Mr. Always & Forever

by Ashlee Price

  “How can you ask me that?”

  Callie didn’t know what that meant and she looked down. It had taken all of her courage to say anything, but she knew that the only way he was going to stop her from going back to Chris, was to want her in all ways. She had to be the good wife and in the back of her mind, Callie figured that once her innocence was gone, Chris would have less want for her. He only wanted her so he could control her and be the first, but if she was already taken, maybe she wouldn’t appeal to a man like that anymore.

  “I, I don’t know the way of men.”

  Why was everything she was saying driving him crazy? Did she know what little things like that would do to him? Was she really that innocent?

  “I think you know enough Callie, to know that the man this morning wants what every man wants from you. I am no different.”

  It was what she wanted to hear, but it also made her shiver inside a little and look away. Callie was aware that many men wanted the same thing from her, but it did nothing to make it any easier to read the need for her in his eyes.

  “Then why have you not…?” She couldn’t finish the sentence, though neither one of them needed her to. It was clear what it was that he hadn’t done. They had been married a week and she was as untouched as when she began. Callie was starting to worry that something was wrong with her. There was nothing she seemed able to do about it though. This was her last chance before Chris came the next day.

  “I don’t have good luck with women that I… do that with. I don’t want to ruin it.”

  “You wouldn’t.”

  He sat back and saw something else on her face. It wasn’t just lust that he saw, but fear as well. What was she so afraid of?

  “And this has nothing to do with the man here this morning?”

  Callie looked away for a moment. Was she that easy to see through? It appeared she was and he was not giving her any slack whatsoever. “Chris coming here has nothing to do with the fact that we are married now.”

  Thomas didn’t like the answer and it felt like he was being manipulated. He didn’t have to look hard to find something more in her look. She was not trying to seduce him because she was dying to be with him. It was because she was afraid and wanted his protection. That was how he saw it and he gruffly told her that she didn’t have to do anything to get that. “You are my wife Callie. I told you before that I wouldn’t let anything happen to you. I meant it.”

  ***

  He went to bed that night and wished that he had gone against his first thoughts. There was something about the way she had looked at him, but he didn’t want her if she didn’t really want him. In the end, he had thought about it too much and for too long and by morning, Thomas was waiting for the man to come back. He wasn’t going to be welcome there and he had already decided that no matter who told him to do what, Callie was not going anywhere with anyone.

  When the knock finally came, it was only the man that had been there the day before. He was there to offer more money and Thomas knew that the lack of help arriving, told him that Lord Farish wasn’t going to hear his plight. It was Scotland and though they may have done things differently there, she was his wife and there was nothing that Chris could do about it. No matter what could be said about Callie, she had found a way out of it.

  Thomas told her later that evening when he got back what had happened and told her that she was free now. Callie thanked him, but she didn’t like the way he said it. She didn’t want to be free. She wanted to just be his wife. Callie wanted a family like every other woman and as Thomas still didn’t go to her at night, she felt like she was on the right road to getting everything that she wanted.

  The two got closer together and it was several weeks later before Thomas’ needs came to a head again. It was too long to go without a woman and he noticed his wife a lot more than before. He also noticed more of all women. He just couldn’t get it from his mind. Callie seemed to notice a difference because she was getting closer to him and making more contact as they went through the days. At night she went to her own room though and he was left to think about the soft touches that they shared. It was a slow torture for Thomas and it was becoming harder to not wish for more.

  Callie had learned a lot about her husband from gossip in the village. He was known to be something of a ladies’ man and he even turned the charm on her so much sometimes that she could barely keep her breath, but he never let it go any further. The tension in the house was rising and Callie tried to figure out a way to ease them. She wished that she knew what he wanted, wished that she could take away all of that self-control.

  There were several times that she had tried in her own ways. She made him his favorite meal and made sure he had everything he needed. That didn’t work. So she started dressing with her neckline lower and giving him the same look that she had seen more experienced women use. That didn’t work either and Callie was really starting to think that she was never going to be able to catch his eye. She had tried everything in her arsenal of feminine wiles that she knew of and nothing seemed to work.

  ***

  So several weeks into their marriage, both had gotten more relaxed with each other amongst the constant tension that crept in between them. Thomas didn’t stop on the way home anymore, hadn’t since she had shown such displeasure and though he thought about taking her in all ways, he was still worried that it would destroy the relationship. He wasn’t good with the after and even though he doubted he could ever tire of her, there was still something holding him back.

  But all that was about to change and he didn’t even see it coming. He was home a little earlier, Bertraud taking the last post patrol by himself for the castle. He didn’t know why, but he really wanted to see Callie. They had been getting along well and she had promised to make him a dessert that he hadn’t had since he was a child. He expected to catch her in the middle of making it, but instead he caught her in a tub of hot water. There was nothing left to the imagination and he swallowed hard. She didn’t see him yet, washing herself with her back to him and he had to stop himself from dropping what was in his hand.

  Thomas wasn’t sure how long he stood there for, but she stood up and all of her curves came to his eyes and his body responded from his long drought. Callie turned around to get something to dry herself off with and stopped when she saw him standing there. It wasn’t that he was there, more that he was looking at her in such a way. Callie moved to cover herself and he finally moved towards her and stopped her hand. “Don’t.”

  Her body trembled from the burning inside of her and the cool air on her damp skin. Goose bumps covered her flesh as she stood there in front of him, waiting for him to do something, anything. Instead Thomas just looked at her and found himself shaking on the inside as well.

  “I thought you wouldn’t be home for a while.”

  Thomas nodded, but didn’t say anything. His heart was pounding in his chest and he knew there was no going back. He had to have her and all he could think of was wondering why he had taken so long to do so.

  “I got home early. I think I should make it a point to get home sooner from now on.”

  She blushed at his comment and the intense look on his face. He was taking in every inch of her and it was just too much. “I need to get out.”

  He nodded, still not moving from in front of her. Thomas just nodded that he heard her, but made no indication that he actually had. He was transfixed. “You need to come to bed with me.”

  Callie had a feeling it meant more than it implied. “Bed? Supper is not even ready yet, Thomas.”

  Food was the last thing on his mind as he took her hand and helped her out of the tub. She was standing there dripping before he finally covered her with a cloth to dry her. He didn’t want to cover up her smooth skin. He wasn’t giving her any time to think about anything else, pulling her with him into his room. Thomas was shaking and hoping that he would be able to give her what she needed. He was too needy and worried that he was going to swa
llow her whole.

  Throwing her down onto the bed, she bounced a little and his eyes were riveted to her chest. He tried to ignore it, but he couldn’t. Thomas was pushing at his own clothing, trying to be in the same state as her. He should have gone slower, not unleashing himself in the way that he did. In that way she was overwhelmed and backing away from him slightly. Thomas wasn’t taking any more time though and pulled her back to him and slid on top of her.

  She was left gasping and then their lips met and she was left thinking of nothing else but the way he felt against her. Her thighs opened naturally for him to move between and then he was pushing against her most sensitive place. Gasping, her eyes closed and she waited for what was to come. The pressure on her was discomforting, but also made her want more. She moved her hips upwards, rolling his tip along her wet heat before he finally pulled back and pushed in.

  Callie was filled and she cried out with the power of it all. It was almost too much for her, her sharp nails cutting into his back as she called out his name. Thomas had never felt so satisfied from one movement and he was ready to lose himself already. There was going to be no prolonging the pleasure, not when she was already lifting up and moving as she squeezed him tight. Gritting his teeth, he brought her to pleasure before falling off the same cliff.

  He had been crazy to think that it couldn’t be the same. It was in some ways, but as he looked down at her and met her bright blue eyes, he knew that there was something more. They were something more and she had finally become a proper wife.

  “We should have done this a long time ago.”

  Callie nodded and whimpered as he pulled away and lay down beside her. It was too intense one moment and the next she was aching from an open space that she knew only he was meant to fill. It had been what she had wanted all along and getting it was even better than she could have hoped for.

  She looked up at the side of his face and smiled. “I am glad you came home early. I didn’t think I was ever going to get your attention.”

  Thomas just grinned and closed his eyes. “Well, you definitely have it now, wife.”

  THE END

  Bad Boy’s Bridesmaid Surprise

  I’ve made a terrible mistake… I’m at a rehearsal for the wedding of my best friend since high school, a spoiled girl who I’ve grown close to nonetheless. But she’s marrying a bad boy, specifically one I’ve had a crush on since my teenage years – and whose child, I just discovered today, I’m carrying inside me… We never meant for it to happen this way. Jeff and I had been carrying my friend, passed out drunk, up to her room one night after her bachelorette party. With her out of the way, we’d started talking, and one thing had led to another – we found ourselves entwined, releasing so many years of pent-up desire for one another in an intense, burning fling. We realized, almost instantly, that it was a mistake, however, and tried to go our separate ways, until the baby eventually brought me back to him. Will I be able to find the true love I’ve been seeking for so long, and will it destroy my years-long friendship with my old classmate in the process?

  Chapter 1

  God, I was getting nauseous… I could barely see straight, holding my fingers pinched together at the bridge of my nose, trying desperately to focus and to dull the pain. Of course, I couldn’t remain this way for too long at a time at the risk of getting snapped at, and so I only did it in snatches, when the bride wasn’t looking. She would turn her head in my direction every now and then, trying to find something else to bitch about, whatever she could find, really, and I would hold my eyes open to the point that they began to water. At last she would turn away again, and I would crunch my eyes shut again, so that tears trickled down along my face, making my mascara run in places here and there.

  Good Lord, when would this all be over?

  I wished one of the other girls, perceiving my discomfort, would have leaned over and offered me a damn ibuprofen or something, or better yet, just a shot of whiskey. After all, they’d all surely numbed themselves accordingly in preparation for today, knowing as they must have that Clarissa would prove to be a bridezilla, given her general demeanor, even under normal circumstances, whining and complaining until the cows came home.

  But then again, I didn’t really know any of Clarissa’s other friends that well, and so I wasn’t on a good footing to ask any favors of them to begin with. I’d known Clarissa since high school, and our relationship, for what it was, spanned back to that period. These other girls she’d all met through college, or work, or through mutual friendship via her fiancé – I didn’t really know, honestly, nor did I care especially much as far as that was concerned. But whatever the case, I felt I could be confident that these other women she’d befriended or ensnared, whichever you preferred to call it, over the years, likely shared many of her less than appealing personality traits.

  Her whining, her bitching, her tendency to raise hell until anything and everything was precisely how she wanted it to be…

  Judging by their looks, their facial expressions, these were the precise same sorts of girls, the kind who could pout, or cry, stick out their lower lip, and get what they wanted out of life at the drop of a hat. The shrieks of annoyance from Clarissa, presently giving me one hell of a migraine, were in all likelihood the normal means of communication for the rest of her bridesmaids. Indeed, their expressions seemed not to change as Clarissa snarled and snapped at whatever she could find worth criticizing, so apparently, none of them had as much problem with her attitude as I had.

  “What the hell is that doing there? It’s supposed to go over there!” chided the bride, pointing to something I couldn’t see in my haze. I put a hand on my abdomen, like I was going to be sick, but no one seemed to pay me any attention.

  I was sick, in a way, though not on the point of losing my lunch or anything. Just like I’d been hollowed out, mostly, gutted, left with such a vacuum inside me that I felt like I could collapse at any minute.

  I tried to distract myself, looking at the other bridesmaids, admiring their outfits. Of course, this didn’t help me all that much either… As I gazed at them, trying to focus on their elegant dresses, it was inevitable that I should instead be drawn to examine their figures. Their luscious, ripe young bodies, so thin and so carefully managed that they seemed almost artificial. Their plump asses and their supple breasts, their fake tan skin, their platinum blonde, carefully kept hair, their bleached white teeth… God, they were all gorgeous…

  And I, by comparison – well, suffice it to say, it was easy to tell what kind of women Clarissa liked to associate with as a rule, and I most definitely did not fit the bill in that regard. On top of my raging headache, I was now beginning to feel vastly insecure about my own body, like my curvaceous figure was hanging awkwardly out in the open, and risked bursting through the seams of my dress at any damn moment.

  I took in a deep breath, as though trying to bring in my stomach and prevent this from happening. However, it only succeeded in pushing my breasts together, my cleavage deepening, and the top of my gown straining to compensate for the forward thrust of my boobs.

  Plus, I looked damn ridiculous in the process, I quickly realized…

  “Maggie… What the hell are you doing? Don’t stand like that,” Clarissa snapped the instant upon seeing me, and I exhaled quickly, certain as I did so that the aforementioned phobia of dress splitting was about to come true.

  “Sorry,” I said hurriedly, offering no explanation, and thankfully Clarissa’s hawkish gaze was redirected quickly enough.

  I’d always been a curvier girl, ever since I was growing up. And as a rule, I tended to be a very body positive person. During school, I’d been picked on every now and then, and maybe I wasn’t always as popular as I could have been, but I managed to regain my self-esteem by the time senior year rolled around. And that, in turn, led to acceptance from my peers.

  College had been even better, allowing me to explore my sexuality in depth, and convincing me that there were, in fact, men out
there interested in me – a lot of them, actually…

  When I stopped trying to directly comparing myself with others, I could even be considered hot…

  My curves fell in all the right places, emphasizing the grace of my femininity, sloping elegantly out into my cushioned, delicate breasts, my wide, delectable thighs, my ample, juicy buttocks. I had a seductive, beautiful face, with flaring nostrils, tight, red lips, sleek brunette hair flowing down along the sides, and a set of piercing green eyes that could lure a man into my trap like a siren drawing a damn fisherman into the ocean.

  I was, I repeat, hot… And I routinely told myself as much.

  But around the sorts of women who comprised my present company, I felt so out of place and insecure, my body more on display than usual as it was in this tiny little bridesmaid’s dress, and my figure easily the thickest and most substantial in this twiggy little succession of model-like women.

  I felt like a damn pumpkin in a line of neatly arranged corn stalks…

  God, this line of thinking wasn’t helping me at all… My head was pounding harder, I was feeling worse and worse about myself, and the revelation I’d had earlier that morning was only beginning to eat away further at me, more and more…

  I swallowed hard, my mouth dry, and I wished to God I had something to drink just then…

  I continued to crane my head around, looking for anything, anything at all, to distract me. Right now we were in the middle of the rehearsal for Clarissa’s wedding next Saturday, and if her present, volatile reactions were any indicator, the genuine occasion would prove to be nothing short of a disaster… And so, any time my eyes landed on something, I began to think of ways she could start tearing into something about them, some way that something must surely be long, and I saw my afternoon spanning onward and onward in this manner, this discomfort, with no end in sight.