by Sophia Lynn
“Abir, Abir, please!”
“Almost, love...”
She whimpered loudly, muffling her voice into the sheets. No, not almost, now, and she was shaking, something deep inside her drawing tight and taut as a drum, and just as she was almost ready to tip over the edge entirely, his hand pulled away.
She could barely frame a protest before he raised up to his knees behind her, his strong hands shifting to her hips. Just when she knew he was going to give her what she craved, he paused again.
“Condoms,” he murmured, and she laughed. There was a slightly desperate, slightly hysterical sound to it, but she cut it off before it got too strange.
“Lia?”
“It's fine, it's fine,” she murmured. The doctor put me on birth control to smooth out some hormone stuff.”
“Are you all right?”
In any other circumstances, the concern in his voice would have been touching, but in this one, all it did was make her groan. She lifted herself up slightly, turning to look at him.
“If you keep talking, if you keep teasing me and putting off what we both want, I swear to you, I am going to march right out of here, and—”
Whatever she was going to say next was lost as Abir's hands tightened on her hips and he drove into her with one deep thrust. It was perfect. She was so ready that there was no hesitation at all, only a sense of intense fullness and readiness and eagerness for more.
“Oh yes,” she murmured. “Oh that's perfect...”
Well, she thought it was perfect, and then he started to move, his hips pressing hard against her rear before sliding almost all the way out. Every thrust sent a surge of pleasure through her, and every surge was deeper and longer than the last.
Lia's mind emptied of everything except for how Abir was making her feel, and her eyes drifted shut as his long, strong strokes brought her higher and higher. She only realized in the most distant way that he was talking to her, murmuring soft and longing words that tickled her and warmed her at the same time, wrapping around her with a security she had almost forgotten. It was so good, so very good, and then her body started to shake with yet more need.
Oh, oh Abir!”
“I'll give it to you,” he said as if he could read her mind. “It's all right, darling, just reach for it, I will give it to you.”
She trusted him. There were so many reasons why she shouldn't, but she did, and she gave herself over to him entirely.
The pleasure exploded through her like an erupting sun, saturating her in passion and warmth, leaving her floating in space and tingling from her crown to her toes. She was aware, in a distant way, of how Abir's motions sped up and how his large hands tightened on her hips. That was its own kind of pleasure, and when he groaned, thrusting into her one last time to spill deep within her, she gasped, a tired sound that echoed with the intense sensation that had previously been coursing through her body.
He collapsed on her for a moment, the weight of his body warm and protective, but then he pulled away, pulling her to lie prone on the bed next to him as their breathing slowed. Lia shivered, but then he pulled her to his bare chest, snuggling against her with a soft murmur of sweetness.
“Are you all right?” he asked, and she chuckled.
“Why would you ask me that when you're the one doing all the work?”
Abir let out an irritated puff of air, but he only held her a little tighter.
“I've missed you,” he said, and Lia hesitated.
She had missed him too, when she had had the time to miss anyone, when she hadn't been so bone tired that she could think of anything but what was immediately in front of her. There was something in the back of her head, however, that cautioned her against saying it. She didn't know if she could, not without undoing all of the walls she had built up over the last few years. Those walls were hard-won and she didn't want to give them up so very easily.
Lia had hesitated too long. Abir sighed, dropping a kiss that felt oddly regretful on her head.
“Do you want me to leave?” he asked. “Free doesn't mean that you need to spend your time with me, after all.”
Before she could figure out what the right response was to that, she wrapped her arms around him, hanging on to him as tightly as he hung on to her.
“No,” she said. “Don't leave. You… You have no idea how happy I am to have you here. You have no idea how good that was.”
“I might have some idea,” Abir said wryly, and then he paused. “Lia, are you all right?”
She sniffled back the sudden rush of tears that had filled her eyes, nodding vigorously.
“Of course I am,” she said, her voice regaining some of its old crispness. “When am I not?”
“Tough as nails, aren't you?” Abir said wryly.
“Always have been,” she said. “But no. I don't want you to leave.”
“You said you had something going on in the morning?”
“I do, but not until later.”
That small voice in the back of her head was back, warning her, telling her she was cutting it too close, but now that Abir was in her bed again, she was helpless to do otherwise. She told herself that it would be just fine. There were some risks that it was fine to take. There was nothing wrong with any of it.
“Stay,” she repeated. “I want you to stay.”
Abir tilted her chin up with a gentle finger so that he could look into her eyes. She wondered what he saw there, but finally he nodded.
“I'm glad you want me to stay,” he murmured, and he leaned in and kissed her again.
Chapter 4
Abir
The autumn sunlight poured through the blinds, waking Abir up. He blinked, momentarily disoriented, but then Lia crowded a little closer to him, murmuring with pleasure, and he remembered.
He kissed her gently on the forehead, but she didn’t stir, something that made him smile.
She never did like to be awakened first thing in the morning, he thought. I know of one way to wake her up at least. Or. Well. Two, but she won't thank me for the other if there really is something going on later this morning.
He wasn't sure that there was. There had been something cagey about the way Lia was at odd points throughout the previous night. Abir had always thought that he was a fairly good judge of character, but the truth of the matter was that when it came to Lia, his meter would always be off. She was unpredictable sometimes, and no one in the world could send him spinning like she could.
Well, it makes sense because I'm in love with her.
The thought made him frown. He had been in love with her, but the year he had spent in the United States was a long time ago. He wasn't in love with her any longer. He hadn't seen her for years. This was... the remnant of strong and youthful feelings for a remarkable woman, that was all.
A hot shower cleared his head a little, and he paused after he dressed, gazing down at the sleeping woman in the bed. Abir's instinct was to simply strip again and to join her there, but he resisted, still not sure what to make of her strange behavior the night before. One moment she had felt like paradise in his arms, and the next she was pulling away as if she barely knew him at all.
Breakfast. That will wake her up, and then we can talk.
The kitchen was tidy at least, and in the freezer he found the brand of vegetarian sausage patties she had loved years ago. He had gotten good at cooking them, and with just a little bit of fumbling, he'd managed to get the stove lit and the frozen patties heating up.
Don't you know how to do anything for yourself? Lia said in his memory. Here, let me show you, but in return, you have to handle cooking all the sausage from now on.
Abir smiled to himself remembering her cheerful orders, and he heated the sausages up with minimal fuss. They smelled the same as they did four years ago, and there was something to all of this that felt right, as if he had been stranded for the last few years. It was only now that he was back where he was supposed to be.
There was a rustle in
the hall behind him, and Lia padded across the floor to him, her hair a lovely tangled mess and wearing a pair of shorts and a tank top despite the slight chill in the air. She wrapped her arms around his waist, kissing his back before nuzzling him between the shoulder blades.
“Mm, smells good,” she murmured, and he laughed at her drowsy voice.
“I could put you right back to bed and you would fall asleep again, wouldn't you?” he teased.
“If you're not going to let me have some sausages, I might as well,” she said with a pout. “You're not going to starve me, are you?”
“Perish the thought.”
She started to reply, and then they both heard it, the metallic turn of the key in the front door lock. Abir blinked, but Lia's reaction was far more severe. She took two steps back, her gasp audible, and Abir turned off the heat in alarm.
“Are you all right?” he asked, and then he scowled. “Are you safe? Is someone—”
She shook her head, and he saw that her face had gone an almost alarming shade of red.
“It's fine,” she choked. “It's fine, it's just...”
Before she could tell him what it was just, the door opened and three dark haired toddlers raced in, a deafening chorus of Mama, Mama! echoing off the walls.
Whatever Abir had been expecting, it wasn't that, and he stared as the children swarmed into the kitchen, throwing themselves at Lia with a fierce and open-hearted affection.
“Mama?” he asked in shock, but Lia wouldn't look him in the eye, only leaning down to hug the children. Her children.
“Hey kiddos, ooof, look at you, there you all are, did you eat your uncle or is he behind you?”
Abir glanced over to see a pretty young woman setting a large duffel bag by the door to the kitchen.
“Hello, Lia, I am so sorry, but Nate got a call. He needs to drive down to Connecticut to pick up something big for the shop, and I should be along to help, or—”
“Or my silly brother will throw his back out again,” Lia nodded. “It's fine. Thank you for having them for the night. I really appreciate it in any case.”
The young woman glanced at Abir curiously.
“Hi,” she said cautiously. “I'm Lauren March, Tony's wife.”
“Abir Issawi,” Abir said, wondering if he ought to give his titles, deciding against it. This entire morning was sending him for a tailspin that he was just beginning to recover from.
Lauren's eyes darted between himself and Lia, who was apparently scrubbing something sticky off of one round cheek while admiring a small toy in the hand of another one. Lia looked up, a wry grin on her own face.
“I'm fine, Lauren. You and Tony should hit the road if you are going all the way down to Connecticut. Hope these little hooligans didn't give you any problems.”
“Oh no, they were angels, if slightly rambunctious and messy angels. I'll, ah, see you later, yes?”
She hurried out, the door clicking shut behind her. Abir started to speak, but Lia held up her hand for a moment. A few seconds later, her phone chimed, and she texted furiously in return, a frown on her face.
Finally, Lia set it aside, shaking her head.
“That's Tony,” she said. “For being my little brother, he's over-protective. The minute Lauren told him there was someone up here with me, he wanted to make sure I wasn't being held captive against my will or anything. Honestly, he's seen too many thrillers, I think.”
“There are worse things than having family that watches out for you,” Abir said, but then there was a tug at his waist that made him look down into a round face with enormous dark eyes and an irrepressible grin.
“Breakfast?” asked the little boy, and something in Abir's heart lurched as he stared down at the child so sweetly asking for food.
“Yes,” he said, and his words sounded as if they were coming from very far away. “Yes, let's get some food on the table, all right?”
Suddenly instead of one little face looking up at him, there were two, like enough to be identical except for the fact that the second boy had a mole high on his cheek and a somewhat more wary expression on his face.
“I want mine darker,” he said quietly, and Abir blinked as the little boy pointed to the sausages on the stove. “Darker, please.”
“He means he wants his sausage cooked harder,” said Lia from behind him. She had the third child, a little girl with a shy look on her face, hefted up on her hip. “Here, I'll get out some plates for the others, but Hunter really can't get his sausages too burned, can you, kiddo?”
Hunter's face went from wary to as bright as his brother's as Lia came back and ruffled his hair, and one-handed, she pulled down several plates to set by the stove.
“Might as well do up the rest of the sausage as well,” she said. “We could likely all use some breakfast.”
Abir gave her a long look, and when she met his eyes, she shook her head slightly. He hesitated for a moment, because if he didn't figure out what was going on right this moment, he might very well scream or break, but instead, he took a deep breath and nodded.
“Sounds good. Eggs too?”
“Ran out a couple days ago. We have cherry tomatoes though, and cherry tomatoes are a win in this household, right?”
The children, even the shy girl in Lia's arms cheered, deafening when they were united, and as she set her down on the ground, she pointed to the back of the small house.
“Okay, all your trip stuff goes back in the room, and wash your hands. Then you savages can come back and get some breakfast.”
There was a stampede towards the back of the house, and the sudden silence that descended on the kitchen was almost deafening.
“Lia—”
She shook her head. He realized that she must have been keeping a straight face up for the kids, her kids, because when they were gone, she looked slightly shattered.
“No,” she said, almost pleaded. “Let me get them settled. They've been away all night, they need to be at home for a bit, and they need some attention. After that, we can talk, okay? Just... please.”
“Lia, what kind of monster do you think I am?” Abir asked impatiently. “I'm not going to upset children who are only— how old are they?”
“Three, and some change,” she said, and Abir's jaw tightened.
He had known the truth the moment he looked into the little boy's face. He had felt it somewhere deep within him, a joyous bell ringing and deafening him with its clangor. The math told him he was right, and he nodded.
“All right. We'll get them settled, and then, Lia, we are going to talk.”
If he had thought that that might cow her, he was wrong. Instead, it seemed to make Lia rally, lifting her chin and giving her eyes a diamond-hard glitter. The woman he had adored all those years ago would never back down from a challenge, and he could see that no matter what had happened to her, what she had done on her own, that had not gone away.
She might have replied to him, but there was that thunder of feet again – did children ever go anywhere not at a dead run? – and then they were surrounded again by an excitable clamor, the first boy on one side of his hip and his brother at the other.
“I'm Henry March,” the first little boy said. “I'm pleasedtomeetyou.”
It was all one word, run together and uttered with such pride that Abir grinned.
“Hello, Henry,” he said gravely, and then before he could introduce himself, the other little boy spoke up.
“I'm Hunter March. I'm pleasedtomeetyoutoo.”
“Hello, Hunter,” said Abir, and then Henry was off again.
“And that's our sister Viola, and she'll come over, but it takes longer. She's shy, but Uncle Tony says she's nervous, and—”
“Okay, come on, stop bugging people when they're trying to cook,” Lia said with a laugh. “Come on, Henry, it's your turn to set the table.”
Cooking the sausage, Abir would have thought it was too much for such a little boy to do, but he watched as Lia portioned out a number of
forks and sent Henry towards the table to put one fork by each place.
Viola was already seated, her legs swinging, and Hunter sat beside her, showing her something in his hands.
“The fun never stops around here,” she said wryly to Abir. She came closer with the plates. “Thank you for volunteering to cook, even if it was a little more like being press-ganged than stepping up.”
“Not a problem,” Abir said automatically, and then without thinking of what he was doing, he leaned over to kiss her. It was instinct. It was nothing more than the realization that she was close and she was beautiful, but a hush fell over the room.
He looked back to see three pairs of eyes staring at them in surprise, and Lia coughed.
“Hey, who's excited about sausages and cherry tomatoes?” she asked, and Abir sighed with relief that small children were so easy to distract.
A few minutes later, they were sitting down to a meal of sausages and cherry tomatoes, each child receiving five exactly on their plate, Abir and Lia sitting at opposite sides of the table. The little girl had ended up seated closest to him, and Abir gave her a friendly look.
“Hi, sweetheart,” he said softly. “I know your brother told me your name, but do you want to tell me yourself?”
She looked down, shaking her head until her wavy hair bounced. She had lighter hair than either of her two brothers, he noticed, and she kept her face down, only sneaking little looks at him when she thought his attention was devoted elsewhere. It was easy to see where she might be overlooked, given her brothers' questions and excited talk, and he was reminded of his own cousin Janan, who was so shy and quiet until she flew into a temper.
I wonder if she has a temper too…
The meal flew by in a flash, and then the kids were sent to their room to watch some TV – only one hour, and then we're going to do some cleaning, Lia said – and again, the kitchen was quiet.
He watched as she gathered up the dishes, and then after the dishwasher was loaded, she finally sighed, turning to him.
“Well,” she said softly. “I guess you're going to want an explanation.”