Gary and Libby - Take Two

Chapter Sixty Four

"Top up?"

I open one eye as i hear Garys voice sounding from somewhere above my head and squint into the blinding light of the African sun. My vision adjusts, enabling me to gaze upon my husband who is standing over me as i lie on the plush sun-lounger, half under the vast spanning parasol and half directly under the suns burning glare. In his hands, Gary holds a glass that had held my cocktail, blended from exotic fruits and lemonade being as i had reluctantly declined a tipple of rum. I stretch languidly, enjoying having absolute no where to be, as well as the heat of the sun easing my sex-sore muscles,

"Ill just have water thanks."

"You sure?" Garys eyebrow dips before raising again and accompanying his question. I nod, a sleepy yet no doubt ridiculously goofy smile plastered across my face. Lifting my left arm, i hook my fingers into Garys balled fist in a limp sort of fashion, but he acknowledges the invitation none the less and perches on the end of my sun-lounger, placing our glasses down on the floor.

"Are you okay babe?" He turns his body to face me, bare torso blocking the sunlight from my face so much so that i lift a hand to push my sunglasses back into my hair.

I nod with a yawn, feeling worn to the bone despite the fact that all we have done for the last six days is eat, sleep and fuck.

Gary gifts me his own sleepy smile then, leaning forward to steal a swift kiss from my lips, he runs his hand second naturedly against the side of the ever-expanding swell of my stomach.

I watch him for a while then, not being able to help the feeling that I'm interrupting a private moment between man and baby. It's like I'm not even here as Gary absently smooths a hand over my warm skin, gazing so intently and inquisitively down at the bump below his own hand that he reminds me of the way Ethan looks when you introduce him to a new gadget or thing to chew. And so, feeling like the third wheel in this unspoken tète-à-tète, I shut my eyes again and enjoy the bliss of the African summer accompanied by the tranquillising sensation of Garys fingers tracing leisurely across my navel.

I'm in limbo between blissful slumber and an idle sense of awareness when he finally breaks the comforting silence with the words;

"You're beautiful you know."

I smile without opening my eyes. "I'm fat you mean."

"Don't say that!" Gary interjects immediately as if I had thrown an insult at him personally and his desperate need to defend me from even my own criticism makes my smile grow so wide that my cheeks begin to ache.

"I'm joking," Soothing softly, I rest my own hand over his, brushing a thumb back and forth across the bone that juts from his wrist and not once making any move to open my eyes. "..Im joking, calm down."

And as I slip back into a blissful state of sun induced unawareness, im vaguely aware of Garys lips against the seam of my bikini just below my bust, and the sound of his voice muttering something utterly insane about never wanting me to wear clothes again.

When i wake, im red all over. The foreign sun has dropped right ahead of us in a cloudless sky, leaving the parasol futile in shielding my skin from the burning rays.

"It's so hot." Blinking away the haze of a good nap and the tingle of my sun-caught kneecaps, I rise from my spot, folding my legs onto my Sun-lounger and pulling off my glasses, wafting my hand, to no use nor consequence, in front of my face in a vain attempt to formulate some manner of a breeze. My chest is reddening after my spontaneous siesta and my desperation to save my holiday glow has me scrambling under the sun lounger for the bottle of lotion.