Chapter 22 Sean #2
‘Okay. I guess it’s good publicity.’ Sean had to think of the bigger picture.
Money for charity. To help people like his dad.
He began to hit the ball on autopilot, trying hard to focus on everything that was going on.
His wife’s body, how much he didn’t want that annulment form posted, his wife’s body.
‘Hot, isn’t it?’ Cherry swiped her hand across her forehead.
‘Pretty hot. Guess I’d better get used to it since it’s going to be way more sweltering in Tennessee.’ He hit the perfect serve, but she missed it. ‘You okay?’
‘What?’ Cherry’s cheeks flushed rose again, and he thought she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
‘You’re not overheating, are you?’ He batted to her gently. ‘Need a drink? A wee lie-down?’
‘No, I don’t need a wee lie-down.’ Cherry swung hard.
‘You can always lie in my room if you’re more comfortable there. Hold my pillow.’
‘Shut the front door, Butler!’ She laughed, hitting the ball so badly that it flew upward and the rope tangled. Sean watched as she tried to undo her work.
‘Need a hand there?’ He reached for the rope, their hands overlapping – his large and rough, hers small and soft, clear pink gloss on the nails.
‘It’s fine. I can manage.’ Their fingertips touched in a rare, electric moment.
‘I know you can. Doesn’t mean I can’t help you.’
‘Yes, yes. Let’s play.’ Cherry unwound the cord and stepped back.
‘You know, it’s okay if you’re bothered about stuff,’ Sean said. ‘About annulling the marriage, me going to Tennessee. It’s okay to admit you don’t want either of those things.’
‘Don’t make this more difficult, Sean, please.’ She lifted her cap and adjusted her ponytail. He took the moment to reassert his feelings.
‘For the record, I don’t want either of those things half as much as I want to stay here and be married to you.’
Cherry held her hands at the back of her head, allowing his words to hit her, until the ponytail slowly dropped back down, swinging in the wake of his honesty. ‘That’s an incredible sentiment, but what am I meant to do? Ask you to give it all up for a car crash of a wife?’
‘Yes, that would be the perfect thing to ask.’
Up went one indignant eyebrow.
‘You said you were a car crash. I was agreeing to the “giving it up” bit.’
She pouted. ‘Just serve, Butler!’
He stepped back. ‘Fine.’
They volleyed in silence for a while, the repetitive thwack of the tennis ball against the hard plastic bats giving a steady rhythm.
The sun beat down, turning the garden game onerous.
After a time, bored with the quiet and hoping to break the tension, Sean asked, ‘Have you seen the hungry pussy today?’
Cherry laughed and missed the ball. Her smile lit up her entire face; he could watch it all day.
‘Sorry, did that put you off your game?’
‘You know it did.’
‘So sorry.’
‘You know you aren’t.’
‘Aye, true. But have you seen the cat?’
Cherry looked around the garden and then back to Sean. ‘No,’ she said, licking sweat off her top lip.
‘Must be sheltering in the shade somewhere. It’s bloody hot.’ He took off his t-shirt and cast it to the side, caught Cherry’s eyes widening as he did so, and a thrill cut through him.
‘You’re okay if I take my top off in my own garden, right?’
‘Yep, all good. Stop trying to put me off my game with your salacious shenanigans. I’ve seen half-naked men before, you know – including you.’
‘Fine. C’mon then.’ Sean pelted the ball. Cherry smashed it back to him with equal force. Again, they lapsed into quiet, the only sounds the thud of the ball against their bats and the sharp, syncopated rhythm of their breathing. Eventually, Sean hit a volley that Cherry missed.
‘Game, set, match, Butler!’ He threw his bat in the air; it spun back down, and he caught it one-handed.
‘Such a gracious winner.’ With a small bow, Cherry tipped her baseball cap at him before sticking her tongue out, throwing her bat on the ground and strutting away in an affected huff, her perfectly round arse wiggling inside her ‘gardening’ shorts, so tight they should be outlawed.
He went after her, stopping her with the simple motion of sweeping his arms around her waist. ‘Where do you think you’re going, Paradise? Stay and worship the champion.’
‘No way.’ Cherry wriggled with admirable effort, her laughter holding her back. Sean lifted her off the ground, spun her around to face the way they’d come.
‘Get back there and kiss my bat, woman.’
‘Never! I will never kiss your bat.’ Her laughter pealed around the garden. It was music to Sean’s ears to hear her happy. ‘Let me down, Butler. I command it.’
‘Command all you like. I’m going to need a promise about my bat?’
‘Okay, okay, I’ll kiss your bat.’
‘Alright then.’ He lowered her to the ground. In one motion, she spun round, giving him the finger before taking off down the garden, lifting his bat and throwing it to the side.
‘You wee minx.’ He ran after her, catching her again, but she was already on her way down, having not recovered from lifting the bat. This time they fell to the ground together, Sean landing on top of her, his heart thundering next to hers.
‘Sorry,’ he said.
‘You sound so sincere.’
‘I am sincere. I wouldn’t want to put either of us in a position where we might be at risk of committing perjury.’
‘Right, yes, perjury.’ Her voice trailed off, but she wasn’t thinking about the finer points of the law; he could see that.
‘Because committing perjury is the last thing either of us wants, right?’ Sean, leaning on one hand, raked the other through his hair. He could use a shower. One with the woman who was underneath him would suit him down to the ground. Although, flirting with her was also fun.
‘Do you want me to get up?’ he asked.
‘Maybe.’ With a small wriggle, Cherry made a vain attempt at movement, like having him on top of her was far more pleasurable. He was with her on that one.
‘You know, Cherry, it’s okay to want this. I am your husband.’ He eased her cap off, laid it to the side and trailed a thumb across her cheek. Her skin was warm and glowing from the heat. ‘You’re allowed to enjoy being touched by me.’
She stared up at him, that delectable cleavage heaving, small beads of perspiration between her breasts, his chest mirroring the action back to her.
‘You want this?’ he asked. Say yes, woman. For the love of God, say yes.
A shake of the head. ‘No.’
But her eyes were roaming all over him – his hair, mouth, chest, down to the place where their bodies were flush. She shifted her hips.
‘Do you want up?’ Sean sat back, lifted his own hips to let her go. But Cherry didn’t move, only stared at him, so he lowered himself down again, leaning over her again, hot breaths mingling.
‘You know what I think, Cher?’
‘What?’ She blinked up at him.
‘I think fuck perjury. No one will ever know. And if they do, I’ll gladly pay for a divorce just to have this with you for one afternoon, because the idea of never knowing what it’s like to touch you, to be inside you, to fuck my beautiful wife, is unbearable.’
Her nod was reflexive. She got it. Understood. Struggled with the oppressive weight of trying to resist as much as he did.
‘But you know what’s more unbearable?’ Sean continued.
‘The thought that you aren’t letting yourself have what you want now because of some fear of the future.
Live for now. You deserve to be loved and fucked by the man you married…
to scream down the walls while he’s deep inside you, living for every moan and whimper you make.
Because that’s what I want, and I know it’s what you want.
’ Sean dipped his head and kissed the soft curve of her collarbone, where the scent of honeysuckle lit a fire inside him.
‘Of course, you can correct me if I’m wrong… ’
A tiny moan escaped Cherry’s throat – her body wanted this, even if her mind fought against it. How he longed for her to let go. For both their sakes.
‘I’m still scared, Sean.’
‘Of what?’
‘Of hurting you. Leaving you with nothing. It’s so hard to shake.’
Pain was etched on her face. He reached for her hand, and she let him. He wished he could do more than this, promise it would all be okay. Give her exactly what she wanted. But all he had was his words.
Four of them.
‘I only want you.’
Tears spilled into Cherry’s eyes. ‘But what if you stop wanting me…?’
Sean shook his head. ‘This only happens once in a lifetime, Cher. And it’s forever.’ He found her hand with his. ‘No matter what happens, I hope you never go through that pain again. But if you do, then let it be with me, because I don’t trust anyone else to look after you like I can. Okay?’
Those brilliant blue irises searched his face for reassurance that he meant this, that she could believe. She truly could. He had never meant anything more in his life.
And finally, she said the words – a vulnerability so tangible he knew he would do nothing but honour it, forever.
‘Okay,’ she whispered. ‘Okay.’
‘You sure?’
‘Yes.’
Sean lowered his mouth to Cherry’s. For a fragment of time, he stopped and waited there, giving them both a moment to understand this. The implications.
She took the moment. Breathed and waited. For him to kiss her.
So he did.
In a response Sean was only half expecting, Cherry kissed him back, tentative for a split second then with a hunger she seemed barely able to contain, her hands sliding up over his neck, into his hair, grasping the strands, moaning into him like she’d been waiting for him her whole life.
And he got it, because if they were about to do what he hoped they were, then this was everything. At last, this was everything. Everything their marriage should be.
He boxed her in with his elbows. Showing what he could give her.
Strength. Safety. Belonging.
And a tightness straining inside his jeans that desperately needed release.
Cherry’s small body was fierce and hot under his, but also so soft, underscoring her vulnerability.
This was a woman of such stark contrasts, so impossible yet so lovable.
Nothing made Sean feel the way she did. Every yes, every no, every come, every go, every night spent on the opposite side of the wall from her, his hand moving in frantic rhythm, thinking only of his wife, made being with her now, at last, all the more mind-blowing.
It had been a rollercoaster, but Sean wouldn’t have had it any other way.
‘God, Cherry.’ Lifting away from the kiss, he touched his forehead to hers, words hot like the perspiration that glittered on both their brows. ‘Let me fuck you. Let me show you how I fuck my wife.’
‘Seany, Seany, as long as you fuck like you kiss,’ she murmured as if half intoxicated, draping her arms around his neck, legs curving across his back, drawing him down to her again.
She was no match for him in strength, but Sean wasn’t fighting this, not for one second.