Something borrowed somet.., p.27
Something Borrowed, Something You, page 27
I felt wired with energy. “We should go out and celebrate! I can’t believe it!”
“I’m going to do my celebrating inside. Inside of you.”
Hunter unraveled the sheet I had wrapped around my body and kissed my neck. “I’ve never had sex without a condom—except for that minute last night.”
I smiled. “So it’ll sort of be like your first time then?”
“It’s always felt like my first time with you. But this time, I want to come inside of you. I want to bury myself so deep and come so fucking hard that your legs will shake and the people in the room next door will know my name. I want my cum inside of you, just like you’re inside of me—so far that it’s lost and never coming out again. I want to mark you as mine.”
“God, Hunter.”
He lifted my hands over my head and clasped them together using one hand while the other reached down between my legs. “Spread for me, beautiful.”
I did, and Hunter’s head dipped down to suck one nipple into his mouth while his fingers worked my clit. I moaned while he rubbed circles with his thumb. He slipped two fingers inside of me to make sure I was ready and then shifted back to align himself with my opening.
He never took his eyes from mine as he entered me. I was so wet, so incredibly ready for him. I wrapped my legs around his waist as he pushed in deep. Hunter’s arms began to shake. “Fuck. You feel … so, so good…”
He started slow, moving in and out and studying the reaction on my face to each thrust. Closing his eyes, he looked like he wanted to savor every minute of the first time inside me bare, but when I moaned and said come inside of me, his willpower snapped.
What started out as making love elevated to fucking. Pure, primal fucking. Hunter pounded into me hard, his face desperate with need. Our bodies were soaked with sweat as we moved in unison, me meeting each of his strong thrusts. The sound of wet, slapping bodies echoed through the room and was the most erotic thing I’d ever heard.
“Hunter…”
“Fuck. Come, baby. Come with me. I’m gonna come inside your sweet pussy.”
We both exploded at the same time. I yelled his name and moaned, the heat of him emptying inside of me fueling the most intense orgasm of my life. It was the single most incredible feeling I’d ever experienced.
As we slowed, Hunter brushed the hair from my face and continued to glide in and out while we both caught our breath. “I love you, sweet pea.”
“I love you, too. I think you stole a piece of my heart the first night we met.”
“I’m charming and hard to resist.”
“Um … I think I did a pretty good job of resisting. You had to chase me for almost a year and come three thousand miles to wear me down.”
“I got news for you, babe. A year was nothing. And I would have chased you across the globe. I thought I couldn’t get you out of my mind, but it was my heart that wouldn’t let go.”
Epilogue
— Natalia —
TWO AND A HALF YEARS LATER
I snuck out while Hunter was still sleeping and ran over to Anna’s house to pick up the gift I’d bought him.
He was awake and in the kitchen when I attempted to sneak back into the house. Since the music was on, he didn’t hear me come inside, which gave me an opportunity to ogle him from behind. The four years since we’d first met at our friends’ wedding had done nothing to dull the desire I felt for this man. Little butterflies fluttered in the pit of my belly as I watched him shirtless, swaying to the music while he fixed his coffee.
Sex, not love. That’s how it all started. I smiled, thinking of how grumpy my man had been the last month when I’d declared Love, not sex for the thirty days leading up to our wedding.
Hunter yelled without turning around, causing me to jump since I didn’t think he’d known I was watching him. But he always knew, didn’t he? It was like he had a sixth sense. He walked to me with two mugs in his hands and passed me one as he planted a firm kiss on my lips.
“Where’d you take off to so early?”
I flashed a sneaky smile. “I had to pick something up.”
He wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me tight. “Lingerie for later? Hope it wasn’t too expensive because I plan to rip it off of you the minute the minister says you officially belong to me.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck. “First of all, it’s not lingerie. I’ll be commando under my pretty white dress this afternoon. You’re not the only one who doesn’t want to waste time removing another layer of clothing. Secondly, we have to get through the dinner with our friends and family before you rip anything off. And lastly…” I brushed my lips to his. “I’ve belonged to you since the day you showed up at my mother’s house and won over all of the women in my family.”
Hunter’s face softened. “I just can’t wait until it’s official, Natalia Delucia.”
“Me, too. But let me go get your gift. Izzy’s going to be here in about an hour, and then the hair-and-makeup guy and Anna will be here a little while after that.”
I’d left his present in the truck, so I extricated myself from my soon-to-be husband’s arms and headed back outside. I stopped with my hand on the front doorknob and turned back. “Oh, and Izzy is bringing a friend. So, be nice.”
“A friend? Her name better be Mary, Martha, or Sally.”
I shook my head. “His name is Gaige. And she really seems to like him. So try not to scare him away like you did the last one.” We couldn’t even talk about what he’d said to the guy he’d caught making out with Izzy on Parents’ Day at UCLA without getting into a fight all over again. Turns out Hunter was even more protective than Izzy’s father. Thankfully, Garrett and I had struck an agreement on shared custody of Izzy while she finished her last two years of high school back in New York. Once she’d graduated and decided to go to UCLA, the timing was finally right to make my move out to California. I had everything I could ever dream of here—my best friend, my daughter, a beautiful home, a great new job, and the man of my dreams.
Hunter mumbled, “I’ll gauge how hard I’m going to kick this one’s ass.”
I ignored him and headed to the car for his gift. I’d thrown a blanket over the cage to keep him warm, but it also served as a wrapping of sorts. Inside, Hunter’s face was definitely showing confusion as he watched me drag in a two-foot-by-three-foot rectangular box covered with a blanket.
“Happy wedding day!” I smiled and set the covered cage down.
“You got me a dollhouse?”
I laughed because that was a pretty damn good guess. It did look like a dollhouse. But the noise that squalled from inside the cage confirmed it was anything but.
“Fottiti!”
Hunter jumped back. “What the…?”
I cracked up at the big man’s reaction. Lifting the blanket off, I revealed his wedding day gift—a giant scarlet macaw. It was the most vibrantly colored bird I’d ever seen, with bright blue, yellow, and red feathers.
“This is Arnold.”
“You bought me a bird?” Hunter’s face lit up like a ten-year-old boy.
I nodded. “Figured it was about time you put all those birdhouses to use. You said you always wanted one growing up, but your mom wouldn’t let you have one.”
“They can live, like, fifty years. She knew she didn’t have that long.”
I opened the cage and put my hand in for Arnold to perch on. He jumped on right away. “Well, you do have another fifty years, Mr. Delucia. We have another fifty years to take care of Arnold.”
Hunter gazed at me. “We really could have that long together, couldn’t we?”
“I hope so.”
Hunter leaned in to kiss me, and just before our lips touched, Arnold squawked again.
“Fottiti.”
“What is he saying? For titty? I think this bird was meant to be mine.”
I laughed. “Oh, no. He’s saying fottiti. There’re two things that made me buy Arnold. Fottiti is one of them. When I started looking at birds, I visited a bunch of shops. Last week I was in Tropical Paradise checking out the cages when I ran across Arnold. He kept yelling that word, but I had no idea what it meant … until my mother happened to call and hear it in the background. Apparently, fottiti is Italian for go fuck yourself. My mother was horrified, but I thought it was hysterical. Turns out Arnold here is eight years old. His previous owners—Giuseppe and Gianna Moretti—sold him back to the pet store because they were getting divorced. I thought poor Arnold here could use a happy home, and we could teach him some nice words to go with his singular vocabulary.”
“It’s fitting that we have a bird that curses in Italian.”
“Isn’t it?”
“What was the other thing?”
“Huh?”
“You said there were two things that made you buy him.”
“Oh!” I reached into my back pocket. “This is the freakiest thing. It sealed the deal that Arnold was meant to be our bird.”
I handed Hunter the paperwork the store had given me. The top page was the bill of sale. It listed all the relevant information, including the bird’s name, sex, breed, his sire and dam, and … the bird’s date of birth.
I waited for the reaction as Hunter perused the document. When his eyes went wide, I knew he’d read the date of birth.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“Nope.” Our new boy had been born the same day as Hunter’s brother.
“You know that’s Jayce’s birthday.”
“Yep. I’d say this foul-mouthed bird was meant to be with us, wouldn’t you?”
After Hunter thanked me for his gift—and tried to feel me up in the process—he told me to wait in the living room because he had a little something for me, too.
He handed me a black box with a silver bow. Arnold was perched on his shoulder. I got the feeling he would be spending a lot of time there.
“It’s not nearly as awesome as Arnold, but this is for you.”
I slipped off the bow and opened the box. My eyes flared. “Is this…?”
Hunter flashed an impish grin. “It is.”
I lifted the familiar blue garter out of the box. It was the one he’d caught at Anna and Derek’s wedding and put on my leg after I’d caught the bouquet. “I asked twice if you knew what happened to this, and you said no.”
“I know. I lied. Something just told me I needed to keep it. I think deep down I knew I’d be taking it off your leg someday when I made you my wife. And even though I thought forever was impossible at the time, I held on to that thing like hope I refused to give up.”
“That’s the most romantic thing anyone has ever said.” I reached out and linked my fingers with his.
Of course, he used the connection to yank me against him. “Oh yeah? Does that buy me admission to your pants now?”
* * *
I married Hunter Delucia at dusk in a small ceremony in our backyard with our families and friends watching. I’d put tea light candles in all of the birdhouses that hung in the tree we stood beneath. It made it feel like his mother and brother were watching over us from above.
We’d found true love and health and were happy beyond what either of us could have ever imagined. When the minister said he could kiss the bride, my teary-eyed husband cupped my cheeks.
“I love you, Natalia Delucia. You’ve showed me what living means, and my heart will always be yours.”
His lips came down on mine before I could reciprocate the sentiment. But he knew. He knew.
I used to think Hunter Delucia had stolen a piece of my heart. But I was wrong. Because eventually, even the heart stops beating. This man stole a piece of my soul—because the soul lives forever, and so will my love for this beautiful man.
Epilogue
— Hunter —
TEN MONTHS AFTER THE WEDDING
“Did you figure out a name yet?” Izzy ran the side of her knuckle along Baby Girl Delucia’s cheek.
“Well it certainly isn’t going to be Sebastian,” I said. After months of fighting over our soon-to-be son’s name, Nat and I had finally settled on Sebastian Jayce. I think we were both still a little shell-shocked from when the doctor lifted the baby last night and announced, “It’s a Girl!” We’d had two sonograms, and both times the technician seemed pretty confident the baby was a boy. Apparently, the umbilical cord sometimes becomes positioned in a way that made it appear to be a penis.
“What about Elizabeth?” Izzy said. “Then we can call her Lizzy for short and be Izzy and Lizzy?”
I chuckled. “I’m not even going to attempt to come up with names. Whenever I pick anything, Nat wrinkles her nose. But a month later, when she comes up with the same damn name, it’s a great idea.”
Izzy looked up at me, her eyes filled with mischief. “Can we take her socks off again?”
“What is with you and your sister’s toes?”
“I have no idea. But I really want to play with those little sausages some more.”
I smiled. “Go for it.”
The bathroom door opened, and Nat walked out shuffling her feet in her slippers.
“Any luck?” I asked.
Her shoulders slumped. “No.”
“How about if I go out and find a nurse and ask if she can give you something now that this little guy … I mean girl … is on the outside? Just a little something to help you go.”
The last few months of pregnancy had been tough on Nat. She’d had constant sciatic pain shooting down her leg, couldn’t seem to stay asleep more than an hour at a time, and had terrible hormone-induced constipation. The latter could’ve been helped with over-the-counter medication, but my wife wouldn’t even take an aspirin during her pregnancy.
Nat nodded. “Yeah, that would be great. Thanks.”
While I was out at the nurse’s station, the Rossi girl gang arrived. They had balloons, flowers, and more gift bags than they could carry. Then I got a load of Bella, Nat’s mom.
I pointed to the large pot in her hand. “Is that what I think it is?”
She smiled. “I made you meatballs and sauce. You can’t eat the disgusting hospital food.”
Alegra smirked. “You made who meatballs, Ma? I thought those were for Nat.”
Bella’s eyes narrowed at her daughter. “Stop being fresh.”
We all laughed. It had been a running family joke that Momma Bella had a secret crush on me. I didn’t know if it was true, but when she liked you, she cooked your favorites. So I might’ve played into it occasionally.
I took the pot out of my mother-in-law’s hands and leaned down and kissed her cheek. “Thank you for making these. Go on in. I’m just waiting for the nurse to get something for Nat.”
It couldn’t have taken more than five minutes for the nurse to come back with medicine for Nat. But when I walked into the room, I thought I was in the wrong one for a second.
“Did someone vomit pink in here?”
Everywhere I looked was washed in pastel pink. Pink balloons, pink flowers, even pink streamers were draped across the room. Just minutes ago, my daughter had been wearing a baby-blue onesie with matching baby-blue pants. Now she was clad head-to-toe in pink—pink headband, pink shirt, pink shoes, pink swaddling blanket. These nutjobs had even changed the tiny sheet in her bassinet to pink.
Nat’s sister Francesca jumped down from a chair after finishing tacking up the last of the pink streamers. She smacked her hands together. “The princess needed a few things.”
“Yeah, some sane relatives.”
It was a good thing we lucked out and Nat was the only person in this two-person room, because the Rossi ladies took it over during their visit. Bella whipped out plates and silverware and started to fix everyone heaping plates of food. Nicola played “Brilla Brilla La Stellina”—the Italian version of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”—from her phone while all five Rossi ladies sang along at the tops of their lungs. Apparently their grandmother had taught them all the nursery rhyme as soon as they were old enough to talk. Alegra even made herself comfortable on the empty hospital bed next to her sister. It was a little bit of insanity whenever they were all together, but a whole lot of love.
The Rossi ladies stayed for the better part of an hour, until the nurse came in and told them Nat needed her rest. She’d delivered our girl at two in the morning. It was hard to believe that was only sixteen hours ago. A few minutes after the room was emptied of everyone except Izzy, me, and the baby, Nat drifted off to sleep.
“I should go, too,” Izzy said. “I have an exam tomorrow afternoon.”
She leaned down to the bassinet and gently rubbed her nose with the baby’s. “Love you, pumpkin pie.”
“Thanks for staying all this time, Izzy.”
“Of course. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.” She nibbled on her bottom lip for a moment before speaking again. “I’ve been thinking … You know how little kids sometimes get confused and call someone their uncle when it’s not really their uncle? Like if they’re hanging around other kids who call that person Uncle because the person is actually their uncle?”
I had no idea where she was going with this, yet I shrugged. “I guess.”
“Well, maybe it would be less confusing if I called you Dad, instead of Hunter.”
My jaw dropped open.
Izzy looked up and saw my face, then added, “You know, it would be easier for the baby and all.”
I’d miraculously made it through the last twenty-four hours without crying, but that did it. I broke. My eyes welled up, and I tasted salt in my throat.
“You wanna call me Dad?”
She nodded her head. “If that’s okay with you.”
I lost the fight to stop the waterworks. Fat tears streaked down my face. “It would make me the happiest guy in the world for you to call me Dad, Izzy.”
My amazing stepdaughter wrapped her arms around me and squeezed. I followed suit, holding her tight. Emotional moments with Izzy were rare and had to be held on to for as long as possible. When her grip loosened, I kissed the top of her head.
