“Orin, Stop!” I ran over, yanking at his arm, the massive bulge of which felt larger than normal. “Let him go! Please, let him go.”
Slowly Orin released his fingers and Bradley.
Bradley fell to his knees coughing, struggling for air. My stomach turned at the thought of what almost happened.
“Jesus Christ, man.” Bradley finally got back on his feet but his voice still sounded hoarse.
“Orin, what are you doing here?” I asked. He and I locked in a stare-down as if Bradley wasn’t even there.
“I think the question is what are you doing here?” he asked roughly, anger coating every single word.
I blinked several times not really knowing how to answer. Telling him the truth wasn’t something I wanted to do.
Orin’s face softened.
“Lizzie…” he started, this time with tenderness.
Heat rose up my face partly out of embarrassment but mostly anger. He’d seen what I was trying to do. Possibly all of it. Me trying to seduce Bradley in the garden before we were married.
My stomach rolled again. No one was supposed to know about this.
“I... I... ” The words wouldn’t come.
“And you,” he turned raging Bradley. “You are more than capable to fight her off.”
“I tried,” Bradley yelled at Orin though took a big stumble backward when Orin stepped toward him.
“I didn’t want him to,” I yelled just as loudly, bringing both sets of eyes squarely to me.
“Why would you do this?” he roared at me.
I hadn’t seen that side of him yet but somehow I wasn’t scared.
He’d never hurt me. No matter how upset he became but there was something else in with the anger. Regret? Maybe.
“I just... don’t want to be passed off to someone else,” I finally admitted.
“What?” both men asked at the same time.
“I... figured if I did this, I’d be ruined. If something happened and we,” I motioned between myself and my fiancé. “For whatever reason didn’t get married then my father wouldn’t be able to pass me off to his third choice. I’d be ruined.”
I wrapped my fingers around the opening at the top of my dress, suddenly very aware that I was exposing myself to them both at the same time.
Orin’s face softened.
Bradley rubbed his forehead but kept his distance from both Orin and me.
“You should still wait until you’re actually married,” Orin finally said.
“It’s only a few weeks,” I countered. “What difference does it make?”
“It just does.” Orin’s voice rose again and he looked like he was about to come unhinged.
He moved toward me roughly, the heat rolling off him warming me. It would’ve scared most people.
“Let’s get married,” he said as he stopped in front of me.
His words knocked the wind out of me.
“What?”
“If you’re going to be ruined, I’m going to do the ruining.”
Chapter Eleven
“Say yes,” Orin said. “Marry me. We’ll go tonight.”
I’d never known him to say anything he didn’t mean. At first, I thought he was trying to throw me off my axis, get to stop my plan to be with Bradley. But the firm set of his jaw and the intent look on face meant he was serious.
“I… I... ” the words I needed eluded me.
This night didn’t feel real. Like I’d wake up in my bed realizing I’d been dreaming all along. I hoped that wouldn’t be the case because I’d be devastated.
The idea of a life I wanted desperately being within my reach filled me with fear. My hands shook and my heart thumped hard against my chest. I hoped he couldn’t hear it.
Orin grabbed my arm and pulled me away from Bradley.
This wasn’t the proposal I dreamed of but I didn’t care. He was willing to marry me.
“Wait.” I wriggled out of his grip, which had loosened a bit, to run back to Bradley. “Bradley,” I said breathlessly. “I have to go with him. I have to.”
“I understand. I would have treated you well and we may even have been content but neither of us would’ve been truly happy.” He swallowed roughly. “You deserve to be happy, Elizabeth.”
He said it with such sincerity and I hoped one day he’d find happiness of his own. He deserved it as much as I did.
“This is going to cause you problems, too,” I said to Bradly because he had to marry someone. If not me, someone else.
And I’d never be able to predict if Father would put any of the blame for me running off on him.
“I’m sure there’s someone else lined up. It won’t matter who.”
I’d known that very thing but hearing him say it made me incredibly sad.
I nodded quickly before dropping a kiss to his cheek then ran right back to Orin.
This day turned out much differently than I had expected when I woke that morning.
Moving quickly and precisely, I slipped into my room and stopped short. Orin already waited inside for me.
I grabbed a satchel and stuffed my most prized possessions into it. A photo of my parents in happier times before me and my mother’s necklace. Then some clothing. Nightwear, practical, not beautiful, a few dresses that would have to be ironed after being crumpled into a ball and shoved into the bag, and two versatile pairs of shoes.
Then we left.
There was a moment, a very small one, where I realized I’d probably never be welcomed back in that house. Though I’d never been very welcome anyway.
Orin drove us out of town, neither of us speaking. I watched his face for signs that he changed his mind. His jaw remained carved in stone.
He was really doing this. We were really doing this. After all the weeks he insisted we couldn’t be together, he was whisking me out of town for no other reason than he couldn’t stand not to.
Couldn’t stand for someone else to have me.
We drove for half an hour if the way the sun drifted further into the horizon indicated passage of time before I gained the courage to ask a question.
“Why now, Orin?” He didn’t answer and instead kept his eyes glued to the road in front of us. “Please.” I needed to know. Needed to know what changed.
“I thought I could do it, Lizzie. I thought I could.” His hands tightened.
“What?” I touched his arm. The muscle under his skin jumped at the contact.
“Watch you be someone else’s wife,” he finally said. “Don’t misunderstand—this is a terrible idea, but I can’t let another man have you.”
I smiled at his answer. Someone wanted me.
Orin wanted me.
I’d never been wanted and my heart swelled to twice its size. There was no doubt in my mind that if I told him I truly wanted Bradley or anyone else, he would’ve turned us around and taken me back.
I couldn’t even think of someone else let alone say it.
“I’m extremely glad you couldn’t,” I said still grinning like a fool.
I focused on the passing trees to allow myself those few moments of excitement. It all happened so quickly that I hadn’t had time to react other than to say yes.
But I was about to marry a man of my choosing. Unheard of in Father’s circles although if I recall correctly his and my mother’s marriage hadn’t been prearranged.
“Wait,” I snapped sitting up straight as a board. “How did you know I was there with Bradley.”
He wet his lips then held them together tightly. I bounced with every bump in the road. Autos were convenient but not the smoothest ride. We made slow progress but the air around us remained still and thick. Like the weight of what we were about to do pressed down on the both of us.
My brain raced. Could he go to jail for this? I wouldn’t put it past my father. How would Father react? He’d hit me before, in front of other people, what exactly would he do when he learned of this?
All the thinking tired me out. My eyes grew he
avy although I didn’t ever fully fall asleep.
Finally, he spoke, with a voice that startled me half to death. Maybe I did nod off.
“Lizzie, we’re here.”
My eyes popped open as my body flung straight up. I quickly brushed my fingers through my hair to tame any loose strands.
“Where’s here?” I asked. I didn’t know where here was.
“Justice of the Peace. Ready?”
A knot tightened in my stomach. Not the kind I’d grown used to. Normally when my muscles tightened it was out of fear, nervousness, or terror of what I’d done wrong and how my father would react.
Not this time. This time I filled with an excitement that I’d never felt before. He really wasn’t going to waste any time.
We approached a large Victorian house and I realized I didn’t know if we’d left the state or not. I’d been so completely wrapped up in my own thoughts that I hadn’t paid any attention but here I was, having run away from home, about to marry a man I’d only known since the beginning of summer.
It was lunacy and yet I didn’t pause on the decision for even a moment. No hesitation or second thoughts. Only absolute assurance this was the right thing.
Orin took my hand, enveloping it into his own to lead me up the steps to a large door which he pounded roughly on. The house was completely dark. While not unusually late but its occupants had obviously retired for the night. About to suggest we should come back in the morning but Orin rapped again with a closed fist so hard that it echoed through the foyer inside before I had the chance to get the words out.
Finally, a light flooded down the stairs, the first sign of life inside. Then came another and the porch light until an older man, mid-forties with gray hair brushing his temples, stood on the opposite side of the glass staring at us as if he’d seen a ghost.
I tightened my grip on Orin’s hand. I didn’t know this other man but Orin would keep me safe.
“Orin?” The muffled voice contained the same surprise as his face.
“You know him?” I whispered.
“I know his son very well,” Orin said back.
The door opened and the man threw out his arms taking Orin into them for a full twenty seconds in a greeting far different than I’d see in my world. A polite nod maybe, a smile if with someone very familiar. The only person I’d ever hugged before Orin was Olivia.
“We haven’t seen you in quite a while,” the older man said.
“Sorry about that,” Orin said. “I need a favor.”
The man’s eyes dropped to me, roaming my face as if accessing me. Now, this I was completely used to. Would I meet his standards? How could I when I had no idea what the man looked for?
“I suppose I can guess the favor,” the man finally said.
“Will you do it?” Orin asked as I watched them volley words back and forth.
“Ezra?” A woman called from the top of the stairs, her shadow falling on the wall.
“It’s Orin, Amy.”
She scurried down the stairs then hugged Orin to her tightly.
I truly felt like I was intruding on a long-awaited reunion.
“Well, you two better come on in,” he said stepping aside for us to pass.
Orin introduced me to Ezra Brown and his wife Amy.
She hugged me. Honestly hugged me and while I wasn’t even close to an expert on hugging, it felt very, very real.
After several minutes of polite chatter, while Ezra scribbled on a piece of paper and pulled out his bible, Orin and I stood before him listening to the words of a modified marriage sermon. Orin had asked for the short version.
I had to keep looking away from Orin or I might’ve melted into the floor. Before we started, Orin looked at me, full of love, full of kindness, and something I didn’t recognize. But absolutely like I was all that matter in the world.
All of that might’ve been true but I couldn’t see it or I’d be reduced to tears. My willpower would only last so long.
Each glance sent a shot of electricity through my body. My heart thumped erratically and while I felt as if I would cry anyway with the overwhelming love in my heart, was able to manage to keep my composure.
The only thing left was a kiss.
Chapter Twelve
Orin stroked his thumbs lightly over my cheeks before our lips met. His tongue slid against mine softly as he drew me into him snaked a hand up my body where he clasped the back of my neck firmly holding me to him.
As if I had anywhere else I’d rather be.
When Ezra cleared his throat that I remembered we weren’t alone. Orin kept me right against him until Ezra cleared it again. This time much more forcefully.
“I’ll... ah... make sure the paperwork is filed with the appropriate people,” Ezra said pointing to the desk where his wife sat. Then he stopped and looked back to us. “Should I be expecting a visit from the police?”
“Not this time,” Orin said with a wide smile.
“An angry father, perhaps?”
Orin shrugged the question off without giving a clear answer. I doubted my father would bother following us in the first place.
“Thank you, Ezra, for everything,” he said instead.
At first, it seemed Orin meant gratitude for marrying us in the middle of the night but on second thought, hearing the weight being his words, it seemed to encompass more.
“We’ll be going.” Orin folded my hand into his began leading us back out toward the front door.
“You’re welcome to stay,” Amy offered and pointed a thumb toward the back of the house, “in the guest house for the night if you like.”
Heat crept up my face and I hoped they wouldn’t be able to see it in the dim lighting.
I may have been sheltered and innocent but I did know what Orin would expect us to do tonight as a married couple. But I didn’t want other people close by when that happened. My nerves took a jagged veer to the left leaving me shaking on the inside but hopefully not on the outside.
“That’s very kind of you,” Orin answered. “But I think we’ll continue on into the city.”
I sighed in relief.
Growing up without a mother left certain holes in my education. Things a mother would’ve explained to her daughter that I had to pick up through conversations with some of the girls that weren’t as good as me, just to have an idea of what Orin would want to do tonight.
Thinking of us being together made a whole new level of nervousness took over.
My hands began to shake at the idea of being intimate with Orin and I hoped he wouldn’t feel it inside his. When he closed his other hand over the top of mine, I knew he’d noticed.
I hadn’t been allowed into the city in years and it was like seeing everything for the first time all over again. Lights dotted the skyline, twinkling against the dark blue night sky. While most people back home would have been turning in, the city was still wide awake and alive with activity.
In the lobby, people spoke in hushed tones. The thudding of heels on marble flooring echoed from each direction and grabbed my attention.
I stood back admiring the people and the building while Orin spoke to the distinguished looking man at the front desk. While I assumed Orin hadn’t made a reservation since we’d left so quickly, it still only took him a few minutes before we followed a bellhop to a room.
Every single thing that was new and unusual and exciting only reminded me of how sheltered my father had kept me.
Inside our room, I noticed Orin slip a bill into the boy’s hand before he left. Those types of things were not handled in view of the women. At least in my father’s world.
“Are you hungry? We could order dinner in.” Orin turned on a couple of the lamps as he spoke.
The full moon illuminated most of our room, casting hues of white and blue across everything. And also making Orin’s skin glow brightly. It was the weirdest effect, one I’d never seen before him or anyone else but he was beautiful.
“No, thank you.”
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“Are you feeling all right?” He pulled the curtains open wider and stood to gaze out over the city skyline.
“Yes.”
I pulled gently at the waist of my dress. A nervous habit I’d had since I was little.
And I’d never before been so nervous in my life. Then I swallowed hard and began unpacking the small bag I’d brought with me.
As I worked, excitement buzzed right beneath the anxiety of being with Orin. I wanted him touching my body and the mere thought of him making contact quickened my breath as my heart hammered against my breast.
I tried taking a deep, soothing breath but it didn’t work.
Orin came to me, took my hand in his and led me over to the large window where he’d been standing. He slid his arm around my waist and gave a gentle tug so that I’d fall back into his hard chest. He towered over me and his chin resting on the top of my head.
“It’s very beautiful,” I said, my voice barely a whisper.
Orin swept my hair off my shoulder and dropped several soft kisses onto my neck, almost nibbling on the sensitive spot where my neck meets my shoulder.
I closed my eyes taking a deep breath to calm the waves crashing over me. My heart still took off like a racehorse trying to get out of my chest. He sucked my earlobe into his mouth, his teeth scraping across my skin. When I turned to face him, he seemed even bigger than before. He was always such a strong man but tonight… tonight he seemed absolutely looming.
My gaze locked onto his but I couldn’t force any words out of my mouth even though I felt like I should say something. This was completely new territory for us.
His skin acquired an almost luminescent quality in the moonlight, almost matching the glow of the moon.
Orin pushed his lips against mine with a new urgency. I tried to keep up, kiss him back as he kissed me but there was no denying that he owned me. A full shiver shook my body and then primal instinct kicked in.
As inexperienced as I was, as worried about being with him physically as I had been, none of it mattered once he took over.
Orin unbuttoned my dress, one button at a time, as he continued kissing me.
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