by Diana Palmer
“I’m going to look like a pumpkin in a few months,” she said, staring up into his black eyes as she smiled. “Will you mind?”
“Hell, no,” he murmured, nuzzling her cheek with his. He chuckled. “I’ll take dozens of photos and put them on my desk at work.”
“I’ll do the same with photos of you.”
“And I plan to limit some of those business conferences. I won’t travel as much, especially while you’re carrying our baby.”
“Our baby.” She slid her hand up into his wavy black hair, loving its thickness. “I was so afraid that you’d think it wasn’t yours. I knew that you said Elise couldn’t get pregnant...”
“I didn’t know about her birth control pills,” he replied. He smiled. “But, honey, exactly how would I think the baby was someone else’s? I was your first lover,” he whispered. His voice deepened. “I remember every sweet second of it. I’d never have doubted it was mine.”
“You wouldn’t? But why?” she asked, honestly curious.
“Because you love me, Niki,” he said quietly.
She smiled. “Yes, I do. So much!”
“I thought I’d found love twice in my life,” he said. “Both times were false starts, because I didn’t really know what love was.” His arms tightened around her. “I found it in the oddest place. In a quiet, shy young woman who played with me and made me hungry for a family, for a place to belong.”
She smiled against his chest, her eyes welling with tears. “You have a place to belong. You belong to me.”
He nuzzled her ear. “And you belong to me, my darling.”
“I’m so tired,” she said. She smiled at him, and then her face contorted. “Oh, gosh...!”
He picked her up and carried her into the bathroom just in time. He went to get a washcloth, wet it and brought it back. She pressed it to her lips and her forehead. She started crying.
“Honey, what’s the matter?” he asked worriedly.
“It’s our honeymoon,” she wailed. “And I’m going to spend it kneeling in front of a toilet!”
He laughed tenderly. “You’re pregnant,” he mused. “It sort of goes with the condition. I don’t mind. I really don’t.” He took the cloth and bathed her face with it. “In sickness and in health, baby,” he said softly. “I took a vow.”
“I’ll take care of you, if you need me to,” she promised.
He felt warm inside, not only at the words, but at the love in her voice when she spoke them. He was the richest man alive, and it had nothing to do with money.
“I’ve been alone all my life until now,” he said quietly, brushing back her hair as she finally got up and flushed the toilet.
“So have I, really, except for Dad and Edna,” she replied. “I feel awful.”
He picked her up gently and carried her back to bed. He put her down on the coverlet while he searched for her new yellow nightgown.
“It’s daylight,” she said.
“You’re sick,” he replied, smiling. “You can get up when you feel better.”
He pulled off her long dress and tugged the pretty yellow frilly gown over her head. It was one of the ones they’d bought together at Neiman Marcus.
He tucked her in. “Need something to drink?” he asked gently.
“Is there any ginger ale in the minibar?” she asked.
“I’ll check.” He found one can of it, opened it and handed it to her.
“Thanks,” she said, smiling up at him. She sipped it, finding that it calmed her stomach quite nicely. “Blair, can you find my pills in the little suitcase? There should be two bottles—one’s vitamins and the other is nausea medicine.”
“I’ll check.” He dug them out and handed them to her.
“I forgot to take the nausea pill this morning,” she said with a sheepish smile. “It’s new.”
“It’s all new, isn’t it, honey?” he asked, his face radiant. “For both of us.”
“You said that after Elise, you never wanted to marry again.”
He sat down beside her, his fingers teasing around one pretty breast in the deep neckline of the gown. “That was how I felt. Until Elise, I never wanted marriage.”
“Not ever?”
He shook his head. “Then even before the divorce, I wanted you. I would have died to have you. But you were so damned young!”
She smoothed over his fingers, coaxing them into the deep neckline. “Love doesn’t have an age limit,” she said simply. “I’d have loved you if you’d been my age or older than you are. It’s what’s inside you that I love, Blair. It has nothing to do with the outside. Even if the outside is utterly gorgeous,” she added, eating him with her eyes.
His high cheekbones flushed, but his black eyes twinkled. “Gorgeous?”
“Oh, yes,” she said. She grimaced. “And I wish I felt like doing something about it.”
“Sick again?” he asked gently.
She sat, swallowing for a minute. She took the nausea pill and lay back. “It’s dreadful to feel this way on a honeymoon in paradise,” she groaned.
“You’ll feel better. When you do, we’ll go tour the island, even if we have to carry a pail with us,” he added with a grin.
She laughed at his expression. “Okay.”
“And that’s what I love about you,” he said softly. “I’ve never known anyone as easygoing as you are.”
“You are.”
“Only with you, baby,” he replied, and he was serious. “Most of my executives hide when they see me coming. I’m temperamental. Or at least I was,” he added. “I think marriage might lighten my mood.”
She beamed. “I’ll work on that.”
He chuckled. “See if you can sleep for a bit while I finish taking care of business,” he added, picking up the cell phone. “I’ll go outside to yell at subordinates, okay?” he asked, bending to kiss her forehead. “If you need me, I’ll be close by.”
“Thanks, Blair.”
He kissed her eyelids. “My sweetheart,” he whispered. “You look so beautiful, Niki, even pale as a sheet and without a trace of makeup.”
She kissed his hard cheek. “My gorgeous husband. You’re beautiful to me.”
He made a face, winked at her and went out the sliding glass patio doors with the phone.
* * *
NIKI ENDED UP dozing again after the last bout of nausea. When she woke up, Blair was lying on his side, propped on an elbow, just watching her. He was wearing tan shorts. His broad chest was bare, and he was barefoot. She caught her breath just looking at him. His chest was broad and muscular, covered with curling black hair. His legs were like tree trunks, muscular and finely covered with hair. Even his feet were attractive, big and tapered.
“I could spend hours just looking at you,” he confessed softly. “You’re so beautiful, Niki.”
“I was just thinking the same thing,” she mused. “You’re gorgeous.”
“How do you feel?”
She stretched. “Much better.” She rolled over into his arms and pillowed her head on his chest with a little sigh. “Are you finished yelling at people?”
“For today,” he chuckled. “I shut the damned thing off. Business gets tedious.”
She smoothed her hand over his chest, loving the play of muscles when she touched him. He was warm and strong. She turned her face and kissed the skin under the thick hair. He stiffened a little. It amazed her to find him vulnerable. That made her bold.
She raised up, r
esting her chest on his, and kissed his mouth. Her nightgown was low-cut, and the top of her breasts pressed warm and soft into his chest. He looked at her with laughing black eyes.
“Are you trying to seduce me?” he asked.
She pursed her lips. “Mmmmmm,” she murmured. Her small hand tangled in the thick hair over his chest and moved slowly down. His body tautened even more. “What a delicious thought,” she whispered.
He laughed softly. “Go ahead. I’m easy.”
“Are you really?” she whispered. She moved her mouth warmly over his. She loved kissing him. His mouth was broad and chiseled and warm. She teased it with her lips until he nibbled at her own mouth, and she was lost.
He turned her slowly until she was under him, his hands going to the straps of the gown. He lowered them very gently, brushing his chest over her naked breasts until she gasped with the sudden pleasure.
He tossed the nightgown over the side of the bed. It was followed in quick order by her panties and his own clothes. His mouth smoothed over her soft breast, his tongue sliding gently against the hard nipple. She arched up, and he chuckled before his mouth began to move down her body. It went from her neck to her calves and back again, up her sides, to her back, all over her. And all the while he touched her, arousing her to such a fever pitch that she was almost in tears when he finally turned her onto her back and slid between her long, trembling legs.
He touched her gently between her legs. “Yes, you’re ready for me.”
“Ready?” she asked, concentrating on the slow movement of his hips as he began to enter her.
“Your body produces a very effective lubricant,” he whispered over her mouth. He pushed down gently and felt her envelop him. “You see? It makes it easy for me to go into you.”
She flushed, because the intimacy was still very new. “I see.”
His mouth moved onto hers, teasing, exploring, while his hips rose and fell in a slow, easy rhythm that very quickly caught her up and made her whole body tense with each downward movement.
“We have to learn to please each other,” he whispered. “First times are difficult. But it gets easier as we go along. Do you like this?”
His hips moved from side to side, and she shivered and cried out.
“Yes, that works, doesn’t it?” he teased. “How about this?”
The movements were quick and hard, and she began to moan and dig her nails into his arms. Even that first night had been nothing like this. She shivered with each movement of his powerful body, felt him so deep in her body that she thought they might be joined forever. He was far more potent than he’d been the first time. She arched up to him, her eyes wide open with pleasure and surprise.
“You...you’re...more than last time,” she gasped.
“Much more,” he whispered, holding her eyes. “Men are more potent at times. This is definitely one of them.” He moved down. His body shuddered, and he whispered huskily as the pleasure bit into him, “Oh, God, honey, I don’t think I can...hold it...much longer!”
“You don’t have to,” she said, moving with him. She gripped his shoulders hard. Her body trembled. “Please, now!” Her voice broke on the word as pleasure bit into her like a knife. She cried out with each quick, sharp, deep movement of his body, watching him the whole time.
Her eyes on him intensified his pleasure, which was already monstrous. His hands gripped the pillow on either side of her head, and he gave in to the passionate hunger. “Oh, God, baby, oh, God, it’s like...dying...!” he choked.
Her eyes closed on the fierce pleasure he gave her. She felt his body arch down into hers as she was almost swept away in the overwhelming pleasure. It was nothing like before. She convulsed under the driving rhythm of his hips, shuddered and moaned as her whole body seemed to liquefy with molten heat.
She didn’t think it could get any better, but it did. Just as she climaxed, he moved down against her, and she shot up into realms she’d never dreamed existed. She sobbed into his shoulder as her body moved involuntarily up toward him, pleading, hungry, insistent.
He shuddered one last time, and she felt him throbbing inside her. Her hands smoothed over his damp back, holding him close. He tried to spare her his weight, but she pulled him back down again.
“No,” she whispered. “I like to feel you lying on top of me like this. I love your weight on me.”
“You feel like silk to me,” he murmured breathlessly. “Was it too quick?”
“You’re kidding, right?” she laughed huskily. “It was wonderful, that first night. But it was nothing like this. I thought I might die...of pleasure,” she said, flushing. She slid her legs around his, loving the intimacy. “It feels so good, being with you like this.”
He rolled over onto his back and took a deep, long breath.
She pillowed her cheek on his hairy chest and smiled. “Tired?”
“Deliciously tired,” he mused.
“Me, too.”
“Want some ginger ale?”
“That would be nice.”
He moved away, got to his feet, padded to the minibar and found her a ginger ale. He opened it on the way back while she lay on her side and watched him with wide, soft, curious eyes.
“Oh, Blair,” she whispered. “You really are gorgeous. I am a very lucky woman.”
He laughed. “I’ll have to start working out more, so that I don’t start drooping too soon.”
She sat up and curled her arms around his neck. “You don’t have to do anything of the sort,” she said quietly, her eyes loving on his face. “I love you so much, Blair. More than anything in the world.”
His high cheekbones had a faint flush. He handed her the ginger ale. “If I started counting my blessings right now, I’d be old and gray before I finished,” he said. He searched her eyes hungrily. “You’re my world now, Niki. My whole world. It’s just you and me. Forever.”
She sat up, beautifully nude, and studied him.
“Looking for hidden treasure?” he mused, laughing at her.
“Oh, something like that,” she said. “I was thinking...”
“Thinking?” he asked as she moved toward him, climbed onto him, her knees going on either side of his hips.
She lifted up and positioned him, delighted to find that he was more than ready to accommodate her. She slid down onto him with a soft gasp. “I was wondering,” she whispered, “how it would feel...if we did it like this.”
His big hands helped her, because she very quickly became too weak to keep it up. Pleasure overwhelmed her, so suddenly that she felt as if she dropped from a great height.
“Blair!” she cried out, shivering in pleasure.
“Oh, it’s good like this,” he breathed, moving her hard against him, impaling her. “Good, good, good...!”
“Yes...” Her voice trailed away into a smothered scream as the intensity shot her up like a rocket. She shuddered and shuddered and wept. Pleasure almost as deep as pain racked her slender body, while Blair held her hips and went into her so hungrily that she felt blind, deaf, dumb from the utter joy of it.
“Now...” he choked. “Now, now...!”
He cried out, a hoarse, deep groan that echoed in the room, combining with her high-pitched moans as they climaxed together.
“Dear God!” he moaned at her ear when they were able to breathe and speak again.
She clung to him, weeping. “It’s...it’s... I can’t even find words!”
“Paradise,” he whispered. “T
hat’s what it is, Mrs. Coleman,” he added, using her married name for the first time. He looked down into her wide, soft gray eyes. “Paradise.”
She smiled slowly, her body perfectly attuned to his, her eyes blinded by the love on his face. “Paradise,” she agreed.
* * *
THEY WENT HOME a week later, tanned and so much in love that they became quickly inseparable. They moved into the house next door to the Ashton ranch, and Niki’s father and Edna were frequent visitors.
The long months of her pregnancy ended in a very quick delivery. Blair barely made it to the hospital with her before their little boy was born. The baby looked up at them with blue eyes.
“Our son,” she whispered.
He kissed her and then the baby’s tiny forehead. “You don’t need to die to find heaven,” he said softly, looking into her eyes. “If you’re very lucky, you find it right here on earth. Like I have.” His mouth smoothed over hers tenderly. “I love you so much it hurts, Niki,” he whispered unsteadily. “Oh, God, honey, I’d die for you!”
Tears stung her eyes. “I’d do the same for you,” she whispered.
She looked up at him with eyes so full of love that they almost blinded him.
“I will never leave you,” she whispered, chipping away at that tiny fear that still showed sometimes in his black eyes. “Never.”
He swallowed, hard. His mouth brushed over hers hungrily. “I’ll take care of you all my life.”
She smiled tenderly. “And I’ll take care of you, my darling, all my life.”
She drew his face down to hers and kissed him. It was still magic to her, to love and be loved so much. And to have a child, born of that love, a living symbol of it, really was heaven on earth.
She let him go and shifted the baby in her arms, kissing his soft head with wonder. “We still haven’t discussed names,” she said.
“I like Todd,” he said softly. “For your father.”
“Yes, I like that, too, for his middle name. What was your father’s first name?”
“Jacob.”