Chapter 12
COURTNEY
I woke up to the morning sun shining through the windows that neither of us thought to close the night before. I groaned at the audacity of the sun to shine so brightly when I wasn’t ready for it yet. A gravelly chuckle made me turn my head to the side to see my husband lying there, obviously amused by thoughts on the morning light. My eyeballs drifted down of their own accord. My very naked husband took notice and quickly became excited at the prospect of going another round.
Honestly, I didn’t even know a man could perform so many times in such a short window. We went three vigorous rounds the night before - four if you counted the oral orgasm he gave me when we waited on him to recharge that last time. I glance at the alarm clock on the nightstand. It had only been three hours since the last time and my husband, champion of all things sex apparently, had risen to the occasion once again.
I glanced back up to meet his eyes and realized he was even more amused than before. “I’ll be honest with you. I’ve never had that much sex in a 24-hour period, and I’m not sure my body is ready for another.” Truthfully, I was achy and sore. We hadn’t exactly gone for the gentle love making most women dream about for their wedding nights.
Flynn sat up and threw the covers over his dick. “Ignore that.”
“Kinda hard to do.” I giggled as I said it and he cocked his head to the side and rolled his eyes at me.
“Did I hurt you last night?”
My head shook before I even registered his question. “No, not at all. Like I said, I’m not used to that much, or that vigorous, or…” My eyes drifted down to his lap, “Your size.”
Flynn’s answering grin spread from ear to ear and made his eyes twinkle with delight. “Is that so?”
I threw a pillow at his face. “You are such a man!”
“All man!” My husband added as he dove toward me and dug his fingers into my sides to tickle me. “All your man,” He corrected. “We can draw a bath for you in the huge ass tub in the bathroom, A soak might help.”
“That sounds lovely, but maybe after I eat.”
“How about you soak while we wait for room service to bring the food up, and I’ll see if they can scrounge together some kind of over the counter pain killer too.”
“You are setting the husband bar pretty high. You know you have to live up to this standard forever now, right?”
“I hope so,” Flynn whispered against my ear before he placed a kiss at my temple and then hopped up to head to the bathroom. I am not ashamed to admit that I watched his ass until the damn wall got in the way. How did I not know the man had an award-winning ass?
Once I heard the water flowing steadyily, I got up and grabbed Flynn’s shirt off the floor and stuffed my arms through, then buttoned three of the buttons in the middle. When he noticed me, the smirk immediately bloomed across his handsome face.
“You do know I saw everything last night, right?”
“I know. That doesn’t mean I don’t feel weird walking around completely naked like my nudist husband.”
His grin spread wider. “I like the sound of that.”
“Being a nudist?”
“Being your husband.”
I felt the heat in my cheeks and knew he could see what that did to me. The blush stole hot and fast across my face and up to the tips of my ears. I wondered if he truly meant that, or if he was just playing along and making the best of a weird situation.
“It’s kind of strange to get used to being married,” I admitted. “I feel like if I keep acknowledging the fact that you are my husband, it will sink in one day. Right now, it kind of feels like a dream.”
“Good to know.”
“What?” I questioned.
“Good to know I’m your dream husband. It makes being the real thing that much easier,” He teased. “You might want to check the temperature on the water before it fills any further. I wasn’t sure how hot you wanted it.”
“Just shy of scalding my skin off is a good temperature.”
“Damn woman,” he hissed as I stuck my hand in. Not that I needed to, since I saw steam rising out of the tub. “You adjust and hop in. I’ll go order room service. Any special requests?”
“French Toast.”
“That’s it?”
“Whatever else you order can be a surprise, but I really hope they have French Toast.”
“Okay, beautiful. I’ll be right back.”
I took his shirt off and climbed into the tub gingerly as the heat stung my skin a little bit. I turned the hot water down a bit and swirled it around the tub a bit, then sat all the way down and leaned back.
I was a little disappointed when Flynn didn’t return to join me in the tub. For some reason, when he said he would run a bath for me to soak, my mind instantly envisioned us in there together with me snuggling into his body as he sat behind me. It was possible I had read one too many romance books over the years. Maybe that wasn’t something men did.
“Hey,” He called out after I’d been soaking long enough for the water to become tepid.
“Hey,” I whispered back.
“Food is here. You looked so relaxed I didn’t want to disturb you earlier.”
“You came in here?”
His chuckle made me want to leap out of the tub and jump his bones. “Yeah, I debated on whether you would hate me for disturbing you or if I should just leave you alone. When you didn’t even notice I was back, I figured leaving you alone was the best option.”
Well, shit. I guess I ruined my own fantasy by dozing off.
“You could have joined me,” I told him as I ducked down further into the water to pull the plug.
“I’ll keep that in mind for next time.” He came over with a warm towel in his hand and wrapped me up in it. “There’s a robe on the back of the door.”
Flynn left and as soon as I got the robe on, I followed him into the suite only to realize there was no one there. I looked around in confusion until I heard the sliding glass door open up.
“Sorry, I should have mentioned I brought everything out here. I thought you might enjoy a little sunshine with breakfast.”
Breakfast on the balcony with my new husband. Yes, please.
As we both tucked into our food, I wondered how much a person would have to pay to live like this forever. It was a shame I was only a teacher, because I’d all but forgotten what it was like to live in my parents’ home growing up, where there was a maid and cook who would prepare all our meals. Even though I lived in their pool house, I was responsible for cooking and cleaning for myself. As my mom once told me, “I don’t pay for them to take care of you too. If you want that luxury, you’ll have to marry well or change careers.”
That was her version of a pep talk to keep me on track one of the times I thought about calling it quits with Beckett. I had to shake that thought off because if there were two people in the world who could ruin my first day with my husband, my ex-fiancé and mom fit the bill.
“How much longer do we have this suite?” I asked. When I planned the wedding and my honeymoon originally, I had chosen a smaller, cheaper room and only for an overnight, since Beckett and I were supposed to fly out the next day to an all-inclusive Caribbean resort. It wasn’t the resort I hoped to stay at, but I hadn’t been able to get Beckett to kick in any more money toward the honeymoon, so I had to go with one of the more budget friendly options and we couldn’t even get the honeymoon suites let alone one of the over the water bungalows I really wanted to stay in.
“One more night and then we go home.”
“Home,” I parroted. “Crap, we never discussed what our living arrangements would look like.”
“Well, we’re married, and of the two of us, I’m the only one with my own home. I never said anything because I figured you would move in with me.”
“Oh.” I stared out at the puffy white clouds floating across a vibrant blue sky and then turned to my new husband. “Are you sure you want me to move in with you?”
“Court, we’re married. Typically, a husband and wife live together. If you don’t want to…”
“No, it’s not that. I didn’t feel right invading your space if you didn’t want me there.”
“Why in the hell would I not want you there?” The concern in his eyes was genuine and it was yet another reminder that Beckett had been the worst kind of fiancé and boyfriend before that. As if he plucked the thoughts straight from my mind, Flynn sighed and then leaned closer to take my hand in his. “Courtney, I know it’s going to be an adjustment, but I am not Beckett. I don’t know what the fuck he was thinking by not moving you in with him the minute you turned 18, or at the very least, as soon as you graduated from university. No matter how everything plays out, or whatever you decide down the road, so long as we are married and committed to that, I want you living in my house with me.”
“Okay.”
“I mean it,” He said as he reached over and lifted my chin so that I couldn’t hide from his relentless gaze. “If there’s ever a question in your mind as to my intentions, you can come to me.”
“I will.” When he offered up a dubious look that said he didn’t quite believe me, I tacked on, “I promise.”
“Let’s give this a couple months, and if you haven’t run away yet, we’ll plan a honeymoon. I’m sorry I couldn’t get the time off right away, but with the short notice, it was too difficult to have everything covered.”
“No, I get it. Besides, Beckett claimed the honeymoon I planned for us and took the tickets.”
“Wait, didn’t you guys split the cost of that?” Flynn asked. I felt my cheeks heat. There was no way I could tell him that I paid for the majority of it while Beckett only added about a third of the cost.
“That bastard didn’t even chip in and he took the tickets?”
“He paid some of it,” I hedged.
“Come on, Court. I know my cousin. He’s always looking for the best way to get someone else to foot the bill.”
“I paid two-thirds of it,” I admitted.
“Where were you going to go?”
“St. Lucia, there’s an all-inclusive resort there with over the water bungalows, and I’ve always wanted to stay in one.”
“You paid the majority of the price for one of those bungalows?” He asked.
“No. We were going to have a normal room looking out over the garden area.”
“Not even a beach view?”
I was embarrassed to answer. “I couldn’t afford the higher price for the view, so I figured it would all work out, since I didn’t plan to stay cooped up in the room much anyway.”
“Oh, my little Nemesis, there is so much wrong with that statement. Don’t worry, when we plan our getaway, I will pay for the bungalow over the water and we will get plenty of use out of it.” He wiggled his eyebrows up and down and then leaned over and planted a kiss right on my open mouth. Then, my new husband licked at my lips. “You always have such sweet things on your lips. How do you expect me to stay away?”
“I don’t.” The words slipped out before I could even process what I said. The minute his smirking face pulled away from mine, it hit me. “Shit. I-”
Flynn held a finger up over my lips to shush me. “Nope. Don’t even think of taking that back. I’m going to take that statement to my dreams whenever you aren’t around, so I can imagine tasting sweet little treats from all over your body.”
“Maybe we should,” I hitched my thumb over my shoulder at the room and Flynn got up and grabbed my hand as he headed back inside. I followed just as quickly, and the minute the sliding door was shut behind us, my husband ripped my robe off my body and tossed me onto the bed, fully naked. He slipped out of his matching robe and joined me.