Douglas showered first, finding that the powder was easier to clean off than he imagined, though he still felt a little guilty about getting Mrs. Kapoor's clothing covered in the stuff. Evelyn felt bad about it too, but assured herself that Mrs. Kapoor wouldn't have given the clothes to them, knowing what the festival entailed, if they weren't meant to get messy.
She waited patiently for Douglas to finish in the shower, spending that time by the window, smiling down on the festivities that were still going on in the streets below. If she scanned the crowd carefully enough, she could spot her friends, still having a grand time, although they now seemed to be engaged in a personal dust war with each other, rather than actually celebrating with the rest of the crowd. Norman and Sonny were reveling in sneaking up on the girls, throwing clouds of multicolored dust over their heads whenever they could find the opportunity. Even Muriel and Mrs. Kapoor had teamed up and were seemingly trying to find a way around Madge's new boyfriend, who was now blocking most of the dust being thrown her way.
She giggled. She loved seeing her friends having so much fun. The one thing she hoped for on this day, other than finally being able to marry to the man she loved, was that her friends would be happy too. She wanted everyone who came to celebrate to be smiling and having a good time. She doubted they'd be anywhere near as happy as she was, but she did try to get them closer to her level.
She wondered if anyone had ever been this happy before. If anyone had ever felt this indescribable joy of loving and being loved in return. She couldn't quite put words to it, but she supposed if she had to describe it, the closest thing she could think of would be flying. It sounded a bit cliché, but that's what it felt like. She felt as though she was flying; soaring through the air with nothing sunny blue skies ahead of her. She felt free.
Free to be herself.
Free to love.
Free to be loved.
As she watched the festival continue in the streets below, she made a mental note to do something nice for Sonny and Mrs. Kapoor as they had been so kind in helping orchestrate the event and it had turned out to be everything she wanted and more. It wasn't what most would call a "normal" wedding by any means, but if they'd wanted normal, they would have stayed in England. As far as Evelyn was concerned, her wedding day had been absolutely perfect.
The door to the bathroom quietly opened and Douglas came out in his deep blue robe, towel drying his hair. She looked up when she heard the click of the door and smiled at him. When he took the towel down, his hair stuck up in several directions, making Evelyn chuckle to herself. She walked over to meet him by the foot of the bed and he bent down to kiss her but she put a hand to his chest to stop him.
"I'll get you all messy again," she smiled. He pouted and she giggled. "I won't be long."
He flopped on the bed and raised his towel to finish drying his hair, casting a longing glance toward Evelyn, making her laugh. She shook her head and closed the bathroom door behind her and from the other side, Douglas heard the distinct sound of the spray of shower water hitting tile. He waited a few moments to make sure she was actually in before implementing his plan. He walked over to the closet and opened the doors to find everything he'd requested had been left there just as Madge had said. Madge had planted it all there just before they went out in the streets to join the festival. Douglas took the items out of the closet and went to the small fridge in the kitchen to get the rest. He carefully set everything up so Evelyn would see it when she came out. Then he sat on the bed and opened a book and pretended to read while he waited for her to emerge.
His timing was perfect. He'd only just sat down when he heard the shower turn off. A few more minutes and he heard the sound of her hair dryer, and idly wondered why he hadn't thought of that. He quickly reached for the comb he remembered was in the drawer of the nightstand and smoothed his hair as best he could before hastily putting the comb back and quietly shutting the drawer.
He picked up his book again just as she opened the door.
She tightened the tie on her robe. "That was actually easier to scrub off than I-"
Evelyn stopped cold as she took in the sight in front of her.
"Oh, Douglas… this… this is wonderful," she gasped.
Her eyes roamed over the antique metal cart. There was a tray with gourmet chocolate covered strawberries, and another with bits of melon and raspberries next to a small bowl of cream. It almost looked too beautiful to eat. There was a bucket with champagne on ice and a slim vase with a single red rose stood next to it. She looked over at Douglas and noticed there were rose petals lightly scattered all over the bed and she followed the trail and saw that it stopped where she was standing.
Douglas smiled and put the book down, not seeing any reason to keep pretending now that she'd seen it all, and padded over to where she was standing.
"You like it then?" he asked.
"I love it," she smiled. "I… I don't know what to say."
"You don't have to say anything. You've already the said the two most important words I needed to hear today. That'll do."
She put her arms around his waist and tilted her head up to kiss him. His lips came down to meet hers and they both moaned softly.
"I love you," she whispered. "I love you so much."
"I know. And it's a good thing you do because I love you too."
He smiled and took her hand, gently leading her over to the tray. She studied the fruit for a moment, and after a few seconds, she chose one of the chocolate covered strawberries and held it out to him. He reached out to take it from her and she pulled the fruit back out of his reach.
He frowned for a moment, not understanding.
She smirked and shook her head and held the fruit out again, just in front of his lips and this time he got the hint and carefully bit into it. She smiled at his quiet moan of approval and took a bite of the fruit herself. She closed her eyes and savored the mingling flavors for a moment and when her eyes fluttered open again, she saw Douglas looking at her intently.
He gently took what was left of the strawberry out of her hand and stepped closer, capturing her lips in a fiery kiss that nearly made her legs buckle. Douglas smiled against her lips as he felt the tremble go through her body. She had that effect on him all the time, whether she knew it or not. It was only right that she should have a taste of her own medicine, so to speak.
He helped her onto the bed and slowly crawled over her as they kissed again. She slid her hands up his arms to the back of his head and wrapped her leg around him, pulling him in even closer. He let out a slight gasp at her forwardness, but then chuckled slightly. She was getting bolder with each encounter and there was always some little thing she did that never failed to surprise him. Little did she know, he had a few surprises of his own.
He gently pulled away from her and she couldn't help her whimper of disappointment.
He smiled. "Don't worry. I'm not going anywhere."
He pulled the tray of food closer and she looked on, wondering what he was about to do. He took the bowl of cream off the tray and dipped one of the raspberries into it. She looked at him for a moment before taking the berry between her lips and into her mouth. Douglas smiled and pulled his fingers away, licking them clean. She smiled and raised an eyebrow when she noticed his eyes dart down to her chest. She looked down and saw that her robe had fallen open just slightly at the top and some of the cream from the raspberry had dripped onto her chest. She had been so caught up in his heated gaze, she didn't even feel the cool cream hit her skin.
Douglas leaned forward and kissed the spot where the cream had fallen, and Evelyn closed her eyes and tilted her head back to give him better access. She felt his hands undo the tie to her robe and smiled. She was suddenly very grateful that she decided to forego wearing anything underneath it. And from the sound of the low groan that rumbled from his throat, so was he. She sat up just enough to slide the silky material off her shoulders, and then she lay back down to let Douglas continue his kisses. Her eyes fluttered closed again as she felt his hand begin to roam over her hip.
Her eyes flew open again when she felt cool liquid on her left breast.
She looked down to see Douglas holding a cream drenched berry between his fingertips, tracing a random pattern onto her skin.
"Whoops." Douglas smirked and lowered his head to lick off his artistic design.
Evelyn gasped and held his head to her as his lips closed around her nipple. She bit her lip and moaned a little louder. She'd never done anything like this before. Her love life was always very vanilla, nothing particularly special about it. She liked sex her late husband, but he was very much a get-straight-to-the-point type of man. He'd never have been daring enough to do anything like this. To her, everything about Douglas was exciting and new, and she should have known that excitement would carry over into the bedroom.
Douglas moaned his appreciation as the flavor of the cream and the sweet taste of Evelyn's skin mingled and washed over his tongue. He'd never been bold enough to do anything like this with his ex-wife. Partially because she'd never have let him, but mostly because he hadn't really wanted to. But with Evelyn, everything was different. He wanted to try all sorts of new things. He wanted to try everything he could think of in as many different ways as he could think to do them, hoping that it would show her just how much love he had for her. He was, however, not what he'd call a connoisseur in that area, so he'd swallowed his pride and had a little talk with Madge to try and get some ideas on how to go about it all. It definitely ranked among the more awkward conversations he'd had in his time, but if it meant Evelyn would be pleased with him, he was willing to go through it. Some of the things she'd told him were flat out not going to happen, as he doubted either himself or Evelyn was acrobatic enough to pull off such stunts. But this idea seemed safe enough. This, he decided, he could do.
He looked up at Evelyn's face again and saw that her eyes had closed again and she was biting her lip to try and stifle her moans. He was so glad his plan was working and he smiled against her skin. Without his mouth breaking contact with her breast, he dipped the berry again and drizzled some of the cream on the opposite side of her chest, kissing his way across. Evelyn arched into him a little more and her hands gripped his upper arms as her breathing became shallower. He kissed lower and Evelyn's breath hitched when she felt his mouth tenderly kiss her sex. She grabbed the duvet as he sucked her clit into his mouth and rapidly flicked his tongue over it. His moans vibrated through her body and sent shivers up her spine and she couldn't keep still. His tongue explored every bit of her as if it were the first time, and when he slipped his finger into her, that was all it took for her to come undone.
She'd been on edge since he'd started the attention to her breasts and she'd been trying to hold on to the little control she had left, but she felt his finger slide into her and his tongue moved over her clit in just the right motion and she couldn't hold back anymore. Her cry of completion filled the room and for just a second, she wondered if they'd heard her outside.
She felt the swish of air as he whipped his robe off and then the glorious feeling of fullness as he slid into her. She decided she didn't care who heard her at this point. As far as they were both concerned, they were the only two people in the world. He thrust slowly at first, giving her time to adjust to him before picking up the pace just a bit. He did want it to last, but he didn't think he could go too slowly. He'd go mad.
She rolled her hips against him, squeezing him with her inner muscles and a shudder went through his body. Apparently his experiment with the fruit excited him just as much as it did her, as his hips jerked forward and his tempo faltered.
"If you keep that up, this won't last very long," he panted.
She smirked. "Sorry."
"You are not."
"You're right," she smirked. "I'm not." She did it again and chuckled as he groaned
"Right. That's it."
He lifted her leg higher to curl around his hip, changing the angle, and began to thrust deeper and harder. She cried out and clutched his shoulders tightly and whimpered her pleasure.
"You bloody cheat," she scolded.
She tried to glare at him but it lost its effect as her eyes slipped closed and pleasure overtook her.
"Oh god. Oh god. Ohhh godddd."
Her head tossed back and forth on the pillow and her nails started to dig into his arms. He smirked and rolled his hips against her at just the right angle, hitting her g-spot. She screamed and her eyes screwed shut as orgasmic tremors racked her body. Her climax triggered his and he came with a shout, just barely managing to catch himself on his forearms and stop himself collapsing on top of her.
He rolled off of her so as not to crush her, but was careful to keep her close to him. He relished the warmth and he had a feeling neither of them wanted to be disconnected so soon. She moved with him and laid her head on his chest as he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her forehead.
She closed her eyes and nuzzled into him.
"Favorite part of the day?" he asked
"I think saying 'I do' was my favorite part but… this is definitely a close second." She giggled and felt his body shake gently as he joined in her laughter.
He gave her a small squeeze. "I'm just glad that you're happy."
"I am. Very happy. Are you?"
"How could I not be? I've got you."
She opened her eyes and looked up at him and their lips met in a tender kiss. She briefly toyed with the idea of them going again, but with the wedding and the festival and just having ending a round of love making, she figured neither one of them had the energy. Still, she relished the closeness with him and relaxed even more into his embrace. She picked up a rose petal from the duvet and lightly brushed it across his chest as she listened to the soft thumping of his heart.
She listened for a few moments and found herself smiling.
She wasn't at all surprised to realize that his heartbeat matched hers.
Why shouldn't it? They were made for each other. Sure, it had taken them a little longer to find each other, and they both had to overcome obstacles, but it only sweetened the reward when they finally got it. The longer to wait, the better to have.
She snuggled into him even more, although they were already physically about as close as they could get. But it still wasn't quite close enough for Evelyn. She loved him so much, she wasn't sure if she'd ever stop feeling the way she did at that moment. She doubted it.
His breathing had evened out and without looking up, she knew he'd drifted off to sleep. She felt a stab of pride at having worn him out and she giggled to herself. The light shaking of her shoulders, made him tighten his hold on her just momentarily before relaxing again.
She kissed his chest lightly, thinking that maybe a nap wasn't such a bad idea.
She rested her head just over his heart and the satisfied smile never left her lips as she closed her eyes. Her last thought before she slipped into dreaming was that this was most definitely what happiness felt like.
It felt like…
flying.