by Jordan Marie
“Aden, take me to bed.”
46
Aden
“Hope, you don’t have to do this, not out of gratitude. Not like this. We have time, honey. We’ll find our way back to each other,” I tell her. I should get a damn medal. I want her so bad, I ache. But, I also want her whole heart, and not gratitude, when I take her. That’s not what me doing this for the business was about. I did that because I wanted to prove that she could trust me, that despite our past, I will never let her down again.
“It’s not gratitude that I’m feeling right now, Aden,” she murmurs, walking toward me and only stopping when she gets right in front of me.
“What are you feeling?” I ask and it feels like, for a moment, my heart stops mid-beat.
“Wet,” she whispers softly, reaching up to kiss the side of my neck. Her lips touch the warm skin, and then I feel her tongue dart out to lick against my Adams apple.
Her hands move down to my belt and she starts undoing it, all while nibbling on my neck.
“Hope, are you sure?” I ask, choking on the need to take control.
“I need this, Aden,” she whispers.
That’s it. Three words. Three words that push me over the edge and there’s no going back even if I could.
“Finish undressing me,” I order her.
“You’re bossy,” she murmurs, but she moves her hand down, releasing the button on my jeans and then the zipper.
“Babe,” I answer, shaking my head.
“What?” She asks, pushing my pants down over my hips. I didn’t bother wearing boxers today. Truthfully, Hope and I have been playing so much my damn balls have gone past blue. They’re so fucking sore, I can’t stand anything to touch them. I might have come a few times, but the pain of not being able to plunge inside of her is driving me insane.
“You like it when I’m bossy,” I grumble.
She drops down on her knees, looks up at me with her eyes looking a little bit dirty and with a mix of innocence—all at the same time.
“I do,” she whispers. Those words replay over and over in my head. They spark a fire inside of me that I didn’t realize was ready to burn. As she helps me get out of my jeans, there on her knees in front of me, I know that I’m finally going to fuck her like I’ve been dreaming for way too long. I know that I’m going to take her so many times she’ll be sore when she moves tomorrow.
I also know one other thing—one very important thing.
By God, I will hear her say I do again. She will marry me again and this time when she does I will never take it for granted and I will never fucking forget.
47
Hope
There’s nothing like regrets in the early, cold, bright dawn of day. Lying here in bed, listening to Aden breathe, I find myself wrestling with regret. Not really regret for last night—that was too beautiful to ever regret.
Instead, I find myself looking back on the time I’ve shared with Aden. I wish I could go back, to that day when Aden fell, and change everything—especially telling the hospital that I was his wife. I can’t. I wish I could take back the lies, change things…almost everything, but I can’t.
Last night was… everything. It was everything I had ever wanted with a man. It was dirty, hot, amazing and it was… love—at least on my part. Yet, I can’t help feeling it was another mistake. I was weak. I was a fool. I was so many things, I have been since the beginning—and none of them is good.
“Thank you for coming,” I tell one of the guests as she turns in her key. I’ve been doing this all morning, but the good news is that more will be replacing them this afternoon after three. I need to clean rooms and get that done, but I can’t—not yet. This was the last guest scheduled to leave today. Now that they’re gone, I have to talk to Aden. I can’t keep putting it off. I just can’t.
“Are you ready?” Aden asks on cue. His words make me jerk in surprise. If he only knew how ready I’m not. Still, his words are another sign.
Ready or not.
“Ready as I’ll ever be,” I mutter. “Aden, I really need to talk to you.”
“You really need to kiss me good morning,” he says, instead his voice dropping down until it has a gravely texture to it that sends chills down my spine and centers in the most feminine parts of my body. He steps into me, kissing the side of my neck, and taking me into his arms.
“I think we did enough kissing early this morning,” I tell him gently, doing my best to remain strong. Besides, I’m not wrong. Aden woke me up this morning kissing me, which led to other things besides kissing, which ended with him kissing me to stifle both our cries, as he drove deep inside of me and we climaxed together.
“There’s never enough kissing, honey,” he argues, his hand moving under my shirt and traveling up to palm my breast.”
“Aden,” I hiss. “Anyone could come in.”
“I’m more interested in making you come,” he responds.
“Aden!” I push away, forcing myself to—and that’s not easy. I want to give in to him more than I want my next breath.
“I really need to talk to you.”
“I’m sensing this isn’t something you can talk about while I’m making you come,” he mumbles, scratching the side of his face.
“No. It’s definitely not. It’s something that is very serious.”
“It has to wait then, honey.”
“What? No it doesn’t! This is important and can’t be put off.”
“I’m sensing that,” he agrees.
“So, we need to talk.”
“That’s not going to work for me, babe. We will be late and we can’t be late.”
“Late? Late for what?”
“I have a surprise for you and that surprise is not here. So we have to leave. We’ll have to have your talk later.”
“You already surprised me with the billboards…”
“This is not that kind of surprise. This is a surprise where I get the benefits. This is also a surprise I’ve spent all morning arranging and we can’t be late.”
“You got the benefits of the billboard surprise too,” I mumble.
“I did. I surely did, and let me tell you last night was fucking hot. So good and so hot that it inspired me to get creative with my surprise this morning—a surprise, I’ll repeat, that we can’t be late for. So I need you to get a move on and move that sexy ass of yours and go put on the clothes I laid out for you.”
“I… you were just trying to get me to sleep with you. How is us talking going to make us any later than that?”
“I wasn’t trying to get you to sleep with me,” he denies and my patience is about gone. It took all the courage I had to start this conversation and he’s ruining it.
“You were too.”
“Babe, I wasn’t. I was trying to fuck you hard and fast against the wall.”
I do a small body shiver, because that does sound really good. Then, I shake myself because I do not have time for that.
“That would still delay us.”
“It’d be a good delay, plus you go off in minutes, so it wouldn’t be a big delay—”
“I don’t,” I lie, and it’s a lie because with Aden in control I could go off immediately.
“Babe,” he growls and I have an urge to stick my tongue out at him, which is ridiculous since I’m getting ready to destroy my life.
That thought sobers me up quick.
“Aden we have to talk—”
“And we will. After. Now go put on the clothes I laid out and let’s get moving.”
“But…wait… you laid out clothes?”
“Hope,” he warns and his growl deepens and I try really hard to keep that body shiver under control—I only partially succeed.
“We can’t go anywhere. Who will watch Jack? The motel?”
“Jack is handled. Daria picked him up five minutes ago. Actually that’s about twenty now since you’ve had me talking for so long.”
“Why is it you talk to my best friend more than
I talk to her these days?”
“Babe can you ask me these questions when we’re on the road?”
“But the motel—”
“Is handled.”
“What? How?”
“I had enough money left over to hire a college student to clerk four hours a day. She should be here any minute.”
“But… I mean how do we know she’s safe? We’ve not trained her and how do we—”
“You were busy yesterday, trust me when I tell you I have this handled and how I handled it was seeing to this shit, while you were working.”
“But Aden—”
“And seeing to more stuff after I wore you out from fucking you this morning.”
“But Aden—”
“I can see nothing with you ever goes easy,” he grumbles and then he bends down and pulls on my legs, lifting me over his shoulder in a fireman’s hold.
“What are you doing?” I cry.
“I’m taking you to the bedroom where you are getting dressed and you will be ready to leave in ten minutes.”
“Aden we have to talk,” I cry, nearly desperate now.
“We will after. I promise. You can talk to your heart’s content. But right now you’re getting dressed and we are leaving for my surprise, or else you will have fucked up a lot of effort.”
“But you promise after that we will talk,” I ask him, desperately.
“I promise. Now get busy,” he warns depositing me in the bedroom, kissing me quickly on the lips and then slamming the door as he walks away.
I turn around and look at a white strapless dress that I haven’t worn in years, that is now laid across the bed with a blue bra and panty set placed beside it. I frown. I guess I’m getting dressed… and then after… talking…
It might make me a coward, but again I let him put me off. I won’t allow it to go the rest of the day though.
I can’t hide from this anymore.
48
Aden
“Did you like Crissy?” I ask, Hope—who is way too quiet. I haven’t been—for at least as long as I can remember—a nervous man by nature, but I feel like I’m walking barefoot on hot metal here. This morning I was so sure of her reaction. Now, I’m worrying how this might go. Daria spent an hour trying to talk me out of it, and I don’t know the woman well enough to understand why she doesn’t like me, but I do get that she doesn’t like me. So much so, that I feel like it’s driven a wedge between her and Hope. They barely talk lately.
“She seems nice. I like her tattoos,” Hope answers, staring out the window.
“You like tattoos?” I ask surprised, she hasn’t commented a lot about mine, and she has none on her body. It might be a little stupid, but I kind of like that she doesn’t. I like that the only marks on her creamy, white flesh are that of my bites, my marks and I like that if I spank her, then it’s my hand that is outlined.
“Of course I do,” she murmurs, still not turning around to look at me.
“But you don’t have any ink,” I remind her, more because I just want to get her talking.
“You don’t have to wear ink to admire it, Aden. I like your ink a lot.”
“You do?” I asked a mixture of surprised and pleased.
“Yeah, for a while it’s the only thing I liked about you,” she says with frank honesty.
“Thanks,” I mumble, and I’m not pouting. Grown men do not pout, but that did sting.
“To be fair, you were an ass of epic proportions.”
“I’m finding myself hopeful that you used past tense there.”
“I’m trying to be hopeful too,” she whispers and she sounds sad.
“Why do I feel like I’ve done something wrong, and only understand half of this conversation?”
“Maybe you should have let me talk with you this morning.”
“We can talk after, I promise,” I tell her, but I’m starting to worry she’s right.
“What are we doing here?” she asks a little bit later, when I pull up to the Clancy County Courthouse.
“Part of my surprise.”
“I don’t think I like this surprise. Are you serving me with papers? Aden, I can explain—” she starts and her face is so full of panic and worry that I kiss her before she can keep going.
“Hope, honey stop it,” I whisper against her lips, my hands on each side of her face, holding her to me.
“I’m not serving you with papers. I don’t want you out of my life. You and Jack are my life. This is a good surprise I promise,” I tell her praying she sees it like that.
“Aden we really have to talk,” she whispers, and her eyes are shining with unshed tears, her face pale.
“Soon,” I tell her, starting to fear what she has to tell me. I need to finish this before she does. I need this more than I could ever explain to her.
I all but stumble out of the car. I swear to Christ the next thing on my list is getting us a vehicle that doesn’t involve me folding my legs up into my intestines just to drive the damn thing.
I walk over to Hope’s side of the car to help her, but she’s already out and wringing her hands nervously. I stop her by putting my hand over hers. Her face slowly raises to look up at me.
“Aden, I have to tell you something,” she whispers.
“It’s going to be okay, Hope. Stop worrying.”
“But it’s not. Not when you find out. Aden, I’ve been lying.”
“I know,” I tell her, but I do it by walking her inside the building. She stops walking and I have to tug on her to get her started again.
“You know?”
“Yeah, babe. I know.”
“How do you know? When?” she cries, and one of the tears she’s been holding in falls. I stop, bend down and kiss it away, taking the salty residue on my lips.
“It was obvious, Hope. You’re a horrible liar,” I tell her with a gentle smile, trying to reassure her. “My girl wasn’t meant to lie. You’d be horrible at poker, babe.”
“You’re not mad? You’re not upset with me? You don’t want to have me—”
“I want you. I admit it annoyed me at first, but I could see why you did it.”
“You could?” she cries, her eyes going large, and her hand tightening in mine. “Really?”
“Of course I could. I was an ass to you and Jack, Hope. You deserved to get a little of your own back.”
“I can’t believe you’re saying this. I mean, I’m glad. Oh God, I’m so relieved. I was trying to figure out a way to tell you. I’ve been wanting to tell you forever, but I was so scared you would hate me. I don’t want you to hate me, Aden.”
“Honey, I don’t hate you. I love you.”
“You… You love me?”
“Completely,” I tell her, and I’m not sure she realizes I’ve started walking again, bringing her to the judge’s office.
“You love me? Even after knowing what all I’ve done?” she whispers, and her tears are falling harder.
“Can I help you?”
“Yes, we had a one o’clock appointment with Judge Palumbo,” I tell her and she grins. “Go on in. Everyone is already waiting for you inside.”
“Wait? The Judge? I thought you said you forgave me?” Hope cries, her body tightening and I am almost physically dragging her into the next room now.
“There was nothing to forgive, Hope.”
“Nothing to forgive… but—”
“Hope, honey, no man likes to be told his dick doesn’t work, but I get why you did it and I’m not mad. Besides, it doesn’t really matter. I believe we’ve proved often enough that it does work—really fucking good.”
“Aden, I don’t think out of everything you could be upset about, that your dick should be the main one. We need to talk more about this. This affects the rest of our lives.”
“Exactly, which is why we’re here today.”
“I’m afraid I don’t understand. If we’re not here to have me arrested, then why are we here?”
“Arrested? Hope, are you
okay? You’re talking crazy.”
“I… I’m not, maybe we should… Aden, why are we here?”
I smile, she’s crazy—but she’s my woman. I open the door and pull her inside. She looks over at Daria and Jack. Daria in a pink pant suit holding Jack’s hand who is wearing jeans and a pink shirt like me. I’m not much on wearing pink, but when Daria said it was Hope’s favorite color, I bit the bullet. The judge’s secretary brings in a small bouquet of pink and white roses with baby’s breath sprinkled in.
“We’re here to get married, Hope… or I guess renew our vows, either way. I just want the memory of you becoming my wife fresh in my mind and I’m going to cherish it.
“Aden—”
“And this time, when I make you my wife, I’m never going to forget.”
49
Ida Sue
15 minutes earlier
“I’m looking for my niece, Hope,” I demand, bursting into my sister Edna’s old motel. It looks good. Looks better than it did when my sister ran it, if I’m honest. Little Hope has done really good, even if she did get herself in a bit of a pickle.
“I’m afraid she’s not here.”
“Where is she?” I ask, admiring the sugar skulls that the clerk has tattooed up and down her arms. They’re a mixture of reds, blacks and pinks. It kind of matches her hair. You have to admire a girl who commits to matching and accessorizing. I wonder if she’s single. My Blue needs a girl to bring some color into his life.
“She went to the courthouse,” the woman answers.
“The courthouse?” White growls, from behind me. “Aden is having her arrested?”
When White told me what kind of mess little Hope had gotten herself into, I knew I had to come up here. I’m all she has left. My brother—God rest his soul—loved his girls, but he did them no favors saddling them with the mother they had. Charity is pretty grounded and escaped without too much damage, but Hope and Faith were younger and their mother chewed them up and spit them out. Hope struggled, but having Jack helped her. Faith is still completely lost. Edna thought giving the motel to Hope would give her a sense of belonging and put her and little Jack on solid ground. Faith… has a trust set aside, but she can’t touch it until she gets married. If she got it now, the poor girl would just waste it. She has zero direction. If she wasn’t so sweet, I’d be worried her mother’s blood had tainted her.