28.

Beau

The morning starts a little tense as Elise frets about all the setup which needs to get done. Always the Brimstone old lady, she takes the responsibility on even when she’s supposed to concentrate on gettin’ herself ready.

I assure her the brothers have our backs. We’ll have a fuckin’ fantastic wedding. Then I force her to lay back down, and head out to the kitchen to bring her breakfast in bed. Though I’m not a great cook, I make a decent French toast. Sprinkled with powdered sugar. Served with a side of sliced strawberries, sausage links and an alcohol-free mimosa. That bein’ alcohol-free sparkling wine and orange juice.

When I leave her to check setup, when her girls show up to start hair and shit, she’s calm. And I’m at peace knowin’ I gave her that calm.

Finally we arrive at the big moment. It’s about damn time, as I been waitin’ seven years for today. Blood has kept a little distance from our group, but Tommy, Chaos and Sneak have been standin’ at my side for the last ten minutes, givin’ me shit about my life as I know it bein’ over now that I’m about to be hitched to an old ball ‘n chain. Whatever. Tommy and Sneak would lay down their lives for their wives without thinking twice about it, and Chaos, Chaos’ll slip a ring on Liv’s finger soon as we’re clear of Houdini. Maybe sooner.

I have no doubt, and go to tell him that as the house band from Lady’s starts the first bluesy rock chords of the wedding march. My head whips to look down the aisle and that’s when I see her. Fuck. The most beautiful woman in the world, my woman, my bride stands at the end of that aisle on Duke’s arm, she’s wearin’ the sexiest most biker wedding dress ever designed—fitted head to toe white leather. The top of her dress, a vest like one of our cuts, but it’s corseted and plumps her tits to absolute perfection. The bottom skims over her curves, including that slight baby bump, only to flair out at her shoes. Her hair’s done up in this braided side bun thing, which fuckin’ takes my breath away.

My eyes never leave her. Her eyes never leave me. Though as she and Duke pass our brethren guests, laughter erupts from each row. Once they get to me, I see what they’d been laughing at. Elise has a flaming devil head on the back of her dress, but the devil head has a pink bow tied to the top flame as if it was hair, with the words: Brimstone Lady written in old English above it. Below it, Bossman. Elise. Forever.

Don’t know how she pulled it off, but damn if I can’t stop my laugh from breaking out too.

Carver looks to Duke. “Prez, say your peace.”

In a black dress shirt, his cut, black jeans and his boots, like all my groomsmen, he turns to speak. With his normally unruly goatee and unkempt black hair, just beginnin’ to silver around the temples, trimmed for the occasion, he shows his respect for me and Elise and our day. It means a fuck of a lot.

“Take care of him, sweetheart. He’s a good man,” Duke says. “And Boss, Doc ain’t here, so it’s been a sad privilege to act in his stead. Take care of this girl and the family you’re creating. What you got is precious. Don’t ever take it for granted.”

The laughing had died down completely once Duke started to talk. As I look from Elise, who started with the tears the moment her dad was mentioned, out to all the brothers gathered to celebrate with us today, I know Duke’s right.

“Nothin’ in the world more important,” I tell our prez, specifically. And then I repeat myself louder for the rest. “Nothin’ in the world more important.”

He guides her hand into mine with another firm nod and backs away to sit in the front row.

Carver starts to officiate once more. “We’ve faced a lot ‘a shit recently. As a club, as a family. This little lady didn’t make it easy on Boss once he decided to woo her again. But, God’s honest truth, I can’t picture any other woman on the planet able to handle him the way she does. Made for each other these two. So Boss, you got something you wanna say to this beauty standing next to you?”

“Boy, do I ever,” I say, to the soft laughter of the room surrounding us.

Elise turns to me at the same time I turn to her, still holding her hand.

“Darlin’. Seven years ago when you showed up in town in front of the Whippy Dip, I knew I was fucked. Saw it. Saw it as sure as I’m standin’ here now that my world would never be the same. And damn if I wasn’t right on that.”

More laughter from my brothers.

“You sure pulled me through the wringer. Thing is, I don’t mind a damn bit ‘cuz all of it brought me to right here, right now. So now, don’t matter my world’s never gonna be the same. Far as I see it, that’s a good thing so long as I have you along for the ride. We walk this life path together, nothin’ else matters. Even through—”

“Your first kid datin’.” Tommy cuts me off.

“Pregnancy scares.” Chaos adds.

“Shotgun weddings.” Sneak finally finishes, to the amusement of everybody but me.

“Piss off.” I squeeze Elise’s hand a bit tighter. “But yeah, even through all that shit, Elise, you and I are together, we’ll deal. Always.”

She blinks at me a few times, laughter and tears together before she starts. “I don’t even know where to begin. Everything you said is true. I put you through the wringer, even when I didn’t mean to. I did it. But you haven’t always made things easy for me either, Beau Hollister.”

Elise is beautiful whether she’s smilin’ or cryin’ like she is now. She wouldn’t agree. But where most women’s skin turns splotchy, hers blushes. The way she scrunches her nose and bites her lip, one of the cutest ways I’ve seen a woman cry.

With tears streamin’ down her cheeks, squeezin’ the stems of her bouquet of daisies until they start to bend, she swallows and gulps back some air, and then swipes her thumb under her eyes before continuing.

“But none of that matters anymore,” she says. “None of it. Because my dad’s gone. My mom stopped talking to me years ago, but here we are, getting married. And in seven months we’re having a baby. You gave me you, Beau. And in doing so, you gave me a family. In every sense of the word. So if having a family means kids dating, pregnancy scares or shotgun weddings, so long as I got your hand to hold while dealing with it…” she stops then whispers with a shuddered breath, “I love you Beau.”

No one’s laughing now.

Carver clears his throat. “Ah… yeah. Boss, how ‘bout you recite some vows, brother?”

I nod and repeat his words.

“I, Beau Hollister, promise to love you, Elise Manning, for the rest of my life. Takin’ in account what it means to be a good husband—to be a friend, a lover, a provider, a protector—to be a true partner even if bein’ that partner comes as a bossy caveman. We’ll always reach where we gotta be.”

Carver turns his head to look at my woman. “Good. Now how ‘bout you Elise? Ready for some vows?”

“God yes.”

Can’t help the smile spreadin’ ridiculously wide across my face. And no, my eyes aren’t waterin’. I’m a man. Our eyes don’t water, even for something like marryin’ the love of my life. I know I look like an idiot, but my woman, she’s ready for her vows. She wants to be mine. Means a lot. No, means the world.

She then repeats his words, with some adjustments of her own. “I, Elise Manning, promise to love you, Beau Hollister, for the rest of my life. Taking in account what it means to be a good wife—to be a friend, a lover, a provider, a protector however that comes about and whatever that means to us within the construct of our marriage—to be a true partner even in the face of you being a bossy caveman. We’ll always reach where we gotta be.”

“Got a ring?” Carver asks me.

I turn to Tommy who hands off the gold bands to me, then take my woman’s left hand. As I slip hers onto her finger, I say the words. “This ring symbolizes what you mean to me darlin’. So with this ring, I thee wed.”

Elise takes the second ring from my hand, then as she slides it over the knuckle on my left ring finger, she gives it to me. “This ring symbolizes what you mean to me, babe. So with this ring, I thee wed.”

“Love hearin’ that.” Carver addresses the guests. “So now, with the power granted me by the Church of Divine Waters, I’m proud to be the one to pronounce you husband and wife. Beau, brother… Kiss your bride.”

He don’t have to tell me twice.

Throwing my arms around her shoulders and her waist, I haul her in close and kiss the shit out of my wife. Hard. Wet. Deep. And long, until the congratulatory catcalls turn pornographic.

She’s breathin’ heavily by the time I let her go.

We turn around to face all our friends as Carver announces, “Brothers, ladies, let me introduce to you Beau and Elise Hollister.”

I practically drag her back down the aisle behind me, this time to ruckus clapping and boisterous laughter from my brothers, and call over my shoulder, “Go ahead and start the party. Gotta fuck my wife.”

Once we’re back in our bedroom, she glares at me, hands on her hips. “I should be mad at you Beau Hollister, for telling all our wedding guests you’re going to fuck me,” she says before she lets loose that smile I fell in love with. “But I’m just too damn happy to care at the moment. So you got lucky, mister.”

“Not as lucky as I’m about to get, Elise Hollister, so get over here and kiss your husband.”

“I don’t want to ruin my hair. Undo your pants and sit on the bed.”

Fuck, we’ll go with that. So I unbutton, unzip and tug my pants down to my hips as she hikes her dress up to around her hips and shimmies out of her sexy, lacey thong. I’m clearly already hard as a fuckin’ rock and judging by the way she mounts my lap, straddling my thighs and glides herself down my erection, she’s more than ready herself.

We don’t move right away, just stare into each other’s eyes. I breathe her in, breathe in the early smell of sex mixed with her perfume, and watch her chest heave up and down as she unbuttons the vest of her dress. Those gorgeous, voluptuous tits spill out just begging for my mouth.

And that’s when we begin to move.

Her hands around my neck, Elise’s head falls back as I grip her hips, grindin’ her heat against my straining cock. When we’ve found our rhythm, I move one hand from her hip to push down against her pubic bone as I suck hard on her nipple.

The noise she makes—fuck. It becomes a breathy cry of my name. “Beau.” But I’m not ready to let her have it yet. There’s still more I want to do to her before I’m ready to share her and the day with our guests.

Gone from the festivities for almost an hour and a half, we eventually stroll back into the main common from our room, arms linked, and her head resting on my shoulder while I take most of her body weight. And her hair, well, let’s just say slightly worse for wear.

My brothers pat me on the back while Elise gets a lot of cheek skims.

Once we arrive, the party really begins. Food and drinks all around. The hog roast to end all hog roasts. I eat like a man who fucked hard and needs to refuel. Elise picks delicately at hers, dreamily and careful not to drip sauce on her dress. Though, it’s leather so it’ll wipe right off.

As soon as she’s finished her meal, Maryanne sneaks up from behind her to snatch the paper plate from Elise’s hand, setting it on the bar top behind them and drags my woman to the makeshift dance floor where she’s bum rushed by her bridesmaids.

They laugh and dance.

A hand grips my shoulder, and I turn my head to see Tommy. “Shit, I got me a wife,” I tell him, then take a long pull from my beer.

“Yeah, you got a wife…” Silence hangs between us for a minute while we both let it soak in. “Just a piece of paper, brother.” He offers. “Nothing different than you already been doing. She was already your family.”

“Know you’re right, but somethin’ about havin’ that paper feels weightier.” I sigh and slump back against the bar. “Can’t believe you had the balls to do this when we were twenty-one.”

“My balls have always been bigger than yours.” He laughs and punches my shoulder. “But no doubt, she’d been here, you’d ‘a done it, too. Seriously, she’s already been sleeping in your bed every night. Who you turn to first when you’ve had a shitty day?”

“Elise.”

“When you’ve had a fucking fantastic day?”

“Elise.” I repeat.

“What I’d be shitting my pants about is that in seven months you’re gonna be responsible for a baby. A fragile human life. Small—”

“Shut it, Tommy.”

“Delicate.”

“Shut it, Tommy.”

“Completely vulnerable.”

“Shut it, Tommy!”

The bastard laughs at me. And he keeps laughing until Elise makes her way from the dancefloor back over to us.

She kisses my cheek while I tuck her under my arm, skimming my hand across her dress to rest on her belly. The second my hand makes contact, all those nerves vanish.

Tommy can laugh all he wants because right here, right now, I know without a hint of doubt that I’m holdin’ all I’ll ever need in my arms.

My wife and kid.

Whose balls are bigger now?

“You good, baby?” She snuggles closer into me. “Because you look about ready to puke.”

“Nope. Good now.”

“You happy?” she asks.

“Never been happier, darlin’. Tommy here was just tellin’ me how he and Maryanne wanna start tryin’ for a family now, too.” I tell her, watchin’ my oldest friend take a drink of his beer.

He chokes, coughing up and spitting out beer all over the floor.

That’ll teach him.