Doing It for Love (All About Love #1) (23 page)

He winks at me, and I shimmy at him just as my mom turns around.

“Elizabeth Ann!”

“What?”

She shakes her head. “I’ll get the microphone and announce you two are leaving.”

Before she gets too far, I snag her arm and give her an airtight hug.

“Thank you for all of this, Momma.”

She squeezes back, and we stay that way through half a song. When she pulls back, she dabs at her eye.

“Stop that,” I say, fixing my makeup as well.

“You have fun tonight. And just remember, you have an entire life to have Operation Great Sex.”

“Mom.”

“I’m just saying…”

She fixes my hair, and then walks to the stage. Landon catches my wrist and pulls me through the dance floor and into a side hallway…where we find Jace with a wedding guest.

“Oh, hey,” he says, the girl obviously not caring they were just walked in on, since she’s still kissing his neck. “Uh, congrats, you guys.”

Landon laughs and pulls me into another hallway.

“It’s not a wedding without that, right?” I tell him, but my laughter stops when he pushes me against the wall. Fire licks up my stomach, heart beating in a race. His lips are close, and he smells like aftershave and frosting. He puts one hand above my head, leaning in only to look at me with his piercing gray eyes.

“Hi,” he says.

“Hi,” I say back, breath suddenly knocked from my lungs.

“I want you.”

“Okay!”

“Shh…” He laughs and presses a finger to my lips. “I want to show you something.”

“Landon, keep it in your pants.”

He pushes his hand into his jacket pocket and pulls out a hotel key. “Gift from my mom and dad. The bridal suite.”

“No.” I yank the thing out of his hand to make sure it’s real.

“Yeah. Couldn’t believe it either.”

The guests in the hall disappear from my head. All of them. I forget that Mom hasn’t made our exit announcement, and I grab Landon’s lapel and pull him to the elevator. I don’t even have to wait till the doors close and his hands are all over me. I thought I was tired, but we’re doing this. We
are
strawberries and whipped cream.

The suite is bigger than our apartment, and there’s a giant bottle of champagne in an ice bucket and the TV covers practically the whole wall, and the bathtub…Landon and I will have no trouble having sex in there.

“Your parents win,” I say, leaping onto the bed with a giant smile on my face.

“No talk of parents in bed,” he scolds, hopping up next to me. My veil keeps tickling his chin, so he leans up on an elbow and puts a hand on my stomach.

“You look so hot,” I tell him, scratching my nails over his smooth face. “Shave more often.”

“I thought you liked my whiskers.”

“Only when you’re going down on me.”

He laughs, tossing his head back to the mattress. “That didn’t take long.”

“What?”

“For you to get naughty.” He hoists himself off the bed, then reaches out to help me. When I’m upright he grasps my hips and pulls me in to him, sending butterflies with jetpacks zooming around in my stomach.

“We’re going all night. Then all day tomorrow. Then the entire week of this honeymoon, because Lord Landon has been very blue. He misses his home.”

“That is the sexiest thing you’ve ever said to me.”

Landon chuckles and squeezes my waist twice. I take his hands and squeeze back. He looks at me as if I’ve fallen from the stars, his gray eyes burning every inch of my skin, my dress, my veil, even my manicured fingernails. There’s a slight pull of his lips before he says, “I don’t know if I want to take you out of this.” His hand curves up the bodice of my dress, and goose bumps cascade over my abdomen.

I reach to his tie and unhook the knot. “I
know
I want you out of this.”

Hot butterflies parade through my stomach as he laughs against my cheek. I love that he still does that to me. It’s not just the anticipation of making love…but making love
with him
. My husband. I have a hubby now. He’s mine, mine, mine, and those butterflies swarm under my skin and I unbutton his top button, second button, third, fourth, fifth. I tumble my fingernails over the ridges of his stomach, kiss his chest where his heartbeat pounds under my lips. It’s not just his body that is mine, but his everything.

He swipes a thumb across my cheek, and I didn’t even realize I was crying, because I feel so warm and my mouth won’t do anything but smile. Landon strokes my hair, unlatching the clip holding my veil in. It slips through his fingers, grazing my shoulder as it floats to the floor. When his eyes meet mine, they glass over, but he smiles and cups my face like I’m made of fragile cotton candy.

“You’re my wife,” he whispers. As if it’s a prayer, a hope, a dream he never thought would come to reality. Mint breath covers my mouth before he drops a chaste kiss to my lips. “Mine.” His hands roam now, and mine grip his open shirt. He pulls me tight against his frame, his face burrows into my neck, and his hot hand splays across my exposed upper back. “You know what this means, right?”

“Sex!” I blurt, and he pulls away, laughter playing on his lips.

“It means you’re my family now.” His fingers lace with mine, and he brings them to his mouth. Then I kiss his knuckles in return. If he wants to be romantic and sweet tonight, that’s completely what I want, too.

Landon tucks my blond curls over my shoulder, walking around so he’s behind me. He pulls on my zipper, warm palms dip under the fabric, and he wastes no time sliding them around my stomach, then up to my breasts.

“What…is this?” he asks, pinching and flicking the material around my torso, and I realize that…I’m still wearing Spanx .

“Oh, balls.” I jerk out of his hold and start backward toward the bathroom.

His lips twitch up in his really-trying-not-to-laugh smirk. “Is that what married-people lingerie is?”

“You shut your mouth.”

I hold my dress closed and kick my bag into the large vanity area. “Two seconds.”

“Liz…”

“Please?”

“I wanted to take you out of that.” He nods to my gown.

“I promise you’ll want to get me out of what I put on.”

He sighs, shrugging out of his shirt. I hear him slump on the bed right before I shut the door to the bathroom.

Once I have it locked, I let the dress fall down my torso and I immediately yank on the skintight underwear. I make a lot of bizarre noises, wiggling and jumping and trying to get these things off, but it seems every ounce of sweat I accumulated today has molded itself into the material that has glued itself to me.

“Okay…“I blow out a breath and lean against the counter. I’ve only been able to free about an inch of my stomach.

“Tumbles? It’s been much longer than two seconds!” I hear Landon call out, and I make a face in the mirror.

“Patience, you animal!”

Then visions of him sprawled out naked in our hotel suite and the sweet, sweet love we’re about to make jolt me upright, and I tuck my thumbs into the material on each side and tug so hard on the Spanx I form red marks.

And the damn things won’t budge.

My hair falls into my face, and I shove it back, search my bag for a hair tie, and get the strands off of my now heated skin. Frustration and struggling isn’t helping the sweat factor, and I try again to wiggle out of my underwear. And again. And, damn it all to hell, I need butter or oil or scissors.

The sound from the TV filters in and I slump on top of the toilet, wishing the things would tear in half as I bend. It’s not a bad idea since I’m sort of losing it, so I reach down and touch my toes, I twist my torso, I do the splits on the bathroom tile, and if anything I’ve made the material roll up my thighs and get stuck in my pelvic crease.

I fall against the floor, grateful we’re in a nice enough hotel that I’m pretty sure the tile is cleaner than the bathroom I have at home, and I’m so far gone that I start laughing. Of course this happens. Nothing ever runs one-hundred-percent smoothly. I grapple for my bag one more time, twisting to my stomach.

“Please have something sharp,” I whisper to the contents. If not, I’m going to have to get Landon in here. Nothing sexier than helping your wife get out of her Spanx.

“Ah ha!” I shout to the heavens, pulling my nail kit out. I sit up, ready the toe-nail clippers, and start clipping away at the fabric that was probably made by Houdini.

Landon asks me what I’m doing three more times while I cut myself out. I just tell him I’m making myself irresistibly sexy, and he says something sweet like “You’re already at that point,” but he can’t see me on the floor of the bathroom stuck in my underwear, sweat rolling down my temples.

Finally, when I get close to my hip, I take both ends of the material and rip myself free, bursting forth like Superman about to save the planet from an oncoming meteor.

“Aaaaaaah….” I sigh, collapsing once again on the cool floor. I’m half tempted to take a quick nap so I can regain some strength before riding my husband into Chocolateville. But I’ve already made him wait so long. Not just tonight. He’s waited five months.

Once I find the motivation, I slowly get to my feet and gaze at my exhausted and sweaty body in the mirror. It almost looks as if I had sex all by my lonesome in here, my perfectly curled hair now carelessly wrapped in an impromptu bun, chest rising and falling with every quick breath, and skin red and glistening. I probably smell so fabulous.

After swipes of deodorant and spritzes of body spray that don’t seem to take, I say, “Screw it,” and hop into the shower. Then I dry, blow dry, primp, and slip into the royal blue bustier I got last night at my bachelorette party. I pucker my lips and shake my ass, examining myself in the mirror. Landon won’t be sorry at all that he had to wait so long.

“Husband…” I call out, stepping into the suite with gusto. “What do you—”

I stop midsentence, staring at Landon’s form on the bed. His mouth is wide open, face half stuffed into the pillow, and only his butt is covered by a strip of the comforter.

“Landon?” I hiss, taking cautious steps forward. He makes no attempt to move.

Holding back a small laugh, I slide onto the bed and gently tap on his arm. Nothing.

“Are you seriously sleeping?” I whisper, hoping he’s playing possum just to tease me. But he doesn’t flinch, doesn’t stir, doesn’t crack a smile. I put a finger under his nose just to be sure he’s still breathing.

Well, guess I could wake him up in a fun way, but he looks so out of it, so relaxed, and I…I’m
jealous
. I want to sleep too. I want to sleep on my wedding night. What was the point of the last five months other than to bring me to the edge of my sanity?!

I let out a large breath, half hoping it wakes him up and half relieved it doesn’t. Sliding into the sheets, I curl up beside his naked body, adjusting the comforter so he’s completely covered. He still doesn’t move, and as I trace his lips with my manicured fingernail all thoughts of why I wanted to wait evaporate, because
every
time with Landon has been epic. From the first time he knocked me out of my chair in our theater class to this moment here. The awkward first kiss we had, the accidental slip, the naked argument fail…and I’m sure there will be more. With pregnancy, menopause, our bodies changing and growing and adjusting to those changes, there are bound to be some sexual blunders. But I love him. He loves me. I find such satisfaction in that alone that every moment with him will be double-fudge raspberry cheesecake.

So instead of waking him up, I fall asleep in his arms, completely satisfied with how our night ends.

Landon wakes me up with a huge snort, scaring me so much I slip off the bed and hit the floor of our suite.

“Holy mother of all pains in the asses!” I screech from the carpet.

The mattress creaks, and Landon rolls onto the floor next to me. He looks more awake now than he did a few hours ago.

“I’m sorry, miss,” he says, getting the sleep out of his voice, “but you say you have a pain in your ass?”

“It’s
Mrs
.” I correct him, then turn around and shove my butt in his face. “It’s terribly bruised.”

“I have the cure for that right here.” Fingers pull my lacy bottoms down. Wet lips press on my ass cheek.

“You missed,” I say, wiggling. “It’s the other side.”

“It’s hard to see when you move so much,” he teases, then kisses my other cheek.

“I have so many pains in my ass,” I cry with dramatic flair, and he starts kissing all over, leaving no skin of my ass uncured.

“Anywhere else,
Mrs.
Wangford?”

“Oh my breasts. They are in need of curing.”

“Why is that?”

“They’ve been in this restrictive material all night.” I tug at my bustier. “They need to be freed and rained with that cure of yours.”

He flips me around, and I “Oof!” as my shoulders hit hard against the floor.

“Sorry.”

“Kiss it better.”

“Like this?”

“Lower.”

“Here?”

“Lower.”

“Ah, I see the boo-boo.”

I laugh. “You said boo-boo. Like I’m two years old.”

“If you’re surprised by my level of maturity I have to wonder if you’ve been paying much attention these past four years.”

His lips drag across my abdomen, kissing near my hipbone.

“What happened here?”

“Nicked myself with the nail clippers.”

“A little far from your fingernails, don’t you think?”

“I wasn’t using them on my nails.”

“Cutting yourself out of your underwear?” He laughs like it’s a joke, but when he sees my expression he laughs even harder. “
That’s
what took you so long? Shoot…Tumbles, I would’ve ripped the thing off you.”

“Yes, because that’s so hot.”

“Instead, I fell asleep waiting hours and hours for you to dance for me.”

“Who said I was going to dance for you?”

He sticks his bottom lip out, and I push his face away.

“Well, sit up so I can give you a show,” I huff in a faux sigh. He grins wide, perches himself against the mattress, Lord Landon rising to get a good look.

I’m not a dancer, but I manage a great running man and sprinkler in my royal blue bustier.

“Come here, you vixen,” Landon says, grasping my hips and pulling me into him. His face is so smooth. I drag my tongue across his jaw because I can’t help myself. Then I lean back with a wrinkled nose.

“I bet that tasted good.” He laughs.

“What is on your neck?”

“Cologne.”

I smack my tongue against the roof of my mouth. “I need a mint.”

He puts his hand on the back of my neck and pulls me to his lips. “This’ll taste better.” And we tangle our tongues, and his breath hasn’t reached the morning stage yet since it’s still dark outside, so we must’ve only napped for a couple of hours.

He does taste better than his cologne.

“Can we have sex now?” I whisper against his mouth. His lips turn up and he adjusts my hips. I waste no time in grinding on him like I’m Buster on the hump pillow.

“Whoa there, Tumbles. Let me…” Then he pulls at my thong, moving the material enough so it’s out of the way. I’m not completely ready to settle on him just yet, so I quickly put his fingers in my mouth and force them to help me out. Landon’s laughing at my impatience, but he’s not stopping me either.

When I’m good and wet, I slam down on him, and both of us let out this entirely embarrassing grunt that I’m pretty sure the whole city heard. I prepare my thrusters, noticing Chocolateville in the distance. The graham cracker Ferris wheel and cookies ’n’ cream roller coaster looks pretty darn good, so I pick up speed, racing toward the main attractions. I can’t go slowly. My hips won’t let me. They rock and rock, and I curl my fingers into the sheets by Landon’s head, pulling them so hard I cover his face.

Landon grunts from underneath the bedspread, sliding his hands up to the ladies. “Liz, you gotta…”

And the rest of his sentence is obliterated as I burst through the gates of Chocolateville. I move at the speed of light, wondering how long the ride will be and knowing this is the first time I get to ride with my husband. I open my eyes, and Landon’s removed the sheet, his forehead strained, concentrated,
sweaty
, and I say something unintelligible and close my eyes again.

I’m starting to cramp up. Damn, it’s been a while. But I will not let this get in the way. I adjust my hips, cringing at the pain in my leg, but continue to ride Landon’s brains out. Our thighs are slick, and his grip slips all over my torso when I finally push through the cramp.

I taste chocolate on the tip of my tongue. I feel the lift deep in my belly, and I know I’m about ten seconds away from falling. I’ve missed him so much. He feels so good and so familiar, and yet it feels new and exciting, too, and I can’t wait to do this with him for the rest of our lives.

I taste more chocolate.

More.

And more.

And…

“I…I’m sorry,” Landon stutters as he shakes under me.

I slowly stop my hips with a bittersweet chocolaty aftertaste. Lord Landon has abdicated his throne right as I was about to nose-dive into sweet double-fudge raspberry cheesecake. Landon’s hands squeeze my waist, and I open my eyes to his apologetic face.

“Damn it, I’m so sorry.” He blows out a breath and curses. “It’s been forever, and he just…” His hand waves out, finishing the sentence for him.

I bite my lips, slump against him, and hold him close. “Looks like I still got it.”

“Give me ten minutes and I’ll get you going, I promise.”

“Landon, it’s okay.” And as I look into his eyes, I realize that…I totally mean it. “No, it’s
more
than okay. It was wonderful.”

“Shit.”

“Stop that.”

“Please don’t propose another five months sex-free.”

“We are definitely not doing that again.”

He kisses my shoulder, both of us doused in sweat that is turning cold. “Are you tired?” he asks.

“No way.”

“There’s something I want to do for you.”

“Give Lord Landon a rest for a bit.”

He laughs under me. “I will. I meant something else.”