OK Ch. 19-22

"There was fraud of immense dimensions involving millions of pounds with many people's livelihoods dependent on the outcome, and I had to sort that out. Then I had to look for new manufacturers there and in South Africa, so we aren't dependent on just three main suppliers apart from our own British and South American factories.

"That job took me four months. I got back to London last week and back here yesterday-"

She was growing impatient; what was he getting at? "Yes I know," she said urgently. "You got back yesterday-"

"Carol, I haven't finished. I had to report to the Board of Directors, and they were very impressed: I saved the company a lot of money and kept our reputation intact. Maurice then said I had leave coming thanks to the Board, and I thought to take two months off immediately. Then he mentioned that the Exec. in charge of our Far East concerns had resigned.

"The thing is, he is also hinting about me moving back to London as a base and starting a new job. Add to that the fact that Tracy looks set to be the new Sales and Marketing Manager here and therefore Tom will be staying as Managing Director. It looks as if I won't be coming back here."

All her optimism was evaporating and she felt deep dread that he was telling her there was no possibility of their reuniting.

He saw her face fall, but carried on. "Now I connect what I've been doing over the past half year with this supposed new job, and I suspect that the Board are going to ask me to be a trouble-shooter and general overseer of our home divisions, our foreign subsidiaries and our suppliers, and even to search for new suppliers in the emerging countries in Africa and South America, to say nothing of China, Vietnam, etc.

"I also suspect this globe-trotting job will last a lot longer than my leadership of the Northern Factory and Office did. I reckon at least five years."

All hope gone, she stared at him stony faced. "So we're finished? You're leaving for good?"

He looked at her in surprise. "Whatever gave you that idea?"

Now she was completely non-plussed, utterly confused. "But-"

"Carol there's nothing I want more than you and me back together again, but that means either you pack in your job and come with me, or..."

Or we say goodbye now, she thought, but could not say it. He would have to.

"Or what?" she asked.

"I have to resign and find another job round here."

Slowly it dawned, and the effect on her pretty face was intriguing. She was thinking it through, and as hope surged through her, gradually a smile began to emerge, and her eyes began to dance.

"You're saying I can choose what you do, as long as we're together?"

"Yes, that's what it amounts to."

Now she was very happy indeed, nay excited! Again he had put himself in her hands: how he must love her!

"If I came with you, would I get to do the globetrotting with you? All over the world?"

"Yes. If that's what the job entails, and if that's what you want."

"John, are you saying we are together again, no matter what?"

"Yes, if that's what you want."

"I do want!" she screeched. "And I'll go with you wherever you go."

She jumped to her feet and for John the next few seconds passed in slow motion. The woman he had loved to distraction now lunged towards him, shining with happiness, as her bathrobe came undone.

He had all the time in the world it seemed to take in her flat stomach and curved waist and her shapely legs that he had missed for so long; the rise and fall of her breasts as she moved, her pretty face and gloriously matted hair; those deep blue eyes that shone with unshed tears as she sat down on his lap, and her arms went around his neck as she showered kisses over his face.

"One more thing," he said breathlessly as he came up for air, and felt the soft warmth of her body. "D'you know what Maurice did for about five years before he was appointed CEO by the Board? A roving brief over the whole organisation. Deputy to the then CEO."

Then he stopped and waited, smiling, while watching her face as she connected the information.

"Oh, John!" she gasped. "You mean?"

"Obviously it's only a possibility, but there are enough hints. Even if they appoint from outside, I'm pretty sure I'll be deputy in some capacity. If that happened, there'd be similar CEO posts with other companies I could apply for. Now, there must be a reason why you're sitting on my lap."

He turned his face upwards and she craned hers to meet him. Their lips touched, parted, touched again, and softly melted together, as their tongues moved against each other. It was delicate, tentative and gentle, and it lasted and lasted.

She did not feel his erection begin to rise, because strangely it did not. His hands did not move from holding her to him to rove over her exposed body. Hers did not move from his neck, but played a little with his hair.

When their kiss parted, she looked into his eyes. He saw love, pure love, relief and delirious happiness. She saw satisfaction and glances of appreciation at her body. It validated her as his woman and him as her man.

She laid her head on the back of his chair and pulled his head to her breast.

"What now John?" she asked, still not convinced she was not imagining things. "Have you really forgiven me? Have we really got a future?"

He didn't need to think.

"Yes, really. Since the moment I knew the lies you'd been fed, I've understood why you reacted as you did. It showed how deep was your love.

"It was what you did that alienated me. Until of course you went round to all our friends and cleared my name, by embarrassing and humiliating yourself. That was the best sign of your love. It was an impossible task I set you, but you, wonderwoman, found a way."

"So?" she asked smiling, sitting up and giving him the benefit of those wonderful eyes, which seemed to pierce through to his inner soul.

"All right," he said. "I have trouble dealing with the idea of Liam being with you, you understand my meaning?"

She nodded and looked guilty.

"And you will have to get over the fact that I slept with women while I was in London over those three years."

There was a silence.

Then she spoke hesitantly.

"John, my darling, if you think you can get over my... time with Liam. I can get over your 'friends' in London.

"I want you John. I've not been really happy since we parted, but I'm happy just being here with you now. I know I belong with you, and I think you know you belong with me. Three years of my life have gone to waste. I don't want to waste any more."

John knew this was the woman he had always wanted, and like her he had never felt completely happy away from her.

"When do you want to move in?" he asked mischievously.

"What?"

"Not what, 'pardon'!" he chided her. "I said-"

"I heard what you said," she yelped. "Now! I want to be with you now!"

"Um," he said doubtfully, "I don't think you've thought it through enough."

"What?"

"Pardon!"

"No, what!" she expostulated. "You just asked me had I thought it through - had I thought what through?"

"Fine, you pedant. I can't be sure you really mean it. I mean, you haven't seen the rest of the house yet, have you? Surely you can't commit to living with someone in a house that you haven't thoroughly inspected?"

He grinned at her. She punched his arm, loving his teasing.

"Well, all right, though as long as I'm with you, I'd live in a mud hut. I don't care." Then she commanded, "Show me!"

So she got up, he followed and put his arm round her and it felt so right, so comfortable, as he led her round the ground floor in her open bathrobe, which she left open so he could gaze on her body, then up the stairs to see the spare bedrooms - she had seen the bathroom - and finally he led her into the master bedroom. He led her round to inspect the generously sized walk-in wardrobe, the little dressing room, the en-suite bathroom. Finally he led her to the bed.

He sat her down. Then he went to the dressing table and rummaged about until he found what he was looking for. He came back to the bed. She watched him carefully, wondering what he had in his hand.

He opened his hand and she saw her engagement ring nestling in his palm, one of the two rings that his friends had salvaged for him those years ago. He held out the ring to her.

"Carol, my love," he said. "Would you like to put this on again?"

Her eyes filled with tears as she remembered how she had lost it and all the trouble they'd been through since, and now he was reversing all the hurt.

"Oh, yes!" she sighed and then sobbed. "It's the same ring I threw at you! I never thought I'd ever see it again - that I could be so lucky."

She took the ring and put it on her finger and gazed at it for a long moment, before she stood and pulled him against her naked front, pressing her sharp breasts against his chest. His arms went round her, pulling her even tighter.

"Have you got the wedding ring as well?" she asked hesitantly, looking into his eyes, remembering afresh what she had done.

"You can have it when you say 'I do' again," he said, and she saw the love in his eyes. "I take it you do want to say 'I do' again?" Those eyes twinkled: he already knew the answer.

She gazed again at the engagement ring, then at him. "Oh, yes," she whispered. "More than anything." Then a pause as she studied his smiling face.

"Even without it, I'm home now," she said. "You know, I thought while I was having my shower how right I felt being here. Naked!" She grinned tearfully at him.

"Yes," he said, mesmerised by the tears glistening in her eyes, so blue. "You really are back home. No matter how you're dressed - or undressed."

She sighed, contented.

"OK?" he asked, quite deliberately.

She sucked in a breath of surprise, and he smiled.

"You used-" she began.

"I'm OK with that now, 'cos now you're OK and we're OK, OK?"

He looked at her, challenging her, and she giggled.

"OK!" she said boldly, checked he looked OK with it, and slipped off her bathrobe.

"OK?" she asked in her brazen nakedness, pushing out and stroking her own breasts, then taking his hand in hers, and leading it between her legs, now helpfully apart.

"More than just OK," he answered with reverence as he ran a finger along the groove of her pussy feeling her dampness, "I've missed this - missed you so often."

"Take me to bed," she whispered. "Love me again."

She undid the belt on his dressing gown, slipping it off and pulling his tee shirt over his head, then slipping his boxer shorts down his legs. He stepped out of them.

She stood back from him and appraised the tanned man before her, and for the first time since she came to sit on his knee, his cock began to rise under her blatant appraising stare.

"You've not changed," she said. "No extra weight, still as ripped as before, and wonderfully tanned."

"Neither have you," he said with a smile. "Still perfect, shapely, still so beautiful."

She stepped into his embrace and they felt each other's body from chest to toe as they pressed themselves together. He was hard now, and her nipples were erect and stiff, making as if to pierce his chest. She stood on tiptoe, and caught his erection between her thighs, allowing it to press upwards against her furrow.

"Quick!' she gasped. "On the bed, I need you!"

They tumbled onto the bed, wrapped round each other. She lay back, legs wide.

"Put it in!" she moaned at him. "Stuff me! Fill me!"

"No oral?" he grinned.

"No, you bastard!" I want you in me."

"Without foreplay?"

"The last three horrible years are all the foreplay I need! Ple-e-ease John, love me!"

He reared over her between her widespread thighs gazing at her most private place, then dipped his waist, pushed down and along her glistening open lips, and plunged deep.

She cried out as he filled her, "Oh! Yesss! That's it!"

He began instantly to thrust.

His gruff voice complemented each inward push, "Now I'm back! Now you're mine! Now I'm yours! You're Home!"

She moaned her response, unable to articulate words as the sensation overcame her, and loudly she half shouted, half cried, as the ecstasy took her so soon after he had deeply entered her inner world again. Her climax throbbed ten more times before John bellowed and emptied into her, feeling as if she were sucking his very self out of him, draining him.

They gradually stilled as the spasms abated and she pulled him down on top of her, to feel his weight, squeezing him tightly, her legs scissored over his back to keep him deep, his head resting on her shoulder. Two became one again.

And there they lay for long moments, saying nothing, feeling each other until he raised his head and gazed into her dazed eyes.

She nodded, and so did he. She smiled, and so did he. They kissed, then smiled again, then kissed again. They said nothing, because what they felt was too much to describe, but the intimacy of their unspoken feelings was communicated perfectly as they were.

When he at last slipped from her, he rolled to her side and she came into his arms, and there they lay, wrapped around each other, relaxed and at peace.

--

They remained in the house for the whole of the following week, plenty of the time in bed, making up for the lost years. She had rung her office and told them she was not available for the week. They were not happy, but she didn't care. She had other priorities.

On Monday, when they went to the Register Office armed with their Decrees Absolute and requisite forms of identification, and booked a wedding ceremony for two weeks on Friday, the registrar looked at the forms, then looked again.

"You were married before - to each other?" she asked with a puzzled smile.

"Yes," said Carol. "It's a long story: someone sabotaged our marriage and caused us both a lot of suffering. Now we need to put the wrong right." She then told the registrar the whole story, and explained how they'd like the ceremony.

Eighteen days later they married again.

It was almost a non-ceremony. They made the same vows they had exchanged the first time in Church, signed the register, paid the fee and received their marriage certificate, and that was that.

Tom and Susan witnessed it, and apart from them, only Ann and Tracy were present. They then met parents, family and other friends at Ryan's and Karen's hotel for a celebration meal, and later that evening, a party for even more friends. The fictitious Mr Ronson was not invited.

Then a month's honeymoon staying with John's sister Grace in New Zealand. It was an interesting experience celebrating Christmas in midsummer! John's parents made the journey out for the holiday, staying over Christmas week before touring for another three.

The newly married pair returned, bronzed and happy, to restart their married life, so rudely and painfully interrupted. They agreed with naughty grins that the future looked - OK.

--

After the wedding ceremony, as she closed the register and they collected the rest of the equipment, the Registrar turned to her assistant.

"Well, Betty, that was one to remember, wasn't it? Very business-like. Simple, even stark. not even any music! As they said, they were only putting a wrong right."

The assistant laughed. "What was that business with the ring? I couldn't believe it when you said, 'Now the ring,' and he got it out and threw it across the room. Then she went scrabbling about on the floor, brought it back and he put it on her finger. What was all that about?"

"When she was tricked into thinking her husband was unfaithful, she went to the pub where he was drinking with his friends, threw her wedding and engagement rings at him and left the pub and her marriage. I'll tell you the whole story over a cup of coffee, it's quite a saga."

"So, in a sense her retrieving the ring was symbolically putting it right, a sort of apology and reversal. D'you think they'll make it this time?"

"After what they've been through? I'm pretty sure they're going to be - OK!"

"You never say 'OK', Deirdre!"

"Until they reconciled, neither did he, Betty, neither did he."

END