Home to Laura

chapter TWENTY-THREE



ON THE INTERNET, Nick ordered lush, colorful silks and put them away for later, to use as a surprise for Laura. He ordered a beautiful pale yellow sari. Laura would look amazing in it.

When Pearl was old enough to be left with her grandmother, and when he and Laura could finally have sex, he wanted an orgy of the senses with the woman he planned to make his wife as soon as possible.

The wedding took place when Pearl was four months old.

The night before, he shooed Laura out of her apartment for the entire night and made her take Pearl to stay with her mother.

Nick worked into the wee hours draping the silks he’d ordered around Laura’s ceiling. He still hadn’t finished building the house where they would all live permanently, but that seemed a small problem. They would be together—he, Laura, Emily and Pearl—and that was all that mattered, whether in Laura’s apartment or in a larger home.

He left the pale yellow sari on the bed for Laura to wear later.

The following morning, Nick walked down the aisle with his daughter. She stood beside him at the altar with Gabe and Ty on her far side.

Callie and Tammy were matrons of honor on his other side.

Laura made a beautiful bride.

Nick watched her walk toward him up the aisle and held his breath, clutching to himself all of the deep-seated emotions—joy, love, wonder—that threatened to explode out of him.

She walked with her mother on one side and her brother on the other, in a white dress that showed off every one of her glorious curves. They’d filled out more with Pearl’s birth. Laura complained about the extra fifteen pounds she still carried.

He planned to love the daylights out of every one of those extra pounds tonight.

When the minister asked, “Who gives this woman away?” Noah and Olivia answered, “We do.”

When he asked, “Who gives this man away?” Emily said, “I do,” then beamed up at him. He leaned down and kissed her nose.

After a beautiful ceremony, they held a celebration in the community hall.

Later that night, Nick and Laura returned to the apartment alone. Pearl was staying with Grandma and Emily with Ty and Tammy and Rebecca and Ruby. Ty had shared the good news that Ruby was moving to Accord to live with him permanently.

Nick turned to Laura. “I left something on the bed for you to change into.”

Laura raised a brow. “You did?”

Nick’s kiss lingered on her lips. When he pulled away, he said, “You use the washroom first.”

“Nick?”

“Yes?”

“No condoms, okay?”

“You want to get pregnant again?”

“Yes. Okay?”

“Yes. A thousand times yes.”

While Laura washed up for the night, he lit candles and incense in the bedroom and turned on a CD he’d made for tonight, music for them and them alone. It featured masters of the sarod and sitar and tabla, East Indian pieces he’d found that were sensuous and uplifting.

Laura finished in the washroom, then he cleaned up and returned to the bedroom.

She lay across the bed wrapped in the nearly sheer yellow sari, her hair luxuriant on her shoulders, her body’s curves abundant, everything hinted at with contours and shadows.

She’d foregone the skirt and short top that belonged underneath the sari. Thank God.

She’d found the bracelets and anklets and necklaces of tiny golden bells that he’d left for her and had adorned herself.

While he undressed, she stretched sinuously to the exotic music then rested on her elbows and arched her back. Her breasts rose and fell with her breathing. Her nipples peaked against the delicate fabric, all of her hidden or exposed at the whim of flickering candle flames.

Nick leaned one knee on the edge of the bed and hovered over her, running his hands along her body. Laura sighed and purred.

“You’re a happy cat,” he whispered, smiling, his voice deep with desire.

“Mmmmm,” she murmured low in her throat. He’d never met a more sensual woman.

He ran his hands under the sari, watched as they traveled her body beneath the pale fabric. Her nipples hardened against his palms while the silk caressed the backs of his hands, the contrast sexy and startling.

Taking the gold chains between his fingers, he played them over her nipples.

He loosened the garment and touched her belly. She gasped. He smoothed his fingers lower and touched her wet core. She arched again, gracefully, like a panther, her heels digging into the mattress and her knees falling open to give him access, the music of the bells at her ankles ringing with the sitar floating through the room.

She eased the sari open and held it out, inviting him in. He lay with her and she closed the fabric across his back, the silk soft on his spine and her skin silky against the hard planes of his body.

His fingers inflamed her, wrought gasps from her. She writhed against him, her thigh brushing against him, hardening his flesh.

The bells on her wrists and ankles tinkled, a musical counterpart to her earthy moans.

He kissed her and she sucked on his tongue. She lifted her ankle to his waist, opening herself to him, and the bells tinkled. His fingers went deeper.

He knelt between her legs and spread them wide, bringing his mouth to her moist flesh while his fingers filled all of her, every bit of her, and she shuddered. He kissed and licked her until she writhed, until the edge of her control.

He sucked hard and she came. He would never desire another woman as he did this one. Laura was every woman to him, every desire and need fulfilled. He held her while she shivered then quieted.

Her husky laugh filled the room.

“I love you, Nick Jordan,” she said. “I always have and always will.”

“I love you, Laura Cameron, and will until the end of my days.”

How right to discover that love was an aphrodisiac. He’d never known.

She took him in hand and used skillful fingers to harden and lengthen him, to please him and to prepare him for her.

Finally, he entered her, flesh against flesh. She took him in as though molded, sculpted for his body.

The music changed tempo, became smoky, and someone’s husky voice sang of love while he performed love, while Laura took from him and gave to him all of her self, of her being, of her bold and generous spirit.

Her perfume floated around him, mingled with her sex, with her essence, fomenting his passion, fanning flames higher.

Silk floated across his back.

“Look,” he whispered and she followed his gaze.

She hadn’t noticed. He’d put up a mirror on the wall on the far side of the bed.

“You’re so beautiful.”

She watched them move together, in harmony, in lust, in rut. He screwed her until they nearly turned inside out, transforming the most basic animal needs into transcendent beauty.

He touched every part of her and she him. They left nothing to the imagination, nothing unloved.

The tempo of the music picked up again and so did Nick. Laura drove him higher with her vocal demands and with her body’s strength, with her body’s ability to keep up and to want more, more, more.

He drove her higher. She keened long and loud, the most beautiful music he’d ever heard.

He followed her into oblivion.

Minutes later, he rocked her in his arms, whispered inanities, feathered love nips along her neck.

Her heavy breathing slowly calmed until they lay still in each other’s arms.

Unwrapping the sari from around them and getting out of bed, she walked to the bathroom, returning with two warm wet towels.

They cleaned each other, because it was more fun than cleaning themselves.

She walked to the mirror and ran her fingers over the reflection of her body.

Glancing over her shoulder with her hair running down her glorious back, she said softly, “This is brilliant, Nick.”

She looked up at the swooping falls of color across her ceiling. “Thank you.”

She lay beside him and he enfolded her in his arms. He draped the sheer sari across her body. She arched when the silk whispered across her skin. He played with the fabric, with her. She turned over and he ran it across her back, along the chasm of her full behind.

She took the fabric from him and played it over his body like a maestro. When he began to harden, she took the silk and bound his wrists to her bedposts.

Moving slowly, she straddled him, settled onto him, her moist and ready flesh embracing his. When he responded and hardened enough, she took him into her body.

She sat up straight and proud on him and he glanced at the mirror. In the smoky candlelight, her breasts, her hips, her bounteous body glowed. Then she moved and his breath caught.

She rode him hard while the bells of her jewelry played a delightful symphony.

They bathed by candlelight then gathered apple and pear slices and a warm triple cream Brie and carried them to bed. They sliced off the top of the cheese and dipped the fruit into it and fed each other.

Later, Nick used the yards of silk to bind both Laura’s hands and her feet. He drove her to a frenzy and brought them both to a resounding release.

In Laura’s sexy grotto, in her love palace, they played long into the night.