Beauty from Pain(101)

He sits up, rolling me to my back. His mouth comes down on mine and he pushes his tongue inside. Every motion is deliberate. He’s slow and gentle. This is a new kind of kiss for the couple we are becoming.


When he stops kissing me, I search his face and see a deep wrinkle across his brow. I’ve seen it before. It’s only there when he’s in deep concentration about something, and it frightens me. I’m afraid he’s thinking this isn’t going to work. Or maybe he doesn’t want to try.


I reach up and place my thumb on top of the contracted muscle to smooth it. “I only see this when you’re thinking hard about something. What’s on your mind?”


I’m scared of what he’s going to say, but he gives me a crooked grin and I’m relieved before the first word leaves his mouth. “Say my name.”


I don’t know which one to go with. He hasn’t asked me to call him anything but Lachlan and I don’t want to overstep his boundaries. “Lachlan.”


He shakes his head as if to say tsk tsk, wrong answer. “Say my real name.”


Oh. “Jack.”


His face becomes serious. “Both of them.”


My heart is pounding. This is huge, according to his mother. He would only ask me to do this if he loved me. “Jack Henry.”


He closes his eyes as though he’s savoring the sound of it coming from my mouth. “Say it again, Laurelyn.”


I hesitate and he opens his eyes to look at me. That’s when I choose to say it again, at the moment his eyes meet mine. “Jack Henry.”


He kisses me and I feel his mouth move into the shape of a smile. “That’s who I am to you from now on. No more Lachlan. No more pretending.”


40


Jack McLachlan


I’ve shut the door on Lachlan Henry forever. He no longer exists. Only Jack Henry McLachlan resides here, and I like it. For the first time in more than four years, it feels good to be me with a woman. And not just any woman. Laurelyn.


“Now that I know your real name, which I think you’ll agree is the single-most important piece of identifying information, do I get to know everything else?”


She wants the rest of my story.


“You know my name. You’ve met my family. What else would you want to know?”


“We’re as close as two people can be, so I want to know everything.”


Things feel really good between us the way they are. Am I ready to tell her more?


“You don’t have to worry, Jack Henry. I’m not going to stalk you the way Audrey does.”


I hear her say my name and I’m a goner. I’ll tell her anything she wants to know. “I have a condo here in Sydney. It’s home when I’m not traveling, which isn’t very often, because I own too many vineyards to stay home for long.”


She takes a minute to process this information. “You own them all?”


“Yes. Avalon is my latest purchase.”


She wasn’t expecting that. “How many total?”


“Too damn many.” And that was the truth. I was stretched too thin across New South Wales and New Zealand. I was following in my father’s footsteps and also making steps of my own. I shouldn’t have purchased Avalon. I don’t have the time it requires to make it successful, but I can’t regret it. It’s what led me to Laurelyn.


“So does that mean you’re rich?”


“Yes. I told you I was when we met.”


“You’ve told me a lot of things but I’ve assumed most all of it lies.”


“A lot of it has been, but it’s all part of our game, baby.”


“And now our game has changed.”


Yes. Indeed, it has. In more than one way.


I’m rubbing my hand over the satin gown covering Laurelyn’s belly and I feel the metal piercing through her navel. I really want to push her gown up and kiss her there, but I don’t. She’s not comfortable being intimate in my parents’ house and has already told me no once tonight. I don’t want an encore or a reminder of our earlier quarrel.


Since we aren’t pretending anymore, I might as well warn her about Margaret McLachlan and what she’s up to. “My mum wants you here so she can work on you.”