CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The Fairmont Hotel had a spacious, elegant
lobby filled with brocade-covered furniture, comfortable chairs,
marble floors and decorative flowers. The soft lighting created a
welcoming and relaxed atmosphere for guests. Page and Lily had had
a light lunch in one of the colorful dining rooms and were sitting
in the busy lobby awaiting Sandy. Page said she wanted a quick look
and then would scoot.
“I know what he looks like, so I’ll play
look-out,” she teased Lily.
“Okay, Page, I’ll wait for your signal…”
“Should I start a smoke signal or whistle
or…oh, my!” Page gasped.
“I think that’s my signal,” grinned Lily as
she happily closed her eyes.
Page watched this handsome, fair-haired
cowboy wearing jeans, boots and cowboy hat walk into the lobby. He
was carrying a bouquet of beautiful red roses and honestly, looked
incredible. The cowboy stood out from the other men wearing
expensive business suits, so everyone turned to look at him.
“Whew, Lily! Are you kidding me? That’s
him?”
“Breathe, Page. He does that to me too.” She
laughed out loud.
That did it – her laugh. He heard her and
made straight for where they were sitting.
“He’s coming over, Lily.”
“Thanks. I can take it from here.” Lily kept
her eyes closed.
As he got closer, she could hear his boots
talking to her as they clicked on the marble floor. She soon
smelled his familiar aftershave and could feel his strong presence.
Lily opened her eyes and there her Sandy was…indeed, delicious was
the right word. She smiled at him and he grinned back.
“Hi, there.”
“Hi, yourself.” They gazed at one another for
a long minute. Lily’s eyes slid over to Page.
“… Sandy Johnson, this is my friend, Page
Warren, who lives in the City. We were teachers together once upon
a time.”
He reluctantly moved his eyes from Lily to
Page, “Nice to meet you.” He leaned over to shake her hand and Page
shook it, seeming immobilized. They shook hands lightly and Page
jumped up.
“Well, Lily, I’ve got to go. Call me later.”
She hurriedly gathered her purse and started to leave. “Very nice
to meet you, Mr. Johnson.”
Lily smiled at her. He did that to women, she
knew.
He tipped his cowboy hat. “Ma’am.”
Page beat a hasty retreat to the front door,
but couldn’t resist turning around to look before she left.
Sandy handed Lily the bouquet of roses.
“These are from your father, sweetheart.”
She leaned in for a deep sniff. “They smell
wonderful. That was nice of him, wasn’t it?” A long look passed
between them, an understanding.
Lily’s lips parted in surprise as he got down
on one knee. Everything stopped and everyone in the Fairmont lobby
stared at the cowboy down on one knee before the black-haired
beauty. Total silence… Sandy held his big cowboy hat in one hand
and Lily’s hand in the other.
Although it was a large lobby with lots of
people present, Sandy’s words could be heard in the quiet. “You
must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you. Will
you marry me, Lily Cable, and be my wife?”
Lily gave him a shy smile, raised his hand to
her lips and softly kissed it.
“Well, then,” she said gazing deeply into his
blue, blue eyes. Playfully she kissed his hand again and finally
said, “Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.”
Sandy took the flowers from her, laid them on
the couch and brought Lily to her feet and into his arms. The kiss
was warm and sweet, and oh, so familiar. It was sweet and
wonderful, yet hardly intimate. The whole Fairmont lobby burst into
spontaneous applause and they realized they were on stage. Page
applauded from the front door, wiping tears away. “Way to go,
Lily!” she said mostly to herself and went out the front door,
still sniffling.
“I think we need a little privacy,
sweetheart,” Sandy whispered into her sweet-smelling hair. “Could
we go up to your room?”
Lily kissed him lightly again and took his
hand to lead him to the elevator. Men said, “Well done” and “Good
job” to him as they passed by. People gathered in little groups
around the lobby discussing what they had just seen. This story
would circulate around the City tonight.
Once in her room, Sandy threw his hat on the
floor and grabbed her. This time his kissing became more insistent,
urgent. His desire for her was forefront and he didn’t even try to
hide how much he needed her. Lily returned kiss for kiss just as
urgently. She didn’t realize how much he really meant to her until
he was gone and so were the kisses, the embraces…the love.
Inching their way to her bed, they kissed
while wildly throwing shirts, pants, underwear on the floor
everywhere…table, chair… lampshade… The room was littered with
clothes by the time Lily and Sandy breathlessly fell on the bed in
a heap, still locked together.
No words were needed. He had dreamed of this
moment for a week now. Here she was in his arms—and all was right
with the world again. Sandy brushed his lips on her face and
throat, arms and chest again and again. Sandy wanted more and took
more. Lily’s breath stopped as he explored her lines and angles
with the softest touch. He moaned when her gentle fingers circled
his chest, his belly. He reached over to find the condom in his
jeans as Lily applied her lips to the business at hand. She took
the condom from him and gave him a sexy smile as she slipped it on
him so, so…slowly.
They made love like never before. The thrill
of being together again, the sexy hotel room. He couldn’t get
enough of her curvaceous body, her sensuous lips and silky hair.
Not much sleep occurred that night – they made love, slept and woke
up to move purposefully toward one another again. And again…
* * *
The sun was shining in from the open patio
door. Lily opened her eyes, smiled and stretched. She circled her
arms around the neck of the cute cowboy tracing her lips with his
finger.
“Wait a minute. I need a bathroom break.”
Sandy laughed. He had already been up and had
ordered some breakfast.
“We have to eat to maintain our strength, you
know.” he called after her. “This is my only day in port, ma’am.
Where can you take a lusty sailor, I mean, besides to your bed,
which he appreciated very much, by the way.”
She peeked out the door at him with her
toothbrush in her mouth, “Oh, ha ha. You’re a regular riot this
morning.” She gave him a sexy smile and swayed her hips at him.
“You were somewhat different last night and early this morning,
however. Singing a different tune, you were.”
How he had missed this…laughing, talking,
kidding, making love. There wasn’t anything else in the world that
he wanted or needed—but her.
There was a knock at the door. “Stay in there
for a few minutes, breakfast has arrived,” Sandy called to her.
A muted “okay” came out the doorway. He could
hear water running.
Sandy had breakfast laid out on the little
table out on the patio by a young waiter wearing a crisp, white
jacket. He tipped the man and stood back to look over the
balcony.
Wow! What an incredible view of the
city. Maybe he would come to love San Francisco as much as Lily
did. Sandy fussed with the place settings, making sure everything
looked perfect. He took a small black box out of his pocket and
placed in on Lily’s plate. Admiring the scene, he said softly, “Can
you die from happiness?” then caught himself. That was another line
from Pride and Prejudice. My God, he was becoming obsessed
with that book.
She came out of the bathroom with wet,
shining hair, whistling and wearing his shirt.
“Miss Cable, don’t you have any of your own
clothes to wear?”
“Yours are much more fun, Mr. Johnson. And
where’s my breakfast? I’m famished. We need to call Sam and Jeanne
and Jesse today and…” She stopped abruptly by the pretty table and
pointed at her plate. “What’s that?”
“I wanted to make it official.”
He opened the box to show her a large,
square-cut diamond ring. Sandy plucked it out and took her hand.
When he placed the shiny ring on her finger, her breathing halted
momentarily and her mouth opened in surprise. Tears pooled in her
eyes.
“Sweetheart, that’s not the reaction I was
hoping for… Don’t you like it?” Her face glistened with tears. “I
want the world to know we’re engaged.”
“Did you buy a book somewhere on romance? You
are probably the most romantic man in the universe. How did I ever
get so lucky?” Still holding his hand, she kissed it and slid
happily into his arms.
“Now that’s more of the reaction I was hoping
for. You like it?”
“It’s gorgeous! Page will be so jealous…”
“I thought we could pick out matching wedding
bands together. Would you like that? Oh, no. Don’t start crying
again.” He took a napkin from the table and handed it to her. “I
seem to be doing that to you a lot this trip.”
Lily blew her nose on the napkin, not
ladylike she knew, but it was an emergency. Could he really be
any more wonderful?
“I’m ok-k-kay,” she stammered. “Really, just
very surprised and extremely happy.”
“Good, then let’s eat. Look at this
view!”
They took in much of San Francisco that day –
Fisherman’s Wharf, Pier 39 and the Cannery. Walking through the
park on the water, they shopped at the local street vendors. At
Ghirardelli, they had sumptuous chocolate ice cream. Lily sneaked
glances all morning at her beautiful new ring sparkling in the sun.
Riding on a cable car, the lady next to her complemented her on it.
While eating her ice cream, Lily posed her hand on the table and
tilted her head to take another look.
Sandy grinned at her. “I guess I did okay
with ring selection.”
“Yes, indeed. I’ll never take it off.” She
slanted her hand one way and then another, admiring it.
He was quiet for a moment. “… Never?”
“Never.”
“What about if you’re washing dishes?”
“No.”
“… Slopping the hogs?”
“You have hogs?” She gave him a wide-eyed
look. He laughed and became more serious.
“What if you were changing diapers? Would you
take it off then?” Sandy’s eyes focused on hers.
She glanced up at him. “Um…where are we going
with this?” The couple at the next table was listening in.
“Let’s take a walk, sweetheart.”
“S-sandy….” she stammered.
Once they had left the restaurant and were
walking, he started again. “We’ve never spoken about having
children. Shouldn’t we? Would you like to have any?” He was a bit
nervous, so she took his arm as they walked.
“This is a strange conversation for a lusty
sailor to be having on his one day in port.” By the look on his
face, he wanted a real answer, so she said, “Hey, I’m just joking.
I do want children, several if possible. Do you?”
He let out the breath he was holding. “Good.
Wonderful, I just…ah…we needed to discuss it.”
“…Did you think I didn’t? What’s this
about?”
“My wife couldn’t have any more children
after having Jesse. I thought it was such a shame. You know I love
kids and have always wanted a noisy house filled with kids and
dogs.” The lines on his forehead smoothed and she reached up to
touch his handsome face.
“We’ll be all right, you know. I don’t think
I have any problems with conceiving and obviously, you don’t.”
“Let’s take a cab back to the hotel, Lily.
All right?”
“… In a hurry, sailor? The ship sails at
midnight or something?”
“Something like that.” Sandy caught the next
cab and they had dinner in the suite. “We need to get to bed early,
since we’re leaving tomorrow,” he winked at her.
“Aye, aye, sir. Anything the captain
says.”
“Well, the captain requires your attention in
bed.”
Lily discovered he needed much attention in
bed.
* * *