CHAPTER 1

Daisy unbuttoned the first button of Enos' tight, "Hey sugar, relax, we're husband and wife, now," gently smiling at his jitters.

"I hope I'm not goin' to die before the dawn, Dais," he chuckled, helping her to unbutton his shirt, "I also hope I'm not goin' to wake up realizing it's just a dream."

"It isn't a dream, Enos," she looked into his eyes, "we're husband and wife. Finally," her caring and sweet eyes stared into his ones, her way to look at him when they were alone.

After her hands accomplished to unbutton his shirt, button after button, her fingers slid on his bare chest, "When you told it's not just on your face, you didn't lie," she held back a laugh, her right forefinger tracing a line connecting all the hives' signs on his skin, "does it hurt?"

He shivered under her touch, "Hurt? No, it itches. Do you think I could scratch myself to death, Daisy?"

She let her laugh go, "No Enos. I think you aren't goin' to die because of the hives," she turned, showing him her shoulders, "and now, help me to take it off, please."

His hand reached her wedding dress' zipper, and, after a brief but intense fight, he managed to pull it down, and the dress slid down with a soft rustling, showing her body to him. When she turned to him, he was scratching his nape, "I'm goin' to die, tonight, I know it."

"Enos, you've already seen my unmentionables, haven't you?" her hands on her hips she smiled amused.

"Your unmentionables… yeah… hanging outside, but not you wearing just your unmentionables, Daisy," he kept on scratching his nape until she took his hand in hers.

"It's your turn, honey," she let his hand go and she undressed him: jacket, shirt… but when her hands reached his trousers he had a step back.

"Uh, slowly, please. I'm shy," he blushed and the new red on his skin swallowed the hives' marks.

"Ok, slowly, step by step" she walked closer him, slowly wrapping her arms around his bare chest, her hands pressed against his spine between his shoulder blades and her face buried against his chest as her lips gently touched his skin.

He stiffened and he held his breath, then, kiss after kiss, he relaxed, closing his eyes, "I can't believe it's really happening."

She stopped exploring his skin with her lips and she looked up at him, smiling, "It's happening 'cause I managed to convince you to get married despite the hives, otherwise you would've postponed everything just to go to Doc Appleby to find a cure for the hives, and I didn't want to wait for."

His eyes became piercing and deep, as never before, "Did you want to get married so badly?"

She parted from him just few inches, looking at him in confusion, "Yeah! Why are you asking me something like that? I love you, Enos, and it's normal I wanted to get married so badly. I was tired to wait, and I can say, proudly, I dragged you to the altar, one way or another."

His serious look turned to sweet and happy, "You know, it's the first time you tell me that you love me, Daisy."

"Really?" she opened her eyes wide, "Is it really the first time?"

He nodded, "Yeah, it's the first time, and it's why…" he stopped as his hand reached again his nape, not because of the itching, this time, but because of his being uncomfortable, "…it's why I tried to call the wedding off because of the hives, though I already know how to cure it. Antihistamin, simply."

The implicit truth in his words slapped her.

"Did you try to call the wedding off 'cause you weren't sure of my love, Enos? Wasn't it clear? Hasn't it always been clear?"

He looked away, keeping on scratching his nape, "I wasn't so sure, yeah. But you insisted so much I started to believe that, behind your insistence, there was love, and, in effect, you really dragged me to the altar."

She took his hand in hers, again, stopping his uncomfortable scratching, "So, you decided to marry me when you finally realized that… I love you, otherwise…" she squeezed his hand.

"… otherwise I would've called the wedding off. I couldn't accept you asked me to marry you for saving me from goin' to jail, and then for pity. I couldn't accept it for my pride, and I couldn't accept it for my love and my respect for you. I'd never let you sacrifice for me, Daisy," his right hand still in hers, he caressed her hair with his left hand, "and now you've finally confessed your love. I'm happy, and relieved."

"Oh Enos, you're the most complicated and confusing man of the whole world," she let his right hand go and she hugged him, bridging that sudden and brief physical and emotional distance, "so, did you take your antihistamin?"

"Oh gosh, no, I had no time after the wedding and, you know, a little collateral effect of those pills is drowsiness… and I suppose you wouldn't be happy to spend this night looking at me sleeping deeply in our bed, and, well, I don't want to spend this night sleeping hard," he chuckled, "I prefer to scratch myself to death."

"Enos, you're really something else," she laughed amused, choking her laugh against his chest, then she parted again from him, turning her shoulders to him, "may you unbutton my bra, sugar?"

"It's the first time I unbutton a bra but, yeah, I suppose I can do it," his hands reached his bra and he managed to unbutton it despite his gently trembling. When she turned again to him, his eyes opened wide, and for the second time his blushing hid the hives' marks, "you're beautiful, Daisy."

As they approached to the bed, she kissed his lips, a gently kiss changing into a voracious and passionate kiss, as they were hungry of it and just of it, a starving lasting years, a starving lasting their whole life.

That night they knew each other as never before: every inch of their skin, every muscle and every curve.

And Enos showed her he wasn't so clumsy and shy as she thought, after all.

When Daisy woke up, the morning after, she still felt Enos' hands on her skin.

She yawned and she stirred, smiling, her eyes closed in the sunlight filling the room.

She reached her arm out to feel his body near her, but she met just the mattress: has her hubby already got up and was he cooking breakfast?

Smell of scrambled eggs made her smile, anticipating their first breakfast as husband and wife. She was Enos Strate's wife: it sounded great.

She opened her eyes and she looked at the room around her: her bedroom at the farm? Why was she in her bedroom at the farm?

Reality slapped her: a dream, just a dream.

She blushed 'cause of that vivid and erotic dream, more real than reality, then she realized the sad truth: Enos called the wedding off because of the hives, and she wasn't Enos Strate's wife.

"I couldn't accept you asked me to marry you for saving me from goin' to jail, and then for pity. I couldn't accept it for my pride, and I couldn't accept it for my love and my respect for you. I'd never let you sacrifice for me, Daisy."

Not just a vivid and erotic dream due to the confused previous day, but a way her subconscious was poking to her conscience: if she had insisted to marry him, if she had dragged him to the altar…

… if she had simply told him what he was waiting for: "I love you, Enos."

Holding back her tears and disappointment, realizing her missed chance (and her responsibility in that missed chance), Daisy got up.