Then he recognized it for what it was.
This was what utter completion felt like
~~~*** ~~~
The McKinnon Family Barn – 6:00 pm
Honor
Two hours later, Honor felt like she was floating on air. She was in the arms of the only man she’d ever love, dancing the first dance of her wedding with her husband while the band began playing her favorite song, I Can’t Help Falling in Love with You.
It was a fitting choice since she’d really had no choice at all in falling for Zeke. He’d been everything to her. Her friend. Her confident. Her protector. Her lover. And now, at long last, her husband.
She couldn’t help wondering if she was glowing. Heaven knew, she felt like she was radiating sheer happiness as she stood in the circle of Zeke’s arms, swaying against him as the music played. Her life was finally good. Like really, really good. She loved and was loved with a bone deep intensity that was obvious to anyone that looked at them. Deep in her womb, the product of their love grew. And for once, there was no dark cloud hanging over her head or the head of anybody she loved.
This had to be what perfection felt like, didn’t it?
Looking around at all the faces of their friends and family, Honor tilted her head back to look at her husband. “I love you so much,” she whispered. “How much longer do we have to stay here?” she asked, anxious to get her husband alone and begin a private celebration that belonged only to them.
Zeke chuckled. “You ready to get the honeymoon started, Mrs. Monroe?”
“I’m ready to be alone with my husband,” she replied, resting her chin against his broad chest.
“It’s our day, baby. You wanna go, we’ll go,” Zeke offered, dropping a kiss to her upturned nose.
Honor sighed. “No. I love you, but I have a feeling Harmony would find a witch to put a voodoo curse on us if we slipped out before we cut the wedding cake.”
Zeke’s eyes twinkled. “I think we’ll all be glad to see the end of the wedding whirlwind that is your sister. Especially her husband,” he said, with a nod to where Jake danced with his wife.
“She wasn’t that bad,” Honor chuckled, as Zeke spun her on the dance floor.
“Babe, there is a really faint line between forceful and fanatical and it usually involves some kind of medication. I’m thinkin’ we need to get Harmony a prescription.”
Honor was still laughing when she spotted a slack-jawed Maggie slumped against the wall of the barn. “Zeke, look!” she nodded toward the titan-haired woman.
Turning his head, Zeke took Honor’s hand as he led her off the dance floor toward Maggie. Waving at Ice and pointing at Maggie, Zeke saw his brother freeze as his eyes settled on the forlorn looking woman. “Margaret?” Zeke called, spotting the phone at Maggie’s feet.
Frowning when Mags didn’t respond, Honor moved to her side. “Maggie, what’s wrong?” she asked as Ice joined them.
“C’mon, Red. Say something. Your leg hurting?” Ice questioned sharply.
“My… my niece just called me,” she replied numbly as Abel and Patience joined their group huddled against the wall.
“Your niece? I didn’t even know you had a niece,” Honor replied, glancing at Patience and seeing her shake her head.
“Neither did I. She called to tell me that the plane my brother and his wife were on crashed into the Pacific off the coast of California. They’re both dead,” Maggie shared tonelessly, staring into space. “My bastard of a brother is finally dead.”
“Hardison is dead?” Abel breathed, shocked.
Maggie nodded. “I need air,” she announced, straightening and weaving on her feet as she tried to take a step away from the wall.
Quickly grabbing an empty folding chair, Ice took Maggie’s arm. “No. You need to sit your ass down before you fall down.”
Jerking her arm from his grip, Maggie shook her head. “No! I’ve…I need to book a flight to San Francisco.”
“Wait a sec,” Honor said. “Why would you go out there? You hated your brother, Maggie.”
“Yeah,” Maggie grunted. “I did. He was every bit as abusive as my father, just in a different way, but he left me something I can’t ignore.”
“What?” Ice barked.
Maggie slowly looked up at him. “Two nieces and a nephew,” she whispered as she buried her face in her hands.
Leaning heavily against Zeke, Honor sighed as Patience wrapped Maggie in her arms. Looking up at him, she shook her head. “Life is never boring in Paradise, is it?”
~~~***~~~
The McKinnon Family Home – 11:00 pm
Zeke
Shucking his pants as he heard the water turn off in the bathroom, Zeke pulled back the covers to the bed he and Honor had been sharing for the past several months. They’d leave for their honeymoon tomorrow afternoon, but for tonight, they’d both decided that they wanted to sleep in a familiar bed for the first night of their marriage.
Hearing the bathroom door open, Zeke turned and groaned as he got a look at his Honor. “Christ, you’re beautiful,” he breathed as she came toward him, her short lacy peignoir floating around her thighs. Licking his lips as she neared, he had to remind himself not to fall on her like some slobbering adolescent.
This was his wife.
They had the rest of their lives to fuck like bunnies; tonight was all about slow, meaningful lovemaking.
Offering him a tiny smile, Honor blushed. “You like it?” she asked, holding her bare arms out at her sides as she spun around for him to see the full effect. “It was Patience’s gift at my bridal shower last week.”
“Remind me to offer your sister my babysitting services after we get back from our honeymoon,” he murmured, eying how the lace cups of her nightie lifted her already swollen breasts. “These are already getting bigger,” he noted out loud as he trailed his fingertips over her cleavage. “I can’t wait to watch you nurse our baby, Honor,” he breathed as he dropped his hand to the barely detectable baby bump at her stomach.
“Me either,” Honor breathed, moving into his arms. “I’m so happy, Zeke, but I feel a little guilty for it considering the news poor Maggie got tonight,” she murmured into his bare chest as he closed his arms around him.
“Baby, we worked hard to get our happy ending. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying it. Maggie’s gonna be okay. By now, Ice has her on the flight to San Francisco and he’ll help her get sorted when they get there.”
“I still can’t believe he went with her. The way those two bicker, it’ll be a miracle if an air marshal doesn’t end up having to referee a fight. I still think Abel would have been the better choice to go with her.”
“Abel has three small children at home, and Patience needs all the help she can get. Ice will check his verbal punches until Maggie’s in fighting form, I promise. He cares about her, you know.”
Honor snorted.
“Seriously, baby… he cares for that woman far more than he lets on. Why do you think he’s been hounding her so much?”
“Fun?” Honor suggested.
Zeke laughed as his arms tightened. “Well, there’s that, but it’s also because she scared the shit out of him when she got shot. I think he realized that he might have lost her before he ever really had her. It’s fucked with him.”
“I hope you’re right, Zeke,” Honor replied as she rubbed her cheek against his warm chest.
“I am,” he declared a certainty born from experience. “Now, as much as I love all our family, I’d rather concentrate on us tonight. Think you can help me with that?” he asked, pressing his lips to the top of her head as he slid a hand down her neck to cup her breast.
“I think that can be arranged,” Honor whispered lifting her face to receive his kiss.
Humming happily as his tongue slid between her lips to dance with hers, he grinned as she gasped into his mouth as he palmed her satin covered ass in his hands and lifted her against him. “Wrap me up tight, Kitten,” he urged as she hooked her tr
im legs at the small of his back. “Good girl,” he praised as he turned and carried her to their bed.
Placing her in the center of the mattress, he drew back to admire her perfect body. “I don’t think I’ll ever get over how pretty you are,” he murmured as he slowly crawled into the bed to lie beside her. “Or the fact that all this pretty is finally mine,” he murmured, dropping his head to take a long drink from her lips.
“All yours,” Honor whispered as she wound her arms around her husband’s neck and arched her back, pressing her heavy breasts to his chest as his mouth devoured hers with a hunger that left her weak.
Tearing his lips from hers, Zeke breathed hard as he fought with his libido for control. Fuck, he wanted to consume her. When he took his last breath, it was her scent he wanted to inhale, her taste he wanted on his tongue.
Because this petite woman was everything to him.
“I love you,” he declared gruffly, needing to say the words again. Lightly touching her full lower lip, he smiled. “I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy, and that’s all because of you, Honor.”
Staring up at him, Honor blinked. “I love you, too. For the first time in my life, I feel free, Zeke. You freed me from the nightmare of my past. You slayed all the monsters. Defeated all the demons. And now, it’s just us here linked together forever by a love so strong it couldn’t be broken.”
“That love was forged in the hottest of fires, baby. It’s unbreakable,” he assured her as his hand slowly slid the strap of her nightie over her shoulder. “I love this nightgown on you, baby, but I think we’ll both like it better on the floor,” he said as he slid the opposite strap off the smooth slope of her shoulder and dropped a kiss to the soft skin.
Dragging his lips from her shoulder to her neck, Zeke flicked his tongue against her throbbing pulse as he pushed the filmy nightgown down her body. Chuckling when Honor squirmed restlessly underneath him, rubbing her now naked chest against his, he tossed the material over the side of the bed before reaching for her satin panties.
“I wanna see how gorgeous you look with only my jewelry on,” he informed her, drawing back to slide her virginal white panties down her slender legs. Kneeling between her legs, Zeke groaned as his eyes skated over her luscious body. From her full, pink tipped breasts to her narrow waist to the neatly trimmed nest of curls shielding her pussy from him, she was everything he’d ever wanted in a woman. Sprawled there with her blonde hair spread across their pillows and the hand that held his gold resting against her belly, she smiled as her blue eyes watched him.
Leaning toward her, he bent his head to capture one pebbled breast between his lips. Suckling gently, he heard her low moan as her hands sank into his hair, holding him to her as he moved, worshiping her flesh as his cock throbbed against his thigh. She tasted like apples, sunshine, and hope, and he couldn’t get enough of her. “I don’t think I’ll ever get enough of your taste in my mouth, Honor,” he mumbled into her skin as he kissed a path down her chest, over the faint scars criss-crossing her belly to the tiny landing strip that separated him from her pussy.
Blowing gently against her mound as he lifted her legs over his shoulder, he heard her soft whimper of pleasure as his tongue slowly slid between her folds to lap at her pink swollen nub.
“Zeke,” she cried out, his name a plea falling from her lips.
Quickly flicking his tongue against her clit, he closed his eyes as her dewy essence coated his tongue. Sliding a finger through her wetness to tease her entrance, he grinned against her pussy when she bucked her hips. “You ready for me, Kitten?” he asked, sucking gently on her clit.
“Oh, God, yes!” Honor shuddered, her body tightening beneath Zeke’s hands.
Sliding up her body, Zeke fisted his aching dick and slid it through her wet folds, teasing her clit with the head of his cock. “This what you want, baby?” he asked, stealing a deep kiss from her mouth before he moved the tip of his dick to her entrance and paused.
Opening her eyes, Honor stared up at him with dazed, passion glazed eyes. “Please,” she begged, rocking her hips up to meet his. “I need you.”
“You have me,” he assured her, thrusting deeply into her tight sheathe. “Forever, Honor,” he promised as he felt the searing heat of her pussy surround his cock and caress his rock hard flesh. Setting a maddeningly slow pace, he groaned as she lifted her hips and met his thrusts, sending him deeper into her snug channel. Every inch of her cunt hugged his dick, robbing him of control. “Fuck, baby. That’s so good,” he growled against her ear as her arms wrapped around his neck and her legs tightened around his waist.
“More, Zeke,” she begged, her hips churning desperately as her nails clawed at his shoulder. “I’m so close,” she whimpered, turning her face into his neck and biting his shoulder as he pumped his hips against her, going deeper with every stroke.
“Fuck, yes! Use those little teeth, baby. Mark me as yours,” he urged roughly as her teeth sank into his flesh, marking him. Thrusting harder, he felt her walls contracting around his dick, her pussy fluttering as her cries grew louder.
“Yes! Zeke, yes! Right there,” Honor gasped, pressing her head back against the pillow as her neck arched.
Sliding a hand between them to press his thumb against her pulsing clit, he rubbed it quickly, pulling a scream from his wife’s lips as she climaxed beneath him.
Her release was the permission he was waiting for to find his own piece of heaven. His hips rose and fell unsteadily as he fucked her hard and fast. “God, yes, Kitten!” he breathed raggedly as he felt his balls tighten. “Gonna cum so fuckin’ hard,” he grunted as Honor’s pussy began pulsing around his dick again. “You gonna give me another one, baby?” he asked against her panting lips as his body, sweaty with exertion, worked above hers. “Is that sweet pussy gonna come all over my dick?”
Honor’s scream of pleasure was his answer as she convulsed around him a second time, her second release stronger than the first. This time, however, she took him with her as he exploded, filling her greedy pussy with jet after jet of his milky white essence.
Breathing hard as they came down from the incredible high of their orgasms, Zeke rolled to his side, pulling Honor’s relaxed body toward him. Pressing his lips to her damp forehead as she curved her body around his and wrapped her arm around his waist, he grinned down at her.
“Wow,” she breathed, sliding her hand up and down his chest as his heartbeat thundered underneath her palm. “That was… amazing.”
“That’s because we’re amazing together, Honor.”
“I could still kick myself for denying myself that kind of passion for years,” she muttered.
“Don’t worry, Kitten. You’ll be experiencing passion in Paradise for many, many years to come,” he promised. He’d make sure of that.
Epilogue
Six Years Later
Sliding the double chocolate fudge cake she’d just pulled from the oven on to the kitchen counter, Honor looked over her shoulder and smiled. “Alright, kiddos, it’s almost time for dinner. You need to go wash your faces and hands and come back to set the table in the dining room. Remember, tonight’s a special night.”
“Yeah!” her youngest child, Boone, shouted, lifting his hands in the air. “It Daddy’s birfday!”
Laughing at the two-year-old as she dried her hands on a dishtowel, she moved toward the kitchen table where all three of the beautiful babies Zeke had given her sat. Her oldest, Brenna, colored quietly, her five year old hands carefully coloring inside the lines while her four-year-old sister, Maise, drew her own gift for her daddy. “Those pictures look very good, ladies,” she praised, dropping a kiss to each of her daughters’ heads. “But it’s time to put our crayons away,” Honor said, grabbing the large pencil box from the table and holding it open for all three kids to put away their art supplies.
“How much longer until Daddy gets here, Momma?” Brenna asked, her dark blue eyes serious as they looked up at her momma.
Smiling
at her eldest child, “Long enough that you can go brush the tangles out of that long black hair you share with him.”
“I’ll b’ush it,” Boone volunteered with a toothy smile.
“Nuh uh,” Brenna denied. “I’ll be bald if you brush it,” she informed her brother.
Helping Maise climb down from her chair, Honor smoothed her hand over her middle child’s blonde hair. “Maise, you and your sister run to the bathroom and wash up. I want to see clean hands and washed faces when you come back out here. Then, you two can help me set the table in the big dining room,” she said, nodding toward the long farmer’s table in the next room.
“We eatin’ at da big table, Momma?” Maise asked with wide eyes.
“We sure are. It’s a special occasion. We’re gonna celebrate tonight with your father and then, this weekend, we’ll have a big party with your Aunt Patience and Uncle Abel and Aunt Harmony and Uncle Jake along with all your cousins. Even Uncle Ice and Aunt Maggie are gonna come sing Happy Birthday to your father.” Seeing Maise open her mouth, Honor rushed to assure her that her favorite people would be present, too. “Maise, don’t worry. Granny Orla and Granddaddy Jethro will be coming, too,” she said before any of the kids could ask about the only grandparents they knew.
“What about Aunt Uncie Cain and Aunt Fate?” Boone asked.
“Yeah, I wanted Annabelle to teach me how to braid hair while the grownups talked at the party,” Brenna interjected.
“Uncle Cain had to go out of town for a work conference and Aunt Faith and Anna went with him. They won’t be home for the party on Saturday, but you’ll see them at church on Sunday.”
Brenna sighed with the heaviness only a five year old could perfect. “Fine. C’mon, Maise,” she said unhappily. “Let’s go wash.”
Honor swallowed her laughter as she watched her dramatic girls stomp down the hallway. Snatching a washcloth from the counter, she quickly cleaned up her son, laughing when he tried to squirm away from the washrag. “I swear, son, you’d think you were allergic to bein’ clean,” she teased, dropping a kiss to his nose before collecting all the kids’ drawings from the table.
Man of Honor (Passion in Paradise Book 4) Page 59
