Snuggled next to Reed under a thick Pendleton blanket I watched the scenery crawl past the sleigh. The sleigh wound around pine and spruce trees with full velvety green boughs. Fresh powdery snow dusted the mountain, and everything glowed in soft silvery light cast by the full moon. The moisture in the air froze and hung around us like stars pulled down to earth. It was a fairytale brought to life.
Half way to the summit the driver pulled the horses over in a clearing. One side of the clearing was surrounded by the mountain, while the other side provided a stunning view of the valley.
Reed helped me down from the sleigh, and led us to stand in front of a man standing in the middle of the space. "I love you," he whispered as we made our way down the frozen aisle.
"Welcome. Mr. Martin told me that he'd like to recite his own vows. I'll let him begin," the minister directed.
We were supposed to write vows? I was glad we didn't have guests, because I was worried about what I was going to say.
"Kate," Reed began, pulling me back into the moment. He shook his head and chuckled at my worried expression. "Stop frowning at me. I didn't write anything beforehand either."
I smiled up at him and was able to relax and listen to his words.
"Much better," he commented before continuing. "I've waited for you for over a year. Even when I thought that being with you was impossible, I couldn't stop hoping that one day you'd be mine. I had a life before I met you, but I never felt like I was living it until I started sharing it with you. All I need is you and tonight we begin our lives with just the two of us."
He squeezed my hand, and I could see him swallow hard. "I'm not perfect, but I'm perfect for you. I know because you are my match, my other half. I never believed in such a thing until I saw you walk into a room over a year ago. I wouldn't call it love at first sight, but that moment everything seemed clear. I had to get to know you and the more I did the more I wanted to know."
"We haven't had it easy, and it might continue to be hard, but with you in my life I can face anything. You are my light. When the ghosts from my past sneak up on me, you hold me still until I can see past the fear. I love you, Kate, no matter what name you use, or the past you hate. Marry me. I can’t promise we won't fight, or that we'll always agree, but I'll never quit on us. As long as my heart is beating, it's yours, and probably even after that," he swore.
"Reed, I've let my past break me down, and nearly let it get in between us. You waited for me. Never once did you push me to do something I wasn't comfortable with. I was sure my past had destroyed me beyond repair, until I gave into my feelings for you. It was the scariest and most freeing thing I'd ever done in my life."
I felt a tear escape, but I didn't try and stop it. "You are my rock, my safe place in a storm, you are everything to me and I'm not scared to admit it anymore. I know I could survive without you, but surviving isn't enough anymore. I want every day to end like we are beginning tonight, just the two of us."
I was lost in the dreamy look on Reed's face, and nearly missed the minister asking us to exchange our vows. I said "I do," when prompted, and in a heartbeat he pronounced us man and wife. Reed picked me up and spun me around before kissing me until my knees started to buckle.
"Let's go start our honeymoon, wife," Reed suggested with a devilish smirk on his beautiful face.
I raised my eyebrow at him. "I don't have any other clothes in that giant suitcase do I?"
His smirk spread into a full smile. "There are clothes in there, but you won't want to wear them in public."
I let my eyes travel his body as he lifted me back into the sleigh. My mouth watered at the thought of having a weekend with unlimited access to my sexy husband.
"Are you ready," he whispered, holding my hand.
I smiled at him. "Lead on. I'll follow you anywhere."
Chapter 37
Reed
"Morning, wife," I greeted. I'd ordered room service of muffins, fruit, and juice while she was sleeping.
Kate blinked her eyes trying to shake off sleep. "Mmmm, breakfast in bed. I want to marry you and have all your babies."
"Well the first part is taken care of. If you want to work on the second part, I'm game." She might have thought I was joking, but I was completely serious. I loved having Kate to myself, but seeing her pregnant with my child was definitely on my to-do list.
"Someday, absolutely, but I'm not ready to share you yet," she replied while openly ogling my naked chest.
"I think I've turned my wife into a sex addict," I said with mock concern.
"Lucky man," she answered smirking. Her smile faded when she looked at the alarm clock. "I can't believe the weekend is over. I don't want to leave here."
I rested my face against the top of her head. "Neither do I. I'm nervous at home. I feel like danger is around every corner. The whole thing with Pratt doesn't feel over to me. I understand he's fallen off the grid, and the body in the morgue is most likely him, but I still feel him watching us."
"I've spent the last few years always looking over my shoulder. I'm not sure if it's a habit, or intuition, but I feel the same way," Kate agreed.
I moved the tray off the bed on to the table. "For now let's forget about home, and everything that might be waiting for us. Right now we are here together in this beautiful room. I can't think about any of that while you’re sitting next to me in nothing but a sheet."
Kate lifted her eyebrow and her eyes sparkled mischievously as she let the sheet fall. She scrambled to get out of the bed as I grabbed for her. Laughing, she tried to get free of the covers, but her legs were tangled in the sheets.
I took advantage of her immobility and pinned her to the mattress. Kate gazed up at me, chest heaving, and smiled seductively.
"You caught me, now what are you going to do with me?" she taunted.
"How about I show you?" I offered.
Her breasts continued to rise and fall with her mounting desire and brushed across my chest with each crest. Unable to hold back I bent down and pulled one of the hardened tips into my mouth. Letting go of her hands to pay attention to her other breast, her hands found my hair and held me to her.
Her legs rubbed up and down my sides, pulling and guiding me toward her center. Already painfully hard the moment she dropped the sheet, I couldn't hold off any longer. Kate's strong runner's legs wrapped around my waist and pulled me deep inside her.
Sex with Kate would never get old. Since we'd gotten together, we'd made love, fucked, and a playful mixture of the two. My shy, reserved girlfriend had turned into my daring, uninhibited wife overnight.
"My turn," she announced and flipped us over using her muscular legs.
I lay back while she found a rhythm on top of me. She was a goddess come down to earth. Her long hair cascaded around her body, swaying and granting peeks of her tits bouncing with the movement of her body.
I'd have watched her in awe, because it was the most erotic thing I'd ever seen, but her relentless pace had me thrusting my hips to match. She moaned long and slow. The sound shredded the remainder of my self-control. I grabbed her hips and pulled her down on top of me.
Her short nails pierced into my chest and she let loose. Her movements became faster and harder until she was shouting my name, and other words I couldn't quite understand. I pulled her down on top of me two more times before I held still deep inside of her.
My hands fell off her waist, and she collapsed on top of me. "I love being married," I professed.
Soon after it was time to pack our things and leave for the airport. We held hands on the way back to Vegas, but drove in silence. The prospect of going home had brought down the carefree mood from our honeymoon. Still, it was nice to arrive back in Ellensburg and pick up Belly from Jeremy's house.
I knocked on the door, and Jeremy shouted for us to come in. Belly, the traitor, was curled up at the end of the couch on Jeremy's feet. Jeremy smirked up at us, and Belly ducked her head like she'd been caught being naughty.
&nbs
p; Knowledge flashed in Jeremy's eyes for a second while his eyes studied Kate's left hand before she shoved it into her pocket. The grin on his face spread into a wide smile. Kate tried to hide her sigh, but I felt it. Fucker didn't seem to recognize the effect he had on women. If I hadn't seen Becca and Toni have the same reaction to him I would have been pissed. They couldn't seem to help themselves. Thank God he only seemed to have eyes for Kate's twin brother, otherwise I'd have to beat his ass, and Aiden would help me.
"Have a good weekend?" Jeremy taunted.
My eyes narrowed. He knew. I smiled. I loved that he knew. I was ready to tell the entire fucking world that Kate was my wife. I nodded at him. "Fantastic," I replied.
"C'mon Belly," I called.
She crawled off the couch and came to sit by my side. I gave her head a scratch.
"Thanks, Jer," I said. I grabbed Kate's hand, knowing Jeremy would get another view of her ring. It was stupid, I knew he wasn't really interested in her, but I felt the need to mark her as mine.
After we pulled into our driveway, I opened the rear passenger door, and let Belly run around the yard before going in for the night. Instead of running a loop around the house, like she did every night, she ran to the window outside of the bedroom and whined at the bushes.
Kate and I walked over to investigate. There were bushes planted under the window with long, sharp thorns covering the stems. A few of the branches where bent or busted. There looked like there were a few threads stuck to one of the thorns. A chill raced down my spine.
Belly crawled under the bushes and came back out with a tennis ball. Somehow the last time I played fetch with her the ball was tossed too close to the house. It could have hit and busted branches before it landed, or she could have broken them in a previous attempt to retrieve it. All of those explanations were perfectly plausible, but none of them explained the loose threads dangling from a thorn.
"Kate, get back in the car where it is warmer. I'm going to call that State Patrol officer and have them check this out. I don't think we should stay here tonight."
I made the call and put Belly back in the car. I started to walk around the perimeter and check the other modes of entry, but I panicked when I went around the corner of the house and couldn't see Kate anymore. I decided to let the state troopers do their job. After all I wasn’t a cop any longer, and I had a wife to look after.
They could have kept us waiting for hours while they searched the entire property. Thankfully, they quickly determined the house was still locked tight and let us go. We would have had to stay if they needed to search the house, but they wouldn’t be going through our personal property while they investigated the perimeter.
We checked into a hotel; neither of us was in a hurry to return to staying with our friends. It was late, and Aiden and Becca were probably putting Scott to bed. Not to mention we still hadn't told anyone we'd eloped yet. Yeah, we were being chickens. I didn't regret the way we decided to get married, but I wasn't looking forward to facing our friends and family when they found out either.
A plain-clothes officer met us at the hotel and checked out the room before we entered. I booked a suite with a separate sitting room. Ordinarily we wouldn’t have gotten police protection considering Pratt was presumed dead, but most people didn’t have the support of the Ryan’s behind them.
Once the officer was done checking out the place, I swept Kate off her feet and proceeded to carry her into the room.
She giggled. "What are you doing?"
"Isn't it obvious, wife? I'm carrying you over the threshold," I stated.
"You like calling me that, don't you?" she asked quietly.
"Wife? Fuck yeah. It's like a magic word. No matter what shit we are dealing with, like tonight for example, that one word reminds me that my life is still pretty amazing."
My phone started buzzing in my back pocket.
"Are you going to get that?" Kate asked.
"Ignore it. I'm going to. I'm too busy at the moment to answer it," I replied.
Kate cocked her head to the side. "Oh really? What are you busy doing?"
"You, or I will be in a couple minutes." I let her slide down the front of my body. I fisted her hair in my hand and pulled until her face tipped up toward mine.
I moved in to taste her plump, pink lips. Her warm breath tickled my mouth. I could nearly feel the velvety softness of her mouth on mine, when my phone began to ring again.
"Get it," she demanded, "or it will keep interrupting us."
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and looked at the screen. "It's Aiden."
I steeled myself for the lecture I was sure he was going to give me.
"Reed, what the hell is going on? Jeremy just called me and said your yard is crawling with police. Did you forget that my old house is just down the street, within view of your house?" Aiden practically shouted.
"When Kate and I got home tonight, I let Belly out to run around before we went in. She started growling near our bedroom window. I went to check it out, and found broken branches and some fibers snagged on a thorn," I explained.
It sounded a bit stupid when I repeated it. I was probably over reacting, but I couldn’t shake the sick feeling deep in my stomach.
"Where are you now?" he asked.
"We checked into a hotel," I answered.
"I wish you'd stop being such a stubborn asshole. Becca and I have plenty of room. You took a bullet for me, the least I can do is give you a place to stay," he argued.
"It might be nothing, Aid. How long do you think that living situation would work?" I challenged.
"As long as it has to. You aren't the only one that protects their friends, Reed. Swallow your goddamn pride and stay with us," Aiden ordered.
"But..." I began.
"Before you come up with some lame ass excuse you need to listen. Do you think my pride wasn't dented having to lean on you when I needed to protect my wife? Of course it was, but the only thing that mattered to me was making sure that Becca and my son were safe," he interrupted.
I looked at Kate, and I knew he was right. "We've got police protection here tonight. We'll be there tomorrow. We have something to tell you guys anyway."
"You eloped," Aiden stated.
"How did you find out?" I went back over the brief interaction Kate and I had with Jeremy. I knew Jeremy had seen her ring. Hell, I'd practically waved it in his face. I wanted to kick myself for letting my inner caveman out, but Kate sighed looking at that pretty boy's smile. If Cameron found out before Kate got to tell him, I'd beat my own ass.
"Let's see, you took a spur of the moment trip to Vegas...and Jeremy saw Kate's wedding ring," he admitted.
"Are you sure we should stay at your place? Becca's probably pissed," I commented. Fuck, I really needed to think before I acted.
Aiden chuckled. "Becca is a little preoccupied. Just come tomorrow after you check out of the hotel, and we'll all talk."
"We're going back to Becca and Aiden's?" Kate asked.
"I don't know what else to do," I admitted.
I left her standing in the middle of the room and paced over to the window. I tried to ignore the trooper assigned to guard us tonight, but even in a suite there was only so much room.
I pulled back the curtains and pressed my head against the cold glass. It was the closest I would be able to get to fresh air. Protecting my country and my community had been my life since I was eighteen years old, but when it mattered most I was useless. How was I supposed to protect my wife from a ghost?
Not that I believed for a second that Pratt was dead. That fucker was always a step ahead of me, and it pissed me off. He was a weaselly little shit that was more crazy than smart. He should not have been able to outmaneuver me, but I kept reacting with my emotions instead of my head.
Kate walked up behind me and wrapped her arms around my waist, and laid her head on my back. "Talk to me," she insisted.
I put my arms on top of hers and held her there. "I'm supposed to be a
ble to protect you. Me. But I can't keep you safe without turning to my friends for help," I unloaded my frustration.
"Did you think any less of Aiden when he accepted your help to find Becca when she was abducted? Or when they needed to go into hiding?" she demanded.
I picked my head off the glass. I knew where she was leading me, but damn me if it didn't work anyway.
"You know I didn't. He accepted help to keep his family safe," I admitted.
"We need help, but we aren't helpless, Reed. It's time we stop sitting around waiting for Pratt or whoever this is to make a move on us," Kate said coming around to my front.
"What do you suggest?" I asked intrigued.
"We dig into his past. We learn as much as we can. Something will give us what we need to bring him down. Let's see how much he likes to be watched," she proposed.
"I don't think we are going to find a rational explanation for why he's done this to us," I cautioned.
"I know," she said softly.
I pulled her to my chest and laid her head next to my heart. "Thank you," I whispered.
She lifted her head off my chest and focused her doe eyes on me. I tucked her soft hair behind her ear. "I mean it," I continued, "thank you for always knowing what I need even when I don't. And thanks for loving me, because that's what I needed most."
Chapter 38
Kate
"Katelyn Kennedy…or Martin…wait, are you changing your name? Never mind that right now actually. I want you to explain why we weren’t invited to your wedding," Becca confronted me.
I glared at Reed. "I thought you said she was too preoccupied to be pissed."
Becca's green eyes filled with tears, and she appeared to be fighting a losing battle to hold them in. "I don't understand why you didn't want us there. I thought we were friends," she said, voice quivering.
Aiden rushed to her side. "Red, calm down, sweetheart," he soothed.
"It wasn't that I didn't want you there," I began, "Reed and I have had so many things come between us. Most of that has been my fault. I wanted it to be just us the two of us as a symbol that nothing and no one would ever come between us again."
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