Indecent Proposal (Book 5 of the Forbidden Series)

The atmosphere was sombre, stifling, with many people sniffling and dabbing at their tears with dampened tissues as the priest gave the eulogy. The church was filled with many mourners. David Thompson had been a well-loved man and one of Ronny Creek’s best friends. He looked down the pews at the grieving family. His children, all grown now, were doing their best to stay strong, but his poor darling wife was devastated. Ronny faced forward once more hanging his head in quiet grief for the loss of a good friend. David had been younger than them all. He had lived no differently than the rest of them, perhaps not the healthiest of lifestyles but he had been in wonderful shape for a man in his sixties. It had surprised them all when David dropped dead four days ago without so much as a warning. He had suffered a massive heart attack while breaking up a fight between his brother-in-law and son. His friend’s death disturbed Ronny and forced him to think of his own life. He took his time to look around at his friends and their grown families. Loving spouses, children and grandchildren. They all had legacies. Like Ronny, their names and accomplishments forever remembered in the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame. They each had a lucrative thriving business they had built when they gave up music some twenty years ago, but unlike Ronny they each had families. Lovers and children who loved them and would remember them. Children and grandchildren that would carry on their names, their bloodline once they were gone. Ronny had never married, never sired a child. Unlike his friends he had never found that one woman that could make him lose his head enough to give up his much-cherished freedom. He adored the fairer s*x, and they loved him in turn. He was wealthy and successful a combination that worked well to his advantage allowing him a life of luxury and excess. A life filled with beautiful women and exotic destinations. He had learnt one thing in his time on this earth with his money and fame there was nothing he couldn’t have. Women still came easily, and his age did not limit him in the least as it would for normal men. He still attracted the young sexy temptresses in flocks. Money had that magnetic effect on women. Now many men might be annoyed knowing the pretty little twenty-something on his arm is surprisingly on his ageing arm because of the bankroll attached to his name and the things she expects him to buy her; personally, Ronny thought these men fools. No twenty-one-year-old model is interested in going to bed with a man over fifty because he had a nice personality. Any man that thought they were was only fooling himself and deserved to be taken to the cleaners. Ronny, on the other hand, understood gold diggers he preferred them to dating any other woman. At least he knew where they stood. It was a business relationship. He got what he wanted out of them, and they enjoyed the lifestyle he offered. When he inevitably grew bored and jaded, he cast them aside and moved on to the next eager, willing woman looking for a sugar daddy. It was a lifestyle that had suited him just fine for forty years. The only thing he missed at times was the connection he saw in the eyes of his friends. The way they looked at their wives. The way their wives looked back at them. He could see forever in their eyes. No one had ever looked at him that way. No one had ever cared for him that way. Ronny had no siblings; his parents were both long dead. He probably only had a few more good years left maybe another twenty if he were lucky. He had no wife, no child, no one to leave behind. Who would he leave his legacy to when his time came? The service ended, and Ronny rose with the others. He watched as the younger generation sadly walked up to the casket and lifted it in order to carry it out to the hearse waiting outside. They would take David’s body to the cemetery and bury him. Then everyone would place flowers in or on the grave and head into the mortuary to gather and offer the grieving family their sympathies. Those gathered slowly began to follow the casket out of the church. Ronny saw Kat still seated in her pew with her head in her hands crying. It was breaking his heart to see her so destroyed by her husband’s death. He had known Kat since she was six years old. She had always been so spirited, and now it was as if that fire that made her so intense and wonderful had been stomped out as the love of her life was carried to his final resting place. Kat was so much younger then David had been, a good twenty years. Everyone had known on a subconscious level that David would go first leaving Kat alone. No one thought it would be so soon, or that she would take it so hard. His heart went out to her. He wished to go over and hug her, to hold her and comfort her, but what could he say that had not already been said? What words could he offer that could ease the agony she felt? Ronny left the church and followed the funeral procession in his black Lincoln Town car. His thoughts lost on the many shenanigans he and David had gotten in to with one another in the past. He would miss his dear friend. Their poker games would not be the same. David had been so charismatic and full of life. There had been no one like him. The drive to the cemetery had felt agonizingly long. Once they reached it, Ronny had to pull his overcoat on to ward off the chill from the air. He looked up to see grey clouds rolling in. Suddenly he was blinded by the flashing of cameras, and Ronny put up his hand to shield his eyes. Bloody paparazzi, they regretfully came with the territory. Normally Ronny did not mind, he would pose for their pictures and play to the press but when they would not leave them be long enough to grieve Ronny cursed them all. The last thing any of them needed at this difficult time was to have their personal tragedy plastered across every rag magazine and trashy entertainment show. Ronny headed toward the grave site and joined the others. He stood beside Mike Sanchez and his wife Chase, two old friends, and Kat’s parents. Ashes to ashes and dust to dust, he watched the gravediggers lower his friend into the ground. There was a huge lump in Ronny’s throat as he said goodbye to one of the greatest men he had ever known. “Things will never be the same,” Mike said all choked up. Ronny nodded toward Kat. “Will she be ok?” Mike sighed as he watched his daughter wipe her tears away. “She is strong, it may take time, but she will get through it.” “We are next.” He said watching a line of grieving people in black tossing flowers into the grave. “We all got to go sometime Ronny,” Mike said placing his hand on Ronny's shoulder. “We lived good lives.” He said before taking his wife’s hand and walking toward the grave to toss a white rose down on the casket. Ronny looked out at the paparazzi snapping shots of the burial from the fence line being kept at bay by the local NYPD. Mike was right they had lived full good lives, but Ronny was not ready to die. Something was missing from his life. This whole day was so utterly depressing; he thought as he walked toward the mortuary to offer his condolences to David’s children and wife. He could not stay long. He was not sure how much more of this grief he could bear. A painful reminder of his mortality. He needed a distraction.