Attraction Read online

  man at the farthest table on your right?”

  Wendy squinted her eyes through the dim light. “There are three of them.” “The tallest one, very handsome with the light brown straight hair.” Riley gestured

  toward Tanner, who was standing beside the table, laughing at a joke that one of his friends had

  made.

  “Oh, yes. Yes, he is quite good looking, isn’t he?”

  “How would you like to play a comforting nanny to him?”

  Wendy looked at Riley. “Is he in need of comfort?”

  Riley kept a straight face. “Oh, yes, indeed he is.”

  “What about Mr. Weir. I can’t just abandon him…”

  “This young man’s rich. Very, very rich.”

  Wendy looked excited. “Oh, well, a rich man in need of comfort. That’s my specialty.” Riley smiled as Wendy undulated her curvy form through the crowd to Tanner’s table.

  She turned when she felt a tap on her shoulder. “What is it, Joe?”

  Her bar manager, looking quite upset, opened his mouth then closed it. “Joe, what is it?”

  “There’s two men here who are asking for you. They’re at the door.”

  “Who are they?”

  “They’re from the police”

  “The police? Now, why would they be here?”

  Riley walked to the entrance, where she saw two uniformed men. “May I help you?” “Are you Ms. Riley Calderon?” one of them asked.

  “Yes, I am.”

  “We’d like you to come with us, Ms. Calderon?”

  “For what reason?”

  “We believe there is a minor here who has been forced to engage in lewd conduct against

  her will.”

  “That’s ridiculous. There’s no minor here. My employees screen every one of these

  customers thoroughly…”

  “Please, mam, if you could come down to the station quietly for some questioning.” “Do you have a warrant?”

  “No, we don’t.” One of the two policemen leaned closer to Riley. “If you want, we can

  make this look quite ugly.”

  “And front page news,” his partner said.

  Riley was about to tell them where they could take their threats when she spotted Thomas

  Whooten several feet away, watching her with a satisfactory gleam in his blue eyes. She nodded to the two policemen. “I’ll be back,” she said to Joe.

  Joe grabbed one of her arms. “Wait. Don’t go with them. They have no right to take you

  in without a good cause.”

  She shook his hand off. “It’s alright, Joe. It’s better that I go. I’ll be back.” Joe helplessly watched as the two men escorted Riley outside.

  Tanner had been standing a few feet away and had witnessed the whole incident. He

  grabbed Joe’s arm. “Where are they taking her?”

  Joe shrugged off his hand. “It’s none of your business.”

  Tanner rushed outside just as they drove off. He reached in his pocket for his cell phone

  and dialed. “Heron, it’s me. Listen, Robbie’s sister is in bit of a trouble up here. The police have

  just picked her up at her club and are probably taking her down to their station.” “For what,” Heron bit out impatiently.

  “I don’t know. But, you have to come down here.”

  “Why the hell should I?”

  “Heron, this is your fiancée’s sister. You have to come down here and help her out.” “Have they given a cause as to why they’re taking her to the police station? Is she being

  arrested?”

  “Damn it, Heron, I don’t know. Just come up here and help her out.”

  “I’m doing nothing of the kind. It would serve her well to spend some time in jail, if that

  is where she is headed for.”

  There was a decided click from the other end of the line.

  “Shit,” Tanner swore with frustration. He flipped his phone and dialed again, but then

  closed it. He paced on the sidewalk. Then he dialed again.

  Twenty minutes later, Roberta was pleading with Heron from her hotel room in New

  York City. “I know I’m asking you a huge favor, but, please, Heron, please go to Santa Rosa and

  see Riley, for me.”

  Heron closed his eyes for a moment. “Doesn’t your sister have her own lawyer for this

  kind of thing?”

  “Yes, I’m sure she does. I tried to get a hold of her, but they won’t let me talk to her. I

  would feel much better if you were there with her.”

  “Look, there’s nothing to worry about. If they put her in jail, it will only be for tonight.” “No,” Roberta said desperately. “I don’t want her to spend the night in jail. Please,

  Heron, this is my sister. Please go up there and make sure she gets out. Do you know how upset

  my parents would be if they found out that she was jailed? I beg of you, Heron, don’t make her

  spend the night in jail.”

  Almost three hours later, Heron parked his Land Rover in front of the small police

  station. Inside the station, he walked up to the customer window.

  “I’m Heron Wait. I’m here to see Riley Calderon.”

  “Are you her lawyer,” the night clerk asked.

  He paused. “Yes, I’m Ms. Calderon’s lawyer.”

  The clerk let him through the door and performed a security check on him. A policeman

  who looked to be in his forties escorted him through another gate. “I’ll bring Ms. Calderon out.

  You’ll have twenty minutes with your client.”

  Heron stopped walking. “I didn’t come here to talk to my client. I came here to get her

  out.”

  “I’m afraid we can’t just yet let her go?”

  “Why not?”

  “There were some allegations that we need to substantiate, and it seems we can’t do that

  until tomorrow.”

  “What are the charges?”

  “She is accused of exposing a minor to lewd conduct in her club.”

  “Who is accusing her of this?”

  “A sixteen year old girl.”

  “Where is the girl?”

  The policeman began to look uncomfortable. “We don’t quite know. We’re trying to find

  her.”

  Heron looked at him, his face expressionless. “What has the girl said?” The policeman began to fidget. “That’s just it, we’ve not been able to take down anything

  from the girl.”

  “Well, then, I’d like to talk to the officer who questioned the girl.”

  “No officer has yet spoken to her.”

  Heron paused again, staring unblinkingly at the policeman. “Let me get this straight.

  You’re saying that you’re holding my client on charges from a girl who none of you have spoken

  to yet? Then who has spoken to her?”

  “Reverend Thomas Whooten.”

  “Who is he?”

  “He’s a local minister around here.”

  “Does this minister know where the girl can be found?”

  “He won’t tell us where she is, because he says she’s frightened of what will happen to

  her if she comes forward. She said she was threatened by people at the club, who’ll do things to

  her if she told anyone.”

  “Do we know her name?”

  “Only the reverend. He said he promised he would not give up her name until she decides

  to come forward. He’s trying to get a hold of her. He’s been trying all night, but so far he hasn’t

  been able to get a hold of her.”

  Heron walked a few paces away from the policeman, then back. When he talked, his

  voice was chillingly pleasant. “Can I ask you a question, Officer?”

  The policeman’s eyes blinked. “Yeah, sure.”

  “Did any of your courses at the p
olice academy include a lecture on the basic individual

  rights? Such as the Bill of Rights?”

  “Ye…Yes, sir.”

  “Then I would advise you to release my client before you have a very serious lawsuit on

  your hands.”

  “Uh, no sir. I…I mean, yes sir.”

  The policeman opened his mouth, then closed it. He shut his eyes for moment then

  opened them, his face looking sickly pale, sweat forming on his upper lip. He quickly picked up

  the phone and talked briefly in it. When he replaced the received, he said wanly to Heron, “Uh,

  she’ll be out in a few minutes.”

  A female police officer escorted Riley to the lobby. Once she stepped through the metal

  detector, she was given her purse back. She was still wearing the fringe skirt outfit with nothing to cover her up having forgotten to grab her coat when the police had taken her away. The

  policeman was careful to keep his eyes averted from her body.

  When she walked out, Heron’s back was to her. At the sound of her entrance, he turned,

  and stopped dead in his tracks. The cold mask on his face completely disappeared when he laid

  his eyes on her. For a moment, all Heron could do was stare down at Riley’s body, his eyes

  stunned, as they slowly took in her large breasts that were plumped up high, the corseted bodice

  barely covering the nipples, which the small white lace boarding on the neckline teasingly

  offered a loose protection to them, and the long skirt of white silky fringe that displayed flashes

  of bare thighs and buttocks with each movement.

  Riley watched those dark eyes slide ever so slowly over her generous curves and a smirk

  developed on her lips. “So, you’re my rescuer. Who would have thought?”

  Heron managed to shake himself out of his stupor and, for some strange reason, a slow

  rage began to kindle inside him, lighting a slow flame in his eyes, making them hard and cold.

  But his face was pale and he looked a little shaken. “You can thank your sister for this. And my

  brother. They both begged me to come up here for you.”

  “Otherwise, you would have left me here to rot in jail, wouldn’t you have? And you

  would have had a perfect night sleep over it, too.”

  “You can also thank the fact that the police had made a serious bungle in bringing you

  down here without being able to bring formal charges against you.” Then he added with

  considerable irritation, “Don’t you have a coat to put on or something?”

  “No, I didn’t have time to grab my coat on the way out,” Riley answered with a careless

  shrug.

  He led her to his Land Rover. Once they were inside, Heron just sat behind the wheel,

  staring through the window in front of him. His voice was flat when he finally spoke. “Where do

  you live?”

  “I want you to take me back to my club. It’s on Fourth, east of the Highway 101. Turn

  left after the parking lot.”

  Heron turned his head and stared at her in the dark. Then, without a word, he started up

  the car and drove out of the parking lot.

  It was short drive, only two miles from the station, but it was a short drive that was filled

  with tension. Heron did not look or talk to Riley, but kept his eyes resolutely on the road, his profile grim and forbidding. She knew he was angry with her, very angry by the way he seemed to be seething in his silence. She knew part of it was that Roberta, and Tanner, had forced him to come down here to get her out of jail late in the night. But something else was driving his fury,

  she sensed, but she had no idea what it could be.

  Riley did not speak either, except to give him occasional directions. One time, when

  Heron was starting to make a left turn when she had instructed to the right, she, without thinking,

  put a hand over his that was holding the steering wheel to guide it. Heron hissed and snatched his

  hand away as if he had been burned and turned his eyes, which were hot and furious, to her. “Don’t touch me,” he rasped out between clenched teeth. “Don’t you ever touch me. Do

  you hear? Ever!”

  Riley pulled back in her seat, startled, and a little frightened at the venom in his eyes and

  voice. “I…I’m sorry. I…I was just trying…Okay. I won’t touch you again. I’ll make sure I won’t

  ever touch you in the future.”

  For rest of the drive, Heron settled into a sullen silence, and Riley sank into her seat with

  a sense of unease.

  It was with some relief for her when the Land Rover pulled up in front of her club. But

  when he stopped the car, she sat in her seat for a moment, not quite sure what to do. She looked

  out the window at her club. All the lights were out and closed up for the night. Then she offered, “I don’t think I thanked you for getting me out of the jail.” He didn’t answer for a long moment but stared in front of him. Then he turned his head

  towards her, as if he was remembering his manners. “Are you going to be all right?” “Yes. I’ll be fine from here on out.”

  Riley had her hand on the door handle but did not open it, but stared out the window as

  he was doing. She felt she hadn’t quite done her duty to Heron and that she couldn’t walk away

  from him until she had. But she didn’t know how to go about fulfilling that obligation, because

  he was so much making himself unavailable to her.

  Then she found herself saying, “Would you like to come in for a moment?” Heron didn’t answer for a long time but continued to stare out the window. Then he

  turned and gave her an expressionless look, and said coolly, “Sure, why not.”

  Riley stared back at him, wondering why she offered him in and why he accepted. Then

  shrugged and unlocked the door. Inside, she turned on the light switches so that only the main bar and lounge area was softly illuminated. Heron stopped only a few feet at the entrance and watched the long white curtain of fringes swing against her legs as she walked to the bar,

  providing flashes of her bare buttocks. Then he turned and surveyed the club, taking his time. Riley asked, “Would you like a drink?”

  “That’s not necessary.”

  “It’s the least I could do for you for pulling me out of jail.”

  “Alright. Sure, I’ll have a drink.”

  She retrieved two tumblers from the shelf. “What’s your choice?”

  “Scotch.”

  “I’ll assume you only drink the very best. I have some high brands locked back here, but

  those might not be to your taste, either.”

  “Johnny Walker Black is fine.”

  Riley poured the liquor in both glasses and gave one to him.

  Heron took a sip of his scotch, his eyes, broodingly, on Riley, looking over her heavy

  make, the long riotous curls that still sparkled with glitter underneath the lights, pulled back by a

  black ribbon tied in a bow at the temple. “You look like a whore,” he suddenly said in a low,

  harsh voice.

  Riley lifted her eyes over the tumbler, shocked at his words. The hostility that he had

  always felt towards her was no longer veiled beneath the pretense of civility that he had always

  presented when others were present. Alone, Heron no longer felt the need to hide it from her. A look of amused mockery came over her face as she lifted a sardonic eyebrow at him.

  “Thank you.”

  She drained her scotch and poured more into her glass. She set the bottle in front of

  Heron.

  She leaned back against the bar and eyed him beneath lowered lids. “What have you got

  against sex?”

  “Nothi
ng. I just believe it has, like everything else, its own place and time.” “If you’re trying to be correct and not sound priggish at the same time, you’re failing

  miserably. Shame on you. How old are you? Thirty-five? You’re old enough to know by now

  that sex has its own time, its own nature, its own place, its own reasons for existing, its own

  rhythm, its own drive. It’s a drive that is so strong in human nature, that it can’t be brought to heel or be shaped into conformity. That’s why sex websites have the most hits, by far more than

  any other types.”

  “Just because it’s part of human nature, why should it be given a free for all? The need to

  destroy or kill is also part of human nature. But society has come to an agreement that those

  drives do need to be contained.”

  “For the most part, sex doesn’t destroy or kill.”

  “Funny, but many people seem to want to take it to the edge where their need for certain

  type of sex pushes them to the brink of destroying parts of their lives.”

  “Oh, I see. So you see my little sex club as allowing people to do that. The members have

  little strange ways of getting themselves off, ways that they can’t share with everyday people,

  such as their friends and family, because those little ways are taboo, or not considered as normal

  sexual appetites. In case you haven’t figured it out, those so-called normal sexual appetites, such

  as the nightly coital interchange between a couple, are determined by society.” Heron poured himself another glass of scotch. “As much as you want to deny societal

  determinants as unimportant in the long run, then it’s you who is being naïve. You know just

  how dangerous it is to flout the mores and norms. Tonight, I would think, was a prime example

  of that for you.”

  “I wouldn’t call a fanatical evangelist as normal”

  “For something not normal, such people have tremendous power in society.” “Exactly my point on sex.”

  Heron gave a small cold smile before he drained his scotch. “It seems every conversation

  I have with you I’m being checkmated. That’s not good for my ego.”

  “Oh, I wouldn’t worry about your ego. There’s plenty of it that a few chips here and there

  won’t ground it to a halt.” Riley said the comeback in jest, but then she saw his eyes going flat

  and narrow slightly, and she felt her breath catch, and wondered if he had not been trying to warn