Killian
As soon as I told Dad the news, he insisted we have the wedding in the backyard of the big house.
“I just had the landscaping guys in last week, but I can call them back. I’m picturing some nice flowering bushes along the back fence, and we can get an arch for you two to stand under. We’ll put it right under the oak tree. What do you think? Does that sound nice or does that sound nice?”
I hadn’t imagined him being so excited, though I don’t know why. Since Niall’s death, the birth of baby Niall was the first time I’d seen Dad smile in months. A new member of the family, especially one who looked so much like the son he’d lost, was exactly what we all needed to lift our spirits after the crazy year we’d had. And Heather and I getting married simply ensured he’d always be able to see baby Niall.
“I think it sounds great, but I’ll just have to check with Heather,” I said.
“Good idea. You don’t want to start out your marriage with a fight. Better make sure she likes it first. She’s the boss after all.” He was talking fast, excitement buzzing around him like an energy field.
In the end, we liked Dad’s idea best. The limited space gave us a good excuse to invite only the closest friends and family to the actual wedding, allowing us to keep the wedding small and private, something that was important to both of us.
Heather wore a white silk dress with thin straps that flowed down her body like water. As she walked down the aisle, the setting sun glinted off of every curve, and I resisted turning to ask the minister if we could skip straight to the “I now pronounce you” portion of the wedding.
Dad had really pulled through. With no direction from Heather or I, he’d ordered white wooden folding chairs for the guests, bought a lace aisle runner for Heather to walk down, and hired a three-piece orchestra to add an extra touch of “panache” to the day, as he liked to say. He’d also found a vintage wagon for Niall to sit in as he was pulled down the aisle as our official ring bearer, though I kept both rings in the inside pocket of my tux.
The day was perfect. I’d never imagined I would have a traditional wedding—thinking instead I’d probably end up drunk in a casino chapel and begging for an annulment the next day—but I knew it couldn’t have gone any other way. I was meant to be standing at the end of that aisle waiting for Heather. My entire life had been leading up to that moment, and I’d never, for a second, had a clue.
When Heather looked up at me, her eyes red and glassy with tears, and said, “I do,” I thought I would never be happier. Then, the minister announced her as Heather O’Donnell, and I was. Each new moment became the new happiest one of my life, and I had no reason to believe I’d stop feeling that way any time soon.
###
Heather
Despite the intimate wedding we’d planned, nothing could stop the entire compound from showing up for the reception. Free alcohol lured them in until the party overflowed into the front yard, down the driveway, and into the street. Music and booze and dancing made the event feel more like a music festival than the reception for an intimate wedding.
However, typical of our family and friends, within two hours everyone was drunk enough that they barely noticed us, so Killian and I were able to slip in and out of the partygoers mostly unnoticed. Liam left the party early, taking Niall in his favorite new wagon.
“You two enjoy yourselves,” he said, tossing a wink in Killian’s direction. “I’ll keep an eye on this little guy.”
So, childless, freshly married, and surrounded by free booze, enjoy ourselves we did. While we were dancing next to the speakers, the bass booming in our chests, Declan ran over with as many tequila shots in his arms as he could carry. We all tossed one back. Killian shook his head as he swallowed his, and then stretched out his tongue to show everyone he’d finished it. Everyone around us cheered.
By the third song, we were three shots deep, and feeling good. Killian couldn’t keep his hands off of me, running them up and down my sides, grabbing handfuls of my backside and pulling me into him, and trailing slobbery kisses down my neck. I played the part of the demure woman, turning my head when he went in for a kiss and sliding his hands from my butt up to my back, but when he asked if I wanted to go somewhere else, I grabbed his hand and practically ran from the party.
Somehow, without discussing it, we both knew where we were headed. To the place that started it all. The shed in the back corner of the compound was hard to make out in the dark, but we fumbled our way there and walked to the back face of it until we were shielded by the wooden fence on one side and the shed on the other.
Instantly, I was on my knees unbuttoning Killian’s pants. Though we’d had sex before, and plenty of it, something about that night felt different. Perhaps it was a mix of the tequila and our newfound commitment, but I needed him. I didn’t want a slow, romantic build-up. I wanted sex, and I wanted it rough.
I took him in my mouth, and he leaned back against the shed, his head clanging against the corrugated metal, moans escaping from him. I swirled my tongue around him, left kisses down and then up his length, licking from base to tip until he began to quiver.
Suddenly, his hands were in my hair, and he was pulling me up to him, lifting me to my feet. He grabbed greedy handfuls of my dress and lifted it up to my waist; at the same time turning me around and throwing me against the side of the shed.
He reached for my underwear, and I delighted in the look of surprise and then hunger that crossed his face when he realized I wasn’t wearing any. Before I knew it, my legs were wrapped around his waist, and he was inside of me.
With each thrust, I was thrown against the shed, and I reveled in the animal quality of it all, throwing my head back and doing nothing to quiet the torrent of moans escaping my mouth.
With his strong arms flexed around me, his fingers digging into the soft flesh of my backside, and his huge length pummeling in and out of me, it was only a matter of minutes before I was on the brink.
I buried my face in his neck, my hands grabbing at his shoulder blades and the sweaty curls at the base of his neck, and groaned with each thrust. Then, without warning, he sped up the motion until my entire body was vibrating against the shed and a release like nothing I’d ever felt flooded through every inch of my body.
Killian seemed to be experiencing the same thing, his face contorted into a mask of pleasure and pain and relief, as we rocked together, pressing into one another as the last waves of bliss washed over us. A few minutes later we were sitting on the ground, me in my rumpled wedding dress, and Killian in his tux, the tie loosened around his neck, jacket discarded hours prior.
“The last time we were here, I was afraid you were trying to kill me,” I admitted with a quiet laugh. “The whole walk over here I wished I’d brought a gun or a knife or something to defend myself with.”
Killian chuckled, his face sleepy, probably from a mixture of the day, the alcohol, and the rigorous sex.
“Our love story is not exactly common,” he said.
“No,” I agreed. “Definitely not.”
He reached out and grabbed my hand, rubbing his calloused thumb along my knuckles. “But it has been really good.”
I looked up at him, at his silvery blue eyes, dark curly hair, the stubble along his chin that I begged him not to shave for the wedding no matter how many times everyone insisted that he should, and a warmth filled my chest. The wonderful thought that he was mine. That baby Niall and I, despite all of the craziness of the previous year and my worries that we would be alone in life, had such an amazing man to depend on.
I bent forward and kissed him softly, our lips just barely touching before I leaned back against the shed and stared up into the starlit sky.
“It has been the absolute best.”
THE END
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