They Say Love Is Blind (15 page)

For a moment she held her breath and tensed before remembering that she had no need to be ashamed. He found her weight to be a plus and not a negative. She watched him as he lovingly washed her body and knew that he didn’t just accept her fat as ‘something to be ignored or dealt with’. Lee liked her extra bits. She smiled and
sighed. He urged her to turn so that he could wash her back, being careful not to get her hair wet. He had to be taught that black women did not wash their hair every single day and if it got wet then out came the blow dryer and the curling iron.

He turned her again and pressed against her back. She felt the sponge slipping between her thighs and then he was lathing her there, causing her body to tingle again. He was very thorough until she had to take the sponge from him with a giggle.

“Okay baby, I think it’s clean now.”

He blushed and grinned sheepishly. “I can’t get enough of you Tory.”

Her smile fell from her lips as she watched him. “Then I truly am the luckiest woman in the world.” He shook his head slightly and she didn’t understand what it meant but she applied his body wash and began to wash him in turn.

She took pleasure in noting that he was again erect, and it wasn’t her fault that she was compelled to spend a great deal of time making sure
that
portion of his body was clean until he
could take no more and
cried out in release. She gripped him in her soapy fist and pumped her hand rapidly until she had worked every last drop from him. Lee slumped on his feet
,
panting.

“Now you-” His fingers slid along the crease between her thighs and she gripped his wrist with a gasp and stopped him.

“Baby, raincheck.”

“Are you sure? I don’t want you at work all day thinking that I’m a selfish bastard.”

She grabbed the handheld shower and rinsed the last of the suds off the
ir bodies.
“I think about you all day
every single day,
and I promise that
I’ve
never
thought anything remotely close to that about you.” He was the most insatiable man, and she loved every second of the attention! There wasn’t a day that went by that they didn’t have sex in one form or another—even when it was time for her monthly cycle.

When s
he felt that they were sufficiently clean she leaned forward and kissed him. He pulled her possessively close
and enjoyed her mouth before swatting her lightly on the ass.

“Okay, okay, enough. We are going to be late.” She scowled and he chuckled. She wrapped her robe around herself and then hurried into the kitchen to start the coffee and to heat up the last of the tea ring that they had bought over the weekend.

While he shaved she
went through the closet for one of the dresses she had brought over. In order to remain impromptu, she had a selection of clothes at his place and he had some at hers. It wasn’t uncommon for either to spend days during the week at the others home, however because Cat still needed to be tended to it was generally his place that they ended up at. They hadn’t slept apart in months. She found herself wondering if he would invite her to live with him. She would. She wouldn’t hold out for a ring or anything.

This was the real world and she was an adult in an adult relationship. She didn’t need the fairytale; she just needed to be in the NOW. Her mother had asked tentatively if she was living with him because she had called the apartment instead of her cell
phone
on several occasions…or perhaps her mother was just testing her—trying to catch her. Why did that thought make her blush? She was an adult and there was nothing wrong with having a sexual relationship with her boyfriend!

When she returned to the kitchen, Lee had already prepared her coffee just the way she liked it and was waiting for her so that they could enjoy their breakfast together. She paused and watched him move confidently to the cat kibble to fill Cat’s bowl. He was blind but more graceful than a lot of people she knew; including herself.

“I’m going to go back to my place after work, babe.” She said. He raised a brow at her. “I have to get more clothes.”

“Okay, I’ll pack a bag and swap out some clothes, too.” The
y
finished their coffee and tea ring and then left the loft apar
tment hand in
hand, a backpack over his shoulders containing his fresh clothes and some of her dirty ones.

Once
in the elevator, they took the familiar route to the subbasement parking area.
Tory still couldn’t stop the smile of joy that covered her face
when she set eyes on the vehicle parked all alone in the large underground parking area
. They had only been dating a few weeks when
Lee had her take a look at some research that he
was doing on
the computer. He announced that he was going to buy a car. She remembered laughing but he was very serious.

“I can’t drive,
querida
, but you can. You do have a driver’s license, don’t you?”

“I do…but-”

“Then it’s settled. The choices are between these three and I need you to tell me which one you think looks best.”

She had given him a strange look, not sure how to take the information. She couldn’t tell him that he couldn’t buy a car, and obviously she wouldn’t tell him that she wouldn’t drive him places…

She had looked at the computer and then her brow had shot up. “Uh
…that’s a Mercedes Benz.”

“Ah, yes; the E-class. It has
rear collision and
side airbags, collision warning, night vision, and lane departure warning.”

“Ok…” The next car was a Volvo and was very sporty. Lee announced that it had several alerts that he liked including a
driver alert system that detected
tired drivers. She giggled wondering if she would have to wear some type of monitor when driving it. The final car was an Audi A6. It was a tough decision but she told him
that she preferred the looks of the
Volvo S60.

He had closed the lid on the laptop and said no more about it. The next day they took a cab to the dealership and the
n later the
y drove home in his brand new car. She knew that Lee wasn’t hurting for money but she just didn’t realize that he had it like that.
She got the pleasure of selecting a beautiful caramel colored car
with tan leather interior. It felt wrong but she couldn’t deny that it had thrilled her at the same time.

Tory popped back to the present and watched Lee move
to the back of the car
. She popped open the trunk for him and
then he stowed the backpack there and climbed into the passenger seat. No sooner did she have the car started
before he was fiddling with the iPod
player.
She
was suddenly hearing
the relaxing sounds of
Júlio Pereira
’s mandolin and she couldn’t help but marvel at how much she had learned about the
Portuguese and specifically the
Azorean culture in these brief three months.

A short time later s
he dropped him off in front of his office and sat in the car watching him use his cane to tap out his location. Incredibly he moved directly to the entrance and disappeared into the building. Lee didn’t understand just how amazing it was that he could find his way nearly as good as any sighted person. She sighed and then hurried off to her own office.

CHAPTER 11

“It’s Monday. The
Jewel is going to be serving
seafood
cataplana
today,” Lee said later that evening.
Cataplana is what they called paella.
Tory had intended to head straight back to the apartment. She was a little tired
.
Mondays were always rough because she hated leaving behind their lovefest weekends
for the reality of the real world
. Mmmm but the
cataplana
at the
Jewel of the Azores was the best thing in the world.
And it also meant that she wouldn’t have to cook. Tory had gained a renewed love for cooking since being introduced to the das Torres family. Their lives revolved around food, which is the reason that even though she had dropped several pounds she was destined to remain a ‘big girl.’

“Mmm that sounds good, baby. Let’s do that.” They had to search for parking. The Jewel had been featured in the city newspaper and now reservations were a must—well at least for anyone other than family. One of the nephews had designed a website and the traffic there was unbelievable. There was even talk of starting a second location. Tory couldn
’t be more proud of her ‘sister
s’ accomplishments. 

They walked quietly to the restaurant, holding hands. “Are you okay, honey?” he asked. She smiled and leaned her head against his broad shoulder as they walked.

“Yes, it’s jus
t optimistic Monday.” They had donned a new phrase for Mondays so that they could keep in mind not to be too negative. Mondays didn’t have to be viewed as the mark of impending Armageddon, it was just another day in the week. He placed his arm around her body and gave her a gentle squeeze.

“Honey, I know that you aren’t happy with your job.” She wanted to deny it but didn’t. “Please think about going back to school.”

“Yeah, but I don’t know what career I want.”

“Well, maybe you can just get a business degree, eh?”

She shrugged. “I guess I could make that work for me. I’ll think about it.” She didn’t want to admit that she liked the little world that she existed in with Lee and his family. She just had no desire to change anything, not even to venture off to school and spend valuable time studying instead of making love and dancing and eating with her man.
She had new best friends, a new boyfriend and a life that she loved. True she didn’t like her job but she needed it to pay her bills and that was that.

They reached the restaurant and
as usual,
Rosalind was the hostess on duty. As normal the two women ignored each other and the couple moved to
take
seats at the bar. Tory was aware that Lee and Ros had begun speaking again but that was normally when she wasn’t around. She’d asked him about it once but he dismissed
it by saying that Ros knew not to say a word to her unless Tory was ready to approach her first. Thus far she had no desire to
do
that. Tory realized that just because Ros was a part of the lives of the others didn’t mean that she had to be friends with the woman. Besides, it still smarted that she had deigned to call her home dirty. She had tried very hard to embarrass her in front of her man, and it had all back fired on her.

“Hey you, two!” They turned to see Kaye and Paulo heading for them. Everyone hugged and before she knew it almost all of Lee’s brothers
,
sisters, nieces and nephews were there hugging and kissing them. Wow, she knew the paella was good but
,
wow…

Macey grabbed her hand. “Come, we have a big table.” She looked at Lee who didn’t seem to think anything was strange about their ‘family’ table being used on a Monday.
She couldn’t remember an occasion when the family had ever held a gathering on a Monday.
Lee and Tory were seated next to each other and then the wine began to flow.
A cheese tray moved up and down the table along with other tapas tray
s
. Francie joined them a short while later carrying a huge paella pan nearly overflowing and bubbling with spicy goodness.

Lee cleared his throat and tapped his wine glass with his desert spoon. “Before we dig into this delicious meal, I wanted to thank you all for coming together on a Monday. I know you all partied pretty hard over the weekend.”

There w
ere loud
shouts of agreement and Tory found her brow knitting. What the
…he called the gathering
?

Lee turned to her and she could see him swallow past a lump in his throat. All of a sudden she understood
and her eyes grew wide. Oh my g
od…