by Jillian Neal
“You deserve every happy ending in the world, Nat.”
“So do you.” Her vow was fervent. She turned to stare him in the eye.
“You said yes so whether or not I deserved it I got it.”
“I want you to believe you deserved it.”
“I’m working on that. Need a little more time. Kind of hoping seeing the Campbells next weekend will help me get there.”
“I’ll take that for now. I can’t wait to meet them.”
“I can’t wait for them to meet you.”
An ocean full of memories threatened to pull him under as Aaron drove them down the tiny two-lane road that made up most of Gentry, Missouri.
“I’m nervous,” Natalie admitted. She threw another Cheeto in her mouth.
“They’ll love you.”
“I hope so.”
“Is it awful that I hope they’ve changed Josh’s room?” He’d been wanting to ask for the last two hours.
“No. That isn’t awful at all. It’s a real thing, just like you tell me when I feel guilty.”
“Okay, then I hope they have.”
“I’ve never been to a town smaller than Pleasant Glen.”
“It’s barely even a town. It’s more like a few streets off of this street. And…” he turned down his foster parents’ long gravel driveway, “…this farm.”
“You okay?” She squeezed his hand.
“Not sure.”
“Deep breaths.”
“Yeah. Doing that.”
His foster mother opened the driver’s side door before he’d even shut down this truck. “Aaron,” she hugged and laughed and cried all at the same time. He didn’t know which thing to respond to so he hugged her back as best as he was able. “I’m so glad you’re finally back.”
After he’d extracted himself from the truck, he opened Natalie’s door. She received an equally voracious hug. “You must be Natalie.”
“Yes, ma’am. It’s so nice to meet you. Uh, my mama sent you jam and my sister-in-law sent pies.” She held up the basket she’d barely managed to save from the onslaught of the hug.
“Well, come on in. Gary can’t wait to see you.”
Measuring his breaths and timing his own heartbeats, Aaron wondered if this had been a terrible idea. The first breath of the kitchen that had at one time been the only home he’d ever thought of as his, brought back every memory he’d tried to forget.
There were pictures of him and Josh all over the farm from their youth. “Aaron, I can’t get out of this chair to hug you the way I want to but come here, son.” Mr. Campbell held up his hands.
The hug cemented him in the world once again. They didn’t hate him. They didn’t blame him for Josh’s death. They still loved him.
“I was beginning to wonder if we were ever going to get to see you again. The day before you called us I’d decided we were going to drive to that town in Nebraska and find you. Don’t you ever stay away this long again.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I promise. I’ll bring him back.” Natalie’s grin expanded the width of her face.
“Uh, Mr. Campbell, sir, this is my fiancée, Natalie Camden.”
“It’s so lovely to meet you, sweetheart. You let me know if he ever gives you any trouble.”
She giggled. “He won’t, but I will.”
“Sit down, sit down,” Mrs. Campbell directed. “Natalie brought pie and I want to hear how you two met.”
Aaron sincerely doubted his foster mother wanted to hear about Natalie asking him to sleep with her so he decided to tell their original truth. “Honest to God, it was love at first sight, just took me a little while to convince myself I was good enough of a guy for her to date.”
“Then it took me a little while after that to work up the courage to ask him to go out with me again,” she concluded.
“Well, sometimes the best things in life take time and the time you spend building the life you want is always worth it.” Mrs. Campbell squeezed Aaron’s hand. “I’m just so glad you have you here. I swore I wouldn’t cry, but I am.”
“I’m sorry I stayed away so long. I never meant to hurt you.”
“Honey, I knew you blamed yourself for Josh. We all needed time to work through that. But now I want to celebrate life with my living children. I’ll see him again someday and then I’ll spend every moment I can with him.”
“Mrs. Campbell we’d really love for you to come out to the Glen and come to the wedding. I’d like to do it before the first snowfall. We’ve put off happiness for so long I don’t want to wait anymore.” Natalie seemed to know the perfect things to say. Aaron wasn’t even surprised. She was perfection.
“We’d love to come. Were you thinking of having a big service, Natalie? Aaron says your family has quite the ranch.”
“We do have a big ranch but I don’t want a big wedding. Just family and of course the Sevens.”
“Of course,” Mrs. Campbell chuckled. “I know it’s silly but I used to imagine that Josh and Aaron would both have their weddings here. Your parents are probably beside themselves with excitement.”
“Actually, all but one of my brothers and my sister got married in the Glen. Mama and Daddy are probably sick of having them by now. Why don’t we do it here?”
“Are you serious?” Aaron loved the idea but wanted their wedding to be whatever she wanted.
“I’m completely serious.”
Tears sprang back to his foster mother’s eyes. “Oh, honey, I never meant to make you think you should do that for me. I was just dreaming out loud.”
“Mrs. Campbell, ma’am, you loved Aaron and took care of him when no one else had ever done that for him before. I want him to get married here. It’s the way it should be. It’s perfect actually.”
“When would you like to have the ceremony? I can take care of anything you want.” The ladies sprang into action. Mr. Campbell and Aaron just smiled.
“What if we did it Sunday?”
“Like in the day after tomorrow, Sunday?” Aaron wondered if all of the sugar she had in the car was making her a little nuts.
“Why not? You both just said you’d put off happiness for too long. You think you can get your family out here tomorrow?” Mrs. Campbell asked.
“Of course, and I’ll get my sister to bring her gown.”
“Nat, we’ve only been engaged one week. I don’t have you a ring yet.” The thought of being married to her in two days’ time was just too good. He couldn’t possibly have it. “I haven’t even had time to save up for our rings yet.”
“I have plenty of money for rings, Aaron. Surely there’s some kind of jewelry store we can get to from here.”
“Kansas City is only an hour and a half away.”
“There you go. Please.” She turned the full power of those gorgeous hazel eyes on him.
“Like I would say no. I just want you to be sure.”
“Just like every other time you’ve asked me if I was sure of something, I am very sure.”
“Speaking of you needing to save up for things, Judy, hand me that paperwork.” Mr. Campbell pointed to a stack of papers on the kitchen counter. “Even though I told you not to, you kept sending us all of that money. I got tired of trying to get you to stop so I had my financial advisor invest it for you. Should be a nice little nest egg for you and your lovely Natalie. We don’t need your money, son. We just need to see the two of you a little more often.”
“You saved all of this.” Aaron stared down at the rather large amount of money in the balance column of a high interest savings account.
Ms. Campbell nodded. “Every penny. It was never your job to take care of us, Aaron. It was our job to take care of you. I worry we didn’t do all we should’ve. We should’ve figured out how to come see you when you got back to the States. I just didn’t know if I could handle seeing you wounded after everything with Josh. Then Gary had his fall and that took some adjustment, but never, not for one moment, were we not thinking of you and wishing we
were with you. I kept telling myself you’d come see us and we could give you the money. I hope you’ve had enough to live on. I worried myself sick over that.”
“I was fine, Mrs. Campbell. Thank you for this. I just wanted to do something for you. You did so much for me.”
“That’s the thing about family, son, you don’t have to repay people for loving you. You are a fine man who has done things far and above the call of duty. We could never be more proud of you and for you,” Mr. Campbell vowed.
“Thank you, sir.”
“See, I told you we both deserve a happy ending,” Natalie reminded him.
“You were right. We do.”
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
That evening in his old bedroom, Aaron wrapped his arms around Natalie’s waist. He’d made it all the way through dinner barely touching her. He was starved for the feel of her warmth against him. He was an addict and there was no going back.
“You know, there used to be a rule about having girls in my bedroom when I lived here before.” He nuzzled his beard against her cheek until she leaned to expose the tender skin of her neck. He helped himself to a taste.
“Well, since we’re getting married in two days maybe they won’t mind.”
“Can’t believe you’re really going to be my wife on Sunday. I want you to be sure. It’s really quick. I don’t want you to have any regrets.”
She spun in his arms and laid her head against his chest. “I have a lot of regrets, Aaron. I’ve done and said some awful things in my life. But I will never regret this. I told you I’m tired of waiting on us to get to be together. The farm is so beautiful and it means so much to them. I can’t wait.”
“Our wedding isn’t for them, baby. It’s for us. It means the world to me that you want to do this for them, but…”
She kissed him. Their tongues tangled, each one anxious for the other. Another remnant of doubt erased from his mind.
“I’m just going to kiss you every time you think I don’t want to do this.”
“You are really, really bad at punishments, my sweet little Domme.”
“I’m serious. I was never one of those girls who dreamed about a big fancy wedding with a dress that looks like a cupcake swallowed her whole and dozens of people I barely know watching me walk down the aisle. That entire scenario makes me want to gag, honestly. This is perfect.”
“As long as this is what you want, I couldn’t be happier. Is there anything you want to talk about before you vow to put up with me for the rest of your life?” He needed to make certain she knew what that might mean. “I’m still not quite the way I’m supposed to be.”
“For me, you’re completely perfect.” She rose up on her tiptoes to plaster her mouth to his again.
Until the moment he’d slipped the engagement ring on her finger, every kiss had been seeking, asking questions, a test of sorts. She’d shattered the invisible bounds her uncle kept her in, even after his banishment. She’d forgiven Aaron for his transgressions. Now, their kisses were full of answers and promises of what was to come.
She stepped back, her eyes full of wanton heat. Her tongue darted out over her lips. She whipped her shirt over her head. Her breasts were full of heat. Those perfect peach nipples pressed to the lace of her bra.
A moan tangled in his throat. “Keep going.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Jesus. The things you do to me, Nat.”
Keeping her gaze locked on him, she toed out of her boots and slipped the button on her jeans from its enclosure. His eyes widened as she shimmied them down her short legs.
“Holy fuck,” he panted as she revealed a light pink g-string that covered nothing at all.
“Holly made me get it. Now I see why.” She giggled. “Don’t drool, honey.”
One step forward and he crushed her body to his. His hands dove down the slight elastic straps of those panties that should’ve been illegal, and unabashedly groped her ass.
She pressed her pussy to his cock still bound behind far too many layers of cloth. Gripping her ass, he thrust against her until she whimpered. “Shh, we have to be quiet, baby.”
“Oh God, I want you,” she panted.
“I’m gonna give you all of me, over and over again.”
“Now.”
“There’s my impatient girl.” Lifting her up, he half-tossed her on his old bed.
“Now who’s being impatient?” That impish grin did him in.
Tearing off his clothes, he lifted her feet and dispensed with her socks. He trailed long, languorous kisses from her calves up her thighs. When she spread her legs for him, he paused reminding himself never to let that feeling of being offered heaven from an angel become insignificant.
His cock throbbed out its need. Reaching her hand up she stroked him. He choked back a growl. Suddenly, she sat up. A desperate shudder quaked through him as her lips circled his head and her tongue cleansed him. “Hungry, baby?”
“Yes.” Slowly, deliberately she slid her mouth down his cock, tasting him.
“It’s all for you. Take it.”
She sucked with more vigor. His hands dove to her hair, tangling in the long strands. He allowed himself one lengthy moment of ecstasy before he pulled back. “Tonight, I want to come deep inside of you.”
She reclined, offering herself to him like a delectable feminine feast.
Working quickly, he popped the clasp of her bra and dispensed with it. Her nipples visibly throbbed out a needy call for his attention.
For the moment, he ignored them. Moving his hands to her panties, he gently slipped them down her legs. “Naughty little panties make me want to do all kinds of naughty things with you.”
“Good.”
He brought the scrap of satin to his face and inhaled the soft spicy nectar of her.
A breathy moan escaped her throat.
“Shh,” he reminded.
She shifted so he could pull down the soft worn sheets and blankets. He wanted her comfortable and safe. Needed her warm and hungry all for him.
His fingers trailed up her inner thigh. Her heat invited him to her core. “All for me,” he whispered as he gently opened her.
Her eyes fluttered closed. Her mouth parted on another slight moan.
“You’re so hot and wet for me, baby. How long have you been thinking about this? How long have you needed me to take care of my girl?”
“I never stop thinking about it. I always need you.”
He took her mouth with his own and pressed his fingers fully inside her, conducting an assault on her body.
Instinctively, he moved his fingers right where she needed them. He knew precisely where to go. She jerked her head away gasping for breath, and rocked against his hand. Back and forth to the rhythm she needed.
“Feels so good right there doesn’t it. I know. I know right where my baby needs me to touch, needs me to suck.” He spun his tongue over her right nipple as she arched her back. Her fevered pulse was alive in her clit and her nipples. Her entire body honed in on his touch. Perfection.
Her jaw tensed. Heat streaked from her breasts to her pussy. Her body begged for release. Giving her the friction he knew she required, he captured her gasped groan of his name in his mouth.
Unable to draw this out any longer, he left her only long enough to grab the condoms from his bag. The next moment, he was on top of her, penetrating her fully in one long fluid thrust.
She bucked against him, anxious for his fullness. His mind spun. Every heartbeat timed itself to hers. He pressed further, taking every centimeter all for himself, in the bed of his youth.
His worlds collided and then as her eyes opened and her body accepted him so fully he could no longer tell where he stopped and she began, his worlds aligned. Every regret, every mistake, the penitence he owed, it all dissolved in the heat of her gaze. “I love you so much, Nat.”
“I love you, too.” She wrapped her arms over his back drawing his scars to her body, the only antidote to his pain.
> And there in that room, in that home, in her body, he found the sanctification he’d so desperately been seeking. In her devotion he baptized himself. Every tainted memory of his life before was washed away.
She trembled. He clung to her as they came together two halves of a whole.
They’d been all over each other every available moment for the last week. Something about that night was different. Natalie sighed as she lay naked in his arms with soft flannel sheets scattered around them.
“That was amazing,” she whispered in the darkness.
“It’s always amazing with you, but that was something else, something beyond amazing.”
“Yeah. That’s what I was thinking, too.” She traced the loops and lines of the wings tattooed on his chest. The man who protected her, loved her, and worshipped her was also the man who made her fly. They were getting married in two days. She had no doubts.
“Can I ask you something I’ve been wanting to talk about?” His voice trembled.
“Of course.”
“Do you want to have kids?”
Natalie considered that. “I love my nieces and nephews. I just never thought about it. That seemed like part of that happy ending I was never going to have.”
“It kills me when you say that. Like physically hurts me.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No, baby. I’m sorry for everything you endured that made you think even for one second that you didn’t deserve a happy ending.”
“Do you want to have kids?” she asked him.
“Yeah. Some of our own and maybe some that aren’t ours.”
Realization formed in her mind and crystallized in her heart. “You want us to be foster parents?”
“Only if you want to. It might be tough. Kids like me, we aren’t always so easy to love.”
“Yes. I want that. Oh my gosh, that’s perfect. I never even thought of it but that would mean so much to me.”
“You know, a lot of times when kids get removed from their homes it’s because of…”
“Things like I went through or things much worse. I know. That’s part of why I want to do this so badly. Believe me, I get making yourself unloveable to protect yourself. I can relate to that. How do we do it? How do we foster?”