Cruising Through to Fulfilment

by Ann M Pratley

  "It is getting late. I had better get going - I haven't checked in to the hotel yet," Paul said, standing up.

  Tanya stood up and hugged him briefly and he savoured that moment, filing it away to be remembered. He could feel the slight bump on her tummy and was reminded that this was not only another man's wife, but she was also carrying his baby.

  Tanya followed him to the door, watched him say goodbye to her husband, and turn to her before he walked out.

  "I am here tonight and tomorrow night. What are you doing tomorrow?" he asked, boldly, and she smiled at him.

  "Come back here when you are up and about tomorrow morning and we'll do something together," Tanya replied, giving him a brilliant grin, and then he was gone.

  After closing the door she walked over to David and put her arms around him before he kissed her passionately, instantly waking her up. She melted so easily and so quickly that she removed just enough clothing for him to be able to access her, let him lift her up onto the kitchen counter, and then felt him slide into her. The freedom of being able to do that without having to worry about anyone else was still invigorating to her, driving her to heights before he came inside of her. She knew in her heart that his urgency then was directly related to Paul having been in the apartment, but she didn't dwell on that - the reason didn't matter. Here he was, relaxing against her and holding her tight, and she only knew love when she looked at him.

  He pulled away far enough to enable him to look into her face and feel like he was really home.

  * * * *

  Mid-morning the next day Tanya heard a knock at the apartment door and was pleased to see Paul standing there when she opened the door.

  "I have to take some books back to the library. Do you want to walk there with me? And then we can find somewhere to have lunch," she said to him, helping him to relax and feel relieved at the idea of not having to see her husband.

  They walked out and made their way to the library, through the crowds on the footpath that seemed to be excessively bustling today.

  "Are you sure you are okay out here in these crowds, in your condition, Tanya?" Paul asked, sincerely worried and protective of her.

  She laughed at him.

  "Of course, Paul. I walk this way almost every day."

  They entered the great library and Tanya dropped off her books to the returns area before leading him inside to an area of the building that was set aside for comfortable reading, with sofas and arm chairs. She had been coming here long enough now to know that at this time of day on this morning each week, the area was generally empty. And this visit was no exception. She sat on a sofa, taking note that no-one else was around, and Paul sat down beside her, half turned so that he could look at her while they chatted quietly.

  "How is your hotel room and how was your sleep?"

  "The hotel is nice but it was hard to sleep. This city is so noisy!" Paul exclaimed.

  "Have you not been here before?" Tanya asked, realising there were still some things they hadn't talked about yesterday.

  "Actually I have, but not for many years," he responded, laughing slightly. "One year when we were in high school, Greg and I caught a bus up here, thinking we were being grown up by going to the big city alone … but then we got lost and ended up calling our parents to help us get home."

  Tanya laughed at the little story but noted that this was the first time since Paul had arrived that he had approached the subject of Greg. As both of them realised it, they went quiet.

  "He was quite upset that you didn't write to him, you know. He didn't know I had written to you so I didn't offer that information to him, in case it upset him more." He paused in his talking. "Even about coming here to see you, I haven't found the strength to be completely open and honest with him. It's silly, isn't it, but I just wanted to see you without him overshadowing us."

  Tanya took his hand and held it.

  "I don't think it's silly at all. He does have the ability to overpower people and make everything else around them seem invisible. You two have been friends for so long - have you always felt like he overshadows you?"

  Paul was quiet for several minutes, enjoying the touch of her hand, before answering.

  "He is my friend and neither of us can help that he grew up looking like he does, and I grew up looking like I do."

  "It isn't a handsome thing, Paul. You are as attractive as he is," she started to say before seeing him shake his head as if she was telling him a blatant lie. "He just has something else - charisma or something like that - that makes people notice him. If you think that people don't look at you when you are beside him because you aren't also good looking, you need to stop thinking like that." She paused before continuing. "So where does he think you are right now?"

  "Oh I was honest about coming to New York, I just didn't tell him that it was because you are here."

  Tanya looked at their hands touching and realised she was comfortable with that - perhaps too comfortable. She knew he wasn't trying to be sensual but the way he was mindlessly stroking her hand with his fingers was making her very aware of him in a different way. Slowly she pulled her hand away, using it to cover her mouth as she pretended to cough, only as an excuse for having moved it, and she did not put it back where it had been.

  "Let's go and get some lunch. What would you like to eat?" she asked, breaking him out of the trance he had been in.

  * * * *

  Later that day Paul sat in Tanya's apartment, eating dinner with her and David. It was the first time the two men had sat down and actually talked, and once they both relaxed and let go of their feelings for her, they started to enjoy each other's company and really get on. Tanya sat back and let them talk about whatever seemed to interest them both, and enjoyed watching them interact. There was still the one secret that David didn't know about - that Paul and Tanya had kissed that morning in Vancouver, when David was just upstairs. But it didn't seem to need to be aired so wasn't by her or by Paul, and she had destroyed Paul's letters because of the mention of it. So much time had passed now, and so much had happened, but she did not want to have to explain and possibly hurt David, even this long since the event.

  The next day Tanya went to the train station to see Paul off. David had stayed in the apartment, choosing to disregard any insecure feelings that had threatened. Outside the ticket entry points Tanya held out her arms and welcomed Paul into them. He revelled in being so close to her, whilst wondering when, or even if, he would ever see her again. She kept thinking about his lack of self-esteem and his belief that he was not in any way attractive, and when she looked at him now she wanted to at least try and make him consider himself attractive, so leaned in and kissed him. There was no thought of her love or marriage to David - she kissed Paul and felt him respond and she didn't stop him. She let him kiss her as long as he wanted to, and she felt him move from a place of friendly kissing to passionate kissing, also tentative to break away from it.

  He responded eagerly to what was happening, like it was such a dream come true. He would not have kissed her, knowing she was a married woman and mother-to-be, but having her approach him like this was highly arousing and exciting. It was like heaven, and his body reacted quickly and strongly, forcing him to pull away from her in case she felt the reaction he was having. They looked at each other, both full of passion, and then he had that bashful grin on his face again, just like the previous time they had kissed.

  "I really wish you weren't happily married," he joked, letting out a small laugh and feeling her hug him again briefly.

  "Thank you for coming all this way to see me, Paul. It means a great deal to me."

  "Will you keep writing?"

  "I will. We are heading back to New Zealand in a few weeks but I will keep writing to you, and hope you will write back," she said and he nodded before turning and starting to walk away. She watched him go through the ticket entry point and wave once more on the other side, before he was gone, lost in the crowd.

  Tanya
made her way back to the apartment, where David was waiting, anxiously.

  Chapter 31

  Over the next few weeks they resumed normal life once again, spending time together and with their friends. Then it was time to shut up the apartment and endure the long journey to New Zealand once again.

  Walking into her cottage, Tanya was overwhelmed with the feeling of being home once again. She was so used to the New York apartment, but this house was something different. She had bought it and it was fully hers and because of that, had an extra special place in her heart.

  Over coming weeks they set about getting the cottage ready as their home, including the room they set up for their baby. Still when David thought about that - a baby - he was overcome with emotion. Everything still looked healthy and like it was going to be okay, but because he had spent most of his life thinking he would never be a father, he found he still caught himself out now and then in thinking that something bad would happen.

  Tanya spent time with Olivia, who was like a substitute mother to her. Being able to talk to someone who had had several children was amazing for Tanya, and she was grateful to David for being so eager to have her come to New Zealand for the birth. In New York Tanya had made friends with Kendra and her acquaintances, but something this personal felt better in her own home.

  Chapter 32

  Forty weeks after the first time they had made love without condoms, their baby was born. A healthy and robust little boy who they named Charles - Charlie - after Tanya's father. David attended the birth, still certain something would happen, but was instantly amazed by it all. He looked at Tanya with new admiration. How did he end up here, from just saying hello to a young woman on a bus trip, he wondered to himself. When the tiny little person was put into his arms, he cried. He had thought it would never happen and yet, now at 43, he was finally a father - a dad, he laughed to himself.

  Coming home to the cottage, Tanya was exhausted but happy to be at home, and even more happy that they had chosen to do this in her home land and not in the country she had chosen to live in but still wasn't quite home. She settled on the sofa with little Charlie in her arms, and David came and sat beside them, putting his arm around them.

  When she looked at him she saw the deepest look of love she had seen on him yet, and immediately wanted to melt toward him. She stood up and put their son in the new bassinet, before returning to David and pulling him up to hold him tight. He looked at her longingly.

  "My beautiful, wonderful wife, I love you so much and I will do whatever I can to make you fulfilled and happy for the rest of our lives."

  She clung to him, silently cursing the advice she had been given to not have sex for several weeks yet, and kissed him hard.

  "Oh, David, don't you know? My fulfilment began the very first day that I met you."

  The End

  Thank you!

  Thank you so much for reading my book, 'Cruising Through to Fulfilment'. I greatly enjoyed writing this story and I appreciate your enthusiasm for reading it.

  If you enjoyed 'Cruising Through to Fulfilment', I hope you will consider taking a moment to place a review in Amazon.

  If interested in receiving up to date details of freebies, price drops and new releases, please contact me via my website to leave your name and email address, and I shall be glad to send you news.

  Thank you,

  Ann M Pratley

  New Release: The Golden Desires

  By Ann M Pratley

  He wanted to escape. They needed to survive.

  When Isabella starts to dream of a stranger, she is awakened inside with feelings she has never felt before. She knows he is not someone she has ever seen before, and he is not of her village. He is a stranger, and she is desperate to determine if he is real or he is a part of her imagination.

  Far away a businessman desperate to escape the noise and stress of the city, embarks on a journey to find peace and the solitude he increasingly needs and desires. But at his destination he will find much, much more.

  Introducing: Painful Deliverance

  (PAINFUL DELIVERANCE SERIES - BOOK #1)

  By Ann M Pratley

  She just wasn't made to inflict pain.

  She knows it is nothing abnormal. She knows others enjoy it. But with every new level of pain he directs her to deliver to him, Alexis feels another piece of her soul die. He has wealth and he has power, and she knows he won't easily let her go.

  But she has to leave. Escape. Move on. Forget. She has reached her limit of what she can do. The plans are in place to get away. She just has to hope that wherever she goes - whoever she meets - she won't find herself in exactly the same situation again.

  Introducing: Darkness of Heart

  (PAINFUL DELIVERANCE SERIES - BOOK #2)

  By Ann M Pratley

  She thought he'd stopped looking. He hadn't.

  She got away from him to start a new life. She moved on. But in his mind, he still loves her and needs her. He still believes that she loves him. That she is meant to be his. That he is meant to be hers.

  He will not give up searching for her. He will not give up fighting for her. He will pursue her and stop at nothing to get her back. But it will come at a cost … a sacrifice much greater than he will see coming. A sacrifice that will finally wake him up and bring him back to stark reality.

  Introducing: Friendship of Desire

  (PAINFUL DELIVERANCE SERIES - BOOK #3)

  By Ann M Pratley

  Tom and Samantha. Feisty friends from childhood who feel like they know each other inside out, until the day comes when one of them suggests they go to a BDSM club together, and become formal play partners. Pushing the limits of what each of them can individually stand in their lifelong friendship, they attract and repel like magnets, until the time comes when they must choose how they will relate to one another - and what kind of relationship they will go on to have in the future.

  Whilst on this journey of discovery, the two of them meet and make a new friend - Alexis. A young woman with a hidden and secretive past, and a mystery surrounding the relationship she has - or has had - with a renowned business entrepreneur who begins to integrate himself into Samantha's life, unknown to any of them whether he has done it for him, or for her … or for Alexis, being the mysterious link from his past.

  Introducing: Alessandra

  By Ann M Pratley

  After receiving news from her parents of a possible betrothal, Alessandra, an 18 year old with an ingrained belief that no-one would ever wish to marry her, finds herself in a love so great that at times she cannot breathe.

  To marry someone like herself - someone she can go on a sexual journey of learning and exploration with, who also has no previous experience in such pleasures - contributes to her finding a degree of emotional and physical love that she has never before realised could exist.

  But that love will be tested by someone from her past with sinister intentions, jealous of the physical love she shares with her husband. Someone set on doing whatever he can do - whatever he must do - to have the woman he desires, no matter the cost.

  Bonus Extract: Total Freedom

  (TOTAL FREEDOM SERIES - BOOK #1)

  By Ann M Pratley

  The Drabs, that's what we had been known as, as a band in our home town of Dunedin, New Zealand. We weren't the greatest band and only played a couple of original songs, but we were happy doing what we were doing and over time the crowds did seem to come to love us. That was back in the days of what seemed to be equally the best and worst time of my life. Things have changed so much since then.

  When I was 14 years old I attended high school like any other 14 year old, I dressed like any other 14 year old, and I got abused like any other overweight 14 year old - and like too many 14 year olds, I couldn't handle the abuse and as a result I let myself go and believed every word of what I was told. No friends, fat, ugly and totally useless - that's what I was told by people all around me and that was what I became.

>   Even as a teenager I was well aware of the concept of nutrition and weight maintenance, but day after day everything just felt painful, like just getting through each day was work for me. Like no matter how hard I searched, I just couldn't find where or who I was meant to be. And I became used to using food as my therapy - when I ate, I felt a comfort, like it was the one thing that never hurt me.

  Through that period I fell into a comfort zone visiting a local café that sold a wide plethora of foods - nutritious and not so nutritious, but I naturally veered toward the latter. Friends were non-existent to me - in my universe I was a nobody who no-one else ever even noticed.

  But one day, walking into my favourite café, something changed. Sitting in there was someone who I noticed and who immediately captured my attention because they were also alone, and looking like they were as miserable as I was day after day. Immediately my feelings didn't seem quite so important - but his did.

  Approaching him I didn't feel the usual nervousness or anxiety that I did when contemplating saying hello to someone new. This person had such a look of despair and unhappiness that it actually felt natural for me to approach him and ask if I could sit with him. When he looked up he had such a look of surprise, but stammered out a quiet 'okay'.

  After I sat down in front of him, I could see that he wasn't far away from my own age, but I had never seen him before. He looked at me with such intensity in his eyes, periodically removing his eyes from my gaze as if he were not only shy but also extremely uncomfortable talking to people.