It's Only Sex

Sonny pulled up the quivering mass of jelly and adjusting fell on to his back, clasping her soaking breasts and thighs against him. Her tight curls were tickling his face as her hot breath filled his ear. She was faintly whispering something so he strained to hear: "I'll never leave you; I'll never leave you."

His strength was returning so he lifted Meg and saw she was weeping.

Sonny grinned: "What were you muttering?"

Meg, dripping his chin and neck with tears: "I never want to leave you; I'm yours for as long as you want me."

"Well, that's certainly something to think about."

She burst into heaving tears.

"Oh darling," he said, surprised that he thought to call her that so soon in their relationship, "I'm sorry to have teased you like that."

And then callously: "Whenever I'm in need of a fuck you'll be top of my choices."

She clung to him, her crying easing back to sobs.

They showered, ate pizza with coffee and then sat for sometime, she on his knee, playing with each other's hair and chatting, getting to know one another.

As they drove down the access track just before 1:30 Sonny saw a light switch on and then off again. "That will be your mom checking the time."

"Yes," she giggled. "You two are going to get along ever so well if you and I continue to see one another."

"Why will that not be, are you figuring going somewhere?"

"Oh no," she said, the light from the dash revealing her large rounded eyes.

"Don't even hint to her but let's see how long it takes before she invites me to dinner."

"She'd not done that before to any of my male friends but girlfriends yes."

"She will."

"When?" Meg asked as if consulting an Oracle.

"My guess is it will be dinner Sunday week," Sonny said confidently.

After the tenth requested 'last kiss goodnight' Meg said: "I feel such an absolute fool crying like a baby and talking that nonsense to you after coming like a water spout. I've never been so completed fucked."

As she went to close the door Sonny whispered, "Meg."

"Yes", she replied, opening the door.

"It was my greatest hope you'd say something nice to me, and you did about saying you'd never been so completely fucked. I put everything I had to please you to the maximum, to make up for those four weeks you spent on the shelf."

"Good night Tarzan," she smiled, blowing him a single kiss, the green eyes glinting from the light cast by his car headlights.

Two mornings later Meg made her usual breakfast time call, timed for when Sonny would be just waking up. She sounded very excited: "Mom's just asked me to invite you to dinner."

"That's fine, I'll be there. Sunday week is free."

"May I tell her you guessed?"

"Please yourself, but remember mother's can get rather excited with told things they believe are omens."

"Omens?"

"They are..."

"I know what they are. But who told you about that reaction?"

"I have a mother remember."

"Of course. And what did she interpret from the omen she received."

"That you and I will marry."

"Ohmigod, I'm sorry, I'm going to cry. Is that the truth?"

"Here, I'll give you her cell phone number. She'll be in bed but awake. She's been waiting to meet and talk to you. I've told her a bit about you and she said I never talk to her about 'your women' as she terms it. Then she said when I told her about your folk last night, 'This is an omen Sonny,' and slopped all over me in tears."

"Oh God Sonny," Meg said, sounding emotionally unstable. What do I do?"

"Take down this number, stop beating the air and phone my mom. She'll probably invite you somewhere to lunch."

"When?"

"Must dash or I'll be late for work."

"When Sonny!"

"Probably today but how would I know? Bye."

CHAPTER 4

Grant McCain was a little worried. Peggy had seemed a little uptight last night and had tossed and turned for a large part of the night, waking him up repeatedly. Whenever he asked what was wrong all she would say was "Nothing."

Well 'nothing' was rattling around in her mind causing big problems. He began to develop this nagging feeling and then the nag became clearer and he thought, Oh God, she's found out about me and Hilda (her younger sister).

He stuttered like a boy caught playing with himself when she phoned and asked could she call in to talk to him.

"W-what about?"

"I'll tell you when I arrive."

"N-nine t-thirty is okay."

"Fine, are you all right?"

Grant managed to say yes without the extra 'y'.

He asked his PA to fetch two cream cakes for Mrs McCain and two hot chocolates for 9:30.

"Are you okay Grant? You look awfully pale."

"I feel okay, perhaps it's the start of the male menopause," he joked.

"Well, in that case let's have another weekend away before it reduces you to perpetual limpness."

Peggy marched in and Grant's internal alarm began ringing, warning him to deny everything. Her eyes turned to saucers when the PA entered with the coffee and placed the two cream cakes beside Peggy.

"Oh Grant, you do spoil me."

The way she said that told Grant he was off the hook. He opened the drinks cupboard and poured himself a whisky to celebrate.

"Want one?"

"Grant, no thank you. Just look at the clock, it's 9.33 am. You know I don't like you drinking before noon."

"I feel I have a cold coming on."

"Oh, that's different. Pour yourself a double."

Grant already had done that.

Peggy came right out with it. "We are soon to have a daughter-in-law."

"Really, Kevin or Charles?"

"Neither Sonny."

"But she's already married."

"What? She's only just graduated and is almost two years younger than Sonny. She can't be married, can she?"

"Er no, of course not. I'm confused what with this cold coming on and news that our new flat sheet press will be late arriving from Germany, putting all our schedules to hell,"

"Grant, please don't mix you petty business problems with family matters of importance."

"Sorry, who is this girl?"

"Meg Hackshaw."

"Who's she?"

"Oh Grant, pull yourself together. Sonny knew her at high school and dated her last Saturday night. And every morning since he's talked to me about her and his thoughts about her."

"How does that make her my imminent daughter-in-law?"

"Christ you're thick today. Sonny NEVER talks to me about his women friends which I've been quite thankful because some are probably little short of being whores."

"How do you know?"

"Mothers know these things."

Grant thought he should let that one go.

"Ah, she'll be the one he pinged Saturday night."

Grant, you have a gutter for a mind. You son is unlikely to have sexual relations with the girl he's going to marry, especially not on the first night or even the first month. Perhaps he's even managed to find a virgin."

"Hah, then why did he come for the k---key?"

"What key?"

"Er the spare key for his car"

"Why would you have the spare key for his car?"

"Um I didn't have it. It was in his bedroom."

"Ah, sanity at last," Peggy sighed. "You gave him one of those cheap cars which are traps for locking keys in them."

"Yes, yes. You're brilliant Peg. That was the reason. Why didn't I think of it?"

"But Sonny told you?"

"Er yes. What I meant was why didn't I think about upgrading his car to the type you can't accidentally lock in the keys. I'll fix that as soon as you go."

Peggy said that had rather strayed from the issue of Sonny's imminent marriage. "I'm worried, I don't know if she is suitable for integration into our family."

"Then take her to the club and grill her."

"Oh, that's a great idea. Oh darling, I'm out of my hiatus. When can I take her to the club?"

"Today. It's Wednesday and wives are allowed to bring a female guest and pay only half the combined tab for food and house wines on Wednesdays. You've taken guests there before under that arrangement."

"Oh, silly me and this really is a business meeting I have in mind, isn't it?"

"Oh definitely," Grant sighed.

"It's too late for today. Women are required two days' notice."

"Peggy I'm not allowing you to put me through this immense pressure for a full week. Call the girl now. Do you have her number?"

"Yes dear. Sonny gave me her number but without saying why,"

"Then phone her now, Peggy. That's a directive."

"Yes dear," Peggy said, reaching for her phone. "I do love it when you speak to me with authority."

Ten minutes later Peggy raced off to pressure her hairdresser into taking her for an emergency comb up. She's left the cream cakes untouched and a husband sitting in shell-shock wondering if he'd be left a raving idiot from tension and troubled by the miscommunication by the time of the wedding.

But what wedding? He called Sonny. "Are you getting married?"

"Not that I'm aware of."

"You've been speaking to your mother about this fancy woman Meg. You mother has been filling my ears with all this crap about you never talking to her about a girlfriend before. She now thinks this Meg is a virgin and you're bent on marrying her."

"She's saying what?"

"You heard. You know what your mother is like when she get's a bee in her bonnet. Christ, I wish someone would update these useful clichés."

"Dad what are you talking about?"

"You listen here son, have you thought even remotely of marrying this girl."

"Possibly but..."

"There, I knew it. You've triggered you mother off to set the ball rolling... now that's a timeless cliché."

"Mom doesn't have balls," Sonny sniggered.

"Get back to your work you woman molester," Grant said, switching off his phone and throwing it into the trash can. He poured another whisky and soon felt better, retrieving the phone. He grinned imaging that if the girl measured up over lunch Peggy would be proposing to her on Sonny's behalf. He lost his grin; that might not be as stupid as it sounded. When Peggy was on a roll anything was possible.

* * *

Meg had abandoned the back-hoe and came roaring up to the house on the ATV screaming. Rowena came racing out thinking her daughter had severed a limb.

"Mom it's an omen. Mrs McCain has just phoned and invited me to the City Club for lunch today."

"Ohmigod, the City Club. But look at you and whatever for?"

"She just said to talk. But mom, she wants to look me over to see if I'm suitable for her son."

"Ohmigod, oh I can't think," Rowena said, turning all agitated.

At that point, Meg realized someone had to be in charge. "Mom while I'm in the shower please iron any creases out of my graduation dress and clean the shoes that go with it. It's a club so I best wear a hat. Mrs McCain won't know I know that so will be impressed when I turn up wearing one."

"But darling, you don't have a hat and my newest is ten years old."

"But you have one thirty-two years old, the little black patch with lace you wore on your wedding day. That type of hat is always being reinvented mom. Mrs McCain will think it's back in fashion again but if she has class she won't think about it, accepting it's a hat for a young girl who doesn't wear hats."

"Do you really think she will be that sophisticated?" Rowena said, switching on the iron.

"Alas yes. After you clean my shoes come do my hair. You're a darling mom."

Ninety minutes later Rowena watched in pride as he daughter drove off. She hoped it would be an autumn wedding but after harvesting was over.

Meg turned into the club car park rather quickly but chopped down two gears and managed to observe the 10 mph speed limit. She noticed a woman in a gorgeous dress and a huge black hat standing beside her car watching her. Sonny had mentioned his mom had a black Mercedes.

"Hello Mrs McCain."

"Hello Meg. How did you know me?"

"Sonny mentioned you had style. I looked at your stunning dress, the type of which cannot be purchased within 500 miles of here, your designer hat and your car. If that's not style I don't know what is."

"You are so pretty with a body the likes of which I never had dear. Come and kiss me and please call me Peggy.

They had a three-hour lunch. Well, as Peggy had said, it was a business lunch. Meg found out the age Sonny began to walk and talk, his performance at school, what a perfect child he'd been and now an affectionate adult son and how necessary it was for him to find the right person to help him attain a great career.

Peggy found out that the farm was very profitable, Rowena had graduated from horticultural college and Ken didn't advance beyond high school but that hadn't stopped him becoming an award-winning farmer and self-made millionaire. Meg had graduated in agricultural economics and was working on the farm until the end of the year when she would be taken on by the Department of Agriculture to assist farmers in budgetary controls and forward planning, based in the city. Meg wanted two children and expected to always live in or adjoining Paddington City.

Meg walked with the still bubbling Peggy to her car and just as Peggy was about to pull out she wound down the window and said, "I do hope you'll marry Sonny; bye."

It took five minutes sitting still before Meg had recovered sufficiently to begin the drive home. She'd been shaking with overwhelming emotion after Peggy's over-powering farewell.

Normally independent, assertive and the architect of his direction in life, Sonny melted into the background and waited for the combined machinations of three women... his mother Peggy, Meg's mother Rowena and of course Meg herself to decide whether or not he would marry and marry soon.

It was a brilliant tactical decision on his part really rather than the action of a coward. He was besotted with Meg, her image floating through his mind and not as a sexual object which was the remarkable thing; it was the image of her face and particularly her smile that gripped his mind rather than that powerful thighs and swaying tits which are part of the normal preoccupation of any man's retrospective when riding a high lost in his thoughts about a woman.

Sonny was aware he knew little about Meg but his instinct told him she was good enough to be THE ONE. Intelligent, loving, quite beautiful and likely to hold her looks and figure and be socially impressive, Meg had it all and Sonny knew his mother would make quite sure of that before she gave him the nod. Rowena appeared to be the kind of woman who'd be a critical judge in the analysis of matchmaking and then there was Meg herself. She wouldn't be only looking for a band of gold but someone who would like and cherish her, draw her to achieve complete fullness in her life and especially to be there when needed.

So Sonny regarded it as logical to distance himself from a process because his involvement would be superfluous. It would allow the females to deal with a matter they were conceived to manage and save him from being bullied and emotionally tumbled from pillar to post. He'd learned this from watching his father: whether his mom became too intense, like right now, his father would quietly remove himself from the scene.

Sonny called his father but the call was answered by one of his minions who said Mr McCain had been called away suddenly for two nights. Sonny asked to speak to his father's PA but was told Mrs James had gone with Mr McCain to provide secretarial support for Mr McCain at a very important round of meetings. Ending the call, Sonny grinned: "Good one dad, you've melted away into the shadows."

Sonny was spending the day in the subscription and circulation department to keyhole a new position for his mom. She'd jumped at the opportunity when told it would be structured to fit in with her social life. Manager Kerry Fleming had been in the job for more than twenty-five years and carried out his duties mechanically.

He'd always had been 'Mr Fleming' to Sonny but with Sonny arriving to produce what he called 'department reforms' Mr Fleming was a resurrected Mr Fleming, suddenly interested in his job again and totally co-operative and constructive and amazed that he was to be given the Big Boss's wife as a new assistant and that would take pressure and responsibility off him.

"Call me Kerry," he insisted over lunch with a couple of beers and before the day's end he'd invited Sonny to accompany him to Billingsgate straight after work that afternoon to watch the regional finals of roller hockey and stay overnight at his sister's home and drive back at 5:00 am. Sonny accepted, as that would allow him to 'melt'.

He called Tim to find if there were any out-of-town assignments the next day but he was at a meeting. Mary-Anne took the call and after greeting him affectionately checked the assignments log.

"We have a flower show at Billingsgate?"

"No thanks."

"A two-day Government enquiry into open-cast coal mining pollution over at Coatesville. We've been looking for a second reporter to volunteer as it will be dreary and heavy work as one of the reporter needs to work on background interviews and take mugshots and means an overnight stay."

"I'll take the interviews and can take photographs."

"Okay."

"Whose the other reporter?"

"Mrs White. Do you want me to change the booking to a double room," Mary-Anne giggled.

"Hell no, she's married. It would have been different if the other person had been you."

"Oh, what a sweet thing to say to me Sonny, In appreciation I'll ring through and secure an upgrade of rooms."

"You're a pet."

"Oh Sonny, thank you. You've made my day."

"So have you; you've allowed me to melt with icing on the cake."

"Pardon me?"

But Sonny had terminated the call. He then programmed his phone to automatically return all calls from his family and the Hackshaws with the message "Mr Sonny McCain is not available; please call back late Friday afternoon." Sonny thought modern technology sure helped in the process of 'melting'.

On Friday mid-afternoon when Muriel White was driving them back to Paddington, Sonny called Meg.

"Where have you been," she wailed. "I have been unable to call you."

"Sorry darling. Been caught up in two emergencies. Had to do a special investigation for dad and then was sent out-of-town on a special assignments. It's been all go and no play for me."

"Oh you poor darling. I'm so mean thinking only about myself. I had so much to tell you, reporting on my series of meetings."

"What meetings?"

"Oh, girls' stuff really. Meetings involving me and our two mothers."

"Whatever for?"

"I'll tell you when I see you."

"Right, meet me at O'Reagan's bar at 6:00 tonight."

"Lovely. Bye."

"Bye."

Muriel sighed. "The webs men spin and the lies they tell us poor women."

"You weren't complaining last night, this morning and at lunchtime today."

"No," she sighed. "I hope Owen is not looking to get a leg over tonight; I'm exhausted."

"Meg wants to marry me."

"I thought as much."

"How did you arrive at that conclusion?"

"By the possessive way she sounded on the phone before she remembered to relax."

"Gawd, you women are smart."

Muriel smiled and patted Sonny on the thigh. "Marry her Sonny. She sounds a lovely young woman. All the good ones are snapped up quickly so don't procrastinate."

"I'll know tonight."

"Yes, I heard her say she's been in conference with the two mothers."

"Conference?"

"Well it is important business."

"Don't leave me if I marry her Muriel."

"Don't be silly, I must."

"Why?"

"You'll have a wife to love and cherish."

"But as far as I'm able, I love and cherish you."

"Oh God, don't say that Sonny."

Sonny looked at his driver. Her face was unforgettable, a mix of despair and lust and he's caught her with her heart wide open, so to speak.

"I want you to continue our occasional relationship."

"No, you can't keep two women satisfied."

"I can right now, you know I can, and in the future when I wind down there's always Viagra."