Chapter Nineteen
“YOU SAID YOU wanted to travel,” Gage called out to Sally from the bedroom in Allure as he changed his clothes. By the time they’d left Harborside, things with Rusty were mildly comfortable, but Gage knew the underlying tension would probably last a while.
“Bailing my kid out of jail in Massachusetts in the winter wasn’t my destination of choice,” she said when he joined her in the living room. “But at least now he knows the truth.”
Her phone vibrated with a call, and Gage picked it up off their new mosaic table and handed it to her. “It’s Rusty.”
She put the phone to her ear with a tentative expression. “Hi, honey.” She paused, listening, her eyes widening along with her smile. “That’s great news. Hold on.” She lowered the phone and told Gage that the police had reached his friend, who’d admitted the pills were his. “The attorney told him he’d probably get the charges dropped.”
“Thank God,” Gage said.
She lifted the phone, listening again. “Thanks, honey. I love you.” She handed the phone to Gage. “He wants to talk to you.”
Surprised, Gage put it to his ear. “Hey, buddy.”
“Hey. I need a favor.”
“Sure.”
“I want to surprise Mom and come down next weekend so she can move before the holidays. I mean, I assume you want her to move in sooner?”
“Are you sure?” Gage wanted to do a fist pump, but he had to choose his words carefully so as not to clue Sally in to Rusty’s surprise. “You know why that was the plan, right?”
“So I could spend the holiday in my dad’s house, I assume. My father’s been gone a long time, and I’m glad Mom is finally moving on. She doesn’t need to drag her ass on the move because of me.”
“Man, I really appreciate that, Rusty.”
“I figure I owe her after the whole arrest thing. Think you can keep it a secret so I can surprise her, or does that break some sort of marriage code?”
Gage chuckled, relieved that Rusty was reaching out to him again. “I think I can manage that.”
“Thanks. If I come in Friday, can you pick me up, or should I call someone else?”
He watched his beautiful wife scrolling through the Internet on her laptop, blissfully unaware of her son’s plans. He wished he could tell her just to see the thrill in her eyes when she realized how big a step Rusty was taking for her, but this was one secret he would keep. “Text me the details. I can handle it.”
“Thanks, and, Gage?”
“Yeah?”
“Is Mom right there?”
“Mm-hm.”
“Can you put me on speaker?”
“Sure.” He pressed the speaker button, and Rusty’s voice came through the phone. “Hey, Mom?”
Sally startled and turned. “Yeah? Hi, honey.”
“I just wanted to say congratulations to you both. That kind of got lost in our conversation. I know I didn’t act like it, but I’m glad you two are finally together.”
Sally came to Gage’s side. “Thank you. I’m sorry we sprang it on you like that. But honestly, we kind of sprang it on ourselves, too.”
“Just for the record,” Rusty said with a teasing tone, “next time I do something stupid, I’m totally holding your drunken marriage over your head.”
Gage hugged Sally, all of them laughing.
They talked for a few more minutes, and after they ended the call, Gage tipped up Sally’s chin and gazed into her relieved eyes. “I told you everything would be okay.”
“Shut up and kiss me, Mr. Know-It-All.” She went up on her toes, and he met her halfway in a series of slow, drugging kisses.
“You know what we have to do now?” he said in his most seductive voice.
She slid her hands into his back pockets. “I can think of a lot of things I want to do right now.”
“Slow down, Salbird.” He pulled his phone from his pocket and sent a group text to his family. Family Skype. Urgent. “We have a few things to take care of first.”
He took her hand and led her out the front door and into the cold, dark night. He drew in a deep breath and hollered, “I married Sally Tuft!”
Sally’s laughter filled the air, and he pulled her into his arms. He gazed into her smiling eyes and said, “You’re my beautiful wife, and I’m never, ever, going to let you go.”
He lowered his mouth to hers, holding her shivering body tight against him, and kissed her until she stopped shivering and melted against him.
“That wasn’t a rooftop,” she teased.
“If we didn’t have a foot of snow, I’d be on the roof. Come on. We have a couple more things to take care of.”
Back inside the warm house, he set the laptop on the coffee table in front of the couch and navigated to Skype. He pulled Sally down beside him, unable to stop smiling. “Smile pretty, sweetheart.”
“Who are we Skyping?”
“My family. Do you want to try to reach your parents?”
Her expression turned serious, and she shook her head. “No. They’re not very good with technology. I’ll call them later.”
“Do you want to call them first?” he offered.
“No. Let’s call your family before you burst.”
He chuckled, wishing her parents were more involved in her and Rusty’s lives. He hoped to help facilitate a mending of those relationships, but it didn’t have to start today. He began the group Skype call, and one by one his family members’ faces appeared on the screen, each looking concerned. His mother, Andrea, sat at his father’s desk, and his father peered over her shoulder. Jake must have been outside, because he was bundled up in a parka, and his phone bobbed up and down, giving them glimpses of snow-covered trees. Duke, Cash, and Blue appeared one after the other.
“What’s going on?” Duke asked.
“Hi, Sally. Gage,” his father said. “What’s wrong?”
“What’s up?” Blue asked.
They spoke in such quick succession that Gage didn’t have a chance to respond. Jake smirked smugly, as if he had one up on everyone. He did, but there was so much more to tell.
“Nothing is wrong,” Gage said as Trish signed on.
She was sitting on a couch with her husband, Boone, holding their cat. “Hi, you guys. What’s going on?”
Sally looked nervous, and like everyone else, she wore an expectant expression. Gage had waited so long for this moment, and now that the time had come, he didn’t know how to share their news. Simply saying “We’re married” seemed too insignificant for what he felt.
“Gage…?” his father urged.
“Sorry,” Gage said. “I’m a little nervous.”
“That’s a first,” Jake chimed in, making Blue laugh.
“Just spit it out,” Cash said. “Whatever it is, I’m sure we’ve heard worse.”
“But you probably haven’t heard better news.” Gage put his arm around Sally, and gazed into her eyes. Heat pulsed between them, and he didn’t care that everyone could probably see it, because in that moment, even with his family staring on, Sally was all that existed. His wife.
“Gage,” Sally whispered, urging him on.
He leaned in and kissed her. “I love you, Sally Tuft-Ryder.”
There was a beat of silence. Sally’s gaze widened with surprise, then warmed with love, claiming his rapt attention.
“Did you just say…?” Trish’s voice trailed off.
“Oh my gosh!” his mother exclaimed.
“The son of a bitch did it!” Cash whooped. “You two got married?”
Duke’s deep laughter drowned out Blue’s and Jake’s cheers.
“Gage!” Trish chimed in. “Are you two married? We missed the wedding?”
Sally’s eyes glistened with joy. Gage’s response came in a hard press of his lips to hers, as his family called out their congratulations, laughing when he kept going back for more kisses. Once he’d taken his fill, he hauled Sally even closer and answered all of his family’s questions, stealing kisses in between. By the time they ended the call, his mother and Trish were crying, and excited about planning a special celebratory dinner when the family came out for Christmas.
“Are you happy now?” Sally asked.
He touched his forehead to hers, his own eyes wet with happy tears. “There’s just one more thing I need to do. Wait here.” He disappeared into the bedroom, and when he came out, he turned off the lights.
“I like where this is headed,” Sally said as he lit candles on the mantel.
“I hope so,” he said under his breath. “In keeping with the king and queen of all things cheesy…” He turned on George Michael’s “I Want Your Sex,” and turned his back to Sally, swaying his hips to the high-pitched eighties beat.
“Oh my God!” She squealed and began clapping to the beat.
Gage spun around, unbuttoning his shirt as George Michael sang about things you guessed and things you knew. He pushed his shirt off his shoulders, gyrating his hips, and Sally’s jaw dropped open. When the chorus rang out, he swung his shirt over his head, strutting toward her. He dragged the material over her arms and breasts, causing her cheeks to ripen with embarrassment—spurring him on.
OHMYGOD! YOU’RE REALLY stripping! The words played like a mantra in Sally’s head as Gage dropped his shirt in her lap, mouthing lyrics about wanting her sex and her love. He unbuttoned his jeans and dragged the zipper down slowly and seductively. She reached for him and he shook his head as he sang, stepping just out of reach and driving her out of her mind. He turned around again, giving her a view of his perfect, beautiful ass, covered in denim. His hips swayed as he pulled his jeans down and stepped out of them. The music hit a high note and he turned dramatically, wearing only a pair of black tuxedo briefs with a white strip of material stretched tight over his cock and a bow tie at the top. She wanted to rip the bow tie off with her teeth.
Sally howled with laughter.
He held up two fingers and pointed to his eyes as he sang about looking in his eyes—but her gaze dropped right back down to that enticing bulge beneath the bow tie. Yummy.
He moved across the floor doing pelvic thrusts. His powerful thighs tested the elasticity of those fancy briefs. He belonged onstage, with his boyish charisma and the way he glided across the floor—all sex and lust, a wicked look in his eyes. He straddled her legs and leaned forward, making her fall back against the cushions. He sang to the beat, about dirty thoughts and pornography, and how he loved her so much it hurt.
He brushed his lips over hers, and when she tried to capture the kiss, he pushed to his feet, pulling her up with him, singing about how it was time she had sex with him.
God, yes! She was so ready.
Gage danced around her, rubbing against her hip and dragging his hands all over her body. His touch sent shocks of heat prickling beneath her skin. Her nipples pebbled, her breathing hitched, and she couldn’t take her eyes off him. Her husband had moves! And a package that was eager to be set free! Liquid heat spread through her and her hips swayed without thought. He hooked his thumbs into the hips of his briefs, thrusting to the beat as he inched them down. She covered her face, laughing.
“It feels weird to be fully dressed as you strip!”
Strip for me!
He pulled her hands down and planted one leg on either side of her thigh, rubbing his hard length against her.
Embarrassed and turned on at once, she couldn’t stop smiling.
As the chorus rang out, he hooked his thumbs in his briefs again. Every thrust took them lower. Oh Lord. She felt herself go damp and didn’t think, only reacted to the heat building inside her as she pulled her sweater over her head and threw it to the ground. When his briefs hit the floor, exposing every inch of his arousal, it was all she could do to stare. She was giddy and turned on, laughing and fumbling with the clasp on her bra.
“Get over here, wife,” he growled, and swept her into his arms, kissing her deeply as he carried her into the bedroom, replacing her giddiness with white-hot desire.