While he closed the door, she took advantage of his distraction to slip out of her clothes and under the covers on the bed. She sat while waiting for him, the sheet pulled up around her chest.
“Are you still uncomfortable around me?” Gage asked, but he luckily didn't sound too hurt.
“It's a new and weird situation for me. I'm not used to being naked for anything but bathing, and not for long to do that.”
“I can understand that. But you should know that I think you're beautiful and sexy. I like looking at you, and I want you to be comfortable with that. But I also understand that this is very new for you, and I'm willing to be as patient as I need to be. I'm your husband, and I've got the time to wait for you to get used to me.”
She looked up at him, realizing he was serious. That brought the kind of tenderness she had seen in his eyes to her own heart. If she had to get married, she had certainly found a great man to be tied to.
He undressed as well, and he wasn't at all shy about his nudity. Dymphna's eyes were inexorably drawn to his erection, waiting proudly for her perusal and enjoyment. As he said, he was her husband in their tradition, and she needed to trust him. She knew that it wouldn't come easy in most things, but she could start here and show him that she meant to make a strong relationship.
Her eyes on his, she dropped the sheet. His quick intake of breath showed that he approved. Emboldened by his reaction, she left the relative safety of the bed and came over to him. Dymphna wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him for all she was worth. Sex was a much more pleasurable thing than she had ever imagined, and she was going to go with her instincts and enjoy it as much as she could.
His arms came around her as well and he hugged her to him tightly, enjoying her mouth as she enjoyed his. She had to stand on her tip toes to get close enough that he didn't have to lean down too far to get to her because he was so much taller than she was. They moved together to the bed, and then his height didn't matter. Thinking wasn't working well for her either, and Dymphna gave herself up to feeling. And feeling some more.
When she finally did get to sleep, she was sore in all the right places and worn out from an exercise she had never gotten to experience before Gage. Both still naked, she used his chest as her pillow for the night, and she looked forward to the morning like she never had before.
The next morning, Dymphna's mind caught up to her feelings while she took her shower. It was like her entire life had been uprooted and changed in the past few days. That was, well, because it had been. She was feeling optimistic, which was downright peculiar. She looked at her relationships with her family differently even, all because Gage had changed her world. It would be up to the coming days to see if it could keep up like that, but she had the feeling it would.
Yet at the same time, she couldn't help but think about her mother. Gladys' taint was in her blood, and she wasn't sure she'd be able to shake it. Her mother's marriage was as disastrous as it could have been, and Dymphna wasn't egotistical enough to think that she was immune from falling prey to the same problems that her mother had gone through. People had tried to compliment her for years by comparing her favorably to her mother. Gladys had been a strong water witch like Dymphna, and she was well-liked by the community until she turned to radical Catholicism. Dymphna was human, too, and she worried about ruining what she was making with Gage.
So far, though, what she had with Gage was a beginning to something that looked good. But what if he changed his attitude towards her? What if he couldn't be as patient as he had promised while she tried to figure out how to be a wife? What if she never figured out how to be the kind of wife Gage wanted? What if she put everything she had and everything she was into being Gage's wife and he rejected her in the end? Who would she be after that?
No matter how hard she tried to shake it, the dread stayed with her.
When she got back in the bedroom, he was lazily waiting for her on the bed. But after her doubts, her chest felt tighter than a pulled spring. Dymphna could tell the moment he realized she was having problems because his morning-after ease turned to concern, and he pushed off the bed.
“Are you alright?” He asked, putting his hands on her shoulders and looking into her face.
“I'm fine,” she lied, ducking his eyes. He kept trying to make eye contact, but at some point, he realized he wasn't making any ground.
“If you say so.” He sounded disappointed, but he let go and headed into the bathroom for his own shower.
Dymphna stared at the door and wished her stomach would stop churning with worry. She didn't want to mess anything up that she couldn't fix or control. At the same time, she knew that by giving into her doubts and questions, she was even more likely to ruin things before she had fully started them. Either way lay pain, and she didn't know what to do. Not knowing what to do bothered Dymphna, and it wasn't something she experienced often.
She got dressed, putting frilly red lingerie underneath jeans and a comfortable sweater. It seemed odd, but she was going for change. She just had to keep telling herself that change was good and that she wouldn't foul it all up before she had even gotten to experience it fully.
Gage came out of his shower still concerned about Dymphna's obvious distress. Something had bothered his wife, and she wasn't telling him what. In turn, that bothered him. He had gotten married without anything but a name, but he was going to put everything he had into making it work. He had his memories back, and he knew that while he had his dark side, he was a good person overall. Ithad started in a futile attempt to make up for his father's evil nature, but most of it was because he genuinely liked helping people and being a teacher. He should be able to please his wife and give her what she wanted and deserved. If he was making mistakes of it already, he needed to rethink his strategy and do it right this time.
To avoid any distractions, he got dressed in the bathroom before he came back out to confront his wife. He was going to make right whatever he had done wrong, goddamn it.
She was sitting on the bed, staring into space when he came out. He sat down beside her and stared at the same wall. He just sat there for a bit, waiting to see if she'd talk. When she didn't, he realized he'd need to start the dialogue.
“What's going on, Dymphna?”
“What do you mean?”
“Please don't play games with me,” he said, trying to keep his anger at himself tamped down. “I did something, or didn't do something, and now there's some kind of problem. Why don't you tell me what's wrong, and I'll try my best to fix it.”
That was all it took, apparently, because she abruptly started crying.
“God, Dymphna!” He exclaimed, moving off the bed to stand between her legs and pull her into his arms. She kept crying on his shoulder, and he just held her and patted her back while she did. When her tears started to die down, he kept holding her, petting her back in circles until she was done. “Help me understand what's going on so I can help you, honey. I can't help if you don't talk to me.”
She pulled back and used the sleeve of her sweater to dry her eyes. “I'm sorry. I usually don't cry for anything.”
“Maybe you needed to let it out. But now I think we need to talk. I'm here for you, please tell me what's wrong because clearly something is.”
“I'm my mother's daughter, Gage. I'm afraid that I'm going to make the same mistakes, and I'm going to ruin everything. I don't know how to have a relationship, and here I am, already killing whatever good and wonderful things you're offering me.”
“Stop right there. It sounds like you're beating yourself up, and you don't have reason to. You had me worried, really worried. I care a lot about you,” he went with 'care' because he knew if he said 'love' at this point she'd shut down even further, “and I want you to be happy. The problem is that if you're worrying about becoming your mother, you aren't thinking about us. This, right here,” he gestured between their chests, “is all about us. If I'm right for you, and you're right for me, then the ghosts of
your parents don't need to be involved. And since I know that you're right for me, I need to get any dilemmas out of you before we go any further.”
“How do you know I'm not broken?” She looked like she could start crying again at any moment. He could tell that this was not the person Dymphna usually was, and he wanted the Dymphna he loved back, cocky confidence in place.
“I don't know that, frankly. But I can tell some things about you from what I've seen. You are your own person. Whether it's being a successful lawyer or just choosing your clothes, you do what you want to do, and you achieve what you want to achieve. If you want to have a successful marriage, you will find a way. But if you let uncertainty cloud what we have, you won't be able to make of this what you want.”
She stopped, staring into his eyes as if testing whether he believed what he was saying. He needed to make her believe. That would lead to more and more trust as she got to know him better.
“I've noticed that Leo calls you D. Would you mind if I did?” She shook her head. “Alright then, D, I want you to know, without any doubt in your mind, that I will do everything I can to make this work. Will you, in turn, do your best to make it work, without worrying about what might go wrong? Will you concentrate on what we gain if it all goes right and not plan for the worst? Can you do that for me?” He kept his eyes on hers. Gage could tell that what she did next was crucial. She might just break his heart before she even gave him a real chance.
Slowly, she nodded. “If you're willing to go to all that effort for me, the least I can do is to do the same.”
“You are your mother's daughter, but that doesn't mean that you are destined to relive her mistakes. So what we're going to do is we're going to forget what happened here. I'm going to show you that you are a great wife, and I'm going do my best to be a great husband in return. You are going to realize that you have an opportunity that you need to take advantage of for yourself. What we have is what we make of it. When you're ready to move forward, you're going to give me a kiss, and we're going to move forward.”
She nodded again. She took a deep breath, clearly making the effort to calm herself down. Then she smiled weakly. She kissed him, and he felt his hope return. He took her light kiss and deepened it until she responded in kind.
“Are we alright?” He asked, pulling back just enough so he could talk.
“We're alright. Thank you.”
“Do you want to stay up here for a little while or do you want to go see what Skylar's up to and possibly play some Skyrim?”
“Well, considering that we've exhausted the box of condoms I liberated from Skylar's bathroom, we'd better go downstairs.”
He laughed. “Can I give you incentive to go get some more?” He tickled her until she started giggling. He kept tickling her until she was really smiling. That was more like it.
“You win! Go distract Skylar somehow and I'm going to sneak out the door and make a drug store run.”
“I don't think we need to hide from Skylar. I think she realizes we're married, and I think she knows what that means.”
“Where's your sense of adventure, Gage? We. Need. A. Distraction. Understand?”
He laughed. “If my lady wants a distraction, she'll get a distraction. But it'll have to be worth it.”
“I'll make it worth it. Between you and me, and this is a secret too, you're going to get lucky tonight. Well, probably this afternoon and again tonight. So go distract Skylar already!”
He was glad to see her attitude turn around, but Gage knew that realistically, she still had some of those feelings, and she would have them for a while yet. He'd just need to make it another one of his missions to prove that she was the only wife he wanted and that they'd make it work.
Gage gave her the sign to creep downstairs, and he went into the kitchen.
“Good morning, Skylar,” he called out loudly. He heard Dymphna giggle lightly as she grabbed her purse in the entryway and scooted out the front door.
Skylar raised an eyebrow at him. “What the hell is going on? And by the way, it's afternoon.”
“I probably need some advice, realistically.”
“I'm good at advice. I've also been married into this family longer than anyone else, and I don't mind bragging on that as often as I can in front of Melanie and Fiona. Tell me what's on your mind or what's on Dymphna's mind, if that's more to the point. I'll help if I can.”
He sighed. “First of all, you need to be distracted. Dymphna thinks she's pulling one over on you by running out when your back is turned to get condoms.”
Skylar snorted then started laughing uproariously. “I noticed that my box was missing out of the bathroom, but I wasn't going to comment. I've been married to her brother for a year and a half, and I'm not an idiot.”
“So did Leo have the same problems from their parents' marriage?”
“Oh did he! Tell me what's going on, and I'll tell you what I know.”
Gage felt slightly like he was spilling her confidences, but he thought that a little more insight into her mind might be beneficial for the future. He told Skylar the basics, leaving out the emotional outburst and the crying. She went into more depth about the family's history and gave him more of an idea on what he was dealing with. There were some deep-seated issues there, and he knew he had his work cut out for him.
Before Dymphna got back, he made the awkward call back to Miami to tell his principal that due to unavoidable family issues, he'd have to resign. But since he was good friends with the principal, and he went ahead and told him what was really going on, or basically that he found his wife and needed to move to be with her. As a friend, he understood, and he agreed to keep the official story as a family emergency that caused him to relocate. He didn't like losing Gage as a teacher, but he knew it wouldn't do anyone any good to complain about it at length. The principal even congratulated him, and he invited Gage to come back to visit with his wife when he got a chance.
Gage came away from the call relieved. That could have gone a lot worse, but it actually went quite well. He updated Skylar and secretly wondered why Dymphna was taking so long to get a box of condoms.
"If you're feeling up to it, I'd like to get you to start looking at these manuals for me."
"It would be a good idea for me to start learning how to use my magic as soon as possible. Which one do you want me to start on?"
"I want you to start with fire magic. Since that's my specialty, I'll be available to answer any questions you have."
"Alright."
Skylar downloaded her manual to Dymphna's laptop, and Gage started reading. They were momentarily disrupted for Gage's package from his mother to arrive. She sent all of his credit cards and identification as well as his phone. He was lucky that he had somehow left all that at home when he was captured. That made him wonder what had happened when he was kidnapped, but he'd have to worry about that another day. He thought some serious magic might have to be worked on him again to reveal how he had gotten to the Wards' doorstep, and that would have to wait until he'd recovered more from the magic that had already been worked on him. At least now, he'd be able to take Dymphna to the court and get their paperwork taken care of to make their marriage legal.
He heard her creep back in the door and go upstairs. Gage and Skylar shared a smile. Dymphna thought she was clever and subtle.
"Did you have a nice shower, honey?" He asked as she came into the living room. She hadn't even gotten her hair wet, which would have signaled Skylar right away that she had been doing something else if she hadn't picked up on it yet. "Skylar's been having me read her magic manuals on your laptop."
"Go for it. I don't need to use it now. I think I'm going to play around with my Skyrim character."
"That sounds good," he said. “Or we could go make things legal.”
“Your package arrived?”
“It did. We've still got time if you want to go.”
“Let's go.”
Gage was surprised how little time
it took to get the paperwork through. Dymphna's father had brought witchcraft to light years ago, and as part of that process, he made it easier to push through a magical marriage in the legal system. There wasn't even a waiting period for witches. They filed with the court, then went to the Social Security office.
“I can change my name,” Dymphna said on the way over. “At first I was really against you being a Redman, but I've come to understand that you've taken your name and made something all your own with it.”
“No. In this community of witches, the name Ward is a powerful thing. The name Redman is just as powerful, but in the wrong way. It will be easier all around for me to take your name. I'm not nearly as attached to my name as you are to yours.”
“If you're alright with it.”
“Completely. I am actually quite honored that you'd give it to me.”
With that settled, Gage changed his name on his Social Security card, and then again at the Department of Motor Vehicles for his driver's license. The clerks in both places looked at him oddly as he did it rather than her, but they went through with the papers. Everything would be mailed over to Ward Manor, and the couple returned there. They had finally discussed his living situation in the car ride over to get their paperwork done, and her agreement to having him move in felt better than any amount of legal work could. She talked about it as if there were no other reasonable option, and he liked that.
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CHAPTER SIX
The Responsible Witch (The Ward Witches) Page 8
