Chapter 25 #2
Warmth spread through my chest and I instantly thought of Maggie.
Moments like these were always bittersweet for me – I knew in my heart that it was best for Willa to see me and Caleb as her parents and that it was what Maggie would have wanted, but I would’ve gladly played the role of doting uncle for the rest of my life if I’d had any kind of say in it.
Mav came next down the aisle. His best men accompanied him. Following closely behind the men were the ring bearers.
To say they stole the show was an understatement.
Jamie, the youngest of the three boys, was holding one of Matty’s hands.
In his other hand was the Spiderman doll.
In Matty’s free hand was a pillow with one of the rings tied to it.
Right behind Matty was his best friend, Leo.
Even if I hadn’t remembered him as Matty’s bestie, he was hard to forget because he was still wearing the Spiderman pajamas.
I had no clue what the significance of the outfit was, but I couldn’t help but notice how relieved little Leo’s fathers, who were sitting on the opposite side of the aisle from me, looked as they watched their boy make his way down the aisle, pillow with the second ring on it in one hand, Baby’s leash in the other.
Once the boys reached the front, they handed the pillows to the best men closest to them, then went and found their seats in the front row.
Mav and Eli couldn’t take their eyes off one another throughout the entire ceremony and both cried at different points as they spoke their vows to one another.
I felt myself choking up by the end, and when the two men were pronounced as husbands and kissed, I joined the rest of the guests as they got to their feet and cheered.
It took a good thirty minutes for the church to empty as the guests made their way to the hotel ballroom Dom and his husband, Logan, had rented for the occasion.
I was feeling pretty restless by the time Caleb made his way to me, but when I saw that he had Willa with him, I was able to relax.
It should have been frightening to think that being away from them both even for a couple of hours had been as stressful as it was, but I wasn’t going to make excuses for it. Willa and Caleb had literally become my entire world in a matter of weeks, and nothing and no one was going to change that.
“Hey,” Caleb said as he leaned in to kiss me.
“Look what I found,” he said as he gave Willa a little tickle.
The baby made the familiar gurgling sound she always made when she was happy.
One of Eli’s female relatives had surprised us with a beautiful white dress she’d made for the baby – something we’d both been grateful for, since we hadn’t even considered that the little girl should be dressed up for the occasion.
“They took her from me as soon as I walked in and wouldn’t give her back,” I whined. Caleb laughed and handed her to me. “Here you go, Papa,” he said.
I held Willa in one arm and wrapped the other around Caleb as we headed toward our car.
“It was a beautiful ceremony, wasn’t it?” he asked.
“It was,” I agreed. “Got me thinking about some stuff,” I admitted.
“Oh yeah?” Caleb asked, his eyes twinkling. “I might have been thinking about some stuff too. ”
“Hmm, interesting.”
“What do you say we compare notes tonight?” Caleb suggested.
“I say H-E-double-hockey-sticks yeah,” I responded.
Caleb laughed. “What do you say we do it in a suite at the hotel?”
I stopped and looked at him. He seemed suddenly nervous. “I, um, asked Mariana if she might want to babysit Willa tonight at Mav and Eli’s house, since they’re staying at the hotel tonight too. She said yes.”
Before I could respond, he rushed on. “I, um, think I’m ready to, um, you know…”
I did know.
And it was something I really wanted, but was more than willing to wait for.
Caleb and I had experimented some more with me using my finger on him, but that had been the extent of it.
Even whenever he begged me to fuck him in the throes of passion, I held back because I wasn’t about to take our first time together for granted.
And when Caleb was ready, he would need to tell me. I’d told him as much.
And now he was telling me as much.
“What do you think?” Caleb asked.
“I think we need to google what the minimum amount of time is that you have to attend a wedding reception for before you can sneak away.”
Caleb smiled wide and said, “You drive, I’ll google.”
Turned out that it was harder for a best man to sneak out of a wedding reception than the average guest. So I’d had to settle for dragging Caleb into alcoves and even the coat closet at one point to get things started and to remind him to hurry his ass up.
It was on our second trip to the coat closet that we found the opportunity we needed to get permission to check out early.
But only because the coat closet was already taken.
By the very men we’d been about to plead our case to .
There’d been no need to tell Mav and Eli that I had a headache after the men had literally tumbled out of the closet when I’d pulled the door open.
With Eli’s pants undone and Mav’s long hair pulled free of his hair tie and his bowtie askew, it had been a simple matter of Caleb and I agreeing to stall Dom, who was searching the ballroom for his son so he could start the speeches, for ten minutes.
By buying the horny grooms those minutes, we’d been rewarded with permission to ditch the festivities early.
We’d said our goodbyes to both men once they’d returned to the ballroom looking flushed and very, very satisfied, then we’d headed for the elevator.
We’d also said our goodbyes to Mariana and told her we’d check in with her later in the evening.
Aleks had offered to take Willa home to Magnus and Dante’s house until Mariana picked her up.
I suspected it was as much to escape the party as it was to help us and Mariana out.
I couldn’t keep my hands off Caleb once the elevator doors closed us off from prying eyes.
Fortunately, the elevator didn’t make any stops, but we ended up giving some people waiting on our floor a bit of a show before we realized the elevator had stopped.
Luckily, the older couple seemed more amused than anything else.
By the time we reached our room, Caleb was already working my jacket off my shoulders.
As badly as I wanted to fuck him right there up against the door, I managed to get control of my raging need.
I pinned him to the door and held him in place long enough to ease him back from his desire a few notches.
When we next separated, we were both breathing hard, but my libido was back in check.
“Are you sure, baby?” I asked as I threaded my fingers through his hair.
“Yes,” he said. “I’ve always trusted you, Jace. That was never the problem. I finally trust me . Even if I have a moment where the past tries to take this from us, I trust myself to get us past it. And if I can’t do it, I trust myself to tell you, instead of trying to deny what I’m feeling.”
I kissed him gently. “So proud of you, Caleb. I knew you’d see what I and everyone else see.”
“I’m starting to,” he said softly .
I took his hand and kissed it, then led him to the bedroom.
The suite was extravagant, but in truth, I would have been just as happy to be back on Dalton’s boat in the too-small bed.
I stopped by the huge bed, but didn’t lower Caleb on it.
Instead, I began kissing him again. I took my time worshipping his body, careful not to take him too close to the edge.
I knew there was probably a part of him that wanted to get the whole thing over with, just to prove to himself he could, but to me, he was a virgin, and I was going to make sure that his first time taking a man inside him was as memorable as he’d made the experience for me.
By the time I urged Caleb to lie down on the bed, he was shaking, but I knew it wasn’t with fear.
I urged him on his stomach and then lavished attention on his back.
There wasn’t a single part of him that I left unexplored.
He was whimpering and grunting with nearly every caress of my tongue, but it wasn’t until my tongue found his hole that he began calling out my name.
It would hopefully be the first of many times he did that as I finally made him mine in every way.