With a low growl, he picked me up, taking me to the bed where he gently laid me down. I watched as he stripped away his clothes. That spectacular body belonged to my husband. I felt as high as a kite, knowing he was mine forever.
With one hand, he ripped my bra right off me, then did the same with my panties. “I suppose I need to get a subscription to a lingerie service. At the rate you rip them off me, I’m going to need to have new bras and panties delivered weekly, sexy.”
“Do that then.” He ran his fingertip up my stomach then between my breasts. “Because I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of doing that.” Getting on the bed, he pulled my legs up and bent my knees.
My entire body shuddered, knowing he was about to deliver an intimate kiss that would send me to a place only his mouth could. As his lips pressed against my swollen pearl, I closed my eyes. I’m married to the most desirable man I’ve ever met.
The thought seemed more like a dream than reality.
How did this happen?
One minute I was thinking he’d left me, then the next we were standing side-by-side saying vows I’d never dreamt of uttering.
It didn’t seem real. The way his mouth moved on me didn’t seem real, either. The way his hands ran over my hips and around to my butt, pulling my body up so he could devour me didn’t seem real.
Everything felt so right, so incredible—so unreal.
Heaven couldn’t be any better than this.
His mouth took me higher and higher until my body couldn’t take any more, and it crashed, making me scream his name over and over. Soft kisses moved up my stomach as he crawled up my body.
Sinking his hard cock into my pulsing canal, he groaned. “God, you feel so damn good, it doesn’t seem possible.”
Moving slowly, he filled me up in a way that I knew only he could. All the doubt I’d had in the last twenty-four hours vanished as we made love. As husband and wife, we joined our bodies together in a way we never had before.
It felt so different, so permanent. And instinctively I knew we would only get closer and closer as time passed. We would build our own family. If no one in either of ours ever came around to accepting us, then so be it. We had each other and our baby, and most likely, a couple more babies before we were all said and done.
I’d never had an end goal. I’d never known what I wanted to do with my life. But now I knew. I wanted to be Christopher Taylor’s wife. I wanted to raise our children together. I didn’t need anything more than that. Anything else was just extra. If I never did more than that, I would still call myself successful.
Running my fingers through his thick, dark hair, I whispered, “You’ve made me whole, Christopher Taylor.”
“Baby, you’ve done that for me too,” he growled as he moved faster, thrusting harder. “I can’t imagine being without you now.”
“You’ll never have to be without me.” I pulled his face to mine and kissed him as he took me even harder.
Whimpering with the oncoming orgasm, I had to release his mouth as the climax hit me, and I moaned with ecstasy. “Christopher!”
His body went stiff then wet heat shot into me, his juices mixed with mine. My legs shook, and I had to put them flat on the bed. Then I realized my whole body was shaking. Only then did I realize I was crying.
He rolled off me and leaned over me, kissing my wet cheeks. “What’s wrong? Did I hurt you?”
“No,” I whispered. “I don’t know exactly why I’m crying. I’m just happy, and kind of in shock; I don’t believe this is really happening.”
He ran his hands over my cheeks, then kissed my trembling lips softly. “Baby, this is all real. You and I are married. You and I are going to have a baby. And you and I will be happy from this moment on. You don’t have to think about anything else. Things aren’t the same as they were a few hours ago. You are my wife now. A certain amount of respect comes with being my wife. You’ll see what I’m talking about when we get back home. Nothing will be the same.”
His words should’ve calmed me down, but they didn’t. “What is Mrs. Kramer going to think?”
His smile told me that was a silly thing to ask. “That our business is our business. She’s not one to make judgments, baby. No need to worry about that. Do you still want to continue as her assistant? Because you don’t have to if you don’t want to. That’s all up to you.”
“I liked working with her.” I thought about how hard it might be to see all the people at the company when they all knew about Christopher and me. “But don’t you think it’s going to be odd for us? Maybe it would be better for you if I don’t go back to work there. You know, maybe people won’t think badly about you if I’m not around.”
“Do you think I give a shit what anyone thinks?” He kissed me again. “Besides, not everyone is going to react the way our families did. Come back to work. You’ll see. No one will dare to say a word about me and you. I’m not just some guy who works there, baby. I own that company. No one from work will say a bad word against us—at least not to our faces. Now, our own families—well, that’s another story, isn’t it?”
With a sigh, I turned to cuddle against my husband’s chest. “Let’s just get some rest and deal with the aftermath when we have to and not a minute before.”
“Agreed.” He wrapped me in his warm embrace, and we drifted off to sleep, both of us knowing the war with our families wasn’t exactly over, even if we were man and wife.
Chapter 29
Christopher
The entire drive back home, Emma looked worried. Nothing I said took that look off her face. So I’d stopped talking altogether.
My lake house loomed ahead in the early morning sunlight. We’d stayed one night at the hotel then decided to head back to face reality. Dealing with my daughters wasn’t something I looked forward to, but it had to be done.
“Don’t make them leave, Christopher,” Emma said as I pulled into the garage.
“I want you to make this place your home, baby. You won’t be able to do that with them around making life as miserable for you.” I parked the car then we got out.
Emma clung to my arm as we walked inside. “Just promise me that you’ll talk to them as nicely as you possibly can. It was never my intention to run them out of their home.”
“And you’re not doing that.” I kissed the top of her head. “I am.”
Finding the cook in the kitchen as I’d expected, she greeted us. “Good morning.” Her eyes went to Emma. “I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m Gretchen.”
Emma looked up at me with wild eyes as if she had no idea what to say. So I did it for her. “This is Emma.” I looked my cook straight in the eyes. “My wife.”
She looked thoroughly shocked. “Your wife? When did this happen?”
“Yesterday.” I ran my arm around Emma, a huge grin on my face. “And we’ve got more news, too. We’re having a baby.”
Gretchen’s eyes went even wider. “Really?”
I nodded. “Really. Have my daughters come down yet?”
“They’re in the breakfast nook.” She smiled at Emma. “Please come and visit with me when you can. I want to get to know what kinds of things you like to eat so I can add them into the rotation. I’m very happy for you two. I have to say, I’ve never seen Mr. Taylor look this happy since I’ve come to work for him.”
Finally, a smile pulled Emma’s lips up, and her eyes didn’t hold any fear in them. “Thank you, Gretchen. I will come to talk to you once I get settled in.”
Whispering in her ear as I led her to the breakfast nook, I said, “See, I told you being my wife will be fine—some old-fashioned prudes think a different kind of respect comes with being a wife.” I rolled my eyes at that, though I knew those attitudes would work in our favor.
“You were right.” She laughed. “How cool.”
“Yeah, how cool.” I chuckled. “Now, onto the hard part: my kids.”
She nodded knowingly. “Please, just try to be as kind as you can be.”
>
“I will try.” I knew my daughters wouldn’t make it easy though, especially if it came to asking them to move out.
Pushing the door open, I spotted my girls as they sat at the small table. Their eyes popped as Lauren asked, “Where have you been, Daddy? We’ve been worried sick about you.”
Ashley added, “You didn’t answer any of our calls. You just disappeared on us yesterday morning.”
“I overheard you two talking to your mother.” I pulled out a chair and made Emma sit down in it. I could feel the tension in her body. The last thing she wanted to do was sit down with my daughters, but we had to put ourselves in the position of authority.
Lauren looked down at the table. “You did?”
“Yes.” I took a seat next to my wife. “You know, I get it. I understand why you don’t want me to have anyone else in my life.”
Ashley looked at me with surprise. “You do?”
“Sure.” I put my arm around Emma. “You don’t want things to change around here. You don’t want your lives to vary one little bit. But guess what?”
“What?” Lauren asked.
“Change is inevitable.” I held up Emma’s left hand. “This woman is your stepmother now.”
Staring at the wedding rings on Emma’s finger, Lauren gasped. “No!”
“Yes,” I said. “And I don’t want my wife to feel like a stranger, or worse, unwelcome in her own home.”
Ashley looked as if she knew what was coming next. “You want us to leave, don’t you?”
Emma looked down, and I knew she felt horrible. But she would feel much worse if those two were around. “I want us all to get along,” Emma mumbled.
Lauren shook her head. “There’s no way, Dad. I will never accept her. Not ever.”
“You don’t even know Emma. And stop talking about her like she isn’t here.” I huffed as frustration built up inside of me. “She makes me happy. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”
“She’s younger than us, Dad,” Ashley said. “It’s not right.”
Before I could say anything, Emma lifted her head and straightened her shoulders, her newfound confidence coming back. “To your father and I, age doesn’t matter,” she said.
“Did you get her to sign a pre-nup?” Lauren shot back. “Because I can guarantee you that she’s just after your money. She’ll get it all when you die, and she knows that.”
“I didn’t ask her to sign anything. She’s my wife, and everything I have is hers too.” I decided to up my game a bit. “And if you and your sister continue to try to interfere with our relationship, then I really will cut both of you out of my will, and Emma will get it all.” One more thing came to mind. I’d never threatened this before and hoped they didn’t make me follow through, but I thought it might help. “Along with that, I will cut off your allowances. I’ll cancel the credit cards, and you’ll either have to find jobs or get your mother to pay your way through life.”
Ashley looked stunned. “So what you’re saying is that you’re putting us out of our home, and you will take away our money unless we give you our approval on this sham of a marriage?”
“This marriage is not a sham,” I let them know. “I love this woman more than I’ve ever loved any woman I’ve ever been in a relationship with. And I’m lucky enough to have her love me back. I’ve spent most of my life feeling nothing more than just content. With Emma, I feel alive.”
“Can we have time?” Lauren asked. “Can you let us keep our allowances? We’ll move in with Mom and leave you two alone. But please don’t take away our money.”
“Or our cars,” Ashley added. “We really need our cars, too.”
Emma nodded. “Please let them keep those things, Christopher.” She looked at both Lauren and Ashley. “I don’t want to take anything away from you two. I don’t want your father to cut you out of anything. We just want to be happy, and we just want you to let us have that happiness. That’s it. I don’t expect you to like me. I don’t expect you to like or even interact with our baby. But I do expect you to stay out of our marriage.”
I had to admit that Emma surprised me. I was so proud of her—I couldn’t wait to see how marriage and motherhood would help her grow even more than our relationship had. “That’s all I expect too, girls. Let us live our lives, the same way I’ve let you two live yours.”
“I don’t know if I’ll ever be okay with any of this,” Lauren said. “But we can move out and give you your space.”
“Maybe you two could meet your father for dinner once a week or something. I would hate for you to lose your relationship over this,” Emma added.
Ashely looked at me. “I don’t want to lose our relationship with you either, Dad. I love you. I just wish you would’ve found someone closer to your own age.”
“And hadn’t started a family with her already,” Lauren added.
“Well, life doesn’t always go the way everyone wants it to,” I told her. “But I’ve got to tell you that I’m thankful that this woman came into my life, and I’m thankful for the child we’re going to have. If God grants us more children, then you will have more siblings. I hope one day you will grow to love them too.”
Lauren got up, looking kind of sick. “I’m going to pack. I can’t deal with this. I don’t know if I ever will be able to deal with this. But I’ll do what you’ve asked. I’ll give you all the space you want. But I can tell you this, Daddy, you will lose us in the process.”
Ashely got up, following her older sister. She looked at me over her shoulder, and I thought she was about to say something, but she just turned around and left the room.
“That didn’t go as badly as I thought it might,” I said as I got up, extending my hand to Emma. “Let’s get you acquainted with your home, Mrs. Taylor.” I thought a guided tour would help distract her; she looked sad about my daughters leaving.
She had no idea how lucky she was that they were leaving. “I wish there was something I could say to make them stay, Christopher.”
“They’ll come around. I’m sure they will. They’re just not used to not getting their way.” Wrapping my arm around her, I kissed her cheek. “I guess before we get started on this tour that you should give your parents a call and inform them as well. I don’t want them to be worried about where you are.”
She’d turned her cell off, just like I had. Neither of us had wanted our wedding night spoiled by interrupting calls that would only serve to bother us. Emma pulled her cell out of the pocket of her jeans. “I guess you’re right. Might as well get all the unpleasantness over with at once.”
Settling in one of the living areas, I sat next to her as she made the call. “It’s going to be okay, Emma. No matter what, you’ve got me.”
With a nod, she made the call to her mother. “Hello,” I heard her mother say. “Emma?”
“Yes. It’s me,” Emma said in a whisper. “Mom, I don’t want anyone to be mad or hurt by this.”
Tension filled her mother’s voice. “What did you do, Emma Hancock?”
“It’s not Hancock anymore, Mom.” Emma looked at me as she placed her fingertips on my cheek and looked at me with loving eyes. “It’s Taylor now. Christopher and I got married yesterday in Concord. I’m his wife now.”
“You’re his what?” she shouted. “Wife?”
Celeste sounded shocked. As if it was beyond imagination that I would actually marry Emma. I could see now that neither she nor Sebastien had any clue as to how much I loved their daughter. The thought saddened me.
“Yes, he asked me to marry him yesterday, and I accepted.” Emma leaned against me as I wrapped my arm around her, holding her close. “And I’ve never been happier, Mom. Never in my entire life have I felt so loved and safe.”
As a parent, I knew that statement had to have hurt her mother. But Celeste didn’t let on that those words might have affected her. “Did he get you to sign anything before you two were married? You know, like a paper that said if you two divorce that you won’t get any
of his money?”
It seemed to me that everyone who loved us thought I would leave Emma destitute if we ever separated.
I took the phone from Emma to let Celeste know what I thought about that. “Celeste, I saw no need to have a prenuptial agreement with Emma. She’s my wife. She’s having my child. In my opinion, neither of us will ever walk away from this marriage. And if that does happen for some reason, I wouldn’t send her out of my life and home with nothing. I love her. No matter what you believe, I do love her with everything I have, and that includes my money.”
The way Emma snuggled up to me made my heart nearly burst with love. I adored her. Why couldn’t everyone see that?
Chapter 30
Emma
I’d kept my job for several months after we married. Christopher had been right—the people who worked for him didn’t bat an eye at our marriage. But it wasn’t the people who worked there that made the place feel uncomfortable to me—it was who wasn’t there. With Dad no longer working there, it just didn’t feel right.
He and Mom moved back to Rhode Island, where they both took jobs at a much smaller company. I only checked in with them once a week or so. They wouldn’t come around, and they never called me; I had to make the calls to them. I couldn’t understand how they could be so disappointed in me over something that made me so happy.
When we learned we were having a son, I called my father to let him know. His reaction wasn’t what I thought it would be. “Great, now Christopher will have a boy. He’s got it all now, doesn’t he?”
The conversation went no further, as he’d said he had to get back to work. I’d hung up the phone with my heart feeling like it weighed a million pounds.
As far as Christopher’s daughters were concerned, they kept away from our home and their father. At times it made me mad that they were willing to keep taking his money but refused to see the man.
Christopher just kept assuring me that the day would come when all of our family members would come to realize that what they were doing was hurting them more than us. He and I were happy, whether they were pleased with us or not. We still had each other, and nothing could shake that happiness.
His Secret Virgin A Forbidden Romance Page 18