Martine The Beginning (Cruising to Love, The Prequel) (9 page)

 
“Yes, it is.  I think we realized our chemistry that first kiss, actually…”

 
“And?”

 
“And we’ve had dinner every night.  And, eh, I stayed over Saturday night.”

 
“And?”

 
“Well…”

 
“Well?”

 
“He’s very attractive and sexy, isn’t he? Lucas.”

 
“Yes, Martine, he’s very attractive and sexy.  And nice.  He seems to be a very nice man.”

 
“And intelligent, so intelligent.  And he thinks he’s falling in love with me.  He thinks it’s too fast, but he’s half in love with me.  He keeps slowing us down, but the attraction between us is…it’s electric, Penny.  We can’t seem to keep our hands off each other.”

 
“Are you lovers?  You must be now, if you spent Saturday night in his bed.”

 
“Almost, but not quite…”Martine blushed.  “He says one day soon, he’ll take my innocence away, but not yet.  But what he does to me, Penny, what he does to me…with his lips and his touches…he drives me to distraction.  I didn’t know it could be like this, so thrilling…so wonderful.”

 
Penny sighed.  “World class seducer.  Enjoying the prospect of being your first lover.  Driving you to the point of no return…”

 
Martine sighed as well.  “I hope you’re wrong, Penny.  I hope he really is falling in love with me.  I know I’ve fallen in love with him already.  The more I get to know him, the more I care.”

 
“You’ve known him for less than a week, Martine.”

 
“But we’ve spent every night together, and all night Saturday night.  That’s more time than Belinda spends with a boy before she beds him, I think…”

 
“You are no doubt 100% correct.  But don’t judge the speed you fall into bed by Belinda’s standards.  She’s quite shallow.  Talented, but full of herself, her gratification.  You’re not like that, Martine.”

 
“How long did it take Howard to get you in his bed, Penny?”  Howard was Penny’s last boyfriend, recently transferred by his firm to Australia.

 
“About three weeks, I think,” Penny smiled.  “And before you say anything else, no, I hadn’t dated him more than five times.  So I guess your Lucas is about on schedule, except it’s been compressed rather than spread out over a few weeks.”

 
“And that lasted nearly a year, didn’t it?”

 
“Yes, but I think we’d both realized it wasn’t going to work forever.  Howard is very career focused. He didn’t like a lot of my friends.  He liked you fine, but he didn’t like the boys in the band very much.  I think he had a jealous streak, did Howard.

 
“Anyway, Martine.  He didn’t ask me to go to Australia with him, so that says it all.  And if he had asked, I would have said no.”

 
It was nearly nine o’clock.  Penny left and Martine got ready for bed.  She brushed her teeth and washed her face, and looked at Lucas’s pajamas hanging on the hook on the bathroom door.  On impulse, she undressed, and instead of her nightie, she slipped into his pajama jacket.  She could smell him, and she felt safe, wrapped in that pajama top.  She rolled the sleeves back up, and buttoned it up, and climbed into his bed.  He had put clean linen on the bed for her.  She was touched by his thoughtfulness, but sad that she wasn’t sleeping in the sheets he had slept on last night…the sheets they had slept on together the night before.

 
Martine slept, and dreamed of Lucas.  Dreamed he was beside her, dreamed he was kissing her and touching her, driving her wild…

 
Wednesday, she collected the photos she’d taken Sunday.  She picked one out that was particularly good of Lucas.  She had planned to give it to Belinda, and ask her to paint his portrait from it, but changed her mind.  Instead, she asked the photo shop to crop it, and blow it up, in black and white.  She’d take it to the framer and have it professionally framed.  It would be his Christmas present from her.

 
Thursday evening she cleaned his flat from top to bottom, leaving not a hair out of place.

Friday, on her way from the bakery to the Gallery, she stopped and bought him fresh milk and added it to the loaf she
’d brought with her from her ‘day’ job as she called the bakery.  She picked up two steaks, and a salad mix, and two large baking potatoes.  Some sour cream. And a bottle of wine.  She’d also grabbed a sausage roll at the bakery. She would have that with a cup of coffee when she opened the Gallery, for her lunch.  But first, she went up the stairs to Lucas’s flat, and put the groceries away.  She’d also bought a small pot of winter mums, in a lovely bronze colour.  She put that in the middle of Lucas’s coffee table, with a little note that read,

             
              Welcome home.  I missed you.

             
                                          Luv, Tina

 
Martine had agonized over the ‘luv’, but finally decided it was alright.  She’d wanted to write ‘love’ but didn’t want Lucas to think she was too forward.

 
He came into the Gallery at six, to pick up the keys.  Martine thought he looked tired, but his eyes brightened when he looked at her.  There was a man studying every picture on the wall.  Lucas took her hand and led her into the back room, closed the door and kissed her and kissed her.

 
“I’ve been waiting all week for that, Tina.  All week.” He smiled down at her.

 
“Me, too, darling,” she said.  “I’ve bought groceries for dinner, but if you’re too tired to cook…”

 
“Not at all. Cooking dinner for you is one of my pleasures in life. What did you buy?”

 
“Just steak and salad and baking potatoes…”

 
“I’ll pop the potatoes in the oven right away…are you staying open until eight?”

 
“I’ve closed at seven all week, and the sales figures are the same as last week, so I think you’re right, darling.  I can close an hour earlier this time of year, especially on cold, wet nights like this.”

 
Lucas opened the door and ushered her back to the showroom.  The gentleman was still studying the pictures.  Lucas walked over to him.  “Is there anything in particular you’re looking for, Sir?” he asked.

 
“Actually, I’m from the
Times
,” the man replied.  “A friend suggested I come and have a look at this Gallery. Said the young woman who owns it has a great eye for budding talent.  I think he’s quite right, she does.”

 
Lucas brought Martine over, and soon she and the reviewer from the newspaper were chatting away like old friends, agreeing with each other on the merits of various paintings and sketches.

 
Lucas thought the man from the Times was looking at Martine at little too closely, admiring her legs in that black mini and tights…standing a little too close for Lucas’s comfort. 

 
He shrugged.  He didn’t like to feel jealous, he realized.  It was a new sensation for him.  He usually didn’t care if another man admired his girlfriends.  It was a just compliment to him, his taste in women.  But Martine wasn’t just one of

his girlfriends.  She was the one he was going to marry, to live with for the rest of his life.  He just hadn
’t told her yet.  It was too soon, and they couldn’t afford it yet.  But they would, soon.

 
Lucas picked up his bag, and smiled at Martine.  “I’ll just go on home, darling, and start dinner, shall I?  I’ll be back to collect you in half an hour.”  He left, well satisfied that the man from the
Times
, a good looking man about thirty, had got his message.

 
The man from the
Times
smiled down at Martine. “I think your husband is a little jealous of me, Martine.”

 
Martine opened her mouth to correct his mistake, and then realized the gleam in the man’s eye had become quite personal.

 
“Oh, he has no reason to be jealous.  I’m totally committed to Lucas, totally,” she replied lightly.

 
“Too bad, you’re such an attractive little thing…I’d really like to get to know you better.”

 
“Yes, but, I’m totally true to Lucas.  However, if you’re looking for a girlfriend, I have a couple of gorgeous single women I could introduce you to.  Belinda Boyle, who painted the Abstract in the window is beautiful, and Penelope Martin, the singer, just split with her boyfriend.  He was transferred to Australia…”

 
“Penelope Martin?  Is she the blonde who sings with “Blue Boys”?

 
“Yes, she is.”

 
“I saw them about two weeks ago in concert.  The girl I took is a big fan.  Penelope was better than the band, I thought.  And she is a beauty.  I wouldn’t mind meeting her…”

 
“Give me your card,” said Martine.  “I’ll set something up and give you a call…she needs a nice man in her life and you seem to be nice.”

 
John Brown, the man from the
Times
, laughed. “But not nice enough to lure you away from your Lucas, Martine?”

 
Martine smiled.  “Nobody could lure me away from my Lucas, John.  Nobody.”

 
“He’s a very lucky man.”

 
“I’m a very lucky girl.”

 
John left presently, and Martine tidied the showroom, went into the back and brushed her hair and teeth, applied fresh lip gloss and blusher, put on her coat and emerald scarf, and waited for Lucas to come. 

 
He was there just past seven. He had changed into jeans and a vee necked pullover.  Tight jeans that molded to his long legs and gorgeous bum.

 
“Sorry, darling, I had a couple of phone calls to make.  Did the reporter stay long?”

 
“Quite a while.  He said he would write a story about the Gallery, but didn’t say when it would be published.  And he said you are a very lucky man, to have me.  He thought you were my husband,” she smiled.

 
“What did he say when you corrected him?”

 
“Actually, I didn’t correct him.  I knew if I did, he would ask me out. I told him you are the only one for me, darling…in a roundabout way, and offered to introduce him to Penny.  He seems very nice.  And she needs to meet somebody new.  Somebody who isn’t a flakey musician.”

 
“Does she go for flakey musicians?”

 
“No.  In fact, her last boyfriend was a very conservative accountant who just got transferred to Australia. But flakey musicians are all that she seems to be meeting these days.”

 
“Ah…so you think she might like this reporter?”

 
“John.  His name is John Brown.  Yes, I think she might like him.  At least for a week or two…”

 
Lucas set the alarm for her, and locked the door.  He held her hand tightly all the way into his flat.

 
“You cleaned, darling, and changed the bed.  You didn’t have to do that.  And I love the flowers.  They look just right in here.”

 
“My charge for all that is six kisses,” she teased him.

 
“I’ll be happy to starting paying you back right now,” he smiled….and proceeded to give her six kisses in a row, leaving Martine quite breathless.

 
“I’ve been thinking about kissing you all week, darling,” he told her.

 
“Me too, Lucas.  I’ve been thinking about you kissing me all week, and touching me. And holding me close to you…”

 
Lucas picked her up and carried her into the bedroom.  He stood her beside the bed and unzipped her mini, pulled it over her head, unclasped her bra, and cupped her breasts in his hands as he kissed her deeply.

 
She responded passionately, her nipples crinkling at his touch.  Lucas dropped to his knees and undid her boots.  She sat on the side of the bed and he pulled them off, then her tights.

 
Lucas stood and swung her legs so that she was in the middle of his bed.  He pulled his sweater off, and laid beside her, kissing her lips, her breasts, touching her everywhere, exploring every curve of her body.  She responded passionately to his kisses, his touch.  He rolled her onto her side, facing him, pulled her leg over him, so that all that was between her and his manhood was his jeans and her panties.  Her breasts were pressed against his bare chest.  He kissed her lips, her throat, her neck.  His hands were on her bum, holding her against him, tighter, tighter.  He began to move, thrusting against her.  The only thing that prevented him from entering her was his jeans and her panties.

 
She became more and more excited, more and more aroused.  He rolled onto his back, and pulled her on top of him, moved her bottom up and down along his shaft. She could feel it through his jeans.  Long, hard and hot.  She