Chapter 22
Will
So that fucking happened. Clarke’s absent father from hell stormed into our apartment and promised to destroy my career. My body shook from anger and nervous energy.
“We’re getting hit from all ends,” she groaned. “But we have to stay strong. Sell this to everyone we know. If they buy it, so will other people.”
“It’s not fake anymore, not for me. I want to marry you, Clarke. After years of going back and forth with you, I can’t imagine being married to anyone else.”
She pressed her lips together and rocked back and forth on her heels, one of her unusual nervous ticks. Was this something she did from childhood that carried over into adulthood?
“What do you say?” I brushed a strand of hair from her face and rubbed her cheek. “You ready to give us a real shot?”
She considered my words for a moment and nodded. “Yeah, let’s do this. But if you hurt me, I will cut off your balls and feed them to you.”
I laughed. “Okay, killer. It won’t come to that.”
“I have a hard time trusting people for obvious reasons.”
“We’ll work on those trust issues.”
She slid her hands up my chest and hooked her arms around my neck. Clarke stood on the balls of her feet and reached up to kiss my lips.
“When I’m this amped up,” I muttered against her lips, “I either need to fuck or run.”
I slid my hand beneath her shirt, tugging her pants down. She kissed me, but I could feel her hesitation and stopped trying to undress her.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m not in the mood,” she confessed. “Sorry, I can’t. My dad’s stuck in my head right now. It wouldn’t be fair to you.”
“Then I’m going for a run. I have to blow off some steam.”
“What about the meatloaf?”
“It will be ready in an hour.”
As I turned away from her, she tugged on my wrist. “I’m coming with you. Let me change into shorts.”
Clarke entered the bedroom and came out a minute later, dressed in black spandex shorts and a tight pink tank top. She approached me with her hands in her hair, tugging it through a ponytail holder.
She looked up at me. “I’m ready whenever you are.”
I grabbed my keys off the coffee table, and we left the apartment, taking the elevator to the first floor. Outside, flashes of light hit us from all angles, cameras snapping one after the other.
“Will,” a reporter shouted. “Is your wife one of your puck bunnies?”
I shielded my face from the lights and shoved Clarke behind me.
“Is this marriage a sham?”
“Why did you get married?”
“Are your days as Romeo over?”
Dozens of reporters fired off one question after another. I turned away without answering them. We raced across the lobby, and Clarke hit the button on the wall to call the elevator.
When the doors opened, I moved Clarke inside and pushed the reporters out of the way. Clarke kept hitting the button for our floor while I tried to keep the media from following us to her apartment.
“What the fuck?” Clarke said as the doors shut.
“Was this your dad’s doing?”
She shook her head. “No, he wouldn’t do this to me.”
“He would do it to me. You heard what he said.”
“Not here,” she said with confidence. “But everyone knows I’m Tom Hanover’s daughter. The apartment is in his name. It wouldn’t be hard for a reporter to figure out. They’ve had weeks to find us.”
“After three years, you tell me your dad is Tom Hanover? Wow, woman. I didn’t recognize him from his picture in the papers, but his name… You’re right. He’s a legend. If anyone could prove we’re frauds, it’s him.”
Clarke looked up at the camera in the elevator's corner and shook her head. “You’re lucky this place caters to the secrets of D.C.’s elite.”
“Are you sure about that?”
She nodded. “Yep. Otherwise, someone who worked here would have ratted out Ted Fairchild and all the powerful men that call girl brings home with her.”
“Maybe we should investigate,” I suggested. “We can have a stakeout. Isn’t that what you and Mia used to do together?”
“Not tonight. We need to lock the doors and windows and stay inside until we leave in the morning.”
I caged her against the wall and kissed her. “I have a few ideas for what we can do until morning.”
“Yeah?” Clarke’s hands roamed down my arms. “After we eat, you can show me.”
After dinner, we sat in the living room with full bellies and watched reruns of Modern Family.
We devoured the meatloaf and mashed potatoes.
It turned out okay, although it was a little crispy.
Clarke was to blame. She had distracted me with her kisses, which led to me getting her off before dinner.
I held Clarke in my arms, stroking my fingers down her bare arm. She shivered from my touch and leaned into me.
Sucking her earlobe into my mouth, I rubbed her inner thigh, and she moaned. She tilted her head back to look into my eyes.
“I think it’s time for bed,” she said with a playful smile.
I lifted her in my arms and carried her to the bedroom. Clarke reached out to swat the switch on the wall, dimming the lights to an ominous setting.
I stalked over to the mattress and lowered her onto the bed. She knelt and stared up at me, licking her lips. No one made my cock as hard as Clarke. She’d always had this strange power over me, an inexplainable pull that drew me closer.
I rolled the pad of my thumb over her bottom lip. “You look so sexy without even trying.”
She smiled, then licked my thumb as I cupped her chin. “You want to play, baby?”
“Uh-huh.”
A heated look crossed her face, her eyes on mine as I leaned down to kiss her plump lips. They were soft and tasted like peppermint.
She hooked her arms around my neck and leaned into me, parting my lips with her tongue. I got on the bed, ripping at her clothes, stripping away each piece of her clothing until a pile was on the floor.
When our lips separated, she stared into my eyes, the tension between us so thick and palpable that it glided along my skin.
I pushed her back to the mattress, moved between her spread thighs, and peppered her skin with light kisses.
She moaned with each flick of my tongue.
My mouth hovered over her pussy that was already dripping wet for me.
I licked my way up her stomach until my hands were on her breasts. I kissed each of her breasts, sucking her nipples into my mouth. She whined when I tugged on the hard bud swelling in my mouth.
“Will,” she whined. “Stop teasing me.”
With her nipple between my teeth, I grinned like an idiot. I loved taunting her, making her wait for her release. She knew I would make her come several times before her head hit the pillow. But patience was one thing my wife lacked.
I rolled my thumb over her nipple, smiling down at her, loving the sight of her unraveling beneath me. She moved her head to the side as I kissed her neck, taking her skin between my teeth.
Clarke bucked her hips, her sweet pussy rubbing against my hard cock.
“Stop fucking with me, husband.”
I looked down at her. “That’s the first time you acknowledged me as your husband.”
“Hurry so we can consummate this marriage.”
“Already did, baby.” I fisted her hair between my fingers and pulled her mouth to mine. “You want to come, wifey?”
She swatted her hand at my chest. “Yes. Either fuck me or reach into my drawer and grab my vibrator.”
I laughed. “Nah, babe. You won’t need that anymore. I can satisfy all of your needs.”
Her lips brushed mine as she tugged on my pants, shoving them over my hips with my boxers. “Take these off. Now.”
I winked. “You got it, boss lady.”
I stripped off my clothes and threw them on the floor with hers. Resuming my slow perusal of her body, I kissed and licked every part of her before I slid inside her. She hissed as I filled her to the hilt. She’d done that every time for as long as I’d known her.
I rocked into her, sliding in and out of her wetness, and her body relaxed as she adjusted to my size.
We shared a strange connection and understood each other in ways I never thought were possible.
Even though we had a lot to learn about each other, I felt as if I had known her all my life.
With Clarke, I lost myself at the moment.
I bent down to kiss her, sucking her lip into my mouth.
She moaned my name like a melody as it slipped from her lips. This woman had the power to break me. It scared the hell out of me, but I was ready to give myself to her. To love and cherish her. It wasn’t about my career anymore. I wanted this marriage to work because I was falling in love with her.
“You never make love to me,” she said against my lips.
“I know. Tonight is different.”
She kissed me hard and fast, spinning my world on its axis. Our tongues tangled with fury, the pace not matching my own. So I took her harder, and her screams filled the air. She moaned, my name coming out in hushed breaths. When Clarke lowered her guard, she looked beautiful, as she did now.
She came twice before it was my turn to chase my release, spilling myself inside her. I kissed her lips, then her forehead, before pulling out of her.
“I wasn’t thinking,” I whispered. “And you’re not on the pill. Are you?”
She shook her head. “No. But we should be okay. I track my cycle.”
I sunk to the mattress beside her and held her in my arms. Sweaty and tired, I leaned against the headboard and kissed her head.
“If we’re doing this for real,” I muttered, “we should probably talk about some kind of birth control.”
She rested her head on my chest and peeked up at me. “I can get on the pill. I’ll call the doctor in the morning.”
I wrapped my arm around her and traced lines up and down her arm with my finger. “Or we could have another discussion.”
“Are you serious?”
I shrugged. “I’m good with kids. Mia hasn’t told you yet, but she’s pregnant with her first child.”
Her eyes widened. “Are you kidding me? She should have told me.”
“She’s superstitious and wants to wait until after the first trimester to tell people.”
“I’m not ready for kids,” she said after a long pause.
“You don’t like kids, do you?”
“I’m an only child and never spent much time around kids.”
“Doesn’t mean you can’t be a kid person.”
“Yeah, I guess. One thing at a time, Romeo. I’m not having kids with a man who doesn’t love me.”
“I love you,” I said without thinking.
She stilled in my arms.
I slid my hand beneath her chin and tilted her head until our eyes met. “I love you, Clarke. Probably always have.”
“I loved you once,” she admitted. “And you broke my heart.”
“Do you still love me?”
She paused for a moment, staring into the expanse of the room before her eyes met mine. “I don’t think I ever stopped. That’s why I was so mad at you.”
I leaned down to kiss her. “At least this time, our wedding will be real.”
She smiled in response.
I got off the bed and crossed the room to where I’d hidden a surprise for Clarke.
“Where are you going?” Clarke sat up, her beautiful naked body on full display.
“Give me a second, woman.”
I opened one of the three drawers Clarke allowed me to use and grabbed the Tiffany’s ring box. She gasped as I turned around to face her. As I approached the bed, she slid to the edge of the mattress, staring up at me in disbelief.
“Don’t look so surprised, wifey. You deserve a real engagement ring.”
I dropped to my knee in front of her and opened the box for her to see the five-carat princess-cut diamond ring. Her hands flew up to her mouth, her eyes wide.
“Clarke.” I took her trembling hand in mine and massaged her skin. “We’ve both been fighting this for a long time. But we should have known there’s no escaping fate.” I lifted the ring from the velvet and held it out for her to see. “Will you marry me?”
Tears fell from her eyes. “Yes.”
I stripped the fake Vegas ring off her finger and replaced it with the diamond. She flung herself into my arms, kissing me between sobs, tears wetting my cheeks.