“No more, Heron,” she pleaded, her buttocks twitching at his driving penis. “Please, no
more.”
Heron heard the pleading cry which broke the tension in his loins and, with a low male
cry, he pulled Riley’s hips tight to him, wriggled his penis in the slick channel, then went back to
plunging in and out of her. And as he did so, he reached his orgasm. But he did not stop his
invasion inside Riley’s flesh, but continued to pump into her so that he could empty himself the
very last of his fluid. She moaned as she came for the third time, lying half on the couch because
she had no more strength left as the orgasm washed over her body again. Heron was still
pumping inside her, draining himself, but the savagery and carnage of his earlier fucking had
lessoned. And, as his plunges slowed, his cum fluid and her love juices flowed long and freely
out of Riley, pouring onto the cushion of the couch.
When he realized what he was doing, that he was reliving sex with Riley in minute detail,
Heron lunged forward on the couch and buried his head in his hands. Then he laid back against
the couch again, stretching his legs in a futile effort to ease the tension in his loins. He was rock
hard and was badly in need of fucking. He was badly in need of Riley and her soft voluptuous
body. He reached for the bottle of scotch and poured it into the glass and threw all of it down and
poured himself another. It was his one and only solution, the only one that was available to him
every night that he was tormented with the merciless need of fucking Riley.
The next morning, Heron had a breakfast meeting with his brother and the corporate
comptroller at nine o’clock. He was half an hour late for the appointment. He was already not in
a very good mood from his drinking, being plagued throughout the night with memories of
Riley, and getting less than four hour sleep. Being so late for a business meeting, especially one
with his brother, when he had always been punctual before, put him in a further foul mood.
His irritation rose even higher when he saw Tanner giving him a long hard look, as if he
were trying to figure what the hell was the matter with his brother.
“Shall we get this started?” Heron said coldly as he sat down.
The meeting was not a success. The comptroller only had thirty minutes because he had
to be at another meeting back at the office. Easily irritated, Heron did not help the progress of the
meeting by being quiet through most of the discussions, or being contrary and short when he did
have something to say. He ignored the confused looks that Tanner and the comptroller
sometimes directed at him, and sat back in his chair, showing little interest in the discussion that
normally absorbed him, so that the other two were forced to conduct the meeting on their own.
The comptroller rose to his feet. “Well, I have to get going. I’ll have the papers signed
and delivered to your office in a few days, Heron.”
Heron also rose to his feet, snapped his briefcase shut. “Don’t go out of your way,
Harry,” he said curtly. “Give them to Tanner, here.”
Without offering any goodbyes he walked away, leaving the comptroller shocked at this
uncustomary abruptness in a man with whom he had worked with for nearly ten years. When he
looked at Tanner in silent question, Tanner could only offer an apologetic shrug.
An hour later, Heron was sitting at his desk in his office, staring at nothing. The door
opened and Tanner entered, slamming the door behind him. He stared at his brother’s sullen face.
“Will you stop, already,” Tanner said with disgust.
Heron looked up. “Stop what?”
“This! What you’re doing. This has got to stop.”
“What am I doing?”
“Whatever it is you’re doing. This brooding of yours.”
Heron hunched further down in his chair. “I’m not brooding.”
“A few months ago I would have said you weren’t the type to brood, because you
wouldn’t have known how to. Now, I can swear you’re a champion brooder. You out brood
Hamlet himself.”
Heron turned his seat away from Tanner. “Go away. Leave me alone.”
Tanner walked closer and placed his hands on the desk. “Just stop. All right? Just stop all
this. Stop fighting it.”
Heron hunched his shoulder defensively. “Stop fighting what?”
“Riley, and whatever it is going on between you two. Stop fighting it and admit the
truth.”
“What truth?”
“That you love her. That, for the first time in your privileged life, you’re insanely and
stupidly in love with a woman.”
Heron made a sound of disgust. “I don’t love anyone. Especially her. I’d be insane and
stupid if I were in love with Riley.”
“Well, you’re being insane and stupid over it, and it’s not because you’re not in love.
Only love can do that to a man.”
Heron’s face turned sullen again. “So, what if it is? It’ll pass soon enough.”
Tanner turned and walked away, and then turned back. “You know, you’re about the
smartest person I know. You’re the only one who can peel through these damned complicated
contracts with the Europeans and know them inside and out in one reading. You know the law
like the back of your hand, and you have the memory of an elephant. I’ve never known you to be
stupid about anything. Until now. Of course, that’s because I’ve never seen you fall for a woman.
And when a guy like you, who has never known what it’s like to have a woman have a clamp on
your balls or be able to squeeze your icy heart, falls, man, you fall hard. And it has made you
unbelievably idiotic about the whole thing.”
Tanner turned and paced and then came back. “But, then, I should have realized that
you’ve more or less been stupid about women most of your life. When a guy like you goes
through life without ever letting a woman affect you very deeply, he tends to get stupid about
them. That’s why you lost Roberta. Because you were so stupid about her, as well, and it was so
easy for me to steal her away from you…”
Tanner didn’t see his brother coming around his desk until he felt Heron’s fist coming
into hard contact with his jaw, and found himself knocked on the floor. He struggled to a sitting
position, nursing his sore jaw, eyeing his brother who stood over him, rage in his dark eyes.
Tanner rubbed his jaw, gingerly moving it to make sure it wasn’t broken. “Yeah, I guess I
had that coming.” He tasted blood in his mouth. “You know, Mother’s going to be pissed with
you if you’ve broken any of my teeth, after the small fortune they paid for my braces.”
The fight left Heron exhausted. He sat down on the couch and stared at the rug. Tanner
pulled himself in one of the chairs.
“You know you can’t go on like this, Heron. It’s tearing your guts out.”
Heron leaned back on the couch and rubbed his face with his hand. “What am I going to
do?”
“About what? About Riley?”
“What am I going to do about this…this thing that I have about her?”
“That thing that you so euphemistically call as if it were some disgusting disease is love.
And you do nothing.”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to do. Nothing,” Heron spat out with frustration. “It’s
driving me crazy.”
“You’ve been trying to deny it all this time, squashing it. You can’t deny love, or chase it
away, pretend it doesn’t exist.”
“So, what do you recommend?”
“Nothing. You just…love. That’s all you can do. You can’t run away from it, you can’t
hide from it, you can’t change it, you can’t mold it to your liking. You just accept it for what it is
and just…love. If you’d just stop fighting it, you’ll slowly get your sanity back and your peace of
mind.”
Heron stared at his brother, all the aggression and hostility gone from his face. “It’s
always been easier for you than it was for me, to accept emotions and feelings for what they
were.”
“It’s not just me, Heron. Most people, normal people, that is, are comfortable with their
feelings, including your parents and your sister. It is you who is the anomaly, as Mother always
put it.”
“I never really had the need to deal with my feelings.”
“Well, now, it’s time for you to learn.”
Silence for a moment fell between them. Then Heron suddenly lurched to his feet. “No.
No. No,” he chanted, shaking his head while walking around the office. “It’s nothing as serious
as what you’re making it out to be. There’s nothing serious between Riley and I. And you know
why, because I don’t want anything there to be serious between us. It’s as simple as that.”
Tanner shook his head, watching his brother with pity. “Mind over matter, is that it?”
“Sure. Sure. And why not?”
“I don’t understand you, Heron. Why don’t you want this? Loving someone and having
them love you back is the single most wonderful thing a person can experience in life.”
Heron’s face became shuttered. “Sometimes love isn’t for everyone.”
“Then I feel sorry for you, Heron.”
Tanner turned and walked out of the office.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Riley was working at the bar on her orders. It was a few minutes after four o’clock in the
afternoon, drawing towards the end of a working day for most, but starting for Riley and her
staff. She was alone in the bar. Her staff would start trickling in around five o’clock. She had the
door open, letting in the cool but fresh air of early summer that was just about to burst around the
seasonal clock.
She was absorbed in going over the orders, agonizing for nearly an hour whether or not
she should start going with a larger distributor, because she was beginning to run out of her
supplies before the next shipments. She always hated making these types of major changes,
because the previous arrangements had worked very well and allowed her to run her business
smoothly most of the time. Changing a distributor could mean disruption in the smooth running
of the bar, because it usually meant a period of adjustment.
Riley was so immersed in her dilemma that she did not see the person entering the bar. It
was only when she turned her head that she saw Heron standing there.
She jumped, so startled to see him. “Heron.”
“Hello, Riley,” he said with somber graveness.
“What are you doing here?”
Heron didn’t answer for a moment. “I don’t really know.”
Riley raised her eyebrows at that. What was she supposed to do with a man who had left
her and was now standing in her building but didn’t know why he was there?
“Well, is there something I could for you…”
“I can’t take this, anymore, Riley,” Heron burst out.
Riley at first was shocked. Heron never burst out. Then she looked at him, a little wary.
“Take what?”
“This. You. Me.”
She looked him a little more closely, and saw that he looked fatigued, and his face heavy
with tension and frustration and exhaustion. She was shocked to see that the suit he wore looked
as if he had worn it the day before and had slept in it. He wore a thin wool overcoat, his tie
untied and askew and three of his shirt buttons undone. His face was unshaven, his eyes
bloodshot from not enough sleep, and his hair was uncombed. He looked as if he was at the end
of his tether.
“Has something happened, Heron?” Then she grew a little pail. “Is it your mother? I
heard about the cancer scare. I thought the tests turned out fine. Is there something I can do for
you?”
Heron stepped closer to her, his exhausted eyes never leaving hers. “Yes, you can do
something for me, Riley. You can make this thing inside me go away. I’ve tried.” His voice
sounded as tired as he looked, and tortured. “God knows I’ve tried. I’ve tried to get rid of it. I’ve
tried to forget you. But I can’t, because you won’t go away. You won’t get out of my head, and
it’s tearing me apart.”
Riley’s eyes widened with shock. “What are you saying, Heron?”
Heron moved to her. The sensible part of Riley was telling her that she should move
away, not let him get near her. He didn’t seem in control of his faculties, and he looked as if he
was at the breaking point, and might do some violence when he broke. But his words, what he
was saying to her was mesmerizing as tortured as they were. Even as he drew inches from her,
she stood still.
Heron stepped closer and was about to take her in his arms.
She did then quickly back away. “No, Heron. We’re not getting back to that. That’s
over.”
His arms fell to his side. “I need you, Riley”
She snapped her eyes around to him. “You do? Why?”
He shook his head, frustrated, even confused. “I don’t know. It’s tearing me apart to be
away from you like this.”
“You’re the one who walked away.”
“I know. I had to. You were doing things to me that no other woman has ever done to me.
I couldn’t think when I was around you. I couldn’t breath. You were becoming this thing in my
life that I had no control over. You’ve been doing things to me for a long time, now. Since I first
walked in here. Or, maybe when I got you out of jail. –No, no. It was long before then, wasn’t
it?” He gave a bitter smile that was edged with defeat. “It must have been the first I met you,
when Roberta first introduced me to you that Sunday and you gave me that insolent once over.”
Heron slowly ran his eyes over her, the look in them feverish, pausing at one feature after
another, the dark eyes hungry to get reacquainted with the sight of Riley. Then they ran over her
features again as if to permanently etch them into his memory.
“I didn’t want any of this, you know,” he said, an unusual tone of weary defeat in his
voice. “You, me. Us. This thing between us. I tried everything in my power to walk away from
it. My whole family have said that I was a fool to think that I could. That anyone could.”
“What is this thing you keep talking about, Heron?”
“Love.”
Riley turned white and she stumbled back. Then color flooded in her face as her heart
began to pound so hard that she lifted her hand to press her heel against it. What was he saying to
her? Was he talking about love between he and her? But that was ridiculous, because he had
made it so clear to her when he called her that last time that he wanted nothing to do with any
feelings that might have developed between them. By then, it had been too late for Riley. But
had he suspected anything from her, he wanted no part of it.
Heron turned away and shuffled towards the bar. He rubbed his face over his tired face.
“Yes, this thing that I’m talking about is love. At least that’s what my family calls it My brother
told me I was insane to try and avoid it, because it was the most wonderful thing a person could
have in his life.” He gave a painful laugh. “Wonderful, he says. It’s the worst hell I’ve ever gone
through” He looked at Riley. “My parents and Tanner tell me that I’m in love with you, Riley.”