Page 133 of The Reluctant Viking

“No…lie still…don’t you dare move…damn, you’re killing me.”

“No, you’re killing me,” Ruby groaned, accompanied by a little mewling sound of pleasure. She spread her legs wider and wrapped them around Jack’s waist.

Then neither could speak as a frenzy of passion took over, and Jack drove her hard, seeming to thrust out the anger and loneliness, frustration and regret that had ruled his life so much of late, but mostly he assaulted her with love and sheer, raw need. When her body stiffened on a cataclysm of progressively increasing spasms, ending with a mind-shattering splintering of all her nerve ends, Jack reared back and shouted, “Aaah, Rube…Rube!” then pressed into her deeply, exploding into climax.

Much later, they lay depleted in each other’s arms, murmuring softly, touching each other gently.

“I love you so much, Jack. I’m so sorry for hurting you.”

“Shush, I love you, too.” Then he chuckled. “Rube, we haven’t made love like that in years,” Jack said in awe. “I felt like we were eighteen again.”

Ruby smiled against his chest, not wanting to tell him just yet of her time-travel experience, but deciding to reveal a little. “I had this really strange dream this afternoon, and in it we made love five times in one night.”

“Five times!” Jack exclaimed with a laugh. “And just what did you do to bring that about?”

Ruby tantalized him with a few descriptions of some of the sexual antics she had tried with her Viking husband.

“Honey? Now that’s an interesting possibility,” he said with a laugh.

When he finally stopped grinning at her dream reminiscences, Ruby turned serious. “Jack, I want you to know that I’m cutting back my hours at Sweet Nothings at least half-time beginning immediately.”

She felt Jack stiffen beside her.

“I think it would be best if I work three full days and take off the rest of the week, rather than part-time for five or six days. What do you think?”

“Rube, you don’t have to do this.”

“Yes, I do.”

“Well, if you’re serious,” he said, pulling her closer, “I was thinking that maybe we could merge our two companies. Real estate is doing better, and my profits are up since I expanded into commercial development. I know our businesses are completely different, but I still think we could form a partnership, Then we could both begin to delegate more responsibility and spend much more time at home. What do you think?”

Ruby thought she should take Gyda’s advice. “Whatever you say. You decide.”

“Maybe we could even buy a large sailboat and travel with the boys next summer.”

“A boat?” Ruby asked incredulously and stared at Jack. “A boat??”

“What? You don’t think a boat is a good idea?” Jack’s puzzled eyes held hers.

Ruby laughed at the irony. “A boat is a great idea.”

She rolled over to face the fire, and Jack pulled her close against him, spoon-fashion, one arm under her head, the other over her stomach.

“What was that? Are you hungry?”

“What?”

“Your stomach lurched.”

Ruby put her hand over her stomach. Sure enough, there was a quickening movement.

Oh, my God!

She couldn’t believe it. Ruby realized with sudden amazement that she was still pregnant. She turned around to face Jack, tears pooling in her eyes, and whispered, “How would you feel about doing something else next summer?”

“Like?” he asked suspiciously, alert to the emotion in her voice.

“Like having a baby.”