39. Matheus
The newly married couple kiss under the flowery arch.
We clap, cheer, and whistle while André jumps to his feet and hugs the two of them.
There’s a lot of noise for such a small group of people. All of it coming from us. But not Dani.
She looks distant and a little too hasty to take her hand back now we’re standing.
“Here!” India tosses a few pouches at us. “Throw confetti at them.”
As the newlyweds walk past us, we chuck fistfuls of tiny petals, littering the floor and catching in their hair.
Although Dani takes part, I get the feeling she’s just going through motions. Maybe she’d rather be anywhere else other than here?
Well, that hurts.
Rather than hang around to talk to my siblings, I grab her wrist and pull her outside, dodging Tomás on my way past.
“What’s wrong?” Dani demands.
“You tell me?”
“What do you mean?”
I don’t answer until after we’ve descended a wooden staircase together, rejoined the thick humidity, and took a covered walkway taking us deeper into the jungle. The earthy atmosphere sticks to my skin and clings to my shirt.
I like it here, but fuck, I like it better when I’m indoors with cool air conditioning.
My pulse is thundering in my ears and the crazy fucking insects won’t shut up. Yanking my tie, I stretch the muscles in my neck.
I’m not sure what’s going on with her, but I sense something isn’t quite right.
“Tell me what you’re thinking, Dani. Your head isn’t here with us or me. Where is it?”
She twists the band on her finger and stands frozen, as if hesitant.
Impatient, I crowd her and set my hands on her shoulders.
“When you agreed to marry me, you agreed to full disclosure too. It’s all or nothing. That means telling me what happened in the cabana to make you so?—”
“Scared,” she whispers, interrupting. “I’m scared you want to be a father.”
Her eyes drop and her lip trembles, a rare moment of vulnerability that really fucking slays me.
Tears well in her pretty eyes and she sucks in a shaky breath.
She inches back, but I step into her, not allowing distance between us.
“Dani.” I thread my fingers through her soft hair. “Kids aren’t a priority at the minute. Maybe in a few years, once I’ve enjoyed my wife?—”
“That’s the thing,” she cuts me off. “What if I don’t want to have kids? I can’t marry you if it means your life would be incomplete.”
“Wow.” I shake my head. “Not even twenty-four hours later and you’re pulling the plug, huh?”
Her hands fly to her face, and she hides herself from me.
“Don’t,” I warn, forcing her hands lower and revealing her big teary eyes.
I sigh and thumb her tears away. “Look, do you want to get married?”
She rolls her eyes and grunts. “For such a smart guy, you sure ask stupid questions. I said yes, didn’t I? But I’ve never been in this situation before. It never occurred to me that we should check our life goals.”
“Right, and you know I’ve never been in a serious relationship, either. We’re both learning as we go.”
Dani shrugs. “So, what do we do?”
“We love each other until the day we die.”
She snorts and palms her face. “Ugh, I forgot how cheesy you are.”
I laugh. “Okay, how about we fuck until we can’t fuck no more?”
Dani chuckles too, but then it fades and her nose wrinkles as she thinks.
“Seriously, Mat. I’m not maternal. My life choices involve suppressed handguns, nifty daggers, and living targets.”
“Were they really choices, though? Or were they the only options available to you?”
She frowns. “I—I—I know what you’re trying to say, but…”
I press my forehead to hers and fix my palms on either side of her head.
“Maybe you never had the opportunity to dream. To consider the possibilities of a different life. I’m not saying you should change. I just want you to know you can have whatever you want, Dani.”
“I want to be yours,” she whispers.
I close my eyes and take a deep, heavy breath.
“What if you took some time alone to think about what your future could look like with me…how you’d like it to look?”
Her hands settle on my lapels. “What about you? What do you want, Mat?”
“I just want to be happy, Dani. And you give me that feeling.”
“Okay.” She nods and wipes her eyes. “I should go.”
“Go?” I balk. “You’re not leaving.”
“No, smartass. I”m not leaving. I’m taking you up on your offer of being alone. I’ll head back to the treehouse and strip out of this fancy dress. While I run the water to fill the big bathtub, I’ll open a bottle of champagne…” she smirks. “And touch myself, on the bed.”
My lips twitch as my dick grows full and hard.
She’s fucking killing me.
“That’s what I get for trying to be the nice guy.”
“Oh, but there’s one other thing I’ll need while I’m completely alone and naked in the wilderness.”
She chews the corner of her bottom lip.
“Oh yeah. And what’s that, little firecracker?”
“You, smartass.” On her tiptoes, Dani’s mouth lingers on mine, our lips lightly touching. “I want to be alone with you, so we can imagine what our future together should look like.”
I kiss her, hard and hungry. My hands fist her hair, and her body rubs against me, so warm. I could rip our clothes off where we stand.
“Thank you,” she breathes out the words.
“For?”
“For being you. And for making me believe anything is possible.”
“You deserve the best of everything, baby. A husband who adores you, a happy home, and a family who’ll always have your back. I’ll be all that for you and more.”
Our surroundings fade and my blood turns to liquid fire when she whimpers. This woman is fucking edible.
We ignore the wedding celebration in the distance and get lost in touching each other.
Just the two of us.
I shove her against a mossy tree trunk, fist her skirt, and drag it to her waist, ripping her tiny lacy panties off.
“Matheus,” she begs, her voice a whisper beside my ear. “I want to give you the world.”
I unbuckle my belt, open my zipper, and fist my dick, groaning. She’s pinned to the bark, exactly where I want her. I claw at her bare legs and squeeze her thigh before lifting it high.
She hooks her knee around my hip and cries out when I drive up and in, shivering at the sensation of her warmth.
“You are my world, Dani,” I tell her between kisses.
In response, she holds on tight and rolls her hips. We surrender to this powerful emotion called love, unsure what our future holds but confident we’ll ride it out together…forever.
The End.