Epilogue
TRUDY
Two years later…
I can hear the wind blowing outside the big picture window, and I know without having to open my eyes that it’s snowing again.
Once, when I first moved here in town, my then baking assistant Kayla, who would end up becoming as close to me as a sister and the dearest friend I’ve ever had, told me that if you lived long enough in Colorado, you’d learn to know if it was snowing just by a difference in how the wind sounds without needing to run to a window to have your suspicions confirmed.
I remember laughing it off, thinking she was pulling my leg because I’ve always thought that snow in and of itself doesn’t really make any noise when it comes down, no matter how hard the blizzard. She shrugged off my laughter and said I’d realize the truth of her words after having been here in Sylvan Creek long enough, and she was right.
Snow might not have the fizzing, watery sound of rain or the thudding one of hailstones, but the wind surrounding it as it comes down from the sky does change its song when the air is carrying it through it. It might be a slight difference to an uneducated ear, not audible unless you really focus on it, but it’s there for sure, a heaviness to it as it bangs and wheezes against the trees and the glass of the windows. Snow in the wind, it’s like love in the soul. I know that now.
It's not something you can describe accurately, not something you can put your finger on, but it's there, and you can see it on the person's face, hear it in their voice all the same, even if the difference for the world at large is just slight.
Today is a day for invisible differences, I guess. Invisible differences can change lives, and I find myself wondering at the slightest sounds as of yet inaudible but inevitably there. Once I get used to it, will I be able to hear it? The tiny beat of life, hiding behind my own heart, like snow in the wind?
Tears of happiness prick my eyes as I open them, and much like it happens every day since the first morning I woke up in my now-husband’s arms two years ago in this very bed for the first time, I feel a smile pull at my lips. But there’s more to this day than the joy of waking up in a life where Jordan is my shelter that’s making me grin like a fool.
Today, everything is about to change again. Today, we start another chapter together and I can’t wait to hear what my hubby is going to say about it.
I’ve been dying to tell him for the past three days, but today is such a special day for us that I had to wait, even if the anticipation almost killed me.
Today, is our third Post-Valentine's Day together, and it's also our first wedding anniversary, so once given the opportunity to make the celebration even more wonderful for us, I had to jump at it.
I want to kiss Jordan awake, but there’s a part of me that’s loving this torturous trepidation too much to make the first move, so here I am, lying in his arms between sleep and wake, waiting for him to open his beautiful, loving eyes while the snow keeps coming down in flurries outside.
A few minutes later, I feel my husband’s strong arms tighten around me; one of his large hands wanders away from my hip until he’s touching one of my shoulders and gently pushing me to roll away from him and onto my back.
He follows me swiftly, hovering over me, his hefty frame covering my own, his beard tickling my chin as his lips seek mine for our good morning kiss.
“Morning, baby, happy anniversary,” he murmurs, hands stroking up and down my arms, my naked skin shivering at the trails of fire his fingers seem to always leave in their wake whenever he touches me.
“Happy anniversary, love,” I mumble on his lips and I smile, giggling when I feel his kisses move away from my mouth in teasing little nibbles down the column of my neck.
He lowers on top of me fully, not an inch of space between us now as his hands wander down my thighs to spread them around his hips. I feel his hard cock swell against my tummy, digging in.
We went to sleep naked last night, burrowing into each other for warmth and basking in the glow of the blazing fireplace, too tired to even pull PJs on after loving long and hard into the wee hours.
My core starts to tingle and contract on emptiness in preparation. He’s barely touched me, and I’m already wet for him, my body knowing what’s about to come.
This is my favorite moment of the day; it’s when we’re barely awake, and we slowly and sleepily come together like this.
I lately run my hands up and down his powerful back, my feet already linked around his waist.
“Jordan,” I whisper and he pulls away from my neck and gives me a smile. I don’t need to say anything more.
“I know, cupcake, hard and fast,” he says, his voice low and gritty.
I bite into my lower lip, nodding. My heart is racing in my chest.
How is it that he gets me every time?
I never grow tired of looking at him, especially first thing in the morning after a hard night of sex when I know I must look a sight and he manages to be impossibly hot with that sexy dark beard of his, his baby blues flashing hotly at me and those messy hair sticking every which way.
God, I love this one person so much!
And every time I tell myself I can’t possibly love him more than I already do, I simply take a look at him, and my heart just soars, reaching even higher as he sinks deeper into my soul, and that’s when I realize that, yes , I can love him even more and I do. I love him a little more at the start of each day and then again at the end of each night.
I grin back at him, my lips nibbling his chin and then his throat as he hovers on top of me, his cock already hitting my slit and leaving pre-cum behind.
I feel myself grow even wetter, the sense of hollowness already almost unbearable as my hard nipples chafe against his hairy pecs while I press my center to his hardness, seeking friction. As I rub my pussy against his cock, I see a flash of deep hunger come into his eyes; one of my hands reaches between us to squeeze his balls, and he swears softly.
He pulls my hands away from his body with a smirk, holding them both prisoners in his much larger ones over my head as he cages me in against the disheveled bed.
“Be my good girl, baby,” he growls into my ear, and I feel myself melt further at his words as his hard cock jerks fiercely between my pussy lips.
His mouth descends on mine, his kiss slow and secure, his tongue chasing mine in a dance I never grow tired of until we’re both gasping for breath, my body rocking faster against his.
I feel the blunt, wet crown of his cock pushing at my opening, and my breath stops as he fills me all the way in one mighty stroke.
We both moan at the sensation of being one.
“Fuck, babe… I need your nipples in my mouth,” he grunts, his lips falling on my breasts and immediately closing around one of my hardened nubs as he lets go of my hands, moving his own down to my bottom. He teases the heck out of my breasts with everything he has: teeth, lips, beard, plucking, nibbling, and suckling me until I can’t catch my breath anymore.
He squeezes both cheeks as he angles me higher for his penetration, sinking even deeper into my channel, and a mini-orgasm already wreaks havoc on my body while my core immediately starts to milk his driving length.
Jordan continues to rut forcefully on top of me, battering my walls with his huge erection.
“So good, baby, always so damn good! I love being inside of you!”
He grunts my name, and his voice alone sends waves of pleasure into me.
I grip his shoulders, digging my nails into his skin and making him hiss out an oath, his hips still pounding me to the bed.
“Harder, Jordan! Please… harder! Closer!”
I raise my legs and fasten them higher around his waist, feet pressing down his taut, muscular ass to pull him deeper into my core, to keep him even closer to me.
“Fuck! So snug, baby… so fucking perfect around me!” he groans against my breast, giving me all of his weight as he fucks me harder and deeper, bringing us even closer together.
I let my hands glide down the bulging muscles of his tense arms, spreading my thighs wider for him, and I moan deep in my throat at the feel of his hard, swollen cock stretching my walls almost to capacity.
Even after all this time, I still have some trouble taking all of him, but the ache is delicious, and I would never want this any other way.
I need to feel him lose control on top of me. I need to know I’m taking all of him inside. Otherwise, something is amiss.
I feel one of his hands move over my tummy and then lower, past my mound, until his thumb is strumming my clit, and I squeeze and release around his erection harder, making him gasp my name just as I mumble his.
Jordan’s hands hold me in a punishing grip, and he groans again, eyes closing in pleasure. “Goddammit, baby! How the fuck are you still this tight?! The more I fuck you, the tighter you fucking get!”
His icy eyes open again and focus on me, one of his hands reaching around and upward until he’s cupping the side of my face. There’s such a hunger in his gaze that I feel it burn me from the inside out as he slams himself inside of me over and over, fucking me even faster, deeper; that merciless thumb of his still torturing my clit. I push myself up against his body, meeting him thrust for thrust, my lips seeking his for a kiss.
Jordan’s hand moves away from my bottom to caress my thigh as he folds it higher around his hip, and then his big fingers grip one of my sides while he holds me down for his delicious assault.
Our mouths smash together with zero finesse and a ton of desire, my orgasm moving over me like an electrical current short-circuiting all of my nerves at once, my toes curling, my heart beating out of my chest.
He’s keeping my lower body completely off the bed and elevated now, his thighs under my spread ones thrown over his hips as he pounds into me, his cock touching the deepest, hidden places in my core, my walls straining in pleasure-pain.
I pant his name on his mouth, trying to gasp out a breath, my legs and arms clutching at him, my hands fisting the hair at his nape as I feel another rush of bliss drive through me at a particularly sturdy stroke of his cock inside of me.
My core clenches around him, making him hiss again as his hips shove harder still against me, and at this point, my entire body is shaking all over in pleasure. I can only chant his name over and over while a new, stronger orgasm crashes all over my senses as my husband slams into me again and again, his erection thickening inside of me with the approach of his own bliss.
My pussy walls start to clench and release, clench and release uncontrollably, my whole body trembling, my limbs tensing all over. The harder I milk his cock, the more Jordan’s rhythm between my legs stutters. His hips rock one more time against mine to bring us closer, and then he holds himself deep inside of me.
I watch him, his large body going rigid, and his eyes falling shut while he roars in ecstasy. He collapses on top of me, his hot seed jetting into me and feeding both my orgasm and his own pleasure and making me scream his name as I bite down on my lower lip.
The world just stops at this moment, like an old out-of-battery clock that misses a beat between a second and the next.
We lie in the middle of our giant bed in silence, clutching at each other, my husband still inside of me; limbs are plastered together, skin sweaty and breath chopped, hearts thundering the same song.
I whimper when Jordan, a few minutes later, gently withdraws his length from me. He hugs me closer to his side, big hands stroking warm, slow, soothing circles into my lower back.
I cuddle up to him, my hands over his chest, fingers touching the beating of his heart just over the ink that he surprised me with last night. It’s my wedding anniversary gift from him, a cupcake, etched onto his skin with my name scrawled under it. I absolutely love it. The last dregs of lust finally retreat from my mind, like a deep dark ocean wave leaving the shore. I remember the first thought that touched my consciousness as I woke up today and I smile.
I’m about to make our Post-Valentine’s Day even better for the both of us.
I try to sit up in bed, but Jordan stops me.
"Where you going?" he asks grouchily on my neck.
I giggle. “Babe, let me up!”
“No!” He pulls me under him and throws the covers over our heads.
We both laugh as I attempt to free myself from his hold, and he keeps rolling my body toward his.
“You promised we could sleep in this morning,” he huffs out grumpily, looking impossibly cute for a man as big as him.
I shake my head. “And we are! I was just going to dash in the bathroom for a sec and then go grab our breakfast.”
Jordan picks his head from between my breasts at that word, his other appetite perking up. “Breakfast?”
I nod, sliding away from him, and one of his arms immediately shoots outward to grab me again.
I hold myself up on my elbows and look down at him, smiling. "I made us a special anniversary cake and a lavish breakfast that we can enjoy right here, but we gotta take it from the fridge."
He gives it some thought, looking sleepily down at his newly hardening erection and then up at my face.
“A special cake, you said?” he asks, yawning.
I shake my head, laughing.
If there’s something that would take my hubby’s mind off of having sex with me, that would be eating cake with me.
“The most special cake I’ve ever made.”
“If you put it like this,” he sighs and then suddenly jumps out of bed, dragging me up with him. We both laugh as we stagger to our legs.
Jordan throws me one of his old alma mater tees, which have become my preferred nightwear of choice, while he slips into a pair of gray sweats that do very little to hide his magnificent straining erection.
I look away and laugh when I realize he caught me ogling his junk.
Not now, Gertrude!
For once, you got more important stuff to do than jumping this piece of man-cake.
After a brief pitstop to the en-suite bathroom to brush our teeth at the his-and-hers sinks and take care of private business, we run downstairs and to the kitchen.
Jordan goes into the pantry to retrieve the portable tray we use when we want to eat in bed in the morning and I start to get stuff out of the fridge, leaving the cake for last.
Behind me, my hubby is busy gathering glasses and cutlery.
I put the white chocolate almond cookies, the maple syrup waffles and bacon pancakes I made for us on plates on the little desk and grab a bottle of fresh orange juice.
Jordan carefully picks up the tray, and I get the platter with the cake out of the cool-box in the fridge. I stick the orange bottle down my arm and, holding the platter, I follow my hubby back upstairs.
We reach our bedroom and set down our sugary loot onto the bed.
Jordan fills our glasses with orange juice and steals a piece of cookie from one of the plates.
I smile at him, taking a deep breath. “Let’s have cake first, baby…”
He looks down at the platter and smiles. “You made my favorite!”
I nod. “But it’s way more special than usual…”
He frowns trying to guess what I did. “How so? Different type of chocolate?”
I shake my head, biting my lower lip as we sit on the bed, he with his legs crisscrossed and me with my legs folded behind me. I cut us a bigger-than-usual slice and look up at him as I retrieve two forks.
“I thought we could share…”
“Sure thing, cupcake,” he nods distractedly and pulls me into his arms until I’m sitting on his lap.
“This whole spread looks delicious. Thanks for doing all of this! It’s the best present. I’m going to demolish this breakfast, and then I’ll do the same to your–”
He suddenly stops talking, and I smile, guessing at the reason.
My husband is looking at the filling of the cake. It’s not the usual color for a red velvet. The cream is layered in a two-color pattern: baby blue and light pink.
I look away from the slice of cake and back at his handsome visage.
His sky-blue eyes are wide-open and there’s an expression of wonder on his countenance. He drops the fork and grabs my face into his large hands until we are eye-to-eye.
“Babe, are you? Are we?” he stammers, looking so hopeful that the sight brings tears to my eyes.
I nod and start to cry, throwing my arms around his neck.
Jordan hugs me tightly, the cake forgotten, his lips clashing with mine as we both cry, and smile, and laugh.
When we break apart, he shakes his head, grinning widely.
"You really are, love?" he asks again, like he can't believe it, one of his large hand gently, almost reverently, covering my tummy.
I nod again, kissing his palm when he reaches up to brush the tear tracks off my cheeks with his thumb. “I am… I am pregnant.”
He hugs me again, kissing all over my face. “We are going to have a baby! I can’t believe it! Oh, love! That’s… that’s the best anniversary present ever… the best present I’ve ever got in my life! I don’t know what to say! I’m so happy!”
I kiss his chin and the tip of his nose. “Me too, love. So happy!”
Then we're kissing hard, breakfast completely forgotten for the time being, and there's so much joy in my heart that I'm not sure I can contain it all without exploding.
That night, so long ago, when I got scared, and Jordan quelled my fears, then he promised me I would always be safe with him, that he would never leave my side. Trusting him was the best decision I ever made, and it was so easy in the end.
It was just like breathing, but even then, as happy as I was, I could never in a million years imagine a joy like this would be waiting for us just around the corner.
I would have never believed this was meant to be mine someday, no matter how wildly my little romantic heart could dream, yet this one man I love more than life itself has been able to give me everything I ever wanted, everything I was afraid to want and even more.
Here we are, so happy we can hardly stand it, and so in love, it feels like not even a day has gone by since we shared our first kiss in my little bakery in the small town down the mountain we both call home now. It seems like wishing for even more happiness in our lives would be too much to ask for, and yet I already know that in about nine months we’re going to feel even more blessed and lucky than we do right now and I’m beyond grateful for it.