Attraction (28 page)

A month passed since that last night of sex in his penthouse.
Riley received a call from her mother, who was almost beside herself with excitement.
She had just received a package of truffles from Alana and Roy Wait. Caroline felt that this was
an ideal opportunity to invite the in-laws for dinner, using the truffles as sort of a symbolic
gesture of cementing the ties between the two families. And in honor of the magnificent gift, she
would have Marge create truffle raviolis for the main course.
At first, Riley tried to wiggle out of the dinner, using her bar being the busiest on
Saturday nights of the week as an excuse. But her mother stood firm.
“You have a perfectly able manager in your employment that you’re always crowing
about,” Caroline said in an uncharacteristically dictatorial tone. “This is my first dinner that I’ll
be cooking with the entire Wait family as guests, so it’s important that it is a success. That means
every one of my family member must be there.”
“You won’t be cooking,” Riley muttered. “I know you’ve hired Marge again.”
“That’s not the point. Now, Riley Calderon, you will do your duty as I see fit, for once.
You are Roberta’s sister and you are our daughter. That means your presence is absolutely
paramount.”
As ordered, Riley reluctantly attended the dinner, bracing herself to meet Heron face to
face after a month of not seeing him. But when she arrived at her parent’s house, she was
informed by Roberta that Heron had not arrived yet, and that it could be that he would not be
able to come due to work.
“Oh, so it’s okay for the big executive lawyer to cry off using work as an excuse, but not
for the common woman who owns a small business,” she complained to her mother.
Caroline carefully lighted the candles on the dining room table. “Heron is not my son.
He is Alana’s so he will have to answer to her.”
Heron had not arrived by the time they all sat down to dinner. But just as Marge and her
hired waitress were serving the main course, which was the truffle raviolis, he made his
appearance, carrying three expensive bottles of sauvignon blanc in one hand and a large bouquet
of flowers in the other.
“I’m sorry I’m so late. I’m afraid work held me up,” he said graciously to Caroline. “I
know these won’t go a long way to excuse my tardiness but no man can resist buying beautiful
flowers for a beautiful woman.”
Riley’s eyes widened with surprise as Heron kissed her mother on the cheek. Gallantry
was one thing she would have never expected from a coldly reserved man like Heron.
Caroline blushed like a young girl as she rose to find a vase for the flowers.
Heron then went over to his mother and greeted her as well with a kiss and then to his
sister, then exchanged greetings with his father and sister’s husband. Then he said hello to his
Tanner and Roberta, and even kissed Roberta on the cheek, surprising her but Riley saw that the
friendly, brotherly gesture pleased her, letting her know that forgave her and held no hard
feelings against her.
Then, when he flicked his eyes over at Riley, his dark eyes became shuttered. “Good
evening, Riley,” he said with formality that had not been there when greeting everyone else.
“Good evening, Heron.” She made herself look down at her plate so that they wouldn’t
linger on him.
Heron sat in his empty chair far end of the table from Riley. Marge and the waitress came
out with the plates of raviolis.
Later, Riley would not recall that rest of the dinner was sorely uncomfortable for her. If
Heron chose to treat her like a virtual stranger there wasn’t really anything she could do about it.
In fact, she was rather grateful that he did, because if she drew from him any particular interest in
her that was undue, it might raise some interest from the other family members. And the last
thing she wanted to do was to draw questions from her family on a possible relationship between
she and Heron. Especially when that relationship was very much limited to sex.
After dinner, they all joined in the living room for desert and after-dinner drinks. It was
easy for Heron and Riley to avoid one another. The men mostly gathered in one part of the room
to discuss business, sports, or political events. The two mothers had their heads close as Caroline
showed off her family albums and Alana brought out ones of her grand children. Roberta and
Riley caught up on local gossip of people they had gone to school with.
Eventually, Riley thought she would leave that evening without getting a chance to talk
to Heron. If she had wanted that chance, which she wasn’t so sure she wanted. The memories of
their sex were still raw and vivid, disconcerting. She had never been so…carnal with a man
before. She wasn’t very comfortable with this new side of her.
But, perhaps, all that was moot point by now. It appeared that there would be no more of
such wild nights with Heron. He had not called her in over a month and he was all but treating
her as if she barely existed tonight.
Towards ten o’clock, the guests were taking their time making their goodbyes. Riley took
a turn in the bathroom before she made her leave.
When she stepped out into the hall and headed back to the living room, she stopped when
she saw Heron leaning against the wall in the hallway.
“Oh. Did you need to use the bathroom?” she asked, not knowing what else to say.
“No. I wanted to talk to you.” Then he said nothing else.
She blinked up at him when the silence continued. “What did you want to talk to me
about?”
Heron looked uncharacteristically uncertain. “I’m not really sure.”
Riley frowned with some irritation. Did he think that she was hurt because he hadn’t
called her after their sex. “Look, you don’t have to worry about me. I’m a big girl. I can take care
of myself.”
“No, it’s not that. I just wanted to make sure you were alright. I’m afraid I was pretty
rough with you. On both nights.”
Riley tried not to squirm. She was both embarrassed and aroused as she remembered
being taken by him over and over, his fucking relentless in its intensity and endurance. She
kicked her head way back and gave him a saucy and sultry look. “If I weren’t, then it was well
worth it.”
As he stared down at her, his eyes narrowed a little, some of the earlier concern
disappearing as his face hardened with sexual awareness. Then, he deliberately schooled his
features. “I’ve never been like that with a woman, before. I’ve never laid a hand on any woman.
I’m not quite sure what came over me…” He shook his head, a little baffled. “There’s just
something about you, Riley, that gets at me. I’ve never gone for that type of sex. I’m usually
pretty old fashioned in bed.”
“Believe it or not, I’m not all that kinky, either. But I liked it. With you. A lot.”
There was another silence.
Heron said, ruefully, “I still want you like hell.”
Before Riley could answer, Tanner appeared at the hall entrance. “Hey, Heron. –Oh, hi,
Riley. Heron, Mom and Dad and Beth Anne and Ovid are leaving. Robbie and I rode in with
them. Can we go back down with you? That is, if you’re ready to leave pretty soon.”
Heron looked at Riley for a moment, as if there was something more he wanted to say to
her. Then he turned to his brother. “Sure. I’m ready to leave now.”
Not knowing what to make of their brief conversation in her mother’s hallway, Riley
forced herself not to expect anymore contact from Heron. She knew it was safer that way.
One evening, Riley stepped out of the office to observe the crowd. It was only
Wednesday night but there was a good crowd and business was brisk. At the bar, she signaled to
one of her bartenders for a glass of white wine. She turned her head to watch the people dancing
on the floor below from the window. A few minutes later, she turned her head back and saw her
glass of wine in front of her. As she was about to pick up the wine, the bartender set in front of
her a tumbler of whiskey.
“I didn’t order this,” she said.
“No, but he did.” The bartender pointed over her shoulder.
A large male hand reached for the tumbler. Riley turned and found herself looking into a
broad chest with very broad shoulders that were inches from her face. When she lifted her eyes,
she met Heron’s dark eyes. For a several seconds, completely shocked, Riley watched him drink
his whiskey.
“Wha…What are you doing here,” she asked dumbly.
Heron drained his glass and signaled for another one. “Seeing you despite my better
judgment.”
“If it’s that repugnant for you, I can make it very easy for you for to avoid seeing me,”
Riley said coolly, stung.
Heron grabbed the back of her neck with one hand and pulled her face up for a long kiss.
Passion instantly flared inside Riley. She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him back,
letting him have everything he demanded of her. It was a long kiss, one that blotted out
everything else in her mind, except for that physical need to have Heron and let him have her.
Heron pulled Riley up and held her to him. She automatically wrapped her legs around his waist.
While their mouths maintained contact, giving each other small bites of each other lips, tongues,
chins, and jaws, he easily carried her across the bar, making his way through the crowd towards
the stairs to her private quarters.
The crowd parted for Heron and watched him carry the small lady while kissing her.
Then they started to clap and whistle, a few making cat calls. Heron stopped and he and Riley
looked around, suddenly realizing how they must look. Then Riley burst into laughter, her eyes
laughing into Heron’s. Seeing her eyes shine with mirth and her full lips split wide into a warm
infectious smile, his own lips curved, and he began to laugh.
Hearing Heron laugh for the first time, and seeing a genuine smile on his striking face
made Riley catch her breath, caught all over again by how attractive he was, even more so when
his face relaxed into a smile. She was consumed with the need for him all over again. She
wrapped her arms tightly around his neck and kissed him.
Joe and the other bartenders stopped making their orders to watch their boss being carried
away by the tall, dark-haired man, who by now was familiar to them.
“Wow,” said a young bartender. His name was Tom, twenty-one, almost twenty-two, and
a college student, who had been working at the bar for close a year. “This guy, whoever he is,
sure can tie our boss up, can’t he?”
“It looks that way,” Joe said, his eyes a little wary as he watched them. “She’d better be
careful with herself with that one.”
“Why?” Tom asked. “Our boss knows how to handle men.”
“Yes, but this one just might prove to be out of her league.”
“For sure, man. His looks and money’s got every woman looking his way the instant he
comes in here, and he’s gone out with women far more beautiful than boss lady. But that might
not mean anything when it comes to her.”
Joe looked at the young man. “Why do you say that?”
Tom shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s just the way he looks at her every time he comes
around.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Tom frowned, not really experienced in life enough to be able to articulate what he
knows instinctively. “Well, there’s something in his eyes every time he looks at her. And she’s
all who he sees when he’s in here. You notice that he never looks at any other woman in here,
and yet, they all look at him? That’s because he only comes in here for one reason. And that’s
her.”
“That’s probably because he’s a player,” Joe said dismissively.
“Sure, he’s a player. But the look in his eyes when he watches her says that he’s doing
anything but playing.”
Joe looked at Tom for a moment, then began to nod, beginning to understand what he
was saying. He tousled Tom’s hair. For some reason, his concern about Riley not weighing so
heavily on his mind. “You know something, kid, you’re pretty smart for a snot-nosed college
rat.”
For the next few weeks, Riley let herself be involved in an affair with Heron Wait, an
affair that involved little else but their intense physical attraction for each other. But, because of
the distance of their residences and their work, and their work schedules, there was very little
time to see each other. At most, they were able to see one another once per week. And this was
only because Heron would drive up to Santa Rosa on a week night, late, and spend the night at
Riley’s place. They would have sex most of the night until both were exhausted, and he would
not be driving back to San Francisco the next morning until mid morning.
Sometimes, Riley would not see Heron for over a month, because he was abroad on a
business trip for his family corporation. While he was away, he would rarely call her, and when
he did, their conversation was very short, consisting of mostly he asking how she was, she telling
him that she was fine, and then she asking him how his trip was going, and him saying that it was
going as well as expected and offering nothing more. Then he’d tell her that he expected to be
home in a few days and that he would call her when was and then end the call.
For a few weeks now, Heron had been in Asia, and he took his brother, Tanner, with him,
in order to meet with the Chinese government. They were representing the United States on the
purchase of government bonds that the Chine wanted to buy. He had told Riley that he didn’t
expect to be back in the states for at least six weeks.
On a Saturday evening, with the crowd already getting thick before nine o’clock, Riley
was assisting at the bar because they were short staffed. She was trying to remember how to mix
a Cosmopolitan when Joe nudged her arm.
“What?” Then looked in the direction that Joe pointing.
He was standing amidst the crowd, still wearing his suit and overcoat, incongruously
carrying his briefcase while in a bar.
“Heron!”
Caught off guard, Riley’s face broke out with joy and excitement at seeing him. But her
delight quickly turned to concern when she saw that he was almost ready to collapse on his feet,
his striking face pale and drawn severely with exhaustion. He could barely keep his eyes open.
“My God! Are you alright?”
“I just got off from a twenty-hour flight from Beijing,” he said, his words slow and
slurring. He weaved on his a feet for a moment. “I think I haven’t slept for three days. I drove
over here straight from the airport.”