Chapter 7

"I'm going to get five hundred thousand dollars?" Consuela asked wonderingly.

"Yep," Ryan assured her. She looked at him with a bemused expression.

"Actually something more than that... for lost wages and stuff," he added.

"And you're getting four million?"

Ryan nodded.

"Pretty cool huh?" he said.

Consuela nodded. She still had a dazed expression on her face. She looked around the living room in a too-small house she would not have to live in again. She didn't know what to say, or do.

"What do we do now?" she asked.

"Well," Ryan said reflectively.

He untwined Belinda's arms from around his neck for a moment. She was holding on so tight he was having trouble breathing. It had been a long time since Ryan and Consuela had thought it safe to meet and Belinda was afraid he was going to leave again.

"How about we go see what dinner's are like at the café these days?" Ryan suggested.

Consuela's eyes widened. She knew the significance of being seen in public together. It was no longer dangerous to be together. She smiled happily.

"Yaaaaaaeeee..." Belinda caroled.

It took almost longer than the four-year-old's patience could bear to transfer Belinda's car seat from her mother's sedan to the big pickup. Eventually, it was installed and they got on their way. It was a happy ride.

The café regulars watched the trio's arrival with surprise. This was not a chance meeting at breakfast, and anyway, Ryan and Consuela hadn't had breakfast together there for a long time. When everyone saw how contented and affectionate the three were with each other, even the most doubtful was won over. Smiles were directed at them from all corners of the room.

Ryan was accepted without question into their midst. Several couples and families dropped by on their way out to chat with Consuela and to be formally introduced to Ryan. Everyone told them they shouldn't be strangers.

They got home just before midnight. The dinner had led to a visit to Baskin Robbins, and that evolved into a trip to the movies to see a children's movie for Belinda. Everyone had been having a good time and no one wanted it to end.

Exhausted, Belinda fell asleep in the truck on the way home and only murmured faint protests when Ryan took her out of the car seat and carried her into the house. Consuela loosened the small girl's clothing, took off her shoes, and tucked her into bed while Ryan watched with an affectionate smile.

Ryan backed away to give Consuela space to come through the doorway. Consuela closed the bedroom door behind her and looked up into Ryan's smiling face without saying anything.

Releasing the doorknob, she moved close to Ryan and wound her arms around his neck pulling his head down for a long kiss. The movement was so smooth, so natural, Ryan had no time to step away... even had he wanted to.

His hands went to the small of her back so he could pull her tighter against him. They broke the kiss, only to start another. It wasn't their first kiss, but this time it was special and they both knew it.

"I've wanted that for a long time," Ryan told her when they stopped to breathe. Consuela smiled up at him without speaking.

"Me too," Consuela said. She touched his cheek with her right hand and traced the outline of his jaw with her fingers. Ryan caught her hand in his and tenderly kissed her fingertips.

"This wasn't supposed to happen, you know," she said quietly, unexpectedly. Ryan looked down at her and cocked his head to one side without saying anything.

"We were just going to work with each other to testify for each other," Consuela explained. "I'd tell the judge at your divorce hearing Sean made a lot of passes at me... and you'd tell the judge when my suit came up that he seduced your wife and we'd each get what we wanted."

She raised her lips for another kiss, stopping her explanation for a long while.

"Then we were going to teach them a lesson by getting them in trouble... and the bank too," she said softly. This time Ryan started the kiss.

"We did it," Consuela said, resuming after a moment. "We did exactly what we set out to do and we got away with it. And all the time, you stood there like a big wall to make sure if they did ever figure out anything about you, they'd still never find out about me."

Ryan shifted slightly. Consuela was a strong-minded woman. He hadn't thought his attempts to see nothing would ever lead back to her in all of this had been all that obvious. There was a chance she would resent it.

"Foolish man," she whispered when she saw the momentary hesitation in his expression. "I saw what you were doing and I knew you were doing it for Belinda and me. Did you not know I would see that?" she asked gently.

Ryan didn't know what to say, so he said nothing.

"You were so strong all along," she said in a wondering voice, "so gentle and kind to me and my baby. Did you think I wouldn't see how Belinda was beginning to love you... and you her?"

"How could I not love her?" Ryan countered in a soft voice. "She's a part of you... and I love you more than living... you didn't see that?" he whispered tenderly. "Didn't you know what was happening to me?" She nodded, laying her head on his chest for a long moment, listening to his heartbeat.

"You know I love you that way too?" she asked after a short, comfortable silence. She pulled back and looked up so she could see his eyes. Ryan shook his head slowly.

"I was only hoping," he said gently. He bent to kiss her again, more firmly this time. His tongue slipped between her lips to find a welcoming tongue ready to dual eagerly with his. Their bodies were suddenly straining together.

Breaking away from him, Consuela stared up at the man she loved and who she knew loved her. Smiling tenderly, she took his hand in hers and led him into her bedroom.

She stopped just short of the bed and turned around to face him. Suddenly shy before him, she raised her hands to the back of her neck to unbutton her dress. It was awkward and she did not want it to be this way the first time with Ryan. The button would not come undone.

Ryan saw her frustration and immediately guessed the reason. Taking her hips in his hands, he turned her gently around. The buttons quickly yielded to his fingers and he soon had the top of her dress off her shoulders and draped about her waist. With his hands caressing her shoulders, he bent to trail butterfly kisses up her neck to just behind each ear. Her deep sigh and quickened breath told him he was doing the right thing.

Stroking her back, he found out her bra was one that fastened in front. He reached around her to unfasten her bra with fingers whose deftness would have amazed him if he'd taken time to think of it. He lifted the cups from around her breasts and spread it wide. The straps slid off her shoulders and the bra fell to the floor between them.

He massaged her breasts gently and returned to kissing her throat. He'd known Consuela had large, well-formed breasts, but the knowing was so much less a thing than finally feeling their soft firmness in his hands. He cupped them, hefting them in his big hands.

Her nipples began to swell. They hardened and lengthened as his thumbs fondled them. He captured them between a thumb and finger of each hand and twirled them slowly, pinching them gently every so often.

Consuela moaned softly. She couldn't help it. Her pulse began to race every time her lover touched her in a different place. Her chest began to heave in her need for more air.

Ryan tugged her dress down her hips and down her legs to pool around her feet. Consuela stepped out of it and took a moment to kick off her high heels. They thumped on the carpet somewhere in the corner as she turned around to face Ryan and stepped back up to him. Her lips sought out his in the dim light coming from the living room and captured them in a demanding kiss.

His hands came up to cup her breasts again, but he found he could only do one at a time, standing as they were, so close together. With his left hand cupping her right breast, his right hand began stroking her back and ass. He squeezed her left butt cheek, fondling it and massaging while pulling her lower body more tightly against his. After a moment, he let his right hand find its way to her left breast and his left explored her back and buttocks.

Abruptly he tired of such half-measures. He knelt and planted little kisses down the middle of her body to her bellybutton while pushing her panties down to her ankles. They fell to the floor and Consuela slid her right leg a few inches to the side after pulling her foot out of them. Consuela's satin-smooth legs needed no stockings or pantyhose; she rarely wore them and had not tonight.

Ryan continued kissing her soft underbelly and beyond. His hands stroked the back of her bare thighs and calves. When his lips touched the top of her damp slit, she shuddered with pleasure.

"Darling," she whispered, "I can't take too much of that. Please... ?" She caught his forearms in her hands and gently pulled upward, urging him to rise. He stood without a word and began to unfasten the buttons on his shirt.