Valorous

by M. S. Force

  She has evidently filmed a new lead-in that includes the photo we released last night and the news of our marriage. “The Internet is literally on fire today with the news that the world’s most eligible bachelor is officially off the market as of last night. The word that Flynn Godfrey married Natalie Bryant in Las Vegas took Twitter by storm last night after his publicist released the news with a single sentence and a single photograph. I had the distinct honor and privilege to talk with Flynn and the amazing woman who is now his wife. After hearing her story, I think you’ll see why Flynn changed his mind about getting married again.”

  Flynn holds my hand, and Fluff is curled up in her favorite place in my lap as I watch myself with a detached sense of disbelief. Is that really me on national television, being interviewed by none other than Carolyn Justice?

  “You sound great, sweetheart,” he says. “The whole country will be as in love with you as I am after this.”

  “I’m not sure how I feel about that,” I reply with a nervous laugh.

  “You know, the upside is you can do anything you want, be anyone you want to be. The door will swing open to you in ways you can’t begin to imagine.”

  “I’m not sure how I feel about that either.”

  “You don’t have to decide now. The word ‘no’ becomes your best friend. You say yes to the things that interest you and no to the things that don’t. You can take full advantage of your newfound fame to promote the foundation. The bottom line is with fame comes opportunity. I’m sure my management team will be hit with a slew of calls about you.”

  “Wow, seriously?”

  “Yep. But don’t worry about it. They’ll screen it all and bring only the most interesting stuff to us.”

  “I’m having trouble wrapping my mind around this.”

  “I didn’t tell you to stress you out. Just to make you aware of what to expect.”

  “I signed on to be with you, not to be part of your business.”

  “You don’t have to be part of it. Like I said, you pick and choose, and you have the power to say no to all of it.”

  “Just over two weeks ago, I was a teacher in New York, and now I’m married to you and hearing I might be the hot new thing in Hollywood. It’s a lot to take in all at once.”

  “You don’t have to take it in all at once. As long as you take me in once in a while…”

  Laughing, I push my elbow into his ribs.

  When the interview ends, Flynn’s phone begins to ring. He takes the call from his parents, putting it on speaker so we can both hear it.

  “You were brilliant,” Max says. “Absolutely spot-on.”

  “Everyone in Hollywood is going to want to meet you,” Stella says.

  “I was just telling her that. She’s not sure how she feels about it.”

  “Don’t you worry about that, honey,” Stella says. “You’re surrounded by people who can handle all that nonsense for you.”

  “I told her that, too.”

  “We don’t want to intrude on the newlyweds,” Max says. “We just wanted you to know we loved the interview. You did great, Natalie. You’re a natural.”

  “That’s what I’m afraid of,” I say, making them laugh. “Thanks for calling. I’m so glad you thought it went well.”

  “Better than well, honey,” Stella says. “I just have to say… After hearing your story, I’m so proud to know you and to welcome you into our family. Our son couldn’t have chosen a more worthy woman to spend his life with.”

  I’m so touched by her kind words that I can’t find the words to tell her so.

  “She’s trying not to cry right now, Mom.”

  “Thank you so much for that, Stella. That’s so very sweet of you to say.”

  “We’ll let you go,” Max says.

  “Thanks for calling, guys.”

  “We love you both,” Stella says.

  “Love you, too.” He ends the call and puts the phone on the coffee table. It immediately starts ringing. “Do you want to hear from your adoring public?”

  “Tomorrow is soon enough.”

  “Do you want to know what people are saying about the interview?”

  “Not so much. Do you want to know what they’re saying?”

  “Not so much.” He bestows a suggestive smile on me. “What do you want to do?”

  “I’d like to make out with my sexy husband.”

  “You’ll need to relocate the wildebeest if you want to do that.”

  I get up slowly and carefully to place Fluff on a blanket on a different part of the sectional sofa. Other than a grunt of irritation, she settles back to her snoring. I can tell that I surprise Flynn when I slide onto his lap, straddling him.

  “Well, well, what’s this?”

  “This is your wife, who loves you desperately, who doesn’t want you to be afraid to touch me, to make love to me the way you want to. She doesn’t want you to hold back or treat her like she might break.”

  “Nat…”

  “I know that what happened last night upset you far more than you let on. It upset me, too, but we worked through it. It’s apt to happen again, maybe even more than once, and we’ll work through it then, too. But I can’t bear to watch you try to control yourself because you’re so afraid to scare me or to do something wrong.”

  “I am afraid of scaring you. I never again want to see you frightened like that, especially because of the way I’m touching you.”

  “You got swept up in what we were doing, and you weren’t thinking about what you shouldn’t do, and that’s okay. I need you to know…”

  “What?” he asks softly.

  “I loved what we were doing and how we were doing it before it went bad last night. I loved you like that, knowing I made you crazy.”

  “You make me so crazy. I’m afraid that if I show you even a fraction of how crazy you make me, I’ll lose you.”

  I shake my head. “It’d be unbearable to me if I thought you were thinking about what happened last night every time you come near me.” With my hands on his face, I kiss him, teasing him with my tongue until his mouth opens to let me in.

  A groan rumbles through him as he takes hold of my ass and pulls me in tight against his erection. We kiss for a long time, his tongue rubbing against mine in a sensuous dance that has me wanting more. It’s always that way with him. He kisses me, and I’m lost. He touches me, and I need more. He looks at me, and I see everything he feels for me.

  His arms tighten around me as he brings me down on the sofa. “Is this okay?”

  I nod and reach for him, wanting to feel his weight on me, his hands touching me, his lips kissing me. I want it all. “Don’t be afraid, Flynn. Please don’t be afraid of me.”

  “I could never be afraid of you. Do you remember your safe word?”

  “Yes.”

  “And you’ll use it if you need it?”

  “I promise.”

  He lifts my shirt up and over my head, undressing me with an urgency that gives me hope. Clothes fly, and another pair of underwear is lost to his haste.

  “I’ll buy you more. A hundred pairs.”

  I’m actually relieved that the panties ripped again. I take it as a good sign that we might get past this early speed bump in what I hope will be a very long road together.

  He applies a condom and then takes me hard and fast, watching me all the while for signs of trouble. He’s rougher than he was last night and this morning, and though he’s not quite as unleashed as he was before I freaked out, I’ll take it.

  I’ll take him—any way I can have him.

  Sliding his hands under me, he lifts me and settles us so I’m sitting on top of him, impaled by that huge erection that stretches me almost to the point of discomfort.

  “How does it feel?” he asks.

  “Big. Tight. Hot.” I groan when those three little words make him bigger.

  “I love when you talk dirty, baby. Tell me more.”

  “I can’t.”

  “Yes, y
ou can. Give me the words. I want them from you. Tell me more about how it feels.”

  “I’m stretched, so tight, it almost hurts.”

  “Almost hurts?”

  “Almost but not quite. The pinch of pain is part of the pleasure.” I gasp when the fit gets even tighter. “I refuse to say another word if that’s going to happen every time.”

  “Can’t help it, baby. That’s what you do to me.”

  “There’s no more room, so it can’t get any bigger.” And yet it does, and I can’t believe he laughs. He actually laughs. “That’s it. I’m done with you.”

  His arms around me keep me from escaping. “You can’t ever be done with me. I’d die without you.” He nuzzles my neck and presses deeper into me. “Hold on tight.”

  “For what?”

  “This.” Grasping my hips, he turns us again so he’s on top.

  “Smooth.”

  “You like that?”

  “I like it all.”

  The statement seems to throw gas on his fire, and he lets loose. Still holding my hips, he drives into me, over and over again, until I’m screaming from the pleasure that seers me.

  “That’s it, baby. God, you feel so good. So, so good.” He keeps up the pace until he’s coming, too, groaning as he heats me from within with his release. Opening his eyes, he studies me, looking for signs of trouble. “You okay?”

  “I’m great. You?”

  “Never better.” Still buried deep inside me, he brings his lips down on mine as he gazes into my eyes. “I can’t believe we get to do this any time we want to for the rest of our lives.”

  “Not any time.”

  He kisses me again. “Any. Freaking. Time.” Another kiss. “All. The. Freaking. Time.”

  “Yes, dear,” I reply with a sigh of utter contentment.

  “Now that’s what I’m talking about.”

  I hold on tight to him, my heart full of love for the man who is now my husband.

  Chapter 14

  It’s almost noon when I drag myself to the shower the next day. I’m washing the conditioner out of my hair when Flynn comes into the bathroom, holding his phone and smiling widely.

  “Natalie. Hurry.”

  I nearly end up with conditioner in my eyes before I make it out of the shower. “What is it?”

  He hands me a towel and the phone. “It’s Candace.”

  I’m frozen in place. I can’t seem to do a single thing but stand there and stare at him.

  He dries me and helps me into a robe and leads me to the bedroom, sitting next to me on the bed and nodding at me to go ahead and talk to her.

  “H-hello?”

  “April.” Her voice is more mature, but it’s her. It’s my little sister.

  I’m immediately reduced to tears. “Candace.”

  “Is it really you?”

  “Yes, it’s me.” Flynn puts his arm around me, and I lean into him.

  “And you’re really married to Flynn Godfrey?”

  I laugh at the way she squeals even as I hear her sobs through the phone.

  Flynn chuckles next to me and kisses my forehead.

  “It seems that I am. Tell me everything. Where are you? Where’s Livvy? I’ve missed you guys so much.”

  “We had no idea where you were. We’ve looked for you for years.”

  “I had to disappear so I could have a chance at a normal life.”

  “And how’s that working for you?”

  I laugh even as I contend with a flood of tears. “It was working pretty well until I was waylaid by a sexy movie star and my well-ordered life was turned completely upside down in the best possible way.”

  “I saw you last night on Carolyn. You look so different, but I knew it was you. Liv called, and she was screaming because you said you wanted to hear from us. I was dying waiting for it to be nine o’clock out there so I could try to call Flynn’s office… Oh, April, is it really you?”

  “It’s me, I’m here, and I’m so happy to hear your voice.” I use the sleeve of the robe to wipe away more tears. “Tell me about you. Where are you?”

  “I’m a sophomore at Colorado State, majoring in business. Liv is a senior in high school. She lives with Mom in Omaha now.”

  “Wait, what? She lives with Mom? Where’s Dad?”

  “I’m not really sure. They split about a year after the trial ended. We don’t see him anymore.”

  “Wow… God, Mom actually left him?”

  “She did. We couldn’t believe it either, but things are so much better now, April. She’s so different without him telling her what to do every second of her life.”

  This news sends me reeling. I never for the life of me imagined her leaving him.

  “Should I not call you that? You’re not April anymore.”

  “No, I changed my name, but you can call me whatever you want. I’m just so happy to hear your voice. You can’t possibly know how happy I am.”

  “I think I know,” she says, laughing. “What you said… In the interview, about how you went to the cops because of us… Liv and I, we couldn’t believe it. What you did… What you sacrificed for us...”

  “I’d do it again in a minute. He was a predator, Candace. He wouldn’t have stopped with me.”

  “A lot of pieces have fallen into place for us in the last week. I’m sorry it was at your expense. You’ve been through so much.”

  “Yes, but I’m happy now. So truly happy with Flynn and this amazing new life with him.”

  “Can we see you? We want to see you so badly. And we’d really like to meet our new brother-in-law,” she adds with a laugh.

  Flynn is nodding. “Tell her we’ll set it up.”

  “Flynn is telling me to give you my number—and I wouldn’t have let you go without doing that. He and his awesome assistant, Addie, who is a magician, will figure out the details.”

  “I can’t believe I’m actually talking to you. We were so afraid we’d never see you again.”

  “I was afraid of the same thing. We’ll work out something so we can see each other soon.”

  “I can’t wait.”

  “Neither can I. I never stopped loving you. Both of you.”

  “Us, too. We talked about you all the time.”

  “I’m glad to know you didn’t forget about me or hate me. I was worried about what you’d been told.”

  “He tried, but we refused to believe him. We knew you, and we knew Oren. We believed you. He always gave me the creeps.”

  “Well, you were smarter than I was, then, because I never suspected he was capable of what he did to me.”

  “I don’t want to hang up. You won’t disappear again, will you?”

  “I think I’ll be easy to find after the events of the last few days.” We exchange phone numbers before reluctantly ending the call, promising to talk again soon and text each other every day. For a long time after, Flynn holds me while I cry tears of unmitigated joy.

  “I’m so happy for you all, sweetheart. We’ll get them out here as soon as we can—and as soon as they can do it.”

  “I can’t believe I just talked to Candace. I’ve fantasized about how it might be to talk to them again, but I was always afraid to reach out to them because I didn’t know if they’d been turned against me. It would’ve killed me to find them and to hear they hate me.”

  “She sounded just as happy to talk to you.”

  “I know! Thank you so much.”

  “For what? I didn’t do anything.”

  “Yes, you did. You dragged me into your life, refusing to take no for an answer, and now I have my sisters back.”

  “I hate to point out that you skipped a rather traumatic portion of the story.”

  “Don’t you see? It was all worth it because not only did I get you, but them, too.”

  His smile lights up his eyes. “You’re so beautiful when you’re happy.”

  “Then I must be the most beautiful woman in the world right now.”

  “You won’t hear me
arguing.”

  We pass an absolutely blissful couple of days in which we don’t see anyone but each other and the security personnel who are nearby if we need them, but mostly out of sight. I exchange texts with both my sisters nonstop, and finally get to talk to Olivia when she gets a chance to call without our mother around to hear her. We’re not ready to tell her we’re back in touch. They’re both really busy with school and work, so we’re trying to find a time to get together in the next few weeks.

  Every day, Flynn takes me out to practice my driving. He says it’s the perfect opportunity to show me Southern California. One day we drive north to Santa Barbara. Another day we drive down the Pacific Coast Highway, from Long Beach almost to San Diego and back again. We find out-of-the-way places to stop for lunch, and the security detail that follows us helps to ensure our safety and privacy.

  Other than a few speechless waitresses and waiters, for whom Flynn signs autographs and poses for pictures, we get away with these outings. As I become more confident, I discover that I love to drive.

  On Thursday evening, Flynn arranges a special trip to Disneyland in Anaheim. We have the place mostly to ourselves after it closes to the public. We go on every ride, a few of them twice, and have the time of our lives. As it’s my first time visiting a Disney park, I feel like a little kid again, and Flynn, who has been here many times before, says it’s like the first time all over again for him, too, because he’s here with me.

  We check out Palm Springs and the Palm Desert, San Bernardino and Big Bear. One city and town at a time, I fall in love with Southern California. I’m not even all that bothered by the tremors from a small earthquake that shake the house on Friday morning. Flynn says the tremors are a fact of life in California, and as long as you know what to do, they’re nothing to be afraid of.

  He takes the time to teach me everything I need to know about surviving a major earthquake, and then we don’t talk about it again, which is fine with me.

  We spend hours—in the car, in bed, on the sofa, by the pool—discussing our plans for the foundation, trading ideas and making lists. With his extensive contacts, Flynn isn’t worried about raising the money we’ll need to get the foundation up and running. He’s far more concerned about making sure the money gets to those in need in the form of programs that make a real difference. That’s where the major brainstorming is needed.