A Matter of Honesty (18 page)

“Not long at all.”

“Good. Are you still feeling nervous about today?”

She opened her mouth to say no but no sound came out. There were a few

flutters in her stomach but she couldn‘t tell if they were coming from nerves or being

in such close proximity to him. “Um…well, not really. I think I‘m more anxious than

nervous.”

Steve rose up over her in a smooth display of rippling muscles. “Hmm, I guess I

didn‘t do too good of a job last night.”

Her eyes widened. “Oh, no. You did a wonderful job. Trust me you did.”

He chuckled. “You sure? I could always try again.”

She tried to pull out of his embrace but he wouldn‘t let her. If she stayed in bed

next to him any longer it wouldn‘t be a good idea. “I‘m certain. We have a lot to do

today. We need to get the day started.”

“We can get our day started right now if you like.” He tightened his embrace

slightly. “How about a little reinforcement of last night to get rid of that

apprehensiveness you feel?”

She shook her head. “Not a good idea, Steve. There really is a lot to be done and

I still don‘t know what I‘m taking to my aunt‘s for dinner.”

“I beg to differ. I can‘t have you stressed out all day. I have just what you need

to make sure your day starts off right.”

She stifled a gasp, having a good idea what he wanted to give her. It was just

her luck to find a man who couldn‘t seem to keep his hands off her. Not that she really

minded. To have a man like him crazy about her wasn‘t a bad thing at all, in her

opinion. Yet, it was hard for her to think lying beneath him. As soon as he rolled over

on top of her, she lost the ability to focus completely.

“So, what do you say, Lauryn?”

Steve‘s question made her stomach lurch in heated lust. She had awakened

wanting him, but tried to ignore the blooming desire. Now, with his simple but

loaded words, an ache started at the juncture of her legs. He was still nude and she let

her eyes roam over his magnificent body. She couldn‘t see the part of him that she

wanted the most, and so focused on his arms instead. They were such magnificent

arms. She cleared her throat to swallow the hard lump that had formed there. Did he

really expect her to say no? He was insane if he thought she would. Reaching upward, she

brushed a rogue strand of hair off his forehead. “I say you have a good idea.”

Seeming satisfied with her answer, he released her and rolled away from her,

confusing her more than she already was. “Where are you going?”

He looked amused at her statement. “Why?”

Was he serious? Were they even taking part in the same conversation?

“I thought you were getting out of bed.”

He gave her a smile that intensified that ache in her body. “Believe me; I‘m not

going anywhere anytime soon.”

“You sure?” she asked in an incredulous tone when he moved even farther away

from her.

He stared at her for a moment in a way that always got to her, making her hot

all over, as his gaze traveled up and down her body.

Finally, he said, “I have never been more sure of anything. I want you. I want to

pleasure you.”

Steve chuckled as she shivered. How could she not at the heat she saw in his

eyes as she felt the lust and desire in them? She was no novice at being wanted by a

man but this was the first time she could actually feel the intensity. And what was so

amazing was that she craved him just as much.

“I want you, too,” she said softly.

She decided to put her feelings out there since he was doing the same. He

reached for protection. Once it was in place, he moved back toward her. “Come here,

Lauryn. I want to start your day off right,” he stated in a husky tone.

She met him halfway, holding her breath and his head lowered to hers. After all,

the man could kiss and she was looking forward to it. Her lips began to tingle at the

memory of their last heated kiss.

“Lauryn?”

She shifted her gaze from his mouth to his eyes. “Yes?”

She‘d been caught staring. He didn‘t say anything for a moment. He just

continued to look at her, especially her mouth. And the more he stared, the more her

lips itched for him to taste them.

“I really like waking up next to you.”

She opened her mouth to respond to his compliment but couldn‘t because his

tongue found its way inside, instead. At that moment she forgot about everything else

except what his mouth was doing to hers. She would even go as far as to say he was

an expert. She‘d been kissed before but never like this. When their mouths touched,

time seemed to stop.

Instinctively, she angled her head to get more of the pleasure. If this was what

he wanted to give her to think about, then he was succeeding. The only thing she

could think about was the dampness he caused between her thighs.

He released her mouth but didn‘t move away. They were lying close together,

their lips mere inches apart, as if ready to go at it again, devour each other senseless,

when she discovered the kiss wasn‘t all he wanted to give her to think about. She

sucked in a deep breath when she felt his fingers touch her breasts. At that moment

her brain seemed to turn to mush.

He cupped her breasts in his hands and began ardently caressing them, letting

the tips of his fingers rub gently across her hardened nipples. He met her gaze and the

heat she saw in the depths of his green eyes made her a lost cause. At that moment she

wanted to make love to him and she didn‘t care if they talked or not.

He lowered his mouth to her breasts and sucked a hardened tip into his mouth.

Then his tongue went to work like a man starving for the taste of her. She responded

with a soft moan and reached out and sank her fingers in his hair to hold his head to

her, experiencing a fiery breakdown of all her senses. Her stomach began trembling

with a need that was as intense as anything she‘d ever experienced.

She let out a deep, startled moan when he suddenly slipped a warm hand

between her legs. His fingers dipped inside her sensitive flesh and he began stroking

her intimately. She wasn‘t sure what was sending her over the edge the fastest; his

mouth or his fingers. She released a soft sigh when he intensified the kiss at the same

time he increased the tempo of his fingers.

He was showing no mercy. She called out his name when a shudder of immense

proportions rammed through her, shaking her to the core. She squeezed her eyes shut

when everything in the room seemed to come rushing together, bearing down on her.

She could barely breathe and her mind was devoid of any conscious thought

except the intense pleasure ripping through her. When his fingers finally stilled it

took her a few moments to get her mind back in check. She opened her eyes and

nearly lost it again when he took his fingers, the same ones that had intimately

stroked her, and brought them to his lips and tasted them.

That image stayed with her for the rest of the day, keeping her distracted right

up until they arrived at her aunt‘s home. Now Lauryn fidgeted nervously, smoothing

the imaginary wrinkle in her ivory knee-length dress. Steve gave her hand a reassuring

squeeze with his free hand since he was carrying the cheesy vegetable casserole she

had made. She had been so nervous she‘d almost dropped it. She jumped slightly

when Steve spoke.

“Everything will be fine. If you get too uncomfortable, just let me know and we

can leave. They‘ll understand.”

Lauryn nodded her agreement before taking a deep breath and ringing the

doorbell. Her heart rate slowed a little as she felt Hannah‘s small hand grab hers. A

moment later the door swung open. Lauryn was greeted with a sight that took her

breath away. She unconsciously took a step back from the group of people crowding

the doorway and Steve reached out to steady her. A woman looking to be in her early

sixties stepped forward.

“Lauryn?”

Lauryn nodded an affirmation because she didn‘t trust her voice. She was

looking at the image of her mother had she lived.

“I‘m Audrey. Please come in. You have to excuse everyone. We‘re all excited to

see you. Let‘s all go into the living room where we can get comfortable.”

Steve spoke up. “Lauryn made a casserole; you might want to put it in the

kitchen.”

Audrey looked over at Lauryn with a brilliant smile. “Oh, you didn‘t have to do

that but thank you. Caleb, put this in the kitchen.”

Audrey led them to a sofa. Steve scooped Hannah up into his lap. “I‘ll introduce

you to everyone as soon as Caleb comes back.”

As if on cue the teenage Caleb returned. Audrey went around the room

introducing everyone. There were so many names and faces to remember. Lauryn

couldn‘t help but smile at the chorus of warm greetings. She did her best to take it all

in. It seemed as though her dreams were coming true. She had a family, a loving

family, from the looks of things. Something she had never thought she would have

again. In reality she had three families now. Steve and Hannah made her feel like

family. So did Dillon, Johanna, Ariel and Octavia. But these were her blood relatives.

Her heart was filled with happiness.

“It‘s wonderful to meet all of you. I‘ve waited my whole life for this moment and

now it just seems so surreal.”

Her uncle Frank spoke. “We know that it‘s a lot to take in at once, but we‘ve

really missed you.”

Lauryn‘s brow wrinkled in confusion. “I‘m sorry that I don‘t remember any of

you personally. I always knew you existed because Mom talked about you. But I can‘t

really remember your faces.”

Audrey looked over at her. “We don‘t expect you to. You were a young child,

about five or six years old, when we last saw you in person. But your mother made

sure to send us pictures of you when she could.”

The statement saddened Lauryn, bringing up a question she‘d always wanted

the answer to but never had anyone to ask. “Do any of you know why my mother was

so weak behind my father?”

Audrey shook her head. “Oh no, Lauryn. Your mother wasn‘t weak, in fact she

was the very opposite. She loved your father and he loved her. Unfortunately your

father suffered from Anti-Social Personality Disorder.”

Lauryn frowned. That was something she had never known. In some ways the

answer made a lot of things clear to her. Still, she didn‘t know how her mother had

given up so much for a man who seemed not to have cared less about her in return.

Audrey walked over to a shelf of pictures and picked up a few to give to Lauryn.

Tears came to Lauryn‘s eyes as she looked down at the framed pictures. They were of

her and her mother at different ages. She stopped when she got to one of her mother,

father and her. Lauryn could tell it had been taken shortly before her mother had died.

She remembered the picture being taken, but she‘d never seen an actual copy of it.

“Where did you get this one?”

“Calleen sent it to us right before she passed. It was the last picture we ever got

of you.” Audrey smiled as she looked at the picture of her departed sister. “Calleen did

whatever she could to make sure that everything was okay. She didn‘t like conflict

and normally did whatever she could to avoid it.”

Lauryn nodded her head. She could attest to the fact that her mother had done

whatever she could to maintain the peace, although at the time she had thought her

mother was giving in to her father‘s every request. “I remember when this was this

taken, but I‘ve never seen it.”

She remembered it so vividly because it had been the only time her father had

ever gone out to eat with her and her mother. He had always been a secluded person

who‘d never liked to go out. Now she understood why. The day her mother had

convinced her father to go out with them there had been a street vendor taking

photos. The vendor had snapped the picture before they had time to pose. Her father

looked so relaxed. The most relaxed Lauryn had ever seen him look. She handed the

pictures back to Audrey.

“Thank you for letting me see those.”

“You‘re welcome.”

“The ones I was able to find after mom died, I lost in the tornado.”

Steve rubbed a soothing hand down her back. He knew how hurt she had been

when they hadn‘t been able to salvage anything from the motel or her car.

A look of concern fell over her cousin Helen‘s expression. “You were affected by

the tornado?”

Lauryn nodded before relaying the story of how she‘d ended up at the motel.

“You weren‘t hurt, were you?”

She looked at her other cousin, Patricia, and shook her head. “No, I wasn‘t,

although I could have been if Steve hadn‘t saved me.”

“Well, we‘re glad you are okay, dear.”

She smiled at Victoria, elated at being in the presence of her grandmother.

“Thank you.”

Audrey walked back over to the fireplace mantel. “Well, you can take any of the

photos here that you want to.”

“Oh no, I couldn‘t do that.”

“Yes you can, and I want you to. I have pictures just sitting around that aren‘t

even being looked at. As a matter of fact I‘ll get the box out and let you look at it

before you leave.”