Several sheets of paper lay on a small table by the window. Alex picked up the first one and read the address: Miss Amina Idakoji, Care Of Missus Becka Totley, Outer Salt Lake City, Utah.
Dearest Amina,
I hope this letter finds both you and Hakki well.
As you might have guessed, I left rather abruptly with Alex. He insisted, you might say.
I am Well, and have reached California. Please come as soon as you and Hakki are able. I miss you Terribly. Furthermore, I need your wise advice; things are complicated.
Please give my Best to the Totleys.
Yours Truly,
Glee Elizabeth Montrose
Monterey, California
The next was to Raymond Montrose in Boston.
Darling Raymond,
Oh how right you were, and how poorly prepared I was! My senses were overcome in every way you described.
Alex's gut tightened, but he put his jealousy aside to continue reading.
I should have listened to you more, Dear Cousin, for I've made a Muddle of my first -- and likely Only -- Love Affair. There must have been some secret Touch or Phrase I did not receive when God gave me my Femaleness. Loving a man is far more Complex than I could have imagined. Is it as Puzzling for you as a man to love a woman?
The following page skimmed over the details of their arduous trek to California. The final page, though, revealed more about how Glee felt. Alex was not entirely sure of the propriety of her comments, but was equally unsure of how to deal with them.
Right now, I am on the Rancho of my Lover. Only time will tell if our Relationship will persist - he would have me as a Mistress, and, as I cannot bear the thought of sharing him with Another, I will be nothing other than his Wife. As you can imagine, we quarrel over this rather heatedly. Our Reconciliations, however, would make even you blush, Raymond!
I will, of course, Write again once I am settled. Please give Aunt Ulalie and Uncle Martin my best.
Your loving cousin,
Glee
Raymond Montrose… Raymond Montrose! Of course! He was the young rake Manuel had gone to school with. Alex had met him several times over the years! This was the same "dearest cousin" and "best friend" Glee had spoken of so many times? The man was a notorious womanizer! It was a wonder that Raymond hadn't found his way under Glee's skirts long since. But, he reminded himself with some chagrin, they were cousins. Of course conversation was all that had transpired. Rather lurid conversation, if this letter was an example, but only conversation.
Alex was suddenly very glad that Raymond Montrose was in Boston while Glee was here in California. It was jealous of him, he knew, but he didn't want to share his little tiger's sweet sensations with anyone, not even in a chat. However, Raymond was important to her, so he’d just have to work through his jealousy and get over it.
Quietly, he removed his clothes and slipped his arms beneath Glee's knees and shoulders, gently carrying her to the big bed. Alex slid in next to her. She sighed and curled up against his side so naturally that he wondered if there could be any other way to sleep. Magdalena had never sought his heat. And now her place in his heart was smaller, pushed aside by Glee.
Alex fell asleep with his arm around his sleeping tiger, smiling.
* * * *
Glee woke in the morning with the most pleasurable sensation of Alex's warm mouth on the tip of her breast. "Oh, Alex."
The other nipple was next.
He moved up to nibble on her earlobe. "Do you like children, sweetheart?" he murmured into her hair.
"Mmm-hmmm," she answered affirmatively, wondering vaguely why she was back in Alex's good graces. But she was quickly distracted from coherent thought. She arched as his lips traveled down her body to her belly.
"Can you love me and no other?"
"I already love you and no other, Alex," she murmured.
"No women either," he explained, his tongue finding a sensitive area where her thigh and hip met.
"Ah!" It was so hard to think with him doing that to her. "No women?"
He raised his head and looked at her seriously. "I know about the harem, mi corazón." He smiled. "I am not a prude, but I am a jealous man."
She stopped him from further explorations with his lips, her hands in his hair. "You know about the harem, eh? Then know this," she tugged on his hair and he frowned. "I was a guest. I observed. I did not participate."
"But-"
She laughed. "Ahmak," she scolded. "What an imagination you have!"
"Hmph." He blew air into her navel and she squealed. "I want to be clear about things with the woman who is to become my wife."
Her eyes opened wide. "What did you say?"
He began kissing again, his lips moving lower and lower on her belly until she felt him touching places she'd only recently discovered existed. "So no one has ever done this with you before, eh, querida?"
"Oh God, Alex…" She lost her breath for a time. "You're not mad at me anymore?"
When he moved back up her body and kissed her mouth, she was shocked but took naughty delight in the taste of him. Of her. "You are a brat, mi amor, but I love you," he whispered against her lips. "If you ever do such an underhanded thing again, however, I will take Rudy's advice and spank you unmercifully."
Glee pouted. "Unmercifully?"
"Si."
She kissed him deeply. "Will you make love with me afterward?" she asked, her voice husky.
"Before, during, and after, my little tiger,” he said, golden gaze heating her. He knelt between her thighs and cupped her smooth bottom in his big hands. Lifting her slightly, he slid into the warm sheath he craved. She moaned as he stroked her firmly deep within. "Will. You. Marry. Me?"
"Will you keep… doing this?" she teased, flushing and squirming in his hands.
He stopped and she pouted. "Only if you say yes," he explained.
"Yes!"
Epilogue
September, 1853
"It is finished, sweetheart," Alex said, waving a letter as he walked into his bedroom. Glee was nursing their two-week-old daughter, Felicity, and she looked up with a sweet smile.
He couldn't help the warm satisfaction that stole over him each and every time he looked at his wife and, now, his daughter. The baby was entirely like her, red-gold fuzz on her head, and turquoise blue eyes. He watched her chubby little cheeks working so hard as she sucked at Glee's tender nipple. It was strange, sharing a part of his wife's body with another person; but it was also heartwarming to see the depth of love that passed between mother and child.
Rudy ran in with a lizard clutched in dirty fingers. "Look! The second one today!" He skidded to a halt as he saw what was going on. "Whoops!"
Alex smiled down at his son and turned the boy's back to the room. "That's a big one, mi hijo."
"I wanted to show Felicity," he pouted.
"Felicity is eating now. And anyway, she's still too young to appreciate lizards."
"She sure eats a lot."
Alex nodded, suppressing his smile. "She's a baby. Babies do that. You did, too."
"Not like that! Yuck!"
His father chuckled. "How about if you and I go for a ride in a little while?"
Rudy's eyes lit up. "On my new pony?"
"Si."
"I'll go to the stable and have Juan or Carlos saddle him right now."
"Good idea. I'll be there in just a few minutes."
Rudy scurried down the hall, and Alex turned back into the room just as the door to the back patio slammed. Amina snapped her fingers vigorously in the kitchen, her way of chiding Rudy for slamming the door.
"I fear he'll be just like you when he grows up, Alex," Glee said as she put her sleeping baby in the bassinet and began buttoning her dress.
Alex moved into the room and threw the letter on the bed, catching his wife's hands before she could finish with the buttons. "Slamming the doors?" he asked huskily, nuzzling Glee's neck.
"That's not what I meant," she murmured, feelin
g his hands slide into her bodice to cup her breasts. Their warm pressure started a throb in her center.
"I have missed you, mi corazón." His mouth took hers in a gentle kiss of exploration. Glee wrapped her arms around his neck and returned his kiss passionately.
"It's been two weeks and one day, and the doctor only said two weeks, Alex. Don't you want me anymore?" she teased.
He growled and lifted her onto the bed. The letter crackled as he set her down.
"What's that?" she asked. "Is it a letter from father's publisher? I'm dying to know what he thinks of the novel."
Alex pulled it from beneath her and showed her. "From Martin. Your uncle says the problem with the Sultan has been resolved. It cost us both a pretty penny, but the obligation is disposed."
"How much did it cost?"
He threw the letter toward the chair and it fluttered to the floor. "You'd like to know how much the Sultan thought you were worth, eh?" Gentle fingers tickled her waist.
She giggled uncontrollably. "Are we impoverished?"
Alex laughed and let her up. "Vain creature!"
Glee began to unbutton Alex's shirt, her turquoise eyes darkening with sultry depth. "Well, if you bought me, don't you want to use me, Alex?"
His hands wound into her hair as he pulled her toward him for a harsh, slow, kiss. "Si, mi pequeña tigresa. Oh, si."
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Under Wraps
Copyright © 2010 Patricia Green
Cover art by Jimmy Thomas
All rights reserved.
Under Wraps Page 29
