Hitched(66)
“That was very nice,” I agree.
“How’s your head?”
“Better.”
“Good.” She sits up, and I get a better look at my wife while she slides off the bed. She’s only wearing a tee shirt and underwear—which is fabulous—but she could, and should, be wearing fewer clothes.
And soon will be if I have anything to say about it.
I push up on my elbows. “Wait a second. Where are you—” I start, but then stop as she turns to face me, peeling her tee shirt off to reveal a white bra cradling her sweet breasts.
My lips part. My tongue goes dry.
And then my wife reaches for the waist of her panties.
My body flushes hot, and all my blood rushes below my belt.
“I love you,” she says, her lips curving.
“That’s definitely two good things.” I can’t keep the huskiness from my voice while I watch her work the simple white panties lower on her hips.
“And I don’t want to hide from you ever again.”
I lift my gaze to meet her soft, vulnerable brown eyes.
“I want to give you my body,” she continues while she steps out of her underwear, “but that’s just the beginning. I want to share everything with you, husband. The good and the bad. The happy and the sad. The ups and the downs and everything in between.”
She reaches behind her back and unhooks her bra, stealing the breath from my lungs. “But most importantly, I want to share my heart, the one thing I’ve never dared to do with anyone else. Because no one else has ever deserved it the way you do. No one else has ever made me believe in it, in myself, the way you do.”
“Hope,” I whisper.
“You make me feel so loved. And not because I’m perfect. But because I’m perfect for you, just the way I am.” She slides the bra down her arms and tosses it to the ground, revealing my brave, beautiful wife.
“I want to do the same for you,” she says. “I want you to know you’re always safe. And loved. And treasured. Always.” She crawls back onto the bed, straddling my body. “Tell me when it hurts, and I’ll stop.”
“Don’t ever stop.”
I thread my fingers through her soft hair while she leans forward to kiss me again, her hands pushing up my shirt and setting my skin on fire. I want to stroke her everywhere, memorize every inch of her.
“Shh,” she whispers while she helps me out of my shirt. “My turn. Let me take care of you.”
And she does.
She strips me carefully out of my clothes. She kisses me slow and deep. She runs her hands over my body so thoroughly, I wonder if she’s checking to make sure I’m all here, or if she’s trying to memorize me the way I want to memorize her.
And when she takes me inside her, I know she’s holding nothing back.
No more secrets.
No more hesitation.
She’s all in.
I’m all in.
And this is where we’re finally supposed to be.
She tries to keep things slow, gentle, but I want her so badly. Within minutes, we’re both slick with sweat and I’m so close to coming, but I want—I need to feel her come for me first.
“Oh, god, Blake,” she gasps. “I love you. I love you.”
It sends me over the edge. “I love you,” I moan as the first tremors of her orgasm squeeze me tighter, and it’s not about sex or getting off.
It’s about being one with the woman that I was born to spend my life with.
Finally.
And forever.
Epilogue
Blake
Later That Year…
* * *
It’s the happiest day of my life.
Again.
Hope is giggling, beaming, shining as she hurries through the door of Jace’s bar, the Wild Hog, flanked by Cassie and Olivia, who are acting as unofficial bridesmaids for our most unorthodox wedding yet.
I can’t wait to say “I do” for the third time in front of family and friends and let the whole world know this marriage is going to stick. For good.
Forever.
And this time I get to get married with my entire family present, including Clint, who’s finally back home for the foreseeable future. He’s been transferred stateside for an assignment nearby and it looks like we’ll have him home for a nice long stretch.
It’s a good time to be an O’Dell, no doubt about it, and there are days when I get worn the hell out just counting my blessings.
Like today.
Half the town of Happy Cat is crammed into the bar.
I’m flanked by my brothers and my parents, who, as Hope reaches me in front of the jukebox, close in for a group hug.
Hope decided she didn’t need anyone to walk her down the aisle, after all, but she and my dad get closer every day. They’re fishing buddies, who head down to the river almost every pretty Sunday evening to cast their lines, drink a few beers, and gossip about what hell-raisers my brothers and I were when we were little.
She always asks me to come along, but I always say no. She needs solo time with a loving parental figure, and I need to cook her a kick-ass dinner while she’s gone. Because wooing my wife is my favorite hobby as well as my mission on earth.
“Let’s get married every day,” Hope murmurs into my ear.