Nick stood in the doorway to his son’s room and studied him. Bent over a book, the boy, on the verge of manhood at thirteen, was too caught up in his reading to realize his father watched him.
Thick, brown curls hugged his head. Nick recalled that barely six month earlier, the lad had threatened to shave them off with Nick’s razor. His shoulders were already broad and he had grown like a weed the past few years.
Nick felt emptiness in his chest when he realized that one day in the future, the boy would be off to college. He would miss him.
“Theo, your Uncle Cosmos is waiting for you. Didn’t you promise to help with the grape harvest?”
Theo glanced up from his book, his intelligent blue eyes intense. “Sorry, Father, I was reading.” He placed a bookmark to save his spot, and then put the book on the table.
Nick glanced at the cover. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. He smiled.
“How many times have you read that book?”
Theo stood, and Nick was alarmed to discover that his son was nearly as tall as he was.
“This is my fifth time, Father. I’ve read all of Mark Twain over and over again, as well as Hawthorne and Thoreau. I want to go to America one day. You promised, remember?”
Nick reached out to tousle his son’s hair, and then thought better of it. His son was no longer a child. “Indeed I did. Now, go before Cosmos sends Effie after you.”
It was an empty threat; Theo and Effie had bonded the moment she had brought him into the world one chilly February morning when Nick and Cosmos had been in the village getting supplies.
Theo merely rolled his eyes. “Effie baked my favorite bread this morning; she adores me.”
Nick had to laugh. “Yes, but even so, Cosmos is waiting.”
Theo grinned at his father, and then he was out the door.
Nick heard his footsteps hurrying along the ceramic tiled hallway.
He crossed to the window and watched as his wife wove one of the twins’ hair into braids while the other played patiently with their new puppy in the sunshine. She turned briefly toward the window, saw him standing there and blew him a kiss.
Honey: his friend, his sweetheart, his lover, his wife. God, but he still went weak inside when he looked at her. He loved her with a fierceness that no longer surprised him. She was an incredible woman, one who had blended in with his lifestyle on this remote island as if she’d been born to it.
After the twins were born five years ago, they had both wondered how they would handle more children. Now, they had a newborn, another son who was, today, six weeks old.
Nick felt the stirrings of desire. Tonight they would make love for the first time since before the child was born. God, he was randy as a goat. Hell, he was so damned horny, he’d wanted to send the children over to Effie’s for the afternoon and spend it in bed with his wife.
But she would have none of it. “My darling,” she’d whispered, kissing him provocatively on the mouth, “tonight is the night. I have it all planned. I want you inside me as much as you want to be there. Patience, sweetheart.”
Patience be damned he thought as the twins, Alicia and Caitlin, their hair braided into shiny, honey-colored plaits, rushed over the grass toward Effie and Cosmos’s cottage.
Nick nearly ran outside, meeting Honey on the doorstep. He pulled her into his arms.
“There you are, wench, I’m in need of you.” He pressed himself against her and she cooed with delight.
“I, too, need you, my love. Let’s check on Gregory; if he’s asleep, well,” she said, her eyes warm and heavy, “we’ll see.”
They went to the nursery and tiptoed to the crib. It was empty.
Startled, Nick turned quickly to his wife, a question on his lips.
She faked mock surprise. “Oh, I forgot to tell you. The children, all of them, are spending the rest of the day with Effie and Cosmos.”
“Vixen, how you tease and tempt me.” He swept Honey into his arms once again and kissed her hard, savoring the taste of her. Then, without preamble, he carried her to their bedroom, kicked the door shut with his foot, and then laid her on the bed.
She looked up at him, her smile sultry. He saw that the pulse at her throat throbbed wildly.
“I’m not wearing anything under my dress.”
He was hard as rock within seconds, and only seconds after that, he was naked from the waist down.
She pulled up her gown, showing him her eagerness for him, and he couldn’t help himself; he entered her. She wrapped her legs around him and they both came swiftly, impatiently.
The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent more leisurely, with both of them re-exploring places they had not been for two months.
“Two months is an eternity without you,” he murmured against her ear.
“I agree.” She turned in his arms and ran her fingers through the hair on his chest, occasionally dipping lower to grasp his penis and balls.
“I want you again.”
She sighed and spread her legs as his fingers reached her thick nub. “I will always want you, again and again.”
And they made love one more time, knowing that it would not be the last time.
Marcantanio Raimondi’s vision of familial bliss—a couple finds a moment for sexual pleasure while their son sleeps nearby.
Husband, father, lover begins:
Sleep, my child, close your eyes
Like the song says.
And you, and you, charming mother,
See how the assault of my cock wakes up
Your con
Wife, mother, lover finishes:
What a most enjoyable exercise
Regular movement, my how you are sweet!
We do our jobs very well, us two
I cradle, I rock, and you screw.
Pietro Aretino