by D. Brumbley
“That’s the plan.” Logan agreed, since it wasn’t fair to Ben just like it wasn’t fair to Liam or Larissa. No matter the benefits that he wanted to tell himself he was trying to arrange for his family, it still felt like abandonment. It felt like they had both decided separately that Jannah was for them, in spite of the uncertainties and the shady dealings. But Logan couldn’t bring himself to second-guess his own choice. There was too much to gain. “I’m going to talk to Liam’s girlfriends during the reception, see what they think on the subject. If I can talk the three of them into it, then I’m sure Liam will go along. He can arrange Cory and Larissa’s marriage once we’re upstairs.”
“They won’t need much arranging. Any of them, I think.” Anna pulled Logan into another kiss. “I wouldn’t be able to go at all without you. I applied to get away from all the history. . . but I can’t. I won’t. Certainly not now. I need you too much.” She let her hands slide down his sides to the waist of his boxers. “Definitely need you.”
He didn’t stop her, but his own hands didn’t move from the waist of her own robe where it was tied in place. “If I’m not mistaken, this is the longest we’ve gone without each other in almost two weeks.” He moved to press her back against the door of his bedroom with another kiss. “I definitely woke up missing you last night. More than once.”
Anna kissed him several more times, since she didn’t want to stop kissing him or touching him ever again. She was thoroughly addicted and she knew it was going to become a problem. The best kind of problem. “More than once, huh?” She asked with a smirk. “Did you do anything about it?”
“Not the same. You’re worth waiting for.” His kisses got more heated, but clearly he was trying very hard to control himself. “And need definitely goes both ways. I hope you got some decent sleep last night. You won’t be getting much later.”
She pouted as he held himself back. “I don’t want to wait until later, I’m already mostly undressed as it is.” Anna teased him by pressing into him and opening her robe just enough to give him a peek. “Do we really need to wait? We’re not exactly virgins, here.”
“Mmm.” He growled as she opened up her robe, and leaned down to kiss along the inner curve of her breasts. She could feel through his flimsy boxers that he was already more than ready for her, not that it ever took long in her presence for her to have that kind of effect on him. “No, we are not.” He forgot how to even think straight as soon as he was touching her, but the intercom in his room clicked on as his lips began to go lower.
“Hey Logan, Anna’s not in her room.” Liam’s voice sounded more amused than worried, even over an intercom. “You think maybe she broke and ran? Can’t say I’d blame her.”
Anna let out a strangled growl when Logan’s lips left her skin, and soon as he moved to touch the intercom, she smacked his hand and planted his hand back on her breast. She then touched the button on the intercom herself. “Logan’s busy right now. Harass him later, Liam.”
Liam broke out laughing at that over the intercom. “Yup, I probably should’ve guessed that. Make it quick, there’s decorating to do and you two are getting married in three hours.”
“Quick? Well, that ruins the fun.” Anna said to Liam before she pulled her finger away from the intercom and pulled Logan into another heated kiss. “Three hours, huh?” She kissed him again as her hand slid downward, since she wasn’t about to leave him high and dry after she’d tempted him. “That still seems so far away, but so close at the same time.”
“No time is enough for me, when it comes to you.” He pulled her robe open some more as she took hold of him, and one of his rough hands moved down to part her legs under the kisses that reached a fevered intensity between them. It was clear he wasn’t even going to move back into the bedroom or away from the door. He wanted her too much to be patient about anything.
Some time later, they were a puddle on the floor next to the door, tangled up together and panting heavily. They heard another warning crackle of noise through the intercom, but they had both ignored it in favor of each other. They were the bride and groom, after all. She was on top of him, mostly, running her fingers through his still-damp and sweaty hair. “I take it back, I definitely like it fast and rough too. God…”
“You know,” he said breathlessly, his hands moving over her sides slowly as he began to try and recover from having his brains fucked out by his future wife, “I’m starting to get the impression that you just like sex. All kinds, any kinds, all times, any time. There’s a word for that. It’s called fucking amazing.”
Anna laughed between breaths, which sent shocks through her still-sensitive body, but she enjoyed that too. “I thought you were going to call me a nymphomaniac. But I’ll take fucking amazing. That doesn’t have a negative connotation to it.” She kissed his lips roughly as her own hands continued to wander. “It’s not true, though. I’d gone months without sex before you and I got together the first time. I don’t think a real nympho can do that.”
“I don’t think so either. You’re not psychotic, just an enthusiast. I’m very comfortable with enthusiasm.” He rolled onto his back to relax on the floor, which had never felt more inviting in his life. “If that does end up developing later, though, you should know I fully support that kind of psychosis. I’ll be glad to be your addiction as well as your husband.”
“I don’t know if you could survive it.” She teased as she poked his side afterward, perfectly content to stay right where she was for the rest of her life. “I don’t know if I could survive it either, but it would be sure fun to try.” As she leaned into another kiss, they heard another voice over the intercom, this time it was a female voice.
“Logan! Two hours until the ceremony! Kick Anna out and get yourself ready!” Larissa could be surprisingly bossy when she wanted to be. “I mean it!”
Logan rolled his eyes. “You’d better get going. She sounds like she means business. You want to use my shower real quick first?”
Anna went back to pouting as she kissed Logan for the hundredth time. “Really? You’re more afraid of your sister than you are of your fiancee? This isn’t right.” She slowly extracted herself from being on top of Logan and groaned as soon as they were untangled. “I like this better than parading down an aisle in a dress.”
“You and me both.” He got up slowly after her, but couldn’t convince himself to get up off the floor. He sat against the wall with his arms around his knees, watching her get up and walk across the room. “This is the last time, though.” He said with a hopeful shrug up at her. “One and only time you and me are gonna do this. Might as well get it right.” He grinned up at her and winked.
She couldn’t help but smile after he winked at her, then she rolled her eyes dramatically before she walked the rest of the way to the bathroom. “Our honeymoon is no-clothes-allowed! Just sayin’!” It was the last thing she said before she rushed the rest of the way into the bathroom so that she didn’t turn back around to attack him again. Larissa was right. Anna needed to get ready and she needed to march down the aisle for everyone to see, if for no other reason than to make her father happy and to say ‘I do’ to Logan in front of the whole wide world.
Even when they switched places in the shower to let Anna get back to her own room, Logan had a hard time keeping his hands off her, but he managed to let her go with nothing more than a few heated kisses. When he was alone in his room again, all he could do was wander around to look over everything. The side of the closet he would shortly be cleaning out to make room for Anna’s things. The side of the bed that had been hers for weeks already and would be hers until they left for space. The half of his life that was currently his, but wouldn’t be for much longer.
He should have felt stranger about that. He should have felt more anxiety about sharing his life with someone else when the last person he had shared his life with had ended her own life rather than continue to share it with him. But it was Anna. He couldn’t convince himself to regret wanting hi
s best friend to share his life. He couldn’t bring himself to look back or second-guess his decision. He wanted her there with him. It was that simple. Earth, Space, Jannah, there was nowhere he wouldn’t want to be right beside her in everything he did.
When he finally emerged from his room, he was wearing a white button-down shirt, a silk tie, and an actual pair of dress slacks over his boots. A vest to match the pants completed the outfit, not quite a tux, not quite a suit, but certainly the nicest thing he had ever worn by choice in his life. He encountered Larissa halfway between his room and the main gathering hall of the house, apparently on her way to retrieve him, and he just smiled. “I’m coming, I’m coming. How is everything in there?”
His sister smiled brightly and wiped at her eyes to make sure there were no more tears. Thank goodness for waterproof makeup. “She’s beautiful. I think you’re going to be blown away.” Larissa looked her brother over and stepped up to make sure that he was straightened up and ready to go. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m good.” He reassured her with a smile, rolling down his sleeves to button the cuffs in place. “I’m sorry, did you want me to be nervous so you could give me a pep talk? I can still listen to one of those, I don’t mind.”
“I would be nervous.” She admitted as she turned her attention to her own dress. All of the bridesmaids were in royal blue dresses, but each woman had picked her own design, and Larissa hoped that Cory would enjoy seeing her in hers. It was relatively conservative, but the back of her dress was open and she couldn’t help but imagine what it would feel like to have his hands touch her bare skin when they danced. Even in a short time of really getting to know each other, Larissa liked Cory a lot already. “I get nervous just imagining it.”
Logan put an arm around her shoulders as they headed back toward the hall. It was a massive house, and they had a long way to go. “You’ve spent a pretty good chunk of time with him now, what with getting the supply ordering done, helping finish off the harvest down there at the Princes’ and all that. You haven’t said much about what you think of him.”
Larissa chewed on her bottom lip as she thought about what she wanted to say to her brother. “He’s a gentleman, which I don’t always expect anymore.” She and Cory had spent a lot of time together, privately, and while they were definitely learning to explore each other, it was slow. “He’s pensive and smart. He even wrote me a couple of poems, and they’re just beautiful. I…” She held her breath for a moment and then sighed sharply. “I feel like he’s out of my league, Logan.” Larissa wasn’t the most beautiful girl by the standards she had set for herself. She was smart, one of the top in her class, but she was quiet and reserved and it was hard for her to share how she really felt about things. She loved to cook, but Cory didn’t need a cook. He needed a good wife.
“Out of your league? What are you talking about?” He hooked his arm more forcefully around her shoulders to hold her in close, with an incredulous look on his face. “If the Premier of North and South America had a son, and that son happened to be your age, he wouldn’t be out of your league. No one is out of your league.”
Larissa rolled her eyes. “You’re my brother. You don’t know…you think of me differently than someone else who would be interested in me thinks of me. I know I’m pretty, but I’m plain. And I don’t have a reputation like Anna, so I don’t really know what I have to offer Cory. He doesn’t want a nerdy cook, does he?”
Logan rolled his eyes. “I know I approached putting you with Cory a little bit like just a practicality measure. You’re roughly the same age, the Princes have always been good friends to us and we to them, our parents were close, it makes sense on the surface of it to honor those relationships. But I didn’t arrange for you and Cory because it was a business meeting. If you spend time with each other and you like each other, then that’s what matters. More than all the rest ever will. From what Anna says, he’s crazy about you. Especially if he’s writing you poetry and shit already. If you like him too, and feel like you could love him someday, that’s the best I think any of us can ask for in this world. Don’t worry about what kind of…fucking resumé you think he’s looking for. Whatever it is he wants, either you already are or you’re more than capable of being. Same goes for him when it comes to what you want.”
“It wasn’t love poetry.” Larissa said as they continued through the house. “I like him a lot.” She said quickly, even though she didn’t look at her brother when she said it. “But he still has feelings for someone else. I went online and found her picture, she looks like a model from Orbit. No wonder he was so hung up on her.” She had wondered at first how she and Cory hadn’t spent any time getting to know each other before, but as soon as she found out about the girl that he had originally wanted to marry, she quickly figured out why. Cory had been wrapped up with someone else and secluded because of it.
That didn’t make Logan feel good about Cory’s current attentions, but he hoped the boy wasn’t stupid enough to try and actually continue to pursue some girl who had obviously left him behind in the dust. “Have you talked to him about it? About her?”
“Only once, just to know who she was and how he felt about her. He said that she had someone else and he wasn’t interested in talking about her or about it.” She shrugged and went back to chewing on her bottom lip. “I know that we don’t live in an area where there are a lot of options, but I don’t want him to be with me just because he wants someone. Is that too selfish?”
“No, that’s not selfish at all. That’s the way it should be.” He rubbed his hand over her shoulder as they turned the last corner near the hall, and sighed as he looked down at her. “Well, figure out which way it is, then. If this chick is leaving for Jannah, I’m sure Anna’s set to give her a strong kick in the ladyballs as soon as she sees her, just for stringing along her brother like that.”
“Today isn’t about me anyway. It’s about you. You and Anna don’t need to worry about the rest of us, we’ll be alright.” Even if Cory didn’t want her, Logan would never know, since he was probably leaving. She wasn’t going to make him think about her problems by talking things to death. There was no sense in making him worry about it now. “Come on, it’s time for you to get married.”
Anna, on the other side of Logan’s expansive house, was left alone in her white dress while Susan brought her family back to see her before the whole world did. Cory was the first to show up, and she nearly leapt out of her chair in order to get to him and hug him. Her hair was braided in a delicate fishtail braid that fell off to the side and over one shoulder, and her sisters had demanded that she put tiny white flowers in it, so there they were. Her dress was short and low cut, with a lacy, sheer band in the middle around her waist, held up by thin white straps. It was classy and yet she knew Logan would be happy to see her in it when she walked out. It showed plenty of her cleavage and tanned legs. She hadn’t wanted very much makeup, but her eyes were still lined black and there was a light pink sheen to her lips. “Cory!” She was jittery, but she was always happy to see Cory.
Clearly their father had gotten all of her brothers into some of their better clothes for the occasion, and Cory was in a crisply-ironed shirt and tie with a pin in it that she recognized as a piece of their family’s inheritance. Ben was the only one who had gone so far as to put on a vest, and she recognized the cufflinks he had in his sleeves as part of the same collection. Their family wasn’t anywhere near as wealthy as the Bickfords, and their farm was a great deal smaller, but it had been theirs for generations, and that much family came with precious things every once in a while. Cory hugged her tightly before standing back to give her an approving smile. “You look great, Sis. You feel like you’re about to puke yet, or does that come like just a few minutes before go-time?”
“Trying not to puke, thank you very much. That would make for a terrible kiss after the exchange of vows.” She winced at the idea, but then she started pacing around the room, each step a click from her heels.
“I should have just eloped. This is too much.” She put her hands on her hips as she took a few deep breaths. “I hate crowds. Especially crowds of people that will contain at least fifteen men I’ve slept with, if not more.”
“I counted nine. But that’s just what I know of.” Ben said from closer to the door, prompting scandalized giggles from Emily, confused looks from Ginny, and a smack on the arm from Susan, all of which only managed to produce a teasing grin from Ben and a shrug. “Sorry. Probably not helpful.”
“No, not helpful at all, thanks.” Anna turned and looked as the rest of her family came into the room, then went up and hugged Ben even though he wasn’t helping ease her nervousness. “Did you feel this nervous?”
“Our wedding was a lot smaller and less fancy than this, so no, not really.” He hugged her tightly, then stepped back to let Susan step in as well, plucking at his wife’s dress once with an explanatory grin on his face. “There were maybe forty people in the room and Susan was pretty far into her maternity wardrobe, so I figured I had things pretty well locked down by that point.”
Susan just smiled at Ben and gave him a kiss on the cheek after he plucked at her dress. She did her share of scolding him, but she loved him too much not to look at him adoringly. “I’ll have to get those back out soon. Good thing you never seemed to mind.”
Anna raised an eyebrow and looked between Susan and Ben. “Really? You guys…really?” Susan had been so concerned about not getting pregnant again quickly after their first, and Anna was immediately over the moon for them if they had managed to do it again. It meant that maybe Susan would let up on the second-wife thing, and Anna knew Ben would be happy about that.