Carson Evolved Ch. 13

She leaned down and kissed his chest. "You're a good man, Carson. It's not hard to see why so many women love you. And you're an amazing lover. If you treat every woman you sleep with as good as you did me, I don't understand how you don't have women petitioning you to make it a career. Just stay in bed fucking all day." He looked at her in surprise and deadpan, she said, "I'm only halfway joking. You're that good."

They decided to take a nap, and when they awoke, Carson asked if she wanted to go some more, but Risa begged off, saying, "My kitty needs a break after that pounding earlier." He started to apologize again and Risa told him to stop again, so he got dressed. He kissed her goodbye, and promised to make time for them to be together when her fertile time arrived next.

As he made his way towards the door, she called after him. "Carson?"

"Yes?" He turned to look at her and she seemed somewhat nervous. "What is it, Risa? Are you okay?"

She smiled and said, "I'm fine. I was just wondering...is the offer for us to move out to your house still open?"

He smiled and relaxed. "For you, my door will always be open. But, there's no pressure either way. I would love to see you more often, especially if we have a baby together. And I'd love to get to know your kids better, too. But I understand that you have a life here, and uprooting that is a big decision. If you'd like, why don't you guys come stay for a couple of weeks and sort of try it out? That might help you make a decision one way or another. If you want to do that, just let Helena or Mila know, and they'll get you set up."

She smiled and assured him that she'd think about it. On the way home, he couldn't help but smile at the possibility of having Risa and her family join his.

*****

"Please," she begged. "After all this time, after all we've done together, there's got to be another way. We can still make this work!" she insisted.

"I don't see how," he growled. "Everything is in ruins. The technology is in the hands of the government. It's only a matter of time before they figure out how to make a cure. And now, we don't even have the resources to start another operation."

"No!" she exclaimed. "I still have money. Not much in the grand scheme of things. Definitely not enough to fund anything major. But enough to live on comfortably for a while." Helga stepped closer and laid a hand gently on his arm. "Please?" she asked softly.

Jozef's face softened. He was getting old, and the stress of everything had taken its toll on his mind and body. And, frankly, he was at the end of his line. He knew there was a reckoning coming for him. Each day, he expected to see government agents at his door with an arrest warrant in connection with what the press had taken to calling the "NeoGenesys Virus." His son was still missing. Jozef didn't even have the will to continue the hunt, nor did he have a way to communicate that his son could come home. His youngest daughter, Isana, clearly despised him, maybe for good reason. He was pretty sure that his latest wife no longer loved him, and maybe hadn't for a long time. He'd never thought of himself as weak before. Nevertheless, he felt weak these days. Why else would he be contemplating ending it all?

"Do you ever wonder if Matthias knew about us?" he asked, without meeting her gaze.

"Not really," she replied. "He was a mean man who didn't care about anything but his money. He was just happy when I turned up pregnant that it was a boy. Someone to carry on the family name. How he never saw how much Eivar looked like you, I have no idea."

"I do," he said. "I think about him sometimes. He was maybe the only friend I ever had, and I betrayed him. Twice, in the end."

She wrapped her arms around her former lover from behind and pressed her cheek against his broad back. "He would have done the same to you, eventually."

Jozef turned in her arms and said, "Do you think so?"

Nodding, Helga said, "I do. He was meaner at the end than he was when we married, but he was always jealous, always had a temper. He always took the smallest slight and made it out to be as big as possible. That's the way he did business, and that's the way he was to live with. I think there would have been something, sometime, that would have pushed him over the edge."

"Has it all been worth it?" he asked, speculatively. "All the lives ruined at our hands, the cheating, the greed. Is there anything redeeming about us?"

Helga didn't like hearing Jozef speak like this. She could understand it, given how things had fallen apart. But he was still one of the strongest men she'd ever known. To see him reduced to this was heart-breaking. After all, there was still a small piece of it where he lived, even after all these years.

"Come away with me for a while," she offered. "I'm not the same woman from back then, but we could still enjoy our time together. You just need to get away from the stress for a while."

"Maybe you're right," he said. "Maybe you're right."