Authors: EMME CROSS
Her lips parted and their tongues touched. Astrid shivered at the sensations that travelled from her mouth to her breasts and deep into her belly. It had been so long since she’d felt such desire. She tasted him, her skin humming in anticipation of his touch. But he held back. She could taste his desire, sense his need, feel his erection through the thin fabric of their clothes — and yet he held back. When their mouths parted, he caressed her face and locked his eyes with hers.
“This mustn’t be gratitude.”
“No.”
“What then?”
Lust she thought. Instead she answered, “Curiosity.”
“Well then. Let’s satisfy your curiosity, shall we?”
Then at last he touched her. His hands slid over her shoulders to her breasts, outlined beneath the flimsy silk. He grazed the nipples with his palms. The slight pressure was enough to bring forth another moan. The wait staff had melted away into the darkness.
His hands moved downwards, sliding over her hips to her legs, tracing her thighs and then raising the material up over her knees. Her startled laugh was swallowed by his mouth, his tongue thrusting, his lips hard and demanding.
Astrid clung to him as his hands slid up her legs, the thumbs caressing the sensitive skin at the back of her knees and then further, parting her thighs before they landed on her core. He stroked her and she pulled back at the immediate surge of wetness. He murmured in her ear, one hand stroking her hair, the other stroking through her silk panties, arousing and yet gentling her as you would a skittish colt.
“Shh,” he said, his tongue tracing the outline of her ear as his teeth nipped the lobe. “Let me. Please. Trust me.”
Astrid pulled back. She hadn’t trusted a man in years, possibly she never had.
She had kept Sven at bay through sex. Even over the years, as she wondered about Liam, she’d never trusted him enough to follow through with those suspicions. She was unable to trust him to look after her, to care for her interests. Nils had set the seal on all that. He had belittled, used and abused her, playing on her childhood insecurities until Astrid was certain she wasn’t worth a thing.
Now here was Linus, watching her face and waiting. His hands rested on her body. She wanted those hands to move again, help her feel, bring her alive again. Astrid longed to trust.
And then she did, kissing him with every ounce of need and breath in her body. She sucked at his tongue, barely noticing when he slipped off her panties and unbuttoned his shirt. Her hands slid into the hair on his chest. It was surprisingly soft. She felt it against her palms as she slid her hands over his nipples. His mouth felt warm against her neck and his breath was hot.
The warm wind caressed her skin as he undid the ties of the caftan at her shoulders and wrists. The silk puddled around her feet, and she stood naked adorned only in her jewellery.
“You are the most precious thing I have ever seen.”
Luminous porcelain skin. Moonbeams in ashen hair. Those pale blue eyes with the black rimmed irises. “You should always be bathed in moonlight,” he said drawing her to a covered chaise.
Astrid watched him, dark against the night sky. His eyes were bottomless. He was muscular and his skin was tanned as if he spent more time on a beach or farm than in a boardroom. The tendons stood out on his arms as he slid down his pants and his stomach was flat. He had the body of a much younger man but his expression was as old as time. Astrid felt her womb contract as she stared at his erection.
The evening breeze heated her skin, instead of cooling it. Or maybe, she thought as he lay next to her with his mouth on her breasts, maybe they were heating the air, like the baked sand of the desert. Then all thought fled as he sucked at her nipples. She let out a high, thin cry and flailed against him, her hands on his chest, his shoulders and finally his groin, bringing forth a guttural moan in response.
“Wait,” he said, his voice hoarse with desire. “Let me first. Please?”
She paused as he removed her hand, tickling the palm with his tongue and then moved his mouth to hers. In an instant, he was sliding off the chaise, positioning himself between her thighs and then his mouth and tongue consumed her. She arched up in surprise, trying to find words to protest, but nothing came. His tongue and mouth and hands were too compelling. His tongue slipped inside her until she thought she would die of need. He was insatiable, like a parched traveller and she the oasis where he quenched his thirst. Sampling her flesh, sipping her juices, stroking the hard nub until she bucked and cried out again and again . . . she lay still and he held her in his arms and pulled her to his chest, kissing away the tears. He whispered softly to her. How lovely. How desirable. How special she was.
Then he began anew, kissing and caressing her, bringing her back to the brink again, before slipping inside her and gently, insistently, leading them both to completion.
Astrid lay under the desert night sky, looking up at the moon and the stars in a heady sensual stew of sand and roses, sweat and sex. Her head nestled against his throat. Her hand stroked his chest hair. She felt so at peace. No one had ever made her feel so important, so cherished.
In silence they waited until the moon rose higher in the sky before they began again. At dawn they wandered down to her room where they slept in each other’s arms.
* * *
“Hey mom! I thought you’d be packed by now.”
“Johan? What time is it?” Astrid tried to guess the hour from the sun leaking through the slats of the bedroom shutters.
“Breakfast time. Hey, who left you a flower?”
On the pillow next to her was a single long stemmed white rose. If it weren’t for the blossom and the jewellery she still wore, Astrid would have been certain she’d dreamt the entire erotic episode.
“Linus had to leave,” her son explained over his cereal. Yogurt was never going to be the breakfast of champions in his book. “We won’t be flying home on his plane. He said he’d see us in Oslo. He gave me this.”
It was a digital picture frame already filled with downloaded photos of their visit. Most were of Johan: on camels, playing soccer, in the pool.
There were pictures of the two of them in the market, enjoying mint tea. Astrid alone, asleep by the pool. Another showed her staring out at the desert and finally one he’d taken of her in the courtyard the night before, wearing his opals.
She fingered the white rose he’d left behind on her pillow. The stem had been carefully stripped of all its thorns.
The baptismal party showed no signs of winding down. This was Oslo, which had more than sixteen hours of sunlight at this time of year. With winter always lurking like a stalker, nobody was ready to go to bed early on a mid-summer’s night. The hardiest partiers were Judith’s in-laws from Hammerfest in the far north. They were used to perpetual daylight this time of year, so much so that the local golf course offered one am tee times.
Sunny remembered the stubborn, lingering twilights in Edmonton, so far away and so long ago. She wondered what her father would make of her new life and her new family. He’d be pleased, she knew.
The baby had been kissed and admired. Bliss had been jealous until she too was fawned over. The food — barbeque fare of ribs and burgers and Sunny’s famous hot potato salad — had left everyone well satisfied.
Sunny’s favourite mix of tunes from the eighties and nineties was playing, with a few newer selections sprinkled along the soundtrack. Fairy lights in the shape of palm trees hung from branches of the maples. They reminded Sunny of Bliss’s baptism on St. Barts three years earlier.
She had recovered well from the C-section. She no longer felt that strange sloshing sensation inside where they had abruptly removed her baby, but there was an area around the scar where she had no feeling and wouldn’t until the nerves knitted. Lennon was sleeping in Fatima’s arms. Her brother would be here to pick her up any minute.
It had been a long and happy day, she thought wearily, walking gingerly across the lawn, trash bag in hand. The last of the napkins and plates and gnawed bones collected, she twisted the half full bag shut and was putting it in the trash can around the side of the house when she felt a hand on her shoulder.
“Linus! You made it.”
“Sorry I’m late but I had to fly commercial. Barry had to rush home to New York. Rachel’s in labour.”
“You’re about to become a granddad.”
“You always told me I should start a second family. My son’s beaten me to it.”
She looked up at his warm brown eyes and laid a hand on his.
“I still think you should find someone to love and maybe have more children.”
“That ship may have sailed.”
But she noticed how his eyes scanned the backyard, as if looking for someone.
“Astrid has been asking about you.”
“She has?”
Sunny didn’t recount how her guest had started out the day in great agitation and then seemed to droop with each passing hour. “She was telling us about her trip to Morocco. How kind and generous you’ve been.”
His eyes darted again, assessing the dwindling crowd. “I think she’s in the conservatory, getting ready to leave.”
He paused, looking up at the house, his gaze lingering on the outline of a figure through the mottled glass, his face uncertain.
Maybe a nudge? Sunny thought.
“Have you ever figured out why we were never meant to be together, you and I?”
“Sven got there first.”
Sunny let out a huge belly laugh. “What? He marked me like a dog marks a tree and that was it?”
Linus looked embarrassed. “I just meant that you met him first and fell in love. By the time I met you, it was too late.”
“Yes,” Sunny said squeezing his fingers. “But that’s not why.”
“Judith says it’s because Sven lets you be a child and makes you laugh, which you never really did when you were young.”
“It’s interesting to hear how other people perceive things. There’s a nugget of truth in both theories but that’s not the real reason we aren’t together.”
She faced him squarely staring into his face, his strong, kind, dear face.
“It’s because you don’t need me. You would love me and want me but you wouldn’t need me. You’re fully formed and all grown up. You would never need me as Sven does. You don’t need anyone to complete you. And I need to be needed.”
“What are you saying?”
“You need to be needed too.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Find someone who needs you. Someone you can complete. There is no shortage of damsels in distress for you to rescue.”
Linus often reminded her of the knights of old. She smiled, imagining him in chain mail armed with a lance. “You don’t need to look very far, either,” she said, brushing his cheek with a kiss as she followed his gaze to the solarium.
* * *
Judith stretched out on the chair next to Liam. “I’m not sure my in-laws will ever leave.”
“It won’t be long now.”
“What do you mean?”
“Sven’s given her The Look.”
“What are you talking about?” asked Charlotte, who was sitting with her daughter Jenna curled up in her lap.
“The Look. You know.”
Judith grinned. “You know about The Look?”
“You can’t miss it when you’ve been around them for a while.”
Liam turned to Charlotte, shifting the baby in the crook of his arm and the toddler on his lap. “Watch your brother. See how he’s talking to the neighbour — Jim, I think his name is.”
“Yes,” said Charlotte watching carefully.
“See how Sven glances over at Sunny.”
“He’s always doing that. It’s like he’s making certain he knows where she is at all times.”
“Keep watching. Each time he looks at her, he stares a little longer. I bet if you got in the way of that look you’d be burnt. See Sunny? She’s talking to Linus over in the corner there, not paying any attention to anyone else.”
“It looks as though they’re having a rather intense conversation.”
“Doesn’t matter,” shrugged Liam. “See, now Sven’s barely paying attention to his conversation with Jim?”
“Yes, my brother looks distracted. So what?”
“Now, watch Sunny.” All of a sudden their hostess’s head snapped up like a deer catching the scent of a predator. She looked around for an instant and then locked eyes with her husband.
Even Charlotte could see the intensity. A slow smile spread over Sunny’s face.
“There,” said Liam settling back in his chair. “That’s The Look.”
“What does it mean?” Charlotte was pissed she didn’t understand what her mother and her newfound nephew were grinning about.
“That means,” said Judith with a wry smile, “in twenty, thirty minutes tops, the two of them will disappear.”
“What? Like time travel?”
“To make love. You can set your watch by it. You really have learned a lot working for them,” Judith said, squeezing Liam’s hand.
“You warned me, Grandma.” The title was coming easier with time.
“You mean, just because my brother gives her this ‘come to me’ stare Sunny goes and has sex with him?”
“I’ve never seen it fail,” Judith said, learning back and breathing in the night air.
Charlotte snorted. “It’s Neanderthal.”
“I think it’s nice. Reassuring, somehow. They still want each other like that after two kids.”
Judith smiled at Liam’s response. “How are your friends with the change in status?”
“They’re good. In fact, they’re really impressed I’m related to a movie star. One guy from school wondered if I was going to Disneyland.”
“Gain a father, go see Mickey Mouse. That’s rich.”
“When we get to California I get to audition for Jon Hardy’s movie. Sven — Father,” he amended, “is going to help me. We’ll tape it here first a few times so I know what works best on camera.”
“I’m pleased the two of you will be working together. I promise to check on your mother when you’re away. Maybe she and your brother would like to join us on St. Barts over Christmas. Everyone together. I’ll see how things go, whether that would be pushing it.”
“Is there room? Doesn’t Sunny have to rent out her villas?
“Yes, but the renovations to the house Mimi left her are almost done. That way you all could have family time and still be with us when you wanted. Trust me. You do
not
want to share a villa with them. Not on St. Barts. You’d be constantly afraid of what you’d walk in on.”
“Do you think dad could teach me The Look?” Liam was only half kidding. “There’s a girl I like. She teaches Sunny and Bliss swimming and she’s really pretty. If I could do The Look I might have a chance.”
“I don’t think it’s something you can teach. I think it’s in the genes. Your grandfather had it. He would give me the look and within a half hour I’d be half-undressed.”
Charlotte gasped, “Mother!”
“How do you think you were born, Missy?”
* * *
It was time to go. Astrid was mentally listing everything she’d have to pack for Liam’s trip to California. He’d be spending the fall with his new family in Venice Beach. Then off to St. Barts for the holidays. And then? Then they would see. His new family. The thought was like a knife in her stomach.
She gazed into the backyard, putting her fingers up to the mottled glass of the solarium dining room. The dog was running and barking and being shushed because of the neighbours. Sven’s mother and sister were piling up the last of the serving things on trays to be brought in and washed. She saw Liam, her son, with the baby sleeping in the crook of one arm and Bliss sprawled across his chest, her arms around his neck. His new family.
That wasn’t the only reason she was so unsettled. Linus hadn’t come. Not a word since Morocco. She fingered his opal necklace. She’d barely taken it off since that magical night, hoping it would be a talisman of things to come. But he hadn’t shown up as promised. Nils had been right, she had little more than a pretty face to attract a man and then nothing to keep one. Sighing, she looked for her purse when she felt a hand on her shoulder.
“Linus!”
“I’m sorry I’m late. Business.” He took in the slight blush on her cheeks and her widened eyes. “That’s a lie. I stayed away on purpose. I invented reasons to stay away, not to call.”
Astrid nodded and looked away. “I understand. Nils always told me I’m a disappointment to men. Once they get close to me, they can’t wait to get away.”
He grabbed her shoulders and turned her to face him. “That’s not why. You are anything but a disappointment. You are a revelation.”
She had trouble catching her breath.
“That night in Morocco. I’ve never felt that way before. It scared me.”
“You? Scared?”
“The ruthless entrepreneur terrified by a woman. Kind of funny, huh?”
“I’m not laughing.” She reached up with one quivering hand and brushed his cheek. Linus grabbed her thin white hand and kissed the palm. So perfect, he thought. No messy curls or freckles or baby spit. There was barely a wrinkle in her silk blouse and ice blue skirt. The heels of her sandals were untouched, whereas his hostess’s bare feet were coated with grass clippings. Astrid was lovely, fragile as glass that would shatter if you held it too tightly.
“I haven’t properly thanked you for your help in keeping the scandal out of the trial, or for coming back to testify. Will Nils go to jail?”
“For a long time,” he answered, his eyes hard.
“He deserves it. Not just for stealing but for all the people he’s used over the years. Not just me and the other women, but for how he was willing to use Liam. He thought he was his son, for all those years and yet he was willing to treat him so badly. My son is not a pawn.”
“Spoken like a loving mother. Where’s Johan? I thought he might come tonight.”
“I’ve been keeping him away from here. He’s been teased about not having a movie star for a father. And,” she added guiltily, “I wanted to keep something for myself. Someone just for me. I feel like I’ve had to share so much with them.” She gestured through the glass at Sunny and Sven.
Linus didn’t comment. “I closed on that former Canadian ambassador’s residence you found for me.”
“But you haven’t even seen it yet!”
“You said if you could live anywhere in Oslo, it would be there. I thought I’d put that to the test.”
He smiled at her confusion. “You’re wearing the necklace. I have another piece of jewellery. This time I didn’t buy the mine.” He pulled a small box out of his pocket and flipped open the lid. Inside was a ring, a plum-sized star sapphire surrounded by diamonds.
“Linus,” she swallowed. “Just because we spent one night together, doesn’t mean . . . I know you’re a gentleman but I didn’t expect. . . You’ve been so generous already, I couldn’t possibly . . .”
He let her babble on as he slipped the ring onto the fourth finger of her left hand. “I bought this when I was in Asia, before that night in Morocco. I knew even before we made love. I knew at the hospital. I think I’ve always known.”
Astrid’s mouth was dry. Linus leant forward, nuzzling her cheek, feeling her quiver.
“Don’t panic, my love. I’m here to look after you.”
“But we know nothing about each other.”
“I feel like I’ve been waiting for you my whole life. Besides, I’ve just turned sixty. I don’t want to waste any more time.”
The song “Lips like Sugar” by Echo and the Bunnymen spilt through the open door. Linus remembered reading that it was Sunny and Sven’s song. It had played at their wedding. The thought had once wounded him. Well, that was the past and this, he thought, was his future. He fingered the marks on Astrid’s inner arms. They would leave scars, but then most things did.