by Kris Calvert
Polly gave Sam an embarrassed nod and came into the growing crowd for the photo.
“Okay, folks. On three,” said the photographer.
I put my arm around Sam tightly as I held Katy in my arms and she held Dax’s hand. I knew in that moment my dad was watching.
In two flashes it was over, and as Mimi, my mother, Miss Celia, Timms and Sam’s parents walked away from my new family, I kissed Katy, Sam and Dax. With the declining health of Momma and Miss Mimi, who knew if we’d ever have another opportunity like that?
“Did you have to rat me out?” Polly confessed as she glanced over her shoulder to King.
“How were we supposed to know you were out behind the tent with Dr. Tall, Dark and Handsome?” Sam asked.
“He’s not that tall,” I added.
“Whatever,” Polly snapped. “Are you getting ready to leave?”
“Yes,” I answered before Sam could speak. I pulled her from the waist to meet my back and placed my head on her shoulder, quickly stealing a kiss from her long and sexy neck.
“Yes,” Sam agreed, giving me the look all men get when they’re about to cross the invisible line between acceptable and unacceptable. “We’re going to say goodbye to Dax and Katy and change to catch the plane.”
“What are you and Dr. Love going to do after the reception, Polly?” I asked with a grin.
“I’m not that kind of girl, Mac,” Polly sang as she walked straight to King waiting by the bar.
“Yes, you are,” I uttered under my breath.
“Mac,” Sam scolded.
“Mommy? Are you leaving?” Dax asked as he looked up to Sam with sad eyes.
“Dax, you’re the Callahan man in charge. You and Miss Celia will be taking care of everything while we’re gone.”
“The mail?” Dax asked.
“Sure. The mail.”
“The secrets?”
I lowered my voice to him. “No playing around, Dax. Understand? But the horses, the garden – Miss Celia will need you to help her make important decisions while we’re away for a few days.”
“Okay.”
I looked up to Sam who rocked the baby in her arms and gave her a kiss before handing her to Celia with a heavy sigh.
I leaned in to give Katy a final goodbye. As I kissed her delicate cheek, she grabbed onto my little finger with a mighty grip that tore through my heart and turned me to mush.
“Somebody doesn’t want her daddy to go just yet,” Celia smiled.
“What did I ever do to deserve all of this, Celia? Really? It keeps me up at night sometimes.”
“Baby, the Lord is good.”
There were no words to describe the rush of feeling I had knowing the wedding was over and Sam and I could finally begin our life. As I watched my family scatter I said the only thing that seemed appropriate. “Amen.”
As Sam and I walked through the back entrance off the veranda, we turned to see the tent lit up in the distance, music still flowing through the silk walls that moved with the evening breeze.
“It’s been a perfect day,” I remarked.
“That’s because I married the perfect man.”
I nuzzled her neck, turning to lead her into Lone Oak. “You drive me wild. Do you know that?”
We walked through the house and passed the nurse who was escorting Momma to the guestroom.
“Momma, Sam and I are leaving for a couple of weeks for our honeymoon. But I’ll be back soon. You take care while I’m gone. Okay?”
She looked into my eyes with a blank stare as if she was trying to place me in her mixed-up world. “Okay.”
I took a deep breath at her words, happy in the small instant of clarity.
“I love you, Momma.”
Sam leaned in to hug her as I pulled away. I couldn’t help but overhear Sam whisper in her ear, “I promise to take good care of him, Nancy.”
Momma nodded as she took an extra moment to take us both in and smiled. When she looked back to the hired nurse, she became confused and the fleeting expression of awareness was gone.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and pulled it together. “Let’s do this.”
“Okay,” she smiled as she took my hand to climb the imperial staircase that was one of the centerpieces of Lone Oak.
“I hope the wedding photos turn out,” I said as we made the turn. “I can’t wait until our portrait hangs here with the rest of the family. Since I was a kid, I wondered what my own family would look like right here on this wall.”
Sam only nodded as she looked up and down the staircase at the generations of Callahans who’d lived in the house. I thought it astonishing how two hundred year old bricks and mortar could have such a profound impact on the lives of so many.
As we turned to enter my bedroom, I whisked Samantha off her feet and held her tightly in my arms. I was determined to carry her over every threshold for the next seventy-two hours. It was my duty. More than that, it was my privilege.
“Whoa!” she laughed as I tossed her in my arms to get a better grip before opening the door.
“Mrs. Callahan?”
“Yes?”
“Let’s get this wedding day started.”
“Started?” she giggled. “Don’t you mean finished?”
“Baby, this is just the beginning.”
6
SAMANTHA
As Mac carried me through the door of his bedroom, I thought of our first night together at Lone Oak. Our rain soaked bodies entwined as lightning flashed and the power went out. It was a defining moment in my life to learn I could love again.
I nuzzled my face into his neck and breathed in his smell. As tough and rugged as Mac was, to me he always smelled like a perfect mix of clean laundry and sugar cookies.
He sat my feet down on the floor inside the threshold and took my face in his hands as he’d done so many times before. “I’ve waited my whole life for you, Sam.”
“I don’t know if I’ve ever been this happy,” I smiled.
He slid his hands over the smooth silk of my wedding gown from my bottom up to my shoulder blades and sighed as he pushed his hips into mine. “I don’t want to wait for the plane ride to make love to you.”
“I told you,” I giggled as I pulled away. “I have no intention of making love to you on the plane to Paris. No matter what you’ve told the flight crew. Especially after what you’ve told the flight crew.”
“Baby,” he rasped. “I’ve waited almost an entire year to have you. Please don’t make me wait another moment.”
The desperation in his voice made me feel almost ashamed I’d put him off after Katy’s birth. After a pregnancy scare early in my first trimester, Mac refused to lay a hand on me, afraid something would happen to the baby. He knew I was in no shape the first six weeks after Katy was born to handle what he’d described in detail he planned to do to me, but the past few weeks I knew had been torture. Because I wanted our wedding night to be special, he’d agreed to wait.
“What did you have in mind?” I whispered as I kissed his neck and slid my tongue up his Adam’s apple while pulling the bowtie from its perfect knot.
“Sweet Jesus, baby. Don’t do things like that to me unless you’re prepared to back it up.”
Mac dipped his knees and pushed himself between my legs forcing the thin layers of silk against my thighs. As he began to kiss me, I could feel how desperate he was. I was longing for him, but didn’t quite picture my wedding consummation as a quickie before we said goodbye to our friends and family under a veil of fireworks.
Nevertheless, I stepped away from him, keeping his hands in mine. I wanted to take him in – all of him. My husband was the most beautiful man I’d ever known and I wanted to see him completely. I began to slowly unbutton the gleaming gold shirt studs down his chest without saying a word.
“Sam,” he whispered.
“Shhhhhhh…” I placed one finger on his lips to stop whatever thought he was about to verbalize and shook my head. “I’m in charge, oka
y?”
He nodded and gave me a wicked grin.
“We have thirty minutes,” I whispered. “Any longer and someone will come looking for us.”
Mac dropped his head back with a deep breath as I pulled the shirt from his black tuxedo pants.
“Wait,” he muttered.
“You can undress me when I’m finished.”
I could tell by the timbre of his voice he didn’t care who took their off clothes first – he was going to have his way with me. He caressed my shoulders as if he was afraid to touch the delicate pearls and stones on my dress. I pushed his tuxedo jacket off his muscular frame and felt him quiver at my touch. Slipping my hands around his torso, I pushed the heavily starched shirt up and over his arms.
“My cufflinks,” he whispered as the shirt hung from his wrists displaying his biceps and tightly strung body.
I giggled, leaning down to put his cufflink to my mouth. I gazed up at him as I pursed my lips around the shiny Callahan crest and pushed the stem open with my tongue, pulling the gold face from the shirt with my teeth. I’d left a red lipstick stain on the cuff as a reminder of our love.
“You’re killing me,” he moaned.
I pulled the second cuff toward my face and he willing obliged me, turning his wrist to allow a better angle. I took the cufflink from my teeth and rose to meet his face with a lingering kiss and placed the links in the palm of his hand.
His shirt dropped to the floor and he tossed the cufflinks on the valet by the bed. I began to make quick work of the top button and zipper on his pants. I couldn’t wait to get to what was underneath. Mac kicked off his shoes and tugged at his socks clumsily as I watched him fumble with a smile.
“I’ll let you do the rest,” he smoldered.
The bulge in his usual black boxer briefs was tight, waiting impatiently to be released. I ran my hands around the waistband and slid my hands over him, giving his perfect bottom a slight squeeze. I pulled him close and kissed him hard. My lips pressed so firmly against his mouth, he flinched with controlled desperation. I’d been thirsty for what seemed like forever and he was my first drop of water.
He let out a gasp as I slid my hands deeper into his boxers, pulling the elastic down just enough to rest on his manhood as his rapidly growing erection strained against the waistband.
“Please, God,” he begged. “Don’t stop.”
In one lingering and liquid motion, I relieved his body of his clothes. Chilled molasses would’ve moved faster, and I relished each protracted second.
“Wow.” It was all I could say as I stepped away to admire him in all his glory.
My husband was beautiful. Tall, sandy-haired and green-eyed, his body was perfect. The corrugated leanness and flat stomach that vee lined to his manhood was sexy beyond the norm. He stood in his nakedness with merely a smile and I nodded as if I’d won first prize at the county fair.
“My turn,” he murmured, raising his chin with a smirk.
He walked to me and just as he moved in for a kiss, he turned me on a dime and began to unbutton the halter of my dress.
“I love your body,” he growled.
I could feel his fingers trace a line down my bare back, meeting his other hand at the zipper resting on my waist. Matching the agonizing speed at which I’d disrobed him, Mac unzipped my wedding gown and opened the silk covered buttons at the nape of my neck. Not quite as complicated as his tuxedo, the white silk dropped to the floor, catching air and ballooning as it fell to expose the pale blue panties I wore for the day.
“My God you’re beautiful, Samantha.”
“So are you.”
“I love the blue.”
“Something blue,” I whispered as I pulled him to me.
“What were the others?” he mumbled. “Something old, something new, something borrowed…”
“Mac Callahan,” I teased as I gave his manhood a fleeting stroke. “I didn’t know you cared about such things.”
“Baby,” he moaned as he slid his hands on either side of my hips and initiated the slow descent of his body and my silk panties to the floor. “I’m nothing if not traditional.”
I pushed my hips into him as he kissed my stomach, and pulled away naturally when he stood to meet my lips. “Old is the emerald ring that belonged to your mother. New was my wedding dress.”
“Mmmhmm,” he replied as he began to kiss my neck.
“Borrowed was the silver nosegay holder that my bouquet was in. It belonged to Mimi.”
“And blue,” he murmured, taking my face into his hands.
“And blue.”
He pulled my body close, grinding his hips into me. He was so ready to go I doubted that we’d even need the thirty minutes I’d told him we could steal from the party. As he dipped to pick me up and carry me to the bed, I wanted to pinch myself. How could I be so lucky? In one year alone, I’d gone from being a widowed mother of one to a wife and mother of two. It was almost too much happiness.
7
MAC
Sam was naked and in my arms. We were finally married, and for the next two weeks she would be mine and mine alone.
I placed her perfect body on my bed and without hesitation pulled myself over top of her. As I ran my hand from her hipbone to her shoulder I watched in awe as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting the past few months of babies and wedding plans fade into the background.
“This is just a preview of our next two weeks, my love,” I mumbled, pressing my face into her breasts. I wanted to go slow, but knew that the lazy days of lying around naked in our hotel suite in Paris were still ahead of us. Right now, I just wanted to be inside of Sam. It was more than a want. It was a deep-seated need.
“Yes,” she whispered as I moved carefully between her legs. The word only revved me more until I couldn’t be without her body enveloping itself around me.
“Jesus, baby.” I graveled, my throat dry from adrenaline pumping through my veins as I guided myself slowly, inch by incredible inch, deep inside. “You have such power over me – such a beautiful and mysterious power. When God made you, he was showing off.”
She ran her hands through my hair, giving it a sexy tug. She was sending me to the edge without moving her body or kissing my lips.
She smiled as she closed her eyes, deep in the moment.
“We may be back at the party sooner than I’d hoped,” I admitted as I delved deeper with each rhythmic thrust.
“Oh yessss…” she groaned.
“Oh baby,” I said as my ragged gasps quickened.
Sam continued to caress my neck and kiss my ear. She grazed my throat with her teeth and sent me into a blissful agony where I barely held on.
“I love the way you love me, Sam,” I said as I stopped to gain control and admire her beauty.
She drove her hips into me, taking us deeper into the impending ecstasy. “Yes,” she moaned.
I pulled her down and lifted her knee to my chest, obeying the instinct deep inside.
Sam gasped with pleasure, and I couldn’t hold out any longer.
“Oh God,” I whimpered, pouring myself into her. Letting go, I felt pure ecstasy. Not until I felt her tremble under my body did I feel Samantha burst beneath me. I circled my hips inside her as she purred with satisfaction. I never wanted it to end. This was perfection. And it was only the beginning.
I rolled onto my back taking a deep breath. I pulled Samantha into my chest as she sighed heavily. “That was fast,” I admitted. “But that was amazing.”
“Yes it was,” she said with conviction. “That was amazing.”
“There’s more where that came from, pretty lady. I want you gleefully satisfied at all times.”
“And I’ll bet you’re just the man for the job.”
“Oooo yeah,” I growled into her neck as I kissed her collarbone.
“I’m exhausted,” Sam confessed.
“I know. I’d love just to lie here, but there are about a hundred people downstairs waiting to send us of
f. Let’s say goodbye,” I said. “And we’ll catch our plane and do this again on the way to Paris. I promise it will be much more satisfying – on your end.”
“On my end?” she asked with a smile as I took her hands and helped her to sit up in bed. “What does that mean?”
“It means that was fanfuckingtastic for me,” I proclaimed as I stood above her. “Sorry to be crass. There was no other way to describe it. But I didn’t give my wife enough time and attention.”
“I’m very happy in this moment. But I’ll take all the attention you want to give,” Sam teased as she padded like the sexy little creature she was to the bathroom. My new wife had given birth three months ago and looked like a rock star. I was altogether turned on and proud in the same instant.
“Wanna take a quick shower?” she said over her shoulder. “It’s gonna be a long flight.”
“Yes. I’ll clean up in here while you get started.”
I gathered the evidence of our whirlwind consummation, throwing my tux onto the valet in the corner and laying Sam’s wedding dress across the bed.
I was spent. I wanted to wish everyone well and get the hell out of town with Sam.
I saw the bathroom light click on in the corner and waited for the sound of the shower.
“Mac!”
I hurried through the bedroom, slipping on the marble floor of the master bath as I made my way to her.
Her hands were shaking as she pointed to the mirror. Scrawled in red lipstick were the words: Remember me?
“What is this?” Sam pleaded.
My heart raced at the sight of the words. I knew whose they were and exactly what it meant.
I grabbed some sweats and a t-shirt from the back of my bathroom door without answering and walked to the nightstand to get my gun.
As I loaded the magazine from the bottom, I turned to find Samantha behind me in my robe. Fear covered her face like a mask. “Tell me what’s going on.”