Unrequited (Chosen #3) (17 page)

THIRTY ONE - NICK

When Lizzie walked around the shrubbery in the garden down by the river towards me, my heart stopped beating. She looked like a princess, Lizzie style. Her hair was braided on top and had a white rose behind one ear. Her dress was lacy and flowed long and dreamily. Her belly was obvious, which made her look even more beautiful. She wasn’t wearing any shoes. I smiled that she had gotten her barefoot wedding.

When her father gave her to me, I thanked him earnestly and he kissed her and I both on the cheek. That wasn’t common but I knew that their family was extremely demonstrative. I was honored that he trusted me to be his daughter’s husband.

Our wedding ceremony was all about our vows. As Lizzie placed the white gold band on my left finger, she looked into my eyes and searched for my heart.

“Nick Sawyer, in my life, the people I thought I loved, didn’t love me back. I thought there was something wrong with me because I just wanted to feel love. I thought maybe I didn’t know how to love enough. You changed everything. When I met you and when I felt your love, it was unlike any other feeling I have ever had.”

Her voice started to tremble and I could feel her hands shake.  I squeezed them to reassure her that I adored her words. Her eyes squinted as she smiled and took a breath.

“Your love is profound and it is authentic. I thought I knew what love was before you but, Nick, I was so very wrong. You and I belong together forever. Our life is effortless and entertaining. It is electrifying. You are my friend and my lover. You will forever be my only love. When I am with you, I am home. I am so honored to becoming your wife today.  My wish is that you will always feel my love. Do you take me as your wife? If you do, I promise that I will spend every day supporting you and supporting us standing right by your side.”

I swallowed hard. She was so amazing but my crazy woman just took the words right out of my mouth. “Sweetheart, I do. I do take you.” She exhaled loudly and giggled as she squeezed my hands. I leaned over and whispered, “I’d actually like to really take you right now, right here.”

She laughed out loud and blushed. I grinned at her outward embarrassment. She was so delectable. I took her left finger and cleared my throat. I felt the bubble at the bottom of my throat and tried to clear it away. She raised her eyebrows at me. I couldn’t help it. The first tear fell from my eye and she gasped. Immediately, she started to tear up, too.

“Elizabeth, I have loved you since the moment I first saw you which is ironic because I will be the first one to say that instant love just doesn’t happen. When I became your friend, I loved you even more. When I first heard you sing, I love you even more. When I brought you home, I felt complete... You are my light. You are my music. You make me feel alive and I am so blessed to have found you. I promise to always honor you and put you first. Lizzie, will you take me as your husband because I will always love you deeply and with every part of my body, mind and soul.”

“Yes, I do,” she cried.

We kissed and then kissed again and then kissed again. Our parents, who were our only attendees, made their way up to the tables set out for dinner when they realized that we didn’t plan on ending the kiss anytime soon. We made out like teenagers. She was exquisite and smelled amazing.

As we stood in front of the makeshift altar, we had our first, second, and third kiss as husband and wife. It was a surreal that I had married Lizzie. The whole day was magnificent. Laughter and love crowded us as we stayed glued to each other, never breaking the bond of our hands.

Hours later, we stepped off the elevator at the penthouse floor. I scooped Lizzie up with ease as she giggled at me.

“Mrs. Sawyer, would you do me the honor of making love to me all night long?” I asked her.

“Well, cowboy, I think we could make that happen,” she replied with a sly smile. I kissed her nose as I push open the door. I made a gallant gesture crossing her over the threshold.

“This is the first time, baby,” I said as I looked into her face.

She gazed back at me in bemusement. “Nick? What do you mean?”

“Tonight will be the first night I undress you, as my wife. Tonight will be the first time you undress me as your husband,” I quietly said.

She hummed in agreement. “Tonight will be the first night that we will be together as one, united, as husband and wife.” She kissed my cheek and rubbed her nose against mine. I was already a goner. I threw her down on the couch and pulled off her flip flops.

“These are my wife’s feet,” I said as I started to kiss each toe.

Lizzie straightened her body and pulled me up to her. She ripped off my jacket and started to unbutton my shirt rapidly. “This is my husband’s chest,” she whispered as she started to kiss my collarbone.

I moved my hand up to her neck to where the diamond necklace I gave her shines in the low light. I feather light tickled her neck. “This is my wife’s gorgeous neck adorned with the necklace her husband gave her.”

She giggled. “Will we start speaking in third person now?”

I groaned into her neck and my mouth connected with her soft skin. My heart has never felt so good.

After a long hour of our first intimate moments as husband and wife, I picked Lizzie up and landed her in the middle of the king sized plush bed. I started out of the door in search for the one request I had asked of the hotel.

“Where are you going, baby? Are you already leaving me?” Lizzie called out. I turned around and gave her a disapproving look.

I grabbed the silver tray and the metal warmer. When I got back to the bed, Lizzie was on her side, her hair falling all over her breasts. I blew out a breath and tried to focus on my plan.

I lifted the lid and took the little spoon out filled with deep rich chocolate. It smelled rich and perfect for what I had planned. Lizzie’s eyes widened when she saw what it was.

“Tonight, I am going to show you all of my favorite spots on your body,” I said, as I took her wrist and rubbed chocolate on the inside of it.

She whimpered at the contact of the warm liquid against her colder skin. I put the spoon down on the tray and quickly I licked and sucked the chocolate off her wrists. She is entranced by my mouth as she watched me come up to meet her lips.

I took the spoon and rubbed the chocolate on one of her nipples. She watched me as I sucked off the chocolate and she moaned like she is already where I want her to be.

I continued the demonstrations on all of my favorite parts. The back of her ear, her belly button, the inside of her thighs, her mouth, and a dozen more places. She pulled me on top of her and we twisted into each other. She squirmed out of my embrace.

“My turn,” she whispered into my hair. I watched her take the spoon and put it to the side. She put her finger in the chocolate, pulled it out and licked it while her eyes penetrate into mine. I groaned.

I lay back down on the sheets and watched her begin to start on me. I closed my eyes to wait until I feel a warm rush of liquid poured all over my chest, my groin and the top of my thighs.

I quickly opened my eyes, startled. She giggled at me and shrugged.

“I don’t have just one or two favorites spots, baby. Your whole body is my favorite,” she said. In a flash, she jumped on me and started to lick all of the chocolate off of my whole body. The sheets were drenched, the chocolate was all over her now, and I am dumbstruck by the way she just trumped me at my own game.

I tossed her on her back and took over her body for hours. Our body were licked and washed clean on the bed, in the shower, on the couch, and up against the wall.

I looked up to the clock to see that is was nearly six in the morning. We had torn off all the chocolate sheets and were lying naked with no covers. Lizzie’s eyes are closing and she was trying to do everything she could to keep them open.

I pulled her body on top of mine and she straddled me while she tucked her face into my neck. That was how my wife and I fell asleep that morning and it was how we woke up that afternoon.

Two days later, after spending all of our days and nights cocooned into each other at the Ritz Carlton, we caught the plane back to Boston. We were rested and satiated. Our bodies hadn’t lost contact from one another for more than three minutes. It continued as we took our seats on the plane, with Niall at my side. He was so happy to see me and he seemed to want me to hold him more than Lizzie. She stuck her tongue out at me at one point and I smirked. I would take this baby’s love and a visual of her tongue any day.

Lizzie reminded me of a doctor’s appointment she wanted to go to and she was eager to start on really looking for a house. Her parents decided to stay behind for a week or two so that they could see Austin and San Antonio.

I insisted that after the baby came, we would make a trip anywhere Lizzie wanted to go. She said she had always wanted to go to Paris. We thought about it and decided our 1
st
real honeymoon would probably take place in two years, when we could leave both the babies home for five days.

She laughed when she told me that I wouldn’t want to leave your infant with anyone for the first year. I shook my head and said, “No way. Five days alone in Paris with you?”

“I’m serious. I am willing to bet on a year of diaper duties that you will make every excuse to stay home with the baby for the first year. Hell, you may not even allow people to hold her for the first few days after she is born.”

I looked at her in surprise. “Wait, she?”

She laughed. “I don’t know for sure but I feel like it’s a girl. I think we should name her Butterfly.”

“No way,” I replied without even looking up from my book. I tried to read but we needed a baby’s name. It was actually happening. I was reeling. We got married and her stomach was growing by the day. I knew I would love our child as much as I loved Lizzie and Niall. Our hearts were expanding for new babies to love and I wanted more already. I couldn’t wipe the smile from my face all the way back to Boston.

THIRTY TWO - NICK

Lizzie and I stood in front of a large warehouse that was being renovated into office space on Boylston Street. The College of Music was within sight and we looked up and down the street at the bustling students, tourists and cars. Lizzie grinned over to me.

“Do you like this area?” I asked. She nodded enthusiastically.

“I love the building more!” She exclaimed and jumped into my arms. People walking by looked at us like we were demented but I didn’t care. We just found our home. Sawyer Productions would begin its label in this building. It felt really good.

I nodded into her hair and laughed. “We can do whatever we want to the place. We are going to need a lot of space, a ton of equipment and support from everyone we know.”

She took out the cell phone that I had recently gotten for her since I really did want to know she was a phone call away at all times. She couldn’t stop playing with it for a full night, sending me silly texts, even though I was in the same room as her.

“I’m going to call Sean and see when his next day off is,” she said, situating the phone to her ear. That was another thing. She was reaching out to people more just so she could use the damn thing. Our phone bill was going to be outrageous but I figured it would lose its novelty at some
point. I walked up the street as Lizzie spoke with excitement into the phone. We were going to sign the lease on this place today. We already had a marketing team in place and quite a few interested students wanting a free internship. I was glad for that since I had no idea how to actually cut an album.

Of course, Desired Pitch would be our first recording clients. We were doing it pro bono as a test run to work out the kinks. Lizzie wanted to decorate it with posters of musicians from all time. She had already purchased, on our credit card I might add, Nina Simone, Bob Dylan, Nirvana, and Metallica posters. I rolled my eyes at the Metallica purchase in which she responded by starting to play “Fade to Black” on her guitar. So maybe I did like some of their songs.

Jeremy came up behind me and with the biggest shit eating grin, he asked, “So this is it? For real?”

“That’s it. For real,” I said, swaying back on my heels. “You know, it is the beginning of something big. Lizzie is out of her mind crazy with so much in our lives. I am really going to need some help here. Is there anyone you know who can work the studio? Maybe try to sign on some people to start? I want to watch and learn. After a while, I can start taking over the marketing aspect. Plus, I am an IT geek so the recording equipment should come to me easily as long as I have a talented ear in the recording room.”

“Well, the reason I came here was obviously I wanted to see the space. But more importantly, we may have a new client. Love Sick Ponies is the band that asked us to tour with them and they are basically done with recording preparations. They are looking for a low cost producer. They don’t make a lot of money…” I cut him off.

“Book them,” I stated. He laughed and shook his head.

“That was easy,” he said. “I would like to help out as much as I can. Between work and the band, it doesn’t leave a whole lot of time.”

I trained my eyes on him for a moment and thought. Why hadn’t I thought of this before?
“Jeremy, how much do you get paid down at the music store?” I instantly wanted to take back the question and reword it because people just don’t ask those things. It is rude as hell.

He shrugged. “I make like fourteen and change an hour. I have been there for years so I have full benefits as the manager.”

“So you make like thirty grand a year?” I could always calculate so quickly.

He looked down at the ground and kicked a piece of trash, clearly looking embarrassed.

“Dude, I am not trying to embarrass you. I want to hire you. Listen. I need someone I can trust to run things every day. I don’t want this to take away from my family. I mean, God, we are going to have a baby soon and I am trying to start a new company? I must be out of my mind.” I rubbed my day old scruff on my chin.

“You… you want to hire me? Without looking at my resume or anything?” he asked mystified.

“Yeah, I do. I know Lizzie would be happy with it. Let’s start you off at seventy five thousand a year, full benefits and bonuses for every band you sign.” I was full on in professional mode.

“
That much
? But what about when we are touring?” he asked a bit deflated.
I shrugged. We will call those weeks our down time. We will hire a few other people and they can run the business side of it, but recording and marketing will be yours to manage. Believe me,
that
is not a lot of money. You will understand that when you start calling this place home. You will sleep, eat and shit here when you are in town.” I chuckled.

“When do you want me to start?” he grinned.

“Yesterday,” I deadpanned.

We shook hands as Lizzie came up and wrapped her arms around me.

“What’s up?” she asked smiling.

“We just hired our first employee. Jeremy here is going to manage things for us when you aren’t touring.” She started jumping like a grasshopper and ended up jumping on Jeremy. They laughed together and I watched the two old friends as they celebrated themselves. This was going to be a great team.

Later that afternoon we were driving home. We had signed everything and Jeremy was giving his notice on his shift tonight. He was going to work at both places. I asked him to just research equipment and sounding room items. “So, Lily offered to keep Niall overnight as a wedding present to us,” Lizzie said in a husky low voice.

“Oh really?” I asked beaming. “We are still paying her though, right?”

“Of course. But it is amazing that she will take him for a whole Saturday night! What nanny does that?” She asked.

“A very well paid one,” I chuckled. She had a point though. Lily had been a godsend since we hired her and she was just as excited about the new baby as we were. Well, maybe not as excited but close. Lizzie had worked out her pay raise and Lily was having the time of her life living in the city and loving our family.

Recently, I asked her if I could help send her to college. She politely declined the offer, saying she was having too much fun and didn’t think she could give college her full attention. I respected that. Lizzie never finished either and maybe that was just how it was with this generation. Lily probably made more money as a nanny that a guy in a cubicle at a bank downtown. I told her the offer stands as long as she was our nanny and she smiled at me with appreciation.

“So, what’s on the agenda for a childfree night, Mrs. Sawyer?” I questioned.

Lizzie drummed her fingers on her leg and thought for a few moments. “There is that new movie with Ben Affleck out.” I smirked at her.

“What? He is hot and he can act. Plus he is a fellow Bostonian so we should support the locals,” she said.

“Support the locals? Are you frigging kidding me right now? He hasn’t been local in years. He is just from here.” I shook my head and rapidly blinked my eyes, trying not to say anything that would cause a spitting match.

“Ok, Ben Affleck it is. Who is the hot chick in the movie?” I laughed. She gave me the stink eye and it morphed into a grin. She looked out the window as we passed the Greatest Bar and I thought I heard her sigh. I tried to look into her eyes but she was turned too far away. I imagined the memories of her past few years would eventually fade away as we began to make new ones as a married couple. Like she stepped back into the present, she quickly turned her head and smiled.

“I don’t know about any girl but yes, she is most definitely hot. I will check movie times. We can go eat at that Italian place next to the theater. But… in the meantime…”

She leaned over and started to rub my right thigh up and down. I was instantly excited. Why was it that one minute she was my best friend that I palled around with and the next minute I was so hot and ready for her?

Lizzie started to pull at my belt and I looked over to her. Her eyes were downcast and looking at my lap. She licked her lips and I lost it. I swerved around a cab and took her hand off of my belt. “You better hold on to that thought, Elizabeth Sawyer.” She looked up with a serious expression and nodded her head. She wanted me bad.

Lizzie held on to that thought in the elevator, in the living room, in our shower, in our bed and on the floor. It was animal lust. It was panty ripping pregnant sex. She was on sexual fire and every time a bead of her sweat hit my naked body, I try to move in even closer to her. We moaned and screamed each other’s names. The words “husband” and “wife” never sounded so sexy. It was the best love making we had ever experienced. There were no more doubts. There were no more external obstacles. Internal heartache for those we loved was pushed to the side for this brief period of time. I was intoxicated by the raw and vulnerable adoration we proved to one another over and over again. It was lust. It was love. It was
magic
.

Our life track was taking us places. While we took pleasure in the studio’s business plans, we cherished our private family life. We basked in the ever growing attraction. I would never get sick of physically loving this woman. I didn’t care if she gained a hundred pounds or grew a sixth toe. Lizzie’s voice, scent, and smile held my heart in a vice grip. We were fucking amazing together and we both knew it…finally.