Chapter 60 — Rhythmic Chaos

"Ready, love?" My husband ethereal voice reached my ears, and I looked up, my expression brighter than the morning sun.

Finally the day arrived when I could leave these bleak walls of white and blue and go back to my sweet heaven. It'd been three weeks, and my mind was already going bananas.

"Yes. Please, take me home already."

The corners of his lips slightly raised in his rare smile as he extended his hands. Taking them I carefully alighted my legs as my feet touched the cold floor and propped on them. A faint ache still gnawed at the spot, but the feeling of elation dominated all.

"Are you sure you can walk?"

Flashing my overprotective hubby a hearty smile I got on my tiptoes and planted a peck on his warm lips. "I can. Now let's go."

Immediately he leaned down pressing his lips back on mine in a lingering kiss as a warm feeling flooded my inside. "Come on," he breathed, his voice a mixture of a husky, low pitch as he began guiding me out of the hospital.

I stared at him. He was resisting, trying his best to keep control over his desires while giving me time to recover, yet never pushing me or even letting me know. Some months ago if someone told me Hunter King would be a total sweetheart and a loving husband, I'd perhaps laugh at their face, but now I was witnessing it happening, and I couldn't ask for a better man to be my soulmate.

Opening the car door for me he helped me inside, and we started for our home; the place we'd spend the rest of our lives in, and I couldn't wait. Soon enough the car halted in the roundabout of the mansion and I got out, of course, with his help. Even though I could walk, even run if I ignored the dull pain, he still insisted on holding me in support.

Leading me to the porch he pushed the door open, and dismantling the tranquility of the morning atmosphere, the house exploded into a peppy chorus. "Welcome back!"

I jumped at the sudden clamor as my eyes scanned the hoard of blithesome people swarming the hall with a huge cake in the middle. Everyone was there: my parents, Anna and Matt, Beth and Lea, my friends from the office, the Arthur couple, even the senior Kings.

Everything registered in my head, and a smile broke out in my lips, warmth filling my heart. "Oh my God..."

Hunter's hand snaked around my waist pulling me towards him and kissing on my temple. "Welcome home, love."

Reaching me Karen embraced me in a tight hug and rushed me in the middle as everyone else followed in her actions until I was before Bryan and Julia. During my time in the hospital Bryan visited me and apologized, but Julia, well, she never even called.

"Happy to have you back, Ember." Bryan smiled.

When Julia kept looking away Hunter cleared his throat from beside.

She glanced down at me. Her brows lifted in an arrogant manner. "Good to see you alive."

I still couldn't figure out what I did wrong to have her dislike me, or she was just a bitch. Well, either way it only amused me more than it offended me.

Before it got any more awkward, Karen pulled me to the table occupying the cake. Clapping her hands, she called everyone closer, then handed a knife in my hand.

From the intricate designs and wishing words as decorations on the cake, I glanced at my mother. "Did you?"

Her hand caressed my cheek. "Yes, baby. It's a gift from me and your dad."

"And us," Anna and Beth chirped, making mom shake her head.

"Yes, yes, and the girls." She chuckled.

"Cut it, cut it. I'm hungry," Karen exclaimed, urging me to the savory delicacy before us.

The room busted out in laughter, and Hunter held my hand as we ran the knife through the soft, fluffy lairs and sliced out pieces. The first piece went to an impatient kid named Karen, and then everyone else. Taking out another piece I raised it to Hunter's lips, and he leaned down slowly biting while his penetrating gaze generated delicate fantasies in my mind; the world around seemed to fade as a fiery heat tingled my body.

The lights dimmed and loud music brought us back to reality as I let out a chuckle, my cheeks red. Holding my hand he led me in the empty space and draped his hand around my waist, another intertwining my fingers. The song 'I don't know what love is' began to play, and we slowly moved, looking into each other's eyes.

'But I don't know what love is But I think it might be you.'

And it was true. He was the rose to my plant, stars to my sky and beats to my heart. Even though our beginning was a rocky journey, at the end our hearts united. Now even thinking about being away from him suffocated me, and I was certain he felt the same for me. In those tempestuous eyes there used to hover a storm so blustery, he now sported bona fide glee.

Resting my head on his chest I sighed in content as his lilting heartbeats sang a gentle lullaby in my ear.

"Are you alright?"

I nodded, not raising my head.

"Oh you two remind me of my time with Herald. Those golden days..."

I straightened up, giggling at realization that the song had ended. Leaving Hunter with Karen to dance with I walked to the side, my head doing the spins when Melinda and Vincent from the King's office approached me. After versing with them for some time I leaned back in the wall, my legs shaking slightly.

"Alright, everyone!" Hunter's voice boomed through the hall as everyone's attention fell on him. "Thank you for coming. It's time to say adieus. Ember needs to rest," he announced while reaching me and wrapping his arm around in support.

"Party pooper," Karen remarked before hugging me and saying goodbye, everyone else leaving after.

"Come on. You need to rest." Hunter bent, and his hands went behind my knees and shoulders hauling me up. He began ascending the stairs, no trace of frazzle on his face.

Nuzzling my face in the crook of his neck I inhaled deep. "I want to take a shower first," I breathed.

He nodded. "I'll help."

My eyes shot open. Him showering me? The idea itself sent a shiver down my spine. "I can do it."

"No," he finalized with no room left for an argument, and I was too tired to argue.

Entering the washroom, he sat me on the edge of the bathtub and took off his coat, rolling up his shirt sleeves. I had seen him do that a dozen times before, yet it didn't fail to daze me each time. Coming closer, he grabbed the hem of my shirt, gently tugging at it. Inhaling deep, I lifted my arms, and he pulled it over my head. Being exposed before him for the first time sent a feeling of self-consciousness through me, and my shoulders hunched in a false attempt to hide my under-clothed body.

Perhaps, on sensing my uneasiness he leaned, planting a meaningful kiss on my forehead, and I felt the tensed muscles in my body relax. Kneeling before me he unbuttoned my jeans and slowly pulled it off. He kept his eyes solely on my face while his hands reached behind me, unclipping my bra and sliding my panty off.

At that moment all that filled my heart was pure warmth and respect for the man. Even if I was his wife he wouldn't take advantage without my consent, and I realized how love could change a person so enormously. Lack of it drove a soul into eclipse turning them into a heartless roughneck while a little soft touch of it made even the big bad beast into a pure inamorato.

Squeezing a dime sized amount of shower gel in the washcloth he gently started rubbing from my neck to my feet scrubbing the dirt out, all the while his eyes stayed only high up on my face. Closing my eyes I bit on my lip, the warmth turning into a fiery blaze enveloping my body from his touch, and I was sent into a trance.

"Love, get in the tub," he whispered, his deep husky voice fueling the process.

I snapped my eyes open crashing back to reality and nodded tucking a strand of hair behind my ear, my breathing heavy, and fingers shaking from unknown desire. Swinging my legs at the other side I sat in, and he held the shower head pouring thousands of warm, soothing water drops rinsing the remnants of soap off my skin. Then he moved to my hair working up a good lather of shampoo making my toes curl.

While he showered me, I fought a battle with myself, I fought the sheer urge to pull him close and kiss him numb. My body was on fire, and it yearned him, closer and deeper within me.

After I was fresh as mint he wrapped a towel around me and lingered a kiss on my temple. "Come on." He picked me up once again and strode to the bedroom. Sitting me down on the bed he stroked my cheek looking into my eyes. "I'll get your clothes."

He was about to walk away, but I grabbed his wrist and he looked back, his brows furrowing.

Pulling him closer, I pressed my lips on the back of his palm; like butterfly wings they brushed against each of his knuckles feeling as his fingers tightened. I looked up watching his eyes closed and got up. Trailing my fingers up his arm I tilted my head and placed a kiss under his chin when his hand gripped my waist. He opened his eyes, the greenery in them turned a deep shade.

"Stop love, unless you want me to finish what you started," he breathed, his voice low and huskier than ever.

"Mhmm." I grazed my lips against his neck, soft and gentle like a delicious tease.

In a matter of seconds I was hauled up, my legs wrapping around his waist and back hitting the wall behind. His lips slammed against mine as if punishing for my scandalous sin of provoking him. A delightful pleasure took over my body as my fingers ran amidst his hair grasping a fistful, eliciting a growl from the back of his throat. He pulled away, his breathing heavy and bored his eyes into mine. "You are hurt."

Breathless I held his gaze. I knew what I was doing, and he deserved it; not to mention, I craved him like an arid land for water. "I'm fine."

His slitted gaze traveled to my lips and lingered there. "Are you sure?"

As if my body was burning now, and he was the rain it solicited, I recuperated his lips, slow yet demanding, answering his question for my words had gone to vacations.

The next moment I was flying, landing on the soft mattress, and he climbed over like a predator ready to devour his prey. His mouth came crashing on my jaw, mercilessly nibbling down my neck and working his way lower. Each of his touches channeled a surge of tepid electricity through my veins, curving my body in delightful arches and toes in tingling curls.

"Hunter," I moaned, feeling his fingers slowly dragging the towel off my frame.

"You're so beautiful," he breathed against my lips.

I opened my eyes, another round of bashful blushes painting my cheeks.

"Even more when you're all red." He groaned, claiming my lips back.

My fingers reached his shirt unbuttoning and piling it over my towel on the floor. Then my fingers reached lower, undoing his pants, and he pulled it off. Our skin caressed each other like the finest of silk. His tongue ravished my mouth, and hand cupped my breast, transporting me to the dark colossal space as if tasting and feeling each and every star in their own sensual ways.

"Are you ready?" he whispered in my ear nibbling on the lobe, and I nodded.

"I didn't hear you, love."

"Yes," I moaned, desperate for whatever to come next.

My legs were spread, and warm skin touched me in there, jolting another wave of heated pleasure through me.

"I love you."

His intoxicating voice drew me from my heady trance. I looked deep into his eyes, a small smile tugging at my lips.

"I love you too."

And the day was no more a chessboard of silence but the playground of rhythmic chaos.