Something so Grand

by Lynn Galli

  “Oops, sorry, Ms. Nat, sorry!” he cried as I felt the mustard that squeezed out of his sandwich soak through my board shorts.

  “Oh, Mase,” Vivian said, turning quickly to grab some napkins.

  “It slipped,” he said, shooting big sorry eyes up to me.

  “It’s okay, buddy, accidents happen,” I assured him, taking the napkins from Vivian and wiping the big blotch off my shorts.

  “Uh-oh,” Teddy said, pointing when the stain didn’t disappear after I wiped it.

  “They’re just swimmers. I’ll douse them in the river, and they’ll be good as new.”

  Vivian watched me with an adoring expression. Maybe she thought I’d yell at the poor kid, but nothing was worth yelling at a kid, much less a little food stain. She reached for Mason’s sandwich and wrapped the bottom in a napkin, then handed it back to him. He looked unsure that everything was okay, not like he was used to being yelled at for spilling food, but not sure how someone other than his family would take it.

  “Eat up, bud, the river’s waiting,” I told him.

  “Don’t you want to wash your shorts now?”

  “When we’re done eating.” I grabbed him around the waist and put him right back in my lap.

  It didn’t take long for the boys to finish their lunch. We packed up the wrappers as the boys brought Seth over to the Gator to get their inner tubes from the back. I dashed into the river and splashed some water on my shorts so that Mason wouldn’t feel bad about his spill anymore.

  When I walked back onto the beach, Vivian waited for me with a huge smile and open arms. “Lovely, lovely woman.” She squeezed me tight until she heard the boys dragging the tubes behind them.

  We went to lift them for the kids and set them on the grassy embankment next to the sandy beach. Vivian applied another layer of sunblock to the boys’ faces and handed the tube to Seth to do the same. She reached into one of her bags and pulled out shirts and life vests for the boys.

  “No shirts, Aunt Viv.”

  “It’s a long ride on the river, Teddy. You want to be laid up tomorrow with a bad sunburn? Shirts on, guys.” She included Seth in her warning, but he hadn’t taken his off and probably hadn’t planned on it. “Do you have river shoes, Seth?”

  He looked down at his now bare feet and shook his head. “I’m good.”

  “If you have to stand up, make sure to look first. There are some sharp rocks out there.”

  “’Kay.”

  “And if you don’t mind following the boys in case one of them flips. It’s not too deep for you, but a couple places get too deep for the boys.” She fastened the vests on both boys, even though she’d told me they could swim. It was better to be safe with kids and water.

  “Nobody flipped the last five times, Aunt Viv,” Teddy told her.

  “Just in case, otherwise one of us is coming with you.”

  “Seth can handle it, right, Seth?” Teddy looked up at him. It was pure hero worship for some reason. I wasn’t about to question it, not when Seth seemed fine with the adoration and it meant I’d get Vivian alone several times today.

  “Let’s launch you, then,” Vivian said, pulling off her wrap to reveal a bikini bottom that matched her tankini top and had my eyes glued. “Got your whistles?”

  Mason pulled his out of his pocket and looped it around his neck. Teddy held his up and blew it for practice. Seth and I just looked at each other and shrugged.

  “If they get stuck somewhere along the way, they blow and I bring the Gator,” she told us.

  “Ah,” I said, carrying Mason’s tube into the thigh-high water. I waited for him to wade in and settle into the tube. Then I pushed him out toward the center of the river, waiting for Vivian to do the same with Teddy.

  Seth was at my side in a flash, ready to sink into the tube as soon as the boys were let go. I nodded once at the boys then gave him an expectant look. Without having to say anything, I knew he’d get that I was telling him to keep a close eye on the boys and not to swear around them. He tipped his head, probably glad I hadn’t said that out loud.

  Bidding him a safe trip, I let go of Mason’s tube. He immediately started giggling when the easy current swept him downstream. Vivian let go of Teddy’s tube seconds later and got the same reaction. Seth gave them a head start before he hopped into the tube and smacked my outstretched hand on his way by. We watched from the middle of the river until the boys eased around the first bend then sloshed our way back to the beach.

  “Amazing day already,” Vivian said, wrapping her arms around me and pulling me in for a sizzling kiss. “You’re wonderful to your nephew, wonderful to my nephews, and wonderful to me.”

  “It’s not hard. You’re pretty wonderful.”

  “You really are too sweet.”

  I kissed her again, rubbing my hands along her slender arms. “You’re warm and you taste good.”

  “Whatcha got on under this tank?” Her eyebrows fluttered. A finger darted out and pulled at the neck of my tank top so she could get a look.

  The movement should have revved me up, but her mischievous glint just made me laugh. She was a bit of a tease, and I loved it. Instant gratification didn’t do half as much for me as delaying the indulgence.

  “Hot stuff, woman, look at that bikini top.” Her eyes flashed. “You were going to show off that little number right now, weren’t you?”

  I grinned. “Maybe, if you’re good.”

  She pulled on my hand. “Let’s take advantage of the umbrella and the quiet. We’ve got about a half hour before we have to go pick them up.”

  “Hmm, a half hour.” I quirked my eyebrows.

  “Don’t look at me like that.” She shook her head. “A half hour isn’t enough time to do amazing things to you.”

  “I was thinking of a little kissy face, but if you had other things in mind…” I took a seat and shifted onto my side, so there’d be room for her in the lounge chair.

  “Naughty Natalie, that’s what I’ll have to start calling you.” She smiled and slid right up next to me.

  “Sweet but naughty. Make up your mind.”

  “I like both, and I love you,” she whispered, her eyes going from mischievous to sincere in a flash.

  I felt my breath leave me in a rush. My heart, which had already started pounding when she began teasing me, sped up fast enough to make me heady. “Oh, Vivian. I love you.” I kissed her softly. “You must have known that.”

  She grinned and nodded once. “I had you pretty well figured out, yeah.”

  “Was it the beach?”

  “No.” She shook her head and pressed her grin to my face. “It was the ice cream.”

  I matched her grin and held her close. I was in love with a woman who loved me back. Could life get any better?

  35 Natalie

  Dwight had a different way of running his projects than Vivian. He needed to see things before he could sign off on it. This was our second day on site, and we’d already knocked down the first kitchen island we built because he thought it was too big. Now he was walking around the current one, muttering that it was too small.

  “It’s a good size, dude,” Ramón told him, not because he didn’t want to put up the island again but because he honestly thought so. It was one of the reasons I’d hired him.

  “It is a good size, dude,” Vivian’s voice repeated from behind us.

  “Viv!” Dwight dashed over and pulled her toward the kitchen before she was able to say anything to anyone else. “Should it be longer on this side? The client freaked when I told her we’d changed it. She wants her counter space.”

  “Will the countertop be a different color?”

  Dwight grinned and bumped against her shoulder. “Naturally.”

  “It’ll appear bigger than it is with the contrast. Your client will be happy.”

  “Marvelous,” Dwight exclaimed then grabbed Vivian’s closest hand and twirled her with ease.

  The guys laughed, but I was a little amazed at the gra
ceful movement. I hadn’t known Vivian could dance and clearly very well. She ended the twirl facing him, one hand on his shoulder and the other still clasped in his hand. They looked like they’d done this a thousand times. I was excited to learn more about her clear love of dancing.

  “Unhand me,” Vivian mock declared as they stepped back simultaneously. “I didn’t come here to dance or do your job.”

  “You love doing my job for me,” Dwight joked.

  “Someone must,” Vivian shot back. “I’m stealing your contractor for lunch.”

  “We’ll never get done,” Dwight said dramatically.

  “She has to eat.”

  “Fine, if you have to.” The twitch of his mouth told me she must have already told him about us.

  I tried not to beam proudly, knowing that she was telling her friends about us. I couldn’t have kept it from Miguel if I’d tried. Our first day back after a week’s vacation, Miguel knew something was different the second he saw my smiling face. I couldn’t see anything different when I looked in the mirror, but he guessed it right away.

  “Do we get to go?” Ramón asked Vivian with a broad smile. He looked like he might know, too. Miguel wasn’t great at keeping secrets.

  “I can’t afford to feed you guys,” she told him.

  Her hand reached for mine automatically as she came toward me. We were professional when we worked together, but this was Dwight’s project and she couldn’t seem to keep from touching me when we first saw each other. All of this was fine by me.

  “Make sure everyone starts back in a half hour,” I told Miguel as I clutched Vivian’s hand and turned to leave with her.

  “You plan on being late?” he joked. “Must be nice being the boss.”

  “You had the chance, too, you know,” I reminded him. He’d turned down my offer to start the business together, preferring to stay a worker bee.

  “Management is a headache I don’t need,” Miguel’s taunt followed us out the front door.

  Vivian chuckled at his remark before leaning down to kiss me. “Hi, Nat.”

  “Couldn’t wait for tonight, huh?”

  “I’ve been wanting to do something sweet for you for a while. Taking you to lunch when you’re working and I’m still on vacation should put me on the right track.”

  “You’re always sweet to me.”

  “Except when I’m calling you a moron.”

  I laughed, thinking about our first meeting. “That was charming.”

  “Bitchy, you mean.”

  “Endearing,” I insisted. “Would you have remembered me if you hadn’t let your inner voice free that day?”

  Her eyes slipped down my frame in a heated gaze. “Oh, I would have remembered you, sexy.”

  I gripped her chin and brought her down for a kiss. Her lips slid over mine, pulling me in before her talented tongue twirled with mine. Heat pulsed through my body, and I fought the urge to grind against her. Knowing my guys, they’d probably run to the picture window in the front room to catch a glimpse of us.

  “You need to stop, or we’ll be using your lunch hour for something other than eating,” she breathed out after pulling away.

  “Eating is overrated.”

  She chuckled then noticed my serious look. “Don’t look at me like that, babe. I’m trying to be good. You’re the one that’s working this week.”

  I would never have considered this with anyone I’d dated before, but I couldn’t get enough of Vivian. I wanted her all the time. “I’ve never had a nooner before.”

  She pushed out an audible breath. “You are so bad.”

  “Five minutes to your place, Vivi.” I fluttered my eyebrows.

  That’s all the coaxing she needed. We jumped into her car and sped down the back roads to her cabin. It only took three minutes with the way she drove, which was a little scary but a lot exciting.

  Through the door, we intended to rush to the bedroom but didn’t make it. One step in, I turned and reached for her, my mouth crashing onto hers. When her body connected with mine, I thrust a thigh between her legs and sealed myself to her.

  “You feel so good, babe,” she groaned. “This is crazy.”

  “Good crazy,” I confirmed.

  My hands slid under the shirt she was wearing, cupping her breasts before lifting the shirt free of her head. Her hair spilled back over her naked shoulders. I loved the feel of it in my hands and brushing my body whenever she rode me. Sometimes it just took a simple glance at the free fall of her hair to ramp up my temperature.

  She pushed my t-shirt up, catching my practical bra in the motion, stripping them both free. Her hands shook as they landed on my shoulders and dragged down over my tits. We both hissed as her fingers tweaked my hard nipples.

  Fumbling to get rid of her slacks and panties, my mouth slid over her neck and sternum. She was having a hard time leaving my chest to undress me. That was so hot but frustrating because I wanted to be naked now. Stripping her completely, I didn’t waste time ripping my clothes free.

  “God, your body, babe, so hot,” she murmured, touching everywhere her eyes landed.

  I leaned down and took a nipple into my mouth. It spiked against my tongue as I lapped. She trembled in my arms, shooting a surge of blazing heat through me. How she responded to me was almost as good as what she could do to my body.

  I pressed her toward the sofa, making her sit on the arm. My hands nudged her legs apart as I knelt between them. The naked lips of her sex glistened with her arousal. I leaned forward and kissed each thigh, watching as her flat belly quivered with each touch of my mouth. I tilted my chin up and kissed the wide strip of light brown hair on her mound. Her manicure got me burning hot every time I got a peek. It was the perfect amount of hair and smooth, silky skin.

  “Kiss me, Nat. I need your mouth on me,” she whimpered.

  I glanced up to watch her eyes as I pressed my mouth over her swollen clit. Her taste filled me, causing a flood of moisture to seep onto my thighs. My tongue thrust forward and teased her clit. Her hands grasped the back of my head as she moaned under my ministrations.

  “Yes, yes, so good,” she sighed and widened her legs, tilting her hips up into my mouth.

  I moved a hand from gripping her thigh to stroke the underside of her leg. I teased my fingers along the crest of her ass as it slid half off the arm of the couch. Her slickness dripped over my fingers on the first touch of her sex. I explored every plump ridge and soft valley while my tongue teased her clit.

  “Natalie,” she moaned, the word both pleading and demanding.

  I plunged inside. Her tight sheath hugged me, and I felt the effect as if our positions were reversed. My tongue doubled its effort, lapping her clit in a steady rhythm that matched the thrust of my finger. Her hips tilted again. I took the cue and added a second finger on my next thrust. She was tight and slick and blazing inside. Wetness poured out into my palm. Her sheath contracted as her moans grew louder. She was on the verge. I gave a final lap before sucking hard on her clit. With a forceful thrust, she shattered around me.

  “God, Nat,” she groaned hoarsely as she recovered. In the next moment she frantically reached down to drag me up from my knees. “Get up here and ride me, babe.”

  Her hands grasped my hips and pulled me to her, sliding one behind my thigh and lifting. I followed her lead and climbed onto her lap, shooting my legs out on either side of her hips. Her mouth collided with mine as she inched my hips back on her thighs to give her hands room.

  “You made me so wet,” I whispered as her mouth pulled off mine and slipped down the column of my throat.

  My hips began to rock on her lap. I could climax like this. She didn’t even need to touch me. That’s how easily she got me going.

  She spread her thighs, opening me wide. The position put me at her mercy, like I’d never allowed with anyone before, but I loved it. When her hand slipped between us, I bucked hard in her lap. Her mouth latched onto my nipple. Two fingers penetrated me as she bit down. I
crashed into orgasm, milking her fingers and thrusting my tit farther into her mouth.

  Pulsations wracked my body. She rode them out with me, kissing my chest and pressing the base of her palm against my clit to wring every last convulsion out of me.

  “I love making you come so hard.” She gave me a satisfied, powerful smile. “Almost as much as I love you.”

  A noise slipped from my mouth. “I love you, too, Vivi.” I leaned in and kissed her thoroughly. “Best lunch ever.”

  She laughed and slid my hips closer to her for a tight hug. “I’m not walking you back into your jobsite. I’ll never be able to hide this satisfied grin from your guys. Dwight may even spot it from the car.”

  “I’ll give up lunch any day for this kind of treatment,” I told her and took one last kiss before having to face the rest of my workday.

  Her smile turned wicked. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  I stood and turned away to begin dressing before that smile coaxed me right back into her lap for round two.

  36 Vivian

  Heat seeped through me as I woke. I was lying on Natalie again. A beautifully naked Natalie who never minded when I wandered across the bed and ended up face down on top of her. I fell asleep on my side every night but almost always woke up on my stomach. On the occasions when I’d shared my bed, I’d wake up in the same position I’d fallen asleep in. Until Natalie. I took a lot from that. My subconscious was as comfortable with her as my conscious, a rationality that made me smile.

  “What’s got you smiling so early in the morning?” Natalie’s voice spoke from above my head. Her hands started gliding down my back, fingertips scraping just enough to bring out a shiver. She’d discovered this action made me mewl on our first morning together. Now she never turned down the chance to provoke me.

  “How do you know I’m smiling?”

  “Your mouth is on my boob. It’s hard not to notice what you’re doing with your lips.”

  “It’s a very nice boob, makes a wonderful pillow, too.” A fabulous boob, actually.

  “I noticed.”

  My head popped up to stare at her. Her hair was mashed in on the side, but other than that she looked adorable. “I keep ending up sleeping on you. You’re eventually going to kick me out.”