Chapter 21 – Richard #2
Lifting up my hips, he places the towel underneath me.
Only then does he lean across and undo the cuffs on my wrists, and my arms are free.
My shoulder complains of being stretched in one position for so long.
Dave leans over and rubs my shoulders in turn, before placing a kiss on each one.
Having him so close to me, I take the chance to do what I have wanted to do, and wrap my arms around him, pulling him close to my chest. He turns his head so that it rests on my shoulder, and I place a kiss on his head.
A few minutes later I notice that Dave’s breathing has changed, he has fallen asleep on my chest, which isn’t surprising, considering the day that he’s had.
We probably should’ve waited until tomorrow to celebrate, but this is something that we both wanted tonight.
Carefully, I roll us over so that I’m on my side, and slowly release Dave, so as not to disturb him.
With both hands free, I grab the pillow from behind my head, and lift up Dave’s, sliding it underneath.
He mutters something, and I pause to make sure that he’s still sleeping.
Sleep is a long way away for me, so, I carefully get off the bed, make my way back into the living room of the suite to find my phone, and head back to the bedroom.
Finding one of the spare pillows, I place it up against the headboard.
Getting back on the bed, I rest my back against the pillow, and open my phone.
I want to see if I can find something that Dave and I could do tomorrow, together, that wouldn’t look odd, when something pops up on the screen.
Looking over to him, I know that it’s perfect.
Tapping the screen, I bring up Jasper’s number.
“Why the fuck are you calling me?” Jasper demands. “You should be tied up, literally, for the next couple of hours.”
“Jasper, fuck off,” I laugh down the line. “I have an idea, but I need your help.”
Jasper listens as I explain my idea, never once interrupting me, or calling me an idiot, until I’m finally done.
“Holy shit,” are the only words that he says. “He will love it. I couldn’t think of anything better. Give me ten minutes to do some digging.”
Exactly ten minutes later, Jasper calls back and I answer before the ringing has a chance to wake up David. I listen, and the more I hear, the more amazing it sounds. Dave will be so surprised. Leaning over, I gently kiss Dave on the lips, and he gently stirs beside me.
“I need to pop out,” I say to him.
“You promised to stay,” comes a sleepy reply.
“It’s a surprise,” I whisper back at him.
Looking at my watch, I start to pace. He’s supposed to be here by now, and we’re running out of time. I have just turned to face the door when it finally opens, and a very confused looking Dave walks in.
“Rich,” he says, coming over to me.
“Any press, Jasper?” I ask over his shoulder.
“Coast looked clear.”
“Good,” I reply, and turn my attention back to Dave.
“Rich, what’s going on?”
“I was thinking of something we could do together that was special, but we need a licence to do it.”
“Licence?”
My body had been blocking the sign over by another set of double doors, and the expression on his face was priceless. There, on a plaque, were the words ‘Marriage Licence Bureau’.
“Richard.” And I can hear the shock in his voice.
“Marry me,” I say. “Tonight.”
“But…”
“It takes about fifteen minutes to get the paperwork sorted, but we need to move now, as the bureau closes at midnight, and it’s eleven now. Jasper has our passports, and everything we need.”
“You’re serious,” Dave says.
“One hundred percent,” I tell him.
He looks over to Jasper, and back to me, and the smile that spreads across his face is all the answer I need, and I push open the door to the bureau.
Dave leaving for Qatar that Monday morning had been hell.
I had held my husband in my arms for as long as I could.
Husband. It sounded good, even now, almost a week later.
That night was perfect, with the exception of the delay at the bureau, I thought at eleven at night it would have been quiet.
I was wrong, and we didn’t leave the building till close to midnight.
It’s good to know that the slogan ‘Vegas never sleeps’ is accurate.
Jasper found us a twenty-four-hour wedding chapel that was out of the way.
He made sure that there was no press about, and somehow even managed to get the staff inside the chapel to sign NDA’s, even though I am guessing they would have had no idea who we were.
I was thankful for the added protection, until Dave and I could tell the world.
Then, before we knew it, he was on a plane, and I was here with Vincent at his family’s ranch.
The place was beautiful, a huge field with rolling hills in the background, and the house was enormous.
It reminded me of the houses you see on TV, but this was real.
The mixture of wooden and stone walls meant the house blended into the countryside perfectly.
“Rich, are you okay?” Vin asks.
“Yeah.” But I was far from it. Watching Dave race around a track as your boyfriend is one thing, seeing him race around the track as your husband was worse, and now I had to watch him line up for the race in the middle of the pack.
The problems that had been plaguing Lars’s car, had finally started to affect Dave’s, and his qualifying yesterday had been his worst one in a long time.
Vincent had been so annoyed that he wasn’t there, and had spent so much of the evening on the phone with his engineers.
I had called Dave to see how he was, he was remarkably calm.
Kept saying that he was expecting it, and it was okay.
He had done what he needed to do, so these races were just for fun, really.
But it had meant that the gearbox needed to be changed, and he was given a grid penalty, just like Lars before him. It wasn’t an ideal situation, but as he said, it would be nice to race other cars, at least he would get the chance to overtake some cars.
“Otis is going to be fine,” Vin says, thinking I’m worried about Otis racing for the first time, “Here, have a beer?”
“Do you have anything stronger?” I ask, and I slip my hand into my pocket, running my hand over the cold metal ring.
My wedding ring. Dave and I had managed to find a shop the following day that stocked rings that had fit both of us.
We had decided to get matching ones. There wasn’t anything fancy about them, just simple platinum bands. But we felt they were perfect.
“I don’t think I have ever seen you this worried about a driver’s debut,” Vin replies, as he hands me a tumbler containing a rich amber colour liquid.
“Otis is young,” I reply, going along with the ruse, that this is why I’m nervous.
“So, he wasn’t like this with me on my first race?” Lars asks.
“Nope,” Vincent replies, “if I remember correctly, he was so excited. I think he even said F1 has no idea what’s coming.”
“Lars, you weren’t like other debut drivers, and you know it,” I tell him, with a slight smile.
“They’re heading out,” Vin announces, and I sit back to watch the race.
Dave gets off the line smoothly, and by turn one, he has already made it up two places and is pushing hard, but the cars are all still tightly packed together. Everyone is vying for a place, wanting to make up ground.
“Those cars are close together,” Lars states. “He will need to keep his wits about him.”
“He will,” Vincent announces, but there is a tension in the room, and we all fall silent, we just need him to get around this bend, and he will be on a straightaway, where with some clean air, he can really make some headway.
The cars up front start to pull away from the pack as they head to turn three, but Dave is still stuck behind. I can tell that he’s trying to make gains when suddenly his car veers to the right, but he doesn’t correct the position of the car, he is heading straight for the Armco barriers.
We watch in horror as Dave’s car slams into the barriers and bursts into flames. We see a fireball of orange flaming into the sky, and suddenly Vincent’s arms are around me, as I scream David’s name.