The Iron Quill (27 page)

“My mother did this?”

“She did.”

“Wow.”

I stood with my mouth pretty much hanging open and Wes pulled my chair back, prompting me to sit.

In zombie mode, I watched Wes take off his suit jacket, revealing a fitted vest and tie tailored to his physique, perfectly. He looked unbelievably sexy. He filled our plates with shrimp and angel hair pasta in a white wine sauce. And there we sat, the two of us, enjoying an intimate dinner. We talked about how his morning had gone, as well as mine. I left out the part about Dawn’s trip to the mall and as I thought about that, it became apparent that our whole conversation was very platonic.

It felt like a first date, except that both of us were aware of what this night meant. We would either share our first time, or not, because of Wes’ clarity, and either way, I was sure Wes was the more nervous of the two of us.

It was ironic how thinking of him being nervous always gave me more confidence. Maybe it was a desire to make things easier for him. Whatever the reason, I felt like I could do this. Like I wanted to do this. Ready to push the evening along, I slid my plate to the side, half-eaten.

“Are you ready for cake?” I asked.

He dropped his fork willingly. “Sure.”

“What kind is it?”

“Don’t know,” he answered, watching me curiously.

“Hmm . . . well let’s find out.” I grabbed the knife and cut a piece. Red velvet with white icing. Yum. I stood up and cut two pieces. “Come on, get up,” I ordered, eagerly.

Wes stood and came around to my side, taking the plate. “I’m sure my mom went to all this trouble so we could have the complete experience, so let’s do it.”

He opened his mouth at my command, and I gently fed him a mouthful. He swallowed and then laughed.

“I can already see you’re going to be a bad influence on me with sweets.”

“Shut up,” I joked, shoving him in his stomach. “Now it’s my turn.”

He took the other piece and I opened my mouth, impatiently waiting for the rush of sugar, but all I felt was the assault of cake and icing smearing on my face. I turned away and screamed, feeling only a tiny taste of icing on my lips.

“I can’t believe you just did that!”

He shrugged innocently and backed up before I could retaliate. “Your mom made me swear to get you. It’s her fault!”

“What? You
listened
to her?”

He grabbed a napkin and tossed it at me, and then ran around to the other side of the table. “What? I told you I wanted her to like me!”

“Ugh!” I groaned wiping my face off. At least he didn’t get it in my hair, but I was still mad. How dare he? We stood for a few moments while he waited for further reaction from me.

I crossed my arms and stared at him.

“You look beautiful,” he said.

I groaned again. “You watch too much TV. Flattery won’t work.”

“I don’t watch any TV,” he pleaded. I just stood there. “I’m sorry,” he offered sincerely.

“Fine,” I said. Then my gaze turned out the window over his shoulder. “What
is
that?” I asked, intrigued. A look of confusion crossed his face as he questioned what I could possibly be looking at across a twenty-mile stretch of mountains, but he still fell for it.

With his head turned for only a second, I picked up the top tier of the cake and tossed it over the table at him, just as he was turning back. It hit his chest and the lower right side of his face and mouth.

Oh, my gosh
. I couldn’t believe I just did that. My hands immediately flew up to my mouth. “I’m sorry,” I said.

He looked down and felt the cake on his face and then looked at me. After a minute of thick silence he said, “Your mom didn’t tell me about that part.”

Even though I was horrified at my actions, I couldn’t help but laugh, and after a second he did, too.

“At least it was the small tier,” he said. His light reaction caused me to hurry around the table and help clean him off. “It’s fine.”

Seeing him react this way made me remember having covered him with funnel cake powder by accident on our first date.

Thinking of how easygoing he’d been made me feel all the more lucky to be with him. I remembered that day like it was only yesterday. We had just met, and thoughts of tasting the sugar crossed my mind, but at the time, those thoughts needed to be contained. I simply wouldn’t have had the nerve to do it then, but I did now.

I stepped closer to him and slowly licked a trail of icing off of his mouth. “What are you doing?” he asked, naively.

“I didn’t get to taste the cake before. You missed, remember?”

Between the kisses and small licks, it was tasty. I moved my mouth to his and pressed myself closer. He kissed me back, but kept his hands at his sides.

“You’re going to ruin your dress,” he whispered between kisses. I briefly thought about it but didn’t care. It was just a dress and besides, I was taking Kerry’s advice and absorbing how Wes made me feel when we were together. It felt good, and I wanted more.

“Not if you take it off,” I said finding his mouth again. In the same motion that his tongue found mine, he lifted my dress and picked me up, so that my legs were around his waist. Not missing a beat, he started walking toward the stairs. I knew where we were headed, and it was making me nervous again. But even though I was pressed up against him, it wasn’t close enough.

Once inside the bedroom, he set me down and backed me against the wall. Still kissing me, he took off his vest and unbuttoned his shirt. Following his lead, I began unzipping the side of my dress. The sight of his bare, perfect chest caused me to pause to build up the nerve to let my dress fall, but after a moment, I didn’t falter. I let it slip down my body, revealing my newly acquired lingerie.

Wes looked at my chest for a moment, closed his eyes, and started kissing me again. First my mouth, then moving to my neck. Feeling his bare chest against mine was making me shudder. I was ready to be with Wes mind, soul, and body.

He continued to unbutton his trousers, and I sighed with passion as they dropped to the floor.

I had no clue what he was wearing under them, because he scooped me up so fast, kicked his shoes off and carried me over to the bed. In that moment, all I wanted was all of him.

“How do you feel?” he murmured pulling back to watch my reaction.

“Like I want you, right now,” I whispered pulling him back into a deep kiss. I found his tongue and he lifted my back and reached around to unclasp my bra. Once I felt it slide away, I slipped into some sort of blissful trance and I don’t remember how the rest of our remaining garments came off. All I remember is Wes kissing me in places that had never been kissed. Until he paused.

I opened my eyes and saw him only inches from me with a hard expression on his face.

“Hey,” I whispered. “You okay?” I put my palm against his face and he felt flushed. Warmer than I had ever felt him.

“I’m all right,” he whispered, still with his eyes closed. “Give me just a second.”

I knew he was concentrating hard, trying not to lose focus and, more important to him, not to lose time with me.

“Open your eyes,” I murmured, reaching up to kiss right below each of them.

“No, I’m all right,” he repeated.

“Open your eyes,” I urged, taking a stronger hold of his face. After a few seconds, he slowly revealed to me the deep brown eyes of a worried lover. “It’s okay,” I promised.

“I know,” he replied, looking at me. “I just don’t want to lose a single minute with you.”

I smiled. “You won’t. Just stay with me.” I kissed him once and pulled back to find his hesitant gaze again. “Just look at me,” I whispered.

He watched me for a moment and his face slowly relaxed.

“I love you,” he said.

“I know,” I said kissing him again, and just when I felt the nerves in our bodies relax completely, he gently brought us together completing our bond. There wasn’t a moment more full of every possible emotion than right then.

So many feelings were shooting through me at once that I couldn’t stop myself from crying, silently. When he felt the wetness on his cheek, he paused. “I’m okay,” I urged, hugging him tighter.

“Are you sure?” he whispered.

“I’m sure. I’m just overwhelmed with feelings for you right now.” He gently wiped away the tears and found my mouth again.

We kissed and found a new, intense rhythm between us that felt like pure heaven.

“This is beyond what I imagined,” he whispered moving his lips away from mine, only to move them to my neck and down my chest. I wanted to respond, but couldn’t find the breath, because his rhythm picked up causing a release of electricity as I felt my body shudder along with his.

Oh. My. God. Just when I felt like jello, he wrapped his arms beneath me again and squeezed me to him like he wanted me to stay. Don’t worry, I wanted to tell him. I’m never leaving you. Not yesterday, and
especially
not after today.

That night, I fell asleep curled up against the inside of his arm, where I imagined I’d be every night for the rest of my days. He kissed my forehead, and whispered the one thing we were avoiding, but also the one thing he didn’t want to ignore.

“Happy Birthday.”

I
woke up lying in my new bed, unclothed and alone. Wes had left the bedroom door open, allowing the smell of cinnamon to greet me. A contented smile seeped its way into my soul. It couldn’t have felt more perfect.

Lying next to me on his pillow was a small koala bear. I touched it, realizing it was the prize I had won at a carnival on our first date. It was adorable but so tiny and I remember feeling like I’d wasted my time and Wes’ money playing a zillion times just to win it. My disappointment had prompted Wes to win a big one for me.

I picked the bear up and saw a small card resting beneath it.

“What is this?” I said out loud.

Curious, I took the card and opened it to the sight of Wes’ perfect handwriting:

This was worth every penny.

Love, your husband

A flood of blissful energy jolted me out of bed. I quickly brushed my teeth and threw on a tank top and shorts. I took a quick look in the mirror and decided to run my fingers through my hair. I contemplated a little makeup, but after a closer look in the mirror, decided against it.

Wes had always made me feel beautiful the way I was, and I wasn’t going to start changing now. Then, just as I went to turn away, a tiny trickle of moisture dropped onto my lip. Instinct caused me to wipe it, but when I pulled my hand back, it was smeared with red. Confusion washed over me for a second until I realized I had a nosebleed.

I quickly tilted my head back and found a tissue, thinking how strange it was. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had one, but I didn’t panic. I held my head back and pressed the tissues to my nose. After a few minutes, the tissues were coming away clean and I felt relieved that it wasn’t something Wes would be greeted with on the first morning of our life together. That wouldn’t have been attractive.

Glad it was over, I flushed the tissues and glanced back into the mirror. There was no sign of the mishap, and choosing to ignore the strange occurrence, I convinced myself that it was just a small interruption in my morning. So small I erased all traces of it from my mind.

Before heading downstairs, I wanted to redirect my attention to the amazing feelings experienced the day before, so I pulled my journal from my bag. Every detail about yesterday was so important that I wanted to take the time to put the memories on paper before I forgot a single detail.

I wrote about the whole day and what each person meant to me. I wrote about last night, and how perfect it was. About how I still feared tomorrow, but that it wasn’t going to deter me from enjoying every minute of every day with Wes
and
my family and friends. I also wrote about how, if anything happened to me, Wes would have our memories. How we’d already defied fate, and that everything I’d just written was totally ours, and nothing could erase it. When I was finished, I confidently and optimistically signed the entry,

This is my story.

Sophie

Once I’d closed the book, I tucked it neatly back in my bag, looking forward to finding a permanent place for it later. No longer able to stand the distance, I skipped down the stairs like a child on Christmas morning. A new level of completeness permeated my entire body, pulling me toward Wes.

“Hey, you,” he greeted as I entered the kitchen.

“I love you,” I stated for the record.

“Good thing. Because you’re stuck with me now,” he breathed, pecking me on the lips.

I laughed. “I don’t consider it stuck and this is so not fair, you know?”

“What?” he asked, holding a spatula, confused.

“You’re spoiling me by cooking. I want to start spoiling
you
. I’m your wife now. I need to start acting like one.”

He raised a brow. “You’re not my wife because you aren’t cooking?”

“You know that’s not what I meant. It’s just that I’m excited about moving in and getting a chance to take care of you.”

He strategically placed strips of turkey bacon on a platter and paused to cross his arms, contemplating deeply.

“How about tomorrow?”

I smiled immediately. The sound of tomorrow rang so perfectly in my ears.

“Yes, tomorrow sounds perfect.”

“Good.” He smiled that delicious smile of his. “Now,
Wife
, will you please help me carry this into the dining room?”

I thought for a second and then bounced my way out of the room, “Nope.”

“What?” he yelled after me. “I thought you wanted to help?”

“Today is
your
day. Tomorrow is my turn, and maybe the next day, we’ll share.”

I heard him laugh. “Fine.”

Within minutes, he was juggling trays of eggs, bacon, fruit, and cinnamon rolls,
Yum.