New Beginnings

by Elle M Thomas

  Laughing at her as he dipped down and brushed her lips with his, Gray replied, “Yes she is, but I don't think anyone has ever said that to me before.”

  “You know my vocabulary isn't quite as polished as it could be.” She grinned and then asked, “Should someone find Sam, she was upset?”

  “Yeah, Tim will go, and we should mingle, there seems to be a lot of interest in you, Evie.” Gray was already leading her away.

  “See you later, Eve,” called Lucas.

  Eve was shocked at the degree of interest in her as she mingled with Gray, across the lawn and into the marquee. People actually stared at them, at her, at him, at it all, making Eve actually try and hide beneath Gray's arm and when that failed she almost clung to the red polo shirt that was stretched across his torso and chest with one hand while the other hand was wrapped around the waist of his black chinos.

  Gray pulled both of her hands from him and turned to face her, tilting her face up towards his he leaned in and kissed her gently on the cheek to whisper to her. “Eve, relax baby, you were supposed to be helping me relax, but you feel like you're the one in need of a little tension release.”

  “Sorry,” she replied with a sudden blush. “I don't usually get stared at so much. Is it because I'm not your type?”

  Suddenly, looking annoyed he took a deep breath before answering, “You're my type, but this lot have probably never seen me at one of these things with a woman of any type, so you, my darling, are something of interest, but if it really bothers you we can go, you just say the word.”

  “Thank you, but I'm fine.” She was trying to process all the details he'd shared; he'd said he hadn't had girlfriends, but he'd never been accompanied by an escort to one of these functions. That shocked her, but he had been right that she was supposed to be keeping him calm, not the other way around.

  “Grayson Sharp,” came a cry from behind them and as they turned together they were faced with a woman of around thirty, smiling, another petite blonde with a gurgling baby on her hip and another one on the way judging by the swell of her belly and chest.

  Gray leaned down and kissed her warmly on the cheek before shaking the hand of the baby and saying a very jovial 'hello' to him.

  “Lisa, this is my girlfriend, Eve. Eve, this is Lisa, a very old friend,” he said leaving the two women smiling at each other.

  Eve wondering if this old friend was an old girlfriend who wasn't a girlfriend while Lisa was left to ponder exactly what this woman before her had that had elevated her to real girlfriend status.

  “Nice to meet you,” said Lisa, seeming to be genuinely nice.

  “You too, and you,” smiled Eve, turning her attention to the baby who grinned a toothless grin and pushed his arms out to Eve.

  “Wow, you are a vixen,” giggled Lisa as her son attempted to grab Eve. “Robbie is very much a mummy's boy, but he likes you.”

  Eve held her arms out towards the little boy who bounced excitedly as his mother handed him over.

  Gray smiled down at the sight of Eve holding the baby, gently talking to him and making him laugh. He reprimanded himself for getting soppy again, but the image of the woman he loved with a baby was doing strange things to him; strange things that were not only previously unwanted but completely alien to him. He'd never really thought he would settle down, that he would meet anyone that he could trust enough to let in, to get close enough that he would want to build a monogamous future with, a home, children.

  “I would be happy to provide you with a TV if those long nights in the village keep doing this to you,” laughed Gray as he pointed at her belly.

  Joining in with his laughter she retorted, “We have a TV and all kind of pay per view channels, Gray. That's what keeps doing this to me.”

  “So, where is the lucky man?” Gray wondered if Lisa did partake in watching porn as a prelude to sex.

  He stifled a giggle at the idea that she may have got over her dislike of being covered in spunk, although with all these kids she may not allow any externally.

  Eve watched the exchange between Gray and Lisa curiously; it was obvious that he felt something akin to fondness for this woman and it seemed reciprocal as they teased each other.

  “Here he is,” she shrilled as a man of five feet nine appeared at her side with a little girl on each hand.

  “Hi Gray, how you doing?” he asked, unbothered by his wife's very old friend.

  “I'm good thanks, Neil. Obviously you're doing pretty well yourself, with your ever expanding brood, one of whom has taken a serious shine to my girlfriend.” He laughed as he pointed at Robbie who was now giggling at Eve while holding the neck of her dress tightly in his chubby little hands.

  “Nice to meet you and apologies for my son's advances.” The sandy haired man laughed.

  “No problem, he's very handsome,” smiled Eve as she extended a hand towards Neil and introduced herself, “Eve.”

  Smiling, he turned to his wife. “Your dad is looking for you over on the patio.”

  Lisa offered her goodbyes and rushed off while Tim appeared at Gray's shoulder and with a whisper Gray too was making his excuses to leave. Eve felt slightly stranded with Neil and his daughters before her and his son in her arms. One of the girls began pestering him for something leaving him with a torn expression on his face as he looked from his little girl to his son and Eve.

  “Would you just hang onto him for a minute?” he asked with a definite expression of pleading on his face.

  “Sure, but the first sign of crying or a dirty nappy and I will hunt you down,” laughed Eve then laughed louder as the little boy she had moved onto her hip looked up at her and laughed a real belly laugh at her.

  Eve was quite happy to be on her own, well, with Robbie and soon found herself sitting quietly in a shaded corner of the marquee talking to the little boy and watching the world around them. She noticed Diana enter the marquee with a fair-haired man of a similar age, but much taller and broader with his arm around her. This was obviously Edward Tanner, Diana's husband and Lucas' dad. Eve hoped that she was of such little importance that she would blend in with everyone else and that Diana's gaze would miss her, which it appeared to. Eve watched how tactile she was with her husband and with friends and acquaintances who she greeted with apparent affection and love.

  Bouncing Robbie on her lap as she made horsey noises that caused the little boy to giggle, Eve looked up. Diana was talking to a woman who looked very like her, but younger, maybe a niece or a cousin. Eve allowed her mind to wonder back to Gray's type and suddenly realised that his mother was his type. Not Diana herself, but the petite blonde, slightly ambitious with presumably a reasonable standard of education if she could pull off this charity thing. Shit! How weird was that, not that he necessarily found women like his mother attractive, but that he found them attractive when he despised her so, what did that mean? Shaking her head, she questioned whether he should consider therapy and what a therapist would make of this situation.

  Smiling down at Robbie she thought back to the baby's mother, the petite blonde, she had been a girlfriend, had to have been. Robbie was becoming restless, so Eve stood him up to bounce on his feet which he took to immediately and with his smile and gurgling reinstated, Eve was startled by the sound of a man's voice behind her.

  “Is this the boyfriend?”

  Eve turned around and found Jamie Lewis taking the seat next to her.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked looking around, but unsure who or what for.

  “I was about to ask you the same thing.” He grinned, reaching over to speak to Robbie. “Hello mate. Dribbling like that is a turn off for a girl.”

  Eve smiled briefly before Jamie continued, “I didn't realise you had a boyfriend and a child, that raises the odds in the boyfriend's favour.” He smiled, referring to his earlier comment in the office about boyfriend's merely being a challenge.

  “What? No!” Eve protested. “He's not mine, the baby, unlike the boyfriend who is, a
nd I am hoping will be back any second.”

  “Oh. You're hoping your boyfriend is going to rescue you?” he asked with a smirk that actually made him more attractive and eerily made him look more like Max.

  “I don't need rescuing, do I?” She felt slightly nervous by his resemblance to her dead husband.

  “I suppose not. So, what does bring you here?” he asked again.

  “My boyfriend,” she replied bluntly making him smirk with a raised brow.

  “We keep coming full circle, don't we?” he asked rhetorically. “I am unsure how I ended up here, a friend of a friend is pushing for children's charities, which is great and then next thing I know here I am with my cheque book, alone after my friend bailed,” he explained.

  “I didn't bring my cheque book,” she suddenly realised. “So, if you ever start a charity yourself remember I am a very poor benefactor.”

  “I am sure your presence alone has generated enough of a frenzy without a contribution.” He startled her again, making her suspicious of Jamie and exactly what he knew of her, her and Gray.

  “And what's that supposed to mean?” she asked abruptly, unnerving Robbie slightly judging by the little boy's sudden moaning.

  “What?” Nothing,” protested Jamie with a look of genuine confusion on his face. “I was trying to pay you a compliment by saying that the presence of someone so gorgeous was likely to draw attention, what else would it mean?”

  “Sorry,” said Eve wondering whether to just find one of Robbie's parents to return him to before finding Gray to ask if they could leave.

  “Eve, are you okay?” asked a concerned sounding Jamie as he guided her back into a sitting position.

  “Yes, sorry,” she repeated. “Please forgive me for being so unstable. This is far more than I expected and I am unsure what I am doing here apart from being a plus one,” she said more calmly as she moved a still slightly unsettled Robbie into a cradled position where she gently stroked his face with one hand and patted his nappy with the other.

  “It's fine.” He reassured her as he rubbed a hand nervously across his curls rather than through them, making her shudder at the memory of Max doing a similar thing. She hadn't been joking when she'd told Sam that it was no mean feat running your fingers through her husband's curls.

  “I have to go,” she suddenly announced, getting to her feet with a now sleeping Robbie in her arms. “Be nice to my cousin,” she warned as she strode across the marquee almost knocking Diana out of her way, no longer caring whether she noticed her or not.

  Making her way back into the garden, with a need for some solitude, Eve found a bench and sat down with a sigh wondering why she felt so guilty about Max now; was it because of Jamie and his undeniable similarity? Confusion seeped through every pore as she allowed herself to think about Gray and their plans, for tonight if nothing else; maybe that was it, she was planning a wedding night with a man she wasn't married to in a hotel room and she was prepared to have sex without a condom with him, something she had never done with Max, although she’d never been on the pill when she and Max were together and he was well. She was moving on and having a life without Max. She was building a future, maybe even a similar future to the one that she and Max had desired.

  “Hey, there's my boy. He is so lame falling asleep on his first date,” called Lisa as she sat next to Eve and ran her hand across her son's head.

  “He's been a star on his first date,” Eve replied with a smile as Lisa got to her feet and bent to lift her baby from Eve's arms making her feel bereft by his absence.

  “Are you okay?” asked Lisa looking down at Eve, smiling sympathetically.

  “I'm fine,” Eve replied a little too enthusiastically.

  “Well, nice to meet you and congratulations on Gray, he seems very happy, oh, and thanks for this,” she said looking down at her son and then left Eve alone again.

  Watching Lisa leave, Eve began to wonder why the removal of the baby from her arms had affected her. Did she want a baby? Maybe, eventually. With Gray? What sort of parents would the two of them make with all of their own issues from their own childhoods and parentage?

  “Eve! Where have you been?” Gray's voice and Gray himself seemed to be thundering towards her in long, panic struck strides.

  Chapter 26

  Staring across at Eve sitting on the bench alone looking sad, chilled Gray to the bone. What had happened between him leaving her in the marquee with Neil and now? Why had he left her knowing that she knew no-one and would be prey for some of those assembled, including his mother? But then he had been stupid enough to bring her here in the first place.

  He'd had little choice but to leave her to sort out the fiasco of his mother's seating plan for afternoon tea; the plan that had him sitting with Sam, Tim, Lucas, Poppy, and best of all Sienna. Eve had been put on a table as far from Gray as she possibly could be with unknown people that wouldn’t be beneficial to his mother nor her charity, but now she was sitting with him and Sienna wasn't.

  As he saw the strange expression on her face; sadness, wariness, fear maybe, he vowed to himself that he wouldn't leave her side again, ever if he could, but he would settle for today. Striding towards her he couldn't think of anything other than holding her tightly and putting a smile back on her face.

  “Hey, baby,” he said as he pulled her to her feet and enveloped her in his arms, a move that she gave no resistance to, she just softened against him and yielded completely. “I thought I'd lost you,” he whispered as he cupped her chin and tilted her head to look at him.

  “I ended up wandering with Robbie, but he fell asleep and then Lisa found us.”

  That explained her current location.

  “What's wrong?” Gray held her face still.

  “Nothing, come on, we should get back.” She insisted as she attempted to break free of his hold.

  “We're not going anywhere until you talk to me. Has someone said something to upset you, my mother?” he asked angrily.

  “No. No. Sorry. This whole thing is far grander than I had anticipated and then Lisa and Robbie and then Jamie Lewis, it was all a bit weird. Sorry,” she repeated unsure whether she was being too economical with the truth.

  “I don't believe that entirely, but we'll talk later about the grandness of this and Lisa and Robbie, however Jamie 'Mr Single No More' Lewis is beginning to irritate me, baby. What's he doing here anyway?”

  “He's here via a friend of a friend for the charity,” explained Eve, smiling at the streak of jealousy broadening in Gray.

  “I really need to introduce myself to your stalker, baby, but I like that you're smiling again. You ready to head back? We can find Sam and Tim and Poppy who is dying to meet you,” he told her in a strange voice as he attempted to mimic his teenage stepsister.

  Laughing gently at him, Eve stretched up and kissed him on the lips making his grip on her tighten.

  “I've just found out that my grandparents are away for the weekend, so you'll have to meet them another day. Come on, sooner we're done here the sooner we can get on with our honeymoon,” he whispered across her lips before allowing his tongue to lick across them.

  “How long do you reckon the honeymoon will last?” Her mood had lifted and her thoughts began to become more ordered, Grayson Sharp priority ordered.

  “Ah, now that depends on my bride really, but I reckon we're good till twelve tomorrow when we check out.” He grinned.

  “Twelve? You are offering me a honeymoon based on the check in and check out times of the hotel?” she asked with mock shock and disappointment.

  Pulling her in tighter against his body, Gray began to tease Eve's earlobe with his lips and teeth as he told her, “It all depends on you, baby. If my sweet, innocent bride is a quick learner and ends up fucking me like a high-class hooker all night we may never get home from our honeymoon.”

  “And if she doesn't?” asked Eve, breathing deeply, loving Gray's use of coarse language that turned her on like she couldn't believe hav
ing never really had a partner who used such graphic terms before.

  “Oh Evie, Mrs Sharp is a very, very, very dirty girl who likes to be fucked at every opportunity. She has a very greedy and wet little pussy that is so tight that it makes me want to come just thinking about it so I reckon she will be riding me aaalll night,” he replied, over emphasising the word all.

  With a definite flush to her skin, a rapid rise and fall to her chest and a pool of moisture between her thighs, Eve stretched her arms up and wrapped them around Gray's neck tightly where she toyed with the inky strands of hair between her fingers as she kissed his lips gently before allowing her tongue to whip across his lips lightly making him groan.

  “You may want to consider paying the extra for a late check out, Skipper.” She grinned, lowering herself back to the ground as Tim's voice bellowed behind them.

  “Come on you two. Diana is circling.”

  “After you, Mr Sharp,” said Eve with a low wave of her hand.

  “Oh no, after you, Mrs Sharp,” he countered before she complied with his request and giggled loudly as he whispered from behind her. “Keep close, but stay in front of me, your dirty talk and overactive tongue have given me the biggest hard on.”

  Laughing loudly as she kept her position before him, Tim frowned at them both until they had passed him when he said, “You two are quite sickening.”

  They both laughed.

  A pretty young girl with dark blonde hair, maybe more light brown was standing with Sam as Eve approached them. Her face literally lit up as they all stood before her.

  “Oh my, you must be Eve?” she giggled excitedly and then added with disbelief, “Gray's girlfriend.”

  Sam laughed along with her younger stepsibling until Gray shook his head at them both but confirmed Eve's identity.

  “Yes, Poppy, this is Eve. Eve, this is Poppy,” he said completing the introductions as Lucas came into sight.

  “Come on you lot, it's teatime. Let me escort you, Eve,” he offered until Gray took Eve's hand in his own.