Marriage (Red, White &) Blues (Unexpectedly Married #2)

Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

H e led me by the hand up the stairs back to the bedroom and Blake didn’t stop until reaching the bed. Maisie must have made it for us this morning. She shouldn’t have. Not on her day off.

I lay back onto the mattress with him following me down.

“Just so you know, I have an IUD.”

“The woman who thinks she’s bad at sex has an IUD?”

“No. The woman who got tired of heavy, painful periods has an IUD.”

“Good to know.” His eager hand brushed the strap of my sundress down my shoulder, where he used the tip of his tongue to trace my collarbone.

I found it hard to catch a breath with him so… intent . “It is?” I managed to get out.

His lips dragged down my neck. “Seems like something a husband should know.”

“You’re probably right .” My voice cracked on the last word because he didn’t warn me about his finger, but God bless Blake and all ten of his glorious phalanges—the ones on his hands. Not that I want something bad to happen to the ones on his feet, but if he could do that with his feet then— oh shit! Blake, you beautiful, beautiful man.

For his response, he covered me with his body, surrounding me. Engulfing all my senses in everything that was him. And the night, from that point on, went torturously slow. He drew out every movement. The placement of each hand. The soft caresses. The way he moved his mouth along the tip of my chin to the top of my cleavage.

“ Baby ,” I whispered. I couldn’t tell you why. It was the only thing to come to my head at the moment. He stopped kissing me and shuddered.

“Say that again,” he demanded low.

“Baby,” I said again and he lifted his head to look me in the eyes. His were on fire. He drew my dress up over my body, tossing it to the floor, and he pushed up to look at me lying beneath him.

“Jesus, Glory… I don’t even… You are so goddamn beautiful,” he said before leaning back in to take my lips again. My heartbeat sped up to painful beats a minute and my blood boiled. I shivered yet my body felt fevered. I didn’t know if I could stop if he wanted to. To let him know this, I found his hand, linking our fingers together. He moved it to the elastic on the waist of my panties and his nostrils flared. “You ready?” he asked.

I nodded my head several times. Blake wasted no time drawing my panties down my legs, leaving me in only my bra.

“I want to put my mouth on you.” he said. He… wanted to do that? My ex made it sound like the biggest chore a man could ever undertake.

“Don’t you want to get undressed first?” I asked.

“Not nearly as much as I want to taste you.”

Okay, so I might have blushed. My experience with dirty talk fell a bit… short . I smiled, giving him a nod. He dropped his mouth and oh, my god! Was it legal to do that with a tongue? I gripped the comforter in both hands, widening my legs to give him more access—every damn bit of access.

Panting. I remember panting. Other than that, I could only feel.

The vibration started in my core and worked its magic throughout my entire body. I opened my mouth to scream, but what came out was a plea. “ Blake ,” I said with a whole lot of desperation.

He lifted his mouth, watching as I squirmed beneath him. The man had to have broken a record with how fast he undressed. And the next thing I knew, he was guiding himself in. Me. Him. Making love. He moved slowly inside me, never letting up on his magical kisses or his roaming hands. At some point, he reached around to unclasp my bra, tossing that to the floor alongside my dress and panties.

His mouth coasted from one nipple peak to the other. As exhilarating as it was before, there were no words for this while feeling his cock thrusting and twisting. I touched him everywhere my hands could reach. But Blake pushed my arms down to readjust, moving up my body, bracing his weight on his forearms and he started to rock, rubbing against my swollen, aching, very fun button with every move. It truly became a spot of wonder and I couldn’t take it. We were in a sexual zone.

I didn’t know.

Sex and making love—not the same at all. Until now, I’d thought they were interchangeable phrases. They were so not interchangeable.

Blake continued to move on me and in me, in a way that made me lose all sense of time and space. When I finally couldn’t hold on any longer… the euphoria, I couldn’t explain it. My body erupted from pleasure. With several more jerky movements of his hips, he followed me down the euphoria express and collapsed to the side of me.

His chest heaved. He moved his arm to rest over his eyes. I was going to go out on a limb and say he didn’t think I was bad at sex.

“Marry me,” he said.

“What? I thought we already?—”

“Tomorrow. Down at the courthouse. Marry me…” He moved his arm from his eyes and rolled to partially pin me to the bed. “I’m serious. I don’t want to only be your legal husband in Tanzania. I want to be your husband here in bed. At the bank. At the grocery store. In Australia.”

“I’ve heard good sex will?—”

“It’s not the sex, Glory. Although your ex was a major asshole because, baby, I’ve never been laid like that in my life. But when I didn’t talk to you for those three months… I was trying to give you a reason to not want to be with me. I didn’t want to subject you to my family. But whenever I closed my eyes, I saw your face. When I pictured my future… five years down the road, ten years down the road… fifty years down the road… the one constant was you . I want to spend my life with you.”

I squeezed my eyes shut, bit the corner of my lip, then changed the rest of my life. “Okay,” I said.

“Okay? Are you serious? You’ll really marry me tomorrow?”

“Yes. I don’t think any man could have come up with a more beautiful, heartfelt proposal. I—” Just say it, Gloria . “I want to be married to you, Blake Parker. I’ll be your wife in a bed or in a shed. On a boat or through a moat. In the sky while eating pie. I’ll be your wife beside a bear… I’ll be your wife anywhere.”

He threw his head back, laughing. Which where he found the energy? “Here I thought your last name was Kowalski .”

I lowered my eyes. “Only until tomorrow.” The man had been moving in for a kiss but stopped midair.

“Are you serious?”

Now I felt a little self-conscious. Jupiter claimed he liked hearing me called “Gloria Parker.” “I mean… only if you’re comfortable with that. I didn’t mean to presume… shit . I’m sorry.”

“Oh, no, you’re not. No sorry here. I just really need to know if taking my name is what you want to do.”

“Do you want me to?”

“More than you know. I want every person I come in contact with, every person you come in contact with for the rest of our lives to know I’m the lucky fuck who got you to marry him.”

“I don’t want to hyphenate. It’s too long.”

“Then don’t. Gloria Brianne Parker is the most beautiful name I’ve ever heard.”

“It is kind of pretty, isn’t it?”

“Thank you for this, Glory Soon-to-be-Parker.”

“Thank you for loving me, Blake Already-Parker.”

As it happened, the idea of marrying me turned the man wild with lustful enthusiasm. We spent the whole rest of the day and into the night pre-gaming our wedding night festivities. He only stopped long enough to order dinner. We stuffed our faces full of noodles, fried rice, orange chicken, beef and broccoli, crab rangoons—you name it, he ordered it.

Then we went right back to it. We rumpled those sheets until I literally couldn’t keep my eyes open a second longer. Who knew a woman could partake in that much sex and live to tell the tale?

I woke up the next morning to the sound of my phone ringing. Blake still had his eyes closed as he held me, wrapped around me, from behind. His head rested on my shoulder. I looked between my phone and Blake, deciding that whoever was calling could leave a voicemail.

“Morning,” he said and I turned to see a slow, dreamy smile spreading across his face.

“Morning,” I answered.

“Best night of my life. Hands down.” As he said that, he gave my waist a squeeze and I felt a slight blush hit my cheeks. I was pretty positive that this was a first in the life of Gloria Kowalski—to be someone’s best night in their life.

I couldn’t say if last night was the best night of my life. My best night definitely involved Blake, but we had so many wonderful nights ahead of us, it seemed unfair to pick one now. Last night was definitely the most energetic night of my life. It’d be safe to say that Blake knew my body better than I did now.

“Did you need to answer that?” he asked about the phone.

“No. They’ll leave a voicemail.”

He positioned himself to partially cover me. “You ready to become American legal?”

I looked down at myself. “Well, I should probably put some clothes on first.”

“I’d like to say that’s probably a good idea, but a naked Glory is a thing of beauty. I doubt I’d sound very convincing.”

“So, you’d be okay if I paraded the goods out for the masses?”

“You should definitely put some clothes on first.”

Such a man response. I pushed up to kiss him. No, I hadn’t brushed my teeth yet and probably had morning breath, but I felt the need to kiss him and acted on it. If my breath stunk of overnight Chinese food, he didn’t seem to mind because he kissed me back. Then we got up to shower.

When I walked out of the bathroom with the towel wrapped around myself, I stopped short at seeing a beautiful pale-pink, satin sundress with spaghetti straps lying on the bed.

“What’s this?” I asked, totally shocked.

He shrugged. “It’s your wedding day. I thought you should have a dress.”

“How? When?”

“I called Maisie last night while you were passed out. Gave her the size from the dress you had on yesterday.”

“You called her in the middle of the night?”

“Sweetheart, you have no idea how excited she was to get that call. Is it okay? I know white is traditional, but nothing about us has been traditional so far and you look so beautiful in?—”

I cut him off by throwing myself at him. He caught me and we stood there making out like a couple of teenagers for a good five minutes.

“I take it you like the dress?”

“The dress is beautiful. What I like most is the husband who thought of it.”

“We need to get dressed— now . You keep being sweet and we’re not going to make it out of the bedroom.”

“And for clarification, that would be bad, right?”

He eyed me, making me laugh. I loved getting to be playful with Blake. I’d seen it between Pen and Ant, but I never quite understood it until now.

The dress had a V-neck with a slight drape at the bottom of the V. It was fitted and made from the softest satin fabric imaginable. It hung down to mid-calf with a V-slit up the middle. Blake and Maisie each had a good eye. The dress was every bit as classy as it was sexy. I wore my hair down with all my abundant curls spilling down my exposed back. My makeup I did soft. Yes, we were getting married, but it was the morning on a Monday. I didn’t want to look like a sex worker. My heels perfectly matched the dress, along with the clutch that I used to carry my important papers and identification.

Yes, knowing I was traveling from Michigan to meet my husband , I’d had the presence of mind to grab my social security card and my birth certificate before leaving the house. I didn’t know what they’d require at the courthouse—I’d never been married before—but I couldn’t think of anything else besides my driver’s license, which I always carried on me.

Blake wore a fitted, deep-gray suit with a white, button-down dress shirt and a matching deep-gray tie. He looked like the walking epitome of sex.

“Jesus, Glory,” he said, and his eyes filled with heat. “I feel bad for every other woman on the planet. You look amazing.”

I swatted my hand in the air. “You clean up nicely yourself.”

“Would you like to join me at the courthouse, Almost Mrs. Parker?”

“You said ‘ love to’ wrong.”

He held his arm out to me and when I took it, Blake escorted me down the stairs, where Maisie stood in a flowy, taupe, satin dress, her hair in a bun. She looked beautiful.

“Wow, Maisie, you look stunning,” I said.

“I’m nothing compared to you.”

“I told Maisie that we were getting married today and she wanted to be there for us.”

I walked over to her, grasping her hand in both of mine. “Thank you. I mean that. Thank you .”

It was clear that she and Blake had a special bond, and my heart swelled knowing that he had good people looking after him. Lord knew he didn’t get that from his parents.

“You can pay extra for witnesses,” Maisie said, “but he had to know I could never allow that.” Her words caused me to have to blink rapidly while fanning my face, just to evaporate my tears. This had to stop.

“Enough with the mushiness, or I’m going to ruin my makeup,” I declared. Blake kissed my cheek before leading me out of the house with Maisie following us to the shiny, black beemer. He opened the door, helping me down into the passenger seat, then helping Maisie into the back before climbing into the driver’s seat. I held his hand on my lap the whole way to the courthouse.

When we parked, it became real. Not that it hadn’t been real before, but I mean real , real. I, Gloria Kowalski, was about to become Mrs. Gloria Parker. That thought hit me in the chest. I let out a breath before climbing out. Jupiter met us inside. I didn’t know Blake invited her, too. But I was grateful for the support.

Let me just say, the woman oozed class. She wore a long, tight, black pencil skirt that stopped mid-calf and an emerald-green, satin, button-down blouse with cap sleeves. And she had on bright- red lipstick. She looked like a 1940s starlet and I couldn’t help thinking how Penelope would have approved of her attire. I felt the absence of my best friends this morning, but as bad as this sounded, not enough to want to wait to make this marriage official. When Blake reached his sister, he placed a hand to her waist, and bent in to kiss her cheek.

“Thank you for coming,” he said.

“Are you kidding me? Not even a natural disaster could’ve kept me from seeing my brother simultaneously marry the love of his life and give a big ‘ screw you ’ to the family.”

They both laughed, commiserating on something I only understood because of Pen and her family. I’d grown up in a very loving family. Well, until my mother’s lies caught up to her.

“You look beautiful,” I told her and she eyed me up and down.

“Me? You’re positively glowing. I’ve never seen a more beautiful bride. And let me tell you, Emily tried. She wore this huge monstrosity of a gown. The whole cathedral wedding and gigantic hall for the reception. When I’m forced to marry, I’m doing it like you and Blake here. Maybe we’ll head off to the tropics for a destination wedding. You two would come to that, right?”

“Although I don’t like you being forced to marry,” Blake said, “yes, Glory and I love to travel. Have you ever been to the tropics, Glory?” he asked.

I shook my head. “I’ve been to Europe and Africa.”

“Well, I plan to change that when we take our honeymoon. We just have to put it off for a few months while I deal with work and family crap.”

“Blake, you know you don’t have to?—”

He grabbed me up into his arms, stopping my words by bending in for a kiss. “I know I don’t have to, Glory. I want to. I want to give you the life that you deserve.”

“Okay, I can’t handle all this sweetness,” Jupiter said. “Let’s go get you two married so I have a reason to drink.”

“Maisie,” I turned to the woman standing to the other side of Blake. “You coming?”

Smiling, she stepped in next to Jupiter. “I think I’d like a drink, myself.”

Fair enough. We walked to the city clerk’s office to fill out our application for a marriage license. We both had to sign the application in front of the clerk and then we waited for her to file it. Blake’s parents and brother might have despised me, but it appeared that I had an ally in Jupiter. Score another win for Gloria.

Blake paid the $80 for the license to be filed and $10 for a copy to keep. We officially had sixty days to tie the knot before the license expired. The process took about twenty minutes. Next—and this was huge—we were escorted to a courtroom, where we waited our turn to be married.

“Blake,” I whispered.

“Everything okay?” he asked.

“I’m not a legal resident of Vermont. I have to change my name in Michigan.”

“We’ll make it happen, sweetheart. Don’t worry. You’re still Mrs. Parker.”

“Right.” I sighed in relief. “Blake?”

“Yes?”

“I love you.”

He wrapped his arms around me as we waited. “Glory?”

“Yes.”

“I love you, too.”

Then it was our turn. We stood up in front of the bench and said our vows. He produced rings from out of the blue. From his pocket, not thin air but how? Where’d the rings come from? I wanted to ask, but in the moment we had more pressing things to get done. Like finishing our ceremony. Then we signed the certificate alongside the judge and that was it. Blake Parker and I were American legally married.