“Hey, what’s wrong?” Lauren laid a hand on my shoulder, and I spun around, ready to attack. The second I noticed it was her, I jumped back and ran my hand through my hair.

In my haste to get away from my dad and his twisted revelations, I hadn’t stopped to think about how my leaving our fucking wedding reception would affect her.  

Shit, I was an asshole.

I pulled her into my arms and held tight. “You wouldn’t believe the shit my dad just pulled.”

“You’re shaking, Donal.” Lauren caressed my back in a calm, soothing motion until I felt my breathing even out and the tension in my limbs dissipate.

I dropped my lips to the top of her head, then rested my cheek against her hair. Instead of the traditional bridal updo, she’d left her hair down and now her soft waves felt like silk against my skin. “Why would he do this, today of all days?”

“Come on, let’s go in the back and you can tell me everything.” Lauren led me down the hall until we reached the master bedroom.

Once inside, she locked the door behind us and I dropped onto the edge of the bed. I pulled at my tie, feeling like I was choking on the damn thing, but it got all tangled up in knots before I could yank it over my head.

“Here, let me do that.” Lauren took ahold of the silk, unwound it, and then tossed it on a chair in the corner of the room. “That better?”

I rotated my neck and the muscles stretched and my bones cracked. “Yes, much.”

Lauren stepped between my legs and rested her hands on my shoulders. “Now tell me what’s got you so upset.”

“You saw my dad and me talking?”

“Yeah, it made me happy.” She smiled down at me, her smokey eyes filled with love.  “He’s been here a couple of days but you haven’t spent much time together.”

“I should have kept avoiding him.”

She brushed my windswept hair back into place, the stroke of her small hands working their magic against my temples. I leaned into her palm and sighed as calm washed over me. This woman was a balm to my soul, and I had no idea how I’d gone my whole life without her. I wasn’t a religious man, but I’d been thanking god every fucking night since she’d said “yes” for bringing her into my world.

“Lay down with me and we’ll start at the beginning.”

I settled on my back, bringing Lauren with me until we were facing one another. Lacing our fingers together, I repeated everything my dad had said. I didn’t hold back; we didn’t have any secrets from each other.

“Wow, that’s a lot to absorb,” she whispered once I’d fallen silent.

“It is,” I whispered back, feeling much more composed now that I’d shared my burdens with her.

She traced a finger over my forehead, easing the frown lines that marred my skin. “I can understand why you were so upset. You’ve been lied to your whole life. By both of them.”

I swallowed and nodded. And that was the crux of my anger. I could understand keeping me in the dark when I’d still been a kid, but I was a man now. They should have taken me aside—together—long before now and come clean.

“The thing about the kids is fucked up, but strangely noble in a twisted sort of way.”

I chuckled. When she put it like that …

“Who does that?”

She shook her head and her lips tilted up at the corners. “Your dad.”

“My dad,” I repeated.

She scooted close until our bodies touched, and I rolled onto my back, tucking her into the crook of my shoulder so her face rested on my chest. “On the one hand, you’re like, ‘Are you insane?’ but on the other, you’re like, ‘Well, that was awfully nice of him.’”

“He’s a regular fucking Robin Hood,” I laughed.

Lauren was silent for a few moments. “Does it change the way you feel about them? About Royce, Keyshawn, and Kaylie?”

It shouldn’t have surprised me, but the fact that Lauren had heard their names only once but remembered them tugged at something deep in my chest. I’d spoken a lot of nonsense in my life, to the point that most people didn’t bother listening to me anymore, but she heard and absorbed everything I said. She listened to me in a way no one ever had before. Even when I was spouting rubbish, my words reached her.

I shook my head. “Nah, not really. I don’t have a relationship with them.”

“But you could, if you wanted to.”

I took the time to consider it. What would that look like? Before, I’d told myself the only thing I had in common with them was our father, but now I knew that wasn’t even true. But they didn’t, I thought. It wasn’t their fault my dad and their moms had made some sort of crazy child support pact when they’d been born. But it wasn’t mine either and I didn’t know if I was ready to welcome these strangers into my life. “I’ll think about it.”

Lauren kissed my chest, over my heart, through my white tuxedo shirt, and then snuggled closer, if that was at all possible.

“What are you going to say to your mom?”

I blew out a frustrated breath and shoved my hand behind my head, staring up at the ceiling. “I don’t know,” I admitted. “It’s … I …”

Lauren rolled onto her stomach and propped her chin in her palm. “Can I say something?”

“Of course,” I answered, brushing a lock of her hair behind her ear. “You never have to ask.”

“I know her not being here hurts you. I admit, when you told me why she said she couldn’t come, it pissed me off too. But knowing about her and Patty? Well, I can see how that might change things.”

I pushed myself up against the headboard. “It doesn’t change the fact that she chose her lover—” I spat the word “—over her goddamn son.”

Lauren scooted onto her knees and took my hand. “No, it doesn’t. That’s not what I meant. She should have been here. But …” She looked away and chewed on her lip.

“But what?”

Bringing her eyes back around to mine, she asked, “What if you had loved me for 20 years, but we couldn’t be together? What if you’d had to hide your feelings for me, only getting bits of me in stolen moments? But then, suddenly, our circumstances changed and we could be together, out in the open, nothing holding us back? What would you do?”

I stared her in silent wonder, letting her questions sink in. The idea of not having Lauren by my side every day of my life was like a silent knife to my chest. I’d known within weeks of meeting her that I was in love with her, that I’d never love anyone like I loved her. And once she’d told me that she loved me the same way, there was nothing that would have stood in my way. I would have followed her to the ends of the earth to be with her.

As if she could read my mind, she smiled sadly and said, “Yeah, me too.”

She gathered her dress up around her hips and came to me on her knees, her eyes flicking between mine. “Once I realized that yours was the face I wanted to wake up to every morning, and the last one I want to see when I take my last dying breath, there was nothing that could have kept you from me. Absolutely nothing, Donal.”

And then she straddled my lap and began unbuttoning my shirt.

“What are you doing?” I asked, my voice cracking.

“You’re hurting, and I’m making you feel better.”

With my shirt lying open to reveal my bare skin, she immediately got to work on my belt buckle and the button of my trousers. With my fly open, Lauren slipped her hands inside my briefs and rubbed my cock.

“Do you want me to make you feel better?” she asked as I grew hard in her palm.

I swallowed and my head fell back against the wall. “What about our guests?”

She shrugged and her eyes twinkled with devilry. “What about them?”

“What if they wonder where we went?” Reflexively, I rolled my hips in her grip, my cock slipping through her fisted fingers.

“Oh, they’ll know.” She squeezed my dick, and with a flick of her wrist, my eyes practically rolled back in my head. “I plan on screaming your name—loudly—as I come all over this glorious cock.” She gave it a downward stroke. “Then you’re going to fill my pussy with your cum and we’re going to go back out there to cut our cake and listen to our friends and family toast our marriage.”

Holy shit. I groaned and closed my eyes, my hips jerking forward as she jacked me off. I loved it when Lauren talked dirty. It wasn’t something she did often, but when she did, her words alone could make my dick weep with gratitude.

Lauren leaned forward and sucked my earlobe between her teeth, and then bit down, the sting going straight to my balls. “And then tonight, when everyone’s gone and it’s just you and me, I’m going to let you fuck my ass.”

My eyes popped open in shock. Sometimes, when I was fucking her from behind, she’d let me play with her asshole. And other times, in the heat of the moment, I’d spank her ass and promise to someday stick my dick in her tight little hole, but that had just been words. Dirty, filthy words that made us both hot. I’d never actually tried to fuck her ass, and she’d never asked me to.

“Do you want to fuck my ass tonight Donal?” Lauren rubbed the head of my stiff, aching cock between her soft, wet lips.

I groaned. “Yes, please god yes.”

Did I want her ass? Hell fucking yes. What man wouldn’t? But did I need to do that with her? No. I loved having sex with Lauren. Admittedly, I didn’t have much experience to go by, but I thought our lovemaking was extraordinary.

She rubbed her thumb over the frown line between my eyebrows. “You’re thinking too much.”

“What did you expect, woman?” I laughed and then groaned when my cock passed between her bare folds.

“I expect you to lay back and let me make you feel good.” As if to punctuate that thought, Lauren sank down on me in one smooth, fluid motion. Once I was sheathed to the root, she rolled her hips, until just my crown remained inside her.  She hovered there, teasing me with a knowing smile. “I expect you to let me fuck my new husband until he forgets all his worries.”

Her husband.

Hell, I loved the sound of that. If you’d have asked me a year ago if I’d be happily married just after turning 23, I’d have asked what crack pipe you’d been hitting. Back then, I couldn’t imagine tying myself to one woman for the rest of my life. But now? I couldn’t imagine not being with Lauren until we were old and gray. I wanted nothing more than to spend my nights showing her just how much I loved and cherished her.

“What if I want to fuck my new wife?” I growled, and surged my cock forward, bringing a yelp of delighted surprise to her lips. “You like that?” I asked with another hard thrust.

And then there were no more words. We let our bodies do the talking for us.

Lauren’s head dropped forward and she rode my cock. Her hands found my chest and she raked her nails over my nipples. I hissed and bucked. I dug my fingers into the flesh of her hips, holding her against me, as I let go and filled her up exactly like she’d asked me to. And then, with a keening wail, Lauren followed me over the edge, the walls of her pussy clenching me tight, milking the last drops cum from dick.

She dropped forward and I wrapped my arms around her. “I love you,” I whispered into her ear as her chest sawed in and out while she caught her breath.

She turned her face to mine, and her mouth split into a smile that took my breath away. “I know.”

We lay there for several long minutes, basking in the afterglow of our lovemaking, until finally Lauren eased off my dick and stood, smoothing her dress back down. I leaned back on my forearms and watched her put herself to rights—first her hair, and then her makeup. When she turned back to me, her lips were swollen and her cheeks were flushed, but otherwise, you couldn’t tell what we’d been up to in here.

“Don’t you need to get cleaned up before we head back out?”

She sauntered over, and flattening her palms on the mattress, leaned close. “I told you before, I want your cum inside me.”

I swallowed deep.

This woman. Sometimes the things she said were so fucking hot that I thought she could singe my eyebrows off with just a few words.

And speaking of the things she said …

I wrapped my fingers around her delicate wrist and looked up, my eyes boring into hers. “About that other thing—”

Lauren placed a finger over my lips and shook her head. “You trusted me with your virginity, Donal. Tonight I want to give you mine. Now come on, we’ve got a cake to cut.

With that, she tugged me off the bed, fixed my shirt and tie, and then led me back out to our guests. As we stepped onto the patio, I knew I’d follow her anywhere.

Forever.

Until death did us part.