After seeing him shirtless in the third swimsuit, I sent the girl off in search of another item. When she was out of eyesight, I squeezed my way back into the dressing room with Brett to show him just how much I enjoyed the show. He had naturally sun-kissed skin, coupled with his stunning physique, I was having a hard time controlling myself. I’d never been much on public displays of affection, and since Gray, I hadn’t felt the need to devour a man—until now. Pushing him back into the dressing room, I looked both ways in search of watchful eyes before I shut the door ready to ravage my fiancé.
“Sweetheart, what are you doing? We’re in a dressing room with people right outside.”
My kiss silenced his protest, and I tucked my fingers into the waistband of the swimsuit, tugging it down. They fell to his ankles exposing his partial erection as I knelt in front of him. Our eyes met—mine determined, his hesitant. My hands glided up the back of his thighs to his butt spreading goosebumps over his flesh easing his doubt. With a little squeeze, I moved to his lower back, gripping his sides with both hands. My thumbs were secured in the deep V etched in his torso I loved. Leaning in, I exhaled slowly onto his body. He flinched as my warm breath floated across his skin, and his hand landed on the back of my head. I edged close enough to give him one long drawn out lick up his shaft maintaining eye contact. As he drew a sharp breath through his teeth, his cock hardened at my touch and silently invited me to play.
“Annie…” That one word was a plea that begged me to continue but warned me to stop based on our current location.
Ignoring the latter, I took him deep in my throat and made love to his dick with my mouth. His eyes closed and his head fell back, lost in pleasure. A low moan escaped from his lips. He was close, his rapture was near, but he stopped me. He fisted my hair halting my progression and gently pulled back until I released him with a shallow pop. I stood at his encouragement, and he drew me tightly to his chest to whisper in my ear.
“Bend over the bench,” he cooed softly enough not to be heard.
I did as he told me to without question. I’d never been this brazen, but something about it was dangerous and erotic and so unlike either of us. He reached around me and unbuttoned my jeans and then pulled them and my panties to my ankles. Bent over, my ass was in the air, my girlie parts completely exposed. I had known before he touched me, being quiet in this position would be more than difficult. Brett was well-endowed, and his taking me from behind always stole my breath right before I became vocal. He pushed in just enough to set himself up to go deep before he leaned over my back. He secured my waist with one hand for leverage and covered my mouth with the other. Before I could think about what he was doing, he took what was his in one strong thrust. Had he not secured my body and my mouth, I would have crashed through the wall, and my muffled moan would have come out in a wail. Neither of us took long to climax. He pulled out and sat on the bench, brought me into his lap with my jeans still at my ankles, and then tucked me into his hard chest.
Just before the saleswoman knocked on the door to check on Brett, he said, “You’re amazing, Annie. I love you, sweetheart.”
My heart was so full of love there was nothing I could say other than echo his sentiment. Giggling softly, I peered up at him and pecked his supple lips. “I love you, too. Let’s get out of here before that girl gets a key and comes in to make sure you’re okay.”
I pulled my pants up, using the mirror to make myself presentable again, and ignored my mental disarray. My face was flush with sex, my skin glowed with happiness, and my eyes glistened in love.
Brett had donned his jeans but was still shirtless when I turned away from the mirror. Placing my hands on his pecs, I craned my neck to stare into his eyes. My fiancé gazed down at me. There was one emotion always prevalent in his gaze, and I could read it loud and clear—total adoration. My heart swelled, and my emotions swooned as I went up on my tippy-toes to lock lips with him in a heartfelt exchange of tenderness. He wasn’t Gray, he’d never be Gray, but what he brought to my life so far superseded anything Gray ever attempted to. There was no doubt in my mind he’d sacrifice his life for my happiness. With one final kiss to his lips, I thanked God for bringing me through the turmoil of Will and later Gray to finally make it to a man who demonstrated daily how selfless love should be and how amazing it could be.
Swimsuits accounted for, we still had to find rings and a wedding dress. I wasn’t concerned about rings. There were countless jewelry stores in town with scads of rings, but finding a dress off the rack that required no alterations wouldn’t be an easy feat.
“Don’t limit yourself to wedding dresses. It’s just the two of us on a beach. It can be whatever you want it to be.” He smiled at me as he opened the door to another store.
We scanned the local dress shops, considered several options, but I hadn’t seen anything I had to have. Nothing seemed right, but I couldn’t explain what I thought “right” was. It was like searching for a needle in a haystack and not knowing what a needle looked like.
Brett tugged me toward a shop behind one of the historic hotels downtown. The shop specialized in couture gowns. I protested and tried to explain to Brett what the word couture meant. We were wasting our time and the salesperson’s. There was no way this place would have a dress that would work.
“If that’s the case, then we won’t be in here long. Humor me,” he asserted as he opened the heavy glass door.
I meandered around the front of the store not wanting to catch an employee’s attention while Brett beelined toward something in the back that had caught his eye when we walked in.
“Sweetheart, come look at this one,” he called out from a few feet away.
The moment it came into view, I knew it was perfect in every way. I admired the details of the gown he held up. I’d never seen a shade of pink so soft it was almost white. The beaded straps led to a sweetheart neckline crusted with the same beading. Sporadically-placed tiny fabric rosettes adorned the gown that cascaded into a full-blown garden of different sized flowers in the same delicate pink surrounding the hem and wisp of a train. The fabric flowed like a gentle breeze, giving it a light and airy appearance, perfect for a beach. My heart seized when Brett turned the gown so I could see the back; it was full-on gorgeous. The pièce de résistance, the detailed beading flowed down from the straps to outline the deep cutout V that would expose my back in the most sensual of ways. As I wrapped my mind around the perfection of this gown, the saleslady approached us.
“Would you like to try that on?” Her voice was pleasant as was her smile.
Brett answered for me, “Yes, she would.”
She led me to a dressing room and hung the dress inside. Instructing me to undress, she went to grab shoes and a headpiece and would return to help me into the gown. She was gone several minutes which left me sitting in my panties with no bra. When she returned, I nixed the veil and decided I didn’t want one, but the shoes were perfect. There were no mirrors in the room, but she informed me there was a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree mirrored pedestal just around the corner.
“Will you make sure Brett can’t see me? If this is the dress, I want it to be a surprise.”
“Of course. I’ll be right back.”
Upon her return, she gave me every assurance he didn’t have a view of the mirror and led me out to the riser to see the dress. Overwhelmed, I stood there in silence, absorbing the enormity of it all. She came up behind me and quickly pulled my hair up to expose my neck and the back of the dress. While it may not have been a traditional gown, it was absolute perfection. The woman allowed me to stare at my reflection without uttering a word. Instead, she smiled knowing what I felt.
There had been times when I’d wished Gray would have made us permanent; Gatlinburg had been the culmination of those feelings. But never in my wildest dreams had I imagined this level of commitment and devotion from a man who loved me endlessly, and who I felt the same about. He’d given me the time to find my confidence again. Brett had
loved me back to health so I could love him in a way perfect for both of us. My eyes misted reminiscing about the pain of the years before my fiancé came into my life and the patience he had to love a broken version of me.
She beckoned me out of my dress-induced haze when she spoke. “I can’t tell you how many women have tried on that dress. It just never suited any of them, but it looks like the designer created it for you.” Granted, she was trying to sell me on the garment, but I was already sold.
As I walked back to the dressing room, I realized how reluctant I was to remove the gown, but I hadn’t said a word to her the entire time I stood there staring at my reflection.
She followed me back to the dressing room to help me remove the dress. When she closed the door behind her, she turned and asked, “Is this it?”
I fumbled around looking for a price tag when I felt her hand on mine.
“You won’t find a tag. Your fiancé asked me to remove it before you tried it on.”
“How much is it?” I asked wearily.
If he asked her to remove the tag, it was expensive. I wasn’t an extravagant spender…in fact, I was rather frugal, and Brett knew it.
“I’m not supposed to tell you the cost. I’m only supposed to get your opinion.” She was between a rock and a hard place. The bride wanted to know the price before deciding, but the groom had explicitly told her to keep it a secret to eliminate it being a deciding factor. I didn’t want to further complicate the matter or make her wish we’d stayed outside.
“I love the gown, but I can’t decide without knowing the cost. I’ll only wear it once. Can you help me out of the dress so I can talk to Brett?”
“Certainly.” She seemed relieved not to be in the middle.
Exiting the dressing room, she escorted me to Brett, who was standing by the window watching people pass by outside unaware they were being watched. He heard us approach and turned. His lips met my cheek, and he looked expectantly at me for an answer.
The sales lady spoke first. “I’ll hold this up front while the two of you talk. Just let me know if you are interested.” With that, she moved away, taking the dress with her.
“Well, what did you think?” His face split in an enormous grin that reached from ear to ear hoping for a positive response.
“It’s beautiful, but I’m not willing to decide until I know the price.”
The radiant grin fell from his face, consternation replacing it. “Annie, do you want the dress?”
“I want to know the cost.”
“Forget the price. Is that the dress you want to get married in?”
I hesitated, unsure of how to respond.
He filled the silence. “Sweetheart, let me do this for you. I know you aren’t extravagant and don’t like to spend money unnecessarily, but this is a once in a lifetime event. You don’t have to be utilitarian about everything. We aren’t having a lavish wedding; we aren’t doing a huge reception. Please let me buy you the dress you want just because I want you to feel beautiful. You know the money isn’t an issue.” He waited for a response that didn’t come. “Is this the dress you want to walk down the aisle in?”
“Yes.” My response was quiet but firm.
Drawing me to him, he smiled and kissed me on the forehead. Hand in hand, we walked to the back of the store to purchase my wedding dress. As Brett pulled out his wallet, she rang up the dress and the shoes before giving him a total.
“Your total is six hundred and ninety-eight dollars and twelve cents,” she offered with a knowing grin.
Looking at Brett, I smacked him on the stomach before responding to the woman checking us out. “That’s the total for the dress and the shoes?”
The salesperson responded, “It’s a sample dress from last year and deeply discounted.”
“I didn’t want you to decide based on cost, Annie. I wanted your honest opinion, regardless of whether it cost five thousand dollars or five hundred. The price wasn’t a concern. I would have paid ten thousand if it made you happy.” He kissed me again, this time on the lips in a quick display of affection, and then signed for the sale. He carried the garment bag while I toted the shoes.
I was floating on cloud nine, envisioning myself walking down the beach to meet Brett in the most breathtaking dress I had ever seen.
“Why don’t we take this stuff to the car before scouting for wedding bands,” he suggested, already trailing in that direction.
It was the little things about Brett that differed from Gray, for example, his car. Gray had always driven big trucks, albeit nice trucks, but trucks all the same. Brett was an SUV kind of guy, luxury SUV. He opened the door to his pearl white Lexus LX, hung my dress from the door handle, and neatly stacked our other bags in the back seat. Clicking the remote, he locked the doors.
“You ready to find wedding bands?”
“This should be easy. How hard can it be to find the perfect wedding band?”
Nothing was ever easy for me, which is why I’d rather take a poke in the eye with a sharp stick than shop. Finding a simple platinum band should have been an easy task, but after visiting three jewelers, neither of us had found what we wanted for the other.
“This is why I hate shopping. I get so frustrated when things don’t go as planned.”
Brett laughed at my pouting. “Don’t think of it as shopping. Think of it as spending the day together wandering the streets of downtown Greenville.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “I’m not sure I can marry someone who doesn’t loathe shopping as much as I do.”
He nudged me in the side before telling me it was too late. I was already wearing his ring; he’d bought me the dress and paid for the wedding. Brett assured me I was stuck. I loved the way he brought light to every situation where I tended to see storm clouds he found rainbows.
At that moment, I found us standing in front of Lyn Strong, an upscale store known for their unique pieces. They’d been in Greenville forever and were the “who’s who” in custom jewelry. Brett seemed to have a knack for zeroing in on exactly what he was looking for the instant he saw it; this time was no different. He walked to the case in the middle of the store and immediately told the woman which ring he wanted for me. He leaned his elbow on the glass while the woman removed the ring from the case. He motioned me over to look at it. It wasn’t the traditional wedding band, but just like the dress he picked, the ring was exquisite. The platinum band was filled with tiny pink pave diamonds inlaid. The pink was just as pale as the color of my dress. He slid it on my finger beside my engagement ring, and tears filled my eyes. I had no idea how he managed to do this; everything he touched for me became perfection.
“Does that mean we have a winner?” He winked at me. All I could do was nod and wipe the tears from my face with the back of my hand. In one day, Brett had turned me into a sappy mess, but I appreciated for once in my life—they were tears of joy.
Composing myself, I faced the salesperson. “I want a ring that brings that reaction to his face.”
She grinned with a hint of a giggle. I appreciated that she was confident she could pull it off and waved me in the direction of another display. We left Brett where he stood.
We stopped at a case bursting with different men’s rings, not just wedding bands. There was an array of designs I’d never dreamed of and not a single solid gold band in the bunch. I saw it instantly, like a little ray of heaven shone down on it, highlighting it among the others. I had no idea what the draw was to that particular ring, but it spoke to me.
Metals fused together, white gold and platinum, to form rings like a dissected tree. The only difference between the two similar metals was the sheen—one glossy, one matte finish—cast unmoving shadows. I couldn’t help but see the roots we were building together visible in the tree-like knots cast in the metal. Tears welled in my eyes again, threatening to fall.
I laughed in nervous embarrassment. “I’m sorry. I’m an emotional wreck today.”
She waved my apology off and p
ointed to the ring that brought on the waterworks. “I’ve never had a woman react to a man’s wedding ring this way. Her own absolutely, but never her fiancé’s. The piece should speak to you, and obviously, this one does. Do you want to show him?”
I glanced up to find his eyes carefully watching me from across the room. He scowled when he saw the tears and stalked toward me, intent on killing whoever had upset me.
“Annie, sweetheart, what’s wrong?”
He turned to the salesperson for an answer until I laid my hand on his arm and took his left hand in mine. He intently observed my hands tremble as I slid the ring on his finger. When it came to rest at the base, I held his hand with both of mine, and I looked up. He was straining to keep his emotions from becoming visible. He dropped my hands to cup my cheeks and kissed me on the mouth, closed mouth, but slow and purposeful. I knew in that kiss, he saw everything in the ring that I had. He hesitantly took the band off to hand it back to the lady at the counter.
“It’s only a week, Brett.”
He nodded in agreement. Neither of us wanted to remove the rings once they were on. Any doubt that might have been lingering in the recesses of my mind were lost. I knew, without hesitation, Brett was home. My home.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen two people so in tune with each other. I wish I had videoed this entire exchange from the moment the two of you walked in the door.” She smiled brightly before asking if we wanted to look at anything else.
Brett shook his head. With the rings tucked securely in my fiancé’s pocket, we left the store hand-in-hand. We barely made it out the door and onto the sidewalk before he gripped me in a bear hug and raised me off my feet to swing me in a circle.
“I can’t wait to make you my wife. I love you, sweetheart.”
“I love you, too. Let’s go home. I’m beat.”
~
The rest of the week was consumed by making sure we were both caught up at work and wouldn’t be missed while we were gone. I had been nervous to tell Jack, but he was ecstatic to find out I was marrying Brett. He had never been a fan of Gray. I hated asking Jack to keep our secret, but he hugged me and promised me he wouldn’t breathe a word to anyone. Jack was like a father to me, only one who didn’t judge my every move and hadn’t become distant after the trials. I always worried he would be disappointed in me, but when I got his stamp of approval, I felt like I’d won the lottery. He assured me my accounts would be taken care of while I was gone.
Freed (Bound Duet Book 2) Page 32
