Sunlight

by Amanda Ashley

  * * * * *

  Las Vegas was nothing like what Micah had expected. A million glowing lights turned the night to day. The hotel was filled with people. And noise. The constant hum of conversation punctuated by excited shouts. Bells ringing. The seemingly endless confusion at the crap table, waitresses calling drink orders, the harsh clatter of silver pouring out of slot machines. And above it all a haze of drifting gray smoke.

  The bright lights bothered his eyes, the noise was overwhelming.

  They made arrangements to be married the following morning, then Dolores and Ralph took the baby up to their room so that Lainey could show Micah around.

  Lainey found a quarter machine she liked and Micah stood behind her, mildly fascinated by the slot machine, intrigued by Lainey’s enthusiasm whenever the machine dropped a few quarters into the tray.

  “Darn!” Lainey exclaimed. “One more seven and I’d have won.”

  Micah grunted softly, and the next time Lainey pulled the handle, he leaned forward and touched the side of the machine with the tip of his forefinger.

  When three sevens appeared, Lainey’s excited shout nearly deafened him. Jumping up from her seat, she threw her arms around him. “We won! We won!”

  With a grin, he gathered her into his arms while bells rang and people stopped to watch.

  “Would you like to win again?” he asked, leaning close to her ear.

  Lainey stared up at him, a shocked expression on her face. “You did that?”

  Micah shrugged. “You said you wanted to win.”

  “Shhh.” Lainey looked around. “Micah, that’s cheating.”

  “Cheating?”

  “You did something to the machine to make it pay off. That’s cheating. How did you do it? Never mind, don’t tell me. Just don’t do it again.”

  She glanced around, wondering if anyone had seen him manipulate the machine. She couldn’t keep the money. It wasn’t right. She’d have to give the money back to the casino, she thought dejectedly, but how could she explain what had happened?

  “You’re an idiot, Lainey St. John,” she muttered under her breath. She didn’t have to explain anything to anybody. All she had to do was keep playing the machine. Sooner or later, she’d lose it all back, she thought, but, to her dismay, the machine continued to pay off.

  “Micah, stop it,” she whispered.

  “Stop what?”

  “Whatever it is you’re doing. I’m trying to lose.”

  Micah shook his head. “I’m not doing anything.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure. I have to touch the machine to manipulate it.”

  “But I’m winning. I never win!”

  “Maybe your luck has changed.”

  Lainey glanced over her shoulder, her gaze moving over Micah in a long, slow glance. Dressed in navy blue slacks and a light blue sweater, he looked good enough to eat.

  “My luck changed the day I met you,” Lainey purred with a seductive smile, and they both knew she wasn’t talking about her sudden run of good luck at the slot machine.

  * * * * *

  They were married the next morning at a small white wedding chapel. Lainey wore a pale pink suit with a frothy white blouse and pink heels; Micah wore a dark gray suit and tie.

  There was a moment of confusion when they filled out the marriage license. Micah couldn’t use his Xanthian surname and after a hushed conference, it was decided he should use Dolores’ maiden name, Forrester.

  The ceremony was short, the words were simple, the baby cried through the whole thing, and yet Micah wouldn’t have changed a thing. Lainey looked beautiful, like a star flower in full bloom. Their son’s soft cries filled him with a sense of wonder as he realized anew that he had helped to create a new life.

  He held Lainey’s hand in his, blind to everything else as she promised to love, honor and cherish him in sickness and in health so long as they lived. Simple words. Powerful words that bound them together, body and soul, heart to heart. It was with a feeling of reverence that he placed the ring he had bought the night before on her finger, remembering the holy man’s words:

  The ring is an outward symbol of your union, which from this day forward will have no beginning and no end. May your love always shine as brightly as this token of your devotion to one another.

  After the ceremony, they went to lunch at the Tropicana, and then they took a cab out to the airport to catch a flight home.

  On the plane, Lainey sat beside Micah. Her husband. She glanced down at the wide, plain gold band on her finger, then lifted her gaze to his face, only to find him watching her through troubled eyes.

  “What’s wrong?” Lainey asked. “You’re not sorry you married me already, are you?”

  “No.” He took her hand, his long fingers curling around hers. “I was just wondering if maybe you were sorry you had married me.”

  “Micah, why would you think that?”

  “There are so many problems ahead of us, so many things that can go wrong. I never realized how much my presence would complicate your life.”

  “Micah…”

  “What if the child needs a doctor? How will you explain the odd composition of his blood, the difference in his body temperature?”

  “I don’t know.” Lainey threaded her fingers through his. “Let’s not look for trouble. Maybe the baby won’t get sick. Maybe no abnormalities will show up in his blood or anywhere else.” Tenderly, she caressed his cheek with her free hand. “I love you, Micah. Nothing will change that.”

  Oblivious to the fact that they weren’t alone, Micah leaned across the seat and kissed her deeply, possessively. “And I love you,” he whispered.

  “Hey, that’s enough you two,” came a low voice from the seat behind them. “Save it until you get home.”

  “Oh, Dad, don’t be such a prude,” Lainey retorted. Glancing over the back of the seat, she made a face at her father. “We’re on our honeymoon, for goodness sake.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Ralph grumbled good-naturedly.

  “Leave them alone,” Dolores scolded, shifting the baby onto her shoulder, “or I’ll tell Micah how you behaved on our wedding day.”

  Lainey grinned as a dull red flush crept up her father’s neck. “Tell, Mom,” she urged.

  “Don’t you dare, Margaret Dolores Maria Forrester St. John.”

  “Mom, you’re not going to let him bully you!”

  Dolores nodded. “I am when he uses that tone, and calls me Margaret.”

  “Chicken.”

  “Guilty as charged,” Dolores said, laughing.

  Shaking her head with mock disappointment, Lainey settled back in her seat again. “I’ll find out one way or another,” she muttered, resting her head on Micah’s shoulder.

  Micah breathed in the scent of her hair, a little bewildered by the relationship between Lainey and her parents. There was respect, but there was also a sense of playfulness that disturbed him even though he found it charming. Would he have that same kind of easy, caring relationship with his son?

  Lowering his head, he pressed a kiss to Lainey’s hair, wondering if they would have other children, perhaps a daughter with Lainey’s beautiful black hair and earth-brown eyes. Maybe another son.

  He was still surprised by the powerful emotions that had boiled up inside him the first time he held his son. Were such feelings abnormal, and if not, why did the people of Xanthia agree to let others raise their children? Why would anyone deny himself the joy of holding his offspring, the sense of wonder, of awe, that came from cradling a newborn child? It was beyond comprehension.

  And if he had felt the bond of fatherhood so strongly, what must the bond of motherhood be like for Lainey, who had carried the child within her body, gone through pain he could not begin to imagine to give his son life?

  His heart swelled with love for this woman who was now his wife as he contemplated all she had gone through since she met him and he knew that if he spent his whole life trying, he could never re
pay her for her love, her trust.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  As it had once before, their life fell into a routine. Lainey started plotting her next book, then spent a week going over the galleys of her last story.

  Micah insisted on taking care of her, refusing to let her do too much at one time, insisting she needed to rest more and work less. He did the cooking. He learned how to run the washer and dryer. He even ventured out to do the marketing. One afternoon, when he had sent her off to take a nap, Lainey had informed him that it was a good thing she had her writing to occupy her, since he spent so much time looking after the baby. Another time, she had laughingly accused him of being jealous that she was breastfeeding, because that was one thing he couldn’t do for her.

  And yet, it was heartwarming to watch him with their son. She remembered what he had said about life on Xanthia, about how children were raised away from their parents, and she wondered how this man, this gentle, loving man, would have been able to endure being parted from his son forever when he could barely stand being away from Mike for more than an hour or so.

  Her parents came over often, always with a present for Mike, until the nursery began to look like a toy store.

  After four weeks of being treated like an invalid, Lainey rebelled. Insisting that she felt fine, she arranged to have her mother babysit, made reservations at an expensive restaurant down by the beach, bought a new dress, and dragged Micah out of the house, intent on a romantic evening.

  “Are you sure you feel up to this?” Micah asked as Lainey backed the car out of the driveway.

  “I’m sure I’ll go crazy if I don’t get a break. Honestly, Micah,” Lainey said, seeing the doubt on his face, “I feel fine.” She reached over and patted his arm. “And Mom will take good care of the baby, don’t worry.”

  “How could I be concerned?” he asked. “She raised you, didn’t she?”

  “And did a heck of a job!” Lainey declared with a decided lack of modesty. “Isn’t it a beautiful night?”

  Micah glanced up at the sky. The sky was clear, the stars shining brightly. “Beautiful,” he agreed, and wondered, not for the first time, how Earth and Xanthia could be so different and yet so similar.

  They arrived at the restaurant a short time later. Lainey gazed out the window, her chin resting on her hand as she watched the waves lap at the shore.

  “Do they have oceans on Xanthia?” she asked, turning her gaze to Micah.

  “Yes, though not as big as this one.”

  “And fish? And sharks? And whales?”

  Micah nodded. “We have a multitude of sea life, different in some ways from yours.”

  “Different how?”

  “We have a fish that has legs and buries its eggs on land.”

  “Really? I’d like to see that.”

  “And we have a large fish, what you would call a whale, that is almost a hundred feet long.”

  “Sounds like a sea serpent to me.”

  “You could call it that.”

  “And do you have dogs and cats and horses? And birds and bees?” Lainey grinned at him. “I can’t help it, I want to know everything about your world.”

  “Xanthia is much like Earth. We have animals similar to yours, just as our people are similar to yours.”

  “But different.”

  “In some ways.”

  “Do you believe in God?”

  Micah nodded, his expression somber. “Of course. All intelligent life forms acknowledge the existence of a Supreme Being.”

  “I’ve never been afraid of being invaded by creatures from outer space,” Lainey remarked. “I’ve always believed that if there were people on other worlds, they would be just like us. I mean, if God created man in His own image here, then He’d probably do the same on other worlds.” Lainey grinned at Micah. “I guess I was right, at least where Xanthia is concerned.”

  “You’re very wise,” Micah said. “I’ve been to many other worlds and I’ve never seen any monsters. The people may not look exactly the same, but all are humanoid in appearance.”

  “Do they have organized religion on Xanthia?”

  “Not exactly. We have places of worship, but people attend whenever they wish.”

  “Not like here, where we go to church on Sunday?”

  “No.”

  “Are you a religious man?”

  Micah nodded. “In my way. On Xanthia, I went to worship once each week when I was home. Sometimes to meditate. Sometimes I went into one of the reflection cells and played one of the religious tapes.”

  “Would you mind going to church with me?”

  “No.”

  Lainey smiled at him, then sat back as the waitress brought their food.

  After dinner, Lainey called home to check on the baby, and then they went for a moonlight walk on the beach.

  “We’d better take our shoes off,” Lainey suggested. Micah steadied her as she removed her heels and stockings, then he took off his shoes and socks and they walked barefoot in the sand.

  “The water is cold,” Micah mused. “On Xanthia, the oceans are warm.”

  “Do you miss your home?” Lainey asked.

  “Not when you’re with me,” he replied, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

  A soft sigh escaped Lainey’s lips. “Oh, Micah, you should have been a poet.”

  “Me?”

  He laughed softly as he drew her into his arms. She was beautiful in the moonlight. Her hair shimmered with blue highlights, her skin was luminous, her eyes as warm and dark as a handful of Earth. She was like the ancient goddess, Zanadeus, who had walked the shores of Xanthia, luring unsuspecting men into the arms of the sea.

  Gently, he framed her face in his hands. “You’re my home, Lainey,” he murmured. “Don’t you know that?”

  His kiss was warm and soft, filled with promises of forever, of sun-kissed days and moonlit nights, of happiness doubled because it was shared, of sorrow halved because it was understood by another. He kissed her with all the love in his heart, and prayed that it would be enough, knowing his life would cease to have meaning if Lainey ceased loving him.

  “Micah, let’s go home.”

  Startled by her request, he drew back so he could see her face. “Is something wrong?”

  “No.” A faint blush heated her cheeks. “I was hoping, I mean, it’s been a long time since we…”

  She gazed up at him, her eyes filled with a need that went beyond words.

  “Is it all right?” Micah asked. “It’s not too soon?”

  “It’s not soon enough,” she murmured, her lips grazing his.

  Heat seared through him, instantaneous, as though his whole body had been struck by star fire. She kissed him, and the flames burned hotter and brighter and he knew he couldn’t wait until they got home, that he had to have her now, or die.

  Swinging her up into his arms, Micah walked swiftly down the beach toward a small cove. Stripping off his coat, he spread it on the sand and then, his hands shaking with urgency, he began to undress her, marveling anew at the perfection of her body, at the silken touch of her skin beneath his fingertips. She was the essence of life, a goddess come to life, a miracle wrapped in moonlight.

  He groaned low in his throat as Lainey’s hands moved over him, freeing him from his clothing, gliding over his skin. Wrapped in each other’s arms, they sank slowly to the ground.

  The roar of the surf echoed the pounding of his heart as he worshipped her with his eyes, his touch. His heart swelled with love when she urged him to shed his human shape. She whispered her love as she caressed him, her hands exploring the solid wall of his chest, brushing the webbing on his hands. She nipped his ear lobe, and each touch told him more eloquently than words that she loved him for who and what he was, that their differences didn’t matter at all, that nothing mattered except the love they shared, the love that had bound them together and culminated in the birth of their son.

  Carefully, he merged his flesh with hers, afraid of hur
ting her in his eagerness. It had been so long, he thought, so long since he’d been able to bury himself within her warmth, her sweetness. Tears burned his eyes as she welcomed him home, her hips lifting to receive him, her arms holding him tight as she whispered his name, then gasped with pleasure as two became one in heart and mind and body.

  Her name exploded from his lips in a harsh cry of exultation as they reached for the stars and found them. Together.

  * * * * *

  Lainey came awake slowly, a smile on her face. Now she knew how Scarlett had felt the morning after Rhett carried her up that long flight of stairs.

  With a contented sigh, she reached across the bed for Micah, but her hand closed on empty air. Disappointed, she slid out of bed, pulled on her robe, and padded down the hallway to the nursery. Sure enough, Micah was there, bent over the white wicker changing table as he sprinkled powder on the baby’s dimpled bottom, then pinned a clean diaper in place.

  Lifting the baby to his shoulder, Micah turned around, his eyes caressing her. “Good morning, Mom.”

  “Good morning.” Lainey smiled up at him. “Did I thank you for last night?”

  “No thanks are necessary,” Micah said, returning her smile. “I assure you it was my pleasure.”

  “And mine. Are you hungry?”

  “Very hungry.” His gaze moved over hers, hotter than the tail of a comet. “I could use some breakfast, too.”

  Happiness bubbled inside Lainey as she took the baby from his arms. “I’ll feed the baby, and then fix your breakfast,” she said with a saucy grin, “and then I’ll see what I can do about that other craving.”

  * * * * *

  Lainey snuggled closer to Micah. Never before had she realized what a blessing it was to work at home, to be able to work at her leisure, to take long lunch breaks in her husband’s arms.

  With a sigh, she gazed at Micah, feeling utterly content. She loved him, wholly, completely, not just because he was the most handsome man she had ever known, but because he was thoughtful, generous, caring, kind, compassionate… She smiled inwardly, thinking there weren’t enough words to describe him.

  She started to tell him how much she loved him when she noticed the troubled look in his eye. “What is it?”