Attraction (34 page)

Heron’s eyes dilated, his face went dark in a savage mask. And Heron began to fuck
Riley harder and faster. He bent his head and filled his mouth with her breast that she offered and
suckled deeply in time with his rutting. She arched beneath him, clenched her hands in his dark
hair as they moved together again.
Up in the driver seat, Dustin was pulling the limousine up to the front of Wait’s mansion.
Looking a little uncomfortable, he stepped out of the car, went around to the passenger side. But,
instead of opening the door, he turned his back to the car and stood there, trying hard not to listen
to the faint sounds of groans that were coming from within the car.
The front door opened and the butler of the mansion walked towards him. He frowned at
Dustin, wondering why he was just standing beside the car. He opened his mouth, about to say
something, when Dustin shook his head and put his fingers to his lips. The butler looked
impatient, but then stilled when he heard the sounds from within the car. He gave Dustin a
questioning look, and Dustin gave another small shake of his in assurance. Then the butler
finally realized what was going on inside the car, looked shocked, then appalled. Dustin gave a
slight shrug and continued to wait. The butler turned and went back inside the house.
Inside the limousine, when their shudders and groans had subsided in the aftermath,
Heron realized that the car wasn’t moving. He straightened in his seat and looked out the
window. “Shit! We’re here.” He began to redo his clothes.
Riley jerked up and saw that they had arrived at his parents’ house. “Oh, God, and I’m a
total mess.” She began to frantically straighten her clothes. Then she began to root around in the
car for tissues.
Heron looked at her with impatience. “What are you looking for?”
“Kleenex. Where are the Kleenex? Doesn’t this car have some? Why wouldn’t you be
carrying something as necessary as Kleenex in your car,” she complained shrewishly.
In the aftermath of their sex, now that the sexual need had passed, she was in an agitated
mood, because she was no longer looking poised and polished as she had wanted to appear when
seeing his parents. She cursed herself for the uncontrollability of her physical desire for Heron,
and cursed him for making her want him so much, no matter where they were.
Heron said, “I never needed them before.”
“Well, it’s unnatural for any car to be without tissues, especially when you escort all
these women around.”
“Most women I escort I usually don’t end up fucking in this car.”
“You need to get your butler to buy some tissues next time he goes to the store,” Riley
said.
Heron rebuttoned his shirt and ran his hand through his mussed up hair. “Yeah, I’ll get
Canton right on that and include it on his grocery list, so that I’m prepared next time I turn this
car into a sex-mobile and that it is fully equipped, Kleenex and all.”
Riley searched desperately around the car and spotted the cloth of silk triangle sticking
out of his breast pocket of his suit jacket. Before Heron could guess her intention, she plucked
the cloth out of the suit and began to wipe herself. When she cleaned herself up the best she
could, she put the wet cloth in Heron’s hands and began to pull up her stockings and re-hook
them.
Heron looked at the cloth. “What am I supposed to do with this?”
Riley redid her bra and straightened her sweater. “Take it to the dry cleaner.”
Both straightened their appearance to the best of their ability. They stepped out of the
car, their expressions calm and benign.
“Ah, good, you have arrived,” Alana greeted them once they entered the house. “Hello,
Riley. It’s very good to see you again. And, I must, say, I’m quite pleased with the circumstances
under which we meet tonight.” Heron’s mother ignored the outstretched hand that Riley
proffered and gave her a hearty hug. “You look as lovely as I remember you looking. Even
lovelier.”
Alana then threw her arms around Heron. “Heron, darling, as always, you don’t call your
parents enough. Why is it that if I want to see you, I have to issue practically a military order for
you to come?”
When she pulled back she gave him a closer look. “There’s something different about
you.”
She saw that her oldest son appeared a bit out of sorts, not at all looking his usual
impeccably well-groomed self. His hair looked as if he had hastily ran his hand through it, his tie
was askew, a tiny spot of red lipstick on his shirt collar, and his eyelids were lowered as if he
was holding back a secret. Or because he was sated. Alana turned her attention to Riley, who was
standing a few feet away, trying to feign a certain insouciance that she couldn’t quite pull off.
Then Alana saw that the lipstick that the younger woman wore was the same shade as the lipstick
that was on her son’s collar. She also could see faintly reddish burn marks on Riley’s face and
neck, and the light gray eyes were also heavy.
Alana looked at her son, then to Riley, then back to Heron. “How was the traffic? I bet it
was murder. Is that why you’re nearly thirty minutes late?” She turned her eyes to Riley.
The look that Alana gave Riley was so direct and sincere with genuine interest that when
she opened her mouth, the lie stuck in her throat. “Uh…I guess…”
“It’s alright, Riley. It’s okay to let my mother know that the traffic held us up, ” Heron
said dryly.
“Yes, it did,” she said with a weak smile. “It was the traffic that delayed us.”
Alana gave a cool little smile. “Yes, of course it was.”
Roy appeared with a tray of drinks. “Well, here’s something to unwind you two.”
Riley said, “Uh, actually, if I could freshen up a bit…”
Alana gave her a knowing look. “Of course, my dear. Heron, why don’t you show your
guest to one of the guests’ bathroom. Oh, and, Heron, you might want to freshen up, yourself.”
Heron gave his mother a dirty look before walking Riley down the hall, while his mother
watched them with a speculative look in her eye.
Roy picked up a martini from the tray and drank half of it down. “What are you up to,
Alana-girl.?”
“Do you know what those two were doing in the car before they came in?”
“Of course I do. I saw the lipstick on our boy’s collar, too. But that gives you no right to
torment the poor boy.”
“I have every right to torment my own children as I please. Several hours of labor with
each and every one of them gives me that right,” Alana told him haughtily. “Especially when it is
for their own good.”
Emerging from the ladies’ bathroom, Riley certainly felt much more refreshed and
comfortable, having washed the stickiness from her private areas. She was able to be much more
at ease and social with her hosts when she emerged from the bathroom.
When she walked back into the parlor room, she stood there for an uncertain moment, not
quite knowing what she should do. Alana was on the phone, and Heron and his father were
having a quiet discussion, more likely about business, across the room. Riley began to examine
some of the family photographs that were along the walls.
From across the room, heavy into the discussion of a business contract with Roy, Heron
absently turned his head and was caught by the sight of her in her pin-striped skirt and pink agora
sweater. Without realizing it, his eyes stayed on her profile which afforded to his male eyes the
side view of her breasts, which were protruding generously beneath the fluffy pink. The hard
sexual glint came into his eyes as they slowly ran down her skirt and down the slender length of
her shapely legs.
Without thinking, and forgetting that that his father was still talking to him, Heron turned
away and was about to head towards Riley. He stopped when he saw his mother take Riley’s arm
in a cozy, friendly manner and pull her aside.
Behind Riley’s back, Alana and Roy exchanged looks.
Alana carried on a conversation that was light and breezy, telling Riley about an antique
shop or a boutique she had discovered, or regaling about the few social committees that she was
on and the little squabbles and mishaps among the members who fought over who was going to
chair a particular project or who’s turn it was to host the luncheon meeting, and, according to
Alana, generally behaved no better than six year olds fighting over who was going to be the milk
monitor.
A few times, Alana would make Riley laugh, and the light, rich sound would reach Heron
from across the room, making him turn his head and watch her until his father gently pulled him
back into their conversation.
After dinner, the deserts and aperitifs were served in the parlor room. Again, Alana kept
Riley close to her side, maintaining a distance between them and the two men.
“You know, Riley, I’m so thrilled that your sister married my son. Heron would never
have done for her. I think we all knew that from the beginning, except poor Heron. She’s a much
a better fit for Tanner than for my oldest son. And I have to admit that Robbie is the best thing
that could have happened to Tanner. I’ve never seen him happier.”
“Yes, I think, they’re perfect for each other.”
“That’s why Heron’s father and I couldn’t be happier with this latest development in
Heron’s life.”
“What development is that?”
“Why, you and Heron, of course.”
Riley’s hand froze on her desert fork. “I hate to disappoint you and your husband, but
there really isn’t any development of Heron and I, Mrs. Wait.”
“Oh, please, do call me Alana. I’ve a feeling that you and are going to be quite close,”
Alana said cozily. “Then, exactly what is between you and my son, if you don’t mind my
asking?”
“Uh…uh…,” was all Riley could manage. How could she tell Alana that it was just sex
between her and her son. She couldn’t tell a mother that she was having a very torrid and
physical affair with her son. “We never really planned for this to happen…”
“What is happening, then?”
“Well…things, you know. We don’t really see each other a lot, because we both have
such demanding careers. And when we do get together, there really isn’t anything between us
that you might say is of any importance. I mean we’re not really having a relationship, your son
and I…We’re just…I mean, we don’t plan for things between us to go on much further than…”
“Riley, are you trying to tell me that there’s only sex between you and Heron?”
Riley blushed. “Well…Yes. When both of us fell into this affair, neither one of us had
really planned it to happen…”
“And, yet, it did happen,” Alana pointed out reasonably.
“But neither one of us expect it to go any further than where it is now. I mean, Heron and
I are adults, and neither of one of us have expectations from the other. I’m afraid Heron and I
aren’t all that emotionally involved with one another, and there aren’t really any reasons why we
should be.”
Alana sipped her brandy. “So, you’re saying that there’s no possibility that there could be
anything more than just sex between you and my son. But why? Why should it seem impossible
to you that love could not grow between you two?”
“Mrs…Alana, there has to be some measure of feelings on both parties for that to
happen.”
Alana laid down on the coffee table in front of Riley a newspaper that was folded to a
photograph. It took Riley a few seconds to realize that it was Heron who was kissing the
woman’s shoulder and it was her shoulder that he was kissing.
“I wonder who took that? I didn’t know there were any photographers at the auction,”
Riley commented irrelevantly.
“Gossip mongers are everywhere. But the man in that picture doesn’t appear to be
lacking in any feelings for the woman.”
Riley stared at the passion that was so obvious in both her and Heron’s faces in the
photograph. “But this doesn’t really mean anything. We were…just kissing, not unlike any other
man and woman who were foolish enough to forget themselves while in public.”
“I have never known my son to forget himself in public, much less display any kind of
inappropriate behavior in public.”
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Wait, for the spectacle that your son and I…”
“I don’t care about that. That doesn’t matter to me. What matters to me is that I see my
son in that picture looking very enthralled with the woman who he is kissing. I know for a fact
that my son has never been enthralled with any woman, or has looked at a woman the way he is
looking at you in the photograph.”
“I wouldn’t take anything by it, Mrs…Alana. It was just the moment.”
“You mean that there’s no way that Heron could come to love you?”
“Yes, I’m afraid that is what I’m saying.”
“Then why is it that my son can barely take his eyes off you all this evening? He can’t,
you know. Haven’t you noticed the way his eyes follow you everywhere you go?”
“No, I haven’t really noticed…”
“And it’s obvious that he cannot keep his hands off you, either, whether in public or
when he gets you alone inside the privacy of a chauffered limousine.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Come now, my dear, you don’t really think I wouldn’t have guessed what went on
between you two on your drive over here?”
Riley blushed violently to the roots of her hair, remembering just how aggressively
wanton she had been in her sexual seduction with Heron in the car, cutting down with feminine
ruthlessness his indignant but desperate resistance. She remembered how her legs had draped
over his hips while he plunged over and over inside her, and how she had lifted her breasts up to
him with her own hands, instinctually moving to pull him tighter into her sensual web.
And now, she was sitting next to his mother, acting as if nothing so sordid happened
between her and her son, and that everything was above board between them.
“Oh,” Riley said wanly. “I didn’t think we were that obvious.”
“I know my son. But my question to you is how do you feel about Heron?”
Riley began to fidget on the couch, growing uneasy. “Your son is quite attractive…”
“I already know that, my dear. –Riley, are you in love with my son?”
Riley’s face turned sheet white. “How did you…” The, she caught herself, regained her
composure, shutters coming down over her eyes. “No, of course not. Like I said, Alana, there’s
nothing really serious between your son and I. –Excuse me, but I do need to go to the ladies’
room again.”
Riley carefully set down her desert plate and brandy and walked out of the room. Alana
remained where she was seated, having her coffee, looking content if a little curious while
watching Riley’s retreating back.