Chapter 6
It took ten minutes before Karen spotted Ron. She had begun to be afraid he wasn't going to show up. But he always passed this corner on his way home, so she waited patiently. When she caught sight of him she turned the other way, so that he wouldn't see her face, and hoped he wouldn't notice her. In the quick glimpse she had seen, he had seemed to be alone. He might turn the other way if he saw her. She knew he hated her, after the way she had let everyone down in the play. They all hated her, and it hurt to have people feel that way about her. But it hurt worst of all with Ron, because she liked him the most of anyone she had ever met.
He passed her without glancing her way, and Karen took a gulp of air and ran up beside him, falling into step. He didn't notice her right away, and when he did, he didn't even seem to recognize her for a second. Then he stared at her and lengthened his stride. Karen ran along beside him.
"Ron, can I talk to you for a minute? Please?" She couldn't keep up the pace, and in desperation, she reached up and grabbed the sleeve of his peacoat. He stiffened, and she thought he was going to shake her off. But then he stopped and looked at her.
"I don't see that we have anything to talk about, Karen." His voice was so cold it seemed to cut through her like an icicle. Karen stood staring up at him without speaking. "All right," he sighed. "What is it?"
"Well, not here," she pleaded. "Let's go in and have a Coke." They were standing outside of Woolworth's. There was a fountain, and some tables where people could enjoy a bit of privacy. It wasn't the malt shop, where the kids hung out, and that was as Karen had planned it, because she had a hunch that Ron might not want to be seen with her.
"I don't feel like a Coke," he said. "If you've got something to say to me, you can-"
"Please, Ron." She laid her hand on his sleeve again and looked up at him with wide, soft eyes. "My treat. I have money."
Money had never been a problem. Daddy had been paying her fifty dollars a week for her work in the office and around the house, and she had always had more money than anyone her age. Rod stared down at her from his vantage point of a full foot of extra height. Finally he softened a bit.
"All right," he said. "But it's my treat. If a girl has a Coke with me, I pay for it." There was a note of stiffness in his voice, as though she had hurt his pride by offering to pay, and insinuating that he didn't have any money. Karen, who had never had any relationships with boys before, tucked the knowledge away and vowed not to make that error again. She laced her arm through his and they moved toward the dime store.
"All right, Ron," she said. "Anything you say."
They found a booth in the back, and sat facing each other across a tiny table, so tiny their hands touched across it. Karen felt a little tingle at the contact, though she didn't know why. Ron had picked up two Cokes at the counter, and laid them on the table. Karen unwrapped her straw and threaded it down between the ice cubes.
"All right, what was it you wanted to tell me?" Ron asked.
"Don't be like that, Ron, please. I can't stand it when you're like that to me."
"Really? I wouldn't have thought it meant a damn to you one way or another." His voice had a kind of little-boy hurt in it that made her want to put her arms around him.
"It does, though. I didn't want to drop out of the play, you know. I begged Daddy not to make me do it, but he just wouldn't change his mind."
"Well, what the hell's with him anyway? Is he some kind of sadist or something?"
Karen felt herself bristle, but she forced the emotions back. "Ron, I really want to talk to you and make you understand. But if you're going to talk that way about Daddy, then there isn't any sense in going on with it." For a minute she thought he was going to get up and leave, but he sighed heavily and shrugged.
"All right, Karen. I didn't mean to take a wallop at your old man. But you've got to admit that was a pretty lousy thing he made you do. And then making you come to the opening night to talk to everyone. At first I thought you did that just because you thought it was funny dropping out like that and putting everybody in a sling, and you wanted to come back and lord it over us."
"Oh, no!" Karen's voice carried such shock that it seemed to satisfy him.
"Well, then Mrs. Davis said that it was your father's doing. She said that your father was a good man, and a good father, and he was doing what he thought was best, but that he was confused and needed understanding."
"She said all this to the crew?" Karen asked, aghast.
"No, just to me. She could see I was the one who was really shot down about it." Karen wondered why she felt a surge of happiness and relief at the thought that Ron had been so disturbed about her actions.
"Well, she was right about Daddy loving me. But he does know what's best, Ron. I have to do what he says. I love him, and I'm not going to let him down ever again. But I wanted you to understand about what happened."
"Why?"
"What?"
"Why did you want me to understand? Why did it matter to you?" He seemed on edge, waiting to hear her answer.
"Well, because I like you, Ron. And I didn't want you to misunderstand and think I didn't like you. I wanted you to like me back, at least a little. I liked all the kids in the cast and crew of the play, but I liked you best. I guess I like you best of anyone I've ever known. And I just didn't want you to hate me; that's all." Her voice broke toward the end, and her eyes got misty.
He grasped her hand, and there was comfort in the strength of his right hand on hers. "Hate you? Jesus, honey, that's the dumbest thing you've ever said. Hate you! God, that's rich. Don't you know how I feel about you? Can't you see it all over me? You're the only one who can't. Christ, I'm the laughing stock of the school. Everyone either laughs at me or feels sorry for me. You know, honey, I'm a pretty popular guy, if I do say so myself."
"Well, I know that...."
"I don't like to brag, but I'm the president of the senior class, and the captain of the football team. I could have just about any girl I wanted out of that school. But I don't have a steady, and I hardly ever even go out on a date."
"But why?"
"No wonder they laugh. It really is funny. A guy who has chicks drooling after him, and here I am hung up on a gal who won't even give me a tumble. When we got cast in the play together I thought, 'Now's my chance. Now she'll have to see how I feel, and maybe shell show some response.' Then you dropped out like that." He seemed to be fighting tears, which was frightening in a boy as tough and competent as Ron.
Karen turned her hand over and returned his grasp. "I'm sorry, Ron. I didn't know. Honestly, I didn't know."
"All right. So you know now. What are you going to do about it?"
"I ... I wish there was something I could do, Ron. I really do. But-"
"Yeah, I know. Daddy wouldn't let you."
"That's right."
"There are ways around that, you know."
"Like what?" Her voice was small and afraid.
"Like you could see me whether he likes it or not. You could sneak out if you have to. That is, if you really care about me."
"Oh, I do. But I couldn't do something like that. I couldn't sneak out on Daddy." The thought of it was horrible to her. To deceive Daddy!
"Why not?"
"Because it would hurt him. He loves me more than anything. I'm all he has in the whole world to love, and I love him, too, and I just don't want to hurt him, Ron."
"If you were smart about it he wouldn't get hurt, because he wouldn't know anything about it."
"Ron, I just couldn't."
"Listen, if you did that, I'd have to sneak out on my folks, too, because we'd have to meet late at night when they were all asleep. You think I'd like that? You think I don't love my folks? But I'd do it, because it's the only way we could see each other." His hand tightened on hers. "Promise me you'll meet me tonight."
"No, I can't."
"Tomorrow night then. That'll give you time to figure something out. Promise me."
"I can't, Ron. I just can't!" Suddenly she glanced at her watch. She had just seven minutes to go six blocks if she didn't want to be late getting home. She felt a wall of panic, and she tried to pull her hand away from Ron's. But he wouldn't let go. "Ron, please, I have to go home now. I'll see you tomorrow afternoon. We'll talk about it then."
"Nuts to that. I'm not going to let you go until you tell me you'll meet me tomorrow night. I'll pick you up in front of the school at ten o'clock. We'll go for a ride. My car will be fixed by tomorrow."
"No, I can't. Let go, Ron, please!"
"I'm not going to let you go until you say yes. You can struggle and fight and scream and make a scene, but I'm a lot stronger than you are, and I'm not going to let you leave without giving me that promise."
Of course she couldn't yell and scream and make a scene. Daddy would find out about that. And she couldn't stay and reason with him. She just didn't have time. She was on the verge of tears, and in desperation she said what he wanted her to say. "All right, all right. I promise."
"In front of the school at ten o'clock."
"Yes, yes, now, please let me go!"
"And if you don't show up I'm coming over to your house looking for you. And if your old man gives me a hard time I'm going to have it out with him."
"Oh, God, no! I'll come-I promise. Now, please, please, let me go, Ron!"
He loosened his grip, and her hand slid free. She jumped up and grabbed her purse and ran out the door without looking back.
She barely made it home in time. Daddy was busy and didn't seem to have noticed her tardiness. She got into her white uniform and got to work, trying to forget the mess she had gotten herself into by seeing Ron. But it kept intruding itself into her mind. And as time went by, she began to feel a pleasant tingle at the thought of seeing him. It would be the first date she had ever had, and if it wasn't exactly the senior prom, it was still exciting. She still felt the nervousness and the fright at the thought of sneaking out. And the guilt, of course. Above all else, she felt the guilt. But she was afraid that Ron would make good his threat of coming to the house, so she was trapped. She'd do it just this one time. She'd go take a ride with him in his car; then she'd make him understand that it couldn't ever happen again, and that he'd have to forget about her and find some other girl. There was nothing to do but to sneak out after Daddy was asleep.
He didn't visit her that night, and she didn't go to his room, either. She went to bed, undressing and putting on a nightie and going through her whole routine as she did every night, though she did it earlier, telling Daddy she was tired. When she heard him enter his own room, she waited for a while, then got up and dressed, putting on a pair of blue jeans and an old blue blouse, then shrugging into her heavy winter coat, not the nice one but the old wool one. She was afraid to go into the hall to check Daddy and be sure he was asleep. So she opened the window of her room and climbed down the trellis, feeling foolish about it, and more than a little bit scared. But she didn't want to use the stairs, because they squeaked. Besides, there was always the possibility that he might get up and go downstairs for some reason, and Karen didn't want him to see the chain and bolt open on the front door, or the kitchen door, either.
She made it to the ground without being spotted by a cop or a nosy neighbor, and took off at a fast walk. It was ten-thirty-five and she knew she was going to be a little bit late. She didn't think Ron would take off so soon, but it worried her. If he should show up at the house, and she wasn't even there!
But he was sitting in front of the school in his '62 Chevy. Karen felt a flood of relief, and with it something else that she couldn't identify, though it seemed a kind of happiness. She ran to the car and got inside. He grinned at her and started the engine. "We're breaking curfew, you know," he said. "We'll have to get somewhere that isn't patrolled much."
"All right." She sat back in the seat while he drove, feeling safer than she had expected. His presence seemed to have a comforting effect on her, something like Daddy's. Ron drove outside of town and turned off the road on an old trail. Karen didn't feel the least bit afraid, though she was nervous because she knew that Daddy might wake and miss her at any time. Still, she was here, and might as well enjoy it. Ron stopped the car. They were among tall trees and tangles of plants. No one would be likely to find them here.
"When I was a kid, my dad used to bring me here to hunt rabbits," he said. "And sometimes to fish."
"It seems nice." There was no leaf in sight, but the trees and the plants still seemed beautiful in the bright moonlight.
"Did you have any trouble getting out?" he asked.
"No. But I don't feel too good about it. I mean I'm glad to be here with you, Ron. But I've never fooled Daddy before.
"I know. I don't feel too great about that part of it either, honey. But it's the only way we can go." Suddenly he reached across the width of the seat and grasped her hand. Once again Karen felt the comfort in his strength. "Karen, I want you to know that I've never said to any other girl what I'm about to say to you. Do you believe that?"
"Of course." Her voice was small in the dimness of the car. The earnestness of his words and the sincerity in his voice scared her. She had a feeling that he was going to say something that would make everything even more difficult, and more complicated. But she couldn't wait to hear what it was, because she also felt that it would be something wonderful.
"I love you, Karen."
He said it so simply, and so strongly, that she knew he meant it. It wasn't just a kid thing, like the boys and girls who fell in love with someone every few weeks. This boy, this young man, loved her. Karen almost gasped with the power of the emotions this realization raised in her. She stared at him, dumb with emotion. "Aren't you going to say anything?" he asked. "I mean are you glad I love you? Or unhappy about it? Or what?"
"Ron...." She couldn't seem to find words, or breath to utter them. "I don't know, I ... Oh, Ron, my God, it isn't that simple. I'm glad and I'm not glad."
"Now that doesn't make sense," he said, his voice growing a bit testy.
"I know, I know. I just meant that it's all so mixed up. I'm happy that you love me, but it's complicated. It's so darned complicated."
"Why? Because of your father? You'll be eighteen in less than a year, and out of high school.
You know my parents are going to put me through college. If you want to marry me and go away with me then, there isn't anything anyone can do about it."
"But would your parents be willing to put you through college if you decided to get married, without even discussing it? And to a girl whose father is dead set against it?"
"I think so, honey. And if they weren't, then we'd just have to make it the best way we could. I know I could get a football scholarship. I've just been offered three of them. It's only a matter of taking my choice. And I'm planning to go pro afterward. Some of the pro teams have heard about me, and I know I can make it. I just know it, baby. Trust me. We'd make out all right."
"No, It wouldn't work, Ron. I mean it. I came here tonight to tell you to forget me. You've got to find some other girl."
"But why?"
"Honey, please don't ask me any questions. I can't tell you why. It's just impossible, that's all. I can't make any plans with you, and I can't see you any more."
"Then you don't love me." He said it flatly, as though it simply followed from her words.
"I ... I don't know. I think I do, but-There are other things to consider. It isn't just a question of whether you love me and I love you. Other people will be affected by anything we do, and we can't just-"
"So we're back to your father again."
"Honey, don't be like that, please. You don't understand. I have to think of him. He loves me so much-"
"So what does that mean? Are you going to stay with him for the rest of his life, however long that may be, just because he loves you? Well, I love you, too, and in a way he doesn't."
Karen almost blurted out that Ron was wrong, that Daddy loved her in every way he did, or wanted to. But she caught herself just in time. She couldn't tell Ron about Daddy and her. He would never understand. And that, of course, told her that she and Ron could never hope for the kind of future he wanted. Ron just didn't know her. And he never would, God willing. She couldn't have stood to have him know, and hold her in contempt. She felt her eyes fill to running over, and she knew then that she had hoped, against all hope, that some miracle would happen and she would be able to return this young man's love. She would have been so happy then. But such things were not for her. Daddy was for her, and she didn't mind that, or never had until now. And still, she knew that she was torn in her feelings, because she loved Daddy so much, and had loved him for so long, that she wasn't certain anyone could ever have competed with him anyway.
"I'm sorry, Ron," she said with new resolve in her voice. "But there just isn't any chance for us. None at all."
"Okay," he said. "I understand. You don't love me. All this bullshit about not knowing was just to string me along. You must have been having a lot of fun, Karen."
"Oh, no!" She placed her hand on his arm, but he shook it off. She replaced it. "Ron, you mustn't think that. Please, you mustn't hate me!"
"I'm trying not to, Karen. Goddamn it, don't touch me!" He shook off her hand again.
"I will touch you!" Karen felt a flash of rage, not at Ron, but at whatever gods had ruled her life and made a relationship with him impossible. And with the rage came a fear, a fear that he would really think she didn't love him. Because she knew now that she did.
She loved him, and she would prove it. She knew how to prove her love for a man. She had known that since her seventh year. It was a way that always worked. It would work on him as it had worked on Daddy, and it would prove to him for all time that he had won her love, and then he would have to believe her when she told him that there were other reasons why she couldn't be his wife, or even his girl.
She turned to face him on the car seat, and bent over quickly, reaching for his fly. He didn't move at all, at first obviously puzzled, not knowing what she intended to do, and then too surprised to react except passively. Her hands braced the front of his pants and pulled down the zipper skillfully. She dipped one tiny, slender hand inside his shorts and found the shaft of flesh there already beginning to stiffen. She pulled it out and it stiffened more, stiffened with surprising speed in her fingers. She kissed it lightly, touching the tip with her tongue, then let her tongue protrude from between her-lips, and began to move it all over the head of his cock. Ron gripped the steering wheel hard, whitening his knuckles, and she felt his entire body go stiff and hard with surprise and sudden pleasure. His cock strained and throbbed with life as her tongue continued to roll over it.
"Uh! Uh! Jesus!" The grunts and the swearing coming out of Ron told Karen that she was getting the job done, that she was pleasing him, and she felt a flood of delight as strong as an orgasm.
Love for him ran through her like some hot river of emotion, tingling her breasts and her loins, and she wanted him, wanted him in her snatch, at the same time that she wanted to continue doing this thing for him, this act of love that would show him she really loved him.
Her tongue moved lightly and delicately over the head of his cock. She had half-expected him to make some effort to stop her in that first instant, when the shock had been upon him, and his body had stiffened so hard. But he let her go on, and she knew that she had captured him with pleasure and delight and she felt a surge of triumph along with the near-climax of joy at pleasing him.
She pursed her lips, drawing them over the edge of her teeth, and, exerting just the right amount of pressure, as she had learned over the years, she began to rock back and forth, moving the top part of her body all at once, applying friction to the exquisite nerve endings in the head of his prick, giving him pleasures too great to be held in. They came out in grunts and monosyllables.
"Mmm! Uh! God! Oh, God, God!" She knew he had never had this service before by the way he reacted, and she felt another flood of delight, because she was the very first to give him this pleasure, this wonderful, surprising gift of pleasure.
His cock started to tremble and shake in her mouth, and she tasted that same foretaste she had found in Daddy's cock when he was about to come. She almost let him go off in her mouth, but then she changed her mind. She backed off, letting the pleasure simmer lower in him, saving him for other things. She smiled up at him and he looked back into her eyes with an expression of bewilderment and frustration.
Karen unbuttoned her jeans and shoved them down. She hadn't put anything on under them because of her hurry to get out of the house, and at the sight of her blonde-thatched pussy Ron's eyes widened with excitement. She almost felt like laughing, partly because his sudden excitement was comical-looking, and partly because of the joy it brought to her. She struggled with the jeans, finally getting them off her feet; then she lay back across the seat of the car, inviting him with the position of her body and the expression in her eyes.
He looked lost for a moment, but then he came forward, working his feet around. He shoved his pants and shorts down, and his cock was as stiff and as competent as ever. Karen let one of her silken thighs crawl up the back of the seat, and thrust the other leg down toward the brake of the car. She had never screwed in a car before, and it was awkward, but she felt the excitement of it and she knew she'd get it done. He crawled up between her legs, and she felt the scratch of his body hair against her inner thighs. His weight came down on her, and before he could fumble for his prick, she took it in her hands and fed it between the lips of her pussy, putting it in for him. She felt the reaction as her hands touched the shaft, and once again as he entered her. He lay atop her, the position awkward in the confines of the car's front seat; then, gradually, he began to fuck her. His cock moved in her slowly, striking a friction of pleasure, and starting the juices of her cunt to flow more richly. The leg that had moved up the back of the seat now crawled over his hip, coming to rest there, pinning him to her and embracing his body as her arms embraced his neck.
His cock continued to move inside her, and he grunted and mumbled his pleasure as her hips matched his in rhythm, timing to his movements expertly.
"Uh! Uh! Uh!" he grunted, and she heard her own voice returning his cries. The pleasure in her own body was mounting swiftly, and she felt herself surrendering to it.
Her blouse had begun to work up her body as their movements continued. She pushed his chest away from her for a moment, interrupting their screwing, and pulled the garment up under her arms, getting it out of the way and baring her boobs for him. He looked at them for a moment before his body came back down onto hers. Then she could feel his chest, hard and bristly against her tits, mashing them against her rib cage, and the feeling was delightful, and exciting. And she knew that he found it exciting, too. Her nipples were as hard as thimbles and as large, distended by pleasure and need. The pleasure was winging through her now, as sharp as a pain, and she couldn't hold it in.
"Oh! Oh, darling! Oh, God, darling," she cried into his ear. His body, hard and young and powerful, continued to pump that marvelous prick in her, and her pussy flooded with fresh supplies of lubricating juices until they ran between her legs and onto the vinyl car seat. Her left leg, curled about him, clasped him more tightly, holding him to her with awkward strength as he pumped into her and brought himself to his climax. Her own climaxes had been coming now for some minutes, growing in force with each shuddering convulsion. Now the big one hit, hit with his, and shook them both, dragging cries of delight and pleasurable agony from both their throats. It was huge, awesome, as it was with Daddy the best times. Her nails dug into his shoulders and raked tracks of blood, and she felt his arms, which were embracing her, tighten like steel bands, clasping her to him until she could barely breathe. But most of all, she felt the orgasm, so powerful, so mighty that it almost burned out her brain. She bit his shoulder where it joined his neck, bit it hard, tasting the salt of his skin and perhaps just a little blood, though he didn't seem even to feel it. His prick was pounding her like a fleshy sword, cutting out everything but pleasure and emotion, love and joy.
His cum flooded through her like a cataract, and she felt it carry her up another notch, when she had thought that she could go no higher. It was a greater joy than she had thought possible the first time with a boy as clumsy and as inexperienced as Ron obviously was. He had none of Daddy's expertise, but there was something else there, something that she also felt with Daddy, and that something seemed to be more important than the expertise, great as that was. The lights went off in her head and the heat in her loins boiled up through the trunk of her body and down into her thighs and calves and even her toes, curling them with joy. She cried against the flesh of his shoulder, still in her mouth, and the force of the cry, even muffled that way, was enough to fill the interior of the car and rebound to her own ears like a scream....
Then it was over. He lay atop her for a while, both of their bodies slicked in sweat. It was awkward disengaging from each other, but they managed it. Karen pulled on her jeans and readjusted her blouse while Ron pulled on his shorts and pants. His shirt, which had been unbuttoned, hung loose in front of him, and she reached out and touched his powerful chest with her fingers, yielding to an impulse. He smiled at her tenderly, and she felt a flood of happiness, because she had proved her love for him. She could see that in his face. He reached out and took her into the curve of his arm, pulling her against him. She could feel the heat of his body, and its hardness, and she snuggled into the hollow of his side and sighed. He kissed the tip of her head, and her thighs tingled with happiness. She had never felt this way before with anyone except Daddy, and she knew that she would feel guilty about it later. But right now it was just beautiful.
They sat without talking for a while, because words could only damage this moment. Finally, he said, "I guess I'd better take you home, baby. It's getting late." She sighed wistfully, but he was right. She moved away from him long enough to let him start the car and back it around and put it into forward motion. Then, when he was on the highway and in high gear, she moved against him once more, resting one hand lightly on his thigh as he drove.
The closer they came to town, the closer they came to reality, and she began to feel the nervousness and the letdown as she became aware of the closeness of home and the fact that this had to end, and end for good. She moved slightly away from him, driven there by the wedge of actuality. His arm dropped from her shoulders and he looked across the car at her questioningly.
"Just drop me off a block or so from home," she said. "I don't want to wake Daddy."
"Okay, he said. And then, "Is something wrong, honey?" Karen took a deep breath.
"You know this is the last time I can see you," she said. "You understand that, don't you?"
"No, I don't." There was a strength in his voice, and it frightened her, because it was the kind of strength that would have to test itself out against Daddy's strength, and she knew that Ron could never win. He could only mess things up, and maybe find out about her and Daddy, and that was something she would never be able to stand. "I don't understand," he said. "I love you, and I think you proved tonight that you love me, too."
"Yes, that's true...."
"Well, then, I don't see what else counts. And I'm going to go have a talk with your father."
"No! If you do that I'll never speak to you again, Ron. I mean that."
"Jesus!" He sounded so frustrated, and so puzzled, that Karen was filled with pity for him. Then his jaw set. "I'll do it, Karen. I'll go talk to him and have it out with him once and for all. I'll tell him everything."
"God, you wouldn't! You wouldn't do that!"
"I sure as hell would. Unless you agree to keep seeing me."
"Ron, that's blackmail! If you loved me-"
"I love you all right. And I know we belong together. And I'm going to keep on seeing you until I can convince you that I'm right."
"Ron, please-"
"That's it, Karen." He pulled the car to the curb. They were a block from Karen's home. "I'll go in right now, as long as I'm this close."
Karen's eyes were flooded with tears, and yet at the same moment that she felt fear and frustration, there was a powerful flood of relief in her, relief because she knew that Ron had taken over, had taken the decision from her, and she would have to go along. She would see him again! The thought went through her like a charge of electricity. She had to fight to keep the joy from her voice. And she had to make one last try to stop it. She didn't want to, but she had to.
"Ron, didn't you wonder about what happened tonight?"
"Wonder about it?"
"About what I did for you. Didn't it occur to you that I was awfully competent at it?"
"No. I just thought-" But she could see that he was lying. He had noticed it all right, and had shoved the thought back in his mind.
"Of course you did. And you were right. I've had a lot of experience, Ron. For a girl my age I'm pretty far along in such things. You might say I'm an expert."
"Is that why your father tries to keep you at home all the time?" he asked, and sudden fright shot a denial to her lips before she stifled it. "Because you had some experience and he's afraid you might go bad? Is that it?" he asked. Karen felt a painful sensation of relief. He hadn't suspected. He still didn't know. She nodded, letting him think what he preferred. It took him a moment before he was able to speak again; then his words were such a total surprise to her it made her gasp. "I don't care," he said. "What you were doesn't mean a damn to me, Karen. It's what you are right now."
"But I-"
"And I know what you are. You're the best girl I've ever known. And no matter what's gone on before, or what you tell me about yourself, I'm going to stick with you and with my own impression of you. I know you. And youTI never convince me I don't."
"All right," Karen said. "All right, Ron. I'll ... I'll see you...." Then she collapsed against him, seeking and finding the comfort of his arms, surrendering to whatever fate would spin for them. He loved her too much, and she knew she would continue to see him just as long as possible, no matter what it might do to either of them....