The three of us laughed so hard half the guests turned in our direction.
“It wasn’t the craziest idea Finnegan ever had,” Damon pointed out in our friend’s defense.
“Are you kidding?” Saxon chimed in. “It wasn’t the twentieth craziest.”
As we hit the bar together for another drink, I started counting things up. Honestly, there were a lot of times like that. Dozens of trips, all filled with great, crazy memories. We’d really missed Finnegan for most of the past year. Damon wasn’t the only one bummed about him not being here. We all were.
Eventually the party wound down. With a couple of giant hugs my twin sisters said their goodbyes, and I even got a kiss from Cora before her husband took her home. The usual stragglers were left by the time Damon pulled me from the tent and down a small cobbled path. In the secluded darkness, hand in hand, we found Saxon leaning against a tremendous, branching elm.
“Sorry friends, but I’ve gotta go.”
He had his jacket slung over his shoulder, his shirt unbuttoned. Even more handsome than before the wedding began, his eyes still gleamed with the reflection of the distant lights.
“One day,” I lamented sadly. “We only got to see you for one day.”
“And one night,” he added with a sly wink.
“Yeah,” I smiled back sheepishly. “A night I’ll definitely never forget.”
A gentle breeze picked up, sweeping a lock of errant hair into my eyes. Saxon reached out automatically and pinned it back.
“Don’t think I won’t be back,” he promised. “Once I’ve squared some things away.”
“Is that restaurant you work at ever really squared away?” asked Damon.
“No,” Saxon admitted. “But right now, well…” he placed his hands on his hips and looked to the sky. “Things are especially crazy.”
He sighed, and there was more to his sigh than he let on. I would’ve asked him more about it, if there were time.
“Well next time they give you some time off, let us know,” said Damon. “Either you come back here…”
“… or we’ll come there,” I finished for my husband with a grin. “I know I for one could definitely use a Vegas trip.”
Inhaling the fresh garden air, Saxon smiled. “Well the invitation is always open.”
We hugged, all three of us together as we usually did. It was even more special now, though. Somehow more meaningful.
“Mind if I kiss him goodbye?” I whispered, standing on my tip-toes and leaning into my husband’s ear.
“Are you kidding?” Damon chuckled. “Actually, I’m gonna have to insist.”
Glancing over both shoulders for stray guests first, I slipped quickly into Saxon’s arms. Still on my toes, I planted my lips against his and gave him the hottest, wettest kiss any bride ever gave to her best man. In front of her husband, anyway.
“Wow…” he breathed, when the kiss was over. Which I was proud to say had taken almost half a minute.
“Yeah,” I sighed back, feeling tingles all over. “Exactly.”
Saxon grinned triumphantly and saluted us before turning away. We watched until he’d completely disappeared down the path, in the direction of the garden gate.
“Shit,” said Damon. “I miss him already.”
Slipping into my husband’s arms, I pulled him so close the two of us were one. When I went to kiss him as well, there was already a mischievous smile on his lips.
“What?”
“Nothing,” he continued smiling.
My eyes narrowed. “Doesn’t look like nothing.”
Damon shrugged one broad shoulder and gave me a wink. “Guess I’m just thinking about the honeymoon, that’s all.”
Before I could say another word I was lifted off my tired feet and carried back in the direction of our wedding tent.
It occurred to me happily that I couldn’t stop thinking about the honeymoon either.
Eleven
ADDISON
It was three hours past the time the DJ played ‘last dance’. Two and a half since Damon tipped the bartenders and I’d kissed Miuria goodbye, leaving my maid of honor the self-imposed duties of wrapping everything up and getting my wedding presents safely home.
“You’d better send photos!” my best friend threatened. “Greece, Addy? Two weeks in Greece?” She said the same thing every time, before breaking into a smile.
“I will, I will,” I promised.
The limo that took us to the airport was big and spacious enough that we used it to change into our travel clothes. Halfway through the process I’d climbed into my husband’s lap, wearing nothing but my thong and a T-shirt. The lump in his boxers told me he approved, even as I glanced up to where the driver might be watching us in the rear-view mirror. Frankly, I didn’t care.
“We doing this now?” he asked with my tongue in his mouth. “Here?”
“Uh huh.”
I slipped my beautifully French manicured fingers through the front of his shorts. With a exhibitionist thrill, my hand closed over my goal.
“Don’t you wanna fuck your wife?” I whispered into his ear.
Damon grew larger, firmer in my grasp. The emphasis I’d put on the last word was making him all kinds of hot. I gave him a squeeze.
“Sure seems to me like he wants to.”
Damon nodded up front, and I followed his gaze. This time the driver was watching, or at the very least glancing our way.
“So?” I chuckled. “The poor guy’s stuck driving to LaGuardia airport at one in the morning,” I smiled. “He can have his fun too.”
My husband’s hands slid beneath my shirt, cupping my breasts as I grinded even harder into his lap. Halfway through kissing me he suddenly stopped.
“We could fuck in this limo,” he said. “Right now, during the fifteen minute ride to the airport. Or…”
I raised an eyebrow.
“Or we could consummate our marriage in a beautiful Greek villa, surrounded by ancient ruins. Overlooking the Aegean Sea.”
My breath caught in my throat as my gyrating ass slowed to a stop.
“You got us a villa?”
Damon smiled, his hands now holding my face. He stared through my eyes and into my soul as my husband, for the very first time.
“Baby, just wait until you see where we’re staying.”
It took every last ounce of my resolve to climb from his lap. I did it with a wistful sigh, my disappointment echoed by the body language of our limo driver.
“Don’t worry,” Damon said consolingly. “I’m going to more than make it up to you.”
He uttered the phrase with a twinkle in his eye that wasn’t there before. One that had me wondering all the rest of the way to the airport.
We arrived, and Damon tipped the limo driver heavily enough to make him forget all about the show he missed. At this hour LaGuardia was empty. We got through security and boarded the plane in a sleep-deprived daze, declaring this the longest — yet still the best — day ever.
In the middle seat somewhere near the back of the plane I snuggled in against my new husband, cozy beneath two soft blankets. I was half asleep. Still yawning through the flight attendant’s seat-belt speech when a tap on my shoulder caused me to look up.