In Walked Love
Chapter 2
SapphireJ

I heard the shower start, and knew that Stephanie would be a little while. As much as I wanted to jump up and join her in the shower, I knew I needed to let her have some time to herself. So, in an effort to think with the correct head and keep my ass in bed, I rolled over and grabbed my phone. Two missed messages. Tapping the button for voicemail, I waited.

"You have two new messages." No shit, I could see that! "First new message, sent today at two o'six am. Yo' Matt. The bar is clooooooosed dude. Where the fuck are you? Guys said we're buggin out in a few with or without yo azz. They also said to bring Bomber back; I'm assuming that means Stephanie. Call me!"

Well, that explains absolutely nothing. Chase is such a big help!

"Second new message, sent today at nine seventeen am. Mr. Cooper, this is Andreas at the White Wedding Chapel. I just wanted to inform you that your pictures and DVD are ready for pick-up at your convenience. Congratulations again."

"Well, I guess it's real and we can watch the DVD of it sometime. Wonder how drunk we were," I whispered, not wanting to say it loud enough that Steph heard. Realizing it was nearing eleven, I decided to order room service so we could eat and figure out what we were going to do.

As soon as I heard the shower shut off, there was a knock at the door. Slipping on my pants from last night, I answered the door and waited as the young man pushed in the cart loaded with coffee, orange juice, pancakes, bacon, eggs, bagels, waffles, and pastries. I wasn't sure what Steph would want to eat, so I wanted to have an assortment for her. I tipped the kid and locked up behind him.

Taking a deep breath, I walked to the bathroom door and knocked, "Steph, when you are ready, I have some breakfast out here waiting." I heard a muffled reply that sounded like just a minute, but I wasn't sure.

Looking around the room, I walked to the table near the bed and tossed the empty condom wrappers in the trash. As I watched them fall, I began to remember a little more about the previous night.

Stephanie was three away from being able to use the ladies room, my tongue was down her throat, and her hands were roaming my chest when we heard, "Get a room you two." Sounded like a great idea to me. Looking at Stephanie, I saw the glimmer in her eyes and then something changed.

"What's the matter, Steph?" I asked her. I didn't know what suddenly changed, but I wasn't going to force her to do something she didn't want to do… even if it meant I had to keep my lips to myself.

The alcohol in her system definitely helped her with her shyness as she replied, "I agree. I'd like to get a room. However, I made myself a vow a few weeks ago."

I waited for her to finish, but it didn't look like she was going to. I tipped her chin up so I could see her sparkling eyes before I lowered my lips to her ear, "What was the vow?"

She mirrored my action and began whispering in my ear. Her breath, caressing the sensitive part of my ear, sent shivers throughout my body and I moaned. "I vowed that the next time I slept with someone, he would be my husband. I said I wasn't having sex again until I'm married. It was a stupid vow; I don't even know why I made it. I have no desire to really get married, but I'm tired of sleeping with the wrong men and having my heart broken in the morning. Maybe that vow was a way to keep myself from sleeping with anyone."

I pulled my face away so I could see her clearly. I blame the blood level in my alcohol stream for the next thing that came out of my mouth, "So, let's get married."

Shit! What the fuck was I thinking? Steph and I got married just so we could have sex. I'm such a dead man when people find out. Fuck! I heard the bathroom door open and knew I needed to get myself under control or Steph would realize something was wrong. Before I could turn around, I felt her slender arms wrap around my waist and her head lay on my back. My hands automatically went down to hers and as I laced our fingers together, I realized she was wearing the hotel robe. I briefly wondered what she had on under it but stopped that train of thought.

"I don't know how this happened," she whispered, "but I don't feel any regret." I heard her take a deep breath before she continued, "Do you?"

Oh hell. She had to ask that. How do I tell her that while I don't regret being married, I do regret how it happened and the fact that neither of us remember it? I must have been silent for too long because she pulled away. "It's okay. I understand. I'm sure we can get it annulled or something. No one has to know."

"Steph," I said as I turned and saw her heading to the bed. She leaned down and reached for discarded dress. I knew she was upset, but I wasn't sure what she was going to do.

"No, don't worry about it. It was a drunken mistake. I get it. We got married, had sex, and now we get divorced. No big deal." I could hear the hurt in her voice and wanted to erase it. I reached out for her, but she dodged me and locked herself in the bathroom.

"Steph, you don't understand. You have it all wrong." I tried pleading to get her to listen to me, but she shut me out. I threw my clothes on and sat on the bed, waiting her out.

Fifteen minutes later, Stephanie emerged from the bathroom. I could tell she'd been crying and had tried to cover it up. I stood up and walked to her. "Steph, will you please listen to me?"

"I can't," I heard her whisper. "I can't listen to you tell me that it was a mistake."

I grabbed her shoulders and held her so she couldn't move. "Dammit, Stephanie, you are going to listen to me! Do you understand?" I hadn't meant to yell, but she was testing my patience. I saw her nod, so I continued, "I was not going to say this was a mistake."

I led her over to the chair in the corner of the room and pushed for her to sit down. Kneeling down between her legs, I took her hands in mine and poured out my heart to her. "I've been in love with you since I first talked to you. You treated me like a normal person, not someone to play with."

As she sat there listening to me, I saw doubt cross her beautiful face before some other emotion settled in. I wasn't sure what it was, but I kept talking. "That first time I saw you step off the elevator onto the fifth floor, I watched those monitors with such an intensity that I was sure they were going to start smoking." I laughed a little as I told her, "Cal punched me in the shoulder and said to 'keep those thoughts to yourself'. I asked him what thoughts and he replied 'the same thoughts we all have. She's Ranger's woman.'"

Stephanie tensed up when I mentioned that and I wanted to kick my own ass. I hadn't meant to mention Ranger. I placed my head on her lap and took a deep breath; she was still sitting here listening, so I had to go on, but when I looked up, I was shocked to see tears in her eyes.

"If you've loved me for that amount of time, what took so long?"

"I was worried that you'd just see me as some young ass punk who thought he was all that. It wasn't until you and I started hanging out the past seven months that I realized I might have a chance. Last night, when you finally spilled about your relationship with Ranger was the first time I'd heard you say anything that cemented what we all were beginning to wonder."

Now was the hard part; answering her question from earlier without her bolting from the room. "I need you to continue listening to me and try to understand what I'm about to say, okay?" With her nod, I grabbed both her hands in mine and looked in her eyes. "I do not regret marrying you. The only thing I do regret is the reason why we married and the fact that neither of us remember it. I always thought my wedding would be a memory I'd treasure forever."

"You remember more about last night than you told me?" she questioned with sadness.

"While you were taking a shower, I cleaned up a little. While I was throwing away the condom wrappers, I remembered a little more." Bringing her hands to my lips, I kissed each before continuing, "Seems I remember you mentioning a vow you'd made yourself."

She stared at me for a few moments before a beautiful red tinted her cheeks, "Shit, I forgot about that." Pulling her bottom lip into her mouth, she nibbled on it for a few and all I could think was I wanted to be the one nibbling on her lip. Just before I leaned up to do just that, she spoke again, "So, the only reason we got married was so we could have sex and I not feel guilty, yet here we are the next morning and I'm still getting my heart broken."

"Why do you think your heart is getting broken?" I asked. "I'm still here. I've not left. I don't plan on leaving. I don't want a divorce or annulment… unless you want one. I won't force you to stay married to me." Wow, what the hell was the feeling in my chest cavity? Why the hell did it feel like my heart was being ripped apart? I'd never given my heart over to anyone before out of fear of something like this happening.

"Because, we only got married to have sex. We've had sex, and I have a feeling that since neither of us can remember it, I wasn't that great. I can imagine you've had better and now you want to move on."

"Bullshit!" I said a lot louder than I intended to. "No, I don't remember it either, but I do know that the feeling I had when I woke up this morning was like nothing I'd ever experienced before." I framed her face with my hands to be sure I had her full attention. "I've never been around for the morning after. I've always snuck out in the middle of the night. This morning, when I first woke up and realized I was your pillow," I said with a smile, "I didn't want time to move. I wanted to stay there, with your head on my chest, my arms around you, and just relax."

"Where do we go from here, Matthew? What do we tell people? I can't just go up to my family and say, 'Hey, I got married because I really wanted to have an orgasm that involved more than myself and my shower.' My mother would disown me"

"I've not really thought about where we go, but it really isn't anyone's business why we got married. Hell, we don't have to tell anyone yet if you don't want to. We can take some time and see how you feel in a few days. I don't care if we tell everyone now or never tell a soul." Well, I wanted to shout it from the rooftop, but if she didn't want anyone to know yet, I wasn't going to push.

I watched her as she thought through what she wanted to do and finally saw a smile on her face. Brushing her hair out of the way so I could see her eyes, I asked, "What's the smile for?"

"Well," she replied, "if we are going to stay married, then we need to learn more about each other, correct?" I nodded not knowing where she was going with this, but willing to go where she led. "I have a question that I've always wanted to ask you, but never wanted to offend so I held back."

"You never have to hold anything back with me. I promise to answer any of your questions with honest answers. There is nothing in my life that I have to keep secret." I knew that was one of her biggest wishes; someone who would be open and honest with her. I had that capability and hoped like hell she'd allow me the chance to be the one for her.

"Why do they call you Binkie?"