Chapter 26
Declan
Daylight streams through the hotel curtains, and the first thing I think as I force my eyes open is ‘fuck.’”
The images of yesterday and last night come flooding back into my memory, and I screw my eyes shut and open them again, just to make sure they’re real.
I turn to the woman next to me, and she’s a vision covered in white.
Penny lies on her stomach, and the pretty little yellow diamond on her left hand catches the light.
I check the clock, and it’s only eight in the morning; Penny should be passed out for the next few hours.
I gently pry the ring off her finger and get up to put it in a safe place.
I’m not sure how much she’s going to remember from last night, but I’m hoping the last hour before we came back to the hotel is a blur to her.
Every moment from the second I fucked her bare in the conference room to the minute I said I do was beyond reckless.
Should I be worried that we went from zero to sixty that fast? Probably. But everything that transpired also felt right, and I don’t regret it one bit.
I decide I should probably shower off the events of yesterday and head to the bathroom.
I turn the water to scorching and brush my teeth while it gets to temp.
Penny’s going to be so pissed when she wakes up, that’s why I’m hoping she doesn’t remember.
Unfortunately for her, there’s one part of the night that she’ll forever have evidence of.
When Ky told me yesterday that if I don’t marry her, he will, it lit a fire in me that made me see my whole future flash before my eyes.
I saw Penny and Autumn, a house, babies, surf sessions with her dad; you name it, I saw it.
I also envisioned a life where Penny was with someone else.
Someone who wasn’t me. And it made me feel sick inside.
So, last night after we won five grand on a slot machine, and I tattooed Penny using Ky’s equipment, I made a little suggestion.
But it wasn’t so little. It was big.
Steam fills the room, letting me know the shower is hot, and right before I climb in, the door swings wide and a naked Penny stands before me.
“We got married last night, didn’t we?”
I stare at her for a beat before nodding once.
Penny then lifts her arm. “And you gave me a tattoo.” The small bouquet of flowers I tattooed sits pretty on the inside of her forearm.
There’s a Snowdrop, Hawthorn, and Sunflower.
The Snowdrop is for Autumn’s birthday, the Hawthorn is for Penny’s, and the sunflower is an exact match for the one on my throat.
It was like I was possessed yesterday and couldn’t stop from marking her as mine in any and every way possible.
“What the actual fuck were we thinking?! And you came inside me without protection like five times yesterday, Declan. Do you know the implications of that? We’re going to have to get a divorce.
I’m going to be a divorcee before I’m even twenty-five.
Fucking hell. No one is going to want me after this. ”
She’s freaking out. I would laugh at her if I knew she wouldn’t strangle me, but I’m pretty sure she’s on the verge of a nervous breakdown, so I keep my mouth shut.
“Declan! Do you have anything to say?” She throws her hands out to the sides, and her eyebrows hit her forehead.
I grab her hand and bring her toward the shower, reaching inside to turn the temperature down, and then say, “Shower first, talk second.”
She lets out a breath but doesn’t argue. She grabs her toothbrush and puts a dollop of toothpaste on it, and then climbs under the warm spray with me, brushing her teeth with anxiousness in her eyes.
I let her rinse her mouth out and then take the toothbrush from her and throw it on the counter from the shower. “Turn around,” I say softly.
I grab the hotel shampoo and lather Penny’s hair, making sure it’s saturated and clean before she rinses the bubbles out.
I then grab the soap and knead her shoulders and skim my hands down her whole body, thoroughly cleaning her tight little nipples and her perfect little cunt.
I dip my fingers between her ass cheeks too, rubbing the tight little ring, enticing a moan from her.
“We are not getting a divorce, Penny,” I tell her as I massage her ass cheeks.
She leans her head back against my shoulder. “An annulment. Whatever,” she breathes out.
“We’re getting neither. Or did I not make myself clear enough yesterday? Our vows said, ‘Until death do us part.’ So, unless you kill me, we’re staying married.”
I move my hands to the front of her body, resting my dick in her crack and kneading her breasts.
“You’re crazy, Declan. You don’t want this.”
“Don’t tell me what I do and don’t want.” I move my fingers down to her entrance and shove three in at once. “I’m going to come inside your pussy again and again and again. Get used to it, Penny.”
“Oh fuck,” she moans.
I thrust my fingers inside of her, hoping the pleasure blinds her enough to agree with me; otherwise, I’m going to have to work really hard at trying to convince her to stay married.
I work her over until she explodes on my hand, leaving me pent up and hard as stone. It’s not about me right now, though. I need her on my side.
“What are we doing, Declan?” she pants as she comes down from the high of her orgasm, her legs shaking from her release.
I gently pull my fingers from her heat and turn her around. “Let’s get dried off and dressed, and we’ll talk about it.”
She nods her head, and I internally let out a sigh of relief. Once we’re done in the shower, I dress back into the clothes I was wearing yesterday, and Penny throws on a long, flowy robin's blue dress that brings out the color of her eyes.
“First off,” she declares, “we’re getting an emergency contraceptive when we get home.
We can’t be fooling around like this and risk getting pregnant.
You’re just going to resent me. You don’t want kids, and I’m going to respect that.
Second, we are getting an annulment because Declan,” she looks at me with wide eyes, “you said, point blank, that you don’t want kids and could never be with me.
So, I don’t know why all of a sudden, you’re so gung-ho about staying married.
Autumn is going to call you dad, and you don’t want that, remember? ”
I put my hand up to stop her. “Hold on. You don’t know what I want anymore.” I move into her space and cradle her head in my hands. “I’m not going to resent you, I promise. And we’re going to figure this out, okay?”
“Everyone is going to freak out. Autumn especially. She’s going to ask you if you love me, and what are we supposed to say?”
I search her eyes and ask, “Do you not remember what I told you last night?” She swallows hard and looks away.
“Look at me, Penny.” When her eyes finally come back to mine, I say, “I told you that you’re the love of my life.
That I want to be with you for the rest of our lives, until death do us part.
And that doesn’t just include you. That includes Autumn, too.
I fell in love with that little girl so hard and fast that I didn’t think I knew what hit me.
When I said those things on Christmas, it was because I was afraid.
But, over the past few months, my world lit up, and all I could think about was how I never wanted to lose you two from my life. Are you hearing me?”
A stray tear falls from her cheek, and I wipe it away with my thumb.
In the mess that was yesterday, I told her that I loved her when we were up at the altar, getting married by a guy in a powder blue suit.
And when she looked at me while I said those words, she did the same thing she’s doing now. She cried.
“What did you say back to me, Penny? I want to hear it.”
She bites her bottom lip and then opens her mouth to speak. “I told you that I loved you from the moment I laid eyes on you.”
My heart leaps in my chest, just like it did last night, and I smile down at her. “That’s right. And what else?”
She swallows. “I told you that you’re my best friend and I can’t imagine life without you either. That you’re the most beautiful man on the inside and out that I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing, and I want a house full of babies and to grow old with you.”
This time, tears are flowing freely from her eyes, and I pull her into a tight embrace so she can sob onto my shoulder.
“How did we get here, Declan? We should be taking things slow, getting our feet on the ground before we do something as reckless as getting married and having sex without protection. How do I know you aren’t going to have second thoughts a week or a month from now?”
I hold her head against me with my hand and rub circles on her upper back with the other. “Because. Do you want to know what I thought about the first and second time we had sex?” I ask her.
She pulls back slightly so she can look me in the eyes. “What?”
“I thought about you, pregnant with Autumn. And I got jealous. I got jealous because I wanted her to be mine. I wanted the marks on your stomach to show that you were round with my child, not some douchebags who left you high and dry. But I guess I should be thanking the guy because if he had taken you as his, then you and Autumn wouldn’t be mine right now. ”
Her eyes are wide with shock, and my heart is racing.
There have been so many moments in our friendship that have been so unfriend-like on my part.
If Penny only knew the half of it, I would come off as a walking red flag.
To be honest, I should probably get some professional help because I’m not sure I haven’t gone completely crazy anyway.
We’ve known each other for six, almost seven months now, and we fucking got married last night.
I’ve never done anything so crazy in my life, but at the same time, I’ve never felt more at peace with my decision either.
Do we have a lot to figure out once we get back to Daybreak?
Yes. But as long as Penny is willing to work with me and not against me, we can figure it out one step at a time.