Untraceable (7 page)

“
Go to sleep my angel,” he
whispered. “I love you.”

“
Aller dormir, mon ange.
Je t'aime aussi,” I repeated to him in French.

He laughed and kissed my neck a little
slower this time, “See, your French is already
improving.”

I closed my eyes and fell into
peaceful sleep.

I woke to the feeling of Micah
nuzzling against my hair as his left hand gently roamed the front
of my body. I could feel, as he was pressed against me, his arousal
and need, but it still surprised me since it had only been about
six hours since we had fallen into exhausted sleep from making
love.

“
Good morning,” I stated,
low and soft, as I reached behind me and allowed myself to do a
little exploration of my own, confirming just how aroused he was at
the moment. He was sighing with pleasure over the touch of my hand.
“You must have been having a good dream,” I mused.

“
I couldn’t stop thinking
about last night,” he breathed hot against the back of my neck,
allowing his lips to caress my skin as he spoke. “The way you felt,
the smell of your skin, the way you taste—I just couldn’t turn off
my brain.”

“
How long have you been
awake?”

“
About two hours.” His
hand went lower, gliding over the baby and moving to places that
told me how serious his thoughts were.

“
Why didn’t you wake me
earlier?” I asked as I rolled to face him.

“
You needed your sleep,
and I could wait.”

I was considering all the pleasure he
had given me last night and I wanted to do something that would,
hopefully, be just as surprising as my French lesson. I pulled his
arm as I adjusted onto my back, cradling him between my
legs.

He smiled down at me, “I don’t suppose
you’d let me do to you what I did last night, would
you?”

I returned the smile, “I’m going to
ruin your control in a few moments.”

“
That was only a sample of
my control last night, baby—this may end with more mouth to
mouth.”

“
Don’t be so sure of
yourself, Mister Gavarreen—I might just surprise you.”

“
You’ve got that glint in
your eye, Annalisa.”

“
What glint?” I asked,
reaching down to stroke him as he closed his eyes and
inhaled.

“
The one I’ve only seen
when you’re challenging someone to a race. We can’t get too wild or
you’ll be complaining about labor pains.”

“
Oh, I don’t think you’ll
have a chance to get wild on me.” All the while I was hoping what I
was going to do would be as pleasurable as I was billing it. If it
wasn’t, he would win this and I’d be the one begging for him to
stop. I gave him a sultry smile, “Wanna race?”

“
You’re challenging the
wrong man,” he uttered with a deep rumble to his voice as he made
his grand entrance and began to settle into his unnerving and
pleasing rhythm.

I was immediately swept into his
power, nearly forgetting my challenge. “Slower, baby,” I whispered.
He obeyed, but he was just as maddening at the slower pace. “Do I
feel good to you?” I breathed into his ear and then began to suckle
his lobe.

“
Oh, yes—you have no idea
how—” His hips stopped moving. “Annalisa,” he gasped, “What are
you… Oh, baby—don’t—”

I could see the immediate struggle he
was in as he tried to retain his control. I turned his face to mine
and began to kiss him hard and deep, all the while my muscles
tightening and then relaxing against his presence in my
body.

“
Baby,” he begged, “I
can’t—” Suddenly, the spasms hit him as he gripped me firmly and
cried out, pushing deep within me. It was almost painful, but I
know he didn’t intend to put quite so much power behind the stroke.
I was still working against him as he clung to me. “Baby, stop,” he
conceded. “I can’t take it anymore.” And then, for the first time
ever, he withdrew without warning, rolling onto his back. He
actually looked a bit panicked.

I rose up and asked if he needed me to
loan him some carbon dioxide, noticing that he wanted to laugh, but
he was still so surprised over what happened between us that he was
momentarily speechless.

“
I guess this means I won,
huh?”

“
Baby, I’m sorry,” he said
in a deep apologetic tone. “I didn’t get you off.”

“
Are you kidding?” I
snickered. “You have no idea what a turn on that was for me to make
you lose your grip.”

“
What was
that?”

“
Exercise,” I simply
stated.

“
I hate to ask it this
way, but who the hell taught you that?”

My snickering had turned into laughter
as I lay back down on the pillows, fully satisfied that I had blown
his mind. “The internet.”

“
I’m gonna have to take
your computer away if you’re starting to go to those kind of
sites.”

“
Really? You’d take away
my childbirth sites?”

“
You can’t be
serious?”

“
Yes, I am. After I
discovered I was pregnant, I started doing research. One of the
sites explained how you can keep your muscles toned so that
birthing a baby doesn’t—well, stretch things out. They’re called
Kegel exercises and I’ve been doing them twice a day every day. I
hadn’t thought about doing them during sex, but after last night, I
figured it was the only weapon I possessed to challenge your
control.”

“
You have an arsenal of
weapons whether you know it or not,” he was finally smiling.
“You’re already the best I’ve ever had, and I was wondering how you
kept improving. But,” he threatened, “I will learn how to control
my response to your—your sexercise.”

“
And who says I’m going to
do this again for you?” I questioned, raising an eyebrow at
him.

He rose above me and gathered me
underneath him. His mouth teasing me as it came in contact with
mine. I parted my lips to accept his kiss, only to have him
withdraw and then offer his kiss again. Once more, he pulled away
as my tongue yearned to touch his. His mouth descended for a third
time, but this time his tongue darted past mine and, as pointedly
as a fingertip, stroked against the roof of my mouth. It tickled so
badly, I almost bit him.

“
Do it again, baby,” he
whispered. “I’ll beg if you want.”

The idea of him begging sent a wave of
heat through me so hot that my skin immediately flushed with color.
Suddenly, I wanted what my previous display of prowess denied me
from our last encounter.

“
I don’t know if I can—I
need you, Micah,” I panted. “I need you
now
,” I restated, hoping he wasn’t
going to tease me any further.

“
Êtes-vous
prêt?”

His lyrical French accent was pushing
me into my internal melt down. “Oui, oui,” I breathed back. “But
can you? It doesn’t give you much time to—”

“
Touch me, Leese,” he
softly asked, as he brought my hand against his body. His body was
relaxed and only slightly aroused, but as I continued the gentle
contact, his body became fully awakened and ready. “I told you that
you have more weapons than you know. But, I’m going to warn you,
since we’ve already made love once, this is going to take longer.
Can you handle it?”

“
I—I don’t know, but I
know I need you. Please.”

The distance between us erased and I
was given my heart’s desire.

He was gentle and slow, sheltering my
body against his as the pleasure rocked through me. By the time he
was bringing me to the second pinnacle, I realized he was serious
when he told me this might take a while. I didn’t know if it would
work on him a second time, especially since I didn’t have the
element of surprise, but unless I wanted to be borrowing his breath
again, I needed to shake his insane ability to control himself.
Just before I began to slip over the invisible edge of pleasure, I
tightened my muscles for all I was worth.

He groaned hard, “Baby.”

“
Ensemble, mon amour,” I
pled as I relaxed and retightened.

“
Oui—ensemble,” he agreed,
breathing hard as his control slipped into my hands, and we tumbled
over the edge together.

He was smiling as he kept me in his
embrace, “I want to feel it once more. Contract your muscles,
Leese.”

Just as I pulled what felt like the
internal drawstring in my body, our son gave one of the firmest
kicks I had felt yet.

Surprise was written all over Micah’s
face as he began to laugh. “We’ve been ignoring someone and I think
he’s trying to tell us he’s had enough.”

“
You’re right. How about a
fast shower and then breakfast?”

“
Sounds good to me,
beautiful. I want to go over to Mom and Dad’s before we leave to
ask if they want to witness the baptism and renewal of our
vows.”

I was smiling as I grabbed my robe and
headed for the bathroom. “Why wouldn’t they?”

Micah frowned, but it wasn’t a frown
of disappointment for me asking that question, but more over their
reasoning. “If it was just the vows, I think they would be there no
matter what they had planned,” he stated as he followed me and then
reached inside the shower and started the water. “But I think the
religious aspect makes them both a little bit nervous. When I told
them that I went forward right after proposing to you, they changed
the subject immediately. Neither one wanted to get near that
topic.”

I hung my robe and grabbed us each a
towel and placed them on the bar outside the shower. I was studying
his face and I could tell how much it bothered him, but it only
served to make me more proud to know that, even though the last
time was disappointing for him, he was still going to approach them
and ask them to be witnesses to this very holy event. We were
standing there in the nude when I threw my arms around his thick
neck, kissed his cheek, and reminded him how much I loved
him.

He opened the shower door and waltzed
me under the water’s flow. “Sit on the ledge, Leese, and let
me—”

“
No. Ensemble, remember?
Just like the grapes, we’re doing this together.”

He didn’t say anything as he grabbed the body
wash and poured some in my hands and then some in his own, but his
smile was enormous as we began to lather each other. Although it
didn’t take us long to finish, we stood under the pouring water for
a while after rinsing, my back against his chest as he wrapped me
in his arms and swayed to some inaudible music playing in his head,
and just enjoyed the feeling of being close. I was so comfortable
that I could have dozed, but eventually he turned off the water and
we dried off and slipped on our robes.

CHAPTER Four

The late morning sky was over-cast and
threatening rain at any moment, but we made it into New Orleans
before the first sprinkle fell. We turned down a tree lined section
on St. Charles Avenue and parked in front of a large, two story,
Greek revival home with wrought iron fences and a beautifully
manicured yard.

“
This is your parents’
house?”

“
Yeah, it’s just hard for
me to remember that you haven’t been here yet.”

I laughed without thought.

“
What?”

I rolled my eyes at him,
“Hard for
you
to
remember? I bet if I asked you my bra size right now, you’d get it
right.”

He leaned over and gently stroked my
cheek and put an easy kiss on my lips, “It was 34C, but I’m
guessing, since I got you pregnant, it’s more like 34D.”

“
Shoe size?”

“
Seven and a half. But,
don’t ask me about jeans and shirts because you don’t exactly fit
into your old sizes anymore—we need to get you some maternity
clothes.”

“
And you can’t remember
that I haven’t been here yet?”

“
Annalisa,” he whispered,
“any memories that don’t contain you are becoming foggy and distant
to me. I’ve always been clear and sharp on every aspect of my past,
but I’m finally realizing that I don’t care about it because you
weren’t in it. You’re like a beautiful eraser.”

I smiled and returned the soft kiss,
“I love you, Micah, but I’m not the one easing those memories for
you.”

He started to rebut me, but I placed
my fingers to his lips to keep him quiet, “You’ll figure it out.
Let’s go see your parents.”

The house was magnificent. Evidently
Celeste and Giorgio were connoisseurs of antiques and every piece
was exquisite. Then it dawned on me that buying such pieces of
history was probably another way to shelter their money from the
government.

“
Good morning,” Celeste
sang out as she greeted us. She gave me a firm hug, telling me how
happy she was that I would finally get to see their
home.

“
It’s absolutely
beautiful,” I remarked, still trying to take in all the
extraordinary pieces. “It must have taken you years to get such a
splendid collection.”

“
Where’s Dad?” Micah
asked.