Ria was wise enough not to tell her parents the hurtful remarks her sister had made. Instead, she had asked Camille to come to take her temperature and before she knew it, Tara was back in bed, drinking the hot toddy prepared by Beatrice which would drive any fever away with its awful taste, as Claude was wont to say. She dozed off under the watchful eyes of her sister who stood, thinking hard. Finally, coming to a decision, Ria marched off to find her father.
*
Lucien
He was sweating as he sat at his wife’s bedside, his eyes glued on what the doctor’s assistant was doing. The lab where the sonography was about to take place was chilly but the Mafia Don was tense.
*
Lucien Delano glared again at the assistant at the clinic, a chit of a girl, who was staring. open-mouthed, at his woman and then at him, sneaking furtive looks their way as though they were a novelty. He fixed her with a cold look and the poor girl was soon shaking and the hands that were smearing the ultrasound gel on Proserpina’s slightly distended belly wobbled till the chief technician managed to politely ask her to relax.
Proserpina stifled a giggle as she touched her husband’s thick wrist, stroking it gently. Lucien was watching so fiercely, that he looked as though he was planning to murder the unfortunate girl. She smiled sweetly at the young woman in an attempt to put her at ease and said in her melodious voice,
‘It’s okay. This is my seventh child.’
That made the girl, stop to gawp but Lucien’s sharp inhalation made her resume the task of smearing the gel in hasty, jerky movements. But she kept sneaking looks at the lovely younger woman who lay on the bed, managing to look so desirable although she was about fourteen weeks pregnant. As for the cruel-looking older man beside her, he was definitely uncomfortable in the ultrasound cubicle, filling it with his large body and larger-than-life presence. As she turned away, the young technician caught a glimpse of the way the woman on the bed reached up to cup the man’s harsh jaw, tenderness in her expression. There was a mirror on the opposite wall and the two people in the room were oblivious to the presence of anyone else but themselves.
“Relax, Lucien.’ Proserpina murmured softly and the man swooped down to kiss her with such ferocity, that the technician raised her hand to her mouth, brows shooting up.
“Jeez, but those two could set a bale of hay on fire,’ thought Amy incredulously for she had grown up on a farm.
Any fool could see the sparks of passion sizzling between the two, the older man with his muscular body straining as he bent over her, kissing her so possessively as the young woman lay with her exposed belly, her soft, heavy breasts prominent and almost crushed by him as he leant over her and her gentle, submissive demeanour fuelling the man’s ardour as she surrendered willingly to his clutch the back of his neck, to bury itself in his hair. Proserpina had raised her hands to stroke her man’s shoulders gently, holding him to her.
*
The man had slid a hand to his wife’s full breasts, fondling her unashamedly. The young technician left the room hastily, feeling embarrassed at having been a voyeur of sorts, watching the steamy passion between the two.
*
Earlier that day, they had been told that a Mafia Don and his wife were coming to the clinic and accordingly, the man’s bodyguards, led by a tall, young and well-muscled Latino, had arrived earlier to check the place and make sure that the Don and his wife were the only people in the clinic. Amy had sniffed in disbelief. Straight out of a movie or something, she thought disbelievingly.
Later, when the two people had walked in, she had been astonished. The young woman was beautiful and curvaceous; a soft look of love on her face as she smiled up at the man accompanying her. As for her companion, Amy took one look at his face and froze. He looked like the bad man in a gangster movie, his harsh features cold and forbidding as his eyes roved around the room carefully, an arm clamped protectively around the young woman’s waist. Not too tall but he managed to make everyone want to scurry away and hide, with his formidable manner, the big, broad shoulders barely contained by the expensive jacket he wore. Well-dressed but not flashy, they made an attractive couple.
The chief technician, Robert stepped forward with a smile; he knew Proserpina Delano well and when she smiled, Amy felt herself smiling back automatically. Her husband’s cold grey-blue gaze swept over Amy dismissively and she felt a prickle of fear.
The woman was not beautiful in a classically beautiful way but in a dreamy, sensual way, the way that made people’s hearts go pitter-pat when she smiled at them, a slow, dimpled smile. And ah, that body, she gushed to her friend Jo, straight out of a porn movie, full breasts and wide hips…
Just watching them together was enough to get your panties soaking wet, she told her friend Jo later during their coffee break.
Seven kids? she thought, Whew!
*
But the delectable creature, that vision of loveliness, seemed unaware of her effect on men. And women sighed Amy who was a lesbian. Jo had rolled her eyes as she listened.
*
Lucien
He leant forward, staring at the screen intently. Proserpina’s face was turned to watch it too as the technician, not the blundering girl with the straw-coloured hair and the pop-out eyes, thought Lucien in irritation, but the chief technician explained things to him.
The image on the screen made his heart swell and he squeezed his woman’s hand. She dimpled softly as she turned to look at him, eyes brimming.
The technician moved the transducer along Proserpina’s abdomen, applying a small amount of pressure as he went.
“The transducer transmits sound waves that create a picture of the fetus inside the body, and it may be rotated at different angles to get a complete picture. If you’re ticklish, you might find yourself challenged by this procedure.’ explained the man, giving an apologetic nod to Proserpina. Although the man was in his early sixties, potbellied and balding, Lucien felt his gut clench. He did not care to see another man touch his wife so intimately.
She smiled demurely, eyes riveted on the screen and Lucien watched, fascinated.
At first, he could barely make out a shape but he knew it was his child, his son, growing in his woman’s belly, the child they had created out of love. Gradually, he began to make out a shape, his son, he thought in wonder, clasping his woman’s hand. All of a sudden, he wanted nothing more than to sweep her up in his arms and kiss her senseless.
She turned to exclaim at something on the screen and catching his hungry gaze, she dipped her head and blushed.
Proserpina shook her head slightly and his glazed eyes shifted back to the screen.
‘Our baby, Lucien,’ she whispered almost shyly and the technician left the room as he saw the look on the Mafia Don’s face. A look that seemed to say the man wanted to take his wife forcefully, right there, on the narrow bed.
*
Later, as they drove back home, the Mafia Don held her to him, his large, swarthy hand with the wiry hairs, resting tenderly on her softly rounded belly.
‘I love you, Lucien Delano,’ she murmured against his mouth as he kissed her like a starved man while he grunted in response.