by Vivian Gray
“If men could give birth, you would have asked for pain medication three hours ago.”
I agreed.
Within the hour, Roderick Joseph Black was born. He had bright blond hair like his mom and blue eyes the same shade as mine. The moment I saw him and watched Marin hold him for the first time, I knew I would do anything to protect them both. They were my entire world.
Epilogue
Marin
“Could you hold the baby for a minute, Kayla? If I don’t hurry, I’m going to walk down the aisle with a head half-covered in curlers.”
Kayla laughed and took Rod, bouncing him on her hip, while I stood in front of the mirror and assessed the situation. The right side of my head was a cascade of flowing waves, blonde and shiny. The left side was bound up in tight curlers. I was like a version of Victor/Victoria, except one side of me was a shampoo model, the other was a grandma getting a perm. “This is not good.”
“Please, you look gorgeous,” Kayla said, moving to stand behind me in the mirror. “That dress fits you like a glove.”
I smiled. It really did. Jasper had called in a favor with his friend who designed dresses in Houston. She made it specifically for me, so it hugged every single curve.
“Are you sure this is what you want?” Kayla asked, her face turning somber.
I turned to her, my fingers busy with a curler. “Of course. Are you not sure? I thought you liked Jasper.”
In the weeks after the incident with Angel, Kayla had begged me to leave Jasper: “He’s dangerous, Marin. He’ll get you killed.” She’d called me every day, asking whether I wanted her to come pick me up so I could come home. The truth was, the apartment we had shared, while full of good memories, would never be home again. It was where I’d seen Bear’s mutilated body in the kitchen. It was where I’d nearly been raped, and where I’d been kidnapped. I could never feel safe there again, and I told Kayla as much.
“We can move somewhere else. I don’t care about the apartment, Mar. I care about you.” Kayla was insistent that I leave Jasper, but as weeks turned to months, I thought she had shifted towards acceptance. She had stopped calling me to offer me a way out, and she had even come to a few dinner parties Jasper and I hosted. (If someone had told me when I first met him that Jasper and I would be hosting dinner parties, I would have had them committed. Life really is crazy.)
Then, when Rod was born, Kayla stayed the night in the waiting room, and after Jasper, she was the first person to hold the baby. She had hugged Jasper in the recovery room, congratulating him and thanking him for making “the most beautiful child on the face of planet Earth.” So, her question on the day of my wedding really confused me.
Rod was wiggling, and Kayla shifted him further up on her hip. “I do like Jasper, but I love you. I want to make sure you are happy.”
“Do I not seem happy?”
She looked at me, studying my eyes, taking in every detail. “You seem incredibly happy.”
I reached out and patted her shoulder. “Then what’s the problem?”
“I just want to make sure you are doing this because you want to. If you are happy, then I am happy. I wouldn’t be doing my duty as your best friend if I didn’t check in and make sure this is what you want.”
I turned back to the mirror, chucking one of the rollers onto the floor and diving in for another one. My dress was a shimmery white, Swarovski crystals woven into the fabric. It cut low in the front, showing a good amount of side boob – something that always got Jasper riled up – and had long lace sleeves that hugged my arms.
I felt amazing. Not only because the dress was everything I had ever imagined, but because Jasper was more than I had ever imagined. He made me feel sexy and wild, but he also bought me mint chocolate chip ice cream when I had a bad day. He would watch endless episodes of reality television with me, even though he could never tell the Kardashians apart. Jasper made my life feel fuller.
Plus, he had given me Rod, who was the absolute love of my life. I loved Jasper not because I was chemically drawn to him or because I couldn’t resist him – both of which were true – but because I wanted to. I wanted to be with Jasper. I wanted him in my life.
“Kayla, this is absolutely what I want.”
She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around my neck, pressing her face against my cheek. “Good.” Then, she raised an eyebrow at me and turned her head to the side. “But please know that I will absolutely kill him if you want me to. I wouldn’t hesitate.”
“Noted,” I said.
We both laughed.
I walked down the aisle holding Rod. My father wasn’t even important enough to receive an invitation, let alone walk me down the aisle. And Rod was easily the most important man in my life, bar my husband-to-be, so it seemed fitting he would go down with me. Kayla held him during the ceremony, having to discreetly wipe spit-up off the front of her bridesmaid dress during the “I Dos”.
Jasper looked incredible. He wore a dark blue suit that brought out the color of his eyes, with a matching vest, crisp white shirt, and a navy-blue tie. He wore a blush pink peony boutonniere on his lapel to match my bouquet. And when I saw him standing at the end of the aisle, a fairy light archway glowing behind him, I felt like the luckiest woman in the world.
During the ceremony, we held hands, staring into each other’s eyes as we recited our vows. At one point, the preacher stepped away, and the band reclaimed their places on the stage. They played a beautiful instrumental, and it was meant to be a time for Jasper and me to spend together, to speak privately to one another before we left the stage as husband and wife.
Jasper leaned forward. “You look amazing.”
“So do you,” I said, drinking in the sight of him. He was perfectly proportioned: wide shoulders leading into a tapered waist, all on top of magnificently sculpted legs. He was like a sports store mannequin come to life.
“No, I mean, you look beyond incredible. Thank God these pants are a little loose because I can’t stop thinking about tonight,” he whispered.
I couldn’t help it; I blushed and glanced around the room to be certain no one could hear us. “We are in a church!”
“Praise Jesus for my unbelievably hot wife,” he said, holding up his hands in a subdued hallelujah pose.
I rolled my eyes, but secretly felt butterflies in my stomach. “When are you going to tell me where we are going on our honeymoon?” Jasper had been keeping it a secret for months. I kept trying to guess, but he was an impenetrable wall. I couldn’t get anything out of him.
“You wouldn’t want me to tell you when you are so close to finding out, would you?”
“Absolutely! I’m dying to know.”
He shook his head. “No, you’d regret it if I told you. You’ll find out in a few hours.”
I groaned. “At least give me a clue. What are we going to do while we’re there?”
Jasper raised an eyebrow and leaned forward, pressing his lips to my ear. “Fuck.”
An involuntary warmth spread through me. “Do we have to go to the reception? Or do you think we can just leave straight from the church?”
He laughed. “We should probably at least go for the cake,” he suggested.
“Oh yeah. And the first dance,” I added.
“But then.” He hitched his thumb over his shoulder. “We are out of there.”
“As soon as possible.”
Jasper looked down at me, hunger in his eyes, and I wanted to rip my dress off right there and let him take me. However, I thought perhaps Great-Aunt Florence in the third row wouldn’t exactly appreciate that spectacle, so I restrained myself.
It felt like eons before the preacher finally wrapped up his sermon and gave permission for Jasper to kiss his bride. But when he did, Jasper stepped forward, cupped my jaw in his palm, and pulled me into him. Our lips touched, and it felt as if it were for the first time. Fire sizzled across my lips, and my whole body leaned into him.
He tipped me backward, deepening t
he kiss, and then, just as the fire inside of me began to flame, he brought me back up to standing and pulled away. I sucked a breath into my starving lungs.
“May I now present, for the first time, Mr. and Mrs. Jasper Black.”
The crowd erupted into cheers, and loud whistles came from the section of the church reserved for the Hellions, who all managed to trade their kuttes for button-downs, though they refused to wear suits.
The reception was like any reception – cake, punch, and dancing. None of it mattered though. The only thing I could focus on was Jasper. I wanted him. While we danced, he let his hands trail a little too low down my back, brushing against the curve of my lower back. When we fed each other cake, he took my finger in his mouth, sucking on the tip of it and winking at me. While we were sitting at the head table accepting congratulations from all the guests, his hand rested on my thigh and slid further and further upward as the night wore on. By the last person, he was drumming his finger against my opening, driving me wild.
The moment we climbed into the back of the limo and the door shut, I pounced on him, picking my dress up so I could straddle him.
He laughed and grabbed my shoulders, pushing me back. “Whoa, tiger.”
He leaned around me. “Could you take us to the airport?”
I turned around to see a very red-faced driver looking at us in his rearview mirror. He nodded, and then pressed a button on the dash that lifted the privacy screen.
“Someone was a little eager,” Jasper said, laughing at me.
I ignored him and ground my hips into his. The smile slipped from his face. His lips parted, and his eyes followed the cut of my dress from my neck down to my breasts.
“God, you are so sexy,” he whispered, leaning forward to plant kisses along my collarbone and down my chest.
I arched my back, lifting my breasts to his mouth, and he planted kisses along the exposed mounds of flesh. I swirled my hips, feeling him harden in his tux pants. He groaned.
“Where are we going for our honeymoon?” I whispered in his ear.
He stiffened beneath me and then pulled back to look into my face. “Are you trying to sex the answer out of me?”
I shook my head. “No, I’m just curious.”
But I quickly slid my hips up and down against him. He moaned, but then roughly grabbed my hips and pushed me off of him. “No, you can’t ruin the surprise.”
“Are you serious? You would rather keep this secret for a couple hours longer than have limo sex with your new wife?” I hated to admit that I wanted limo sex just as much as he did. I didn’t even care about the honeymoon anymore, but I couldn’t say any of that out loud on principle.
“I want you so bad, Marin,” he said, biting his lower lip and looking down my body. “But I’ve been keeping this secret for months, and I’m not going to crack with only a few hours left.”
I flopped back into the seat and crossed my arms, sighing.
Jasper laughed and leaned across the seat, planting a kiss on my forehead. “Not much longer now.”
When we got to the airport, Jasper refused to let me change out of my wedding dress, so I had to board our flight in my puffy dress. Luckily, he booked first class, so I didn’t have to squeeze myself and my long train into an economy seat. The ticket said Seattle.
“You’re taking me to Seattle?” I asked. It seemed like a strange thing to keep so secret. Not that Seattle wouldn’t be fun. Anything could be fun with Jasper, but Seattle wasn’t quite as lavish as I had been expecting.
Jasper shook his head. “It’s just a stop.”
I tried to urge more questions out of him, but the day had been so exhausting that I crashed out almost immediately. When I woke up, the pilot was preparing us for landing. We had an hour layover, walking around the airport, fielding endless questions and commentary from other travelers because we were still in our tux and gown.
“You two look like the bride and groom on top of a cake,” one elderly woman said. “Picture-perfect.”
Finally, we boarded the next flight to Hawaii.
“Hawaii,” I said, waggling my eyebrows, knowing that was definitely the final destination.
Jasper smiled but said nothing.
The flight from Seattle to Honolulu was six and a half hours long, so I finally changed out of my gown and into the pajamas Jasper had packed for me. Since the destination had been a secret, Jasper had packed all of my bags, meaning he only packed silk pajamas and lacy lingerie. I felt a bit overdressed for a redeye flight, but I was too tired to care.
Finally, after what felt like days of traveling, we arrived in Honolulu. A black car with tinted windows was waiting for us when we arrived, and Jasper jumped in the driver’s seat.
“Isn’t there a driver?” I asked, looking around.
He shook his head. “This is my car.”
“Your car? How can you have a car here?”
Jasper didn’t answer. He just reached over and opened the passenger side door for me. I decided then to stop asking questions. It wasn’t doing any good since he refused to answer any of them.
Jasper navigated the streets of Honolulu like a pro. I asked whether he needed me to turn on the GPS or pull out a map, but he insisted he knew where he was going.
As we drove along the coast, the ocean stretching out turquoise and endless next to us, I relaxed. Wherever we were going, it would be great.
And boy was I right.
Jasper turned down a long, sandy road, and as we neared a massive two-story beach bungalow, I realized the road was actually a driveway.
“Is this where we’re staying?” I asked, stepping out of the car and looking up at the house. It was a vibrant yellow with white-trimmed windows and a red front door. When I stepped inside, I gasped. The kitchen was all stainless steel and white tile, and a wall of windows stretched from floor to ceiling and wall to wall, looking directly out on the ocean.
“That’s a private beach,” Jasper said casually, pointing through the window to the pearly white beach.
“This place is amazing,” I said, slipping out of my shoes and padding across the room and down the hall. The bedroom had a king-size four-poster bed with a plush white comforter and pillows to match. And the master bathroom had a Jacuzzi big enough for six people. I heard Jasper’s footsteps behind me.
He wrapped his hands around my waist. “So, you like it then?”
I leaned into his warmth and sighed. “It is perfect.”
“Good, because it’s ours.”
I rotated in his arms, my chest pressing into his. “What do you mean?”
“I meant what I said. It’s ours. I bought it.”
“You bought it?” I asked, disbelieving. “When?”
“A few days after I proposed to you.” I slapped his chest, and he winced. “Ouch.”
“Could you stop buying ridiculously expensive things and surprising me with them,” I said.
He quirked his mouth up into a half smile. “I can honestly say I have never had a woman say that to me before.”
“It’s too much.”
Jasper pulled me into his arms and kissed my forehead. “Nothing would ever be enough for you, Marin. Ever.”
“What are we going to do with this house... in Hawaii?” I asked, still not able to wrap my head around the fact that the giant house on the beach was mine. My family had lived in a two-bedroom trailer my whole life, so this house was beyond my wildest imagination.
“We will take family vacations and romantic trips. We will spend winters here, and retire here when we’re old and gray,” he said.
The idea of Jasper and I, old and gray, rocking in chairs on the balcony, overlooking the ocean, made my throat feel tight. I wanted that more than anything.
Suddenly, I threw myself at him, wrapping my legs around his waist. He stumbled backward, bumping into the bathroom counter, but he still caught me. His hands grabbed my ass and held me while our lips crushed against one another.
Jasper carried me to the
bed and dropped me onto the soft mattress. I’d changed into jean shorts and a loose tank top in the Honolulu airport, and less than an hour later, Jasper was undoing the button and pulling the shorts down, tossing them in the corner. He didn’t even bother to pull my panties off, he just pushed them aside.
He trailed kisses up my thighs, teasing me, getting closer and closer to my center with each pass through. Finally, his lips pressed against me, sucking slightly, and I arched my back, lifting my hips to meet his mouth. Jasper swiped his tongue into me, and I wound my fingers into his hair, holding him to me.
“Fuck me, Jasper. Fuck me,” I whispered.
Dirty talk was always too much for Jasper. He moved over top of me, grabbing my wrists and pinning them above my head with one hand. With his other, he undid his jeans and kicked them off. Then, he hesitated.
“What do you want, Marin?” he whispered, his voice breathy and harsh against my skin.
“I want you.” I rolled my body against him, my breasts pressing into his chest.
He pressed his lips to my neck, to the spot behind my ear, to the corner of my mouth. “What do you want me to do to you?”
I lifted my head as high as I could with my hands still pinned above my head and pressed my lips to his. “Fuck me.”
In one swift movement, Jasper pushed himself inside of me. It was ecstasy. Everything I’d been craving. He slid in and out of me, moving his body in a kind of dance, rhythmically pushing me over the edge. I wanted to reach out and touch him, run my fingers down his back, grab his hair. But my hands were useless above my head. I fought against his hold, but he didn’t let go. Every time I pulled against him, he slammed into me harder, punishing me in the sexiest way possible.
We orgasmed in every room of the house before the honeymoon was over. He tipped me over the Jacuzzi, suds running down my legs, and took me from behind. He stretched me out on the kitchen island – whipped cream dolloped over my breasts and down my midsection – and slid into me from the end of the counter.
I stopped him in the hallway on more than one occasion, pulled down his pants, and sucked him off. We barely left the house except to have sex on the private beach, sand wedging itself into all manner of unspeakable places, and to eat food.