She blinked and second later, I was over Charlie’s shoulder and carried into the Chapel. I laughed as I looked at Ian who smiled but shook his head. What the fuck was the man thinking?
Ben and Richard though, were grinning.
We signed the paperwork and soon, I walked down the aisle to him with a shitty veil and a bunch of roses for a bouquet. Ben on my arm to give me away.
Charlie looked nervous. I gave him a uneasy smile and kept my eyes locked on him. I bet he was doing it for his mother.
I wasn’t, I was doing this for him.
The service was short and sweet and Elvis did a good job. Ian handed Charlie some rings and I put it on his finger with steady hands. I gazed up at him and he looked like he would faint. He had lost a bit of color. He took me as his wife and placed a ring on my finger. I smiled up at him. He gave me a goofy grin.
When he lifted my veil, he did so with shaky hands. “Is this what it feels like? I am so fucking nervous right now,” he said and the boys chuckled as he gazed into my eyes. “Had I not met you I would never have done this.” He bent down and kissed me sweetly and then passionately. I returned it. He broke the kiss, stood up straight and went white.
“Hold him he is going to faint,” I said.
Ian and Richard grabbed him as he fell backwards. Once he was on the floor, he opened his eyes almost immediately.
I smiled down at him. “Hello, Husband.”
He stared at me wide eyed for a moment and then his eyes rolled again.
“Come away from him for a moment. He just did something he swore black and blue that he would never do.” Ian laughed and helped me stand. We stood back and let Charlie come around with his Mom and Dad watching over him.
I looked at Ian and went to say something and then couldn’t. He put his arm around my shoulders seeming to understand. Even if it was only for tonight, I considered myself married. When Charlie was ok again, we went back to the motel, had a few drinks and danced.
At some point, Charlie figured out I was wearing a garter. He put his head under my skirt and took it off with his teeth. He flicked it at Ian.
He caught it out of reflex then laughed when he saw what it was.
Charlie spoke to the boys and his parents and then took my hand. We went back to his room. Inside, once the door was shut. He looked me over. “You look so beautiful. Thank you for being my wife for a night.” He bit his lip, he had something to say and I was going to let him say it. “I wish I had met you sooner. Had longer but I feel the grim reaper in the room and he’s telling me I don’t have long. I have nearly ticked off my bucket list. I’m not scared because I look forward to not being in pain. But I sure am wishing I had more time to be with you. You made me a very happy man tonight. I can’t ever thank you for what you’ve done for me.”
I went to him and touched his chest before I started to unbutton his shirt. I needed to do something or I would cry. “Put more on your list.” I kissed his chest. “I will be your wife for as long as you need.”
“Only for tonight.” He stroked my shoulders. “Any longer and I will fall in love with you. I need you to love my brother more and look after him. He will need you when I am gone.”
I took his hand and led him to the bedroom. I didn’t want to talk about this now. I needed to show him my attention was focused on him, that I was his for tonight.
We undressed each other slowly. Kissing tenderly. Touching, exploring without being rushed. The need to mate was there, the attraction was there but tonight, we weren’t going to rush. We didn’t need words when we did this. Everything was said in a kiss, a look, a touch...
I could tell he’d never felt this intimate. Making love was intense, he looked me in the eyes. Something I felt like he didn’t do often. He kept shutting his eyes and shaking his head but would look back. I gave him everything I had, this man was a good man. He’d been dealt a harsh hand with an early death sentence. But this wasn’t pity I was feeling. I told myself I was loving him for just a night.
Opening my heart to a man, that would leave me.
When we finally lay sated, holding each other, he spoke, “Is that really what making love is like?” He was absently stroking my arm.
“Like it or not, we made love. Because I love you and just for a night, you love me too.” I kissed him. “I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t.”
He touched my face looking me in the eye. “You will love him, won’t you?”
“Can I just be in love with you for tonight?” I almost begged. This was eating my core and I was really trying not to let it.
“It is important I want to know.”
“I will try,” I whispered.
“That is all I ask,” he said, kissing my forehead.
Charlie
I woke with her in my arms. Her soft breathing tickling the hairs on my chest. I looked at her and wondered if she really did love me. I don’t think I’d ever felt so content.
She sighed, stretched and rubbed her eyes before cuddling into me again, her arm over my chest.
I took her hand and kissed her fingers. “Come on, beautiful. It is time to get up and get divorced.”
She giggled. “Don’t you want morning sex? It is a marriage thing that only happens on the rarest of occasions.”
I chuckled. “Now that isn’t really an offer I can pass up.” I put my hand between her legs and massaged her clit, she was already wet and ready.
Making love I always thought was a stupid thing to say. People fucked. Sometimes gentle, sometimes hard. But it was just fucking. Last night, I’d finally understood what it meant. Well, until five minutes ago, when she topped me and rode me with that beautiful body. And her eyes, they locked on to mine and through the sex haze and lust, I could see she honestly did love me.
That was when I fell. The term falling in love was scarily accurate. There was nothing you could do to save yourself.
The realization hit me hard that I would do almost anything to protect her and look after her. I played with her hands and looked at the shitty ring I’d bought her. For her it was enough. She didn’t want my money, she just wanted me and that was something I’d never felt. Women wanted me for something, my money mostly. They just never wanted me for me.
I was a stranger who’d walked up to her and made a proposition that was completely ludicrous. She’d taken the challenge and she was one of the boys for part of the time but when Ian and I had her yesterday and now with me, Kate was completely mine. The feeling was so overwhelming. I wanted to bury myself in her. I wanted to go nowhere else. I was hungry for her touch.
I pulled her to me and rolled, so I could top her then kissed her till I saw stars. It was like my whole world opened up. I hated it when women looked me in the eyes but with her, I craved it. This was better than anything I’d ever experienced. This was love and this was what sex should have felt like. This is what I had denied myself for thirty years, I’d run from it, fearing commitment.
She quickened under me before she shattered, her eyes on mine. Her walls completely down. I swear I could see her soul as I came, filling her with my seed. I kissed her tenderly because I did love this woman. I didn’t pull out just yet, because I didn’t want to break the connection.
She touched me gently, didn’t push me off. Didn’t go to sleep. She just stayed with me, in the moment.
When we did break the coupling, I held her in my arms, spooning her protectively as she went to sleep.
A while later, I heard my door and pulled the sheet over us as Ian came in.
He looked at Kate then at me. “Are you ok?” he asked softly “Mom insisted I check.”
I motioned him over.
He sat on her side of the bed and looked down at her with a smile. “She looks exhausted. Big night, huh?”
“Ian, I fell in love with her,” I whispered.
He stared at me as he tried to work out if I was joking.
“She’s wonderful. Please marry her and don’t you dare let her walk away fro
m you. I will haunt you if you do. She will love you completely.”
“She will drive me insane.” Ian smiled.
“That too, but she will look after you and kick your ass if you need it and hold you. Please Ian, be open to loving her and fall like I did. Don’t let her go, I am begging you. Look after her for me. Tough as she is, she needs you to have her back too.”
He watched me for a moment. “You really did fall for her, didn’t you?”
For the first time in thirty years, I had tears in my eyes as I nodded. “Yeah. And I am going to have to go downstairs and divorce her, so that I can see her in white and married to you. Then you will have her when I go.”
“You still have a few weeks.” Now he was again, fearing my death and sounding a little desperate.
“Ian. Promise me to love and to hold her until your dying breath,” I whispered.
Kate stirred and mumbled something incoherent and then she jerked. “Jesus, Ian! You scared the shit outta me!” she exclaimed and we both laughed as she turned to look over her shoulder. Then she rolled and touched my face. “What’s wrong? Why are you crying?” She touched my face, wiping my tears. The concern in her eyes was like a punch in the guts.
“I am not crying,” I denied it pointlessly.
“Don’t start your macho shit with me. What is wrong?” She stroked my face. Her eyes reading mine.
“I want to know why it took till the end of my life to finally fall in love, only to have to leave. Because you are really in love with me and I’m going to hurt you. I don’t want you to hurt. Because I need to get you downstairs and divorce you, so I can see you in white and happy with my brother, so I know you will both be ok. I want to meet your children and your family.” Yes Sir, I broke down like a babbling idiot.
Feelings? Eww. I needed to control myself before I was asked to hand in my man card.
I feared dying but I wasn’t going to go out like a fucking baby. I lied about being in pain just so they would feel it to be a blessing. The truth was other than feeling a little tired, I wasn’t in any pain at all.
She looked deep into my eyes and wiped my tears. “Because it is better late than never. Because the stars aligned. Whatever reason makes you happy. Charlie, I am never going to forget you. You are going to live in my heart. You have brought me on this wonderful crazy adventure and had me do things that I will never do again.”
“Like take off your parachute?” I asked being perfectly serious.
“I didn’t take off my parachute, I took off the instructor. Can’t make promises on that, shit happens and it must be dealt with. I was talking about the woman giving me a blow job and the threesome.” She smiled. “That is something only you two will share with me. As for me getting hurt. Fuck yes, it will hurt. I will grieve and one day, the clouds will lift and I will be ok.”
“I want you to be ok. I don’t want to hurt you.” I touched her face looking her in the eyes. “Will you marry Ian? Will you love him until you die?” I asked.
“Charlie, three men have touched me my entire life, two are in this room. If Ian wants me? I am sure he will ask. But you don’t need to worry about anything except having a good time and enjoying life. I just need you to know that I have enjoyed every second of your company, and will never regret falling in love with a man that just loves to pick up Randoms’ to do crazy stupid shit with.”
“You really do love me for me, don’t you? ” I asked, gazing into her eyes.
“I don’t know you as anyone other than you.” She smiled while caressing my face. “And you are pretty awesome.”
Ian chuckled and wiped a tear. “Fuck you both. You two are going to make me cry with all this sappy shit.”
I laughed. “How about I suggest that when you two are married that you both fuck like rabbits as often as possible with a three times a week minimum.”
“What? Now you’re stipulating what’s going to be in our marriage?” Ian asked and lay down beside Kate. “Ok, let’s hear it.” He was letting me change the subject.
“Ok sex, lots of it. If proven wrong, the other must give head as an I’m sorry. Must still go on dates, go out and have fun. More babies. And I want you both to love and accept each other as you both are. And never lie to each other.”
“That all sounds fairly doable,” Ian said with a nod.
“Except that minimum three times a week thing. Hell, marriage equals no sex,” Kate said with a smile that was just outright cheeky.
Ian and I stared at her.
She gazed at Ian. “Morning sex is a rare thing, isn’t it?”
“I love morning sex. It is the best. But rare? Yes. Very rare. Even more so when you have kids,” Ian replied.
“I want you to have morning sex at least once a month,” I stated.
Kate giggled. “Is that what we would have been like?”
“Woman, I would have tied you up in my play room and locked the fuckin’ door and only let you out to feed and water you.” Charlie chuckled.
“What about Ryan, Ella and my job?”
“You could have time to play with the kids. But the second they were in bed, I would be all over you. Oh, ok that is another thing, no frumpy unsexy pajamas. Sexy stuff to bed.”
“What? No jammies! No way. Next, you will tell me I will have to wear dresses.”
“You do wear dresses!” We both exclaimed.
“I am wearing dresses because Emma and Carrie friggin’ repacked my suitcase. I am a jeans, shorts, boots and t-shirts kinda girl. I have no reason to dress up.”
Ian and I looked at each other. “What do you do for a living and what the hell is RAR?”
“Royal Australian Regiment. I was in the Army,” she explained. “How do you think I got most of the damage?”
“Are you out?” I asked.
“Yeah. Got out twelve months after…” She moved the sheet and pointed at four scars. “I got shot. Didn’t hit anything major, so it was a fairly easy recovery. I’d been home with the kids and the in-laws came over to the states and started working here, then got me a job. But they insisted I have a holiday for a week since I haven’t ever taken one. So, they sent me here.”
“Where are your parents?” I asked.
“Dead.”
“Your husband?”
“Killed in action,” she replied quietly.
It was then when it hit me why she said that I didn’t know what I was asking from her. “Oh Kate, I am so sorry.” I sat up “If I’d known…” I was making this poor woman a widow twice!
“You would never have fallen in love. No regrets Charlie. Absolutely none,” she said with sincerity.
“Why were you shot?” Ian asked.
She looked over at him. “Classified. But I can tell you this one passed right through me and went into my brother in law.”
I got out of bed. “Come on wife. Get up and have a shower. I’m about to divorce your beautiful ass and you are going to call your family since they are here, not in Australia and invite them to your wedding. I have things already in place and when I have divorced you, I’m going to take you dress shopping.”
“Can’t I sleep another half an hour?” she grumbled.
“No.” I laughed. “Time is a ticking, I will sleep when I am dead.”
Kate
Charlie had a way of throwing his weight around. I wondered what he did other than be the manager at the hotel I was staying at. I stood by watching him smooth the way with the judge for an actual divorce. Not an annulment.
The judge smirked and stared at me. “So, are you going to be the bitch that goes after everything or are you going to let him steam roll you?”
I looked up at Charlie. “You want to role play or just have it signed off?”
“No, I want a divorce. I want a bit of a fight. You walk away with yours and I walk away with mine. No exchange but I want a fight.”
I nodded. “Alright then.”
The judge sat in his chair as Charlie yelled at me about the parachute and sho
oting him in the balls at paint ball.
Then I shouted at him for the money I’d won and how I didn’t know who he was.
“Hold up a second!” The judge stopped us.
We looked back at him.
“Oh, come on, it was just getting fun,” I grumbled.
“No, do you really not know who you are married to?” The judge stared at me but pointed to Charlie.
“Well no, I met him five days ago and have been pretty much drunk for most of it.” I looked at Charlie. “What does he mean who you are?”
“Ma’am you are married to a multi-billionaire,” the judge informed me.
I cocked my head to the side. “So what? He has a bit of money, good for him. I’m sure he worked hard for it.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to at least get alimony?” the judge asked.
“Huh? Why would I do that?”
“It would set you up for life,” the judge stated.
“I don’t want his money. I have a job,” I quietly told the judge then looked at Charlie. “This, as much as we are play acting, is a real divorce. I don’t want your money. I would rather have a miracle cancer cure and you here for the next sixty years.”
“I would be a hundred!” He laughed.
“Charlie, I mean it. I don’t want your money. If you force any on me through this process? We are not going to be play acting.” I watched him.
He smiled slowly, then he shrugged. “I don’t know what the judge is going to do.”
“Damn it Charlie! What the fuck have you been up to!” I threw my hands up, I wasn’t acting now. “Do not be deviating from the list.”
“You told me to add more on to my list!” he shouted back.
“I don’t want your money! Miracle cure for cancer yes, but you have a family that you can give it to. Don’t make me the bad guy and set me up.”
“I will do whatever the fuck I want.” He smirked. “If I want you to have everything, then you will have it.”
I went absolutely fucking postal. It was a real fight now. I was upset and angry at things that I had no control over. I didn’t want any money. Hell, I hadn’t even managed to spend the money I had.
The Vegas Random Page 14
