Elephants and Ever-Afters [Dark Desires 5] (Siren Publishing Sensations)

by Suzy Shearer

  “Getting a bit late for tomatoes. The cold will get them.”

  “Damn.”

  “We could build you a glass house. What do you think, Laura?”

  “I think that’s a great idea, then I could have my tomatoes and will you grow some herbs, too?” She winked at Conall. “Oh, I found out about the buses, too, Conall. There’s one that stops out the front and runs into Kurrajong Village every thirty minutes.”

  “There is? That’s good. I like being able to get out.”

  “I can always drive you, too, don’t forget.” Laura knew Conall had given up driving a few years back and still felt the loss.

  “I’m sure you can but I want to remain as independent as I can, if you can understand.”

  “We do, Conall, we really do.”

  By the beginning of March it was as if Conall and Tobias had always lived with Laura. She felt life couldn’t get any better. Conall had started his vegetable garden. Tobias had a couple of his apprentices build a large glasshouse and help with bringing in pots and garden soil. They’d also built a large chicken run and coop, they now had six chickens and a rooster, and Laura loved it.

  As well, Conall had ridden the bus into Kurrajong Village a few times a week and had begun making friends with some of the locals. He told Laura two of the men he’d met were gardeners and offered suggestions on what would grow in the area. He also told her they were poker players and Tobias warned her to lock away the matches.

  Gino and Adam visited often and the last time they’d came, Adam surprised them. Rachel and Julian had arrived earlier with salads and bread, then Gino and Adam came in with meat and their dog, Sally. Everyone had enjoyed a swim and was now relaxing outside with cool drinks when Adam cleared his throat.

  “Gino and I have some news. I’ve sold my share in the practice.”

  Cries of ‘what?’, ‘oh no’ and ‘you didn’t?’ echoed across the yard.

  He grinned at everyone as he nodded, then said seriously, “Yep but I bought another a little closer to where we live.”

  Rachel looked as puzzled as everyone and Laura thought it was a weird thing to say, as the practice he just sold was only five minutes’ walk away. Gino was laughing and put his hand on Adam’s knee.

  “Stop teasing, babe.”

  “Okay. Gino and I have bought a house in Kurrajong and I’ve bought into a practice across the road from it.”

  This announcement was met with cheers and wonder. Laura couldn’t stop smiling as she jumped up and hugged her brother and Adam.

  “Why didn’t you tell us?”

  “Wanted it to be a surprise. Adam and I have been talking about making a move for a few years, just hadn’t found something we liked. We both hate living in the unit. It’s too small, Sally hates it as much as we do, and we wanted to get something with some land. Then when you and I found each other we started looking around here. We signed the papers through the week and it’ll be ours the second of April. We’ve already booked a removalists for Friday, so from Friday evening we’ll be living just around the corner. The unit is on the market so everything’s on target for our move.”

  “What about your work, Gino?” Tobias asked.

  “Well, three of the guys that work for me live out this way, between Blacktown and Windsor. The other one lives near Parramatta. Our girl, Jade, who mans the office lives in St Marys. We’ve got some big continuing contracts so it won’t be a problem, just need to find storage and an office somewhere central.”

  Laura couldn’t stop grinning. “Oh, this is wonderful news.”

  “I have a suggestion, Gino,” Tobias said. “Why don’t you move your office to our premises? There’s enough room. Jules and I always envisaged having various trades under the one roof. You’d be completely autonomous. We’ve been negotiating with a plumbing business trying to get him to agree to the same thing. Our idea was having like a one-stop place for the general public. We’ve already got a landscaping business on board. When we built, we doubled the space we’d need for ourselves, then added the same again to operate other businesses.”

  “So, I’d still be myself? You know, operate the same way as I am now.”

  “Yes. Completely. Just be under the one roof, so to speak. There’s quite a lot of empty space still while we try and lure trades in.”

  “It makes sense,” Julian added. “There’s a big Bunnings hardware store around the corner. People have to drive past our place to get to it. If they see all the trades in one place, we hope they’ll think it easier than shopping around.”

  Gino and Adam shared a look, then Adam nodded at him.

  “I’d like that. Thank you so much.”

  “Great. One day next week come in and we can look at space and your requirements, discuss costs.”

  “Mainly it’s storage and an office for Jade.”

  “Well, we can sort it out next week.”

  By the end of March Tobias had sold his house—for five and a half million. Laura kept shaking her head unable to grasp the amount of money people were willing to spend on houses.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  The beginning of April wasn’t good for Laura. Gino came on the second to let her know the nursing home had just rung to say Richard had passed peacefully in his sleep that morning. The two of them cried on each other’s shoulders. The nursing home had Gino listed as the only relative, and he told them he would make all the arrangements. Conall suggested they let Tobias know so he could arrange transport for them to go to the funeral.

  It was a very different trip to Hervey Bay from the Christmas one. The weather seemed to understand their sorrow, it was a bleak and rainy day as they laid Richard to rest. They spent the night at Tobias’s house, the next day a solicitor contacted Gino and asked if he could attend his office in Hervey Bay.

  Tobias told him to take the car with Adam, when they returned Gino told them Richard had left his estate to Gino. He no longer had a house, having sold it when he went into the aged care facility, but he had a reasonable bank account. It would mean Gino and Adam would no longer have a mortgage and with careful management would be comfortable when they retired.

  Then toward the end of the month Laura received a large envelope postmarked Paris. She was terrified to open it and sat with it in her hands until Conall called Tobias and told him. Within half an hour he was home. Conall made them all coffee as Tobias urged her to open the letter.

  “I don’t want to. I don’t want to have anything to do with him.” She almost threw the letter at Tobias. “You read it.”

  “Are you sure?”

  She nodded so Tobias tore it open and silently read it. At one point he raised his eyebrow. After going through the three pages, he dropped them onto his knees, raised his face and looked at Laura.

  “Your grandfather died, the beginning of March. This is from the family solicitor. Basically, he left you something.”

  “What! I don’t want anything, I don’t want his money or whatever it is,” she said indignantly.

  “Laura. I think you should read this.”

  “No.”

  “Please?” he pleaded.

  She shook her head and burst out crying.

  “I can’t. Why do you want me to?”

  “Because he must have had a change of heart.”

  “What?”

  “Read it.”

  “You just explain it to me please.”

  Frustrated, Tobias sighed then picked up the letter from his lap.

  “Basically, when he first was diagnosed with dementia he made a new will. Your grandmother had died, all he had left was a few very distant relations, your mother, Richard, and you and Gino. The letter says he told the solicitor he regretted some of the decisions he’d made in his life and wanted to make up for them.”

  “How can you make up for manipulating the lives of others?”

  “I don’t know, but he apparently thought he could. His entire estate is to be divided between you and Gino.”

  �
�What? Gino, he’s forgiven Gino?” she exclaimed.

  “Apparently. The letter goes on to state that the estate is valued around two million euro, which is about two point eight million Australian. The solicitor wants you both to attend a meeting with a solicitor in Sydney to discuss the will.”

  Laura grabbed the letter from Tobias and quickly read it.

  “I don’t get it,” she said, confused.

  “I do, it’s funny, but when you get to a certain age you tend to look back on your life and think about how you could have done things differently,” Conall explained. He looked at his son. “I have no regrets at all. I’ve got all I could ever wish for and it’s still great, but I imagine a man like your grandfather would look around and see he was all alone. Maybe it eased his conscience to think you and Gino would receive the money.”

  Tobias looked at his father and nodded his head.

  “That’s true, Dad.”

  “I have to ring Gino.”

  Laura jumped to her feet. She ran to speak with her brother, but he was out checking on some work that had been done recently. He told Laura he was about five minutes from home and would ring her when he got there. Fifteen minutes later, he turned up at Laura’s, similar letter in hand. Later Adam arrived when he finished surgery and the five of them sat around the table discussing the letters. In the end, Gino said he would accept the money.

  “When added to what I got from Richard, it means Adam and I would have no financial concerns when we decide to retire. If we invest it by the time we do retire, we’ll be rather wealthy.” He gave Laura a grin. “Not in your league, but I imagine we’d have two or three million plus our own superannuation. Pretty damn good!” He laughed loudly. “It makes me feel good that the old man is actually supporting two gays, bet that will make him roll over in his grave.”

  The following week they visited the solicitor and signed all the necessary paperwork from France. Laura was still uneasy about accepting the money. She’d offered her share to Gino, but he wouldn’t accept it. Tobias suggested she find a charity to donate to if she really didn’t want it. It made sense to her, and after researching she gave to a number of what she felt best needed the money, then the majority of the money was given to Oxfam and to Médecins Sans Frontières—Doctors Without Borders.

  May rolled around and it gave Laura new heart. It was Conall’s eightieth birthday on the twenty-ninth. She and Tobias arranged a party for him at the house. They arranged transport for his old friends from Freshwater, as well as all his new ones so they could really enjoy themselves without the fear of having to get themselves home. Laura had organised a company to do the catering so she could enjoy the festivities, too.

  The party was a great success. She loved meeting all his friends—old and new as well as some of Tobias’s. Rachel and Julian stopped by for the night, as did Julian’s parents.

  It seemed to be birthday season with Rachel’s on June nineteenth. Julian booked a local restaurant in Windsor for the evening and another great night was had by all. The following month it would be Tobias’s turn—he was turning fifty-eight on the seventeenth. Laura had been wracking her brains trying to come up with a gift for him.

  It had been hard enough at Christmas, but the Mah-jong set went down a treat and they played often, but this was different. Now they were living together—a proper couple.

  Hell, what on Earth do I buy a man who has everything and more money than he knows what to do with?

  All through May she’d scanned the internet, read magazines, dropped hints but nothing seemed to jump out at her. Then one evening she was walking through the house when Tobias came out of the gym. He used the equipment in there religiously at least three times a week.

  “I’ll have to get someone to look at that cycle, it’s squeaking again.”

  “Maybe it just needs oil?”

  “Maybe, but I think it’s just getting old.”

  He wandered upstairs to shower and Laura remembered something she’d read a month or so ago about some new ultra-expensive exercise bike. The next day she found the article and ordered one shipped out. A shiny, new ten thousand dollar machine made in Italy, mainly from carbon, steel and glass fibre in black. Never in her life could she have imagined spending that sort of money on a gift for someone, but then, Tobias wasn’t just anyone.

  The Ciclotte was unlike any exercise bike Laura had seen but it would be perfect for him. Not only did he love to exercise he also loved weird and new gadgets. It actually looked nothing like a bike and more like a piece of modern art. When his birthday arrived, Toby took the day off. Laura presented him with the huge box and kept her fingers crossed that he’d like it.

  He didn’t—he loved it!

  To say he was impressed was an understatement, insisting on using it there and then. Setting it up in the gym he jumped onto it. After ten minutes’ work, he told her it gave a fantastic workout with its electromagnetic resistance system then wanted to know where she’d found it. She’d breathed a huge sigh of relief.

  Later in the day Laura was in their bedroom putting clothes in the closet when Tobias came in. He’d been reading up on his new toy and had stripped down to just a pair of shorts. When he saw her, he read from the booklet, pointing out various things.

  Yes, he certainly liked it.

  He dropped the paper on one of the cupboards and took her in his arms.

  “This has to be the best present I’ve ever had. Thank you, my dearest.”

  “You’re very welcome.”

  There was that tiny moment of stillness, when the world seemed to stop, just before he kissed her. Laura closed her eyes and let the sensation of his lips pressed against hers overtake her. The way the feelings seemed to start at her toes then fill her body with electricity. When they broke apart he looked deep into her eyes.

  “I love you, Laura Keell. You are perfect in every way.”

  With her heart almost bursting with happiness, Laura said, “In that case, strip off and help me take off my clothes.”

  Laura loved looking at his body, for a man almost sixty he would give a twenty-year-old a run for their money. Tight washboard abs, muscular arms and legs. He stripped off the shorts and very quickly removed Laura’s shirt and bra. When he slid her jeans and panties down he dropped to his knees and let her lean her hand on his shoulder as she lifted one leg then the other. Her clothes were tossed aside as he looked up at her.

  “I want to hear you ask me nicely to let you make love to me.”

  “Please darling, Laura, let me make love to you.”

  “Crawl over to the bed and I may let you.”

  It took all of her strength not to demand he take her immediately as she followed. The sight of that hunk of male prowling on all fours toward the bed was a huge turn-on. His heavy balls beckoned as he closed the distance between door and bed. When he reached it, he turned his head and as Laura reached his side, she caressed the side of his face.

  “Such a nice elephant.”

  He winked at her.

  “I bet you want that trunk somewhere warm.”

  “Bloody hell, yeah!”

  Laura sat on the bed in front of him and purposely spread her legs apart. She knew how much it excited him to see her so wet, and she smiled when she heard his intake of breath.

  “Like what you see?”

  He nodded, his eyes fixed on her pussy. Knowing how much he loved to eat her, she smiled down at him.

  “Come taste,” she suggested sexily.

  Tobias didn’t need a second invitation, he reached out with his hands and lifted her legs, placing one on each shoulder. Laura lay back, grabbing a pillow to rest her head on. She closed her eyes as she felt the first sweeping brush of his tongue against her skin and curled her toes as his tongue explored deeper. Laura couldn’t help but grab a fistful of the bed covers as he used a thumb to circle and press against her rapidly hardening clit.

  Everything centred around that delicious feeling—the way her legs tensed, the delic
ate feathery whispers that hovered around her clit and pussy that heralded an orgasm. Zooming in on the sensations, just teetering on the cusp of explosion, Laura revelled in following it to its inevitable climax when her body erupted. Tobias suckled gently on her tender clit as Laura came slowly back to Earth.

  “I love you, Tobias,” she purred dreamily.

  He began kissing her leg, then worked his way up her body until his mouth was on hers. Laura could taste herself on his lips and tongue—surprisingly almost fruity like all the fresh pineapple she’d eaten for breakfast. Thinking it was time to give Tobias relief, she whispered in his ear, “Now get on the bed.”

  He gave a laugh but followed her instructions. Laura had an idea. She leaped up and grabbed the soft rope, flogger, and blindfold they kept hanging behind the door of the walk-in. When she came back, Tobias was reclining on the bed, his hands behind his head, ankles crossed.

  “On your knees.”

  When he obeyed, Laura used the flogger on his arse, she’d discovered how much he enjoyed that pain-pleasure part of love-making, and now made sure his arse was lovely and red.

  “Roll over.”

  He rolled onto his back and looked up at her, his arms held out to her.

  “Oh no, my sweet man,” she warned. “Hands stretched out and feet.”

  He spreadeagled and Laura tied either hand to the bedpost.

  “Better?”

  “Definitely.”

  She slipped the blindfold over his eyes, then told him to keep very still. Remembering the feathers she had on an old beach-hat, Laura dove back into the wardrobe and pulled a couple off. Reaching the bed, she climbed on alongside Tobias and ever so gently ran the feathers across his stomach. He tensed and she saw goose bumps as the feather tickled his side. Lightly, she dragged it over the sensitive areas of his body—his nipples, his sides, the inner top of his legs, across his balls. She soon had him writhing, his body a mass of goose pimples.

  Smiling secretly, she brushed it along the underside of his penis. It jerked in response. Laura settled herself between his legs as she lowered her mouth over his cock. He exhaled loudly as she began to raise and lower her head. Over the past months she’d learnt the signs when Tobias was about to come, and she used them to her advantage now.