"Because...things are more complicated than that." He picks his words with the utmost prudence, unwilling to reveal too much. "We are both very...intense people, and we are-- she does not feel I am worthy of her." He sighs, eyes rolling. "The situation was complicated. I had just turned seventeen when I met her, she was a mentor to me. But we had a falling out, and she decided that before I could become her peer, I needed to grow at a distance."
He remembers distinctly that last fight, after he'd come back from the ER in a wheelchair. She said, 'I find my gardens grow best when given minimal intervention.' And then, she left, and a few months later she came back with a baby, calling infant Salome 'a lesson in responsibility that you sorely require before you're worthy of so much as kissing my feet.'
The bitch. His fingers wrap tight around the steering wheel as if it were her throat. "It's complicated," he says again, adding, "I don't feel anymore the way I did for her then. I was a boy, she was the first woman who was genuinely interesting, it was stupid. But there's no point in regretting it, particularly since I ended up with you." He squeezes Salome and gives her an affectionate little glance before attending to the highway.
He's probably considered that, but he's also well aware that Susan has considered that as much as he has. For all he knows, her will states that her finances should be generously donated to some veterans' charity, or the ASPCA. The bitch covers any angle, and it's entirely like her that she should go out of her way to ensure that Richard would never gain so much as a cent in wake of her untimely demise. After all, she knows him well enough to know he would think just that way.
"Well, I'm sure you'll get it, princess. What man wouldn't want you?" He heaves a mild sigh at the mention of Delilah's name. There, too, is a situation fraught with complication. He is hungry for her, desperate for her, but if Salome could manage to be exactly what he needed then he would throw the woman over for his daughter in a heartbeat--the trouble is molding Salome into that which he craves, and the fact that there is a thrill in having access to three women at once, all three of whom symbolize something intensely different. And, the sad fact of the matter is that, even if Salome were his one and only, he would still be tempted to stray, and, moreover, still view her first and foremost as his daughter.
"I am a complicated man, Salome, and I require complicated things of my long-term lover. But you give me a thousand beautiful things that she couldn't," he adds, squeezing her, "so never feel jealous. The way you make me feel--Delilah could never hope to stir the tenderness in me that you do. But I understand wanting to be the center of someone's attention, I know that very well." He stares grimly upon the road, picturing Susan's face line for line, molecule for molecule. "But you shouldn't feel as though nobody will want you in the way you desire, because you are divine. Divine, divine." He places a sharp peck upon the crown of her head and focuses again upon the highway.
"So sink your teeth into me, sweetheart." There's no forethought into his statement, just gentle want, this moment of delirious intimacy on the hypnotic road the stretches on without end. "Leave your mark. It's going to be a week or more before anybody else sees my body, baby, there's no harm in leaving a bruise or scratch in the first few days."
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He remembers distinctly that last fight, after he'd come back from the ER in a wheelchair. She said, 'I find my gardens grow best when given minimal intervention.' And then, she left, and a few months later she came back with a baby, calling infant Salome 'a lesson in responsibility that you sorely require before you're worthy of so much as kissing my feet.'
The bitch. His fingers wrap tight around the steering wheel as if it were her throat. "It's complicated," he says again, adding, "I don't feel anymore the way I did for her then. I was a boy, she was the first woman who was genuinely interesting, it was stupid. But there's no point in regretting it, particularly since I ended up with you." He squeezes Salome and gives her an affectionate little glance before attending to the highway.
He's probably considered that, but he's also well aware that Susan has considered that as much as he has. For all he knows, her will states that her finances should be generously donated to some veterans' charity, or the ASPCA. The bitch covers any angle, and it's entirely like her that she should go out of her way to ensure that Richard would never gain so much as a cent in wake of her untimely demise. After all, she knows him well enough to know he would think just that way.
"Well, I'm sure you'll get it, princess. What man wouldn't want you?" He heaves a mild sigh at the mention of Delilah's name. There, too, is a situation fraught with complication. He is hungry for her, desperate for her, but if Salome could manage to be exactly what he needed then he would throw the woman over for his daughter in a heartbeat--the trouble is molding Salome into that which he craves, and the fact that there is a thrill in having access to three women at once, all three of whom symbolize something intensely different. And, the sad fact of the matter is that, even if Salome were his one and only, he would still be tempted to stray, and, moreover, still view her first and foremost as his daughter.
"I am a complicated man, Salome, and I require complicated things of my long-term lover. But you give me a thousand beautiful things that she couldn't," he adds, squeezing her, "so never feel jealous. The way you make me feel--Delilah could never hope to stir the tenderness in me that you do. But I understand wanting to be the center of someone's attention, I know that very well." He stares grimly upon the road, picturing Susan's face line for line, molecule for molecule. "But you shouldn't feel as though nobody will want you in the way you desire, because you are divine. Divine, divine." He places a sharp peck upon the crown of her head and focuses again upon the highway.
"So sink your teeth into me, sweetheart." There's no forethought into his statement, just gentle want, this moment of delirious intimacy on the hypnotic road the stretches on without end. "Leave your mark. It's going to be a week or more before anybody else sees my body, baby, there's no harm in leaving a bruise or scratch in the first few days."