We all make it out and move away from the little church that doesn’t seem to be on fire at all. Everyone is mumbling and then some of the cars that are parked in front of the church turn their headlights on.
Several of the men walk around the church and call out randomly, “No fire over here.”
Jason’s mother grabs his arm. “Oh, goodness! We’ve walked all the way out to the cemetery! We’re treading on people’s graves. Hurry, let’s all move.”
Everyone starts moving away. Then I feel Jason tug on my hand as he shouts, “Wait! Wait a minute, everyone.” He steps to one side, allowing the headlights to illuminate the headstone we’re standing in front of. He points at it. “Gramps!”
His grandfather’s grave is what we’re standing on and then another flash of lightning goes sideways in the night sky. It crackles and pops as it moves from one vein of lightning to many veins. The entire graveyard is lit up by the lightning.
“Would you look at that?” his father says as he walks up beside Jason. “Guess the man wants to be a witness to your marriage, son.”
The preacher comes up and asks, “Would you like me to do the ceremony out here then?”
Jason looks at me. “Would you mind?”
“Me?” I ask with a high voice. “Of course not.”
The wedding isn’t going the way I had ever imagined, anyway. Why not have it outside, at night, standing on a man’s grave?
With a kiss to the side of my head, Jason says, “I knew I was marrying the right girl. Thanks, Gramps.”
The preacher moves behind the tombstone of Herbert S. Waldrip and starts the ceremony as our families look on. My mother and father stand behind me and Jason’s parents stand behind him.
I can hear my nieces and nephews running and playing murder in the dark somewhere on the other side of the church as we say our vows. The words that will hold us together through all the storms life throws at us.
As I say the words, “Till death do us part,” the rain starts to fall in heavy sheets.
Jason picks me up, gives me a very quick kiss, then runs with me to his old pickup truck that he kept all these years at his parents’ house.
It’s been a very long time since I sat in this truck. The cloth seat is still ripped on the passenger side. It smells like dirt and now a little like mold, too. “Wow, what memories we’re making, Jason!”
He laughs as he starts up the old truck up. Then he looks at me with worry. “Disappointed, baby?”
Looking into his big blue eyes, I gauge my feelings about this little wedding of ours. Then I answer truthfully, “Not one bit.”
The way he’s looking at me has my body tingling. He strokes the back of my left hand, then pulls it to his lips and kisses the rings he’s placed on my finger. “Here we are. The first place I ever kissed you.”
I nod and wonder what he’s about to do. We used to heat this truck up when we were younger. Another thought goes through my head as I recall he heated this truck up with more than just me.
But I’m the one who ended up with him, so I push that negativity away as I run my hand over my protruding tummy. He looks at my hand moving in a circle over the little bump.
“I like you looking like this, Britt. You look healthy and gorgeous.” He puts his hand on top of mine.
“You managed to get that extra ten pounds on me,” I say with a giggle.
“Yes, I did.” He pushes me back on the long bench seat and leans over me as he runs his hand under my off-white dress.
After a little wiggling, he pulls his hand back out with my white panties in it. I blush as he smiles. “You can still accomplish getting me out of my panties in this beast, can’t you?”
“Always will, baby.”
His eyes go dark as he moves in closer to me. His breathing gets deeper as his hands move over my dress. When his lips touch mine, I feel like crying.
So many years, I’ve waited to feel this. I’m married. I’m married to the only man I have ever loved!
I feel like I’m flying as he kisses me, running his tongue around mine and groping my tit like he used to do. He moves between my legs. I unbutton his slacks and set his erection free.
Hoisting my skirt up, he pushes his thick cock into me. Making love with our clothes on, just like we did when we had to steal moments when we were young.
I open my eyes as he makes easy thrusts into me. The windows are fogged up as the rain beats down on the old metal. The sounds and the smells are lodged in my memory bank.
Pulling his lips from mine, he looks down at me. One hand moves through my hair as he pulls it out of the updo and lets it fall around my face. “There’s my girl,” he whispers. “For the last hour, I’ve been looking at this woman with fancy hair.”
I giggle as he runs his fingertips along my waist. “I’ve also been looking at this strange man in an expensive tux. I was wondering where my rough and tumble good old boy was.”
“Right here, ma’am,” he says with a deep drawl. “Here to please you forever and ever.”
His mouth comes down on mine with a heated kiss as he thrusts harder into me. I go even wetter for him as he kicks up his desire. Our breathing echoes off the interior.
Ragged and harsh, we make the same sounds we did all those years ago when we found ourselves in this very truck on some lonesome dirt road out in the country.
I claw at his back as he moves between my legs. I pull him to me until our bodies can’t be any closer. My body starts to tremble as he brings me to a climax.
Wrapping my legs around him, I arch up as I come for him. He lets me have what I want from him as his hard cock pulses inside of me. Our bodies go still as we come off the high of the simultaneous climaxes.
“I love you, Mrs. Brennan.” His words send a flush through me.
“I’ve wanted to hear you call me that for a very long time. It makes me feel even better than I thought it would. If you can believe that.”
“It felt pretty awesome slipping off my tongue, too.” Another kiss punctuates his sentence.
I think I’m really going to like being married to this guy!
Chapter 9
JASON
“And this is going to be Lance’s bedroom over here,” I say as I show Brittany the house I want to buy.
“His name isn’t going to be Lance. I’ve already told you, I don’t like that one either.” She pulls at my hand to take me across the hallway. “And look at the way the cream-colored paint clashes with the dark wood floors. No, I hate this house too.”
“Baby, this is the tenth house we’ve seen in the last month. How can you hate every one of them?”
“Easy. I want something different. Something no one else has.” She pushes back her thick dark hair that’s gotten even thicker with the pregnancy. “I’m hot in here, too.”
“You’re hot everywhere. You can’t use that as a reason not to like a place. Shit, you're hot standing in front of an open subzero refrigerator, pumpkin.” I pull her into my arms and notice a dampness on her skin. “How about an igloo in Antarctica?”
She fans herself. “Yes, that would be great.”
“A bit cold once the baby arrives, though.”
The real estate agent comes up behind us. “So, Mrs. Brennan, what do we think of this estate?”
“I hate it,” she says quickly. “I said no stairs. You keep showing us things with stairs. My sister has six kids, and she said stairs are a nightmare with small children. Being that my husband wants a few kids, I see stairs as a real problem.”
“But the kind of estates you're looking for all have stairs,” the poor guy tries to tell her.
My wife shakes her head. “I tell you what, Paul. You got one more chance to find me what I want. If you can’t, I’ll find someone who can.”
He looks at me for help and I can only shrug. “What she says goes, Paul.”
She hooks her thumb back at me. “You see that, Paul? That’s a man who knows how to make his wife happy. It isn’t always eas
y to do when she’s hot all the time, hungry most of the time, and cranky now and then.”
Now and then is an understatement!
Seeing as she’s not going to say okay to this house, I wrap my arm around her waist and help her down the stairs. “Come on, sweetie pie. I’m sure Paul will find you want you want.”
“What about what you want, Mr. Brennan?” he asks as he follows us down the stairs. “Don’t you get a say?”
She stops and turns back to look at him with fire in her eyes. And now I feel very sorry for the poor guy. “You’re no longer needed, Paul.”
He looks at me and I just shake my head. “Sorry,” I say as I move her along.
The idiot can’t seem to keep his mouth shut as he says, “Are you really going to let her act like that?”
Ignoring him, I get my wife to the car and make sure she’s comfortable before I let this poor idiot in on the facts of life. He’s waiting for me by his car as he taps impatiently on the top of his Lexus.
“I know she may seem picky,” I start out saying.
“Picky? I’d say bitchy.”
My insides heat as I have to stop myself from punching the man. “Look, Paul, I know you’re young. I can see you aren’t married and in my opinion, you need to wait awhile before you do that. Mature a bit. That woman is carrying around thirty pounds more than she was eight months ago. She has to pee every ten minutes, breaks into random sweats throughout the day and night, and has to have me put her shoes on and shave her legs because she can’t see past her stomach.”
“She’s a tyrant!” he shouts. “She has unreal expectations! There’s no pleasing her!”
“I’m sorry. I am,” I say as I walk away from him before I pound him into the ground. “Thanks for showing us all you did, Paul. Sorry things didn’t work out with us.”
Sliding into the car, I find Brittany crying. “I heard him!” She sniffles as I hand her a tissue. I keep them handy, as she breaks into tears a lot. “Am I really a tyrant?”
Running my hand through her hair, I say, “No way, sugar bear. You’re just trying to get the house you want. I think you’re smart for holding out for what you really want.”
With a loud blow of her nose, she says, “Right? I mean, I’m trying to think about the future. I want to keep the place we buy for a long time. I want to raise our children in one place. You know, right? You agree, right?”
“I agree. Look, I have an idea. Let’s stop looking in New York State and look for a ranch house in Texas.” I’ve been wanting to move back to Texas for a while now, but she’s been adamant that she needs to be close enough to New York to have meetings with the publishing companies there.
One more blow of the nose and she looks at me with red-rimmed eyes. “Okay.”
“I know you haven’t wanted to move …” Wait, what did she say? “Did you say, okay?”
She laughs a little, then stops. “Don’t make me laugh. I nearly wet myself. And I said, okay. I know you love it there, and I know I can’t find what I want here. I think that’s because I really want to move back too. I want to be able to see my family more, and I want little Rocko to be able to see his grandparents as much as he wants to.”
“Rocko?” I ask as I start the car.
She nods. “I like it.”
“I hate it.” Pulling away, I look over at her and find her frowning. “How about, Marco? That’s a little more normal.”
“That’s Italian. We aren’t Italian,” she says as she rubs her belly.
“What the hell do you think Rocko is?”
“Cool,” she says, then runs her hand over my thigh. “Baby, do you still think I’m attractive? I mean, I weigh a ton and have this constant sweat going on. I’m a little irritable, too. I’m no picnic.”
“You’re a delight, my love,” I say with a laugh. I’m no idiot!
“You know I can’t leave until the baby’s born. If you want to find a place in Texas, it’ll have to be after next month.”
“There is the ranch for sale on the outskirts of our old hometown. I could buy it and have some renovations done and six weeks after Marco is born, we could move right on in,” I tell her as I take her hand and kiss it. “You could let your sister Sharon do the decorating. She’s good at that kind of thing. I could pay her to do it. And my brother Jared could help her. He found her to his liking at our wedding.”
She seems to be thinking about it, then says, “Go for it. I like that place. We can keep your place in New York for when I have to be here.”
“Yes!” I say, feeling as if I’ve won a great victory. “Does that mean we can name our son Marco, too?”
“No way in hell,” she says crisply. “I’m thinking a cowboy name is more in order if we’re going to live on a Texas ranch. Buck, or Lane, or, Tuff.”
“I see where you’re going and I’m liking it, baby,” I say, then kiss her hand again.
“Finally, we can agree on something.” She lets out a sigh and lays her head back. “So you and I are going to become ranchers, of all things. We’re going to move back home and …” Her sudden stop has me looking over at her as I drive down the road. “Jason, why do you want to go back to that town?”
“Our families live there. Why else?”
Her eyes narrow as she looks at me. Distrust is sweeping her face as she looks into my eyes. I cut them away to look at the road. She snaps, “Why’d you stop looking at me?”
“I need to look at the road, baby. Don’t read anything into it.”
“Suddenly you want to go back home. Back to the place where everyone knows you cheated on me. Back to where plenty of your old sluts still live. Is that why you really want to go back?”
If she wasn’t hormonal I’d get into it with her, but she is, so I won’t.
“We don’t have to live there if it makes you uneasy,” I say with a very diplomatic tone.
“What does it make you, Jason? Horny?” she shrieks. “I knew one day this would happen. I’m fat and ugly and you want some on the side. I knew it would happen!”
“How about some ice cream?” I ask to try to get her off the rampage she’s gotten on.
“Don’t try to get me off my thought process!”
“Chocolate syrup, little rainbow sprinkles. Yum, yum.”
“I’m not that easy, Jason.”
I smile as I look at her. “Gummy bears, pumpkin. Lots of gummies drenched in chocolate syrup.”
She points to a small café. “Stop there.”
Her eyes have lost the fury that was just in them as I pull up to the curb. “Don’t you just love the way the whipped cream makes the whole thing come together?” I ask her as I pop her seatbelt off.
She looks over and smiles at me. “I’m sorry. I get kind of crazy now and then.”
Now and then, yeah!
Chapter 10
BRITTANY
The sound of the blood pressure cuff filling with air startles me awake. My eyes fly open and I see Jason looking at me with concern, worry, and a touch of fear. “I’ll be fine,” I say to reassure him.
My doctor put me in the hospital and she’s about to begin inducing my labor. I’m two weeks overdue and my blood pressure skyrocketed yesterday. It seems I’ve gained too much weight with this pregnancy. A thing I blame Jason for, of course.
“I know you will, baby.” He takes my free hand and holds it as the cuff squeezes my arm.
“Ow.” I moan, as the thing hurts my arm. “This sucks. I don’t know how my sister did it six times already.”
“She seems to be able to pop them out pretty damn easily, doesn’t she?” he asks as he looks up when my doctor walks in. “How is she, Doc?”
“We’re about to start her up. You ready?” she asks him.
He nods and I frown. “I’m not. I mean, I am, but then I’m not.”
She pats my shoulder as she smiles at me. My doctor is about fifty and the mother of four and grandmother of three. I like her a lot. I have complete trust in her. But I’m still scared a
s shit.
She looks at Jason and asks, “You have your focal points picked out for her, Jason?”
He points to various things around the hospital room. “There is my first one. Over there is the second. I have ten picked out in case it goes pretty long.”
“Well, I’m only going to let her go for ten hours. If he hasn’t made his appearance by then, I’ll have to do a C-section. And if her blood pressure goes much higher, I’ll have to do one then, if that happens. Let’s keep our fingers crossed we can have a natural delivery.”
“We,” I say with a laugh. “I wish I had someone to share this with.”
Jason’s eyes droop as he pulls my hand up to his chest. “Believe it or not, pudding pop, I’m feeling terrible, too. I’ll be right here with you for every little pain. You squeeze my hand whenever you need to. I got you, baby.”
“Maybe I won’t be so grouchy once I get this kid out of me,” I say. “I’m sorry if I’ve been a bitch.”
My doctor surprises me as she looks at me. “Thanks for the apology, Brittany. I was wondering if you were ever going to give me one.”
“I meant Jason, but I guess I owe you one, too. I’m sure I’ll be kind of shitty to you through this little process too, so I’d like to apologize in advance.” I give her a smile.
She presses some buttons and the bag of clear liquid starts to drip into my IV. She smiles back at me and says, “Yeah, you’re about to really hate me.”
“Is it really that bad?” I ask as I wait for the first pains to start.
Jason looks at the older woman as he says, “I’m sure it’s not as bad as some woman make it seem. Isn’t that right, Doc?”
She just shrugs and walks out of the room. I look at him with a frown. “She’s making me nervous.”
“Me too,” he says, then runs his hand over my forehead. “But you don’t need to worry at all because I have the back massager and the tablet for you play with to keep yourself distracted. Plus, you have me to keep you happy.”
“And you do make me happy.” I watch him go to pick up the television remote.
The Surgeon’s Secrets: A Bad Boy Billionaire Romance Page 82
