sunscreen. "Are you sure you wouldn't like me to rub some of this onto your back or any other… body parts?"

Hyde let out a sigh. "Look sweetheart, I'm a bit busy talking here. Like I told your little animal friends, I don't need any sunscreen or massages or palm readings. Now scoot!"

Kelso watched in amazement as the crestfallen beauty sashayed away to join a gaggle of bunnies sneaking peeks at the sexy stranger their favourite security guard had brought into their midst. "Dude! You just turned down Miss January! Miss January, man! The hottest month of all!"

"Kelso, I don't have time to play games with your harem when Jackie's in danger," Hyde replied irritably.

"Ohmigod – she did it to you too!" Kelso cried, pointing a lotion wet finger at Hyde so abruptly some of it splashed onto his sunglasses.

"Watch it, you moron. What are you babbling about? Did what?"

"Jackie put the curse on you," Kelso said in excitement. "She's made you indifferent to the hotness all around you – gorgeous women are offering to rub your body and all you can think about is Jackie!"

"Kelso, will you shut up and hide your IQ. There is no comparison between me and that time when you were impotent."

"Shhhh! What are you trying to do to me, Hyde? You don't throw loaded words like that around in front of bunnies! You'll get me fired."

"Why? I would have thought Heffner would want his security guard to be a eunuch." Hyde raised the volume on the last word to reach a wider audience.

"Shit! Alright, smart guy. Answer me this then – when was the last time you had the urge to grab a woman, back her against a wall and pound into her until she's screaming in ecstasy?"

"This afternoon," Hyde said automatically.

"Oh." Then it clicked. "Hey, weren't you with Jackie this afternoon?"

Hyde was quiet for half a minute. "Shut up," he said sullenly.

Kelso smirked in satisfaction. "I feel for you, man. There's no worse torture than only wanting the one girl in the world you can't have."

"Hey, if I really wanted Jackie I could have her," Hyde said hotly. "Anyhow, this conversation is pointless. We have to find a way to convince Jackie to stay away from Tanner." Hyde snapped his finger as he remembered something Kelso had said. "Hey, you said there was a girl here who had been to one of those wild parties. We just have to take her to Jackie and…"

"But Jackie already knows about the girl."

"Yeah, but like I said before she wouldn't believe a word out of your mouth. But if we introduce her to –"

"Hey, if she thinks I'm such a liar then why did she take down the girl's name?"

This pulled Hyde up short. "What do you mean she took down the girl's name?"

"Sure. When I first told her about how Dexter is bad news she listened to me really quiet and serious and then asked me all these questions – what's the girl's name, where does she live, what date was the party, what address was it held at – it was like playing 20 questions."

"My God," Hyde said as things fell into place. I know what I'm doing, she had said. "It's a story," he cried, slapping Kelso on the arm. "That's why she's involved with that creep. She's doing some kind of exposé on Tanner." A strange lightness filled his head as he realised that Jackie was not in love with another man.

"Really? So does that mean she doesn't need saving?"

"Oh, she needs saving alright!" Hyde climbed off the sun lounge and strode heroically to the parking lot where his faithful steed awaited.

As he drove back to the CRN offices, he had formulated many forceful arguments by which to convince Jackie that exposing Tanner was far too dangerous an occupation. Unfortunately, he did not get the chance to use them for he arrived just in time to see Jackie, clothed in a slinky black dress, being handed into a limousine by the cad in question. His only option was to follow the limo, which he did using advice Jackie had once given him – the trick is always to follow 2 cars behind and in the other lane. After a 30 minute drive to the city limits, Dexter turned into the driveway of a palatial residence from which faint sounds of rock music and drunken cheers could be heard. Hyde parked outside the gates and picked the lock on a side gate. By the time he had done this he had lost sight of Tanner and Jackie, so he kept to the shadows, looking out for them.

"Come with me, Jackie," Tanner said, gently pulling her away from a particularly loopy debutante who was telling everybody she was made of rainbows. "I have something special for you."

Jackie's ears pricked up. Something special might be something she could use against Dexter. If not that, maybe it was a present for her! She followed Dexter into the house and upstairs to a sitting room. She sipped on the Tom Collins Dex had made for her and opened her purse slightly so her tape recorder would be able to pick up their conversation.

"That's quite a party out there, Dex," Jackie said. "Is this one of your houses?"

"No, it belongs to an old college friend. I thought you might like to get away from our fellow guests – they are a little too high spirited at this time."

"I noticed. Am I right in concluding that it's not liquor that's got those people so high?"

"Maybe – why? Are you a puritan when it comes to enhancing the body's natural impulses?" Dex asked with a smile, watching Jackie drink.

"Oh not at all," Jackie said breezily, wanting Dex to feel comfortable talking about his illegal product. "Why, I've been smoking pot since I was about 16. And since then I've experimented with plenty of stuff. You know, LSD, beta blockers, uppers, speed…"

"Have you tried Phenodrexin," Dex asked with a secret smile.

"Um… I might have – what is it, exactly?"

"An aphrodisiac," Dex replied. "Very new, very expensive and very potent."

"Oh," Jackie said, starting to feel warm. "I don't think I've tried that one."

"Oh, I think you have, darling," Dex said in a husky voice, taking the empty glass from Jackie. He noted with satisfaction that her eyes were out of focus. The drug was working quickly.

"Dex, I – I don't think I feel well," Jackie said as she felt her heart beating loud in her ears. Her skin felt like it was being warmed by fire and her nipples were tingling in the strangest way.

"My poor love," Dexter consoled. "Why don't you come and lie down on the bed until you feel more the thing."

As Dexter lifted Jackie into his arms, she was dismayed to find her body would not obey her mind's frantic command to fight him. A part of her was scared and disgusted as his hands started to stroke her body through her clothes but her oversensitised skin found his touch unbearably arousing so that she could not suppress a small moan as his hand slipped underneath her panties and cupped her bare buttock.

Dex laid her onto a king sized bed and with slow deliberation began to undress. He felt wonderfully powerful having this exquisite creature trapped in a sexual spell. His ego would have preferred that stimulants were unnecessary to have this effect, but after a month of circling this gazelle he was ready to pounce.

He was just unbuttoning his shirt when the night was shattered by a harsh voice magnified by a megaphone; "This is a raid. Everybody stand where you are." Running to the window, he saw the stoned party-goers turn into a panicked mob. "Shit," he muttered. Sparing Jackie a regretful glance he darted out of the room, not noticing the man hiding in the shadows behind the door.

"Dilhole," Hyde muttered, slipping into the bedroom. He chuckled as he thought of how he had stolen a microphone while the rock band were taking a beer break and made his panic-spreading announcement. The smile froze on his face as he saw Jackie reclining on the purple satin bedspread, her eyelids at half mast, her lips tilted upwards in a sensual smile he had not seen since they had broken up.

"Steven," she breathed, her eyes glowing. "You rescued me!" She raised her arms toward him in invitation.

"That's right, baby," Hyde said, scooping her into his arms. He was pleased at the way she immediately curled her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder. After their last encounter, he thought she might have been a bit more antagonistic. Still, he found the way she started licking his neck to be going a little further than gratitude required. "Uh… Jackie… what are you doing?"

"Oh Steven, I want you to make love to me," Jackie said, now nipping and sucking on his ear as he carried her out of the building.

"Yeah, sure, um… could you not do that right now, it makes it hard for me to remember where I parked my car."

"I can't help it," Jackie moaned. "I feel so hot."

In the moonlight Hyde registered the hazy expression on her face and had a sickening realisation. "Jackie, did you take any drugs?" Jackie's response was to comb her fingers through his hair and suck on his bottom lip. "Jackie! Focus!"

"I didn't mean to," she said with a pout like a naughty little girl.

Hyde spotted his car and walked the last few yards with an erection that was starting to become painful. He dumped Jackie in the passenger seat and tore out onto the highway, wondering what he was going to do with the feverishly aroused girl who was now lying with her head in his lap and starting to get lewd ideas from the position. Hyde considered to himself that a good man would take her back to her apartment, put her in her bed and leave her alone to sleep off the effects of the drug. As he felt the zipper on his jeans being pulled down he reflected what very boring lives good men must lead.