Chapter Six
Dane
“It was the dress, wasn’t it?”
I turn to my niece before looking at my bride standing beside me in the courthouse. She looks stunning in that yellow dress, but no, that’s not why I’ve decided to marry her. Sure, it hugs her figure just right and compliments her beautiful skin, but again, that is not what had me dropping to one knee.
It has everything to do with the empty bed I laid in last night, the taste of her lingering on my lips and her scent all over my pillow. My head filled with thoughts of her and my heartbeat quickened with panic every time I thought of her leaving.
I couldn’t sleep, dreading the morning sun and having to watch the most beautiful woman walk away from me. And when the sun came up, without having slept a wink all night, all I could think was keeping her by my side.
Making her mine.
“Yes, it was the dress,” I tell Paula, then turn away from her and reach out and to take Cherry’s hand in mine. She’s trembling, and the smile she flashes me is shaky at best. “Why are you nervous?”
“I’m getting married. Everyone bride gets nervous on their wedding day, right?”
“I wouldn't know,” I say thickly, bringing her hand to my lips. It seems she's not the only nervous one in the room. The air is thick with anticipation as we stand in line, waiting our turn. The couple in front of us are bickering, and the ones behind us have barely said a word to each other. I can hear the faint sound of a clock ticking somewhere, each tick amplifying the nerves swirling in my stomach.
Oddly enough, the nerves are not from panic at the thought of being tied down, but more so to do with the fear that Cherry will change her mind before it’s our turn. I’m sick to my stomach that she will think that all this is not worth it and leave.
She can’t leave.
Maybe yesterday, before I knew what her mouth tasted like and how her body felt pressed against mine, maybe I would have let her leave then, but not now.
I’m too far gone!
“I can’t do this!” My head whips up to see the woman standing in front of us glare at her partner. “This is stupid, Jack! I want a real wedding, not a stupid court wedding!”
Everyone turns to look at the couple, who are arguing quietly, and when it’s their turn, the girl turns around and walks right out the door, her partner following behind. Cherry’s gaze follows the two until they’ve disappeared before turning to look up at me.
“You better not think of running too,” she warns, but I read the insecurity in her eyes. Well, it seems we are both nervous about the same thing.
“I’m a man of my word, Cherry. Today, you take my last name.”
She smiles, her face lighting up in a way that steals my breath, and for a second, I forget we're in a courtroom in front of strangers. I want to kiss her, push her against one of the walls, and rut her like a dog. She must read the fire and longing in my eyes because she flushes, clearing her throat before nodding to the front. “It's our turn.”
Right.
As we approach the front of the courtroom, I catch a glimpse of the judge, a middle-aged man with a warm smile, ready to guide us through the process. I glance at my bride again and notice the slight tremble in her hands and the way she bites her lip, revealing her nerves. I squeeze her hand and force her to focus on me, not all the noise around us.
She only needs to keep her focus on me. And mine, on her.
Only her.
The judge begins to speak, his voice steady and reassuring, but my focus stays on her. I barely register anything he says, and when it’s time to exchange our vows, I feel a rush of emotion overwhelm me at once.
I love her, I realize.
As crazy and as unrealistic as it sounds, I recognize the emotion for what it is. Why else would I promise to spend the rest of my life with this girl I hardly know? It's my name and signature on the marriage certificate. Everything in my name belongs to her now.
My life included.
And still, I know nothing about her. I know the way she tastes, the way she feels—how she makes me feel—and the sounds she makes when she comes. I’ve seen her tears, and I’ve seen her smile, but that’s the extent of it.
My niece Paula and her boyfriend act as our witnesses, and just like that, we’re married. Everything else moves surprisingly fast, and then we’re all walking out of the courthouse a married couple. I glance down at my wife and the back of my eyes burn with an unexpected thrill.
Mine. And I want her. The need to consummate the marriage is strong.
We still have a long way to go before we get back to the ranch. I drove us to a courthouse two towns over to get married to delay the news reaching Valor Springs and the rest of my family, but now I'm questioning if that was a smart choice. I want to touch my wife, kiss her, and make sweet love to her, but we're in plain view of everyone.
My cock is throbbing hard when we reach the truck. I open the front door for Cherry before turning to my niece and her boyfriend, who were following closely behind us.
“What?” Paula asks when I block her from climbing into the car. The heavily tattooed man standing by my niece raises a brow when I stop them, but unlike my niece, he seems to know what I’m doing.
“I want to talk to Cherry alone,” I say pointedly.
“So, like, do you need a moment? We can sit somewhere and wait—”
I shake my head. “I mean on the drive back. We have some things to discuss, and she might not be comfortable with you guys around.”
“Uncle Dane!” Paula protests. “You can’t expect us to get back on our own. You drove us here, and we’re two towns away from Valor Springs.”
She's right. Fuck, she's right, but I am too fucking desperate. I have no fucking idea how I'll get to Valor Springs without crashing the truck or something.
I want her. Now.
More than I’ve ever wanted anyone in my entire life, I need to have her. The little kiss at the courthouse did nothing but arouse my need for this girl.
I take out my wallet from my back pocket and grab a stack of twenty-dollar bills without counting before passing it to my niece. “Have you ever ridden the bus?”
Paula glares at me, and the man by her side chuckles. “It’s fine, Dane. I’ll take care of her,” Darrell, her boyfriend, says, wrapping his arm around Paula and prompting her to walk away. Paula reaches back and grabs the money, grumbling something about how if I’m going to make them ride the bus, then I might as well pay for it. Darrell simply chuckles and walks away with my grumpy niece. I remind myself to invite them over for dinner to make it up to them.
Cherry is watching me when I climb into the truck, twirling her fingers nervously on her lap. “You didn’t have to send them away,” she says. “Whatever it is you want to talk about, I wouldn’t have minded doing it in front of them.”
“Well, I do,” I grind out, starting the truck and pulling away from the curb.
Cherry turns her entire body to face me. “Why did you decide to marry me?”
I sigh, knowing this question was coming. “Tonight,” I say. “We'll talk about it tonight.”
I don't need to turn to her to see her pretty brows knit in confusion. “B-but you told your niece that…”
“I couldn’t exactly tell her that the things I want to do to you cannot wait until we get back to the ranch.”
She sucks in a sharp breath, and when I briefly take my eyes off the road to look at her, I notice the heated sparkle in her eyes. She wants it too—me—as desperately as I want her.
“H-here?” she breathes, fiddling with her dress. “In the truck?”
I pause. Fuck, maybe she doesn't want to have sex in the truck. What woman would? It's her first time. It's only fair that I get her into a proper bed with roses and in a room that smells of eucalyptus or one of those stupid scents hotels love to use. “There's a hotel in the next—”
“No!” Cherry cut me off, grabbing the sleeve of my shirt and shaking her head firmly. “No, I don’t want a hotel; I don’t want to wait.”
Not what I was expecting and…is that excitement in her tone. The nervous girl from earlier is gone, and in her place is an excited one. Someone who can barely sit still. “Cherry…”
“I have always thought I would lose my virginity in a truck. Crazy, I know, but I read it in a romance novel once, and I’ve been imagining it that way ever since.”
I don’t know what to make of that. “It might be uncomfortable for you.”
My cock pulses painfully behind my fly when she places her hand on my thigh. “Are you trying to talk me out of it?” she teases, raking her hand over my jeans and moving dangerously close to my cock. “It was your idea, remember?”
My eyes stay on the road as I drive us away from town and take the first side road I spot. It leads to some private property and seems like it’s rarely used. For our sake, I hope that's true.
“Climb in the back.” It comes out as a guttural growl as I push open my door. Cherry makes a thrilled noise as she unbuckles and climbs into the back without leaving the truck entirely, clambering on her hands and knees, eyes wide with excitement. I take off my jacket and toss it on the driver’s seat before slamming the door closed and walking to the back.
She looks so fucking beautiful, lying on her back with her thighs slightly spread to reveal her panties, the only thing standing between me and that hot pussy. I climb into the car, slamming the door behind me and flattening her on the backseat. I am a big guy, but so is my truck, and it’s not as tight of a fit as I expected.
My eyes drop to her cleavage, those pale globes pushing up against her dress. She doesn’t have a bra on, and the hungry beads poke at the dress, begging for my touch.
“We're really doing it,” she whispers, her hands climbing to my chest, and she begins unbuttoning my shirt. I bite back a growl when she slides her slender hands down my pecs and to my ribs, the softness of her fingers a contrast to the hardness of my muscles. “Oh, you're so big, and your skin is so hot. Are you always this hot?”
“If you don’t stop now, sweetheart, I’ll blow right in my pants.”
She giggles, rocking her hips against my hardness, running her hands restlessly over my back and shoulders. “That would be fun to watch.”
There seems to be something different about her now, something more playful like a weight has been lifted from her shoulders. I suppose it has now that were married. I noticed the change when we left the courthouse, and it filled me with pride to know that I could do this for her.
“Fuck!” I curse, tugging hard at the sleeves of her dress to reveal her naked tits, and when I latch down on them with my mouth, nothing else matters in the moment. Not her past. Not the reasons for our marriage. Nothing.
It’s just us.
We are here, and I am going to spend the rest of my life with this woman. Loving her. Protecting her innocence. Guarding her from everyone and anyone that dares come between us.
“Dane,” she cries out, her back arching when I shift my attention to the other tit, rolling my tongue around the rosy bud until she's writhing and moaning under me, her body trembling under mine with every kiss. I push down the dress further and kiss the spot between her tits before tracing my lips down her body. My lips stay on hers as I push my hands under her dress, wrapping a finger around the waistband of her panties and slowly dragging them down her thighs.
“I thought about this all night,” I say thickly, tearing the panties off and tossing them away. My breathing is labored as I move down her body, bending her knees and exposing her sex further. “I couldn't get a wink of sleep, Cherry, my mind on your hot pussy. Your flavors are a permanent fixture on my tongue.” She whimpers when I kiss the inside of her thigh, inhaling her soft feminine scent and getting drunk on it. “I jerked myself raw, thinking of you in the next room, wanting you…”
“Oh God!” she cries out when I rub my thumb over her sex, parting her feminine lips to reveal her glistening core, wet with arousal.
“…thinking of all the ways I could take you. Make you ride my cock all fucking night, show you all the ways this gorgeous body deserves to be worshipped.”
Her back arches off the seat when I lean in and drag my tongue over the wet valley of her sex, collecting her arousal with my hungry tongue. I find her clit and stroke it firmly, drinking in her flushed expression. Her lips are slightly parted, and her eyes are glassy and locked on mine. She's beautiful, every inch of her, and she's mine!
With a rough growl, I bury my face deeper in her sex, licking her like a madman, and I feel every bit like one. I lose myself in her scent and taste. Her head falls back with a sob, and her body begins to shake violently. Her folds grow slicker and her cries fevered as I lap at her sex like a mad man, and when I close my mouth around her clit in hot suction, she orgasms with a scream.
“Dane... Oh God. Oh!” She thrashes under me, her pussy trembling feverishly under my tongue as I continue to stroke her. Moisture coats my chin and jaw, her arousal staining my beard.
She’s still trembling when I climb up her body, my mouth seeking hers in a desperate kiss. It’s nothing like the one we shared at the courthouse. There is nothing innocent in the way our tongues press over each other. The sounds she makes are only meant for my ears. Those little sighs and moans will only ever belong to me!
“Fuck, baby, I want you,” I growl against her mouth, unzipping my jeans so fast I nearly rip them. “Need to be inside that pussy. Make you mine.” My wife .
“Yes, yours,” she whimpers, wrapping her arms around my shoulders as I shove down my jeans and boxer briefs. She hooks her left leg over my hip, exposing herself further and offering her virgin hole like a gift. A present for giving her my last name. For making her mine forever. “Want you too.”
I'm so hard it hurts. In all of my thirty-four years of living, I've never hurt this bad from an erection. From the need to claim her. “Mine!” I growl, taking hold of my cock and guiding it between her thighs. She whimpers when I rub my hardness over her sex, gathering the moisture there before working it into her trembling hole. Her hands tighten around my shoulders when I push the head of my shaft into her wet channel, but that's as far I manage to get before she clamps down hard around my cock. “Fuck, baby!” I drop my head to her neck, inhaling deeply at her soft scent clinging to her hair. She smells like my shampoo, but on her skin, it’s different. I expect it to calm me, but it only works to send more dangerously possessive feelings filtering in. “Let me in, sweetheart. You are so fucking tight, I can't move.”
“H-how?”
“Relax for me,” I say in as soothing a tone as I can muster. My balls are threatening to explode, and my muscles are tense, begging for me to push and break that barrier between us, but that would hurt her. I waited a night to have her, I can wait a few damn seconds for her to take me. Hell, I would have waited a fucking lifetime if she'd asked it of me. “It's okay,” I say thickly, bringing our mouths together and pouring my need into the kiss. “I have you. You're mine now.”
“Yours,” she moans, her hips moving restlessly under mine, and I feel her start to relax. Moisture floods between us as she slowly rocks into me, gasping when I push another inch into her tightness, working myself in until I feel the thin barrier of her innocence. My mouth stays on hers, kissing her until she’s practically riding the tip of my shaft, and I take that as a sign that she’s ready to go all the way. With a strangled growl, I slam my hips forward, ripping through her innocence and burying my thickness in her warmth. She cries out, her nails digging hard into my shoulders and tearing at the skin, but I pay no mind to that. Christ, she’s so tight I could come on the spot, and it takes everything in me not to.
“Are you okay?” I manage through gritted teeth, pushing back to meet her beautiful golden eyes.
“Yeah,” she breathes, gasping when I move slightly. “Oh!”
“Baby, if it hurts—”
“A little, but don’t stop,” she says, moving her hips restlessly. Her mouth falls open when I start moving, slowly stroking my cock in and out of her tight heat. I want to stop and take it slow, give her time to get adjusted to my cock, but I can’t stop moving.
“Fuck, Cherry, you are so fucking tight!” I grit out, burying my fingers in her hip as I start to take her harder, and it's bliss. The feeling of her wet pussy wrapped around my cock is pure nirvana, and I can't get enough. I drop my mouth over hers, our hot breaths mingling between us and creating a moment so intimate, my heart clenches painfully in my chest.
I love you.
The words are on the tip of my tongue, and I imagine they shine brightly in my eyes. It's too fast, but it makes sense that she is the one who would finally make me fall.
Mine.
With my eyes locked on her, I grind my cock faster and harder into her. The truck rocks around us with every fevered thrust, and the windows begin to fog up as I slowly lose myself in her. Her cries grow louder, echoing through the car, and the fingers on my skin grow insistent in their caress.
There are no words that need to be said. She only needs to look into my eyes at the naked display of my emotion for her to realize that in a matter of hours, she's become the most important thing in my life.
A wife I had no idea I needed, and now, I can’t live without.
I angle my hips so that the root of my dick can rub against her clit with every thrust, and a violent shudder rocks through her. “Oh God,” she whimpers, and it’s music to my ears. The way her tits bounce as I pick up pace, slamming into her fast, I’m close. There is no holding back the orgasm this time.
I drop my head to her neck, gripping her knee hard and shoving the other up, nearly folding her in half as I pound furiously into her. The truck rocks with every drive into her sex, but I am too far gone to care that someone driving by could spot us. That they would see the vehicle shaking and know what is happening.
I don’t care about anything but bringing climax to my wife.
My… wife .
“Mine!” I grow, slapping my hips furiously into her until her thighs begin to tremble seconds before her breath catches, and she orgasms with a scream. Her pussy cinches hard around my cock and shudders rack her body, fingers curling and uncurling over the car seat. My orgasm tears out of me so fiercely that I see black spots. My muscles burn as they strain, and my balls tighten before releasing violently. I press hard into her, hammering into her tightness as she takes all of me. Her breathing grows choppy with every punishing stroke to her wet pussy, filling her womb with my heat.
“Yours,” she sobs, bringing her hands back to my shoulders. Her eyes are unfocused as I drive into her, my body shaking she milks me to my last drop. I go boneless on top of her, bracing my hand above her head so I don’t crash her. My heart is hammering in tune with hers, our breathing labored.
“Perfect, you were perfect, sweetheart,” I rasp, pressing my lips over her temple and leaving them there. Drowning myself in her softness and the sweet scent clinging to her skin. “You are mine now.”
She hums, nuzzling my throat, and I know we should move. We’re in public, and anyone could walk up to the car or even call the cops up on us, but for the life of me, I can’t move from the embrace.
Before Cherry, I was fine. I wasn’t lonely per se. No, I was too busy to be lonely with a very organized life. Everything was perfect, or so I thought.
And to think that I could have lost this.
How the fuck did I ever think I could send this girl on a bus and go back to living life as I knew it. There is no going back. As I hug Cherry tighter in my arms, I realize that walking into that courthouse and making this woman my wife was the best decision I’ve ever made.