Chapter 11

The limo driver offers to drive us down the coast for a while before taking us back to the hotel, but after five minutes, Josh gets antsy about the promise I made to him earlier about remaining naked for the rest of the night and tells the driver we've seen enough of the ocean. Apparently romance Lyman has been replaced with must have sex now Lyman. Good thing we didn't have a typical wedding followed by a reception. I don't think he would've made it. I can picture it now, him dragging us off the coatroom after the father-daughter dance. Anyway, when we get to the hotel, he hops out of the limo and offers me his hand to help me out. Once I'm out, he picks me up and carries me into the hotel.

"Josh, people are staring," I whisper as we walk through the front doors.

"Well, I do look rather stunning tonight," he says, flashing me his dimples.

I can't help laughing when he says this. "That must be it."

He proceeds to carry me through the hotel. And by through the hotel, I mean through the hotel; past the front desk, through the casino, and down the hall towards the elevators. People passing congratulate us, applause breaks out near the craps tables, and a guy checking in asks what room we're in so he could send up champagne. Josh thanks him but says we're going to be too busy for champagne, at which point, another man checking in wearing a cowboy hat, a huge belt buckle and pointy boots yells, "You go, Cowboy."

Josh responds with, "Oh, I intend to." You know, sometimes it's not all that shocking that it took him to the age of 42 to get married.

We wait for the elevator with several other people, and all the staring is getting a bit embarrassing. "Put me down," I whisper.

He shakes his head and smiles at a man and woman next to us. "Nope. Can't do that. I have to carry you over the threshold."

"Our threshold's in Georgetown," I remind him.

"I'm planning on carrying you over that one too," he says, kissing me on the cheek.

"Are you going to carry me the whole way up to the ninth floor? Cause I'm going to need you to have some amount of strength left when we get to the room," I say pointedly. This makes the woman smile.

When the elevator door opens, Josh carries me inside and the woman starts to come in behind us, but the man, her husband I assume, grabs her by the arm and keeps her outside. "You two gonna want that elevator alone?" he asks Josh as if I have any intentions of having sex in an elevator.

Josh nods and sets me down. "We'd appreciate it, thanks," he says, also as though I have any intentions of having sex in an elevator.

"Not a problem. Congratulations," the guy says as the door closes.

And speaking of the closing door, it isn't all the way closed before I'm pressed against the wall with Josh against me, his lips on my neck and shoulder, kind of nibbling on me. Soon, he's moving the strap of my dress aside with his thumb as his fingers caress my shoulder. I won't lie; it feels incredible, and suddenly I'm thinking it might be possible to persuade me to have sex in an elevator after all.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, Josh doesn't get too far in the elevator. When we reach our floor, I have one strap of my dress hanging loosely on my arm, but other than that, we're both completely dressed. He simply refuses to be rushed when it comes to sex, but you know what? I'm not gonna complain about that.

Anyway, the door opens and Josh picks me back up and walks us to the room, where he almost drops me getting the keycard out of his pocket. Then, in true Josh fashion, he can't get the door open. Finally, fearing that I'm about to be dropped on my ass, I take it from him and let us in the room.

As soon he carries me in, he sets me down and kind of rubs at his back a little, but I'm too engrossed in what he's done to the room to yell at him. The entire room is covered in rose petals. I mean the entire room. They're on the floor, the bed, the table; it's incredible. There's also a bottle of champagne in a bucket of ice, with two glasses and a bowl of strawberries next to it, as well as a dozen roses with a card that says, "Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Lyman." The covers are pulled down on the bed and there's another rose on one of the pillows. I'm guessing that one's mine. Which leads me to the following thought: is this Josh's way of calling his side of the bed?

"Whatever shall I do with you now, Mrs. Lyman?" he says in a very low, very sexy voice, coming up behind me and kissing me on the neck.

"What would you like to do with me, Mr. Lyman?" I ask in a similar voice.

"Many, many, many things," he says as he unzips my dress and pushes the straps over my shoulders so my dress slides down my body to the floor. That's the second time he's done that tonight. Apparently, the undressing me part of sex he doesn't mind doing quickly.

Three hours later, I'm hungry. Give me a break, we ate dinner at 6:30, and it's now 2am and there's been quite a bit of physical activity. Luckily, I have the world's most amazing husband, or you know, a husband who can't resist my pout, so pizza's on the way. While we're waiting, I go into the bathroom to wash off my make-up and take out my contacts. See, these are things they don't tell you about the wedding night. 'Sorry honey, but before you take off all my clothes, ravish my body and take me to bed, I'm gonna need to wash my face so my pores don't clog and I don't wake up with the complexion of a fourteen year-old with mascara under my eyes making me look gothic. Also, I'm going to be fairly blind in a few minutes, so we might as well turn off the lights.' You don't see that conversation in the movies.

When I come out of the bathroom, Josh is sitting propped up against the headboard, not surprisingly watching CNN. I lean against the doorframe and watch him for a minute. His facial expressions as he watches commentary on next year's budget proposal are priceless. "Ahh… there you are. I've been wondering where you went," I say quietly a minute later.

He hits mute and looks up at me. "Where I went?" he asks, confused.

I walk over and sit down on the foot of the bed, in the opposite corner of him, face him and smile. "I've just wondered where this Josh has been."

He raises his eyebrows. "This Josh?"

"Master politician Josh," I say, gesturing towards him.

"I haven't been this Josh?"

"Noooooo," I drawl out, shaking my head. "You've been romance Josh."

He looks at me for a second and then smiles wickedly and crawls towards me. "Which Josh do you like better?"

I shrug. "I'm a fan of both."

He holds the remote up towards the television and hits power, then tosses it over his shoulder. "Well, which Josh would you like here right now?" he asks seductively.

I look at him, crawling like a predator towards me, looking very hot and very naked, and I calmly say, "Whichever one I'm going to have when we get back home."

When I say that, he stops just in front of me and looks at me. Then he sits up and takes my hand in his and just stares at it. Finally, he looks back up at me and says very quietly, "I know you've never seen this side of me, but it's only because I couldn't let you. This is how I've always wanted to be with you. You have no idea how many times I've had to stop myself from taking you in my arms and telling you I love you. How many times I tried to be like this for someone else and failed because she wasn't you. Am I going to go back to political mode? You know I am. I breathe for my work; you know that better than most. Better than anyone, really. You know how I've sacrificed for it, how we've sacrificed for it. It's what I do, and I love it. But it's not who I am anymore. From now on, I'm a husband and that comes first. And not because it has to, but because I want it to. Because I've put you second long enough, and in doing so, I put myself second. So, in answer to your question, yes, master politician Josh, and I like that term by the way, is going to be around. And he's gonna be an ass and yell and screw up and be political when he's not supposed to be. But romance Josh isn't going anywhere. He's staying with his wife, if that's ok with you."

I tilt my head to the side and smile at him. "That sounds absolutely perfect," I whisper, leaning in and kissing him. "Except for the yelling part."

He smirks and kisses me again. "I'll work on it."

"No you won't." I say, chuckling.

He leans back, pulling me on top of him. "Probably not, no."

When the pizza comes, I hop off of Josh, grab his tux shirt off the floor and toss it on, and then head for the door, while buttoning it. "What do you think you're doing?" he asks in a squeak voice as he pulls on his boxers.

"I was gonna get the pizza," I say, hooking my thumb towards the door.

"Like that?" Now he's squeaking even louder.

I shrug. "Well, yeah."

"No, no, no, no, no, no," he says, shaking his head. "I don't think so."

I raise my eyebrows at him. "You don't?"

"No. First of all, you made a promise to me earlier to remain naked all night and well into the morning and you're reneging on that promise. Second, that's quite possibly the sexiest thing I've ever seen in my life and quite frankly, I don't want the room service guy to try to steal you away from me on our wedding night."

I smile. My husband is barbaric. I love it. Is that wrong? "He might envy you," I suggest innocently, while at the same time unbuttoning the shirt and letting it hang off one of my shoulders.

He's there immediately to lay hot open-mouthed kisses on that shoulder. "He might start plotting a way to take me out, so he can have you for yourself." And when he says that, I pull his face up to mine and kiss him long and deep while rubbing my leg up and down his. I'm sure we got out of bed for a reason, but I can't fathom what that was right now.

A minute later, someone yells, "Room service!" Right, pizza.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

We made a deal last night that we would call our parents this morning before talking to CJ and Toby. I suggested that we call last night, but we didn't have time before the wedding, and afterwards Josh had other things on his mind. Who am I kidding; we both had other things on our minds.

Anyway, after our shower this morning, which wasn't as easy as I thought it would be, we call our parents.

We start with his mom… no. First, let's go back to the shower. Let me just say up front that this was Josh's fault. Also, Josh has a rather large walk in shower with a door, which I think we'll find more conducive to future joint showering. This hotel has a bathtub/shower. You know what I'm talking about, a typical bathtub/shower. Well anyway, I was in there showering this morning when Josh opened the curtain and got in behind me. "What'ya doin'?" I asked while shampooing my hair.

"Just showering," he said as he kissed the back of my neck and started running his hands slowly up and down my stomach and over my breasts.

"I see. You know it's my turn in here right now," I said. But to be honest, I wasn't pushing him away. In fact, I already had one hand back and in his hair and was tilting my head so he could get to my neck easier.

"You were taking to long," he said, still kissing my neck and collarbone.

I giggled a little bit and pointed out that it had only been about five minutes.

"Yeah, that's too long to go without touching you," he said as he turned me around and started kissing me. A few minutes later, he started kissing lower; my breasts, my stomach, my bellybutton, my hip… you see where he was headed. As he got lower, he got down on his knees. Then, just as he was about to be where I needed him to be, he looked up and announced, "This hurts my knees."

My eyes were closed and my head leaned back on the tile wall, and I was making cute little noises that make Josh laugh when he said this, so my eyes snapped open and my head snapped up. "Excuse me?"

He got up. HE GOT UP! "That hurt my knees."

My eyes got huge and I stared at him. "You're a tease!" I half-yelled at him.

"I'm not a tease," he yelled back. "I don't see you trying it."

I looked at him, wondering if this was some sort of trick he was playing to get what he wanted. Then, ever so slowly, I started kissing his chest, working my way down. Well, I was only on my knees about five seconds when I hopped back up. "Yep, that hurts."

"See, I told you."

"But that's harder than most showers."

"What?"

"I'm just saying, I've been on my knees in…"

He interrupted me. "I don't want to hear that!" he squeaked out.

"What? I'm just…"

"No," he said loudly, shaking his head back and forth.

I laughed at him. "You're right. I've never tried that before, so how would I know shower floors could be so hard on the knees."

"That's better," he said, leaning in and kissing me again. We kissed for a few more minutes, until I felt myself being pushed up against the wall and his hand pulling one of my legs around his hip. I raised the other leg around him as well, clutching him tightly and pulling him closer to my body. He had just entered me when his feet slipped beneath him and he almost fell. He dropped me immediately, and one of my feet slipped on the floor, making me tumble into him, and to attempt to steady himself, he grabbed my hair, pulling hard, making me scream.

The next thing I knew, we were sprawled out on the bathroom floor groaning in pain while at the same time laughing hysterically, tangled in the curtain that was pulled off the rod, with water spraying out all over us and the bathroom. "Well, that's never happened to me before," I said with my head buried in his shoulder.

"I thought we weren't going to discuss past shower experiences," he said as he pulled his feet that were dangling over the shower ledge the rest of the way over and onto the floor.

"Right, sorry." I crawled off him and turned around and turned the water off, then started to stand. That's when Josh pulled me back down on top of him and we just went ahead and had sex on the bathroom floor.

So, where was I? Oh yes, once we finally get cleaned and dressed, we call his mother. When she answers, Josh doesn't even say hello before spilling the beans. "I'm married!"

We're sitting in bed, him leaned up against the headboard, me between his legs leaned up against his chest, where I can hear the conversation, and I shake my head and laugh to myself at both the lack of subtlety from Josh and the sheer volume at which his mother screams, "What?"

He laughs too. "I got married last night!" he exclaims proudly.

"You got married?" his mother asks, obviously still in shock.

"Yes, but you can't tell anyone yet. I still need to talk to CJ and Toby and Leo about it. So don't go spreading it around your complex until it's been leaked or announced to the press."

"Fine," she says in a huff. Then her excited voice comes back. "You're married!"

"I'm married!"

"And you're happy?"

"I am," he says nodding.

"Oh sweetheart! I'm so happy for you. Let me talk to Donna."

"Ok, hold… wait a minute. How did you know Donna's the one I married?" he asks cryptically.

Now it's her turn to laugh. "Oh honey, I'm old, I'm not stupid."

"Ok, here she is. I love you Mom," he says chuckling and hands me the phone.

"Hello?"

"You married my son!" she yells.

"Yes."

"You married my son! That makes you my daughter!"

"I guess it does," I say, a little relieved and very touched that she would call me her daughter.

"He says I can't tell anyone," she complains.

"By tomorrow afternoon, you should be able to tell anyone you want to, I'll even e-mail you a few pictures when we get home tonight so you've got something to show your friends."

"That'll do. You're happy?"

"Yes," I say smiling.

"You're going to have to yell at him and keep his ego in check from time to time," she warns me.

"Don't I know it."

"Hey," Josh yells, grabbing the phone from me. "You two aren't supposed to gang up on me."

"We're not?" I ask innocently, kissing him on the cheek.

He talks to her for a few more minutes and then we hang up and call my parents, which is equally as easy. It goes something like this. "You've reached the Moss family. We're unable to come to the phone, but if you leave a detailed message, we'll get back to you. God bless."

"Mom, Dad, hey it's me. I wanted to tell you something, and since your instructions are to leave a detailed message, here goes. Josh and I are in love, which won't surprise you in the least. Last night, we decided we've waited long enough to be together and got married. Don't be mad that you weren't there, it was just the two of us and we promise to come visit for a weekend next month. Anyway, you can't tell anyone yet, there are some things with work we have to figure out, but I'll e-mail you some pictures tonight and you can call me back and yell at me all you…" Beep.

"I can't believe you told your parents over an answering machine," Josh says, shaking his head back and forth.

"Like you wouldn't have done the same."

Once we've made the necessary phone calls, we pack. We're leaving directly from breakfast, so at 9:57, we leave the room with all our things and head down to one of the hotel restaurants to meet CJ and Toby.

When we arrive, CJ's looking chipper and Toby's looking… Toby-like. Josh and I sit down and ask how the concert was and CJ goes into a ten minute spiel about Brian Wilson looking as good as ever while Toby rolls his eyes and says the music was good but made him feel old.

When she finishes her story, she looks at us and asks, "So, what did you guys do last night?"

Josh looks at me and then at her. "Funny you should mention that…"