Linda Randall Wisdom - Pregnancy Countdown

Except she noticed they weren’t exactly together. Not that there was any hesitation on his part. There was no doubt he was very interested. She could feel the proof against her. She didn’t want him merely nuzzling against her, she wanted him inside her.

“Mark!” She wiggled her hips against him.

“Look at me!”

She opened her eyes and looked up into eyes that were such a bright color, she felt as if she were drowning in a white-hot blaze of blue. Her hands had been gripping his shoulders. Now they reached up and cupped his face.

“Show me the world, Mark,” she murmured, bathing his lower lip with the tip of her tongue.

His smile flashed white as he bent his head to kiss her deeply at the same time as he thrust into her. Her hips arched up at the same time.

Mark not only showed Nora the world, he flew with her into the outer reaches of the cosmos.

“Something is going on and I want to know what it is,” Ginna insisted.

Nora buried her nose in the newspaper. She couldn’t believe it. Her friend had been in the salon for barely ten minutes and she already sensed something. If Nora hadn’t had a full day booked she would have stayed home no matter how much she wanted to see Ginna.

“Did you know scientists found a dinosaur egg in an ice cave and they were able to successfully hatch it?” Nora reported in a bright voice. “And everyone thought those movies were fiction.” She gave an unladylike little snort.

“Nora!” The paper was snatched out of her hands. “You always make fun of those papers.”

She looked up with guileless eyes. “Do you mind? I’m studying for my next appointment. Mrs. Crockett loves to discuss the latest tabloid headlines. This way I can hold my own in the conversation.”

Ginna lowered her voice. “Mrs. Crockett also believes little green men visit her once a month and on Arbor Day. They go out for brunch and come back to her house for bridge.”

“That’s because they love her lemon tea cakes.”

Ginna dropped into the chair beside Nora. The women were relaxing in the well-appointed break room set up for the employees of the Steppin’ Out Hair Salon and Day Spa.

When Ginna had walked inside the salon that morning she’d gone over to Nora, studied her face and hugged her hard.

“You better tell me what is going on,” she’d whispered in her friend’s ear just before she released her.

Nora had been able to avoid any private conversation with Ginna all morning thanks to a heavy schedule. Zach showed up to kidnap Ginna for lunch. Now she was back with a little too-pleased brightness to her smile and stalking Nora with single-minded intent.

Nora’s time was up. She carefully folded the paper and set it down.

“Let’s see. You had a beautiful wedding and an even more beautiful honeymoon. You have a husband who adores you and two stepchildren who are absolute dolls. I am happy that you’ve found your true love in Zach, I really am. Yes, I’m a little envious, but I know you understand and forgive me for that envy.”

“You’ve been through a lot in the last month, sweetie. I saw your sorrow and I wished I could have been with you. But what I see in your eyes now isn’t all grief,” Ginna murmured. “I see confusion in there too and I don’t think it has anything to do with your grandmother’s death. Does it?”

Nora took a deep breath. She should have known Ginna’s sharp eye would pick up on her unsettled emotions.

Since the morning she’d woken up beside Mark again, she’d asked herself why she’d invited him back into her bed. She knew she couldn’t blame him. He’d taken his cues from her. She couldn’t lie to herself that she didn’t know what she was doing. Because she did know what she was doing and it was eating her up inside.

Making love with Mark transcended anything she’d ever experienced before. The two nights she’d spent with him were a pure sensual joy she could easily find herself addicted to. It had been a month and she still recalled every moment they spent together.

She was already addicted to that joy and craved more. Except that meant adding Mark to the equation. That was a dangerous combination.

“I miss Grammy Fran. I miss our nightly talks on the phone, her visits down here every Thanksgiving through Christmas and my visits up there every summer. I miss her advice,” Nora replied. “But I feel her spirit with me all the time and that helps. That’s probably what you see.”

Ginna leaned forward, propping her chin in her cupped palm as she stared at her friend. Nora resisted the urge to fidget under her piercing gaze. She’d forgotten Ginna’s eyes were the same brilliant-blue color as Mark’s. All the Walker family shared the identical eye color.

Except, while Ginna’s examined her with a disconcerting thoroughness, Mark’s eyes seduced her.

“Anyone I know?” Ginna asked softly.

Some kind of temporary insanity tempted me to make love with your brother, not just one night but two. The man is a genius in bed. He had me practically screaming with pleasure. Is that what you wanted to know?

“Nora, Mrs. Crockett is here.” A tall willowy woman in her early twenties seemed to float through the doorway. An off-the-shoulder peasant-style blouse in a creamy white topped a handkerchief hem skirt in the same color. Decorative embroidery in reds, yellows and greens highlighted a color that would have normally been boring at best. Black hair was skimmed back from an oval face that could have easily graced an antique cameo. Tan leather strappy sandals graced narrow arched feet with toes tinted the same red as the embroidery in her skirt and blouse. An equally narrow waist was cinched with a soft leather belt.

“Thank you, Paige,” Nora said, grateful for the interruption.

“She is so different from Renee,” Ginna commented, mentioning the receptionist who had worked at the front desk until just before Ginna’s wedding.

Nora nodded. “Paige is twenty-three and a graduate of Vassar who’s trying to decide what to do with her life. Her father is a producer at Warner Bros. and her mother designs jewelry that starts at five figures and she’s a close friend of the spa’s owner, CeCe. Paige’s ancestry goes back five generations in this state. Her great-great-grandfather was a senator and an aunt a couple generations back was in the Ziegfeld Follies. The woman later married a railroad magnate,” Nora replied. “CeCe said Paige needed to find her true self and she would be able to do it here. She’s a real sweetheart, to boot.”

“Good thing I snagged Zach before he got a look at Miss Way-Too-Good-To-Be-True,” Ginna said dryly. “Otherwise, I would have had to kill him to make sure he didn’t talk to her.”

“I doubt that would have happened. He was hooked from the first second he saw you. He even admitted it.”

Ginna grinned. “Yeah, I did look really good that day.” She waved her hands at Nora. “All right, escape to your client. I’ll corner you later and find out what’s happened while I was gone.” She heaved a theatrical sigh. “It’s not fair. I go away for a few weeks and I miss out on all the fun.”

“Somehow I doubt you thought about any of us while you were gone,” Nora teased as she fled.

For the next hour, Nora was relieved only to have to listen to her beloved client’s stories about past alien abduction.

“I know you think I’m cuckoo, dear, but I don’t mind.” Mrs. Crockett patted Nora’s hand after Nora finished styling her snowy-white hair. “My friends certainly think that, although they’re nice enough not to say so out loud. I appreciate you being so sweet and listening to me prattle on.”

“You don’t prattle. You use such vivid imagery when you tell me about your adventures, I think you should write about them,” Nora urged her. “There are magazines out there that would publish your stories.”