Still Falling (24 page)

Help!

Marco stood and pulled her to him.
 
He drew her arms around his neck.

“Hold tight” He whispered.
 
He
scooped her up, wrapping both naked legs around his hips.
 

“I don’t want to have to pull lesbians off your beautiful body in the
morning” he nuzzled into her neck.
 
Quickly and quietly he carried her up the rustic wooden stairs for the
second time that night.

He closed the door of the bedroom and clicked his fingers once.
 
Both bedside lights came on and spread a soft
muted glow over the king size centrepiece in the room.
 

Reluctantly he allowed her to slide to the floor.
 
She gazed up at his face, desire clear and
burning in her eyes.
 
Feeling brave now,
Serena trailed her fingers from their grasp in his hair, along his neck and
down his chest, moving back slightly to give her hand room to roam.
 
Her caress built up a burning inferno in his
blood as her fingers found the dark line of hair running south.
 
Finally they found his pants.
 

With surprisingly calm fingers, Serena undid his metal button and lowered
the zip.
 
With a gentle nudge off is hips
the baggy trousers fell to the floor.
 

Mmmmm No boxers.
 
He
is perfect from head to toe.
 
If desire
can kill, I’m definitely terminal!

For a long while the naked lovers stood facing each other, just
centimetres apart.
 
Looking but not
touching.
 
Eventually it was too much for
Serena.
 
She stepped forward into his
arms, wrapping her own around his neck and pulling him down to her mouth.
 
They kissed with an urgency neither of them
had ever felt before and in one swift move, he drew her down onto the bed.
 
Nuzzling her breasts, his mouth found one
taut nipple and drew it into his mouth biting gently.
 
Serena sucked the air in through her teeth
and her back arched in desperation.
 
One
strong hand stroked gentle circles along the inside of a pale thigh, softly,
heading closer and closer.

Oh God yes there!

A lone finger entered her slowly, twisting and turning and moving in an
out like a dancer.

“Serena you are so sweet and wet.” He mumbled as he moved to her other
breast.
 
Serena needed more.
 
Now.
 
She couldn’t take much more.
 
She wanted him now.

“Marco
please
.”
 
She pleaded.
 

With exquisite gentleness his thumb joined in the dance, massaging that
sweet spot just north.

“Oh God please come with me.”

Marco drew his finger from her and she watched as he sucked the moisture
off slowly.
 
Then with extraordinary care
he hovered above her and entered her, holding
himself
just in the entrance.
 
Serena pushed her
hips up to meet him, all the fibres of her body honed and needing one
thing.
 
Release.

“I....won’t.....break!” she panted.

Marco pushed himself deep into her body, relishing the warm moist
protection her private space offered him and they began to move together.

Serena savoured the feel of his body above hers, his strength, and his
need.
 
He filled her body now in a way
she had never been filled before.
 
She
rocked her hips in time to his, matching his rhythm perfectly and little sparks
started to ignite deep within her starting a chain reaction.
 
More and more sparks scintillated around
her.
 
In her.
 
The final explosive spark shattered her mind,
taking him with her.
 
They lay in a
heap.
 
Both bodies covered in a thin
sheen of sweat.
 
Both
breathing heavily.
 
Finally Marco
lifted his body off of hers and rested on his side, his head on raised on one
hand.

“Serena, I have never been this afraid in all my life.” She could see it
in his eyes.
 
She knew him so well.

Serena studied the tired lines that she hadn’t noticed before.
  
There were dark smudges under his eyes as
well.

“Afraid of what?
 
Hurting the baby?”

“Afraid you will run again.”
 
There, he said it.

Serena struggled upright and sat cross legged on the bed cover.
 
She pulled a pillow onto her lap and hugged
it to her for comfort and protection.
 
Looking down at the weave on the bed covers fabric.

“Marco.
 
I heard you talking to the
Gabrielle when she snuck my dress onto the rails” She started somewhat
shakily.
 
“I heard what you said to her
when you found out it was mine.
 
That
hurt me more than anything in the world.
 
I knew then you didn’t love me and never would.”
 
As she said it the tears
brimmed
her eyes again and one escaped, burning a trail down her flushed cheek.

“Oh God is that what this has been about?” He stared at her in
astonishment.
 
“All
these years of punishment and pain!”
He wiped the tear off her jaw with
a gentle thumb before it could fall from her forlorn face.

Marco climbed off the bed and Serena watched him fearfully, worried he
was going to leave.
 
He picked up a thin
silver chain that sat in a small dish next to his bed along with his watch,
wallet and phone.
 

Marco fingered the chain looking at it uncertainly, and sat back down on
the bed.
 

“Serena, that day you disappeared.....do you remember what we had planned
for that night?” He searched her eyes.

Serena shook her head.
 
Her memory
wouldn’t allow her past hearing his words then running.

“We had dinner plans. Serena I was going to ask you to marry me at dinner
that night.”

She looked at him incredulously.

Huh?

“But you were shouting at Gabrielle about my dress about how you wouldn’t
use it because it was mine.....”

“Serena, I was trying to get it through to Gabrielle’s thick stubborn
skull that I wanted you to wear your dress for me on our wedding day.
 
That’s why I wouldn’t let it be included in
the Line.
 
It was, it is, a beautiful
dress Serena.”

“So you did love me?”

“God woman, I have loved you my whole life.
 
So much that sometimes I wish I didn’t.
 
You have torn me upside down and inside
out.
 
When I thought you didn’t want
me.....and then when I thought that boy had made you pregnant...... and then
the thought that you had gone through an abortion......” His own eyes started
to water and he squeezed them tight, before opening then again.
 
They were glowing now.
 
Serena stared back, speechless and captured.

“Then that night at the Hyatt when you fell into my arms again and fell
right back out again.” His eyes were red with emotion.
 
“Serena will you marry me, and have my
children?”
 
He held out the thin chain.
Dangling at the end was a ring with a perfect, simple, diamond.
 

Um.

Serena couldn’t think.
 
Her mind
was desperately trying to process everything she had just learned.
 

He watched her, desperation oozing through his soul, fear gripping his
heart in long taut fingers.
 
Serena
blinked at him.
 
Her lips slightly
apart,
and her breathing strangled.
 
He watched with ice forming in his veins as
her bottom lip trembled slightly.
 

Very slowly her gaze altered and Serena nodded.
 
Overcome with relief he pulled her onto his
lap and kissed her deeply.
 
Desire crept
its way up from the depths and they were both lost in each other again.

Serena watched her fiancés face as he slept beside her.
 
The storm outside had passed and morning had
arrived in full glorious sunlight, shining brilliantly through an open
curtain.
 
Marco looked so relaxed, even
smiling softly in his sleep.
 
She ran her
finger across the small dressing on his forehead,
then
careful not to wake him she combed her fingers through the tousled waves that
rested on his brow.
 
She realised now she
had never stopped loving this man.
 
Even when he had made her angry or scared.
 
Next to the dressing, the small bump and gone
down and a small blue bruise sat in its place.
 
An unfamiliar sensation stirred in her belly and her hand flew to her
little bump.
 
Suddenly her eyes flew wide
open and she gasped in realisation a huge grin splitting her face.
 

“Well I had no idea you would be that happy to see me in the
morning!”
 
Marco grinned lazily as he
woke and reached for her.

Ignoring his teasing she grabbed his hand and placed it on her
belly.
 
“The baby moved.
 
That was the first time.”
  
His face lit up in wonder as he caresses the
small mound.

“So both of you are happy to see me in the morning.
 
The day is looking up!”
 
With the sexiest smile she had ever seen, his
hand moved south and her heart sang.

Suddenly commotion broke out down stairs and loud voices could be heard
filtering up through the floor.

Shit. Mom, Jo, the boys!
 
They’ll be worried.

“Okay, there is world of people including my mother are looking for me
right now and are probably worried sick.
 
Who’s going to do all the explaining?”

Marco smiled and kissed her.
 
“Judging by the noise, I think it might take all three of us to calm
that lot down.
 
Safety
in numbers?”

“Chicken!” she laughed and the three of them dressed to face the
inquisition.