‘Rafe?’ She lifted her face to his and her eyes were green and incredulous. Her lips were trembling and she was shaking like a leaf in a gale. ‘Tell me I’m not dreaming?’
He smiled fleetingly at last but he sobered immediately and touched her face with his fingertips. ‘When I’m away from you I can’t get you out of my mind, when I have you in my arms it couldn’t feel more right. When I think of losing you, my whole world falls down and the only way to right it is to know that you belong to me and I belong to you.’ He closed his eyes briefly. ‘You could have no idea how ironic that is but it’s true.’
‘Tell me,’ she whispered.
‘I will one day but-’
‘Excuse me.’
They both turned convulsively to see a man standing on the jetty, regarding them a trifle awkwardly.
He said, ‘I heard the splashes and came running but you did the right thing climbing onto the boat. Then you seemed a little-um-preoccupied so I retreated but-uh-would this be your bag, though, miss? I found it on the jetty.’
‘Oh, thank you!’ Maisie breathed and Rafe reached over to take it. ‘Thanks, mate,’ he added.
‘Are you both OK?’
‘Fine, never better,’ Rafe assured him. ‘We actually make a habit of doing this.’
The stranger stared up at them then shrugged. ‘If I were you I’d get dry and warm before you catch pneumonia.’
‘Not a bad idea,’ Rafe said gravely and turned to Maisie, who was rather desperately trying not to laugh. ‘You wouldn’t have the keys for the boat in that bag by any chance, my love?’
‘Y-yes,’ she said a little unsteadily and pulled them from her bag.
They laughed together, standing in the middle of the Amelie’s shipshape little saloon, standing in the circle of each other’s arms, still dripping.
‘He must think we’re mad!’ she said.
‘He could be right. I’m certainly mad about you. I’ve done this once before without permission but I think it needs to be done again.’ And he started to undress her.
She put her hand over his with a sudden cloud in her eyes. ‘Susie…’ And she told him what had happened to her phone. ‘I should check in.’
‘She’s fine. I was talking to Grace only minutes before I bumped into you, just in case you’d checked in with her. Susie’s had a bottle and she looks set to sleep for hours.’
Maisie relaxed. ‘I love you too,’ she told him and helped him out of his sodden jacket. ‘We could have a shower-we should have a shower, and not only to continue a tradition we once established, and properly this time, but also to get warm and clean. See that little gas heater up on the wall there?’
He’d removed her sweater and he looked in the direction she was pointing. ‘Uh-huh,’ he said but distractedly because what he’d revealed was a pale lemon bra patterned with forget-me-nots.
‘Well, it provides instant hot water.’
‘Wonderful.’ He turned his attention back to stripping her trousers off. ‘Since,’ he looked into her eyes, ‘we’ve established that, may we proceed?’
‘Please do,’ she invited and a little glint lit her eyes. ‘I was only keen to-set the scene.’
He paused and looked at her narrowly. ‘You really want us to take a shower?’
‘I really do. I had an amazing fantasy once about…showers-boat showers to be precise-so-’
He put his fingers to her lips. ‘Say no more.’ He ripped off the rest of his clothes, turned away to prime the gas heater then picked her up in his arms and carried her into the Amelie’s bathroom.
It wasn’t as large or as grand as the Mary-Lue’s but the jet of water, after a few preliminary splutters, was warm and wonderful as it streamed over them.
Maisie took her bra off and her knickers and stood revelling in it. Then she looked into his eyes and saw a question in them. She turned the water off, wound her arms around him and pressed her breasts against the hard wall of his chest as she offered him her mouth.
The result was dynamite. Their kiss was everything she’d fantasised about. His hands on her sleek, slippery body were everything she’d dreamt about as tremors of desire rose from deep within her.
The hard months slipped away and she felt at last as if she’d reached a safe shore, a haven, but not only that, one shot with rapture and pure pleasure.
When he lifted his head at last it was to ask her if she still believed she was dreaming.
‘No,’ she gasped. ‘Oh, no! But-would you mind not stopping? Because that was pure magic.’
He laughed softly. ‘There’s actually no stopping me now but we need a bed. Come.’
The double bunk on the Amelie was also in the aft berth and, again, not as luxurious as the Mary-Lue’s, but perfectly adequate for two people who were setting each other alight.
‘Do you have any express wishes in this instance?’ he queried as he stroked her from head to toe and all the sensitive, wonderfully erotic places in between.
Maisie drew a shaky breath because Rafe was looking down at her with tenderness and laughter as if it was a private joke only they could share.
‘I have had one overriding wish for a long time now.’ She rubbed her cheek against his shoulder.
He put his fingers beneath her chin and tilted her face to his. ‘Tell me.’
‘Just to be openly in love with you and relaxed and happy about it.’
His eyes softened and he kissed her. ‘Still?’ he queried against the corner of her mouth.
‘Mmm…Do you have any express wishes?’
‘Yes. You’ve just put it into words.’
‘Oh, Rafe.’ She felt herself melt beneath her own rush of tenderness and she cupped the side of his face in her hand.
And that was the mood that claimed them as they kissed and made a timeless exploration of each other.
And although they could have been anywhere, Maisie began her own journey into a sea of delight.
He told her things she would never have guessed. Such as how he’d been almost unbearably tempted to make love to her after Sonia’s soirée. Such as the iron discipline he’d had to exercise the night they’d slept in each other’s arms at the muster camp.
‘No,’ she breathed.
‘Yes,’ he contradicted as he cupped her hips and cradled her to him. And she looked into his eyes to see he was looking at her with heavy-lidded desire, and, just as she’d once anticipated, it sent her to the moon…
And all the pent-up hunger she’d suffered, to have his hands on her, his body on hers, was released, making her move in his arms, making her offer her body to him with sheer pleasure and an urgent desire to please.
Until they were moving as one more and more urgently as their desire peaked and the sensations she’d never experienced before started to wash through her, filling her with the incredulous delight that she couldn’t hide.
He saw it in her eyes just before they came together and he was moved beyond words as they shuddered simultaneously in the ultimate release.
She was the first to break the rapturous silence.
‘Rafe?’ she whispered with her eyes closed. ‘You were wonderful.’
He kissed her eyelids. ‘We were, Maisie.’ He touched everything he loved about her-her red curls, her smooth skin now damp and dewy-and, with a little growl in his throat, he pulled her very close again.
‘I should have known right from the start that this was the way it should be. You always felt as if as if you were made to be right here.’
Maisie breathed deeply as she felt his heart beating heavily again and could only believe every word he’d said.
‘I’ll never want to be anywhere else,’ she murmured.
‘I’ve had an idea.’ He smoothed some wayward curls behind her ear. ‘Let’s get married again. We can call it a reaffirmation.’ He looked into her eyes. ‘A good idea?’
She smiled then looked apprehensive. ‘Aren’t you supposed to be away for a month on business?’
‘That wa
s a business trip I didn’t really need to make. It was an excuse because I was going crazy trying to keep my distance from you.’
She relaxed. ‘It’s a lovely idea.’
They smiled into each other’s eyes then they clung together as if they could never get enough of each other…
Two weeks later, together with Sonia and Liam and their children, and, of course, Susie, as well as Grace and Jack Huston, Maisie and Rafe reaffirmed their vows in Vava’u.
The day before they’d hired a boat and cruised to the spot, in a sunlit calm sea, where Tim Dixon had died a hero, to scatter his ashes.
And the two weeks leading up to it had been a revelation for Maisie. The depth of Rafe’s passion for her amazed and delighted her and brought forth her own passion.
But it was just as much the little things that delighted her. Their mental unity, the little things they laughed over. Susie’s sudden discovery that there was a man in her life-Rafe-who always needed to be greeted with her most charming smile, was one of them.
Being able to hold hands for no reason other than they wanted to, waking up at night with his reassuring presence beside her, and knowing she was no longer alone…
It was a simple ceremony on the beach. Maisie wore a long sleeveless sea-green dress that matched her eyes; Rafe wore a black shirt and cream jeans.
Most of the staff of The Tongan, who were choir members of the church on the hill behind the resort, sang a joyful hymn unaccompanied, their voices soaring skywards.
And as they faced each other, her hands clasped in his, Rafe and Maisie looked deep into each other’s eyes and said these words to each other-
‘The ocean brought me peace
The wind gave me energy
The sun warmed my spirit
The flowers showed me life
But you made me feel love
Ofa atu-I love you’
There was hardly a dry eye amongst the onlookers as they went into each other’s arms.
Lindsay Armstrong
Lindsay Armstrong was born in South Africa but now lives in Australia with her New Zealand-born husband and their five children. They have lived in nearly every state of Australia and tried their hand at some unusual, for them, occupations, such as farming and horse training – all grist to the mill for a writer! Lindsay started writing romances when their youngest child began school and she was left feeling at a loose end. She is still doing it and loving it.
***
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From Waif To His Wife Page 16
