Never Forgotten: Second Chances

by Hart, Alana

  "I tried to garden but my attempts to grow things produced a wonderful assortment of brown sticks in pots that no one seemed to enjoy, even me."

  "We have our strengths, you and I, even if plants don't appreciate us. And the gardeners of the world need people like us. Those of us not conversant with the mystic world of plants pay them to do something they love. It's a symbiotic relationship that serves us all. That's my idea of good business."

  "Mine too."

  They finished their breakfast in silence, and a warm and pleasant feeling filled her. She knew that part of it came from just being with Riley. Later, when they were done with breakfast, and he'd made them each a second cup of his magical coffee, she told him about her meeting with Striker. He stayed quiet, listening to every word. When she finished, he summed up her own feelings. "It's a great offer. Amazingly good. It makes you wonder why he's so generous."

  Wanting to know if he meant what she thought by that, she insisted he explain.

  Riley sighed and looked out over the garden. "It makes me wonder what he's after. Is it the program, like he said? Is he after Craig?"

  "What do you mean?"

  "Well, Craig has a five year contract with the company. If Bill buys the company, he also buys that contract. So is that what he wants. Or is it you? Or some combination?"

  "Remember when I asked you who my client is?" She nodded. "This is a great offer for the company—I can't see you getting a better one. It solves its problems and ensures a long-term future. And, assuming he follows through on the promise of stock for you, it would be good for you financially. Love Striker or hate him, he's built a solid and diversified company that has no debt. You'd make a packet on the deal."

  "Craig gets cut out, though."

  Riley patted her hand. "What does ownership mean to Craig? It's good for his ego, but he doesn't act like an owner. If you sold out, and he kept his stock, he wouldn't know what to do. This deal gives him resources to do what he wants, and if he keeps coming up with ideas that sell Striker will happily throw money at him and not get in his way."

  "I hadn't thought of it that way."

  "You're the one who wouldn't do well working for Striker."

  "Could be messy."

  "Very." He rubbed his hands together. "So you see the dilemma. I don't think you'll find anyone willing to offer such a deal or even quite as much money as you need and want to make your new product happen. It's likely you can find someone to invest, but they'll expect to see you trim the marketing plan a lot and then still expect to see a quick return. It doesn't matter that we all know that cutting the budget would reduce the odds of it making any money at all. And you can scream that an underfunded launch almost guarantees the program dies stillborn all you want, but people coming in this late in the game are going to resist investing the full amount."

  "So are you saying that we should consider his offer seriously?"

  "And how you want to deal with his idea of you as CEO. We don't know what points are deal breakers, but if you walked away with a nice price for your stock you could start over."

  The words 'start over' made her wince and sounded frightening. "I have no idea what I'd want to do. I've spent the last few years focused on making this company real and tangible."

  "You could start with a vacation."

  She leaned forward and looked at him across the table. "Riley, are you trying to get rid of me?"

  He laughed. "Not at all. I was thinking about taking a break myself when this is done. I've been turning away new business lately. I'm getting stale. I need to shake off the cobwebs somehow. Maybe go down to Central America and wander, or see some of Africa. I haven't done any of the things I promised myself I'd do when I got real money, and it's mostly because I had no one I wanted to do those things with."

  The idea struck her as interesting and fun. She'd never thought about taking a vacation in her life. Not since she was planning to go to Milan. "It's a good thought, doing something like that together. At least it sounds wildly romantic at this moment."

  "Ah, the cautious businesswoman reaches out to dampen the moment with her rampant and uncontrollable pragmatism."

  She took his hand. "You wouldn't like me any other way."

  "Probably not."

  "Besides, I'm having a bit of trouble seeing you in Bermuda shorts walking down a beach in Brazil singing 'Girl From Ipanema'."

  Riley laughed. "Me too, to be honest. But isn't that why you go to a place like that, to be someone you aren't when you're anywhere else?"

  "I suppose, but I have to wonder how long the novelty of doing that would sustain people like us."

  Riley drained the last of his coffee. "As long as we let it, I'd imagine." He squinted at her. "It might be harder for you. I think you're more ambitious than I am."

  The idea made her laugh. "Me?"

  "You. I don't feel compelled to do much other than what I've done. I've been thinking for some time about quitting entirely. A vacation would let me know if I'm insane or on the right track."

  "A track to where?"

  "A beach house in the Caribbean? A cottage in Tuscany? I don't know. Part of the thing would be to find out. See what it's like to live another way."

  "But you've invested a hell of a lot in creating this life."

  "Yes, I have. I envisioned what I wanted and set out to get it." He grinned. "But I did that, and now I'm starting to think that I enjoyed creating it much more than living it."

  She tried to take that in. "That's shocking, Riley. I've never met someone who looked at things that way before."

  His grin was almost boyish. "I always heard that unpredictably was supposed to be charming... almost irresistible. The truth is that I've gotten to a point where I'm just repeating myself, and that sucks, quite frankly. I've got money, and now I think I want to enjoy it, even if I don't know what that means yet. Increasingly I find myself asking myself a question I heard from an old sea captain. No matter what he was considering, his criteria was: 'Is the juice worth the squeeze?' It's a fair question and probably the most intelligent analysis you could make concerning Striker's offer. The fact is that with a ton of hard work you might do better than what he's put on the table, but you might not. And is it worth it? Where do you want to be in five years?"

  "What outcome do you want?"

  He tilted his head. "That's pretty much the question."

  "My first serious boyfriend, who was the smartest person I ever met when it came to decision making, said that was his mantra. He focused on what something would do and ignored the things itself. He didn't care about the particulars, just the outcome. If he looked at a project from every angle and decided he liked the outcome it would likely produce, then as far as he was concerned he was for it."

  "He sounds like a genius. What happened?"

  "He disappeared."

  "Disappeared?"

  "Poof. Gone. His father was Italian and his mother American. The family had a small design consultancy in Milan. Sal's father was getting old and wanted to retire. He'd found an apprentice who was a brilliant designer but hopeless with business so we decided we'd go to Italy and take it over. We had grandiose dreams of leveraging it into our own little empire. Sal went ahead to spend some time with his father and arrange the paperwork so we could get married there while I wrapped things up here. I took him to the airport." She tried to smile. "I never heard from him again."

  "My God."

  "I called every day but his phone was never working, and he didn't answer the messages. I wrote to his father and got no answer. I went online to see if I could learn anything and found that his father had sold the business just a few days after Sal would have arrived. I was going to go there and look for him, but I don't speak Italian and knew no one else there." She shrugged. "After a year without a word, I was running out of money. I got a job offer and moved from Boston to California. That's where I made my first serious money and met Craig."

  Ri
ley reached over and took her hand. "That's terrible, the not knowing."

  "You can't imagine how many nights I cried myself to sleep."

  He looked at her with sad eyes.

  She moved her chair closer to his and put her arm around him and forced a cheerfulness she didn't feel into her voice. "I'll think about that vacation. Of course, I need to tell Craig about Striker's offer on Monday. If he doesn't go for it, then the deal can't happen."

  He turned and kissed her cheek. "He'd go for it if you presented it correctly. In the meantime, you have to think about what outcome you want for you."

  Megan looked at him, realizing that she didn't know what she wanted. Suddenly the question seemed daunting, and that bothered her. It bothered her more than knowing despite how much she like Riley, she couldn't imagine his vacation life. Living, to her, was not being on vacation enjoying the feeling of sand between her toes. It made her aware that the role she saw him in, as a mover and shaker in the business world, was part of his strong attraction. That it might mean less to him unsettled her a bit.

  She forced her uncertainties and conflicts out of her head. She'd seen a new aspect of him; that was all. Somehow it would fit in with the man she was getting to know. As you learned about someone, you had to let your feelings resolve themselves. You couldn't force them, couldn't make people fit in such narrow boxes. If this side of Riley was serious and bothered her, then she'd have to deal with that.

  As she considered all this, he stood up and coaxed her back into his bed, telling her all the delicious things he wanted to do to her and with her, she knew that this part of their relationship couldn't be any better.

  * * * *

  Sunday morning they woke early with Riley taking her in his arms and pulled her over him. As her naked body sprawled across his, she found that he was aroused. "Lovely," she said as took his hard shaft in her hand. He kissed her and fondled her breasts as she stroked him, heating him up further. She turned her head, resting it on his chest and looking down at his beautiful erect cock. Then, knowing she'd better not wait, she rolled over and took a condom from the nightstand, opened the package and moved back over to him. She took his cock in her hand again, stroking gently, then kissed it before rolling the condom down from its beautiful bulbous head.

  When he was sheathed, he pushed her onto her stomach beside him. He rose up and for a moment ran his hands over her back, rubbing, touching, and sending tremors of pleasure racing through her. Then, before she knew what was happening, he was face down on top of her, sliding his body down hers until he was between her legs. His hands roamed over her bare ass, squeezing and tracing its lines, then he kissed one ass cheek and then the other. She gave herself to it, and when he lifted her hips, she settled on her knees picturing how that position opened her up to his gaze, let him see her ass and pussy in a welcoming posture. She gasped at the sudden abrasive touch of the stubble on his cheeks brushing against the soft flesh her thighs. His tongue flicked along the cleft of her pussy. With her head spinning, she clenched the sheets and felt her mouth coming open, she could taste the dry fabric of the sheets as he began to devour her, holding her legs and working his tongue over and into her furiously, setting her on fire. One hand slipped from her leg and moved close, and she trembled when he inserted several fingers into her as he licked and kissed her ass cheeks and then nipped at the flesh while he finger fucked her.

  She rode the tide of sensations his mouth and hands unleashed and came with an explosive cry that blended joy and the despair that comes with a total and complete loss of control. Riley was in charge, and as she felt her body melt down from his touch, his fingers left her. He moved, bringing that hard cock to the spot she truly wanted it. The huge glans spread her pussy open, and he drove it into her, penetrating her, taking possession of her body. His hands held her hips captive, keeping them from moving as he filled her with his cock. She reached back between her legs and touched his scrotum as he pressed his hips into her ass. She gently cradled his balls, and then he slowly withdrew, backing out of her and then slamming into her hard. She buried her face in the sheets and pressed back to meet his thrusts. He took her hard, rocking the bed with each stroke of his hot, thick rod in her, and she sighed happily as he buried it in her.

  When he came, they collapsed in a heap. He slid off her, shed the condom, then draped an arm and leg over her, and they slept again for a time.

  She woke to find him staring at her face, and the look of pleasure on his face made it glow. Seeing she was awake, he reached up, delicately touching her face and then running one finger over her lips. "Fantastic, that's what you are."

  "Thank you, kind sir. You ain't so bad yourself."

  "Glad to hear that, because it leads me to a question I want to ask you."

  "Before you bother... No, I don't do group sex. I think one on one is more my style."

  He laughed. "Actually the question was more about a long-term proposition. And as much as I enjoy negotiating and building up to a pitch, I'm going to cut to the bottom line. Megan, will you marry me?"

  The question caught her off guard and unprepared. "I hadn't considered..."

  "I know. It's sudden and unexpected. So just consider this offer. Hell, it's more of a desire than an offer, isn't it? I want you to be with me all the time, and that seems a practical way to get that. I know you like practical."

  He tried to make it lighthearted, but the seriousness of his intentions showed in the tension she saw in his face, in his body. "Of course, I'll consider it Riley. I'll need time, though, not just because you just dropped a bombshell on me but because I'd more or less decided that marriage and I weren't good companions."

  "Really?"

  "Obviously I'm reevaluating that idea and wondering if it's more as the romantics say that it depends on the man." She touched a nail to his chest and drew a circle. "I love being with you. I love the way you make love to me. You are a wonderful person, and I can see myself spending a great deal of time with you in and out of bed. And there is no one else I want to be with. I just don't know if that's enough to make things work." She kissed him. "It's early days, Riley. You might tire of me."

  "I can't see that happening."

  "No. You wouldn't propose to me if you could see that, and that's where the problem and dangers lie—in what we don't see."

  "Being so cautious isn't how you've run your life. If you used that as a guide, you'd never do anything at all."

  "That's true. Sooner or later, we gamble on these things and find out how they play out or let them pass away and never know. But trying to make that decision with so much else going on is not a good idea. Let's deal with the immediate problem, the business, and then I promise to give you an answer to this very personal question."

  He put his mouth over one of her nipples and teased it, holding it in his teeth and letting his tongue assault it. She put her hand behind his head, enjoying even the way he played. When he let go of her nipple, he took it between two fingers. "Learning how a future with you plays out would be an adventure of its own."

  She ran her hand down his chest, over his flat stomach and found that his cock was returning to life. Her fingers wrapped around it, feeling it swell and finding pleasure in the idea that her touch could arouse him. "I'll think about it Riley, but I don't know. I have a question for you. If my answer is no, would that be the end of this?"

  He looked stunned. "Hell no. When it comes to Megan Cross, I will take as much as I can get."

  She kissed him. "Good answer, Riley. And good answers deserve a reward."

  "A reward?"

  "After which you will fix me another of your excellent breakfasts?"

  "I'll happily make you breakfast every morning for the rest of your life if you'll let me. With or without marriage."

  She turned and brought her mouth to his cock and kissed it. The sound of his soft moan floated on her ears happily, and she wet his glans with her tongue, then opened her mouth and took his sha
ft inside, using her tongue and eager to have him come in her mouth. She wanted to please him and distract him. Talking more about marriage right then wasn't going to simplify anything, and she wanted just to enjoy the rest of the weekend with him. She felt his hands on the back of her head, his fingers tangling in her hair as she sucked him, working him up into a frenzy until he exploded, and she choked on the thick surge of his creamy seed that he shot into her mouth.

  When he was done, she smiled up at him, and he used a finger to softly wipe the cum from her cheek.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Her Monday morning was full. She left Riley's, apartment early, to go home and change clothes, and then went straight to her office, her desk. She sat down and planned her day over her beloved coffee, made phone calls, and then, around ten, managed to catch Craig coming into the office. "I need to talk to you."

  When he was sitting in her office, she explained Striker's offer.

  "The bastard wants to scoop up my program."

  "Yes, he does. Of course, he might also want to provide you with the resources to create many more, and he'd take over the business problems. No more money hassles, and you'd have money in the bank. That would please Crystal."

  "Are you saying we should take his offer?"

  "No. But it is a good offer from a financial point of view, and I'm letting you know about it so that you can tell me what you want. I still think we can find an investor and do things our way."

  "Would some other investor be better?"

  "No necessarily, but if we keep a majority of the stock we won't care if he isn't."

  One eyebrow lifted. "I see, I think. Okay. I'm good with that."

  "If we don't see any interest this week, we can go back to Striker and see if his offer is real and still on the table."

  His head was already somewhere else. "I'll leave that to you then." Craig shuffled out, leaving Megan to wonder if she really understood what he wanted. Riley and Striker both seemed to think that Craig would actually be happier in the role of employee. After hearing his endless complaints about the stupidity of employers, she'd assumed he wanted to own the company. But Riley was right about him not taking much advantage of being the boss, or at least one of them.