Scarred Beginnings (14 page)

Chapter Fourteen

Joe sat at the dinner table stuffing crisp roast potatoes in his mouth as fast as he could.

“This is great Ellen.
Delicious! I was starving. I slept all the way over and missed eating anything on the ferry. I’ve been to so many parties this last week I can still feel the beer slopping about in my belly. Last night’s final event was a killer. I bet if I was breathalysed I’m still too drunk to drive.”

Ellen looked slightly shocked at his admission but thanked him for his compliments on her food.

“Glad you like it. Sounds as though you’ve been having a good time.”

Joe shrugged.

“Had to be done I suppose but I’m thrilled to be here now. I’m looking forward to seeing the zip wire too. Dave says it’s brilliant.”

Ellen rolled her eyes.

“It was meant to be a fun thing for the kids but David seems to think it’s his own personal toy. He’s up there every moment he can be just so he can muck about on it.”

David smiled. He didn’t admit that he’d only been on it a few times. He didn’t want her to know how miserable he’d been.

“I’ve tweaked it a bit. It’s incredibly fast. Bit of a slap if you hit the water hard. Kills your back but then we have Geraldine to sort out any minor problems like that.”

Joe swallowed a mouthful of roast.

“Ah, so the lovely Geraldine is here. Is she still helping you take off your legs every night?”

Ellen looked at David sharply.

“She had better not be. That’s not in her job contract. You’re well enough to do it yourself.”

David threw a roast potato at Joe’s head. It bounced off and rolled down the table.

“I was just kidding when I told him that. I was just mucking about in an email.” He flushed crimson before he glowered across the table at Joe who grinned, calmly stabbed the stray potato with his fork and then popped it in his mouth.

They finished dinner and both helped Ellen pack the industrial sized dishwasher.
David showed Joe to his room and had to force him to stay there when he nervously insisted that it was meant for a king at the very least, not a lowly ex-serviceman.

He made his way to his own room.

Christmas Eve.

He was still unsure exactly how Geraldine felt about things. They hadn’t had time to talk since she came home from town two days before.

To his great distress she had dashed right past him as he sat looking his very best and ran straight to Ellen saying that her gran had had a fall and she was needed in Belle Isle en Terre as soon as she could get there. Ellen had sent her off immediately and David, while he understood that she had to go to her grandmother, had spent another frustrating two days waiting for her to return.

He knew that she wouldn’t be home early
that night either. She was having a special Christmas Eve dinner with her family but he expected her back at the château later that night. She had sent him a text telling him to wait up for her and if he was really good she would come and tuck him in.

He became
hot all over at the mere thought of what that might entail.

He opened his bedroom door
slowly and knew she was there before he saw her sitting on his bed. Her perfume wafted about the room.

“I didn’t hear you come back.” His voice caught in his throat as
she looked at him with sparkling green eyes. Her lustrous dark hair glistened in the lamplight.

“You were all ‘
aving dinner and I didn’t want to disturb you. I just thought I’d come up and wait.” Her breathy accent washed over him and he almost groaned in anticipation.

But he couldn’t let her have it all her own way. He’d suffered miserably over the last
few weeks and she’d done it to him on purpose.

“Oh? What
were you waiting for?” He took a step nearer to the bed.

He saw her lips quive
r for a second and then she spoke again as she lowered her eyes.

“I thought you might need some help with your legs. You can never be too careful and I bet you have been walking around far too much today. You should come and lay down.” He
r lashes fluttered against her apple cheeks before she glanced back up and he noticed her throat move as she swallowed.

Davi
d edged slightly closer and reached out with a nervous hand. He caught a lock of her hair between his fingertips. It was soft and silky and he closed his eyes as he breathed in the scent of her.

“Do you want me to lie down now?” He whispered.

She looked up at him with glowing eyes.

“Undress first.” She breathed back at him.

He lifted his hand and began to unbutton his shirt. Slowly he pulled the shirt from his shoulders and revealed his broad chest, glad for once that he had kept up his gym schedule as much as possible. It wasn’t the first time she’d seen his chest but it was the first time he’d revealed it to her without him lying flat on his back being ill. He smiled as he heard Geraldine pull in a sharp breath. He waited a few moments before he began to unbutton his fly but Geraldine suddenly stood up from the bed. There was a rustle of her silk blouse as she reached up and placed her hands on his cheeks and pulled his face towards her.

He had thought he would be prepared for this but he wasn’t.
He had meant to tease her as she had teased him but it was impossible. His mind went completely blank. There was no way he could hold out any longer and the next moment his mouth found hers, his arms swept around her body, his hands caressed her back. He dragged her to his chest, revelling in the feel of her against him as she moaned into his mouth.

“David, I
can’t wait any longer. I want you, I want you now. The last months ‘ave been torture.” She breathed against is skin as his heart lurched wildly. She kissed him again, her lips moulding to his, her tongue tasting him. It was minutes before they came up for air.

His blood pounded through his veins.

“You think that you have been through torture? My God woman, you don’t know the meaning of the word. I swear that you have nearly killed me!” He gasped back at her as his hands roamed across her shoulders, down the curve of her back, sliding around her waist and then back up her front as they searched, craving her beautiful breasts. He sighed in relief as he found them, massaged the soft mounds of flesh gently through the fabric of her clothes as she moaned into his mouth, clasping as much of him as she could with two tiny hands.

They fell in a tangle on the bed
, the sheets sliding over them as they tried to get even closer to one another. Her hands were all over his naked chest, fingers threading through his masculine hair, pressing his muscles, roaming up across his broad shoulders, feeling, touching.

He didn’t know how long he was going to last.
Every nerve ending could feel her desire mixing with his own. It was impossible to constrain. His whole body was on fire again but this time it was with the slow burn of passion. His hand flew to his fly but she beat him there, tugging at the buttons while she kissed him even more deeply.

His
jeans hung low on his hips, his red-hot passion straining to be released but she suddenly moved back and stood there gazing at him.

“I need you
now, now David, before I go mad for you.”

David
didn’t need asking twice. He ripped off his jeans and boxers and Geraldine pressed him back into the bed. He grabbed the sheet and drew it up to cover his legs. While he wasn’t worried about her seeing his prosthetics, he didn’t want to think of them himself until they knew how they were going to deal with them and he wasn’t quite prepared to take them off at his stage.

He
lay there waiting, gasping for breath as Geraldine dropped to her knees beside the bed and slipped her hands beneath the sheet. He groaned and fought for control as her fingers wrapped his granite hard length. Her cool fingertips swept over his flaming skin and his hips thrust forwards wildly as her questing fingers and eager palm reached to cup him lower. His eyes rolled to the back of his head in ecstasy as she touched him but just before he was about to shout for her to stop, afraid that he was about to disgrace himself, she suddenly removed her hand from him anyway. He was about to protest that she could carry on but just a little slower when she quickly stood up and moved her hand to the clip at the top of his leg. He steeled himself for what she was about to do. Making love with no legs probably wasn’t going to be a problem for him but he wasn’t sure how Geraldine would view it in the harsh light of day. He wasn’t sure that they shouldn’t have discussed it first but then let out a long breath. If she was ready for this then so was he. He wasn’t going to shy away from the reality of the situation.

S
he released the clip and dragged his prosthetic limb out from beneath the sheet seconds before he heard his sister speak from just inside the doorway. He shot upright as Ellen’s hissed words jolted him back to reality.

“David! How could you? Geraldine, you do not have to help him with his legs every night. I
know that he’s been poorly but this is ridiculous. I am so sorry that he’s put you in this position.” She scowled at her brother. “You and I will be having a discussion about this in the morning.” She slammed the door as she left the room and David stared in horror at the spot where she had stood. He gave a small cough and looked up at a very red faced Geraldine.

“Aw fuck!” He
breathed as he tried to get his heart rate back to somewhere near normal. He wiped the sweat that had gathered on his brow. “Cheeky moo didn’t even knock! Just as well one of us was concentrating. She might have copped a right eyeful if you hadn’t heard her coming along the corridor.” He listened to Geraldine’s groan of horror at the thought. “Just stay here. I’ll go and speak to her.” He took one more steadying breath before he swivelled to the edge of the bed, took his leg from Geraldine’s trembling hands and jammed it back onto his thigh again.

Geraldine lifted her eyes to him as he rummaged around in his
bedside drawer for pyjamas. Her face flamed scarlet.

“I am so embarrassed.
I can’t begin to think what that might have looked like from where she was standing. Whatever will Ellen think of me?” Her voice shook.

David
laughed as he stuck his legs in the pyjama bottoms and stood up, tugging them up to his waist and tying the cord tightly. He caught hold of Geraldine’s shoulders, pulled her towards him and covered her face in gentle kisses.

“
It probably looked exactly like what it was until you lugged my leg off. I confess that even I was surprised. Talk about a passion killer! But don’t worry about Ellen. She’ll think you are the most wonderful woman in the world when I tell her that you have agreed to marry me.”

Geraldine
gasped, all embarrassment forgotten as she looked up at him with tears in her eyes.

“Oh, David! Do you mean it? I love you so much. I want to be with you forever.”

David smiled down at her and then captured her lips with his own. He kissed her deeply, savouring her taste, her warmth, her passion. He pulled away from her reluctantly but he had to tell her exactly how he felt too. There would be no more confusion.

“I love you too Geraldine. I never thought anyone would want me
like this but if you’ll take me then I’m yours. Forever.”

She smiled up at him
, her fingers threading through his hair.

“I never doubted it for a moment.
All those daft emails and texts through the autumn…I knew what it meant all along. I nearly died when you said that you were leaving. Thank goodness I realized almost immediately that you were making a mistake about Jules.” She pulled away from him slightly. “Do you think Ellen will be okay with this, with us? I mean, I know that’s she’s not over ‘er own disappointment yet.”

David frowned
as he thought.

“What disappointment? Oh! You mean
the guy from the cottage! But he hasn’t been around for months. She must be over him by now, surely.”

Geraldine shook her head.

“You men! You have no idea how we women feel. Once we love, we love forever. There is no end to it and it cannot be stopped. If you had gone home after Christmas I don’t think I would ever have recovered from it.”

David stared at her. He knew what she said was true for he felt it himself
with every fibre of is body. His heart lurched in his chest. This woman loved him, loved him so powerfully that she would never let him go. He leaned forwards and dragged her into his arms, his hands sliding gently over the curves of her waist, the subtle flare of her hips. He kissed her once more, the intensity of his possession leaving her in no doubt of his feelings. He looked into her beautiful green eyes.

“Stay here
and wait for me. I’ll be back in half an hour. Make the bed warm for us and I promise that I will keep it warm for us forever more. I’ll never leave you and I’ll never doubt you ever again. I love you Geraldine, I want to marry you, have children with you and spend the rest of my life with you. Stay here with me tonight and make it come true.”