20. Ember
TWENTY
EMBER
Filing the wedding certificate was the work of a few minutes.
We did the paperwork and then stepped out onto the steps outside Town Hall.
Trees shed their leaves in the strong breeze.
I inhaled the briny scent of the sea and looked around at the shabby but cute town that hugged the coastline.
A place that had felt wild and unfamiliar, and now felt like home.
I didn’t want to leave. I hugged my wool jacket around myself as a gust of wind blasted into me, promising a cold winter.
Even as I shivered, my legs only covered with sheer tights and my favorite burgundy pencil skirt, I couldn’t make myself want to move somewhere warmer.
I’d take a bitter winter. I’d take stormy seas and downed trees.
I’d take anything, because Marswood Harbor was where I wanted to be.
No—that wasn’t quite accurate. I wanted to be where Jack and Darby were, and the fact that he was in this beautiful, wild, windy town was just a happy bonus.
Then I turned and blinked. Jack was gone. No—not gone. He was down on one knee, and he was holding something sparkly.
His gaze was soft, and his lips were curled into a smile. “I saw the way you looked when you picked it up at Ivan’s shop,” he said, tilting a little velvet box toward me.
I realized it was the ring. The cluster ring with a round diamond in the center and about ten stones surrounding it. The one that had made my heart squeeze.
“What—when—?”
“I went back that afternoon,” Jack admitted, taking my left hand and slipping the ring onto it. It fit.
My heart was a hard ball. I stared and stared and stared. I’d never thought of myself as vain. I’d never imagined that I would be swept up in something as frivolous as a bit of metal and stone on my finger. I was practical, and reasonable, and logical.
And yet.
Looking at my hand bearing my two new rings, I felt like someone different. I felt like a woman worthy of being married, someone who had been chosen, someone who was loved. It was right there on my finger for anyone to see.
I wasn’t the off-putting, dry, unwanted thirty-year-old who was too boring to bag a man. With this ring, I was the wife of a man as beautiful, charming, clever, and funny as Jack.
He’d spent so much money on this. And he’d done it after we’d only known each other one single day. This meant that from the start, he felt… He wanted…
I met his gaze, dizzy. “I can’t,” I whispered.
“You can,” he whispered back.
“It’s too much.”
His thumb stroked the edge of my hand, all the way down to my wrist. “I want you to wear it.”
“It’s too expensive.” My voice was a croak.
Jack stood. The light touch of his finger on my chin made me glance away from the ring and into the blue of his eyes.
“Ember,” he murmured. “I want you to have it. I want you to wear it every day. Everywhere. It’s not too expensive.
It’s not too much. If I could, I would have you dripping in precious stones, because that’s how much you’re worth to me. ”
Inhaling, I couldn’t ignore the way his words made my body tighten. The way that light touch on my chin made me burn for him. “I don’t understand.”
His smile was so tender I felt something crack in the center of my chest. “You will,” he promised. He caught my hand and pressed a kiss to my fingers. I watched him, my gaze snagging on my new ring.
The stones were brilliant in the slanting sunshine. I couldn’t stop staring at them.
A large, warm hand closed over mine, and Jack tugged me closer.
His other arm wrapped around my back, and he threaded his fingers through mine before kissing my palm, just above my new rings.
Then he moved my hand to his jaw and held my wrist, his thumb stroking the bottom of the rings against my palm.
His eyes were soft, warm, and utterly beguiling. I could look at nothing else but him.
“That was silly,” I told him. “So much money for just a ring.”
“I liked the way you looked when you saw it.” He smiled, and it felt like my whole world was contained in the curve of his lips.
“How did I look when I saw it?”
“Kind of like the way you’re looking at me right now.”
I sniffed, but couldn’t bring myself to pull away.
Jack’s smile widened, and before I could come up with something appropriately biting to say, he dipped his head and kissed me.
It was the kind of kiss that set me alight.
The kind of kiss that should only happen behind closed doors.
He crushed me to him, deepening the kiss, and I held on like he was my life raft in a stormy sea.
Somehow, we made it to the car. I kept staring at my ring, because apparently shiny rocks made my brain stop working.
Shiny rocks and what they meant: that Jack cared about me enough to buy it.
That he’d noticed a fleeting look on my face and taken note.
That he’d waited weeks, knowing he had the ring, for the perfect moment to give it to me.
My heart was so big it crowded out my lungs. We pulled into the garage and Jack cut the engine. He looked at me, his eyes dark. “We’re married now,” he said.
I nodded.
“Officially.”
My chin dipped again. My mouth had gone dry.
Jack reached over, sliding his fingers along my jaw. His thumb pressed against my lips, rubbing softly. “That means you’re my wife.”
The word made my heart trip over. I parted my lips on an exhale, nodding.
Jack’s eyes were very dark as they stared at my mouth. “Does my wife want me to fuck her? Show her who she belongs to?”
Heat rushed through me. My throat was a mass of tightness. All I could do was nod again.
Jack grunted, his thumb still rubbing my mouth. Then, unhurriedly, he got out of the car while I fumbled with my seatbelt. Then he was there, pulling the door open, scooping me out of the passenger seat. He carried me to the side door and only set me down long enough to unlock it.
When he carried me over the threshold, bride-style, I couldn’t help the smile that stretched my lips. I’d come here thinking I’d find someone to sign a contract that meant we both got paid. By now, I’d be packing my bags and planning to leave.
I hadn’t expected to find a man who made me feel cherished. Who called me his wife like he meant it. Who carried me through the house that felt like a home. Like my home.
He climbed the steps, carrying me like I weighed nothing. I clung to his shoulders, breath speeding up, knowing that something had changed when we’d filed that certificate.
It was legal now; I was his wife. We were married in the eyes of the law. Yes, we could add to the almost fifty percent of marriages that ended in divorce. All we had to do was follow our plan.
But I didn’t want that.
I wanted Jack, and Darby, and the rest of the Mars family.
I wanted to build this town back up to something beautiful.
I wanted evenings on the sofa and weekends spent hunting through estate sales.
I wanted everything, and the way Jack looked at me right now made me feel like he wanted to give it to me.
He set me down on the rug in his bedroom and flicked the door closed. We stripped off our jackets and shoes and left them in a pile on the floor. I couldn’t stop staring at Jack. My husband. The man I’d fallen in love with.
He watched me with ocean-blue eyes as he unclasped his watch and tossed it onto the top of the dresser. He reached behind his head and tugged off his sweater and T-shirt in one movement, revealing a broad chest and acres of golden skin. He was so beautiful, and he was all mine.
I fumbled with the buttons of my pale pink blouse. It was tucked into my skirt, so I yanked it out to get at the rest of the buttons. My hands shook. The diamonds on my finger glinted as I undid the last button and let my shirt drop to the floor.
Before I could reach behind me to unclasp my bra, Jack caught my left hand. His eyes roamed over my body, drinking me in. I’d never felt so beautiful.
“From the moment you walked into the room on that first day, I’ve been imagining you on your knees in front of me dressed just like this.” His voice was a low rumble that sent shivers rolling through my middle.
My heart began to thump. “You really like the pencil skirts, huh.”
“I like you in the pencil skirts,” he corrected. “I like you looking all prim and proper, buttoned up so tight. A present for me to unwrap.”
He pulled on my hand, placing my palm on his chest. My ring winked in the light of the bedroom as Jack slid his hand up my side and over my blush lace bra.
“I like the thought of unraveling you. Of making you beg on your knees for me. Of feeding you my cock until your eyes are glazed over and the only thing you know is that you belong to me. I like the thought of that impressive brain of yours going silent because all you can think about is me.”
Oh, if only he knew.
I slid my hand up his chest and traced the bottom edge of his stubble. My pulse pounded between my legs. I wondered if I could orgasm just from him saying those dirty things to me. Part of me wanted to try.
Then I met his gaze, and I saw his lips curl into a soft smile. “You like your ring, baby?”
I swallowed. Nodded.
He exhaled, hand coming up to stroke my cheek. He pressed a kiss to my forehead, reverent. Worshipful. Then he looked in my eyes and said, “So get on your knees and thank me properly.”
Even though he said it with utmost confidence, ordering me around like it was his right, I still caught the surprise flashing in his eyes when my knees hit the rug. With my palms on his thighs, I felt the power coiled in his body. The aching, pulsing need that he felt.
For me.
I did that to him. I knew it, all the way down to my marrow, even though it didn’t make any sense to me. But it was the sight of me kneeling in front of him that made him tremble, that made his hands fumble with his belt as he hurried to unfasten it.
I’d never felt so beautiful and so powerful in my entire life.
JACK