by Mary Jaine
We lunched at Café Procope on rue Ancienne Comédie, a place that the maître had recommended, and watched the tourists; intense groups of impassive, unsmiling Japanese, haggard and weary but doggedly following their guidebooks, tired American families following the mother around, 'coffee, please!' written all over their long-suffering faces, huge chattering Chinese tour groups, and coach loads of Germans, all trying to see in 4 days what many Parisians haven't seen in a lifetime, and we watched in awe as the Parisian women, all effortlessly casual in Balenciaga and Balmain summer dresses and impossibly stylish footwear, sauntered along, well aware of the impression they were leaving in their wake.
After lunch, we went to see Notre Dame Cathedral, walking inside in silence to view the gigantic medieval solar window and the high altar, the jewelled stained glass reflecting on the flagstones of the Apse. After an hour of this, Nia decided that shopping was now her priority, and the best place for that was the Faubourg Saint-Honoré district, because she wanted to stroll through the designer stores, pretending to be wealthy enough to afford any of it, then actually shop for real on Boulevard Haussmann, where she'd have her pick of grands magasins, department stores.
As shopping is a closed book to me, a thrill I hope to avoid to the end of my days, I came along mainly as bag carrier and moral support, I didn't want anything, nor did I actually need anything, but Nia was developing Paris Syndrome, so I thought I'd better keep an eye on her...
We eventually got back to the hotel at 6 pm, dumped the several dozen (all right, I'm exaggerating -- a little, a very little) bags and cartons she'd picked up visiting every store on Boulevard Haussmann, and took our time to shower and dress, then go the restaurant I'd booked, on Avenue De Wagram, a short walk from the hotel, another traditional French restaurant.
We spent the evening in the company of Coquilles St. Jacques, Buckwheat crépes, Cassoulet, confit de Canard, and tarte au chocolat, with as much sémillon as we felt we could safely drink. I enjoyed watching Nia eat, whether delicately picking apart duck legs cooked in clarified butter or digging into the rich garlic sausage of the Cassoulet, or watching in fascination as they cooked the crépes for us at the table, and she certainly enjoyed the wine! We were heading back home the next day, I'd really only brought her here to propose, and I wanted her last evening in Paris to be memorable.
The rest of the time I'd asked her to take was so that we could be together, at home, alone, for a little while. I'd been gone, on one trip or another, for most of the last four months, and I hadn't had more than a couple of days in a row with Nia in weeks, plus I'd not actually had a vacation of any note since my eighteenth summer, so 6 years of work and study entitled me to a week or so of lounging around with my girl, and I intended to make full use of it.
Back in our room, I undressed, then helped Nia out of her dress with my usual finesse i.e. whipping it off over her head so I could ogle her, and then grabbed her so I could squeeze her boobs as I pressed Jamie jr. into her firm, sexy little bum.
"So Miss, soon to be Mrs. Morrison, did you enjoy your trip to the City of Love?" I whispered in her ear, gently pinching and twirling her nipples, making her giggle and gasp as the tickling and the arousal fought over her. Nia hooked her panties, pushing them down and wriggling her hips to let them drop, kicking them away to stand as naked as me.
"Oh yes, kind sir," she breathed, "I've never been on a dirty weekend before, you're such a bad man, what will my mother say, you'll have to marry me now!"
I could hear the grin in her voice, and held her close to me as I began licking the back of her neck, nibbling her shoulder, kissing the base of her throat. She began rubbing against me, forcing herself against my erection, her hands holding my sides to hold herself in place as she gently slid her buttock cleft up and down on my cock, the warm firm globes of her bum enveloping my hardness and exciting me further.
Nia spun around in my arms and wrapped her arms around my neck, pulling me close and kissing me, before pushing me backwards onto the bed with a giggle, landing on top of me. My hands immediately went to her tight little buttocks, holding her as she kissed me some more, just for good measure.
She scrambled off me and slid herself into the middle of the bed, grinning at me, crooking one finger at me, so of course I followed, scooting up next to her and once again holding her as I kissed her. My hand strayed to her nipples again, gently tweaking and twirling them as we kissed, Nia squirming gently as she became aroused. I dipped my head down to lick and suck at her nipples, grazing them lightly with my teeth and sucking them into hard little points, my hand now drifting down to dip a finger into and scratch lightly at her navel, making her gasp, before moving down further to slip down the moist crease between her labia, caressing and rubbing gently, stimulating them and feeling them swell and begin to part.
Her juices were beginning to flow more freely now, dampening my finger and allowing me to insert another one alongside, and her breathing became more ragged as I frigged her more seriously, rubbing my thumb over h er hooded clitoris as I dipped two fingers in and out, rubbed inside her, teased and dampened her little rosebud. Nia was twitching and quivering now, her face and neck flushing as her arousal climbed, small gasps and sighs escaping her lips as she squirmed on my fingers.
I moved down between her parted thighs, licking and kissing her red and swollen labia, inhaling her scent as I lapped at her, pointing my tongue and pushing inside her to taste her pink flesh, and lapping at her rapidly engorging clitoris, the little bead hard and solid against my tongue. Nia pulled my head against her, grinding her vulva against my mouth as I lapped her secretions, licking and nibbling at her succulent pussy and making her sigh and moan.
I gently pulled her clitoris between my lips, and sucked firmly on it, simultaneously rubbing it with the tip of my tongue, and slid my index finger into her tight, moist little anus. I felt her orgasm rise up and slam into her, waves of pleasure making her groan and writhe as she held herself against my mouth, every tremor and flutter of her pussy magnified against my lips, and her anus tightening around my finger, holding it inside her.
At last she opened her eyes, to smile at me, reaching out to call me closer. As I raised up and shuffled forward on my knees, she slid her knees under her and knelt up, putting a hand on my chest to stop me where I was, and leaning forward, taking my aching cock in her hand and pumping me twice, squeezing as she did so, and I reared up, ready for her.
Nia dropped down onto her belly, raised herself on her elbow, and slowly licked my cock, one long slow lick, from root to crown, looking at me as she did so, then, just as slowly, slipped me into her mouth, her lips softly squeezing the crown as she began licking and sucking me. One hand still pumped me, and she fondled and gently squeezed my scrotum with the other. I leaned back, resting with my hands on the bed behind me, Nia rising up on all fours to keep her head in my lap, her mouth working exquisitely at my glans.
I could feel that pre-ejaculation tightening in my scrotum, and apparently so could she, because she raked my perineum with a fingernail, backing me down immediately, taking the edge off my need to come.
"Uh-uh, mister, not yet you don't!" she grinned, turning round on the bed and getting back on all-fours.
"Well?" she grinned, and I edged forward, her questing hand finding me and guiding me forward until I was just resting the head of my cock between her lips.
"Now, Polar Bear!" she breathed , and I slowly slid forward, pushing myself into her as far as I could, Nia, sighing as I filled her up. I took hold of her beautiful backside, my hands moulding and massaging the globes of her arse as I slowly pumped into her, with Nia pushing back against me as I pushed forward. I straightened up so I could watch myself slide between those fabulous buttocks, the sight of my cock sliding into her as those globes quivered a powerful and erotic image, one I would never tire of seeing.
I slid my hands under her ribcage, finding and squeezing her perfect little breasts, her nipples hard as cherry stones as I rubbed and tw
eaked and tugged on them. I speeded-up, I needed to come inside her, to fill her with my spunk, and she sensed my need, her hand sliding between her legs to rub and caress herself.
Her orgasm was as powerful as before, her pussy clamping down on me as her orgasm surged through her, the constriction enough to make me lose all control, and my cock swelled as spunk poured out of me in long powerful jets, splashing deep inside her, jet after jet of sperm as I literally emptied myself into her, my groan of release merging with her cry as she climaxed again at the feel of me pulsing inside her.
I knelt back down as I softened and slipped from her, Nia lying back down on her front, her cute little rump still raised-up, giving me a perfect view of my sperm oozing from her gaping vulva, easily the best sight I had seen in a long and scenic day...
I lay next to her, and she trailed an arm over me, then pulled herself close to me, and kissed me, a long and tender French-kiss, appropriately enough, before smiling sleepily.
"Now I'm ready to go home, Polar Bear!" she whispered, and closed her eyes as she pulled my arm around her.
We checked out early as we had an 8am departure from Gare Du Nord, due into London for 10:25, and mum was expecting us for lunch at 12 pm. The journey was uneventful, once again the Normandy countryside flashing by as we approached the Channel Tunnel, then the lower-speed traverse of the tunnel, to emerge in the Kent countryside, and just over an hour later we were on the high level platform at St. Pancras.
We took a taxi home, neither of us felt like using the Underground, and were home for 11 am.
Nia started to take of her engagement ring and I stopped her.
"What are you doing, Princess?" I asked her, curious to know why she thought she couldn't let the 'rents see it.
She looked worried, a first for her, it was usually me sweating and trembling. "Jamie, I want to lead them into it gently, you know, it's a big step and..." she trailed off as I shook my head.
"Nia, we've been living together for three years now, I really doubt they believe we spend our nights locked in separate bedrooms with a bear-trap by our beds in case the other gets ideas! Mum will be over the moon, and, like you said, dad will have to find a way to live with it; he has so far. It'll be fine, believe me."
I kissed the ring and slid it back on her finger. "There you are, right where it belongs!"
As we were putting our stuff away, I noticed the email icon on my laptop was flashing, so I opened it and looked through a list of work-related emails, and one that was not work-related at all.
"Nia, look at this. My contact in Thailand has sent me a package, says it should be here on..." I counted rapidly. "Saturday or maybe Monday. He says he won't discuss it on email, when I get it I'll know why. He's also given me the name of a contact in the HKPF, Hong Kong Police, guy called Tang Tao Lieng, says I should speak with him once I've read the stuff he's sent me. I think we're on our way, Princess!"
Nia read it and looked at me, her lip trembling.
"Jamie, would you excuse me, please, there's something I have to do!"
I was puzzled, but complied; when she uses that tone, it's usually something important to her, so I kissed her and left, made myself a coffee and picked up Sunday's newspaper to read the funnies when I heard her voice from the bedroom. Her phone was on the table, and the 'In Use' light wasn't illuminated on the house phone, so I went to see who she could be talking to.
As I approached the bedroom door I could hear her talking, and smell incense, so I cracked the door open and saw her kneeling on the floor, her hands pressed together in front of her in an attitude of prayer, her fingertips touching her forehead, and an incense stick in a lacquer sand bowl in front of her. Nia was chanting softly, but it wasn't Tieng Viet, I could tell that much, it was some other language, stately and strange, archaic, one I had never heard her use before.
She looked up and saw me, a smile on her face, and tears on her cheeks; she sing-song'd a few more sentences and inverted the incense stick in the sand, snuffing it out.
I handed her up, and wiped her eyes and cheeks with my handkerchief, seeing the unshed tears still in her eyes. She hugged me, then smiled, almost her old grin again.
"Nia, what was that, what did I just see?" I asked her gently, knowing I'd seen something important, but not what it was.
She looked at me levelly.
"I was asking the Mother Goddess to help me find her daughter, my sister. I was praying to Thien Y A Na, mother of all, and protector of daughters, and to Hu Ye, the Tiger Guardian Spirit, asking him to protect and guard my sister until I find her and bring her back. I gave him your name, so he can walk where she is. He must protect her now, but I have to find her, that was the bargain for your name. Your email was a sign, and I was thanking the Goddess for her help so far."
"Every day, ever since I found out about her, I have invoked the Guardian's protection, now he has been bound to her until I find her. Do not laugh, she needs him, and I need the Goddess's help, and I think she will want to help me now, now that I am helping myself."
Her speech was suddenly very formal, almost as if the stately, ancient-sounding phrases she was speaking earlier had altered her way of speaking, and I listened, facinated, to the clear and simple way she was explaining her actions.
I hugged her close, not dreaming of scoffing. I have a problem understanding religion, and as far as I was aware, the last time I was in church, I got my head wet, but I had learned that a man's wife, his daughter, and his god are three things you disrespect at your peril. So I saw nothing wrong or strange in Nia harking back to the beliefs of her people; after all, it was a deep-rooted part of her mother's culture, and she was just as much Vietnamese as English.
I looked into her beautiful, deep blue eyes and asked her one last question.
"Princess, what was that language, those prayers, I've never heard it before?"
She smiled at me. "That was Cham, the old language of Vietnam, it's like a sort of Latin, I only know the Len-Dong ceremony prayers, and I don't really know half of what they mean, but it's the traditional prayers to ask for her help, and to invoke and bargain with Hu Ye, and to give thanks."
Mum was excited to see us, again carrying on like we'd been gone for weeks instead of just a short break, and was overcome with tears when Nia showed her the ring. Dad hugged her, actually smiling about it, which I hadn't expected, then signalled he wanted to talk to me in private. 'Here goes' I thought, and braced for a broadside, but that's not in his nature, and he and I sat down to talk.
He began. "You know, Jamie, I always knew that this day would come, that I'd be talking like this to the bloke who asked Nia to marry him; I always thought it would be some local sprat, or some sharp-suited, corporate lawyer-type. It never seriously crossed my mind that it'd be a buccaneering oil prospector, or that I'd be talking to you! We fathers have a really hard time letting go of our daughters, and the very worst time of all, for a father, is the first time she looks to someone else for answers before she looks to you; that's when you know you've lost her, that your little girl is truly gone. That's all the heartbreak in one big hit."
"I never had that, because I lost her to you long, long ago; you were always more important to her than I was. Yes, I know she always had me twisted around her little finger, but the only person she ever really trusted to make it right was you, I was just her back-up plan for when you weren't around. Was I jealous? No, not in the slightest, you adored her from day one, and she owned you from the cradle, and I was so very proud that you were so eager and ready to be what she needed throughout her entire life; there's precious few brothers in this world who'd devote their lives to their baby sister the way you did, and I always admired you for that. You put up with an enormous amount of, well, Nia over the years!"
He grinned at that, and continued.
"I'm also happy about the fact that you don't need to learn about each other, maybe find out in a few years that you made a mistake, that you're not right for each other, and break each ot
her's hearts when it all goes wrong; you've both had an entire lifetime together, and you fit perfectly, like two halves of the same thing, have done since day one, so I have no worries on that score."
"I assume you've agreed on a way forward from here; after all, engagement is only a step, next comes the wedding, and family, and all the commitments that come as part of that package. I'm going out on a limb here and assuming you've found a way to do this and make it work?"
I grinned and explained Nia's scheme, letting his logical mind chew it over for me.
"Very good, Jamie, she obviously got more from me than just good looks and charm!" he grinned. "I think it will work really well, and I think your mother will approve too, so yes, go ahead, not that you actually need my permission, of course!"
He chuckled. "I just hope she never embarks on a career in Bank fraud; I'm not sure I'd be able to catch her!"
He looked up to see Nia standing in the doorway, trepidation written on her face, and beckoned her in, patting the arm of the chair for her to sit down. Dad slid his arm round her waist, and took her hand to look at her ring again.
"It's a beautiful ring, Nugget, almost as beautiful as you!" He grinned, the way he always did when he paid a compliment, almost as if he couldn't quite believe he was hearing what he was saying, and hugged her closer, while Nia draped her arm around his shoulder as she leaned against him.
"Dad, daddy, you're not ...angry are you, I mean, I know this isn't what you wanted and all but...!" Dad stopped her.
"Nugget, what I want isn't important or relevant. I know this is what you want, have known for years, it just took me a long time to accept it. You and Jamie are going to have enough problems without me adding to them, plus I still have to live with your mother!
I want what's best for you, for both of you, and what seems to be the best thing for both of you is each other. I see how you complement each other, each of you has parts that the other needs, and like I said to Jamie just now, you're both two halves of the same thing; I could never be churlish enough to come between you and break you apart, I'd never be able to fix either one of you, and I can't destroy my children's happiness like that. You two will do just fine, I really think you will!"