“And if I had, what would you’ve said?”
“I would’ve told you that it’s too soon to talk about getting married. And I also would’ve asked if you’d discussed it with Kendra. Have you, Lamar?” Nydia asked when he hesitated.
“No,” he answered truthfully. “I told you before, I’m not going to allow my daughter to control or monitor my life. She knows that I like you and she appears okay with that.”
“That’s not enough, Lamar. If I’m going to marry you, then I’ll have to step into the role of her mother. It’s been only the two of you for the past four years, and she may not like having to share her father.”
“I promise to talk to her just before we announce our engagement. Right now I need to know if you will consider becoming my wife sometime in the future.”
Nydia moved closer to him. “I’m glad you said in the future. Once I move to New Orleans and we spend more time together you just might change your mind.”
“I doubt that, sweets. I knew the first time I laid eyes on you that you were special.”
Nydia rubbed her nose against his cheek. “More special than those other women you were—”
Lamar placed his hand over her mouth, stopping her words. “Please don’t, Nydia. Since meeting you I haven’t touched or looked at another woman.” He removed his hand. “Once I commit I’m all in. Like this,” he whispered, pressing a light kiss on the bridge of her nose.
Nydia smiled. “Do you know what I forgot to do?”
Lamar exhaled an inaudible sigh of relief. He had expected Nydia to go off on him. It seemed to her that he’d assumed that she’d jump at the opportunity to share his life because she’d admitted to being in love with him and because of how easily she’d bonded with his daughter.
Thankfully he had been given a reprieve, because they had been able to talk it out, and he knew if or when they did marry and live together, they would be able to discuss their problems without resorting to drama or hysterics.
His eyes caressed her face as if making love to her. “What is it, my love?” He gasped when her hand slipped under his shirt and unbuttoned the waistband on his jeans.
Springing up with the agility of a cat, Nydia straddled him. “I have to show you how much I like my Christmas present, because words would not be enough.”
Lamar bit back a smile. “I take it you like your bracelet.” He’d wanted to buy her a ring, but he didn’t know her ring size, and at the last moment he knew it wasn’t something he wanted to give her with her family as an audience. Once she accepted his proposal and ring, he wanted that to be a private moment between just them. “What are you going to do?”
“You’ll see,” she said, undoing his fly.
Lamar gasped. She released his penis from his boxers and going to her knees, took it into her mouth. He hardened quickly and feared ejaculating in her mouth instead of inside her. Now that she was taking an oral contraceptive he did not have to use a condom, and without the barrier of latex their lovemaking had become even more intense.
“No!” he bellowed. But Nydia did not stop. Lamar anchored his hands under her armpits and extricated her mouth from his erection. He reversed their positions and managed to undress himself and then Nydia in record time.
He was much slower in arousing her, as it was his turn to use his mouth and tongue to bring her to the point of climaxing. Her breath was coming faster as moans slipped past her compressed lips. Lamar hardened again, and both sighed in unison as he eased his erection inside her.
If Lamar had doubted his love for Nydia, he knew now what he felt for her was so good, so real, that he believed he had just entered an alternate universe where fantasy and reality merged and from which he did not want to escape.
* * *
As Nydia surrendered all she was and all she had to Lamar, she felt as if she were floating beyond herself. Making love with Lamar had stripped her bare, leaving her naked, vulnerable, and afraid he would break her heart. She loved him just that much.
Since meeting Lamar she had come to realize what true love was, and it had changed her inside and out. She was more patient and willing to listen. At first Nydia attributed it to becoming more mature, that at thirty-three she couldn’t continue to conduct herself the way she had even a year ago. So many things had happened to her in a year: she’d been downsized; had gone into business for herself keeping the books for small businesses; had undergone surgery for a life-threatening infection, and she was now legally an innkeeper.
She had also unexpectedly fallen in love with a man she did not want to love because of her past track record of relationships that ended with deceit and disappointment. But somehow Lamar had wound his way under the barriers she had erected to keep men out of her life and bed with his unabashed honesty and the ease with which he was able to apologize and accept blame for his actions.
Nydia wrapped her arms around his back and legs around his hips as she arched to get even closer as the contractions in her vagina grew stronger and stronger until she gave in to the orgasms that held her captive before releasing her until another gripped her, this one even stronger than the last, until she dissolved in an ecstasy that shattered her into a million little pieces. She and Lamar returned from their simultaneous free-fall at the same time, and laughter shook them until they struggled to catch their respective breaths.
“What are you doing to me?” she whispered in his ear.
“Loving your life, babe. I can’t wait until we can go to bed and wake up together.”
Nydia kissed his ear. “It’s going to happen,” she said confidently.
“Do you want a long or short engagement?”
“I think I’d like a rather short one.”
