Ten minutes after the chopper had landed, the doorbell startled Valerie out of her thoughts of Lorne. She watched Chloe race across the suite and into the foyer ahead of her to answer it. Misses him as much as I do.

Chloe opened the door to two heavily-laden food trolleys and four staff. "Mummy, where do we want it set up?"

"It's too cool on the terraces; let's do the dining room," Valerie replied, trying to calm her heart as she arrived in the foyer.

The table was quickly set and the buffet spread, then Valerie let the staff out. She had just started back across the foyer when the door latch clicked, and she turned to see Lorne rushing toward her. Oh, God.

He wrapped her in a hug, lifted her and swung her in a circle, then set her down and said, "I've missed you." Their mouths merged.

Patrick led the others past the passionate embrace. "We'll do the formal introductions later, but that's Ms Redburn."

Valerie chuckled to herself. Doing it again, aren't we? She continued the kiss, now raking her fingers through Lorne's blond curls and mashing her mound onto his thigh. A tremulous moaning rose from deep within as she felt him swelling along her leg. Gotta stop. Now. We've company. They continued.

Finally, they broke the kiss, and Lorne fumbled as he tried to rearrange his excitement. "Bugger. It's trapped down my trouser leg, and it's far too stiff to bend out of there."

Valerie stepped back and looked down. "Way too obvious this way with it halfway to your knee." She chuckled. "Besides, you'd have to walk with a stiff leg, making it more obvious. What do you normally do?"

"Shift it up before it gets too stiff." He shrugged. "I was distracted from doing that, and now it's too late." He sat on the bench to ease the pressure. 

She looked across the foyer and into the suite. "We're out of sight."

He undid his belt, button and zipper, then pulled down his trousers to let it pop up. When he refastened, he left his shirt tails untucked.

Valerie examined the rearrangement, smiling as she nodded. "Something I've never thought about; men having to hide their arousals."

"Tricks from many years ago with Gwen. I've not had to use them until a few weeks ago."

"You mean a few days. You realise it's not yet five days since our first date?"

"Yeah, four and a half, but you aroused me in the soup kitchen, and I –"

"You didn't?"

"Did too. Increasingly from the first night onward."

Valerie chuckled. "Yeah. I began wearing liners after that." She glanced down at his shirt front, then nodded across the foyer. "It's now out of sight. We should go in and meet the others."

The group was in the marble-floored hall next to the dining room when they arrived, and Lorne introduced the three men. "This is my Chief Operating Officer, Clyde Simpson, my Chief Legal Officer, Wendell Brooks, and my Chief of Acquisitions, Walter Ottmann."

Valerie shook each hand in turn as Lorne continued. "And this is my fiancée, Valerie Redburn." He turned and smiled at the young redhead who had snuggled to his side. "And this is her daughter, Chloe."

"We've already introduced ourselves, but, Mummy, this is Donovan from the helicopter."

Valerie shook hands with him. "Again, thank you for your cooperation, Donovan. It's much more comfortable for them to spend the night down here than it would have been up on the mountain."

Donovan nodded as he examined the massive suite. "Yeah. I've heard places like this exist, but I never imagined they would be this grand."

She scanned the small group. "Where's Lisa, your pilot?"

"Her husband and kids met her at the base, and she headed home."

"That makes sense. I need to thank her for her skill." She pointed into the dining room. "You're all starved; let's eat."

A few minutes later, Valerie leaned into Lorne and asked, "Your three staff? Were they flying out or staying overnight?"

"They were scheduled out on the BA at 19:30."

"Hmmm. We've the two large bedrooms here, and two smaller ones that look like staff or servant's quarters. Maybe children."

"I'd prefer to get rooms for them and allow the three of us to practice being family."

Oh, God! She hummed a quiet sigh. "You've done that again, Lorne."

"Yeah, I felt it as well. Wonderful, isn't it?"

She leaned and kissed his cheek. "Hmmm. I'll phone down and book more rooms; you continue eating and fill this up." She patted his tummy. Oh, God, he's still up. Way up.

He gave her a sheepish grin, then leaned to whisper. "That's already filled to near bursting, anticipating dessert."

She nibbled his ear and mumbled. "Yeah, I've plenty of sauce ready." She shook her head at her naughtiness, then scanned the others around the table. All engrossed in the retelling of the adventure. "I'll go phone."

When Valerie returned, the men had finished their feeding frenzy, and they were into nibbling and sipping as they re-re-analysed the events. They were interrupted at twelve twenty by the tones of the doorbell. "That'll be the staff with the room keys." Oh, God, I hope so. Finally alone. "Can you get that, Chloe?"

Chloe led the Night Manager to the table, and he held out six folders. "The rooms are all in the Marina Rise, and you'll find a map in these to get you from here to there. You've complementary breakfasts, either in Isola or in-room." He fanned out the folders and handed them to Valerie. "The details are all in here, Ma'am."

While Chloe saw the manager out, Lorne distributed the room folders to his executive and aircrew, then he rose from the table and turned to Donovan. "We'll see you at ten thirty."

Valerie questioned in her mind but said nothing in the scramble of men rising to their feet as Lorne stood.

He led the way toward the door, speaking to Donovan, asking whether the two women could be added to the flight.

Donovan nodded. "Yeah, still within weight and balance constraints,"

"Good, let's do that."

After Lorne had closed the door behind the departing men, Valerie asked, "Another flight?"

"Yeah, I still need to buy the winery in Franschhoek. That's why we came here. We're meeting with them at eleven."

She wrapped her arms around him, plastering her belly onto his bulge and slowly gyrating. "Enough business for the moment; let's move on to pleasure."