Designs On Daphne (10 page)

  His lips were very close to her ear, so close that he licked it. Nipping an earlobe, he growled, “I know what makes you wild, Mizz Cristal. You love my big hands. Are you ready to scream real loud for ole’ Pumpjack?”

  “Maybe,” she pouted. “If you do it right.”

  “Oh,” he laughed, “Don’t you worry. I’ll do it right.”   Sliding his left thumb to her lips, he circled, stroking over her plush fullness. She opened her mouth, and her tongue found his nail bed. As she began to suck, he whispered, “Thumb.”

  He made his way down to her breasts, grazing her nipples with his teeth, pressing his face to her lush fullness, suckling and teasing and flicking his tongue. She gasped. His right hand still touched her, stroking and sliding. “Index finger.”

  She squirmed as he explored her depths. “Middle finger.” Her hips flailed as he added the next, and she moaned with him.“Ring finger.” Then he said, “Pinkie,” placing it where he knew Mizz Cristal wanted it the most.   And she really liked it, screaming so loud as she pulsed and shuddered that he was glad for the six inches of concrete underneath them. He smiled so wide his face could break, but he’d promised he’d moan too, so he did, moaning his pleasure as he watched her thrash and writhe, moaning how beautiful she was, how perfect and pure, and how much he loved her, now more than ever. 

  It wasn’t too much later that his little blonde hellcat had recovered enough begin to fondle him, stroking all that he had to give. His member throbbed, longer and fuller and more potent each second as her fingers brushed over it. “Roddy, I want you,” she begged, arching with desire so her her temptress globes brushed his face.

  Locking his lips around a nipple, he murmured, “Is it time for the main course?”

  “Oh, yes,” she pleaded, guiding him closer. Thrilled that she was ready to take him, readying himself for the moment that would pledge them for eternity, Rodric slid his hips between her thighs.

  Being so close with Daphne felt more right than he ever could have imagined. He was in heaven, but before he complete the mission he’d set for himself so long ago, he needed to be certain about. . about everything. Ready to prove his devotion, needing to be certain of hers, he searched her eyes. “Darling, you know how I love you.”

  Her blue eyes gazed at him, so trusting, adoring even, as her hips moved beneath. “Rodric, you are. . . I-I always wanted a husband, but I’ve never imagined a man making me feel this way, so safe and desired. And the way I feel about you. . You’ve come to mean everything to me! I’ve so wanted you for my husband, and now. . .Oh, please be my everything, Rodric! Please, do you understand?”

  As she expressed her need for him, his heart soared. “I’ll be here for you forever, Daphne. I’ll always be here, loving you.”

  She smiled. He claimed her mouth, pulsing ever so gently at her opening. Parting for him, she cried, “There is just so much of you, and I want it all Rodric, oh, so badly. I want it all, again and again!”

Housewarming Par None

Rodric’s parents were simply thrilled to hear the good news later that night, when he phoned them in Botswana, catching them just before they set out on safari.

  The next day, they looked at some ring options Rodric had scouted out in Houston. The selection he presented Daphne was as ridiculously oversized as everything else about him, as Daphne had hoped it would be.

  When they flew home in a small chartered plane after a nice dinner, Daphne wore her new three-carat vintage estate marquis-cut diamond. Planning the Housewarming party quickly turned into Daphne’s best dream-come-true. Well, the best dream-come-true party she’d plan before the amazing parties they’d have leading up to the wedding. . .   The wedding would have to be the best party Austin had ever seen . . but she’d think about it later. Their wedding wasn’t til May; Esther had booked the Art Museum of Austin in a wire from Sir Seretse Kharna Airport.

  Rodric took time off to work from his home office, really spending most of it with Daphne. They had lots of lovely amenities to sample in the apartment together, that was for sure. In the shower, he moved one of the shower heads over the places she liked it most, sometimes more than once a day, just so Daphne could make the very unladylike noises he loved.

  Napping in their big bed in the middle of the afternoon, Rodric stroked her bare belly. She laid her head on his chest, and his kissed her hair.

  “Darlin’, I know you’ve mentioned babies, and I’m as eager as you are for a family, but I do think we can take our time just a little while. I know how much choosing that white dress and just the right boots will mean to you,  and you’ll need your energy, to get through the weddin’ planning. What do you think? We could start on the first baby on our honeymoon trip, in  Paris. Is that soon enough?”

  She had to agree. Conceiving their first baby in Paris sounded just perfect to her. He was right, it would be nice to have everything settled first. “You’ll go with me to Vegas tomorrow, watch Daisy win that Pro Am with me?”

  He nodded and smiled. “Got the suite booked.” The lines around his eyes crinkled deeper. “You think we’ll know what do with ourselves, outside this apartment?”

  She giggled. “I’ll ask Mizz Cristal. Bet she’ll figure something out.”

   When Esther returned from her safari, Daphne went to Dallas so they could shop for some living room accessories together. At an auction house, they found two sculptures and a nice big abstract painting, a very fine Diebenkorn.

  Esther was thrilled with Daphne’s interest in contemporary art. “I’m a firm believer in investing some of the trust fund in tangibles, Daphne, and so is Rodric’s father. You have very good instincts, dear. Follow them. Rodric’s great- grandmother made the family a fortune on some lovely Van Gogh’s she picked up for a song on a trip down the River Seine.”

  
Rodric’s great-grandmother must have had a very nice singing voice, on that trip!

  Later, she spoke to Rodric on the phone.“I do so love the painting. It’ll be especially wonderful with the lovely African rugs Esther chose for us, dear.” She was spending the night at his parents, away from him for the first time, so she sighed a tiny bit, and Rodric did not hesistate to approve.

  Esther was at her side for the bidding the next day, the one day Rodric had to be court. When the bids went to twenty percent over estimate, Daphne put an emergency call into the Judge’s chambers before daring to raise her paddle again. Rodric was perfectly pleasant about it all, asking the Judge for a recess, staying on the line as she raised her paddle again and again.

 
She’d gotten a small Rauschenberg, too, an early drawing, to hang in the foyer, just as guests arrived.

  And arrive they did.

  Daphne had many opportunities to whisper into Rodric’s ear the night of the Housewarming Party, since they had one hundred or so guests to attend to.   Thankfully, he’d hired catering staff.

  The day before the party, she limited herself to two kinds of hors d’oeurves, making two hundred pieces of each, before the caterers swarmed in and took over her nice kitchen.

  As a uniformed bartender set up a bar with ten crates of glassware in the living room, she teased Rodric about his two dozen sets of glassware. “Of course, I didn’t know you’d agree to marry me,” he chuckled

  Daisy and Hank and Ty arrived early.

  Yelping at the slinky cocktail dress and open-toed sling-backs Daisy wore, Daphne wrapped her arms around her little sister. “Where did you get this number?”

  “Vegas, of course,” Daisy trilled.“I needed something fancy to match my ring!”

  The men toasted each other with beer out on the patio as Daisy and Daphne raced through every room in the apartment. Daisy ooh’d and ahh’d over the art in the living room and giggled over the club chairs and dead stuffed animals in the game room. In the nursery, they sighed together, running their fingers over the white nursery set she and Rodric had chosen that week, he with a big, fat grin on his face, his eyes gleaming with pride.

  “You go ahead and give babies a try first, Daph,” Daisy sighed. “Hank and I are gonna wait at least til I’m out of school, and then I should work for a few years, at least.  I’ll need you to teach me whatever baby tricks you learn. Course, I’ll have Ella Jean, but I’ll bet you’ll have Esther.”

  “And how,” Daphne giggled.

  But Ty was quieter than normal.

  Daphne had known him too long not to notice. His face looked tense, and she worried he was unhappy with her engagement to Rodric.   Slipping out the patio door to join him before the other guests arrived, she asked, “Is everything all right, Ty?”

  “I couldn’t be happier for you and Rodric,” he said, kissing her cheek. “ ‘bout time I can call you cousin.”

   But she could read him like a book. Ty was hurting.
It’s that girl in California, it must be!

 
“Anything I can do?” she asked

   He leaned on the concrete wall, staring out over Lake Austin. Jaw set, he shook his head. “I’d let you know if there was, Daph. In the meantime, enjoy this for yourself, huh?” he said, clasping her shoulder. “If anyone deserves it, you and Rodric do.”

  “Aw, Ty,” she said, feeling a tear slip down her cheek as she wrapped her arms around his neck. “You deserve it, too. I sure hope your day comes soon. I know you’re gonna be the best best man ever.”

  Ty laughed, sheepish.“Well, I sure earned it. It took some coaching to bring you two around.” He poked the softness under her ribs, so she rolled her eyes and slugged him, hoping he’d cheer up.

13

  Daphne lowered herself into the nice warm water of the roof top pool. Daisy skipped up on the board, 1-2-3, and then dove. Her beautiful dive cut through the night air, barely making a splash. “Whoosh, nice pool. Bet your glad that big party’s over,” she said, coming up for air.

   “It’s nice that Hank and Ty and Rodric are seein’ to the last of the guests, so I can have you to myself for awhile,” Daphne drawled.

  “How many parties you plannin’ before Christmas, Daph?” Daisy asked, grinning. “Make sure and invite those ladies from your design class, huh? They were a little stiff-lipped, but they couldn’t stop admiring your decoratin’.”

  “I sure will,” Daphne said, a little starry-eyed. She’d mentioned to Rodric how nervous and unaccepted she felt in class, so he’d invited them, and her teacher too.

  The guests had mostly been new faces, except for Ty and Hank and Daisy and Ella and Esther and Rodric, Sr. She’d met all the people from Rodric’s office, and friends from his undergrad days and from law school, colleagues he worked with and their wives and girlfriends and boyfriends, some professors from UT and their partners, important people that Rodric served on boards with, some of his clients, a few state assembly people, and people from the courthouse and on and on. She just kept smiling and shaking hands, knowing he’d have to remind her of names again and again, until she got them right.

  The ladies from class and her teacher arrived after most of the guests, after the harpist Rodric thought to include had started playing in the corner of the living room. Rodric handed her a second champagne cocktail and put his hand to her back. “Let’s go meet your new friends,” he’d said, wiggling his eyebrows, and she’d had to laugh, because he always had such command of himself, such confidence, and he always made her feel like she had that, too.  

   She’d given them a special tour, and the ladies had positively gushed over everything. When they left an hour and a half later, Daphne thought she could start counting them as new friends. A little tear started up, just thinking about it.

  “Hmmm, so, is life in Austin better’n a teevee show?” Daisy giggled. “Does it pay as well?”

  Paddling her arms in the water, Daphne splashed a little of it at her sister then wiped her eyes. Bursting into a wide grin, she said, “Well, there are some mighty nice perks. Most of ‘em are best enjoyed off camera, though.”

  Daisy caught her eye, grinning, and Daphne continued.” How ‘bout us Antelerone girls, you winnin’ your title and first place in Vegas, and me here for a month and a half, already gettin’ married?”

  “How ‘bout,” Daisy grinned. “Hank’s not surprised. Neither’s Ty.”

  “Oh, shush,” Daphne said, blushing. “What do they know?”

  “Apparently, they know how to make you happy lots better’n I do!” Daisy teased. “Although I started movin’ Hank’s way after I saw you all lushed out, lettin’ Rodric pump you full of champagne at the Austin’s rodeo!”

  “Oh, hush,” Daphne answered, unable to help giggling. Then she sighed, a big, fat, fake sigh.“Well, darlin’ it was this or two hundred head of baby Angus calves. You know what a tough choice that was for me, since there’s nothin’ I like better n’ shovelin’ cow manure. Take a look at that view.”

  “Bright lights, big city,” Daisy said, surveying the expanse before them: Austin’s twinkling lights below, the heaven’s bright stars above. “I’d say it’s perfect for you, Daph.”

  Daphne sobered. “Somewhere, Daddy’s lookin’ down on us, and he’s mighty happy, Daisy-chain. I can’t think of a couple better suited to each another than you than Hank, unless it’s me and Rodric. I’m still pinchin’ myself. I sure never thought things would work out this way back in July, when you were stuck in that hospital bed. We’re mighty lucky. Life’s perfect right now, isn’t it?”

  “I’ll say. And there’s lots of livin’ to look forward to, yet, too,” Daisy answered. “Regular days, and holidays, Christmases and birthdays and new babies.”

  “And trophy buckles and graduations. You’ve got school, comin’ up.”

   Usually, it was Daphne that wanted to hug, but tonight, Daisy paddled closer. She put a dripping arm across her big sister’s shoulder, then rested her head there.

  Daphne reached up to stroke her little sister’s cheek, and the light caught her ring. Rainbow sparkles scattered on the dark water. Daisy lifted her hand to the light, and hers did the same. The sparkles crossed paths in the water, shining out in front of them, beams of heartache turned to pure love.
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