She turned her head and kissed his chest, her lips on his thermal shirt. “I would like to accept the offer you made me. The one I kept safe. I’m ready now, I think.”
“Yeah?”
“Yes.”
He wanted to be absolutely certain that they were talking about the same thing. “You’ll marry me?”
She looked up, and the moonlight caught her eyes and made them sparkle. “Yes. I would very much like that.”
“God, baby. So would I. I love you. I love you.” Before she could reply, he took her face in his hands and kissed her. She tasted like moonlight and the sea.
~oOo~
They spent about half an hour with Carmen and then went back to the house. It was dark; Trey was asleep, and Carlo’s father had, as usual, retired, probably not long after he got Trey down. His work days started before dawn.
Elsa came to the top of the stairs as they entered the house. Once she was satisfied that only her people had come in, she huffed a weary greeting and then went back to Trey’s room.
They went up, and Carlo went in to check on his boy. He was sleeping peacefully, his arms and legs wrapped around the big stuffed shark Uncle Ben and Aunt Angie had given him. There was a paper stuck on his new bulletin board, and Carlo went over and looked at it—his first school paper—a worksheet of some sort. Printed across the top was the title “I am Me,” which seemed to Carlo a pretty dumb title. There was a large oval in the middle of the sheet, which had obviously been blank when the papers had been handed out. Trey had drawn himself, using the oval as his head. In the background, around the head, he’d made several sharks, a big brown dog, and three stick people grouped together, one a female, with long brown hair, one a larger male, with black hair that stuck out oddly (thanks, Trey), and a small male with yellow hair. Behind that group of three were six others—four males and two females, with black or brown hair. His family.
Under the drawings were several lines. The first line started with the printed words, ‘My name is….’ He’d written ‘Trey’ in fairly steady letters. Under that line was were four others, the first one of which started, ‘Things I like.’
Trey liked, ‘SRKS,’ ‘LSE,’ and then a few lines that just weren’t letters, at least none that Carlo could make out. He chuckled and pinned the paper back in its place of honor.
When he got back to his room, Bina was in bed. Her hair was loose, and she was naked, sitting up against the headboard, the comforter and sheet loose around her waist. Sweet Jesus, she was beautiful, her breasts full and tipped with dark nipples. The ends of her hair curled just at the point where her skin began to darken. He fucking loved finding her in bed like this, waiting for him.
Carlo closed the door. “Hi, baby.”
“Trey is asleep?”
“Very.”
She held out her hand. “Come to bed.”
He stripped fast and went to her. As he climbed in at her side, she turned away from him and looked over her shoulder. Oh, yeah. It was wonderful to take her from behind like this, when he could get to all of her, fill his hands with her and make her feel him everywhere. With a growl rumbling deep in his throat, he pulled her down and shoved her leg up. He pushed into her slick, ready heat and then wrapped his arms around her, filling her, feeling full of her. He buried his face in her luxurious hair. And then he simply was still, letting them feel each other. She swelled in his arms with every breath.
“I love you,” she whispered.
He sucked lightly on her shoulder. “I’ll end my days making you happy. I swear it.”
“And I you.” She rocked back, taking him more completely into her, and he groaned and thrust forward. They picked up a rhythm with which they had become expert together, and Carlo ran one hand over her firm belly and between her legs. She sighed deeply, erotically, and brought her arms up over her head, reaching back to bury her fingers in his hair and hold him close.
They went slowly, feeling each thrust, each throb as a distinct moment. Carlo was completely at ease and at peace, at home in this house, in this bed, inside this woman. He buried himself in her and let that contentment, which he had not known before he’d known her, sweep him up in its wake.
It was Bina who first changed their tone. He felt it happen, her body tensing, when before she had lain supple and open. Her breath changed, her deep, slow inhales becoming gasps that went out on little whimpers. He flexed the hand that had been gently cupping her sex, and the one that had tenderly held her breast, and she spasmed sharply. The time of languid coupling had passed. Without pulling from her, Carlo rolled, pushing her flat onto the bed, and then drawing her hips up as he rose onto his knees. Moaning, she pushed her elbows under to bring herself up higher.