My Dad and I had spent a lot of time talking during the party, in those little moments when I wasn’t needed for ceremony or wanted by my wife. She had busied herself with her family and friends, reminiscing and laughing. Looking back on it, I think she did it deliberately, just to get my Dad and me talking more comfortably. It worked. By the end of the night, we had built a new foundation. He respected me as a man. I respected his growth as a person.

It wasn’t perfect, but so few things ever are. Few…but not none.

I turned away from the balcony doors as Paisley stepped into the room wearing a sheer nightgown, having cast off her gown. She swayed toward me, her painted toes sinking into the plush carpet.

“What do you think?” she asked, spinning for me.

“You’re perfect,” I breathed, pulling her into my arms.

“Mm… You’re pretty damn perfect yourself,” she murmured against my mouth.

She pulled me toward the bed, but I stopped her. “Come here,” I told her. “I want to show you something.”

I switched the stereo on as I led her to the balcony.

“What do you want to show me?” she asked. “And is it really more important than consummating our vows?” As she asked, she slipped her hands into the elastic waistband of my silk boxers, nibbling on my shoulder.

“It’s about consummation,” I told her with a grin. “Look out here.”

“I see the river, fields, the empty stables way over there. This was selling point number two of this house, I basically memorized the view.” She scrunched her brow at me, not understanding.

“Tell me,” I whispered in her ear as I slid my hands around her waist, pressing my hips against her firm, round ass. “What you don’t see.”

“Uh…” Her voice wavered with pleasure as I nibbled down her neck to her shoulder, scraping my teeth gently along it. “I definitely don’t see submarines.”

I laughed, reaching down to slide my hands over her thighs. She whimpered, writhing against me. I could feel the pent-up energy of the day exuding from her, and I wanted it all, but I wanted it my way.

“What else don’t you see?” I asked, pulling her earlobe between my teeth.

“Um… People?”

“There you go,” I breathed, grinding against her.

“What’s that got to do with… Oh!”

“Oh, yeah.”

“Mm…”

The cool evening breeze kissed our skin as we bared it, bathing in the moonlight. She glowed like a jewel in the night, calling to me to touch her, to caress her from head to toe.

Taking her mouth in mine, I spread her legs with one hand, pressing her up against the stone balcony rail. Gasping and groaning into my mouth, she mounted my fingers before I knew what was happening, grinding her hot little clit against my hand as if she’d been dying for my touch all day.

“Damn, Mrs. Macintyre,” I murmured against her mouth. “You must not get much at home.”

“Not today,” she growled lustily.

I spun her around, pushing her forward so that her top half hung over the side of the balcony. Her breasts and hair swung free in the open air as I entered her from behind, admiring the cool white glow of the moon on her perfectly moon-shaped cheeks.

“Hold on, darlin’,” I told her.

“Give me a reason,” she shot back.

I never could resist a challenge. I drove into her savagely, giving her the hard fucking she’d been craving all day. She growled and screamed into the dark, her lusty cries echoing up the river banks and through the valley. Somebody somewhere was getting quite the auditory peep show, I thought. I decided to give them something more to listen to. Reaching my hand around her hip, I pressed two fingers against her clit.

She was clinging to the rail for dear life now, her legs shaking as I thrust into her, rubbing on her clit with my fingers.

“Oh God, yes!” she cried into the night. “Harder, Tyler, harder!”

I wasn’t about to deny her. Slamming into her with everything I had, I felt her begin to swell and pulse around me as heat built up between us. Her ass slapped against my hips, jiggling like jelly, smooth as cream. I slapped it, making her cry out in surprise. I slowed my thrusting, wondering if I’d crossed a line.

“Do it again,” she growled.

“Yes ma’am!”

Enthusiasm redoubled, I slammed into her. Each spank tore another primal scream from her throat, driving my own arousal to the edge. Fire spread from the base of my skull to the tip of my spine, spiraling through my hips, building behind my shaft. Knowing I was seconds away, I reached around, pressing hard against that sweet little button. Howling her ecstasy at the moon, Paisley came around my dick as I emptied into her.

I stopped for a breather, but she wasn’t done. Wiggling her hips against me, she got me hard in a hot second, then turned to face me.

“I’ve been needing you inside me all day,” she breathed. “I want you inside me all night.”

“You got it, darlin’,” I said, wrapping my arms around her.

With a wicked grin, she pressed both hands against my chest and shoved. I fell back over an ottoman and landed on the outdoor couch I’d tried to tell her not to get. As she pounced on top of me, I couldn’t believe I’d been so dumb; this was obviously the most important piece of furniture in the whole world.

I sank into the shallow cushions hard enough to knock the breath out of me, and she was on me in a second. Pulling me inside of her, she settled all the way back on her heels.

Groaning as I filled her all the way up, I wrapped my hands around her soft, round hips. She rode me like a cowgirl, spilling all of the excited energy of the day into the wild sky around us. She quaked and pulsed around me, soaking me in her passion, and didn’t even take a breath in between before grinding her way to another peak. She was beautiful, as free as a hawk, as sure as a horse thundering home.

As she collapsed, spent, against my chest, I brushed the hair out of her eyes and gazed into them. She shimmered in the night, glowing for me. Touching my face with trembling fingers, she spoke the words I’d come to treasure.

“I love you, Tyler.”

“I love you, too,” I told her earnestly.

We made love as the stars spun above us. The world turned around us, but there was nothing for us outside of these moments. Binding our bodies and souls together as one, we tumbled through the night. As dawn broke over the river, I cradled her head against my shoulder and kissed her hair.

“And tomorrow, we get you a new manager.”

“Yes, dear.”

We rang in the morning with laughter, which I thought was really the only right way to do it.