by Julie
Her arms were full of a large basket. "This is from Doug. I can put it on the table."
Coming to the door behind him, Laura peeked out. "Oh my gosh. Do you treat all your guests this well?"
Entering their suite, Glenda placed the wicker basket on the table. It held a bottle of wine, a bottle of sparkling apple cider, a box of chocolates bigger than the one Gareth had bought, as well as two apples, two pears and two bananas.
"Now we won't bother you again," Glenda concluded as she went to the door.
"Tell Doug how much we appreciate his thoughtfulness," Laura directed the clerk.
Glenda poked her head back into the room. "Oh, and I forgot to tell you Doug said he set up appointments for both of you to have massages at four o'clock. If that doesn't suit, you can call and rearrange the time." Then she saluted smartly and left the room, closing the door behind her.
Shrugging her shoulders in an exaggerated gesture, Laura asked, "What more could a woman want than two boxes of chocolates?"
Gareth had organized this weekend, planning to wow Laura with his attention. But he'd been outwowed, If she'd come to this resort alone, he had no doubt Doug would have still given her VIP treatment. It seemed she no longer needed her husband to buy her chocolates or to show her a good time. As soon as they'd settled in, he'd planned to call to set up massages, but that had been taken out of his hands, too. He knew he was used to controlling the situation and didn't adapt as well to rolling with the punches. Not in his personal life, anyway. But if he wanted Laura to consider moving back home, he knew he had to be flexible.
"Are you hungry for more than chocolates?" he asked her. "We could go down to the restaurant and order lunch, walk the grounds, then get ready for the massages. What do you think?"
Crossing to him, she stood on tiptoe and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you for bringing me here. Lunch sounds like a great idea."
Her lips left an impression he knew would stay with him all day. His libido was telling him to start undressing her and make use of that big bed. Yet his heart was telling him that Laura needed more than that from him today.
So be it. He'd be patient if it killed him.
Considering she'd only imbibed water flavored with lemon and sparkling apple cider, Laura felt decidedly giddy. In the spa area of the resort, she emerged from the dressing room clad in the long white terry-cloth robe provided for her, and found Gareth waiting, dressed in his. The afternoon had flown by. Over lunch they'd talked about everything from her brother using his good sense the night before, to the band that would be playing at the Spring Fling. As they'd sat under a vine-covered trellis, listening and watching the man-made waterfall in the resort's botanical garden, Laura had almost told Gareth about their pregnancy.
Yet something held her back.
Maybe it was the knowledge they'd be returning to their real world tomorrow, and she didn't know what would happen then. Would Gareth fly off on another six-week business trip? Right now, however, he wasn't going anywhere, and the way he was looking at her made her whole body flush with anticipation.
Suddenly the door to the massage room opened. A man who introduced himself as Sven, and his wife as Elsa, gestured them toward the two massage tables.
Five minutes later, Gareth and Laura were flat on their stomachs, head to head, as the therapists began to work their magic. Laura's awareness of Gareth grew as soft music played nearby. Elsa was working on Gareth, and as she poured oil onto her hands, working it into his shoulder muscles, Laura wanted to be touching him. On his part, Gareth's gaze glanced often at Sven, who was working the tension out of her shoulders at the same time.
Suddenly, Gareth said, "I'd like to give my wife a massage myself."
To her surprise, her husband sat up on the table. "Can you two take a break for the rest of our time and leave us here... alone?"
After Elsa and Sven exchanged a look, they both smiled. Sven motioned to the oils sitting on a small utility cart. "Feel free to use whatever you want. I started with the almond oil."
Then the massage therapists exited the room and closed the door.
Gareth's gaze found Laura's. "I couldn't stand watching him touch you another second. I want to do it myself. Do you mind?"
"I don't mind at all," she murmured.
Her husband had never given her a massage before, and the idea of it made her tingle all over.
Gareth laid the huge white bath towel that had been covering him aside and stood. When he did, Laura's mouth went dry. No man had ever affected her the way her husband did. He was sexy with clothes on. Without them, the sight of his naked body caused a tight curling in her stomach.
As he stepped over to her table, he asked, "Do you want me to continue to use the oil?"
She could hardly find her voice. Finally she managed to say, "That's fine."
Gareth's hands were every bit as large and strong as Sven's. When he began at the base of her neck and worked outward along her shoulders, she murmured, "That feels so good."
Gareth's massage was much more personal than Sven's. His fingertips seemed to know exactly where she needed to be touched, and his long strokes released all the tension from her body. By the time he removed the towel from her lower half, she was swimming in a lazy sea of relaxation. But then his hands made delicious circles on her buttocks and his fingers sensually lingered on the backs of her thighs. Relaxation transformed into delicious, sexual tension that awakened her awareness of him.
Bending close to her, his tongue rimmed the outer shell of her ear. It was so erotic, she felt her body tremble, and she knew it was time for her to be an active participant. Rolling to her side, she sat up on the sheet-covered table. She was naked. He was naked. No power in the world could have kept them apart.
When Gareth kissed her, she reached for him. Her hunger was as demanding as his. Holding her face between his hands, he pressed his tongue into her mouth where hers played with his as she renewed the joy of touching him. His muscled shoulders were taut under her fingers, and she reveled in his strength. Their frenzied desire burned higher as his hands slipped from her face and cupped her breasts, simultaneously rimming both nipples with his thumbs.
She almost came off the table. Her body was shaking with wanting him, and she could feel the shudder pass through him as she brushed his erection with her knee.
When he broke away, the need in his eyes made her pulse race even faster.
"I want you now." He was breathing as raggedly as she was.
"Sven and Elsa - "
Reaching for the door, which was behind him, Gareth pushed the lock and it clicked.
His hands roamed her body as his kiss seemed to stretch into eternity, fanning her passion to an all-time high. Moments later, he was sliding her to the edge of the table, opening her thighs, urging her closer. With one fast thrust he was inside her and she was clinging to him. His buttocks were sleek and firm under her fingers. She received him with a joy she'd felt the very first time they'd made love. Soon, thoughts of that first time faded, as only now mattered.
Thrusting deeper and faster, Gareth commanded, "Look at me."
When she gazed into Gareth's eyes, the depth of his need claimed her because she needed him just as desperately. Each of his thrusts shook her heart until she knew she'd never love another man. Her orgasm built with a ferocity she'd never experienced before. It was as if the foreplay of the massage, the danger of their making love here, the longing of the past seven weeks, exploded into pleasure so exquisite, no other orgasm could ever be as powerful again.
Gareth muffled his cry of release into her hair. As his body shuddered, she held on tighter, wanting his pleasure to be as great as hers.
Finally, when their breathing became somewhat more normal, Gareth leaned away. After another long, possessive kiss, his voice was husky as he suggested, "Now let's go up to our room and do that all over again."
In full agreement, Laura contracted around him and smiled up at
him, playfully asking, "Can we have chocolates first?"
With a chuckle, he wrapped her once more in his arms. "We'll feed them to each other and see where that takes us."
She hoped she knew. She hoped it would lead them home.
As Laura finished showering on Sunday morning, Gareth dressed. He'd showered with her at first, and they'd made love there, just as they'd made love most of the night. It had been the most satisfying sex he'd ever experienced. However, now...
Now he felt as if his life was truly on hold. He'd thought about compromises he might be willing to make. He'd thought about the attention he'd try to give to Laura every day. Yet in the back of his mind a disturbing thought niggled. What if they did get back together? What if he changed his working life? What if he changed the way he related to her? And then she left again.
He was just beginning to understand how her leaving had impacted him. He never would have left her. He'd made vows. Come hell or high water, he'd stick to them. That's the kind of man he was.
What kind of woman was Laura? Had she meant her vows? Was she so willing to end their marriage because it wasn't exactly what she wanted? Could he ever forget she'd once left? The questions disturbed him. How could he know for sure that when she came back home, she'd stay?
After he buckled his belt, he drew a polo shirt from a hanger in the closet. He was pulling it on when his cell phone on the dresser beeped. He could let his voice mail take it.
Still hearing the shower running, he decided Laura wouldn't be out for a while, and he'd take the call. Fifteen minutes later, he was speaking to one of his Japanese contacts who was based stateside when Laura emerged from the bathroom.
Seeing him with the phone, she turned away quickly, and Gareth had to wonder if she didn't want him to see her expression. As she brushed her hair at the dresser, he wrapped up the conversation and ended the call.
The quiet in the room was too loud. "An emergency?" she asked, her tone much too casual.
To his chagrin he had to admit, "No."
Her soft sigh bothered him more than if she'd told him exactly what was on her mind.
"It's a habit, Laura. My phone rang and I answered it."
Slowly laying her brush on the dresser, she turned to face him. "How would you feel if a call had come in for me for a catering event and I had taken it?"
Backed into a corner, he didn't like it. Instead of making an accusation about how he'd let work interfere with their weekend, she'd simply asked him to feel what she was feeling. That was an effective method.
As he went to Laura, he realized he'd have to put himself in her shoes more often. If he did that, he'd know what she was thinking and feeling. "All right. You've made your point."
She looked so pretty today in navy shorts and sandals and a red knit top. Around her neck she wore a simple pearl, and Gareth knew it had been a gift from her dad when she was a teenager. Little things meant a lot to Laura. Now he let his thumb slip under the pearl. It was warm from her skin.
As he let it dangle again, he gazed into her eyes. "Last night I felt closer to you than I've ever felt. I don't want to let that feeling go."
"Last night meant a lot to me, too."
"Then let's not ruin it by talking about our work."
"We should be able to talk about our work," she said sadly. "If we're both doing something we like that gives us satisfaction, we should be able to share that."
She was right. It wasn't his work that had caused the problems between them, it was the time he spent at it and the trips he took to do it. "That call was about the Japanese contract."
Laura stiffened, and he saw it. But he had to be honest with her. "The CEO received my report and they want me to come back to Tokyo in six months."
"Are you going to go?"
"I told him I'd consider it... that I might not be able to fit it into my schedule. I'd only be gone a week or two at the most. I was thinking if I did decide to make the trip, since we know so far in advance, you could make plans to come with me. I'd make sure I wasn't working the whole time."
"In six months?" she asked, as if she was mentally figuring something out. She moved away from him, then packed her brush in the suitcase on the bed. "I'll have to think about it."
He caught her arm. "You don't want me to go at all, do you? Can't you look at the trip as an adventure?"
"I said I'd think about it. But I want you to think about something, too. Maybe that trip to Japan would be an adventure, but what about the other trips? And how many of those would there be until then?"
Exasperated now, he shrugged. "I don't know."
But he did know if they got back together now, he didn't want to face the idea of her not being there again when he returned. If she couldn't make the commitment to stay, no matter what happened between them, what kind of marriage would they have?
She had ducked her head and was rifling through the suitcase for something, and he suddenly knew exactly what was going on.
When he clasped her arm and turned her to face him, he saw tears in her eyes. Now he knew she was really upset.
After he pulled her close, he stroked her hair. "We'll figure this out."
She didn't respond, and he knew what she was thinking. What if they couldn't?
Resting his chin on top of her head, he knew he was going to have to make some big changes or else lose his wife.
Laura pushed herself on Thursday to get everything done on her to-do list. She'd been playing catch-up from the weekend. Today she'd gone over lists for the Spring Fling on Sunday, as well as prepared and frozen two entrees for a wedding reception on Saturday night. Since the weekend, she'd seen Gareth every evening. They'd gone to the movies, played golf and last night...after dinner, they'd spent a few hours in bed.
Staying the night had been a temptation that was hard to resist. But she had resisted. At least last night.
This morning she'd seen Gareth briefly. He'd helped her carry fresh supplies into the kitchen and then he'd left for work. Their goodbye kiss had been long and sweet. When she'd asked if he was going to attend the town council meeting tonight at the school cafeteria, he'd frowned and told her he had a dinner meeting in San Antonio. But if he could, he'd catch up with her at the meeting.
She wished she hadn't broken down in front of him on Sunday. But her emotions seemed so close to the surface these days that she wondered if her moods were caused by those pregnancy hormones that she'd read about. Thinking about his trip to Japan when she'd be over seven months pregnant...
But Gareth didn't know she'd be seven months pregnant.
Maybe if she told him about the pregnancy, he wouldn't go. But she didn't want to use the baby, any more than she wanted to use tears, as some kind of manipulative device. She and Gareth had to face their problems and solve them without either of them feeling trapped.
Laura worked all day, only stopping for cheese and crackers and an iced tea at lunch. She had planned to rest a bit before the town council meeting, but everything ran over and she found herself hurrying to get there on time. Tonight the town council was going to discuss school-board recommendations to hire additional teachers for the elementary school. Now that Laura was pregnant, those kinds of issues would be important to her and she wanted to be informed.
As she drove to the school, she couldn't help thinking about Gareth. While they were at the resort, he'd listened to her, looked into her eyes and really communicated with her. What if they could do that all the time? What if they could feel as close all the time as they did when they'd been making love? Then she realized she'd enjoyed having lunch with Gareth on Saturday as well as talking in the garden almost as much as everything else.
When Laura entered the cafeteria, it was three-quarters full, and she sat in a back row near the aisle. If Gareth came in, he'd be able to find her easily.
Mayor Lawrence Danforth was a tall thin man in his forties. His wire-rimmed spectacles sat on his narrow nose. Although hi
s black hair showed no gray, he had a high receding hairline that made his bushy eyebrows seem even bushier. Stepping up to the microphone, he tapped on it for attention. The buzzing in the large room diminished.
"We have several issues on our agenda tonight," he began. "I know hiring additional teachers for our elementary school is important to all of you, and we'll get to that. But there's something else I'd like to discuss first."
"I'm sure all of you have read about, seen or hear about the love letter printed in the Red Rock Gazette.
Murmuring went up in the crowd.
The mayor held up his hand. "Unfortunately, the editor, Bill Sinclair, is out of town on a story right now. The letter was printed without names, and there suspicions from employees at the paper that the editor himself took those names out to create a little ruckus. Well, a ruckus is what we've got. There are too many people in this town who think someone sent that letter to the newspaper for his or her benefit. This town isn't stranger to mischief. In fact, the Spring Fling seems to bring out qualities in Red Rockians that they usually keep under wraps. Like the time someone spiked the punch and most of the town wound up skinny-dipping in Lake Mondo. Fortunately, this year, plans for the Spring Fling are going off without a hitch. That's due in part to Laura Manning back there."
Everyone turned to look at her.
Lifting her chin proudly, Laura smiled at the residents of Red Rock.
She was glad when the attention turned away from her again as the mayor continued, "We want to make sure the Spring Fling is the community event we intend it to be. Since that letter was published in the paper, we had a man hold up a bank with a squirt gun because of unrequited love. We had a woman write a scathing letter in response that caused much hard feeling in town.
I want the shenanigans to end. I don't want it spilling over into the Spring Fling on Sunday evening. There's only one way to stop all this nonsense. We need the letter writer to come forward. Or anyone who knows anything about the letter."
Laura could still remember what the words in the letter had said. At the time it was printed, she'd wondered if Gareth could have mailed it in. But he'd been in Japan. Besides, he wasn't that sentimental. He never said things like that to her. She couldn't remember the last time he'd told her he loved her. Words were important to women, but they just didn't seem to be as important to men.