Drabble prompts #22 "I've seen the way you look at me when you think I don't notice."
Lucien walks into the bedroom to the most glorious sight. Jean is on the floor beside the bed. Her arm stretching under as if reaching for something. She readjusts herself to peer into the dark, her bum rising farther in the air with a sway. Lucien watches his wife with a hunger that is as strong as the first time he saw beyond the apron and judgement.
"I know you are there Lucien. Stop gawking!"
He clears his throat, "What are you doing?"
"Ah! Got it!" She sits up on her knees holding an earring. "I dropped this."
He offers her his hand to help guide her to her feet. He sits on the bed watching Jean make her way to her vanity. He finds, as often is the case, that he can't take his eye off his wife. His mind wanders to all the things he would like to do to show his devotion.
"Lucien!"
"What? I'm sorry I was a million miles away. What did you say?"
Jean looks at her husband behind her in the mirror, opens her mouth to repeat what she was saying only to think twice. She breaks her eye contact with him, a smile curls in the corner of her mouth. She turns to make her way back to him. "Lucien, I've seen the way you look at me when you think I don't notice."
"I…I don't know what you are talking about." He stutters.
"Mmm. Is that so?" Her brow raises questioningly. "So you never watch me from around corners when I'm doing housework, say dusting?"
"I never…". Her eyes boring into him rival any interrogator's methods. "Well maybe once or twice." He starts to feel warm around the collar.
"How do you think I know you like emerald green on me?"
"Now I really don't know what you are talking about." His hands fly up defensively.
"No idea? So it has nothing to do with a certain green dress, that you nearly caught a mouthful of flies when you first saw me in it." He slumps in defeat. She continues, more playfully as she now stands between his knees looking down at his blue eyes. "Or the way you watch me from the sunroom when I'm in the garden? You always pause to watch before joining me."
Jean strokes his beard the way that makes him melt. "So you always knew...How?"
She leans down to place a kiss on his forehead. "I know you, I can feel you. Besides, I enjoy watching you too when you don't know it."
"You do?"
"Mmhmm." She plays with his shirt collar, her face taking on a serious expression. "At first it was because you were such a mystery. Your drinking….you worried me."
"That I'd hurt you?"
"No, no of course not. More that you would hurt yourself... maybe. Not intentionally of course but you were so reckless and sad. And then…". Her hand begins trailing down his chest, undoing each button as she goes along. A low groan comes from deep in his throat. "I began to notice how kind."
"Kind? Bloody kind?"
She laughs, "Yes kind. I didn't need to watch you secretly to know that you were handsome and strong. I was a widow Lucien not blind!" She pulls his shirt tail from the waistband of his trousers. "BUT I do love admiring that handsome strong... kind man that I am married to only now I don't have to sneak glances or hide my salacious thoughts."
Lucien's large hands start moving from where they have been planted along her waist. "You had salacious thoughts about me before we were us?"
"I might have." She feels him tug the zipper on her skirt down.
"You?" The skirt pools at her feet.
"Oh my darling, I most certainly did. And by the way you sway these hips you know I did." He gives a playful nip followed by a trail of kisses to her left hip.
She runs her hand through his hair. Her wedding rings sparkle in the lamplight. She looks longingly at him, a look full of love and devotion that she never thought she would have again.
A fraction longer of looking at him this way and she would weep for her love for him but the look is fleeting. He doesn't notice. So when he pulls her down on the bed he sees nothing more than his wife smiling up at him, a smile that equals his own happiness and love.