Unconventional Husband

by Riley Knight

  Still, Mary Anne was having the time of her life, and Mark watched her fondly. When she got about halfway down the short aisle, he turned to Scott, to his fiancé, to the man he, damn it, loved to bits. He offered Scott his hand, giving him a small, secret little smile.

  “Let’s do this,” he said.

  He was somewhat surprised when Scott took his hand. Even now, he’d sort of thought that Scott might back out. That one of them, surely, had to come to his senses, and it wasn’t going to be Mark.

  Scott didn’t so much as hesitate, not for even a second. Instead, he smiled at Mark, which made Mark’s heart do some funny, quick beats for a moment or two. That wide, slightly crooked, and purely happy smile, it did things to him that he hadn’t even known were possible. Made him feel far too much.

  “Let’s do this,” Scott echoed, and hand in hand, side by side, they walked down the aisle together.

  * * *

  The actual walk down the aisle seemed to float by. Later, Mark couldn’t even remember how it went. People were staring at him, which had always made him uncomfortable, but he was aware of Scott’s hand in his. That got him through the short walk, and once he was there, he focused on Scott. On Scott and Mary Anne, his new family.

  The Justice of the Peace, a smiling, round, pleasant-looking middle-aged woman, was waiting for them. Without any ado, she started the ceremony, and Mark looked into Scott’s eyes the whole time.

  And then came the words that Mark had been waiting for. The JP, her voice loud enough to be heard by everyone in the yard, but soothing and calm, started to ask them questions.

  “Do you, Mark, take this man, Scott, to be your lawfully wedded husband?”

  Without hesitation, Mark spoke. Yes, he had his misgivings, but with Scott looking at him like that, it was impossible for him to give any response but the one he gave.

  “I do.”

  There was no fear anymore. Just a sense of overwhelming rightness. He’d done nothing more than state the truth, and at that moment, he felt so light, so happy, that he swore he could touch off with his toes and just fly.

  “And do you, Scott, take this man, Mark, to be your lawfully wedded husband?”

  The moment of truth. In two seconds, Scott could come to his senses and ruin all of this. But Scott didn’t pause, either, no more than Mark had.

  “I do.”

  Beside them, Mary Anne squealed and then clapped her hands to her mouth.

  “Sorry,” she mouthed, and the people watching laughed softly, indulgently. Who could take offense at her sheer delight? Mark certainly couldn’t, and from the look on Scott’s face, neither could he.

  “Mark and Scott had chosen to write their own vows. Scott, you may go first,” the JP said, and Mark felt the cold clench of nerves in his gut. He and Scott had decided not to share their vows ahead of time, so Mark had literally no idea what he was about to hear.

  “Mark,” Scott said, and his voice was quiet enough that the people watching had to lean forward to hear it. But it got stronger as he went, and those gorgeous, brilliant brown eyes never shifted away, not even for a second.

  “I, Scott, take you, Mark, to be my husband. I swear that I am ready to build a life, and a family, with you. I promise to support you in good times and bad, to give you my loyalty, my friendship, and my love, in our new life together. I give you my heart.”

  Oh, my God.

  Mark had wondered how Scott would manage to write wedding vows without talking about love. He knew that Scott wasn’t the type of man to lie, and especially not for anything as serious as this. And yet Scott had said the words, right out in front of everyone. He’d told Mark that he loved him, and he’d given him his heart.

  That was a big deal. A huge deal. Something that Mark could never have expected, not in a thousand years. He’d expected something sincere, but sort of tepid. Not really passionate. Instead, he’d gotten a heartfelt declaration of love, and his heart had never felt so full. It felt like it might sweetly burst with all of the happiness that Scott had given him with a few solemn words.

  “Mark, it’s your turn,” the officiant reminded him gently, and Mark took a deep breath. He’d wondered if his own vows were too sappy, too emotional, but after hearing Scott’s, he felt a lot better.

  Still, it was one thing to write these vows in the privacy of his own home. It was an entirely different thing to actually say them out loud, in front of witnesses. In front of his brother and his daughter, the only two family members that he had left.

  But that wasn’t true anymore, was it? He was also welcoming someone else to his family. Scott. And all this was a recognition of that. Suddenly, there was nothing scary about this at all.

  “Scott, babe. I love you, you know that. After Mary Anne’s mom left us, I didn’t think I’d ever do this. I didn’t think I’d ever love anyone enough to stand up here and promise forever, but here I am. You proved me wrong. I’m yours, body and soul. Whatever comes, we’re in it together now. A family. Forever, baby. I swear.”

  The words just came pouring out of him, like a river, dammed up for so long and suddenly free. He hadn’t realized how true they were until he actually spoke them, but he’d meant it. Every word.

  There was just the faintest sheen, a slight glistening, in Scott’s eyes, and Mark knew that he had the same hint of tears in his own eyes. No one else would be able to tell, though, and Mark found that he didn’t mind what he normally would have been ashamed of.

  Still, if he couldn’t be moved to tears on his wedding day, well, he couldn’t think of a better time. And Scott loved him. Mark could see it now that Scott had said the words, and he could kick himself when he thought about how he’d spent so much time worrying about it.

  Maybe, just maybe, Mark could let himself hope that everything would work out okay this time.

  “Wonderful,” the JP said, and she genuinely seemed to mean it. Mark was willing to bet that there were very few things in her life that she liked more than bringing a couple together and celebrating their love for each other. “Now, the exchange of rings. Mark, repeat after me.”

  Mark nodded that he was ready, and she continued.

  “Scott, I give you this ring as a reminder of the promises that we’ve made here today,” the woman said, and Mark faithfully repeated it. As he did, Mary Anne, recognizing her queue, bounced over to them, the rings in her small hand. Mark took one, and it didn’t matter which one he took because he and Scott wore the exact same ring size. That, he hoped, was a good omen.

  He slipped the ring onto Scott’s left ring finger, and then the whole process was repeated, but with Scott speaking instead of Mark. Then, with their hands clasped, their new rings gleaming on their fingers, they turned to face the witnesses.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Scott and Mark, the newly married couple. By the authority vested in me by the State of California, I pronounce you legally married! I invite you to kiss each other if you wish.”

  Of that, there was no question. Yes, of course, Mark was going to kiss his new husband. God, his husband. Mark had been married before, but never to another man.

  And, if he were honest with himself, never to anyone that he loved as much as he loved Scott.

  The two of them slid together, pulled as if by a magnetic force, strong and irresistible. Their lips met, and the kiss was anything but symbolic, not quick, not chaste, but full of longing and, yes, Mark could say it now. Full of love.

  The kiss seemed to go on forever, but gradually, Mark became aware that people were clapping. Not only that, but Mary Anne had come up and grabbed his hand in one of hers and Scott’s in the other. Their little family, linked.

  After so many years of waiting, after having mostly given up, Mark had what he’d always wanted. He’d been living in this house for years, but for the first time, it really felt like home.

  Chapter Eleven

  Scott

  There would never be a day that went by that he didn’t think about what Mark
had said to him. About the promises that he had made. If he lived to be a hundred years old, Scott would never forget how it felt to be told that Mark loved him.

  Scott had agonized over his vows. He’d tried to leave the word ‘love’ out completely because he didn’t want to freak Mark out too much. He didn’t want to scare the man off, especially since Scott knew that he’d be saying his vows first. But no matter how hard he’d tried, he hadn’t been able to keep those fateful words out.

  He only intended to get married once. He took this very seriously, and he’d decided, finally, that he wasn’t going to cheapen the experience by lying. It was a strange way to tell someone that you loved them, maybe, to do it on the day of your wedding and not long before, but they hadn’t been traditional about any of this.

  The party was finally winding down. There weren’t a ton of people there, but enough that people were having fun. Mary Anne and her friends were dancing to the music that the DJ had put on, and he, appreciating his prepubescent admirers, was deliberately playing the sort of dance pop that they’d like.

  “Is it too early to put Mary Anne to bed and go to bed?” Scott murmured, knowing that Mark would know what he wanted. They’d slept together, yes, but never before as a married couple. Scott was eager to change that.

  “Hmm,” Mark said. “I actually don’t think that’s going to work out very well. We have to go.”

  “What?” Scott asked, hating how stupid he sounded but he really had no idea what Mark was talking about. “Go where?”

  Mark took his hand, and Scott let him. They were married now, and for the most part, any weirdness that he’d felt about being touched by a man in public had stopped being such an issue for him. He still felt it, but not very intensely, not anymore.

  “We have a honeymoon to get to,” Mark said, his face, and lips, very serious, but his eyes twinkling with amusement.

  “What honeymoon?” Scott asked, feeling a bit like a broken record, barely able to manage two words and not all that convinced that he was coherent.

  “Oh, did I forget to mention that?” Mark’s eyes twinkled with mischief as he squeezed Scott’s fingers. “Our honeymoon to Mexico.”

  Scott took a deep, deep breath in, all the way into the depths of his lungs, and let it out slowly. When he was done, he shook his head. Nope. Mark’s comments still didn’t make any sense to him at all.

  “Babe, you didn’t even want a big wedding,” Scott pointed out. Scott would have invited far more people, but Mark had wanted something very small and intimate. Why would he follow that up with a big honeymoon? If Mark was playing with him on this …

  “No, I didn’t,” Mark admitted. “But I do want you. Alone. For three weeks. I already talked to your assistant, your work will be fine without you. So what do you say? Does Mexico sound okay?”

  Scott blinked, utterly stunned into silence for a few seconds. Mark was serious, wasn’t he? He meant it. He had really planned a vacation for them that Scott had had literally no idea about.

  “Yeah,” he said slowly, a smile quirking up the corners of his lips, one that he just couldn’t seem to hold back. “Yeah, it sounds good. What about Mary Anne?”

  It wasn’t traditional to bring a kid on a honeymoon, was it? Not that they’d really done much of anything the traditional way …

  “She’s going to stay with Nathan while we’re gone,” Mark said promptly. “She was in on it, you know. She told me that I had to give you a proper honeymoon.” Mark cupped Scott’s cheek, his hand gentle. “I think she’s scared that I’ll drive you off still.”

  From the look in Mark’s eyes, Mary Anne wasn’t the only one who was worried about that. Scott shook his head. Maybe Mark had a hard time believing it, but Scott didn’t actually see a situation in which he was able to tear himself away from Mark’s side.

  “I’m only getting married once,” Scott told him softly, “And it’s to you.” He kissed Mark briefly, though passionately, and then pulled away from him. “So let’s do this. Let’s go to Mexico.”

  * * *

  Six hours later, they were standing on Mexican ground.

  The flight itself had taken hardly any time. Four and a half hours. The rest of the time had been waiting at the airport.

  Scott was exhausted. He’d never been able to sleep all that well on flights. But it was a bright and sunny morning in Cancun, Mexico, and there was a shuttle waiting to bring them to the resort that Mark had picked.

  Paradisus Cancun. That was the one that Mark had booked them for, and for three whole weeks, it would just be the two of them. Oh, there would definitely be other guests staying there, too, but Scott figured they would probably be left alone.

  There would be nothing to focus on, for three blissful weeks, other than Mark. And Scott was very much looking forward to that.

  Scott was quiet as they went toward the resort. The scenery was beautiful, yes, and it was bright and warm, even more so than in LA. But Scott had seen beautiful before. California itself wasn’t so bad.

  The real thing was the distance. They were separated from their lives for this time, and they could just focus on each other. And there was something that Scott wanted very much to do while they had that separation. Something that he, for the first time, felt like he just might be ready for.

  So when the shuttle pulled up, Scott gripped Mark by the wrist and tugged him close. He whispered in his ear, “I want to go to our room right away. I have a surprise for you.”

  Normally, Scott would want to explore the resort. Even from one glance, he could tell it would be worth exploring. It was utterly gorgeous, luxurious and plush and screaming good taste. No, not screaming. It was far too classy a place to scream.

  “I’m hungry,” Mark complained, shooting Scott a bit of a suspicious look. As well he might. What surprise, Mark must be thinking, would Scott have managed to pull together? Especially given that Scott hadn’t even known that they were coming here?

  “Trust me, baby,” Scott said, leaning in to whisper intimately into Mark’s ear. “You don’t want to miss this. You can eat all that you want … after.”

  Mark’s eyes widened, and Scott had the idea that he’d gotten through to him. The other man nodded, and his gaze was suddenly somewhat predatory, the sort of look that had heat building in Scott already, pooling in his groin.

  That was a good thing. For what Scott had planned, he should be as aroused as possible. That should help with the nerves, which would be overwhelming if he let them be.

  “Okay. Let’s go.” Mark shook his head and laughed softly. “It’s not fair. It’s like you know I can’t handle not knowing what a surprise is going to be.”

  Scott grinned.

  “Yeah, I may have played off of that a little bit,” he admitted. He took Mark to get checked in really quickly, and without wasting any time, he grabbed his new husband (husband!) by the hand and led him off in the direction of the room that was their new home for the next few weeks.

  The girl working behind the counter was just a little bit too friendly. Especially to Mark, who was, Scott had to admit, utterly gorgeous. Honestly, Scott was glad to get away from her. Maybe she recognized Mark. Mark was more famous for his comics, for his characters, his creations, than he was for his appearance, but he was hardly unknown.

  All of that went out of his head the moment that he saw the room that Mark had gotten them.

  It wasn’t just a room, he realized. It was a whole suite. The main bedroom area was octagonal in shape, with three of the eight sides looking out over the brilliant blue ocean and the white sandy beach. Another side looked out over the pool so that there were water most places that you looked. The bed was enormous, and there was a huge, flatscreen television with a comfortable looking couch.

  It was all so clean that it gleamed.

  Mark was watching him closely, and Scott realized that the other man was worried about what his reaction to all of this would be. So far, all he’d been able to do was just simply stare around h
imself, gawking like a tourist, which he supposed he sort of was.

  “There’s a private beach,” Mark said, walking over to one of the windows and pointing. Scott followed and looked out, seeing the stretch of sand, completely empty, just as promised. “Is it okay?”

  Scott turned to Mark and kissed him. Mark had absolutely nothing to worry about, but for just a second, Scott needed to get himself together. So he just let the kiss speak for him until he was able to speak for himself.

  “It’s perfect,” he finally said, and he was rewarded with Mark’s grin.

  “Thanks,” Mark murmured. “Okay, so. What’s the surprise, then, sexy?”

  Those little terms of endearment, Scott loved them. He’d never been in a relationship serious enough to be used to that sort of thing, and Mark did it all the time, seemingly without thinking about it.

  “I want … there’s something that I want to do that we haven’t done before,” Scott admitted, letting himself get lost in Mark’s brilliant eyes. Somehow, that gave him the courage to keep going, to say these things that he’d never said before.

  “Are you sure?” Mark asked, and Scott loved him for caring enough to ask that question. And even more for not making Scott actually say the words, for understanding without him needing to ask for this.

  “Yes,” Scott admitted. “Just … try to make it good, please?”

  He trusted Mark to do just that, honestly. His virginity, though, was something that he’d hung on to for a long time, and it meant something to Scott that Mark seemed to instinctively know that.

  Besides, Mark had always been amazing in bed. Scott had to imagine that that would transfer over to when Mark was on top. Mark had never pushed him to do this, either, which just made Scott want to give himself to Mark this way even more.