Chapter Eighteen—Sky
I woke up the morning of my wedding feeling stranger than I would have ever thought possible. After I’d bailed Linc out, we’d gone straight to the mall, and while I hadn’t wanted an actual wedding dress—the courthouse didn’t seem like the venue for white, even if I really was a virgin—I had wanted to wear something special, at least. I’d wanted to feel like a different person for my wedding, even if it was a fake wedding.
I’d insisted on going to bed in the guest room, in spite of the hints Linc had dropped all evening; I wasn’t ready to be in a bed alone with him again. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to resist his charms, and now I didn’t want to think about how he’d acquired those charms. It was no wonder he’d been so good at getting me off the night before; he’d had plenty of practice, to judge by what Rico had let slip.
I still wasn’t sure how I felt about that part of my soon-to-be husband’s life. When I got out of bed, I looked at myself in the mirror and tried to make the fact that I was about to marry him make sense to my mind. What had come over me? Why did I still want to do it, in spite of everything?
After the police had carted Linc off the day before, I’d gone to HR. The woman in charge of paid time off had been there, even if the one who took the sexual harassment reports wasn’t. I told her that I needed the next day off, that I’d been traumatized by everything that had happened. I’d planned originally on taking just a half-day, meeting Linc at the courthouse for our wedding and then going back to work, but with the situation with Stephen, and given that I had no way to report it formally until at least the next week, I didn’t want to be in the office if I didn’t have to.
“Good morning,” Linc said, when I finally went out to the kitchen. There was coffee, which was definitely helpful to my state of mind—even if my stomach gave a quick twist inside of me to tell me it wouldn’t be so great for that part of my body. I didn’t care just then.
“Hi,” I said, feeling weirdly shy. This was a man who’d had his head between my legs two nights before, who had punched and head-butted a guy for me, and there I was, coy as ever. What was wrong with me? “I think I’m going to skip breakfast—but I could definitely use some coffee.”
“Cream and sugar, right?” Linc held up a mug and I smiled at him more genuinely. It wasn’t that complicated a preference, but I couldn’t help but feel touched that he had thought of me. I took my cup of coffee and sat down at the kitchen table.
“Have you told Jazmin yet that you’re getting married?” Linc shook his head.
“No chance for it,” he said. “I think she’d like you, though. I think she’d be okay with it.”
I shrugged. “If not, it’s not like we have to stay married,” I pointed out. Something flitted through Linc’s eyes, but it was gone before I could put my finger on what it was.
We made small talk while we drank our coffee, and it finally started to feel real to me: this was the man I was going to marry, even if it was fake. We would be connected in some way, probably for the rest of my life. Granted, we were going to get divorced—or get the marriage annulled, if we could—but there would always be that record, that official document with my name on it, saying that at one point in my life, I was bound to Linc Hayes.
“I should probably start getting ready,” I said finally, checking the time; we didn’t have to be at the courthouse for our appointment until eleven, but I felt jittery, like I needed to do something.
“Me too, probably,” Linc said, giving me a little smile. I laughed at that.
“You just have to show up,” I pointed out.
“Well, we’re driving there together, remember.”
That I did; we’d agreed on it the night before, talking about what we would do and how it would all play out. Cassie was going to meet us at the courthouse, along with one of Linc’s friends from the SEALs who happened to be in the Denver area, a guy named Bruce.
“Besides, after all the hand-wringing about that dress you ended up buying, I need to look good or I’ll shame you.”
I laughed, and some of the butterflies in my stomach actually seemed to go away.
I went into the guest bedroom and looked at the dress. I’d insisted that Linc wasn’t allowed to see it, because I’d wanted some kind of normalcy, some element of tradition, in my wedding, even if it was fake. He’d argued a little about that, but finally just waited for me outside of the store I’d gone into. He’d let me try things on by myself until I’d called him in—with the dress already in the bag—to pay. I couldn’t help but smile at it, even knowing it was just another part of the fakeness we were going to be participating in that day. I couldn’t wait to see Linc’s face when he saw it on me.
I took a shower but didn’t wash my hair; I didn’t want to waste time drying it. I let it down as soon as I was out of the water, and worked some product into it, letting my natural curls flow down past my shoulders. It was the next best thing to a veil, I told myself. I did my makeup in neutral colors, since I wasn’t exactly going out on the town, and slipped into a lacy bra that had absolutely no padding but that did have a matched set of panties that would work with the dress I’d chosen. And then there was nothing more to do but put the dress on, and slip on my shoes, and go to see Linc.
I stepped out of my room when I was finished. “Linc?” I heard his bedroom door open and I left the hallway to walk into the living room. For a second we just stood there staring at each other. Linc had definitely put in enough effort to match me. He was in his Navy uniform, absolutely perfect, with the hat on and everything, and it fit him to a tee. “Wow,” I murmured, shaking my head a little bit; he had to know how good he looked, every line clean and straight, every inch of him regulation-right.
“Wow is right,” Linc said, his gaze moving up and down over me slowly.
The dress I’d chosen was a pale, soft blue, with a darker trim on it that just matched the color of my eyes. I knew virgin brides were supposed to wear white, but I didn’t want to wear something obvious, and when I’d seen the dress on me in the mirror at the store, it had been impossible not to buy it. I thought it was probably intended for a graduation, or some other event like that—it was beautiful, and clearly formal, but there was no plunging neckline, and the hem floated maybe two inches above my knees.
“You look amazing.”
“Thank you,” I said, feeling my cheeks burn with a blush. “We should probably head out, right?”
I looked around and spotted the clock on the wall; it was a little after ten, and I couldn’t quite believe that we’d both spent the better part of two hours getting ready. Where had the time gone?
“Yeah—we don’t want to be late,” Linc said. He moved to grab his keys, and then looked at me again, for a long moment, and I felt that little surge of warmth tingle through me like it had the night when he’d seen me in a much sexier dress than I was in now.
*****
The wedding itself was almost uneventful; by the time we got to the courthouse, and met up with Cassie—who had taken an extra-long lunch to be able to be my witness and bridesmaid—and Bruce, who didn’t look nearly as good in his uniform as Linc did—and stepped up to the justice of the peace, any nervousness I felt was totally out of my system. I responded to the questions automatically, and before I knew it Linc had my hand in his, and he was sliding a ring onto my finger, and then offering me his hand to put a ring on his, and the only thing I could think of was where he had gotten the rings.
As soon as we were out of the courthouse, with Cassie taking pictures of us in front of the building, I got up the nerve to ask him. “Linc, these weren’t yours and...”
“No—God no!” Linc said, shaking his head. “I would never use the same ring for different women. Bad luck.” I had to laugh at that.
“You’d think he would have had his fill of bad luck in marriage with his first wife,” Bruce said, and Linc gave him a playful shove.
“Brucie is just mad because he’s too fat for his uniform and can’t pick up any bridesmaids at this one,” Linc said. From the look on Cassie’s face, I wasn’t so sure my new husband was entirely right about that. If he’d paid even an iota of attention to my friend, he could have had her back at his place before he knew it.
We rode back to the apartment in near silence, and I found myself looking at the ring again and again, wondering at it. “When did you buy these, if you didn’t already have them?”
“I got them the other day,” Linc said. “If you’d decided not to go through with it, I’d just be out about fifteen hundred.”
I blinked and looked down at my ring again. It was white gold, just a plain band, but I could easily believe that it cost seven hundred dollars. I could hear Cassie in my mind, telling me I’d been lucky to land a guy who had looks and money.
I felt exhausted—and hungry—when we got back to the apartment, but Linc stopped me at the door. “Hey,” he said, giving me a little grin. “I know it’s not really our wedding night, but I thought you might like to do the traditional thing.”
I frowned in confusion, but didn’t say no; when Linc reached down and scooped me up into his arms I yelped in surprise, and he grinned at me more broadly.
“You are not going to carry me into the apartment,” I said, not quite making it a question.
“I am if you stop squirming,” Linc told me. I laughed in spite of myself, and somehow Linc got us both through the door without dropping me or hitting my head on the frame. He set me down on my feet lightly as soon as we were through. I didn’t want to admit it to myself at that moment, but it was touching—it was so sweet, the way he’d done it for me like that, to give me just a little taste of being a newlywed.
“I’m going to make us some lunch, because I’m starving. But first—I should probably take this off,” I said, looking down at the beautiful dress. I almost wanted to keep it on, but I knew better; if I cooked in it, I was just going to mess it up—and I might want to wear it again someday, for some more legitimate event.
“I’ll get out of my uniform, too. Forgot how hot this thing is,” Linc said. And then all at once our wedding day—such as it was—was over, and in a matter of minutes I was walking out of the bedroom with my hair pulled back into a sloppy bun, and a light, comfortable sweater dress on me instead of my wedding gown. I’d left the bra and panties on, just because I didn’t feel like taking them off yet.
I went to work in the kitchen and tried to focus on what I was doing instead of dwelling on what I had already done. Linc came in as I was setting rice to cook, and I felt his gaze on me, lingering at my ass. “You know, just because I’m your wife now doesn’t mean you can leer at me,” I said, without looking at him. I couldn’t admit that I actually kind of liked the feeling of him watching me like he was.
“You’re the only woman I’m legally entitled to leer at right now,” Linc countered. I giggled and turned around to meet his gaze; he obediently brought his eyes up to my face, though he took a quick detour at my breasts on the way up.
“We agreed,” I said, thinking of what I’d learned from Rico the day before, when I’d come back to the apartment to try and figure out what I was going to do to help spring Linc from jail. “We agreed that it was going to be just on paper.”
“I know,” Linc said. “And if you really don’t ever want to have sex with me, we won’t have sex. But nobody would think any less of you if you did decide to have sex with me now. We’re married.”
I rolled my eyes at that. “You can’t change your mind now,” I told him. “If you do, I’ll go to the courthouse tomorrow and get a divorce—or whatever—and you’ll look even worse when you go to court.” Linc raised an eyebrow at that threat.
“You’d really do that?” I could see the respect in his eyes.
“If you tried to make me have sex with you when I don’t want to, yes,” I said firmly. Linc held my gaze for a long moment of silence and then nodded.
“I will keep that in mind,” he said. “I would just like to point out one thing, however.”
“What’s that?” I couldn’t resist the curiosity that rose up in me. What would Linc bring up?
“You loved what I did to you the other night,” he said. “I know for a fact that you wanted more—at least, your body wanted more. And now that we’re married, whether or not there’s sex in our relationship, I am not going to touch or even look at another woman.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “How am I supposed to believe that, knowing your history and given that this is a fake marriage anyway?”
“Because if I give you my word on something, you can count on it,” Linc told me. “If I say I will forsake all others for you, I’ll do it.”
That had been in the vows, but I hadn’t thought that Linc had taken them any more seriously than I had. The look in his eyes, intense and fiery with something else in there that I couldn’t really name, was making me uncomfortable. I turned around to face the stove again, and tried to focus on the quick sauce I was making for the chicken and rice we were going to have.
I could still feel him watching me as I moved around the kitchen, and part of me wanted to tell him to stop—but another part of me loved every moment of it. I may have even started bending over to pick up things I ‘accidentally’ dropped more often than I could reasonably have needed to, just to hear the sharp little intake of breath that would come from the direction of his chair at the table.
“Sky.” I turned off the heat on the stove; everything was done, but I needed to cool off before I would be ready to eat it.
“What, Linc?” I put on my most innocent voice as I turned to face him. I knew exactly what I’d done to him, but I wasn’t sure how to feel about it. I knew I had been leading him on, that I’d been encouraging every lecherous look, but my heart pounded in my chest when I thought of him doing anything about it.
“You’re torturing me,” Linc said flatly, looking straight up into my eyes. “If you’re not going to have sex with me, I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t tease me like—” he stopped. “I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t intentionally try to get me hard and then turn me down.”
That was like a gush of cold water down my back, completely ruining any enjoyment I had gotten out of teasing him.
“I’m sorry, Linc,” I said. “I guess I just got carried away. I liked feeling you watch me.” I smiled wryly.
“You should like it,” Linc said, his voice almost hoarse, and I glanced down at the front of his jeans without even thinking. Good God—what does he have in there? A baseball bat? I refused to think about it, and I made myself look at his face. “You’re showing off for your husband, that’s a natural thrill.”
“You’re not my real husband,” I protested.
“I could be,” Linc said. “For a while, anyway.”
That was getting into dangerous territory, and when Linc rose to his feet I almost told him to stop, to leave me alone. Then I almost apologized again, but the words wouldn’t come to my mouth. I couldn’t make myself want him to stop; this was what I’d been goading him to all along, and I knew it.
Linc was right in front of me, and then his hands were on my waist, lifting me up onto the counter, and I couldn’t make myself say anything against what he was doing; I wanted it too much. I hadn’t even realized how much I’d wanted it, how the knowledge of him watching me had made me hot, too. Then he tilted my face up, and his lips descended onto mine, and I threw my arms around his shoulders, pressing my body to his.
His hands moved over my body just like they had before, and I found myself shivering uncontrollably; but how could I be cold, when I had the warm, soft sweater on, and the heat from the stove behind me?
Linc pulled back and then his lips were on my neck, sliding down the column of my throat, and I gasped when I felt his teeth graze the spot where my pulse was going crazy. “Come on, Sky,” he murmured, bringing his mouth up to my ear. His lips found my earlobe, and I made a sound I didn’t even recognize as he sucked and nibbled on it. “Let me give you a real wedding night, even if it wasn’t a real wedding.”
I couldn’t say no. I didn’t have it in me. I nodded; I couldn’t even speak. Linc picked me up again and I realized that he was carrying me, through the kitchen and then the living room, and then into his bedroom once again. He seemed to like carrying me. He wasn’t quite as gentle laying me down on the pillows as he’d been the first time, and I made a noise that he must have decided was upset; he kissed me lightly on the lips and murmured an apology.
“You have no idea how badly I’ve wanted you, Sky,” Linc murmured as his hands slipped up, under my dress, lifting it over my hips. It was off of me in an instant, before I could even reply to him.
“Why?” I couldn’t think of a good answer to that question.
“Because you are just... God.” Linc stopped short and stared down at me like a starving man. He even licked his lips. “Were you wearing that under...”
“Under my wedding dress?” I giggled; I couldn’t help it, I was giddy. I couldn’t believe that I was really doing this. “Yes.”
“Why I didn’t convince you to let me rip that off of you as soon as we came into the apartment I will never know,” Linc murmured, before kissing me again. His hands were all over me, slipping up between my thighs, and I gasped as he brushed up against the mound of my vulva through the thin lace of my panties. I was already wet, and I hadn’t even really noticed it—just the growing tightness between my hips.
He dipped down from my mouth and then he was sucking on each of my breasts in turn, and I cried out, arching up off of the bed, eager to feel more of him. The feeling of his hot, wet tongue against my nipples—even through the lace of my bra—was absolutely amazing, and I didn’t want it to stop. I grabbed at his shoulders, at his head, twisting and writhing underneath him as he worked his way down. Even knowing what he was going to do, I felt like I was absolutely on edge, like I couldn’t breathe until I felt his mouth up against me, right where I needed it the most.
Linc stopped short, just below my hips, and I groaned in frustration. I opened my eyes, not even sure of when I’d closed them, and looked up to see Linc grinning. “So impatient for someone who kept insisting she didn’t want to do this right up until today,” he said.
“It’s all your fault!” I tried to take a deep breath, tried to regain some kind of composure, but as soon as Linc hauled his tee shirt over his head, exposing his broad, muscled chest, any ideas I might have had about regaining some self-control evaporated. My breath caught in my throat as he reached down to the fly of his jeans, and then I couldn’t even think of breathing as he unzipped. He pushed his pants down, and his boxers with them—or maybe he just hadn’t put any on when we’d come back to the apartment—and the sight of him, thick and hard and bigger than anything I thought could possibly belong on a human being, made me tremble a little bit with a mixture of dread and desire.
“You’re not ready for this yet,” Linc told me with a little smirk, gliding his hand slowly up and down his erection for a moment. “But I’m going to make sure you’re so ready that you couldn’t bleed if you wanted to.”
The mention of bleeding caught me off guard, but then Linc’s hands were guiding my flimsy panties down over my hips, and he was slipping down between my thighs, and I forgot about it altogether as he worshipped me with his mouth. It was every bit as good as before, and I gave myself up to it without a fight, bucking against his face until his strong arms gripped me too tightly to move. He worked me with his tongue and lips relentlessly, pulling back every few moments just as I was sure I was going to hit that magical point of tipping over again, like I had the last time.
Just when I thought I would die if he didn’t finish me off, Linc pulled back completely. “What? What are you doing?” I was almost in a panic.
Linc chuckled, kissing me lightly on the lips. “I was about to suggest that we move on to the main event,” he told me. His fingers slid along my labia, and then one slid slowly inside of me and my toes curled against the sheets. “Like that?”
“God—God yes, I like it,” I said.
“I think you’re ready for me, do you? If you’re not, I can just keep doing this,” Linc said, sliding his finger slowly in and out of me, wriggling it just slightly along my inner walls. I made pathetic little noises, somewhere between moans and whimpers, unable to help myself. “Tell me, Sky,” he said, his voice hoarse.
“Yes, yes, I’m ready,” I said, not even entirely sure anymore what I was agreeing to. Then Linc was fully on top of me once again, and I felt the heat and the hardness of his erection against my thigh, and I remembered. I was about to have sex for the first time. I felt a little flurry of panic, and part of me wanted to take it back. Part of me wanted to tell him to stop, but the rest of me couldn’t stand the thought of it stopping.
“Open your eyes, Sky. I’m not going to hurt you,” Linc said. I felt the tip of him—God, he was so thick, how could he possibly fit that inside of me?—rubbing against my inner labia, barely brushing against my clit, and it was so distracting that I couldn’t make sense of his words for a moment. “Sky?”
I opened my eyes and looked up at him, and then I felt it: I felt his hips move, and all at once, the tight fullness, the way my body put up a token resistance that was so intense that it had to be pain, mingled up in the warm flowing pleasure that his tongue and fingers had given me. I gasped and Linc kept moving, kept pressing forward. I wanted to tell him to stop, but every word had left my brain, jolted out by the intensity of what was happening inside of me.
All at once the resistance seemed to just stop, and Linc slid the rest of the way into me, until his hips were flush against mine, and I could feel him right up at the top of my inner walls. “God,” I said, finally taking a few deep, slow breaths. “Thank God you’re not any bigger—you might kill me.” Linc chuckled, and the shaking brought on more of the intense, pleasure-pain sensations tingling through my nerve endings. I made some kind of strangled noise and he slid out of me all at once; but that wasn’t what I’d wanted either. “No!”
“No?”
“I didn’t want you out,” I said, knowing I sounded ridiculous but not caring. Linc chuckled once more.
“That’s easy to fix,” he said, and I felt the thick tip of his cock against my labia again, slowly rubbing up and down, and then his fingers swirling around my clit, making me somehow even wetter than I was before—which I hadn’t even known was possible. “Tell me when you’re ready.” I wanted to say it right away, but I was too distracted by how good his fingers felt playing with me. I let it continue until I just couldn’t stand it anymore, gasping and panting and shivering.
“Now, Linc.” Before I could get his name out all the way, he was pushing inside of me again. I braced myself for the pain that I thought was coming, I was sure was coming, but beyond stretching for his thickness, it was only pleasure. So different than when his mouth was on me, as he bottomed out and ground down into me. It took my breath away to feel him inside of me so deep. And then there was the rubbing on my clit.
My nails dug into his shoulders and he paused. “Do you want me to stop?”
I shook my head no. It felt too good, and I was already getting antsy, ready for him to move. I knew that it was only going to get better from here. I should have trusted him on that. The difference was so stark that it was hard to imagine anything ever feeling this good.
“Please don’t ever stop, Linc.” He growled above me and pulled out all the way before plunging back down. I gasped and clung to him. I felt like I was lost, drowning even, and he was the only thing that was going to save me. I didn’t let him go, afraid that I would float away and never feel this way again. “More,” I said, gasping as he gave me just that.
His movements became quicker, and I held onto the ripped and sweaty triceps that were holding him up over me. Linc bent down to kiss me, and I squeezed the thickness inside of me. His reaction—a sharp, loud groan of pleasure—made me do it over and over again.
“Stop, or I’ll come too soon.” I didn’t listen very well, and he finally sat back on his heels and pulled me to hm. We watched his cock slip in and then disappear into my wetness. I loved the look of pure ecstasy on his face. I wanted to make Linc lose it, like he’d done to me a couple of nights ago.
Growling, Linc pulled me closer and started to drive into me faster and harder than before. I came hard and fast, the feeling overtaking me. I wasn’t expecting it. I wasn’t prepared for all this, and everything started to get dark. My eyes were shut tight, and every single muscle in my body was pulled tight. Wound up like a rubber band, I was catapulted into another dimension. Never had I thought that being with a man, any man, would make me feel so good and complete. Now I got it. This was what all the fuss was about.
His own pleasure wasn’t far behind. I could feel the hot, slightly sticky gush of him inside of me as he groaned out his climax. It was a beautiful feeling, and I wrapped my legs around him and pulled him close. I’d never felt so close to someone in my life, and I just wanted all of us to touch each other anywhere that we possibly could.
“Wow.”
Linc chuckled and asked me if that was a good thing. I nodded my head. Words still eluded me. How could they not when it was all so overwhelming? He pulled me to him, and I laid my head on his chest, listening to the steady thump of his heart under my ear. It magnified the sound and somehow made me feel even closer to him.
“I didn’t know that it could ever feel like that, Linc.” I hadn’t had any idea, but now I felt that I’d cheated myself by keeping this out of my life for so long. What had I been thinking?
“Me either, Sky. It doesn’t normally feel like this.”
I was confused and asked him what he meant. “It doesn’t? I mean, you seem to have done it a lot—so I have to think that you knew what was going to happen.”
Linc laughed. I loved the sound of it. “I knew... Hell, Sky, it doesn’t usually feel so good with anyone. I’ve never felt so much pleasure in all my life. I just want to make sure that it was good for you. I don’t usually worry about that kind of thing, but I want you to have liked it.”
“How could I not?” I cursed myself when I realized that I’d said it out loud. It had felt too good to deny it, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted him to know how much I’d fallen for him. On the other hand, looking at him now, I wasn’t sure that I wanted to hide it anymore. If I couldn’t be honest with Linc after that, who else could I even try with? It didn’t make sense, but then nothing that was going on really did.
I didn’t stay awake too long after we finished. His heart beating in my ear was an even rhythm that felt like it was going to lull me to sleep at any moment. When it did, I was surrounded by his warmth and my nostrils were filled with his man scent. God, he smelled so good. I drifted off without even being able to complete the last half-thought in my mind.