Chapter 74 Chapter 37 (ii)
FAE
“I think our Lola Leah will have new members to her little circle of wedding planners in these three,” Jigo whispered to me as the said three chirped and buzzed.
“I can see them getting along with her. They will adore her,” I agreed, nodding. I heard him sigh and I frowned as I turned towards him. “What is it?”
But he didn’t look worried like I expected. He was smiling a little, a smile that reached his eyes as he looked down at me. My heart did a little twitch inside my chest as those eyes assessed me, containing promises I knew he could keep very well and expertly. He replied before I could ask again, which was good because that would take a bit of a while. I couldn’t seem to stop myself from just staring at his beautiful face.
“They know we’re married. It’s going to come out soon and I’m just happy about it.”
I caught up with his words and blinked.
“Of course I want everyone to know about us,” he added, his smile getting bigger at whatever he saw on my face. He lowered his head and brought his forehead to mine. “I want the world to know we’re married,” he said in a softer voice.
“Can’t wait to let the world know you own me?”
“Can’t wait to let the world know you love me back,” he corrected.
I huffed a little laugh. “And I do. I love you back.”
“I love you back more.”
“I love you back better.”
“I love you best.”
I suddenly felt a pinch in my eyes and nostrils. Based on what he’d done for me, how he’d made me feel, and how incredibly happy I was now, he was right. “Thank you,” I said instead. I raised my chin to give him an appreciation peck on his mouth. But he took that and made it a full-blown kiss while my friends—I guess they were his friends now, too—remained distracted by our church wedding plans. We kissed until we heard Joana exclaimed.
“Oh my god, we have an elitist friend now! We’re practically rich, right?”
We pulled away from each other and faced them before they could turn on us for sneaking another PDA on them. But my skin was tingling where we touched. And as we laughed, I was guiltily hoping we were alone because I just wanted to be all over my husband at that moment.
“Hey, Jigo. When you take us to your exclusive resort for the rich, let us in for free, okay? Don’t make us wash dishes. Your wife and us have been through a lot together. We’re all practically sisters!” Kacey told Jigo once we calmed down from celebrating.
“Yeah, honestly, if I hadn’t seen how they struggled through college, I wouldn’t believe they’re professionals,” I said, shaking my head while the three comically nodded their heads.
We toured the grounds and chatted until lunch. With high energy waning after quite a lively meal, the three excused themselves to take naps in their room. We went and brought them to their door, where they loudly admired the huge guestroom and the interiors before we could leave them.
Then we went to our bedroom. And as soon as he closed the door behind us, I was stripping my clothes off, walking backwards to the bed while he started to strip himself, too. I was wearing a simple sun dress and was on my panties in like a second. He took a little longer and when he joined me on the bed, I’d kicked my panties off and he was naked like a newborn babe.
He crawled between my open thighs until our bodies were aligned and his face was above mine.
“At last!” we both sighed, and we both laughed softly. Then I sobered.
“I do love you,” I whispered after his searching look on my face.
“I know.”
“I might have been clueless in the beginning and I feel stupid now, in retrospect…”
He was softly laughing. “No, you’re not. I was stupid. I waited when there was no reason to wait.” His fingers caressed my cheek. “I should have been braver. Except that when it came to you during the time, I was just always so nervous.”
“Of little me.”
“Of little you,” he repeated, his grin sheepish. “I wasn’t that confident because I knew, if I told you how I felt and you told me there was no way you could feel the same, it would really, really hurt.”
I felt his emotions from those words and they surprised me. I still couldn’t believe someone like him could feel this way about me. And I started to hurt, too, because I felt we’d wasted those years when we could have been together, now that I knew how us being together was like. “Well, you don’t have to worry about anything anymore now because I really am crazy in love with you and there is no way I’ll let this go for anything in the world.”
“Crazy talk. As if I’d let you ever do that.” He stole my delighted laughter with his kiss, and it brought to me in sensuous, physical detail the essence of what we were talking about.
I moaned, my senses kicking in, suddenly inundated with his presence—his naked skin rubbing against my naked skin, his wondrous smell, the warmth of his body… and the hardness of his arousal. The knowledge that he was going to love me again in the most physical sense had my head reeling.
And I loved him back.