All I've Ever Needed (After the Storm) (10 page)

“Aw, that’s such a sweet story.”
 
Natalie was a sucker for stories of couple surviving against the odds.

“It wasn’t sweet when they arrived here with nothing and my mother already pregnant with me!”

“They obviously made it work.”

Antoinette’s was cozy, with six tables each seating a maximum four people.
 
His mother had said that she was always fully booked, but she didn’t want to larger premises because she like cooking or personally overseeing all the meals herself.
 
She’d said that she
 
also liked being able to have the time to mingle with the diners and ensure that they were all happy with their meals.
 
On Sundays she entertained her special group of regulars, some of whom had been patrons of hers for almost twenty-five years.

“It took them almost five years to get on their feet.
 
My father had to keep a low profile, so they had to avoid the Italian community over here.
 
They didn’t even have enough to pay the large deposits the landlords demanded because my father had just arrived and didn’t have a job yet.”
 
They had a arrived at the Thai restaurant but Stephano parked the car and continued, seeing Natalie’s look of rapt attention.
 
“My mother says if they hadn’t met Shirley Jones she didn’t know how she would have survived.
 
She and my father had been house hunting all day,
 
carrying their belongings with them.
 
She said that she suddenly felt tired and cold and hungry and started to cry.
 
Shirley was coming from the shops with her daughters, Cheryl and Faye, and one of them said, ‘Mummy, that lady’s crying!’.
 
Shirley invited them in for a cup of tea and when they explained their predicament, she told them that they could stay the night.

“It was only a two-storey house with two bedrooms and two large receptions downstairs, but when Ivan, Shirley’s husband came home and she told him the kind of rent landlord were asking for a single room, he decided to move the living room furniture to the dining room and convert the room into a bedroom for my Mum and Dad to rent.

“It helped my parents save a lot of money and helped the Joneses with their mortgage payments.
 
Shirley had another daughter, Eva, just before my mother had me.
 
They bought double bunk beds for the girls’ room when we were old enough and the older girls had the top bunks and Eva and I had the bottom, but most nights we used to sleep in one or the other. When mother first opened the restaurant, she had to serve breakfast, lunch and dinner to make it profitable and Shirley looked after me for her.
 
People used to call Eva and me the ‘the black and white twins’ when she took us to the shops or to play in the park.”
 
Stephano laughed at the memory as he released the car’s central locking mechanism.
 
It hadn’t been as easy when he and Eva were teenagers—their friendship had incited racial comments and abuse from both races.

***

Within a few minutes of arrival they were shown to their table.
 
The restaurant had a cool elegance that wasn’t typical of the Thai restaurants at which Natalie had previously dined, but the dark wood tables were quite close together.

Natalie had looked forward to having a green curry all day, but changed her mind at the last minute when she thought of the creamy coconut milk.
 
She and Stephano both ordered
Pla Tod Sam Rod
, whole de-boned sea bass with a chili, tamarind and lemongrass sauce.
 
She wasn’t particularly hungry, but when his
Thot Man Kung,
deep-fried crab cakes flavored with red curry paste and finely-chopped lime leaves, arrived it smelled heavenly.
 
When he offered her a bite, she shook her head.

“Try it,” he encouraged.
 
“It’s very tasty.”

She leaned in, took the morsel and found it as scrumptious as it looked.

When he offered another piece, she took it, trying not to appear too eager.

And the proximity of the tables lent intimacy, she discovered as they spent the next forty-five minutes chatting pleasantly and enjoying the beautifully presented food.
 
Leaning in to whisper, so as not to be overheard by the occupants of the next table, created a coziness that wouldn’t have been likely in a larger restaurant.

They were mostly silent on the short journey to her house.
 
She
 
watched him covertly as he drove the racing red Jaguar XKR Convertible—she had a thing about cars and knew how expensive the model was—expertly, letting the power steering work for him.
 
The car with its big-cat sleekness suited Stephano perfectly.

“Would you like to come in for coffee?”
 
He’d had a glass of wine with the meal and they had both refused coffee and dessert.
 
She needed to ensure that he was sober enough for the drive home.

Oh come on, Natalie!
 
You may as well have said, would you like to come in and have me!
she chided herself.

“Yes, please,” Stephano responded readily, coming around to open the car door for her.

He kept her hand in his as he remotely locked the car, opened the gate and hurried up her walkway.
 
Thrumming with excitement, she fumbled to open her front door.
 
And as soon as she did, Stephano wrapped his arms around her and kissed her hungrily even before the door closed behind them.

At the touch of his lips she was right where she had been two Fridays ago—aroused, needy…and desired.
 
His arms were a welcome cage of muscle that made her feel secure and safe from the world.

“This dress is driving me out of my mind,
cara
.”
 
Stephano’s chest rose and fell rapidly as he broke the kiss.
 
“I want to take it off you.”

He was asking her permission and all she had to say was “no”, but she couldn’t.

Instead of answering, she turned and led the way up to her bedroom.

She expected them to undress hurriedly when they got there.
 
Instead Stephano slowly unwrapped the black Pashmina shawl and looked at her.

“I was worried that you would pop out of this dress all evening.”
 
He slid his fingers on the delicate straps and pinged them softly.
 
They looked delicate but were quite secure.
 
“I was worried, but at the same time hopeful that it would happen.”

Natalie chuckled at his honesty as he slid the strap off her shoulder and bent to kiss the exposed flesh.
 
He trailed his lips to the slender column of her neck and she shivered in reaction as he stirred the erogenous zones there.
 
He seemed intent on taking it slowly, but she was already on fire.

Reaching up blindly, she opened the top buttons of his shirt and ran her hands over his smooth shoulders as he lowered the other strap and slowly eased the zip of her dress downwards.

“Take it off,
cara
,” he commanded as he stepped back and pulled his shirt free.
 
He shrugged out of it and reached down to open his belt as she let the dress slowly fall to the floor.

She felt the urge to cover her breasts as she stood in front of him in nothing but her tiny red thong, but something in his gaze made her feel beautiful .

“Magnifica,”
he breathed, stepping out of his trousers and reaching for her once again.
 
“Perfezione.”

His erection pressed against her as he lowered her onto the queen-sized bed.
 
His weight pressed her down into the bed and for a moment she felt a little panicked when she remembered the initial pain of his penetration the first time they’d made love.
 
But it hadn’t lasted, she remembered, and relaxed as his lips covered hers and his tongue pressed its way past her lips.

Stephano reigned in his excitement with iron control.
 
The feel of Natalie’s soft skin against his was driving him out of his mind, but he refused to repeat his shameful performance of two weeks ago.
 
Her perfume filled his nostrils and he realized that the scent was so subtle only someone who was intimately close got the pleasure of it.
 
Somehow it made being this close feel more special.
 
He was doing something other men didn’t have the pleasure of sharing.

He cupped her breast, liking the way it filled but didn’t overflow his large hand.
 
It was the perfect size.
 
He loved its springy firmness and the fact that her nipple was already erect.
 
He groaned deep in his throat and tweaked into marble hardness.
 
He heard her moan as he trailed soft kisses on her dewy skin on his way to capture the distended nub of flesh in his mouth.

He loved the way she responded to the simplest caress.
 
He didn’t know how many past lovers she’d had but he felt almost as though he was making love to a virgin.
 
She stroked his shoulders softly but did nothing to arouse him.
 
He was used to sexually-mature women who gave as much pleasure as they got and though he had enjoyed that very much, there was something special about the novelty of having a woman who allowed him to take the lead and didn’t challenge for control.

 
She gasped as he used his teeth and lips to nibble and tug on the erect points of one
 
breast and then the other.
 
He could do it all night, he thought, just to hear her throaty moans and feel her fingers digging into his shoulders.
 
Pulling the flesh deep into his mouth he gave it one last long suckle and then slowly let it go.

“No!” she protested, cupping the back of his head and trying to keep him in place.

He resisted and made his way downwards, dipping his tongue into the hollow of her navel and continuing southwards.

***

A tiny sliver of sunlight filtered through a gap in her heavy bedroom drapes as Natalie woke up spooned by Stephano.
 
His arm was heavy around her waist and she felt so happy it brought instant tears to her eyes.
 
She had never woken up with Michael in bed with her.
 
He’d said that he wasn’t used to sharing a bed and couldn’t sleep with someone next to him.
 
She’d believed him and hadn’t known what she’d missed until this moment.

Sex with Michael had been okay, with nothing to compare to; with Stephano it had felt the way it was described in romance novels.
 
Stephano had acted as though his only thought was pleasing her.

She and Stephano had talked and made love, talked some more and then made love again before he’d fallen asleep.

She had wanted to ask him about the other woman a thousand times, but hadn’t wanted the perfection of the night of happiness she’d decided to grab for herself.
 
If he told her the truth about the woman, it would hurt too much.
 
If he lied, it would hurt even more.

Long after he had fallen asleep, she had lain in the darkness, wrapped in his muscular arms, breathing in his familiar scent, listening to the sound of his breathing and crying because her heart was breaking.

She wished she could accept what he was able to offer her.

She had tried to hold something back—not give too much of herself as they’d made love, but her love had been like a river bursting its banks, unstoppable.

Women shared men all the time, she knew, but she was greedy—she wanted all of him, or none at all.
 
She couldn’t share him.
 
Tonight as he touched her, reverently like she was a fragile piece of glass, all she could think of was him touching that other woman in the same way.
 
She wondered if the other woman’s scent was more intoxicating, if she was tastier on his tongue.
 
Stephano didn’t seem to notice or mind that she hadn’t gone down on him.
 
She couldn’t help thinking that the other woman was probably miles better at it than she would ever be.