Sonny With a Chance

After You, M'Lady

Chapter 4

After You, M'Lady – Chapter 4

Chad Dylan Cooper stood beside the huge wall-sized window before him, dressed in his designer pajamas. Staring out into the breezy Bahamian night bathed in blackness, he gave a sigh of pure happiness as a new lightness flooded over him. His mind sped giddily over the events that had passed that very day. It all seemed a blur compared to the stillness of the resort villa in which he was currently staying…

…It had been a hectic morning, filled first with sleeplessness and a nervous anticipation as he waited for a dozen celebrity groomsmen – all of them twice as egotistic as himself (supposing such a thing possible) – to arrive. There'd been a fuss over the tuxedos, the Italian shoes, and the hairdos, not to mention a close call with the $350,000 ring. But hours later, everything had reversed to slow-motion once he caught his first glimpse of her.

He could still picture it so clearly in his mind: the sand whirling delicately around her bare feet, her petite form floating lightly towards him in a gorgeous white gown. Her eyes sparkled with energy, laughter, and pure bliss, mirroring the affection that was reflected in his own…

Chad shook himself out of his thoughts and tugged the blinds closed before turning away from the full-length bedroom window towards his side of the bed. Simultaneously, he heard a doorknob turn, and Sonny appeared from the expanse of the private master bath and spa adjacent to their room.

"Chad!" she squealed excitedly. "This place is beautiful! It's amazing! I mean a Jacuzzi, a sauna, two sinks… you could fit my whole house in this one bathroom!" she finished breathlessly, bouncing up to the other side of the bed with exhilaration. "How much did you spend on this?" she followed up, quirking her eyebrow in a "you-shouldn't-have" manner.

"Aaahhh, nothing much. 'Only the best for you', ya know, and all that jazz," he replied jokingly, waving her question off. "Calm down, honey," he added as he eyed her bright cheeks and shining eyes that radiated appreciation.

" Awww, Chad. And 'Honey'? That's new," she giggled, gazing at him from across the expanse of the bed.

"Well, it rhymes with "Sonny", and I figured since I'd be around you for the rest of my life, I'd better come up with some backup names to break the boredom," Chad responded facetiously.

"Well, I think it's cut–– aaahhuummm," she yawned suddenly, covering her mouth with one hand while stretching the other towards the ceiling.

Chad smirked fondly at her and reached over to pull back the duvet.

"After you, m'lady," he gestured gallantly, shooting her an amorous wink.

Sonny grinned back at him and climbed onto the bed, situating herself comfortably before he nimbly hopped in beside her, pulling the covers over them both. Propping himself up on one elbow, Chad leaned over and kissed his blushing bride soundly on the lips.

As he pulled away slowly, he gazed at every inch of her flawless face in wonder. The realization had just now dawned on him that she was finally his – all the years of waiting were over, and there was nothing else that was going to come between him and his Sonny. With this heavenly epiphany in mind, he smiled brilliantly down at his wife and was about to kiss her again when something in her countenance caught his attention.

Was she… nervous? Although her wide smile betrayed no such thing, Chad could have sworn that there was a twinge of worry lurking in her eyes. He knew Sonny too well by now to overlook such an obvious fact. He decided to drop CDC's "Operation Sexy Husband" act and give in to his intuition instead.

Reaching over to tenderly caress her cheek, he asked her quietly, "Something wrong, Sonny?"

She blinked up at him in surprise, which quickly transformed into relief. "How did you know?" she asked shyly, a small smile forming on her lips.

"As I've said before, Chad Dylan Cooper knows everything. But he especially knows when his lady is nervous," he added, giving her a knowing look.

Sonny sighed in defeat. "Well I guess 'Chad Dylan Cooper' is right for once about 'his lady'," she responded in kind. "I… it's just that, well… I mean – were you expecting for us to..." here she mumbled something so softly he could barely make out the words "…tonight?"

"Hey, hey… if that's what you're worried about, then you should have just told me," he said gently. "No, I'm not 'expecting' anything out of you, Sonny." Here he paused thoughtfully. "Besides, making love will come on its own, and when it does, we'll be so caught up in the moment that you won't even have time to be nervous," he continued honestly, reassuringly.

A twinkle sparked in his eyes as he inclined his neck to whisper further in her ear, "But I'm sure it won't be long before you fall prey to the CDC charm," he grinned wickedly.

Sonny's hearty laugh bubbled right out at that, and she threw her arms affectionately around his neck, bringing his body down on top of hers with a thud.

Chad smiled at her relieved cheerfulness until she began planting light kisses along the side of his neck. "So-onn-ay," he chuckled, "tha-at – oh, stop it! – that tickle-es," he gasped, trying to duck his head out of her reach.

After a few more seconds of teasing him, she finally released her tight grip and allowed him to roll off beside her. "Hmmmm… looks like 'Mr. CDC Charm' over here can't endure the Munroe charm, huh?" she laughed, turning her head to look at him.

"What are you talking about, Sonny? There is no 'Munroe charm'. It's the 'Cooper charm' now, remember?" he countered saucily, rolling his eyes.

"Uggghhh… I forgot. Well, that's unfortunate." Sonny gave a mock sigh and turned her head away. 3… 2… 1… She counted down slowly, knowing that her indifference would tick him off.

Chad bounced up quickly, hovering over her. "What do you mean, 'That's unfortunate?' You get to classify your charm under the same name as mine now, which makes it a million times better," he said, using pointing gestures to communicate his perspective.

"Haha," Sonny chuckled dryly, "that's exactly what I meant by unfortunate, you conceited little––" She was promptly cut off by a series of breath-taking kisses from Chad.

"No…" (kiss) "…badmouthing…" (kiss) "…our name…" (kiss) "…Mrs. Cooper," he finished, leaving a flushed Sonny beneath him as he beamed victoriously at the success of his conquest.

She sighed in defeat and looked up dazedly into his laughing eyes. "You're too smooth, Mr. Cooper," she grinned, quite out-of-breath, while shaking her head ruefully.

"Yeah," Chad agreed, shrugging in a nonchalant manner. "But that's why you married me," he said, a teasing smile playing across his face.

Sonny just laughed, rolled closer to him, and nestled her head in the crook of his arm, yawning.

"Well, I'm pooped," she said, a wave of drowsiness suddenly falling over her as she basked in the warmth of Chad's comforting arms. "You ready to go to sleep?"

"Of course. After you, m'lady," he whispered, pressing his lips to the tip of her nose while simultaneously reaching across to turn off the bedroom lamp.

"Chad," Sonny mumbled sleepily into his shirt, "that made absolutely no sense."

"I know," he responded. "I just like calling you my lady, now that you finally are," he said simply, a thrill running through him as the young woman in his arms closed her eyes contentedly and flashed a brilliant smile.

And with that, Chad Dylan Cooper let his head sink onto the pillow they were sharing and fell into the best sleep of his life. With his lady.

Author's Note:

Last chapter… sigh….. Okay, I'm shaking out of it.

Well, that was fun. I hope you guys enjoyed reading these little vignettes as much as I enjoyed dreaming them up. I do want to acknowledge that I had a hard time with this chapter – I wanted to keep Chad and Sonny fairly in-character with the teasing and arguments and stuff, but then I also wanted to add cute moments since they DID just get married. ;) I hope that it wasn't too sappy and that I hit a happy medium. Let me know what you think!

All the best,

Victoria L.

P.S. Did anybody catch the tongue-twister? If you did, feel free to tell me in your review. I thought I'd sneak one in there.