A Compromising Affair (The Harringtons)

by Gwynne Forster

  “You think she’s all right now?” he asked Denise.

  “Oh, yes. She isn’t looking up at the horse, but looking down from its back, and she feels her strength.”

  Throughout the morning, he watched her encourage and nurture the children. When one little boy cried because he didn’t get the hang of it, she put the child in her lap and rocked him until he became calm, and asked if he wanted to try again.

  “You don’t have to mount,” she told him. “Ambassador Galloway will put you up.”

  “You bet I will,” Scott said.

  Shortly after noon, the three adults gave the children lunch, after which they enjoyed another session of riding. One girl got a splinter in her leg. A boy slipped while trying to mount a horse, and another child fell into the fountain while trying to retrieve his baseball cap. There were other calamities, none critical but all of them serious to the children.

  This is a different Denise, maybe the real one, Scott said to himself. He could hardly believe what he saw. She kissed a child’s finger to make it better, removed her shoes, waded into the fountain to get the boy’s baseball cap, held the boy who slipped while mounting the horse and told him how many times she’d done the same. She didn’t scold any of them, and as they boarded the bus for the drive back to Baltimore, she hugged each one of them and gave them a bag of mints, told them how happy she was to see them and that she hoped they’d come back. Throughout the day, she had acted as if she were mother to the children and he knew she enjoyed it.

  After the bus left, Morton leaned against a tree and said, “This was a good session. I’ll groom the horses and feed them.”

  “We’ll clean the kitchen and dining areas,” Scott said, anxious for a chance to be alone with Denise and discern her true feelings. He felt that he’d learned a lot about her that was important to him, and he wanted to be sure that he was right. As they cleared the tables and discarded the trash, she hummed and sang, surprising him with her sense of contentment. When they finished cleaning the kitchen, she heated two meat pies in the microwave, put them on a tray along with two cans of beer, cutlery and gingersnaps and handed the tray to him.

  “Where are we taking this?” he asked her.

  “Over to my little pad. Don’t you want to go?”

  “Of course I do. After you.”

  He followed her up the stairs to the small room above one of the three stables and waited while she unlocked the door. “Aren’t you vulnerable with only this door for protection?” he asked her.

  “Oh, no. The gates are always locked and the barbed wire on top of that twelve-foot fence is electric. Besides, the cameras that scan the property are visible on a monitor in Morton’s office. We’re safe.”

  “Glad to know it,” he said, increasingly less comfortable with the idea of Morton Sykes protecting her.

  After they finished the light supper, Scott cleaned their dishes while Denise disappeared for what he assumed was a chance to freshen up. “Mind if I borrow some toothpaste?” he asked when she came back wearing a peasant skirt and blouse. After she gave him the toothpaste, he brushed his teeth and freshened up, explaining that eight hours in close contact with horses was hard on his nostrils.

  He took her hand and sat beside her on the sofa. “I’ve been enthralled with you all day. You were so tender and loving with those children, a nurturer, mothering them, and they adored you. You have many sides, and I’ve thought all of them incredible. But seeing you as you were today with the children touched me so deeply. You’ll make a wonderful mother.”

  She looked away from him, and when her lips trembled, he tipped up her chin, forcing her to look at him. “What’s this?” Was she about to cry? It didn’t make sense. Or did it? Icy chills shot through him, and when he tried to speak, no words came. He reached for her, but the fingers of that hand shook so badly that he jammed it into his pocket.

  “D-don’t you want children?” he managed to ask. She nodded, but that wasn’t good enough. “Yes or no,” he said, sounding to himself like a drill sergeant barking at first-day recruits. “Talk to me, Denise.”

  “Yes,” she said so softly that he barely heard her.

  “Then what’s the problem?” He dropped her hand and moved away from her, more miserable than he’d been since the death of his mother.

  “I…I— Oh, Scott.”

  “You what? Either you want children or you don’t, and I have a right to know!”

  Tears streamed down her cheeks, alarming him. Because he loved her so deeply, he opened his arms to her and she sailed into them. So this was the real problem, the reason why she’d been holding back on him, he thought to himself. “I love children, and I want a family. Are you or aren’t you willing to give me a family?” Her tears escalated into sobs. And suddenly sharp pains stabbed his gut.

  “You said you miscarried. That wasn’t all, was it? Tell me now.”

  “Th-the doctor said I might not be able to have any children.”

  Words wouldn’t come. He just stared into space. What was a man to do when the dream that had been within his grasp suddenly cracked like a crystal vase into a hundred shards? Think, man. That was a long time ago, and every few years modern science discovers medical miracles.

  “And that’s what you remembered the night when you were with your mother and me?”

  “Yes.”

  “I knew there was more than you let on. What precisely did that gynecologist say? That you wouldn’t or that you might not be able to have children?”

  “He said I might not be able to bear children. I was in the emergency room, and I’m not sure he was a gynecologist.”

  “I see. It’s been years, and you may have been worried for no reason. Monday morning, I’ll contact a top guy at Hopkins and get you an appointment. That is if you’re willing, and if you truly want to know…provided there is a problem.”

  “I’ll do anything. But won’t I have to wait for an appointment?”

  “Sweetheart, the word ambassador means something.” She hung her head and rubbed both of her forearms. “Now what’s the matter?” he asked her.

  “Wh-what if they can’t do anything for me?” Her trembling body was all the evidence he needed that she wanted to have children.

  “As my nana says, there’s more than one way to skin a cat. Of course, the natural way to have a child is best, but in vitro fertilization, surrogate mothers and adoption are other ways to have a family. What we need is love, faith and trust in each other.”

  She looked him in the eye, and her smile was brilliant. “I love you so much that sometimes it frightens me. Medical science is wonderful, but I want to have your children myself.”

  He could barely contain himself. At last, she had committed to him. “It’s what I want, too, love. Oh, you can’t imagine what this means to me. Where will you be Monday?”

  “I’ll be in Frederick all day, in case you get me an appointment.”

  “Then it’s set. I’ll see this to the end,” he assured her. She reached up, clasped the back of his head and urged his lips to hers. Within minutes, he had her on fire, and this time, her aggressiveness nearly undid him. She stroked and fondled him, climbed into his lap and bucked against him until he could stand it no more.

  “Where do you sleep?” She motioned toward a door and he carried her over the threshold. He got her out of her clothes and put her on the bed. Standing over her and staring into her eyes, he quickly took off his own clothes. She reached out and squeezed his tumescent penis, licked her lips and spread her legs. He thought he’d die if he didn’t get into her right then, but he checked himself, crawled onto the bed and sucked her left nipple into his mouth. He didn’t linger there for long, but made his way down her body, kissing and nipping as he went. Her hips began to sway and undulate as she begged for completion. But this time he was charting his own course. He wanted it all, and he meant to get it. With his index finger, he teased her clitoris, rubbing and squeezing until she begged.

  “Honey, plea
se. I want you to get in me now.” Ignoring her, he hooked her legs over his shoulders and kissed her. “Oh, Lord. I can’t stand this.”

  He shoved his tongue into her, found the spot that would make her yield to him and licked it until her thighs shook and he could feel her squeeze his tongue. “You can’t leave me like this,” she yelled when he started up her body licking, nipping and kissing.

  “Take me in, baby,” he said after quickly sheathing himself. She did, and within minutes, the pumping and squeezing gripped his penis until he could hardly bear it. Screams poured out of her and she nearly pitched him out of the bed seconds before his vigorous drive brought a keening cry from her.

  “Honey, I’m going to die. Why can’t you give it to me?”

  “I will, baby. Stay with me.”

  She wrapped her legs around his hips, met him stroke for stroke and raised her hips as if to give him complete access to her body. Like shooting stars, electric currents swirled in her vagina, around, under and through his penis, consuming his will and his strength until, like quicksand, she sucked him into her, squeezing his essence from him. Moaning her release, she flung her arms wide in surrender, vulnerable and helpless, totally his at last. He sank with her into mindless oblivion.

  Braced on his elbows, he remained locked inside of her, lacking the strength to move, his face cradled in the curve of her shoulder. After about twenty minutes, he felt her stirring, shifting her hips as her contractions gripped him. He brushed her lips with his.

  “Are you asking me for something?”

  “Don’t be naughty,” she said. “You know what I want.”

  “Was it good for you? I never felt like that before in my life. It’s what I wanted so badly for us.”

  “The first time we made love, I thought it couldn’t get any better. Now I understand why you insisted that something was missing. I felt as if a tornado swept me up. And what a feeling it was when release finally came. Was it good for me? It was wonderful.” She stroked his cheek and caressed his back. “Are you going to remember how we did that, so we can do it that way again?”

  He gathered her closer and smiled, hoping to show her the love that burned inside of him…for her. “It wasn’t so much what we did that was different, sweetheart, it was what we felt. We were open to each other. And we were more concerned with giving than with receiving. That’s what love is.”

  The small contractions in her vagina aroused him. “You still want me?” he asked her. She tried to hide her face against his chest. “It strokes a man’s ego sky-high to know that his woman wants him. Always find a way to let me know that you need me. That’s all you have to do.” That said, he shifted his hips and took them on a fast, torrid trip to ecstasy.

  Shortly before midnight, still euphoric from lovemaking and making plans to find out whatever physical problems Denise might have, Scott got into his Mercedes and headed for the gate. Suddenly, he stopped, backed up and got out. In the clear, moonlit night, Morton Sykes stood with his back against a fence, smoking.

  As a man who liked all of his i’s dotted and and his t’s crossed, Scott walked up to Morton. “You’re a cut-and-dried, no-nonsense man who tells it like it is, so I have no qualms about asking you this. Do you have more than an employer-employee relationship with Denise?”

  Morton crushed the cigarette stump, struck a match on the bottom of his boot and lit another one. “Hell, no, man. If I did, surely you don’t think I’d have tolerated your being up there with her. I don’t take orders from a woman I sleep with. Denise has my loyalty and respect, and if you marry her, you’ll have a decent and honest woman. I wish you both the best of luck.” Satisfied, Scott shook the man’s hand, got back into his car and headed home.

  Denise curled up and tried to come to grips with what had happened to her in that bed. She couldn’t pinpoint the minute, but at a specific point in time, her life had changed. She already loved him. That wasn’t new. And when they’d made love, he brought her to a shattering climax. But on this night, she hadn’t remembered who or where she was; she hadn’t cared about what he thought of her, whether she was a good lover or even whether she achieved an orgasm. She had wanted to satisfy him, wanted to be everything to him. And she had forgotten herself.

  “I don’t know that woman who went wild in this bed with Scott,” she said to herself, “but I like her. I have never been so free or so…so high.” She rolled over to where his body had left an imprint on the soft mattress, bearing witness to his having been there. She hugged herself, then flung her arms wide as if embracing the world. The odor of their lovemaking teased her nostrils, and when she reached for the pillow that had cradled his head and held it close to her body, the laughter and euphoria vanished, and tears streamed down her face.

  What if the doctor couldn’t help her? “I’ll release him,” she vowed, trembling at the thought. “I know I’ll live in pain if he goes out of my life, but he has a right to be a father.”

  After a time, she got up, prepared for bed and, as she was about to turn out the light, it hit her. She no longer had any secrets that she kept from him. And for the first time, she had been honest with him in bed and had held nothing back.

  “So that’s what he meant. I felt as if nothing separated me from him.” She got her cell phone and dialed his number.

  “Denise! Sweetheart, what’s up?”

  She realized that she surprised him. “I hope you’re home, because it’s late, and maybe I shouldn’t have called. But I had to. I called because it was so different tonight, and I just figured out why.”

  “Did you? Tell me.”

  “I didn’t have any secrets from you, and I had nothing to hide. It was…honey, it was something wonderful. I had no idea who I was or where I was. Is that what you meant when you said there was more for us if I could…uh…level with you?”

  “You got it! Baby, you were a different woman—as uninhibited as wildfire. Nothing that we experienced before prepared me for the way you were tonight. We can’t miss.”

  “But suppose—”

  “Suppose nothing! We agreed on a plan, and we’ll follow that course. We love each other, and we’ll work out this and every other problem we face.”

  All that she felt for him seemed to swell up and tumble out of her. “I love you, Scott. Right now, I think I can touch the sky. If I’m dreaming, I hope I never awaken.”

  “You aren’t dreaming. This is real. As real as night and day. I love you, too.” Those were the words she had wanted and needed to hear.

  “Good night, hon.” She fell across the bed and slept until the sun was high.

  Scott clicked off his cell phone and walked into his apartment in Georgetown. It was well after one o’clock that Sunday morning, and the light on his answering machine drew his attention. It couldn’t be Denise, he told himself, because he’d just spoken with her. He pressed the button on his answering machine.

  “Where the heck are you these days?” Matt’s voice asked. “Doug just got back, and we thought we’d all meet over at Dad’s place. I’ll pick up Nana, and we should get there around one. See you then.”

  That meant he wouldn’t see Denise, but he hadn’t seen his brother since before he went to Lithuania, and he couldn’t miss their family reunion to welcome Doug home. He phoned Denise the next morning and told her of his brother’s arrival.

  “Of course you want to see him. Have a great time, and give your father my regards.”

  “Thanks, I will. I’ll call you tonight.”

  Like a man who’d just won the lottery, Scott’s face bloomed as he inserted his key into the lock of his father’s front door. But before he could turn the key, the door opened and Douglas, the younger of his twin brothers, embraced him.

  “Now, I feel as if I’m home,” Douglas said.

  “Yeah, and it’s high time, too, Doug,” Scott said, hugging him a second time. “It’s so good to see you. It’s been over two years. Hmm. You’ve got the look of a man who’s made it big.”

&n
bsp; “I haven’t done badly.” They stepped back and scrutinized each other. “Well, hell, man!” Doug said. “Ambassador, and damned if you don’t look like one. Matt said you came home bestriding the earth like a colossus. By damn, he was right.”

  They walked arm-in-arm toward the den, and Raynor met them before they reached the door. “I should have planned a feast. The three of you haven’t been together here with me since I don’t know when.”

  Scott embraced his father and let his arms rest on his dad’s shoulder. “You’re the man, Dad. I never saw you looking better.”

  Raynor appraised his oldest son and let a grin spread over his face. “That’s what happiness does for you, son. And from the looks of you, I’ll bet you’d vote to make Gravel Gertie a beauty queen. Why didn’t you bring your girl?”

  Scott raised one eyebrow slowly and deliberately. “Do you really think I’d give Matt and Doug a chance to gang up on me? Where is Matt?”

  “In the rec room repairing the satellite dish.”

  Scott bounded down the stairs to the recreation room in the basement. “Don’t tell me you’re doing laborious work. The Prince of Galloway down on his hands and knees getting soiled. What has this world come to?” Scott teased.

  Matt jumped up and embraced Scott. “I know you’re a big shot, brother, but you’ve got to be more respectful. I just got a humdinger of a raise. You’re looking at one of NKL’s senior managers. Genuflect, man!”

  “No kidding! Congratulations. Way to go, man.”

  “Who’s this woman dad thinks so highly of? Why didn’t you bring her? Are you serious?”

  Scott looked down and kicked at the carpet. He did not want to discuss Denise with anyone, not even his brothers, who he loved dearly. “Yes, I’m serious, but I’d rather not talk about her now.”

  “Why not? Dad says she’s beautiful, well-educated, elegant and has a wonderful personality. That’s more than he’s ever said about one of my dates.”

  “She’s that and more. Give me a couple of months. Okay?”