Chapter 48
JACQUELINE
Married. I, Jacqueline Calhoun, was married.
After being engaged to Thomas for so many years and never even setting a date, I’d been convinced that I’d never walk down the aisle after all, and in a way, I’d been right. Because I’d chosen a man who hadn’t even wanted to wait for an aisle.
Jesse Westwood and I had been engaged for less than thirty minutes before we’d been pronounced as husband and wife, and right now, I didn’t even care that it wasn’t fully legal.
As I kissed my husband and lay down on my bed with him, I didn’t care about anything at all, other than the fact that this man, this incredible, unbelievable bloody man, was all mine.
Forever.
“I love you,” he whispered against my lips, one of his palms warm against my cheek. He pulled away to look at me. “I love you so fucking much, but I still can’t believe you said yes.”
“Neither can I,” I admitted past the lump of happy emotion in my throat. “I can’t believe you asked either, or that you made it happen quite that fast.”
“We waited long enough,” he murmured without even taking a beat to think about it. “God, Jacque. The very first time I saw you, I couldn’t think of anyone but you. If you think about it that way, it didn’t happen fast at all. I fell for you immediately.”
I smiled and ran my fingertip across his clean-shaven jaw, tears of joy pressing at the backs of my eyes. “I know you didn’t want to hear it before, but I really am sorry, Jesse.”
He pressed a kiss to my forehead, then trailed his lips to my temples, my eyelids, and dotted kisses across both of my cheeks. “I know you are, baby. That’s why I didn’t want to hear it. I’m sorry doesn’t get us anywhere. Only moving forward does. We’ve done that now.”
“We have.” I stared up into his eyes, then pulled him back to kiss his gorgeous, smart, and somehow also occasionally insightful mouth. “You really have changed my life.”
“Is it because of all the money you’ll get now?” he asked, deadpan, but I could see the sparkle of amusement in his eyes. “I would have given it all to you anyway, you know.”
I gave his shoulder a playful shove. “Don’t be daft. I don’t care about your money and you know it.”
“Right,” he said, nodding solemnly. “It’s my cock, isn’t it? That’s what you’re after.”
“Well, yes.” I grinned and kissed him again, wriggling slightly underneath him. “That’s one of the things, anyway. I would have included it in my vows, but your whole family was there.”
“It’s the biggest thing, though. Right?”
I laughed. “Of course.”
He smirked and pressed his lips back to mine, but instead of deepening the kiss, he frowned and ran his hands up and down my sides like he was searching for something. I arched an eyebrow at him. “What exactly are you after right now?”
“A way to get you out of this dress.”
“if you’re motivated enough, you’ll find a way.”
Mischief glinted in his eyes. “Tell you what, if you don’t tell me how to get you out of it, I’ll just make love to you in it. I can’t say that wasn’t the first thing that popped into my head when I saw you walk into that room earlier.”
“Really? So you weren’t having a little fantasy then of begging me to marry you?”
He snorted. “I had a fantasy, alright. There was begging too, but not for that. I could show you if you’d like, or I could make sweet, sweet love to you. If you have a candle around here somewhere, that is.”
“A candle, as in, a single one?”
He shrugged. “That’s romance, isn’t it? I could’ve sworn I saw flowers in the vase in your foyer, and if I know you, I’m pretty sure there’s chocolate in the fridge. As far as I know, that ticks all the boxes for the biggies. Candles, flowers, and chocolates.”
I laughed. “Only you, Jesse Westwood, I swear.”
Some of that humor faded from his eyes as he looked at me again, his expression softening more than I’d ever seen it. “That is what you wanted, right? Me?”
“Only you,” I confirmed quietly, kissing him until we were both breathless and panting. “Only you. Exactly as you are.”
“Prove it.”
I didn’t ask how I was supposed to do that. After spending so long apart and then getting married at the drop of a hat, I wasn’t in the mood to pretend. “Fine. Show me your fantasy, Jesse Westwood. We’ll have a wedding night unlike any other.”
“Of course, it’ll be unlike any other,” he murmured against my lips. “It’s ours, isn’t it?” He shot me a smile so real, the corners of his eyes crinkled with it. Then he groaned and rolled off me. “Wait, let me shut the door. I don’t want the dog seeing this.”
I laughed. “Good thinking.”
He jumped off the bed and strode across the room to the door, shutting it quietly but firmly, and I stifled a laugh when I noticed the tent in his slacks when he moved. He stayed near the door, arching an eyebrow at me and crossing his arms as his gaze met mine.
“Oh, you think this is funny, do you?”
I shook my head, but I couldn’t help the giggle that broke free anyway. “No, it’s just…”
His eyebrow lifted higher when I trailed off. “It’s just what?”
“It’s just so absurd,” I managed, finally just not holding it back anymore and doubling over with laughter. “We’re married now, but here we are, back at my apartment, softly closing the door so the dog doesn’t realize what we’re up to.”
He tried keeping a straight face, but the next thing I knew, he was chuckling too, his head shaking as he strode back to the bed.
For a second, I thought that maybe I’d ruined the mood, but instead, when he reached me, he took my hand and roughly pulled me back to my feet, stopping my laughter dead in its tracks.
“What’s happening right now?”
“It’s your turn,” he murmured, his voice suddenly low again as he slid in behind me and walked me toward the wall.
My breath caught just a second before I slammed into it, but his arm around my waist absorbed the impact. I dropped my forehead to the cool plaster, a shiver of desire already skating down my spine.
“My turn for what?”
“You saw how turned on I was and you laughed, so now, it’s your turn.
” He penned me in against the wall with his body flat against my back, grabbing my hands and extending them high above my head.
He wrapped his fingers around both of my wrists and let his other hand drop, hiking up my dress until he reached my panties.
“Let’s see if you still think it’s funny. ”
“That’s not what I thought was funny,” I whispered. “It was just what drove the point home.”
“Either way, it’s my turn to drive the point home now.”
“Pun intended?”
“Absolutely.”
He ran his fingertips along the waistband of my panties and my breathing hitched. I moaned when he slid his fingers down. As soon as they reached my slit, he groaned quietly against my ear, his heart slamming against my shoulder when he pushed me even closer to the wall.
“See, I knew you were going to be wet,” he murmured, his voice huskier than it’d been just a second ago. “I just didn’t know you were going to be this wet. Do you like fooling around with your husband, Mrs. Westwood?”
“I love it.”
A quiet, yet almost primal growl vibrated deep in his chest and I shivered. “Are you ever going to laugh at me again?”
“I wasn’t laughing at you. I—” I cut myself off when he started withdrawing his hand from my panties. I exhaled and nodded. “Honestly, I probably am, yes.”
“Good.” He surprised the ever-loving holy hell out of me when that hand pushed back down into my panties, one of his fingertips immediately finding my clit and putting me out of my aching misery.
“I never want you to stop laughing. At me. With me. Doesn’t matter.
This is who we are, Jacque. We’re always going to have fun. Fuck everyone else, right?”
“Right,” I managed to whimper, but sparks of pleasure were already shooting through me from the circles he was drawing around my sensitive clit. “Do you think we could fuck me first, though? You know, before we get to everyone else?”
He let out a throaty laugh against my ear, then turned his head to sink his teeth gently into my neck, nipping the skin lightly before he pressed a kiss to it to ease away the sting. “You really are something else, Jacqueline Westwood.”
It was strange, hearing my name like that and knowing that after all these years, when that last name had been either accidentally or reluctantly tacked to my first, it was true this time. I was Jacqueline Westwood now, but for real.
Not because of an adoption that’d happened nearly fifty years ago, but because Jesse had chosen me. He’d chosen to make me his wife. Out of his own free will. Hell, he hadn’t just chosen it. He’d insisted on making it happen right away.
He slid a finger into me while keeping up with those infuriating circles. I abandoned all pretense of thought and rocked my hips into his hand. Letting my head drop back against his shoulder, I surrendered to him completely, truly believing those words I’d said earlier.
He really was the friend of my soul, and not just in the traditional soulmate kind of way.
This went so much deeper. The Irish had a term for it, but it came down to the person being the one you could be your most innermost self with, without masks or pretension.
A non-judgmental bond where the souls of two people connected.
Jesse was all that for me and more, and when he pulled his hand away only to bend me over the armchair in my room and take me from behind, I knew that what he and I had truly transcended the ordinary. Together, we were one of a kind, two halves made whole.
Who else would have this for their wedding night?
I curled my fingers into the cushion of the chair and pushed back onto him, a loud moan escaping as my thoughts scattered all over again. He gripped my hips hard, moaning on every thrust and literally driving the point home in the best way possible.
Tomorrow, he and I would have to face the world. Either judgment or acceptance. Only just a few days ago, that would’ve scared the hell out of me, but not tonight.
Tonight, there was only the two of us, coming together over and over again, our bodies joining the same way our souls had already tangled. And to me, having to face the world suddenly wasn’t so scary anymore.
How could it be, knowing I would have Jesse right beside me when I did it?