"Dear lord, I should have killed him."
She knew what he saw. Al hadn't kept his beatings to fists only. Her back was a mass of whip-like welts from lashings with his leather belt. "Do you want me any less?" She knew the answer. Love didn't care about scars.
"No." He crossed to her, set his hands on her hips, and began running kisses up and down the lines on her back. "You'll always be the most beautiful woman on Earth."
"Then credit me with the same degree of feeling and take those slacks off." She turned in his arms and looped hers around his neck. "I want you. Exactly the way you are." Spots of iodine scattered across his shoulders and arms spoke of his hurry to rush through the glass to reach her in the book store. Her forehead was purple. None of it mattered.
Moments later they were both naked and Eli led Nettie to his bed, a wide, four posted antique with a mattress she knew from nursing him was firm but yielding. He sat and drew her down to his lap, pulling her in to kiss her senseless.
Her body melted under his touch. Liquid pooled between her legs, as it had before. An ache settled low in her belly, matching the ones in her breasts.
Eli rolled her to her back, lying on his side next to her. "We don't have anywhere near enough time for everything I want to do to you."
"We have the rest of our lives. But let's not waste these stolen moments." She ran her hand across his chest, loving that his smaller nipples tightened the same as hers did. She licked the one closest to her, making him groan.
"Minx." He kissed her deeply while tracing circles around her breasts with his fingers before trailing them down to her navel, and finally to her sex. "You're wet."
"Mm-hmm." She nipped his ear as he shifted to take her breast in his mouth. Once he began to suck, as well as slide his fingers in and out of her sex, she couldn't do much more than grip his shoulders with all her strength. It was magnificent.
Soon she felt herself reaching close to that peak he'd shown her before. She arched her back into his mouth and lifted her hips in time with his strokes. As the climax approached, she caught her breath...and the world exploded. She cried out...probably his name. She may have left nail marks in his skin, but he kept on stroking her with fingers and thumbs until she could breathe and open her eyes.
"Ready?" His voice was little more than a husky rasp, and it made her shiver.
"Oh, yes." She embraced his waist as he came down over her. "I love you, Eli."
"I love you, Mrs. Lawson." He used one hand to position his penis at her entrance, then penetrated slowly. "To me, this is our true wedding night."
"It is." She widened her hips, conscious of a stretching, but nothing that could really be called pain. "Let the old biddies count if they want to."
"What biddies? The only ones who count are right here in this bed." He began to slide in and out in small, gentle increments that soon intensified.
Nettie felt herself tighten again, building toward another climax, and soon she was lifting up to meet each stroke, her head thrown back against the pillow while he kissed her neck. He slid one hand up to pinch one of her nipples and she peaked again, this time unabashedly shrieking. He pushed in hard and ground out her name as a wet, warm sensation filled her core.
"I love you." She held him close, not letting him move away while they both caught their breath. "I like your weight on top of me."
"Love you too. But we'd better wash up and get you into your own room before your godparents get here." He kissed her and levered himself up into a sitting position. "Next week. Promise?"
"Tomorrow, if we can make it work." A little sore, she put her robe back on and returned to her own room, kissing him goodnight at the door.
It was amazing what money and determination could accomplish. Eight days later, an intimate, but elegant wedding was staged in the conservatory at Lawson Pines. It was larger than Eli's parlor, so they'd given in to his mother's request to hold it here. All of his family had arrived - Diana's husband, his two single brothers - both on their best behavior, and even his father. Since Nettie had no family but the Websters, the fire department filled up that side of the seating, along with a few local merchants.
James Webster gave away the bride. Her only attendant was Diana, so rather than choose one of his brothers, Eli asked Stan to be his best man. Nettie had cried and hugged the burly mechanic the night before, at the rehearsal, when the boys had carried in the restored sewing machine. Only Nettie, Eli reflected, could bring together such a wide cross-section of the town. To know her really was to love her. The other firemen's wives couldn't wait for their first auxiliary meeting.
Most importantly of all, his Nettie glowed with happiness. Finally, the words were spoken, making them husband and wife. Even if he did walk down the aisle with a cane, Eli was the happiest fireman on Earth.
"Knew it the first time I saw you two," Stan said in the receiving line. "I saw the smoke."
"What smoke?" Eli shook hands with another guest, but turned his head toward Stan.
"You know what they say." The mechanic grinned. "Where there's smoke, there's fire. I'd say you two had fire aplenty."
"We've got smoke then," Eli agreed. "Lots of smoke."
The End