On The Dotted Line

by Kim Carmichael

  “Willow.” He slid one hand under the small of her back as if he couldn’t get close enough to her. “I need you.”

  In desperate need of more as well, she wrapped her legs around his waist, imbedding him further, allowing him to rub against her in the exact right way. Insatiable heat swirled around her, begging to explode. She couldn’t wait. “I’m there.”

  “Now, Willow.” His fluid thrusts became hard and deep right as her body demanded it.

  Uncontrollable bliss burst through her. “Oh.” The ecstasy intensified and she sucked in her breath and grabbed onto him, not wanting to ever let go of the source of pleasure. “Don’t stop.”

  “I can feel you throbbing.” He tensed. As his own end overtook him, he ground into her “God.”

  Their bodies pulsed in time, spoke their own language in a rhythm only two people could create together in the most intimate of moments.

  For the first time she wasn’t left wanting or unfulfilled. Spent, her muscles relaxed, giving her a few lingering quivers and finally covering her in a blanket of calm and release. Sex in its most basic state was healing and cleansing.

  “Don’t move an inch.” He brushed her lips against hers and got out of the bed.

  Beyond her control, her eyes closed and she called to the man she married. Behind her eyelids she sensed the room darkened. “Randolph?”

  “You’re not alone, I’m right here.” The bed jostled with his return. He gathered her up in his arms and got them under the covers.

  Part of her expected him to turn over to his side of the bed, but another part of her loved the way he continued to hold her. She had no choice but to go with it, but not get too close or too used to him. “This bed is comfortable.” She never took for granted a clean, soft bed.

  “I’m glad you like it.” He tilted her face up to his and gave her three soft kisses. “Should we sleep?”

  “We made it.” She rested her head in the crook of his neck. “What else do we need to do?

  “I’m going to take care of everything.” He ran his hand through her hair.

  Though she longed to drift off, she fought her need for a moment to relish in his words. No one besides Nan ever took care of her.

  * * * *

  Randolph opened his eyes into a haze of dreamy gold. No buzzing of an alarm clock, ringing vibration of a cell phone, or his own body jolting him out of his sleep awakened him. He simply opened his eyes to a quiet, peaceful room with his brand new spouse in his arms.

  Spouse.

  Her hair covered his face, her light breathing let him know she still slept, and best of all, her naked body contoured to his, waking up the rest of him. Somehow he found the angel who rescued him from himself. They may have spent most of their casual relationship taking spars at each other, but if last night were any indication, the year would fly by leaving them both satisfied on multiple levels. Hell, for the first time ever he made it through the night with another person in the room with him. Normally he snuck out citing work as an excuse not to stay when his own sleep issues were the true culprit.

  With her back turned to him, he ran his hand over the inward curve of her waist. He took in her profile. His wife possessed a beauty rarely found in Los Angeles, natural, sweet, and genuine. He lowered his head to her shoulder and gave her an open mouth kiss.

  “Um,” she moaned and tilted her head giving him access to her neck.

  He took her invitation, trailing kisses and light nips up to her ear. While on his watch her ear would never go unattended and he guided her lobe between his lips.

  “Randolph?” Her voice low, sleep filled and breathy.

  “Good morning Mrs. Van Ayers.” He slid his hand up her perfect skin to her breast, rubbing his palm over her already hard nipple.

  “Good Morning.” She twisted around to face him.

  Her cheeks flush with waking up and her tousled hair only served to enhance every one of her features. No need for breakfast, instead he wanted to feast on the woman in his bed, and get to know the person he would be spending the next year with. He leaned forward and kissed her, something light, a little appetizer, but enough to make him want more. “Come here.”

  “I’m right here.” Still, she turned over.

  “That’s better.” He moved her hair away from her eyes and kissed her again, a little deeper with his tongue tangling with hers. His morning erection throbbed, especially with the way she returned his attentions and lightly scratched her nails down his arm.

  “Randolph.” She pulled back and pressed her fingertips to his lips.

  “Yes.” He wrapped his arm around her and swirled his tongue around her finger.

  “I didn’t expect you to be so…” She turned down to his chest.

  At the pink taking over her cheeks, he smiled. “So what?”

  “So passionate.”

  “I didn’t know you expected anything with me.” He let out a chuckle. Yes, he caught her staring more than once, but he always thought she wanted to curse him or cast a spell on him. “What else did you expect?”

  The pink turned to crimson.

  “Well, you know what?” He reached down to her leg and hooked it over his hip.

  Through her lashes, she peeked up at him. “What?”

  “I did expect you to be as limber as you are.” He raised his eyebrows and went to kiss her once more.

  A pounding at the door interrupted them.

  “Who’s that?” She grabbed him.

  “I don’t know.” As if he could see through it, he looked over to the door, but wanting to get back to the matters at hand, faced her once more. “Forget it. It’s probably housekeeping.”

  “Dolph!” Peter yelled through the door and knocked again.

  “Has the man ever heard of a cell phone?” He tensed, vowing only to get up if the man knocked again. If Peter was breaking down doors he must need something. After all today was a workday.

  As if on cue, Peter knocked again. “I have your cell phone!”

  “Damn it. I have to let him in.” He glanced at Willow and slipped out of the bed, running his hand through his hair. They made a complete and utter disaster out of the room. “Let me get you a robe and I’ll order us breakfast.”

  “I’ll just go take a shower.” She wrapped the sheet around her, got out of the bed and without a glance back in his direction, went to the bathroom.

  Peter resumed his knocking.

  “Hold on!” Instinct made him want to call for someone, anyone to clean up the mess, but with no one there, he gathered up their clothes and other various things, tossed them in the middle of the bed and threw the comforter on top. He frowned at the lumpy bed, but forced himself to walk away, finding one of the robes he spoke of and opening the door. “What?”

  “First, you left this with me.” Peter held up his cell phone.

  “Really?” On a normal day he wouldn’t have made it five feet away from his phone. He plucked the device away from Peter. “What else?”

  “Second, I spent the morning rearranging your schedule, but you still have two conference calls, one with the Hartfords on their investments. Slate called you twice.” Peter shoved him aside and entered the room.

  He followed his assistant and glanced at his phone. Even though the damn thing only held megabytes of data, the millions of the emails inside weighed his hand down.

  “What the hell have you done in here?” Peter sat down at the table, took out his computer and looked around the room, a smile taking over his face. “Did someone consummate their union last night?”

  He joined Peter and put his head in his hand. “I need coffee and Willow needs food and tea. I don’t know if she drinks coffee.” In truth he didn’t know much, if anything, about her.

  “I ordered food.” Peter laughed and set up his computer. “I think I know less about her than you do.”

  “You know we’re married.” He took a breath and opened his email, the blue bar at the bottom slowly crawling across the screen, the number
of messages already in triple digits.

  “She doesn’t even like you.” Peter clicked away on the computer.

  “She likes me better now.” The corner of his mouth twitched, fighting a smile. “You could have come about fifteen minutes later.”

  “That’s it? Fifteen minutes?” Peter broke into a round of laughter.

  His phone vibrated and like a trained dog he hit the button. Another five emails came through. He scanned the messages and squeezed the device. “We need to get back to LA.” There was no time for morning after sex and dealing with his wife, he needed to keep with the task at hand and get to work. A rush of anxious adrenaline coursed through him and he stood.

  “What’s up?”

  “I have a hundred calls to make. The more I put them off, the worse this is going to get.” His head pounded, a headache would soon be on the horizon and he squeezed the bridge of his nose. “We should have gone home after we finished our business. Staying here was a complete waste of time.”

  “Then we should get going right away. We wouldn’t want to waste any more time.”

  At the sound of Willow’s voice, he lowered his hand.

  In a matching robe to his, his new wife entered, fresh from the shower with her hair wet and slicked back and her skin glowing from the heat of the water. If only Peter came fifteen minutes later. Maybe twenty. Fine, an hour. “I’m sorry, we have to hurry. My absence from work was unplanned and I need to get back.”

  “Boy, the other girl didn’t even get an overnight trip.” She waved to Peter. “I have work today too.”

  “Speaking of your work…” Before he finished the question his phone vibrated again. With his jaw clenched he stared down at the screen. “My father emailed me.” One day the sight of the man’s name wouldn’t cause him to break out into a sweat.

  “Does he know what happened last night?” Peter asked.

  He peeked over at Willow and couldn’t help but smile. “No. I think for once I’ll blindside him instead of the other way around.”

  “Your mom is going to pass out. What would have been a surprise elopement is now complete with a mystery bride.” Peter shook his head. “Did you tell Willow about your mom?”

  “Your mom?” Willow crossed her arms.

  “It was in the contract.” Though she insisted on reading the document, she didn’t pick up on some of the finer points.

  “Maybe the night was hectic, but I don’t remember any parents being mentioned.” She crossed her arms. “Don’t blindside me.”

  The sweet woman who curled up to him in bed all but disappeared. He sauntered over to the bed, threw back the comforter and in the pile of clothes located his jacket, pulling out the folded contract. At least one of the copies. He turned to the third page and held the paper out to her. “To paraphrase, my mother is not aware of the marriage clause my father put in my contract, any mention to her or a member of her circle of friends and family will result in a penalty.”

  “You would be penalizing someone who has nothing.” She lifted her chin.

  “Not this time next year.” Fine, she may not have read the contract, but she was savvy.

  “You could have simply asked. I wouldn’t have said anything.” She walked around the far side of the bed and rifled through the clothes. “Rather than trying to control everything you should go with the flow more.”

  Yes, the woman was the type who kept their word, but he learned from the best and put everything in writing. The flow didn’t exist in the land of the Van Ayers.

  “What did you want to ask me about my business?” She lifted his torn shirt between two fingers.

  “I wanted to know the last time you paid rent to Jade and the amount.” The image of the back rent made him itch like he wanted to break out into hives. It was the first of many to-dos he had relating to her.

  “Do you need that now?” She dropped the shirt and picked up her dress.

  “Peter.” He pointed at the rags. “We need to be able to walk in public.”

  “Let me order you guys some stuff just to get to the airport. Food is on the way.” Peter picked up the house phone. “Willow, the sooner we have that information the better. We have a little time.”

  “Okay.” She wrinkled her nose at the dress, let go of it and retrieved her purse. “I have my checkbook in here. Just give me a second.”

  With his phone in his hand he sat down at one of the side chairs. Again, he scrolled through the emails avoiding opening the one from his father.

  Out of the corner of his eye he watched her dig through the oversized bag.

  “Checkbook.” She took her wallet out of the bag and opened it only to have two crumpled dollar bills and several papers fall onto the bed.

  “Peter.” At the storm of items bursting forth from her bag, he swallowed. “Are we getting coffee soon?”

  She dropped the wallet and resumed her digging. “Hmmm.”

  “You didn’t lose your checkbook did you?”

  “No, I put it here.” Without as much as a warning, she turned the bag over spilling the entire contents of the bag onto the bed with their clothes.

  Curiosity, sick curiosity made him look, sort of like a ten car pile-up, or a train wreck, or a big huge mess on the bed with no maid to clean it. “My, that purse certainly holds a lot.” His mother’s handbags were little gems that cost small fortunes. They held only enough to get her through a lunch or dinner and then were returned to their dust bags and placed in order inside the closet specially built for purses and accessories.

  “Well, I never know what I’ll need.” She rifled through the various things.

  From a hairbrush to makeup, to papers, stones, and even a candle, her purse was a scavenger hunter’s dream. “Do you need to take this with you?” He leaned over, moved aside two balls of yarn and plucked a long green feather out of the pile. They should have used it last night.

  “I found that. It’s beautiful.” She took her treasure and set it aside. “I didn’t have time to put it with the rest.”

  “Oh.” He didn’t want to think of what the rest entailed.

  “Here we are.” She unearthed an old, cracked blue plastic checkbook. “Let me see.”

  The suspense built as she thumbed through the pages and counted something off on her fingers, and he held his breath.

  She tilted her head and bit her lip.

  “May I?” Unable to wait another second, he held his hand out.

  “You want to see?” She pressed her financial record to her chest.

  “Well, we are married.”

  While he thought he would be met with much more resistance, she surrendered the book.

  “I made my last payment here for half.” She pointed to an entry.

  “Well, you have very neat handwriting.” At least she kept a record. He took in the date and completed a quick calculation in his head. Her situation was more dire than he imagined.

  Rather than meeting his eyes, she gathered up her belongings.

  “Let’s get back to LA and when we go pack up you and Nan, maybe Jade will be at the gallery. We’ll go get you current.” He went to tuck the checkbook in his pocket, but realized he still wore the robe.

  “We don’t have to do that.” Her voice lowered.

  Maybe she didn’t want to face her landlord after her financial fiasco. “Would you like me to go fix the rent situation myself?” She shook her head.

  “Would you like me to give you the check and you can pay?” Then again, maybe she wanted to do it herself.

  Once more, she took her head.

  “I promised I would get you paid.” He leaned down to try to see her face. “In fact, if you like, we can go to the gallery. I’ll slip Jade the check and maybe we can take them out for drinks or something. Then we can tell them how we managed to fix each other.”

  She didn’t react, only continued to stare down at the bed.

  “Willow, tell me.”

  “Do you think we can not tell Slate or Jade about what we
did last night?”

  “We’re married. I think last night was a given, but I have no reason to make everyone jealous.” No matter the circumstance he could charm with the best of them, plus he only stated the facts.

  “Not the sex.” She pressed her hand to chest. “The marriage.”

  “So you don’t mind if I go on and on about my awesome conquest, but you don’t want me to tell them I made a legal woman out of you?” He didn’t understand.

  She answered by not answering.

  “May I ask why?”

  At last she lifted her head. “Well, your mother may not know the truth about your nuptials, but our friends do, and I would rather them not think that I am the girl who helped you gain all your material possessions.”

  “Is it that, or do you not want them to know that I am the guy who helped you gain all your material possessions?” He pointed at her.

  Her jaw tightened.

  “Don’t you think it’s going to be hard to hide it?” To prove his point he glanced down at his family’s ring on her finger.

  “Don’t tell me you don’t have any secrets?” She crossed her arms, hiding the ring. “Maybe we should keep our work and personal life separate.”

  “That sounds like something you would say.” Peter laughed.

  The silence that took over the room was saved by a knock at the door.

  “All right Mrs. Van Ayers, we’ll do it your way.” He bowed his head. Yes, he had his secrets, none of which she would guess. In fact, his secrets needed to take a hiatus while he dealt with his marriage. Afterward, without any bindings on him or his life, he could be himself.

  * * * *

  Randolph opened his car door, smoothed down his suit jacket, and slipped into the driver’s seat. “Would you like to stop somewhere and pick up some new clothes? My treat, of course.” While Willow may not want to admit they were married, the matching sweat pants and hotel t-shirts they wore during the trip back to Los Angeles definitely told the world they were together. One thing was certain, the clothes were not at all suitable for bringing home his new bride.