Wide Spaces (A Wide Awake Novella, Book 2) (11 page)

"I don't care about any of that. I just wanted you."

I chuckled. "Wow. You are feeding my ego like a prisoner's last meal."

Sh
e bit her lip, the corner of her mouth lifting. "It's true." She looked up at the stars and then back down to me with a strange look. "Can I ask you something?"

I knew what was coming. "You wanna know why I brought you here instead of straight
to the B&B to ravage you in our room."

She huffed a small laugh and nodded. "Yeah. Not that I'm not happy right now. I love that yo
u brought me here, to this spot. It's so ridiculously sweet of you. I was just…curious."

I licked my lip before speaking. "I want you so bad.
" I could hear her breaths."I've wanted you for months and you've made it very…difficult." She just smiled at that. "But this spot right here, on this picnic table, where I brought you to spill my guts? I used to lie out here at night. It felt like the only place in the world that I was the same person I used to be. I brought you here because more than wanting to make love to you, I wanted to
show
you how much I loved you first."

"
I love this spot," she said. "Thank you." I smiled and nodded once, knowing over the years that we would spend hours and hours out there. "So you want me?" she breathed.

"You know I do," I said, pressing against her from toe to chest. "
And now that you see how much I love you and how happy I am to have you here with me…are you ready to go?"

She nodded, biting her lip again. I quirked a brow. "Nervous?"She nodded again. "Why, baby?"

"It's a good nervous, not bad. I know I'm not a virgin or anything, but I still feel like one. Mainly, I just want to," she took a deep breath, "do things right."

I felt the breath slam in my throat. "Are you serious?" I whispered.

She nodded and squinted her eyes. "Yes."

She thought I was making fun, I realized. I smoothed her cheek with my gloved finger. "Em, I don't think…there's anything you can do that won't be the right thing. Don't you see how
crazy you make me when you just look at me? All you have to do is touch me and I'm
gone
."

She eyed my face for a few moments. Then, h
er lips parted and she leaned up taking my bottom lip into her mouth and sucked.

I groan
ed loudly, my eyes rolling. "Em, do you really think you don't completely own me?" Her leg hooked over my hip. I groaned again as her hips rolled under mine.

She pressed her lips to my cheek and said in the sexiest, huskiest, most
gulp-inducing voice I'd ever heard from that mouth, "I'm ready to go, Mason."

I kissed her with a slow burning passion that surprised even me. My insides quivered with the force of it. But instead, I found myself worshipping her mouth, adoring her lips and tongue, the way they sought my own with such enthu
siasm.

I savored her every moan, noise, gasp and flick of her tongue. I could have taken her right there
on the picnic table in my backyard under the stars, but when we heard a door shut, I knew the nurse had brought my mom home.

And
I was only interested in my wife tonight.

So I helped my giggling wife as we
crawled down from the table, sprinted across the yard, and around the side of the house by my old shop to the truck. The drive was short, but felt like forever as she kissed my neck and ran her hand up my leg. I did my own gasping, kissing her as much as I could while still driving in the lines. She hung onto my neck as I rubbed my hand down her leg and back up to the inside of her thigh.

W
hen we pulled into the B&B, I slammed on the brakes sideways in the parking lot, taking up way more than one spot. We practically ran upstairs and I was surprised when we bumped into Rob and Patrice in the hall.

"You're just
now getting here?" Rob asked like he couldn't believe it."Where have you been?"

"We had…an errand t
o run," I told him as we maneuvered around them.

"Uh." H
e chuckled like he didn't understand at all. "OK. Well, I was thinking that we could meet up for breakfast or—"

"Rob, shut up," Patrice insiste
d and looked back at us apologetically. I grinned my gratefulness. "Sorry. We're sure you'd like to
be alone now."
She glared over at him, hoping he'd get the message.

"We do
. Night!" I called over my shoulder and towed Em into the room with me. Rob was asking her what the problem was when I shut the door and locked it.

Without another word, I pushed my wife gently to the door. She was already unbuttoning her jacket and I helped her as I kissed her. Then my jacket was next. She reached on her tiptoes as she
kissed me and yanked my jacket down my arms. The next thing to go was our boots. I kicked off mine and then knelt down to take off hers. I let my hands travel her jeaned legs all the way up to her hips as I stood.

When she reached for the hem of my shirt, I let her do it without my help, just lifting my arms and then pressing her there again
. I watched her face as I pulled her shirt up slowly over her head. Her eyes never left mine except when the fabric passed over her face. She licked her lips before wrapping her hand around the back of my neck and tugging me down to her.

I lifted her easily, my hand
s under her thighs, and pressed her to the door gently. I was in no hurry. As long as I had her in my arms, we had this room for an entire four days. I wanted to savor every second of it and make her absolutely never want to leave this room again.

After
a long time—minutes, hours, could have been days—I let her down to remove the rest of the barriers of clothing, the final pieces that would make us one. I pressed her arms above her head and whispered for her to stay just like that. She obeyed as I unbuttoned her jeans, kneeling down in front of her to tug them down. I felt my swift intake of breath at what I found. On her thigh, sitting right where it had been all night taunting me, was the blue garter belt I bought for her. The growl that reverberated through me couldn't be stopped. I let my eyes lift to hers and she was wearing a little sideways smile that said she was enjoying my reaction. I finished pulling her jeans off, one leg and then the other. My eyes only left hers when I leaned in to run my fingers underneath the band of that garter. She shivered and shivered again when I kissed the place where the garter met her skin.

I stood and t
he rest of our clothes dissolved by my nimble fingers, everything except that garter belt. That was staying on. We searched each other with our eyes and the tips of our fingers.

When I carried her to the bed
, that we didn't even know the color of, she didn't hold back. And true to my word, I was
gone
.

To remain in l
ove for a lifetime : listen actively to your partner, ask questions, give answers, appreciate, stay attractive, include your partner, give him/her privacy, be honest and trustworthy, tell your mate what you need, accept his/her shortcomings as who they are, give respect in all things, never threaten to leave, say 'no' to adultery, and cultivate variety in your activities to keep things fresh. You can never say 'I love you' too many times and you should say it every day. Even though you've been together forever it seems, you should still continue to 'date' your mate and find new ways to fall in love with them every. Single. Day.

Emma

A slow burning passion was what I got that first time. It was just as important, if not more so, than an unbridled one. They each have a purpose and each have a way of changing you forever.

And I was changed.

The next time and the time after that was more of the unbridled variety, and then he went back to slow burning. I was glad for the four days we had in that room. I was elated that I never knew what he was going to do next. I decided it was a gift that I couldn't remember all those times with Andy that I read about in my diary, because this what how it was supposed to be. I wasn't thinking about anything else, any other times, the way things might feel different. No. It was just Mason.
              We finally came down for breakfast the next day, but it was officially lunch. I couldn't look anyone in the eye. It was hilarious. They knew what we had been doing all night and all morning. It was so weird! Mason laughed at me and didn't hide his smug smile a bit as we ate the eggs and sausage they warmed up for us. He would lean over and kiss me for no reason and then go back to his plate. Then out of nowhere, he would lean in and kiss me again, longer, harder this time, before sitting up straight. He paid no attention to anything going on around us—just me and the food on his plate he needed to replenish his strength.

I closed my eyes
and barely suppressed my groan thinking about how amazing Mason had been with me. He seemed to know exactly what I wanted. When I wanted slow, he went slow. When I wanted more…he gave me more. I learned every tattoo on his body and there were a lot. He had one on his lower stomach of a crow that I had never even seen before. He said it was his very first tattoo. He thought it was 'cool' and didn't even know the meaning behind it or anything before having someone slap it on him. Now he loved it, because it was what got him into wanting to do tattoos in the first place.

And the
Em
over his heart? I kissed that ink over and over again, absolutely dying with the way his arms flexed and the muscles moved against my skin as they held me close.

In between
those times, he would pull me to lay on his chest and we talked as he played with my fingers in the dark room. We talked about everything. He told me stories about his mom when they were younger. Stories about the stupid things he and his friends used to do, stories about him and Milo when they were kids. I knew he was thinking about Milo coming to the wedding like that. I wondered if he had come to the same conclusion I had about how Milo knew about it. I felt a twinge of regret that I didn't have any stories that I could remember to tell. He just kissed me and shook his head, telling me we'd make new ones together. We only wound up sleeping about five hours all together, but that was more than OK.

When Patrice and Rob came downstairs with their bags in their hands
, Mason just tipped his head to them, took my hand, and towed me back upstairs, unwilling to add anyone to our honeymoon. I giggled at him and heard Rob laughing behind us.

After a while of napping and
delivered pizza while we watched a Christmas movie, among other things, it was dark when we decided to come back down again. We changed into our swimming suits and though the tub in our room was nice, very nice, we decided to put the amenities of this place to use.

It felt weird to get in a Jacuzzi when there was snow outside, but the back deck was glassed in
, a pretty sun porch with flowers and plants everywhere. The ceiling had soft white Christmas-like lights. It was completely perfect and I wondered if the place in the mountains would have been like this.

It
felt right to be there.

Mason
got in, tossing his towel over the back of the chair before leaning back against the side. The
Em
tattoo sat just above the water. I took off my robe, enjoying the way his eyes followed my every move. I had packed one of the skimpy little red things the old me called a bathing suit for the honeymoon. 

I stepped in and he held his hand out to help me in. I settled ri
ght onto his lap, his arms snaking around my waist.

"Nice suit," he practically growled.

I laughed and stage whispered close to his mouth, "You've seen me naked. Why do you like it so much?"

"Because…it's hot," he replied against my throat.

"That explains it," I joked. "Same reason why guys like lingerie so much?"

He did a half-gasp, half-
sigh thing. "Just you saying that word is so hot, let alone wearing it." He leaned back, his head resting on my arms around his neck. "Which I will not object to."

I giggled, but he reached up to cup my face, his
own face thoughtful. "I hope I can make you happy. I won't ever stop trying."

I nodded. "I know that."

"I don't feel like there's all these wide spaces anymore." He lifted my hand from the water, kissed my fingers, and laid our laced fingers over my name on his heart. "I think they're all full up."

I smiled, but knew th
at was a lie. His brother had an empty space in there. I knew it would all come to a head soon, and I couldn't wait for my Mason to be whole again.

I'd never seen him whole
, and I could bet it was a beautiful thing.

"They
will be," I promised him. "I know it."

His face showed that he understood my meaning, but he decided not to respond to that. Instead, he said, "Yeah. They'll be filled with little
blonde girls who look an awful like you running around our Christmas tree."

That made me smile so big.
"And have hazel eyes…like you and be total Daddy's girls."

His smile was gorgeous
. He pulled me to him and kissed my mouth reverently. "I will always adore you for seeing the good in me when I couldn't."

My breath caught and held in
my throat. "Then we're even."