Scared of Forever (Scared #2) (30 page)

I look down and see a
small pin, an angel brooch, attached to the dress, just above my left
breast. I hadn’t even noticed it there before.

“Wait,” I say. “I
don’t have a garter. I may be distracted, but I think I would
remember one of you sliding a garter up my thigh.”

“It’s pinned to the
inside of your skirt,” Tyler says smugly.

Sure enough, as I lift
the bottom of my dress, I see a delicately lacy blue garter.

“You thought of
everything,” I say, amazed as I stare into my brand new husband’s
gorgeous eyes, watching the fire flicker in their reflection.

“By the way,” Maia
says, “can we get a shout out to Jackson for buying said garter?”

I fall backwards
laughing. “They sent
you
to buy my wedding garter?”

“Yes,” Jackson
replies, irritated. “And it was the most awkward ten minutes of my
life!”

Maia leans in and
kisses him softly.

“You guys have to go
now!” Tyler orders. “It’s date five,” he says, eyeing me
seductively.

“Bye!” I say with a
laugh as I take Tyler’s hand and we walk back to the house. As we
walk, I notice him counting on his fingers. “What are you doing?”
I ask.

“Doing the math.
There are twelve rooms in this house. My mother has Sadie in the city
for the next twelve hours, so that’s one hour per room,” he says
seriously.

“I’m not
following,” I say, confused.

“To christen your new
house.
Our
new
house,” he says, eyeing me up as he ushers me through the front
doors.

“What? We live here?”

“Ready for your last
surprise?” he asks softly.

“There’s more than
this? The house, the wedding? I don’t know if my poor heart can
take much more,” I say, genuinely shocked.

We walk up the stairs,
and Tyler produces a set of keys from his pocket.

“Wait,” I tease.
“If that’s the room with the sex swing and domination equipment,
I’m leaving.”

“Don’t be stupid.
That’s in the basement,” Tyler jibes, opening the first door.

Across from me on the
far wall is a beautiful white oval crib, with a billowing netted
canopy above it. The room is painted in a soft eggshell blue, and
illuminated by hundreds of small lights on the ceiling. Upon closer
inspection, I notice that they are little LED stars. Then I look to
the left, and see that the entire wall is scattered with canvased
photographs of Sadie and I, all sleeping, all black and white.

“This is what Mac
meant. “I love it,” I say, leaning in and kissing him deeply. His
hands immediately move to unzip my dress at the side. “I don’t
remember this dress ever having a zipper—”

“Maia had it altered
for me, for easy access,” he says lowly. The dress falls to the
floor below, followed by Tyler’s shirt. His body pushes against
mine, pressing me hard against the doorframe.

“Do you have any idea
how fucking long I’ve been waiting for date five?” he says
breathlessly into my ear.

His lips leave a trail
of smoldering kisses down my jawline. He grabs my arms and pushes
them above my head, kissing me softly as he does. My body aches for
him.
Needs
him, so
much so that I push him away from me and pull his pants down
forcefully. We exit the room, and he pushes me back against the
hallway wall and slams his lips into mine, his tongue probing
deliciously into my mouth. His movements match the ferocity of my own
desire. My body pleads for him.

Reaching down, I grip
him, hard and hot in my hands. He moans against my mouth, sending a
flood of new heat coursing through my body. I pull him closer,
wanting to feel him inside of me. The need obscures even my vision as
we become lost in one another again.

Touching Emily, kissing
her, is like being sent straight to fucking heaven. Her hips grind
relentlessly towards me, the desire radiating from both of us. I’ve
wanted this for so long, and I’m worried that if I don’t just
dive into her soon, I might just come in her hands like a teenager.
She wraps her legs tightly around me, suffocating my waist, and
guides me towards her. My entire body spasms in pleasure as she
closes in, soft and wet around me. Of its own volition, my head falls
back and my eyes clench tightly closed from the unadulterated bliss
of Emily grinding purposefully onto my dick. She feels so fucking
good.
Too fucking good
.
She moans loudly against my lips as I slide in and out of her. I slow
down a notch, not wanting this to end.
Never
wanting this to end.

Emily grabs my face
with her hands, my own hands firmly gripping her soft thighs. Our
eyes meet amidst the wild abandon of the moment, and something
changes. Everything intensifies. We fuck staring at each other,
closing our eyes only when the pleasure forces us to. I thrust into
her deeply, tenderly, yet just hard enough.

Emily bites down on her
lower lip, stifling a loud moan. I move closer to her ear and
whisper, “Scream, baby.” And she does, loudly and passionately
and the sound drives me wild. With one final, deeply resolute thrust,
our bodies implode in one mutual, earth-shattering orgasm. The force
of it causes her to clench tightly around my shaft. My head falls
against her shoulder. Both my breathing and hers is ragged and
shallow.

“Just like the first
time,” she whispers when she finally draws in enough oxygen to
speak.

“Better,” I smile.
I hadn’t planned to do that.

I walk her over to the
second room and unlock the door. We don’t bother putting any
clothing back on. That would be a wasted exercise. A huge, king-sized
bed takes up a large portion of the far wall. A few steps over, I had
a platform installed with a round freestanding bath for two. The bath
sits directly in front of two floor-to-ceiling windows.

Emily looks at the
clear water. “Won’t it be cold?” she asks.

“I had thermal
heating installed on the sides. It’ll never get cold, unless you
want it to,” I reply, handing her a small remote. “One button
controls the temperature, the other is for the spa jets.”

“It’s kind of
exposed,” she says shyly.

“Tinted glass. You
can see out, but no one can see in,” I reply confidently.

I climb into the
perfectly tempered water, and Emily follows, leaning her back against
my chest. Even at night, the view of the vast, black ocean is
magnificent.

“You absolutely think
of everything.” She says, clearly awed.

“Once I knew what
makes you happy, it was easy,” I reply, pulling her hair from her
shoulder and kissing it.

“I still feel like
I’m dreaming,” she says softly.

“It’s not a
nightmare, is it?” I tease.

“More like every
fairytale and fantasy come true.”

“Was date five worth
the wait?”

“So totally worth the
wait.” Emily snuggles closer against me, tucking her head under my
chin.

“This is probably not
the best time to mention it, but I saw Blake a couple of weeks ago. I
may or may not have punched him once or twice.”

“I’ve been
thinking, Tyler,” she begins quietly. “I have a lot to thank
Blake for. If it weren’t for him, I would never have seen how truly
amazing a person like you is, and I can appreciate you so much more
now. That, and I would never have even met you. The way I see it,
hating him consumes me, leaving me less emotional space for loving
you and Sadie. He doesn’t have that power over me anymore,” she
replies simply.

“That’s a pretty
mature approach, Emily. You amaze me. You have so much blind faith.
You forgave all of us: Blake, me, Eliza. You brought Sadie into this
world with no one and nothing but good intentions. You are the most
beautiful woman I have ever met in my life, but more than that,
you’re the most beautiful person on the inside. You deserve
happiness every single day,” I reply gently.

It’s
true
. For all of our shortcomings, Emily took each and
every one of them and turned them into something positive. A way of
moving forward, never looking back to dwell in regret or self-pity.
Her strength as a woman, as Sadie’s mother, and now, as my wife, is
awe-inspiring.
And I must be the
luckiest man in the world.
“Do you have any idea how
much I love you?” I say softly.

“I have a clue,”
she teases, wiping the tears from below her eyes.

“Time to get started
on baby number two,” I dish back.

“Hell no,” she
balks. “Maybe in a year or two. Until then, you retain sole
ownership.”

“Of what?” I ask,
grinning.

“Of this,” she
says, guiding my hand between her thighs. “Plus, I’d like to have
more than four orgasms in my life before I hand over possession of my
vagina to procreation again.”

“Four orgasms?” I
say confused.

“My first kiss,”
Emily says suggestively, “wasn’t the only first you’ve been
responsible for, remember. Could it be that you have actually
forgotten something?”

“Now I remember,” I
grin, feeling very pleased with myself. “And this,” I say, my
hand creeping up, closer, “is the best damn possession ever,” I
moan and lean my head back against the tub as I feel myself harden
beneath her. “
You’re gonna
be the death of me
,” I whisper.

She turns and straddles
me, kissing me softly with a coy smile. “Then at least you’ll die
smiling and satisfied.”

ONE YEAR LATER…

Summer storms in the
Hamptons can be terrifying. And Sadie hates them. She can never sleep
amidst the roaring thunder, and the crashing of the waves along the
shore don’t help, either. Tyler and I usually share night shifts
like this one. But for tonight, I decide to let him sleep. He’s
been working so hard, trying to divide his time between the new
photography business and Sadie and I that I know he’s always close
to exhaustion.

Walking slowly down the
stairs, I carefully sidestep every creaky floorboard.
This
is our home now
. And I know every single inch of it. Sadie
has settled, and dozes peacefully in my arms. Since I was already up,
I decided to grab a literal midnight snack before heading back to
bed. As I’m about to return upstairs to place Sadie in her room, a
knock on the door startles me.

My brow furrows in
confusion, concurrent to my stomach lurching uneasily.
Who
could be visiting at this time of night?
Eliza is
currently staying at her summer house not far from here, but unlikely
to pop by unannounced at this time of night. I contemplate waking
Tyler, but decide against it. The neighborhood out here is relatively
safe. It could be my sister, Mirelle, who has made New York City her
permanent home since our wedding. But she would probably call first
as well.

Still nervous, before
opening the door, I look through the peephole. The outside veranda
light isn’t on, making it hard to get a clear image of the person
standing out there. I latch the gold security chain onto the door,
Sadie still sleeping in my arms. As I open the door as far as the
chain allows, a familiar face comes into view.

Oh
my God.
This was not a face I had missed at all. And Tyler
would not be happy about it, either.

“Blake?” I say,
confused. “What are you doing here?”

From my view through
the cracked door, I can see that Blake looks nowhere near as
resplendent as he did when we first met. In fact, he looks downright
disheveled. His clothes seem worn. His face has substantially more
hair than just a five o’clock shadow. His dark outline in the night
air looks slumped, completely deflated.

It unnerves me that he
doesn’t reply. All he does is stare back at me.