by Katie Dowe
“And now?” Marge asked with a smile.
“And now I am one of those women who cannot wait to go home and be with her man,” she said with a sigh.
“And that’s a bad thing how?” Hillary asked as she accepted the cup of hot chocolate from the waitress. “Considering the utterly gorgeous man you get to go home to, honey, I would say that should not be a problem!”
“You look different from the driven career woman you used to be. You look soft and relaxed and there is a glow about you,” Marge told her.
“I am sure that’s not true,” Hailey protested. “But I do feel different. I want to marry David so badly. I am scared about the age thing and I am also a little scared about his past and the way he looks. When we go out together, I can see women staring after him with longing in their eyes. I want to gloat, but then I wonder how many of the he slept with.”
“That’s his past, honey. He is with you now and I have seen that man around you. He looks like you are the only woman on the planet.”
Hailey laughed at that, her flesh growing warm. “I know. You know what? I am sitting her telling you girls how I feel when I should be telling my man!”
“So go on home and tell him!” Hillary urged.
******
She went to his office instead. He had told her that he would not be home until after seven and she had planned to grade papers and plan for tomorrow’s class. When he came home, she could forget about doing anything other than being with him.
A smiling guard opened the door for her and pointed her to the private elevator that would take her up. She had not been to his office but had seen it on the internet and in the papers. Snyder’s Sports, Inc. was a highly visible company and was an also a very popular one.
“Ms. Donaldson,” his secretary, a stylish older woman sprang to her feet. “He is in a meeting and will be out shortly.”
“That’s okay. I did not call ahead. Where is Martha?”
“In the same meeting.”
“Marissa and Marilyn?”
“Marilyn is in the meeting, but Marissa is in her office. It’ s the last door on your right.”
“I will hang out with her until David is through.” She made her way out and along the passageway. The place was elegant and there were plaques on the walls indicating the strides they had made in the sports industry. She knocked on the door and saw Marissa bent over her computer, a frown on her brow.
“Is this a bad time?”
“Hailey, darling!” The girl rushed from around her desk and came to give her a hug. “This is a pleasure. Does David know you are here?”
“Not yet.” She squeezed the girl’s arm lightly. “I heard that they are in a meeting so I decided to come and hang out with you.” She looked around the room. “Nice office.”
“Thanks.” Marissa abandoned her position around the desk and came to sit next to her. “We are getting ready for the Christmas promotions and it’s pretty hectic.”
“Do you like what you do or was it thrust on you?”
Marissa laughed at that. “I love what I do! I get to put stuff out there for people to read and appreciate what this company is all about. And it helps that my name is Snyder.”
“I am sure it does,” Hailey said dryly.
“You are so different from all the women my brother used to see.” She clapped her hand to her mouth.
“It’s okay, honey. I am his present and his future and he knows enough not to mess with me. I promised to cut his dick off if he does.”
Marissa let out a startled laugh and they both looked up as there was a sound at the doorway. “Baby, we were just talking about you,” Hailey said with a smile.
“I heard,” he said dryly with a twinkle in his dark blue eyes. He walked over and pulled her up to him. “That was pretty graphic for my little sister.”
“She is not exactly little being married and carrying a child,” she murmured as she wrapped her hands around his neck.
“You two out! I have work to do,” Marissa told them gazing at the body language and wondering if she and her husband were so much in love as they obviously were.
“How about I show you my office?”
“I can hardly wait.”
His office was large and had plenty of space. The furnishings were light and simple and his desk dominated the space. A framed photo of a man she knew was his father hung over the desk and she saw the startling resemblance to Marilyn. Sports paraphernalia hung from several parts of the walls and she could see pictures of him with various sports stars scattered around.
He took her hand and led her to one of the sofas. “You okay?” He searched her face carefully.
“I cannot come to see you at work?” she asked him.
“You never came before,” he pointed out.
“There is always a first time for everything.” She took her hands from his and got to her feet to go over to the large glass window overlooking the street. He waited for her to say something wondering if it was second thoughts.
“Hailey?”
She turned to him and looked at him sitting there. He had worn a slate grey jacket suit to work and a dusky pink tie. He had dispensed with the jacket and loosened the tie and his dark hair was unruly as usual. Stubble had grown on his cheeks and no matter how much he shaved the hairs grew back pretty fast. He had hairs all over his body, thick dark hairs. She had shaved his pubic area for him a week ago and they had ended up making love in such frenzy that it had taken a while for them to recover.
“You are scaring me, baby.” He got up and walked to her.“It’s too late to back out now,” he said lightly as he approached her. “All the invitations have been sent out and the gifts are pouring in and besides I cannot let you go, not now.”
“Stop!” she whispered, holding out one hand, her eyes bright with unshed tears. “I am scared. You came into my life and turned it inside out and I am damned scared, David Snyder. I love you dammit and I am scared of this feeling inside me! The way you make me feel, what you do to me. I am scared.”
David felt his knees turned liquid and for a moment he could not move. He had not expected that! He had been expecting her to say that she wanted out and had been prepared to go down on his knees and beg her. He had been waiting to hear those three little words from her and now that she had said them in this unexpected but ‘Hailey’ like way he was pretty bowled over.
“So am I,” he said carefully. “But we are in this thing together and we always will be.”
“I need you, David.” Her lips trembled and the tears started. “I need you so much.”
He came to her swiftly and pulled her into his arms tightly. “I am here, baby.” He stroked her back as she cried softly on his shoulder. “I will always be here.” He lifted her up and carried her to the sofa where he cradled her in his arms. There was a soft knock on his door and his mother poked her head in, but he shook his head and she went back out and closed the door.
“See to it that they are not disturbed,” Martha said to the secretary, a smile wreathing her face. “Send his calls to me.”
Inside the office, David waited for her to stop crying. He held her close to him, his expression tender and his mind contented. She lifted her head to look up at him. “I have ruined your totally expensive shirt,” she murmured.
“An excuse for you to buy me a new one,” he told her softly. He tilted her chin up. “Thank you for loving me back.” His words had such a profound effect on her that she started crying again!
Chapter 12
“I wrote a poem.” Her lips trembled as she said it and looked into his dark blue eyes. It was their wedding day and the ceremony had started. The chapel was packed and there were reporters hanging around. It was a freezing cold day with a pale sun trying to come forth.
She had walked up the aisle on her mother’s arm to meet him.
“You did?” His lips curved into a tender smile.
She nodded. “Last night as I was struggling what to say when I stand
here with you.”
She took the paper out of her breast and the guests laughed softly. There was silence as she began: “David, my love, time stands still when you are with me. My creative side belongs to you. When I first saw you I wanted to paint you, write songs about you, but all I could manage was this poem. You are the most beautiful man I have ever met. Michelangelo could not do justice to you if he was alive and wanted to paint you. No amount of love songs by Arianna or Diana or anything that Mark has ever written could express the way I love you and what you make me feel. This love we have for each other brought us together, two people becoming one and producing a life.” She took his hand and placed it over her belly. “Our child. I love you to the moon and back. I love you beyond words and space and this life. I love you to eternity. You are my life and my all and I will spend the rest of that life showing you how much I really love you.” Her eyes sparkled with tears. “I have never loved like this before, David Ian Snyder, and I know I never will. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for showing me that love like this exists.”
There was a lump in his throat and he was finding it very hard to swallow! His hands gripped hers tightly and his dark blue eyes were suspiciously bright. “You are amazing!” he said hoarsely. He had to clear his throat two times before he could continue. “I stayed away from creative writing in high school and college.” He waited until the laughter subsided. “I don’t need to have my doctorate in the subject to be able to tell you how I feel.” He lifted one slender hand and kissed it softly before continuing. “I love you, Hailey Gail Donaldson. I have loved you from the start. You came into my life and when I touched you I knew without a shadow of a doubt that you were special and the woman for me. I tremble when I look at you and when we touch it’s like a rocket going off! You love me!” He closed his eyes briefly and his fingers tightened on hers. “You love me and for the life of me I cannot comprehend that a woman like you, a wonderful, amazing sexy, beautiful woman, oh, and I forgot smart, super smart woman like you is in love with me. You are my life and I want you to know that in case one day you ever think of leaving me. You would be taking my life with you and leaving me for dead. I love you, woman, with everything in me and it is an honor to stand before you and in a short moment be your husband.”
*****
They travelled! Paris, Italy, Rome, and Hawaii and spent most of the time in bed. “We could have stayed home if this is what we were planning on doing,” she said lazily on their last night in the sumptuous hotel room in Hawaii. They were dogged by reporters who took their pictures whenever they went outdoors. They held hands when they walked and at one point a reporter had caught them kissing intimately as they stopped on the beach.
“It was not planned. We could stay another week where we can actually go and check out the sights,” he told her as he pulled her up against him.
“You are impossible,” she said with a laugh as she turned to face him. He was naked as usual. They were enjoying the tropical weather before going back into the cold. “How about dinner at that lovely restaurant we passed on our way back?”
“If we ever make it out of this bed, sure,” he whispered as he switched positions and placed her beneath him. “I love you, Hailey Snyder.”
“And I love you, David, my husband.”
*****
“You are doing so well, baby,” David said soothingly as she gripped his hands in hers.
“Why is it taking so long?” she whispered. It was the middle of March and she had come into the medical facility a day before her due date. She had started feeling the contractions last night and now it was going into another night and still their son had not made his appearance. She was scared!
“It’s not that unusual, Hailey,” Dr. Whittingham told her as he examined her again. “You are a first time mother and a mature one. Ah, he is crowing,” he exclaimed in relief. “Please, do not push until I tell you to.”
She sank back against her husband and closed her eyes. She was tired and wanted so much to sleep, but she needed to do this. She could hear the strong beat of her husband’s heart and felt reassured by it. He had been such a strong supporter during her pregnancy that she had nothing to complain about.
“Now, Hailey!” She garnered her strength and made one last big push sagging back against David as she heard her son cried.
“Finally,” she murmured with a tired smile. “He is as difficult as you are,” she told him.
“And as stubborn as you, baby.” He kissed the top of her head.
The nurse carried him to them wrapped up in a light blue blanket. She placed the boy into his mother’s arms. “Hey there, Ian Daniel! You took your own sweet time in getting here, but it was worth the wait. He is perfect, darling.”
David stared down at the boy with his black curls and dark brown eyes and his wife’s nose and felt awed. His son! “He is.” He touched one soft cheek gently. They both looked up as the crowd gathered. His mother and sisters were present along with her mother and best friends. Her room was filled with flowers and gift baskets mostly from the other ‘wives’ and her faculty members and students.
“The mother needs to rest,” a nurse said sternly as they crowded in. “You have ten minutes.”
*****
Martha wrapped her hand around her son’s arm as he stood there looking down at his son lying on his back fast asleep. “He is such a beautiful baby.”
“He is going to be an only child,” he said softly. “I am not putting my wife through that again.”
“Have you discussed that with her?”
“No.” He looked at his mother. “She was in labor for almost twenty-four hours. I wanted to tear my hair out as I watched her going through that.”
“The rigors of childbearing,” Martha said softly as she looked at her grandson. “All forgotten as soon as we see the baby.”
“I am not likely to forget.”
“I am sure Hailey will not feel the same way.”
*****
She rocked him gently in her arms and watched as his eyes closed in sleep. It had been two days since she had been home and felt as if she had not slept in a week. Their son was not a night person and would wake up every two hours demanding something to eat or just some attention. “You are truly your father’s child, “she told him gently as she touched his soft cheek.
“I resent that, unless it is something positive,” he said softly as he came into the room. The nursery had been done by a professional and was a large airy room with cool blues and soft whites. Comfortable chairs scattered around to make life easier for those attending to little Ian.
“I was just telling him how much he sought attention.” She lifted her lips to his for his kiss and allowed her mouth to linger. Delivering a child had not quelled her sex drive and she was thankful for that. She would snuggle in his arms and he would feed on her nipples until they were both satisfied. His tongue entered her mouth and he ravished her while their son slept on. He dragged his mouth from hers and taking his son he put him in his cot, making sure he was tucked in before going to the sofa to put her on his hard and painful erection. “Darling, we need to do something about that,” she murmured as she wrapped her hands around his neck.
“And soon,” he whispered against her cheek. He could not enter her fully, but they made do as he rubbed his dick on her hard flesh. It was not as good as when he was inside her, but it was something.
“Let’s go to bed.”
*****
The wedding was small and intimate. The April sunshine was brilliant and touched everything on the lush lawns. Marilyn looked wonderful in a soft light blue silk dress that came to her knees. David walked her up the red carpet that had been spread in the middle of the chairs put there for the occasion.
Her dark brown hair was piled on top of her head and made her appear younger. She looked so happy and her groom could not stop smiling. They would be living at the manor as there were plenty of rooms. Her eyes caught those of her husband’s as he stood
there with his sister. She had their month-old son in her arms. Her birthday had been two days ago and he had taken her out to dinner. She blew a kiss at him and he caught it, his eyes twinkling with laughter. She could not believe that she was a wife and a mother and loving every minute of it. She soothed her son and brought him to her shoulder. Martha touched her lightly indicating that it was her time with him. Ian was going to be a totally spoiled child by the time he was two, she thought wryly as she handed him over to his grandmother. He was photographed every time they went out and she was getting annoyed at that.
The ceremony ended shortly after and the reception began. The chairs were cleared away and the place readied for dancing. David searched until he found her and without apology to the women she was talking to he led her onto the dance floor.
“Having fun?” he asked her tenderly as he looked down at her. Even though his sister was the bride, he thought that his wife was the most beautiful woman at the ceremony. She was wearing a gaily patterned Romano’s original that left her arms and shoulders bare. Her hair had grown somewhat and was caught up at the nape of her neck with a few curls resting on her cheeks.
“Hmm.” She snuggled against him inhaling the scent of his cologne and closing her eyes. “Your sister looks happy,” she murmured.
“She does.” He looked over to where Marilyn was talking to her husband and several others. She looked flushed with happiness! “Love does that to you.”
“Speaking of love and all that. This wedding is kind of bringing out the lust in me.”
“Everything brings out the lust in you,” he whispered hoarsely. He groaned as she inserted a hand between his legs and rubbed it on his genitals. “Baby-”
“I think Ian is okay with your mother. I don’t think we will be missed if we go back to our suite. Do you?” she whispered, her hand still busy on him.
