by E. D. Brady
“I never meant to imply that you weren’t smart enough—”
‘Let me finish,” she requested. “If I’m right, which I am, and I do love only you forever, I get to die a virgin. Is that it?”
“Well, then, if it’s any consolation, you won’t be the only person in this room dying that way,” he said quietly.
“This is so stupid,” she moaned.
Abruptly, Kellus looked as though his mind was somewhere else, as though he hadn’t heard her last comment. He leaned back on his feet and stared at the wall, pensively.
“What?’ she asked.
He continued to stare blankly past her. She could almost see the wheels in his mind working overtime, trying to piece something together.
“What is it?” she questioned louder.
He shook his head and smiled at her. “Nothing,” he said.
But for the rest of the day, he wasn’t quite himself.
She caught him, on more than one occasion, staring strangely at her, but every time she asked him what he was thinking, he gave her the same strained smile and told her it was nothing.
That night, when they went to bed, he was quiet and withdrawn. Annie prayed that it was only the anxiety of their impending separation that was to blame, because if it was not, she feared he was trying to find a way to leave her again. Perhaps she had pushed too far.
By the following morning, nothing had changed. Kellus’s smiles were forced and he seemed ill at ease.
Once again, he was reserved and quiet as they walked to the little lake, a mile behind Annie’s house, to go swimming for an hour or two.
Regardless of Kellus’s strange mood, and despite the pain of the looming separation, Annie was determined to enjoy what little time she had left with him before the tears inevitably came.
She pulled off her dress and jumped into the water in her bathing suit. Kellus sat on the grass and watched her with the nail of his thumb between his teeth.
“What are you thinking?” she asked again, this time with a big smile.
Once again, he shook his head, his eyes drifting far across the lake.
Eventually, he joined her in the water, swimming out to kiss her gently on the lips, and letting his thumb float across her cheek, still harboring a distanced look. She felt a knot in her stomach. This was not good. What the hell could he be thinking?
After an hour, she climbed out and sat on the grass. Kellus climbed out after her and walked towards her with a determined look.
Bending down, he grabbed her hands and pulled her to her feet. He wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his head on top of hers. Slowly, after a long moment of silence, he lowered his mouth to her ear. “Marry me, Annie,” he whispered.
“What?” she questioned in utter shock, sure she must have misunderstood.
“Marry me,” he said again.
She pulled her head back and looked into his eyes. “How?” she questioned.
He arched his eyebrows. “I know of only one way,” he said sarcastically.
“Is it possible?” she reiterated.
“I no longer care,” he replied matter-of-factly. “I only know what’s necessary, and I can’t live another day without you.”
“Are you sure?” she queried.
“As sure as I’ve ever been about anything,” he answered.
“But the Citadom—” she began.
“Doesn’t matter anymore,” he said, finishing her sentence. “Nothing does—only you—I want only you, forever.”
“But why? This is not what we talked about,” she pushed.
“I know,” he answered. “I’ve changed my mind. Well, not exactly changed my mind…more like…came to my senses. And as far as the Citadom is concerned, I’m in pain when I’m there because it hurts to be away from you. I no longer enjoy being there. The only place I’m happy is with you. I think the solution is blatantly obvious, so obvious that I can’t believe it took me so long to figure it out.”
“But what if you regret—?”
“I won’t,” he said with conviction. “What I will regret is leaving you to meet someone else, to let another man be the one to take care of you, to let another man share your bed at night.”
“But…” she shook her head, trying to come to terms with the change of events.
“Please,” he moaned into her ear. “Please say yes.”
“You’re serious,” she concluded, seeing the love in his eyes.
“I’ve never been more serious about anything,” he vowed. “Say yes, my love.”
“Yes!” she blurted out. “Yes, of course.” Her eyes welled up with tears of joy.
“Thank you, beautiful girl,” he said, kissing her head. “You’ve made me the happiest man in the world.”
“Oh, Kellus…” she said, letting the tears flow. “You’ve made me the happiest person in the world.”
“Come on,” he said laughing, grabbing her hand. “Let’s go tell the twins.”
They ran all the way back to the house, hand in hand.
Max shot up from his chair when they tore into the kitchen, Kellus laughing, and Annie doing some peculiar combination of laughing and crying at the same time. “What’s going on?” he asked.
Kellus locked him a bear hug and spun him around. “Hello, brother,” he said, overjoyed.
“You’re getting married?” Cora gasped.
“How did you know?” Annie questioned, bending over to catch her breath.
Cora shrugged her shoulders. “I had a strange feeling that was going to happen.” She walked forward to congratulate them both. “When?” she queried, hugging Kellus.
Annie shook her head. “We haven’t decided—”
“Tomorrow!” Kellus piped in.
“What?” Annie and Cora bellowed in unison.
“Tomorrow,” he said firmly, nodding to Annie. He put his hands on both sides of her face and looked deep into her eyes. “At this point, I’m sure that the senior peacemen have heard about our affair from Loc. It’s best if we do it right away. We can travel north tomorrow morning. There are men in the furthest parts of Vistira with the authority to marry. Because of distance, not all couples are expected to travel all the way to the Citadom to exchange vows. I’ll go to Nordorum when we return. He’ll have no choice but to dismiss me from my position.”
“What if he doesn’t?” she asked.
“He will. I promise, it will be fine,” he answered reassuringly.
“It’s a little soon,” she mumbled.
“Not with the way you’ve been throwing that beautiful body at me…it’s long overdue,” he replied, winking.
Annie felt a tingle run down her spine.
“I have to go,” he said quickly. “Don’t change your mind while I’m gone.”
“Where?” she asked.
“My family will never forgive me if I don’t tell them before hand,” he answered, then raced out the door.
Annie spent the remainder of the day in a vortex of pulsating energy, as though there were tiny bugs running around under her skin. She couldn’t sit still. She went from full-of-joy to full-of-nerves, repeatedly.
“Sit,” Cora demanded after a couple of hours. She handed Annie a large glass of red wine. “Drink this and calm down.”
Annie took two very large gulps and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.
“Better?” Cora asked.
Annie nodded. “Cora, I just can’t believe this. I’m still in shock. I love him so much…so much it hurts.”
“I know,” Cora replied. “I’ve seen it on both your faces.”
Kellus returned just after nightfall, driving a carriage that he borrowed from Tol. “The Kir family send their blessings and look forward to personally welcoming you to the family,” he reported, kissing Annie on the head. “And my mother thought you might want this,” he added, handing her a brown paper package.
“What is it?” she inquired.
“She asked me a couple of questions about your size, and
then she told me not to look at it, so my best guess is that it’s her old wedding dress,” he answered.
Annie ran to her room with Cora and together they tore the paper off the package. It was a white, satin and lace dress with many little buttons down the back.
“I’m so happy for you,” Cora beamed when she saw her sister in the perfectly fitting dress.
“So am I,” Annie replied, gazing at her reflection in the mirror.
By this time tomorrow, she would no longer be referred to as Miss Derlyn. She would be, henceforth, Mrs. Kir.
Her Heart ballooned five times its normal size.
Chapter 13
“Are you sure you’ve made the right decision?” Kellus asked for the third time as they traveled through the countryside.
“It’s all I want,” Annie reassured him again. “And to think that just yesterday, I was bracing for heartache. You seemed so distant, since the day before yesterday, that I thought you were trying to find a way to say goodbye to me again.”
“I don’t know why you thought that. I thought I made it clear that I hadn’t got it in me to do that again,” he answered.
“You just seemed so far away,” she stated. “I got scared.”
“I’m sorry if I scared you, but that was the last thing on my mind,” he replied. “I know that my proposal seemed to come out of the blue, but trust me, I rarely do anything impulsively. I was just trying to work out a few details. That’s what had me so pensive.”
“Details?’ she asked.
“Not about whether or not I wanted to marry you,” he responded. “That was a definite. I was just trying to figure out what kind of life I could give you, and other stuff.”
“Did you?”
“Somewhat,” he replied, nodding.
“I wish you would’ve told me. We could have worked it out together.”
He shook his head. “I know this may sound old fashioned, and I’m sorry if it offends you, but the last several years of your life have been very difficult. I want you to rest assured that you will be taken care of, from here on out. I don’t want you to have to worry your beautiful head over anything again.”
She felt a lump form in her throat. She put her hand around his upper arm and rested her head on his shoulder.
“Truth be told, however, I spent most of that time thinking about the twins, and what kind of life I could provide for them,” he added.
Annie sat up straight and turned towards him, her mouth gaping open. “What do you mean? They’re my responsibility, not yours,” she said firmly.
“After today, they’re my responsibility also,” he reminded her.
“I don’t want you to be burdened with—”
“Burdened?” he questioned cynically. “I never consider it a burden to take care of my family.”
Her eyes stung with unshed tears. What had she done to deserve this man, this immense good fortune? She sniffed hard.
“You alright?” he asked, looking sideways at her.
She nodded, overwhelmed. “Thank you,” she sobbed.
“My pleasure, beautiful girl.”
After traveling for over five hours, they finally pulled up in front of an inn.
Kellus went inside to talk to the host while Annie waited outside, inhaling the crisp northern air deeply, trying to dissipate the nervous energy that was beginning to shower over her.
“There’s a man, five doors down that can marry us.” He returned to the carriage smiling triumphantly. “I’ve secured a room for us until this time next week. Do you want to wait there while I make the arrangements?”
She nodded and allowed the host to escort her upstairs.
The room was like any other found in a hotel: a window, small table, fireplace, bathroom, and…extremely large bed.
A lump formed in her throat again, this time from a combination of nerves and a severe tidal wave of lust.
Kellus returned after twenty minutes. “Is one hour too soon for you to be ready?” he asked.
“One hour?” she echoed. “No, that should be more than enough time.”
“I’m glad, because I’ve already organized the ceremony. We will be wed in a small room downstairs used for such occasions.”
“Okay,” she agreed, bewildered by his organizational skills, and slightly amused by his enthusiasm.
“I’ll clean up then leave you to get dressed,” he added.
He was finished in ten minutes, leaving her staring after him as he walked through the door.
She took her time washing and drying before pulling the beautiful white dress over her head. And she took even longer scrunching her ringlets to perfection. When she was satisfied that her hair looked good, she set out to fix her special hair clip into the back of her head.
Fifty minutes later, she walked down the stairs and was directed by the host to the room where Kellus waited for her.
He stood with his right hand resting on his left arm and his left hand up at his mouth, biting on his thumbnail—his usual habit when he felt tense. His face lit up when he saw her walk in. He smiled with so much emotion that it caused her to stop momentarily, throwing her eyes towards the sky in a quick prayer of thanks.
They exchanged vows in a simple room of plain white walls and only one window. The only furniture in the room was three plain wooden chairs.
When they were pronounced husband and wife, Kellus took her face in his hands and looked deep into her eyes, nodding his contentment. “I love you,” he mouthed silently before bestowing her with the softest of kisses.
He grabbed her by the hand and led her back upstairs to the room where they would spend their honeymoon. He carried her over the threshold and set her down on the foot of the bed. His eyes searched hers, looking for any sign of apprehension. There was none.
Kneeling in front of her, he reached both hands behind her head and removed the hair clip, setting it on the floor, then took both sides of her hair and rested them over her shoulders. He ran his hands to the ends of her curls, lightly brushing against her breasts with his fingers, causing her to shiver.
“Are you scared?” he asked, looking into her eyes.
“Not at all,” she replied, a little surprised by the question, given how she’d almost begged him for it recently. A thought occurred to her. “Are you?” she asked.
He held this thumb and forefinger in front of her, pulling them apart infinitesimally, and gave her a lopsided smile.
“Really?” she queried.
“Only a tiny bit,” he responded.
“Why?” she pushed.
“I’ve been led to believe that, in the beginning, there is a lot more pressure on the man to perform adequately,” he said, smiling.
“I wouldn’t know what adequately is,” she reminded him.
“Ah, the silver lining,” he replied, grinning.
She placed her hand on his cheek. “We’ll figure this out together.”
“I know,” he answered before pushing her down on the bed.
It took him less than one heartbeat to regain his confidence. Not a second too soon, he was kissing her with his usual fevered intensity, so much so that he was rolling her from one side of the bed to the other. His hands rummaged through her hair, down her sides, over her hips and down her legs. His mouth was locked tight with hers.
He pulled away, knelt up on the bed and began unbuttoning his shirt, still panting heavily, his eyes piercing into hers.
As he flung his shirt to the floor, Annie was transfixed on the beautiful body before her. She knelt up slowly and placed both hands on his chest. She let them slide all over his shoulders, arms, and over to his waist and up his chiseled belly. He placed his hands on top of hers, guiding her, leading her to the places he wanted her to go, breathing heavily through his nose, shuddering under her touch.
To her dismay, when she approached his waistline, he stopped her once again. He took her hands and placed them on either side of his chest. “Not yet,” he breathed.
He pulle
d the ends of her dress upwards, past her hips and waist. “Arms up,” he coaxed, pulling the dress up over her belly, then breasts. She reached her arms up over her head and felt the fabric slip off her entirely.
Feeling a bout of bashfulness, she lay down and closed her eyes tight, feeling the burn of the blush on her cheeks. She felt his finger loop inside the tiny corner of her flimsy panties. She felt them slide slowly down her hips, her thighs, across her knees, down her calves, and over her feet, while she quivered uncontrollably.
She waited a long moment for something to happen, but there was only silence. Opening her eyes, she found Kellus staring at her naked body, an unreadable expression on his face.
She swallowed hard. “What’s the matter? She asked, her voice breaking.
“I’ve never seen anything so perfect,” he answered, his words laced with reverence. “I can’t believe you’re really mine.”
“Completely,” she whispered.
His eyes met hers finally. “My imagination didn’t begin to do you justice.”
“You imagined me like this?”
He lifted his shoulders and shook his head. “Only…like…seven hundred times a day.”
She giggled.
He leaned over her and pressed his forehead to hers, letting his gaze burn into her. She shut her eyes, overwhelmed by the intensity of his stare. “Open your eyes, Annie,” he demanded, gently lowering his weight onto her.
“Okay,” she said shyly, looking back at him.
“I love you so much, beautiful girl,” he breathed before joining his lips to hers and pushing his tongue forcefully into her mouth.
His hand moved over her ribcage, down past her hip, traveled all the way down to her knee and back up again.
He maneuvered himself to the side of her then let his hand travel over her once more.
On his journey back down, he veered to the center, sliding down further, until his palm came to rest on her pelvis.
Slowly, his thumb found its way between her secret folds.
She gasped out loud, digging her nails into his back.
Moving his thumb in a circular motion, he filled her with a craving, a needing she never thought possible. She dug her heels into the mattress, moaning and whimpering, as her body screamed for more.
