In the afterglow, he stood and smiled, obviously pleased by what he’d done to her. Then, leaving her staring after him, he lathered his own body and washed his own hair.
As the steam thickened, she blinked through the haze. Her husband looked like a modern-day god, a contemporary warrior, every muscle in its place.
Needing him more than ever, she approached him. As she moved into his arms, he obliged her, pulling her tight against him. She wedged a hand between their bodies. He was already half-hard.
Lizzie took it all the way, giving him a full-blown erection with a rhythm that rippled through both of them.
He grabbed the condom that he’d brought into the shower and tore into it. She was just as eager, just as wanting.
Having sex while standing up wasn’t an easy feat, but they managed just fine—in lip-biting, nail-clawing, body-twisting ways.
He rasped, “If we weren’t already married, I would ask you to marry me, right now, just like this.”
“And I would say yes.” A thousand, hard-driving, hip-thrusting times yes.
They feasted on each other, mating like animals. Max came in a burst of male heat, and Lizzie held him while he shuddered, held him until she lost the battle and exploded into a soul-shattering orgasm, too.
Seconds passed before either of them had the stamina to move. When they did, it was to put their foreheads together and glance over at the mist-drawn heart.
Although it was melting, dripping down the glass, the sentiment remained.
M + L. Forever.
Thirteen
Three days later, Max and Lizzie arrived in Nulah, ready to fight for the adoption. Losa agreed to see them and hear what they had to say, but, as usual, she wasn’t making any promises.
On this summer afternoon, they gathered in the picnic area of the orphanage. The sun was shining, with a fresh, clean, grassy scent in the air.
None of the kids were outside. Max wished they were. He was desperate for a glimpse of Tokoni. He knew Lizzie was, too.
She sat next to him, with Losa seated across from them, a wooden tabletop between them.
Max decided to start the conversation with an emotional tone since that’s how he was feeling. “I love my wife,” he told Losa. “And she loves me. She loved me on the day you denied our application, but she was struggling with her feelings then.”
The older woman squinted beneath her glasses, narrowing her gaze at him. “This better not be another fake attempt at trying to make me think you’re a couple.”
“It’s real.” He reached for Lizzie’s hand and held it, threading his fingers through hers. “We’re not pretending to be together. We are together. On the day our application was denied, we returned to the resort where we were staying and had a breakdown. But it was worse for Lizzie because she admitted that she loved me, and I turned her away.”
Lizzie didn’t interject. She remained silent, listening to him recount their story. Losa was listening, too.
Max continued. “I was afraid of being loved by Lizzie, afraid of hearing her say those words. It relates back to my childhood and the terrible things my mother did to me.”
Losa didn’t reply. But she was no longer squinting at Max. Her expression had softened. Of course she already knew that he’d come from an abusive environment. He’d mentioned it when he first volunteered at the orphanage, but not to the degree he was speaking of it now.
He went on to say, “I accepted being loved by other people. My foster brothers love me, and I love them. I love Tokoni, too. That kid has been part of me since the moment I met him.” He glanced at his wife, and she squeezed his hand, giving him her support. “But it was different with Lizzie because she knew all my secrets. When we were teenagers, I told her every painful detail, things I never told anyone else. That brought us together as friends. But now that I’m able to look back on it, I think it created a wall between us, too. I built that wall around other women, as well, insisting that I was incapable of falling in love. Yet all along, I think I was having those types of feelings for Lizzie, even though I was too mixed up to recognize them.” He paused, giving himself a second to breathe. “I’m sorry if this sounds like psychobabble, but it’s the only way I know how to describe it.”
“I understand,” Losa said. “We have children here who’ve been abused. I know how it can affect them. But we do everything in our power to get them the help they need.”
“That didn’t happen for me. I got lost in the foster care system, with social workers who were overwrought with work, with caseloads they couldn’t handle. But I was glad that they left me alone. I didn’t want to be singled out. Once my brothers took me under their protective wings, I felt a little better. But I was still guarded. I’ve always been that way.” He turned toward the beautiful redhead by his side. “But not anymore.”
Lizzie scooted even closer to him. “Max isn’t the only one who’s been working through his issues. I was just as afraid of loving him as he was of loving me. Those are the shadows you saw in my eyes the last time we were here.” She softly added, “But I’m stronger now, and I’m ready to be a wife and mother.”
Max quickly added, “You were right when you told us before that we weren’t ready to be Tokoni’s parents. We deceived you and ourselves in our effort to adopt him, but now we want to do it in the right way. We love Tokoni, and we want the opportunity to make him our son, to devote ourselves to him and each other.” He implored her. “Will you consider our application in place of the other couple you told us about? Will you give us a chance?”
Losa didn’t reply. She only shifted in her seat.
Max hurriedly said, “I guarantee that everything we just told you is true. But if you want us to sign an affidavit to attest to our feelings, we will. We’ll sign it in blood if we have to.”
“You don’t need to go that far.” Losa removed her glasses, cleaning them on the hem of her blouse. She put them back on and sighed. “I have a confession to make.” A beat later, she said, “I lied to you about the other couple. They aren’t real. They don’t exist.”
Max jerked his head in surprise. Lizzie did, too.
Losa explained, “I was concerned that if you thought Tokoni was still available, it would be harder for you to move on with your lives. I didn’t want you holding on to false hope. Also, it was easier to deceive you once I surmised that you were deceiving me.” She frowned. “I’m not prone to lies. That isn’t my nature, and I’m sorry I used that tactic on you. You deserved the truth from me, just as I deserved it from you.”
Max’s thoughts spun inside his head: relief, confusion, new hope. Beside him, Lizzie’s hand began to tremble. Their fingers were still interlocked.
He asked Losa, “Is this your way of telling us that you’re reconsidering us for the adoption, that we have a chance? Or are you just making amends for deceiving us?”
“Both,” she replied, her frown morphing into a smile. “You told me everything I needed to hear, and now I’m able to look past your former lies and see the love and care and devotion between you. The kind of devotion Tokoni’s mother wanted his adoptive parents to have.”
Lizzie burst into a grateful sob, and Max thanked Losa and drew his wife into his arms, inhaling the sweet scent of her skin, this beautiful, perfect woman who was going to be the mother of his child.
He turned back to Losa. “May we see Tokoni? Just for a minute or so? You don’t have to tell him that we’re going to adopt him. You can wait until we’ve been approved.” Max knew that he and Lizzie still had a ton of paperwork ahead of them. “But it would be wonderful if we could at least visit with him.”
Losa smiled again. “I think that would be all right. I’m certain that he’s going to be as thrilled to see you as you are to see him.” Short and stout, she came to her feet and moved away from the bench. “Stay here, and I’l
l bring him to you.”
Max and Lizzie waited together, holding hands, anxious to see their boy. Nearly three months had passed since the last time they saw him, but it seemed like an eternity.
When they spotted him crossing the lawn with Losa, they stood and exchanged a smile. He was just as they remembered him, with his bangs flopping across his forehead and a wide grin splitting across his face. The older woman let Tokoni go, and he raced through the grass, heading for Max and Lizzie.
They knelt to greet him, and Tokoni barreled straight into them. The three of them toppled to the ground, arms and legs akimbo. Peals of laughter ensued, rumbling into breathless, mindless joy.
Max helped Lizzie up and pulled Tokoni toward them for a group hug: this crazy, beautiful family in the making.
* * *
After leaving the orphanage and returning to the island where they’d stayed before, Lizzie enjoyed a cozy evening with her husband. This was the trip of a lifetime and the original honeymoon they should’ve had.
For dinner, they ordered room service. And now that they’d finished their meals, they shared a dessert designed for two: a fruit tart, smothered in vanilla cream and laden with kiwis, bananas, berries and figs. They ate from the same plate, both with their own fork.
Lizzie gazed admiringly at her man. He sat cross-legged on the bed, wearing nothing but a pair of boxer-briefs. She was in her underwear, too. It just seemed like the thing to do on this warm summer night.
“What an amazing day,” he said.
She nodded her agreement. “Yes, it was. But I can’t wait until the day comes when we can bring Tokoni back to the States with us. Can you imagine how excited he’s going to be?”
Max smiled and dipped in to the tart. “He’ll be able to finish the drawings in his booklet, filling in the color of his parents’ hair. His mother is going to be a beautiful redhead, and his father is going to have black hair.”
“His gorgeous father, you mean.”
He smiled again. “If you say so.”
“I do.” She took a creamy, fruity bite and moaned. Then she laughed and covered her mouth. “This is so darned good. I probably have it all over my face.”
“You don’t, actually. But it kind of reminds me of feeding you our wedding cake and kissing it off your lips. That was the sexiest thing I’ve ever done in a room full of people.”
She suspected that this dessert session was headed in a sexy direction, too. That once they finished pigging out on the tart, they would be kissing like mad. But for now she asked, “What happened to the top tier of our cake?”
“I don’t know. What’s supposed to happen to it?”
“There’s a tradition where brides and grooms freeze it and then eat it on their first anniversary.”
“If that’s the case, then the chef or someone in the catering staff probably kept it for us, putting it in the freezer in the ballroom kitchen.”
She hoped they did. “We’ll have to check when we get home. It would be fun celebrating with you next year with our cake.”
As Max speared his next bite, some of the crust crumbled onto his lap. He grinned, shrugged it off. “You know what I love, besides you?”
“What?” she asked, mesmerized by him.
“I love hearing you refer to the mansion as home. I love that my place is your home now, too.”
She leaned over and nabbed another forkful. “I wonder what Tokoni is going to think of it. I’ll bet he’s going to be overwhelmed with how big it is.”
“Once we’re able to tell him about the adoption, we should show him pictures of it so he knows ahead of time where he’ll be living.”
“I hope the adoption goes quickly.” Lizzie was anxious for them to become Tokoni’s parents, to make that dream come true.
“It could happen as quickly as three months. We could have him home by Halloween. That could be our first official holiday, with the three of us together.”
She glanced toward the window, where an ocean breeze was stirring. “Do they celebrate Halloween here?”
“I don’t think so. But once we take the online classes that are required for the adoption, we’ll know a lot more about how to blend Tokoni’s traditions with ours.” He shifted his legs, keeping them crossed, but moving his knees a little. “Remember when we talked about bringing Tokoni back for vacations so he can visit his homeland? I was thinking we should take it a step further and buy a summer house in Nulah.”
“I love that idea. Maybe we can find a home near the orphanage, so Tokoni can play with the other kids and we can volunteer our time.”
“That sounds good to me.” He polished off his section of the tart. “Maybe, at some point, we could even adopt more kids.”
Oh, wow. Lizzie widened her eyes. “You want more children?”
“Sure. Why not? If we’re going to be a family, then we might as well share the love. We could adopt them from here and from the States, too, from foster care. Is that okay with you, to have more kids?”
“I hadn’t thought about it until now. But yes, I would love to have a big family with you.” She imagined them with a house full. “I think it would thrill Tokoni, too, to have siblings to call his own, to be part of something so meaningful.”
“Then it’s a deal. A future plan.” He watched her take the last bite of the tart.
As she licked a dollop of the cream filling off her lips, he took the empty plate away, along with their forks. Was he preparing for the fast, mad kissing?
Once the area was clear, Max nudged her onto the bed. But he didn’t rush her into it. He took his time, kissing her languidly, making her sigh like the dreamy new bride that she was.
He was warm and giving, gentle and passionate. There was no reason to hurry, she realized. No reason to get frantic on this soft, sweet island day. They had all the time in the world to be together.
She ran her hands over his body, over his scars, over the pain from his past. He looked into her eyes without the slightest flinch.
He caressed her, peeling off her bra and panties. Naked, with her heart fluttering, she moaned from the pleasure. The foreplay was as light and breezy as the ocean air.
He ditched his underwear and climbed on top of her. She felt the beats of his heart, tapping against her own.
He used protection, and they made love in a stream of consciousness, of tender awareness, with him being deep inside her. Deep, deep inside, just where she wanted him.
They moved in unison, her body becoming part of his, rolling over the bed, kissing as they tumbled. Lizzie had never had sex this magical before. But she was with Max, her husband, her dearest friend, the man she’d known for nearly half of her life.
He rocked his hips, filling her up, sliding back down, creating a motion that took her to the edge—and beyond.
Lizzie came, shuddering in silky warmth. And so did Max. She felt him, falling, drifting, spilling into her.
At the very same time.
* * *
The adoption was final in mid-October, and now it was Halloween, the holiday Lizzie and Max had talked about.
With the joy of motherhood in her heart, Lizzie studied the people that surrounded her. Jake and Carol were here with their daughter and Garrett and Meagan with theirs. Everyone gathered in the living room of the mansion, preparing to take the kids trick-or-treating.
Tokoni was dressed as a superhero, and he looked darned fine in his red-and-blue outfit and fly-through-the-air cape. Lizzie’s mind drifted back to the first day she’d met him in the library of the orphanage. She’d told him that she was writing an article about the kids there, and he’d asked her then if he could be a superhero in her story.
And now he was. Lizzie had her very own superhero son.
She smiled at him, then glanced at her husband. He was as excited
as she was. Tokoni had transitioned beautifully into their lives. He loved being their child and living in his big, fancy home in America. Halloween was new and exciting for him, too. Already, he adored sharing the spotlight with his cousins.
Ivy was costumed as a fairy, with glitter and sequins and colorful prettiness. Only she called herself an “Ella” instead of a “fairy.” Meagan explained that it was because Ivy had a toy fairy, a tiny statue, named Ella, which also meant fairy. But it meant more than that to Meagan. When she was a child, she’d had a baby sister named Ella who’d died of SIDS. An angel in heaven.
Speaking of angels...
Nita was dressed as an angel, in a frilly white dress with gossamer wings. She was ten months old now and holding on to tables to walk. She babbled, too, in pre-toddler speak, saying things that no one understood except her. She was a darling child, a combination of her mother and father.
“I guess it’ll be my sworn chocolate duty to eat her candy,” Jake said as he caught Lizzie admiring his little angel. “Since she’s too young for it.”
“Yeah,” Garrett chimed in. “That’s probably just what the devil himself would do.”
Jake flashed a mischievous grin. He sported a shiny red tuxedo and a set of pointy horns. He was the only parent out of the bunch who’d gotten dressed up. “Nita likes my costume.”
Carol laughed. “That’s just because she knows her daddy has always been a bit of a demon.”
Lizzie couldn’t ask for a nicer group of people. She loved Max’s family. They were her family now, too, hers and Tokoni’s.
She walked over to Max. “My dad is coming by later,” she told him. “After we get back from trick-or-treating.”
“Really? That’s great.” He leaned into her. “I’m glad he’s taking the time to get to know Tokoni.”
“I think he wants to learn to be a grandpa.”
“He’s welcome to see Tokoni anytime. Besides, we’re going to keep him busy with the brood we’re going to adopt. Just think of how many superheroes there will be around here in the future. And whatever else they decide to be.”
Paper Wedding, Best-Friend Bride Page 16