by Naomi West
They kissed like soulmates and long lost lovers who had been apart for too many months.
“I love you, too,” she whispered back, as their mouths parted. “I love you more than you'll ever know.”
And that was when the doorbell rang.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Abby
She looked back to the front door, shocked. Then she remembered how she and Zed had ended up here, and all the shenanigans her man had gotten into when he was getting her from the hotel.
“Hand me your shirt,” she said to Zed.
“What do you say?” he asked, grinning down at her.
She licked her lips and smiled. “Please, sir?”
He reached down, grabbed his dress shirt off the ground, and handed it to her as the doorbell rang again and a heavy fist pounded on the door. “Abby!” called Ethan's voice. “Abby! Are you in there?”
“Put some clothes on, Zed,” she hissed, as she frantically buttoned up her shirt, then hopped down off the couch. She padded into the front entryway with the shirt covering just the tops of her thighs. “Coming,” she called, before looking back over her shoulder to see her man pulling on his slacks and undershirt.
She unlocked the door and threw it open, stepping back from the bright sun that seemed to form a halo around both Jackie and Ethan. “Hi,” she said, her lips pressed tightly together.
Ethan and Jackie stood there, faces agog at her disheveled and freshly-fucked appearance. Ethan still wore his perfectly tailored tuxedo they'd purchased for just this occasion, and Jackie had stayed in her bridesmaid outfit, as purple as it was. Neither of them said anything, clearly too stunned by the mess Abby had become in just the short hour since she'd been pulled from the bridal suite.
Her face burned with embarrassment, even as her ass still burned from Zed's hard spanking he'd delivered. She knew her throat was probably red, too. God, if they could see the bruises on her shoulders and breasts, they'd think she'd been mauled by a wild animal. Which, she supposed, she kind of had been.
“Come in, will you?” she asked graciously, as she stepped aside, giving them space to pass.
“What in the hell?” Ethan finally said, as he came in. “Just, Jesus, Abby, what in the fucking hell is going on? Where the hell have you been? We're supposed to be married by now!”
She didn't have any words for him. Not yet. Abby sighed and looked away, her tiny foot tapping.
“Abby?” Jackie asked.
She turned her attention to her executive assistant, and friend, shooting her a “not you, too” look.
Jackie gestured to the belly of her shirt, drawing Abby's attention downwards. Abby went crimson as she realized she'd missed a couple buttons down there. It wasn’t enough to show everything, but more than was necessary to see the scarlet claw marks from Zed's work-blunted nails. She busily began to button her shirt. “Ethan,” she said as she completed dressing, her voice reflecting how sad she felt for hurting him, “I'm really sorry, but this isn't working out.”
Ethan shook his head and wiped a hand down his face. “And this,” he asked as he began gesticulating wildly towards the outside world. “This is how you tell me? When my friends and family have all flown in for our wedding?”
Abby's frown deepened as she shook her head. “I'm just …I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done this to you, but I was trying to make it work, and I just can't. You and I, we don't love each other the way you deserve, Ethan. You deserve some woman who's going to be head over heels in love with you, and is going to hang on your every word.”
Her, now ex-fiancé’s face dropped. “Y-y-you didn't?”
Abby made a face and shook her head. “I'm so sorry.” She smiled at him, trying to be as gentle as possible. “But, you're a great guy. And you'll find that special someone for you. I know you will.”
He just looked at her, then sighed and looked away. “Just . . . fuck it. Whatever, Abby.” He turned and walked away, but stopped just outside the front door. “Jackie, I'll be in the car if you need a ride back to the hotel for your clothes.”
Both women watched him go, pained looks on their faces. Jackie quickly swung her attention back to Abby. “Oh my God, Abbs, you look like a porn star. You slut.”
Abby stifled a laugh with her hand, but still grinned knowingly at her friend. “I know.”
“And on your wedding day? Jesus.”
“Jackie,” Abby said after a moment of calming down, “I need you to do me a huge favor again. Bigger even than being my maid of honor.”
“Oh, God,” Jackie replied, clearly knowing where this was headed. “You want me to . . .?”
“Please?” Abby cajoled. “I'll love you for life if you tell everyone for me.”
Her assistant rolled her eyes. “Fine,” she huffed. “Fine, whatever. I'd kiss your cheek and wish you happiness, but I don't know where you, or Zed, have been.”
“I'd hug you,” Abby said with a laugh, “but you're probably right. It's for the best that I don't.”
Jackie headed out the front door. She turned around just as she was about to close it, mouthing the words “slut” one more time at her boss.
“That went better than it probably should have,” Zed said, as he came up behind her and slipped his arms around her waist and his fingers through the opening in her shirt.
“Mmhmm,” Abby agreed as he brushed her neck with his lips.
“But, as well as it went,” Zed whispered in her ear as he grabbed her by both arms, “I still have some talking to do with you.”
# # #
Zed
“No, really,” Zed said, as he yanked her back down the hall toward the bedroom, “I do.” He shut the door behind him them as he tossed her on the bed. “Look,” he began. “I love you. I've loved you since the first moment I tried to break you, and you just bent and bent. Like when you spat in my face, or taunted me as I trying to prove how weak you were.”
Abby went to say something, but Zed hushed her. “Let me finish,” he said. “You have such an unbreakable spirit, Abby Winters. An indomitable will, poise, self-assurance, and confidence. But, still, you can admit that not even you know everything, and that you're sometimes wrong. You can face your mistakes and the truth that you made them, then own up and try to fix them. I know I can't offer you the same kind of life Ethan could. I'm never going to contribute to your way of life financially, like he could, but I want to be the man you come home to after a hard day at the office. I want to be that man for you.”
Abby beamed at him as he spoke.
He swallowed hard, more terrified of this than any sortie he'd flown over Iraq back in the war. He dropped to one knee in front of her and took her tiny hands in his. “I want to be the man who builds a life beside you, together, as equals. I know you want a career, and I want you to have one, too. I'd never take that from you, or try to lock you up in the house all day. I love you, Abby Winters. You're my match, and I'm yours. I just know it.”
“Are you . . . ?” she asked.
“Am I?” he asked, before swallowing again and nodding. “Yeah, of course I am. Of course I'm asking.”
She took one hand from his and touched his cheek. “Then ask.”
“Would you marry me, Abby Winters?”
Abby leaned forward and kissed him, her lips like lines of burning hot coals as they pressed into his. She bit his lips hard, producing a sharp groan from him as she flicked her tongue across his. She pulled back, both of them gasping, and rested her forehead on his. “Of course, Zed Hesse. That would make me the happiest woman alive.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Zed
Their wedding came soon after. They managed to convince Natalia to stay in town for the next few days as they got Abby's backyard in order and as Zed and Kai had their tuxedos fitted.
Now, Zed stood there, his hands folded in front of him, Kai on his left as his best man. Both men faced the backside of the house as the string quartet began to play, “Here Comes the Bride.”
&nb
sp; Zed realized he was grinning so widely that his face had begun to hurt. His heart felt full, like it would burst from his chest at any moment and try to dance a jig down the street. But, even as he watched her approach, he could feel the world swimming in front of him, his eyes already watering at just how wonderful this moment felt.
Kai nudged Zed as Abby, even more beautiful than the first time he'd seen her on TV, came down the grass towards them. Zed glanced to him, grinning like a lovesick idiot, then went back to watching his lovely bride.
Rather than an obnoxiously long train, or too many ruffles and lace, she'd opted for a simple ivory dress. Nothing too ostentatious or extravagant, but just graceful and lovely. It was the perfect match to their perfect wedding.
Abby walked slowly down the aisle, veil over her face, the bouquet she clutched made from the flowers she'd started to grow with the advice Zed had given her last year. She smiled at him from beneath the simple material, her crimson red lips lovely and inviting, her perfect teeth pearly and straight.
Across from Zed, Jackie grinned at them both as Abby handed off the bouquet and turned back to Zed. Together, they lifted her veil, and the whole world seemed to brighten like a second sun had just been born in the backyard.
“You look beautiful,” Zed whispered, still in a daze.
“You don't look half bad yourself, sir,” she said with a sly wink.
He grinned back at her as the officiant began the short ceremony. As he looked deeply into her eyes, he saw their dark past, the things he had done to her, and those he had done for her. He saw Abby strapped to the dining room chair, the belt around her neck as he gave her their first orgasm, his stripping of her ego, as well as her clothes. Their beginning had been dark, that was true. But it had been passionate.
Zed also saw the future in her clear, blue eyes, watched it unspool before him. He saw their future children, their friends and family, the holidays together, travel, and gardening. They would have all the simple parts of life. He envisioned her smiling face as she came home from work or her holding their child. He would wake up next to her each morning and go to sleep beside her each night. These would be the simple moments that, when piled together one upon another, would jumble together into the mess of life.
“Zed? Your vows?” the officiant asked.
Zed glanced to the man, nodding.
“The bride and groom decided to write their own vows. Zed, please?”
He swallowed, let out a nervous breath, and took her hands in his. “Abby,” he began, licking his lips nervously as he gently squeezed her hands, “I promise to you that I will keep you in my heart, in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer. I promise I will stand beside you, prop up your spirits when you need help, and build you higher, for however long we may be together.”
Her face radiant and otherworldly in its beauty, she squeezed his hands tightly as he came to a finish, a single tear escaping from her eyes and running down her cheek.
The officiant turned to the bride. “Abby?” he asked, with a slight incline of his head. “Your vows?”
# # #
Abby
Abby took a deep breath, returning Zed's warm smile.
She wasn't the neglected girl she'd been before she met him. She wasn't fighting the same way for her place in a man's world. She'd gotten there, now. She was who she had always hoped she would be. She didn't have to act superior, or try to lord her success over anyone, especially not Zed. But, at the same time, she still didn't need to be forced into submission with him, either. She knew she could willingly submit to him anytime she wanted, and that he'd reward it with his own tenderly painful caress.
This man clinging to her hands just as tightly as she clung to his was her perfect match. A man strong enough to be his own person, and strong enough to bend her to his will. He was strong enough to deal with her when she needed to exert her own independence. He knew her own actions didn't lessen his, and that her own accomplishment didn’t lessen his self-worth.
“I promise, Zed, to be with you through thick and thin, richer and poorer. To love you, and hold you, and to always come home to you. To build you up, to never tear you down, and to always trust that you know what is right. You were my guiding light once, and my conscience when I needed one. And you always will be.”
“Do you have the rings?”
Abby and Zed turned to their respective escorts and took the wedding rings from them as the officiant went through his little speech on the importance of their symbolism. Then, they exchanged their rings and said their, “I dos.”
“Then, by the power vested in me,” the officiant said, “I now pronounce you man and wife. Zed, you may kiss the bride.”
Zed took her into his strong, warm, supportive arms and pulled her close to his body. They kissed, holding each other upright in this crazy world. As they broke apart, they grinned at each other like lovesick idiots. But they were happy lovesick idiots.
Chapter Forty
Zed
Abby lay on the giant bed in the honeymoon suite they'd rented for that evening. She'd purchased some special black lingerie, and her big blue eyes were just as seductive as the first time she'd given herself to him.
In Zed's hand was the vibrator he'd first found in her bedroom. In his other, the belt he'd worn.
His wife raised one perfectly sculpted eyebrow questioningly as she gracefully shifted onto all four and began to crawl across the bed to him. “Forget the collar, sir?” she purred, as she came to a stop in front of him, her lust-filled eyes lifted to his.
He halved the belt into a loop in his hand, stroking the bulging side of the makeshift leather down her cheek.
She shivered, a delicious sight for her husband as the involuntary reaction trembled through her whole body, and closed her eyes, her lips parting slightly in anticipation of the fun about to come.
“Figured we had to save some fun for at home,” he growled back.
She shivered again. Zed just smiled. This was the happiest ending he could have ever hoped for.
# # #
Abby
The sun crept up over the horizon as she lay in bed, her body covered in new bruises and painful swat marks in the shape of her husband's hand. Zed was big spoon to her little, and he cradled her more tenderly than their earlier play had indicated was possible. She knew that, despite what they did to each other, rough sex was one thing, and abuse was another. He'd do anything to protect her, and would never hurt her unless she wanted it.
He was her husband, after all, not just her master in bed.
She licked her lips and closed her eyes, savoring the feel of that word on her mind's tongue. Husband. She trembled as she pushed back into him, snuggling into his warm embrace. Unconsciously, his arms tightened around her and pulled her closer.
“Husband,” she purred softly, before drifting off to well-deserved sleep.
This was the beginning of a happy, loving life for the two of them. She just knew it.
THE END
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Bonus Book 2 – Outlaw’s Baby: Devil’s Edge MC
By Naomi West
I want to tie her to the bed and make her beg for my forgiveness.
Ivy Simmons might look like an angel, but she’s just another desperate wreck.
I don’t need more people looking to me for help – caring for my son is enough of a handful.
Then she gets both herself and my boy kidnapped.
Now, I have to hunt down the bastards who took them… and then I’m take her body as payment for my troubles.
This motel is a hellhole, but it’s home for now, ever since my MC’s rivals decided to burn down my house.
My son and I made it out alive, but we’re stuck here until further notice.
It’s not all bad, though.
; The girl next door is hot as hell, with an air of vulnerability that only makes my arousal stronger.
Better yet, she wants my help, and I want hers.
She needs cash; I need a babysitter for Josh while I plan next steps with my MC.
It’s a win-win…
Until she’s dumb enough to let my enemies sniff them out and pounce.
Now, I’m hauling ass down the highway, trying to get back my son.
I can only think of one thing:
Once he’s back in my arms, Ivy is going to pay.