“Oh? Did she finally decide what she wants to pursue?”
“Maybe. But at least she’s looking which is more than she has been doing.”
“You’d risk losing Piper when you already think you’ll lose Amy?”
“I want them both to be happy,” Emma said with a shrug. “Piper and Amy are good waitresses but this isn’t a forever kind of job. Amy needs to explore her dreams. Grow. Piper has a young daughter to take care of but still. She’s too young to feel stuck.”
David stopped eating and took a long drink of water as a muscle ticked in his jaw. Emma continued to eat as the air around them grew thick with tension. Finally becoming aware of it, she looked up. “Are you okay?” Mentally, she scanned over their conversation, but nothing seemed amiss.
“Do you have any idea how amazing you are? You do so much for everyone else. Your family. Honor. Me. Now, this Piper chick. You humble me.”
He stood and reached for her hand. Her brow knit in confusion but she allowed him to stand her up. “I need you,” he said with simple sincerity and she melted. “Now.”
“I need you,” she said, not even thinking of saying no to the pure desire in his eyes. This wasn’t her teasing silly lover. This was a man whose raw need begged for release. The man she loved. The man she would never deny anything he needed.
Half kissing, half dragging her through the house, he propelled them into her bed. She landed with a heartfelt “oof” and a giggle that soon faded into the warm gentle sounds of submission to her lover.
“I love your curves,” he said, worshipping the gentle nip of her waist and the soft curve of her belly. He imagined her round with their child and his breath caught. With a quick shoulder movement, his shirt was gone and then so were his jeans.
“Now which one of us is overdressed,” he said with a wicked and sexy smile.
“I’m not exactly a tiny girl,” she whispered in the still air. She kissed his shoulder, loving the way his supple muscles played beneath smooth tanned skin.
“You’re Emma. You’re beautiful. And you’re mine,” he said, his breathing growing harsh as he tugged at her clothes with rough impatient hands.
“Let me,” she said. She rolled from beneath him. She turned her low-wattage night light on and unbuttoned her modest sweater. Then slipped off her jeans. Finally, the pale pink tank top until she stood in her bra and boy shorts.
His eyes devoured her, making her smile with a feminine self-confidence she never knew she had. She lowered her panties with a teasing little wiggle while he watched, entranced.
She paused for a moment, stumbling over the triple hook of her bra. She swallowed and released it. Releasing her body and soul into his care.
“Come here,” he said, patting the wide expanse of the bed with one hand while holding his erection with the other. “Come ride me, Emma.”
She straddled him, her long hair flowing down her spine and tickling her low back. “You like this,” she commented. Soft hands stroked him and he lengthened in her palm.
“I like the view,” he said.
“Maybe I’m not quite ready,” she teased, pulling away and letting small kisses fall to his chest and abdomen. He inhaled sharply. “Lower,” he begged.
“Like this?” Her tongue danced against the dark hair below his belly button as she followed it to the treasure below.
~~~~~~
They lay in the half light from her night light. “Would you like me to start a fire?” David asked.
“Hmm, how’d you know? I was feeling like a lazy cat but a fire sounds perfect.”
Still stark naked, he hopped out of bed and bent over the hearth. He assembled the kindling and put several logs on the grate. He set a match to the fire and waited for it to catch. The dried pinecones caught immediately and sent a warm, cheerful glow into the room.
“Look at you all sexy and naked,” Emma teased from her warm cocoon.
“And cold,” he said with a laugh.
He grabbed something from his jeans pocket before slipping back under the quilt. He scooped her against him, spoon style. She squealed with laughter has his cool body pressed against her.
With hazy, dazed eyes they watched as the logs caught and the fire roared to life. Tendrils of fragrant wood smoke rose in the air and enveloped them. She sighed and drifted a little on a tiny cloud of soul-deep pleasure.
“My lovemaking looks good on you.”
“Not that I’m complaining, but what brought all this on?” she asked with a lazy cat-like stretch.
“You,” he said. “I love you, Emma Evans,” he said. “I love how you take care of people and find them homes. I love how you protect the ones you love. How you make everyone near you part of your tribe.”
Tears caught in her throat. “Amy says I’m like a mother hen. You don’t think I’m too maternal? Too matronly?”
“Being a matriarch to your clan isn’t a bad thing.”
“But not a very sexy thing,” she replied.
David pushed his hips into the soft curves of her bottom. “Does this feel like less than desire?”
Her giggle was a little watery but she had to admit. His desire for her was mind blowing. “I think we can both agree on the desire.” She touched him, her hands roaming everywhere. Anywhere. His skin was hers to touch at will. “And the love.”
“Oh, I had a call today,” he said changing the subject. “Jim Light called me earlier today.”
“Oh?”
“He got an offer on my house.”
“That’s great! Is it a good offer?”
“Good enough,” David said. “But I was waiting on that, to ask you something.” He pulled her towards him and nuzzled her neck. She giggled as his barely-there scruff found a ticklish spot before he pulled back to look into her eyes.
“You have made me the happiest man in the world, Em. The way your eyes look at me,” he said, brushing a butterfly kiss across her lids. “The way your laugh brightens my day.” Another feather-soft kiss against the corner of her mouth. “The way your kisses melt my resolve and harden my co—”
“David,” she scolded, putting her hand across his mouth.
He licked her palm and she rolled her eyes at his boyish antics.
“What I’m trying to say is that I love you. And it would give me the greatest joy in the world if you would be my bride.”
He presented the small box and flipped it open with a deft movement of his thumb.
Her mouth opened in awe as she stared at the exquisite princess cut sapphire ring surrounded by a halo of diamonds. A matching diamond band nestled next to it, waiting for their wedding day.
Her eyes looked into his dark chocolate eyes and she saw that moment where love turned into the faintest bit of fear. “Oh, David,” she said, her bright china blue eyes filling with tears as she wrapped her arms around his neck. “I would love to be your bride,” she whispered against his lips before sealing them with her own kiss.
His mouth was ravenous as he devoured hers. Soft when he needed to be, but with a deep hunger underlying his touch.
With shaking hands, he pulled the ring out of the box and set it on her nightstand. Still nude, he knelt at the bed in order to make it picture perfect and proper. “Emma Evans, will you marry me?”
She sat up, wrapping a sheet around her breasts and presented him with her left hand. “Yes,” she said, her voice solid and firm.
As the ring slid past her knuckle and found its home, Emma felt her own fears of the future melt away. She was where she belonged and mating with the right man will only enhance a woman’s gift.
“I love you,” she whispered.
“You are my world and I love you, too,” David vowed.
Chapter 10
The sitting room off of Father Abbruzzese’s office was a flurry of white chiffon, flowers and the decadent scent of honeysuckle.
“You look beautiful,” Honor said, wiping at her eyes.
“No crying,” Emma scolded, her eyes beginning to fill with her own tear
s. “You’ll only get me going again.”
“I can’t believe my baby is getting married,” Brenda said, holding little Elizabeth Rose. She kissed the little girl’s neck and the baby giggled in response. “Hopefully someday soon, I’ll be Nana to another baby, too,” Brenda said in a sing-song voice.
“Working on it, Mom,” Emma said. “But is it okay if we wait until the honeymoon?”
“Pfft, like you waited,” Tabitha said and laughed when all the adults looked at her with shock. “What? I’m thirteen not three. Sheesh.”
“You aren’t supposed to say it, thought,” Brooke chided.
“Whatever. Is it time yet?” Tabitha asked, not at all impressed with the fuss.
“Soon,” Brenda said.
Emma picked up her bouquet and inhaled the deep, delicious scents. Dazzling crème de la crème roses mixed with exquisite peach roses to create a luscious cream on cream bouquet. It was held together with a fragrant honeysuckle vine the filled the small chamber with its delectable aroma. She touched the satin-soft petal and smiled, remembering David’s comparison of her beauty to a rose.
“Uh oh. She’s doing it again, Mom,” Tabitha said.
“Doing what?”
“Getting that goofy grin on her face. The one she gets when she thinks about David.”
Brooke rolled her eyes at her sister. “Goofball, she’s supposed to get that dreamy-eyed look. Would you rather she was in here shedding horrified tears and begging our father to get out of the marriage?”
Tabitha shrugged, clearly uninterested. She twirled in front of a full-length mirror and let the pale peach colored skirt flare out like a circle around her legs.
Emma ignored her youngest sister and stood to admire the gentle cut of her wedding gown. A modest A-line, it was layered in chiffon with layers of palest pink and yellow that hinted at a summer sunrise. The tea roses in her hair gave her a gentle, ethereal look and she couldn’t wait for David to see her.
She couldn’t wait to see him.
And become his bride. Tears formed and she knew her face would be a wreck by the time she got to the altar.
“You messed your make-up again,” Honor scolded.
“Here, let me,” Brenda said and handed Honor back her daughter. Brenda picked up the powder and gently touched it to the freckles on her daughter’s nose. “You’re so beautiful, baby.” She cried and hugged her oldest daughter.
“Hey, what are we? Chopped liver?” Tabitha said.
Brenda laughed and extended her hug. “Get over here all of you.” She noticed Honor holding back.
“You, too, young lady,” Brenda said after embracing each daughter. “I may not have given birth to you but you’re my girl, too.” She dropped a kiss on the baby’s soft forehead. “You’re both my girls.”
Honor nodded and looked at her shoes with embarrassment.
“C’mon, Mom,” Brooke said. “Don’t embarrass Honor. The Maid of Honor.”
A collective groan went up by everyone. “Like I haven’t heard that a million times since Em asked me,” Honor said.
There was a gentle knock on the door and Clayton Evans poked his head in. “It’s time,” he said. “Everyone is seated.”
Brenda pressed a kiss into her daughter’s cheek. “Let me go take my seat,” she said. “You look so beautiful and I couldn’t be more proud of the choices you’ve made, baby girl.” She kissed all of the girls, even a flustered Honor, before she left to take her seat.
The girls all queued up with Tabitha holding Elizabeth Rose to act as flower girls. Each wore dresses in a pale peachy-pink with a small bouquet of pale pink daisies. Emma took a deep breath. Everything was perfect. And even if it wasn’t perfect, it still was. Because today was her wedding day.
Clayton linked arms with his oldest daughter as they waited for their cue. “Nervous?”
“No,” she corrected. “Excited. Eager. I am going to marry the man of my dreams in a few minutes and start the next chapter of our lives. I can’t wait.”
“As your mother said, sweet girl, we love you and are so proud of you. You picked a fine man.”
“Aw, Jeeze, Dad,” Tabitha said. “You’re going to make her cry again.”
“Thank you, Dad,” Emma said, her voice growing clogged with emotion. “That means the world to me.” Clayton pulled his handkerchief out and delicately wiped at the corners of her eyes, careful not to smear her makeup.
Each of her sisters walked down the aisle, leaving only Honor.
Emma took her hand. “You’re as much a sister to me as Amy and Brooke,” she said softly.
“And Tabitha?”
“Her, too, I guess,” Emma said, wrinkling her nose with humor. “But I wanted you to know how important you are to me. How much you’ve meant to me and how much I love you.”
Honor nodded and looked at her shoes.
With a gentle finger, Emma raised her best friend’s chin until their eyes met. “Don’t ever forget Honor Rose Spencer. You are a part of our families.”
“Thank you.”
“Now, shoo. Get a move on, woman. You look beautiful and I have a husband to claim,” Emma whispered to her best friend and matron of honor. Honor blew her a kiss before taking her own place in the sanctuary doors.
Finally, there was a dramatic pause in the music before the organist began the first strands of the familiar music letting Emma know it was her turn to walk down the aisle.
On the first Saturday in May, Emma Evans walked down the aisle of St. Rocco’s Catholic Church to marry her beloved and become Emma Evans-Nguyen.
Everyone turned to look at her and Emma’s heart beat just a little faster at the sight of David in his tuxedo. The stark black and white juxtaposed perfectly against his coloring. His new haircut put his cheek bones in sharp contrast and his dark eyes shown with absolute love.
The slow procession to join with him seemed interminable and she fought every second not to race down the aisle and into his arms.
Until finally, she was there. So near him, she could smell the scent of his shampoo over the heady fragrance of honeysuckle.
Clayton kissed Emma’s cheek before shaking David’s hand. “You take care of my daughter,” Clayton said.
“Always, Sir,” David responded.
When Emma’s hands joined with his, she realized he was trembling. She looked up at him, a question in her eyes. “I was afraid you would change your mind,” he said in a toneless whisper.
Her eyes filled once more with unshed tears. “I love you,” she mouthed before turning to follow Father Abbruzzese and the rest of the ceremony. “I would have run away and eloped with you.”
David snorted. “Like I’d cheat my parents out of all this.”
“Dearly beloved,” Father Abbruzzese said as he began the timeless sacrament. His prayer was poignant as he blessed their families and impending union.
Dao stood in order to perform the first reading. The cantor sang the Responsorial Psalm before Amy came forward to do the second. Through each prayer, hymn, blessing, and homily Emma’s nerves grew taut. Until finally, he paused to allow them time to say their own vows.
“When I first met you, I was struck by your loyalty. Your sense of humor.” She blushed. “The way you filled out your jeans,” she finished with a whisper. There was a general crowd laugh by those close enough to hear her aside. David smiled and blew her a tiny kiss. “But most of all, I was struck by your heart and devotion. It took me a long time to recognize it and if I could, I would go back so I could meet you sooner. Love you sooner. You are my best friend. The best part of me. You are my other half.”
David cleared his throat. “I skated through life. I was good at school without applying myself. I did well in the Navy and rose in rank, but I felt no sense of accomplishment. Maybe I was good at too many things because nothing caught my passion until I met you.” His index finger ran down her collarbone and made her shiver in the cool temperature of the altar. “You take care of everyone around you but I seemed
to be the only one to realize you never took care of yourself. And I realized I wanted that role. I wanted that privilege. Maybe our path was full of ups and downs but through it all, we remained loyal to each other.” He swallowed and that deeply haunted, melancholy look came into his eyes. The look Emma swore she would eliminate forever. “You complete me and you are my home, Emma.”
She sobbed, wishing she had the words to tell him what his beautiful, humble love meant to her. Wishing she could find the actions to show him. But in the end, could only promise to spend the rest of this lifetime proving her love to him.
~~~~~~
The first step in showing her respect and love began with their very Western wedding. The second, they had decided, was to honor his Vietnamese heritage with a proper tea ceremony before the reception and dinner.
After signing paperwork and taking the requisite number of pictures, she kissed David goodbye and left for the hotel where they would have the second part of their ceremony.
“I don’t want you to go without me,” David said. His tone was light but he laced their hands together firmly.
“I have to change. The áo dài your mother gave me is beautiful and I can’t wait to wear it for you.”
“You know I’m staying in my tux,” David warned.
“I know. And it makes your butt look awesome.”
“I’m starting to feel like just a piece of meat to you, Mrs. Nguyen,” he said as he placed his hands on her hips and tugged her towards him.
“Oh, good, Mr. Nguyen. And here I thought you hadn’t noticed.”
“I noticed,” David said, his kiss a gentle friction of his lips on hers.
He watched her leave before finding his parents so they could gather their gifts for the ceremony.
Back in Father Abbruzzese’s sitting room, Honor and Amy helped Emma out of her layered multi-color chiffon wedding gown and into the traditional Vietnamese dress. The white silk áo dài felt sumptuous against her skin and molded to her curvy form showing nothing but revealing everything. Delicate red flowers decorated both the dress and slacks.
“Dang, girl, you look drop dead sexy in that,” Honor said as she fixed some of the curls that had fallen out of Emma’s coiffure.
Honeysuckle and Roses (Harper's Mill Book 5) Page 9
