40. Epilogue - Zoe
Ralphie greets my new husband and I with a happy, “Meow!” after we’ve danced our hearts out with family and friends at our reception. Next to the door is Tom’s overnight bag that Dad dropped off for him today, one of the Best Man duties since Tom wasn’t allowed to see me before the wedding. We opted to stay here tonight, rather than at Tom’s, because he said he’d always wished he never had to leave, whenever he’d come here to help me bring plants and supplies to Florist Shop.
Lifting Ralphie, Tom cuddles him for a moment. “Hello buddy. Looks like you’ve got a daddy now.”
I slide my arm around my husband while I pet our very happy kitty, “He loves you.”
“He’s always loved me.”
Thinking back, I exclaim, “I guess that’s true! I wonder if he knew you were meant for me?” To Ralphie I ask, “Did you know? Did you? And are you also aware that you’re going to Aunt Samantha’s tomorrow for nine days while we fly to beautiful Bali for our honeymoon?”
“Meow!” he answers, fine with it, because he loves Sam and will get to see Sally Ashes, his feline girlfriend, while he’s there. (Though they usually stay away from each other) Leaping out of Tom’s arms, Ralphie prances to his window seat for his favorite pastime of watching Atlanta go by.
“C’mere Wife!” Tom snatches me up and carries me to the Murphy bed, kissing me the whole way. Warm, loving, possessive. I respond to every move he makes. Every turn of his head. Every exploration of his tongue. Every groan of desire.
Setting me down, he growls with urgency, turns to pull the bed to freedom, then looks at me, gaze intense. “Are you ready for this,” he asks, a low rumble that sends shivers of excitement shimmying down my spine.
Breathless, I nod and gasp as Tom pulls me against his muscular body, the strength of his embrace intoxicating. He captures my lips with his, the kiss scorching hot. Nervousness completely leaves me, like my body knows exactly what to do. My fingers tangle his hair. I press against him, wishing my wedding dress was off and his clothes were on the floor.
Tom murmurs against my lips, “I’ve waited for this.”
I start for his tie. “I’ve waited for this moment, too.”
He grabs my hand. Stops me. “You only just recently realized you love me, Mrs. Bennet. ”
“I didn’t know I was waiting, Mr. Bennet, but I waited.” My eyelashes flutter up, our lustful gazes locking. The confession I’m about to make gives me pause. “Do you remember when Lexi chased me down outside The Vortex?”
He frowns, “Yeah. She said something to you.”
“ About me,” I correct, “And she said it loud enough for the whole restaurant to hear.”
“Are you going to finally tell me what she said?”
“I’m a virgin.”
My husband’s eyes widen in shock. He relaxes, confidence in his every cell as he captures my chin and lifts it. “You’ve never been with a man?”
“I almost was, but no…never.” I add on a whisper, “I was embarrassed by it for a long time, but I know now that I was waiting for you.”
His heartfelt words wash over me, a soothing balm that strips away everything I’ve ever worried about. “I love you, Zoe. I’m honored to be the one.” Tom kisses my nose. “The first.” My forehead. “The last.” My lips. “The only.”
I sigh as he travels kisses down my neck, nibbling. Suddenly I feel the zipper of my wedding dress sliding downward on my back. I don’t hesitate to join in and we take our time undressing each other with a reverence that takes our breaths away.
Finally I stand with him, bare skin on skin and we kiss for a luxuriously long time. At first it’s tender, then more passionate, deep and sensual.
“Look at me, Wife.”
My eyelashes flutter as they lower to take in his body, all my curiosity on display. I gasp at how gorgeous he is. Long. Thick. An engorged vein running all the way up until the mushroom-shaped tip of him. “Is that mine?”
His lopsided grin tugs. “All yours.”
Fire ignites me. “No one is allowed to touch you besides me! I know… you’re not a virgin.”
“I was on the football team…”
“Stop! I don’t want to know anything more! They are in the past. I am your forever.”
My husband crashes a kiss into me, pulls my naked body against his, and I moan as he vows, “Only you, Wife. I won’t let anyone touch me but you.”
He lays me onto the bed. Kisses my mouth. Collarbone. Left breast. Then right. Gently nibbling each nipple until I writhe and beg for him to go lower. He doesn’t wait. His lips travel down my stomach, hover on my belly button, kiss it gently, then work their way down. My lower abdomen feels so tender and vulnerable as he kisses it while massaging my inner thighs, spreading them, slowly. With purpose, he kisses my tuft of curly hair, and a moan escapes him. “You smell so good.”
A long sigh drifts from me as his tongue touches the very core of me, and drags slowly up. Goosebumps sing in my skin. He buries his face, making me cry out. He licks me gently, and finds my little bean. Focuses on one side. Then the other. Murmurs into me, “Where are you most sensitive?” before he discovers the answer.
“Oh dear God!” I moan.
A sweet burn has ignited and Tom’s focus grows intense, then as if he might stop he teases me. Hovers away. Flicking me when I least expect it. Hovers again. Long kisses. A little bit of tongue. Another series of flicks that drive me absolutely out of my mind. I start whimpering, “Please!” My husband grabs me, holds me down, and licks me until I fly over the edge.
He kisses his way up, and I throw my arms around him. “Can I do that to you?”
“Later. Now it’s all about you. I think you’re as wet as you can get, so I’m hoping I don’t hurt you.” His knee moves my legs open again and he shifts his hips, ever-so-slowly entering me. “Are you ready for me?” I gasp at the initial shock. The bite of pain. My inner walls releasing years of tension and loneliness. Tom’s gaze locks with mine, filled with love, patience. Hunger. “Breathe, Zoe, I’m right here.”
“Sorry!”
“There’s nothing to apologize for.”
We begin to move. Each thrust slow thrust as I give way to him, feel more connected to him, more in love, more alive.
“Does it hurt?”
I breathe, “It did at first. Not anymore,” pressing my breasts into his hard pecs with the arching of my back. “You feel so good, Tom!”
“I can’t even explain how amazing you feel,” he tells me. “You’re everything I’ve ever wanted, and I can’t believe I almost lost you.”
I whisper, cupping his face as our hips move in time together, “I’m here.”
“I want to remember so I will never take you for granted. I will never allow myself to forget that you almost slipped away and made my life empty for the rest of my days.”
I gasp, “Oh Tom!”
He crashes a kiss into me and grinds me senseless.
As I reach the peak, he kisses me, “You’re there aren’t you?”
I cry out, “I think so!” and he buries his face into my neck, groaning as our bodies move, made for each other. Made for this. My husband’s arms wrap around and hold me tight as we surrender to the feelings that wash over us.
I’m exactly perfect.
So this is what sex is.
What love with a good man feels like.
This is where I’m meant to be.
“Sweetheart, wake up,” I hear him say.
My eyelashes flutter open and I peek at him. “Did I fall asleep?”
“It gave me a chance to warm this wash cloth.” He spreads my legs and gently washes me. “Might have to clean up again after you walk around a bit.” He winks and I laugh, feeling safe in his care.
I jog my chin, “What’s that?” to the leather-bound journal lying on the tiny bed with us.
Tom’s muscles flow as he walks the wadded wash cloth to the bathroom, his backside tight and gorgeous under broad shoulders I’ve never seen bare before. “Don’t touch that book.”
“I want to touch you.”
He tosses the cloth in the sink and returns to me, one hand giving himself a long stroke as he cocks an eyebrow at me. “And I want you touch me. Just not yet. We’ll get back to that in a second.”
I sit up, cross my legs, and he sits in front of me with one leg off the bed, foot firmly on the floor. Ralphie leaps onto the small square of mattress we’re not filling, and stretches like, You guys done with that weird stuff you were doing?
I lift him for a pet while Tom opens up the book, and removes a ribbon from where it was tucked, letting it dangle long. “I have something to read to you.”
“Oh? Is it a poem?”
He gives me that lopsided smile I happily married, “Kinda but not literally,” then focuses on the paper, reading, “Today I met Zoe Cocker and everything in life began to make sense.” I gasp, and he pauses before continuing, “She has the most beautiful green eyes. They make me feel peaceful when she looks at me. And when she doesn’t, I want her to again. Her smile? Did I mention her smile? My heart stopped beating when I saw her kind smile for the very first time this afternoon and I can think of nothing else, since. The crazy thing is I knew it in an instant what I can’t tell her yet, but will one day — that she is my other half. I will marry Zoe Cocker. And I will read this book to her, a catalogue of all of the times she took my breath away.” Tom looks at me.
I reach out and he lets me take the book. In shock I thumb through pages and pages of love, reading a handful of dated passages:
My beautiful Zoe made an irate customer laugh this afternoon. Mood changed completely just by her sense of humor. She called herself floaty-headed, which was funny because she grounds me.
Amelia got the day off tonight because a date stood her up and hurt her feelings, and Zoe acted as if granting a day off was normal for a boss to do under these circumstances.
Zoe dropped a pen and when I retrieved it for her, she blushed, prettier than any flower she’s ever sold. The T-Shirt she wore was paper thin and I could see how I’d made her feel.
I signed up for college today to be a man who deserves her, who has something to offer, who can afford to carry his weight and then some.
Today, Zoe said she wants to see Rome someday. As soon as I left, I sat in my Jeep, found a savings account online with the highest APR and opened it with Explore The World as the nickname. Let’s see how much I get in there for us!
He takes the book. “You can read them all later.”
To have been seen for so long, and loved like he has secretly loved me, moves me to tears. I blink up and whisper. “Tom…”
He pulls me onto his lap. “Rome after Bali?”
I laugh, my shock released through his humor. “You really saved that much?”
“Well, with your parents paying for the honeymoon… since our wedding reception was held at your family’s house.”
I correct him with love in my voice, “ Our family’s house.”
He smiles. “No one had to pay for a band. Food was all potluck.”
I laugh, “Flowers were on the bride.”
“And groom,” he corrects me. “We’re partners now. That means your folks just covered chair rentals and as you know, insisted we give them Bali to pay for because of this.”
“True. So…”
“There are more positions than the one we did.”
“You’re not going to tell me about Rome?”
Ralphie jumps down and prances to the sofa as Tom growls, “How ‘bout we try you on top.” He kisses my throat. “Rome we could do if we were tight about it. Or we go to Bali, save for one more year, then do Rome. We’d have a lot left over, and could roll that over into a trip for the third year.”
My eyes go wide. “A trip every year?”
“Would you regret the memories?”
I breathe, “Never... but what if we have kids?”
Tom kisses my neck, grabs my hips, “Pretty sure you have a million babysitters who’d happily take over.”
“ We have a million babysitters…the Cockers are your family now, too.”
“You’ll find that in my journal toward the end — Zoe has the best family. ”
I cup his face in my hands, “You know what Zoe has?”
He smirks, “What?”
“Zoe has the best husband.”
He stands up, “Let me show you what the best feels like,” holding me on him, wrapped and happily ever after, his.
The End.